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EU BON General Meeting and latest paper: Improved access to integrated biodiversity data for science, practice, and policy

The "Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network" EU BON General Meeting took place between 30 March - 3 April 2014 in Heraklion on Crete, to present major project results and set objectives for the future. The meeting was preceeded by a review paper recently published in the open access journal Nature Conservation, to point out EU BON researchh interests and objectives for the future of biodiversity protection.

This is a group photo of the participants in the recent EU BON General Meeting in Crete, Greece.

The 2014 General Meeting brought together keynote speakers Jörg Freyhof (GEO BON, Executive Director), Marc Paganini (European Space Agency), Jerry Harrison (UNEP-WCMC) with the entire EU BON consortium to discuss collaborations between the project and other important initiatives in the areas of earth observation, particularly in remote sensing and in situ approaches to biodiversity data collection, as well as in the use and analysis of biodiversity data for forecasting and scenario building, and environmental policy.

"The high potential for satellite Earth Observations to support biodiversity monitoring is growing but is yet to be fully realised. The recent efforts of GEO BON, supported by the GEO Plenary and the CBD Conference of the Parties, to define a set of minimum essential observational requirements to monitor biodiversity trends will give considerable impetus for space agencies and for the remote sensing community to focus their work on a small set of well defined earth observations products that will serve the needs of the biodiversity community at large. In that context ESA is firmly engaged in supporting the development of these emerging Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). EU BON together with ESA can be pioneers in the early development and demonstration." comments Marc Paganini, European Space Agency, on the future collaboration between the two initiatives.

The world's biodiversity is in an ongoing dramatic decline that despite conservation efforts remains unprecedented in its speed and predicted effects on global ecosystem functioning and services. The lack of available integrated biodiversity information for decisions in sectors other than nature conservation has been recognized as a main obstacle and the need to provide readily accessible data to support political decisions has been integrated into the CBD's "Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020" and the Aichi targets. The recently published EU BON review paper points out how the project will use its potential to improve the interaction between citizens, science and policy for a better future of biodiversity protection.

EU BON aims to enable decision makers at various levels to make use of integrated and relevant biodiversity information adapted to their specific requirements and scales. Disparate and unconnected databases and online information sources will be integrated to allow improved monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity and measures planned or taken at different spatial and temporal scales. This requires strong efforts not only with regard to technical harmonization between databases, models, and visualization tools, but also to improve the dialogue between scientific, political, and social networks, spanning across several scientific disciplines as well as a variety of civil science organizations and stakeholder groups.

The project is focusing mainly on the European continent but contributes at the same time to the globally oriented Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), which itself contributes to the Group of Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). EU BON will build on existing information infrastructures such as GBIF, LifeWatch and national biodiversity data centres in Europe, and will integrate relevant biodiversity data from on-ground observations to remote sensing information, covering terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.

Original Source:

Hoffmann A, Penner J, Vohland K, Cramer W, Doubleday R, Henle K, Kõljalg U, Kühn I, Kunin WE, Negro JJ, Penev L, Rodríguez C, Saarenmaa H, Schmeller DS, Stoev P, Sutherland WJ, Ó Tuama É, Wetzel FT, Häuser CL (2014) Improved access to integrated biodiversity data for science, practice, and policy - the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON). Nature Conservation 6: 49–65. doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.6.6498





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EU BON General Meeting 2015: working toward building the European Biodiversity Observation Network

The annual EU BON General Meeting was successfully held from 1 to 4 June 2015 at the Clare College Conferencing, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 

The meeting was attended by a total of 85 participants with various organizational background and relation to EU BON. Among these were almost all EU BON alongside representatives of eight associate partners and many guests.

 

Participants at the EU BON General Meeting, 2015; Credit:  Dirk Schmeller

One of the highlights of the meeting was its very start with three inspiring keynote speakers. 

