A Cumulative Bibliography of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)

This document is cumulative bibliography for published works related to the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The document includes publications of the Mission-Aransas NERR and supporting publications that reference research completed within the Mission-Aransas NERR. The mission of the Mission-Aransas NERR is to develop and facilitate partnerships that enhance coastal decision making through an integrated program of research, education, and stewardship. The Mission-Aransas NERR is a component of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). The NERRS is a network of coastal sites that operate as a partnership between the federal government and coastal states. The goal of this non-regulatory program is to perform long-term research in relatively natural settings. The program is administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Mission-Aransas NERR (185,708 acres or 751.5 km) is located in the Mission-Aransas Estuary. The lands within the Reserve are managed by a combination of state, federal and private entities. The Mission-Aransas NERR is managed by the University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute.UT Librarie

Nurses respond to patients' psychosocial needs by dealing, ducking, diverting and deferring: An observational study of a hospice ward

Background: Psychosocial support is considered a central component of nursing care but it remains unclear as to exactly how this is implemented in practice. The aim of this study was to provide a descriptive exploration of how psychosocial needs (PNs) of patients in a hospice ward are expressed and met, in order to develop an understanding of the provision of psychosocial support in practice.  Methods: An embedded mixed-methods study was conducted in one hospice ward. Data collection included observations of patients’ expressions of PNs and nurses’ responses to those expressed PNs, shift hand-overs and multi-disciplinary meetings. Interviews about the observed care were conducted with the patients and nurses and nursing documentation pertaining to psychosocial care was collated. Descriptive statistical techniques were applied to quantitative data in order to explore and support the qualitative observational, interview and documentary data.  Results: During the 8-month period of observation, 227 encounters within 38 episodes of care were observed among 38 nurses and 47 patients. Within these encounters, 330 PNs were expressed. Nurses were observed immediately responding to expressed PNs in one of four ways: dealing (44.2 %), deferring (14.8 %), diverting (10.3 %) and ducking (30.7 %). However, it is rare that one type of PN was clearly expressed on its own: many were expressed at the same time and usually while the patient was interacting with the nurse for another reason, thus making the provision of psychosocial support challenging. The nurses’ response patterns varied little according to type of need.  Conclusions: The provision of psychosocial support is very complex and PNs are not always easily recognised. This study has allowed an exploration of the actual PNs of patients in a hospice setting, the way in which they were expressed, and how nurses responded to them. The nurses faced the challenge of responding to PNs whilst carrying out the other duties of their shift, and the fact that nurses can provide psychosocial support as an inherent component of practice was verified. The data included in this paper, and the discussions around the observed care, provides nurses everywhere with an example against which to compare their own practice

Identifying patient concerns during consultations in tertiary burns services: development of the Adult Burns Patient Concerns Inventory

ObjectivesIdentifying the issues and concerns that matter most to burns survivors can be challenging. For a number of reasons, but mainly relating to patient empowerment, some of the most pressing concerns patients may have during a clinical encounter may not naturally be the focal point of that encounter. The Patient Concerns Inventory (PCI) is a tried and tested concept initially developed in the field of head and neck cancer that empowers patients during a clinical encounter through provision of a list of prompts that allows patients to self-report concerns prior to consultation. The aim of this study was to develop a PCI for adult burns patients.DesignContent for the PCI was generated from three sources: burns health-related quality of life tools, thematic analysis of one-to-one interviews with 12 adult burns patients and 17 multidisciplinary team (MDT) members. Content was refined using a Delphi consensus technique, with patients and staff members, using SurveyMonkey.SettingWithin outpatient secondary care.ParticipantsTwelve adult burns patients and MDT members from two regional burns centres.ResultsA total of 111 individual items were generated from the three sources. The Delphi process refined the total number of items to 58. The main emergent domains were physical and functional well-being (18 items), psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being (22 items), social care and social well-being (7 items) and treatment-related concerns (11 items).ConclusionsThe Adult Burns Patient Concerns Inventory is a 58-item, holistic prompt list, designed to be used in the outpatient clinic. It offers a new tool in burn care to improve communication between healthcare professionals and patients, empowering them to identify their most pressing concerns and hence deliver a more focused and targeted patient-centred clinical encounter

Sustainability and Resilience in Organic Greenhouse Horticulture. Examples from Italy and the UK

It is estimated that at least 5,000 ha of greenhouses are managed organically within the EU. One current development is the "conventionalisation" of organic practices, another is the increase of community supported agriculture and short food supply chains. In this study, we capture both ends of the organic spectrum. Sustainability and resilience have been given theoretical definitions; however, the perspectives of organic growers have not been studied. The aim of the research was to connect theory and practice across Europe with two case-study countries, Italy and the UK. An online survey was emailed to organic growers in both countries, and remained open from June 2016 to June 2017, containing 17 questions on general information and 12 researching details on sustainable and resilient practices, and major influencing factors on growers' decisions. These questions were presented as five-point Likert-scaled, so growers were asked to attribute a weight from low (1) to high (5) to issues and practices in relation to their relevance to the sustainability and resilience of their farms' management. Results showed that soil fertility management was rated highest in both Italy and the UK. Biodiversity and landscape protection were rated higher in Italy, while energy efficiency and weed management were rated higher in the UK. Short food supply chains, product traceability and traditional knowledge were equally rated. These interesting differences and similarities were further studied in detail with 20 on-farm interviews (10 in Italy and 10 in the UK), to give voice to growers' specific perspectives on sustainability and resilience.</p

The Institute For Digital Life And Ephemera (IDLE)

IDLE was created in 2016 to address the increasing ephemerality of digital culture. Digital technologies allow us to create and share content across the globe more easily than ever before, but that culture is at risk of being lost for future generations. As websites are taken down or revised, earlier versions are lost. Social media offers a record of daily life in the 21st Century but also vanishes into the digital ether. Devices quickly become obsolete and so how they were experienced and used also gets lost. The revolutions in storytelling facilitated by digital platforms have created fascinating, but intangible, experiences. IDLE is committed to developing an archive of digital culture that fully represents life in the 21st century. We used this backdrop story to explore what it would mean to loose such an all-encompassing archive or in effect all of our digital archives, as we certainly cannot guarantee the long-term availability and quality of digital data. We project that in 2020, a solar flare will have wiped the planet’s digital records and that this will have disproportionally affected the human history of the last few decades. In this context, we developed and sent out the ‚Storytelling Box’ with the aim to begin to recreate an archive, but also to engage storytellers and audiences with what it means to develop engaging story content. We document the storytelling box, document the ways that we engaged storytellers with the process and critically reflect on the outcomes

Children\u27s attitudes to a hospital familiarisation programme

Many young children are admitted to the emergency departments of our childrens hospitals without the opportunity to receive any preparation in terms of what to expect and what to do or not to do (Health Department of W A, 2000). Surrounded by strange people, environment, smells, sounds and medical equipment, and confronted with possibly painful and invasive procedures, many young children become stressed and anxious. Negative psychological effects may have immediate and/or long lasting psychological consequences (Zuckerberg, 1994; 0 Byrne, Peterson & Saldana, 1997). It is important to protect young childrens rights and to minimise upset and trauma whenever possible. To meet the needs of children who may experience unplanned hospitalisation, preventative measures have been taken by the Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital (AWCH). One of these preventative measures is a Hospital Familiarisation Programme (HFP) designed to prepare healthy young children for possible hospitalisation. This study investigated the effect of the HFP on 5 years olds understanding of common items of medical equipment and procedures, using a Medical Equipment and Procedures Test (MEPT). In addition, their feelings towards possible hospitalisation and medical intervention were obtained by the use of a Hospital Intervention Footings Index (HIFI). A Solomon Four Group design (Salkind, 1997) was employed with a total sample of 84 five-year-olds drawn from 4 pre-primary centres in a large metropolitan \u27 primary school. The treatment consisted of a Hospital Familiarisation Session conducted by a presenter from the Association for the Welfare of Children iii Hospital, W.A. An analysis of variance revealed th8t there was a significant increase in the childrens understanding of medical equipment and procedures, as well as an increase in positive feelings towards medical intervention as a result of the Hospital Familiarisation Programme. On the basis of these results and from a review of the research literature and an analysis of developmental theories, some modifications to the presentation of the HFP were suggested to maximise its effectiveness. Further recommendations were also made for current practice and future research investigation

Parent support advisor pilot : first interim report from the evaluation

The Parent Support Adviser (PSA) pilot is a government funded initiative to support 20 Local Authorities (LAs) to introduce PSAs into their workforce. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) to evaluate the PSA pilot programme from September 2006 – August 2008. A government grant (£40 million) has been made available to fund employment of PSAs over this period. To date, 717 PSAs are in place, supporting parents in 1167 schools. This first Interim Report is based on semi-structured interviews with 97 PSAs, 85 line managers and 23 other professionals in 12 case study LAs during Phase 1 of the evaluation, which was carried out between April and June 2007. Phase 2 of the study will take place during the period October to December 2007; phase 3 will take place during March to June 2008. In addition to these interview-based studies with the 12 case study LAs, an analysis will be made of the data collected by all 20 LAs over the period of the pilot using a standard database devised by CEDAR. Data are being collected on the PSAs’ work with parents and, where this occurs, with children. Finally, a cost effectiveness study will be undertaken. The findings from these phases of the project will be reported in the final report

Know thy enemy and know yourself – the role of operational data in managing the mines and booby trap threat in vietnam, 1965–73

Victim operated explosive devices (VOEDs) such as mines and booby traps, have been an enduring problem since their large-scale use started in the 1940s. While the overall problem is often known about in general terms, the real complexion of the problem was not necessarily fully appreciated. Eventually the need to understand the problem and the response to it was partially identified and acted upon in Vietnam through the collection and analysis of operational data. This did not solve the problem of mines and booby traps, but it did offer a means to better manage the threat

Operational data for the risk management of victim operated explosive devices in humanitarian mine action: a practitioner’s perspective

Since Mine Action's inception at the end of the 1980s, operators have collected limited data on the Victim Operated Explosive Devices (VOEDs) they clear. This includes not only data on the explosive ordnance itself but data on how they were found, where they were found and how they were processed and ultimately destroyed. In a context where detection of mines, boobytraps and certain Victim Operated Improvised Explosive Devices (VOIEDs) is an ongoing humanitarian and military challenge, significantly expanded operational data collection provides an achievable way to facilitate enhanced operational risk management. Risk decisions inherent in the clearance of VOEDs are better if made on the basis of extensive operational data. In the absence of a technological solution to detect and positively discriminate VOEDs from false positive indications, the collection of operational data offers the best prospect for “managing” if not “solving” the problem