Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nepalese Diaspora

UNITED STATES
·         Nepalis in Oregon
·         Utah Nepali Samaj
·         Greater Boston Nepali Community
·         Nebraska Nepalese Society
·         Nepal Center of North Carolina
·         Nepal Hawaii Society
·         Nepal Seattle Society
·         Florida Nepal Association
·         Friends of Nepal
·         Nepalese Americas Council
·         Nepalese Society Texas
·         Nepalese Student's Association
·         Nepa Pasa Puchah Amerikaye
·         Nepal Study Center
·         Liberal Democracy Nepal Forum
JAPAN
·         Japan Nepal Society
·         NRN-Japan
·         News Portal
·         Thakali Sewa Samiti, Japan
·         Newa International Forum Japan
NETHERLANDS
·         Nepal Development Academy
·         Nepal SATHI Foudnation

UNITED KINGDOM
·         www.nepaluk.com
·         NRN - UK
·         Ester Benjamin Trust, UK
·         Help Nepal UK
·         Nepali Samaj UK
·         Sagarmatha Times
·         Yeti Nepali Association UK
·         Nepalese Doctor's Association

AUSTRALIA
RUSSIA
·         Free Nepal
Others
·         Pardesinepali society
·         Nepal Korea Friendship Society
·         Canada Forum for Nepal
·         Nebraska Nepalese Society
·         Help Nepal Network
·         Nepalese United for Nepal (NUN)
·         Youth Vision (Canada)
·         Inls Hongkong chapter
·         Nepal Ireland Society
·         Greater Boston Nepali Community
·         Non-Resident Nepali Association
·         www.pnccc.com

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Human Psyche On Underground Structures

Summary

Recently, utilization of underground spaces has been dramatically increased for the public and private uses in urban areas due to the lack of available land spaces. However, negative image of underground structures throughout the world’s population seems to be obstacles for the optimal utilization of the underground spaces. A large proportion of the population show natural reluctance to go underground structures and “many people claim to have feelings of apprehension and even anxiety when they descend into a subway or an underground park” (Sterling and Godard, 2004, p. 6). A common problem with the underground facilities is the “feeling of danger and entrapment” (Ringstad, 1994, p. 5). Despite the fact that the underground structures are eco-friendly and safer than above ground structure in many natural hazards such as earthquake, hurricane, tornado etc., there is very limited research in this field. An understanding of people’s image of underground space will therefore be useful in predicting the most likely psychological responses to underground facilities for public use; and this may be helpful in developing design solutions for the underground space (Ringstad, 1994).

Experimental research was carried out among the graduate level international students in order to evaluate people’s fundamental psychological reaction towards the underground space and analyze the influence of design factors on people’s perception. More than fifty percentage of the population showed feeling of unsafe while in underground, where the loss of connection to the outer world was most fear provoking factor. People’s psychological reactions showed that the safety assurance and the suitable architectural design parameters positively influence the people’s perception on underground structures. Further researches to incorporate more detailed psychological aspects of human being and influence of design parameters are needed.

11/29/2005
Las Cruces, NM