Gettysburg College Sustainability Proposal

In the fall of 2011, the Environmental Studies capstone class led by Professor Rutherford Platt was asked to write Gettysburg College’s first Sustainability Plan. The goal of the plan was to develop specific sustainable practices for the campus that were related to the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental, and how integrating diligent sustainable practices into each of these respected pillars will result in a more conscious campus, community, and future. In 2010, Gettysburg College turned to the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) to quantify the institution’s sustainability efforts, providing a self-check mechanism to encourage sustainability applications to all aspects of the College. The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment was signed in 2007 by former Gettysburg College President Katherine Haley Will, declaring that Gettysburg College would become carbon neutral by 2032. Gettysburg College has made large strides in the search for sustainability, and aims to continue its dedication to furthering sustainable practice. The following plan outlines the six priority areas identified by the Capstone class: progress of the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, Dining Services, campus green space, community outreach, integration of sustainability into the Gettysburg College Curriculum, and the Sustainability Advisory Committee. The first priority area identified was monitoring and upholding the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Though creating new sustainability initiatives on campus is the driving force towards an increasingly sustainable college and community, it is imperative that these goals be carried out in full to maximize beneficial returns. In order to reach carbon neutrality, Gettysburg College hopes to increase energy efficiency in buildings, incorporate renewable energy sources on campus, and mitigate remaining emissions through the purchase of carbon offsets. To further the College’s progress, it is proposed that Gettysburg College continue its energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy, as well as create a policy to offset all greenhouse gas emissions generated by air travel for students study abroad. As stated by the ACUPCC, a Sustainability Committee should take responsibility for the updates and progress reports required to meet the goal of carbon neutrality. The second priority area identified was sustainability in Dining Services. Gettysburg College is home to 2,600 students, all of whom require three full meals a day. Dining Services accounts for a large fraction of Gettysburg College’s sustainability efforts, already implementing sustainability through composting, buying local produce, and using biodegradable products. The proposed on-campus sales cuts of non-reusable to-go items, a change in campus mentality on food waste, and improved composting practices will translate to an increasingly sustainable campus, as well as a well-fed campus body. The third priority was maintaining green space on campus. Ranked as the 23rd most beautiful campus in the United States by The Best Colleges, Gettysburg College utilizes campus green space to create an atmosphere that is conducive to activity as well as tranquility. The plan proposes that Gettysburg College and its grounds facilities continue their exceptional efforts, focusing on increasing the use of the student garden, creating a new rain garden or social area on campus, and converting unnecessary parking lots into green space. As these additions are completed, they must be introduced to the student body and faculty alike to assure these areas are known and utilized. The fourth priority was utilizing community outreach to spread awareness of sustainability initiatives on and off campus. To connect the sustainability-geared changes proposed in this plan, community outreach at Gettysburg College is assessed to estimate how well these initiatives are communicated and promoted to both potential and enrolled students, faculty, and other concerned parties. To evaluate the efficiency of communication at Gettysburg College, a quantitative assessment is presented to measure the ease of finding the sustainability webpage, the quality of sustainability-related topics available on the webpage, and quality of webpage design. The webpage is in need of improved text to image ratios, locations of sustainability topics, and data displays. Despite not having a link to the sustainability webpage on the Gettysburg College homepage, sustainability events should be covered and presented on the rotational news feed found on the homepage to maximize outreach to interested parties or simply to add to the definition of Gettysburg College. The fifth priority was integrating sustainability into the Curriculum to build a culture on campus that values academic rigor, supports students as they cultivate intellectual and civic passions, and promotes the development of healthy social relationships and behaviors. The proposed Sustainability Committee on Sustainability in the Curriculum (SCC) will hold sustainability workshops for faculty with the aim to instill sustainability into all academic disciplines, providing all Gettysburg graduates with a means to approach their professional careers in a fashion that is conscious of sustainability. The sixth and last priority was the Sustainability Advisory Committee. Established in 2007, the Sustainability Advisory Committee is currently under review, but it is recommended that the committee restructure itself in accordance with the new Sustainability Committee Bylaws. These bylaws aim to define the purposes, membership, governance, and involvement with the college. With a clearly defined set of goals and methodology, the Sustainability Advisory Committee will be able to improve the solidarity of the sustainability movement on campus as a whole. By following the propositions laid out in the Gettysburg College Sustainability Plan, the student body, faculty, and community alike will become a part of a multi-faceted progression toward a more sustainable future

Unveiling the AGN in IC 883: discovery of a parsec-scale radio jet

IC 883 is a luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) classified as a starburst-active galactic nucleus (AGN) composite. In a previous study we detected a low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) radio candidate. Here we report on our radio follow-up at three frequencies which provides direct and unequivocal evidence of the AGN activity in IC 883. Our analysis of archival X-ray data, together with the detection of a transient radio source with luminosity typical of bright supernovae, give further evidence of the ongoing star formation activity, which dominates the energetics of the system. At sub-parsec scales, the radio nucleus has a core-jet morphology with the jet being a newly ejected component showing a subluminal proper motion of 0.6–1 c. The AGN contributes less than two per cent of the total IR luminosity of the system. The corresponding Eddington factor is ∼ 10−3, suggesting this is a low-accretion rate engine, as often found in LLAGNs. However, its high bolometric luminosity (∼ 1044 erg s−1) agrees better with a normal AGN. This apparent discrepancy may just be an indication of the transition nature of the nucleus from a system dominated by star-formation, to an AGN-dominated system. The nucleus has a strongly inverted spectrum and a turnover at ∼ 4.4 GHz, thus qualifying as a candidate for the least luminous (L5.0 GHz ∼ 6.3 × 1028 erg s−1 Hz−1) and one of the youngest (∼ 3 × 103 yr) gigahertz-peaked spectrum (GPS) sources. If the GPS origin for the IC 883 nucleus is confirmed, then advanced mergers in the LIRG category are potentially key environments to unveil the evolution of GPS sources into more powerful radio galaxies

Coronavirus host genetics South Africa (COHG-SA) database—a variant database for gene regions associated with SARS-CoV-2 outcomes

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is responsible for the COVID-19 global public health emergency, and the disease it causes is highly variable in its clinical presentation. Clinical phenotypes are heterogeneous both in terms of presentation of symptoms in the host and response to therapy. Several studies and initiatives have been established to analyse and review host genetic epidemiology associated with COVID-19. Our research group curated these articles into a web-based database using the python applicationserver framework Django. The database provides a searchable research tool describing current literature surrounding COVID-19 host genetic factors associated with disease outcome. This paper describes the COHG-SA database and provides an overview of the analyses that can be derived from these data.The South African Medical Research Council through its Division of Research Capacity Development under the SAMRC Internship Scholarship Programme from funding received from the South African National Treasury; the CIDRI-Africa Wellcome Trust grant; the NIH H3ABioNET award; the UKRI/MRC and the University of Pretoria through the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine.https://www.nature.com/ejhgam2023BiochemistryGeneticsImmunologyMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

The Deepest Radio Observations of Nearby Type IA Supernovae: Constraining Progenitor Types and Optimizing Future Surveys

We report deep radio observations of nearby Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) with the electronic Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Net-work (e-MERLIN), and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). No detections were made. With standard assumptions for the energy densities of relativistic electrons going into a power-law energy distribution, and the magnetic field strength (epsilon_e = epsilon_B = 0.1), we arrive at the upper limits on mass-loss rate for the progenitor system of SN 2013dy (2016coj, 2018gv, 2018pv, 2019np), to be less than 12 (2.8,1.3, 2.1, 1.7)EE(-8) solar masses per year (for a wind speed of 100 km/s). To SNe 2016coj, 2018gv, 2018pv and 2019np we add radio data for 17 other nearby SNe Ia, and model their non-detections. With the same model as described, all 21 SNe Ia have mass-loss rates less than 4EE(-8) solar masses per year (for a wind speed of 100 km/s). We compare those limits with the expected mass loss rates in different single-degenerate progenitor scenarios. We also discuss how information on epsilon_e and epsilon_B can be obtained from late observations of SNe Ia and the youngest SN Ia remnant detected in radio, G1.9+0.3, as well as stripped-envelope core-collapse SNe. We highlight SN 2011dh, and argue for epsilon_e approximately equal to 0.1 and epsilon_B approximately equal to 0.0033. Finally, we discuss strategies to observe at radio frequencies to maximize the chance of detection, given the time since explosion, the distance to the supernova and the telescope sensitivity

Strong Carbon Features and a Red Early Color in the Underluminous Type Ia SN 2022xkq

We present optical, infrared, ultraviolet, and radio observations of SN 2022xkq, an underluminous fast-declining type Ia supernova (SN Ia) in NGC 1784 ($\mathrm{D}\approx31$ Mpc), from $<1$ to 180 days after explosion. The high-cadence observations of SN 2022xkq, a photometrically transitional and spectroscopically 91bg-like SN Ia, cover the first days and weeks following explosion which are critical to distinguishing between explosion scenarios. The early light curve of SN 2022xkq has a red early color and exhibits a flux excess which is more prominent in redder bands; this is the first time such a feature has been seen in a transitional/91bg-like SN Ia. We also present 92 optical and 19 near-infrared (NIR) spectra, beginning 0.4 days after explosion in the optical and 2.6 days after explosion in the NIR. SN 2022xkq exhibits a long-lived C I 1.0693 $\mu$m feature which persists until 5 days post-maximum. We also detect C II $\lambda$6580 in the pre-maximum optical spectra. These lines are evidence for unburnt carbon that is difficult to reconcile with the double detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf. No existing explosion model can fully explain the photometric and spectroscopic dataset of SN 2022xkq, but the considerable breadth of the observations is ideal for furthering our understanding of the processes which produce faint SNe Ia.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, the figure 15 input models and synthetic spectra are now available at https://zenodo.org/record/837925

Social Movements and International Relations: A Relational Framework

Social movements are increasingly recognized as significant features of contemporary world politics, yet to date their treatment in international relations theory has tended to obfuscate the considerable diversity of these social formations, and the variegated interactions they may establish with state actors and different structures of world order. Highlighting the difficulties conventional liberal and critical approaches have in transcending conceptions of movements as moral entities, the article draws from two under-exploited literatures in the study of social movements in international relations, the English School and Social Systems Theory, to specify a wider range of analytical interactions between different categories of social movements and of world political structures. Moreover, by casting social movement phenomena as communications, the article opens international relations to consideration of the increasingly diverse trajectories and second-order effects produced by social movements as they interact with states, intergovernmental institutions, and transnational actors

Antagonism between germ cell-less and Torso receptor regulates transcriptional quiescence underlying germline/soma distinction

Transcriptional quiescence, an evolutionarily conserved trait, distinguishes the embryonic primordial germ cells (PGCs) from their somatic neighbors. In Drosophila melanogaster, PGCs from embryos maternally compromised for germ cell-less (gcl) misexpress somatic genes, possibly resulting in PGC loss. Recent studies documented a requirement for Gcl during proteolytic degradation of the terminal patterning determinant, Torso receptor. Here we demonstrate that the somatic determinant of female fate, Sex-lethal (Sxl), is a biologically relevant transcriptional target of Gcl. Underscoring the significance of transcriptional silencing mediated by Gcl, ectopic expression of a degradation-resistant form of Torso (torsoDeg) can activate Sxl transcription in PGCs, whereas simultaneous loss of torso-like (tsl) reinstates the quiescent status of gcl PGCs. Intriguingly, like gcl mutants, embryos derived from mothers expressing torsoDeg in the germline display aberrant spreading of pole plasm RNAs, suggesting that mutual antagonism between Gcl and Torso ensures the controlled release of germ-plasm underlying the germline/soma distinction

The contribution of historical processes to contemporary extinction risk in placental mammals

Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya ; Secretaria d'Universitats i RecercaSpecies persistence can be influenced by the amount, type, and distribution of diversity across the genome, suggesting a potential relationship between historical demography and resilience. Here, we surveyed genetic variation across single genomes of 240 mammals comprising the Zoonomia alignment to evaluate how historical effective population size (N ) impacts heterozygosity and deleterious genetic load and how these factors may contribute to extinction risk. We find that species with smaller historical N carry a proportionally larger burden of deleterious alleles due to long-term accumulation and fixation of genetic load, and have higher risk of extinction. This suggests that historical demography can inform contemporary resilience. Models that included genomic data were predictive of species' conservation status, suggesting that, in the absence of adequate census or ecological data, genomic information may provide an initial risk assessment. Genomic data from 240 species show that information encoded within a single genome can provide a conservation risk assessment

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Compendium of Total Ionizing Dose, Displacement Damage Dose, and Single-Event Effects Test Results

Total ionizing dose, displacement damage dose, and single-event effect testing were performed to characterize and determine the suitability of candidate electronics for NASA space utilization. Devices tested include optoelectronics, digital, analog, bipolar devices, and FPGAs

The contribution of historical processes to contemporary extinction risk in placental mammals

Species persistence can be influenced by the amount, type, and distribution of diversity across the genome, suggesting a potential relationship between historical demography and resilience. In this study, we surveyed genetic variation across single genomes of 240 mammals that compose the Zoonomia alignment to evaluate how historical effective population size (Ne) affects heterozygosity and deleterious genetic load and how these factors may contribute to extinction risk. We find that species with smaller historical Ne carry a proportionally larger burden of deleterious alleles owing to long-term accumulation and fixation of genetic load and have a higher risk of extinction. This suggests that historical demography can inform contemporary resilience. Models that included genomic data were predictive of species' conservation status, suggesting that, in the absence of adequate census or ecological data, genomic information may provide an initial risk assessment.Funding was provided by NIH grant R01 HG008742 (E.K.K.); the Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professor Award (K.L.-T.); the Wallenberg Foundation (K.L.-T.); European Research Council European Union’s Horizon 2020 864203 (T.M.-B.); MINECO/FEDER, UE grant BFU2017-86471-P (T.M.-B.); Agencia Estatal de Investigación “Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu” CEX2018-000792-M (T.M.-B.); a Howard Hughes International Early Career award (T.M.-B.); Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca (T.M.-B.); and CERCA Programme del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (T.M.-B.)