The variation in morphology of perennial ryegrass cultivars throughout the grazing season and effects on organic matter digestibility

peer-reviewedThe grass plant comprises leaf, pseudostem, true stem (including inflorescence) and dead material. These components differ in digestibility, and variations in their relative proportions can affect sward quality. The objective of this study was to determine the change in the proportion and organic matter digestibility (OMD) of leaf, pseudostem, true stem and dead components of four perennial ryegrass cultivars (two tetraploids: Astonenergy and Bealey and two diploids: Abermagic and Spelga) throughout a grazing season. The DM proportions and in vitro OMD of leaf, pseudostem, true stem and dead in all cultivars were determined during ten grazing rotations between May 2011 and March 2012. There was an interaction between rotation and cultivar for leaf, pseudostem, true stem and dead proportions. In May and June, Astonenergy had the highest leaf and lowest true stem proportion (P pseudostem > true stem > dead. Bealey had the highest combined leaf and pseudostem proportion 0·92, which explains why it had the highest OMD. In this study, the tetraploid cultivars had the highest leaf and pseudostem proportion and OMD. For accurate descriptions of a sward in grazing studies and to accurately determine sward morphological composition, pseudostem should be separated from true stem, particularly during the reproductive stage when true stem is present

Preserving the Past: An Early Interview Improves Delayed Event Memory in Children With Intellectual Disabilities.

The influence of an early interview on children's (N = 194) later recall of an experienced event was examined in children with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities (CWID; 7-12 years) and typically developing (TD) children matched for chronological (7-12 years) or mental (4-9 years) age. Children previously interviewed were more informative, more accurate, and less suggestible. CWID (mild) recalled as much information as TD mental age matches, and were as accurate as TD chronological age matches. CWID (moderate) recalled less than TD mental age matches but were as accurate. Interviewers should elicit CWID's recall as early as possible and consider developmental level and severity of impairments when evaluating eyewitness testimony.This research was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK RES-­‐000-­‐23-­‐0949 to Charlie Lewis, Deirdre Brown and Michael Lamb, and in part by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, NZ (LANC0201) to Deirdre Brown.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdev.1236

Urinary Recovery of Dicyandiamide (DCD) Pulse-Dosed into the Rumen of Non-Lactating Dairy Cows, and the Effects of Applying Urine with DCD to Lysimeters on Nitrous Oxide and Nitrate Leaching in Ireland

Urine excreted by dairy cows is a source of nitrogen (N) to the sward. The N content of urine is high, up to 1000 kg N/ha and is usually in excess of sward requirements. Surplus N is usually lost through a number of pathways including nitrate (NO3-) leaching and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Dicyandiamide (DCD), a nitrification inhibitor, has been shown to reduce NO3- leaching and N2O emissions when applied as a fine particle suspension (FPS) to grazed paddocks. The objectives of the study were to: (1) quantify the recovery of DCD in the urine when DCD was pulse-dosed DCD into the rumen of non-lactating dairy cows; and (2) to examine the effects of urine collected from dairy cows pulse-dosed with DCD on N2O emissions and NO3- leaching using lysimeters

Comparing Drying Protocols for Perennial Ryegrass Samples in Preparation for Chemical Analysis

Diet formulation for animals requires accurate estimation of feed nutritive value. In order to determine the nutritive value of grass, the moisture in the samples must be removed, with minimum damage to cell structure, and then the dried samples milled, prior to chemical analysis. Generally samples are oven dried. The aim of this study was to verify if differing drying protocols gave diverging results when drying grass samples. The drying protocols investigated were 40°C for 48 hours, 60°C for 48 hours and 95°C for 15 hours in forced convection ovens. Four perennial ryegrass samples were cut to 4 cm from ground level on three occasions in 2012. On each occasion the four grass samples were mixed together thoroughly and divided into four replicates. Each replicate was divided into three sub-samples to give one 100 g-sample per drying treatment. At regular intervals the samples were removed from the oven and the weight recorded. The data were analysed using a mixed model repeated measures procedure in SAS. Time (hours) was used as the repeated measure. A separate dataset of 12 grass samples were dried using both the 40°C and 60°C protocols and then chemically analysed. This dataset was analysed using PROC GLM in SAS. Samples were assumed dry when there was no significant difference in weight between times. All drying protocols gave a similar final dry matter of approximately 156 g/kg. All drying protocols did dry the grass samples adequately as samples dried at 40°C and 60°C were not significantly lighter after 24 hours and samples dried at 95°C were not significantly lighter after 15 hours. There were no differences in ash or crude protein concentration of the samples dried using the 40°C and 60°C protocols. There were differences in the organic matter digestibility, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre concentrations between the grass samples dried using the different drying protocols

