International Scientific Standards Research Articles

Towards a legal definition of ecological restoration: Reviewing international, European and Member States' case law

AbstractEcological restoration is of crucial importance to mitigate the impact of human activity on the environment and preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. Therefore, the concept of restoration is at the core of international and European Union (EU) environmental policy and governance. This article seeks to shed light on this concept in international and European case law. To this end, it reviews the definition, objectives and scope of restoration according to international scientific standards. It further distinguishes restoration from other related terms such as compensation, mitigation, conservation and rehabilitation. The article then analyses judgements rendered by the International Court of Justice, the Court of Justice of the EU and EU Member States' courts pertaining to restoration. It concludes that there are wide discrepancies in the use of the term restoration by the judiciary, in particular with regard to objectives, baselines and reference conditions. In light of these conclusions, the authors support the adoption of a legal definition of restoration.

Inaugural Issue Editorial Note

I am pleased to announce the launch of Journal of Food and Animal Sciences (JFAS), a new international peer reviewed open access bi-monthly journal published by Vetinfo publishers. JFAS aims to become a leading international peer reviewed academic journal, publishing high quality research and analysis on all aspects food science and technology, veterinary medicine and animal sciences. The aim of the JFAS is to publish the research work in any field of veterinary and animal sciences viz, animal anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, parasitology, infectious diseases, clinical sciences, alternative veterinary medicines and biomedical fields, livestock production and technologies, all aspects of veterinary technology, animal breeding and experimental animals, meat science and technology, dairy science, dairy processing, dairy engineering, and all the aspect of food science and technology including food chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology aspects of food emerging safety and toxicological issues, food and material engineering, physical / chemical / sensory properties of food, advances in sensory science, food quality and safety, nutraceuticals, functional foods and functional ingredients, biophysical analysis of food or processing operations, applied research related to food nanotechnology, emerging technologies, environmental, safety and sustainability aspects of processing, waste / by-product management in food processing on the whole life cycle. Reviews and surveys on specific topics relevant to the advance of the veterinary sciences and animal husbandry are particularly welcome. Interdisciplinary research and communication between diverse expert communities drives the creation of the future technologies. JFAS aims to encompass all aspects of current developments in veterinary and animal sciences, especially animal based food production systems right from animal rearing to sensory quality of products consumed. JFAS is created and launched according to this objective, proposing and promoting an easy way to share innovation, works, and create connections to go further! JFAS will be competing head-on with a number of existing subscription-based journals. However, there is clearly a niche for the new journal. The reason for this is because all journal articles will be accessible without any access boundaries to all internet users throughout the world. Another major benefit of open access online journals is that anyone can contribute, and not only those in major institutions. These freedoms are coupled with rigorous, fair and prompt standards of peer review. Such a challenge involves a strong and cohesive editorial team. As Editor of JFAS, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of our Editorial team, who trusted this adventure. Editorial team will be particularly concerned by maintaining high international scientific standards of any single post published in Journal of Food and Animal Sciences, through a careful examination, peer-reviewing process, and article selection. Second objective is selecting and bringing out innovative studies making the Journal as a source of inspiration for researchers. I would like to thank Prof. J. Abraham, Prof. M. Mini, Prof. B. Sunil, Prof. S. Maya and other editorial team members of JFAS for their trust and perseverance, without whom this scientific adventure would not have been possible. We would like to thank our authors, their trust and hard work in disclosing their latest research, our referees in their impartial effort for keeping the highest international scientific standards, and you, our readers, for your interest and support. We are proud to propose the inaugural issue of Journal of Food and Animal Sciences, and we specially thank the contributors for their first efforts.

Cristian Gazdac, Franz Humer, From Ruins to Living History in a Roman Metropolis on the Danube. The Archaeological Park Carnuntum – European Heritage Label Award

Located between Vienna and Bratislava, Carnuntum is by far the largest archaeological landscape in entire Central and South-Eastern Europe. Nearly the entire ancient Roman city once spanning 10 square kilometres is still preserved underneath the fields and vineyards of Petronell-Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg. The Federal State of Lower Austria not only set new international scientific standards but it also designed a model in regards to land use planning and archaeological monument conservation how to shape future concepts destined to balance history, spatial planning and economy. In the interests of the public the archaeological heritage is also exploited more economically: by restoring old excavations, with new research excavations and partial or full reconstructions, which give visitors a better approach to ancient times; furthermore, by involving the public more closely when investigations can be observed “at close hand”, and the presentation of finds in museums and special exhibitions. To this end, new presentation techniques and multimedia systems are used to communicate this information, including mobile phone application for VR.

EFFECTIVE INDICATORS FOR SCIENCE INTERNATIONALIZATION.

To review of concepts and actions that aim to analyze the effects of internationalization of science and education, with emphasis in the medical field and its basement in development policies adopted by nations, exploring the potential for international interdisciplinary cooperation of each laboratory, department, university or institute. Search of indicators to assess the degree of internationalization of universities and research institutes in several interconnected levels: organizational, regional, sectoral and global, and policy-making in science, technology innovation and higher education. Scientific research is still carried out individually, but is now much more closely integrated with other social processes. The scientist is no longer a stranger who is allowed to surrender to his hobby to do what it wants. Internationalization of research and medical education, although it is among the topics of greatest need, as the globalized world, is difficult activity to be assessed. The leaders seem to have understood that the knowledge societies, leading to economic policy based on knowledge, can result in economic and social progress of nations. This fact has motivated increasingly the incentive to actions aimed at addressing global problems (eg health, climate change) by funding research that generates new knowledge. The consensus is that the internationalization of science is desirable and necessary for the sustainable development of nations. However it cannot be done only by encouraging and promoting the outward students and researchers abroad. It is necessary, in addition, offer conditions to foreign researchers and students teachers to work in collaboration with Brazilian and raise the country to international scientific standards. Apresentar revisão dos conceitos e ações que objetivam analisar os efeitos da internacionalização da ciência e da educação, com ênfase na área médica e seu embasamento nas políticas de desenvolvimento adotadas pelas nações, explorando o potencial para cooperação internacional interdisciplinar de cada laboratório, departamento, universidade ou instituto. Procura de indicadores que possam avaliar o grau de internacionalização das universidades e institutos de pesquisa em vários níveis interconectados: organizacional, regional, setorial e global e para definição de políticas nas áreas de ciência, tecnologia inovação e educação superior. A pesquisa científica ainda é realizada individualmente, mas está atualmente muito mais intimamente integrada a outros processos sociais. O cientista não é mais um estranho que tem permissão para entregar-se ao seu passatempo de fazer aquilo que bem entende. Internacionalização da pesquisa e da educação médica, embora esteja entre os tópicos de maior reconhecimento como sendo necessidade do mundo globalizado, é atividade difícil de ser avaliada. Os governantes parecem ter entendido que as sociedades do conhecimento, induzindo a política econômica baseada no conhecimento pode resultar em progresso econômico e social das nações. Esse fato tem motivado de forma crescente o incentivo às ações que visam a abordagem de problemas globais (e.g. saúde, mudanças climáticas) pelo financiamento da pesquisa que gera conhecimento novo. É consenso que a internacionalização da ciência é desejável e necessária para o desenvolvimento sustentável das nações. Entretanto ela não pode ser feita somente incentivando e fomentando a ida de estudantes e pesquisadores para o exterior. É preciso, em adição, oferecer condições a professores pesquisadores e estudantes estrangeiros para que possam atuar em colaboração com os brasileiros e elevar o país aos padrões científicos internacionais.

Translating Radiometric Requirements for Satellite Sensors to Match International Standards

International scientific standards organizations created standards on evaluating uncertainty in the early 1990s. Although scientists from many fields use these standards, they are not consistently implemented in the remote sensing community, where traditional error analysis framework persists. For a satellite instrument under development, this can create confusion in showing whether requirements are met. We aim to create a methodology for translating requirements from the error analysis framework to the modern uncertainty approach using the product level requirements of the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) that will fly on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R). In this paper we prescribe a method to combine several measurement performance requirements, written using a traditional error analysis framework, into a single specification using the propagation of uncertainties formula. By using this approach, scientists can communicate requirements in a consistent uncertainty framework leading to uniform interpretation throughout the development and operation of any satellite instrument.

