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Background: More women are going outdoors and menstrual hygiene is a concern for these women, we do not know how collegiate outdoor programs are addressing this topic, if at all. It is possible that feminine hygiene may not be adequately discussed in these settings. Because of this, the overall health and outdoor experiences of female participants are potentially at risk. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of current practices and potential barriers surrounding feminine hygiene and menstruation dialogs in college outdoor recreation programs in Texas. Methodology/Approach: An open-ended online survey was distributed to 36 schools with outdoor recreation programs in Texas. Responses were independently analyzed and coded for emergent themes. Findings/Conclusions: Thirty-eight percent of schools did not address feminine hygiene and menstruation in pretrip communications. Predominant themes consisted of an emphasis on health and hygiene, dependence on female leaders, a need for more knowledge and resources, and a desire for normalization. Implications: Most professionals expressed that resources to expand their knowledge on these topics can help to better prepare participants. Current practices surrounding these topics may be insufficient and able to improve. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of the curriculum and the preference of participants.

Since the 1920s, colleges have offered how-to-study courses orientating students to the rituals of academic study. We present an historical overview of these courses by highlighting major developments including the emergence of courses that evolved from skill-based curriculum underpinned by behaviorism to strategy-based curriculum underpinned by cognitive psychology and self-regulation theories. We also focus on two unique common iterations of course categories offered today: first-year seminars, which were re-envisioned by the University of South Carolina in the 1970s, and theory-based learning strategy courses, often referred to as learning frameworks courses, which emerged in the 1970s at two Texas universities.

For nearly two decades, the state of Texas mandated gifted education services and provided funding to public school districts. One policy that was unique to the state was a mandatory minimum spending requirement. This research examines how mandatory minimum spending floors influenced spending in public school districts within the state and how that influence varied across locales. Our findings provide evidence that rural public school districts in Texas were more likely to operate nearer to the mandatory state minimum spending for gifted education than non-rural public school districts. In particular, rural public school districts allocated 50% fewer funds toward gifted education programming than suburban public school districts after accounting for minimum spending floors. The results should provide caution to policy makers on the possible ramifications of removing spending floors on gifted education programming in rural public school districts.

In this qualitative study, the authors extend the previous research and present findings from a study investigating post-secondary theoretically-based study strategy courses. In Texas, these courses are known as learning frameworks courses, offered for college credit, and derive full-formula funding from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Researchers focused on learning frameworks courses offered at Texas public community colleges in the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters. A total of 44 course coordinators or their designees were interviewed via phone or email. Using content analysis, researchers coded data into content categories and thematic units. Findings provide historical, administrative and curricula perspectives including primary distinctions among course topics; theoretical perspectives (or lack thereof); textbooks, resources, and assessment selections; and instructor training. The authors recommended the development of statewide resources to assist institutions in meeting statewide curricula requirements.

The effect of the 2008 Recession has reverberated throughout public education in the United States. This paper examines how the gifted education funding in the state of Texas changed following the Great Recession. The framework of a generalized longitudinal mixed effect model was used to explore this topic. Data acquired from the Texas Education Association included financial and demographic information on Texas School districts (n = 1,025) between the 1999-2000 and 2014-2015 academic school years. The primary finding was that the Great Recession adversely affected suburban school districts. These districts saw a greater percentage point reduction of budget allocated toward gifted programming (-0.24) than rural (-0.08), town (-0.05), or urban (-0.08) school districts (t = 2.72, p < 0.01).

This article provides a review of current and future demographic trends for Texas and the nation including the ongoing discrepancy between enrollment and retention/completion. Students entering postsecondary education embody America's growing diversity in language, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and socioeconomic status. Demographic research findings support the importance of the role played by developmental educators in continuing to address the changing needs of students. Recommendations include the need for K-12 and postsecondary developmental educators to continue collaborating on college readiness initiatives, academic support services including career pathway advising, better alignment between 2- and 4-year institutions, developing cultural competence, and continuing research to improve support of underserved and diverse student populations.

Policy changes are an ever-present part of education. In 2019, legislators upended over two decades of gifted education policy in Texas with the removal of direct funding for gifted education. In its wake, the removal of funding shook educator morale and created uncertainty as to the future of gifted education in the state. In this article, we report on a survey administered to gifted education educators in Texas. A descriptive framework in conjunction with Bayesian analysis and multiple imputations is used to analyze the survey results. Our findings provide evidence that though educator sentiment is largely negative toward the changes to gifted education in Texas, educator outlooks on the future of gifted education in the state are relatively high.

Self-assessments utilizing designated, objective standards are critical in program evaluation. Although 2013-2014 Texas policy mandated districts self-assess their gifted programs using the community and student engagement performance rating system, little is known about how districts determined their self-assessment ratings. Following gifted program evaluation guidelines from the Texas State Plan for Gifted/Talented Students and the National Association for Gifted Children Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Programming Standards, researchers used logistic ordered regression to examine Texas districts' 2014-2015 locale, proportional representation, and budgetary allotments in relation to gifted program self-assessed performance ratings. Results indicate proportional representation of Black and Hispanic students in gifted programs did not influence school district self-assessed ratings. On the contrary, locale, proportion of Black and Hispanic students to the overall district population, and budget allocation did relate to self-assessed ratings of gifted programs. Future research directions and implications for the use of self-assessments within gifted program evaluation are discussed.

When choosing a college, high school students and those who guide them through the process must consider the complex interactions between student-level and institution-level variables in order to achieve an optimal person-environment fit. Ten academically advanced high school students who had chosen and committed to attending a college participated in semistructured interviews in which they rank-ordered and discussed the college choice considerations they used in the decision-making process. This qualitative study describes six themes that were identified across participants. The college-going identity of these academically advanced students was influenced by pressure to attend a highly selective school, social comparisons, and early career exploration opportunities. Additionally, when evaluating institution characteristics, these academically talented high school seniors questioned the relationship between quality, cost, and prestige, appreciated flexible learning options, and sought opportunities for immersion in a domain.

Researchers investigated the use of two mentoring programs for students who were part of a support component of Fundamentals of Conceptual Understanding and Success (FOCUS), a comprehensive intervention grant for students enrolled in developmental mathematics coursework at a large public Texas university. The technology-based mentoring program, titled e-Sponsor Program, was compared to a campus-sponsored mentoring program. The programs differed in terms of mentor-types, mentor training, and use of technology. Results of an end-of-semester survey revealed no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of participants' quality interactions or perceived helpfulness of their e-Sponsor or mentor. The quantitative data confirmed that, regardless of group, more frequent quality interactions resulted in participants perceiving the interactions with mentor or e-Sponsor as very helpful. When participants' perception of helpfulness of the e-Sponsor and mentor was examined in terms of form of communication, the only statistically significant finding was face-to-face interactions. In the qualitative portion of the study, four categories of quality interactions emerged from participants: (a) receiving study and scheduling tips, (b) practicing to interact with professors by practicing with e-Sponsors, (c) receiving helpful advice that could generalize to other courses, and (d) learning to advocate for themselves in academic and practical situations.

The Great Recession is an economic crisis which has had repercussions through different facets of U.S. society. Texas, despite overall economic health, enacted severe cuts to education as a result of the Great Recession. A potential consequence of these austerity measures is the identification of Black, Latinx, and Native American students for gifted education services. This article examines effects of the Great Recession and educational budget policy on the identification of Black, Latinx, and Native American students for gifted services in Texas. Publicly available data were acquired from the Texas Education Agency on district demographic data from 1999 to 2015. A longitudinal mixed effect model was used to analyze rates of representation of Asian, Black, Latinx, and Native American students relative to White students. Results suggest that budgetary cuts to gifted education programs following the Great Recession did not adversely affect the representation of Black, Latinx, and Native American students in gifted education programs and that Asian students increased their representation in gifted programs.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has defined the past 15 years of public K-12 education. An incentive structure built around adequate yearly progress created an environment that was not aligned with gifted education. Texas, with over 11% of the total identified gifted population in the United States, state funding for gifted, and incentivized identification policies, made an ideal case study to analyze the ramifications of NCLB on gifted education. This article explores how Texas responded to NCLB and that response's influence on district-level funding for gifted education. In total, 16 years of financial and enrollment data were analyzed for the 1,025 public school districts in Texas using the frame work of a longitudinal mixed model. Results indicated that there was an annual decline in the percentage of budget allocated to gifted education of 0.04 percentage points for rural school districts, 0.08 for suburban, 0.07 for town, and 0.05 for urban.

