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Wetlands Might be Our Savior in the Heat of the Ongoing Climate Battle: A Scientific Exploration of the 2024 Election and the Impact Legislative Decisions Will Have on Our Climate and Livelihoods
No full textAn exploration of wetlands as a vital piece in the fight against climate change. The thesis delves into what wetlands are biologically, historically, and legally, utilizing the results from the 2024 Election in order to predict why these ecosystems should be at the forefront of our conservation efforts globally
Trump, the Authoritarian Influencer: BRICS, the Rise of the Right, and the Fall of Multilateralism
No full textThis paper argues that the Trump administration has been the source of an increase in far-right political regimes and ideologies in the BRICS coalition while also emphasizing the United States’ hegemonic power in the modern liberal world order, harming the goal of multilateralism that is held by the BRICS coalition. Beginning with a literature review, the existing analyses are applied to this argument and organized to specify issues with the far-right and multilateralism that appear with each BRICS country. Counterarguments and potential issues with this argument are both brought up and challenged. Following this, a section on critique and analysis looks at different evidence and contributing factors to influencing the rise of the far-right in BRICS countries and uses them in supporting the main argument. Through this, the idea that the US under the Trump administration supports far-right authoritarianism across the globe is emphasized, resulting in the eventual weakening of the BRICS coalition and their goals
SLBMs vs ASW: The Race for Deterrence
No full textThis paper aims to determine the balance between submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in the modern day and evaluates how this balance informs the current offense and defense balance in international relations. This paper aims to determine whether SLBMs are still the great stabilizer that they have been historically described as, and if it is their efficacy that matters or merely their perception. This paper will evaluate the progression of SLBM and ASW technology over the past couple decades and where these technologies stand in relation to one another today. This exploration is grounded in two case studies: a modern example of the relationship between the United States and China and a historical example between the United States and the Soviet Union. Through exploring the limitations of the Chinese nuclear arsenal relative to the United States, this paper will extrapolate some takeaways regarding the efficacy of these technologies as deterrants, specifically in an asymmetrical relationship. Additionally, through being able to evaluate the entirety of the nuclear relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States, this paper is better able to make judgments about how current trends could influence future behavior and the motivation behind current posturing. The paper concludes that SLBMs most likely remain stabilizing at a broad level, but their deterrent value has diminished. As perception of SLBM survivability erodes, states face renewed incentives for arms racing and first-strike behavior
Resilience in the Face of Climate Change: Exploring the Ecophysiology, Adaptation, and Conservation of Mytilus Edulis in the Gulf of Maine
Full text linkThe Gulf of Maine is among the fastest-warming marine environments globally, facing rapid increases in temperature and ocean acidification. These stressors jeopardize the Blue Mussel, Mytilus edulis, a foundational species vital for maintaining biodiversity, water quality, and coastal economies. This research investigates the resilience and vulnerability of M. edulis under combined thermal and acidification stressors, with a focus on thresholds of physiological breakdown. Key findings reveal critical thermal limits (\u3e25°C) and pH thresholds (\u3c7.3) beyond which metabolic, immune, and shell formation processes deteriorate. Conservation strategies such as selective breeding, habitat protection, and adaptive management are essential to ensure the survival of this keystone species in a changing climate
SMER, Anti-Western Populism, and Political Violence in Post-Communist Slovakia
Full text linkIn recent decades, the European continent has seen more and more anti-Western populist parties emerge and gain a loyal following. Many of these parties support extremist narratives that reject both international cooperation as well as racial and religious tolerance. In eastern and central Europe in particular, many parties of this nature have begun to both gain popularity and also use the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to push an anti-NATO and anti-European Union narrative that seems to strike a chord with many European voters. A textbook example of one of these parties is the Smer-Social Democracy party of Slovakia. Slovakia, like many other former Eastern Bloc states, underwent a substantial post-communist transition process that had lasting impacts on the nation, and particularly its voter base.
