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Beyond Nanook\u27s Smile: Visual Sovereignty in Nanook of the North
No full textThis research examines sites of visual sovereignty in the seal hunt scene from Nanook of the North (1922) by putting it in conversation with Angry Inuk (2016), a more recent Inuit documentary on seal hunting. I aim to reveal expressions of Indigenous sovereignty that scholars have previously overlooked in the literature and suggest that Nanook is not solely a work of colonial ideas as many have argued. To do this, I rely on a close reading and rhetorical analysis of Nanook of the North and Angry Inuk using “visual sovereignty” as my reading practice. Significantly, I have found that Inuit knowledge is centered in the film yet withheld from the viewer, highlighting Inuit authority on and over their cultural practices. The centering of Inuit knowledge and culture throughout the seal hunt scene is suggestive of Nanook’s potential
Understanding the role of galactose and glucose on the composition of E. coli extracellular polymeric substance and biofilm growth
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How tidal position affects growth banding in shells from Bodega Bay, California
No full textMarine bivalves have the unique ability to record environmental and oceanic conditions due to the shell calcification process that takes place throughout their entire lives. Through this process, growth bands form within the shells and vary in thickness, periodicity, and coloration. Dark bands typically correspond with nonideal conditions during growth, such as cold temperatures, low tide, and low food availability, causing anaerobic metabolism. Light banding, on the other hand, correlates with ideal growing conditions such as warm temperatures, high tides, and high food availability, allowing for aerobic metabolism. Using this understanding, this research project investigates how tidal position (low, mid, and high) affects the coloration of growth bands in mussel shells from Bodega Bay, California. To study this inquiry, banding patterns in the California mussel (Mytilus californianus) were analyzed and photographed using an optical microscope. With ImageJ software, these images were converted into grayscale, and gray values were calculated for each specimen. Gray value variance quantifies the proportion of light versus dark banding within the shells, with high gray value variance representing a stronger growth banding expression. With the information provided by this experiment, past decadal information on Bodega Bay\u27s environmental and tidal conditions can be extrapolated to provide insight into how it differs from today as well as what it may look like in the future. As climate change continues to alter aquatic habitats, this information may be crucial to helping scientists do what they can to support bivalves and other intertidal specimens
Intra-mediary expertise: Trans-science and expert understanding of the public
No full textWhat is the role of experts and their expertise in the context of trans-science, in which issues that are raised in scientific terms cannot be answered by science alone? This article examines the discourses and practices around safety of low-dose exposure to radiation in the ongoing aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan in 2011. Following the nuclear fallout, scientific experts and STS scholars in Japan debated what forms of science communication were adequate to address the situation. Ethnographic research and textual analysis of their debates show a shift in emphasis on the role of experts from cultivating \u27public understanding of science\u27 for the sake of science and policy to an \u27expert understanding of the public\u27 for the sake of the public and its diverse everyday concerns. Two forms of expertise are emerging: \u27co-expertise\u27 and \u27intra-mediary expertise\u27. Both are parts of a transition from a paternalistic form of expertise to one that acknowledges the need to engage the public to address issues of scientific uncertainty. However, co-expertise ultimately upholds the existing political structures that shape risk governance, while intra-mediary expertise engages those often excluded from current structures of accountability. Discussion of the potentials and limitations of emerging forms of expertise in Japan show that epistemic justice is not enough. Civic justice that acknowledges diverse publics and their needs must be upheld in the uncertain sphere between science, politics, and everyday life
Backup Power: Public Implications of Private Substitutes for Electric Grid Reliability
No full textPrivate substitutes for electric grid reliability are common. We study their adoption and distributional implications. We first show that US households buy substitutes in response to a perceived decrease in grid reliability and that higher-income households are more likely to adopt them. We then develop a theoretical model of public provision of grid reliability in the presence of private substitutes that is consistent with these facts. The existence of substitutes increases aggregate welfare and reduces the efficient level of reliability spending. Using a calibrated version of the model, we find that, even though only a few households adopt batteries, most nonadopting households benefit from their availability. Battery adoption reduces utilities\u27 reliability spending, resulting in lower electricity bills for all customers. Most nonadopting households value these bill savings more than the reduced grid reliability
Vatican II and Vietnam: The Intersection of Religion and Politics in Corita Kent\u27s Prints, 1962-1969
No full textSimulating the Fermi bubbles in Milky Way-like active galaxies
No full textIn 2010, an excess of gamma rays were detected above and below the galactic center by the Fermi Space Telescope, discovered to be caused by two huge plasma lobes named the Fermi bubbles (FBs). It is not known if they are formed by supermassive black hole activity or nuclear star formation, despite several observational campaigns, but more and more evidence suggests the former. In this thesis, we used a modified version of the moving-mesh hydrodynamic code AREPO to simulate four Milky Way-like galaxies with black hole-driven winds over 15 Myr, where we vary the initial wind velocity between 0 − 10000 km s−1 in order to test how wind velocities would affect the physical characteristics of the FBs. In the three active galaxy simulations, AGN winds were enabled from t = 0 − 6 Myr and then turned off. We analyze the spatial distribution of the simulated FBs’ temperature and density. We find that the velocity of the shock front decreases over time, with higher AGN wind speed corresponding to an initially higher, but more rapidly decreasing shock front speed. Additionally, we create mock X-ray maps of the emission assuming most of the X-ray emission comes from thermal bremsstrahlung radiation. Characteristics of simulated bubbles were found to generally agree with observed characteristics of FBs. Significance of model parameters and further model applications are discussed