“‘Relentless Geography’: Los Angeles’ Imagined Cartographies in Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange,”

What would a map of Los Angeles drawn from the ground up look like? In his groundbreaking work The Production of Space (1974), Henri Lefebvre argues that the conceived space of urban planners is fundamentally distinct from lived space, which cannot be mapped out. In her impressive city-wide narrative, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997) demonstrates the effects of imposing conceived space upon the lived space of inner city Los Angeles residents, and what happens when the counter-model of space being lived by a city’s inhabitants rebels. Yamashita’s text mirrors this disjuncture between represented and lived space through the use of narrative surrealism. Space is magically reconfigured in the city, shrinking the uninhabited Downtown and expanding over-populated yet underrepresented neighborhoods, literally shifting geographically until its mapping matches the social space of those on the ground rather than those who map it from above. Literary criticism on the novel to date has largely interpreted Tropic of Orange as a commentary on the effects of globalization; not enough attention has been paid to the novel’s surreal expansion of Los Angeles’ inner city. Using Lefebvre’s “science of space,” anchored by Los Angeles’ city planning schemas, I argue that Yamashita offers a different map, one perceived by the subsets of LA’s population that fall through the cracks of the city’s grid. Tropic of Orange’s unorthodox formal structure, when combined with its narrative surrealism, creates a differential space in the text, transforming the novel into the Los Angeles imagined by its anonymous users

Third-harmonic generation for efficient frequency conversion and microscopic imaging

Third-harmonic (TH) generation microscopy is a highly versatile technique with a broad range of applications that derives its contrast from inhomogeneities in the linear and nonlinear optical properties of materials. The work presented in this thesis centers on the use of TH generation for microscopic imaging of dielectric thin film coatings and air plasmas, and analyzes stacks of thin films for efficient TH generation. We analyzed theoretically and experimentally the influence of spherical aberration in TH generation and determined the conditions under which this effect can be neglected. These results are relevant for applications involving material characterization, such as the determination of third-order nonlinear susceptibilities. We developed a model for TH generation in stacked materials that takes into account interference effects and nonlinear frequency conversion simultaneously. Unlike previous models, we extend this approach to include the contribution from a substrate for focused beams and for illumination with ultrashort light pulses. The model was applied to determine nonlinear susceptibilities of several oxide single-layer films. This model was also applied to design novel structures, consisting of an optimized sequence of films, for efficient TH generation. Considerable TH signal enhancement is predicted from such structures, a consequence of fundamental field enhancements and periodic corrections of the phase mismatch. Efficiencies are predicted to reach 20-30%, exceeding that of previous methods. We also demonstrated the value and sensitivity of TH microscopy (THM) to detect localized material anisotropies in transparent optical thin films. The effect of annealing and of different deposition techniques was investigated. The results suggest the potential use of THM as a tool for monitoring thin films during their manufacturing. THM was also applied to characterize laser damage morphology. We studied the TH signal generated by a weak probe beam intersecting transversely a pump laser-induced plasma in air and developed a model for the generation of such signal. Unlike in previous experiments, the intensity of the probe pulse was chosen small enough such that filamentation was avoided. We investigated the functional dependence of the TH signal with respect to the electron density, retrieved the nonlinear susceptibility of the plasma, and measured electron density distributions with sub picosecond time resolution

Cross-national validation of the resources depletion-recovery model: An empirical study of Spanish and British theme park employees

Surface acting (SA) refers to the strategy whereby front-line employees hide their own emotions and fake those required of them within their role within customer service transactions. Although researchers have associated SA with burnout, evidence now suggests that this could be an indirect relationship. Building on the Conservation of Resources theory, it was hypothesised that the combined effect of emotional effort and lack of rewarding interactions with customers triggered by SA would explain the strong association between SA and burnout (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, building on psychological recovery literature, it was hypothesised that the effort invested in SA would be a weaker predictor of front-line employees’ burnout in cases when they reported higher levels of recovery ability as opposed to lower levels (Study 2). A cross-national and cross-sectional design was used, and participants were theme park employees from UK (Study 1, NUK =204) and Spain (Study 2, NSpain=211). The explanatory role of emotional effort and rewarding interactions was supported, and the buffering effect of recovery ability was confirmed. Strategies aimed at minimising burnout risk for employees who deal with customers on a regular basis in these countries are discussed

