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Innovations for a Changing World:IBERS Impact Case Studies
Get PDFArwynebedd cyfyngedig o dir sydd gan y byd i greu bwyd, tanwydd a dillad i boblogaeth sy’n tyfu, ac ar yr un pryd lleihau allyriadau nwyon tŷ gwydr a diogelu bioamrywiaeth.Ar sail dros gan mlynedd o hanes o weithio i wella amaethyddiaeth tir glas, nod ymchwil IBERS yw gwneud ffermio yn fwy cynhyrchiol, mwy buddiol i’r gymdeithas a mwy gwarchodol i’n hamgylchedd. Yn yr Athrofa, rydyn ni’n cynnal ymchwil sydd ar flaen y gad a chymhwysol arloesol sy’n sail ar gyfer bridio mathau newydd a gwell o gnydau, gan wneud amaethyddiaeth yn fwy cynaliadwy, a galluogi’r diwydiant i ddatblygu prosesau a chynhyrchion newydd. Yma yn y Canolbarth, mae lleoliad unigryw IBERS a’i ecosystem o alluoedd yn caniatáu i’n myfyrwyr a’n hymchwilwyr gyflawni gwaith ymchwil ymarferol a hyfforddiant mewn geneteg planhigion, amaethyddiaeth, ecoleg, biotechnoleg a gwyddor amgylcheddol. Mae hyn yn fodd inni astudio’n hamgylchedd, ein cynefinoedd a’n systemau bwyd o’r mynydd i’r môr ac o’r fferm i’r fforc. Mae ymchwil graidd IBERS yn canolbwyntio ar wneud cnydau’n fwy gwydn yn erbyn newid hinsawdd, gwella ansawdd cnydau, diogelu amrywiaeth genetig, dal carbon, a deall y rhyngweithio ehangach rhwng amaethyddiaeth a’r amgylchedd. Rydyn ni’n gweithio’n agos gyda’r diwydiant i fynd i’r afael â heriau byd-eang, ymgysylltu â’r rhai sy’n ffurfio polisïau a’r gymuned amaethyddol ehangach er mwyn deall yr hanfodion yn well, ac yna cydweithio i ddod o hyd i atebion. Mae’r casgliad hwn o straeon effaith yn rhoi enghreifftiau go iawn le mae IBERS wedi creu effaith, ac yn parhau i wneud hynny, trwy gymhwyso ein biowyddoniaeth i helpu i adeiladu gwell yfory.The world has a finite area of land to feed, fuel and clothe a growing population, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions and safeguarding biodiversity.With over a hundred year history of working to improve grassland agriculture, IBERS’ research aims to make farming more productive, beneficial to society and protective of our environment.At the institute, we conduct cutting-edge fundamental and applied research that underpins the breeding of new and improved varieties of crops, makes agriculture more sustainable, and enables industry to develop new processes and products.In the heart of Wales, IBERS’ unique location and ecosystem of capabilities allows our students and researchers to conduct hands-on research and training in plant genetics, agriculture, ecology, biotechnology, and environmental science. Enabling study of our environment, habitats, and food systems from summit to sea and field to fork.IBERS core research is focused on making crops more resilient to climate change, improving crop quality, safeguarding genetic diversity, capturing carbon, and understanding the wider interactions between agriculture and the environment.We work closely with industry to tackle global challenges, engage with policymakers and the wider agricultural community to better understand the critical issues, and then work collectively to find solutions.This collection of impact case stories provides some real-world examples of where IBERS has been, and is, creating impact by applying our bioscience to help build a better tomorrow.<br/
The geopolitics of history
Get PDFThis paper explores the geopolitical dimensions of the relationship between history and theory in International Relations in the context of the ‘return of geopolitics’ through an engagement with the work of German historian Reinhart Koselleck. The core argument of the paper is that history has a geopolitics. International order is a significant node in the relationship between conceptions of geographical and historical unity because of its political claim to and production of global space. The upshot of this is that International Relations are not simply an object of historical investigation but produce the conditions by which historical time is understood. At the same time, Koselleck’s critique of the philosophy of history is implicated in a classical geopolitical imaginary found in the work of Halford Mackinder and Carl Schmitt. The diagnosis of globalisation Koselleck shares with Schmitt and Mackinder informs his view of the mutability of transcendental spatial ideas that enable historical understanding. This geopolitical orientation conceives of globalisation as unification of ‘man’ and ‘nature’ in a manner that resonates with contemporary diagnoses of the reunification of human and natural histories in the context of the climate change. In this way Koselleck’s geopolitics of history both challenges and reinforces the relationship between a global international order and the philosophy of history. Koselleck’s work is thus indicative of wider difficulties in rethinking the relationship between history and theory in International Relations in the context of the return of geopolitics. Finally, this work suggests that advancing the critique of the philosophy of history requires challenging the claim of international order to global space.</p
Running on empty:Locomotor compensation preserves fish schooling under hypoxia and informs principles for bioinspired swarms
Get PDFEnvironmental stressors such as hypoxia challenge the balance between individual physiological performance and the coordination required for collective behaviors like schooling. Here, we investigate how glass catfish (Kryptopterus vitreolus) modulate locomotor and group-level behavior across a gradient of oxygen saturation (95%-20%) while swimming steadily at a constant cruising speed. We found that tailbeat frequency decreased significantly with declining oxygen (p < 0.0001), alongside reductions in wave speed (p = 0.007). Tailbeat amplitude, by contrast, increased significantly under hypoxia (p < 0.0001), and posterior segment angles showed a slight, non-significant increase, consistent with modestly greater tail bending. Despite these changes, the Strouhal number remained fairly constant, and waveform topology was conserved. School structure, including nearest-neighbor distance and distance to the center of the school, remained stable across oxygen treatments, but with significant variation across individual schools. A clear behavioral threshold was observed below 25% oxygen saturation, beyond which coordinated schooling deteriorated. These findings demonstrate that glass catfish employ internally coordinated, energetically economical kinematic adjustments to preserve group cohesion under metabolic constraint. This strategy highlights a decentralized mechanism for sustaining collective behavior near physiological limits and offers biologically-grounded insights relevant to energy-aware coordination in bioinspired swarms.</p
