Exploring farmers responses to policy instruments for better provision of Ecosystem Services: insight from participatory simulation in coffee agro-forestry system Costa Rica and Nicaragua (1019)

Numerous policy instruments have been proposed to promote the provision of ecosystem services (ES) by agro-ecosystems. However, the design of sound incentive schemes is still a challenge, partly because of the difficulty to adapt it to the particularities of agro-ecosystem and socio-economic conditions. To respond to this challenge, we developed and tested a new approach to explore the possible effects of policy instruments on farmers' adoption of practices leading to enhance the ES provision in coffee agroforestry systems. We applied this approach in two watersheds in Centro America, where coffee plantations provide both ES and disservices. First, we conducted semistructured interviews to coffee producers to analyze the diversity of their production systems and current responses to existing policies. Second, we developed a specific role-playing game (RPG) to simulate the effects of three instruments: the enforcement of the current regulatory environmental law, the setting of a specific Payment for Environmental Services; the development of green credits and environmental certification of products. We found that existing instruments are currently not effective in the regions but farmers would be responsive to some of the new incentives. Simulations showed that positive incentives would be the most effective to reduce environmental impacts without decreasing coffee production while an increased enforcement of the law impacts would negatively affect coffee production. After discussing the feasibility of the implementation of these incentives and the interests and limits of RPG method, we argue that it facilitates the co-design of sound incentives to overcome the challenges of multiple ES provision in agro-ecosystems. (Texte intégral

Participatory simulation to test incentives for provisioning ecosystem services in agroforestry systems. Costa Rica

Numerous policy instruments have been proposed to promote provision of ecosystem services (ES) by agro-ecosystems. However the design of sound incentive schemes is still a challenge, partly because of the difficulty to adapt it to the particularities of agro-ecosystem and socio - economic conditions. To respond to this challenge, we developed and tested a new approach to explore the possible effects of policy instruments on farmers' adoption of practices leading to enhance the ES provision in coffee agroforestry systems. We applied this approach in a Costa Rican watershed, where coffee plantations provide ES but is also a source of disservices: nitrogen pollution of water resources and soil erosion. First, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 coffee producers to analyze the diversity of their production systems and response to existing policies. Second, we developed a specific role playing game (RPG) to simulate the effects of various instruments: an enforcement of the law prohibiting coffee production on water line, Payment for Environmental Services (PES) for adoption of highly shaded coffee and protection of water line ; green credits for a reduce use of inputs and plots arrangement with terraces. We found that existing instruments are currently not effective in the region but farmers would be responsive to some of the new incentives. Simulations showed that PES and green credits are the most effective incentives to reduce environmental impacts without decreasing coffee production while an increased enforcement of the law impacts negatively coffee production. Furthermore the effects of the incentives tested in the RPG depended on socio-economic criteria related to producers' household. We finally discuss the technical and financial feasibility of the implementation of these incentives. After discussing the possible limits of our RPG method, we argue that it facilitates the co-design of sound incentives to overcome the challenges of multiple ES provision in agro-ecosystems. (Texte intégral

Simulation participative pour explorer le rôle des politiques sur la production de services environnementaux au Costa Rica et au Nicaragua

Alors que les systèmes agroforestiers sont reconnus pour la diversité des services environnementaux qu'ils fournissent, la nature et l'ampleur de ces services dépendent des choix des producteurs. Différents instruments de politiques ont été proposés pour influencer les choix des pratiques des producteurs et promouvoir la production de services environnementaux. Toutefois, il n'est pas aisé d'anticiper les réponses des producteurs à ces instruments. Dans ce chapitre, nous présentons les résultats de l'application d'une méthodologie originale fondée sur une approche à la fois participative et prospective conçue et mise en oeuvre avec les acteurs locaux et des producteurs afin de tester l'intérêt de certains instruments encourageant la production de services environnementaux dans leur contexte. Cette méthode consiste à co-construire, sur la base de savoirs locaux et de connaissances des chercheurs, des jeux de rôles spécifiques permettant aux producteurs de simuler leur choix en termes de pratiques et d'en observer les effets en termes de production agricole, de revenu et de fourniture de services environnementaux. L'application de ces jeux de rôle dans deux zones de production de café au Costa Rica et au Nicaragua montre la diversité des réponses des producteurs face à des scénarios de mise en oeuvre d'instruments de type coercitif (contrôle effectif de la législation environnementale) ou incitatif (crédit vert, certification et paiement pour services environnementaux). Bien que comportant certaines limites (méthode non prédictive), nous soulignons les intérêts de cette méthode pour concevoir des innovations en termes de gestion d'exploitation et d'instruments adaptés aux conditions des producteurs et à la diversité des systèmes agroforestiers

National Stereotypes and Robots' Perception: The “Made in” Effect

In the near future, the human social environment worldwide might be populated by humanoid robots. The way we perceive these new social agents could depend on basic social psychological processes such as social categorization. Recent results indicate that humans can make use of social stereotypes when faced with robots based on their characterization as “male” or “female” and a perception of their group membership. However, the question of the application of nationality-based stereotypes to robots has not yet been studied. Given that humans attribute different levels of warmth and competence (the two universal dimensions of social perception) to individuals based in part on their nationality, we hypothesized that the way robots are perceived differs depending on their country of origin. In this study, participants had to evaluate four robots differing in their anthropomorphic shape. For each participant, these robots were presented as coming from one of four different countries selected for their level of perceived warmth and competence. Each robot was evaluated on their anthropomorphic and human traits. As expected, the country of origin's warmth and competence level biased the perception of robots in terms of the attribution of social and human traits. Our findings also indicated that these effects differed according to the extent to which the robots were anthropomorphically shaped. We discuss these results in relation to the way in which social constructs are applied to robots

ALK germline mutations in patients with neuroblastoma: a rare and weakly penetrant syndrome

Neuroblastic tumours may occur in a predisposition context. Two main genes are involved: PHOX2B, observed in familial cases and frequently associated with other neurocristopathies (Ondine's and Hirschsprung's disease); and ALK, mostly in familial tumours. We have assessed the frequency of mutations of these two genes in patients with a presumable higher risk of predisposition. We sequenced both genes in 26 perinatal cases (prebirth and o1 month of age, among which 10 were multifocal), 16 multifocal postnatal (41 month) cases, 3 pairs of affected relatives and 8 patients with multiple malignancies. The whole coding sequences of the two genes were analysed in tumour and/or constitutional DNAs. We found three ALK germline mutations, all in a context of multifocal tumours. Two mutations (T1151R and R1192P) were inherited and shared by several unaffected patients, thus illustrating an incomplete penetrance. Younger age at tumour onset did not seem to offer a relevant selection criterion for ALK analyses. Conversely, multifocal tumours might be the most to benefit from the genetic screening. Finally, no PHOX2B germline mutation was found in this series. In conclusion, ALK deleterious mutations are rare events in patients with a high probability of predisposition. Other predisposing genes remain to be discovered

Progress with the Prime Focus Spectrograph for the Subaru Telescope: a massively multiplexed optical and near-infrared fiber spectrograph

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is an optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph with 2394 science fibers, which are distributed in 1.3 degree diameter field of view at Subaru 8.2-meter telescope. The simultaneous wide wavelength coverage from 0.38 um to 1.26 um, with the resolving power of 3000, strengthens its ability to target three main survey programs: cosmology, Galactic archaeology, and galaxy/AGN evolution. A medium resolution mode with resolving power of 5000 for 0.71 um to 0.89 um also will be available by simply exchanging dispersers. PFS takes the role for the spectroscopic part of the Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts project, while Hyper Suprime-Cam works on the imaging part. To transform the telescope plus WFC focal ratio, a 3-mm thick broad-band coated glass-molded microlens is glued to each fiber tip. A higher transmission fiber is selected for the longest part of cable system, while one with a better FRD performance is selected for the fiber-positioner and fiber-slit components, given the more frequent fiber movements and tightly curved structure. Each Fiber positioner consists of two stages of piezo-electric rotary motors. Its engineering model has been produced and tested. Fiber positioning will be performed iteratively by taking an image of artificially back-illuminated fibers with the Metrology camera located in the Cassegrain container. The camera is carefully designed so that fiber position measurements are unaffected by small amounts of high special-frequency inaccuracies in WFC lens surface shapes. Target light carried through the fiber system reaches one of four identical fast-Schmidt spectrograph modules, each with three arms. Prototype VPH gratings have been optically tested. CCD production is complete, with standard fully-depleted CCDs for red arms and more-challenging thinner fully-depleted CCDs with blue-optimized coating for blue arms.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Ian S. McLean, Hideki Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 9147 (2014)

Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 in adults and children

Different neurological manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults and children and their impact have not been well characterized. We aimed to determine the prevalence of neurological manifestations and in-hospital complications among hospitalized COVID-19 patients and ascertain differences between adults and children. We conducted a prospective multicentre observational study using the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) cohort across 1507 sites worldwide from 30 January 2020 to 25 May 2021. Analyses of neurological manifestations and neurological complications considered unadjusted prevalence estimates for predefined patient subgroups, and adjusted estimates as a function of patient age and time of hospitalization using generalized linear models. Overall, 161 239 patients (158 267 adults; 2972 children) hospitalized with COVID-19 and assessed for neurological manifestations and complications were included. In adults and children, the most frequent neurological manifestations at admission were fatigue (adults: 37.4%; children: 20.4%), altered consciousness (20.9%; 6.8%), myalgia (16.9%; 7.6%), dysgeusia (7.4%; 1.9%), anosmia (6.0%; 2.2%) and seizure (1.1%; 5.2%). In adults, the most frequent in-hospital neurological complications were stroke (1.5%), seizure (1%) and CNS infection (0.2%). Each occurred more frequently in intensive care unit (ICU) than in non-ICU patients. In children, seizure was the only neurological complication to occur more frequently in ICU versus non-ICU (7.1% versus 2.3%, P < 0.001). Stroke prevalence increased with increasing age, while CNS infection and seizure steadily decreased with age. There was a dramatic decrease in stroke over time during the pandemic. Hypertension, chronic neurological disease and the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation were associated with increased risk of stroke. Altered consciousness was associated with CNS infection, seizure and stroke. All in-hospital neurological complications were associated with increased odds of death. The likelihood of death rose with increasing age, especially after 25 years of age. In conclusion, adults and children have different neurological manifestations and in-hospital complications associated with COVID-19. Stroke risk increased with increasing age, while CNS infection and seizure risk decreased with age