Thesis (M.S.) in Mechanical Engineering--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49).

Los Angeles has long been identified as a fragmented city, by nature of its cosmology and those constructed perceptions that constitute it in the collective imaginary. In an effort to articulate, interrogate and understand such a place, we have come to rely on its representations to function as mediators of meaning, delivering through their simulation of the city an experience of the real, lived Los Angeles. As a result, the relationships between the real and the representation become skewed, altering the processes by which we engage with the everyday. To better understand the implications of this dialectic, I examine four representations of the city: Disneyland, David Hockney’s “Domestic Scene, Los Angeles,” David Gebhard and Robert Winter’s A Guide to Architecture in Southern California and the BBC “One Pair of Eyes” installment “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles.” By analyzing representations of Los Angeles produced in a range of media, it becomes possible to discern the complex relationships between the real and envisioned Los Angeles, and to recognize the constructive force that emerges out of this discursive space. / text

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become a very important activity within Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language since 1960s. Researchers of ESP mostly focus on the issues of academic writing, business English, scientific and technology English, medical English, and legal English. However, through out the development of ESP studies, ESP learning in a religious setting, such as in a monastery has not yet caught the attentions of ESP researchers. No study so far has been conducted regarding religious English learning. Furthermore, ESP researchers rarely pay any attention to the issue of Culture Learning within the ESP context. Exploring how Buddhism English is used and learned linguistically and culturally by Chinese Buddhist monks and nuns is the primary focus of this ethnographic qualitative study. Using a variety of data collecting methods including questionnaire, indepth interviews, documents and field observation, information was gathered at a Chinese Buddhist Temple in LA., CA. The following findings emerged from the analysis of 21 Buddhism speeches in English: (1) the content of the Dharma speeches, (2) the commonly used metaphors in Buddhism, (3) vocabulary in Buddhism English. From the analysis of interviews, questionnaire, and field observations, the participants' language learning needs, learning materials and learning strategies are identified. Furthermore, the participants' cultural learning experience emerged next, for example, (1) the influence of their religious beliefs over the cultural learning, (2) their cultural learning experience in four aspects of culture--the culturally conditioned behaviors, the cultural connotations of words and phrases, the cultural comprehension, and attitudes toward other cultures. Finally, suggestions to Buddhism English learning and ESP learning in general are made. In particular, metaphors in Buddhism can serve as learning and teaching strategies in Buddhism English learning; language and cultural learning is interconnected. The ESP learning and teaching model should include cultural learning in the future to facilitate sociolinguistic and communicative competence of the ESP learners.

The migration of thousands of Guatemalan-Maya due to political violence and poverty since the 1970s led to the establishment of various diasporic communities throughout the United States. A frequent destination for the Maya is Los Angeles, California, where they are confronted with pressure to adapt within an environment that is predominately Latino/Hispanic. Maya identity expressed through the use of traje (Maya clothing), language, literature and spirituality is challenged by Euro-American culture such as western style of dress and the practice of English which discriminates against these customs. These conditions are more severe for Maya children who face the difficulties in preserving their heritage as a result of institutions such as public education which socializes them into US culture and history. Despite the presence of many indigenous communities in Los Angeles, such as the Maya, Mixtecos and Zapotecs, indigenous identity is almost non-existent in many public spaces and institutions. Discrimination against the Maya by their compatriots and other Latinos coupled with high rates of undocumented immigration statuses have contributed to this invisibility. Some Maya parents view the lack of a strong indigenous identity among their children as problematic and the source of negative cultural qualities such as disrespect towards elders, violence, individualism and misbehavior. In this study, I seek to examine Maya identity and culture in Los Angeles. What does it mean to identify as Maya in Los Angeles? What are the consequences of doing so? How do Maya immigrants respond to discrimination and what implications does discrimination have for the ethnic identity formation of their children? Why has Maya identity survived in some children of Maya and not in others? I found that while some Maya immigrants have assimilated into the Latino community in response to racism and fear of deportation, others have adopted strategies such as the use of marimba to preserve Maya identity which also serve to deal with a life of displacement and exile. Maya identity among children is highly influenced by factors such as the educational system, class and their parent’s willingness and ability to transmit Maya culture. Thus, while some children of Maya have been able to preserve and express their identity through various channels such as music and language, others may be unaware of, ashamed by or apathetic toward their indigenous roots and history. / text

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It was the best of cities, it was the worst of cities, it was a place of giddying boom, it was a place of economic despair, it was a utopia, it was a dystopic no-topia, it was the world centre of fantasies, and the world centre of nightmares, a town where some struck it rich while others lost themselves in their desires for wealth, in short, the place was so far unlike the present place, that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. This thesis is constructed of fragmented stories but not in the classic sense as there is no over-arching narrative, no beginning, middle and end, no synthetic conclusion. Rather this thesis is similar to Los Angeles itself; it is a multi-faceted exploration of competing themes that have birthed a city of fictions, a centre of fantasy, a place that shapes our collective memories, even for those of us who grew up in far-off places. Los Angeles has searched for a down-town core, a collective identity, a dominant narrative and these attempts are explored through different themes – the story of film noir, the development of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the redevelopment of Bunker Hill, the violence and upheavals of the riots. I have explored how the city has tried to re-brand itself, Through these prisms, and how these attempts have shaped its development and history. It is said that Los Angeles has an architecture of absence, with its superficiality and lack of depth, and as a visual metaphor, this can represent the giddy changes happening in the field of architecture, where hyper-realism trumps facts. This idea of Los Angeles as a mirror should not surprise: it has long been a world centre for myth-making, an epicenter of fiction, cinema, architecture, et cetera, spewing out seductive, grotesquely exaggerated reflections of North America itself.

Since the end of World War II, the shopping center has been diffused as a building type through the western world and has acquired a central role in suburban territories. It is perceived as a "standardized" building and as the product of the process of economic globalization. Most of the time, the shopping center is conceived on the basis of regional considerations, and so it presents difficult connections with the surrounding urban tissues. Even if it contributes in an important manner to the life of suburbia, it is an introverted building that has limited relationships with exterior spaces. / The thesis, through an analysis of the shopping centre in the United States, Canada and France, wants to shed light on the progressive emergence of its form and spatial characteristics in those countries. This comparative study underlines the mechanisms of diffusion of the shopping center paradigm developed up in the United States and the consequences of its transfer in the other contexts. The morphological and longitudinal analysis of shopping centers located in the Los Angeles, Montreal and Paris metropolitan areas aims to evaluate the influence of the local context on the emergence of specificities related to this building type, to the urban tissues containing it, and to their respective evolution over time.

Characteristic westerly sea breeze carries air over the Los Angeles Basin in Southern California to the Inland Empire approximately 50 miles inland, directly impacting air quality in both of these two highly polluted regions. As particles play a critical role in air quality and human health, this study compares the bulk aerosol profiles of the Los Angeles pollution "source" and Inland Empire "receptor" regions during the 2013 and 2014 NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) campaigns onboard the NASA DC-8 airborne laboratory. The source and receptor regions were characterized by a series of missed approaches at the Los Angeles International Airport, Long Beach Airport, and Los Alamitos Army Airfield (coastal sources) as well as the Ontario International Airport, San Bernardino International Airport, and March Air Reserve Base (inland receptors). The aerosol populations in each region were compared, and the changes evolved were analyzed alongside volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations from Whole Air Samples. Particle size distributions were collected using a Droplet Measurement Technologies Ultra High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (DMT-UHSAS). Aerosol concentration, mass, and mode diameter increased significantly between coastal pollution source and inland pollution receptor regions in all cases, along with an increase in mode diameter. The observed changes cannot be accounted for by aerosol aging over the Los Angeles basin alone, suggesting new particle emission/formation over this region could be a dominating factor in the changes. Positive correlations between particle increases at receptor sites and anthropogenic VOC tracers will be discussed.

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90).

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-78).