Recognizing Anti-Blackness In Media And Other Institutions, Marissa Lucero

Black History at UNM

Myra Washington, Associate Professor in Communication and Journalism at The University of New Mexico, discusses how dehumanizing portrayals of Black people in the media desensitizes people to brutal violence against Black people. She defines anti-blackness as multiple institutions working together to marginalize Black people. Washington explains, if people choose to discuss anti-blackness in media, it’s imperative to discuss other instances that showcase anti-blackness within different institutions, including education, policy, healthcare, religion, economy, and family. Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at UNM, Shinsuke Eguchi, also reflects on the politics of race and anti-blackness in this article. This article is a …

Relating Asphalt Concrete’S Pore Structure To Its Durability, Mohiuddin Ahmad

Civil Engineering ETDs

Most of the pavements in the USA are constructed using asphalt concrete (AC). AC changes its property over time due to moisture intrusion and aging. These two factors deteriorate AC significantly, and they are considered as the most important durability measures of AC. Moisture enters a pavement in both liquid and vapor form through the permeable pores that are interconnected. Similarly, oxygen, which is required for the aging process, access an asphalt concrete pavement through the connected pore. However, none of the previous studies correlated AC’s pore structure to the flow of moisture, moisture damage, and aging. In this study, …

Full Issue, Neutrosophic Sets

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Imperial Myths, Abject Devotion: Mapping Affect In New Mexican Visual Culture And Discourse, N. C. Lira-Pérez

American Studies ETDs

New Mexican visual art and culture, as molded by state-sanctioned endeavors, is often casted in order to conceal the tension, conflict, and violence of settler colonialism and imperialism. Widely known myths of empire, such as the Tricultural myth, create a visualizing enterprise through which settler colonial logics transit and create political material reality. This thesis explores the following questions: How do New Mexican Hispanos and queer Chicanxs position themselves in relation to the logics of settler colonialism and empire? How are they positioned in relation to settler colonialism and empire? On the one hand, I argue that the state of …

Community And Health Impacts Of Diminishing Water Supplies Due To Climate Change In Southern New Mexico, Lilian Igondou

Climate Change and Public Health Preparedness

No abstract provided.

Online Civic Engagements Among College Students: Exploring Well-Being, Tanupreet Suri

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Ways in which college students use social media for civic engagements and how that usage interplays with their identity development and general well-being have been explored in this study. Civic engagement among college students is imperative to their growth and development. Additionally, social networking sites (SNS) have a great potential for fostering a sense of community and enhancing wellbeing. Thus, how college students’ online civic engagement and general wellbeing interplay was examined. This study employed an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) alongside photo elicitation to explore the experiences of college students. Key findings suggest online civic engagements interplays with college students’ …

Developing A Virus-Like Particle (Vlp)-Based Vaccine For Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, Ashvini Vaidya

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) is a sexually transmitted bacterium that infects human reproductive mucosal surfaces. Due to the risk of complications in untreated cases and evolving antibiotic resistance, a prophylactic vaccine is critical for preventing infection. There are four Ng outer-membrane proteins that contribute to Ng survival and resistance: PorB, BamA, TbpA, and MtrE. Each protein contains surface-exposed loops that are targets of bactericidal antibodies. Vaccines were developed by displaying Ng epitopes on the surface of bacteriophage virus-like particles (VLP). VLPs are immunogenic, multivalent, self-assembling complexes composed of viral structural proteins. Antigenic peptide sequences can be displayed on the surface …

Painted Over In Brown: Border Art As Visual Discourse Of Resistance, Nicole Rivera

Communication ETDs

Borders are created to colonize both land and body. The politically constructed line between the United Stated (U.S.) and Mexico impose physical and emotional trauma through border militarization and immigration policies that consequently separate families and criminalize individuals. Rhetoric centering xenophobic divisions has normalized violence against brown bodies. The relentless effort to continue this divide has led to a genre of art that manifests on the border wall. Artist use the U.S.-Mexico border as a canvas to resist and challenge migratory criminalization by visualizing their opinions to redefine this 1,954-mile line. This research is centered in the study of communication …

