The Trinity River passes through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex receiving point and non-point source contaminant loadings. Lepomis spp. were collected at twelve sampling locations in the Trinity River in August 1987 and September 1988 and analyzed for organochlorine pesticides and heavy metals. Results from the study were compared to existing U.S. FDA action and tolerance levels, LC50s, and historical data. Various longitudinal trends and some concentration patterns were observed. Continual study of pesticide and metal body burdens in fish allow testing for trends, and thereby, lead to a better understanding of the distribution of contaminants in the Trinity River.

Surfactants are used in a wide assortment of "down-the-drain" consumer products, yet they are often discharged in wastewater treatment plant effluent into receiving water, potentially causing environmental harm. The objective of this project was to predict surfactant toxic units and in-stream nutrients in the upper Trinity River watershed. Surface and pore water samples were collected in late summer 2005. General chemistries and surfactant toxic units were calculated. GIS models of anthropogenic and natural factors were collected and analyzed according to subwatersheds. Multiple regression analyses using the Maximum R2 improvement method were performed to predict surfactant toxic units and in-stream nutrients using GIS and in-stream values. Both geospatial and in-stream parameters generated multiple regression models for surfactant surface and pore water toxic units, as well as in-stream nutrients, with high R2 values. Thus, GIS and in-stream parameter modeling have the potential to be reliable and inexpensive method of predicting surfactant toxic units and nutrient loading in the upper Trinity River watershed.

Edward C. Fritz was one of the most influential environmentalists in Texas history. Although he took a circuitous route to environmental activism, Fritz evolved into a powerful force fighting on behalf of Texan nature. Participating in substantial actions throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Fritz's contributions to environmental activism resulted in the successful preservation of thousands of acres and multiple wildlife species. Fritz parlayed his legal background into effective activism, beginning his career with a successful lobbying campaign for protection of Harris Hawks. He led the campaign to stop a decades old plan for canalization of the Trinity River. The creation of COST combined Fritz's environmental focus with the concerns of economic conservatives to prevent a billion dollar government funded project that would have significantly altered the river. Fritz then led a cadre who took over efforts to establish a preserve in the Big Thicket national forest. He oversaw the foundation of a protected area far larger than original expectations, capitalizing on the growing awareness of environmental issues in the 1970s. Fritz's interest in the Big Thicket led to a fight against the Forest Service's practice of clearcutting and its effect on Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. Through litigation and legislation, Fritz fostered a grassroots movement aimed at reforming management of the national forests, saw the establishment of the state's first wilderness, and saved the declining population of the woodpeckers. For his tireless approach and lifelong achievements, Fritz was given the title of "Father of Texas Conservation."

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Thesis advisor: Jeremy D. Wilkins / This dissertation draws upon the work of Thomas Aquinas and Bernard J. F. Lonergan in order to put forward an integrated theorem of the imago Trinitatis. The theorem of the imago Trinitatis, in Catholic theology, is a theorem about how human persons imitate and reflect the triune God. In Aquinas and Lonergan, the imago Trinitatis is identified with the intelligent emanations of word and love that occur within the human mind. But, according to Aquinas, the imago Trinitatis can be considered in two respects: first, as a likeness by analogy—that is, an analogical likeness—and, second, as a likeness by conformity between the human and the divine. The first two chapters explain each of these likenesses in Aquinas, and the next two chapters explain each of these likenesses in Lonergan. The final chapter of this dissertation proposes a complementary analogical likeness of the Trinity in humans: an analogical likeness based upon shared intentionality. It further explains how this likeness is related to the analogical likeness based upon intelligent emanation in Aquinas and Lonergan. In doing so, this dissertation defends an integrated conception of the analogical likeness of the Trinity in human beings, as it unites the analogical likeness based upon intelligible emanation occurring in the human mind and the analogical likeness based upon shared intentionality as interpersonal, coordinated activity. The imago Trinitatis, then, is at once personal and interpersonal, and the analogues for the Trinity in humans are both psychological and communal. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Andrew L. Prevot / Thesis advisor: André Brouillette / The philosopher Jean-Luc Marion presents a phenomenological approach to the Trinity. He criticizes traditional trinitarian theology based on metaphysics in that it fails to resolve the intrinsic contradiction between the unicity of the one God and the plurality of the persons of the Trinity. He proposes, rather, 'trinitarian revelation'; in this, Jesus Christ, the par excellence revelation, unveils the Father, while the Holy Spirit guides the beholder to see the icon of the Son from the proper perspective. This anamorphosis model overcomes the limitations of the metaphysical theology of the Trinity; it stresses that the beholder sees the sole visibility of the Son and appreciates the communion of plurality in charity within the mutual relationships of the persons of the Trinity. One of the outstanding points of Marion's phenomenological approach to trinitarian revelation, moreover, is that the viewer is involved in triune God's unveiling. Believers can experience 'trinitarian revelation' through praying personally and participating in the sacraments of the Church. In this conversation of the perspective, they receive the gifts of sacrifice, forgiveness, and communion as the manifestation of the communion of charity among the persons of the Trinity. Paradoxically, as with the communion within the Trinity, these gifts are not directed inwardly to the individual believer, but they are gifts to be given out to others. This is how God reveals himself in Marion's trinitarian mode and how we participate in that revelation of triune God. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: Boyd Taylor Coolman / Richard of St. Victor is known primarily for two arguments from his book On the Trinity. The first is that the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be understood from the logic of love, which tends toward sharing with others. The second is that a divine person (persona) is an “individual existence of a divine nature,” a revision of the definition of personhood given centuries earlier by Boethius. Fewer contemporary theologians are familiar with the third major innovation Richard makes in this work. In his description of love among the trinitarian persons, Richard organizes the three loving divine persons according to three modes of loving: gratuitous love (amor gratuitus) identical with the Father, owed love (amor debitus) identical with the Holy Spirit, and love mixed from both (amor permixtus) identical with the Son. The most striking—because the most apparently problematic—part of this scheme is the nomination of amor debitus, owed love, as a mode of loving proper to the Trinity. Presenting the apparently contradictory combination of owing and loving as a love proper to God as God, the conundra raised by Richard’s use of this phrase were interpreted away by his scholastic readers in a way that buried the potential of his insight for discussions about the nature of love called divine. My dissertation analyzes the meaning of amor debitus to reframe and re-present Richard’s arguments in On the Trinity with Richard’s radical claim about the nature of intra-trinitarian love in clearer view. I argue that the notion of owed love represents a class of experience which is distinct both from the obligation of a command (typically associated with debitum) and from the freedom of an unaffected choice (typically associated with amor). Amor debitus fuses the quality of the command or commanding conditions with a freedom that is not intrinsic to these prior conditions, but does not leave them behind. Richard’s link between owed love as a personal property in the Trinity and as the norm of human love for God gives Richard a fresh approach to the idea that “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5), and therefore also to the longstanding Christian claim that human love is owed to God, ordered to neighborly service, and free. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

An international survey was conducted to assess theological higher education via distance learning as perceived by graduates of Trinity College and Theological Seminary's (Trinity) doctoral programs. The purpose of the study was to determine student-perceived strengths and weaknesses of Trinity's doctoral-level distance education theology programs. Also, the future of distance-learning mediated programs of theological higher education was speculated. A random sample of 400 doctoral recipients was selected from the population of 802 doctoral recipients who graduated from Trinity between the years of 1969 and March 1998. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 203 (50.0%) were returned. Frequency counts, percentage distributions, and chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit were employed to analyze the data. A profile of the modal type of student who would participate in theological distance education at the doctoral level was developed from the demographic variables queried. Responses to questions regarding respondents' educational experiences and coursework were solicited as well. Respondents identified five primary strengths of Trinity's distance education doctoral programs as: the convenience of the program; the immediate application of course content to personal and professional endeavors; the quality of education provided; the Biblical groundedness of the curricula, the materials, and the faculty; and the required reading and research. The three predominant weaknesses of Trinity's distance education doctoral programs as identified by program graduates include: the lack of interaction between students and faculty; the lack of regional accreditation; and course repetitiveness meaning that some courses offered repeated content from prior studies at a lower educational level. It was concluded that the future of theological higher education via distance learning is promising. Trinity has emerged as a dominant distance learning institution as a result of its continued exploration and advancements. However, Trinity and other similar distance education institutions must continually and consistently evaluate their programs and their students' expectations in an effort to transition theological distance education into the 21 st century.

Archaeologically site catchment analysis produces valuable information regarding prehistoric subsistence strategies and social organization. Incorporating archaeological data into catchment analyses is an effective strategy to develop regional models of prehistoric site selection and settlement patterns. Digital access to data permits the incorporation of multiple layers of information into the process of synthesizing regional archaeology and interpreting corresponding spatial patterning. GIS software provides a means to integrate digital environmental and archaeological data into an effective tool. Resultant environmental archaeology maps facilitate interpretive analysis. To fulfill the objectives of this thesis, GIS software is employed to construct site catchment areas for archaeological sites and to implement multivariate statistical analyses of physical and biological attributes of catchments in correlation with assemblage data from sites. Guided by ecological, anthropological and geographical theories hypotheses testing evaluates patterns of prehistoric socio-economic behavior. Analytical results are summarized in a model of prehistoric settlement patterns in North Central Texas.

Sediments in the Trinity River were chemically, physically and biologically characterized and assessed for toxicity. Laboratory bioassays were conducted to identify sediments which induced toxic responses in test organisms and to document these responses through time. Metal and organic contaminant concentrations in bottom sediments were measured. Relationships between these concentrations and biological responses observed in laboratory bioassays were determined. Toxicity identification / reduction methods were used to characterize sediment toxicants. Sediment oxygen demand was also measured in resuspended and undisturbed bottom sediments through time. The Background Sediment Chemistry Approach and the Sediment Bioassay Approach were used to assess sediment quality. Sediment toxicity was observed in whole sediment bioassays using Chironomus tentans as the test species. A relationship between sediment contaminant concentration and toxicity was observed in approximately sixty percent of the sediments. Oxygen demand of resuspended sediments was elevated in sediments at two locations on the river. Oxygen demand of undisturbed sediments was elevated at one location on the river. Characterization of sediment toxicants was conducted using EDTA, pH, and carbon treatments and manipulations of the sediments. Aeration tests were also used to evaluate the contribution of volatile organic contaminants to observed toxicity.