Browsing by Subject "Urban"
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Item A Comparison of the Demographic Characteristics, Movtiations for Fishing, and Consumptive Orientation of Texas Urban and Rural Anglers(2010-01-16) Wolber, NathanSales of Texas fishing licenses have declined since 1988. Several authors have suggested that this decline is related to changes in the demographic characteristics of the Texas population, including increasing urbanization. As urban residents have been shown to participate in fishing less frequently than rural residents, the population of Texas residents most likely to engage in angling has declined accordingly. Based on these population trends, urban resident anglers (urban anglers) may represent the future of fishing. Information on urban anglers? demographic characteristics, motivations for fishing and consumptive orientation may be used to tailor and modify programs and policies targeting urban anglers. The purpose of this thesis was to identify differences between urban and rural anglers and to determine if the two groups were distinct from so-called average anglers. The thesis utilized data from the 2002 Statewide Survey of Texas Anglers. The independent variable, residency, was determined on the basis of United States Census Bureau criteria. Dependent variables included demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, and income), motivations for fishing, and consumptive orientation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare mean ii scores among the three groups. The study found differences among urban anglers, rural anglers, and anglers in general in terms of their demographic variables, motivations for fishing, and consumptive orientation. The thesis also shows that by managing resources for average anglers, agencies may be ignoring important (and growing) constituencies.Item An Examination of the Professional Challenges, Job Satisfaction, and Intention to Leave the Profession of Urban Elementary Special Education Teachers(2012-10-19) Meloncon, BrendaSpecial education teachers are under tremendous pressure to deliver a personalized educational experience to special needs children while, at the same time, operating within an equal opportunity, politically driven educational system. Urban teachers are under even more constraints since urban public schools do not typically have the resources, materials, and support from parents needed to deliver the best possible educational experience to students. In 2000, Coleman suggested that caseloads followed closely by paperwork are the biggest concerns of special education teachers. This author further suggests that, on average, special education teachers prepare fifty lessons per day for special needs children, and spend one to two days per week managing paperwork. Budgetary constraints in urban schools further place obstacles in front of special education teachers who must make do with materials and training that are incomplete or out of date. Professional challenges may be the reason behind a lack of special education teachers in urban areas, and the fact that the demand for special education teachers was outpacing the number of special education teachers entering the field. The purpose of this study is to explore five research questions that examine the antecedents to an urban elementary special education teacher's intentions to leave the special education profession. Five professional challenges were developed from extant literature to test their influence on job satisfaction and three constructs from the theory of planned behavior. Job satisfaction and these three constructs were tested for their predictive validity influencing a subject's behavior intention to leave the profession. Using a non-random, purposeful sample of 79 certified special education teachers in urban Texan school districts, a quantitative method using multiple regression was used to test nine correlations. Results suggest that professional challenges significantly influence job satisfaction and perceived behavioral control from the theory of planned behavior. Behavior intention to leave the profession was significantly influenced by job satisfaction, attitudes about leaving the profession, and perceived behavioral control. Attitudes about leaving the profession were significantly influenced by job satisfaction. The subjective norms construct was not a significant predictor of behavior intention, and neither attitude nor subjective norms was influenced by professional challenges.Item Creating an art district in Lubbock, TX(2011-05) Mask, Tara L.; Kvashny, Alon; Currie, Melissa A.; White, John P.Lubbock is already known as an artistic hub for the state of Texas, but the art is not always easily accessible, and needs to have a place where it can be the focus. Creating an art district that brings residents, visitors, artists and businesses to a particular part of the city will serve the city of Lubbock with revenue and an artistic reputation beyond what already exists. This study will provide a small-scale solution to a large problem. Lubbock’s downtown is prime real estate for an exciting future, and many steps have already been taken to assure that it be successfully altered. Every first Friday of the month the Friday Art Trail provides an atmosphere that is appreciated by many, but is not always utilized. The city provides trolleys to escort people from one venue to the next, but they are usually crowded or take longer than a person is willing to wait. If pedestrian access was more apparent, and routes were more successfully designed, this art trail could be on display more than once a month. Other issues involving the existing downtown area are the fact that there is no other form of entertainment, and restaurants, residences, retail are few and far between. If people are already downtown, there will be no need to bring them there, and if successfully designed they could use the pedestrian access routes on a daily occurrence. Purpose driven districts have shown success in many different scales of projects, and it is important to know that “the birth of art districts is not merely the consequence of a renewal process but also a catalyst for the further re-use of other nearby derelict buildings for art purposes and, in general, for the boosting of standards of living,” as noted. (Lorente, 2000) Previous analysis has not only shown progress towards better, more cohesive communities, but can provide examples of what can be done in all types of situations, including downtown Lubbock, Texas.Item Dropouts and a Dropout Recovery Program at a Suburban High-poverty High School Near a Large Urban Area(2013-12-11) Butler, Pamela WThe decision to drop out of high school is a serious problem for the individual making the decision to drop out, but it also has dramatic implications for their families, their communities, and the economic health of the greater community. As a result, the literature on the causes of dropouts is prolific. However, I find that much of this literature is focused on blaming the students and their families for dropping out of high school. Thankfully, there is also much critique of the mainstream view as to the causes of dropouts. This critique of the mainstream literature places significant blame on our schools for causing students to drop out and considers schools?rather than students?at-risk for failing our students and actually pushing students out of school before they graduate. This critical view of the mainstream viewpoint focuses on the economic, social, and personal issues that cause students to be pushed out of school before they graduate. While this study surveys the mainstream literature on the subject of dropouts, the focus of this study supports the critical approach. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to conduct an in-depth study of the students, and dropout prevention and recovery efforts in place at a high-poverty high school during the 2007 through 2013 academic years. A goal of the study was to create a profile of a dropout at the school during that time period and to begin to create a plan that will reduce the number of students who drop out of the high school as well as the other four high schools in the district. Accordingly, for this study I examined quantitative data regarding students who dropped out of a high-poverty high school in order to look for patterns in the data that may help in creating a profile of a dropout at the school. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with professional staff that worked at the school and students who recently attended the school. Half of the students interviewed had not dropped out of high school and the other half chose to drop out. The purpose of the interviews was to hear the perspectives of key individuals who have personally experienced the drop out problem in hopes that their voices would further contribute to the creation of a profile of a dropout and ultimately assist with solutions to the problem. Findings support other research that shows there is no single predictor or indicator of what causes a student to dropout of high school. In fact, the data in the quantitative section about each individual dropout indicate that the dropouts possessed some or several of the typical dropout at-risk indicators such as being poor, have low-academic achievement, being previously retained, having a history of discipline problems, and having high absenteeism. While some of the students I interviewed possessed some of these same characteristics, not all did and in fact, interview data indicate that each student saw the importance of graduating and were frustrated that school and personal circumstances prevented this accomplishment. Another finding was that the adult interview data indicated traces of deficit thinking in how they were addressing the dropouts from their schools. Solutions suggested include addressing the deficit thinking, academic programming, and systems that need to be in place in order to better assist students who are at-risk for dropping out of high school.Item Entrepreneurial city : race, the environment, and growth in Austin, Texas, 1945-2011(2011-12) Busch, Andrew M., active 2011; Meikle, Jeffrey L., 1949-The primary concern of this dissertation is to give historical perspective to the idea of the creative city and the