The Origins And Development Of Textile Writing In Peru, William Mead Cheek

Art & Art History ETDs

Scholars once considered Inka khipus (14^th-16^th CE) to be a technological development unique to the Inka Empire. We now know that the earlier central Andean Wari (6^th-11^th CE) also made use of khipus, calling into question the Inka primacy of the technology. Understanding the origins and transformation of khipu notation in the Andes sheds light on the ways that information technologies figured into Andean state formation and administration, and impacts larger understandings of how tactile notational systems develop into writing and information storage. This study articulates how, just as the Inka inherited khipu technology …

Security & “Data Hygiene”, Lori D. Sloane

Posters and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Addressing New Forms Of Racism Part Ii: Preventing Microaggressions, Victoria Peña-Parr

Black History at UNM

Sonia Gipson Rankin, Assistant Professor at The University of New Mexico’s School of Law, offers advice on preventing and handling microagressions. This article is the second of two parts. The first article: Addressing New Forms of Racism: Part I: Defining Microagressions, can be found in The Black Lives Matter Collection. Both articles are a part of Racism: An Educational Series, produced by the UNM Newsroom.

Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Ceremonial Community, Dina K. Barajas

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation is an ethnographic study which examined the ritual performances of an interconnected Mexican American and Mexican immigrant danza Azteca and curanderismo ceremonial community located in central and northern New Mexico, and central México. This project also explored if and how these rituals recognize the practitioners’ indigeneity. As a Mexican American and Native scholar and ceremonial participant of this community, I provided an “insider’s” understanding of the epistemologies and ontologies that inform these ceremonies. My positionality and methodology acted as a lens to critically examine danzantes’ and promotoras tradicionales’ claims of indigeneity. Importantly, this work provides a fluid conceptualization …

Addressing New Forms Of Racism Part I: Defining Microaggressions, Victoria Peña-Parr

Black History at UNM

Sonia Gipson Rankin, Assistant Professor at The University of New Mexico’s School of Law, defines microagressions, explains how they are normalized in society, and their impact on individuals. This article is the first of two.The second article: Addressing New Forms of Racism Part II: Preventing Microagressions, can be found in the Black Lives Matter Collection. Both articles are a part of the Racism: An Educational Series, produced by the UNM Newsroom.

The Influence Of Telehealth For Better Health Across Communities., Jane A. Mcelroy, Tamara M. Day, Mirna Becevic

Project ECHO Bibliography

Rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) forced an abrupt shift in the traditional US health care delivery model to meet the needs of patients, staff, and communities. Through federal policy changes on telehealth, patient care shifted from in-person to telephone or video visits, and health care providers reached out to patients most at risk for exacerbation of chronic disease symptoms. ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a videoconferencing peer learning application, engaged health care providers across Missouri in the treatment and management of complex COVID-19-positive patients. Re-envisioning health care in the digital age includes robust utilization of telehealth to …

Musical Wonder And Awe In Narnia: Comparing Two Related Emotions, Laura Steiner

Music ETDs

Wonder and awe are often considered to be synonyms. But though these emotions are similar, a more nuanced look at their musical representations reveals that they are not entirely the same. This thesis examines the difference between musical wonder and awe in music from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, a 2005 film about siblings who find a magical world in a wardrobe. After a review of the literature on musical wonder, the music from two scenes is analyzed. The wardrobe scene, in which the youngest child discovers the land of Narnia, depicts wonder visually. Certain musical characteristics, both …

Trespassing And Transcending: Newcomer Crossing And Movement In Latina And Latin American Literature, Marina C. Todeschini

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

In times when walls are raised and human diversity condemned, stories that present the free urban movement of marginalized characters become political. While the system excludes the brown/black newcomer bodies and restricted them to the margins, the texts analyzed here bring these bodies to the center, claiming their active role in the construction of the urban fabric. This way, Latin American and Latina authors are contesting the idea of citizenship and the right to the city of newcomer subjects by narrating the freedom of geographic and symbolic movement of often disenfranchised peoples. This dissertation analyzes the claims to urban rights …

Characterization Of The Overexpression Of The Native H+-Pumping Pyrophosphatase In The Microalga Picochlorum Soloecismus, Kimberly T. Wright

Biology ETDs

Microalgae are of interest for the creation of sustainable and cost competitive alternatives to petroleum-based fuels and chemicals. However, cultivation, extraction and processing of algal biomass requires improved yields to achieve economic feasibility. The advancement of microalgal biotechnology and various genetic engineering techniques allow the improvement of microalgae biomass for this purpose. Here, the characterization of the overexpression of the native vacuolar H+ pumping pyrophosphate (AVP1) in Picochlorum soloecismus was examined. AVP1 overexpression causes biomass increase in relevant plant crops. When overexpressed in this microalga it increases carbon storage in the form of starch in a closed laboratory photobioreactor. However, …

