'Nothing good ever came out of Japan': Race-mixing and the limits of diaspora

This paper argues that postcolonial notions of diaspora are premised on immigrant subjectivities and standpoints which do not fully apprehend the mixed-race / bi-racial experience and the local effect of cultural hybridity in Western settings. The paper was prompted by a recent conversation with Dee, the daughter of a Japanese warbride. As a child Dee recalled being told by her friend's mother that 'nothing good ever came out of Japan'. The significance of constant interpolations into 'Asianness' by statements such as these; by the 'where do you come from?' question and by more blatant discriminations are inadequately addressed by traditional and postcolonial notions of diaspora. 'Roots' and 'routes' imagery feature prominently in discussions of diaspora and hybridity which aim to decolonise culture and identity in deconstructive moves that highlight their flexible, multiple, contractedness. While it has been argued that even these conceptualisations are problematic because they privilege orders of explanation, theory and standpoint that are forced back into line with traditional notions of discrete 'races', cultures, ethnicities and identities, cultural studies and postcolonial theorists do not appear to find this contradiction overly troubling. Lodged in bodies that do not easily conflate to neat either/or cultures, politics and genetics, race-mixing also defies and yet return us to culture and biology. However, I argue that their refractions though the same tired old orders of racial, ethnic, cultural and national differentiation prevent us from disregarding the discursive effects of racism and racialisation.

Getting the most out of multidisciplinary teams: a multi-sample study of team innovation in health care

Driven by the assumption that multidisciplinarity contributes positively to team outcomes teams are often deliberately staffed such that they comprise multiple disciplines. However, the diversity literature suggests that multidisciplinarity may not always benefit a team. This study departs from the notion of a linear, positive effect of multidisciplinarity and tests its contingency on the quality of team processes. It was assumed that multidisciplinarity only contributes to team outcomes if the quality of team processes is high. This hypothesis was tested in two independent samples of health care workers (N = 66 and N = 95 teams), using team innovation as the outcome variable. Results support the hypothesis for the quality of innovation, rather than the number of innovations introduced by the teams.

A study of field emission from cadmium sulphide

It was decided to investigate field emission from cadmium sulphide because many workers have found that the agreement between theory and experiment for this material, and other semiconductors, is poor. An electron energy analyser, similar to those used in most of the previously reported experiments, was, therefore, built. The performance of the analyser was thoroughly investigated both theoretically and practically and the results of these investigations were used in conjunction with a tungsten emitter. Excellent agreement was obtained between the usually accepted total energy distribution for tungsten and the corresponding .distribution measured with the present analyser. A method of obtaining reliable cadmium sulphide emitter was developed. These emitters were then used in the analyser and it was found that the agreement between theory and experiment was poor. Previous explanations of the lack of agreement are considered and are found to be doubtful. The theory of field emission from semiconductors is reviewed and possible reasons for the discrepancy between theory and experiment are proposed. Finally, further experiments are described which should prove or disprove the conclusions arrived at in this work.

A study of field emission from semiconductors

In an attempt to clarify the behaviour of semi-conductor field emitters the properties of a narrow band gap material were investigated. A retarding potential analyser was built and tested using a tungsten emitter. The energy distribution of electrons emitted from single crystals of lead telluride (band gap 0.3 eV) and gallium phosphide (band gap 2.26 eV) were measured. The halfwidths of the distributions are discussed with respect to the relevant parameters for the materials. Methods of tip preparation had to be developed. The halfwidth of the energy distribution of electrons field emitted from carbon fibres was measured to be 0.21 ± 0.01 eV. A mechanism explaining the long lifetime of the emitters in poor vacuua is proposed.

The classical theory of field evaporation

The field evaporation literature has been carefully analysed and is shown to contain various confusions. After redefining consistent terminology, this thesis investigates the mechanisms of field evaporation, in particular, the relevance of the theoretical mechanisms by analysing the available experimental data. A new formalism `extended image-hump formalism' is developed and is used to devise several tests of whether the image-hump mechanism is operating. The general conclusion is that in most cases the Mueller mechanism is not operating and escape takes place via Gomer-type mechanisms.

Spectroscopic studies of field-induced electron emission from isolated microstructures

A detailed investigation has been undertaken into the field induced electron emission (FIEE) mechanism that occurs at microscopically localised `sites' on uncoated and dielectric coated metallic electrodes. These processes have been investigated using two dedicated experimental systems that were developed for this study. The first is a novel combined photo/field emission microscope, which employs a UV source to stimulate photo-electrons from the sample surface in order to generate a topographical image. This system utilises an electrostatic lens column to provide identical optical properties under the different operating conditions required for purely topographical and combined photo/field imaging. The system has been demonstrated to have a resolution approaching 1m. Emission images have been obtained from carbon emission sites using this system to reveal that emission may occur from the edge triple junction or from the bulk of the carbon particle. An existing UHV electron spectrometer has been extensively rebuilt to incorporate a computer control and data acquisition system, improved sample handling and manipulation and a specimen heating stage. Details are given of a comprehensive study into the effects of sample heating on the emission process under conditions of both bulk and transient heating. Similar studies were also performed under conditions of both zero and high applied field. These show that the properties of emission sites are strongly temperature and field dependent thus indicating that the emission process is `non-metallic' in nature. The results have been shown to be consistent with an existing hot electron emission model.