Testing the Performance of Fourteen Native Tropical Tree Species in Two Abandoned Pastures of the Lacandon Rainforest Region of Chiapas, Mexico

The rainforest of Mexico has been degraded and severely fragmented, and urgently require restoration. However, the practice of restoration has been limited by the lack of species-specific data on survival and growth responses to local environmental variation. This study explores the differential performance of 14 wet tropical early-, mid- or late-successional tree species that were grown in two abandoned pastures with contrasting land-use histories. After 18 months, seedling survival and growth of at least 7 of the 14 tree species studied were significantly higher in the site with a much longer history of land use (site 2). Saplings of the three early-successional species showed exceptional growth rates. However, differences in performance were noted in relation to the differential soil properties between the experimental sites. Mid-successional species generally showed slow growth rates but high seedling survival, whereas late-successional species exhibited poor seedling survival at both the study sites. Stepwise linear regressions revealed that the species integrated response index combining survivorship and growth measurements, was influenced mostly by differences in soil pH between the two abandoned pastures. Our results suggest that local environmental variation among abandoned pastures of contrasting land-use histories influences sapling survival and growth. Furthermore, the similarity of responses among species with the same successional status allowed us to make some preliminary site and species-specific silvicultural recommendations. Future field experiments should extend the number of species and the range of environmental conditions to identify site generalists or more narrowly adapted species, that we would call sensitive.

(Table 1) Redox potential and chemical element contents in CaCO3 and amorphous silica free matter in surface layer bottom sediments of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaiian Islands to Mexico coast

Distribution of Fe, Mn, P, Ti, Cu, Ni, Co, V, Cr, W, Mo, and As in the surface sediment layer on the section from the Hawaiian Islands to the coast of Mexico (Mexico section) is studied. Contents of all studied elements increase from biogenic-terrigenous sediments off the coast of Mexico to pelagic red clays of the Northeast Basin, and more sharply for mobile elements - Mn, Mo, Cu, Ni, Co, and As. In near Hawaii sediments rich in coarsely fragmented volcanic-terrigenous and pyroclastic material of basaltic composition with high contents of Ti, Fe, V, Cr, W, and P, contents of these elements increase sharply, and contents of Mn, Mo, Ni, Co, and Cu for the same reason decrease sharply in comparison with red clay. Abnormally high contents of Mn, Mo, Cu, Ni, Co, and As in the upper layer of hemipelagic and transition sediments of the Mexico section result from diagenetic redistribution and their accumulation on the surface. Processes of diagenetic redistribution in hemipelagic and transition sediment mass of the Mexico section are more rapid than in similar sediments of the Japan section due lower sedimentation rates and higher initial concentrations of Mn. Basic similarity of element distribution regularities in sediments of Japan and Mexico sections is shown.

Analysis of the upcoming Modernisation of the Trade Pillar of the European Union-Mexico Global Agreement

Study for the EU Parliament co-authored by Rodrigo Polanco: The 1997 Global Agreement between the EC and its Member States and Mexico, together with the set of decisions taken in its framework, has been effective, and thus modifications of the agreement are mainly motivated by changes in the global landscape since it was first enacted. Therefore, broad considerations on how the European Union (EU) trade policy is shaped are extremely relevant for the upcoming negotiations with Mexico. In this context, the needs and expectations, both from the EU and Mexico, regarding any further agreements are examined, focusing in particular on areas beyond trade in goods and services such as procurement, investment, and regulatory cooperation. It is argued that the 'old' Association Agreements should be taken as models for any modifications, given their emphasis on EU-specific issues and their ability to accommodate the needs of Mexico in any deepened agreement.

