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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- Love is But a Four-Letter Word
- Poem by Michael Warfield from Fall 2013 - Winter 2014 issue of Images.
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- Lower Animas River Water Quality: An Assessment
- This project will attempt to deduce whether or not the Animas River is adversely affected by passing through the town of Durango, Colorado. In addition to analyzing two data sets provided by the Animas River Stakeholders Group, one including physical and chemical water quality indicators and the latter biological indicators through analysis of macroinvertebrates present at various sites, this report will also outline some important elements of water quality and provide descriptions of the various components associated with assessing water quality.
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- Lower Levels of Depression in Self-Compassionate Individuals in U.S. and Mexican Populations
- Self-compassion has three interrelated components. They are (a) self-kindness as opposed to self-judgment, (b) common humanity versus isolation, and c) mindfulness rather than over-identification or avoidance. Research evidence has linked self-compassion to psychological well-being and low levels of psychopathology. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and depression and whether or not, such relationship differs among diverse populations. Fifty-four individuals residing in the United States and 31 individuals from Mexico completed both, the Beck Depression inventory (BDI) and the Self Other Four Immeasurables (SOFI) scale. The hypotheses that lower levels of depression were going to be found in self-compassionate individuals and that there will be no difference between both samples were supported. In both samples, the results indicate a statistically significant negative correlation between self-compassion and depression. Our findings suggest that regardless of culture, high levels of compassion might protect against depression. Future studies using experimental or longitudinal design should examine how these relationships unfold over time, which variable may be causal.
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- Lupulin
- Poem by Chelsea Stevens from Fall 2012 - Winter 2013 issue of Images.
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- Magnolia
- Artwork by Tayler Hahn from Fall 2012 - Winter 2013 issue of Images
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- Maneater
- Poem by Jared Rust from Fall 2012 - Winter 2013 issue of Images.
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- Mapping Surface Geochemical Data with GIS in Lower Lisbon Valley, Utah
- At the Lisbon Valley Mining Company (SE Utah), exploration for sedimentary-hosted copper deposits has used both conventional soil sampling and sampling of ant hills for surface geochemistry. Anthill prospecting is a sampling technique that exploits the ants’ natural sorting ability as they transport material from the subsurface. The data sets for each of these techniques can be compared using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to evaluate the effectiveness of each sampling technique. Surface geochemistry is a commonly used tool in the exploration for ore deposits. GIS is a useful program for visualizing spatial datasets, such as soil geochemistry, fluid geochemistry, stratigraphy, and fault locations. Exploration using GIS provides a preliminary assessment that can help find possible economic mineralization comparing different retrieval methods of soil data provided by the mining company. The mine lies on the eastern portion of the Colorado Plateau region within the section overlying the Paradox Basin. Structurally, the mine sits in the collapsed flank of a salt anticline with ore trends following normal faults in the section above salt. Deeper faults likely provided conduits for copper-rich fluids derived from Pennsylvanian sediments. Current mining operations exploit hypogene chalcocite with lesser amounts of bornite and chalcopyrite in sandstones and conglomerates of the Cretaceous Burro Canyon Formation and Dakota Sandstone. In lower Lisbon Valley, economic mineralization thus shows both stratigraphic and structural control. The faulted flanks of the valley provide economic copper, and the faulted valley graben and wash plain provide footprints for fluid flow of copper ions through the system. Exploration has started further southeast from the mine along the faulted margins of the valley. Soil and anthill samples in the exploration areas were analyzed by ICP-MS, and concentrations were plotted by editing symbology. Similarities between the anthill and soil samples were identified. All sampling techniques revealed higher concentrations of copper proximal to the major normal faults associated with salt-anticline collapse, and the extension of structural control. This was as expected observing the current mining trend within the valley. The high copper concentrations near faults are consistent with the hypothesis that faults controlled flow of fluids that made ore deposits possible. Spatial analyses maps based off conversion of bulk composition to point data illustrates prospects in Lower Lisbon Valley as viable options for economic extraction of copper.