creative, or "new," "knowledge," or "postindustrial" economy that has produced this new form of urban space. Austin, Texas, one of the developed world's premiere creative cities, is used as a test case. Like many urban scholars, I focus on the manifestation of the city as a unique material expression of the capitalist order, and also on the city as a symbolic discourse that has helped to generate its material conditions, including consistent socioeconomic unevenness. In broad outline I am interested in the forces of capitalism that cause cities and regions to grow. I begin with a basic question asked by geographer Allen J. Scott: "How do competitive advantages (including capacities for creativity) of cities emerge, and how might they be enhanced by public action?" In the case of Austin, I argue that the city's competitive advantage was engendered by an ethos that valued free market competition and a focus on the dual economic engines of technology and leisure which city and university leaders identified during World War Two. Austin's economic ideology, which consciously eschewed fordist modes of production in favor of knowledge-based growth associated with the University of Texas, was poised to blossom when macroeconomic ruptures forced massive restructuring associated with globalization during and after the 1970s. The city's inherent advantage as a site of surplus knowledge production for Texas and the Southwest created a highly paid, educated labor market that business people and politicians viewed as the core element of a non-industrial city. Even before the 1970s Austin was well on its way to economic growth through technological accumulation and modes of production that took advantage of skilled labor markets. The creative city thus has a history that must be understood before policy is adopted based on non-transferable conditions of growth.Item Examination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in an urban stormwater system and bioaccumulation in Odonata(2013-08) Heintzman, Lucas; McIntyre, Nancy E.; Carr, Deborah; Griffis-Kyle, KerryPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic organic pollutants produced from combustion processes. Associated with urban runoff they have been detected worldwide in urban wetlands. PAH contaminations in wetlands are known to be influenced by hydrology and environmental factors. Because PAHs and their associated metabolites are carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic, they pose significant risks to wetland-dependent organisms. Provided meager scientific data on PAHs in playa wetlands, I investigated the occurrence of 16 PAHs within playa surface water samples and tissues of amphibious organisms (Odonata: dragonflies and damselflies, a flagship group of predatory wetland insects) from seven urban playas along a runoff gradient in Lubbock, Texas. PAH detections from surface water samples were highly variable across sites and dates, with naphthalene and pyrene occurring most often in water samples. Adult Odonata PAH detections were also variable but significantly different from corresponding surface water samples (suggesting bioaccumulation rather than passive chemical exposure), with naphthalene and fluoranthene occurring most often. The number of specific PAH compound detections was significantly associated with percent impervious surface within 300 m of a playa, but not with gradient position or number of inflows. Therefore, results indicate that for urban playas of Lubbock, land-use factors are more important in determining PAH contamination than hydrologic factors.Item Examining the Perceptions of Urban African American Elementary Teachers: The Implementation of Culturally Responsive Materials Into the Classroom(2012-02-14) Hicks, JohnettaThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between urban teachers? perceptions and their implementation of culturally responsive materials into the classroom. Specifically, this study examined the influences of age, years of teaching experience, level of education, professional development, and prior knowledge with culturally diverse populations on perceptions of implementing culturally responsive materials into urban elementary classrooms. Based on the results of this research, the variables of age, teaching experience, and professional development were found to affect how teachers value culturally responsive materials. This suggests that variables can have important ramifications for educators and administrators in urban and culturally diverse schools.Item From the countryside and city to the edges and interstices : places and spaces of the quotidien in contemporary French film and literature(2013-05) Jones, Claire Catherine; Wettlaufer, AlexandraThis dissertation examines the use of the quotidien (the everyday) in contemporary French film and literature to understand its relationship with notions of place and space. Defined as the paradoxical process of how one repeatedly constructs each day "anew" on a routine basis, the quotidien in the texts of my analysis is not static, but rather a means for articulating changes in French communities and ways of life, while further reflecting ongoing changes to attitudes, politics, and identity. I advance current readings of the quotidien by viewing it as both descriptive, a recurring manifestation of change, as well as transformative, able to effect change. I argue that, in these depictions, the quotidien effectively erodes traditional spatial categories to create and reveal new and less stable versions. Specifically, places lose their real and symbolic sway to indeterminate spaces in which meaning is uncertain, in flux, or non-existent. My dissertation is novel for its interest in tracing the quotidien across spatial categories, so that its chapters move from the more "stable" categories of the rural and the urban to those in more obvious flux, edges and interstices. Chapter 1 studies the depicted quotidiens of rural France in Agnès Varda's film, Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000), and Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougare's film series, Profils paysans (2000-2008). Chapter 2 investigates the quotidiens of urban centers in Cédric Klapisch's film, Chacun cherche son chat (1996), Patrick Modiano's novel, Dora Bruder (1997), and Laurent Cantet's film, Entre les murs (2008). Chapter 3 examines everyday France at the periphery of Paris in Gérard Gavarry's novel, Hop là! Un deux trois (2001). The Conclusion addresses the emergence of a new space, the interstitial, in which its dwellers float, move, or exist between places on a daily basis, such as a commute to work. I analyze Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas's short film, Loin du 16ème (2006), Abdellatif Kechiche's film, La Graine et le mulet (2007), and Alain-Paul Mallard's film, L'Origine de la tendresse (1999). These mini-ethnographies of French society reveal a France grappling with issues related to globalization, shifting populations, the relative newness of the European Union, and consequently, identity. Who is French, and where does "authentic France" lie?Item “Jive That Anybody Can Dig :” Lavada “Dr. Hepcat” Durst and the desegregation of radio in Central Texas, 1948-1963(2012-08) Weiss, Peter Okie; Miller, Karl Hagstrom, 1968-Lavada “Dr. Hepcat” Durst was the first African American popular music disc jockey in Texas. His radio program The Rosewood Ramble was broadcast on Austin station KVET-1300 AM from 1948 until 1963. KVET’s white owners, who included future Texas politicians John Connally and J. J. “Jake” Pickle, were not outspoken advocates for the rights of African Americans under Jim Crow, but they hired Durst in a concentrated effort to expand KVET’s African American listening audience. The Rosewood Ramble became a cultural, economic, and psychological resource for black radio listeners in segregated central Texas while also becoming the region’s most popular radio show among white listeners. This paper uses a mixture of oral history and archival sources to argue that Durst’s fifteen-year career at KVET was only the best-known part of a lifetime spent as an information broker to Austin’s embattled black community.Item Laboring to create magic : the new worker in the emerging retail industries of Kolkata(2014-08) Maitra, Saikat; Ghosh, Kaushik, 1965-; Ali, Kamran A; Stewart, Kathleen; Wojciehowski, Hannah; Merabet, SofianMy dissertation focuses on the means through which a new worker-identity is getting crafted in the city of Kolkata in India under the impact of neoliberal economic policies of the state on one hand and the changing modes of capital formation on the other. Kolkata’s position as the pre-eminent city of British India in the nineteenth century had led to a huge influx of industrial capital. However, the post-independence era saw a gradual flight of capital due to a long history of political and social turbulence. With the liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s, both national and trans-national capital have started flowing back into Kolkata, especially in sectors such as real-estate, retail and service industries. This has led to a huge proliferation of expensive shopping malls and cafes in the city employing a large urban youth population, usually from under-privileged backgrounds. With the state giving up its former faith in socialist principles and instead strongly committing itself to neoliberal economic reforms, the future of development for Kolkata is getting tied to its capacity to attract corporate capital, particularly in organized retail and service sectors. As such, urban labor is coming under a tremendous scrutiny to delineate an identity according to principles of flexibility, self-discipline and responsiveness to the needs of contemporary private capitalist interests. In spaces like shopping malls and exclusive cafes, workers are repeatedly trained and indoctrinated to show an affective capacity to serve, be cheerful in their work and to display through bodily comportments the signs of a global cosmopolitanism that can sustain consumption. However, with most of the workers themselves coming from low-income backgrounds with little or no knowledge of the roles they are asked to play as part of their work, uncertainties and anxieties exacerbate the already precarious position of these young