This is Donna Proser, Chief Clinical Officer with the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. I'm excited to bring you a new video today with Dr. Ariya Shanger. He's Emeritus Chief of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Inglewood Health. And he's coming to talk to us today about blood product transfusions and alternatives that you can implement in your facility. Welcome, Ariya. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Donna. It's a pleasure and honor. I wonder if you can introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about how you got involved in the assignment management. Thank you, Donna. Well, again, as you heard, I'm the Emeritus Chief of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Inglewood Health. Been doing clinical practice for over four and a half decades of which about two and a half going almost three decades have been involved in, again, issues associated with patients of blood through the inception of bloodless medicine and surgery, caring for patients for whom blood is not an option. We then developed a concept that really should apply to all patients with use patient blood management. Of interest, this has been one of the topics of patient safety for years. If you look at some of the information we have from ABB as an example, they have a position for hospitals called the Transfusion Safety Officer. Just if you think of the name, the name implies that there's some safety issues a way you need an officer to oversee. So this has been an area that not only been involved in both in development, but clearly have a passion for it. Well, we often think about blood products as that big of a deal. A lot of people think of it almost as an infusion. So to speak. Can you tell us a little bit about what we've learned over the years about the safety of blood products and why we would need a Transfusion Safety Officer? That's a great question. So if you look back at the history of Transfusion Medicine, there was always the notion that if someone was hemorrhaging, that the best way to treat them at that point is to actually give them a replenishment, which is blood. Blood from a transfusion from human to human is actually relatively new. There have been many experiments, if you will, for lack of data work by individual clinicians who have taken blood from animals, tried different substances, including even milk, to see if they could resuscitate the individual. It wasn't till Blondel, who was an obstetrician in the 1800s, who actually thought that human blood was the best way to replenish shed blood. However, if you look at the data that they had, this was a 50-50, meaning that 50% of the individual survived and probably could have survived without transfusion, whereas 50% of the patients actually perished, which suggests maybe this was associated with incompatibility of blood. So it wasn't till the turn of the 1900s where a Austrian physician actually identified the ABO compatibility, the ABO system and the compatibility of blood. This actually propelled blood to become, quote unquote, somewhat safe in terms of the administration because it was matched. But keep in mind, there were a few issues in terms of the matching that wasn't complete. So it wasn't until World War II where the whole process of inventory of blood and being able to deliver blood as a product, if you will, to hospitals, opened the doors to the use of blood. And again, at the time, everyone thought blood was good, you know, and maybe your cheeks rose and people did well. And there was the notion from World War II that those who were severely injured and received blood survived, even though the data, again, was not a randomized controlled trial by any means. So we were sort of checking along with this and everybody was just very happy and we were able to actually advance in medicine by doing procedures just as an example, cardiac surgery and heart transplantation probably could not have been done successfully without the availability of transfused blood. But those were also on the forefront of something that terrible that happened. And what happened was in the 1970s and the 1980s, agents that were deadly, these are viruses that are deadly or created a very prolonged disease entered into blood system. Now that's a principle of safety, if you will. And this is where the safety bell starts ringing. And the reason for that is that blood is a biologic product. And anytime a new agent enters into someone's bloodstream who's a donor, there's a potential that that agent within the bloodstream can actually be transmitted through transfusion and cause disease to the recipient. And again, the recipient may have the consequences of again a deadly disease or high morbidity disease. So again, the safety here is something which is a charter for the blood establishment. So it's not availability of blood only, but now we're talking about also the blood has to be safe. Keep in mind, we will never reach 100% safety. And the reason is just what I mentioned, it's a biologic system. We are now SARS-CoV-2 as a matter of fact and we know that it's in the blood. We don't have any cases that we can point to to say this is transmitted through transfusion and causes the disease, right? But in fact, we're always cautious when that happens. So the rise of HIV and hepatitis C during the 1970s and the 1980s alarmed not just the public, but also the medical community. And since then, I think we have to develop what's called a benefit risk ratio. And that's why safety is so important when we do things. And I think that for everyone around the table today, if you were