How do farmers research and learn? The example of organic farmers’ experiments and innovations: A research concept

Experimenting, adapting and innovating are central features of farmers’ activities all over the world. Farmers hold valuable knowledge about their environment, they actively do experiments, and have their own research traditions. The development of organic farming systems is continually evolving through the experiments and innovations of organic farmers. So far, there has been little attempt to study the nature, characteristics, and factors associated with the experimental processes of farmers in a systematic, comprehensive way. A current research project investigates learning processes of organic farmers in Austria, Cuba and Israel through researching the multifaceted experiments they conduct and the innovations they obtain as possible results. This paper presents the research concept of the project

Experimente von Biobäuerinnen und Biobauern in Österreich

Farmers’ experiments can be defined as the activity of trying or introducing something totally or partially new at the farm, including evaluation of the success or failure. In this research, topics, motives, methods and evaluation strategies of farmers’ experiments are investigated. Personal interviews were conducted with 73 organic farmers (47 semi-structured interviews, 26 structured questionnaire interviews). Organic farmers in Austria were found to experiment in a broad range of topics. To evaluate the experiments, all farmers conducted observation, and most of them also comparisons. Farmers experiment to find own creative solutions for their specific conditions and emerging problems. It is advisable to support farmers in their experimentation activities, provide room for experimentation within regulatory frameworks and to make active use of the outcomes of farmers’ experiments for the development of local agricultural systems

Bäuerliche Experimente in Kuba und ihre Bedeutung für eine nachhaltige Landwirtschaft

This paper aims to examine farmers’ perception on the contribution of farmers’ experiments to sustainable agriculture. Field research was conducted in Cuba and comprised semi-structured interviews with 72 farmers. Most Cuban farmers experimented with locally available resources. According to the farmers’ perception, resources, topics and methods were ecologically compatible and involved little risks. Through experimenting the respondents felt, that they increased the production and the degree of self-sufficiency. Farmers ensured that experiments contributed to improve the local farming system and thereby supported the sustainable development of agriculture

Building Resilience through Farmers’ Experiments in Organic Agriculture: Examples from Eastern Austria

Farmers have always lived in changing environments where uncertainty and disturbances are inevitable. Therefore, farmers need the ability to adapt to change in order to be able to maintain their farms. Experimentation is one way for farmers to learn and adapt, and may be a tool to build farm resilience. Farmers’ experiments, as defined in this paper, are activities where something totally or partially new is introduced at the farm and the feasibility of this introduction is evaluated. The theoretical framework applied to study farmers’ experiments is the concept of resilience. Resilience is the capacity of social-ecological systems to cope with change, and is a framework used to assess complex systems of interactions between humans and ecosystems. This paper explores to which extent farmers’ experimentation can help build farm resilience. In addition to arguments found in the literature, five organic farms in Eastern Austria are used to illustrate this potential. The farmers were interviewed in 2007 and 2008. The respective farmers all worked fulltime on their farms, were between 34 and 55 years old, and owned farms between 15 and 76 ha. These farmers experimented in ways that enhance resilience – at the farm and in the region. The outcome of experiments can be management changes, new insights, or technology that can be passed on and potentially be built into education and advisory institutions. To encourage farmers’ experiments, it is important to develop conditions that support farmers in their experimenting role

Das EcoFarm Assessment and Decision Tool. Ein Werkzeug zur Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung und Unterstützung betrieblicher Entscheidungsprozesse auf Basis der Betriebsstruktur, Umweltbedingungen und GAP Maßnahmen

Das EAD als Teil des CAPTIVATE-Projekts zielt darauf ab, die Ansprüche der GAP mit ökol. Maßnahmen auf landwirt. Betrieben zu verbinden. Die Hauptziele sind, Betriebe bei der Auswahl geeigneter GAP Maßn. zu unterstützen, um den eigenen Bedingungen zu entsprechen und die ökol. Leistung zu steigern

In vivo imaging of murine endocrine islets of Langerhans with extended-focus optical coherence microscopy

Aims/hypothesis: Structural and functional imaging of the islets of Langerhans and the insulin-secreting beta cells represents a significant challenge and a long-lasting objective in diabetes research. In vivo microscopy offers a valuable insight into beta cell function but has severe limitations regarding sample labelling, imaging speed and depth, and was primarily performed on isolated islets lacking native innervations and vascularisation. This article introduces extended-focus optical coherence microscopy (xfOCM) to image murine pancreatic islets in their natural environment in situ, i.e. in vivo and in a label-free condition. Methods: Ex vivo measurements on excised pancreases were performed and validated by standard immunohistochemistry to investigate the structures that can be observed with xfOCM. The influence of streptozotocin on the signature of the islets was investigated in a second step. Finally, xfOCM was applied to make measurements of the murine pancreas in situ and in vivo. Results: xfOCM circumvents the fundamental physical limit that trades lateral resolution for depth of field, and achieves fast volumetric imaging with high resolution in all three dimensions. It allows label-free visualisation of pancreatic lobules, ducts, blood vessels and individual islets of Langerhans ex vivo and in vivo, and detects streptozotocin-induced islet destruction. Conclusions/interpretation: Our results demonstrate the potential value of xfOCM in high-resolution in vivo studies to assess islet structure and function in animal models of diabetes, aiming towards its use in longitudinal studies of diabetes progression and islet transplant

Zukunft Bio 2030: Umsetzung von ausgewählten Maßnahmen zur Stärkung der biologischen Landwirtschaft in Österreich

Für die Studie „Zukunft Bio 2030“ wurde aufbauend auf der abgeschlossenen Studie „Stärkung der biologischen Landwirtschaft in Österreich bis 2030“ (Kummer et al. 2021) vier Maßnahmen ausgewählt und weitergehend bearbeitet. Das Ziel war es, für diese Maßnahmen erste Umsetzungsschritte einzuleiten. In der Studie wurden folgende Bereiche bearbeitet: • Formulierung von konkreten Vorschlägen zur besseren Vernetzung von Forschung, Beratung und Bildung und zur weiteren Entwicklung von Wissenssystemen zur biologischen Landwirtschaft; • Erstellung eines Konzeptes zur Ernährungsbildung über biologische Lebensmittel für Lehrlinge des Lebensmitteleinzelhandels (LEH) in Zusammenarbeit mit dem LEH; • Erstellung eines Umsetzungskonzepts zum Ausbau des Bio-Anteils in der öffentlichen Verpflegung einer Bundeseinrichtung; • Begleitung der Umsetzung einer rechtsverbindlichen Bio-Kontrolle und Bio-Zertifizierung in der Gastronomie und Hotellerie durch die Vernetzung der maßgeblichen Akteur:innen in einem moderierten Prozess. Im Zuge der Studie wurden insgesamt 93 Expert:innen bzw. Stakeholder in Form von Interviews und Gruppendiskussionen eingebunden. Die Ergebnisse der Studie wurden dem Auftraggeber (Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Regionen und Wasserwirtschaft) präsentiert und flossen teilweise in das Bio-Aktionsprogramm 2023+ ein

What scans we will read: imaging instrumentation trends in clinical oncology

Oncological diseases account for a significant portion of the burden on public healthcare systems with associated costs driven primarily by complex and long-lasting therapies. Through the visualization of patient-specific morphology and functional-molecular pathways, cancerous tissue can be detected and characterized non- invasively, so as to provide referring oncologists with essential information to support therapy management decisions. Following the onset of stand-alone anatomical and functional imaging, we witness a push towards integrating molecular image information through various methods, including anato-metabolic imaging (e.g., PET/ CT), advanced MRI, optical or ultrasound imaging. This perspective paper highlights a number of key technological and methodological advances in imaging instrumentation related to anatomical, functional, molecular medicine and hybrid imaging, that is understood as the hardware-based combination of complementary anatomical and molecular imaging. These include novel detector technologies for ionizing radiation used in CT and nuclear medicine imaging, and novel system developments in MRI and optical as well as opto-acoustic imaging. We will also highlight new data processing methods for improved non-invasive tissue characterization. Following a general introduction to the role of imaging in oncology patient management we introduce imaging methods with well-defined clinical applications and potential for clinical translation. For each modality, we report first on the status quo and point to perceived technological and methodological advances in a subsequent status go section. Considering the breadth and dynamics of these developments, this perspective ends with a critical reflection on where the authors, with the majority of them being imaging experts with a background in physics and engineering, believe imaging methods will be in a few years from now. Overall, methodological and technological medical imaging advances are geared towards increased image contrast, the derivation of reproducible quantitative parameters, an increase in volume sensitivity and a reduction in overall examination time. To ensure full translation to the clinic, this progress in technologies and instrumentation is complemented by progress in relevant acquisition and image-processing protocols and improved data analysis. To this end, we should accept diagnostic images as “data”, and – through the wider adoption of advanced analysis, including machine learning approaches and a “big data” concept – move to the next stage of non-invasive tumor phenotyping. The scans we will be reading in 10 years from now will likely be composed of highly diverse multi- dimensional data from multiple sources, which mandate the use of advanced and interactive visualization and analysis platforms powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) for real-time data handling by cross-specialty clinical experts with a domain knowledge that will need to go beyond that of plain imaging

Farmer's experiments and innovations in Cuba : grassroots approaches to preparing agriculture for global change

Bäuerliche Experimente und Innovationen sind seit jeher ein Teil der Landwirtschaft. Diese Arbeit zielt darauf ab, empirisches Wissen über den Prozess bäuerlichen Experimentierens und dessen Einflussfaktoren zu gewinnen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den Themen, Ressourcen, Ideen, Motiven, Methoden und Ergebnissen bäuerlicher Experimente in Kuba. Die Forschungsmethoden umfassten 72 teilstrukturierte Interviews mit Bauern und Bäuerinnen, 24 teilstukturierte Interviews mit Produzenten der Stadtlandwirtschaft und 34 Experteninterviews, die 2007 und 2008 durchgeführt wurden. Die Interviews wurden aufgezeichnet und computergestützt transkribiert, kodiert und analysiert. Für die Auswertung wurde die qualitative Inhaltsanalyse mit Elementen der gegenstandsbezogenen Theoriebildung kombiniert. Bäuerliche Experimente und Innovationen sind in Kubas formelles landwirtschaftliches Innovationssystem eingebettet. Nahezu alle Gesprächspartner beschrieben bäuerliche Experimente, die sie auf ihrem Hof und großteils mit lokal verfügbaren Ressourcen durchführten. Die meisten Experimente befassten sich mit der Einführung neuer Nutzpflanzen oder Sorten oder anderen Themen der pflanzlichen Produktion. Meistens war die eigene Idee ausschlaggebend für das Experiment und das wichtigste Motiv war Produktionssteigerung. Experimente wurden meist im kleinen Maßstab durchgeführt um etwaige Risiken zu reduzieren. Beobachtung und Vergleich waren zentrale Methoden um die Durchführung und die Ergebnisse von Experimenten zu beurteilen. Nur wenige Gesprächspartner machten Aufzeichungen ihrer Experimente. Das wichtigste Ergebnis bäuerlicher Experimente war eine Steigerung der Produktion. Bäuerliche Experimente und Innovationen spielen eine bedeutende Rolle für den Aufbau von resilienten Agrarsystemen. Experimentierende Bauern zu unterstützen kann die Anpassungsfähigkeit von landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben erhöhen und kann dazu beitragen, die Landwirtschaft auf globale Veränderungsprozesse vorzubereiten.Farmer experimentation and innovation have always been a part of farming as well as important drivers for agricultural development. This thesis aims at generating empirical knowledge on the dynamic process of experimentation and the factors associated with farmers experiments. Therefore, the emphasis is on the topics, resources, sources, motives, methods and outcomes of farmers experiments in Cuba. The research methods included 72 semi-structured interviews with rural farmers, 24 semi-structured interviews with urban producers and 34 expert interviews. Interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed, coded and analyzed using software packages for qualitative data analysis. Data were analyzed according to content analysis combined with a grounded theory approach. Farmers experiments and innovations are embedded in Cubas agricultural innovation system. Almost all respondents mentioned experiments that were conducted on farm using mainly local resources. Most experiments were related to the introduction of new crops or varieties and to plant production in general. In most cases, the farmers own ideas triggered the experimentation. The main motive was to increase production. The majority of the respondents experimented on a small-scale basis to reduce the risk involved. Observation and comparison helped to evaluate the process and the outcomes of experimenting. Only a few farmers maintained records. The most important outcome was production increase. Farmers experiments and innovations play a major role for building resilient farming systems. Supporting experimenting farmers can enhance adaptability of farms and can contribute to preparing agriculture for global change.Friedrich LeitgebAbweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersZsfassung in dt. und span. SpracheWien, Univ. für Bodenkultur, Diss., 2013OeBB(VLID)193143