Previous Conferences Research Articles

Definitive Space – Fuzzy Responsibility The 29th Annual International Association of European Schools of Planning conference, Prague, 13–16 July 2015

IntroductionThe Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) was established in 1987 in Belgium and is the largest European association bringing together academics working in the field of spatial planning and urbanism. It is the only representation of planning schools in Europe. The association organises several activities, such as summer schools, PhD workshops, the online In Planning platform, thematic groups, lecture series and the cooperation with the AESOP Young Academics Network. Its core activity and biggest event is the annual conference. Traditionally, the AESOP conference is held in July and is hosted by one of the member universities. This year we all gathered in the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague. The conference lasted for four full days, from Monday 13 to Thursday 16 July 2015.The conference themeThe main theme of the 2015 conference was 'Definitive Space - Fuzzy Responsibility'. This theme is in line with the previous conference themes of Dublin 2013 'Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions' and of Utrecht 2014 'From Control to Co-Evolution'. The conference theme is chosen to address the current ongoing evolution and change of the former public control on spatial affairs towards more bottom-up initiatives today. Countless good practice examples affirmed the endless possibilities these new driving forces can achieve. However, the sense of responsibility hardly overstepped the domain of city halls and ministries. The diverse initiatives on the one hand and the still centralised responsibility on the other led to the current gap between sprawled power and the blurred sense of responsibility.Spatial planning as an instrument for urban and regional management is supposed to overcome these obstacles. However, the main problem is that the spatial planning process itself was affected. The former hierarchic control by state and local governments is now replaced by a shared and dissolved control. The public- private partnership projects led to a situation where it is not clear who has to take responsibility in spatial affairs. Cities and regions are still seen as the actors who are responsible, but the predominance of outsourcing-related activities is preventing this. Therefore, the question these days is how spatial planning can deal with these new relations between actors, spatial developments and responsibility; hence, the theme of the AESOP conference 2015: 'Definite Space - Fuzzy Responsibility'.The opening eventOn Monday 13 July, the congress started with a small pre-congress before the official opening event. This pre-congress comprised different thematic groups, special sessions and roundtables. The thematic groups are long-established working groups on specific theoretical research themes. They are established to create a more effective platform for debate and discussion among AESOP members and many thematic groups organise one of their meetings during the main conference. After a short break, ten round tables were organised around specific theoretical and practical research topics. Everyone was invited to take part with a short presentation or by discussion. As expected, many of these round tables resulted in very interesting and dynamic discussions.After this 'warm-up' part of the conference, the opening ceremony (Figure 1) was convened in the beautiful Bethlehem Chapel in the city centre, presided by Prof. Karel Maier (Czech Technical University Prague) and AESOP President Prof. Francesco Lo Piccolo (University of Palermo).The opening ceremony lasted for four hours. These four hours were filled up with four keynote lectures chosen to fit in with the conference theme. The first keynote speaker was Prof. Erik Swyngedouw (Manchester University). The title of his presentation was 'Insurgent planners and the spectral return of the political in the post-democratic city'. He focused on the current 'Jan Hus-thinkers'1 who are questioning the present political democratic structures, but are not welcomed by current political leaders. …

5th International Conference on Advances in Optoelectronics and Micro/Nano-optics (AOM 2015)

The 5th International Conference on Advances in Optoelectronics and Micro/Nano-Optics (AOM 2015) was held in Hangzhou, China during 28-31, October 2015. It was the fifth event of a series of OSA topical meetings that began in Tianjin in 2009, and consequently took place in Guangzhou (2010), Hong Kong (2013), and Xi'an (2014). Following the successes of the previous conferences, the aim of this year's conference was to present the most recent advances in the fields of micro/nano-optics and optoelectronics, especially the new ideas and concepts in modeling, fabrication and testing of photonic materials, structures, devices and systems, and their applications.The conference consisted of 4 plenary lectures (by Yuri Kivshar, Shanhui Fan, Susumu Noda, and Peter Nordlander, respectively), 9 keynote lectures, and 110 invited talks, in which a wide range of topics were covered and the most recent significant results were presented. To encourage the participation of young researchers, oral and poster presentations were also included. Some selected works presented in the conference are published in this edition of Journal of Physics: Conference Series.The AOM 2015 was organized by the State Ley Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation of Zhejiang University, and the Joint International Research Laboratory of Photonics of Zhejiang University, in collaboration with the Optical Society of Zhejiang Province. With 287 international participants from 17 countries, the conference was a great success. We wish to thank all the participants, and the support of the sponsors. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of K. C. Wong Education Foundation.Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the technical program committee, the local organizing committee, the reviewers, as well as the chairs of the conference sessions.

