Patterns of vegetation structural diversity across heterogeneous landscapes in southwestern Nova Scotia

1 online resource (88 pages) : colour illustrations, colour maps, colour charts, graphs (some colour)Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 14-21, 45-52, 74-81).Forest edges, including transitional areas between forest and non-forest areas, outline the overall structure of the landscape. To assess and quantify patterns of structural diversity across natural and harvested landscapes in southwestern Nova Scotia, I used field-based structural diversity metrics and UAV imagery along two 1250 m transects to examine different aspects of the pattern of structural diversity across transitions in forested landscapes. For traditional field metrics, tree structural diversity had more success in determining transitions than functional plant group diversity, as tree structural diversity detected all edge types compared to just anthropogenic edges when using functional plant group diversity. For photogrammetrically derived metrics, no metric detected transitions at all edges and overall UAV metrics were incompatible with field sampling. Future studies should examine the compatibility of LiDAR and structural diversity metrics

Relative Efficacy of Treatment Strategies for Functional Misarticulation in Preschool Children: Sensory-Motor and Cognitive Approaches.

The present study investigated learning rate differences relative to number of sessions necessary to reach a terminal criterion on /s/ production accuracy by four pre-school functional misarticulators under two different treatment approaches; a sensory motor approach and a cognitive-communicative approach. Phonetic transcriptions of the misarticulator\u27s productions of a forty item word and connected speech generalization probe administered continuously over treatment was used to determine percentage of correct productions. Probe items included /sC-/, /sCV-/, /-Vs/, and /-VCs/ single syllable word shapes. These four and five year old misarticulating subjects who produced stop consonants for (s) were also compared with four normal subjects of the same age in performance on both auditory perceptual measures involving the stop-continuant contrast, and on spectrographic measures of mean duration and variability involving productions of intervocalic /s/ singletons and /s/ clusters. Experimental subjects also produced intervocalic stop consonants for within group duration comparisons with /s/ productions at pre-treatment. Misarticulating subject\u27s performances were compared to normal subject\u27s performances on the /s/ measures at pre-; mid- and post-treatment; and were compared to the normals on the auditory perceptual measures at pre- and post-treatment. Normal subjects were tested only once on the speech production measures and the auditory perceptual measures. Subjects in the Cognitive approach attained a sustained level of accuracy of production of (s) in connected speech earlier than their sensory-motor matches. Other treatment related findings which occurred across all misarticulators included emergence of /-Vs/ syllable shape first; attainment of 75% production accuracy of (s) in single words and connected speech simultaneously on an intrasubject basis. Misarticulators performed similarly to normals on auditory perceptual tasks at pre-treatment, though they differed from normals on the speech production duration measures at all three points in time. The misarticulators at pre-treatment evidenced mean durations which differentiated the three different phonetic contexts sampled, though the differences were imperceptible to adults. These duration differences were interpreted as originating at a cognitive level rather than an exclusively motor level, and appeared to be indicative of early feature level organization of /s/

Fall Prevention Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Community Stakeholders and Older Adults

We assessed knowledge, attitude, and provision of recommended fall prevention (FP) practices by employees of senior-serving organization and participation in FP practices by at-risk elders. The Washington State Department of Health administered structured telephone surveys to 50 employees and 101 elders in Washington State. Only 38% of employees felt “very knowledgeable” about FP, and a majority of their organizations did not regularly offer FP services. Almost half (48%) of seniors sustained a fall within the past 12 months; however, one-third perceived falling to be among their least important health concerns, and most had minimal working knowledge of proven FP practices. Seniors who perceived avoiding falls as important to their well-being were more likely to participate in practices about which they had the least knowledge (risk assessment, medication management). Increased awareness and availability of FP services might help engage older adults in FP practices and reduce the adverse effects of falls

Outdoor Adventure Therapy to Increase Physical Activity in Young Adult Cancer Survivors

Physical activity (PA) has numerous benefits for cancer survivors, but limited research exists on PA interventions in young adult cancer survivors. Outdoor adventure therapy is a potential method of increasing PA in this demographic. The primary purpose of this non-randomized parallel group study was to determine whether the outdoor adventure camp experience (vs. wait list control) would increase participants’ PA levels immediately following the 7-day camp, as well as three months later. Secondary aims examined correlates of greater PA, including pre-post camp changes in sedentary behavior, exercise self-efficacy, environmental change self-efficacy, perceived barriers to exercise, physical activity enjoyment, and physical activity variety. Sixty-six control and 50 intervention participants were given validated quantitative questionnaires at baseline, 1 week (end of camp) and at the 3-month follow-up. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (RMANOVA) was used to compare group changes over time. Using intent to treat analysis, adjusting for age, gender, age at diagnosis, and baseline minutes of PA per week, there was a significant difference (p=.0001) in minutes of PA per week between groups at both 1 week and 3 months. Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc analysis indicated that, relative to baseline, the intervention group had significantly (p=.0001) greater increases in PA at both 1 week (577 minutes vs. 9 minute increases) and 3 month follow-ups (133 minute increases vs. 75 minute decreases; p=.001) respectively. Significant intervention-related improvements were also observed in TV viewing hours/week (p=.001), hours sitting/week (p=.001), “Excuses” score of the Perceived Barriers to PA questionnaire (p=.04), Enjoyment of Structured Activities (p=.04), and PA Variety (p=.0001) at 1 week but not at the 3 month follow-up. No significant effects were observed for changes in exercise self-efficacy, environmental change self-efficacy, or the other subscales scores. In conclusion, outdoor adventure therapy has the potential to increase PA levels in cancer survivors both immediately following camp, as well as long-term. However, effects tend to wane after camp termination. Future research should explore the relationship between correlates of PA and PA levels in outdoor adventure therapy camp participants and methods to promote sustained PA after camp termination

Older Adults' Perceptions of Clinical Fall Prevention Programs: A Qualitative Study

Objective. To investigate motivational factors and barriers to participating in fall risk assessment and management programs among diverse, low-income, community-dwelling older adults who had experienced a fall. Methods. Face-to-face interviews with 20 elderly who had accepted and 19 who had not accepted an invitation to an assessment by one of two fall prevention programs. Interviews covered healthy aging, core values, attributions/consequences of the fall, and barriers/benefits of fall prevention strategies and programs. Results. Joiners and nonjoiners of fall prevention programs were similar in their experience of loss associated with aging, core values they expressed, and emotional response to falling. One difference was that those who participated endorsed that they “needed” the program, while those who did not participate expressed a lack of need. Conclusions. Interventions targeted at a high-risk group need to address individual beliefs as well as structural and social factors (transportation issues, social networks) to enhance participation