Action versus Result-Oriented Schemes in a Grassland Agroecosystem: A Dynamic Modelling Approach

Effects of agri-environment schemes (AES) on biodiversity remain controversial. While most AES are action-oriented, result-oriented and habitat-oriented schemes have recently been proposed as a solution to improve AES efficiency. The objective of this study was to compare action-oriented, habitat-oriented and result-oriented schemes in terms of ecological and productive performance as well as in terms of management flexibility. We developed a dynamic modelling approach based on the viable control framework to carry out a long term assessment of the three schemes in a grassland agroecosystem. The model explicitly links grazed grassland dynamics to bird population dynamics. It is applied to lapwing conservation in wet grasslands in France. We ran the model to assess the three AES scenarios. The model revealed the grazing strategies respecting ecological and productive constraints specific to each scheme. Grazing strategies were assessed by both their ecological and productive performance. The viable control approach made it possible to obtain the whole set of viable grazing strategies and therefore to quantify the management flexibility of the grassland agroecosystem. Our results showed that habitat and result-oriented scenarios led to much higher ecological performance than the action-oriented one. Differences in both ecological and productive performance between the habitat and result-oriented scenarios were limited. Flexibility of the grassland agroecosystem in the result-oriented scenario was much higher than in that of habitat-oriented scenario. Our model confirms the higher flexibility as well as the better ecological and productive performance of result-oriented schemes. A larger use of result-oriented schemes in conservation may also allow farmers to adapt their management to local conditions and to climatic variations

Sistema nacional de reconocimiento académico en Ingeniería Agronómica: su implementación en relación a la enseñanza de la ciencia del suelo

The National Academic Recognition System (NARS) allows the mutual and automatic recognition of academic courses and training (one course or a block of courses, that combined can yield a minor, practical training and other training experiences), allowing the mobility and career planning for undergrad university students taking advantage of the variety of the available academic offer nationwide. The objective of this paper was to analyze the introductory soil science courses taught in the Agricultural Engineering (AE) careers of 33 universities in Argentina, to infer the mechanics of the implementation of the SNRA in the offers of the AE career and the professional training possibilities for the students. The insertion of the introductory soil course into the curriculum of AE, and the contents of the syllabi and topics related to the introductory soil course including the hourly load were analyzed. The results indicate that basic soil science education is taught primarily in the third year of AE and that the academic contents and the structure of the syllabi are similar. The most frequent correlative subjects are related to Chemistry and Physics. The contents of the introductory course of soils are dictated with an hourly load established mainly in 71˗99 h, which takes more time to dictate the theory, without prejudice to the field trips that are always present. The results suggest that the choice of a particular course among the existing offer, possibly responds to its hourly load, and to the intensity and specificity that the student intends in their professional training.El Sistema Nacional de Reconocimiento Académico (SNRA) permite el reconocimiento mutuo y automático de trayectos formativos (tramos curriculares, asignaturas, ciclos, prácticas u otras experiencias formativas) posibilitando la movilidad y la ampliación de la formación de los estudiantes universitarios de grado aprovechando las distintas ofertas educativas disponibles en Argentina. El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar los cursos introductorios de suelos dictados en las carreras de Ingeniería Agronómica (IA) de 33 universidades del país, para inferir la mecánica de la implementación del SNRA en las ofertas de la carrera de IA y las oportunidades formativas profesionales para el alumno. Se analizaron la inserción del curso introductorio de suelos en los planes de estudio, los contenidos curriculares de las planificaciones y asignaturas correlativas al curso introductorio de suelos y la carga horaria. Los resultados indican que la enseñanza básica de suelos es impartida mayormente en el 3° año de IA y que los contenidos y la estructuración de programas analíticos son similares. Las asignaturas correlativas más frecuentes están relacionadas con la Química y la Física. Los contenidos de la asignatura introductoria de suelos se dictan mayormente entre 71-99 h, insumiendo más horas el dictado de la teoría, sin desmedro de las salidas de campo que están siempre presentes. Los resultados sugieren que la elección de un curso en particular entre la oferta existente, posiblemente responda a la carga horaria que posea y la intensidad y especificidad pretendida por el estudiante en su formación profesional

An in vivo study of the dopaminergic receptors in the brain of man using C-pimozide and positron emission tomography

Available from CEN Saclay, Service de Documentation, 91191 - Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France) / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc