International Nature Research Articles

Protecting human rights in the era of uncertainty: How not to lose the war against ISIS

ABSTRACTAs the brutal and violent attacks on civilian populations multiply throughout the world perpetrated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL, or the Islamic State, also known as Daesh), the need for an effective response to terrorism has grown in intensity. The ISIS attacks in Paris have in particular introduced a wave of nationalist, securitized alarm, reinforcing a general concern about the influx of immigrants and asylum seekers while underscoring the shift from a regional to international nature of both threat and risk. These issues of security and terrorism have also illustrated the willingness of great powers to support military actions against ISIS in order to stem the atrocities perpetrated by this group, while placing the overthrow of the Assad regime on the backburner for the time being at least. We argue that the defeat of ISIS need not be accomplished by stigmatizing refugees and subjecting them to religious litmus tests. Closing Europe's porous borders and politicizing the attempt to admit refugees at a time when the growing humanitarian crisis poses mounting human rights challenges to the international community is fundamentally wrongheaded. We argue that these approaches, while temporarily satisfying, strengthen the hand of ISIS and other terrorist groups that tend to portray such policies and practices largely in terms of civilizational clashes. Defeating ISIS requires strategic patience and long-term logical and prudent decision making. While doing so, it is important to avoid the enemy's repressive, atavistic, and unsavory methods. The burden is on the international community to fulfill the commitment to international human rights law and international humanitarian law, which continue to be one of the most effective and legitimate tools in our arsenal to confront terrorism.

Challenges and opportunities for ELSI early career researchers.

BackgroundOver the past 25 years, there has been growing recognition of the importance of studying the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genetic and genomic research. A large investment into ELSI research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Genomic Project budget in 1990 stimulated the growth of this emerging field; ELSI research has continued to develop and is starting to emerge as a field in its own right. The evolving subject matter of ELSI research continues to raise new research questions as well as prompt re-evaluation of earlier work and a growing number of scholars working in this area now identify themselves as ELSI scholars rather than with a particular discipline.Main textDue to the international and interdisciplinary nature of ELSI research, scholars can often find themselves isolated from disciplinary or regionally situated support structures. We conducted a workshop with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in Oxford, UK, and this paper discusses some of the particular challenges that were highlighted. While ELSI ECRs may face many of the universal challenges faced by ECRs, we argue that a number of challenges are either unique or exacerbated in the case of ELSI ECRs and discuss some of the reasons as to why this may be the case. We identify some of the most pressing issues for ELSI ECRs as: interdisciplinary angst and expertise, isolation from traditional support structures, limited resources and funding opportunities, and uncertainty regarding how research contributions will be measured. We discuss the potential opportunity to use web 2.0 technologies to transform academic support structures and address some of the challenges faced by ELSI ECRs, by helping to facilitate mentoring and support, access to resources and new accreditation metrics.ConclusionAs our field develops it is crucial for the ELSI community to continue looking forward to identify how emerging digital solutions can be used to facilitate the international and interdisciplinary research we perform, and to offer support for those embarking on, progressing through, and transitioning into an ELSI research career.

Overview of the ISRTP October 2014 workshop on GRAS determinations

On October 12–13, 2014 the ISRTP held a very successful Workshop on GRAS Determinations in Washington DC that was not only well-attended by seasoned public and private professionals from a wide swath of food safety disciplines but featured a series of very insightful and informative presentations from current and past officials from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). To stay true to our international nature as a Society, we had regulatory and industry representatives from Canada and Europe.

Cultural Currency: Security-Intelligence Services Shape the Strategic Value of Art in Foreign Policy

International conventions that protect cultural property during armed conflict, along with bilateral treaties that target antiquities trafficking, indicate a need for intelligence on foreign cultural patrimony. The 'acquisition' of Jewish collections by Nazi authorities in World War II precipitated cases for restitution of the illicitly acquired artworks, and the international nature of the cases has developed the political clout of cultural property. Similarly, trafficking in antiquities from developing nations during the Cold War era has led to repatriation claims, which increase the significance of cultural property as currency in foreign relations. A simultaneous increase in the financial volume of the art and antiquities market has attracted the attention of transnational organized crime and creates funding opportunities for terrorist groups. This paper examines how security-intelligence services of World War II and the Cold War controlled both the looting and recovery of fine art and antiquities. The examination reveals the value of intelligence on foreign cultural property in diplomacy and countering threats to national security.