Cross-cultural comparison of Spanish and British “service-with-a-smile” outcomes

PurposeEmployees working in the leisure service industry are required to show positive emotions when dealing with customers. However, empirical evidence confirms that faking emotions can lead to burnout. In contrast, employees that try to experience the emotions required by the role (i.e. deep acting (DA)) can lead to healthier outcomes. However, little is known about the process that underpins the link between DA and positive outcomes. Building on Côte’s social interaction model of emotion regulation and evidence linking customer satisfaction and DA, it was hypothesized that DA would be associated with employees’ self-actualization through customer interactions. This, in turn, was expected to explain the influence that DA has on relevant job attitudes (i.e. commitment, efficacy, turnover intentions). The model was tested in two countries with different emotional culture: Spain (i.e. impulsive) and the UK (i.e. institutional). Although UK was expected to report higher levels of effortful DA, the hypothesized process was expected to be the same. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachA cross-national design with theme park employees from Spain (n = 208) and UK (n = 204) was used. Hypotheses were tested with multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. FindingsThe relationship between job commitment and DA was mediated by self-actualization, and commitment partially explained the association between DA and professional efficacy in both countries. The impulsive-oriented country showed lower levels of DA and more positive job attitudes.Originality/valueIt is concluded that training employees to re-interpret costume

Clostridium difficile, a new zoonotic agent. Characterization and relatedness of C. difficile strains isolated from animals, food and humans in Belgium

Introduction: Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic spore-forming bacterium recognised as a major cause of nosocomial colitis and antibiotic associated diarrhea. Over the past few years, several studies have focused on the possible role of animals and food as contamination routes for human C. difficile infections. Purpose: The aim of this study was to isolate and compare the C. difficile strains circulating in animals, food and humans in Belgium. Methods: Faecal samples of newborn pigs and calves were collected from breeding farms. Intestinal contents and carcasses samples were collected from cattle and pigs at slaughterhouse. Raw meat was obtained from the retail trade. Horse faecal samples were collected from hospitalized animals. Human C. difficile isolates were obtained from care home residents and hospitalized patients. C. difficile strains were compared with respect to the toxin gene profile, PCR-ribotyping, antimicrobial activity, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). A neighbourd-joining phylogenetic three was constructed in order to determine the correlation between human, animal and food isolates. Results: A total of 127 isolates belonging to 32 different PCR-ribotypes were collected. The PCR-ribotypes most prevalent in terms of number of isolates were 078, 014 and 027. For a given PCR-ribotype, strains presented a similar susceptibility to the antimicrobials tested, irrespective of the isolation source. Phylogenetic analysis showed that human, meat and animal isolates with the same PCR-ribotype cluster in the same lineage. Significance: The overlap between strains from animal, food and human origins suggest a potential risk of interspecies and foodborne transmission

Immigration, Civil Rights & the Evolution of the People

In considering what it means to treat immigration as a “civil rights” matter, I identify two frameworks for analysis. The first, universalistic in nature, emanates from personhood and promises non-citizens the protection of generally applicable laws and an important set of constitutional rights. The second seeks full incorporation for non-citizens into “the people,” a composite that evolves over time through social contestation–a process that can entail enforcement of legal norms but that revolves primarily around political argument. This pursuit of full membership for non-citizens implicates a reciprocal relationship between them and the body politic, and the interests of the polity help determine the contours of non-citizens’ membership. Each of these frameworks has been shaped by the legal and political legacies of the civil rights movement itself, but the second formulation reveals how the pursuit of immigrant incorporation cannot be fully explained as a modern-day version of the civil rights struggle

Against Individualized Consideration

Symposium: Latinos and Latinas at the Epicenter of Contemporary Legal Discourses. Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington, March 2007