The Issues of Biased School Dress Codes

The purpose of this research was to examine the underlying issues behind inflexible and outdated public school dress code policies in the United States and provide some insight into how schools can improve them. Dress codes in public school districts began to rise in popularity in the 1920’s, and their rules and procedures haven’t changed much in accordance with current times. This project takes a critical eye toward dress codes; among other challenges, dress codes are usually disproportionately enforced on marginalized gender, ethnic, racial, and religious groups. A survey conducted among Duquesne students falls in line with professional research, and this study also discusses the more inclusive dress code policy at Evanston Township High School as a potential model for revising outdated dress codes

Olivia Solomon\u27s Portfolio

This portfolio is a collection of my favorite works (thus far) throughout my time at Duquesne University’s School of Education. Included are papers and reports centered on education theory, reform, and psychology, as well as detailed lesson plans and projects that can be utilized and/or built upon for classroom use. Each lesson plan is focused around Common Core, Pennsylvania Department of Education, and/or National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards of education, combined with enriching activities and technologies that aid in creating successful learners in the mathematics classroom. This portfolio also shows my overall growth in learning about my field, with the documents in this portfolio listed from newest to oldest. My most notable improvement being my paper titled “Advocacy Paper,” which was my final project for my first education class as a freshman. This paper was updated, submitted, and won an award at the 2021 Duquesne University Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium, also posted and titled “The Issues of Biased School Dress Codes.” Although I still have two semesters left in the School of Education, I have already seen much improvement in my papers, projects, and my overall teaching philosophy, and I can’t wait to see more growth over this next year and beyond in my career.https://dsc.duq.edu/portfolios/1019/thumbnail.jp

Evaluating the use of strontium isotopes in tree rings to record the isotopic signal of dust deposited on the Wasatch Mountains

pre-printDust cycling from the Great Basin to the Rocky Mountains is an important component of ecological and hydrological processes. We investigated the use of strontium (Sr) concentrations and isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in tree rings as a proxy for dust deposition. We report Sr concentrations and isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) from atmospherically deposited dust, soil, bedrock, and tree rings from the Wasatch Mountains to investigate provenance of dust landing on the Wasatch Mountains and to determine if a dust Sr record is preserved in tree rings. Trees obtained a majority of their Sr from dust, making them a useful record of dust source and deposition. Dust contributions of Sr to soils were more than 94% over quartzite, 63% over granodiorite, and 50% over limestone. Dust contributions of Sr to trees were more than 85% in trees growing over quartzite, 55% over granodiorite, and between 0% and 92% over limestone. These findings demonstrate that a dust signal was preserved in some tree rings and reflects how Sr from dust and bedrock mixes within the soil. Trees growing over quartzite were most sensitive to dust. Changes in Sr isotope ratios for a tree growing over quartzite were interpreted as changes in dust source over time. This work has laid the foundation for using tree rings as a proxy for dust deposition over time

Lattice Configurations Determining Few Distances

We begin by revisiting a paper of Erd\H{o}s and Fishburn, which posed the following question: given $k\in \mathbb{N}$, what is the maximum number of points in a plane that determine at most $k$ distinct distances, and can such optimal configurations be classified? We rigorously verify claims made in remarks in that paper, including the fact that the vertices of a regular polygon, with or without an additional point at the center, cannot form an optimal configuration for any $k\geq 7$. Further, we investigate configurations in both triangular and rectangular lattices studied by Erd\H{o}s and Fishburn. We collect a large amount of data related to these and other configurations, some of which correct errors in the original paper, and we use that data and additional analysis to provide explanations and make conjectures.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures with 5 total images, 2 tables. Typos corrected, Figures 2 and 3 updated, references added, and referee recommendations incorporated. To appear in INTEGER

Ecotoxicity Thresholds for Ametryn, Diuron, Hexazinone and Simazine in Fresh and Marine Waters

Triazine and urea herbicides are two groups of photosystem II inhibiting herbicides frequently detected in surface, ground and marine waters. Yet, there are few water quality guidelines for herbicides. Ecotoxicity thresholds (ETs) for ametryn, hexazinone and simazine (triazine herbicides) and diuron (a urea herbicide) were calculated using the Australian and New Zealand method for deriving guideline values to protect fresh and marine ecosystems. Four ETs were derived for each chemical and ecosystem that should theoretically protect 99, 95, 90 and 80% of species (i.e. PC99, PC95, PC90 and PC80, respectively). For all four herbicides, the phototrophic species were significantly more sensitive than non-phototrophic species, and therefore, only the former data were used to calculate the ETs. Comparison of the ET values to measured concentrations in 2606 samples from 15 waterways that discharge to the Great Barrier Reef (2011–2015) found three exceedances of the simazine PC99, regular exceedances (up to 30%) of the PC99 in a limited number of rivers for ametryn and hexazinone and frequent (> 40%) exceedances of the PC99 and PC95 ETs in at least four waterways for diuron. There were no exceedances of the marine ETs in inshore reef areas. Further, ecotoxicity data are required for ametryn and hexazinone to fresh and marine phototrophic species, for simazine to marine phototrophic species, for tropical phototrophic species, repeated pulse exposures and long-term (2 to 12 months) exposures to environmentally relevant concentrations.Griffith Sciences, Griffith Institute for Drug DiscoveryNo Full Tex

Firn Aquifer Study near Helheim Glacier Based on Geophysical Methods and In Situ Measurements

No abstract availabl

Early Career Aquatic Scientists Forge New Connections at Eco-DAS XV

A sense of kuleana (personal responsibility) in caring for the land and sea. An appreciation for laulima (many hands cooperating). An understanding of aloha ’āina (love of the land). The University of Hawai’i at Manoa hosted the 2023 Ecological Dissertations in Aquatic Sciences (Eco-DAS) program, which fostered each of these intentions by bringing together a team of early career aquatic ecologists for a week of networking and collaborative, interdisciplinary project development (Fig. 1)