Little is known about Vegetius, who wrote a military handbook, Epitoma Rei Militaris (RM), most likely for Emperor Theodosius I (although even that is not certain) during the late 3rd or early 4th century CE. His manuscript is extensive, examining a wide array of military practices and norms that a proper Roman army should follow. The RM covers specific tasks and responsibilities of a general, which Vegetius appears to have drawn from earlier Roman writers, mainly those from the late Republic and early Principate. Comparing Vegetius’s writings to those of Julius Caesar, specifically to Caesar’s own narrative of his actions in Book I of De Bello Gallico (BG), provides insight into how Roman ideals of good military leadership progressed through centuries of history.
Vegetius and Julius Caesar: A Proper Roman General
This semester I did an individual study focusing on creative writing and design in our digital age. I researched and worked with Dr. Blevins on the writing process, invention techniques, and publication, among other topics. I worked on taking my original pieces of writing and poetry and transforming them to a digital design using Adobe Illustrator. I posted these graphics on a public Instagram account to share my writing. In this presentation, I outline some of the most valuable lessons from my research and showcase a few of my digital designs.
by Liliana Ramírez, Cadiann Treviño Pinto, Rogelio Santiago
Faculty mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Franklin Lewis
For their final project, students of Spanish 312: Introduction to Literature in Spanish, created their own artistic pieces inspired in the short stories, poetry, drama and film they had studied throughout the semester. Below are a few examples of their creativity!
Liliana Ramírez: Painting of “No oyes ladrar los perros” by Juan Rulfo
This is a painting of a scene in the story “No oyes ladrar los perros” by Juan Rulfo. In this scene, an old man is carrying his injured son down a dark forest road towards a town, where they hope to find a doctor. As the story progresses, we discover that the two are estranged due to the son’s criminal behaviors, and that his father only saves him out of love for his son’s dead mother. In my interpretation, the mother is present in the scene as a light source, guiding the man and his son toward their sought destination. The man and his son are very darkly colored in the painting, as is the rest of the background. This is not only because it is nighttime, but also to emphasize the light and show how it is a presence more powerful than the son or father in this story. Due to her influence on their actions, I believe that the mother’s presence is palpable, so much so that she is “present” with her family. Although she died before knowing her son would become a criminal, it seems that the father has no doubt that she would still wish to preserve his safety, calling attention to a theme that some critics have pointed out in the story: that the mother’s hopes lie solely in her children (Ramírez, p 49). This speaks to the father’s devotion and respect for her wishes, saving her son—to his great pains and effort—even though he has acted so profoundly against the old man’s beliefs.
Cadiann Treviño Pinto: Golpe al corazón proyecto creativo
During my time in quarantine, I have had the opportunity to expand on one of my favorite hobbies. For my creative project, I decided to create a series of paintings representing the various elements and themes of each story in the lesson Golpe al Corazon or Hit to the Heart. The works that inspired each painting were “Tu Me Quieres Blanca” a poem written by Alfonsina Storni, “Como Agua Para Chocolate” a movie directed by Alfonso Arau, and “Cine y Malabarismo” a short story written by Angeles Mastretta.
My inspiration to create this video came from the first time I heard that Gabriel Garcia Marquez had a close friendship with ex-president of The Republic of Cuba. Their friendship that went beyond just a simple greeting; It was a relationship where Fidel had the confidence to provide literary criticism as Garcia said years later in interviews. Furthermore, Garcia’s ability to construct a masterpiece like “La Prodigiosa Tarde de Baltazar” instructed me to recreate an imaginary scene where Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Gabo) was developing a new story about a men who doesn’t belong in a cruel society where he lives; As he explains it to Fidel Castro (mi comandante).
Adaptación de “La prodigiosa tarde de Baltazar” por Gabriel García Márquez
By the early 20th century, persons of Japanese ancestry constituted the largest ethnic group in Hawaii. In response to the large population of Japanese residents and Japanese Americans in the Territory, white elites voiced strong concerns about the potential influence that these individuals would have. Fearing that Japan would take over Hawaii through the “fifth column” living on the Islands, white Americans targeted Japanese Americans who had dual citizenship status. According to Japan’s nationality laws, children born to Japanese citizens were automatically granted citizenship regardless of where they were born. Those with dual citizenship faced pressures to “Americanize” by adopting Western practices and expatriating from Japan. Japanese individuals in Hawaii faced additional pressures and limits to their rights because of its territorial status. Nonetheless, many Japanese Americans with dual citizenship status in Hawaii embraced Americanization efforts and used expatriation as a way to secure better treatment and rights.
