The NEBLINE, May 2005

Contents:Successful Shade Gardening: Key is Proper Plant Choice, Care Why So Many Weeds? 2005 All-America Roses Flowers That Tower Be Good to Your Worms Winged Termites or Ants? Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels What is Mange? Soybean Rust is on the Horizon Effect of Increasing Energy Prices on Farming Costs Pioneer Farm Award Nominations Due May 1 Buying High-Quality Trees Conserving Water in the Landscape NEP Partners with LPS to Teach Nutrition in Teen Parenting Classes Cocoa-Berry Yogurt Tarts Recipe Enjoy Beef Nutrition during May, National Beef Month Mexican Beef Salad Recipe Fruit Slush Recipe Spicy Ranch Dressing Recipe President’s Notes — Janet’s Jargon Household Hints: No- or Low-Cost Ways to Save Energy FCE News & Events Cut Cooling Costs Three Strategies to Help Manage Anger Denise Farley 2005 4-H Incentive Program Starts May 1 Salt Creek Wranglers Hold Pre-Districts Practice for 4-H’ers, April 24 and June 12 District/State Entries Due May 13 4-H Stampede Results Clover College Analyzing Community Problems Training on Measuring Progress, May 17 & 18 Extension Calendar 4-H Camps Open House, April 24 and May 1 5th Graders Learn about Land, Water & Air at earth wellness festival Students Watch Eggs Hatch in the Classroom! 4-H Speech/PSA Contest Winners Special Insert: Acreage Views -- Helping Acreage and Small Farm Owners Manage their Rural Living Environmen

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

The effects of recruitment to direct predator cues on predator responses in meerkats

Behavioral responses of animals to direct predator cues (DPCs; e.g., urine) are common and may improve their survival. We investigated wild meerkat (Suricata suricatta) responses to DPCs by taking an experimental approach. When meerkats encounter a DPC they often recruit group members by emitting a call type, which causes the group members to interrupt foraging and approach the caller. The aim of this study was to identify the qualities of olfactory predator cues, which affect the strength of response by meerkats, and determine the benefits of responses to such cues. Experimental exposure to dog (Canis lupus) urine as a DPC revealed that the recruited individuals increased vigilance to fresh urine in comparison to older urine, whereas a higher quantity of urine did not induce such an effect. Both freshness and higher quantities increased the proportion of group members recruited. These results indicate that recruitment might play a crucial role in correctly assessing the current level of danger and that recruiting might facilitate group decision making. To test the prediction that the reaction to a DPC enhances early predator response, we presented a DPC of a predator and a control cue of a herbivore, and each time simultaneously moved a full-mounted caracal (Caracal caracal) in the vicinity of the group. Meerkats responded earlier to the caracal when the DPC was presented, indicating that the response to a DPC facilitates predator response and that they use information from the cue that reliably reflects the risk in the current momen

Anxiety, normative uncertainty, and social regulation

Emotion plays an important role in securing social stability. But while emotions like fear, anger, and guilt have received much attention in this context, little work has been done to understand the role that anxiety plays. That’s unfortunate. I argue that a particular form of anxiety—what I call ‘practical anxiety’—plays an important, but as of yet unrecognized, role in norm-based social regulation. More specifically, it provides a valuable form of metacognition, one that contributes to social stability by helping individuals negotiate the challenges that come from having to act in the face of unclear norm

Moving Up the Information Food Chain: Deploying Softbots on the World Wide Web

I view the World Wide Web as an information food chain (figure 1). The maze of pages and hyperlinks that comprise the Web are at the very bottom of the chain. The WebCrawlers and Alta Vistas of the world are information herbivores; they graze on Web pages and regurgitate them as searchable indices. Today, most Web users feed near the bottom of the information food chain, but the time is ripe to move up. Since 1991, we have been building information carnivores, which intelligently hunt and feast on herbivore

Improving Collaborative Learning Using Pervasive Embedded System-Based Multi-Agent Information and Retrieval Framework in Educational Systems

E-learning is a form of Technology SupportedEducation where the medium of instruction is throughDigital Technologies, particularly Computer Technology.An instance is the use of search engines like Google andYahoo, which aid Collaborative Learning. However, thewidespread provision of distributed, semi-structuredinformation resources such as the Web has obviouslybrought a lot of benefits; but it also has a number ofdifficulties. These difficulties include people gettingoverwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available,making it hard for them to filter out the junk andirrelevancies and focus on what is important, and also toactively search for the right information. Also, people easilyget bored or confused while browsing the Web because ofthe hypertext nature of the web, while making it easy to linkrelated documents together, it can also be disorienting. Toalleviate these problems, the Web Information Food ChainModel was introduced. How effective has this been with thedynamic nature of computing technologies? Pervasivecomputing devices enable people to gain immediate accessto information and services anywhere, anytime, withouthaving to carry around heavy and impractical computingdevices. Thus, the bulky PCs become less attractive andbeing slowly eroded with the development of a newgeneration of smart devices like wireless PDAs, smartphones, etc. These embedded devices are characterized bybeing unobtrusively embedded; completely connected;intuitively intelligent; effortlessly portable and mobile; andconstantly on and available. This paper presents the use ofembedded systems and Intelligent Agent-Based WebInformation Food Chain Model in Multi-Agent Informationand Retrieval Framework (IIFCEMAF), to realizing fullpotentials of the internet, for users’ improved system ofcollaborative e-learning in education

