Innovation and research in organic farming: A multi‐level approach to facilitate cooperation among stakeholders

A wider range of stakeholders is expected to be involved in organic research. A decision‐support tool is needed to define priorities and to allocate tasks among institutions. Based on research and management experience in organic research, the authors have developed a framework for experimental and research projects. The framework is based on a multi‐level approach. Each level is defined according to the directness of the innovation impact on the organic systems. The projects carried out for each level were assessed over a ten-year period. Two applications are presented: analysis of crop protection strategies in horticulture and plant breeding programmes. When combined with four development models of organic farming, this multi‐level analysis appears to be promising for defining research agendas

Collaborative meaning-making in Sand, Colette, & Nothomb and collaborative pedagogies in the higher-education classroom

This dissertation argues for the significance of epistolary correspondence in its ability to exemplify, more successfully than any other medium, the spirit of collaboration in the negotiation of meaning both on a personal scale and on a broad social scale. Collaborative meaning-making allows for multiplicities of identities and truths, thus constructing diverse environments that welcome individuals and ideas that are constantly in motion and in progress, rather than accepting static and limiting definitions. Additionally, this dissertation explores how we might use this understanding of collaborative mediums and genres to improve our own collaborative spaces, namely our classrooms. To this end, I present a number of various critical pedagogies that we might implement into our classroom, emulating these authors in their capacity for inclusion and their refusal to settle for those definitions and limitations imposed upon them by societal standards of the day. The pedagogies explored include gender-neutral language in the second language classroom, trauma-informed approaches to texts containing violent material, and negotiations of relationships within hierarchies in the higher-education context. I hope that this work—in its attempt to consider pedagogy and research as intrinsically linked and mutually beneficial to each other—helps initiate discussions in classrooms and academic settings on the potential of collaboration between our two primary expectations within our universities, and the many ways in which our passion for our subject area can grow in unexpected directions when brought into the classroom.French and Italia

Note méthodologique - Évaluer la fonctionnalité de la Trame bleue pour les poissons

Pour que la trame bleue soit fonctionnelle, il est important de diagnostiquer l’effet de la fragmentation des cours d’eau sur les poissons pour restaurer de manière efficace la continuité écologique. Une méthode consiste à utiliser les outils de biotélémétrie pour identifier la capacité des poissons à franchir les ouvrages existants et leurs aménagements et évaluer ainsi l’efficacité de la restauration. Un cas d’étude est présenté concernant le suivi de populations de truite dans des petits cours d’eau de têtes de bassins en Ile-de-France

On the filamentary environment of galaxies

The correlation between the large-scale distribution of galaxies and their spectroscopic properties at z=1.5 is investigated using the Horizon MareNostrum cosmological run. We have extracted a large sample of 10^5 galaxies from this large hydrodynamical simulation featuring standard galaxy formation physics. Spectral synthesis is applied to these single stellar populations to generate spectra and colours for all galaxies. We use the skeleton as a tracer of the cosmic web and study how our galaxy catalogue depends on the distance to the skeleton. We show that galaxies closer to the skeleton tend to be redder, but that the effect is mostly due to the proximity of large haloes at the nodes of the skeleton, rather than the filaments themselves. This effects translate into a bimodality in the colour distribution of our sample. The origin of this bimodality is investigated and seems to follow from the ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies within the more massive clusters of the simulation. The virtual catalogues (spectroscopical properties of the MareNostrum galaxies at various redshifts) are available online at http://www.iap.fr/users/pichon/MareNostrum/cataloguesComment: 18 pages, 27 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Kinematics, topography, shortening, and extrusion in the India-Eurasia collision

