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Enhanced woody biomass production in a mature temperate forest under elevated CO2
Get PDFEnhanced CO2 assimilation by forests as atmospheric CO2 concentration rises could slow the rate of CO2 increase if the assimilated carbon is allocated to long-lived biomass. Experiments in young tree plantations support a CO2 fertilization effect as atmospheric CO2 continues to increase. Uncertainty exists, however, as to whether older, more mature forests retain the capacity to respond to elevated CO2. Here, aided by tree-ring analysis and canopy laser scanning, we show that a 180-year-old Quercus robur L. woodland in central England increased the production of woody biomass when exposed to free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) for 7 years. Further, elevated CO2 increased exudation of carbon from fine roots into the soil with likely effects on nutrient cycles. The increase in tree growth and allocation to long-lived woody biomass demonstrated here substantiates the major role for mature temperate forests in climate change mitigation
A systemic exploration of type-1 diabetes in childhood: Experiences of parents, clinicians, and school staff
Get PDFAssessment of wastewater derived pollution using viral monitoring in two estuaries
Get PDFHuman wastewater-derived pollution of the environment is an emerging health risk that increases the number of waterborne and foodborne illnesses globally. To better understand and mitigate such health risks, we investigated the prevalence of faecal indicator bacteria, Escherichia coli, and indicator virus (crAssphage) along with human and animal enteric viruses (adenoviruses, noroviruses, sapoviruses, hepatitis E virus) in shellfish and water samples collected from two shellfish harvesting areas in the UK. Human noroviruses were detected at higher detection rates in oyster and water samples compared to mussels with peaks during the autumn-winter seasons. Human enteric viruses were sporadically detected during the warmer months, suggesting potential introduction by tourists following the relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown measures. Our results suggest that viral indicators are more suitable for risk assessment and source tracking than E. coli. The detection of emerging hepatitis and sapoviruses, support the need for comprehensive viral monitoring in shellfish harvesting areas.</p
Empowering agency through learner-orchestrated self-generated feedback
Get PDFRecent scholarship emphasises the capacity to self-generate feedback to develop learner agency and avoid bottlenecks as students wait for feedback. Technology can help by mediating access to various level-appropriate resources such as peers’ work-in-progress, uptake strategies and teacher feedback. These can be used as ‘comparators’ for self-generated feedback. This cumulative longitudinal study investigated learner orchestration of self-generated feedback within an ‘open access’ Google Drive/Classroom mediated feedback environment, inductively analysing reflective writing (N = 40), and interviews (N = 30) from several research writing cohorts at a South Korean university from 2018 to 2022. Findings evidence that participants generated feedback from comparisons with peers’ work, uptake strategies and teacher feedback. This helped them better understand tasks, calibrate evaluative judgement, and improve work. Comparisons with exemplars/peers’ work supported global-level insights while peer feedback highlighted aspects outside of conscious awareness evidencing synergy between methods. Peer/teacher feedback replaced the need for teacher instructions for comparison processes and insights for avoiding psychological risks of self-generated feedback were also gleaned. The results are original and significant in illustrating hitherto unexplored benefits of open access to peers’ work-in-progress and teacher feedback, how students exercise agency in orchestrating learning, exemplifying teacher set-up, and elucidating the evolving concept of teacher feedback literacy
"Before I came to the hospice, I had nobody". A qualitative exploration of what patients, family-caregivers, clinicians and volunteers valued most about home, day therapy or inpatient hospice services
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Globally, the demand for hospice care continues to grow resulting in substantial resource burden. Whilst some countries are able to rely on fixed government contributions, statutory funding for palliative care in the United Kingdom is unequally distributed. These unstable funding streams and increased demand means that hospices need to evidence their value.OBJECTIVE: This study explored the experiences of patients and family-caregivers to determine what they valued most from accessing hospice services in Wales.METHODS: In this large multi-site qualitative study, 94 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups were conducted with hospice patients ( n = 45), family-caregivers ( n = 18), hospice staff ( n = 31) and volunteers ( n = 10). The audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework analysis. RESULTS: Seven themes described patient and family-caregiver experiences and what they valued most: relationships with staff and volunteers, greater support networks which reduced social isolation and loneliness, provision of information and advice which improved patient autonomy, symptom management and subsequent reduction in psychological distress, improvements in patient functionality, mobility and overall physical health and respite relief which promoted improved relationships.CONCLUSION: This is the largest study to explore what patients and family-caregivers value from hospice care. Findings indicate that hospice care provides a truly needs-led and strengths-based service to those who are nearing and at the end-of-life, which is highly valued by patients and family members.</p
Interactive responses to temperature and salinity in larvae of the Asian brush-clawed crab Hemigrapsus takanoi: relevance for range expansion into the Baltic Sea, in the context of climate change
