Alien Registration- Cote, Emelia (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

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Inclusive Campus Recreation: Creating a Space Where All Belong

This thesis examines discrepancies that marginalize students, faculty and staff from utilizing or working in campus recreation facilities. More specifically, Campus Recreation departments lack strategies that ensure inclusion for all abilities, identity backgrounds and genders. This critical action research thesis considers the experiences of stakeholders and will integrate research that has been supported by seasoned scholars. In this thesis, a three-day diversity and inclusion workshop is proposed supplemented by monthly programming for faculty and staff that focuses on inclusion techniques to incorporate into departmental planning. Solid leadership of this programmatic intervention would focus on collaboration and dedication to lifelong learning. An evaluation plan is designed based on a sense of belonging survey from students, faculty and staff that help to understand feelings of acceptance and access to equal opportunities. Widespread application of this intervention signifies that colleges will prioritize their goals and values to strive to dismantle deeply rooted, systemic discrimination

Language Transfer Between English and German: A Phonetics-Based Study of Interactions Between Speakers\u27 Native and Second-Language Vowel Systems

The present study addresses language contact processes in which the phonetic systems of the languages that bilinguals speak interact. Specifically, language transfer with respect to English and German was examined, focusing on native German speakers (L1) who learned English as a second language (L2). It employed as its central method an analysis of their vowel systems, both language-specifically and cross-linguistically. Extralinguistic variables were also considered, ranging from speakers’ age of acquisition (AOA) of English to their length of residence in an English-speaking environment to their consideration of home. Results indicated statistically significant differences between speakers’ production of /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ for English and German, following a general trend of English productions as lower and more fronted than their German counterparts. Wide variability among participants produced inconsistent results, underscoring the complexity of speakers’ vowel systems as a result of their interactions with extralinguistic variables

COVID-19 and Nutrition

Many individuals who contract COVID-19 and experience poor outcomes are also found to be deficient in certain vitamins and minerals. As a result, many nutrients have been related to improved outcomes for patients suffering from COVID-19. While it is not proven that increased intake of any one vitamin or mineral can prevent COVID-19, the supplementation of specific vitamins or minerals such as vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium could impact the risk of getting COVID-19 and the severity of cases of COVID-19. Positive benefits are expected from this relationship because certain vitamins and minerals have been known to support the immune system and impact the effects of respiratory diseases. Since COVID-19 impacts populations differently, nutritional measures of prevention and treatment may be more beneficial for those who are more at risk of developing COVID-19 and experiencing poorer outcomes

Designing Governance Tools for Agricultural and Environmental Data

Open Environmental Data Project (OEDP)'s Environmental Dataset Re-Mix Workshops work on existing environmental datasets and data governance tools, articulating redesigns that make them usable to lay audiences, reusable to public needs, and inclusive of cultural knowledge within participants' communities.On April 4, 2023, OEDP co-hosted a Dataset Re-Mix Workshop with OpenTEAM, where we examined the development of data governance tools for both agricultural and environmental data. We mainly focused on drawing comparisons and contrasts between OpenTEAM's Ag Data Wallet and OEDP's Community Data Hubs model. This synthesis documents the key learnings from the Dataset Re-Mix Workshop

Opportunity Cost of Student Loan Debt Forgiveness: Testing the Impact of Four Policy Options on United States’ Economy

