Short-term Response of Holcus lanatus L. (Common Velvetgrass) to Chemical and Manual Control at Yosemite National Park, USA

One of the highest priority invasive species at both Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks is Holcus lanatus L. (common velvetgrass), a perennial bunchgrass that invades mid-elevation montane meadows. Despite velvetgrass being a high priority species, there is little information available on control techniques. The goal of this project was to evaluate the short-term response of a single application of common chemical and manual velvetgrass control techniques. The study was conducted at three montane sites in Yosemite National Park. Glyphosate spotspray treatments were applied at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0% concentrations, and compared with hand pulling to evaluate effects on cover of common velvetgrass, cover of other plant species, and community species richness. Posttreatment year 1 cover of common velvetgrass was 12.1% 6 1.6 in control plots, 6.3% 6 1.5 averaged over the four chemical treatments (all chemical treatments performed similarly), and 13.6% 6 1.7 for handpulled plots. This represents an approximately 50% reduction in common velvetgrass cover in chemically- treated plots recoded posttreatment year 1 and no statistically significant reduction in hand pulled plots compared with controls. However, there was no treatment effect in posttreatment year 2, and all herbicide application rates performed similarly. In addition, there were no significant treatment effects on nontarget species or species richness. These results suggest that for this level of infestation and habitat type, (1) one year of hand pulling is not an effective control method and (2) glyphosate provides some level of control in the short-term without impact to nontarget plant species, but the effect is temporary as a single year of glyphosate treatment is ineffective over a twoyear period

Telemonitoring of daily activity and symptom behavior in patients with COPD

Objectives. This study investigated the activity behavior of patients with COPD in detail compared to asymptomatic controls, and the relationship between subjective and objective activities (awareness), and readiness to change activity behavior. Methods. Thirty-nine patients with COPD (66.0 years; FEV(1)% predicted: 44.9%) and 21 healthy controls (57.0 years) participated. Objective daily activity was assessed by accelerometry and expressed as amount of activity in counts per minute (cpm). Patients' baseline subjective activity and stage of change were assessed prior to measurements. Results. Mean daily activity in COPD patients was significantly lower compared to the healthy controls (864 ± 277 cpm versus 1162 ± 282 cpm, P < 0.001). COPD patients showed a temporary decrease in objective activities in the early afternoon. Objective and subjective activities were significantly moderately related and most patients (55.3%) were in the maintenance phase of the stages of change. Conclusions. COPD patients show a distinctive activity decrease in the early afternoon. COPD patients are moderately aware of their daily activity but regard themselves as physically active. Therefore, future telemedicine interventions might consider creating awareness of an active lifestyle and provide feedback that aims to increase and balance activity levels

How to Design Game-based Healthcare Applications for Children? - A Study on Children’s Game Preferences

Game-based design can be used to develop engaging health applications for children. This engagement can only be realised when design is tailored to their preferences. In this study we investigate game preferences of children and translate these into design recommendations. Game preferences of children aged 6 to 12 were assessed through a questionnaire. Outcomes were classified by means of the 7D framework which divides game content into seven linear domains. Significant differences in mean scores among demographic subgroups were explored. Sixty-five children participated (M=9 years, SD=0.24, 36 boys, 29 girls, 8 children with asthma). Data showed high preference for content in domains novelty (Mnovelty=63) and dedication (Mdedication=70). Analysis resulted in subdivision of scores based on gender, age and playing frequency. Striking differences in scores were found between boys and girls in discord (Mboys=62, Mgirls=19), intensity (Mboys=60, Mgirls=27), rivalry (Mboys=53, Mgirls=31) and threat (Mboys=64, Mgirls=25). To design games for children we recommend to stimulate curiosity by offering variation and discovery, to enable achievement, learning and social contact. A divergence in preferences for boys and girls must be regarded. Opposed to boys, girls may lose interest in games that have violent or scary content, that are mainly competitive or demand continuous effort

Biosignal and context monitoring: Distributed multimedia applications of body area networks in healthcare

We are investigating the use of Body Area Networks (BANs), wearable sensors and wireless communications for measuring, processing, transmission, interpretation and display of biosignals. The goal is to provide telemonitoring and teletreatment services for patients. The remote health professional can view a multimedia display which includes graphical and numerical representation of patients’ biosignals. Addition of feedback-control enables teletreatment services; teletreatment can be delivered to the patient via multiple modalities including tactile, text, auditory and visual. We describe the health BAN and a generic mobile health service platform and two context aware applications. The epilepsy application illustrates processing and interpretation of multi-source, multimedia BAN data. The chronic pain application illustrates multi-modal feedback and treatment, with patients able to view their own biosignals on their handheld device

Game preferences and personality of older adult users

To improve engagement needed for long-term adherence to telemedicine services for elderly users, we need methods to design effective and tailored gamification. This study explores the relation between personality (based on the Five Factor Model) and game preference (based on the Five Domains of Play theory) to enable creation of such a method, by means of a user classification targeting the older adult user. From preliminary results, in a study with 12 participants aged 65-75 years, we observe no significant correlations between personality and game preference. The participants have a strong preference for a game containing novel content. This study provides us with information on the older adult to create a method for developing tailored gamified content based on game preferences

Tools for Assessing Climate Impacts on Fish and Wildlife

Climate change is already affecting many fish and wildlife populations. Managing these populations requires an understanding of the nature, magnitude, and distribution of current and future climate impacts. Scientists and managers have at their disposal a wide array of models for projecting climate impacts that can be used to build such an understanding. Here, we provide a broad overview of the types of models available for forecasting the effects of climate change on key processes that affect fish and wildlife habitat (hydrology, fire, and vegetation), as well as on individual species distributions and populations. We present a framework for how climate-impacts modeling can be used to address management concerns, providing examples of model-based assessments of climate impacts on salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest, fire regimes in the boreal region of Canada, prairies and savannas in the Willamette Valley-Puget Sound Trough-Georgia Basin ecoregion, and marten Martes americana populations in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. We also highlight some key limitations of these models and discuss how such limitations should be managed. We conclude with a general discussion of how these models can be integrated into fish and wildlife management

Daily physical activity patterns in cancer survivors: a pilot study

In cancer survivors physical activity levels are measured primarily with questionnaires. As a result, insight in actual physical activity patterns of cancer survivors is lacking. Activity monitoring with accelerometers revealed that cancer survivors have lower levels of physical activity in the afternoon and early evening. This finding can help to personalize physical activity advice more adequately for these patients

Realcare: recovery after lung resection: study design and preliminary results

Physical activity is considered beneficial for recovery of physical fitness, symptoms of fatigue and distress, and quality of life following lung resection. However, till now there is insufficient insight in the recovery and relevance of physical activity in this process as most studies so far rely on subjective information from questionnaires to capture level of physical activity.\ud Our results show that on average patients experience a complete recovery of health status at six months post surgery to pre-surgery levels. Next to that, higher levels of daily activity were associated with better health status. \ud Interestingly, part of NSCLC patients deploy below-average physical activity. \ud A next step would be to investigate whether ambulant monitoring of both symptoms and daily activity optimizes recovery of health status after lung resection