Linking BMPs to Receiving Water Impact Mitigation in Austin, TX

This report mentions how the water quality of upstream Waller Creek can affect downstream sites.Changes to receiving water bodies following Best Management Practices project (BMP) implementation were evaluated using the Environmental Integrity Index (EII). Data from five wet ponds and one channel restoration project were used. Changes in the six EII sub-indices (water quality, sediment quality, contact recreation, non-contact recreation, habitat quality and aquatic life support) were generally positive except for habitat quality, which declined initially but tended to recover. Water quality through wet pond sites improved by an average of 7%, and the channel erosion site improved water by 18%. Additional data collection is needed to strengthen conclusions.Waller Creek Working Grou

Action Plan Items Related to EII Site Scores - Fiscal Year 2005

The Environmental Integrity Index (EII) was used to identify sites with at least a 13% decrease in environmental health in recent years. City of Austin teams with the potential to reverse the recent degradation in five problem areas, aquatic life, habitat, nutrients plus bacteria, nutrients alone, and litter, through structural and non-structural BMPs were identified. Program areas or teams addressing these areas are the surface water evaluation team, masterplan committee, community education, Austin Clean Water Program, and Keep Austin Beautiful programs. Primary and secondary site lists are provided for each of the teams.Waller Creek Working Grou

Developing hypnotic analogues of clinical delusions : Mirrored-self misidentification

Introduction. Despite current research interest in delusional beliefs, there are no viable models for studying delusions in the laboratory. However, hypnosis offers a technique for creating transient delusions that are resistant to challenge. The aim of this study was to develop an hypnotic analogue of one important delusion, mirrored-self misidentification. Methods. Twelve high hypnotisable participants received an hypnotic suggestion to see either a stranger in the mirror, a mirror as a window, or a mirror as a window with a view to a stranger. Participants' deluded beliefs were challenged, and following hypnosis, Sheehan and McConkey's (1982) Experiential Analysis Technique was used to explore participants' phenomenological experience of the delusion. Results. The majority of participants did not recognise their reflection in the mirror, described the person in the mirror as having different physical characteristics to themselves, and maintained their delusion when challenged. Conclusions. The hypnotic suggestion created a credible, compelling delusion with features strikingly similar to clinical cases of mirrored-self misidentification. Our findings suggest that Factor 2 within Langdon and Coltheart's (2000) two-factor framework may involve a lowering of the criteria used to accept or reject delusional hypotheses.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Town Lake Report, Volumes I and II

This report makes brief references to sediment and other trends seen in Waller Creek.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Town Lake’s importance as a natural resource is growing in tandem with Austin’s rapid population. The lake is a source of drinking water for the City, and its greenbelt and open waters are widely used for recreation and as a focal-point for public events. In 1992, under the Clean Lakes program, a comprehensive report entitled the “Town Lake Study” (COA 1992a; COA 1992b; COA 1992c) was prepared. It examined the condition of the lake (Volume I), water quality control alternatives (Volume II) and a feasibility study (Volume III). This report updates the diagnostic study, Volume I (COA 1992a), including the current status of water quality with data analyzed through the year 2000. It also includes a summary of measures taken to reduce pollution from urban runoff since 1990.Waller Creek Working Grou

Hiding, Hunting, and Habitat: An Environmental Re-Analysis of the Slave Narratives

This thesis conducts an environmental analysis of narratives written or dictated by fugitive American slaves in the early to mid-nineteenth century. It re-examines previously studied information from a different perspective—one that incorporates people’s interaction with their surrounding natural environments, both cultivated and uncultivated—which reveals new information and leads to some new potential conclusions. Specifically, this reanalysis of the slave narratives shows that the rural enslaved population of the antebellum South had an intimate and cooperative relationship with the natural world, one that enabled them to develop critical skills that maximized their chances of successfully escaping slavery permanently. Further, the southern plantation owners had increasingly removed themselves from the land and had a much more remote relationship with the natural world, a factor that made it more difficult for them to control their slave labor and to find fugitives once they had escaped. This analysis, based on the primary source slave narratives and on information previously compiled and analyzed by slavery and environmental historians, shows that such factors as the structure of the southern plantation, the strictures of the institution of slavery itself, and the day-to-day lifestyles of the rural enslaved people, combined to provide slaves with the opportunity to develop skills that would help them successfully escape. Consequently, in addition to clearly revealing how rural field slaves were able to survive in the uncultivated environment after leaving a plantation or farm, this analysis also leads to a reasonable conclusion that more slaves may have escaped slavery and the South prior to the Civil War than is currently generally accepted by historians

The Burden Of Diarrhea: A Survey Of The Caregivers’ Opinions And Perceptions Of Workload In The Intensive Care Unit

In the literature, the prevalence of diarrhea in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been reported to be 3.3-78%. The problem is significant to patients and also increases workload burden for ICU staff. Unfortunately, research on this topic is very limited; we found one single study on the impact that diarrhea has on nursing staff workload. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective chart review to describe the prevalence and impact of diarrhea in our organization. For the purposes of this study, we equated diarrhea with type 7 stools as defined in the Bristol Stool Form Scale. In January of 2018, we developed a bowel management guideline and rolled out the associated protocol in a multifaceted implementation process which included a variety of educational strategies. Toward promoting the use of the tool in practice, we sought to assess staff perceptions of the resources and time needed to manage diarrhea and bowel function with a survey that was administered to ICU staff in a 600 bed, level one trauma center. The purpose of this poster is to describe the findings from a survey to assess perceptions of workload after the implementation of the new bowel management guidelines