Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2021

Doctoral Department of Environmental Sciences Information
More Information at: Link
Agricultural Science
Courses
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
751-1040-00LResponsible Conduct in Research
Please register at:
Link
Choose ► Plant Sciences
W1 credit1UM. Paschke, N. Buchmann
AbstractWhen studying at a University, but especially when carrying out a Master’'s or doctoral thesis, students are joining the scientific community and, therefore, have to learn about the codes of professional and responsible conduct in research.
Objective(1) Students know the questions, conflicts and ethically ambiguous situations that may arise in research.
(2) Students can apply codes of responsible conduct in research, i.e., they understand and can apply the professional values and ethical norms of their profession.
(3) Students know how to deal with and communicate in ambiguous situations.
(4) Students will develop a professional attitude towards responsible conduct in research.
ContentWhen studying at a University, but especially when carrying out a Master's or a doctoral thesis, students are joining the scientific community and, therefore, have to learn about the codes of professional and responsible conduct in research. In this course, we want to increase the knowledge of our Master's and doctoral students about the specific rules, regulations and guidelines of responsible conduct in their research fields but also rise awareness for potential conflicts of interest and give practical suggestions on how to react in cases of uncertainty on e.g. questions of authorship and giving credits, data treatment and interpretation, communication and responsibility in the public or on the role of graduate students in the research community. Students will discuss case studies with a conflict potential or a dilemma. They will work together in teams, discuss the codes of conduct and values established in the scientists’ community, and apply them to the case studies. The teams have to agree on actions to be taken for each case.

Students will deal with case studies on the following topics:

(1) Scientific Integrity, Error and Negligence in Science
(2) Conflicts in Authorship Practices
(3) Questions of Data Treatment
(4) Influence of Values on Data Interpretation
(5) Social Responsibility of Scientists (e.g. Communication with the public)

Student teams will discuss the case studies in role-play scenarios and present their consensus of responsible conduct in research.
Prerequisites / Notice'Responsible Conduct in Research for Plant Scientists' is part of the Master's Courses and Master's Studies in Plant Sciences and of the PSC Ph.D. Program in Plant Sciences. It is organized by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center. Please find details on the course at:
Link
701-1704-01LHealth Impact Assessment: Concepts and Case StudiesW3 credits2VM. Winkler, C. Guéladio, M. Röösli, J. M. Utzinger
AbstractThis course introduces the concept of health impact assessment (HIA) and discusses a suite of case studies in different contexts across the globe. HIA pursues an inter- and multidisciplinary approach, employs qualitative and quantitative methods with the overarching goal to support sustainable decision-making.
ObjectiveAfter successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
o critically reflect on the concept of HIA and the different steps from screening to implementation and monitoring; and
o apply specific tools and methodologies for HIA of projects, programmes and policies in different social, ecological and epidemiological settings.
ContentThe course will present a broad set of tools and methods for the systematic and evidence-based judgment of potential health effects related to projects, programmes and policies. Methodological features will be introduced and applied to a variety of case studies in the public sector (e.g. traffic-related air pollution, passive smoking and wastewater management) and private sector (e.g. extractive industries and renewable energies) all over the world.
Lecture notesHandouts will be distributed.
LiteratureWhenever possible, at least one peer-reviewed paper will be made available for each session.
Graduate Programme in Plant Sciences
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
751-4003-02LCurrent Topics in Grassland Sciences (FS) Information W2 credits2SN. Buchmann
AbstractResearch results from published or on-going studies in grassland as well as forest sciences will be presented and discussed by experienced researchers as well as Ph.D. students and graduate students. Topics will range from plant ecophysiology, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling to management aspects in agro- and forest ecosystems.
ObjectiveStudents will be able to understand and evaluate experimental design and data interpretation of experimental studies, be able to critically analyze published research results, practice to present and discuss results in the public, and gain a broad knowledge of recent research and current topics in agro- and forest ecosystem sciences.
ContentCitation classics as well as most recent research results from published or on-going studies will be presented and discussed. Topics will range from plant ecophysiology, biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling to management aspects in agro- and forest ecosystems.
Lecture notesnone
Prerequisites / NoticeUseful: Attendance of the courses "Öko- und Ertragsphysiologie", "Crop Science, Part Futterbau", "Graslandsysteme" in the Bachelor or similar courses. Language will be English.
751-5127-01LMicrobiomics II: Metabarcoding - from Bioinformatics to Statistics Restricted registration - show details
The course 751-5127-00 Microbiomics I: The microbiome of the plant-soil system is a prerequisit of this course (for MSc students).
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The number of places for MSc-students is limited to 10.
In case of interest, please send a motivation letter (max 1/2 page) to Hartmann Martin (Link) until 28th February 2021. Selection of course participants will be made until 3rd March 2021.

PhD-students from the Plant Science Centre or from the Life Science Zurich Graduate School should register via the Link (> Select Plant Sciences)
W1 credit2PM. Hartmann
AbstractThis computer block course provides a thorough introduction to the application of next-generation sequencing techniques for analyzing diversity of microbial communities. Using a combination of theoretical lectures and hands-on computer exercises, the participants learn the computational steps from bioinformatic processing of sequencing reads down to the final statistical evaluations.
ObjectiveAfter the course, the participants will be able to
1) understand the concept, potential and limitation of microbial NGS applications
2) know how to process raw metabarcoding data to obtain meaningful information
3) use multivariate statistical methods evaluate and visualize microbial community data
4) make informed decisions on best practices for their own data
Prerequisites / NoticeThe participants should have some background in microbial ecology and understand the basics of next-generation sequencing techniques as a tool to study microbes in the environment. Participants that are not familiar with these topics are encouraged to take the course unit «The Microbiome of the Plant-Soil System: Part I» as preparatory class (mandatory for master students). No programming or scripting expertise is required, but some basic experience with using command line applications is of advantage since not all the basics can be thoroughly covered in that short amount of time. However, some basic introduction to UNIX-based command line applications will be provided on the first day. All hands-on exercises will be run on UNIX-environments (Linux, Mac) and participants are expected to bring their own UNIX-based laptop (please consult your IT representative if necessary). All statistical analyses will be run in R using RStudio (any operating system). Participants should have installed the following software packages on their computers: Miniconda, R and RStudio, all other software tools will be installed on site using the Miniconda package manager.
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