Yield stability across sowing dates – how to pick a winner in variable seasons?

Take home messages • Match optimal flowering period to growing environment to maximise grain yield potential. • One variety doesn’t fit all; there are no commercially available varieties that are broadly adapted across a wide range of sowing times or growing environments. • Optimising variety phenology and sowing time combinations achieves grain yield stability across a wide sowing window. • Probability of sowing opportunities will influence variety choice and sowing time decisions

The legacy effect of cover crops on soil fungal populations in a cereal rotation

AbstractThe use of rotations and minimum tillage in agriculture can permit more sustainable production through increasing soil organic matter and nutrients, and breaking of pathogen lifecycles. Soil fungal populations make an important physical and chemical contribution to soil. For example, mycorrhizal species are important in plant nutrition but are often overlooked when considering management practices for efficient soil function. We undertook DNA metabarcoding (Ion Torrent) using novel PCR primers and high-throughput sequencing of the D1 region of the large ribosomal subunit of the rRNA locus, to assess the effect of different forages and cereal tillage methods on the soil fungal community. The study comprised five forage treatments, perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) with either low or high N, chicory (Cichorium intybus), red clover (Trifolium pratense) or white clover (Trifolium repens) grown over 3 harvest years (2010–2012). Cultivation of chicory, red clover or white clover led to significantly divergent soil fungal communities, with a notably lower diversity of fungal populations under clover, suggesting a link to soil N dynamics. Consistent with this, was a negative correlation of soil nitrate-N levels with populations of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and other root-associated fungal groupings (dark septate endophytes, ‘CHEG’, Sebacinales and Ceratobasidiaceae). In contrast, abundance of Fungi belonging to the genera Mortierella and Cryptococcus were positively correlated with soil nitrate-N, with Mortierella also being negatively correlated with soil P. Spring wheat was sown on the same plots (April 2013) followed by winter barley (October 2013). Half of each plot was sown either after ploughing or by direct drilling. A legacy effect of the preceding forage crop on the fungal community was detected after both cereal crops, with plots previously cultivated with ryegrass being most divergent. No overall effect of establishment method on fungal communities was detected but AMF and CHEG fungi were more abundant on direct-drilled plots and pathogenic fungi were more abundant on ploughed plots after the sowing of winter barley

Palliative medicine practitioners' views on the concept of depression in the palliative care setting

Background: Despite its clinical importance in palliative care, depression remains an ambiguous concept. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore how medical practitioners working in palliative care conceptualize depression in that setting. Design: Medical practitioners who attended a palliative medicine conference (N=185) were invited to respond to a questionnaire, which explored their views on the concept of depression in the palliative care context. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize responses, and comparison between groups was conducted using nonparametric statistics. Themes in free-text comments were identified. Results: Seventy-nine responses were obtained (response rate 43%). Depression was not a unified concept, but was generally considered to be an illness with psychological, spiritual, and existential causes. Respondents were more uncertain about depression being an illness in the palliative care setting compared with other settings, and were ambivalent about its causality. Treatment preferences leaned towards psychological interventions. Depression being different in the palliative care setting was a theme. It was considered to be more prevalent, different in quality, harder to define, and associated with greater barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Conceptual differences were associated with the respondents' area of work, work position, duration of practice, and previous mental health training. Conclusions: Depression in the palliative care setting is a variable concept for palliative medicine practitioners. The conceptual diversity and complexities of depression in this setting must be acknowledged and further explored in order to develop nuanced approaches in clinical practice and in research.Felicity Ng, Gregory B. Crawford and Anna Chur-Hanse

“Patch them up and send them home”: perceptions of nurses and physiotherapists in their role with end-stage COPD

Background: People with severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have a high symptom burden and experience repeated hospital admissions as their disease progresses. End of life is typically difficult to predict, and although palliative care initiatives are developing within COPD, active treatment often continues up to death. There is a lack of literature in the field concerning the impact this has on staff delivering care, and their role in decision-making within this patient group. Aims: To explore the role of staff in caring and treatment decision-making for those with acute severe COPD and the multi-disciplinary team relationships influencing care. Methods: This exploratory, qualitative study consisted of 4 interviews and 1 focus group with nurses and physiotherapists who care for patients with severe COPD in the acute hospital setting. A grounded theory approach to analysis was aided by the software NVivo. Results: Advocacy and support to patients and families were cited as important aspects of their role, but effectiveness is hampered by pressure on beds and the general approach of “patch them up and send them home”. Advocacy was described in terms of information-giving and communication, and staff opinions were consulted in some treatment decisions, but that this depended on the hierarchy of the medical team: “…it comes down to which consultant is in charge that day”. Levels of decision-making involvement and advocacy were related to knowing the patient and professional experience, but were significantly limited by time and other pressures. Conclusions: Participants described frustration regarding the lack of palliative care decision-making in end-stage COPD, but nurses and physiotherapists are developing their roles in advocacy for this patient group. A second phase of data collection is investigating the nature of advocacy in this group further

