A committed LOS officer with major specific daily responsibilities for decreasing LOS and discharging patients resulted in a 31% to 33% decrease in LOS, with important cost savings to the hospital and no negative effect on patient care.

Although fish and other aquatic species are popular privately-kept pets, little is known about the effects of watching live fish on the perceptions of arousal and the link between those perceptions and physiological measures of arousal. In two separate experiments, participants were asked to watch identically-equipped fish tanks for five minutes in each of three conditions: (1) Live fish, (2) plants and water, and (3) empty tank. Linear mixed models used across both experiments revealed similar results: Greater perceptions of relaxation and mood, and less anxiety during or after viewing the live fish condition, compared with the other conditions. Heart rate and heart rate variability responded to the arousal associated with a math task, but did not differ consistently across viewing conditions. These results suggest that the link between perceptions of arousal, and the physiological measures associated with arousal, may not be strong or immediate, or that heart rate and heart rate variability may not be appropriate measures for the test population. Implications of these results for the biophilia hypothesis and the biopsychosocial model are discussed.

Competitive indoor climbing has increased in popularity at the youth, collegiate, and Olympic levels. A critical aspect for improving performance is characterizing the physiologic response to different climbing strategies (e.g., work/rest patterns, pacing) and techniques (e.g., body position and movement) relative to location on climbing wall with spatially varying characteristics (e.g., wall inclinations, position of foot/hand holds). However, this response is not well understood due to the limited capabilities of climbing-specific measurement and assessment tools. In this study, we developed a novel method to examine time-resolved sensor-based measurements of multiple personal biometrics at different microlocations (finely spaced positions; MLs) along a climbing route. For the ML-specific biometric system (MLBS), we integrated continuous data from wearable biometric sensors and smartphone-based video during climbing, with a customized visualization and analysis system to determine three physiologic parameters (heart rate, breathing rate, ventilation rate) and one body movement parameter (hip acceleration), which are automatically time-matched to the corresponding video frame to determine ML-specific biometrics. Key features include: (1) biometric sensors that are seamlessly embedded in the fabric of an athletic compression shirt, and do not interfere with climbing performance, (2) climbing video, and (3) an interactive graphical user interface to rapidly visualize and analyze the time-matched biometrics and climbing video, determine timing sequence between the biometrics at key events, and calculate summary statistics. To demonstrate the capabilities of MLBS, we examined the relationship between changes in ML-specific climbing characteristics and changes in the physiologic parameters. Our study demonstrates the ability of MLBS to determine multiple time-resolved biometrics at different MLs, in support of developing and assessing different climbing strategies and training methods to help improve performance.

Rock climbing has evolved from a method for alpine mountaineering into a popular recreational activity and competitive sport. Advances in safety equipment and the rapid growth of indoor climbing facilities has enabled climbers to focus on the physical and technical movements needed to elevate performance. Through improved training methods, climbers can now achieve ascents of extreme difficulty. A critical aspect to further improve performance is the ability to continuously measure body movement and physiologic responses while ascending the climbing wall. However, traditional measurement devices (e.g., dynamometer) limit data collection during climbing. Advances in wearable and non-invasive sensor technologies have enabled new applications for climbing. This paper presents an overview and critical analysis of the scientific literature on sensors used during climbing. We focus on the several highlighted sensors with the ability to provide continuous measurements during climbing. These selected sensors consist of five main types (body movement, respiration, heart activity, eye gazing, skeletal muscle characterization) that demonstrate their capabilities and potential climbing applications. This review will facilitate the selection of these types of sensors in support of climbing training and strategies.