Where We Go

Where We Go is a soundscape built in Virtual Reality. Using over 300 unique sound sources, a virtual space roughly equivalent in size to a commercial airliner factory, and several simple AIs, the piece aims to create a surreal space that is both musically generative, as well as reactive to the user as they move through it. As Virtual Reality is a nascent technology, I\u27ve had to teach myself a lot about working with it as a new medium for the creation of audio-visual art. From initial conception to final execution, the work has gone through several major revisions, and throughout the process, I\u27ve been able to holistically incorporate in to it the new understandings and techniques that I\u27ve learned along the way.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1021/thumbnail.jp

The unicorn stays in the picture : deconstructing the "chosen one" myth in the young adult fantasy film

This report covers the process of developing, writing and revising the original screenplay "Magic for Losers." When famous child wizard Daphne Grimsby is abducted by villainous foes, her loser brother Darwin must reluctantly venture into a magical world to save her. The script relies heavily on the concepts and ideas evoked from the Hero's Journey model of storytelling. I have also structured this report on the same model, as in its own way, completing a feature length screenplay is fraught with with the same trails and tribulations.Radio-Television-Fil

Mathematics Proficiency of Fashion Marketing and Fashion Merchandising Students

Fashion Marketing and Fashion Merchandising (FMM) students should be prepared with a sound mathematics background as they graduate from programs and enter today’s workforce. Unfortunately, future employers within the fashion industry indicate that prospective employees often cannot pass entry level mathematics tests (Shirley & Kohler, 2012). This non-experimental descriptive study examined the mathematics proficiency of postsecondary students entering and completing FMM programs in order to determine if FMM students possess the mathematics skills needed for entry into the workforce. The Mathematics for Industry Test (MIT), a 40-item, timed, paper-and-pencil assessment was administered to 94 entering and 111 completing students enrolled in 13 university-based FMM programs in the East Central Region of the United States. Separate between-group t-tests were conducted to compare overall test scores and four subscales (number and computations, ratio and proportional reasoning, measurement, and statistics and graphing) for entering and completing students. No significant differences were found for post-secondary students entering and completing FMM programs on the overall test or on any of the four subscale scores. Test scores, subscale scores, and distributions of scores for entering and completing students were similarly low, indicating that the majority of FMM students do not possess the mathematics proficiency needed to function effectively in industry as measured by the MIT. While not significant, student performance on the number and computations and statistics and graphing sub-scales were slightly higher than on the ratio and proportional reasoning and measurement sub-scales. This study provides evidence that more work is needed to increase the mathematics proficiency of FMM students to meet workforce demands. Recommendations are made for future research and for possible curricular changes needed to meet industry and workforce demands

The Irony of Flood Risks in African Dryland Environments: Human Security in North Cameroon

North Cameroon, though located in an arid environment, ironically also suffers from the serious threat of flooding in the region. This article examines contemporary challenges resulting from frequent flooding in North Cameroon. Using Cutter’s “Hazard of Place Model” of vulnerability as the conceptual basis, the article triangulates data from a variety of sources to analyze environmental risks, social and biophysical vulnerability and flood impact, including flood risk management in North Cameroon. The findings reveal that North Cameroon is vulnerable to frequent flooding due to a combination of environmental, socio-economic, and geographic factors further compounded by low organizational resilience to flooding with dire consequences for livelihoods. We argue that, if not handled appropriately, the impact of flooding in North Cameroon risks trapping the population in a permanent and vicious cycle of destitution and poverty. The government urgently needs to review its disaster management policies to be more proactive and strategic in flood management in order to enhance human security and prevent permanent damage to the livelihoods and the micro-economy of the region. Lessons learned from this research, when applied, can help to reduce the vulnerabilities of the poverty-stricken population and enhance resilience to flood risks

Polytypism and Unique Site Preference in LiZnSb: A Superior Thermoelectric Reveals Its True Colors

