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Narratives On Nepal’S Coalition Politics, Ashis Adhikary

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

On 2nd July 2024, the Communist Party of Nepal- United Marxist Leninist (UML) struck a power-sharing deal with its earlier nemesis, the Nepali Congress (NC), and formed a new coalition. Surprisingly, UML left its ruling ally, the Maoist Center (MC) barely four months after joining hands. Coalition politics in Nepal ages old but this newly formed coalition nonplussed the analyst and political sphere. There are scattered and obstinate market narratives regarding this coalition. A gap exists in thematically framing those narrations. Therefore, this paper thematically presents those scattered narrations under three levels: individual, state, and system. At the individual level, …

Crowdstrike Cyber Incident Vs. Past Major Cyber Incidents: Analysis And Solutions, Priyant Banerjee

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

On July 19, 2024, a technical malfunction in CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor software led to a global ITdisruption, affecting millions of devices across multiple sectors. This incident, although not a direct cyber-attack, caused significant operational upheavals reminiscent of major past cyber incidents. This paperexplores the CrowdStrike incident in detail, compares it with previous major cyber events, and proposescomprehensive solutions to mitigate such risks in the future.The faulty update from CrowdStrike resulted in widespread system crashes, notably the "Blue Screen ofDeath," paralyzing operations in critical sectors such as healthcare, finance, and transportation. The paperexamines the immediate and cascading effects of the incident, …

Trf-Bwm-Neutrosophic-Topsis Strategy Under Svns Environment Approach And Its Application To Select The Most Effective Water Quality Parameter Of Aquaponic System, Pragnaleena Debroy, Priyanka Majumder, Surapati Pramanik, Lalu Seban

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

The rapid emergence of aquaponics presents a promising solution for food production in arid regions, heavily reliant on maintaining optimal water quality parameters for overall success. However, monitoring and controlling these parameters can be complex and costly, involving numerous sensors and actuators. Focusing on the most significant parameter for fish growth could alleviate some of this complexity and promote sustainability by ensuring a balanced system. This study introduces a novel fuzzy-based Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodology, combining Trapezoidal Fuzzy with the Best Worst Method (BWM) and Neutrosophic-TOPSIS strategy, to identify the primary water quality parameters impacting fish growth. Through …

New Neutrosophic Sentiment Analysis Method Based On Neutroalgebra For The Evaluation Of Ethics In Companies, Lilia Esther Valencia Cruzaty, Adriana Mercedes Ruiz Reynoso, Blanca Estela Hernández Boni-Lla

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

Ethics is a discipline that has broken the limits of its field of study, which is related to having the right behavior towards other people, but also to respect nature and life. This has been extended to the accounting and organizational management of companies. This paper proposes a sentiment analysis method based on the NeutroGroup obtained from offuninorms defined by the combining functions in Prospector. The advantage of the proposed method is that in addition to "like" and "dislike", we obtain a result of indeterminacy that can be due either to neutrality or to a contradiction in the short informal …

Assessment Of Three Strategies For Teaching An Ai Literacy Program, Based On A Neutrosophic 2-Tuple Linguistic Mod-El Hybridized With The Aras Method, Víctor Gustavo Gómez-Rodríguez, Raidell Avello-Martínez, Tomasz Gajderowicz, Noemí Bá-Rbara Delgado Álvarez, Johanna Irene Escobar Jara, Noel Batista Hernández, Segress García Hevia, Daniel D. Iturburu Salvador

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This study analyzes some general Artificial Intelligence competency frameworks, aimed at teachers, and it proposes a comprehensive Artificial Intelligence literacy training program, designed to develop in university teachers the necessary skills to integrate Artificial Intelligence into their curricula and research. Through a mixed theoretical-practical approach, the program addresses the gaps identified in the existing literature. The program covers the foundations of Artificial Intelligence to its specific application in teaching, highlighting ethical aspects, critical thinking, and its integration into pedagogy. Based on frameworks such as DigiComEdu, the program is presented as a strategic response to empower teachers, ensuring their preparation to …

Excited State Processes In Radical Elaborated Platinum Donor-Acceptor Complexes, Sangita Paudel

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Organo-transition metal complexes are being widely studied to understand their photophysical properties for their wide range of applications as efficient emitters in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), light emitting electrochemical cells (LEECs), etc. Cyclometalated organo-transition metal complexes such as cyclometalated square planar platinum(II) complexes are becoming suitable candidates for such applications because of their highly efficient luminescence. Understanding the excited properties of such complexes is useful in designing highly efficient and color tunable phosphors with desired excited state lifetimes. We aim to explore the influence of radical substituents on electronic structure, luminescence quantum efficiencies, and excited state lifetimes by synthesizing …

Validating Reward And Relief Drinking Phenotypes: A Multimethod Assessment, Victoria R. Votaw

Psychology ETDs

Recent work has examined the extent to which individuals seek alcohol to enhance positive experiences (reward drinking) or relieve aversive states (relief drinking). Although reward/relief drinking subgroups moderate response to two medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD), naltrexone and acamprosate, limitations of reward/relief drinking measures could hinder efforts to translate findings to clinical practice. This dissertation project aimed to validate a brief, practical measure of reward/relief drinking, the Reward and Relief Inventory of Drinking Situations (RR-IDS). Among 426 participants with AUD enrolled in a clinical trial of naltrexone and acamprosate (Study 1), we identified RR-IDS items free of bias across …

Verlorene Heimat, Gefundene Leere - Michael Hanekes Trilogie Der Emotionalen Vergletscherung Und Die Nicht-Orte Des Alltags, Amber Lane

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This work examines the incorporation of the concept of non-place in Michael Haneke's Trilogy of Emotional Glaciation (1989-1994) and its connection to elements of the Heimatfilm. The trilogy introduces the concept of non-place in urban or domestic settings while exploring the decay of human relationships and societal alienation. Despite individual stories, the films share a dark atmosphere and question human existence in an alienated world. Haneke's unique film style, characterized by long takes and minimalist aesthetics, is used to examine human behavior with emotional distance. This work sheds light on Haneke's contribution to the Austrian film tradition and contributes to …

Adaptive Immune Profiling Of Sin Nombre Hantavirus And Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection, Tonilynn M. Baranowski

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Hantaviruses are causative agents of potentially fatal respiratory illness and/or organ failure in humans worldwide. In the United States, the predominant hantavirus species, Sin Nombre hantavirus (SNV), causes a severe disease pathology, called hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS). Infection with SNV and subsequent clinical manifestations of HCPS lends itself to case fatality rates approaching 40%, even under supportive care. This is partially due to the lack of FDA-approved vaccines and antivirals, in addition to a deficit in our knowledge regarding the human immune response to SNV. Further investigation of the adaptive immune response may reveal key targets to mediate disease outcome. …

“How I Dress Is No One’S Business!”: Fashion As A Subversive Language Of Resistance Among Female Christian Celebrities In Ghana, Amanda E. Gyesi

Communication ETDs

Influenced by burgeoning literature on feminism and feminist theories, specifically within the African context, I analyze the intersection of religion and celebrity culture among a select group of women in Ghana. Using the African feminist critical discourse analysis, guided by Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model, this research examines how female Christian celebrities in Ghana enact resistance, project their agency, and shape their identities through their fashion statements and sartorial choices, hence contributing to the broader discourse on fashion communication among religious women.

Through a critical analysis of Instagram comments and YouTube interview transcripts, I argue that fashion communication among …

(Dis)Connecting Incommensurable Relationalities: Aesthetics Of Desirable Citizenship & Interethnic Solidarity In Vietnamese/American Diasporic Media, Anh A. T. Nguyen

Communication ETDs

Employing critical diasporic rhetoric to articulate the pull and push glimmer of essentialist and nationalistic agendas of constructing Vietnamese diasporic subjectivities, I elucidate the complicated structure of diasporic nationalism that gives shape to ambiguities, paradoxes, and contradictions of Vietnamese diasporic withdrawal and regroupment in interethnic politics. Through three case studies explicating Vietnamese diasporic responses to the Chinese virus rhetorics, the appearance of the South Vietnamese flag on January 6 Capitol grounds, and the Atlanta shootings in Saigon Broadcasting Television Networks (SBTN), I highlight how Vietnamese diasporic authorities perform and enact citizenships of becoming desirable, which elevates oppressive forces of ideological …

Grievability And The Contingency Of Life Value In Twenty-First-Century Science Fiction, Emily A. Reiff

