ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CO-EXISTENCE MEASURES IN MAIZE CROP AND SEED PRODUCTION - A CASE STUDY OF FRANCE

Paper prepared for presentation at the Second International Conference on Coexistence between Genetically Modified (GM) and non-GM based Agricultural Supply Chains (GMCC) Montpellier (France), 14th and 15th November 2005Genetic engineering, GMO, Maize, Co-existence, Agricultural and Food Policy, L51, O32,

Training in realistic virtual environments: Impact on user performance in a motor imagery-based Brain-Computer-Interface

A brain–computer interface (BCI) is a system that enables people to control an external device by means of their brain activity, without the need of performing muscular activity. BCI systems are normally first tested on a controlled environment before being used in a real, daily scenario. While this is due to security reasons, the conditions that BCI systems users will eventually face in their usual environment may affect their performance in an unforeseen way. In this paper, we try to bridge this gap by presenting a trained BCI user a virtual environment that includes realistic distracting stimuli and testing whether the complexity or the type of such stimuli affects user performance. 11 subjects navigated two virtual environments: a static park and the same one with visual and auditory stimuli simulating typical distractors from a real park. No significant differences were found when using a realistic environment; in other words, the presence of different distracting stimuli did not worsen user performance.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Application of DEXiPM as a tool to co-design pome fruit systems towards sustainability

The design of fruit production systems considering the latest innovations is a real challenge. Before being tested in an experimental station or in real farm conditions, the global sustainability of these newly designed orchards needs to be evaluated. Based on the DEXiPM® model, the DEXiPM-pomefruit tool has been designed to make an ex ante assessment of the sustainability of innovative orchard systems. This model is based on a decision tree breaking the decisional problems of sustainability assessment into simpler units, referring to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Based on two case studies, we present here the steps and thought process of our group to improve fruit production systems towards innovative and integrated production systems. DEXiPM-pomefruit tool has been tested on apple and pear production systems in the frame of a working group of European researchers. It proved to be sufficiently reliable to select the most promising innovations in a given context. DEXiPM-pomefruit was also used as a dashboard to determine strengths and weaknesses of the tested production systems and therefore to identify improvements

Gene expression profile of peripheral blood lymphocytes from renal cell carcinoma patients treated with IL-2, Interferon-α and dendritic cell vaccine

© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 7 (2012): e50221, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050221.Lymphocytes are a key component of the immune system and their differentiation and function are directly influenced by cancer. We examined peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) gene expression as a biomarker of illness and treatment effect using the Affymetrix Human Gene ST1 platform in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) who received combined treatment with IL-2, interferon-?-2a and dendritic cell vaccine. We examined gene expression, cytokine levels in patient serum and lymphocyte subsets as determined by flow cytometry (FCM). Pre-treatment PBLs from patients with mRCC exhibit a gene expression profile and serum cytokine profile consistent with inflammation and proliferation not found in healthy donors (HD). PBL gene expression from patients with mRCC showed increased mRNA of genes involved with T-cell and TREG-cell activation pathways, which was also reflected in lymphocyte subset distribution. Overall, PBL gene expression post-treatment (POST) was not significantly different than pre-treatment (PRE). Nevertheless, treatment related changes in gene expression (post-treatment minus pre-treatment) revealed an increased expression of T-cell and B-cell receptor signaling pathways in responding (R) patients compared to non-responding (NR) patients. In addition, we observed down-regulation of TREG-cell pathways post-treatment in R vs. NR patients. While exploratory in nature, this study supports the hypothesis that enhanced inflammatory cytotoxic pathways coupled with blunting of the regulatory pathways is necessary for effective anti-cancer activity associated with immune therapy. This type of analysis can potentially identify additional immune therapeutic targets in patients with mRCC.This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (RO1 CA5648, R21CA112761, P20RR016437, and P30CA023108)

AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge

Describing and locating cropping systems on a regional scale : a review

At regional scale issues such as diffuse pollution, water scarcity and pollen transfer are closely related to the diversity and location of cropping systems because agriculture interacts with many other activities. Although sustainable land use solutions for territorial development and natural resource management are needed, very few agro-environmental studies account for both the coherence and the spatial variability of cropping systems. The originality of this article is to review methods that describe and locate cropping systems within large areas. We mainly based our analysis on four case studies using the concept of cropping systems on a regional scale, but differing in their objectives and extents. We found that describing and locating cropping systems in space meets not only decision-making stakes but also a scientific stake that allows multi-simulations over large areas when models require cropping system information. Simulation models are indeed necessary when the study aims at estimating cropping system externalities. Then, the involved process determines the extent, and the model determines the support unit, unless socio-economic considerations prevail. In this case, as well as when no model is involved, it is often considerations related to stakeholders that determine extent and support unit choices. On a regional scale, the cropping system must be described by only a few variables whose selection depends on the study objective and the involved processes. Collecting cropping system information for all support units is often simplified by identifying determining factors of cropping systems. However, obtaining deterministic relations between easily accessible factors and cropping system variables is not always possible, and sometime accessing modalities of determining factors for all support units is also difficult. We found that describing and locating cropping systems relied very much on expertise and detailed survey data. The development of land management practice monitoring would facilitate this description work