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Doctor Who 2021 New Year Special: “Revolution of the Daleks” (BBC One)
Contains spoilers for the episode
It’s probably a measure of just how completely Christmas and New Year had been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic restrictions that I found I had very little enthusiasm for anything this year, to the extent that even the latest New Year’s Day Special edition of Doctor Who felt strangely underwhelming, and even almost out of place.
The show itself was curiously lacking in any sort of festive trappings (I don’t think it mentioned the holidays at all, which is unusual in the recent history of Doctor Who specials), and rather than presenting itself as being the start of a bold New Year it actually felt more like an end-of-term report card, tying off loose ends, generally looking backwards rather than forwards. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E10 “The Timeless Children” (2020) [BBC One]
Contains major spoilers and scattershot speculation
So, that happened. Now the only questions that remain are exactly what did happen, where did it all came from, and what it means for the future. And does the final outcome live up to the pre-broadcast hype that ‘everything changes’?
Certainly you could hardly get more night and day than this year’s run of episodes compared with its season 11 predecessor. When Chris Chibnall took over the reins of the show, the declared intention was to make Doctor Who open and accessible to all once again. It planned to do so by doing away with the disconcertingly convoluted timey-wimey plots spanning one or more seasons, dispensing with recurring characters, adversaries and monsters, and cutting out the relentless deep-dives into the series history that had hallmarked Steven Moffat’s tenure as showrunner. While well-intentioned, the end result was somewhat divisive with many fans unhappy with season 11’s sudden change of direction, leaving them feeling that the approach had resulted in a run of disconnected and fragmented episodes that lacked dramatic heft. Whether they were right in this verdict or not, the question today is whether this adverse fan response to season 11 resulted in a major rethink in approach by Chibnall and his production team, or whether it was always the plan all along to go down this entirely different road in 2020. I suspect it’ll be a long time before we know the truth of the matter either way.
What’s beyond doubt is that this series has gone all-in on bringing back familiar characters and monsters and complex plotting, and most of all using the series’ own continuity to a degree that even Moffat would likely have baulked at. The season finale leaned heavily for inspiration on three seminal stories from the 1970s, and on the never-realised plans for the show that were cut off by the series being cancelled (or: never actually renewed) at the end of 1989. Let’s take each of these influences in turn. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E9 “Ascension of the Cybermen” (2020) [BBC One]
Contains spoilers and speculation
Last week (and indeed the week before that, too) I commented that Doctor Who is at its best when it’s at its most scary. I totally stand by that assessment, but should add a coda: that the show’s greatest strength is its sheer diversity, in how it is continually able to flip from one genre and style one week to a completely different one the next. Hence last episode we had a precision-crafted chamber piece, a sublime 19th century gothic haunted house mystery; and without skipping a beat, this time out we have a full blown galaxy-spanning epic space opera set in a far future dystopia following a disastrous war that has all-but wiped out humanity. You really couldn’t get much more of a completely contrasting tonal shift than that, surely?
Better yet, it pulls off this sudden change of direction even though “Ascension of the Cybermen” is a direct narrative continuation of the ending of last week’s episode. The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is determined to deal with the consequences of her decision to surrender the Cyberium to the Lone Cyberman – otherwise known as Ashad (Patrick O’Kane) – and to defend the last seven known human beings alive in the galaxy. Unfortunately even by the Doctor’s eccentric standards, this proves to be terribly ramshackle effort that’s quickly overcome by Ashad and his guards, putting everyone in mortal danger. Considering how much the Doctor talked up the severity of the situation at the end of last week, you’d have thought she’d have known to come up with a plan just a little more robust than a few second hand bits and pieces from the far future equivalent of eBay. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E8 “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” (2020) [BBC One]
It seems like only last week I was suggesting that Doctor Who is best when it’s at its most scary. Oh, wait a minute, it was only last week. There you go, you see: you wait for ages for an effective, chilling episode to come along and then inevitably two turn up in quick succession, in what can’t help but look like a bit of an awkward hiccup in scheduling.
But in fact, despite sharing some basic horror elements, this week’s story is very different from last week’s “Can You Hear Me?”. That started with a ‘big monster on the rampage’ sequence, segued to a creepy guy lucking in the shadows in people’s bedrooms, went on to the very stuff of modern nightmares, only to veer off into an earnest and well-executed drama about mental health which unfortunately came at the cost of pretty much losing the plot in the process. In contrast, “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” starts with a classic haunted house tale, and despite adding a science fiction element to the heart of (almost) all the ghostly incidents and even very effectively connecting it up to the overall series arc, the script by Maxine Alderton manages to never lose focus or cohesion and as a result delivers an episode right up there with the classic entries in the history of the long-running series.
The story has its own message – about how “words matter” and can change lives – but it does so very nimbly and as part of building up the stakes for a no-win decision facing the Doctor, rather than as some major declarative statement as has been the case at other times in the Chris Chibnall era of the show. The episode also continues Chibnall’s interest in foregrounding real historic events and people as seen previously in “Rosa” and “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror”, but again a light touch means that this time it feels much like a natural scenario and interesting line-up of guest characters appropriate for the drama on hand rather than another public service historical infodump. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E7 “Can You Hear Me?” (2020) [BBC One]
I always tend to think that Doctor Who is best when it’s at its most scary, and on that basis alone there’s no denying that the first act of the latest episode of season 12 goes all out to deliver the chills. After a strong pre-titles sequence set in Aleppo in 1380, we’re rapidly plunged into a series of nightmares which seem to centre on a strange tattooed man called Zellin (Ian Gelder), who is to be found lurking disturbingly in the shadows in impossible places.
Pretty soon the story spreads out, moving on from simple horror movie/ghost story jump scares and into the full spectrum of modern anxiety-inducing terrors, from adolescent worries about bullying to more adult concerns such as health and bereavement. It becomes apparent that Zellin is from an immortal race that feeds on the fears of others, giving him a God-like status similar to former classic adversaries the Doctor has encountered such as the Eternals (“Enlightenment”), the Guardians (the Key to Time season) and even the Celestial Toymaker, all of whom receive a brief name check that will tickle long-time fans – but which in the process accidentally promises more than the story goes on to deliver.
Alien beings feeding on fear is not exactly a new concept in horror and science fiction – most long-running shows have done a variant of this sort of thing in the past – but the twist that writers Charlene James and Chris Chibnall apply to “Can You Hear Me?” is the very welcome focus on real-life mental health issues. The input of the UK charity Mind is evident in how well the episode addresses how we are all likely to become nervous, upset, worried, despondent, depressed and afraid at some point in our lives, but that with the right support from friends, families, counsellors and therapists we’ll be able to get through any such crises, that tomorrow is another day, and how it’s worth hanging in there to see it through. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E6 “Praxeus” (2020) [BBC One]
Contains some spoilers
After last week’s blizzard of shocks and twists, it was always going to be hard for Doctor Who to ‘follow that’ this time round. Fortunately it doesn’t even try, but instead takes a deft step to one side and this time out drops the continuity-heavy season arc entirely in favour for a standalone story told with great gusto and intelligence.
The episode drops us right into the middle of things with the story already infolding, a decision that immediately lends pace and energy to the proceedings as we scramble to keep up with what’s happening. The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is investigating a series of strange events around the world – a dead sailor washed up on the shores of Madagascar, a missing astronaut over the Indian Ocean, the strange behaviour of birds in Peru, and signs of alien technology being used in Hong Kong. All these locations are rather successfully conjured up by director Jamie Magnus Stone, once again filming in South Africa.
For once, the script makes a virtue of the large regular cast by splitting them up with their own assignments. It’s the same technique that writer Pete McTighe (here working in credited collaboration with showrunner Chris Chibnall) developed so successfully in S11’s “Kerblam!”, and his way of pairing up each companion with a new supporting character means we get to see new aspects of our regulars while also getting a proper introduction to each member of the guest line-up. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E5 “Fugitive of the Judoon” (2020) [BBC One]
Well, that was rather unexpected.
When Chris Chibnall took over Doctor Who as showrunner, he had a clear vision to strip everything back and reinvent the show from the ground up. Gone were the recurring or returning characters from the past, or appearances from familiar monsters; no more complicated timey-wimey plot lines dipping into the show’s past continuity for story elements that only long time hardcore fans would understand. Start from first principles and work from there, seemed to be Chibnall’s new approach. But it proved divisive as well as daring, and while it reaped rewards in some areas it also alienated large sections of fans who grumpily declared that it was no longer the show they loved. When the Daleks returned for the 2019 New Years Day special it seemed like the show was throwing a bone to assuage these rabid packs of fans, as a reward for sticking in there.
To be honest, I thought that season 12 would see Chibnall return to his New Model Doctor, which is why the events of “Spyfall” – with the return of a very old adversary, together with a visit to the Doctor’s home world Gallifrey which has seen better times and needs a lick of paint and a truck load of new double glazing – proved such an unexpected shock. But since then the most recent episodes seem to have reverted to the S11 baseline with standalone stories featuring previously unseen characters, with an emphasis on real historical people where possible, and so it seemed that not much had changed after all. The advance publicity of the fifth story, “Fugitive of the Judoon”, seemed pretty much in the same vein with the one surprising aspect being that it’s the first time Chibnall has openly announced that he was bringing back an established character/monster from the past, rather than rolling it out as a hidden surprise.
I was puzzled by Chibnall’s choice of the Judoon for this purpose: they’re hardly from the top shelf of the pantheon of Doctor Who creations. First introduced in the season 3 opener “Smith and Jones”, the oafish and officious Judoon were always a one-note sight gag – Russell T Davies satirising lunk-headed private security guards and neanderthal nightclub bouncers by presenting them as trigger-happy space rhinos in leather skirts. They weren’t even the primary adversaries in their debut story, and more recent appearances have seen them limited to background extras in exotic alien crowd scenes. I suspect they’ve had more regular gainful employment scaring children by prowling around the auditorium at Doctor Who musical concerts and BBC Proms. I certainly hadn’t noticed many viewers clamouring for their return. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E4 “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” (2020) [BBC One]
When Doctor Who started in 1963 it alternated between two formats, the science-fiction-with-aliens variety and the historical-events-with-real-people sort told somewhat in the style of contemporary educational Ladybird books. The latter had run its course by the start of Patrick Troughton’s tenure, and while the show would still have stories set in the past and occasionally include people like HG Wells and George Stephenson, they would invariably be SciFi heavy. Arguably, thereafter only 1982s “Black Orchid” was a pure period piece. For the show’s relaunch in 2005, Russell T Davies introduced a new variant of ‘celebrity historical’ in which the Doctor was excited to meet his heroes like Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie and Vincent van Gogh, but that largely lapsed under Steven Moffat and it’s Chris Chibnall who has now revived the show’s interest in history with last season’s “Rosa” and “Demons of the Punjab”, followed by somewhat more fleeting supporting appearances from Lady Ada Lovelace, Noor Inayat Khan and Charles Babbage in this year’s “Spyfall”.
It’s hard not to think that this week’s episode started life as a more conventional, straightforward drama about the life and work of 1900s inventor and electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla, and that writer Nina Metivier worked backwards from there to make it work as a Doctor Who story. Not that there’s anything wrong with that approach, if it is indeed the case. Unusually we open not with our regular cast, but instead with Tesla making a presentation to a group of potential investors for his latest project. It’s not until he’s discovered a bit of anachronistic alien tech and gone on the run from some very inhuman-looking would-be assassins that the Doctor ((Jodie Whittaker) and her friends Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) show up to save the day almost five minutes in. It’s rare for a one-off guest role to get that sort of screen time all to theirselves, and as a result Tesla is the most rounded and developed character we’ve seen in the show for a while. It’s helped hugely by the fact that Tesla is played by Goran Višnjić, an international film and television star with such deep reserves of on-screen charisma, warmth and likability that he instantly made me pine for the days when ER was on television eery week. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E3 “Orphan 55” (2020) [BBC One]
There’s a particularly nice touch at the start of “Orphan 55”, the latest episode of Doctor Who, which opens as the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her friends Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) are literally mopping up after their latest (unseen) adventure, in which the Doctor is called out for being unusually moody and downbeat. It is of course a reference to the way she is still processing the seismic impact of what she learned about Gallifrey at the end of “Spyfall”, but she’s not sharing that with the others. Instead, they decide it’s time for a holiday and duly head off for a break at the practically perfect paradise resort of Tranquillity Spa.
Naturally they’ve barely been there for ten minutes before everything starts to go catastrophically wrong, starting with Ryan being infected by a biological computer virus from a vending machine. Soon the entire facility is malfunctioning, opening the way for a full-scale invasion by terrifying monsters called the Dregs who make short work of dozens of guests until the Doctor can find a temporary solution to the problem. Long-time fans of the show will be thinking ‘this sounds familiar’ and the episode is indeed the latest iteration in one of the series’ most reliable variants, known to one and all as ‘base under siege’. It’s a very effective take on that established sub-genre, fast and furious from the start and not letting up for a second thereafter. The close-up, visceral way that the Dregs are photographed by director Lee Haven Jones is barely less horrifying than how Ridley Scott presented the xenomorph in the original Alien film, and I was amazed that the BBC cleared this for transmission so early in the evening. I suspect a lot of small children (and bigger ones, too!) had trouble sleeping afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E2 “Spyfall Part 2” (2020) [BBC One]
After a strong season opener on New Year’s Day, the main thing that part two of “Spyfall” absolutely had to do was stick the landing and not drop the ball in the process – if you’ll pardon the clumsy mixed sporting metaphor. And the good news is that it pretty much pulled it off, rewarding the audience with another largely enjoyable hour of television featuring thrills, spills, laughs, action, spectacle – as well as an unexpectedly dark mystery at its core to carry us through the rest of the season.
The episode picks up exactly where part one left off, which means that Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) are stuck on board a crashing airplane with the Doctor nowhere in sight – although that doesn’t mean she doesn’t also help save them from certain death. The two groups are subsequently kept apart for most of the rest of the episode, which means that the companions get some time to shine in their own right as they discuss what the Doctor would do if she was there. Graham meanwhile graduates from delivering muttered quips and witticisms to some full on slapstick as he uses a soft shoe shuffle to activate the laser shoes he purloined from MI6. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S12 E1 “Spyfall Part 1” (2020) [BBC One]
A year to the day since its last episode, Doctor Who has finally returned to our screens with the first instalment of season 12 which also served as a New Years Day Special in the UK.
I think it’s fair to say that the previous season had proved somewhat divisive, with a disturbingly large section of the audience less than thrilled by the new incarnation as played by Jodie Whittaker and helmed by showrunner Chris Chibnall. Some of the things I’ve read about the most recent run of Doctor Who were extraordinarily scathing and vitriolic. While there were aspects I was also admittedly underwhelmed about, I didn’t think it deserved a fraction of the vicious criticism that was hurled at it with gleeful abandon by internet trolls.
Still, it was clear that there was a problem with what ended up on screen in 2018 and that there had to be some changes made, and so it was a great sense of anticipation and not a little apprehension that we sat down to see what the show had in store for us in 2020. The good news is that “Spyfall Part 1” is a terrific season opener that should satisfy pretty much all fans old and new and win universal acclamation as being “back on form”.
The hour-long episode had a sense of energy, excitement, confidence and sheer joy that at times had been painfully missing from an oft-lacklustre S11 that too often seemed over-awed by the task in hand and by its painfully earnest heart-on-sleeve sentiments that delivered triumphs like “Rosa” and “Demons of the Punjab” but elsewhere proved too lacking in thrills and spills for many. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who 2019 New Year Special: “Resolution” (BBC One)
Contains spoilers for the episode
The Doctor Who production team were damned if they did, damned if they didn’t on this one. As soon as they teased “the deadliest creature in the universe” in trailers, fandom was rife with speculation that this could only mean the return of the Daleks, after a maiden season for Jodie Whittaker conspicuously devoid of any of the Doctor’s greatest adversaries of the past. So should the production team deny it – and risk leaving fans disappointed and disillusioned weeks before the broadcast – or simply accept that the surprise had been spoiled?
Unfortunately, in the end the secret simply could not be kept all the way to New Year’s Day, which is the new slot for the annual Doctor Who special after it was bumped from Christmas Day. To be honest, I’m in two minds about this time switch as I found that it really did leave a sense of something missing on the 25th. There’s also an implication of the show losing prestige and no longer having the full-throated support of the current BBC hierarchy, both of which are worrying signs of those of us who are long-time fans. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S11 E10: “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” (BBC One)
Contains spoilers for the episode
And so we reach the end – all too soon. A ten-episode season simply doesn’t feel long enough for Doctor Who, even if we still have one more feature length special to come on New Years Day. But it’s quality over quantity as the saying goes, so how does the 2018 season finale “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” written by showrunner Chris Chibnall fare on the former attribute? As ever, the answer to that is mixed and not altogether straightforward.
We start with the kind of opening scene that used to be standard in the 1970s series but which has been little used in recent years: with no Doctor in sight, we have two entirely new characters talking cryptically and portentously to each other about a pressing situation in terms that we don’t know nearly enough about to understand. What we can tell is that Andinio (Downton Abbey’ Phyllis Logan) and Delph (Wizards vs. Aliens’s Percelle Ascott) are members of the ultra-rare Ux religious order who possess incredible powers to manipulate reality. Oh, and they’ve got a guest dropping in for tea. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S11 E9: “It Takes You Away” (BBC One)
Contains spoilers for the episode
It was the best of episodes, it was the worse of episodes…
Regular readers might recall that I was a bit grumpy last week in my review of “The Witchfinders”. It simply didn’t work for me, although I know the vast majority of viewers appeared to genuinely love it beyond measure. However for me, it was comprised of individually strong elements that lacked an overall coherent vision. The different parts rubbed against each other awkwardly and kept throwing me out of the story so that I wasn’t able to enjoy it at all, and instead ended up frustrated and less than happy. Or to put it another way, you could say that the individual parts were much greater than the whole, at least as far as I was concerned.
This week’s episode “It Takes You Away” is almost the mirror image (pun intended) of its precursor. Like last week, it is also comprised of several distinct parts; and on this occasion the quality of each component was less consistent than the previous instalment, ranging from the brilliant to the near-risible. But what writer Ed Hime and director Jamie Childs are able to manage this week is to wrangle these different elements into one unified end result that was superior to the sum of its parts. The key was a consistent stylistic vision and tone to the overall endeavour, provided by an adherence to overarching universal themes of love, loss and mythic folklore. Read the rest of this entry »
Doctor Who S11 E8: “The Witchfinders” (BBC One)
Contains spoilers for the episode
We’ve already discussed how new Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall has sought to rediscover and reinvent the ‘historical’, a strand of the show that effectively died out in the 1960s. He did so by seeking stories from modern political history like “Rosa” and “Demons of the Punjab” that could carry a relevant social message for the present day audience at the same time, rather than simply rehashing junior school classic texts on the Aztecs, Romans and the Battle of Hastings.
This week sees the third ‘historical’ story in eight episodes, which seems a little overkill. But this one treads a very different path by reverting to exactly one of those sort of textbooks you used to read as a child – or maybe a Ladybird? – on the witch trials of the 17th century. It’s not worrying too much about the details and doesn’t twist itself in knots making sure that history isn’t changed by the Doctor’s activities. Instead it takes the gist of the period, just a flavour, and then weaves a merry romp out of it. Read the rest of this entry »

domain: entertainment


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Ahead of there was an art of abstract painting, it was currently widely believed that the worth of a image was a matter of colors and shapes alone. It is a huge painting, practically square, with pretty animated shapes and a big circular shape at major right…at the time I was not satisfied with the painting, that’s why I didn”t quantity it, and I didn”t even note it down in my private catalogue” he wrote in 1935 to the gallery owner J.B. Neumann3, also asking him if it would be achievable to get a photograph of the painting” which would make him incredibly happy”.
Surface Truths: Abstract Painting in the Sixties considers the operate of 17 artists and the directions they pursued as they moved away from an aesthetic that supported a self-evident inventive course of action to an aesthetic in search of to expunge gesture, pictorial depth and illusion. Shown at the last art source main retrospective of the artist in 2008-2010 (in Munich, Paris and New York), this painting was not accompanied by an adequate commentary (see the catalogue Kandinsky, Paris : Centre Pompidou, 2009, text p. 78, illus.
For this genuinely international exhibition Kandinsky showed seven important paintings, such as Composition VII, Painting with White Border, Improvisation 31, Painting with White Type andtwo sketches for the first two. You will locate main or minor in art history a higher good quality abstract paintings with circles at an cost-effective price from brands like WEEN , JUUKEA , DPARTISAN , PENGDA , Artsailing , FGHGF , BLINGIRD , Certain Life , Afflatus , Mild Art.
3. I gave them every single an egg carton with the liquid watercolors.
Post tagged: abstract art with circles, abstract paintings with circles. It is a big painting, just about square, with pretty animated shapes and a huge circular shape at leading right…at the time I was not satisfied with the painting, that’s why I didn”t number it, and I didn”t even note it down in my private catalogue” he wrote in 1935 to the gallery owner J.B. Neumann3, also asking him if it would be probable to get a photograph of the painting” which would make him very happy”.
To start out this art lesson, we talked a small bit about abstract art and practiced drawing circles on the paper with just a dry brush. Kandinsky, the Enigma of the 1st abstract painting, IRSA Publishing, Cracow, Poland, 2015, 232 pages, 86 ill. In the letter, the artist quotes the dimensions of the painting from memory : about 200 x 150 cm”, substantially larger dimensions that the actual size of the function, a detail that emphasizes the — also physical —importance that Kandinsky attached to it. Not getting observed the original, H.K. Roethel offers these dimensions in his 1982 catalogue raisonné.
two. You can have the paintings immediately after you and courier man both confirm the damages, ALSO, make positive courier man write the package and item is damaged on waybill. Acrylic painting – 6-9 days for creating, three-5 days international shipping, you will receive it about 2 weeks following ordering. Signature: Signed by artist on the back of canvas by default, sign on front at lower ideal corner when consumer needs.
three. Contact the courier firm to claim, you will be expected to deliver pictures of the damaged package and item, also a claim kind to fill out, immediately after all, you will get a CLAIM Quantity, which mean the courier firm accept the claim and confirm the damages, please send me the claim number and photographs of each and every side of the package, and damaged parts on painting to me, I will arrange to deliver a new painting straight away.
two. You can have the paintings after you and courier man both confirm the damages, ALSO, make certain courier man write the package and item is damaged on waybill.

domain: hobby


Agenda Item No
The Vale of Glamorgan Council
Cabinet Meeting: 28th April 2014
Report of the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Innovation, Planning and Transportation
Road Safety Grant Award 2014/15
Purpose of the Report
1. To advise Members of the funding awarded by the Welsh Government (WG) to the Council from the Road Safety Grant for 2014/15.
1. That Members note the information in this report.
2. That Cabinet endorse the acceptance of the Grant by the Director of Development Services and the Head of Finance.
3. That the Road Safety Capital Grant be included in the Council's Capital Programme for 2014/15.
Reasons for the Recommendations
1. To advise Members of the procedures, terms and conditions of the Road Safety grant funding.
2. To endorse the acceptance of the revenue and capital Grants by the Director of Development Services and Head of Finance to meet the WG's deadline.
3. To enable the Council's Capital Programme for 2014/15 to reflect the Grant awarded to the Council from the WG.
2. Welsh Government invited local authorities to submit bids for revenue and capital funding through the Road Safety Grant process (my report of 24th February 2014 minute C2220 refers). The Welsh Government via the funding is seeking a continued reduction of the number of people killed and seriously injured on Welsh Roads, with the ultimate aspiration of no fatalities.
3. All Schemes that have received funding must contribute to the achievement of the targets contained in the Road Safety Framework for Wales:
A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured
A 25% reduction in the number of motorcyclists killed or seriously injured on Welsh Roads by 2020, meaning 64 fewer motorcyclists killed and seriously injured casualties.
4. The Council is also requested to focus on other interventions to include Speed enforcement and reduction/ prevention in collisions involving pedal cyclists, pedestrians, young drivers, older drivers and motorcyclists.
5. Further to these targets Welsh Government expect revenue funding to reflect the priorities in the Road Safety framework that focus on Pass Plus Cymru, Motorcyclist Training, Kerbcraft and National Cycle Training.
6. The invitation to bid for funding was received on Monday 3rd February 2014 with a submission date of 28th February 2014. This left little time to prepare schemes for submission.
Relevant Issues and Options
7. Welsh Government restricted the number of capital schemes to be submitted by each local authority to four schemes per authority. These schemes needed to be deliverable and funding only provided for design and delivery. There is no funding provided for feasibility work and therefore there are only a limited number of schemes that were eligible and available to submit for funding.
8. The capital schemes that were submitted for funding through this Grant were as follows:
Priority 1: Port Road Colcot Road Roundabout, improvements for highway traffic and pedestrians
Priority 2: Cardiff Road, Barry from the McDonalds roundabout to Dinas Powys Station, safety improvements to the highway
Priority 3: Boverton Road, Llantwit Major Puffin Crossing and relocation of the bus stop
Priority 4: Bonvilston A48 Vehicle Activated Speed Signs
9. The capital schemes that are awarded funding through this Grant are as follows:
Priority 4: Bonvilston A48 Vehicle Activated Speed Signs
10. In terms of revenue funding the Vale of Glamorgan were given an indicative allocation of £70,000 a reduction of approximately £20,000 from funding received in 2013/14. The revenue funding has now been awarded to deliver the following schemes in the Vale of Glamorgan as directed by the Welsh Government. However, the Vale of Glamorgan has some unique road safety issues that unfortunately are not covered by this revenue funding. These issues include road casualties of all age groups and not just young people. The Road Safety team therefore need to consider additional measures to deliver reduced road traffic collisions in these areas.
Kerbcraft: £26 000
National Standards of Cycle Training: £34 000
Motorcyclists: £4 000
Pass Plus Cymru (PPC): £6 000 (funding to go direct to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council (RCT) to deliver on our behalf)
11. The terms and conditions of the Grant mean that the works will need to be completed by 31st March 2015.
12. A copy of the award letter and terms and conditions of the grant are attached at Appendix A.
Resource Implications (Financial and Employment)
13. Award of capital funding are for 100% of scheme costs. In terms of revenue funding, £64 000 has been allocated to the Vale of Glamorgan with a further £6k being directed to RCT to deliver the PPC scheme. This is insufficient to retain current staffing levels within the Road Safety Section and will not deliver the level of road safety education training and publicity that has been provided by the Council previously. This will be the subject of separate discussions and if necessary, a further Cabinet report.
Sustainability and Climate Change Implications
14. Measures to improve road safety will aid sustainable accessibility and the reduction of single occupancy car movements, therefore having a positive impact on sustainability and climate change.
Legal Implications (to Include Human Rights Implications)
15. When delivering Road Safety Schemes the relevant Highways and Transport Act measures and guidelines need to be complied with. The award of grant is subject to terms and conditions imposed by Welsh Government
Crime and Disorder Implications
16. It is anticipated that the number of road traffic accidents in the Vale, particularly those involving children and young people, will be reduced as a consequence of these initiatives.
Equal Opportunities Implications (to include Welsh Language issues)
17. The concept of equal opportunities is a fundamental principle that underlies all of this Council's policies. Improvements in road safety in the Vale will benefit all members of the community including some of the most vulnerable road user groups.
18. There are no particular Welsh Language issues associated with this grant and all promotional material produced in association with the supported schemes will be bilingual in accordance with Council Policy.
19. The schemes awarded funding will improve the quality of life and safety for residents and visitors in the Vale.
20. The provision of road safety initiatives provides alternative means of travel, and ensures good accessibility for those without access to private transport. This links with the Council's objectives for social wellbeing and tackling disadvantages.
Policy Framework and Budget
21. This report is a matter for Executive decision by Cabinet.
Consultation (including Ward Member Consultation)
22. Ward Members have been consulted where there were specific schemes being promoted or delivered in their areas although this report could affect all Wards.
Relevant Scrutiny Committee
23. Economy & Environment
Appendix A - Road Safety Grant Award letter
Clare Cameron - Principal Transport & Road Safety Officer 01446 704768
Operational Manager - Highways & Engineering
Legal - Committee Reports
Rob Thomas - Director of Development Services


