Peons and Progressives: Race and Boosterism in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1904-1941

The Texas borderlands have come to be increasingly important in the historical literature and in public opinion for the way that the region shapes national thought on race, borders, and ethnicity. With this increasing importance, it is pressing to examine the history of these issues in the region so that they may be accurately and insightfully deployed. This article contributes to the existing scholarship with a close discursive analysis of race in the booster materials, 1904-1941. The booster materials forge a notion of race relations that borrows from tropes common across the West but is also informed by Jim Crow and the unique demands of the region. The booster materials forward a notion of race that is largely unique in Western boosterism, positing only two major characters, Mexicans and white Northerners. The figure of ‘the Mexican’ is drawn more as a part of nature than human society in that it shares the fundamental characteristics of the land, animals, and rivers of the region. Nature in the region is depicted as an adventitious, disorderly, and wasteful body that calls out for northern discipline. The ‘Northerners’ are figured as the ones who, through applying discipline to the natural resources of the area (land, water, and Mexicans) can bring reason, fertility, and profitable connection to the national economy. The consequences of this racial division are further explored in the article as they play out in schooling, religion, justice, beauty, leisure, and sport

CONTRIBUTIONS OF GLACIER MELTING TO THE UPPER WATERSHED OF THE PITA RIVER, ECUADOR

Evidence suggests that a changing global climate is accelerating glacial retreat around the world. However, there are not many studies that help to understand the influence of climate change on glaciers in the tropical Andes. In many Andean countries, populations use the water that come from the high altitude mountains, especially mountains that are ice covered. Glacial reduction minimizes water resource availability. This report focuses on better understanding the relationship between glacier meltwater, surface water runoff, and the groundwater flowing into and under the Pita River upper watershed, which crosses the base of the northeast foothills of the Cotopaxi volcano. Available geospatial, meteorological, hydrogeological, and geochemical data were used in order to calculate the water balance, as well as to evaluate the chemical signature of the water sources for different creeks lakes and rivers into the study area. The results achieved in this work are the annual temperature is 8.41 ° C, whereas the annual rainfall is 1320 mm and the evapotranspiration is around 38-43% of the precipitation value. Hydrological conditions generated a water yield in the watershed of 17.9 l/s/km2. According to the relationship between area and discharge, for the Pita watershed with an area of 173 km2, the discharge corresponds to 3.1 m3/s. Thus, the Cotopaxi hillslope contributes 33% to the total yield, which is equivalent to 1021 l/s. The volume of the glacier retreat from 1996 to 2010 is 0.013 km3 and is considered as part of the glacier meltwater contribution. Regarding to the isotopic signature, all the samples taken show a mixture signature between the two possible sources, which means that there is infiltration in the upper part of the watershed and discharge in the lower part of it. These results were ascertained in the context of current climatic conditions in a conceptual model that will be used to estimate how the glacial contributions might change as a result of future climate changes and the impacts of these changes on water supplies in this region

Description of an Electric Vehicle Charge Station Network using Knockoff Filters

In this work we analyse the utilisation of Electric Vehicle (EV) public charging stations in the Netherlands to understand and describe their usage as a function of surrounding premises (such as hospitals, casinos and schools, among others) and population. Also, we analyse the charging performance of such charging stations taking into account temporal values and charging measures taken from transactions registered within the years 2012 and 2016. In order to identify the (potentially) explanatory variables that are meaningful, we will use a False Discovery Rate (FDR) control approach known as Knockoff filters. Results reveal that charging stations located close to Kindergartens, Fuel stations and Car sharing points are more likely to be used more frequently and for the longest time; whereas those users who charge their vehicles either on a weekend or in July between 12 AM and 6 AM are expected to charge their vehicles faster than in other configurations

AztechSat-1, a First Collaborative CubeSat Between NASA and Mexico

An international collaboration program for capacity building in space technology is being established between NASA and the Mexican Space Agency (AEM). Its objective is to develop a series of CubeSats collaboratively in a way that benefits both agencies. For AEM, this experience will support the development of human capital required for its space program. This project provides an opportunity for NASA future missions to benefit from commercially available technologies demonstrated in space. AEM was recently created by the Mexican Government to use and develop space technology in Mexico. Current AEM plans call for having the capability of developing its own communication satellites by 2030, so the need for having a Mexican cadre of space experts is mandatory. The program will start with the development and launching of AztechSat-1, the first AEM CubeSat project to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS). Several public Mexican universities will participate in this project to demonstrate GlobalStar, a satellite communications provider using a constellation of LEO satellites, as an option for small satellite missions. AztechSat-1 mission objectives are:(1) Develop a flight ready CubeSat for deployment from the ISS; (2) Demonstrate GlobalStars Network as a method to advance communications in CubeSat missions. AztechSat-1 is envisioned as a 1U CubeSat and will be designed and constructed by Mexican graduate students from two major universities in Mexico: UNAM and IPN. The students will be mentored and supervised by researchers from NASA Ames Research Center (NARC). Flight acceptance tests are going to be done both at Mexican university labs as well as at NARC. Funding for the project will be provided concurrently by AEM, the Mexican participating universities, and other Mexican entities. The development of AztechSat-1 will emphasize the transfer of knowledge in space mission analysis and design, flight acceptance testing and other areas of space technology which are not well developed in Mexico yet. Mexican students will benefit from their mentoring from NASA researchers and will provide a multiplier effect in the development of the next generation of Mexican aerospace engineers. AztechSat-1 will be developed in a period of twelve months and will be launched by late 2015. AztechSats success will define the future of collaboration between NASA and AEM in capacity building. A plan for developing a series of AztechSats in a one per year basis, with increasing capabilities and complexity is currently being negotiated between NASA an AEM

Geometric Hamilton-Jacobi Theory

The Hamilton-Jacobi problem is revisited bearing in mind the consequences arising from a possible bi-Hamiltonian structure. The problem is formulated on the tangent bundle for Lagrangian systems in order to avoid the bias of the existence of a natural symplectic structure on the cotangent bundle. First it is developed for systems described by regular Lagrangians and then extended to systems described by singular Lagrangians with no secondary constraints. We also consider the example of the free relativistic particle, the rigid body and the electron-monopole system.Comment: 40 page

Molecular evolution of aphids and their primary ( Buchnera sp.) and secondary endosymbionts: implications for the role of symbiosis in insect evolution.

Aphids maintain an obligate, endosymbiotic association with Buchnera sp., a bacterium closely related to Escherichia coli. Bacteria are housed in specialized cells of organ-like structures called bacteriomes in the hemocoel of the aphid and are maternally transmitted. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the association had a single origin, dated about 200-250 million years ago, and that host and endosymbiont lineages have evolved in parallel since then. However, the pattern of deepest branching within the aphid family remains unsolved, which thereby hampers tin appraisal of, for example, the role played by horizontal gene transfer in the early evolution of Buchnera. The main role of Buchnera in this association is the biosynthesis and provisioning of essential amino acids to its aphid host. Physiological and metabolic studies have recently substantiated such nutritional role. In addition, genetic studies of Buchnera from several aphids have shown additional modifications, such as strong genome reduction, high A+T content compared to free-living bacteria, differential evolutionary rates, a relative increase in the number of non-synonymous substitutions, and gene amplification mediated by plasmids. Symbiosis is an active process in insect evolution cis revealed by the intermediate values of the previous characteristics showed by secondary symbionts compared to free-living bacteria and Buchnera

A Novel Low-Cost Sensor Prototype for Nocturia Monitoring in Older People

Indexación: Scopus.This work was supported in part by CORFO - CENS 16CTTS-66390 through the National Center on Health Information Systems, in part by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) through the program STIC-AMSUD 17STIC-03: ‘‘e-MONITOR âĂŞ Chronic Disease: Ambient Assisted Living and vital teleMONOTORing for e-health,’’ FONDEF ID16I10449 ‘‘Sistema inteligente para la gestión y análisis de la dotación de camas en la red asistencial del sector público,’’ and MEC80170097 ‘‘Red de colaboración científica entre universidades nacionales e internacionales para la estructuración del doctorado y magister en informática médica en la Universidad de Valparaíso.’’ The work of V. H. C. de Albuquerque was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq) under Grant #304315/2017-6.Nocturia is frequently defined as the necessity to get out of bed at least one time during the night to urinate, with each of these episodes being preceded and continued by sleep. Several studies suggest that an increase of nocturia is seen with the onset of age, occurring in around 70% of adults over the age of 70. Its appearance is associated with detrimental quality of life for those who present nocturia, since it leads to daytime sleepiness, cognitive dysfunction, among others. Currently, a voiding diary is necessary for nocturia assessment; these are prone to bias due to their inherent subjectivity. In this paper, we present the design of a low-cost device that automatically detects micturition events. The device obtained 73% in sensibility and 81% in specificity; these results show that systems such as the proposed one can be a valuable tool for the medical team when evaluating nocturia. © 2013 IEEE.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/845445

A novel monitoring system for fall detection in older people

Indexación: Scopus.This work was supported in part by CORFO - CENS 16CTTS-66390 through the National Center on Health Information Systems, in part by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) through the Program STIC-AMSUD 17STIC-03: ‘‘MONITORing for ehealth," FONDEF ID16I10449 ‘‘Sistema inteligente para la gestión y análisis de la dotación de camas en la red asistencial del sector público’’, and in part by MEC80170097 ‘‘Red de colaboración científica entre universidades nacionales e internacionales para la estructuración del doctorado y magister en informática médica en la Universidad de Valparaíso’’. The work of V. H. C. De Albuquerque was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq), under Grant 304315/2017-6.Each year, more than 30% of people over 65 years-old suffer some fall. Unfortunately, this can generate physical and psychological damage, especially if they live alone and they are unable to get help. In this field, several studies have been performed aiming to alert potential falls of the older people by using different types of sensors and algorithms. In this paper, we present a novel non-invasive monitoring system for fall detection in older people who live alone. Our proposal is using very-low-resolution thermal sensors for classifying a fall and then alerting to the care staff. Also, we analyze the performance of three recurrent neural networks for fall detections: Long short-term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit, and Bi-LSTM. As many learning algorithms, we have performed a training phase using different test subjects. After several tests, we can observe that the Bi-LSTM approach overcome the others techniques reaching a 93% of accuracy in fall detection. We believe that the bidirectional way of the Bi-LSTM algorithm gives excellent results because the use of their data is influenced by prior and new information, which compares to LSTM and GRU. Information obtained using this system did not compromise the user's privacy, which constitutes an additional advantage of this alternative. © 2013 IEEE.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=842305