Tidal freshwater zones (TFZs) are transitional environments between terrestrial and coastal waters. TFZs have freshwater chemistry and tidal physics, and yet are neither river nor estuary based on classic definitions. Such zones have been occasionally discussed in the literature but lack a consistent nomenclature and framework for study. This work proposes a measurable definition for TFZs based on three longitudinal points of interest: (1) the upstream limit of brackish water, (2) the upstream limit of bidirectional tidal velocities, and (3) the upstream limit of tidal stage fluctuations. The resulting size and position of a TFZ is transient and depends on the balance of tidal and riverine forces that evolves over event, tidal, seasonal, and annual (or longer) timescales. The concept, definition, and transient analysis of TFZ position are illustrated using field observations from the Aransas River (Texas, USA) from July 2015 to July 2016. The median Aransas TFZ length was 59.9 km, with a late summer maximum of 66.0 km and a winter minimum of 53.6 km. The TFZ typically (annual median) began 11.8 km upstream from the river mouth (15.4 km winter/11.2 km summer medians) and ended 71.7 km upstream (69.0 km/77.2 km). Seasonally low baseflow in the Aransas River promoted gradual coastal salt encroachment upstream, which shortened the TFZ. However, sporadic large rainfall/runoff events rapidly elongated the TFZ. The TFZ definition establishes a quantifiable framework for analyzing these critical freshwater systems that reside at the nexus of natural and human‐influenced hydrology, tides, and climate. Plain Language Summary: Rivers reaching the coast begin to feel the impact of tides. Coastal river segments can rise and fall with the tide and even flow inland at certain times during the tidal cycle. At the same time, the tide can push salty coastal water upstream, traveling from offshore up the river channel. This study focuses on the river segment between that salty water and freshwater flowing toward the coast. This region of the river is the "tidal freshwater zone," (TFZ) because this river water is both fresh, meaning it contains effectively no salt, and tidal, since it moves with the tide. In this paper, we define the key characteristics of a TFZ, and observe one of these zones in a coastal river in Texas over 1 year. We witnessed the TFZ expand and shrink like an accordion as rain events added more freshwater, and droughts removed freshwater allowing the tide to push salt water upstream quickly. We also observed the zone move back and forth along the river channel as the seasons and climate changed. Future coastal water management plans should account for the TFZ since this river segment may move vital nutrients to the coast very slowly. Also, climate change may strongly impact TFZs, since these zones are influenced by two major consequences of climate change: rising sea level (i.e., tide) and rising temperatures (i.e., altered water cycle). Key Points: Established measurable definition of tidal freshwater zone (TFZ) and observed and analyzed tidal freshwater zone in Texas, USAMedian zone length was 59.9 km in Aransas River, TX, USA, with late summer maximum length of 66.0 km and a winter minimum of 53.6 kmRunoff events lengthened and seasonal drought shortened the zone, which was also mobile along channel due to changing tide and climate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oncology nurse navigators play a crucial role in the cancer patient's care. They provide resources, education, and support to identify and mitigate barriers to care, facilitate shared decision-making, and optimize care transitions throughout the treatment journey. Objective: To describe the impact of an oncology nurse navigator pilot program on conversion and retention rates for new patients at a National Cancer Institute--designated cancer center in Texas. Methods: A prospective, observational cohort study was conducted. Electronic medical health records and institutional retention data were used to measure the primary outcomes. Conversion rate was defined as the percentage of patient referrals who completed a new patient appointment. Retention rate was defined as the percentage of completed new patient appointments and treatment received at our institution within 4 months of their first patient appointment. Conversion and retention rates were compared between patients who participated in the oncology nurse navigation pilot program and all patients overall during the same time period. Results: From October 2022 through April 2023, 7 oncology nurse navigators participated in the pilot program. A total of 355 patients received nurse navigation during intake and treatment from breast, gastrointestinal, head and neck, and thoracic cancer service lines. A total of 1735 patient encounters were conducted. The conversion rate for navigated patients was 77%, compared to 54% for patients overall. The retention rate for navigated patients was 59%, compared to 48% for patients overall. Conclusion: In this study, the oncology nurse navigation pilot program positively impacted patient conversion and retention rates. In addition to providing support to cancer patients and an enhanced patient experience, our results indicate oncology nurse navigation likely positively impacts hospital financial margins through retention of additional patients for cancer therapies. who participated in the oncology nurse navigation pilot program and all patients overall during the same time period. Results: From October 2022 through April 2023, 7 oncology nurse navigators participated in the pilot program. A total of 355 patients received nurse navigation during intake and treatment from breast, gastrointestinal, head and neck, and thoracic cancer service lines. A total of 1735 patient encounters were conducted. The conversion rate for navigated patients was 77%, compared to 54% for patients overall. The retention rate for navigated patients was 59%, compared to 48% for patients overall. Conclusion: In this study, the oncology nurse navigation pilot program positively impacted patient conversion and retention rates. In addition to providing support to cancer patients and an enhanced patient experience, our results indicate oncology nurse navigation