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THE HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS, SOCIAL BENEFITS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF GREEN SPACES IN SHANGHAI
No full textDespite many studies on air pollution in Shanghai, little research has been done with the role that green spaces hold in providing both social and air pollution mitigating ecosystem services. In this paper, not only do I explore these ecosystem services, I also contextualize the economic, historical, political, and cultural factors that have created the environmental crisis in China and the air pollution problem in Shanghai. Using data analysis from AQI monitoring stations near green spaces and comparing it to the average AQI for each district, I am able to demonstrate in Shanghai’s Pudong, Chongming, and Fengxian Districts, areas near green spaces actually have healthier air quality overall. Furthermore, I also elaborate on the potential for pollution mitigation by relying on the community roles and ecological value that green spaces represent, especially in how resilience thinking and infrastructure improvements can be made to improve the effectiveness of these green spaces
SYMMETRY VIOLATIONS, TOPOLOGY, AND PROPERTIES OF WEYL SEMIMETALS
No full textWeyl semimetals are a class of semimetals that have attracted significant attention among solid state physicists in recent years. Degeneracy in the band structure in conjunction with certain types of symmetry violation give rise to excitations that can be described as relativistic massless fermions, called Weyl fermions. When the Hamiltonian has a large kinetic component, the dispersion bands are strongly tilted and violate Lorentz symmetry. First theorized in 1937, Weyl semimetals were only discovered experimentally in 2015, but many of their theorized properties have since been confirmed. In addition to their unusual and exciting physical properties, Weyl semimetals present an excellent opportunity to study high-energy physics in an easily constructed setting
An Empire of Entertainment: Spectacle, Education, and Imperialism in British Popular Culture 1851-1914
No full textIn contrast to Bernard Porter’s view, the late Victorian and Edwardian periods of British history were among those where imperial imagery and sentiment permeated popular culture to the largest degree. From theatre, to literature, to music, the idea of the empire was practically omnipresent in the culture of the time. Broadly speaking, the goal of this imagery was to educate the masses on the apparent goodness and splendor of the British Empire. This period saw new emerging forms of culture such as story magazines for young boys(boys’ papers), the music hall, and imperial exhibitions. This thesis will examine these three elements of Victorian and Edwardian British popular culture in order to demonstrate the usage of spectacle to make culture a vector of imperialist sentiments. Additionally, the motivations, origins and significance of imperialist sentiment in these works will be interrogated in order to provide a more wholistic view of why these forms of popular culture mattered. This furthers the goal of explaining how their messaging reflected broader trends in the exposure to imperialist sentiment for Britons in this period
EXUBERANT VISCERA
No full textWe are surrounded and defined by objects: a vessel to brew coffee, the scissors with which we cut our hair, or identification documents which record our face, height, and sex. These items can be meaningful facets of identity, or they can be the source of categorization and marginalization. Especially for individuals with non-normative identities, objects can represent the experience of being consistently misrecognized, with uncomfortable or debilitating repercussions. Through glittering and disorienting 3D-modelled compositions, I examine how objects can disguise or obscure identity. exuberant viscera aestheticizes, depersonalizes, and takes control of the experience of misinterpretation. This project considers the synthesis of objects and personhood, guided by Sara Ahmed’s framework for the relations between space and bodies. I am also influenced by the work in queer archiving theorized by José Esteban Muñoz and the art of Emmett Ramstad, as they explore the tension between intimacy and anonymity created by the public display of personal effects. At its core, this project seeks to represent that which cannot be represented. I appropriate themes from Martin Jay’s characterization of the baroque, in combination with Judith Butler’s notion of incoherent beings, to conceptualize the embodiment of unintelligible personhood
ORIGINAL SIN? GENEALOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS AGAINST NATIONAL AND PATRIOTIC PARTIALITY
