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The purpose of instructional technology is to make things possible that are otherwise not, or to make easier things that otherwise are difficult. This chapter describes a few of the tweaks to team-based learning that the authors have developed using technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present formal and informal volunteers' perceived experiences of a mass vaccination clinic for COVID‐19 in central Texas. Volunteers at one or more of our team's vaccination events responded to an anonymous survey to share perceptions of their preparedness, training experiences, communication effectiveness and satisfaction, to help us identify opportunities to improve volunteer training and engagement for responses to pandemics. Overall, the volunteers perceived their work to be meaningful, felt prepared and were satisfied with their experiences as volunteers. A dedicated team that communicates well and emphasizes a team approach is key to success, especially in unprecedented situations such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. Implications for future volunteer training and involvement in disaster responses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability affecting 1 in 44 children nationally. Timely referral to intervention and support services for ASD has consistently demonstrated significant long‐term positive effects on symptoms and subsequent skills and family outcomes. This paper highlights a novel and innovative approach of short‐term consultations for best practices to ultimately increase access to timely ASD evaluations and support through a state‐wide school telehealth initiative. The goal of the initiative was to facilitate rapid access to ASD evaluation and support (within 2 weeks of referral in school‐age youth) among under‐resourced school systems in Central Texas. First, this paper provides background relative to current disparities that many children face when attempting to obtain ASD evaluations and support. Second, a statewide legislative response is described that created a mental health consortium targeting increased access to broad‐based mental health services and supports, particularly in underserved areas. Next, the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program is outlined with a particular focus on day‐to‐day operationality and concentrated efforts to increase mental health literacy among school teams relative to ASD symptoms and co‐occurring behavioral health concerns. Year 1 utilization data metrics (September 2020–May 2021) and representative case examples are presented. Finally, early "lessons learned" and future directions are discussed. Highlights: In 2020, the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program was implemented state‐wide as a partnership between local school districts, community mental health agencies, and developmental specialists at the 12 academic medical centers across Texas to increase access to services for youth with behavioral or developmental referral concerns.The model aims to provides timely access (within 1 week) to a telehealth visit with a developmental specialist for short‐term evaluation and support as well as pairing families with a system navigator to facilitate referral follow‐through to community resources.The TCHATT model offers school districts a potentially viable option for increasing access to timely autism evaluation and supports via telehealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although hydraulic groundwater (GW) theory has been recognized as a promising tool for understanding the role of the aquifer(s) in the surface‐subsurface hydrologic cycle, the integrated modeling community still lacks a proper hydrologic structure to apply the well‐studied theory to large‐scale hydrologic predictions. This study aims to present a novel hydrologic structure that enables the Boussinesq equation‐based depiction of the bidirectional stream‐hillslope processes for applying hydraulic GW theory to large‐scale model configurations. We integrated the BE3S's (Hong et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020wr027571) representation scheme of the catchment‐scale stream‐hillslope continuum into the National Water Model (NWM) and applied the modified NWM (i.e., the NWM‐BE3S) to three major basins in Texas (i.e., the Trinity, Brazos, and Colorado River basins). Since the NWM currently relies on a single reservoir model for baseflow simulation, we used the Boussinesq aquifer as an alternative subsurface hydrology routine and evaluated its predictive skill and efficacy. We identified that the implemented Boussinesq aquifer(s) in the NWM‐BE3S yielded noticeable improvements in predicting streamflow for aquifers that exhibited higher nonlinearities in the observed recessions. The varying degree of improvements in streamflow predictions per the recession nonlinearities demonstrated not only (a) the algorithmic enhancement of subsurface hydrology (physics) but also (b) the applicability of the Boussinesq theory‐based depiction of the stream‐hillslope two‐way continuum. We diagnosed each stream's state based on the bidirectional stream‐hillslope exchanges and identified the dominant processes (i.e., river infiltration or baseflow) that were represented spatially in the NWM‐BE3S. Plain Language Summary: Streamflow is a critical land hydrologic component to manage water resources and the health of the associated ecosystem. While the water cycle between the stream and hillslope is the key process to accurately simulating streamflow, most currently used hydrologic/land surface models lack a theoretical basis to characterize the catchment‐scale groundwater to depict the stream‐hillslope water cycle. In this paper, we presented a new structure NWM‐BE3S that enables the Boussinesq approximation‐based characterization of the catchment(s) for improving the predictability of streamflow. The NWM‐BE3S was developed by integrating a recent numerical scheme BE3S (Hong et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020wr027571) into the WRF‐Hydro National Water Model (NWM) configuration as an alternative subsurface routing routine. The NWM‐BE3S was tested against streamflow observations from three major basins in Texas (i.e., the Trinity, Brazos, and Colorado River basins) to ensure the applicability of the Boussinesq‐based stream‐hillslope continuum scheme. We identified theory‐consistent improvements in the streamflow predictions from the NWM‐BE3S framework compared to the original NWM. Based on the two‐way fluxes modeled from the hydraulically continuous catchment(s) in the NWM‐BE3S, moreover, about 10% of the river reaches in the three basins were identified as losing streams during the evaluation period. Key Points: The Boussinesq theory‐based stream‐hillslope two‐way hydrologic interactions were newly introduced in the National Water Model (NWM)The Boussinesq aquifer yielded improved streamflow predictions than the single bucket model as the nonlinearity of recession increasesGaining or losing reaches in three Texas major basins showed improved predictions using the modified NWM [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]

Machine learning (ML) is being used regularly in many different fields. This paper compares traditional econometric methods that have better explanations of data analysis to ML methods, focusing on predicting, understanding and unpacking ML methods which have higher prediction accuracies of four key transport‐planning variables: household vehicle‐miles traveled (continuous variable), household vehicle ownership (count variable), mode choice (categorical variable), and land use change (categorical variable with strong spatial interactions). Here, the results of ten ML methods are compared to methods of ordinary least squares (OLS), multinomial logit (MNL), negative binomial and spatial auto‐regressive (SAR). The U.S.'s 2017 National Household Travel Survey and land use data sets from the Dallas‐Ft. Worth region of Texas are used. Results suggest traditional econometric methods work pretty well on the more continuous responses (VMT and vehicle ownership), but the random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) methods delivered the best results, though the RF model required 30 to almost 60 times more computing time than XGBoost and GBDT methods. The RF, GBDT, XGBoost, light gradient boosting method (lightGBM), and catboost offer better results than other methods for the two "classification" cases, with lightGBM being the most time‐efficient. Importantly, ML methods captured the plateauing effect modelers may expect when extrapolating covariate effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding public media channel preferences can inform preparedness plans, response strategies and long‐term recovery. However, questions remain about how media consumption changes across pre‐crisis, crisis, and post‐crisis phases. Past theories argue that media use may change for several reasons, including during times of societal conflict and challenge. These theories point to the belief that, during a crisis, we expect media channel use to change because media preferences during a crisis will be fundamentally different compared with everyday routines. This paper takes advantage of a survey fielded to Texas residents soon after Hurricane Harvey. Here, we ask the following: (a) "what media channels are most prominent in each crisis phase?" and (b) "do media channel preferences change across crisis phases?". We use simple descriptive statistics and chi‐square tests to describe media channel preferences across the three crisis phases by demographics. Additionally, we use alluvial diagrams to visualize media channel preferences over time. In total, 62% (n = 174) of respondents reported no changes in channel preferences. However, chi‐square tests identified significant differences in media use changes related to a handful of demographic characteristics. These findings are explored alongside theories that would hypothesize likely media use changes across pre‐crisis, crisis and post‐crisis phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐disaster business return is key to restoring the local economy. This paper applies a duration model to analyse factors that explain the delay in reopening a business in south Texas, United States, after Hurricane Harvey struck the region in August 2017. Other than property damage, the duration of business closure depended on the type of business and the various characteristics of its owner. Reflecting the vital role that social capital plays in disaster resilience, local chamber of commerce members tended to reopen their businesses sooner than their non‐member counterparts. Yet, there is evidence in support of the vulnerability of female chamber members. In addition to social networks, the finding of spatial interdependence implies that the decision of business owners to resume operations in the wake of a disaster is influenced by the decisions of their neighbours. Spatial interdependence also highlights the importance of providing disaster relief to businesses in a timely manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's reinforced concrete (RC) civil infrastructure continues to age and exhibit visual signs of distress (e.g., cracking), the challenge of how to process this visual information is becoming increasingly important. While research is ongoing in this field, limited work has been done involving structures that are truly representative of real‐world, aged civil infrastructure requiring assessment. Thus, this paper presents the results of an experimental program and subsequent numerical investigation into the performance of a diagonally cracked, RC bent cap that was removed from a 60‐year‐old bridge in Texas. Extensive work was done to document the cracking behavior and characterize the mechanical properties of the bent cap prior to ultimate load testing. The numerical investigation included both "conventional" methods and nonlinear finite element analysis (with and without consideration of existing damage). Ultimately, the results of the experimental and numerical investigations suggest that, while the bent cap was exhibiting large‐width shear cracks in service, the damage was not indicative of an impending shear failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed morphological documentation is provided for established Proschkinia taxa, including the generitype, P. bulnheimii, and P. complanata, P. complanatula, P. complanatoides and P. hyalosirella, and six new species. All established taxa are characterized from original material from historical collections. The new species described in this paper (P. luticola, P. staurospeciosa, P. impar, P. modesta, P. fistulispectabilis, and P. rosowskii) were isolated from the Western Pacific (Yellow Sea coast of Korea) and the Atlantic (Scottish and Texas coasts). Thorough documentation of the frustule, valve and protoplast architecture revealed the combination of characters diagnostic of the genus Proschkinia: a single‐lobed chloroplast; a broad girdle composed of U‐shaped, perforated bands; the position of the conopeate raphe‐sternum relative to the external and internal valve surface; and the presence of an occluded process through the valve, termed the "fistula". Seven strains of Proschkinia were grown in culture and five of these were sequenced for nuclear ribosomal SSU and plastid‐encoded rbcL. Phylogenetic analysis recovered a clade of Proschkinia with Fistulifera, another fistula‐bearing diatom genus, and together these were sister to a clade formed of the Stauroneidaceae; in turn, all of these were sister to a clade composed of Parlibellus and two monoraphid genera Astartiella and Schizostauron. Despite morphological similarities between Proschkinia and the Naviculaceae, these two taxa are distant in our analysis. We document the variation in the morphology of Proschkinia, including significant variability in the fistula, suggesting that fistula ultrastructure might be one of the key features for species identification within the genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined teachers' pedagogical reasoning for and the technological knowledge underlying their most‐valued technology‐supported activities for teaching and learning. Data from 140 preservice and 100 inservice teachers included open‐ended, narrative responses to survey questions. Qualitative research methods guided analysis of the data that identified (a) the technology‐supported activities and (b) the technical tools, target users, types of uses, rationales for use, and the TPACK underlying each activity. Preservice teachers described mostly teacher‐focused and fewer student‐focused techno‐activities, and their reasoning for use focused on the technology's presentational and engagement effects. A majority of inservice teachers' techno‐activities were student‐focused, and their reasoning highlighted the technology's support for knowledge acquisition of higher‐order cognitive skills and collaborative learning. The knowledge underlying all teachers' techno‐activities was predominantly technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK), but inservice teachers also evidenced technological content knowledge (TCK). These results may reveal differences in the teachers' respective learning experiences in teacher education and professional development or reflect a professional maturation process in that it takes teachers time in the field as professionals to broaden their techno‐activity repertoires to prioritize student‐focus. Sharing the reasoning patterns in this study with teachers may assist them in developing deeper justifications for their technological work in the classroom. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: The instructional use of technology in PK‐12 education is predominantly teacher‐focused and transmissive in nature.Teachers' perceived technological pedagogical content knowledge may not aptly reflect their behavioural intentions or smoothly translate into enacted, aligned actions in the classroom.Little is known about teachers' pedagogical reasoning underlying their choices of instructional technology use and its relationship to technological pedagogical content knowledge. What this paper adds: Pre‐service teachers described mostly teacher‐focused techno‐activities, and in‐service teachers described more student‐focused techno‐activities.Pre‐service and in‐service teachers used different pedagogical reasoning for the same categories of technology‐supported activities; thus they valued different technological features.Pre‐service teachers applied less content‐specific knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning as compared with in‐service teachers, but both groups relied predominantly on technological pedagogical knowledge. Implications for practice and/or policy: Pre‐service teachers' prominent use of and value for presentational technologies may indicate that modelling student‐ and/or content‐focused techno‐activities is needed within teacher preparation.Cultivating and sharing teachers' pedagogical reasoning for technology‐integrated lessons may increase teachers' awareness and support deeper justifications within their technological decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on coastal counties in Texas, United States, affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to gauge the influence of individual and contextual characteristics on people's ability to return to normalcy in the short term. Data from a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation between October and November 2017 were utilised in the analysis. The paper observes, based on the results of an ordered logistic regression, and contrary to previous work, that age, gender, levels of poverty, and social capital are not significant predictors of a return to normalcy. However, indicators such as whether a person evacuated, if he/she identified as Hispanic/Latino, the extent of damage sustained to one's home, and if one's automobile was damaged or destroyed are shown to affect recovery. A discussion of the potential reasons for these findings is provided as a means of informing future research on disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a Bayesian network model to assess the vulnerability of the flood control infrastructure and to simulate failure cascade based on the topological structure of flood control networks along with hydrological information gathered from sensors. Two measures are proposed to characterize the flood control network vulnerability and failure cascade: (a) node failure probability (NFP), which determines the failure likelihood of each network component under each scenario of rainfall event, and (b) failure cascade susceptibility, which captures the susceptibility of a network component to failure due to failure of other links. The proposed model was tested in both single watershed and multiple watershed scenarios in Harris County, Texas using historical data from three different flooding events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The proposed model was able to identify the most vulnerable flood control network segments prone to flooding in the face of extreme rainfall. The framework and results furnish a new tool and insights to help decision‐makers to prioritize infrastructure enhancement investments and actions. The proposed Bayesian network modeling framework also enables simulation of failure cascades in flood control infrastructures, and thus could be used for scenario planning as well as near‐real‐time inundation forecasting to inform emergency response planning and operation, and hence improve the flood resilience of urban areas. [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]

This paper presents a novel methodology for urban growth prediction using a machine learning approach. The methodology treats successive historical satellite images of an urban area as a video for which future frames are predicted. It adopts a time‐dependent convolutional encoder–decoder architecture. The methodology's input includes a satellite image for the base year and the prediction horizon. It constructs an image that predicts the growth of the urban area for any given target year within the specified horizon. A sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the best combination of parameters to achieve the highest prediction performance. As a case study, the methodology is applied to predict the urban growth pattern for the Dallas–Fort Worth area in Texas, with focus on two of its counties that observed significant growth over the past decade. The methodology is shown to produce results that are consistent with other growth prediction studies conducted for the areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender, although gaining attention, remains under‐researched in disaster risk reduction protocols and response and recovery efforts. This study examines women's experiences of two disasters in small towns in the United States, utilising qualitative interviews with residents of Granbury and West, Texas, during the first year of disaster recovery. Granbury was struck by an EF‐4 tornado on 15 May 2013, whereas an explosion occurred at a local fertiliser facility in West on 17 April 2013. The paper explores how women's experiences of inter‐gender power dynamics in decision‐making, the prioritisation of childcare, and women's participation in the community affect their post‐disaster recovery. Previous research highlights different forms of human response and recovery vis‐à‐vis 'natural' and technological disasters, with less attention paid to gender differences. The results point to the persistent, and similar, effect of gender stratification on women's experiences across different types of disasters in the US and the continued importance of gender‐sensitive disaster policies and programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Healthcare spending in the US is $3.2 trillion. $1.1 trillion is attributed to hospital care, including emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. There is a relationship between ED utilization, hospitalizations, and health literacy in the general population. Health literacy may play a role in frequent ED visits and hospitalizations in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship among health literacy levels, annual hospital encounters, annual clinic visits, annual ED visits, and annual hospitalizations in 134 Black, non‐Hispanic adolescents aged 10–19 years with SCD. Design: This is a cross‐sectional, descriptive correlational study evaluating facilitators and barriers to health literacy and clinical outcomes in adolescents with SCD. Sample: Data were collected from 134 Black, non‐Hispanic adolescents with SCD at a large, tertiary care center in Texas. Measurements: The Newest Vital Sign and REALM‐Teen health literacy instruments were used to evaluate health literacy. Results: Contrasting previous studies evaluating the influence of health literacy on ED visits and hospitalizations in the general population, there were no significant relationships within this sample. Conclusions: This study gives insight into future research to evaluate other potential influences on ED utilization and hospitalizations in pediatric patients with SCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Computerized surveys present many advantages over paper surveys. However, school-based adolescent research questionnaires still mainly rely on paper-and-pencil surveys as access to computers in schools is often not practical. Tablet-assisted self-interviews ( TASI) present a possible solution, but their use is largely untested. This paper presents a method for and our experiences with implementing a TASI in a school setting. METHODS A TASI was administered to 3907 middle and high school students from 79 schools. The survey assessed use of tobacco products and exposure to tobacco marketing. To assess in-depth tobacco use behaviors, the TASI employed extensive skip patterns to reduce the number of not-applicable questions that nontobacco users received. Pictures were added to help respondents identify the tobacco products they were being queried about. RESULTS Students were receptive to the tablets and required no instructions in their use. None were lost, stolen, or broken. Item nonresponse, unanswered questions, was a pre-administration concern; however, 92% of participants answered 96% or more of the questions. CONCLUSIONS This method was feasible and successful among a diverse population of students and schools. It generated a unique dataset of in-depth tobacco use behaviors that would not have been possible through a paper-and-pencil survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade Global Positioning System (GPS) Continuous Operating Reference Stations networks have become a new important data source for meteorology. This has dramatically improved the ability to remotely sense the atmosphere under the influence of severe mesoscale and synoptic systems. The zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) is one of the atmospheric variables continuously observed, and its horizontal variations, the horizontal tropospheric gradients, are routinely computed nowadays within the dual‐frequency GPS processing, but their interpretation and relationship with the weather is still an open question. The purpose of this paper is to contribute in this direction by studying the effect that Hurricane Harvey had on the spatial and temporal behavior of the ZTDs and gradients, when it reached Texas coast, during 18–31 August 2017. The results show that ZTD time series present a clear and rapid increase larger than 10 cm in a few hours when the hurricane reached the area. Gradients behaviors show that the hurricane also produced significant changes on them, since the magnitude and predominant directions before and after the hurricane arrived are completely different. Noticeably, the gradient vectors before the landing are consistently related to the horizontal winds and pressure fields. In this manuscript we demonstrate that the ZTD gradients can show a consistent signature under severe weather events, strongly suggesting their potential application for short‐term weather forecasting. Key Points: Major hurricane over dense GPS network gives unique opportunity to study ZTD gradientsThe ZTD gradients show changes in orientation and