Jerry Herman\u27s Leading Ladies

Jerry Herman is celebrated for his ability to showcase strong leading female roles in his canon of work that spans some fifty years. In writing such strong female characters, he must produce strong male counterparts to these women who can communicate on their level and not become overpowered by the women\u27s presence. I was cast in the musical revue, It\u27s Today: An Evening of Jerry Herman, conceived, directed, and choreographed by Earl D. Weaver. My portion of the revue explored Herman\u27s leading male roles of Cornelius from Hello, Dolly!; Mack from Mack and Mabel; Colonel Tadeusz Boleslav Stjerbinsky from The Grand Tour; and Albin from La Cage aux Folles, My analysis of these specific leading male roles uncovers how their relationships with their leading ladies defines their character in each of the musicals for which they were written. It also helped me define multiple characters in the course of a revue with no plot or storyline. Though all these male characters provided me with challenges, my greatest task was defining Albin in La Cage aux Folles. He provides a unique perspective in that he exemplifies a combination of both male/female characteristics. He is a man who regularly portrays a woman onstage in a drag club as well as assuming a female role in a homosexual relationship. He serves as the \u27leading lady\u27 for La Cage aux Folles though his character is considered a \u27leading man\u27 role. He is the consummate representation of all Jerry Herman leading roles, and embodies many of the themes Herman utilizes in all his work

Another Titanic change is needed to save more lives at sea

How has our approach to saving lives at sea changed since the tragedy of the RMS Titanic in which 1,523 of the 2,228 people she was carrying died a century ago? Surprisingly, not much. Only this April the South Korean ferry Sewol capsized claiming 288 lives so far, many high school students

2016-2017 Master Class - Eugene Izotov (Oboe)

https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1010/thumbnail.jp

The LightSail 2 Solar Sailing Mission Summary

The LightSail 2 mission concluded a 3-year mission in November 2022, having successfully demonstrated controlled solar sailing in low-Earth orbit using a CubeSat platform. Flight data show that LightSail 2 successfully controlled its orientation relative to the Sun, with sustained periods of apogee raising and increasing orbital energy. The LightSail 2 solar sail was 5.6 m on a side and has a total deployed area of 32 m². Four independent triangular aluminized Mylar® sail sections 4.6 microns thick were Z-folded and stowed into four sail bays. The sail segments were deployed by four 4 m Triangular Retractable And Collapsible booms made of elgiloy. The booms were wound around a common spindle, with deployment driven by a Faulhaber motor containing Hall sensors. Attitude was controlled using a single-axis Sinclair Interplanetary momentum wheel and magnetic torque rods. During solar sailing operations, two 90 degree slews were performed each orbit to harness momentum from solar photons. The thrust from solar radiation pressure measurably reduced the rate of orbital decay, including an extended period of orbit raising. Two Planetary Society Cameras developed by the Aerospace Corporation were mounted at the tips of opposing solar panels, providing imaging for engineering evaluation and public engagement throughout mission operations. This paper provides a summary of the LightSail 2 mission implementation, including the flight system design and the pre-launch test program. LightSail 2 mission operations are described, including discussion of the ground system. Solar sailing performance is presented, and anomalies encountered during the mission are discussed. The Planetary Society\u27s decade-long LightSail program was entirely donor-funded, with over 50,000 contributors worldwide. With a total cost of about $7M for two flight missions, the LightSail program showed that solar sails can provide a cost-effective option for propulsion of CubeSat-class vehicles

Speech intelligibility among modulated and spatially distributed noise sources

At a cocktail party, listeners are faced with multiple, spatially distributed interfering voices. The dominant interfering voice may change from moment to moment and, consequently, change in spatial location. The ability of the binaural system to deal with such a dynamic scene has not been systematically analyzed. Spatial release from masking (SRM) was measured in simple spatial scenes, simulated over headphones with a frontal speech source. For a single noise at 105°, , SRM was reduced if that noise modulated (10 Hz square wave, 50% duty cycle, 20 dB modulation depth), but, for two noises in symmetrical locations, SRM increased if the noises were modulated in alternation, suggesting that the binaural system can “switch” between exploiting different spatial configurations. Experiment 2 assessed the contributions of interaural time and level differences as a function of modulation rate (1–20 Hz). Scenes were created using the original head-related impulse responses and ones that had been manipulated to isolate each cue. SRM decreased steeply with modulation rate. The combined effects of interaural time and level differences were consistent with additive contributions. The results indicate that binaural sluggishness limits the contribution of binaural switching to speech understanding at a cocktail part

Ongoing Development of a Series Bosch Reactor System

Future manned missions to deep space or planetary surfaces will undoubtedly require highly robust, efficient, and regenerable life support systems that require minimal consumables. To meet this requirement, NASA continues to explore a Boschbased carbon dioxide reduction system to recover oxygen from CO2. In order to improve the equivalent system mass of Bosch systems, we seek to design and test a "Series Bosch" system in which two reactors in series are optimized for the two steps of the reaction, as well as to explore the use of in situ materials as carbon deposition catalysts. Here we report recent developments in this effort including assembly and initial testing of a Reverse WaterGas Shift reactor (RWGSr) and initial testing of two gas separation membranes. The RWGSr was sized to reduce CO2 produced by a crew of four to carbon monoxide as the first stage in a Series Bosch system. The gas separation membranes, necessary to recycle unreacted hydrogen and CO2, were similarly sized. Additionally, we report results of preliminary experiments designed to determine the catalytic properties of Martian and Lunar regolith simulant for the carbon deposition step

