10274 research outputs found
Sort by
Whatcom County Amphibian Monitoring Intern
No full textThis internship is taking place at the Samish River Preserve (SRP) south of Acme, WA. The SRP is a parcel owned by the Whatcom Land Trust that consists largely of seasonally-flooded wetland, part of the large wetted channel of the Samish River. This site contains the largest population of the endangered Oregon spotted frog (OSF) in the sub-basin and has been subject to active restoration since 2016. Our work is largely centered around the removal of invasive reed-canary grass (RCG) to create persistent aquatic habitat, in addition to the planting of native sedges, rushes, and grasses. This project has given me the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with wetland habitat restoration rooted in a specific understanding of metapopulations, OSF ecology, and the challenges related to invasives. Additionally, this focal point has been a framework for me to gain a far greater understanding of wetland ecology as a whole
A Celebration of Historic Female Agency
Get PDFThe following program notes were written in preparation for a public recital held on December 7th, 2024. The recital was an exploration and celebration of the portrayal of female agency in Western classical vocal music, focusing on the lives and legacies of historic female figures. I chose to perform the characters of Agrippina, a Roman empress, mother of Jesus and Christian symbol Mary of Nazareth, the first five wives of King Henry VIII, and the French mathematician Emilie du Châtelet. I also speak on the composers of these works who brought these women to life and offered them the opportunity to be depicted in this way. I highlight the differences often apparent between how male composers and female composers interpret female characters and have offered a selection of pieces by both male and female composers that I believe feature female agency
Integration of Climate Change Adaptation into Planning: A Study of Washington state Coastal Communities Exposed to Sea Level Rise
Get PDFWashington state coastal communities face increasing vulnerability to sea level rise, necessitating immediate adaptation strategies to reduce risks and enhance resiliency. This thesis evaluates the extent of such adaptations using a resilience scorecard methodology (Berke 2015), which assesses planning policies in high-risk sea level rise areas and in context with social and physical vulnerability. Case studies were selected based on factors such as exposure levels, percentage of exposed areas, population, and population density, focusing on three communities: Ocean Shores, Olympia, and La Conner.
The results revealed that Ocean Shores is highly vulnerable due to its low elevation, older population, and fixed-income demographic. Critical residential areas are located near canals and the ocean and inconsistencies exist between its plans, requiring targeted resilience measures under the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Conversely, Olympia\u27s economic and land use diversity results in varied vulnerability across districts with high exposure to sea level rise. Downtown faces resilience inconsistencies despite the city’s overall better alignment of planning frameworks. Finally, La Conner, a smaller town with limited resources, and with high probability of inundation, shares challenges similar to Ocean Shores but requires tailored strategies to address its high social vulnerability, protect residential zones, and enhance policy integration. These findings underscore the need for context-specific resilience strategies to mitigate vulnerabilities across diverse coastal communities.
Integration of Climate Change Adaptation into Planning:
A Study of Washington state Coastal Communities Exposed to Sea Level Ris
Pretty Little Nihilists: The Aesthetic Politics of the Sad Girl
Get PDFThis collection of essays examines the cultural phenomenon of the “sad girl” aesthetic, analyzing its prominence in media and its reflection of contemporary women’s struggles. Emerging from online communities, the aesthetic aims to convey deep emotional struggles through a detached and formulaic presentation. The sad girl aesthetic is characterized by its nihilism and self-destructive tendencies, fostering both isolation and a sense of collective identity. Works such as Fleabag, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Lana Del Rey’s artistry have become representative of this identity, reflecting both its allure and limitations. Through an analysis of social media trends and personal experiences, this paper acknowledges the sad girl aesthetic’s role as a space for women to articulate their discontent with neoliberal ideals, while also critiquing its tendency toward self-absorption and exclusivity
Mastcam-Z multispectral database from the Perseverance rover’s traverse through the Jezero crater Margin unit (sols 0-1269)
Get PDFDuring its first 1269 sols of exploration, NASA’s Mars-2020 Perseverance rover explored the igneous units of the Jezero crater floor, the sedimentary strata of the western Jezero fan front and top, the carbonate-bearing rocks of the crater\u27s Margin unit, and sedimentary deposits within the Neretva Vallis channel. The rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument, a pair of multispectral, stereoscopic, zoom-lens cameras, provides broadband red/green/blue (RGB), and narrowband visible to near-infrared color (VNIR, 440-1020 nm wavelength range). Here, we provide a database of Mastcam-Z spectra and multispectral image products from sols 0-1269. These include: the locations of the regions of interest (ROIs) from which the spectra were extracted; plots of spectra extracted from each observation; “enhanced color images” derived by stretching narrowband images; and “decorrelation stretch” (DCS) images that highlight the spectral diversity in left- and right-eye images. This dataset has been calibrated using Version 3 of Mastcam-Z’s radiometric calibration pipeline, which includes a dust correction and significantly improves upon the calibration of the previous dataset for sols 0-707 (Rice et al., 2024, https://doi.org/10.25710/v4p4-s268)
Understanding pathways towards a just energy transition: A comparative case study of distributed solar adoption in Bellingham, WA and Burlington, VT