No full textThis thesis investigates whether and how the shameful and contingent origins of social practices can provide a normative reason against those practices. Chapter one surgery’s some challenges to normative arguments from origins, or normative genealogies, but argues that such arguments can be successful if construed correctly. Chapter two then introduces the practices that will serve as the case studies of this thesis: national and patriotic partiality. One justification for such practices references the relationships involved in nationalism and patriotism and the distinctively important role such relationships play in people’s lives. Finally, chapter three shows why a genealogical approach might yield results that challenge this justification. It does this by outlining the general framework for one sort of genealogical argument against national and patriotic partiality. All in all, I try to vindicate normative arguments from non-vindicatory origins and argue that philosophical defenses of national and patriotic partiality cannot be sufficient without considering the origins of these practices of partiality
Examining the Connection between the Mechanism of Commitment to Peace and the Number of Casualties arising in Peripheral Insurgencies
No full textConflict is a common part of social life and is present whenever individuals or groups are learning to co-exist. Civil war is a complicated form of conflict that disrupts the world. In this work I examined the commitment problems that help explain why peripheral insurgency civil wars are difficult to end. This study builds upon Fearon’s work on civil war duration in Why Do Some Civil Wars Last so Much Longer than Others? I described the nature of commitment problems and how they are manifested in three civil war cases (Nigeria, Sudan, and Afghanistan) and then conducted a cross-case analysis how determine how commitment issues affected each. I argue that peripheral insurgencies are prone to commitment problems that intensify conflicts, which then causes an increase in the number of casualties in peripheral insurgency civil wars. I seek to expand our common understanding of these problems and how they can be addressed by the international community in future conflicts
For Justice I Would [Will] Not Cry accompanied by critical introduction Mother I Told Them The Story: The Craft of Bringing A Ghost To Life
No full textNo abstract provided
Prefrontal and Auditory Cortex Activity During Music Listening in Musicians Compared to Non-Musicians
No full textIn an attempt to replicate past research on the effect of musical experience on the brain, this study employs functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure cortical activity in musicians and non-musicians when actively and passively listening to music. I hypothesized that musicians would have higher activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPCF) and auditory cortex than non-musicians in the active listening, but not passive listening condition. This hypothesis was supported, with results showed that musicians showed an overall pattern of deactivation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the auditory cortex. However, these results contradict many previously accepted findings in the musical neuroscience field, while validating many others. Although it is well known that musical study has an impact on brain activity patterns, the exact extent to which musical experience can change the brain, or short-term listening to music can impact cognition, is fraught with misinformation. Many misconceptions about music run rampant throughout our modern culture, and it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. It is important to critically examine the effect to which the results of this and many other studies in the field of music neuroscience have been impacted by confounding variables and over-generalization, and discuss how to move forward with similar research in the future
FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR ANALYSIS OF REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES-RELATED SIGNALING AND GENE EXPRESSION IN GRAVISTIMULATED ZEA MAYS (L.) PULVINI
No full textDue to the growth response of their stem pulvini, Zea mays (L.) stalks undergo upward curvature in response to reorientation relative to the gravity vector. This change in growth, called gravitropism, can occur due to lodging incidence, which is a pressing problem in the agricultural industry. Gravistimulation can affect both cellular and physiological changes, as indicated by fluctuations in reactive oxygen species (ROS), gene expression, protein levels and activities, and phytohormone activities. The small cellular changes are ultimately reflected on a physiological level when the plant reorients itself after a tipping or lodging event. The lower maize pulvinus halves elongate, causing bending at their locations, and the nature of this elongation contrasts with eudicot plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, in which gravitropic elongation occurs all along the stem. After a review of cereal grass stem pulvini and what is known about these gravitropic events, this thesis will propose new directions and a way forward for this area of research, suggesting methodologies such as qPCR, RNA-sequencing (a type of next-generation sequencing), and microplate assays to further characterize the relationship between ROS and gene expression during cereal grass gravitropism. It is proposed that these methods would allow a more thorough analysis of the genes and proteins involved in maize gravitropism, including those downstream of ROS signaling during the response
Plastic Pollution Project Mural
No full textA mural made of various recycled parts of plastic pollution collected from local beaches.https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/pubart/1082/thumbnail.jp