In 1971, on the eve of his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Evans declared his photographs to be “documentary style” rather than documents. “A document has use, whereas art is really useless,” Evans would claim. “Therefore art is never a document, though it certainly can adopt that style.” Yet, the photographer produced the majority of his pictures as documents for various individuals and institutions throughout his life. How, then, does one reconcile this tension between the work of art and its contexts, between the photograph and its various uses, between individual autonomy and the institutions of photography in Evans’s career? This dissertation seeks to elucidate this dichotomy within the changing contexts for photography from the early 1930s to the mid-1970s. Three chapters focus on key contexts for the production and dissemination of Evans’s work. The Introduction revisits the literature on Evans and the issues of context versus style in the history of photography. The problem of “documentary style” in the 1930s is addressed in Chapter One, which examines the overlooked context of architectural surveys during that decade. Two explores how Evans engaged with mass culture through independent projects, commissioned photo essays, and his job as photographic editor at Fortune magazine from 1948 to 1965. After thirty years of working for magazines, Evans became a professor of photography at Yale University. Three exhumes his role as a theorist and didact, examining how he crafted new interpretations of his photographs and photography that suited the new institutional contexts of the art world. Through both his pictures, writings, and their presentations, Evans continually worked with and against his contexts.

This work describes the design, synthesis and operation of a (R,R)-(+)-hydrobenzoin-diacetic acid molecular walker attached to polyether tracks containing 2, 3 or 4 secondary alcohol footholds. A macrocycle-the walker attached to a 2-foothold track by two ester linkages-was regioselectively hydrolysed by lipase AS. The resultant seco¬-acid was recyclised using Yamaguchi chemistry, demonstrating a bipedal walker stepping off, and on to, a track. These conditions were extended to tracks containing 3 and 4 alcohol footholds and the design of a 3-foothold track that incorporated a pentaethylene glycol chain. Using an information type Brownian ratchet mechanism, ~90% of walkers stepped away from the starting position, and ~68% of walkers took 2 steps to a foothold 16 atoms away. Importantly only smaller or equal to4% of walkers were found to completely detach from the track per operation cycle.

An analysis of the Einstein Field Equations within a Robertson-Walker Cosmology. More specifically, what values of the cosmological constant will result in a Big Bang.

This essay examines the uses of the grotesque in Alice Walker’s novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Published in 1970 the novel has been subject to various readings by diverse scholars. However, previous research has failed to take into account the displays of the grotesque in the novel. This essay argues that not only does Walker use the grotesque prominently throughout the novel, but also that Walker constructs an intricate critique of U.S. society through her depictions of the grotesque. Resting largely on the theoretical perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin this essay examines the following grotesque images: the female spectacle, the female adolescent, the hysteric, pregnant death, monstrosity, and whiteness. By exposing Walker’s uses of the grotesque, this essay offers an analysis that exposes the relationship between Walker’s grotesque images and her womanist objective. The aim of The Third Life of Grange Copeland is to critique the oppressive regimes of patriarchy and U.S. white supremacist culture and society. It is argued here, then, that the grotesque is strategically used in different manners when addressing womanist and racial issues. Walker uses the grotesque in order to alter confining gender binaries and expose and criticize the destructive aspects of patriarchal and white supremacist ideologies. Through her narrative and the diverse characters of The Third Life, Walker exposes the repercussions of oppressive white supremacist and patriarchal orders.

The Region of Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) is closely related to Global climate system. Previous studies indicate that the region of WPWP is affected by Walker circulation (WC) and Hadley cell (HC). WPWP expands when WC becomes stronger or when HC becomes weaker, and contracts when WC becomes weaker or when HC becomes stronger. In this study, records derived from core ODP1115B, including stable oxygen and carbon isotopes are used to reconstruct the long-term hydrological variations of WPWP over the past 2.2 Ma. We compared two species of foraminifera: Neogloboquadrina dutertrei and Globigerinoides sacculifer, for the reconstruction of differences between surface water and oceanic subsurface water. We try to find out the relationships between the thermocline depth in southern WPWP, the region of WPWP, HC and WC. However, our records indicate that the depth of thermocline in southern WPWP may be effected by the region of WPWP and the hydrology of southern WPWP. According to the Paleothermometry records of ODP806, ODP847, ODP1115 and MD063018, we can explain the relationship between WC, HC and the region of WPWP. Before 1.8 Ma, southern WPWP may not be affected by weak WC. During 1.8~1.2 Ma, WC becomes stronger and effect the region of WPWP. At the period of 1.2~0.9 Ma, southward migration of WPWP enhanced the influence of WC on the region of south WPWP and the depth of thermocline, then weakened HC in the southern hemisphere. After 0.9 Ma, the variation of hydrology in southern WPWP may be affected by stronge WC, not HC. We suggest that the influence of HC in southern WPWP is resulted in the southern region of WPWP.

This study examines the cultural and historical constructs of the patriarchal father, the dutiful daughter, and the “Cult of Southern Womanhood” that have impacted the depiction of the relationship between fathers and daughters in the works of southern writers Shirley Ann Grau, Gail Godwin, and Alice Walker. The authors illustrate fathers who influence their daughters by supplying their needs and supporting their desires, but also of fathers who have hindered the emotional growth of their daughters. The term father-force describes the characters’ understanding and revision of the power of the fathers over their lives. Evidence includes the primary works by the writers themselves, criticism of these writers from other sources, and their own words about their works. New Historicism theory supports the position that Grau, Godwin, and Walker use the historical context of the 1960s to help shape and articulate some of the more contemporary issues, anxieties, and struggles, reflected in the literature. The impact of father-daughter relationships in southern novels is an important aspect in the understanding of Grau, Godwin, and Walker’s contributions to American literature. These writers try to discover acceptable methods of dealing with their characters’ relationships with their fathers within the requirements of a society that has established clear roles for both father and daughter. The three writers emphasize good and bad examples of the cultural contexts being explored, and their writings show a historical perspective of the changes that have occurred in the South in father-daughter relationships from 1950 until the present time. The authors show their characters often becoming successful in the real world outside the home in an effort to gain their fathers’ recognition of their accomplishments, his acceptance of their individuality and differences from him, and his approval of their methods of gaining success. Strong feminists characteristics are displayed in the writings of the three authors. Grau, Godwin, and Walker share the characteristics of female characters that connect with their fathers through race, the burden of the past, gender, class and religious expectations. / Dr. Ronald R. Emerick Dr. Karen A. Dandurand Dr. Kelly L. Heider

