Center Directors Committee - Ecoregional Study: Workshop on Ecoregional Research

Summary prepared by Michael Collinson of discussions at a workshop on ecoregional research organized by the Center Directors Committee and held at ISNAR headquarters in the Hague, August 20-23, 1996. The author added some comments based in part on visits to IRRI, ICRISAT, and some national institutions.Issues addressed at the workshop included the new skills IARCs would require to carry out the ecoregional approach, methods of selection of representative research farms and stations, and the integration of priority setting at local, national and regional levels. A large share of the issues to be addressed would be institutional in nature. Participants stressed the importance of disseminating the rationale and importance of the approach to ensure the participation of NARS and NGOs in ecoregional initiatives.Agenda document, TAC 71

The Impact of the International Agricultural Research Centers: Measurement, Quantification and Interpretation

Issues in Agriculture no. 6 from the series "Issues in Agriculture" published by the CGIAR Secretariat

Integrating multiple representations: fighting asthma

This paper seeks to engage debates about integrating pluralisms regarding multiple forms/representations and how they might function smoothly if they are closely aligned. This paper offers, narrative poetry with an artistic impression aimed at seeing how these might interact with each other. Like poetry, visual images are unique and can evoke particular kinds of emotional and visceral responses. By offering narrative poetry together with an artistic representation it is not meant to de-value the importance of either, but it is aimed at seeing how these arts-based methods and creative analytical practices might unite as a narrative to offer knew ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing

Prolonging disuse in aged mice amplifies cortical but not trabecular bones’ response to mechanical loading

Objective: Short-term neurectomy-induced disuse (SN) has been shown to restore load responses in aged mice. We examined whether this restoration was further enhanced in both cortical and trabecular bone by simply extending the SN. Methods: Following load: strain calibration, tibiae in female C57BL/J6 mice at 8, 14 and 20 weeks and 18 months (n=8/group) were loaded and bone changes measured. Effects of long-term SN examined in twenty-six 18 months-old mice, neurectomised for 5 or 100 days with/without subsequent loading. Cortical and trabecular responses were measured histomorphometrically or by micro-computed tomography. Results: Loading increased new cortical bone formation, elevating cross-sectional area in 8, 14 and 20 week-old (p <0.05), but not 18 month-old aged mice. Histomorphometry showed that short-term SN reinstated load-responses in aged mice, with significant 33% and 117% increases in bone accrual at 47% and 37%, but not 27% of tibia length. Cortical responses to loading was heightened and widespread, now evident at all locations, following prolonged SN (108, 167 and 98% at 47, 37 and 27% of tibial length, respectively). In contrast, loading failed to modify trabecular bone mass or architecture. Conclusions: Mechanoadaptation become deficient with ageing and prolonging disuse amplifies this response in cortical but not trabecular bone