English Language and Literature ETDs

Using Judith Butler’s framework of grievability, this dissertation explores twenty-first-century science fiction by British, Irish, and Caribbean authors whose novels grapple with legacies of colonialism and imperialism that relied on dehumanization and subjugation. Beginning with Sarah Maria Griffin’s Spare and Found Parts (2016), chapter one explores neocolonial rationales—purportedly based on health—which recreate colonial divisions of class and labor and enforce systems of diminishing grievability in a post-apocalyptic Irish context. Chapter two contends that Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021) illustrates the danger inherent to value systems that center “normative” embodiment in worlds that reconfigure hypercapacitated human beings as the …

Understanding Longitudinal Top-Down Cracking To Enhance Asphalt Mix Design, Md Mehedi Hasan

Civil Engineering ETDs

This study focuses on developing a deformation rate-dependent bilinear constitutive equation for cohesive zone modeling of asphalt concrete's fracture process zone to accurately predict the longitudinal top-down crack initiation and propagation. A mathematical model has been developed for the AC materials' deformation rate-dependent cohesive zone fracture characteristics and incorporated into the ABAQUS software as a customized user element subroutine (UEL). The developed model has been validated by comparing the simulation results with the laboratory test results, which show good agreement with the results. In addition, an enhanced asphalt mix design approach, referred to as SP5, has been developed to mitigate …

Thermal Oxidative Degradation Of Polystyrene Plastics Used For Food Packaging During Incomplete Waste Incineration, Maycee Hurd

Civil Engineering ETDs

We identified the physical and chemical degradation of polystyrene (PS) plastic used for food packaging after thermal oxidative weathering. Open waste incineration is a widely used waste management practice in isolated and underserved communities. However, the generation of partially incinerated plastics and microplastics (MPs) from this practice is overlooked. Near surface XPS C 1s high resolution analyses show an increase in the intensity of peaks greater than 285 eV corresponding to C/O bonds after burning of PS. Bulk analyses using ATR-FTIR show that thermal oxidation decreased the alkene (3040-3000 cm-1) and alkane (3000-2850 cm-1) C-H stretch signals suggesting PS chain …

Teachings From The Hogan Floor: Preserving Culture And Language Through Museum Collections, Nonabah B. Sam

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

In 2021, we faced the unexpected impacts of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the Navajo Nation. There were many things to realize, but one that hits hardest is the loss we suffered with many traditional practitioners passing from this illness. The purpose of this study was to examine linguistic and cultural contributions that Knowledge Keepers might consider making for the future of our Navajo Nation and Diné College. Drawing on my cultural teachings and knowledge, I conducted semi-structured interviews in Navajo and English with 10 participants, including leaders, alumni, staff, and traditional practitioners; I also utilized a circling back …

Trauma, Memory, Imagination, And Survivance: Uncovering Haunting Stories Within The Southwest Borderlands, Tania Paloma García

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project explores hidden histories of the García/Espinosa/Sargent/Burns family in northern New Mexico/southern Colorado during the middle-to-late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries, and continuing into the present. The project, in part, focuses on prominent rancher, lawyer, landowner, and territorial representative of New Mexico and Colorado, José Victór García. García’s life and legacy is examined regarding the lesser-known story of his “ownership” of several enslaved Indigenous youths on his property in Conejos County, Colorado. The methodology of haunting is employed to expose complex histories of Indigenous peoples in the Southwest borderlands, and within a broader context of colonialism. Indigenous enslavement is considered …

A Cultural Responsiveness Model To Support Parent's Practices In Families With Autistic Children: A Culturally Relevant Self- Compassion Program For Nigerian Mothers, Ekene Anastesia Odumegwu

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The goal of this intervention of self-compassion, mindfulness, and self-kindness focuses on training Nigerian mothers raising autistic children to enhance their psychological well-being. The intervention will assist Nigeran mothers living in Nigeria with developing their self- compassion. Building resilience for Nigerian mothers' self-compassion will help them to improve their physical and psychological health by becoming more mindful of their own pains and suffering when raising their child with Autism. Also, the proposed intervention will help Nigerian mothers to focus their attention and energy on how ways that might reduce the trauma and challenges experienced in parenting children with autism.

