Obtaining Practical Information on the Geology of Texas

Information, like gold, is where you find it. Geological information is no exception, but in Texas such data are often readily at hand. The state has one of the highest concentrations of practicing geologists per capita in the United States; and Texans in general are very conscious of the importance of fossil fuels, earth materials, and land and water resources in the state's economy, history, and quality of life. But where does one turn for specific geological information? Fortunately, there are many sources of information on the geology of Texas, including: 1) State agencies 2) Federal agencies 3) Colleges and universities 4) Geological (and related) societies 5) Museums and nature centers 6) Oil, mining, and consulting companies 7) Public schools 8) Public libraries These organizations can often provide published information, films, lectures, and professional advice to persons requiring particular information as well as those who simply have a sincere interest in the geosciences. Most of the state and federal agencies, colleges and universities, and geological societies that engage in studies of the geology of Texas are listed in the accompanying appendices (A, B, C, and D), along with their addresses, telephone numbers, and summary statements of their areas of involvement or expertise.Bureau of Economic Geolog

An Evaluation of Techniques for Sampling Skin Flora

Three methods of sampling skin bacteria were evaluated to determine whether the large differences observed from adjacent areas of the back were real or due to variability in sampling methods. It was found that in addition to actual differences in the skin flora populations of adjacent areas, there were significant differences in populations obtained by different sampling techniques and significant differences between individuals. Equally high bacterial populations were recovered from skin by the Teflon spatula method and the rayon swab method; however, scrubbing with rayon swabs gave the most consistent results

Innovation in accounting historiography: Where to from here?

The world is facing difficult, uncertain and challenging times, which have consequences for accounting practice, education and research. This new and uncertain environment may lead us to conclude that accounting research should focus on the present and develop answers to be implemented in the future. Does this mean that accounting history must be put aside for the moment? We start from the position that accounting history continues to matter and that accounting history researchers have developed their perspectives and methodological and theoretical approaches considerably since the early 1990s in terms of diverse fields and topics of research. This article aims to explore how accounting history research can expand by seeking innovation in theories, sources, methodologies and writing. It demonstrates that accounting history is not static and researchers can contribute to its further recognition and dissemination. Through the innovative study of the past, researchers may continue to contribute to new and informed ways for the world to be managed and governed

Is Maddy's naturalism a defensible view of mathematics?

The thesis is an examination of Penelope Maddy's book Naturalism in Mathematics and of the defensibility of the arguments she presents in support of her version of naturalism, with emphasis on the philosophical significance of her work. In Part A I first give an overview of the aim of the book and the methods used to achieve this aim. I then set out and appraise the arguments Maddy advances showing how she supports these arguments with her appeals to historical and current scientific and mathematical practice, I discuss and appraise her comments on the work of the authors she cites and give examples of the way in which she presents her case. I examine the extent to which the work of these authors can be seen to give support to Maddy's arguments. I also examine the validity of her appeals to the analogy between naturalism in science and naturalism in mathematics with reference to her descriptions of scientific practice. In Part B I discuss the objections advanced against Maddy's version of naturalism by contemporary critics of her book, with reference to seven authors in particular, considering the similarities and differences of the approach taken by each to Maddy. I show how their objections fall under two specific heads and appraise the persuasiveness of their criticisms. Finaly, I assess the effect of the objections which can be raised against Maddy's naturalism and examine the question of how compelling they are and whether Maddy's naturalism is still a convincing approach to mathematics in the light of these criticisms