Multiplexed, data structure-based enriched physiological event marker system

Event Abstract Back to Event Multiplexed, data structure-based enriched physiological event marker system Derek Rollend1* and Marcos Osorno1 1 JHU/APL, United States "As has been stressed by international scientific standards committees, event markers allow for the alignment of experiment events with their associated physiological data in the post-processing phase of an experiment and are crucial for providing context in recorded measurements [1]. Current physiological data file formats only afford rudimentary event encoding schemes, including hexadecimal event codes with a separate user-defined lookup table file, and time-stamped experiment annotations [2, 3]. The latter requires synchronizing the data acquisition system and annotation-generating software. It becomes desirable then to simultaneously generate and record both experiment events and metadata (annotations) from multiple subjects in a unified form that is compatible with existing physiological data file formats. To meet these goals, an alternative event marker method was developed. A data structure, loosely based on standard transmission protocol structures, was used in order to contain both an event description and a payload of associated event metadata or experiment behavioral data. This event marker system has been successfully demonstrated in an ongoing psychophysiological experiment where the total expected number of participants is between 100-200 volunteers. To alleviate the bookkeeping burden during the analysis phase of the experiment, participant identification, experiment identification, participant roles, and behavioral metadata have been packaged within event markers. This has enabled 1) human-readable, meaningful event descriptions to be overlaid on recorded EEG, ECG, EOG, and GSR signals, 2) quantifiable behavioral data for post-processing and machine learning based analysis, and 3) backup participant meta-data contained within the data file for information consistency checking during analysis. 1. Nuwer, Marc R. et al. "FCN Standards IFCN standards for digital recording of clinical EEG." Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 106, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 259-261, ISSN 0168-5597. 2. Velde, Maarten van de et al. "Digital archival and exchange of events in a simple format for polygraphic recordings with application in event related potential studies." ISSN 0013-4694, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0013-4694 (98)00029-7. 3. Kemp, B. Olivan, J. "European data format 'plus' (EDF+)." ISSN 1388-2457, 10.1016/S1388-2457(03)00123-8." Keywords: Electrophysiology, method development, event marker system, Software Development, computational neuroscience Conference: 5th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics, Munich, Germany, 10 Sep - 12 Sep, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Neuroinformatics Citation: Rollend D and Osorno M (2014). Multiplexed, data structure-based enriched physiological event marker system. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: 5th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2014.08.00096 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Mar 2013; Published Online: 27 Feb 2014. * Correspondence: Dr. Derek Rollend, JHU/APL, Laurel, United States, derek.rollend@jhuapl.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Derek Rollend Marcos Osorno Google Derek Rollend Marcos Osorno Google Scholar Derek Rollend Marcos Osorno PubMed Derek Rollend Marcos Osorno Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Reinforcement studies and renewal of installations for the contemporary use of the Bursa Inebey (Egne Beg) Madrasah

The Inebey Madrasah, used by the Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture’s Illuminated Manuscript Library, was restored in accordance with international scientific standards. Due to the presence of important and valuable holdings in the library, a systematic study was carried out, and all the necessary precautions were taken to prevent the building against bad weather conditions. During the restoration work, the current state of the Madrasah was investigated using mechanical, physical, chemical and non-destructive tests (NDT) in situ and in the laboratory to determine what materials were used in the building’s construction. A structural analysis was conducted to find out the reasons of the cracks in the building, and the appropriate reinforcement techniques were determined according to the results of the structural analysis. Due to the rare books in the library, the security, mechanical and fire protection installations were adapted to the Madrasah. The electrical and plumbing systems were renewed as part of the reinforcement and restoration of the building. During this study, the original floor plan, architectural details, facade, materials and authentic value of the structure were carefully considered; the building’s function was merely seen as a tool of the Madrasah’s restoration. Key words: Restoration, reinforcement, material characterisation, installation.

