Search results for "project"
showing 10 items of 3466 documents
Technology generation to dissemination: lessons learned from the tef improvement project
2018
Indigenous crops also known as orphan crops are key contributors to food security, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable with the current trend of population growth and climate change. They have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of developing world agriculture. However, most indigenous crops did not benefit from the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased the yield of major crops such as wheat and rice. Here, we describe the Tef Improvement Project, which employs both conventional- and molecular-breeding techniques to improve tef—an orphan crop important to the food security in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world w…
Evaluation of chloroplast genome annotation tools and application to analysis of the evolution of coffee species.
2018
International audience; Chloroplast sequences are widely used for phylogenetic analysis due to their high degree of conservation in plants. Whole chloroplast genomes can now be readily obtained for plant species using new sequencing methods, giving invaluable data for plant evolution However new annotation methods are required for the efficient analysis of this data to deliver high quality phylogenetic analyses. In this study, the two main tools for chloroplast genome annotation were compared. More consistent detection and annotation of genes were produced with GeSeq when compared to the currently used Dogma. This suggests that the annotation of most of the previously annotated chloroplast …
Realistic genetic architecture enables organismal adaptation as predicted under the folk definition of inclusive fitness
2021
A fundamental task of evolutionary biology is to explain the pervasive impression of organismal design in nature, including traits benefiting kin. Inclusive fitness is considered by many to be a crucial piece in this puzzle, despite ongoing discussion about its scope and limitations. Here, we use individual-based simulations to study what quantity (if any) individual organisms become adapted to maximize when genetic architectures are more or less suitable for the presumed main driver of biological adaptation, namely cumulative multi-locus evolution. As an expository device, we focus on a hypothetical situation called Charlesworth's paradox, in which altruism is seemingly predicted to evolve…
Genetic structure of a patchily distributed philopatric migrant: implications for management and conservation
2017
Significant demographic fluctuations can have major genetic consequences in wild populations. The lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) has suffered both population declines and range fragmentation during the second half of the 20th century. In this study we analysed multilocus microsatellite data to assess the genetic structure of the species. Our analysis revealed significant genetic structuring of lesser kestrel populations, not only at the cross-continental scale, but also regionally within the Central and Eastern (CE) Mediterranean region. We detected signs of genetic bottlenecks in some of the peripheral populations coupled with small effective population sizes. Values of genetic differenti…
A Migratory Divide Among Red-Necked Phalaropes in the Western Palearctic Reveals Contrasting Migration and Wintering Movement Strategies
2019
Publisher's version (útgefin grein)
Co-Designing Social Simulation Models For Policy Advise: Lessons Learned From the INFSO-SKIN Study
2019
This paper describes a participatory approach to co-designing social simulation models with policymakers using a case study of modeling European Commission policy. Managing the collaboration of a wide range of individuals or organizations is challenging but increasingly important as policy making becomes more complex. A framework for a co-design process based on a participatory approach is proposed. The framework suggests that the collaborative design should go through the following phases: Identifying user questions, data provision, model discussion for validation, visualization of results and discussing scope and limitations with stakeholders. Key findings are that the co-design process r…
Forty questions of importance to the policy and practice of native oyster reef restoration in Europe
2020
© 2020 The Authors. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Oyster reefs are among the most threatened marine habitats globally. In Europe, oyster reefs have been extirpated from most locations within their historical range. Active restoration of the native oyster (Ostrea edulis) in Europe has grown substantially in recent years. In sharing experiences between oyster restoration projects in Europe at the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance conference, NORA2, in Edinburgh in May 2019, it became apparent that a number of similar barriers are experienced. This study identified the top 40 questions, which, if answered, would have the greatest inf…
The socio-economic impact of conservation: The Safe Islands for Seabirds LIFE project
2017
Using the Safe Islands for Seabirds LIFE project as a case study, we assessed the socio-economic impact of a nature conservation project on the local community, focusing on the wealth created and the jobs supported directly and indirectly by the project. The Safe Islands for Seabirds project took place during 2009-2012, mainly on Corvo Island, the smallest and least populated island of Portugal's Azores Archipelago. To assess the impact of the project we used a combination of methods to analyse the project expenditure, the jobs created directly as a result of it, and, by means of multipliers, the incomes and jobs it supported indirectly. We estimate that during 2009-2012 direct expenditure …
Collating science-based evidence to inform public opinion on the environmental effects of marine drilling platforms in the Mediterranean Sea.
2017
Abstract The use of rigorous methodologies to assess environmental, social and health impacts of specific interventions is crucial to disentangle the various components of environmental questions and to inform public opinion. The power of systematic maps relies on the capacity to summarise and organise the areas or relationships most studied, and to highlight key gaps in the evidence base. The recent Italian technical referendum (2016) – a public consultation inviting people to express their opinion by voting to change the rules on the length of licence duration and the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas platform drilling licences – inspired the creation of a systematic map of evidence…
Genomic Analysis and Lineage Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Strains in Migrants Accessing Europe Through the Libyan Route
2021
Many African countries, representing the origin of the majority of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other migrants, toward regions bordering on the Mediterranean area, are experiencing sustained local transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Sicily is one of the main entry gates of migrants crossing into Europe. We conducted a pilot study, based on the full-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 strains isolated from migrants coming to Sicily by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, with the aim to investigate the viral genome polymorphism and to describe their genetic variations and the phylogenetic relationships. On June 21, a nongovernmental organization vessel rescu…