THE COAST TICK (IXODES CALIFORNICUS BANKS) PROBLEM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

1942 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Gregson

During recent years the tick, Ixodes californicus Banks, has attained considerable prominence as a pest of man, pets and livestock in British Columbia coastlands. This progression from a parasite of relatively little importance to one of major economic significance has been brought about not only by the gradual spread of human settlement into the habitat of the tick, but also by a resulting marked increase in the population of the pest. The present economic status of this tick, as observed by officers of the Dominion Entomological Laboratory at Kamloops during the past eight years, is presented herewith.

2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus L. Heinrichs ◽  
Brian F. Cumming ◽  
Kathleen R. Laird ◽  
J. Sanford Hart

Abstract Diatom and chironomid analysis of sediments encompassing the past 400 years from Bouchie Lake, British Columbia, suggests two distinct periods of limnological conditions. Prior to 1950 AD, Fragilaria construens and F. pinnata are the most common diatom species, and Chironomus, Procladius and Tanytarsini dominate the chironomid record. Moderately low nutrient concentrations consistent with oligo-mesotrophic lakes are inferred. From 1950, the diatom assemblage is dominated by Stephanodiscus parvus, a eutrophic indicator, whereas the chironomid communities show a relative increase in littoral taxa coincident with lower head capsule abundance. Higher nutrient levels, specifically total phosphorus, which increased from 8 µg L-1 prior to 1950 to 20 µg L-1 currently, are coincident with midge communities indicative of lower oxygen concentrations. Observed biotic changes and nutrient levels inferred from the sediment core correspond to historical land-use changes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1226-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhong Gong ◽  
Xiaopiao Wen ◽  
Chaoping Guan ◽  
Zhiqing Wang ◽  
Yuan Liang

ABSTRACTBackground: The aim of the current study was to investigate the associations between family characteristics and depressive symptoms, and provide new evidence and recommendations for prevention and intervention in the depressive symptoms of older adults.Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted door-to-door, utilizing a sample of 1,317 individuals aged 60 years and above in rural China. The five family characteristic variables recorded were: living with spouse, living with descendant, support of family members, self-reported family economic status in the previous year, and family-related negative life events that occurred anytime in the past with a continuous psychological effect during the past 12 months. Gender, age, years of schooling, and self-rated physical health status were taken as potential confounders. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine independent effects on depressive symptoms.Results: In addition to the potential confounders, only family-related negative life events, support of family members, and self-reported family economic status had significant effects on depressive symptoms in older adults. Experiencing a family-related negative life event was the most significant variable (OR = 11.70, 95% CI: 7.72–17.73), the second was support of family members (OR = 6.93, 95% CI: 3.26–14.70), while family economic status was less important than support of family members (OR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.08–5.25).Conclusion: This study, from the perspective of family characteristics on depressive symptoms in older adults, showed a strong correlation between being exposed to harmful family environments and depressive symptoms among the elderly. Efforts to address family risk factors and strengthen family cohesiveness deserve a higher priority, given the importance of these factors, compared with other efforts such as promoting economic development.


1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian F. Atwater ◽  
Alan R. Nelson ◽  
John J. Clague ◽  
Gary A. Carver ◽  
David K. Yamaguchi ◽  
...  

Earthquakes in the past few thousand years have left signs of land-level change, tsunamis, and shaking along the Pacific coast at the Cascadia subduction zone. Sudden lowering of land accounts for many of the buried marsh and forest soils at estuaries between southern British Columbia and northern California. Sand layers on some of these soils imply that tsunamis were triggered by some of the events that lowered the land. Liquefaction features show that inland shaking accompanied sudden coastal subsidence at the Washington-Oregon border about 300 years ago. The combined evidence for subsidence, tsunamis, and shaking shows that earthquakes of magnitude 8 or larger have occurred on the boundary between the overriding North America plate and the downgoing Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates. Intervals between the earthquakes are poorly known because of uncertainties about the number and ages of the earthquakes. Current estimates for individual intervals at specific coastal sites range from a few centuries to about one thousand years.


Author(s):  
Manasvi Shrivastav ◽  
Anuradha Kotnala

Most superstition from the past have been proven by science as unnecessary, ineffective or just plain silly but are still practiced by normal intelligent people today. Around the world, there are many reappearing themes for superstition. Every country has its own localized take on each theme. In this article researcher reviews on previous researches. There is much different kind of researches in the field of superstition and there are different theories related to the origin of superstition. Superstition is influenced by different social and psychological factors. In this article those researches have been discussed which through light on social and psychological factors of superstition. Psychological factors like fear, locus of control, confidence level etc. and social factors such as locale, socio-economic status etc.


1996 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Collins

The remarkable “evolution” of the reconstructions of Anomalocaris, the extraordinary predator from the 515 million year old Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, reflects the dramatic changes in our interpretation of early animal life on Earth over the past 100 years. Beginning in 1892 with a claw identified as the abdomen and tail of a phyllocarid crustacean, parts of Anomalocaris have been described variously as a jellyfish, a sea-cucumber, a polychaete worm, a composite of a jellyfish and sponge, or have been attached to other arthropods as appendages. Charles D. Walcott collected complete specimens of Anomalocaris nathorsti between 1911 and 1917, and a Geological Survey of Canada party collected an almost complete specimen of Anomalocaris canadensis in 1966 or 1967, but neither species was adequately described until 1985. At that time they were interpreted by Whittington and Briggs to be representatives of “a hitherto unknown phylum.”Here, using recently collected specimens, the two species are newly reconstructed and described in the genera Anomalocaris and Laggania, and interpreted to be members of an extinct arthropod class, Dinocarida, and order Radiodonta, new to science. The long history of inaccurate reconstruction and mistaken identification of Anomalocaris and Laggania exemplifies our great difficulty in visualizing and classifying, from fossil remains, the many Cambrian animals with no apparent living descendants.


Author(s):  
David Ehrenfeld

When we arrived in Vancouver at the start of our vacation, the tabloid headline at the newspaper stand caught our attention. “World’s Bravest Mom,” it shrieked. We stopped to read. The story was simple; it needed no journalistic embellishment. Dusk, August 19, 1996. Mrs. Cindy Parolin is horseback riding with her four children in Tulameen, in southern British Columbia’s Okanagan region. Without warning, a cougar springs out of the vegetation, hurtling at the neck of one of the horses. In the confusion, Steven Parolin, age six, falls off his horse and is seized by the cougar. Mrs. Parolin, armed only with a riding crop, jumps off her horse and challenges the cougar, which drops the bleeding child and springs at her. Ordering her other children to take their wounded brother and go for help, Mrs. Parolin confronts the cougar alone. By the time rescuers reach her an hour later, she is dying. The cat, shot soon afterward, was a small one, little more than sixty pounds. Adult male cougars can weigh as much as 200 pounds, we learn the next day from the BC Environment’s pamphlet entitled “Safety Guide to Cougars.” We are on our way to Garibaldi Provincial Park, where we plan to do some hiking, and have stopped in the park head-quarters for information. “Most British Columbians live all their lives without a glimpse of a cougar, much less a confrontation with one,” says the pamphlet, noting that five people have been killed by cougars in British Columbia in the past hundred years. (Actually, the number is now higher; cougar attacks have become increasingly common in the western United States and Canada in recent years.) “Seeing a cougar should be an exciting and rewarding experience, with both you and the cougar coming away unharmed.”However, the pamphlet notes, cougars seem to be attracted to children as prey, possibly because of “their high-pitched voices, small size, and erratic movements.” When hiking, “make enough noise to prevent surprising a cougar . . . carry a sturdy walking stick to be used as a weapon if necessary,” and “keep children close-at-hand and under control.”


In recent years, not least through tree-ring studies for the Holocene and studies of oxygen isotope ratios in Foramenifera in deep-sea cores for the Pleistocene, both linked with radioactive chronometry, useful and well-dated information has become available for global temperature variations. Yet we seem at present little closer to understanding the climatic influences upon human settlement, or upon such major episodes in human existence as the agricultural revolution or the emergence of pastoral economies. In making reference to the developments in archaeological survey techniques over the past 20 years, and the increasing collaboration with geomorphologists and settlement geographers, I seek to highlight the gap in the chain of argument between data for global climatic parameters and impact on human communities. Where are the phytologists, the ecologists, the crop plant geographers? Where is the necessary focus upon the crucial themes of changing microclimates and changing agricultural productivity for specific species? An attempt is made to define more closely this deficiency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 937-956
Author(s):  
Tracey West

Does the gender pay gap affect women’s ability to repay their student debt? This study investigates the extent to which an income contingent scheme benefits women because of their individual earnings. Using the Australian Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, gender differences in debt repayment behaviour over the past two decades was examined. The regression model comprised interaction terms including risk-averse, low socio-economic status, low wealth and low income. The industries where the majority of women are employed – education and health – were also examined. It was found that over 2002–2014, women generally had less student debt than men, but those who were low income carried more debt. This is the first study to include an analysis of student debt by industry through a gender lens. Given the increasing amount of student debt Australians are carrying, it is important for policymakers to pay attention to its effects to ensure fairness and equity.


1969 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
George A. Garratt

Stimulated most recently by the reorganization of the post-secondary education systems in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec, the number of formal forest-technician training programs has now increased to 17, two-thirds of them two-year offerings, with several additional courses in prospect for 1969. Enrollments have shown a rather consistent increase over the past six years, as a consequence both of the initiation of 13 new programs during that period and of enlarged student bodies in the older establishments. The number of forest-technician diploma awards reached an all-time high of 472 in 1968, to give a ratio of 4.4 technicians per professional (B.Sc.F.) degree recipient. About two-thirds of the 1968 graduates who entered forestry work were employed by provincial agencies, approximately a fourth were hired by the forest industries, and the balance entered federal service.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document