The first example of polytypism in the I–II–V semiconductors has been demonstrated with the synthesis of cubic LiZnSb by a low-temperature solution-phase method. This phase exhibits a unique coloring pattern that is novel for this class of compounds. The choice of site configuration has a considerable impact on the band structure of these materials, which in turn affects the transport properties. While the hexagonal polytype has been suggested as a promising n-type and extremely poor p-type thermoelectric material, the cubic analogue is calculated to have high efficiencies for both the n- and p-type derivatives (1.64 and 1.43, respectively, at 600 K). Furthermore, the cubic phase is found to be the energetically favored polytype. This surprising result provides a rationale for the lack of success in synthesizing the hexagonal polytype in either stoichiometric or n-type compositions

American Environmentalism and Cross-Cultural Conflict: An Examination of the Makah Native American Tribe's Struggle for Reclamation of Whaling Rights

107 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Political Science and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2016.One of the key debates within American environmentalism over the past forty years has been over its applicability beyond our cultural context. Its staunchest critics find that many of its precepts (most notably the wilderness concept at its heart) are founded on ethnocentric, indeed perhaps colonialist, suppositions. Its proponents however argue that there is an overriding truth to this, one that transcends the need for moral agreement and cultural respect. This thesis examines one case in which the precepts of American environmental thought were put to the test: the Makah Native American tribe's struggle for whaling rights. In this concept the Makah's ancient tradition of whaling came up against heated opposition from environmentalist critics, many of whom argued that whaling would harm the integrity of the ecosystem and of the whaling stocks, and that therefore the tradition should not be revived. This thesis will argue that ultimately this conflict shows the extent to which American environmentalism relies on ethnocentric presuppositions (including but not limited to the wilderness concept) to make its claims, and that therefore it requires a new path

Machine learning at the nanoscale

Although scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques have allowed researchers to interact with the nanoscale for decades now, little improvement has been made to the incredibly manual, time consuming process of setting up, running, and analysing the results of these experiments, often arising due to the constantly varying shape of the probe apex. Unlike traditional computing methods, machine learning methods (with neural networks in particular) are considerably more capable of automating subjective tasks such as these, and we are only just beginning to explore the potential applications of this technology in SPM. In this thesis we explore a number of areas where machine learning could potentially massively change the way we go about SPM experimentation. We begin by discussing the history, theory, and experimental concepts of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and normal-incidence-x-ray standing wave (NIXSW). We then explore the makeup of a neural network and demonstrate how they can be applied to a variety of use-cases in SPM, including classification and policy prediction. Moving to the experimental chapters, we first discuss how we can successfully distinguish between STM tip states of the H:Si(100), Au(111) and Cu(111) surfaces. We also show that by adapting this network to work in real time, we improve performance while requiring on the order of 100x less data. We next discuss our attempts to combine these networks with expert examples to intelligently maintain tip apex sharpness during experimentation, envisioning an end-to-end automatic experiment. Because one of the main difficulties in applying machine learning is the frequent need to manually label data, we then show how we can use Monte Carlo simulations of self-organised AFM nanostructures to automatically label training data for a network, and then combine it with classical statistics and preprocessing to find specific structures in a mixed, messy dataset of real, experimental AFM images. As part of this, we also build a network to denoise experimental images. Finally, we present NIXSW results from an investigation into the temperature dependence of H20@C60, discussing the potential to use unsupervised clustering techniques to distinguish between noisy human-indistinguishable spectra to overcome limitations in data collection

The Place of Patient-Centred Care in Medical Professional Culture: A Qualitative Study

Despite widespread support, the implementation of patient-centred care (PCC) remains a challenge and it is often assumed that further clinical education and culture change are needed. To inform such efforts, we need to know whether the principles underpinning PCC accord with doctors’ personal and cultural values. In this chapter, we report the results of a qualitative interview study of clinicians, conducted in order to establish whether PCC emerges in the narratives of Australian doctors, and, if so, how. Our findings suggest that doctors both understand and value the principles underpinning PCC. This suggests that patient-centeredness is part of the professional culture of medicine, and that those wanting to ensure that this patient-centeredness remains an integral part of practice for succeeding generations of doctors might need to focus not as much on education and culture change as on ensuring that there are structures and processes in place to support PCC