Broiler chickens are the most numerous terrestrial farmed animals on earth. These birds can suffer a range of pathologies which result in lameness, and one technique for assessing the impact of lameness on the individual bird, and on the flock has been gait scoring. This paper describes a study where the results of the same training programme for validated gait scoring are compared for groups of assessors in Thailand, Brazil and New Zealand. A uniform course of training carried out in the classroom, through video assessment and through on-farm training was carried out in the countries named; a total of 95 persons being trained overall. A measure of agreement with the reference scale for the assessors' numerical responses was carried out using a Cohen's Kappa test, and the results indicated significant differences in the ‘origin position’ ie the view taken by the assessors of the impact of lameness on the bird before training had taken place, but a high degree of consistency in the response to training. The study demonstrated that gait scoring can be learned by assessors from different geographical and social backgrounds, and that the ‘rate of learning’ – the improvement in performance in relation to a standard, was similar between the countries studied. The ‘origin’ and ‘final’ position of the assessors pre- and post-training, from the different countries in relation to the reference standard is discussed.

Around the world, people who care for animals as stock-keepers, stockmen, farmers, producers are placed in a position where they can greatly influence the quality of life of the animals they manage. A stock-keeper's viewpoint on animal welfare and animal care will be enormously influenced by their cultural frame, how animals are viewed in the society where they live, and how much ‘permission to care’ the individual stockman sees as being granted to them in the place where they work. Sometimes the capacity to care is subsumed by commercial production pressures, lack of time, lack of motivation, perceived lack of resources, perceived lack of ‘value’ for individual animals, lack of perception of animal issues, or sometimes through a lack of knowledge or exposure to concepts of animal care and welfare. The extent and focus of animal welfare training is moulded by the needs of the audience, the company, the retailer or the legislator. For these reasons ‘one size fits all’ training is not usually appropriate, although there may be some general rules which can be applied to nearly all welfare training. These general rules include: do not start by importing values and technology/procedures which those trained cannot use; understand why the people you train do what they do; the initial training should be sympathetic to local knowledge and resources; engage with the industry and its affiliates and if at all possible, obtain government, professional and academic support and involvement; and beware that in the absence of knowledge and training, new technologies and new procedures can create new welfare problems.

COVID-19 has caused a major global pandemic and necessitated unprecedented public health restrictions in almost every country. Understanding risk factors for severe disease in hospitalised patients is critical as the pandemic progresses. This observational cohort study aimed to characterise the independent associations between the clinical outcomes of hospitalised patients and their demographics, comorbidities, blood tests and bedside observations. All patients admitted to Northwick Park Hospital, London, UK between 12 March and 15 April 2020 with COVID-19 were retrospectively identified. The primary outcome was death. Associations were explored using Cox proportional hazards modelling. The study included 981 patients. The mortality rate was 36.0%. Age (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.53), respiratory disease (aHR 1.37), immunosuppression (aHR 2.23), respiratory rate (aHR 1.28), hypoxia (aHR 1.36), Glasgow Coma Scale <15 (aHR 1.92), urea (aHR 2.67), alkaline phosphatase (aHR 2.53), C-reactive protein (aHR 1.15), lactate (aHR 2.67), platelet count (aHR 0.77) and infiltrates on chest radiograph (aHR 1.89) were all associated with mortality. These important data will aid clinical risk stratification and provide direction for further research.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is beneficial in depression. Symptom scores can be translated into Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale scores to indicate clinical relevance. We aimed to assess the clinical relevance of findings of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of CBT in depression. We identified RCTs of CBT that used the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD). HAMD scores were translated into Clinical Global Impression – Change scale (CGI-I) scores to measure clinical relevance. One hundred and seventy datasets from 82 studies were included. The mean percentage HAMD change for treatment arms was 53.66%, and 29.81% for control arms, a statistically significant difference. Combined active therapies showed the biggest improvement on CGI-I score, followed by CBT alone. All active treatments had better than expected HAMD percentage reduction and CGI-I scores. CBT has a clinically relevant effect in depression, with a notional CGI-I score of 2.2, indicating a significant clinical response. The non-specific or placebo effect of being in a psychotherapy trial was a 29% reduction of HAMD.

We review the causes, mechanisms and consequences of crustal anatexis during the exhumation of metamorphic terranes, from a petrological perspective. During both prograde and retrograde metamorphism, limited influx of free hydrous fluids may result in small volumes of very hydrous melts, which cannot ascend far (if at all) before reaching their solidus. If thermal conditions for dehydration melting are attained in fertile micaceous crustal layers, much larger volumes of water-undersaturated granitic magmas may result, especially where limited external fluid influx raises water activities above those that may be buffered by dehydrating hydrous phases. Magmas have specific trace element characteristics depending on the reaction which formed them which, combined with accessory phase thermometry, may enable the (P-T) conditions of melting to be ascertained. Small volume-fraction magmas will typically remain as in situ migmatites unless their extraction is assisted by deformation. In turn, deformation will be focused in weaker partially molten zones, so that water-undersaturated magmas may often be mobilized. Once segregated, their ascent is limited by the rate of dyke propagation, and they may reach shallow levels (<2 kbar) before crystallizing. The complex interplay between deformation and melting is exemplified by the Miocene evolution of the central Himalaya, where thrust and normal faulting, melting and exhumation were all simultaneously active processes which were linked by feedback relations. In the Nanga Parbat Massif of the western Himalaya, rapid post-Miocene denudation and vigorous fluid flux enabled rocks to experience more than one episode of melting simultaneously, at different levels of the same exhuming crustal section.

