Direct marketing of beef in organic suckler cattle farms: economic results and impact on breeding system management

In response to the bovine crises of 1996 and 2000, and also to the poorly structured organic beef market chain, direct marketing of beef to consumers by the farmer has developed. We studied the impact of this marketing system on economic performance and farming practices. The results show that direct marketing can generate added value, despite the extra costs. Farmers have made the necessary changes to their practices, and have adapted their herd management. Through strengthening the link between the farm and the outside world, direct marketing offers an alternative to the expansion of farms, making it possible to support a greater workforce with the same structure

What are the strategies and steps to build-up a dairy system in a harsh environment? The case of smallholder dairy farmers of Unaí - Brazil.

In the district of Unaí (Minas Gerais, Brazil), smallholder farmers face numerous challenges such as restricted access to land, capital and labor, weak collective organization and climatic constraints. Yet, they are eager to access local markets to sustain their livelihoods and are ready to adapt their production systems in different ways to overcome the above constraints and achieve their place in existing productive supply chains. The dairy sector offers them a unique opportunity to achieve their goals. To understand how small holder farmers in Unaí took their place themselves in the dairy sector, we interviewed 24 smallholder farmers that deliver milk for the local cooperative. Our aim was to analyze the trajectories they followed from installation up to now in order to build specialized dairy production systems. Trajectories differ in terms of the feeding strategies and sources of feed for cows in the dry periods; of the breeds used for milk production; of the sources of financial resources for investment in the production system; of the relative synchronization of milk production in dry and wet periods, among others. This variability is related to how much smallholder farmers try to provide security to their systems, and in doing so, decrease its vulnerability both to internal and external events. (Résumé d'auteur

La brièveté des inscriptions médiévales: d’une contrainte à une esthétique

Les inscripcions són conegudes per la seva brevetat, fins al punt que aquesta característica participa en la definició del discurs epigràfic. Malgrat això, els mitjans lingüístics i gràfics els quals permeten als textos ser curts, no han estat estudiats. Es tracta doncs d'entendre com i per què aquests textos són breus, més enllà de la restricció material fins a crear una veritable estètica. Seleccionar les informacions, condensar la proposició gràcies a recursos retòrics, el ritme de la paraula, evocar i suggerir les idees més que de desenvolupar-les, tals són els verbs que guien els autors d'inscripcions. La brevetat epigràfica no és pas una conseqüència del suport, de la matèria, de l'espai o inclús del cost. Ella permet per altra banda a la inscripció d'exercir millor la seva funció de comunicació i de publicitat universal i durable. Aquesta recerca de concisió s'explica tant sobre un plà lingüístic com a nivell gràfic. Aquesta doble recerca confereix aleshores a l'escriptura epigràfica - entesa en sentit ampli - una veritable estètica.Inscriptions are known for their brevity and this characteristic participates in the definition of the epigraphic discourse. Nevertheless, the linguistic and graphic means which allow these texts to be short have not been studied. Our goal is thus to understand how and why these texts are brief, beyond the material constraint, until create a real esthetics. Select the information, condense the words thanks to rhetorical processes, give rhythm to the speech, evoke and suggest the ideas rather than to develop them, such are the verbs which guide the authors of inscriptions. The epigraphic brevity is not only a consequence of the support, the material, the space or still the cost. On the contrary, it allows inscriptions to exercise at best their function of communication and universal and long-lasting advertisement. This research for conciseness is visible both on a linguistic and graphic plan. It confers then on the epigraphic writing —in the broad sense— a specific esthetics.Les inscriptions sont connues pour leur brièveté, à tel point que cette caractéristique participe à la définition du discours épigraphique. Néanmoins, les moyens linguistiques et graphiques qui permettent à ces textes d’être courts n’ont pas été étudiés. Il s’agit donc de comprendre comment et pourquoi ces textes sont brefs, au-delà de la contrainte matérielle, jusqu’à créer une véritable esthétique. Sélectionner les informations, condenser le propos grâce à des procédés rhétoriques, rythmer le discours, évoquer et suggérer les idées plutôt que de les développer, tels sont les verbes qui guident les auteurs d’inscriptions. La brièveté épigraphique n’est pas qu’une conséquence du support, de la matière, de l’espace ou encore ducoût. Elle permet au contraire à l’inscription d’exercer au mieux sa fonction de communication et de publicité universelle et durable. Cette recherche de concision s’exprime tant sur un plan linguistique qu’au niveau graphique. Cette double recherche confère alors à l’écriture épigraphique —entendue au sens large— une vraie esthétique

