Beyond Ethnicity: Toward a Critique of the Hegemonic Discipline E. San Juan, Jr.

With the current vogue of multiculturalism and cultural diversity requirements as panacea for systemic problems, scholars and teachers of Ethnic Studies need to reassess the principles and goals of their discipline. Los Angeles 1992, among other developments, has exposed the serious inadequacies of old paradigms. A review of the racialized history of Asians in U.S. society, a narrative of oppression and opposition now mystified by the model minority myth, allows us to grasp the flaws of the liberal pluralist focus on culture divorced from the political and economic contexts of unequal power relations. Ultimately, for whom is Ethnic Studies designed? By historicizing identity politics and validating the genealogy of resistance, we in the field of Ethnic Studies can refuse to be mere apologists for the status quo and revitalize the critical and emancipatory thrust of Ethnic Studies, a thrust inseparable from the struggle of people of color against white supremacy

From Chinatown to Gunga Din Highway: Notes on Frank Chin\u27s Writing Strategy

Exploring Frank Chin\u27s work, particularly in his latest novel Gunga Din Highway, the essay endeavors to re-situate ethnic writing in the historical specificity of its inscription in the United States as a racial polity. This cognitive remapping of the literary field as reconfigured by multiculturalist liberalism may be accomplished by examining Chin\u27s cultural politics. Chin\u27s mode of strategic writing interrogates the modelminority myth and the premises of cultural nationalism. While it rejects the pluralist resolution of the traditional conflicts in the Chinese diaspora, Chin\u27s satiric impulse proposes a defamiliarization of Asian American common sense adequate to provoke a revaluation of the presumed conjunction of ethnicities, cultures, and nationalities in the current counter-terrorist milieu

The Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on Fear of Falling and Mobility Outcomes after Lower Limb Loss: a Preliminary Study

Background and Purpose: Current research has revealed that as much as 52.4% of individuals with lower limb loss report falling at least once in the past year. Previous research has also indicated that rehabilitation, including physical therapy (PT), generally improves patient outcomes after definitive amputation. Socioeconomic status has been shown to be an important factor in accessing healthcare but has yet to be investigated in this population. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of socioeconomic status and access to PT, and how limb loss affects mobility and fear of falling perception. We hypothesized: [1] individuals with socioeconomic difficulty would have reduced access to PT after amputation, and [2] individuals with limb loss will have increased fear of falling and decreased mobility performance when compared to non-amputee, age-matched controls. Subjects: 23 participants (7 females,16 males) mean age 51.30 years old (+ 13.17 SD, range 22-70) with lower limb loss ambulating with a definitive prosthesis. Materials/Methods: Participants completed a survey that included the Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire (FFABQ), questions to determine their socioeconomic status, and whether they received PT after amputation. Mobility outcomes were measured using the standardized Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and the Six Minute Walk Test (6MWT). Results: There was no statistically significant difference in access to PT after amputation between those with and without financial difficulty (p=.354). However, 75% of participants who had no socioeconomic difficulty reported receiving PT, in comparison to only 25% in those who had socioeconomic difficulty. Additionally, 34.8% of our participants reported socioeconomic difficulties. When comparing the participants with amputation to the non-amputee, age-matched controls, there was a significant difference in the TUG (p\u3c.001), 6MWT (p\u3c.001), and FFABQ (p=.008). On average, participants with limb loss were 4.4 seconds slower on the TUG, walked 136.4m less on the 6MWT, and had an increased FFABQ score of 6.6 points out of 56 points. Discussion: Access to physical therapy and socioeconomic status have been overlooked in current literature for individuals after amputation. While the effect of socioeconomic status on PT access did not reach statistical significance in this preliminary study, only 25% of those who reported socioeconomic difficulty received physical therapy after amputation, compared to 75% in those who reported no difficulty. Further research is needed to determine whether low socioeconomic status is predictive of receiving rehabilitation services post-amputation and long-term outcomes. Our findings also showed that when compared to age-matched non-amputees, amputees tend to have impaired mobility and higher degree of fear of falling. These findings agree with current literature. Conclusion: Although not statistically significant, our preliminary findings showed that socioeconomic difficulty may affect access to physical therapy after amputation. Furthermore, our data demonstrated that individuals with lower limb loss exhibit reduced mobility performance and increased fear of falling when compared to the age-matched controls

Measurement-based tailoring of Anderson localization of partially coherent light

We put forward an experimental configuration to observe transverse Anderson localization of partially coherent light beams with a tunable degree of first-order coherence. The scheme makes use of entangled photons propagating in disordered waveguide arrays, and is based on the unique relationship between the degree of entanglement of a pair of photons and the coherence properties of the individual photons constituting the pair. The scheme can be readily implemented with current waveguide-on-a-chip technology, and surprisingly, the tunability of the coherence properties of the individual photons is done at the measurement stage, without resorting changes of the light source itself.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, additional correction

Feelings of Belonging: An Exploratory Analysis of the Sociopolitical Involvement of Black, Latina, and Asian/Pacific Islander Sexual Minority Women

This article compares and contrasts the sociopolitical involvement of Black, Latina, and Asian/Pacific Islander American sexual minority women within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities of color. For the analysis, a sample of over 1,200 women from the Social Justice Sexuality project was analyzed. Findings indicate that, for all groups of women, feelings of connectedness to the LGBT community was the most significant predictor of sociopolitical involvement within LGBT communities of color

Design of a vertical movement stage for surface machining

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, June 2007."May 2007."To allow the widespread use of three dimensional patterns on walls, the manufacturing cost must be reduced. The goal of this project is to design a machine for vertical axis movement which can be measured and controlled. The key issues addressed in this thesis, are the motion past obstacles in the extrusions, a lightweight mechanism that is stiff with minimal horizontal deflections, can adjust to different heights and can support its own weight. The design favored consisted of a chain drive designed to travel 3 meters in 10 seconds at a weight of 30 Kilograms. The machine is kept in place by five points of contact, including a fixed sprocket and four sliding V-grooved rollers. The machine was tested for stability, stiffness and its ability to traverse the entire chain without problems.by Juan Herrera.S.B

An Analysis of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) of Ultra Wideband(UWB) and IEEE 802.11A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Employing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

Military communications require the rapid deployment of mobile, high-bandwidth systems. These systems must provide anytime, anywhere capabilities with minimal interference to existing military, private, and commercial communications. Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology is being advanced as the next generation radio technology and has the potential to revolutionize indoor wireless communications. The ability of UWB to mitigate multipath fading, provide high-throughput data rates (e.g., greater than 100 Mbps), provide excellent signal penetration (e.g., through walls), and low implementation costs makes it an ideal technology for a wide range of private and public sector applications. Preliminary UWB studies conducted by The Institute for Telecommunications Science (ITS) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have discovered that potential exists for harmful interference to occur. While these studies have provided initial performance estimates, the interference effects of UWB transmissions on coexisting spectral users are largely unknown. This research characterizes the electromagnetic interference (EMI) effects of UWB on the throughput performance of an IEEE 802.11a ad-hoc network. Radiated measurements in an anechoic chamber investigate interference performance using three modulation schemes (BPSK, BPPM, and OOK) and four pulse repetition frequencies over two Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) channels. Results indicate that OOK and BPPM can degrade throughput performance by up to 20% at lower pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) in lower U-NII channels. Minimal performance degradation (less than one percent) due to interference was observed for BPSK at the lower PRFs and higher U-NII channels

Higher Education Social Responsibility: An Empirical Analysis and Assessment of a Hispanic-Serving Institution\u27s Commitment to Community-Engaged Scholarship, Student Integration and Sense of Belonging

Current efforts in higher education institutions to increase persistence and success among Hispanic students continue to be ineffective and thus new conceptual frameworks need to be explored. Data from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities asserts that increasing the number of Hispanics that graduate is vital for our country’s future. In turn, Hispanic-Serving Institutions need to nourish and nurture their students to ensure that they graduate and institutional frameworks would benefit from cultural and epistemological congruence with Hispanic students, their families, and their communities. Educational leaders have urged educators to take on the responsibility and commitment to students’ success and to have a positive impact on the communities they serve. This quasi-experimental study intends to measure the impact of a Hispanic-Serving Institution’s social responsibility on underrepresented students’ institution affiliation, especially Hispanic students in South Texas. The following research questions guided this study: 1) What types of perceptual and behavioral characteristics (e.g. social integration, academic integration, perceived campus climate, CESL enrollment status, service learning enrollment status, language proficiency, gender, and immigration status) are associated with sense of belonging for college students, especially Hispanic students at a HSI in South Texas? and 2) How do community-engaged scholarship and learning experiences encompassed in CESL courses (the treatment) impact college students’ sense of belonging and academic and social integration, especially Hispanic students at a HSI in South Texas? In order to answer the two research questions, a quasi-experimental research design was used in this investigation. It involved two forms of analyses: Regression Analysis addressing question one and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) addressing question two. The Multiple Regression Analysis (N = 208) yielded significant findings (p \u3c .05). The full model revealed that 48% of the variance in Sense of Belonging, the dependent variable, was explained by four predictor variables: Peer Group Interaction; Faculty Concern for Student Development and Teaching; Academic and Intellectual Development; and English Proficiency. Although there were no differences (p \u3e .05) detected among the comparison groups, recommendations to improve research design, methodology and treatment fidelity for future studies were provided