Among these, Bill Sutherland from the University of Cambridge started off to give an interesting speech about the progress and future plans on combining Biodiversity science and policy. Second was Gary Geller from the GEO secretariat who talked about GEO, GEOSS and GEO BON, its vision and goals. 
Later on, Johannes Peterseil from LTER-Europe shared some interesting thoughts about linking ecosystem research and earth observation through the cooperation between LTER-Europe and EU BON. 

During the meeting other relevant projects were also introduced to all participants. These were DataOne and Species 2000/Catalogue of Life and two new EU projects Ecopotential and Globis-B. 

The General Meeting included six thematic sessions on highly relevant EU BON topics, followed by many cross-task modules which led to better cooperation and communication between work packages and tasks. The exchange of experience gave new input to all work packages and set the milestones for the work ahead. 

Presentations from the meeting will be uploaded shortly.

 

PRESENTATIONS:

AGENDA - EU BON 3rd General Assembly

Keynote speakers: 

W.Sutherland - Biodiversity science and policy

G.Geller - GEO / GEOSS / GEOBON

J.Peterseil - Linking ecosystem research and earth observation

Other projects:

B.Wilson - DataONE

C.Flann - Species 2000 Catalogue of Life

C.Marangi - Ecopotential

W.Los - Globis-B

EU BON presentations:

C.Haeuser - EU BON core elements for an integrated biodiversity information system

U.Koljalg - Data mobilization strategy and show case

H.Saarenmaa - European biodiversity portal

Y.Gavish - Developing EU BON's site-specific portal

E.Regan - Stakeholder requirements

I.Geijzendorffer - Context of EU BON

 

Selection of pictures from the meeting:

 

  

 

 





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EU BON General Meeting

The EU BON General Meeting will take place between 30 March and 3 April 2014 at the HCMR in Gournes Pediados, Crete. The last day of the meeting 3 April 2014 will be devoted to a training Workshop, potentially covering issues on EBVs (Essential Biodiversity Variables), Modelling, Data standards, Data flow etc.

Visit our online registration platform to find information about the programme, venue, accommodation, training workshop etc





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36th General Meeting of CETAF

The 36th General Meeting of CETAF that will take place in Vienna, Austria, on the 14th-15th October 2014 at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. This meeting will constitute an ordinary General Meeting of the CETAF AISBL.

CETAF 36 will focus on the finalisation of CETAF strategy and strategic development plan, and discussion of the role of CETAF in European Cultural Heritage initiatives and common European infrastructures. In this context, the new work plan of the General Secretariat has been drawn up, following the recent developments in the Consortium, to support and underpin the global CETAF strategy that is to be presented during CETAF 36.

The meeting will take place at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, located at Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria – access to the meeting will be via the vistors entrance situated between the two museums (the entrance facing the Kunsthistorisches Museum). Please find more information about transport and accommodation attached. The meeting is scheduled to start on Tuesday, 14th October 2014 at 12.00 hrs and to finish at 17.00 hrs on Wednesday, 15th October 2014.

On Monday the 13th October, a CETAF Workshop on Earth Sciences will take place at the Museum, organized and coordinated by Arne Bjørlykke, Director of the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo, Norway. The meetings of the Collection Policy Board (CPB) and the European Journal of Taxonomy (EJT) steering committee are scheduled for Thursday 16th October.
 
More information available on the CETAF website: http://www.cetaf.org/




gene

European Geosciences Union General Assembly - incl. Workshop Aggregation and coordination of Earth observation networks.

European Geosciences Union
General Assembly 2015
Vienna | Austria | 12 – 17 April 2015

http://www.egu2015.eu/home.html

 

One Workshop partiicluarly relevant for EU BON: ESSI2.17 Aggregation, consolidation and coordination of Earth observation networks. Harmonization and gaps

Convener: Joan Masó
Co-Convener: Ivette Serral


Abstract
We are investing in many efforts in creating pan-European or global EO thematic networks but are managed independently and coordination between them is limited. Europe is investing in the Sentinel constellation an at the same time, several initiatives are setting out to create, maintain and operationalize networks of in-situ sensors. These observation networks are usually conceived with a specific purpose in mind (e.g., air quality monitoring in the main cities or coastal water contamination), and they often lack a general coverage, are scattered irregularly in the territory, and sometimes are removed when the measurement campaign ends. There is a need for integrating systems and coordinating them more efficiently, explore synergies and make progress in harmonized and extend them.
Some initiatives aim to coordinate several themes into a single observation set. This is the case of the Critical Zone Exploration (the Earth’s outer layer from vegetation canopy to the soil and groundwater that sustains human life). The CZEN (Critical Zone Exploration Network; http://www.czen.org) is a network of field sites investigating processes within the Critical Zone.

This session is asking for presentations on the coordination between observation network examples and solutions to overcome technical and political barriers that help to reduce the cost and increase value by combining and sharing structures. Papers discussing gaps or redundancies in the current Earth observation networks are also welcome.

 

http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/session/18560





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37th CETAF General Meeting

The 37th CETAF General Meeting that will take place in Meise, Belgium on 21-22 April, 2015. The meeting will take place at the at the Botanic Garden Meise, in the Bouchout Domain, Nieuwelaan 38, 1860 Meise (Belgium).

CETAF37 will focus on conducting the annual CETAF business, including CETAF’s financial issues and administrative activities, as well as the consolidation of the CETAF strategic development plan. A workshop on the activities that will be undertaken by CETAF within the context of the CETAF strategy has been organized for the second day of the meeting.

More information will be available on the CETAF website: http://www.cetaf.org/events





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EU BON General Meeting

 
The EU BON 2015 General Meeting will be held from 1 to 4 June 2015 at the Clare College Conferencing, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
 
An overview of the programme can be found here. The complete programme and more information will follow soon.
 
To register for the Meeting please visit the registration page.
 
Please see also the Meeting's venue and accommodation pages.
 
More inforrmation on the official event page.




gene

European Geosciences Union, General assembly 2016

European Geosciences Union, General assembly: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Climatic Change Research and Assessment will take place in Vienna from 17 to 22 April 2016.

Adequate response to the challenges associated with climate change requires new formats of scientific research and assessment. In the past, linear approaches, starting from the recognition of climate change, through the analysis of observed or expected impacts and ending with policy recommendations, have been the mainstream. It is now widely recognised that these approaches mostly fail to reach their objectives since they do not account for feedbacks between the physical environment and societal action, nor for the feedbacks in the various subsystems. The objective of this session is to review and discuss the problem of climatic change in all its dimensions, with a special focus on interdisciplinary approaches. Climate change science concerns a number of disciplines, such as physics, biology, economics, social sciences etc. It is essential that new forms for interact between disciplines are found in order to produce innovative results.

We do not expect to cover all the aspects of the climate change science but we hope that as well researchers in physical and natural sciences than researchers in social sciences will find interest to participate at the session to present and discuss a few exciting issues within one of several of these scopes (and more):

- The link between global climate scenarios and the socio-economic developments

- Scenarios for impact studies: from global to local

- Climate services: the relation between scientists and stakeholders

- Ecosystem services: outputs from ecosystems, challenges and responses

- Climate – societal interactions in the last millennia: can we learn from past experience?

- Socio-ecosystems, towards a comprehensive approach to sustainability Science

- The climate change policies to mitigate climatic change

- Climatic change and biodiversity

- How to couple physical, ecological and socio-economic models

- Peoples' perception of risk, how to improve communication

- Sea level change and the problems of low lying areas.

Information: http://egu2016.eu/information/general_information.html

The call for abstracts for the EGU 2016 General Assembly is now open: make sure to submit your abstract by 13 January 2016, 13:00 CET. If you would like to apply for funding from the EGU to attend, please submit your abstract within the next few days, by 1 December. This month the EGU has also open a call for proposals for EGU 2016 co-sponsored meetings and has announced a new grant scheme for EGU members interested in developing an outreach and public engagement project.       

