This study characterizes the sediment transport dynamics of the fluvial portion of the DeGrey River delta, a dryland tide/wave-dominated delta along the Pilbara coast of northwestern Australia. The primary focus lies in the discernment of discrete deposits resulting from annual flood events in this ephemeral river, primarily driven by cyclones and tropical depressions during the austral summer.

Methodology combines water discharge data, digital elevation models (DEM), and Sentinel-2 change detection to model flow depth and flooding extent during storm events, linking it to riverbed shear stress and the formation of discrete flood deposits. A time series of DEM datasets, consisting of a 1-m aerial survey (2021) and drone photogrammetry surveys (2022 and 2023) were used to generate differential DEMs to accurately detect yearly morphological changes within the river channel. Field surveys of selected sites indicating presence of flood deposits enabled characterization of grain size, water flow, and structural elements.

Cyclone floods in the region cause propagation of preexisting dunes, unit bars, and compound bars. These events predominantly shape lower-flow-regime structures within medium-grained sand. Unit bars exhibit down-climbing cross-stratified sets, with variations in thickness contingent on their location within the channel ranging from 0.4-1.6 meters. Lower-flow-regime bar and bedform morphology persists and propagates between flows, despite the occurrence of intense flash floods, often generating discharges in excess of 100,000 ML/day. This challenges conventional expectations of channel excavation and the preservation of upper-flow-regime bedforms in the wake of such extreme events.

The Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) is an unconventional Cretaceous play producing crude oil and gas extending from northeast Leon County to the Mexico-American border in Southwest Texas. This Cenomanian -Turonian formation records the drowning of the Texas carbonate shelf and transgression of the Western Interior Seaway (WIS) into North America. Regional depositional patterns were affected by a series of changes in tectonic activity and eustatic sea level. The formation recorded a distinct change in oceanography during the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) between the lower and upper EFS sections. The Boquillas Formation, age equivalent to the EFS, is found west of the producing region in Big Bend State and National Park. Outcrops of the EFS can be found along the Ouachita orogen and in the Big Bend region due to tilting during the Laramide orogeny and intrusive igneous activity. The largest known EFS equivalent outcrops have been found within the state park, however, no data had been collected in these locations. Evaluation of the geochemical properties and redox indicators of the depositional environment is essential to understanding the potential for hydrocarbons. The main method to acquire this data has been through the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF). For this study I have utilized two handheld analyzers, the XRF along with the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) for outcrop and core samples. Using both methods produces a more complete element suite including light elements not offered by XRF alone. Additionally, comparing LIBS data to the widely used XRF analyzer allows me to determine the practical usage of LIBS in petroleum geology.

It is well documented that the major sorbents in soils are organic matter, silicate clays, and metal-oxyhydroxides. In particular, interactions between organic matter and fine-grained minerals, such as aluminum oxides, have been cited as important stabilizers of the humic matter in soils, which has large implications for the storage of anthropogenic carbon and pollutants (i.e., hydrophobic organic acids) in the environment (Keil and Mayer 2014). Utilizing simple organic acids containing functional groups present in humic compounds enhances understanding of metal-hydroxide and organic acid interactions at the mineral-water interface. The energetics of these interactions largely depend on the sorbate, the physico-chemical characteristics of the sorbent, and solution conditions (e.g. pH).
Ongoing work in our lab, using flow-adsorption microcalorimetry (FAMC) to directly and systematically measure energy dynamics of sorption at the oxide-water interface indicated that structural water in the lattices of boehmite and boehmite-bayerite mixed-phased samples increased binding energetics of acetate, propionate and butyrate at pH 5. The presentation will cover energy dynamics data collected for these mono-carboxylates and their respective di-carboxylate counterparts (oxalate, malonate, and succinate) binding onto a series of synthesized boehmites and bayerites. Focus will be placed on resolving effects of carboxylate carbon chain length, the number and acidity of carboxylates, and aluminum oxide surface properties on binding dynamics.

Saltwater Intrusion Along the Texas Gulf Coast: Tracking Wetlands Distribution, Adaptation, and Migration

Abstract

Climate change trends in recent decades have led to sea level rise (SLR) due to increased polar ice melting. As the sea level rises, saltwater concentrations increase inland, compelling wetland species to adapt or migrate. This added stress on wetland species hampers their ability to offer ecosystem services (ES). This study will investigate the impact of saltwater intrusion (SWI) on coastal wetland species along the Texas Gulf Coast. Supervised and unsupervised classification will be the primary methods used to accurately assess the loss, gain, or migration of different groups of wetland species over two decades. Additionally, the potential effect of wetland distribution and species changes on the ES will be investigated by analyzing the spatial extent of storm surge flooding resulting from land-falling hurricanes two decades ago versus the present.

