ad

El Shaddai

El Shaddai is part of our Christian Music For Kids Library. Listen online to streaming praise-worship music.




ad

People Get Ready

People Get Ready is part of our Top New Christian Music Library.




ad

Blinken is heading to Europe for urgent talks on Ukraine after Trump's election

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Europe for urgent meetings on Ukraine with NATO and European Union officials following last week's U.S. presidential election and the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January.




ad

Earth's biggest polluters are not sending leaders to U.N. climate talks in year of weather extremes

World leaders are converging Tuesday at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan although the big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup.




ad

Ghana's Supreme Court restores ruling party's parliamentary majority ahead of Dec. 7 election

Ghana's Supreme Court restored the ruling party's majority in the parliament on Tuesday ahead of the Dec. 7 election, with an order that the speaker's declaration of four seats as vacant was unconstitutional.




ad

South Korean actor Song Jae-lim found dead at 39

Song Jae-lim, a South Korean actor known for his roles in K-dramas "Moon Embracing the Sun" and "Queen Woo," was found dead at his home in capital Seoul. He was 39.




ad

Trump, Harris have dueling visions for addressing immigration

Millions of uninvited guests have shown up at the U.S. border since President Biden was sworn in.




ad

Incoming Trump admin should forgive, but not forget

The temptation is great among conservatives to get back at the leftists who used government power to harass and imprison their opponents for nearly four years.




ad

Jets' Spencer Shrader expected to kick against Cardinals after another shakeup at the position

Spencer Shrader is next up in the New York Jets' kicking shuffle.




ad

Utah AD Mark Harlan blasts the Big 12 officiating crew after BYU rallies to beat the Utes

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan blasted the Big 12 officiating crew following BYU's 22-21 win over the Utes on Saturday night for controversial calls on the Cougars' winning drive.




ad

Ohtani, Dodgers celebrate World Series victory with parade and stadium celebration

The Los Angeles Dodgers, including Shohei Ohtani and his dog, celebrated their eighth World Series championship with a downtown parade on Friday.




ad

Bummer reaches $13M, 2-year deal with Braves, who guarantee additional $4M to Lopez

Left-hander Aaron Bummer agreed Saturday to a $13 million, two-year contract with the Atlanta Braves, who reached a revised $30 million, three-year deal with All-Star Reynaldo Lopez that guarantees the right-hander an additional $4 million.




ad

New White Sox manager Will Venable anticipates keeping Grady Sizemore as part of his coaching staff

Will Venable is a busy man these days. The new manager of the Chicago White Sox is learning his way around the organization. He is talking to his new players and working with the front office on its offseason plans.




ad

Son of Don Mattingly, Preston Mattingly, promoted to Philadelphia Phillies general manager

Preston Mattingly, a son of former star first baseman and manager Don Mattingly, was promoted to general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.




ad

Canada forces TikTok to close its offices, claiming company poses threat to national security

TikTok has been forced to close its offices in Vancouver and Toronto because Canadian security and intelligence officials said activity at the offices threatened the national security of Canada, a charge that TikTok plans to fight in court.




ad

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe can opt for less personalized ads

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don't want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over digital competition concerns.




ad

Meta tweaks ad policy over EU objections

Meta announced changes to its targeted advertising policy this week after European Union regulators said the company wasn't doing enough to restrict the amount of information sold to ad agencies.




ad

Indiana hires Stephanie White as coach to lead Caitlin Clark and the Fever

The Indiana Fever hired Stephanie White as coach on Friday, putting her in charge of a team led by WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark.




ad

Pelicans add CJ McCollum and Herb Jones to growing injury list

When Willie Green learned Friday that starting guard CJ McCollum and top defender Herb Jones would be joining point guard Dejounte Murray on the injury list for multiple weeks, the New Orleans Pelicans coach tried to look on the bright side.




ad

Bam Adebayo scores 32 points to help the Heat beat the Wizards 118-98 in Mexico City

Bam Adebayo scored 20 of his 32 points in the first half and the Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards 118-98 on Saturday night in the 14th NBA regular-season game in Mexico.




ad

As advertised: Derik Queen's double-double leads Maryland to season-opening rout of Manhattan

The Baltimore big man recorded a double-double -- in the first half alone -- en route to a stellar 22 point, 20 rebound debut as Maryland pulled away from Manhattan in the second half to win its season opener, 79-49




ad

Stephen Curry scores 24 points in his return to lead Warriors past Wizards, 125-112

Stephen Curry scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half in his return from an ankle injury and the Golden State Warriors won their fourth straight game, 125-112 over the Washington Wizards on Monday night.




ad

Jalen Hurts is a go for Eagles after coach contradicts injury report with comment on ankle

Jalen Hurts is clear on the injury report to play for Philadelphia at the Dallas Cowboys after coach Nick Sirianni revealed Friday his quarterback is dealing with an ankle issue.




ad

Anti-abortion advocates press Donald Trump for more restrictions as abortion pill sales spike

Anti-abortion advocates say there is still work to be done to further restrict access to abortion when Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House next year.




ad

Real Madrid defender Eder Militao tears ACL and needs surgery

Just over a year since tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg, Real Madrid defender Eder Militao ruptured the ACL in his right leg when he crumbled amid screams at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday.




ad

NHL season adds more international flavor with 4 Nations Face-off as Winter Olympics appetizer

Nico Hischier and the New Jersey Devils open the season in Prague against the Buffalo Sabres, two more games will take place in Finland this fall and the 4 Nations Face-off is a four-team February appetizer to the main event as the league and players embrace hockey's international roots.




ad

Canada Soccer Association said Olympics drone-spying scandal was not an isolated misstep

The Canadian Soccer Association says an independent review confirmed the Paris Olympics drone-spying scandal was not an isolated misstep.




ad

FIFA and IOC hold different track records with Trump ahead of World Cup and Olympics in U.S.