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Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) response to seasonality and frequency of fireAuthor(s): Felicia D. Archuleta
Source: Las Vegas, NM: New Mexico Highlands University. 90 p. Thesis.
Publication Series: Theses
Station: Rocky Mountain Research Station
PDF: Download Publication (2.7 MB)
DescriptionFragmentation of the landscape, habitat loss, and fire suppression, all a result of European settlement and activities, have precipitated both the decline of Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) populations and the occurrence of fire throughout the Great Plains, including the Shortgrass steppe of northeastern New Mexico. The presence of Black-tailed prairie dogs, a keystone species, and the occurrence of fire both play a vital role in maintaining the integrity and diversity of grassland ecosystems. In addition to serving as prey for the endangered Black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), Black-tailed prairie dogs conspicuously alter grassland landscapes and provide foraging, shelter, and nesting habitat for a diverse array of grassland species.
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CitationArchuleta, Felicia D. 2014. Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) response to seasonality and frequency of fire. Las Vegas, NM: New Mexico Highlands University. 90 p. Thesis.
KeywordsBlack-tailed prairie dog, Cynomys ludovicianus, habitat, population decline, restoration
- Prescribed fire: A proposed management tool to facilitate black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony expansion
- Vitally important: The role of demography in assessing the current and future status of black-tailed prairie dogs
- Comparison of methods to estimate population densities of black-tailed prairie dogs
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domain: literature


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NHS England has today (Monday 22 December) announced that Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has been designated a Genomic Medical Centre (GMC) in partnership with Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Imperial College Health Partners will also be supporting the new Centre in its capacity as the Academic Health Science Network for North West London.
These four trusts make up Imperial College Health Partners NHS GMC which will contribute to the successful delivery of the 100,000 Genome Project, a national initiative which aims to sequence the genomes of 100,000 participants, for the first time, to enable new scientific discovery and medical insights, and bring benefit to patients.
The trusts will work together to ask patients with cancer and inherited rare diseases if they would like to participate, gather their samples and relevant medical information to build up a bank of anonymised data in order to better understand the role that genes play in disease and what treatments will work best for each individual patient.
The project has the potential to transform the future of healthcare by improving our knowledge of the influence of genetics on disease, how other people can be helped with similar diseases in the future, and how different types of tests can be developed to detect changes beyond the genome.
In addition to these long-term benefits, some participating patients might benefit in the short-term as a conclusive diagnosis may be reached for a rare and inherited disease more quickly, or a treatment for cancer may be targeted at the particular genetic change that is present in the cancer.
Professor Chris Harrison, medical director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: “This is a huge opportunity for our Trust to work in partnership with others on this exciting project. It means that many more patients will get the improved treatment that our developing understanding of genomics brings”
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has a strong record of sequencing patients’ genes to help treat conditions such as lung cancer, breast cancer and pulmonary hypertension.
Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) is a collaboration that brings together researchers, educators and clinicians from Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to drive forward innovation and advancements in patient care. There are many examples where the AHSC has improved treatment for patients based on the findings of genetic research.
For example, in ovarian cancer, women who have a specific gene mutation (in the BRCA gene) will respond better to a particular type of drug therapy, and their cancer is less likely to return. The only way of knowing if a patient has this genetic mutation is by analysing samples taken from their cancer. So our doctors can then select a drug that is known to interact with the biological driver of their cancer.
The BRCA gene is just one example of genetic research that has improved the treatment our patients receive. Genetic research has enabled new and more precise diagnostic tests, and will lead to more effective and targeted treatments to improve outcomes and reduce side effects of cancer therapies. However, BRCA is just one gene of many which are altered in cancer. The ambitious 100,000 Genome Project will look at whole human genomes to identify in a single test changes that may be present in many different genes.
Professor Jonathan Weber, director of Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), said: “The 100,000 Genome project has the potential to transform the future of personalised medicine.
“The creation of Imperial College Health Partners NHS Genomic Centre will allow researchers and clinicians at the Trust and College to be at the forefront of medical innovation by sequencing genomes on an unprecedented scale. This could help us bring better treatments to patients with cancers and rare diseases.
“We aim to translate our findings in as fast a timeframe as possible so that people could benefit from new therapies, personalisation of drugs and more accurate diagnostic testing. The Centre is a clear example of the work of the AHSC which turns discoveries from basic science into improvements in patient care and clinical practice that saves and improves the lives of countless numbers of patients.”
Imperial College Health Partners NHS GMC is one of 11 centres of this kind in the world, all in the UK.

domain: medical


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A lottery is a game of chance where people spend money on tickets to win money. It is a popular form of gambling worldwide, and has been around for many centuries. The word lottery is derived from the Dutch lotinge, meaning “drawing lots.”
A state-run lottery can be played by anyone who lives in the state where it is held, and is usually a fairly safe bet for most people. However, there are some things you should know before playing a lottery.
1. Winning the lottery is hard!
In order to be successful, you must understand how to manage your money. This is important for a variety of reasons, but especially if you are a lottery winner. A lot of people lose large amounts of money quickly after winning, because they are not familiar with finances and how to invest their newfound wealth.
2. A lottery is a good way to raise money for a cause (or two)
A lot of lottery proceeds go to help local communities, so you can feel good about buying a ticket. The money helps pay for education, roads, and other things that are useful to the public.
3. A lottery is a great way to make a lot of money, but it’s not for everyone
There are a number of ways you can improve your chances of winning the lottery. For example, you can try picking different number patterns or trying a small game with fewer participants.
4. A lottery can be a lot of fun!
A lottery is a popular form of gambling in the United States, and it is a great way to raise money for a cause or two. It is also a lot of fun to play and has been around for many centuries.
5. A lot of people are playing the lottery!
A lot of people are playing the lottery, and it is a great way to make a little extra money. You can get tickets for a wide range of games, from local scratch-offs to huge national jackpots.
6. A lottery can be a great way to make a lot for a cause
A lottery can be a great way to raise money for statewide or national projects. It is also a great way to get the community involved in the process of building, designing, and planning the projects.
7. A lottery is a lot of fun!
A lot of people love playing the lottery, and it can be a lot of fun to win big. The odds of winning are low, though, so you should remember to take your chances with this type of game.
8. A lottery is a good way to raise a lot of money!
A lot of lottery proceeds go to help locally run businesses, so you can feel good about purchasing a ticket. The money helps pay for everything from roads and schools to museums.
9. A lottery is a lot of fun!

domain: sociology


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In this study, the experiment of the extrusion lamination process using high-pressure process low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was performed. The nonisothermal viscoelastic simulation of the extrusion lamination experiment was also carried out. The simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental data within wide range of take up velocity and air gap length. We developed the theoretical model based on force balance and deformation type of a film to predict the neck-in behavior in the extrusion lamination or cast film process. It was suggested from the neck-in model that the neck-in correlates with the ratio of planar to uniaxial elongational viscosity. It was confirmed that the neck-in model could predict the film edge shape and neck-in properly for conventional LDPE.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Chemistry
- Polymers and Plastics
- Materials Chemistry

domain: chemistry


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Thinking of Returning to Nursing?
Lincolnshire Training Hub (LTH) is currently looking for former nurses, living in Lincolnshire, who would like to re-register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). You may have been working on a temporary PIN over the COVID vaccination period and perhaps this experience has whet your appetite to returning to nursing? You may have had a break from nursing but are now thinking about returning. There’s never been a better time to think about coming back!
Last year, 6 former nurses were accepted onto the University of Lincoln module and LTH supported them to undertake their placement hours in general practice. All 6 are now re-registered with the NMC.
LTH has developed a comprehensive offer to support nurses who want to return to the NMC register. We are particularly keen to contact nurses who would like to work in general practice. Did you know that:
- as an RtP nurse you would be entitled to an NHSE bursary
- we can arrange for your placement hours during your RtP module to be in general practice
- you will be offered personalised support from an experienced General Practice Nurse
- we will do all we can to help you secure a permanent role in general practice nursing once back on the NMC register
As a nurse of 40 + years I’d love to chat with anyone who might be considering returning to general practice nursing. It may be an easier journey than you think. Please get in touch with me by e-mail:
Gill Beardmore: firstname.lastname@example.org


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Fabulous original vintage disco dress by Trina Lewis dating c.1970s. Please refer to the designer information below. The dress has an open, loose bodice with draped neckline. Wide shoulders with small shoulder pads. Each shoulder panel is decorated with lots of shiny black sequins. The sleeves are wide and open on the upper side, and the waist is stretchy with lots of sequins to mirror the shoulders. Softly gathered midi skirt. Made from polyeste...
If you live in the North West of England and you’re in the business of vintage – whether that's vintage fashion,
makeup/makeovers, styling or photography – you might be interested in
joining Vintage Network North West on Facebook.

