scholarly journals Supporting Essential Biodiversity Variables: The GLOBIS case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Belbin ◽  
Donald Hobern
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Environmental Evaluation ◽  
Biodiversity Research ◽  
Vespula Germanica ◽  
Area Of Occupancy ◽  
The Status ◽  
Essential Biodiversity Variables ◽  
Acacia Longifolia ◽  
Small Team

Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) are the latest push toward supporting state of the environment indicators (Pereira et al. 2013). The European Union Funded Creative-B Project (see https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/100345/brief/en) outlined the status and strategy for interoperability between what they termed Biodiversity Research Infrastructures (BRIs: such as the Global Biodiversity Information Infrastructure (GBIF), the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio)). Toward the end of that project, the group decided that a logical follow-on project should position BRIs to support the production of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). This idea became the GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research (GLOBIS-B) project (http://www.globis-b.eu) and this presentation provides a summary of a case study on generating EBVs (Hardisty et al. 2019). As a part of GLOBIS-B, I suggested that a small team of GLOBIS members should document in detail, each step in the production of an EBV from GBIF and the ALA data for a few invasive species. We wanted address the rarity of detailed recording and justification for each step in the production of a dataset for environmental evaluation. I anticipated that the team would encounter many practical issues, but this case study raised far more significant issues that any of us had anticipated. The EBV chosen for this study was Area of Occupancy (IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee 2017) and the species selected represented various invasion scenarios: Acacia longifolia; Vespula germanica and Bubulcus ibis. The workflow included 20 steps between locating data and publishing an EBV, and these steps were radically different between GBIF and the ALA. The workflow required manual steps such as resolving invasive status of Acacia longifolia subspecies; only one of which was ‘invasive’. Datasets of occurrence records had to be exported from the ALA and GBIF to enable filtering for purpose, for example, not all Darwin Core terms are exposed in the current public interface of the ALA. After the record filtering, the ALA and GBIF datasets then required merging and deduplication, for which one-off code had to be written. A few of the 15 significant messages from this study included: a lack of consistency of data between BRIs (e.g., GBIF records should be a superset of ALA records); consistency and adequacy of filtering tools between BRIs; exported data structures massively differed between BRIs; that automation of the workflows may be possible but many manual intervention steps were required. By my figuring, the case study took approximately 10 times longer than anticipated, but the messages to BRIs was clear – consistency and adequacy of data and tools require urgent work.

scholarly journals Cultural Cooperation Activities between Italian and Chinese Universities: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Sha Ha
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Detailed Review ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
The Status ◽  
The University ◽  
Law And Humanities

Italy, a country with a great cultural tradition and a founding member of the European Union (EU), since 2004 very actively contributes to the cultural cooperation activities of EU with non European countries. This paper is a detailed review of the status of those activities, which can be subdivided into joint ‘Master Mundus’ Actions and bilateral teaching and research cooperation agreements established between Italian and Chinese higher education institutions. The University of Padova (UP) has been adopted as a relevant a case study, with teaching and research cooperations spanning from the S&T to Medicine, Law and Humanities. The results obtained so far are promising. 

scholarly journals Nested Peripheralisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Pfoser
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Special Section ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
The Status ◽  
Border Narratives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This article is part of the special section titled Recursive Easts, Shifting Peripheries, guest edited by Pamela Ballinger. The break-up of the Cold War order, the eastwards expansion of the European Union into former socialist countries and the more recent economic and humanitarian crises have led to the emergence of new symbolic borders and the reconfiguration of spatial hierarchies within Europe. The article shows how metageographical categories of “Europe,” “East,” and “West” and underlying classificatory logics are not only circulated in geopolitical discourses but can be appropriated by ordinary citizens in their everyday life. Using the Russian–Estonian border as a case study, the article examines the recursive negotiations of Europe’s East–West border by people living in the borderland as a response to the geopolitical changes. It highlights three border narratives: the narrative of becoming peripheral/Eastern, the narrative of becoming European, and a narrative contesting the East–West hierarchy by associating the East and one’s own identity with positive things. On both sides of the border, the status as a new periphery does not create unity across the border but rather results in multiple and competing border narratives, in which “Europe” functions as an unstable referent in relation to which one’s position is marked out. This “nested peripheralisation” at Europe’s new margins reflects power relations and uneven local experiences of transformation.

scholarly journals Migration and mobility of third-country national labour workers to and inside Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic – a legal analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo Sommarribas ◽  
Birte Nienaber
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Third Country Nationals