The Victorian Naturalist

v.112 (1995

Language Arts Whole Language Program for Limited English Proficient Students in a Self-Contained First Grade

The purpose of this project was the development of a language arts program based on thematic units for limited English proficient students. Sample language activities are included for each unit. The contents of the project include: a review of literature related to the topics of using the whole language approach with limited English proficient students, procedures for the construction of thematic units, and an explanation of how to utilize the project. A summary with conclusions and recommendations is included

Insects tell a story : a web interwoven with entomology and Naskapi knowledge in Kawawachikamach

I am grateful for funding from Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program, the Canadian Northern Studies Trust (W. Garfield Weston Award for Northern Research), the Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science, Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the DIALOG network.Dans la région de Kawawachikamach, les insectes sont pollinisateurs et prédateurs de plantes d’importance culturelle, vecteurs de maladies, et source de nuisance pour l’humain et le caribou. Les membres de la Nation Naskapi ont exprimé leurs inquiétudes concernant des changements induits par le climat dans l’abondance, la distribution, la composition, et la phénologie des communautés d’insectes et leurs impacts sur le mode de vie naskapie. Suite à un échantillonnage d’insectes modernes et fossiles dans trois tourbières en 2015 et 2016, nous avons obtenu un aperçu de la diversité dynamique des assemblages d’insectes, les diptères, les hyménoptères, et les araignées étant les taxons les plus représentés. Étant donné que les moustiques (Culicidae) et les mouches noires (Simuliidae) maintiennent des populations denses dans la région, les insectes sont considérés comme des parasites nuisibles pour humains et animaux. Des travaux supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour déterminer si les caractéristiques des communautés d’insectes échantillonnées dépendent de la composition et la densité des fleurs à chaque site. Nos données provenant de l’échantillonnage à piège passif suggèrent que les araignées-loups (Lycosidae) figurent parmi l’un des plus abondants arthropodes terricoles de la région. Les travaux paléo-écologiques suggèrent le remplacement d’espèces aquatiques par des espèces non-aquatiques à l’échelle locale, parallèle à la disparition de Cladocera, Trichoptera et des acariens aquatiques Limnozetes et Hydrozetes. Des questionnaires effectués dans la communauté dévoilent l’apparition de plus gros insectes, une augmentation dans leur abondance, une émergence printanière hâtive, ainsi que l’apparition de nouvelles espèces au cours des derniers cinquante ans. Les jeunes naskapis de la communauté ont eu l’opportunité de s’impliquer dans les activités de recherche à travers des activités de plein air, une exposition d’art itinérante, et lors du festival Présence Autochtone à Montréal. À travers l’art, nous laissons s’exprimer perceptions et valeurs sur les insectes, tout en créant un espace de discours autour des relations insecte-plante-humain à travers les cultures et l’espace.In Kawawachikamach insects are pollinators and predators of culturally important plants, vectors of disease, and sources of annoyance for humans and culturally important animals. There is a rising concern amongst Naskapi that climate change and its effects on insect abundance, distribution, composition, and phenology impacts the ways in which people connect with the land. Insect sampling at three peatland sites during the 2015 and 2016 summer breeding seasons revealed that Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Araneae are the most represented taxa. Mosquitoes (Culicidae) and black flies (Simuliidae) sustain highly dense populations in the region and are considered to be important pests for humans and animals. Additional work is needed to determine if their abundance, distribution, composition, and phenology depends on the composition and density of flowers at the study sites. Based on results from the yellow pan trap method, wolf spiders (Lycosidae) are amongst the most abundant ground-dwelling arthropods in the region. Paleoecological work suggests a shift from aquatic to non-aquatic species at the local scale, concurrent with the disappearance of Cladocera, Trichoptera and the truly aquatic acarian genera: Limnozetes and Hydrozetes. Questionnaires conducted with community members reveal larger-sized insects, an increase in their numbers, an earlier spring-time emergence, and the appearance of new species over the past 50 years. Land-based activities for Naskapi youth, a traveling art exhibit, and our presence at the Montreal First Peoples’ festival, were opportunities for youth and members of the community to be involved in research activities and to create a space for discourse around insect-plant-human relationships across cultures and spaces