Designing prototypes

This first progress report of EU concerted action AIR-CT 920755 presents the state-of-the-art in European research on Integrated and Ecological Arable farming systems (I/EAFS). There are 16 projects going on in 10 European countries. The basic objective is to establish a common frame of reference by elaborating and standardising methodology

Manual for prototyping integrated and ecological arable farming systems (I/EAFS) in interaction with pilot farms

A manual for prototyping Integrated and Ecological Arable Farming Systems (I/EAFS) in interaction with pilot farms is presented. It concerns a comprehensive and consistent approach of 5 steps. Step 1 is establishing a hierarchy of objectives considering the shortcomings of current farming systems in the region. Step 2 is transforming the objectives in a set of multi-objective parameters, to quantify them and establishing a set of multi-objective farming methods to achieve them. Step 3 is designing a theoretical prototype by linking parameters to farming methods and designing the methods in this context until they are ready for initial testing. Step 4 is laying out the prototype on at least 10 pilot farms in appropriate variants and testing and improving the prototype (variants) until the objectives, as quantified in the set of parameters, have been achieved (after repeated layout). Step 5 is disseminating the prototype (variants) to other farms with gradual shift in supervision from researchers to extensionists. This 5 steps method of prototyping has been elaborated and tested by a European network of more than 20 research teams, sponsored by the European Union (AIR-concerted action). The teams express their achievements in a consistent set of 6 parts of an identity card of their prototype. The 6 parts of the EAFS-prototype of the author's team are presented to illustrate the method of prototyping. Part 6 presents the state of the art. It shows that the results desired have progressively been achieved, which may be considered as the best proof of the effectiveness of prototyping

Innovatieproject ecologische akkerbouw en groenteteelt : eerste voortgangsrapport in samenwerking met 10 voorhoedebedrijven in Flevoland

This first progress report gives the results of the Innovation project aiming at improving the biological agriculture as ecosystem aimed agriculture to serve as a pioneer in the multifunctional and sustainable development of the Dutch countrysid

Cultivation, processing and nutritional aspects for pigs and poultry of European protein sources as alternatives for imported soybean products

In this study, the conditions are described for successfully cultivation, processing and applying alternative protein sources in (organic) pig and poultry diets under European climatic conditions, thereby taking sustainability characteristics, and legislative aspects into account

Spoon handling in two- to four year old children

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Cultivation, processing and nutritional aspects for pigs and poultry of European protein sources as alternatives for imported soybean products

In this study, the conditions are described for successfully cultivation, processing and applying alternative protein sources in (organic) pig and poultry diets under European climatic conditions, thereby taking sustainability characteristics, and legislative aspects into account

The development and characterization of a 60K SNP chip for chicken

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In livestock species like the chicken, high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assays are increasingly being used for whole genome association studies and as a tool in breeding (referred to as genomic selection). To be of value in a wide variety of breeds and populations, the success rate of the SNP genotyping assay, the distribution of the SNP across the genome and the minor allele frequencies (MAF) of the SNPs used are extremely important.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We describe the design of a moderate density (60k) Illumina SNP BeadChip in chicken consisting of SNPs known to be segregating at high to medium minor allele frequencies (MAF) in the two major types of commercial chicken (broilers and layers). This was achieved by the identification of 352,303 SNPs with moderate to high MAF in 2 broilers and 2 layer lines using Illumina sequencing on reduced representation libraries. To further increase the utility of the chip, we also identified SNPs on sequences currently not covered by the chicken genome assembly (Gallus_gallus-2.1). This was achieved by 454 sequencing of the chicken genome at a depth of 12x and the identification of SNPs on 454-derived contigs not covered by the current chicken genome assembly. In total we added 790 SNPs that mapped to 454-derived contigs as well as 421 SNPs with a position on Chr_random of the current assembly. The SNP chip contains 57,636 SNPs of which 54,293 could be genotyped and were shown to be segregating in chicken populations. Our SNP identification procedure appeared to be highly reliable and the overall validation rate of the SNPs on the chip was 94%. We were able to map 328 SNPs derived from the 454 sequence contigs on the chicken genome. The majority of these SNPs map to chromosomes that are already represented in genome build Gallus_gallus-2.1.0. Twenty-eight SNPs were used to construct two new linkage groups most likely representing two micro-chromosomes not covered by the current genome assembly.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The high success rate of the SNPs on the Illumina chicken 60K Beadchip emphasizes the power of Next generation sequence (NGS) technology for the SNP identification and selection step. The identification of SNPs from sequence contigs derived from NGS sequencing resulted in improved coverage of the chicken genome and the construction of two new linkage groups most likely representing two chicken micro-chromosomes.</p