The Importance and Potential Value of a Regional Midsize Arthropod Collection: An Example of IBULC

During the last three centuries, people involved in natural history sciences have produced thousands of natural history collections worldwide. Specimens have been used for scientific proof of various discoveries and for gaining new knowledge in many disciplines of science not only in the area of biodiversity but also in taxonomy, species biology and ecology, parasitology, evolution, organisms’ responses to climate change, nature conservation and many other biological sub-disciplines. Despite never-ending financial struggles, the world’s largest collections as well as many regional midsize collections contain billions of specimens. This provides an enormous database for present and future studies. This article presents a critical description of the material of the Institute of Biology, University of Latvia collection (IBULC) containing roughly 59,000 identified arthropod individuals of about 3,700 species, including twenty-eight primary types as a part of around ninety type specimens, to illustrate the importance of midsize regional natural history collections in detail.Some Rights Reserved. Public Licensed Material: Available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The use of this material is permitted for non-commercial use provided the creator(s) and publisher receive attribution. No derivatives of this version are permitted. Official terms of this public license apply as indicated here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcod

Studies of medicines use by consumers

One of the main aims of medicines’ use studies is to ensure rational use of them. Different types of medicines use studies exist – there are studies of medicines supply, consumption, behavior of medicines users and prescribers (advisers). The aim of the current study is to find common patterns or problems regarding use of medicines, as well as the factors influencing medicines’ use patterns, and also apply the findings to the sociological theory. The study was implemented by making an insight into reviews of medicines’ use and theoretical literature. A range of analysis-levels is available, depending on the scope of a study. Common patterns or problems of medicines’ use within these levels have been pointed out by the studies – non-compliance to the medicines’ information, self-medication with prescription medicines, polypharmacy, unsafe use of herbal medicines, overuse of injections, use of non-essential combination medicines, and use of needlessly expensive medicines. The studies suggest several determinants of medicines use – demographic and socio-economic factors, socio-psychological factors, health status, cultural factors, and information channels. From the point of view of the sociological theory it is possible to classify all these factors according to the notions of “micro”, “macro”, “objectivity” and “subjectivity”, as well as by different perspectives of rationality – objective rationality (medical perspective) and subjective rationality (user’s perspective)

Studies of medicines use by consumers

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Investigations of Gamasina mites in natural and man-affected soils in Latvia (Acari: Mesostigmata)

Investigations of Gamasina mites in natural and man-affected soils in Latvia (Acari: Mesostigmata) A short overview is presented on Gamasina material collected in 22 natural and man-disturbed habitats in Latvia. Species diversity, average density and species dominance were investigated. Altogether 167 Gamasina species from 14 families were found. The highest number of species was found for field margins and the lowest for pine forests and arable lands affected by calciferous dust. The highest densities of mites were observed for arable lands, and the lowest for coastal meadows. There were no habitats, neither natural nor man-affected, with both a high number of species and high densities. Some specific habitats such as spruce forests polluted by pig slurry and arable lands polluted by calciferous dust had a low number of species and high densities. Generally, man-affected habitats had higher average abundances, whereas natural habitats had higher species diversity. 25 Gamasina species were registered as eudominants or dominants. The most common species was the ubiquitous Veigaia nemorensis. The dom