asked if you would accept a transfusion, I'm sure you would say only under dire circumstances, right? You don't want a transfusion just for the sake of it. And that's because there's concern that you may not get the benefit, only the risk. And there are multiple areas. Again, we don't have time to get into every one of them, but the fact of the matter is that the transfusion safety officer in many ways is one who is educating clinicians in hospitals, not just how to use a transfusion, but also when, and also if there are any alternatives. Now, in the United States, and in some other countries too, a transfusion of blood is considered to be what's called an invasive procedure. Invasive procedure require the consent of the recipient. And that's why we get consent of blood. And the elements of consent are, again, the benefits, the risks, and alternatives. And again, alternatives may actually be the best way of addressing this. I could talk and we could talk about transfusion all the time. Keep in mind that transfusion is a therapeutic intervention. We could talk about this without ever mentioning the disease that we're treating. And the whole interview could be around transfusion. The fact of the matter is that if we were talking about insulin without mentioning diabetes, or chemotherapy without mentoring cancer, it would be sort of a little off the balance here. Why? Because we have developed into a whole industry for the lack of better word or establishment of transfusion as being first, rather than again, what is it that we're treating? Once you identify what the disease is, transfusion may not be the best thing under the circumstances. One example would be iron deficiency andemia. Iron is the therapy for that. And by the way, easy to diagnose, easy to treat, and this has a very high probably when the highest cure rates in medicine. But if you're in a hospital and you have road blood count as a result of iron deficiency, you most likely are gonna get a transfusion. So the patients, not the patient, but the transfusion safety officer is there to educate the medical public on what we just discussed. Now there is data out there, and this is unfortunate, and this is not meant to, again, discourage a scary one, but the data out there shows that the more a clinician knows about transfusion medicine, the less they get. And the less they know about transfusion medicine, the more they get. So we have a work cut out, and this is why we need a safety officer. And you're absolutely right. I think that transfusion safety officers can do such great things in organizations. Tell me a little bit more about that, about the concept of the transfusion safety officer. How many organizations actually have a transfusion safety officer? That's it, an excellent question. Not many do. It is, again, an issue of finances, and the ability to do that. So you may have them in large academic centers, or large hospitals, or you may have one for a chain of hospitals, an example. But it's not one where one is there in every hospital. However, that, again, for those who are watching her in the public, it doesn't mean that the rest of the institutions have a high risk in terms of transfusion, because whether you're a joint commission or any other accrediting organization, a hospital, you're required to have a review process of transfusions, and you create, if you will, a threshold for these reviews, which are based most of the time on guidelines within the institution. So that we're trying to streamline the exposure of patients to transfusions by doing, unfortunately, as a retrospective review, which is no substitute for prospective review, which could be performed, as an example, by a transfusion safety officer. However, it does go back to educating the individuals if they have veered off what we consider to be the standard for that therapeutic intervention. So for organizations that don't have a transfusion safety officer, what alternatives could you recommend for them to improve transfusion safety? So the current requirement for them, as I mentioned, is to have a, what's called a transfusion review committee, right? Or a blood committee, which, again, is part of the accrediting process that they have to have one. They meet and review cases which have, by definition, veered off what we consider to be the floor and the ceiling of guidelines. So that we're given in excess of what they should be doing, and they have to explain that. So the committee may learn from that, but in fact, most of the time, I will tell you that those were probably unnecessary transfusion, and it's who's that committee to educate that clinician individually. And they track who over the years is, falls into the category of violation of these rules, if you will, consistently, and then they have to address them. So it's not a substitute by any means, but it is another safety barrier, if you will, that needs to be there for transfusion. So while hospitals and clinicians are working on improving safety and getting transfusion safety officers in place, what recommendations can you make for patients and families? If they're in the hospital and they're being told that transfusion is recommended, what can they do to help improve their own safety? Well, there are some resources out there for patients in terms of asking the right question for transfusion. Now, despite the fact that I mentioned to you in the 1970s and 80s, there was the HIV and hepatitis C epidemic, we are seeing something called the consumption of safety. Now, the blood establishment has been working very hard to make what are called blood safe, available and safe, which includes, of course, FDA and other governmental agencies such as Department of Health and Human Services. But the fact is, again, that although blood is safer now than it's been in the past because our testing and the testing as well as a quarantine of blood that's been donated really yield a component of blood that probably is safer, as I mentioned, than ever before, barring that there's no 100%, okay? Now, the fact of the matter is that clinicians now may think that blood is safe, not that it's safer, but it's safe. And in fact, because of that, they may say, well, you could benefit from a unit of blood if I give it to you. Now, there's no science behind that statement, I can tell you that right away. But it may be also that they feel the blood is safe, or maybe if you can benefit from it, it would be nice to give you a transfusion. This part of the consumption of safety, if you will, is best illustrated in the motor vehicle industry. So if you were driving a 1957 Chevy on the highway, you have no seat belts, no disc brakes, right? Anti-lock brakes are not there. You have no safety zones in the car if it crashes, right? No airbags, no other restraints. I mean, you're dealing with a heavy machine going at say 60 miles an hour. You're gonna have a lot of distance between you and the person ahead of you. And you're gonna be watching when you need to stop because it's gonna take you a long time. And since you're unrestrained in the vehicle, you're at risk of clearly being severely injured. So you're cautious. But if you get into a 2020 Chevy car, right? You're gonna have all of these things, right? You're gonna have all of these great safety things. However, what are we doing? We're texting while we're driving because we're consuming that safety. And the same, I think, can be applied to individual clinicians who feel the blood is safe and therefore I can give it to you. Rather than what is the absolute indication for this particular unit of blood? And by the way, that's really not the real question. The question is, what am I treating with that unit of blood? And is that the appropriate therapy? And I will submit to you most of the time, it's not. Wow, that's such great information. Thank you so much, Arya, for joining us today. I know that our network appreciates it. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for all the hard work that you all do and the commitment that you have to patient safety. And I think that this is gonna be a lifelong endeavor and we're gonna have to keep our honor in it forever because things do change. As we've just seen over the last few months, our whole life has been turned over. And this will never stop. We're always gonna have these challenges. And in the meantime, we have the small challenges, which is the patient safety during their exposure to hospitals and healthcare. Well, I hope to have you back again in a few months and maybe we could talk about some, more of a deep dive into patient blood management at that time. That would be wonderful. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Arya. Have a wonderful day.


Good morning, John. A lot of people make a fair amount of noise about the number of ideas that emerge from John and Hank and complexly in DFTBA and Nerdfighteria. This is not untrue. We do indeed have a lot of ideas. Many of them quite good. But while there is a website that keeps track of how long it has been since I've started a new thing, it's definitely not a website of all the ideas I've had because most of them get shot down by you. It's more like you convinced me that the ideas are not good. And I do the same with your ideas. We have a lot of ideas and we spend a lot of time talking about ideas a lot. We do it so much that we have developed a kind of shorthand that might make it like impossible for someone listening to us talking about our ideas to understand what we're even talking about. Like I might have an idea, tell you about it, and you would say, Hank, like that's a fine idea, but it's both a top ten and a walkman, so I don't know why we would do that. So because I like ideas a lot and I know other people do as well, and hopefully these frameworks might be useful for someone else, let us pull back the curtain and hope that it will be useful. Let us start with a walkman. A walkman is an idea that has two components that make it a bad idea. First, it is something that is technically difficult and we are not experts in it. Sometimes we will call something a walkman just because of this condition. Like it's a good idea, but we are not expert enough to pull it off. But to be a true walkman, it also has to be something that will definitely get done by someone else. So if we worked really hard to get the technical expertise or find someone who did, we could come in and do this, but it wouldn't really increase the speed at which the idea happened because someone else out there is very likely to implement the idea anyway. The example in the name here is the walkman. A big idea that happened when we were kids that is a portable tape player. Shorthand number two, you can't stale a person. This is what you say when an idea is permanently overly reliant on a single person. That makes the idea definitionally long-term unsustainable. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea, but you have to know this going into it because a person eventually runs out of hours in the day or runs out of years in their life or more hopefully just runs out of the desire to keep doing that thing forever. It seems trivial, but you would be surprised by how often ideas end up overly reliant on a person and that you need to be accounting for that and working around it. When we have an idea that is okay, but it gets way better when you give all the profit away to charity, that's Newman's owning it. It gets Newman's owned. This just makes ideas better. It makes everybody involved more interested in the project because it makes it more interesting. It makes it less like the normal thing that businesses do. And Newman's owning is a way to make a top 10 a good idea. And a top 10 is any idea that would be successful but wouldn't actually add very much value to the world. This is an old one. It comes from many years ago when we had a week on Vlogbrothers where we just did top 10 lists and all those videos did like 10 times better than the average Vlogbrothers video, but they did not grow the community. They were not interesting. They didn't really even teach anybody anything. They were just lists. And this is not an exhaustive list or anything, but let us end with Emperor of the World ideas. These are ideas that would be really good ideas if and the if condition is everyone would just get out of my way. And do what I tell them to do and agree with me. This actually comes from something that Nerdfighteria's resident mathematician Daniel Biss said to John once. So it all ties together. Emperor of the World ideas aren't even really bad ideas. They're just fantasies. John has become pretty clear to me why we have been pretty good at having new ideas that are pretty good. The part of it is that we have each other to interrogate each other's ideas and we've gotten pretty good at that. The bigger part of it is we have something that we understand fairly well that almost no one else has access to. A fairly large group of interested, passionate, supportive people with really good values. Those people can provide an amazing activation energy for a new idea, but they also provide a constraint. The idea has to be within the values of the community. This keeps us focused not on top tens, but on things that actually provide value and are interesting and new and dynamic and weird. And the results have been something that I am extremely proud to have been a part of. John, I'll see you on Tuesday.


Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite meditation spots at Sedona Mago Center for Well-Being in Sedona, Arizona. It's the high desert here, so water is very precious, and so is a big tree like this willow tree here that can provide shade and protection from the strong desert sun. Let's get a little closer and take a look around. Here I am. It's so good to share this space and time with you today. If you would like, you can close your eyes and just listen to my voice, or you can softly gaze at this video and enjoy the scenery of Sedona. Rest your palms gently on your knees, palms facing upward. Before we begin, let's soak in the beautiful energy of this lake that is surrounding us now. Feel the energy of the cool water from the lake. Now let's gently rotate the neck. Loosening up tension, blockage, stress. Rotate the other direction as well. Don't forget to breathe. Now stop.  Take a few breaths in through your nose all the way down to your lower abdomen and exhale out through your mouth, letting go of stress from your body. In your mind's eye, imagine you are clearing your body with the pure energy of the water from the lake. There is a cool breeze as well that gently brushes your face, hair, and purifies blockages in your body. Softly open your eyes now and let's take a look above us. The warm sunshine is peeking in through the leaves of the willow tree, gently kissing your forehead, sending you love and warmth from the universe. Gaze at the green color of the willow tree leaves. Absorb this green color into your chest and let it cool your heart and heal your weary mind.   We will receive cool energy of the water and water fountain from the lake into your body through your palms. Listen to the sound of the fountain.  The healing water washes away your thoughts, emotions, and heaviness in your brain. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Next to you is a babbling creek that flows into the lake. Listen to the sound and let this energy ease your heart. Let it wash away the worries of your heart. Let it flow into your organs and clean all impurities, blockages in your internal organs. Breathe, breathe through your entire torso and abdomen. Breathe, breathe.  The energy of the sky, the water, the leaves, the creek, the wind. Gently sway your body as if you've become one with this willow tree swaying in the wind. It's drooping leaves softly swaying in harmony with the wind. And as you do, let go of any thoughts of what's right or wrong and simply feel.     Breathe, breathe, breathe. Stop.  Now offer your gratitude to the earth. Thank you to the water for cleansing me. Thank you to the wind for inspiring me. Thank you to the sun for making my consciousness brighter. Thank you to the leaves for protecting me. And most importantly, thank you to myself for receiving and feeling all of these energies and taking this time to reconnect and recharge myself as an act of self-care and love. Breathe. Thank you myself. I love you myself. Great job. Slowly open your eyes, rest your hands back down. One last time, breathe in deeply into your abdomen to bring fresh oxygen to your cells and exhale out through your mouth, letting go of any remaining heavy energy. Gentle smile for yourself. You did a great job. Did you enjoy this nature meditation with me in Sedona? I hope you can come visit Sedona Mago Center soon and experience this spot in real life. See you soon.


