FACET Simulation in the Imataca Forest Reserve, Venezuela: Permanent Plot Data and Spatial Analysis (open access)

FACET Simulation in the Imataca Forest Reserve, Venezuela: Permanent Plot Data and Spatial Analysis

Tree diameter data from 29 years of observations in six permanent plots was used to calculate the growth rate parameter of the FACET gap model for 39 species in the Imataca forests in Venezuela. The compound topographic index was used as a measure of differential soil water conditions and was calculated using geographic information systems. Growth rate values and topographic conditions typical of hill and valley were input to FACET to simulate dynamics at the species level and by ecological and functional groups. Species shade-tolerance led to expected successional patterns. Drought-tolerant/saturation-intolerant species grew in the hills whereas drought-intolerant/saturation-tolerant species occurred in the valleys. The results help to understand forest composition in the future and provide guidance to forest management practices.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Figuera, Dilcia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Inflation in Venezuela: The Case for No Single Cause (open access)

Inflation in Venezuela: The Case for No Single Cause

The study was designed to examine the causal relationship between the Venezuelan inflation and the monetarist variables--money supply--and the structuralist variables-- exchange rate and balance of payments. The data (1964-1982) was gathered from the International Financial Statistic Yearbook, 1983 and the Statistical Yearbook, 1974, 1982. Chapter I is an introduction to the research problem. Chapter II does a review of the related literature. Chapter III deals with the methods and procedures for treating the data. Chapter IV presents an statistical analysis of the data. And, Chapter V contains a summary of the study and its findings, conclusions and recommendations. The study only found a significant relationship between inflation and the monetarist variables money supply and GNP, though supporting the monetarist theory. A similar investigation is suggested, but selecting a longer time period, other.variables, and more refined methodologies and analysis.
Date: December 1987
Creator: Rodriguez, Florangel
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Status of the German Woman from 1871 to 1938 (open access)

The Status of the German Woman from 1871 to 1938

The story of the rise and fall of the German woman abounds with interest to those who understand her battle for emancipation from traditional bondage. In the earliest days, her life was one of semi-slavery and subjugation to domestic duties. The World War added new and heavy responsibilities; the organization of the Weimar Republic brought a new-found freedom; but Hitler's regime meant a return to subjugation. This study is a brief resume of her journey.
Date: 1940
Creator: Saunders, Venezuela
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alberto Grau: The Composer, Selected Works, and Influence upon the Venezuelan and International Choral Community (open access)

Alberto Grau: The Composer, Selected Works, and Influence upon the Venezuelan and International Choral Community

Alberto Grau is arguably one of the most influential contemporary Venezuelan choral composers and conductors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This thesis explores the synthesis of Venezuelan nationalism with global internationalism found within his works. As a student of the nationalistic generation of composers (Vicente Emilio Sojo, Juan Bautista Plaza, and Ángel Sauce) Grau's works display the distinct characteristics found in Venezuelan music. His output also exhibits international influences, using texts associated with social and environmental events and concerns including literary and musical influences of other nations and cultures. The first section of the thesis traces the lineage of Venezuelan choral composers beginning with the colonial period and the Escuela de Chacao to the nationalistic composers from the Santa Capilla generation. The second section describes Alberto Grau's compositional style as exemplified in his work Kasar mie la gaji (The Earth is Tired). The final section of the document comprises interviews with Alberto Grau and his wife, the Venezuelan choral conductor, María Guinand. Guinand studied piano and conducting with Alberto Grau and was his assistant at the Orfeón Universitario Simón Bolívar and the Schola Cantorum de Caracas. She is the founding conductor of the Cantoría Alberto Grau and the editor …
Date: August 2007
Creator: Yu, Julie
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Significance of Mercantilism in the Process of the Economic Evolution of Venezuela (open access)

The Significance of Mercantilism in the Process of the Economic Evolution of Venezuela

