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This paper examines the cultural identity expressed by The XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest in El Paso, Texas, USA. According to the monument's statement, the memorial is an ongoing regional project formed by "... 12 heroic bronze monuments celebrating the multicultural contributions of both men and women to the development of the Southwest." The paper's argument is threefold. First, it argues that the XII Travelers project could be regarded as a collage that incorporates different historical and cultural references into a single narrative. Secondly, by doing this, the memorial blurs spatial scales and builds a regional history with El Paso at its center. Finally, the paper suggests that the construction of this heroic and multicultural regional identity must be understood in relation to growing tourist activities and the expectations that visitors have about a Southern border area in USA. The research is based on a critical review of the material produced by The XII Travelers Foundation and the examination of the characters and monuments of Fray García and Juan de Oñate, the only two approved travelers of the proposed list. [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]

Research has illustrated how homeless service organizations have adjusted policies and services during the COVID-19 pandemic and how frontline workers have taken on the work of implementing new procedures, fine-tuning service strategies, and navigating challenges. This qualitative study sought to describe how the pandemic has impacted the day-to-day service provision experiences of homeless service workers to gain insight into how the sector might prepare itself for the next COVID-19 wave, next pandemic, or other crisis. Drawing on interviews conducted with 21 frontline workers across Texas in fall of 2021, findings highlight the challenges of shifting to remote work and virtual service provision, reduced client engagement and rapport building, creating and enforcing health policies, and persistent service system disruptions. Recommendations include investing time and resources into creating more nimble work systems, moving away from paper-based processes, and making telehealth strategies a permanent part of homeless service provision. Additionally, there are research opportunities to develop and test coworker peer support models and to study the value and viability of tele-health in this sector, including worker and client perspectives of these technologies. Findings underscore how the pandemic disrupted homeless service design and delivery, which in turn hampered service access, use, and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up, China's foreign direct investment has experienced a development process from "bringing in" to "going out". In 2016 and 2017, the flow and stock of China's outward foreign direct investment (COFDI) rose to the second place in the world, and China has changed from a country absorbing foreign direct investment to one of the world's leading foreign investors. Under the background of deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States, the United States has become the first host country for COFDI. The diversity and complexity of investment environment lead to the spatial and temporal differentiation of COFDI in the United States. Using the methods of spatial autocorrelation analysis, this paper investigated the spatial-temporal pattern and evolution characteristics of COFDI in Texas based on congressional district-level data. Then this study applied panel regression analysis to examine Texas intrastate driving factors of COFDI. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The stock of COFDI in Texas continues to increase while the whole process can be divided into different stages according to growth rate. (2) Government investment and Cross-border Mergers Acquisitions (M&A) account for a large portion of COFDI and these related establishments mainly distributed in energy industry. (3) Spatial concentration of COFDI is weak in Texas while the local spatial autocorrelation analysis shows that opposite attribute aggregation exists between congressional districts. (4) Market size, labor force, traffic accessibility, Chinese immigrants have promoted COFDI in Texas while labor cost, educational attainment, total tax rate, economic density are negatively related to COFDI. The above conclusions can provide decisionmaking reference for Chinese government and multinational enterprises in the process of investment in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world grappled with how to protect their citizens from disease. Governments had to carefully balance the tension between individual rights and public health measures, while also considering which level of government was best situated to act. This paper, focusing on the response to COVID-19 in Texas, discusses the constitutionality of quarantines by balancing individual rights and public health. This paper also discusses how quarantine authority is shared among local, state, and federal levels of government in Texas. Finally, this paper analyzes some of the early actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geoenvironmental models were formulated by the U.S. Geological Survey in the 1990s to describe potential environmental effects of extracting different types of ore deposits in different geologic and climatic regions. This paper presents a geoenvironmental model for roll-front (roll-type) uranium deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain. The model reviews descriptive and quantitative information derived from environmental studies and existing databases to depict existing conditions and potential environmental concerns associated with mining this deposit type. This geoenvironmental model describes how features of the deposits including host rock; ore and gangue mineralogy; geologic, hydrologic, and climatic settings; and mining methods (legacy open-pit and in situ recovery [ISR]) influence potential environmental effects from mining. Element concentrations in soil and water are compared to regulatory thresholds to depict ambient surface water and groundwater conditions. Although most open-pit operations in this region have been reclaimed, concerns remain about groundwater quality at three of the four former mills that supported former open-pit mines and are undergoing closure activities. The primary environmental concerns with ISR mining are (1) radon gas at active ISR operations, (2) radiation or contaminant leakage during production and transport of ISR resin or yellowcake, (3) uranium excursions into groundwater surrounding active ISR operations, and (4) contamination of groundwater after ISR mining. Although existing regulations attempt to address these concerns, some problems remain. Researchers suggest that reactive transport modeling and a better understanding of geology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry of ISR production areas could minimize excursions into surrounding aquifers and improve results of groundwater restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional practices and conditions at community colleges can improve rates of transfer, as can access to transfer student capital. However, we know little about how institutions attempt to build students' transfer capital, or about students' experiences within community colleges as they accumulate transfer capital. In this paper, we examine how students' institutional experiences, particularly their engagement with student supports at community colleges and transfer destinations, influence their understanding of, and ability to navigate, the transfer process. We view the accumulation of transfer student capital as an interactionist model between the students and their institution, where students' transfer knowledge and success is conditioned by an interaction between their background and institutional conditions. We draw on longitudinal qualitative interview data with transfer-intending community college students over the course of 3 years to understand how students access, receive, and accumulate transfer capital as they work toward their educational goals. By leveraging student experiences, our study can inform community colleges and transfer destinations about practices and policies interpreted as most effective from the perspective of students. Our work also connects to broader conversations about how institutions reproduce, ameliorate, or exacerbate inequalities based on student background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theorizes historical marker texts (HMT) as succinct, public facing informational reports that reinforce white supremacy and minimize or erase the memory of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) individuals. In this layered content and discourse analysis, I evaluate the demographics of the commissioners at the local and state level, the instructions for the HMT application, and the text of a selected group of HMTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our environment becomes increasingly urban, the governance of urban regions faces multifaceted challenges. There is growing recognition that studying the governance of urban regions requires looking beyond individual plans and examining networks of plans. Existing work on plan networks focuses on documents, neglecting the agency of the people and governments who create and implement the plans. To help fill this gap, we develop and test an analytical framework for assessing urban governance within a network of plans, focusing on the alignment of plan content, interactions, and the relative efficacy of the plans. We apply this framework in metropolitan Austin, Texas (USA), studying five strategic plans that address the region's built environments, transportation systems, and natural areas over a 20 year-period. The analysis reveals how voluntary regional scenario-planning conducted decades earlier continues to shape city and regional development goals; how alignment between plans on paper can belie poor cross-jurisdictional coordination in practice; and how plans addressing transportation and natural areas are more efficacious for implementation than plans for the built environment. In addition to making plan dynamics visible, the framework thus allows for rigorous, empirical assessment of regional governance through a network of plans. • A framework is proposed to analyze urban-region governance with a network of plans. • The framework is tested with five strategic plans in Austin, Texas (USA). • Evidence is found of a network consisting of documents and agency. • Network-of-plan research benefits from the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the stock of interstate highways on employment growth of counties in Texas between 1983 and 2012. Using the Chernozhukov-Hansen instrumental variables quantile regression (IVQR) method, we examine the heterogeneous impact that highways have on employment growth at different quantiles of the conditional distribution while at the same time controlling for potential endogeneity. The results show that the employment growth effect monotonically increases as one shifts from the lower tail to the upper tail of the distribution. The range is 0.15 to 0.44, with the highest at the 95th quantile, compared to 0.189 for OLS and 0.213 for 2SLS. A 10 percent increase in interstate highway kilometers in 1983 led to about a 1.5 to 4.4 percentage point increase in county employment over a 29-year period. Our results also indicate that the counties with low initial levels of employment grew faster than those with a high initial level of employment and that this convergence monotonically decreases from the lower tail to the upper tail of the growth distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the craft beer industry has experienced significant growth around the world and particularly in the U.S., research into various aspects of the topic has grown as well. Significant attention has been given to the relationship between craft beer and neolocalism, resulting in three key themes: neolocalism as a driver of demand for the craft beer product, the use of place-based themes by craft brewers to engender neolocalism, and neolocalism as a driver of demand for the craft brewery experience. This paper seeks to examine the extent to which brewery visitors are consuming the local through the themes of product, place, and experience as discussed in the literature. It uses directed content analysis to examine online visitor reviews posted on TripAdvisor and RateBeer for microbreweries in the five largest urban areas in the U.S. state of Texas (Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth). Findings show that both the craft beer product and craft brewery experience are significant to brewery visitors. In particular, the opportunity for meaningful social interaction in the brewery experience offers a means of fulfiling neolocal desires for establishing local connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the accelerated failure time (AFT) model is modified to analyze post-work grocery shopping activity duration. Much previous shopping duration analysis was conducted using the proportional hazard (PH) modeling approach. Once the proportionality assumption was violated, the traditional accelerated failure time (TAFT) model was usually selected as an alternative modeling approach. However, a TAFT model only has covariates with non-proportional and time-dependent effects on the hazard overtime while a PH model only accommodates covariates with proportional and time-independent effects. Neither of them considers the possibility that some of covariates may have proportional and time-independent effects and some may have non-proportional and time-dependent effects on the hazard value in one model. To address this issue, the paper generalizes the TAFT model and develops a modified accelerated failure time (MAFT) model to accommodate both time-dependent and time-independent covariates for activity duration analysis. Checking on the proportionality assumption indicates that the assumption is not valid in the post-work grocery shopping activity data extracted from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Both TAFT and MAFT models are developed for comparisons and analysis. The empirical and statistical results show that there do exist two different types of covariates affecting shopping activity duration, including covariates only with proportional and time-independent effects (i.e. working duration, commute travel time) and those with non-proportional and time-dependent effects. The MAFT model can capture the subtleties in various types of covariate effects and help better understand how those covariates affect activity duration overtime. This paper also shows the importance to develop a flexible duration model with both time-dependent and time-independent covariates for accurately evaluating travel demand management (TDM) policies, like flexible work hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science (CS) programs often question what motivates their volunteers and how volunteer participation can be sustained. Using a case study of citizen scientist volunteers (CSVs) who monitor water quality in Texas, I apply