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ScholarWorks@UA is University of Alaska's institutional repository created to share research and works by UA faculty, students, and staff
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Untapped Talent: Immigrant Integration and Inclusion in Anchorage, AlaskaUntapped Talent is a study of immigrants’ integration and inclusion in Anchorage with respect to education, employment, health care, access to public spaces, interactions with government agencies, social networks, and developing a sense of home. In this report, the term ‘immigrant’ is used for all people who moved from another country to the United States after their birth to live here indefinitely, including refugees, asylees, and asylum-seekers. The research team applied both quantitative and qualitative methods to uncover the results. In this document, we share findings and summarize what may help immigrants feel more at home in Anchorage.
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Current exposure of Yukon Flats tribal villages' residents to PM₂.₅ from natural and anthropogenic sources: establishing baselines for climate change adaptation and resilienceHow healthy is the air in the villages during the summer fire seasons? Why does Fort Yukon always seem to be colder than the surrounding villages in winter and spring? How healthy is the air we breathe in our homes and workplaces? These are but a few of the questions asked by Alaska's Eastern Interior residential village's Indigenous Tribal Governments. A tribal-owned network of aerosol monitors and meteorological stations was installed at Ts'aahudaaneekk'onh Denh, Gwichyaa Zheh, Jałgiitsik, and Danzhit Khànlaj̜j̜ in the Yukon Flats, Alaska. To assess the exposure of residents in rural communities in the Yukon Flats to particulate matter of 2.5 [micro]m or less in diameter (PM2.5), both indoor and outdoor concentration observations were carried out from spring 2017 through to August 2019. Surface-based-temperature inversions occurred under calm wind conditions due to surface radiative cooling. In May, local emissions governed air quality with worst conditions related to road and river dust. As the warm season progressed, worst air quality was due to transport of pollutants from upwind wildfires. Absorption of solar radiation in the smoke layer and upward scattering enhanced stability and fostered the persistence of the surface-based-temperature inversions. Under weak large-scale forcing mountain-valley circulations develop that are driven by the differences in insolation. During the long dark nights, surface radiative cooling occurs in the near-surface layer of the mountain slopes of the Brooks, Ogilvie and White Mountains Ranges and at the bottom of the valley. Here surface-based-temperature inversion - known as roof-top inversions - form, while the cold air drains from the slopes. A frontal wedge forms when the cold air slides over the relatively colder air in the valley. Drainage of cold air from the Brooks Range governed the circulation and cold air pooling in the valley. At the site, which is closest to the mountains, concentrations marginally changed in the presence of temperature inversions. Indoor concentrations were measured at 0.61 m in homes and at 1.52 m heights both in homes and office/commercial buildings. Air quality was better at both heights in cabins than frame homes both during times with and without surface-based-temperature inversions. During summer indoor concentrations reached unhealthy for sensitive groups to hazardous conditions for extended times that even exceeded the high outdoor concentrations. Indoor and outdoor concentrations were strongest related for office/commercial buildings, followed by frame houses and cabins. These are but a few of the answers found in this research of meteorology effects, unhealthy locations for breathing PM2.5 air outdoors and in homes.
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Audiocassette tape digitizing instructionsStep by step instructions for digitizing audiocassettes using Audacity as the audio software and a Tascam 202 Mark VII tape deck.
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Evolution of marine organisms under climate change at different levels of biological organisation.Research to date has suggested that both individual marine species and ecological processes are expected to exhibit diverse responses to the environmental effects of climate change. Evolutionary responses can occur on rapid (ecological) timescales, and yet studies typically do not consider the role that adaptive evolution will play in modulating biological responses to climate change. Investigations into such responses have typically been focused at particular biological levels (e.g., cellular, population, community), often lacking interactions among levels. Since all levels of biological organisation are sensitive to global climate change, there is a need to elucidate how different processes and hierarchical interactions will influence species fitness. Therefore, predicting the responses of communities and populations to global change will require multidisciplinary efforts across multiple levels of hierarchy, from the genetic and cellular to communities and ecosystems. Eventually, this may allow us to establish the role that acclimatisation and adaptation will play in determining marine community structures in future scenarios.
