Graphite in Llano County, Texas

The origin and occurrence of graphite in the Central Mineral region of Texas have been described by Barnes, Comstock, Dube, Paige, Baker, and possibly others. The following excerpt from Barnes explains the most logical origin of the pre-Cambrian graphite when compared with field conditions: "Graphite is very common in the Packsaddle schist of Llano and Burnet counties. This schist series was originally a sedimentary series composed mostly of argillaceous, calcareous, arenaceous, and carbonaceous sediment mixtures. This series, before metamorphism took place, probably was very similar to the Pennsylvanian rocks of north-central Texas. The carbonaceous material changed into graphite during the metamorphism to which these pre-Cambrian rocks were subjected. The graphite content of these rocks varies in amount, as did the carbonaceous material in the original sediments. Many of the graphite schists of this area contain insufficient graphite to be of commercial value, while others contain abundant graphite." Sidney Paige wrote the following concerning the origin: "As the series of pre-Cambrian rocks described above were in part originally shales, sandstones, and limestones, they are now represented by schists of varying composition. Moreover, certain constituents have become, through metamorphism, of possible economic importance. Such is the change of carbonaceous matter originally in the shales to graphite."Bureau of Economic Geolog

Multidimensional collaboration; reflections on action research in a clinical context

This paper reflects on the challenges and benefits of multidimensional collaboration in an action research study to evaluate and improve preoperative education for patients awaiting colorectal surgery. Three cycles of planning, acting,observing and reflecting were designed to evaluate practice and implement change in this interactive setting, calling for specific and distinct collaborations. Data collection includes: observing educational interactions; administering patient evaluation questionnaires; interviewing healthcare staff, patients and carers; patient and carer focus groups; and examining written and audiovisual educational materials. The study revolves around and depends on multi-dimensional collaborations. Reflecting on these collaborations highlights the diversity of perspectives held by all those engaged in the study and enhances the action research lessons. Successfully maintaining the collaborations recognises the need for negotiation, inclusivity, comprehension, brokerage,and problem-solving. Managing the potential tensions is crucial to the successful implementation of changes introduced to practice and thus has important implications for patients’ well-being. This paper describes the experiences from an action research project involving new and specific collaborations, focusing on a particular healthcare setting. It exemplifies the challenges of the collaborative action research process and examines how both researchers and practitioners might reflect on the translation of theory into educational practices within a hospital colorectal department. Despite its context-specific features, the reflections on the types of challenges faced and lessons learned provide implications for action researchers in diverse healthcare settings across the world

Magnesite mining in Llano County, Texas

As an outcome of a paper published by The University of Texas in 1938 calling attention to the high magnesia marbles of the Sharp Mountain area of Llano County, magnesite is mined at the present by two companies, the Meramec Minerals, Inc., and the Texas Mines. The Sharp Mountain area is a part of the metamorphic series, probably Algonkian in age, composed mainly of mica and graphitic schists, diorites, granite, dolomite, magnesite, magnesitic limestone, and calcium carbonate marble. The calcium carbonate marbles and dolomites, like other members of the series, are highly metamorphosed irregular bands and include such typical accessory minerals as tremolite, tourmaline, diopside, serpentine, talc, and wollastonite. The entire series has been intruded by granites, pegmatite, and aplite dikes. In part, this folded and tilted series is overlain by Cambrian and Ordovician strata where erosion has failed to remove it.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Peat bogs in Gonzales County, with notes on other bogs

The production of peat as a general soil conditioner has recently become a potentially valuable small industry for Texas and surely a new one. The credit for realizing the possibilities and need of peat in Texas perhaps should go to Messrs. Joiner, B. P. Atkinson, and Sanquinet, who began production of peat on a small scale near Lexington, Lee County, Texas, in 1940. Since the year of first production, Mr. Atkinson has discovered many hundreds of acres of peat heretofore unnoticed, and several bogs have been leased for commercial production. Like other young industries that have made an attempt to begin operations in Texas on some newly discovered resource, peat is likely to meet with the common drawback: the prevalent belief of some landowners that the article is a "gold mine," when actually the chances for loss are even greater than in ordinary types of business. At the best, the peat industry in Texas will find it difficult to overcome certain production and marketing bottlenecks for a long time to come. Therefore, every advantage should be afforded the producers to place before the public a graded product equal to the imported varieties. For an extended treatise and bibliography on peat, see Bureau of Economic Geology Mineral Resource Circular No. 16, "Peat Deposits in Texas," by F. B. Plummer.Bureau of Economic Geolog

A New Feldspar Deposit in Llano County, Texas

Feldspars represent one of the most abundant groups of minerals and account for approximately 60 percent of the igneous rocks of the earth, according to Clark. All are grouped in a series of related aluminum silicates that contain varying amounts or proportions of potash, soda, and lime. The three principal types are: potash feldspars (microcline and orthoclase); soda feldspar or albite; and soda-lime feldspars (plagioclase). Feldspars as a group are easy to recognize, but individual species such as albite, orthoclase, or microcline are difficult to separate by ordinary field identification. However, when well-developed crystals are found, or crystals have definite twinning, determination is simplified. Some varieties have unusual features that aid in identifying them; a variety of orthoclase called adularia, for example, possesses opalescence and is generally known as moonstone. A variety of microcline known as amazon stone or amazonite is usually some shade of green. The feldspars crystallize in the monoclinic and triclinic systems. Their physical properties are strikingly similar. Specific gravity is from 2.55 to 2.75, and hardness is from 6 to 6.5 in Mohs' scale. The most obvious property of feldspar is its good cleavage with glistening faces. Another common spar type, an intergrowth of feldspar and quartz, is graphic granite or corduroy spar, the latter name being derived from the appearance of cleavages when viewed in a certain manner. A specimen from Badu Hill is shown in this report (fig. 3). Although the feldspars are very abundant, the only deposits that are worked to any extent anywhere at the present are the pegmatites or coarsely crystalline dikes where natural segregation of the constituents makes it relatively easy to obtain the feldspar with a minimum of free quartz, mica, tourmaline, garnet, or other iron-bearing substances that act as impurities. Black mica (biotite), garnet, and tourmaline are very undesirable and should be removed.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Evaluation of a Beverage Educational Intervention for Latino Parents of Infants and Children Ages Nine Months to Five Years

