How and Why has American Media Shifted the On-Screen Image of Asian Americans from Stereotypical Roles to Lead Roles?

Growing up as an Asian American, I never really had a role model of sort that I could relate to entirely. There were the general characters in movies that I looked up to but there was never that one character that I could possibly see myself as because there was never any lead characters that looked like me. Every time an Asian character was showed on-screen they were never a normal relatable person; they were always rather a living stereotype or unrealistic. Asians are always portrayed as intellectuals that are very awkward and geeky or one who has a very thick ethnic accent. Apart from Aladdin and Jackie Chan there never was a core Asian character who I looked up to as a role model. So, growing up there was always a stigma towards me that I had to be very Asian or very smart. Ever since Asians immigrated to the United States, they were being portrayed by the media in one form or another. The portrayal was often stereotyped extensively which affected the public’s viewpoint towards Asian Americans. But in the recent decade the portrayal of Asian Americans has shifted to a more positive and everyday image. So, I wondered about how this happened and asked my research question, “How and Why has American Media Shifted the On-Screen Image of Asian Americans from Stereotypical Roles to Lead Roles?”https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1259/thumbnail.jp

The Ergodic Capacity of Phase-Fading Interference Networks

We identify the role of equal strength interference links as bottlenecks on the ergodic sum capacity of a $K$ user phase-fading interference network, i.e., an interference network where the fading process is restricted primarily to independent and uniform phase variations while the channel magnitudes are held fixed across time. It is shown that even though there are $K(K-1)$ cross-links, only about $K/2$ disjoint and equal strength interference links suffice to determine the capacity of the network regardless of the strengths of the rest of the cross channels. This scenario is called a \emph{minimal bottleneck state}. It is shown that ergodic interference alignment is capacity optimal for a network in a minimal bottleneck state. The results are applied to large networks. It is shown that large networks are close to bottleneck states with a high probability, so that ergodic interference alignment is close to optimal for large networks. Limitations of the notion of bottleneck states are also highlighted for channels where both the phase and the magnitudes vary with time. It is shown through an example that for these channels, joint coding across different bottleneck states makes it possible to circumvent the capacity bottlenecks.Comment: 19 page

Elements of Cellular Blind Interference Alignment --- Aligned Frequency Reuse, Wireless Index Coding and Interference Diversity

We explore degrees of freedom (DoF) characterizations of partially connected wireless networks, especially cellular networks, with no channel state information at the transmitters. Specifically, we introduce three fundamental elements --- aligned frequency reuse, wireless index coding and interference diversity --- through a series of examples, focusing first on infinite regular arrays, then on finite clusters with arbitrary connectivity and message sets, and finally on heterogeneous settings with asymmetric multiple antenna configurations. Aligned frequency reuse refers to the optimality of orthogonal resource allocations in many cases, but according to unconventional reuse patterns that are guided by interference alignment principles. Wireless index coding highlights both the intimate connection between the index coding problem and cellular blind interference alignment, as well as the added complexity inherent to wireless settings. Interference diversity refers to the observation that in a wireless network each receiver experiences a different set of interferers, and depending on the actions of its own set of interferers, the interference-free signal space at each receiver fluctuates differently from other receivers, creating opportunities for robust applications of blind interference alignment principles

Unit Roots, Nonlinear Cointegration and Purchasing Power Parity

We test long¨Crun PPP within a general model of cointegration of linear and nonlinear form. Nonlinear cointegration is tested with rank tests proposed by Breitung (2001). We start with determining the order of integration of each variable in the model, applying relatively powerful DF¨CGLS tests of Elliott, Rothenberg and Stock (1996). Using monthly data from the post¨CBretton Woods era for G¨C10 countries, the evidence leads to a rejection of PPP for almost all countries. In several cases the price variables are driven by permanent shocks that differ from the ones that drive the exchange rate. Also, nonlinear cointegration cannot solve the PPP puzzle.Purchasing power parity; unit roots; nonlinear cointegration

Surface enhanced raman spectroscopy for ultra-sensitive detection of energetic materials

The prospect of ultra-sensitive detection of molecular species, particularly those of energetic materials, has prompted the present research initiative. The combination of metal surface nano-technology and Raman spectroscopy has given rise to ‘Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy’ (SERS). This is a very sensitive technique and has proved to be capable of detecting a single molecule. SERS was demonstrated by recording Raman spectra of the sample molecules adsorbed on various specially prepared SER-active surfaces both in the form of a colloidal suspension and on the solid roughened surfaces. Using a gold colloidal suspension, pyridine has been detected down to 10-11 molar (M) concentration. A silver slab was roughened to a dimension of a nano-scale by etching in nitric acid solution to make SER-active surface. Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN) explosive was detected using this surface after its 10-2 M solution was dropped, dried and washed (of any residue) from the surface. Lithographically engineered silver structures in the form of nanoarrays having a number of silver structures of approximately 106 in a region of 0.1 mm2 have been used for SERS. The major noise contribution to the scattering from impurities in an ordinary glass substrate has been eliminated by replacing glasses as substrates with pure quartz discs. The headspace vapours from peroxide explosives, Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) and Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD), were detected at approximately 70 parts per million (ppm) and 0.3 ppm concentrations respectively using a portable commercial Raman Spectrometer. PETN was also detected from its headspace vapour at about 18 parts per trillion (ppt) in spite of it having a much lower vapour pressure. The possibility of desorption of adsorbed molecules from a nano-structured surface by laser irradiation has been demonstrated experimentally with the aim of reusability of SER-active surfaces. Also demonstrated was the enhancement in Raman intensity through resonance Raman effect spectroscopy for the future use in surface enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS)

The Capacity of Private Computation

We introduce the problem of private computation, comprised of $N$ distributed and non-colluding servers, $K$ independent datasets, and a user who wants to compute a function of the datasets privately, i.e., without revealing which function he wants to compute, to any individual server. This private computation problem is a strict generalization of the private information retrieval (PIR) problem, obtained by expanding the PIR message set (which consists of only independent messages) to also include functions of those messages. The capacity of private computation, $C$, is defined as the maximum number of bits of the desired function that can be retrieved per bit of total download from all servers. We characterize the capacity of private computation, for $N$ servers and $K$ independent datasets that are replicated at each server, when the functions to be computed are arbitrary linear combinations of the datasets. Surprisingly, the capacity, $C=\left(1+1/N+\cdots+1/N^{K-1}\right)^{-1}$, matches the capacity of PIR with $N$ servers and $K$ messages. Thus, allowing arbitrary linear computations does not reduce the communication rate compared to pure dataset retrieval. The same insight is shown to hold even for arbitrary non-linear computations when the number of datasets $K\rightarrow\infty$