An investigative and interpretive study, with paintings, drawings and prints, of "All Saints' Day" and "All Souls" Day" in Mexico

"In Mexico, the first two days of November are set aside each year for the commemoration of the dead. This fete, called All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, is observed throughout the world; however, in Mexico, it is celebrated in a manner peculiar to that country and to the various localities within that country . This holiday is sanctioned by both government and church; and is celebrated by practically all Mexicans, whether they be Catholic, pagan, relilious or irreligious. These are the two days when that contrast which is the essence of Mexico becomes obvious: the "triste~alegria" (sad-happiness). During these days , art objects are abundant and arresting ; and religious ceremonies, rites and fiestas blossom forth! Urban and folk arts, in every field, find full expression at this time. The religious, social, political, and artistic manifestations of the holiday are not only stimulating in themselves, but are exciting as subjects for painting, drawings, prints, and any other form of artistic expression!"

The establishment of Maximilian's empire in Mexico.

Thesis (PH. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1912.

History of South America and Mexico; comprising their discovery, geography, politics, commerce and revolutions.

Earlier edition published anonymously under title: "A view of South America and Mexico ... By a citizen of the United States."

Physiological and medical observations among the Indians of southwestern United States and northern Mexico,

Microfilmed for preservation.

From empire to republic; the story of the struggle for constitutional government in Mexico, by Arthur Howard Noll.

Appendices: A. Chronological summary of principal events related to Mexican history.--B. Bibliography.--C. Notes on the historical geography of Mexico.

Fiscal decentralization and development: An analysis of city governments in Argentina and Mexico, 1980--2010

This dissertation examines local governments' efforts to promote economic development in Latin America. The research uses a mixed method to explore how cities make decisions to innovate, develop, and finance economic development programs. First, this study provides a comparative analysis of decentralization policies in Argentina and Mexico as a means to gain a better understanding of the degree of autonomy exercised by local governments. Then, it analyzes three local governments each within the province of Santa Fe, Argentina and the State of Guanajuato, Mexico. The principal hypothesis of this dissertation is that if local governments collect more own-source tax revenue, they are more likely to promote economic development and thus, in turn, promote growth for their region. ^ By examining six cities, three of which are in Santa Fe—Rosario, Santa Fe (capital) and Rafaela—and three in Guanajuato—Leon, Guanajuato (capital) and San Miguel de Allende, this dissertation provides a better understanding of public finances and tax collection efforts of local governments in Latin America. Specific attention is paid to each city's budget authority to raise new revenue and efforts to promote economic development. The research also includes a large statistical dataset of Mexico's 2,454 municipalities and a regression analysis that evaluates local tax efforts on economic growth, controlling for population, territorial size, and the professional development. In order to generalize these results, the research tests these discoveries by using statistical data gathered from a survey administered to Latin American municipal officials. ^ The dissertation demonstrates that cities, which experience greater fiscal autonomy measured by the collection of more own-source revenue, are better able to stimulate effective economic development programs, and ultimately, create jobs within their communities. The results are bolstered by a large number of interviews, which were conducted with over 100 finance specialists, municipal presidents, and local authorities. The dissertation also includes an in-depth literature review on fiscal federalism, decentralization, debt financing and local development. It concludes with a discussion of the findings of the study and applications for the practice of public administration.^

Developing a process to create and validate an instrument assessing student attainment of competencies at an intercultural university in Mexico