domain: artistic


The sports betting scene of the United States has been changing a lot in the last couple of years. Ever since they smoothed the legal way for sports wagering, almost all states have been taking steps. And now it is the time for Washington: the governor has just approved tribal sports betting deals in the state, for all gamblers to enjoy!
They legalized sports betting in the US on May 14, 2018, by overturning the congressional law they passed in 1992. Therefore, today every state can decide for itself on legalizing sports betting among its borders. It can already be a little bit confusing, but there is another factor to spice up the gambling business in the States. It is tribal gambling, which has been around for decades. So, the ever-changing legislation can make even old-timer gamblers a little bit confused. But now, we are about to clear the air on the topic, at least as far as Washington is concerned. How are sports wagering and tribal sports betting doing in Washington? Let us tell you!
Gambling in the Evergreen State
According to letsgambleusa.com “Washington boasts a massive land-based gambling industry that generates around $3 billion in annual revenue. About 70% of this revenue is raked by the local tribal casinos, which makes these establishments important for the economies of their respective counties and cities.” The gambling regulations are also known to be unique in the state. The piece of law on the matter matters is the Washington Revised Code, RCW 9.46.010 et seq. and RCW 67.16.010 et seq. The minimum gambling age in Washington is 18. However, several local casinos serve alcohol, you need to be at least 21 to enter.
And what about online gambling? According to bettingusa.com “online casinos and poker sites are prohibited by some of the strictest laws in the nation in Washington. Senate Bill SSB 6613 was passed in 2006 for the purpose of clarifying Washington’s stance on participation in unlawful internet betting.” However, there are some online sports betting sites in the US, like Bovada, that excepts the state to change the current strictness. But what about tribal sports betting in Washington?
Tribal Sports Betting in Washington
So, as you can see tribal gambling has a long history in the state of Washington. And now, it is time for the issue to move to a whole another level. The Governor, Jay Inslee signed the agreements that allow sport betting in the tribal casinos of Washington. That meaning there is only one more step to the case: the approval of the Department of the Interior. If they give their federal approval, the law will come into force. They made the agreement itself with 15 – plus one from the Gambling Commission – tribes. These are The Colville, Cowlitz, Jamestown S’Klallam, Kalispel, Lummi, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Shoalwater Bay, Snoqualmie, Spokane, Squaxin Island, Stillaguamish, Suquamish, Swinomish, and Tulalip tribes. It was the Skokomish Lucky Dog Casino that got its approval from the state gambling commission.
Benefits of the new ruling
The governor, Inslee emphasized the importance of the new regulations: “This will give people the opportunity to participate in a new gaming activity that is safe and well regulated by the tribes.” But it is also great for the tribes, as they have new opportunities to reach more gamblers and raise their incomes. And that is something that is also great for the state’s till, because of revenue taxes. However, the legislations are still strict on online gambling. As such, operators of online gambling sites in the US have to wait it out. And what about gamblers? They can try some wagering forms outside of the state. Like going abroad and put some bets up on Bovada, in the meantime!


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Oath ceremony of the persons granted Azerbaijani citizenship held at the Regional Migration Departments
The oath ceremony of persons granted citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the order of President Ilham Aliyev has been organized at the Regional Migration Departments of the State Migration Service, as well.
The events were held in Ganja, Shirvan, Aghsu, Yevlakh, Khachmaz, Lankaran, Shaki Regional Migration Departments.
Meetings were held with the families of the military servicemen who took part in the battles for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as of those who become martyrs during the Patriotic War, At the address of their residence they were provided with the relevant references on acquisition of citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Citizens acquired the citizenship solemnly took an oath of loyalty to the Republic of Azerbaijan by putting their hands on the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan in front of the state flag.

domain: politics


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Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is involved in a lawsuit that was originally about money he allegedly owed to his former manager. It’s evolved, however, into something a whole lot bigger and more complicated, and it may point to immigration fraud in Hollywood. Yikes.
Coster-Waldau is a Danish actor who has played Jaime Lannister since the beginning of the hit HBO series. He’s been involved in a dispute with his former manager, Jill Littman, who claims he owes her commissions from after he fired her because she says she and Coster-Waldau have a verbal agreement that even though she is no longer his manager, she’s still entitled to some earnings from his Game of Thrones contract. Coster-Waldau filed a lawsuit against Littman to contest this, saying he owes her nothing since he fired her.
To fight the lawsuit, Littman provided the courts with a signed agreement that was part of Coster-Waldau’s visa application, which has an arbitration clause — basically, it says he can’t sue her without first attempting private arbitration. Coster-Waldau is refusing to arbitrate, and his lawyer called the document a “sham” that only existed to secure a visa for Coster-Waldau to work in the U.S.
This is where things get really dicey. That document was signed by both Littman and Coster-Waldau. It’s a felony for someone to submit false documents in a visa application, so if Coster-Waldau is actually trying to prove the document isn’t legally binding, he may be implicating himself in an immigration fraud case. His lawyer states that if anyone committed immigration fraud, it was Littman, who sponsored Coster-Waldau’s visa.
This case still has a lot of unanswered questions, but there’s one thing that seems sure: This is serious.

domain: celebrity


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"New Brazilian Gardens" beautifully covers the legacy of Brazilian artist/naturalist/landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx he introduced modernist landscape design to Brazil, and countless designers have been influenced by his work.
Email The Sunken Bridge is pedestrian bridge is designed by RO & AD Architects in Fort de Roovere, West Brabant Water Line region of the Netherlands. The speciality of this bridge is that it creates the illusion of walking through water.
Fantasia Mixed-use Landscape Located in Chengdu, a central city of Midwest China, this landscape project drew its inspiration from the relaxed outdoor lifestyle of Chengdu local culture. The design gives contemporary expression of spaces for traditional


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|Studios Overview||Disney Junior - Live on Stage!|
|Muppet Vision 3D||Rock 'n' Roller Coaster|
|Beauty and the Beast||Star Tours|
|Fantasmic!||Tower of Terror|
|The Great Movie Ride||Toy Story Mania|
|Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playground||Voyage of the Little Mermaid|
|Indiana Jones Stunt||- Restaurant Menus|
|Magic of Disney Animation||- Shopping|
|Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Show||- Parades and Fireworks|
|One Man's Dream||- Events and Shows|
“Frozen Summer Fun LIVE! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios”
June 17-September 7, 2015 - More Information Here
Mulch, Sweat, n' Shears is the landscaping crew at Hollywood Studios. They're also a family, but most importantly, they're a rock band! What looks like an innocent landscaper's pickup truck transforms into a fully functional rock n' roll stage for a 25 minute set of your favorite rock songs from the past and present. Guests are randomly brought up to play the cowbell, air guitar, or even to sing along.
Mulch typically performs five times per day on Streets of America where San Francisco St. and New York St. meet. During evening Extra Magic Hours, they can be found in the courtyard outside between the American Idol Experience and Sounds Dangerous. They're also the main entertainment for special events like the Rock n' Glow Dance Party and New Year's Eve.


