Injurious tail biting in pigs: How can it be controlled in existing systems without tail docking?

Tail biting is a serious animal welfare and economic problem in pig production. Tail docking, which reduces but does not eliminate tail biting, remains widespread. However, in the EU tail docking may not be used routinely, and some 'alternative' forms of pig production and certain countries do not allow tail docking at all. Against this background, using a novel approach focusing on research where tail injuries were quantified, we review the measures that can be used to control tail biting in pigs without tail docking. Using this strict criterion, there was good evidence that manipulable substrates and feeder space affect damaging tail biting. Only epidemiological evidence was available for effects of temperature and season, and the effect of stocking density was unclear. Studies suggest that group size has little effect, and the effects of nutrition, disease and breed require further investigation. The review identifies a number of knowledge gaps and promising avenues for future research into prevention and mitigation. We illustrate the diversity of hypotheses concerning how different proposed risk factors might increase tail biting through their effect on each other or on the proposed underlying processes of tail biting. A quantitative comparison of the efficacy of different methods of provision of manipulable materials, and a review of current practices in countries and assurance schemes where tail docking is banned, both suggest that daily provision of small quantities of destructible, manipulable natural materials can be of considerable benefit. Further comparative research is needed into materials, such as ropes, which are compatible with slatted floors. Also, materials which double as fuel for anaerobic digesters could be utilised. As well as optimising housing and management to reduce risk, it is important to detect and treat tail biting as soon as it occurs. Early warning signs before the first bloody tails appear, such as pigs holding their tails tucked under, could in future be automatically detected using precision livestock farming methods enabling earlier reaction and prevention of tail damage. However, there is a lack of scientific studies on how best to respond to outbreaks: the effectiveness of, for example, removing biters and/or bitten pigs, increasing enrichment, or applying substances to tails should be investigated. Finally, some breeding companies are exploring options for reducing the genetic propensity to tail bite. If these various approaches to reduce tail biting are implemented we propose that the need for tail docking will be reduced. © 2014 The Animal Consortium.

‘At First I Saw It as a Toy’: Life Stories, Social Consciousness and Music Ethnography

This article examines the role of life narratives as discursive spaces for the performance of individual resistance. Through the inspection of three interviews with professional musicians in Athens, the essay will illustrate how the recounting of nodal events in their lives and careers facilitates an assertion of their current social ideology and their disillusionment with the popular music industry in which they operate. Ultimately, what follows will suggest a mode of listening to individual utterances and narratives as discursive forms of resistance that need to be appreciated as social acts as opposed to mere ethnographic data.

Peer Effects in Adolescent Cannabis Use: It's the Friends, Stupid

This paper examines peer effects in adolescent cannabis use from several different reference groups, exploiting survey data that have many desirable properties and have not previously been used for this purpose. Treating the school grade as the reference group, and using both neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, we find evidence of large, positive, and statistically significant peer effects. Treating nominated friends as the reference group, and using both school fixed effects and IV for identification, we again find evidence of large, positive, and generally statistically significant peer effects. Our preferred IV approach exploits information about friends of friends – ‘friends once removed’, who are not themselves friends – to instrument for friends’ cannabis use. Finally, we examine whether the cannabis use of schoolmates who are not nominated as friends – ‘non-friends’ – influences
own cannabis use. Once again using neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, the evidence suggests zero impact. In our data, schoolmates who are not also friends have no influence on adolescent cannabis use.

Russia will brush off Litvinenko accusations – and there is little that can be done about it

The Litvinenko findings bring forth the dilemmas for the British government it hoped it could bury: how to reconcile moral principles with hardcore realities of international politics and economics.

'"To have its cake and eat it too:" US policy toward South Africa during the Kennedy administration

The assumption that US policy toward Africa was characterized by continuity during the cold war has recently been challenged by scholars who argue that President John F. Kennedy embarked on an African policy that was distinct from his predecessors. This may be true for black Africa, but Kennedy’s support for African nationalism did not extend to South Africa. This article reveals that Kennedy’s cold war priorities ensured continuity in US policy toward the apartheid state and, in some cases, additional cooperation as cold war crises increased the perceived importance of South Africa as an ideological and strategic ally and bastion against communism on a rapidly changing continent. This article also explores the role South Africa’s apartheid government played in this cold war alliance. The ruling National Party recognized its importance to US foreign policy goals and used this to stave off serious American criticism of its racial policies, deflect attention in the United Nations, and ensure continued economic and military cooperation with the United States.

