Significance of lignin and fungal markers in the Devonian (407 Ma) Rhynie Chert.

The Rhynie Chert (Lower Devonian, Scotland) hosts a remarkably well-preserved early terrestrial ecosystem. Organisms including plants, fungi, arthropods, and bacteria were rapidly silicified due to inundation by silica-rich hot spring fluids. Exceptional molecular preservation has been noted by many authors, including some of the oldest evidence of lignin in the fossil record.

Rapid encapsulation of true ferns and arborane/fernane compounds fossilised in siderite concretions supports analytical distinction of plant fossils.

Fossilised true ferns (Pecopteris sp.) preserved in siderite concretions from the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte (Illinois) presented a unique opportunity to characterise the organic signatures of these late Carboniferous plants. Localised analyses of true fern fossils showed several highly abundant phytohopanoids and fernane/arborane derived aromatic products, which were present only negligibly within their siderite matrix, as well as from other types of fossilised plants.

Review: An overview of beef production from pasture and feedlot globally, as demand for beef and the need for sustainable practices increase.

Beef is a high-quality source of protein that also can provide highly desirable eating experiences, and demand is increasing globally. Sustainability of beef industries requires high on-farm efficiency and productivity, and efficient value-chains that reward achievement of target-market specifications. These factors also contribute to reduced environmental and animal welfare impacts necessary for provenance and social licence to operate.

Understanding intake on pastures: how, why, and a way forward.

An assessment of dietary intake is a critical component of animal nutrition. Consumption of feed resources is the basis upon which feeding strategies and grazing management are based. Yet, as far back as 1948, researchers have lauded the trials and tribulations of estimation of the phenomenon, especially when focused on grazing animals and pasture resources.

Advancements in sensor technology and decision support intelligent tools to assist smart livestock farming.

Remote monitoring, modern data collection through sensors, rapid data transfer, and vast data storage through the Internet of Things (IoT) have advanced precision livestock farming (PLF) in the last 20 yr. PLF is relevant to many fields of livestock production, including aerial- and satellite-based measurement of pasture's forage quantity and quality; body weight and composition and physiological assessments; on-animal devices to monitor location, activity, and behaviors in grazing and foraging environments; early detection of lameness and other diseases; milk yield and composition; reproductive measurements and calving diseases; and feed intake and greenhouse gas emissions, to name just a few. There are many possibilities to improve animal production through PLF, but the combination of PLF and computer modeling is necessary to facilitate on-farm applicability.

Gene expression identifies metabolic and functional differences between intramuscular and subcutaneous adipocytes in cattle.

Background: This study used a genome-wide screen of gene expression to better understand the metabolic and functional differences between commercially valuable intramuscular fat (IMF) and commercially wasteful subcutaneous (SC) fat depots in Bos taurus beef cattle.

Results: We confirmed many findings previously made at the biochemical level and made new discoveries. The fundamental lipogenic machinery, such as ACACA and FASN encoding the rate limiting Acetyl CoA carboxylase and Fatty Acid synthase were expressed at 1.

Restraint minimisation in mental health care: legitimate or illegitimate force? An ethnographic study.

Coercive practices, such as physical restraint, are used globally to respond to violent, aggressive and other behaviours displayed by mental health service users. A number of approaches have been designed to aid staff working within services to minimise the use of restraint and other restrictive practices. One such approach, the 'REsTRAIN Yourself' (RYS) initiative, has been evaluated in the UK.

Cellular development in muscle differs between Angus steers from low and high muscle score selection lines1.

This study assessed cellular characteristics of longissimus lumborum (LL) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles in steers genetically selected for low (Low) or high (High) muscling using live muscle scoring, and High steers with 1 copy of the loss-of-function 821 del11 MSTN allele (HighHet). We hypothesized High and HighHet have altered muscle cellular characteristics and mechanisms influencing muscling compared with Low steers. Angus steers 25 mo old comprising 14 High, 19 Low, and 11 HighHet were backgrounded to 20 mo of age, grain finished for 150 d, and then slaughtered.