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• Phytophthora species in general, and P. quercina in particular, have been suggested in several studies to be a contributing factor to the problem of oak decline in Europe. Although Phytophthora species are generally regarded as weak competitors, few studies of the pathogenicity of species causing root rot on oaks have hitherto been performed in natural, nonsterilized forest soils. This study describes the effects of seven southern Swedish isolates of P. quercina and one isolate of P. cactorum on root vitality of Quercus robur seedlings grown in a natural, nonsterilized, acidic forest soil.
• The pathogenicity of P. quercina and P. cactorum were tested using a soil infestation test. The climatic conditions applied were an attempt to simulate summer conditions in southern Sweden.
• Both species of Phytophthora caused a significant dieback of fine roots, and necrotic lesions on coarser roots, of Q. robur seedlings. Total and live root lengths were significantly lower in infected seedlings than in controls. No significant effects of Phytophthora on above-ground growth or leaf nutrient concentration were found.
• The results demonstrate that P. quercina and P. cactorum can cause substantial root dieback of seedlings of Q. robur in natural, acidic forest soils in competition with the inhabiting soil microflora under a mesic water regime.
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In addition, the soil infestation tests previously used to examine the pathogenicity to oak of P. quercina and other Phytophthora species have usually been performed on oak seedlings grown in sterile mixtures of peat, vermiculite and sand with pH values of 6.5–7.0 and, in many cases, under favourable environmental conditions for the pathogen (Jung & Blaschke, 1996; Jung et al., 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003a, 2003b; Robin & Desprez-Loustau, 1998; Robin et al., 1998, 2001; Luque et al., 2000; Sanchez et al., 2002). Few studies have focused on the effects of the pathogens under more natural conditions, using forest soils, which have an active soil microflora and also usually have a higher acidity, lower amounts of nutrients and a lower water-holding capacity than the peat–vermiculite–sand mixtures. An exception is the pathogenicity of P. cinnamomi to Quercus rubra and Quercus ilex, where forest soils have been used to a certain extent when assessing the interaction between pathogen and host (Marcais et al., 1996; Gallego et al., 1999). In a first attempt to determine the ability of P. quercina to cause root damage in forest soils, Jönsson et al. (2003b) compared the pathogenicity of two southern Swedish isolates of P. quercina to seedlings of Q. robur in two different soils – an acidic, N-rich but otherwise nutrient-poor forest soil; and a nutrient-rich peat–sand mixture with a higher pH. By contrast to what might have been expected, the results showed that the physical and chemical environment of the forest soil did not inhibit P. quercina, and that the pathogen can have detrimental effects on oak fine-root systems in acidic, nutrient-poor forest soils under a mesic water regime. However, both soils were initially sterile, and the results gave no indication of the pathogenic abilities of P. quercina when in competition with the natural soil microflora.
The next logical step is therefore to determine the interaction between Phytophthora spp. and Q. robur in a natural, nonsterilized forest soil. The influence of other microorganisms on the pathogenicity of Phytophthora species is important in defining the role of this pathogen in European oak decline, as Phytophthora species are usually regarded as weak competitors (Tsao, 1990; Erwin & Ribeiro, 1996), and the previous use of sterile soils may have influenced the survival and root infection of P. quercina and other Phytophthora species as well as the susceptibility of the host. In particular, mycorrhizal infection has been suggested to be an efficient barrier protecting the roots against Phytophthora infection (Zak, 1964; Marx, 1973; Barham et al., 1974) but also other types of microbial competition and antagonism have been suggested to be of importance for the activity of Phytophthora species (Weste & Vithanage, 1977; Keast & Tonkin, 1983).
• P. quercina and P. cactorum can infect and induce root damage and root dieback of fine and coarser roots of Q. robur seedlings grown in a nonsterilized, acidic forest soil under a mesic water regime.
• There is no significant variation in pathogenicity between the different isolates of P. quercina.
• P. quercina is more aggressive than P. cactorum on roots of Q. robur.
• Above-ground growth and nutrient concentration in leaves of Q. robur are adversely affected by the presence of P. quercina and P. cactorum in the soil.
The climatic conditions applied were an attempt to simulate natural growth conditions for Q. robur during the summer season in southern Sweden. A mesic water regime was applied, where the soil was saturated with water for only a short period each time, a condition which is assumed to be less favourable for Phytophthora infection than long periods of high or unlimited water availability (Erwin & Ribeiro, 1996). This approach was chosen because studies where maximum infection and disease development are induced are abundant in the literature (Jung & Blaschke, 1996; Jung et al., 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003a, 2003b; Robin et al., 1998; Luque et al., 2000; Sanchez et al., 2002), while attempts to simulate more natural scenarios are largely lacking. Root vitality, as well as above-ground growth and leaf nutrient concentrations, were used as measures to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of the pathogen.
Materials and Methods
Soil infestation test
Seven different isolates of P. quercina Jung. Sp. nov. and one isolate of P. cactorum (Lebert & Cohn) Schroeter, recovered from seven declining oak stands in southern Sweden, were tested for their pathogenicity towards seedlings of pedunculate oak (Q. robur L.). The seven oak stands are located between 55.3° and 56.4° latitude, on the border between the northern nemoral vegetation zone and the southern boreal zone. The mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation in this area ranged from 6.6 to 9.0°C and 451–728 mm, respectively, between 1991 and 2001 (SMHI, 1991–2001). For the summer period (June–August), the mean temperature and precipitation ranged from 14.6 to 17.9°C and 40–73 mm (SMHI, 1991–2001). The pH (BaCl2) of the rhizosphere soil at a depth of 10–30 cm in the seven oak stands from which samples were collected varied between 3.53 and 4.97. Further information on the eight isolates of Phytophthora is given in Table 1. The pathogenicity of the Phytophthora isolates was determined by a soil infestation test, modified after Matheron & Mircetich (1985) and Jung et al. (1996, 1999).
Table 1. Species and origin of Phytophthora isolates tested for pathogenicity towards seedlings of Quercus robur, and some soil properties for sites from which isolates were recovered
A natural forest soil, sampled from a pedunculate oak stand in southern Sweden, was used in the soil infestation test. This forest soil is acidic and silty, with a chemistry representative of southern Swedish oak stands (based on data from the National Board of Forestry). The soil was sampled at a depth of 10–30 cm in the mineral soil and sieved through a 4 mm sieve to exclude roots and large particles. Apart from low pH, this soil is rich in aluminium (Al) and nitrogen (N), but low in base cations (Table 2). Subsamples of the soil were tested, at several occasions, for the presence of Phytophthora species by an oak leaf-baiting method, performed according to Jung et al. (1996, 1999). No Phytophthora or Pythium species were found in the soil.
Table 2. Nutrient concentration of forest soil used in pathogenicity test
Concentrations of base cations Al, Mn, Fe and B were determined by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (Perkin Elmer, CT, USA) after extraction of 20 g soil in 100 ml 0.1 m BaCl2 for 2 h. The total concentration of C was determined using an automatic LECO instrument, and total N was analysed using the Kjeldahl technique (ICP-Forest, 1998). Analyses based on five subsamples.
27.0 µg g−1
18.6 µg g−1
5.0 µg g−1
4.0 µg g−1
116.8 µg g−1
10.6 µg g−1
1.0 µg g−1
0.0 µg g−1
1.3 mg g−1
14.7 mg g−1
Total exchangeable acidity
1.4 cmolc kg−1
1.6 cmolc kg−1
The inocula consisted of 6-wk-old cultures of individual isolates of P. quercina and P. cactorum. The isolates were grown at 20°C in the dark on an autoclaved mixture consisting of 250 cm3 vermiculite and 20 cm3 whole oat grains, thoroughly moistened with 175 ml multivitamin juice broth (consisting of 200 ml l−1 vegetable juice, 800 ml l−1 demineralized water and 3 g l−1 CaCO3). The inoculum of each isolate was rinsed with demineralized water to remove excess nutrients, then mixed with the forest soil at a concentration of 20 cm3 inoculum per 1000 cm3 soil (Matheron & Mircetich, 1985; Jung et al., 1996). Controls received only a rinsed, uninfested mixture of vermiculite, oat grains and multivitamin juice broth at the same concentration.
Quercus robur seedlings, 14–18 wk old, grown from surface-sterilized acorns with a weight of 1.6–2.6 g, were classified into four different size categories based on above-ground size. The control and the eight different isolates (= nine treatments) included an equal number of seedlings from each size category. The seedlings were transplanted into individual pots with 2.5 l soil and 50.0 cm3 inoculum. In total, 20 seedlings (five from each size category) were used for each treatment, giving a total of 180 seedlings for the whole experimental setup. All seedlings were kept in a glasshouse at approx. 20–25°C and a relative humidity (RH) of 60% during daytime, and 10–15°C and 40% RH during the night. The choice of temperature was based on calculations of summer temperature (June–August) in southern Sweden (latitude 55.3–56.4°) between 1991 and 2001 (SMHI, 1991–2001). The photoperiod was approximately 15 h. A mesic water regime was applied: seedlings were flooded with deionized water for 15 min once a day, on three consecutive days, every third week, and received 200 ml deionized water once between each flooding cycle (10 d after the third day of flooding). In total, eight flooding cycles were applied. The seedlings never reached their wilting point before watering or flooding was repeated.
After 25 wk, when the seedlings were 10–11 months old, they were harvested. Based on the yellowing and wilting of seedlings and the presence of necrotic leaf spots, the above-ground condition of each seedling was estimated on a scale from 0–3 (0 = healthy; 3 = dead). The number of leaves and extensions (number of internodes on the stem) were counted and stem length was measured. Roots were separated from the rest of the plant at the point where the dicotelydon had been attached, and the soil was sieved through a 2 mm sieve to collect remaining pieces of the root system. The roots (apart from the small fragments of fine roots used for reisolation tests) were stored in sealed plastic bags at −18°C until further processing. Leaves and stems were dried at 40°C and weighed. Reisolation from the soil of each pot and from a small number of diseased fine-root fragments of each plant was performed to confirm survival and infection of the pathogen. Reisolation from the soil was performed using the oak leaf-baiting method (Jung et al., 1996, 1999), and from the diseased fine-root fragments by direct plating onto selective PARPNH agar (Jung et al., 1996, 100 ml l−1 vegetable juice and 20 g l−1 agar amended with 3 g l−1 CaCO3, 10 mg l−1 pimaricin, 200 mg l−1 ampicillin, 10 mg l−1 rifampicin, 25 mg l−1 pentachloronitrobenzene, 62 mg l−1 nystatin and 50 mg l−1 hymexazol).
The evening before washing, the roots were removed from the freezer and incubated in a cold room (5°C) to thaw. After washing, roots were separated into dead or living based on general visible criteria, resilience, brittleness, bark integrity and colour of the stele. Live roots had an intact stele and cortex, were slightly elastic and were often white or brown in colour. Dead roots often had fragmented bark, were inelastic and brittle, and were often very dark in colour. The roots were scanned, and root length, surface area and volume were measured for different root diameter classes (0–1, 1–2, 2–5, >5 mm) using the software WinRhizo Pro 5.0 (Regent Instruments, Québec, Canada). Roots were then sorted into three different diameter classes (0–2, 2–5, >5 mm), dried at 40°C and weighed. In addition, the number of seedlings subjected to each kind of treatment with a visually detectable mycorrhizal infection in any of the root tips (a well developed mantle visible in the stereomicroscope) was noted. In the following, roots with a diameter of 0–1 mm are referred to as the finest roots, roots with a diameter of 1–2 mm as finer roots, and both diameter classes together as fine roots.
Chemical analysis of leaves
The 20 seedlings subjected to treatment with a particular isolate were sorted randomly into groups of four and the leaves bulked, giving five composite samples per treatment. The leaves were then ground and subsamples digested in concentrated HNO3. The concentrations of Ca, K, Mg, Na, B, Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, S and P were determined using an inductively coupled plasma analyser (Perkin Elmer, CT, USA). The concentration of N was determined by Kjeldahl distillation. The ratios of Ca, K, Mg and P to N by weight were calculated.
The data were analysed using parametric tests, and nonparametric data were log-transformed to achieve normal distribution and homogenous variances before statistical analyses. A one-way anova was used to test for significant differences between the means for each kind of treatment. The Tukey test was used as post hoc test for multiple comparisons between all pairs of means in the case of significant differences using one-way anova. All statistical calculations were performed using the software SPSS 10 for Macintosh (SPSS Inc., IL, USA).
Phytophthora quercina and P. cactorum were reisolated from all soil samples and from most diseased, fine-root fragments of oak seedlings that had been growing in the infested soils for 25 wk. This confirms the survival and root infection of both P. quercina and P. cactorum in the acidic forest soil. None of the pathogens was recovered from the soil samples or the fine-root fragments of the control seedlings.
There was a visible difference in the dieback of the roots, as well as in the size of the root systems, of many of the infected seedlings and the control seedlings (Fig. 1). Both Phytophthora species caused fine-root decay, with dieback of nonsuberized as well as suberized fine roots. Necroses were observed mainly on fine roots, although some necroses and dieback of coarser roots (diameter 2–5 mm) was also observed. The necroses on the coarser roots usually developed via infection of nonsuberized lateral roots. In many of the infected seedlings the tap roots were dead, and dieback of mother roots was common. A few seedlings showed an abnormal branching pattern, with extensive sprouting of fine roots where dieback of the tap root had occurred. On the coarser roots (diameter 2–5 mm and >5 mm), wounds in the bark were apparent. The lesions varied in size, but were usually around 2–5 mm in width and 5–10 mm in length. However, some of the lesions reached a length of several cm, with the longest lesion being 55 mm in length. Many, but not all, of the wounds were callusing. Lesions were also present on some of the surviving tap roots. No signs of pathogen infection could be seen on the roots of the control seedlings. Some dieback of fine roots occurred in the control seedlings, but not to the same extent as in infected seedlings. Only a few of the control seedlings showed dieback of tap roots. Both control seedlings and infected seedlings had mycorrhizal root tips, but visible infections were sparse (≤ 10% of the root tips). No significant difference in the number of seedlings with mycorrhizal root tips could be detected between treatments. The mean number of seedlings with visually detectable mycorrhizal infection in any of the root tips was 16.1 (SD ± 0.8, n = 180).
Live root length was significantly higher in control seedlings than in seedlings infected with P. cactorum and all isolates of P. quercina except for isolate 1 (Fig. 2). The difference in live root length consisted mainly of the difference in the length of live fine roots. The differences were most pronounced for the finest roots, where seedlings infected with any isolate of P. quercina and P. cactorum differed significantly from the control seedlings (Fig. 2b). For coarser roots there were no differences between control and infected seedlings.
