Fitchburg State University

Even as the Americans with Disabilities Act sought to tear down the many barriers the disability community faces, many of these physical and psychological barriers persist today and people with physical disabilities remain significantly underrepresented in politics and policymaking. Despite this, Americans with physical disabilities are increasingly, and openly, running for public office finding electoral success. Emerging research suggests that these candidates are finding ways to overcome the negative stereotypes often associated with physical disability, but we know much less about the role physical disability may play in influencing voter decisions. Utilizing an original survey vignette experiment and an original conjoint experiment across two national samples, this project tests the link between physical disability and the probability of electoral support in a primary setting. I also explore additional factors which may affect candidate evaluations and voting decisions between candidate profiles, including political ideology and the origins of the physical disability (whether a candidate was born physically disabled or became disabled from military combat), and the interaction of disability, ideology, and veteran status. The results suggest that political candidates with physical disabilities tend to receive more political support than able-bodied candidates with political ideology and disability origins both influencing voter decisions, and hold implications for increasing the representation of persons with physical disabilities.

This paper introduces a novel application of the Lotka-Volterra model to analyze the dynamic interplay between military and civilian government spending in the United States from 1960 to 2019. Drawing on the classical 'guns versus butter' framework, we conceptualize military spending as a predator and civilian spending as prey, both constrained by GDP as a shared resource. By constructing a system of nonlinear differential equations, we model inter-sectoral competition, long-term memory effects, and time-varying growth and carrying capacities. The model reveals strong asymmetries in budgetary interaction: military expenditures exert a disproportionately negative impact on civilian spending, while being more sensitive to shared constraints, suggesting a prey-like vulnerability. Using a genetic algorithm for parameter estimation, we demonstrate that shifts in growth rates and sectoral capacities correspond closely with historical inflection points, such as the Cold War and the War on Terror. Our findings offer compelling evidence of Lotka-Volterra-like oscillatory behavior in public budget allocation, underscoring the strategic dominance of military priorities over social investments. This dynamic modeling approach provides new insights into the systemic trade-offs embedded in fiscal policy and raises critical questions about the sustainability of militarized economic strategies.

The Electromagnetically Isolated Global Signal Estimation Platform (EIGSEP) is a new instrument designed to measure the global 21-cm signal from Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization, redshifted to frequencies below 250 MHz. To reduce spectral structure in the antenna beam associated with ground scattering, EIGSEP uses a shaped bowtie antenna suspended in a canyon 100 m above the ground. We describe the current system design of EIGSEP, including the rotating antenna platform, a transmitter antenna to characterise the beam of the bowtie antenna, and auxiliary ground antennas. We then discuss the EIGSEP calibration scheme, which incorporates traditional Dicke switching in the receiver, and novel approaches that include beam mapping, beam modulation, and interferometric cross-correlation. The instrument has been deployed near Marjum Pass, Utah, for testing and initial data collection. We discuss the site characteristics and present initial field measurements.

Introduction Injury epidemiology research traditionally uses a single musculoskeletal injury (MSI) data source, such as injury self-report (ISR) or medical record-review (MRR). MSI data obtained from ISR may be incomplete due to recall issues, and MRR data may be incomplete if medical attention was not sought, which is especially problematic in military populations. The objective of this analysis was to determine the ascertainment-corrected incidence of MSI among Special Forces (SF) military personnel using a novel statistical technique, capture-recapture (CRC). Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study used two sources of MSI data (ISR and MRR) collected at SF military installations. The CRC analysis, using the Chapman modification of the Lincoln-Petersen estimator, was conducted to assess the completeness of MSI data and to estimate the 1-year ascertainment-corrected cumulative MSI incidence. Results MSI data were available for 335 SF personnel (age: 28.9±6.2 years). At the time the study was conducted, only men could qualify as SF personnel. The percentage of participants identified as injured were 31.3% in the ISR, 26.6% in the MRR and 14.0% in both sources. The CRC estimate of the number of injured participants was 197.8 (95% CI 169.7, 225.8), with a CRC estimated 1 year cumulative incidence of 59.0% (95% CI 50.7%, 67.4%). Overall ascertainment was good (74.3%), but was relatively lower for spine MSI (49.0%) as compared with lower (73.7%) or upper (72.7%) extremity MSI. Ascertainment was highest for fractures (79.5%) versus strain (60.0%) or sprain (68.3%). Conclusions This was the first study to apply the CRC technique to estimate MSIs among SF personnel, who are at a very high risk of sustaining MSIs. Completeness of the MSI data varied by the MSI anatomic location and type. Further research into the application of the CRC technique in military populations is warranted, to provide an accurate estimate of the MSI burden.

This paper revisits John Kenneth Galbraith's theory of social balance and evaluates its implications for human security. Using a panel data of 120 countries over 1990-2020, the paper proxies social balance by the public-to-private spending ratio and measures human security with the Human Security Index (HSI) and its two pillars, freedom from want (HSIW) and freedom from fear (HSIF). Country fixed-effects estimations show a robust inverse-U: human security rises as the public share increases from low levels but declines once the state becomes dominant. Democracy, openness, and tax capacity are positively associated with HSI, while militarization has a negative effect. Decomposition reveals that the aggregate pattern is driven chiefly by HSIW, whereas HSIF is more sensitive to democracy and military spending. The findings support a Galbraithian view that human security is maximized at moderate public shares in accountable, non-militarized settings.