Measuring the diversity of bees was provided in two rapeseed fields (Dešenice, Miletice) in western Bohemia, where various species of bees were caught at eight different locations during two periods (March - April, May June). The bees were collected by using Moerickeho cups (yellow traps) with a concentrated solution of water and detergent.

This diploma thesis ,,buckwheat attractivity for bees" deals mainly with native nectar plants for the processing of bees to honey. Work is folded in two parts. The theoretical part deals with the migration of colonies, both for nectar crops and plants with bee pollination needs. In ractical part of this thesis microscopic pollen analysis were performed and contents of pollen grains in honey from colonies, which were relocated to buckwheat growth was evaluated. Comparison of this honey with honey from the hives with similaar location, but without access to buckwheat growth was done.

<p>  </p> <p>Mutations drive evolution, generating variation that selection can act upon. Germline mutations are heritable genetic alterations that occur in the gametes prior to fertilization and until embryogenesis. The study of germline mutations is vital to understanding the genetic basis of heritable diseases and evolution. Somatic mutations are genetic alterations across the body that arise post-fertilization in non-gametic cells. Although somatic mutations in most animals cannot be inherited, they can still significantly affect an organism's reproductive success. In humans, for example, cancers can be the result of somatic mutations. Somatic mutations originate from both exogenous mutagens (e.g. UV radiation) and endogenous processes (e.g. DNA replication, aging). Beyond their origins, we know little about the distribution and frequency of somatic mutations across Animalia. Honey bees provide a unique model for the study of somatic mutations as they are haplodiploid: males come from unfertilized eggs and are haploid, while females come from fertilized eggs and are diploid. It is therefore possible to sequence and robustly identify somatic mutations in haploid males. I have developed a unique exploratory study to elucidate the distribution of somatic mutation accumulation in honey bee drones. With this, I aim to investigate processes generating somatic mutations. Our findings demonstrate that variance in somatic mutational load is better captured across individuals rather than within individuals (across tissues). I provide a comprehensive tissue atlas of somatic mutagenesis in haploids. Our findings drive us to enhance our view of mutagenesis from the tissue level down to the cellular level. </p>

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Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Although several women's leadership studies globally have identified a number of issues that women grapple with in their upward mobility in building a career, including gender differences as these relates to styles of leadership, and the behaviour of senior women toward other women in organisations, there has however not been a South African study documenting the existence of the Queen Bee syndrome within Multi-National Corporates, as a barrier to professional women's career growth. The "queen bee syndrome" is a term that has been used to describe women managers who find themselves within a predominantly male environment and have alienated other women by their behaviour, and are therefore perceived to be a barrier to the advancement of other women coming through the ranks. These women fail to assist other women in their aspirations to advance and do not work towards the advancement and empowerment of other women within the corporate sector. The queen bees are normally very protective of their powerbase and attempt to surround themselves with men. They do not believe in female solidarity behaviour and do not actively seek to mentor or coach other women. The aim of the present study is to investigate the existence of the queen bee syndrome in South African retail banks. The following aspects, as they relate to the queen bee syndrome, are examined: • The establishment of the existence of the queen bee syndrome. • The reason for the existence of queen bees. • The possible implication of the existence of queen bee behaviour for the organisations. A total of 25 women in executive and senior management positions, from South Africa's 5 retail banks, were interviewed for the present study. These women were asked to relate their unique personal experiences and perceptions of queen bee behaviour. The method of Content analysis was used to analyse the responses received through the interviews. The findings of the present study clearly indicated that women still face barriers to advancement within corporate organisations, and that organisations need to make adjustments to their internal cultures, structure and strategy to accommodate the growing workforce of females who are rapidly joining the management ranks. The blame for women's lack of progress into senior positions cannot be generally attributed to males only, as women also need to work at growing, developing, educating and empowering themselves in order to facilitate their own advancement, besides helping, supporting and guiding other women in their career progressions. The present study also found that senior women managers and women executives work actively towards being coaches and mentors to women coming through the ranks and assist them in their development towards management roles. The present study's findings indicated that senior women executives and managers currently support women development agendas within their organisations, and also that the presence of the queen bees did not serve as a stumbling block to the advancement of the sample of women who took part in this study. The study was limited to 5 retail banks of South Africa only. Future studies can investigate other sectors and work at providing tools that will assist women in combating the behaviour of the queen bee. It might also be useful to determine whether women are more supportive or less supportive of other women, and women's issues and programs.

Les années 1860-1880 forment une charnière dans l’histoire de la démocratie britannique, car cette période fut celle de la seconde loi de Réforme, qui étendit le droit de vote à de plus larges sections des classes ouvrières. Ce changement politique fut le fruit de nombreuses manifestations nationales dont les syndicats furent les figures de proue. L’engagement en faveur de l’Union au cours de la guerre de Sécession, et en faveur de l’unité nationale italienne et polonaise, fut le vecteur de l’entrée en politique des classes ouvrières. La construction de la citoyenneté ouvrière est étudiée ici au travers des articles du Bee-Hive, journal ouvrier radical et libéral qui fut créé en 1861 pour réclamer en priorité le droit de vote. / The 1860s-1870s form a turning point in the history of British democracy, because these were the years when the second Reform Act was passed, which extended the right to vote to larger sections of the working classes. Such political change was the result of numerous national demonstrations organised by the Trades’ Unions. By showing their strong commitment to the Union during the American Civil War, and to Italian and Polish national unity, the working classes signalled their determination to enter the field of politics. This doctoral thesis studies the construction of working class citizenship through the pages of the Bee-Hive, a radical and liberal working class paper primarily created in 1861 to claim for suffrage.

4 Summary Altogether, the six most common bee viruses which infect the honey bee (Apis mellifera) were monitored in the territory of the Czech Republic between 2006 and 2009. Parallel infections of viruses (DWV, ABPV and BQCV) in bee adults and parallel co- infection of viruses with fungal diseases caused by Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae were confirmed by PCR tests. A new sensitive method of detection of the originator of the American foulbrood (Paenibacillus larvae) from bee debris was developed for the practical use of detection of AFB disease in bee populations. Various approaches for the extraction of spores from bee debris and lyses of spores were compared. The sensitivity of PCR tests for the presence of Paenibacillus larvae in debris was compared with the classic cultivation method. The PCR method for the detection American foulbrood was further studied and developed to be more efficient. A new method, based on a matrix-like sample re-arrangement and a use of pooled samples, has been developed for testing 1000 samples in 35 PCR reactions. Another goal was to develop a robust and fast screening method for American foulbrood based on the cultivation test using paper sheets RIDA®COUNT with a specific cultivation medium, specific selection conditions for Paenibacillus larvae and chromogen visualization...

This thesis looks at the role of wild pollinators in providing services to crops. Two data chapters (2 and 3) are accompanied by a modelling chapter (4) which build on the findings of the field studies. The thesis ends with an overview of the trends in pollinator populations and how these relate to the needs of farmers in the UK (chap-ter 5). It is often assumed that commercial pollinators are appropriate substitutes of wild pollinators on farms; however this view neglects the differing roles that particular pollinator taxa might play in providing pollination services. For example, crops with a long growing system may require multiple pollinators to ensure pollination throughout the season. Strawberries in Scotland have an extremely long growing season, flowering from April to August. Chapter 2 presents a study showing season-al complementarity between different pollinating taxa across strawberry farms in Scotland. Pollinators of strawberries also differed in their responses to weather pa-rameters indicating that preserving multiple pollinator taxa could ensure yields un-der different weather scenarios. The requirements of a long-growing season and ad-verse weather may be specific to strawberry production in Scotland, but the valua-tion of multiple taxa can be generalised to systems with differing needs, and also to different ecosystem services. Wild bees are not only valuable for providing complementary services to commercial pollinators, but are also valuable in the longer term as it is unknown whether com-mercial pollinators will be available in the future. There are threats to the supply of honeybees which have already triggered price rises; such supply shocks could force farmers to leave production or to seek other ways of providing pollination, including supporting wild pollinators. However farm management pressures, in particular pes-ticide use, could threaten the ability of wild pollinators to continue to support crop production. The interplay of pesticides and pollination is discussed in chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 presents an experiment undertaken on soft-fruit farms which had and had not used the neonicotinoid, thiacloprid, and shows that nests exposed to thia-cloprid had higher worker mortality, and lower male production than those at con-trol farms. This has implications both for pollination services now, as worker mor-tality will reduce the number of bees visiting farms, and also for the maintenance of future pollination services through decreased reproductive capacity of exposed nests. Chapter 4 uses a theoretical model to link pesticide use and habitat use to pollina-tion services, and shows that the use of commercial pollinators could mask the de-cline in wild populations, making local extinctions more likely. Chapter 5 sets out the status and extent of pollinators in the UK, along with popu-lation trends, trends in habitat and trends in pesticide use to provide an overview of how well pollination services are likely to meet the ongoing needs of crop farmers.

Abstract A critical equity and change enabler, literacy/education continues to prove very challenging to transform in South Africa. Having been a major apartheid resource through Bantu Education in entrenching South Africa‟s existing two worlds, business intervention in this crucial sector is the overriding interest of this research. How corporate social responsibility in education, assisted by public policy, reinforces inequality in the South African society, even as it attempts to alleviate poverty, is the thrust of the argument here around which many questions evolve. Some of the questions to which this thesis attempts to offer answers, therefore, are: What informs how business invests in education? How is public policy not an enabler of business investment in education? The objective is to determine the extent to which business investment in literacy/education can empower meaningful change in a market-driven South African society. The argument reiterated in this thesis is that Corporate Social Investment (CSI) in education has the potential to be a strong change driver. Unfortunately, its current positioning in the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BB-BEE) strategy is weak and its effect on change equally weak. The extent to which CSI in literacy can facilitate transformation in South Africa is highly dependent on the elimination of the many challenges beyond the scope of business endeavour. The challenges include the low weighting of CSI in the BEE agenda which is a hindrance to mind-set change about the relevance of education to South Africa‟s transformation. Employing the qualitative method, using elite interviewing, and relying on written records, this thesis starts off by finding the South African definition of the word Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vis-à-vis global definitions. While Corporate Social Investment (CSI), it was discovered, is the preferred word in the private sector, findings here reveal that irrespective of what it is called in South Africa, CSR or CSI, both terms are fundamentally the same because, more in South Africa than anywhere else, the moral values that drive CSR or CSI are the same. That is, social justice, equity, and transformation. In order to determine its potency in the change process, a cursory assessment of CSI in the various sectors of education reinforces the place of the definition in that process. As an „investment‟, CSI is driven by market forces. Inherent in these forces are the inequalities that motivate capitalism and CSI is not insulated from those forces. Findings here emphasise that CSI, as yet another capitalist means of intervention in education, is thus severely challenged to be more than a tip of the ice-berg in the nation‟s change process. Very importantly, this thesis shows how paradoxically, public policy through the DTI Codes of Conduct for BB-BEE further disempowers CSI in education. As a “residual element” with an insignificant weighting on the BEE Scorecard, this research argues that legislation diminishes the importance of education as an empowerment driver. The inadequate creation of jobs further makes the benefit of education to transformation even less stimulating. It concludes that although CSR or CSI has enormous potential to drive change, the BEE legislation, the conceptualisation of CSR, and other micro issues evolving around poverty conspire to limit the extent to which CSI can empower change.

In this thesis I study how the relationships between beekeepers and bees have evolved over time in the region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and how the beekeepers have experienced the environmental changes in this region over time. Bees and beekeeping practices generate important incomes for rural communities in Rio Grande do Sul, but also, they support agricultural systems through pollinating crops and increasing plants nutritional value. Inspired by historical ecology and multispecies narratives I explore how the human-bee relationships have been developed throughout history. Based on interviews and using the narrative tool of storytelling we meet the different beekeeper’s thoughts and perceptions when it comes to their relations and motivations in keeping bees. Furthermore, this thesis also explores the challenges and opportunities described by the interviewed beekeepers, by comparing past historical changes and present-day debates around the bees. Landscape changes, loss of biodiversity and overuse of pesticides in agricultural crops have affected the wellbeing of the bees. The obstacles and organisations of beekeeper’s are also considered. Beekeeping is discussed as a way to create ecological awareness and is promoted as a way to increase not just bee’s wellbeing living in Rio Grande do Sul, but also create better dialogues among different actors.