Teaching beekeeping in Nepal: a field test of the FAO's development communications process model

This thesis explores the problem of integrating women into rural development programmes. Specifically, it examines the potential of Development Communications as a strategy for achieving sustainable development, with particular reference to the author’s beekeeping project for women in Nepal. The thesis also addresses typical failures in development programmes relating to women and gender issues. Women are effectively excluded from the majority of development programmes because of their low social and economic status. However, they do make up half the adult population, and can play a vital role in family and community development. It is therefore crucial to ensure their participation in the development process. Indeed, the thesis argues that this is the key to achieving sustainable development. Therefore, strategies are considered for involving and empowering women in development programmes - this is done principally through income-generating activities - and one activity in particular, modern beekeeping, is identified as being most appropriate for rural women living in the Sindhupalchowk district of Nepal. Development Communications is hence seen as the essential means for motivating and enabling such a target audience to adopt these new activities. The theoretical and practical issues involved in Development Communications are then surveyed in a number of projects from Nepal and other parts of Asia. The author describes her own case study, called "Communications for the Future", in which the FAO's Development Communications Process Model is evaluated and specific improvements are recommended. Solar power is used to run the communications equipment in the field, and this is identified as the most appropriate means of activating video-training systems in remote rural areas. However, successful Development Communications depends not only on technology but also on interpersonal communication and on an interactive approach. The thesis suggests that potential problems, such as differences of language or culture, can be overcome by taking a bottom-up rather than top-down approach, involving the target audiences in all stages of the communications process and producing educational material which is culturally specific. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the practical value of its approach to Development Support Communications. It shows that involving women in income-generating activities can have positive effects for the local economy, for the status of women and for integrated rural development

Africanized honey bee colonization in the human domain: Issues of environmental anthropology in southern Nevada

Environmental anthropology seeks to identify issues and propose resolutions when humans are directly affected by environmental consequences or indirectly by policies that may marginalize the concerns of certain populations. Africanized Honey Bees created both environmental and policy consequences in southern Nevada. Identification of the issues was accomplished with literature review, participant observation, informal interview, and conferencing with academic and agency officials related to the human/bee problem. The controversy in risk assessment has implications for urban residents in southern Nevada. Both agricultural and urban environments may be economically and politically impacted by the colonization of feral Africanized Honey Bees. Urban populations affected by bee colonization should maintain a proactive, perceived risk posture to protect residents and tourism in southern Nevada

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF ART: AN EXAMINATION OF UNIQUENESS

The field of Neuroaesthetics has an overwhelming potential for helping us to understand the world and human behavior through consideration of both neuroscience and art. Looking at the production of art across human history, it is clear we have evolved with art as every culture has developed some style and desire for art without influence of other peoples. The intriguing and undeniable psychological phenomenon of pareidolia raises the question of why the visual system might be set up in a way that leads to illusions and visual suggestions. The amygdala is also involved as the nuclei’s reaction to perceived or imagined threats causes intense body changes. Art, as a rewarding experience, could then be seen as biologically necessary to offer some release of dopamine and a “feeling good” response. I argue that the human brain was evolutionarily designed for art. Many animals can be taught to make human-styled art using both painting and drawing techniques. Animals also make their own style of art as it is clear there is deliberate choice in the spider’s web when it comes to spatial design. In most species of birds, nest building is a learned behavior and this, coupled with the variation in nest structure, reveals the high levels of choices birds make in the design of their nest. And finally, when looking at bees and the construction of their hives, their abilities far surpass what we commonly think possible. Thus, when looking at the products of spiders, birds, and bees, these animals have aesthetic composition preferences in the design of the structures they make. Therefore, while art is not unique only to humankind, art is necessary to humankind

Towards Biological Inspiration in the Development of Complex Systems

Greater understanding of biology in modem times has enabled significant breakthroughs in improving healthcare, quality of life, and eliminating many diseases and congenital illnesses. Simultaneously there is a move towards emulating nature and copying many of the wonders uncovered in biology, resulting in "biologically inspired" systems. Significant results have been reported in a wide range of areas, with systems inspired by nature enabling exploration, communication, and advances that were never dreamed possible just a few years ago. We warn, that as in many other fields of endeavor, we should be inspired by nature and biology, not engage in mimicry. We describe some results of biological inspiration that augur promise in terms of improving the safety and security of systems, and in developing self-managing systems, that we hope will ultimately lead to self-governing systems

Aganetha Dyck and the Honeybees: The Evolution of an Interspecies Creative Collaboration

This thesis is an exploration of Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck’s interspecies collaboration with honeybees. From 1991 to 2013 Dyck created hundreds of sculptures and installations with honeybees by placing found and handmade objects into commercial beehives. I argue that through this practice Dyck has created a unique approach to collaboration and interspecies relationality in that she establishes a symmetrical creative partnership wherein the production of art relies on both Dyck and the honeybees: their unique and complementary knowledges, skills, and access points into ecological and social communities. This thesis begins by situating the practice within posthumanist theory in that Dyck underscores honeybees as important ecological actors in our interconnected environment, which departs from the humanist boundary-making techniques and hierarchical arrangement of species thinking. I then trace Dyck’s career from her pre-honeybee art career to a retrospective of her work with honeybees, Aganetha Dyck: Guest Workers (2011, Confederation Centre for the Arts, Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PEI), to elucidate the developments in Dyck’s approach to the bees: initially Dyck employed honeybees as sculptors that provided distinctive materials, building methods, and metaphors for human sexuality; eventually this progressed into an appreciation for how the presence of the honeybees generates ideas about their entanglement with human culture, and especially about the emergence of Colony Collapse Disorder in the twenty-first century. Ultimately, their symmetrical collaboration provides two key insights: that art historical notions of collaboration depend upon shared language systems and are therefore inherently closed to interspecies authorship; and that by operating under the belief that there are no differences in value between organisms, this practice remains sensitive to its own broader context and successfully illuminates the interconnectedness at play in the world. Dyck and the honeybees are figured as individual historical entities whose multi-authored artworks, like fossils, mark their historical locatedness

