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Addressing Key Opportunities for Future Development and Education Relating to Limited Regional Awareness of the Newark Earthworks
No full textFollowing the declaration of Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Newark Earthworks, in particular, the Great Circle and Octagon Earthworks, have garnered a lot of news attention from the Licking County Community and its local newspaper, The Newark Advocate. This attention frequently highlights the historical significance of the site, and litigation between the Ohio History Connection and Moundbuilders Country Club over access to the ancient Octagon Earthworks. In 2024, a settlement was reached with Moundbuilders Country Club to buy out its lease on the property. Although the Ohio History Connection owns the land, a number of Licking County residents have expressed displeasure over the verdict, namely because the Earthworks has for many decades, served as the Country Club’s private golf course. The resulting loss of the Club’s lease has forced relocation elsewhere in Licking County. However, my role as a lifelong resident of Licking County and previous member of the Moundbuilders Country Club has put me in a unique position. While I do remember spending summers at the Moundbuilders pool, my grandmother’s birthday in the clubhouse, and even trips out golfing with my dad on the mounds themselves, I am also aware of the significance of Newark’s Hopewellian Earthworks from both an archaeological perspective and from the perspective of those related to practitioners of the Hopewell culture. I would be wrong to say this was always the case, as I shamefully remember thinking very little of the mounds in my youth. To me, who knew nothing about them, they were piles of dirt there for reasons I could not understand. Even in our state mandated indigenous peoples’ history unit in the fourth grade, I remember processing very little. My own experiences have left me wondering if the opinions of other Licking County residents are fueled by a similar misinterpretation or lack thereof as to the history of the Earthworks. For this reason, I have made it my goal to further explore the responses of Licking County members and compare their thoughts with those of Wayne County, Ohio residents, located 63 miles away from the Earthworks, who may be affected differently by them. I would like to understand the opinions of both groups on the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in greater detail so that I may grasp how the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation has affected both local and state-wide populations. My research considers the process through which a UNESCO status is declared as well as the impacts of settler colonialism on Licking County to eventually inform my survey of the community which reveals a lack of overall knowledge and visitation of the Newark Earthworks outside of Licking County. I address these findings as they relate to racist nativism in the United States and propose potential solutions to bring more visitors to the Earthworks
Morphological Differences in Stromatolites in Response to Changes in the Green River Lake System, Sanpete Valley, Utah
No full textStromatolites are large, layered calcareous deposits, typically found by the shore of oceans or lakes. These are formed due to interactions of cyanobacteria – a photosynthetic organism – and the surroundings, specifically, introduced sediment and minerals in the water. The resulting stromatolite formations have a variety of external and internal structures influenced by the environment in which they form. The Green River Formation is a large lacustrine deposit that formed in what is the present-day United States during the middle Eocene, and is known for a large variety of fossils, including stromatolites. The stromatolites being investigated in the Green River Formation are some of the most recent deposits, formed ~45 million years ago, around the time the lakes were fully evaporating. This research investigates if changes in stromatolites reflect the changes in the fluctuations of the lake the samples formed in. The stromatolites were collected from two locations within Sanpete valley, White Hill and Temple Hill. When investigating sample stromatolites, the alterations in their internal formation, echoed in oxygen isotope analysis results, show minute changes in water that reflect small changes in the stages of lake recession
Transaction Taxes and Volatility
No full textThis independent study looks at how transaction taxes affect stock market volatility. The study hypothesizes that transaction taxes limit speculative trading, thereby lowering market volatility. The literature reviewed for the study finds conflicting results about the efficiency of financial transaction taxes (FTTs) in lowering market volatility. In the theoretical analysis of the study, a modified Tobin tax model and the noise trader risk model are used to explain the complex relationship behind the stock market\u27s volatility mechanism. They show how transaction taxes, speculative trading, and volatility are related.
