Homes In Texas Research Articles

Deep in the heart of Texas

From my position as a Black social studies teacher educator and interdisciplinary historian of education who calls Texas home, I explore in this essay how critical educators might consider what some of Texas’s most recent “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” statutes signify about the effectiveness of critical Black social studies teachers’ work thus far. I underline what Nobel laureate Toni Morrison said about the heightened restriction she faced given her writing: that it can often indicate our work is indeed disrupting the ongoing, systemic project of white domination and antiBlack subordination. Then, I highlight how Black educators of the Jim Crow era navigated political atmospheres comparable to the one in which Texas educators, among others, now find themselves. Looking back at these educators’ subversive practices, which sought to undermine the status quo of white supremacy and antiBlackness, I suggest how their work might guide those engaged in similar projects today.

Health-related quality of life and recovery capital among recovery residents taking medication for opioid use disorder in Texas.

Recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD) includes improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and is supported by recovery capital (RC). Little is known about RC and HRQOL among recovery residents taking medication for OUD. We described HRQOL and RC and identified predictors of HRQOL. Project HOMES is an ongoing longitudinal study implemented in 14 recovery homes in Texas. This is a cross-sectional analysis of data from 358 participants' on HRQOL (five EQ-5D-5L dimensions-mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) and RC (Assessment of Recovery Capital scores) collected from April 2021 to June 2023. Statistical analyses were conducted using T-, Chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests. Most participants were 35 years/older (50.7%), male (58.9%), non-Hispanic White (68.4%), heterosexual (82.8%), and reported HRQOL problems, mainly anxiety/depression (78.4%) and pain/discomfort (55.7%). Participants who were 35 years/older [mean (SD) = 42.6 (7.3)] were more likely to report mobility and pain/discomfort problems than younger participants. Female participants were more likely to report pain/discomfort problems than male participants. Sexual minorities were more likely to report anxiety/depression problems than heterosexual participants. Married participants and those in committed relationships were more likely to report problems conducting self-care than single/never-married participants. Comorbid conditions were associated with mobility, pain/discomfort, and usual activities problems. Most participants reported high social (65.4%), personal (69.0%), and total (65.6%) RC. Low personal RC was associated with mobility (aOR = 0.43, CI = 0.24-0.76), self-care (aOR = 0.13, CI = 0.04-0.41), usual activities (aOR = 0.25, CI = 0.11-0.57), pain/discomfort (aOR = 0.37, CI = 0.20-0.68), and anxiety/depression (aOR = 0.33, CI = 0.15-0.73) problems. Low total RC was associated with problems conducting self-care (aOR = 0.20, CI = 0.07-0.60), usual activities (aOR = 0.43, CI = 0.22-0.83), pain/discomfort problems (aOR = 0.55, CI = 0.34-0.90), and anxiety/depression (aOR = 0.20, CI = 0.10-0.41) problems. Social RC was not associated with HRQOL. Personal and total RC and comorbid conditions predict HRQOL. Although the opioid crisis and the increasing prevalence of comorbidities have been described as epidemics, they are currently being addressed as separate public health issues. Our findings underscore the importance of ensuring residents are provided with interprofessional care to reduce the burden of comorbidities, which can negatively impact their OUD recovery. Their RC should be routinely assessed and enhanced to support their recovery and improve HRQOL.

Shine on, Luz Véliz! by Rebecca Balcárcel

Reviewed by: Shine on, Luz Véliz! by Rebecca Balcárcel Elizabeth Bush Balcárcel, Rebecca Shine on, Luz Véliz! Chronicle, 2022 [276p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781797209678 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781797217697 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-7 A torn ACL sidelines eleven-year-old Luz from her soccer team and isolates her from her coach father as well. She initially interprets his distance as disappointment that his soccer dreams have died with hers, but the real reason soon emerges—a daughter he didn’t know he had from a premarital relationship in Guatemala has lost her mother and is moving to his home in Texas. It’s a strained time for all concerned, but Luz reacts badly when Solana, a beautiful, gracious thirteen-year-old who makes friends easily, inadvertently intrudes upon social and familial territory Luz considers her own. Luz has found a path to move forward post-soccer, setting her sights on involvement in upper-level coding coursework and finding a willing mentor in her retired neighbor across the street. Unfortunately, Solana shares this interest, which first triggers a showdown of sorts between the two hermanas but ultimately puts them on course to a genuine sisterly relationship. Each girl’s motivation and emotional journey is fully credible, and the emerging backstory of Solana’s flight from Guatemala is wrenching. Balcárcel releases a confetti storm of feel-good subplot resolutions, but they do not detract from the core dynamic of a good family becoming even better as it widens its embrace. An author’s note on the inspiration for Solana’s story is included. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

A Provider-Facing eHealth Tool for Transitioning Youth With Special Health Care Needs From Pediatric to Adult Care: Mixed Methods, User-Engaged Usability Study.

BackgroundThere is a need for medical education on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs. The Texas Transition Toolkit (the tool) supports providers through a one-stop shop for researching literature on care transitions, a catalog of care transition tools, and guides for developing care transition programs.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the functionality and usability of the tool with providers working with transition-aged children and youth with special health care needs (representative users).MethodsThe tool was evaluated using a triangulated mixed methods case study approach consisting of a concurrent think-aloud phase, a satisfaction survey, and a survey of problem relevance and task performance to operationalize and capture functionality and usability. Our mixed methods deep dive into the functionality and usability of the tool focused on 10 representative users from one medical home in Texas and 5 website design experts.ResultsRepresentative users found the tool to be highly relevant, as demonstrated by the satisfaction score for relevance (138/150, 92%). According to the users, the tool provided comprehensive information related to health care transitions for youth with special health care needs, with a satisfaction score of 87.3% (131/150) for comprehensive. Overall satisfaction with the tool was high at 81.92% (1065/1300) with a cutoff score of 73.33% (953.4/1300) indicating high satisfaction, but users reported relatively lower satisfaction with search (114/150, 76%) and navigation (ease of use: 114/150, 76%; hyperlinks: 163/200, 81.5%; structure: 159/200, 79.5%). They experienced search- and navigation-related problems (total problems detected: 21/31, 68%) and, based on quality checks, had a relatively low task completion rate for tasks involving finding information (60/80, 75%), which required searching and navigation. The problems identified around search and navigation functionality were relevant (relevance scores ranging from 14.5 to 22, with a cutoff score of 11.7 indicating relevance).ConclusionsThe tool may help bridge the gaps in training on health care transitions for youth with special health care needs in US medical education. The tool can be used to create structured protocols to help improve provider knowledge, collaboration across pediatric and adult care providers, and the continuity of care as youth with special health care needs transition from pediatric to adult care. The results provided a road map for optimizing the tool and highlighted the importance of evaluating eHealth technologies with representative users.

Identifying and treating sepsis in older people: a quality improvement project in hospitals and nursing homes in Texas.

Sepsis, if not identified and treated early, can be fatal, particularly in older people. A lack of knowledge and understanding of sepsis among nursing staff can result in a missed or delayed diagnosis, leading to delayed treatment and potentially to patient death. A quality improvement project was conducted in nine hospitals and 200 nursing homes in the Lower and Upper Rio Grande Valley regions of Texas, in the US, to improve the identification and treatment of sepsis by nursing staff. Interventions included educational webinars for hospital staff and train-the-trainer sessions for nurse leaders in nursing homes. All participating hospitals had implemented a sepsis screening tool and sepsis care bundles by the end of the project, and an overall decline in sepsis mortality rates was seen in these hospitals. Among participating nurse leaders in nursing homes, a dramatic improvement in sepsis knowledge was seen. The outcomes of the project support the use of comprehensive nursing staff education on sepsis identification and treatment. Sepsis education needs to be ongoing to maintain optimal levels of knowledge among nursing staff.

Home Games by Benjamin Markovits

Reviewed by: Home Games by Benjamin Markovits Elizabeth Bush Markovits, Benjamin Home Games. Harper, 2020 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-274230-8 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-274231-5 $7.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 Ben Michaels' workaholic father has been offered a job in London, and his mother refuses to go, leaving the twelve-year-old feeling powerless amid the adult decision making. Mom moves him from New York to her mother's home in Texas, where he first tries to convince himself that his parents will eventually reconnect, or at the very least he will have some options if or when they divorce. Instead, the year ends up an extended, friendless limbo: Dad seldom calls and cancels plans to visit; Mom takes a job in his middle school and dates his social studies teacher; Granma spars with Mom; and the girl next door, who looks like true friend material, turns out to be uniformly nice to everybody rather than Ben in particular. Probably worst of all, however, is Ben's realization that part of his misery is of his own making—he has been drifting along with his parents' and his only buddy's plans all his life, and now he has to strategize to make his voice and wishes heard. Markovits' novel never devolves into the pity party this plot outline suggests; Ben's growing self-awareness emerges amid spot on and often quite funny observations of parental bumbling and middle-grade folkways. His final decision on where to make a stable home may throw many readers for a loop, but readers will appreciate his growing realism about the complicated dynamics of families. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

An East Texas Family's Civil War: The Letters of Nancy and William Whatley, May–December 1862 ed. by John T. Whatley

Reviewed by: An East Texas Family's Civil War: The Letters of Nancy and William Whatley, May–December 1862 ed. by John T. Whatley William C. Yancey An East Texas Family's Civil War: The Letters of Nancy and William Whatley, May–December 1862. Edited by John T. Whatley. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2019. Pp. 192. Maps, sources, index.) For many years, historians of the Civil War tended to focus on leaders, battles, and diplomacy. Over the past thirty years, emphasis has shifted to the home front, the role of women, and wartime slavery, among other topics. An East Texas Family's Civil War is an excellent depiction of the Texas home front in microcosm. This book is an edited collection of letters between William Whatley, a Rusk County farmer and soldier in the Seventeenth Texas Cavalry, and his wife, Nancy, over a span of seven months in 1862. The letters have been edited for publication by John T. Whatley, William and Nancy's great-grandson. A salient feature of the Whatley letters is the difficulty Nancy encountered in running the farm, managing thirteen slaves, and raising their four children by herself. Although William had arranged for their neighbor, a Mr. Martin, to help his wife with the farming and the slaves, he proved to be inadequate to the task, spending much of his time evading conscription and being surly to Nancy. Most of her letters contain requests for advice on such topics as when to plant, what to plant, and how to manage the livestock. Nancy also had to deal with a crushing sense of isolation. [End Page 367] Because her farm was in a rural area of Rusk County and her responsibilities kept her busy, she was seldom able to interact with other women of her social class. Occasionally she happily describes revival meetings and visits from her brothers, sisters, and father. The Whatley letters are also valuable for providing information about the institution of slavery. As the war progressed and it became clear that William would not return home soon, the Whatleys' long-held assumptions about their slaves were challenged. William apparently expected his slaves to be docile, obedient, and content; instead, in his absence, they quickly began to assert their own individuality. Nancy's letters to William were often filled with complaints about their intransigence. She singled out a particular man, Marshall, for talking back to Mr. Martin. As it became clear that the slaves had their own thoughts and did not consider themselves members of the Whatley family, William advised Nancy to sell or hire them out and move closer to her father. Because an influx of slaves brought to Texas from Arkansas and Louisiana by owners threatened by Federal armies had depressed slave prices, Nancy was unable to do either. In collecting and publishing the letters of his great-grandparents, John T. Whatley has performed a significant service for historians and students of Texas history. An East Texas Family's Civil War is important for shedding light on the motivation of Confederate soldiers, life for women on the home front, and the institution of slavery in its death throes. This book should be consulted by historians for years to come. William C. Yancey Texas A&M University Kingsville Copyright © 2020 The Texas State Historical Association

