In Mexico, corn (Zea mays L.) is the most important crop (59% of its agriculture land) and the primary source of sediment yield. This study looks for alternatives to maintain corn productivity by means of sustainable soil and water conservation practices at central Mexico. In order to understand broad tendencies between soil erosion and crop productivity in the region, the EPIC (Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator) model was applied in the Texcoco's district as follows:1) Calibrate the model using 352 experimental corn plots established between 1972 and 1992 in 36 rural communities.2) Validate the model on a spatial basis, using GIS tools, by means of historic corn yields.3) Identify the most vulnerable areas where corn productivity is being affected by soil erosion.4) Analyze the relationship between soil erosion and crop productivity, over a 100 years of simulation, comparing the Current Management (CM) and the Recommended Management (RM) by governmental institutions.5) Evaluate the most feasible soil and water conservation practices for the region.From the calibration process, it was concluded that the EPIC model, under a wide range of environmental conditions, simulates very good corn yield (r2 between 0.88 and 0.90), annual runoff (r2=0.98), and annual sediment production (r2=0.96).Base on the official environmental inputs available in the region, the EPIC model can assess only a moderately strong relationship (r2=0.58) between the official historical crop records and the simulated ones.Comparison between CM and RM shows that the average crop yield in the region can be increased by 32.6% if RM were followed. Under the CM, the loss of soil fertility in the district reduces corn productivity by 3% over a hundred years. At least 50.0% of the region's agricultural area needs soil conservation practices, mainly on areas with slopes over 5%. If it is decided to grow corn under conventional till in such areas it is recommended to construct bench terraces in order to maintain soil erosion below 20 t/ha/yr. Corn under no till, besides control erosion, can also increase grain productivity by at least 40% (0.6 t/ha) by combining contouring, mulching, and manures.

Esta tese investiga a obra do autor português Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010), texto que encarna uma dupla possibilidade de leitura: a de uma narrativa versificada, (anti)épica; e, a de um conjunto de pequenos poemas líricos organizados pelo instrumento visual contido no final do livro. Tavares subverte a forma épica em um movimento que, ao mesmo tempo em que recorre ao modelo épico na origem da literatura, também nos remete a uma temporalidade pósmoderna, pós-figurativa e pós-representativa, num arranjo estético e temático bastante contemporâneo. A temática extraída deste corpus de investigação é a possibilidade de sobrevivência do modelo épico na literatura de viagem contemporânea. Tavares, ao estabelecer profunda intertextualidade com Os Lusíadas, joga com a forma híbrida e inacabada do romance, convertendo-o num longo poema narrativo, mas também numa lírica breve e numa extensa profusão aforística, mapeados ao final da obra por meio de uma interessante invenção paratática. Este instrumento visual “ilumina” a feitura textual épica fragmentada em lírica, garantindo a sua “sobrevivência”, conceito tomado de Georges Didi-Huberman em sua obra Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Tal subversão, ocorrida no interior da épica, forma poética seminal e grandiloquente – portanto, uma forma poética “maior” –, imputa-lhe um índice subversivo que a “minoriza”, isto é, torna-a uma “poética menor” no contemporâneo, movimento este semelhante ao teorizado por Deleuze & Guattari em Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975). / This thesis investigates the work of the Portuguese author Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010). This text embodies a double possibility of reading: that of a (anti)epic versified narrative; and that of a set of small lyric poems organized by the visual instrument presented at the end of the book. Tavares subverts the epic form in a movement that, while appealing to the epic model in the origin of literature, also refers to a postmodern, postfigurative and post-representative temporality, in a very contemporary aesthetic and thematic arrangement. The thematic extracted from this corpus of investigation is the possibility of survival of the epic model in the contemporary travel literature. Tavares, by establishing deep intertextuality with Os Lusíadas, plays with the hybrid and unfinished form of the novel, making it in a long narrative poem, but also in a brief lyric and an extensive aphoristic profusion, charted at the end of the work through an interesting paratactic invention. This visual tool "illuminates" the fragmented epic textual making in lyric, ensuring its "survival", concept taken from Georges Didi-Huberman in his work Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Such subversion, occurring within the Epic, a seminal and grandiloquent poetic form - therefore a "major" poetic form - impute to it a subversive index that "minorizes" it, that is, makes it a "minor poetic" in the contemporary. This movement is similar to the theorized by Deleuze & Guattari in Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975).