The importance of hydration and education: challenges and opportunities.

The essentiality of water for life is beyond doubt. In spite of being a key element for maintaining a proper health status, until the last years it has not received sufficient research and educational attention. In this context, up to date three national (including one international) hydration congresses have been hold in Spain, and we’re at the moment honoring the Opening Act of a fourth one at Toledo. The main conclusions of these previous conferences were that it warrants further scientific attention and concern regarding the diverse aspects that constitute the field of hydration research, and that hydration assessment is an emerging research area which comprises nutritional, exercise, behavioral and biochemical sciences. Both observational and experimental studies are needed to address causality as well as effectiveness.

Trends in Special Libraries: Observations Based on Conference Content

ABSTRACTThe annual conference of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) provides an opportunity to observe trends in special libraries emerging, continuing, and fading. This column analyzes the program of the SLA 2015 conference held in Boston June 14–16, 2015, and compares it to the programs of previous SLA conferences. Prior analyses and observations of SLA conferences are discussed. Emerging trends noted at the 2015 conference include data management and analysis, print collections, laboratory safety, and prospect research. Consulting, outsourcing, strategic alignment, open access, digitization, institutional repositories, and taxonomies have maintained a prominent presence at SLA conferences over the years. The column closes by calling for more research on and analysis of the content of SLA and other conferences attended by special librarians to capture trends not yet appearing in the journal literature.

The Brazilian National Health Conference: challenges for the country

This article was published in the context of the upcoming 15th Brazilian National Health Conference and addresses the country's health challenges based on the history of previous conferences. The authors analyze the evolution of health as a public policy agenda, highlighting the role of such institutions as the Brazilian Center for Health Studies (CEBES), the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Abrasco), and the National Health Council in advocating and establishing the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS). The article also focuses on expectations concerning the 15th National Health Conference within a political and economic scenario that raises questions and challenges both for the future of health policy, exemplified by SUS, and the current capacity to mobilize stakeholders.

Introduction to the special issue on the VIII Latin-American Congress on Mechanical Engineering

This special issue on Advances in mechanical engineering from Latin-America contains papers that have been presented at COLIM 2014, the VIII Latin-American Congress on Mechanical Engineering held in Cuenca (Ecuador) from November 25 to 27, 2014. The conference has been the eighth event of a series of conferences which started in Merida, Venezuela in1999 as a conference activity mainly for promoting mechanical engineering in South America community. The previous conferences have been held in Quito, Ecuador in 2001, in Lima, Peru in 2003, in Morelia, Mexico in 2005, in Cucuta, Colombia in 2008, in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010, and in Cuzco, Peru in 2012. The congress focuses on today’s technical challenges, research updates, research and development innovations that are shaping the future of mechanical engineering for industrial and non-industrial applications. The congress also has the goal to encourage exchanging experiences and to build up international cooperation networks by inviting researchers, teachers, students and professionals from engineering disciplines in sharing experiences and results. In the latest years, the event has received an increased attention, as it can be seen from the fact that the 2014 congress proceedings contain 128 papers contributions, from all around the world. This special issue has been obtained as a result of a second review process and selection among the best presented papers at COLIM 2014. The content of the papers cover several aspects of mechanical engineering with challenges in the area of interests in Latin-America from theoretical aspects up to practical industrial and non-industrial applications, such as science applied to mechanical engineering, design of machines and components, manufacture of machines, automotive engineering, and methods and techniques for engineering education. We would like to express grateful thanks to the members of the International Scientific Committee for 2014 COLIM conference (listed below), for co-operating enthusiastically for the success of the COLIM event and this special issue: Simon Figueroa (Venezuela), Conference Chair Marco Ceccarelli (Italy), Conference Co-Chair Rene Vinicio Sanchez (Ecuador), Conference Co-Chair Victor Cardenas (Ecuador) Jose Felix Vazquez (Mexico) Jaime Cervantes de Gortari (Mexico) Jose Carlos Miranda (Mexico) Lisa Lugo (Paraguay) Cesar Alejandro Isaza (Colombia)