A recent editorial claimed that the 2014 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on psychosis and schizophrenia, unlike its equivalent 2013 Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline, is biased towards psychosocial treatments and against drug treatments. In this paper we underline that the NICE and SIGN guidelines recommend similar interventions, but that the NICE guideline has more rigorous methodology. Our analysis suggests that the authors of the editorial appear to have succumbed to bias themselves.

Fission-track dating of zircons and apatites from tuffs and bentonites has produced the first isotopic ages for the type sections of the Ordovician and Silurian Systems. In the Ordovician the following ages have been determined: lower Arenig 493 Ma, lower Llanvirn 487 Ma, lower Llandeilo 477 Ma, upper Caradoc 463 Ma and upper Ashgill 434 Ma. In the Silurian, the following: lower Llandovery 437 Ma, lower Wenlock 422 Ma, upper Wenlock 414 Ma and Ludlow 407 Ma. The Ordovician-Silurian boundary is interpreted as occurring at about 436 Ma. Three North American Rocklandian bentonites yielded zircons whose ages average 453 Ma. This is about 10 Ma younger than supposedly correlative units in the British type sections.

The North Dogger Fault Zone is located at the northern margin of the UK Southern North Sea Basin, at the edge of the mobile Zechstein Supergroup, and was particularly active during late Triassic and early Jurassic times. It resembles geometrically, and is related tectonically to, the Dowsing Fault Zone which was initiated in late Scythian time along the southwestern edge of the mobile salt. It is proposed that both of these basin-bounding fault systems were initiated in response to the buoyant growth of salt swells in the centre of the Southern North Sea Basin. Passive folding of the Triassic strata over the swells, which accommodated the shape changes caused by halokinesis, led to extension on the fault zones at the edge of the mobile Zechstein salt.

Twenty-four sugar-beet plants were cut into quarters, planted and allowed to produce fruit under varying fertilizer and irrigation treatments. Studies on the germination rates of these clusters showed that there were marked genetic differences between the clones. Wetting the seeds continually by overhead irrigation, to simulate heavy rainfalls markedly decreased the rate of germination, apparently by delaying the onset of maturity. Immature clusters from early harvests of plants which were not irrigated also showed a decreased germination capacity. The fertilizer treatments in this experiment were less important as a source of variation than the clonal and irrigation components. The results may be related to the presence of germination inhibitors in the clusters but there may be important changes in the embryos of the seeds themselves.

Three methods of controlling swede mildew were compared. Mildew infection was reduced by delayed sowing but yields from later sown plots were seriously reduced. Infection was reduced but not eliminated on resistant varieties. Highly effective chemical control was achieved with the fungicide Persulon, which showed both eradicant and protective properties. The yield differences between a genetically resistant and a susceptible variety were eliminated when Persulon was used.

Evidence was obtained for the presence of germination inhibitors in the aqueous extract from sugar-beet clusters. A positive correlation was shown between the germination of cress seeds moistened with aqueous extracts from clusters of twenty sugarbeet plants and the germination characteristics of other clusters from the same plants. Inhibition was thus greater in extracts from clusters with poor rather than good germination, and also in extracts from immature clusters or those which had received overhead irrigation. The inhibitory effect was found to be located in the perianth and pericarp tissue rather than in the true seed.

An analysis of germination characteristics of progeny from a diallel cross between five sugar-beet plants showed that the genotype of the maternal parent controlled to a marked extent the behaviour of the progeny. This may be related to the presence in the fruits of inhibitory substances.

Some evidence was found for genie and maternal interactions but these were always of less importance than the maternal effects. Heritability estimates from parent, off spring regression and analysis of half-sib family variances demonstrated that genetic variation for germination characteristics had not been eliminated during the improvement of sugar beet from the wild form.

The stabilities of plant height and yield for rice varieties grown in Sri Lanka were calculated by regression analysis. High yields were produced by both stable and unstable varieties in the wet season, but in the dry season high-yielding varieties tended to be of above-average stability. The yield of the newer, shorter varieties exceeded those of older varieties except at low nitrogen levels, and the new varieties were of above-average stability.

In striking contrast to the legislatures in most modern democracies, Congress retains an important place in American politics and policy making. Especially in recent years, this has led many observers to question the importance of the presidency and bureaucracy to the real work of American governance and the extent to which political actors in the executive branch generally exercise power. This narrative of congressional dominance has been particularly bolstered by recent scholarly interest in principal-agent models of interbranch relations. The assumption of congressional centrality, however, obscures many important features of American politics. Over the course of American history, institutional development in particular has often been driven by either autonomous executive action or conflicts between Congress and the executive. We develop an approach for assessing executive power in institutional politics and illustrate the logic of executive influence with three cases: the rise of federal food-and-drug and forestry regulation, and the growth of the federal farm extension service in the early twentieth century; the rise of the national security state in the mid-twentieth century; and the evolution of budgeting and spending practices over the course of the twentieth century.