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Understanding antimicrobial use by equine owners in Wales:Using cross‐sectional survey and semi‐structured interviews
Get PDFBackground: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an increasingly serious threat to human and animal health. Antimicrobial use (AMU) in horses is gathering research interest, although there remain significant evidence gaps. Currently, there is scant qualitative research into equine owners' use of antimicrobials, specifically antibiotics, hindering the design of evidence‐based stewardship interventions and policies. Objectives: To understand Welsh equine owners' views and behaviours relating to antimicrobial usage. Study Design: Cross sectional survey and qualitative data collection and analysis. Methods: An online survey (n = 319) and semi‐structured interviews (n = 21) were conducted with Welsh equine owners. The survey examined participant knowledge of and relationship with their horse(s), sourcing of antibiotics, owner–vet interactions on antibiotic prescribing, antibiotic usage, and their understanding of AMR. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews further explored horse owner perspectives, experiences, and decision‐making relating to these areas, to add nuance and depth to quantitative data. Survey data were descriptively analysed, and interview data were coded and qualitatively analysed using a thematic approach. Results: Welsh equine owners regarded their horses as members of the family (84.8%). Most sourced antibiotics from their vet (68.9%) with a minority (5.1%) never having done so or having used antibiotics left over (16.6%) and 13.6% would consider changing veterinary practice if they did not receive antibiotics when they requested them. Interview data suggest that antibiotic use was shaped by (i) key relationships of care (human–animal and owner–vet); (ii) competing priorities (treatment need versus ease of administration); and (iii) imperfect comprehension (education, information, AMU/AMR knowledge). Main Limitations: Potential self‐selection bias of respondents due to the voluntary nature of participation. Conclusions: This study highlights variations in the horse‐owner relationship, conflicting priorities involved in horse ownership, and the quality of vet–client relationships which may influence treatment decision‐making. It raises some concerns about the sourcing of antibiotics and variable understanding of AMR, with important implications for antimicrobial stewardship and educational priorities
Inherent instability leads to high costs of hovering in near-neutrally buoyant fishes
Get PDFHovering, the ability to maintain a stationary position in fluid, is essential for many fish species during prey capture, habitat exploration, and mating. While traditionally assumed to be energetically inexpensive for fishes with a swim bladder, the metabolic costs and morphological factors influencing postural stability during hovering remain poorly understood. Hovering requires fishes to counteract small instabilities in position and orientation, often through continuous adjustments using their fins and body. To examine the energetic consequences of this active stabilization, we measured body posture, fin kinematics, and metabolic rates in 13 near-neutrally buoyant fish species during both hovering and resting. Our results show that hovering nearly doubles metabolic rates compared to resting, and species with greater separation between the center of mass and center of buoyancy and increased caudal fin activity exhibit higher energetic costs. In contrast, species with more posteriorly positioned pectoral fins and lower length-to-depth ratios show reduced hovering costs. Our findings demonstrate that, despite morphological traits that promote instability, fishes maintain posture and position through fine-scale fin control-at a significant energetic expense. This study suggests that hovering is a costly behavior that likely plays a key role in shaping the evolution of fish morphology and locomotor strategies.</p
Electrifying Thinkers
Get PDFThe paper charts the relationship between three key figures in the philosophical and political turmoil that underpinned the American Revolution: Joseph Priestley, Richard Price, and Benjamin Franklin. It examines their friendship with a particular focus on their shared interest in electricity. It suggests that they had in common an understanding of electricity as a revolutionary new fluid that both offered a model for nature’s operations, and for the reorganization of society. It argues that their activities are best understood in the broader context of radical knowledge circulating around the eighteenth-century Atlantic world through peripheral men could wield substantial influence
Testing Agronomic Treatments to Improve the Establishment of Novel Miscanthus Hybrids on Marginal Land
