In The Netherlands, prematurely born infants and their parents are offered regular developmental check-ups in a hospital setting. In line with providing healthcare at distance, the use of video ...footage showing the infant's behavior and movements, taken by parents at home and assessed by professionals online, might be a fruitful future practice. The focus of this study was to gain insight into parental experiences with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale home-video method and their appraisal of its applicability for use in an outpatient neonatal follow-up clinic.
A qualitative descriptive study among parents of healthy extremely or very premature infants (GA 26.2-31.5 weeks) participating in a longitudinal study of motor development between 3-18 months corrected age. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed independently. Inductive content analysis was performed following the process of the AIMS home-video method.
Parents appraised the AIMS home-video method as manageable and fun to do. Instructions, instruction film, and checklists were clear. Transferring the video footage from their phone to their computer and uploading it to the web portal was sometimes time-consuming. Parents gained a better awareness of their infant's motor development and found the provided feedback a confirmation of what they already thought about their infant's development and was reassuring that their child was doing well. First-time parents seemed more uncertain and had a greater need for information about (motor) development, but on the other hand, also had confidence in their child. All parents thought that home-videos can be an addition to follow-up visits, but cannot replace (all) visits. It may be an opportunity to reduce the frequency of hospital visits, while still having their infant monitored.
Parents appraised the AIMS home-video method positively and are of the opinion that home-videos can be of added value in monitoring infants at risk in neonatal follow-up additional to hospital visits. In future research a user-friendly application and/or platform to exchange video footage safely between parents and professionals should be developed with all possible stakeholders involved and implementation should be explored.
Background
Family‐centred services (FCS) is widely regarded as the best practice approach in early interventions. Creating a therapeutic environment, which also stimulates collaboration between ...parents and service professionals, is a way to conform to the principles of FCS. The present paper describes the project entitled @home, involving the implementation of home consultations by a specialized team working with children aged 0–5 years at our rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands. The objectives of this article are to (a) describe the development and implementation of home consultations as part of regular care and (b) share the experiences of parents and service providers with home consultations.
Method
The implementation process was divided into 3 steps: (1) interviewing experts, (2) adjusting current rehabilitation trajectories, and (3) service providers offering consultations to children at home. The experiences with the home consultations were immediately incorporated in the system, making the implementation an iterative process.
Results
In 82% of the 133 home conducted consultations, the service professionals reported that it was more valuable to offer home consultations than seeing the child at the rehabilitation centre. The semistructured interviews revealed that parents and service providers found that they received and provided more tailored advice, perceived a more equal partnership between service professionals and parents, and reported that the home consultations provided a good natural therapeutic environment where a child can be itself and where the child performs best.
Conclusion
By using the @home system based on the 3 service models, home consultations are now part of the regular paediatric rehabilitation system at our rehabilitation centre.
Motor development is one of the first signals to identify whether an infant is developing well. For very preterm (VPT) infants without severe perinatal complications, little is known about their ...motor developmental curves.
Explore gross motor developmental curves from 3 until 18 months corrected age (CA) of VPT infants, and related factors. Explore whether separate profiles can be distinguished and compare these to profiles of Dutch term-born infants.
Prospective cohort study with parents repeatedly recording their infant, using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) home-video method, from 3 to 18 months CA.
Forty-two Dutch infants born ≤32.0 weeks gestational age and/or with a birthweight (BW) of <1500 g without severe perinatal complications.
Gross motor development measured with the AIMS.
In total 208 assessments were analyzed, with 27 infants ≥five assessments, 12 with <four, and three with one assessment. Sigmoid-shaped gross motor curves show unidirectional growth and variability. No infant or parental factors significantly influenced motor development, although a trend was seen for the model where lower BW, five-minute Apgar score <7, and Dutch native-speaking parents were associated with slower motor development. Three motor developmental profiles of VPT infants were identified, early developers, gradual developers, and late bloomers, which until 12 months CA are comparable in shape and speed to profiles of Dutch term-born infants.
VPT infants show great intra- and interindividual variability in gross motor development, with three motor profiles being distinguished. From 12 months CA onwards, VPT infants appear to develop at a slower pace. With some caution, classifying infants into motor developmental profiles may assist clinical decision-making.
