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Oral history interview: Luke Holler
No full textTranscript file (.pdf) and closed captioning available.Interview with Ruth Holler. Ruth describes her son's love of God, life, and the Marines
Oral history interview: Homer Arthur Vinson, Jr.
No full textEdited and unedited transcript files (.pdf) and edited and unedited video files available with closed captioning.Oral history interview with Kim Renfro about Homer Arthur Vinson, Jr
Oral history interview: Joel Selber
No full textEdited and unedited transcript files (.pdf) and edited and unedited video files available with closed captioning.Oral history interview with Dr. Katherine Selber and son, Will Selber, about husband and father, Joel Selber. They discuss his life, service, and legacy
Identifying Potential Land Cover Misclassifications in the Annual NLCD using Lidar-Derived Vegetation Heights within the Golden-Cheeked Warbler Habitat
No full textAccurate land cover classification is critical for conservation of the endangered Golden-Cheeked Warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia), which depends on both mature oak–juniper forests and structurally complex shrublands in Central Texas. The Annual National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provides categorical classifications based on spectral data, but its reliance on reflectance alone often leads to misclassification of forest and shrub pixels in fragmented landscapes. This study uses lidar-derived vegetation height metrics as a post-classification validation tool to assess NLCD accuracy within five ecologically significant regions of the warbler’s breeding range. Lidar point cloud data were processed to calculate pixel-level mean height, maximum height, and coefficient of variation, which were compared against NLCD forest and shrub classifications using nonparametric statistical tests. Results showed significant structural differences between forest and shrub pixels, with forests exhibiting taller, more uniform canopies and shrublands showing shorter, more variable vegetation profiles. However, threshold-based validation revealed high misclassification rates: up to 68% of forest pixels failed to meet canopy height requirements, while up to 28% of shrub pixels exceeded shrubland thresholds. These findings highlight the limitations of spectral-only classification methods and demonstrate the value of integrating lidar-derived structural metrics into habitat modeling workflows. By quantifying misclassification patterns, this study provides a reproducible framework for improving ecological assessments and refining habitat delineation for species dependent on canopy structure, such as the Golden-Cheeked Warbler.Geography and Environmental Studie
Explicit and Implicit Reasoning for Social Preferences Across Spanish/English Language Groups
No full textLanguage plays an integral role in shaping social preferences and judgements, yet language-based preferences in adults remains largely unexplored. This study examines social preferences in bilingual and monolingual young adults when faced with potential social partners of different language backgrounds. A total of 123 participants (76 monolingual English speakers and 47 bilingual English-Spanish speakers) ages 18-26 years were shown videos of animal puppets conversing in various language pairings including English, Spanish, accented English, and bilingual code-switching. Participants were asked to distribute food tokens, make a friendship choice, and provide justification for their friendship choice. Responses were coded for explicit references to language, implicit references (e.g., vocal qualities), and other nonlinguistic explanations. Results indicated that bilinguals preferred non-monolingual speakers and were more likely to explicitly mention language as a justification for their preference. Monolinguals did not show strong preferences for different speakers or any single justification. The findings suggest that awareness of one's language background shapes social preferences and factors into explicit language biases.Psycholog
Factors Influencing Mussel Abundances across Southwest USA Rivers: A Test of an Underlying Assumption of the More-Individuals Hypothesis
No full textThe More-Individuals Hypothesis (MIH) predicts that productivity regulates organismal abundances, such that more productive systems support a greater number of individuals, and therefore species richness. Previous assessments of the underlying assumption of MIH (i.e., positive relationship between productivity and animal abundances) have yielded mixed results with lack of detectable relationships between productivity and numbers of individuals attributed to several confounding factors including assessments with narrow ranges in productivity or high trophic diversity among tested assemblages. The purpose of this study was to test a mechanistic process to describe the general pattern of greater numbers of freshwater mussels (Unionidae; with similar feeding behaviors) along a large productivity gradient from west to east Texas. I compiled published and unpublished surveys from 2000 to 2024 across nine Texas river drainages, spanning 61 reaches and 744 mussel beds (76,649 individuals, 47 species). Reach-level estimates of productivity were obtained from the National Commodity Crop Productivity Index (i.e., soil fertility). Water quality and hydrology are known factors affecting mussel abundances, therefore, I obtained water quality and hydrological data at the reach level from publicly available data. Estimates of productivity, as a categorical variable and as a continuous variable, were positively related to the number of mussels across Texas drainages. Numbers of mussels generally were not related to water quality, except for total organic carbon (a measure of aquatic productivity) or hydrological variables (e.g., median flow, percent zero flow days). Study results supported the MIH concept and its applicability to aquatic systems. Additionally, study findings contributed to the growing body of knowledge regarding factors influencing population viabilities of freshwater mussels and provided expectations for mussel abundances by reach and drainage, which can be incorporated into a monitoring program (e.g., index of biotic integrity) for assessing health of mussel populations statewide.Biolog
Modeling Ranking Concordance, Dispersion, and Tail Extremes with a Joint Copula Framework
No full textRankings drive consequential decisions in science, sports, medicine, and business. Conventional evaluation methods typically analyze rank concordance, dispersion, and extremeness in isolation, inviting biased inference when these properties co-move. We introduce the Concordance–Dispersion–Extremeness Framework (CDEF), a copula-based audit that treats dependence among these properties as the object of interest. The CDEF automatically detects forced versus non-forced ranking regimes, then screens dispersion mechanics via 2 tests that distinguish independent multinomial structures from without-replacement structures and, for forced dependent data, compares Mallows structures against appropriate baselines. The framework estimates upper-tail agreement between raters by fitting pairwise Gumbel copulas to mid-rank pseudo-observations, summarizing tail co-movement alongside Kendall’s W and mutual information, then reports likelihood-based summaries and decision rules that distinguish genuine from phantom agreement. Applied to pre-season college football rankings, the CDEF reinterprets apparently high concordance by revealing heterogeneity in pairwise tail dependence and dispersion patterns that inflate agreement under univariate analyses. In simulation, traditional Kendall’s W fails to distinguish scenarios, whereas the CDEF clearly separates Phantom from Genuine and Clustered agreement settings, clarifying when agreement stems from shared tail dependence rather than stable consensus. Rather than claiming probabilities from a monolithic trivariate model, the CDEF provides a transparent, regime-aware diagnosis that improves reliability assessment, surfaces bias, and supports sound decisions in settings where rankings carry real stakes.Health Administratio
Oral history interview: Frederick Campbell
No full textEdited and unedited transcript files (.pdf) and edited and unedited video files available with closed captioning.Interview with Gloria Gallagher about her brother, Frederick Campbell. Gloria shares stories about Frederick's life, family, and time in the military
The Psychology Behind Medical Device Sales: A Literature Review and Interview Analysis
No full textThe aim of the present study is to examine the importance of psychological factors that influence affective selling in the medical device sales industry. This environment has proven to be one with high stakes, a long sales cycle, and a need for deeper relationships to generate sales. I want to discover how much of medical device sales is based in psychology and if that differs due to the education of the person you are selling to. Your buyer, such as a doctor or high-level executive, has a large amount of education and or professional experience. By using a literature review and qualitative interview with a senior medical device sales representative, my research explores how emotional intelligence, trust-building and cognitive decision processes shape sales outcomes. Findings from the literature show that successful sales rely on a representative’s ability to recognize buyer emotions, adapt communication strategies, and appeal to both rational value and emotional motivations. The interview analysis supports these themes and highlights the importance of credibility, grit, persistence, and data-driven persuasion in influencing clinicians and hospital stakeholders. The results prove in both the literature review and interview analysis that resilience and long-term relationships within the field is vital to success. My study shows the relevance of psychology in medical device sales. And future research would help to further evaluate sales performance and the evolving healthcare purchasing environment.Health Administratio
Subjective report data for GazeBase and correlation analyses code
No full textThis is software and data for understanding the relationship between eye movement signals and subjective reports. The subjective report data were collected alongside with GazeBase dataset. The material accompanies the manuscript: "Why do we need high-fidelity synthetic eye movement data and how should they look like?", 2025, by C. Stella Qian, Samantha Aziz, Kamrul Hasan, and Oleg V. Komogortsev, currently submitted.This is software and data for the correlation analyses between subjective reports in GazeBase. The material accompanies the manuscript: "Why do we need high-fidelity synthetic eye movement data and how should they look like?", 2025, by C. Stella Qian, Samantha Aziz, Kamrul Hasan, and Oleg V. Komogortsev, currently submitted.Computer Scienc