bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cyber Risk Management in Supply Chains: Three Essays on Cyber Resilience, Business Continuity, and Information Security
Authors:   , Sadeghi J. Kiarash
Published: January 2025

This dissertation provides empirical and theoretical support for the antecedents and consequences of cyber resilience via three essays on cyber resilience. Essay 1 comprises 2 studies using a multi-method empirical research effort to determine whether emphasizing suppliers' implementation and use of business continuity management (S-BCM) is actually beneficial to buyers. In Study 1, data from 150 managers was collected via a survey-based questionnaire to determine whether buyers' adoption of monitoring supplier operational performance (MS-OP) and monitoring S-BCM (MS-BCM) enhances S-BCM implementation and use. Evidence from Study 1 suggests that MS-BCM is more effective than MS-OP. Moreover, the results suggest that while buyer power positively augments the effectiveness of MS-BCM, it actually has a diminishing effect on the effectiveness of MS-OP. Study 2 uses the data of 114 managers from a vignette-based experiment to determine whether S-BCM leads to improved buyer operational and financial performance. Study 2 offers evidence that confirms the positive link between S-BCM and buyer operational and financial performance. The results also suggest that the use of reward power further enhances the association between S-BCM and buyer performance. Using two studies, Essay 2 examines how supply chain power and learning can be related to cyber resilience capability. Study 1 indicated that powerful buyers and supply chain learning from new knowledge contribute to visibility to build cyber resilience while dominant suppliers are reluctant to share information. The results of Study-2 show that supply chain and operations managers believe that companies and their suppliers would have better operational performance if they invest in the accuracy of visibility. Moreover, supply chains properly can avoid, maintain, and recover from cyber disruption when real-time information is available. Essay 3 focuses on the role of downstream complexity along with enterprise resource planning (ERP) in building cyber resilience in supply chains. The results reveal that ERP systems help supply chains to mitigate the negative effect of downstream complexity on the impact of information sharing in a secure system needed to build cyber resilience in times of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Although the use of information technology increases cyber risk, supply chain managers should take advantage of ERP systems to mitigate the negative effect of complexity in supply chain cyber resilience.
Deep Learning Optimization and Acceleration
Authors:   , Jiang Beilei
Published: January 2025

The novelty of this dissertation is the optimization and acceleration of deep neural networks aimed at real-time predictions with minimal energy consumption. It consists of cross-layer optimization, output directed dynamic quantization, and opportunistic near-data computation for deep neural network acceleration. On two datasets (CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100), the proposed deep neural network optimization and acceleration frameworks are tested using a variety of Convolutional neural networks (e.g., LeNet-5, VGG-16, GoogLeNet, DenseNet, ResNet). Experimental results are promising when compared to other state-of-the-art deep neural network acceleration efforts in the literature.
Ethnic Parties: Their Emergence, Survival, and Impact
Authors:   , Basnet Post Bahadur
Published: January 2025

This dissertation examines the emergence of ethnic parties, their survival in the political system, and their impact on the governance practices. While scholars have long debated the impact of ethnic parties on state-building and democratization process, few works have empirically examined their behavior in the political system. Empirical research on ethnic parties is limited to single countries or regions -- Latin America, Eastern Europe, or a few countries including India. Firstly, this dissertation extends the research on ethnic parties to include another South Asian Country – Nepal. Secondly, research on ethnic parties has been hampered by the lack of cross-sectional data on ethnic parties. This dissertation employs new datasets on the electoral performance of ethnic parties, making use of the newly available resource. Employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques, this dissertation is built around three empirical chapters. Firstly, it argues that strategic interactions between major parties and ethnic groups, among others, determine why some ethnic groups successfully form their own parties and others do not. Secondly, it argues that the factors that are responsible for the emergence of ethnic parties are hardly sufficient for the survival of these parties in the long run and shows that ethnic parties' access to state resources is a major factor that can explain the variation in their survival. And thirdly, it argues and empirically shows that support from ethnic groups to political parties does not necessarily lead to higher levels of corruption as scholars have often argued. The parties that are overwhelmingly supported by ethnic groups increase the level of regime corruption, while the parties that have large coalitions of voters including ethnic groups do not.
Ultrafast Charge Transfer in Donor-Acceptor Push-Pull Constructs
Authors:   , Jang Young Woo
Published: January 2025

Ultrafast charge and electron transfer, primary events in artificial photosynthesis, are key in solar energy harvesting. This dissertation provides insight into photo-induced charge and electron transfer in the donor and acceptor constructs built using a range of donor and acceptor entities, including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and tungsten disulfide (WS2)), N-doped graphene, diketopyrrolopyrrol (DPP), boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY), benzothiadiazole (BTD), free base and metal porphyrins, zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc), phenothiazine (PTZ), triphenylamine (TPA), ferrocene (Fc), fullerene (C60), tetracyanobutadiene (TCBD), and dicyanoquinodimethane (DCNQ). The carefully built geometries and configurations of the donor and (D), acceptor (A), with a spacer in these constructs promote intramolecular charge transfer, and intervalence charge transfer to enhance charge and electron transfer efficiencies. Steady-state UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence and phosphorescence spectroscopies, electrochemistry (cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV)), spectroelectrochemistry (absorption spectroscopy under controlled potential electrolysis), transient absorption spectroscopy, and quantum mechanical calculations (density functional theory, DFT) are used to probe ground and the excited state events as well as excited state charge separation resulting in cation and anion species. The current findings are useful for the increased reliance on renewable energy resources, especially solar energy.
Bifunctional Enamine‐Metal Lewis Acid Catalysis and α-Enaminones for Cyclization Reactions
Authors:   , Davis Jacqkis
Published: January 2025

The use of enamines continues to be an important tool in organic syntheses as both a catalyst and reactant. The addition of metal catalysts coupled with enamine catalysis has generated many reactions that normally would not occur separately. However, catalysts' incompatibility is an issue that we wish to solve allowing new chemistry to occur without hindrance. The use of enamines has continued to be a well-studied area of organic chemistry, but the field is ripe for different types of enamines to gain the spotlight. Enaminones are enamines with both nucleophilic and electrophilic properties. They allow reactions that are normally not possible with enamines to become obtainable. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction on enamines and the reason they gained so much attention. Then ends with enaminones and what makes them interesting reactants. Chapter 2 described a new synthesis for the tricyclic synthesis of chromanes using a novel bifunctional catalyst system of enamine-metal Lewis acid giving great yields (up to 87 %yield) and excellent stereoselectivity (up to 99 % ee). Chapter 3 covered new reactions for ring-open cyclopropane (up to 94% yield), tetrahydroquinolinones (up to 84% yield) and enantiospecific tetrahydroquinolinones (up to 84% yield and 97% ee) using α-enaminone and donor-acceptor cyclopropanes. Finally, Chapter 4 focused a new method for synthesizing benzobicyclo[3.2.1]octanes with an added sterically bulky quaternary center and imine functionalization giving yields between 36-73% yield using α-enaminone with alkylidene malonates.
Factors Influencing Continued Usage of Telemedicine Applications
Authors:   , Liu Xiaoyan
Published: January 2025

This study addresses the antecedents of individuals' disposition to use telemedicine applications, as well as the antecedents of their usage to provide insight into creating sustained usage over time. The theoretical framework of this research is Bhattacherjee's expectation-confirmation IS continuance model. By combining a series of key factors which may influence the initial and continued usage of telemedicine applications with key constructs of Bhattacherjee's IS continuance model, this study aims to provide a deeper understanding of barriers to telemedicine app usage and how to facilitate continued use of these apps. Online survey data was collected from college students who are telemedicine application users. A total of 313 responses were gathered, and data analysis was conducted using SmartPLS 3. This dissertation contributes by looking at the IS adoption and IS continuance research simultaneously to connect these two research streams as well as suggesting the usage context of some established IS theory being different with regard to healthcare applications.
On the Descriptive Complexity and Ramsey Measure of Sets of Oracles Separating Common Complexity Classes
Authors:   , Creiner Alex
Published: January 2025

As soon as Bennett and Gill first demonstrated that, relative to a randomly chosen oracle, P is not equal to NP with probability 1, the random oracle hypothesis began piquing the interest of mathematicians and computer scientists. This was quickly disproven in several ways, most famously in 1992 with the result that IP equals PSPACE, in spite of the classes being shown unequal with probability 1. Here, we propose what could be considered strengthening of the random oracle hypothesis, using a stricter notion of what it means for a set to be 'large'. In particular, we suggest using largeness with respect to the Ramsey forcing notion. In this new context, we demonstrate that the set of oracles separating NP and coNP is 'not small', and obtain similar results for the separation of PSPACE from PH along with the separation of NP from BQP. In a related set of results, we demonstrate that these classes are all of the same descriptive complexity. Finally we demonstrate that this strengthening of the hypothesis turns it into a sufficient condition for unrelativized relationships, at least in the three cases considered here.
Investigating the Role of Concurrent Verbal Behavior in a Rule-Shifting Scenario
Authors:   , Cutler Jacquelyn Marie
Published: January 2025

The present study evaluates the effects of incompatible verbal behavior when engaging in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The WCST is a complex task that requires participants to match stimulus cards based on self-generated rules. After a varying number of trials, the rule changes and the participant will have to self-generate a new rule. Verbal behavior, specifically joint control, is likely involved in rule-following. Seven participants took part in this study. Participants engaged in the WCST either silently or while performing a putatively incompatible behavior, counting backward from 100 to 0. Results suggest joint control might be involved as when participants engaged in the incompatible behavior their performance was affected in terms of lower accuracy and longer reaction times compared to the silent baseline.
Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, and COVID-19 Impacts among South Asians
Authors:   , Rafiuddin Hanan S.
Published: January 2025

South Asians are the third fastest growing racial/ethnic minority group in the United States with distinct cultural characteristics. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S, including South Asians, across several life domains: work, home life/education, social activities, economic, emotional and physical health, infection, quarantine, and positive changes. The COVID-19 pandemic may have critically impacted South Asians with traumatic event experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity across several life domains. Limited work suggests high rates of interpersonal traumas and substantial PTSD symptom severity in the South Asian community. Uniquely, the current study examined which life domains impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic associated with a greater count of traumatic event types, interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal traumas, and PTSD symptom severity. Results revealed that negative experiences in social activities, as well as distress in economic, emotional, and physical health domains, were significantly associated with the count of traumatic event types. Negative social activity experiences, and distress in the economic and emotional health domains, were also significantly associated with PTSD symptom severity. Quarantine and physical health domains significantly associated with the count of interpersonal traumas, while COVID-19-related experiences (in social, quarantine, and infection domains) significantly associated with the count of non-interpersonal traumas. Findings inform clinically relevant pandemic research in a vulnerable population and provide trauma and PTSD prevalence estimates in the South Asian community.
Elucidating the Effects of Pre-Treatment Expectation Measures on Therapeutic Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis
Authors:   , Herrera Christa N.
Published: January 2025

Client pre-treatment expectations have a significant impact on psychotherapy outcome, therapeutic alliance, and attendance. Client expectations are thought to account for approximately 11-14% of variance in premature termination from psychotherapy. However, measures that conflate treatment beliefs and distinct measurement techniques for the same outcome construct obscure the relationship between expectations and psychotherapy outcomes. Clarifying these associations is necessary to support development of useful methods and processes that support client retention in evidence-based treatments. With drop-out rates of approximately 20% across treatment settings, and as high as 69.4% in psychology training clinics, risk of attrition is a significant liability to effective treatment. The meta-analytic findings presented herein clarify the association of pre-treatment expectations with psychotherapy outcome, considering competing definitions for client expectations and discrepant psychotherapy outcome measurement. Implications for attrition, treatment outcomes, and therapeutic alliance are discussed.
The Intersection of Miranda and Race/Ethnicity: Effects of Perceptions of Police Officers and Stereotype Threat
Authors:   , Otal Tanveer K.
Published: January 2025

The decision of the landmark United States Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona (1966) established procedural safeguards to protect custodial suspects' 5th and 6th Amendment rights through requiring provision of what is now known as the Miranda warnings prior to interrogation. Suspects may elect to waive their rights once informed; however, research indicates that many individuals have inadequate knowledge and appreciation of their Miranda rights and consequences of waiving them. Miranda abilities and individual factors are critical factors in determining the validity of Miranda rights waivers. Researchers implicated many factors as influencing waiver decisions (e.g., intellectual ability, psychopathology, age); however, the differential impact of racial/ethnic identity is relatively unexplored. The importance of the investigation of race/ethnicity in Miranda abilities and decisions is underscored by the established differences in perceptions of police officers for racial/ethnic groups. Additionally, scholars have identified a potential presence of stereotype threat contributing to detrimental interrogation decisions. The current study advances previous research through examining the influence of racial/ethnic identity on Miranda abilities and waiver decision. This study also seeks to further the understanding of the effects of perceptions of police officers and presence of stereotype threat through investigate the role of those variables in Miranda abilities and decisions. Using a diverse sample via MTurk, the purpose of the study is to investigate these relevant factors in the intersection of Miranda and race/ethnicity to help inform researchers, forensic practitioners, and policy-makers.
Modern Chinese Opera: A Performance Guide to Six Tenor and Baritone Arias from Selected Operas by Lei Lei and Guangnan Shi
Authors:   , Hu Hao
Published: January 2025

With the emergence and development of Chinese opera market, a large number of excellent composers and original Chinese operas have emerged. Responding to the market demand for opera singers, many jobs came into being. The dissertation is used for western male singer who wants to get job opportunities to perform in China. The dissertation discusses three original Chinese operas, each of which features one tenor aria and one baritone aria. The research results in a performance guide for these six Chinese opera arias, in addition to providing detailed pronunciation rules of the Chinese alphabet along with an IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) guide, a word-for-word translation of each aria, an analysis of vocal skills and difficulties, and some of the physical requirements of the staging.
Leaving the Community: A Qualitative Study of Hijra Individuals in Bangladesh
Authors:   , Anandita Prapti
Published: January 2025

