Coco Gauff pays attention to what people say about her online and occasionally takes pleasure in clapping back, so it should not be a surprise that she took to social media to type out a message after wrapping up 2024 by winning the WTA Finals and the $4.8 million check that came with it.

ECOSCOPE (Network of Biodiversity Research Observatories) associates the SINP (Information System on Nature and Landscapes) to a shared event that will focus on the complementarity between "research - expertise" on biodiversity through the emerging concept of "Essential Biodiversity Variables" (EBVs).

The seminar, scheduled for Monday, November 3, 2014 in Paris, is open to scientists, observatories’ managers and their teams, and to all who are involved in the study of the state and dynamics of biodiversity for research and expertise.

The aims of this seminar are to increase awareness and understanding of EBVs, their interest for observatories (visibility, synergies) to benefit to observatories’ scientific managers and data users. It is also to define how this concept can be implemented at national scale, in connection with international initiatives. 

Programme will be available in available in September, for registration: follow the link !

The third plenary of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be held from the 12.-17. January 2015 in Bonn, Germany where also EU BON partners will attend. The IPBES secretariat already released some information notes and documents for participants that plan to join the sessions. In addition to that, some working documents for IPBES-3 are released in the meantime, like the provisional agenda and others. There are also reports being published that are relevant for the work of biodiversity networks like EU BON. Interesting reports are for example the draft of the assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe and Central Asia (where EU BON is mentioned as a relevant research network) and other working documents for the plenary.

Please find the documents under the following link that will guide you to the specific IPBES webpage: http://ipbes.net/plenary/ipbes-3.html#three

A free GEO/Ramsar webinar titled "Wetlands, Biodiversity and the Role of Earth Observations" is taking place today - 18 June 2015. The webinar  is designed for anyone with an interest in or passion for biodiversity and wetlands - students, scientists, experts, or anyone with a general interest in one or more of these topics – who wants to learn from these vast global communities​.

This is the first of a series of planned webinars on the role of Earth observations in monitoring and sustaining biodiversity and wetlands. The webinars will be hosted by the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) and GEO Water Community, together with the Ramsar Secretariat and will include leading experts from the global communities highly engaged in biodiversity, wetlands and Earth observations.

To watch the event and register follow the link: https://blbgroup.leadpages.net/webinar-wetlands/

Post-doctoral scientist position is open for the project "Towards an integrated prediction of Land & Sea Responses to global change in the Mediterranean Basin" (LaSeR-Med), which focusses on integrated socio-ecological modelling. The duration of the contract is initially one year, with a possible extension for a second year, depending on the initial results. The post-doc will be based within the Mediterranean Institute of marine and terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE) in Aix-en-Provence, France. The project is part of the Labex OT-Med (http://www.otmed.fr/).

Applicants should hold a doctoral degree in physics, chemistry, microbiology, geosciences, environmental sciences or a related field of science. They should be familiar with modelling biogeochemical interactions between ecosystems and capable to further develop existing numerical ecosystem models. Programming skills (C) and modelling experience are therefore mandatory. Knowledge of R and of Unix/Linux environment will be an advantage. The candidate should have good written and oral communication skills. For work, good skills in the English language will be essential.

The project:

Terrestrial and marine ecosystems are connected through groundwater, river discharge and nutrient outflows (especially N and P). River catchments in the Mediterranean are N-intensive regions, mostly due to intensive agriculture in the North and to crop N2 fixation or food & feed import in the South. The fraction of nutrient reaching the sea constitutes significant anthropogenic forcing of many marine biological processes. For simulating the dynamics of the first levels of the marine food web (from nutrients to jellyfishes), the ocean biogeochemical model, Eco3M-MED, used and developed by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) within OT-Med, currently uses N and P measurements at river mouths, e.g. for the Rhône.

In order to estimate the impacts of global change on the functioning of marine ecosystems, the project aims at modeling the dependency of N and P outflows to the Mediterreanean sea toward land management. Land management is modelled as part of the agro-ecosystem model LPJmL (Bondeau et al., 2007), that has been especially adapted to the Mediterranean cropping systems (Fader et al., 2015). Among others, LPJmL simulates the daily carbon and water cycles, and the river discharges to the sea. Following existing approaches in the scientific literature, the post-doc will implement the nutrient N and P transfer in LPJmL, covering the net nutrient inputs to the river catchments by accounting for the processes occurring at the agro-ecosystem level (N2 biological fixation, fertilization, atmospheric deposition) and the net food and feed imports. Since only a minor fraction of the net nutrient inputs from Mediterranean basins reaches the sea, the retention along the nutrient cascade will have to be added to the LPJmL river routing scheme, similarly to the method used by the Riverstrahler model. Once the nutrient transfers have been introduced into LPJmL, simulations will be validated using current climate and land use forcing for comparisons with the existing observations from river outlets. Finally, future conditions will be assessed by using the model with scenarios of changing regional climate and land use / land management.

Your application:

Applications should contain a suitable motivation letter describing your anticipated role in the project, a CV, a list of scientific publications and the names of at least two scientists that can be contacted for references. They must be sent to Ms. Gabriela Boéri (gabriela.boeri@imbe.fr). Please prepare your application as a single file in pdf-format.

Questions about the project or the position can be directed to Dr. Alberte Bondeau (alberte.bondeau@imbe.fr). The position will be filled as soon as a suitable candidate has been found – work should start soon after that date. The salary and contract conditions will be determined according to standards set by Aix-Marseille University – questions in this regard can be directed to Sophie Pekar (pekar@otmed.fr).

The GEO-XII Plenary and Ministerial Summit, as well as many associated meetings and events were hosted by the Mexican Government and took place in Mexico City from 9 to 13 November 2015.

The five-day event brought together GEO member countries and organizations, as well as scientists and stakeholders from across the world to debate the next decade for GEO, and to discuss the latest developments in Earth Observation technologies and applications. The GEO-XII Plenary approved the GEO Strategic Plan 2016-2025, and the Summit endorsed a Mexico City Declaration (see: http://www.earthobservations.org/geo12.php).

Mexican music and folklore performances at the hosted conference dinner at GEO-XII; Credit: Hannu Saarenmaa

EU BON participated at GEO-XII and was represented at the European Commission Stand "Europe for GEOSS" with a poster and a short video clip. A real highlight was the visit by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. During his short visit, the Commissioner took specific interest in the project and spent some time discussing EU BON's relevance with the coordinator and his staff.

   
The EC stand "Europe for GEOSS" at GEO-XII, and discussions on EU BON with Commissioner Carlos Moedas; Credits:  Jose Miguel Rubio Iglesias (left), Helmut Staudenrausch (right)

EU BON was also presented during a dedicated side event entitled "The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON): Enhancing Biodiversity Observations and Products for User Needs". The project’s key products were introduced by the project coordinator Christoph Häuser and the workpackage 2 leader Hannu Saarenmaa.

A new opinion piece published in the journal Global Change Biology looks at the development of biodiversity scenarios and their inclusion of  future land-use changes.

Abstract: 

The GEO XIII Plenary in St. Petersburg  enjoyed a huge interest and support from many member governments, agencies and networks with around 400 registered participants this year.

Having taken place from 7-10 November 2016, the event featured a plenary, a number of side events and exhibition to give a chance to participants to meet up and discuss ideas and progress.

  
Left: The EU BON booth at the GEO exhibition - F. Wetzel, Ch. Häuser, H. Saarenmaa; Right: Director General  J.E. Smits and Christoph Häuser; Credits: F. Wetzel

The FP7 projects BioFresh and WaterDiss2.0 are pleased to announce the E-seminar "Data Exchange for Biodiversity Conservation in Freshwater Ecosystems: Introducing the BioFresh Platform and Data Portal". The E-seminar will take place on Thursday, November 28 from 14:00 to 15:00 CET.

It will be hosted on the seminar website (http://waterdiss.eu/eseminar-biofresh) where a link will be available for it.

The E-seminar will introduce the audience to the usage of the BioFresh Platform and Data Portal, in order to ensure a better understanding of the different components. Aaike De Wever, Science Officer of BioFresh, will explain which data and information are integrated and for which contributions BioFresh is looking. Participants are encouraged to join in for a live discussion via "Citrix go to Webinar".

If you want to participate in the e-seminar, you only need to send an email to evelyn.lukat@ecologic.eu. You will receive further information via mail. If you decide on participating later, you can also simply join the seminar by following the link provided on November 28^th on this website.

A few important notes:

• The e-seminar will be conducted in English
• The video and the questions asked during the session will be available on the websites of the BioFresh data portal and this website.

