TAMU-CC Repository

The Texas A&M University‐Corpus Christi (TAMU‐CC) repository is an open online site for storing and sharing digital content created or owned by the TAMU‐CC community. Content includes published and unpublished research and scholarship as well as archival materials. The service is managed by the Mary and Jeff Bell Library in cooperation with the Texas Digital Library. Learn more

 

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Developing a bioassessment framework to inform tidal stream management along a hydrologically variable coast
(Ecological Indicators, 2024-03-02) Alexis J. Neffinger; Natasha J. Breaux; Abraham D. Margo; Terence A. Palmer; Stacy N. Trackenberg; Jennifer Beseres Pollack
Tidal streams are spatiotemporally varying areas that encompass tidally influenced limnetic and oligohaline zones within estuaries. These areas are important for many biogeochemical processes and for the life cycles of many fishery species. However, tidal streams are also susceptible to impairment from coastal development and watershed-derived runoff, which potentially affects faunal assemblages within the ecosystem. This study developed indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) for nekton and benthic macroinfauna in tidal streams along the southern Texas coast. Fifteen tidal stream sites with mean salinities ranging from 0.4 to 11.9 were classified as degraded if their surrounding land use was > 20 % urban or agricultural, watershed population density was > 50 km−2, and nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations exceeded specific screening limits. Otherwise, sites were classified as reference. Nekton and benthic macroinfauna communities were then sampled at these fifteen stream sites in 2020 and 2021. Historical metrics and metrics derived from multivariate analyses were considered for inclusion in the IBIs, and were assessed for collinearity, redundancy, suitability for score assignment, and agreement with historical literature. Nine univariate nektonic metrics (including total abundance, number of invertebrate taxa, and the percent abundance of five species, one family, and one functional group) and six benthic macroinfauna metrics (including Shannon’s diversity, total abundance and biomass, and the percent abundance of two taxa and one functional group) were incorporated into separate nektonic and benthic IBIs. Mean IBI scores of reference sites were greater than degraded sites by 42 % for nekton and 30 % for benthic macroinfauna. Seven out of eight reference sites had greater mean nekton IBI scores than the mean scores of all seven degraded sites, while four of eight reference sites had greater benthic IBI scores than all degraded sites. However, overlap in the ranges of scores calculated for degraded and reference sites occurred, which is likely caused by spatiotemporal variability, including stream size variation and the changing climatic and biogeographical gradient along the southern Texas coast. The IBIs developed in this study represent an important preliminary step in bioassessment development for Texas tidal streams, and will help to provide a useful tool for coastal environmental management.
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Spatiotemporal gait variability in children aged 2 to 10 decreases throughout pre-adolescence
(2023-12-03) Applequist, Bryon C.; Motz, Zachary L.; Kyvelidou, Anastasia
Background: Children’s gait is traditionally understood to mature as young as three years old through pre-adolescence. Studies looking at gait biomechanics suggest that gait matures around three years old, while studies investigating gait variability propose a much later maturation. The studies that have examined children’s gait variability did so while the children walked around a track or down hallways that created a discontinuous gait, potentially affecting the measures of variability and the efficacy of the results. Purpose: Therefore, the purpose of our study was to investigate the development of gait dynamics and gait variability in children in a more continuous fashion, in this case, by walking on a treadmill. Methods: To accomplish this, we included four age groups of children, ranging 2–10 years old, walking on a treadmill for at least three minutes while stride time and stride length were collected. Stride time and stride length’s variability was then analyzed using linear (mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation) and nonlinear (sample entropy, detrended fluctuation analysis) measures across the varying ages of our participants. Results: Interestingly, both the linear and nonlinear variabilities of the stride time and stride length measures decreased as the groups of children got older. Specifically, CV ST (2–3 (9.3 ± 4%), 8–10 (3.6 ± 0.7%), p < 0.05) and CV SL (2–3 (11.4 ± 3%), 8–10 (4.6 ± 1%), p < 0.05) were our strongest linear measures, and DFA α ST (2–3 (0.97 ± 0.12), 8–10 (0.82 ± 0.10), p < 0.05) and DFA α SL (2–3 (0.91 ± 0.04), 8–10 (0.81 ± 0.03), p < 0.05) were our strongest nonlinear measures, particularly between the youngest and oldest groups. This trend of variability decreasing with age suggests that as children’s gait matures, their gait becomes more stable and reliable. Significance: Our study rejects the notion that children’s gait is mature by the age of three, as some would suggest. By analyzing the variability of stride time and stride length, we can see that even later into childhood, children’s gait continues to change and evolve.
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Lower-Dimensional model of the flow and transport processes in thin domains by numerical averaging technique
(2023-12-25) Vasilyeva, Maria; Mbroh, Nana Adjoah; Mehrubeoglu, Mehrube
In this work, we present a lower-dimensional model for flow and transport problems in thin domains with rough walls. The full-order model is given for a fully resolved geometry, wherein we consider Stokes flow and a time-dependent diffusion–convection equation with inlet and outlet boundary conditions and zero-flux boundary conditions for both the flow and transport problems on domain walls. Generally, discretizations of a full-order model by classical numerical schemes result in very large discrete problems, which are computationally expensive given that sufficiently fine grids are needed for the approximation. To construct a computationally efficient numerical method, we propose a model-order-reduction numerical technique to reduce the full-order model to a lower-dimensional model. The construction of the lower-dimensional model for the flow and the transport problem is based on the finite volume method and the concept of numerical averaging. Numerical results are presented for three test geometries with varying roughness of walls and thickness of the two-dimensional domain to show the accuracy and applicability of the proposed scheme. In our numerical simulations, we use solutions obtained from the finite element method on a fine grid that can resolve the complex geometry at the grid level as the reference solution to the problem.
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Improving adolescent psychosocial assessment through standardized patient simulation: An interdisciplinary quality improvement initiative
(2024-02-29) Monahan, Laura; Eaves, Colleen L.; Watson, Joshua C.; Friese, Jordi; McKenna, Lisa; Estrada-Ibarra, Erika
Adolescent suicide and mental illness have increased at alarming rates. Healthcare professionals report a lack of skill and confidence in obtaining adolescent histories and managing confidential care due to limited training in residency. Nursing professional development practitioners face challenges of adequately preparing interdisciplinary healthcare providers to assess, identify, and intervene at all points of contact with adolescents. To increase the confidence in clinical communication skills and clinical competency, and to increase the number of social work referrals related to modifiable risk factors for adolescent patients, a Texas pediatric tertiary care center utilized standardized patient (SP) methodology to supplement traditional clinical experiences with communication-focused education based on the Home, Education, Eating, Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicidality, and Safety (HEEADSSS) interviewing. This quality improvement (QI) pilot demonstrated the benefits of utilizing standardized patient methodology in communication-focused education based on the HEEADSSS interviewing. Following the SP simulations, confidence in clinical communication skills increased by 13%, clinical competency in performing comprehensive psychosocial interviews increased by 11%, use of HEEADSSS increased by 64%, and social work referrals increased by 89%. This interdisciplinary SP interviewing simulation pilot was beneficial in improving the 36 physician and nursing residents’ ability to conduct psychosocial assessments for risk factors of suicidality among adolescents.