The hijra community individuals are one of the most neglected and underprivileged sexual minority groups in Bangladesh. Historically this community has been excluded from mainstream society and was compelled to live and work in separate communal spaces. However, new policies of inclusion implemented by government and non-government organizations have resulted in many hijra individuals leaving their communities. In this research, I focused on how the hijra individuals of Bangladesh come out of their hijra communities to find work and accommodation in mainstream society. Based on 11 in-depth ethnographic field interviews and qualitative data analysis, I found that after leaving the community, the hijra individuals living in Dhaka enter a gendered borderland where they occupy a unique outsider-within position. They undertake different survival strategies to survive amongst harsh socio-economic conditions intersected by multiple modes of discrimination such as maintaining a new guru (leader) for social protection, developing support networks, and redefining their gender identity as ‘transgender,' provide the tools to survive life outside their community. Through these findings, I reflect on the ways poor sexual minority groups such as the hijra survive and use their limited resources to find access to housing and informal work. These findings will add to the limited research on hijra and enhance the understanding of the process of minority inclusion. It will help determine the needs of hijra individuals and implement better policies. However, there is scope for further research on hijra individuals across Bangladesh to accurately reflect their inclusion process and the different strategies they implement to survive in the bitter socio-economic condition intersected by multiple modes of discrimination.
Electronic Health Record Systems and Cyber Hygiene: Awareness, Knowledge, and Practices among Physicians in Kuwait
Authors:   , Alkhaledi Reem
Published: January 2025

This study explored issues related to the adoption and implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems including building the awareness, knowledge, and experience of physicians toward cyber hygiene. This study used a qualitative research method to assess (a) the barriers to EHR systems adoption and implementation in Kuwait and (b) the level of awareness, knowledge and experiences related to cyber hygiene practices in Kuwait. The findings of the study supported the conceptual framework used to guide the research of the factors impacting the adoption and implementation of EHR systems in Kuwait as well as explore the level of awareness, knowledge, and experience of physicians about both EHR systems and cyber hygiene. The results from the systematic literature review analysis identified seven major barriers. These are financial barriers, time, difficulty of using technology, lack of support, negative attitude, legal and ethical (policies), and cultural barriers. The findings from the semistructured interviews supported the literature findings and provided more in-depth insights into the structural and social issues affecting the adoption and implementation of EHR systems. Given that Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), the results from the literature analysis showed that the problems in Kuwait are similar to those in the GCC. However, the issues confronting the adoption and implementation of EHR seems to be more prevalent in Kuwait compared to other GCC members. The results from the semistructured interviews concerning behavior toward cyber hygiene supported the constructs identified in the conceptual model. The majority of the physicians interviewed lacked the awareness and knowledge needed to practice cyber hygiene. Lack of standards, regulations, and policies impacted the norms and practices of physicians. Most physicians were not aware of regulation or standards pertaining to the use of EHRs. The study contributed significantly to bridging the existing knowledge and literature gap regarding cyber hygiene and EHRs. This study's findings also benefit the health sector by increasing the awareness, knowledge, and attitude toward the use of EHRs.
Parameterization of Ionic Liquids and Applications in Various Chemical Systems
Authors:   , Vazquez Cervantes Jose Enrique
Published: January 2025

In this work, the development of parameters for a series of imidazolium-based ionic liquids molecules, now included in the AMOEBA force field, is discussed. The quality of obtained parameters is tested in a variety of calculations to reproduce structural, thermodynamic, and transport properties. First, it is proposed a novel method to parameterize in a faster, and more efficient way parameters for the AMOEBA force field that can be applied to any imidazolim-based cation. Second, AMOEBA-IL polarizable force field is applied to study the N-tert-butyloxycarbonylation of aniline reaction mechanism in water/[EMIM][BF4] solvent via QM/MM approach and compared with the reaction carried out in gas-phase and implicit solvent media. Third, AMOEBA-IL force field is applied in alchemical calculations. Free energies of solvation for selected solutes solvated in [EMIm][OTf] are calculated via BAR method implemented in TINKER considering the effect of polarization as well as the methodology to perform the sampling of the alchemical process. Finally, QM/MM calculations using AMOEBA to get more insights into the catalytic reaction mechanism of horseradish peroxidase enzyme, particularly the structures involved in the transition from Cp I to Cp II.
Distributed Source Coding with LDPC Codes: Algorithms and Applications
Authors:   , Gandhi Himani Chirag
Published: January 2025

The syndrome source coding for lossless data compression with side information based on fixed-length linear block codes is the main emphasis of this work. We demonstrate that the source entropy rate can be achieved for syndrome source coding with side information when the sources are correlated. Next, we examine employing LDPC codes to apply the channel and syndrome concepts in order to satisfy the Slepian Wolf limit. Our findings indicate that irregular codes perform significantly better when the compression ratio is larger. Additionally, we looked at how well different applications performed when running on two different mobile networks. We have tested those applications which are used in our day-to-day life. Our main focus is to make wireless communication much easier. We know that nowadays data is increasing which led to increase in the transfer of data. There are a lot of errors while doing so like channel error, bit error rate, jitter, etc. To overcome such kind of problems compression and decompression should be done effectively without any complexity to achieve a high performance ratio.
TikTok Made Me Buy It! Consumer Motivations and Purchasing Behavior during COVID-19
Authors:   , Sifford Kaitlyn
Published: January 2025

Using Mehrabian and Russell's stimulus (S) - organism (O) - response (R) model, this study examined consumer motivations to consume user-generated content (UGC) and sponsored video content on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also investigated the impact of information consumption on purchasing behavior as the main constructs. The study used the consumption patterns of active and passive social media users to further understand the level of short-form video consumption related to purchasing behavior. Grounded upon the SOR theory, this study measured utilitarian and hedonic motivations as stimuli with user-generated content and sponsored content as organism and purchasing behavior as response. A quantitative snowball survey (n = 289) was used to collect data from TikTok users to examine the relationships between motivations, types of content, and purchasing behavior. Statistical analyses including descriptive statistics, reliability tests, factor analysis, and multiple regression analyses was used to profile the sample and to test hypothesized relationships. All hypotheses were supported and found to have significant relationships between the independent and dependent variables. This study is useful to those in the fields of information sharing, crisis management, consumer behavior, and retail to develop communication strategies and understand and adapt to consumption habits and changing purchasing behaviors.
Reliability and Throughput Improvement in Vehicular Communication by Using 5G Technologies
Authors:   , Dey Utpal-Kumar
Published: January 2025

The vehicular community is moving towards a whole new paradigm with the advancement of new technology. Vehicular communication not only supports safety services but also provides non-safety services like navigation support, toll collection, web browsing, media streaming, etc. The existing communication frameworks like Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) and Cellular V2X (C-V2X) might not meet the required capacity in the coming days. So, the vehicular community needs to adopt new technologies and upgrade the existing communication frameworks so that it can fulfill the desired expectations. Therefore, an increment in reliability and data rate is required. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), 5G New Radio, Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Code, and Massive MIMO signal detection and equalization algorithms are the latest addition to the 5G wireless communication domain. These technologies have the potential to make the existing V2X communication framework more robust. As a result, more reliability and throughput can be achieved. This work demonstrates these technologies' compatibility and positive impact on existing V2X communication standard.
A Pedagogical Guide to "Distant Voices" (1999) by Ping Gao (b. 1970)
Authors:   , Wang Yiting
Published: January 2025

Ping Gao is a composer-pianist in China. The purpose of this research is to provide a pedagogical analysis of Ping Gao's solo piano suite Distant Voices (1999), with intent to introduce Chinese folk music and contemporary characteristics in the twentieth century to early advanced piano students. After an introduction, chapter 2 presents an overview of Ping Gao's biographical information and his compositional style. Chapter 3 provides resources and information of folk music tradition related to this selected work. Chapter 4 analyzes Distant Voices with respect to the Chinese folk idioms, including folk songs, the sound of the folk instruments, and pentatonic modes and scales. Chapter 5 then analyzes the work with respect to its contemporary characteristics, including non-traditional harmony (secundal, quartal, and quintal chords) and contemporary rhythm and meter (shifted accents, asymmetric meters, and mixed meter). Chapter 6 examines some further technical challenges in performing the work. This work can be considered a helpful source for piano teachers to incorporate folk music styles from different regions of the world into their teaching, cultivating students' appreciation for other cultures and music styles.
Developing Informatics Tools and Methods Utilizing Whole Genome Sequencing and Transcription Data to Aid Gene Discovery in Medicago truncatula
Authors:   , Troiani Taylor
Published: January 2025

