Weaning is the most stressful period in the life of the pig, which can be associated with a reduction in growth performance, perturbations to the gut microbiome and an increase in gastrointestinal disease (1). In the absence of prophylactic antibiotics, therapeutic levels of zinc oxide (ZnO) have been offered in feed for two weeks, to support the young animal through this transition. However, due to both environmental and antimicrobial resistance concerns, the use of ZnO was banned in the UK and EU from June 2022 (2). Agri-food by-products (AFBPs) hold interest as potential alternatives to ZnO due to the range of bio-active compounds they contain. For example, polyphenols found in fruit and vegetable pulps and peelings display anti- inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties (3). The aim of the current study was to determine the potential of different fruit and vegetable-derived AFBP to impact gut microbiota composition as indicator of gut health.

This trial was performed at the University of Leeds National Pig Centre with approval from the University’s animal welfare and ethical review body. AFBPs were obtained from a variety of fruit and vegetable sources and formulated into weaner pig feed. A total of 320 pigs were weaned onto this trial and randomly assigned to one of eight diets (A-H) for a 14-day period post-weaning. Diet A was a negative control with no additional additive, diet B contained therapeutic levels of ZnO (3100 ppm) as a positive control and diets C-H each contained different AFBP streams. Pigs were housed in groups of 5, with 8 replicate pens per treatment. After 14 days, digesta samples were collected from 10 pigs per treatment from the jejunum, ileum and caecum to identify changes in the gut microbial community. From the extracted DNA, the V4 region (16s rRNA gene) was sequenced. Amplicons were cleaned and aligned to the SILVA database (v132) in Mothur with statistical analysis performed in R.

Whilst no differences in α-diversity (Chao1, Shannon, Simpson; P>0.05) were observed, a difference in community composition was identified in both the ileum (p=0.008) and caecum (p=0.002). ZnO showed significant differences in β-diversity (NMDS, Bray-Curtis distances) to the negative control and some of the AFBP groups, whilst others were similar. The ZnO diet showed enhanced suppression of both Escherichia-shigella and Campylobacter in both the ileum and the caecum compared with the negative control. AFBP groups varied in their effectiveness, and this varied with gut location.

With refinement of the dosage and a potential blend of additives to maximise effectiveness across a range of gut health and performance parameters, there is scope to include AFBPs in the diet of the weaned pig to support gut health and reduce the susceptibility of the microbiome to pathogen colonisation.

Reflections on the legacy of ‘Jacobin egalitarianism’ in post-Thermidorian France can be seen as following one of three strands: conservative, communist, or democratic. By shedding light on the democratic trajectory, this article addresses the historiographical imbalance that has disproportionately focused on conservative and communist perspectives. This study thereby pursues a renewed understanding of the relationship between the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the evolution of political economy. Through an analysis of Étienne-Géry Lenglet’s treatise, De la propriété (1798), the contexts and content of democratic political economy during the revolutionary decade are identified. Lenglet’s politics formed an intervention in the debates during the Directory on the dynamics of property, morality, the franchise, and the principles of modern polities. His thought exemplifies a Condorcetian egalitarianism that grappled with the dilemmas posed by the rise of commerce and standing armies. This analysis of Lenglet’s work challenges the notion that the radicals of the French Revolution operated outside of Enlightenment political economy: De la propriété was deeply rooted in Enlightenment and revolutionary rhetoric. Lenglet’s politics emerges as a crucial component of diverse reform projects that contradicts reified depictions of Enlightenment political thought.

Field experiments enable researchers to investigate the impacts of both natural and anthropogenic crop production factors on soil respiration (SR), the largest contributor of CO2 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. The hypothesis of this study was that the influence of two key anthropogenic factors — applied fertilizers and cultivated crops — on the respiration rate of arable soils could be separated in a field experiment. The objective was therefore to quantify the influence of these factors on SR and assess its dependence on soil characteristics. The study was conducted on the territory of the long-term field experiment at the Timiryazev Academy (Moscow, Russia), where use of plots of crop rotation involving rye, barley, potatoes, and fallow, with liming and various fertilizer types applied, was considered. Measurements were taken using the closed chamber technique and a portable infrared gas analyzer from May 2023 to November 2024. During the vegetation periods SR varied significantly and was not statistically different for most plots (0.063‒0.276 g C/(m2·h)), except for the NPK+manure variant (0.371‒0.430 g C/(m2·h)). During the bare soil period SR was similar between fertilizer variants and 10‒20 times lower under snow cover than during the vegetation period (0.006‒0.018 g C/(m2·h)). A direct dependence of respiration on soil organic carbon and particulate organic matter content was observed (R=0.552‒0.650). Two-way PERMANOVA revealed significant effects of fertilizers (17.2‒24.0% of the variance) and crops (6.5‒7.1%) on SR, although their interaction was insignificant. Our research could form the basis for developing carbon sequestration compensation measures in response to specific fertilizer doses.

This article examines the local production of statistics of workers recruited by the Portuguese colonial administration in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) during the last years when the Native Labor Code was in force. By enquiring the statistics produced by commissioners of post in the district of Cacheu in their monthly service journals, it consideres the purposes of the workforce statistics at a moment Portugal had just ratified the International Labor Organization’s Convention on forced labor and compiling reliable statistical records became crucial. Examining statistical production and registration allows us to explore the expectations and tensions within the colonial state regarding the management of forced labor and the functioning of the colonial administration. Rather than a tool for controllling the African workforce, counting workers was a way of controlling and monitoring the performance of colonial administrators. Moreover, statistics could become part of a strategy of hiding and concealing less palatable aspects of daily colonial rule and labor recruitment practices. Indeed, the workforce recruited by the colonial state remained fairly invisible (and thus subject to abuse), be it due to inconsistent record-keeping or the lack of statistics on workforce recruitment altogether.

This article aims to analyse the historical, political, and socio-cultural significance of the Alash Orda movement in shaping Kazakh national identity and the quest for autonomy during the early 20th century. The research draws on a range of primary sources, including archival documents and speeches, as well as scholarly works by Kazakh and international historians. It analyses how Alash leaders developed a multifaceted political strategy to secure autonomy amidst the chaotic transition from imperial rule to revolutionary governance. Central to their approach was diplomacy: the Alash Orda government sought to establish ties with the Russian Provisional Government and A. Kolchak’s White Army, aiming to build alliances supportive of Kazakh autonomy. The movement also reached out to international organisations, seeking external recognition and assistance. Despite these efforts, the study demonstrates that Alash Orda ultimately failed to achieve lasting success in establishing a stable autonomous Kazakh state. Alongside this political narrative, the study highlights the cultural and educational initiatives of Alash Orda, particularly its promotion of the Kazakh language and national identity in the face of Russification policies.

The ‘Problem of Unconceived Alternatives’ – essentially the idea that we can never know when a radically different but better explanation is available – goes to the heart of what is involved in trying to understand the cosmos given our limited capacities for observation, and the challenges of interpreting the data. This article rethinks large-scale cosmological interpretation (in effect, ‘metaphysics’) as a process of modelling ‘protectorates’ of past experience in terms of ‘typicalities’ found in our own local range of empirical data, and then of making it available as a tool for understanding and prediction. Based on the role of examples and analogies (dṛṣṭānta) to build ontologies explaining the cosmos in the history of Indian metaphysics, it argues for a broadly structural realist account. When we ask whether something is a physical object, a material, a force, a field, or some other as-yet-unconceived kind of thing, we use best-fit models that are schematic of the structure of evidence, rather than descriptive of the thing in itself. Given this, Indian metaphysical history suggests strategies for finding unconceived alternative better explanatory models, by stretching the imagination towards novel schemas. In this light, the ‘problem’ becomes a ‘promise’ that unconceived alternatives with ever-better explanatory power await us, subject to more innovative, imaginative interpretations.

Laminar–turbulent transition in shear flow is complicated and follows many possible routes. In this study, we seek to examine a scenario based on three-dimensional (3-D) waves (Jiang et al., 2020, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 890, A11) in compressible mixing layers, and elucidate the role of 3-D waves in generating streamwise vorticity. The Eulerian–Lagrangian coupled method is used to track the evolution of flow structures. Qualitative evidence shows that localised 3-D waves travel coherently with vortex structures at the early transition stage, which is consistent with the behaviours of 3-D waves in boundary layer transitions. To examine the local flow events surrounding 3-D waves and investigate the cause and effect relationships inherent in wave–vortex interaction, the finite-time Lyapunov exponent and components of the strain rate tensor are integrated into evolving Lagrangian material surfaces. The formation of high-shear layers in the flanks of the 3-D waves is observed, driven by fluid ejection and sweep motions induced by the amplification of 3-D waves. The $\Lambda$-shaped vortices are found born in the vicinity of high-shear regions and then stretched into hairpin-shaped vortices farther downstream. Statistical findings reveal that streamwise vorticity develops concurrently with the significant growth of the oblique mode, while the normal motion of wave structures induces a high strain rate layer in the surrounding region. In addition, conditional statistics underscore the significance of high shear in enstrophy generation. Finally, a conceptual model is proposed to depict the evolution of coherent structures based on the relationship among the 3-D waves, high-shear/strain layers, and $\varLambda$-vortices, providing insights into their collective dynamics within transitional mixing layers.

Given a morphism $\varphi \;:\; G \to A \wr B$ from a finitely presented group G to a wreath product $A \wr B$, we show that, if the image of $\varphi$ is a sufficiently large subgroup, then $\mathrm{ker}(\varphi)$ contains a non-abelian free subgroup and $\varphi$ factors through an acylindrically hyperbolic quotient of G. As direct applications, we classify the finitely presented subgroups in $A \wr B$ up to isomorphism and we deduce that a finitely presented group having a wreath product $(\text{non-trivial}) \wr (\text{infinite})$ as a quotient must be SQ-universal (extending theorems of Baumslag and Cornulier–Kar). Finally, we exploit our theorem in order to describe the structure of the automorphism groups of several families of wreath products, highlighting an interesting connection with the Kaplansky conjecture on units in group rings.

Congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunt (CEPS) is an uncommon condition in which the portal vascular system drains into the systemic veins. We describe an unusual case of CEPS with congenital heart disease, presenting with aneurysmal enlargement of the pulmonary artery and symptoms of airway compression, highlighting the importance of evaluating for additional pathology in case of unexplained oxygenation defect or pulmonary hypertension.