The sentimental novel Cárcel de Amor by Diego de San Pedro was hugely popular in its time both in Spain and in other parts of Europe, spawning at least twenty editions in Spanish, nine bilingual versions, and eighteen translations between 1492 and 1675. The purpose of this study is to examine the seemingly, and oft criticized, varied nature of the sentimental and political discourse in the novel to demonstrate how San Pedro used them to create unity of structure and theme. In addition I analyze the effects of the author's implementation of metanarrative strategies on the relationship between structure and theme. Cárcel was written during a period of great social and political turmoil in Castile, and San Pedro uses the sentimental and political material of the work to paint a reflection of the society in which he lived. He demonstrates that the chivalric ideals of courtly love and honor based on virtue, values upon which the nobility based their collective identity, are no longer viable in his culture because they have come to be devoid of the beauty they originally embodied. In their place one finds a growing obsession with honor that is a construction of appearances with little regard for virtue. As the protagonist Leriano, who represents the perfection of these ideals, comes into conflict with the king and other courtiers, the reader realizes that the old ideals and the new reality are completely incompatible. San Pedro also uses several metanarrative strategies to draw the reader into the fictional world in order to force him to confront the same crisis that Leriano and the Auctor character face as they determine that their value system cannot survive in the false, double-dealing society in which they live. He uses these same techniques to underscore the fictional quality of the "reality" that members of that society create for themselves. San Pedro effectively uses both the sentimental and political discourse of the work to create a realistic picture of Castilian society's moral decay in the fifteenth century.

Millennial length temperature and precipitation reconstructions from tree rings are developed for the northern Arizona region and applied to questions regarding the nature of the cultural-environmental interface in the northern Southwest, the role of explosive volcanism as a forcing mechanism in temperature variability, and the state of late 20th century climate compared to the range of natural variability of the past. A 2660-year long bristlecone pine tree-ring chronology from high elevation in the San Francisco Peaks of northern Arizona is calibrated with instrumental annual mean-maximum temperature data to reconstruct temperature. Three 1400-year long lower elevation tree-ring chronologies, developed from both living trees and wood from archaeological sites on the Colorado Plateau, are calibrated with instrumental precipitation data (October-July) to reconstruct precipitation. The juxtaposition of these two reconstructions yields paleoclimatic insights unobtainable from either record alone. Results include the identification of wet, dry, cool, and warm intervals and the identification of periods of high and low variance in temperature and precipitation. Population movement into the Flagstaff area in the second half of the 11th century is attributed to relatively warm wet conditions. The role of temperature decline in the 13th century merits additional consideration in the prehistoric regional abandonment of the Four Corners area. Many of the reconstructed cold periods are linked to explosive volcanism. The second half of the 20th century is the warmest in the period of record, and extremely warm/wet conditions have persisted since 1976.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-309).

The subject of this manuscript is the Texas Rangers “clean-up” of San Augustine, which was undertaken between late January 1935 until approximately July 1936 at the direction of then newly-elected Governor James V. Allred, in response to the local “troubles” that arose from an near decade long “crime wave.” Allred had been elected on a platform advocating dramatic reform of state law enforcement, and the success of the “clean-up” was heralded as validation of those reforms, which included the creation of – and the Rangers’ integration into – the Texas Department of Public Safety that same year. Despite such historic significance for the community of San Augustine, the state, and the Texas Rangers, no detailed account has ever been published. The few existing published accounts are terse, vague, and inadequate to address the relevant issues. They are often also overly reliant on limited oral accounts and substantially factually flawed, thereby rendering their interpretive analysis moot in regard to certain issues. Additionally, it is a period of San Augustine’s history that haunts that community to this day, particularly as a result of the wide-ranging myths that have taken hold in the absence of a thoroughly researched and documented published account. Concerns over offending the descendants of the key antagonists, many of whom still live in the area, has long made local historians wary of taking on the topic. Nevertheless, many of them have privately expressed the need for just such a treatment, as they have crossed paths with enough evidence in pursuit of other topics that they recognize and appreciate the historical significance, and lack of an accurate modern understanding, of those events. Furthermore, descendants of some of the victims have expressed frustration over the lack of such an account, because it makes them feel victimized once more to see the mistreatment and suffering of their relatives, which shaped many lives within their families for generations, continue to be ignored in the local historical record. Those events did not occur in a vacuum, and their effects linger still.

The scholarly tradition in urban policy analysis holds that a variety of economic, social and political background factors influence the nature and amount of output by the policymaking system. Here a number of these factors such as elections and parties, structure of the national economy and age and sex composition of the population are examined to determine their effect on public housing and local government revenue policy in two Central American urban centers. San Jose, Costa Rica and San Salvador, El Salvador were chosen for the study because they are in the same size range, both are capital (and primate) cities and both have been growing rapidly in recent years. Moreover, the cities exist in radically different sociopolitical milieux. With such characteristics as size and primacy held constant, it was felt that variations in policy output could be linked to and at least partially explained by the political, social and economic differences. For a variety of systemic and historical reasons, urban public housing is provided in both countries by autonomous agencies of the national governments. Their operational policies and programs are compared. Two major activities in the field of municipal revenue are traced through the policymaking process from their genesis: a successful effort to install parking meters in San Jose, and an unsuccessful attempt at overall tax reform in San Salvador. In neither policy area, public housing nor municipal revenue, was the original hypothesis sustained. No important differences in policy output between San Jose and San Salvador could be identified. Consequently, there were no variations to be explained by the diversity in social, economic and political background factors. Nonetheless, these factors are considered in detail, along with the nature of the policymaking process in the two cities. Finally, some suggestions are offered as to why San Jose and San Salvador exhibit these similarities in policy product in spite of their many social, political and economic dissimilarities.

El árbol de la tara (CAESALPINIA SPINOSA) es una leguminosa que crece en las cuencas del Pacífico y del Atlántico. Para fines productivos crece en un rango de 800 a 3 100 msnm. La tara es un árbol que resiste a las plagas y enfermedades; para subsistir necesita poca agua y, para una óptima producción, requiere de 400 a 600 mm de lluvia anual. Los frutos se cosechan a partir del cuarto año en un promedio de 20 a 40 kg por cosecha. Si se tiene manejo agroforestal tecnificada se puede cosechar dos veces al año. Los frutos de la tara son recolectados y comercializados por los lugareños a los acopiadores locales. Los frutos de la tara, por sus productos químicos que poseen (hidrocoloide, tanino y galactomanano), se utilizan como materia prima en muchas industrias. En la época prehispánica se usaba en la medicina folklórica y en el proceso de teñidos. Desde hace 10 años, son comercializados a los mercados internacionales. El Perú es el primer productor y exportador mundial de los derivados de la vaina de la tara, siendo la China el mercado más importante; los precios referenciales en dólares FOB de un kilogramo del polvo de la vaina de tara es de 1,33 y de la goma en polvo de la semilla de tara 3,06 dólares respectivamente. En la costa del Perú, se encuentran las empresas procesadoras y exportadoras de los productos de la vaina de la tara. La microcuenca de San Juan se encuentra ubicada al sur este de la ciudad capital del departamento de Cajamarca, en el distrito de San Juan, cuya ciudad capital se halla a una altitud de 2 225 msnm, con una extensión de 69,66 km2; cuenta con una población de 5 224 habitantes, con 40 % de los adultos analfabetos; se dedican a la agricultura de pan llevar y se apoyan económicamente con la recolección de la vaina de tara que crece en forma silvestre. No existe una agricultura tecnificada, porque una de las características del poblador es ser conformista, no queriendo cambiar sus patrones culturales. La característica topográfica de la microcuenca es de una quebrada, en la que se encuentran cerca de 1 500 hectáreas de tierras en secano que están aptas para forestarlas con plantones de tara. Para poder mostrar a los pobladores la facilidad del manejo agroforestal de la tara y la rentabilidad económica, se viene desarrollando el proyecto piloto de la forestación de 1546 plantones de la tara en el caserío de Cachilgón, requiriendo una inversión inicial de 12 234 soles, un costo anual referencial de 4 720 soles y un ingreso promedio, a partir del cuarto año, de 7 714 soles; la inversión es recuperada a partir del sexto año. Con este proyecto, se obtendrá beneficios socioeconómicos y ambientales. En el primer año se ha perdido un 22% de plantones por diversos factores. La resiembra se realizó en la época de lluvia. Respecto a los riegos se realizan por inundación y acarreo (llevar el agua en depósitos). Los abonos y los foliares se aplica a las plantas en la época de invierno, asimismo el control fitosanitario es constante. Hasta diciembre del 2009, se tenía 1 546 plantones; de ella, 11 plantas florecieron. Las experiencias de este proyecto piloto serán transmitidas a los pobladores, mediante la exposición oral y la elaboración de una guía didáctica. La intención es crear una cultura agroempresarial en el campesinado. En el último año, la municipalidad y ONGs están impulsando forestaciones de diversos tipos de plantas cultivadas en viveros y, a la vez, cuentan con el canon minero que se espera sea aprovechado en inversiones agroindustriales. / Tesis

A molecular system was developed and tested to efficiently analyze algal communities in river water samples. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) primers were designed to amplify the 18S rRNA gene of certain taxonomic groups of freshwater algae; there was limited success in specific amplification. Additionally, a primer pair utilizing both the 16S plastid gene and the 16S rRNA gene was tested with success, amplifying both prokaryotic and eukaryotic algae while excluding other taxonomically similar organisms. The terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) fingerprinting method, which has been used in previous studies to examine prokaryotic community structure, was modified with the successful algae primers to selectively fingerprint all algal groups in two San Joaquin River water samples. Triplicates of two TRFLP profiles have been generated and terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) have been assigned to specific algal species.