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A multi-tissue single-cell expression atlas in cattle
Get PDFSystematic characterization of the molecular states of cells in livestock tissues is essential for understanding the cellular and genetic mechanisms underlying economically and ecologically important physiological traits. Here, as part of the Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project, we describe a comprehensive reference map including 1,793,854 cells from 59 bovine tissues in calves and adult cattle, spanning both sexes, which reveals intra-tissue and inter-tissue cellular heterogeneity in gene expression, transcription factor regulation and intercellular communication. Integrative analysis with genetic variants that underpin bovine monogenic and complex traits uncovers cell types of relevance, such as spermatocytes, responsible for sperm motility and excitatory neurons for milk fat yield. Comparative analysis reveals similarities in gene expression between cattle and humans, allowing for the detection of relevant cell types to study human complex phenotypes. This Cattle Cell Atlas will serve as a key resource for cattle genetics and genomics, selective breeding and comparative biology.</p
Rabies control via co-creation: A model for sustainable one health interventions
Get PDFRabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that can be effectively controlled by vaccinating 70% of at-risk dog populations. Rabies is a persistent health threat in Kenya due to low rabies vaccination coverage and low awareness among dog owners. In 2014, the Zoonotic Disease Unit launched the national rabies elimination strategy and listed Machakos County as one of the pilot counties due to the high rabies burden. Between 2021 and 2024, the International Livestock Research Institute, Veterinarians Sans Frontiers - Germany and Machakos County government implemented a series of free mass dog rabies vaccination campaigns. To support vaccine uptake, the research team co-created contextual rabies sensitization materials and vaccination announcement posters with the community. This was achieved through a series of key informant interviews, focus group discussions and co-creation workshops with community members who presented their dogs for vaccination and agreed to be part of these activities. Community members shared that dogs play both tangible and intangible roles in their lives. The main tangible roles included guarding homes, livestock, and crops. Friendship was highlighted as the most important intangible role. They stressed that a bond of friendship must first be established for dogs to serve their owners meaningfully. They shared that the co-creation process deepened their understanding of rabies and helped them better appreciate the value of their dogs. As a result, they recognized the importance of vaccinating their dogs - their friends - against the disease. Co-creating public health solutions with communities is an invaluable approach to raising awareness, building trust, and boosting participation in campaigns, all of which are vital for long-term sustainability. We advocate for greater use of co-creation processes, especially as we apply the One Health approach to address zoonotic threats and other health challenges.</p
Agricultural Production, Practices and Challenges
Get PDFFood systems are a major driver implicated in the polycrisis that faces humanity. It is therefore extremely important to reflecton conventional production, practices and challenges, including how we arrived here. The objectives for this section are to provide readers with a foundational understanding of how food is produced, the diverse methods and technologies used across different regions and systems, and the key environmental, economic, and social challenges that producers face. Chapters here in we recurated to provide a mixture of styles that I hope you, the reader, will find engaging and informative
Advancing Tidal Turbine Blade Manufacturing: Exploring Current and Alternative Manufacturing Methods
Get PDFRotor blades are critical components of tidal energy converters, typically manufactured from thermoset fibre-reinforced composite (FRC) materials using vacuum infusion processing. High load demands result in thick-section laminates (10–100 mm), particularly at the blade root, posing manufacturing challenges. While tidal and wind turbine blades appear similar in design, the fundamentally different operational conditions lead to distinct structural differences and, therefore, manufacturing requirements, offering opportunities for the tidal sector to innovate. Advances in materials and manufacturing technologies provide opportunities to rethink current practices for improved design and process efficiency. Additionally, the relative immaturity of tidal technology allows for early integration of circularity principles, minimising waste and optimising resource. This paper serves as a comprehensive resource for the tidal turbine blade sector, reviewing current manufacturing practices and exploring alternative techniques. Combining knowledge from academic literature and industrial reports, it outlines blade design, material selection, and current manufacturing processes. The paper evaluates emerging techniques and potential modifications to established methods. Due to the range of turbine designs in the sector, optimal materials and manufacturing combinations will differ. This study offers manufacturers valuable insights to support informed and strategic choices to improve and advance tidal turbine blade production
The availability, price, and marketing characteristics of organic foods and beverages: a comparative food environment assessment
Get PDFBackground: Demand for organic foods remains low, despite the potential of organic products to contribute to sustainable food systems. Food purchasing decisions are influenced by the food environment, yet no study has systematically evaluated food environment dimensions for organic products. Methods: We developed an organic food environment assessment tool that evaluates the availability, price, vendor and marketing characteristics of organic foods in urban food environments. We implemented the tool in nine cities across Brazil, India, and the United Kingdom for 14 sentinel products.Results: We found that only 37% of 808 surveyed vendors sold an organic option. Organic rice was 1.8-2.5 times the price of non-organic rice. Only 8% of organic products used a price promotion, while 62% displayed a certification label. In India, health benefits were the predominant marketing message (59% of organic foods); in the UK, it was environmental benefits (50%).Conclusion: Our findings indicate a need for a more evidence-based strategy in marketing organic foods and beverages to consumers. There is a need for further research and implementation of marketside initiatives to boost demand for organic foods and beverages in order to encourage a shift towards more sustainable food systems
The first three-dimensional electrical resistivity model of the lithosphere beneath Britain
Get PDFMagnetotelluric data provide unique information to study the electrical resistivity of the Earth's lithosphere, enabling studies of geological structures, tectonic processes, resource exploration, and hazard monitoring. Here, we present the first fully three-dimensional (3D) electrical resistivity model of the deep lithosphere beneath Britain (BERM-2024), derived from the inversion of long-period magnetotelluric data at 69 MT sites, incorporating recently acquired data along with selected legacy data sets. Rigorous testing of the prior model design and inversion smoothing parameters led to a robust and geologically meaningful model. The model reveals significant lateral and vertical variation, with shallow conductive anomalies correlating with sedimentary basins in western Britain, such as the Cheshire Basin and the Welsh Massif, while resistive anomalies are related to granitic plutons in the Scottish Highlands and Cornwall. At mid-crustal to upper mantle depths, strong resistivity contrasts coincide with major faults that bound distinct tectono-stratigraphic terranes, including a clear signature of the Southern Uplands Fault separating the conductive Southern Uplands Terrane from the less conductive Midland Valley Terrane. A newly imaged, deep conductive anomaly (85–140 km) is detected beneath the West Midlands region. Beyond the geological insights, resistivity models are key for studying space weather impacts on ground-level infrastructure. We model geoelectric fields for the geomagnetic storm of 10 October 2024 using our model, demonstrating high correlation with measured electric fields at Eskdalemuir magnetic observatory (ESK), although amplitude discrepancies remain. This work establishes a foundation for future geophysical and geohazard studies and underscores the need for continued magnetotelluric data acquisition across Britain
Brain maps of general cognitive functioning:Neuroimaging and neurobiological signatures
Get PDFIn this paper, we attempt to answer two questions: 1) which regions of the human brain, in terms of morphometry, are most strongly related to individual differences in domain-general cognitive functioning (g)? and 2) what are the underlying neurobiological properties of those regions? We meta-analyse vertex-wise g-cortical morphometry (volume, surface area, thickness, curvature and sulcal depth) associations using data from 3 cohorts: the UK Biobank (UKB), Generation Scotland (GenScot), and the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936), meta-analytic N = 38,379 (age range = 44 to 84 years old). These g-morphometry associations vary in magnitude and direction across the cortex (β range = -0.12 to 0.17 across morphometry measures) and show good cross-cohort agreement (mean spatial correlation r = 0.57, SD = 0.18). Then, to address question (2), we bring together existing - and derive new - cortical maps of 33 neurobiological characteristics from multiple modalities (including neurotransmitter receptor densities, gene expression, functional connectivity, metabolism, and cytoarchitectural similarity). We report that these 33 profiles spatially covary along four major dimensions of cortical organisation (accounting for 66.1% of the variance) and these dimensions share spatial patterning with the g-morphometry profiles (p_spin < 0.05 |r| range = 0.22 to 0.55). We provide a compendium of cortex-wide and within-region spatial correlations among general and specific facets of brain cortical organisation and higher order cognitive functioning, which we hope will serve as a framework for analysing other aspects of behaviour-brain MRI associations.</p
Acknowledging, recognising and responding to one another: ordinary hospitality in the cafe
Get PDFIn places of hospitality, hosts and guests encounter one another in, and through, visiting the place of the host, under principles of offering welcome. Clive Barnett drew on the ideas of the philosopher, Stanley Cavell, to develop those of Derrida and Levinas and, in this article, we ground Barnett’s theorising of hospitality in the routine work of café service. For staff and customers, the ethics of hospitality is in the response to the other as more than their service identity, it is in their responsiveness to one another and their acknowledgement. From video-recordings of café service in the UK, we describe the assessment of experience, the sharing of plans, the use of proprieties and improprieties in pursuing intimacy. We re-examine what happens around recognition and misrecognition of identities which are based on the public appearances of customers and staff. Each of these are ways of people in public places pursuing or avoiding revealing more of who they are for one another
Plant development: Auxin diffusion controls moss shoot architecture
Get PDFThe phytohormone auxin is a conserved inhibitor of shoot branching in plants. While directional, carrier-mediated transport is necessary for the process in vascular plants, new research demonstrates that auxin diffusion via plasmodesmata may be sufficient in the moss Physcomitrium patens
(NiZnMg)MoN with optimized d-band center enables industrial-level hydrogen production
Get PDFDeveloping efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant elements is critical for advancing sustainable energy technologies. However, existing catalysts suffer from suboptimal Gibbs free energy for hydrogen adsorption (ΔGH*), resulting in significantly lower catalytic performance compared to platinum-based catalysts. In this study, a novel electronegativity modulation strategy was applied to enhance catalytic activity. Inspired by the d-band center (Ed) theory, Zn and Mg were introduced into the catalyst system to regulate the electronic structure. The electronegativity difference induced strong local electronic interactions, which effectively tuned the d-band center of Ni active sites and optimized ΔGH*. As a result, the (NiZnMg)MoN catalyst exhibited outstanding HER performance with an overpotential of only 138 mV at 300 mA cm−2, surpassing commercial Pt/C catalysts. This study provides valuable insights into designing efficient doped electrocatalysts based on d-band tuning and electronegativity engineering. The findings offer a promising strategy to overcome performance limitations in HER electrocatalysis and accelerate the practical application of alkaline hydrogen production in sustainable energy systems. (Figure presented.)</p
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