Laurent Jolivet est Professeur à l'Université d'Orléans depuis le 1er Septembre 2009International audienceWe examine the problem of partitioning between shortening and extrusion in the India-Asia collision since 45 Ma. We compute the amount of shortening expected from the kinematics of India's motion with respect to Eurasia, using the reconstruction at collision time to put bounds on the possible amounts of surface loss within Greater India and within Eurasia. We then compute the amounts of surface loss corresponding to the thickened crust of Tibet and of the Himalayas, assuming conservation of continental crust. The spatial distribution of the topography reveals a large systematic deficit of crustal thickening distributed rather uniformly west of the eastern syntaxis but an excess of shortening east of it. This distribution indicates an important eastward crustal mass transfer. However, the excess mass east of the eastern syntaxis does not account for more than one third to one half of the deficit west of the eastern syntaxis. The deficit may be accounted either by loss of lower crust into the mantle, for example through massive eclogitization, or by lateral extrusion of nonthickened crust. A mass budget of the crust of the Himalayas indicates that lower crust has not been conserved there, but the deficit is so large that local loss in the mantle is unlikely to be the unique cause of the deficit. Alternatively, following Zhao and Morgan [1985], lower crust may have been transferred below the Tibetan crust. We conclude that a combination of possible transfer of lower crust to the mantle by eclogitization and lateral extrusion has to account for a minimum of one third and a maximum of one half of the total amount of shortening between India and Asia since 45 Ma. This conclusion leaves open the possibility that the partitioning between extrusion and loss of lower crust into the mantle on the one hand and shortening on the other hand has significantly changed during the 45 m.y. history of the collision

Approche multi-niveaux de la gestion des bio-agresseurs : moyen d’analyse des expérimentations du Groupe de Recherche en Agriculture Biologique

La gestion des bio-agresseurs repose, selon les principes de l'agriculture biologique, sur une approche globale de l'agrosystème en lien avec les écosystèmes environnants. Cependant la demande par les producteurs de solutions de protection rapidement opérationnelles peut amener l'expérimentateur à privilégier la recherche de mesures basées sur les produits phytosanitaires. Depuis 30 ans, le Groupe de Recherche en Agriculture Biologique (GRAB) conduit des expérimentations en productions végétales biologiques. Il a cherché à développer une grille d'analyse de ses résultats pour les situer vis-à-vis des principes de l’approche globale des écosystèmes. Cette analyse s'est inspirée de différentes approches multi-niveaux de la protection des cultures. Elle hiérarchise les expérimentations en 3 niveaux suivant le caractère plus ou moins direct de la protection vis à vis des bio-agresseurs. Le nombre d'expérimentations conduites par niveau a ainsi été suivi pendant neuf années. Des expérimentations dans chacun des niveaux ont montré des résultats d'efficacité. Mais les limites rencontrées, ont engendré un accroissement des recherches du GRAB vers les niveaux d'approche global du système. Cette analyse multi-niveaux s'avère prometteuse pour piloter le choix des futures expérimentations d'une station ou d'une filière. Elle peut permettre de veiller à l'équilibre entre niveaux, et d'anticiper les compétences et les partenariats nouveaux requis par les approches globales

Thermal regime of the NW shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. 1) Thermal and pressure fields

National audienceThe thermal field of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is analyzed from a comprehensive temperature-depth database of about 8500 Bottom Hole Temperatures and Reservoir Temperatures. Our stochastic analysis reveals a widespread, systematic sharp thermal gradient increase between 2500 and 4000 m. The analysis of the pressure regime indicates a systematic correlation between the pressure and temperature fields

Crime and its Punishment in Victorian Hong Kong

In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking gave the island of Hong Kong to the British Crown. The new settlement immediately attracted a population of poor Chinese who flocked there in the hope of making a better living than on the mainland. Not surprisingly, crime was rampant on the fringe on the new colonial city, and offenders had to be tracked down and punished. This paper investigates the nature of the crimes committed in Hong Kong during the Victorian period, the evolving panoply of punishments designed to rein them in, and the way in which both the common law and the colonial governments adapted to fight types of criminal activity they had never met before.En 1842, le Traité de Nankin cédait l’île de Hong Kong à la couronne britannique. La nouvelle colonie attira aussitôt une population de Chinois pauvres qui s’y installèrent en grand nombre dans l’espoir d’une vie meilleure qu’en Chine. Comme il fallait s’y attendre, le crime se développa rapidement sur les marges de la cité coloniale, et il fallut repérer et punir les criminels. La présente étude s’attache à recenser et à comprendre la nature des crimes commis à Hong Kong pendant la période victorienne, la panoplie des châtiments destinés à les punir, et la manière dont la common law et les gouvernments coloniaux s’adaptèrent dans leur combat contre des formes de criminalité qu’ils n’avaient auparavant jamais rencontrées