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The control of mushroom pathogen Lecanicillium fungicola with fungicides and Bacillus-based biocontrol treatments during crop trial studies
Full text linkBackground
Lecanicillium fungicola is a fungal pathogen of the white button mushroom ( Agaricus bisporus ) and causes dry bubble disease. Due to the recent withdrawal of approval for the most common fungicide prochloraz, only one approved fungicide, metrafenone can be used on mushroom crops within the European Union. Biocontrol uses antagonist bacteria and is being evaluated as a sustainable alternative to fungicides. Bacillus velezensis (QST 713) is the active agent in a commercially available biocontrol product, while B. velezensis (Kos) is a novel strain. Both have shown antagonistic activity against L. fungicola in vitro . The aim of this work was to evaluate the management of dry bubble disease during large scale crop trials using both fungicide and biocontrol treatments and using a range of inoculation levels to establish a level which best reflects on-farm conditions.
Results
An inoculation rate of 1 × 10 4 conidia m −2 applied on day 12 was determined to reflect disease conditions on mushroom farms most closely. At this inoculation rate, the fungicide metrafenone achieved efficacy levels of 96%. Biocontrol treatments Kos and QST 713 were also able to significantly reduce disease development ( p < 0.05) and resulted in efficacy levels of 74% and 86% respectively. Applying salt to diseased areas on the beds significantly prevented disease outbreak (efficacy 73%), demonstrating that this is a technique which growers should continue to employ.
Conclusion
This work provides important information to the mushroom sector on the treatment of dry bubble disease and provides suggestions to researchers when considering inoculation levels to include for testing biocontrol treatments at a crop level
Polychlorinated biphenyls induce immunometabolic switch of antiinflammatory macrophages toward an inflammatory phenotype
Full text linkPolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of environmental toxicants associated with increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. These metabolic disorders are characterized by systemic and local inflammation within adipose tissue, the primary site of PCB accumulation. These inflammatory changes arise when resident adipose tissue macrophages undergo phenotypic plasticity—switching from an antiinflammatory to an inflammatory phenotype. Thus, we sought to assess whether PCB exposure drives macrophage phenotypic switching. We investigated how human monocyte-derived macrophages polarized toward an M1, M2a, or M2c phenotype were impacted by exposure to Aroclor 1254, a PCB mixture found at high levels in school air. We showed that PCB exposure not only exacerbates the inflammatory phenotype of M1 macrophages but also shifts both M2a and M2c cells toward a more inflammatory phototype in both a dose- and time-dependent manner. Additionally, we show that PCB exposure leads to significant metabolic changes. M2 macrophages exposed to PCBs exhibit increased reliance on aerobic glycolysis and reduced capacity for fatty acid and amino acid oxidation—both indicators of an inflammatory macrophage phenotype. Collectively, these results demonstrate that PCBs promote immunometabolic macrophage plasticity toward a more M1-like phenotype, thereby suggesting that PCBs exacerbate metabolic diseases by altering the inflammatory environment in adipose tissue
International Journal of Art & Design Education
Full text linkDesign is ubiquitous, shaping every aspect of human life, yet within school curricula
it remains misunderstood and undervalued. This paper argues for a reframing of
design’s place within the ecology of Art & Design education, where behaviours,
pedagogies, and policy intersect with systemic challenges of funding, expertise, and
technological disruption. At a time when natural and social systems face
unprecedented peril, design education holds critical potential to address climate
justice, civic equity, and sustainable futures. Despite the UK Design Council reporting
that 1 in 20 work in the design economy, skill shortages persist in circular and lowcarbon
design, while GCSE enrolments in Design & Technology and Art & Design
continue to decline. Paradoxically, higher education offers a proliferation of
sustainability-focused design courses, and many of those students increasingly
choose to apply human-centred design to improve lives. This paper explores how
these tensions shape the ecology of design education, where art and technology
converge in applied practice. It asks: how can we teach the human skills necessary to
navigate generative AI and other posthuman technologies while sustaining
disciplinary traditions? By adopting ecological thinking, the paper proposes inclusive,
adaptive models for art in design education that respond to planetary and societal
urgencies
Joanne Conaghan and Yvette Russell: Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial
Full text linkThe abstract is included in the text
A generalization of Carr’s Theorem to k-positive Ricci curvature and applications
Full text linkThe principal aim of this thesis is to establish a generalization of a classical result in positive
scalar curvature due to Carr. This result asserts that given any smooth subcomplex of a Riemannian
manifold with codimension at least three, there is a tubular neighbourhood whose
boundary has an induced metric with positive scalar curvature. The aim is to generalize this
to a range of stronger curvature conditions, namely k-positive Ricci curvature for k at least
2, Sck. The proposed theorem claims that for a dimension d subcomplex, there is a tubular
neighbourhood boundary with (d+1)-positive Ricci curvature. This implies the Carr result
when d is at most n − 3, where n is the dimension of the manifold. (While Carr’s result is
not in doubt, his argument is problematic for various reasons, and offering a clear re-proof
is of independent interest.)
We illustrate the above theorem in two different ways. Firstly, we study the boundaries
of plumbed manifolds, leading to a k-positive Ricci curvature generalization of a result of
Crowley-Wraith for positive Ricci curvature. Secondly, we generalize a positive scalar curvature
result of Carr concerning the fundamental group. Carr’s result claims that any finitely
presented group is the fundamental group of a closed n-manifold with positive scalar curvature,
for n ≥ 4. We show that the same statement holds if positive scalar curvature is
replaced by Sc3 > 0. This result is also of interest in relation to a conjecture of Wolfson.
