UA37/2 If This Next Apocalypse Gets Canceled or Postponed

Poem written by WKU English professor Tom Hunley during Covid-19 pandemic

Plasmons in Topological Systems

Topological systems are not a recent development in physics, but the study of them has rapidly expanded in recent years due to advances in technology allowing for more accurate experimentation. This in return, has also led to more work for theoretical physicists to explore new possible applications of topological properties. Gaped graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDCs) are two examples of materials with topological properties due to symmetry points called valleys, where the dipole-transitions are most probable. This document contains two novel examples of those topological properties and their effects of surface plasmons. Firstly, we examine Chiral Berry Plasmons (CBP). CBP Modes have been shown to exist in 2D Dirac materials. These modes exist because of the role Berry Flux (net Berry curvature) plays in the materials themselves and are confined to the boundary in the absence of topological edge states. We show that in an optically pumped gaped graphene model, these CBP modes have an inherent tunability given by the temperature of the electrons in the system, the band gap of the material, and the relative populations created by the optical pumping of the system. Our calculations consider a quasi-equilibrium regime after thermalization but before relaxation, which occurs picoseconds later. In the other, we theoretically examine a TMDC Based Spaser Type II that has been optically pumped using an ultra-fast circularly-polarized pulse. The spasing system consists of a silver nanospheroid and a circular TMDC monolayer flake. The silver nanospheroid screens the incoming pulse and creates a nonuniform distribution of excitations in the TMDC valleys. As expected, these excitations still decay into localized surface plasmons (LSP) along the nanospheroid. However, valley polarization is only preserved in our system for small $K$-valley populations, as the required excited populations to contribute to the spasing avalanche are sometimes more significant than those that maintain valley polarization. The spaser also emits far-field radiation, shifting the polarization and magnifying the incoming pulse, showing promise in that area of research

UA37/2 We Will Survive

Poem written by WKU English professor Tom Hunley during the Covid-19 pandemic

Queer Ways of Seeing Queer Ways of Depicting: Ellsworth Kelly’s Afterlives and the Liberatory Burden of Modernist Formalism

Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) was a prolific artist whose career spanned six decades. During that time, Kelly forged new ground stylistically through his unwavering devotion to formalism. Derived from his keen eye for observing his quotidian surroundings, the masking of readymade sources via abstraction has become the understanding central to scholarship on the artist. Kelly’s practice of veiling the subject also reveals a vast, complex matrix of sociohistorical forces related to and stemming from his positionality as a gay man—the significance of which has been generally discounted or omitted from understandings of Kelly within the art historical canon. This thesis probes the artist’s oeuvre, seeking new interpretative ground by interrogating the artist’s canonized positionality via close looking at three distinct bodies of work through lenses of critical feminist theories—most notably the idea of queer formalism. In tracing the origins of formalism and its use throughout modernism as a means for reinforcing heteronormative universalities, this thesis will argue that Kelly used his distinctive brand of formalist abstraction as a means of navigating tides of sociopolitical persecution during his time away from the United States on the G.I. Bill in Paris during the Second World War—veiling the subject as a means of veiling the self. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to examine and interrogate Kelly’s output and canonized understanding by making space for queer visualities and futurity. Seeing Kelly as more than just “another” minimalist or abstractionist, this thesis argues that the artist’s commitment to forms owes its lineage to a queer way of seeing and a queer way of depicting

UA37/2 We Lived Happily during The Plague

Poem written by WKU English professor Tom Hunley during the Covid-19 pandemic

UA37/2 Lockdown Haiku

Haiku written by WKU English professor Tom Hunley during Covid-19 pandemic

Circadian Rhythmic Localization of tPA and PAI-1 in the SCN 2.2 Cell Culture May Provide Evidence for Determining the Mechanism of Gating Photic Phase Shifts

Mammalian circadian rhythms are controlled by a central pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain. The SCN exhibits endogenous rhythms in neuronal activity and entrains to external stimuli, particularly light. Interestingly, phase shifts in response to light only occur at night and the mechanisms gating phase shifting are not well characterized. Our lab demonstrated that the extracellular protease, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and its inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), help gate phase shifting. Total tPA and PAI-1 expression are rhythmic in mouse SCN. These proteins mediate different functions depending on their exact subcellular localization. Therefore, knowing where they are located within the SCN will clarify their actions with respect to SCN clock phase regulation. The immortalized rat SCN2.2 cell culture exhibits rhythms in protein expression in vitro that mirror those found in vivo and can be separated into cellular, extracellular matrix, and media fractions. Here, we investigate tPA and PAI-1 expression using western blotting in the cellular fraction of the SCN2.2 line over a 36-hr timecourse. Preliminary results suggest a rhythm of PAI-1 levels inside the cell with peak expression in the early subjective night. Future studies are aimed toward elucidating the subcellular localization and temporal expression patterns of these proteins in the SCN