magnitude when synoptic front approaches [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) is essential to improve water use efficiency of crop production systems managed under different water regimes. The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model was used to simulate ET using four potential ET (ETp) methods. The objectives were to determine sensitive ET parameters in dryland and irrigated cropping systems and compare ET simulation in the two systems using multiple performance criteria. Measured ET and crop yield data from lysimeter fields located in the United States Department of Agriculture‐Agricultural Research Service Bushland, Texas were used for evaluation. The number of sensitive parameters was higher for dryland (11–14) than irrigated cropping systems (6–8). Only four input parameters: soil evaporation plant cover factor, root growth soil strength, maximum rain intercept, and rain intercept coefficient were sensitive in both cropping systems. Overall, it is possible to find a set of robust parameter values to simulate ET accurately in APEX in both cropping systems using any ETp method. However, more computation time is required for dryland than irrigated cropping system due to a relatively larger number of sensitive input parameters. When all inputs are available, the Penman–Monteith method takes the shortest computation time to obtain one model run with robust parameter values in both cropping systems. However, in areas with limited datasets, one can still obtain reasonable ET simulations using either Priestley–Taylor or Hargreaves. Editor's note: This paper is part of the featured series on Optimizing Ogallala Aquifer Water Use to Sustain Food Systems. See the February 2019 issue for the introduction and background to the series. Research Impact Statement: Parameter values to simulate ET accurately in APEX in dryland and irrigated cropping systems can be obtained using any potential ET method but easiest in the irrigated system using Penman–Monthieth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Through the Texas Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration study, we implemented and evaluated a system‐oriented model of primary and secondary prevention approaches to mitigate obesity among low‐income Texas children aged 2 to 12 years. Primary prevention included implementing the Coordinated Approach To Child Health Early Childhood (CATCH EC) program in Head Start preschools. In this paper, we describe the methods and results of CATCH EC program process evaluation over 2 years of implementation. METHODS: We used a quasi‐experimental design with serial cross‐sectional data collected from Head Start centers across intervention and comparison catchment areas in Houston and Austin, Texas (intervention: N = 12 centers in 2012‐2013 [Year 1], N = 12 in 2013‐2014 [Year 2]; comparison: N = 13 centers in Year 1, N = 12 in Year 2). Process evaluation included center director and teacher surveys conducted in both years of implementation. We developed indices for implementation of CATCH EC and non‐CATCH health events at the centers. RESULTS: Implementation scores were higher among intervention centers as compared to comparison centers across both years of implementation, and these differences were statistically significant (p < .01). There was also high variability in program implementation in intervention centers across both years ranging from 55% to 95%. CONCLUSION: These implementation index strategies may inform future evaluation of preschool‐based obesity prevention program implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the litigation experience in a state with strict tort reform of a large public university health system that has committed to transparency with patients and families in resolving medical errors.Data Sources/study Setting: Secondary data collected from The University of Texas System, which self-insures approximately 6,000 physicians at six health campuses across the state. We obtained internal case management data for all medical malpractice claims closed during 1 year before and 6 recent years following the enactment of state tort reform legislation.Study Design: We retrospectively reviewed information about malpractice claimants, malpractice claims, and the process and outcome of dispute resolution.Data Collection/extraction Methods: We accessed an internal case management database, supplemented by both electronic and paper records compiled by the university's Office of General Counsel.Principal Findings: Closed claims dropped from 244 in 2001-2002 to an annual mean of 96 in 2009-2015, closures following lawsuits from 136 in 2001-2002 to an annual mean of 28 in 2009-2015, and paid claims from 60 in 2001 to an annual mean of 20 in 2009-2015. Patterns of resolution suggest efforts by the university to provide some compensation to injured patients in cases that were no longer economically viable for plaintiffs' lawyers to litigate. The percentage of payments relating to cases in which lawsuits had been filed decreased from 82 percent in 2001-2002 to 47 percent in 2009-2012 and again to 29 percent in 2012-2015, although most paid claimants were represented by attorneys. Unrepresented patients received payment in 13 cases closed in 2009-2012 (22 percent of payments; mean amount $60,566) and in 24 cases closed in 2012-2015 (41 percent of payments; mean amount $109,410). Even after tort reform, however, claims that resulted in payment remained slow to resolve, which was worsened for claimants subject to Medicare secondary payer rules. Strict confidentiality became a more common condition of settlement, although restrictions were subsequently relaxed in order to further transparency and improve patient safety.Conclusions: Malpractice litigation risk diminished substantially for a public university health system in Texas following legal changes that reduced rights to sue and available damages. Health systems operating in a low-tort environment should work with policy makers, plaintiffs' attorneys, and patient groups to assist unrepresented patients, facilitate early mediation, limit nondisclosure obligations following settlement, and expedite the resolution of Medicare liens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose. Internationalization is expanding its presence in higher education in the United States. Reflecting this trend that includes incorporating global perspectives in the curricula, physical therapist education programmes increasingly offer international opportunities such as International Service-Learning (ISL) to their students. Service-learning, a teaching strategy that integrates community service with structured learning activities, has gained broad acceptance in health professions education including physical therapy, and is therefore the focus of this paper. The specific purposes of this paper were to identify and analyse the commonalities that existed among established ISL programmes within physical therapist education programmes in terms of structures and processes, and to consider its broader implications for physical therapist education. Methods. A descriptive, exploratory study was performed using grounded theory. Snowball and purposive, theoretical sampling yielded 14 faculty members with experience in international service, international learning or ISL in physical therapist education programmes. Faculty were interviewed by phone. Interview transcriptions and course documents were analysed applying grounded theory methodology. Data from eight programmes which met the operational definition of established ISL were used to address the purposes of this paper. Results. Five phases of establishing an ISL programme were identified: development, design, implementation, evaluation, and enhancement. Although no single model exists for ISL in physical therapist education; commonalities in structures and processes were identified in each phase. However, attention to service objectives and outcomes is lacking. Conclusions. While analysis revealed that each programme shared commonalities and demonstrated differences in structures and processes compared with the other programmes, the study demonstrated a general lack of focus on formal community outcomes which raises ethical concerns. Future research and dialogue is warranted to explore ethics and good practice in ISL and other global health initiatives in physical therapy. This study may facilitate reflections and creative solutions by individual faculty and the profession. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper examines the impact of Hurricane Rita on one of the many universities along the Gulf Coast of the United States: Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Hurricane Rita, which made landfall between Sabine Pass, Texas, and Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, on 24 September 2005, is the fourth strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricane on record and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. This paper assesses the tasks that confronted the administration, faculty, and students of Lamar University in the days and weeks after the event. It concludes that the one factor that will influence more than any other the degree of success after any disaster is whether all levels of the administrative command institutionalise, endorse, promote, and encourage the adopted recovery plan. The research seeks to share valuable insights on the vulnerabilities that academic institutions face during natural disasters and to highlight some of the many lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview and summary of United States and Canadian federal, state, and provincial laws that offer some form of legal protection for environmental flows. Special attention is given to the new “second generation” law established in Texas and to ways western states are beginning to encourage transactions that help restore dewatered streams. Progress in the eastern states and some Canadian provinces to provide environmental flow protection is addressed. Based on this review, this paper presents recommended elements of a “model” environmental flow policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers in high-tech cities earn raw wages that are on average 17% higher than wages of workers in other cities. Using a large sample from the 5% PUMS of the 2000 Census of Population, this paper presents econometric evidence of a ‘tech-city wage premium’ of approximately 4.6% that is not the result of higher-ability people self-selecting to live in high-tech cities, but rather the result of high-tech cities actually making workers more productive. Although knowledge spillovers are difficult to assess, we use the concepts of the new economic geography and evidence from empirical studies of high-technology regions, such as Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, to support the view that workers who live in high-tech cities might be more productive because they benefit from a larger supply of knowledge spillovers than workers who live in low-tech cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the association between childhood trauma and gang membership. Specifically, this study compares histories of potentially traumatic events as assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire among a street-recruited random sample of Mexican American male gang members and a matched comparison group of delinquent youth. The gang and delinquent youth samples are then compared to normative samples of adolescent male psychiatric inpatients and male undergraduates. The findings show that gang members generally report experiencing lower levels of childhood trauma compared to those in the sample of delinquent youth. In fact, gang members' levels of childhood trauma more closely resemble those of the undergraduate sample. However, this analysis suggests that gang membership, and delinquency in general, may be associated with physical neglect. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages: Childhood trauma prevalence and delinquent youth comparison groups are rare in gang research., Childhood trauma rates (emotional, physical and sexual abuse) were found to be lower among a sample of gang-involved Mexican American males compared to non-gang delinquent youth., Levels of physical neglect should be assessed for in youth regardless of gang membership., Future research should focus on family-level sociocultural interventions that may be beneficial for gang-involved youth and trauma-informed interventions that may be particularly beneficial for delinquent youth in low-income communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is geared toward answering the questions of the small to intermediate-sized oil and gas operator, whom does not have the resources to hire an environmental consultant or manager to handle environmental compliance problems. The paper presupposes no prior understanding or familiarity with the applicable environmental laws or regulations. The main objective is to convey, in very concise format, exactly what an oil and gas producer (onshore and/or offshore) needs to do in order to be in compliance with all current federal and state environmental regulations regarding oil spills. Relevant legislation and regulations contained in and resulting from the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Texas Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, national, regional, area, and state spill contingency plans, and Texas Railroad Commission regulations are briefly reviewed. This legislation and regulations are summarized in a checklist of seven essential requirements for operators to follow in order to comply with all applicable federal regulations and state regulations specific to Texas. Regulations in other states will vary. Texas is utilized here as an example which is representative of most states in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial contamination accounts for more than 60% of the impairments included on the 2008 Texas 303(d) List. Many of these bacterial impairments are along the Texas Gulf Coast because coastal waters often are regulated for oyster harvesting, which have strict water quality standards. Under the Clean Water Act, each one of these impaired waterbodies requires a total maximum daily load ( TMDL) study to be performed. A recent, statewide study recommended the development and application of simple modeling approaches to address the majority of Texas's bacteria TMDLs, including '... simple load duration curve, GIS [geographic information systems], and/or mass balance models.' We developed the TMDL Balance model in response to this recommendation. TMDL Balance is a steady state, mass balance, GIS-based model for simulating pollutant loads and concentrations in coastal systems. The model uses plug-flow reactor and continuously-stirred tank reactor equations to route spatially distributed point and nonpoint source loads through a watershed via overland flow, non-tidal flow, and tidal flow, decaying the loads via first-order kinetics. In this paper, we explain the development of the watershed loading portion of the TMDL Balance model, demonstrating the methodology through a case study: computing bacterial loads in the Copano Bay watershed of southeast Texas. The application highlights an example of distributing bacterial sources spatially based on land use data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discusses at the 18th International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium held on September 8-12, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas on diagnostics in emergency and critical care is presented. Topics include wound management, equine cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and care and use of military dogs in a combat environment. The symposium featured several veterinarians including Dr. Jim Giles, Dr. Tim Hackett, and Dr. Diana Hassel.

Abudu, S., J.P. King, Z. Sheng, 2011. Comparison of the Performance of Statistical Models in Forecasting Monthly Total Dissolved Solids in the Rio Grande. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(1): 10-23. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00587.x Abstract: This paper presents the application of autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), transfer function-noise (TFN), and artificial neural networks (ANNs) modeling approaches in forecasting monthly total dissolved solids (TDS) of water in the Rio Grande at El Paso, Texas. Predictability analysis was performed between the precipitation, temperature, streamflow rates at the site, releases from upstream reservoirs, and monthly TDS using cross-correlation statistical tests. The chi-square test results indicated that the average monthly temperature and precipitation did not show significant predictability on monthly TDS series. The performances of one- to three-month-ahead model forecasts for the testing period of 1984-1994 showed that the TFN model that incorporated the streamflow rates at the site and Caballo Reservoir release improved monthly TDS forecasts slightly better than the ARIMA models. Except for one-month-ahead forecasts, the ANN models using the streamflow rates at the site as inputs resulted in no significant improvements over the TFN models at two-month-ahead and three-month-ahead forecasts. For three-month-ahead forecasts, the simple ARIMA showed similar performance compared to all other models. The results of this study suggested that simple deseasonalized ARIMA models could be used in one- to three-month-ahead TDS forecasting at the study site with a simple, explicit model