Publications by authors named "Niamh Mahon"

Farmed animals are expected to move through farmed spaces in certain ways to maximise their productivity. These spaces are also designed to limit the movement of disease-causing organisms. However, both types of lifeforms do not always move in expected ways.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Sheep scab is a significant issue in the UK, causing economic and welfare problems for sheep farming, and understanding local practices is crucial for effective control efforts on the islands of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
  • - The study reveals tension between traditional crofting practices, which promote community and cultural heritage, and the need for biosecurity measures to limit sheep mixing to prevent disease spread, compounded by increasing marginalization of farming communities.
  • - Recommendations include a three-phase approach to biosecurity that emphasizes understanding local challenges, incorporating cultural factors, and enabling livestock keepers to collaboratively set their biosecurity priorities.
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Inherited retinal diseases, which include retinitis pigmentosa, are a family of genetic disorders characterized by gradual rod-cone degeneration and vision loss, without effective pharmacological treatments. Experimental approaches aim to delay disease progression, supporting cones' survival, crucial for human vision. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) mediate the activation of epigenetic and nonepigenetic pathways that modulate cone degeneration in RP mouse models.

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Introduction: This paper applies the COM-B framework to farmer and farm advisor understandings and responses to lameness in sheep, beef, and dairy systems. It reflects on how farmers' and advisors' capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM-B) influence lameness management practices in these farming systems, and considers the interaction between these three factors, and stakeholders' behavior.

Methods: Interviews with 29 farmers and 21 farm advisors in the north of England were conducted.

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Muscular dystrophies vary in presentation and severity, but are associated with profound disability in many people. Although characterised by muscle weakness and wasting, there is also a very high prevalence of sleep problems and disorders which have significant impacts on quality of life in these individuals. There are no curative therapies for muscular dystrophies, with the only options for patients being supportive therapies to aid with symptoms.

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Lameness is a significant health and welfare issue in farmed animals. This paper uses a governmentality approach, which focuses on how a problem is made governable, to examine an emerging 'ecology of devices' introduced to intervene in, and attempt to reduce, on-farm incidence of lameness. These devices are associated with advisers who work with farmers on-farm; they enact lameness as a governable entity, are tools to assess the existence of lameness against established norms, and prescribe actions to be taken in response to evidence of lameness.

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The quininib series is a novel collection of small-molecule drugs with antiangiogenic, antivascular permeability, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative activity. Quininib was initially identified as a drug hit during a random chemical library screen for determinants of developmental ocular angiogenesis in zebrafish. To enhance drug efficacy, novel quininib analogs were designed by applying medicinal chemistry approaches.

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Background: This paper uses two endemic health conditions to explore farmer understandings of and responses to livestock health and welfare issues.

Methods: The findings are based on a survey of 42 livestock farmers in the north of England, exploring how they manage lameness in sheep and cattle and bovine viral diarrhoea in cattle. We identify similarities and differences in their approaches.

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