Eastern Connecticut Research Articles

The Myth and Reality of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut: The Brownes of Salem and Absentee Land Ownership

The Myth and Reality of Slavery in Eastern Connecticut: The Brownes of Salem and Absentee Land Ownership

Cracking of residential concrete foundations in eastern Connecticut, USA from oxidation of pyrrhotite

Extensive cracking in thousands of residential foundations in eastern Connecticut is found to be due to expansions from oxidation of pyrrhotite in crushed gneiss coarse aggregate in concrete. Sulfates released from pyrrhotite oxidation reacted with aluminous phases in paste to cause internal sulfate attacks and further expansions. These two-stage expansion processes took as long as 15 years of service in the presence of oxygen and moisture to develop extensive cracking to crumbling. The unsound pyrrhotite-bearing quartz-feldspar-biotite-garnet gneiss of Ordovician Brimfield Schist formation came from a quarry on a hydrothermal vein of significant pyrrhotite crystallization. Microstructural, chemical, and mineralogical evidences of pyrrhotite oxidation and resultant internal sulfate attack are presented from a residential concrete foundation in Mansfield, Connecticut. Ferrihydrite oxidation product of pyrrhotite, bands of oxidized iron in iron sulfide bodies, and microcrystalline fibrous secondary ettringite deposits intermixed with the cement hydration products in paste as well as deposited in cracks, voids, and porous areas of paste are the products of two-stage expansions that have contributed to the distress. Occurrences of numerous pyrrhotite bearing metamorphic rocks of the Appalachian mountains along eastern US pose concerns of similar distress of many homes with urgent need for standardized testing protocols to control pyrrhotite-related distress. A five-stage testing protocol is proposed to screen potentially deleterious pyrrhotite-bearing aggregates for mitigating this distress in future constructions.

Preparation of concrete specimen for internal sulfate attack analysis using electron backscatter diffraction

AbstractConcrete cores were obtained from houses in eastern Connecticut, USA, that had varying degrees of crumbling foundations and wall cracking. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used simultaneously with energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy to investigate the degradation of these samples. This combination allowed the precise correlation of elemental composition with mineral crystallography phase mapping. EBSD examination showed the presence of pyrrhotite, pyrite, and marcasite phases in some of the samples, whereas internal sulfate attack (ISA) is triggered by the release of sulfates through the oxidation of such iron sulfides. Secondary expansion products from ISA are associated with foundation cracking, wall bulging, and drastically decreased structural stability. The main contribution of this study is therefore an automated procedure for preparation of concrete samples and analysis of aggregates using EBSD.

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

Editorial Note

Editorial| October 01 2021 Editorial Note Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann is distinguished professor of history and the CSU professor in the Department of History at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut. She received her MA in history from the Marie Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, and her PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. She has published The Exile Mission: Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939–1956 (Ohio University Press, 2004); Letters from Readers in the Polish American Press, 1902–1969: A Corner for Everybody (Lexington Books, 2014); The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press (University of Illinois Press, 2015), as well as numerous articles on various aspects of the Polish American experience. Kirchmann is past president of the Polish American Historical Association and serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Polish American Studies. Her current research project is a book on the history of Polish American foodways. Email: kirchmanna@easternct.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Polish American Studies (2021) 78 (2): 7. https://doi.org/10.5406/poliamerstud.78.2.0007 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann; Editorial Note. Polish American Studies 1 January 2021; 78 (2): 7. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/poliamerstud.78.2.0007 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressPolish American Studies Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Amenities, disamenities, and decision-making in the residential forest: An application of the means-end chain theory to roadside trees

