University Of Texas-Pan American Research Articles

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When Chris King looks back over his 23-year career in college athletics, he recalls a particularly challenging time. It was the 2014–15 academic year, when the University of Texas Pan American and the University of Texas at Brownsville both closed and transitioned to form a new institution, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

On Hyperbolic Monomolecular Growth Model in Height/ Diameter Growth of PINES

DOI: 10.9734/BJMCS/2015/14141 Editor(s): (1) Raducanu Razvan, Department of Applied Mathematics, Al. I. Cuza University, Romania. (2) Paul Bracken, Department of Mathematics, The University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA. Reviewers: (1) Onofre S. Corpuz, Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology, Philippines. (2) Anonymous, Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Lithuania. (3) Jesus Soria-Ruiz, Geomatics and Comuper Science Lab. National Institute of Research for Forestry Agriculture and Livestock, Mexico. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history.php?iid=1145&id=6&aid=9523

Designing and Integrating Wind Power Laboratory Experiments in Power and Energy Systems Courses

The goal of this paper is to describe the approach in designing and constructing wind power laboratory experiments for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in power and energy systems. These are separated into basic hands-on laboratory and advanced simulation-based experiments. The basic experiments are integrated into an undergraduate course that includes topics such as the steady-state operation of induction machines, fixed-speed, and variable-speed wind turbines. Advanced experiments are integrated into a stand-alone course dedicated to wind energy and power systems. Topics include the modeling of aerodynamic, mechanical, and electrical components for each type of wind turbine along with their steady-state and dynamic operations. The experiments were originally designed at the University of Texas at Austin. Their transferability to a different laboratory platform at the University of Texas Pan American is also discussed.

Napalm: An American Biography by Robert Neer (review)

Reviewed by: Napalm: An American Biography by Robert Neer Amy M. Hay (bio) Napalm: An American Biography. By Robert Neer. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013. Pp. 310. $29.95 cloth; $16.17 ebook) In Napalm: An American Biography, Robert Neer tells the history of napalm, the modern-day version of petroleum-based incendiary devices, in three parts: Hero, Soldier, and Pariah. The first section of the book deals with the wartime discovery of napalm and its use in World War II. The second examines its use after World War II and through Vietnam, while the last section of the book explains the [End Page 329] circuitous route napalm took from war weapon to war crime. Neer puts napalm front and center, from its origins as a secret wartime experiment developed by Harvard chemistry professor Louis Fieser and his team of graduate students, to its use as a cultural metaphor today. His work contributes to the fields of military history, international law and justice, and the history of science. In using napalm as the lens by which to examine America and Americans, Neer recovers several forgotten episodes of the history of napalm. Although napalm was used in the European theater, its most impressive results occurred in the Pacific. One plan, literally, envisioned using bats as trigger systems in napalm incendiaries. The plan was abandoned after escaping bats burned down the Carlsbad Auxiliary Air Field in New Mexico in 1943. General Curtis LeMay’s decision to firebomb Tokyo in March 1945 provided one of the most striking examples of the simplicity and horrific effectiveness of this incendiary bomb. Japanese leaders identified the firebombing of the cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka as one of the major reasons for ending the war. A comparison of development costs as measured by Japanese city destroyed shows $83,000 for napalm as contrasted with $13.5 billion for atomic weapons. As Neer concludes, “The Bomb got the press, but napalm did the work” (p. 86). The next two sections focus on the various conflicts in which napalm was used up to the Vietnam War and the growing opposition to the use of napalm incendiaries. Here, Neer broadens his focus to include American antiwar demonstrations that made napalm a symbol of all that was wrong about the American intervention in Southeast Asia. Neer examines the napalm protests from their start in Redwood City, California, through the various student protests against Dow Chemical Company, the sole provider of napalm to the United States military. The final section of Neer’s biography examines the ways napalm has become a cultural metaphor for American hubris and its imperial role in causing global suffering through war. It details the reluctance with which the United States government finally committed to the international position that the use of napalm incendiaries [End Page 330] represented a war crime, and the ways it found other names by which to call incendiary weapons to protect their continued use. Neer skillfully mines official military histories, and even more poignantly, survivors’ accounts, in writing the history of napalm. At times, however, his lens may be too narrow, as he does not completely connect the ways napalm’s discovery, development, and use reveal something particular about America in the last half of the twentieth century. The forgotten story of napalm needs to be told, if only in hopes of keeping nations honest in rejecting its use, and for the most part Neer does a brilliant job in the telling. He begins and ends his tale with the story and words of Kim Phúc, the young South Vietnamese girl napalmed while trying to escape a U.S. bombing mission and captured on film. Putting her words at the heart of his exploration of napalm’s biography helps remind us all of the horrors of an amazingly simple weapon of war, one used too often. Amy M. Hay Amy M. Hay teaches history at the University of Texas-Pan American. Her current research examines protests against the use of Agent Orange herbicides during and after the Vietnam War. Copyright © 2014 Kentucky Historical Society

Translating “An Otomi Song of Spring” from the Nahuatl Codex Songs of Mexico

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsDavid BowlesDavid Bowles has taught English and education courses at the University of Texas Pan American since 1997. Drawn to the culture and history of Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, he focuses on the study of indigenous philosophy, mythology, and legend through primary sources. Among his publications are Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry (2013), Mexican Bestiary (2012), and Border Lore: Folktales and Legends of South Texas (forthcoming from Lamar University Press).

Causes, consequences, and treatment of osteoporosis in men

Men undergo gradual bone loss with aging, resulting in fragile bones. It is estimated that one in five men will suffer an osteoporotic fracture during their lifetime. The prognosis for men after a hip fracture is very grim. A major cause is reduction of free testosterone. Many other factors result in secondary osteoporosis, including treatment for other diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Patients should be screened not only for bone density but also assessed for their nutritional status, physical activity, and drug intake. Therapy should be chosen based on the type of osteoporosis. Available therapies include testosterone replacement, bisphosphonates, and nutritional supplementation with calcium, vitamin D, fatty acids, and isoflavones, as well as certain specific antibodies, like denosumab and odanacatib, and inhibitors of certain proteins.

Planned Parenthood and the Next Generation of Feminist Activists

Planned Parenthood and theNext Generation ofFeministActivists Dawn Laguens Julisa is twenty-three. She's a sociology major at the University of Texas-Pan American. She can't afford health insurance, and she relies on the Texas Women's Health Program—a program helping low income women access health care—to get her basic care and birth control. When the governor of Texas cut funding for the Texas Wom en's Health Program, and specifically targeted Planned Parenthood, Julisa didn't sit idly by: she became a youth activist, spoke at rallies, and traveled across the state to be trained on advocacy and leader ship so that she could better organize her fellow college students. She ignited a movement on her college campus. Julisa isn't alone. The unprecedented attacks on women's health over the last two years have given rise to a new generation of activists, and we have seen it firsthand at Planned Parenthood. We see the surge in youth support for women's health at every rally we hold around the coun try,and we see it every time we look at our Facebook and Twitter pages. We've gained 1.5 million new supporters who are more ethnically and generationally diverse than ever before. Over the past two years, we've almost doubled the number of Planned Parenthood campus chapters—including a significant uptick in involvement on histori cally black college campuses. In the last presidential election —when FeministStudies39, no. 1. © 2013 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 187 i88 Dawn Laguens women's health was a defining and decisive issue—young people voted in even greater numbers than they did in 2008. By a twenty three-point margin, they voted for President Obama, who made women's health a centerpiece of his campaign. It would not be a stretch to say that this is the most diverse and progressive generation we have seen in decades. For years, the conventional wisdom has been that feminism is yesterday's fight — that younger generations aren't as supportive or as engaged, particularly when it comes to abortion. It is simply not the case, though, that young people are less supportive of safe and legal abortion. What we have found is that young people think about—and talk about—these issues differently. If we want to continue expand ing our support with younger people, then we need to change the way we communicate with them. Nearly two-thirds of voters under thirty believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Our own internal polls indicate that among eighteen to twenty-nine year olds, more than eight in ten say that the issue of abortion is important to them personally, a higher rate than any other age group. But this is also a generation that doesn't want to be labeled. They don't like being singularly defined by their political party, or their sexual orientation, or their views on abortion. Increasingly, the broader public—and particularly young adults— also no longer self-identifies as "pro-choice" or "pro-life." When Gallup released its annual poll using these terms, some media outlets rushed to report that the number of pro-choice Americans was in a sharp decline. "Americans have turned against abortion," screamed a head line in Nebraska's KearneyHub newspaper. In fact, what had dropped was just support for the label "pro-choice." The same Gallup poll that showed only 41 percent of people identifying as "pro-choice" also showed that fully 77 percent believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances. We have seen this trend of resisting labels in virtually all of the recent polling on the issue. A Quinnipiac poll taken in February 2012 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans support Roe v.Wade,with a mere 31 percent disagreeing with the historic court decision. But sim ilar polls that ask people about abortion in "pro-life" and "pro-choice" terms get varied and seemingly contradictory answers. Anywhere Dawn Laguens 189 from 41 to 54 percent of Americans say they're "pro-choice," with 38 to 50 percent saying they're "pro-life." A...

