scholarly journals Reduced Virulence of an Introduced Forest Pathogen over 50 Years

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradshaw ◽  
Ormond ◽  
Dupont ◽  
Chettri ◽  
Ozturk ◽  
...  

Pathogen incursions are a major impediment for global forest health. How pathogens and forest trees coexist over time, without pathogens simply killing their long-lived hosts, is a critical but unanswered question. The Dothistroma Needle Blight pathogen Dothistroma septosporum was introduced into New Zealand in the 1960s and remains a low-diversity, asexual population, providing a unique opportunity to analyze the evolution of a forest pathogen. Isolates of D. septosporum collected from commercial pine forests over 50 years were compared at whole-genome and phenotype levels. Limited genome diversity and increased diversification among recent isolates support the premise of a single introduction event. Isolates from the 1960s show significantly elevated virulence against Pinus radiata seedlings and produce higher levels of the virulence factor dothistromin compared to isolates collected in the 1990s and 2000s. However, later isolates have no increased tolerance to copper, used in fungicide treatments of infested forests and traditionally assumed to be a strong selection pressure. The isolated New Zealand population of this forest pathogen therefore appears to have become less virulent over time, likely in part to maintain the viability of its long-lived host. This finding has broad implications for forest health and highlights the benefits of long-term pathogen surveys.

Author(s):  
Manuel Llorca-Jaña ◽  
Diego Barría Traverso ◽  
Diego del Barrio Vásquez ◽  
Javier Rivas

Following Salvatore and the WHO, in this article, we provide the first long-term estimates of malnutrition rates for Chile per birth cohort, measured through stunting rates of adult males born from the 1870s to the 1990s. We used a large sample of military records, representative of the whole Chilean population, totalling over 38 thousand individuals. Our data suggest that stunting rates were very high for those born between the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. In addition, stunting rates increased from the 1870s to the 1900s. Thereafter, there was a clear downward trend in stunting rates (despite some fluctuations), reaching low levels of malnutrition, in particular, from the 1960s (although these are high if compared to developed countries). The continuous decrease in stunting rates from the 1910s was mainly due to a combination of factors, the importance of which varied over time, namely: Improved health (i.e., sharp decline in infant mortality rates during the whole period); increased energy consumption (from the 1930s onwards, but most importantly during the 1990s); a decline in poverty rates (in particular, between the 1930s and the 1970s); and a reduction in child labour (although we are less able to quantify this).


Author(s):  
Rex Ahdar

This chapter analyses the authorisation mechanism—a demanding cost-benefit test for those applicants who seek advance approval of their potentially contravening conduct. The “public benefits” and detriments the Commission can assess under this test are very broad. The potentially relevant matters go well beyond economic efficiencies to intangible and unquantified gains or harms. A thorny issue has been the distributional question. Does the Act have an implicit bias in favour of consumers when it comes to weighing benefits and detriments? Must benefits be passed on to consumers? The Chicagoan thinking came to dominate and the Commission pronounced it was “neutral” regarding wealth transfers from consumers to producers. The 2001 Amendment, which altered the purpose of the Act to clarify that competition operated for the long-term benefit of New Zealand consumers, did not initially alter the Chicagoan stance. Over time, however, the purely neutral stance towards wealth transfers has been eroded. The Court of Appeal decided that private gains, redounding solely to the companies alone, were not sufficient. “Modified total welfare” arrived as a new term in the New Zealand antitrust lexicon. The chapter also analyses the non-neutral stance where the benefits go to foreign owners of local companies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Barbara Gay Williams

