Building Resilient Farming Communities in the UK: Encouraging Agroecological Practices on UK Farms in Relation to Climate Change

Faced with a future including environmental impacts on agriculture and food production from climate change, alongside a growing population: this thesis considers agroecology and sustainable agriculture farming practices to enable farmers in the UK to have climate-resilient livelihoods. The research explores existing agroecological interventions in the UK, along with drivers and barriers to changing behaviour amongst those farmers towards using agroecological techniques. Through an investigation of sustainable livelihoods, an analytical framework was developed to assist with the data collection and analysis. Using a mixed method study of data collection, the first phase comprised a quantitative and qualitative survey, and the second phase an in-depth qualitative individual and group interviews. The results were analysed using a conceptual model of resilient rural agricultural livelihoods in the UK. By comparing back to the theory and concepts, the results were discussed and evaluated. These included the importance of sustainable livelihoods in assessing agroecology and sustainable farming in the UK. Evaluation of the results highlighted the following issues: hazards to farmers from climate change through to finances; how farmer assets (social, human, natural, financial and physical) can help build resilience to those hazards; and how barriers to change - including sociological and psychological barriers - can reduce a farmer’s assets and increase their vulnerability to climate change and other hazards. Key findings included one which has already been acknowledged to be important for climate-resilient agriculture, which was to improve soil health, both for improved nutrients, but also for carbon sequestration and water retention. Another key finding was the emergence of the “digital electronic hedge” for farmer learning, mentoring and communication. Through video, social media, web forums and email, farmers are collapsing geographical barriers to look over their ‘neighbour’s hedge’ at opposite ends of the country. Furthermore, the same mediums can bridge the gap between farmers and researchers which can be important for extending new techniques and theories

Effects of Covering System, Sealing Time, and Packing on Fermentation, Nutritional Quality, and Organic Matter Loss of Corn Silage in a Drive-over Pile

This project involved an experiment conducted using a 550-ton capacity drive-over pile of whole-plant corn silage. The main effects compared were: packing the final forage surface with a loader or crawler, delay or immediate sealing, and covering with standard plastic or an oxygen barrier film. Numerous studies have shown that the absence of oxygen in silage stored in a bunker silo or pile is crucial for proper fermentation and to ensure the highest quality silage at feed out. When oxygen is allowed to permeate through the covering material, it leads to visible spoilage. This trial showed that the oxygen barrier film reduced organic matter loss in the outer 18 inches of the pile and there was less visible spoilage compared to the silage covered with the standard plastic (8.3 percent difference in OM loss). When the crawler was used to pack the final surface compared to the loader, there was less organic matter loss in the outer layer of the pile (5.3 percent difference). By delaying 24 hours to seal the pile, the data showed that organic matter loss increased compared to sealing immediately (3.3 percent difference) as more oxygen was allowed to permeate the outer layer of forage, which prolonged the aerobic phase and slowed the fermentation process. Silage packed with the crawler, sealed immediately, and covered with oxygen barrier film had higher nutritional quality in the outer 0 to 18 inches of the pile than silage packed with the loader, delay sealed, and covered with standard plastic

Identification of bile salt hydrolase inhibitors, the promising alternative to antibiotic growth promoters to enhance animal production

Currently there is a global trend to eliminate the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in animal production due to the risk of creating reservoirs of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Previous studies have shown that the ability of AGP to promote growth is highly correlated with a decrease in the activity of bile salt hydrolase (BSH), an enzyme produced by commensal bacteria and whose actions may compromise host lipid metabolism; thus, BSH inhibitors could be a novel AGP alternative. In this study, a recombinant bile salt hydrolase (rBSH) from Lactobacillus salivarius was produced in an E. coli expression system, purified, and enzymatically characterized. Purification by nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) affinity chromatography consistently yielded approximately 15 mg of rBSH per liter of induced culture. A standard 2-step BSH activity assay which estimates the amount of amino acids liberated from conjugated bile acids was used to determine substrate specificity of the BSH and the effect of pH, temperature, and dietary compounds on BSH activity. The rBSH displayed its highest hydrolysis activity for glycochenodeoxycholic acid although there was no preference among other substrates tested. Optimal activity was observed between pH of 5.0 and 6.0 and between temperatures of 35°C to 55°C. Preliminary assays identified different dietary compounds that were potent inhibitors, including copper and zinc compounds which have previously been shown to boost feed efficiency and promote growth of poultry and swine. Furthermore, a high-throughput screening system (HTS) was developed for fast and efficient identification of potent BSH inhibitors. This HTS system was utilized to screen a compound library comprised of 2,240 biologically active and structurally diverse compounds. The pilot screen led to 107 hits and a preliminary review of biochemical information of the corresponding compounds further narrowed down those of interest. Several lead compounds have been validated by the standard 2-step BSH activity assay and will be subjected to future in vivo analysis in a large-scale animal study. Overall, this study characterized a BSH with broad substrate specificity and developed and validated different strategies for identification of BSH inhibitors, the promising alternatives to AGP for enhancing the productivity and sustainability of food animals

