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The Shadow of Eugenics at the Faribault State Hospital, 1950-1969
No full textThe goal of institutionalizing everyone deemed “mentally deficient” influenced by the past practice of eugenics led to persistent overcrowding, understaffing, and mistreatment at FSH. Although conditions were never good at the Faribault State School and Hospital, they were thrust into the public eye only during the 1960s due to a burgeoning deinstitutionalization movement across the nation, the activism of parents’ groups, and the introduction of a new group of administrators who were not yet inculcated in the institution’s norms and were willing to speak out about what they saw there. This, in combination with a growing preference for community-based services, ultimately led to the institution’s decline and eventual shuttering in 1998. However this was just one facet of a movement that rippled across the nation. FSH is a case study illustrating how the deinstitutionalization movement, which advocated for smaller community-based services instead of sprawling institutions, progressed in the United States through the 1950s and ’60s and helped create the mental health care system that we see today. Institutions across the nation were founded by eugenicists, leading to untenable conditions that prompted public outcry in the mid-twentieth century
Binary Quadratic Forms: Properties, Groups, and Ideals
No full textClose your eyes, and pick your favorite integer (ours is 73). Can you find two other integers whose sum of squares adds up to your favorite number? For example, we found that32+82=73. In this paper, we will explore these sums of squares, which are a type of binary quadratic form, and the integers they can represent. A binary quadratic form is defined as a function in the integers of the form ax2+bxy+cy2. We will explain the properties these structures have and the connections binary quadratic forms have to the algebraic class group. Along the way, we will discuss the idea of equivalence between different binary quadratic forms and formulate efficient methods for determining whether a given integer n is representable by a given binary quadratic form. We also delve into the idea of the class number, utilizing the discriminants of binary quadratic forms to determine both the number of differing binary quadratic forms of the same discriminant and even more efficient methods of determining representability
Are Addictive Behaviors Freely Chosen? Implications for Moral and Legal Responsibility
No full textAddiction continues to be a growing epidemic that our world must strive to better understand and equip ourselves to treat. The circumstances for this increased understanding and the improved treatment of those suffering from addiction are influenced by how we choose to view addiction and its related behaviors. Are these behaviors freely chosen? Or does the struggling individual lack the ability to exert control? To dive into this controversy, we must explore the three main models for viewing addiction. The first model is the Brain Disease Model of Addiction (BDMA), which emphasizes the neurobiological factors and related brain changes associated with addiction and how they cause individuals to lose control over their actions. The second model is the Choice/Moral Model of Addiction, which takes the stance that addicts willfully choose their addictive behaviors and that these behaviors are morally wrong. The third model is the Developmental-Learning Model of Addiction, which incorporates aspects from both the BDMA and the Choice/Moral Model of Addiction, but provides a different explanation for the neurobiological changes seen after repeated substance use. Each model yields different ethical, therapeutic, and legal implications related to responsibility, but they all incorporate aspects of stigma. In relation to the debate of what drives addiction, free will or a lack of control, there is evidence supporting that it may be a combination of both. More research is needed to better examine this neurobiological interplay, specifically longitudinal studies, which aim to analyze the continuous alteration of synapse development in the brain as a result of the decision-making process behind individual actions related to addiction
Humor, Play, and World-Traveling: Acts of Indigenous Self-Recognition in the Contemporary Water Protector Movement
No full textThis paper explores actualizations of subaltern philosophies of liberatory struggle as they occur in the contemporary water protector movement in North America. Starting by expounding on the arguments of Robert Berkhofer Jr., Franz Fanon, and Glen Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene), my paper creates a hermeneutical framework regarding “misrecognition” in the relationship between Indigenous North Americans and white settlers, where Indigenous people are unable to achieve liberation from settler institutions, being forced to become, at best, “emancipated slaves”. The paper examines models of self-recognition available to Indigenous people that do not pull upon colonial models of recognition, particularly the significant work of play and humor.. I argue that the contemporary water protector movement, and specifically the Movement to Stop Line 3, is an example of the actualization of Coulthard’s thesis on the necessity of Indigenous self-recognition. Using voices from Indigenous, white, queer, and neurodivergent water protectors, this essay argues that the water protector movement is modeling an essential, and overlooked way for community between individuals with different identities and amounts of power to form organically. Through this, Indigenous self-recognition and ethical recognition between racialized categories is occurring. Voices from Lawrence Gross (White Earth Ojibwe), Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Ojibwe) and María Lugones provide the philosophical framework for play and humor as I analyze the movement. Fundamentally, this paper argues that play and humor are important roles in acts of Indigenous self-recognition, and are useful for modeling how reciprocal relationships between Indigenous and white people should operate
