EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT ON AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE

Agricultural producers in the Texas High Plains are facing the worst comparative economic conditions since 1913. Under these circumstances it is desirable to evaluate which programs are beneficial to agricultural producers and which ones are not. The concept of Integrated Pest Management was introduced to the Texas High Plains in 1976 and since then many IPM practices have been adopted for the four major crops; corn, cotton, sorghum, and wheat. The reduction in production cost is used as a measure of economic benefit and contingent valuation is used to estimate the value of the environmental benefits. The IPM practices, which have been adopted, reduce the production cost by more than $173 million per year. In addition the practices reduce environmental cost, as estimated by contingent valuation, by more than$99 million per year. The total value of the economic and environmental benefits accruing to the Texas High Plains exceeds $272 million per year.Crop Production/Industries,

Vegetation and Arthropod Responses to Brush Reduction by Grubbing and Stacking

Grubbing is a mechanical brush-reduction technique that allows targeting of mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and huisache (Vachellia farnesiana) and can be used to open lanes for hunting northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus). Follow-up treatments of stacking allow the piling up of downed brush. We initiated this study on the Santa Gertrudis Division of the King Ranch, Inc., Texas, to determine effects of grubbing and stacking on vegetation and arthropod communities important to bobwhite. We hypothesized that grubbing and stacking would be able to selectively remove mesquite and huisache while leaving mixed brush species largely intact. We hypothesized that soil disturbance treatments would lead to improved brooding, feeding, and nesting habitat for bobwhite through an increase in herbaceous food plants, arthropods, and nesting cover. We sampled vegetation prior to treatment during July 2012 and posttreatment during November 2012, March 2013, and July 2013. We sampled arthropods before treatment in July 2012 and monthly posttreatment until July 2013, a year marked by extreme drought in South Texas. We detected a positive response of bobwhite food grasses and/or sedges 1 year after initial treatments but detected no treatment effect on bobwhite food forbs. We detected no effects of treatments on nesting cover. Grubbing and stacking did not affect total Insecta abundance; however, Insecta biomass and Arachnida abundance and biomass responded both positively and negatively to treatments. To better understand the effects of grubbing and stacking, replication of this study during years of average and above average precipitation should be conducted

Improving Nursing Home Care through Feedback On PerfoRMance Data (INFORM): Protocol for a cluster-randomized trial

Background Audit and feedback is effective in improving the quality of care. However, methods and results of international studies are heterogeneous, and studies have been criticized for a lack of systematic use of theory. In TREC (Translating Research in Elder Care), a longitudinal health services research program, we collect comprehensive data from care providers and residents in Canadian nursing homes to improve quality of care and life of residents, and quality of worklife of caregivers. The study aims are to a) systematically feed back TREC research data to nursing home care units, and b) compare the effectiveness of three different theory-based feedback strategies in improving performance within care units. Methods INFORM (Improving Nursing Home Care through Feedback On PerfoRMance Data) is a 3.5-year pragmatic, three-arm, parallel, cluster-randomized trial. We will randomize 67 Western Canadian nursing homes with 203 care units to the three study arms, a standard feedback strategy and two assisted and goal-directed feedback strategies. Interventions will target care unit managerial teams. They are based on theory and evidence related to audit and feedback, goal setting, complex adaptive systems, and empirical work on feeding back research results. The primary outcome is the increased number of formal interactions (e.g., resident rounds or family conferences) involving care aides – non-registered caregivers providing up to 80% of direct care. Secondary outcomes are a) other modifiable features of care unit context (improved feedback, social capital, slack time) b) care aides’ quality of worklife (improved psychological empowerment, job satisfaction), c) more use of best practices, and d) resident outcomes based on the Resident Assessment Instrument – Minimum Data Set 2.0. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, immediately after the 12-month intervention period, and 18 months post intervention. Discussion INFORM is the first study to systematically assess the effectiveness of different strategies to feed back research data to nursing home care units in order to improve their performance. Results of this study will enable development of a practical, sustainable, effective, and cost-effective feedback strategy for routine use by managers, policy makers and researchers. The results may also be generalizable to care settings other than nursing homes. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02695836 . Date of registration: 24 February 201

EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT ON AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE

Agricultural producers in the Texas High Plains are facing the worst comparative economic conditions since 1913. Under these circumstances it is desirable to evaluate which programs are beneficial to agricultural producers and which ones are not. The concept of Integrated Pest Management was introduced to the Texas High Plains in 1976 and since then many IPM practices have been adopted for the four major crops; corn, cotton, sorghum, and wheat. The reduction in production cost is used as a measure of economic benefit and contingent valuation is used to estimate the value of the environmental benefits. The IPM practices, which have been adopted, reduce the production cost by more than $173 million per year. In addition the practices reduce environmental cost, as estimated by contingent valuation, by more than$99 million per year. The total value of the economic and environmental benefits accruing to the Texas High Plains exceeds $272 million per year