Twenty-four primiparous pregnant pigs were randomly assigned to three handling treatments: Minimal, Positive and Negative. The pigs were moved individually to indoor concrete-floored partial stalls with neck-tethers, 2 days before handling commenced. Positive (stroking and patting on approach to an experimenter) and Negative (brief electric shock of < Is when failing to withdraw from the outstretched hand of an experimenter) handling was imposed for 3min day-1 and the amount of physical contact between handler and pig was recorded. The Minimal treatment group was subjected to routine husbandry practices only. After 3 weeks of the handling treatments and tether-housing, all pigs were catheterized under full surgical anaesthesia. The pigs were allowed 4 days of recovery before collecting the following data: daytime plasma Cortisol concentration profiles, behavioural responses to a human in an arena test, Cortisol responses to human proximity, Cortisol responses to an A CTH-challenge and immunological responses to an injected mitogen.

In the Positive treatment, the amount of physical contact between pig and handler increased during the course of the experiment, while the amount of physical contact did not change in the Negative treatment. There were no effects of treatment on behavioural responses in the arena test. The average daytime concentration of free plasma Cortisol was lower in the Positive treatment than in the Negative or Minimal treatments. The Positive treatment also showed lower total and free plasma Cortisol concentrations pre- and posthuman proximity when compared with the Negative treatment. No differences were found between treatments in total and free plasma Cortisol concentrations following an ACTH challenge. The immunological response was greater in the Positive treatment compared with the Negative treatment and tended to be greater when compared with the Minimal treatment.

It was concluded that the nature of the human-animal relationship affected the physiological stress responses of pregnant pigs to tether-housing. Indications are that a positive human-animal relationship would obviate some of the negative effects of being kept in tether-stalls by lowering the basal cortisol concentration and by increasing immunological responsiveness.

Although human factors are recognized as influential factors affecting the welfare and productivity of farm animals, only limited research has been conducted to identify these important human characteristics and to quantify their effects. During the last 13 years we have studied two apparently important human factors: the attitude and the behaviour of stockpersons towards farm animals.

We have proposed that in intensive animal production systems there are some important sequential relationships between the attitude and behaviour of the stockperson towards farm animals and the behaviour, performance and welfare of farm animals. Basically we have suggested that because a stockperson's behaviour towards animals is largely under volitional control it is strongly influenced by the attitudes and beliefs that the stockperson holds about the animals. Furthermore, the stockperson's behaviour towards animals affects the animals’ fear of humans which, in turn, affects the animals’ productivity and welfare. It is the occurrence of a stress response by animals which are highly fearful of humans which places their productivity and welfare at risk We have published data which strongly support these interrelationships between human attitude and behaviour and animal behaviour, productivity and welfare. This paper reviews this and other research on this subject. The results of research in the pig industry and to a lesser extent, the poultry industries indicate the excellent opportunity which exists to improve animal productivity and welfare by training and selecting stockpersons to have desirable attitudinal and behavioural profiles towards farm animals.

Effective mentoring is a key mechanism propelling successful research and academic careers, particularly for early career scholars. Most mentoring programs focus on models pairing senior and early career researchers, with limited focus on peer mentoring. Peer mentoring may be especially advantageous within emerging areas such as implementation science (IS) where challenges to traditional mentoring may be more prevalent. This special communication highlights the value of peer mentoring by describing a case study of an early career IS peer mentoring group. We delineate our curriculum and structure; support and processes; and products and outcomes. We highlight important group member characteristics to consider during group formation and continuation. The group’s long-term (6 years) success was attributed to the balance of similarities and differences among group members. Members were in a similar career phase and used similar methodologies but studied different health topics at different institutions. Group members gave and received instrumental and psychosocial support and shared resources and knowledge. Peer mentoring can serve an important function to provide emotional, logistical, and professional development support for early career scholars. Our case study highlights strategies to foster peer mentoring groups that provide a generalizable blueprint and opportunity for improved outcomes for early career professionals.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Vaginal ring delivery of antiretroviral drugs may provide protection against acquisition of HIV-1 when used as pre-exposure prophylaxis. As part of a randomized placebo-controlled safety trial of a tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) intravaginal ring (IVR), we assessed product acceptability through surveys of 17 women after continuous ring use. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Sexually active, HIV negative women between the ages of 18 and 45 were enrolled to investigate the safety and pharmacokinetics of three months of continuous TDF IVR use. The study was designed to include 40 US participants randomly assigned (3:1) to a TDF or placebo IVR. Twelve were randomized to TDF and five were assigned to the placebo group before the study was electively discontinued due to development of vaginal ulcerations in eight women in the TDF group. Acceptability data regarding TDF and placebo ring use was gathered via self-administered, computer-based questionnaires at the one- and three-month study visits. Participants were asked about overall attitudes and feelings regarding the TDF and placebo IVR, vaginal changes associated with ring use, and their experiences with ring use during menses and with sex. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 30 years (range 18 - 42). Sixteen of 17 (94%) participants completed all study questions at both visits. When asked about ring likeability at one-month, 12 of 16 (75%) women reported overall liking the ring, including 5 of 8 (63%) who developed ulcerations. Vaginal changes described during ring use included 8 participants who indicated that the “vagina was wetter” and 2 who reported that the “vagina was drier.” Additionally, 10 of 12 (83%) who had their period during the first month of the study were not bothered by ring use during menses, and 11 of 16 (69%) stated that the ring was not bothersome with use during sex. When asked at the three-month visit, most reported that they would prefer to wear the ring rather than use a condom during sex, however, condom use was low at baseline in this population. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Despite unanticipated ulcers, the IVRs were acceptable, especially when used with menses and during sex. Regardless of the group assigned or vaginal changes experienced, and even amongst those who developed ulcerations, the women had positive attitudes towards the ring, which is promising for future use of vaginal rings as a method for HIV prevention.

Network representations of systems from various scientific and societal domains are neither completely random nor fully regular, but instead appear to contain recurring structural features. These features tend to be shared by networks belonging to the same broad class, such as the class of social networks or the class of biological networks. Within each such class, networks describing similar systems tend to have similar features. This occurs presumably because networks representing similar systems would be expected to be generated by a shared set of domain-specific mechanisms, and it should therefore be possible to classify networks based on their features at various structural levels. Here we describe and demonstrate a new hybrid approach that combines manual selection of network features of potential interest with existing automated classification methods. In particular, selecting well-known network features that have been studied extensively in social network analysis and network science literature, and then classifying networks on the basis of these features using methods such as random forest, which is known to handle the type of feature collinearity that arises in this setting, we find that our approach is able to achieve both higher accuracy and greater interpretability in shorter computation time than other methods.

Host–parasite dynamics can play a fundamental role in both the establishment success of invasive species and their impact on native wildlife. The net impact of parasites depends on their capacity to switch effectively between native and invasive hosts. Here we explore host-switching, spatial patterns and simple fitness measures in a slow-expanding invasion: the invasion of Asian house geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus) from urban areas into bushland in Northeast Australia. In bushland close to urban edges, H. frenatus co-occurs with, and at many sites now greatly out-numbers, native geckos. We measured prevalence and intensity of Geckobia mites (introduced with H. frenatus), and Waddycephalus (a native pentastome). We recorded a new invasive mite species, and several new host associations for native mites and geckos, but we found no evidence of mite transmission between native and invasive geckos. In contrast, native Waddycephalus nymphs were commonly present in H. frenatus, demonstrating this parasite's capacity to utilize H. frenatus as a novel host. Prevalence of mites on H. frenatus decreased with distance from the urban edge, suggesting parasite release towards the invasion front; however, we found no evidence that mites affect H. frenatus body condition or lifespan. Waddycephalus was present at low prevalence in bushland sites and, although its presence did not affect host body condition, our data suggest that it may reduce host survival. The high relative density of H. frenatus at our sites, and their capacity to harbour Waddycephalus, suggests that there may be impacts on native geckos and snakes through parasite spillback.

