Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper compares condom use between the gay and straight California adult film industries and examines the culturally embedded decision making processes that affect the use of condoms in adult films. Drawing on in-depth interviews with people in the adult film industry, I argue that those within the gay and straight adult film industries utilize condoms and HIV testing as strategic actions motivated by two separate institutional logics. Within the straight industry, I find that a logic of profit maximization motivates HIV testing with the effect of identifying and quarantining HIV positive performers. Those within the straight industry then strategically justify non-condom use stating condoms are painful and condom use is an issue of performer’s choice. Within the gay adult film industry, I find that a logic of civil rights and solidarity motivates condom use by implicitly avoiding identifying and stigmatizing HIV positive performers through mandated HIV tests. Ironically, performers in the gay adult film industry also strategically use condoms to manage their reputations and stigma by signaling to consumers that they are not HIV positive. In sum, these findings highlight the important ways people strategically rationalize and justify organizational health policies and practices while motivated by shared cultural schemas.

What if certain types of work allow workers to earn higher incomes when bundled together? Using qualitative interview data on the careers of sex workers in California, the author argues that workers can attempt to increase overall earnings by taking part in promotional labor: a specific type of labor in which workers strategically bundle complementary forms of work with differing status and income levels to increase overall income. Because of a sharp decline in adult film production beginning in 2007, adult film performers relied on escorting to make up for lower wages and fewer filming opportunities. However, these sex workers still performed in adult films, despite filming being more time intensive and less financially lucrative, to promote themselves as high-end escorts. The author concludes that promotional labor is a mechanism by which workers and firms in general mitigate labor uncertainty by using the cross-promotional benefits of different types of complementary work.

Research shows that people who face stigmatized work identities attempt to reconfigure their employment more positively, such as by concealing their involvement with their jobs or reframing the value of it. Yet, in an era of rising nonstandard work, how might managing work identities also involve managing multiple jobs across fluid employment contexts? We draw insights from two cases of nonstandard workers facing differing degrees of contested work identity—frontline restaurant workers and sex workers. We find that these workers use similar strategies to manage their employment that involve identity work and job searching, yet their decision to stick to their line of work or opt for alternatives stems in part from the symbolic characteristics of their respective jobs. We conclude by laying out a broader framework for how workers manage contested work identities in an era of nonstandard employment.

This Dissertation examines the career experiences and institutional decision-making processes of performers in the California adult film industry. Specifically, it explores how performers navigate a field typified by contingent, stigmatized work at the intersection of culture, health, gender, sexuality. Drawing on qualitative interviews with stakeholders in the California adult film industry, as well as an original quantitative dataset detailing the performance histories of adult performers, I develop three substantive chapters exploring different aspects of the adult film industry and how they advance theoretical areas in sociology. Chapter Two of the dissertation uses a unique quantitative dataset I constructed by scraping the performance histories and demographic information of over 140,000 adult film performers and directors and their roles in over 180,000 adult films, allowing me to examine differences in career length and trajectory between performers by sexuality and gender. The next section of the dissertation focuses on how workers experience non-standard or precarious labor markets. Chapter Three uses interview data to explain how adult film performers—as a type of non-standard worker—coped with a sharp decline in adult film production beginning in 2007. Chapter Four of the dissertation explores the case of HIV prevention in the California adult film industry, and the extent to which HIV prevention methods are embedded in the economic and cultural landscape of gay and straight adult film production. Taken together, these chapters illustrate the general ways workers experience contingent employment and the ways cultural meaning can intersect with and drive institutional health choices.

Noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) are known to undergo degeneration in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. LC neurons may be under bioenergetic constraints due to spontaneous spiking. Here, Sanchez-Padilla et al . show that calcium entry through L-type channels during spiking of LC neurons creates mitochondrial oxidant and nitrosative stress. The study also demonstrates increased LC vulnerability in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Loss of noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) neurons is a prominent feature of aging-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). The basis of this vulnerability is not understood. To explore possible physiological determinants, we studied LC neurons using electrophysiological and optical approaches in ex vivo mouse brain slices. We found that autonomous activity in LC neurons was accompanied by oscillations in dendritic Ca 2+ concentration that were attributable to the opening of L-type Ca 2+ channels. This oscillation elevated mitochondrial oxidant stress and was attenuated by inhibition of nitric oxide synthase. The relationship between activity and stress was malleable, as arousal and carbon dioxide increased the spike rate but differentially affected mitochondrial oxidant stress. Oxidant stress was also increased in an animal model of PD. Thus, our results point to activity-dependent Ca 2+ entry and a resulting mitochondrial oxidant stress as factors contributing to the vulnerability of LC neurons.