Professionalism Under Fire: Canadian Implementation of the Medak Pocket Agreement, Croatia 1993

For many Canadians, the Somalia Affair became a symbol of their armed forces in the 1990s. Intense media coverage of a Somali teen’s murder by Canadian paratroopers, its cover-up by senior bureaucrats and officers at National Defence Headquarters and a series of subsequent scandals shook public confidence in the nation’s military institutions. Negative coverage particularly in the first half of the 1990s created an image of military incompetence and unprofessionalism, vividly captured in letters to the editor to major newspapers across the country. In recent years that image was balanced with more positive ones of Canadian Forces personnel protecting the peace in the Former Yugoslavia, Africa, and East Timor. Nevertheless, the spectre of Somalia still lingers in the minds of many both in and out of uniform

Operations of 1 Canadian Infantry Divisional Artillery, 24 August-22 September 1944

In January 1944 1st Canadian Infantry Division reverted to command of I Canadian Corps after seven months of campaigning in Sicily and Italy under a British Corps. The story of the division’s resentment toward the level of paperwork foisted on them by H.D.G. Crerar’s untried corps headquarters is legendary. Modern military historians assume this rancour is indicative of a 1914–18 mindset among Second World War Canadian senior officers which prevented them from adapting to the fast–paced nature of modern mechanized warfare in the 1940s.1 Ironically, much of that “paper–pushing” appears to have contributed to the Canadian Army’s victories over German forces in the great battles of 1944–45. Among the most labourious administrative chores were the operational narratives and lessons learned reports requiring battle participants to analyze recent actions and draw conclusions for improving combat efficiency. These reports do indeed date back to the Great War. Most First World War historians agree that such documents were a key ingredient to the remarkable success of the Canadian Corps in 1915–1918.2 The following report was prepared by the 1st Canadian Divisional Artillery staff in late September 1944, during the brief pause between the breakthrough of the Gothic and Rimini Lines and the subsequent pursuit into the Po Valley. In the weeks prior to that pause, I Canadian Corps suffered their heaviest losses to date against the most determined German resistance encountered during the Italian Campaign. They also demonstrated remarkable military skill and professionalism, and won their greatest victories of the entire war. Readers may note that the report is tightly focussed on exacting every possible ounce of combat power out of an already effective organization. Continual refinements to the Anglo–Canadian system were essential given that Alliedforces in Italy usually possessed the barest minimum of resources necessary to accomplish their strategic mission of preventing German formations from withdrawing to more decisive fronts. Similar reports are found in the war diaries of all units and formations in the Canadian Army in the Second World War. What is most significant about this process is the rapidity with which recommended improvements were put into practice during subsequent operations

Apparent survival of snowy plovers varies across years and between sexes in coastal Northern California

Adult survival is one of the most influential vital rates affecting population growth of iteroparous organisms. Survival often varies annually due to environmental stochasticity. However, drastic variations in annual adult survival rates can have overwhelmingly negative impacts on population viability and growth. In many wild avian populations, adult survival varies between sexes and may owe to unequal risks associated with reproductive roles or predation; this is particularly true among shorebirds. I used mark-resight data from a 19-year study of Western Snowy Plovers (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) in coastal northern California to investigate sex-specific apparent survival of the adult population (N=387). I reported apparent survival (φ) along with standard error (±SE) and 95% confidence intervals, as well as beta estimates (β) with 95% confidence intervals. Apparent survival varied substantially among years (min φ= 0.44±0.07; 0.30-0.57 to max φ = 0.82±0.06; 0.64-0.94), with the minimum occurring in the middle of the study (2006-07) and the maximum occurring in 2009-10. Furthermore, apparent survival varied between sexes, whereby males had higher overall apparent survival (0.72±0.03; 0.30-0.93) than females (0.68±0.03; 0.26-0.91). Average known lifespan of Snowy Plovers within the study was 3.5±2.1 years, with males living longer on average (4.3±2.8 years) than females (3.6±1.9 years). Overall population growth remained stable ( =1.05±0.13 to 1.10±0.12) across the course of the study. Years of substantially low adult survival have directly reduced overall growth potential for the local population. High temporal variance in adult survival produces increased variance in annual population growth rates, with possible implications for extinction risk. Reduced survival in adult female Snowy Plovers has been shown to influence the adult sex ratio of the population, as observed in other Charadrius populations, however that was not evident in this study. Application of demographic parameters in future population viability and growth models will provide a comprehensive understanding of population dynamics and will inform progress toward the recovery of the Pacific Coast population

Deriving prevalence estimates of depressive symptoms throughout middle and old age in those living in the community

BACKGROUND: There is considerable debate about the prevalence of depression in old age. Epidemiological surveys and clinical studies indicate mixed evidence for the association between depression and increasing age. We examined the prevalence of probable depression in the middle aged to the oldest old in a project designed specifically to investigate the aging process. METHODS: Community-living participants were drawn from several Australian longitudinal studies of aging that contributed to the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) project. Different depression scales from the contributing studies were harmonized to create a binary variable that reflected "probable depression" based on existing cut-points for each harmonized scale. Weighted prevalence was benchmarked to the Australian population which could be compared with findings from the 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being (NSMHWB). RESULTS: In the DYNOPTA project, females were more likely to report probable depression. This was consistent across age levels. Both NSMHWB surveys and DYNOPTA did not report a decline in the likelihood of reporting probable depression for the oldest old in comparison with mid-life. CONCLUSIONS: Inconsistency in the reports of late-life depression prevalence in previous epidemiological studies may be explained by either the exclusion and/or limited sampling of the oldest old. DYNOPTA addresses these limitations and the results indicated no change in the likelihood of reporting depression with increasing age. Further research should extend these findings to examine within-person change in a longitudinal context and control for health covariates.NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia