Search results for "Humanities and social science"
showing 10 items of 26143 documents
A new rationale for not picking low hanging fruits: The separation of ownership and control
2019
Recent attempts at explaining the energy-efficiency gap rely on considerations related to organizational and behavioral/cognitive failures. In this paper, we build on the strategic delegation literature to advance a complementary explanation. It is shown that strategic market interaction may encourage business owners to instill a bias against energy efficiency in managerial compensation contracts. Since managers respond to financial incentives, their decisions will reflect this bias, resulting in lack of investment.
Effect of landscape structure on common vole (Microtus arvalis) distribution and abundance at several space scales
1996
This paper aims to answer the following question: are the fluctuations of abundance of Common Vole (Microtus arvalis) specific to different types of landscapes? The research was carried out in landscapes where grassland was dominant. The sampling method was based upon a partition in both landscape types and landscape units. Tracking of vole indices was used to evaluate their relative abundance. Six landscape transects were sampled during two successive years. Results show that population variation and diffusion of demographic states are closely related to landscape types. The possible causes of this are discussed. The landscape units can be used as global variables to assess outbreak risk a…
Assessing the capacity of different urban forms to preserve the connectivity of ecological habitats
2011
International audience; This paper addresses the relationship between anthropogenic forest habitat fragmentation and the form of urban patterns. Using a two-step methodology we first generate 40 theoretical residential development scenarios following a repeatable procedure; the simulated urban forms are either moderately compact or fractal. Then, we compare the scenarios according to the functional connectivity of the remaining forest habitat using a graph-based approach. The methodology is applied to the urban region of Besançon (France), where forest surfaces are considered as a generic habitat for several animal species. Results obtained show that fractal scenarios of residential develop…
Towards sustainable and multifunctional agriculture in farmland landscapes: Lessons from the integrative approach of a French LTSER platform
2018
International audience; Agriculture is currently facing unprecedented challenges: ensuring food, fiber and energy production in the face of global change, maintaining the economic performance of farmers and preserving natural resources such as biodiversity and associated key ecosystem services for sustainable agriculture. Addressing these challenges requires innovative landscape scale farming systems that account for changing economic and environmental targets. These novel agricultural systems need to be recognized, accepted and promoted by all stakeholders, including local residents, and supported by public policies. Agroecosystems should be considered as socio-ecological systems and alter…
Were climatic changes a driving force in hominid evolution?
2000
International audience; A comparison of externalist and internalist approaches in hominid evolution shows that the externalist approach, with its claim that climate was responsible for the appearance of bipedalism and hominization, now seems to be ruled out by the biological, palaeogeographical, palaeontological and palaeoclimatic data on which it was based. Biological data support the embryonic origin of cranio-facial contraction, which determined the increase in cranial capacity and the shift in the position of the foramen magnum implying bipedalism. In the internalist approach, developmental biology appears as the driving force of hominid evolution, although climate exerts a significant …
Climate Change: Negationism, Skepticism, and Misinformation
2021
Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es examinar los principales lineamientos antagonistas sobre el cambio climático. Para ello, se ofrece una aproximación teórica a las narrativas y repertorios sustantivos que sostienen los fundamentos de la negación y se diferencia conceptualmente entre negacionistas, climatoescépticos y contrarios climáticos. Estos repertorios son la negación de las evidencias científicas, la negación económica y la negación política. Finalmente, se hace referencia a la difusión de información errónea y tóxica como estrategia organizada y deliberada. Como principal conclusión se abordan los emergentes programas de alfabetización climática para neutralizar la desinformac…
la prospection systématique d’un fond de rivière : l’exemple du Doubs
2020
La présentation des méthodes mises en œuvre et des résultats obtenus à l’occasion d’une opération de prospection subaquatique systématique menée sur la rivière Doubs, en amont de Verdun-sur-le-Doubs (Saône-et-Loire), illustre en grandeur réelle l’intérêt de la démarche adoptée, fondée sur des principes simples, dans la perspective d’un inventaire systématique du patrimoine fluvial immergé. La diversité des vestiges découverts et leur répartition sur la longue durée en soulignent la pertinence mais également, s’il en était encore besoin, la réalité du formidable potentiel archéologique que recèlent les cours d’eau. The presentation of the methods used and results obtained during a systematic…
Identification of weed community traits response to conservation agriculture
2013
International audience; Conservation agriculture is designed to deliver more sustainable cropping systems by preserving agricultural soils with tillage abandonment. However, knowledge on the impacts of Conservation agriculture adoption on weed infestation level and potential shifts in the composition of weed communities appears low and contradictory. We used a trait-based approach to investigate whether there are shifts in values of a set of traits within weed communities following the adoption of Direct Drilling with cover-crop (DD) which is one of the Conservation Agriculture practices. Weed surveys were conducted across a range of times since conversion to DD in 52 winter wheat fields lo…
Applying Biomimicry to Cities: The Forest as Model for Urban Planning and Design
2021
International audience; The idea of applying biomimicry to cities is attracting increasing attention as a way of achieving sustainability. Undoubtedly the most frequently evoked natural model in this context is the forest, though it has not yet been investigated with any great scientific rigour. To overcome this lacuna, we provide: first, a justification of the model of the forest via what we call the arguments from “fittingness”, “scale”, and “complexity”; second, an exploration of various key innovations made possible by this model in the fields of urban planning, urban water systems, urban energy and transport systems, and urban food and nutrient systems.
District heating networks: enhancement of the efficiency
2019
International audience; During the decades the district heating's (DH) advantages (more cost-efficient heat generation and reduced air pollution) overcompensated the additional costs of transmission and distribution of the centrally produced thermal energy to consumers. Rapid increase in the efficiency of low-power heaters, development of separated low heat density areas in cities reduce the competitiveness of the large centralized DH systems in comparison with the distributed cluster-size networks and even local heating. Reduction of transmission costs, enhancement of the network efficiency by optimization of the design of the DH networks become a critical issue. The methodology for determ…