Global genomic population structure of wild and cultivated oat reveals signatures of chromosome rearrangements
Get PDFThe genus Avena consists of approximately 30 wild and cultivated oat species. Cultivated oat is an important food crop, yet the broader genetic diversity within the Avena gene pool remains underexplored and underexploited. Here, we characterize over 9000 wild and cultivated hexaploid oat accessions of global origin using genotyping-by-sequencing and explore population structure using multidimensional scaling and population-based clustering methods. We also conduct analyses to reveal chromosome regions associated with local adaptation, sometimes resulting from large-scale chromosome rearrangements. We report four distinct genetic populations within the wild species A. sterilis, a distinct population of cultivated A. byzantina, and multiple populations within cultivated A. sativa. Some chromosome regions associated with local adaptation are also associated with confirmed structural rearrangements on chromosomes 1A, 1C, 3C, 4C, and 7D. This work provides evidence suggesting multiple polyploid origins, multiple domestications, and/or reproductive barriers amongst Avena populations caused by differential chromosome structure.</p
Postfeminist Healthism:Understanding the Gendering of Healthism Using Menstrual Tracking Apps as an Example
Get PDF‘Postfeminist healthism’ offers an essential framework for understanding how healthism is gendered. In this article, we describe and advance the concept of postfeminist sensibility and its synergistic alignments with healthism. We then consider how postfeminist healthism operates as a subjectifying force for the millions of girls, women, and other feminine-identified people globally—even when it harms their mental or physical health. We use menstrual tracking apps (MTAs) as an indicative example to both demonstrate how a postfeminist healthism acts at the intersections of bodies, subjectivity, and health, and to show the value of a postfeminist healthism in understanding MTAs. Overall, we show the importance of understanding the distinct ways in which healthism is gendered through postfeminism.</p
Investigating within-host population diversity of Cryptosporidium parvum using BlooMine
Get PDFInvestigating multiplicity-of-infection (MOI) in pathogen populations is central to understanding within-host evolutionary dynamics. In Cryptosporidium parvum, MOI may play a pivotal role in diversification due to the parasite’s sexually recombinogenic life cycle, which occurs entirely within a single host. Subtyping of C. parvum typically relies on variation at short tandem repeat (STR) loci - such as that found in the 60kDa surface glycoprotein gene, Gp60 - but accurate profiling of these regions from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data remains technically challenging. Here, we apply BlooMine, an alignment-free, Bloom filter based tool that isolates STR containing reads via a novel pseudo-alignment strategy robust to structural and sequence variation. Using this approach, we analyse the full publicly available C. parvum Illumina dataset to quantify polyclonality at the Gp60 locus. After stringent artefact suppression, we detect strong evidence of in-host diversity across multiple continents and hosts. Cattle samples exhibited a 2.3-fold higher odds of harbouring multiple Gp60 subtypes compared to human samples, a difference that remained significant after adjustment for geography, sequencing depth, and subtype family. Allele co-occurrence analysis revealed closely related pairs likely arising from replication slippage, as well as mutually exclusive combinations suggestive of within-host competition or transmission structuring. Several subtypes traditionally considered host-specific were detected in unexpected host contexts, indicating greater host plasticity than previously assumed. Our results support a model in which STR-driven microevolution, recombination, and polyclonal infection jointly shape C. parvum population structure. We propose that MOI may act as a genetic crucible, facilitating subtype diversification within individual hosts. This study represents the largest genomic survey of Gp60 polyclonality to date and provides key insights into the evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics of C. parvum.</p
Supporting Information for Heuristics for the run-length encoded Burrows–Wheeler transform alphabet ordering problem
No full textCode and data for the pape
Miscanthus biomass cell wall composition
No full textCell wall composition (lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, carbon and nitrogen) from root, rhizome, and senesced leaf in different Miscanthus genotypes grown in a pot-based experiment using rhizome split from mature field plots, along with soil carbon data relating to the field grown plants
Sense-making, sensemaking and sense making:A systematic review and meta‐synthesis of literature in information science and education: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper
Get PDFSense‐making, sensemaking, and sense making are terms used in different disciplines. Similarities of usage seem unclear. (1) to examine the concepts used in different approaches to sense‐making/sensemaking/sense making; (2) to identify, classify and synthesize recent studies relevant to information science, as well as similar group on sensemaking in education research; (3) to reflect on future directions for sense‐making/sensemaking methodology in information science. The objectives were to retrieve, examine, classify and perform meta‐synthesis on sense‐making/sensemaking studies in both information science and education research. The review used systematic review principles, with selection criteria for case studies for examination in both information science and education sets. The final meta‐synthesis used a meta‐ethnographic approach, together with findings of recent overviews on organizational sensemaking, and other information science reviews. Qualitative sense‐making studies in information science often used Dervin's SMM (sense‐making methodology) and studies in organizations and education frequently used Weick's organizational sensemaking. Different mixed methods approaches were identified. Sense‐making is actively used in research and practice in information science and knowledge management. Using a coherent sense‐making methodology helps and dialogic principles are useful in planning, data collection and analysis. Individual and collective sense‐making are important to information science