Monitoring and modeling of coastal vegetation and wetland systems are considered major challenges, especially when considering environmental response to hazards, disturbances, and management ...activities. Remote sensing applications can provide alternatives and complementary approaches to the often costly and laborious field-based collection methods traditionally used for coastal ecosystem monitoring. New and improved sensors and data analysis techniques have become available, making remote sensing applications attractive for evaluation and potential use in monitoring coastal vegetation properties and ecosystem conditions and change. This study involves the extraction of vegetation metrics from airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and hyperspectral imagery (HSI) to quantify coastal dune vegetation characteristics and assesses landscape-level trends from those derived metrics. HSI- and LiDAR-derived elevation (digital elevation model) and vegetation metrics (canopy height model, leaf area index, and normalized difference vegetation index) were used in conjunction with per-pixel linear regression and hot spot analyses to evaluate hurricane-induced spatial and temporal changes in elevation and vegetation properties. These assessments showed areas with greatest decreases in vegetation metric values were associated with direct tropical storm energies and processes (i.e., overwashing events eroding beach and dune features), while those with the greatest increases in vegetation metric values were in areas where overwashed sediments were distributed. This study narrows existing gaps in dune vegetation data by advancing new methodologies to classify, quantify, and estimate critical coastal vegetation metrics. The tools and methods developed in this study will ultimately improve future estimates and predictions of nearshore dynamics and impacts from disturbance events.
•Extensive wetland changes can be caused by abiotic and biotic stressors.•Changes in wetland structure and condition can significantly impact vital navigation, flood risk, and ecosystem health ...services.•Remote sensing and hot spot analyses were used to measure episodic disturbance impacts on wetland condition.•The results show remotely collected data can provide enhanced spatial and temporal measures of wetland plant extent and condition as a function of landscape level dynamics.
The Lower Mississippi River Delta (MRD) is dominated by Phragmites australis which provides a stabilizing force, protecting marsh communities from erosion and storm-related impacts. The MRD has experienced recent die-offs of Phragmites stands, which have coincided with a number of abiotic (hurricane and water-level) and biotic (Phragmites scale) stressors. During this event, previously healthy stands have died or experienced stunted growth, resulting in conversion to replacement species or to open water. This study utilized remote sensing methods to (1) evaluate changes in Phragmites health and distribution in the MRD through time; (2) assess changes in plant cover and floristic quality before, during, and after the dieback event; (3) evaluate changes in landscape patterns (i.e., percentage of landscape, patch density, total edge, and aggregation index); and (4) evaluate changes in channel length and width as a function of the dieback event. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data showed an active delta landscape with below typical plant biomass/health in periods of hurricane and dieback impacts, with recovery to health values more typical for the MRD after the dieback event. Vegetation species level assessments showed the MRD landscape experienced decreasing coverage and floristic quality during the disturbance periods, and low and nominally increasing vegetation cover and quality through the dieback and recovery periods. Landscape metrics showed similar trends, where wetland areas that experienced event-related stress during the hurricane and dieback periods, showed some level of rebound during the recovery period. And finally, bank-line change analyses showed a significant increase in the rate of shortening and widening of the Mississippi River Passes since the die-back event began. This study serves as a methodological basis for deriving vegetation trend assessments and integrating those results with landscape metrics to prioritize areas of interest; all of which are essential for effective management and mitigation of aquatic nuisance vegetation.
Alterations to Louisiana’s river systems and local hydrology have resulted in reduced freshwater, sediment, and nutrient inputs to wetland landscapes, causing significant negative impacts on marsh ...productivity and stability. This study set out to assess regional- and basin-scale impacts of river connectivity and sediment availability on wetland productivity. Satellite data were used in conjunction with river discharge, river sediment concentration, and wetland accretion data to evaluate correlations between river connectivity and wetland productivity and stability. Significant correlations were observed between river connectivity and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Aggregation Index (AI) values across a 10 year period of analysis. Moderate correlations (r
2
= 0.51) between mean NDVI and AI values were observed for all wetland vegetation in coastal Louisiana. Middle Coast wetlands had the highest river connectivity and significantly higher aboveground productivity, spatial integrity, and wetland area. The Chenier Plain, with moderate sediment and nutrient inputs, consisted primarily of moderate productivity and integrity. The majority of the inactive Deltaic Plain, which is largely sediment deprived, consists of landscapes with the lowest wetland productivity and spatial integrity. This study linked wetland area, configuration, and productivity with river connectivity to provide an enhanced understanding of river and sediment importance for wetland stability and restoration.
