Ficción de Racionalidad: La memoria como operador mítico en las estéticas polares de Jorge Luis Borges y José Lezama Lima

The aesthetic placement and period designation of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) are complicated issues among critics. Borges is obviously considered a predecessor of the Latin American literary “boom,” but despite that taxonomy his work transcends that definition and provides a foundation for new trends and styles, such as the “neobarroco” cultivated by Severo Sarduy. Lezama is considered part of the second wave of the “boom,” but his work feeds, stylistically, from the Spanish baroque. At the same time, Lezama’s daring treatment of homoeroticism and his revolutionary system of images place him after the “boom” in a narrative style that is postmodern. This study undertakes a thorough revision of external and internal issues, revealing the key linguistic and fictive elements that characterize both writers. Through discourse analysis and close reading, a poetic system is formulated, which incorporate features of the “neobarroco,” “boom” and postmodern narrative styles. This dissertation uses a polar structure to analyze both poetic visions and concludes that they are compatible and symmetrical. From this perspective, Borges and Lezama belong to the “core” of literature that centers its emphasis in the creation of a system versus other modes of writing in which mimetic function prevails. By doing this and by recycling world culture, they create postmodern myth: the new building material for Hispanic American literature. There are only a few studies that explore the works of Borges and Lezama within the context of Baroque aesthetics. For the first time, this dissertation offers a comprehensive analysis that considers their poetic visions at large. Besides the difference in perspective, defined as macro-spatial in Borges and micro-spatial in Lezama, there are many similarities in content and form. Both writers question the cause and effect relationship and the modern use of metaphor. They also share a redefinition of genre as well as a hedonistic approach to literature and culture. This kinship in poetic vision is revealed through the polar method used for this study, which proposes a new form of aesthetic placement and period designation.

Diabetes Self-management Behaviors, Medical Care, Glycemic Control, and Self-rated Health in US Men by Race/Ethnicity

Men, particularly minorities, have higher rates of diabetes as compared with their counterparts. Ongoing diabetes self-management education and support by specialists are essential components to prevent the risk of complications such as kidney disease, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological impairments. Diabetes self-management behaviors, in particular, as diet and physical activity, have been associated with glycemic control in the literature. Recommended medical care for diabetes may differ by race/ethnicity. This study examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 2007 to 2010 for men with diabetes (N = 646) from four racial/ethnic groups: Mexican Americans, other Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites. Men with adequate dietary fiber intake had higher odds of glycemic control (odds ratio = 4.31, confidence interval [1.82, 10.20]), independent of race/ethnicity. There were racial/ethnic differences in reporting seeing a diabetes specialist. Non-Hispanic Blacks had the highest odds of reporting ever seeing a diabetes specialist (84.9%) followed by White non-Hispanics (74.7%), whereas Hispanics reported the lowest proportions (55.2% Mexican Americans and 62.1% other Hispanics). Men seeing a diabetes specialist had the lowest odds of glycemic control (odds ratio = 0.54, confidence interval [0.30, 0.96]). The results of this study suggest that diabetes education counseling may be selectively given to patients who are not in glycemic control. These findings indicate the need for examining referral systems and quality of diabetes care. Future studies should assess the effectiveness of patient-centered medical care provided by a diabetes specialist with consideration of sociodemographics, in particular, race/ethnicity and gender.

Diet Self-efficacy and Physical Self-concept of College Students at Risk for Eating Disorders

Background: Both eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction affect a high proportion of college students. Self-esteem and self-efficacy may be protective factors for eating disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate diet self-efficacy, the confidence to maintain or lose weight, and its association with physical selfconcept using data from an online survey of health literacy, body image, and eating disorders. Study Population and Methods: This cross-sectional study collected online survey data from college students within the United States. The inclusion criteria allowed for 1612 college students, ages 17-35 years (597 males, 1015 females) belonging to the following racial/ethnic categories: Black (187); White, non-Hispanic (244), Hispanic (1035), and other (146). Specifically, the study aimed to examine (a) whether and to what degree diet self-efficacy and physical self-concept were associated with risk of eating disorders; (b) the interaction of gender by ethnicity on diet self-efficacy, physical self-concept and risk of eating disorders; and, (c) the relationship of diet self-efficacy with physical self-description and body mass index (BMI) in college students. Results:Low diet self-efficacy was associated with a lower score on physical self-concept (B = −0.52 [−0.90, −0.15], P = 0.007). Males had a higher physical self-concept as compared to females (B = 14.0 [8.2, 19.8], P Conclusion: College students in this study who had a poor body image were less confident with diet control. Poorer body image and low diet selfefficacy were associated with higher BMI. These findings suggest lifestyle management interventions may be of value to improve physical self-concept and lower risk of eating disorders for college students.

A model of self-transformative identity development in troubled adolescent youth

Within the Stage II program evaluation of the Miami Youth Development Project's (YDP) Changing Lives Program (CLP), this study evaluated CLP intervention effectiveness in promoting positive change in emotion-focused identity exploration (i.e. feelings of personal expressiveness; PE) and a "negative" symptom of identity development (i.e. identity distress; ID) as a first step toward the investigation of a self-transformative model of identity development in adolescent youth. Using structural equation modeling techniques, this study found that participation in the CLP is associated with positive changes in PE (path = .841, p < .002), but not changes in ID. Increase in ID scores was found to be associated with increases in PE (path = .229, p < .002), as well. Intervention effects were not moderated by age/stage, gender, or ethnicity, though differences were found in the degree to which participating subgroups (African- American/Hispanic, male/female, 14-16 years old/17-19 years old) experience change in PE and ID. Findings also suggest that moderate levels of ID may not be deleterious to identity exploration and may be associated with active exploration.

Revisiting the Cuban-American Vote: A Symposium

Symposium of scholars, pollsters and elected officials to discuss the changes and continuities in Cuban-American voting patterns. Participants include: Dr. Astrid Arraras, Department of Politics & International Relations, FlU Dr. Danielle Pilar Clealand, Department of Politics & International Relations, FlU Dr. Rodolfo de Ia Garza, Department of Political Science, Columbia University Dr. Susan Eckstein, Department of Sociology, Boston University Dr. Eduardo Gamarra, Department of Politics & International Relations, FlU Dr. Lisa Garcia Bedolla, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley Dr. Guillermo J. Grenier, Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies, FlU Dr. Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew Hispanic Center Dr. Daria Moreno, Department of Politics & International Relations, FlU

The attribution of motives to organizational citizenship behaviors : the influence of personality, gender and ethnicity

A major area of research in the realm of Industrial/Organizational Psychology is the exploration of specific job performance behaviors such as organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). However, there is a dearth of research examining how peers react to OCBs and the performers of such behaviors. Bolino noted that determining how people attribute motives to these OCBs is an important yet unanswered question in industrial/organizational psychology. The present study attempted to provide insight on what observer (or rater) traits affect the motives attributed to organizational citizenship behaviors. In particular, the effects of personality traits such as the Big Five personality factors, self-monitoring, individualism-collectivism, negative affectivity and identity factors such as cultural mistrust, ethnic orientation, and perceived similarity were examined. A within-subjects survey design was used to collect data on six hypothetical organizational citizenship behaviors from a sample of 369 participants. The gender and ethnicity of the individuals performing the hypothetical organizational citizenship behaviors were manipulated (i.e., male or female; African-American, Hispanic, or White). Results indicated that both similarity (t(368)=5.13; p .01) and personality factors (R2 =.06 for genuine motives and R2 = .05 for self-serving motives) had an effect on which motive (genuine or self-serving) was attributed to organizational citizenship behaviors. Support was found for an interaction between similarity and the observer's personality trait of conscientiousness when attributing genuine motives to organizational citizenship behaviors. Finally, specific organizational citizenship behaviors such as altruism were linked to genuine motives while OCBs like conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue were associated with self-serving motives.

Children's learning of anxiety sensitivity : a preliminary study using a sample of youths referred for anxiety disorders

The purpose of the present study was to examine the origins of anxiety sensitivity (AS) by assessing youths' learning experiences in relation to their AS symptoms and anxiety symptoms. Participants were 33 youths between 7 to 13 years old (M = 9.39 years, SD = 2.01). Youths were assessed using a structured interview and self-report measures. Chi-square analyses revealed no statistically significant differences in the proportions of boys vs. girls, Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic, and married vs. non-married. Pearson correlation analyses revealed that youths' AS learning experiences were significantly related to youths' AS and to youths' anxiety symptoms scores. Partial correlations between youths' learning experiences associated with AS symptoms in relation to AS scores controlling for anxiety symptoms effects were statistically significant. Findings were consistent with theory and suggest that learning mechanisms may be involved in AS acquisition and maintenance. The findings' implications are discussed regarding possible learning experiences' role in the development of AS.