Get PDFIncreased policy commitments in the U.S. and across the globe are necessary to transition the electricity system towards renewable energy and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) goal to reach the Paris Agreement and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Along with a need for urgent action is the importance of considering energy affordability, among other equity considerations, in policy decisions. Distributed solar is a renewable energy technology with potential to contribute to a just renewable energy system yet it comes into conflict with many aspects of the current energy regime, including utility business models and current infrastructure. The role this technology will play in a just and renewable energy future remain unclear. In this thesis research, I conduct a comparative case study of distributed solar adoption in Bellingham, WA and Burlington, VT, to understand the factors influencing current adoption patterns to provide recommendations for each state to work towards the dual outcomes of reaching renewable energy goals and ensuring energy affordability and equity. I combine city level solar adoption data from 2010-2023 with semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders to understand factors influencing adoption in and between case studies. Primary takeaways are that state policy details, utility operations, and unique geographic characteristics are factors influencing current distributed adoption patterns and rates in these case studies. In Washington and Vermont, aligning outdated utility business models with new needs for renewable energy, ensuring ratepayer protections, and strategically incentivizing different forms of distributed solar will be key policy pathways towards ensuring Washington and Vermont meet current energy goals. These findings are also relevant for other states looking to meet commitments towards a just energy transition, particularly in light of backtracking progress towards renewable energy at the federal level
Using mineral records to unveil the magmatic history of the rhyolite of Separation Creek, Three Sisters, Oregon
No full textThe Three Sisters Volcanic Complex (TSVC) is located in the central Oregon Cascades, at the intersection of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the Basin and Range extensional province, and the High Lava Plains. The convergence of these tectonic regimes has resulted in a high volume of volcanism, producing the three main stratovolcanoes and many smaller edifices that make up the TSVC. Two of the main stratocones, South Sister (active 40-2 ka, largely intermediate to felsic) and Middle Sister (active 50 to 14 ka, largely mafic to intermediate), erupted a diverse suite of lava compositions ranging from basaltic andesite to true rhyolite. All but one of the rhyolites are associated with South Sister, including the rhyolite of Separation Creek (rsc) that erupted as a dome in the saddle dividing the sibling volcanoes. This rhyolite is unique in that it contains abundant mafic enclaves and crystal clots throughout the entire dome. This study focuses on the major mineral phases in rsc, both within the silicic host and in the mafic componentry, using clotting relationships, textural observations, and mineral and glass compositions to make inferences relating to the magmas that constitute rsc. Results reveal two magmatic endmembers, a voluminous rhyolitic host magma (plagioclase + amphibole + pyroxene) and a basaltic andesite mafic recharge magma (plagioclase + olivine), as well as a less abundant reaction product between the two. Magmatic parameters (temperature, pressure, water contents, oxygen fugacity) estimated using mineral populations were utilized to explore crystallization conditions, indicating the silicic reservoir was situated in the mid-to-shallow crust (ca. 3 kbar) at relatively high temperatures (ca. 930 ºC), and with somewhat low water contents (ca. 3.8 wt.% H2O), prior to injection of the hotter (ca. 1080 ºC) and slightly drier (ca. 3.2 wt.% H2O) mafic magma. More oxidizing conditions conveyed by ilmenite and magnetite pairs support the association of the silicic component with South Sister. In contrast, olivine compositions are high Ni, suggesting association of the mafic component with Middle Sister. Taken together, rsc is the first studied lava to suggest interaction between the South Sister and Middle Sister magmatic systems
A Grant Proposal (A Map) For A Dream Project: Recovering Mexican American Women’s History Through Community Archiving
No full textThis capstone project addresses the underrepresentation of PNW Mexican American women within U.S. historical narratives and archival collections. It challenges how traditional Western archives contribute to the erasure of these women’s experiences through limited access and exclusion. Drawing on feminist, archival, and Chicana/o scholarship, the project advocates for community-based archival practices that empower Mexican American women to record and preserve their own histories. As such, this capstone project presents: 1) A grant proposal for the funds needed to conduct a community archival program led by Mexican American youth in Whatcom County called Mujeres Inolvidables. This program would record and archive the lived experiences of PNW Mexican American women while making use of both Western and non-Western forms of knowledge. 2) A critical preface which explains what led to writing the grant and the theoretical approach to the archival program. All together this capstone project concretizes a way to use public programming to make PNW Mexican American women visible in the U.S.-Mexico historical canon
His “merry Fellow” William: How Defoe Humanized His Quaker Contemporaries
Get PDFCritics have long been puzzled by Daniel Defoe’s depictions of Quakers. Praising them in his Review but mocking them in his Quaker-voiced pamphlets, Defoe sketches Quaker characters in his novels that are helpful to his protagonists but are hardly paragons of moral virtue. Some scholars have concluded that he viewed them favorably while others believe he was disparaging them. Neither of these scholarly approaches, however, takes into account how Quakers were actually seen in Defoe’s own era. Not yet regarded in the positive light they would be in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—as benevolent abolitionists and pacifists—late seventeenth- century Quakers were seen as eccentric disrupters of the peace, known for their awkward social deportment and dubious morals. This article proposes that Defoe depicts Quakers as he saw them—as neither paragons of virtue nor overly eccentric. Deploying yet moving beyond standard caricatures of Quakers, Defoe ultimately humanizes them, just as he humanizes other heterogenous “cosmopolitan” characters across his career
A Videogame of the Plague Year: Mapping \u3ci\u3eRobinson Crusoe \u3c/i\u3e onto \u3ci\u3eAnimal Crossing: New Horizons\u3c/i\u3e (2020)
Get PDFSet on an island in a distant locale, the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) borrows game elements from eighteenth-century texts of exploration such as Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Gulliver’s Travels (1726) in its recreation of an island setting. Set into its moment of production, the spring of 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the action of playing the game during a moment of social isolation also recreated the action of being Robinson Crusoe, by shaping an island to the liking of the game’s player. Using game studies scholar Ian Bogost’s theories of play as being constructed by the imposition of limitations, this essay explores how Defoe’s text is recreated, both textually and experientially, in the act of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the stay at home period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the continued interest in narratives of isolation and personal agency