Dog Collars Research Articles

The effect of intraoperative traction during posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

A retrospective study comparing patients having traction and a control group not having traction during posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion (PSIF) for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). To evaluate the effect of intraoperative traction on surgical correction of AIS. When the Cotrel-Dubousset instrumentation system was introduced, the use of intraoperative traction was advocated. However, there is no specific report documenting the effect of intraoperative traction on the correction of AIS. The medical and radiologic records of 140 AIS patients treated by PSIF were reviewed. Forty of these patients had intraoperative traction using a head halter associated with lower extremity skin traction. The radiologic outcome was compared between the two groups intraoperatively (before instrumentation with the first rod) and after surgery using Student t tests (level of significance = 0.05). The intraoperative and postoperative corrections of the coronal primary Cobb angle were similar for both groups, although the patients in the traction group had smaller preoperative Cobb angles and more flexible curves and were instrumented with more screws. The postoperative thoracic kyphosis was significantly increased in both groups. The lumbar lordosis at the 1-year follow-up was maintained in the control group, but it was significantly decreased in the traction group. The authors do not recommend the routine use of intraoperative traction using a head halter combined with skin traction for all AIS patients undergoing PSIF. However, it could be helpful in selected cases, such as in patients having pelvic obliquity and requiring instrumentation of the pelvis.

Topical insecticides control Leishmania reservoir dogs

Canids and domestic dogs are reservoir hosts of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) caused by Leishmania infantum. Hence, one of the approaches to reduce the incidence of human ZVL is to cull infected dogs (e.g. >850 000 dogs are screened per year with 20 000 animals culled following positive diagnosis in Brazil). The impact of such dog culling programmes on human and canine ZVL incidence has been doubted on theoretical and practical grounds. Treating dogs with anti-leishmanial drugs is not a practical control policy because of the prohibitive cost involved and the high relapse rates among treated and clinically cured dogs. Moreover, clinically cured dogs often remain parasitologically positive and infectious to the sandfly vector. While waiting for a leishmanial vaccine, alternative canine control strategies are urgently needed. Several experimental trials have demonstrated that topical insecticides and, in particular, deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars can protect dogs from >85% of sandfly bites for periods of up to six months.

Evidence for an impact on the incidence of canine leishmaniasis by the mass use of deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars in southern Italy.

Dogs are the domestic reservoir of Leishmania infantum Nicolle (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), the agent of zoonotic human visceral leishmaniasis. In southern Europe, where canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is widespread due to L. infantum, killing seropositive dogs is considered unacceptable and drug treatment has low efficacy in preventing transmission. We made a field evaluation of the efficacy of deltamethrin dog collars in a CanL focus of southern Italy, Mount Vesuvius area of Campania region, where the vector is Phlebotomus perniciosus Newstead (Diptera: Psychodidae), by assessing their impact on the incidence of CanL in an intervention town, compared to that in dogs of control towns where no collars were fitted. During two consecutive transmission seasons, collars were fitted to 350 (1998) and 354 (1999) dogs from San Sebastiano al Vesuvio (70% of the canine population). Control dogs (371 and 264 in the 2 years, respectively) were from four towns of the same area. Before each transmission season, the CanL seroprevalence in the intervention and control towns was evaluated by cross-sectional surveys and found to be similar (about 15% in 1998 and 10% in 1999, respectively). After each transmission period, incidence rates of seroconversions were determined in adult dogs that were serologically negative before the season under evaluation, and in puppies. After the 1998 season, 2.7% of the dogs in the intervention town seroconverted compared to 5.4% in the control towns (50% protection, P = 0.15). After the 1999 season, 3.5% of collared dogs seroconverted compared to 25.8% of control dogs (86% protection, P < 0.001). The increase in seroconversion rates recorded in control dogs suggests an increase in the Leishmania force of infection in the canine reservoir during the 1999 sandfly season, as supported by the concomitant increase of human cases in control towns and in the whole Campania region. Our results suggest that the impact of mass use of deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars on the incidence of CanL may be negligible during low transmission seasons, or probably in low endemic foci, but can be very strong when the force of transmission is high.

Deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars have a potent anti-feeding and insecticidal effect on Lutzomyia longipalpis and Lutzomyia migonei.

Deltamethrin-impregnated PVC dog collars were tested to assess if they were effective in protecting dogs from sand fly bites of Lutzomyia longipalpis and Lu. migonei. A protective effect against Old World species Phlebotomus perniciosus was demonstrated before. Four dogs wearing deltamethrin collars and three dogs wearing untreated collars (not impregnated with deltamethrin) were kept in separate kennels for over eight months in a village on the outskirts of Fortaleza in Ceará, Brazil. Periodically, a dog from each group was sedated, placed in a net cage for 2 h in which 150 female sand flies had been released 10-15 min before. Lu. longipalpis were used 4, 8, 12, 16, 22, 27, and 35 weeks after the attachment of the collars. Lu. migonei were used 3, 7, 11, 15, 22, 26, and 36 weeks after attachment. During 35 weeks, only 4.1% (81 of 2,022) Lu. longipalpis recovered from the nets with the deltamethrin collared dogs were engorged, an anti-feeding effect of 96%. Mortality initially was over 90% and at 35 weeks was 35% with half of the sand flies dying in the first 2 h. In contrast, 83% of the 2,094 Lu. longipalpis recovered from the nets containing the untreated collared dogs were engorged and the mortality ranged from zero to 18.8% on one occasion with 1.1% dying in the first 2 h. Similar findings were found with Lu. migonei: of 2,034 sand flies recovered over this period, only 70 were engorged, an anti-feeding effect of 96.5%, and mortality ranged from 91% initially to 46% at 36 weeks. In contrast, engorgement of controls ranged from 91 to71% and a mortality ranged from 3.5 to 29.8%. These studies show that deltamethrin impregnated collars can protect dogs against Brazilian sand flies for up to eight months. Thus, they should be useful in a program to control human and canine visceral leishmaniasis.

Behavioural differences between three breed groups of hunting dogs confronted with domestic sheep

When running free in open fields, domestic dogs occasionally display predatory behaviour towards domestic sheep. This has not yet been studied scientifically. The aim of the present study was to investigate the inclination to chase sheep in three breed groups of hunting dogs that are most frequently used in areas with grazing sheep. We studied 41 elkhounds, 29 hare hunting dogs and 68 English setters. Behaviours indicative of motivation for chasing or attacking sheep were examined in three different ways. A path test examined functional traits such as hunting ability, contact willingness, reactivity to sudden noise, and response towards a lone sheep. In a sheep confrontation test, loose-leashed dogs were observed in a fenced enclosure with sheep and given electric shocks through an electronic dog collar if within 1–2 m from the sheep. A questionnaire to the dog owners supplied information on their dog’s previous experience with sheep and behavioural responses to various types of novel stimuli. No significant sex differences were found. The elkhounds showed the highest interest in a lone sheep in the path test, and displayed the highest initial hunting motivation, the highest percentage of dogs starting a sheep attack, the highest attack severity, and were most frequently given el. shocks. The hare hunting dogs were intermediate, while setters showed the lowest values for these variables. Dogs reported as showing low fearfulness more frequently acted as potential sheep chasers in the tests. Dogs up to 3 years of age showed a more pronounced initial hunting motivation and more frequent attacks than older dogs, although there were no age differences in the number of el. shocks given in the test. The latter may be related to the more frequent abruption of attacks among younger dogs. The main factors predicting a high hunting motivation and attack severity were lack of previous opportunity to chase sheep, low fearfulness towards gunshots and unfamiliar people, and general interest in sheep shown when encountering them. Probability of sheep chasing differed between dog breeds and age groups. Previous experience and certain character traits were indicative of a high predatory motivation towards sheep.

Social facilitation of predatory, sheep-chasing behaviour in Norwegian Elkhounds, grey

Sheep grazing on unfenced mountain pasture may be attacked by loose dogs, which may chase and kill sheep and separate lambs from their mothers. We have earlier shown that testing dogs individually towards sheep with an electronic dog collar may effectively reduce the chasing propensity 1 year later. The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how a non-chasing and a chasing companion dog influence sheep chasing in test dogs (20 Norwegian Elkhounds, grey), and whether this varies with sex or age. The test dogs’ predatory behaviour towards sheep was examined by observation of the dogs in a fenced enclosure with sheep in 5 min tests together with, first, a non-chasing (Hamilton stoever, a hound breed) and 2–3 days later a chasing (Border collie) companion dog. Physical contact with sheep was prevented. Initially, the test dogs exhibited a higher chasing motivation towards sheep in tests with a chasing, as compared with a non-chasing, companion ( P<0.001). During the entire test, 60% of the dogs attacked sheep when accompanied by the non-chaser. All dogs attacked sheep when the chasing companion was present ( P=0.008), although in only 8 of 20 cases the companion dog chased simultaneously with the test dog. In the chasing-companion tests, the attack latency was shorter ( P<0.001) than in tests with a non-chasing companion. The attack severity was higher when attacking alone than when attacking together with the chasing companion ( P=0.033). In these tests, the higher the attack severity, the shorter was the attack latency ( P=0.006). A sequence analysis on chasing-companion tests showed that test dogs generally started with observing or showing interest in sheep, followed by attacks, which increased in severity. No sex differences were observed. In non-chasing companion tests, dogs aged up to 2.5 years exhibited a weaker initial hunting motivation than older dogs ( P=0.025), but during the entire test were more inclined to attack ( P=0.019). Taken together, our findings indicate that a companion dog showing intentions of predatory behaviour stimulates predatory chase in another dog, while a non-chasing companion has a limited influence on this. In tests certifying dogs for their refrainment of chasing sheep, well trained Border collies approaching sheep on command might be used to reveal the full predatory potential of the dog being tested.

Behavioural changes and aversive conditioning in hunting dogs by the second-year confrontation with domestic sheep

Domesticated dogs occasionally exhibit predatory behaviour towards domestic sheep when running loose in pasture. Both young and old dogs of either sex may chase sheep. Electronic dog collars applying electric shocks are utilised as one method of training dogs to refrain from attacking sheep. This device is used for a number of other training purposes which have raised concern for the welfare of the dogs being trained. This study aims at testing long-term learning effects of previous sheep tests on sheep chasing in hunting dog breeds (Norwegian elkhounds (grey), English setters, and hare hunting dogs), in particular with use of electronic dog collars, in addition to uncovering potential secondary negative effects on dogs’ behaviour and mental stability. The dogs ( N=114) were subjected to three tests for two subsequent years, the second year being reported here. Dogs were tested for reactions to different stimuli, including a sheep, in a path test. In a sheep confrontation test, dogs were fenced in with a sheep group and given el. shocks when approaching 1–2 m from sheep. A questionnaire to the dog owners reported differences in dogs’ behaviour between the years. Dogs showed weaker or delayed behavioural responses in both tests in the second year. No dogs showed interest in or attacked a lone sheep in the path test in the second year, while almost two thirds of them did so the first year. In the sheep confrontation test, the dogs exhibited comparatively hesitant initial hunting motivation the second year, being more evident in dogs which received el. shocks the first year. No dogs chased or attacked sheep as their first response in this test, while half of them did so the first year. The proportion of dogs attacking sheep during the entire test was reduced to almost one fourth. The number of el. shocks administered reduced by the second year, and only one of the dogs that received el. shocks the first year received el. shocks the second year. The owners reported no negative effect on the dogs’ behaviour during the year ensuing el. shock treatment. Eighteen of the 24 dogs reported by owners to exhibit behavioural changes lost their previous interest in sheep. The second-year tests indicate that aversive conditioning with the use of electronic dog collar may be an efficient method for reducing the probability of a dog chasing or attacking grazing sheep. No adverse effects were observed with our test procedure.

Further evidence that deltamethrin-impregnated collars protect domestic dogs from sandfly bites.

In many foci of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL), domestic dogs are important reservoir hosts of the causative Leishmania parasites transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae). We tested the protective value of impregnated dog collars (20 g plastic containing deltamethrin 800 mg ai) against Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli) sandflies in Iran. For each assay, the dog was sedated and caged in a net with 70-100 wild-caught sandflies overnight (23.30-06.30 hours). Dogs wearing the collars were bitten by approximately 80% fewer sandflies than before collars were fitted, i.e. 51% vs. 11% of hungry female flies exposed. Sandfly mortality rates following 20 h exposure to dogs with collars (18%) or without collars (17%) were not significantly different. Effects of collars were tested when dogs had been wearing them for 8 days. A previous trial against the sandfly P. perniciosus Newstead in France, using smaller dogs, showed that effects of such collars were not fully realized until they had been worn for 2 weeks or more; they remained effective for at least 8 months and killed significant proportions of the sandflies exposed. Present results with P. papatasi, confirming that this simple device provides effective protection against sandflies, are considered sufficiently encouraging to justify a community-wide field trial of deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars against ZVL vector sandflies in Iran.

RSPCA seeks electronic dog collar ban

Australian Veterinary JournalVolume 77, Issue 10 p. 626-626 Free Access RSPCA seeks electronic dog collar ban First published: 10 March 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-0813.1999.tb13138.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume77, Issue10October 1999Pages 626-626 RelatedInformation

"A Small Incisive Shock": Modern Forms, Postmodern Politics, and the Role of the Avant-Garde in Underworld

“A Small Incisive Shock”: Modern Forms, Postmodern Politics, and the Role of The Avant-garde in Underworld Philip Nel (bio) On May 13, 1997, Don DeLillo spoke at the New York Public Library’s “Stand In for Wei Jingsheng,” an event that coincided with the American publication of Wei’s letters from prison and that was designed to call attention to human rights in China. The essay he read that day, “The Artist Naked in a Cage,” draws parallels between three men in cages: Russian performance artist Oleg Kulik, Franz Kafka’s hunger artist, and Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng. Reading a reprint of DeLillo’s lecture in The New Yorker later that month, I was struck by the analogy because it was at once precise and imprecise. It was imprecise because both Kulik and Kafka’s hunger artist chose to live in a cage, but Wei Jingsheng had been jailed against his will. 1 Yet, on the other hand, the analogy between Kulik and Wei is apt, and perhaps performance art can act “in opposition to the state,” as DeLillo says of Wei (“Artist” 7). Near the end of “The Artist Naked in a Cage,” DeLillo argues that “the more nearly total the state, the more vivid the [End Page 724] dissident artist” and concludes, “The deeper they conceal him—the more remote the cell, the smaller the cell, the colder and stonier the walls of the cell—the more vivid and living is the writer” (7). In the strength of this image DeLillo finds a kind of hope in fatalism, a still-living writer opposing the state that is simultaneously killing him. It is a mixed message, but DeLillo’s ambiguous juxtaposition tries to accomplish what Wei, locked in a cage, could not: to use art as a way of confronting the public with Wei’s incarceration. I open with this example in order to consider DeLillo’s language as a kind of performance art that functions in apparently opposite ways. In the tradition of the avant-garde, it can shock the reader into a new awareness of the material world; however, just as any avant-garde invariably gets absorbed by the culture it strives to critique, so DeLillo’s style can at times replicate the structures of power that it wants to oppose. And DeLillo realizes this. His comments on Kulik, for example, indicate an awareness of how fine a line there is between shock and complicity: “It offers a genuine sense of the latitude of free expression and places a small, incisive shock in the midst of all those SoHo apparel shops and restaurants. But it also suggests the grim idea that the performance artist, liberated from Soviet state control, hair cropped, and dog collar secured, may be carrying his own culture’s atavistic wish for order and repression” (“Artist” 6–7). What DeLillo says of the Russian performance artist’s impersonation of a dog applies equally well to his own writing: it both offers a “small, incisive shock” and registers the anxieties and repressions of the world in which he lives. The ambiguities in his writing are both provocative and merely representative, actively shocking and passively matter-of-fact. I have begun with DeLillo’s essay on Wei in order to introduce Underworld as at the nexus of a series of questions concerning the relationship between DeLillo’s politics and his aesthetics, between modernism and postmodernism, and between the historical avant-garde and mass culture. In its richly layered language and careful structure, Underworld is DeLillo’s most “high modernist” novel to date; however, it also draws on avant-garde techniques in a more subtly effective way than his previous work. DeLillo has refined the montage technique that has characterized his writing style, crafting more nuanced and provocative juxtapositions than he has before. This essay argues that Underworld complicates traditional distinctions between modern and postmodern [End Page 725] by drawing on both a high modernist aesthetic and those residual elements of the historical avant-garde that characterize certain postmodernisms. In relation to Wei, the essay claims that DeLillo’s language aspires to both the status of formalist perfection and performance art, and that this dual allegiance...

RSPCA prosecutes electronic dog collar users

Australian Veterinary JournalVolume 77, Issue 9 p. 556-556 Free Access RSPCA prosecutes electronic dog collar users First published: 10 March 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-0813.1999.tb13181.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume77, Issue9September 1999Pages 556-556 RelatedInformation

New Independence at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

New Independence at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival Darrell Y. Hamamoto The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), presented by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) for fifteen years running, showcased four feature-length productions, including Shopping for Fangs, Yellow, Sunsets, and Strawberry Fields. In addition to these offerings, over 100 Asian and Asian American documentaries, shorts, experimental, and narrative films and videos were screened during the eight-day event March 6–13, 1998. Since its inception in 1982, the film festival has been held in a number of different venues in the Bay Area, but for the past eight years the principal site for the festival has been the AMC Kabuki 8 Theaters in the heart of Japantown. Over the years, the SFIAAFF has enjoyed the enthusiastic participation of filmmakers, producers, and legions of fans the world over. Its international scope is reflected in the many Asian films that were exhibited this year, including six features directed by Jang Sun Woo representing South Korea. The Friday following the opening night gala—which featured a classic of silent cinema directed by Bu Wancang, Love and Duty (China, 1931)—the festival began in the late afternoon with a series of highly personal short films that attempted to make sense of modern regional wars and their lasting effect upon the lives of those displaced by the ravages of military conflict. Apart from Missing Lebanese Wars (U.S., 1996) by Walid Raad, the other four films sifted through the memory of the Vietnam War. David Knupp, who directed Remote (U.S., 1996) and appeared at a Q&A session following its screening, said his “memory” of the Vietnam War was “mediated” by such dissimilar films as Hearts and Minds (1974) and the Rambo series. First Year (U.S., 1996), by Trac Vu, quickly shifts from the fall of Saigon in 1975 to a whimsical account of his [End Page 204] exploration of homosexual identity in a barren southern California landscape dotted by K-Mart stores, Laverne and Shirley, Greyhound Bus stations, and the public library where he consumed clinically pornographic books on his sexual orientation. In person, Minh Duc Nguyen referred to his positioning of yellow men as victims in the tableaux that compose Love Motel (U.S., 1995). The director declared himself to be interested in the question of “who dominates?” True to his vision, the five-minute, 16mm film features leather, spandex, whips, and a man in a studded dog collar illuminated by strobe lights flashing in time to disco music. A dominatrix abuses a wheelchair-bound man with a .45 caliber pistol and then shoots him, leaving him lying on the floor of the “love motel” in his Jockey shorts. Other than the brief appearance of a man and a woman huddled together, presumably Vietnamese peasants, there is no direct reference to the war itself. Later that Friday evening, the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance with NAATA presented the world premiere of Shopping for Fangs (Canada/U.S., 1997). Directed by Quentin Lee and Justin Lin, the 90-minute 16mm feature is a suspenseful romp through the sunlit world of suburban Los Angeles mini-malls. The film wittily creates a camp universe of werewolves, carnivorous lovers, religiously chaste girlfriends, murdered psychotherapists, and blonde bewigged amnesiacs working their way through the varieties of sexual repression Asian American-style. Both Lin and Lee appeared at a panel discussion the following Saturday afternoon on “New Asian American Feature Films.” Lee grew up in Hong Kong, emigrating to Canada before leaving for the U.S. with hopes of breaking into big time filmmaking. Lin came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age two and grew up in Orange County, California. According to Lin, his work is motivated by memories of a childhood almost devoid of Asian American representation in the dominant media. Lin’s sentiments were echoed by many directors at the festival. Prior to the world premier of his film, director Chris Chan Lee said at a panel discussion that he grew up feeling “cheated” by the virtual exclusion of Asian Americans in U.S. popular culture. But with the debut of his 90-minute feature, Yellow...

Conservative Treatment for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

We retrospectively reviewed 64 patients treated by the following methods: continuous head halter traction in bed (2 patients), cervical brace (19 patients), plaster bed holding head and trunk (15 patients), and Crutchfield's skull traction (28 patients), using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association grading system of motor function. A rate of "no disability" was achieved in 27% in the upper and 26% in the lower extremities. The achieved function was maintained in most patients, and some improved further during the follow-up period (3-10 years). The overall achievement rate was 34% in the upper and 28% in the lower extremities. Because the rate was significantly influenced by the degree of disability before treatment, the candidates are patients with mild disability for whom "no disability" is the goal.

