Joint working group compliance on the Kyoto protocol: an overview of suggestions on compliance

Annex II of Decision 8/CP.4 from COP4 on "Preparation for the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol" established a joint working group (JWG) on compliance under the SBI and SBSTA.3 Because of the relation between the legal and the technical aspects the suggestion is done that this JWG should include both legal and technical experts.4 Much preliminary and exploratory work remains to be done, including on identifying key issues and options, both in the context of individual Kyoto mechanisms and regarding any broader compliance regime. Issues related to compliance arise under different provisions of the Protocol and it is important to coordinate relevant work under the auspices of different groups so as to develop a coherent compliance system for the Protocol and to avoid unnecessary duplication.5 Annex II invited Parties also to submit views to the secretariat on matters relating to compliance under the Kyoto Protocol, to be made available by the secretariat in a miscellaneous document.6 This document contains some main issues in the comments of the Parties and my suggestions about these issues

Co-Teaching for English Learners

This action research study investigated the effects of a co-teaching model on English learners’ academic performance and confidence levels in the general education classroom in a public middle school in Northwest Iowa. The research participants were five seventh-grade English learners with varying English proficiency levels. Students completed a survey before and after a co-teaching model was implemented to determine their confidence level in a general education social studies classroom. Using data from content and cognitive skill rubrics, a comparison of growth was made between a semester without a co-teaching model and a second semester with a co-teaching model. Findings of the study did not show a significant difference in English learners’ confidence or academic performance after a co-teaching model was implemented

Good Governance: Importance in Practice, Theories and Definitions

This work addresses at exploring appropriate method in applying the principle of good governance; importance in practice, theories and definitions. This effort is importance to understand in more detail the three dimensions of good governance. The relationship between good governance and national prosperity is not always clear and opinions vary across countries. But it is seen that good governance is important for the economic and social development of countries and promotion of good governance also creates more open and democratic societies. For that reason, this work offers the three dimensions of good governance: the rule of law, the democracy, and the institutional dimension. The solution of this method would precisely construct a holistic and integrated strategy in managing and optimizing collective strategic resources.This work addresses at exploring appropriate method in applying the principle of good governance; importance in practice, theories and definitions. This effort is importance to understand in more detail the three dimensions of good governance. The relationship between good governance and national prosperity is not always clear and opinions vary across countries. But it is seen that good governance is important for the economic and social development of countries and promotion of good governance also creates more open and democratic societies. For that reason, this work offers the three dimensions of good governance: the rule of law, the democracy, and the institutional dimension. The solution of this method would precisely construct a holistic and integrated strategy in managing and optimizing collective strategic resources

Linking Flow Regime, Floodplain Lake Connectivity and Fish Catch in a Large River-Floodplain System, the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain (Russian Federation)

River-floodplain systems are amongst the most productive—but often severely impacted—aquatic systems worldwide. We explored the ecological response of fish to flow regime in a large river-floodplain system by studying the relationships between (1) discharge and inundated floodplain area, with a focus on spatial and temporal patterns in floodplain lake connectivity, and (2) flood volume and fisheries catch. Our results demonstrate a non-linear relationship between discharge and floodplain inundation with considerable hysteresis due to differences in inundation and drainage rate. Inundation extent was mostly determined by flood volume, not peak discharge. We found that the more isolated lakes (that is, lakes with a shorter connection duration to the river) are located at higher local elevation and at larger hydrological distance from the main rivers: geographical distance to the river appears a poor predictor of lake isolation. Although year-to-year fish catches in the floodplain were significantly larger with larger flood volumes in the floodplain, they were not in the main river, suggesting that mechanisms that increase catch, such as increased floodplain access or increased somatic growth, are stimulated by flooding in the floodplain, but not in the river. Fish species that profit from flooding belong to different feeding guilds, suggesting that all trophic levels may benefit from flooding. We found indications that the ecological functioning of floodplains is not limited to its temporary availability as habitat. Refugia can be present within the floodplain itself, which should be considered in the management of large rivers and their floodplain

DEVELOPMENT OF A TL-3 F-SHAPE TEMPORARY CONCRETE MEDIAN BARRIER

A temporary concrete median barrier (CMB) was designed and tested for compliance under the Test Level 3 (TL-3) guidelines specified in the Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report No. 350. The barrier is built to the new metric standards and has a traditional pin and loop configuration for interconnection. The objective of this research project was to develop and evaluate a standardized, temporary concrete barrier design while addressing the concerns for safety, economy, structural integrity, constructability, ease of installation, and maintenance. The resulting F-shape barrier segment is 3,800-mm long, a length that reduced the number of connections while limiting the weight of the barriers to ease handling. Full-scale crash testing demonstrated several critical design features. First, the connections need to be tight initially as practicable to limit deformation and rotation of the barriers,. Secondly, the pin needs to restrain the longitudinal barrier forces. Full-scale compliance testing of the final design demonstrated that the barrier was capable of successfully redirecting the 2000-kg vehicle. The vehicle demonstrated significant roll after contact with the barrier, which is evidenced in a majority of other concrete barrier tests. This barrier provides economical work zone protection applicable in a variety of situations, where TL-3 test criteria is warranted

Identifications in BioPortals™

BioPortals are a ‘Google-like’ webportal solution tailored for national or thematic biological diversity information needs. This solution allows for an efficient route to retrieve information from heterogeneous biological information sources after identification with integrated identification systems. BioPortals can be used in combination with mobile devices and provide options to share biological observation data after identification in the field

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‘openDS’ – progress on the new standard for digital specimens.

