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Modelling of the Overcontact Eclipsing Binary V826 Aur
Full text linkWe present a model of the eclipsing binary system V826 Aur using differential photometric data from the Robert L. Mutel Telescope (RLMT) at the Winer Observatory in Sonoita, Arizona. The calculated time of superconjunction was found to be 60648.7658534 and the period was 0.361701 d. These values were used to generate a best-fit model of the eclipsing binary with the PHOEBE program. The best-fit modelled parameters were found to be: mass ratio () is equal to 2.769, the inclination () is equal to 80.45◦, the fillout factor () equals 0.0961, and the temperature ratio (2∕1) is 0.9740. Although not statistically significant, these values are consistent with those found in previous studies
Care to Work? How Latinx Students Care to Pursue the Collectivist Immigrant Bargain
No full textSociologists have long examined care within the realms of family, work, and school. Specifically, feminist sociologists have critiqued neoliberalism and its role in exacerbating the care crisis—a condition where care work continues to be externalized onto already overburdened immigrant women of color. While previous work has investigated women of color participating in unrecognized and unpaid care work in colleges, few researchers have studied how children of immigrants navigate such work. To address this gap, I center the experiences of Latinx college students, proposing a re-situation of the collectivist immigrant bargain—a caring commitment that aims to repay immigrant parents\u27 sacrifices through academic success. Drawing on twelve in-depth interviews with Latinx college students socialized as women, I bring forth how a proximity to gendered care work defines the bargain, and influences the strategies immigrant daughters employ to fulfill it. This paper asks: How does the crisis of care shape students\u27 approaches to the collectivist immigrant bargain in college? My findings suggest that due to the structure of neoliberal colleges, feminized students pursue academic success by relying on their proximity to care work in the family, particularly within the creation and maintenance of student care-networks. I argue that under the care crisis, students collectively support each other’s pursuit of the bargain by negotiating the costs and rewards of caring, engaging with care work as both an exploitative form of labor and a liberatory practice
Simulation of the first steps of β-pinene ozonolysis and attempt of geometry optimization with reinforcement learning
No full textβ-pinene is the second most abundant biogenic monoterpene released into the atmosphere. Its ozonolysis reaction produces non-photolytic hydroxyl radicals and secondary organic aerosols (SOA), both crucial in atmospheric chemistry. We constructed a potential energy surface (PES) for our stereochemically diverse open shell and closed shell pathways with Density Functional Theory (DFT) and then utilized Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus/Master Equation (RRKM-ME) simulations in the MultiWell suite to predict the reaction outcomes of β-pinene ozonolysis under tropospheric conditions. We identified a novel source of hydroxyl radical (~9.5%) before forming Criegee Intermediates (CI) at 298.15 K and 15 torr. This research also presents a first attempt at implementing a deep reinforcement learning model to reduce the computational cost of geometry optimization calculations
Frontier Healthscapes: Competing Narratives of Disease, Environment, and Wellbeing in Early Minnesota
Full text linkAcross settler societies, health narratives were shaped by evolving tensions between lay and expert knowledge, frameworks of disease causation, and perceptions of the environment as both a source of health and a threat. In the decades following Euro-American settlement (1860-1900), Minnesota became a focal point for these debates, with its landscape fostering complex and competing narratives on health, wellbeing, and disease. This paper explores how public health discourse developed in Minnesota through the perspectives of institutions, the public, and economic interests. Combining environmental history with critical discourse analysis of archival materials, this study examines shifts within the Minnesota State Board of Health, where officials increasingly adopted germ theory over environmental explanations of disease. Meanwhile, public perceptions varied widely, as settlers viewed the landscape as both a healthful refuge and a potential hazard; social fears linked disease with immigration and urbanization. Real estate developers further promoted Minnesota as a “healthful” destination, reshaping landscapes to support commercial aims. These intersecting narratives reveal how societal and environmental forces influenced public health policy and practice, contributing to enduring place-based conceptions of health on the North American frontier
Vienna in the New Century: From Public Housing Haven to Neoliberalized Mega Projects