Understanding Attitudes Toward Healthcare Reform: The Roles Of Self-Interest, Group Identity And Racial Resentment, Maria Beatrice Livaudais

Political Science ETDs

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) cemented itself as one of the most controversial pieces of legislation of the decade. Public opinion polls find Americans are often evenly split in support of the ACA. This dissertation explores the roles of self-interest, group identity, and racial resentment on attitudes toward the ACA and healthcare reform. The dissertation centers our attention on variation by race and the impact racial tensions beyond the Black-White paradigm on these attitudes. I find group identity shapes attitudes Blacks’ and Latinos’ attitudes toward the ACA but not Whites’ and racial resentment, directed toward Blacks, Latinos …

Fluvial Geomorphic And Hydrologic Evolution And Climate Change Resilience In Young Volcanic Landscapes: Rhyolite Plateau And Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Benjamin Newell Burnett

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Quaternary volcanism associated with the last caldera cycle in Yellowstone National Park included emplacement of ash-flow tuffs, massive rhyolite flows ranging from 79 to 484 ka, and valley-filling basalts. This study examines (1) the evolution of spring hydrology with flow age on the Rhyolite Plateau, (2) initial development and evolution of stream networks on the rhyolite flows, and (3) the impact of the 630 ka caldera formation and volcanic flow emplacement on Lamar Valley incision rates.

Integrated stream networks formed within 79 kyr on the Rhyolite Plateau. Incision is focused on steep flow margins and knickpoints and is dependent on …

Reflections On Learning, Communication, And Identity In A Hybrid Course On Language Development, Anni Leming

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This research explored the relationship between the face-to-face and online spaces in my university hybrid course on first and second language development in cultural contexts, as well as my students’ and my own communication, learning, and development of identity as teachers and students. This study was grounded in practitioner inquiry and ethnography of communication as a methodological tool to understand the role of language among teacher and students in the virtual co-construction of knowledge. The findings suggest that self-disclosures, legitimizing the self and others, and relatability played key roles in students navigating new course content, a hybrid space and discussions …

On Love And Treason: Critical White Feminist Thought For Social Justice Praxis, Amanda Joyce Parker

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation is a theoretical piece that examines the positionality of white women in upholding white supremacy and a framework for critical white feminist thought that will move white women toward a self-reflexive and self-implicating praxis. A white matriarchy (Parker, 2018) is fully conceptualized as part of a powerful subsystem that operates under white supremacy. Concepts, such as a race-gender bribe and white women’s negative solidarity (Combahee River Collective, 1977), are exposed and discussed as part of the workings of white matriarchy. White emotionality (Matias, 2015), intergenerational whiteness, and antiracist parenting are also analyzed. I also suggest possibilities for resistance …

Fusion Of Elastin Like Polypeptides To Rna Binding Motifs For Programmable Binding Of Nucleic Acids, Dominic Medina

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) with RNA binding capability have recently been found to play important roles in several cellular processes, including the formation of phase separated membraneless organelles to regulate gene expression. An important class of membraneless organelles is stress granules, which enable cells to survive periods of environmental stress by regulating gene expression in the cytoplasm. Cells use a variety of ribonucleoprotein granules, primarily comprised of RNA and chaperone protein components, and can regulate cellular metabolism by sequestering and processing regulatory components, such as messenger RNAs, within these phases separated ‘organelles’. To recapitulate this cellular behavior, the genetically engineered …

Biogeochemical Processes Affecting Arsenic (As) Release And Bioavailability Near Abandoned Mine Wastes, Cherie L. Devore

Civil Engineering ETDs

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the biogeochemical processes affecting the mobilization and bioavailability of arsenic (As) from mining-impacted sediments to surface water sources and plants. The Cheyenne River Watershed has been affected by mining legacy for several decades. The biogeochemical cycling of As on tribal land is not well understood, which justified the following research objectives: 1) Investigate the effect of competing anions on the release of As from sediments exposed to oxidizing conditions; 2) Evaluate chemical and microbiological processes affecting the release of soluble As, Fe, and Mn from contaminated sediments under laboratory controlled aerobic and …

Advanced Parallel Algorithms In Computational Electromagnetics, Shu Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The rapid development of high performance computing has pushed the computational electromagnetic(CEM) towards high accuracy, high fidelity and extreme computational scales. There is a great need for existing CEM solvers to have enhanced parallelism and scaling capability. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate advanced parallel algorithms for both frequency and time domain solvers.