Is it time for standards and a common data exchange format for digital image analysis?

Digital image analysis is at a crossroads. While the technology has made great strides over the past few decades, there is an urgent need for image analysis to inform the next wave of large scale tissue biomarker discovery studies in cancer. Drawing parallels from the growth of next generation sequencing, this presentation will consider the case for a common language or standard format for storing and communicating digital image analysis data. In this context, image analysis data comprises more than simply an image with markups and attached key-value pair metrics. The desire to objectively benchmark competing platforms or a push for data to be deposited to public repositories much like genomics data may drive the need for a standard that also encompasses granular, cell-by-cell data.

‘To me, it's like a little box of tricks’: Breaking the depressive interlock as a programme participant in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

Objectives. Mindfulness meditation practices have become increasingly popular in clinical therapies, changing patterns of depressogenic thinking for individuals who experience consecutive episodes of depression. We were interested in finding out how Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) worked for programme participants by focussing on how meditative practices changed their relationships to their thoughts. Design. Data for the study came from six semi-structured research interviews carried out with individuals who had taken part in an 8 week MBCT programme Methods. We used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyse the experiential accounts. Results. We report on two superordinate themes – Engaging the Neutral Mind (with subordinate themes ‘breaking the paralysis of worry’ and ‘choosing to think differently’) and Experiencing the Neutral Mind (with subordinate themes of ‘reflection on previous thinking styles’ and ‘becoming psychologically self-reliant’). Conclusions. Themes from the present study offer support to the assertion that mindfulness meditation helps facilitate a different mode of meta-cognitive processing with which to handle depression-related cognitions. Practitioner Points Participants reported that they experienced an enhanced capacity to differentiate between their thought processes, experiencing an ability to tolerate some more uncomfortable thoughts and experiencing a/more choice in how to respond to thoughts Participants recognised that ruminating over negative thoughts was related to depressive states and experienced a shift in meta-cognitive processes that actively challenged depressogenic cognitions Participants became more psychologically self-reliant and therapeutically independent following MBCT Integrating mindfulness based practices in therapy may be a mediating factor in sustaining psychological wellbeing and may help clients develop self-compassion Future research looks to examining exit cases to understand elements of MBCT which are experienced as less successful by clients

‘It's been hell.’ Italian and British practice educators’ narratives of working with struggling or failing social work students in practice learning settings

Periods of assessed learning in practice settings are common requirements for social work students world wide. The ‘practice learning opportunity’ as it is known in the UK, and ‘tirocinio di servizio sociale’ as it is referred to in Italy, are important sites of gatekeeping in preventing unsuitable people from becoming social workers. The experience of assessing failing students in practice learning settings however, has been found to be particularly stressful and challenging for practice educators. This article documents findings from two qualitative studies that explored field educators’ experiences of working with struggling or failing social work students in Italy and England. The study finds both similarities and differences in the narratives of the assessors from the two countries Similarities include, unpleasant emotional experience of working with a failing student, internalisation of the students failing as the practice educators’ own failing, perceptions that the universities may hide negative information about students and lack of acknowledgement of the gatekeeping function inherent in the practice educator role. Differences include the level of emotionality experienced by educators, the way students are spoken about and the perceived role and responses of the university. Further comparative European research which focuses on practice education is indicated.

Rational Thinking and Belief in Psychic Abilities: It Depends on Level of Involvement

Previous research has shown that lay believers in psychic abilities are more prone to intuitive thinking, less inclined to rational thinking, and have an external locus of control, compared to non-believers. Psychic practitioners, however, may have different characteristics. Psychic practitioners (N=31; mean age = 42.7 years, s.d.=13.1), lay believers (N=33; mean age = 33.0 years, s.d.=10.3), and non-believers (N=31; mean age = 34.4 years, s.d.=15.4) completed questionnaires measuring thinking styles, locus of control, and psychic belief. Comparisons of lay believers with non-believers confirmed previous observations; believers had a higher propensity for intuitive thinking, lower propensity for rational thinking, and more external locus of control. In contrast, practitioners were equivalent to non-believers in rational thinking and had the highest internal locus of control. This highlights the importance of considering level of involvement with psychic practice in understanding the thinking styles of believers. Results suggested that practitioners may have rationalised their beliefs and constructed a coherent model of psychic phenomena that satisfies a propensity for rational thinking within a community of belief.