Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Vertebrates and Paleoenvironments on the Southern High Plains, U.S.A.

Only a few vertebrate faunas are known for the Southern High Plains from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This review focuses on vertebrate local faunas from two major localities on opposite sides of the region but in the same drainage system that provide proxy data for paleoenvironmental reconstructions from ca. 11,600 to 8600 yr BP. Both localities are archaeological sites within deeply stratified, radiocarbon-dated deposits. Four distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas are known for Lubbock Lake covering the period 11,100 to 8600 yr BP. Two distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas come from Blackwater Draw Locality # 1 for the period 11,600 to 10,500 yr BP. All of the local faunas are disharmonious but the extent of disharmony and diversity varies. Faunal elements from the Northern Plains and Southeast are the most notable. The late Pleistocene local faunas indicate mild winters which did not maintain freezing conditions and cool summers with a more effective moisture regime, reduced annual temperature fluctuation, and less seasonality. The beginnings of a warming trend, greater seasonality, and increased annual temperature fluctuation denote the early Holocene. The latest local fauna marks the last of the pluvial-related ones and heralds the end of pluvial conditions beginning around 8500 yr BP. The successive local faunas illustrate the complexity of disharmony occurring in unglaciated regimes during déglaciation of North America.On ne connaît que quelques faunes de vertébrés datant du Pléistocène supérieur et de l'Holocène inférieur dans les plaines du Sud. Le présent article étudie les faunes locales de vertébrés relevées dans deux sites importants, Lubbock Lake et Blackwater Draw Locality # 1, se trouvant aux deux extrémités de la région. Ils font néanmoins partie du même bassin hydrographique et fournissent des données indirectes permettant de reconstituer les paléoenvironnements de 11 600 à 8600 BP environ. Les deux sites se trouvent dans des dépôts fortement stratifiés et datés au radiocarbone. À Lubbock Lake, quatre faunes locales distinctes se sont succédé de 11 100 à 8600 BP; au Blackwater Draw Locality # 1, deux faunes locales se sont succédé de 11600 à 10 500 BP. Les faunes locales comptent toutes des éléments étrangers au milieu, mais dont l'importance varie. Les éléments fauniques des plaines du nord et du sud-est sont les plus remarquables. La nature des faunes locales du Pléistocène supérieur révèle l'existence d'hivers doux sans gel soutenu et d'étés frais et humides, de faibles fluctuations des températures annuelles et des changements saisonniers peu marqués. Celle de l'Holocène inférieur révèle un début de réchauffement, des changements saisonniers plus marqués et une plus grande fluctuation des températures annuelles. Les faunes locales les plus récentes vivaient à une époque pluviale et annoncent, vers 8500 BP, la fin de cette époque. Les faunes locales successives reflètent la complexité du milieu, caractéristique des régimes non glaciaires en Amérique du Nord au cours de la déglaciation.Nur wenige Wirbeltier-Faunas sind in den Hochebenen des Südens aus dem spàten Pleistozàn und dem frùhen Holozàn bekannt. Dieser Artikel studiert die lokalen Wirbeltier-Faunas von zwei Haupt-Fundstel-len, die sich an entgegengesetzten Seiten der Gegend befinden, jedoch zum selben Drainage-System gehôren und indirekte Daten fur die Rekonstruktion der Paleo-Umgebungen fur die Zeit von ungefâhr 11 600 bis 8600 v.u.Z. vermitteln. Beide Fundstellen sind ar-châologische Plàtze, die sich in tief geschichteten, Radiokarbon-datierten AbIa-gerungen befinden. Fur Lubbok-Lake sind vier verschiedene, aufeinander folgende lokale Wirbeltier-Faunas bekannt, in der Zeitspanne von 11 100 bis 8600 Jahren v.u.Z. Zwei verschiedene lokale Wirbeltier-Faunas sind in der Zeit von 11 600 bis 10 500 Jahren v.u.Z. in Blackwater Draw Locality #1 aufeinander-gefolgt. All dièse lokalen Faunas sind dishar-monisch, aber das AusmaB der Disharmonie und Diversitât variiert. Die Fauna-Elemente von den Ebenen des Nordens und Sùdostens sind am bemerkenswertesten. Die lokalen Faunas des spàten Pleistozàn weisen auf milde Winter ohne anhaltenden Frost und kùhle Sommer mit effektiveren Feuchtig-keitsverhàltnissen, reduzierter Jâhrlicher Temperaturschwankung und geringeren Unterschieden zwischen den Jahreszeiten. Das frùhe Holozàn weist eine Tendenz zur Erwârmung, grôssere Jahreszeiten-unterschiede und grôBere Jàhrliche Temper-aturschwankungen auf. Die jùngste lokale Fauna ist die letzte vom Pluvial bestimmte und kùndigt das Ende der Pluvial Zeit an, das ungefâhr 8,500 Jahre v.u.Z. beginnt. Die aufeinander folgenden lokalen Faunas illustrieren die Komplexitât der Disharmonie, die wâhrend der nichtgléizialen Zeiten auftritt, in der Zeit der Enteisung von Nordamerika

Self-Care Activities and Nurse Manager Well-Being

The role of the nurse manager is important in organizations and influences outcomes such as the safety and quality of care provided on a unit, satisfaction, turnover of nursing staff, and overall health of the work environment. Stressors for managing nurses can impair physical and emotional health and lead to poor patient and staff satisfaction, safety, and outcomes. The evidence-based practice project will explore nurse managers\u27 well-being and self-care activities. The theoretical framework of the project is the Relationship-Based Care Model as well as Kotter\u27s change theory. The literature suggests that self-care activities can reduce stress and improve well-being. A group of nurse managers who have accountability for inpatient hospital units will be recruited to participate in the project through public discussion boards and email groups of organizations that support nurse leaders. They will be educated through a self-guided learning module about stress and self-care and then will be asked to participate in self-care activities 3 times weekly for 4 weeks. Following the education, the nurse managers will complete a researcher-crafted posteducational assessment to evaluate whether the education and activities met their needs, whether they learned new information, and the helpfulness of the project. Nurse managers participating in regular self-care are able influence positive social change by role modeling healthy coping skills to nurses providing direct care to patients. Self-care promotes effective stress management and contributes a healthier work environment

Reproduction, exchange relations and food insecurity: maize production and maize markets in Honduras.

Although severe poverty and difficult climatic conditions for crop production created acute food insecurity among many small maize producers in parts of Honduras in the 1980s, this thesis focuses on the widespread phenomenon of chronic and endemic vulnerability found in less critically affected parts of the country. It argues that a major cause of food insecurity among small maize producers in the 1980s lay in the complex nature of social relations of production and exchange for maize. Nevertheless, policy debates and directions in Honduras tended to side-step these complexities. Small maize farmers were vulnerable to food insecurity because of their exchange relations with other farmers, traders and state institutions over land, labour, finance and output. These exchanges combined commoditized, personalized and noncommoditized relations. They also involved inequality and power, reciprocity and assistance, as well as forms of economic coercion.Exchanges of land and labour between commercial and semi-proletarian farmers, as well as loans made by commercial to semi-proletarian farmers, helped to sustain the maize production of both social groups. Although these relations provided some security on an unequal basis for semi-proletarian farmers, indebtedness prevented them from improving their livelihoods from maize. Thus while most commercial farmers interviewed were able to make profits from maize production, semi-proletarian farmers continued in stagnation.Petty commodity maize producers as well as commercial farmers tended to establish relations with state and state-linked institutions for credit, technical assistance, and sometimes for output markets. However, petty commodity producers could also experience difficulties in reproducing maize production. In particular, their incorporation into state-linked projects to increase output and productivity could increase the risk of debt and left many in a position of 'insecure transformation'.Semi-proletarian maize farmers could break the cycle of 'secure stagnation' by organizing collectively to gain land and establish new social relations of production and exchange. However, there were many risks and difficulties for these groups, and struggling groups might still maintain some relations of patronage to survive.A key distinction between maize production and trade was that the latter was driven by profits while the former continued in production even though many farmers had negative net cash incomes. Traders' profits also depended on social differentiation, by wealth and task in trade, as on the differentiation of farmers from whom they purchased maize. Personalized relations also helped to ensure profits from trade.Although maize trade involved many participants and was apparently competitive, local traders (including commercial maize farmers) could establish debt relations with semi-proletarian farmers which put the latter at a disadvantage in output markets, especially with respect to the time of maize sales and hence prices received. Market alternatives for semi-proletarian farmers were relatively restricted compared to commercial farmers and petty commodity producers.The thesis concludes that policies which only consider market variables in maize production and distribution and which propose increasing liberalization and deregulation are unlikely to benefit those who are most at risk among Honduran maize farmers. Unless the complex social relations which maintain either the stagnation of semi-proletarian farmers or the insecure transformation of petty commodity producers are addressed, conditions of reproducing maize production are likely to become more acute and reinforce food insecurity in the countryside

Ecological Systems, Complexity, and Student Achievement: Towards an Alternative Model of Accountability in Education

Within the field of education, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of context in understanding various aspects of education (Phillips & Burbules, 2000), and systems approaches to understanding change have become increasingly common. Yet, the simple linear algorithm implicit in current policy such as the Adequate Yearly Progress provision of No Child Left Behind (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) fails to take into account the complex and dynamic nature of education and represents an inappropriate oversimplification of educational outcomes and their measurement. This article postulates that the ecological systems model of Urie Bronfenbrenner represents a useful theoretical framework for understanding the processes and interactions involved in student achievement, and that the dynamic, non-linear changes within these systems can be effectively understood by applying the mathematical models of complexity theory

River Restoration: Institutions, Boundaries, and Social Ecological Dynamics

This human dimensions research, consisting of three manuscripts, explores the social and ecological dimensions of river restoration through an examination of the restoration trajectories of the Androscoggin, an impaired system, and the Kennebec, a restored system. Manuscript one examines the influence of biophysical and community attributes and institutional rules on policy stakeholders goals and actions within the two watersheds. For manuscripts one and two, we conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants, assembled documents pertaining to restoration actions, and conducted participant observation at stakeholder meetings. We qualitatively analyzed transcripts and documents. Results suggest that policy stakeholders’ understandings of biophysical and community attributes influence watershed goals. Collaborations leverage institutional rules in use differently as a function of restoration state to achieve goals. Within impaired systems, collaborations invest in shifting public perception to build support for longer term restoration actions. Manuscript two examines factors contributing to emergence of boundary management processes associated with addressing river restoration challenges. Our second objective was an examination of the influence of restoration state on four functions of boundary organizations: convening, collaborating, translating, and mediating. Results indicate that the underlying restoration state influences the nature of collaborations at an individual and organization level differently. At an individual level within the impaired watershed, stakeholders valued the role of researchers in lending neutrality. At an institutional level, boundary organizations occupied varying roles, shifting public perception at one end of the restoration spectrum and leveraging restoration gains into community benefits at the other end. Certain functions transcend the state of restoration such as the role of student learning in fostering collaborations. Manuscript three examines the social dimensions of river restoration. Using spatial analysis, we examine spatial-temporal patterns of water classification shifts, and interaction with the creation of amenity infrastructure and landscape patterns along the river corridors. Despite historical differences in patterns of water classification levels, these two systems were comparable in the level amenity infrastructure and in many landscape metrics. The pace of amenity development differed over time and along the rivers, raising questions about the larger role of amenity investment in increasing community awareness of river systems

Adair-Steadman (41FS2) — Survey at a Folsom Site in the Brazos River drainage on the Southern Plains

Excavations led by Texas State Archeologist Curtis Tunnell from 1969-1974 identified Adair-Steadman (41FS2) as a Folsom period tool production workshop primarily aimed at producing Folsom points. The Lubbock Lake Landmark’s regional research program continued the exploration of Adair-Steadman through five annual 1-day surveys from 2015-2019. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone was flown to document the site’s surface using photogrammetry. Dating sediment samples collected in 2013, using the Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) technique, was completed in 2016. Blossoming mesquite trees were treated with alcohol-based herbicides to maintain the natural landscape at Adair-Steadman in the absence of fire. Results from pedestrian survey indicates that the exposure of new lithic objects from erosion has slowed down over the last five years. A new lithic cluster area was identified that could be an indicator of an activity area with a subsurface component. A 3D dense cloud, a high resolution digital elevation model, and a high resolution orthomosiac map was created from the overlapping images captured by the UAV. This information was useful in documenting the current surface at Adair-Steadman and monitoring changes in the future. Results from OSL dating indicated that the clay band (a lamellae layer) identified and sampled in 2013 may provide a reliable stratigraphic marker. The sediments above the lamellae layer were late Holocene in age. In contrast, the sediments below the lamellae layer dated to the middle Holocene

The UCLan Engagement and Service User Support (Comensus) project: Valuing authenticity making space for emergence.

Objective  To develop and evaluate service user, carer and community involvement in health and social care education. Background  Despite the high policy profile of involvement issues, there appear to be no published accounts of schemes that have used a systematic whole-faculty approach to community engagement in health and social care higher education. Focus of this paper  The set up and early development of a faculty-wide community engagement project. Setting and participants  Staff from the faculty of health in one University, local service users and carers and community group project workers and local National Health Service (NHS) and public sector staff. Design  Participatory action research including document review, field notes, questionnaires and interviews. Analysis  Thematic analysis. The emerging themes were tested by seeking disconfirming data, and through verification with stake-holders. Results  Prior to the study, there were examples of community engagement in the participating faculty, but they occurred in specific departments, and scored low on the ‘ladder of involvement’. Some previous attempts at engagement were perceived to have failed, resulting in resistance from staff and the community. Despite this, an advisory group was successfully formed, and project framing and development evolved with all stake-holders over the subsequent year. The four themes identified in this phase were: building accessibility; being ‘proper’ service users/carers;moving from suspicion to trust: mutually respectful partnerships as a basis for sustainable change; and responses to challenge and emergence. Conclusions  Successful and sustainable engagement requires authenticity. Many problems and solutions arising from authentic engagement are emergent, and potentially challenging to organizations

Harbor Lines and the Public Trust Doctrine in Washington Navigable Waters

Since 1971 the Shoreline Management Act (SMA) has been the dominant legal tool for managing the Washington coastal zone. However, use of state-owned beds of navigable fresh and salt waters below low tide or the low-water line is still controlled largely by the harbor line system established in the 1889 state constitution. Almost no attention has been paid to the harbor line system in the legal literature, or to its relationship to the other laws concerned with coastal zone management. This article briefly analyzes the relationship of the harbor line system to the SMA, to the various federal laws concerned with the coastal zone, and to the public trust doctrine, and then describes the origin, development, and operation of the system in Washington

Harbor Lines and the Public Trust Doctrine in Washington Navigable Waters

Since 1971 the Shoreline Management Act (SMA) has been the dominant legal tool for managing the Washington coastal zone. However, use of state-owned beds of navigable fresh and salt waters below low tide or the low-water line is still controlled largely by the harbor line system established in the 1889 state constitution. Almost no attention has been paid to the harbor line system in the legal literature, or to its relationship to the other laws concerned with coastal zone management. This article briefly analyzes the relationship of the harbor line system to the SMA, to the various federal laws concerned with the coastal zone, and to the public trust doctrine, and then describes the origin, development, and operation of the system in Washington

Readiness for Discharge in Parents of Hospitalized Children

Parental preparation for a child\u27s discharge from the hospital sets the stage for successful transitioning to care and recovery at home. In this study of 135 parents of hospitalized children, the quality of discharge teaching, particularly the nurses\u27 skills in “delivery” of parent teaching, was associated with increased parental readiness for discharge, which was associated with less coping difficulty during the first 3 weeks postdischarge. Parental coping difficulty was predictive of greater utilization of posthospitalization health services. These results validate the role of the skilled nurse as a teacher in promoting positive outcomes at discharge and beyond the hospitalization