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Background Healthcare workers are at risk of blood and body fluid exposures (BBFE) while delivering care to patients. Despite recent technological advances such as safety-engineered devices (SEDs), these injuries continue to occur in healthcare facilities worldwide. Aims To assess the impact of an education and SEDs workplace programme on rates of reported exposures. Methods A retrospective cohort study, utilizing interrupted time series analysis to examine reported exposures between 2005 and 2015 at a 600-bed hospital in Perth, Western Australia. The hospital wards were divided into four cohorts. Results A total of 2223 records were available for analysis. The intervention was most effective for the first cohort, with significant improvements both short-term (reduction of 12 (95% CI 7–17) incidents per 1000 full-time equivalent (FTE) hospital staff) and long-term (reduction of 2 (CI 0.6–4) incidents per 1000 FTE per year). Less significant or consistent impacts were observed for the other three cohorts. Overall, the intervention decreased BBFE exposure rates at the hospital level from 19 (CI 18–20) incidents per 1000 FTE pre-intervention to 11 (CI 10–12) incidents per 1000 FTE post-intervention, a 41% reduction. No exposures resulted in a blood-borne virus infection. Conclusions The intervention was most effective in reducing exposures at a time when incidence rates were increasing. The overall effect was short-term and did not further reduce an already stabilized trend, which was likely due to improved safety awareness and practice, induced by the first cohort intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined autecology of individual species is expected to reflect the synecology of their respective functional groups and vice versa, but this assumption has been rarely assessed. We estimated this similarity in limiting ecological filters using vegetation survey data from 64 abandoned extracted peatlands in Estonia, which form a 50-year chronosequence of secondary succession. Partial overlap was found between filters predicting the occurrence of individual core species and richness in their respective functional groups. These overlapping filters were microtopographical form (flats, margins, ditches), time since abandonment, and various properties of peat. At the functional group level, time since abandonment and habitat properties showed clear interactions with microform type. Bog species and acidophilous bilocals successfully established on flats and ditch margins when residual peat was acidic and poorly decayed, while species of fens and mineral soils preferentially established in ditches of large extraction fields, where residual peat had higher pH and higher mineral content. We also detected some effects of landscape-level (patch area and forest neighbourhood) and regional filters (continentality); however, their limiting role was inconsistent. Many ecological filters also were shared between functional groups at the species level, but the optimal levels of these filters differed between groups. We conclude that even in species-poor habitats, both the autecology of individual species and the synecology of functional groups should be considered during habitat restoration. In peatland restoration, the following management strategies are advised to direct a faster and more successful trajectory: controlling the depth of peat extraction, partial filling of ditches, introducing plant propagules and managing mineral dust pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Elevated atmospheric input of nitrogen (N) is currently affecting plant biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The growth and survival of numerous plant species is known to respond strongly to N fertilisation. Yet, few studies have assessed the effects of N deposition on seed quality and reproductive performance, which is an important life‐history stage of plants. Here we address this knowledge gap by assessing the effects of atmospheric N deposition on seed quality of the ancient forest herb Anemone nemorosa using two complementary approaches. By taking advantage of the wide spatiotemporal variation in N deposition rates in pan‐European temperate and boreal forests over 2 years, we detected positive effects of N deposition on the N concentration (percentage N per unit seed mass, increased from 2.8% to 4.1%) and N content (total N mass per seed more than doubled) of A. nemorosa seeds. In a complementary experiment, we applied ammonium nitrate to aboveground plant tissues and the soil surface to determine whether dissolved N sources in precipitation could be incorporated into seeds. Although the addition of N to leaves and the soil surface had no effect, a concentrated N solution applied to petals during anthesis resulted in increased seed mass, seed N concentration and N content. Our results demonstrate that N deposition on the petals enhances bioaccumulation of N in the seeds of A. nemorosa. Enhanced atmospheric inputs of N can thus not only affect growth and population dynamics via root or canopy uptake, but can also influence seed quality and reproduction via intake through the inflorescences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pattern of native vegetation, distribution of alien species and variation of environmental parameters were studied in mountain grasslands in a lithologically homogeneous Córdoba mountain range in Central Argentina. CCA showed that altitude was the most important factor determining the compositional variation of the vegetation, with soil nutrient status and stoniness as additional factors. Short-grass communities, associated with the driest habitats on plateaus, showed higher small-scale native species richness than wet-turf communities in valleys and tall-grass communities on slopes. Species richness was negatively correlated with soil parameters that indicate nutrient status and water availability. Also, there was a negative correlation between soil Ca-and Mg- content and richness. High native species richness coincided with high alien species richness. When smaller units -- community types -- were considered, it became evident that within short-grass vegetation,the three most species-rich community types contained significant numbers of alien species, while the other two did not. Even within one community type, the same quadrats that contained the highest number of native species, were also characterized by the highest numbers of alien species. Evidently, the same mechanism was responsible for high richness of both native and alien species. Alien species were distinguished by a greater proportion of annuals and prostrate stoloniferous plants, by lower palatability and by smaller proportion of zoochory. DCA ordination of quadrats on the basis of plant traits as attributes resulted in a clear distinction of three main vegetation types. Short-grass vegetation was distinguished by a predomination of late flowering species, tall-grass vegetation by the presence of high herbaceous... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been doubts that the much discussed khump-backedm relationship between species richness and habitat productivity might be an artifact, arising from the use of an anthropocentric sampling scale. We studied this relationship in 27 Estonian grassland and forest ground-layer plant communities by using scale-independent sampling. Richness was estimated simultaneously from 1-m2 quadrats, and from quadrats inhabited by 500 plant ramets. We also studied richness relative to the size of the actual species pool (relative richness). Modal maximum richness at intermediate standing biomass was observed in both fixed-size and flexible-size quadrats, indicating that the unimodal shape of the studied curve is not merely a sampling artifact. Relative richness varied in a very narrow interval (especially when estimated per 500 ramets), showing that small-scale absolute richness is mostly determined by the size of the local species pool. However, the relationship between relative richness and biomass was slightly parabolic, showing that modal relative richness is expected at intermediate biomass. This could be interpreted as evidence supporting the competition-based explanation of the hump-backed curve, but, more likely, this is an artifact due to possible underestimation of the size ofthe actual species pool (overestimation of relative richness) in species-rich communities with intermediate productivity. Relative richness is positively correlated with absolute richness in 1-m2quadrats, but independent of absolute richness when scale-independent sampling is used. In flexible-size quadrats, richness is predictable as a certain percent of the actual species pool, independent of thedensity of ramets in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]