Digital Commons Network^™

Implementation Of Childhood Obesity Prevention And Control Policies In The United States And Latin America: Lessons For Cross-Border Research And Practice, Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Elizabeth Rhodes, Olga L. Sarmiento, Camila Corvalan, Rachel Sturke, Susan Vorkoper

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Progress has been made in the development and widespread implementation of effective interventions to address childhood obesity, yet important challenges remain. To understand how the United States and Latin American countries achieved success in implementing obesity policies and programs (PAPs) and identify improvement opportunities using implementation science principles. We identified three comparative case studies: (1) front-of-food package labeling (Mexico and Chile); (2) Open Streets/play streets (Colombia and the United States); and (3) the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (Brazil and the United States). Information from multiple sources (e.g., scientific and gray literature and key informant interviews) was synthesized to describe barriers, facilitators, …

Global Journey To Post-Pandemic Normalcy And Revival, Andrzej Sankowski

Journal of Global Awareness

After a year of COVID-19, countries, societies, and individuals are longing for normalcy and beginning to consider what life will be like post-pandemic. Efforts and experiences of countries in the European Union, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Australia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States are examined as they face challenges to end the pandemic and prepare for the post-pandemic reality. What will be the post-pandemic "new normalcy"? What changes caused by the pandemic are permanent in societies and the world? What are the necessary reforms that have to take place as part of normalcy? Reflections on the impacts of vaccinations, …

Gender, Sexuality And Human Rights: A Comparative Analysis Of The Role Of Civil Society Organizations In Hiv/Aids Responses In Brazil And Nigeria, Emma Stefania Schoppmeyer

Senior Theses

A global epidemic that has affected lives around the world, AIDS has accentuated inequalities across class, race, gender and sexual orientation. In many developing countries, women are disproportionately affected by the epidemic and are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection. The objective of this paper is to address the cultural and social norms surrounding gender and sexuality that have allowed and perpetuated women’s susceptibility to AIDS. I examine the gender constructs and inequities in Brazil and Nigeria to demonstrate how gender affects transmission in sexual relationships as well as the role it plays in creating differential experiences with HIV …

Neo-Extracting Gilded Welfare States: A Comparative Study Of Extractivism And Latin American Welfare State Formation, Pabvitraa Ramcharan

Student Theses and Dissertations

This paper attempts to establish a stronger linkage between neo-extractivism and social welfare states in contemporary Latin America using both a micro and macro perspective. By emphasizing the human capital aspect of the welfare state’s role in promoting equitable redistribution and correcting market failures, this paper attempts to evaluate the extent to which extractive industries contribute to human capital formation. Due to the sectors’ large influence on the state and weak capacity to create employment, I develop the concept of the “gilded welfare state,” defined by the inability of extractive industries to ensure equal opportunity and generate formal employment despite …

Yankee Go Home: Roci In Latin America, Vitoria Hadba

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, at an event hosted by the United Nations, American artist Robert Rauschenberg announced his most ambitious and controversial project to date: the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange—or ROCI. Blending primary source documents with social art history, I retrace the artist’s steps—and missteps—during the first leg of his tour through Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela. This thesis investigates the convoluted political implications of ROCI in Latin America during the transitional period in which binary Cold War politics were ebbing amidst the rise of a global free-market economy.

The Great Equalizer Or A Modern Iteration Of Historical Inequality: Artificial Intelligence In Latin America, Santana Amaker

Honors Theses

In recent years, governments across Latin America have taken steps to foster the development and implementation of artificial intelligence causing an expansion of the use of AI in the region. For instance, countries like Colombia and Argentina are using AI in their judicial systems. Superficially, the allure of AI in the judicial system stems from the thought that AI is an impartial entity that will pass fair and unbiased judgement. However, just like the programmers responsible for creating AI, algorithms used in AI system can be biased. The reason being AI is often trained to make predictions or decisions based …

Seeking Asylum In A Modern Society: Global Responses To Latin American Migration, Rebecca Dickinson

Senior Honors Projects

The United States is no stranger to asylum seekers and refugees. The most famous seaport in the country houses a 305-foot-tall statue of a woman bearing a torch with words from the poem The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus etched at her feet: “‘Give me your tired, your poor, /Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’”^[1] The Statue of Liberty is a symbolic representation of open arms to immigrants from all walks of life. But if everyone is welcome, why do so few actually gain entrance?

