Artificial Light Increases Local Predator Abundance, Predation Rates, and Herbivory.

Human activity is rapidly increasing the radiance and geographic extent of artificial light at night (ALAN) leading to alterations in the development, behavior, and physiological state of many organisms. A limited number of community-scale studies investigating the effects of ALAN have allowed for spatial aggregation through positive phototaxis, the commonly observed phenomenon of arthropod movement toward light. We performed an open field study (without restricted arthropod access) to determine the effects of ALAN on local arthropod community composition, plant traits, and local herbivory and predation rates. We found strong positive phototaxis in 10 orders of arthropods, with increased (159% higher) overall arthropod abundance under ALAN compared to unlit controls. The arthropod community under ALAN was more diverse and contained a higher proportion of predaceous arthropods (15% vs 8%). Predation of immobilized flies occurred 3.6 times faster under ALAN; this effect was not observed during the day. Contrary to expectations, we also observed a 6% increase in herbivory under ALAN. Our results highlight the importance of open experimental field studies in determining community-level effects of ALAN.

Macroevolutionary constraints to tolerance: trade-offs with drought tolerance and phenology, but not resistance.

Plant tolerance of herbivory, i.e., the ability to recover after damage, is an important component of how plants cope with herbivores. Tolerance has long been hypothesized to be constrained evolutionarily by plant resistance to herbivores, traits that allow plants to cope with stressful growing conditions, and traits that influence the timing of damage in relation to reproduction. Variation in tolerance and resistance can be caused by differences in the identity of the plant (e.g., genotype, species, clade) and by the context of the herbivore threat (e.g., identity of the herbivore, type of damage it causes, abiotic conditions in which the plant is growing). To date, the vast majority of studies have explored trade-offs with tolerance within species. Here, we test hypotheses of constraints on tolerance using comparative approaches in a clade of mustards, emphasizing the variety of contexts in which damage is realistically tolerated. We estimated tolerance to leaf damage, tolerance to apical clipping at the bolting stage - simulating browsing -, and resistance to a specialist and generalist lepidopteran herbivore for a group of native mustards, grown in field soils unique to each population and in a common potting soil. Resistance to herbivores was soil dependent, while surprisingly, tolerance was not. Phylogenetic signal in resistance to specialist and generalist lepidopteran herbivores was present, but only when plants were grown in field soils. Tolerance had low phylogenetic signal. Tolerance to leaf damage was unrelated to tolerance to simulated browse. We found no evidence for a resistance-tolerance trade-off, and some evidence for a soil-dependent positive correlation between tolerance and resistance to both herbivores. Drought-tolerant species had poorer ability to tolerate browse damage, and earlier flowering species tended to be less tolerant to leaf damage. Our results suggest that tolerance trades off with traits that allow mostly annual, monocarpic Streptanthus (s.l.) to persist in drought-prone conditions but is largely unrelated to resistance to herbivores. Our study highlights a need for a new framework for tolerance to herbivory that explicitly acknowledges that the relationship among tolerance, resistance, and traits that ameliorate abiotic stress.

Towards the creation of a flexible classification scheme for voluntarily reported transfusion and laboratory safety events.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion and clinical laboratory services are high-volume activities involving complicated workflows across both ambulatory and inpatient environments. As a result, there are many opportunities for safety lapses, leading to patient harm and increased costs. Organizational techniques such as voluntary safety event reporting are commonly used to identify and prioritize risk areas across care settings. Creation of functional, standardized safety data structures that facilitate effective exploratory examination is therefore essential to drive quality improvement interventions. Unfortunately, voluntarily reported adverse event data can often be unstructured or ambiguously defined. RESULTS: To address this problem, we sought to create a "best-of-breed" patient safety classification for data contained in the Duke University Health System Safety Reporting System (SRS). Our approach was to implement the internationally recognized World Health Organization International Classification for Patient Safety Framework, supplemented with additional data points relevant to our organization. Data selection and integration into the hierarchical framework is discussed, as well as placement of the classification into the SRS. We evaluated the impact of the new SRS classification on system usage through comparisons of monthly average report rates and completion times before and after implementation. Monthly average inpatient transfusion reports decreased from 102.1 ± 14.3 to 91.6 ± 11.2, with the proportion of transfusion reports in our system remaining consistent before and after implementation. Monthly average transfusion report rates in the outpatient and homecare environments were not significantly different. Significant increases in clinical lab report rates were present across inpatient and outpatient environments, with the proportion of lab reports increasing after implementation. Report completion times increased modestly but not significantly from a practical standpoint. CONCLUSIONS: A common safety vocabulary can facilitate integration of information from disparate systems and processes to permit meaningful measurement and interpretation of data to improve safety within and across organizations. Formation of a "best-of-breed" classification for voluntary reporting necessitates an internal examination of localized data needs and workflow in order to design a product that enables comprehensive data capture. A team of clinical, safety, and information technology experts is necessary to integrate the data structures into the reporting system. We have found that a "best-of-breed" patient safety classification provides a solid, extensible model for adverse event analysis, healthcare leader communication, and intervention identification.

Tailoring "best-of-breed" safety classification for patient fall voluntary reporting.

OBJECTIVE: Voluntary safety event reporting often produces poorly defined data points, which complicate data analyses across health care settings. Such data should be restructured into a standard patient safety language translatable within and outside health care organizations. We designed and implemented a "best-of-breed" patient safety classification for data created by the Duke University Health System Safety Reporting System. METHODS: We report our approach for patient fall classification. Our strategy was to deploy the International Classification for Patient Safety Framework of the World Health Organization augmented with additional data points of interest, thereby allowing for data translatability while maintaining local practices. System interface redesign using the "best-of-breed" fall classification was mindful of workflows and known reporting barriers. Custom aggregate reports were also developed. RESULTS: We estimated the impact of the redesigned portal on Safety Reporting System usage before and after classification through comparisons of fall report volume and report completion time. When normalized as falls per day, the rate of falls only changed slightly, indicating that the enhancement had little effect on reporting desire. Report completion time increased modestly but not significantly from a practical standpoint. The presence of structured data eliminated substantial hours dedicated to manual data management and enabled evaluation of quality improvement interventions within and outside our organization. CONCLUSIONS: Creation and implementation of a "best-of-breed" patient safety classification for voluntary reporting requires multidisciplinary collaboration between clinical experts, frontline clinicians, and functional and technical analysts. Formal usability evaluations of reporting systems are needed to ensure design facilitates effective data collection.