Technical details on the E-seminar:

• When clicking on the link, the application Citrix Go To Webinar will be downloaded. Nothing will be installed on your computer. However, please make sure that your computer is able to run java applications.
• Please make sure that the sound system on your computer works. If your sound system does not work properly, you can also dial in via phone. Please check the dial-in number for your country on this website by November 28^th.

The second session of the IPBES plenary (IPBES-2) is now assigned to be held in Antalya, Turkey from 9 to 14 December 2013, following the decision of the IPBES Bureau.

As part of the current intersessional process, various draft documents prepared by the Bureau and Multidisciplinary Expert Panel will be available online for review at: www.ipbes.net/intersessional-process. These includes the draft IPBES work programme, stakeholder engagement strategy, guidance on the development of strategic partnerships, and procedures for the preparation of IPBES deliverables. In addition, various regional consultations in preparation for IPBES-2 are also under preparation. Further details can be found at www.ipbes.net/related-events.

The deadline for registration is August 19th, and it should be noted that it will not be possible for any non-government observers who were not present at IPBES-1 to register to participate in IPBES-2 after this date.

Details of the online registration process can be found at www.ipbes.net/plenary/registration-ipbes-2 

Programme will be available in available in September, for registration: follow the link !

The Eleventh Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO-XI), hosted by Switzerland, will take place in Geneva at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), from 13 to 14 November 2014. 

The Plenary, Side Events, and all other related meetings will take place in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) building, located at 7 bis, avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.

The Group on Earth Observations is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. GEO was launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries. These high-level meetings recognized that international collaboration is essential for exploiting the growing potential of Earth observations to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world.

More information about the event is available here: http://www.earthobservations.org/geo11.php

More information: https://rd-alliance.org/plenary-meetings/rda-fifth-plenary-meeting.html

The Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) is organising the GFOI Plenary and Open Forum to be hosted by the European Space Agency in Frascati, Italy from 22 February 2016 – 26 February 2016.

The fourth session of the IPBES Plenary is now set to be held from 22 to 28 February 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

So far only a provisional agenda for the fourth session of the Plenary is available.

The deadline for registration has been set for 15 September 2015.

More information to follow.

The 2016 IndexMed Seminar will be held from 6 to 8 June 2016, in Marseille, France.

Following the successful workshops (2014 and 2015), this 3rd seminar will highlight the contribution of recent developments in data-mining using graphs approach for environmental research questions and new hypotheses. It will promote exchanges between participants, the acquisition of practical methods and will explore new ways to organize data.

The aims, after sharing scientific evidences and confronting experiences, are to develop collaborations using/based on graph approaches and new researches around the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe, and to respond to a European H2020 Call next year. The 3-days program (6 to 8 June 2016) will be extensive, including 3 plenary sessions with keynote speakers (international level), social events, a posters session and a 2-days workshop (about 20 places), during which participants will build their first data graphs with their own datasets and learn how to generate metadata and to write data papers.

The 2016 IndexMed Seminar welcomes abstracts for original oral and poster contributions until 15th May 2016. The online submission process will be opened soon (1st April) on http://indexmed2016.sciencesconf.org.

Registration is free and open to any researcher. PhD and Master students are welcome.

Follow the latest news and register for the event here.

The conference covers scenarios and modelling applications in marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems, across all relevant disciplines of natural and social sciences. It is open to scientists and experts working in the field, policy makers and practioners. The conference focuses on: (i) Exploring recent advances in modelling human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, (ii) Addressing the use of scenarios and models for decision support, (iii) Mobilising observations of biodiversity and ecosystem services for model development and testing, (iv) Capacity building for developing scenarios and models and for their use in decision making, (v) Horizon scanning and addressing gaps in knowledge.

More information available on the conference website.

The GEO XIII Plenary will take place on 9 & 10 Nov 2016 in St. Petersburg, Russia. More information to follow.

The Fifth Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will take place from 6 to 10 March 2017, in Bonn, Germany

In a previous article, I was fortunate enough to focus on female composers, and amongst the collection was Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). Why did I ... Read more

The post The Mystical Music of Hildegard of Bingen: A Medieval Composer and Visionary appeared first on CMUSE.

For thousands of younger Gen Xers and older Millennials who were raised in the church, much of our maturing as worshippers is marked by the poetic lyrics and fluid vocals of the duo known as Shane & Shane. I personally remember having Be Near on repeat during a difficult season of transition in my personal life. And I don’t know about you, but just about every guy in my high school youth group could be found working their double strum on acoustic guitar at any given moment.

But it wasn’t just their original songs that sunk deep into the hearts of their listeners. Barnard and Everett also have this uncanny ability to take songs recorded years earlier or made popular by big names such as Hillsong or Passion and make them fresh and accessible to our generation of worshippers. 

They are capitalizing on this significant gift through their latest ministry effort called The Worship Initiative (TWI). I recently got the chance to talk with Shane Barnard at length and hear more about their journey through ministry, how they juggle it all, and their hopes for the future. Hopefully you’ll find the perspective and insight he offered up as encouraging as I did.

When I asked him to share the story of how the vision of The Worship Initiative came to be, he jumped right into an impassioned explanation. They had been doing the touring, writing, and recording thing for years and gotten to experience worship from and with just about every kind of stage, venue, and demographic. As they got to know hundreds of worship leaders from everywhere you can think of, they began to see a gaping hole . . . that being the understanding of the true weight of the calling of the worship leader.

A scripture that they’d read hundreds of times and even used as a sort of mantra throughout their ministry also played an enormous role in their starting TWI. Colossians 3:16 says,

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

One day a word jumped off their pages in a way that opened their eyes afresh – THROUGH. These times of worship they were leading on a regular basis were not just a means to an end. They actually serve as one of the primary ways the Church conveys the message of Jesus to raise up a generation of Christ followers who can change the world. Yet somehow, this position has gotten watered down to nothing more than a song leader in most church settings. They suddenly felt a whole new level of responsibility.

So the two set out to discover a way to pour into worship leaders around the world, both spiritually and practically. They started by taking a more personal look at their own gifts and bents. Barnard says about Everett, “I can’t think of a better salesman or evangelist . . . He’s just loud, funny, always cutting up, and can win anybody over to do anything . . . and unleashing that in an overseer role and our relational PR person has been awesome to watch. I think God dumped the PR side and evangelist side of Shane so hard into him that I think we still have yet to see what God is going to do in that regard.” Whereas for Barnard, his skill in songwriting and producing contends with just about anyone you could name. Over the last 20 years of ministering together, they’ve learned to “embrace who God has made [them] and not be disappointed in that anymore but just know that this is how God has made [them].” They’ve worked incredibly hard to figure out how to balance all of the overlap between their personal and professional lives, which is inevitable when you’ve worked so closely together for that long. “You would think we would have some kind of system after 20 years, but we are getting better. I would say that a few words come to mind . . . simplifying, strategizing, doing things on purpose. These are the things that have kind of been a banner over our lives the last two or three years.”

For a long time, all the different aspects of their lives were spread out all over the DFW area of Texas. Their studio was far south, much of their steady worship leading opportunities were at a church in the heart of Dallas, and they were living a good jump from either of those. So they are in the process of bringing all of those components closer together so that doing life with the families, church community, and ministry partners is easier. Taking this step has made it easier to grow their efforts with The Worship Initiative more rapidly.

So what is The Worship Initiative and what does it look like for someone to participate or take advantage of these resources?

Basically, an individual can pay a yearly fee and access a list of over 150 (and constantly growing) worship songs that each have multiple tutorial videos and charts accompanying them. These videos break down how to play the songs in different keys, on different instruments, and with varying skill levels. A worship leader on staff at a church can also pay an annual group fee, based on the number of people, for his team to be able to access everything as well. There are also craft training videos for everything from the different instruments and vocals to tech/production and using the number system. If that’s not enough, the site has an entire section dedicated to heart training, where they break down all the different spiritual and practical components for worship leading with the likes of John Piper and Ben Stuart. There are even creative devotionals to accompany every song on the different TWI records. TheWorshipInitiative.com truly is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for anyone looking to grow as a leader or team member, and there are still exciting things to come. Shane shared a bit about what’s ahead for TWI. “Our next phase of The Worship Initiative is to create what we’re calling learning paths. Some people love to be given a world of information to explore on their own. But most people would really love to be told what to do to get from point A to point B. We will take our existing content and add to it and give them a year long path to stick to and see measurable growth in both skill and leadership.”

Given the length of time and the platform they’ve had over these last two decades, I asked Shane how he feels his perspective of worship both personally and within the Church has evolved over the years.

“I think worship, and even the idea of worship, has come a long way, in a good way. I think we’ve seen a pretty good uptick on understanding the Romans 12:1 life of worship. I often think back to a time when I was leading worship in a basement or college dorm room for several years, and it was always the oddest songs ever.” He recalled singing, with hands lifted, Make It Right by Kenny Marks (and yes, I might’ve gotten a solid 30 second serenade over the phone . . . it’s fine!) and other obscure songs that really had no purpose or meaning to the one worshipping. Yet, what we see all throughout the Psalms is “this gut-wrenching, very honest, it is okay to pour out your heart to the one who cares for you mentality. . . and that language is okay.” He remembered hearing the words to Breathe for the first time, where it says “I’m desperate for you,” and thinking “is this okay to have this kind of language in front of people? But yes, it is okay even in a congregation or corporately to say ‘I am thirsty for You in a dry land where there is no water.’ In fact that can be really helpful to the person sitting next to you. That can be us ‘singing spiritual hymns and songs to one another’, just that opening up of the heart and the embracing of singing those honest songs and using them to allow ‘the message of Christ to dwell among us richly.’”

Learn more about The Worship Initiative, as well as Shane & Shane, at www.theworshipinitiative.com. Here at All About Worship, we believe in what these guys are doing and the ministry they are fostering. We can’t wait to partner with them in the future as God continues opening those doors.

On this week's edition of The Watchman, we examine the Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino and what's next in ISIS's war against America.

On this week's edition of The Watchman, we examine the Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino and what's next in ISIS's war against America.

Two powerful market leaders are joining together to form one powerhouse partnership. Hospeco Brands Group, a United States-based, full line manufacturer of personal care, cleaning and protection products to serve the janitorial, industrial supply, automotive, foodservice, health care and hospitality markets, is announcing a merger with Monarch Brands, wholesaler and manufacturer of microfiber, commercial laundry linen, institutional textiles and wiping products.

Join us at our upcoming webinar “Using Spray Textures on Walls and Ceilings for Stunning Results” on Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. ET.

With the introduction of Tectum DesignArt– Lines Finale PB ceiling and wall panels, Armstrong World Industries offers architects and designers an opportunity to deliver unique visuals created by panels providing excellent sound absorption.

Walls & Ceilings Architect’s next Webinar will be held on February 28.

Washington — NIOSH has added a boom lift scenario to its Aerial Lift Hazard Recognition Simulator, the agency announced April 8 via Twitter.

Washington — OSHA is set to host a two-part webinar series on recordkeeping and the electronic submission of workplace injury and illness data.

Following the unfortunate death of a woman who had activated a PERS alarm, a jury will decide the damages. 

IT’S JANUARY. Happy New Year! I hope you have an ordinary year.

Purair FLOW Series Laminar Flow Cabinets are designed to protect work surfaces, products and materials from particulate contamination.

Washington – The next webinar in NIOSH’s Total Worker Health series will provide an “overview of theory, research data, obstacles and potential solutions for addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by an aging workforce.”

Atlanta – Productive aging is about minimizing losses and maximizing growth. That was the message from James Grosch, NIOSH Center for Productive Aging and Work co-director and research psychologist, during a Sept. 27 webinar, “Productive Aging and Work: Theory, Health Data & Practical Solutions” – part of the NIOSH Total Worker Health webinar series.

Washington — L. Casey Chosewood pointed out the obvious reality every worker faces. “All of us are aging,” the director of the Office for Total Worker Health at NIOSH said during the agency’s June 10 webinar on the future of work and the implications for aging workers.

Learn how to get the best out of your webinar game.

Successfully driving webinar attendance in the physical security sector involves a multifaceted approach.

Let’s face it, brochures and spec sheets can be dry. Webinars, however, offer a dynamic platform to showcase the true power of your security solutions.

The National Roofing Contractors Association and roofing manufacturer GAF have teamed up to create a website intended to help roofing contractors keep their employers safe.

Washington – OSHA has updated an online tool aimed at teaching small-business owners and workers how to locate workplace hazards.

Silver Spring, MD — Roofers face an increased risk of fatal falls to a lower level compared with other construction subgroups, making fall protection strategies a vital component of roof work planning and training.

Washington — The eighth annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction is set to kick off on May 3 with a webinar hosted by OSHA, NIOSH, and CPWR – the Center for Construction Research and Training.

Washington – OSHA and the Society for Chemical Hazard Communication are sponsoring a free webinar to explain the inspection procedures for OSHA’s recently updated Hazard Communication Standard.

Nedap and Tuxen & Associates will offer a free webinar introducing ANPR Lumo on May 7 at 3 p.m. CT.