While Oscar Wilde’s influence on James Joyce has been explored by many scholars, the flamboyant playwright, novelist, journalist, and critic’s importance to Ulysses remains elusive. We suggest that Wildean avatars—Deleuzian ‘assemblages’ (Deleuze, 1980: 340)—both open the novel in the form of Buck Mulligan in ‘Telemachus’ and close its public narrative in the shape of D. B. Murphy in ‘Eumaeus’, before triggering the private resolutions of the main cast members in ‘Ithaca’ and ‘Penelope’. These assemblages bookend the novel’s opening and closing, and highlight overlooked queer themes in Ulysses, particularly the socially constructed nature of identity. Mulligan and Murphy, highly costumed and performative, not only establish Wilde’s foundational importance to Ulysses but epitomize the queering influence that permeates it, a note that has only recently begun to be heard.
Dry Tortugas National Park, which includes Bush, Long, Loggerhead, Garden, and Bird Keys, is a cluster of islands and coral reefs approximately 112.9 km (70 miles) west of Key West, Florida (fig. 1). These islands were explored in 1513 by Ponce de León, who named them for the abundance of sea turtles, “tortugas,” and the lack of fresh water in the area. Historically, the Tortugas shoals have been valued as a military outpost, and the area is now additionally recognized as nesting grounds for diverse seabirds. The Dry Tortugas were declared a national treasure and bird sanctuary as early as 1908 and were incorporated into the National Park Service in 1935. These islands have been the setting for the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) research into mangroves and their relationship to bird life.
A series of buried land mine detection measurements were performed at the University of Florida using x-ray lateral migration radiography with 12 difference types of actual antitank and antipersonnel mines. The resulting images posses extraordinarily definitive detail. The signatures are so unique that not only can positive mine detection be accomplished with this technique, but also mine identification. The mine's exterior shape combined with the interior air volumes yield easily recognized image signatures. The emphasis of this paper is on mine-type discrimination from image data. The reported results indicate that the lateral migration radiography technique provides a land mine detection method with the potential of near-zero false positive alarm probability. A practical systems, which is under current design and fabrication, is described and allows for one square meter interrogation in 35 seconds, antitank and antipersonnel mine imaging and recognition in respectively 12.6 and 1.4 seconds. This approximately 75-kilogram system can be attached to a small two-wheel carrier and requires only 140 watts of electric power.
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Felsenthal Navigation Pool (?the pool?) at Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge near Crossett, Ark., was continuously flooded to a baseline elevation of 19.8 m (65.0 ft) mean sea level (m.s.l.) from late fall 1985, when the final in a series of locks and dams was constructed, until the summer of 1995. Water level within the pool was reduced by 0.3 m (1.0 ft) beginning July 5, 1995, exposing about 1,591 ha (3,931 acres) of sediment; the reduced water level was maintained until October 25 of that year. A total of 15 transects was established along the pool margin before the drawdown, extending perpendicular from the pool edge to 19.5 m (64.0 ft) in elevation. Plant species composition and cover were recorded at six to seven quadrats on each transect; 14 of the transects were also monitored three times during the drawdown and in June 1996. Soil near five of the original transects was disturbed two weeks into the drawdown by scraping the soil surface with a bulldozer. Soil cores were collected to characterize soil organic matter, texture class, carbon and nitrogen content, and plant nutrient concentrations; soil samples were also collected to identify species present in the seed bank prior to and during the drawdown. Plant species, several of which were high quality food sources for waterfowl, colonized the drawdown zone within four weeks. Vegetation response, measured by species richness, total cover, and cover of Cyperus species, was often greater at low compared to high elevations in the drawdown zone; this effect was probably intensified by low rainfall during the summer of 1995. Vegetation response on the disturbed transects was reduced compared to that on the undisturbed transects. This effect was attributed to two factors: (1) removal of the existing seed bank by the disturbance technique applied and (2) reduced incorporation of seeds recruited during the drawdown because of unusually low summer rainfall. Seed bank studies demonstrated that several species persisted despite nearly 10 years of continual flooding, and that seed bank species richness increased during the drawdown. Analyses indicated that predominantly clay soils containing relatively low organic matter were present along the pool margin. Levels of the plant nutrients measured were consistent with normal values reported for soils. Although conclusions from this study are limited by its one-year time frame, it is unlikely that permanent change to plant community function in the drawdown zone resulted from the lowered water levels during the summer of 1995. While species composition in the summer following the drawdown differed from that prior to the drawdown, the plant community remained dominated by annual floating-leaved or submersed species. It is probable that any future decrease in summer water levels in the pool will result in increased growth of desirable waterfowl food plants, such as Cyperus erythrorhizos (red-root flat sedge) and Leptochloa fascicularis var. fascicularis (bearded sprangletop), in the drawdown zone.