Seeking Refuge Under the Mesquite: Nature Imagery in Guadalupe García McCall's Verse Novel

This article takes as its focus Guadalupe García McCall's novel Under the Mesquite. In my analysis of nature and environmental themes, I examine the ways that the protagonist Lupita learns to admire and rely on the landscape found in her South Texas home, especially the rugged mesquite. In seeking out nature and plant life that are native to South Texas, I argue, Lupita discovers her distinctly Chicana/Tejana identity, which is heavily influenced by this acceptance of and appreciation for the Southwest landscape of her birth.

High Private: The Trans-Mississippi Correspondence of Humorist R. R. Gilbert, 1862–1865 ed. by Mary M. Cronin

Reviewed by: High Private: The Trans-Mississippi Correspondence of Humorist R. R. Gilbert, 1862–1865 ed. by Mary M. Cronin Elsa A. Nystrom High Private: The Trans-Mississippi Correspondence of Humorist R. R. Gilbert, 1862–1865. Edited by Mary M. Cronin. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 323. $50.00, ISBN 978-1-62190-445-8.) Rensselaer Reed Gilbert remains a shadowy figure, even in these days of widespread digitization of primary sources. Yet his work fills a useful niche in the Civil War history of the trans-Mississippi West, a theater not fully covered in the historiography. Mary M. Cronin has compiled a selection of Gilbert’s articles, which he published in several southern newspapers between 1862 and 1865, along with his Civil War reminiscences, which he published as [End Page 917] compilations between 1886 and 1894. High Private: The Trans-Mississippi Correspondence of Humorist R. R. Gilbert, 1862–1865 begins with a brief history of Gilbert’s personal life, but details are few (even his birthplace has been open to question). The book has no images of Gilbert or his family, although Cronin does the best she can to flesh out his life with available sources. Gilbert was one of the few New England Yankees who embraced the Confederate cause in the 1860s. He had some medical training as a young man but seemed driven to become a writer of folksy opinion pieces laced with humor. (I suspect that he moved south because there was no scarcity of would-be humorists in New England, and Gilbert hoped that the wealthy but less populous South would provide a fertile ground for his efforts.) Although he did fulfill his dream of becoming a newspaper correspondent, and later started a few newspapers of his own in the South, he never gained the financial success he sought. When the war began, Gilbert was living in Texas, and he left the Union along with his adopted state. Although he never shared his private thoughts in print, Gilbert believed in the Confederate cause strongly enough to enlist in the Texas infantry at the age of forty-one. When he was discharged a few months later for poor health, he was hired by the editor of the Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph to write a series of articles, in which he combined local news with humorous tales of camp life, under the pen name High Private. He was not a war correspondent and had never been near a battlefield. The few months he spent with Company B of the Sixth Texas Volunteer Infantry provided him with a basic knowledge of military life, which he utilized in his humorous articles. He also witnessed and commented on the self-aggrandizement and greed of many in the military. Our knowledge of Gilbert’s beliefs and values comes only from his published material, which raises questions. Did he write what he believed or what he thought people wanted to read? Surely, he burned his bridges with a national reading audience after he supported the Confederacy. Yet Cronin’s Gilbert provides a picture of the Texas home front during the war worth reading. And he rightly foretold the rise of the New South in his later work. Elsa A. Nystrom Kennesaw State University Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

Phthalates and organophosphates in settled dust and HVAC filter dust of U.S. low-income homes: Association with season, building characteristics, and childhood asthma

Phthalates and organophosphates are ubiquitous indoor semi-volatile organic contaminants (SVOCs) that have been widely used as plasticizers and flame retardants in consumer products. Although many studies have assessed their levels in house dust, only a few used dust samples captured by filters of building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. HVAC filters collect particles from large volumes of air over a long period of time (potentially known) and thus provide a spatially and temporally integrated concentration. This study measured concentrations of phthalates and organophosphates in HVAC filter dust and settled floor dust collected from low-income homes in Texas, United States, in both the summer and winter seasons. The most frequently detected compounds were benzyl butyl phthalate (BBzP), di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP), tris (1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP), triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), and tris (1,3-dichloroisopropyl) phosphate (TDCIPP). The median level of TCIPP in settled dust was 3- to 180-times higher than levels reported in other studies of residential homes. Significantly higher concentrations were observed in HVAC filter dust as compared to settled dust for most of the frequently detected compounds in both seasons, except for several phthalates in the winter. SVOC concentrations in settled dust in winter were generally higher than in summer, while different seasonality patterns were found for HVAC filter dust. Settled dust samples from homes with vinyl flooring contained significantly higher levels of BBzP and DEHP as compared to homes with other types of floor material. The concentration of DEHP and TDCIPP in settled dust also significantly associated with the presence of carpet in homes. Cleaning activities to remove dust from furniture actually increased the levels of certain compounds in HVAC filter dust, while frequent vacuuming of carpet helped to decrease the concentrations of some compounds in settled dust. Additionally, the size and age of a given house also correlated with the levels of some pollutants in dust. A statistically significant association between DEHP concentration in HVAC filter dust in summer and the severity of asthma in children was observed. These results suggest that HVAC filter dust represents a useful sampling medium to monitor indoor SVOC concentrations with high sensitivity; in contrast, when using settled dust, in addition to consideration of seasonal influences, it is critical to know the sampling location because the type and level of SVOCs may be related to local materials used there.

Detection of dust mite allergens in homes throughout the US

Dermatophagoides dust mites are known to vary across North America depending on location with factors like elevation and humidity influencing their presence. These studies have included microspopic identification of mites, DNA analysis and allergen protein measurements. In order to develope a current mapping of allergen protein prevalence, we have studied dust from homes in 16 regions around the US for major dust mite allergens. In order to explore variability within a region, multiple homes from the same region were studied. Dust from vacuum cleaner bags from 24 homes was used to make 1:10w/v extracts using a 1% albumin, 0.9%saline phenol extraction fluid. The extracts were filtered using a 0.2micron filter then analysed for species specific Der p/f 1 using direct binding monoclonal ELISAs (ALK, Madrid). Nineteen of the homes had detectable mite allergens ranging from below 1 microgram/gram of dust to more than 20micrograms/gram. 12 of these homes showed D. farinae only, 1 in Southern California showed D. pteronyssinus only, and 6 homes contained both mites. The D. pteronyssinus containing homes were not confined to coastal areas. The homes in Spokane, Reno, Denver, and Sonoma showed no mites. Out of 9 homes in Texas that contained mite allergens,one had no detectable dust mites. This study confirmed widespread presence of dust mite allergens in homes across the US but are low in drier rocky mountain states. Many homes contain both species in New England and Southern regions.

Health IT Adoption in Nursing Homes: The Role of IT Vendors

Applying exploratory qualitative methodologies such as interviews and focus groups, we examine the role of IT vendors in health IT adoption in nursing homes in Texas. We identify three roles pertaining to IT vendors in various adoption stages — information sources and financiers, strategic consultants, and educators in the initiation, implementation, and the institutionalization phases, respectively. Thus, vendors could be a critical factor in the health IT adoption, but nursing home management must critically evaluate not only the services, but also the strategic partnerships offered by the vendors. This is because their business interests may not address nursing homes’ distinctive need, and may prevent integration and institutionalization of health IT. As such, this research has important implications for technology adoption by nursing facilities.