The LightSail 2 Controlled Solar Sailing Demonstration Mission

The LightSail 2 mission is the culmination of a decade-long program sponsored by The Planetary Society to advance solar sailing technology. The objective of LightSail 2 is to demonstrate controlled solar sailing in Earth orbit using a CubeSat platform. The LightSail 2 attitude is controlled using a single-axis momentum wheel and magnetic torque rods. During solar sailing operations, two 90 degree slews are performed each orbit to harness momentum from solar photons. Flight data show that LightSail 2 is successfully controlling its orientation relative to the Sun, and the controlled thrust from solar radiation pressure is measurably reducing the rate of orbital decay. The Planetary Society declared LightSail 2 mission success on July 31, 2019. This paper provides an overview of the LightSail 2 mission implementation, including the design of the flight system and flight software, and the pre-launch testing program. A summary of LightSail 2 mission operations is provided, including a description of the ground system. Solar sailing performance is presented, and anomalies encountered during the mission are discussed. The flight team continues to refine solar sailing performance and conduct on-orbit imaging for engineering purposes and to engage public interest. The LightSail program is entirely donor-funded, with over 50,000 contributors around the globe

2015-2016 Master Class - Nancy Ambrose King (Oboe)

https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1012/thumbnail.jp

Different bacterial gene expression patterns and attenuated host immune responses are associated with the evolution of low-level vancomycin resistance during persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia

BACKGROUND: Low-level vancomycin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus (vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) and hetero-VISA [hVISA]) emerges during persistent infection and failed vancomycin therapy. Up-regulation of genes associated with the "cell wall stimulon" and mutations in the vraSR operon have both been implicated in the development of resistance, however the molecular mechanisms of resistance are not completely understood. To further elucidate the mechanisms leading to resistance transcriptome comparisons were performed using multiple clinical pairs of vancomycin-susceptible S. aureus (VSSA) and hVISA/VISA (n = 5), and three VSSA control pairs from hospitalized patients with persistent bacteraemia that did not develop hVISA/VISA. Based on the transcriptome results multiple genes were sequenced and innate immune system stimulation was assessed in the VSSA and hVISA/VISA pairs. RESULTS: Here we show that up-regulation of vraS and the "cell wall stimulon" is not essential for acquisition of low-level vancomycin resistance and that different transcriptional responses occur, even between closely related hVISA/VISA strains. DNA sequencing of vraSR, saeSR, mgrA, rot, and merR regulatory genes and upstream regions did not reveal any differences between VSSA and hVISA/VISA despite transcriptional changes suggesting mutations in these loci may be linked to resistance in these strains. Enhanced capsule production and reduced protein A expression in hVISA/VISA were confirmed by independent bioassays and fully supported the transcriptome data. None of these changes were observed in the three control pairs that remained vancomycin-susceptible during persistent bacteremia. In a macrophage model of infection the changes in cell surface structures in hVISA/VISA strains were associated with significantly reduced NF-kappaB activation resulting in reduced TNF-alpha and IL-1beta expression. CONCLUSION: We conclude that there are multiple pathways to low-level vancomycin resistance in S. aureus, even among closely related clinical strains, and these can result in an attenuated host immune response. The persistent infections associated with hVISA/VISA strains may be a consequence of changes in host pathogen interactions in addition to the reduced antibiotic susceptibility

Development of a Power Electronics Unit for the Space Station Plasma Contactor

A hollow cathode plasma contactor has been baselined as a charge control device for the Space Station (SS) to prevent deleterious interactions of coated structural components with the ambient plasma. NASA LeRC Work Package 4 initiated the development of a plasma contactor system comprised of a Power Electronics Unit (PEU), an Expellant Management Unit (EMU), a command and data interface, and a Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU). A breadboard PEU was designed and fabricated. The breadboard PEU contains a cathode heater and discharge power supply, which were required to operate the PCU, a control and auxiliary power converter, an EMU interface, a command and telemetry interface, and a controller. The cathode heater and discharge supplies utilized a push-pull topology with a switching frequency of 20 kHz and pulse-width-modulated (PWM) control. A pulse ignition circuit derived from that used in arcjet power processors was incorporated in the discharge supply for discharge ignition. An 8088 based microcontroller was utilized in the breadboard model to provide a flexible platform for controller development with a simple command/data interface incorporating a direct connection to SS Mulitplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) analog and digital I/O cards. Incorporating this in the flight model would eliminate the hardware and software overhead associated with a 1553 serial interface. The PEU autonomously operated the plasma contactor based on command inputs and was successfully integrated with a prototype plasma contactor unit demonstrating reliable ignition of the discharge and steady-state operation