Perennial Cereals: A Novel Source of Feed for Grazing Livestock

Initial deployment of perennial cereal crops will likely be as a dual-purpose crop producing forage for livestock as well as grain. This study evaluated the biomass and grain production of 4 wheat × wheatgrass derivative experimental lines under 4 simulated grazing regimes; nil defoliation (D0), defoliate once (D1), defoliate twice (D2) and defoliate twice followed by a simulated hay cut (D3), and compared performance to a winter wheat, cv. EGA Wedgetail, and the perennial grass Thinopyrum intermedium. Increasing defoliation intensity significantly (P \u3c 0.001) lengthened the time to flowering for all lines. All experimental lines produced less biomass in the first year than EGA Wedgetail but more than Th. intermedium in the first spring. Grain yield from Wedgetail was significantly higher (P \u3c 0.001) than all other lines except in the D3 treatment. As defoliation intensity increased, the comparative difference in grain yield between Wedgetail and the experimental entries decreased, with experimental lines OK 7211542 and 11955 exceeding the grain yield of EGA Wedgetail in the D3 treatment. Cumulative biomass production of the experimental lines exceeded that of Wedgetail (P = 0.005), though the distribution of production, across seasons differed markedly. This paper discusses the opportunities perennial cereals may offer as a novel forage source in a mixed-farming context

Summer Dormancy Expression in the Australian Native Grass \u3cem\u3eElymus scaber\u3c/em\u3e

Complete summer dormancy is associated with plant senescence in late spring-summer even though soil moisture is non-limiting. The trait is well understood in exotic temperate grasses for persistence in environments which experience frequent summer droughts (Annicchiarico et al. 2011). However, the trait appears to be uncommon in Australian native grasses (Culvenor 2009). The C3 native perennial grass, Elymus scaber, is broadly adapted across a wide range of climatic zones and soil types in south eastern Australia (Johnston et al. 2001) and has been described as displaying strong summer dormancy (Mitchell et al. 2001). However, the reports of dormancy were not tested under conditions of non-limiting soil moisture. Therefore the dormancy aspect of its growth habit over summer may be confused with drought avoidance, causing leaf senescence in response to drying soil. This study tested the hypothesis that E. scaber exhibits traits consistent with complete summer dormancy, by placing a range of populations of the species under three irrigation regimes (after Norton et al. 2006). For E. scaber to demonstrate complete summer dormancy, it would show no new growth over summer irrespective of the irrigation treatment

Collateral damage from agricultural netting to open-country bird populations in Thailand

Nets are used across a wide variety of food production landscapes to control avian pests typically resulting in deaths of entangled birds. However, the impact of nets on bird populations is a human–wildlife conflict that remains mostly unquantified. Here, we examined the scale of netting in the central plains of Thailand, a region dominated by ricefields, among which aquaculture ponds are increasingly interspersed. Nets/exclusion types, number of individual birds and species caught were recorded on 1312 road-survey transects (2-km length × 0.4-km width). We also interviewed 104 local farmers. The transect sampling took place in late- September 2020, and from December 2020 to April 2021. Each survey transect was visited only once. We found 1881 nets and barriers of parallel cords on 196 (15%) of the transects. Counts of nets and barriers were ~13 times higher than expected in aquaculture ponds based on their areal proportion, and vertical nets were the most commonly observed type (n = 1299). We documented 735 individuals of at least 45 bird species caught in the nets and parallel cords, including many species not regarded as pests. Approximately 20% of individuals caught in ricefields and 95% at aquaculture ponds were non-target bycatch. Our interviews suggested that 55% of respondents thought nets were ineffective while only 6% thought they were effective. We suggest imposing a ban on netting, considering other mitigation strategies to reduce conflicts such as promoting the use of parallel cords, and prioritizing conservation actions with community participation. Further studies should investigate the efficacy of less deleterious deterrents

Ante-Autobiography and the Archive of Childhood

This essay examines the concept of children’s autobiography via several autobiographical extracts written by the author as a child. Although only a small proportion of people will compose and publish a full-length autobiography, almost everyone will, inadvertently, produce an archive of the self, made from public records and private documents. Here, such works are seen as providing access to writing both about and by children. The essay explores the ethics and poetics of children’s writing via the key debates in life writing; in particular, the dynamic relationship between adults and children, both as distinct stages of life and dual parts of one autobiographical identity. The term “ante-autobiography” is coined to refer to these texts which come before or instead of a full-length narrative. They are not read as less than or inadequate versions of autobiography, but rather as transgressive and challenging to chronological notions of the genre

Postgraduate nursing students' experiences in providing frontline and backstage care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

Safety measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated universities to reorganise teaching to accommodate the students' needs, including nursing students who had been called back into clinical practice to support front-line nursing. To describe the experiences of post-graduate students in nursing sciences (experienced in clinical nursing) during the Covid-19 pandemic. This qualitative descriptive study took place at a Swiss University delivering masters and doctoral programmes in nursing sciences. Participants were post-graduate students enrolled in masters and doctoral programmes. All current students were invited by email to participate in three focus groups, which were recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Thirteen students participated, with a majority who had been called back into clinical practice. Four themes were identified: Challenges of caring for patients during the coronavirus pandemic, Challenges of being a student during the pandemic, Resilience amid the difficulties, and Recognition of the Clinical Nurse Specialist competencies. Our results showed that amid the challenges, post-graduate nursing students demonstrated high leadership skills, resilience, and a tremendous sense of professional duty, where patients' and families' best interest remained their main concerns. Educators and nurse administrators need to acknowledge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on post-graduate nurses, caught in the tension between their academic career aspirations and duty of care to patients, families, and the healthcare system

Late Quaternary sea-level changes of the Persian Gulf

Late Quaternary reflooding of the Persian Gulf climaxed with the mid-Holocene highstand previously variously dated between 6 and 3.4 ka. Examination of the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental context of a mid- Holocenewhale beaching allows us to accurately constrain the timing of the transgressive, highstand and regressive phases of the mid- to late Holocene sea-level highstand in the Persian Gulf. Mid-Holocene transgression of the Gulf surpassed today's sea level by 7100–6890 cal yr BP, attaining a highstand of N1 m above current sea level shortly after 5290–4570 cal yr BP before falling back to current levels by 1440–1170 cal yr BP. The cetacean beached into an intertidal hardground pond during the transgressive phase (5300–4960 cal yr BP) with continued transgression interring the skeleton in shallow-subtidal sediments. Subsequent relative sea-level fall produced a forced regression with consequent progradation of the coastal system. These new ages refine previously reported timings for the mid- to late Holocene sea-level highstand published for other regions. By so doing, they allow us to constrain the timing of this correlatable global eustatic event more accurately

A Pilgrim's Journey—When Parkinson's Disease Comes to an End in Nursing Homes

Our interdisciplinary mixed-methods exploratory study was aimed at gaining empirical data on the medical and nursing demands of residents who are in a late stage of Parkinson Disease (PD) and are cared for in residential homes in Salzburg (Austria). In earlier studies it has been concluded that symptom burden of late stage PD patients is similar to or even higher compared with oncological patients. However, although all nine residents who took part in our study had severe limitations in performing their daily activities and experienced enormous restrictions in their mobility, they were quite content with their present living situations and did not show significant symptom burden. From the ethnographic family interviews that we conducted the following features emerged: a strong closeness in the family, an improved quality of life when the patients lived in the nursing home and fears about the future. Therefore, we concluded that living in a nursing home that provides for the needs of these patients is the best option for PD patients in the final stages of their disease as well as for their relatives