Dietary Creatine Induces PSE-like Broiler Meat

Consumer demand for chicken breast meat has led poultry breeders to emphasize selection for high breast muscle yield, resulting in contemporary broilers that grow rapidly with heavy muscling. Genetic selection for fast growth and high yield has increased the incidence of PSE-like meat that occurs when low muscle glycogen levels decrease quickly resulting in lactic acid build-up, rapid pH decline, and early rigor mortis onset. Preliminary research in our laboratory suggests that dietary inclusion of creatine in broiler diets may reduce the incidence of Pale, Soft, and Exudative (PSE) like meat. We hypothesized that creatine supplementation in broiler diets increases muscle creatine concentration, which may slow glycogen breakdown, decrease the rate of pH decline, and delay the onset of rigor mortis. To test this hypothesis we fed fast-growth mixed sex broilers creatine-supplemented and non-supplemented (control) corn-soybean diets. Three nutritionally complete diets were formulated for each phase of boiler growth: starter, grower, and finisher. The control diet contained 0% creatine; the other two experimental diets each contained 0.05% creatine provided as either the monohydrate (CMH) or monohydrochloride (CMHC) form. Five birds from each pen were used to determine total body composition; the remaining ten birds in each pen provided samples from the breast muscle that were used to determine pH (\u3c30 min, and 4, 7, and 24 hours), expressible moisture, drip loss, and CIE color values for L*, a*, and b*. Breast muscle from birds fed creatine-supplemented diets underwent a more rapid rate of pH decline than birds fed the control diet (P\u3c.05). The degree of lightness (L*) and degree of redness (a*) was higher in the muscle from birds fed creatine-supplemented diets compared to birds fed the control diet, but only the L* value from birds fed the CMH supplemented diet and a* value from birds fed the CMHC diet were found to be significantly higher than values from muscle of control birds (P\u3c.05). The addition of creatine monohydrate in the diet resulted in markedly higher drip loss percentage compared to the birds fed a control diet (P\u3c.05). Overall, supplementing creatine in the broiler diet adversely affected meat quality characteristics

The violence of the cut:Gendering self‐harm

Taking as a starting point the frequent characterisation of self-harm as “an adolescent thing for girls,” this paper offers a sociologically informed, qualitative exploration of self-harm as a gendered practice. We move beyond statistical constructions of this “reality,” and critically examine how this characterisation comes to be, and some of its effects. Our data are drawn from a pilot study that developed a collaborative arts-based inquiry into meanings of self-harm. The authors worked with two groups: one of practitioners and another of people who had self-harmed, meeting over six sessions to discuss and make art in response to a range of themes relating to the interpretation and explanation of self-harm. Through data generation and analysis, we collaboratively seek to make sense of the gendering of self-harm, focusing on a series of dualistic Cartesian “cuts” between male and female, violence and vulnerability, and inside and outside. In conclusion, we call for more multi- and interdisciplinary explorations of self-harm, and greater use of diverse, arts-based, and qualitative methodologies, in order to further expand and nuance understandings and ethical engagements with self-harm, and those who are affected by it

Crisis, what crisis? A feminist analysis of discourse on masculinities and suicide

High male suicide rates are often constructed as evidence for an apparent “crisis of masculinity”. Conversely, “crisis of masculinity” has been used to explain differential rates of male and female suicide in the UK (and elsewhere). We analyse three public cases where male suicide and “masculinity-crisis” discourse are employed together. Our feminist analysis demonstrates that “crisis talk” and male suicide are addressed in divergent ways. We therefore distinguish between “progressive” and “conservative” crisis narratives. Conservative narratives position high male suicide rates as a pernicious outcome of “threats” to traditional gender roles and norms, suggesting the solution is to return to them. Contrastingly, progressive crisis accounts use male suicide to demonstrate that existing gender norms harm men as well as women and argue they should be altered to address male suicide. Conservative narratives often map on to anti-feminist politics, whereas progressive accounts reflect aspects of feminism. There is no neat feminist/anti-feminist distinction, however, as postfeminist ideas are also evident. We argue that, overall, each of the articulations of a “crisis of masculinity” as evidenced by high rates of male suicide reinforces problematic gender politics. Further, in reifying simplistic, dualistic models of gender, they may ultimately constrain efforts to reduce suicide

Dangerous arms and everyday activism:a dialogue between two researchers with lived experience of self-harm

Using the format of dialogue, this paper is a collaborative exploration of navigating academia in self-harm scarred bodies. Prompted by the proposal of social media regulators to blur and ban self-harm scars, thus communicating such bodies as “dangerous,” our dialogue considers personal notions of activism, researcher identity, emotional labor, future potential, and the importance of finding and building communities for embodied solidarity. Structured as a single flowing discussion, the dialogue itself is (re)constituted from conversation, follow-up emails, and reviewer feedback. Explorations rely predominantly on personal experience and are supported in places by literature which has informed and shaped our ideas. In itself, this paper will be an “everyday act of defiance” in being seen, as well as advocating for spaces such as ECQI where meaningful connections can be instigated and maintained, and dialogues continued