Monitoring Hypoxia Conditions in Corpus Christi Bay – 2005

Hypoxia occurs predominantly in the southeastern region of Corpus Christi Bay in summer. During the summer of 2005, a moderate number of hypoxia events were found in spatial surveys in comparison to previous years. Disturbance by hypoxia did not significantly change over the nine year period sampled. Additional long-term sampling is needed to determine if disturbance caused by hypoxia is significantly changing over time in Corpus Christi Bay or if anthropogenic changes, such as the dredging of Packery Channel and brine discharge into Oso Bay will have an effect on the occurrence of hypoxic events.Coastal Bend Bay and Estuaries Program contract number 0528Marine Scienc

Matagorda Bay and Nearby Coastal Waters Dissolved Oxygen and pH TMDL Assessment Report

This project provides technical support to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for the development of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). The TCEQ will lead an effort to assess the causes and sources of the following water quality problems identified in the 2002 Texas Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List for Matagorda Bay/Powderhorn Lake (Segment 2451), which only partially supports the aquatic life use due to exceedence of the dissolved oxygen (DO) standard on the east half of the main bay; Tres Palacios/Turtle Bay (Segment 2452),which only partially supports the aquatic life use due to exceedance of the dissolved oxygen standard in the Palacios area assessment unit and Carancahua Bay (Segment 2456); which only partially supports the general use due to high pH in 9.2 square miles at the north end of the bay; and Carancahua Creek and Conn Brown Harbor (Segment 2483A), which does not support the aquatic life use in the entire harbor due to depressed dissolved oxygen. The goals of the current project were to develop a Quality Assurance Project Plan, to develop and implement a monitoring program to assess the DO conditions in Matagorda Bay, Tres Palacios Bay, and Conn Brown Harbor and the pH conditions in Carancahua Bay, and to assess the data collected from the monitoring plan and determine the cause of impairments that result in exceedence of the water quality criteria.Project Title: Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) AssessmentFinal Report Submitted To: Texas Commission On Environmental QualityUmbrella Contract No. 582-1-30479 (UTMSI) Total Maximum Daily Load Research Support Work Order No. 582-1-30479-07Marine Scienc

Organic conversion strategies for stockless farming systems

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. The identification of appropriate stockless organic conversion strategies will help farmers and growers in their decision to convert to organic production. The current practice of a two-year red clover/ryegrass ley conversion relies on subsidies to be economically viable. This standard conversion and six alternatives were tested on a sandy loam soil entering organic conversion. A test crop of winter wheat will be grown across the entire experimental area in the first fully organic year (2001/2002). Strategies containing a legume ley phase returned the greatest amount of nitrogen to the soil. At the end of the second year, pre-cultivation, there were no differences in soil mineral nitrogen between strategies. Gross margins were greater from those strategies with cash cropping than those without, in spite of the generally depressed yields. Preliminary analysis suggests that growing red clover for seed in year 1 followed by a red clover ley in year 2 could be the most profitable option

Working with communities to develop resilience in end of life and bereavement care : Hospices, schools and health promoting palliative care

This paper discusses research undertaken to explore and develop practice between a hospice and two primary schools. Action research was used to increase understanding about current practice in, and with, schools and to explore, implement and evaluate models of practice. Seven practice innovations were identified that are in various stages of being piloted. These innovations can be understood as health promoting palliative care activities, as defined by Kellehear (2005), due to the process in which they were designed and their focus on developing the capacity of communities to respond to death, dying and bereavement. They demonstrate the diverse role that hospices, can play in developing how communities experience death, dying and bereavement and propose that a broader lens is employed to understand and facilitate end of life and bereavement services

BARRIERS TO SLEEP IN US ARMY SERVICE MEMBERS: A SCOPING REVIEW

Background: Insufficient sleep contributes to human health and performance deficits with Active Duty US Army soldiers being at highest risk for poor sleep and subsequent sleep disorders. Research in this area continues to grow and has focused on pathology and intervention, often related to deployment, yet it is vital to understand the barriers to sufficient sleep in healthy soldiers (the majority) in the garrison context, where they will spend most of their time. Purpose: Explore the current state of literature regarding barriers to sufficient sleep in healthy US Army active duty service members in the garrison setting. Theoretical Framework. Biopsychosocial Model Methods. A scoping review was selected to explore and map the literature using the Population Context Content (PCC) and PRIMSA-ScR within Arskey and O’Malley’s five stage framework. Results.Twenty-nine articles were included in the final synthesis with the majority being observational research from self-report surveys. Findings support numerous biopsychosocial factors related to sleep including but not limited to functional impairment, injury, overweight/obesity, mood and anxiety, leadership, training environment, work schedule and physical environment. Conclusions: Sleep is a complex interaction of biopsychosocial factors, is vital to understand the lived experience of soldiers and how Army publications are being integrated into the formations to effectively address this issue

Revisiting the one in four: the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the population of England 2000-2014

Mental health problems are often said to affect one in four people in Britain, although with no consistent explanation of what the figure includes. We used three English national population surveys of psychiatric morbidity from 2000, 2007 and 2014 to provide prevalence rates for recent psychiatric problems. We combined disorders progressively to demonstrate the effects of cumulation. Psychosis had a prevalence of around 1%, severe common mental disorders added about 8%, and including less-severe common mental disorders gave a value around one in six. The figure of one in four required the inclusion of various other disorders. These values were strikingly stable over the surveys

Multi-filter spectrophotometry of quasar environments

A many-filter photometric technique for determining redshifts and morphological types, by fitting spectral templates to spectral energy distributions, has good potential for application in surveys. Despite success in studies performed on simulated data, the results have not been fully reliable when applied to real, low signal-to-noise data. We are investigating techniques to improve the fitting process

To make PhDs fit for the 21st century we need to develop evidence based policies

The growth of PhD level education globally and in the UK has changed the nature of what it means to be a PhD holder. However, despite there being more PhDs and more value placed on producing them, there is still a severely limited evidence base for understanding PhD outcomes. Drawing on their recent working paper, Sally Hancock and Paul Wakeling outline key policy issues around PhD education and put forward an agenda for developing an evidence base for making PhDs fit for the 21st century

Student Wellness Needs in Rural Appalachia

The study reported here determined the youth risk behaviors of students in a rural high school. A 44-item questionnaire adapted from the Youth Risk Survey developed at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention was administered. Findings indicate that some issues of national concern were not confirmed in this West Virginia sample. Tobacco and steroid use were not significant issues in this study. The areas of suicide ideation and food choices, however, highlighted areas of concern. Implications for practice are proposed