Dead root length showed a less obvious pattern. The total dead root length differed significantly only between the control seedlings and some of the isolates. Infection with P. cactorum and P. quercina isolates 3, 5 and 7 caused a significantly higher amount of dead root length than was observed in the control seedlings, while the effects of other isolates did not differ from the control (Fig. 3). The differences in dead root length were most pronounced with regard to finer roots and roots with a diameter of 2–5 mm, where P. cactorum and all isolates of P. quercina, except for isolate 6, showed significant differences compared with the control (Fig. 3c,d).
On average, less than 7% of the total root length of the control seedlings was dead, while for seedlings infected with P. quercina the percentage of dead root length varied between 18 and 32% of total root length (Table 3). Seedlings infected with P. cactorum had, on average, 25% dead root length (Table 3). The fine roots showed similar values, with 7% dead root length in the control seedlings and between 18 and 33% dead root length for the infected seedlings. However, the variation was high within each type of treatment, and dead root length varied between 0 and 50% for infected seedlings. The percentage of dead root length in relation to total root length differed significantly for all isolates of P. quercina and P. cactorum compared with control seedlings for all roots, as well as for fine roots (Table 3). There were also significant differences between the isolates of P. quercina. None of the roots with a diameter above 10 mm was dead.
Table 3. Total root length and percentage of dead root length in relation to total root length for all root diameters together and for fine roots of Quercus robur seedlings
Values are mean ± SD (n = 20). Statistics are for one-way anova.
P ≤ 0.05;
P ≤ 0.01;
P ≤ 0.001; ns, not significant. In the case of significant differences when applying one-way anova, small letters denote statistical results of post hoc test (Tukey). Different letters indicate significant differences.
The total length of roots was significantly higher in control seedlings than in seedlings infected with P. quercina (Table 3). The exceptions are P. cactorum and P. quercina isolate 1, where total root length did not differ from that of control seedlings. The differences in total root length were mainly caused by differences in the length of fine roots (Table 3). The surface area and volume of roots followed approximately the same pattern as root length. Root biomass was found to be a less sensitive parameter (data not shown).
Phytophthora quercina and P. cactorum were equally aggressive to the oak seedlings (Figs 2, 3; Table 3). However, seedlings infected with P. quercina isolate 1 and with P. cactorum tended to have a somewhat greater live and total root length (although not significantly different from seedlings infected with the other isolates: Fig. 2; Table 3).
Above-ground condition and growth
None of the seedlings died during the experiment. The control seedlings appeared healthier than those infected with P. quercina, as many of the infected seedlings had yellowish leaves with green veins and scattered necrotic leaf spots or coherent brown areas. Most of the infected seedlings with severe root rot showed yellowing and wilting of leaves and interveinal chlorosis. However, the estimated above-ground condition (based on yellowing, wilting and necrotic spots on leaves) of the infected seedlings differed significantly from the control only for seedlings infected with P. quercina isolates 2, 4 and 7 (Fig. 4a). The seedlings infected with P. cactorum appeared healthier than those infected with P. quercina, and could not be distinguished from the control seedlings based on above-ground appearance.
Above-ground growth, as expressed by leaf biomass and stem length, showed no significant response to the loss of fine roots and the damage of coarser roots (Fig. 4c,d). Consequently there was no difference in total above-ground biomass between seedlings (data not shown). However, the number of apical buds was significantly higher in control seedlings than in those infected with P. cactorum and P. quercina isolates 2, 3, 5 and 6 (Fig. 4b). As root biomass is a less sensitive parameter than root length, the total biomass of seedlings (above- and below-ground) did not differ either (data not shown).
Leaf nutrient concentration
There were no consistent differences in leaf nutrient concentrations or nutrient ratios to N between the control seedlings and those infected with P. quercina and P. cactorum (Table 4). However, the N concentration tended to be somewhat higher in control than in infected seedlings (except for those infected with P. quercina isolate 3), and some seemingly random differences in concentration of a few elements appeared between the isolates of P. quercina (Table 4).
Table 4. Nutrient concentrations and nutrient ratios to N (by weight) in leaves of Quercus robur seedlings at the end of the soil infestation test
This study investigated the aggressiveness of seven southern Swedish isolates of P. quercina and one southern Swedish isolate of P. cactorum to seedlings of Q. robur in a natural, nonsterilized, acidic oak forest soil under a mesic water regime. The average fine root damage of about 26%, together with the reisolation of all seven isolates of P. quercina and the one isolate of P. cactorum, both from forest soil and from necrotic fine-root fragments, demonstrates the ability of the pathogens to survive, infect and induce dieback of fine and coarse roots of oaks in the presence of other soil microorganisms, and under adverse environmental conditions in the soil (acidic soils and limited water availability). This indicates that both Phytophthora species can compete well with other microbes in the forest soil. Previous studies on the pathogenicity of Phytophthora species to Q. robur have been performed in sterilized soils, and the initial lack of microbes in these soil infestation tests might have favoured the survival and root infection of the pathogen, as well as altering the susceptibility of the host, and thereby biasing the results of the tests (Jung et al., 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003a, 2003b; Jönsson et al., 2003b). However, performing the pathogenicity test in a natural, nonsterilized forest soil, harbouring a natural community of microorganisms, makes the results obtained here valuable for the interpretation of the pathogenicity of P. quercina, and to a certain extent also P. cactorum, in the field.
In particular, mycorrhizal infection of plants has been suggested to be important in protecting the roots mechanically and biochemically against Phytophthora infection (Zak, 1964; Marx, 1973; Barham et al., 1974). In the present study there was no difference between treatments at the end of the experiment in the number of seedlings with visually detectable ectomycorrhizal infection. However, the measure used is very coarse, and does not quantify the mycorrhizal infection of the seedlings. A more thorough estimate would have been to count the number of mycorrhizal root tips, or preferably to quantify the mycorrhizal infection of fine roots by ergosterol analysis (Nylund & Wallander, 1992).
The high infection rate and the considerable dieback of fine roots, together with necrosis and lesions on coarser roots in the nonsterilized forest soil, demonstrate the aggressiveness towards the host of both P. quercina and P. cactorum. In accordance with Jung et al. (1996, 1999) and Jönsson et al. (2003b), fine roots were most susceptible to infection (Fig. 3b,c; Table 3). The effects of the pathogens on the fine roots of Q. robur seedlings were expressed as a significant difference in live root length and total root length, but to a lesser degree in the amount of dead root length (Figs 2, 3; Table 3). This is likely to be caused by the presence of saprophytic soil microorganisms from the beginning of the experiment, implying that decomposition proceeded continuously. Hence the amount of dead root length in the soil at harvest is a consequence not only of dieback of roots, but also of decomposition rate. The influence of decomposition rate is most pronounced for the finest roots, as indicated by the significant difference in dead root length for all isolates compared with control seedlings for finer and coarser roots, while there are only a few significant differences for the finest roots (Fig. 3). This is in accordance with several studies on decomposition of roots of different tree species, which show an initially lower decomposition rate as a function of a larger root diameter (Berg, 1984; Fahey et al., 1988; King et al., 1997; Usman et al., 2000; Silver & Miya, 2001).
In addition to the decomposition of dead roots, the rate of root production is likely to contribute to differences in total root length and in live root length between control and infected seedlings. The infected seedlings are exposed to a stress factor that destroys an essential part of the plant, and in an advanced stage of pathogen infection their growth rate is likely to become lower than that of the control seedlings. The ratio between root death and root replacement by seedlings may easily become unbalanced, thereby reducing the amount of living roots. In addition, the adverse chemical conditions in forest soil – low pH, high Al concentration and low amounts of base cations (Table 2) – as well as competition for resources with soil microorganisms, may add to the stress caused by the pathogens. Soil chemical stress was suggested to be a possible reason for the differences in damage caused by P. quercina on root systems of seedlings grown in an acidic forest soil and a nutrient-rich peat–sand mixture (Jönsson et al., 2003b).
The quantitatively homogeneous effects of the isolates of P. quercina (Figs 2, 3; Table 3) may be due to a small genetic variation. All Phytophthora isolates were recovered from sites with similar soil conditions (loamy to clayey soil texture, mesic soil moisture and pH (BaCl2) between 3.5 and 4.0, with the exception of isolate 5 where the pH was 5.0) and they were therefore probably adapted to acidic mesic soil conditions. The tendency (although not significant) for seedlings infected with P. quercina isolate 1 and P. cactorum to have a somewhat greater live and total root length than seedlings infected with other isolates may be caused by a lower aggressiveness or competitive ability of these isolates, or possibly a slower rate of infection and disease development. For P. quercina isolate 1, a lower competitive ability or a decrease in aggressiveness during storage is likely as isolates 1 and 7 were equally aggressive in the study of Jönsson et al. (2003b). In many cases, adaptive changes or mutations may occur after prolonged culturing (Erwin & Ribeiro, 1996) and, for P. infestans and P. parasitica var. nicotianae, several studies have shown a loss of virulence when the pathogen was grown in culture or was continuously subcultured (Apple, 1957; Jeffrey et al., 1962; Pietkiewicz, 1979; Goth, 1981). Evaluation of the pathogenicity of P. cactorum is complicated by the use of only one isolate.
The climatic conditions applied in this study were an attempt to evaluate the impact of Phytophthora on oak seedlings under conditions less favourable for pathogen infection and disease development, rather than estimating the maximum potential pathogenicity of Phytophthora. The results confirm the previous findings by Jönsson et al. (2003b) that P. quercina, and also P. cactorum, can cause substantial root damage under mesic water regimes, and not only when weather or site conditions involve periods of high or unlimited water availability. This is in accordance with studies of the interaction between P. cinnamomi and Q. ilex and Q. suber, which have demonstrated that flooding did not enhance the root rot caused by P. cinnamomi (Robin et al., 2001), and that this Phytophthora species is able to infect and induce damage even when waterlogging is absent or occurs only during short periods (Sanchez et al., 2002). Periods of drought may reduce the tolerance of host to pathogen, thereby enhancing the ability of Phytophthora species to cause root damage on rewetting. The ability of P. quercina to survive droughts, and to cause higher amounts of root damage to Q. robur after re-flooding than in treatment with moist soil conditions between flooding cycles has been shown by Jung et al. (2003a). For P. cinnamomi, on the other hand, drought stress did not increase the amount of damage caused on roots of Q. ilex, Q. suber and Q. rubra (Robin et al., 2001).
The nonsignificant effects on above-ground growth (Fig. 4) and the few random differences in leaf nutrient concentration (Table 4) appear to agree well with previous studies, suggesting that Phytophthora can infect the roots of woody plants months to years before foliage symptoms are detected, and that root rot must usually be severe before significant effects can be seen on the aerial parts of the plants (Tsao, 1990; Erwin & Ribeiro, 1996). However, an early indication of a possible influence of the fine-root damage on above-ground growth is the significantly lower number of apical buds in the infected seedlings (Fig. 4). The significant amount of root rot in infected seedlings (19–33% of dead fine-root length) apparently did not influence leaf nutrient concentration during the period of this experiment. Both infected and control seedlings had leaf nutrient concentrations within the range of what is considered sufficient according to Bergmann (1988) and Linder (1995), indicating that infected seedlings must have had enough roots remaining for adequate nutrient uptake. However, the concentrations of K, Cu and N in the leaves were in the lower range of what is considered as optimum levels for oak according to Bergmann (1988), but the lack of significant differences between control and infected seedlings suggests that the low concentrations are more probably due to low availability of the elements in the soil, or strong competition for the them, rather than to the size and activity of the root system. The ratios of each of the elements to N exceeded the target values suggested by Bergmann (1988) and Linder (1995), indicating that the seedlings are N-limited. The yellowing and interveinal chlorosis of the leaves of the infected seedlings is likely to have been caused by leaf necrotic proteins (elicitins), which can be produced by P. quercina (Heiser et al., 1999; Brummer et al., 2002).
Although not significant, the N concentration in the leaves showed a tendency to be somewhat lower in infected than in control seedlings. A similar tendency was found by Jönsson et al. (2003b). It is possible that this may be an early indication of reduced nutrient uptake, but it may also be caused by a translocation of N in the infected seedlings, from the leaves to the roots, in order to sustain new root production and/or to produce defensive compounds to counteract the Phytophthora attack. Alkaloids, for example, are efficiently used as defensive agents in plants, and may be moved around within the plant to parts that need greater protection during growth and development (Crawley, 1997). Other antimicrobial substances that may be produced in attacked root cells, and which may influence the distribution of N within the plant, are pathogenesis-related proteins and possibly also N-containing enzymes necessary for the production of phytoalexins (Agrios, 1997; Lambers et al., 1998).
In conclusion, this study demonstrates that both P. quercina and P. cactorum can cause substantial root dieback of fine roots, as well as necrotic lesions on coarse roots of Q. robur in a natural acidic forest soil in the presence of the inherent soil microflora and under a mesic water regime. The stress caused by the two Phytophthora species led to a low replacement of dead roots in infected seedlings. Although severe dieback of fine roots was observed, no significant effects on above-ground growth or on leaf nutrient concentration could be detected after 6 months. These results improve our knowledge about the pathogenicity of P. quercina and P. cactorum to Q. robur, which previously has been limited to effects in sterilized soil. As a complement to the findings in this study, a thorough investigation of how mycorrhizal infections affect the pathogenicity of Phytophthora species, host susceptibility and subsequent disease severity would be desirable in order to understand the pathogenicity of Phytophthora to seedlings of Q. robur in natural forest soils.
This project was generously funded by CF Lundströms Fund, Erik and Ellen Sökjers Petersens Fund, The Consolidated Funds of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, and The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning. I am very grateful to Thomas Jung and Ulrika Rosengren for constructive discussions and valuable comments. I am also grateful to Håkan Wallander for reading and commenting on the manuscript. Anita Balogh and Maj-Britt Larsson helped in starting up the experiment and in harvesting the plants. Ragnhild Ohlin washed the roots, and performed the chemical analyses together with Maj-Lis Gernersson. Helen Sheppard corrected the language.