The study’s empirical chapter adopts a dual-method approach and focuses on Spain\u27s introduction of the financial transaction tax in 2021. Both methods utilize the 30-day rolling standard deviation of daily returns to calculate volatility. A micro-level regression analysis looks at 35 individual stocks within the IBEX 35, while a macro-level time series analysis contrasts the IBEX-35 index with the Dutch AEX 25 index. For the regression analysis, factors like tax implementation, trading volume, and bid-ask spreads are taken into account. The results of both the univariate and multivariate regression models demonstrate that the FTT greatly decreased Spain\u27s stock volatility. The macro-level research supports these results, showing that the IBEX 35 had less volatility after the FTT was implemented than the AEX index
The Influence of the Microbiome: An Analysis of the Immune System Response to External Pathogens
No full textClimate Crisis or Climate Change? The Impacts of Gain Framing, Loss Framing, and Ideology on Political Engagement and Agency
No full textThis study examined the relationship between the media framing of climate change and five related variables: climate change anxiety, climate change engagement, climate agency, political engagement, and political agency. Prior research is divided on how we best frame climate media to encourage political engagement and enhance self-agency in Americans. The goal of this research was to shed light on this debate while also uncovering which variables inform political decisions in a diverse sample of Americans. Political polarization and voting behavior were among the variables analyzed that have not been considered extensively in prior climate and framing research. Through analysis of framing conditions, it was hypothesized that loss-framed media would be least effective in enhancing people’s agency and encouraging political engagement. This hypothesis was tested using a sample of N = 212 American adults exposed to framed news followed by a survey to scale for variables. Significant results were not found related to framing effects. Despite this, significant results regarding political ideology and identity discrepancies were found related to all five variables. These results communicate the importance of identity and party beliefs in American politics
Hearing But Not Understanding: An Investigation Into The Perceptions of College Students With Auditory Processing Disorder and/or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder on Second Language Learning With Spoken Versus Signed Languages
No full textThe purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate students formally diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and/or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) perceive their experiences learning a global language. This study additionally evaluated if the perception of language acquisition differs for individuals with APD, ADHD, both disorders, or “typical” students when learning a spoken global language or ASL. With the use of on-line surveys, the researcher gathered quantitative and qualitative data from undergraduate college students, many of whom had a formal diagnosis of ADHD and/or APD. Major conclusions of the research included the findings that participants with ADHD and/or APD had more difficulty receptively understanding and remembering vocabulary than “typical” participants. Additionally, trends in the data indicated that participants with ADHD and/or APD experienced less difficulty in receptively communicating and remembering vocabulary in ASL than in spoken global languages. One implication of these findings is that colleges and universities should offer global languages that are not disproportionately difficult for students with ADHD and/or APD, in order for those students to not be at a disproportionate disadvantage compared to their “typical” peers
Boolean Modeling of Epithelial Cell Responses in Celiac Disease Pathogenesis
No full textCeliac disease represents a complex autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten exposure in genetically susceptible individuals. Despite extensive research into celiac disease pathogenesis, the interplay between genetic susceptibility, epithelial barrier dysfunction, and immune activation remains incompletely understood. This study uses a Boolean network model of Celiac disease that integrates epithelial cell dynamics, immune signaling pathways, and environmental triggers to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism of the disease. By using an existing epithelial cell Boolean framework with celiac-specific molecular pathways, we created a computational model comprising of 191 nodes and 701 edges representing key signaling components. We incorporated specific pathways crucial to celiac pathogenesis, including HLA-DQ2 signaling, CXCR3-mediated inflammation, IL-15 cytotoxicity, and zonulin-regulated barrier function. We ran simulations under various conditions revealing that barrier integrity serves as a critical piece for disease activation. Our model successfully reproduced several key features of celiac disease, including the persistence of inflammation after gluten withdrawal through self-sustaining autocrine loops, via the CXCR3 signaling pathway. This computational approach provides new insights into celiac disease pathogenesis by identifying epithelial barrier function as a critical disease determinant, characterizing self-sustaining inflammatory circuits, and demonstrating how IL-15 disrupts tight junction integrity through effects on zonulin and ZO-1. The model offers future insight for in silico testing of therapeutic strategies targeting these pathways and advances our understanding of the complex network dynamics underlying autoimmune disorders. The next steps could include implementing a multiscale tissue model of the gut to simulate tissue remodeling and immune cell interactions. Another piece of future work of this project could include integrating patient-specific modeling