This …

A Phenomenological Exploration Of Language Shift Of Ikalanga In Botswana: Implications For Language Revitalization, Annah Sephene Macha

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study explores the phenomenon of language shift among the Bakalanga community in Botswana, focusing on the gradual displacement of the iKalanga language by dominant languages such as Setswana and English that hold official status for education and broader communication. iKalanga faces significant challenges, as minority languages face extinction globally, the Bakalanga’s experience reflects broader trends where dominant languages supplant indigenous ones in education and wider communication. This research employed a phenomenological approach to investigate how the Bakalanga transmit knowledge amidst this language shift. Data was collected through focus groups, life history narratives, documents, and individual interviews, and analyzed using …

Media Road To Violence: A Process Of Racialization Of Rohingya Ethnic Minority, Md Didarul Islam

Communication ETDs

ABSTRACT

This dissertation examines how ideologically loaded news media representations advanced the complex and ambiguous process of racialization of the Rohingyas, an ethnic Muslim minority in Myanmar. This study first interrogates the dominant patterns in news sourcing and thematic emphasis in the coverage of Rohingya; secondly, it sheds light on how these representations contribute to reproducing dominant ideologies and power relations. I selected two English-language newspapers published in Myanmar: The Global New Light of Myanmar and the Myanmar Times. I applied the notions of media representation (Hall, 1997), ideology (Althusser, 2007), and racialization (Garner & Selod, 2015) as the central …

Wars Of Position: The Construction Of An Antifascist Public Sphere In Spain, 1931-1939, Carter David Barnwell

History ETDs

This dissertation explores antifascist culture in Spain during the decade of the 1930s, and the ways in which it was developed and disseminated by a host of intellectuals and activists under the Second Republic from 1931-1939. In considering parliamentary addresses, performative speech acts, election propaganda, public demonstrations, newspaper and journal articles, multi-media art, and photographs, the study demonstrates how political and cultural leaders came to define and understand “antifascism” and what they hoped to achieve by embracing this term. An antifascist culture developed amongst broad elements of the Spanish political left and center under the Second Republic, which came to …

The Borders Of Embodiment: Transgression, Transformation, And Corporeality In Chicanx Speculative Fiction, Chrysta Carson Wilson

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation develops a clearer vision of Chicanx Speculative Fiction (SF) as its own genre anchored to the experiences and histories of the Chicanx community, with a particular interest in the avenues through which race and gender shape the experience of embodiment. SF resists hegemonic narratives that justify racial hierarchies and reveals both the cultural and concrete pressures exerted on Chicanx bodies in the United States as a minoritized and often exploited community. Furthermore, my analysis illustrates that Chicanx writers utilize elements of SF to defamiliarize traditional notions of race, class, and nationality. Through the use of defamiliarization, Chicanx SF …

Agave, Tamarindo Y Jamaica: Testimonios And Movements Of Jotería Rural And Afro-Jotería Rural From The Ranchos And Pueblos Of Rural Southern Mexico, Luis Oswaldo Esparza

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

This project aims to celebrate and honor resistance strategies by Jotería Rural and Afro-Jotería Rural, who have originally inherited, implemented, and recreated life-affirming survival mechanisms of joy and survival. I accomplished this using a Nagualing Jotería methodologies that humanizes participants by treating their testimonials as legitimate community-based knowledge (Fierros & Delgado-Bernal, 2016). Together, my contributors and I constructed a list of resistance strategies as they tied their experiences in relation to and against repressive colonial rhetoric that continues to be re-articulated in the rural.

Optical Responses Of Hybrid Electromagnetic Nanostructures, Dominic Bosomtwi

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Fano resonances result from the interference between a broad background and a narrow state, producing asymmetric scattering profiles. Under specific conditions, destructive interference collapses the Fano resonance width, leading to bound states in the continuum (BICs) that localize light within a nanostructure while maintaining an infinitely high-quality factor (Q-factor).

This dissertation explores the design of nanostructures with multilayer hybrid plasmonic-dielectric metasurfaces using full-wave numerical simulations, facilitating multiple Fano resonances and BICs. By adjusting nanoantenna dimensions, multiple modes are excited at plasmonic-dielectric interfaces, leading to strong interactions and hybridization of energy levels, manifested as Rabi splitting.

These findings enable advancements in …

Transnational(Izing) African Communication: A Post-/Decolonial Approach To Nollywood And Globalization, Tomide Oloruntobi

Communication ETDs

In this dissertation, I examine culture and communication in transnational Nigeria, focusing on Nollywood and its industrial politics. Through a critical ethnographic examination of Nollywood’s reception among global and transnational audiences, I critique the evolving patterns of difference, power, and politics informing production, distribution, consumption, and performance/communication of otherness. With four composite dimensions of decoloniality: structural, epistemic, personal, and relational as theoretical foundation, I analyzed observations and interviews with 21 transnational Nigerians, online focus group discussions, user reviews, movies/series, and blogposts. I discuss the emergent themes of coloniality of space, mobility, and culture; re-making of racial otherness and hetero-patriarchy/normativity; cultural …

Ergonomics And Musculoskeletal Disorders: An Evaluation Of Self-Assessment Using Surveys, Shannon L. Sherman

Dental Hygiene ETDs

Musculoskeletal disorders, MSDs, are a serious issue many dental professionals experience. It is understood that improper ergonomics are a contributing factor to developing MSDs. Several factors can be implemented into a dental hygienist’s everyday routine to help decrease the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate how many practicing dental hygienists experience musculoskeletal pain from daily hygiene practice and how ergonomics contributes to their level of pain. The study also discovered through self-assessment, areas participating dental hygienists would be willing to improve on in their daily ergonomic practice to potentially help decrease or prevent …

Critical Geospatial Data Science: Principles For Curating, Analyzing, And Sharing Geospatial Data, Daniel Beene

Geography ETDs

Critical geospatial data science (CGDS) offers principles for engaging with geospatial data, methods, and translation by pulling from critical epistemologies in geography. CGDS interrogates objective “truths” in science by actively engaging in critique of geospatial data and methodologies. Specifically, CGDS contends with the political context and motivations behind geospatial data science (GDS) while using GDS methods to understand how social-spatial arrangements manifest and are reinforced through data. CGDS explicitly aims to inform practices for criticality from within GDS and provides opportunities for multidisciplinary research that incorporates social theories, contextualizes geospatial data, and critically evaluates the effects and ethics of (under)representation …

Imperial Architecture And Absolute Chronology In The Inka State: The View From Northern Chile, Beau G. Murphy

Anthropology ETDs

Scholars often evaluate the political aspects of imperial architecture in terms of the symbolism of specific buildings, leaving a gap in our understanding of the political calculations of overall site layouts. This study of the architecture of the Inka provincial capital of Turi, located in the Atacama of northern Chile, identifies aspects of planning in the site’s layout that extend our knowledge of the use of architecture by past empires to communicate political messages. In so doing, the study addresses multi-scalar issues of a neglected Inka chronology, including the chronology of Turi itself, of Inka rule of the Upper Loa …

Gnss And Insar Observations Of Vertical Motion In The Valles Caldera, Nm, Savannah Chase Devine

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Valles caldera is a rhyolitic “supervolcano” formed 1.231 Ma. An understanding of whether Valles caldera is currently deforming is needed to inform volcanic hazard estimates for northern New Mexico and will allow for a better understanding of the hazards presented by other rhyolitic caldera systems. Here, we present an InSAR time series of the Valles Caldera using 37 interferograms, spanning 2014 to 2022, which show a small but consistent signal of broad pattern subsidence/yr. We also present GNSS observations from a survey conducted in October 2022 and compare the results to surveys in 2002 and 2003 to estimate the …

Conserved Mechanisms Of Drug Induced Lifespan Extension In S. Cerevisiae And C. Elegans, Christine E. Robbins

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Aging is a phenomenon that brings aches, pains and a risk of developing diseases. Many researchers have discovered pathways that regulate aging by altering gene expression. Understanding genetic regulation of aging is key but identifying drugs that target aging will result in translatable treatments. Additionally, understanding how drugs are interacting with our cells allows us to create targeted therapies. I study two types of drugs. First, tRNA synthetase inhibitors are a class of drugs that inhibit charging of tRNAs. I identified a mechanism of lifespan extension by upregulation of the conserved transcription factor, Gcn4 / Atf-4. Second, I found that …

Breaking The Silence: Autoethnographic Account Of Communication In The Aftermath Of Parental Suicide, Marissa L. Lucero

Communication ETDs

The silence that surrounds the suicide of a parent often masks unresolved feelings of guilt, shame, and powerlessness in families grieving their loss. For children, the long-lasting impact of suppressing communication about parental suicide can endure throughout adulthood. In this autoethnography, I un-salience my voice to reflect on my father’s suicide in the context of my Nuevo Mexicana identity. I assert my Chicana feminist voice through an extraction of gendered and culturally grounded memories, personal journal entries from my childhood, and a review of academic sources on suicide. This thesis is a personal and intellectual engagement with Chicana/o critical theory, …