Get PDFMiscanthus is considered a promising candidate for the cultivation of marginal land. This land poses unique challenges, and experiments have shown that the “establishment phase” is of paramount importance to the long-term yield performance of miscanthus. This experiment analyzes novel miscanthus hybrids and how their establishment on marginal land can be improved through agronomic interventions. Experiments took place at two sites in Germany: at Ihinger Hof, with a very shallow soil profile and high stone content, and at Reichwalde, where the soil was repurposed river sediment with low organic matter, high stone content, and a compacted lower horizon. These marginal conditions functioned as test cases for the improvement of miscanthus establishment agronomy. Four hybrids (Miscanthus x giganteus, Gnt10, Gnt43, and Syn55) and agronomic treatments such as plastic mulch film, miscanthus mulch, inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi, and fertilization were tested in two years at both sites in 2021 and 2022. Specific weather conditions and the timing of planting were strong determinants of establishment success and no single treatment combination was found that consistently increased the establishment success. Plastic mulch films were found to hinder rather than help establishment in both these locations. Chipped miscanthus mulch caused nitrogen immobilization and stunted plant growth. At Ihinger Hof the novel seed-based miscanthus hybrid Gnt43 produced twice the biomass of other hybrids (7 t ha−1) in the first growing season. Gnt10 yielded well in 2021 and showed impressive tolerance to water stress in the summer of 2022. No treatment combination was found that consistently increased the establishment success of miscanthus hybrids across sites and years. Novel genotypes consistently outperformed the standard commercial miscanthus hybrid Miscanthus x giganteus. Gnt10 may be a promising candidate for the cultivation of water-stress-prone marginal lands, due to its isohydric behavior and high yield potential.</p
The Centrality of ‘Guilt’ in Youth Justice:Conceptualising Child ‘Guilt’ for Child First Justice
Get PDFChildren are extremely vulnerable yet often treated as adults, measured by adult-centric conceptualisations of ‘guilt’ and expected to decide on their own culpability for law infringement. In addition, system agents incentivise children to admit guilt by offering contingent support or implying further consequences for refusal, resulting in a youth justice system that exacerbates this by requiring admissions of guilt throughout the process. We explore difficulties of applying adult-centric understandings of ‘guilt’ to children through our typology of guilt, which examines responses children might give to questions of guilt and asks whether applying adult-centric notions of guilt erodes ‘Child First’ youth justice
‘The Way Enthusiasm Builds’:Frame Amplification and Emotional Reinforcement in Participatory Policymaking
Get PDFTo create policies about complex environmental challenges, it is vital to involve multiple stakeholders. Whilst research has shown how emotions may influence multi-stakeholder collaborations, the role of emotions in participatory policymaking is not sufficiently understood. This study focuses on the role of emotions during a series of citizen workshops that feed into urban tree management policies. Specifically, we explore how emotions are related to the deliberation of citizens’ frames (i.e. sensemaking schemata). Our findings demonstrate inherent interconnections between participants’ frames and emotions. We identify a chain of mechanisms by which the expression of frames and associated emotions during interactions led to an intertwined amplification of citizens’ frames and reinforcement of their emotions. We also explain the cases of ‘separation’ where this did not occur. Our model extends prior insights into the relationship between frames and emotions and demonstrates how citizen workshops serve not only to gain citizens’ input into public policies, but also to cultivate their frames through emotional reinforcement.</p
"More than Friends":Bisexual Perspectives in Roberta M. Graham's Fallen Angel and Helen Chadwick's Lofos Nymphon
Get PDFThis article traces Roberta M. Graham's and Helen Chadwick's creative and loving friendship through close readings of Graham's *Fallen Angel* (1986) and Chadwick's *Lofos Nymphon* (1987), exploring how these photographic installations illustrate what Clare Hemmings has described as a "bisexual perspective". While the discourse around both artists' work thoroughly documents their male collaborators, their relationship with, and influence on, one another has remained unexamined. When and why does bisexuality disappear, and with what effects? How does partiality and in-betweenness pose problems for the present-day imperative of queer artistic production to be visible? Deploying an embodied approach that draws on interviews with Graham and research on Chadwick's archive, I narrate my longing for a bisexual genealogy through a series of "scenes" that expose the erotic and ethical terrain that often characterises such queer archival encounters. What insights does a bisexual perspective offer queer art history in its attempts to resist the discipline's normative, canonising tendencies
Anthelmintic evaluation of triterpenes derived from conifers (family Pinaceae) on the digenean parasite Fasciola hepatica
Get PDFFasciolosis is a devastating food borne parasitic disease of ruminants and is mainly caused by infection with the trematode Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke) in temperate climates. The primary strategy of fasciolosis control relies on a single drug, triclabendazole, although nitroxinil, albendazole, closantel, rafoxanide and clorsulon can also be used to treat chronic infections. Unfortunately, growing evidence indicates that triclabendazole resistant liver fluke populations are pervasive. Therefore, identifying new chemical matter with anthelmintic properties as starting points for drug development is urgently needed. Here, we continue our studies into the flukicidal activities of plant derived natural products isolated and purified from coniferous trees. Amongst nine triterpenes studied, Abies grandis derived 700235 represents a novel chemical entity with pronounced ex vivo paralytic activity that led to death in the majority of F. hepatica Newly Excysted Juveniles (NEJs) at 10 μM after 72 h. In adults, paralytic activity was also observed in some individuals at higher concentrations (13.3 and 40 μM). While the mechanism of action is currently unknown, the anthelmintic activity of 700235 (and related triterpenes) is linked to the presence of both a steroid-like tetracyclic nucleus and a side lactone ring. Although some epithelial cell cytotoxicity developed in time (CC50s on Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells - 68.9 μM at 24 h and 16.7 μM at 72 h), 700235 is predicted to display many favorable ADMET, PK and drug-like characteristics suitable for further consideration as a starting point in the search for new flukicides to treat fasciolosis.</p
Low–Cost 3D–Printed Standard Gain Horn Antennas for Millimetre–Wave Applications
Get PDFThis paper presents additively manufactured (3D printed) several standard gain horn antennas which have been designed to ensure simple and low–cost fabrication. In order to validate the proposed manufacturing approach, we have designed a number of antennas covering the entire frequency range from 26 GHz to 110 GHz. The proposed antennas have been prototyped and measured. They were found to yield very good performance when compared to commercially available standard gain horn antennas. Unlike metallic standard gain horns antennas, whose manufacturing cost increases as the frequency goes high due to fabrication challenges, the cost of fabricating 3D–printed antennas goes actually down as the frequency increases (up to 110 GHz). The measured performances, in terms of return loss, radiation patterns and gain, of these fabricated 3D printed antennas agree remarkably well with the measured results for commercially available standard gain horns antennas.</p
Variation in Cell Wall Composition and Saccharification Potential of Seed-Based Miscanthus Hybrids Grown on Marginal Lands Across Six European Trial Locations
Get PDFMiscanthus breeding programs have focused on developing intraspecific (M. sinensis × M. sinensis) and interspecific (M. sinensis × M. sacchariflorus) seed-based hybrids with distinct cell wall characteristics for different biomass value chains. Here, we evaluated the performance of 13 novel hybrids (including seed-based intraspecific, seed-based interspecific, and one clonally propagated interspecific hybrid) relative to Miscanthus × giganteus (M × g). We compared the cell wall composition, saccharification efficiency, and yield after spring harvests in 2021 and 2022 across six European locations. Cell wall content and composition varied significantly among hybrids and were influenced by environmental conditions, yet differences due to parental background were largely consistent across locations. On average, seed-based interspecific hybrids (80.6%–84.0% neutral detergent fiber) had a lower total cell wall content than the other hybrids evaluated in this study (88.3%–90.8%). In contrast, cellulose was ~5.5% higher in hybrids with an M. sinensis × M. sacchariflorus background relative to the intraspecific hybrids, while hemicellulose averaged above 34% for intraspecific hybrids, 29.4% to 31.8% in the interspecific hybrids, and below 27% for M × g. Lignin content was highest in M × g (~13.8%), intermediate in the interspecific hybrids (11.0%–12.2%), and lowest in the intraspecific hybrids (~10%). These compositional traits translated into saccharification efficiencies that were 32.9% higher for the intraspecific hybrids and 9.8%–13.1% higher for the interspecific hybrids (seed-based and clonally propagated) compared to M × g. Accounting for biomass yield, either several seed-based hybrids or the novel clonally propagated hybrid exceeded the theoretical ethanol potential of M × g at all trial locations, indicating strong potential for their use in lignocellulosic biofuel production.</p