The Time-Honored Friendship: A History of Vietnamese-Algerian Relations (1946-2015)

In 1958, the newly established Democratic Republic of Vietnam initiated a top secret program to ship a “large quantity” of submachine guns disguised as commercial goods to Algeria to assist the Front de libération nationale in its struggle for independence from French colonial rule. In 1973, Algeria leveraged its position as the host of the fourth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement to issue a draft resolution requesting that all member nations pledge diplomatic support to the Việt Cộng, contribute to Vietnam’s post-war reconstruction, and demand the wholescale withdrawal of foreign troops from the Southeast Asian nation. At the close of 2015, Vietnam and Algeria celebrated the first commercial oil flow from the joint Vietnamese-Algerian Bir Seba oil project, located in the Algerian Sahara. Despite such events indicating that there exists a long and rich history of Vietnamese-Algerian relations, there has been no scholarship documenting it. Responding to this gap in scholarship, this project, “The Time-Honored Friendship,” pieces together the history of Vietnamese-Algerian relations from the beginning of the Indochina War in 1946 to the present day. In doing so, it proposes that the relationship can be divided into three distinct eras: anti-colonial solidarity (1946-1962); socialist, anti-imperial brotherhood (1962-1986); and joint ventures in economic liberalization (1986-2015). Corresponding with these three proposed eras of Vietnamese-Algerian engagement, this project is divided into three main sections. The first section, “The Era of Anti-Colonial Solidarity (1946-1962),” argues that the Vietnamese and Algerian people understood each others’ struggles against French colonial rule as extensions of their own and supported each other accordingly. Acts of solidarity were not merely initiated at the state level by political elite, but were also overwhelmingly driven from the grassroots during both the Indochina and Algerian wars of independence. The second section, “The Era of Socialist, Anti-Colonial Solidarity (1962-1986),” asserts that having both secured their formal independence from France, Vietnam and Algeria were eager to engage with one another through official bilateral relations. They premised their official relationship on their common adherence to the socialist creed and on supporting each other in securing economic sovereignty from the neo-colonial West. The third section, “The Era of Joint Ventures in Economic Liberalization (1986-2015),” details the drastic turn in the Vietnamese-Algerian relationship from being premised on revolutionary struggle against colonialism in all its forms to being premised on mutual economic growth through foreign investment, increased bilateral trade, and technical cooperation for the sake of reaching parity with the developed world. Rather than collaborating to fend off the corrupting influences of the West, the two nations came to embrace liberalization, and worked together to navigate a post-Cold War capitalist order. The conclusion entreats scholars of all disciplines to both build on this project’s findings and to explore how other formerly colonized peoples around the world, united in common oppression under distant European powers, engaged with each other in the quest for a more nuanced trans-regional scholarship

A Systematic Study of Atomic Layer Deposition of Platinum Nano-Scale Metallization Films and Their Application to Electrical Contacts in Porous Alumina Templates

ln this thesis a comprehensive analysis is presented on nano-scale thin films of platinum deposited with Angstrom resolution by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology utilizing the Cambridge Nanotech Savannah 100 ALD system. Physical characterizations of film thickness, film morphology, and surface roughness of the deposited platinum were all performed before and after rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and as a function of forming gas annealing (FGA). Noble metal thin films of platinum were deposited on four inch wafers of p-type boron doped &100& oriented silicon (Si) substrates. The ALD film thickness was measured with a novel method utilizing the linear dependence of ALD Pt film deposition cycles on electrical sheet conductance. The experimental sheet conductance graph was calibrated by absolute Pt film thickness measurements using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The ALD Pt film surface morphology was characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Sheet resistance of the ALD platinum films was determined by using electrical four-point- probe measurements. The newly developed ALD Pt process was successfully extended to such challenging applications as providing a third electrode to active zeta potential controlled Electroosmotic pumps in nano-porous membranes. Finally, thin nano-scaled transparent electrical contacts required for photovoltaic cells in porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates were successfully implemented by a newly developed ALD ZnO process

Dworkinian Liberalism & Gay Rights: A Defense of Same-Sex Relations

Recent changes in the politics of gay rights have led to a gay rights demand for liberal governments: i) decriminalization of sodomy and ii) full governmental recognition of civil, same-sex marriages. Challengers to liberalism argue that a neutral liberalism cannot satisfy the gay rights demand. I argue that the liberal political framework put forth by Ronald Dworkin can adequately fulfill the gay rights demand. Dworkinian liberalism, which is neutral with respect to the ethical life, need not be neutral with respect to moral and non-ethical values. I argue for the more modest claim that Dworkinian liberalism has the conceptual tools and principles for satisfying the gay rights demand. In arguing for my claim, I discuss the internal criticisms of Carlos Ball and Michael Sandel and the external criticism of John Finnis. I argue that these concerns are surmountable. Dworkinian liberalism is capable of offering a robust defense of same-sex relations

Navigating toward an uncertain future:how students regulated goals during the emergency remote learning

