Tree line

I was raised under a doctrine of extreme truth that cast a shadow over all reality. Upon rejecting that dogma, my life became a search to replace that truth. I’ve looked for it by immersing myself in the natural world and exploring my relationship with it through paint. My landscape painting practice has brought me a wealth of experiences; however, it has not given me an answer that fills the void of my upbringing. My thesis paper is an account of the questions, research, and paintings that surround my search. Nothing, it turns out, is absolute. There is a beauty in this, a bravery. An acceptance of the unknown has brought a balance to my life and my paintings are a reflection of this balance. I blend abstract shapes with representations of natural forms in a way that conveys the incomplete characteristic of our perception of reality. Through my research I have become aware of the tendency western society has to use the natural world to represent and fulfill their interpretation of reality. This tendency has led to the abuse and destruction of natural ecosystems, a staggering loss of biodiversity, and to catastrophic climate change. This history has made me very critical of my own relationship with nature and my work has become focused on turning the genre of landscape painting towards rectifying the damage. Through my paintings I hope to influence my viewer towards a similar realization to my own, that nature is a sacred, transcendent realm that can help us accept our place in a fragmented, unknowable world

THE EFFECT OF IONOSPHERIC CONDUCTIVITY ON MAGNETOSPHERIC DYNAMICS

The connection between ionospheric conductivity and the dynamics of the magnetosphere was investigated, using several methods to change the ionospheric conductivity and then study the resultant changes to the magnetosphere. Computer simulations of the Earth\u27s geospace environment were utilized using OpenGGCM coupled with an ionosphere model CTIM and a ring current model RCM. Three methods were used to modify ionospheric conductivity. The incoming particle precipitation was modified by several orders of magnitude $\alpha=.01,.1,1,10$, the ionospheric conductivity was increased or decreased by factors $\beta=.25, .5, 1, 2,$ and $4$, and for the last method differing values of $F_{10.7}$, $70,110, 150, 200,$ and $250$ were used. Each of the methods is different because $F_{10.7}$ mostly affects the dayside, while precipitation mostly affects the nightside, then using the $\beta$ changes the conductivity over the whole ionosphere. This gives a good range for studying the effects of ionospheric conductivity on the magnetosphere. The magnetospheric dynamics studied are: the dayside magnetopause location, the reconnection rate of the Earth\u27s magnetosphere, X-line formation in the magnetotail, and substorm dynamics, both the frequency and magnitude of substorm occurrence. To understand the effect of particle precipitation on conductivity two events were simulated, a calm period on 4 May 2005 and a strong storm period on 17 March 2013. Scaling the precipitation energy flux by several orders of magnitude, conductivities in the auroral oval were influenced which, in turn, influence the cross polar cap potentials. With the change in conductance, magnetospheric convection is enhanced or reduced, and the location of the subsolar distance of the magnetopause can change by up to one $R_E$. The investigation of the reconnection rate for the varying precipitation simulations using the Hesse-Forbes-Bern method shows that particle precipitation affects the magnetic reconnection rate in these two events. The most notable differences, up to 40\%, occur on short time scales, that is, hours. A relation for longer time scales (tens of hours) between precipitation and reconnection for these two events is more difficult to ascertain. Differences in cross polar cap potential (CPCP) and reconnection rate (R) can be explained by viscous interactions and polar cap saturation. When precipitation was decreased, polar conductance was decreased, viscous interactions are stronger, and CPCP is higher than R. For high precipitation, high conductance cases the polar cap is in the saturation regime and CPCP is lower than R. Hemispheric asymmetries were found in the cross polar cap potential and in the calculated reconnection rate derived from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The majority of this research has already been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space physics, Particle Precipitation Effects on Convection and the Magnetic Reconnection Rate in Earth\u27s Magnetosphere https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024030 For the whole ionospheric conductivity study, different values of $\beta=$, $.25, .5, 1, 2, 4$ were used to modify the ionospheric conductivity after it had been calculated by the ionosphere model. A moderate storm period, 16 May 2011 was simulated. Many of the same conclusions found in the precipitation study were found in this study as well, such as, CPCP decreasing as conductivity increases, the point at which the polar cap saturates decreases with increasing conductivity, and reconnection rates change on short time scales, but the overall average rate remains very similar. The incoming precipitation was used to identify auroral brightening that is linked with substorms. The criteria for auroral brightenings used in this study is where the maximum precipitation increased by at least $1 \ mW/m^2$ within 20 minutes. The criteria for substorms is that the maximum precipitation increases by 80\% within 20 minutes. Identifying all the auroral brightenings and substorms showed that as conductivity increased the maximum amount of precipitation decreased, and also the number and frequency of both the substorms and auroral brightenings decreased. The occurrence of extended X-lines in the magnetotail was analyzed, where if an earthward flow of greater than 50 km/s extended for greater than 10 $R_e$ in $Y_{GSE}$ was classified as an extended X-line. This is not to be confused with a bursty bulk flow or dipolarization front, which happen from reconnection but usually do not have a large extent in $Y_{GSE}$. Identifying extended X-lines in this manner showed a similar trend that as conductivity increased the number of extended X-lines decreased, and while there was not much of an indication if the size or location is affected much, the amount of time the simulation had extended X-lines present decreased. For the $F_{10.7}$ study, using values of $70, 110, 150, 200,$ and $250$, the ionospheric conductivity was influenced mostly on the dayside. A day during the spring equinox was simulated with ideal solar wind conditions as well as the 16 May 2011 storm period. The main results found is that $F_{10.7}$ does not affect the system as much as the precipitation study, or the whole ionosphere conductivity study, but there are still some indications that show the same conclusions obtained previously