The residential forest provides many amenities to communities, including aesthetics, air quality improvement, and higher property values. However, the residential forest may also contribute human-perceived problems or disamenities including allergens, leaf debris, infrastructure damage, and maintenance costs. Vegetation management by utility companies along power lines is one process that shapes the residential forest. Property owners’ decisions to consent or object to utility vegetation management may be influenced by perceived tree amenities and disamenities. To explore this decision-making process, we conducted 32 one-on-one semi-structured qualitative interviews with resident-homeowners who consented or objected to a utility company tree removal on their property between 2014 and 2017. The study area included several towns in eastern Connecticut, USA, representing urban, suburban, and exurban residential areas. We applied the means-end chain theory as a theoretical framework, and used laddering interviews to explore the tree amenities, disamenities, and values associated with trees. Attractiveness, shade, and privacy were the most frequently identified amenities of trees; risk to power lines, trees being dead or diseased, and risk to people were the most frequently identified disamenities. Amenities and disamenities were connected to such values as happiness and enjoyment, closeness to nature, comfort, pride in one’s home, aesthetics, life, avoiding harm to others, and time or money for other priorities. Participants who objected to utility tree removals primarily identified tree amenities as reasons to retain the trees, whereas participants who allowed tree removals primarily identified disamenities as reasons for their decision. The most common reason for objecting to removal was uncertainty about the need for removal. Participants had diverse perceptions of how tree amenities and disamenities affected their potential consent to utility vegetation management, illustrating that the priorities and concerns of individual residents are important considerations for forest managers and arborists engaged in vegetation management on private property.

High‐Resolution Ps Receiver Function Imaging of the Crust and Mantle Lithosphere Beneath Southern New England and Tectonic Implications

AbstractSouthern New England exhibits diverse geologic features resulting from past tectonic events. These include Proterozoic and early Paleozoic Laurentian units in the west, several Gondwana‐derived terranes that accreted during the Paleozoic in the east, and the Mesozoic Hartford Basin in the central part of the region. The Seismic Experiment for Imaging Structure beneath Connecticut (SEISConn) project involved the deployment of a dense array of 15 broadband seismometers across northern Connecticut to investigate the architecture of lithospheric structures beneath this region and interpret how they were created and modified by past tectonic events in the context of surface geology. We carried out P‐to‐S receiver function analysis on SEISConn data, including both single‐station analysis and common conversion point (CCP) stacking. Our images show that the westernmost part of Connecticut has a much deeper Moho than central and eastern Connecticut. The lateral transition is a well‐defined, ∼15 km step‐like offset of the Moho over a ∼20 km horizontal distance. The Moho step appears near the surface boundary between the Laurentian margin and the Gondwana‐derived Moretown terrane. Possible models for its formation include Ordovician underthrusting of Laurentia and/or modification by younger tectonic events. Other prominent features include a strong positive velocity gradient (PVG) beneath the Hartford basin corresponding to the bottom of the sedimentary units, several west‐dipping PVGs in the crust and mantle lithosphere that may correspond to relict slabs or shear zones from past subduction episodes, and a negative velocity gradient (NVG) that may correspond to the base of the lithosphere.

COVID-19 data analysis applied to computer science courses

At Eastern Connecticut State University, we include or teach data analysis in different levels of computer science courses, including our Computer Science (CS) gateway course CSC180: Fundamentals o...

Comparing Trace Elements (As, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in Soils and Surface Waters among Montane, Upland Watersheds and Lowland, Urban Watersheds in New England, USA

