This thesis is an investigation of representations of Mexico in twentieth century American and British literature. Drawing on various conceptions of biopolitics and biopower (from Foucault, Agamben and other theorists), I argue that the development of American pleasure tourism post-World War II has definitively transformed the biopolitical climate of Mexico for hosts and guests. Exploring the consolidation in Mexico of various forms of American pleasure tourism (my first chapter); cultures of vice and narco-tourism (my second chapter); and the erotic mixtures of sex and health that mark the beach resort (my third chapter), I posit an uncanny and perverse homology between the biopolitics of American tourists and Mexican labourers and qualify the neocolonial armature that links them together. Writers (from Jack Kerouac to Tennessee Williams) and intellectuals (from ethnobotanist R. Gordon Wasson to second-wave feminist Maryse Holder) have uniquely written contemporary “spaces of exception” in Mexico, have “founded” places where the normalizing discourses, performances of apparatuses of social control (in the U.S.) are made to have little consonance. I contrast the kinds of “lawlessness” and liminality white bodies at leisure and brown bodies at labour encounter and compel in their bare flesh, and investigate the various aesthetic discourses that underwrite the sovereignty and mobility of these bodies in late capitalism.

No description available.

This dissertation examines the development of the North American air defence system from the beginning of the Cold War until 1956. It focuses on the political and diplomatic dynamics behind the emergence of these defences, which included several radar lines such as the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line as well as a number of initiatives to enhance co-operation between the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). This thesis argues that these measures were shaped by two historical factors. The first was several different conceptions of what policy on air defence best served the Canadian national interest held by the Cabinet, the Department of External Affairs, the RCAF and the Other Government Departments (OGDs), namely Transport, Defence Production and Northern Affairs. For the Cabinet and External Affairs, their approach to air defence was motivated by the need to balance working with the Americans to defend the continent with the avoidance of any political fallout that would endanger the government‘s chance of reelection. Nationalist sentiments and the desire to ensure that Canada both benefited from these projects and that its sovereignty in the Arctic was protected further influenced these two groups. On the other hand, the RCAF was driven by a more functional approach to this issue, as they sought to work with the USAF to develop the best air defence system possible. Finally, the positions of the OGDs were shaped by more narrow priorities. For example, C.D. Howe and the Department of Defence Production sought to use these joint radar projects to build up the Canadian electronics industry. Canada‘s air defence policy in the 1950s, therefore, was a compromise between these various conceptions of the national interest. The other major influence on this process was the attitude of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations towards continental air defence. This dissertation will argue that most of the measures to improve the security of the continent emerged because of the efforts of the United States, but at the same time, the Americans‘ level of interest in these defences varied greatly over this period and ultimately were not sustained. Moreover, both these administrations had to overcome opposition from the USAF‘s senior leadership, which preferred an emphasis on the offensive nuclear forces of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) over improved air defences. This dissertation thus makes an important and original argument that contributes to the scholarly literature on the Canada-U.S. defence relationship during the early Cold War. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-14 14:08:14.101

No description available.

The growing prevalence of overweight and obesity among United States (U.S.) elderly people today is a health concern. Higher incidences of obesity and obesity-related health conditions and mortality exist in the southern area of the U.S. Understanding obesity in relation to obesity-related factors in this population is crucial. The purpose of this study was to identify regional differences and associations between obesity and obesity-related factors in Southern U.S. elderly people, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, using data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an existing telephone health survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through frequency tests, chi-square tests, and a multinomial logistic regression, the results revealed no regional difference in weight status among U.S. elderly people. However, multinomial logistic regression indicated some consistent associations with weight status among Southern U.S. elderly people. Males, Blacks and married elderly people, along with those diagnosed with high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension were associated with both overweight and obesity. Associations found between Southern U.S. elderly people who were overweight or obese and obesity-related factors support the need to continue to encourage elderly people living in the South to control their weight.