Protection of dogs from bites of phlebotomine sandflies by deltamethrin collars for control of canine leishmaniasis.

Dog collars made of PVC plastic impregnated with the pyrethroid insecticide deltamethrin at 40 mg/g were investigated for their protective efficacy against phlebotomine sandflies. Collared dogs were kept separately (two untreated control dogs lived together) in outdoor enclosures, each with a kennel, in the Cévennes, southern France. To measure sandfly mortality and anti-feeding effects due to the deltamethrin-impregnated collars worn continuously by the dogs for up to 8 months, each dog was periodically sedated and exposed for 2h to 150-200 laboratory-reared Phlebotomus perniciosus females (plus c. 25 males) inside a net (1.2 m square, 1.8 m high) indoors. After dogs were removed from the nets, allowed to recover and returned to their kennels, any dead sandflies were collected from inside the net and counted. Surviving flies were kept overnight, then scored according to whether they were still alive or dead, unfed or blood-fed. From tests 2, 3, 4, 13, 20, 26 and 34 weeks after the dogs began wearing collars, the overall numbers of blood-fed female sandflies recaptured were 75 from two dogs with collars, compared with 1911 from two collarless dogs. Thus, for every 100 flies which fed on collarless dogs, only 4 fed on collared dogs, i.e. the collars protected dogs from 96% of the bites and this activity was maintained for up to 34 weeks. During the same period, the percentage of recaptured female sandflies that had fed on collared dogs was 0-12% compared to 55-95% on collarless dogs. Immediately after dogs were taken out of the nets, 21-60% of flies confined with the collared dogs were found dead, compared to 0-12% with the controls. It is concluded that, at least in the Mediterranean subregion, this insecticidal collar would protect a dog from the majority of sandfly bites and retain a killing effect for a complete sandfly season. Moreover, it seems likely that the use of collars on all dogs in a focus of Leishmania infantum would reduce contact between sandfly vectors and canine reservoir hosts sufficiently to diminish the risk of infection for humans as well as dogs.

Anti-Labour Legislation Conference: University of Sydney, 7 December 1996

In 1892 William Lane published his novel, The Workingman's Paradise, dealing with life in Sydney and Queensland in the late nineteenth century. 104 years later this 'workingman's paradise' again fell under scrutiny at the conference on Anti-Labour Legislation organised by the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and the University of Sydney Labour History Group. NSW Attorney-General, Jeff Shaw, delivered the opening address of the conference and outlined the competing economic philosophies that he saw driving the history of Australian labour relations. The first he described as the Protective View. It recognised the unequal power between labour and capital in Australia. Its followers campaigned for workers to have 'freedom to associate' or form unions and for government instrumentalities to set minimum standards to protect workers pay and conditions. Opposing this view, said Shaw, came the disciples of the (free) Market View who believed that the laws should only enter the industrial arena to facilitate individual contacts between employers and their workers. In a survey of Australia, mainly from the 1889s to 1996, Shaw examined what happened when one or other of these views predominated. Michael Quinlan (University of NSW) looked at the one-sided nature of Australia's Master and Servant legislation from 1828 to the 1970s. He pointed out the irony in the title of William Lane's novel in his address which showed that early labour laws were full of penalties to use against workers who didn't work satisfactorily or who absconded from an employer. Rural workers seemed to have worse conditions, usually because the magistrates enforcing the laws on 'recalcitrant7 workers were also local squatters. Ray Markey (University of Wollongong) examined the history of compulsory arbitration in Australia from 1890 to 1914. He argued that the various forms of arbitration adopted in the various colonies/states and by the newly formed Federal Government reflected the views of liberal politicians rather than employers trying to hang on to their gains made in the 1890s (as suggested by Brian Fitzpatrick). He also looked at the difficulty in assessing the impact of arbitration on trade union growth because of the lack of clear sources before 1912, but concluded that recent research suggests that arbitration retarded the growth of trade unions in this period. Andrew Moore (University of Western Sydney)'s address concentrated on legislation between the wars. This was a period in which the ruling class felt under threat of revolution, so it introduced a number of laws to entrench its position, eg. the 1926 Crimes Act and the 'Dog Collar' Acts of 1928 and 1930. These were largely the product of John Latham, Attorney-General in the Bruce-Page Government and ex-World War One Naval Intelligence officer. Prosecutions were conducted against those accused of promoting ill-will between the classes of his Majesty's subjects, such as the publisher of the Workers Weekly as well as against unions like the Waterside Workers' Federation when wharfies refused to load pig-iron for Japan in 1938.

