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Architectures of Solidarity: The Worker Cooperative Movement in Chicago
Full text linkThis article analyzes the worker cooperative landscape in Chicago, defining both the historical roots of the movement and the current barriers and supports faced by worker-owners. The paper takes two approaches. First, I compile existing research related to worker cooperatives, labor history, and the solidarity economy in order to trace the roots of Chicago\u27s present-day worker cooperative landscape. Secondly, to more specifically delineate the supports and barriers currently encountered by worker co-ops, I conducted descriptive interviews with several members of Chicago-based cooperative incubation and worker rights organizations. Thematic analysis of their comments helped me to outline certain factors at play in the viability of worker cooperatives and similar solidarity economy structures in the city, namely how the confluence of municipal, non-profit, and community support enables worker co-op development. Through these two approaches, I point to some of the support strategies within the worker cooperative ecosystem in Chicago, and contextualize the growing networks which lay a foundation for a robust solidarity economy in the city
Local and Distal Projections of VTA GABA Neurons
Full text linkSubstance use disorder (SUD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by the abuse of drugs, compulsive drug seeking, and addiction. Addiction is facilitated by social, environmental, genetic, and neurobiological mechanisms. The underlying neural circuitry of addiction encompasses several brain regions, circuits, and cell types contributing to the reward system both collectively and independently. Evidence has shown that the ventral tegmental area of the brain is a control center of reward, an important mechanism for drug-seeking in addiction. Previous research has described the ventral tegmental area as a highly heterogeneous region containing various cell types serving different roles. GABAergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area primarily inhibit dopaminergic neurons, but there is also evidence that they synapse onto local GABA neurons and inhibit a variety of distal brain regions. To better understand the neurobiology of addiction, this project uses a unique viral vector approach to assess the local and distal synaptic contacts made by GABAergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area. The methodology involves a virus combination, allowing for the tagging of both GABA neurons and synaptophysin, a presynaptic protein indicating synaptic connections. The findings of this study propose a model of synaptic connectivity of ventral tegmental area GABA neurons, compare quantified expression across distal projection targets, and discuss potential implications of synaptic connectivity on circuit function
When Words Fail: The Use and Misuse of Narratives in the Prison Abolition Movement
Full text linkInspired in part by my experiences at that internship, and a newfound appreciation for the impact of stories, this paper explores the role of narratives in the way we talk and think about prisons. Narratives, or storytelling, are not neutral accounts of the way the world works but are rather informed by social structures of power and control, necessitating subjecting them to critique and analysis. When used for social movements, this becomes especially true. In this paper, I will analyze how narratives are written/spoken and disseminated as part of the abolition or criminal justice reform movement. In organizations and movements that are reformist, I demonstrate that narratives follow neoliberal logic, and are individualizing, rely on free market ideology, and depend upon short-term organizing. As a result, these narratives not only reflect the carceral state, but continuously uphold it. In opposition, narratives used by organizations that are expressly abolitionist resist individualization, short-term organizing, and recognize the carceral state’s operations as rooted in white supremacy, effectively pushing for abolition and improving the lives of incarcerated people. Overall, I argue that narratives are incredibly important tools for exposing the harsh conditions of incarceration and the truths of the carceral state; but when fighting for abolition, narratives must be subject to critique and analysis
Ammonia Emission in the Milky Way Galactic Bar Dust Lanes
Full text linkThe Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way is a region of molecular gas within the inner few hundred parsecs of the Galaxy. This inner region of the Milky Way is hotter and more turbulent when compared with the disk of the Milky Way. Gas is thought to be funneled into the CMZ through dense gaseous dust lanes that are associated with the Galactic Bar. I studied two regions of one of these dust lanes using the NH3 inversion transitions of (J,K) = (1,1), (2,2), (3,3), and (4,4). Data has been obtained from the Green Bank Telescope targeting these transitions at ∼32′′ angular resolution. I present results probing the kinematic and thermal structure of our target gas clouds. I find the velocity of the pilot region gas cloud to be around 205 km s−1 as it accretes into the CMZ of the Milky Way. I also find the velocity of a gas cloud more toward the edge of this dust lane to be around 130 kms−1. When comparing the (1,1) to the (2,2) transition lines to probe temperature, I found a temperature of ∼20K (± 6.6K) for the pilot region and a temperature of ∼17K (± 6.6K) for the edge region. When comparing the (2,2) to the (4,4) transition lines I found a temperature of ∼65K (± 3.15K) for the pilot region. These values are in mutual agreement as the temperatures found in the edge region are slightly cooler than those found in the pilot region which is located at the midpoint of the dust lane. I use dendrogram analysis to analyze the multiple velocity components within each gas cloud. I also find heavy spatial coherence between the NH3 data, infrared emission, and CO data found for both regions