In this research, we will look at derivatives as a function of accurately predicting risks and pricing. Both of which have the intention of either creating wealth monetarily, managing risks within respective industries, or in some fashions, a combination of both. Specifically, we will analyze the Greeks in the Black-Scholes equation and how they change the outcome of a call within the American markets. The project will involve analytical methods to derive and explain the usefulness of each of the Greeks. Also, statistical analysis will be performed on recent options data to show the practical aspects of each Greek. Mathematics, probability, and statistics are pivotal to accurately predicting both risks and pricing in these ubiquitous applications.
People may view intelligence as an innately fixed trait that cannot be changed or as something that can grow over time with effort. Growth mindsets are related to more favorable outcomes than fixed mindsets because children with growth mindsets are more likely to persevere during difficult times and see failure as an opportunity to learn (Dweck et al., 1995). When parents convey that “failure-is-debilitating” to their children, it increases the likelihood that they will develop a fixed mindset (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016). One-way parents might make their failure mindset observable to their children is through helicopter parenting (i.e., parents with failure-is-debilitating mindsets might intervene to prevent their children from failing). Helicopter parenting refers to developmentally inappropriate levels of involvement and control in children’s lives (Segrin et al., 2012), which have damaging effects on the well-being (Schiffrin et al., 2014) and academic outcomes (Schiffrin & Liss, 2017) of emerging adults. A mediation analysis was conducted using bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals based on 10,000 bootstrap samples (Hayes, 2013). For maternal caregivers, failure mindset was significantly associated with maternal helicopter parenting, and maternal helicopter parenting was associated with emerging adults having a fixed mindset. There was an indirect effect of maternal failure mindset on emerging adults’ intelligence mindset through maternal helicopter parenting. For paternal caregivers, failure mindset was significantly associated with paternal helicopter parenting behaviors. However, the path from paternal helicopter parenting to emerging adults’ intelligence mindset and the indirect path were both nonsignificant. The paths from maternal failure mindset through paternal helicopter parenting and vice versa were not significant. Thus, when mothers view failure-as-debilitating, they engage in more helicopter parenting, and their children are more likely to develop fixed mindsets. These findings have implications for emerging adults’ career and academic success.
Caregivers’ Failure Mindset, Helicopter Parenting, and Emerging Adults’ Intelligence Mindset by Nichole Boigegrain
Urdu is a language mainly spoken in South Asian countries like Pakistan and India. The language has been influenced by several different languages spoken in India, Europe, and the Middle East; one such language is Arabic. There are several Arabic borrowings in Urdu, but interestingly, the borrowed words don’t always have the same meaning as they did in Arabic. Throughout the semester, I analyzed borrowed words that have either (1) retained their meaning, (2) evolved in meaning, or (3) completely changed their meaning when they transferred to Urdu. I analyzed a total of 44 words—17 that retained their meaning, 17 that evolved their meaning, and 10 that completely changed their meaning. I analyzed the form, meaning, and use of each word. Through my research, I attempt to fill in gaps within existing research and try and come up with plausible hypotheses as to why the semantic changes have or have not occurred. A couple of the hypotheses I have come up with are (1) borrowed words that referred to more general concepts in Arabic were used to refer to more specific ideas in Urdu and (2) since a majority of the transferred words seem to conform to Urdu’s rules (syntax, grammar, etc.), borrowed words had conformed to Urdu’s needs at the time. Through my research, I have learned that there are many layers to the borrowing of words from Arabic to Urdu. There is no one reason that can attribute to the retention, evolution, or change in meaning. However, I aim to help the existing research and find more plausible reasons for the evolution of semantics through borrowing words.
In this presentation I perform a Two-Stage Least Squares regression on data over the 5 years between 2014 and the end of 2018 in 135 counties in the continental US in order to determine whether faster download speeds are correlated with higher per capita income. I find that there is in fact a statistically significant effect, where just a 10 mbps increase in average download speeds is correlated with a 7% higher income.
The Effect of Internet Download Speeds on Income in a County
by Jade Turner, Peyton Dunow, Samara Wong, Julie Boynton
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Emily Stanley
Previous research has found that moderate levels of exercise are related to improved cognitive functioning, along with increased P3 (stimulus evaluation) and decreased N2 (response monitoring), which are components of error processing. Previous studies have also shown an enhanced effect of exercise on executive functioning. The present study aims to determine whether athletes will have a smaller error-related negativity (ERN), another aspect of error processing, than non-athletes. This study will include giving the Flanker task while connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG), having participants bike for fifteen minutes, completing the Flanker task again, and measuring positive and negative affect, mental toughness, and intrinsic motivation as possible mediators. We hypothesize that participants who fit in the athletic category and all participants’ second trial will make fewer mistakes overall on the Flanker task and have a smaller ERN. We will also explore other factors to look for mediation in the relationship.
by Karolina Albert, Emily Bowerman, Austin Chapple, Alexander Elvir-Herrera, Patrick Healy, Viviana Hernandez, Kate Jolly, Ailexondra Lloyd, Anna Longacher, Maryclaire Muskett, Khaila Nelson, Maeve Reilly, Savannah Roberts, Lauren Talbert, Stephanie Turcios, Eva Waszak
Faculty mentor: Professor Cooperman
The academic podcasts and posters from Professor Cooperman’s Political Science 370 course, Women in Politics, asked students to create an original research project that examined a specific relevant issue related to gender in contemporary U.S. politics. These projects examine topics such as women’s political candidacy, voter outreach in the 2020 election, the politics of reproduction and abortion, sexual harassment and discrimination policies, and health status of women of color.
This project examines the effect the International Whaling Commission has had on the Japanese Whaling Industry. Economic research into this field has been limited, and new analyses are needed considering Japan’s recent departure from the International Whaling Commission and resumption of commercial whaling. In particular, we seek to determine whether the 1986 moratorium banning commercial whaling has had a significant impact on the quantity of whales harvested by Japanese whaling vessels. Although this project did not find that the moratorium significantly impacted whale harvesting, there is a number of limitations to this research that suggest further study is required.
During WWII, 1.3 million people were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; 1.1 million died there. This notorious death camp was just one part of the intricate system the Nazis created to exterminate the enemies of the Third Reich. After the liberation of the camps by the Allies at the end of the war, historians have deconstructed what life was like in the camps based on the personal testimonies of adult survivors and the accounts of the children imprisoned. Though many aspects of life in the camps and the conditions of the prisoners have been examined, few historians have focused on the experiences of pregnant women in the concentration camps for the tragic reason that very few of these women survived their ordeal. While this was the reality for the majority of the women, not all pregnant women were selected to die. The Nazis were not in the position to immediately exterminate all their enemies and had to instead create a system that organized their killing into stages where life and death were selected based on certain criteria. Throughout my research paper, I hope to explore and answer the following question: what were the determining factors that sentenced pregnant women to either life or death during the selection processes in the Nazi concentration camps?
Between Life and Death: Pregnant Women in the Nazi Concentration Camps
How does one call attention to the gender dimensions of war violence or postwar inequalities without reproducing images of passive female victimhood and support for patriarchal notions of the protection of women? In the case of the Bosnian War, because of the large scale of sexual violence and the attention focused on this violence, Bosnian women have been stereotyped and relegated to the role of rape victim. Although women suffered from grave violations of human rights, this stereotypical portrayal is not adequate, and neglects the active role played in the perpetration of violence by some women. It also neglects women’s roles as activists, peace builders, sole supporters of their family, or political elites in a war effort. This project seeks to identify how existing scholarly literature and American newspaper media articles about the Bosnian War has contributed to the victimization of women. Most of the literature on women and warfare, or women and gender, analyzes the role of women from a victim-centred perspective. Although research shows that the majority of perpetrators are men, women too have been involved in the perpetration of war crimes. Hence, this project utilizes scholarly material, court cases, interviews with Bosnian women, and representations from the media to make the case that the securitization of sexual violence has unintentionally resulted in its fetishization and enhanced the invisibility of women in post-conflict discussions.
Challenging Bosnian Women’s Identity as Rape Victims
After the Civil War, many recently freed African Americans found themselves in a position of new economic freedoms. Using an 1865 2-Cent coin found at Sherwood Forest Plantation (44ST615) by the University of Mary Washington archaeological field school students, I will explore the lives of the Johnson family- an African American family who occupied the former slave quarter during the Postbellum period from which the coin was recovered. The Johnsons’ story provides a narrative of African American farm laborers during this period and their struggles for economic and educational freedom. Many freedmen still faced economic and social discrimination after the Civil War, and in response the Freedman’s Bureau and African American led organizations were formed to promote financial independence and education. This paper will focus on the new lives as freedmen the Johnsons had, and the different ways they used their salaries to better their lives and the lives of their children.
Making Sense of Time: Using a 2-Cent Coin to Follow the Johnson Family from Sherwood Forest Plantation to Fredericksburg
The topic of living wage is highly contested in today’s political environment with many liberals looking to implement some kind of minimum wage increase, while conservatives argue to keep it where it is. The most common economic theory for the minimum wage debate comes from micro analysis of single firms and shows a decrease in employment from an increase in minimum wage although studies have found no conclusive answer. A newer macro perspective shows the possibility of no change in employment due to a minimum wage increase. With this macro theory in mind, the aim of this study is to look deeper into this question through regression analysis looking specifically at fast food jobs, considered some of the lowest paying jobs in the country. The results of this study support that an increase in population leads to an increase in fast food jobs and an increase in GDP leads to a decrease in fast food jobs. The minimum wage variable had a very low t-value meaning that it was not different from zero. This supports the macro perspective in showing no change in employment from an increase in minimum wage.
The plantation house at Sherwood Forrest Plantation (44ST615) was home to two upper-class white families in the latter portion of the 19th-century. During the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons of the University of Mary Washington field school, an American Civil War-era midden was excavated in the yard behind the plantation house. Through this excavation, various artifacts associated with both families were uncovered, including a German-made, hard-paste porcelain clown head. The presence of this artifact, in addition to other items of “bric-a-brac,” indicate that at least one of these two families were participating in the home decorating trend of conspicuously displaying decorative objects. The possession of and choice in these objects could signal the social class, cultural literacy, and cultural capital of a victorian individual or family. In this paper, I will further explore this victorian relationship between constructed identity and material possessions.
by the students of HISP 469: Laboratory in Preservation Planning
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Andrea Smith
The students of HISP 469: Laboratory in Preservation Planning worked under Dr. Smith to develop new bike and pedestrian paths for historic downtown Fredericksburg in order to improve the wayfinding and connectivity of existing trails. Students researched successful trails in urban settings comparable to Fredericksburg to gain an understanding of the positive and negative qualities of those trails, and how they could be applied or avoided in the new trails created by this project. Research into local and state ordinances regarding signage, bike paths, and similar details was also completed. Using GIS, Survey123, and Google Maps, students conducted extensive surveying of the existing trails and downtown area. The class selected the most ideal pedestrian and bike trails based on the data collected. After these trail paths were tentatively established, the class carried out two interviews with Fredericksburg locals to gain a better understanding of how users interact with the existing infrastructure and how to effectively integrate our plan in a way that benefits the city. For the plan proposed by the students to effectively connect to the existing network of trails, designs for signage that will aid in wayfinding while creating a unified aesthetic for each path were included. With these trails, the class hopes to further improve the walkability of downtown Fredericksburg and increase accessibility to local resources both historic and natural.
Connect Fred: Enhancing Trail Connectivity through Historic Fredericksburg
We first introduce the concepts of surface theory including the coordinate patch, coordinate transformation, normal vector, tangent plane, etc. We next compute the first fundamental form of a surface: the matrix (gij) of metric coefficients, gij = xi x xj , the inner product with respect to the basis {x1, x2} of the tangent space of the surface. We then discuss the second fundamental form, Weingarten map (i.e., shape operator), Christoffel symbols, the geodesic, geodesic curvature, principal curvature, Gauss curvature, mean curvature, normal curvature, parallelism, etc. We will apply the proceeding terms to a few concrete examples by different calculations. We will utilize the software Mathematica to sketch various surfaces and their geometric properties.