Rethinking poster presentations at large-scale scientific meetings – is it time for the format to evolve?

Rethinking poster presentations at large-scale scientific meetings – is it time for the format to evolve?

Extended Defects in Semiconductors

AbstractThis proceedings volume of physica status solidi contains papers presented at the 17th International Conference on Extended Defects in Semiconductors (EDS 2014). They have been selected during a peer‐review process.The conference was organized by the Georg‐August‐University Göttingen and was held at the Physics Faculty as part of the university's North Campus in Göttingen from September 14 to 19, 2014. The biennial conference series on Extended Defects in Semiconductors started with a meeting in Hünfeld, Germany, in 1978. Subsequent meetings took place in France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and the preceding EDS 2012 in Thessaloniki (Greece).EDS 2014 was a conference following the tradition of previous conferences of this series, i.e. it brought together experts in fundamental and applied research on structural defects in current and future semiconducting material systems, their nanostructures and devices. For the first time, carbon‐related materials had been included. It provided a forum for excellent presentations and lively discussions in a stimulating scientific atmosphere.Topics of the conference included– Thin films and heterostructures– Low‐dimensional systems and related defects: semiconductor nanocrystals, quantum wells, quantum dots, nanowires– Extended defects in C‐related materials (incl. graphen)– Interface structures and defect interaction– Doping‐, irradiation‐, and implantation‐induced defects– Electronic structure of defects– Defect engineering, strain engineering– Mechanical properties and dislocation dynamics– Role of defects in optoelectronic and magnetic properties– Degradation mechanisms in semiconductor devices– Atomistic and multiscale simulations, modeling approaches of defects, interfaces and nanostructures– Advanced characterisation techniques and methods for the investigation of semiconductor materials, in‐situ imaging and analysis– Interaction of point and extended defects, point defect agglomeration– Materials for solar energy conversion and energy storage.The organizers want to express their gratitude to all members of the EDS Scientific Committee as well as to the members of the EDS 2014 Program Committee and all referees for their invaluable work. Support by the Georg‐August‐University and the CRC1073 is also gratefully acknowledged.Last but not least, we thank all participants of EDS 2014 whose excellent contributions built the base for a fruitful and stimulating conference. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Latest guidelines for the management of the anxiety disorders - a report from The International Anxiety Disorders Society Conference, Melbourne 2014.

The International Anxiety Disorders Society Conference, held in Melbourne in November 2014, enabled key researchers from Australia and internationally to interact with mental health practitioners with an interest in clinical anxiety disorders. The proceedings of previous conferences in 2006 and 2011 formed the basis of two well-received textbooks on anxiety disorders; this time we have taken up the invitation to publish the proceedings as articles in this issue of Australasian Psychiatry. At the end of the first day of the conference a lecture and linked international expert panel explored the topic of guidelines for the management of the anxiety disorders in conjunction with an engaged audience for 90 minutes - key elements of this discussion are presented here. Guidelines for anxiety disorder management should be applied with caution in clinical practice settings.

Living Stories of Resilience, Resistance, and Resourcefulness

The articles in this special issue of the journal were presented as working papers at two conferences of the Group for New Directions in Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary on May 7–9 and October 1–3, 2014. Papers from previous conferences have been published as articles in Pastoral Psychology in the December 2010, June 2011, August 2012, October 2013, and December 2014 issues. We are deeply indebted to Lewis Rambo, editor of Pastoral Psychology, for enabling us to publish the articles as a group. As in previous years, these two conferences had a common theme: BLiving Stories of Resilience, Resistance, and Resourcefulness.^ This theme, which emerged from the closing discussions at the previous year’s conferences in which participants were invited to propose the next year’s theme, was chosen because pastoral theology, as a discipline, has focused over the years on the personal and collective experiences of individuals, families, friendship and support groups, local communities, congregations, and other religious groups; in addition, it has given particular attention to the racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, economic, and health-related issues and concerns that these entities experience on an ongoing basis. As a group dedicated to the recognition and development of Bnew directions^ in pastoral theology, we hoped to develop ideas and strategies for addressing these issues and concerns in new and helpful ways. The theme’s emphasis on Bliving stories^ reflects the insight that came into prominence several decades ago that pastoral theology tends to be story-oriented. Whether the focus of attention is an individual, family, friendship or support group, local community, congregation, or other religious group or organization, pastoral theological studies have typically employed stories to illustrate and explore the concerns and issues being addressed. This story-orientation has its basis in the traditional emphasis of the discipline on the case study, which has been, and continues to be, a prominent feature of chaplaincy and pastoral counseling. However, the story-orientation allows for addressing the racial, ethnic, gender, Pastoral Psychol (2015) 64:549–551 DOI 10.1007/s11089-015-0667-z

Brazilian Feminisms in Global Spaces: Beijing and Beijing+20

Within the last decades, feminist movements in Brazil have advanced significantly beyond borders, gaining increasing recognition in global spaces, UN ones in particular, for positively influencing Brazil's official position. Unsurprisingly, Brazil has served four terms in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and, in the eyes of more progressive delegations, is a much needed presence to ensure no lost ground on what has been achieved in previous conferences. However, the actual presence of Brazilian feminist activists in the delegations and the NGO Forums has dwindled considerably. What have been the strategies and mechanisms at play in maintaining a radical vein in our official position? Can it be sustained without the more active involvement of feminist activists – say, throughout Brazil's new role as president of the 60th CSW session? These are some of the issues I address in this article, sharing the views of activists present at those events.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Persons with Disabilities

In this paper, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) is evaluated with respect to its ramifications for persons with disabilities. In the SFDRR, persons with disabilities were referenced either directly or indirectly as part of the preamble, the guiding principles, the priorities for action, and the role of stakeholders. In addition, the 2015 World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, during which the SFDRR was adopted, incorporated explicit recommendations toward a disability-accessible and inclusive environment not evident in previous disaster risk reduction conferences. The infusion of disability-related terms and concepts such as accessibility, inclusion, and universal design throughout the SFDRR document was significant. These concepts, which have their origin in disability studies, are used in the SFDRR document to refer to the needs of all in disaster, not only to people with disabilities. These disability-related concepts will now serve the field of disaster risk reduction as important overarching disaster-related principles. The authors conclude that the SFDRR has firmly established people with disabilities and their advocacy organizations as legitimate stakeholders and actors in the design and implementation of international disaster risk reduction policies.

An official American Thoracic Society workshop report: stem cells and cell therapies in lung biology and diseases.

The University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Vermont Lung Center, in collaboration with the NHLBI, Alpha-1 Foundation, American Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society, International Society for Cell Therapy, and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, convened a workshop, "Stem Cells and Cell Therapies in Lung Biology and Lung Diseases," held July 29 to August 1, 2013 at the University of Vermont. The conference objectives were to review the current understanding of the role of stem and progenitor cells in lung repair after injury and to review the current status of cell therapy and ex vivo bioengineering approaches for lung diseases. These are all rapidly expanding areas of study that both provide further insight into and challenge traditional views of mechanisms of lung repair after injury and pathogenesis of several lung diseases. The goals of the conference were to summarize the current state of the field, discuss and debate current controversies, and identify future research directions and opportunities for both basic and translational research in cell-based therapies for lung diseases. This conference was a follow-up to four previous biennial conferences held at the University of Vermont in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011. Each of those conferences, also sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, American Thoracic Society, and Respiratory Disease Foundations, has been important in helping guide research and funding priorities. The major conference recommendations are summarized at the end of the report and highlight both the significant progress and major challenges in these rapidly progressing fields.