“Take more laxatives was their answer to everything.”:A qualitative exploration of the patient, carer and healthcare professional experience of constipation in specialist palliative care

Constipation is a major problem for many older adults, more so for those who are receiving specialist palliative care. However, limited research reports the subjective experiences of constipation, despite evidenced differences between the healthcare professional and patient/carer perspective. The main aim of this study is to explore the experience of how constipation is assessed and managed within specialist palliative care from the patient, carer and healthcare professional perspective. Exploratory, qualitative design, utilising focus groups and interviews, and analysed using thematic analysis. Six focus groups with 27 healthcare professionals and semi-structured interviews with 13 patients and 5 family caregivers in specialist palliative care units across three regions of the United Kingdom. Constipation impacted physically, psychologically and socially on patients and families; however, they felt staff relegated it on the list of importance. Lifestyle modifications implemented at home were not incorporated into their specialist palliative care plan within the hospice. Comparatively, healthcare professionals saw constipation solely as a physical symptom. Assessment focused on the physical elements of constipation, and management was pharmacologically driven. Healthcare professionals reported patient embarrassment as a barrier to communicating about bowel care, whereas patients wanted staff to initiate communication and discuss constipation openly. Assessment and management of constipation may not yet reflect the holistic palliative care model. A focus on the pharmacological management may result in lifestyle modifications being underutilised. Healthcare professionals also need to be open to initiate communication on bowel care and consider non-pharmacological approaches. It is important that patients and families are supported in self-care management, alongside standardised guidelines for practice and for healthcare professionals to facilitate this

Emotional interactions and an ethic of care: caring relations in families affected by HIV and AIDS

In the context of global processes of economic restructuring, the HIV and AIDS epidemic and socio-cultural constructions of care, many women and young people in low-income households have been drawn into caring roles within the family. Drawing on the literature on an ethics of care, emotional geographies and embodiment, this paper examines the emotional dynamics of the caring process in families affected by HIV and AIDS. Based on the perspectives of both ‘caregivers’ and ‘care-receivers’ from research undertaken in Namibia, Tanzania and the UK, we examine the everyday practices of care that women and young people are engaged in and explore how emotions are performed and managed in caring relationships. Our research suggests caregivers play a crucial role in providing emotional support and reassurance to people with HIV, which in turn often affects caregivers' emotional and physical wellbeing. Within environments where emotional expression is restricted and HIV is heavily stigmatised, caregivers and care-receivers seek to regulate their emotions in order to protect family members from the emotional impacts of a chronic, life-limiting illness. However, whilst caregiving and receiving may lead to close emotional connections and a high level of responsiveness, the intensity of intimate caring relationships, isolation and lack of access to adequate resources can cause tensions and contradictory feelings that may be difficult to manage. These conflicts can severely constrain carers' ability to provide the ‘good care’ that integrates the key ethical phases in Tronto's (1993) ideal of the caring process

A randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on cognitive and retinal function in cognitively healthy older people: the Older People And n-3 Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (OPAL) study protocol [ISRCTN72331636].

The number of individuals with age-related cognitive impairment is rising dramatically in the UK and globally. There is considerable interest in the general hypothesis that improving the diet of older people may slow the progression of cognitive decline. To date, there has been little attention given to the possible protective role of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPs) most commonly found in oily fish, in age-related loss of cognitive function. The main research hypothesis of this study is that an increased dietary intake of n-3 LCPs will have a positive effect on cognitive performance in older people in the UK. To test this hypothesis, a double-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial will be carried out among adults aged 70-79 years in which the intervention arm will receive daily capsules containing n-3 LCP (0.5 g/day docosahexaenoic acid and 0.2 g/day eicosapentaenoic acid) while the placebo arm will receive daily capsules containing olive oil. The main outcome variable assessed at 24 months will be cognitive performance and a second major outcome variable will be retinal function. Retinal function tests are included as the retina is a specifically differentiated neural tissue and therefore represents an accessible window into the functioning of the brain. The overall purpose of this public-health research is to help define a simple and effective dietary intervention aimed at maintaining cognitive and retinal function in later life. This will be the first trial of its kind aiming to slow the decline of cognitive and retinal function in older people by increasing daily dietary intake of n-3 LCPs. The link between cognitive ability, visual function and quality of life among older people suggests that this novel line of research may have considerable public health importance.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are