STRATA

STRATA, the STudent Research, Academic, and Talent Archive, is a collection of selected Fort Lewis College student work, including undergraduate research, senior seminar papers, published works, conference presentations, and other creative and artistic projects. Search by name, subject, title, or academic department.

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Individual Water Conservation: The Key to Solving the Water Shortage Crisis
Due to skyrocketing population increases, climate change, and over-use of our planet's freshwater supply, several regions across the globe are already experiencing water shortages. Shortage of this precious resource is expected everywhere, which will result in a serious crisis. While industry and business do contribute to this problem, solutions in changing their water habits are complicated and expensive. Fortunately, there are solutions that are simple, affordable, and effective. By looking at individual water consumption, one can see the amount of unnecessary waste through inefficiency. This inefficiency comes from water use in the outdoor landscape, indoor use through appliances and fixtures, and indirect use from lifestyle choices. Simple changes in these practices can save significant amounts of water. Despite the evidence, changing individual water consumption habits can be difficult for some. Examining attitudes and behaviors are a key to not only understanding the problem, but also in adopting conservation solutions. Through spreading awareness of the problem and setting an example through action, water conservation can and will become a responsible and sustainable way of life. Available freshwater sources can be saved through these solutions.
Infant of the Earth
Poem by Livia Hooson, published in the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 edition of Images.
Infectious Vampires: Analyzing Media Portrayals of Infectious Disease in Vampire Films Using Content Analysis
Multidisciplinary approaches are able to provide holistic analyses and results. Many would not inherently put public health and media studies together for a project. However they are related because the unknown, especially disease, has always frightened people. Stories about disease continue to be a part of the human experience, teaching social conformity or acting as warnings against specific places or behaviors. The vampire character has consistently been a metaphor for infectious disease. This study incorporated the media studies and public health disciplines to analyze ten of the top grossing American vampire films from 2000-2012 to understand whether or not vampire film narratives portray infectious disease realistically, supporting public health positions. Results indicate that these movies do not enforce the idea that infectious disease are preventable, instead promoting the audience to empathize with the vampire character. This potentially has significant application for the public health industry, specifically for understanding and predicting how the public views infectious disease.
Inscriptions of Connectivity: The Cultural Significance of Modern Tattoo
The practice of tattooing has often been met with a reaction of certain stigma from the Western perspective. The objective of this study is to illustrate a redefinition of the meaning of tattoo in an early 21st century global society. The information presented seeks to challenge the perceptions of tattooing in Western culture as a deviant practice and lead the observer to an understanding of a normative ritual based in cultures on every continent (Rainier, 2004), which has remained relatively consistent over many thousands of years. The tattoo will be established as a medium of connection to our surrounding environment. Implications are discussed in the context of a modern world which is rapidly changing under the influences of socially intrusive factors based in capitalism and globalization. The study was implemented through an in-depth analysis of available literature, both historical and contemporary, accompanied by a qualitative survey study of individuals having tattoos. The survey, adapted from Littell (2003), was "designed to examine motivations for being tattooed and the meaning of tattoo imagery." It was posted on the online networking site Facebook.com, and made available to approximately 150 individuals over a period of three weeks. Participants completing the survey included nine women and three men, ages 18 to 45, all Caucasian, responding from the United States, United Kingdom, and Denmark. All participants had at least one tattoo. Themes of meaning and motivation behind tattoos were found to be multifaceted and in many cases overlapping. Three main categories became apparent: affirmation, which consisted of a proclamation of independence, assertion of control, or reclaiming of one's body; rite of passage, in which a tattoo is a representation of achievement, self-recognition, or epiphany; and connection, a symbolic link to another person, group of people, physical place, object, or time in one's life. The results of this research indicate that the tattoo today is serving much the same purpose as it has throughout history in an extensive range of cultural contexts. That is, connection to the world, physically, mentally, and spiritually; the seeking of a relationship with self and others; and the establishment of personal identity.
Insight Into Controls on Precious-Metals Mineralization in the May Day Mine, La Plata Mining District, Southwestern Colorado
The May Day-Idaho mine is one of the oldest and most productive in the La Plata Mountains. Early mining on this property produced over 100,000 ounces of gold and 1,000,000 ounces of silver. Even though this mine has had a productive history the controls on precious-metal mineralization are poorly understood. In this investigation, field and analytical studies were used to develop an exploration model for precious-metal mineralization. Field studies in the May Day Mine confirm that mineralization is concentrated in altered intrusive igneous rocks and adjacent sedimentary country rocks. Dominant deposit types are stockwork breccias zones in fractured intrusive rocks and sandstones, quartz- and ankerite-rich veins, and replacement-type deposits in altered intrusive rock and limestone. Existing mineralized zones in the mine are generally discontinuous and have a limited extent. Microanalytical studies on rock samples using reflected-light microscopy and QEMSCAN establish that mineralization had two main phases. An early phase dominated by base-metal minerals was followed by a latter phase of gold-silver mineralization, mostly as telluride minerals, native gold and electrum. Mineralized zones are characterized by a small number of gangue minerals that include calcite, quartz, ankerite, siderite barite, and fluorite. Rocks within and adjacent to mineralization contain quartz-pyrite-sericite alteration indicating that ore-bearing fluids were slightly acidic and were 300° to 600° C. Geochemical analyses on selected samples from mineralized zones indicate gold and silver are closely allied with tellurium and arsenic-lead bearing sulfide minerals. This is explained by precious-metal mineralization in the mine being controlled by gold- and silver-bearing telluride minerals nucleating around earlier formed lead-arsenic-copper sulfide minerals. For the first time in the history of the May Day mine, we have provided a comprehensive exploration model for precious-metals mineralization. This model will serve as a tool to assess the location and economic potential of precious-metals deposits in the La Plata Mountains.
Insight Into the Origin of Gold at the Bessie G Mine, La Plata Mountains, Southwest Colorado
The La Plata Mountains are one of several laccolithic complexes in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado that formed ~70 Ma during the Laramide orogeny. Base metal and tellurium-rich Au-Ag-Hg-PGE deposits formed in hydrothermal systems during or after the emplacement and crystallization of potassic intrusive rocks. The La Plata mining district contains a complex history of mineralization defined by late-stage precious metal deposits. The district is well known for vein and replacement epithermal Au-Ag deposits in which native gold forms in association with telluride minerals. In previous studies, native gold was mostly considered hypogene and genetically related to the nearby intrusions. Although competing hypotheses note that younger post-Laramide igneous and tectonic events may have contributed to precious metals mineralization. The Bessie G mine is one of several mines in the La Plata district that produced significant gold and silver. In this study, petrographic and microprobe analyses on ore samples were used to test competing ideas on the genesis of late-stage native gold which provided insight into the progression of telluride and gold mineralization in the district. Our research determined, in order of abundance, coloradotite (HgTe), petzite (Au3AgTe2), and hessite (Ag2Te) to be the most common tellurides. Mineral paragenesis occurred as an early assemblage of sulfides, petzite, and hessite followed by a late stage of coloradoite and native gold. Other observation document native gold in isolated blebs, coating earlier minerals, infilling microfractures, and commonly occurring with coloradoite. This association suggests gold formed by late-stage replacement of Au-Ag tellurides or supergene enrichment rather than syngenetic crystallization with the sulfides and Au-Ag tellurides. Precious metals mineralization may be related to younger regional incipient rifting and mantle magmatism in the Oligocene to Miocene.
Intergenerational Fairness Through Taxation
How, and to what extent, future generations should be considered is an important issue in political philosophy. This presentation offers an argument for the proper method of consideration to ensure intergenerational fairness. The goal of the presentation is to make explicit what is meant by "intergenerational fairness," then to elaborate on how such a definition is both important and obtainable. The conclusion reached is that a progressive tax on the unilateral transfer of property (e.g. bequeathal, gift, etc.) may adequately provide for intergenerational fairness.
Into the Grey
Poem by Hannah Watts, published in the Fall 2010/Winter 2011 edition of Images.
Investigating Elemental Abundances in the Crab Nebula to Determine Properties of the Presupernova Star
The elemental abundances remaining in the nebula surrounding a neutron star provide insight into the stellar nucleosynthesis processes that were taking place in the original star immediately preceding core collapse. The Crab Nebula is one of the closest and most recent supernova remnants visible from earth and because of its location above the galactic disk, the atomic debris from the progenitor star has remained undisturbed by interactions with the interstellar medium and neighboring stars. At the time of type-II supernova explosion the original star should have contained a mixture of many fusion burning atomic layers whose relative abundances can be examined by studying the light emission intensity ratios from the elements remaining within the Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant. Using singly ionized sulfur (S II), doubly ionized oxygen (O III), and Hydrogen Alpha (Hα) narrowband filtered images of the Crab Nebula, an intensity ratio between various regions were determined. Comparisons between observational results and published literature values were used to validate the method developed as well as verify the 30-year-old literature emission ratios. The primary goal of the project was to use the filtered narrowband images obtained from the Fort Lewis College Observatory to provide observational evidence of an onion shell structure which would be expected if a massive main sequence star was responsible for creating the nebula when it went supernova. Observed intensity ratios correlated closely with published values in both region by region comparisons as well as for the entire nebula. Specific shell studies demonstrated that the central core had the largest SII/Hα ratio in the nebula. Upon examining each outer shell it was determined that this ratio decreased consistently as the shells got further away from the central core. In the central core of the nebula the OIII/H- α ratio was the lowest observed in the nebula. Upon examining each outer shell the intensity ratio increased until it reached a maximum ratio in the middle Shell. In the outer shell the OIII/Hα ratio and the SII/Hα ratio decreased. Since the observed SII/OIII ratio between the middle and outer shells remained identical, it can be deduced that the hydrogen concentration is increasing as the distance away from the central neutron star is increased. The shell results suggest that sulfur has remained toward the center of the nebula, the oxygen is surrounding the sulfur, and there is hydrogen that surrounds the oxygen.
Investigating Simvastatin as a Treatment for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Polycystic Ovary syndrome is a disorder associated with numerous clinical, endocrine and metabolic complications, such as menstrual dysfunction, hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance. The relationship between hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance is a highly studied aspect of PCOS, and, a current target for treatment. High levels of testosterone interfere with the insulin receptor and its substrates to compromise a cell's ability to translocate GLUT4 to the cell membrane to allow for the entry of glucose. To investigate the potential of the emerging drug simvastatin, cultured C2C-12 myoblast cells were treated with the drug for 24 hours followed by insulin stimulation for 2 hours. Phosphorylation ratios of IRS-1(Ser612) to total IRS-1 along with GLUT4 translocation were measured to detect how the drug interacts with the insulin pathway. There was no significant difference between treatment with and without simvastatin regarding the relative level of IRS-1(Ser612) phosphorylation. Flow cytometry results measuring the translocation of GLUT4 to the plasma membrane indicate that treatment with simvastatin increased GLUT4 translocation by 7.5%, but without experimental repeats there is no way to know if these results represent a significant difference. Overall these results show that treatment with simvastatin for 24hr does not change insulin signaling or GLUT-4 translocation in a mouse muscle cell line.
Investigating Whether HTZ-1 Is Located at the ADE2-TEL Gene in S. Cerevisiae Strain UCC1371
In S. cerevisiae, the HTZ-1 variant commonly substitutes the H2A histone in heterochromatin regions. HTZ-1 is known to bind to the basal promoter region (TATA box) of the gene. Our study is looking at the possible association of HTZ-1 with an artificially placed telomeric gene, ADE2, within the S. cerevisiae mutant UCC1371. We were able to gain insight on this plausible interaction between the two by utilizing chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and qPCR technology. From our qPCR results we can speculate that HTZ-1 may be located at the ADE2 gene.
Investigating the Source of Copper in the La Plata Mountains Using Copper Isotopes
The La Plata Mountains formed about 65 Ma when magmas were emplaced into older sedimentary rocks creating a dome-shaped mountain range. Some of the intrusive rocks are spatially related to copper mineralization. The greatest concentration of copper-bearing ore deposits in the La Plata Mountains occur within and around the Allard Stock. The Allard stock, one of two major syenite stocks, is cross cut with numerous veins and zones of chalcopyrite and other copper-bearing minerals. Although these deposits have been mined and explored, the source of the copper has never been constrained. In this investigation petrographic analyses and copper isotopes were used to characterize the copper minerals and determine if they originated by melting of the crust or mantle. The results of this investigation demonstrate the copper minerals are dominated by chalcopyrite and minor bornite that are associated with magnetite, hematite, and late-state Au-Ag-PGE tellurides. Copper isotope values of -0.079‰ to 2.7‰ are consistent with a mantle source of copper with minor modification of signature from fractionation of copper isotopes during crystallization. Prior geochemical and U/Pb zircon studies establish that the intrusive rocks and chalcopyrite originated from melting of lithospheric mantle.

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