acase@tulane.edu

The conquest and colonization of Mexico was a catastrophic event for the Nahua; it profoundly disrupted family, community, society, and worldview. The Spanish instituted social, political, and religious changes that filtered into every aspect of daily life. Despite these sweeping changes, the Nahua were a literate society and those who were educated continued to document traditional history and traditional customs either at the request of Spaniards or for their own use. For the anthropologist and ethnohistorian, these manuscripts are the best resources available to study both Prehispanic and Colonial Nahua culture. These manuscripts are not without their drawbacks, however, when used to reconstruct Prehispanic beliefs and practices. What they do allow scholars to study is the process of culture change. This study focuses on manuscripts that treat the traditional Central Mexican calendar. Taken as a group these pictorial and prose manuscripts allow us to examine closely the ways in which particular aspects of the traditional calendar are influenced, adapted, changed, or abandoned as particular elements of the Western, Catholic calendar are introduced. These manuscripts reveal a long process of study, analysis, adoption and adaptation of the European calendar on the part of Nahua intellectuals. As do studies of other types of Nahua manuscripts and documents, this study of change in the Nahua calendrical system demonstrates a wide and often subtle variability in reactions to European introductions / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Two competing higher-order models of psychological climate perceptions have been presented in the applied psychology literature: the general psychological climate model (PCg model; James & James, 1989) and the multiple stakeholder model (Burke, Borucki, & Hurley, 1992). Attempts to compare these competing hierarchical models of psychological climate have been limited by reliance on archival data and have been restricted to retail settings. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relative fits of one first-order and two higher-order factor models of psychological climate in a primary data set collected from public school teachers. Climate survey responses from 310 elementary and secondary teachers were analyzed using maximum-likelihood confirmatory factory analysis. Based on fit indices and factor loading results, the present study found support for the hierarchical nature of teachers' psychological climate perceptions. Of particular importance, the present study found strongest support for a hierarchical model of psychological climate in which teachers cognitively appraise the extent to which their work environment impacts the well-being of both teachers and students. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the assessment and interpretation of psychological climate were discussed / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

One of the major contributions of geographical information systems (GIS) is their ability to efficiently manage geographical information. Geographical information can be represented and stored in a variety of ways, each with its advantages. Thus, a challenging problem facing GIS is their ability to effectively utilize the various types of geographic data. The process by which these different information sources are merged in order to yield a more comprehensive dataset is referred to as conflation Currently, conflation is performed manually whereby a cartographer has to overlay two maps and painstakingly match geographical features. This arduous process is highly subjective and prone to error. Therefore, our objective in this research is to develop a methodology for automating this process Our approach is to simulate the cognitive and intuitive processes that a cartographer uses in performing feature matching. Based upon observation, we have identified three criteria that a cartographer uses when performing this process. They are spatial, nonspatial, and topological. Thus, the major challenge is to develop innovative techniques whereby these characteristics can be utilized in automating the conflation process In this research, we expect to address the issues concerning this problem and develop practical solutions as to how the problem can be solved. Our goal is to significantly improve the way this process is currently performed. Furthermore, we intend to perform extensive tests in order to substantiate our hypotheses / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu