Sara Hutson: Senior Work

I have a great love of both music and art. As I have sampled different medias, I have been looking for one that will allow me to reconcile the two, and so I have taken an interest in creating package designs and album artwork for CDs. This also allows me to work in my love of illustration and typography, and combine them into a product that is a bridge between art and music. For my imagery, I target scenes of familiarity. I like to work with things we see so often that they blend into the background because they automatically connect to the viewer. Then I like to twist an aspect of it so that is once more abstracted, and takes more time to decipher. I am also interested in the use of mirrors for their challenge of space and complexity of meaning. In my research on mirrors, I have become fascinated by their ability to be a bridge between reality and fantasy. Mirrors possess the unique ability to reveal truth, they can confuse by extending a space, they can create infinity, or they can be small windows into a space that we can never truly inhabit. I hope, as I work with CD package design, to find a way to work in mirrors and take on a greater dimension of thought and composition in my work. My influences include (there is definitely a graphic designer we have studied that I know designed hundreds of albums. I wanted to look at his work, but I cannot remember his name.) Also, Al Hirschfeld, for his descriptive line work in his illustrations. I adore the fluidity of Louise Fili’s typography, Saul Bass’s illustrations, El Lissitzky’s unique abstractions, and Lucian Bernard’s combination of typography and illustration. In terms of mirror artwork, I like to reference Michelangelo Pistoletto, for his incorporation of the viewer; Yayoi Kusama, for her creation of infinite spaces; and Robert Smithson, for his mirror concepts.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/1001/thumbnail.jp

Reconciling Differences in Test Results: Comprehension

In planning an instructional program for Brenda you have discovered that one of her tests indicates an instructional level of fourth grade for comprehension and another test shows comprehension at the high second grade level. How can both results be accurate? How do you decide about their accuracy? If both are true what does that indicate about her profile of abilities? How can you turn what appears to be a testing anomaly into useful diagnostic information

The Significance of Place in John Muir’s Writings about Wilderness

Abstract John Muir was a prominent figure in the North American conservation movement who advocated for the preservation of wilderness throughout his life. Muir’s writings depict a wealth of assigned values to some of North America’s most wild places. The topic of “place” is one area of contemporary research that can be applied to Muir’s writings on wilderness to examine how his ideas might hold currency in modern times. It is from a conceptual framework of place that this study responds to the following research questions through a qualitative approach utilizing text analysis: What are the connections and disconnections between Muir’s writings on wilderness and contemporary place attachment literature? How might contemporary place attachment literature benefit from John Muir’s writings? Results of this study highlight the historical and contemporary importance within Muir’s writings on preserving and exploring wilderness areas to encourage place attachment. Implications are discussed

A Resonant Photoacoustic CO2 Sensor Based on MID-IR LED and MEMS Microphone Technology Operating at 4.3μm

This paper presents work on the development of a MID-IR LED-based photoacoustic (PA) Carbon dioxide (  sensor. The transducer used is a MEMS microphone and the sensor was operated in the resonant mode, which makes it the first time that this light source and transducer combination are used in this mode for PA gas sensing, as far as the authors know. Optimisation of the sensor’s operation in the resonant mode was done using COMSOL Multiphysics to simulate the fundamental resonance frequency of the PA cell and the optimum position for the microphone. The COMSOL Multiphysics and analytical results computed were validated experimentally. Reduction of the inlet and outlet pipes diameter immensely minimized gas flow noise introduced into the PA cell. Cheaper, miniaturised and stand-alone PA sensors can be produced from Mid-IR LEDs and MEMS microphones because they are small in size, inexpensive and consume less power. The importance of this work largely lies in the fact that the huge market demand for this type of sensors could be met by higher volume production at low cost using this technology. Ultimately the work will be an effective contribution to the monitoring and control of carbon emission. Keywords: Photoacoustic, Mid-IR LED, MEMS microphone, resonance, COMSO

Intestinal neuromuscular function after preservation and transplantation

While it is well known that prolonged preservation of the intestinal graft causes severe mucosal damage after transplantation, little is known about the effect on neuromuscular function. The entire small intestine of adult hound dogs was flushed and preserved with cold lactated Ringer's solution and autotransplanted either immediately (n = 6) or after 24 hr (n = 6). Animals undergoing sham operation (n = 4) were used as a control. Fasting motility and the response of the intestinal smooth muscle and enteric nerves to bethanechol (100 μg/kg/0.5 hr, iv) and cisapride (0.5 mg/kg, iv) were determined by a multiple strain gauge method on Postoperative Days 2, 4, 7, 14, 21, and 28. Compared to the control, immediately transplanted grafts and those preserved for 24 hr developed delayed reappearance of migrating myoelectric complexes (MMC), hypercontractile activity, and reduced response to bethanechol and cisapride administration. Animals in the preservation group developed more abnormal fasting motility after transplantation, but responses to bethanechol and cisapride stimulation were not markedly different from those of the immediate group. The reappearance of MMC occurred 3 weeks postoperatively in the preservation group compared to 2 days in the immediate group. The results of our study indicate that intestinal dysmotility is augmented in prolonged-preservation grafts compared to those with brief preservation. The dysmotility was transient and normalized 3 to 4 weeks after surgery. Preservation and reperfusion injury to the neuromuscular system of intestinal grafts are reversible and are attenuated by simple hypothermia

Prospects of forming ultracold molecules in double-Sigma states by magnetoassociation of alkali-metal atoms with Yb

We explore the feasibility of producing ultracold diatomic molecules with nonzero electric and magnetic dipole moments by magnetically associating two atoms, one with zero electron spin and one with nonzero spin. Feshbach resonances arise through the dependence of the hyperfine coupling on internuclear distance.We survey the Feshbach resonances in diatomic systems combining the nine stable alkali-metal isotopes with those of Yb, focusing on the illustrative examples of RbYb and CsYb. We show that the resonance widths may expressed as a product of physically comprehensible terms in the framework of Fermi’s golden rule. The resonance widths depend strongly on the background scattering length, which may be adjusted by selecting the Yb isotope, and on the hyperfine coupling constant and the magnetic field. In favorable cases the resonances may be over 100 mG wide

Magnetically Tunable Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Li-Yb Mixtures

We investigate the possibility of forming Li+Yb ultracold molecules by magnetoassociation in mixtures of ultracold atoms. We find that magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances exist, but are extremely narrow for even-mass ytterbium isotopes, which all have zero spin. For odd-mass Yb isotopes, however, there is a new mechanism due to hyperfine coupling between the electron spin and the Yb nuclear magnetic moment. This mechanism produces Feshbach resonances for fermionic Yb isotopes that can be more than 2 orders of magnitude larger than for the bosonic counterparts

Reducing the Effects of Unequal Number of Games on Rankings

Ranking is an important mathematical process in a variety of contexts such as information retrieval, sports and business. Sports ranking methods can be applied both in and beyond the context of athletics. In both settings, once the concept of a game has been defined, teams (or individuals) accumulate wins, losses, and ties, which are then factored into the ranking computation. Many settings involve an unequal number of games between competitors. This paper demonstrates how to adapt two sports rankings methods, the Colley and Massey ranking methods, to settings where an unequal number of games are played between the teams. In such settings, the standard derivations of the methods can produce nonsensical rankings. This paper introduces the idea of including a super-user into the rankings and considers the effect of this fictitious player on the ratings. We apply such techniques to rank batters and pitchers in Major League baseball, professional tennis players, and participants in a free online social game. The ideas introduced in this paper can further the scope that such methods are applied and the depth of insight they offer