Denitrification under Pastures on Permeable Soils Helps Protect Ground Water Quality

Pastures have been implicated in ground water contamination by nitrate, especially in humid regions with thin or sandy soils (Stout et al., 2000). Significant losses can occur even under low N input, because available N from excreta patches often exceeds plant uptake capacity. Lack of evidence that appreciable nitrate leaching was occurring in established Midwestern USA pastures led us to test the hypothesis that denitrification was preventing or remediating nitrate loading. Higher denitrification rates have been found in the relatively limited number of trials since Ball & Ryden (1984) first reported the significance of this process in pastures

Pig Feeding under the Potato-green Forage Base System with or without Addition of Herbs versus a Concentrate Based System: Effect on Post-slaughter Performance and Pork Characteristics

This study examined carcass and meat quality parameters in growing/finishing pigs fed unconventionally versus the concentrate-based system. Ninety-six, 12 wk old pigs (34±SD 0.3 kg) were randomly divided into three groups, assigned to one of the three dietary treatments: standard complete concentrate mixture, conventional (C diet); unconventional, steamed potato-green forage-concentrate based diet (U diet), and unconventional basal diet+herbage mix (UH diet). Pigs fed U diet showed lower dressing percentage, meatiness, loin eye area, and weight of pork neck (p≤0.05), but their carcasses were significantly (p≤0.05) longer and had increased backfat depth (p≤0.05). There was no impact of the diet on the meat content of dry matter, crude ash, acidity, and colour parameters of m. longissimus. Unconventional feeding significantly (p≤0.05) elevated water the holding capacity of m. longissimus and slightly improved the sensory attributes analysis of meat. The addition of herbs resulted in increased loin eye area (p≤0.05), decreased fat content (p≤0.05) in m. longissimus, and tended to improve some sensory attributes of meat. There were significant gender differences in response to all diets. There were significant diet×sex interactions for some measured variables, but there were no clearly identifiable trends with regard to any specific carcass or meat parameters. Feeding unconventional diet to pigs may offer better culinary attributes of the meat, and improve some technologically important characteristics of pig carcass, but may negatively affect some carcass or meat parameters

Risks and Benefits of Consumption of Great Lakes Fish

Background: Beneficial effects of fish consumption on early cognitive development and cardiovascular health have been attributed to the omega-3 fatty acids in fish and fish oils, but toxic chemicals in fish may adversely affect these health outcomes. Risk–benefit assessments of fish consumption have frequently focused on methylmercury and omega-3 fatty acids, not persistent pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls, and none have evaluated Great Lakes fish consumption

Barriers and facilitators to self-management of asthma in adolescents:an interview study to inform development of a novel intervention

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Despite literature that spans twenty years describing the barriers to asthma self-management in adolescents, successful, clinically-based interventions to address this important issue are lacking. Given the limitations of some of the previous studies, we conducted a study that aimed to gain a broader insight into barriers and facilitators to self-management of asthma by adolescents, not just adherence to treatment, and triangulated their views with those of their parents and healthcare professionals. METHODS: Focus groups and interviews were conducted separately for 28 adolescents with asthma aged 12-18 years, 14 healthcare professionals, and 12 parents. Focus groups and interviews were audio-recorded and transcripts from each participant group were analysed separately using inductive thematic analysis. We triangulated the three perspectives by comparing themes that had emerged from each analysis. RESULTS: Adolescents', parents', and healthcare professionals' views were summarised into ten related themes that included forgetting and routines, knowledge, embarrassment and confidence, communication with healthcare professionals, triggers, support at school, apathy, and taking responsibility. We found that adolescents, parents and healthcare professionals raised similar barriers and facilitators to self-management and our results provide further validation for previous studies. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Our study highlights that healthcare professionals may need to consider a range of psychological and contextual issues influencing adolescents' ability to effectively self-manage their asthma, in particular, how they implement treatment routines and the understanding that adolescents have of their condition and treatments. Crucially, healthcare professionals need to consider how this information is communicated and ensure they facilitate open, inclusive, two-way consultations. From this more comprehensive understanding, we have developed interventional strategies that healthcare professionals can utilise to empower adolescents to improve their asthma self-management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Pop, heavy metal and the blues: secondary analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POP), heavy metals and depressive symptoms in the NHANES National Epidemiological Survey

Persistent environmental pollutants, including heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), have a ubiquitous presence. Many of these pollutants affect neurobiological processes, either accidentally or by design. The aim of this study was to explore the associations between assayed measures of POPs and heavy metals and depressive symptoms. We hypothesised that higher levels of pollutants and metals would be associated with depressive symptoms

Low Dose Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyls Predict Obesity, Dyslipidemia, and Insulin Resistance among People Free of Diabetes

There is emerging evidence that background exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are important in the development of conditions predisposing to diabetes as well as of type 2 diabetes itself. We recently reported that low dose POPs predicted incident type 2 diabetes in a nested case-control study. The current study examined if low dose POPs predicted future adiposity, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance among controls without diabetes in that study.The 90 controls were diabetes-free during 20 years follow-up. They were a stratified random sample, enriched with overweight and obese persons. POPs measured in 1987-88 (year 2) sera included 8 organochlorine (OC) pesticides, 22 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and 1 polybrominated biphenyl (PBB). Body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and homeostasis model assessment value for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were study outcomes at 2005-06 (year 20). The evolution of study outcomes during 18 years by categories of serum concentrations of POPs at year 2 was evaluated by adjusting for the baseline values of outcomes plus potential confounders. Parallel to prediction of type 2 diabetes, many statistically significant associations of POPs with dysmetabolic conditions appeared at low dose, forming inverted U-shaped dose-response relations. Among OC pesticides, p,p'-DDE most consistently predicted higher BMI, triglycerides, and HOMA-IR and lower HDL-cholesterol at year 20 after adjusting for baseline values. Oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, and hexachlorobenzene also significantly predicted higher triglycerides. Persistent PCBs with ≥7 chlorides predicted higher BMI, triglycerides, and HOMA-IR and lower HDL-cholesterol at year 20 with similar dose-response curves.Simultaneous exposure to various POPs in the general population may contribute to development of obesity, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance, common precursors of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although obesity is a primary cause of these metabolic abnormalities, POPs exposure may contribute to excess adiposity and other features of dysmetabolism