What's going on everybody and thanks for tuning in to the week 10 DFS studs edition of the fan duel hurry up I'm Ryan Williams. You can find me on Twitter at Ryan Alexander underscore W And I'm here to give you guys the three studs to build your main slate Sunday teams around on fan duel So without further ado, we got to get into the place Let's start it off as we always do and that's at the quarterback position and we're gonna go with the boy Tom Brady He comes in at 8,300 on fan duel this week And I think that you know He makes for an interesting consideration when you're factoring in Justin Herbert on the slate at only 8k going against a Minnesota Defense favorable spot. You got Josh Allen still on the slate Maybe Kyler Murray comes back people might want to pay down for Jalen Hertz And I think that Tom Brady is definitely got the guy We got a look to when you consider the matchup first of all look at what this guy's doing on the year 24 more fan duel points and all but two games this year four more touchdowns in five games He's been absolutely explosive and you're looking at even coming off of the buy this guy still leads the league in passing touchdown Absolutely incredible year. Then you factor in the matchup. He's going against the Washington football team That's a lot of the second most passing touchdowns on the year You love that Tampa Bay leads the league in red zone plays and touchdowns per game So this is an absolute smash spot Tampa Bay with a 30 and a half implied team total the second highest on the slate Absolutely love getting to Tom Brady this week and pairing him with one or two pass catchers to go along with it Let's move over to the running back position I'm excited to talk about this guy because I haven't had much of a chance to but it's Najee Harris 9400 is where he's coming in on fan duel and we love Love the work that he's getting I know that this seems like a high-priced tag And people are gonna look at Jonathan Taylor going at home against Jacksonville, but Najee going against Detroit He needs to get some looks here You're looking at this guy being the second in the NFL in touches in total touches and touches per game He's been absolutely explosive think back to that week three game where he saw the 19 targets He had 28 total touches in that game and then after that 21 25 30 29 25 This guy's an absolute stud when it comes to getting the ball and this Detroit team is one that we love to attack running backs With all year the lines are allowing the second most fan dual points per game The second most receiving touchdowns to running backs and third most rushing touchdowns on the year 64% of the touchdowns Versus Detroit have come to the running back position This is absolutely an incredible spot and you're loving look at the red zone numbers that Detroit has been allowing They've allowed 20 of 24 red zone opportunities to go for touchdowns. That's absolutely incredible You're factoring in that Detroit has not led in any situation in the second half of games this year So this could be a prime smash spot to just let Najee get going It's a short week short week for the Pittsburgh Steelers and I absolutely love getting to Najee Harris this week Let's close it out with the wide receiver position and this one's gonna feel Man, it's gonna feel a little gross. I guess but Mike Williams at 6900 We have to believe that this guy is gonna get going What what what's one of the phrases that the fantasy analysts love to use in the community positive regression, right? Well, the positive regression should be coming. I know he struggled the past three weeks But you're looking at a disappointing game Uh with baltimore that they that we expected points to be had they didn't come Then he saw the new england defense. Then he was seeing Darius slaying coverage So while he was disappointing we we guess I guess we could have expected to see that coming But you're looking at how explosive he was that he had six touchdowns in his first five games this season He he's still a stud and then again, let's talk about the match up here with minnesota Minnesota has been given up a ton of points to a wide receiver position Especially when you're looking at deep targets per sharp football stats 15.9 percent of all completions Versus minnesota have gone for 20 or more yards into mike williams That's right within his wheelhouse when you're looking at the eight out this guy has and then games involving this minnesota team Average 134 plays. So we're looking at just points That should be coming in bunches Against against this team minnesota allowing the seventh most fan dual points per game to wide receivers and the fourth most touchdowns Mike williams leads the team in end zone targets with nine absolutely explosive and then one final thing Let's just look at the wide receivers that minnesota has gone against and how successful they've been We got a marie cooper hollywood brown ron delmore jamar chase dk matcalf All went for a hundred yards versus this defense and marquis brown was the only one to not score a touchdown as well So we're looking at 101 that's in the potential for mike williams. Maybe even two touchdowns I love buying low on this guy and I love targeting him as one of my studs and buildarounds for this week 10 sunday slate That's going to do it for the week 10 dfs studs edition of the fan dual hurry up guys Make sure you're subscribed to the channel to get all of the content you need to succeed and dfs season long What have you and all your football lineups there and hit that like button for your boy one time We really appreciate that appreciate you guys rocking with us on the fan dual channel I'll catch you guys next week for the week 11 dfs studs until then get this money later fan dual fan


