Integration of organic poultry in whole farm systems: manure nutrient budgets

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. The aim of this project was to examine how rotations incorporating organic poultry use the cycling of nutrients between soil, crops and birds. Poultry studies have measured nutrient values of manure in slow growing meat birds at about day 81 when fed typical broiler rations versus “Label Rouge” rations. Nutrient (N, P, K) balances were constructed to assess the viability of integrating poultry production within a theoretical organic rotation. The readilyplant- available nitrogen in manure from Ross 308 birds fed either presumed non-limiting rations or Label Rouge rations was within the range reported for intensive broilers. For ISA 657 birds, the manure readily-plant-available nitrogen was similar to the mean value reported for broilers, when fed presumed non limiting rations, but towards the lower range when fed Label Rouge rations. As breed growth and feed intakes differ it is suggested that to optimise the utilisation of nutrients, the nutrient content of table bird manures should be checked prior to land application. The nutrient budgets were similar for N and P regardless of the length of rotation or form of poultry production. On average, there was a surplus of 85 kg/ha N over all the scenarios. There tended to be a deficit of K in all scenarios (average: 10 kg/ha)

Ordering our world: the quest for traces of temporal organization in autobiographical memory

An experiment examined the idea, derived from the Self Memory System model (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), that autobiographical events are sometimes tagged in memory with labels reflecting the life era in which an event occurred. The presence of such labels should affect the ease of judgments of the order in which life events occurred. Accordingly, 39 participants judged the order of two autobiographical events. Latency data consistently showed that between-era judgments were faster than within-era judgments, when the eras were defined in terms of either: (a) college versus high school, (b) academic quarter within year, or (c) academic year within school. The accuracy data similarly supported the presence of a between-era judgment effect for the college versus high school dichotomy

Adaptive genomic structural variation in the grape powdery mildew pathogen, Erysiphe necator.

BackgroundPowdery mildew, caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Erysiphe necator, is an economically important disease of grapevines worldwide. Large quantities of fungicides are used for its control, accelerating the incidence of fungicide-resistance. Copy number variations (CNVs) are unbalanced changes in the structure of the genome that have been associated with complex traits. In addition to providing the first description of the large and highly repetitive genome of E. necator, this study describes the impact of genomic structural variation on fungicide resistance in Erysiphe necator.ResultsA shotgun approach was applied to sequence and assemble the genome of five E. necator isolates, and RNA-seq and comparative genomics were used to predict and annotate protein-coding genes. Our results show that the E. necator genome is exceptionally large and repetitive and suggest that transposable elements are responsible for genome expansion. Frequent structural variations were found between isolates and included copy number variation in EnCYP51, the target of the commonly used sterol demethylase inhibitor (DMI) fungicides. A panel of 89 additional E. necator isolates collected from diverse vineyard sites was screened for copy number variation in the EnCYP51 gene and for presence/absence of a point mutation (Y136F) known to result in higher fungicide tolerance. We show that an increase in EnCYP51 copy number is significantly more likely to be detected in isolates collected from fungicide-treated vineyards. Increased EnCYP51 copy numbers were detected with the Y136F allele, suggesting that an increase in copy number becomes advantageous only after the fungicide-tolerant allele is acquired. We also show that EnCYP51 copy number influences expression in a gene-dose dependent manner and correlates with fungal growth in the presence of a DMI fungicide.ConclusionsTaken together our results show that CNV can be adaptive in the development of resistance to fungicides by providing increasing quantitative protection in a gene-dosage dependent manner. The results of this work not only demonstrate the effectiveness of using genomics to dissect complex traits in organisms with very limited molecular information, but also may have broader implications for understanding genomic dynamics in response to strong selective pressure in other pathogens with similar genome architectures

The Electronic and Superconducting Properties of Oxygen-Ordered MgB2 compounds of the form Mg2B3Ox

Possible candidates for the Mg2B3Ox nanostructures observed in bulk of polycrystalline MgB2 (Ref.1) have been studied using a combination of Z-contrast imaging, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and first-principles calculations. The electronic structures, phonon modes, and electron phonon coupling parameters are calculated for two oxygen-ordered MgB2 compounds of composition Mg2B3O and Mg2B3O2, and compared with those of MgB2. We find that the density of states for both Mg2B3Ox structures show very good agreement with EELS, indicating that they are excellent candidates to explain the observed coherent oxygen precipitates. Incorporation of oxygen reduces the transition temperature and gives calculated TC values of 18.3 K and 1.6 K for Mg2B3O and Mg2B3O2, respectively.Comment: Submitted to PR

Jet SIFT-ing: a new scale-invariant jet clustering algorithm for the substructure era

We introduce a new jet clustering algorithm named SIFT (Scale-Invariant Filtered Tree) that maintains the resolution of substructure for collimated decay products at large boosts. The scale-invariant measure combines properties of kT and anti-kT by preferring early association of soft radiation with a resilient hard axis, while avoiding the specification of a fixed cone size. Integrated filtering and variable-radius isolation criteria block assimilation of soft wide-angle radiation and provide a halting condition. Mutually hard structures are preserved to the end of clustering, automatically generating a tree of subjet axis candidates. Excellent object identification and kinematic reconstruction for multi-pronged resonances are realized across more than an order of magnitude in transverse energy. The clustering measure history facilitates high-performance substructure tagging, which we quantify with the aid of supervised machine learning. These properties suggest that SIFT may prove to be a useful tool for the continuing study of jet substructure.Comment: 29 pages, 23 figures, 5 tables, and 5 films (ancillary files

An examination of NMDA receptor contribution to conditioned responding evoked by the conditional stimulus effects of nicotine

Rationale—Research using a drug discriminated goal-tracking (DGT) task showed that the Nmethyl- D-aspartate (NMDA) channel blocker MK-801 (dizocilpine) reduced the nicotine-evoked conditioned response (CR). Objectives—Given the unknown mechanism of the effect, Experiment 1 replicated the MK-801 results and included tests with NMDA receptor ligands. Experiments 2a and 2b tested whether MK-801 pretreatment blocked DGT via a state-dependency effect. Methods—In Experiment 1, adult male Sprague–Dawley rats received intermittent access to liquid sucrose following nicotine (0.4 mg base/kg); no sucrose was delivered on intermixed saline sessions. Conditioning was indicated by increased anticipatory dipper entries (goal-tracking) on nicotine compared to saline sessions. Antagonism and/or substitution tests were conducted with MK-801, phencyclidine, CGP 39551, d-CPPene (SDZ EAA 494), Ro 25,6981, L-701,324, ACPC, and NMDA. In Experiment 2a, rats received nicotine and sucrose on every session—no intermixed saline sessions without sucrose. Tests combined MK-801 or the non-competitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, mecamylamine with either nicotine or saline. Experiment 2b had sucrose delivered on saline sessions and no sucrose on intermixed nicotine sessions followed by MK-801 antagonism tests of the saline CS. Results—MK-801 and phencyclidine dose-dependently attenuated the CR in Experiment 1. Ro-25,6981 enhanced the CR, but did not substitute for nicotine. Other ligands showed inconsistent effects. In Experiment 2a, MK-801 pretreatment reduced goal-tracking when given before nicotine and saline test sessions; mecamylamine pretreatment had no effect. In Experiment 2b, MK-801 dose-dependently attenuated the saline-evoked CR. Conclusions—Combined, the results suggest that MK-801 blocks discriminated goal-tracking by virtue of state-changing properties

Evaluating the e-Cigarette Epidemic in US Emergency Departments

Background: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are often thought to be a healthier option to cigarette smoking. e-Cigarettes have been found to overheat and explode. e-Cigarette explosions have caused severe trauma and rendered patients in critical conditions. Inadvertent exposures to liquid nicotine products have caused systemic poisoning injuries. We sought to characterize e-cigarette injuries presenting to emergency departments (ED) in 2018.Methods: We analyzed one year of data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). Patients presenting with injuries associated with e-cigarette products were manually identified for inclusion. We performed descriptive analyses on demographic factors, affected bodily regions, dispositions, locations of occurrence, and mechanisms of injury. By applying sample weights, nationally representative estimates were calculated.Results: A total of 361 667 injury cases were reported in NEISS (2018). We identified 50 e-cigarette injury cases, generating a national estimate of 1739 (95% CI [1333-2148]) patients presenting to US EDs with e-cigarette injuries in 2018. Approximately 1000 pediatric patients (age ≤17 years) and 700 adult patients (age ≥18 years) were included. The median age when presenting to the ED was 4 years (interquartile range [IQR], 1-25). Over 85% of injuries occurred at home. Ingestion (55.0%) was the most common mechanism of injury, followed by explosion (35.8%).Conclusion: Children and adults are susceptible to injury from e-cigarette products. Changes in manufacturing standards may prevent injuries from these products