Get PDFWe studied the potential of a recently introduced species, the Asian brush-clawed crab (Hemigrapsus takanoi), to expand its distribution range further into the Baltic Sea. H. takanoi has been documented in the southwestern Baltic Sea since 2014. The ability to persist and further expand into the Baltic Proper will depend on their potential to sustain all stages of their complex life cycle, including pelagic larvae, under the Baltic Sea's conditions. Range limits may be established by the tolerance to low salinity, which in addition may be affected by water temperature. A key question is whether local populations at the distribution limit (within the Baltic Sea) show increased tolerance to low salinities and hence promote further expansion. We quantified the combined effects of salinity (10 - 33 PSU) and temperature (15 - 24 °C) on larval development in four populations of H. takanoi (two from the Baltic and two from the North Sea). We found substantial differences in larval performance between the populations from the Baltic and North Seas . Larvae from the North Sea populations always showed higher survival and faster development compared with those from the Baltic Sea. Only weak evidence of elevated tolerance towards low salinity was found in the larvae from the Baltic Sea populations. In addition, larvae from the population located near the range limit showed very low survival under all tested salinity-temperature combinations and no evidence of increased tolerance to low salinity. There was no apparent genetic differentiation among the studied populations in the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit one gene (COI) implying high connectivity among the populations. In conclusion , the weak evidence of low salinity tolerance in Baltic Sea populations, and poor larval performance for the population located near the range limit, coupled with limited genetic differentiation suggest that subsidies are needed for populations to persist near the range limit. Alternatively, ontogenetic migrations would be required to sustain those populations. Monitoring efforts are needed to elucidate the underlaying mechanisms and document potential future range expansions
Intercomparison of surface velocimetry techniques for drone-based marine current characterization
Get PDFMapping tidal currents is important for a variety of coastal and marine applications. Deriving current maps from in-situ measurements is difficult due to spatio-temporal separation of measurement points. Therefore, low-cost remote sensing tools such as drone-based surface velocimetry are attractive. Previous application of particle image velocimetry to tidal current measurements demonstrated that accuracy depends on site and environmental conditions. This study compares surface velocimetry techniques across a range of these conditions. Various open-source tools and image pre-processing methods were applied to six sets of videos and validation data that cover a variety of site and weather conditions. When wind-driven ripples are present in imagery, it was found a short-wave celerity inversion performed best, with mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 5–6% compared to surface drifters. During lower wind speeds, current-advected surface features are visible and techniques which track these work best, of which the most appropriate technique depends on specifics of the collected imagery; MAPEs of 9–21% were obtained. This work has quantified accuracy and demonstrated that surface current maps can be obtained from drones under both high and low wind speeds and at a variety of sites. By following these suggested approaches, practitioners can use drones as a current mapping tool at coastal and offshore sites with confidence in the outputs
Herbal leys increase forage macro- and micronutrient content, spring lamb nutrition, liveweight gain, and reduce gastrointestinal parasites compared to a grass-clover ley
Get PDFCommercial herbal leys (multispecies swards) are rapidly gaining popularity due to their potential to deliver an enhanced suite of ecosystem services. However, little is known about their impact on lamb production. A 2-ha split-field experiment using an herbal and grass-clover ley (0.33 ha paddock−1, n = 3 per sward) aimed to evaluate the effect of sward-type on forage quality and lamb productivity. Lambs (n = 40 per sward) were rotationally grazed over two experimental seasons: autumn 2020 (males) and spring 2021 (females). Sward quality was measured at the start of each grazing season. Liveweight gain and faecal egg counts (FEC) were measured at week 0, 4 and 6 in autumn and week 0, 4, 9 and 11 in spring. Blood samples were analysed after 11-weeks in spring to assess mineral status. General sward nutritional quality (e.g., crude protein) did not improve under the herbal ley, however, higher sward macro- and micronutrient concentrations were observed in both seasons. Spring liveweight gain was significantly greater in lambs grazing the herbal (172 ± 7 g d−1) vs. grass-clover ley (144 ± 7 g d−1), while autumn liveweight gain showed no difference. Spring lambs grazing the herbal ley compared to the grass-clover ley had elevated plasma cobalt (2.0 ± 0.1 nmol l−1 vs. 1.6 ± 0.1 nmol l−1) and selenium (0.7 ± 0.04 µmol l−1 vs. 0.5 ± 0.01 µmol l−1), with lower blood urea (7.7 ± 0.3 nmol l−1 vs. 10.4 ± 0.4 nmol l−1). Spring FEC scores were reduced by 78 % in herbal grazed lambs; there were no significant differences in autumn FEC from either sward. In conclusion, the herbal ley resulted in seasonal improvements in sward micronutrient content and lamb parasite burden, mineral status, and productivity
Keeping warm at home during winter in Wales: Differences in heating behaviours, coping strategies, and wellbeing from 2022 to 2023
Get PDFComparative assessment of Nanotrap and polyethylene glycol-based virus concentration in wastewater samples
Get PDFWastewater-based epidemiology is now widely used in many countries for the routine monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses at a community level. However, efficient sample processing technologies are still under investigation. In this study, we compared the performance of the novel Nanotrap® Microbiome Particles (NMP) concentration method to the commonly used polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation method for concentrating viruses from wastewater and their subsequent quantification and sequencing. For this, we first spiked wastewater with SARS-CoV-2, influenza and measles viruses and norovirus and found that the NMP method recovered 0.4%-21% of them depending on virus type, providing consistent and reproducible results. Using the NMP and PEG methods, we monitored SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B viruses, RSV, enteroviruses and norovirus GI and GII and crAssphage in wastewater using quantitative PCR (qPCR)-based methods and next-generation sequencing. Good viral recoveries were observed for highly abundant viruses using both methods; however, PEG precipitation was more successful in the recovery of low-abundance viruses present in wastewater. Furthermore, samples processed with PEG precipitation were more successfully sequenced for SARS-CoV-2 than those processed with the NMP method. Virus recoveries were enhanced by high sample volumes when PEG precipitation was applied. Overall, our results suggest that the NMP concentration method is a rapid and easy virus concentration method for viral targets that are abundant in wastewater, whereas PEG precipitation may be more suited to the recovery and analysis of low-abundance viruses and for next generation sequencing. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.