O trabalho analisa a expedição astronômica realizada pela Marinha norteamericana ao Chile, durante os anos de 1849 a 1852, comandada pelo oficial e também astrônomo James Melville Gilliss. O objetivo foi compreender os interesses científicos, políticos, geopolíticos e comerciais que motivaram a viagem, bem como as imagens e representações sobre a América do Sul, especialmente do Panamá, Peru, Chile e Argentina, construídas e divulgadas através do relatório oficial da expedição, com o título \"The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the years (1849- 1852). Esta pesquisa também procura examinar os diferentes dispositivos discursivos utilizados pelos oficiais que escreveram o relatório, James Gilliss e Archibald MacRae, discutindo dissensões e diferentes visões sobre o modo de veicular dados científicos, e também modos distintos de relatar a América do Sul. / This work analyzes the astronomical expedition to Chile realized by U.S. Navy, during the years of 1849 to 1852, led by Lieutenant and also astronomer James Melville Gilliss. The purpose of this thesis is to comprehend scientific interests and political, geopolitical and commercial reasons that prompted the expedition, as well as to examine representations and images about South America especially about Panamá, Peru, Chile and Argentina , that were constructed and spread through the official travel account, named \"The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere during the years (1849-1852). This research also aims to examine the different rhetorical devices used by officials who wrote the final report, James Gilliss and Archibald MacRae, discussing disagreements and different opinions on how to convey scientific data, and also distinct ways of portraying South America.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar a participação e os interesses brasileiros no processo de integração energética sul americana, com foco nos setores de eletricidade e gás natural, analisando os aspectos políticos, econômicos, sociais e ambientais envolvidos sob a perspectiva daquilo que chamamos de geoenergia humana (termo criado para designar a relação de multicausalidade envolvendo os aspectos sociais, econômicos, ambientais e políticos presente no planejamento energético, e a forma que se distribuem territorialmente os recursos energéticos e possíveis empreendimentos associados a eles). Para isso, é feita, primeiramente, uma discussão sobre a relação entre energia e desenvolvimento socioeconômico, na qual a integração energética faz parte das políticas de desenvolvimento dos Estados. Em seguida, é feita a análise da integração energética sul-americana, relacionando-a ao processo de crescimento econômico da região, baseada na discussão sobre o potencial energético do continente e, em seguida, na revisão histórica do processo de integração energética nessa região onde são identificados os principais projetos e agentes envolvidos. A terceira parte do trabalho se volta para o estudo específico da participação brasileira no processo de integração energética sul americana, o que implica na identificação dos principais projetos que envolvem o Estado brasileiro ou empresas deste país na região e na análise da participação e dos interesses dos principais envolvidos. Por último, é feita a análise dos aspectos socioambientais envolvidos na questão, onde é apresentada a ideia de geoenergia humana e são discutidos conflitos socioambientais presentes neste contexto. Os resultados e as conclusões do trabalho evidenciam a relação direta que existe entre o crescimento econômico dos países e o desenvolvimento dos seus respectivos setores energéticos, o que envolve a comercialização de energia e o processo de integração energética no qual os maiores avanços se deram na União Europeia. Da mesma forma, mostram que nos últimos anos se intensificaram as iniciativas de integração de infraestruturas na América do Sul, bem como os esforços comuns em superar o enfoque bilateral ao qual se restringiam os projetos antigamente, com destaque para a Iniciativa para a Integração da Infraestrutura Regional Sul-Americana (IIRSA) e a União das Nações Sul-Americanas (UNASUL). Neste contexto, é evidente o protagonismo brasileiro, que se dá por meio de políticas de Estado que visam estimular a participação do Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) e das empresas nacionais de construção civil. Por último, devem ser destacados os diversos conflitos socioambientais relacionados aos empreendimentos energéticos no continente principalmente na região amazônica e que permitem questionar a concepção de desenvolvimento que está por trás do processo de integração na América do Sul. / This works goal is to study Brazils participation and interests in the process of energetic integration in South America, focusing on electricity and natural gas. It analyses the political, economics, social and environmental aspects involved from the perspective of the human geoenergy (term that refers to the relation between the different variables of the energetic planning that are distributed in space in different ways). In order to do so, the relation between energy and socioeconomical development is analysed, considering the process of energetic integration as intrinsic to the countries development policies. This works discusses the concept of energetic integration, considering the history of disputes between countries because of energy resources, and shows current examples of energy policies in the world. The third part of this work is focused on the specific study of Brazilian participation in the process of energetic integration in South America. This implies in the identification of the main projects that involve Brazil or its companies in the region and in the analysis of the participation and interests of the main parts involved. Finally, an analysis of the socio-environmental aspects involved in the matter is presented. At that point, the idea of human geoenergy is presented and the socio-environmental conflicts within this context are discussed. . The results show a direct relation between the countries economic growth and the development of their energetic sectors, which involves energy commercialization and the process of energetic integration in which the bigger advances happened in the European Union. It is also shown that, in the last years, the initiatives of infrastructure integration in South America were intensified, as were the common efforts to overcome the bilateral approach of the former projects in which the Initiative for the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA) and the Union of the South American Nations (UNASUL) stands out. Within this context, Brazils main role is evident. The countrys policies aim to stimulate the National Bank of Social and Economic Development (BNDES) and the civil construction national companies participation. Finally, the socio-environmental conflicts related to the energy endeavours in the continent, mainly in the Amazon region, that make us question the notion of development behind the South American integration, are put on the spotlight.