Prosper.com: can lenders really expect high returns?

No Access: can lenders really expect high returns?David W. JohnkDavid W. Johnk College of Business Administration, University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA Published Online:October 4, 2012pp 133-156https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSS.2012.049424PDF ToolsAdd to FavouritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations Share this article on social mediaShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit AboutAbstractThis paper examines Prosper (KeywordsProsper, online loans, electronic commerce, social lending, P2P lending, services and standards

Interview

Dr Yul Chu from the University of Texas-Pan American in the US talks about the research behind his Letter ‘Hybrid scheme for low-power set associative caches’ on page 819.

A Sophomore-to-Junior Mentoring Program That Works: The Sam Program at the University of Texas Pan American

In an effort to increase the retention rates of college sophomores in a Hispanic Serving Institution in south Texas, university administrators created and implemented a successful peer mentoring model, the Sophomore Academic Mentoring (SAM) Program. Results suggest that the program has contributed to an increase in retention for second year, sophomore-to-junior students at the university.

Standards, Commodification, and Critical Service Learning in Minority Language Communities

The article analyzes the standards and ideological and material impact of community-based service learning programs for minority language students. The author outlines the five content standards of programs including Communication, Cultures, and Communities. The author argues that the Communities standard cannot be met solely within the classroom, as it requires evidence of so-called real world language practice, creating the need for service learning programs. It is also noted that service learning programs for minority language communities are linked to the administrative goal of meeting national standards for language skills. The author also explores the Medical Spanish for Heritage Learners project at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Impact of Asthma 101 Training on Level of Nursing Students’ Knowledge

The Asthma 101 training, developed by the American Lung Association, was offered in 2009 to 93 senior bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students. It was offered again in 2010 to 65 senior BSN students enrolled at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas. The training included both a pretest and posttest to evaluate changes in level of knowledge. Nursing students who were trained in 2009 participated in an asthma study offering asthma education to local elementary and middle schools students and their parents. The goal of Asthma 101 training was to educate nursing students so that they could provide general information about asthma to elementary school children and their parents, which could be done in a variety of settings such as health fairs and in classrooms. Test results for those who received the 2009 training showed an improvement in their knowledge about asthma. More than 95% of participants were very or somewhat satisfied with the Asthma 101 training. Test results in 2010 showed a significant improvement in participants’ knowledge in 2 areas: taking asthma medications to prevent an asthma episode ( P = .001) and occurrence of asthma symptoms ( P = .016). Two questions of statistical significance related to the use of medications and asthma episode demonstrated that nursing students had increased their knowledge in these areas. These findings suggest that health professionals can acquire additional knowledge from a brief yet focused training, such as the Asthma 101 training outlined in this article.

A Baccalaureate–MD Program for Students From Medically Underserved Communities: 15-Year Outcomes

Liaison Committee on Medical Education standard MS-8 requires medical schools to partner with other educational institutions or develop programs to make medical education more accessible to potential applicants from diverse backgrounds. From 1994 to the present, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) have partnered to offer a BS-MD program to increase access to medical education for students from South Texas, a predominantly Latino, largely medically underserved region. Since its inception in 1994, the Premedical Honors College (PHC) has produced 134 medical school matriculants (as of 2008), an average of 12 students per year since 1998, when the first program graduates matriculated to medical school. This represents a significant increase; only 10 students entered medical school from the region's five undergraduate institutions at baseline year 1994, including six from UTPA. Of those matriculating to medical school, through the PHC 110 (82%) are from underrepresented minority backgrounds, and 106 (79%) are Latino. In addition, the program has produced 65 MDs to date; 55 (85%) are Latino. Twenty PHC participants have already completed residency training and are practicing, 12 of those in or near South Texas. As of 2008, 44 were completing residencies or fellowships, 9 in South Texas, and several have expressed a desire to return to South Texas eventually to practice. Six PHC graduates are academic faculty members (four clinical instructors and two assistant professors), all of them Latino. These results suggest that pipeline strategies involving academic partnerships can have a meaningful impact on diversity in medical education.

The fortress of American solitude: Robinson Crusoe and antebellum culture

In The Fortress of American Solitude: Robinson Crusoe and Antebellum Culture, Shawn Thomson analyzes a wide range of antebellum literature offering critiques of the Robinson Crusoe story and its attendant myths. Through the lens of the Crusoe topos, Thomson explores the underlying tensions within bourgeois culture between the restraints of the home and freedoms of the open world. Thomson argues that Robinson Crusoe functioned to normalize the maturation process for boys as they directed their adolescence toward greater expressions of autonomy and self-reliance and allowed women to enter into this masculine terrain and understand the landmarks of men's lives. In examining a wide range of major authors, including Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, James Fenimore Cooper, Elizabeth Stoddard, and Emily Dickinson as well as non-canonical authors and newspaper accounts of the period, Thomson demonstrates the power of the Crusoe topos as an animating construct of nineteenth-century United States culture. Shawn Thomson is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Texas-Pan American.

An Exploratory Study of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and SCCmec Elements Obtained from a Community Setting Along the Texas Border with Mexico

An exploratory study of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and SCCmec elements in bacteria along the Mexican border of south Texas was performed. Between September and December of 2008, 375 swabs of anterior nares were self-collected by students attending the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) and cultured for MRSA. Fifty seven bacterial isolates were kept for further analysis that included suspected MRSA and other SCCmec-containing bacteria. Isolates were examined for the presence of nuc, mecA, lukS-PV, and spa genes using PCR. SCCmec and spa typing were also performed. Seven S. aureus isolates were found of which six were classified as MRSA. SCCmec typing showed five of the six MRSA strains to be type IV, while one MRSA strain, and most of the non-S. aureus strains, were untypeable, producing results that were indicative of mixed SCCmec types. Five of the six MRSA strains contained known spa types (two of which corresponded to USA300 and one to USA600), while one strain had a novel spa type. Only one isolate, a USA300 MRSA, was positive for lukS-PV. Easy access by the Texas border community to antibiotics in Mexico without a prescription, and the strong partition in SCCmec types between MRSA and non-S. aureus bacteria suggest that this border region of Texas may be uniquely suited for the study of emerging SCCmec types, their horizontal transfer, and perhaps other aspects of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Is continuity of care a victim of progress?

Willard Baker is in clinical practice in Edinburg, Texas, and is an assistant clinical professor in the PA program at the University of Texas Pan American.

