Heathland Restoration Techniques: Ecological Consequences for Plant-Soil and Plant-Animal Interactions

We compare the soil and plant community development during heathland restoration on improved farmland when achieved through soil stripping with that achieved through soil acidification. We also test the potential for toxic metals to be made more available to plant and animal species as a result of these treatments. Acidification with elemental sulphur was found to be more effective than soil stripping for establishing an ericaceous sward despite the high levels of phosphate still present within the soil.However, both soil acidification and soil stripping were found to have the potential to increase the availability of potentially toxic metals. Acidification increased uptake of both aluminium and zinc in two common plant species Agrostis capillaris and Rumex acetosella and decreased the abundance of surface active spiders. The potential consequences for composition of restored heathland communities and for functioning of food chains are discussed

Early diversion and empowerment policing : evaluating an adult female offender triage project

This paper provides an evaluation of a police pilot early-diversion scheme for adult females who were arrested for low-severity offences using a natural experiment design. The intervention is novel in that it diverts arrestees to a women’s centre for assistance to address their criminogenic needs rather than process them through the criminal justice system. The intervention is timely and attractive given its rehabilitative features and its potential for reducing demand on the criminal justice system through community resolution. The study found a promising effect of the intervention on rates of rearrest and daily risk of rearrest over a twelve month follow-up period, but a higher frequency of rearrest among those of the intervention group who were rearrested. The findings are discussed in relation to the political context, theoretical background and police performance and the gendered dynamics of offending

A Novel Chronic Disease Policy Model

We develop a simulation tool to support policy-decisions about healthcare for chronic diseases in defined populations. Incident disease-cases are generated in-silico from an age-sex characterised general population using standard epidemiological approaches. A novel disease-treatment model then simulates continuous life courses for each patient using discrete event simulation. Ideally, the discrete event simulation model would be inferred from complete longitudinal healthcare data via a likelihood or Bayesian approach. Such data is seldom available for relevant populations, therefore an innovative approach to evidence synthesis is required. We propose a novel entropy-based approach to fit survival densities. This method provides a fully flexible way to incorporate the available information, which can be derived from arbitrary sources. Discrete event simulation then takes place on the fitted model using a competing hazards framework. The output is then used to help evaluate the potential impacts of policy options for a given population.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 11 table

The effect of sewage sludge application to an agricultural soil on the fecundity of the Rose Grain aphid (Metopolophium dirhodum).

A pot trial was used to assess the effect of amending soil with sewage sludge on the number of offspring produced by individual Rose Grain Aphids. Results demonstrated that the highest application rate (100 t.d.s. ha-1) could significantly decrease the number of offspring produced by the aphid

Do aphids biomagnify Cd and Zn as a defence against predation?

The results of a study on sewage sludge application to agricultural soil have led us to propose that recycling sewage sludge can affect the biological control of grain aphids. This, we suggest, is due to the biomagnification of trace metals in the aphid presenting potentially toxic concentrations to predators

Vaping and socioeconomic inequalities in smoking cessation and relapse:A longitudinal analysis of the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Background: Smoking is a key cause of socioeconomic health inequalities. Vaping is considered less harmful than smoking and has become a popular smoking cessation aid, and therefore has potential to reduce inequalities in smoking. Methods: We used longitudinal data from 25 102 participants in waves 8–10 (2016 to early 2020) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study to examine how vaping affects socioeconomic inequalities in smoking cessation and relapse. Marginal structural models were used to investigate whether vaping mediates or moderates associations between educational attainment and smoking cessation and relapse over time. Multiple imputation and weights were used to adjust for missing data. Results: Respondents without degrees were less likely to stop smoking than those with a degree (OR: 0.65; 95% CI 0.54–0.77), and more likely to relapse (OR: 1.74; 95% CI 1.37–2.22), but this inequality in smoking cessation was not present among regular vapers (OR: 0.99; 95% CI 0.54–1.82). Sensitivity analyses suggested that this finding did not hold when comparing those with or without any qualifications. Inequalities in smoking relapse did not clearly differ by vaping status. Conclusions: Vaping may be especially helpful as a cessation aid for smokers without degree level education and therefore may help reduce inequalities in smoking. Nevertheless, other supports or aids may be needed to reach the most disadvantaged (ie, those with no qualifications) and to help people avoid relapse after cessation, though we did not find clear evidence suggesting that vaping would increase inequalities in relapse

Trace metals in the soil-plant system and beyond

Metals in the soil-plant system and beyond Metallophytes can play an important role in remediating contaminated land either by decreasing soil metal levels via phytoextraction or through restoring a vegetation community to prevent soil erosion or re-establish ecosystem function/services. As even non-hyperaccumulating metallophytes can accumulate considerable concentrations of metals in their tissues, the ecological consequences of growing plants with enhanced metal concentration requires consideration. Metals accumulated by metallophytes can potentially be transferred to higher trophic levels through consumption of the root/shoot tissue or sap, through consumption of the seed or through consumption of litter. Invertebrates are most likely to consume root/shoot tissues or sap, but many are able to discern high metal levels in their food, which in turn has a strong antifeedant effect. Indeed, it is hypothesised that hyperaccumulation may have a function in plant defence, but non-hyperaccumulating metallophytes may also benefit from reduced herbivory due to the metal content of their tissues. Although this may generally be effective in restricting the transfer of accumulated metals to higher trophic levels, there are arthropod herbivores that feed despite high metal concentrations. These species can in turn accumulate very high levels of metals from their metallophyte hosts. Consequently, there is the potential for critical pathways to be formed that may transfer high concentrations of metals from the soil to higher trophic levels, resulting in secondary toxicity. Granivory is the most likely pathway through which vertebrate animals such as birds and small mammals can be exposed to metals and hence secondary toxicity. Most plants effectively exclude metallic elements from their seeds, but metallophytes can contain high levels of toxic metals such as cadmium. Carnivorous & omnivorous vertebrates may also be exposed by consuming contaminated herbivorous invertebrates and vertebrates. The senescence or death of plants will return metals to the soil in the resulting litter. Contaminated litter can induce toxicity in invertebrate detritivores, effectively excluding them from contaminated ecosystems with the result that litter builds up, severely curtailing key ecosystem functions/services. Thus, the use of metallophytes in remediation/restoration can negatively affect the fauna on or adjacent to the site. Unfortunately, the scale of the potential problem is not yet clear

The Transfer and Fate of Cadmium and Zinc from Sewage Sludge Amended Agricultural Soil in an Arthropod Food Chain

The re-cycling of sewage sludgeis the most significant entry point for trace metalsin to the agroecosystem. However, the investigation of the transfer and fate of trace metals in soil-plant-arthropod systems in an agricultural context has received little attention, despite the potential threat that secondary toxicity to predatory arthropodsposes to the biological control of crop pests.In this study, an agricultural soil was amended with sewage sludgeat rates up to an equivalent of 100 t (dry solids) ha-1.The subsequenttransfer of Zn and Cd through an ecologically relevant soil-crop-aphid-arthropod predator systemwasinvestigatedin a series of pot trials. Results show that Zn was transferred to a greater extent than Cd between all components of the system, except between the roots and shoots. Cadmium was only biomagnified in roots and was biominimised in shoots, aphids and ladybirds. Zinc was biomagnified in roots, shoots, andaphids compared to the soil, but concentrationsin ladybirds were similar to those in the aphids they consumed.Differences between winter and spring wheat were found to have a larger influence on the transfer of Cd and Zn in the systemthan differences between winter wheat and spring barley. It was also shown that the rose grain aphid (Metopolophium dirhodum) accumulateshigher concentrationsof Cd than the grain aphid (Sitobion avenae).Whilst concentrationsof Zn did not differ between the two species of aphid, concentrations in M. dirhodum appearedto be more closely regulated than in S.avenae. Consumptionof S.avenaeby the fourth instar larvae of the seven-spottedladybird (Coccinella septempunctata)did not result in significant differences between treatmentsin newly emergedadults.This was partly the result of the sequestrationof the two metalsin the pupal exuviae. This mechanism had a greater effect on the Cd concentrations in newly emerged adult ladybirds than on Zn concentrations.In a further experiment,there appeared to be no pathway for the transfer of Cd from aphids to adult ladybirds, but a pathway was indicatedfor Zn. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the agroecosystem andthe wider environment