As aves de rapina, como predadores de níveis superiores na rede trófica, necessitam de grandes áreas de vida e ocorrem em baixa densidade populacional. São sensíveis a alteração e degradação do habitat, sendo bons indicadores de qualidade de habitat e biodiversidade. Apesar da importância ecológica pouco se conhece sobre a biologia e ecologia da maioria das 91 espécies que ocorrem na América do Sul, o que nos leva ao objetivo mais amplo desta tese: descrever a composição das taxocenoses de aves de rapina dos campos do sul do Brasil e Uruguai e sua relação com as características topográficas e ambientais. Para tanto, foram realizadas amostragens de aves de rapina em 11 áreas campestres entre outono de 2009 e verão de 2011. Um total de 44 transectos rodoviários foi amostrado sazonalmente, duas vezes ao ano, totalizando 176 amostragens. Ao todo foram observadas 18.424 aves de rapina, pertencentes a 33 espécies. Os transectos rodoviários são amplamente utilizados para a amostragem de aves de rapina, no entanto, nossos resultados sugerem que este método pode subestimar a abundância das espécies. Pontos de contagem parecem ser mais eficazes, principalmente para a amostragem de espécies raras. A distribuição das espécies foi associada à altitude e disponibilidade de habitat, e quatro taxocenoses puderam ser identificadas no sudeste da América do Sul. A taxocenose dos campos de altitude (na ecorregião Floresta Úmida com Araucária) se caracterizou pela presença de espécies florestais, ausentes ou pouco abundantes nas demais áreas. Na ecorregião Savana Uruguaia foram distinguidas outras três taxocenoses: 1) campos da planície costeira do sul do Brasil, com espécies associadas às áreas úmidas e ambientes alterados; 2) campos da Serra do Sudeste, uma taxocenose mista com espécies campestres e florestais, porém pouco abundantes e com maior tolerância a habitat alterados; 3) campos da Savana Uruguaia, taxocenose com predominância de espécies campestres e presença pontual de espécies florestais associadas a matas riparias. Foram registradas quatro espécies de necrófagos obrigatórios (Cathartiformes). A organização da taxocenose dos necrófagos aparenta ser mais influenciada pelas características da paisagem que por relações hierárquicas interespecíficas, mas a distribuição atual pode ter sido influenciada pela caça e envenenamento das espécies, ocorrida no século passado. A abundância das aves de rapina variou sazonalmente. A abundância foi significativamente maior no verão que no inverno, mas variou conforme a espécie. Quatro espécies são migratórias (duas migrantes trans-equatorias e duas intratropicais), três são parcialmente migratórias, mas o padrão de migração e as rotas são pouco conhecidos, e três espécies são nômades ou realizam movimentos irruptivos. Os campos do sudeste da América do Sul tem uma alta diversidade de aves de rapina, influenciada pela topografia, disponibilidade de habitat e sazonalidade, características que devem ser consideradas nas políticas de conservação na região. / Raptors, as top predators, have large home ranges and low population densities. They are sensitive to human perturbation and habitat degradation; hence raptors are sentinel species and biodiversity indicators. Despite their ecological importance, the biology and ecology of most of the 91 South American raptors is poorly known. The main objectives of this study were to examine the assemblage composition in grasslands of southern Brazil and Uruguay and to investigate its relation with topography and habitat features. To achieve this, 44 roadside transects were conducted in 11 areas. Each transect was survey four times between autumn/2009 and summer/2011. The 176 transects yielded 18,424 contacts of raptors, belonging to 34 species. Roadside line transect is widely used to survey raptors. However, our results suggest that this method could underestimate the species abundance. Roadside point transect seems to be better, especially to survey rare species. Raptors distribution and assemblage composition were related to altitude and habitat availability, and four assemblages could be identified in southeastern South America. Raptor assemblage at Altitudinal grasslands (in the Araucarian Moist Forest ecoregion) had higher abundances of forest raptors than the other regions. Three