Texas A&M International University: Research Information Online (RIO)
Not a member yet
951 research outputs found
Sort by
Cobertura y tratamiento de la Caravana Migrante 2018 en la prensa digital de Nuevo León y Chiapas
Full text linkSe analizó la cobertura y tratamiento noticioso de la Caravana Migrante 2018 en la prensa digital de los estados mexicanos de Nuevo León y Chiapas. Dos aproximaciones teóricas son discutidas: el establecimiento de la agenda y el encuadre. Se utilizó un enfoque cuantitativo mediante el análisis de contenido para estudiar 120 historias periodísticas seleccionadas de forma aleatoria en los siguientes periódicos: El Norte, El Horizonte y ABC Noticias de Nuevo León; El Orbe, Diario del Sur y El Heraldo de Chiapas de Chiapas. Se encontró que el encuadre de entrada irregular de migrantes fue el más usado en los diarios de los dos estados, mismos que tuvieron una tendencia a usar en mayor medida a los actores políticos para otorgarle validez a sus historias periodísticas
What Factors Contribute to a Murder Case Being Designated as a Cold Case?
Full text linkHomicide is the most serious form of crime and unfortunately, if you are murdered in America, there is a one in three chance that the police will not identify your killer (Kaste, 2015). Unsolved homicide cases are often referred to as “cold cases.” Very little is understood about cold cases and the circumstances under which a case may go “cold”. To investigate the characteristics of cold cases, data from one of the largest cities in Texas (Houston) will be used to compare similarities and differences from Houston’s cleared homicide cases and cold cases. The factors that are the focus of my research are: victim characteristics of race, sex and, age, crime characteristics of time of day, day of week, seasonality, location of crime, method of death, and motive of death of the victim. The ultimate goal of this research was to build a model of cold cases that can help us to understand what make a case “cold,” why they go unsolved, and identify risk factors of a case that can eventually go cold. After running a binary logistic regression analysis on the data sets provided for this research, some predictors were found to be stronger than others
Three Essays on Credit Default Swap Market
Full text linkRecently, the market for credit derivatives proliferated over the past two decades and has been blamed heavily for the recent financial crisis. As a result, academic researchers have been paying close attention to the role of the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market in different aspects of the financial market. This dissertation examines the role of the Loan only Credit Default Swap Market in the primary loan market. The first chapter investigates the informational role of the Loan-only Credit Default Swap index (LCDX) in the costs of contemporaneous loans, particularly individual loan spread. The results show that there is a significant positive effect of the spread of the LCDX on the loan spread. The second chapter looks at how credit default swaps affect banks’ risk sharing behavior in syndicated loans. The LCDX allows banks to transfer the credit risk of borrowers in an alternative way. Thus, this paper investigates an important question on whether loan syndication and the LCDX are complementary or substitutive methods to share the risk for banks. The finding shows that lead banks retain more shares of a syndicated loan once the LCDX price increases. This finding indicates that lead banks use the loan syndication and credit derivatives as complementary risk-sharing tools. The third paper investigates the mean-variance efficiency of the market for credit default swaps that satisfies the restrictions and assumptions of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The result shows that the CDS market is not as efficient as the equity market. The spread of a single-name CDS is priced not only through overall market equilibrium but also through the idiosyncratic risk premium from the underlying firms
Investigation of the Antimicrobial Activity and Secondary Metabolites of Leaf Extracts from Vachellia Rigidula, Vachellia Farnesiana, Senegalia Berlandiery, and Senegalia Gregii
Full text linkThe rise of antibiotic resistance is pressuring scientists to investigate natural products for novel antimicrobial agents. Plants are widely used as an ethnomedicine and are thought to have been used therapeutically since the middle paleolithic age. These medicinal plants contain secondary metabolites, such as phenols, that may confer antimicrobial properties. Studies have reported antimicrobial activity of plant species within the Vachellia and Senegalia genera. The objective of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial activity and secondary metabolites of the following South Texas plant species: Vachellia rigidula, Vachellia farnesiana, Senegalia berlandieri, and Senegalia greggii. The disc diffusion test was performed to assess antimicrobial activity against selected bacteria and qualitative phytochemical tests were done to screen for secondary metabolites. The V. rigidula 70% ethanol extract inhibited the growth of Providencia alcalifaciens (7.85±1.19 mm). The V. farnesiana ethyl acetate extract showed inhibition against M. roseus (13.54±5.44). The V. rigidula 70% ethanol extract tested positive for phenols, tannins, diterpenes, sterols, triterpenes, and saponins. The V. farnesiana ethyl acetate extract tested positive for phenols, tannins, diterpenes, sterols, and triterpenes. The V. rigidula 70% ethanol extract may be a novel treatment for diarrhea-inducing P. alcalifaciens infections. The V. farnesiana ethyl acetate extract may be able to combat M. roseus infections in immunocompromised patients
The Editor\u27s Influence on the Author\u27s Writing Style: Gordon Lish\u27s Impact on the Works of Raymond Carver
Full text linkPostmodern short story author and poet, Raymond Carver became known as the American minimalist author. His works are composed of minimalist pieces filled with distanced narration, economy of language, and zero-point endings with limited descriptions-- inviting the reader to construct or complete the narrative beyond the lines within the text. Carver’s works, however, had been heavily edited at the hands of his trusted friend, Gordon Lish. Lines, paragraphs, even entire pages had been removed from the original manuscripts at Lish’s direction leaving only echoes of the author’s creations. A comparison of original, published works with restored manuscripts reveal the differences in pre and post edited styles. Carver’s true literary style shines through, and the editor’s impact on his works reveal the profound minimalist influence left by Gordon Lish
Total Flavonoid Content, Total Phenolic Content, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Acacia Rigidula Leaf Extracts
Full text linkThe growing incidence of multidrug resistant bacteria has prompted a need for alternatives to traditional antibiotics. The Fabaceae family including the Acacia species have been reported to contain secondary metabolites known to exhibit antibacterial and antioxidant activities. Specifically, A. ridigula was previously shown to be effective against a range of bacterial species. When extracting secondary metabolites from plants, the method and choice of solvent is important in order to efficiently extract a high yield. This study aims to: 1) determine whether Soxhlet or maceration is the more efficient extraction method; 2) determine whether acetone and ethanol will yield more bioactive compound extracts; 3) quantify flavonoids and total phenolics in our extracts; and 4) determine if our extracts contain antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. The degree of antibacterial activity was evaluated through a disc diffusion assay. Quantitative chemical analyses were done to determine total flavonoids and total phenolic acids. Antioxidant activity was determined by inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation. There was no statistically significant difference between Soxhlet and maceration extracts, as well as between ethanol and acetone extracts based on mean zone of inhibition (mZOI). All extracts showed antimicrobial activity against our bacteria of interest. Furthermore, in our study, phytochemical analysis was carried out to determine differences in total phenolic and total flavonoid content between extracts. Soxhlet method extracted statistically more flavonoids (p\u3c0.01), and ethanol as a solvent significantly extracted more flavonoids compounds (p\u3c0.01). On the other hand, no statistical difference was found between Soxhlet and maceration as well as between acetone and ethanol for total phenolic acids. No statistically significant difference was found between the antioxidant activity of maceration and Soxhlet extracts nor between acetone and ethanolic extracts. These findings can serve as a basis for further isolation and purification and the utilization of secondary metabolites in A. ridigula for novel drug treatment
Xenofobia y racismo hacia (y por) inmigrantes venezolanos residentes en Perú a través de Twitter
Full text linkEl presente trabajo tiene por objetivo examinar las formas de la exteriorización discursiva de la xenofobia y el racismo de los internautas peruanos hacia los inmigrantes venezolanos residentes en Perú a través de Twitter, así como las respuestas a los discursos xenófobos y racistas que exteriorizan los internautas inmigrantes u otros internautas peruanos. Para llevar a cabo este propósito se usaron algoritmos de web-scraping escritos en el lenguaje R. Asimismo, la gran cantidad de información recogida permitió dividir el análisis en dos etapas; la primera fue cuantitativa (análisis descriptivo), y la segunda fue cualitativa (análisis de contenido). Los resultados indican que la xenofobia y el racismo afectan de manera diferenciada a la población femenina inmigrante respecto del total de la población inmigrante. Además, se encontró que discursivamente la xenofobia y el racismo siguen dos direcciones, de los internautas peruanos hacia los inmigrantes y de los internautas inmigrantes hacia los peruanos. Como conclusión, se bosquejan posibles líneas de investigación que podrían surgir de este análisis pionero sobre la xenofobia y el racismo en Perú
Gender Diversity On Boards Of Directors And Human Resource Policies
Full text linkThis dissertation examines the correlation between gender diversity on boards of directors in US companies and the human resource procedures that are in place. The findings reveal that a higher ratio of women on boards of directors is associated with workplaces that are more accommodating of women, minorities and lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs). Furthermore, organizations that have a higher percentage of female board members typically have more women among the top five paid executives, lower pay disparity between male and female executives, and are more likely to promote minority employees. These organizations are also characterized by a work environment that takes into consideration the importance of work-life balance. The key finding of this study is that the presence of females on a board of directors can ultimately serve to foster a more compassionate work culture
Tres representaciones de la niña latinoamericana en Luna caliente (1983), Sofía de los presagios (1990) y Del amor y otros demonios (1994)
No full textThe following thesis focuses on three representations of the girl-child: the girl-child as a reference to origins, the girl-child functioning as a woman-child, and the girl-child as an embodiment of the uncanny. The three novels that will be analyzed are Mempo Giardinelli’s Luna caliente (1983), Gioconda Belli’s Sofía de los presagios (1990), and Gabriel García Márquez’ Del amor y otros demonios (1994), in which two of the three protagonists are girl-children, while the third must return to her nascent stage to recover her identity. Through her three representations, the girl-child denounces and rejects the Christian and mestizo identity that is imposed on her, and instead opts for one that best represents her: the non-Christian and non-white components of the mestizo identity. The figure of the girl-child is used to represent the Latin-American continent by-large
Can Employees Motivate Themselves? The Link Between Peer Motivating Language and Employee Outcomes
Full text linkThis study builds upon the leadership, leadership communication, and organizational behavior literature to examine the effects of peer motivating language on employee outcomes. Despite the increasing interest in examining the relationships between leader motivating language and employee attitudes and behaviors, the effects of peer motivating language on such remain unexplored. Researchers Mayfield and Mayfield (2017) are calling for moving beyond ML as a dyadic, leader communication model to research on peer-to-peer motivating language. Moreover, leadership studies started placing greater emphasis on followers to avoid a possible unproductive overemphasis on the leader in an organization. In line with this move is the substitutes for leadership theory. Researchers are calling for the theorizing of further substitutes (Dionne et al., 2005; Jermier & Kerr, 1997). Given these existing research needs, the purpose of this study is three-fold. I first propose, validate a scale for, and test a new construct called peer motivating language. Second, I develop and test a model that highlights the comprehensive nature of both leader and peer motivating language and employee outcomes, incorporating peer motivating language as a possible new substitute for leadership variable. Specifically, my study examines the questions of whether employee outcomes can be affected through motivating language use among peers, and if these peers, therefore may substitute or weaken the need for a leader’s use of motivating language. Therefore, I study motivating language theory from a follower perspective to shed light on the often too narrowly focused leader-centric approaches to leadership and leadership communication. Third, I examine the generalizability of my presented model by testing it in two different countries: the USA and India. The final sample to test my model consisted of 545 respondents from the United States and 511 respondents from India. The results of the study substantiate the validity of the peer ML construct. The findings show that peers’ use of motivating language in organizations has the potential to positively influence employee attitudes and behaviors and serves as a substitute for such communication style coming from a leader. The cross-national investigation of this study presents that these relationships may differ depending on the national setting, i.e. while peer ML serves as a substitute variable for leader ML for the Indian sample, it does not for the U.S. sample. Several theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and direction for future research are discussed