Knowledge management and global climate change regime negotiations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the important factors that negotiators and policy-makers need to take into account while putting their strategies to negotiate global climate change regimes. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on qualitative research using the deductive approach. Integrating the theoretical and empirical material in the analysis is used to enhance the readers’ value and interest in the paper. Findings – Without deep understanding of why some international negotiations related to climate change have previously failed, it is difficult to successfully negotiate them in the future. Flexibility and openness during negotiations and to consider the views and concerns of all global actors in finding optimum solutions and cooperation are among the many essential factors that bring the world leaders into a compromise agreement and a global climate change regime. Knowledge management including taking into account the discussed factors may help the negotiators and public to be more prepared to understand the obstacles that may complicate negotiating the international climate change regimes. Research limitations/implications – This paper is not intended for those who have years of experience in climate change negotiations nor for those seeking deep theoretical knowledge about this topic. Practical implications – This paper has practical implications as it combines the theories of international relations with practical evidences from previous Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Social implications – This paper is an essential read to students and young scientists, as well as to young policy-makers within the environmental politics. Originality/value – The paper deals with a very important and current issue and little has been published on the process of preparation for negotiating climate change negotiation. It covers some critical issues and determining factors in such negotiations.

A Hybrid Approach to Answering Why-Not Questions on Relational Query Results

In analyzing and debugging data transformations, or more specifically relational queries, a subproblem is to understand why some data are not part of the query result. This problem has recently been addressed from different perspectives for various fragments of relational queries. The different perspectives yield different yet complementary explanations of such missing answers . This article first aims at unifying the different approaches by defining a new type of explanation, called hybrid explanation, that encompasses the variety of previously defined types of explanations. This solution goes beyond simply forming the union of explanations produced by different algorithms and is shown to be able to explain a larger set of missing answers. Second, we present Conseil , an algorithm to generate hybrid explanations. Conseil is also the first algorithm to handle nonmonotonic queries. Experiments on efficiency and explanation quality show that Conseil is comparable and even outperforms previous algorithms. This article extends a previous short conference paper by providing proofs, additional theorems, and a detailed discussion of each step of the Conseil algorithm. It also significantly extends the experimental evaluation on efficiency and explanation quality.

4th National Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials (NCPCM 2014)

This volume contains selected full length technical papers amongst forty oral presentations made in the 4th National Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials (NCPCM 2014), NIT Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India, December 5 – 6, 2014.The first conference of the NCPCM series was held at the same place in December 2011. Seeing the enthusiasm of the participants, it was decided to organize such conference in Rourkela every year. The basic idea was to establish a periodical national forum for multi-scale approaches in processing and characterization of materials in the eastern part of India. The conference NCPCM 2014 has successfully carried the tradition of previous conferences; more than fifty participants from twenty different organizations across India have registered. The conference was consisted of six technical sessions of about fifty contributory talks along with three keynote lectures. A metallography contest was also organized during the event. Out of these, thirty four best peer-reviewed contributions are published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering.We would like to thank all the contributors, members of the organizing committee, session chairs as well as colleagues and students who helped with the preparation of the conference and, particularly, with the preparation of this volume. We convey our heartiest gratitude to the sponsors and advertisers for their contribution.

