Diversity of Hymenoptera, cultivated plants and management practices in home garden agroecosystems, Kyrgyz Republic

Pollination-dependent fruit trees grown in home gardens play an important role in the agricultural based economy of Central Asian countries, yet little is known about the status of pollinator communities, the cultivated plant composition or the factors that influence management practices in Kyrgyz home garden agroecosystems. As agricultural systems are human created and managed, a logical approach to their study blends anthropological and ecological methods, an ethnoecological approach. Over three years, I investigated how species richness and abundance of Hymenoptera, cultivated plants, and home garden management were related using quantitative and qualitative methods in the Issyk-kul Man and Biosphere reserve. Structured surveys were undertaken with heads of households using a random sample stratified by village. Gardens were then mapped with participation of household members to inventory edible species in gardens, most of which are pollinator-dependent, and to compare home garden diversity as reported by respondents during interviews. Apple diversity was studied to the variety level to understand respondents’ classification system in the context of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. Household members identified 52 edible plant species when mapping the garden, compared with 32 reported when interviewed. The proportion of plant species received from others through exchange and the number of plots cultivated significantly explained the variation in edible plant diversity among gardens. Insects were sampled in gardens and orchards to determine potential pollinator community composition and the effect of different management practices on Hymenoptera richness and abundance. I collected 756 Hymenoptera individuals (56 bee; 12 wasp species); 12 species were new records for Kyrgyzstan or within Kyrgyzstan. Economic pressures to intensify cultivation could impact management practices that currently promote diversity. A home garden development initiative was undertaken to study management practice improvement. Participants in the initiative had higher adoption rates than controls of management practices that improve long-term yield, ecological sustainability and stability of home gardens. Home gardens, as currently managed, support abundant and diverse pollinator communities and have high cultivated plant diversity with few differences in community composition between garden management types.

Analysis of Heterokaryon Formation in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense.

Fusarium oxysporum forma specialis cubense is a soilborne phytopathogen that infects banana. The true evolutionary identity of this so called species, Fusarium oxysporum, is still unknown. Many techniques have been applied in order to gain insight for the observed genetic diversity of this species. The current classification system is based on vegetative compatibility groups (VCG's). Vegetative compatibility is a self non-self recognition system in which only those belonging to a VCG can form stable heterokaryons, cells containing two distinct nuclei. Heterokaryons in turn, are formed from hypha! anastomosis, the fusion of two hyphae. Furthermore, subsequent to heterokaryon formation potential mechanisms exist which may generate genetic variability. One is through viral transfer upon hyphal anastomosis. The other mechanism is a form of mitotic recombination referred to as the parasexual cycle. Very little research has been performed to directly obser.ve the cellular events; hypha! anastomosis, heterokaryon formation, and the parasexual cycle in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. The purpose of this research was to design and use methods which would allow for the detection of hypha! anastomosis and heterokaryon formation, as well as any characteristics surrounding this event, within and between VCG's in Foe. First, some general growth properties were recorded: the number of nuclei per hypha, the size ofthe hyphal tip cell, the size of the cell adjacent to the hypha! tip (pre-tip) cell, and the number of cells to the first branch point. Second, four methods were designed in order to assay hyphal anastomosis and heterokaryon formation: 1) pairings on membrane: phase or brightfield microscopy, 2) pairings on membrane: fluorescence microscopy, 3) spore crosses: fluorescence microscopy, and 4) double picks in fractionated MMA. All of these methods were promtsmg.

The Role of GIS in DRR: Classifying and Improving GIS Capabilities in Small Towns and Rural Areas

Optimizing GIS capability does not always require that the municipality obtain cutting edge professionals and resources. This paper offers a disaster risk reduction (DRR) design methodology for small towns and rural areas that employs a multi-variable classification system, enabling customization for effective DRR. Determining appropriate GIS capacity requires that a community first be evaluated in order to identify its disaster risk reduction/disaster management (DRR/DM) requirements. These requirements are then considered in conjunction with the municipality's resources to establish the desired capability. Qualification levels for major aspects of GIS capability with respect to DRR/DM are provided along with descriptions of each level and suggested procedures for advancement to the next level. It should be noted that a municipality can be classified at a different level with respect to different variables. Needs vary according to the community, thus attainment of a uniform capability level may not be necessary.