Westernisation and the Thai higher education system: past and present

ABSTRACTThis historical study of higher education in Thailand argues that from the onset, it has been based on international models in scope and nature. The impact of colonisation across South and East Asia created the pressures necessary for Thailand to establish higher education programmes. From the nineteenth-century formation of palace schools to the rapid growth of international higher education programmes today, the system is designed to assist Thailand in the development process through educational, social and economic modernisation while maintaining and recreating concepts of Thainess. Whereas in the nineteenth century the goal was to facilitate Thai independence from imperialist intentions, today, the goal is to participate within an economy dominated by globalisation trends and massive expansion. A chronological description of the international nature of Thai higher education begins with the initial formation of higher education institutions in the mid-nineteenth century and concludes with the changes taking place in 2015.

International Regulation of Carbon Emission

Recent years have seen an appreciable growth in the level of understanding of the dangers facing the international environment and an extensive range of environmental problems is now the subject of serious international concerns. This includes atmospheric pollution, marine pollution, global warming and ozone depletion. Such problems have an international dimension in its obvious respects. First, pollution generated from within a particular state often has a serious impact on other countries. Secondly, it is now apparent that environmental problems cannot be resolved by states acting individually. Accordingly, co-operation between polluting and polluted state is necessitated. However, the issue becomes more complicated in those cases where it is impossible to determine from which country a particular form of environment pollution has emanated. This would be the case, for example, with ozone-depletion. The international nature of pollution, both with regard to its creation and the damage caused, is now accepted as requiring an international response. The principles of State responsibility dictate that states are accountable for breaches of international law. Customary International law imposes several important fundamental obligations upon states in the area of environment protection. The view that international law supports an approach predicated upon absolute territorial sovereignty, so that a state could do as it liked irrespective of the consequences has long been discredited. Article 19 of the Energy Charter Treaty notes that contracting parties shall strive to minimise in an economically efficient manner harmful environmental impacts. In so doing, parties are to act ‘in a cost-effective manner’. Parties are to take precautionary measures to prevent or minimise environmental degradation and agree that polluter should in principle, bear the cost of pollution with due regard to the public interest and without distorting investment in the energy cycle or international trade.

Who visits the Kruger National Park, and why? identifying target markets

ABSTRACTThis study identified viable target markets at South Africa’s most renowned nature reserve, the Kruger National Park, using market segmentation based on demographic characteristics. International, domestic, and local nature tourists were surveyed and categorized into three distinct clusters. The results show that block clustering based on visitors’ demographic characteristics is a useful research tool for producing a clear visitor profile and showed that during the process of market segmentation it is necessary to establish the relationship between a particular segmentation base and visitors' behavior and preferences. This is useful information for managing this Park, and other similar parks, more sustainably.

Organizational Update

The burden of stroke on individuals, families, healthcare systems, and societies in Asia is enormous and increasing in relation to rapid sociodemographic and lifestyle changes in a large and diverse range of populations. However, challenges also present opportunities for experts from within and outside Asia to facilitate improvements in population health through advocacy, engagement, training, and the conduct and promotion of evidence-based strategies. With a total population that exceeds 4 billion, over half of the world’s population, increasing numbers of patients are accessing clinical services, technologies, and databases, and clinicians are gaining training, experience, and reliable information on a broad range of aspects of stroke care. Clinical research experience is improving through international links and fellowships, and health professionals from the region are eager to engage (and prove themselves) through participation in high-quality research and clinical practice. The Asia Pacific Stroke Organization (APSO) covers a vast and heterogenous geographical area, with much variability in language, governments, culture, historical links, socioeconomic development, and organization of health services. APSO seeks to improve the standard of stroke care in the whole region by improving communication and cooperation between stroke professionals and organizations in the region and peers in other regions, by means of annual congresses, workshops, and continued medical education. In the past year, we have achieved this through strengthened cooperation with other organizations such as the European Stroke Organization and the Asia-Oceanian Society for Neurorehabilitation and increased participation by nurses and other health professionals and had active consultation with nongovernmental organizations with shared commitments to those affected by stroke. APSO originated from an amalgamation of the Asian Stroke Forum and Asia Pacific Conference Against Stroke. Before September 2009, these organizations held large annual conferences, independently: Asian Stroke Forum, primarily based in Japan, had conferences in Tokyo and Kyoto, in 2005 and 2007, …

Legal disputes as a proxy for regional conflicts over water rights in Chile

Summary Water demand and climate variability increases competition and tension between water users –agricultural, industrial, mining, hydropower– and local communities. Since 1981, the Water Code has regulated water allocation through private individual property rights, fostering markets as the distribution mechanism among users. When legal conflicts occur between parties, it is the responsibility of the courts to settle the conflict. The aim of this research is twofold: first, to apply a geographical approach by mapping water conflicts using legal disputes reaching the higher courts as a proxy for conflict intensity and second, to explain the diversity of water disputes and how they vary regionally. We built a representative database with a sample of 1000 legal records corresponding to decisions issued by the Supreme Court and 17 courts of appeal throughout the country from 1981 to 2014. For geo-tagging, all records were transformed to plain text and analyzed to find words matching the entries of a geographical thesaurus, allowing records to be linked to geographical locations. The geo-tagging algorithm is capable of automatically populating a searchable database. Several maps were constructed using a color scale to visualize conflict intensity. Legal disputes represent different types of conflicts among water users, such as competition between agriculture and hydropower. Processed data allowed the identification of the regional variation of conflicts. The spatial pattern for the intensity of conflicts related to specific sections of the Water Code is explained in terms of the main geographical, climatic and productive characteristics of Chile. Geo-tagging legal records shows a strong potential to understand and define regional variation of water conflicts. However, data availability would become a barrier if measures to improve data management were not taken. Regarding the institutional framework, the same regulations for water management rules are applied throughout the highly diverse ecosystems of the country, impeding the resolution of conflicts that are strongly related to the local geographical context. This leads to a collision of interests and visions around water resources of both a public and private, extractive and non-extractive uses, national, and international nature of individuals, aboriginal communities, and corporations, especially mining industries.

The impact of Jordanian anti-money laundering laws on banks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Jordanian anti-money laundering law and its instructions on the Jordanian banking industry. The anti-money laundering law in Jordan is newly enacted, but there are new developments not covered by the law. For instance, the revolutionary wave known as the Arab Spring surrounding Jordan has increased the crime rates in Jordan, and it has also reduced international coordination and cooperation to encounter money laundering operations. The emergence of new means for money transfer is affecting the efficiency and speed of bank transfers. Subsequently, the impact of the law on Jordanian banks is unknown. Design/methodology/approach – This paper relies on the Jordanian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Law 2007 as a primary source of information. The relevant Jordanian anti-money laundering instructions that have directly been affecting banks include the Jordanian Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Instructions Number (51) 2010. These instructions were considered the most important legislation for the purpose of this paper. Findings – While the Jordanian anti-money laundering law is based on certain principles, the effectiveness of the law is unknown. The Arab Spring, particularly the Syrian revolution, has negatively increased the crime rates and money laundering activities in Jordan. To make matters worse, the international cooperation and coordination between countries in combating money laundering are not at the required level, and this has encouraged money laundering groups to exploit the situation. Only time will tell whether the banks will be able to cope sufficiently with the increased anti-money laundering obligations. Obviously, it is critical at this stage to establish effective coordination between legislators, regulators and the banking industry to minimize problems encountered by the banks, thereby to ensure effective implementation of the law. Originality/value – This paper provides an examination of the impact of the Jordanian anti-money laundering law that has directly affected banks. It is hoped that this paper would provide some insight into this particular area for academics, practitioners, the legal advisers, banks and policy-makers not only in Jordan but also elsewhere. In view of the international nature of money laundering and banking, there will be significant interest in how the anti-money laundering law affects banks operation in Jordan.

REGIONAL FEATURES OF THE GLOBAL MARKET OF SYNDICATED LENDING

The purpose of the paper is to explore and analyze of current market trends in the global market of syndicated lending, characterized its regional structure, identify its specific features and characteristics in different regions of the world and defining the main directions of further development of the global market of syndicated lending. Methodology. The research is based on statistical information from public sources from different countries concerning the development of syndicated loans. Data was also obtained from the websites of leading credit rating agencies, exploring the development of syndicated lending. Also, in the study of the issue, analytical articles on the development of syndicated lending in the world were used. Results. The development of syndicated loan market in recent years is characterized by: rapid growth of the volume and number of transactions; international nature; determining influence the US and Western Europe to market dynamics; active actions of international financial institutions in the developing countries markets; simplification of credit agreements conditions; consolidation of basic parameters of the loan – the total transaction amount and term of the loan. The dynamics of the global market of syndicated lending and its profitability determines the ratio between the leveraged and investment grade loans, which development depends on the overall market situation. Based on the analyzed of main factors it was found that in the short term the market will continue to grow, however quite slowly. Practical implications. Research of the syndicated loan market makes it possible to understand more about the mechanism of functioning of the modern financial sector. In our opinion, special attention should be paid to markets in developing countries which have considerable growth potential. Value /originality. It is first time we have grouped countries due to the main aspects of syndicated lending, such as: the amount of the transaction, loan term, the industry and the share of foreign capital in the market. The obtained results of research will contribute to a better use of international experience for building a system of syndicated lending in country, and make possible transforming it into an effective instrument of financing the real economy.

Thinking about Latour and AIME's Common World

Thinking about Latour and AIME's Common World Guillaume Blanc (bio) As an "anthropology of the Moderns," aime appears to be a project as vast as it is complex—so complex that after an hour spent on the web platform, I gave up my day-off navigating attitude and went back to my daytime-scholar attitude, carefully reading the platform's first page to figure out what aime was really about. First, I understood that it was dealing with both modernization, which it aimed to more precisely define, and modes of existence, which is its way to investigate "the beings about which humans are interrogating themselves." Second, I figured that based on its three stages—"that of the readers, that of the co-researchers, and that of the negotiators"—and its focus on diplomatic negotiations between fifteen modes of existence, the very purpose of aime was to learn "how to compose a common world." Then what made me give up on my initial navigation of the web platform became clearer: 1) there are crossings that illustrate the clash between two values; and 2) there is the augmented digital book, which readers can explore after having signed on to aime. Fully prepared after reading the introductory page of the web platform, I went back to navigating the book. Frustrated, as an Environmental Historian of Modern Africa First, as a historian working on Ethiopia and the environments that have resulted from twentieth-century negotiations between international, national, and local human (and nonhuman) actors, my first move was [End Page 120] quite naturally to search the book for occurrences of the word "Africa." I was disappointed to see a single quote appearing, in the section of the introduction entitled "Modernizing or Ecologizing, We Must Choose." Here Bruno Latour explains that his first research into "the end of the modernist parenthesis" was partly based on his much earlier field inquiries "in Africa." Several thoughts ran through my mind. But mostly I wondered if we were dealing here with the kind of world invented by major international nature conservation organizations, that is, a global world mainly defined by Westerners, discussed in Northern countries, and imposed on Southern countries? Having some knowledge of Bruno Latour's work, I gathered that things were much more complicated. Again in the introduction, but in the section "Negotiating on Whose Behalf," the reader learns that because "we are still missing an anthropology of the Moderns … , this inquiry is going to have to finally focus on the Moderns, the 'Westerners,' yes, even on the Europeans." The argument was more than convincing. Nonetheless, when it comes to building a common world, "the question of whose world is being planned by whom, and to what end, must be asked" (Beinart 1987, 19). aime did not seem to broadly address the question of building a common world without involving the ones for whom the choice between modernizing or ecologizing is a daily crucial one. Enthusiastic, as a Social Sciences Researcher So I kept exploring the platform, but mainly as a social sciences researcher interested in the social relationships to environment. Both voluntarily and unwillingly, I first got lost in the "modes & crossing" interface. I started here to grasp several values, situations, and paradoxes in sections such as "learning to respect appearances" and "to each mode its own way of playing with custom," as well as "locating the beings of fiction" and "[these beings] are different from the beings of technique." I got the sense of a knowledge-based fuzzy system; and as unproductive it could sound, this feeling was quite a nice one, as I started to truly apprehend the modes of existence that aime had been investigating. Then, I returned to the digital book. I discovered, step-by-step, several modes of existence and, in the two right-hand columns, the different [End Page 121] concepts and situations they were associated with. I found myself thinking that maybe aime was targeting the same goals set out in the theory of related bodies by Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1964, 13) and the monism idea it inspired in Philippe Descola (2002, 17)—that is, the need to investigate anthropos (the modern one) through the configurations, rather...

