Robotic milking technologies and renegotiating situated ethical relationships on UK dairy farms

Robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) are novel technologies that take over the labor of dairy farming and reduce the need for human-animal interactions. Because robotic milking involves the replacement of 'conventional' twice-a-day milking managed by people with a system that supposedly allows cows the freedom to be milked automatically whenever they choose, some claim robotic milking has health and welfare benefits for cows, increases productivity, and has lifestyle advantages for dairy farmers. This paper examines how established ethical relations on dairy farms are unsettled by the intervention of a radically different technology such as AMS. The renegotiation of ethical relationships is thus an important dimension of how the actors involved are re-assembled around a new technology. The paper draws on in-depth research on UK dairy farms comparing those using conventional milking technologies with those using AMS. We explore the situated ethical relations that are negotiated in practice, focusing on the contingent and complex nature of human-animal-technology interactions. We show that ethical relations are situated and emergent, and that as the identities, roles, and subjectivities of humans and animals are unsettled through the intervention of a new technology, the ethical relations also shift. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Assessing the Potential to Decrease the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone with Midwest US Perennial Cellulosic Feedstock Production

The goal of this research was to determine the changes in streamflow, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) leaching and export to the Gulf of Mexico associated with a range of large-scale dedicated perennial cellulosic bioenergy production scenarios within in the Mississippi–Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). To achieve this goal, we used Agro-IBIS, a vegetation model capable of simulating the biogeochemistry of row crops, miscanthus and switchgrass, coupled with THMB, a hydrology model capable of simulating streamflow and DIN export. Simulations were conducted at varying fertilizer application rates (0–200 kg N ha -1) and fractional replacement (5–25%) of current row crops with miscanthus or switchgrass across the MARB. The analysis also includes two scenarios where miscanthus and switchgrass (MRX and MRS, respectively) each replace the ca. 40% of maize production currently devoted to ethanol. Across the scenarios, there were minor reductions in runoff and streamflow throughout the MARB, with the largest differences (ca. 6%) occurring for miscanthus at the highest fractional replacement scenarios in drier portions of the region. However, differences in total MARB discharge at the basin outlet were less than 1.5% even in the MRX scenario. Reductions in DIN export were much larger on a percentage basis than reductions in runoff, with the highest replacement scenarios decreasing long-term mean DIN export by ca. 15% and 20% for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. Fertilization scenarios show that significant reductions in DIN leaching are possible even with application rates of 100 and 150 kg N ha -1 for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. These results indicate that, given targeted management strategies, there is potential for miscanthus and switchgrass to provide key ecosystem services by reducing the export of DIN, while avoiding hydrologic impacts of reduced streamflow

Reporting and Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews Underpinning Clinical Practice Guidelines for Vascular Surgery:A Systematic Review

ObjectiveClinical practice guideline recommendations are often informed by systematic reviews. This review aimed to appraise the reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews informing clinical practice recommendations relevant to vascular surgery.Data sourcesMEDLINE and Embase.MethodsMEDLINE and Embase were searched from 1 January 2021 to 5 May 2023 for clinical practice guidelines relevant to vascular surgery. Guidelines were then screened for systematic reviews informing recommendations. The reporting and methodological quality of these systematic reviews were assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 statement and Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2) 2017 tool. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to determine associations between these scores and extracted study characteristics.ResultsEleven clinical practice guidelines were obtained, containing 1 783 references informing guideline recommendations. From these, 215 systematic reviews were included for synthesis. PRISMA item completeness ranged 14 – 100%, with a mean of 63% across reviews. AMSTAR 2 item completeness ranged 2 – 95%, with a mean of 50%. Pearson correlation highlighted a statistically significant association between a review’s PRISMA and AMSTAR 2 score (r = 0.85, p < .001). A more recent publication year was associated with a statistically significant increase in both scores (PRISMA coefficient 1.28, p < .001; and AMSTAR 2 coefficient 1.31, p < .001). Similarly, the presence of funding in a systematic review was shown to be statistically significantly associated with an increase in both PRISMA and AMSTAR 2 scores (coefficient 4.93, p = .024; and coefficient 6.07, p = .019, respectively).ConclusionSystematic reviews informing clinical practice guidelines relevant to vascular surgery were of moderate quality at best. Organisations producing clinical practice guidelines should consider funding systematic reviews to improve the quality of their recommendations