Elementary music and classroom teachers' time-use: a comparison by grade level, time of day, and day of the week

This study investigated time-use of elementary music teachers and elementary classroom teachers to determine: (1) whether there was a relationship between grade level, time of day, and day of the week and teachers' time-use in teaching, monitoring, and non-curricular, and (2) whether ethnicity, training, and years of experience affect teacher time-use. Sixty-nine music teachers and 55 classroom teachers participated. A MANOVA was used to examine the hypothesized relationship. ANOVA results were significant for time spent teaching, monitoring, and non-curricular. An independent t test revealed a significance difference (t (302) = 5.20, p Analyses of the activities subsumed under the major categories indicated significant differences between elementary music teachers and elementary classroom teachers, overall, in subject matter ( p teachers was higher than time-use for those who were Hispanic and white non-Hispanic. Analyses of time-use by grade showed no increase for either group as grade level increased. A statistically significant Wilks Lambda ( F (1,294) = .917 p < .013 ) was found for the independent variable day of the week. ANOVA indicated that elementary classroom teachers monitored more on Thursdays and Fridays: music teachers allocated more time to non-curricular activities on Fridays.

Effects of academic integration on the persistence and achievement of under-prepared college students

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effect of academic integration, defined in terms of instructor/student contact, on the persistence of under-prepared college students and the achievement of those who persist. The overall design of this study compared instructor-initiated contact with conventional contact. The dependent variables were persistence, achievement, motivation and anxiety. Information was collected by administering the College-Level Mathematics Test (CLM), the Perceived Affective Contact Questionnaire (PAC), the expectancy and anxiety components of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a departmental final examination, and by accessing university records. The sample consisted of 130 college algebra students at a large, public university with a Hispanic majority. The main analyses consisted of a 2x2x2 ANOVA (treatment by ethnicity by gender) to test for differences in achievement, t-tests to compare motivation, anxiety and perceived affective contact scores for the two groups, Chi-square tests to assess differences in persistence, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation to determine the relationship between pretest scores and achievement variables. Results indicated that neither instructor-initiated contact, gender nor ethnicity is related to persistence, motivation or anxiety. A significant disordinal interaction of treatment and ethnicity was observed, with Hispanic experimental students scoring significantly higher on a test of algebra achievement than Hispanic control students. Academic integration, defined in terms of instructor/student contact, has a positive influence on the achievement of Hispanic students. This may imply their positive responsiveness to the relational aspect of contact due to traditional cultural values of interdependence, acquiescence to authority and physical closeness. Such interactive feedback is a means by which students with these values are recognized as members of the university academic community, prompting increased academic effort. Training in contact initiation to promote academic integration is implied, by the results of this study, for instructors dealing with first year students, especially instructors at institutions accommodating instructional methods to the needs of diverse groups.

Retention and special education referral practices before and after the implementation of high-stakes testing

The rewards and sanctions associated with high-stakes testing may induce educators to participate in practices that will ensure the elimination of the scores of low-achieving students from the testing pool. Two ways in which scores may be eliminated is through retention or referral to special education. This study examined the use of these practices at 179 elementary schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the 4th largest school district in the country. Between- and within-subjects designs were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance to compare retention and referral to special education practices over a five-year period of time, two years prior to and two years after the implementation of Florida's high-stakes test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, FCAT. Significant main effects for referral and retention over time were demonstrated. The use of retention steadily increased over the first three years, with its usage maintained during the fourth year. While the use of referral actually decreased from the first to second years, a significant change occurred after the implementation of the FCAT. Examination of the use of these practices according to student and school characteristics revealed significant differences. Increases in the use of referral across time was significant for Black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic students, all limited English proficiency population categories, medium and low socioeconomic status category schools, all grade levels, and for schools with accountability grades of A, C, D and F with the most striking absolute increase occurring for F schools. Increases in the use of retention across time were significant for all ethnic groups, limited English proficiency categories, and socioeconomic status categories, for grades kindergarten through four and by gender. Significant increases occurred for schools with accountability performance grades of C, D and F; however the most dramatic increase occurred for the F schools. A direct relationship between performance category grade of school and their use of retention was demonstrated. The results suggest that schools changed their use of referral and retention in response to the implementation of the FCAT.