Esta tese investiga a obra do autor português Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010), texto que encarna uma dupla possibilidade de leitura: a de uma narrativa versificada, (anti)épica; e, a de um conjunto de pequenos poemas líricos organizados pelo instrumento visual contido no final do livro. Tavares subverte a forma épica em um movimento que, ao mesmo tempo em que recorre ao modelo épico na origem da literatura, também nos remete a uma temporalidade pósmoderna, pós-figurativa e pós-representativa, num arranjo estético e temático bastante contemporâneo. A temática extraída deste corpus de investigação é a possibilidade de sobrevivência do modelo épico na literatura de viagem contemporânea. Tavares, ao estabelecer profunda intertextualidade com Os Lusíadas, joga com a forma híbrida e inacabada do romance, convertendo-o num longo poema narrativo, mas também numa lírica breve e numa extensa profusão aforística, mapeados ao final da obra por meio de uma interessante invenção paratática. Este instrumento visual “ilumina” a feitura textual épica fragmentada em lírica, garantindo a sua “sobrevivência”, conceito tomado de Georges Didi-Huberman em sua obra Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Tal subversão, ocorrida no interior da épica, forma poética seminal e grandiloquente – portanto, uma forma poética “maior” –, imputa-lhe um índice subversivo que a “minoriza”, isto é, torna-a uma “poética menor” no contemporâneo, movimento este semelhante ao teorizado por Deleuze & Guattari em Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975). / This thesis investigates the work of the Portuguese author Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010). This text embodies a double possibility of reading: that of a (anti)epic versified narrative; and that of a set of small lyric poems organized by the visual instrument presented at the end of the book. Tavares subverts the epic form in a movement that, while appealing to the epic model in the origin of literature, also refers to a postmodern, postfigurative and post-representative temporality, in a very contemporary aesthetic and thematic arrangement. The thematic extracted from this corpus of investigation is the possibility of survival of the epic model in the contemporary travel literature. Tavares, by establishing deep intertextuality with Os Lusíadas, plays with the hybrid and unfinished form of the novel, making it in a long narrative poem, but also in a brief lyric and an extensive aphoristic profusion, charted at the end of the work through an interesting paratactic invention. This visual tool "illuminates" the fragmented epic textual making in lyric, ensuring its "survival", concept taken from Georges Didi-Huberman in his work Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Such subversion, occurring within the Epic, a seminal and grandiloquent poetic form - therefore a "major" poetic form - impute to it a subversive index that "minorizes" it, that is, makes it a "minor poetic" in the contemporary. This movement is similar to the theorized by Deleuze & Guattari in Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975).

Esta tese investiga a obra do autor português Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010), texto que encarna uma dupla possibilidade de leitura: a de uma narrativa versificada, (anti)épica; e, a de um conjunto de pequenos poemas líricos organizados pelo instrumento visual contido no final do livro. Tavares subverte a forma épica em um movimento que, ao mesmo tempo em que recorre ao modelo épico na origem da literatura, também nos remete a uma temporalidade pósmoderna, pós-figurativa e pós-representativa, num arranjo estético e temático bastante contemporâneo. A temática extraída deste corpus de investigação é a possibilidade de sobrevivência do modelo épico na literatura de viagem contemporânea. Tavares, ao estabelecer profunda intertextualidade com Os Lusíadas, joga com a forma híbrida e inacabada do romance, convertendo-o num longo poema narrativo, mas também numa lírica breve e numa extensa profusão aforística, mapeados ao final da obra por meio de uma interessante invenção paratática. Este instrumento visual “ilumina” a feitura textual épica fragmentada em lírica, garantindo a sua “sobrevivência”, conceito tomado de Georges Didi-Huberman em sua obra Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Tal subversão, ocorrida no interior da épica, forma poética seminal e grandiloquente – portanto, uma forma poética “maior” –, imputa-lhe um índice subversivo que a “minoriza”, isto é, torna-a uma “poética menor” no contemporâneo, movimento este semelhante ao teorizado por Deleuze & Guattari em Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975). / This thesis investigates the work of the Portuguese author Gonçalo M. Tavares, Uma Viagem à Índia (2010). This text embodies a double possibility of reading: that of a (anti)epic versified narrative; and that of a set of small lyric poems organized by the visual instrument presented at the end of the book. Tavares subverts the epic form in a movement that, while appealing to the epic model in the origin of literature, also refers to a postmodern, postfigurative and post-representative temporality, in a very contemporary aesthetic and thematic arrangement. The thematic extracted from this corpus of investigation is the possibility of survival of the epic model in the contemporary travel literature. Tavares, by establishing deep intertextuality with Os Lusíadas, plays with the hybrid and unfinished form of the novel, making it in a long narrative poem, but also in a brief lyric and an extensive aphoristic profusion, charted at the end of the work through an interesting paratactic invention. This visual tool "illuminates" the fragmented epic textual making in lyric, ensuring its "survival", concept taken from Georges Didi-Huberman in his work Sobrevivência dos vaga-lumes (2011). Such subversion, occurring within the Epic, a seminal and grandiloquent poetic form - therefore a "major" poetic form - impute to it a subversive index that "minorizes" it, that is, makes it a "minor poetic" in the contemporary. This movement is similar to the theorized by Deleuze & Guattari in Kafka por uma literatura menor (1975).

The purposes of this study were: 1) to determine the measurement dimensions assayed by the EPIC Self-Assessment Scales; 2) to provide information necessary to'determine whether revision of the EPIC Self-Assessment Scales would be desirable, and if so, what items need revision or deletion to obtain optimum dimensional structure; and 3) to provide information relevant to possible further research using the EPIC Self-Assessment Scales. On the basis of the results, four dominant and two subsidiary factors were concluded to be the measurement dimensions assayed by the EPIC Scales. Those were identified as Self-Assurance, Physical Appearance/Physical Shape, Emotional Lability, and Verbal Competence; subsidiary factors were Social/Interpersonal Attitude and Social Behavior/Sociability. It was also concluded that revision of the Scales be undertaken, deleting the 29 bipolar scale items which did not exhibit loadings of .500 or higher on any of the six factors. It was recommended that the revised Scales include additional bipolar scale items taken from the semantic differential literature, and that the instructions to subjects be revised. Further research to establish the reliability and validity of the revised instrument was also recommended.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of the evaluation of the effectiveness of the EPIC model as a guide to group counseling. The purposes of this study are to determine (1) whether group counseling using the EPIC model would result in positive gain in counsele's locus of control, (2) whether there would be a differential effect of group counseling using the EPIC model as compared with a traditional group counseling model or a control group. This report concludes that the EPIC model as a guide to group counseling is an effective means of increasing reliance on inner support, emotional stability and objectivity. The EPIC model also produces changes in assessed congruence of the various factors in the actual vs. ideal aspect of inter-intrapersonal functioning. The EPIC model facilitated the growth of internal locus of control.