Abstract. This study aims to examine the goal-setting regulation of higher students in the context of emergency remote learning. Using Emergency Remote Learning (ERL), Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) as the main theoretical frameworks, this study sought to examine which type of goals students set during the pandemic, how the emergency remote learning influenced students’ goal setting and regulating, which challenges students confronted and strategies to successfully overcome them. The thesis targets international higher students who started their studies in 2020, using qualitative methods and designed individual in-depth interviews to gain insights about students of 2020’s goals. Besides, a small set of quantitative data is also collected and analyzed to investigate the situated awareness of students about emergency remote learning. The findings reveal several notable points. First, studying under the circumstance of emergency remote learning is not only in an emergency manner but also has a persistency characteristic, thus long time of online teaching might cause a relatively high extent of stress in students. Second, students in their first year (during the emergency remote learning) tended to pay more attention to their mastery ambitions. After the emergency remote learning, there was a tendency to shift goals to performance-orientation. Third, not all goal changes were related to the influence of emergency remote learning, since goal change is a natural phenomenon in life. Forth, among challenges confronted during the emergency remote learning, instructional challenges and emotional and motivational challenges are most repeated and notable. Fifth, students shared numerous useful tips and strategies to overcome the hard situation, noteworthily, some of them are avoidance-oriented. The implications of this study include the potential for instructors to design their teaching to better facilitate students in emergency remote learning, especially to compensate for the shortcomings of support systems and ill-designed instructions. Besides, insights from the finding also contribute to furthering research on the consequences of emergency remote learning not only during but after the pandemic, focusing on goal-setting, one of the key elements of self-regulated learning

High-rate groupwise STBC using low-complexity SIC based receiver

In this paper, using diagonal signal repetition with Alamouti code employed as building blocks, we propose a high- rate groupwise space-time block code (GSTBC) which can be effectively decoded by a low-complexity successive interference cancellation (SIC) based receiver. The proposed GSTBC and SIC based receiver are jointly designed such that the diversity repetition in a GSTBC can induce the dimension expansion to suppress interfering signals as well as to obtain diversity gain. Our proposed scheme can be easily applied to the case of large number of antennas while keeping a reasonably low complexity at the receiver. It is found that the required minimum number of receive antennas is only two for the SIC based receiver to avoid the error floor in performance. The simulation results show that the proposed GSTBC with SIC based receiver obtains a near maximum likelihood (ML) performance while having a significant performance gain over other codes equipped with linear decoders

I\u27d Rather Play the Saxophone : Conflicts in Identity Between Vietnamese Students and Their Parents

Members of the Vietnamese community in Lincoln, Nebraska range in time of resettlement, background and experience in adjustment to their new home. The impact of cultural change and education on the Vietnamese youth in this community is of particular importance. The Vietnamese youth are under-examined in the areas of adjustment and identity formation. The effects of cultural conflict have profound impact on the future of Vietnamese youth. The following study presents an examination of the variables that may affect Vietnamese youth, specifically culture and education as factors in ethnic identity formation. It also presents how these factors can affect the relationship between students and parents

Detection of Spoilage in Canned Pasteurized Milk Using the Radiographic Imaging Technique

After packed into sterilized containers with a closed and rigorous process, pasteurized milk has been ensured for its hygiene and safety factors. However, distortions can occur during storage and transportation, causing the container to open, allowing harmful microorganisms to enter and damage the product. This research proposed a radiographic imaging technique to detect and evaluate the spoilage of canned pasteurized milk. The X-ray images show that the milk cans, which were left open for three days at 300 K, indicated regions with abnormal density with the smallest detectable size from 100 µm or larger. Density heterogeneity would be clearer in the following days and depending on the sample. An algorithm was developed to identify spoilage products automatically with an accuracy of up to 100 % and a speed of 0.0057 s/product. This approach may be suitable for industrial scale to control the quality of dairy products

A numerical study of the nonlinear interaction of Hurricane Camille with the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current

A three-dimensional, primitive equation, ocean general circulation model is used to study the response of the Gulf of Mexico to Hurricane Camille (1969). The free-surface dynamics and the mixed-layer features are included in the model. The numerical model incorporates the realistic coastline and bottom topography. The sigma coordinate model bas eighteen levels in the vertical and 0.2° x 0.2° horizontal resolution for the entire gulf. The study focuses on nonlinear interaction between hurricane induced currents and the Loop Current. The numerical simulations show that there is a strong nonlinear interaction between the hurricane and the Loop Current in the southern and central parts of the eastern gulf. The surface currents due to nonlinear interaction obtain a maximum of over 1 m s·1 in the southern gulf. The numerical results also show that the hurricane interaction with the Loop Current strongly affects current, mixed-layer depth, and elevation fields. There is a strong current response to Hurricane Camille in the surface layer on the shelf with a peak velocity approximately 2.2 m s-1• There is a definite right band bias in the mixed-layer depth field with a maximum of about 90 m.Navy Ocean Modeling and Prediction Program (NOMP) of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)Department of Oceanography, Naval Postgraduate SchoolNOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research LabsOceanweather, IncResearch Triangle InstituteNavy Ocean Modeling and Prediction Program (NOMP) of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)Department of Oceanography, Naval Postgraduate SchoolNOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research LabsOceanweather, IncResearch Triangle Institut