The Nesting Ecology of Bumblebees

Bumblebees have undergone dramatic declines both in Britain and further afield during the last century. Bumblebees provide a crucial pollination service to both crops and wild flowers. For these reasons, they have received a great deal of research attention over the years. However, the ecology of wild bumblebee nests and the interactions between nests and other species, particularly vertebrates has been somewhat understudied. This is largely due to the difficulty in finding sufficient nests for well replicated study and a lack of appropriate methods of observation. Here, methods for locating bumblebee nests were trialled. It was found that a specially trained bumblebee nest detection dog did not discover nests any faster than people who had received minimal instruction. Numbers of nest site searching queens provide a reliable indication of suitable nesting habitat (i.e. places where nests are more likely to be found). In order to investigate aspects of bumblebee nesting ecology wild nests were observed by filming or regular observations by either researchers or members of the public. Some buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) nests were collected and all the bumblebees were genotyped to identify any foreign individuals. A review of British mammalian dietary literature was conducted to identify those that predate bumblebees. Great tits (Parus major) were filmed predating bumblebees at nests and it was clear from the literature and observations that badger (Meles meles), pine martens (Martes martes) and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) predate bumblebee nests, as well as the wax moth (Aphomia sociella). No evidence for predation by any other vertebrate species was found. Behaviours recorded included parasitism by Psithyrus, apparent nectar theft and possible usurpation by true bumblebees, egg-dumping by foreign queens and drifting and drifter reproduction by foreign workers. These events may cause harm to colonies (for example, through horizontal transmission of pathogens, or exploitation of the host nest’s resources). Alternatively where for example, usurpation by true bumblebees, egg-dumping or drifting is successful, these alternative reproductive strategies may increase the effective population size by enabling a single nest to produce reproductives of more than one breeding female. These data found that wild buff-tailed bumblebees (B. terrestris) nests with a greater proportion of workers infected with Crithidia bombi were less likely to produce gynes than those with fewer infected workers. Gyne production also varied dramatically between years. There is a growing body of evidence that a class of frequently used insecticides called neonicotinoids are negatively impacting bumblebees. An experiment was conducted using commercial colonies of buff-tailed bumblebees (B. terrestris) which were fed pollen and nectar which had been treated with the neonicotinoid imidacloprid at field realistic, sub-lethal levels. Treated colonies, produced 85-90% fewer gynes than control colonies. If this trend is representative of natural nests feeding on treated crops, for example, oilseed rape and field beans or garden flowers, then this would be expected to cause dramatic population declines. In this thesis methods for locating bumblebee nests have been tested, new behaviours have been identified (for example, egg-dumping by queens and predation by great tits) and estimations for rates of fecundity and destruction by various factors have been provided. Doubt has been cast over the status of some mammals as predators of bumblebee nests and estimates for gyne production, nest longevity, etc, have been given. More work is needed, especially observations of incipient nests as this is when the greatest losses are thought to occur

Montana Kaimin, October 7, 1986

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/studentnewspaper/8915/thumbnail.jp

Montanan, Fall 2007

This is the magazine of the University of Montana with news about the University for UM alumni as well as current faculty, students, staff, and administrators. This is volume 24, number 3.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/montanan/1157/thumbnail.jp

10.1 Techno-environments

Guy Beining, Bruno Sourdin, David Suzuki, Fernando Andolcetti, Marilyn Bowering, Darren Werschler-Henry, Marcello Diotallevi, Philippe Sollers, Virginia Raimundi, Cathy de Monchaux, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Nigel Spencer, Robert Sullivan, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Clemente Padin, W.A. Davison, Mel Freilicher, Ruggero Maggi, Richard Martel, Mauro Manfredi, Ken Mitchell, Francisco Aliseda, Opal L. Nations, George Swede, Norman Lock, Sky Gilbert, Gary Barwin, Ross Priddle, Darren Werschler-Henry, David Blair, Standard Schaefer, Michael Kelleher, Bill Howe, Eleni Stecopoulos, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Taylor Brody, Eckhard Gerdes, Vittori Baroni, Scott Pound, B.Z. Niditch, Chris Jensen, David Dellaflora, Derk Wynand, Sheila E. Murphy, Don Scob, Henning Mittendorf, Edward Mycue, Alanna Bondar, Brian Panhuyzen, Henry Ferris, Catherine Jenkins, Louise Bak, W. Mark Sutherland, Jason Camlot, Chris Belsito, Gordon Michael Allen, John M. Bennett, Mark Kerwin, Darius V. Snieckus, Mark Laliberte, Michelle April, Kathleen Yearwood, Hartmut Andryczuk, Drew Hayden Taylor, Jeff Loo. Cover Art: Julia Hoerner