Genre Discovery 2.0

Ten years ago, I proposed the “genre discovery approach” for teaching new legal writers how to write any legal document, even ones they had never encountered before. Using the genre discovery approach, a writer studies samples of a genre to identify the genre’s conventions so that they can write the genre. From the seed of Genre Discovery 1.0, the approach’s potential has blossomed into a robust pedagogical system: Genre Discovery 2.0. Genre Discovery 2.0 is more effective than Genre Discovery 1.0 because it more explicitly integrates metacognition into its pedagogy. Metacognition, “the concept that individuals can monitor and regulate their own cognitive processes and thereby improve the quality and effectiveness of their thinking,” is not innate—it must be taught. The legal writing professoriate has embraced metacognition to teach our students to be conscious of their learning. Some legal writing professors have contributed strategies for teaching metacognition to law students. Most current metacognitive teaching strategies include overlays atop an underlying assignment. In other words, these strategies require two steps to teach metacognition: the underlying task itself and then the separate metacognitive task that overlays the main task. This learning process is inefficient because it requires multiple steps. It is also less effective because the metacognitive activity is divorced from the underlying assignment, requiring students to make a cognitive leap from one assignment to the other. The push for metacognition in legal education has come from the upper levels of legal education reform. This article shows that metacognition is the best way to prepare our students to be practice ready. This article argues that Genre Discovery 2.0 is the ideal way to teach legal research and writing to new legal writers because it integrates metacognition into its pedagogy rather than teaching metacognition as a separate overlay. By integrating metacognition, Genre Discovery 2.0 fulfills the promise of its predecessor by giving new legal writers the skills they need to not only learn how to write in law school but to learn how they learn and how to be lifelong learners

Doing Coupledom: imagining, managing and performing relationality in contemporary wedding and civil partnership rituals

This thesis investigates how relationality is imagined, managed and performed by twenty-seven UK-based couples during their wedding and civil partnership rituals. The methodology involves a case study approach with eleven of the couples, who were followed through the planning of their ritual, retrospective interviews with sixteen couples and a photograph project with eight of these couples. Diversity in the sample in terms of age, gender and class allows these factors to be explored along with differences of sexuality between the couples.Commitment rituals put relationality into sharp focus as they demand practices of inclusion and exclusion. Each chapter of analysis (The Decision to Marry, Wedding Work and The Big Day) highlights how tradition and relationality are particularly significant to an understanding of the fateful moments that commitment rituals represent. The perceived expectations of family members and friends are implicated in the performance of traditional symbols, while these symbols also provide a recognised form for these relationships to take. The Discussion chapter builds upon these ideas in drawing the key themes, of imagining, managing and performing that run through each chapter, together in outlining a typology of strategies. This typology challenges a central idea of the reflexive modernisation thesis, as asserted particularly by Giddens (1991, 1992, 1994, 2002), that reflexivity involves the disembedding of individuals from their relational networks. In this way the research builds upon theorisations of relationality and embeddedness, particularly those developed by Smart (2007a) and Bottero (2010). The intersubjective nature of reflexivity is emphasised with the introduction of the terms ‘reflexive coupledom’ and ‘relational reflexivity’ alongside ‘individual reflexivity’. ‘Strategies of tradition’ is also included in the typology to emphasise how meaningconstitutive tradition continues to shape ritual action. These concepts aim to be of use in future exploration of these rituals as well as in relation to other areas of personal life

Women’s experiences of undiagnosed breech birth and the effects on future childbirth decisions and expectations

An unexpected breech birth in labour affects 1 woman in every 100 in the UK (Walker, 2013). Not only does an undiagnosed breech presentation pose a clinical problem in obstetrics and midwifery, but importantly, it often creates an emergency situation for women where there is little time to plan, prepare or potentially choose what the next steps should be for themselves and their baby. This could have implications for a woman's psychological wellbeing.This qualitative study aims to give voice to women who have experienced an undiagnosed breech birth and will consider the influence this experience may have had on future thinking around childbirth. Above all, women's feelings are the main point of consideration rather than mode of delivery or clinical outcomes of breech birth; both of which have dominated the research in this area.Pre-existing textual data from discussion boards on Mumsnet, a UK parenting website, were examined. Inductive thematic analysis of 83 messages using the 6-step process advocated by Braun and Clarke (2006) was carried out and five key themes were identified: ‘I was unlucky though, dc3 [darling child number 3] was undiagnosed breech’, ‘Obstetricians are not the enemy! ‘,‘They told me it is not my decision but the decision of the consultants’, ‘His head was pretty misshapen and his legs were up by his head’ and ‘Feeling like a crap mum’. Two sub-themes were also identified, ‘Just got to work through it and keep on swimming’ and ‘You just don’t know what will happen!’The findings suggest that women generally regard undiagnosed breech birth as a negative experience that gives rise to feelings of fear, anxiety and anger. They feel they are not listened to by healthcare professionals and lose all choices regarding their own care. Future thinking around childbirth is also impacted, with some women deciding to have no more children due to their undiagnosed breech birth. The role of Health Psychologists is key in providing support for women who are experiencing negative emotional impacts as a result of an undiagnosed breech birth