Thesis (D. M. A.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Sacred oratorio for female narrator, 4 solo female voices, SA chorus, and chamber orchestra. Libretto compiled from biblical sources and the writings of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Hildegard of Bingen. Includes libretto, p. 309-313. Includes vita and abstract. Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The aim of this essay is to examine how the biblical Queen of Sheba has been depicted in a selection of artworks. The main focus is on how her otherness has been visualized, in relation to King Solomon in particular but also to the Western, European, christian and white self-image at large. The material that has been analyzed comprises the following artworks: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba by Nicholas of Verdun (1181), Procession of the Queen of Sheba; Meeting between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon by Piero della Francesca (ca 1452-1466), The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Lavinia Fontana (1599) and The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Edward Poynter (1890). In examining the artworks Erwin Panofsky's three- step analysis model has been applied in combination with a theoretical framework consisting of postcolonial studies and critical white theories.  The results show that the Queen of Sheba has been depicted in a variety of ways. In the artwork by Nicholas of Verdun, the Queen is black, carrying the symbolic notion of sin; in Piero and Fontanas artworks she is depicted as white. In Piero's depiction, only small signals, such as clothes, marks her status as “the other”, in Fontanas case, her signs of otherness seem in contrast completely absent. Poynters artwork contains a spectacular display of exotic elements and the Queen has been given a sensual appearance in line with the image of the erotic Orient. One conclusion that the author reaches is that, as Edward Said has argued, in attempting to represent “the other” the Occident documents itself. This is also similar to how the dichotomy between black and white is constructed and how whiteness in relation to black individuals in these pictures gathers its strength and is, rather than being neutral, imbued with meaning.

Long-range communication proves to be a challenge due to the Earth’s curvature, since electromagnetic waves propagate away from the Earth’s surface in a free atmosphere. A possible solution to beyond line-of-sight communication is the atmospheric phenomenon known as the evaporation duct. Ducting occurs when the refractive index of the atmosphere rapidly decreases with height, which leads to ray trajectories bending inward towards the surface of the Earth, effectively creating a waveguide and enabling long-distance communication. In this work, the models by Paulus-Jeske and Babin-Young-Carton are investigated and implemented in MATLAB for calculation of the evaporation duct height and for modelling the refractive index of the atmosphere. The rapid decrease in refractive index giving rise to evaporation ducts occurs due to evaporation of water within the atmosphericsurface layer (<100 m over the surface), which is the domain of turbulent mixing in the atmosphere. With atmospheric data from a Weather API by Meteomatics, Monin-Obukhov similarity theory for the atmospheric surface layer is combined with a bulk flux parameterization scheme from the COARE experiment to determine the air-sea fluxes in the lower troposphere. The surface layer variables with stability functions from Businger-Dyer, Beljaars-Holtslag, Cheng-Brutsaert, and the SHEBA experiment are used in the evaporation duct models proposed by Paulus-Jeske and Babin-Young-Carton to calculate the evaporation duct height, finding that the latter is a valid method with Monin-Obukhov stability functions based on the SHEBA experiment. The modelled refractive index is inserted into an already existing wave propagation model to investigate and validate the findings. / Långdistanskommunikation är en utmaning på grund av jordens krökning, eftersom elektromagnetiska vågor sprider sig bort från jordens yta vid propagering i fri atmosfär. En möjlig lösning för kommunikation bortom siktlinjen är det atmosfäriska fenomenet som kallas avdunstningskanal. Det uppstår när atmosfärens brytningsindex snabbt minskar med höjden, vilket leder till att strålbanorna böjer sig inåt mot jordens yta, vilket i praktiken skapar en vågledare och möjliggör långdistanskommunikation. I detta arbete undersöks och implementeras modeller beskrivna av Paulus-Jeske och Babin-Young-Carton i MATLAB för beräkning av avdunstningskanalens höjd och för modellering av atmosfärens brytningsindex. Den snabba minskningen av brytningsindexet som ger upphov till avdunstningskanaler beror på avdunstning avvatten i det atmosfäriska ytskiktet (<100 m över ytan), som är det område där den turbulenta blandningen i atmosfären sker. Med atmosfäriska data från Weather API av Meteomatics kombineras Monin-Obukhovs likvärdighetsteori för det atmosfäriska ytskiktet med ett parametriseringsschema för bulkflöden från COARE-experimentet för att bestämma luft- och havsflödena i den nedre troposfären. Variablerna för ytskiktet med stabilitetsfunktioner från Businger-Dyer, Beljaars-Holtslag, Cheng-Brutsaert och SHEBA-experimentet används i de modeller för avdunstningskanaler som föreslagits av Paulus-Jeske och Babin-Young-Carton för att beräkna avdunstningskanalens höjd, varvid det konstateras att den sistnämnda metoden är en giltig metod med Monin-Obukhovs stabilitetsfunktioner baserade på SHEBA-experimentet. Det modellerade brytningsindexet införs i en redan befintlig vågutbredningsmodell för att undersöka och validera resultaten.

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