Making meat collectivities : entanglements of geneticisation, integration and contestation in livestock breeding

To explore some of the contours of this meat ‘supply chain integration’ - ‘the phrase of the moment’ according to Farmers Weekly - this chapter draws on research conducted as part of a project exploring the effects of the emergence of particular types of genetic knowledge-practice in beef cattle and sheep breeding in the UK and their entanglement with ‘traditional’ ways of knowing and valuing livestock. The research is interested in the production and circulation of genetic knowledge-practices in agriculture, in examining how such knowledge-practices become established and gain legitimacy, how they become tangled up with visual and other traditional knowledge-practices, and in the effects of genetic knowledge-practices on how cattle and sheep are bred and managed and on human-nonhuman animal relationships in livestock farming. The research has increasingly led us to explore the process of ‘geneticisation’ beyond the farm gate, to look at how the establishment of particular genetic truths or ways of rendering ‘life itself’ (Franklin, 2000) are entangled with processes of restructuring and differentiation within UK food systems

A Geospatial Analysis of CDC-funded HIV Prevention Programs for African Americans in the United States

Given the increase in HIV/AIDS infection rates among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans, this study was undertaken as part of a larger research effort to examine the distribution of HIV prevention services focusing on African American populations within the United States. Data were gathered via a national survey of community-based organizations (CBOs) funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A geocoded national database was constructed to identify, locate, and map these HIV prevention programs. A total of 1,020 CBOs responded to the survey, yielding a response rate of 70.3%. These CBOs administered a total of 3,028 HIV prevention programs. Data describing intervention types and persons served, combined with the address and service area of responding CBOs, were integrated with census data (2000) and analyzed by using a geographic information system (GIS). The results of our national level analysis show that HIV prevention services for African Americans have fair coverage where African Americans comprise a substantial proportion of the population in urban areas in northeastern states, but that HIV prevention services for African Americans are inadequately distributed in the southeastern states. A local-level analysis was conducted for Alabama, where 68% of HIV/AIDS cases are among African Americans. Specific interventions such as street and community outreach, health communications, and public information are fairly well provided to African Americans in more urban cities in Alabama, however, individual- and group-level interventions have poor coverage in rural areas where a large percentage of African-Americans live. Overall, our study illustrates that the use of GIS adds value when used with other data sources to provide prevention services that are accessible to the populations most in need

TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL AUTORADIOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES: A COMPARISON STUDY

This report fulfills the FY 2006 Enhanced Surveillance Campaign Level 3 milestones for Task TSR 11.1 as defined in the execution plan [1, 2]. The purpose of this task is to reduce the cycle time necessary to complete analytical evaluations required for surveillance of reservoirs. The development of the digital autoradiography system supports this task. The digital autoradiography system is currently operational and ready for implementation in reservoir surveillance performed in the Materials Test Facility (MTF) at Savannah River Site (SRS). SRS requests design agency (Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory) concurrence for the implementation of this system and on the establishment, in conjunction with the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), of the implementation requirements for this system. Stainless steel tritium reservoirs and pinch welded tubes, which have been exposed to tritium for a prolonged period, are destructively evaluated at the end of their service lives for a variety of reasons. One requirement of this evaluation is to assess the tritium diffusion into the reservoir material. The current method used to determine the geometry and depth of tritium penetration is autoradiography. This technique employs a photographic emulsion and has been effective for a number of years. The primary disadvantage of this technique is the time required to obtain results. The success of the traditional technique is dependent on many variables, such as the proficiency of the operators in conducting sample preparation, the geometry of the sample and the shelf life of the photographic chemicals. If results are not satisfactory, several repetitions are often required and usually add weeks to the total analysis time for the sample. Due to the extensive time required for the liquid emulsion autoradiography method, a new, faster technique was desired. Personnel from the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) have been working on a system based on digital imaging technology to replace the current method. The purpose of this report is to provide a description of the current method, a description of the equipment for the new digital method and its capabilities, and a direct comparison of the results between the existing and proposed techniques. The advantages of the digital method is the reduced time of exposure (from 24 hours to around 10 minutes), increased sample throughput, reduced rework of samples, and the elimination of chemical processing

METHOD FOR IN SITU VISUALIZATION OF TRITIUM DIFFUSED IN STAINLESS STEEL USING A DIGITAL AUTORADIOGRAPHIC IMAGING SYSTEM

At the end of their service lives, various stainless steel components of nuclear weapons that have been exposed to tritium gas are evaluated to determine the extent of the tritium permeation. This information is then used to assess the decrement to performance caused by hydrogen (tritium) embrittlement. This evaluation is currently performed using a photo-emulsion based method and requires 24 hours or longer to complete. A system based on digital imaging technology has recently been designed and built at the Savannah River National Laboratory that performs this evaluation in 10 minutes or less on typical samples

‘Most people have no idea what autism is’ : Unpacking autism disclosure using social media analysis

Autism disclosure can be a complicated decision that autistic people experience. Positive outcomes can include feelings of acceptance and support, but negative outcomes can include stigma and discrimination. Although a surge in research on this topic has led to more understanding around autism disclosure, the methodologies used may have limited who was contributing to the conversation and data. To overcome this, we analyzed 3 years (2020−2022) of social media data (Reddit and Twitter) as this was public information that did not rely on researcher data collection. Reflexive thematic analysis of 3121 posts led to the generation of four themes: People do not understand autism (with experiences related to employment, dating, healthcare and mental health), autistic people just want privacy and respect, autistic people can lead us forward and non-autistic people need to assume more responsibility. We discuss how autistic adults experience the impact of society’s lack of understanding of autism on a daily basis whether they disclose or not, and that it is everybody’s responsibility to challenge negative stereotypes and promote a more inclusive society

Evolutionary History of Chemosensory-Related Gene Families across the Arthropoda

Chemosensory-related gene (CRG) families have been studied extensively in insects, but their evolutionary history across the Arthropoda had remained relatively unexplored. Here, we address current hypotheses and prior conclusions on CRG family evolution using a more comprehensive data set. In particular, odorant receptors were hypothesized to have proliferated during terrestrial colonization by insects (hexapods), but their association with other pancrustacean clades and with independent terrestrial colonizations in other arthropod subphyla have been unclear. We also examine hypotheses on which arthropod CRG family is most ancient. Thus, we reconstructed phylogenies of CRGs, including those from new arthropod genomes and transcriptomes, and mapped CRG gains and losses across arthropod lineages. Our analysis was strengthened by including crustaceans, especially copepods, which reside outside the hexapod/branchiopod clade within the subphylum Pancrustacea. We generated the first high-resolution genome sequence of the copepod Eurytemora affinis and annotated its CRGs. We found odorant receptors and odorant binding proteins present only in hexapods (insects) and absent from all other arthropod lineages, indicating that they are not universal adaptations to land. Gustatory receptors likely represent the oldest chemosensory receptors among CRGs, dating back to the Placozoa. We also clarified and confirmed the evolutionary history of antennal ionotropic receptors across the Arthropoda. All antennal ionotropic receptors in E. affinis were expressed more highly in males than in females, suggestive of an association with male mate-recognition behavior. This study is the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of CRG family evolution across the largest and most speciose metazoan phylum Arthropoda

Gene content evolution in the arthropods

Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity