Search

The article presents information on the fourth International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology held in Houston, Texas, on July 28-31, 2008. The conference was chaired by Dr. George A. Sorial, professor at University of Cincinnati. The objective of the conference is to provide a major interdisciplinary forum for presenting new approaches from relevant areas of environmental science and engineering.

Presents abstracts of papers which will be presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research in October 1985 in Houston, Texas. "Infants are not distractible during physiologically defined periods of sustained attention" by J.E. Richards; "Comparison of blink inhibition in infants, children, and young and old adults" by W.K. Berg et al.

Reports on the call for papers for the Behavioral Safety Now Conference in Houston, Texas, issued by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and Quality Safety Edge. Schedule of the conference.

A properly functioning local stormwater drainage system is essential for mitigating flood risks. This study evaluates the quality of roadside drainage channels in three underserved communities in Texas: the Sunnyside neighborhood in Houston (Harris County), a neighborhood in the City of Rockport (Aransas County), and the Hoehn colonia (Hidalgo County). These communities have a history of flooding, are highly socially vulnerable, and rely on roadside ditches as their principal stormwater drainage system for runoff control. Mobile lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) measurements were collected for 6.09 miles of roadside channels in these communities. The raw lidar measurements were processed to evaluate drainage conditions based on the channel's geometric properties, hydraulic capacity, and level of service. The assessment results are linked to a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool for enhanced visualization. Finally, the paper provides insights regarding the quality of stormwater infrastructure in the study communities and discusses their practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal areas are subject to the joint risk associated with rainfall‐driven flooding and storm surge hazards. To capture this dependency and the compound nature of these hazards, bivariate modelling represents a straightforward and easy‐to‐implement approach that relies on observational records. Most existing applications focus on a single tide gauge–rain gauge/streamgauge combination, limiting the applicability of bivariate modelling to develop high‐resolution space–time design events that can be used to quantify the dynamic, that is, varying in space and time, compound flood hazard in coastal basins. Moreover, there is a need to recognize that not all extreme events always come from a single population, but can reflect a mixture of different generating mechanisms. Therefore, this paper describes an empirical approach to develop design storms with high‐resolution in space and time (i.e., ~5 km and hourly) for different joint annual exceedance probabilities. We also stratify extreme rainfall and storm surge events depending on whether they were caused by tropical cyclones (TCs) or not. We find that there are significant differences between the TC and non‐TC populations, with very different dependence structures that are missed if we treat all the events as coming from a single population. While we apply this methodology to one basin near Houston, Texas, our approach is general enough to make it applicable for any coastal basin exposed to compounding flood hazards from storm surge and rainfall‐induced flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the integration of the sodium bicarbonate business of Solvay Chemicals Inc.'s affiliate, American Soda LLP, to its Houston, Texas-based operations.

As a result of more racially inclusive immigration policies in the U.S., the African and Caribbean population has increased. Thus far, scholarly inquiry on Black immigrants have focused on their incorporation into the racial hierarchy, their experiences with racism, and their relationships with African Americans. While beneficial, these studies overlook the impact of ethnic discrimination for Black immigrants. Although all individuals of African descent share similar racialized experiences in the U.S., I hypothesize that diverse Black immigrant groups endure unique discriminatory experiences because of their ethnic identities. Thus, through in-depth interviews with 27 Nigerian and 20 Jamaican respondents, this paper explores Black immigrants' experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination. I found that, regardless of ethnic background, 80% of my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents encountered racism. In contrast, ethnic discrimination varied between my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents. My Nigerian respondents were more likely to report their encounters with ethnic discrimination. These experiences ranged from being accused of internet scamming to being mocked for having an accent. On the other hand, not only were my Jamaican respondents less likely to report ethnic discrimination, but they were also more likely to see their ethnicity as an advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the Sixteenth Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism held January 6-8, 2011 in Houston, Texas is presented. Topics include the study of hospitality and tourism, tourism consumption, and definition of tourist or tourism. The conference featured a presentation from Dr. Cynthia Deale of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (I-CHRIE).

The article discusses the construction of what is called an imagined geography by Texas newspaper editor Rienzi Johnston and his newspaper the "Houston Daily Post" between 1894 and 1901. It examines how the newspaper produced space in relation to national and regional events, the growth of Houston, Texas, during the 19th century, and the newspaper's focus on New York City, Chicago, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, in addition to Texas local and regional space. It also compares the "Houston Daily Post" with the Houston newspaper the "Telegraph and Texas Register."

• Integrated techno-economic assessment of the hydrogen value chain in the Permian Basin, spanning production, storage, and transportation. • Identified cost benefits in feedstock and tax credits for Permian-based hydrogen, balanced by transport expenses to Houston. • Scaling up to 412,000 metric tons/year can counterbalance transportation costs, positioning the Permian Basin competitively in the hydrogen market. This paper investigates the untapped potential of the Permian Basin, a multifaceted energy axis in Texas and adjoining states, in the emerging era of decarbonization. Aligned with current policy directives on regional hydrogen hubs, this study explores the viability of developing a hydrogen energy hub in the Permian Basin, thereby producing low-carbon intensity hydrogen from natural gas in the Basin and transporting it to the Greater Houston area. Diverging from existing literature, this study provides an integrated techno-economic evaluation of the entire hydrogen value chain in the Permian Basin, encompassing production, storage, and transportation. Furthermore, it comparatively analyzes the scenario of interest against an optimized base scenario, thereby underlining comparative advantages and disadvantages. The paper concludes that the delivered cost of Permian-based low-carbon intensity hydrogen to the Greater Houston area is $1.85/kg, benchmarked to the scenario, with hydrogen produced close to the Greater Houston area and delivered at $1.42/kg. Our findings reveal that Permian-based low-carbon intensity hydrogen production can achieve cost savings in feedstock ($0.25/kg) and potentially accrue a higher production tax credit due to a shorter gas supply chain to production ($0.33/kg). Nevertheless, a significant cost barrier is the expense of long-haul pipeline transport ($0.90/kg) from the Permian Basin to Houston as opposed to local production. Despite the obstacles, the study identifies a potential breakeven solution where increasing the production scale to at least 412,000 metric ton per year (about 3 steam-reforming plants) in the Permian Basin can effectively lower costs in the transport sector. Hence a scaled-up production can mitigate the cost difference and establish the Permian Basin as a competitive player in the hydrogen market. In conclusion, a SWOT analysis presents Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats associated with Permian-based hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are at least three sampling issues that can result in misleading trade area maps if not recognized. This paper discusses these issues, shows their effects on the trade area map of a large shopping center, and suggests procedures for responding to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces the abstracts of general conference presentations presented at the 11th annual conference of the International Society for Neuronal Regulation in Houston, Texas. Review of the articles by the society's conference committee; Screening of the papers for accuracy and standards of scientific reporting by the committee.

Houston is the only major city in North America without zoning. The growth of Houston illustrates a traditional free market philosophy in which zoning is seen as a violation to private property rights. This paper examines how the lack of zoning has an impact on land use and urban form in Houston. It uses cluster analysis integrating socioeconomic factors to select three case study neighbourhoods, and then applies geographical information systems to analyse their urban form spatial characteristics. The study investigates the change of urban form in three neighbourhoods over two decades. The analysis is accompanied by a qualitative investigation of the neighbourhoods, which attempts to address why and how those quantified characteristics of urban form developed over the decades. The paper concludes by discussing the similarity and diversity of land-use patterns and the reasons, by outlining policy implications from the findings on urban form, and by contributing to the debate over urban form and government intervention in better land-use patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the possible storm surge damage from a major hurricane to hit the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA.) Using storm surge analysis on a unique data set compiled from the Texas Workforce Commission (QCEW), the paper estimates the expected industry-level damage for each county in the Houston MSA. The advantages of using GIS to analyze the expected storm surge damage estimation is that it provides an accurate estimation of the number of affected employees and probable wages losses, by industry and county, based on QCEW data. The results indicate that the 'Basic Chemical Manufacturing' and 'Oil and Gas Extraction' industries incur the highest employee and payroll losses while the 'Restaurants and Eateries' has the largest establishment damage if a major hurricane were to hit the Houston MSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on changing patterns of substance use among low income, African American drug users evacuated from New Orleans, Louisiana, during Hurricane Katrina of August 2005. It examines the relationship between increases and decreases in alcohol and tobacco (AT) use and illicit drug (ID) use after Katrina and pre-disaster and within-disaster factors. Data from structured interviews with 200 Katrina evacuees currently living in Houston were collected 8–14 months after the disaster. Multivariate analysis revealed that rises in AT use were positively associated with education. Females and younger evacuees were more likely to have increased AT use. ID use increase was positively associated with resource loss and leaving the city before Katrina. Decreases in AT and ID use were found to be associated with disaster-related exposure. The paper discusses the specific consequences of disasters on disadvantaged minority substance users and the importance of developing public health disaster policies that target this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the feedback and physical referral system at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The center created a Web-based feedback and response system process with the help of Gelb Consulting Group. According to the article, M. D. Anderson's Office of Physician Relations uses the feedback from referring physicians to improve the organization, in areas such as patient communication. The article discusses the costs associated with the feedback process and how to design, implement, and evaluate online feedback systems.

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore whether a wine steward can affect wine sales in a restaurant, and to explore a theoretical framework that may eventually lead to more efficient application of wine stewards. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed ten months of wine sales from Houston-area restaurants during 2004, and found that restaurants with wine stewards tend to outsell restaurants without wine stewards, sometimes by a wide margin. Findings – To provide a further understanding of this effect, the authors reviewed the literature on personal selling and developed a preliminary model of how the wine steward may provide such a profound impact on sales. Our tentative model proposes that wine stewards have both an indirect and direct influence on sales. Research limitations/implications – The initial research did not study the effect of the wine stewards' level of education and certification in regards to wine sales; nor were the wine education programs in "non-wine steward restaurants" accounted for. Future research will control for wine steward certification levels and type of training programs at non-wine-steward restaurants. Originality/value – Restaurant owners/managers may want to consider employing a wine steward to strengthen the restaurant's wine program. This study is the first in a series that will attempt to quantify the sommelier effect and to create a taxonomy of wine stewarding with the objective of creating tools that will allow restaurateurs to identify the prudent level of investment in this activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although anti-immigrant sentiment is often attributed to economic competition with foreign-born workers, research has provided contradictory results. This paper combines survey and occupation data to re-examine the relationship between immigration attitudes and labour market competition in Houston, an established immigration gateway. I analyse data from multiple waves of the Houston Area Survey and the American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and O*NET. Results indicate that labour market competition is associated with preferences for reducing immigration in Houston. Those working in occupations with recent increases in the number of foreign-born workers, that require less education, and that have higher rates of unemployment are more likely to prefer to reduce future legal immigration, even after controlling for perceived economic and cultural threats. These results support other research at the occupation and industry levels and suggest that labour market competition is a factor in shaping immigration attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive set of in situ and laboratory test data is presented for a footing load test site east of Houston, Texas, in desiccated Beaumont clay. The in situ test program included standard and cone penetration tests (CPTs), the latter of which was selected for statistical analysis to produce vertical and horizontal random field model parameters for corrected cone tip resistance. Given the relatively high sampling frequency of the cone tip resistance in the vertical direction, the vertical random field model parameters were determined using the modified Bartlett's test statistic with fitted autocorrelation models subject to a strict fitting criterion. Horizontal random field model parameters were generated by collapsing the two-dimensional distribution of the CPTs to a one-dimensional representation and by using less stringent evaluation of the autocorrelation. The results of this study indicate that Beaumont clay exhibits greater inherent spatial variability than previously reported at other clay sites, which is attributed to the secondary structure of the desiccated clay. A companion paper discusses the performance of a footing load test in the context of spatial and transformation uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference specific to the education and training of clinical neuropsychology was held in 1997, which led to a report published in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology (Hannay, J., Bieliauskas, L., Crosson, B., Hammeke, T., Hamsher, K., & Koffler, S. (1998). Proceedings of the Houston Conference on Specialty Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 13, 157–250.). The guidelines produced by this conference have been referred to as the Houston Conference (HC) guidelines. Since that time, there has been considerable discussion, and some disagreement, about whether the HC guidelines produced a positive outcome in the training of neuropsychologists. To explore this question and determine how widely the HC guidelines were implemented, a meeting was held in 2006. Present and past leaders of the American Psychological Association Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology), the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology met to discuss the possible need for an Inter-Organizational Summit on Education and Training (ISET). A decision was reached to have the ISET Steering Committee conduct a survey of clinical neuropsychologists that could address the extent to which HC guidelines were present in the specialty and whether the influence of the HC guidelines was positive. An online survey was constructed, with data gathered in 2010. The current paper presents and discusses the ISET survey results. Specific findings need to be viewed cautiously due to the relatively low response rate. However, with some direct parallels to a larger recent survey of clinical neuropsychologists, the following general conclusions appear well founded: (a) the demographics of respondents in the ISET survey are comparable with a recent larger professional practice survey and thus may reasonably represent the specialty; (b) the HC guidelines appear to have been widely adopted by training programs, in that a large proportion of younger practitioners endorsed having had HC-adherent training; and (c) HC-adherent training is associated with a higher frequency endorsement of being well prepared to engage in key professional activities subsequent to the completion of training when compared with those not having HC-adherent training. Overall, the ISET Steering Committee has concluded that the HC guidelines have been widely adopted and that trainees associate participation in HC-adherent training as advantageous. A potential revision based on unfavorable outcomes is deemed unnecessary. Nonetheless, the ISET Steering Committee recognizes that training needs change as a function of the broadening of our field and the introduction of related new technologies, which may prompt updates. The ISET Steering Committee supports the idea that periodic review and updating of training models may be is prudent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]