Denitrification as a source of nitric oxide emissions from incubated soil cores from a UK grassland

Agricultural soils are a major source of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O), which are produced and consumed by biotic and abiotic soil processes. The dominant sources of NO and N2O are microbial nitrification and denitrification. While N2O emissions have been attributed to both processes, depending on the environmental conditions such as substrate availability, pH and water filled pore space (WFPS), NO emissions are thought to predominantly derive from nitrification. Although attributing gaseous emissions to specific processes is still difficult, recent findings challenge the latter of those assumptions. Using the gas-flow-soil-core method, i.e soil cores incubated under a He/O2 atmosphere at constant surface gas flow, combined with 15N labelled isotopic techniques, the present study investigated the role of denitrification on NO, N2O and N2 emissions in a UK grassland soil under high soil moisture and an aerobic headspace atmosphere. With the application of KNO3 and glucose to support denitrification, denitrification was the source of N loss of between 0.61 and 0.67% of the added N via NO emissions, 1.60–1.68% via N2O and 0.03–0.05% via N2 emissions. Overall, our study showed that denitrification has been overlooked as a source of NO emissions

Wait Up!: Attachment and Sovereign Power.

Sociologists and feminist scholars have, over many decades, characterised attachment as a social construction that functions to support political and gender conservatism. We accept that attachment theory has seen use to these ends and consider recent deployments of attachment theory as justification for a minimal State within conservative political discourse in the UK since 2009. However, we contest that attachment is reducible to its discursive construction. We consider Judith Butler's depiction of the infant attached to an abusive caregiver as a foundation and parallel to the position of the adult citizen subjected to punitive cultural norms and political institutions. We develop and qualify Butler's account, drawing on the insights offered by the work of Lauren Berlant. We also return to Foucault's Psychiatric Power lectures, in which familial relations are situated as an island of sovereign power within the sea of modern disciplinary institutions. These reflections help advance analysis of three important issues: the social and political implications of attachment research; the relationship between disciplinary and sovereign power in the affective dynamic of subjection; and the political and ethical status of professional activity within the psy disciplines.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10767-014-9192-

Incidence of epidural haematoma and neurological injury in cardiovascular patients with epidural analgesia/anaesthesia: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Epidural anaesthesia is used extensively for cardiothoracic and vascular surgery in some centres, but not in others, with argument over the safety of the technique in patients who are usually extensively anticoagulated before, during, and after surgery. The principle concern is bleeding in the epidural space, leading to transient or persistent neurological problems. Methods: We performed an extensive systematic review to find published cohorts of use of epidural catheters during vascular, cardiac, and thoracic surgery, using electronic searching, hand searching, and reference lists of retrieved articles. Results: Twelve studies included 14,105 patients, of whom 5,026 (36%) had vascular surgery, 4,971 (35%) cardiac surgery. and 4,107 (29%) thoracic surgery. There were no cases of epidural haematoma, giving maximum risks following epidural anaesthesia in cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery of 1 in 1,700, 1 in 1,400 and 1 in 1,700 respectively. In all these surgery types combined the maximum expected rate would be 1 in 4,700. In all these patients combined there were eight cases of transient neurological injury, a rate of 1 in 1,700. (95% confidence interval 1 in 3,300 to 1 in 850). There were no cases of persistent neurological injury (maximum expected rate 1 in 4,600). Conclusion: These estimates for cardiothoracic epidural anaesthesia should be the worst case. Limitations are inadequate denominators for different types of surgery in anticoagulated cardiothoracic or vascular patients more at risk of bleeding

Methods of estimation of mitral valve regurgitation for the cardiac surgeon

Mitral valve regurgitation is a relatively common and important heart valve lesion in clinical practice and adequate assessment is fundamental to decision on management, repair or replacement. Disease localised to the posterior mitral valve leaflet or focal involvement of the anterior mitral valve leaflet is most amenable to mitral valve repair, whereas patients with extensive involvement of the anterior leaflet or incomplete closure of the valve are more suitable for valve replacement. Echocardiography is the recognized investigation of choice for heart valve disease evaluation and assessment. However, the technique is depended on operator experience and on patient's hemodynamic profile, and may not always give optimal diagnostic views of mitral valve dysfunction. Cardiac catheterization is related to common complications of an interventional procedure and needs a hemodynamic laboratory. Cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI) seems to be a useful tool which gives details about mitral valve anatomy, precise point of valve damage, as well as the quantity of regurgitation. Finally, despite of its higher cost, cardiac MRI using cine images with optimized spatial and temporal resolution can also resolve mitral valve leaflet structural motion, and can reliably estimate the grade of regurgitation

The Colonial Lives of Property, abolitionist Struggles and alternative Imaginations:Brenna Bhandar in conversation with Daniel Loick

With her book “Colonial Lives of Property: Law, Land and Racial Regimes of Ownership,” released in 2018, the writer and scholar Brenna Bhandar has made a vital contribution to the inquiry into the nexus between the historical evolution of the idea of property and colonialism.In the following conversation with the philosopher Daniel Loick, she explains how land allocation in its juridical form was implemented using racist methods of dispossession, giving rise to a subjectivity grounded in power and entitlement that still informs Western superior thinking about ownership and property relations