Army posts in the Trans-Mississippi West from 1866 to 1898 were more like small towns than forts. Military posts provided their inhabitants with urban services, and possessed a social structure that was a microcosm of nineteenth-century American society, complete with a ruling middle class, and a lower working class. The officer class constituted the ruling middle class of garrison society, while the enlisted men comprised the lower class. This study will show that the social structure of the western military garrisons, based on a military caste system, dominated the daily lives of the inhabitants, both military and civilian.While frontier service and the dangers of combat may have lessened the social division between officers and soldiers in the field, this distinction was maintained while at the posts. Officers dined, lived, and attended social functions separately from the enlisted men. This social division also applied to the civilian members of the garrison community. Prominent civilians such as ranchers and prosperous business people associated with the officer class, while less prominent civilians were identified with the enlisted class. / Department of History

This thesis examines the impact of illegal U.S. arms transfers upon recipient nations' war fighting capabilities and upon the American national security. Data were gathered primarily from U.S. District Court records and interviews with U.S. governmental officials from intelligence services and the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State. An investigation of the illicit arms transfers to Iran formed the basis of conclusions reached. Additionally, policy recommendations are provided to enhance the governmental detection and investigation of illegal export violations. The viability of utilizing court documents as intelligence tools for measuring military capabilities is assessed.

The movements of Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris, triseriata triseriata) were studied from March, 1970, to March, 1971, at the Robert H. and Esther L. Cooper Woodland Area near Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana. The objectives of the study were to determine: (1) the time and rate of dispersal from the breeding pool; (2) the day-to-day movements, including the time and minimal distance traveled; (3) the preferred cover or microhabitat; and (4) the site of hibernation.Seventy-three Chorus Frogs were tagged with approximately 50 μc Co60 and toe-clipped, and each was released at its capture site. The frogs were then sought at intervals by surveying the area with a portable survey meter equipped with a scintillation probe. The location of each recovered specimen and a description of the recapture site was recorded.Sixty-two individual specimens were recaptured at least one time. The number of recaptures for each specimen was variable, and the maximum number of recaptures for a single specimen was 26 times. In all, 324 recoveries of tagged specimens were made. The tagged specimens graduallybecame lost to the investigator, and the last specimen was found on August 4. The longest period of contact for an individual frog was 134 days.Some Chorus Frogs began leaving the breeding pools soon after the first eggs were observed on April 1. The exodus appeared to be gradual as a few (one to eight) additional tagged specimens were found out of the pools throughout April and early May. Four of these specimens returned at least once to their original pool and seventeen frogs entered a second pool.From a single attempt to monitor the overnight activities of these frogs, it appears that they remain quiescent during the daylight hours and become active between dusk and dawn.The minimal distances traveled by the tagged, specimens during the study are more a function of the length of the contact period and the number of recaptures than of the activity of the frogs. The average rate of movement for all of the specimens over the entire study period was 11.3 feet/day. However, the fastest observed rate of movement for a single specimen between two recapture sites was 138 feet/day. The greatest straight distance any specimen was found from its original pool was 700 feet. Most recaptures were within 500 feet of the pools where the specimens were tagged.In 213 (91.3%) of the 234 recaptures made daylight hours after the frogs left the breeding pools,the frogs were hidden in the leaf litter of the woods or dead grasses of the grassland. In the remaining recaptures the frogs were hidden under small objects. The frogs seemed to prefer moist rather than dry or wet cover, but this is possibly more a reflection of conditions at the time of the study than a preference on the part of the frogs.The gradual disappearance of the tagged frogs from the study area, the woodland situation of the breeding pools, and the concentration of searching efforts in the vicinity of the pools prevented the determination of the preferred habitat type (woodland or grassland). Also, because of the loss of all tagged specimens by the end of summer, hibernating sites were not located.There is evidence that the gradual disappearance of tagged specimens may be explained by predation or movement of the frogs underground or out of the study area. Other frogs lost their cobalt wires and could no longer be located.

Graduation date: 1987

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-133).