structure and similar model performance as the TFN and ANN models for better water management in the Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viticulture, the agriculture of grape growing, is a unique geographical expression of agriculture as it is often practiced in areas deemed unsuitable for most other types of agriculture. A thorough understanding of the physical landscape is essential to the development and maintenance of a vineyard as soils, geology, and geomorphology are variables that play a significant role in the successful cultivation of grapes. Geographers have a long history of exploring the importance of the physical geographic attributes of particular growing regions in viticulture, however few have endeavored to explore the relationship between geomorphology and viticulture. The broad purpose of this paper is to explore viticulture both as an anthropogeomorphic agent and the reverse impact of the geomorphic landscape on viticulture. Three geographically distinct wine growing regions in the Northern Hemisphere are examined: The Texas Hill Country viticultural area located west of Austin, Texas; the Napa Valley viticultural area in northwestern California; and the Valais, Switzerland viticultural area. Of the geomorphic processes at work in these viticultural areas, the construction of hillslope terraces is perhaps the most intense expression of anthropogeomorphology on the viticultural landscape. The geomorphic influences at work on the viticultural landscape are many and varied; as such there is ample opportunity for further research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic patterns of species distributions and the factors contributing to species endangerment are necessary for the development of integrative conservation strategies. Freshwater mussels Unionidae have among the highest levels of imperilment recorded in North America. This paper describes the biogeography and diversity of Unionidae along climate and habitat gradients in Texas, evaluates human impact, and identifies the hot spots of diversity and endemism that should be targeted for conservation. Texas, North America. Unionids were surveyed in all major Texas river basins in 2003-2009. Multivariate statistics were used to test for differences in environmental parameters and among unionid assemblages in different bioprovinces, and to determine to what extent the multivariate pattern of species distribution was affected by environmental factors. To estimate human impact, we examined the relationship between human population density and the proportion of rare species, as well with the proportion of historically present species that persist in the watershed. Correlation between biotic and environmental similarity matrices indicated concordance in the differences among unionid assemblages and environmental factors that could cause these differences. Lake surface evaporation rate and percentage of forest cover in the watershed were among the most important parameters explaining the differences in unionid assemblages. Human population density was negatively correlated with the proportion of rare species. The proportion of species found live relative to the total number of live and relic species found in our surveys and to the number of historically known species decreased with the increase in human population density. Climate, landscape, geology, and land use type were important factors influencing unionid distribution patterns among biotic provinces. Increased human population density was associated with the loss of rare species over several decades, but this loss was not recognized because of a lack of assessing the conservation status of unionids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we know a great deal about the percentage of youth who drink alcohol, we know very little about the specific brands they choose to drink. This information gap needs to be addressed if public health officials are to develop more effective interventions. Unfortunately, there are no national youth surveys that collect data on alcohol brand consumption. In this paper, we describe the development and pilot testing of what we believe to be the first comprehensive, Internet-based youth survey of brand-specific alcohol use. We used online advertising in 3 U.S. cities to recruit a convenience sample of 241 respondents, ages 16 to 18 years. We used Craigslist, a network of online communities that features local classified advertisements, to recruit the sample. We used SurveyGizmo, an online software program for designing Internet surveys, collecting data, and performing basic analysis, to survey these respondents about their brand-specific alcohol consumption patterns. The survey instrument assessed each respondent's 30-day drinking history, including the frequency of consumption for each alcohol brand. Using Internet survey technology, we were able to collect information on 366 brands and still have respondents complete the instrument quickly and easily. The total number of brands consumed in the past 30 days ranged from 1 to 18, with a median of 4 brands. The top 5 brands consumed were beer brands, as were eleven of the top 15 brands. The remaining 4 brands in the top 15 included 3 brands of flavored alcoholic beverages and 1 brand of mixed drink. Among the top 15 alcohol brands consumed during heavy drinking episodes were 8 brands of beer, 4 brands of flavored alcoholic beverages, 2 brands of wine, and 1 brand of mixed drink. This pilot study helps establish the feasibility of including brand-specific questions on federal or other national youth alcohol surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the failure to achieve immigration reform at the national level has resulted in numerous responses in local communities that have been most impacted by the settlement of new immigrants. Some of these responses have emerged in suburban communities that have experienced a rapid rise in the foreign-born population during the last twenty years. This essay offers an in-depth analysis of one such community, Farmers Branch, Texas, covered nationally for a series of anti-immigrant ordinances passed by its City Council. Following a description of the history of this community, the growth of its foreign-born population, and the legal manoeuvres to control unauthorized immigration, the essay argues that anti-immigrant legislation in local places like Farmers Branch is at its core a reflection of a debate about and anxiety over American identity -- how it is defined and how it is changing. In particular, these responses are about a perceived threat to middle class status and identity. This is discussed first in relationship to issues of home ownership and income and then, in relation to cultural dimensions of class, including matters of taste and the spatializations of middle class identity. Finally, the paper unpacks the concept of 'rule of law'. By invoking the claim that Americans are law abiding while unauthorized immigrants have broken the law, lawfulness becomes an exclusionary tool and gives those who support anti-immigrant ordinances a platform for legislating a certain quality of life, and de-Americanizing those who do not fit their conceptualization of what it means to be American. Rule of law becomes a weapon in the fight for middle class status and the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Damodaram, Chandana, Marcio H. Giacomoni, C. Prakash Khedun, Hillary Holmes, Andrea Ryan, William Saour, and Emily M. Zechman, 2010. Simulation of Combined Best Management Practices and Low Impact Development for Sustainable Stormwater Management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00462.x Abstract: Urbanization causes increased stormwater runoff volumes, leading to erosion, flooding, and the degradation of instream ecosystem health. Although Best Management Practices (BMPs) are used widely as a means for controlling flood runoff events, Low Impact Development (LID) options have been proposed as an alternative approach to better mimic the natural flow regime by using decentralized designs to control stormwater runoff at the source, rather than at a centralized location in the watershed. For highly urbanized areas, LID practices such as rainwater harvesting, green roofs, and permeable pavements can be used to retrofit existing infrastructure and reduce runoff volumes and peak flows. This paper describes a modeling approach to incorporate these LID practices in an existing hydrologic model to estimate the effects of LID choices on streamflow. The modeling approach has been applied to a watershed located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, to predict the stormwater reductions resulting from retrofitting existing infrastructure with LID technologies. Results demonstrate that use of these LID practices yield significant stormwater control for small events and less control for flood events. A combined BMP-LID approach is tested for runoff control for both flood and frequent rainfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southard, Gregory M., Loraine T. Fries, and Aaron Barkoh, 2010. Prymnesium parvum: The Texas Experience. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(1):14-23. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00387.x Golden alga Prymnesium parvum was first identified in Texas during a fish kill investigation on the Pecos River in 1985. Since then golden alga kills occurred sporadically in a variety of waters in the western part of the state until 2001 when the alga became endemic in the Brazos, Canadian, Colorado, Red, and Rio Grande river systems, including the water supplies of two public fish hatcheries, the Possum Kingdom and Dundee state fish hatcheries. The increasing area adversely affected by the alga and frequent massive fish kills heightened public and political awareness and concerns regarding the ecological and economic impacts of P. parvum blooms. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the wildlife conservation agency of the state, responded to these concerns with a program to assess the ecological and economic impacts and to develop management options. To date 33 water bodies have been affected and losses are conservatively estimated at 34 million fish valued at US$13 million. Several sport fisheries, including smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu, striped bass Morone saxatilis, channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, and blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, have been severely affected. Additionally, 26 imperiled fish species occur in the affected water basins and some have been adversely affected. Economic losses associated with reduced fishing and other water-based recreational activities appear considerable. The combined economic losses to three counties (Palo Pinto, Stephens, and Young) surrounding Possum Kingdom reservoir for 2001 and 2003 were estimated at US$2.8 million and US$1.1 million, respectively. This paper describes how the TPWD responded to public and political concerns relative to the emergence of golden alga, its harmful effects to fisheries, and its historic and current statewide distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses comprise the largest group of health-care providers and should be key partners for any disaster response in their community. An often untapped resource in many communities is the contingent of nurse faculty, staff and students in schools of nursing across the country. In an effort to provide guidance on how schools and colleges of nursing link with their community and provide real-world experience for students, the present paper: (i) outlines how a Memorandum of Cooperation between the City of Austin and the University of Texas at Austin was created; and (ii) describes an example of how a school of nursing could become organized to respond to a community's call for help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the highway stormwater quality at two Texas cities—Austin and College Station. Two highways with high average daily traffic were monitored using passive stormwater samplers for collecting first-flush runoff during a 16-month period. Detailed traffic and weather data were collected at College Station sites, but only weather data were obtained at Austin sites. A stepwise regression analysis on College Station data identifies the antecedent dry period (ADP) as the most significant predictor of pollutant concentration. Specifically, the College Station data show an unexpected result that pollutant event mean concentrations significantly decrease with increasing ADP for all analyzed pollutants. However, the runoff concentrations observed in Austin were not significantly correlated with ADP. The result from College Station data provides a different insight to the pollutant buildup and removal process on highways. Conceptual highway pollutant buildup and removal models are proposed for generating further discussion and research interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contribution of personal, cultural, and disease characteristics, diabetes knowledge, number of symptoms, and 2 specific clinics to the explained variance in glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) and quality of life among Mexican Americans with type 2 diabetes. Design: This descriptive correlational study used hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Sample: 87 Mexican American patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited from 2 clinics, 1 hospital-affiliated and 1 free clinic, that served a primarily minority and indigent population. Measurements: A language-based acculturation scale, the Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire-24, Diabetes Symptom Self-Care Inventory, and Self-Anchoring Striving Scale were administered in one-on-one interviews. Medical records were reviewed for recent A1c and health history. Results: The participants' clinic explained an additional 13% of the variance in A1c and 6% of the variance in quality of life after controlling for gender, acculturation, time since diagnosis, number of diabetes medications, diabetes knowledge, and number of symptoms. Clinics differed in patient characteristics, beyond the variables entered in the regression model, and in their care delivery. Conclusions: Clinic characteristics and their influence on diabetes outcomes should be explored to maximize patients' abilities to steer the course of their diabetes away from complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives. This paper reports the development of the Expectations of Filial Piety Scale for use with Mexican-American parents regarding expectations they have of their adult children for care and support. Background. Earlier work by the authors demonstrated that filial piety is a cross-cultural construct that can be used with Hispanic/Latino populations. More refined development of the construct required testing with more homogeneous subsets (i.e. Mexican-Americans) within the broad designation of Hispanic/Latino adults. Design. Non-experimental methodological design for field testing of the instrument's psychometric properties. Methods. A convenient sample of 80 Mexican-American adults in California and Texas completed a brief biographical survey and field tested the Expectations of Filial Piety Scale. Results. Common factor analysis with orthogonal rotation was used to extract three factors, which accounted for 58% of the variance in scale scores. These factors included: I: respect for parents (24.05%); II: honouring parents (12.5%); and III: family unity (16.56%). Overall scale reliability was 0.87 with individual factor reliability coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.87 and test-retest correlation was 0.73. Conclusions. The results show that the Expectations of Filial Piety Scale is an internally consistent and reliable tool for use in studies of the Mexican-American population. Mexican elders historically underuse formal services; a large portion of this population will most likely depend on support from their family members when they reach advanced ages. There is a lack of culturally sensitive instruments to measure family values in caring for older adults in Mexican-Americans. Relevance to clinical practice This scale can enable case workers and nurses in long-term care settings to assess the elder's expectations for family support accurately and compare these expectations with available family support, children's intentions to care for a dependent parent or other family member and the need for supplemental care in Mexican-American families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enduring concern among science education researchers is the "swing away from science" (Osborne, 2003). One of their central dilemmas is to identify--or construct--a valid outcome measure that could assess curricular effectiveness, and predict students choices of science courses, university majors, or careers in science. Many instruments have been created and variably evaluated. The primary purpose of this paper was to re-evaluate the psychometric properties of the Image of Science and Scientists Scale (ISSS) (Krajkovich 1978). In the current study, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the dimensionality of the 29-item ISSS, which was administered to 531 middle school students in three San Antonio, Texas school districts at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. The results failed to confirm the presumed 1-factor structure of the ISSS, but instead showed a 3-factor structure with only marginal fit with the data, even after removal of 12 inadequate items. The three dimensions were "Positive Images of Scientists" (5 items), "Negative Images of Scientists" (9 items), and "Science Avocation" (3 items). The results do not support use of the original form of the ISSS for measuring "attitudes toward science," "images of scientists," or "scientific attitudes. "Shortening the scale from 29 to 17 items makes it more feasible to use in a classroom setting. Determining whether the three dimensions identified in our analysis, "Positive Images of Scientists," "Negative Images of Scientists," and "Science Avocation" contain useful assessments of middle school student impressions and attitudes will require independent investigation in other samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines bacterial levels and their causes in two Houston bayous (Texas). Buffalo and Whiteoak bayous are two of the most contaminated water bodies in Texas for indicator bacteria, based on the frequency and magnitude of contact recreation water quality exceedances. Examination of historical data indicates frequent exceedances, although some improvement has been made since the 1970s. Statistical analyses showed some correlation between in-stream fecal coliform concentrations and rainfall and with land use. Differences in fecal coliform concentrations were found between high- and low-flow conditions in Whiteoak Bayou, while reservoir releases confounded this relationship in Buffalo Bayou. Wastewater treatment plant effluent was found to make up two-thirds to three-fourths of the median flow in both bayous. Effluent sampling was conducted at 72 of the approximately 140 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the watersheds, providing evidence that WWTP effluent could act to maintain low-flow concentrations of fecal coliform in the bayous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soils represent a fundamental abiotic parameter in defining the characteristics of an ecosystem. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) produces the most detailed digital spatial soil datasets that are publicly available. The Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database contains basic attributes for the continuous coverage of soils across the United States. In its standard format, the SSURGO database is incompatible for use within the ArcView Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). A modified version of the State Soil and Geographic (STATSGO) database is the template soils dataset used by ArcView SWAT. This paper presents the methodology and development of a SSURGO database preprocessor extension for the ArcView SWAT model. A case study for the Upper Sabinal River Watershed near Uvalde, Texas, is given. Results indicate that hydrologic output parameter differences occur when comparing the STATSGO and SSURGO database information in the ArcView SWAT model under identical modeling conditions. Specifically, the SSURGO model produced a greater daily mean water yield with evapotranspiration and surface runoff being found consistently lower across the watershed. The most likely causes assigned to this phenomenon were higher percolation and resulting ground water return flow values due to significantly larger saturated hydraulic conductivity values associated with the SSURGO 2.x database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flash flooding is the rapid flooding of low lying areas caused by the stormwater of intense rainfall associated with thunderstorms. Flash flooding occurs in many urban areas with relatively flat terrain and can result in severe property damage as well as the loss of lives. In this paper, an integrated one-dimensional (1-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) hydraulic simulation model has been established to simulate stormwater flooding processes in urban areas. With rainfall input, the model simulates 2-D overland flow and 1-D flow in underground stormwater pipes and drainage channels. Drainage channels are treated as special flow paths and arranged along one or more sides of a 2-D computational grid. By using irregular computation grids, the model simulates unsteady flooding and drying processes over urban areas with complex drainage systems. The model results can provide spatial flood risk information (e.g., water depth, inundation time and flow velocity during flooding). The model was applied to the City of Beaumont, Texas, and validated with the recorded rainfall and runoff data from Tropical Storm Allison with good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents ArcGIS-SWAT, a geodata model and geographic information system (GIS) interface for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The ArcGIS-SWAT data model is a system of geodatabases that store SWAT geographic, numeric, and text input data and results in an organized fashion. Thus, it is proposed that a single and comprehensive geodatabase be used as the repository of a SWAT simulation. The ArcGIS-SWAT interface uses programming objects that conform to the Component Object Model (COM) design standard, which facilitate the use of functionality of other Windows-based applications within ArcGIS-SWAT. In particular, the use of MS Excel and MATLAB functionality for data analysis and visualization of results is demonstrated. Likewise, it is proposed to conduct hydrologic model integration through the sharing of information with a not-model-specific hub data model where information common to different models can be stored and from which it can be retrieved. As an example, it is demonstrated how the Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) — a computer application for flood analysis — can use information originally developed by ArcGIS-SWAT for SWAT. The application of ArcGlS-SWAT to the Seco Creek watershed in Texas is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-scale effects of spatial autocorrelation may be present in datasets. Given the importance of detecting local non-stationarity in many theoretical as well as applied studies, it is necessary to “remove” the impact of large-scale autocorrelation before common techniques for local pattern analysis are applied. It is proposed in this paper to employ the regionalized range to define spatially varying sub-regions within which the impact of large-scale autocorrelation is minimized and the local patterns can be investigated. A case study is conducted on crime data to detect crime hot spots and cold spots in San Antonio, Texas. The results confirm the necessity of treating the non-stationarity of large-scale spatial autocorrelation prior to any action aiming at detecting local autocorrelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the case of the expansion and regulation of hog confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) in Texas combined with the actions of the transnational agri-food corporation Seaboard Farms, Inc., this paper probes the relationship between the state and corporations in the global era. It specifically investigates the ability of the state to control agri-food corporations in a context in which the hyper-mobility of capital has increasingly allowed corporations to by-pass state regulations and requirements. Salient literature is reviewed by grouping it into three camps: the first views the state as largely controlled by corporations; the second stresses the powers left to the state and the fact that corporations need state assistance to successfully operate in the current global economy; and the third acknowledges the crisis of the nation-state under globalization but maintains that the state has retained some ability to resist globalization forces. The case study documents the expansion of Seaboard Farms' hog operations in the Panhandle Region of Texas and nearby states and its interaction with local and state governments and agencies. The article indicates that the relationship between transnational corporations and the state is contradictory. Its source rests on the fracture between varying postures maintained by the state and the relatively homogenous behavior of the CAFO corporations. The case also reveals that the state's limited control of corporate actions is facilitated by state strategies; that corporate actions are successful if corporations enlist the cooperation of the state; and the state is able to control resistance and legitimize its actions to its constituencies. These conditions, however, do not prevent the emergence of anti-corporate resistance at local and state levels. In the search for new forms of socioeconomic development, local residents and their leaders should be aware of corporations' ability to affect state action, state postures that favor corporate designs, and the fact that successful opposition to corporate designs can be, and is, carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]