Cultivating the Future Based on Science. Cultivating the Future Based on Science. Volume 2 - Livestock, Socio-economy and Cross disciplinary Research in Organic Agriculture. Proceedings of the Second Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), held at the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress in Cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Consorzio ModenaBio, 18 – 20 June 2008 in Modena, Italy

From 18 to 20 June 2008 the second conference of the International Society of Agriculture Research was held in Modena, Italy, in conjunction with the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress OWC . The proceedings, which are available in the FiBL shop (PDF/hardcopy) contain 380 papers related to all aspects of organic farming. The second volume gives insights into the increasing research activities on animal husbandry, socio-economics, interdisciplinary research projects. Furthermore it contains the papers for the five workshops of the Integrated project Quality Low Input Food QLIF which was held as part of the ISOFAR conference

Can smartwatches replace smartphones for posture tracking?

This paper introduces a human posture tracking platform to identify the human postures of sitting, standing or lying down, based on a smartwatch. This work develops such a system as a proof-of-concept study to investigate a smartwatch's ability to be used in future remote health monitoring systems and applications. This work validates the smartwatches' ability to track the posture of users accurately in a laboratory setting while reducing the sampling rate to potentially improve battery life, the first steps in verifying that such a system would work in future clinical settings. The algorithm developed classifies the transitions between three posture states of sitting, standing and lying down, by identifying these transition movements, as well as other movements that might be mistaken for these transitions. The system is trained and developed on a Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, and the algorithm was validated through a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation of 20 subjects. The system can identify the appropriate transitions at only 10 Hz with an F-score of 0.930, indicating its ability to effectively replace smart phones, if needed

Collective Action and Social Innovation in the Energy Sector: A Mobilization Model Perspective

This conceptual paper applies a mobilization model to Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) in the energy sector. The goal is to synthesize aspects of sustainable transition theories with social movement theory to gain insights into how CAIs mobilize to bring about niche-regime change in the context of the sustainable energy transition. First, we demonstrate how energy communities, as a representation of CAIs, relate to social innovation. We then discuss how CAIs in the energy sector are understood within both sustainability transition theory and institutional dynamics theory. While these theories are adept at describing the role energy CAIs have in the energy transition, they do not yet offer much insight concerning the underlying social dimensions for the formation and upscaling of energy CAIs. Therefore, we adapt and apply a mobilization model to gain insight into the dimensions of mobilization and upscaling of CAIs in the energy sector. By doing so we show that the expanding role of CAIs in the energy sector is a function of their power acquisition through mobilization processes. We conclude with a look at future opportunities and challenges of CAIs in the energy transition.This research was conducted under the COMETS (Collective action Models for Energy Transition and Social Innovation) project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Program of the European Commission, grant number 837722

The Janthinobacterium sp. HH01 genome encodes a homologue of the V. cholerae CqsA and L. pneumophila LqsA autoinducer synthases

Janthinobacteria commonly form biofilms on eukaryotic hosts and are known to synthesize antibacterial and antifungal compounds. Janthinobacterium sp. HH01 was recently isolated from an aquatic environment and its genome sequence was established. The genome consists of a single chromosome and reveals a size of 7.10 Mb, being the largest janthinobacterial genome so far known. Approximately 80% of the 5,980 coding sequences (CDSs) present in the HH01 genome could be assigned putative functions. The genome encodes a wealth of secretory functions and several large clusters for polyketide biosynthesis. HH01 also encodes a remarkable number of proteins involved in resistance to drugs or heavy metals. Interestingly, the genome of HH01 apparently lacks the N-acylhomoserine lactone (AHL)-dependent signaling system and the AI-2-dependent quorum sensing regulatory circuit. Instead it encodes a homologue of the Legionella- and Vibrio-like autoinducer (lqsA/cqsA) synthase gene which we designated jqsA. The jqsA gene is linked to a cognate sensor kinase (jqsS) which is flanked by the response regulator jqsR. Here we show that a jqsA deletion has strong impact on the violacein biosynthesis in Janthinobacterium sp. HH01 and that a jqsA deletion mutant can be functionally complemented with the V. cholerae cqsA and the L. pneumophila lqsA genes

Reducing Global Warming: The Potential of Organic Agriculture

For a successful outcome at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December, viable policy paths for effective climate change mitigation need to be provided. In addition, adaptation is unavoidable. One key point is the integration of agriculture (accounting for 10-12% of global emissions, Smith et al. 2007) in a post-2012 agreement. Its main potential lies in its significant capacity to sequester CO2 in soils, and in its synergies between mitigation and adaptation. This potential is best utilized employing sustainable agricultural practices such as organic agriculture (OA). Conservative estimates of the total mitigation potential of OA amount to 4.5-6.5 Gt CO2eq/yr (of ca. 50 Gt CO2eq total global greenhouse gas emissions). Depending on agricultural management practices, much higher amounts seem however possible. Organic agriculture complements emission reduction efforts with its major sequestration potential, which is based on the intensive humus production (requiring CO2) of the fertile soils. In comparison to conventional agriculture, OA also directly contributes to emission reductions as it emits less N2O from nitrogen application (due to lower nitrogen input), less N2O and CH4 from biomass waste burning (as burning is avoided), and requires less energy, mainly due to zero chemical fertilizer use. Its synergies between mitigation and adaptation also exert a positive influence. This in part due to the increased soil quality, which reduces vulnerability to drought periods, extreme precipitation events and waterlogging. In addition, the high diversity of crops and farming activities in organic agriculture, together with its lower input costs, reduce economic risks. OA has additional benefits beyond its direct relevance for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and climate variability, as it helps to increase food security and water protection. In the following, key points of organic agriculture are briefly listed, together with references for detailed information. The data refer to the annual potential of a global shift of agriculture to organic practices

Impact of agricultural land conversion on climate change

Climate change and land use conversion are two major global environmental issues. A claim is made that climate change has brought new challenges for global land use, while land use conversion is hardly realized as a major driver for climate change. Using mapping techniques, this study aims to investigate the relationship between climate change and agricultural land conversion (ALC), by which land is converted from agricultural to other uses (e.g., urban areas, national and natural parks, roads, industrial areas, and afforestation projects). CO2 emission is considered as the main impact of climate change, and agricultural land conversion is regarded as the most important global land use. In this study, data are obtained from two databases: the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the period of 1962-2011. Considering the FAO (2015) classification, the countries are categorized into five different groups (high-income non-OECD, high-income OECD, upper-middle-, lower-middle-, and low-income countries). Economies were divided into several income groups according to 2014 gross national income per capita. The results show that agricultural areas in high-income countries have decreased, while in low- to middle-income countries, they have increased. The highest CO2 emissions can be observed, especially in high-income countries, whereas the lowest CO2 emissions happen in the low- and lower-middle-income countries. The results further show that there is a positive relationship between CO2 emissions and ALC across the world. It can be observed that CO2 emission is increasing where agricultural area is declining. On the contrary, CO2 emission is declining where agricultural area is increasing

Technology Integration around the Geographic Information: A State of the Art

One of the elements that have popularized and facilitated the use of geographical information on a variety of computational applications has been the use of Web maps; this has opened new research challenges on different subjects, from locating places and people, the study of social behavior or the analyzing of the hidden structures of the terms used in a natural language query used for locating a place. However, the use of geographic information under technological features is not new, instead it has been part of a development and technological integration process. This paper presents a state of the art review about the application of geographic information under different approaches: its use on location based services, the collaborative user participation on it, its contextual-awareness, its use in the Semantic Web and the challenges of its use in natural languge queries. Finally, a prototype that integrates most of these areas is presented