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In line with the Worldwide Labour Group (ILO), the pandemic has prompted many further issues for 15 to 24-year-olds who’ve skilled “a lot increased” unemployment losses than older employees for the reason that international well being emergency was declared in early 2020.
Younger ladies have struggled greater than their male counterparts to search out work, whereas Arab nations are anticipated to see the best ranges of youth unemployment by the top of the yr, in comparison with the worldwide common.
Our new World Employment Developments for Youth report exhibits youth unemployment nonetheless 6 million above pre-#COVID19 ranges. 23% of younger persons are not in employment, training or coaching.
Funding wanted in training, #expertise and first rate jobs in key sectors.pic.twitter.com/xg9dpnfE4D
— Man Ryder (@GuyRyder) August 11, 2022
“We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on youth labour markets all over the world,” stated Martha Newton, ILO Deputy Director-Basic for Coverage. “It’s uncovered plenty of shortcomings in the way in which the wants of younger persons are addressed, particularly probably the most susceptible first-time job seekers, faculty dropouts, recent graduates with little expertise and those that stay inactive not by alternative.”
Talking on the launch of ILO’s report, World Employment Developments for Youth 2022: Investing in remodeling futures for younger individuals, Ms. Newton stated that the share of youth not in employment, training or coaching in 2020 rose to 23.3 per cent.
That represents a rise of 1.5 proportion factors from 2019 and represents a stage not seen in not less than 15 years, the ILO report discovered.
“This group of younger persons are at explicit threat of seeing their labour market alternatives and outcomes deteriorate additionally over the longer-term as ‘scarring’ results take maintain,” the report famous.
The report’s takeaways embrace the worrying discovering that younger ladies are worse off than younger males in the case of discovering a job. This yr, fewer than three in 10 younger ladies globally are anticipated to be in work, in comparison with properly over 4 in 10 younger males.
“The gender hole, which has proven little signal of closing over the previous twenty years, is largest in lower-middle-income international locations, at 17.3 proportion factors, and smallest in high-income international locations, at 2.3 proportion factors,” the ILO report said.
Solely high-income international locations on target to recuperate
Newest labour information scrutinised by ILO additionally indicated that solely high-income counties are prone to see a restoration in youth unemployment ranges “near these of 2019” by the top of this yr.
In lower-income international locations, youth unemployment charges are projected to stay a couple of proportion level above pre-crisis values.
In Africa, the continent’s youth unemployment charge of 12.7 per cent masks the truth that many youths have chosen to withdraw from the labour market altogether, ILO stated. It famous that “over one in 5 younger individuals in Africa was not in employment, training, or coaching in 2020, and the pattern has been deteriorating”.
The Arab States have the best and the quickest rising unemployment charge of younger individuals worldwide, projected at 24.8 per cent in 2022. “The scenario is worse for younger ladies within the area, with 42.5 per cent unemployment in 2022, which is nearly 3 times as excessive as the worldwide common for younger ladies (14.5 per cent),” ILO stated.
In Europe and Central Asia, unemployment amongst 15 to 24-year-olds is anticipated to be 1.5 per cent increased than the remainder of the world this yr (16.4 per cent in contrast with 14.9 per cent). Though there was “substantial progress” in decreasing youth unemployment for each men and women, ILO stated that the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “extremely prone to have an effect on the outcomes”.
Whereas the Asia Pacific area is ready to see 14.9 per cent of younger employees nonetheless searching for a job by the top of the yr, in keeping with the worldwide common, the image will probably stay worrying in Latin America, the place the speed is anticipated to be 20.5 per cent.
“Traditionally, younger ladies’s unemployment charges have been increased than younger males’s (in Latin American international locations), however the disaster exacerbated this pattern,” ILO’s report said.
The image is radically completely different in North America, nonetheless, the place the youth and younger grownup unemployment charge is anticipated to be properly world common ranges, at 8.3 per cent.
Options are inexperienced and blue
To handle the issue, the UN labour company urged governments to implement sustainable inexperienced and blue (ocean) coverage measures. In line with the report, this may generate a further 8.4 million jobs for younger individuals by 2030.
Focused investments in digital applied sciences may additionally take up excessive numbers of younger employees, ILO maintained. By reaching common broadband protection by 2030, some 24 million new jobs could possibly be created worldwide it stated, with younger employees taking 6.4 million of them.

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