Review of recirculation aquaculture system technologies and their commercial application

Recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) are designed to minimise water consumption, control culture conditions and allow waste streams to be fully managed. They can also provide some degree of biosecurity through measures to isolate the stock from the external environment. RAS technology has steadily developed over the past 30 years and is widely used for broodstock management, in hatcheries and increasingly for salmon smolt production. By comparison, the progress of RAS for grow-out to market size products has been more restricted and there is a substantial track record of company failures both in the UK, Europe and internationally. The reasons for this are varied, but include challenges of economic viability and operating systems at commercial scales. This review considers the current status of RAS technology and its commercial application with particular reference to its potential impact on Scottish aquaculture. With increased reliability and efficiency new opportunities are open to the Scottish industry to both enhance salmon production and diversify to other species. On the other hand, the greater flexibility in locating RAS farms could present a threat to some salmon production in Scotland where production can move closer to key centres of consumption – either in the UK or abroad. After all, one of the environmental advantages of RAS is to enable production in areas unsuited to other forms of aquaculture and where promotion of sustainability is a key element. Consequently, farming close to markets, thereby reducing food miles, may have benefits for both the retailer and consumer. However, what proportion of caged salmon production might eventually be substituted by land based RAS is debateable. This may depend on the economic advantage to some current salmon export markets farming salmon in their own country using RAS technology developed in Europe or North America.Report commissioned by Highlands & Islands Enterprise as strategic support to the Scottish Food and Drink Industr

An update on the 2014 report: "Review of Recirculation Aquaculture System Technologies and their Commercial Application"

This report has been commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to provide an update on the earlier report "Review of Recirculation Aquaculture System Technologies and their Commercial Application" from the same authors and published in 2014. The leading salmon aquaculture companies are all making strategic investments in RAS, mainly for juvenile production. This has been a trend over the past 20 years and has contributed substantially to technology development. The established industry has therefore demonstrated a willingness to adopt RAS technologies where they perceive a strong business case, such as enabling more consistent year-round supplies of juveniles. Parallel to the strategic adoption of RAS by existing salmon producers has been a series of RAS based grow-out projects based on a mix of optimistic technology promises and ethically driven enthusiasm for land-based farming drawing in investment from equity investors as well as government and other non-government organisations. Most of these have experienced a range of technical, financial and market problems and have either failed completely or are operating at a loss. Nevertheless, there is substantial momentum and lessons are being learned and technology is developing at a faster rate than when previously assessed in 2014. The lack of investment in grow-out RAS by established producers, notably salmon companies already culturing smolts in RAS, may reflect their greater understanding of market and economic fundamentals and/or reluctance to invest in disruptive technology given their heavy investments in cage grow-out production. More encouragingly, entry into the RAS sector by major water and sanitation companies such as Veolia, capable of more standardised technology development suggests previous barriers will be overcome. The immediate interest of the Scottish salmon industry is in strategies to reduce the impact of sea lice and other disease problems. One element of this is to reduce the time the fish are in sea cages through the stocking of post-smolts of between 250g and 1 kg in weight. It appears likely that landbased RAS could provide an economic means of achieving this, although sea-based closed containment systems are also being investigated as a potential alternative. Land-based RAS are also being used for cleaner fish production as another part of the sea lice control strategy. RAS offers opportunities for new species development in Scotland, with examples including sturgeon (caviar), yellow tail, sole, tropical shrimp, and spiny lobster. However, these are generally high value products for which domestic markets may be more limited. If already planned investments in salmon grow-out RAS go ahead in the USA, China and other important export markets for Scotland, long-term market opportunities are likely to be affected. A more substantial risk to the Scottish industry in the short to medium term could be a further decline in social license necessary to achieve ambitious growth-targets due to perceived conflicts with environmental and conservation targets. For this reason, combined with steadily maturing technology and new species opportunities, it is anticipated that aquaculture production using recirculated aquaculture systems will gradually expand in the coming years.Consultancy report produced under contract with Ekos Limited for Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Update of previous 2014 report on the same topic

Critical thinking in community nursing: Is this the 7th C?

Compassion in practice and the drive to deliver the 6Cs—care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment—has been embraced within community nursing practice since its launch in 2012 (Commissioning Board Chief Nursing Officer and Department of Health (DH) Chief Nursing Adviser, 2012). Following the shortcomings in care discovered at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the findings of inquiries (e.g. Francis, 2013; Keogh, 2013), nursing as a profession has been under pressure to demonstrate to the public that nurses do care. This need comes under increasing scrutiny when working in the homes of patients, who rightly require demonstration of accountability of care. Effective therapeutic relationships with patients in the community are built on trust, and patients should feel confident that clinical care is appropriate and evidence based (Griffith, 2015). A strong focus upon the core themes of the 6Cs is both integral to and apparent in daily practice within the community setting. The terminology of the 6Cs is a frequent feature of discussions, supervision, teaching, and record keeping. However, is it possible that in this drive to improve the public image of nursing through the focus of care and compassion, the concept of critical thinking is considered secondary? Should critical thinking in community nursing practice be awarded a ‘C’ in its own right

