Recruitment Patterns of Juvenile Fish at an Artificial Reef Area in the Gulf of Mexico

In 2011 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas deployed over 4,000 concrete culverts in a designated artificial reef area off Port Mansfield, Texas, to enhance habitat for sport fish species in the Gulf of Mexico. A study was conducted to assess juvenile fish recruitment at varying culvert densities within the artificial reef area. Standard monitoring units for the recruitment of reef fish (SMURFs) were used to sample juvenile fish, and these collections were compared with visual scuba surveys. The 0.027-m3 SMURFs were placed at four different culvert densities (0, 1–50, 51–100, and 101+ culverts in a 30-m radius) and sampled during 2013 to 2014. Measurements of rugosity, vertical relief, and percent cover were collected to elucidate factors that drive juvenile recruitment. Average species richness was highest at sites with no culverts and lowest at dense culvert sites. Species compositions were significantly different between sampling locations with no culverts and all locations with culverts; average similarity was 33.8%. Belted Sandfish Serranus subligarius was the most ubiquitous species among all sampling locations. Visual scuba surveys at the same locations showed lower diversity indices of the juvenile fish community than observed by SMURFs and were only 14% similar to the community sampled by the SMURFs. These findings suggest SMURFs are a more effective tool for examining juvenile fish at an artificial reef due to the cryptic nature of juveniles and the low visibility around shallow reefs. Additionally, commercially important Yellowedge Grouper Hyporthodus flavolimbatus, Warsaw Grouper H. nigritus, and Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus juveniles were only found at SMURFs at sampling locations with no culverts. The presence of juveniles of these key species suggest that fisheries management may benefit from creating low-relief reef patches away from the main reef where juvenile fish can recruit and grow

Improving Patient Safety With X-Ray and Anesthesia Machine Ventilator Synchronization: A Medical Device Interoperability Case Study

When a x-ray image is needed during surgery, clinicians may stop the anesthesia machine ventilator while the exposure is made. If the ventilator is not restarted promptly, the patient may experience severe complications. This paper explores the interconnection of a ventilator and simulated x-ray into a prototype plug-and-play medical device system. This work assists ongoing interoperability framework development standards efforts to develop functional and non-functional requirements and illustrates the potential patient safety benefits of interoperable medical device systems by implementing a solution to a clinical use case requiring interoperability

Understanding the Lunar System Architecture Design Space

Based on the flexible path strategy and the desire of the international community, the lunar surface remains a destination for future human exploration. This paper explores options within the lunar system architecture design space, identifying performance requirements placed on the propulsive system that performs Earth departure within that architecture based on existing and/or near-term capabilities. The lander crew module and ascent stage propellant mass fraction are primary drivers for feasibility in multiple lander configurations. As the aggregation location moves further out of the lunar gravity well, the lunar lander is required to perform larger burns, increasing the sensitivity to these two factors. Adding an orbit transfer stage to a two-stage lunar lander and using a large storable stage for braking with a one-stage lunar lander enable higher aggregation locations than Low Lunar Orbit. Finally, while using larger vehicles enables a larger feasible design space, there are still feasible scenarios that use three launches of smaller vehicles

Potential Advantages of Applying Assurance Case Modeling to Requirements Engineering for Interoperable Medical Device Systems

This poster describes our initial work in applying assurance cases to the requirements engineering processes necessary in building interoperable medical device systems

Does Your Course Effectively Promote Creativity? Introducing the Mathematical Problem Solving Creativity Rubric

As believers in the power of blending the creative with the quantitative, we design our courses with an eye towards developing creative problem solvers. However, when it comes time to evaluate our course\u27s success in developing creative problem solvers we come away with a plethora of qualitative evidence and yet we are left hungry for the quantitative evidence we desire as mathematicians. In this article we describe the development of the Mathematical Problem Solving Creativity Rubric and its pilot use in a freshman-level Mathematical Modeling and Introduction to Calculus course at the United States Military Academy. We not only come away with the necessary quantitative evidence to satiate our hunger for now, but with a rubric that will allow us to do so in future semesters and courses