"Catching your tail and firefighting": The impact of staffing levels on restraint minimization efforts.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Mental health nursing in the UK and other countries faces an acute workforce crisis. Safe staffing levels are called for, and in some jurisdictions have been legislated for. The evidence base linking staffing levels and patient outcomes is limited.

Developmental Programming and Growth of Livestock Tissues for Meat Production.

Maternal regulation of fetal development has consequences for growth and development of carcass tissues. Severely restricted fetal growth can reduce postnatal growth capacity, resulting in smaller-for-age animals that take longer to reach market weights but has little effect on feedlot efficiency or carcass and meat quality. Specific nutritional supplementation, particularly during later pregnancy, may limit fetal growth retardation and enhance postnatal growth capacity and carcass characteristics, and may improve development of intramuscular fat.

Minimising the use of physical restraint in acute mental health services: The outcome of a restraint reduction programme ('REsTRAIN YOURSELF').

Background: Physical restraint is a coercive intervention used to prevent individuals from harming themselves or others. However, serious adverse effects have been reported. Minimising the use of restraint requires a multimodal approach to target both organisational and individual factors.

Staff experiences and understandings of the REsTRAIN Yourself initiative to minimize the use of physical restraint on mental health wards.

International efforts to minimize coercive practices include the US Six Core Strategies© (6CS). This innovative approach has limited evidence of its effectiveness, with few robustly designed studies, and has not been formally implemented or evaluated in the UK. An adapted version of the 6CS, which we called 'REsTRAIN Yourself' (RY), was devised to suit the UK context and evaluated using mixed methods.

Current situation and future prospects for global beef production: overview of special issue.

The demand for beef as a protein source is increasing worldwide, although in most countries beef accounts for considerably less than half of total meat consumption. Beef also provides a highly desirable eating experience in developed countries and, increasingly, in developing countries. The sustainability of beef production has different meanings in the various geographical and socio-economic regions of the world.

Current situation and future prospects for the Australian beef industry - A review.

Beef production extends over almost half of Australia, with about 47,000 cattle producers that contribute about 20% ($A12.7 billion gross value of production) of the total value of farm production in Australia. Australia is one of the world's most efficient producers of cattle and was the world's third largest beef exporter in 2016.

Transcriptome analysis of cattle muscle identifies potential markers for skeletal muscle growth rate and major cell types.

Background: This study aimed to identify markers for muscle growth rate and the different cellular contributors to cattle muscle and to link the muscle growth rate markers to specific cell types.

Results: The expression of two groups of genes in the longissimus muscle (LM) of 48 Brahman steers of similar age, significantly enriched for "cell cycle" and "ECM (extracellular matrix) organization" Gene Ontology (GO) terms was correlated with average daily gain/kg liveweight (ADG/kg) of the animals. However, expression of the same genes was only partly related to growth rate across a time course of postnatal LM development in two cattle genotypes, Piedmontese x Hereford (high muscling) and Wagyu x Hereford (high marbling).

Proliferation rates of bovine primary muscle cells relate to liveweight and carcase weight in cattle.

Muscling in cattle is largely influenced by genetic background, ultimately affecting beef yield and is of major interest to the beef industry. This investigation aimed to determine whether primary skeletal muscle cells isolated from different breeds of cattle with a varying genetic potential for muscling differ in their myogenic proliferative capacity. Primary skeletal muscle cells were isolated and cultured from the Longissimus muscle (LM) of 6 month old Angus, Hereford and Wagyu X Angus cattle.

Lipid Biomarker and Isotopic Study of Community Distribution and Biomarker Preservation in a Laminated Microbial Mat from Shark Bay, Western Australia.

