Evaluating Resource Use in Low Input Systems

Work package 5.1 aims at the evaluation of existing accreditation mechanisms and economic approaches related to low-input livestock farming systems and thus of sustainable development processes through a multi-criteria evaluation of the public goods delivered by different production systems, management techniques and breeding innovations. To this end, we are conducting a comparative analysis of approaches to low-input livestock production, based on the multi-criteria assessment of the performances of production schemes in the delivery of public goods

Neuromodulation in Experimetal Animal Models of Epilepsy

Epilepsy is the most common serious brain disorder affecting 0.5-1% of the general population. This neurological disorder consists of recurrent seizures, resulting from excessive, uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain. Despite the pharmacological development of new treatments, still one third of the epilepsy patients does not respond sufficiently to anti-epileptic drugs (AED) and are called refractory patients. Hence, there is a constant impetus to search for other treatment strategies like epilepsy surgery, vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation. Besides the ongoing research on the efficacy of anti-epileptic treatments in suppressing seizures (anti-seizure effect), we want to seek for therapies that can lead to plastic changes in the epileptic network and in this way have a modulating effect. The impact of such therapies cannot be overlooked, because they may slow down processes underlying epilepsy, might prevent or even cure epilepsy. Neuropharmacological therapy with levetiracetam (LEV) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) are two novel treatments for refractory epilepsy. Acute application of both treatment options can be very effective. LEV can act rapidly on seizures in both animals and humans. In addition, preclinical studies suggest that LEV may have anti-epileptogenic and neuroprotective effects, with the potential to slow or arrest disease progression. VNS as well can have an immediate effect on seizures in animals and patients with in addition a cumulative effect after prolonged treatment. Studies in man are hampered by the heterogeneity of patient populations (age, course of the epilepsy, type of epilepsy, AED regime and genetic background) and the difficulty to study therapy-related effects in a systematic way. Therefore, investigation was performed utilizing two models mimicking epilepsy in humans. They are both chronic models with seizures evolving from true, genetically-driven epileptogenesis. Genetic absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) have inborn absence epilepsy and Fast rats have a genetically determined sensitivity for electrical amygdala kindling, which is an excellent model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Our findings support the hypothesis that these treatments can be considered as neuromodulatory: changes are induced in central nervous system function or organization as a result of influencing and initiating neurophysiological signals

Voluntary Provision of Public Knowledge Goods: Group-Based Social Preferences and Coalition Formation

In this paper we develop a private-collective model of voluntary public knowledge production, where group-based social preferences have an impact on coalition formation. Our theoretical model builds on the large empirical literature on voluntary production of pooled public knowledge goods, including source code in communities of software developers or data provided to open access data repositories. Our analysis shows under which conditions social preferences such as 'group belonging' or 'peer approval' influence stable coalition size, as such rationalising several stylized facts emerging from large scale surveys of Free/Libre/Open-Source software developers (David and Shapiro, 2008), previously unaccounted for. Furthermore, heterogeneity of social preferences is added to the model to study the formation of stable, but mixed coalitions

Networked innovation and coalition formation: the effect of group-based social preferences

In this paper, we study the production and dissemination of public knowledge goods, such as technological knowledge, generated by a network of voluntarily cooperating innovators. We develop a private-collective model of public knowledge production in networked innovation systems, where group-based social preferences have an impact on the coalition formation of developers. Our model builds on the large empirical literature on voluntary production of pooled public knowledge goods, including source code in communities of software developers or data provided to open access data repositories. Our analysis shows under which conditions social preferences, such as ‘group belonging’ or ‘peer approval’, influence the stable coalition size, as such rationalising several stylized facts emerging from large-scale surveys of open-source software developers, previously unaccounted for. Furthermore, heterogeneity of social preferences is added to the model to study the formation of stable but mixed coalitions

Study for the implementation in Belgium of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit‐sharing to the Convention on Biological Diversity Final report

Study commissioned by Federal Public Service for Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment, Directorate‐General for the Environment, Service for multilateral and strategic matters (SPSCAE) Bruxelles Environnement/Leefmilieu Brussel (IBGE‐BIM) Vlaamse overheid, Departement Leefmilieu, Natuur en Energie (LNE) Service public de Wallonie, Direction générale opérationnelle Agriculture, Ressources naturelles et Environnement (DGARNE

The challenges faced by living stock collections in the USA

Citation: McCluskey, K., Boundy-Mills, K., Dye, G., Ehmke, E., Gunnell, G. F., Kiaris, H., . . . Grotewold, E. (2017). The challenges faced by living stock collections in the USA. Elife, 6, 8. doi:10.7554/eLife.24611Many discoveries in the life sciences have been made using material from living stock collections. These collections provide a uniform and stable supply of living organisms and related materials that enhance the reproducibility of research and minimize the need for repetitive calibration. While collections differ in many ways, they all require expertise in maintaining living organisms and good logistical systems for keeping track of stocks and fulfilling requests for specimens. Here, we review some of the contributions made by living stock collections to research across all branches of the tree of life, and outline the challenges they face

Introduction and overview to the special issue on biodiversity conservation, access and benefit- sharing and traditional knowledge

Abstract The concept of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) in genetic resources as maintained by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims at promoting the conservation of biodiversity and equity between the North and the South at the same time. Its implementation challenges various disciplines. First, from an economic point of view, designing efficient ABS provisions turns to be highly complex given its multi-task and multi-agent problem structure, and given the lack of evidence that the economic benefits drawn from the exploitation of genetic resources will suffice to fund the preservation of biodiversity. Second, from a legal point of view, the principles of the CBD are very general. Their proper implementation requires the design of new intellectual property rights and new liability regimes, which challenge the current legal doctrines and have complex interactions with pre-existing legal regimes. Third, from the perspective of political and management sciences, the implementation of the CBD raises the question of how to design institutional frameworks that enable both democratic decision making taking into account the interests of the diverse stakeholders at the global level and collective learning considering the fact that humanity is dealing with complex problems characterized by numerous dimensions and high uncertainties. This special issue assembles a set of papers dealing with these issues and questions.