The two biggest events in world sports are coming to America. And if President-elect Donald Trump is not thinking about them yet, organizers of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics certainly are.









ad

Indipendenza, la Catalogna allo scontro finale con Madrid

 
IL SOLE 24 ORE
 
di Luca Veronese
 
06-09-2017.-
 
Con un atto finale di sfida, la Catalogna sta per approvare la legge sul referendum per l’indipendenza che si terrà il primo di ottobre. A meno di un mese dalla data fissata per la consultazione popolare, il voto del Parlamento catalano porta così lo scontro con lo Stato spagnolo oltre il punto di non ritorno. Il provvedimento sul referendum che dovrebbe essere approvato a maggioranza dai partiti separatisti entro oggi, di fatto segna già una secessione tra la Catalogna e le leggi dello Stato spagnolo: la nuova legge si pone infatti, in caso di conflitto, sopra ogni altra normativa, regionale e statale. Immediata la reazione del premier nazionale, Mariano Rajoy che mantenendo la linea dura - «Il referendum non si farà!» - ha chiesto alla Corte Costituzionale di bloccare la legge e ha chiamato in causa la magistratura perché verifichi le responsabilità penali della presidente del Parlamento Catalano, Carme Forcadell, che ha autorizzato la presentazione e la discussione in assemblea.

Il presidente della Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, assieme agli alleati separatisti catalani, sta mantenendo le promesse fatte al momento della sua elezione, nel gennaio del 2016, guardando al percorso verso l’autonomia della regione più ricca del Paese: «Non ci sono alternative per l’indipendenza: referendum, o referendum!», disse, passando sopra ogni possibilità di mediazione con il governo nazionale di Mariano Rajoy.

L’ostruzionismo dell’opposizione in Parlamento - formata dai Popolari e dai rappresentanti di Ciudadanos - sta rallentando l’approvazione della legge ma già questa sera stessa, per anticipare la stroncatura della Corte Costituzionale, Puigdemont dovrebbe riuscire a firmare il decreto di convocazione, che dovrebbe essere controfirmato da tutti i ministri del governo catalano, per diluire le responsabilità di fronte a possibili processi. Non ci sono dubbi sulla successiva e immediata sentenza della Corte Costituzionale spagnola che si esprimerà contro la legge come già accaduto negli scorsi anni per tutti i tentativi della Catalogna di arrivare alla consultazione per vie legalmente riconosciute, dalla Spagna e dalla comunità internazionale.

Il premier Rajoy ha già ordinato all’Avvocatura dello Stato di «interporre un incidente di esecuzione di sentenza» davanti alla Corte Costituzionale per tentare di impedire che il Parlamento catalano discuta e adotti la legge di convocazione del referendum. Rajoy ha anche chiesto alla Consulta di determinare la responsabilità penale della presidente del Parlament, Carme Forcadell, che ha autorizzato l’esame della legge.

La procura spagnola ha annunciato che denuncerà la stessa Forcadell per «disobbedienza» all’Alta Corte di Madrid che ha vietato ogni iniziativa verso l’indipendenza.

Puigdemont, assieme ai suoi alleati, a partire dalla Sinistra Repubblicana di Oriol Junqueras, da domani dovrà scegliere se obbedire alla legge spagnola, e fermare la macchina del referendum: ma sembra improbabile, giunti a questo punto, che gli indipendentisti si tirino indietro. Oppure se diventare «fuori legge», almeno per la Spagna, seguendo la nuova «legalità catalana»

«Si è già a un punto di non ritorno», avverte l’analista Inaki Gabilondo. La frattura tra Barcellona e Madrid è già profondissima. Di fronte alla determinazione catalana, a Rajoy potrebbe non restare altra scelta che l’articolo 155 della Costituzione, che consente al governo nazionale di sospendere e destituire Puigdemont e l’autonomia catalana. Ma davvero la Spagna può arrivare a recintare i seggi, sequestrare le urne o azzerare con la forza le istituzioni catalane? Non si rischierebbe di tornare indietro di mezzo secolo rievocando i fantasmi del franchismo? Rajoy, alla guida di un governo di minoranza a Madrid, non ha probabilmente nemmeno la forza politica per farlo. Con i Socialisti e Podemos che hanno più volte chiesto di aprire un tavolo per un negoziato sull’autonomia della regione.

La Diada, la festa nazionale della Comunità autonoma catalana, che ogni 11 settembre porta nelle strade della regione milioni di cittadini, si è già trasformata in una nuova prova di forza di Barcellona contro la Spagna.

 





ad

Catalogna, niente estradizione per Puigdemont: il giudice ritira il mandato di cattura internazionale

L'ex presidente avrà libertà di movimento in tutto il mondo, ma non potrà rientrare a Barcellona: in polemica con la magistratura tedesca, che aveva respinto l'accusa di ribellione, il Tribunale supremo spagnolo rinuncia a farsi consegnare il leader indipendentista per non doverlo giudicare solo per il reato di malversazione 


REPUBBLICA
19-07-2018
 
di ALESSANDRO OPPES
 
Estradizione? No, grazie. Pur di non dover sottostare al diktat della giustizia tedesca - che nei giorni scorsi aveva ritenuto legittima solo l’accusa di malversazione respingendo quella, ben più grave, di ribellione (reato punibile in Spagna con 30 anni di carcere) – il giudice del Tribunale Supremo di Madrid, Pablo Llarena, ha deciso di ritirare il mandato di cattura internazionale nei confronti dell’ex presidente catalano Carles Puigdemont e di altri cinque dirigenti separatisti riparati all’estero. Resta in vigore, invece, l’ordine di detenzione all’interno del territorio spagnolo.
 
Questo significa che Puigdemont, attualmente in libertà in Germania, avrà d’ora in poi completa libertà di movimento in tutto il mondo ma non potrà rientrare a Barcellona. E come lui gli ex assessori Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret, Lluis Puig e Clara Ponsatí e l’ex segretaria generale di Esquerra Republicana, Marta Rovira. Il giudice Llarena sceglie dunque l’unica soluzione che, al momento, gli consente di non dover rimettere in discussione tutto l’impianto accusatorio formulato in questi mesi (a partire dall’ottobre scorso, quando il Parlament de Catalunya approvò la dichiarazione d’indipendenza) contro tutto lo stato maggiore del movimento secessionista. Se Puigdemont fosse stato consegnato a Madrid dalle autorità tedesche, la magistratura spagnola avrebbe potuto prendere in considerazione solo l’ipotesi accusatoria riconosciuta come ammissibile dal tribunale dello Schleswig-Holstein, cioè quella di malversazione di fondi pubblici (l’eventualità che l’ex presidente abbia utilizzato denaro delle casse della Generalitat, l’amministrazione regionale, per organizzare il referendum secessionista dello scorso 1 ottobre, dichiarato illegale dal Tribunale costituzionale spagnolo). In questo caso, trattandosi di un reato minore, non solo sarebbe stato improponibile ipotizzare una carcerazione preventiva per Puigdemont.
 
 
Ma con ogni probabilità Llarena avrebbe dovuto rimettere in libertà anche tutti gli altri dirigenti indipendentisti che sono in cella (prima nella regione madrilena, ora trasferiti da poco in carceri catalane) arrestati tra l’ottobre e il gennaio scorsi. Dall’ex vice-presidente Oriol Junqueras ai due “Jordis” (gli ex presidenti dei movimenti della società civile catalana Anc e Omnium Cultural, Jordi Sànchez e Jordi Cuixart), agli ex responsabili degli Esteri e degli Interni del Govern, Raül Romeva e Joaquim Forn, oltre al candidato alla presidenza della regione Jordi Turull, arrestato 24 ore dopo aver perso il voto di investitura parlamentare.
 
Niente libertà, invece, per tutti loro: proprio oggi la procura ha respinto l’ipotesi di scarcerazione, mantenendo lo stesso criterio seguito ai tempi del governo conservatore di Mariano Rajoy, nonostante l’arrivo in queste settimane di una nuova procuratrice generale dello Stato, Maria José Segarra, nominata su proposta dell’esecutivo socialista di Pedro Sánchez.
 




ad

Make us visible! – take full advantage of the project’s social media

Join the online community of EU BON and create buzz around the project. Take full advantage of our social network channels to interact with stakeholders and contribute to the EU BON discussion. Get an easy access and the latest updates on news and events around the project. You are a click away from making a difference to the project’s visibility.

Like, follow or join EU BON Social Media and get involved in the community now!

Like us on Facebook
Get the latest news in pictures and videos 
Interact and join a community of like-minded supporters
Find out about events and group activities
Follow us on Twitter
Get short and up-to-the-point updates on the latest news
Take part in live discussions during conferences and conventions
Join and interact with a wider bioinformatics community 
Join us on Google+
Join a growing social community 
Get the latest project and news alongside relevant media
Promote the project and get involved in discussions in your circles
Join us on LinkedIn
Get in touch with professionals in the area of research 
Contribute to discussions
Promote your project in a professional community

 





ad

A new article provides a decadal view on the importance and future of biodiversity informatics

A new article "A decadal view of biodiversity informatics: challenges and priorities"  published by BMC Ecology focuses on the challenges and perspectives for biodiversity informatics after a decade of development. The authors Alex Hardisty and Dave Roberts alongside 77 contributions from the biodiversity informatics community share experience and set future directions of biodiversity informatics as a tool for addressing conservation and ecological issues.

Biodiversity informatics plays a central enabling role in the research community's efforts to address scientific conservation and sustainability issues. This community consultation paper positions the role of biodiversity informatics, for the next decade, presenting the actions needed to link the various biodiversity infrastructures invisibly and to facilitate understanding that can support both business and policy-makers. The community considers the goal in biodiversity informatics to be full integration of the biodiversity research community, including citizens’ science, through a commonly-shared, sustainable e-infrastructure across all sub-disciplines that reliably serves science and society alike.

The full text of the article can be accessed here.





ad

MTSR 2013 : VII Metadata and Semantics Research Conference

November 19-22, 2013 Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece

Continuing the successful mission of previous MTSR Conferences (MTSR'05, MTSR'07, MTSR'09, MTSR'10, MTSR'11 and MTSR’12), the seventh International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR'13) aims to bring together scholars and practitioners that share a common interest in the interdisciplinary field of metadata, linked data and ontologies. Participants will share novel knowledge and best practice in the implementation of these semantic technologies across diverse types of Information Environments and applications. These include Cultural Informatics; Open Access Repositories & Digital Libraries; E-learning applications; Search Engine Optimisation & Information Retrieval; Research Information Systems and Infrastructures; e-Science and e-Social Science applications; Agriculture, Food and Environment; Bio-Health & Medical Information Systems.





ad

DRYAD announces nonprofit sustainability plans

The data repository invites community input on the future of data archiving at upcoming membership meeting

Dryad, a repository for data underlying the international scientific and medical literature, works with a variety of journals, societies and publishers to archive research data at the time of publication.  The project began in 2009 and has published more than 3,000 data packages.  In 2012, Dryad incorporated as a nonprofit organization with the mission to make scientific and medical research data permanently available to all researchers and educators free-of-charge without barriers to reuse.
For the past four years, Dryad has worked with its stakeholders to develop a sustainability plan to realize this vision.  Central to the sustainability plan is a one-time submission fee that will offset the actual costs of preserving data indefinitely. A variety of pricing plans are available for journals and other organizations such societies, funders and libraries to purchase discounted submission fees on behalf of their researchers.  For data not covered by a pricing plan, the researcher will be asked to pay upon submission, with waivers provided to researchers from World Bank low and lower-middle income economies. Submission fees will apply to all new submissions starting September 2013.  Dryad will also be supported in part by its membership, by grants for research and innovation, and by donors. Membership in Dryad is open to any organization that supports research and education.  Dryad is pleased to include Pensoft Publishers among its Charter Members.
The Dryad Membership meeting, to be held in Oxford, UK on Friday, May 24 is open to members, prospective members, researchers and other interested parties.  Attendees will hear about recent and upcoming developments in the repository and the nonprofit organization. In addition, there will be an Emerging Issues Forum with presentations from the community about future directions for Dryad, its members, and partner journals, including models for the technical and peer review of data, ideas for promoting the adoption of data citations, measuring data reuse, funder perspectives on the use of research grants for data management costs and the relevance of larger data networks.  
Dryad’s Membership Meeting is part of a series of free public events in Oxford spotlighting trends in scholarly communication with an emphasis on research data, including a Symposium on the Now and Future of Data Publication on Wednesday, May 22nd and an ORCID Outreach Meeting with a special joint Dryad-ORCID Symposium on Research Attribution on Thursday, May 23rd. Registration for these events closes on May 13th. Remote attendance will be available for those unable to attend in person.

For more information about submitting data, becoming a member or the sustainability plan, please visit http://datadryad.org. The website also offers an Ideas Forum where people can make their voice heard by suggesting and voting for new features and offering comments.

CONTACT:
Laura Wendell, Executive Director
lwendell@datadrayd.org
+1-919-668-4005 or +1-919-423-3889





ad

The BioFresh Blog - Perspective: Martin Sharman on ethics and the ecosystem services paradigm

In this guest post Martin Sharman opens up a rich area of debate by arguing that as a policy concept, ecosystem services puts human wants first and foremost and undermines moral-aesthetic value arguments for conservation that are widely held in society. Martin was the policy offer responsible for biodiversity and ecosystems in the European Commission’s DG Research & Innovation up until his retirement last November. During his career he made an enormous contribution to biodiversity research and policy, including the initiation of the BioFresh project. The opinions expressed in this post are, of course, his own and are not intended to represent a position of either the Commission or BioFresh.

A "resource" is something that is useful to someone. A "natural resource" is something in the natural environment that a human can use to satisfy want or increase wellbeing.

To adopt this vocabulary is to adopt a forthright utilitarian view of the natural environment, and implicitly to accept that human benefit is the only good. Not only is human benefit the only good, but it is quantifiable – for if not, then we can never agree on what constitutes a resource, or who has the greater right to it. Thus someone who speaks of natural resources accepts, again implicitly, that happiness and wellbeing can be quantified. The vocabulary also requires that this quantified human benefit remains, if not constant, then comparable over cultures and generations.

More than this: the wellbeing of the "resource" is insignificant. It is only by setting concern for the wellbeing of the resource to zero that one can regard it as merely something to satisfy human want. Human benefit is the only good. This is the First Commandment; in the limpid words of the King James version of the bible, thou shalt have no other gods before me.

In this observation lies much of the moral argument against the concept of ecosystem services: just as oranges are not the only fruit, so humans are not the only species.

The concept of ecosystem services is one thing; the premise of its proponents is another. It is, in short, that conservation based on intrinsic value of biodiversity has failed to stop the loss of species, ecosystems, and the complex web of interactions between them. Since an ethical argument has failed, then we should try self-interest. By demonstrating that human wellbeing is increased by the services rendered by ecosystems, we can motivate people to protect the source of the service – biodiversity.

We know that conservation is not working because we continue to lose biodiversity. Oh yeah? This is the equivalent of me deciding that my accelerator is not working because my car is losing speed. Why is such a daft non-sequitur accepted by otherwise intelligent people? You immediately thought of many reasons my car might be losing speed – I have the brakes on, I’m going up a hill, I’ve run out of fuel, I’ve run into sand, I’ve hit an oncoming truck. The obvious reason that we are losing biodiversity is the memento mori that stares at us from our looking glass – biodiversity loss is the inevitable result of our debt-based economic system and our swelling population’s unsustainable demands on nature. We all know that. Why do we mutely accept the dangerously diversionary nonsense that "biodiversity is being lost because conservation is not working"?

Ecosystem services takes the utilitarian logic of natural resources one important step further. A "service" by definition benefits humans. If we are to protect services only if they benefit humans, then what happens to the useless ecosystems? Are they simply to be cemented over?

I recently heard a discussion in which one person said "most people are useless", meaning that they are surplus to requirement. The outrage that this provoked was spearheaded by someone saying that you can never prove that anyone is useless, because you can never know enough about their contribution to their social fabric. So does this mean that you can never show that an ecosystem is useless? If so that leaves the ecosystem services argument saying that because some ecosystems benefit humans, we have to protect every ecosystem.

Which may be the right answer, but why reach it by such objectionable means?

For those of us with a reverence of nature, the ecosystem services rhetoric and mindset are abhorrent, being fundamentally immoral and unethical. They take the most ecologically damaging invasive species in the history of life, and place it above all other species on Earth. They cast all other – voiceless – species in the role of consumables. This mindset might have worked for Homo habilis. It will not work for Homo sapiens.

Martin Sharman  for the BioFresh Blog: http://biofreshblog.com/2013/07/03/perspective-martin-sharman-on-ethics-and-the-ecosystem-services-paradigm/

 





ad

The Biodiversity Data Journal: Readable by humans and machines

The Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ) and the associated Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT), launched on 16th of September 2013, offer several innovations - some of them unique - at every stage of the publishing process. The workflow allows for authoring, peer-review and dissemination to take place within the same online, collaborative platform.

Open access to content and data is quickly becoming the prevailing model in academic publishing, resulting in part from changes to policies of governments and funding agencies and in part from scientist's desire to get their work more widely read and used. Open access benefits scientists with greater dissemination and citation of their work, and provides society as a whole access to the latest research.

To publish effectively in open access, it is not sufficient simply to provide PDF files online. It is crucial to put them under a reuse-friendly license and to implement technologies that allow machine-readable content and data to be harvested by computers that can collate small scattered data into a big pool. Analyses and modelling of community-owned big data are the only way to confront environmental challenges to society, such as climate change, ecosystems destruction, biodiversity loss and others.

Manuscripts are not submitted to BDJ in the usual way, as word processor files, but are written in the online, collaborative Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT), that provides a set of pre-defined, but flexible article templates. Authors may work on a manuscript and invite external contributors, such as mentors, potential reviewers, linguistic and copy editors, and colleagues, who may read and comment on the text before submission. When a manuscript is completed, it is submitted to the journal with a simple click of a button. The tool also allows automated import of manuscripts from data management platforms, such as Scratchpads.

"This is the first workflow ever to support the full life cycle of a manuscript, from initial drafting through submission, community peer-review, publication and dissemination within a single, online, collaborative platform. By publishing papers in all branches of biodiversity science, including novel article types, such as data papers and software descriptions, BDJ becomes a gateway for either large or small data into the emerging world of "big data", said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, managing director and founder of Pensoft Publishers.

BDJ shortens the distance between "narrative (text)" and "data" publishing. Many data types, such as species occurrences, checklists, measurements and others, are converted into text from spreadsheets into a human-readable format. Conversely text from an article can be downloaded as structured data or harvested by computers for further use.

A novel community-based peer-review provides the opportunity for a large number of specialists in the field to review a manuscript. Authors may also opt for an entirely public peer-review process. Reviewers may opt to be anonymous or to disclose their names. Editors no longer need to check different reviewers' and author's versions of a manuscript because all versions can be consolidated into a single online document, again at the click of a button.

"The Biodiversity Data Journal is not just a journal, not even a data journal in the conventional sense. It is a completely novel workflow and infrastructure to mobilise, review, publish, store, disseminate, make interoperable, collate and re-use data through the act of scholarly publishing!" concluded Dr Vincent Smith from the Natural History Museum in London, the journal's Editor-in-Chief.

The platform has been designed by Pensoft Publishers and was funded in part by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project ViBRANT.

###
Original Source

Smith V, Georgiev T, Stoev P, Biserkov J, Miller J, Livermore L, Baker E, Mietchen D, Couvreur T, Mueller G, Dikow T, Helgen K, Frank J, Agosti D, Roberts D, Penev L (2013) Beyond dead trees: integrating the scientific process in the Biodiversity Data Journal. Biodiversity Data Journal 1: e995. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.1.e995


 





ad

Advanced Open Access publishing model

The Biodiversity Data Journal goes beyond the basics of the Gold Open Access

There are two main modes of open access publishing – Green Open Access, where the author has the right to provide free access to the article outside the publisher's web site in a repository or on his/her own website, and Gold Open Access, where articles are available for free download directly from the publisher on the day of publication.

Opening of content and data, however does not necessarily mean "easy to discover and re-use". The Biodiversity Data Journal proposed the term "Advanced Open Access" to describe an integrated, narrative (text) and data publishing model where the main goal is to make content "re-usable" and "interoperable" for both humans and computers.

To publish effectively in open access, it is not sufficient simply to provide PDF or HTML files online. It is crucial to put these under a reuse-friendly license and to implement technologies that allow machine-readable content and data to be harvested and collated into a big data pool.

The Advanced Open Access means:

  • Free to read
  • Free to re-use, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Easy to discover and harvest
  • Content automatically summarised by aggregators
  • Data and narrative integrated to the widest extent possible
  • Human- and computer-readable formats
  • Community-based, pre- and post-publication peer-review
  • Community ownership of data
  • Free to publish or at low cost affordable by all

BDJ shortens the distance between "narrative" (text) and "data" publishing. Many data types, such as species occurrences, checklists, measurements and others, are converted into text from spreadsheets for better readability by humans. Conversely, text from an article can be downloaded as structured data or harvested by computers for further analysis.

"Open access is definitely one of the greatest steps in scientific communication comparable to the invention of the printing technology or the peer-review system. Great but not sufficient!" said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder of Pensoft Publishers and the Biodiversity Data Journal. "We need to switch the focus already from making content 'available for free download' to being discoverable and extractable. Such re-usability multiplies society's investment in science".

 

###
 

Additional information:

The Biodiversity Data Journal is designed by Pensoft Publishers and was funded in part by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project ViBRANT.

Source: Smith V, Georgiev T, Stoev P, Biserkov J, Miller J, Livermore L, Baker E, Mietchen D, Couvreur T, Mueller G, Dikow T, Helgen K, Frank J, Agosti D, Roberts D, Penev L (2013) Beyond dead trees: integrating the scientific process in the Biodiversity Data Journal. Biodiversity Data Journal 1: e995. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.1.e995

 

 





ad

Populations of grassland butterflies decline almost 50 % over two decades

By http://www.eea.europa.eu/

Grassland butterflies have declined dramatically between 1990 and 2011. This has been caused by intensifying agriculture and a failure to properly manage grassland ecosystems, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The fall in grassland butterfly numbers is particularly worrying, according to the report, because these butterflies are considered to be representative indicators of trends observed for most other terrestrial insects, which together form around two thirds of the world’s species. This means that butterflies are useful indicators of biodiversity and the general health of ecosystems.
Seventeen butterfly species are examined in 'The European Grassland Butterfly Indicator: 1990–2011’, comprising seven widespread and 10 specialist species. Of the 17 species, eight have declined in Europe, two have remained stable and one increased. For six species the trend is uncertain.
Butterflies examined in the report include the Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), which has declined significantly, the Orangetip (Anthocharis cardamines), which seems to be stable since 1990, and the Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon), which shows an uncertain trend over the last two decades.
Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director, said: "This dramatic decline in grassland butterflies should ring alarm bells – in general Europe’s grassland habitats are shrinking. If we fail to maintain these habitats we could lose many of these species forever. We must recognise the importance of butterflies and other insects – the pollination they carry out is essential for both natural ecosystems and agriculture." more...




ad

PhD position on mapping ecosystem service trade-offs

The Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France), in its Research Group "Macroecology and Biogeography of Global Change (MacroBio)" has a 36-months PhD position open for applications. The position is funded by the European Commission through the FP7 Research Project OPERAs and affiliated to the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS).

The topic is the broad-scale spatial mapping and quantification of ecosystem service trade-offs following from management of agro-ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin. The context of the research includes the environment (climate, land use) as well as trends in societal demands for services. Based on scientific literature, spatial databases and the outputs from a process-based ecosystem model, the candidate will analyze, quantify and map ecosystem service trade-offs. Service valuation and indicator representation methods will be developed with the IMBE team. The approach is pan-Mediterranean: a significant part of the work will therefore consist of helping to reduce gaps in data and knowledge for the sum of countries around the Mediterranean basin. 

The research group works in close interaction with international programs such as Future Earth (through its project ecoSERVICES) and science-policy interfaces such as IPBES.

The successful candidate will have completed a Masters degree (or equivalent) in one of the environmental sciences, have experience in the handling of spatial data from databases, literature and models, have knowledge of existing concepts of ecosystem services, and be able to place results in the context of the Mediterranean basin (this includes the European, as well as North African and Eastern countries). The working language is English, appropriate skills in French or another of the Mediterranean languages will be an advantage.

