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Despite emerging scholarship on translanguaging pedagogies and the potential Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) have on shifting pedagogical beliefs, there are limited studies that explore the impact a faculty learning community has on educators' perceptions and reflections on translanguaging as a teaching and learning tool in higher education. The authors explore educators' perceptions and enactment of translanguaging practices across disciplines in the context of a FLC on translingual community-engaged pedagogies. Through semi-structured interviews and written reflections, the authors used thematic analysis to investigate how the FLC impacted faculty participants' critical reflection on their practice from the perspective of translanguaging as a pedagogical tool. While faculty participants questioned the implementation of translanguaging pedagogies, they acknowledged students' language experiences as they grappled with linguistically inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. Teaching and research implications for embracing translanguaging pedagogies across academic disciplines are identified.

This qualitative case study investigates a fourth grade novice bilingual teacher's repertoire of practice during her first year of teaching. Drawing on recent work on teacher noticing, the study explores how the teacher negotiates prevailing bilingual education discourses. Two themes are discussed: how this novice teacher embraced bilingual teaching while questioning practices and policies and how she negotiated contradictions through multiple attempts to redefine her teaching practices. Findings show how the teacher's ability to notice framed her possibility to bridge her understandings about teaching, her critical pedagogical discourse, and the contextual contradictory discourses predominant in her school about bilingual education.

This qualitative case study explores how integrating multimodal writing opportunities in a second-grade dual language classroom opens up spaces for translanguaging practices in order to promote a more equitable and socially just access to biliteracy development for emergent bilinguals. A multimodal writing project that integrated writing and social studies was designed to provide students with opportunities to write in English and Spanish using digital tools. Data collected involved field notes, student work, students' interviews, and videorecordings of students' interaction while completing the writing tasks. Findings illustrate how the multimodal writing project afforded emergent bilinguals with opportunities to leverage their full linguistic repertoire to construct meaningful texts in both languages while integrating new features in both languages, establishing cross-linguistic connections, building metalinguistic awareness, and positioning as capable writers in both languages.

This case study explored how the translanguaging stance of two instructors from different disciplines was reflected in their course design, instructional decision-making, and interactions with students at a large Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the state of Texas in the United States. The results of the study revealed that the instructors enacted a translanguaging stance in their syllabi and course design. The instructors used translanguaging pedagogies intentionally and purposefully in response to their students' linguistic diversity, opening translanguaging spaces through their use of language for teaching. As a result, students' bilingualism and biliteracy were promoted and leveraged to maximize their learning. The results of the study show how instructors in HSIs play a key role in the development of a linguistically inclusive approach to instruction in higher education.

This study provides an in depth look at how middle school English language learners (ELLs) negotiate their identity as readers and writers as they engage in an identity-oriented unit of instruction. Drawing on theories of identity, identity negotiation, and transformative pedagogy, this study contributes to the field by exploring how a teacher can configure her or his classroom as a space in which ELLs' identities are continuously and dynamically negotiated. This qualitative action research study sought to answer the following research question: How do instructional activities in an English language arts' unit on identity foster identity negotiation in different types of ELLs? Two findings emerged from the data analysis of student work and interviews: (a) ELLs' perceptions as readers and writers are defined by their experiences in reading and writing instruction; (b) A unit of instruction can be a catalyst for ELLs to negotiate their identity and to reclaim their self as effective readers and writers.

Translanguaging, or the complex, dynamic, and integrated linguistic practices of bilinguals have been recently identified as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate learning in bilingual classrooms. Given its potential implications for teacher preparation, a qualitative case study was conducted at a university on the Texas-Mexico border to explore translanguaging practices of pre-service bilingual teachers in academic writing. Findings showed that Latina pre-service bilingual teachers creatively leveraged their Spanish and English linguistic repertoire to produce meaningful Spanish writing. Moreover, pre-service teachers created translanguaging spaces through writing in multiple ways, showing the potential of translanguaging as a practice in action and a pedagogical tool to defy the monolingual tradition prevailing in bilingual teacher preparation.

Ultrasonic extraction followed by Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction (SBSE) and thermal desorption inline coupled with Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (TD/GC/MS) was used to perform a comprehensive determination of soil-borne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in El Paso, Texas. The method provided good sensitivity and faster processing time for the analysis. The total PAHs in El Paso soil ranged from 0.1 to 2225.5μgkg−1. Although the majority of PAH concentrations did not exceed the soil screening levels regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the existence of PAHs in this ecosystem is ubiquitous. Naphthalene were found in 100% of the soil samples; while the heavy PAHs (five- and six-ring) were not often detected and mostly remained in closer proximity to industrial areas and major traffic points. The results ruled out the possibility of petroleum refining as the significant source of local soil-borne PAH contamination, but they suggested that the PAHs found in El Paso soil were closely linked to human activities and possible other industrial processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Setting: Seven organ/space surgical site infections (SSIs) that occurred after arthroscopic procedures and were due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa of indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns occurred at hospital X in Texas from April 22, 2009, through May 7, 2009., Objective: To determine the source of the outbreak and prevent future infections., Design: Infection control observations and a case-control study., Methods: Laboratory records were reviewed for case finding. A case-control study was conducted. A case patient was defined as someone who underwent knee or shoulder arthroscopy at hospital X during the outbreak period and subsequently developed organ/space SSI due to P. aeruginosa. Cultures of environmental and surgical equipment samples were performed, and selected isolates were analyzed by PFGE. Surgical instrument reprocessing practices were reviewed, and surgical instrument lumens were inspected with a borescope after reprocessing to assess cleanliness., Results: The case-control study did not identify any significant patient-related or operator-related risk factors. P. aeruginosa grew from 62 of 388 environmental samples. An isolate from the gross decontamination sink had a PFGE pattern that was indistinguishable from that of the case patient isolates. All surgical instrument cultures showed no growth. Endoscopic evaluation of reprocessed arthroscopic equipment revealed retained tissue in the lumen of both the inflow/outflow cannulae and arthroscopic shaver handpiece. No additional cases occurred after changes in instrument reprocessing protocols were implemented. After this outbreak, the US Food and Drug Administration released a safety alert about the concern regarding retained tissue within arthroscopic shavers., Conclusions: These SSIs were likely related to surgical instrument contamination with P. aeruginosa during instrument reprocessing. Retained tissue in inflow/outflow cannulae and shaver handpieces could have allowed bacteria to survive sterilization procedures.

In response to concerns about occupational and environmental exposures, and a perceived cluster of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the community, the mortality experience among 31,811 civilian employees who worked for at least 1 year between 1981 and 2000 at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas was ascertained. A total of 3264 deaths occurred through October 31, 2001. Overall, significant deficits in mortality were observed for all causes of death and all cancers combined. An excess of breast cancer [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 216; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 128-341] among blue-collar women was identified, and remained elevated after adjusting for race and ethnicity [rate ratio (RR) = 2.83; 95% CI = 1.50-5.34]. Mortality from motor neuron disease, which includes ALS deaths, was not increased overall (SMR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.52-1.68), and was lower among blue-collar employees and higher among white-collar employees than expected, based on small numbers. Overall, mortality patterns indicated a healthy worker population and no large increased mortality associated with employment at Kelly Air Force Base.