Forschungsinstrumente in der sozialpsychiatrischen Forschung

Are assessment instruments used for social psychiatry research in German-language countries in agreement with international scientific standards? Analysis of assessment instruments mentioned in publications of two German-language journals. Most studies concerning social psychiatry used assessment instruments developed previously and for the majority data about their validity and reliability are available. The fact that most of the instruments were originally published in English indicates that they are internationally used. Most assessment instruments mentioned in German-language papers meet with international scientific standards.

Mexico’s Superior Health Council and the American Public Health Association: The Transnational Archive of Porfirian Public Health, 1887–1910

Abstract In the late nineteenth century, Mexico’s Superior Health Council devised a consistent and assertive international strategy around alignment with international scientific standards, the control of disease certification on Mexican soil by Mexican experts, transparent disease reporting, internationally demonstrated competence in campaigns against tropical disease, and participation in multilateral health agreements. The council came to command a central role in the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1877–1911), mainly because this international strategy enabled a successful defense of Mexican sovereignty. In the arena of public health, the council, led by Eduardo Licéaga, came close to realizing the Científicos’ dream of Mexican development “without U.S. investment.” This was largely because the council obtained independent access to European ideas and technologies prior to its engagement with the United States, which began in 1890 when the first Mexican delegation attended the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Through a persistent and creative diplomatic campaign, taking advantage of relationships cultivated through the APHA, Porfirio Díaz’s sanitary advisors persuaded many of their American counterparts that Mexican experts could be trusted partners in defending the health of the western hemisphere. The article describes the Atlantic world of Mexican medicine in the nineteenth century, the significance of public health within a context shaped by rising U.S. imperialism, the key role played by Licéaga, and Mexico’s participation in the APHA.

The Canadian government's treatment of scientific process and evidence: Inside the evaluation of North America's first supervised injecting facility

Although the recommendations of scientific review bodies have traditionally been free of political interference in Canada, there have recently been growing concerns raised about Canada's new federal government's treatment of scientific processes and evidence. This concern is relevant to the scientific evaluation of Canada's first medically supervised safer injecting facility (SIF), which opened in Vancouver in 2003, where illicit injection drug users can inject pre-obtained illicit drugs under the supervision of nurses. This commentary describes what may be a serious breach of international scientific standards relating to the Canadian government's handling of the SIF's scientific evaluation, and the circumstances which eventually led to a moratorium on SIF trials in other Canadian cities. Although the primary focus of this discussion should remain on the health of the people using the SIF, it is hoped that the publication of the information contained in this report will lead to greater public scrutiny of the Canadian government's handling of addiction research and drug policy, and provide lessons for researchers, drug policy-makers, and affected communities in other settings.

Free radicals in the European periphery: ‘translating’ organic chemistry from Zurich to Barcelona in the early twentieth century

In 1915, after acquiring first-hand knowledge of the new free radical chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Antonio García Banús (1888–1955) became professor of organic chemistry at the University of Barcelona and created his own research group, which was to last from 1915 until 1936. He was a gifted teacher and a prolific writer who attempted to introduce international scientific standards into his local environment. This paper analyses the bridges that Banús built between the experimental culture of organic chemistry at the ETH and the University of Barcelona. It presents a case study which aims to provide new historical data for the general analysis of groups who conducted their work in the European periphery.

Opinion paper: Science, shcharansky, and the soviets

AbstractIt is argued that scientists and scientific organizations have an obligation to speak out in defense of human rights of scientists. The sentencing of Anatoly Shcharansky by the Soviet Union to thirteen years imprisonment is cited as a case in point. Because it is questionable that the Soviet Union upholds international scientific standards it is urged that either scientific conferences not be held in the Soviet Union, or that the organizing committee and attendees be vigilant in assuring free and open conferences. Finally, it is questioned as to whether or not it is advisable to cooperate in official scientific exchanges with the Soviet Union in view of their repressive acts against scientists.