Nearly 45 million Americans are trapped in a student loan debt. In total they owe more than $1.75 trillion. Research shows that such a high amount of debt harms the U.S. economy in several ways, preventing anything from small business development to new house purchases, and even weddings and procreation. It is an issue that stakeholders have tried to address by offering different relief measures ranging from re-financing to debt cancellation. Debt cancellation has remained high on the agenda of the Democrat political leadership. This is the reason that student loan debt cancellation was on the agenda of each democrat primary candidate during 2020 presidential primaries. An important justification while propagating student loan debt cancellation has been that it will boost the U.S. economy apart from other likely benefits. Despite the policy of student loan debt cancellation being announced by the Biden Administration, the three branches of the government are not on the same page regarding its implementation. While the Congress passed a bill in early June 2023 attempting to block its implementation, the Supreme Court on June 30, 2023, ruled against the implementation of the loan debt cancellation policy of the Biden administration (Department of Education et al. v . Brown et al., 2023; Biden v . Nebraska, 2023). Even though the debt cancellation policy has been facing a tug of war between the three branches of our government, yet the policy remains to be proposed as one of the most important solutions to the student loan debt problem because it will be improving U.S. economy. There is, however, limited research on measurement of impact of loan cancellation policy on the U.S. economy. One such effort was undertaken by Fullwiler et.al (2018). They created a simulation to measure the impact of complete loan forgiveness on the U.S. economy. However, there is no research which tests the validity of these impacts, as to whether such impacts are attributable to the implementation of student loan debt cancellation policy. This research extends the work of Fullwiler et al. (2018) by undertaking a sensitivity analysis of different policy options under consideration/being propagated, by measuring their respective impact on the key macro-economic variables of the U.S. economy. This study then further extends to testing these impacts on the key macro-economic variables for their statistical significance to show whether the implementation of policy is indeed responsible for the impact. The study tests for statistical significance to rule out possibility of impact by other confounding variables or biases impacting such a change in the economic output. The purpose of this study was to test different policy options to provide plausible policy options for loan cancellation in case the Congress wants to act upon the loan cancellation policy in future, by showcasing the macroeconomic impacts of the respective policy options on the U.S. economy by 2030 and testing their statistical significance using Difference – in – Differences method. The study found that different policy options of cancellation of the loan will yield differential aspects on GDP, Unemployment, and Inflation rate. The study found that none of policy options had statistically significant impact on unemployment numbers and rate of inflation. Three out of the four policy options tested in this study were found to have statistically significant impact on the Real GDP, whereas policy option 2, that is, the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness policy did not show a statistically significant impact. This study found that the argument of student loan cancellation policy U.S. economy may not hold good in terms of aggregated macroeconomic variables of Unemployment and Inflation and may only be effective for the aggregated macroeconomic variable of Real GDP only for three out of the four policy options that were tested. One of the most important finding relevant to the current debates of loan forgiveness in the political environment of U.S. is that the student loan forgiveness policy of Biden administration may have no impact on the U.S. economy in terms of all the three aggregated macroeconomic variables being analyzed in this study

Evaluating Marsh Restoration Success Using Structural and Trophic Metrics on Deer Island, MS

Coastal marshes in the northern Gulf of Mexico provide essential habitat for various consumer species, however, land loss has severely degraded marsh habitat in this region. Few studies have examined restored black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) marshes, such as those found in Mississippi (MS), and how they affect faunal inhabitants. Restoration of Juncus-dominated marshes on Deer Island, MS sought to reestablish ecological functions with the intention of supporting natural consumer assemblages. To test this, quadrat and minnow trap sampling were used to compare invertebrate and nekton abundance, species richness, and diversity of two restored marshes (5+ yrs and 15+ yrs) with a natural reference marsh (100+ yrs old). Stable isotope analysis was also used to compare basal carbon sources and trophic support between sites. Quadrat sampling showed invertebrate abundance did not reach natural levels in either restored site, but minnow trap sampling showed abundance and species richness at the younger 5+ yr site surpassed that of the natural marsh. A comparison of community assemblage and stable isotope analysis showed similarity between the 5+ yr restored site and the natural site. The 5+ yr site better resembled a natural marsh than the 15+ yr site in many ways, suggesting that certain ecological processes are recovering faster in the younger site. Our assessment of consumer community structure, combined with previous studies evaluating environmental and vegetative characteristics provide a thorough assessment of restoration efforts on Deer Island, MS. It also gives insight into future Beneficial Use restoration projects on Juncus-dominated marshes in this area

The Effect of the Visual System and Habitat Light on the Colors of Anolis Lizard Visual Signals

Lizards of the genus Anolis communicate almost exclusively with visual signals that include the extension of a colorful, extensible throat fan called a dewlap. Dewlap color exhibits impressive diversity across anoline species and is thought to have evolved due to two simultaneous sets of selection pressures: (1) selection for high detectability, and (2) selection for a color that is different from the dewlap color of other sympatric species of Anolis in order to facilitate species recognition. In order for a dewlap display to be successful, it must be “detected” by the intended viewer. We hypothesize that a detectable dewlap should be distinct from its natural background in terms of brightness and color. We collected and analyzed spectral data for dewlap color and habitat light conditions for four species of anoles inhabiting the island of Puerto Rico. Background and dewlap colors were plotted in a three-dimensional tetrahedral perceptual color space based on the relative stimulation of each of the four types of cone photoreceptors of the anoline visual system. We found that for each species, dewlap colors were distinct from the range of background colors. We also found that for three out of the four species, dewlaps were typically brighter than the background patches of their habitats. We carried out an additional behavioral experiment testing the likeliness of an anoline visual response being elicited as a function of the difference in brightness between a stimulus and a complex background. Our data suggest that the more a dewlap differs in brightness from the brightness patches in its background, the greater its visibility. Results from both experiments support the hypothesis that natural selection for high detectability in a complex environment has played a major role in the evolution of anoline lizard visual signal color