Full text linkWhile Vienna is often presented as a utopia for social sustainability, the urban developments after the turn of the century have revealed the variegated nature of Neoliberalization. Since the fall of the USSR, Vienna has privatized municipal bodies and engaged with financialized urban development projects. While this Neoliberalized urban governance approach has met with resistance, the resistance ironically has also enabled the city to capitalize on its social-welfarist past. Vienna nowadays brands itself as a sustainable and livable city for corporations, which leads to land assetization and new economic segregation
Genocide Under the Gavel: The International Court of Justice and the Evolution of the Genocide Convention
Full text linkThe Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is a vital tool for addressing genocide. As mechanisms of global governance fail to stop atrocity, the International Court of Justice has become a legal and political arena for the enforcement of the Genocide Convention. This study asks the question of how the use of the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice changed over time? In the four cases that come before the Court, this paper identifies four key developments: a shift toward viewing genocide as a continuum; South Africa v. Israel strengthened the Court’s jurisdiction; increased use and evolving significance of provisional measures; and greater third-party engagement through Articles 62 and 63 of the Statute of the Court. While the Convention and ICJ can be powerful mechanisms of change for shaping how genocide is understood, they often fall short of ensuring accountability
Effects of Ethanol and Sucrose Reward Devaluation on Sign-Tracking and Goal-Tracking in Long-Evans Rats
No full textPavlovian conditioning is a fundamental learning process by which organisms associate salient motivational events, such as food or drugs, with environmental cues that reliably predict them. These learned cue-reward associations can drive maladaptive behaviors, as seen in substance use disorder. This study investigated how ethanol reward devaluation influences Pavlovian conditioned responses in Long-Evans rats, focusing on sign-tracking and goal-tracking—two distinct behavioral phenotypes that reflect differential attribution of incentive salience to cues. Rats received either ethanol or sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus during training, followed by a conditioned taste aversion protocol using lithium chloride to devalue the reward. Although both ethanol and sucrose were successfully devalued, neither sign-tracking or goal-tracking behavior significantly decreased following devaluation. Notably, ethanol supported greater goal-tracking behavior during training and showed stronger contextual transfer of devaluation than sucrose. These findings suggest that under extended training conditions, sign-tracking and goal-tracking behaviors may become resistant to devaluation regardless of the reward type. The results support ethanol’s capacity to support Pavlovian learning and emphasize the importance of methodological factors—such as training duration and contextual congruence—in shaping behavioral flexibility
Machine learning aided computational study of functional groups for water purification and Li recycle
No full textSeparation and filtration systems are important in the world, such as for water purification and Lithium recycling. About 1 in 4 people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. Also, Lithium recycling can facilitate the reuse of valuable materials and reduce the amount of environmentally harmful methods of obtaining them. Graphene oxide nanosheets have been shown as a promising solution to improve filtration while functional groups (FGs) show the potential to improve that further. In this study, we work on finding FGs with the best specific adsorption energies for water purification and lithium recycling using DFT simulations. With the number of functional groups and how computationally expensive DFT calculations can be, we also apply machine learning to help predict the adsorption energies of ions onto the FGs without explicit calculations. So far, we have found several FG candidates and identified a few essential properties to improve the model performance
Quantum Chemical and Statistical Rate Theory Modeling of Isoprene Ozonolysis
No full textIsoprene is the most abundant alkene in the troposphere. It primarily reacts with hydroxyl radicals, nitrate radicals, and ozone. Ozonolysis of isoprene is a major nighttime source of hydroxyl radicals, especially over forests. Hydroxyl radicals act as atmospheric detergents, oxidizing pollutants so they can be removed from the atmosphere through precipitation. This project aims to calculate hydroxyl radical yields from isoprene ozonolysis using energetic calculations and MultiWell simulations with RRKM theory. Key Criegee intermediates include methyl vinyl ketone oxide (MVKO), methacrolein oxide, and formaldehyde oxide. MVKO is predicted to yield the most hydroxyl radical, through favorable hydrogen shifts