A preliminary investigation of water usage behavior in single-family homes

As regional drought conditions continue deteriorating around the world, residential water use has been brought into the built environment spotlight. Nevertheless, the understanding of water use behavior in residential buildings is still limited. This paper presents data analytics and results from monitoring data of daily water use (DWU) in 50 single-family homes in Texas, USA. The results show the typical frequency distribution curve of the DWU per household and indicate personal income, education level and energy use of appliances all have statistically significant effects on the DWU per capita. Analysis of the water-intensive use demonstrates the residents tend to use more water in post-vacation days. These results help generate awareness of water use behavior in homes. Ultimately, this research could support policy makers to establish a water use baseline and inform water conservation programs.

Recovery Housing: Evolving Models to Address Resident Needs

ABSTRACTRecovery housing is a service delivery modality that simultaneously addresses the social support and housing needs of those in recovery from substance use disorders. This article describes a group of recovery homes in Texas (N = 10) representing a lesser-studied type of recovery housing, one which explicitly bridges treatment and peer support by providing a variety of recovery support services. All residents meet with a recovery coach, undergo regular drug screening, and have access to intensive outpatient treatment—a program that was developed specifically to support the needs of residents in the homes. Unlike the Oxford HouseTM model and California sober living houses, which are primarily financed through resident fees, these homes are supported through a mix of resident fees as well as private and public insurance. While adhering to some aspects of the social model of recovery, none of these homes would meet criteria to be considered a true social model program, largely because residents have a limited role in the governance of the homes. Residences like the ones in this study are not well-represented in the literature and more research is needed.

Community Health Impacts from Oil and Gas Development in Texas: The Perspective of Sharon Wilson.

Sharon Wilson is a community organizer for the nonprofit organization Earthworks. After leaving her office job managing data for the oil and gas industry, she started organizing in response to negative impacts from unconventional oil and gas extraction methods near her Texas home and throughout the state. She describes the environmental health impacts of oil and gas development aided by new technologies and regulatory exemptions set forth by the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Production has spread to previously unexplored regions over the last decade, including her property on the Barnett Shale in North Texas, where she has interacted with energy corporations and observed the intensification of residents' health issues. I structured the questions in this interview to highlight her unique perspective on organizing in relation to current regulatory loopholes, health impacts of oil and gas development, and the experiences individuals have had with representatives from the industry.

Unsustainable Home Telehealth: A Texas Qualitative Study.

Telehealth has emerged as an innovative approach to aid older individuals in managing chronic diseases in their homes and avoid hospitalizations and institutionalization. However, the sustainability of home telehealth programs remains a major challenge. This qualitative study explored the reasons for the initial adoption and the eventual decline of a decade-long home telehealth program at a Texas home health agency (HHA). Barriers to and facilitators for sustaining home telehealth programs were also explored. Semistructured interviews of 13 HHA nursing staff and administrators, 1 physician, and 9 patients aged >55 years and their informal caregivers who used telehealth were conducted in summer 2013. Interview transcripts were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Data analysis generated 5 themes representing the decline of the Texas home telehealth program: its impact on patient-centered outcomes, its cost-effectiveness, patient-clinician and interprofessional communication, technology usability, and home health management culture. Lack of significant impact on patient outcomes, in addition to financial, technical, management, and communication-related challenges, adversely affected the sustainability of this home telehealth program. A home telehealth program that attains patient-centered outcomes, improves cost-effectiveness of managing chronic diseases, improves quality of communication among patients and clinicians, is user-friendly for older adults, and involves end users in decision making is likely to be sustainable.

Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold to the Silver Screen DeanSmith with MikeCox. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2013.

Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold to the Silver Screen Dean Smith with Mike Cox. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2013.There is an intriguing group of books co-authored by Hollywood stuntmen about the business of making movies. Purporting to dispel myths about the industry by disclosing the inner workings of the Dream Factory, auto/biographies Buster Wiles's My Days with Errol Flynn (1989), Gary Kent's Shadows & Light: Journeys with Outlaw in Revolutionary Hollywood (2009), Hal Needham's Stuntman! (2011), and Vic Armstrong's The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman (2011) offer entertaining and enlightening insights into the production and massmarketing of American popular culture. Released in 2013 by Texas Tech University Press, Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold to the Silver Screen is an important addition to this corpus. Co-authored by Dean Smith and Mike Cox, Cowboy Stuntman relates the fast-paced and unlikely life of Smith, a Texan farm boy turned Olympic Gold Medalist, who became one of Hollywood's leading stuntmen, appearing in ten John Wayne movies and doubling for a long list of actors as diverse as Robert Culp, Michael Landon, Steve Martin, Strother Martin, Robert Redford, and Roy Rogers.As James Garner points out in Cowboy Stuntman's Foreword, Smith's incredible life story reads like a Mark Twain novel (xiii): born and raised in a small town in Texas, Smith lives the American Dream: becoming, in turn, a college track star, a world class athlete winning Olympic gold, a youngster playing professional football, and a talented newcomer breaking into the business of movie making. Containing fourteen chapters which arrange the events of Smith's life in chronological order, Cowboy Stuntman is quintessential^ a Horatio Alger story. Its first four chapters chart Smith's impoverished ranching roots in Texas and his natural athletic abilities that lead him to a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. The next four chapters chronicle the problems that plague many toplevel athletes after their careers on the track have ended. However, Smith, a superior athlete with good looks and engaging self-confidence, proves to be the stuff that Hollywood stuntmen who specialize in making Western movies are made of-an old friend, James Garner introduces him to the industry, and the rest, as they say, is history.The remaining chapters chronicle Smith's successful years in Hollywood and at home in Texas. Containing insider's memories of the professional lives of stars, stunt people, and extras in Hollywood backlots and television studios, these chapters hold intriguing material for movie buffs and scholars interested in the business of American film and television. …

Confronting Trauma and Toxins, Rejecting Closure: Three Recent Investigations of America’s War on Vietnam

Confronting Trauma and Toxins, Rejecting Closure: Three Recent Investigations of America's War on Vietnam AGENT ORANGE: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty. By Edwin A. Martini. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. 2012.MY LAI: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War. By William Thomas Allison. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2012.THE ORIENTAL OBSCENE: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era. By Sylvia Shin Huey Chong. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2012.In June 2013, Vietnam War veteran Sam Axelrad traveled from his Hous- ton, Texas home to Hanoi, Vietnam to find what he and many of his peers call closure.1 Similar trips by former US military personnel have become common over the last three decades because of veterans like Axelrad, who were the first US citizens to visit Vietnam in significant numbers when the socialist republic began promoting tourism in the mid-1980s. Although these journeys still arouse some controversy in the US (especially among those who claim Vietnam holds prisoners of war and refuses to account for America's missing in action, despite no evidence of the former and in contradiction to Vietnam's record of assistance with the latter), they have lost most of their capacity to polarize and they rarely surprise.However, Axelrad's quest for emotional resolution had an unusual physical relic at its center. This was a human arm, the skeletal remains of a limb belong- ing to Nguyen Quang Hung, whom US forces brought to a field hospital in Phu Cat, Vietnam, in 1966. At that time, Nguyen was a twenty-six-year-old soldier in the North Vietnamese Army, close to dying from infection. Axelrad, then a twenty-seven-year-old physician working at the hospital, amputated Nguyen's right arm and helped save his life. After Axelrad finished, medics boiled the severed limb down to bones and reassembled them into a souvenir for the doc- tor. Upon returning to Texas to pursue a career in urology, Axelrad locked the keepsake away and did not handle it again until 2011, when he started planning his reunion with Nguyen.According to an Associated Press story appearing in several publications including USA Today, Nguyen and Axelrad enjoyed their time together after a nearly fifty-year gap. The latter found some closure; the former was as surprised by the return of his arm as he was when US personnel treated him in 1966. Nguyen also said he was proud to have shed blood for my country's reunifica- tion. I consider myself very lucky compared with many of my comrades who were killed or remain unaccounted for. His statement brings gravitas to an article that could have wound up in weird news sections of US newspapers. Despite its headline's awful pun, Mike Ives's report has a serious tone Nguyen underscores with a speech act that does three things unfamiliar to many US readers. He affirms Vietnam's revolution, mourns its human toll, and points to lack of closure on the Vietnamese side.As an illustration of dis/embodied remembering, Humerus Reunion helps introduce this discussion of three recent and important books on the Vietnam War. Like Nguyen, authors Edwin A. Martini, Sylvia Shin Huey Chong, and William Thomas Allison care about the war's impact on Vietnamese bodies and Vietnam, the country. This contrasts with the memory work of too many US citizens, who have learned to recall and resent how the Vietnam War traumatized their country and its soldiers, to the exclusion of Vietnam's people, what they endured, and their continuing struggles. By making space for Nguyen's trauma and the victory he helped achieve, Ives's account suggests different and perhaps better possibilities for remembering. An elderly man who fought for a unified, self-determined Vietnam is present in experience, perspective, and voice. Read- ers should acknowledge what Nguyen says and what was done to his body. Yes, Axelrad upheld his profession's ethics by operating on Nguyen in 1966 and did the right thing by returning his arm bones in 2013. …

The impact of early intervention on the school readiness of children born to teenage mothers

This study examined the effect of participation in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program on the school readiness of children born to teenage mothers versus children born to traditional-age mothers participating in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program. A 45-item survey was collected from the kindergarten teachers of both the children of teenage mothers in the Texas Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program and a matched control group. The survey consisted of five subsections: socioemotional development, approaches to learning, physical development, language development, and general knowledge. Results of independent samples t-tests indicated no statistical difference between the two groups. These results seem to suggest that the curriculum used by the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program, which focuses on supporting parents as their child’s first teacher, helps to mitigate any potential negative effects on being a child of a teenage mother.

Abstract NS7: The Texas Awareness Puppet Experience Leads to Improved Public Awareness of Stroke Symptoms and Response

Background and Purpose: Stroke treatment rates have been hindered by under recognition of stroke symptoms, delayed presentation and lack of utilization of Emergency Medical Services (EMS). The community is the first link in the chain of survival in Brain Attack. With an increasing trend of multi-generational homes in Texas, education of children on stroke symptoms and the importance of calling 9-1-1 is a prime opportunity for increasing community awareness. The Texas Awareness Puppet Experience (TAPE) is a pilot program seeking to increase the permanence of stroke community education through the use of a multisensory puppet experience. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the efficacy of the TAPE program in improving community awareness of stroke across a variety of age groups. Methods: TAPE was guided by Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory in an effort to educate all age groups. Audiences watch a brief eight minute puppet show on stroke awareness that incorporates local EMS response with a paramedic arriving to the scene. The experience concludes with a hands-on activity of puppet-making. A pre-survey and post-survey was used to assess cognitive improvement related to stroke location, symptoms, and activation of EMS. The survey consisted of one demographic question (age) and three stroke questions with graphics. Chi-square was used to assess for statistical significance in stroke location and symptoms while Fisher’s Exact was used for activation of EMS. Results: The post-survey showed statistically significant improvement in all three stroke questions. When comparing the pre-surveys (n=97) with the post-surveys (n=96), the greatest improvement occurred in identification of stroke as occurring in the brain (59.8% pre-survey vs. 91.7% post-survey, p<0.001). The correct identification of stroke symptoms improved from 73.2% to 96.7% (p<0.001) while the need to notify EMS increased from 90.7% to 100% (p=0.003). Conclusions: The Texas Awareness Puppet Experience (TAPE) proved to be a beneficial tool when educating the community on stroke awareness. TAPE is effective in educating all age groups on the location of stroke, symptoms, and the need for immediate activation of EMS.