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Eritrea is a Sahel country in terms of climate, and rainfall is low and highly variable. Shortage of food is thus a recurrent problem, and food security one of the key issues in development. The present publication presents the results of a nationwide workshop organised in 2006 in Asmara, Eritrea, by the Association of Eritreans in Agricultural Sciences (AEAS). The workshop was attended by over 200 participants from government administration, academia, development circles including NGOs and UN organisations. Specifically, the present publication deals with themes such as biotechnology, non-wood forest products, spate irrigation, the role of women relating to food security, and institutional and organisational aspects of food security. It also contains a chapter with policy recommendations, as well as an extensive summary of the main findings (paper abstracts) in Tigrinya.

Purpose
This paper aims to describe an exploratory research and design process that uses illustrative techniques to bridge the gap between theoretical principles of systems ecology, stakeholder input and a workable physical planning strategy for Ultuna Campus in Uppsala, Sweden.


Design/methodology/approach
Stakeholder interviews provide the empirical basis for this exploratory design process, in conjunction with landscape analysis, and review of previous proposals for campus development. Central principles of self-organizing systems are selected and concretized as visionary hypotheses in a physical context. Preliminary design concepts and plans illustrate sustainable systems while supporting new functional programmatic requirements: housing, industry-research collaboration, transportation and community-integrated landscapes.


Findings
The result is a proposal based on regenerative landscape design, envisioning campus Ultuna as a coherent whole.


Research limitations/implications
A large-scale modern building program is already underway at Ultuna, and rapid urbanization in the surrounding region coupled with projected growth on campus suggests future intensification of university lands. A master plan to be implemented until 2040 is now in the preliminary design phase. Ultuna is home to significant cultural and ecological landscapes, and a holistic approach is called for.


Practical implications
Illustrative techniques suggest ways to synthesize knowledge by creating future scenarios that are workable in practice.


Social implications
Global challenges call for designs that enhance environmental and human resources and their capacity to regenerate over time. Sustainability objectives are particularly crucial when envisioning university campuses; the environment serves as a laboratory for researchers, teachers, students and residents of the surrounding community.


Originality/value
This paper describes an innovative process for bridging ecological principles, stakeholder perspectives and practical design strategies for sustainable campuses.

The struggle in Soviet biological and agricultural science is examined through the prism of letters of scientists to Soviet leaders in the 1950s. Scientists' "letters to power" were an important form of struggle of the scientific community to normalize the situation in the agrarian and scientific sphere under conditions of total party-state control. Considering science to be the most important element of the USSR's international prestige, scientists who advocated classical genetics considered it necessary to rid biological and agricultural science of external "imperious" influences on the sphere of scientific knowledge. Moreover, some suggested the active use of party-state structures, not excluding law enforcement agencies, against their scientific opponents. Others believed that the shortcomings of the organization of Soviet science could only be eradicated by the scientists themselves, provided that the scientific community was widely involved in identifying the most important scientific areas through free creative discussions. With all the disagreements, the appeals of scientists to Soviet leaders, the author concludes, contributed to a change in public sentiment in favor of genetics. On the contrary, the supporters of Trofim Lysenko by their "letters to power" pursued the goal of maintaining his dominant position in science. Transferring scientific problems to the political plane, they called on Soviet leaders to resolve the contradictions accumulated in the agrarian-scientific sphere by the methods of party-state influence. The rejection of each other's arguments by the scientific opponents did not allow them to reduce the severity of confrontation in biological and agricultural science and did not contribute to scientific research. The appeal of geneticists to the authority of world science in the context of the Cold War further aggravated the situation in the scientific community, since in the opposite camp, this phenomenon was assessed as ideological sabotage. The inertia of such traditions of scientific communication persisted for a long time.

Aristotle in his anatomical observations is marking the beginning of functional anatomy followed by Georges Cuvier that formulate the low of the correlation of parts. According with this we can expect that the digestive system structures tend to be similar between species that consume approximately the same type of food. In this study we chose to evaluate macroscopic the digestive system of two different zoophytophagous species, with similar body size but different life behavior and feeding strategies: White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) and Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo). Data were collected after the dissection of 10 carcass (5 White Stork and 5 Common Buzzard). The digestive tract and its structures were measured and weighed. In common buzzard the beak is strong and short adapted for the laceration of the prey. In white stork the beak is long, strong, straight adapted to capture prey like a harpoon. In both species, the esophagus is located on the right side of the neck, the length is different, proportional to the neck. In common buzzard the crop is present and absent in white storks. The cuticle or koilin layer is highlighted in white stork compared to common buzzard. In common buzzard, the small intestine is reduced in size, without marked transition between the duodenum and the ileum. The white storks have a long small intestine with many loops, with no transition between the segments. In both species, the cecum is reduced in size and has a vestigial appearance; the colon is reduced in size, and extends from the level of the ileo-colic junction to the cloaca. The digestive system is adapted to a strictly carnivorous diet and the differences identified between the anatomical structures of the digestive tract of the two species are correlated with the differences of their feeding behavior.