 






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Ecopotenial General Assembly

The Ecopotenial General Assembly will take place between from 27 to 30 June 2016 in the Netherlands (exact location to be determined).

 

More information to follow on the ecopotential website: http://www.ecopotential-project.eu/





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CETAF 40 General Meeting & 20th Anniversary Event

The 40th CETAF General Meeting will take place in Madrid, Spain, on the 18th-19th October 2016 at the Royal Botanic Garden, followed by the CETAF 20th Anniversary Event "Why natural history collections matter" to be held on the 20th October
 
Meeting venue: Royal Botanic Garden at Madrid and goggle map access (coordinates: N40.4097702 - W3.690096). Please, be aware that the public entrance to the Garden is located in the opposite corner of the Garden premises, and it is closed before 10:00 am. Attendants could use it, but only during opening hours of the Garden.




gene

LifeWatch ERIC 1st General Assembly

The 1st General Assembly of LifeWatch ERIC will take place in Seville (Spain) on 8-9 May 2017.

More specific details about the working agenda and logistics to follow here.

 





gene

ECOPOTENTIAL General meeting and General Assembly

The Second ECOPOTENTIAL General Scientific Meeting and General Assembly of Partners will take place in Heraklion, Crete, from May 16th to May 19th, kindly hosted by the ECOPOTENTIAL Partner FORTH.

The General Meeting is aimed at a comprehensive presentation and discussion about the research activities, highlighting the status of the project, the main results, the critical points and the future perspectives. The Scientific advisors will give lectures and will participate to the discussion. Main topics will be The Essential Variables, the Status of Remote Sensing data, in situ data and modelling, the Virtual Laboratory Platform, the research on changes over Protected Areas and future projections, as well as the issues related to cross scale interactions. 

More information here.

 





gene

Catalan separatists appeal to UN rights body in Geneva

Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and five other separatist leaders from the region have appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, denouncing what they call the “suspension” of their political rights by Spanish authorities.



SWISSINFO

Decembrer 20, 2018


(© KEYSTONE / MARTIAL TREZZINI)



Speaking to journalists in the Swiss city on Thursday, Puigdemont said that the joint appeal to the rights body aimed to denounce the “serious violation of rights and freedoms in Spain, something unacceptable in the framework of European Union law”.


Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez, and Jordi Turull are all members of Catalonia’s parliament, but were charged and suspended from taking office by the Spanish Supreme Court for their role in organizing an October 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia in northeast Spain.


“Six people, democratically-elected and not yet convicted – five of whom have been detained for over a year – cannot exercise their rights,” said Puigdemont.


Having been accused of rebellion and sedition by Spanish authorities after the unauthorized referendum, Puigdemont has since lived in Belgium. An international arrest warrant against him was withdrawn last July.


Puigdemont and Sanchez, president of the independent association ANC, had already filed a separate complaint to the same UN rights body in March 2018 to denounce their "impossibility of running for president of the Generalitat” [the Catalan government]. The UN committee has yet to take any decision on the complaints.


+ Puigdemont said the Swiss federal model could offer a vision for Spain


It’s not the first time the emblematic Catalan figure has visited Geneva; an international human rights film festival hosted him for a debate on self-determination in March, a visit from which cantonal authorities distanced themselves.


Several other ‘wanted’ separatists, including Anna Gabriel and Marta Rovira, have sought exile in Switzerland following their condemnation in Spain.


Thursday’s action in Geneva comes as the Catalan separatist row shows no signs of ending. This week, four imprisoned leaders of the movement ended an almost three-week hunger strike, while Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has chosen to hold this Friday’s cabinet meeting in Barcelona – a deliberate “provocation”, for some Catalan supporters.





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Disentangling the role of remotely sensed spectral heterogeneity as a proxy for North American plant species richness




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Genetic diversity of Nephtys hombergii (Phyllodocida, Polychaeta) associated with environmental factors in a highly fluctuating ecosystem




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The next generation of site-based long-term ecological monitoring





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Giving Generously While In Debt

When Karen and Scott got married, Karen had nearly $50,000 of non-mortgage debt. Scott, who was a Chicago firefighter at the time, jokingly referred to it as "a reverse dowry." Several years before meeting Scott, Karen had been through the breakup of a relationship she thought was headed toward marriage. "I decided that if I'm not getting married, at least I'm going to have a nice apartment. I can remember standing at the counter of a furniture store unrepentantly handing over my credit card. I...




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Generation Witch

As a culture we’ve long been fascinated by witchcraft, with witches through the ages practicing magic and making spells. Even through the spread of misinformation, and when they’ve been hunted and silenced. We take you from the 17th century to the online witch communities of today.
 

Original Air Date: October 30, 2021

Guests: 

Honey Rose — Rivka Galchen — Chris Gosden — Quan Barry

Interviews In This Hour: 

WitchTok, the super-connected coven — Are you now, or have you ever been, a witch? The witch hunt of Kepler's mother — From alchemy to internet witchcraft — the thousand-year history of magic — Spellcraft, field hockey and Emilio Estevez — the girl power of novelist Quan Barry's teen witches




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Titan Launches Impact X 440 – the Next-Generation Airless Sprayer

Building on the Titan Impact 440, the best-selling airless paint sprayer in its class, Titan announces the launch of the Impact X 440 electric airless sprayer. This next-generation compact sprayer boasts new technologies as well as performance and productivity features that have only been available on larger sprayers – until now.




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Showcasing Pride in the Trades to a New Generation of Workers

Where does one start? How about right around 7,500 B.C. when individuals in Jordan began using a form of plaster on interior walls?




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Workforce Development: Attracting Generation Z

As more Baby Boomers enter retirement, the need for skilled workers is increasing across the American economy. The construction industry is not immune. Add on the struggle with convincing young people that a college degree isn’t always the ticket to a good life and skilled trades are a viable career choice. How can the construction industry recruit good talent?




gene

LEED: The Next Generation

Many are applauding the new and improved LEED v4 (v4) as raising the sustainable building bar and continuing to drive market transformation.




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OSHA issues enforcement guidance on silica standard for general industry, maritime

Washington — OSHA has released initial enforcement guidelines for the Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for general industry and maritime, a couple of weeks before many of the rule’s provisions are scheduled to go into effect.




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OSHA answers FAQs on silica standard for general industry

Washington — OSHA has published answers to a list of frequently asked questions regarding the agency’s respirable crystalline silica standard for general industry.




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Why Contractors Need to Recruit Generation Z

Baby boomers currently represent over 40 percent of the construction industry. 




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The Lester Group Welcomes Thomas Hartman as General Manager

The Lester Group announced the appointment of Thomas Hartman as the new general manager of Custom Builder Supply. With an impressive 17-year track record in the building materials industry, Hartman joins Custom Builder Supply from The AZEK Company, where he excelled as a divisional sales manager.




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HiveWatch & Genea Partner to Provide Cloud-based Solutions

Genea offers a cloud-based access control and visitor management platform built on non-proprietary hardware that empowers users with the ability to monitor their buildings and provision credentials from anywhere.




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Gene increases risk of developing Parkinson’s from pesticide exposure: study

Los Angeles – Pesticide exposure may increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, and individual risk varies based on a person’s genetic makeup, according to a new study from the University of California, Los Angeles.




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VPP and contract workers: Inspector General audit of program calls for improvements

Washington – OSHA has stated that it will change some of the processes in its Voluntary Protection Programs, after a Department of Labor Office of Inspector General audit uncovered several weaknesses in recording and reporting systems involving contract workers.




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Navigating Generations of Changes in Alarm Communications

When I first entered the security industry in 1973, alarm communications were performed by Direct Wire, McCulloh and some high security applications using voice-grade telephone lines configured in “open window” and later “closed window” bridges.




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Genetec Helps Brazil’s Floripa Airport Enhance Safety & Leisure From Curb to Gate

Genetec Inc. announced that the company unified security platform has been chosen by Brazil’s Hercílio Luz International Airport in Florianópolis (Floripa), to manage its physical security infrastructure, and provide operational insights.




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Attorneys general back OSHA’s proposed recordkeeping changes

Trenton, NJ — A coalition of state attorneys general has written a letter supporting OSHA’s proposed changes to the agency’s injury and illness recordkeeping rules.




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U.S. Copyright Office: AI-Generated Art Can’t Be Copyrighted

Guest columnist James D. Berkeley details why a U.S. federal court dismissed an inventor’s attempt to copyright artwork produced by an image generator he designed.




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Safety and the multigenerational workforce

Many workplaces may have up to four generations of workers – each with generally preferred communication methods and learning styles.




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Genetec Showcases Cloud & Edge Solutions at ISC West 2023

At ISC West Booth #20045Genetec Inc., a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, will showcase the latest version of Security Center, Streamvault EdgeTM hybrid cloud solutions, and CloudrunnerTM vehicle-centric investigation system.




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The AI Generation

We have only just begun to see the impact that AI and Generative AI will have on the security industry.




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Genetec Becomes an Authorized CVE Numbering Authority

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program has authorized Genetec as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) .




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Genetec Receives SAFETY Act Certification Renewal From DHS

The purpose of the SAFETY Act is to ensure that the threat of liability does not deter potential manufacturers or sellers of effective anti-terrorism technologies from developing and commercializing technologies that could save lives.





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‘Five active generations’: Total Worker Health webinar explores the future of work

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.




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Focus on individual workers rather than generational stereotypes, management experts say

Washington — Instead of relying on generational labels such as “millennial” and “baby boomer” to help inform workforce management decisions – including those related to safety and communication – employers and managers should focus on workers’ individual situations and needs, concludes a recently published report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.




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NTSB: Drug use among general aviation pilots increasing

Washington – The number of pilots involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for potentially impairing drugs has nearly doubled in a 23-year span, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.




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Survey shows generational differences in work-related mental health issues

Alexandria, VA — Workers of all ages face mental health challenges, yet younger generations are feeling them more frequently, according to the results of a recent survey.




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General purpose knee boots

The electric hazard-rated Pilot General Purpose Knee Boot (Style #31341) features Calf Relief Expansion, which expands up to 1.5 inches to provide extra room in the calf area.




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Smoke generator for fit testing

The VeriFit Irritant Smoke Generator for respirator fit testing features a patented design that integrates all components into one convenient device. Its plastic construction eliminates danger from broken glass.




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Workers and the general public need separate frameworks for respiratory protection: report

Washington — The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is calling for two separate respiratory protection frameworks – one for workers, and one for the public – amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, in a recently published report.




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System Surveyor Launches System Surveyor 2.0, Next-Generation App for Site Surveys and System Design

The app introduces several new features that enhance user experience on the platform’s mobile app, streamline site surveys with drag-and-drop simplicity, facilitate system lifecycle management and accelerate the proposal creation process.




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New OSHA fact sheet addresses silica rule for general industry, maritime

Washington — OSHA has published a fact sheet intended to help employers comply with the agency’s standard on worker exposure to respirable crystalline silica (1926.1153) for general industry and maritime.




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Genetec Unifies Work Management for Physical Security Operations

Operations Center integrates security dispatching, work ticketing, and activity tracking into a single platform.




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Genetec Simplifies Video Management in Low-Density Deployments

Genetec Inc. has launched Genetec Cloudlink 110, the latest addition to its line of cloud-managed security appliances.