Strain methods for changing local electric field gradient in BaFe2As2
Full text linkIn this study, we introduce a novel approach aimed at advancing the investigation of local nematicity in BaFe2As2 via dynamically pulsed strain fields. Our research is motivated by the pursuit of a more sensitive alternative to existing static strain methods. Employing nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, we measure the nuclear quadrupolar energy splittings, utilizing them as a sensitive indicator of the electric field gradient (EFG) that couples strongly to the orbital occupations of the 75As p-orbitals. In the new method, we discern an EFG response through changes in the phase acquired by the nuclear magnetization while time-evolving in the strain field, as opposed to a change in resonance frequency under constant strain. The previous technique measured a linear response in the EFG to applied strain and extracted the nematic susceptibility from these slopes as a function of temperature. The susceptibility diverged near the known structural transition and agreed with elastoresistance measurements. Our technique replicates the static results but proves three orders of magnitude more sensitive and hence requires less strain, establishing one of the first methods for probing nematic degrees of freedom within the superconducting regime
Sustaining the Digital Liberal Arts: Institutional Challenges in Looking Beyond Grant Funding
Full text linkRelationships in Lacustrine Ecosystems: Carbon, Color, and Precipitation in North Temperate Lakes
Full text linkLakes are an important part of the global carbon cycle. Carbon from terrestrial sources washes into lakes where it can be processed and then emitted to the atmosphere, buried in sediments, or make its way downstream to an ocean. During rain events, precipitation can flush dissolved organic carbon (DOC)-enriched water from the upper soil layers into lakes. As climate change causes increased precipitation totals and precipitation events in the upper Midwest, this may cause increased DOC in lakes. Increased DOC in lakes leads to increased microbial respiration, contributing to increased greenhouse gas release from lakes. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of DOC on lake ecosystems. Here, I use long-term data and newly collected data from a set of lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin to analyze how precipitation affects DOC in lakes to better understand how changing precipitation patterns could affect the carbon cycle in lakes. I found that increased total annual precipitation leads to increased dissolved organic carbon within lakes. The lag period between when a precipitation event occurs and when the DOC-enriched water enters the lakes was less than 2 weeks in this study. Wet years generally have higher DOC than dry years. Furthermore, DOC and lake water color have a positive relationship at all depths within lakes, but there are some lakes where this relationship is weaker and the effect of DOC on water color decreases with depth. This relationship does not change with high or low precipitation years. My results suggest that climate-driven changes in local precipitation regimes could lead to shifts in lake 1 DOC-loading with potential implications for lake respiration, lake community ecology, and landscape-level carbon storage
Gonality, Scramble Number, and Screewidth of Several Graph Families
No full textGraphs are mathematical structures that represent relationships (edges) between objects (vertices). We define chip-firing games on graphs by stacking chips on vertices and firing chips along edges, in an effort to eliminate a debt introduced on the graph. In this paper, we define and prove a variety of graph parameters related to winning this game efficiently for various graph families
Persistent Relative Homology for Topological Data Analysis
Full text linkA central problem in data-driven scientific inquiry is how to interpret structure in noisy, high-dimensional data. Topological data analysis (TDA) provides a solution via the language of persistent homology, which encodes features of interest as holes within a filtration of the data. The recently presented U-Match Decomposition places the standard persistence computation in a flexible form, allowing for straight-forward extensions of the algorithm to variations of persistent homology. We describe U-Match Decomposition in the context of persistent homology, and extend it to an algorithm for persistent relative homology, providing proofs for the correctness and stability of the presented algorithm
Bác Hồ in the Business Lounge: The Curious Case of Vietnam\u27s Neoliberal Socialists
Full text linkThis project examines how neoliberal economic policies and socialist signifiers have co-existed in Vietnam since the 1980s market reforms. Focusing on Vietnam’s national airline, Vietnam Airlines, I draw on the ideas of Michel Foucault to show how neoliberal governmentality subsumes socialism to shape better citizens, workers, consumers, and human capital. Through an autoethnographic thick description of a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco, I capture neoliberal governmentality\u27s intimate interactions with the subject. With Aihwa Ong\u27s theory of “neoliberalism as exception” as a guide, I analyze how the selective deployment of socialist signifiers in the spaces, practices, and texts I encounter throughout this flight produces a distinctly neoliberal Vietnamese citizen-subject