Digital Commons Network^™

Three Essays On The Use Of Financial Derivatives By Latin American Banks In Brazil, Chile And Mexico, Andres E. Rivas-Chavez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

During the 1990s, Latin American countries implemented policies aimed at liberalizing their financial markets. Latin American countries deregulated the domestic financial and banking industries, removed controls on international capital flows, and promoted development of their domestic stock market. These countries implemented financial liberalization policies and programs in order to stimulate domestic savings and growth. Through financial liberalization they also attempted to reduce the direct intervention of the state in the economy and improve their financial infrastructure.

The implementation of such policies has led to an increase in capital flows to Latin America, an increase in the number of foreign banks, …

The Mediating Role Of Organizational Learning Between Absorptive Capacity And Performance In Companies Employing Enterprise Resource Planning Software, Edith Galy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation focuses on the acquisition of information systems technology and how the acquisition of information systems (IS) can improve the performance of a firm. The central purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature that explains the success of IS projects. It addresses the organizational processes that contribute to the successful implementation of IS, and explains why some organizations achieve financial returns and strategic advantages from their IS efforts while others do not.

The population in this dissertation consists of top level IS executives in the US or Canada employed in firms who have implemented enterprise resource …

The Effect Of Web Interface Features On Consumer Online Shopping Intentions, Jeffrey Sam Siekpe

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Amid the storm of hype over Internet adoption, it is observed that during the past years, organizations have taken considerable interest in eagerly acquiring computer hardware and software to implement electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications mostly to the detriment of human aspects of the information technology (IT) solutions (Freemantle, 2002; Lockwood & Lamp, 2000). Various Internet technologies, mostly the Web, have been implemented to offer online goods and services. Many credible estimates suggest that Internet buying and selling will account for close to $2 trillion of annual economic activity by 2004 (Citrin et al., 2003; Fry, 2000). While the promise of …

African American Fugitive Slaves And Freemen In Matamoros, Tamaulipas, 1820–1865, John C. Gassner

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the years leading up to the American Civil War, northeastern Mexico became a destination for fugitive slaves and African American freemen seeking refuge from the oppressive conditions caused by the expansion of the slave-based cotton economy in the southern United States and Texas. The geographic position of Matamoros, as well as social, economic and political changes in Mexico and the United States, made it one of the main destinations for African American emigrants leaving the Texas and other parts of the United States. This thesis examines the factors that caused different elements of African American fugitives slaves and freemen …

The Drivers And Antecedents Of Satisfaction, Trust, Commitment, And Loyalty Among Chinese Customers, Yun Chu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation explores the relationship between satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty among Chinese customers. The selection of China as the location for this study is due to a number of factors. China's economic expansion and recent ascension to full membership within the World Trade Association (WTO) has generated “excitement, uncertainty, and fear” (Ghoshal, 2003). In the recent past trade with China has grown at on average of 15 percent a year and foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has grown even faster (Ghoshal, 2003). This growth may result in an interesting paradox. If China maintains just two thirds of …

The Effect Of Personal And Managerial Capitalism On Firms' Capabilities In Colombia's Grupos Económicos, Carmen Leonor Martinez-Lopez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Researchers have investigated business groups or grupos económicos and personal and managerial capitalism as separate topics. This dissertation integrates these concepts in order to study the effect of personal and managerial capitalism on firms' performance in Colombia's grupos económicos. Colombian grupos económicos were selected as the sample for this study for a number of reasons. For example, Colombian is ranked first in Latin America in the overall ranking for world competitiveness for countries with a population greater than 20 million (The World Competitiveness Year book, 2003). Although small by international standards (Reinhardt and Peres, 2000), since at least the …

An Arabesque Tango: Dancing Letters. From Two Continents And One Ocean Far Away My Memories!, Fulden Sara

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

An Arabesque Tango is an exhibition that brings together many different sensibilities from my mixed heritage, Central European and Ottoman-Byzantium, Seljuk and Middle Eastern influences. I attempt to capture in my pieces the magical spirituality of the Sufi mystics and the elegant grace of Islamic Art.

Prior to deciding to pursue an advanced degree in Fine Arts I paid little attention to Islamic Art. Having grown up in the European quarter of Istanbul my political, cultural and professional focus was westward. As I searched for vehicles that would give visual form to my desire to create a personal art form …

The Effect Of A Non-Verbal Redirection On Out-Of-Seat Behavior In A Subject Diagnosed As Adhd And Mr, Amy Sharon Ellison-Marino

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This was a single subject study with the A-B-A-B across settings withdrawal design. This design was selected because the subject has comorbidity issues, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Mental Retardation (MR). This researcher implemented the A-B-A-B design and collected data during all four phases. The subject was a eight year old Hispanic female diagnosed as ADHD and mild MR. ADHD is characterized by impulsivity, lack of ability to focus attention, and hyperactivity. MR is characterized by below average intellectual functioning which significantly limits functioning in at least two skill areas.

Antes: A Web-Based Acanthosis Nigricans And Other Obesity Related Information System, Chunyue Wang

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Acanthosis nigricans is a cutaneous marker associated with systemic disorders and may serve as an indicator for risk of Type 2 diabetes. Acanthosis nigricans screening can help identify children who have high insulin levels and who may be at-risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. The ANTES system is a computerization attempt for acanthosis nigricans control of the student population from elementary schools and secondary schools in Texas. A general description of the system and the medical and history background of the ANTES program is given. The technology applied to the system is demonstrated. An overview of the system operation status …

A Link With Nature: The Healing Of Soul, Kelly B. Kraehe

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This paper accompanies the Master of Fine Arts exhibition titled A Link With Nature. Art cannot divorce itself from its process, from its artist, and from becoming a product. Like the canopy, trunk and roots of a tree, the parts of art are mysteriously interdependent and would not exist alone. So too in my art, the artist, process, and product are woven together to form a visual tapestry that I have defined throughout the thesis paper. As artist, aesthetic experiences have formed the vision that I portray through painting and sculpture. The process of going places, seeing things and …

Indicators Of Teacher Collaboration In Texas Public High Schools, Michael James Mcclure

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The study employs both quantitative and qualitative data to extend the work of Rosenholtz (1991) with public elementary schools and the work of Hickey (1994) with public secondary schools in trying to assess the extent to which four pre-defined socio-organizational factors predict teacher collaboration in public schools. The four socio-organizational factors include: teacher certainty about a technical culture and their instructional capability; shared instructional goals; teacher involvement in decision making about instructional matters; and teacher involvement in team teaching. The study also investigates the hypothesis that the academic departments in public secondary schools provide structures that more nearly approach the …

Four-Year Longitudinal Study On The Impact Of Migrant Student Identification On Academic Achievement, Graciela Villegas Perez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this research was to study the impact of migrant student identification or non-identification by receiving schools on academic achievement. The relationship between migrant students' achievement and the condition of identification by receiving schools and potential correlates, gender, age, birthplace and language proficiency was also analyzed.

This is a four year longitudinal study on one hundred seventy five migrant students' academic achievement in grades third, fourth, fifth and sixth. The study is divided into two parts. The first part is the data analysis of student records obtained from the New Generation System (NGS), which records the identification or …

Data Analysis In The Antes System, Yavuz Tor

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Acanthosis nigricans is a skin condition that can be used as an indicator for the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. Border Health Office, in University of Texas - Pan American, organizes screenings in schools for acanthosis nigricans. Screening results are, then, collected and evaluated in the Border Health Office. The ANTES System is a computer system that stores and manages the data collected in those screenings.

This study is on the analysis of those collected data to track the progress of data entry, to evaluate the progress on obesity and related problems, and to discover the …

Visualization Of Internet Web Pages Based On Authority And Word Frequency, David Navarro

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The growth, accessibility, and integration of the World Wide Web with contemporary information utilization provides a rich domain in which to explore information retrieval systems. One approach in the evolution of retrieval systems couples successful and long-standing techniques of information retrieval with new techniques, such as visualization. The system developed and reported in this thesis takes this approach. It builds upon well-known techniques of information retrieval including stemming, keyword matching, and cosine similarity. It also incorporates the new and relatively successful hubs and authority approach, which describes Web documents by their reference by other documents. Finally, it develops a new …

Reconstructing Memories: An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Mental And Real Space In Art And Architecture, Claudia S. Behar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

As an architect and artist I believe that there is a strong relationship between art and architecture. The perceived relationship between both has at times been thought more or less significant; however, history has shown us that a society or an individual can enhance the relationship between the two disciplines. I am working on establishing the strength of that relationship. My work of art is focused on the creation of spaces. It is about experiencing a variety of places through the visual and the emotional senses. The architectural settings that I depict and construct are far from the realm of …

Breeding Distribution And Habitat Use Of Audubon's Oriole In The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas, Steven Gerald Monk

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Audubon's Oriole ( Icterus graduacauda ) was known historically throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas, but its breeding range has now declined to mainly riparian habitat in Starr County. Habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, and brood parasitism by Bronzed Cowbirds ( Molothrus aeneus ) are likely causes of this decline. Habitat patches where Audubon's Orioles were present were larger, with a larger vertical range of canopy, greater vegetation volume, greater richness of bird and woody plant species, less local deforestation, and less local habitat fragmentation than where Audubon's Orioles were absent. Bronzed Cowbirds showed no numeric correlation …

Claus/Claws: A Journey Through Leonardland's Multivalent Meanings, Chris Leonard

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This exhibition paper presents the linkage of apparently unrelated topic and content. This arduous task is accomplished through an exploration of opposites and an overall presentation in the form of family fun or domestic distress disguised within personal world and the overall umbrella of homonyms: Claus (as in Santa) and Claws (as in cat). The work presented is a view of Leonardland, an intensely personal vision of my family and our history melded into a proposed future as seen through a wild conglomeration of seemingly dissimilar visions comprising the eclectic cultural mix that is our life on this geographic and …

The Effects Of Nationality In The Intercultural Relationship In A Maquila Environment, Cultural Dimensions A Practical Approach, Daniel Martin Reynoso Ortiz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Maquiladora Industry has enhanced economic development in the U.S. and Mexico border region. Initially, investors came to set up assembly lines requiring a small amount of technical skill; however, increases in the technological level of products have created the need for companies to require more technical expertise from their staff. Today, the requirement is for the design or redesign of some of their products and the manufacturing processes required to make these products. This brings managerial problems in dealing with technical people in cross cultural environments. These problems deal with staffing issues such as getting the right people and …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: The Dissolution Of Business Relationships In The Global Market Place, Jennifer A. Pope

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Richard Caves (1998) states that “dead business units tell no tales” (p. 8), and by extension one could argue that dead business relationships also tell no tales. However, it is the purpose of this dissertation to tell the tales of multiple dead business relationships in hope that other businesses can learn from their mistakes. Business relationships have been and continue to be a vital part of business. With the globalization of the economy, most, if not all, businesses will have some form of international contact. For businesses with limited resources or no experience often the most efficient means to expand …

Effects Of Co-Teaching On Student Participation And Math Success On Students With Learning Disabilities In The General Education Classroom, Mia Karen Baldwin

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

A Numerous research studies have been conducted to determine the effects of inclusion on academics, few of these studies specify the method used. The purpose of this study was to determine whether co-teaching would increase student's participation in the regular math classroom. The study was conducted in a sixth-grade regular education classroom in which students with learning disabilities were included. The co-teaching consisted mostly of interactive teaching between the regular education and the special education teacher. The subjects were students identified with a learning disability in either math calculation or math reasoning. The results indicated that student participation was not …

Factors That Contribute To The Retention Of Mexican American Special Education Teachers, Michelle R. Koyama

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Every school year there are reports of the large number of teaching vacancies in the nation, particularly in the field of special education. Currently there are numerous studies addressing the factors that cause special education teachers to leave the classroom, however, there are few studies that suggest variables that contribute to teachers remaining for five years or longer. Further, there are no published studies to date that address the retention of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) teachers, particularly, Mexican American special education teachers. Grounded surveys were constructed through guided interviews that were distributed to 114 participants in two urban school …

The Utilization Of Perceived Needs Importance In Explaining And Predicting Responsiveness To Organizational Inducements, Melissa N. Castillo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The concern over attraction and retention strategies in organizations has been widely acknowledged through the voluminous amount of research. As functions of human resources management (HRM), the emphasis in utilizing effective attraction and retention strategies cannot be ignored due to their importance to the firm's overall performance. In meeting this concern, inducements have been recently mentioned to be the missing link in providing more effective recruitment and retention strategies. Inducements are deliberate modifications of a job characteristic or the work environment, including benefits for the sole purpose of enhancing the attractiveness of a job to potential applicants and maintaining that …

Love, Labor And Life: Existence Through A Neo-Surrealist Style, Manuel Saenz Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The artistic work explained in this paper reflects imaginative ideas, consisting of meticulous work in a variety of media: pen and ink, oil paint, and steel. The creative process used to produce my works is based on both psychological and physical levels. Psychologically, I reflected and depended on dreams from the past to capture images from my sub-conscience. The importance of industrial symbolism and how it was chosen and strategically placed in the work aided me to deal with my preoccupation with death, a tradition that stems from my Hispanic roots, such as observing the Mexican holiday: Day of the …

All The Elephants Faced The Door: Fiction And Poetry, Stephanie B. Thome

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

All the Elephants Faced the Door is a collection of fiction and poetry. The first section, “The World is Nice to Butterflies,” is a collection of six short stories. The collection focuses on the Solis family. The family consists of six sisters and the stories follow their journey of falling in love, forming romantic relationships and the eventuality of marriage. The second half of my manuscript is composed of poems and is divided in three sections. The first, “The Stuff of the World is Love-Stuff,” is a sequence of love poems. The second section entitled, “Domestic Anxiety,” is a series …

Breast Cancer - Preventive Care And Screening Patterns Among Hispanic Women In The Rio Grande Valley, Sreelatha Gobburu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Although breast cancer rates are lower among Hispanic women than among white women, Hispanics are more likely to die from this disease. This may be related to the fact that Hispanic women are less likely to practice preventive care methods such as Breast Self Exam (BSE) and Mammography. Cultural beliefs and attitudes about diseases play a significant role in Hispanic health behavior. Access to and availability of medical services, affective reactions towards cancer screening and treatment methods, and socioeconomic and demographic factors are stronger determinants of health care practices of Hispanic women. This study examines screening patterns of Hispanic women …

The State Of Domestic Violence Protective Orders In Hidalgo County, Texas, Cindy Noel Berner

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Domestic violence has long been an issue for the criminal justice system and society. Despite decades of research, activism, and intervention programs, much remains to be accomplished. There are many facets to studying domestic violence. However, there are few studies that specifically deal with protective orders and what, if any, effect they have on the occurrence of domestic violence. The goal of this researcher was to discover whether there were any relationships between variables such as age, gender, and employment status and the decision to not issue a protective order. The data used in this study were obtained from the …

Ownership Variables And Capital Structure: Evidence From Chile, Suad Ghaddar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The relationship between ownership structure and capital structure is one of the less understood areas within the corporate finance literature. This study attempts to address this issue within a unique; organizational and institutional framework that may help explain the intricacies of such a relationship. The Chilean corporate scene with its high ownership concentration levels, industrial group structure, and familial control provides a rich testing ground to analyze how ownership variables define a firm's leverage policy.

Research has supported both a positive and a negative relationship between ownership concentration and leverage levels. On the one hand, firms characterized by high levels …

Exploring The Managerial Intuition And Knowledge Of Managers In Mexico's Maquiladora Industry, Jose Castillo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Decision-making has been a subject of interest for management scholars since the scientific management era (Wren, 1994). Brockmann and Simmonds (1997) and Guinipero, Dawley and Anthony (1999) studied the link between managerial decision-making and tacit knowledge in the effort to identify important cognitive elements in the day-to-day decision-making processes of firm managers. Despite their bold and innovative aims, however, Brockmann et al. (1997) and Guinipero et al. (1999) were weakened by their fundamental assumption that tacit knowledge is synonymous to intuition, and by inconsistencies in their research goals and methods. This dissertation addresses these shortcomings.

The contributions of this research …

Analysis Of Performance Capacity Of Hand Grip Through An Integrated Learning Curve Model, Miguel Torres

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

There are few activities or work task in the manufacturing industry that does not involve grip strength. That is why it is in the best interest of the manufacturing industry to have an understanding of the optimum grip strength gain capacity over time that would lead to better performance, accuracy and most of all prevent hand grip related injuries. For that reason, this thesis was concentrated in discovering a possible basic working model for estimating grip strength over time for a specific grip strength activity. The first step was to observe the trend characteristics of the strength gain data over …

The Red-Light District Of The Heart, Octavio Quintanilla Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a creative thesis, a collection of fifty-seven poems. The poems are divided thematically into four sections. Family, identity, and human relationships are some of the themes I write about. The critical introduction outlines the history of Chicano poetry and shows how my work fits within this context.