Effects of Individual and Pair Housing of Calves on Short-Term Health and Behaviour on a UK Commercial Dairy Farm.

Social pair housing of calves has previously demonstrated positive impacts for calves, so this study aimed to compare the health and behaviour of calves kept in individual compared to pair housing on a single commercial UK dairy farm. A total of 457 Holstein and Jersey heifer calves were recruited and systematically allocated to individual and pair housing. Weekly visits were conducted up to 8 weeks of age, with weight and presence of clinical disease measured using both a standardized scoring system and thoracic ultrasonography.

Enhancing Collaborative Learning for Quality Improvement: Evidence from the Improving Clinical Flow Project, a Breakthrough Series Collaborative with Project ECHO.

Background: This project engaged teams from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in a quality improvement (QI) collaborative to improve clinical flow (increase quality and efficiency of operations), using a novel combination of Breakthrough Series Collaborative tools with Project ECHO's telementoring model. This mixed methods study describes the collaborative and evaluates its success in generating improvement and developing QI capacity at participating FQHCs.

Methods: The 18-month collaborative used three in-person/virtual learning session workshops and weekly telementoring sessions with brief lectures and case-based learning.

Patient Safety Over Power Hierarchy: A Scoping Review of Healthcare Professionals' Speaking-up Skills Training.

Communication failures in healthcare constitute a major root cause of adverse events and medical errors. Considerable evidence links failures to raise concerns about patient harm in a timely manner with errors in medication administration, hygiene and isolation, treatment decisions, or invasive procedures. Expressing one's concern while navigating the power hierarchy requires formal training that targets both the speaker's emotional and verbal skills and the receiver's listening skills.

Measurement of O Uptake and Evolution in Leaves In Vivo Using Stable Isotopes and Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry.

Oxygen is both product and substrate of photosynthesis and metabolism in plants, by oxygen evolution through water splitting and uptake by photorespiration and respiration. It is important to investigate these processes simultaneously in leaves, especially in response to environmental variables, such as light and temperature. To distinguish between processes that evolve or take up O in leaves in the light, in vivo gas exchange of stable isotopes of oxygen and membrane inlet mass spectrometry is used.

Genetic isolation in an endemic African habitat specialist.

The Chestnut-banded Plover is a Near-Threatened shorebird species endemic to mainland Africa. We examined levels of genetic differentiation between its two morphologically and geographically distinct subspecies, in southern Africa (population size 11 000-16 000) and in eastern Africa (population size 6500). In contrast to other plover species that maintain genetic connectivity over thousands of kilometres across continental Africa, we found profound genetic differences between remote sampling sites.

Effects of kinetics of light-induced stomatal responses on photosynthesis and water-use efficiency.

Both photosynthesis (A) and stomatal conductance (gs ) respond to changing irradiance, yet stomatal responses are an order of magnitude slower than photosynthesis, resulting in noncoordination between A and gs in dynamic light environments. Infrared gas exchange analysis was used to examine the temporal responses and coordination of A and gs to a step increase and decrease in light in a range of different species, and the impact on intrinsic water use efficiency was evaluated. The temporal responses revealed a large range of strategies to save water or maximize photosynthesis in the different species used in this study but also displayed an uncoupling of A and gs in most of the species.

Spiritual coping predicts CD4-cell preservation and undetectable viral load over four years.

In this study of 177 people living with HIV, we examined if spiritual coping leads to slower HIV disease progression (CD4 cells, viral load [VL]), and more positive health behaviors (adherence, safer sex, less substance use). Prior research suggests that physicians' assessment of spiritual coping can be an interventional aid in promoting positive spiritual coping. Longitudinal spiritual coping was rated using qualitative content analysis of six-monthly interviews/essays.

Metabolomic response of Calotropis procera growing in the desert to changes in water availability.

Water availability is a major limitation for agricultural productivity. Plants growing in severe arid climates such as deserts provide tools for studying plant growth and performance under extreme drought conditions. The perennial species Calotropis procera used in this study is a shrub growing in many arid areas which has an exceptional ability to adapt and be productive in severe arid conditions.

C3 photosynthesis in the desert plant Rhazya stricta is fully functional at high temperatures and light intensities.

The C3 plant Rhazya stricta is native to arid desert environment zones, where it experiences daily extremes of heat, light intensity (PAR) and high vapour pressure deficit (VPD). We measured the photosynthetic parameters in R. stricta in its native environment to assess the mechanisms that permit it to survive in these extreme conditions.

Arabidopsis HEAT SHOCK TRANSCRIPTION FACTORA1b overexpression enhances water productivity, resistance to drought, and infection.

Heat-stressed crops suffer dehydration, depressed growth, and a consequent decline in water productivity, which is the yield of harvestable product as a function of lifetime water consumption and is a trait associated with plant growth and development. Heat shock transcription factor (HSF) genes have been implicated not only in thermotolerance but also in plant growth and development, and therefore could influence water productivity. Here it is demonstrated that Arabidopsis thaliana plants with increased HSFA1b expression showed increased water productivity and harvest index under water-replete and water-limiting conditions.

Protected area networks and savannah bird biodiversity in the face of climate change and land degradation.

The extent to which climate change might diminish the efficacy of protected areas is one of the most pressing conservation questions. Many projections suggest that climate-driven species distribution shifts will leave protected areas impoverished and species inadequately protected while other evidence suggests that intact ecosystems within protected areas will be resilient to change. Here, we tackle this problem empirically.

The Ipswich Touch Test: a simple and novel method to identify inpatients with diabetes at risk of foot ulceration.

Objective: To promote foot screening of inpatients with diabetes, we simplified sensory testing to lightly touching the tips of the first, third, and fifth toes (the Ipswich Touch Test [IpTT]).

Research Design And Methods: Respective performances of the IpTT and 10-g monofilament (MF) were compared with a vibration perception threshold of ≥25 V indicating at-risk feet in 265 individuals. The IpTT and MF were also directly compared.

The water-water cycle in leaves is not a major alternative electron sink for dissipation of excess excitation energy when CO(2) assimilation is restricted.

Electron flux from water via photosystem II (PSII) and PSI to oxygen (water-water cycle) may provide a mechanism for dissipation of excess excitation energy in leaves when CO(2) assimilation is restricted. Mass spectrometry was used to measure O(2) uptake and evolution together with CO(2) uptake in leaves of French bean and maize at CO(2) concentrations saturating for photosynthesis and the CO(2) compensation point. In French bean at high CO(2) and low O(2) concentrations no significant water-water cycle activity was observed.

The 'Step by Step' Diabetic Foot Project in Tanzania: a model for improving patient outcomes in less-developed countries.

Foot complications cause substantial morbidity in Tanzania, where 70% of leg amputations occur in diabetic patients. The Step by Step Foot Project was initiated to train healthcare personnel in diabetic foot management, facilitate transfer of knowledge and expertise, and improve patient education. The project comprised a 3-day basic course with an interim period 1-year of for screening, followed by an advanced course and evaluation of activities.

The high light response in Arabidopsis involves ABA signaling between vascular and bundle sheath cells.

Previously, it has been shown that Arabidopsis thaliana leaves exposed to high light accumulate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in bundle sheath cell (BSC) chloroplasts as part of a retrograde signaling network that induces ASCORBATE PEROXIDASE2 (APX2). Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling has been postulated to be involved in this network. To investigate the proposed role of ABA, a combination of physiological, pharmacological, bioinformatic, and molecular genetic approaches was used.

Balanced measures for patient-centered care.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has long supported the use of balanced measures to assess improvement among patients at both the individual and the population levels. Although biomedical outcomes and process measures have been widely accepted, patient-reported measures are still not in widespread use. The most common use of such measures is at the population level to gauge satisfaction with care long after it has been provided.

Activation of patients for successful self-management.

Patients, not healthcare providers, are the primary managers of their health conditions. Current healthcare falls short of providing the kind of support that patients need to optimally manage their conditions. But there are simple and effective self-management support tools and methods that are easy to learn and can be used within the time constraints of the office visit.

Making patient-centered care reliable.

Multiple reports have concluded that healthcare does not reliably meet patient needs and can even cause harm. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has adapted reliability principles and methods from other industries and applied them in healthcare with promising results in hospital settings. This article describes how one outpatient system successfully applied the IHI reliability methods to multiple clinical and administrative processes.

Imaging of reactive oxygen species in vivo.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in many signalling pathways and numerous stress responses in plants. Consequently, it is important to be able to identify and localize ROS in vivo to evaluate their roles in signalling. A number of probes that have a high affinity for specific ROS and that are effectively taken up by cells and tissues are commercially available.

Reductions in mesophyll and guard cell photosynthesis impact on the control of stomatal responses to light and CO2.

Transgenic antisense tobacco plants with a range of reductions in sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase (SBPase) activity were used to investigate the role of photosynthesis in stomatal opening responses. High resolution chlorophyll a fluorescence imaging showed that the quantum efficiency of photosystem II electron transport (F(q)(')/F(m)(')) was decreased similarly in both guard and mesophyll cells of the SBPase antisense plants compared to the wild-type plants. This demonstrated for the first time that photosynthetic operating efficiency in the guard cells responds to changes in the regeneration capacity of the Calvin cycle.