The Variation in Morphological Fractions of Perennial Ryegrass Cultivars throughout the Grazing Season and Subsequent Impacts on Organic Matter Digestibility

The grass plant is comprised of leaf blades, leaf sheath (pseudostem), true stem and dead material each differing in digestibility and their relative proportions can impact significantly on sward quality. The objective of this study was to determine the change in the proportion and organic matter digestibility (OMD) of leaf, pseudostem, true stem and dead fractions of four perennial ryegrass cultivars throughout a grazing season

Incest in the 1990s: reading Anais Nin's 'Father Story'

In the summer of 1933, diarist, author and critic Anaïs Nin joined her father for a short vacation in France. Nin wrote about the trip in her diary afterwards, referring to it as the ‘Father Story.’ In the story, she details how, aged 30, she embarked upon an affair with her father which would last for several months. Rather than displaying the signs of trauma that we have come to expect from the incest narrative such as dissociation, blame and recrimination, the ‘Father Story’ is more ambiguous in its tone. Part-tribute to the father, part-seduction narrative, part-confession, this is a story that resists categorisation – a resistance that has ethical, critical and formal ramifications for our reading of incest narratives. Upon its publication in the early 1990s, critics responded to the ‘Father Story’ as fantastical, excessive and vulgar. These responses form part of a wider American father story during this period; a story about memory, therapy culture, family values and the concealed rules of testimony. This article reads Anaïs Nin’s narrative as a text which raises fundamental questions about why certain father (and daughter) stories are culturally acceptable and others are not

Work–life balance and austerity: Implications of new ways of working in British public sector organisations

An already diminished public sector continues to face the demand for greater budget cuts, following the UK election of the Conservative government in May 2015 and its pledge to maintain its post-recession austerity programme, developed during the previous Coalition government of 2010-2015. Consequently, organisations are seeking ways to sustain service delivery with even fewer resources, for example, by reducing staff numbers or, as will be highlighted in this chapter, by the strategic use of fl exible working arrangements (FWAs)

The changing UK careers landscape : tidal waves, turbulence and transformation

This article explores how the UK careers landscape in each of the four home nations is changing in response to neo-liberal policies. In this context, careers services are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate their added value, impact and returns on investment. As fiscal arrangements tighten and governments state their preferences and priorities for national careers services, differing strategic responses are beginning to emerge. A quasi-market, experimental approach is now the dominant discourse in England, in contrast to differing and complementary arrangements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The article suggests that insofar as these developments are transforming national careers services, they are also creating significant challenges which require new forms of policy imagery and imagination for high-impact, all-age careers services

Narrative skill and testimonial accuracy in typically developing children and those with intellectual disabilities

Children must describe maltreatment coherently for their testimony to be influential in court. We know little about how well children with intellectual disabilities (CWID) describe their experiences relative to typically developing (TD) children, despite CWID’s vulnerability to maltreatment. We investigated children’s reports of an experienced event and compared coherence in CWID (mild to moderate impairment: 7-11 years) with TD children matched for mental (4-10 years) or chronological age (7-11 years). All children included important markers of narrative coherence in their reports. Children with lower mental ages, particularly those with an intellectual disability, included fewer markers of narrative coherence in their reports than children with higher mental ages. Individual markers of narrative coherence, particularly recall of content, predicted accuracy of testimony and resistance to suggestion even when disability and mental age were taken into account. These findings highlight the importance of helping children to describe their experiences coherently