The model of competitiveness assessment of coopetitionnetwork systems – competition and cooperation ofenterprises in the global economy

IntroductionIn the modern economy, simultaneous competition and cooperation has become a requirement for businesses to remain competitive, resulting in the formation of coopetitive network systems. For reliable assessment of competitiveness of businesses operating in such a structure it is necessary to have a new view of organisation's capital. It is of key importance to measure all layers of the network system - both the economic and intellectual capital of coopetitive network systems.The analytical model presented in this paper is based on J. Bain's threefold system: structure - conduct - performance1. It is assumed that changes in the global economy necessitate concentration of subjects - changing market structures (cooperation). The new structure determines appropriate corporate behaviour - competitive strategy requires the development of networks, including competitors (coopetition). The foundation of effectiveness is the ability to adapt to new requirements, is the creation of added value to the current standard through the use of multi-layer capital coopetitive business networks.The aim of this paper is to present the concept of the measuring of the creation of added value, using multivariable statistical analysis to take into account the qualitative dimension of building international competitiveness based on available quantitative data. The essence of the presented method is to highlight the impact of all five separate layers of company capital on the effectiveness of coopetitive systems [Rosinska-Bukowska 2012, pp. 104-108]. For this reason, five parameters have been used: profitability index of equity, the cost of research and development per employee, engagement of intangible assets in the value of sales and internationalization indicators of assets and employment. The key is to emphasise the importance of networks2 and the international nature of these systems [Esser et al. 2008, pp. 21-26], which is intended to draw attention to the necessity to combine cooperation and competition in order to meet today's challenges.1. Coopetition - requirement of the modern development modelProgressive globalisation processes accelerate the liberalization of the movement of production factors. This leads to the rebuilding of organisational businesses systems as a result of the implementation of the modified development strategy. The changes thus promote beings capable of creative cooperation, including the ability to combine cooperation and competition. This favours the formation of various forms of collective bargaining - including coopetitive ones.The concept of coopetitive global business network is a result of the evolution of company organizational systems. The continuity of interaction between market participants (Actor Bonds), their resource dependence (Resource Ties) and the relations between them related to their activities (Activity Links), i.e. features indicated as essential for networks [Hakansson & Snehota 1995, pp. 24-49] are of paramount importance. A kind of novelty, however, is that these relations currently have a coopetitive nature.Coopetition is a system of simultaneous streams and interdependent relationships of competition and cooperation between the entities that retain their own organisation [Cygler 2009, p. 19]. Coopetition should be defined as a specific mode of action, allowing for building capacity on the basis of close cooperation between participants combined with competitive struggle. It is a business strategy that uses insights gained from game theory to understand when it is better for competitors to work together. By adopting this perspective enterprises may creating added value for still increasing standard. As a result of progressive globalisation and liberalisation, coopetitive relations develop dynamically, due to the fact that the world market has become almost an open area on which the systematic shortening of flow of not only goods and services, but above all, knowledge and information on a global scale increases rapidly. …

Baudžiamoji atsakomybė versle: ekonominės veiklos rizikos ir pasitikėjimo verslo partneriais ribos

Straipsnyje bandoma nubrėžti ribą tarp ekonominės veiklos rizikos bei pasitikėjimo verslo partneriais ir baudžiamosios atsakomybės. Autorius parodo, kad ši riba kol kas pavojingai neaiški, paliekanti daug laisvės interpretacijoms. Baudžiamosios teisės ir verslo santykis tampa neatsiejamu junginiu, kurį būtina įvertinti baudžiamosios justicijos požiūriu.

CONSTRUCTION AND ARCHITECTURAL APPEARANCE OF ARMAVIR IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHNIC-DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES OF THE LATE XIX – EARLY XX CENTURIES

This article examines the transformation of the construction and architectural appearance of Armavir, which in the late XIX – early XX centuries, became one of the most important centers of the Caucasus. Considers in detail the rapid growth and development of Armavir after the 1875, the Rostov-Vladikavkaz railway, which became one of the manifestations of capitalist modernization in the region. Quantitative and qualitative changes in the field of construction and architecture are analyzed in close connection with the processes of complication of social, ethnic and confessional structure of the local population. With the involvement of various sources in the article, the conclusion is justified that in the period under review, Armavir turns into the "urban" in scale and appearance, the village of the Russian Empire, comparable to provincial and regional centers of the region. The issue has scientific significance as because of its comprehensive and interdisciplinary nature, and due to the fact that the historical building of the Armavir has largely been lost in the years of the great Patriotic war, that ultimately actualizes the task of keeping the survivors in the city of historical and cultural heritage of peoples of the Kuban region in the late XIX – early XX century. Analyzing stylistic features of local development, the author comes to the conclusion about the international nature of the architecture of Armavir, which is determined by the processes of the expansion of information and communicative space and the involvement of the Caucasus into the sphere of economic globalization. The article explores the historical phenomenon of layering the settlement evolved from a small village of the Circassian Armenians to a major city. The peculiarities of its urban topography, architectural silhouette, topography and layout. Substantiates the view that the appearance of the streets and neighborhoods of Armavir in the pre-Soviet period was influenced by the functional specificity of certain areas and is directly dependent on the factors of professional orientation, social status and living standards of the local population.

International intensity, diversity, and distance: Unpacking the internationalization–performance relationship

Prior research has considered various conceptualizations of internationalization and offered diverse perspectives on its performance implications that, in turn, have generated mixed empirical findings. We advance research on the performance implications of internationalization by uncovering the multifaceted nature of internationalization and developing a generalizable theoretical framework that unbundles internationalization into three main facets: international intensity, international diversity, and international distance. We draw from multiple disciplines to explain the causal mechanisms that underlie the distinctive performance implications of each facet and test our predictions using panel data on Japanese firms. Our findings demonstrate that international intensity and international distance produce sigmoid effects on firm performance, though for different theoretical reasons. In turn, international diversity generates a U-shaped performance effect. Our multidisciplinary perspective contributes to international business research by discerning the distinct facets of internationalization and analyzing the mechanisms that disentangle the complex nature of the internationalization–performance relationship.

УПРОВАДЖЕННЯ КОМПЕТЕНТНІСНОГО ПІДХІДУ В НАВЧАЛЬНИЙ ПРОЦЕС ПІДГОТОВКИ СУДНОВОДІЇВ

The competence-based professional education is the objective phenomenon in education brought to life by social and economic, political and educational and pedagogical factors. One’s competitiveness at the modern job market usually depends on ability to operate new technologies,ability to continuous self-education and fast adaptation to various working conditions. Modern job market imposes the whole layer of new requirements on an employee which are taken into account on inadequate level or aren't taken into account at all in the training syllabus for specialist degree in different subject areas and in maritime education in particular. The main idea of the competence-based approach is that education has to provide not isolated knowledge and skills but to develop students’ ability and readiness for future professional activity in various social and working conditions. The competence-based education, which has been introduced in many countries, is nevertheless a new way of organizing educational process in Ukrainian higher educational institutions. Because maritime education is of international nature, the introduction of the competence-based approach into cadets training program is of immediate importance nowadays.Search for effective forms of the educational process organization, which will allow combining the academic, practical and simulator trainings of specialists in this area, is an integral part of teacher’s work at higher education institution

