The Harness Maker’s Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas by Nick Kotz (review)

In an era when the relevance of the American Dream is in question, journalist Nick Kotz brings to life a classic example of the phenomenon from his own family. Appropriately, the origin of the Kallison family dream began with the patriarch, Nathan, in a shtetl in Imperial Russia. Jews were barely tolerated in Russia, and in the 1880s pogroms and Cossack raids made life tenuous. In 1890 seventeen year old Nathan emigrated, eventually joining an elder brother in Chicago. Here Nathan was able to utilize a skill he had developed in Russia—harness-making. He opened a harness shop in 1894, married a year later, and became an American citizen in 1896. Kotz claimed that “From the very first, Nathan believed that Americanization—in addition to hard work and saving money—was the key to success” (24)

Sigma Model BPS Lumps on Torus

We study doubly periodic Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) lumps in supersymmetric CP^{N-1} non-linear sigma models on a torus T^2. Following the philosophy of the Harrington-Shepard construction of calorons in Yang-Mills theory, we obtain the n-lump solutions on compact spaces by suitably arranging the n-lumps on R^2 at equal intervals. We examine the modular invariance of the solutions and find that there are no modular invariant solutions for n=1,2 in this construction.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Efficacy and safety of praziquantel in preschool-aged children in an area co-endemic for Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium

BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan Africa the recommended strategy to control schistosomiasis is preventive chemotherapy. Emphasis is placed on school-aged children, but in high endemicity areas, preschool-aged children are also at risk, and hence might need treatment with praziquantel. Since a pediatric formulation (e.g., syrup) is not available outside of Egypt, crushed praziquantel tablets are used, but the efficacy and safety of this treatment regimen is insufficiently studied.METHODOLOGY: We assessed the efficacy and safety of crushed praziquantel tablets among preschool-aged children (>6 years) in the Azaguié district, south Côte d'Ivoire, where Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium coexist. Using a cross-sectional design, children provided two stool and two urine samples before and 3 weeks after treatment. Crushed praziquantel tablets, mixed with water, were administered at a dose of 40 mg/kg. Adverse events were assessed and graded 4 and 24 hours posttreatment by interviewing mothers/guardians.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Overall, 160 preschool-aged children had at least one stool and one urine sample examined with duplicate Kato-Katz thick smears and a point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (POC-CCA) cassette for S. mansoni, and urine filtration for S. haematobium diagnosis before and 3 weeks after praziquantel administration. According to the Kato-Katz and urine filtration results, we found high efficacy against S. mansoni (cure rate (CR), 88.6%; egg reduction rate (ERR), 96.7%) and S. haematobium (CR, 88.9%; ERR, 98.0%). POC-CCA revealed considerably lower efficacy against S. mansoni (CR, 53.8%). Treatment was generally well tolerated, but moderately severe adverse events (i.e., body and face inflammation), were observed in four Schistosoma egg-negative children. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Crushed praziquantel administered to preschool-aged children at a dose of 40 mg/kg is efficacious against S. mansoni and S. haematobium in a co-endemic setting of Côte d'Ivoire. Further research is required with highly sensitive diagnostic tools and safety must be investigated in more depth.TRIAL REGISTRATION: Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN53172722

Further studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Salt: basis of wealth in South Texas / David J. Mycue -- The Zavaleta Family : a legacy of public service / Antonio N. Zavaleta and James E. Zavaleta with Theresa Zavaleta -- Carnaval y fiestas Mexicanas de Matamoros / Rosaura Alicia Davila -- A history of the development of Brazos Santiago Pass / Carl Chilton -- El Retraso espanol y su interes final por la colonizacion del Bajo Bravo / Arturo Zarate Ruiz - Fugitive slaves and free Blacks in South Texas / Alberto Rodriguez -- reporting from the Rio Grande : how the press saw the Brownsville area before, during, and after the Civil War / Bill Young -- The international entanglements at the Battles of Palmito Ranch / Lyon Rathbun -- The secret mission of Lew Wallace / Sondra Shands -- The legacy of the Texas Rangers on the Texas-Mexico border in light of the emergence of the Texas Minutemen / Joseph E. Chance and Milo Kearney -- The Brownsville Herald and the changing views of local German Americans and Mexican Americans during World War 1 / Gerhard Grytz -- Promoting Valley tourism in the 1920s : a case of competition and ambivalence / Robin Robinson -- Conflicto del Municipio con la Compania de Luz y Fuerza / Andres F. Cuellar -- A history of the Los Fresnos Chamber of Commerce / James A. Keillor -- Adios Harlingen A.F.B.! : a look at a community\u27s response to the closing of Harlingen Air Force Base, 1962-1970 / Thomas Britten -- Coping with obstacles to development in the Rio Grande Valley : competitive issues in Brownsville and Matamoros / Anthony Knopp -- a brief history of the architecture of Port Isabel and the Laguna Madre area / Edward P. Meza -- The muse of art in the Brownsville Region / Milo Kearney and Carlos G. Gomez -- Street names of Brownsville / Mimosa Stephenson -- From terror in Eastern Europe to Southern Texas : Holocaust survivors in Brownsville / Helmut Langerbein -- Marshall C. Nichols, manager of the Charro Drive-in, 1950-1961 / Milo and Vivian Kearney -- A memoire of the Brownsville Alliance Francaise / Milo and Vivian Kearney -- Tombside tales / Chula T. Griffin -- Culture pioneers of the Valley : Narciso Martinez and Americo Paredes / Manuel Medrano -- Filemon B. Vela : justice on the border / Roman R. Perez -- Yolanda Gonzalez Zuniga : una mujer de accion / Elia Garcia Cruz.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1006/thumbnail.jp

Additional studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Border birding, a poem / Chip Dameron -- The curse, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- River boundaries of Texas : the Louisiana-Texas borderland and Lower Rio Grande Valley in comparative perspective 1700-1850 / Francis X. Galan -- Testamentos de Reynosa 1770-1820 / Pedro Antonio Campos Rodriguez -- La Guerra de 1847 y la inevitibilidad ‘retorica’ de la derrota / Arturo Zarate Ruiz -- The dead man’s bride, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- Emmanuel Domenech in the Rio Grande Valley, 1851-1853 / Santiago Escobedo -- Don Juan Jose de Solis, Albert Champion, the border cattle raids, and the birth of the cattle kingdom / Frank Champion Murphy -- Two shots in the dark : the murder of Michael Schodts / Bill Young -- The life and times of Robert Kane : miner, soldier, fireman, barber and family man / Don Clifford -- The ghost car, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- Jose Esparza : a worthy son of a worthy father / Milo Kearney & Tony Pineda -- The R.B. Creager and Carlos G. Watson papers come to the Hunter Room / John Hawthorne -- Henry Gordon : a life devoted to law enforcement in Brownsville / Elizandro Munoz Jr. -- An interview with Antonio M. Ramirez / Rolando L. Garza -- Rolando Hinojosa : Tejano writer / Manuel Medrano -- A brief look at the political career of Ygnacio ‘Nacho’ Garza / James W. Mills -- The lady and her daughter in white, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- Living with Brownsville’s Resacas / Mimosa Stephenson -- Personajes e instituciones en la salud publica de Matamoros / Rosaura Davila de Cuella -- Reptile stories and myths along the Lower Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) / Norman L. Richard -- Morality and gender in Reynosa in the 1920s and 1930s / Sonia Hernandez -- Short stories and sound bites from the UTB Hunter Room’s Brownsville Chamber of Commerce files / Robin Robinson -- Sand, sun, set, and match: the story of beach volleyball on South Padre Island / Helmut Langerbein -- A history of the Texas Tropical Trail Heritage Tourism program in the Rio Grande Valley / Kimberlee D. Garza -- The medic, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- The Protestant presence in Cameron Country, Texas: 1850-1870: an examination of census data / J. Steven Rice -- Benedictine education and monasticism in the Rio Grande Valley / Cipriano A. Cardenas -- How reconstruction changed the meaning of red and blue in Brownsville / Lyon Rathbun -- El gobierno municipal de la Heroica Matamoros, Tamaulipas, en 1897 / Andres F. Cuellar -- The Brownsville Historical Association’s first sixty years / Anthony Knopp -- Los dos niños, a folktale / Peter Gawenda -- Remembering the Tandy’s / James W. Mills -- Tell them who you are : honoring pioneer families of el Rio Brave del Norte / Anthony Noe Zavaleta -- Hurricane season, a poem / Chip Dameron.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1007/thumbnail.jp

Studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Historia de Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas / por Ernesto Escribano Gómez -- How the teachers of Matamoros formed la Union Tamaulipeca / by Alma Ortiz -- The 1971 Pharr Riot / by Ned Wallace -- Memoirs of Brownsville politics / by Loddell Batsell -- Economic changes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas: a bibliographic review / by David J. Mycue -- A short history of land titles in South Texas / by Joseph E. Chance -- The prehistoric peoples of the Rio Grande Delta and their connections with the cultures of Mesoamerica / by Rolando L. Garza -- Peyote: sacred sacrament of the Rio Grande Valley / by Thomas Britten -- Twin cities on a river: a reminiscence and comparison / by Anthony Knopp -- The signs of Brownsville / by Mimosa Stephenson -- Charrería en Matamoros / por Oralia Garcia -- German immigrants in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1850-1920: a demographic overview / by Gerhard Grytz -- A history of the Muslim community in the Rio Grande Valley / by Milo Kearney and Mark Hanson -- From old to new: the alteration, restoration, and preservation of historical Fort Brown buildings of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College / by Javier R. García -- Brownsville and The Herald in the 1940s / by Cipriano A. Cárdenas -- Brownsville\u27s Casa Petrina / by Milo Kearney -- Recent Valley literature: the South Texas Mexican set / by René Saldaña, Jr. -- Israel B. Bigelow: from Connecticut to the Rio Grande / by Bill Young -- Menton Murray Sr. and Betty Murray of Harlingen: a legacy of public service / by John Hawthorne -- Mayor and commissioner Henry Gonzalez / by James W. Mills -- Porfirio Díaz in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the rebellion of Tuxtepec / by John D. Kearney -- Coronel Eleuterio Reyna García: vida de un revolucionario Matamorense / por Miguel Rubiano -- Stephen Powers: master Mason, master citizen / by Douglas Collins -- The Chiltons: eighty years in the Valley / by Carl Chilton, Jr. -- From the inside out: truancy to prison on the streets of Brownsville / by Joe Garcia -- Colored death: the tragedy of black troops on the Lower Rio Grande 1864-1906 / by Antonio N. Zavaleta -- Dr. William C. Gorgas and yellow fever at Fort Brown / by Charles M. Robinson III -- José M. Lopez: un hombre valiente / by Manuel Medrano -- The clay dunes of eastern Cameron County / by Norman L. Richard.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1005/thumbnail.jp

Ongoing studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Chupacabras, a poem / Milo Kearney -- The Texas Center for Border and Transnational Studies / Antonio Zavaleta with help from others -- History Through World War I : Comparative freedom in the borderlands: fugitive slaves in Texas and Mexico from the age of enlightenment through the U.S. Civil War / Francis X. Galan and Joseph Leon -- Contraband trade in Matamoros and its impact on the northern Mexican economy during the 1820s / Melisa Galvan -- Preparando los festejos para la inauguracion del Ferrocarril a Monterrey / Andres F. Cuellar -- Adolf F. Dittman and Brownsville\u27s first motion picture theaters / Javier R. Garcia -- History Between the World Wars : The Ku Klux Klan in the Rio Grande Valley / Norman Rozeff -- Deadly ambush in Willacy County (1926 style) / Bill Young -- Historias sobre las fajitas y sobre su Salto de Bajo Bravo a la fama / Arturo Zarate Ruiz -- Memories of Fort Brown: a look at the economic and social relationship between Fort Brown and the surrounding community through primary accounts of the 1930s to 1944 / James W. Mills -- Twentieth Century History Since World War II : Patrones cambiantes de migracion en las ciudades fronterizas de Tamaulipas: las experiencias de Matamoros y Reynosa / Cirila Quintero Ramirez -- I am a Mexican-American raised in Mexico : a case study of cross-border migration from 1900 to 2008 / Robert H. Angell -- Vida social de Matamoros en la epoca del algodon (1940-1960) / Rosaura Alicia Davila -- An observation on the changed role of the Texas Rangers in the Rio Grande Valley / Bruce Casteel -- Contemporary Hisory : Mexican immigrant colonias along the south Texas border in the 1980s and 1990s / James Barrera -- Economic development and planning in Reynosa since 1990 / Victoria A. Hirschberg -- ¿Pa\u27que le buscas tres pies al gato teniendo cuartro?: teaching local history on the south Texas-Mexico border / Philip Samponaro -- Cucuys, a poem / Milo Kearney.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1009/thumbnail.jp