Monitoring and control of spacecraft systems using procedural reasoning

Research concerned with automating the monitoring and control of spacecraft systems is discussed. In particular, the application of SRI's Procedural Reasoning System (PRS) to the handling of malfunctions in the Reaction Control System (RCS) of NASA's Space Shuttle is examined. Unlike traditional monitoring and control systems, PRS is able to reason about and perform complex tasks in a very flexible and robust manner, somewhat in the manner of a human assistant. Using various RCS malfunctions as examples (including sensor faults, leaking components, multiple alarms, and regulator and jet failures), it is shown how PRS manages to combine both goal-directed reasoning and the ability to react rapidly to unanticipated changes in its environment. In conclusion, some important issues in the design of PRS are reviewed and future enhancements are indicated

Caractérisation des principales variables d'état de couverts de Digitaria swazilandensis Stent et Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweickt pâturés en continu par des zébus en Guyane française

Deux espèces fourragères tropicales, Digitaria swazilandensis Stent et Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweickt, ont fait l'objet d'une expérimentation en pâturage continu avec des zébus en Guyane française, au cours des années 1989 et 1990. Des variations de biomasse aérienne, en relation avec le niveau de pluviométrie, ont été observées, de même que des rapports feuilles/tiges plus élevés en saison sèche en liaison avec une augmentation de la masse surfacique. En ce qui concerne les variables d'état des couverts, D. swazilandensis présente durant la saison sèche une relation linéaire analogue à celle observée chez les graminées tempérées, avec une forte corrélation entre indice foliaire et hauteur de végétation. Cette corrélation existe en saison sèche et pluvieuse chez B. humidicola. Cette espèce est plus productive et moins sensible à la sécheresse que D. swazilandensis, mais est moins riche en matières azotées. Des performances zootechniques comparables sont obtenues pour les deux espèces. L'étude de ce mode de gestion doit être poursuivie dans le cadre de la saison sèche par ajustement de la charge et utilisation de réserves fourragère

PROSKILL: A formal skill language for acting in robotics

Acting is an important decisional function for autonomous robots. Acting relies on skills to implement and to model the activities it oversees: refinement, local recovery, temporal dispatching, external asynchronous events, and commands execution, all done online. While sitting between planning and the robotic platform, acting often relies on programming primitives and an interpreter which executes these skills. Following our experience in providing a formal framework to program the functional components of our robots, we propose a new language, to program the acting skills. This language maps unequivocally into a formal model which can then be used to check properties offline or execute the skills, or more precisely their formal equivalent, and perform runtime verification. We illustrate with a real example how we can program a survey mission for a drone in this new language, prove some formal properties on the program and directly execute the formal model on the drone to perform the mission

A Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller for Space Exploration

The Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller (GOAC) is the envisaged result of a multi-institutional effort within the on-going Autonomous Controller R&D activity funded by ESA ESTEC. The objective of this effort is to design, build and test a viable on-board controller to demonstrate key concepts in fully autonomous operations for ESA missions. This three-layer architecture is an integrative effort to bring together four mature technologies; for a functional layer, a verification and validation system, a planning engine and a controller framework for planning and execution which uses the sense-plan-act paradigm for goal oriented autonomy. GOAC as a result will generate plans in situ, deterministically dispatch activities for execution, and recover from off-nominal conditions