Background: The Latino population has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the United States. Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has a positive correlation with increased rates of childhood obesity. Current research shows a deficit in culturally sensitive methods to reduce SSB consumption in the pediatric Latino population. Purpose: The purpose of this project is to empower parents of Latino infants and young children with the knowledge to reduce or eliminate the consumption of SSBs in their child’s diet. Methods: The project was a one group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study design occurring in one pediatric outpatient clinic. The Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model was the framework for an evidence-based beverage educational intervention used to promote change in parental behaviors toward their Latino child’s SSB consumption. The instrument used for data collection was the Beverage Questionnaire for Preschoolers (BEVQ-PS) and the variable measured was the change in SSB intake. Data collection occurred prior to the intervention and one month post-intervention. Results: Fifteen pre-intervention and one post-intervention surveys were completed. Comparison of the pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys of the single subject that completed both showed an increase in water and 100% fruit juice intake frequency, but not amount. According to the pre-intervention surveys, the two most consumed beverages were whole milk, water, 100% fruit juice and flavored milk. Conclusions: Due to the low number of submitted post-intervention surveys, inferences about the effectiveness of the IMB model as a framework for a beverage educational intervention to change parental behaviors toward their Latino child’s SSB consumption cannot be made. Future studies should consider using other methods of post-intervention survey follow-up

The Crushed Quartz Industry of Llano County Texas

The information contained in this circular was gathered by a unit of the WPA State-wide Mineralogical Survey of Texas, a project sponsored by The University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. The purpose of this survey is to assemble information concerning mineral products and to gather other geological data and make them available to the public. With this information in the hands of the public, it is reasonable to suppose that industries of value to the State may be developed. The following report is based on work done in Llano County by Work Project No. 18047.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Bleaching Clay Deposits in Gonzales County, Texas

Bleaching clay investigations in Gonzales County were made for the following reasons: 1. To collect data on the types of deposits and mode of deposition. 2. To direct attention to any new sites discovered. 3. To eliminate seemingly valueless areas. Aid in this work was given by many individuals. Thanks are due to E. H. Sellards, Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, F. B. Plummer, H. B. Stenzel, Glen L. Evans, and Robert Redfield, geologists of the Bureau of Economic Geology, and W. N. McAnulty, State Supervisor of the Statewide Mineralogic Survey. Particular thanks are due to Mr. Thompson, County Agent of Gonzales County, Mr. Windrow, AAA Administrator, and Mr. Fred Jahn, Surveyor of the AAA office. Most of the included maps were made from aerial photographs furnished by the AAA office. Investigation of the Reed ranch site was made by John B. Means, Jr., Assistant Project Supervisor, who was in charge of the Gonzales County project after the writer was transferred to Llano County.Bureau of Economic Geolog

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Higher Education Leaders as Portrayed in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Leadership represents an abstraction of human thought. While functionalist theories propose leader-centric models, contemporary leadership theories embrace a postmodern paradigm acknowledging ontological and epistemological assumptions of qualitative study. This ideology suggests a multi-dimensional model of leadership that reflects the complexity and fluidity of leadership in practice. Emergent theories explore the social construction of leadership, rather than an individual leader’s traits or behaviors. Our collective understanding of leadership is manifest in the (re)creation of leadership as exemplified in social discourse such as newspaper reporting. The purpose of the study is to reveal socially accepted archetypes assigned to higher education leaders, as well as discursive constructs that perpetuate gender bias. I examined the use of archetypes, or familiar narrative characters, in portrayals of postsecondary leaders in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and whether these portrayals are gendered. Using critical discourse analysis, I explored the application of the hero archetype to higher education leaders, as well as twelve additional archetypes within five archetype clusters (Campbell, 1949, 2004; Faber & Mayer, 2009). Further, I critically examined if the archetype portrayals identified in the Chronicle were gendered as defined by Role Congruity Theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Findings indicate that the Chronicle uses the hero archetype to describe higher education leaders; however, the motif adapts to the postsecondary setting by emphasizing the hero’s journey as academic, altruism within a shared governance system, and intellectual work rather than physical work. Additional archetype themes, predominantly the outlaw, ruler, caregiver, and sage, integrate with the hero narrative in the Chronicle reporting to exemplify the complexity surrounding the social construction of leadership. Though portrayals indicate the role of a higher education leader deviates from the traditional hero narrative in favor of multi-dimensional themes, the association of masculinity with leadership continues. Masculine hegemonies of military leadership, physical force and athletics, references to death or destruction, and overt references to gender cast male leaders positively and women leaders negatively. Analysis of this archetypal data reveals that the social role of leadership is complex and evolving, while gender roles persist and continue to influence the social construction of leadership within higher education