Examining causes of poverty in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa

• Main Author: Anderson, Garnett Murphy, II
• Other Authors: Bessler, David
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: poverty
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1882; http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1882

Solenopsis invicta, the red imported fire ant, has recently become associated with Antonina graminis, an invasive pest, and Neodusmetia sangwani, biological control agent, and maybe negatively affecting established biological control. A preliminary survey outlined the range of A. graminis and its parasitoids, and found N. sangwani was present at a reduced rate in South Texas and in the southeastern United States. A greenhouse experiment demonstrated that S. invicta decreased the rate of parasitism of A. graminis by N. sangwani, with S. invicta directly interfering with oviposition. Interactions between S. invicta and A. gaminis may be facilitating the spread and establishment of two invasive pests which has a negative impact on established classical biological control of A. graminis by N. sangwani. algorithm, assumptions, and significance level. In addition, two graphs were built from a combination of the data from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Results show only one variable (birth rate), out of a possible fourteen, to be a possible cause of poverty. This possible causal relationship showed up four times out of the six graphs built. Poverty was actually shown to be a cause of birth rates in two of the graphs that were built. These results also show that the poor do not necessarily benefit from an increase in GDP or an influx of foreign aid as is commonly thought.