Still more studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Resaca, a poem / Josie Mixon -- Matamoros before the Texas Revolution : becoming Mexico’s pivitol port city on the northern frontier / Craig H. Roell -- The Great Sequoyah Mystery : a cover-up that stretched from the Cumberland Mountains to the Rio Grande Delta (and into Mexico) / Don Clifford -- Immigration to South Texas, 1850-1900 / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Cattle barons and the creation of an empire : a case study of the expansion of the Kennedy Ranch of South Texas / Elmer Sierra, William Yaworsky, and Amy Frazier -- A history of the Brownsville Police Department in the Nineteenth Century / Noel Otu -- Rio boots / Ruby Cisneros Castell -- El sexenio del general Manuel Avila Camacho en Matamoros, 1940-1946 / Rosaura Davila -- Crecimiento industrial y calidad de vida en Reynosa, Tamaulipas / Cirila Quintero Ramirez -- An experiment assessing attitudes on immigrants and immigration among U.S. college students : a comparison of students in the Rio Grande Valley to those in Northeastern Pennsylvania / Jessica Lavariega Monforti, Adama McGlynn, and Ana Belen Franco -- White pelicans at dawn / Lyon Rathbun -- The sheriffs of Cameron County / Norman Rozeff -- The origin of the Belden Trail / Anthony Knopp -- Mujeres y violencia en la frontera ‘olvidada’ / Guadalupe Correa-Cabrara -- Alienation vs. Community at Portway Baptist Church / Mimosa Stephenson -- Echoes of ancient language in Spanish of South Texas / George Green -- Contrabando por amor : shooting Mexican movies in the Rio Grande Valley / Rogelio Agrasanchez -- A rapid ethnographic assessment of Brownsville-Matamoros concerning the development of a Palo Alto National Historic Battlefield site / Antonio Zavaleta -- Recuerdo cemetery inscriptions and memorial language in Brownsville, Texas / Sheila Dooley -- The geographic distribution of ghost tales in the Rio Grande Valley / Milo Kearney and Ninfa Burgos-Kohler -- Delta lake, a poem / Josie Mixon.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1011/thumbnail.jp

Continuing studies in Rio Grande Valley history

Coming to the Valley, a poem / Vivian Kearney -- The ghosts of historic Palmito Hill Ranch / Antonio N. Zavaleta -- Against the odds : Dr. Juliet V. García, border educator / Manuel F. Medrano -- Lucile Champion\u27s Brownsville : remembrances of another time / Frank Champion Murphy -- The restored courthouse and Judge Oscar Dancy / Anthony Knopp -- Francesco Voltaggio and the Port Isabel shrimp industry / Virginia Voltaggio Wood -- Mario Barrera : a border success story / Milo Kearney -- Selected figures from the Sierra/Valerio family history / Luciano Valerio Sierra and Amy Sierra Frazier -- The Cisneros family in the history of Raymondville / Ruby Cisneros Casteel -- Historia de la Aduana de Matamoros / V.A. Javier Huerta Castañeda -- The interconnected newspapers of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas / John Hawthorne and Jessica Guzmán -- The Brownsville city cemetery / Eugene Fernandez -- Arte y cultura en Matamoros / María Luisa Pacheco -- The last battle of the Mexican American War : the United States of America versus the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College / Antonio N. Zavaleta -- A critique of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley / Terence M. Garrett -- The feminization of political office in Brownsville : the Brownsville City Commission election of 2009 / Gabriela Sosa Zavaleta -- Lost but not found : accommodation in Oscar Casares\u27 Brownsville / Mimosa Stephenson -- Leaving the Valley, a poem / Vivian Kearney.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/regionalhist/1008/thumbnail.jp