US interventionism policies in the 20th century have defined the lives of millions …

Colombia's Judicial Reform: What Now?, Maya Smith

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

A current body of research examines Colombia’s judicial institutions and focuses on the successes and failures of past reforms. While the literature is overwhelmingly negative, scholars have managed to put forward pieces of a potential solution. I draw on these analyses to answer the question, “what is the best possible course of action for Colombia’s future judicial reform projects?” Throughout this paper, I draw on Colombian newspapers, think-tank reports, survey research, and academic studies to formulate a cohesive answer. This existing literature identifies that Colombia’s weak judiciary stems from Spanish colonialism’s lasting influence, the reactive and defensive nature of judges, …

Terrorism And Counter-Terrorism In Latin America: A Comparative Study Of Peru And Colombia, Reagan Shane

Global Tides

This paper investigates the counter-terrorism strategies employed against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Colombia and the Shining Path (SL) in Peru and analyzes the effectiveness of those strategies. It begins by exploring the foundation of each organization and its respective goals, organization and tactics. Using this information, it then explores the counter-terrorism strategies employed by the government of each country in which the organizations were operating to determine the effectiveness of those strategies and how the structure of the terrorist organization might change that effectiveness. The paper concludes that military strategies have only been somewhat effective in …

2014 Health Demographics Of A Rural Nicaraguan Community, Andrew Guymon, Brianna Mcgowen, Emma Foster

Research Symposium

In December 2014, a team of church members and associated healthcare workers from Owasso First Assembly in Owasso, Oklahoma, provided a free, two-day clinic and health assessment to the rural community of La Ceiba Dudu in Nicaragua. Services included medical exams, basic medications, dental extractions, and over the counter reading glasses. This report is a retrospective review of the patient records documented at that clinic. We analyzed the prevalence of parasites across five age cohorts and searched for correlations between parasite diagnosis and various patient metrics, including BMI, age, and gender. We searched for a relationship between occupants per household …

No Publication Favelas! Latin America's Vision For Open Access, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

Open access was intended to be the great equalizer but its promise has not come to fruition in many lower-income countries of the Global South. Under-resourcing is only one of the many reasons why these scholars and publishers are marginalized. In order to examine inequality in our global scholarly communications system, we can compare a negative and a positive outgrowth of this imbalance. Predatory publishing represents a a weak imitation of traditional, commercial journal publishing. In contrast, Latin America’s community-based, quality scholarly infrastructure is anti-colonial. It can be argued that Latin America’s publishing infrastructure represents one solution to predatory publishing. …

Arteletra: The Sixties In Latin America And The Politics Of Going Unnoticed, Jason A. Bartles

Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures

ArteletrA analyzes the Sixties in Latin America in order to revisit the core claim of literary and cultural studies to political relevancy in the contemporary world: the task of making visible the invisible. Though visibility can secure rights for the disenfranchised, it also risks subjecting them to the biopolitical and capitalist arrangements of space. What is at stake in this book is a series of aesthetic and ethical tools for engaging in politics—defined here as the potential to disagree—without first passing through visibility. These tools cohere around a practice Bartles calls “the politics of going unnoticed,” which he derives from …

A Systems Approach For Improving The Performance Of Rural Community-Managed Water Systems Using Siasar: Case Studies In Bolivia And Colombia, Rachel A. Cannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Globally, the focus of environmental engineers and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) professionals in the rural water sector has shifted from building new technology to ensuring long-term functionality of water systems and closing the access gap between urban and rural residents. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the main challenges to ensuring clean water for all rural residents is poor service delivery quality and limited sustainability over time. A common management strategy in the region, and globally, is community-management, where community members manage, operate, and maintain the water system through cost sharing and financial management. The failure of community-managed water …

