This dissertation is an analysis of the architecture, obsidian, ceramics, iron, and layout of Ciudad Vieja. The site is the remains of first successful town founded by the Spaniards in El Salvador. It was occupied from 1528 to 1545, a turbulent period of conquest before Spanish colonialism truly begins. It was an outpost of conquest occupied by Spaniards, their indigenous allies, and conquered locals as well as slaves brought from other parts of Central America. I began this study to investigate variation among the indigenous peoples living in the town to compare the strategies they employed to survive and in some cases take advantage of the new situation It quickly became apparent that identifying indigenous ethnic markers at the site was not a valid approach. Instead, I relied on the theoretical underpinnings of practice theory to try to compare groups at the household level. Colonial Spanish towns were planned as instruments of control, but Spanish interest ended at the solar boundary. The houses vary in scale and design between Spaniard and Indian, and to a lesser extent, variation exists within the Indian houses. Analysis of the pottery and obsidian yielded trends that imply the existence of different networks for raw material access (obsidian) and production (pottery). The presence of different nail types implies the existence of competing networks of trade. Differential access may have been influenced by access to Spanish trade goods, although differential access did not appear to affect the maintenance of cultural traditions. Household variation was also affected by class, with at least one structure apparently scavenging most of its material goods Ultimately, my analyses showed trends more than patterns, and more analysis will be required to verify these trends. I discovered which traits are the most salient to look for patterned variation and demonstrated the validity of using attribute analysis as the bridge from practice theory to data collection. Practice theory is a useful approach to frame research designs. The dynamism present in this town demonstrates the importance of studying the conquest period to better understand the culture change wrought by the colonialism that followed / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Human dominance has been empirically conceptualized in four ways: attempts to dominate, outcomes of disputes, as a personality trait, and as perceived by others. This study investigated the interrelationships of these four concepts under different conditions Individuals classified as either high or low in personality dominance were paired in two dyadic decision making situations, separately with a high and low dominant person. All participants individually indicated their preferences in a series of binary choices, then these choices were the basis for determining each person's outcome dominance in the joint binary decision making During the dyadic situation, the participants' behavioral attempts to dominate through monopolizing and attempting to control the conversion by speaking longer and speaking first in a disagreement were recorded. Following the session each participant rated their partners' dominance and likability The three main variables of wins, vocalization duration, and speaking first failed to discriminate between high and low dominant subjects. These variables were interrelated in that subjects who spoke first tended to vocalize longer and lose more. Subjects, regardless of dominance, won more disagreements when paired with a low dominant partner. High dominant partners were rated higher in dominance the more often they won, vocalized, and spoke first. High and low dominant partners were not differentiated by the subjects' ratings of partners' dominance The self-report written measure of dominance did not correlate with behavioral measures of dominance or perceived dominance. However, there was a relation between behavioral measures of dominance and perceived dominance. The two vocalization measures had an inverse relation to the measure of wins, showing that some attempts to dominate are inversely related to outcomes. Overall, these poor interrelations among dominance measures highlight dominance as an ambiguously defined concept and account for some of the incongruity in the literature / acase@tulane.edu

The corneal surface is the major refractive element of the eye. Accurate methods for the detailed analysis of corneal topography are essential for the evaluation and management of corneal refractive errors. Photokeratoscopy has been used clinically to evaluate corneal shape anomalies, and methods have been developed to reconstruct the shape of the corneal surface from keratoscope photographs. However the 2-dimensional information on the keratoscope image is insufficient for uniquely reconstructing a 3-dimensional corneal surface. Currently used algorithms make assumptions necessary for calculation, but lead to considerable error, especially at the peripheral region of the cornea. This dissertation proposes an improved algorithm that avoids some of the earlier assumptions for improved accuracy. Tested on spherical and aspherical calibration surfaces, as well as on human subject data, the new method substantially increases accuracy in reproducing the aspherical surfaces. This dissertation also investigates the error sources in the photokeratoscopic method. Mathematical models are used to examine the measurement, focal, aspheric, astigmatic, and alignment errors. This gives an approach for quantitative error analysis which is also applicable to other conditions / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu