Archeological Survey Report of FM 536 Improvements Project near Floresville, Wilson County, Texas

The Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) of the University of Texas at San Antonio was contracted by Civil Engineering Consultants, Inc. (CEC) of San Antonio to conduct an archeological survey of the proposed improvements within the right-of-way (ROW) of FM 536 near Floresville, Wilson County, Texas. The archeological work was necessary to address the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Antiquities Code of 1966, as amended. The archeological services were performed on behalf of CEC and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to identify any archeological properties that may be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and that may warrant designation as a State Archeological Landmark. All work was conducted under the terms and conditions of the Programmatic Agreement among the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),TxDOT, the Texas Historical Commission (THC) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Memorandum of Agreement between TxDOT and THC. The entire project area for ROW improvements is located on USGS 7.5’ topographic quadrangles Dewees, TX, Floresville, TX, and Saspamco SE, TX. The proposed improvements consist of widening the roadway within the existing ROW and extending drainage structures along FM 536 from Loop 181 in Floresville, west to its intersection with FM 2579. There should be no impacts outside the existing ROW because no new easements will be acquired. Since we anticipated that the existing ROW has already been heavily impacted from previous construction of FM 536, no reconnaissance survey was performed and the surface and subsurface investigations were limited to the three areas west of Floresville where FM 536 crosses the San Antonio River, Mariana Creek, and an unnamed tributary of Mariana Creek, respectively. The subsurface investigations consisting of backhoe trenching and mechanical auger testing were conducted between October 10 and 14, 2005. A site visit to inspect the project area occurred on October 5, 2005. Ten backhoe trenches and 23 mechanical auger bores were excavated at the three water crossings along FM 536 on each side of the road and on each bank of the drainages. No new archeological sites were documented during the survey, and no cultural material was recovered during the investigations

Early Nursing Interventions and Their Effect on Fatigue in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

Fatigue is the number one side effect that patients experience when they receive chemotherapy. They do not always expect it or know what to do when it effects their entire life. This study described the affect of early nursing interventions on fatigue caused by chemotherapy. This descriptive, two group comparative study used a convenience sample of patients, receiving chemotherapy for the first time, to determine the degree of fatigue they experienced. A tool by Barbara Piper RN (1997) was used to describe the effect of early intervention on fatigue experienced by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Internal consistency of this tool was previously determined to be .97 per Cronbach’s alpha. The fatigue experience of patients was ranked from 0 to 10. A paired t test, independent test, and Person’s r were performed, suggesting no significant difference between the two groups in their perception of chemotherapy-induced fatigue was apparent when a fatigue intervention was introduced to one set of patients

Conflict of Interest: Representating the Insured and the Insurer When Liability Exceeds Coverage - An Ethical Enigma - Hartford Accident & (and) Indemnity Co. v. Foster

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The Development of Critical Thinking Skills in Undergraduate Students

This quantitative study investigated whether alternative instructional approaches to develop critical thinking, exemplified by different general education requirements in two different Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) institutions, impacted the development of critical thinking skills among undergraduate students. This study is framed by Ennis’s classification of general, infused, immersed, and mixed instructional approaches. St. Cloud State University and Winona State University, two MnSCU institutions, share a collective definition of critical thinking and a common goal of developing critical thinking in undergraduate students. St. Cloud State University and Winona State University do, however, differ in approaches to fulfilling the goal area of critical thinking. This study followed a stratified random sampling of non-transfer, third-year students at each institution. Participants completed the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z which measures the development of critical thinking in the areas of deduction, meaning and fallacies, observation and credibility of sources, induction (hypothesis testing), induction (planning experiments), definition and assumption identification, and assumption identification. The overall results of this study indicate students who did not complete a critical thinking course obtained a higher mean score on the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z than students who did complete a critical thinking course; however, the results of this study indicate the difference was not statistically significant

Professional Development, Writer\u27s Workshop and Identity: A Case Study of Women Elementary School Teachers Using Writing as Resistance

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to uncover the ways that women elementary school teachers negotiate their identities within the context of writer’s workshop by exploring issues of gender, literacy, and identity. The two central participants were women elementary school teachers who were involved at their Professional Development School with university partnership and were learning how to implement a writer’s workshop instructional model. This study considers how the participants’ involvement in professional development with a university faculty member shaped their identities as women and professionals. The theoretical framework is critical theory and identity theory in which literacy and identity are deeply connected (Moje & Luke, 2009). Furthermore, this study is situated in the literature exploring teachers’ roles and identities historically in order to position them today (Carter, 2002; Hoffman, 2003; Biklen, 1995). The questions this study will explore include: (a) How have the participants’ identities been affected by their involvement in the Corey Richardson Writing Collaborative? (b) How does gender mediate their professional identities? This case study used in depth interviews, document analysis, and observations to generate detailed data. Themes that were prominent in the data were gender and teaching, dealing with mandates, issues of expertise, caring, and writing as resistance. The conclusions of this study reveal that the within the context of caring professional development, teachers were able to take up writer’s workshop as a means of resisting a system that was often frustrating and oppressive. They negotiated their gendered roles as teachers in complex ways and used literacy as a way to reclaim their own power