An examination of NMDA receptor contribution to conditioned responding evoked by the conditional stimulus effects of nicotine

Rationale—Research using a drug discriminated goal-tracking (DGT) task showed that the Nmethyl- D-aspartate (NMDA) channel blocker MK-801 (dizocilpine) reduced the nicotine-evoked conditioned response (CR). Objectives—Given the unknown mechanism of the effect, Experiment 1 replicated the MK-801 results and included tests with NMDA receptor ligands. Experiments 2a and 2b tested whether MK-801 pretreatment blocked DGT via a state-dependency effect. Methods—In Experiment 1, adult male Sprague–Dawley rats received intermittent access to liquid sucrose following nicotine (0.4 mg base/kg); no sucrose was delivered on intermixed saline sessions. Conditioning was indicated by increased anticipatory dipper entries (goal-tracking) on nicotine compared to saline sessions. Antagonism and/or substitution tests were conducted with MK-801, phencyclidine, CGP 39551, d-CPPene (SDZ EAA 494), Ro 25,6981, L-701,324, ACPC, and NMDA. In Experiment 2a, rats received nicotine and sucrose on every session—no intermixed saline sessions without sucrose. Tests combined MK-801 or the non-competitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, mecamylamine with either nicotine or saline. Experiment 2b had sucrose delivered on saline sessions and no sucrose on intermixed nicotine sessions followed by MK-801 antagonism tests of the saline CS. Results—MK-801 and phencyclidine dose-dependently attenuated the CR in Experiment 1. Ro-25,6981 enhanced the CR, but did not substitute for nicotine. Other ligands showed inconsistent effects. In Experiment 2a, MK-801 pretreatment reduced goal-tracking when given before nicotine and saline test sessions; mecamylamine pretreatment had no effect. In Experiment 2b, MK-801 dose-dependently attenuated the saline-evoked CR. Conclusions—Combined, the results suggest that MK-801 blocks discriminated goal-tracking by virtue of state-changing properties

Stimulation of the tibial nerve: a protocol for a multicentred randomised controlled trial for urinary problems associated with Parkinson’s disease—STARTUP

Introduction Parkinson’s disease is the second most common chronic neurodegenerative condition with bladder dysfunction affecting up to 71%. Symptoms affect quality of life and include urgency, frequency, hesitancy, nocturia and incontinence. Addressing urinary dysfunction is one of the top 10 priority research areas identified by the James Lind Alliance and Parkinson’s UK. Objectives Conduct a randomised controlled trial (RCT) targeting people with Parkinson’s disease (PwP) who have self-reported problematic lower urinary tract symptoms, investigating the effectiveness of transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (TTNS) compared with sham TTNS. Implement a standardised training approach and package for the correct application of TTNS. Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of TTNS compared with sham TTNS. Methods and analysis An RCT of 6 weeks with twice weekly TTNS or sham TTNS. Participants will be recruited in 12 National Health Service neurology/movement disorder services, using a web-based randomisation system, and will be shown how to apply TTNS or sham TTNS. Participants will receive a weekly telephone call from the researchers during the intervention period. The trial has two coprimary outcome measures: International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form and the International Prostate Symptom Score. Secondary outcomes include a 3-day bladder diary, quality of life, acceptability and fidelity and health economic evaluation. Outcomes will be measured at 0, 6 and 12 weeks. A sample size of 208 randomised in equal numbers to the two arms will provide 90% power to detect a clinically important difference of 2.52 points on the Internatioanl Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form (ICIQ-SF) and of 3 points in the International Prostate Symptom Score total score at 12 weeks at 5% significance level, based on an SD of 4.7 in each arm and 20% attrition at 6 weeks. Analysis will be by intention to treat and pre defined in a statistical analysis plan Ethics and dissemination East of Scotland Research Ethics Service (EoSRES), 18/ES00042, obtained on 10 May 2018. The trial will allow us to determine effectiveness, safety, cost and acceptability of TTNS for bladder dysfunction in PWP. Results will be published in open access journals; lay reports will be posted to all participants and presented at conferences. Trial registration number ISRCTN12437878; Pre-results