Empathy, defined as "the process of understanding a person's subjective experience by vicariously sharing that experience while maintaining an observant stance" (Zinn, 1993, p. 306) is a skill that can be challenging for many learners in post-graduate medical education. Numerous prior studies have emphasized the importance of empathy among healthcare physicians. They have shown that physician empathy scores are not only inversely correlated with physician burnout but also directly correlated with patient satisfaction (Byrd et al., 2021). Furthermore, research indicates that there exists an inverse correlational relationship between post-graduate years and empathy levels (Wolfshohl et al., 2019).

Acknowledging the significance of empathy as a crucial skill, efforts have been made to impart it to medical professionals using diverse instructional approaches. Batt-Rawden et al. (2013) conducted a systematic review of methods employed in teaching medical students, while Patel et al. (2019) examined empathy and compassion education in medical training. However, the findings from both reviews failed to conclusively identify a single, effective instructional strategy for enhancing empathy scores among graduate medical education learners. Nonetheless, they highlighted the potential for enhancing clinicians' empathy scores through specific educational methods and pinpointed five clinical behaviors as particularly influential on individual empathy scores. Moreover, they suggested that activities should adopt a "relationship-centered" approach (Batt-Rawden et al., 2013, p. 1175). In a separate study, Hojat et al. (2013) outlined a rubric delineating the three roles of a physician and their associated performance elements.

In this prospective multi-center survey study, forty-five (45) EM residents from an ACGME-sponsored three-year Emergency Medicine (EM) residency program will complete three educational sessions using team-based learning instructional strategies on empathy. The sessions will occur monthly across three consecutive months from in the spring and summer of 2024, each lasting for one hour in length during resident didactics. Empathy scores will be obtained from all participants via the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) in a pretest-posttest manner. The pre-test questionnaire will be administered before (pre-test) the educcational sessions and after the residents have completed all of the team-based learning instructional activities (post-test).

While there has been no prior application of team-based learning to enhance empathy scores, Borges et al. (2012) employed a team-based approach to instruct third-year medical students on emotional intelligence. Given that this approach also incorporates similar "relationship-centered" tasks, we posit that team-based learning could serve as a suitable instructional strategy for improving empathy scores.

References:
1. Batt-Rawden, Samantha A. MBChB; Chisolm, Margaret S. MD; Anton, Blair; Flickinger, Tabor E. MD, MPH. Teaching Empathy to Medical Students: An Updated, Systematic Review. Academic Medicine 88(8):p 1171-1177, August 2013. | DOI:10.1097/ACM.0b013e318299f3e3
2. Boisse, A., Porath, C. “Practice Empathy as a Team.” Harvard Business Review, (February 2023): https://hbr.org/2023/02/practice-empathy-as-a-team.
3. Borges, N., Kirkham, K., Deardorff, A. & Moore, J. (2012) Development of emotional intelligence in a team-based learning internal medicine clerkship, Medical Teacher, 34:10, 802-806, DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2012.687121
4. Byrd, J., Knowles, H., Moore, S., Acker, V., Bell, S., Alanis, N., Zhou, Y., d'Etienne, J. P., Kline, J. A., & Wang, H. (2021). Synergistic effects of emergency physician empathy and burnout on patient satisfaction: a prospective observational study. Emergency medicine journal: EMJ, 38(4), 290–296. https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2019-209393
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7. Patel, S., Pelletier-Bui, A., Smith, S., Roberts, M. B., Kilgannon, H., Trzeciak, S., & Roberts, B. W. (2019). Curricula for empathy and compassion training in medical education: A systematic review. PloS one, 14(8), e0221412. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221412
8. Wolfshohl, J. A., Bradley, K., Bell, C., Bell, S., Hodges, C., Knowles, H., Chaudhari, B. R., Kirby, R., Kline, J. A., & Wang, H. (2019). Association Between Empathy and Burnout Among Emergency Medicine Physicians. Journal of clinical medicine research, 11(7), 532–538. https://doi.org/10.14740/jocmr3878
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