workers. This study therefore looks at how workers negotiate everyday work environments and how such work environments in turn alter and condition their identity through multiple strategies of discipline and control emanating from both the neoliberal state as well as corporate institutions.Item Olive oil, salt and pepper, onions, tea, bread, and sometimes tomatoes : economic conditions among Iraqi refugee women living in urban areas of Jordan(2010-08) Arar, Rawan Mazen; Busch-Armendariz, Noël Bridget; Schiesari, NancyThis study explores economic conditions among Iraqi refugee women living in urban areas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan through open-ended interviews. The research aims to address coping mechanisms Iraqi refugee women use to adapt to their financial situation. The goal is to review the proactive efforts women make to turn family units from traditional consumers (buying goods) to producers (making goods) in order to find financial stability. The study incorporates three overarching themes: First, it establishes Iraqi refugee women’s financial status by surveying economic security and employment opportunities. Second, the study investigates how living in urban areas of Jordan affects Iraqi women’s economic status. Thirdly, the study explores how Iraqi refugee women approach their financial situation. How have Iraqi women taken steps to exercise control over their financial lives and improve their economic situation as refugees? The objective of this project is to promote women’s empowerment by creating an open dialogue about Iraqi women’s struggles and to highlight the steps that women take to improve their situation. The study suggests steps that can be taken to aid Iraqi refugees.Item The participatory process of the urban village redevelopment : case study in Shenzhen, China(2014-05) Fu, Na, active 2014; Wilson, Patricia AnnOver the past thirty years, China’s transition to a semi-open market economy has manifested as a process of rapid urban development. Low-income, migrant populations who arrive in the city in search of better work opportunities are being integrated into a class of new urban poor and must contend with limited housing options. Urban villages, which are recognized as rural, collectively owned land located within the urban boundary, are now becoming targeted for government supported urban renewal. Because the urban villages’ land lies outside the regulatory reach of the municipal government, these areas tend to develop in an informal manner and attract low-income migrant tenants. However, urban village tenants are being excluded from the renewal process. The aim of this research is to examine these widely debated concerns within the case of the ongoing Caiwuwei urban village renewal project in Shenzhen. Through this research, I reconsider the functionality of power relations within China’s rapid economic growth, particularly between the urban development decision makers and the marginalized migrant tenant groups. These groups of migrant workers who rent housing units in urban villages have a stake in the urban renewal process because they participate in the urban village social network supporting the need of cheaper supply from the surrounding area. By applying theories of public participation to the process of giving avenue to speak up what they need, which is empowering from the urban village tenant groups, I identify challenges and possibilities for the inclusion of public voices in future government processes in China. I suggest that the project finance model of a public-private partnership could be structured around this collaborative process of renewal, in order to develop a platform for ongoing public participation, particularly in the provision of social services and institutions within the urban village community. Such an arrangement for urban redevelopment will facilitate the balancing of influence among disparate income groups.Item Remaking urban worlds : New Delhi in the time of economic liberalization(2011-05) Mehra, Diya; Visweswaran, KamalaThis dissertation examines the impact of neoliberal economic reform on New Delhi's urban landscape. It shows how the city has transformed since 1991 through two distinct, but interlinked processes: firstly massive 'upgradation' and place-marketing efforts, initiated and supported by the state, to create for the city a global identity worthy of the capital of a newly resurgent and aspirational nation, one that is also welcoming to new capital flows and forms as Delhi undergoes massive spatial, and economic expansion. Secondly, neoliberal urban development is also marked by a series of mass evictions of the city's existing informal, indigenous economy as degraded urban forms. In tracking the unfolding 'worlding' of the city, the dissertation is interested in the production of locality at the scale of the city, the ways by different sites, networks and neighborhoods articulate with the process, and how locality is produced through a series of inclusions and exclusions. In the first half of the dissertation, the focus is the conjectural emergence of conditions of transformation, mainly through the articulation of