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the economic thought involved in the process of the economic evolution of Venezuela.
Date: May 1964
Creator: Sosa-Rodríguez, Eduardo
System: The UNT Digital Library
Light Spectra Distributions in Temperate Conifer-Forest Canopy Gaps, Oregon and in Tropical Cloud-Forest Canopy, Venezuela (open access)

Light Spectra Distributions in Temperate Conifer-Forest Canopy Gaps, Oregon and in Tropical Cloud-Forest Canopy, Venezuela

Light spectra distributions were measured in two different montane forests: temperate and tropical. Spectral light measurements were made in different sized canopy gaps in the conifer forest at H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon, USA. Researchers at Oregon State University created these gaps of 20 m, 30 m, and 50 m in diameter. In the tropical cloud forest, spectral light measurements were made in two plots that were permanently established at La Mucuy Parque Nacional in Venezuela, in collaboration with researchers at Universidad de Los Andes. In both studies, spectra and distributions of physiologically active light were analyzed: red, far-red, R/FR ratio, and blue light.
Date: December 1997
Creator: Monteleone, Susan Elaine
System: The UNT Digital Library
Simulation of physical and chemical processes in reservoirs: Two case studies. (open access)

Simulation of physical and chemical processes in reservoirs: Two case studies.

Managing water quality aspects requires the use of integrative tools that allow a holistic approach to this problem. Water quality models coupled to hydrodynamic models are these tools. This study presents the application of the water quality model WASP coupled to the hydrodynamic model DYNHYD for two distinct reservoirs: Lake Texoma and Tocoma Reservoir. Modeling the former included simulations of water velocities, water level, and four chemical and physical compounds: chlorides, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and total suspended solids (TSS); and validation of the results by comparing with observed values during March - May, 1997. The latter is still under project status and the simulation was performed in a prospective way. The analysis included simulations of water velocities under current and for expected conditions, DO and BOD. Both models, DYNHYD and WASP, fitted pretty well to observed conditions for Lake Texoma and for where Tocoma Reservoir has been planned. Considering management and decision support purposes, the role of boundary and loading conditions also was tested. For Lake Texoma, controlling boundary conditions for chlorides is a determinant factor for water quality of the system. However, DO and TSS in the reservoir are governed by additional process besides the …
Date: December 2005
Creator: García Iturbe, Selma L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Attitudes of Foreign Students at North Texas State University Toward American Advertising (open access)

Attitudes of Foreign Students at North Texas State University Toward American Advertising

The problem of this study was to determine whether any relationship existed between foreign students' cultural and economic backgrounds and their attitudes toward American advertising and advertising media. The major findings of this study were that foreign students had a slightly favorable attitude toward American advertising and spent a great deal of time with American mass media. The stage of economic development of foreign students' home countries and the length of time foreign students stayed in the United States were powerful group predictors of their attitudes toward American advertising.
Date: August 1980
Creator: Chung, O-Jeeru
System: The UNT Digital Library
United States Lend-Lease Policy in Latin America (open access)

United States Lend-Lease Policy in Latin America

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles began trying to make military matériel available to Latin America during the latter 1930s. Little progress was made until passage of the Lend-Lease Act in 1941 enabled Washington to furnish eighteen Latin American nations with about $493,000,000 worth of military assistance during World War II. This study, based primarily on State Department lend-lease decimal files in the National Archives and documents published in Foreign Relations volumes, views the policy's background, development, and implementation in each recipient nation. The conclusion is that the policy produced mixed results for the United States and Latin America.
Date: December 1983
Creator: Yeilding, Thomas D. (Thomas David)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Political Factors in the Creation and Implementation of the Andean Foreign Investment Code (open access)

Political Factors in the Creation and Implementation of the Andean Foreign Investment Code