Modern microbial mats from Shark Bay present some structural similarities with ancient stromatolites; thus, the functionality of microbial communities and processes of diagenetic preservation of modern mats may provide an insight into ancient microbial assemblages and preservation. In this study, the vertical distribution of microbial communities was investigated in a well-laminated smooth mat from Shark Bay. Biolipid and compound-specific isotopic analyses were performed to investigate the distribution of microbial communities in four distinct layers of the mat.

Active vacuum brazing of CNT films to metal substrates for superior electron field emission performance.

The joining of macroscopic films of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to titanium substrates is demonstrated by active vacuum brazing at 820 °C with a Ag-Cu-Ti alloy and at 880 °C with a Cu-Sn-Ti-Zr alloy. The brazing methodology was elaborated in order to enable the production of highly electrically and thermally conductive CNT/metal substrate contacts. The interfacial electrical resistances of the joints were measured to be as low as 0.

A gene expression estimator of intramuscular fat percentage for use in both cattle and sheep.

Background: The expression of genes encoding proteins involved in triacyglyceride and fatty acid synthesis and storage in cattle muscle are correlated with intramuscular fat (IMF)%. Are the same genes also correlated with IMF% in sheep muscle, and can the same set of genes be used to estimate IMF% in both species?

Results: The correlation between gene expression (microarray) and IMF% in the longissimus muscle (LM) of twenty sheep was calculated. An integrated analysis of this dataset with an equivalent cattle correlation dataset and a cattle differential expression dataset was undertaken.

Impacts of the Callipyge mutation on ovine plasma metabolites and muscle fibre type.

The ovine Callipyge mutation causes postnatal muscle hypertrophy localized to the pelvic limbs and torso, as well as body leanness. The mechanism underpinning enhanced muscle mass is unclear, as is the systemic impact of the mutation. Using muscle fibre typing immunohistochemistry, we confirmed muscle specific effects and demonstrated that affected muscles had greater prevalence and hypertrophy of type 2X fast twitch glycolytic fibres and decreased representation of types 1, 2C, 2A and/or 2AX fibres.

Characterizing microbial communities and processes in a modern stromatolite (Shark Bay) using lipid biomarkers and two-dimensional distributions of porewater solutes.

Modern microbial mats are highly complex and dynamic ecosystems. Diffusive equilibration in thin films (DET) and diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) samplers were deployed in a modern smooth microbial mat from Shark Bay in order to observe, for the first time, two-dimensional distributions of porewater solutes during day and night time. Two-dimensional sulfide and alkalinity distributions revealed a strong spatial heterogeneity and a minor contribution of sulfide to alkalinity.

Changes in the nature of dissolved organics during pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment: a multivariate statistical study combining data from three analytical techniques.

The paper-making process can produce large amounts of wastewater (WW) with high particulate and dissolved organic loads. Generally, in developed countries, stringent international regulations for environmental protection require pulp and paper mill WW to be treated to reduce the organic load prior to discharge into the receiving environment. This can be achieved by primary and secondary treatments involving both chemical and biological processes.

Inferring the in vivo cellular program of developing bovine skeletal muscle from expression data.

We outline an in vivo cellular program of bovine longissimus muscle development inferred from expression data from 60 days post conception to 3months postnatal. Analytic challenges included changes in cellular composition, ambiguous 'diagnostic' markers of cell type and contrasts between cattle human and mouse myogenesis. Nevertheless, the expression profiles of the myosin isoforms support slow and fast muscle fibres emanating from primary and secondary myogenesis respectively, while expression of the prenatal myosin subunits is down regulated prior to birth.

Maternal and paternal genomes differentially affect myofibre characteristics and muscle weights of bovine fetuses at midgestation.

Postnatal myofibre characteristics and muscle mass are largely determined during fetal development and may be significantly affected by epigenetic parent-of-origin effects. However, data on such effects in prenatal muscle development that could help understand unexplained variation in postnatal muscle traits are lacking. In a bovine model we studied effects of distinct maternal and paternal genomes, fetal sex, and non-genetic maternal effects on fetal myofibre characteristics and muscle mass.