Western gall rust dynamics and impact in young lodgepole pine stands in west-central Alberta

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 1437-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. E. Bella ◽  
S. Navratil

A sample of 29 405 lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.) trees was assessed from 1982 to 1985, and stem analysis data of 75 trees from five heavily infested second-growth stands in the foothills of the Rockies were analyzed to determine the incidence, development, and impact of western gall rust Endocronartiumharknessii (J.P. Moore) Y. Hiratsuka, in relation to age of trees and stand and site factors. The incidence of western gall rust increased with stand age and time. In stands up to 12 years old, the incidence averaged about 5% and increased rapidly to about 20% at age 20. A rapid increase in incidence over time occurred in younger age-classes. In stands 20 years or older, the incidence of new infection was low. Mortality associated with western gall rust among crop trees was low. There was, however, 30% mortality in an unthinned 22-year-old stand over its life. Impact on growth was highly significant (p < 0.01). In the periods 11–15 years and 16–20 years after the wave of heavy infection, reductions in volume growth of infected crop trees were 15 and 25%, respectively. This loss amounts to 15% of the total volume over the 20-year period during which the stands are affected. Western gall rust incidence was higher (p < 0.01) in stands on east-facing slopes than on south- and north-facing slopes. Stands at elevations between 1200 and 1400 m had the highest incidence. Forest management strategies to reduce the impact of western gall rust are discussed, with emphasis on spacing that includes sanitary removal of infected trees.

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Eis ◽  
D. Craigdallie ◽  
C. Simmons

Height, diameter, volume growth, crown width, and stocking of lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta Dougl.) and white spruce (Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss) were studied on the three most common forest sites in the central interior of British Columbia, to estimate their potential growth and their suitability for pure or mixed stands in managed second-growth forests established by planting. Spruce only should be planted on moist to wet Alluvium sites; both species appear to be equally suitable on moist Aralia sites, and pine only should be planted on dry to moist Cornus–Moss sites. In mixed forest, suppressed spruce will have little volume at the time of pine harvest. In general, managed, fully stocked second-growth forests should produce greater volume per hectare than the present natural, unmanaged forests.


1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 1904-1913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles K. Muhairwe

Changes in tree form and taper over time, as affected by changes in tree, stand, and site factors for interior lodgepole pine (Pinuscontorta var. latifolia Engelm.) were investigated using detailed stem analysis data from interior British Columbia. It was found that tree shape and taper change along the stem at one time and over time with changes in tree and stand factors, particularly the diameter at breast height to total tree height ratio, crown length, and crown ratio, and with predicted quadratic mean diameter at age 50 years, a stand density measure. At young ages, the trees were parabolic in shape from ground to top. However, as they increased in size over time, different portions of the stem took different shapes because of unequal growth in diameter along the stem. Changes in tree shape and taper over time were closely related to the crown size, which is related to stand density.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yelyzaveta Mykhaylova ◽  

The economic crisis is viewed in this article as a two-way process, during which a transformation of socio-economic processes and rethinking of theoretical patterns can be observed. For developing countries, the effects of the economic crisis impact the most on social processes. But at the same time the efforts to minimize the negative consequences, are focused only on that part of the social sphere which directly depends on basic economic indicators, and the relatively autonomous spheres, as well as the system of basic and applied science and innovation are not taken into account. The economic crisis of 2020, the tiger of which was a pandemic, is characterized as a crisis of demand and it influences the most on developing countries because of the lack of resources. The purpose of the article is to highlight the main directions of the impact of economic crises on education, in particular in developing countries, as well as to describe and predict the consequences of such impacts on the socio-economic sphere of society. Taking into account declining wages in companies, rising unemployment, reduction production and tax revenues that began with the crisis and efforts to save, the significant decline in living standards are appeared unavoidably. It should be mentioned that such changes in socio-economic life impact not only on the reduction of wages, but also on the structure of demand for labor by profession and skill level. In any state character of the education system is determined by socio-economic and political systems, as well as cultural, historical, and national characteristics of countries. In addition to the global economic crisis, which affects the education, education itself around the world does not satisfy the demands of the modern society and as a result is in crisis by itself. The development or transformation of education in the system of knowledge economy is possible only with the improvement of the education quality, with the transformation of the content of education, with the creation of integration educational programs and with the change of management strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 1379-1391
Author(s):  
Derek F. Sattler ◽  
James W. Goudie ◽  
Richard W. Reich

Western gall rust (Cronartium harknessii (J.P. Moore) E. Meinecke) is a pathogen that affects lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon var. latifolia Engelm. ex S. Watson) and has the potential to reduce lumber product yields derived from stands managed for the commercial production of timber. A dataset containing repeated measurements from 7775 trees located within the province of British Columbia, Canada, was used to develop equations that predict annual rates of stem infection, post-infection mortality, and the location of large stem galls. Results showed that annual rates of infection peaked between 3 and 5 years following stand establishment. Few new infections were predicted to occur beyond the stand age of 15 years. For an individual tree, the probability of first infection increased as its height increased relative to stand top height. The rate of mortality increased with the number of stem infections and was highest among trees infected within the first 3 years following planting. Mortality rates decreased thereafter, with many trees likely to survive to rotation. The equations predicting rust incidence and mortality were added to the Tree and Stand Simulator (TASS), an individual-tree growth model used within the province. A final equation predicting the location of large galls was added and allows TASS to account for losses due to the removal of stem defects during lumber manufacturing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Mosolova ◽  
Dmitry Sosin ◽  
Sergey Mosolov

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) have been subject to increased workload while also exposed to many psychosocial stressors. In a systematic review we analyze the impact that the pandemic has had on HCWs mental state and associated risk factors. Most studies reported high levels of depression and anxiety among HCWs worldwide, however, due to a wide range of assessment tools, cut-off scores, and number of frontline participants in the studies, results were difficult to compare. Our study is based on two online surveys of 2195 HCWs from different regions of Russia during spring and autumn epidemic outbreaks revealed the rates of anxiety, stress, depression, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and perceived stress as 32.3%, 31.1%, 45.5%, 74.2%, 37.7% ,67.8%, respectively. Moreover, 2.4% of HCWs reported suicidal thoughts. The most common risk factors include: female gender, nurse as an occupation, younger age, working for over 6 months, chronic diseases, smoking, high working demands, lack of personal protective equipment, low salary, lack of social support, isolation from families, the fear of relatives getting infected. These results demonstrate the need for urgent supportive programs for HCWs fighting COVID-19 that fall into higher risk factors groups.


Author(s):  
Daniel Suter ◽  
Caio Victor Sousa ◽  
Lee Hill ◽  
Volker Scheer ◽  
Pantelis Theo Nikolaidis ◽  
...  

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of investigations analyzing the effects of sex, performance level, and age on pacing in various running disciplines. However, little is known about the impact of those factors on pacing strategies in ultramarathon trail running. This study investigated the effects of age, sex, and performance level on pacing in the UTMB® (Ultra-trail du Mont Blanc) and aimed to verify previous findings obtained in the research on other running disciplines and other ultramarathon races. Data from the UTMB® from 2008 to 2019 for 13,829 race results (12,681 men and 1148 women) were analyzed. A general linear model (two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)) was applied to identify a sex, age group, and interaction effect in pace average and pace variation. A univariate model (one-way ANOVA) was used to identify a sex effect for age, pace average, and pace variation for the fastest men and women. In our study, pace average and a steadier pace were positively correlated. Even pacing throughout the UTMB® correlated with faster finishing times. The average pace depended significantly on sex and age group. When considering the top five athletes in each age group, sex and age group also had significant effects on pace variation. The fastest women were older than the fastest men, and the fastest men were faster than the fastest women. Women had a higher pace variation than men. In male competitors, younger age may be advantageous for a successful finish of the UTMB®. Faster male runners seemed to be younger in ultramarathon trail running with large changes in altitude when compared to other distances and terrains.


Risks ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Cláudia Simões ◽  
Luís Oliveira ◽  
Jorge M. Bravo

Protecting against unexpected yield curve, inflation, and longevity shifts are some of the most critical issues institutional and private investors must solve when managing post-retirement income benefits. This paper empirically investigates the performance of alternative immunization strategies for funding targeted multiple liabilities that are fixed in timing but random in size (inflation-linked), i.e., that change stochastically according to consumer price or wage level indexes. The immunization procedure is based on a targeted minimax strategy considering the M-Absolute as the interest rate risk measure. We investigate to what extent the inflation-hedging properties of ILBs in asset liability management strategies targeted to immunize multiple liabilities of random size are superior to that of nominal bonds. We use two alternative datasets comprising daily closing prices for U.S. Treasuries and U.S. inflation-linked bonds from 2000 to 2018. The immunization performance is tested over 3-year and 5-year investment horizons, uses real and not simulated bond data and takes into consideration the impact of transaction costs in the performance of immunization strategies and in the selection of optimal investment strategies. The results show that the multiple liability immunization strategy using inflation-linked bonds outperforms the equivalent strategy using nominal bonds and is robust even in a nearly zero interest rate scenario. These results have important implications in the design and structuring of ALM liability-driven investment strategies, particularly for retirement income providers such as pension schemes or life insurance companies.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A91-A92
Author(s):  
Babita Pande ◽  
Meenakshi Sinha ◽  
Ramanjan Sinha

Abstract Introduction Lockdown and stay home order has been imposed on people in many countries including India to prevent the community transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. However this social restriction led to disturbed daily routine and lifestyle behaviour that is needed to be attended for proper therapeutic management of overall health during such crisis. The impact of lockdown on the most apparent behavioral changes viz. sleep-wake behaviour, major meal timings, and digital screen duration of Indians were investigated. In addition the effects of gender and age were explored. Methods After seeking permission from Ethical Institution, an online questionnaire based survey was circulated within India in the first week of May, 2020 for which total 1511 male and female (age ≥18 years) subjects participated. The sleep-wake behavior observed were sleep-wake timings, sleep duration, mid sleep time (MST) as function of lockdown, and social (lockdown) jetlag (SJL = MST before lockdown-MST during lockdown). Results The sleep onset-wakeup and meal times were significantly delayed during lockdown, which was more pronounced in younger age group. The sleep duration increased, specifically in young individuals during lockdown. Females showed more delayed sleep onset-waking times and first meal timing with longer sleep duration during lockdown. Increased digital media duration was observed in all age groups, primarily in males. The younger age group and specifically female reported higher SJL and delayed MST. A positive association was obtained between sleep duration & first meal time, and SJL & major meal timings/screen duration, and a significant negative relationship of sleep duration and SJL with age. Conclusion The study shows delayed sleep-wake schedule, meal timings and increased digital media duration among Indians during COVID-19 lockdown compared to before lockdown. Also, gender and age emerged as important mediating factors for this alteration. The pandemic has given opportunity to sleep more and compensate for the sleep. In spite of that, the higher social jetlag in young age group and female showed the compromised sleep and maladaption with societal timing. These findings have applied implications in sleep health during longer social isolation conditions and for proper therapeutic management. Support (if any) No


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Akli Benali ◽  
Ana C. L. Sá ◽  
João Pinho ◽  
Paulo M. Fernandes ◽  
José M. C. Pereira

The extreme 2017 fire season in Portugal led to widespread recognition of the need for a paradigm shift in forest and wildfire management. We focused our study on Alvares, a parish in central Portugal located in a fire-prone area, which had 60% of its area burned in 2017. We evaluated how different fuel treatment strategies may reduce wildfire hazard in Alvares through (i) a fuel break network with different extents corresponding to different levels of priority and (ii) random fuel treatments resulting from a potential increase in stand-level management intensity. To assess this, we developed a stochastic wildfire simulation system (FUNC-SIM) that integrates uncertainties in fuel distribution over the landscape. If the landscape remains unchanged, Alvares will have large burn probabilities in the north, northeast and center-east areas of the parish that are very often associated with high fireline intensities. The different fuel treatment scenarios decreased burned area between 12.1–31.2%, resulting from 1–4.6% increases in the annual treatment area and reduced the likelihood of wildfires larger than 5000 ha by 10–40%. On average, simulated burned area decreased 0.22% per each ha treated, and cost-effectiveness decreased with increasing area treated. Overall, both fuel treatment strategies effectively reduced wildfire hazard and should be part of a larger, holistic and integrated plan to reduce the vulnerability of the Alvares parish to wildfires.


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