Geologic sequestration of CO₂ in deep saline aquifers has been studied extensively over the past two decades as a viable method of reducing anthropological carbon emissions. The monitoring and prediction of the movement of injected CO₂ is important for assessing containment of the gas within the storage volume, and taking corrective measures if required. Given the uncertainty in geologic architecture of the storage aquifers, it is reasonable to depict our prior knowledge of the project area using a vast suite of aquifer models. Simulating such a large number of models using traditional numerical flow simulators to evaluate uncertainty is computationally expensive. A novel stochastic workflow for characterizing the plume migration, based on a model selection algorithm developed by Mantilla in 2011, has been implemented. The approach includes four main steps: (1) assessing the connectivity/dynamic characteristics of a large prior ensemble of models using proxies; (2) model clustering using the principle component analysis or multidimensional scaling coupled with the k-mean clustering approach; (3) model selection using the Bayes' rule on the reduced model space, and (4) model expansion using an ensemble pattern-based matching scheme. In this dissertation, two proxies have been developed based on particle tracking in order to assess the flow connectivity of models in the initial set. The proxies serve as fast approximations of finite-difference flow simulation models, and are meant to provide rapid estimations of connectivity of the aquifer models. Modifications have also been implemented within the model selection workflow to accommodate the particular problem of application to a carbon sequestration project. The applicability of the proxies is tested both on synthetic models and real field case studies. It is demonstrated that the first proxy captures areal migration to a reasonable extent, while failing to adequately capture vertical buoyancy-driven flow of CO₂. This limitation of the proxy is addressed in the second proxy, and its applicability is demonstrated not only in capturing horizontal migration but also in buoyancy-driven flow. Both proxies are tested both as standalone approximations of numerical simulation and within the larger model selection framework. / text

Feminism in the early 1980's in the United States revolved much around social and cultural matters such as sexual liberation, self- definition and self- realization for women. Derived from these ideas within feminism comes Alice Walker's Womanism, that is the writer's own definition of the strong and independent woman of color. This paper investigates the character Shug Avery, in The ColorPurple (1983), in relation to feminism and Womanism. It is argued that she is an empowered female because of the characteristics and attributes that come along with being a Womanist, despite moral,cultural and societal conditions that indicate marginalization for Shug and all women.

In this thesis, current driven domain-wall motion is studied using atomistic simulations with the exchange coupling modeled by the Heisenberg Hamiltonian under the nearest-neighbor approximation. The investigations may be divided into two parts, each concerned with how different aspects of the systems affect the domain-wall motion. The first part deals with domain-wall width dependence of the velocity in a three dimensional geometry with simple cubic crystal structure and uniaxial anisotropy. Results from this part showed that the velocity has a minor domain-wall width dependence. For a fixed current density, the velocity increased with domain-wall width, though only from 61.5 a/ns to 64.5 a/ns as the domain-wall width was increased from 3 to 25 atoms. The second part of the investigations deals with phenomena involving mixed cubic and uniaxial anisotropy, the non-adiabaticity parameter as well as the geometry of the system. The discussion includes an account of how the spin-transfer and cubic anisotropy torques contribute to the motion for different values of the non-adiabaticity parameter. In comparing a one dimensional atomic chain and a three dimensional system with simple cubic crystal structure, but otherwise with the same material properties, results showed a difference in how the two systems responded to currents. This difference is not accounted for by the micromagnetic theory, and its origin was unable to be determined.

The nature and extent of classical rhetoric's influence on subsequent ages has been the focus of much recent study. Scholars have been concerned with how classical authors, particularly Cicero and Quintilian, emerged in educational and rhetorical theories of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and later centuries. Despite this flurry of research, a great deal of Quintilian's enduring legacy remains unknown, particularly in seventeenth-century England. "Quintilian's Influence on Obadiah Walker," then, extends our knowledge of Quintilian's influence into the seventeenth century by looking at one seventeenth-century thinker in particular, Obadiah Walker. More specifically, this thesis compares and analyzes the authors' primary works: Quintilian's Institutio oratoria and Walker's Some Instructions Concerning the Art of Oratory and Of Education, Especially of Young Gentlemen. This study investigates Quintilian's and Walker's similarities and differences within three comparable areas: their educational systems, their theories and placement of rhetoric in their systems, and their educational purposes. Within these areas, this study questions how and to what extent did Walker appropriate Quintilian's ideas when crafting his two educational/rhetorical treatises? The comparison of the primary texts manifests some specific and general conclusions. There are two specific conclusions. First, Walker is heavily indebted to Quintilian; he liberally adopts and modifies Quintilian's ideas in nearly every facet of his works. Second, Walker offers a seventeenth-century student a digest and modern version of Quintilian's Institutio. Moreover, this study offers some general conclusions. First, it demonstrates that Quintilian's influence extends into the late seventeenth century, at least in the works of one writer of the era. Next, it argues that if Quintilian's treatise lost favor, at least it did not do so completely. And finally, it contributes another story to classical rhetoric's incomplete history. / Graduation date: 1996