An Exploration of Environmentally Sustainable Practices Associated with Alternative Grazing Management System Use for Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Mules in the UK.

Equestrian grazing management is a poorly researched area, despite potentially significant environmental impacts. This study explored keepers' use of alternative grazing systems in the care of UK horses, donkeys and mules through an internet survey. The survey was available during the summer of 2020 and comprised closed and open questions, which were analysed with descriptive statistics and iterative thematic analysis, respectively. A total of 758 responses was incorporated into the analysis; the most popular system used were tracks (56.5%), Equicentral (19%), "other" (e.g., non-grass turnout) (12.5%), rewilding (7.5%) and turnout on either moorland (0.7%) or woodland (2.5%). The thematic analysis highlighted that equid keepers across the systems were highly engaged in exploring sustainable practices. Their approaches varied according to each system, yet all aimed to fulfil practices in three major categories, i.e., supporting diverse plant life (usually through restricting equid access to certain areas), supporting wildlife (through the creation of biodiverse environments) and sustainably managing droppings and helminths. Additionally, proponents of the Equicentral systems declared to be aiming to support soil health. These data provide a promising insight into equid keepers' behaviour and attitudes to sustainability.

How Happy Are Equine Athletes? Stakeholder Perceptions of Equine Welfare Issues Associated with Equestrian Sport.

The international governing body for equestrian sports, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), states that the welfare of the horse must be paramount and never subordinated to competitive or commercial influences. However, there is growing unease about welfare issues from both within and outside the sport. The aim of this study was to understand stakeholder perceptions of current welfare issues within equestrian sport, determine whether there is scope for change, and explore attitudes towards welfare assessment. Participants (n = 48) from equestrian sport (n = 38) and animal welfare research (n = 10) attended a workshop that included welfare-related presentations and focus group sessions. The focus group sessions were recorded, anonymised and analysed using thematic analysis. Conflict between the demands of competition and the needs of the horse was identified as a key welfare challenge. Although the physical health of equine athletes is closely monitored, horses' psychological needs are sometimes overlooked. Participants recognised that improving competition practices may not be as impactful as improving the general management and training of horses. The term "quality of life" was considered preferable to "welfare", which had negative connotations. Participants appreciated the idea of incorporating formal welfare assessments into their training and competition plans but stated that existing tools are rarely used and are not deemed feasible for real-life conditions.

Twenty-Seven Years Experience With Transvenous Pacemaker Implantation in Children Weighing <10 kg.

BACKGROUND: Epicardial pacemaker implantation is the favored approach in children weighing <10 kg in many units. The high incidence of premature failure and fractures with earlier epicardial leads led our unit to undertake transvenous pacemaker implantation in neonates and infants from 1987. To date there have been no long-term follow-up reports of what is for many a controversial strategy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Between 1987 and 2003, 37 neonates and infants-median age 6.7 months (1 day to 3 years) and median weight 4.6 kg (2.7-10 kg)-had a permanent transvenous pacing system implanted. Pacing leads were placed into the right ventricular apex/outflow tract through a subclavian vein puncture with a redundant loop in the atrium. Three patients were lost to follow-up, 4 patients died from complications of cardiac surgery, and 2 patients had their system removed. At long-term follow-up in 28 patients at a median of 17.2 (range, 11.2-27.4) years, 10 patients have a single chamber ventricular pacemaker, 14 a dual chamber pacemaker, 3 a biventricular pacemaker, and 1 has a single chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Subclavian vein patency was assessed in 26 patients. The overall subclavian vein occlusion rate was 10 of 13 (77%) <5 kg and 2 of 13 (15%) >5 kg during long-term follow-up. After a median of 14.3 (range, 13.4-17.6) years of pacing, 7 patients continue with their original lead. CONCLUSIONS: Transvenous pacing in infants <10 kg results in encouraging short- and long-term clinical outcomes. Subclavian vein occlusion remains an important complication, occurring predominantly in those weighing <5 kg.

Patient and Physician Perceptions of Genetic Testing in Primary Care.

INTRODUCTION: The convergence of biomedical informatics and translational genomics is changing the way we practice. Primary care will play a pivotal role in this transformation. We therefore sought to assess general knowledge about genetic testing among outpatient internal medicine providers, and the patients that they serve across a five state region in the Midwest. METHODS: One thousand take-home paper surveys were created and distributed to internal medicine patients at 13 Midwestern clinics. Sixty-two electronic surveys were also created and distributed to internal medicine providers at these same clinics. Questions assessed knowledge, interest, and comfort with genetic testing as well as the role of genetic counselors. Differences in response based on physician characteristics were compared using a Chi-squared analysis. RESULTS: In general, patients cared for in internal medicine clinics expressed an understanding of both content (75 percent) and rationale (81 percent) for genetic testing. Patients are open to hearing about genetic risks that could affect their health (88 percent) even if their visit was scheduled for a different reason. In these same clinics, providers expressed a strong understanding of the purpose of genetic testing (88 percent). However, providers were not confident in responding to questions about the impact of genetic testing on disease susceptibility (25 percent). Providers were more confident answering questions about genetic variability in drug response (46 percent). In general, outpatient internal medicine providers feel comfortable referring patients to genetic counselors to assess disease risk (88 percent) and they believe genetic testing is relevant to their practice (75 percent). CONCLUSIONS: In our Midwestern sample, we found that both patients and providers express interest in learning more about genetic testing in the context of primary care. Patient and physician responses indicate a role for genetic counselors in helping our patients understand and interpret genetic test results.

Sequence-based analysis of translocations and inversions in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Structural changes of chromosomes are a primary mechanism of genome rearrangement over the course of evolution and detailed knowledge of such changes in a given species and its close relatives should increase the efficiency and precision of chromosome engineering in crop improvement. We have identified sequences bordering each of the main translocation and inversion breakpoints on chromosomes 4A, 5A and 7B of the modern bread wheat genome. The locations of these breakpoints allow, for the first time, a detailed description of the evolutionary origins of these chromosomes at the gene level. Results from this study also demonstrate that, although the strategy of exploiting sorted chromosome arms has dramatically simplified the efforts of wheat genome sequencing, simultaneous analysis of sequences from homoeologous and non-homoeologous chromosomes is essential in understanding the origins of DNA sequences in polyploid species.

Contrasting electrostatic and electromagnetic levitation experimental results for transformation kinetics of steel alloys.

The delay between conversion of metastable ferrite to stable austenite during ternary Fe-Cr-Ni alloy double recalescence is seen to differ by over an order of magnitude for tests conducted using electrostatic and electromagnetic levitation. Several possible reasons for this deviation are proposed. Thermodynamic calculations on evaporation rates indicate that potential composition shifts during testing are minimized by limiting test time and thermal history. Simulation indicates that deviation would be limited to a factor of 1.5 under worst-case conditions. Possible effects due to differences in sample size are also eliminated since the metastable array, where stable phase nucleation must occur, is significantly smaller than the sample. Differences in internal convection are seen to be the most probable reason for the observed deviation.

Convection in containerless processing.

Different containerless processing techniques have different strengths and weaknesses. Applying more than one technique allows various parts of a problem to be solved separately. For two research projects, one on phase selection in steels and the other on nucleation and growth of quasicrystals, a combination of experiments using electrostatic levitation (ESL) and electromagnetic levitation (EML) is appropriate. In both experiments, convection is an important variable. The convective conditions achievable with each method are compared for two very different materials: a low-viscosity, high-temperature stainless steel, and a high-viscosity, low-temperature quasicrystal-forming alloy. It is clear that the techniques are complementary when convection is a parameter to be explored in the experiments. For a number of reasons, including the sample size, temperature, and reactivity, direct measurement of the convective velocity is not feasible. Therefore, we must rely on computation techniques to estimate convection in these experiments. These models are an essential part of almost any microgravity investigation. The methods employed and results obtained for the projects levitation observation of dendrite evolution in steel ternary alloy rapid solidification (LODESTARS) and quasicrystalline undercooled alloys for space investigation (QUASI) are explained.