assemblages were distinguished in the Uruguayan Savannas ecoregion: 1) south Brazilian coastal plain, with species related wetlands and human modified habitats; 2) Serra do Sudeste grasslands, a mix of forest and grassland raptors assemblage, which showed low abundances and lower sensibility to habitat degradation; 3) Uruguayan Savannas, dominated by grasslands species and few forest species usually found in riparian habitats. Four obligate scavengers (Cathartiformes) were recorded. Landscape features appeared to be more important to the assemblage organization than interspecific hierarchy, but the current distribution and abundance of scavengers could have been driven by species persecution and poisoning in the last century. Raptors abundance changed seasonally. Total abundance was significantly higher during summer than winter, and strategies to deal with seasonality varied between species. Four species are complete migrants (two transequatorial and two intratropical), three are partial migrants, but their routes and migration pattern remain poorly understood; and three species are irruptive or nomadic. The grasslands of southern South America have a high diversity of raptors, influenced by topography, habitat availability and seasonality, features that should be taken into account when divising regional conservation policies.

I focus on phylogenetic relationships of teiid lizards beginning with generic and species relationship within the family, followed by a detailed biogeographical examination of the Caribbean genus Pholidoscelis, and end by studying species boundaries and phylogeographic patterns of the widespread Giant Ameiva Ameiva ameiva. Genomic data (488,656 bp of aligned nuclear DNA) recovered a well-supported phylogeny for Teiidae, showing monophyly for 18 genera including those recently described using morphology and smaller molecular datasets. All three methods of phylogenetic estimation (two species tree, one concatenation) recovered identical topologies except for some relationships within the subfamily Tupinambinae (i.e. position of Salvator and Dracaena) and species relationships within Pholidoscelis, but these were unsupported in all analyses. Phylogenetic reconstruction focused on Caribbean Pholidoscelis recovered novel relationships not reported in previous studies that were based on significantly smaller datasets. Using fossil data, I improve upon divergence time estimates and hypotheses for the biogeographic history of the genus. It is proposed that Pholidoscelis colonized the Caribbean islands through the Lesser Antilles based on biogeographic analysis, the directionality of ocean currents, and evidence that most Caribbean taxa originally colonized from South America. Genetic relationships among populations within the Ameiva ameiva species complex have been poorly understood as a result of its continental-scale distribution and an absence of molecular data for the group. Mitochondrial ND2 data for 357 samples from 233 localities show that A. ameiva may consist of up to six species, with pairwise genetic distances among these six groups ranging from 4.7–12.8%. An examination of morphological characters supports the molecular findings with prediction accuracy of the six clades reaching 72.5% using the seven most diagnostic predictors.

The condition of water resources in the rural Andean community of Berlin, Colombia, was explored for the purpose of future development in the area. Through investigation of water acquisition techniques, use, and water discharge methods, combined with analysis of chemical water quality tests, the overall pattern of water resources in the study area was revealed. Although the methods of acquiring water were not found to be especially damaging to water quality, the use, and more importantly, the methods of discharging waste water suggested a water resource base harboring certain questionable qualities. The quality of surface waters, as revealed through analysis of water quality tests, showed low levels of dissolved oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide in given areas of the paramo. Water was also judged to be unfit for human consumption throughout the study area. As a result of the above mentioned shortcomings concerning water quality, several recommendations were proposed.