Barcelona: Espacio literario, espacio urbano en la novela Catalana femenina del Siglo XX

This dissertation analyses, through a rhetorical framework and a literary approach, texts written in Catalan and Castilian by four Catalan female writers (Dolors Monserdà, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Esther Tusquets, Monserrat Roig ), whose works cover from 1900 to the 1980. Utilizing this urban feminine literature, it discusses the historical-geographical vision about the changes in Catalan society during the twentieth century with its consequences for the urban space, especially the space occupied by women. It is also established that Barcelona's recovery and literary vindication by women has been done through the written text, as literary affirmation and as a matter of conscience in which the city could not be summed up as a backdrop, but rather as an active part of a literary creation, active in the double sense, as a socio-historical space in the novel and as characteristic of their works. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the use of the city as a setting for the novels determines and characterizes those female writers' texts. Consequently, these writings are literary material relevant and essential to the understanding of the Barcelonian women's space. However their use of space is not arbitrary, on the contrary it corresponds to a social order established by the patriarchy where the relation of women to the world is embodied in the intentional and socially restricted space and movements of their bodies. The theoretical perspectives of this study are based on Montserrat Roig's feminist urban space theories. Her theory advocates the right to individuality, denouncing the patriarchal and hierarchical social system present in gendered space from the outside male world to the domestic feminized space. I also turn to the writings of Maria Aurèlia Capmany, who addresses cultural aspects of women's roles revealing a purposive controlled patriarchal society according to a historical-geographical analysis. This study of texts permits a new reading of the Catalan capital and demonstrates that Catalan women writers have consciously willed to give birth to a new history of the city: the history of women as protagonist citizens, producers, reproducers, and consumers of the space represented by the Catalan capital

Diversity of Hymenoptera, Cultivated Plants and Management Practices in Home Garden Agroecosystems, Kyrgyz Republic

Pollination-dependent fruit trees grown in home gardens play an important role in the agricultural based economy of Central Asian countries, yet little is known about the status of pollinator communities, the cultivated plant composition or the factors that influence management practices in Kyrgyz home garden agroecosystems. As agricultural systems are human created and managed, a logical approach to their study blends anthropological and ecological methods, an ethnoecological approach. Over three years, I investigated how species richness and abundance of Hymenoptera, cultivated plants, and home garden management were related using quantitative and qualitative methods in the Issyk-kul Man and Biosphere reserve. Structured surveys were undertaken with heads of households using a random sample stratified by village. Gardens were then mapped with participation of household members to inventory edible species in gardens, most of which are pollinator-dependent, and to compare home garden diversity as reported by respondents during interviews. Apple diversity was studied to the variety level to understand respondents’ classification system in the context of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. Household members identified 52 edible plant species when mapping the garden, compared with 32 reported when interviewed. The proportion of plant species received from others through exchange and the number of plots cultivated significantly explained the variation in edible plant diversity among gardens. Insects were sampled in gardens and orchards to determine potential pollinator community composition and the effect of different management practices on Hymenoptera richness and abundance. I collected 756 Hymenoptera individuals (56 bee; 12 wasp species); 12 species were new records for Kyrgyzstan or within Kyrgyzstan. Economic pressures to intensify cultivation could impact management practices that currently promote diversity. A home garden development initiative was undertaken to study management practice improvement. Participants in the initiative had higher adoption rates than controls of management practices that improve long-term yield, ecological sustainability and stability of home gardens. Home gardens, as currently managed, support abundant and diverse pollinator communities and have high cultivated plant diversity with few differences in community composition between garden management types.

Barcelona: Espacio Literario, Espacio Urbano en la Novela Catalana Femenina del Siglo XX

This dissertation analyses, through a rhetorical framework and a literary approach, texts written in Catalan and Castilian by four Catalan female writers (Dolors Monserdà, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Esther Tusquets, Monserrat Roig ), whose works cover from 1900 to the 1980. Utilizing this urban feminine literature, it discusses the historical-geographical vision about the changes in Catalan society during the twentieth century with its consequences for the urban space, especially the space occupied by women. It is also established that Barcelona’s recovery and literary vindication by women has been done through the written text, as literary affirmation and as a matter of conscience in which the city could not be summed up as a backdrop, but rather as an active part of a literary creation, active in the double sense, as a socio-historical space in the novel and as characteristic of their works. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the use of the city as a setting for the novels determines and characterizes those female writers’ texts. Consequently, these writings are literary material relevant and essential to the understanding of the Barcelonian women’s space. However their use of space is not arbitrary, on the contrary it corresponds to a social order established by the patriarchy where the relation of women to the world is embodied in the intentional and socially restricted space and movements of their bodies. The theoretical perspectives of this study are based on Montserrat Roig’s feminist urban space theories. Her theory advocates the right to individuality, denouncing the patriarchal and hierarchical social system present in gendered space from the outside male world to the domestic feminized space. I also turn to the writings of Maria Aurèlia Capmany, who addresses cultural aspects of women’s roles revealing a purposive controlled patriarchal society according to a historical-geographical analysis. This study of texts permits a new reading of the Catalan capital and demonstrates that Catalan women writers have consciously willed to give birth to a new history of the city: the history of women as protagonist citizens, producers, reproducers, and consumers of the space represented by the Catalan capital