likely positively impacts hospital financial margins through retention of additional patients for cancer therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As oil transport increasing in the Texas bays, greater risks of ship collisions will become a challenge, yielding oil spill accidents as a consequence. To minimize the ecological damage and optimize rapid response, emergency managers need to be informed with how fast and where oil will spread as soon as possible after a spill. The state-of-the-art operational oil spill forecast modeling system improves the oil spill response into a new stage. However uncertainty due to predicted data inputs often elicits compromise on the reliability of the forecast result, leading to misdirection in contingency planning. Thus understanding the forecast uncertainty and reliability become significant. In this paper, Monte Carlo simulation is implemented to provide parameters to generate forecast probability maps. The oil spill forecast uncertainty is thus quantified by comparing the forecast probability map and the associated hindcast simulation. A HyosPy-based simple statistic model is developed to assess the reliability of an oil spill forecast in term of belief degree. The technologies developed in this study create a prototype for uncertainty and reliability analysis in numerical oil spill forecast modeling system, providing emergency managers to improve the capability of real time operational oil spill response and impact assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coupled surface water and variably-saturated groundwater model is developed for a coastal salt marsh (Nueces Delta, Texas USA). To evaluate the relative impacts of common model simplifications, the new model is compared against a prior salinity transport model that neglects evaporation and groundwater coupling. Both marsh-scale (at coarse grid resolution) and bank-scale (at fine grid resolution) simulations are used to examine the flux mechanisms in the intertidal zone where soil-moisture evaporation and groundwater fluxes contribute to hypersalinity. New numerical methods provide the groundwater–surface water coupling mechanisms necessary for practical marsh-scale simulations using the two-dimensional (2D) Shallow Water Equations for surface water and the density-dependent 3D Richards equation for groundwater. An asynchronous surface–subsurface coupling scheme is shown to significantly reduce the computational cost of marsh-scale simulations. Comparison of marsh-scale and bank-scale results indicates that a coarse model grid can represent the mechanisms of surface/subsurface salinity flux in the intertidal zone, but likely misrepresents the inundation effects of topography smaller than the model grid. Due to relatively weak tidal amplitudes at the study site, surface-water evaporation is a stronger driver of hypersalinity than surface–subsurface exchange induced by soil-moisture evaporation. The combination of evaporation and groundwater exchange creates small hypersalinity "hot spots" that do not appear in the simulations neglecting these processes. However, including these processes has only a marginal impact on comparisons with field data previously collected in the marsh. Both types of simulations have good agreement for surface-water volumetric transport (as evidenced by water surface levels), but the remaining model-field disagreement in salinity appears to be dominated by biases in salinity transport for oscillatory (tidal, wind-driven) fluxes through narrow channels. • A 2D surface – 3D subsurface flow model is developed for marsh salinity evolution. • An asynchronous coupling scheme is analyzed to evaluate coupling error. • Surface-water evaporation strongly affects marsh-scale salinity evolution. • Surface–subsurface exchange has a minor role because of weak tidal amplitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the meaning of a multisensory chair yoga program for persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) living in three assisted living community homes. Twenty-six individuals (ages 69 to 98), 19 females and 7 males, participated in a ten week chair yoga program, twice a week for 30-55 minutes. Narrative progress notes, audio-visual images, and emails with caregiver and family feedback were analyzed by using grounded theory. From the findings a core category, ‘Personalized “Now” Moments of Engagement,’ was generated with three overarching sub-categories: (a) characteristics and stages of AD, (b) multisensory design and yoga class format, and (c) expressing connection through actions. In addition, ‘meaningful discovery by family and caregivers’ noted perception changes about the residents and increasing joy. Study findings tend to support Validation Therapy (VT) concepts. Findings may facilitate a re-evaluation of the current theories and models of treatment for persons with AD and offer recreation therapists a conceptual framework to facilitate engagements with them, their families, and caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated a 10-week chair yoga intervention on cognition, balance, activities of daily living (ADLs), anxiety, and depression for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Residents were assigned to three groups: (a) mild AD (n = 6), (b) moderate AD (n = 6), or (c) severe AD (n = 7). There was no significant change in balance, anxiety, or cognition. ADLs showed a significant effect (p = .02), which suggests that yoga may have more benefit early in the progression of AD. Depression increased significantly (p < .01). Yoga over an extended period of time with a larger sample size may demonstrate benefits to persons with AD and serve as means to improve overall quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the construction of railroad bridges between El Paso, Texas, and El Paso del Norte, Chihuahua, Mexico, now called Ciudad Juárez, from 1880 to 1883. It examines the involvement of the companies the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) and the Mexican Central Railroad. The author also considers efforts to construct bi-national street railways. Other topics include attitudes toward foreign investment in Mexico and diplomatic, political, and economic aspects of U.S.-Mexican relations.

