The main concentration of study for my project was a series of color studies on canvas in which I explored varying proportions of primary color mixtures, unfamiliar color relationships and value ranges. I was particularly interested in exploring varying proportions of color complementaries in working to achieve neutrals. Through-out my studies I worked for a unity in the sequences of color mixtures. For part of my project I worked with collage materials, which were subordinated to color but released me from pure representational subject matter such as still lifes. After a series of these studies I again returned to representational subject matter as a departure for new creative expression.

My work Anisotropic Streaming is written for the University of Iowa Symphonic Orchestra. It is approximately 16 minutes in length. The inspiration of the piece was the cosmic background radiation remaining from the Big Bang. In 1964, it was discovered that space was filled with a faint amount of radiation; a relic from the time when slight temperature variance allowed for the coalescence of particles. These particle collections soon had varying masses and therefore varying gravitational pulls, which in turn created the stars and galaxies. Since the universe expanded while the temperature variances allowed for this particle accumulation, the background radiation is patterned in a manner that is anisotropic: a nearly uniform arrangement of the radiation that appears different depending on the observer's orientation. As a formal tool, this phenomenon has suggested a compositional process focused on transition and contextualization. The concept of anisotropy manifests itself in my composition in a number of ways. The first of three sections "collects" individual pitches until those frequencies are no longer perceptible - the listener's mind fuses the pitches into a single yet complex sonority. This fusion is encouraged further by the arrangement of pitches mimicking the overtone series. The second section features a very active and thick texture combining to make a single mass of sound. The texture gradually removes layers to reveal the individual short melodies that make up the mass. The third section rearranges these short melodies, making the high melodies low and the low melodies high. Each melody grows one note longer on each iteration, until each are so long they begin to fuse into a single, complex sonority. In these ways, I attempt to create the same kind of sound but through a shifting perspective, exposing sound's anisotropic construction. Formally, the piece divides into three sections, each a composite sound at different levels of synchronicity and perspective. The sections are further subdivided into two parts, the first being transitional and the second being a more static exhibition of the section's conceptual purpose. The pitch material in expositional areas is based on the mathematical overtone series (rounded to the nearest semitone). Pitch material in transitional phrases collects into aggregates, generally derived from a frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, or distortion by common fate. These pitches are not necessarily relegated to their registral frequencies, allowing for some octave equivalence. The first section, an exposition of separate elements creating a whole sonority, begins with the accumulation of material in the middle, high, then low register. As events become more synchronized, these three disparate elements become parts of an Eb1 sonority through additive synthesis. After a brief transitional section of aggregate sonorities in a symmetrical rhythm, the fundamental switches to G1 as a pizzicato cloud texture replaces the higher overtones. The additive G1 sonority occurs repeatedly, getting more frequent towards the end of the section. Using common overtones, overtones of the G1 sonority are sustained and the harmony is displaced by Eb1. The second section is a discovery of separate elements that exist within a sound complex, and subsequently, the germinal existences of those elements. The effect of parsing the lower pitches into imagined component pitches is the destabilization of a steady fundamental. The implied fundamentals instead fade in and out of perceivable space, creating a sonic environment of quasi-periodic harmonicity. The section begins by changing the Eb1 to a virtual Bb0 fundamental through a series of common overtones. The sustained Bb0 overtones are rhythmicized, becoming melodic fragments of varying lengths. After the surface texture of the Bb0 climaxes, the orchestration is reduced three times to solos and duets, revealing the melodies that exist in each registral area (high, middle, low). A brief transitional section of aggregate sonorities in a rhythm similar to the transitional area in section one, the implied fundamental becomes a D-1. The melodic fragments are extended through sparer orchestration, with soloists and small chamber combinations developing the ideas. The section ends with an implied C1 fundamental. The final section is the destabilization of the quasi-periodic harmonicity of the second section. The section begins in the highest register on string harmonics that do not imply any particular fundamental. The overtones are textured, and interjections of shepherd tones and noise elements add to an active surface with an unmoored harmonic space. When the surface reaches a maximally undefined pitch space, the gesture of the completed added sonority from the first section returns, implying fundamentals of five different sonorities, moving progressively away from harmonicity. A superimposition of the solo and chamber melodies against segments of previous aggregate transitions leads the harmonic space to a C2 fundamental, played in the gesture of the completed added sonority from the first section. By holding shared common tones, the harmonic space changes to an E1 fundamental, and pitches get higher and quieter until the piece ends.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

No description available.

Saving Alicia is a creative thesis written to explore the possibility of incorporating some non-fictional concepts of neurophysiology into a work of fiction. The initial component presents the historical and contemporary context in which such a work is written along with an analysis of the writing techniques employed by other writers in the field. It sets out the aim of the subsequent creative composition. The second, and major, component of this thesis is a work of fiction. A story is developed in which the protagonist, a young woman, revives her deceased mother's neurophysiological research work in the hope that it will help her brain-damaged niece, Alicia, recover. For this she is dependent on two men who were her mother's colleagues. As they compete for her attention, while pursuing their own conflicting goals, the protagonist maintains her determination to keep her mother's work going. She has no prior knowledge of neurophysiology and, so that she can understand the research, she is keen to learn some of its basic concepts. Woven through the story of Saving Alicia are descriptions of neurons and their physiology. This is presented to the protagonist through the mouths of the two researchers. In this way, the non-fiction is interspersed with the fiction.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-168)

Graduation date: 1965

Graduation date: 1966

This study was undertaken to investigate the variation in the total sugar and acid content of the frozen Marshall strawberries grown in different areas of the Pacific Northwest. The samples used in this study were collected from different freezing plants located in the states of Oregon and Washington during the 1949 strawberry season. Forty-four samples of Marshall strawberries were analyzed. For total sugar determinations a modification of the Shaffer and Somogyi method was used. The average value found for total sugar was 7.56 per cent. The glass electrode was used for the determination of total acidity. The average value found for total acidity was 0.99 per cent. Soluble solids determined by the Bausch and Lomb hand refractometer had an average value of 9.90 per cent. The average pH value for all samples was 3.36. The sugar and acid content of these Marshall strawberries showed most frequent distribution in the range from 7.1 to 9.0 per cent and 0.91 to 1.1 per cent, respectively. Soluble solids were most frequent in the range from 8.1 to 11.0 per cent. No relationship was found for total sugar and acid content. Soluble solids were found to have a definite relationship with total sugar content. Marshall strawberries grown in different areas of Oregon varied in total sugar and acid content. Generally, strawberries grown in warm areas and mature berries tend to have a higher sugar content. Berries grown on the hillsides and less mature berries tend to have a lower sugar content. The weather conditions apparently affect the sugar and acid content of Marshall strawberries greatly. / Graduation date: 1951

Manual and automatic solvent extraction techniques were used to concentrate organic material from natural waters. Field and laboratory extractions were compared to determine the most probable method and best solvents for efficient concentration of organic material from estuarine and sea waters. The large scale extraction processes utilizing extractors made from 55 gallon drums were operated both by manually moving perforated metal discs through the water and solvent for mixing and by bubbling air through the aqueous-solvent mixture. Resulting samples proved large enough for the detection of short-chain fatty acids (carbon length 1 through 10). Identification of organic constituents was by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Other portions of these samples were separated by column chromatography with subsequent analysis by infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and mass spectroscopy. The proximity of the Hanford Atomic Product Operations to the collecting area caused some of the organics to be labeled with trace amounts of radionuclides. A counter-current pulse column extractor was used at sea aboard the Research Vessel YAQUINA. The organic solvent, hexone, used in this extraction was distilled before and after the extraction with various fractions of solvent being kept for control. The extraction was carried out under varying chemical and physical conditions. The hexone was back-extracted into hydrochloric acid, sodium bicarbonate, or sodium hydroxide before analysis by flame-ionization gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. Other portions of the product hexone were analyzed for total solid matter recovered and carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen content. Small intermediate scale extractions were carried out in the laboratory using several solvents. Resulting organic material was analyzed by tandem gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Where possible, organic derivatives were prepared to aid in the identification of the recovered organic material. The advantages and disadvantages of large scale extractions and small laboratory procedures were discussed. / Graduation date: 1967