Zones of tension: desertification and despoilation in Frederick Sommer’s Arizona photographs 1939-1945

As a solo authored contribution to one of two panels for a conference at Tate Britain 13 January 2012 organised in collaboration with Martin Myrone, Curator, Tate Britain, and Dr Joy Sleeman, Art Historian, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, my paper looks at desertification and despoilation as themes in the work of the landscape photographer Frederick Sommer (1905-1999). The paper considers the radical innovations in formal composition in Sommer's work as reflective of modernist revisions and breaks with C19th tropes of the sublime. The paper also considers Sommer's influences and legacy in the light of later C20th and contemporary photography

Another country XV

Another Country XV (2001) by John Timberlake, purchased by the Imperial War Museum in 2004, included in group exhibition of contemporary art in the collection of the IWM, curated by Sara Beva

Beyond the picturesque.

Amongst the work shown as part of a group exhibition in Gent entitled "Beyond the picturesque" whose main theme was exploring concepts and influences of the picturesque in contemporary art were the following: Another Country XII (2001), Colony 13 (2006) and Google Painting Grid (2007-9) by John Timberlake. The exhibition subsequently toured to Marta museum, Herford, Germany. Some of this work was previously exhibited in other public and commercial galleries before being selected to form part of this exhibition

Product Liability Law

While Virginia is not typically seen as progressive in the field of product liability law, the Commonwealth is nonetheless a forum in which these product liability battles take place. This article summarizes selected decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, federal district courts in Virginia, and courts of the Commonwealth issued between July 1, 2004 and May 15, 2005. This article also includes a discussion of the most relevant legislative changes made by the Virginia General Assembly over the same time period. While a complete analysis of every decision and statute affecting product liability is not possible, this article summarizes those which should be the most useful to practitioners in Virginia

Tristimulus measurements (CIELAB 76) of port wine colour

Tristimulus colour values were measured using the CIELAB 76 convention and compared with conventional measurements on 87 freshly-made and ageing single cultivar port wines from 5 sites for up to 6 years. There were high correlations between a* (redness) and A520nm, and saturation and colour density, and a high negative correlation between L* (Lightness) and colour density. There was little correlation between b* (yellowness) and A420nm; consequently hue angle did not correspond to tint. Amongst the tristimulus parameters, there were high correlations between L* or saturation and a*. In individual ports L* varied linearly but negatively with hue angle, but in the group of ports examined there was no significant relationship between L* and hue angle because of adc;litional variable phenolic browning depending upon cultivar. In model anthocyanin solutions increasing L* (by decreasing pigment concentration or increasing pH) caused a linear reduction in hue angle but an increase in tint; the latter was attributed to dissociation of associated anthocyanin molecules. Measurement of hue angle in ageing ports gives an indication of the relative occurrence of two competing ageing mechanisms, involving or not involving acetaldehyde. Hue angle is a more discriminating parameter for expressing the colour nuance of red wines than tint

Comparing periodic-orbit theory to perturbation theory in the asymmetric infinite square well

An infinite square well with a discontinuous step is one of the simplest systems to exhibit non-Newtonian ray-splitting periodic orbits in the semiclassical limit. This system is analyzed using both time-independent perturbation theory (PT) and periodic-orbit theory and the approximate formulas for the energy eigenvalues derived from these two approaches are compared. The periodic orbits of the system can be divided into classes according to how many times they reflect from the potential step. Different classes of orbits contribute to different orders of PT. The dominant term in the second-order PT correction is due to non-Newtonian orbits that reflect from the step exactly once. In the limit in which PT converges the periodic-orbit theory results agree with those of PT, but outside of this limit the periodic-orbit theory gives much more accurate results for energies above the potential step.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physical Review

The colours, pigment and phenol contents of young port wines: Effects of cultivar, season and site

95 port wines were made under standard small scale conditions from grapes of 16 individual cultivars grown at 5 different sites in the Douro valley in northern Portugal during 1977-1983. Grape specific grayity and pH values were measured. The ports were analysed immediately after fortification for colour, pigment and phenol contents and pH. Cultivar variations were up to 12-fold in total pigments, 14-fold in colour density, but only 3.6-fold in total phenols . Seasonal vari ations were up to 2-fold in total pigments and colour density and 1.6-fold in total phenols . Because of seasonal effects and variation in the numbers of each cultivar examined, cultivar characteristics were compared by their mean values with reference to an arbitrarily chosen standard cultivar (Touriga Nacional). Statistical analysis confirmed that the variation in total pigments was affected much more by cultivar than by season. Souzão, Tinta da Barca and Touriga Nacional ports (all from Tua) were the most coloured and contained most pigments. Mourisco (Tua) and Tinta Cão (Baixo Corgo) were the least coloured and contained least pigments. Port colour was dependent principally on pigments content and pH, but small effects attributed to anthocyanin selfassociation and co-pigmentation were also discerned. Differences between sites were generally not significant, apart from some characteristics of Touriga Nacional from Pinhão compared with Tua and Vilariça. which were attributed to the particular strain of fruit at Pinhäo. Nevertheless, there was some indication that the inferior status of Baixo Corgo compared with Cima Corgo fruit may be attributed not only to its generally lower pigments content, but also to smaller percentages of the pigments being expressed in coloured forms

Do rats learn conditional independence?

If acquired associations are to accurately represent real relevance relations, there is motivation for the hypothesis that learning will, in some circumstances, be more appropriately modelled, not as direct dependence, but as conditional independence. In a serial compound conditioning experiment, two groups of rats were presented with a conditioned stimulus (CS1) that imperfectly (50%) predicted food, and was itself imperfectly predicted by a CS2. Groups differed in the proportion of CS2 presentations that were ultimately followed by food (25% versus 75%). Thus, the information presented regarding the relevance of CS2 to food was ambiguous between direct dependence and conditional independence (given CS1). If rats learnt that food was conditionally independent of CS2, given CS1, subjects of both groups should thereafter respond similarly to CS2 alone. Contrary to the conditionality hypothesis, subjects attended to the direct food predictability of CS2, suggesting that rats treat even distal stimuli in a CS sequence as immediately relevant to food, not conditional on an intermediate stimulus. These results urge caution in representing indirect associations as conditional associations, accentuate the theoretical weight of the Markov condition in graphical models, and challenge theories to articulate the conditions under which animals are expected to learn conditional associations, if ever.All funding for the project was internal, from Indiana University

Computation in Classical Mechanics

There is a growing consensus that physics majors need to learn computational skills, but many departments are still devoid of computation in their physics curriculum. Some departments may lack the resources or commitment to create a dedicated course or program in computational physics. One way around this difficulty is to include computation in a standard upper-level physics course. An intermediate classical mechanics course is particularly well suited for including computation. We discuss the ways we have used computation in our classical mechanics courses, focusing on how computational work can improve students' understanding of physics as well as their computational skills. We present examples of computational problems that serve these two purposes. In addition, we provide information about resources for instructors who would like to include computation in their courses.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to American Journal of Physic