The Xicaque, a people of colonial Honduras, confronted Spanish settlers who sought their acculturation through diverse strategies. When Spanish settlers implemented policies such as entrada, reducción or misión, the Xicaque or Xicaque capitanes responded with dissidence and flight. Despite the foundation of a few misiones the Xicaque progressively became avoidant of the Spanish settlers who continued to seek their change by Spanish policy, at the Spanish misiones or at their homelands. This aversion became more pronounced in 1751 when a smallpox epidemic decimated the Xicaque populations at the misiones. Aside from this general distrust that existed between the Spanish and the Xicaque, the Xicaque did engage in trade outside of the previously discussed channels made by Spanish policy. Yet, the overarching pattern of avoidance would characterize Xicaque/Spanish interaction until 1821. Unlike previous scholarship, this study of the Xicaque ethnohistory offers the most complete description of Xicaque culture during the colonial period. Furthermore, it analyzes interaction between the Xicaque and the Spanish since the inception of contact, circa 1676, towards 1821. The broadest range of contact between the Xicaque and the Spanish studied to date. / 1 / Roberto Rivera

The China we know today is the product of vast frontier conquests of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the expanding Qing empire. China Marches West tells the story of this unprecedented expansion and explores its consequences for the modern Chinese nation. / Jacket cover of book

Character list of Chinese terms in book China Marches West.

The main historical archive of all tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico from 1851-present is known as HURDAT. This official database of historical Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) is maintained by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The original database of 6-hourly tropical cyclone positions and intensities was assembled in the 1960s in support of the Apollo space program to help provide statistical TC track forecasting guidance (Landsea et al. 2008; Jarvinen et al. 1984; Neumann, personal communication). Today, HURDAT is widely utilized and relied upon by many groups including research scientists conducting climatic change studies (e.g. Landsea et al. 1999), operational hurricane forecasters, insurance companies, and emergency managers (Jarrell et al. 1992). The accuracy of the HURDAT database is important to many; however, the original database contains many systematic biases and random errors (Landsea et al. 2008). Therefore, a reanalysis of the HURDAT database is necessary. The Atlantic Hurricane Reanalysis Project (AHRP) is an ongoing effort to correct the errors in HURDAT, and to provide as accurate of a HURDAT database as is possible with utilization of all available data. For this thesis, HURDAT is reanalyzed for the period 1944-1953, the first decade of the ?aircraft reconnaissance era.? The track and intensity of each existing tropical cyclone in HURDAT is reassessed, and previously unrecognized tropical cyclones are noticed, analyzed, and recommended to the National Hurricane Center Best Track Change Committee (NHCBTCC) for inclusion into HURDAT (existing TCs may be removed from the database as well if analyses indicate evidence that no tropical storm existed). Changes to the number of tropical storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes, accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), and U.S. landfalling hurricanes are recommended for most of the years of the decade studied. An error analysis for the decade is also provided. It is noted that all changes to HURDAT mentioned in this thesis are preliminary and have not yet been approved by the NHCBTCC. In addition to the HURDAT reanalysis, the second part of this study is conducted to determine whether the apparent recent increase in Atlantic Basin Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS) Category 5 hurricanes is real or whether the increase is an artifact of recent technological advances and better observational capabilities. Several previous studies have stated that there has been an increase in the number of intense hurricanes both in the Atlantic Ocean and globally (e.g. Webster et al. 2005) and attribute this increase to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and/or global climate change. Other studies (e.g. Landsea 2007) claim that the apparent increased hurricane activity in the record is an artifact of better observational capabilities and improved technology for detecting these intense hurricanes. This study delves deeper into the question of whether the recently observed increase in the number of Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic basin (late 1940s vs. 1990s-2000s period) is an artifact of better observations/technology or rather possibly due to climate changes. Ten Category 5 hurricanes were recorded in the Atlantic Basin from 1992-2007 [Hurricane Andrew (1992) to Hurricane Felix (2007)]. A new (fairly objective) methodology was created to determine how many of these ten recent Category 5s would have been recorded as Category 5s if they had occurred during the late 1940s using only the observations that would have been available with late 1940s technology. A new best track intensity was drawn for the entire lifetime of these ten recent Category 5s (using late 1940s technology), and it is found that only two of these ten (Andrew and Mitch) would have been recorded as Category 5 hurricanes if they had occurred during the late 1940s period. The results suggest that intensity estimates for extreme tropical cyclones prior to the satellite era are unreliable.

The rhetoric of development is a dominant driving factor for intervention into the Republic of Haiti. Millions are pumped into the small black republic located in the Caribbean for development projects motivated by health, HIV/AIDS awareness, religion, and sanitation just to name a few. Yet, despite the innumerable efforts of nongovernmental organizations and donor organizations in Haiti, the country is sinking deeper and deeper into desperate conditions. The motivation for this thesis is to examine the accountability that these organizations operating in Haiti have towards the Haitian peoples who are the targeted beneficiaries. Are they involved in the development process aside from being the ?receivers? of assistance? Development projects designed and implemented without the input of the targeted communities have relatively short-lived progress and experience failure. Accountability to the constituents necessitates involving and engaging their values and community needs. The Lambi Fund is a nongovernmental organization that attributes its success to its alternative ?bottom-up? model of development. Local organizations in Haiti solicit funding, training, and guidance from the Lambi Fund with project proposals and community needs in hand. This model appears to have an impressive degree of accountability to the grassroots organizations that it serves. I analyze and assess the viability and success of this model in the context of the history and current trends of development in Haiti and elsewhere by examining both the Lambi Fund?s own claims about its programs (in print and in interviews with its principal officers) and a recent evaluation made of its programs by a third party organization. A recommendation for further research is enclosed in the conclusion.

Thèse de doctorat : Neurosciences : Paris 12 : 2005. / Version électronique uniquement consultable au sein de l'Université Paris 12 (Intranet). Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. : 295 réf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Chandler Stolp. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Tesis--Madrid, 1939.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 1,179-1,222.