The Geometry of Surfaces and its Applications Using Mathematica
In March 2019, Dr. McMillan and the Historic Preservation Department participated in an archaeological excavation in conjunction with the Patawomeck Tribe of Virginia. The goal of this excavation was to find evidence of the village of Quiyough, which appears on John Smith’s 1612 Map of the Chesapeake. Our work was an extension of other investigations led by Mike Clem and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. This presentation is an analysis of our findings as well as a comparison with those made by the DHR.
Finding Quiyough: A Preliminary Site Report for 44ST1164
More often than not, violations of digital ethics stem from a lack of education/ awareness and not malicious intent. If secondary education institutions were to implement emerging technologies in their programs, students would learn the ethical boundaries of these consumables before they purchased them on their own. This project serves to determine the biggest struggles that higher education institutions face when trying to implement new technologies.
Barriers to Implementing Technology in Higher Education
by Erin Whitesell, Miranda Batte-Futrell, Christine Cao, and Nichole Boigegrain
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Holly Schiffrin
We examined the relationship between helicopter parenting, the psychological needs of self-determination theory (i.e. autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and prosocial behaviors among emerging adults. Psychological needs satisfaction mediated the relationship between helicopter parenting and prosocial behaviors. As emerging adults perceived more helicopter parenting by their mothers or fathers, they reported less satisfaction of their psychological needs and fewer prosocial behaviors.
The Effect of Helicopter Parenting on the Prosocial Behaviors of Emerging Adults
Live Sound Reinforcement is something people are frequently exposed to. Whether they be informative lectures, stellar musicals, robust orchestras, or even a single street performer, this system helps all in the audience to experience the show as clearly as anyone else; at least, that is the desire. Live Sound Reinforcement has a lot of specifics that go into making the system work: knowledge of basic sound science; understanding the individual parts of a Live Sound System; understanding how the parts become the whole; and how to build a system from scratch with knowledge and experience. This presentation demonstrates fundamental parts of what the research and application paper contains.
Our project uses a location quotient technique and OLS regression to identify the job sectors which provide an economic base for the state of Virginia. A comparison of the bases in 2012 and 2017 reveal that Virginia’s economy has grown more reliant on Professional and Scientific, Public Administration, and Social Security recipients. Through our regression, we can also estimate the relative importance of each of the basic jobs identified through the location quotient technique.
An Economic Base Analysis of Virginia in 2012 and 2017
References to poets immortalizing themselves by writing poetry is a frequent trope of classical literature. It appeared in Greek literature thanks to the lyric poets Sappho and Theocritus and the philosopher Plato. The Greeks passed down the tradition to the Romans, where it featured in the collections written by Horace, Gallus, Tibullus, Propertius, and, eventually, Ovid. Ovid’s claim to immortality in Tristia 3.3 is an interesting poem to study, given he references his earlier claim to immortality in Amores 1.15 and Horace’s claims in Carmina 2.20 and 3.30. My paper examines his attitude in both of his poems, analyzing the connections he makes to his prior work and to Horace’s. Drawing upon this research, I argue the sequence of claims by Ovid demonstrates his lack of repentance for his exile. Rather than truly admit guilt, I believe Tristia 3.3 reveals he continues to take pride in erotic poetry – a revelation visible when the poem is placed in contrast against Amores 1.15.
The Death of a Poet: Ovid’s references to Horace in Amores 1.15 and Tristia 3.3
When considering the love elegy of Ovid, there are multiple cases in which love, beauty, or infatuation with a woman is expressed through visual descriptions of her hair. In the Amores and Ars Amatoria, these descriptions of hair support a seemingly subjective view of beauty when compared to current hairstyle trends at the time. As a result, this view of feminine beauty suggests that the woman holds the power within the amorous relationship described. However, the nature of the hair description reduces Ovid’s view of feminine beauty to an objective one, revealing a disingenuous view of feminine power and therefore supporting Ovid’s claim to masculine dominance in the relationship.
Faculty mentor: Dr. Virginia Mackintosh and Dr. Laura Wilson
This project aimed to better investigate why individuals with intellectual disabilities are at a higher risk for experiencing interpersonal violence, why traditional therapeutic approaches are typically ineffective, and to provide alternative psychotherapeutic options that may be more beneficial and tailored to this population’s abilities/needs. EDMR, IBT and supported employment are hopeful interventions for dealing with post-traumatic symptoms for intellectually disabled trauma survivors, although further research and replication is essential as there is a clear void in this area of research. Lastly, this population must not be viewed as hopeless and we must understand that they are capable of participating in therapy, if it is tailored to their level of functioning. The strides made by this research are coupled with the hope that interpersonal violence against individuals with disabilities will become less frequent as they continue to become further accepted by our society and that these alternative approaches to trauma therapy may lead to more hopeful post-traumatic trajectories.
Interpersonal Violence in the Context of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
Animals as a whole are often overlooked when studying ancient Rome, but there is one animal that even Roman authors of farming guides often dismissed as being insignificant; this animal being the dog. The Romans kept dogs for many purposes; such as for hunting game, protecting a flock of sheep, guarding the house, and providing companionship. The authors of Roman farming guides often provided guidelines as to which characteristics were ideal for each type of working dog, but are these ideal characteristics reflected in the reality of Roman dogs? I set out to conclude to what extent the Romans influenced observable dog traits by the process of selective breeding. The ideal dogs described in the guides written by Columella, Varro, and the Greek author Xenophon have been analyzed and compared to archaeological findings depicting real Roman dogs in the forms of vases, mosaics, and actual dog bones. It was found that the Romans placed selective pressures most strongly on their hunting and herding dogs, followed closely by their guard dogs, and then minimally on their lap dogs. The nearly uniform traits shared by herding and hunting dogs is most likely due to the high stakes positions that these dogs held, as their owner depended on them for money and food. The guard dog also held a high stakes position in protecting the household, so it is not surprising that it experienced selection in a similar way. The lap dog did not contribute to its household as working dogs did, and selection for a lap dog’s traits was likely done on an individual basis, based on the owner’s personal preferences. This leads to the highest degree of diversity being observed in Roman lap dogs.
by Kathryn Arntsen, Kayln Clinkenbeard, Madeleine McGann, & Rebekah Stone
Faculty mentor: Dr. Mindy Erchull
We sought to replicate and extend research on the impact of scientists’ public advocacy on perceptions of credibility and motivation by adding scientists’ gender and discipline. We found that the field of science, but not gender, had an effect on perceived motives, but perceptions of credibility were not impacted.
The Effects of Gender, Discipline, and Scientist Advocacy on Perceptions of Credibility and Motivations
Since the end of the Great Recession, U.S. inflation dynamics have transformed. Inflation rates have remained low and stable, while unemployment has decreased, and the GDP growth rate has increased. Furthermore, there has been a lack of wage growth of wages in many sectors. These recent behaviors suggest a potential breakdown in the Phillips Curve; therefore, this paper aims to explain the behavior of the inflation dynamics by augmenting the Phillips Curve to incorporate globalization, such as openness to trade and FDI flows. Since the 1970s, world trade has increased from 26.7% in 1970 to 58.4% in 2018. During this time, the number of multinational corporations increased as well. These corporations can conduct vertical specialization to fragment the production process into small tasks, thus decreasing the price of inputs. By using OLS estimation, this paper finds little support for the hypothesis. Further research should focus on data in the sector or industry level. Additionally, further research should explore other possibilities that can influence inflation dynamics, such as workers’ bargaining power or the ‘sharing’ economy.
What has happened to U.S. Inflation? The Effect of Globalization on the Phillip’s Curve
The United States has waged a war on terror since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and while the US was in crisis we called on our allies to aid in the fight. Through this project we evaluated the contributions in troops and money that the US allies made to the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a study of burden-sharing but also tries to evaluate why these nations came to the US’s aid. Through the research we determined that the Top Contributors to the War in Afghanistan were the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada and the Top Contributors to the Iraq War are the UK, Italy, Australia, South Korea, and Poland. The war in Afghanistan received much more substantial contributions as the efforts were less controversial where as the contributions to Iraq were much more limited and the countries contributing were much smaller powers. The major conclusions are that the US must value the alliances of the UK and Italy as they were willing to come to US aid in both instances, and the allies fatalities are comparable to the US’s suggesting that their troops were equally involved in the conflict.
Leonardo da Vinci’s two paintings entitled the Virgin of the Rocks, currently located in the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris, depict nearly identical subject matter in two different styles. Recent conservation confirms the authorship of the London version, allowing researchers to compare the styles of the two paintings. This presentation examines stylistic elements such as sfumato, chiaroscuro and compositional changes of the two paintings. It also considers the contractual requirements for the altarpiece and how those requirements may have influenced Leonardo’s stylistic choices. Finally, this presentation concludes that, in an attempt to create a cohesive design, Leonardo modified the style for which he is best known.
by Grace Smith Faculty Mentor: Dr. Federico Schneider
My project is a paper written as interview with the Renaissance scholar Petrarch about humanism in the Renaissance. It is written as if it was a post game interview with an athlete, but instead of an athlete, I am interviewing a scholar about his own and other scholar’s works in the period.
Opioid abuse is rising and is a serious epidemic that currently has a major impact on many Americans. It places a burden on all American citizens and American institutions through healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, while making it difficult to create a healthy culture for future generations. People tend to think of opioid abuse to occur in lower-income populations and to be more correlated with uneducated individuals. We estimate the effect of having received some college education or more on overdose deaths across the U.S. We use having some college education or more and standard high school education. We find that people who have obtained some form of higher education were likely to be significantly impacted by the opioid crisis.
Effect of Higher Education on Opioid Overdose Deaths: A Case Study of the US
Historic preservation is a game of time and money; two things which are often in short supply. The success of preservation projects relies on federal funding more often than not, and political capital speaks louder than necessity in many cases. Studying trends in the administration of federal funds for preservation purposes raises a number of questions about accountability and inequality in allocation. This thesis analyzes the statistical trends present in preservation spending of the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside fund in order to highlight a necessity for further research. By comparing the use and amount of administered federal money in rural and urban areas, one may isolate universally successful techniques of preservation as well as significant disparities and questions for future study.
Depots and Dollars: A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Federal Spending on Preservation in Urban and Rural Communities
Midwives had long been considered experts in pregnancy and childbirth prior to the Scientific Revolution and the professionalization of the medical field. However, in the late seventeenth century, we see an interest in the realm of childbirth from male surgeons and physicians seeking scientific understandings of pregnancy and women’s bodies, who began to publish pamphlets and treatises on their findings. However, by analyzing midwifery manuals written by seventeenth-century women, such as Justine Siegemund and Jane Sharp, we can see midwives were on an equal level of medical and anatomical understanding as male practitioners from their experiential education and were uniquely qualified for their position.
Owning the Birthing Room: Self-advocacy and Proof of Authority in Seventeenth Century Midwifery Manuals
Glucocorticoid hormones mediate stress responses in all vertebrates, from teleost fishes to mammals. In adult teleosts, the primary glucocorticoid, cortisol, is synthesized within interrenal tissue via enzyme-mediated reactions regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis in response to stressors. The hypothalamic peptide corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulates release of the pituitary protein adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), which stimulates cortisol production in interrenal cells. Cortisol affects target cells via two types of receptors, the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). The timing and sequence of events leading to a fully functioning HPI axis in developing nonmammalian vertebrates is not fully known. Addressing this gap, we measured expression of genes involved in cortisol synthesis and signaling throughout embryogenesis in two teleosts, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). We isolated RNA from pools of embryos collected at multiple developmental stages and synthesized complementary DNA (cDNA) by reverse transcription. Using cDNA as a template, we measured relative expression of key HPI genes, including CRH, melanocortin type 2 receptor (MC2R), steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), 11 β hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD2), and MR by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). We measured cortisol throughout embryogenesis using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found noteworthy differences in expression profiles for all measured genes between species. Notably, we saw large differences in magnitude for changes in CRH, MC2R, and StAR expression. HSD2 showed different patterns of expression in zebrafish and medaka. Temporal cortisol patterns differed between species. Medaka cortisol increased significantly for hatch, whereas zebrafish saw a significant decrease.
As media coverage of Alcatraz increased, popular culture glorified prison systems. Throughout the years, the amount of federal prisons multiplied as the media grew fascinated with incarceration. This expansion posed a new question: did the media’s representation of Alcatraz play a role in the idealization of building prisons? In my media-focused argument, I hypothesize that the media’s support of Alcatraz prison led to the construction of the multitude of prisons today.
Idealized Media Representations of Alcatraz Prison