here a novel approach--the Dispositional-Organizational Interactions Framework (DOIF)--that provides a nuanced understanding of CSVs. The DOIF allows for consideration of how dispositional variables, such as sociodemographic characteristics and motivations for participation, may relate to organizational variables (e.g., program efficacy, results, and recognition); both overarching variables relate to indicators of commitment. The purpose of this study is to examine interactions among different aspects of a CS program and CSVs--observations that can improve CSV satisfaction and possibly retention. In a community geography partnership, volunteers of a statewide CS program were surveyed (n = 327). Results of exploratory factor analyses and a series of nonparametric tests indicate the DOIF offers insights into five major motivational factors; it uncovers between-group differences in how CSVs value organizational variables and indicate a commitment to volunteerism. This study contributes to the broader literature by incorporating the role of the organization in assessments of motivations through the creation of a novel framework and through empirical findings. The paper considers implications of results for CS programs and practice, then concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the historical archaeology of migration in the American Southwest. I raise three points for consideration. First, the archaeology of migration in the Southwest following Spanish colonialism has been relatively absent, but is a rich area of inquiry for historical archaeologists. Second, migration has shaped the regional consciousness, landscape, and myth-making of the historic Southwest in significant ways that merit archaeological attention. Finally, drawing on the example of Alsatian migration to Texas, I propose that an attention to scale – how migrations occur alongside and within other movements – can add nuance to historical narratives of the West by highlighting the great diversity that characterizes the region throughout the historic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural complexity, heterogeneity, and extent of transboundary aquifers around the world, have led to controversy over which method or criteria should be used to identify and delineate their boundaries. Currently, there is no standard methodology that aquifer‐sharing countries can use to delineate the area of a transboundary aquifer. In the case of Mexico and Texas, Mexico uses administrative boundaries, whereas Texas uses geological boundaries. This paper proposes a method for delineation and prioritization of aquifers (or aquifer areas) called effective transboundary aquifer areas (ETAAs), which uses a combination of physical criteria (geological boundaries, topography, and hydrography) and the location and density of active water wells in the borderland between Mexico and Texas. This method identifies the area of priority (productivity area) in the aquifer using pumping patterns or hot spots regardless of the aquifer's surficial geological limits, therefore offering a more effective, local and practical management option at the transboundary level. Different geological features or pumping patterns will have different sizes and locations of ETAAs within the same aquifer. In West Texas, which is dominated by bolsons, the method produces limited options for ETAAs, whereas in South Texas in the easternmost border the identified ETAAs are more significant. Research Impact Statement: The effective transboundary aquifer areas approach is an alternative way to identify the priority area of an aquifer using pumping hot spots for a simpler and local‐based transboundary groundwater management scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water insecurity concerns drove San Antonio, Texas to pursue a controversial $3.4 billion groundwater transfer project from central Texas aquifers. The 228 km Vista Ridge Pipeline (VRP) would increase water supplies by 20%. Analysis through Q-Method revealed three social perspectives surrounding the VRP. Project Advocates offer particular views of urban water security, risk, and accountability. The creation of new hydro-social territories helps to explain Landowner Opposition, while Governance Failure offers a foundational criticism of the underlying assumptions and the institutional innovation of private-public partnership that advanced the VRP. Overall, our paper demonstrates that the VRP is differentiated according to views of risk, water law, and groundwater science. Policy deliberations on future urban water security should include these perspectives as a means to improve water governance, especially as policies and infrastructure for urban water security creates new hydro-social territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation agencies should have the capacity to evaluate the damage caused by oversize and overweight (OS/OW) vehicles in order to develop effective infrastructure management and rehabilitation strategies. In this paper, we discussed how to combine different paradigms that influence pavement performance into a single evaluation methodology by integrating the most available historical data with respect to the characteristics of OS/OW vehicles (i.e. dimension and weight), their origin and destination, permitted routes, frequency of the routes, pavement condition data, and climatic effects. The proposed methodology is then implemented into three case studies to indicate its applicability and practicality. In the case studies, we evaluate the impacts of OS/OW loads on pavements under different scenarios and combinations of the related factors. The corresponding relationships between pavement conditions and passing OS/OW loads are quantified with a well-accepted sigmoidal function. The results also indicate that, at the early age of the road, higher OS/OW loading would bring a faster deterioration rate (e.g. about 6% of the reduction in service life for extreme high OS/OW loading, while only 2.35% for low OS/OW loading). At the end of road life, the reduction trend slows down, nearly above 2% for all OS/OW loading levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing energy transition, including the rapid electrification of energy services, reinforces the importance of secure and reliable electricity infrastructure. Electricity as a critical energy carrier cuts across sectoral boundaries, including but not limited to public health, national security, education, and transportation. Electricity markets treat electricity as a commodity bought and sold in the different restructured markets of the United States and are a critical feature of power systems shaping the energy transition. However, current electricity market developments primarily rely on techno-economic indicators and fall short of incorporating ethical considerations to spur energy transition towards 100% renewable electricity as end-use energy. Even though electricity markets are designed based on the assumption that they are socially valuable, they essentially go unmeasured based on social and ethical parameters and are largely measured using technical and economic tools and criteria. These inadequacies in the development of electricity markets fail to provide energy and other allied services, particularly during and in the aftermath of a disaster, to the people who need them the most. This paper aims to provide an analytical framework using the foundational approach of energy justice for looking at the electricity market development. The paper utilizes the case of the Texas electricity market and its role in dealing with the electricity crisis in Texas during the winter storm of 2021 from the critical lens of energy justice. The paper shows that using the foundational approach of energy justice, the electricity market can be designed more ethically by considering electricity as means rather than only a market commodity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper documents a previously undescribed marine palynomorph, Doricodinium obscurum gen. et sp. nov., from Upper Cretaceous sections in the central and southern Western Interior of the USA. Although an archaeopyle has not been confirmed, a case is made here for a probable dinoflagellate cyst, possible peridinioid affinity. The type locality of D. obscurum is the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of Turonian Stage, at Pueblo, Colorado, where it consistently occurs in intra-Lower to middle Turonian deposits. The taxon also occurs consistently in intra-Lower Turonian strata from the Iona-1 core, SW Texas, where astronomical age modelling gives an age range of 93.92–93.25 ± 0.12 Ma in that section. Outside the USA, it has until now only been recorded from the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary interval in Pakistan. Highlights • Description of Doricodinium obscurum gen. et sp. nov., a marine palynomorph, a probable dinoflagellate cyst. • Distribution calibrated at the GSSP for the Turonian Stage, Pueblo, Colorado. • Astronomical age modelling of its distribution in the Iona-1 core, SW Texas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years Austin, Texas has gained popular recognition as a ‘sustainable city’ while experiencing robust economic growth. Austin’s ability to resolve many of the political tensions between development and environmental protection have made it a favoured case study for North American policymakers who seek to mimic the ‘Austin model’. However, despite recognised environmental achievements, the popular storyline of Austin’s move toward sustainability overlooks key aspects of sustainable development, including equitable political representation, affordability, displacement of vulnerable populations and other social justice issues. Using While et al.’s ‘sustainability fix’ as a conceptual framework, this paper explores the historical development, ideological construction and strategic implementation of Austin’s sustainability agenda. In doing so, this paper moves beyond a lateral understanding of sustainability rhetoric toward a more nuanced and critical analysis of the selective promotion and implementation of sustainability agendas, as well as the consequences they have for social justice and equity in the ‘sustainable cities’ of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the information channels used by public and nonprofit organizations to communicate disaster risk information to Colonias residents in Hidalgo County, Texas. It seeks to find creative and proactive solutions for organizations to improve risk education to these constituents. Design/methodology/approach -- Initially a snowball sampling technique was used to conduct six face-to-face interviews. This was followed by an online survey sent to 64 reputational referrals, of which 23 completed the survey, generating a response rate of 34 percent. A comparative analysis between public and nonprofit organizations and the Fischer's exact test were employed to analyze the data. Findings -- Channel preferences for providing risk information varied with public organizations using the television (TV) and the nonprofit organizations using bilingual staff for outreach. The television, radio, public events, and bilingual staff were considered to be the most effective while social media (Facebook, Twitter, and city web sites) was not considered at all by both groups. Lack of funding and staffing problems were identified as the primary challenges. Research limitations/implications -- One limitation is that the paper focusses on organizations serving Spanish speakers in the Texas Colonias. Future research needs to investigate how other localities at border sites where culturally and linguistically diverse groups might reside, receive and understand risk information. The role of cross-national organizations in creating internationally coordinated plans for disaster communication should also be explored. Originality/value -- It highlights the challenges faced by organizations in communicating risk, especially in border communities where culturally and linguistically diverse groups reside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal underbounding is the systematic failure of cities to annex surrounding minority communities. Recent analyses of the phenomenon in the United States have focused on small White Southern towns with African American communities along the jurisdictional fringe. This paper applies similar logic to the study of the exclusion of colonias in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas. These low-income informal settlements, located in the hinterlands of cities, have historically had high rates of poverty, poor housing quality, and insufficient infrastructure and utility service. Using TIGER/ Line files (GIS shapefiles), Summary Files of the U S decennial censuses, and ArcGIS technology this project explores the prevalence of the municipal underbounding of colonias. In order to place the issue of municipal annexation in context, the paper begins with a description of regional demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, municipal growth, and annexation patterns in the LRGV. The paper then explores the extent to which colonias have been selectively excluded from annexation using logistic and autologistic regression. The results suggest that census blocks that contain colonias are less likely to be annexed than are other census blocks; in addition, those census blocks that contain colonias with poor infrastructure appear to have odds of being annexed that are lower still. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, changing fire regimes due to climate is one of the greatest threats to ecosystems and society. In this paper, we present projections of future fire probability for the southcentral USA using downscaled climate projections and the Physical Chemistry Fire Frequency Model (PC2FM). Future fire probability is projected to both increase and decrease across the study region of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Among all end-of-century projections, change in fire probabilities (CFPs) range from - 51 to + 240%. Greatest absolute increases in fire probability are shown for areas within the range of approximately 75 to 160 cm mean annual precipitation (MAP), regardless of climate model. Although fire is likely to become more frequent across the southcentral USA, spatial patterns may remain similar unless significant increases in precipitation occur, whereby more extensive areas with increased fire probability are predicted. Perhaps one of the most important results is illumination of climate changes where fire probability response (+, -) may deviate (i.e., tipping points). Fire regimes of southcentral US ecosystems occur in a geographic transition zone from reactant- to reaction-limited conditions, potentially making them uniquely responsive to different scenarios of temperature and precipitation changes. Identification and description of these conditions may help anticipate fire regime changes that will affect human health, agriculture, species conservation, and nutrient and water cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the state responds to persistent claims of environmental injustice in overburdened communities. Our analysis focuses on activities, objectives, and processes of state intervention to understand how state actors attempt to rescript the meaning of environmental justice. We develop our analysis through a case study of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Environmental Justice Showcase Communities (EJSC) Programme, and its project in Port Arthur, Texas, to understand how the state responds to communities of colour facing toxic pollution. We discover a misalignment between the aims of local activists and policy interventions. If interventions do not align with the goals of activists, then what political work is done through the programme? We identify two elements of this USEPA programme: (1) how the EJSC programme targets individuals living in environmental justice communities for remediation rather than facilitating environmental remediation; and (2) how state interventions align in multiple ways with interests of the private sector, effectively redefining environmental justice from a utilitarian view of compensation. Moreover, we describe how the EJSC programme also forges new pathways for private companies to participate in environmental compensation programmes while ignoring requests to enhance monitoring and regulatory compliance in industry. Thus, rather than responding and advancing activist environmental justice objectives, programme discourses and interventions sideline collective community claims and redirect state-level EJ interventions that embrace market-centric measures. Such market-based interventions on behalf and in the name of environmental justice signal a further entrenchment of what we refer to as the marketisation of environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hyboptera Chaudoir, 1872 of the Cryptobatida group of subtribe Agrina, Lebiini, living in the Neotropics and southernmost Nearctic realms are diagnosed, described, and illustrated, and new species are assigned to two inclusive species groups. Occurrences of species range from Texas, USA, to the state of Santa Caterina in Brazil. Seven new species of Hyboptera are described: Hyboptera biolat Erwin & Henry, sp. n.; Type locality -- Perú, Madre de Dios, Manu Reserved Zone, Río Manu, BIOLAT Biological Station, Pakitza; Hyboptera vestiverdis Henry & Erwin, sp. n.; Type locality -- Perú, Madre de Dios, Manu Reserved Zone, Río Manu, BIOLAT Biological Station, Pakitza; Hyboptera lucida Henry & Erwin, sp. n.; Type locality -- French Guiana, Cayenne, Commune de Roura, Montagne des Chevaux; Hyboptera scheelea Erwin & Henry, sp. n.; Type locality -- Perú, Loreto, Pacaya- Samiria National Reserve, Río Samiria (South Branch), Camp Terry; Hyboptera shasta Erwin, sp. n.; Type locality -- Brazil, Amazonas, north of Manaus on Amazonas 010 at Km 26, Reserva Ducke; Hyboptera tepui Erwin & Henry, sp. n.; Type locality -- Venezuela, Amazonas, Cerro de la Neblina, Río Baria Basecamp; Hyboptera tiputini Erwin & Henry, sp. n.; Type locality -- Ecuador, Orellana, Yasuni National Park (edge), 95.43 km E (heading 101.46°) Coca, Tiputini Biodiversity Station. A revised identification key is provided to the genera of the Cryptobatida group and another to the species of Hyboptera Chaudoir and distributional data are provided for all known species of the latter. Adults of these species often occur in the canopy of many tropical tree species and records are reported where known. In addition, adults are found under the webbing of Psocoptera and in fleshy anther rings of Bombacaceae (Pseudobombax septenatum (Jacq.) Dugand), on the rain forest floor in the dry season. Larval and pupal stages of one species from Panamá are known from under bark of living fence posts; however, these immature stages are not treated in the current paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal water quality is strongly influenced by tidal fluctuations and water chemistry. There is a need for rigorous models that are not computationally or economically prohibitive, but still allow simulation of the hydrodynamics and bacteria sources for coastal, tidally influenced streams and bayous. This paper presents a modeling approach that links a Tidal Prism Model (TPM) implemented in an Excel-based modeling environment with a watershed runoff model (Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN, HSPF) for such watersheds. The TPM is a one-dimensional mass balance approach that accounts for loading from tidal exchange, runoff, point sources and bacteria die-off at an hourly time step resolution. The novel use of equal high-resolution time steps in this study allowed seamless integration of the TPM and HSPF. The linked model was calibrated to flow and E. Coli data (for HSPF), and salinity and enterococci data (for the TPM) for a coastal stream in Texas. Sensitivity analyses showed the TPM to be most influenced by changes in net decay rates followed by tidal and runoff loads, respectively. Management scenarios were evaluated with the developed linked models to assess the impact of runoff load reductions and improved wastewater treatment plant quality and to determine the areas of critical need for such reductions. Achieving water quality standards for bacteria required load reductions that ranged from zero to 90% for the modeled coastal stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impacts of heavier and longer combination vehicles (LCVs) on the pavements of five major Texas corridors. These corridors were divided into 152 segments presenting uniform pavement properties and truck volumes. For each segment, axle load spectra were estimated for the baseline (existing) scenario and an LCV scenario was developed in concert with industry stakeholders and transportation officials. Axle weight data came from 10 weigh-in-motion stations. Pavement lives under both scenarios were estimated using elastic theory and classical fatigue equations. Non-significant impacts happened when both lives were 30 years or longer, or when the difference between lives was under one year. The LCV scenario had no impact on rigid pavements, decreased the life of some flexible pavements, and was less detrimental than the baseline in segments carrying overweight axles. Annualized overlay cost differences were calculated for all segments with significant LCV impacts. Total cost decreased. This paper's primary contribution is a viable methodology to verify whether specific increases in vehicle axle or gross or weights have undue impacts on pavement costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores recent state legislative processes in Colorado and Texas related to bills proposing support for restorative justice as a juvenile diversion tool for criminal courts. It uses two maximum variation case studies to explore issue statements related to theoretically-supported factors likely to influence the adoption of restorative justice legislation, and draws conclusions about the importance of political partisanship, economic strain, and key figures such as policy entrepreneurs, advocacy coalitions, and interest groups in legislative decision-making. Emerging themes suggest that support for restorative justice policies is at least sometimes bipartisan and is unlikely to be motivated by economic interests. Collaborative processes within a traditionally adversarial system distinguished successful restorative justice decision-making in Colorado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to notions of 'hybrid' historical geographies of irrigation by focusing on contested visions for irrigation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Adding to geographical work using biography, notions of performance, and racialized landscapes, the paper analyzes debates between John Shary and Charles Pease. Shary and Pease were protagonists, respectively, of pumping water from the Rio Grande and a gravity scheme reliant on action by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The pumping system survived; the gravity system was never constructed. However, the debate between Shary and Pease illustrates tensions within the Anglo elite. The analysis focuses on three early-twentieth-century moments. The first is a 1918 crisis in Shary's irrigation company, followed by a 1927 debate between Shary and Pease over the flaws of the pumping system and benefits of gravity irrigation. Finally, the paper focuses on Shary and Pease's constructions of racialized landscapes that subordinated Hispanics as voters to be utilized for Shary's accumulation strategy, or as 'non-water users' that should be excluded from water politics. The paper argues that Shary and Pease projected similarly exclusionary social visions onto the irrigated landscape in spite of their differences on irrigation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though there is a general acknowledgement that green infrastructure can have a positive role in reducing stormwater runoff, few studies have explored how specific spatial configurations of landscape—one of the critical components of green infrastructure—could influence runoff generation. This study attempts to address this gap by examining the landscape patterns in terms of size, shape, isolation, and connectivity across the four largest metropolitan areas in Texas, using landscape ecology metrics. The outcomes indicate that larger, less fragmented, and more connected landscape patterns are likely to mediate the mean annual peak runoff. In contrast, larger developments of complex shapes with more edges, clustered, and connected are likely to augment the peak runoff. The findings of this paper provide empirical evidences for policy makers to further the importance of interconnection and clusters of green infrastructure and plan strategic green hubs and corridors to more effectively manage stormwater runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a study that sheds light on an issue that is important for understanding human behavioral evolution-the factors that influence hunter-gatherers' decisions regarding the number and degree of specialization of their tools. Two primary drivers of technological richness and complexity have been proposed in the anthropological literature: population size and environmental risk. In general, ethnographic studies tend to support environmental risk as the primary driver, whereas the limited number of archaeological studies that have been carried out seem to support population size. These findings are difficult to reconcile because problems exist for both sets of studies. The present study was designed with these problems in mind. We used an archaeological dataset to test which of the hypothesized driving factors-population size or environmental risk-best explains changes in technological richness. More specifically, we investigated whether changes in the number of point types in Texas from the first occupation more than 13,000 years ago to the Late Prehistoric period, around 400 years ago, are better explained by environmental risk or by population size. Bivariate correlations and a generalized linear model indicate that temporal changes in point-type richness in Texas are significantly associated with changes in one of our proxies of risk-global temperature. We found no relationship between temporal changes in point-type richness and changes in population size. Thus, the results derived from this study are consistent with the environmental risk hypothesis and inconsistent with the population size hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses various water management issues facing federal, state, and local agencies charged with managing the water resources of the Rio Grande River Basin and its major tributaries. The Rio Grande—3,058 km (=1,900 mi) long—is the fourth longest river in the United States. The river's basin is 870,236 km2(=336,000 mi2) and for roughly two-thirds of its length it forms the United States–Mexican border. It is a major recreational resource providing world class trout fishing near its headwaters in Colorado's San Juan Mountains and shoreline, angling, and boating opportunities near the Colorado–New Mexico border. The Rio Grande is the principal tourist attraction of Big Bend National Park and flows through downtown Albuquerque and El Paso. Many reaches are wide and broad, but almost all are relatively shallow and not navigable by commercial ships. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important renewable water resources of the southwestern United States and North America. The issue of the “manageability” of the river in the face of social forces and disparate administrative jurisdictions that adversely impact Rio Grande flows is a thread linking various sections of the paper together. The length of the river; the fact that major reaches lie in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; and its unique role as an international boundary pose complex management problems. The allocation status quo formed by the complex nexus of existing river laws make it difficult to reshape Rio Grande management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gravel aggregates have been used extensively in the Houston District for continuously reinforced concrete (CRC) pavements construction for many years. However, some of these pavements have been subject to early-age delamination and eventual spalling damage. A series of studies since the early 1990's have been conducted to gain a better understanding of mechanisms, material properties, and construction practices related to delamination and spalling. This paper describes a systematic and methodical approach for selecting construction measures to counter the negative effects of using gravel aggregates in concrete paving as it pertains to minimizing early-age delamination distress. The approach was developed based on laboratory measures and practices, numerical approaches for assessing delamination potential, and test sections established in the Houston District, Texas. The testing programs in the laboratory and the field, as well as the analytical results, are presented in this paper. The analysis of the results leads to a step-by-step approach for evaluating and selecting construction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a chip seal research project in Texas where the researchers are using both quantitative and qualitative means to evaluate chip seal performance on rural roads. The team is making specific use of the Transit New Zealand (TNZ) T/3 “sand circle” test to measure the change in average texture depth over time and applying those measurements to the TNZ P/17 performance specification for allowable surface texture deterioration over the first year of chip seal performance. The results demonstrate the value of quantitatively characterizing the preseal surface condition as a benchmark against which to compare new chip seal performance. Those roads that had poor preseal surface conditions as exhibited by low macrotexture as measured by the T/3 sand circle test showed early loss of macrotexture and premature flushing after a new seal had been applied and failed the specified P/17 1-year texture loss performance criteria. Thus, the paper concludes that not only is having a quantitative metric essential to be able to accurately assess the performance of new seals but also that the use of the TNZ T/3 sand circle test furnishes an easy, cost-effective means to quantitatively characterize preseal surface texture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a framework for using business and organizational scenario-planning techniques for regional strategic transportation-planning purposes. The paper provides a brief history of scenario planning as it emerged from business-strategic planning activities and gives an overview of its goals and limitations. The paper then reviews the context for scenario planning in regional transportation planning as well as precedents of its application in this field. The paper continues with a presentation of a scenario-planning framework for transportation as refined and applied to the Houston metropolitan area. The major findings and lessons from this application are discussed, together with conclusions and observations regarding further potentials and refinements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines relationships between body weight, religion, and gender while controlling for relevant covariates and body mass index (BMI), a measure of physical/biological body type. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Texas Adults ( n = 1,504), we present results of ordered logistic regression models which indicate that religious factors work distinctly for men and women when controlling for BMI. While church attendance is associated with lower odds of overweight perceptions among women, it is religious salience that is associated with lower odds of self-reported excess weight in men. Implications for research which associates religious and physiological factors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in the state of Texas. In order to develop effective healthcare policies to combat CVD, it is essential to understand what types of communities are most affected. In this paper, we develop a classification scheme to segment high-prevalence communities based on selected social and demographic characteristics. We find that while many high-prevalence areas reflect traditional relationships between socioeconomic deprivation and poor health outcomes, a subset of more affluent communities in Texas are also affected. This suggests the importance of tailored approaches to prevention that account for this diversity among high-prevalence neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the 2008 economic downturn in the United States, the construction industry lost 632,000 jobs nationally, of which approximately 100,000 were in Texas. In response to the economic recession, a stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), was signed by President Obama on March 6, 2009. This paper presents the results of a study examining the construction employment impact of ARRA spending on Texas transportation projects. The primary goal of this study was to estimate direct employment in the construction industry from spending on construction projects. By using regression analysis, the study assesses employment from data on Texas Department of Transportation projects that used ARRA funds, showing that employment generated by construction projects depends on project type, size, and location urbanization. The findings can be useful to policy makers in allocating funds on construction projects when employment stimulation is an objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research team recognized the value of network-level falling weight deflectometer (FWD) testing to evaluate the structural condition trends of flexible pavements. However, practical limitations due to the cost of testing, traffic control and safety concerns, and the ability to test a large network may discourage some agencies from conducting the network-level FWD testing. For this reason, the surrogate measure of the structural condition index (SCI) is suggested for use. The main purpose of the research presented in this paper is to investigate data-mining strategies and to develop a prediction method of the structural condition trends for network-level applications, which do not require FWD testing. The research team first evaluated the existing and historical pavement condition, distress, ride, traffic, and other data attributes in the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Pavement Maintenance Information System (PMIS); applied data-mining strategies to the data; discovered useful patterns and knowledge for SCI value prediction; and finally provided a reasonable measure of pavement structural condition which is correlated to the SCI. To evaluate the performance of the developed prediction approach, a case study was conducted using the SCI data calculated from the FWD data collected on flexible pavements over a 5-year period (2005-2009) from 354 PMIS sections representing 37 pavement sections on the Texas highway system. The preliminary study results showed that the proposed approach can be used as a supportive pavement structural index in the event when FWD deflection data is not available and help pavement managers identify the timing and appropriate treatment level of preventive maintenance activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Texas DOT (TXDOT) is concerned about the widening gap between pavement preservation needs and available funding. Thus, the TXDOT Austin district pavement engineer (DPE) has investigated methods to strategically allocate available pavement funding to potential projects that improve the overall performance of the district and Texas highway systems. The primary objective of the study presented in this paper is to develop a network-level project-screening and ranking method that supports the Austin district 4-year pavement-management plan development. The writers developed candidate-project selection and ranking algorithms that evaluated pavement conditions of each project candidate using data contained in the Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) database, incorporated insights from Austin district pavement experts, and implemented the developed method and supporting algorithm. This process previously required weeks to complete, but now requires about 10 min, including data preparation and running the analysis algorithm, which enables the Austin DPE to devote more time and resources to conducting field visits, performing project-level evaluations, and testing candidate projects. The case study results show that the proposed method assisted the DPE in evaluating and prioritizing projects and allocating funds to the right projects at the right time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit systems are dial-a-ride services that provide public transportation to disabled customers. In large metropolitan areas, these services might use zoning strategies to simplify their management. The objective of this paper is to provide a more in-depth evaluation and comparison between centralized and decentralized zoning strategies. This is achieved by developing a simulation model to evaluate the effects of zoning strategies on the productivity and quality of service for the particular ADA paratransit service, using actual demand data from the city of Houston. Four decentralized zoning strategies are compared with a centralized no-zoning strategy. Higher degrees of decentralization degrade the operational efficiency in terms of larger fleet size because the causative empty trip kilometers are greater. The intrazonal trip percentages of demand and productivity are positively correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronically steerable flash lidar (ESFL) is a waveform lidar sensor that incorporates two advances relevant to the design of future spaceborne lidar sensors. The first is a nonmechanical scanner that splits a single incoming beam into a variable number of output beams that can be aligned independently across track; the transmitted beam pattern can be changed up to 60 Hz. The second is a flash focal plane array (FFPA) capable of recording waveforms simultaneously from a 128 × 128 pixel grid with individual footprints spread over multiple pixels. In this paper, the incoming beam was used to illuminate eight 8.4-m footprints which were imaged simultaneously on 12 × 12 pixel subsets of the FFPA. The FFPA digitizes waveforms at a vertical resolution of 75 cm over 41 vertical bins to create waveforms of 30.75-m depth. Multiple waveforms obtained using range-gating were combined for these analyses. ESFL data were collected at Manitou Experimental Forest (MEF), located in the Pikes Peak National Forest, Colorado, USA and the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest (AEF), located in the Angelina Forest, Nacogdoches, TX. We evaluated the use of individual pixel-level and aggregated footprint-level waveforms and alternate approaches to define the extent of each footprint in the focal plane array. Using discrete return lidar data as a reference, we evaluated the ability of ESFL lidar to estimate canopy height and compared the two sensors' rates of penetration to the terrain surface. We found the footprint-level waveforms were better suited for use with existing waveform processing techniques, although techniques for processing at the pixel-level appear feasible. Relationships between height estimates from each lidar data set were most closely related when footprint-level ESFL waveforms were calculated after removing pixels that had less than 50% of the maximum energy within that footprint. Regressions between ESFL and reference lidar data estimates of height explained 84% (AEF) and 85% (MEF) of variance; this study could not say definitively which method yielded the more accurate estimate of height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a longitudinal perspective on state-level recreational fisheries that could be used anywhere systematic angler surveys are conducted over time. With six angler surveys from Texas conducted over a 16-year time period, selected human dimension indicators of recreational fishing were analyzed with the index of qualitative variation (IQV) and Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient. Saltwater anglers demonstrated significant upward trends in household income, self-reported skill, preference for catching one particular species, and satisfaction with their fishing experiences. No significant downward trends were found. Although expected in some cases for various reasons, no significant trends were found in gender, baby boomer participation, racial/ethnic differences, years of fishing experience, and average annual days of saltwater fishing. Finally, this paper demonstrates the need for consistent human dimension questions over time in understanding the longitudinal perspective of recreational fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of power generation in the world. While general public and political support for wind energy is often high, siting wind farms frequently raises concerns in local communities, and individual projects often fail because of effective public opposition. This paper presents the results of a postal and online survey questionnaire that explores public perceptions of wind energy in two of the most important states for wind development, Texas and Iowa. The goal is a better understanding of public reactions to large-scale wind developments as a prerequisite of more widespread use of renewable energy resources. We found a high level of public support for wind energy, with more than two-thirds of respondents being in favor of building more wind farms either in their community or within the U.S. as a whole. Given that the majority of respondents had a very high level of concern for the general environment, we also found that almost two-thirds of respondents counter-intuitively indicated that producing electricity using fossil fuels is not detrimental to the environment, and that they had little concern for global climate change. Our results suggest that arguing for more renewable sources of energy based on reducing our carbon footprint is less persuasive in these communities than simply approaching it from the perspective of wind being a clean and safe source of energy. More than two-thirds of respondents felt their county had benefited economically from the wind farms and that they were a source of job creation in the county. Support for wind power in these communities is associated far more with socioeconomic factors than foundational aesthetic or moral values, with wind farms perceived as the vehicle that will reverse economic decline. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The largest rivers draining to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas are at more advanced stages of valley filling than rivers with smaller drainage areas, with corresponding differences in alluvial morphology and architecture, and avulsion style. This seems to imply that the larger fluvial systems either produce more sediment relative to the accommodation space in the alluvial valleys, or that they have undergone longer periods of valley aggradation. However, it is not clear that either of these is the case. This paper presents a theoretical analysis showing that fluvial systems with larger drainage areas can produce more advanced stages of infilling than those with smaller drainage areas (but with identical histories and sediment production per unit area) due to the nature of the scaling relationships between drainage basin area and incised valley size, and between basin area and sediment yield. Data for rivers in the region shows a strong linear relationship between valley width and drainage area. The nonlinear relationship between drainage area and proportion of the incised valley filled is somewhat weaker, but still significant, and major deviations are readily explained in terms of local inherited morphology or tectonic features. Results show that major differences in the degree or stage of valley filling could occur due to differences in drainage basin size alone. This indicates caution in interpreting incised valley fills of drainage basins of different sizes in terms of sediment supply. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the decades leading up to the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, student activism both within Iran as well as abroad played a significant role in developing widespread opposition to Shah Reza Pahlavi's dictatorial government. Youth mobilisation among the Iranian student diaspora reached a pinnacle during the years immediately preceding the revolution and drew direct connections with other anti-imperialist, pro-democratic campaigns simultaneously occurring around the world. In the US/Mexico border city, El Paso, Texas, this global phenomenon manifested in the cross-cultural collaboration of Chicano and Iranian student activists. This paper presents a micro-history of the interethnic collaborative activism of these two groups; and how it provided a community of solidarity for the Iranian youth who comprised a social base that helped bring about the Iranian Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection developed as an archival collection, and what this teaches us about contemporary constructions of film history and African American history. More specifically, it describes the appeals and dangers of framing these films within a lost-then-found narrative template, in which their acquisition by an archive is imagined to provide a satisfying sense of closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]