Abandoning or Reimagining a Cultural Heartland? Understanding and Responding to Rewilding Conflicts in Wales – the case of the Cambrian Wildwood.

This paper is about rewilding and the tensions it involves. Rewilding is a relatively novel approach to nature conservation, which seeks to be proactive and ambitious in the face of continuing environmental decline. Whilst definitions of rewilding place a strong emphasis on non-human agency, it is an inescapably human aspiration resulting in a range of social conflicts. The paper focuses on the case study of the Cambrian Wildwood project in Mid Wales (UK), evaluating the ways in which debate and strategic action to advance rewilding is proceeding, assessing the extent to which compromise and learning has occurred amongst advocates. As such, we provide an important addition to the field, by detailing how conflicts play out over time and how actors’ positioning and approach shifts, and why. In this case, tempers have flared around the threat that rewilding is seen to pose to resident farming communities. Tensions discussed include the differing social constructions of landscape and nature involved; the distribution of impacts on different stakeholders; and the relative power of different actors to make decisions and gain representation. Responding to these, the paper outlines how rewilding advocates havesought to advance a more peopled and culturally responsive vision, whichseeks to champion sustainable livelihood strategies. The changes in approach detailed demonstrate a reflexive stance from rewilders, which suggests that learning and adaptation can occur. Nonetheless, caution is expressed regarding the extent to which rewilding can truly advance inclusive opportunities for rural change, given a continued return amongst stakeholders to exclusionary narratives of belonging and authenticity, suggesting substantive difficulty in moving beyond longstanding concerns over identity and the re-imagination of place. Rewilding, it would seem, is about who we think we are and how we co-constitute our sense of self. We, therefore, close by arguing that tactics and politicking can only have so much bearing, tensions over rewilding are unavoidably emotional

Secular trends in work disability and its relationship to musculoskeletal pain and mental health: a time-trend analysis using five cross-sectional surveys (2002-2010) in the general population.

OBJECTIVES: International evidence suggests that rates of inability to work because of illness can change over time. We hypothesised that one reason for this is that the link between inability to work and common illnesses, such as musculoskeletal pain and mental illness, may also change over time. We have investigated this in a study based in one UK district. METHODS: Five population surveys (spanning 2002-2010) of working-age people aged >50 years and ≤65 years were used. Work disability was defined as a single self-reported item 'not working due to ill-health'. Presence of moderate-severe depressive symptoms was identified from the Mental Component Score of the Short Form-12, and pain from a full-body manikin. Data were analysed with multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: The proportion of people reporting work disability across the surveys declined, from 17.0% in 2002 to 12.1% in 2010. Those reporting work disability, one-third reported regional pain, one-half widespread pain (53%) and two-thirds moderate-severe depressive symptoms (68%). Both factors were independently associated with work disability; their co-occurrence was associated with an almost 20-fold increase in the odds of reporting work disability compared with those with neither condition. CONCLUSIONS: The association of work disability with musculoskeletal pain was stable over time; depressive symptoms became more prominent in persons reporting work disability, but overall prevalence of work disability declined. The frequency and impact of both musculoskeletal pain and depression highlight the need to move beyond symptom-directed approaches towards a more comprehensive model of health and vocational advice for people unable to work because of illness

Evidence for strategies that improve recruitment and retention of adults aged 65 years and over in randomised trials and observational studies: a systematic review

Background: adults aged ≥65 years are often excluded from health research studies. Lack of representation reduces generalisability of treatments for this age group. Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies that improve recruitment and retention of adults aged ≥65 in observational studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: searches conducted in 10 databases for RCTs of recruitment and retention strategies in RCTs or observational studies. Two reviewers screened abstracts and full-text articles for eligibility and extracted data. Studies without separate data for adults aged ≥65 were discarded. Risk of bias assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Results were synthesised narratively. Results: thirty-two studies were included in the review (n = 75,444). Twelve studies had low risk of bias, of which 10 had successful strategies including: Opt-out versus opt-in increased recruitment (13.6% (n = 261)-18.7% (n = 36) difference; two studies); Advance notification increased retention (1.6% difference, OR 1.45; 95% CI 1.01, 2.10, one study (n = 2,686); 9.1% difference at 4 months, 1.44; 1.08, 1.92, one study (n = 753)); Hand-delivered versus postal surveys increased response (25.1% difference; X2 = 11.40, P < 0.01; one study (n = 139)); Open randomised design versus blinded RCT increased recruitment (1.56; 1.05, 2.33) and retention (13.9% difference; 3.1%, 24.6%) in one study (n = 538). Risk of bias was high/unclear for studies in which incentives or shorter length questionnaires increased response. Discussion: in low risk of bias studies, few of the strategies that improved participation in older adults had been tested in ≥1 study. Opt-out and advance notification strategies improved recruitment and retention, respectively, although an opt-out approach may have ethical limitations. Evidence from single studies limits the generalisability of other strategies

Persistence of Perennial Ryegrass, Tall Fescue and Cocksfoot Following Sequential Annual Sowings: Influence of Species, Cultivar and Pasture Age on Inter-Annual Variability in Yield and Botanical Composition

The persistence of sown, temperate pasture species is an important determinant of perennial pasture-grass productivity. Defining the traits that affect persistence is essential for improving pasture longevity through plant breeding and for identifying criteria that should be included in cultivar ranking indices such as the DairyNZ, Forage Value Index. Compared with a conventional longitudinal study, in which pasture from a single sowing is monitored over time, repeated annual sowings allow the effects on persistence of sowing year and the ensuing interactions between environment and age of pasture to be identified. A repeated sowings experiment was commenced at two sites: under sheep grazing in Canterbury, New Zealand and under cattle grazing in Waikato, New Zealand. At each site, eight cultivars of perennial ryegrass representing different ploidy, flowering date, and decade of cultivar release, and one cultivar each of tall fescue and cocksfoot were sown in a randomised complete block design with four replicates, in autumn each year. The longitudinal cohort (i.e., the measurements conducted over time following each annual sowing) is the experimental unit for effects of sowing year and age. This paper reports interim data from the longest available longitudinal cohort, sown in autumn 2016 at Waikato on pasture yield and botanical composition measured in spring and autumn for six successive years following sowing. Repeated measures analysis of the six years of pasture data was used to identify trends over time and inter-annual variability in the effects of cultivar and site

Geophysical Survey in Sub-Saharan Africa: magnetic and Electromagnetic Investigation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Songo Mnara, Tanzania

Magnetometry and Slingram electromagnetic surveys were conducted at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Songo Mnara, Tanzania, as part of a multi-national programme of investigation to examine the uses of space within and outside of this stonetown. The town was a major Islamic trading port during the 14th and 15th centuries.The surveys detected significant evidence for the containment of activities within the town walls, and previously unknown anthropogenic activity was revealed between the existing coral rag buildings, as well as within the open areas inside the town. Over 40 areas of magnetic disturbance were identified that corresponded directly with areas of high magnetic susceptibility in the Slingram electromagnetic in-phase responses.On excavation many of these anomalies were found to correlate with wattle and daub structures, indicating a hitherto unidentified population, and the location of the anomalies also suggests a potentially deliberate delineation of space within the open areas of the stonetown. The combined results of the three geophysical data sets indicate that there are clear delineations in the use of space within Songo Mnara. This coupled with the presence of industrial activities and evidence of more ephemeral occupation, neither of which had previously been recorded at the site, indicates that the pre-existing town plan is in need of significant reappraisal. The current plan, based upon the remains of extant and collapsed coral buildings, can now be updated to incorporate the more ephemeral aspects of Swahili sites including activity areas, and notably, the homes of the ‘hidden majority’of the population.The results establish the benefit of a combined approach at these sites, and demonstrate that further invasive and non-invasive exploration is required in order to fully exploit the significance of the role of geophysical techniques in understanding Swahili towns

The influence of employment social support for risk and prognosis in nonspecific back pain: a systematic review and critical synthesis

PURPOSE: To examine the influence of employment social support type (e.g. co-worker, supervisor, general support) on risk of occurrence of low back pain, and prognosis (e.g. recovery, return to work status) for those who have low back pain. METHODS: Systematic search of seven databases (MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL, IBSS, AMED and BNI) for prospective or case-control studies reporting findings on employment social support in populations with nonspecific back pain. Data extraction and quality assessment were carried out on included studies. A systematic critical synthesis was carried out on extracted data. RESULTS: Thirty-two articles were included that describe 46 findings on the effect of employment social support on risk of and prognosis of back pain. Findings show that there is no effect of co-worker, supervisor or general work support on risk of new onset back pain. Weak effects of employment support were found for recovery and return to work outcomes; greater levels of co-worker support and general work support were found to be associated with less time to recovery or return to work. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence suggests that the association between employment support and prognosis may be subject to influence from wider concepts related to the employment context. This review discusses these wider issues and offers directions for future research

The politics of the rural and relational values: Contested discourses of rural change and landscape futures in west wales

Across Europe, rural landscapes and communities are changing, following local, national and global pressures. The future physical makeup of these landscapes, the species, landforms and land uses that are present, and the relationship between these landscapes and local communities, is uncertain. At the same time, rural politics has moved from debates about agricultural production to broader considerations of ways of life, and who and what is appropriate in the countryside. As different visions for the physical makeup of landscapes are being proposed and negotiated, it is worth understanding how they fit into broader rural politics, and the values that underpin them, particularly relational landscape values. The purpose of this work is to understand contests over the future of landscapes in west Wales, with particular focus on the relational values that underpin different visions for the landscape. We use image based Q methodology to analyse different visions. We find two distinct visions which we name socio-ecological rebalancing and maintaining heritage farming landscapes. We find that relational and eudemonic values underpin these visions. Despite claims by participants and stakeholders to speak for rural communities, we find important difference within rural communities. We find that disagreements on the environmental and social future of the landscape are based on shared facts but divergent values and relationships with the landscape. These findings have important implications for the future of contested projects aimed at transforming the landscape of this region, and relevance for wider European landscape change. Our conceptual approach, which combines a focus on the politics of the rural with relational values, and our methodological approach, of image based Q methodology, have great potential for understanding debates over the future of rural landscapes

Methodological considerations in the assessment of direct and indirect costs of back pain: A systematic scoping review

Background Back pain is a common and costly health problem worldwide. There is yet a lack of consistent methodologies to estimate the economic burden of back pain to society. Objective To systematically evaluate the methodologies used in the published cost of illness (COI) literature for estimating the direct and indirect costs attributed to back pain, and to present a summary of the estimated cost burden. Methods Six electronic databases were searched to identify COI studies of back pain published in English up to February 2021. A total of 1,588 abstracts were screened, and 55 full-text studies were subsequently reviewed. After applying the inclusion criteria, 45 studies pertaining to the direct and indirect costs of back pain were analysed. Results The studies reported data on 15 industrialised countries. The national cost estimates of back pain in 2015 USD ranged from $259 million ($29.1 per capita) in Sweden to $71.6 billion ($868.4 per capita) in Germany. There was high heterogeneity among the studies in terms of the methodologies used for analysis and the resulting costs reported. Most of the studies assessed costs from a societal perspective (n = 29). The magnitude and accuracy of the reported costs were influenced by the case definition of back pain, the source of data used, the cost components included and the analysis method. Among the studies that provided both direct and indirect cost estimates (n = 15), indirect costs resulting from lost or reduced work productivity far outweighed the direct costs. Conclusion Back pain imposes substantial economic burden on society. This review demonstrated that existing published COI studies of back pain used heterogeneous approaches reflecting a lack of consensus on methodology. A standardised methodological approach is required to increase credibility of the findings of COI studies and improve comparison of estimates across studies

The development and content of the vocational advice intervention and training package for the Study of Work And Pain (SWAP) trial (ISRCTN 52269669)

Purpose: There are substantial costs associated with sickness absence and struggling at work however existing services in the UK are largely restricted to those absent from work for greater than six months. This paper details the development of an early Vocational Advice Intervention (VAI) for adult primary care consulters who were struggling at work or absent due to musculoskeletal pain, and the structure and content of the training and mentoring package developed to equip the Vocational Advisors to deliver the VAI, as part of the Study of Work and Pain (SWAP) cluster randomised trial. Methods: In order to develop the intervention, we conducted a best-evidence literature review, summarised evidence from developmental studies and consulted with stakeholders. Results: A novel early access, brief Vocational Advice Intervention was developed consisting of case management and stepped care (3 steps), using the Psychosocial Flags Framework to identify and overcome obstacles associated with the health-work interface. Four healthcare practitioners were recruited to deliver the VAI; three physiotherapists and one nurse (all vocational advice was actually delivered by the three physiotherapists). They received training in the Vocational Advisor role during a four-day course, with a refresher day three months later, along with monthly group mentoring sessions. Conclusions: The process of development was sufficient to develop the VAI and associated training package. The evidence underpinning the VAI was drawn from an international perspective and key components of the VAI have the potential to be applied to other settings or countries, although this has yet to be tested. KEY-WORDS Musculoskeletal; work; Case managemen

Chronic widespread bodily pain is increased among individuals with history of fracture:findings from UK Biobank

Acknowledgments This work was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Arthritis Research UK, National Osteoporosis Society, International Osteoporosis Foundation, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, and NIHR Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, University of Oxford. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource. Compliance with ethical standards.Peer reviewedPublisher PD