The use of molecular markers to identify desirable genes in animal production is known as marker-assisted selection. The traditional genetic evaluation model uses the BLUP methodology; when genetic markers are included in the evaluation model, the methodology is known as M-BLUP. In contrast, random regression models (RRM), unlike the models based on production at 305 days, consider factors that change for each animal from one test to another. The objective of this study was to compare variance components, genetic parameters and breeding values for milk production, protein percentage and somatic cell score in Colombian Holstein cattle using BLUP, M-BLUP and RRM. For the estimation of genetic parameters and values, 2003 lactations corresponding to 1417 cows in 55 herds were used, and effects of the order of delivery, herd, and contemporary group were included. The three traits presented greater heritability under the MBLUP model: 0.44 for protein percentage, 0.27 for milk production and 0.28 for somatic cell score. This was because the genetic variance was greater when M-BLUP was used, which allowed a greater accuracy of the breeding value estimation in the three traits. Therefore, the model that includes information on molecular markers is more suitable for genetic evaluation in Colombian Holstein cattle.

The study focused on the comparative effects of demonstration method and blended learning on the achievement and interest of Agricultural Secondary School Student in Nsukka. Two research questions guided the study while two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Quasi experimental design, specifically pre-test and post-test group was adopted. The sample for the study was 80 SSII Students comprised of males and females from intact class. The two classes were randomly assigned experimental group I and II. The experimental group one was taught with demonstration method while experimental group II were taught with blended learning and. The treatment lasted for four weeks. The instruments for data collection were Agricultural Achievement Test (AAT) comprising thirty questions and Interest Inventory. The two instruments used for data collection were validated by three experts all from Department of Agricultural Education.The reliability of the instruments was established using Cronbach alpha for AAT and Kudder-Richardson 20 for AII. AAT and AII yielded a coefficient of 0.74 and 0.77 respectively. Mean, standard deviation and Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze the data collected for the study. Findings of the study revealed that blended learning enhanced students' achievement and interest in Agricultural science more than demonstration method. Furthermore, the tested hypotheses revealed that there was significant different between the effects of demonstration and blended learning on students' interest in Agricultural science. Hence, the study recommended amongst others that; that the federal ministry of education should provide internet facilities in secondary schools to ensure blended learning is incorporated as to improve achievement and interest of students and also state government should organize workshops, in-service training programme for teachers so that they would be conversant in the use of blended learning.

In recent years, PEST analysis and its application in decision-making has become a hot topic, and this paper proposes a new model of PEST analysis based on neutral cognitive map static analysis.The proposed framework consists of five activities, identifying PEST factors and sub-factors, modeling the interrelationships among PEST factors, calculating centrality measures, categorizing the factors, and ranking the factors.The results show that the impact factor of the US breeding patent on the development of agricultural science and technology has reached the level of interrelationship, and the uncertainty is included in the analysis. Using this model to analyze the impact of U.S.-China breeding patents on the development of agricultural science and technology, we ranked the factors according to their interrelationships and incorporated uncertainty into the analysis. The results showed that the impact factor of U.S. breeding patents on the development of agricultural science and technology reached 0.70, and the index of the Gross Agricultural Product (GAP) caused by patents was greater than 100. The quantitative analysis of the impact of Sino-US cooperation in agricultural science and technology using PEST analysis has scientifically and accurately grasped the quantitative law of Sino-US agricultural science and technology cooperation.

The article endeavours to show that the state's support of sciences cannot properly be understood except in the context of cultural policy. Resistance in India to the cultivation of science. The role of the critical tradition of science and the persistence of public doubt about science's legitimacy. The difference in the cultivation and treatment of agricultural sciences. Various sciences are treated differently by the state. (DÜI-Sen)

Around the world, it is increasingly being recognized that for sustainability goals to be reached, efforts need to go beyond complying with standards and mitigating adverse impacts, to identifying environmental sustainability as an objective of the development process. This approach requires the integration of environmental, sustainability, and climate change considerations into policy and sector reform. Because sector reform brings about significant policy change involving adjustments in laws, policies, regulations, and institutions, it is a sensitive political process often driven by strong economic interests. Policy makers are subject to a number of political pressures that originate in vested interests. The recommendations of environmental assessment are often of little relevance unless there are constituencies that support them and have sufficient political power to make their voices heard in the policy process. While strong constituencies are important during the design of sector reform, they are even more important during implementation. It follows that effective environmental assessment in policy and sector reform requires strong constituencies backing up recommendations, a system to hold policy makers accountable for their decisions, and institutions that can balance competing and, sometimes, conflicting interests.

Agriculture is facing unprecedented scrutiny for its social and environmental impacts. Many of the key choices it must make are fundamentally about ethics. Key issues in agricultural ethics explores key ethical debates surrounding agriculture and agri-food supply chains.These include issues such as animal welfare, use of labour, the effects of new technologies and the overall impact of agriculture on the environment. It considers the ways these ethical dilemmas may be better understood and potentially resolved. Edited by a leading researcher in the field, Key issues in agricultural ethics will be a standard reference for researchers in agriculture and environmental science, government and other private sector agencies responsible for monitoring good agricultural practice, as well as researchers involved in the social sciences with a focus on ethics.

International audience ; In recent years, large data caused great concern in industry, academia and government. As an important department for scientific research and innovation, the academy portal show the level of science research innovation ability and it is a main platform of transformation of scientific research achievement. In this paper, the construction portal of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Situation as the background, points out the shortcomings of the current construction site, and make a few suggestions for website development in the big data environment.

AbstractIn the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, Europe developed a deep interest in both natural resources and agroecosystems. Experts began to explore the rural hinterland and shores of the Mediterranean. These travellers described completely new settings, agroecosystems, and cultures through the lens of their own backgrounds. This article analyses the development of Mediterranean rural societies as an object of study of Western agricultural science. It describes the reports of travellers to rural lands in Spain, Italy and Lebanon, comparing their observations and representations, evaluating if there are common patterns in their reports and what features are still found in rural practices today.