Linguistic Characteristics of Health Anxiety from Online Discourse

Health anxiety prevalence is increasing (Tyrer et al., 2019). Health anxiety is a preoccupation or overestimation of the serious physiological symptoms that cause significant distress (Salkovskis & Warwick, 2001). Those with health anxiety may endure significant suffering, intense misery, and for some health anxiety leads to suicide (Tyrer & Tyrer 2018). It is a condition that is often under diagnosed and the average patient may go years prior to appropriate diagnosis (Hedman et al, 2011; Tyrer & Tyrer 2018). The study of language has long history within the field of mental health. Language use can provide information about an individual’s beliefs, social relationships, personality, thinking patterns, and fears (Pennebaker et al., 2015). Additionally, language can be investigated to identify important psychological markers that are indicative of an individual’s inner workings (Choundry et al., 2013). Little is known about the linguistic attributes specific to health anxiety in online discourse. To address the research gap, two studies were conducted to determine the linguistic attributes of individuals with health anxiety. The first study used the Language and Inquiry Word (LIWC) application to evaluate categorical data for online health anxiety communication (Pennebaker et al., 2015). The second study utilized AntConc to identify keywords and collocations associated to identify what words make health anxiety discourse distinct from other forms of online communication (Anthony, 2020). The first study examined the summary, linguistic, and psycholinguistic frequencies of word usage for health anxiety communication. One year of posts and comments were extracted from the subreddit r/HealthAnxiety to create a study corpus. The Corpus of Contemporary American English was used as a reference corpus (COCA; The COCA, 2021). The research questions were: 1. What is the score of summary variables about health anxiety? 2. What is the level of use of linguistic processes in online posts about health anxiety? 3. What is the pattern of use of linguistic processes variables in online posts about health anxiety compared to a reference corpus? 4. What is the level of use of psychological processes in online posts about health anxiety? 5. What is the pattern of use of psychological processes in online posts about health anxiety compared to a reference corpus? Descriptive statistics were reported related to scores and level of use in the study corpus. For the study corpus, summary variables scores indicate that those in the study corpus are high in authenticity, low in emotional tone, low in analytic processes, and low in clout. For linguistic and psychological process variables, log-likelihood ratio (G2) and Bayes Information Criterion (BIC) were used to compare the study and reference corpus. Log-likelihood for all variables understudy exceeded the critical value for significance (G2 = 484579.4 to 276.0733, df = 1, p < .01). Bayes factor (BIC) scores for results were “very strong” (BIC = 465696.04 to 257.09, df = 1). For the second study, a keyword and collocation analysis were completed on the study corpus. Keyness refers to the “aboutness” of a text—that is, what distinguishes a text from other texts (Egbert & Biber, 2019). The study and reference corpus from study one were used for the analysis. Our research questions were: 1. What are the keywords of online posts about health anxiety? 2. What words distinguish general online posts from online posts about health anxiety? 3. What are the most common collocations of the strongest keyword of online posts about health anxiety? 4. What are the most common collocations of the term “health anxiety” in online posts about health anxiety? The log-likelihood scale was used to determine significance with p < .01 for the top 100 keywords in both corpora. All keywords for study corpus exceeded the critical value (6.63) for significance (G2 = 9127.9 to 94.26, df = 1, p < .01). All keywords for the reference corpus exceeded the critical value for significance (G2 = 6901.08 to 295.55, df = 1, p < .01). Hardie’s (2014) log-ratio (LR) was used to determine effect size (LR = 13.381 to 9.1715). The results from the study corpus were used to identify collocates associated with the top 5 keywords and the term “health anxiety.” The mutual information (MI) score was used to measure the strength of association between two words of interest. MI scores above three are considered of linguistic interest (Hunston, 2002). The results for most common collocates measures above and below the threshold of three for linguistic interest (MI = 11.06 to 2.31). The results of both studies indicate a significant difference between health anxiety communication and other web-based discourse. Summary scores suggest that communication is authentic and has a degree of negative emotion. Negative emotion amongst those with health anxiety is consistent with previous research (Marcus et al., 2008; Mor & Winquist, 2002). Those in the health anxiety corpus used high levels of first-person pronouns indicative of increased self-focus similar to other pathologies (Marcus et al., 2008; O’Bryan et al., 2017). Percentage of use of first-person pronoun words corresponded with other anxiety groups in an in-person context reported in previous research (Sonnenschein et al., 2018). Additionally, a linguistic profile emerged. Those with health anxiety present as high in authenticity, low in clout, low in tone, low in analytic thinking, high in first-person pronoun usage, negative emotion and biological terminology. Those with health anxiety were unique in words related to medical conditions or diseases, medication and supplements, medical tests, symptom words, body words, and anxiety words. The findings may inform clinicians regarding the linguistic attributes of those with health anxiety to increase accurate diagnosis and understanding of the experience of those with health anxiety. Counselor-educators should consider integrating discourse analysis in training programs for counselors-in-training to view the experiences of those with health anxiety, especially descriptions of acute episodes which may not be disclosed during clinical sessions. Researchers may use the results as a baseline measurement for future quantitative or qualitative analysis