Systems mapping is a type of modeling that is designed to reveal the underlying interrelationships and structure of an organization. This is beneficial as it helps us to create a shared overall model of the system. Likewise, it helps us to start to understand how a system structure creates the observable outcomes. When one looks at most systems, be that in education, finance, energy systems, or politics, one will observe that there is limited understanding or consensus about the overall system. Never mind an understanding of how the system's underlying structure creates the observable outcomes. Typically, when someone is asked to describe the system they operate in, they will create a list of the elements without an understanding of how they interrelate to form the whole. Healthcare management will describe the nation's healthcare as a system, but when asked to describe that system, they will simply give a list of the elements. Hospitals, doctors, policymakers, insurance, etc. Without any real consensus between members about that list. When asked what the problem with the system is, they will point to one of the parts, with different members in the overall system pointing to different parts. The inevitable outcome of this is incoherence and lack of capacity to take coordinated efforts for the benefit of the end user. If we want coordinated action, we need some shared understanding of what the system is. And how it is operating. And this is what systems mapping can give us. Put simply, system maps are powerful visualization tools that can help change agents, describe and diagnose the current state of a given system, create a shared vision of it, get consensus about the problems, and identify opportunities. Of course, if we want shared consensus about the state of the system, then the mapping has to be a collective action created by those different parties involved. We have published a whole book on system mapping that goes in depth on the topic, so we will just touch upon it here to get an idea for its benefits and its importance. A systems map first consists of defining the elements in the system. We start by asking what are the key components? In ecosystems, this may be the different creatures. In a financial system, the different institutions. Or, for example, in a supply chain, the different producers, suppliers, transporters, etc. We now map the relations between those elements. These are causal relations. So these relations might be that of influence, a financial exchange or a physical exchange, such as the exchange of some resources, like water. A cause and effect relationship in a systems map is represented by an arrow between two variables. By variable, we mean anything that can change over time. The arrow goes from the cause variable, the one causing the change, to the effect variable, the one being affected by the change. There are two types of cause and effect relationships in CLDs, positive and negative. A positive relationship is depicted by the plus symbol at the arrow's head, whereas a negative relationship is depicted by the minus symbol at the arrow's head. A positive relationship means that the cause and effect variable is moving in the same direction, such that an increase in the cause variable results in an increase in the effect variable, and a decrease in the cause variable results in a decrease in the effect variable, all else equal. An example of a positive relation is births to population. This is a positive relationship because an increase in births will mean that the population will be larger than it would be if the births had an increase. Additionally, a decrease in births will mean that the population will be smaller than what it would otherwise have been. Conversely, in a negative relationship, the effect variable moves in the opposite direction to the cause variable. So, in this case, an increase in the cause results in a decrease in the effect, and a decrease in the cause increases the effect, all else equal. For example, if the price of grapes increases, then demand of grapes will decrease. Due to some assumed price sensitivity of people who buy grapes, we are also saying that if the price of grapes decreases, then the demand for grapes will increase. This is a negative relationship. When we follow a chain of cause and effect, we might often end up back where we started. Our last variable feeds back to the original cause. This means that we have discovered a feedback loop in the system. A feedback loop is a circular chain of cause and effect. So when A affects B, B affects C, and C affects A again, we say that a feedback loop exists between these variables. Just as there are only two types of causal relationships, positive or negative, there are also only two types of feedback loops, reinforcing or balancing. An example of a reinforcing feedback loop is one of births and population. The positive relationship from births to population also works the other way around. The higher the population, the more births there will be, all else equal. Therefore, an increase in population will increase births, and so a further increase in population. The initial increase in population is reinforced by this feedback loop structure in the system. Another example of this would be the positive feedback loop driving climate change, which can be identified as such. When Arctic ice melts, land or open water takes its place. Both land and open water are on average less reflective than ice, and thus absorb more solar radiation. This causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting, and this cycle continues. The other type of feedback loop that exists is a balancing negative loop. Wills to reinforcing loops generally cause greater change within the system, balancing loops generally do the opposite. They prevent change and create greater stability. An example of a balancing feedback loop is that of deaths and population. When a population increases, the total number of deaths also increases, all else