This thesis explores the possible creation of a new categorization of American Literature as presented in the Andean novel El pez de oro: Retablos del Laykhakuy (1957) by Gamaliel Churata. In El pez de oro, Gamaliel Churata presents a strategy for the recuperation of native Andean cultural agency that enables the Andean subject to reclaim traces of their ancestral past under more verisimilar and verifiable terms. Churata argues that through a recuperation of native language and its infusion into the body of the major colonial language, Spanish, the Andean subject is equipped with a new culture producing tool that enables the recuperation of language, agency, history, and, ultimately, representation and inclusion within cultural and political institutional frameworks. By introducing his own function of bilingualism, vernacular language, and mythological infusions into the body of colonial letters, Gamaliel Churata is able to destabilize and disrupt colonial historical and textual authority to the point where the invented concept of America and the colonial product of American identity can be re-examined. Through this examination emerges a new option for the categorization of American identity as an aesthetic construct. Within this new categorization of aesthetic American identity, the Andean subject can begin his own process of self-identification through his native language toward the production of a future Andean American subject.

Three new species of cichlid fishes of the genus Geophagus, part of the Neotropical subfamily Geophaginae, are described from the Orinoco and Casiquiare drainages in Venezuela. Phylogenetic relationships among 16 genera and 30 species of Geophaginae are investigated using 136 morphological characters combined with DNA sequences coding for the mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) and the nuclear Recombination Activating Gene 2 (RAG2). Data from previous studies are integrated with the new dataset by incorporating published DNA sequences from the mitochondrial genes cytochrome b and 16S and the microsatellite flanking regions Tmo-M27 and Tmo-4C4. Total-evidence analysis revealed that Geophaginae is monophyletic and includes eighteen genera grouped into two major clades. In the first clade, the tribe Acarichthyini (genera Acarichthys and Guianacara) is sister-group to a clade in which Gymnogeophagus, 'Geophagus' steindachneri, and Geophagus sensu stricto are sister to 'Geophagus' brasiliensis and Mikrogeophagus; all these are in turn sister-group to Biotodoma, Dicrossus and Crenicara. In the second clade, Satanoperca, Apistogramma (including Apistogrammoides), and Taeniacara are sister to Crenicichla and Biotoecus. Monophyly and significantly short branches at the base of the phylogeny indicate that genera within Geophaginae differentiated rapidly within a relatively short period. High morphological, ecological, and behavioral diversity within the subfamily suggest that geophagine divergence may be the result of adaptive radiation.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es abordar las estrategias de ‘argentinización’ que, desde el espacio de lo simbólico, desplegó el Estado central en Argentina para afianzar el proyecto nacional en los llamados Territorios Nacionales (T.N.). En particular, el interés se centra en estudiar el papel desempeñado por la institución escolar, las festividades patrias y la opinión pública local en la trasmisión de una conciencia nacional al interior de la gobernación norpatagónica de Río Negro, que sirve en esta investigación como estudio de caso. El eje fundamental de la investigación gira en torno a las dinámicas de apropiación y adhesión a lo nacional por parte de la población rionegrina para, por un lado, estudiar la implementación en el ámbito local de las disposiciones generales dictadas por las instituciones estatales; y por otro, analizar las prácticas de los habitantes rionegrinos referidos a la ‘argentinización’. La producción de los sujetos en el ámbito escolar y, especialmente, en la opinión pública atravesaron las diferentes formas de vivir los conceptos de nación, patria, a partir de las historias, deseos, intereses y necesidades de los individuos en cuestión. En la Argentina la institución escolar ha estado atravesada por numerosas doctrinas y rituales patrios desde los sumamente estructurados -la currícula y los materiales didácticos- hasta los “actos escolares” y otras formas ritualizadas que resignificaban lo cotidiano, tales como las formaciones, la jura de la bandera, el saludo a las autoridades, los premios y castigos, etc. Niños y jóvenes fueron expuestos a un conjunto de conductas estereotipadas y generalmente transmitidas de un modo repetitivo, que si bien insistía en la reflexión consiente del hecho, apelaba constantemente al sentimiento de pertenencia. Sin embargo fueron necesarios otros elementos a la hora de despertar el amor a la patria en estas localidades, pues la escuela como agente único no terminaba de cumplir con las expectativas. En este sentido, la glorificación de la Patria mediante las celebraciones de las efemérides patrias, actuó también como un fuerte dispositivo emotivo-nacionalizador. En igual medida, sostenemos que la prensa local jugó un papel fundamental como agente/actor pedagógico argentinizador difundiendo valores y una marcada conciencia nacional al interior del Territorio. / The main objective of this work is to address the 'argentinization' strategies that were deployed by the central state in Argentina to strengthen the national project in the National Territories. In particular, the focus is on studying their symbolic impact in education, patriotic festivities and local public opinion in the construction of a national consciousness in the northern Patagonian department of Río Negro, which serves in this research as a case study. The core of this research focuses on the dynamics of appropriation and adherence to the national project by the population of Rio Negro, firstly, in studying the implementation at the local level of the general provisions issued by state institutions and secondly, in analyzing the practices of this population under the auspices of 'Argentinization'. The influence of this in schools and especially public opinion traversed different ways of living, the concepts of nationhood and homeland from the stories, desires, interests and needs of the communities.

