A Systems Approach to Understanding Piping Plover Production on Off-Channel Sandpits along the Central Platte River

Anthropogenic changes in land use, exploitation of natural resources, climate change, and habitat loss create difficulties managing and conserving species of concern. Managers are often forced to make decisions with incomplete information and much uncertainty. Unsuccessful attempts to manage for and conserve species in the past, may have resulted from failures to recognize the complexity of systems, resulting in actions that may have had unintended consequences. Thus, applying Systems Thinking and System Dynamics is appropriate for understanding what factors influence species success and evaluating what management actions may be implemented to help achieve conservation targets while minimizing negative impacts to other parts of the system. This study models the dynamics of a Piping Plover population in the Central Platte River Valley, Nebraska, and the factors that influence fledgling success. Historical nesting areas on river sandbars have been flooded or eroded away due to natural and artificial variations in river hydrology. In response to this, the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, a program established to improve habitat use and productivity of Piping Plovers on the Central Platte River, began acquiring and constructing land to provide nesting habitat at off-channel sites. However, despite management efforts productivity has declined overtime. A systems approach was applied to: 1) identify and understand the interactions and impacts of various factors and management actions on Piping Plover productivity using a Systems Thinking approach; and 2) develop a System Dynamics model to evaluate Piping Plover fledging success under various management strategies. A model was created that incorporates all the life stages of a Piping Plover annual cycle; however, the model needs further refinement to test management scenarios. The presented model is a baseline template that can be used for any population in the future to help identify leverage points in the system to increase fledging success

Temporal Information Extraction and Knowledge Base Population

Temporal Information Extraction (TIE) from text plays an important role in many Natural Language Processing and Database applications. Many features of the world are time-dependent, and rich temporal knowledge is required for a more complete and precise understanding of the world. In this thesis we address aspects of two core tasks in TIE. First, we provide a new corpus of labeled temporal relations between events and temporal expressions, dense enough to facilitate a change in research directions from relation classification to identification, and present a system designed to address corresponding new challenges. Second, we implement a novel approach for the discovery and aggregation of temporal information about entity-centric fluent relations

Empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students: a cross sectional survey.

Empathy is an important factor in communication between healthcare provider and patient. Previous studies have shown that empathy can improve patient care. Empathy improves patient satisfaction and buffers healthcare provider burnout.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_ridposters/1005/thumbnail.jp

Empathy levels among Canadian paramedic students

This study aimed to determine the empathy levels displayed by Canadian paramedic students towards patients with various medical conditions

Exploring empathy levels among canadian paramedic students

Introduction: Empathy is an important factor in communication between healthcare provider and patient. Previous studies have shown that empathy benefits patient care in multiple ways. Empathy allows a space of decreased vulnerability as a result, builds trust in healthcare relationships, fosters open communication that leads to improved patient care, improves patient satisfaction and buffers healthcare provider burnout. This study aimed to determine the empathy levels demonstrated by paramedic students to patients with various medical conditions, and to compare these findings to previous studies. Methods: This study employed a cross sectional design of a convenience sample of first and second year paramedic students in a community college program in Ontario, Canada. The Medical Condition Regard Scale( MCRS) was used to measure empathy levels in these students across five medical conditions: physical disability, intellectual disability, suicide attempt, mental health emergency, and substance abuse. Results: A total of 43 students participated in the study; 27 males and 15 females (1 unknown). Males demonstrated a mean empathy score of 232.44 while females demonstrated a mean of 266.4. Across the five medical conditions, substance abuse had the lowest mean empathy score (42.88), followed by mental health emergency (49.58), suicide attempt (49.47), intellectual disability (50.42) and physical disability (53.0). Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that paramedic students demonstrated the lowest levels of empathy towards patients suffering from substance abuse issues, and the highest levels of empathy towards patients with a physical disability. Male paramedic students are less empathetic than their female peers, and second year paramedic students are less empathetic than their first year counterparts. These results provide an insight into paramedic students attitudes in Canada, and provide a foundation for further studies

The Eye of the Beholder

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/english_3315/1001/thumbnail.jp

Projected Utility of the Ready Set Return Application

Introduction: An application (app) that summarizes best practices may promote standardized care among clinicians treating patients during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to test the prototype of the Ready Set Return (RSR) app to determine receptiveness for use in clinical practice. Methods: Two mock patient cases were used to familiarize 19 physical therapists and athletic trainers with the RSR app. Then these participants provided feedback about the user experience, features, and content using Likert ratings and free-text fields through an online survey. Results: Most participants (89%-95%) would recommend the RSR app to others and noted that the app would allow them to stay up to date with current practice. Thematic analysis of free-text responses indicated that the app was easy to navigate and that evidence-based progressions and clinical milestones were useful in clinical practice. Users suggested enhancements that included adding patient access and specific treatment options. Discussion: Generalizable findings suggest that clinicians appreciated the details and images of specific tests and measures; automatic test scoring; and standardized benchmarks to progress care. Specific findings suggest the RSR app’s summary of evidence-informed practice may help standardize care, specifically for patients undergoing rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction. Conclusion: This subset of clinicians reacted positively to the prototype and felt that the RSR app would benefit their practice and patients. This feedback will guide the next iteration, advancing from a low-fidelity to high-fidelity prototype