Haying with Less Help

Haymaking in Iowa usually comes piling in on top of several other jobs. In this time of war with a shortage of workers, farmers will be casting about for the best way to get their haying done with less help

Getting Started with Hoop Structures

Archie Kunz has six years of experience with hoops and has used all types of bedding. The style he uses has a concrete pad in the front, with beds in the back and a metal door. He said he thinks pigs are happy in hoops. Don Lewis built his first hoop in 1992 after seeing an article in a farm show magazine. He made several mistakes: 1) he built too close behind the structure, and 2) the split wall down the middle made bedding difficult. Hoops need to be user-friendly. You need to make it work in all conditions. Don Struthers said his decision to build hoops included his sons and other partners. They first considered hoops for hay storage. They felt they could succeed with hoops if the Rhodes research farm was successful

Getting Started with Hoop Structures

Archie Kunz has six years of experience with hoops and has used all types of bedding. The style he uses has a concrete pad in the front, with beds in the back and a metal door. He said he thinks pigs are happy in hoops. Don Lewis built his first hoop in 1992 after seeing an article in a farm show magazine. He made several mistakes: 1) he built too close behind the structure, and 2) the split wall down the middle made bedding difficult. "Hoops need to be user-friendly. You need to make it work in all conditions." Don Struthers said his decision to build hoops included his sons and other partners. They first considered hoops for hay storage. They felt they could succeed with hoops if the Rhodes research farm was successful.</p

Allopurinol versus usual care in UK patients with ischaemic heart disease (ALL-HEART): a multicentre, prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial

BACKGROUND: Allopurinol is a urate-lowering therapy used to treat patients with gout. Previous studies have shown that allopurinol has positive effects on several cardiovascular parameters. The ALL-HEART study aimed to determine whether allopurinol therapy improves major cardiovascular outcomes in patients with ischaemic heart disease. METHODS: ALL-HEART was a multicentre, prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial done in 18 regional centres in England and Scotland, with patients recruited from 424 primary care practices. Eligible patients were aged 60 years or older, with ischaemic heart disease but no history of gout. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1), using a central web-based randomisation system accessed via a web-based application or an interactive voice response system, to receive oral allopurinol up-titrated to a dose of 600 mg daily (300 mg daily in participants with moderate renal impairment at baseline) or to continue usual care. The primary outcome was the composite cardiovascular endpoint of non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, or cardiovascular death. The hazard ratio (allopurinol vs usual care) in a Cox proportional hazards model was assessed for superiority in a modified intention-to-treat analysis (excluding randomly assigned patients later found to have met one of the exclusion criteria). The safety analysis population included all patients in the modified intention-to-treat usual care group and those who took at least one dose of randomised medication in the allopurinol group. This study is registered with the EU Clinical Trials Register, EudraCT 2013-003559-39, and ISRCTN, ISRCTN32017426. FINDINGS: Between Feb 7, 2014, and Oct 2, 2017, 5937 participants were enrolled and then randomly assigned to receive allopurinol or usual care. After exclusion of 216 patients after randomisation, 5721 participants (mean age 72·0 years [SD 6·8], 4321 [75·5%] males, and 5676 [99·2%] white) were included in the modified intention-to-treat population, with 2853 in the allopurinol group and 2868 in the usual care group. Mean follow-up time in the study was 4·8 years (1·5). There was no evidence of a difference between the randomised treatment groups in the rates of the primary endpoint. 314 (11·0%) participants in the allopurinol group (2·47 events per 100 patient-years) and 325 (11·3%) in the usual care group (2·37 events per 100 patient-years) had a primary endpoint (hazard ratio [HR] 1·04 [95% CI 0·89–1·21], p=0·65). 288 (10·1%) participants in the allopurinol group and 303 (10·6%) participants in the usual care group died from any cause (HR 1·02 [95% CI 0·87–1·20], p=0·77). INTERPRETATION: In this large, randomised clinical trial in patients aged 60 years or older with ischaemic heart disease but no history of gout, there was no difference in the primary outcome of non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, or cardiovascular death between participants randomised to allopurinol therapy and those randomised to usual care. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health and Care Research

Haying with Less Help

Haymaking in Iowa usually comes piling in on top of several other jobs. In this time of war with a shortage of workers, farmers will be casting about for the best way to get their haying done with less help.</p

Legal, Ethical and Clinical Implications of Doing Field Work with Youth Gang Members Who Engage in Serious Violence

Abstract This paper reports on dilemmas encountered when doing ethnographic research with youth gang members involved in serious crime. These acts often endanger the lives of others. 1 It is based upon a qualitative study of how 30 gang members aged 12 -17 years accounted for their physical, sexual and emotional violence against girlfriends, gays, and racial minorities. These types of dilemmas were successfully dealt with, to the benefit of participants and victims. Instead of avoiding this kind of field work, researchers must continue to explore these issues and get proper training prior to commencing research.