state urban renewal policies which promote privatized urban development, judicial eviction orders and media circulated calls for the building of a new 'upgraded' city to replace the old. This, as a new 'globalized' and aestheticized imaginary of the nation, city and its citizens takes shape. In the second half, the dissertation examines shows how upgradation and mass eviction have played out in Delhi neighborhoods, juxtaposing the experience of middle class areas, who's activism has been vital in putting forth a new vision of the city, with two cases of displacement. These are the demolition of the city's slums, and secondly the sealing or closure of large networks of indigenous/informal traders. In all three cases, the dissertation outlines ethnographically how residents receive, perceive and negotiate changes in relation to their memories, habitus, and local knowledges of the old, and how they engage with state and political actors, judicial fiat, party politics and the structures of the city's mass democracy to encourage or oppose urban reforms. In its conclusion, it argues that upgradation and eviction notwithstanding, activism across classes has engendered a common critique of governance among residents.Item A shareable city : an analysis of shareable land use approaches in Austin and San Francisco(2014-05) Christensen, Aubrie May; Wilson, Barbara B. (Barbara Brown)Inspired by the recent rise in interest surrounding the Sharing Economy, this report seeks to provide insight into the potential for sharing in cities. I focus my attention on land; as one of the scarcest resources in urban areas land holds some of the greatest potential for sharing. I strive to develop an awareness of the challenges against and opportunities for shareable approaches to land use and development of city-owned land. Through interviews and archival research I explore a variety of projects, programs and initiatives in Austin, TX and San Francisco, CA. Based on my findings I provide suggestions for the City of Austin in developing a more shareable approach to land use and development.Item Shifts in paradigms and their impact on architectural design: a cemetery for Las Colinas, Texas(Texas Tech University, 1994-08) Severance, Debra B.Changes in ideology and technology and their resuhing paradigm shifts directly affect the design of architecture, particularly "social" architecture, and even more noticeably, places for the dead.Item The Evolution of the Physicochemical Properties of Aerosols in the Atmosphere(2011-02-22) Tomlinson, JasonA Differential Mobility Analyzer/Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA/TDMA) system was used to measure simultaneously the size distribution and hygroscopicity of the ambient aerosol population. The system was operated aboard the National Center for Atmospheric Research/National Science Foundation (NCAR/NSF) C-130 during the 2006 Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) field campaign followed by the 2006 Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment ? Phase B (INTEX-B) field campaign. The research flights for the MILAGRO campaign were conducted within the Mexico City basin and the region to the northeast within the pollution plume. The aerosol within the basin is dominated by organics with an average measured kappa value of 0.21 /- 0.18, 0.13 /- 0.09, 0.09 /- 0.06, 0.14 /- 0.07, and 0.17 /- 0.04 for dry particle diameters of 0.025, 0.050, 0.100, 0.200, and 0.300 mu m, respectively. As the aerosols are transported away from the Mexico City Basin, secondary organic aerosol formation through oxidation and condensation of sulfate on the aerosols surface rapidly increases the solubility of the aerosol. The most pronounced change occurs for a 0.100 mu m diameter aerosol where, after 6 hours of transport, the average kappa value increased by a factor of 3 to a kappa?of 0.29 /- 0.13. The rapid increase in solubility increases the fraction of the aerosol size distribution that could be activated within a cloud. The research flights for the INTEX-B field campaign investigated the evolution of the physicochemical properties of the Asian aerosol plume after 3 to 7 days of transport. The Asian aerosol within the free troposphere exhibited a bimodal growth distribution roughly 50 percent of the time. The more soluble mode of the growth distribution contributed between 67-80 percent of the overall growth distribution and had an average kappa?between 0.40 and 0.53 for dry particle diameters of 0.025, 0.050, 0.100, and 0.300 mu m. The secondary mode was insoluble with an average kappa?between 0.01 and 0.05 for all dry particle diameters. Cloud condensation nuclei closure was attained at a supersaturation of 0.2 percent for all particles within the free troposphere by either assuming a pure ammonium bisulfate composition or a binary composition of ammonium bisulfate and an insoluble organic.Item The Mexican-American value system in an urban environment(Texas Tech University, 1970-08) Ewing, KernNot availableItem There's no place like home : urban-rural differentials in nutritional status among children in Ethiopia(2010-08) Ebot, Jane Ofundem; Hummer, Robert A.; Ekland-Olson, SheldonChildren under 5 years of age in Ethiopia experience one of the highest rates of malnourishment in the world. Though there is a growing body of literature outlining determinants of children’s nutritional status, little attention has been given to the nutritional status of the rapidly increasing urban population of children. In this study, I contribute to this gap by asking, “What is the relationship between household residential location, feeding practices of children under 5 years of age and nutritional status?” Using data from the 2000 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, I find that rural children continue to have worse nutritional status outcomes than urban children. I also find that liquid foods, mother’s occupation and household characteristics all are significant externalities associated with household residential location, that impact urban-rural differences in nutritional intake among young Ethiopian children.Item Urban dialogues : rethinking gender and race in contemporary Caribbean literature and music(2013-05) Torrado, Lorna Judith; Arroyo-Martínez, Jossianna; Martínez-San Miguel, Yolanda; Robbins, Jill; Polit, Gabriela; Salgado, CésarHow are music, literature and migration connected? How are these transnational conversations affecting the way countries construct their national discourses today? This dissertation studies how gender and race are constructed and questioned in the 'cross-genre' dialogue among contemporary urban literature, performance, and reggaeton music produced in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and New York City from the1990s-2000s. This ongoing dialogue of marginalized music and literature, made possible by the accessibility of new media, results in a unique urban configuration in which gender and racial identities are negotiated, resulting in the reinforcement of a trans-Caribbean cultural circuit. Following a non-traditional structural approach this dissertation proposes a new analytical and reading model beginning with the Puerto Rican diaspora's cultural production in New York City as a point of departure, and from there expands to the rest of the Spanish Caribbean. I specifically focus on the writings of poets Willie Perdomo (NYC), and Guillermo Rebollo Gil (PR), the videos and lyrics of the reggaeton artists Tego Calderón and Calle 13 (PR), and the music and literary work of Rita Indiana Hernández (DR) in order analyze the complex interplay between music and literary texts to convey gender and racial imaginaries. I conclude that these literary, cultural, and performative texts abolish "national" configurations and are being replaced by broader definitions of "us," race, and gender to address the complexities of contemporary Caribbean transnational identitary circuits.Item Urban fox squirrel ecology and management(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) McCleery, Robert AlanI studied the habitat selection, survival, and anti-predator behaviors of the fox squirrel (Siurus niger) across the urban-rural gradient in College Station, Texas. From two years of tracking the radio locations of 82 fox squirrels, my data suggested that fox squirrels in urban areas selected for use large mast bearing trees that mimicked the habitat features they prefer in non-urban areas and avoided conifer and ornamental tree species. Urban fox squirrels selected to use buildings and non-native grass during certain seasons and showed a tolerance for pavement, including it proportionally in their core-areas. Analysis of radio-telemetry data of urban and rural fox squirrels suggested that the rates of survival and causes of mortality differed between the two populations. At least 60% of the mortalities on the rural site were caused by predation, while < 5% of the mortalities on the urban site were caused by predation. Most of the mortalities on the urban site (>60%) were cause by vehicular collisions. Observations of anti-predator behaviors supported my hypothesis that squirrels decrease their anti-predator behaviors as the human presence increases. Observational data also supported my hypothesis that this phenomenon was caused by habituation. I also found that the time dedicated to anti-predator behaviors differed among urban, rural, and suburban fox squirrel populations in response to coyote and hawk vocalizations. The mean responses to both vocalizations on the rural site (coyote = 45%, hawk = 55%) were at least twice that of those found on the urban sites (coyote = 11%, hawk = 20%). I also used survey responses to questions about squirrel management to test theoretical frameworks linking attitudes to behaviors. My data suggests that beliefs and attitudes that are modified by variables shown to increase accessibility generally correspond better to behaviors. My data also suggests that the inclusion of a measure of previous behaviors will increase the predictive ability of models within different theoretical frameworks. Most importantly for the advancement of a comprehensive theoretical framework, my study showed that composite models combining components of the theory of reasoned action and attitude to behavioral process models out-performed other models.