The position will be filled when a suitable candidate has been identified. To apply for this position, please send a letter of application, demonstrating your ability to understand the task, and your CV as soon as possible, but before the 31st of January 2013, by e-mail to Ms. Gabriela Boéri (Gabriela.Boeri@imbe.fr). For any questions about the task, working conditions, or the OPERAs project, please contact Professor Wolfgang Cramer (Wolfgang.Cramer@imbe.fr).





ad

Joint Workshop Sierra Nevada LTER and EU BON

EU BON site data management workshop and Memorandum of Understanding

A joint workshop of the Sierra Nevada LTER site and EU BON was held on 29-31 January 2014 in Granada, Spain and was hosted by the University of Granada. The aim of this meeting was to bring together the Spanish members of the Sierra Nevada LTER site and test site partners from EU BON (WP1, WP2 and WP5) to discuss and develop a closer relationship in exchanging datasets and experiences in site management, long-term monitoring activities and technical requirements for data management.

During the first day of the workshop, 19 participants from EU BON, the Sierra Nevada LTER site (e.g. Regino Zamora Rodriguez and Francisco Bonet) and guests from the remote sensing EU project BIO_SOS and GBIF Spain gave an overview of their activities to obtain information on their projects and to point out likely synergies and linkages. First, the Sierra Nevada LTER site was introduced, particularly the methodologies to monitor and evaluate biodiversity and the structure of the information system Linaria was shown. Thereafter EU BON testing sites (Doñana, Rhine-Main, Amvrakikos) outlined their current activities regarding data collection, data processing and data integration, in addition to that the results of a recently conducted gap analysis of the test sites were presented. In the afternoon session of the meeting, the planned information architecture of EU BON was explained and ways outlined of how biodiversity data could be integrated.

At the second day, the participants visited a highly monitored area located in the southern part of Sierra Nevada (Alpujarras) that is covered mainly by Quercus pyrenaica forests. The field trip included stops at a meteorological station, a traditional hydrological system was visited to show former human impact in the area and the functionality of a field NDVI camera was shown. This site-trip was also used to officially hand-over the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the University of Granada and EU BON, to strengthen the cooperation between the Sierra Nevada LTER and the EU BON test sites. Anke Hoffmann on behalf of EU BON handed the MoU to Professor Regino Zamora Rodriguez, the scientific coordinator of the Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. The University of Granada is now a new associate partner of EU BON, a consortium with currently 30 partners from 18 countries.

At the last day local scientists gave an overview of the research conducted in Sierra Nevada. After that session, the workshop aimed to discuss the functionality of the envisaged MetaCat (dataprovider for Metadata) approach for the EU BON test sites and the advantages of self-developed information system Linaria of the Sierra Nevada LTER site.

EU BON will further intensify the dialogue with the University of Granada and the Sierra Nevada LTER site. It is scheduled to have a further meeting at the upcoming General Meeting of EU BON (Greece, 30 March-2 April 2014) to strengthen the partnership with the LTER test site.

For further questions please contact Anke Hoffmann or Florian Wetzel

Presentations from the meeting:

Day 1

1. Zamora - Ramos - Sierra Nevada global change obs
2. Bonet - The Linaria information system
3. Hoffmann - Häuser - Introduction to EU BON
4. Juan Negro  - CSIC-EBD
4. Juan Negro Donana 2
4. Juan Negro Donana 3
5. Stoll - test site Rhein - Main
6. Dailianis - test site Amvrakikos
7. Wetzel - Gap analysis
8. Palma Blonda - BIO_SOS and remote sensing
9. Pando - EU BON GBIF Granada 2014
10. Kunin- EU BON Work package 3

Day 3

1. Megia - Mendenez - Climate Change andd elevational range shifts
2. Gomez - Hybridization
3. Villar - Argaiz  Long time series in high mountain lakes
4. Moreno - Vegetation changes during Holocene

Workshop Agenda

Workshop Minutes

Workshop Photos (Google+ | Facebook)





ad

Biodiversity and Food Security – From Trade-offs to Synergies

3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and the UN Millennium Development Goals - October 29-31, 2014, Aix-en-Provence, France
 
This international conference is the third in a series, organized by the French CNRSInstitut Ecologie et Environnement (InEE) and the German Leibniz Association (WGL).
The goal is to identify science-based solutions for global sustainability focusing on the issues of biodiversity and food security. Current ecological, economic and societal challenges for development require a holistic understanding of food security and environmental management: from this perspective, biodiversity can be seen as key to overcome trade-offs and to develop synergies between the food system and the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, and species. The conference seeks to attract scientists from basic and applied research. It involves policy makers and other stakeholders concerned with biodiversity and food security themes who are interested in developing new solutions and strategies. It will connect researchers and stakeholders from natural sciences, social sciences, economics, humanities, technology and related fields.
 




ad

Classical monographs re-published in advanced open access

The new Advanced Books platform of Pensoft opens new horizons for semantic book publishing
 
Easy access to legacy data collected over hundreds-of-years of exploration of nature from the convenience of people's own computers for anyone all over the world? It may sound futuristic but a brand new pilot showcases how this is possible here and now.

The new workflow demonstrates a re-publication of a volume of Flora Malesiana in a semantically enriched HTML edition available on the newly launched, Advanced Books publishing platform. The platform was demonstrated today at the EU funded pro-iBiosphere project which supported, in part, the re-publication of Flora Malesiana.
 