<p>Exploring the past, and pulling ideas through to the present, to inform the future can make a valuable contribution to nurses and nursing in New Zealand. By gaining some understanding of the attitudes and beliefs nurses held, and how these influenced their responsiveness, we can learn what active responses might help inform our future. Nurses in New Zealand, as individuals and within the profession as a whole, reveal the primacy of the nurse – nurses who have made and can continue to make a difference to the health of the peoples of New Zealand. A hermeneutic process was used to interpret material, from international texts, national texts and public records over four decades, the 1960s to 1990s. This was supplemented and contrasted with material from twelve oral history participants. Analysis of the material led to the emergence of four themes: Nurses’ decision-making: changes over time; An emerging understanding of autonomy and accountability; Nurses as a driving force; and Creating a nursing future. These four themes revealed an overall pattern of attitudes, beliefs and responses of the New Zealand Registered Nurse. The themes surfaced major revelations about the primacy of the nurse in New Zealand, nurses confident in their ability to take the opportunity, seize the moment, and effect change. The contribution this thesis makes to the discipline of nursing is an understanding of how the nurse actively constructs the scope of a professional response to the context. The thesis demonstrates how nurses can learn from the past, that the attitudes and beliefs that underpin our active responses can either move us forward, or retard our progress. As nurses we can also learn that to move forward we need particular attitudes, beliefs and responses, that these are identifiable, and are key factors influencing our future, thus ensuring the continued primacy of the nurse.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Roper ◽  
M.T. Harmer Aaron ◽  
Dianne H Brunton

AbstractEcological restoration projects provide excellent opportunities to study how animals adapt their life-history strategies in response to changeable environments. A fundamental way animals can optimise reproductive success in changing conditions is trading-off aspects of their breeding system. The New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura) has had a long-term presence on the small restoration island, Tiritiri Matangi Island (Tiri), spanning the island’s degraded agricultural past to its current extensively restored state. We studied the breeding biology of this bellbird population to assess how their reproductive life-history strategies have responded over time to the restoration on Tiri. We compared the current breeding data (2012–2016) of the bellbirds with data from between 2001–2010 (including Baillie, 2011, Cope, 2007), and from 1977–1978 (Anderson and Craig, 2003), prior to the island’s restoration. We also explored associations between abiotic/biotic factors and bellbird reproductive success for the most recent period (2012–2016). Our main finding was that clutch size significantly declined over time from a mean of 3.6 to 2.4 eggs per nest and this decline correlated with increasing population density. This is consistent with a density dependent effect, although further data are required to empirically test this conclusion. Overall, the earliest spring laying dates were in late August and the latest extended to January, with all chicks fledged by the end of February. Nest success was 47% (range 40 – 54%) across 2012–2016, falling within a similar range as previous studies. We found little effect of year, weather, parental age or morphometrics on reproductive success. We observed directional change in patterns of parental investment between 1977–1978 and 2012–2016; in 2012–2016, parents persisted with raising single broods rather than abandoning and re-nesting to raise larger broods. These results suggest that the bellbirds’ life-history traits are plastic in response to local conditions which provides an advantage when repopulating a regenerating or changing habitat.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Deepak Dathatri

<p>The purpose of this study was to explore how past participants of a New Zealand-based university outdoor adventure programme have perceived the meanings and impacts of former adventure experiences over time. This study employed a phenomenological case-study design which used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with former participants of a New-Zealand university outdoor adventure programme called the Mountains-to-Sea expedition. Six participants, former physical education students who had gone on the expedition between four and five years ago, were chosen to gain retrospective insight. The results from this study generated detailed narratives which revealed that the perceived meanings and impacts of participants‟ experiences were generally positive but there were subtleties and nuances to these perceptions which changed over time. Individuals made meaning in finely distinctive ways and impacts tended to dissipate in perceived intensity over time, though there were some exceptions. The participants embodied a very unique culture which impacted their understanding of outdoor adventure education philosophy. These findings have far-reaching implications on the future of outdoor learning and warrant greater attention from practitioners and researchers. The results bolster an argument for more qualitative research into the long-term meaning and impact of adventure experiences, particularly for the New Zealand context.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Deepak Dathatri

<p>The purpose of this study was to explore how past participants of a New Zealand-based university outdoor adventure programme have perceived the meanings and impacts of former adventure experiences over time. This study employed a phenomenological case-study design which used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with former participants of a New-Zealand university outdoor adventure programme called the Mountains-to-Sea expedition. Six participants, former physical education students who had gone on the expedition between four and five years ago, were chosen to gain retrospective insight. The results from this study generated detailed narratives which revealed that the perceived meanings and impacts of participants‟ experiences were generally positive but there were subtleties and nuances to these perceptions which changed over time. Individuals made meaning in finely distinctive ways and impacts tended to dissipate in perceived intensity over time, though there were some exceptions. The participants embodied a very unique culture which impacted their understanding of outdoor adventure education philosophy. These findings have far-reaching implications on the future of outdoor learning and warrant greater attention from practitioners and researchers. The results bolster an argument for more qualitative research into the long-term meaning and impact of adventure experiences, particularly for the New Zealand context.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Barbara Gay Williams

<p>Exploring the past, and pulling ideas through to the present, to inform the future can make a valuable contribution to nurses and nursing in New Zealand. By gaining some understanding of the attitudes and beliefs nurses held, and how these influenced their responsiveness, we can learn what active responses might help inform our future. Nurses in New Zealand, as individuals and within the profession as a whole, reveal the primacy of the nurse – nurses who have made and can continue to make a difference to the health of the peoples of New Zealand. A hermeneutic process was used to interpret material, from international texts, national texts and public records over four decades, the 1960s to 1990s. This was supplemented and contrasted with material from twelve oral history participants. Analysis of the material led to the emergence of four themes: Nurses’ decision-making: changes over time; An emerging understanding of autonomy and accountability; Nurses as a driving force; and Creating a nursing future. These four themes revealed an overall pattern of attitudes, beliefs and responses of the New Zealand Registered Nurse. The themes surfaced major revelations about the primacy of the nurse in New Zealand, nurses confident in their ability to take the opportunity, seize the moment, and effect change. The contribution this thesis makes to the discipline of nursing is an understanding of how the nurse actively constructs the scope of a professional response to the context. The thesis demonstrates how nurses can learn from the past, that the attitudes and beliefs that underpin our active responses can either move us forward, or retard our progress. As nurses we can also learn that to move forward we need particular attitudes, beliefs and responses, that these are identifiable, and are key factors influencing our future, thus ensuring the continued primacy of the nurse.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Draper ◽  
James To

How does New Zealand’s engagement across the Asia region affect New Zealand’s prosperity and security? New Zealand’s approach to developing economic, political and people-to-people connections across Asia has changed considerably over the last few decades. This article seeks to highlight some of those changes, including how the New Zealand public’s perceptions of Asia have changed over time and how this has shaped New Zealand foreign policy. The critical question is whether enough is being done – across public, private and community sectors – to help position New Zealand as a highvalue partner in Asia for the long term.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
T.J. Fraser ◽  
S. Dennis ◽  
R.A. Moss ◽  
K.N. Tozer ◽  
N.R. Stocker ◽  
...  

Core samples were taken from 60-year-old pastures on a long-term fertiliser trial at the Winchmore research station, in Canterbury, New Zealand. Plots had been treated with 0, 188 or 376 kg/ha of superphosphate annually, grazed by sheep, and pasture yields were recorded. Ryegrass persisted in all treatments, but was only dominant in the superphosphate treatments, unsown grasses dominated in the no superphosphate treatments. White clover was more common with superphosphate, and both cocksfoot and timothy required adequate superphosphate in order to persist. Over 60 years of measurements, yields were 9-15 t DM/ ha with superphosphate, and did not reduce over time. Given adequate fertiliser, a ryegrass-based irrigated pasture can continue to produce high yields 60 years following sowing. Keywords: ryegrass, cocksfoot, t


Author(s):  
Tony Endres

Attitudes to full employment in official publications have varied. There have been changes in view as to the content, meaning and ranking of full employment in comparison to other objectives, and as to the significance of trade-offs between full employment and other objectives. Full employment conceived as total employment was worshipped at the beginning of the period under review. It was worshipped with less fervour in the 1960s. Opinions differed over what should have been done to reduce unemployment in the short-term as opposed to long-term and over what level of unemployment represented failure to achieve "full employment". Perceived opportunity costs - in terms of foregoing other objectives - of pursuing full employment more intensely, increased over the 30-year period. By the end of the period the notion of full employment was losing its connotation of prolonged job security.


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