The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza (Matamoros, 1964) critiques gender in her novels. In an era of prolific publications dealing with gender, Rivera Garza's work stands out for its fresh critique of how socially gendered modes of behavior are "written" into the social code. I argue that she exposes latent and explicit gender prejudices and then literally and metaphorically rewrites gender expectations. Central to her objective is to quash binary divisions (masculine/feminine, male/female, privileged/marginalized) to create a space for nuanced, complex characters in her novels. Rivera Garza employs the metaphor of writing to weaken these gendered divisions and in doing so, she destabilizes the division between literary genres. / acase@tulane.edu

In 1906, C. W. Post, founder of the Postum Cereal Company, began implementing his plan for creating an agricultural colony in Garza County on the Southern High Plains of Texas. A central component of the colony was the town of Post, namesake of its creator. Through the Double U Company, C. W. Post laid out the town plat, built residences and business houses, a modern hospital, and the Postex Cotton Mill. Many buildings associated with the town’s origin survive alongside later buildings that reflect subsequent periods of Post’s development. This professional report relates the findings of a survey of Post, Texas utilizing field photography and historic research of primary and secondary sources to identify, document, and describe historic buildings. The report’s historic overview of the town supported assessment of building significance and analysis of field data yielded identification of building integrity. Assessment of the significance and integrity data found the town did still include properties possessing qualities that met requirements for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Additionally, the information in the report may contribute to other local or regional heritage or preservation projects. / text

abstract: From Impossible Angles Towards Strategic Ones: Narratives of Death, Life, and Disability in La Muerte me Da and El Huesped The glamour of single-handedly overcoming adversity, sidestepping obstacles, or defying the odds makes for great mystery or adventure fiction, but fails to do justice (poetic or otherwise) to lives that are both physically and conceptually "marked" by more complex challenges. From a theoretical view, a similar desire to escape or maintain the perceived "dividing line" between fact and fiction, nature and nurture, mind and body, is confronted by a diverse set of human experiences, all of which have come to be defined, and continue to define themselves, along both sides of such a divide. Disability, typically viewed as an "emerging" branch of literary and cultural critique, is perhaps the most pervasive. Hidden under the covert language of the "grotesque", "monstrous", "doppelgänger", "freak", "eccentric" or "queer", disability has historically represented something other than itself. Two texts that attest to both the real and imagined possibilities of resignification and new modes of articulation surrounding disability are La muerte me da (2007) by Cristina Rivera Garza and El huésped (2006) by Guadalupe Nettel. From different points of departure, both texts offer a narrative approximation towards the disabled mind, body, and perceptual experience. In ways that are both similar and different, these narratives question one's perceived access to that which is otherwise understood to be the physically and conceptually "inaccessible" or "illegible" space of disability. Such approximations towards, and articulations of, the disability experience are processes that move, largely unnoticed, both within and beyond texts. As this construct continues to transform itself from both within and outside itself, disability acquires intellectual and practical value while requiring the "experts" in fields beyond the narrow scope of medicine, education, and rehabilitation to (re)consider their own approaches to, and apprehensions of, disability in order to redefine what or who is accessible or viable for literary and cultural debate. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Spanish 2014

This study was made to secure certain new information concerning the food habits and growth of the white bass, Lepibema chrysops (Rafinesque), which is quite generally considered a good game and good fish.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the suspended organic matter and the total phosphorus in the waters of Lake Dallas and to evaluate these findings. Since organic matter floating in lakes is largely composed of minute plants, animals, and detritus derived from animals and plants, the fertilizing effect of phosphorus must be considered as an integral part of this problem.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the suspended organic matter and the total phosphorus in the waters of Lake Dallas and to evaluate these findings. Since organic matter floating in lakes is largely comprised of minute plants, animals, and detritus derived from animals and plants, the fertilizing effect of phosphorus must be considered as an integral part of this problem.

Life history allocation of energy to growth and reproduction was determined for female gizzard shad. Absolute caloric energy allocated to eggs increased with age. The relative amount of production energy directed to reproduction increased with age up to 5 years and then decreased. Seasonal variation in lipids was studied. Quantitative changes occurred in ovarian lipids during the reproductive cycle. Carcass lipids varied seasonally. Age of sexual maturity was 3 years. Delayed maturity is attributed to high allocation of energy to growth enabling shad to outgrow intense competition and predation in pre-reproductive ages; there is little competition and predation in reproductive shad. Growth rates and condition factors indicated constant availability of food seasonally.

The Permian (Leonardian) aged Upper Spraberry Formation found in the Happy Field of Garza Co. TX, contains one of the best examples of a reservoir composed of resedimented carbonates in a deep-water slope-basin setting, with numerous whole core of wells with full suites of electric logs, high resolution 3D seismic coverage, and 20+ years worth of production data. Sequence stratrigraphic analysis from seismic data combined the lithologic analysis from outcrop analog, core, and well log data helps identify that the Happy Field is located within the transgressive systems tract of the fifth composite sequence in the Leonardian. The reservoir is composed of discrete allochthonous ooid and skeletal grains transported downslope via hyperconcentrated density flows sourced from a re-entrant in the shelf margin and deposited in a long-lived topographic depression at the toe-of-slope. Vertical heterogeneity due to layers of shaley silt punctuated by successive flows of oolitic and skeletal grains along with lateral heterogeneity created by younger flows of material create reservoir compartmentalization which can impede efficient development. Core-calibrated electric log correlations aids in the mapping of isolated compartments which helps with efficient development planning for the field. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether or not Denton County gained or lost from the construction of Lake Dallas from the tax valuation standpoint.