Dar a ver Sertão e Sevilha: matizes hispânicas na poética de João Cabral de Melo Neto

Dar a ver Sertão e Sevilha: matizes hispânicas na poética cabralina is a study on the lyric reading possibilities of Cabralian poetry, from the work of the poet from Pernambuco, that shows the intercultural dialogue and the Spanish poetical approach absorbed by João Cabral de Melo Neto during his Andalusian experience. Hispanic interfaces incorporated by the Cabralian poetry through literature or through the direct contact with the culture are registered on the 133 poems that have Spain as theme, in which we can see the matrix of Hispanic tradition, rich in its diversity, was the preponderant element for the poet João Cabral to discover the core of his lyric backwards. From Hispanic corpus, it will be explored the aesthetical assimilation of Spanish poetry in the work of João Cabral de Melo Neto, with the objective of demystifying the issues of lyrical dullness and anti musicality on Cabralian poetics in which, from the appropriation of Hispanic elements investigated as a signal of lyrics and musicality, originates a reading unattached from the constructivist signal, tessitura evidenced by the critic Antonio Candido since the origin of JCMN poetry with the poem Pedra do sono (1942). The mentioned aesthetics was adopted later on by the literary critics that named it as “brain poetry” for its hermetical configuration, tessitura of rigor, concreteness of language and stiff metrics. The results obtained from this study aim to induce a reading that favors the lyrical acoustic of the Cabralian poetry in the effort to ease the aspects of the arid construction.

Introduction des sonorités du Mexique préhispanique dans l'orchestration moderne

Les compositions musicales de l’étudiante qui accompagne cette thèse sous la forme d’un disque audio est disponible au comptoir de la Bibliothèque de musique sous le titre : Cristina García Islas (https://umontreal.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1135201695)

Essays on the Dynamic Decisions of Homeowners and Retailers

Urban problems have several features that make them inherently dynamic. Large transaction costs all but guarantee that homeowners will do their best to consider how a neighborhood might change before buying a house. Similarly, stores face large sunk costs when opening, and want to be sure that their investment will pay off in the long run. In line with those concerns, different areas of Economics have made recent advances in modeling those questions within a dynamic framework. This dissertation contributes to those efforts.

Chapter 2 discusses how to model an agent’s location decision when the agent must learn about an exogenous amenity that may be changing over time. The model is applied to estimating the marginal willingness to pay to avoid crime, in which agents are learning about the crime rate in a neighborhood, and the crime rate can change in predictable (Markovian) ways.

Chapters 3 and 4 concentrate on location decision problems when there are externalities between decision makers. Chapter 3 focuses on the decision of business owners to open a store, when its demand is a function of other nearby stores, either through competition, or through spillovers on foot traffic. It uses a dynamic model in continuous time to model agents’ decisions. A particular challenge is isolating the contribution of spillovers from the contribution of other unobserved neighborhood attributes that could also lead to agglomeration. A key contribution of this chapter is showing how we can use information on storefront ownership to help separately identify spillovers.

Finally, chapter 4 focuses on a class of models in which families prefer to live

close to similar neighbors. This chapter provides the first simulation of such a model in which agents are forward looking, and shows that this leads to more segregation than it would have been observed with myopic agents, which is the standard in this literature. The chapter also discusses several extensions of the model that can be used to investigate relevant questions such as the arrival of a large contingent high skilled tech workers in San Francisco, the immigration of hispanic families to several southern American cities, large changes in local amenities, such as the construction of magnet schools or metro stations, and the flight of wealthy residents from cities in the Rust belt, such as Detroit.

Understanding Suicidal Behavior Among Latin Adolescent Girls Living in the United States

Suicide in adolescents between the age of 10 and 24 years old is the second cause of death in the United States. This rate differentiates by ethnic and racial groups within the same country; Latino/Hispanic adolescent girls have the highest rate of suicide behavior. Considering that Latino/Hispanic is the fastest growing minority group in the nation, with an expected population of 30% by 2060, this issue should be a public health priority. This paper answers the following question: what are the conditions operating among Latin adolescent girls living in the United States that cause significantly higher suicidal behavior rates in the U.S. and compared with their peers in Latin American countries? And, how adequate are treatments such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and prevention programs in tackling the specific risk factors affecting this population? The paper is divided into five chapters; the first four are based on a comprehensive literature review of statistics of suicide, risk and protective factors, treatment, and prevention programs. The last chapter offers an analysis of the sociological phenomenon of suicidal behavior in this population and three brief narratives of attempters and non-attempters. Studies show that subjective distress, familism and immigration issues are the key risk factors of suicidal behavior in Latina adolescent girls. Understanding the risk factors is key in order to design promotion and prevention programs that are culturally relevant and that can have a positive impact in the reduction of this alarming phenomenon.