The profile of European sociologists. Report on the 12th Conference of the European Sociological Associations (25-28 August 2015, Prague)

The title of the conference that was organized in the modern building complex of the Czech Technical University suggested that, besides addressing the usual, practically ‘mandatory’ subjects, the conference would this time include the unusual and fresh topics Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination. Several factors contributed to creating the optimistic, dynamic atmosphere necessary for this. First of all, the conference was attended by the greatest number of participants ever recorded: 3,500 registrants (at the previous conference in Turin there were 2,600 participants), and the number of papers and posters that were presented also set a new record (2,900), along with the number of sessions (700). The obvious presence of a significant number of young participants was conspicuous to anyone who walked through the corridors of the university or in the university parks. According to the official report of the Program Committee, 28% of the participants were students (and according to one non-official estimate, 40%, if PhD students are also included). So, the fruits of the sociology PhD programs have ripened. Many doctoral candidates wish to test themselves in a professional European working environment, and the PhD graduation process also compels them to engage in as much intense publication activity as possible. Perhaps we don’t need to worry so much about the future of sociology science after all.

Workshop Report: In Quest of More Affordable and More Accessible Medicines

The 3rd Biennial International Bioequivalence, Biowaivers, and Dissolution Testing Conference took place on December 2–3, 2013 and was cosponsored by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS), and Rhodes University. The conference was a follow-up of two previous workshops and conferences held at Rhodes University in 2009 and 2011. Members of the organizing committee were Professor Isadore Kanfer–Chair, Professor Rod Walker, Dr. Mike Skinner, Dr. Murray Ducharme, and Mr. Michael Aeroboe.

Simulations on Consumer Tests: A Systematic Evaluation Approach in an Industrial Case Study

Context: Consumer tests which assess safety features of modern vehicles have a tradition in Europe. Recently, such test protocols have been substantially extended to also cover active safety systems like Volkswagen's Front Assist. Objective: Simulations for passive safety systems are already a widely adopted approach during vehicle development and internal assessments. As active safety systems are becoming an increasingly important element in a vehicle's safety concept and a differentiating feature, a systematic validation and assessment of such systems is necessary to successfully pass consumer tests and complimentarily identified, relevant traffic scenarios. Method: With this work, we extend our previous conference publication about EuroNCAP CCRs tests by additionally investigating US NCAP scenarios for an AEB system. Therefore, we systematically modeled the allowed variations with a graph where the paths represent concrete test scenarios. These paths are used in a virtual test environment to assess the AEB system. In our previous publication, we illustrated our method of test case generation and simulating consumer test scenarios by showing results of 27 specific test cases. In this work, we focused on integrating a test automatization routine as well as evaluating a set of test cases with a factor of 100 compared to our previous paper. Results: We demonstrate the approach for both EuroNCAP's and US NCAP's CCRs scenarios with a total quantity of more than 2,700 test cases including re-runs to systematically evaluate an AEB algorithm. Our results unveiled varying action points in time for the same initial values for a given consumer test scenario while applying different allowed variations. Conclusion: We foresee the importance of complementary virtual testing for real-world tests on proving grounds especially during the design phase. Our study shows that already small variations that yet accord with the test procedure specification influence the behavior of an active safety system and need to be investigated during development and vehicle testing.

해양관련 생물다양성협약 의제 소개

In June 1992, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was concluded by 158 countries in Rio de Janeiro. And now, 194 member nations are participating in discussions for their own profit. Recently, Nagoya Protocol regarding Access to genetic resources and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) was approved and took effect from October 12, 2014. Thus, it is important to understand the impact of CBD and ABS functioning on researchers studying marine biodiversity. Until now, in the previous Conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the interest towards researching marine and marine living resources was relatively low, and accordingly, the discussions regarding marine and marine living resources were delayed. However, in the 12 Pyeongchang Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the arguments concerning Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Areas (EBSA) and the other marine related issues were discussed. Although, South Korea has not yet officially joined Nagoya Protocol, however the consultations in regard to Prior and Informed Consent (PIC), Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) and Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism (GMBSM) were discussed. We belive that as a possessing nation of biological resources, South Korean government authorities should revise their management systems protocol and regulations concerning domestic biological resources, in order to strengthen the information system and help academia and industry to utilize the biological resources abroad easily and effectively.