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During Texas's decade as a republic, its newspapers never galvanized into a truly partisan press. The newspapers of Texas were political, but rather than focusing on party principles, they opposed or supported political candidates during the republic's four presidential elections, with two-term President Sam Houston as the pivotal figure. The independence of most newspapers from party patronage and influence and their patriotic elevation of the good of the country over loyalty to any faction demonstrated that editors did not fully adopt the American style of press partisanship they experienced before moving to Texas. Elections in the republic revolved around personalities instead of policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, The Learning Center, a consumer health library at MD Anderson Cancer Center, embarked on a project to translate paper pathfinders into online Recommended Resources in Springshare’s LibGuides platform. This project was successfully undertaken by a small staff of librarians and health education specialists with a range of technical skills and allowed online access to resources available both online and in The Learning Center. This article briefly addresses the activities and decisions leading up to the adoption of LibGuides, outlines the process of creating more than 40 online Recommended Resources, and describes the outcomes to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including hearing loss prevention, hearing health, and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

This article examines how Texan Revolutionaries portrayed the Texas Revolution as a struggle for modernity. In particular, numerous Anglo-Texans created a narrative in which they cast Santa Anna at the helm of a counter-enlightenment restoring Ancien Régime values. The Revolutionaries drew upon the discourse of the Mexican politician and Texas co-founder Lorenzo de Zavala. This article contests the portrayal of the Texas Revolution as a White and Anglo movement. This manuscript contributes to the historiography by examining Zavala's influence on the language of the Texas Revolution. Together, Zavala and the Texas Revolutionaries accused Santa Anna of fighting for monarchy and aristocracy. Furthermore, Texan revolutionaries argued the imminent restoration of Catholicism threatened their cherished liberties and freedoms. This was all the while Anglo-Texans portrayed their secession as a struggle for reason, virtue, and happiness. This analysis primarily utilizes the Mirabeau Lamar Papers to discern the sentiments and expressions of numerous individuals involved in the Texas Revolution. The following study contributes to the lacuna in the history of ideas in the Texas Republic. Furthermore, this article links Texas to the broader historiography of Atlantic Revolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drug overdose deaths in Texas have been accelerating in recent years with an increase of 33% in the 12 months leading up to December 2020. Accurate counts of nonfatal overdoses – including associated aspects of overdose, such as substances involved, demographic information, and reversal agents administered is critical to increase timely and adequate response to individuals and communities in need. Methods: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with harm reduction workers across four Texas counties to understand existing methods of reporting overdoses, naloxone dissemination/administration, and recommendations for improving overdose surveillance. Interviews were transcribed and emergent themes were identified based on the a priori research goals. Results: Findings highlighted a variety of overdose data collection methods and tools among harm reduction organizations including Excel spreadsheet, web-based TONI application, notes on personal cell phones, and paper notes. Types of overdose data collected varied widely. Participants noted existing methods are suboptimal and that there is a need for a unified, statewide reporting system to improve overdose data capture. Participants also highlighted that overdose surveillance should include "hidden populations" of people who use drugs that are not currently counted in surveillance methods as a result of not interacting with the healthcare system. Conclusions: Texas lacks a unified overdose reporting system to capture critical data to inform overdose response and prevention efforts. Nontraditional reporters may be critical toward improving overdose syndromic efforts and capturing data among hard-to-reach populations. Harm reduction organizations are uniquely positioned to facilitate reporting among community gatekeepers and people who use drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section invites editors and authors to submit papers for presentation at the 20th Annual Western Hemispheric Trade Conference to be held at A&M International University in Laredo, Texas on April 13-15, 2016.

This paper compares the educational achievement and growth of Latinx third through eighth-grade students attending school along the U.S.-Mexico Border and in the interior of the four Border states. The theories of structural and legal violence predict that powerful Anglos have created systems of social reproduction, concentrated disadvantage, and immigration law that reduce Latinx education close to the U.S.-Mexico Border. We test these theories with data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), which contains information on Latinx achievement and growth in all public school districts in the four Border states. We find that Latinx achievement and growth are similar along the Border and in the interior except in Texas, where concentrated disadvantage dramatically lowers Latinx achievement and growth. We also find that social reproduction is more beneficial for Latinx youth along the Border because, surprisingly, Latinx adults tend to be more educated near the border than in the interior. We find no evidence that immigration laws reduce education more near the Border than in the interior. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the GreenLeaders designation on hotel performance under the joint theoretical framework of environmental corporate social responsibility and social identity theory. We focus on 1,198 individual hotel properties from five major cities in Texas between 2010 and 2019. A two-way fixed-effects model is applied to model monthly revenue per available room (RevPAR) and TripAdvisor ratings for each hotel. Results show that GreenLeaders certification leads to a 6.00% increase in hotels' monthly RevPAR and a 4.25% increase in hotels' monthly average TripAdvisor rating. This impact grew over time during the research period. The findings also unveil a set of moderating variables, such as hotel class and chain affiliation. More specifically, the effect of GreenLeaders certification is larger for upscale and independent hotels. The major results are also confirmed through a robustness analysis using propensity-score-based weighting and placebo tests. Lastly, implications are provided for hoteliers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low values of pavement friction increase crash rates. Some agencies such as FHWA and AASHTO have provided guidelines for the management of pavement friction, including the definition of minimum friction thresholds for roadway networks. Additionally, FHWA lists the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) as one of the methodologies that can assist decision makers in the definition of these thresholds. However, there are limited studies that quantified the BCR of establishing minimum friction thresholds. The objective of this paper is to fill this research gap by providing a methodology to quantify the BCR of establishing minimum friction thresholds for roadway networks. Benefits are estimated in terms of the monetary value of crash reductions. Costs are estimated by considering: a) the cost for treating pavement sections, b) the monetary value of travel time delays, and c) the monetary value of road safety risks associated with work zones. The proposed framework was applied to a roadway network of 993 highway sections in Texas. The analysis was performed for Interstate Highways, Urban Freeways, and Arterials and Collectors. The proposed methodology can provide transportation agencies with an analytical tool to effectively estimate the BCR of maintenance policies intended to establish a minimum SN for a roadway network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Visibility of the transgender community has increased, particularly in the media. Trans teachers face a challenge, as their professional roles are both public and private. In an effort to seek personal and professional support, trans teachers have turned to social media outlets. Additionally, current research does not always encompass intersectional experiences of trans BIPOC teachers. Aim: This paper presents an autohistoria-teoría, or autoethnographical case study account of the author's experience coming out in the workplace as a trans teacher in Texas. Methods: Guided by Slavin et al. multicultural model of the stress process coupled with intersectionality, this paper attempts to describe how a trans teacher of color navigates the workplace. The data for this study are a collection of all of the author's social media posts from 2005 to 2015. Results: Findings reveal that allies provided some support, and that this trans teacher used deflection as a coping strategy in posts. Conclusion: The results suggest that administrative and peer support can impact transgender workers' mental well-being. In this paper, autohistoria-teoría is used as a powerful way for a trans BIPOC teacher's narrative to be told, which contributed to cultural healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network screening for crash hotspots is the first step in roadway safety management. The empirical Bayes (EB) method has been widely used for ranking sites. In the EB process, the most frequently used model for developing safety performance functions (SPFs) is the negative binomial (NB) regression model, in which the dispersion parameter plays a critical role. There are primarily two forms of the dispersion parameter: fixed and varying. Previous studies showed that SPFs with varying dispersion parameters had better performance in modeling crash estimations, and the Highway Safety Manual has adopted the varying form for segment SPFs. However, a comparative analysis of hotspot identification with fixed and varying dispersion parameters for intersections has not yet been well studied. Moreover, this paper includes a thorough exploration of the varying dispersion parameters with five different functional forms at 1,943 unsignalized intersections in Texas. To evaluate the intersection SPFs, the authors implement three hotspot identification tests in addition to model statistical fit. Two EB approaches with proposed varying dispersion parameters were found superior to the EB approach with a fixed dispersion parameter in hotspot identification. Safety analysts and practitioners are encouraged to consider varying forms of dispersion parameter when analyzing intersection crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, Texas was overrepresented in food insecure households. One avenue many food insecure households take to subsidize their food intake is the use of food pantries. Previous literature has identified many efforts to incorporate nutritional information and foods at pantry sites. However, few have considered how religious affiliation can impact organizational structure and agents in regards to nutritional focus. The purpose of this paper is to investigate perceptions of nutritional information, behaviors, and policies of the volunteers at our research sites and the how pantry operations impact the deployment of that information to clients. Our research question asks how do the religious elements of our research sites impact nutritional policy and concerns of food pantries? Using analysis of field notes generated from participant observation at 5 of the religiously-affiliated food pantries in Brazos County, TX, and a verbal survey on organizational nutrition policy administered to food pantry volunteers, we find that religious cultures at these food pantries create barriers to nutrition complementary to hegemonic nutrition. Our findings suggest that interventions targeting the improvement of organizational nutrition policy at local food pantries must consider organizational culture more critically, particularly religious elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial exploitation (FE) is one of the most common reports to Adult Protective Services (APS) and the cases are often complex. Consequently, APS caseworkers report FE investigations to be among the most difficult while simultaneously reporting low confidence in productive outcomes for these investigations. This necessitates finding ways to support APS FE investigations. This paper describes the structure, process, and formative findings of a collaboration between forensic accounting examiners and APS workers to investigate complex cases of FE. Among the 77 FE cases completed, forensic examiners reviewed multiple years of financial records which included over 101,000 transactions, totaling over $213,000,000.00 in finances, and identified over $8,000,000 in questionable activity. Scores on the 8-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire were high indicating high program satisfaction by APS workers, subject matter experts, and forensic examiners. These findings support the feasibility and acceptability of forensic accounting and APS collaborations to investigate complex cases of FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States have adopted a variety of policies to encourage universities to expand research production, with the hope of supporting economic growth and competitiveness. This paper considers whether a state-level initiative succeeded in influencing university-based research outputs among regional public universities. We test whether the Texas Research Incentive Program increased research production at a set of state universities as measured by total research spending, federally-funded research spending, the number of scholarly publications, and the share of publications published in high impact factor journals. Using a novel dataset and difference-in-differences analytic strategy, we found that TRIP adoption was associated with a 19%-25% increase in research expenditures at emerging research universities in Texas relative to a matched set of comparable universities. However, TRIP did not influence federally-funded research expenditures or journal publication outputs. We also show that federally-funded research expenditures influence publication outputs — both in amount and quality — and that number of full-time faculty influences both federal research expenditures and publication outputs. We discuss contributions to the literature on regional public universities, loose coupling, and research production, as well as implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the impact of US economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on major crude oil markets. GARCH-tDDC-Copula model is constructed to study the spillover effect of US EPU on the international crude oil market risk, and then the median-CoVaR portfolio model is constructed to discuss the optimal portfolio strategy of crude oil importers when US EPU is in different states. Results show that the spillover effect of US EPU on international crude oil market risk is nonlinear, asymmetric and time-varying. When US EPU increases from the average level to the 0.95 quantile level, the price reduction risk of crude oil market in Brent, Dubai and Western Texas increases by 37.26%, 42.66%, and 39.28% respectively, and the price increase risk increases by 7.22%, 6.64%, and 7.53% respectively. Compared with the median-VaR portfolio strategy and the equal-weight combination portfolio strategy, the advantage of the median-CoVaR model is that it can achieve 'targeted' management for asset risk under specific conditions. When US EPU peak occurs, crude oil importers can formulate a basket price strategies with dynamic weighted based on the median-CoVaR model, which can better reduce the depreciation risk of crude oil assets. The findings have important implications for importers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Library services in the US were reduced during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, and rural residents were particularly impacted. To understand the impact of the pandemic on library services in rural areas, this paper analyzed the 2020 Texas Public Library Statistics and a portion of the 2019 and 2018 data. It examined various services from libraries located in the areas with a population of less than 5,000. Although libraries opened only 76% of hours in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2018, their public computer usage dropped around 50% compared to previous years. Paired sample t-tests suggested statistically significant differences in annual library visits, opening hours, and computer use, indicating much-needed support for computing resources in rural areas because of the pandemic. This study suggested that rural libraries are crucial candidates for a public-private partnership to build rural broadband and enhance public computing services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious leaders are often the first recourse for people facing mental health challenges. Efforts have been made to understand faith leaders' mental health literacy, but little is known about the extent to which faith leaders trust mental health professionals, which likely influences their referral practices. To address this gap, this paper examines faith leaders' perceptions of mental health professionals using data from interviews with leaders of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Sikh communities in Texas and the mid-Atlantic region conducted between 2017 and 2019 (n = 67). Analysis shows that when asked about the extent to which they would trust their members to the care of mental health professionals, faith leaders adopt one of four orientations (1) Unqualified trust; (2) Conditional trust; (3) Distrust and (4) Dismissal. The paper elaborates on each of these four orientations and leaders' rationales for them, followed by implications for faith leaders and mental health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resettlement can be an uncertain time for refugees as they have often suffered life-threatening circumstances prior to flight from their countries, yet few resettlement programs screen for mental health. The purpose of this study was to pilot the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) to assess mental health and the Pathways to Wellness intervention to identify internal and structural barriers affecting resettlement with a refugee women's sewing group. Community collaborations that create healthy social and physical environments through access to resources, economic opportunities, and social support promote a holistic approach to health and can improve quality of life for this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Approximately one-third of the veteran population suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental illness that is often co-morbid with social anxiety disorder. Student veterans are especially vulnerable as they struggle to adapt to a new, less structured lifestyle with few peers who understand their difficulties. To support mental health experts in the treatment of social anxiety disorder, this study utilized machine learning to detect anxiety in text transcribed from interviews with patients and applied topic modeling to highlight common stress factors for student veterans. We approach our anxiety detection task by exploring both deep learning and traditional machine learning strategies such as transformers, transfer learning, and support vector classifiers. Our models provide a tool to support psychologists and social workers in treating social anxiety. The results detailed in this paper could also have broader impacts in fields such as pedagogy and public health.1 [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]

Belonging is a human need, one that is particularly difficult for children of immigrants to achieve. The Second-generation youth hangs in a balance between the culture of their parents and that of their friends and peers. Often these youth feel that they are not heard or seen by those around them, enhancing the feeling of not belonging in their communities, or even in their country. Therapeutic interventions could potentially create a "third space" in which they feel a sense of belonging. This paper explores the complexity in the experience of belonging in second-generation Latinx youth through a review of the literature, psychodynamic theories, a composite clinical case example and the reflections and implications to and from Second-generation Latina therapist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-sensor vehicle systems have been implemented in large-scale field programs to detect, attribute, and estimate emissions rates of methane (CH4) and other compounds from oil and gas wells and facilities. Most vehicle systems use passive sensing; they must be positioned downwind of sources to detect emissions. A major deployment challenge is predicting the best measurement locations and driving routes to sample infrastructure. Here, we present and validate a methodology that incorporates high-resolution weather forecast and geospatial data to predict measurement locations and optimize driving routes. The methodology estimates the downwind road intersection point (DRIP) of theoretical CH4 plumes emitted from each well or facility. DRIPs serve as waypoints for Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm to determine the optimal driving route. We present a case study to demonstrate the methodology for planning and executing a vehicle-based concentration mapping survey of 50 oil and gas wells near Pecos, Texas. Validation was performed by comparing DRIPs with 174 CH4 plumes measured by vehicle surveys of oil and gas wells and facilities in Alberta, Canada. Results indicate median Manhattan distances of 145.8 m between DRIPs and plume midpoints and 160.3 m between DRIPs and peak plume enhancements. A total of 46 (26%) of the plume segments overlapped DRIPs. Locational errors of DRIPs are related to misattributions of emissions sources and discrepancies between modeled and instantaneous wind direction measured when the vehicle intersects plumes. Although the development of the methodology was motivated by CH4 emissions from oil and gas facilities, it should be applicable to other types of point source air emissions from known facilities. Implications: This paper presents and validates a method that addresses the challenge of measuring industrial emissions from public roads. The method can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of targeted vehicle-based emissions surveys where the locations of potential sources are known. We believe the method has broad application in addition to the upstream oil and gas context it was designed for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates about 146,000 home sales from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas, from January 2009 to April 2019 to measure the extent that a home's selling price reflects a Green premium which is identified in the MLS. We exclude new houses from this analysis. For the span of our data, we find a 4.2% increase in the sale price of Green homes, holding other features constant. When evaluated by Area (approximate selling price quintile), we find premiums of 6.9%, 5.7%, 1.2%, 3.5%, and 5.3% by order of increasing neighborhood value quintile. When assessing Homestead versus Non-Aomestead homes, we find a premium of 2.8% for Homesteads and 6.4% for Non-Homesteads. Considering the time trend, we found the premium starting under 3% in 2009 and increasing to a little over 5% where it remained for three years and decreased to about 4% in 2014 where it remained through the end of the data in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a concise approach for calibrating the damage models in the TxME, a mechanistic–empirical flexible pavement design model developed for Texas. The models calibrated are rutting, bottom-up fatigue cracking and transverse (thermal) cracking. Pavement performance observations from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) maintained Data Storage System (DSS) were used for this purpose. Prior to calibration, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to establish similar groups of sections in terms of structural, traffic and environmental conditions. For the rutting model, the layer calibration coefficients weighed plastic deformations linearly, hence it was possible to establish them by minimising the sum of the squared errors (SSE) between the estimated and observed surface (i.e. total) rutting using the generalised gradient method (GRG) through the MS® Excel solver. For the fatigue cracking model, calibration focused on the transfer function between the accumulated fatigue damage and the observed fatigue cracked area. Curve fitting was done using the bi-square robust algorithms in MATLAB®. For the transverse cracking model, the exponent of the pavement life ratio ρ / m was established through curve-fitting on transverse cracking observations. In general, the calibration resulted in significant quality of fit improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of this paper is to add to existing knowledge of how building-level spending is prioritized toward horizontal and vertical equity during severe economic downturns. Using a sample of all public schools in Texas during the Great Recession, we examine how schools undergoing the greatest spending reductions reallocated their spending on academic programs. Results demonstrate that schools undergoing financial shocks respond mainly by reapportioning regular, accelerated, and special education spending, rather than simply enacting across-the-board cuts. High-poverty, low-performing, and urban schools tended to prioritize reallocations toward targeted group support, while lower poverty, higher performing, suburban schools tended to prioritize reallocations toward regular education support. Furthermore, results of fixed and random effect regression models suggest that while spending allocations are in part determined by district-level characteristics, reactionary changes to spending are more explained by school or leadership characteristics. These results support the notion that site-level budgeting is an important factor in ensuring that spending is calibrated to current student needs when undergoing periods of financial uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexican Americans (MA) are more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia (CID), be diagnosed at an earlier age and live with CID longer, compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). While studies have examined unmet needs of individuals with CID and their caregivers, few have focused on MA populations in the U.S. This paper examines the needs of community-residing individuals with CID and their caregivers in Nueces County, Texas, a county with one of the largest MA populations in the U.S., while exploring ethnic differences in needs identified. Using concept mapping, a mixed-method approach, qualitative input on perceived needs by informal caregivers and health professionals was collected. Participants then sorted and rated perceived needs. Using this information, multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses were conducted to map the relationship between perceived needs and determine their importance and priority. Five clusters were derived for caregivers and four for the health professionals. Themes across both caregivers and health professionals highlighted the need for specialized and team-based medical care, caregiver support and training, along with socio-economic and physical needs that help with day-to-day care of individuals with CID. Among caregivers, MA rated financial resources as more important and of higher priority compared to NHW. The health professionals' perspectives were aligned with those of all caregivers. By understanding the needs of caregivers and individuals with CID, we can help families deal with this disease and let caregivers thrive. This is especially important for minority populations like MAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is at the foundation of safe and effective health care. When patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) have healthcare providers who do not speak their language, the communication barrier can lead to poor outcomes. Responding to the high number of Spanish-speaking individuals with LEP, a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program has integrated Spanish-language training in the curriculum. This paper describes their development and pilot testing of the Physical Therapy Spanish Proficiency Measure (PT-SPM). The PT-SPM was developed for English-Spanish bilingual faculty or clinicians to assess DPT students' clinically relevant Spanish communication. The PT-SPM has 11 total items with four subscales: verbal proficiency, aural proficiency, written proficiency, and cultural competence. Twenty-three pairs of DPT students and their bilingual clinical instructors were recruited for an interrater agreement study; each used the PT-SPM to independently rate the student's Spanish communication with Spanish-speaking patients with LEP in clinical settings. Cohen's weighted kappa was calculated to evaluate interrater agreement between the students and clinicians on item level, using linear incremental weights. The weighted kappa coefficients ranged from 0.35 (fair agreement) to 0.80 (substantial agreement). All weighted kappa coefficients were statistically significant. Two items had fair agreement; four items had moderate agreement, and five items had substantial agreement. These results support that the PT-SPM may have value as an assessment tool for DPT students in clinical settings. Educators in other health professions may consider adapting the PT-SPM. This paper contributes to the broader interprofessional dialogue about how to assess and improve patient-provider communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Texas Examinations of Educator Standards Program Languages Other Than English – Spanish exam (TExES LOTE – Spanish) and its potential bias, particularly against teacher candidates with Spanish as a heritage language (HL) background. In Texas, most teacher candidates, or college students of Spanish preparing for secondary teacher certification, are heritage speakers of Spanish. However, while they are competent Spanish speakers, many fail their TExES LOTE – Spanish exam. In light of recent demographic trends and a growing body of research on HL learners, Spanish teaching in higher education and, to a lesser extent, in secondary schools has begun to move away from teaching so-called prestigious varieties of Spanish (e.g., Spain) toward inclusion of other varieties of Spanish, especially those spoken in the U.S. and those that reflect students' heritage. Despite this pedagogical shift, we posit that TExES LOTE – Spanish exam does not reflect current Spanish curricular content, which negatively affects these students' performance. We provide examples and available exam statistics to support our claim. Through this conversation about the mismatch between student background and TExES LOTE – Spanish content, we hope to start a dialogue about a much-needed revision of this exam in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research team developed a community-based, intergenerational intervention, the Spanish-language Healthy Buddy Program to alleviate transportation barriers experienced by Latinx older adults. College students were paired with Latinx older adults and helped them identify transportation- and health-related resources in their communities. During COVID-19, the program was implemented in Hillsborough County, Florida, and Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and San Antonio, Texas. This paper reports the study process and outcomes using quantitative and qualitative data collected in Texas (n = 25). Individual interviews indicated older adult participants were receptive to the program model and appreciated the roles student buddies played to help improve their mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents original insights about the benefits of collaborative care in an internal medicine inpatient service at a Texas academic medical center. Collaborative care requires close and frequent coordination among all members of a patient care team - providers, case managers, social workers, specialists, and other clinical and professional staff. Hospitals and clinicians are concerned with whether the benefits accrued to patients and hospital operations outweigh the resource requirements imposed by this innovative integrated care approach. To investigate outcomes, the approach was implemented by one of its five teaching teams at the medical center hospital. Researchers then developed statistical models that suggested the effect of collaborative care on patient length of stay and discharge planning was favorable and statistically significant. Lasso and stepwise regression models were estimated that suggested a 9% decrease in expected length of stay –without increased readmissions – and an increased likelihood of being discharged before 2 pm to enable improved patient throughput and bed turnover. Additional patient survey data confirmed that patient satisfaction remained high for patients under the care of the collaborative care team. Discussions with hospitalists and nurses during and after implementation indicated that the new approach required a change in logistics and how patient care was performed. Our research suggests there is a corresponding 'learning effect' – the impact was more pronounced and significant once an attending physician had two or more separate rotations on the collaborative care team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paris' power law is commonly used to describe transverse thermal cracking propagation in asphalt concrete (AC) pavements. In its most common format, it relates the rate of change in the crack length per cycle to changes in either the stress intensity factor K or the energy release. The parameters defining this relationship for ACs can be obtained using the Texas cyclic Overlay Test (OTR). This paper describes two numerical approaches for simulating the OTR using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The first uses the direct low-cyclic fatigue (LCF) approach and the second uses the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). Comparisons of the model predictions to laboratory OTR measurements for six mixtures suggest that the XFEM model coupled with VCCT is better suited for simulating the OTR. The model output includes the crack length and the energy release rate ERR (i.e. ${\rm \Delta }J_R$ Δ J R ) as cracks propagate. This data was used to fit the modified Paris' law parameters ${A}^{\prime}$ A ′ and ${n}^{\prime}$ n ′ as a function ${\rm \Delta }J_R$ Δ J R . Subsequently, the traditional A and n Paris' power law parameters were fitted by estimating the corresponding ΔK. Using this model, it was possible to efficiently estimate the AC cracking parameters using as input only the tensile modulus and the critical ERR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A water availability modelling system implemented in the state of Texas in the United States consists of the generalized Water Rights Analysis Package, which can be applied to river/reservoir systems throughout the world, and datasets for all the river basins of Texas. A monthly version of the modelling system has contributed greatly to improving water allocation and statewide and regional water planning. A recently developed daily version adds capabilities for simulating flood control operations and environmental flow requirements. The simulation study reported here employed the daily modelling system to explore the interactions between the multiple-purposes served by a 12-reservoir system owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Brazos River Authority. Interactions between this reservoir system and numerous other water users and reservoirs in the Brazos River Basin are also reflected in the model. The investigation focuses on relationships between water supply, hydropower, flood control, and environmental flow needs. [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]

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This paper explores culturally-related concerns that arose during a multi-year study of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) along the U.S.-Mexico border and describes adaptations made to better connect the research process to study participants. The purpose of this exploration is two-fold: (1) to offer suggestions for culturally sensitive borderland mental health research; and (2) to enhance dialog focused on culture, mental health research and the U.S.-Mexico border. Systematic coding of the written record of weekly research team meetings identified six recurring cultural concerns: emotionally charged and poorly understood terminology; differing meanings of ethnicity and acculturation; quality of life—regional variation and uncertainty; overlap of research and care; hopeful but hesitant; and fatalism. We conclude that diligence in the initial planning phase of a study is only part of the challenge in doing culturally sensitive research. Equally important is an ongoing process of evaluation to make explicit cultural concerns that arise during research, as well as a readiness to implement culturally sensitive research adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 19th, 2005, American Army Private First Class LaVena Johnson died in Balad, Iraq, just 8 days shy of her 20th birthday. On July 13th, 2015, almost 10 years later, 28-year-old Sandra Bland's life came to an abrupt end in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas. Both women's deaths were ruled suicides, and both women's families and friends reject these judgments. Instead, they insinuate foul play by the state, which directly governed the militarized spaces within which the women both died. At first glance, these women appear to have had very different life trajectories, one a United States soldier and the other a Black Lives Matter activist. However, in both of their cases, the ruling of the suspicious deaths as suicides illustrates the state's attempt to render their deaths banal, and thereby diminish the state's own culpability. In understanding the unremitting acts of violence, on women's bodies, especially women of color, this paper focuses on how a Black feminist praxis extends feminist notions of an ethics of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use disorders are debilitating disorders with far reaching effects. However, many healthcare providers do not receive sufficient training on how to identify or respond to individuals who are at risk for SUDs. Because of this, residents of rural communities, who are served by fewer healthcare providers, are unlikely to encounter providers who are trained to respond effectively to SUDs. SBIRT is a tool used to intervene among patients engaging in risky substance use. Although numerous SBIRT training programs exist across the country, most have focused on relatively small groups of trainees, and have prioritized the training of mental health professionals. In response to this finding, we implemented a large-scale SBIRT training program designed to prepare approximately 540 medical students to meet the needs of patients at risk for or suffering from SUDs in West Texas. In this paper, we focused on medical student perceptions of the quality and utility of our SBIRT educational initiative. Student evaluations of the SBIRT training remained high across three cohorts of second-year medical students. The goal of this report is to provide recommendations to help enable any group to develop, adapt, and implement large-scale SBIRT training programs in other locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2020, The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Libraries began work towards building a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization. One of the ways in which the organization set out to achieve this goal is through the digitization of materials by and about underrepresented and diverse peoples as well as the accurate representation of these individuals and groups in our metadata. This paper describes how the UTA Libraries' Committee for Metadata and Digitization approached this charge through the creation of three subgroups. There is discussion of the committee's goals and processes, an evaluation of progress toward meeting objectives, plans for sustaining this work, and a list of proposed strategies for other institutions interested in implementing similar efforts. [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]

Road surfaces are exposed to solar radiation that generates thermal gradients and heat flow in the pavement layers. The heat stored can be harvested providing an untapped source of renewable energy. This paper presents the design, construction, and assessment of an improved thermoelectric energy system prototype for harvesting heat energy from roadway pavements. To accomplish this, various prototype designs were simulated using Finite Element (FE) analysis, followed by design construction and laboratory testing of the most promising prototypes to evaluate their power harvesting capabilities. The main design components of these prototypes are a heat collector/transfer plate, thermoelectric generators (TEG), and a cooling module consisting of a heat sink, phase change material (PCM), and an insulation box. The results suggest a direct relationship between thermal gradients and power generation and point out the importance of the cooling module in maintaining the efficiency of the harvester. An optimum harvester design can produce a maximum power output of 30.41 mW over a period of 7 hours of summer sunshine in South Texas. Extrapolating this output for an installation that covers a length of 1 kilometre of a roadway could produce an average of 5.4 kWh/day under the conditions described above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When encouraging the use of a particular library service or product, public librarians can often become entrenched in sending out self-serving promotional messages rather than developing a marketing plan that prioritizes and fulfils the needs of their patrons. A worthwhile marketing plan will educate not only current users but also potential users about the benefits of what the library has to offer their community. By defining the need of a target audience through the use of a needs assessment, articulating goals and objectives based on that information, and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the promoted product, a librarian can more successfully showcase a resource with the user population in mind. Further, through analyzing challenges and opportunities and identifying and describing opportunities and threats associated with the plan, the library can make the decided strategies and tactics more effective. After developing and implementing a meaningful marketing plan, the results should be evaluated against short- and long-term benchmarks and adjusted as needed. This paper showcases the use of such steps in the explanation of a fictional marketing plan highlighting EBSCO's LearningExpress Recursos Para Hispanohablantes for the Fort Worth Public Library in Fort Worth, Texas. [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]

Safety studies have indicated that low skid resistance increases crash risk. Because of this reason, transportation agencies have considered managing pavement skid resistance as one of the important means to reduce crashes. This management includes understanding the skid resistance deterioration process. The objective of this paper is to model the deterioration of pavement skid resistance at the network level using a Markov Chain process. The proposed methodology is composed of three steps: (a) pre-processing the pavement skid resistance data, (b) developing the Markov Chain deterioration model, and (c) validating the developed deterioration model. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology, a numerical case study was conducted using a sample of highway sections that comprise 564 lane-miles in Texas. Findings from the numerical analysis show that the Markov Chain process can be effectively used to model the deterioration of pavement skid resistance at the network level. The developed methodology process can be used by state and local agencies to predict deterioration rates of pavement skid resistance and estimate skid resistance budget needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fiscal pool that funds Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) projects has four interlinking categories, Categories I – IV. DSRIP that was adopted in nine counties of southeast Texas detected a decrease in Preventable Hospitalization (PH) rates formulating the problem statement: What were the proposed factors that influenced the detected decrease? The article is a delineation of the presumable influencers within DSRIP that may have resulted in decrease in PH rates, those likely being physician-hospital collaboration, mechanisms of reimbursements, types of measures leveraged to report quality initiatives and interplaying healthcare externalities within the implemeted counties. The paper explains functioning of the four aforementioned influencers, examines how those may have impacted DSRIP and thereafter elucidates mechanisms these influencers in a detailed discussion. Physician-hospital collaboration propagated relationship centered care geared towards patients. State reimbursements provided a fiscal ballast to initiate and continue DSRIP activities. DSRIP's Categories itself were designed in a systematic way so as to procure health outcomes in a continual process. And lastly, interplaying healthcare externalities such as the presence of Medicaid Managed Care/Health Maintanence Organizations may have impacted patient health in the implemented areas. At large, DSRIP may have exemplified coordination of physicians, administrators and the state so as to likely procure outcomes in healthcare quality as described herewith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions and human exposure impacts of electric vehicle (EV) adoption, especially in comparison to conventional gasoline- or diesel-powered engines, depend on numerous factors including geography, electricity generation, and fuel mix. Results of any analysis also vary depending on the nature of data collected and their level of aggregation by time or location. This paper combines several approaches to develop a robust estimate of these impacts specific to the state of Texas by considering marginal emissions by time of day, as well as location of vehicle and power plant emissions. The authors estimate health and other external costs of operating an EV in the state at approximately $62 per year, compared with an average of $136 for a passenger car powered by gasoline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the role opioid overprescribing has played in the current overdose crisis, reducing the supply of prescription opioids available for misuse has gained widespread support. Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) have been identified as a tool for achieving this goal, but little is known about how to promote PMP use to prescribers. This paper describes the process of developing a health communication campaign to support the adoption of the Texas PMP. After formative research, message development and concept testing, a range of campaign concepts and messages were tested and final recommendations determined. The messages and lessons learned have utility beyond Texas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant need for kindergarten entry assessments (KEA) that meet state education agency (SEA) requirements and are psychometrically sound measures of a broad range of school readiness domains such as language, literacy, math, science, executive function, and social-emotional skills. Research Findings: In this paper, we describe five phases of development, calibration, and launch of a new KEA for a large state. We developed and tested 14 English subtests. We describe how teacher input and SEA priorities and policies guided development of the test blueprint in phase one. We calibrated the measures across the state in phase two and established initial evidence of reliability and validity in phase three (n = 208). In phase four, we developed our technology platform, scoring, and student grouping tools to improve data utilization. Practice or Policy: We describe in phase five current delivery and implementation practices across the state and future work to improve and expand the measures along with a set of linked activities to help teachers use data to guide instruction. We discuss principles and methods the assessment developers utilized, as these perspectives may inform the development and usage of other KEAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores my experiences as a Latina/Chicana educator from the borderlands of South Texas and acknowledges my innermost battle with identity through my own testimonio. The purpose is to re-examine administrator and teacher language ideologies and the detrimental effect on curriculum development for all students learning in more than one language. It explores the challenges of my battle and possibilities of professional development using narrative inquiry, testimonios, autobiographies and other critical, pedagogical instructional dialogues as a path to discovery for teachers and administrators to harness their own multilingual language experiences as they support teaching and learning for English learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]