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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Sociology

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University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

2016

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Optimizing Border Security With Stochastic And Deterministic Strategies, Gabriel A. Rueda Dec 2016

Optimizing Border Security With Stochastic And Deterministic Strategies, Gabriel A. Rueda

Theses and Dissertations

International trade and border security have always been linked together, and so has the need to find ways to improve security decisions. The United States and bordering countries benefit from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but amongst the positive effects of NAFTA there is a looming drug threat that effects the bi-national supply chains. In 2015 Customs and Border Protections (CBP) processed over 72,000 trucks, rail, and sea containers a day. CBP also seized 3.4 million pounds of narcotics, the majority of them at the ports of entry. With unknown threats using commercial vehicles to transport their illicit …

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Ethnicity And Poetry: A Systems Theory Approach To Contemporary African American And Mexican American Poetry, Antonio Paniagua Guzman Dec 2016

Ethnicity And Poetry: A Systems Theory Approach To Contemporary African American And Mexican American Poetry, Antonio Paniagua Guzman

Theses and Dissertations

Given the ongoing ethnic transformation of the current society of the United States, contemporary sociologists have extensively studied ethnic relations from diverse theoretical and methodological approaches. Despite the vast sociological research recently developed, the literary-based methodological approach remains partially uncultivated. This study explores motivations and patterns of minority groups’ ethnic performance in contemporary poetry by analyzing inter and intra-group similarities and differences of diverse linguistic and cultural traits. From secondary data analysis, this study examines four hundred poems authored by forty contemporary African American and Mexican American writers experientially connected to the state of Texas. Grounded in systems theory, this …

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Emerging Environmental Justice Issues In Nuclear Power And Radioactive Contamination, Dean Kyne, Bob Bolin Jul 2016

Emerging Environmental Justice Issues In Nuclear Power And Radioactive Contamination, Dean Kyne, Bob Bolin

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nuclear hazards, linked to both U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power, pose substantial environment justice issues. Nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors produce low-level ionizing radiation, high level nuclear waste, and are subject to catastrophic contamination events. Justice concerns include plant locations and the large potentially exposed populations, as well as issues in siting, nuclear safety, and barriers to public participation. Other justice issues relate to extensive contamination in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and the mining and processing industries that have supported it. To approach the topic, first we discuss distributional justice issues of NPP sites in the U.S. …

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In Search Of Popularity: Non-Conforming Reputations Of Hispanic Adolescent Graffiti Writers, Igor Ryabov Jul 2016

In Search Of Popularity: Non-Conforming Reputations Of Hispanic Adolescent Graffiti Writers, Igor Ryabov

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although the literature on graffiti writers continues to expand, there is a paucity of studies on Hispanic adolescent writers in the U.S., especially with a focus on assimilation. Using the qualitative analyses of in-depth interviews with Hispanic adolescent writers, this study attempts to fill in the gaps in our understanding of whether and how ethnologies of writers differ with respect to their family-, school-, and peer-related experiences. A key feature of the study is comparison of two crews (groups) of Hispanic adolescent writers who differ with respect to their immigrant generational status. Above all, this paper seeks an understanding of …

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Conspicuous Consumption Among Hispanics: Evidence From The Consumer Expenditure Survey, Igor Ryabov Jun 2016

Conspicuous Consumption Among Hispanics: Evidence From The Consumer Expenditure Survey, Igor Ryabov

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ethnic disparities in consumption patterns (clothing, jewellery, cars, etc.) have been a focus of social research for decades, yet little attention has been paid to conspicuous consumption and the relative importance of ethnicity and social class as its determinants. In an attempt to fill in this gap and to deconstruct the monolithic category of Hispanic consumers, the present study used nationally-representative data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) to investigate the expenditure patterns of Hispanic consumer households, with a special focus on conspicuous consumption. On the theoretical plane, this study evaluated two alternative explanations of the propensity to consume …

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Post-Migration Experiences Of Female Immigrant Spouses From The Former Soviet Union, Igor Ryabov May 2016

Post-Migration Experiences Of Female Immigrant Spouses From The Former Soviet Union, Igor Ryabov

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper applied an intersectional approach to analyse self-representations of female marriage migrants from the former Soviet Union who married US nationals. On the basis of in-depth interviews with these individuals and their husbands, the present study explored a range of topics related, but not limited, to pre-migration history, partner choice, post-migration adjustment. Failures of romantic relationships with local partners were cited by both men and women as the primary reason to turn to transnational marriage market to seek out brides and grooms, respectively. US men were looking for traditional wives and expected their spouses to assume the roles of …

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The Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Residential Burglary In Brownsville, South Texas, Sonia Figueredo May 2016

The Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Residential Burglary In Brownsville, South Texas, Sonia Figueredo

Theses and Dissertations

The study utilized existing theories, including the pattern theory/environmental criminology, and the routine activities and lifestyles theories and also existing technology to examine the spatial and temporal patterning and variations in residential burglary, the processes that produce this type of burglary, and its incidence rates among the twelve law enforcement zones (PPZ’s) in the South Texas border city of Brownsville from 2006 to 2014. The data and information for the thesis were the raw Brownsville Police Department (BPD) data on residential burglary incidents that showed the addresses where, and the times, days, months and years when the incidents occurred. The …

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Synchronization Techniques In Multilingual Fiction: Voiced-Over Films In Poland, Katarzyna Sepielak Jan 2016

Synchronization Techniques In Multilingual Fiction: Voiced-Over Films In Poland, Katarzyna Sepielak

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This descriptive analysis of four multilingual fiction films voiced-over into Polish—Nine, Avatar, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Inglourious Basterds—provides insight into the application of different types of synchrony and their function in multilingual movies as well as the relation between synchronization and translation techniques. The results raise important questions about the main assumptions of voice-over translation, such as the illusion of authenticity, voice-over isochrony, and the reasoning behind literal synchrony.

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