European aquaculture competitiveness: Limitations and possible strategies

This study examines the competitiveness of the EU aquaculture sector, as a contribution to the wider review of EU aquaculture policy being carried out by the European Community institutions. EU aquaculture competes with its international equivalents, with outputs from capture fisheries, and more fundamentally within global food markets. With small exceptions, the sector invests in production within the EU, and as little of its product is exported, competition is so far primarily defined within EU markets. Whilst EU aquatic food consumption has risen over the past 10 years, with stable or declining capture fisheries supply, most of this increase has come from imports rather than growth of EU aquaculture. To substantially increase aquaculture production at competitive prices for mainstream EU markets will require larger entities capable of scale economies, although small and micro-enterprises can also provide niche products and help sustain rural and coastal livelihoods. As spatial expansion is highly constrained by environmental regulation and conflicts with other resource users, productivity gains will be important in increasing output. Technological solutions are emerging, but are costly, so under current conditions, investments are more likely to be made in lower-cost production systems in third countries that export to the EU

Pneumonia in adults - Quality standard QS110

IntroductionThis quality standard covers adults (18 years and older) with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia. For more information see the pneumonia topic overview.Why this quality standard is neededPneumonia is an infection of the lung tissue. When a person has pneumonia the air sacs in their lungs become filled with microorganisms, fluid and inflammatory cells and their lungs are not able to work properly. Diagnosis of pneumonia is based on symptoms and signs of an acute lower respiratory tract infection, and can be confirmed by a chest X-ray showing new shadowing that is not due to any other cause (such as pulmonary oedema or infarction). The NICE guideline on pneumonia classifies pneumonia depending on the source of the infection as community acquired or hospital-acquired, which need different management strategies. Every year between 0.5% and 1% of adults in the UK will have community-acquired pneumonia. It is diagnosed in 5–12% of adults who present to GPs with symptoms of lower respiratory tract infection, and 22–42% of these are admitted to hospital, where the mortality rate is between 5% and 14%. Between 1.2% and 10% of adults admitted to hospital with community acquired pneumonia are managed in an intensive care unit, and for these patients the risk of dying is over 30%. More than half of pneumonia-related deaths occur in people older than 84 years.At any time, 1.5% of hospital patients in England have a hospital-acquired respiratory infection, more than half of which are hospital-acquired pneumonia and are not associated with intubation. Hospital-acquired pneumonia is estimated to increase a hospital stay by about 8 days and has a reported mortality rate ranging from 30–70%. There are variations in clinical management and outcomes across the UK

To align or not to align? Research methods and its relationship with dissertation marks across sport undergraduate degree programmes within a UK-based HE institution

Much research has referred to the complexity of research methods modules within undergraduate degree programmes. Less attention has been paid to the objective understanding of alignment between research methods and final year dissertations. This study explored relationships across Sport and Exercise Science (SES) and Sports Therapy (ST) programmes within a UK-based Higher Education institution. Analysis revealed females (N=73) outperformed males (N=117) at Levels 4/5, and SES students outperformed ST at Level 6. The Level 5 statistics assessment explained the lowest variance in the dissertation, suggesting poor alignment in curriculum design. Future research should consider the efficacy of statistics-based modules

Post-consultation acute respiratory tract infection recovery: a latent class informed analysis of individual patient data from randomised controlled trials and observational studies

Background: There is a lack of evidence regarding post-consultation symptom trajectories for patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and whether patient characteristics can be used to predict illness duration. Aim: To describe symptom trajectories in patients with RTIs, assess baseline characteristics and adverse events associated with trajectories. Design and setting: 9103 adults and children from 12 primary care studies. Method: Individual patient data latent class-informed regression analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational cohort studies. Post-consultation symptom trajectory (severity and duration), re-consultation with same or worsening illness and hospitalisation were assessed. Results: 90% of participants recovered from all symptoms by 28 days, regardless of antibiotic strategy. For studies of RTI with cough as a dominant symptom (n=5314), four trajectories were identified: ‘rapid[6]’ (90% of participants recovered within 6 days)’ in 52.0%; ‘intermediate[10]’ (28.9%); ‘slow progressive improvement[27]’ (12.5%); and ‘slow initial high symptom burden[27]’ (6.6%). Older age (OR: (95% CI): 2.57 (1.72-3.85), higher presenting illness baseline severity (OR) (95% CIs): 1.51 (1.12-2.03)); presence of lung disease (OR (95% CI): 1.78 (1.44-2.21)); above median illness duration prior to consultation (OR (95% CI): 1.99 (1.68-2.37)) were associated with slower recovery (>10 days) compared to faster recovery (≤10 days). Re-consultations and hospitalisations were respectively higher in those with slower recovery (ORs: 2.15 (1.78-2.60) and 7.42 (3.49-15.78)). Conclusion: Older patients presenting with more severe, longer pre-consultation symptoms, and chronic lung disease should be advised they are more likely to experience longer post-consultation illness durations, and that recovery rates are similar with and without antibiotics

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO