Cedar Waxwings

Prevention and control of cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) damage to small fruits such as blueberry, cherry, and strawberry is vexing to growers in many parts of the United States. Cedar waxwings (Figure 1) travel in flocks and descend in large numbers on berry crops, especially during winter and migration. In short feeding bouts, waxwings eat, peck, or knock substantial amounts of fruit from the plants. These frugivores are difficult to discourage once they become established at a given location. Harassment early and often using pyrotechnics or other sudden noisemakers can help prevent flocks from being established. The most effective preventative measure is exclusion using an appropriate netting system. Visual and auditory deterrents have limited effectiveness as flocks rapidly habituate. Chemical repellents based on methyl anthranilate as the active ingredient are readily available. Permits for lethal control can be difficult to obtain

The critical pressures of gas vesicles in Planktorhrix rubescens in relation tothe depth of winter mixing in Lake Zürich, Switzerland

The vertical distribution of the cyanobacterium Planktothrir (Oscillazoria) rubescens in Lake Zürich was investigated from March 1993 to June 1995 by collecting filaments on filters and measuring them by epifluorescence microscopy and computer image analysis. The initial population, which began to stratify in April, decreased by up to 99% by June. During the summer, the population peaked at depths of 8-15 m; it reached a maximum areal filament-volume concentration of -60 cm −3 of lake surface in early September and was then entrained in the deepening surface layer. It became mixed progressively deeper, to the lake bottom in the cold winter of 1993-94, but less completely in the milder winter of 1994-95. Most of the filaments remained viable during the winter. At the end of the mild winter of 1994-5, 70% of filaments in the water column retained buoyancy, but after the cold winter of 1996-7 only 22% were buoyant. Few remained buoyant below 80 m, where the hydrostatic pressure caused gas vesicle collapse. The proportion that remain buoyant decreases with the depth and duration of winter mixing, and increases with the critical collapse pressure (Pc) of the gas vesicles, which provide buoyancy. Strains of P.rubescens isolated from Lake Zürich differed in mean (Pc) of their gas vesicles, from 0.9 to 1.1 MPa, the highest values in freshwater cyanobacteria. Allowing for a turgor pressure of 0.2 MPa. these strains would remain buoyant at depths down to 70 and 90 m, respectively. Natural selection for gas vesicles of high (Pc) will operate by increasing the proportion of filaments that remain buoyant in the upper parts of the water column after circulation to various depths during the winter because only buoyant filaments will form the inoculum for the following seaso

Description and process evaluation of pharmacists' interventions in a pharmacist-led information technology-enabled multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial for reducing medication errors in general practice (PINCER trial)

Objective To undertake a process evaluation of pharmacists' recommendations arising in the context of a complex IT-enabled pharmacist-delivered randomised controlled trial (PINCER trial) to reduce the risk of hazardous medicines management in general practices. Methods PINCER pharmacists manually recorded patients' demographics, details of interventions recommended, actions undertaken by practice staff and time taken to manage individual cases of hazardous medicines management. Data were coded, double-entered into SPSS version 15 and then summarised using percentages for categorical data (with 95% confidence interval (CI)) and, as appropriate, means (± standard deviation) or medians (interquartile range) for continuous data. Key findings Pharmacists spent a median of 20 min (interquartile range 10, 30) reviewing medical records, recommending interventions and completing actions in each case of hazardous medicines management. Pharmacists judged 72% (95% CI 70, 74; 1463/2026) of cases of hazardous medicines management to be clinically relevant. Pharmacists recommended 2105 interventions in 74% (95% CI 73, 76; 1516/2038) of cases and 1685 actions were taken in 61% (95% CI 59, 63; 1246/2038) of cases; 66% (95% CI 64, 68; 1383/2105) of interventions recommended by pharmacists were completed and 5% (95% CI 4, 6; 104/2105) of recommendations were accepted by general practitioners (GPs), but not completed at the end of the pharmacists' placement; the remaining recommendations were rejected or considered not relevant by GPs. Conclusions The outcome measures were used to target pharmacist activity in general practice towards patients at risk from hazardous medicines management. Recommendations from trained PINCER pharmacists were found to be broadly acceptable to GPs and led to ameliorative action in the majority of cases. It seems likely that the approach used by the PINCER pharmacists could be employed by other practice pharmacists following appropriate training

Slow passage through the Busse balloon -- predicting steps on the Eckhaus staircase

Motivated by the impact of worsening climate conditions on vegetation patches, we study dynamic instabilities in an idealized Ginzburg-Landau model. Our main results predict time instances of sudden drops in wavenumber and the resulting target states. The changes in wavenumber correspond to the annihilation of individual vegetation patches when resources are scarce and cannot support the original number of patches. Drops happen well after the primary pattern has destabilized at the Eckhaus boundary and key to distinguishing between the disappearance of 1,2, or more patches during the drop are complex spatio-temporal resonances in the linearization at the unstable pattern. We support our results with numerical simulations and expect our results to be conceptually applicable universally near the Eckhaus boundary, in particular in more realistic models.Comment: 28

Meeting user needs in national healthcare systems: lessons from early adopter community pharmacists using the electronic prescriptions service

BACKGROUND: The Electronic Prescription Service release Two (EPS2) is a new national healthcare information and communication technology in England that aims to deliver effective prescription writing, dispensing and reimbursement service to benefit patients. The aim of the study was to explore initial user experiences of Community Pharmacists (CPs) using EPS2. METHODS: We conducted nonparticipant observations and interviews in eight EPS2 early adopter community pharmacies classified as ‘first-of-type’ in midlands and northern regions in England. We interviewed eight pharmacists and two dispensers in addition to 56 hours recorded nonparticipant observations as field notes. Line-by-line coding and thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts and field notes. RESULTS: CPs faced two types of challenge. The first was to do with missing electronic prescriptions. This was sometimes very disrupting to work practice, but pharmacists considered it a temporary issue resolvable with minor modifications to the system and user familiarity. The second was to do with long term design-specific issues. Pharmacists could only overcome these by using the system in ways not intended by the developers. Some felt that these issues would not exist had ‘real’ users been involved in the initial development. The issues were: 1) printing out electronic prescriptions (tokens) to dispense from for safe dispensing practices and to free up monitors for other uses, 2) logging all dispensing activities with one user’s Smartcard for convenience and use all human resources in the pharmacy, and, 3) problematic interface causing issues with endorsing prescriptions and claiming reimbursements. CONCLUSIONS: We question if these unintended uses and barriers would have occurred had a more rigorous user-centric principles been applied at the earlier stages of design and implementation of EPS. We conclude that, since modification can occur at the evaluation stage, there is still scope for some of these barriers to be corrected to address the needs, and enhance the experiences, of CPs using the service, and make recommendations on how current challenges could be resolved

Resin transfer molding of textile composites

The design and manufacture of textile composite panels, tubes, and angle sections that were provided to NASA for testing and evaluation are documented. The textile preform designs and requirements were established by NASA in collaboration with Boeing and several vendors of textile reinforcements. The following four types of preform architectures were used: stitched uniweave, 2D-braids, 3D-braids, and interlock weaves. The preforms consisted primarily of Hercules AS4 carbon fiber; Shell RSL-1895 resin was introduced using a resin transfer molding process. All the finished parts were inspected using ultrasonics

Training pharmacists to deliver a complex information technology intervention (PINCER) using the principles of educational outreach and root cause analysis

Objective To describe the training undertaken by pharmacists employed in a pharmacist-led information technology-based intervention study to reduce medication errors in primary care (PINCER Trial), evaluate pharmacists’ assessment of the training, and the time implications of undertaking the training. Methods Six pharmacists received training, which included training on root cause analysis and educational outreach, to enable them to deliver the PINCER Trial intervention. This was evaluated using self-report questionnaires at the end of each training session. The time taken to complete each session was recorded. Data from the evaluation forms were entered onto a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, independently checked and the summary of results further verified. Frequencieswere calculated for responses to the three-point Likert scale questions. Free-text comments from the evaluation forms and pharmacists’ diaries were analysed thematically. Key findings All six pharmacists received 22 h of training over five sessions. In four out of the five sessions, the pharmacists who completed an evaluation form (27 out of 30were completed) stated theywere satisfied or very satisfiedwith the various elements of the training package.Analysis of free-text comments and the pharmacists’ diaries showed that the principles of root cause analysis and educational outreach were viewed as useful tools to help pharmacists conduct pharmaceutical interventions in both the study and other pharmacy roles that they undertook. The opportunity to undertake role play was a valuable part of the training received. Conclusions Findings presented in this paper suggest that providing the PINCER pharmacists with training in root cause analysis and educational outreach contributed to the successful delivery of PINCER interventions and could potentially be utilised by other pharmacists based in general practice to deliver pharmaceutical interventions to improve patient safety

Training pharmacists to deliver a complex information technology intervention (PINCER) using the principles of educational outreach and root cause analysis

Objective: To describe the training undertaken by pharmacists employed in a pharmacist-led information technology-based intervention study to reduce medication errors in primary care (PINCER Trial), evaluate pharmacists’ assessment of the training, and the time implications of undertaking the training. Methods: Six pharmacists received training, which included training on root cause analysis and educational outreach, to enable them to deliver the PINCER Trial intervention. This was evaluated using self-report questionnaires at the end of each training session. The time taken to complete each session was recorded. Data from the evaluation forms were entered onto a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, independently checked and the summary of results further verified. Frequencies were calculated for responses to the three-point Likert scale questions. Free-text comments from the evaluation forms and pharmacists’ diaries were analysed thematically. Key findings: All six pharmacists received 22 hours of training over five sessions. In four out of the five sessions, the pharmacists who completed an evaluation form (27 out of 30 were completed) stated they were satisfied or very satisfied with the various elements of the training package. Analysis of free-text comments and the pharmacists’ diaries showed that the principles of root cause analysis and educational outreach were viewed as useful tools to help pharmacists conduct pharmaceutical interventions in both the study and other pharmacy roles that they undertook. The opportunity to undertake role play was a valuable part of the training received. Conclusions: Findings presented in this paper suggest that providing the PINCER pharmacists with training in root cause analysis and educational outreach contributed to the successful delivery of PINCER interventions and could potentially be utilised by other pharmacists based in general practice to deliver pharmaceutical interventions to improve patient safety