Enhancing Care Transitions for Older People through Interprofessional Simulation: A Mixed Method Evaluation

Introduction: The educational needs of the health and social care workforce for delivering effective integrated care are important. This paper reports on the development, pilot and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation course, which aimed to support integrated care models for care transitions for older people from hospital to home. Theory and methods: The course development was informed by a literature review and a scoping exercise with the health and social care workforce. The course ran six times and was attended by health and social care professionals from hospital and community (n=49). The evaluation aimed to elicit staff perceptions of their learning about care transfers of older people and to explore application of learning into practice and perceived outcomes. The study used a sequential mixed method design with questionnaires completed pre (n=44) and post (n=47) course and interviews (n=9) 2-5 months later. Results:Participants evaluated interprofessional simulation as a successful strategy. Post-course, participants identified learning points and at the interviews, similar themes with examples of application in practice were: Understanding individual needs and empathy; Communicating with patients and families; Interprofessional working; Working across settings to achieve effective care transitions. Conclusions and discussion:An interprofessional simulation course successfully brought together health and social care professionals across settings to develop integrated care skills and improve care transitions for older people with complex needs from hospital to home

Impacts of invasive exotic plants on reptile and amphibian assemblages

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science.The invasive spread of exotic plants into native vegetation can pose serious threats to native faunal assemblages. This is of particular concern for reptiles and amphibians because they form a significant component of the world’s vertebrate fauna, play a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning and are often neglected in biodiversity research. A framework to predict how exotic plant invasion will affect reptile and amphibian assemblages is imperative for conservation, management and the identification of research priorities. In this thesis I present and test the first predictive framework to describe the impacts of exotic plant invasions on reptiles and amphibians. Central to the framework is the identification of exotic plant and native reptile and amphibian life-history traits that influence the response of reptiles and amphibians to exotic plant invasion. These traits are integrated into three mechanistic models based on exotic plant invasion altering: (1) habitat structure; (2) herbivory and predator-prey interactions; (3) the reproductive success of reptile and amphibian species and assemblages. With this framework, I identified novel growth forms and structural features of exotic plants and small body size of reptiles and amphibians as life-history traits most likely to be linked to strong and readily detectible impacts of invasion. A test of framework predictions against available empirical evidence in the literature provided support for predictions from each of the three mechanisms of the framework. I performed field-work to test predictions relating to differential effects of exotic plant growth forms and the susceptibility of small-bodied native reptile and amphibian species to invasion. I compared the impacts of Lantana (Lantana camara), which differs strongly in growth form to the dominant native vegetation in the dry sclerophyll forest it invades, and Bitou Bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata) which provides a similar growth form replacement in the coastal heathland it invades. Lantana significantly altered habitat structure by increasing understorey cover, creating cooler and shadier conditions. Lantana invasion was associated with lower reptile abundance, particularly of the scincid lizard Lampropholis delicata, the smallest reptile species present. In contrast, Bitou Bush did not significantly alter habitat structure, insolation or habitat temperature and was not associated with significant changes in reptile abundance. The findings of this thesis confirm the importance of plant and animal life-history traits in determining responses of reptiles and amphibians to exotic plant invasions. The trait-based approach employed in this thesis offers considerable benefits to assessing the impacts of exotic plant invasion on native biodiversity. In particular, my framework provides a basis for predicting impacts and determining future research and management priorities

A comparison of short-term marking methods for small frogs using a model species, the striped marsh frog (Limnodynastes peronii)

We compared three methods of marking individual small frogs for identification in short-term studies (several days) using a model species, Limnodynastes peronii (the striped marsh frog). We performed a manipulative experiment under laboratory conditions to compare retention times of gentian violet, mercurochrome and powdered fluorescent pigment. Gentian violet produced the most durable marks with retention times between two and four days. Mercurochrome was retained for at least one day by all treated frogs. Fluorescent pigment was either not retained at all or for one day at most, which suggests that this marking method may not be reliable for short-term studies where identification is required. No adverse reactions to any of the marking methods were detected in our study. Our findings indicate that gentian violet represents a promising alternative as a minimally invasive marking technique for studies of small frogs requiring only shortterm retention of identification marks

A predictive framework and review of the ecological impacts of exotic plant invasions on reptiles and amphibians

The invasive spread of exotic plants in native vegetation can pose serious threats to native faunal assemblages. This is of particular concern for reptiles and amphibians because they form a significant component of the world's vertebrate fauna, play a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning and are often neglected in biodiversity research. A framework to predict how exotic plant invasion will affect reptile and amphibian assemblages is imperative for conservation, management and the identification of research priorities. Here, we present a new predictive framework that integrates three mechanistic models. These models are based on exotic plant invasion altering: (1) habitat structure; (2) herbivory and predator-prey interactions; (3) the reproductive success of reptile and amphibian species and assemblages. We present a series of testable predictions from these models that arise from the interplay over time among three exotic plant traits (growth form, area of coverage, taxonomic distinctiveness) and six traits of reptiles and amphibians (body size, lifespan, home range size, habitat specialisation, diet, reproductive strategy). A literature review provided robust empirical evidence of exotic plant impacts on reptiles and amphibians from each of the three model mechanisms. Evidence relating to the role of body size and diet was less clear-cut, indicating the need for further research. The literature provided limited empirical support for many of the other model predictions. This was not, however, because findings contradicted our model predictions but because research in this area is sparse. In particular, the small number of studies specifically examining the effects of exotic plants on amphibians highlights the pressing need for quantitative research in this area. There is enormous scope for detailed empirical investigation of interactions between exotic plants and reptile and amphibian species and assemblages. The framework presented here and further testing of predictions will provide a basis for informing and prioritising environmental management and exotic plant control efforts. © 2010 The Authors. Biological Reviews © 2010 Cambridge Philosophical Society

Achievement despite adversity: a qualitative investigation of undrafted National Hockey League players

Adversity is viewed as both an inevitable and important experience for elite athletes (Howells et al., 2017). The purpose of this study was to explore elite athletes’ perceptions of the experiences and characteristics that helped them to overcome a shared sport-specific adversity. Semi structured interviews were conducted with 12 professional athletes (Mage = 27.25; SD = 3.28 years) who had progressed to careers in the National Hockey League (NHL) despite not being selected in the annual Amateur Entry Draft. Participants discussed their long-term objectives of playing in the NHL, previous experiences with adversity, certain psychological characteristics that facilitated their progression (e.g., competitiveness, passion, confidence), and the significance of social support as key factors that helped them to overcome the initial and subsequent adversities associated with being unselected during the Amateur Entry Draft. Practical implications and proposed avenues for future research are discussed within the context of the study’s limitations

Decoupling heavy sparticles in Effective SUSY scenarios: Unification, Higgs masses and tachyon bounds

Using two-loop renormalization group equations implementing the decoupling of heavy scalars, Effective SUSY scenarios are studied in the limit in which there is a single low energy Higgs field. Gauge coupling unification is shown to hold with similar or better precision than in standard MSSM scenarios. b-tau unification is examined, and Higgs masses are computed using the effective potential, including two-loop contributions from scalars. A 125 GeV Higgs is compatible with stops/sbottoms at around 300 GeV with non-universal boundary conditions at the scale of the heavy sparticles if some of the trilinear couplings at this scale take values of the order of 1-2 TeV; if more constrained boundary conditions inspired by msugra or gauge mediation are set at a higher scale, heavier colored sparticles are required in general. Finally, since the decoupled RG flow for third-generation scalar masses departs very significantly from the MSSM DR-bar one, tachyon bounds for light scalars are revisited and shown to be relaxed by up to a TeV or more.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures. v2: Updated some scans, allowing for changes in sign of some parameters, minor improvements. v3: Typos corrected in formulae in the appendices, added some clarifying remarks about flavor mixing being ignore

Selecting low-flammability plants as green firebreaks within sustainable urban garden design

In response to an increasing risk of property loss from wildfires at the urban–wildland interface, there has been growing interest around the world in the plant characteristics of urban gardens that can be manipulated to minimize the chances of property damage or destruction. To date, considerable discussion of this issue can be found in the ‘grey’ literature, covering garden characteristics such as the spatial arrangement of plants in relation to each other, proximity of plants to houses, plant litter and fuel reduction, and the use of low-flammability plants as green firebreaks [1,2,3,4]. Recently, scientific studies from a geographically wide range of fire-prone regions including Europe [5], the USA [6], Australia [7], South Africa [8], and New Zealand [9] have been explicitly seeking to quantify variation among plant species with respect to different aspects of their flammability and to identify low-flammability horticultural species appropriate for implementation as green firebreaks in urban landscapes. The future prospects of this scientific work will ultimately depend on how successfully the results are integrated into the broader context of garden design in fire-prone regions at the urban–wildland interface. Although modern design of urban gardens must consider more than just the issue of green firebreaks, we and others [10,11] believe that selection of low-flammability plants should be high on the priority list of plant selection criteria in fire-prone regions

Calibrating assessment literacy through benchmarking tasks

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In calibration tasks students assess exemplar texts using criteria against which their own work will be assessed. Typically, these tasks are used in the context of training for peer assessment. Little research has been conducted on the benefits of calibration tasks, such as benchmarking, as learning opportunities in their own right. This paper examines a dataset from a long-running benchmarking task (∼500 students per semester, for four semesters). We investigate the relationship of benchmarking performance to other student outcomes, including ability to self-assess accurately. We show that students who complete the benchmarking perform better, that there is a relationship between benchmarking performance and self-assessment performance, and that students appreciate the support for learning that benchmarking tasks provide. We discuss implications for teaching and learning flagging the potential of calibration tasks as an under-explored tool