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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (6 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2014)
The statistics of high-frequency climate variability in observations and reanalyses are markedly non-Gaussian and show coherence across spatiotemporal scales. Dynamically, this complexity comes about as a manifestation of nonlinear terms in the equations of state and motion which dictate the time evolution of geophysical fluids in the oceans and atmosphere. A different perspective is to consider the climate system as consisting of dynamically resolved low-frequency components augmented by unresolved high-frequency components parameterized as stochastic noise. A stochastic formulation such as this is naturally suited toward studying climate variability and uncertainty since all spatiotemporal scales are explicitly or implicitly resolved in its dynamics. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine weather predictability, variability, and uncertainty in the atmosphere as a function of spatiotemporal scale. A particular emphasis is placed on the quantification of the non-Gaussianity observed in surface air temperature (SAT) and precipitation time series at daily resolution and how these distributions scale in space and time. The linear stochastic predictability of the tropical atmosphere is first examined through the use of linear inverse modeling (LIM) techniques. LIM extended-range weather predictions are nearly as skillful as fully nonlinear numerical climate models, suggesting that the tropics at daily timescales behave as a primarily linear dynamical system. Next, the variability and trends of daily SAT are studied using the first four statistical moments. It is shown that daily SAT behaves as an approximately locally homogeneous quasi-Gaussian random field whose statistics are consistent with correlated additive and multiplicative stochastic noise. The probability distributions of SAT at scale are shown to be related to regionally varying correlation length scales in the atmosphere. It is also shown that SAT distributions have undergone significant systematic changes over time as a result of low-frequency variability or climate change. Finally, it is documented that daily precipitation extremes are heavy-tailed globally over many spatiotemporal scales, suggesting that precipitation rates are power-law distributed, which is again consistent with stochastic theory. Current generation numerical climate models and reanalyses are shown to, by and large, recreate the power-law distributions documented from observations at the equivalent spatial resolutions. Results from this dissertation shed light on high-frequency climate dynamics and have practical implications for the quantification of weather event probabilities across spatiotemporal scales
    Cover page: High-Frequency Climate Variability Associated with Stochastic Weather-Climate Interaction
    • Thesis
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2011)

    ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

    The Judeochristian Bible, The Tanakh, and the Quran in the Quixote

    by

    Nicholas R. Alemán

    Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Spanish

    University of California, Riverside, March 2011

    Dr. James A. Parr, Chairperson

    Cervantes, throughout Don Quixote, intimates doubt about the divine origin and infallibility of the Scriptures: the Tanakh, The Judeo-Christian Bible, and the Koran.

    Various aspects of the religious, philosophical, and socio-political environment of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain may explain Cervantes's skepticism about the Scriptures and the dominant faith of his time. Don Quixote is viewed as a product of its author's contemporary culture, the violence and controversial ideas of his time, and the contradictions found in the Scriptures.

    Following his predecessors, Erasmus of Rotterdam and the reformist Martin Luther, Cervantes may have read the Scriptures himself and noticed their contradictions. For example, in the last book of the Torah (Deuteronomy 4.2), the narrator says: "You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it." But then, two parts are added to the Torah: the Nevi'im (the Prophets) and the Kethuvim (the Writings) to form the Tanakh. Christians violated Jehovah's words by adding the New Testament. Muslims did the same when changing the order of the "original" Hebrew Bible and by changing, radically, the name of Jehovah to Allãh.

    The Quixote builds on these anomalies, often making a parody of Scripture. It questions its own authority in much the same way that the Scriptures are seen to do. It does this largely through its subversive narrative voices. One narrator says one thing, another the opposite. The truth claims made for the aljamiado manuscript of Cide Hamete are an example. Don Quixote was written by an Arab historian, but all Arabs are liars (I.9). The Bible does not depart one iota from the truth (II.1); nor does the fiction we are reading (II.10). Aspects of the New Testament are parodied in having a Christ-like figure as protagonist and, at the end, the author himself assumes a role reminiscent of Yahweh and Allah.

      Cover page: The Judeo-Christian Bible, the Tanakh, and the Quran in Don Quixote
      • Thesis
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2013)

      no abstract

        Cover page: Look Where Your Darts Have Landed Then Determine The Target: Stop Motion Animation as Illumination of Process
        • Thesis
        • Peer Reviewed
        UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2024)

        This research focuses on the performance and enactment of the royal funeral in antiquity, which is studied through the lens of New Kingdom royal burials in the Valley of the Kings (ca. 1550-1070BC). This allows for a redefinition of how we think about ancient Egyptian royal burials from the perspective of human action, by closely examining what objects were used to create a divine space, how they functioned within the final ceremonies to transfigure a deceased king into a god, and to understand better the transition of power between one ruler and the next. The research is approached holistically, engaging with archaeological, art historical, and textual evidence. The first chapter (Chapter 1) introduces the reader to the research questions, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks that are used while analyzing and investigating the royal funeral in ancient Egypt. The following chapter (Chapter 2) provides the reader with an overview of the landscape of the Valley of the Kings, its topographical features, and spends significant time hypothesizing how the king’s body was moved from their place of death to the final interment in the royal necropolis as well as possible participants and audience members for the king’s burial. The theme of creating a sacred space is woven throughout this chapter, as man-made features of the landscape, like enclosure walls and boundary foot paths, are discussed; examples are derived from both the Valley of the Kings in Luxor as well as the Royal Wadi at Amarna. The following three chapters (Chapters 3-5) are the main case studies for this research, which cover the reigns of Tutankhamun (18th Dynasty), Merenptah (19th Dynasty), and Ramses IV (20th Dynasty). All three provide archaeological, iconographic, textual, and/or material culture remains with which to study the royal funeral. Evidence as preserved is discussed in-depth, including relevant contextual and religious symbolism considerations of specific objects, icons, and/or social histories in order to ground the reader in the material better. The themes of creating the sacred (for both objects and the tomb), the king’s transformation into a divine being in the hereafter, as well as the transition between one ruling party and the next are all dispersed throughout each individual chapter. Finally, the concluding chapter (Chapter 6) summarizes the results of the research and suggests multiple avenues of further research. Here the author postulates about the role(s) of the king and his high officials in the royal funeral, audience participation on the day of the burial, how the king’s burial ensured the successful transition of the deceased into the hereafter, and what the royal funeral meant for manufacturing power and legitimizing rule in ancient Egypt.

          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC San Diego Previously Published Works (2019)
          The goal of the Sexually Transmitted Infection Clinical Trial Group's Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) meeting was to assemble experts from academia, government, nonprofit and industry to discuss the current state of research, gaps and challenges in research and technology and priorities and new directions to address the continued emergence of multidrug-resistant NG infections. Topics discussed at the meeting, which will be the focus of this article, include AMR NG global surveillance initiatives, the use of whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics to understand mutations associated with AMR, mechanisms of AMR, and novel antibiotics, vaccines and other methods to treat AMR NG. Key points highlighted during the meeting include: (i) US and International surveillance programs to understand AMR in NG; (ii) the US National Strategy for combating antimicrobial-resistant bacteria; (iii) surveillance needs, challenges, and novel technologies; (iv) plasmid-mediated and chromosomally mediated mechanisms of AMR in NG; (v) novel therapeutic (eg, sialic acid analogs, factor H [FH]/Fc fusion molecule, monoclonal antibodies, topoisomerase inhibitors, fluoroketolides, LpxC inhibitors) and preventative (eg, peptide mimic) strategies to combat infection. The way forward will require renewed political will, new funding initiatives, and collaborations across academic and commercial research and public health programs.
            Cover page: Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Proceedings of the STAR Sexually Transmitted Infection-Clinical Trial Group Programmatic Meeting.
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UC San Diego Previously Published Works (2019)
            The goal of the Sexually Transmitted Infection Clinical Trial Group's Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) meeting was to assemble experts from academia, government, nonprofit and industry to discuss the current state of research, gaps and challenges in research and technology and priorities and new directions to address the continued emergence of multidrug-resistant NG infections. Topics discussed at the meeting, which will be the focus of this article, include AMR NG global surveillance initiatives, the use of whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics to understand mutations associated with AMR, mechanisms of AMR, and novel antibiotics, vaccines and other methods to treat AMR NG. Key points highlighted during the meeting include: (i) US and International surveillance programs to understand AMR in NG; (ii) the US National Strategy for combating antimicrobial-resistant bacteria; (iii) surveillance needs, challenges, and novel technologies; (iv) plasmid-mediated and chromosomally mediated mechanisms of AMR in NG; (v) novel therapeutic (eg, sialic acid analogs, factor H [FH]/Fc fusion molecule, monoclonal antibodies, topoisomerase inhibitors, fluoroketolides, LpxC inhibitors) and preventative (eg, peptide mimic) strategies to combat infection. The way forward will require renewed political will, new funding initiatives, and collaborations across academic and commercial research and public health programs.
              Cover page: Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae
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