Research into the mechanism of symbiotic nitrogen fixation between legumes and rhizobia involves a complex interaction between the organisms, and many genes involved in this remain either uncharacterized or undiscovered. Using forward genetics, mutant plant lines are screened to find new genes without reliance on software-based gene prediction. A large population of Tnt1-mutagenized Medicago truncatula lines is used for this purpose. Herein, the aid of tools like whole genome sequencing (WGS) in this process is explored so that new methods and tools are elucidated. The use of WGS data allows for rapid prediction of all insertions in the genome and has been shown to predict insertion locations that were missed by the TAIL-PCR-based Tnt1 mutant database already in existence. This WGS strategy has been successfully used to find the causal mutations in multiple plant lines. Two WGS strategies are used to analyze insertions in nine sequenced lines and compared with each other and the existing Tnt1 mutant database. It appears that using either WGS method will yield similar results, but the TAIL-PCR-based predictions have much less overlap. The use of the latest R108 genome appears to decrease the degree of disagreement between the methods, while the correlation in the A17 genome update is less clear. There is also a demonstration of the use of other tools in addition to the WGS prediction output. Combining transcription data from previous experiments with the predicted insertions allowed for the creation of more holistic tables, which could better assist in screening the predictions made for the most likely candidate by highlighting those with expression profiles consistent with the observed mutation phenotype. Each of these tools and methods has been shown to be effective in screening Tnt1-mutagenized M. truncatula lines to find novel genes. Without further experimental data, determining the most accurate method is not possible. The best practice may be to use multiple methods and align them in comparison tables, leveraging all the predictive power of each of the methods into a single table.
Mapping the Feminist Movement in Pakistani Literature: Towards a Feminist Future
Authors:   , Aziz Anum
Published: January 2025

In this work, I examine and analyze women representation and themes in Pakistani literature in order to explore the emergence and development of feminist thought as reflected within it, from pre-independence to present day Pakistan. One of my central arguments is that the theorization of a workable feminism in the conflictual Pakistani state depends on understanding and accounting for the socio-political, religious, and economic milieu of the country under which women live. In the following chapters, I delineate the challenges feminism in Pakistan faces in conjunction with the analysis of selected literary works to highlight the way the figure of the woman emerges in public discourse. It is through this engagement, that I demonstrate, the complexity of Pakistani feminism and its negotiations with nationalism, religion, and patriarchy to create the basis for theorizing a workable Pakistani feminist politics. Following Dipesh Chakraborty's theorization of historicism in his book, Provincializing Europe, the basic premise of this dissertation is to explore the emergence of feminist thought in Pakistani literature while keeping the changing religio-political and socio-economic realities of the country at the forefront to establish an analysis grounded in worldliness of these texts. The goal of this exploration is to theorize a feminism which is workable within the realities of postcolonial Pakistan, and which does not fall into the trap of unproductive historicism leading to binarism.
Życie duchowe człowieka a piękno w filozofii zmartwychwstańców
Authors: Mikuicki Kazimierz
Published: January 2025

This paper considers the spiritual life of a human being. In this context, beauty is studied as an important element of this life. This problem is present in the thought of two priests and members of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the religious community founded in 1836 in Paris in the milieu of polish Emigrants. In fact Piotr Semenenko (1814-1886) and Stefan Pawlicki (1839-1916) were the polish philosophers of 19th century, inspired by the classical philosophy, especially by the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas. For Piotr Semenenko, the background of reflection was the spiritual life of man – substantial being constituted by two aspects of its nature, physical and spiritual. The spiritual life is accomplished by the three powers of man – the mind, the emotions and the will. The main appearance of spiritual life takes place in the human culture – art, literature, law, science, ethics, language and history. But the highest level of spirituality is the relationship with God. The integral part of the human spirituality is the beauty, which is specific feature and value of every being. Piotr Semeneko considered beauty as a characteristic feature of every being – material and spiritual, but Stefan Pawlicki attributed beauty only to the restricted class of things. A human being is able to recognise and accomplish this feature and value of being in its own activity. But the beauty is considered in the though of these philosophers in relationship with truth, moral good and by contact with God in the religion.
Cmentarz włoski o zmroku Adama Chmielowskiego – Stimmung czy obraz „nocy ciemnej”?
Authors: Ciciora Barbara
Published: January 2025

Painting by Adam Chmielowski entitled Italian Cemetery at Dusk was created by matured artist in a crucial moment of his life – a renouncement of his secular life for a new, monastic one. Understanding the essence of this masterpiece goes beyond previous reflection of art historians concentrated on the title (Italian Cemetery) and art genre – a landscape. Only Konstanty Michalski, a theologian, and Elżbieta Charazińska, an art historian, were able to notice a possible combination of the mood of the painting and the transformation undergone in the soul of the future saint. They supposed the work comments on other religious paintings by the artist. His friend, Polish writer and art critic, Nobel laureate in literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote – a bit sarcastically About Chmielowski’s spirit during his work on the painting – “Mr. Chmielowski is an eccentric willing to embrace mysticism and therefore loving darkness where nothing can be seen”. This article provides an interdisciplinary research into the work by Chmielowski using his letters and paper About the Essence of Art in which he expressed his view on art in general; it also makes use of research in art history, history and theology and psychology on mysticism and Chmielowski to clarify that the crucial base for creating this masterpiece are Chmielowski’s mystic experiences and results of the dark night described by Spanish mystics from the 16th century: St. John of the Cross, OCD, St. Teresa of Ávila, OCD and St. Ignatius of Loyola. St. Loyola is very important for my analysis because – similar to Chmielowski – he was a man deep-rooted in contemporary life, a brave, ambitious soldier, a hero. This part of his life did not exclude the second one, the mystic one, led after God’s intervention in his fate, led after dark night that totally changed his destination and desires. So, taking into consideration an original title, just Cemetery, it can be assumed that the painting is an expression of complicated processes that radically changed Chmielowski’s life leading him the way to sanctity.
„Z duszy do duszy” – mist(estet)yka Franciszka Siedleckiego
Authors: Stacewicz-Podlipska Joanna
Published: January 2025

