The period from the end of World War I through the 1950s has been called “the Golden Age of Drama on Broadway.” Subsumed within this period is another sort of golden age, of music in the American spoken theater, Broadway and beyond, c. 1935-60. Unlike more familiar, and better-studied, genres of dramatic music such as opera, ballet, and the Broadway-style musical, music composed for spoken dramas is neither a definitive part of the dramatic form nor integral to the work’s original conception. Rather, it is added in production, like sets, costumes, and lighting. This study traces the roots of this rich period of spoken-dramatic music to the collaboration of producer John Houseman, director Orson Welles, and composer Virgil Thomson on the Federal Theatre Project, beginning in 1936. The musical ramifications of that collaboration eventually extended to include composers Paul Bowles and Marc Blitzstein, influential theater companies such as the Theatre Guild and Group Theatre, innovative directors such as Elia Kazan and Margo Jones, and major playwrights such as Lillian Hellman and Tennessee Williams. Following a consideration of the forces that gave rise to this musically rich nexus and the people, materials, and practices involved, three high-profile theatrical collaborations are examined, along with three scores that resulted from them: Thomson’s score for Houseman’s 1957 “Wild West” Much Ado About Nothing; Blitzstein’s score for Welles and the Mercury Theatre’s 1937-38 “anti-Fascist” Julius Caesar; and Bowles’s score for the original production of Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (1944-45). Each score is located within the musico-dramatic history that produced it, and analyzed within the context of the production for which it was written. This work aims to begin to recover a vast body of forgotten American dramatic music, to limn the role of the spoken theater in the careers of these three noteworthy American musical artists, to probe a busy intersection of high and commercial art forms, and to suggest music’s important role in the development of the American spoken theater.

Environmental, Social and Governance measurements have significantly increased in usage due to growing concerns for environmental and sustainability problems in today’s world. However, with no commonly agreed-upon criteria for ESG ratings, the scoring measure creates confusion both at the investor and company level. Besides, ESG agencies have different processes and parameters for measuring ESG compliance, which contributes to the problem. The study examines four ESG rating agencies’ rating models and ESG scores to get a better understanding of deviations in ESG scores among Nordic companies. By also studying the correlation amongst ESG scores and market capitalizations in firms, the paper hopes to shed light on if any relationships exist between them. Our results show that the four major ESG raters in the study showed a weak to a non-significant correlation against each other. The maximum correlation found was 0.419 between Thomson Reuters and MSCI. RobecoSAM and MSCI showed the lowest significant correlation at 0.291. Sustainalytics was detected not to show any significant correlation with the other raters. Correlation among market capitalization and ESG Raters was detected to not correlate to a greater extent. Only one ESG rater, RobecoSAM, showed a significant size to score-correlation at 0.278 with market capitalization. Thus, market capitalization does not seem to have any significant influence on ESG agencies’ decisions to set scores. Précising the study’s findings, the raters’ methods deviate from one another, but also how ESG raters make use of underlying factors.

Thomson scattering from free electrons in a high-intensity laser focus has been widely studied analytically, but not many measurements of this scattering have been made. We measure polarization-resolved nonlinear Thomson scattering from electrons in a high-intensity laser focus using a parabolic mirror. The weak scattering signal is distinguished from background noise using single-photon detectors and nanosecond time-resolution to distinguish a prompt scattering signal from noise photons. The azimuthal and longitudinal components of the fundamental, second, and third harmonics were measured. Our measurements reasonably match theoretical results, but also show some asymmetry in the emission patterns.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(エネルギー科学) / 甲第19826号 / エネ博第332号 / 新制||エネ||66(附属図書館) / 32862 / 京都大学大学院エネルギー科学研究科エネルギー基礎科学専攻 / (主査)教授 水内 亨, 教授 長﨑 百伸, 准教授 南 貴司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Energy Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

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Recently, literary critics have increasingly drawn on methods of quantitative analysis to understand the readers and literature of the eighteenth century. Ironically, however, the eighteenth century is home to debates concerning the nature and usefulness of number, counting, and therefore, on some level, quantitative analysis. Eighteenth-century questions of number form an important part of the intellectual history of this period; these questions of number, in turn, hold important implications for language and the period's literature. I argue that the far-reaching influence of eighteenth-century questions of number can be seen especially well in the nature poetry of James Thomson. To explore this influence, I first discuss the problems of number presented to eighteenth-century mathematicians and philosophers by George Berkeley's critique of the infinitesimal calculus popularized by Isaac Newton. I then further explain the problems of number for eighteenth-century thinkers by drawing on philosopher Alain Badiou's theorization of the collapse of number in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This background brings to light connections between eighteenth-century questions of number and similar questions philosophers, such as John Locke, asked of language. These connections set the stage to discuss number in Thomson's The Seasons. Because of Thomson's rather unique exposure to the Newtonian tradition through his Edinburgh education, he was introduced not only to Newton's more popular discoveries, but also the mathematical and philosophical debates that swirled around Newton's methods. Coming out of this environment, Thomson's The Seasons display a particular kind of interest in number at its limits—infinity and zero. This paper will explore Thomson's tropological expressions of infinity and zero in the poem and note how these tropes replicate the logic of the sublime. Ultimately number at its limits in Thomson suggests the problems of expression, and, reading against traditional interpretations of Thomson, the limits of the Enlightenment project.

We use photon-counting to measure nonlinear Thomson scattering from low-density electrons in an intense laser focus. The azimuthal and longitudinal polarization components of the second harmonic are measured across much of the full emission sphere. The data show, for the first time experimentally, emission structure in the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ hemispheres, where the ‘North Pole’ aligns with the direction of laser propagation. To obtain these measurements, we installed an additional power amplifier on our Ti:sapphire laser system at BYU. The upgrade delivers ten times more energy to the laser focus than we had previously. This increase comes partly from the additional amplifier and partly from increased grating efficiency in our pulse compressor. We achieve an on-target pulse energy of 200 mJ at 35 fs. The focal spot size has radius w0 = 4 μm. This corresponds to an available peak intensity of over 1019 W/cm2, an order of magnitude above the onset of strong relativistic effects. The interaction region in the laser focus has a length of approximately 100 μm. Photons scattered from this region are collected using a 5-cm-focal-length lens and then focused onto the end of a 100-μm-diameter fiber by a second identical lens. The imaging system requires precise alignment with the laser focus, which must be maintained when rotating the photon-collection system along the longitudinal direction of the emission sphere. We developed an alignment procedure that ensures that the detector rotation axis aligns with region of space that is imaged onto the fiber. This region is then aligned to the laser focal spot.

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman spectroscopy are still growing analytical and sensing spectroscopic techniques. They significantly reduce the time and labor cost in analysis with simplified instrumentation, and lead to minimal or no sample damage. In this dissertation, fundamental studies to improve LIBS analytical performance were performed and its fusion with Raman into one single sensor was explored. On the fundamental side, Thomson scattering was reported for the first time to simultaneously measure the electron density and temperature of laser plasmas from a solid aluminum target at atmospheric pressure. Comparison between electron and excitation temperatures brought insights into the verification of local thermodynamic equilibrium condition in laser plasmas. To enhance LIBS emission, Microwave-Assisted LIBS (MA-LIBS) was developed and characterized. In MA-LIBS, a microwave field extends the emission lifetime of the plasma and stronger time integrated signal is obtained. Experimental results showed sensitivity improvement (more than 20-fold) and extension of the analytical range (down to a few tens of ppm) for the detection of copper traces in soil samples. Finally, laser spectroscopy systems that can perform both LIBS and Raman analysis were developed. Such systems provide two types of complimentary information – elemental composition from LIBS and structural information from Raman. Two novel approaches were reported for the first time for LIBS-Raman sensor fusion: (i) an Ultra-Violet system which combines Resonant Raman signal enhancement and high ablation efficiency from UV radiation, and (ii) a Ti:Sapphire laser based NIR system which reduces the fluorescence interference in Raman and takes advantage of femtosecond ablation for LIBS.

Over the long eighteenth century, Britain developed into the foremost naval power in world; with a fleet that could match the combined might of the next two largest European powers – as demonstrated in the Napoleonic Wars – Britain was understood, and understood itself, through the lens of maritime mastery. At the centre of this enduring framework was a potent symbol of Britain in the fused image of the sailor and the ship, as James Thomson’s ‘Rule, Britannia!’ and David Garrick’s ‘Heart of Oak’ fastened together the nation, the sailor, and the ship in a narrative of divinely ordained power and freedom, at once a justification of the empire and its mythology. This dissertation examines the ways that authors navigated these prevailing currents of naval exaltation, focusing closely on how those patriotic constructions were coopted to question the imperial cause. Indeed, I argue that, far from being a stable patriotic icon, the metaphorical unit of the sailor-ship was hotly contested in the eighteenth century. This study contributes to the growing scholarship of the ‘oceanic turn’, decolonizing the imperial assumptions of maritime discourse of and about this period. The challenges to the national narrative confronted the metaphor with its lived realities, a methodology that works both in stories of triumph and scenes of catastrophe, repudiating its assertions of mastery and liberty. This project reveals the decidedly ambivalent portrayal of British naval culture in works by well-known authors like Daniel Defoe, Tobias Smollett, William Cowper, and Olaudah Equiano in addition to engaging with some lesser-known labouring poets like Henry Needler and William Falconer. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / At the height of the British Empire, it spanned across the globe, held together by the mightiest navy the world had ever seen. The empire justified its existence, to both its own citizens as well as foreigners, as the natural result of a history of skilled sailors and strong ships. However, in the century leading up to the dominance of the British Empire, both the navy and literature about the navy were much less confident about the success of the national project. In fact, a large number of texts – both poems and novels – used the very same sailors and ships to expose the weaknesses of British ambitions. This dissertation examines how these anti-imperial texts functioned and why they were so successful. For a nation that relied on these watery symbols, what did it mean for those elements to be proven false?

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