In a Biodiversity_Next 2019 symposium, a vision of Digital Specimens based on the concept of a Digital Object Architecture (Kahn and Wilensky 2006) (DOA) was discussed as a new layer between data infrastructure of natural science collections and user applications for processing and interacting with information about specimens and collections. This vision would enable the transformation of institutional curatorial practises into joint community curation of the scientific data by providing seamless global access to specimens and collections spanning multiple collection-holding institutions and sources. A DOA-based implementation (Lannom et al. 2020) also offers wider, more flexible, and ‘FAIR’ (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) access for varied research and policy uses: recognising curatorial work, annotating with latest taxonomic treatments, understanding variations, working with DNA sequences or chemical analyses, supporting regulatory processes for health, food, security, sustainability and environmental change, inventions/products critical to the bio-economy, and educational uses. To make this vision a reality, a specification is needed that describes what a Digital Specimen is, and how to technically implement it. This specification is named 'openDS' for open Digital Specimen. It needs to describe how machines and humans can act on a Digital Specimen and gain attribution for their work; how the data can be serialized and packaged; and it needs to describe the object model (the scientific content part and its structure). The object model should describe how to include the specimen data itself as well as all data derived from the specimen, which is in principle the same as what the Extended Specimen model aims to describe. This part will therefore be developed in close collaboration with people working on that model. After the Biodiversity_Next symposium, the idea of a standard for Digital Specimens has been further discussed and detailed in a MOBILISE Workshop in Warsaw, 2020, with stakeholders like the GBIF, iDigBio, CETAF and DiSSCo. The workshop examined the technical basis of the new specification, agreed on scope and structure of the new specification and laid groundwork for future activities in the Research Data Alliance (RDA), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), and technical workshops. A working group in the DiSSCo Prepare project has begun on the technical specification of the ‘open Digital Specimen’ (openDS). This specification will provide the definition of what a Digital Specimen is, its logical structure and content, and the operations permitted on that. The group is also working on a document with frequently asked questions. Realising the vision of Digital Specimen on a global level requires openDS to become a new TDWG standard and to be aligned with the vision for Extended Specimens. A TDWG Birds-of-a-Feather working session in September 2020 discusses and plans this further. The object model will include concepts from ABCD 3.0 and EFG extension for geo-sciences, and also extend from bco:MaterialSample in the OBO Foundry’s Biological Collection Ontology (BCO), which is linked to Darwin Core and from iao:InformationContentEntity in OBO Foundry's Information Artifact Ontology (IAO). openDS will also make use of the RDA/TDWG attribution metadata recommendation and other RDA recommendations. A publication is in preparation that describes the relationship with RDA recommendations in more detail, which will also be presented in the TDWG symposium

Postmortem investigations on winter stranded sperm whales from the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands

During winter 1994-95, four and three sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were stranded along the Belgian and the Dutch coasts, respectively. Necropsies and tissue samplings were collected 24 hrs post mortem. Lesions on several whales included round and linear skin scars, ventral skin abrasions, acute skin ulcers, acute ulcerative stomatitides, acute to chronic external otitides, and passive visceral congestion. In addition, these sperm whales appeared to be debilitated with severe weight deficit, had blubber thickness reduction, the absence of abdominal fat, and the intestinal tracts were almost empty. Three categories of lesions and their possible relation with the stranding were evaluated. Cutaneous scars observed on the seven whales appeared to have no relation with the stranding. The poor body condition and acute integument ulcerative lesions were present before the stranding. Ventral skin abrasions and visceral passive congestion were caused by the strandings. Absence of food in the alimentary tracts, evidence of weight loss and blubber thickness reduction were compatible with an extended presence of the sperm whales in the North Sea, where adequate food is not available. This might lead to progressive weakness, predisposing the animals to secondary pathogens such as viral diseases. Finally, the coastal configuration of the southern North Sea makes it a trap for sperm whales which have entered the area during their wanderings

DEVELOPMENT OF A TL-3 F-SHAPE TEMPORARY CONCRETE MEDIAN BARRIER

A temporary concrete median barrier (CMB) was designed and tested for compliance under the Test Level 3 (TL-3) guidelines specified in the Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report No. 350. The barrier is built to the new metric standards and has a traditional pin and loop configuration for interconnection. The objective of this research project was to develop and evaluate a standardized, temporary concrete barrier design while addressing the concerns for safety, economy, structural integrity, constructability, ease of installation, and maintenance. The resulting F-shape barrier segment is 3,800-mm long, a length that reduced the number of connections while limiting the weight of the barriers to ease handling. Full-scale crash testing demonstrated several critical design features. First, the connections need to be tight initially as practicable to limit deformation and rotation of the barriers,. Secondly, the pin needs to restrain the longitudinal barrier forces. Full-scale compliance testing of the final design demonstrated that the barrier was capable of successfully redirecting the 2000-kg vehicle. The vehicle demonstrated significant roll after contact with the barrier, which is evidenced in a majority of other concrete barrier tests. This barrier provides economical work zone protection applicable in a variety of situations, where TL-3 test criteria is warranted