Generational Progression

This book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1118/thumbnail.jp

Trouble On Our Home Front

This book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1142/thumbnail.jp

Exploring the Regulatory Landscape of Foraging in Southeastern Pennsylvanian Parks: Thinking About Implications for Addressing Food Insecurity

Food insecurity is a growing concern specifically in urban areas, leaving individuals struggling to seek out alternative methods of obtaining food. Previous research has shown that there is an abundance of edible materials with nutritious components under our noses: in parks and green spaces. However, park regulations and manager perspectives of foraging practices present a likely/possible/potential barrier to obtaining edible species materials. This study seeks to provide a more in-depth understanding of the accessibility of edible species materials to food insecure individuals based on analysis of park rules and manager perspectives of foraging, including how accepting managers seem to be of foraging in the park(s) they oversee. After analyzing the accessibility of edible species through proximity, park rules, and manager perspectives by examining a survey sent out to managers and a map created in ArcGIS Pro, the major findings of this study reveal that access to food in parks, as assessed by proximity and legal/sanctioned harvest, is limited based on park ordinances and manager perspectives about foraging. The second, bolstering finding was that managers have concerns about site and plant harm and a lack of understanding for the extent to which foraging can provide an outlet to offset the impacts of food insecurity. The findings of this study highlight the potentially limiting (intentional or not) park rules on connecting people to food which require a shift in managers’ perspectives and a reframing of park regulations in order for foraging to become a more effective way to offset food insecurity

Untitled Book Stack

This book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1144/thumbnail.jp

The Interconnectedness of Fun Home on Page and Stage

In Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, instances of Alison’s emotional “rise,” or openness in being queer, and Bruce’s “descent,” or need to conform, in the book are further supplemented by translations made into the musical through leitmotif and musical composition. This cements not only their roles as Daedalus and Icarus respectively in the metaphor Alison presents in her memoir, but also highlights their lived experiences in a way that truly extends Alison’s liberation as a lesbian to be elevated in grandeur and Bruce’s stifling life to be as damning as Icarus’s fall into the sea

Decade-Long Deals: The Forces Driving MLB’s Lengthening Contracts

This study investigates the economic and institutional factors that influence lengthening contracts in Major League Baseball. Using a dataset of 652 free agent position players that signed for two years or longer from 1991 to 2025, this paper explores how factors such as age, relative player performance, collective bargaining agreements, and risk management strategies affect contract length. Results from the regression model show that younger players that are higher performing are more likely to receive long-term deals. Additionally, those that are extended a qualifying offer also typically sign for longer term deals as suggested by the regression results. A separate shirking regression in the paper found no strong evidence that players participate in shirking behaviors in the form of decreased performance after signing a deal. This suggests that teams do not have to heavily consider shirking when offering these contracts. The results for a split regression for short- and long-term contracts indicated that the 2022 CBA has contributed to increased contract length for top of the market free agents. These results show how union agreements can potentially shape contract structures in professional sports. The study could be built upon with the incorporation of emerging data on player health and emerging projection models to better understand perceived risk for clubs in future contract negotiations

Ribosome Stalling Increases Sup35 Prion Conversion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Proteins are one of the four main macromolecules essential to life. They are responsible for a diverse array of processes, including cellular signaling, cell structure, and catalytic activity. These functions are directly related to the protein’s specific structure. Consequently, the misfolding of a protein, which can be due to a variety of factors, can lead to an alteration in the function of that protein. Misfolded proteins can also associate together to form aggregates, which can become toxic to cells. In prions and prion-like proteins, the misfolding of one protein can propagate to another protein, increasing aggregation, which can lead to cellular death and result in neurodegenerative diseases in mammals. One factor that is linked to increased misfolding is stalling of the ribosome, the cellular machinery responsible for the construction of proteins, during synthesis. In the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, stalling is a natural process that may allow for misfolding to occur in a way that benefits yeast in times of stress. By integrating amino acids sequences known to stall ribosomes into a gene construct including the sequence of the known yeast prion Sup35, the mechanism and frequency at which ribosome stalling influences prion conversion can be investigated. We here demonstrate that ribosome stalling increases the frequency of Sup35 prion conversion when ribosomes are paused using known stalling sequences

The Grizzly, February 20, 2025

Sigma Gamma Rho: Semester of Service • The UC Tonight Modern Band • BearShare Now Open! • After the Career Fair: Checklist • Bird is the Word! • El Gordo Bros: Adding Flavor to Collegeville • Opinions: Bear-Bones • Ursinus Swimming Set for Championships! • A Wonderful Weekend of Sports: February 15-16thhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/2047/thumbnail.jp

Untitled Book Stack

This book stack was created by a first-year student at Ursinus College participating in a Common Intellectual Experience event. After a group Stacks on Stacks activity in Fall 2024, students were invited to submit their own individual creations in Spring 2025.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cie_stacks/1063/thumbnail.jp

Border Restrictions in the Rise of Anti-Immigration Politics

As anti-immigration sentiments have increased across the world, border restrictions have come under the spotlight from extremist right parties (ERPs). In a number of countries, ERPs are gaining support from their immigration rhetoric, which calls for heavily restricting or sometimes closing borders. This thesis examines the impact of restrictive border policies on support for anti-immigration platforms and ERPs. Using the Dataset of World Refugee and Asylum Policies Index and voting records of ERPs over time, a relationship between anti-immigration parties and border restrictions is hypothesized to produce one of three results: the more restrictive a border, the more likely an ERP is to gain electoral success, the less restrictive a border, the more likely an ERP is to gain success, or border restrictions do not have an effect on the level of support for ERPs. The results of this study support the null hypothesis since neither more restrictive nor more open border policies have a consistent effect on support for ERPs. A close examination of the contrasting cases of Slovenia and Slovakia shows that border policies can have opposing effects, depending on the national context