Globalizing literacies and identities : translingual and transcultural literacy practices of Bhutanese refugees in the U.S.

This critical ethnographic study explores how language and literacy shape the social identities and cultural practices of the Bhutanese refugees in the U.S., and how an understanding of their literate practices contributes to new conceptualizations of language and literacies research. Involving fifty-six Bhutanese refugees from a Midwest city, this study highlights linguistic and cultural resources utilized by the Bhutanese refugees at key literacy sites – such as an Elderly Care Center, mandatory ESL classes, weekly cultural and musical gatherings, men’s and women’s Kirtan (religious singing) groups, and youth online forums – for creating, changing, and transforming their linguistic, cultural, musical, and literate traditions. This study highlights and illustrates tensions between, on the one hand, dominant monolingualist views in the participants’ notions about Bhutanese/Nepalese culture/language and traditions, and, on the other, their actual engagement in fluid, diverse, shifting, situated, and emergent practices. This dissertation contributes to the development of studies of immigrant literacies by articulating the effects of distinctions among immigrant groups (distinguishing between “voluntary” and refugee immigrants) and the effects of intra-group dynamics (by caste, gender, generation, and religious affiliation) on the specific literacy practices of members of immigrant refugee groups. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter One, titled “In the Wor(l)ds of Language and Ethnicity: Literacies in Motion,” introduces readers to Bhutanese refugee community and the development of their everyday literacy practices as they navigate across various geopolitical locales. In its discussion of the development of Bhutanese refugees’ reading and writing practices as historically, culturally, politically, and religiously situated, the first part of this chapter also argues against the traditional notion of literacy as the cognitive achievement of people and their learning. The second part of this chapter situates the study in the context of scholarship in literacy studies, transcultural and translingual theories, and globalization and media studies. Chapter Two, “The Outsider Within: Critical Ethnography and the Representation of Other,” first explains the research methods for collecting data, interview processes, and the processes for interpreting and analyzing them, and the researcher’s positioning. Then the chapter complicates a traditional notion of ethnography that reduces this research method to fieldwork and description and that treats ethnography as a study of the “other.” Posing an alternative to traditional ethnography that accommodates critical voices and researchers’ self-reflection, this discussion reviews scholarship that articulates issues on ethical representation and the use of critical ethnography in the context of the researcher’s own positioning. A reflective analysis in the second part of this chapter stresses the role critical ethnography plays in invoking the processual and historical knowledge-making of the research participants as well as in helping document the researcher’s own journey through knowledge. Chapter Three, “Literacies Across Borders: Remapping the Boundaries of Literacy and Language Practices,” explores the literacy practices of the research participants as they migrate to various locales, and identifies the purpose of such practices in the transcultural and translingual contexts of their new home in the U.S. Observation, examination, and documentation of the everyday literacy practices of these refugees in the contexts of literacy sites as well as that of their homes and community demonstrate the ways in which the refugees utilize their literate practices to foster new understandings as well as to forge social networks while maintaining transnational connections. This section also analyzes identity as manifest in the language and literacy practices of these participants, especially by tracing the impact of multicultural, multimodal, and multilingual literacies on immigrant identities. Chapter Four, “Globally Digital, Digitally Global: Multilingual and Multimodal Literacies in the Making,” examines how the participants adopt multilingual literacy practices, especially through the use of digital new media in globalized contexts, to challenge monolingual and monomodal discourse on learning. Analysis of the emerging multilingual and multimodal literate practices of research participants across generations – elderly and middle-aged, and college-going adults – shows how these refugees utilize and negotiate their multilingual repertoires in the process of adjusting to a host country. This chapter focuses particularly on alternative language/culture source networks and their impact on refugee literate practices when interacting with mainstream society. Chapter Five, which is titled “Resisting the Finality of Monolingual Closures: Implications for Pedagogy and Educational Research,” summarizes and concludes the study, exploring its implications for the understanding and interpretation of emerging literate practices of minority communities like the immigrant refugees. The chapter concludes with a review of the study’s limitations and directions for future research. While most studies of out-of-school literacies treat formal and non-formal literacy practices as discrete entities, this study highlights continuities across these, forging a response to those who see literacy as a discrete cognitive practice that takes place mostly in the contexts of schooled reading and writing. Findings from the research indicate that the use of multiple languages, cultural resources, and new media have cultivated the Bhutanese refugees’ literate practices in relation to race, gender, and nationality in a digitized and globalized context. Although focused on a Bhutanese refugee community, the findings of this study are relevant for educators who look for new ways to imagine academic experiences that are socially and culturally responsive. This study reflects the shifting socio-cultural dimensions of U.S. population, not only in terms of social diversity but also in relation to the political and cultural conflicts that underpin the refugees’ lived experiences

Ba{1-x}KxMn2As2: An Antiferromagnetic Local-Moment Metal

The compound BaMn2As2 with the tetragonal ThCr2Si2 structure is a local-moment antiferromagnetic insulator with a Neel temperature TN = 625 K and a large ordered moment mu = 3.9 mu_B/Mn. We demonstrate that this compound can be driven metallic by partial substitution of Ba by K, while retaining the same crystal and antiferromagnetic structures together with nearly the same high TN and large mu. Ba_{1-x}K_xMn2As2 is thus the first metallic ThCr2Si2-type MAs-based system containing local 3d transition metal M magnetic moments, with consequences for the ongoing debate about the local moment versus itinerant pictures of the FeAs-based superconductors and parent compounds. The Ba_{1-x}K_xMn2As2 class of compounds also forms a bridge between the layered iron pnictides and cuprates and may be useful to test theories of high Tc superconductivity.Comment: 5 two-column typeset pages, 5 figures, 20 references; v2: minor revisions, 4 new references, published versio

ERK/MAPK Signaling Is Required for Pathway-Specific Striatal Motor Functions

The ERK/MAPK intracellular signaling pathway is hypothesized to be a key regulator of striatal activity via modulation of synaptic plasticity and gene transcription. However, prior investigations into striatal ERK/MAPK functions have yielded conflicting results. Further, these studies have not delineated the cell-type-specific roles of ERK/MAPK signaling due to the reliance on globally administered pharmacological ERK/MAPK inhibitors and the use of genetic models that only partially reduce total ERK/MAPK activity. Here, we generated mouse models in which ERK/MAPK signaling was completely abolished in each of the two distinct classes of medium spiny neurons (MSNs). ERK/MAPK deletion in D1R-MSNs (direct pathway) resulted in decreased locomotor behavior, reduced weight gain, and early postnatal lethality. In contrast, loss of ERK/MAPK signaling in D2R-MSNs (indirect pathway) resulted in a profound hyperlocomotor phenotype. ERK/MAPK-deficient D2R-MSNs exhibited a significant reduction in dendritic spine density, markedly suppressed electrical excitability, and suppression of activity-associated gene expression even after pharmacological stimulation. Our results demonstrate the importance of ERK/MAPK signaling in governing the motor functions of the striatal direct and indirect pathways. Our data further show a critical role for ERK in maintaining the excitability and plasticity of D2R-MSNs

A Satellite-Based Multi-Pollutant Index of Global Air Quality

Air pollution is a major health hazard that is responsible formillions of annual excess deaths worldwide. Simpleindicators are useful for comparative studies and to asses strends over time. The development of global indicators hasbeen impeded by the lack of ground-based observations in vast regions of the world. Recognition is growing of the need for amultipollutant approach to air quality to better represent human exposure. Here we introduce the prospect of amultipollutant air quality indicator based on observations from satellite remote sensing

Using Satellite Remote Sensing and Modelling for Insights into N02 Air Pollution and NO2 Emissions

Nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) are key actors in air quality and climate change. Satellite remote sensing of tropospheric NO2 has developed rapidly with enhanced spatial and temporal resolution since initial observations in 1995. We have developed an improved algorithm and retrieved tropospheric NO2 columns from Ozone Monitoring Instrument. Column observations of tropospheric NO2 from the nadir-viewing satellite sensors contain large contributions from the boundary layer due to strong enhancement of NO2 in the boundary layer. We infer ground-level NO2 concentrations from the OMI satellite instrument which demonstrate significant agreement with in-situ surface measurements. We examine how NO2 columns measured by satellite, ground-level NO2 derived from satellite, and NO(x) emissions obtained from bottom-up inventories relate to world's urban population. We perform inverse modeling analysis of NO2 measurements from OMI to estimate "top-down" surface NO(x) emissions, which are used to evaluate and improve "bottom-up" emission inventories. We use NO2 column observations from OMI and the relationship between NO2 columns and NO(x) emissions from a GEOS-Chem model simulation to estimate the annual change in bottom-up NO(x) emissions. The emission updates offer an improved estimate of NO(x) that are critical to our understanding of air quality, acid deposition, and climate change

Preparation and characterization of whey protein isolate films reinforced with porous silica coated titania nanoparticles

Whey protein isolate (WPI) films embedded with TiO2@@SiO2 (porous silica (SiO2) coated titania (TiO2)) nanoparticles for improved mechanical properties were prepared by solution casting. A WPI solution of 1.5 wt% TiO2@@SiO2 nanoparticles was subjected to sonication at amplitudes of 0, 16, 80 and 160 μm prior to casting in order to improve the film forming properties of protein and to obtain a uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the WPI films. The physical and mechanical properties of the films were determined by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and tensile testing. Water vapor permeability (WVP) measurements revealed that the water vapor transmission rates are slightly influenced by sonication conditions and nanoparticle loading. The DMA results showed that, at high sonication levels, addition of nanoparticles prevented protein agglomeration. The thermal stability of the materials revealed the presence of 3–4 degradation stages in oxidizing the protein films. The addition of nanoparticles strengthens the WPI film, as evidenced by tensile stress analysis. Sonication improved nanoparticle distribution in film matrix; such films can potentially become effective packaging materials to enhance food quality and safety

Magnetic Ordering in the Rare Earth Intermetallic Compound Tb₂Ti₃Ge₄: Magnetization and Neutron Diffraction Studies

Magnetization and neutron diffraction studies on a polycrystalline Tb2Ti3Ge4 sample (orthorhombic Sm5Ge4-type structure, space group Pnma, No. 62) have been carried out. This compound is found to order antiferromagnetically at ~18 K (TN). The magnetization (M) versus field (H) isotherms obtained at 2, 3, 5, and 10 K indicate a field-induced antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition in fields of the order of 0.5 T. The saturation magnetization value at 2.5 K (M extrapolated to 1/H--\u3e0) is only ~5.6µB/Tb3+, suggesting the possible presence of crystal field effects with or without a persisting antiferromagnetic component. Neutron powder diffraction data at 10 K confirm the existence of a magnetic long range order. Modeling of the magnetic scattering reveals a complex and incommensurate antiferromagnetic spin structure below TN