In frequency domain, this work first develop the underpinnings of parallel preconditioning technique and high-order transmission condition in the context of multi-solver scheme. The result is a computing resource-aware and implementation wise compact solver. Then this work targeted at developing efficient algorithms for cases where …

Software Execution Under Extreme Electromagnetic Interference, Luis Ariel Valbuena Reyes

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Software routines that deviate from the original algorithm’s goal due to a perturba- tion agent is a phenomenon that has been observed for a long time now. From unin- tended executions on flight control computers during the dawn of space exploration, passing through hardware Trojans tampering in corporate security, to sensitive med- ical equipment compromised to the point of changing the amount of delivered drug, the time intervals, and the reported biomedical measured data, such intrusions are a major risk challenging society. In this dissertation, a computer under perturbation is modeled by a hybrid sys- tem that captures the digital …

Impact Of Political Action Committee On Government Contracts, Bibek Acharya

Economics ETDs

This research aims to determine whether politically active corporations are more likely to get government contracts or likely to get more massive deals than corporations that are not politically active. The research question is, to what extent is the increase in government contracts due to the presence of corporate PACs or the amount spent by corporate PACs? In sum, we expect that the existence of PACs and the higher the corporation contributions in support of candidates for federal offices, the higher their chances of getting a contract or a more massive contract. We find that corporations that have a PAC …

Nubians Of Plutonia: Black Women In Modern Post-Apocalyptic And Dystopian Graphic Literature, Marthia D. Fuller

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores the deployment of race and gender in comic books and graphic novels, paying close attention to how Black womanhood and girlhood operates in the speculative future. This project suggests that the framing of black womanhood and girlhood in post-apocalyptic/dystopian spaces provide a counter to the normative notions of both while simultaneously using normative tropes of Black womanhood and girlhood to produce new ways of understanding Black femininity in the future. Nubians of Plutonia use Black feminist cultural criticisms, Black popular culture, and visual culture to ask: does graphic literature present new, more dynamic understandings of race and …

Contesting Historical Enchantment: Militarized Settler Colonialism And Refugee Resettlement In New Mexico, Christina Juhász-Wood

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation provides an interdisciplinary critical study of refugee resettlement to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I argue that refugee resettlement to the United States cannot be understood separately from the ongoing structure of settler colonialism. I analyze Albuquerque’s post-WWII militarized settlement as a settler colonial process of extraction and suburbanization that depended on Native labor and resources to fuel the growing nuclear weapons program. Albuquerque’s Kirtland Air Force Base played a role not only in displacing and thus producing refugees during the Vietnam War but also in marking Albuquerque as a distinctly militarized geography to which they were resettled. Thousands of …

Assessing The Validity Of Sentiment Analysis Measures Through Polychoric Correlation, Kelli N. Kasper

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Sentiment analysis methods extract the attitude of a text via systematic algorithms. To evaluate the validity of common sentiment analysis methods, we use polychoric correlation to compare computer-mediated methods and human-rated analogues. Our main topics of interest are the internal consistency of the raters' scores, the level of consensus among raters, and how well raters' scores correlate with those given by sentiment analysis methods for randomly collected Twitter data.

Our analysis found that there is good validity for methods that measure negative and positive sentiments in short texts, both in terms of inter-rater consistency and when comparing raters to computer-mediated …

Bodies In Shame: Writing Trauma And Affective Unsettlement In Post-Genocide Rwanda Fiction, Cole A. Carvour

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis analyzes Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi, le livre des ossements and Véronique Tadjo’s L’Ombre d’Imana: voyages jusqu’au bout du Rwanda. I argue that both authors write trauma by employing both a dominant realist style and the trauma aesthetic with attention to the embodied experiences of genocide victims and survivors in both styles. In doing so, each author contributes to impeding indifference surrounding the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Furthermore, I assert that one effect of writing trauma is that of affective unsettlement or affective travel, or the registering of psychic and physical shame and other related affective responses in the …