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Development of a Benthic Recruitment Model for the Cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata
No full textThe cyanobacterium Gloeotrichia echinulata is common to freshwater lakes across the Northeast US, where it forms large colonies during the summer months. G. echinulata is somewhat unique in the fact that it has the capacity to form harmful algal blooms (HABs) in oligotrophic lakes, which typically do not experience algal blooms. Furthermore, it has the ability to take up sedimentary phosphorus while in a dormant state on the lake floor, and a high percentage of water-column G. echinulata populations come directly from the lake sediment, rather than forming through division. Because of these characteristics, G. echinulata is known to promote the formation of cyanobacterial blooms of other species, and it may contribute to the eutrophication of lake ecosystems over time. In order to better understand the life cycle of G. echinulata and the environmental factors influencing its growth, we developed a compartmental model in MATLAB for the germination and benthic recruitment phases of its life cycle. This model was based on G. echinulata recruitment and environmental data collected from Lake Sunapee, an oligotrophic lake in New Hampshire, from 2009-2017. Comparison of simulated G. echinulata recruitment to actual recruitment from field data shows temperature as a major factor in predicting benthic recruitment. In addition, results show that there may exist an optimal temperature for G. echinulata growth, one which is hotter than Lake Sunapee ever typically reaches in-water. Potential future research might involve expanding the model to cover more study sites, finding explanations for some interesting results of the model, and developing other strategies to more accurately capture G. echinulata recruitment and its response to environmental drivers
The Expanding and Contracting Definition of a \u27Particular Social Group\u27 Since \u3ci\u3eAcosta\u3c/i\u3e
No full textTrump vs. The Fourteenth Amendment
No full textThis paper argues that President Trump’s 2025 executive order to end birthright citizenship represents a major break from constitutional tradition and a clear turn toward far-right ideology. The order challenges the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on United States soil and has been upheld for more than a century, including in the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Although some conservatives may frame the action as a routine effort to strengthen immigration policy, the order moves beyond traditional conservatism. It departs from the rule of law, rejects long-standing legal precedent, and promotes an exclusionary national identity rooted in ethnonationalism. The paper outlines the key differences between conventional conservative thought and far-right ideology in order to show why this executive order aligns with the latter. It also examines the broader implications for democratic norms, citizenship, and executive power. The analysis concludes that Trump’s order is not a typical conservative policy. Instead, it is an unprecedented attempt to reshape American citizenship through executive authority and should be understood as a threat to established constitutional principles
Transforming Ivan the Terrible: History, Memory Politics, and Monuments in Putin’s Russia
Full text linkLike Joseph Stalin before him, Vladimir Putin has brought Ivan the Terrible back from oblivion and has made the memorialization of one of the country’s most infamous and brutal rulers a centerpiece of the Kremlin\u27s contemporary propaganda toolkit. Analyzing a wide spectrum of Russian language sources such as the political speeches, historical lectures, protest posters, and Russian social media posts, this paper explores the various factors motivating the Putin regime’s revitalization of Ivan the Terrible and outlines how ordinary Russians have responded to the politicized whitewashing of their history. In 2016, with much fanfare, the provincial city of Orel erected Russia’s first ever monument to this infamous tyrant. Ripe with direct analogies between Ivan the Terrible and Putin, the highly nationalist and religiously-informed rhetoric around the Orel monument creates what I call a genealogy of sacred autocracy. By celebrating Russia’s first autocrat as both an exemplary Russian leader and a predecessor of dictators like Stalin and Putin, the Kremlin is creating an idealized and false historical legacy of triumphant, strong, and inevitable Russian authoritarianism—a narrative that naturalizes and legitimizes the regime’s imperialism, human rights violations, and crackdown on domestic dissidence
The Landscape of Maine’s Urban Environmental Programming
No full textUrban areas are sprawling and usually distinctly unassociated with an environment where educational environmental programming occurs. Urban environments can have the connotation, at least within the continental United States, as lacking in green space and not being central to a city’s appeal, whether this is true or not, it means that there is a gap in what the development and integration of what environmental-based programming can look like within urban environments. If there is no green space or a lack of it compared to what is offered outside of the city, two opportunities arise for those residing in an urban environment; staying put or leaving the city to find nature. The first is creating hyper place-based opportunities i.e. urban agriculture, and community gardening, for example. The second is endeavoring to leave the city on a quest to gain access to open space and access to environmental education, but without a desire to do this and assuming access to transportation attention must be drawn to the prior scenario. Connection to the environment through the creation and fostering of community lies central in conversations about environmental programming. Through this project, I explore how community-based urban environmental programming helps instill a sense of loyalty, care, and reciprocity for the environment in the people who are participating
