From Espresso to Codex

CODEX and ESPRESSO are concepts for ultra-stable, high-resolution spectrographs at the E-ELT and VLT, respectively. Both instruments are well motivated by distinct sets of science drivers. However, ESPRESSO will also be a stepping stone towards CODEX both in a scientific as well as in a technical sense. Here we discuss this role of ESPRESSO with respect to one of the most exciting CODEX science cases, i.e. the dynamical determination of the cosmic expansion history.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the Workshop "Science with the VLT in the ELT era", 8-12 October 2007, Garching, A. Moorwood, e

Technical Capacity, Policymaking and Food Standards: An Overview of Indian Experience

The SPS Agreement in the WTO gives legal validity to the CODEX\ud standards. Since the developed countries have been at the forefront of\ud setting the food standards in the CODEX, the developing countries have\ud been increasingly engaged in the CODEX, and also in the WTO, with an\ud objective to increase their exports of the agricultural and food products.\ud But such objective and desire have often been stymied by the lack of\ud institutions which can sustain the intense technical negotiations at the\ud CODEX. If these participations are not qualitatively satisfactory, the very\ud objective of such participations is not fulfilled. But since most of the\ud developing countries are lacking in such high technical capacity, they are\ud unable to influence or qualitatively shape the negotiations in the CODEX.\ud This also impacts their exports of agricultural and food products.\ud India has been an active member of the WTO. But whether it has been\ud able to influence or respond to the play of events internationally and\ud concomitantly balance it with the domestic imperatives that are embedded\ud in the international legal and technological regimes, institutional capacity\ud constraints and other social issues. This paper examines such issues, and\ud also examines some bilateral trade agreements which demonstrate the\ud mounting pressure on the developing countries to conform to the food\ud standards of the developed countries

Dealing with the Stratigraphy of Coptic Codices: the Cases of MSS Pierpont Morgan Library M578 and Coptic Museum, inv. 13446

This paper proposes a codicological analysis of two Coptic manuscripts, illustrating how the accurate protocol of codicological description developed within the ERC Advanced Grant project ‘PAThs’, combined with the concepts and the models of the codex stratigraphy described in the recent book La syntaxe du codex, can lead to innovative results and new perspectives in understanding Coptic book production

Super Unleaded Malbec? A Case Study in Flawed International Standard Setting at the Codex Alimentarius

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) provides rules on the adoption and enforcement of SPS measures. It also presumes that food safety regulations adopted by WTO Members that conform to relevant international standards are consistent with the SPS Agreement. The relevant international standard setting body for food safety is the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which conducts most of its food safety risk management work through subsidiary bodies such as the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF). CCCF establishes maximum limits for food contaminants and codes of practice for reducing food contamination. These subsidiary bodies in turn delegate risk management work to electronic working groups (EWG) that are comprised of relevant food safety authorities of Codex member states

The Slavonic tradition of the quaestiones ad antiochum ducem : the conflated nature of Cod. Pragensis Slav. IX F 15

The late fourteenth-century Codex Pragensis slav. IX F 15 is a key witness to the textual tradition of the Slavonic Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem as it contains an almost complete set of questions-and-answers (133 QA’s). It is argued, however, that this corpus is the result of a conflation of two distinct versions of the Quaestiones, viz. redaction T and version X. Redaction T, found in five Moscou manuscripts (15th-16th c.), is the result of a revision of the Slavonic Quaestiones based on the consultation of a Greek exemplar: both the structure (viz. the number and sequence of the QA’s) and the textual particulars of the Greek Quaestiones found in Codex Oxoniensis Bodleianus gr. Auct. F.4.07 are shown to be in almost perfect agreement with the Slavonic T-witnesses. Version X is much more enigmatic; apparently, QA’s from this further unknown text version were introduced in the Prague codex to complement the T-redaction’s corpus of 120 QA’s

"Developing and Sustaining Organic Growth - Austrian Example"

Austria always was on the forefront of countries concerning the development of the organic farming. Pioneer farmers developed together with Rudolf Steiner, scientist and founder of anthroposophy, the organic-dynamic production between 1920 and 1930. Austria was the first country in the world to set official guideline for organic farming. In 1983, the first decrees in this respect were issued by the Federal Ministry for Health and Environmental Protection. In 1989, thee were included as Chapter A 8 in the Codex Alimentarius (Austrian food codex), and in 1991, Austria was the first nation to define regulations for the organic production of animal products

Probing dark energy beyond z=2z=2 with CODEX

Precision measurements of nature's fundamental couplings and a first measurement of the cosmological redshift drift are two of the key targets for future high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs such as CODEX. Being able to do both gives CODEX a unique advantage, allowing it to probe dynamical dark energy models (by measuring the behavior of their equation of state) deep in the matter era and thereby testing classes of models that would otherwise be difficult to distinguish from the standard $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. We illustrate this point with two simple case studies.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Case study India responds to international food safety requirements

"As awareness grows about food safety issues, the need for countries to provide greater assurance about the safety and quality of food also grows....This brief reviews (1) how India utilizes the international framework for food safety standards set forth by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (hereafter referred to as Codex), and (2) how India provides safety assurances for exports and promotes access to international markets for exporters." from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,