This phenomenological study explored the meaning of wheelchair rugby participation as expressed by five athletes. Themes emerged from their stories about perceived positive outcomes in physical health, psychosocial well-being, expression of an athlete identity, and hold meaning related to playing a full contact sport. The study findings demonstrate the importance and value of sport participation for persons with tetraplegia. These findings support the use of adapted sport as an impactful intervention when working with persons with spinal cord injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of stratification and dissolved oxygen (DO) illustrate a hypersaline gravity current with salt loads similar to a desalination plant brine discharge. Over a 48-h sampling period in August 2005, alternating cycles of high- and low-temperature hypersaline water were observed along the bottom of Corpus Christi Bay in Texas, coincident with low benthic DO and tidal flushing from an adjacent smaller bay. The gravity current underflow was typically less than 10% of the overall water depth. Strong salinity gradients prevented wind-mixing of the entire water column. Hypoxic and near-hypoxic conditions were associated with limited DO replenishment from the ambient water. High DO levels in the underflow source water did not deter the development of offshore benthic hypoxia. A quasi-Lagrangian analysis is used to evaluate the relationship between ambient mixing and lateral mixing within the underflow. The analysis is further applied to estimating DO demand rates in the hypersaline plume. Mixing between the ambient water and the underflow predominately occurs over the sloping bay boundary. Once the gravity current reaches the flatter section of the bay, mixing is substantially reduced and DO is progressively depleted at the bottom. The transit time of the underflow (i.e., residence time or isolation time for water near the bottom) and wind-mixing energy appear to be key factors governing stratification persistence and potential hypoxia development. The observations and analyses provide insight into possible fate, impacts, and open questions associated with similarly scaled salt loadings from a desalination plant into a shallow bay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of property tax and rural land market value on the ownership structure of private forestland in Texas. Using county-level panel data in an Instrumental Variable regression framework, we estimated the effect of property tax rate and rural land value on two measures of ownership fragmentation: the total number of private forest landowners and the average size of private forest holdings. The results indicate that after controlling for the total amount of private forest area in a county, both property tax rates and rural land values increased ownership fragmentation. However, the rate of ownership fragmentation was relatively inelastic in both property tax rate and rural land value. While further restructuring local property tax rates might minimize the negative effect on private ownership dynamics, policy instruments that decrease the disparity between productivity value and market value of rural forestland might be needed to check the ongoing ownership fragmentation in Texas and elsewhere in the United States. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This section presents an interview with Gladys R. Shaw, former director of the Tutoring and Learning Center of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Shaw discusses the Student Support Services Program at UTEP, which she directs. She comments on the under-representation of women in higher education. Shaw also discusses student participation in compensatory access programs and developmental education.

A new sweep-search algorithm (SSA) is developed and tested to identify the channel geometry transitions responsible for numerical convergence failure in a Saint-Venant equation (SVE) simulation of a large-scale open-channel network. Numerical instabilities are known to occur at "sharp" transitions in discrete geometry, but the identification of problem locations has been a matter of modeler's art and a roadblock to implementing large-scale SVE simulations. The new method implements techniques from graph theory applied to a steady-state 1D shallow-water equation solver to recursively examine the numerical stability of each flowpath through the channel network. The SSA is validated with a short river reach and tested by the simulation of ten complete river systems of the Texas–Gulf Coast region by using the extreme hydrological conditions recorded during hurricane Harvey. The SSA successfully identified the problematic channel sections in all tested river systems. Subsequent modification of the problem sections allowed stable solution by an unsteady SVE numerical solver. The new SSA approach permits automated and consistent identification of problem channel geometry in large open-channel network data sets, which is necessary to effectively apply the fully dynamic Saint-Venant equations to large-scale river networks or for city-wide stormwater networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features commentaries on journalistic ethical problems presented in a case using some factual information from the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas and a couple of hypothetical items. Guidelines or principles that should be followed in covering ongoing and unresolved conflicts; Concern over people inside; Request of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for no contact.