Technology assessment: technology viable to keep "take-home" food warm for 30 minutes

Includes bibliographical references

Representation & its limit

This thesis is an investigation into traditional accounts of aesthetic representation. Using the work of Noel Carroll as an exemplar of the definition put forward in canonical philosophical accounts of aesthetic representation, I look at how Carroll’s account must work. By examining both the definition in abstract and how this definition is instantiated into existent and hypothetical works of art, it becomes apparent that Carroll’s definition is overly stringent and relies upon a counterintuitive distinction between aesthetic representation and aesthetic expression. This distinction is problematic insofar as the distinction seems to be a largely semantic distinction: the mechanism by which a work of art expresses something seems identical to the mechanism by which a work of art represents something, and the method by which one determines whether a work expresses a concept or represents it is wholly dependent on the content communicated. Moreover, if one retains a traditional definition of representation it becomes evident that either our understanding of representation is insufficiently complex to account for metarepresentation—representations that represent representation—or non-representation—representations that represent nothing. I propose a new definition for representation that combines aspects of Carroll’s accounts of both expression and representation, and investigate ways in which such a representation can represent both metarepresentational content and non-representational content. Graham Priest’s work provides a mechanic by which the limits of that which can be expressed may be appropriated into aesthetics, and Jacques Derrida’s account of Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty gives us a limit case of nonrepresentational art for which I contend a definition of representation must account. This representation at the limits requires a representation substantially more expansive than that proposed by Carroll—and thus demonstrates the need for widening the scope of that which can be represented. I conclude by demonstrating how an expanded definition of representation such as that which I put forward can be explanatory of contemporary works of art deemed non-representational in philosophy of art. Moreover, I hope to demonstrate why such an account is preferable to the alternatives

Space Test Program

The Department of Defense Space Test Program is a unique organization dedicated to stimulating spacerelated technology by providing launch and orbital support for research and development payloads. This paper delineates program management techniques, past accomplishments, and current activities. The benefit to the DOD is discussed

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, is a work of interdisciplinary scholarship (combining elements of theatre history, performance studies, and philosophy) that addresses an area of performance currently under-researched within the liberal arts and humanities: professional wrestling. My dissertation directs much-needed attention to the fact that professional wrestling is the only kind of live drama many Americans ever see (or even want to see). Although it is no doubt easy for theatre historians and performance theorists to dismiss this performance practice because of its location somewhere between “illegitimate sport” and “lowbrow popular entertainment,” I contend that United States professional wrestling is a sophisticated performance form that boasts a rich history whose study yields vital insights about how movement-centric performances are staged in commercialized spectacles. My dissertation archives the history of Louisiana professional wrestling and sheds light upon the repertoire of performance practices passed down from one generation to the next. In this dissertation I argue that the death of Louisiana professional wrestling provides an archetype for how the performance of professional wrestling transitioned from a local performance practice viewed live in a community to a televised, globalized product watched around the world. I argue that this transition can best be understood through the lenses of analytic philosophy of dance and the establishment of mass art forms in tandem with the development of mass technologies, rather than through primarily semiotic analyses popularized during the 1960s by Roland Barthe

Backpages 25.3, A Provocative Cold Consideration: 3 Winters at the National Theatre in London

Search Party is the collaboration between live artists Jodie Hawkes and Pete Phillips. In 2007 we started making Search Party vs… - an interactive, durational performance exploring our reoccurring interest in sport. We’re fascinated by sport; in narratives of the sports event, the relationship between task and failure, fandom and the sporting gaze, and how these ideas can be used as strategies for creating, framing and performing live art events. We make performances for theatres and public spaces and our sports related practice has existed in both contexts. Search Party vs… takes place in public and is predominantly concerned with a desire to engage with the inhabitants of public places, creating performative contexts which generate shared endeavor. Existing somewhere between mass public spectacle and intimate 1-on-1 performance, Search Party vs... borrows the notion of team from sport to examine connections between the personal and the geographic, exploring ideas of community, place and belonging

Three Conversations

‘Three Conversations’ short play, first written for ‘Lighting the Way’ collection of 50 international plays organised by Climate Change Theatre Action are both a memory of our family protests and a present enactment of thinking with children about climate change

Direct solar pumping of semiconductor lasers: A feasibility study

This report describes results of NASA Grant NAG-1-1148, entitled Direct Solar Pumping of Semiconductor Lasers: A Feasibility Study. The goals of this study were to provide a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of pumping semiconductor lasers in space with directly focused sunlight and to identify semiconductor laser structures expected to operate at the lowest possible focusing intensities. It should be emphasized that the structures under consideration would provide direct optical-to-optical conversion of sunlight into laser light in a single crystal, in contrast to a configuration consisting of a solar cell or storage battery electrically pumping a current injection laser. With external modulation, such lasers could perhaps be efficient sources for intersatellite communications. We proposed specifically to develop a theoretical model of semiconductor quantum-well lasers photopumped by a broadband source, test it against existing experimental data where possible, and apply it to estimating solar pumping requirements and identifying optimum structures for operation at low pump intensities. These tasks have been accomplished, as described in this report of our completed project. The report is organized as follows: Some general considerations relevant to the solar-pumped semiconductor laser problem are discussed in Section 2, and the types of structures chosen for specific investigation are described. The details of the laser model we developed for this work are then outlined in Section 3. In Section 4, results of our study are presented, including designs for optimum lattice-matched and strained-layer solar-pumped quantum-well lasers and threshold pumping estimates for these structures. It was hoped at the outset of this work that structures could be identified which could be expected to operate continuously at solar photoexcitation intensities of several thousand suns, and this indeed turned out to be the case as described in this section. Our project is summarized in Section 5, and information on publications resulting from this work is provided in Section 6

Relative Sound Localization for Sources in a Haphazard Speaker Array

A rapidly deployable, easy to use method of automatically configuring multi-channel audio systems is described. Compensating for non-ideal speaker positioning is a problem seen in immersive audio-visual art installations, home theater surround sound setups, and live concerts. Manual configuration requires expertise and time, while automatic methods promise to reduce these costs, enabling quick and easy setup and operation. Ideally the system should outperform a human in aural sound source localization. A naïve method is proposed and paired software is evaluated aiming to cut down on setup time, use readily available hardware, and enable satisfactory multi-channel spatialization and sound-source localization

Can Iowa have better public library service?

Iowans are proud of the fact that the Hawkeye State leads the nation in the proportion of citizens able to read and write. Iowa boasts several outstanding institutions of higher education. So it only would be logical to assume that Iowans are well served by public libraries. But that is far from the case. The state’s public library services are so limited that nearly all the farm population is without free library service. And among the many persons living in small rural towns and villages the situation is little better

Design Drivers for a Viable Commercial Remote Sensing Space Architecture

Private sector investment into new commercial remote sensing constellations over the past five years has exceeded $1B. The capabilities of these systems—many still in development or at pre-initial operational capability (IOC) thresholds—are intended to address a combination of new or underserved global markets. Additionally, the combination of ever-increasing technical collection requirements with static programmatic resources, has now driven historically traditional space system operators to embrace hybrid architectures that leverage commercially-sourced data into their service baselines. While enticing to many new entrants, many considerations must be practically addressed to field an enduring, commercially viable space architecture solution. Foremost it must deliver the expected type of data at sufficient quality that can be directly utilized by established users already sourcing other (typically exquisite) collections. Delivery of this capability must also necessarily be resilient, with business continuity secured through a mixture of customers that transcends venture-backed investments to a posture of sustained profitably. In 2017, Maxar (then operating as DigitalGlobe) decided to proceed with the self-financed development of a new$600M Earth observation constellation comprised of six high-resolution satellites that are only 30% of the weight of the prior generation, but leverage technological advances for affordability and performance. Before doing so, however, a rigorous system engineering and business analysis study was undertaken to thoroughly understand customer key performance parameters (KPP) and design drivers to be addressed to ensure a delivered combination of product-market fit, flexibility/adaptability to evolving requirements, and overall capital efficiency. In this paper, we describe this effort to develop our design baseline and the corresponding operational commercial remote sensing constellation that will achieve its new IOC in 2021 to directly support both dedicated commercial and hybrid mission operator architectures