Spring Grazing Impacts on the Vegetation of Reed Canarygrass–Invaded Wetlands

The Rainwater Basin region in Nebraska is critically important stopover habitat for spring waterfowl migrations, but the ability of these sites to produce sufficient food for migrating waterfowl is endangered by the invasion of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.). This species produces thick litter layers and abundant aboveground biomass, reducing germination and seedling survival of the annual plant species responsible for much of the seed production in the area. Cattle grazing often is used as a management tool in the Rainwater Basin to slow or reverse reed canarygrass invasion and to improve growing conditions for more desirable plant species. However, there has been little research on the impact of grazing on these factors. We studied the impacts of one-time, early-season (between April and June) cattle grazing on the abundance of reed canarygrass, bare ground, and litter. We hypothesized that cattle grazing would result in reduced reed canarygrass by the end of the 2-yr study, and that grazing would increase the abundance of bare ground and decrease the abundance of litter. Because grazing was expected to improve conditions for seed germination, we expected to find higher species richness in grazed areas. We found that grazing did not reduce the abundance of reed canarygrass, but the application of early-season grazing for two consecutive years did reduce litter and increase bare ground. Litter abundance decreased by 7.5% in ungrazed plots and litter increased by 8.6% in grazed plots. Bare ground in grazed plots increased 10.7% in grazed plots but decreased 1.2% in ungrazed plots. Species richness was not affected by grazing during this study. We concluded that grazing, as utilized in this study, is not sufficient to reduce reed canarygrass abundance, but can be used to mitigate some of the negative impacts of reed canarygrass invasion

Simulated Clinical Encounters Using Patient-Operated mHealth: Experimental Study to Investigate Patient-Provider Communication

BACKGROUND: This study investigates patient-centered mobile health (mHealth) technology in terms of the secondary user experience (UX). Specifically, it examines how personal mobile technology, under patient control, can be used to improve patient-provider communication about the patient's health care during their first visit to a provider. Common ground, a theory about language use, is used as the theoretical basis to examine interactions. A novel concept of this study is that it is one of the first empirical studies to explore the relative meaningfulness of a secondary UX for specific health care tasks. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the extent that patient-operated mHealth technology can be designed to improve the communication between the patient and provider during an initial face-to-face encounter. METHODS: The experimental study was conducted in 2 large Midwestern cities from February 2016 to May 2016. A custom-designed smartphone app prototype was used as the study treatment. The experimental design was posttest-only control group and included video-recorded simulated face-to-face clinical encounters in which an actor role-played a patient. Experienced clinicians consisting of doctors (n=4) and nurses (n=8) were the study participants. A thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed. Quantitative data collected from time on task measurements were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Three themes that represent how grounding manifested during the encounter, what it meant for communication during the encounter, and how it influenced the provider's perception of the patient emerged from the qualitative analysis. The descriptive statistics were important for inferring evidence of efficiency and effectiveness of communication for providers. Overall, encounter and task times averaged slightly faster in almost every instance for the treatment group than that in the control group. Common ground clearly was better in the treatment group, indicating that the idea of designing for the secondary UX to improve provider outcomes has merit. CONCLUSIONS: Combining the notions of common ground, human-computer interaction design, and smartphone technology resulted in a prototype that improved the efficiency and effectiveness of face-to-face collaboration for secondary users. The experimental study is one of the first studies to demonstrate that an investment in the secondary UX for high payoff tasks has value but that not all secondary UXs are meaningful for design. This observation is useful for prioritizing how resources should be applied when considering the secondary UX

What is Known About Species Richness and Distribution on the Outer-Shelf South Texas Banks?

The outer-shelf South Texas Banks, also known as the snapper banks, are known by fishermen to be excellent fishing grounds. However, few scientific studies have been conducted to describe the ecology of these uncommon but distinctive habitats. This paper describes results of a literature review and an assessment to determine what is known about the biota of the South Texas Banks and to assist in developing renewed interest and focus on these topographic highs. The outer-shelf South Texas Banks include relict coralgal reefs and relict barrier islands, and we also include data for a nearshore site, which is geographically and geologically separated from the offshore banks. Obtainable scientific literature was reviewed, and biodiversity data were compiled. Results indicate that one of the most studied sites, Southern Bank, could be used as a surrogate to describe potential biodiversity at other, less studied South Texas Banks. Conclusions support the need for more biological studies at all of the South Texas Banks. Results of future studies, when combined with existing results, could be used to identify sites as potential candidates for place-based protection

Clinicians as Secondary Users of Patient-Centered Mobile Technology in Complex Healthcare Settings

This paper describes the preliminary research findings and prototype development of a Personal Health Record mobile application. A pilot study about patient-clinician interaction guided by common ground theory was performed. The goal of the pilot study was to gather requirements to support development of a smartphone application to be used in a future experimental study. Findings from the pilot study suggest that smartphones could be used to manage health information considered important for a successful healthcare consultation

Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine and Surgery

The guest editors introduce a Biomedical Optics Express feature issue that includes contributions from participants at the 2013 conference on Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine and Surgery XIII