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The Impact Of Oil Price Shocks On The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez Borderplex, Teodulo Soto

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper analyzes the effect of oil prices shocks on the economies of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. It employs a measure of the net oil price increase developed by Hamilton (1996) in a manner similar to that applied by Sill (2007) to the national economy. Impulse response functions are calculated to determine the impact of a 10-percent oil price shock on the regional economy. The asymmetrical relationship between oil prices and economic performance is also examined using a net oil price decrease variable. Results found in this study are inconclusive. A negative and statistically significant relationship with …

Isotope Geochemistry And Geochronology Of Lavas From The Line Islands Chain, Central Pacific Basin: Insight Into The Origin Of The Line Islands, Lauren Storm

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Geochemical compositions of melts produced in the Earth's mantle provide key data for understanding Earth's internal structure. Particularly, the compositions of unusually large outpourings of basaltic lavas in large igneous provinces involve substantial source volumes, thereby contributing to our understanding of mantle structure and dynamics. Although the origin of such lavas remains enigmatic, geochemically they may originate from Earth's oldest and deepest mantle reservoir, transported by a mantle plume or by entrainment in passive upwelling beneath a fast spreading center. The Pacific Ocean basin hosts several large igneous provinces that formed near a triple junction of three oceanic plates, and …

Characterization Of The Behavioral, Biochemical And Molecular Indices Of Stress Produced By Nicotine Exposure And Withdrawal In Male And Female Rats, Oscar Valentin Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Tobacco use is a major economic and health problem. Particularly concerning is that women consume more tobacco products, have a more difficult time quitting, and are less likely to benefit from cessation therapies than men. As a result, women are at higher risk of developing tobacco-related diseases. Women are generally more susceptible to stress and are more likely to cope with stress by smoking as compared to men. During abstinence, women also experience intense anxiety as compared to men and report that the anxiety-reducing effects of smoking are the main reason for continued use and relapse. Thus, stress produced …

Control Of A Robotic Prototype Multi-Axis Synergistic System, Julio A. Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Balance is an ability that every person has and uses in normal daily life, to walk, run, stand, dance, etc. However, there are people who suffer a kind of balance impairment. The Computerized Dynamic Posturography (CDP) is technique in balance rehabilitation, where the patient is asked to stand on a moving platform that is equipped with sensors that measure how well you maintain your balance. In this thesis, a new CDP mechatronic system, the Multi-Axis Synergistic System (MASS), for balance assessment is being developed.

As a first stage and as the objective of this research work the transferable control algorithm …

Guerreras Sitiadas: Ansiedades De Género En Dos Obras Del Siglo De Oro, Daniel Alfredo Vega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Uno de los momentos más dramáticos de la historia de España fue la Guerra de Sucesión Castellana que tomó lugar entre 1475 y 1479. Durante ese periodo, se desató una contienda de sucesión por el trono que habí­a quedado vacante tras la muerte del rey Enrique IV. Siglo y medio más tarde, Lope de Vega y Tirso de Molina escogieron este conflicto como telón de fondo para ambientar dos obras dramáticas en las cuales se ven representadas diversas ansiedades y temas relacionados con género.

Development Of An Electronic Vehicle Miles Travelled Toll Model, Marketa Vavrova

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents the reasons why the fuel tax is no longer a viable source of revenues and suggests new sources of funding. One possibility is to replace the fuel tax with a distance-based toll applied nationwide. Vehicle miles travelled (VMT) fee is compared to the fuel tax, and the relationship between road infrastructure spending and fuel taxation in the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) is explored. Also the European approach to taxation and tolling is described and compared to the situation in Texas.

