Additional Archaeological Investigations of the Propised Fulton Mansion Visitor\u27s Center, Fulton Mansion State Historic (41AS79), Rockport, Aransas County, Texas

The Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University-San Marcos conducted additional archaeological investigations for the proposed Fulton Mansion State Historic Site (41AS79) Visitor’s Center, Aransas County, Texas, between October 19 and November 13, 2009 on behalf of the Texas Historical Commission Historic Sites Division. Investigations of the Area of Potential Effect are a continuation of testing investigations begun by Ringstaff in 2007 (Ringstaff 2008). Work was carried out by Carole Leezer as Project Archaeologist, Julian A. Sitters and Sarah Scogin as Archaeological Technicians, and Jon C. Lohse as Principal Investigator under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 5420. Investigations included backhoe trench excavation, test unit excavation, shovel test unit excavation, and monitoring of internet cable installation. Three deposits of faunal remains were encountered during backhoe trench excavations and fully excavated during test unit excavations. Remains consisted primarily of green sea turtle (Cheloniidae). Additional shovel test units were excavated in the area where a proposed irrigation system will be installed. A total of 20 shovel test units were excavated across the front and side lawns of the mansion property to determine whether the modern fill layer identified by Ringstaff (2008) in the footprint of the proposed Visitor’s Center was also present in this location. A fill layer was noted in locations of a previous driveway. No intact cultural deposits or features were encountered during shovel test excavations with the exception of three culturally modified clam shell pieces. Their recovery from the bottom of a shovel test unit at 31 cm below surface suggests a high probability for prehistoric cultural remains in this area below this depth. Archaeological monitoring of an internet cable installation was also conducted. No intact significant cultural features were encountered. All collected cultural materials were prepared for curation; temporarily, at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University-San Marcos, and permanently curated at the Texas Historical Commission

Natural and anthropogenic lead in sediments of the Rotorua lakes, New Zealand

Global atmospheric sources of lead have increased more than 100-fold over the past century as a result of deforestation, coal combustion, ore smelting and leaded petroleum. Lead compounds generally accumulate in depositional areas across the globe where, due to low solubility and relative freedom from microbial degradation, the history of their inputs is preserved. In lakes there is rapid deposition and often little bioturbation of lead, resulting in an excellent depositional history of changes in both natural and anthropogenic sources. The objective of this study was to use sediments from a regionally bounded set of lakes to provide an indication of the rates of environmental inputs of lead whilst taking into account differences of trophic state and lead exposure between lakes. Intact sediment gravity cores were collected from 13 Rotorua lakes in North Island of New Zealand between March 2006 and January 2007. Cores penetrated sediments to a depth of 16–30 cm and contained volcanic tephra from the 1886 AD Tarawera eruption. The upper depth of the Tarawera tephra enabled prescription of a date for the associated depth in the core (120 years). Each core showed a sub-surface peak in lead concentration above the Tarawera tephra which was contemporaneous with the peak use of lead alkyl as a petroleum additive in New Zealand. An 8 m piston core was taken in the largest of the lakes, Lake Rotorua, in March 2007. The lake is antipodal to the pre-industrial sources of atmospheric lead but still shows increasing lead concentrations from <2 up to 3.5 μg g−1 between the Whakatane eruption (5530 ± 60 cal. yr BP) and the Tarawera eruption. Peaks in lead concentration in Lake Rotorua are associated with volcanic tephras, but are small compared with those arising from recent anthropogenic-derived lead deposition. Our results show that diagenetic processes associated with iron, manganese and sulfate oxidation-reduction, and sulfide precipitation, act to smooth distributions of lead from anthropogenic sources in the lake sediments. The extent of this smoothing can be related to changes in sulfate availability and reduction in sulfide driven by differences in trophic status amongst the lakes. Greatest lead mobilisation occurs in mesotrophic lakes during seasonal anoxia as iron and manganese are released to the porewater, allowing upward migration of lead towards the sediment–water interface. This lead mobilisation can only occur if sulfides are not present. The sub-surface peak in lead concentrations in lake sediments ascribed to lead alkyl in petroleum persists despite the diagenetic processes acting to disperse lead within the sediments and into the overlying water

Data Recovery and Analysis at the Texas State University Ticket Kiosk Project, Located at 41HY160, Spring Lake, Hays County, Texas

This report describes the results of data recovery-level archaeological investigations carried out under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 5938 at State Antiquities Landmark 41HY160. The purpose of the project was to offset the impact to cultural deposits at the site stemming from the installation of service utilities for a new restroom facility and ticket kiosk at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, (formerly the River Systems Institute) at Texas State University-San Marcos (TxSt). Sponsored by TxSt, the Center for Archaeological Studies excavated a 1×2 meter unit and monitored construction activities. Resulting cultural materials and other archaeological evidence were analyzed and are discussed in the report

Nutrition, environment and cardiovascular health (NESCAV): protocol of an inter-regional cross-sectional study.

peer reviewedBACKGROUND: Despite the remarkable technological progress in health care and treatment, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of premature death, prolonged hospitalization and disability in most European countries. In the population of the Greater Region (Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, Wallonia in Belgium, and Lorraine in France), the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease is among the highest in Europe, warranting the need for a better understanding of factors contributing to this pattern. In this context, the cross-border "Nutrition, Environment and Cardiovascular Health-NESCAV" project is initiated by an inter-regional multi-disciplinary consortium and supported by the INTERREG IV A program "Greater Region", 2007-2013, to fight synergically and harmoniously against this major public health problem. METHODS/DESIGN: The objectives of the three-year planned project are to assess, in a representative sample of 3000 randomly selected individuals living at the Greater Region, 1) the cardiovascular health and risk profile, 2) the association between the dietary habits and the cardiovascular risk, 3) the association of occupational and environmental pollution markers with the cardiovascular risk, 4) the knowledge, awareness and level of control of cardiovascular risk factors, 5) the potential gaps in the current primary prevention, and finally, to address evidence-based recommendations enabling the development of inter-regional guidance to help policy-makers and health care workers for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. DISCUSSION: The findings will provide tools that may enable the Greater Region's decision-makers and health professionals to implement targeted and cost-effective prevention strategies

Acetabular components in total hip arthroplasty: is there evidence that cementless fixation is better?

BACKGROUND: The use of cementless acetabular components in total hip arthroplasty has gained popularity over the past decade. Most total hip arthroplasties being performed in North America currently use cementless acetabular components. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare the survivorship and revision rate of cemented and cementless acetabular components utilized in total hip arthroplasty. METHODS: A primary literature search in PubMed identified 3488 articles, of which 3407 did not meet the inclusion criteria and were excluded. Only English-language articles on either the survivorship or revision rate of primary total hip arthroplasty at a minimum of ten years of follow-up were included. The present study analyzed forty-five articles reporting the long-term outcome of cementless acetabular components, twenty-nine reporting the outcome of cemented acetabular components, and seven comparing cemented and cementless acetabular components. Meta-analysis (with a random-effects model) was performed on the data from the seven comparative studies, and study-level logistic regression analysis (with a quasibinomial model) was performed on the pooled data on the eighty-one included articles to determine a consensus. The studies were weighted according to the number of total hip arthroplasties performed. RESULTS: The meta-analysis did not reveal any effect of the type of acetabular component fixation on either survivorship or revision rate. The regression analysis revealed the estimated odds ratio for survivorship of a cemented acetabular component to be 1.60 (95% confidence interval, 1.32 to 2.40; p = 0.002) when adjustments for factors including age, sex, and mean duration of follow-up were made. CONCLUSIONS: The preference for cementless acetabular components on the basis of improved survivorship is not supported by the published evidence. Although concerns regarding aseptic loosening of cemented acetabular components may have led North American surgeons toward the nearly exclusive use of cementless acetabular components, the available literature suggests that the fixation of cemented acetabular components is more reliable than that of cementless components beyond the first postoperative decade

Professional learning conversations: Adaptive expertise for schools. Supplementary digital materials

School leaders face complex challenges, that typically have multiple causes and often persist despite everyone’s best attempts to address them. Addressing complex challenges requires juggling both the big picture, and the specific parts of the challenge. Without a roadmap, this process is fraught and unlikely to succeed in improving outcomes. In order to make a difference, schools need adaptive expertise; a skill which can be learnt through professional conversations and inquiry. In Leading professional conversations, Emeritus Professor Helen Timperley deftly outlines the key enablers for effective professional conversations – relationships, resources, processes, knowledge and culture – which support teachers to be independent learners and result in positive impact on educational, social and emotional outcomes for students. Featuring examples from real conversations between school leaders and educators, and practical templates which can be adapted to suit the contexts of your school, Leading professional conversations is the school leader’s guide to thinking and acting evaluatively, knowledgeably, metacognitively, collaboratively, responsively and systematically, to engage in deep professional learning and genuine improvements in practice. This document contains the supplementary templates and other materials mentioned throughout Leading professional conversations. The resources support chapters in the book and can be printed and used to support your professional conversations, particularly in the planning and analysis phases

Corporate Social Responsibility Indexes: Measure for Measure

This thesis investigates criteria used by research agencies that publish ratings of business organisations in respect of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and the relationship of these criteria to underlying ethical principles. Companies are rated according to CSR criteria. Observation of different rating agencies' results for the same, or similar organisations, shows a significant variation in results. Variations in rating must result either from different criteria being applied or from criteria addressing similar topics being assessed in a different way. Criteria from different rating agencies are found to be comparable. Thus if rating criteria are derived from an ethical view of the responsibilities of business organisations, then inconsistent results may be explained by variations in the ethical basis of corporate social responsibility used by agencies. Subject companies are rated under broad categories such as corporate governance, human rights and the environment. These categories contain specific criteria. My investigation compares the criteria used by major rating agencies and identifies the ethical basis, if any, that can be attributed to each criterion. The study finds that there are clearly identifiable links between a number of criteria used by each rating agency and the ethical theories selected for evaluation. Further, there is sufficient difference between the agencies to characterise each in relation to one or more of the ethical theories selected. There is inconsistency, however, within each agency's basis of principles as well as between agencies, which indicates an unsatisfactory lack of explicit relationship between the general, and reasonably consistent, definition of corporate social responsibility and application of coherent ethical principles. In practical terms around 10% of all investments in the United States, representing 2.3 trillion dollars, are invested in ethical or screened funds that rely on these and similar rating agencies results to determine CSR performance of firms. The large variation in results demonstrated in my thesis suggests that very significant financial decisions are based, at least in part, on inconsistent data. I suggest in my conclusion that if agencies were to consider, justify and clearly state the ethical basis from which their criteria derive, then investment managers and their clients could be more certain that their CSR principles were being upheld