Trace element biogeochemistry from soils to rivers is important for toxicity to aquatic ecosystems. The objective of this study was to determine whether trace element exports in contrasting watersheds are controlled by their abundance in soil, current land uses in the watershed, or geologic processes. Upland soils and river water samples were collected throughout the Deerfield watershed in southern Vermont and western Massachusetts and in the Quinebaug and Shetucket watersheds of eastern Connecticut. Soil concentrations were only an important predictor for dissolved Fe export, but no other trace element. Soil pH was not correlated with normalized dissolved exports of trace elements, but DOC was correlated with normalized dissolved Pb and Ni exports. The limited spatial and depth of soil sampling may have contributed to the poor correlation. Surprisingly, linear regressions and principal component analysis showed that human development was associated with higher soil trace metal concentrations but not significantly correlated with dissolved trace elements export. Instead, forest abundance was a strong predictor for lower Cu, Pb, and Zn soil concentrations and lower As, Fe, Ni and Pb dissolved exports across the watersheds. Dissolved exports of Al, K, and Si suggest that enhanced mineral dissolution in the montane watersheds was likely an important factor for matching or exceeding normalized pollutant trace element exports in more urbanized watersheds. Further studies are needed to evaluate subsurface/hyporheic controls as well as soil–surface water interface to quantify exchange and transport.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma-Informed Care.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refer to the abuse, neglect, and traumatic experiences in childhood that directly affect long-term adolescent and adult health. Understanding the ACE Pyramid and the physiological stress response has guided research toward a better understanding of the long-term mental and physical health consequences from psychological impacts early in life. Trauma-informed care becomes critical for pediatric clinicians to operationalize in practice. The four R's approach-realize, recognize, respond, and resist re-traumatization-can be used by pediatric providers as guidance. The trauma-informed care approach includes the realization of how ACEs affect health, the recognition of pediatric clinical symptom presentation and screening protocols for ACEs, and the health care provider's ability to respond and not re-traumatize patients when delivering evidence-based care. As recent events have triggered worldwide mental and emotional trauma in youth, clinicians must start operationalizing trauma-informed care into practice, as future presentations of trauma are expected.

Living Near the Edge: Variability in Abundance and Life Cycle of the Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun, 1896) in Eastern Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound (LIS) is near the northern limit for the range of year-round populations of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun, 1896). This study sampled blue crabs for 7 y with a trawl in LIS and with traps in the estuarine portion of three rivers in eastern Connecticut. Year-to-year abundance of blue crabs was highly variable. A strong correlation was found between the abundance in the summer and the water temperatures in the prior winter, suggesting that these large interannual fluctuations are caused by varying overwinter survival rates. Winter mortality due to low water temperatures may be the controlling factor in determining the northern range limit for resident populations of blue crabs and for their abundance in northern waters, such as LIS. Long-term trawl surveys in LIS show a shift in abundance from cold-temperate to warm-temperate species, which correlates with rising water temperatures. Longer term studies are required to determine whether the blue crab population in LIS is increasing as a result of global warming. Previous studies have not investigated the blue crab life cycle north of New Jersey, including LIS. This study found that all stages of their life cycle occur in LIS. Male and immature female blue crabs were found primarily in the upper, less saline sections of LIS subestuaries. Mature and egg-bearing females occurred primarily in the deeper, higher salinity waters of LIS. These results are consistent with the blue crab life cycle as described in locations south of LIS, such as Chesapeake Bay.

Estimating the Annual Exceedance Probability of Water Levels and Wave Heights from High Resolution Coupled Wave-Circulation Models in Long Island Sound

Accurately estimating the probability of storm surge occurrences is necessary for flood risk assessments. This research models Long Island Sound using a coupled coastal circulation and wave model (FVCOM-SWAVE) to hindcast the 44 highest storms between 1950–2018 and fitted Poisson-GPD distributions to modelled water levels and wave heights. Floodwater elevations and significant wave heights for 10% (1/10), 3% (1/30), 2% (1/50), and 1% (1/100) annual exceedance probabilities are provided for all Connecticut coastal towns. The results show that both water levels and their corresponding return intervals are higher along the western coast of Connecticut than the eastern coast, whereas significant wave heights increase eastward. Comparing our model results with those from the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) shows that the mean NACCS results are higher for water levels and lower for significant wave heights for longer return periods. Likewise, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) results in large errors compared to our results in both eastern and western coastal Connecticut regions. In addition to evaluating historical risks, we also added a sea-level height offset of 0.5 m for 2050 estimates in order to examine the effect of rising sea-levels on the analysis. We find that sea-level rise reduces the return period of a 10-year storm to two years. We advise periodically updating this work as improved sea-level rise projections become available.

