Development and initial application of δ18Op to understand phosphorus cycling in river, lake and groundwater ecosystems.

Variation in the stable isotope composition of oxygen within dissolved phosphate (δ18Op) represents a novel and potentially powerful environmental tracer. In freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, δ18Op can act as an inherent label for the sources of phosphorus and the extent to which phosphorus from different sources is metabolised. This paper focuses on the methodological development and initial application of δ18Op across a range of freshwater ecosystems. Initially, we report modifications to the analytical protocol for δ18Op that are designed to minimise incorporation of contaminant oxygen in the final silver phosphate precipitate prior to pyrolysis. This is critical given the range of possible sources of contaminant oxygen within freshwater matrices. Subsequently, we consider the potential utility of δ18Op through application of the technique within a range of freshwater ecosystems in England, UK. Firstly, we characterise δ18Op in river water and effluents from Sewage Treatment Works (STW), and examine the opportunity to use the 18Op of STW effluents to trace the entry and downstream fate of phosphorus from these point sources in rivers. Secondly, we analyse δ18Op to gain insights into variations in the sources and biological cycling of phosphorus in a seasonally stratified lake ecosystem. Thirdly, we characterise δ18Op in shallow and deep groundwater samples, considering whether δ18Op might provide evidence for variation in source and extent of metabolism for phosphorus in groundwater ecosystems. Taken together, these data extend the catalogue of δ18Op in freshwater ecosystems, and further the scope of δ18Op as a tool to better understand phosphorus biogeochemistry

A multi-stable isotope framework to understand eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems

Eutrophication is a globally significant challenge facing aquatic ecosystems, associated with human induced enrichment of these ecosystems with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). However, the limited availability of inherent labels for P and N has constrained understanding of the triggers for eutrophication in natural ecosystems and appropriate targeting of management responses. This paper proposes and evaluates a new multi-stable isotope framework that offers inherent labels to track biogeochemical reactions governing both P and N in natural ecosystems. The framework couples highly novel analysis of the oxygen isotope composition of phosphate (δ18OPO4) with dual isotope analysis of oxygen and N within nitrate (δ15NNO3, δ18ONO3) and with stable N isotope analysis in ammonium (δ15NNH4). The River Beult in England is used as an exemplar system for initial evaluation of this framework. Our data demonstrate the potential to use stable isotope labels to track the input and downstream fate of nutrients from point sources, on the basis of isotopic differentiation for both P and N between river water and waste water treatment work effluent (mean difference = +1.7‰ for δ18OPO4; +15.5‰ for δ15NNH4 (under high flow); +7.3‰ for δ18ONO3 and +4.4‰ for δ15NNO3). Stable isotope data reveal nutrient inputs to the river upstream of the waste water treatment works that are consistent with partially denitrified sewage or livestock sources of nitrate (δ15NNO3 range = +11.5 to +13.1‰) and with agricultural sources of phosphate (δ18OPO4 range = +16.6 to +19.0‰). The importance of abiotic and metabolic processes for the in-river fate of N and P are also explored through the stable isotope framework. Microbial uptake of ammonium to meet metabolic demand for N is suggested by substantial enrichment of δ15NNH4 (by 10.2‰ over a 100 m reach) under summer low flow conditions. Whilst the concentration of both nitrate and phosphate decreased substantially along the same reach, the stable isotope composition of these ions did not vary significantly, indicating that concentration changes are likely driven by abiotic processes of dilution or sorption. The in-river stable isotope composition and the concentration of P and N were also largely constant downstream of the waste water treatment works, indicating that effluent-derived nutrients were not strongly coupled to metabolism along this in-river transect. Combined with in-situ and laboratory hydrochemical data, we believe that a multi-stable isotope framework represents a powerful approach for understanding and managing eutrophication in natural aquatic ecosystems

Making good?: A study of how senior penal policy makers narrate policy reversal

This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform

A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region

In this article, we present some initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of unification by staff in one Probation Service region. Their reaction to unification is explored as well as their hopes and fears regarding the newly unified service. Despite working in what was often presented as an unsettled and fractured environment marked by on-going staff shortages – whilst at the same time having to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – amongst most participants there remained a high level of loyalty to the probation profession (or the idea of probation). However, while many expressed optimism regarding the longer-term prospects for the unified organisation, this was also overlaid with concerns about how unification would play out in the short to medium term. Their enduring sense of commitment and loyalty to their role was also being tested by what some saw as overbearing pressure to manage risk, coupled with the fear of being exposed if people whom they supervised committed a Serious Further Offence

Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal

This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform

Depression and Diabetes Treatment Nonadherence: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE—Depression is common in patients with diabetes and is associated with worse treatment outcomes. Its relationship to treatment adherence, however, has not been systematically reviewed. We used meta-analysis to examine the relationship between depression and treatment nonadherence in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Depression and Diabetes Treatment Nonadherence: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE—Depression is common in patients with diabetes and is associated with worse treatment outcomes. Its relationship to treatment adherence, however, has not been systematically reviewed. We used meta-analysis to examine the relationship between depression and treatment nonadherence in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Identification of a new European rabbit IgA with a serine-rich hinge region

<div><p>In mammals, the most striking IgA system belongs to Lagomorpha. Indeed, 14 IgA subclasses have been identified in European rabbits, 11 of which are expressed. In contrast, most other mammals have only one IgA, or in the case of hominoids, two IgA subclasses. Characteristic features of the mammalian IgA subclasses are the length and amino acid sequence of their hinge regions, which are often rich in Pro, Ser and Thr residues and may also carry Cys residues. Here, we describe a new IgA that was expressed in New Zealand White domestic rabbits of <i>IGHV</i>a1 allotype. This IgA has an extended hinge region containing an intriguing stretch of nine consecutive Ser residues and no Pro or Thr residues, a motif exclusive to this new rabbit IgA. Considering the amino acid properties, this hinge motif may present some advantage over the common IgA hinge by affording novel functional capabilities. We also sequenced for the first time the IgA14 CH2 and CH3 domains and showed that IgA14 and IgA3 are expressed.</p></div

Sufism and Liberation across the Indo-Afghan Border: 1880-1928

How do we understand links between sufism and pro-egalitarian revolutionary activism in the early twentieth century; and how did upland compositions of self and community help constitute revolutionary activism in South Asia more broadly? Using Pashto poetry as my archive I integrate a history of radical egalitarian thought and political practice to a holistic study of self-making; of imperial spatiality; and of shifting gradients of power in the regions between Kabul and Punjab. Amid a chaotic rise of new practices of imperial and monarchic hegemony around the turn of the twentieth century, I argue, older sedimentations of ‘devotee selfhood’ in the high valleys of eastern Afghanistan gave rise, in social spaces preserved by self-reflexive poetic practice and circulation, to conscious desires for avoidance of all forms of hierarchy or sovereignty, in favour of a horizontal politics of reciprocity. Such inchoate drives for freedom later played a role in constituting anti-statist revolutionary subjectivities across great geographical and social distance. From upland sufi roots they rippled outward to intersect with the work of transnational socialist and anti-imperialist militants in Indian nationalist circles too; and even influenced scholars at the heart of the nascent Afghan nation-state