Through examination of Slovakia’s post-communist transition, it is clear that this transition created an environment where a populist party like Smer could thrive. This type of extreme political discourse fosters an environment where political violence, like the attempt on Smer frontman and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, can take place. Foreign policy is a major concern of these modern right-wing populist parties, and Smer specifically aligns itself with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which has major implications on the global stage
Exploring the Effects of Cyanobacteria Algae Blooms on Ecosystems and Humans with a Focus on North Pond, Maine
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Galactic Winds in MaNGA and eBOSS: A Comprehensive Study of the Relationship Between Galaxies and their Outflows Over the Last Eight Billion Years
Full text linkStar formation in galaxies is a very inefficient process, with only about 5% of the available gas in the Universe forming into stars. The current scientific consensus points toward stellar and/or active galactic nuclei feedback as primary energy sources that inhibit star formation and drive galactic outflows, depleting the interstellar medium of star-forming material. This is a comprehensive study of the incidence and quality of outflows in star-forming galaxies as a function of their physical properties. We use spectroscopic data from two Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) projects: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) and the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). MaNGA provides us with spatially resolved spectroscopy for nearly a thousand galaxies. We classify them in terms of the strength of their outflow signatures and investigate the relationships between physical properties and the incidence of outflows. We find that galaxies with higher star-formation rate (SFR) and higher SFR surface density are significantly more likely to present clear outflow signatures, whereas we find no significant trend in terms of stellar mass. The eBOSS data contains point-source spectroscopy for more than a million galaxies. We cluster galaxies based on SFR and stellar mass and use spectral stacking to increase our signal-to-noise ratio. We then perform spectral fitting and absorption line analysis on the stacked spectra to calculate outflow velocities and investigate correlations with physical parameters. We quantify the positive correlation between outflow velocity and SFR (and specific SFR), and find no significant relationship between outflow velocity and stellar mass
Fabricating Purity: Muslim Transhumance, Colonization, and the Racial Politics of Spanish Shepherding
No full textThis thesis examines the intertwined histories of pastoralism, colonial expansion, and religious violence in medieval and early modern Spain. It argues that the economic and symbolic significance of shepherding played a crucial role in both the consolidation of Christian rule and the racialization of Muslim and Jewish populations. By tracing the origins of Spain’s Merino wool economy to Muslim shepherding practices in al-Andalus, this study challenges dominant historiographical narratives that have erased non-Christian contributions to Spanish pastoral traditions. Furthermore, it explores how Christian rulers co-opted transhumant systems to fund territorial conquests, framing their expansion as a \u27re-conquest\u27 rather than a colonial enterprise. Finally, the thesis investigates how metaphors of flock management were employed to justify exclusionary policies, including limpieza de sangre statutes and the eventual expulsion of Muslims and Jews. By bridging economic, political, and ideological histories, this research offers a critical reassessment of how pastoralism shaped the development of Spanish identity, state formation, and the expansion of sovereign power
“No Cause In The World Is Foreign To Us”: An Analysis of the Bloque Nacionalista Galego’s Public-Facing Rhetoric, 2016–2024
Full text linkLocated in the northwesternmost pocket of Spain, the Autonomous Community of Galicia offers an interesting but understudied example of non-secessionist sub-state nationalist nationalism. In a region that has not seen any strong change in national identity, support for independence, or a broad range of social conditions linked to rising nationalism, the nationalist political party’s electoral success has risen sharply and suddenly. The vote share won by the Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG; Galician Nationalist Bloc) quadrupled from 2016 to 2024 with no clear explanation. Drawing on the rational-actor model of parties as active contributors to the political climate, I examine the party’s own behavior as a potential fact in its rising vote share. Specifically, I analyze the images the party has tried to project to Galician voters through its public-facing rhetoric. Through the qualitative coding of 67 campaign advertisements and 22 candidate interviews, I identify what I term Three Pillars of the BNG’s 2024 rhetoric compared to 2016, including significant moderation of its portrayal of Spanish–Galician relations, its reframing of nationalist policies as justifiable only as pragmatic solutions to non-nationalist concerns rather than intrinsically moral, and its strategic retaining of just a few key national-identity issues. These sharp changes in the party’s public-facing rhetoric of itself were deliberate attempts to improve its vote share by targeting specific demographics, and they appear to have been successful at substantially shaping Galicians’ view of the party and the concept of Galician sub-state nationalism. The party’s rhetorical strategies offer political scientists new perspectives from which to study mass behavior, party strategy, and political theories of nationalism