Review: Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman

Book Review| March 01 2020 Review: Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman: Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, MA: November 6, 2019–February 16, 2020. James Cunning Holland James Cunning Holland James Cunning Holland, a visual artist and writer, teaches digital and performance art at Eastern Connecticut State University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2020) 47 (1): 78–85. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.471014 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation James Cunning Holland; Review: Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman. Afterimage 1 March 2020; 47 (1): 78–85. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.471014 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search Worcester Art Museum's recent exhibition Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman allowed viewers to revisit the technological and aesthetic transformations, and the cultural tumult, of the 1960s through the 1980s. In addition to functioning as a conventional exhibition of historical works of art that are sequentially ordered, each accompanied by didactic text, discrete works in Photo Revolution blended together in a visual conversation that was greater than the sum of its parts. Chiefly comprised of artworks drawn from the museum's permanent collection, Photo Revolution aimed to give viewers a direct experience of, in the words of the show's curator Nancy Kathryn Burns, “what it would look like to holistically integrate photography's ascent into the broader themes and trends” of mid-twentieth-century art.1 It turns out that photography provides a perfect foundation for discussing the artistic and cultural vicissitudes of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. Toward the beginning of this... You do not currently have access to this content.

Pyrrhotite Epidemic in Eastern Connecticut: Diagnosis and Prevention

Pyrrhotite Epidemic in Eastern Connecticut: Diagnosis and Prevention

“Perfectly proper and conciliating”: Jean-Pierre Boyer, freemasonry, and the revolutionary Atlantic in eastern Connecticut, 1800–1801

ABSTRACTNear the end of the Quasi-War in 1800, Jean-Pierre Boyer, future president of Haiti, was brought to New London, Connecticut with other partisans from the pro-French forces in St. Domingue. Boyer along with others were held in nearby Norwich until April 1801. A Freemason, Boyer was welcomed by Masons in Norwich while plundered by other Masons on the cruiser and in New London. In 1800, internal contention roiling Masonry in New London County readily overlapped with local political partisanry and religious controversy – all of which likewise engaged broader regional and national conflicts. The insertion of a black French partisan initiated into a foreign Masonic order enriched the presence of the Atlantic in all these contests. This essay explores how Boyer and Freemasonry helped to highlight the complex web of local, national, and Atlantic interpenetrating the political and social life of New London County.

Exhibition Review: Kapawani Kiwanga: Safe Passage

Book Review| June 02 2019 Exhibition Review: Kapawani Kiwanga: Safe Passage Kapawani Kiwanga: Safe Passage: MIT List Visual Arts Center. Cambridge, Massachusetts: February 8–April 21, 2019. James Cunning Holland James Cunning Holland James Cunning Holland, a visual artist and writer, teaches digital and performance art at Eastern Connecticut State University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar James Cunning Holland, a visual artist and writer, teaches digital and performance art at Eastern Connecticut State University. Afterimage (2019) 46 (2): 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2019.462009 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation James Cunning Holland; Exhibition Review: Kapawani Kiwanga: Safe Passage. Afterimage 2 June 2019; 46 (2): 75–80. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2019.462009 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search Kapawani Kiwanga’s solo show Safe Passage was a superimposed arrangement of four sculptural works that at first seemed to echo the Minimalist oeuvre. In time, however, a different impression unfolded, and the works soon revealed themselves as repositories of complex and nuanced meaning. By degrees, an underscore built, thematically unifying the four pieces, which revealed Kiwanga’s approach for what it is: an expedition into forgotten and marginalized histories to expose what poet Claudia Rankine has called “the buildup of erasure” that is so common to lives ravaged by racism.2 “At the core of the exhibition,” the wall text read, “is an engagement with racialized surveillance and the systems used in monitoring and controlling the movement of bodies in space.” Kiwanga thus animated her selected materials with the content of forgotten history, and while the four pieces in Safe Passage share a strongly formalist approach, the historical narrative and archival... You do not currently have access to this content.

Deterioration of residential concrete foundations: The role of pyrrhotite-bearing aggregate

Premature deterioration of concrete foundations has been reported for a large number of homes in Eastern Connecticut of the United States. The characteristic symptoms are map cracking, whitish deposits at the vicinity of the cracking surface and wide crack opening. It is hypothesized that the volume expansion associated with the oxidation of pyrrhotite-bearing aggregate and the following internal sulfate attack (ISA) due to the delayed secondary mineral formation are the primary causes of premature deterioration. Extensive tests were carried out to validate the hypothesis using a combination of tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX).The results showed that pyrrhotite and its oxidation products, such as ferrihydrite, goethite and sulfur, were present in or at the surface of the aggregates of the deteriorated concrete, suggesting the occurrence of pyrrhotite oxidation. Expansive secondary mineral formations (SMF) such as ettringite and thaumasite were also identified. The abundance of these SMFs, their spatial distribution in the open spaces together with their close association with matrix cracking suggest the cause of premature deterioration.

Extensive gypsy moth defoliation in Southern New England characterized using Landsat satellite observations

Southern New England is currently experiencing the first major gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) defoliation event in nearly 30 years. Using a novel approach based on time series of Landsat satellite observations, we generated consistent maps of gypsy moth defoliation for 2015 (first year of the outbreak), 2016 (second year of outbreak), and 2017 (third year of outbreak). Our mapped results demonstrate that the defoliation event continued through the 2017 growing season. Moreover, the affected area more than doubled in extent each year and expanded radially to encompass 4386 km2 of forested area in Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and central Massachusetts. The current gypsy moth outbreak is believed to be the result of a series of unusually dry springs in 2014, 2015, and 2016, which suppressed Entomophaga maimaiga, a fungal mortality agent that has historically reduced gypsy moth impacts in this region. The continuation and marked expansion of the outbreak in 2017 despite average spring rainfall suggests that caterpillars were active early in the growing season, and mortality from the fungus likely peaked after significant defoliation had already occurred. Our Landsat time series approach represents an important new source of data on spatial and temporal patterns in gypsy moth defoliation, and continued satellite-based monitoring will be essential for tracking the progress of this and other gypsy moth outbreaks.

Aplicación de dos modelos de simulación de temperatura del agua en el río Fenton-Storrs-Connecticut

In this research, the physically-based WTS (Water Temperature Simulation) model was developed to predict water temperature changes in a river in eastern Connecticut during the summer. The model was applied and calibrated with a one-hour time step during the summer’s low-flow season on the Fenton River, which is tributary of the Mansfield Hollow Lake. Temperatures were recorded at one-hour intervals during the summer in 2004 and 2005, at various locations along the river to provide data for the model’s calibration. Model results were tested against observed stream temperatures and also compared to the SSTemp (Stream Segment Temperature model) created by Bartholow (2002). Results show that both models can be used to predict changes in stream temperature due to changes in groundwater inflow/outflow, and could be used to assess various water management scenarios.

Iron Mac: The Legend of Roughhouse Cyclist Reggie McNamara

Book Review| April 01 2018 Iron Mac: The Legend of Roughhouse Cyclist Reggie McNamara Homan, Andrew M. Iron Mac: The Legend of Roughhouse Cyclist Reggie McNamara. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Pp. xiv+218. Introduction, notes, and index. $26.95, hb. Ari de Wilde Ari de Wilde Eastern Connecticut State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Sport History (2018) 45 (1): 108–109. https://doi.org/10.5406/jsporthistory.45.1.0108 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Ari de Wilde; Iron Mac: The Legend of Roughhouse Cyclist Reggie McNamara. Journal of Sport History 1 January 2018; 45 (1): 108–109. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/jsporthistory.45.1.0108 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Sport History Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2018 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2018 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.