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- Marr - Consent Form
- Consent form for "A Petrologic and Petrochemical Investigation of Magmatic Phases in the Powderhorn Carbonatite Complex, Gunnison, Colorado" by Alexander Marr
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- Mass Media
- Examination of the portrayal of homosexuality on television and in mass media.
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- Measurement and Analysis of Sprite Temporal and Spatial Morphology
- Sprites can be described as upper-atmospheric electrical-breakdown phenomena. It is an idea that spans a century. An early theory of this process was developed by a Nobel prize-winning physicist C. T. R. Wilson. While describing the electric field of a thundercloud (Wilson 1926), Wilson claimed that the electric field that creates lightning in lower-altitude thunderstorms, quite possibly triggers an electrical breakdown in the upper-atmospheric region above the underlying thunderstorm. Even though Wilson had an early inclination of the sprite causality, it wasn't until 1989 when a group led by Dr. Winkler, of auroral researchers, from the University of Minnesota, while waiting to film a rocket launch obtained the first footage of an unusual optical event appearing at very high altitudes. The researchers obtained video recordings of an intense electrically-active thunderstorm linked to hurricane Hugo (Franz 1990). It was around this time, these optical emissions were given the name sprites due to their elusive and mischievous nature when it came to capturing this phenomenon on film. In the summers of 1993 and 1994 the dual-aircraft Sprites94 campaign was performed, yielding the first colored images of sprites while using triangulation methods to determine physical dimensions (Sentman 1995). As with the Sprites94 campaign researchers soon realized that due to different luminous formations, one term could not encompass all of these sprite occurrences. Therefore, it was proposed to use the broader term of transient luminous events (TLE's) to describe the light emissions (Lyons 1996). Under which many different formations of sprite structures can be categorized. Through more increasing observations sprites have been classified as C -sprites and carrot sprites (Westcott 1996). C-sprites typically exhibit column-arrays of light whereas carrot sprites have propagating streamers that spread out at the top in a bunch, like the leaves of a carrot. By 2000, observations of higher than video time (30-frames per second) resolution had been achieved. M. Stanley recorded sprite events at up to 4,000 frames per second in 1999 and in 2000 H.C. Stenback-Nielsen used the 1,000 frames per second camera developed by the University of Alaska to obtain optical recordings. These higher timed resolution images offered a better insight into the spatial and temporal characteristics of TLE's especially toward the onset of sprite initiation. A campaign was launched during the summer of 2008. The approach of triangulation employed one stationary and two roving observation teams. The teams deployed to various areas in New Mexico. The stationary crew set their recording equipment up at Langmuir Observatory, Socorro NM. The two roving team split up, one in Las Vegas NM area and the other the Portales NM area. Using triangulation techniques it was found that carrot sprites have top altitudes of 84.92 km and bottom altitudes of 58.28 km. C-sprites had measured top altitudes 80.02 km of and bottom altitudes of 75.03. These number were consistent with similar studies that had been produced [Lyons (1994), Westcott(1998), and Westcott(2000)] earlier.
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- Measuring a Relationship between Cultural Ideals of Individualism and Collectivism with Students' Reasons for Attending College and Future Goals
- The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between students' cultural values with rationales and goals regarding the college experience. Using open-ended responses from introductory psychology students (n=211) about why they were attending college and their future goals, the responses were coded based on whether they contained self-oriented or other-oriented motivations. For example, a response indicating a desire for a high-paying career after college would be coded for its self-oriented features whereas a response indicating a desire to better assist one's community would fall under an other-oriented theme. These coding mechanisms allowed for quantitative analysis of qualitative data. After responses regarding rationales for attending college and future goals were coded, the presence or absence of each theme was compared to measures of individualism and collectivism (Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, & Gelfand, 1995). Several interesting relationships were found, including an association between athletic motivation and vertical individualism, along with other-oriented responses and vertical collectivism. These relationships offer unique insight into understanding the association between reasons for attending college and future goals as influenced by cultural values.