Scots roses in Northern Ukraine

The article presents the results of the evaluation of eleven Scots rose cultivars in the northern part of Ukraine due to its severe winter conditions. A range of variations regarding the bloom colour, bloom size, bloom type, flowering incidence, plant size was noticed. The evaluation showed the decorative value and considerable frost resistance of the varieties ‘Double White’, ‘Dunwich Rose’, ‘Frühlingsduft’, ‘Frühlingsgold’, ‘Frühlingsmorgen’, ‘Karl Forster’, ‘Mon Amie Claire’, ‘Red Nelly’, ‘Stanwell Perpetual’, ‘Suzanne’, and ‘William III’. The varieties studied can be used for decorative purposes in urban landscapes in the northern part of Ukraine.

Saving the Curriculum or Saving Life? The Risk of Opening Schools in South Africa at the Peak of the Country’s COVID-19 Pandemic

Despite stringent preventative measures, the corona virus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had adversely affected the contemporary global community. The pandemic has had an inevitable negative impact on education globally. This paper critiques the South African Department of Basic Education’s opening of schools at the beginning of severe winter in June 2020 based on the claim of having the capacity to implement preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Using literature, government statements and constitutional frameworks, we argue that it was unrealistic, irrational and contradictory to open schools when the government was decongesting other public sectors and at a time when the country was in severe cold season, which is suitable for the survival of the corona virus. We note that schools opened when the COVID-19 infections and fatalities were heightening in the country, when winter was at its doorsteps and personal protective equipments (PPEs) were inadequately supplied in schools. We also argue that it was a myth that children are safe from COVID-19 and saving the school calendar at the expense of human life was catastrophic and therefore schools should not have opened in the severe winter, without a cure or vaccine for the COVID-19. Received: 26 November 2020 / Accepted: 27 January 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021

Think More About Camels

Russia’s military campaign against the khanate of Khiva in 1839–40 is noteworthy for its disastrous outcome. Planned for the winter months in order to obviate the absence of water in the arid Kazakh steppe, the campaign encountered an uncommonly severe winter, which imposed exceptional hardships and compelled the expedition to return to the outpost of Orenburg. Felled largely by the decimation of its camels in the cold winter, the campaign is enmeshed in larger changes unfolding in Russia’s relationship to Kazakhs, Central Asia, and the wider world. A growing Russian attitude of European superiority and preoccupations with great-power status after the defeat of Napoleon equipped tsarist elites with an enhanced sense of entitlement. The year 1837 proved critical for translating these sentiments into attempted conquest. Russian activity in the region also served as the midwife for an intense British Russophobia.

FIELD MEASUREMENTS OF VERY OBLIQUE WAVE RUN-UP AND OVERTOPPING WITH LASER SCANNERS

Oosterlo et al. (2019) developed a system using two terrestrial laser scanners, which can measure run-up heights, depths and velocities of waves on a dike in field situations. The system has now been placed next to two overtopping tanks on a dike in the Eems-Dollard estuary in the Netherlands to measure during actual severe winter storms. The goal of the present paper is to further validate this innovative system with data obtained during storm Ciara (10 - 12 February 2020), a severe winter storm with very oblique wave attack. Furthermore, the data gathered during storm Ciara will be compared to the current knowledge on wave overtopping, to possibly gain new insights in the influence of very oblique wave attack on wave overtopping.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/TwSwJuxb-Yo

Prevalence of Winter Ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) in Hunter-Harvested Wild Elk (Cervus canadensis) from Pennsylvania, USA (2017–2018)

Winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) are an aggressive one-host tick that infest a wide-diversity of ungulates. Infestations can result in anemia, alopecia, emaciation, and death. Most notably, the winter tick has caused negative impacts to moose (Alces alces) populations in the northeast United States and Canada. Winter ticks have been identified on other cervid species, including deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and elk (Cervus canadensis), which generally results in low tick burdens and mild or no disease. Recently, however, a wild yearling bull elk in Pennsylvania was found dead as a result of severe winter tick infestation. To obtain baseline data on winter ticks in wild elk in Pennsylvania, we collected 1453 ticks from 190 hunter-harvested wild elk between 2017–2018. Of the 204 harvested elk, 94.3% (190/204) had ticks collected for this study and none of the sampled elk had evidence of winter-tick associated disease. The average tick burden was 7.7 ticks/elk and average winter tick load on all elk was 0.5. Results of this study indicate that winter ticks do infest wild elk in Pennsylvania. However, during the fall months, the tick burden is low and rarely associated with lesions. These data herein serve as a baseline to monitor winter tick populations over time.