Closure in Greek and Roman Epigram

English original of the entry for ‘Clôture, fermeture’ in C. Urlacher & D. Meyer (eds.) Dictionnaire analytique de l’épigramme littéraire dans l’antiquité Grecque et Romaine, Turnhout, forthcoming

Nicander's Hymn to Attalus: Pergamene Panegyric

This paper looks beyond Ptolemaic Alexandria to consider the literary dynamics of another Hellenistic kingdom, Attalid Pergamon. I offer a detailed study of the fragmentary opening of Nicander's Hymn to Attalus (fr. 104 Gow–Schofield) in three sections. First, I consider its generic status and compare its encomiastic strategies with those of Theocritus’ Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Idyll 17). Second, I analyse its learned reuse of the literary past and allusive engagement with scholarly debate. And finally, I explore how Nicander polemically strives against the precedent of the Ptolemaic Callimachus. The fragment offers us a rare glimpse into the post-Callimachean, international and agonistic world of Hellenistic poetics

Attalid aesthetics: the Pergamene ‘baroque’ reconsidered

Abstract:In this paper, I explore the literary aesthetics of Attalid Pergamon, one of the Ptolemies’ fiercest cultural rivals in the Hellenistic period. Traditionally, scholars have reconstructed Pergamene poetry from the city’s grand and monumental sculptural programme, hypothesizing an underlying aesthetic dichotomy between the two kingdoms: Alexandrian ‘refinement’ versus the Pergamene ‘baroque’. In this paper, I critically reassess this view by exploring surviving scraps of Pergamene poetry: an inscribed encomiastic epigram celebrating the Olympic victory of a certain Attalus (IvP I.10) and an inscribed dedicatory epigram featuring a speaking Satyr (SGO I.06/02/05). By examining these poems’ sophisticated engagements with the literary past and contemporary scholarship, I challenge the idea of a simple opposition between the two kingdoms. In reality, the art and literature of both political centres display a similar capacity to embrace both the refined and the baroque. In conclusion, I ask how this analysis affects our interpretation of the broader aesthetic landscape of the Hellenistic era and suggest that the literature of both capitals belongs to a larger system of elite poetry which stretched far and wide across the Hellenistic world.The project was supported by the Golden Web Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Achilles’ Heel: (Im)mortality in the Iliad

In this article for sixth-formers and school teachers, I explore the story of Achilles' heel and Homer's likely suppression of the myth in the Iliad. Homer's Iliad appears to acknowledge, but simultaneously reject, an alternative tradition in which Achilles was more than mortal, part of a broader downplaying of heroic invulnerability and immortality within the poem. The only way to achieve immortality in the Iliad is through the fame and glory provided by Homeric song

Control of the plasmonic resonance of a graphene coated plasmonic nanoparticle array combined with a nematic liquid crystal

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a switchable plasmonic device based on a conductive graphene oxide (cGO) coated plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) array, layered with nematic liquid crystal (NLC) as an active medium. A monolayer of NPs has been immobilized on a glass substrate through electrostatic interaction, and then grown in place using nanochemistry. This monolayer is then coated with a thin (less then 100nm) cGO film which acts simultaneously as both an electro-conductive and active medium. The combination of the conductive NP array with a separate top cover substrate having both cGO and a standard LC alignment layer is used for aligning a NLC film in a hybrid configuration. The system is analysed in terms of morphological and electro-optical properties. The spectral response of the sample characterized after each element is added (air, cGO, NLC) reveals a red-shift of the localized plasmonic resonance (LPR) frequency of approximately 62nm with respect to the NP array surrounded by air. The application of an external voltage (8Vpp) is suitable to modulate (blue shift) the LPR frequency by approximately 22nm

Measurement of Sivers Asymmetries for Di-jets in \sqrt{s}=200 GeV pp Collisions at STAR

Measurement of the transverse spin dependence of the di-jet opening angle in pp collisions at sqrt{s}=200 GeV has been performed by the STAR collaboration. An analyzing power consistent with zero has been observed over a broad range in pseudorapidity sum of the two jets with respect to the polarized beam direction. A non-zero (Sivers) correlation between transverse momentum direction of partons in the initial state and transverse spin orientation of the parent proton has been previously observed in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). The present measurements are much smaller than deduced from predictions made for STAR di-jets based on non-zero quark Sivers functions deduced from SIDIS, and furthermore indicate that gluon Sivers asymmetries are comparably small.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at SPIN 2006, Kyoto, October 200

Acquisition quality improvement within Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest

The purpose of this project is to identify and analyze Process Management and Audit Program (PMAP) results for Naval Facilities Command, Southwest (NAVFAC SW). The goal is to identify reoccurring contract deficiencies and issues using the Six Phases of Contract Management Process as a guide to target areas for improvement, in order to provide a comprehensive process review, with recommendations for future contracting process improvements at NAVFAC SW. It will be to management’s advantage to share these results with their acquisition workforces in order to help increase acquisition compliance and reduce the recurring findings, with the overall goal of reducing the exposure to risk. During this project, it was discovered that there are 14 recurring PMAP findings that need to be addressed. Suggestions are offered to help get these problems under control. It was also suggested that in 24 to 36 months, an NPS student conduct similar research to see whether there has been PMAP improvement, so that the work of contract process improvement will continue to go forward at NAVFAC SW.http://archive.org/details/acquisitionquali1094545914Civilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Contrast‐Enhanced Ultrasound

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135556/1/jum2007266703.pd