Shockingly Static: Models of the Triboelectric Effect in Solids
No full textThe buildup of static electricity that occurs when you rub a balloon on your head or scoot across a carpet in socks is known scientifically as the triboelectric effect. Despite being a commonplace phenomenon and the historical foundation for our understanding of electricity, it is remarkably poorly understood. In this survey, we will introduce the little that is known about the triboelectric effect in solids, discuss why it must have multiple driving phenomena, and present several contemporary models for its behavior. We will particularly focus on a flexoelectric model and a thermoelectric model for the triboelectric effect, which differ from many of the foundational work function-dependent models
“With Women in Every Way”: Minnesotan Nurse-Midwives’ Identities and Perceptions as Abortion Providers
No full textHow has Minnesota’s changing abortion legislation, which now allows nurse-midwives to provide medication and surgical abortions, impacted these providers’ professional identities and conceptions of professional practice? Through semi-structured interviews with ten Minnesota-based nurse-midwives, this project reveals how nurse-midwives make sense of and navigate these evolving responsibilities. For many of the nurse-midwives interviewed, this legislative change did not create that drastic of a shift. Supported by literature exploring forms of empathy and professionalization generally and of nurse-midwifery specifically, respondents explained how the option to provide abortions largely coincided with their professional identities to provide patient-centered care as nurse-midwives. They express a high value for patient autonomy and decision-making. At the level of professionalization, they describe how providing abortion fits within the nurse-midwifery scope of care. Despite their capacity to provide this care at professional identity and professionalization levels, systemic and organizational barriers continue to impede their ability to fully transition to offering abortion care
The Ant Hill
No full textBody of work encompassing themes of family, childhood, and transition. The works included are oil paintings and ink drawings of family photos from multiple generations. There are several hundred small carpenter ant models that are displayed along with the 2D works trailing up to the ceiling into a smoke alarm and out of an outlet. The ants form a spiral at the center of the photos carrying and running under and over several of them. These are based on childhood memories I have intermingled with stories my parents have told from our time moving between various rentals while I was little and they were in school
Butyrate’s Maintenance of Colonic Homeostasis via PPARγ Activation
No full textThe human colon is colonized by trillions of bacteria, characterized by a dominance of obligate anaerobic bacteria that require hypoxic conditions for survival (Silva et al. 2020, Rinninella et al. 2019, Litvak et al. 2018). Disruption of hypoxic conditions provides a competitive advantage for facultative anaerobic bacteria, which can grow both in the presence and absence of oxygen (André et al. 2021). Most life-threatening pathogenic bacteria are facultative anaerobes, and their abundance is a hallmark of dysbiosis in the colon (André et al. 2021). Their adaptability to variable oxygen concentrations creates a selective advantage for bacterial translocation and infection, whereby persistent disruption of the mucosal barrier is a predominant underlying cause of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), such as Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (André et al. 2021, Litvak et al. 2018, Nagpal et al. 2017, Kotas et al. 2015). Diagnosis of these diseases continues to increase in prevalence across the United States. Therefore, identifying molecules that protect against facultative anaerobes and support obligate anaerobic bacteria in the colon serves great importance in alleviating disease burden (Ye et al. 2020).
Obligate anaerobes obtain energy through fermentation of undigested dietary carbohydrates, specifically resistant starches and dietary fibers not absorbed by the small intestine (Silva et al. 2020, Rinninella et al. 2019, Litvak et al. 2018). Butyrate, a four-carbon short-chain fatty acid (SCFA), is a byproduct of this fermentation process, serving as both the primary energy source for colon epithelial cells (colonocytes), and a key facilitator of the mutualistic relationship between a human host and the gut microbiome. Butyrate supports intestinal homeostasis through modulation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) signaling pathway. Downstream PPARγ signaling from butyrate provides maintenance of colonic hypoxic conditions, thereby promoting growth of obligate anaerobic bacteria, supporting intestinal barrier integrity, and downregulating inflammation through T cell differentiation. Butyrate drives a multilayer system of host defense mechanisms; therefore, its administration is at the forefront of treating chronic inflammatory diseases in the human colon