Offering Global Collaboration Services beyond CERN and HEP

The CERN IT department has built over the years a performant and integrated ecosystem of collaboration tools, from videoconference and webcast services to event management software. These services have been designed and evolved in very close collaboration with the various communities surrounding the laboratory and have been massively adopted by CERN users. To cope with this very heavy usage, global infrastructures have been deployed which take full advantage of CERN's international and global nature. If these services and tools are instrumental in enabling the worldwide collaboration which generates major HEP breakthroughs, they would certainly also benefit other sectors of science in which globalization has already taken place. Some of these services are driven by commercial software (Vidyo or Wowza for example), some others have been developed internally and have already been made available to the world as Open Source Software in line with CERN's spirit and mission. Indico for example is now installed in 100+ institutes worldwide. But providing the software is often not enough and institutes, collaborations and project teams do not always possess the expertise, or human or material resources that are needed to set up and maintain such services. Regional and national institutions have to answer needs, which are growingly global and often contradict their operational capabilities or organizational mandate and so are looking at existing worldwide service offers such as CERN's. We believe that the accumulated experience obtained through the operation of a large scale worldwide collaboration service combined with CERN's global network and its recently- deployed Agile Infrastructure would allow the Organization to set up and operate collaborative services, such as Indico and Vidyo, at a much larger scale and on behalf of worldwide research and education institutions and thus answer these pressing demands while optimizing resources at a global level. Such services would be built over a robust and massively scalable Indico server to which the concept of communities would be added, and which would then serve as a hub for accessing other collaboration services such as Vidyo, on the same simple and successful model currently in place for CERN users. This talk will describe this vision, its benefits and the steps that have already been taken to make it come to life.

Measuring Safety Culture on Ships Using Safety Climate: A Study among Indian Officers

Workplace safety continues to be an area of concern in the maritime industry due to the international nature of the operations. The effectiveness of extensive legislation to manage shipboard safety remains in doubt. The focus must therefore shift towards the human element - seafarers and their perceptions of safety. The study aims to understand the alignment that exists between safety culture and safety climate on board ships as perceived by seafarers. The underlying factors of safety climate were identified using factor analysis which isolated seven factors - Support on Safety, Organizational Support, Resource Availability, Work Environment, Job Demands, ‘Just’ Culture, and Safety Compliance. The perception of safety level of seafarers was found to be low indicating the existence of misalignments between safety culture values and the actual safety climate. The study also reveals that the safety perceptions of officers employed directly by ship owners and those by managers do not differ significantly, nor do they differ between senior and junior officers. A shift in perspective towards how seafarers themselves feel towards safety might provide more effective solutions – instead of relying on regulations - and indeed aid in reducing incidents on board. This paper details practical suggestions on how to identify the factors that contribute towards a better safety climate on board ships.

Determining the Relevant Limitation Period for International Sales Contracts Before International Arbitral Tribunals

Various questions in respect to one of the most important and beneficial of legal institutions – as Friedrich Carl von Savigny described the law on limitation periods – are proving difficult to clarify in the preeminent method of settling disputes of international trade, namely in international arbitral proceedings. First of all, evaluating the relevant limitation period for international sales contracts in international arbitral proceedings is still challenging because of the different classifications of the legal institution. While the categories of “substantive” and “procedural” law as classification criteria are elusive per se; the very same division of legal rules is particularly vague in international arbitration, which is characterised by a multifaceted and complex interaction of different laws and rules. When classifying the legal institution, thus, the essay refrains from resorting to formal categories such as “substantive” and “procedural” law and rather examines the underlying rationale of the laws and rules governing international arbitration and their coherence with the objective of the law on limitation periods. Even after the law on limitation periods has been properly classified and assigned to the adequate legal framework, difficulties remain to be solved when the arbitrators exercise their discretion in determining the applicable prescription regime. The essay shows that in the realm of international trade, rules of law directly derived from commercial usage and of an international nature such as the Limitation Convention or the UNIDROIT Principles may – in contrast to many national prescription regimes – ensure that the dispute is decided in accordance with the ideals of accuracy, efficiency and predictability, which inspire the international arbitral process. Since the virtue of this choice is the fact that it is free of the vagaries and arbitrariness of a national legal system, the outcome also coincides with the very nature of the law on limitation periods to create legal certitude by warding off delicate problems of evidence and stale proceedings.