The Global Rise Of Judicial Review Since 1945, Steven G. Calabresi

Catholic University Law Review

This article expands upon the theory put forth in Professor Bruce Ackerman’s book, Revolutionary Constitutions: Charismatic Leadership and the Rule of Law, in which he posits that twentieth century revolutions in a variety of countries led to the constitutionalization of charisma, thus binding countries to the written constitutions established by their revolutionary leaders.

Constitutional law scholar, Steven G. Calabresi, argues here that world constitutionalism, in fact, existed prior to 1945, and what is especially striking about the post-1945 experience is that the constitutionalism of charisma included not only the adoption of written constitutions, but also the adoption of meaningful …

The Making Of An Avant-Gardist: A Study Of Rafael Aponte-Ledée’S Early Life And Works (1957–1966), Noel Torres-Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the interconnectedness of political and musical discourses in Latin America by examining the formative years of Puerto Rican composer Rafael Aponte-Ledée (b. 1938), a leading figure in the Puerto Rican avant-garde movement in the late 1960s. Through extensive archival research, oral history, and qualitative field work, I analyze his time as a student at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (1957-1964) and at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires (1965-1966). With this, I address the intricate network of musical works, events, mentors, institutional discourses, textbooks, technologies, …

Three New Species Of Phaea Newman (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), With Discussion Of The Need For And Designation Of A Lectotype For Phaea Rufiventris Bates, James E. Wappes, Antonio Santos-Silva

Insecta Mundi

Three new species of Phaea Newman, 1840 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) are described from Me­xico: P. quadrimaculata Wappes and Santos-Silva, new species; P. aurantia Wappes and Santos-Silva, new species; and the third, P. tavakiliani Wappes and Santos-Silva, new species, whose specimens were found within the type series of Phaea rufiventris Bates, 1872. Hence, a lectotype is designated for the latter and the new species is described herein.

Queer And Trans Migrations: Dynamics Of Illegalization, Detention, And Deportation, Karma Chávez, Eithne Luibheid

LAII Events

LGBTQ migrants in the United States and around the world often lack documentation and consistently risk detention and deportation. Eithne Luibhéid and Karma R. Chávez discuss how and why they created an edited collection that explores how LGBTQ migrants and allies negotiate, resist, refuse and critique these processes while working to build futures that foster thriving for all. They also share excerpts from their own essays in the collection. Karma R. Chávez teaches, writes, and currently serves as chair in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin where she also holds several …

Pedagogies Of Latin American Independence: An English-Speaking Analysis, Abigail Townend

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………..20

III. Textbook Critique……………………………...36

IV. New Textbook Entry…………………………..40

V. Bibliography…………………………………....43

Articulating Race And Nation In Brazilian Popular Song, James Mcnally

World Music Textbook

This article presents a cultural history of Brazilian popular song (canção popular) and the many musical genres that fall under its umbrella. From the early days of samba to contemporary popular styles, popular song in Brazil has long represented a site for negotiating complex questions of race, nation, and politics.

La Fiebre De La Reelección En Latinoamérica: Desmoronamiento Del Estado De Derecho Y Sus Consecuencias Para Los Derechos Humanos, N.B.

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Oil Curse Validated: Evidence From Eurasia And Latin America, Barrak Algharabali, J. S. Butler, Stacy Closson

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications

Many studies have found a negative relationship between oil abundance and democracy. However, recent studies have tried to upend this correlation by employing time-series techniques or finding a conditionality on other factors. This study contributes to the literature by employing an Arellano Bond model that corrects for fixed effects and adopts new variables from recent empirical studies. Comparing Eurasia and Latin America from the 1960s to 2010, we find that the theory of a negative relationship between an abundance of natural resources and democracy remains valid.

Forced Pregnancy And Gender Based Violence In Latin America, Miranda Carnes

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Legal Process: An End To Human Trafficking In Latin America, Miranda Carnes

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Tropical Forest Succession At Landscape Scales Despite Uncertainty In Landsat Time Series, T. Trevor Caughlin, Cristina Barber, Gregory P. Asner, Nancy F. Glenn, Stephanie A. Bohlaman, Chris H. Wilson

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Forecasting rates of forest succession at landscape scales will aid global efforts to restore tree cover to millions of hectares of degraded land. While optical satellite remote sensing can detect regional land cover change, quantifying forest structural change is challenging. We developed a state-space modeling framework that applies Landsat satellite data to estimate variability in rates of natural regeneration between sites in a tropical landscape. Our models work by disentangling measurement error in Landsat-derived spectral reflectance from process error related to successional variability.We applied our modeling framework to rank rates of forest succession between 10 naturally regenerating sites in Southwestern …

Financial Dollarization And De-Dollarization In The New Millennium, Eduardo Levy Yeyati

Documents

No abstract provided.

Threshold Effects Of Terms Of Trade On Latin American Growth, Andre C. Vianna, Andre V. Mollick

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper investigates nonlinear relationships between terms of trade volatility (totvol) and economic growth in 14 Latin American economies from 1997 to 2014. In the 2000s, Latin American countries experienced accelerated economic growth often attributed to commodity price booms. We split the sample into two regimes based on totvol thresholds determined by bootstrap techniques. Fixed-effects, instrumental variable and dynamic panel regressions address endogeneity in trade-growth, subject to traditional economic channels such as domestic investment, population growth, exchange rate, government size, and institutions. We find statistically significant thresholds and stronger trade-growth links during the 2000s commodity boom and in larger economies.

Child Exposure To Intimate Partner Violence In The Latin American Region, Gabriel Alvarado

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major public health issue that harms thousands of families and communities across the globe. Unlike other forms of violence or criminal behavior, IPV is often concealed within the privacy of one's household, where the public cannot witness the occurrence of spousal abuse. Typically, more women are victims in an intimate relationship than men are based on recent research. However, there is a lack of research that investigates the vulnerability of a child who is exposed to IPV. This systematic literature review relates to the analysis and investigation of children exposed to IPV in Latin …

Latin America & Caribbean Collection, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection, assembled by Dr. Corinna Zeltsman of Georgia Southern University, consists of items from Latin America and the Caribbean dating from 1692 to 1985. Materials include political pamphlets, newsletters, ephemera, sheet music, published books, and other materials. The subject matter includes U.S.-Latin American relations, popular culture, and revolutions.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Making The Connections: Gender Quotas, Representation, And Critical Mass In Latin America, Katherine O'Neill

CMC Senior Theses

Using Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico as case studies, this paper examines how women’s collaboration influences the effects of gender quotas on women’s representation. The efficacy of gender quotas in increasing the numerical representation of women and improving gender equality outcomes is well-researched, but questions remain about the precise linkages between the numerical representation of women and the substantive representation of women. This thesis analyzes previously identified linkages alongside actions by women’s organizations in national legislatures and civil society to better understand women’s roles as critical actors in making gender quotas successful. The findings suggest that women’s collaboration is crucial …

Gambling Autonomy: The Impact Of Latin American Central Bank Independence On Risk Aversion Within Monetary Policy Implementation, Julia Duarte Schulman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the effect of Latin American central bank independence (CBI) on risk-averse behaviors in monetary policy. Using a fixed effects panel regression, I document how multiple forms of monetary policy are influenced by different macroeconomic variables, conflicting policy targets and central bank independence benchmarks. The results show that increasing CBI has a positive impact on risk aversion, especially in policies targeting inflation and money supply. Additionally, the results show that interest rates and reserve requirements were especially susceptible to changes in independence, while the monetary base and volume of domestic credit were less influenced. Finally, as time and …