This study took place at one of the intercultural universities (IUs) of Mexico that serve primarily indigenous students. The IUs are pioneers in higher education despite their numerous challenges (Bertely, 1998; Dietz, 2008; Pineda & Landorf, 2010; Schmelkes, 2009). To overcome educational inequalities among their students (Ahuja, Berumen, Casillas, Crispín, Delgado et al., 2004; Schmelkes, 2009), the IUs have embraced performance-based assessment (PBA; Casillas & Santini, 2006). PBA allows a shared model of power and control related to learning and evaluation (Anderson, 1998). While conducting a review on PBA strategies of the IUs, the researcher did not find a PBA instrument with valid and reliable estimates. The purpose of this study was to develop a process to create a PBA instrument, an analytic general rubric, with acceptable validity and reliability estimates to assess students' attainment of competencies in one of the IU's majors, Intercultural Development Management. The Human Capabilities Approach (HCA) was the theoretical framework and a sequential mixed method (Creswell, 2003; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009) was the research design. IU participants created a rubric during two focus groups, and seven Spanish-speaking professors in Mexico and the US piloted using students' research projects. The evidence that demonstrates the attainment of competencies at the IU is a complex set of actual, potential and/or desired performances or achievements, also conceptualized as "functional capabilities" (FCs; Walker, 2008), that can be used to develop a rubric. Results indicate that the rubric's validity and reliability estimates reached acceptable estimates of 80% agreement, surpassing minimum requirements (Newman, Newman, & Newman, 2011). Implications for practice involve the use of PBA within a formative assessment framework, and dynamic inclusion of constituencies. Recommendations for further research include introducing this study's instrument-development process to other IUs, conducting parallel mixed design studies exploring the intersection between HCA and assessment, and conducting a case study exploring assessment in intercultural settings. Education articulated through the HCA empowers students (Unterhalter & Brighouse, 2007; Walker, 2008). This study aimed to contribute to the quality of student learning assessment at the IUs by providing a participatory process to develop a PBA instrument.

Investigative journalism in Mexico: between ideals and realities. The case of Morelia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of the investigative journalism in Mexico, especially the one that is practiced at the local level in the provinces. That is, this research is based upon a case study conducted in Morelia, the capital city of the state of Michoacán. The empirical evidence will show that there is an evident divergence regarding the practice of the investigative journalism: on the one hand, journalists are aware of what this concept involves and they consider that they practice it on a regular basis; but, on the other, the content analysis prove otherwise. In other words, the account of what is actually printed significantly differs from the news workers’ perceptions, because the former shows a poorly developed journalistic investigation practice.

Developing a Process to Create and Validate an Instrument Assessing Student Attainment of Competencies at an Intercultural University in Mexico

This study took place at one of the intercultural universities (IUs) of Mexico that serve primarily indigenous students. The IUs are pioneers in higher education despite their numerous challenges (Bertely, 1998; Dietz, 2008; Pineda & Landorf, 2010; Schmelkes, 2009). To overcome educational inequalities among their students (Ahuja, Berumen, Casillas, Crispín, Delgado et al., 2004; Schmelkes, 2009), the IUs have embraced performance-based assessment (PBA; Casillas & Santini, 2006). PBA allows a shared model of power and control related to learning and evaluation (Anderson, 1998). While conducting a review on PBA strategies of the IUs, the researcher did not find a PBA instrument with valid and reliable estimates. The purpose of this study was to develop a process to create a PBA instrument, an analytic general rubric, with acceptable validity and reliability estimates to assess students’ attainment of competencies in one of the IU’s majors, Intercultural Development Management. The Human Capabilities Approach (HCA) was the theoretical framework and a sequential mixed method (Creswell, 2003; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009) was the research design. IU participants created a rubric during two focus groups, and seven Spanish-speaking professors in Mexico and the US piloted using students’ research projects. The evidence that demonstrates the attainment of competencies at the IU is a complex set of actual, potential and/or desired performances or achievements, also conceptualized as “functional capabilities” (FCs; Walker, 2008), that can be used to develop a rubric. Results indicate that the rubric’s validity and reliability estimates reached acceptable estimates of 80% agreement, surpassing minimum requirements (Newman, Newman, & Newman, 2011). Implications for practice involve the use of PBA within a formative assessment framework, and dynamic inclusion of constituencies. Recommendations for further research include introducing this study’s instrument-development process to other IUs, conducting parallel mixed design studies exploring the intersection between HCA and assessment, and conducting a case study exploring assessment in intercultural settings. Education articulated through the HCA empowers students (Unterhalter & Brighouse, 2007; Walker, 2008). This study aimed to contribute to the quality of student learning assessment at the IUs by providing a participatory process to develop a PBA instrument.

