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Highly pathogenic zoonotic Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV) are prototypic members of the genus Henipavirus, family Paramyxoviridae, that have natural reservoirs in pteropodid flying foxes (1). These viruses [...]

Background & aim: A potential benefit of conservation agriculture (CA) is soil organic carbon (SOC) accrual, yet recent studies indicate limited or no impact of CA on total SOC in tropical agroecosystems. We evaluated biochemical indicators of soil C cycling after 9 years (18 seasons) of contrasting tillage with and without maize residue retention in western Kenya. Methods: Potential activities of C-cycling enzymes (β-glucosidase, GLU; β-galactosidase, GAL; glucosaminidase, GLM; cellobiohydrolase, CEL), permanganate-oxidizable C (POXC), and soil organic matter (SOM) composition (by infrared spectroscopy) were measured. Results: POXC tended to be greater under reduced tillage and residue retention, but did not significantly differ among treatments (≤ 2% of SOC). Despite no significant differences in SOC concentrations or stocks, activities of all 4 C-cycling enzymes responded strongly to tillage, and to a lesser extent to residue management. Activities of GLU, GAL, and GLM were greatest under the combination of reduced tillage and residue retention relative to other treatments. Reduced tillage produced an enrichment in carboxyl C = O (+6%) and decreased polysaccharide C-O (−3.5%) relative to conventional tillage irrespective of residue management. Conclusions: Though enzyme activities and POXC are typically associated with SOC accrual, changes in soil C cycling at this site have not translated into significant differences in SOC after 9 years. Elevated enzyme activities may have offset potential SOC accumulation under CA. However, the ratio of C-cycling enzyme activities to SOC was higher under reduced tillage and residue retention relative to other treatments, indicating that stoichiometric scaling of SOC and enzyme activities does not explain absence of significant differences in SOC among tillage and residue managements. Potential factors that may explain the low SOC accrual rates in this tropical agroecosystem included the low, albeit realistic, levels of residue retention, nutrient limitations, and high temperatures favoring decomposition.

Agriculture in California contributes 8% of the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To inform the state's policy and program strategy to meet climate targets, we review recent research on practices that can reduce emissions, sequester carbon and provide other co-benefits to producers and the environment across agriculture and rangeland systems. Importantly, the research reviewed here was conducted in California and addresses practices in our specific agricultural, socioeconomic and biophysical environment. Farmland conversion and the dairy and intensive livestock sector are the largest contributors to GHG emissions and offer the greatest opportunities for avoided emissions. We also identify a range of other opportunities including soil and nutrient management, integrated and diversified farming systems, rangeland management, and biomass-based energy generation. Additional research to replicate and quantify the emissions reduction or carbon sequestration potential of these practices will strengthen the evidence base for California climate policy.

Formal peer mentoring schemes are often viewed as supportive mechanisms enabling individuals to engage with role models to scaffold the acquisition of social capital that aids successful transition between different educational or professional environments and to inspire and motivate decision-making processes. This study explores the findings of mentor exit interviews conducted at the end of a pilot peer-mentoring scheme to support aspirations for progression into postgraduate study that was delivered within a UK conservatoire's Faculty of Music. These exit interviews illuminated constellations of informal mentoring platforms, implicit within multiple sites where the 'horizontal' structure of music programmes (UK FHEQ levels 4-7) intersects with principal instrumental study and associated activities structured in 'vertical' departments. The findings suggested that these reflexive multi-directional exchanges are not formally conceptualised as 'mentoring' but recognised within the subject area, and hold potential transformative power in supporting students in their transition throughout higher education and beyond.

How should academic staff engage in outreach with communities outside of the university? The need of academics to answer this question has intensified in the UK given the changing priorities of academic job roles, shaped by increasing institutional concern for widening participation, graduate employability and research impact in an era of austerity and high tuition fees. While university outreach professionals, such as those in widening participation, have access to a range of networks, resources and support mechanisms for outreach activity, academics often face a series of profession-specific pressures that make engagement in outreach complex and contingent. This article draws upon the experience of 25 academics from 18 different subject areas and 18 institutions to examine and provide responses to key challenges faced by academics involved in outreach in the UK. We examine such issues as: the conceptualisation of outreach; funding; recognition and management of workload; nurturing relationships with internal and external partners; capacity-building; commercial interests, payment and responsibility; pedagogical style and content; integration of outreach into curricula, and evaluation of programmes. The examination offered is not all encompassing, but acts as a series of reference points to consider the challenges faced by UK academics in an evolving outreach sector.

Blue spaces, like canals, are central to health policies promoting physical activity (PA), enhancing wellbeing, and addressing inequalities. Alongside the health benefits, they can offer an array of societal, environmental, cultural, and other welfare-enhancing benefits, which shape the overall value of blue spaces for population wellbeing. This study investigated the multifaceted value of canals for promoting physical activity and wider community wellbeing from the perspective of local community members in Birmingham (UK). Two consensus workshops were conducted to identify enablers and barriers to engaging in PA alongside canals. Data were generated using the nominal group technique and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The community members shared that connecting with nature, enhancing mental health, and socialising were all key facilitators for using canals for PA. Prominent barriers identified were safety concerns, including anti-social behaviour, inadequate lighting, and fear of visiting alone, as well as a lack of accessibility. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of understanding the community perspective when considering the value of blue spaces, and subsequent investment opportunities. By incorporating the community perspective and embedding a notion of 'ownership' over these local assets, this will further enhance the sustainability of investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how and in what ways workplace 'sexual harassment' achieved social and legal recognition in the UK news press following its importation from North America in the mid-1970s. It assesses the role of feminist campaigners working within institutions (trade unions, human rights advocacy, the Equal Opportunities Commission and journalism itself) in shifting public discourse and in using the media to educate and promote social change. We demonstrate that the trajectory was far from a linear progression. Initial hostility within the popular press in the early 1980s was replaced with sympathetic coverage across the party-political spectrum by 1990. However, this consensus broke down in the 1990s as a result of politicised and polarised coverage of a series of claims brought by women in the services and armed forces against the backdrop of debates about 'compensation culture' and membership of the European Union. Whilst change was effected at the level of employment law, formal practice and in the human resources policies of larger employers, 'sexual harassment myths' were resilient as a thread within 'everyday cultural discourse' and, by implication, within informal workplace cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]