Experiments were conducted to compare barnyardgrass control and rice injury and yield with emulsifiable concentrate and dry flowable formulations of propanil as single or repeat applications with crop oil concentrate, methylated seed oil, a blend of organosilicone surfactant and methylated seed oil or conventional nonionic surfactant, and organosilicone surfactant. Two applications of propanil were more effective in controlling barnyardgrass than a single application. The emulsifiable concentrate formulation of propanil controlled barnyardgrass more effectively than the dry flowable formulation in some but not all experiments. Differences in barnyardgrass control with propanil as influenced by adjuvants were minor and inconsistent. The most consistent barnyardgrass control and the highest rice yields were obtained with repeat applications of the emulsifiable concentrate formulation of propanil.

Confinement housing appears to be at the forefront of concern about farm animal welfare. Although many factors may affect the welfare of commercial laying hens housed in cage and non-cage systems, welfare issues in confinement systems often involve behavioural restrictions, while many welfare issues in more extensive systems involve health and hygiene. Hens require an absolute amount of three-dimensional space in order to be able to perform basic body movements. They may prefer to distance themselves from other birds, but their strength of motivation to do so has not been thoroughly investigated, and preferred inter-individual distances may vary with activity. The relationships between the effects of space and group size on behaviour are not well understood, particularly in large groups where birds may cluster together around resources and at different times of day. There are common risks to hen welfare posed by both cage and non-cage systems such as overcrowding. However, some welfare issues present a greater risk in one system compared to another. When considering space and social environment, the comparison of cage and non-cage systems must take into account the threats to welfare that are specific to each system. Furthermore, this review highlights the importance of the design of the housing system rather than just the housing system per se.

The ability to perform microbial detection and characterization in-field at extreme environments, rather than on returned samples, has the potential to improve the efficiency, relevance and quantity of data from field campaigns. To date, few examples of this approach have been reported. Therefore, we demonstrate that the approach is feasible in subglacial environments by deploying four techniques for microbial detection: real-time polymerase chain reaction; microscopic fluorescence cell counts, adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence assay and recombinant Factor C assay (to detect lipopolysaccharide). Each technique was applied to 12 subglacial ice samples, 12 meltwater samples and two snow samples from Engabreen, Northern Norway. Using this multi-technique approach, the detected biomarker levels were as expected, being highest in debris-rich subglacial ice, moderate in glacial meltwater and low in clean ice (debris-poor) and snow. Principal component analysis was applied to the resulting dataset and could be performed in-field to rapidly aid the allocation of resources for further sample analysis. We anticipate that in-field data collection will allow for multiple rounds of sampling, analysis, interpretation and refinement within a single field campaign, resulting in the collection of larger and more appropriate datasets, ultimately with more efficient science return.

The aim of this study was to estimate the amount of childhood hepatitis B virus transmission in children born in the UK, a very low-prevalence country, that is preventable only by universal hepatitis B immunization of infants. Oral fluid specimens were collected from schoolchildren aged 7–11 years in four inner city multi-ethnic areas and tested for the presence of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). Those found positive or indeterminate were followed up with testing on serum to confirm their hepatitis B status. The overall prevalence of anti-HBc in children was low [0·26%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·14–0·44]. The estimated average annual incidence of hepatitis B was estimated to be 29·26/100 000 children (95% CI 16·00–49·08). The total incidence that is preventable only by a universal infant immunization programme in the UK was estimated to be between 5·00 and 12·49/100 000. The study demonstrates that the extent of horizontal childhood hepatitis B virus transmission is low in children born in the UK and suggests that schools in the UK are an uncommon setting for the transmission of the virus. Targeted hepatitis B testing and immunization of migrants from intermediate- and high-prevalence countries is likely to be a more effective measure to reduce childhood transmission than a universal infant immunization programme.