McAllen, Texas, Evidence-Based Medicine, and President Obama

INTRODUCTION In April we traveled to McAllen, Texas, to present an evidence-based medicine (EBM) seminar to the faculty of the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA) PA Program in nearby Edinburg. On our route to the UTPA campus, we drove by what seemed to be a plethora of medical facilities ranging from family medical clinics and those focusing on pediatrics and women’s health to subspecialty clinics. There were numerous ambulatory surgical facilities and at least four home health businesses. The hospitals we stumbled across seemed, from the road, to be modern and attractively designed. We agreed that the number of health care facilities seemed out of proportion to what we perceived to be average for a community of McAllen’s size. To our knowledge, McAllen and its suburbs were not known as a research or tertiary care center that would create the need for health care organizations in greater-than-expected numbers. We did not think much more about this as we were focused on effectively delivering our presentation and not getting lost on the way to UTPA. The 21⁄2-day EBM seminar went well and we were impressed with a dynamic UTPA faculty, supported by visionary leadership. As is often the case, we returned home with a number of ideas from our attendees that will likely improve our own curriculum. Shortly after our return I (DK) received an email from a health policy and access listserve that I belong to about the June 1, 2009, New Yorker magazine article1 by staff writer Atul Gawande, MD. Dr. Gawande is on the medical staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and has been a writer for the New Yorker since 1998. What drew me to the article was not only my interest in health policy, but also the fact that it focused on McAllen, Texas. Dr. Gawande’s article compared McAllen to El Paso, Texas, and found what he termed “overutilization” of health care services. This was consistent with our decidedly nonsystematic observation that there was an overrepresentation of health facilities in McAllen. Intrigued, I read the article and have since followed the ensuing debate about the factual foundation of his reporting. Dr. Gawande’s finding that McAllen’s 2006 Medicare costs per enrollee of $14,946 were double those of its northern neighbor, El Paso ($7,504), was central to his thesis that current incentives in our health insurance system can lead to overutilization of services when profits rather than outcomes are a prime motive. Of particular interest to Dr. Gawande was the proliferation of physician-owned diagnostic facilities that, in his mind, explained much of the asymmetry of Medicare costs in this south Texas city. The fact that health outcomes were no better — and in some cases worse — in McAllen compared to El Paso suggests that his concern might have merit. The article caught my eye because it underlines the fact that under our current system of health care, incentives are centered on maxThe intent of this feature is to present a forum for PA educators to share their approaches to teaching EBM. Areas of interest might include reviews of EBM resources; mini-tutorials in areas such as statistics, epidemiology, and study design; ethical, historical, or philosophical perspectives of EBM; and discussion of practice or technological tools that enhance application of EBM. Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the feature editors to receive approval of topics in advance. Authors desiring to contribute to EvidenceBased Medicine should forward submissions to:

A Luminescent Microporous Metal−Organic Framework for the Recognition and Sensing of Anions

A luminescent microporous metal-organic framework Tb(BTC)G has been developed for the recognition and sensing of anions, exhibiting a high-sensitivity sensing function with respect to fluoride.

University Of Texas Pan American, Edinburg, Texas: A Reciprocal Study Abroad Program With The Leuphana University, Lunenburg, Germany

This paper describes the process for expanding an existing ten year study abroad program between two universities, the University of Texas Pan American, Edinburg, Texas, and the Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Germany. The model for this reciprocal educational program will include a process for enrollment, suggested curricula, course scheduling, sources for financial aid and student living accommodations. Technology will be a resource tool to increase student access for bridging these educational barriers. This model will facilitate the process for students from both universities to study abroad for a semester while earning credits in their area of study. This paper will further address cultural diversities and language differences that may hinder communications and impede learning.

Talking the talk, or what itʼs like on the other side of the stethoscope

Willard Baker is in clinical practice in Edinburg, Texas, and is an assistant clinical professor in the PA program at the University of Texas Pan American.