The world of content and forms constituting the oeuvre of Franciszek Siedlecki (1867–1934), known to his friends as Frank the Mystic, originated from the stem of symbolism supported by Steiner’s Geisteswissenschaft which Siedlecki had absorbed at its very source. For four war years he remained in the orbit of the influence of the anthroposophical “initiation school”, taking an active part in the creation of the first Goetheanum in Dornach during this period. Over time, the “knowledge of cosmic man” found itself on a painful collision course with Siedlecki’s deeply felt Catholic faith, prompting him to withdraw from the Anthroposophical Society and to subject the path of his own spiritual development to a sequence of adjustments related to his strengthening sensus catholicus Romanus. As a result of this process, not only particles of the esoteric doctrines of the “mega-epoch” are still discernible in the “ultra structure” of his worldview, but also an engrossing “record” of the turbulent path leading Frank the Mystic from the hunger for gnosis to the satiety of agape. Helping to unveil this “submicroscopic construction” is the narrative provided by the artist himself: letters, articles and reviews, most notably those collected in Fragmenty [Fragments], a booklet published in the year of his death, with a telling title perhaps not coincidentally evoking Novalis and Schlegel. As he himself wrote, “one fundamental direction” had been locked in those few texts, making it possible to reconstruct a peculiarly coherent programme, the emergence of which coincided with Poland regaining its independence. Siedlecki, who at the time was still residing in Dornach, but who for years had been planning “a mission to guard the power and purity of the Polish spirit”, contacted the Polish National Committee in Paris and declared his readiness to return “to the Country, to organise […] art for the people”. His project encompassed, among others, a revaluation of crafts in the broadest sense of the term and the creation of “nests of artistic intelligentsia and enthusiasts” scattered around the country; but above all, it involved a revival of religious art, which was to be born “from the spirit of the religious artist, working in harmony with the priests and the society”. This programme clearly failed to coincide with public demand, but the dense tissue of texts it produced remains to this day a testament to astonishingly extensive, interdisciplinary explorations. Siedlecki juxtaposed the writings of mystics with those of aestheticians, thus assembling a separate “myst(aesthet)ic” amalgam of rich composition. His attention was invariably focused on the relationship between art and spirituality. To describe this relationship, he was fond of using the multi-referential theme of light, thus achieving a reflective partnership with the theoretical output of Cyprian Norwid, with whom he engaged in an engrossing, multi-topical “hermeneutic dialogue”.
Biophilia and Ecophobia in Santiago Nazarian's Biofobia
Authors: Varela Fernando
Published: January 2025

Abstract: In 1984, biologist Edward O. Wilson promoted the biophilia hypothesis with the publication of his work Biophilia , in which he claims that humans have the urge to affiliate with other species. More than two decades later, literary critic Simon Estok popularized in ecocriticism and environmental humanities the concept of ecophobia, or the aversion towards the environment that fuels certain political discourses in the Anthropocene. For Estok, the problem with the biophilia hypothesis lies in its inadequacy to explain current environmental catastrophes and the institutionalization of ecocide. This article studies Santiago Nazarian's novel, Biofobia , and its literary approach to biophilia and ecophobia. It argues that its main character, André, straddles between the two as he conceptualizes his existential crisis, bringing forth a vision of the human individual as deeply entangled with the desire for and hatred towards the environment.
To Take the Wrong Road Is to Arrive at Woman: Towards an Ecofeminist Reading of Garcia Lorca's Theater
Authors: Cavanaugh Cecelia J.
Published: January 2025

