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Objectives: This study surveyed the views of breast screening readers in the UK on how to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into breast screening mammography. Methods: An online questionnaire was circulated to the UK breast screening readers. Questions included their degree of approval of four AI implementation scenarios: AI as triage, AI as a companion reader/reader aid, AI replacing one of the initial two readers, and AI replacing all readers. They were also asked to rank five AI representation options (discrete opinion; mammographic scoring; percentage score with 100% indicating malignancy; region of suspicion; heat map) and indicate which evidence they considered necessary to support the implementation of AI into their practice among six options offered. Results: The survey had 87 nationally accredited respondents across the UK; 73 completed the survey in full. Respondents approved of AI replacing one of the initial two human readers and objected to AI replacing all human readers. Participants were divided on AI as triage and AI as a reader companion. A region of suspicion superimposed on the image was the preferred AI representation option. Most screen readers considered national guidelines (77%), studies using a nationally representative dataset (65%) and independent prospective studies (60%) as essential evidence. Participants' free-text comments highlighted concerns and the need for additional validation. Conclusions: Overall, screen readers supported the introduction of AI as a partial replacement of human readers and preferred a graphical indication of the suspected tumour area, with further evidence and national guidelines considered crucial prior to implementation. Key points: Surveyed UK breast screening readers supported the introduction of AI. Respondents approved of the replacement of one of the two initial readers. Participants objected to the replacement of all human readers. Respondents preferred the AI to graphically indicate the suspected tumour area. Screen readers preferred forms of evidence based on national guidelines, national representative datasets, and independent prospective studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strongly acidic soil (e.g. p H < 5.0) is detrimental to tea productivity and quality. Wheat, rice and peanut biochar produced at low temperature (max 300 °C) and differing in alkalinity content were incorporated into Xuan-cheng ( Ultisol; initial p Hsoil/water = 1/2.5 4.12) and Ying-tan soil ( Ultisol; initial pH soil/water = 1/2.5 4.75) at 10 and 20 g/kg (w/w) to quantify their liming effect and evaluate their effectiveness for acidity amelioration of tea garden soils. After a 65-day incubation at 25 °C, biochar application significantly ( P < 0.05) increased soil p H and exchangeable cations and reduced Al saturation of both tea soils. Association of H+ ions with biochar and decarboxylation processes was likely to be the main factor neutralizing soil acidity. Further, biochar application reduced acidity production from the N cycle. Significant ( P < 0.05) increases in exchangeable cations and reductions in exchangeable acidity and Al saturation were observed as the rate of biochar increased, but there were no further effects on soil p H. The lack of change in soil p H at the higher biochar rate may be due to the displacement of exchangeable acidity and the high buffering capacity of biochar, thereby retarding a further liming effect. Hence, a significant linear correlation between reduced exchangeable acidity and alkalinity balance was found in biochar-amended soils ( P < 0.05). Low-temperature biochar of crop residues is suggested as a potential amendment to ameliorate acidic tea garden soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of carbon and nitrogen from broiler litter limits nutrient recycling and is damaging to the environment. This study investigated lignite, a low-rank brown coal, as an amendment to reduce the loss of carbon and nitrogen from broiler litter over 3 consecutive grow-out cycles, November 2021 to May 2022, at a commercially operated farm in Victoria, Australia. Lignite-treated litter contained significantly more carbon and nitrogen, with an increase of 70.1 g/bird and 12.6 g/bird for carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Lignite also reduced aerobic microbial respiration, with a 46.0% reduction in CO 2 flux recorded in week 7 of the study, resulting in reduced mass loss. It is expected that this is a key mechanism responsible for nutrient retention in litter following treatment with lignite. Furthermore, lignite treatment lowered litter moisture content by 7, 6 and 3 percentage points for grow-out 1, 2 and 3, respectively. These findings present lignite as a beneficial litter amendment for increasing the nutrient value of waste and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The study highlights the potential of lignite to reduce the environmental impact of poultry production and presents an alternative use for lignite as an existing resource., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Ammonia (NH 3 ) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are substantial contributors to C and N loss in composting. Lignite can increase N retention by absorbing N H 4 + and NH 3 . However, the effects of co-composting on NH 3 and GHG emissions in view of closing nutrient cycle are still poorly investigated. In the study, poultry litter was composted without (CK) or with lignite (T1) or dewatered lignite (T2), and their respective composts N H 4 + Com&#95;CK, Com&#95;T1, and Com&#95;T2) were tested in a soil incubation to assess NH 3 and GHG emission during composting and following soil utilization. The cumulative NH 3 flux in T1 and T2 were reduced by 39.3% and 50.2%, while N 2 O emissions were increased by 7.5 and 15.6 times, relative to CK. The total GHG emission in T2 was reduced by 16.8% compared to CK. Lignite addition significantly increased nitrification and denitrification as evidenced by the increased abundances of amoA , amoB , nirK , and nirS . The increased reduction on NH 3 emission by dewatered lignite could be attributed to reduced pH and enhanced cation exchangeable capacity than lignite. The increased N 2 O was related to enhanced nitrification and denitrification. In the soil incubation experiment, compost addition reduced NH 3 emission by 72%∼83% while increased emissions of CO 2 and N 2 O by 306%∼740% and 208%∼454%, compared with urea. Com&#95;T2 strongly reduced NH 3 and GHG emissions after soil amendment compared to Com&#95;CK. Overall, dewatered lignite, as an effective additive, exhibits great potential to simultaneously mitigate NH 3 and GHG secondary pollution during composting and subsequent utilization of manure composts.

Modified lignite and black coal (BC) are potential amendments for animal bedding to abate ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions due to their large adsorption capacities for ammoniacal nitrogen (N). However, the ability of modified lignite and BC in reducing NH 3 volatilization from livestock manure and the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. The present study has investigated the effect of lignite, modified lignite, BC and modified BC on NH 3 volatilization from cattle manure, biological immobilization of manure ammoniacal N and manure properties. Modified lignite and BC reduced the NH 3 volatilization from manure by 44 and 36%, respectively, which were comparable with original lignite (43%). The biological immobilization of applied stable isotope labelled 15 N in lignite, modified lignite, BC and modified BC amended manures was 15, 18, 11 and 16%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in unamended manure (4%, P < 0.001). In addition, NH 4 + -N concentrations of lignite, modified lignite and modified BC amended manures (7.0-7.3 mg g -1 ) were significantly higher than that of the unamended and original BC amended manures (3.3 and 4.8 mg g -1 , respectively, P < 0.001). However, the manure pH in all treatments remained alkaline (pH > 8.2). Our results highlight that the adsorption and immobilization of manure ammoniacal N induced by amendments are the key drivers in reducing NH 3 loss from manure, outweighing the pH effect. The findings of this study provide new insights into the mechanisms of coal amendments reducing NH 3 loss from animal manure and their potential applications in intensive livestock systems., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in animal manure are a great threat to human health. This study investigated the effects of lignite addition at three levels (5%, 10%, 15% w/w) on the profiles of ARGs and the bacterial communities during poultry litter composting. Lignite addition effectively promoted the removal of manure-borne ARGs. After 65 days of composting, the relative abundances of ARGs decreased by 8.9% in control (no lignite), and by 15.8%, 27.7% and 41.5% in 5%, 10% and 15% lignite treatments, respectively. Although the total mobile genetic elements were enriched after composting, the enrichment of the intI-1 gene was significantly lower in the 10% and 15% lignite treatments compared with control. Network analysis indicated that Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were potential bacterial hosts for ARGs. Redundancy analysis showed that bacterial community succession played a key role in the shifts of ARGs. Taken together, this study provides evidence that lignite as additives promoted the removal efficacy of ARGs during composting of poultry litter., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Manure composting is a common management practice for cattle feedlots, but gaseous emissions from composting are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to quantify ammonia (NH 3 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and methane (CH 4 ) emissions from windrow composting (turning) and static stockpiling (nonturning) of manure at a commercial feedlot in Australia. An inverse-dispersion technique using an open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometer gas sensor was deployed to measure emissions of NH 3 , N 2 O, CO 2 , and CH 4 over a 165-d study period, and 29 and 15% of the total data intervals were actually used to calculate the fluxes for the windrow and stockpile, respectively. The nitrogen (N) lost as NH 3 and N 2 O emissions represented 26.4 and 3.8% of the initial N in windrow, and 5.3 and 0.8% of that in the stockpile, respectively. The carbon (C) lost as CO 2 and CH 4 emissions represented 44 and 0.3% of the initial C in windrow, and 54.8 and 0.7% of that in the stockpile, respectively. Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the manure windrow were 2.7 times higher than those of the stockpiled manure. This work highlights the value that could be accrued if one could reduce emissions of NH 3 -N and N 2 O-N from composting, which would retain manure N content while reducing GHG emissions., (© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Environmental Quality © 2019 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.)

Hyperthermophilic pretreatment composting (HPC) is superior to traditional composting (CK) with shortened maturity period and enhanced humification degree. However, the chemical and structural evolution of humic substances (HS) at the molecular level is not known. In this study, the impact of hyperthermophilic pretreatment (90 °C, 4 h) on the content and chemical composition of HS during composting were investigated. The HS content of the final compost was 87.8 g/kg and 76.7 g/kg in HPC and CK, respectively. Significantly higher humic acid/fulvic acid ratio (1.27 in HPC v.s. 0.77 in CK) was observed in HPC. 13 C NMR spectroscopic data showed a higher aromatics percentage and earlier enrichment of aromatic structures in HS extracted from HPC than CK. Intensified humification of HPC was related to the increased levels of HS precursors and degradation of lignocellulose. Redundancy analysis demonstrated that aromatic C, phenolic C and O-alkyl C can be used for evaluation of the humification degree., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)