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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- Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar: Perceptions of Counseling
- People can have a negative attitude toward psychological counseling. Counseling is an important tool to not only the general public, but for the well-being of college undergraduates who are challenged with adapting to a new environment. This study looked at why there is a negative perception of counseling and explored ways to encourage people to seek counseling. We also looked at the perception of effectiveness and other ways students deal with their problems. Our participants included 39 undergraduate students. It was a convenient sample during the dinner rush of the campus cafeteria. Our survey addressed the effectiveness of counseling, the effectiveness of students' alternatives, and their general attitude about counseling. We found that students tend to use exercise, talking to friends and family, drug or alcohol usage, and meditation as alternatives to seeking counseling. Findings show that the attitude and perceived effectiveness of counseling is higher for students who have been required to go for a behavioral assessment than those who have voluntarily sought out counseling. Those who have never been to counseling had the lowest attitude and effectiveness towards counseling. Research also suggests that there is a correlation between students who knew about their free counseling sessions provided by our institution and those who actually had used their free sessions, suggesting that if students are informed about the counseling center they are more likely to use it. Some of the recommendations from students included more awareness, more encouragement, helping to normalize the idea of counseling, and an interest in group counseling. Results also showed that 32 out of 36 students reported that they would not feel embarrassed if their friends knew that they were seeking counseling. These findings lead us to believe that there may not necessarily be a stigma and perhaps the biggest hurdle is the initial contact with counseling.
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- South Fork Texas Creek Gas Seep Area Subsurface Analysis
- The San Juan Basin is the most productive coal bed methane reserve in the United States (EIA, 2007). In the northern part of the San Juan Basin, there are major methane seeps near South Fork Texas Creek, about 20 miles east of Durango, Colorado. One might expect that the highest methane seepage would follow the outcrop of the Cretaceous Fruitland Formation. This seepage has been monitored and mitigated since 1994. The mitigation system appears to have an effect, but not all of the methane is being captured. The methane gas may be taking other preferred pathways to the surface. In this area, the seep pattern seems to cut across the strike of the outcrop (K. Hannula, personal communication, February 2015). One possible explanation for high methane seepage at a strange orientation is that there is a fault there. The current CGS geological map (Carroll et al., 1997) of the area does not contain a fault in the suspected area. Therefore, a three dimensional structural model was created in Move™ to test this competing hypothesis: no fault, as mapped by the Colorado Geological Survey (Carroll et al., 1997) or an unmapped fault. Two models were created based on where the ground surface contact of the Fruitland/Pictured Cliffs lies. Model one was based on the CGS geologic map, where in model two, the ground surface contact was reinterpreted based on an aerial photograph. Planar beds were extended into the subsurface created from mapped bedding orientations along the Fruitland/Pictured Cliffs surface contact. In both models, there existed an outlier plane. The outlier plane in each model expressed offset in strike and dip when compared to the surrounding planar surfaces. This supports the hypothesis of a fault perpendicular to strike. The offset perpendicular to bedding would demonstrate the preferred pathway of methane seepage. Further 3D modeling and research of the area would greatly improve the placement and design of the gas collecting and mitigating systems at South Fork Texas Creek.
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- Southwest Colorado River Protection with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and The Wilderness Act
- There are many great rivers in Southwest Colorado that are in need of protection. Today in Colorado there is only one river, the Cache La Poudre, that has been designated as Wild and Scenic. It is the intention of this thesis to demonstrate that the Animas River, the Dolores River, the Hermosa Creek drainage, and the Piedra River are all worthy of designation under the Wild and Scenic Rivers act and or the Wilderness Act.
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- Sowing the Seeds for Food Justice: A Review of Three Urban Farm and Garden Programs in Denver, CO
- Food justice is a movement that addresses the racial and economic inequalities found within the food system by empowering communities to grow their own nutritious, affordable food and create culturally specific foodways. Often food justice programs have been delivered through community gardens, farms, and greenhouses in cities where many people live in food deserts, neighborhoods where the population is both low income and has limited access to fresh and healthy food. In the Denver metro area there are forty-five neighborhoods that are classified as food deserts. Several non-profit organizations in Denver have sought to develop a sustainable and just food system and eliminate food deserts in the area. Three nonprofits representing the most common types of urban agriculture organizations are Denver Urban Gardens, Greenleaf, and Growhaus. I analyzed their role in supporting food justice and community impact by evaluating their growing space, educational outreach, amount of food distributed, and whether their mission statement addressed the racial and economic inequalities within the food system. I also evaluated state and national food and agriculture policies to identify barriers to and opportunities for expansion for the food justice movement. I found that Greenleaf and Growhaus supported food justice, but could only do so for a relatively small population. I found that Denver Urban Gardens was capable of producing the most food, but their mission statement lacked the recognition of the racial and economic inequalities found within the food system and thus lacked the creation of culturally specific foodways which are essential for food justice. Through the analysis of both domestic and international food and agriculture policies, I found that the creation of an Urban Agriculture Department along with other social reforms would be ideal to achieve national food justice.
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- Spatial Correlation Between Average Fracture Spacing (AFS) in the Lower Burro Canyon Formation and the GTO Fault, Lisbon Valley, UT, USA
- The Burro Canyon Formation in Lisbon Valley, UT forms excellent reservoirs and pathways for fluid storage and transport. Rock permeability is an important metric for geologists and society alike, as it controls the distribution of important resources like metals, petroleum, and water. Chief among these factors that determine permeability are the fractures within a rock. The spatial distribution of fractures is imperative in understanding how fluids flow through the Lisbon Valley District. The Lisbon Valley District is localized on a NW-trending, doubly plunging anticline. A normal fault (GTO Fault) on the anticline’s southwest flank has a 1000 feet of vertical offset. This fault has acted as a primary pathway for hydrothermal copper-bearing fluids that produced the ore deposits. The influences on localized fracture networks in the area are still relatively understudied and have yet to be quantified. A further investigation of Average Fracture Spacing through outcrop and core analysis is necessary in determining the controls on damage zones and how that relates to permeability and fluid flow at the Lisbon Valley Mine. A total of six cores were collected from the Lisbon Valley Mining Company and were systematically examined to determine AFS based on proximity to the fault. Parameters described in each core include: number of fractures, upper/lower terminus depth, length, aperture, dip relative to core axis, and cementation. This quantitative data was inserted into an Excel calculator using the calculation methods of Narr (1996) to obtain AFS measurements within a given core. AFS values vary from as low as 4.48 ft near the fault, up to 22.14 ft further from the fault. The distribution of fractures theoretically should be more intense closer to the normal fault. However, the additional structures in the area could be influencing the fracture networks in a way that contradicts this. Results from this analysis can be used to plan for in-situ recovery of copper at the Lisbon Valley Mine. The data received from the AFS calculations can be used by the geologists and engineers at the mine site to create 3D/4D models to observe spatial distribution of fractures and estimate permeability and fluid flow. Existing permeability and porosity data at the mine can also be quantitatively compared to AFS values.
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- Staging Chekhov's Short Stories
- How does one interpret an enigmatic writer of early Realism and all he symbolized by acting in his plays? This question launched a two-semester project researching the writer, Anton Chekhov, and his work. Chekhov was a physician, naturalist, and playwright in Russia at the end of the 19th century. This research was essential as the preliminary step towards the final performance, A Chekhovian Sonata: Love in 3 Movements ("The Bear," "The Bride," and "The Marriage Proposal"), presented in February 2015. Although two of the movements were originally written as plays, the third piece, "The Bride," was a 1903 short story and needed to be adapted into a script. The cast, using devised and improvisational rehearsal methods, created a modern retelling of Chekhov's story. The research and the performances provided audiences with the proof of how poignant and vital the plays (and themes) of Chekhov can be for a contemporary audience.