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the political factors which came into the creation and implementation of the Andean Foreign Investment Code. This study analyzes the political forces in the creation of the Code and examines the implementation of the Code in each of the Andean countries. This investigation concludes that although the Code has not been implemented uniformly in the Andean countries, it remains an important part of the Andean Common Market. In addition, the continual political consensus among the member countries is emphasized for the continuation of the Andean integration effort.
Date: August 1977
Creator: Gushiken, Anita M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Theodore Roosevelt and His Foreign Policies (open access)

Theodore Roosevelt and His Foreign Policies

A study of the foreign policies of Theodore Roosevelt.
Date: 1943
Creator: Lowrance, Mary Lois
System: The UNT Digital Library
The People's Republic of China's Latin American Policy from Mao to Deng (open access)

The People's Republic of China's Latin American Policy from Mao to Deng

The evolution of the People's Republic of China's Latin American policy from Mao to Deng consists of four stages: (1) communist internationalism, (2) revolutionary policy, (3) government contacts and peaceful co-existence, and (4) independent and open policy. Besides explaining the meaning of each policy and its execution, this study identifies the key elements--domestic and external--which characterize the policy evolution, and compares those elements in an explication of why Sino-Latin American relations under Deng's regime appear more active than those of Mao's regime. The policies of Mao and Deng differ in the greater emphasis of Deng on the content of government contacts and his greater concern with economic relations, in contrast to the political motivation of Mao.
Date: August 1988
Creator: Chi, Le-Yi
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spanish Diction in Latin American Art Song: Variant Lyric Pronunciations of (s), (ll), and (y) (open access)

Spanish Diction in Latin American Art Song: Variant Lyric Pronunciations of (s), (ll), and (y)

Latin American art song is a genre primarily of the first half of the twentieth-century, when popular folklore served as the voice and inspiration of many poets and musicians. The nationalist movement served as a means of expression, each Latin American country with its own identity. There is great benefit for singers to study Spanish diction at an academic level, since it is a language already familiar to most U.S.A residents. There is a significant amount of unknown repertoire that would be very useful in the singing studio because of the language's open vowels. This repertoire can also serve as a confidence-builder to young Spanish-speaking singers at the beginning of their training. I will be focusing on the (s), (ll), and (y) sounds as pronounced in the diverse regions of Latin America; in particular, why they matter when coaching singers, and the articulators involved in each. The purpose of this study is to discuss diction differences in the repertoire, expound on its benefits for voice pedagogy, all while informing about varied options for recital programming.
Date: May 2017
Creator: Ortiz, Camille
System: The UNT Digital Library
Understanding News Media Consumption and Political Attitudes and Behavior in Latin America (open access)

Understanding News Media Consumption and Political Attitudes and Behavior in Latin America

News media consumption is vital to understanding democracy in Latin America. Democracy in the region lacks consolidation that may be encouraged by the ability of news media to shape individuals' political attitudes and behaviors. Yet, we know very little about how citizens of Latin American countries consume news media or how that consumption affects attitudes and behavior. This study offers a region-wide examination of the factors that shape news media consumption and the effects of that consumption on individuals in the region. To explore this topic, I examine survey data from the 2008 Latin American Public Opinion Project in 18 Latin American countries. I argue that news media promote democratic attitudes and political behavior by increasing the symbolic value of democracy and by supplementing those symbols with information that further encourages democratic attitudes and political participation. Additionally, political behavior is not temporally proximate to political behaviors such as voting. This necessitates a mediated path for news media consumption to influence participation through political interest, civil society participation and democratic attitudes. My findings illustrate that each news medium type (TV, radio, newspaper) must be considered separately from each other type. I find that news media consumption has little effect on attitudes. …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Salzman, Ryan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Context Matters: How Feminist Movements Magnify Feminist Opinion of Progressive Policies in South America (open access)

Context Matters: How Feminist Movements Magnify Feminist Opinion of Progressive Policies in South America

What explains the inconsistency of female empowerment in South America, despite high levels of institutional inclusion? Generally, the social sciences tend to lean on the tenets of liberal feminism in order to measure the development of gender-inclusive policy changes; however, their findings indicate that higher levels of institutional inclusion does not necessarily translate into the empowerment of women as a group. Further, within political science, there is little research addressing the relationship between feminist movements and the feminist opinion of individuals within a state. I argue that strong feminist social movements provide a context in which feminist opinion is magnified, and where individuals will be more likely to support progressive policy changes. Using questions from the World Values Survey, I operationalize progressive policies as the Justifiability of Abortion. My primary independent variables are the presence feminist movements and the presence of feminist opinion, which is measured by support for female sexual freedom. After using a multilevel mixed-effects linear regression, I find support for my hypotheses, indicating that feminist opinion is magnified by the presence of feminist movements.
Date: August 2016
Creator: Ferris, Rachel E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Partial Expansion of the 980 Division of the Dewey Decimal Classification Including a Spanish Version of the Tables (open access)

A Partial Expansion of the 980 Division of the Dewey Decimal Classification Including a Spanish Version of the Tables

The problem of this study is (1) to expand the 980 division (designated by the term History: South America, Latin America, Spanish America) of the Dewey Decimal Classification for the history of Latin America as a whole and for national histories of several typical countries, and (2) to translate the expanded tables into Spanish.
Date: 1944
Creator: Clarke, Virginia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Latin American Music: A Compendium of Bibliographical Aids for Teachers (open access)

Latin American Music: A Compendium of Bibliographical Aids for Teachers

In this bibliography an attempt has been made to furnish references to teachers that may assist them to develop in the students: (1) an attitude of friendly interest which will help to link the Americas in mutual respect and to promote a better understanding of problems to be met; (2) to gain an understanding and appreciation of the background of South American culture of today; (3) to become familiar with the folk music as well as the concert, both vocal and instrumental.
Date: May 1944
Creator: Kee, Lillian Sullivan, 1893-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reciprocal Trade Agreements and our Latin American Neighbors (open access)

Reciprocal Trade Agreements and our Latin American Neighbors

This investigation is a study of the principles and practices embodied in the Trade Agreements policy inaugurated by the United States in 1934 as it relates to Latin American trade.
Date: 1945
Creator: White, William Grady
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Economic Development in Latin America, Middle Eastern Europe and Asia in the 1990s (open access)

A Comparison of Economic Development in Latin America, Middle Eastern Europe and Asia in the 1990s

The 1990s were characterized by severe turbulence in the global economy. Economic and financial crises occurred in Latin America, Middle and Eastern Europe and Asia. This analysis distinguishes between the two socioeconomic criteria "transitional" and "emerging" region. Transitional countries are former centrally planned socialist economies and emerging countries former agricultural-oriented classical developing economies with mostly a history of military or some other kind of autocratic dictatorship. The resources for the analysis are data sets regarding investment, exchange rate behavior, government finance, international liabilities of monetary authorities and inflation. The study reveals macroeconomic patterns associated with economic development in each socioeconomic region. It is shown that similar patterns are responsible for successful and non-successful performance in each region. A comparison of different regions shows many parallels between emerging economies, but only little similarity between transitional economies.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Marktanner, Marcus
System: The UNT Digital Library
OPEC: A Sustained Cartel? (open access)

OPEC: A Sustained Cartel?

The problem with which this paper is concerned is that of examining some ideas and predictions of some American economists about the survival of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). This paper is divided into three parts; the first part includes the introduction, examines the importance of oil, and analyzes the history of the oil industry. This part is composed of Chapters I and II. Part two examines OPEC's formation and objectives and the cartel theory with concentration on OPEC. This part is composed of Chapters III and IV. Part three analyzes some economists' ideas regarding OPEC survival. It examines the economic and political realities of OPEC during the last two decades and discusses its present problems. This paper concludes that OPEC is a strong and sustained cartel.
Date: May 1984
Creator: Zaher, Ghazi
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of the Performance of the Radical and Conservative Models of Economic Development in the Carribean Basin (open access)

A Comparison of the Performance of the Radical and Conservative Models of Economic Development in the Carribean Basin

The present study is an attempt to compare the performance of two competing models of economic development-- the conservative and radical models. The conservative model is represented by the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; the radical model is represented by Cuba. The following chapters focus on a comparison of these models as they have manifested themselves in the Carribean basin. The analysis of the performance of the models is conducted by comparing socioeconomic variables of the countries representing the models. The study looks at the time period 1960 - 1980 which coincides with the adoption of the two models in the respective countries.
Date: December 1987
Creator: Alfaro, Alban Salazar
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of U.S. Arms Transfer Policies on Relations with Peru, 1945-1978 (open access)

The Impact of U.S. Arms Transfer Policies on Relations with Peru, 1945-1978

This paper examines United States arms transfer policies as they have been applied to Peru since the end of World War II and analyzes the role of these policies in achieving the goals of the United States as delineated by Luigi Einaudi et al. in their Arms Transfers to Latin America: Toward a Policy of Mutual Respect. The paper traces the course of recent U.S.-Peruvian relations, with special emphasis on Peru's arms acquisitions since 1968. The author concludes that, while U.S. arms transfer policies have undoubtedly strained U.S.-Peruvian relations over the past decade, the refusal of the U.S. to provide advanced weapons to Peru will prove to be in the best interests of the United States in the long run.
Date: August 1979
Creator: Davison, J. Les
System: The UNT Digital Library
Repression, Civic Engagement, Internet Use, and Dissident Collective Action: the Interaction Between Motives and Resources (open access)

Repression, Civic Engagement, Internet Use, and Dissident Collective Action: the Interaction Between Motives and Resources

This dissertation investigates three questions: First, what conditions make dissident collective action such as protest, revolt, rebellion, or civil war more likely to happen in a country? Second, what conditions make citizens more likely to join in dissident collective action? Third, does Internet use play a role in dissident collective action, and if so, why? I argue that motives and resources are necessary rather than sufficient conditions for dissident collective action. I develop an analytical framework integrating motives and resources. Specifically, I theorize that state repression is an important motive, and that civil society is critical in providing resources. Four statistical analyses are conducted to test the hypotheses. Using aggregate level data on countries over time, I find that civil war is more likely to occur in countries where both state repression and civil society are strong. Moreover, the effect of civil society on civil war onset increases as the repression level rises. at the individual level using 2008 Latin American Public Opinion Project surveys from 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries, I find individuals more likely to join in protest when they experience both more repression and greater civic engagement. Moreover, civic engagement’s effect on protest participation increases as …
Date: May 2012
Creator: Wu, Jun-deh
System: The UNT Digital Library
Louder and Stronger? The Role of Signaling and Receptivity in Democratic Breakdowns and Their Impact Upon Neighboring Regimes (open access)

Louder and Stronger? The Role of Signaling and Receptivity in Democratic Breakdowns and Their Impact Upon Neighboring Regimes

The purpose of this thesis is to establish what specific forces influence whether or not a democratic setback within one nation will diffuse to peripheral states. Past studies devoted to this topic have largely suggested that diffusion essentially functions like a contagious disease, where the likelihood of "infection" is primarily based upon the level of interaction between states. This thesis however proposes that the interaction of the signal generated from a democratic state's collapse and the receptiveness of neighboring nations to this signal ultimately determines when and where diffusion will occur. In order to test the validity of this thesis' claims, the level of democracy within the neighboring states of all failed democratic governments spanning the years 1842-2002 are examined during the first years following such system breakdowns within a large-N quantitative research design. Ultimately this study leads to the conclusion that the interaction of signals and receptivity play a major role in the diffusion of democratic setbacks.
Date: December 2008
Creator: Ludwig, Tommy
System: The UNT Digital Library