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic took most EU Member States of the European Union by surprise, as they underestimated the rapid spread of the contagion across the continent. The response of the EU Member States was asymmetrical, individualistic and significantly slow. The first measures taken were to close down the internal borders. The response of the European Union was even slower, and it was not until 17th March 2020 that the external borders were closed. These actions affected legal migration into the European Union from four perspectives: it affected 1) the mobility of those third-country nationals who were on a temporary stay in the EU Member States; 2) the entry of third-country nationals to do seasonal work; 3) legal migrants entering and staying; and 4) the status of the third-country nationals already residing in the EU Member States, especially those experiencing a loss of income. This article will deal with the measures taken by the EU Member States to manage the immigration services, as a case study how Luxembourg dealt to avoid that temporary staying migrants and regular migrants fall into irregularity. Finally, we will focus on the vulnerability of third-country nationals with the rising risk of unemployment and the risk of being returned to their country of origin. The article will also analyse access to healthcare and unemployment benefits.

Determinants and barriers of PV self-consumption in Spain from the perception of the installers for the promotion of distributed energy systems

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
José Ángel Gimeno ◽  
Eva Llera Sastresa ◽  
Sabina Scarpellini
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Transition Scenario

Currently, self-consumption and distributed energy facilities are considered as viable and sustainable solutions in the energy transition scenario within the European Union. In a low carbon society, the exploitation of renewables for self-consumption is closely tied to the energy market at the territorial level, in search of a compromise between competitiveness and the sustainable exploitation of resources. Investments in these facilities are highly sensitive to the existence of favourable conditions at the territorial level, and the energy policies adopted in the European Union have contributed positively to the distributed renewables development and the reduction of their costs in the last decade. However, the number of the installed facilities is uneven in the European Countries and those factors that are more determinant for the investments in self-consumption are still under investigation. In this scenario, this paper presents the main results obtained through the analysis of the determinants in self-consumption investments from a case study in Spain, where the penetration of this type of facilities is being less relevant than in other countries. As a novelty of this study, the main influential drivers and barriers in self-consumption are classified and analysed from the installers' perspective. On the basis of the information obtained from the installers involved in the installation of these facilities, incentives and barriers are analysed within the existing legal framework and the potential specific lines of the promotion for the effective deployment of self-consumption in an energy transition scenario.

The European Charter of Local Self-Government

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Himsworth
Keyword(s):  
Critical Study ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Additional Protocol ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional Authorities

The first critical study of the 1985 international treaty that guarantees the status of local self-government (local autonomy). Chris Himsworth analyses the text of the 1985 European Charter of Local Self-Government and its Additional Protocol; traces the Charter’s historical emergence; and explains how it has been applied and interpreted, especially in a process of monitoring/treaty enforcement by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities but also in domestic courts, throughout Europe. Locating the Charter’s own history within the broader recent history of the Council of Europe and the European Union, the book closes with an assessment of the Charter’s future prospects.

Varied Responses to Human-Induced Seismicity in the City of Azle, Texas

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sarmistha R. Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
The Status

Fracking has helped to usher in an era of energy abundance in the United States. This advanced drilling procedure has helped the nation to attain the status of the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but some of its negative externalities, such as human-induced seismicity, can no longer be ignored. The occurrence of earthquakes in communities located at proximity to disposal wells with no prior history of seismicity has shocked residents and have caused damages to properties. It has evoked individuals’ resentment against the practice of injection of fracking’s wastewater under pressure into underground disposal wells. Though the oil and gas companies have denied the existence of a link between such a practice and earthquakes and the local and state governments have delayed their responses to the unforeseen seismic events, the issue has gained in prominence among researchers, affected community residents, and the media. This case study has offered a glimpse into the varied responses of stakeholders to human-induced seismicity in a small city in the state of Texas. It is evident from this case study that although individuals’ complaints and protests from a small community may not be successful in bringing about statewide changes in regulatory policies on disposal of fracking’s wastewater, they can add to the public pressure on the state government to do something to address the problem in a state that supports fracking.

Euratom and Brexit: Could the United Kingdom Maintain One Foot in the European Union? Current Scenarios and Future Prospects of British withdrawal from the EAEC