Three new species of cichlid fishes of the genus Geophagus, part of the Neotropical subfamily Geophaginae, are described from the Orinoco and Casiquiare drainages in Venezuela. Phylogenetic relationships among 16 genera and 30 species of Geophaginae are investigated using 136 morphological characters combined with DNA sequences coding for the mitochondrial gene NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) and the nuclear Recombination Activating Gene 2 (RAG2). Data from previous studies are integrated with the new dataset by incorporating published DNA sequences from the mitochondrial genes cytochrome b and 16S and the microsatellite flanking regions Tmo-M27 and Tmo-4C4. Total-evidence analysis revealed that Geophaginae is monophyletic and includes eighteen genera grouped into two major clades. In the first clade, the tribe Acarichthyini (genera Acarichthys and Guianacara) is sister-group to a clade in which Gymnogeophagus, 'Geophagus' steindachneri, and Geophagus sensu stricto are sister to 'Geophagus' brasiliensis and Mikrogeophagus; all these are in turn sister-group to Biotodoma, Dicrossus and Crenicara. In the second clade, Satanoperca, Apistogramma (including Apistogrammoides), and Taeniacara are sister to Crenicichla and Biotoecus. Monophyly and significantly short branches at the base of the phylogeny indicate that genera within Geophaginae differentiated rapidly within a relatively short period. High morphological, ecological, and behavioral diversity within the subfamily suggest that geophagine divergence may be the result of adaptive radiation.

The novels examined in this study -- Manuel Puig’s El beso de la mujer araña (Argentina, 1976), Diamela Eltit’s El cuarto mundo (Chile, 1988), and Hugo Achugar’s Falsas memorias: Blanca Luz Brum (Uruguay, 2000) -- suggest the oppressive character of binary-based identity categories in the contexts of the Southern Cone dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s and of the neo-liberal regimes that followed them. This study’s queer theoretical perspective draws on performance theory as Sylvia Molloy adapts it in her idea of the pose, which she conceives of as the politically resistant, sustained representation of a culturally unclassifiable identity. Each chapter has a dual focus, involving analyses of political and religious discourses as well as close readings of the ways in which each novel counters the normative ideologies of the discourses that most inform its narrative through representations of forms of gender and sexuality that cannot be categorized in binary terms. The purpose of this study is to contribute a fresh theoretical perspective on El beso de la mujer araña and El cuarto mundo and to fill a gap in criticism through its analysis of the little-studied Falsas memorias: Blanca Luz Brum. The first chapter analyzes Molina, one of the novel’s two protagonists, as a representation of unnamable gender and sexual identities that undermines the ideologies of early Peronism and critiques oppression in the Argentina of the 1970s. Chapter II discusses how Eltit’s novel counters the naturalized gender opposition of political and religious discourses through its characters’ nonnormative identities as it points to the violence of the Pinochet dictatorship and the socio-economic inequities of later neo-liberal regimes. Chapter III analyzes Achugar’s protagonist, the historical figure Blanca Luz Brum, in terms of how she flouts the norms of femininity specific to early twentieth-century discourses in the Southern Cone. The Conclusion addresses the novels’ use of varying strategies to deconstruct normative identity categories, examines the different positions of politically resistant literature in dictatorship and neo-liberal contexts, and analyzes the implications of the texts’ relativism for political, social, and cultural change. / text