Geological control of physiography in Southeast Queensland: A multi-scale analysis using GIS

The study reported here, constitutes a full review of the major geological events that have influenced the morphological development of the southeast Queensland region. Most importantly, it provides evidence that the region’s physiography continues to be geologically ‘active’ and although earthquakes are presently few and of low magnitude, many past events and tectonic regimes continue to be strongly influential over drainage, morphology and topography. Southeast Queensland is typified by highland terrain of metasedimentary and igneous rocks that are parallel and close to younger, lowland coastal terrain. The region is currently situated in a passive margin tectonic setting that is now under compressive stress, although in the past, the region was subject to alternating extensional and compressive regimes. As part of the investigation, the effects of many past geological events upon landscape morphology have been assessed at multiple scales using features such as the location and orientation of drainage channels, topography, faults, fractures, scarps, cleavage, volcanic centres and deposits, and recent earthquake activity. A number of hypotheses for local geological evolution are proposed and discussed. This study has also utilised a geographic information system (GIS) approach that successfully amalgamates the various types and scales of datasets used. A new method of stream ordination has been developed and is used to compare the orientation of channels of similar orders with rock fabric, in a topologically controlled approach that other ordering systems are unable to achieve. Stream pattern analysis has been performed and the results provide evidence that many drainage systems in southeast Queensland are controlled by known geological structures and by past geological events. The results conclude that drainage at a fine scale is controlled by cleavage, joints and faults, and at a broader scale, large river valleys, such as those of the Brisbane River and North Pine River, closely follow the location of faults. These rivers appear to have become entrenched by differential weathering along these planes of weakness. Significantly, stream pattern analysis has also identified some ‘anomalous’ drainage that suggests the orientations of these watercourses are geologically controlled, but by unknown causes. To the north of Brisbane, a ‘coastal drainage divide’ has been recognized and is described here. The divide crosses several lithological units of different age, continues parallel to the coast and prevents drainage from the highlands flowing directly to the coast for its entire length. Diversion of low order streams away from the divide may be evidence that a more recent process may be the driving force. Although there is no conclusive evidence for this at present, it is postulated that the divide may have been generated by uplift or doming associated with mid-Cenozoic volcanism or a blind thrust at depth. Also north of Brisbane, on the D’Aguilar Range, an elevated valley (the ‘Kilcoy Gap’) has been identified that may have once drained towards the coast and now displays reversed drainage that may have resulted from uplift along the coastal drainage divide and of the D’Aguilar blocks. An assessment of the distribution and intensity of recent earthquakes in the region indicates that activity may be associated with ancient faults. However, recent movement on these faults during these events would have been unlikely, given that earthquakes in the region are characteristically of low magnitude. There is, however, evidence that compressive stress is building and being released periodically and ancient faults may be a likely place for this stress to be released. The relationship between ancient fault systems and the Tweed Shield Volcano has also been discussed and it is suggested here that the volcanic activity was associated with renewed faulting on the Great Moreton Fault System during the Cenozoic. The geomorphology and drainage patterns of southeast Queensland have been compared with expected morphological characteristics found at passive and other tectonic settings, both in Australia and globally. Of note are the comparisons with the East Brazilian Highlands, the Gulf of Mexico and the Blue Ridge Escarpment, for example. In conclusion, the results of the study clearly show that, although the region is described as a passive margin, its complex, past geological history and present compressive stress regime provide a more intricate and varied landscape than would be expected along typical passive continental margins. The literature review provides background to the subject and discusses previous work and methods, whilst the findings are presented in three peer-reviewed, published papers. The methods, hypotheses, suggestions and evidence are discussed at length in the final chapter.