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- Stained Glass Wisdom
- Poem by John Landon from Fall 2013 - Winter 2014 issue of Images.
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- Strength Comparisons of Knotted and Un-Knotted Dyneema
- Because of the alleged safety hazards associated with knotted Dyneema, the purpose of this study is to compare the strength of knotted and un-knotted Dyneema slings, with the intention of finding a strength gain or reduction in the knotted material. Previous studies have limited their focus to knots joining two separate pieces of Dyneema and to the use of dynamic testing methods. This study will address the problem of the lack of research regarding the strength of sewn Dyneema slings that are subjected to static testing. With the use of a tensile machine, 10 knotted and 10 un-knotted Mammut Dyneema slings were tested until failure. Each individual failure, recorded in kN, was placed into a table and then statistically analyzed using an independent t-test. The results of this study show that a significant difference can be found between knotted and un-knotted Dyneema slings (p<.05), reporting a strength reduction of 46.23% in the knotted Dyneema.
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- Structural Analysis of the Williams Fork Mountains: Subsurface Analysis Near Craig, Colorado
- The Williams Fork Mountains are a large Laramide-age structure south of Craig, Colorado, that has recently received attention for new economic and geologic interests. Structures, including faults and folds, are predominantly oriented northwest-southeast. Mapping of the top of the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone underground has been performed in a three dimensional analysis to constrain the complicated structure of the range. Two dimensional cross-sections were first completed with use of surface data, seismic data, well data, and interpretational structure contour maps. Findings interpreted major and minor anticline /syncline pairs mapped at the surface to be the product of a reactivated blind thrust fault zone. The range front fault was interpreted to be a reactivated blind thrust fault of opposite orientation of the other thrusts. The amount of offset on the fault decreases to the north. Later normal faulting known as the Craig fault zone mapped on the surface and at depth further deformed the Williams Fork Mountains, providing offset to the pre-existing structures.
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- Structure and Function of the HTLV-1 Pro-Pol Frameshift Site
- Human T-cell leukemia Virus Type I (HTLV-1) was the first identified human retrovirus, identified in 1980. Infection with HTLV-1 results in adult T-cell leukemia with 5-10% incidence. An estimated 15-20 million individuals worldwide are infected with HTLV. Replication of retroviruses, such as HTLV, is dependent upon synthesis of viral structural and enzymatic proteins. Synthesis of HTLV's enzymatic proteins (Protease (PR), Reverse Transcriptase (RT), and Integrase (IN)) is dependent upon programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF). PRF is defined by a programmed change in the ribosome's reading frame during translation. In this work, HTLV-1 pro-pol -1 PRF is investigated. The pro-pol frameshift site consists of a heptanucleotide slippery sequence (UUUAAAC) followed by a downstream structure. The frameshift efficiency at this site is ~10%. A pseudoknot structure is predicted downstream of the slippery sequence. We hypothesize that the pseudoknot structure contributes significantly to the frameshift efficiency. To test this hypothesis, we designed four variant frameshift sites to test the importance of the pseudoknot structure to frameshifting. An in vitro dual-luciferase frameshift assay will be utilized to determine the frameshift efficiencies for the wild-type and variant frameshift sites. We report successful cloning of all of the plasmid DNAs, which code for the experimental and control RNAs used in the dual-luciferase frameshift assay. Eight of the ten plasmid DNAs has been successfully linearized and used for RNA synthesis and subsequently purified. Future work will include the synthesis and purification of the remaining RNAs, and final determination of the in vitro frameshift efficiency for each site.
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- Strung Up in Color
- Artwork by Emily Shirtz from Fall 2013 - Spring 2014 issue of Images
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- Student Enrollment Forecasting
- The objective of this project is to build a mathematical model that uses student progression trends to predict future enrollments by class standing at Fort Lewis College. Using ten years of student data, for each class we determine the proportions of students that return to the college in the same class, return in a subsequent class, or leave the college. We then use a Markov style model to build a set of calculators that predict student enrollments up to five years in the future.