The development of a statewide distance-based toll model to estimate the feasibility of …

A Study Of International Wastewater Challenges And Policy In The Tijuana River Watershed, Gloria Ann Villaverde

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Since the 1930s, untreated and undertreated sewage from Tijuana, Baja California, México has been released into the Tijuana River Watershed causing contamination of the water supply, crops, the Tijuana Estuary and California beaches. Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has exacerbated the problem by causing population and industrial growth explosions for which there have been insufficient services to meet the needs of the people. The waters of the Tijuana River flow (from México) north over the International Border, into the Tijuana Estuary, discharge out to the Pacific Ocean and often flow north, up the California Coast; therefore, …

Leonard Bernstein: Conductor, Educator, Jonathan Vogan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to delve into the life and work of Leonard Bernstein and his contributions to the world - more specifically - the world of music. The discussion will focus primarily on his contributions to the field of conducting as well as some of his educational endeavors. This will be achieved using biographical information and audio/visual recordings of his conducting and teaching.

Partial Orders For Representing Uncertainty, Causality And Decision Making: General Properties, Operations, And Algorithms, Francisco Adolfo Zapata

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

One of the main objectives of science and engineering is to help people select the most beneficial decisions. To make these decisions, we must know people's preferences, we must have the information about different possible consequences of different decisions. Since information is never absolutely accurate and precise, we must also have information about the degree of certainty of different parts on information. All these types of information naturally lead to partial orders:

- For preferences, a <= b means that b is preferable to a. This relation is used in decision theory.

- For events, a <= b means that a can influence b. This causality relation is one of the fundamental notions of physics, especially of physics of space-time.

* For uncertain statements, a <= b means that a is less certain than b. This relation is used in logics describing uncertainty, such as fuzzy logic.

In each of these areas, there is abundant research about studying the corresponding partial orders. …

Biological Effects Of Copper On Prosopis Pubescens (Screw Bean Mesquite), Marian Nicte Zappala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Phytoremediation is an emerging technology for cleaning industrial and urban contamination (Peuke and Rennenberg, 2005). Many factors including germination rate, biomass changes, biochemical changes, and nutrient changes must be determined in order to utilize a plant for phytoremediation. Our results showed that Prosopis pubescens (Screw bean mesquite) is a hyperaccumulator of copper from copper sulfate and a feasible option to remediate fields with up to 200 ppm of copper sulfate.

Screw bean mesquite seeds are viable even after 30 years of storage. Both copper sulfate and copper nitrate decreased the germination rate of screw bean mesquite seeds. In soil grown …

Why A Wall, Pratheepan Gulasekaram

Publications

No abstract provided.

Reading Over Your Shoulder: Social Readers And Privacy Law, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

The U.S. Trade Representative's Democracy Problem: The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) As A Juncture For International Lawmaking In The United States, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

Prisons, Poverty And Power, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

No abstract provided.

Constructing The Threat And The Role Of The Expert Witness: A Response To Aziz Rana's Who Decides On Security?, Wadie E. Said

Publications

Aziz Rana's article presents clearly the overlooked but crucial question of "Who Decides on Security?" Namely, is determining who or what groups constitute a threat something that we are capable of making ourselves, or must we necessarily cede that authority to those in power-who supposedly have both the access to knowledge and the ability to understand it-to protect us from threats we cannot perceive? Using Rana's historical analysis as a framework, this Article builds on his thesis to show how the wide latitude granted to the conclusions of the Executive Branch's national security specialists in political matters has migrated into …

The Message And Means Of The Modern Terrorism Prosecution, Wadie E. Said

Publications

This Article, written in conjunction with Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems' 2011 Symposium on Ten Years After 9/11: Rethinking Counterterrorism, stemmed from a panel that examined "how the United States and other Western countries receive Islamic culture in their societies and how they export their Western cultures to the Islamic world, in each case to assess the degree to which their cross-cultural behaviors mitigate or worsen anti-Western terrorism from the Middle East and Central/South Asia and to recommend solutions if needed."' This contribution focuses on the criminal terrorism prosecution in the United States, and takes up the panel's theme by …

Aall Secretary Is The Joint Institute Luncheon Speaker, Karen Skinner

Publications

No abstract provided.