New insights into Crustal Contributions to Large-volume Rhyolite Generation in the Mid-Tertiary Sierra Madre Occidental Province, Mexico, revealed by U Pb Geochronology

Voluminous (≥3·9 × 105 km3), prolonged (∼18 Myr) explosive silicic volcanism makes the mid-Tertiary Sierra Madre Occidental province of Mexico one of the largest intact silicic volcanic provinces known. Previous models have proposed an assimilation–fractional crystallization origin for the rhyolites involving closed-system fractional crystallization from crustally contaminated andesitic parental magmas, with <20% crustal contributions. The lack of isotopic variation among the lower crustal xenoliths inferred to represent the crustal contaminants and coeval Sierra Madre Occidental rhyolite and basaltic andesite to andesite volcanic rocks has constrained interpretations for larger crustal contributions. Here, we use zircon age populations as probes to assess crustal involvement in Sierra Madre Occidental silicic magmatism. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry analyses of zircons from rhyolitic ignimbrites from the northeastern and southwestern sectors of the province yield U–Pb ages that show significant age discrepancies of 1–4 Myr compared with previously determined K/Ar and 40Ar/39Ar ages from the same ignimbrites; the age differences are greater than the errors attributable to analytical uncertainty. Zircon xenocrysts with new overgrowths in the Late Eocene to earliest Oligocene rhyolite ignimbrites from the northeastern sector provide direct evidence for some involvement of Proterozoic crustal materials, and, potentially more importantly, the derivation of zircon from Mesozoic and Eocene age, isotopically primitive, subduction-related igneous basement. The youngest rhyolitic ignimbrites from the southwestern sector show even stronger evidence for inheritance in the age spectra, but lack old inherited zircon (i.e. Eocene or older). Instead, these Early Miocene ignimbrites are dominated by antecrystic zircons, representing >33 to ∼100% of the dated population; most antecrysts range in age between ∼20 and 32 Ma. A sub-population of the antecrystic zircons is chemically distinct in terms of their high U (>1000 ppm to 1·3 wt %) and heavy REE contents; these are not present in the Oligocene ignimbrites in the northeastern sector of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The combination of antecryst zircon U–Pb ages and chemistry suggests that much of the zircon in the youngest rhyolites was derived by remelting of partially molten to solidified igneous rocks formed during preceding phases of Sierra Madre Occidental volcanism. Strong Zr undersaturation, and estimations for very rapid dissolution rates of entrained zircons, preclude coeval mafic magmas being parental to the rhyolite magmas by a process of lower crustal assimilation followed by closed-system crystal fractionation as interpreted in previous studies of the Sierra Madre Occidental rhyolites. Mafic magmas were more probably important in providing a long-lived heat and material flux into the crust, resulting in the remelting and recycling of older crust and newly formed igneous materials related to Sierra Madre Occidental magmatism.

Decriminalization of Health and Safety at Work in Australia

ABOUT THE BOOK As the title Safety or Profit? suggests, health and safety at work needs to be understood in the context of the wider political economy. This book brings together contributions informed by this view from internationally recognized scholars. It reviews the governance of health and safety at work, with special reference to Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three main aspects are discussed. The restructuring of the labor market: this is considered with respect to precarious work and to gender issues and their implications for the health and safety of workers. The neoliberal agenda: this is examined with respect to the diminished power of organized labor, decriminalization, and new governance theory, including an examination of how well the health-and-safety-at-work regimes put in place in many industrial societies about forty years ago have fared and how distinctive the recent emphasis on self-regulation in several countries really is. The role of evidence: there is a dearth of evidence-based policy. The book examines how policy on health and safety at work is formulated at both company and state levels. Cases considered include the scant regard paid to evidence by an official inquiry into future strategy in Canada; the lack of evidence-based policy and the reluctance to observe the precautionary principle with respect to work-related cancer in the United Kingdom; and the failure to learn from past mistakes in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Intended Audience: Researchers; policymakers, trade union representatives, and officials interested in OHS; postgraduate students of OHS; OHS professionals; regulatory and socio-legal scholars.