equal. With an increase in deaths, the population in turn decreases. An increase in population is thus balanced by an increase in deaths. Conversely, a decrease in population will be partially compensated for by a decrease in deaths. Negative feedback loops are used as control and regulatory mechanisms, like an athermostat. Whenever there is a desired state in a system, then there will almost always be a balancing loop that describes how that goal is achieved. For example, when the temperature in an apartment is lower than the desired temperature, then there is a temperature gap. The heating system will sense this via a thermostat and will generate heat, such that the temperature gap is eventually reduced to zero, i.e. such that the temperature equals the desired temperature. If the temperature drops below the desired temperature again, then more heat will be generated until they are again equal. This is a balancing loop. To perform a more detailed quantitative analysis, a causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow diagram, which helps in studying and analyzing the system quantitatively, typically through the use of computer simulations. A stock is a term for any entity that accumulates or depletes over time. A flow, in the contrary, is the rate of change in a stock. An example of a stock might be a water reservoir. It is a store of water, and we can ascribe a value to the volume it contains. Now if we put an outlet on the side of our reservoir and started pouring water out of it, this would be an example of a flow. Whereas a stock variable is a measure of some quantity, a flow variable is measured as a rate of exchange over time. By using these tools of system dynamics, we may get a qualitative and or quantitative idea of how a system of interest is likely to develop over time. For example, if we create a simple two-dimensional graph with time on the horizontal axis, we'll see how the different feedback loops create different types of graphs. Graphs for positive feedback loops typically reveal an initial exponential growth as they shoot upwards rapidly, but then reach some environmental boundary conditions where they crash back down again. A financial bubble and ensuing crash would be an example of this. Whereas the net result of a negative feedback loop will be a wave-like graph that will likely be bounded within an upper and lower limit over a prolonged period. With relatively smooth fluctuations during the system's development that enable it to sustain an overall stable state in the long term. System mapping is a powerful tool for creating a shared vision of what the system we are dealing with looks like, but it has many side benefits such as enabling us to locate root causes to systemic problems, identify the system's constituent elements, assess patterns of interaction within a system, deepen our understanding of the complexity behind most systems' failures, serve as a visual guide to understand interaction and relationships, discuss how to identify critical levers for change within a system, generate collective intelligence, find patterns and pathways that lead towards action. System dynamics is essentially just a technique. However, the use of this technique can radically transform how one approaches problems and even how one understands the world.


Planning the garden varieties of vegetables recommended for Alabama So how to choose the best variety there are so many choices and there are other PowerPoints that you may want to check out in this section But to give you a general information of which varieties we recommend throughout Alabama this Presentation will give you some that are tried and true and known to do well throughout the state Every year there are new Maybe bigger and better varieties that are constantly being developed But always stick with those proven recommended varieties if you're doing major plantings And maybe just try some new To the market varieties on a small scale to determine how well they do in the area that you live So here I'm just going to go through different varieties that are recommended of different crops in Alabama and As you'll see these are all cabbage family varieties So these are all related to each other and one way to have success in the garden is to make sure that you Rotate in your garden where you don't plant the same family in the same spot So where you planted broccoli last year you would not want to plant something like cabbage the next as they are susceptible to the same Diseases and even insects in the garden. So for more success, it's recommended that you rotate To a different family in that spot. That's where a garden journal is really going to come in to be handy as You'll forget what you planted from one year to the next so keeping that garden journal of where you planted what as well as what variety you planted and make notes of successes or losses that you had of one variety over the next so that You can continue to improve upon your success from year after year again, these are relatives in the garden beat carrots and radishes and These are recommended varieties that do well really as root crops in the state and Links at the end will also send you more information as to timing of when it is best to plant these different Plants in the garden as well as plant spacing and how to thin things like that to take into consideration with these varieties collards and kale our two plants I really do recommend especially new beginners try as they don't tend to have as many problems other than some Insects maybe some worms eating the foliage but easy pretty easy plants to grow and here are some recommended varieties Cucurbits now these are not easy to grow. They have lots of insect and disease issues and As you can see here Even what your intended use for the plant whether you want to make pickles With the cucumbers or if you're going to use the cucumbers for salad a lot of that determines which variety That you should choose when you decide how to plant them in the garden Also, if you're going to trellis the plant or if it's going to be growing along the ground there's different varieties that you would want to plant based on the intended intended use of the plant or the space that you have available in your plant in your your garden space Okra okra is definitely a southern Plant and does really well in Alabama and there are many different varieties available Again, you want to make sure you pick early the longer you let the plants the fruit Go to harvest the tougher the okra will be so you'll have to stay on this one once it begins to produce You'll be picking almost every day to ensure that you don't have tough okra at harvest So these are tomatoes peppers and eggplants and they are all related to each other So again back to rotating you want to make sure that you rotate in the garden to reduce Disease and insect susceptibility to these plants who have comment a lot of common problems in the garden. So If you planted a tomato there last year don't plant a pepper the next you want to rotate to something outside of the same family to reduce Disease and insect pressure Here are lettuce varieties and it's a lot of fun to grow lettuce in the garden and Easy to do, but it is a low value crop. So if you're limited on space You may decide to go with something Other than lettuce and leave the lettuce growing to those in the supermarket But there's lots of fun varieties and I think they're a beautiful plant to have in the garden in the early spring or the late winter So give it a try, but again, this is a more of a low value crop that takes up a good bit of space that you may decide would be better off to Purchase and use the space available for things like kale or collards or Things that will broccoli that will give you a good yield and a little more hard high value crop Pea varieties, there's black-eyed peas pink-eyed peas Crowder peas, but and they all also may come in different varieties such as those that grow more as a bush style or Require a trellising system. So things to consider when you choose your bean and pea varieties Onions there are short-day onions and long-day onions and green bunching onions So you want to be sure that you know what kind of onion you're growing when you invest that space in the garden as it will Be there for a while before especially if you're growing a bulb onion before you can harvest those big bulb onions Green onions, they're gonna grow quickly in the bunching onions. So You can you know move them out of the soil and bring in a different crop But remember that you're kind of dedicating that spot there for a while for those bulb type onions Again, here's the bean like the pea there's different kind that will Some need trellising and some are more of a bush type So take that into consideration when you're selecting the varieties. Also, you have small seeded Versus large seeded. So that also Is something to take into consideration Mustard spinach turnips. These are all easy especially mustard and turnip turnip greens are easy to establish in the garden and Give a lot of yield and continue to come back if you just harvest the tops. So In the spinach as well. So these are good varieties to put in your garden Things to consider when you're selecting varieties would even be Bolting, bolting means that it's the temperatures have gotten too hot and it'll start to Go to flower and then to seed. So once that happens your plants are finished and you'll pull them out And wait until the temperatures are right to replant. So those that are that don't bolt as quickly or as fast Would be ones to consider especially if you're planting a summer crop that are going to go I mean a spring crop that are going into summer You would want ones that don't bolt as easily because of the possibility of temperatures warming up Asparagus is a fun plant, but also one that you want to establish an area for as it can stay in that garden area for 10 15 20 or more years So it's not a plant you're gonna pull up and replant that area with something else the next year It's definitely a Dedicated space in a garden that you will have for years and years to come Potatoes like the Irish potatoes are There are many different varieties now on the market that even come in some really fun crazy colors So that's something to consider if you want purple or red Even Irish potatoes those varieties Play into that as well as like some scab resistant varieties but um and also I get the question often on planting times do you plant regular Irish potatoes at the same time of sweet potatoes and that is Not the case you plant more of the Irish potatoes Around the middle of February and harvest in May where sweet potatoes are definitely a mid-summer Planting and harvest around September. So they definitely have different seasons To dedicate that garden space to sweet corn there's lots of things to consider when you're planting corn and So here are some recommended varieties And even some that produce that are better for early season mid-season and late season and again, here are great Publications that are available through our website at acs.edu For more specific garden crop questions there. This is definitely a wealth of resource information Also, check out our free garden apps We have so and the farming basics. They're both free through the Alabama Cooperative Extension Through your app store on your phone or tablet and they have recommended varieties that do well all across Alabama as well as disease resistant and Insect Common problems and diseases that affect each crop And if you have further gardening questions, you can always call our master gardener helpline It's toll-free and it's one eight seven seven two five two four seven six nine Or one eight seven seven aloe grow