 
When Linnaeus was laying the foundations of taxonomy as a science in his Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae books he probably did not imagine that his methods of publication of natural history data would remain almost unchanged for more than 270 years! The bulk of the information on the living World is still closed in paper-based legacy literature, especially in fundamental regional treatises such as Flora, Fauna and Mycota series, hardly accessible for readers, despite the dramatic changes in the publishing technologies that have taken place over the last decade.

The new pilot, developed by Pensoft Publishers in a cooperation with the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Plazi, and Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM), demonstrates how a fundamental book in natural history can start a new life with Advanced Books. Re-publication of the Flora of Northumberland & Durham, published in 1838, will be the next to appear as a result of a collaboration between the Botanical Garden Meise National Botanic Garden of Belgium and Pensoft.

Flora Malesiana is a systematic account of the flora of Malesia, the plant-geographical unit spanning six countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. The plant treatments are not published in a systematic order but as they come about by the scientific efforts of some 100 collaborators all over the world.

With the new platform, such scientifically important historical monographs, enriched with additional information from up-to-date external sources related to organisms' names, species treatments, information on their ecology, distribution and conservation value, morphological characters, etc., become freely usable for anyone at any place in the world.

The re-publication in advanced open access comes with the many other benefits of the digitization and markup efforts such as data extraction and collation, distribution and re-use of content, archiving of different data elements in relevant repositories and so on.

"Advanced Books will bring many outstanding scientific monographs to a new life, however the platform is not only restricted to e-publish our legacy literature." commented Prof. Lyubomir Penev, Managing Director of Pensoft. "New books are mostly welcome on the platform, joining their historical predecessors in an open, common, human- and machine-readable, data space for the benefit of future researchers and the society in general" concluded Prof. Penev.
 
Original Source:
 
de Wilde W (2014) Flora Malesiana. Series I - Seed Plants, Volume 14. Myristicaceae. Advanced Books: e1141. doi: 10.3897/ab.e1141




ad

Biodiversity and Food Security – From Trade-offs to Synergies

The 3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and the UN Millennium Development Goals will take place between October 29-31, 2014 in Aix-en-Provence, France. under the tematic title "Biodiversity and Food Security – From Trade-offs to Synergies".

This conference is the third in a series, organized by the French CNRS Institut Ecologie et Environnement (InEE) and the German Leibniz Association (WGL). The conference is based on invited keynotes and contributed posters for any of the topics relevant to the conference theme. Keynote speakers are now confirmed, including Professor José Sarukhán, UNAM, México, and Professor Jacqueline McGlade, UNEP, Nairobi.

Across scales from genes to species, landscapes and biomes, biodiversity is an important resource for humanity. It is the key for a broad range of services provided by ecosystems. Biodiversity helps regulate the nutrient cycle, water (e.g. floods) and mitigates impacts of climate change. Biodiversity is also of direct importance for human well-being and for cultural and other values including recreation. The provisioning of clean water and diverse food supply makes it vital for all people.

Biodiversity at all levels, including the diversity of genes, species and ecosystems, is lost at alarming rates. Critical factors for these trends are habitat destruction, global warming and the uncontrolled spread of alien species. Pollution, nitrogen deposition and shifts in precipitation further affect biodiversity.

Food security faces significant challenges due to population growth, poverty, globalization, climate change and other factors. Supplying healthy food to all citizens is crucial for global development - to reach it, not only food production but also equitable access to food for all people must be improved substantially. Biodiversity loss and global food security are hence two major challenges of our time.

Linking biodiversity and food security issues from a research perspective, and seeking synergies between them is likely to generate multiple benefits for social, ecological and economic development.

Follow this link to register, submit your abstract and secure your hotel reservations.

 





ad

Article alert: Advancing species diversity estimate by remotely sensed proxies: A conceptual review

A new EU BON acknowledged paper "Advancing species diversity estimate by remotely sensed proxies: A conceptual review" has been recently published in the journal Ecological Informatics.

Abstract: 

Many geospatial tools have been advocated in spatial ecology to estimate biodiversity and its changes over space and time. Such information is essential in designing effective strategies for biodiversity conservation and management. Remote sensing is one of the most powerful approaches to identify biodiversity hotspots and predict changes in species composition in reduced time and costs. This is because, with respect to field-based methods, it allows to derive complete spatial coverages of the Earth surface under study in a short period of time. Furthermore, remote sensing provides repeated coverages of field sites, thus making studies of temporal changes in biodiversity possible. In this paper we discuss, from a conceptual point of view, the potential of remote sensing in estimating biodiversity using various diversity indices, including alpha- and beta-diversity measurements.

Original Source: 

Rocchini D, Hernández-Stefanoni J L, He KS (2014) Advancing species diversity estimate by remotely sensed proxies: A conceptual review. Ecological Informatics. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.10.006





ad

Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Europe - a book

Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Europe was published in April 2015 and updated in June 2015 to take account of developments in the European Commission, focuses on scientific advice in Europe.

In May 2014, the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) and the European Commission co-hosted a Brussels workshop on ‘New technologies and better evidence for EU policymaking’. One of its conclusions was the need to better connect the latest theory, policy and practice in this field. Building on an 2013 essay collection on Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Whitehall, a similar collection exploring the future of scientific advice at the European level was created.

A free digital copy of and more information on Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Europe can be found here.