My capstone is a conversation of the Millennial Generation’s views of individual identity and masculinity, with the hopes of deconstructing the socially constructed and exclusive notions of masculinity by defining a generation’s “common sense.” My piece is inspired by the portraiture of Chad States in Masculinities (2011) as well as Loren Cameron’s work in Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits (1996). The theoretical basis of my project relies heavily on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of “common sense” as well as José Esteban Muñoz’s disidentification. Common sense refers to an instinctual, “uncritical and largely unconscious way of perceiving and understanding.” It “is a collective noun, like religion” yet it “is not something rigid and immobile, but is continually transforming itself, enriching itself with scientific ideas and with philosophical opinions which have entered ordinary life.” Furthermore, disidentification is Muñoz’s third mode of dealing with a dominant ideology. This aspect “neither opts to assimilate within such a structure nor strictly opposes it; rather, disidentification is a strategy that works on and against dominant ideology and hegemony. Disidentification works as the negotiating mechanism for common sense because it is against assimilation to mainstream masculinity as well as asks individuals to be their personal identity in spite of what hegemonic masculinity dictates. Thus, I hope to instill a new understanding of the “common sense” of the Millennial Generation, and how the notion of masculinity is personal, fluid, and disidentified.

A large number of English language learners (ELLs) in secondary school are long-term ELLs who have attended public schools in the United States for at least seven years, having received English language support services, yet have not acquired English proficiency (Capps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passel, & Herwantoro., 2005). Formal or informal programs and educational services to address the particular needs of long-term ELLs are scant to non-exist (Zehr, 2010). In spite of the growing presence of long-term ELLs in secondary schools, little research has been conducted about their academic challenges. Due to the scarcity of research, effective practices for long-term ELLs in secondary school are very limited (Ruix-de-Velasco & Fix, 2000). Research is needed to better understand risk factors associated with dropping out, retention, and the high incidence of disproportionate representation of long-term ELLs in special education programs. Equally absent from available literature are the voices of students themselves. This study aims to expand the existing database about long-term ELLs' academic challenges from the perspective of students themselves about their language and academic learning experiences. A qualitative, naturalistic inquiry (NI) approach was utilized to explore the perceptions of long-term ELLs about their learning experiences in the context of their school history, including program placements, special education referral, and academic outcomes. Thirteen long-term ELLs at a high school in metropolitan area of Texas were participated in this study. Data were generated from semi-structured, in-depth interviews and various documents, including students' cumulative folders, language proficiency assessment records, and the state assessment data, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The findings of the study indicate that participants experienced multiple layers of lack of opportunity to learn as they moved through the educational process. Participants perceived themselves as English-proficient, motivated learners who were successful in spite of challenges they had experienced, which they attributed mainly to their limited development of academic language proficiency in English. The study also revealed a gap between participants' postsecondary aspirations and the reality of their academic underachievement, which raises questions about the adequacy of general educational programs for this population and appropriate identifications of ELLs with disabilities. / text

This thesis presents an analysis of misidentified leptons in the Higgs boson decaychannel H → W W ∗ → lνlν. Misidentified leptons, resulting from jets misidentifiedas leptons, mimic the signal of a Higgs boson decay, resulting in a backgroundcontribution to the signal. The analysis is performed on proton-proton collisions ata center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at CERN’sLarge Hadron Collider. The estimation of misidentified leptons is done using theso-called Fake Factor method, which is used to assess the contributed backgroundwith misidentified leptons in the signal region. The Fake Factor values increasewith increasing momenta for misidentified electrons while it remains constant formisidentified muons. An analysis of the impact parameters d0 and z0 show thatthe accuracy of the Monte Carlo simulation to correctly predict the contribution ofmisidentified leptons from heavy quarks is high. / Denna avhandling presenterar en analys av felaktigt identifierade leptoner i Higgsbosonens sönderfallskanal H → W W ∗ → lνlν. Felaktigt identifierade leptoner frånhadroner imiterar signalen av ett sönderfall från en Higgs boson, vilket resulterar ibakgrund till signalen. Analysen utförs på proton-proton kollisioner med energier på13.6 TeV som samlats in av ATLAS-experimentet vid CERNs Large Hadron Collider.Denna avhandling fokuserar främst på uppskattningen av felaktigt identifieradeleptoner genom användningen av Fake Factor-metoden, vilket används för att bedömaden bidragande bakgrunden med felidentifierade leptoner i signalregionen. Värdenaför Fake Factors ökar med ökande rörelsemängd för felidentifierade elektroner medanför det förblir konstant för felidentifierade muoner. En analys av ”impact parameters”d0 och z0 visar att Monte Carlo-simuleringens noggrannhet att uppskatta antaletfelidentifierade leptoner från tunga kvarkar är hög.