Abstract: In this article, I discuss Federico García Lorca's sympathetic portrayal of female protagonists in his plays, as well as his exposure to scientific principles, and his incorporation of science into some of his texts. I explore the potential for considering two of his plays by examining their female protagonists and their environments from the perspective of environmental niche studies, evolutionary biology, and ecofeminism. This includes viewing Lorca through foundational scientific texts familiar to him, as well as popular science texts contemporary to today's readers. All provide lenses for a reading of Yerma (1934), Doña Rosita la soltera (1935), and the protagonists for which the plays are named. The consideration of Lorca through an ecofeminist lens is based on Lorca's deep roots in the vega , his love of Nature, his formative experiences in the Residencia de Estudiantes , his interest in science, his associations with woman in rural, traditional settings, and his understanding of humanity's interaction with Nature–filtering all through his extraordinary empathy and capacity for artistic transformation. This preliminary reading will suggest a new approach to several of Lorca´s poetic, dramatic and plastic texts.
Experimental assessments of a coherent DSCM and SOA-based WDM metro-access network architecture with enhanced flexibility and capacity
Authors: Hu Zhouyi , van Vliet Vincent , Freire-Hermelo María , Xia Shiyi , van den Hout Menno , Okonkwo Chigo , Calabretta Nicola
Published: January 2025

Metro-access networks are a type of optical network connecting metro hubs with various subnetworks, covering from rural to dense urban regions. In the long term, the metro-access network is expected to address hundreds of Tb/s aggregated traffic, which makes spectral efficient multiplexing techniques a must-have. Combining wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and digital subcarrier multiplexing (DSCM) techniques is a possible successful industrial approach to cope with this challenge. However, the ever-growing demand for bandwidth/wavelength inevitably induces increased complexity and cost of the metro-access network architecture. In this Letter, we describe the design and experimental assessment of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based optical add–drop multiplexer (OADM) with the coherent DSCM technique, which can dynamically add and drop traffic at any node within the network and enable lossless transmission at a relatively low cost due to photonic integration. The results show that the proposed architecture can support up to five nodes at a net data rate of 291 Gb/s/λ with negligible penalty from dropping and adding operations, indicating its great potential for long-term metro-access network adoption.
On the Limitation of Fraunhofer Diffraction Equation
Authors: Sun Haiyin
Published: January 2025

Diffraction intensity profiles are obtained using Kirchhoff diffraction equation and Fraunhofer diffraction equation for a circular aperture and a slit aperture. The results are compared. It’s shown that Fraunhofer diffraction equation will result in significant errors when applied to nonparaxial situations even in the far field.
Optimization of HIV drugs through MCDM technique Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP)
Authors: Farooq Fozia Bashir , Sultana Sobia , Alqahtani Nouf Abdulrahman , Imran Muhammad
Published: January 2025

Topological indices are crucial tools for predicting the physicochemical and biological features of different drugs. They are numerical values obtained from the structure of chemical molecules. These indices, particularly the degree-based TIs are a useful tools for evaluating the connection between a compound’s structure and its attributes. This study addresses the research problemof how to optimize drug design for HIV treatment using degree-based topological indices. The need for safer and more effective medicines for HIV is further emphasized by the advent of drug resistance and severe negative effects from current therapies. Employing degree-based graph invariants, the study investigates 13 HIV drugs by applying a quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) technique to associate their molecular structures with their physical properties. HIV drugs are ranked using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) according to specific parameters. The findings of the study demonstrate how well these approaches can determine the most effective possible drug combinations and designs, offering insightful information in developing improved HIV treatments.
Composition and functional diversity of soil and water microbial communities in the rice-crab symbiosis system
Authors: Yang Guo , Juncang Tian , Zhi Wang
Published: January 2025

Rice-crab co-culture is an environmentally friendly agricultural and aquaculture technology with high economic and ecological value. In order to clarify the structure and function of soil and water microbial communities in the rice-crab symbiosis system, the standard rice-crab field with a ring groove was used as the research object. High-throughput sequencing was performed with rice field water samples to analyze the species and abundance differences of soil bacteria and fungi. The results showed that the OTU richness and community diversity in soil were significantly higher than those in water, while there were significant differences in soil microbial diversity and OTU richness in water sediments. The dominant species at the bacterial phylum level were Amoebacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinomycetes, Synechococcus and Greenbacteria, and at the genus level the dominant species were norank_f_norank_o_Chloroplast, unclassified_f_Rhodobacteraceae, LD29, Cyanobium_PCC-6307, and norank_f_MWH-UniP1_aquatic_group. The dominant species at the fungal phylum level are unclassified_k_Fungi, Ascomycota, Rozellomycota, Phaeomycota and Stenotrophomonas, and at the genus level the dominant species are unclassified_k_Fungi, unclassified_p_Rozellomycota, Metschnikowia, Cladosporium, unclassified_p_Chytridiomycota. The dominant phylum may rely on mechanisms such as organic matter catabolism, secretion of secondary metabolites and phototrophic autotrophy, as predicted by functional gene analysis. The main functional genes are related to metabolic functions, including secondary product metabolism, energy metabolism, and amino acid metabolism.