Journeys into the ancient world : classical studies in New Zealand : new directions along ancient paths : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

Irregular pagination (3-8) in AppendicesThe post-X generation, bribed by the cool of hot branding, gives its lifeblood in sacrificial tribute to the global tycoon. Its ambassadors are compulsorily released into a labyrinth engineered by a corporate Daedalus, and stalked by a minotaur machined and designed by unit-production architects. Now however the children of post-X are mapping the co-ordinates and confronting the minotaur, finding ways to manipulate the maze and get through it, coming back to the light a transformed stronger human being. But the way is fraught. In my twenty-three years as a full-time performance storyteller, I have walked the mythologic path. I tell epics, drawing members of the audience into the story to become goddesses, heroes and lovers. During that time the subject Classical Studies has undergone a phenomenal ascendancy in secondary schools and universities, amounting to a red shift : a windfall for an epic teller. Why has it become so magnetic to so many young people, when alongside is the technocyber utilitarian culture they are expected to be expert in, a culture which can exert control at the expense of individual freedoms. The ancient world is simply hot. Reasons: it offers an iconography, self-insight, big ideas. In the Odyssey, passion and empowering experience through contact with men and women of strength and creative action. But there are further and swiftly-flowing undercurrents. I argue that by treading the stones of the ancient world, the youth generation is accessing an ancient, alternative universe. The Lord of the Rings and the Matrix movies both use mythic framework. Are the eighteen year olds of 2003 seeking a way through a socio-psychological matrix-labyrinth by using keys and threads gifted from the ancient world? Philosophers and kings and daring women from those times are causing excitement and expansion of consciousness amongst the young and their mentors. That world has perhaps provided them with magic talismans, translated into thought and inscribed on thread around a spool, and as we unwind this clew we are weaving a way through demons and labyrinth, also knowing love and rapture. These thoughts form the focus of this thesis

Chiral behavior of baryon magnetic moments

The utility of chiral effective field theory, constructed in a manner in which loop contributions are suppressed as one moves outside the power-counting regime, is explored for baryon magnetic moments. Opportunities for the study of significant chiral curvature in valence and full QCD and the nontrivial behavior of strange- and light-quark contributions to the magnetic moment of the Lambda baryon are highlighted.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; prepared for the proceedings of Achievements and New Directions in Subatomic Physics: Workshop in Honour of Tony Thomas' 60th Birthda

Chiral effective field theory beyond the power-counting regime

Novel techniques are presented, which identify the chiral power-counting regime (PCR), and realize the existence of an intrinsic energy scale embedded in lattice QCD results that extend outside the PCR. The nucleon mass is considered as a benchmark for illustrating this new approach. Using finite-range regularization, an optimal regularization scale can be extracted from lattice simulation results by analyzing the renormalization of the low energy coefficients. The optimal scale allows a description of lattice simulation results that extend beyond the PCR by quantifying and thus handling any scheme-dependence. Preliminary results for the nucleon magnetic moment are also examined, and a consistent optimal regularization scale is obtained. This indicates the existence of an intrinsic scale corresponding to the finite size of the source of the pion cloud.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, conferenc

Fanonian ambivalence: on psychoanalysis and postcolonial critique

In this article the place of psychoanalysis in thinking about postcolonial subjectivities is considered, and reference is made to the contemporary South African situation. The article is divided into two sections. First, it is shown that, with its attention to the unconscious, to the past and its disguised repetition, psychoanalysis is especially attuned to the displaced routes of colonial desire after the end of official colonial (or apartheid) rule. The second section then considers Frantz Fanon’s strategic deployment of psychoanalysis, focusing on the way Fanon reworked key psychoanalytic concepts in Black Skin, White Masks, emphasizing what he referred to as “sociogeny,” the way colonial neuroses are produced out of an internalization—or “epidermalization” in Fanon’s terms—of racist social structure. The argument made is that psychoanalysis must, if it is to be a part of a critical frame for postcolonial subjectivities, be rendered not only instrument but also object of analysis, a part of the very social structure toward which Fanon shifted his attention. Psychoanalysis is adept at throwing into relief repetitions of the colonial past. Nonetheless, psychoanalytic thinking, pervasive in a postapartheid context—that is, not simply at the isolated level of clinical or scholarly practice, but as a discursive lens for engagements with the South African national past, as exemplified in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission—emerges as itself a particular kind of acting out the colonial past at an epistemological leve

Feasibility of UAV Technology to Promote Crop Yield and Health through Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Imaging

Drone technology has skyrocketed over the past decade driving costs down and the number of potential applications up, one being agricultural crop monitoring. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is an imaging technique used to visualize near infrared light, which happens to be a very good indicator of plant health and productivity. This project aims to explore the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) using NDVI imaging for crop monitoring and assess the feasibility of the process by developing a UAV with a NDVI camera to create NDVI maps from the aerial crop images. These maps will be cross referenced with soil samples to check for proof of concept and accuracy. The project will be presented at the 2015 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering conference in New Orleans, Louisiana in the student poster and paper competition and at the Cal Poly BRAE senior project presentation banquet. The final product will illustrate the feasibility, efficiency, and economic benefits of UAV NDVI crop imaging and offer a solution to the dated and tedious process of crop monitoring that is currently physically walking the field

Marshall University Music Department Presents a Joint Sentior Recital, Derek Staley and Ross Patrick, with guest artists, Joe Crowe, cajon, Jacob Hoskins, marimba, Sean McCallister, marinba, Shane Stevens, piano

https://mds.marshall.edu/music_perf/1320/thumbnail.jp

Marshall University Music Department Presents a Joint Senior Recital, Derik Staley and Ross Patrick

https://mds.marshall.edu/music_perf/1291/thumbnail.jp

Estimating Survival and Determining Causes of Mortality of Golden Eagles in South-Central Montana

There is concern for golden eagles (Aquilla chrysaetos) in the West as a result of contradictory population trend estimates and a likely increase in threats including but not limited to expanded wind energy development.  Estimating survival of golden eagles and identifying causes of mortality can be used to assess the viability of nesting golden eagle populations and to direct mitigation efforts if necessary.  To date, little information exists on golden eagle survival in western North America.  In addition, identified causes of golden eagle mortality are often associated with an opportunity to find dead birds, creating a potential bias that may be minimized with the use of satellite telemetry.  We outfitted 17 adult and 13 nestling golden eagles with satellite transmitters during the 2011-2014 nesting seasons near Livingston, Montana to estimate survival and determine causes of mortality.  We used multi-state models to estimate survival over discrete-time periods for both adults and nestlings.  Preliminary results showed our survival estimates were consistent with similar long-lived, slow reproducing raptors.  Golden eagle mortalities in our study were a result of poisoning, intraspecific interaction and poaching.  Our survival estimates are consistent with the stable density of breeding golden eagles in our study area and the primary causes of mortality differed from repository-based studies