Consumer Acceptance of Fresh Meat Packaging with Carbon Monoxide

Because some consumers have expressed reservations about the use of carbon monoxide for fresh meat packaging, we hypothesized that providing consumers with factual information about this packaging technology would alleviate consumer fears and biases concerning carbon monoxide, and improve consumer acceptance of carbon monoxide in meat packaging. Consumers were given opportunities to purchase ground beef with three choices of product color (bright red, light red or reddish brown), three hypothetical shelf life differences (3, 5 or 14 days) and three prices ($2.85,$3.05 or $3.25) both before and after information on packaging with carbon monoxide was provided. Following the initial purchasing experiment, the information on carbon monoxide describing the bright red color and extended shelf life achieved by this packaging technology was provided, and the purchasing experiment repeated to test the impact of communicating with consumers about carbon monoxide packaging. The results showed that consumers were willing to pay$0.16 per pound for each level of improved color of ground beef. There was no purchasing preference for 5-day shelf life over 3-day shelf life but consumers were willing to pay $0.36 per pound more for the 14-day shelf life. After information about carbon monoxide packaging as a means of providing improved color and shelf life was provided, willingness to pay declined to$0.05 per pound for color and $0.13 per pound for shelf life improvement. While the willingness to pay was less following information about carbon monoxide, it was still positive for those product attributes. These results suggest that strategies forimprovement of consumer attitudes concerning carbon monoxide packaging may need to do more than simply communicate the advantages of the technology. Extended efforts to educate consumers about the science of the technology may be necessary in order to significantly improve consumer attitudes about carbon monoxide packagin

RTSIM: A Computer Model of Real-Time Radiograph

Real-time X-ray inspection is replacing film radiography in more and more applications. The rapid feedback provided by such systems greatly enhances throughput, especially in the case of complex objects requiring multiple views for complete inspection. When these systems are combined with powerful computing techniques, rapid image capture and enhancement and storage is possible. The productivity of these techniques would be increased with the ability to predict the sensitivity of a particular inspection without having to set up the equipment. Computer modeling of the inspection procedures can provide such information

Monochromatic X-Ray Beams for NDT

The interaction of an x-ray beam from a conventional generator with an object containing more than one type of material is a very complicated process. The shape of the bremsstrahlung spectrum from the generator depends on the target material and orientation, as well as on the inherent filtration and any additional filters through which the beam passes. Absorption of the beam in the part under study varies dramatically with energy and depends critically on the atomic number and density of the material. Thus, interaction of x-rays in an object can provide a great deal of information about the elemental composition of the part. However, this information is difficult to extract from data obtained using a bremsstrahlung spectrum

Towards a holographic marginal Fermi liquid

We present an infinite class of 2+1 dimensional field theories which, after coupling to semi-holographic fermions, exhibit strange metallic behavior in a suitable large $N$ limit. These theories describe lattices of hypermultiplet defects interacting with parity-preserving supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories with $U(N) \times U(N)$ gauge groups at levels $\pm k$. They have dual gravitational descriptions in terms of lattices of probe M2 branes in $AdS_4 \times S^7/Z_k$ (for $N \gg 1, N \gg k^5$) or probe D2 branes in $AdS_4 \times CP^3$ (for $N \gg k \gg 1, N \ll k^5$). We discuss several challenges one faces in maintaining the success of these models at finite $N$, including backreaction of the probes in the gravity solutions and radiative corrections in the weakly coupled field theory limit.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX; v2, minor correction

The Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances to the Hydra and Coma Clusters

We present IR surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distance measurements to NGC 4889 in the Coma cluster and to NGC 3309 and NGC 3311 in the Hydra cluster. We explicitly corrected for the contributions to the fluctuations from globular clusters, background galaxies, and residual background variance. We measured a distance of 85 +/- 10 Mpc to NGC 4889 and a distance of 46 +/- 5 Mpc to the Hydra cluster. Adopting recession velocities of 7186 +/- 428 km/s for Coma and 4054 +/- 296 km/s for Hydra gives a mean Hubble constant of H_0 = 87 +/- 11 km/s/Mpc. Corrections for residual variances were a significant fraction of the SBF signal measured, and, if underestimated, would bias our measurement towards smaller distances and larger values of H_0. Both NICMOS on the Hubble Space Telescope and large-aperture ground-based telescopes with new IR detectors will make accurate SBF distance measurements possible to 100 Mpc and beyond.Comment: 24 pages, 4 PostScript figures, 2 JPEG images; accepted for publication in Ap