The final chapter contains a separate project. A theorem of H. H. Wang shows that for a
compact Riemannian manifold with boundary having Ric > 0 globally and non-negative sectional
curvature at the boundary, if the boundary convexity is sufficiently high, the manifold
must be contractible. We develop an alternative approach which allows an explicit estimate
of the required boundary convexity to guarantee contractibility
New theory of the business for health, the Stay Left, Shift Left-10X paradigm
Full text linkThe paper begins with explaining why there is a
problem in Health, while acknowledging the major
progress made in the past two centuries. The paper
then identifies a fundamental problem with the
current theory of the business in Health before
introducing and proposing a new proactive digital
paradigm Stay Left, Shift Left-10X
(SL2-10X)
for Health. The paper then introduces a number
of Copernican shifts underpinning SL2-10X
and
shares a vision of a future health and wellness
system. The paper then provides emerging empirical
evidence for SL2-10X
and explains theoretically
how SL2-10X
can help create more sustainable
health systems through the use of an illustrative
Productivity Possibility Function (PPF). Finally, an
implementation strategy and potential barriers and
solutions are discussed
A Low-Cost Transmission line experimental setup – A practical implementation for Active Student, understanding and experimentation. Progress Update
Full text linkProtocol update to a study protocol for the Multimodal Approach to Preventing Suicide in Schools (MAPSS) project: a regionally based randomised trial of an integrated response to suicide risk among secondary school students
Full text linkBackground This update outlines amendments to the MAPSS trial protocol in response to both the COVID-19
pandemic and broader feasibility considerations. While many changes were necessary to navigate pandemic-related
disruptions—such as school closures and remote learning—others were made to improve feasibility in the schoolbased setting, independent of COVID-19. The protocol was updated to align with public health guidelines and general school practices, ensuring feasibility for continued school participation and increased support and flexibility
for school communities.
Methods Key adjustments included changes to participant-facing documentation, including implementing digital
consent processes, extending timelines for participant recruitment and participation, and enhancing remote engagement strategies. Modifying outcome measures and risk management protocols, including adverse event reporting,
ensured both participant safety and data continuity. Lastly, new study measures were added, such as a customdesigned questionnaire to assess study acceptability. Despite the updates, the core trial design, eligibility criteria,
and primary outcomes remained unchanged.
Conclusion These protocol amendments reflect the pragmatic challenges of conducting school-based mental
health research during a global pandemic and as part of ongoing efforts to enhance feasibility. The adjustments
enabled the trial to proceed safely, prioritizing participant engagement and maintaining alignment with public health
measure
Impact of mother’s own milk expression practices and processing treatments on infant health and growth outcomes: a systematic review protocol
Full text linkBreastfeeding is the biological norm for infant nutrition. In certain scenarios, feeding at the breast is not possible, because of either maternal or neonatal reasons. In those cases, infants can still receive expressed mother’s own milk (MOM) and its beneficial properties. Mothers can express their milk using a variety of methods, while applying different hygiene practices, in different settings; moreover, expressed milk might receive processing before it is fed to the infant, particularly to reduce transmission of viruses such as cytomegalovirus to premature infants. The present protocol was designed to gather the evidence on the effect that the expression method, the hygiene regimen and setting and any processing used on expressed MOM can have on the clinical outcomes of recipient infants.
Methods
This systematic review will follow the methodological recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration, in accordance with WHO recommendations and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We will apply a hybrid search strategy, by combining structured database search with predefined snowballing searches. We will include primary research studies only, without restrictions on the type and including observational studies; no publication time, setting or language restriction will be applied, provided the abstract is available in English. Studies evaluating different methods of MOM expression, hygiene practices or settings during expression, processing of MOM and reporting clinical outcomes on recipient infants will be eligible. The searches have been planned to be performed in April–May 2024. Two reviewers will independently perform the reference screening, data extraction and risk of bias analysis of eligible studies, by using standardised tools specific for each study design. Quantitative and thematic narrative data synthesis will be performed and statistical heterogeneity between studies tested. Meta-analyses of extracted data will be performed where applicable. For relevant outcomes, certainty of the evidence will be tested by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.
Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval is not required for this study since no original data will be collected. There is patient and public involvement throughout this research process. The results of this review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal and through conference presentations. Moreover, this systematic review will inform recommendations on milk banking of the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety.
PROSPERO registration number
CRD42024523299
Oceanic drivers of UK summer droughts
Full text linkUK droughts are projected to become more frequent under climate change, reinforcing the need to understand their underlying causes. Our study examines oceanic drivers of UK summer droughts and the associated teleconnection pathways. Specifically, we evaluate statistical links between standardized precipitation and streamflow indices for the UK and two North Atlantic Sea surface temperature (SST) patterns which have previously been linked to the influx of freshwater into the subpolar region. Our findings reveal that the North Atlantic SST influences UK hydrology up to 1.5 years in advance by altering the position of the North Atlantic Current, which is coupled to the location of the North Atlantic summer jet stream. The long lead time of this teleconnection pathway can inform UK drought forecasting across seasonal to interannual timescales and ultimately contribute to the advancement of sustainable water resource management in the face of increasing drought risks in the UK