Bark beetles, Pseudohylesinus spp. (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), associated with amabilis fir defoliated by Neodiprion sp. (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae)

Only Abies amabilis (Dougl.) Forbes heavily defoliated by a sawfly, Neodiprion sp., supported broods of Pseudohylesinus spp.. Although many trees with less defoliation showed evidence of attack, usually it was caused by adult beetles making overwintering niches. P. granulatus (Leconte) was found on the lower bole, whereas P. grandis Swaine and P. nobilis Swaine were found on the upper bole. Defoliated Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg. were not attacked by bark beetles

History of forest insect investigations in British Columbia II. The Forest Insect and Disease Survey in the Pacific Region

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Adaptive domains of deontic reasoning

Deontic reasoning is reasoning about permission and obligation: what one may do and what one must do, respectively. Conceivably, people could reason about deontic matters using a purely formal deontic calculus. I review evidence from a range of psychological experiments suggesting that this is not the case. Instead, I argue that deontic reasoning is supported by a collection of dissociable cognitive adaptations for solving adaptive problems that likely would have confronted ancestral humans

Which norms are strong reciprocators supposed to enforce? Not all norms are psychologically the same

Gintis’ (2000) analysis of strong reciprocity in terms of group survival leads to the conclusion that any norm, be it cooperative or prudential, that potentially enhances group survival will be enforced by a significant subset of individuals (strong reciprocators) who enforce norms even at their own individual expense. Gintis’ assumption that the human mind is an initially structureless receptacle for cultural norms further reinforces this view. In contrast, I argue that humans possess a natural domain-specific competence for social cooperation that is distinct from our prudential competence in dealing with potential hazards. I review a range of psychological evidence including multidimensional scaling studies, studies of emotional reactions, reasoning, functional MRI and judgments about punishment suggesting that not all norms are psychologically equivalent, with only a subset of norm violations eliciting punitive sentiments

Excavating the Foundations: Cognitive Adaptations for Multiple Moral Domains

Do humans have cognitive adaptations for detecting violations of rules in multiple moral domains? Previous research using the Wason Selection Task has provided evidence for domain-specific mechanisms for detecting violations of social exchange and hazard precaution rules. The present study investigates whether similar evidence can be found for mechanisms for detecting violations of rules relating to soliciting aid, maintaining coalitions, and navigating hierarchies. Participants (n = 887) completed one of seven Wason Selection Tasks—five sociomoral tasks (exchange, hazard, aid, coalition, and submission) and two controls (descriptive and general deontic). Participants also completed the short form Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) as a self- report measure of five corresponding sets of moral values. The study found that, as predicted, performance on all five sociomoral tasks was significantly better than performance on the two control tasks. However, there was no relationship between task perfor- mance and corresponding moral values. These results provide initial evidence for cognitive adaptations for detecting violations of rules relating to providing aid, maintaining coalitions, and submitting to authority. We outline how future research might provide additional tests of this theory, and thereby further extend our understanding of the foundations of human sociomoral reasoning

When the Baltic Sea was a "bridge" for humanitarian action: the League of Nations, the Red Cross and the repatriation of prisoners of war between Russia and Central Europe 1920-22.

NoBy early 1920, literally hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war still had not been repatriated between Russia and Central Europe. To rectify matters a major humanitarian initiative followed, carried out largely under the auspices of the League of Nations. In a little less than two years, 427,886 people were repatriated. Of these, 406,091 were transported through the Baltic region. This paper highlights the important role of British officials in managing the ambitious project and emphasizes that Estonia, and Narva especially, played a pivotal role facilitating movement between East and West. The success of the venture meant that subsequent humanitarian agreements concluded in the 1920s built on international success rather than failure