The Lives of the Other(s): The Instability of Foreignness in Deutschland 83

Set in Germany at a hot moment in the Cold War, with the Able Archer exercises and downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 etched in sharp relief, Deutschland 83 is an entertaining spy drama—and considerably more. The critical viewer will find surprises in the first Germanophone series on American television. The hero is an East German spy who goes undercover on a West German military base, and his crossings over the iconic border are not the only traversals as he forms relationships and acculturates to a “foreign” land. Deutschland 83 performs a neat trick: while the series powerfully reconstructs a world starkly split between West and East, it simultaneously challenges this separation, as well as divisions between domestic and foreign, capitalist and communist, hero and villain, and family and outsider. Through the interweaving of actual media coverage of the historic events of 1983 with the fictional plot, the television narrative also chips away at the difference between reality and fiction. This paper will draw on Milica Bakić-Hayden’s theory of “nesting orientalisms” and the work of Anikó Imre and others to explore how this popular drama, among some enjoyable thrills and testosterone, deserves scholarly scrutiny. As it undercuts a clear Other and destabilizes foreignness, this German drama could be a valuable lesson in an increasingly nativist world

Cooperative area surveillance strategies using multiple unmanned systems

Recently, the U.S. Department of Defense placed the technological development of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tools at the top of its priority list. Area surveillance that takes place in an urban setting is an ISR tool of special interest. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are ideal candidates to perform area surveillance because they are inexpensive and they do not require a human pilot to be aboard. Multiple unmanned systems increase the rate of information flow from the target region and maintain up to date information. The purpose of the research described in this dissertation is to develop and test a system that coordinates multiple UAVs on a wide area coverage surveillance mission. The research presented in this document implements a waypoint generator for multiple aerial vehicles that is especially suited for large area surveillance. The system chooses initial locations for the vehicles and generates a set of balanced sub-trees which cover the region of interest (ROI) for the vehicles. The sub-trees are then optimally combined to form a single minimal tree that spans the entire region. The system transforms the tree path into a series of waypoints suitable for the aerial vehicles. The output of the system is a set of waypoints for each vehicle assigned to the coverage task. Results from computer simulation and flight testing are presented.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Dr. George Vachtsevanos; Committee Member: Ayanna Howard; Committee Member: Dr. Thomas Michaels; Committee Member: Eric Johnson; Committee Member: Linda Will

Promoting Physical Activity in Low Income African Americans: Project LAPS

Low income African Americans are at increased risk for physical inactivity and related chronic illnesses. Thus, effective interventions are needed to address these health disparities. The current study examined the efficacy of a home-based physical activity intervention among a low income African American sample with high rates of chronic illnesses (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol). Participants (n=214) were randomly assigned to either the home-based physical activity intervention (self-help print materials, five monthly newsletters, two telephone counseling sessions) or an attention control condition, which promoted healthy diet. Results indicated that the intervention did not produce significantly greater increases in physical activity from baseline to six months than the control group. Lessons learned from the current study include the importance of using proactive retention strategies with low income African American participants and taking into consideration the cultural relevance of the intervention

The American Experience with Employee Noncompete Clauses: Constraints on Employees Flourish and Do Real Damage in the Land of Economic Liberty

Agreements not to compete are generally an anathema to free market advocates. Independent profit maximization is one of the fundamental assumptions of the neoclassical economic model and necessary to its conclusion that markets yield results that are Paraeto efficient. Consistent with this theory, and practical experience, agreements among competitors, or potential competitors, to divide a market, or fix price or quantity are per se violations under our antitrust laws.Despite this fact, even some ardent free market advocates have argued on behalf of the enforcement of covenants not to compete in the employment relationship. The traditional economic argument in favor of enforcing non-competes assumes that labor markets are competitive and workers freely enter into such agreements in return for higher wages associated with work in research on behalf of the employer and/or access to employer developed trade secrets and customer contacts. This arrangement is desirable to the employer because it helps protect his or her investment in research, trade secrets, and customer contacts, against appropriation if the employee were to leave to work for a competitor. It is argued that society also benefits from such arrangements because the increase to production from the employer’s investment in research and customer contacts would more than make up for societal losses due to the constraints on the employee’s labor mobility.However, economic theory also embraces a more sinister view of such agreements. Given their constraints on labor mobility, there is a natural concern that employers might use non-competes to limit labor market competition and perhaps product market competition. Recent discussions of labor market monopsony power have cited the potential role of non-competes in extending employer power by creating “market friction” that prevents employees from selling their labor to the highest valued use. Under this view, the covenant not only allows the employer to pay the employee less than a competitive wage, but also raises the recruiting costs of the employer’s competitors, allowing the employer to charge higher prices. Concern about covenants not to compete is particularly acute when they are imposed on employees after acceptance of an offer of employment, clearly challenging the assumption that they are freely accepted in return for higher wages. In such cases a covenant not to compete can serve as an intertemporal conduit of monopsony power, translating the employee’s short-term disadvantage in the lack of an alternative offer into long-term employer monopsony power. Viewed in this light, a covenant not to compete is a socially costly restraint on the employee’s freedom to apply his or her labor to the highest valued use and receive a competitive wage.Which of these two economic views of employee covenants not to compete is true, and under what circumstances, is an empirical question. The answer to this question can be very useful in helping us determine whether such agreements should be enforceable, and, if so, under what circumstances. This is a question of growing importance as the use of covenants not to compete has grown in our economy. Once largely confined to the instances incident to the sale of a business or involving highly compensated managers, professionals or research staff, the use of covenants not to compete has spread across the American economy until by the most recent count they cover 20% of American employees including many low-skill positions without access to sensitive information such as a hair stylist, yoga instructor, lawn sprayer, temporary warehouseman, sandwich-maker, dog-walker and even volunteer camp counselor and unpaid intern. Moreover, it seems that few of these covenants not to compete are the result of bargained for exchange and many are imposed by the employer after the job has been accepted and without additional compensation. The sheer number of these agreements and the potentially deleterious impact they might have on peoples’ careers, our labor market and our economy have brought this question to a head and provided impetus for possible remedial legislation at both the state and federal levels. Fortunately, there are a number of very good empirical studies that examine the number and circumstance of such agreements and the impact of these agreements on the workers, firms and our economy.In this article, we examine the American experience with employee covenants not to compete. We discuss first their treatment under the common law and statutes codifying the common law. Next, we review the recent empirical literature and discuss its findings with respect to the current state of the phenomenon of covenants not to compete in the American workforce and their impact on the affected workers, firms and the economy as a whole. Based on this empirical work we conclude that covenants not to compete are over-used in the American economy having a deleterious effect on employee wages and mobility and the vibrancy of our economy, with no comparable increase in employer investment in research or training. Thus, we find that, for the vast majority of employees, the negative economic view of covenants not to compete is more accurate and such agreements are used to extend employer control over the employees and in some cases extend employer monopsony power. Employers also lose out due to covenants not to compete because they have become an obstacle to hiring qualified staff. Finally, we discuss efforts at the state and federal level to regulate the use of non-competes to ameliorate the abuse and problems of these restrictions. We examine these legislative efforts and evaluate them in light of the recent empirical work on the problems caused by non-competes

Which anthropometric and lower body power variables are predictive of professional and amateur playing status in male rugby union players?

The purpose of this study was to compare anthropometric and lower body power measurements between current professional and amateur male rugby union players. The present study also sought to determine which anthropometric and physical performance variables were predictive of playing standard. Thirty professional and 30 amateur RU players performed Wattbike 6 s maximal effort (WB6S) and countermovement (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) assessments, anthropometric measures were also taken. Dependant variables recorded and analysed including: body mass, stature, Σ8 site skinfolds, WB6S absolute and relative peak power, CMJ and SJ average concentric force, jump height, peak velocity, time to peak force, rate of force development (RFD) and absolute and relative peak force and power. Professional players were heavier, taller and leaner than their amateur counterparts (p < 0.05). Professional players performed significantly better in all physical performance measures except CMJ and SJ time to peak force, CMJ RFD and SJ relative peak force. Variables which were predictive of playing standard were: Σ8 skinfolds, CMJ peak velocity and WB6S absolute and relative peak power (p < 0.05). These findings indicate that the current body of male professional RU players is anthropometrically and physically superior to their amateur counterparts, although not all variables assessed here were predictive of playing standard. Data presented here indicate that Σ8 skinfolds, WB6S absolute and relative power and CMJ peak velocity are predictive of playing standard, whereas other anthropometric and strength and power variables are not

Temporal Response of Rabbits to β-Adrenergic Agonist Feeding: Tissue Weight, Calpains and Calpastatin Activities, and Nucleic Acid and Protein Concentrations

Forty-eight crossbred rabbits were used in three replications of a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement to investigate the short-term responses of tissue accretion, calpains and calpastatin activity, and nucleic acid and protein concentrations to β- adrenergic agonist (BAA) feeding. Rabbits were fed a 17% CP diet with or without 7 ppm of L644,969 and slaughtered after 1, 4, 8, or 16 d of treatment. Empty body dressing percentage and biceps femoris weight (as a percentage of empty body weight [EBWI) were significantly higher in the treated rabbits than in the controls after 16 d of treatment. Heart and liver weights (as a percentage of EBW) were higher ( P \u3c .05) after 1 d and liver weight (as a percentage of EBW) was lower (P \u3c .05) after 16 d in treated vs controls. Except for an elevation of skeletal muscle m-calpain after 16 d, BAA-supplementation did not affect the calpain-calpastatin system. Muscle RNA concentrations and RNA:DNA ratios were higher (P \u3c .05) in treated rabbits after 1 d and remained higher thereafter. Protein:RNA ratios were lower ( P \u3c .0 1) in treated than in control rabbits after 4 d and remained lower throughout the trial. Muscle DNA content was lower after 4 d and higher after 16 d; RNA content was higher after 4, 8, and 16 d; and protein content was higher after 16 d in treated vs control rabbits. Liver nucleic acid and protein concentrations were not affected by BAA treatment. Heart RNA:DNA ratios were higher ( P \u3c .0 1) after 1 d and protein:RNA ratios were lower (P \u3c .05) after 4 d in the treated rabbits than in the controls. Collectively, these data imply that BAA-induced muscle growth in rabbits occurs through hyperplasia and seems to be related to elevated protein synthetic capacity