Design Pillars for Medical Cyber-Physical System Middleware

Our goal is to improve patient outcomes and safety through medical device interoperability. To achieve this, it is not enough to build a technically perfect system. We present here our work toward the validation of middleware for use in interoperable medical cyber-physical systems. This includes clinical requirements, together with our methodology for collecting them, and a set of eighteen `design pillars\u27 that document the non-functional requirements and design goals that we believe are necessary to build a successful interoperable medical device system. We discuss how the clinical requirements and design pillars are involved in the selection of a middleware for our OpenICE implementation

Going Beyond Promoting: Preparing Students to Creatively Solve Future Problems

While we cannot know what problems the future will bring, we can be almost certain that solving them will require creativity. In this article we describe how our course, a first-year undergraduate mathematics course, supports creative problem solving. Creative problem solving cannot be learned through a single experience, so we provide our students with a blend of experiences. We discuss how the course structure enables creative problem solving through class instruction, during class activities, during out of class assessments, and during in class assessments. We believe this course structure increases student comfort with solving open-ended and ill-defined problems similar to what they will encounter in the real world

Gauging the current status of natural history collections in Malaysia

This study was carried out to gauge the current status of natural history collection centres in Malaysia, primarily focused on animal collections. Part of the research is reported here and it constituted objective one which is to compare the status of natural history collection between the various centres in Malaysia and also with three selected Southeast Asian tropical region museums in trying to understand need of the Malaysian public for a natural history museum. It maps out the locations, describes the number and kinds of specimens kept at each collection centre. Financial and governance aspects are also described. In total 11 centres were visited all over Malaysia. These collection centres and museums were managed by federal or state government or universities. Duration of visit at each location ranged from one to seven days. During the visit interviews were carried out with collection manager to obtained Questionnaire was also left behind for managers of centre to fill in and sent back to researchers. In addition, three natural history collection centres and museums in South East Asia tropical region were also visited: Bogor Zoological Museum, Indonesia; Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Singapore and Mahachakri Sirindhorn Natural History Museum, Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand. Following the same protocol as with Malaysian centres, the information obtained enable researcher to make comparison between Malaysia and those in the region. This paper found that most of the natural history museums and collection centres were focused in the centre of peninsular Malaysia. However, natural history collections in Malaysia are still limited by state and national borders. Coordination and integration of these centres, currently runned separately by the federal, state governments, research institutions and institution of higher learning, is seen as the way forward to provide for a strong basis of understanding biodiversity among the Malaysian public

Two Mental Models of integrated Care For advanced Liver Disease: Qualitative Study of Multidisciplinary Health Professionals

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to present two divergent mental models of integrated advanced liver disease (AdvLD) care among 26 providers who treat patients with AdvLD. SETTING: 3 geographically dispersed United States Veterans Health Administration health systems. PARTICIPANTS: 26 professionals (20 women and 6 men) participated, including 9 (34.6%) gastroenterology, hepatology, and transplant physicians, 2 (7.7%) physician assistants, 7 (27%) nurses and nurse practitioners, 3 (11.5%) social workers and psychologists, 4 (15.4%) palliative care providers and 1 (3.8%) pharmacist. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We conducted qualitative in-depth interviews of providers caring for patients with AdvLD. We used framework analysis to identify two divergent mental models of integrated AdvLD care. These models vary in timing of initiating various constituents of care, philosophy of integration, and supports and resources needed to achieve each model. RESULTS: Clinicians described integrated care as an approach that incorporates elements of curative care, symptom and supportive care, advance care planning and end-of-life services from a multidisciplinary team. Analysis revealed two mental models that varied in how and when these constituents are delivered. One mental model involves sequential transitions between constituents of care, and the second mental model involves synchronous application of the various constituents. Participants described elements of teamwork and coordination supports necessary to achieve integrated AdvLD care. Many discussed the importance of having a multidisciplinary team integrating supportive care, symptom management and palliative care with liver disease care. CONCLUSIONS: Health professionals agree on the constituents of integrated AdvLD care but describe two competing mental models of how these constituents are integrated. Health systems can promote integrated care by assembling multidisciplinary teams, and providing teamwork and coordination supports, and training that facilitates patient-centred AdvLD care