Typical goals of wetland restoration efforts are to conserve, create, or enhance wetland structure, and to achieve wetland function that approaches or exceeds natural conditions. Measuring wetland ...establishment, condition, and resilience can be difficult, especially because monitoring wetland function has traditionally been time-intensive, costly, and often required repeat field-based surveys. Remote sensing provides novel collections of data and facilitates rapid assessments of wetland landscapes, land cover, species/habitat composition, change detection, degradation, diversity, as well as system threats and pressures. A combination of remotely collected and in situ vegetation data were used in conjunction with landscape metrics and vegetative indices. These data were used to evaluate and compare changes and trends in condition, function and resilience of restoration sites and reference wetlands in southwest Louisiana, USA. Results of this work show the restored wetlands reached structural and functional equivalency to reference wetlands after approximately three to ten years post-construction. With adequate maturity, the restored wetlands outperformed the reference wetlands, having higher percentage of land, land aggregation, aboveground vegetation productivity and floristic quality. Supplementing traditional field-based methods with remote sensing applications provided enhanced metrics for inventorying and monitoring of wetland resources, forecasting of resource condition and stability, and adaptive management strategies.
This thesis is a hybrid project that includes a research paper and two signs designed for Loreauville, Louisiana. Both components of this thesis focus on the nearly two hundred Acadian holdouts who ...arrived in Louisiana in 1765 following Le Grand Dérangement. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Evangeline is interwoven in this thesis just as her mythical personal is considered a cornerstone of Acadian culture, especially in Louisiana. As the goal of the signs was to create a truthful commemoration, Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil serves as the anchoring connection between Acadie and Louisiana. This thesis uses his journey as a result of Le Grand Dérangement to follow the other Acadian refugees who arrived along the Bayou Teche in Louisiana.
There exist contrasting results on the impact of large-scale freshwater and sediment diversions on land gain/loss. To improve understanding on the efficacy of diversion projects in restoring coastal ...wetlands, we aim to evaluate the long-term impacts of diversion-altered salinity and water level on vegetation productivity in coastal wetlands. Two freshwater diversion projects Caernarvon and Davis Pond in Louisiana, U.S. and associated reference sites were selected for inclusion in this study. We implemented multi-level Bayesian models to evaluate 1) how vegetation productivity approximated by Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in peak biomass season changed over time (pre- and post-construction and operation of the freshwater diversions), and 2) how peak-season NDVI responded to mean and variability of water level and salinity among a suite of factors that could affect vegetation productivity. Analysis showed difference in temporal trends of NDVI between the reference and diversion site for the Caernarvon project with a significant increase at the diversion site although NDVI negatively responded to diversion at the beginning. Diversion did not seem to negatively affect NDVI for the Davis Pond project and NDVI only marginally increased at the diversion site. For both projects, NDVI negatively responded to water level, while salinity negatively affected NDVI or showed quadratic relation with NDVI. At the Caernarvon diversion project, the negative impact of water level on NDVI was greater at the diversion site than at the reference site. At the Davis Pond project, it was the salinity that showed different impact between the diversion and reference site. The temporal increase of NDVI at the Caernarvon diversion site can be explained by the lower salinity driven by diversion. The quadratic relation between salinity and NDVI at the Davis Pond diversion project led to only marginal increase at the diversion site. This study provided uncertainty estimates in temporal trend of NDVI and the impact of two key abiotic drivers on NDVI. The improved understanding on vegetation productivity will help predict landscape change in response to freshwater diversions.
A quantitative analysis of the impact of feedback inhibition on aromatic amino acid biosynthesis was performed in chemostat cultures of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Introduction of a ...tyrosine-insensitive allele of
ARO4 (encoding 3-deoxy-
d-
arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase) caused a three-fold increase of intracellular phenylalanine and tyrosine concentrations. These amino acids were not detected extracellularly. However, an over 100-fold increase of the extracellular levels of phenylacetate, phenylethanol and their para-hydroxyl analogues was observed. The total increase of the flux through the aromatic pathway was estimated to be over four-fold. Individual overexpression of either the wild-type or feedback insensitive allele of
ARO7 (encoding chorismate mutase had no significant impact. However when they were combined with the Tyr-insensitive
ARO4 allele in combination with the Tyr-insensitive
ARO4 allele, extracellular concentrations of aromatic compounds were increased by over 200-fold relative to the reference strain, corresponding to a 4.5-fold increase of the flux through the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathway. Elimination of allosteric control on these two key reactions in aromatic amino acid metabolism significantly affected intracellular concentrations of several non-aromatic amino acids. This broader impact of amino acid biosynthesis presents a challenge in rational optimization of the production of specific amino acids and derived flavour compounds.
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