SHADE

SHADE is an exhibition of graphite pencil drawings that place viewers on the precarious edge of meaning. Techniques of representational drawing such as form and perspective vaguely allude to latent, traceable narratives, then destabilize the viewer’s search with confounding two-dimensional spaces, and loosely defined forms. Small, mundane scenes such as campsites, diners, and bars, are enveloped or obscured by dense, graphite expanses of skin-like surfaces. These elements destabilize viewers’ convenient categorizations of darkness, fog, or space. The identifiable scenes have reduced contexts: facial expressions, interior décor, and landscape features. These are obscured or withheld to reduce visual justifications for the viewers’ conferred meanings. This instability gives viewers the problem of negotiating ambiguous meanings and ultimately highlights the malleability of our perceptive experience. The work is informed by critical analyses of my representational drawing practice and underpinned by absurdist, phenomenological, and existentialist theories regarding human quests for latent or universal meanings. Through my process, I wrestle with how traditions of representational drawing can limit the viewer’s range of experiences with the work. I explore how the embodied process of mark-making with pencil and paper affects viewers’ rationale of the images. I make the distinctions between perceiving visuals of an image versus judging them. I elaborate on how the space and material of the drawings evoke qualities of the sublime. Lastly, I elaborate on how ambiguity reduces the speed in which viewers can confer meaning, while still holding open a door for new associations, memory projections, and individual meanings

The Becker-Döring equations with monomer input, competition and inhibition

We investigate the Becker-Döring model of nucleation with three generalisations; an input of monomer, an input of inhibitor and finally, we allow the monomers to form two morphologies of cluster. We assume size-independent aggregation and fragmentation rates. Initially we consider the problem of constant monomer input and determine the steady-state solution approached in the large-time limit, and the manner in which it is approached. Secondly, in addition to a constant input of monomer we allow a constant input of inhibitor, which prevents clusters growing any larger and this removes them from the kinetics of the process; the inhibitor is consumed in the action of poisoning a cluster. We determine a critical ratio of poison to monomer input below which the cluster concentrations tend to a non-zero steady-state solution and the poison concentration tends to a finite value. Above the critical input ratio, the concentrations of all cluster sizes tend to zero and the poison concentration grows without limit. In both cases the solution in the large-time limit is determined. Finally we consider a model where monomers form two morphologies, but the inhibitor only acts on one morphology. Four cases are identified, depending on the relative poison to monomer input rates and the relative thermodynamic stability. In each case we determine the final cluster distribution and poison concentration. We find that poisoning the less stable cluster type can have a significant impact on the structure of the more stable cluster distribution; a counter-intuitive result. All results are shown to agree with numerical simulation

Prediction of Random Incidence Transmission Loss based on Normal Incidence Four-Microphone Measurements

The use of the four-microphone standing wave tube to assess the acoustical properties of sound absorbing materials is becoming increasingly popular. The objective of the present work was to demonstrate that it is possible, under certain conditions, to predict the random incidence transmission loss of sound absorbing materials based on normal incidence measurements in a four-microphone standing wave tube. If a porous material may be modeled as being isotropic and either perfectly rigid or limp, it may be characterized as an effective fluid in terms of its complex density and wave number. The latter quantities may then be used in conjunction with plane wave theories to predict random incidence properties. That procedure is demonstrated here by using two different porous media. Good agreement was found between the estimated and directly measured random incidence transmission losses. The accuracy of the procedure may however, be limited at both low and high frequencies. At low frequencies, the estimated material properties may be affected by the constraint of the sample around its edge. At high frequencies, higher order mode propagation within the sample may affect the results owing to the typically subsonic wave speeds in porous media

The Becker-Döring equations with exponentially size-dependent rate coefficients

This paper is concerned with an analysis of the Becker-Döring equations which lie at the heart of a number of descriptions of non-equilibrium phase transitions and related complex dynamical processes. The Becker-Döring theory describes growth and fragmentation in terms of stepwise addition or removal of single particles to or from clusters of similar particles and has been applied to a wide range of problems of physicochemical and biological interest within recent years. Here we consider the case where the aggregation and fragmentation rates depend exponentially on cluster size. These choices of rate coefficients at least qualitatively correspond to physically realistic molecular clustering scenarios such as occur in, for example, simulations of simple fluids. New similarity solutions for the constant monomer Becker-Döring system are identified, and shown to be generic in the case of aggregation and fragmentation rates that depend exponentially on cluster size

The effect of caffeine mouth rinse on self-paced cycling performance

The aim of the study was to determine whether caffeine mouth rinse would improve 30 min self-paced cycling trial. Twelve healthy active males (age 20.5±0.7 years, mass 87.4±18.3 kg) volunteered for the study. They attended the laboratory on 3 separate occasions performing a 30 min self-paced cycling trial. On one occasion water was given as a mouth rinse for 5 s (PLA), on another occasion a 6.4% maltodextrin (CHO) solution was given for 5 s and finally a caffeine solution (containing 32 mg of caffeine dissolved in 125 ml water; CAF) was given for 5 s. Distance cycled, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion, cadence, speed and power output were recorded throughout all trials. Distance cycled during the CAF mouth rinse trial (16.2±2.8 km) was significantly greater compared to PLA trial (14.9±2.6 km). There was no difference between CHO and CAF trials (P=0.89). Cadence, power and velocity were significantly greater during the CAF trial compared to both PLA and CHO (P0.05). Caffeine mouth rinse improves 30 min cycling performance by allowing the participant to increase cadence, power and velocity without a concurrent increase in perceived exertion and heart rate

A Wavelet Analysis of Pliopleistocene Climate Indicators: A New View of Periodicity Evolution

Wavelet analysis offers an alternative to Fourier based time-series analysis, and is particularly useful when the amplitudes and periods of dominant cycles are time dependent. We analyse climatic records derived from oxygen isotopic ratios of marine sediment cores with modified Morlet wavelets. We use a normalization of the Morlet wavelets which allows direct correspondence with Fourier analysis. This provides a direct view of the oscillations at various frequencies, and illustrates the nature of the time-dependence of the dominant cycles

Creative producers international report

Creative Producers International was an international talent development programme which worked with 15 Creative Producers based in cities across the globe. Their areas of expertise ranged from contemporary art, place making and community engagement through to corporate collaboration, urban innovation and social activism. We have spent the last three years asking urgent questions about place, identity and public space, and exploring how arts and culture can be empowered to take a leading role in the development of our future cities. Our aim was to form and amplify a network of connected ecologies of practice that influence, challenge and support each other, and build an international bank of knowledge and experience around city change

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD): Ethical Considerations for Psychologists

Significant ethical challenges arise when mental health practitioners care for patients who seek to accelerate their own dying for rational medically valid reasons. Current and proposed laws provide for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in several U.S. jurisdictions, all of Canada, and several other nations. Differing provisions of these laws complicate their utility for some patients who seek aid in dying. Some extant laws include roles that mental health professionals might play in assessing patients’ competence or capacity to consent, mental illness, or other cognitive and behavioral factors. Practitioners who choose to accept roles in the MAiD process must consider and resolve a number of ethical challenges including potential conflicts between and among laws, ethical standards, third-party requests, personal values, and patients’ wishes. These include becoming aware of patients who may wish to act independently to end their lives when MAiD laws might otherwise exclude them. Examples from actual cases and the resultant discussion will form a basis for exploration of the ethical and legal complexities confronted when psychologists become engaged in the process either intentionally or incidentally. The lead article (Koocher) is not intended to comprehensively address MAiD in all of its complexity but rather to trigger a thoughtful discussion among the accompanying commentaries