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-151
Author(s):  
Andrea Circolo ◽  
Ondrej Hamuľák
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Independent Solution ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Energy Community ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The paper focuses on the very topical issue of conclusion of the membership of the State, namely the United Kingdom, in European integration structures. The ques­tion of termination of membership in European Communities and European Union has not been tackled for a long time in the sources of European law. With the adop­tion of the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), the institute of 'unilateral' withdrawal was intro­duced. It´s worth to say that exit clause was intended as symbolic in its nature, in fact underlining the status of Member States as sovereign entities. That is why this institute is very general and the legal regulation of the exercise of withdrawal contains many gaps. One of them is a question of absolute or relative nature of exiting from integration structures. Today’s “exit clause” (Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union) regulates only the termination of membership in the European Union and is silent on the impact of such a step on membership in the European Atomic Energy Community. The presented paper offers an analysis of different variations of the interpretation and solution of the problem. It´s based on the independent solution thesis and therefore rejects an automa­tism approach. The paper and topic is important and original especially because in the multitude of scholarly writings devoted to Brexit questions, vast majority of them deals with institutional questions, the interpretation of Art. 50 of Treaty on European Union; the constitutional matters at national UK level; future relation between EU and UK and political bargaining behind such as all that. The question of impact on withdrawal on Euratom membership is somehow underrepresented. Present paper attempts to fill this gap and accelerate the scholarly debate on this matter globally, because all consequences of Brexit already have and will definitely give rise to more world-wide effects.

scholarly journals Discursive Strategies and Sequenced Institutional Change: The Case of Marriage Equality in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110205
Author(s):  
Giulia Mariani ◽  
Tània Verge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Status ◽  
Private Actors

Building on historical and discursive institutionalism, this article examines the agent-based dynamics of gradual institutional change. Specifically, using marriage equality in the United States as a case study, we examine how actors’ ideational work enabled them to make use of the political and discursive opportunities afforded by multiple venues to legitimize the process of institutional change to take off sequentially through layering, displacement, and conversion. We also pay special attention to how the discursive strategies deployed by LGBT advocates, religious-conservative organizations and other private actors created new opportunities to influence policy debates and tip the scales to their preferred policy outcome. The sequential perspective adopted in this study allows problematizing traditional conceptualizations of which actors support or contest the status quo, as enduring oppositional dynamics lead them to perform both roles in subsequent phases of the institutional change process.

scholarly journals Operational and Safety Management at Intersections: Can the Turbo-Roundabout Be an Effective Alternative to Conventional Solutions?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5103
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Gallelli ◽  
Giusi Perri ◽  
Rosolino Vaiana
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Safety Management ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
The European Union ◽  
European Union Policy ◽  
Union Policy

The European Union policy strategies on the sustainability of the transport system pursue the goals of maximizing safety and environmental benefits and reducing the severity and frequency of crashes, congestion, and pollutant emission rates. A common issue is the planning of the most effective solution for operational and safety management at intersections. In this study, an egg turbo roundabout is proposed as the alternative solution to a conventional roundabout in Southern Italy which suffers from traffic congestion. A comparative analysis is carried out using microsimulation techniques to investigate the safety effects and operational improvements of converting a traditional priority intersection into standard roundabout or turbo roundabout layout. In particular, the VISSIM software is used to explore the most relevant operational performance measures: queue length, travel times and delays. The lowest values of these measurements are recorded for the simulated turbo roundabout, thus making this scheme more appropriate in terms of operational performances. With regard to safety analysis, the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) is used to collect information on the predicted number of conflicts, the probability, and severity of the potential collisions. The results suggest that, for the specific case study, the safety levels of the standard roundabout and the turbo roundabout are approximately comparable.

scholarly journals Investigating the status of transgenic crops in Iran in terms of cultivation, consumption, laws and rights in comparison with the world

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abolfazl Baghbani-Arani ◽  
Mona Poureisa ◽  
Hossein Alekajbaf ◽  
Rezvan Karami Borz-Abad ◽  
Khodadad Khodadadi-Dashtaki
Keyword(s):  
Transgenic Crops ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Food Allergies ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Gm Crop ◽  
Gm Food ◽  
Gm Foods ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Transgenic Technologies

AbstractRecently, there has been a development in transgenic technologies in many countries to meet nutritional needs of increasing worlds҆ population. However, there are some concerns about possible risks in the field of growing genetically modified (GM) food, such as threats of biodiversity and food allergies making their use a challenge. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the economic effects and political scopes of GM foods in production sector and policies made by different countries in the world and Iran. Moreover, essential (practical and legal) solutions and guidelines were provided for production and consumption of GM foods, which are useful for governmental entities, Iranian politicians, and consumers' rights. The latest situation of transgenic crops in the countries with which Iran has the highest exchange of agricultural products (including Turkey, Pakistan, and the European Union (EU)) was also studied. Although, Iran has been one of leading Asian countries not only in the field of transfer of technical knowledge of genetic engineering, but also in development of the specialized knowledge of biosafety, and despite production of several transgenic plant lines by Iranian researchers, unfortunately no GM crop has obtained release and cultivation license except for GM rice that its growing process was banned after change of government. According to findings of this study, in Iran, growing and production process of GM crops does not follow the global trend owing to scientific and legal infrastructures.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document