Characteristics, treatment, and outcome of 99 cases of aggression between dogs

Cases of aggression between dogs (n = 99) treated at the Animal Behavior Clinic, Cornell University (1983–1993) were analyzed retrospectively. Data were obtained from case histories; follow-up information was collected by telephone interviews and mailed questionnaires. Aggression occurred in two contexts. The primary complaint was conflict between dogs in the household in 73 cases, and aggression directed at non-household dogs in 26 cases. Dogs that started fights were pure-bred in 70 cases (71%); German Shepherd Dogs were most numerous of 38 breeds represented. Compared with American Kennel Club registrations, household aggression was less frequent among toy and sporting breeds, and more numerous among herding and non-sporting breeds (P ≤ 0.054). Terrier breeds were more prevalent among cases of non-household aggression (P < 0.01). Overall, more females initiated household aggression, whereas more males attacked non-household dogs (P < 0.05). For household aggression, same-sex pairs, especially females, were far more numerous than opposite-sex pairs (P < 0.001). Of dogs that started household fights, 58% were younger and 59% arrived in the home more recently than the target dog. Household fights were more injurious than fights with outsiders (P < 0.001); fights between female housemates tended to be more severe than other gender combinations (P = 0.057). Excitement was the most frequent trigger of household fighting. Treatments most often recommended for household aggression were desensitization with counterconditioning and obedience training; neutering and a head halter were most often suggested for non-household aggression. In owners' opinions, treatment improved 59% of household cases and 52% of non-household cases. After treatment, 56% of dogs exhibiting household aggression could be together when supervised, whereas 76% of those exhibiting non-household aggression could be around outsiders under leash control. Cases of household aggression in which the attacking dog was younger than its target, a person had been bitten, or the owner could not predict aggressive episodes were less likely improved than cases in which these situations did not occur (P < 0.05). Manifestations of aggression between housemates and toward non-household dogs are similar to dominance conflicts and territorial defense, respectively, in wolves. Comparisons between dog and wolf behavior may lead to improved treatment and resolution of aggression between dogs.

Computer Simulation of Management Strategies for American Dog Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Computer models were developed to simulate the effects of management technologies on populations of the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say), principal vector of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in eastern North America. The technologies modeled were area-wide acaricide application, acaricide-food-baited tubes for self-treatment by small mammals, dipping of dogs in acaricides, acaricide-impregnated plastic dog collars, reduction of small mammal host populations (host management), and removal of vegetation that protects free-living tick stages (vegetative management). Submodels for each of these technologies were incorporated into a model (ADTSIM) for the population dynamics of the tick and RMSF transmission. Comparisons of simulated and observed data were used to verify reasonable accuracy of the submodels. Repetitive simulations were made to identify levels and timing of each control method (alone or combined) required to reduce tick populations below a RMSF transmission threshold of 252 unfed adults/ha. Eight to 30 acaricide applications, depending on acaricide and percentage of population treated, were needed during a 10-yr period to reduce densities of ticks below the threshold. The baited-tube method, host management, and vegetative management (depending on level and frequency of treatment) also were capable of reducing tick density below the threshold. However, acaricide-impregnated plastic dog collars did not reduce tick density below the threshold unless at least 50% of the hosts of adult ticks were domestic dogs. Integrated strategies were developed for management of ticks and RMSF in six selected states. These strategies reduced numbers of human cases of RMSF 90% or more by year 20 by maintaining tick densities between 100 and 252 unfed adults/ha.

Parents' descriptions of objects: Potential data for children's inferences about category principles

In generalizing from an individual object, humans expect some features of the object (e.g., a dog's fur or heart), but not others (e.g., the dog's collar or owner), to be present in other category members. Little is known about how people come to make such distinctions among properties, or about the relative influence of a priori constraints versus knowledge gained through experience. This research begins to work out these relative effects by focusing on parents' speech as a source of information for children in identifying valid inferences. Parents were given a set of pictures and asked to teach their 2- to 4-year-old children about categories at different hierarchical levels: basic (e.g., porcupine), superordinate (e.g., vehicle), and subordinate (e.g., monkey wrench) levels. Object descriptions differed at the three levels. Parents mentioned perceptual features and parts more often when discussing basic and subordinate categories, while they related more abstract functions when discussing superordinate categories. These differences could help children to pick out generalizable properties, since parents are emphasizing the properties that are typical of the category. Parents also may help children learn about the asymmetrical way that inferences are made within hierarchies, by anchoring general statements (“machines do work for us”) with examples of how these properties would apply at more specific levels (“lawnmowers do work outside, mixers do work in the kitchen…”). The results are discussed in terms of possible ways in which children may use parents' descriptions as a source of data for their developing inferential abilities.

Isotopic abundances: inferences on solar system and planetary evolution

Members of the Royal Swedish Academy, ladies and gentlemen. In thinking over why I am here today, I recalled the story of Tom Sawyer, a character of Mark Twain's. On a beautiful, bright Saturday morning, when all of his friends were playing, he appeared by the wall in front of his aunt's house with a bucket of whitewash paint and a long-handled brush. Before him stood about thirty meters of continuous wooden fence, three meters tall. He dipped his brush and passed it over a plank and then repeated it. Then he stopped and compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unpainted fence and became melancholy. Then he took up the brush again and went to work. A friend came by and teased him for working on Saturday when he could be swimming or playing. Tom said it wasn't so bad, because a boy didn't get the chance to whitewash a fence every day. Tom took a new brush stroke at the fence and stepped back to note the beauty of the effect. His friend got interested and then asked permission to make a stroke or two. He then offered Tom the core of an apple he had just started to nibble on. Tom told him that it was doubtful that his friend could help because this was the front fence and that a very good and sophisticated job had to be done. Possibly only but one child in a thousand, possibly two-thousand, could do it. Well, after this denial, his friend just had to try and offered Tom the whole apple for a chance to paint. Then more young friends came around to attempt this challenging task. By the end of the afternoon, Tom was the wealthiest boy in town. He had twelve marbles, a key that didn't unlock anything, a piece of blue glass to look through, a tin soldier, a dog collar (but no dog) and lots of other valuable things. The fence had been coated three times and if he had not run out of whitewash, Tom would have bankrupted every kid in the village. My presence here is due to an ability to attract young talent to help whitewash the fence. The only difference is that we have just started on the job.

Evaluation of Amitraz Collars and Pour-On Applications of Young'S® Poron 20, GX-118™, and Dursban® 44 for Lice Control on Beef Cattle, 1986

Abstract Experimental steer and heifer calves were of mixed breeds and originated in eastern WY. They were housed in separate pens in groups of 7 animals each at Torrington, WY. The cattle were naturally infested with the cattle biting louse, Bovicola bovis, the longnosed cattle louse, Linognathus vituli, and the little blue cattle louse, Solenopotes capillatus Enderlein. Lice density was estimated by observing and recording the number of each species at sample sites on the host. One 15-cm sample site was located across the occipital area directly behind the poll. The equivalent of 3, 15-cm sample sites were located on the head, shoulder, and topline. Sample sites on the head were 1, 15-cm hairpart on either side of the face from the corner of the mouth toward the base of the ear and 2, 7.5-cm hairparts on either side of the muzzle. Sample sites on the shoulder were 3, 15-cm vertical parts on the right side of the body. Sample sites on the topline were located on the right side of the animal ca. 25 cm posterior to the withers and 25 cm anterior to the hip bone. These sites consisted of 3 vertical 15-cm hairparts ca. 15 cm apart. For the evaluation of amitraz collars and Dursban 44 pour-on, pretreatment lice populations were estimated on 14 Jan. Each of 3 pens heavily infested with biting lice and 3 pens heavily infested with sucking lice were randomly assigned to one of the 3 treatments. For the evaluation of Poron 20 at 2 dosages and GX-118, pretreatment lice populations were estimated on 20 Jan. Six pens of cattle infested with sucking lice were randomly assigned one of 4 treatments. Two 9% amitraz dog collars, each 62.5 cm in length and 1.5 cm in width, were joined end to end through the buckle, and placed around the neck of the bovine. Several layers of filament tape were placed over the buckle. Pour-on treatments were applied according to label directions for lice control. Young's Poron was applied also at 5 ml/50 kg, the grub control dose.