Building Capacity in Developing Countries : OER for Food Safety

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) was developed through the collaboration of Michigan State University and a professional network of international food industry retailers and manufacturers. The key objective of the FSKN project is to provide technical resources, in a cost effective way, in order to promote food safety in developing countries and for small and less developed companies. FSKN uses a competency based model including a framework, OERs, and assessments. These tools are being used to support face-to-face training, fully online training, and to gauge the learning outcomes of a series of pilot groups which were held in India, Egypt, and China.

The EU ‘2020 Energy Initiative’: The post-Lisbon pattern of change in EU energy policy

El novembre de 2010, la Comissió Europea ha finalment donat a conèixer la seva "Energia 2020 Comunicació", un document estratègic en el marc més ampli del programa "Europa 2020". Una estratègia per al desenvolupament sostenible intel · ligent, i creixement inclusiu posa les bases d'un nou enfocament a la política d'energia a la UE. En el marc d'Europa 2020, la Iniciativa d'Energia recopila els resultats que ja s'han obtingut a través de la Estratègia de Lisboa 2000-2010, s'identifiquen les deficiències del passat i i introdueix nous objectius ambiciosos per a la UE en matèria de política energètica.

Immigration and contested nation-building : explaining the political salience of immigration in multi-national societies

Multi-national societies present a complex setting for the politics of immigration, as migration’s linguistic, economic and cultural effects may coincide with existing contestation over nationhood between sub-units and the central state. Empirically, though, political actors only sometimes, and in some places, explicitly connect the politics of immigration to the stakes of multi-level politics. With reference to Canada, Belgium and the United Kingdom, this paper examines the conditions under which political leaders link immigration to ongoing debate about governance in multi-national societies. The paper argues that the distribution of policy competencies in the multi-level system is less important for shaping immigration and integration politics than is the perceived impact (positive or negative) on the sub-unit’s societal culture or its power relationship with the center. Immigration and integration are more often politicized where center and sub-unit hold divergent views on migration and its place in national identity.

Workshop: Capacity building for national public health advocacy: case studies from national associations

The first statement of the EUPHA on the Future of Public Health in Europe refers to the need for going 'to policymakers, politicians and practitioners in all sectors of society and advise them on how to promote public health throughout society'. WHO-EURO Director General Marc Danzon, quoted in the second EUPHA statement on the responsibility of policy makers indicates that 'learning is not systematically applied in health policy development in our continent'. Statement 3 calls for the integration of public health into the political agenda in all sectors. The first EUPHA president, Louise Gunning-Schepers, quoted in Statement 10 called on EUPHA to become 'a powerful advocate of the public health community'. In addition to the above, the EU is now actively seeking ways to build capacity to implement its health strategy. Learning and building the capacity to achieve our aims The aims and objectives to promote the public's health as reflected in EUPHA's 10 statements are also mirrored in the national public health associations. However, many of EUPHA's national associations have little or limited experience in promoting public health policy at the national level. To assist in the learning of advocacy for public health policies, case studies presenting experiences of national public health organizations in lobbying for national public health policy will be presented and discussed. In addition to sharing experiences, the presentations will identify successful approaches to public health advocacy as well as lessons learned from unsuccessful attempts.

Building adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in the water sector in Cape Verde

Purpose of the evaluation This is a scheduled standard mid-term evaluation (MTR) of a UNDP implemented GEF LDCF co-financed project. It is conducted by a team of an international and a national independent evaluator. The objective of the MTR, as set out in the Terms of Reference (TORs; Annex 1), is to provide an independent analysis of the progress of the project so far. The MTR aims to:  identify potential project design problems,  assess progress towards the achievement of the project objective and outcomes,  identify and document lessons learned (including lessons that might improve design and implementation of other projects, including UNDP-GEF supported projects), and  make recommendations regarding specific actions that should be taken to improve the project. The MTR is intended to assess signs of project success or failure and identify the necessary changes to be made. The project commenced its implementation in the first half of 2010 with the recruitment of project staff. According to the updated project plan, it is due to close in July 201410 with operations scaling down in December 2013 due to funding limits. Because of a slow implementation start, the mid-term evaluation was delayed to July 201311 The intended target audience of the evaluation are:  The project team and decision makers in the INGRH  The GEF and UNFCCC Operational Focal Points  The project partners and beneficiaries  UNDP in Cape Verde as well as the regional and headquarter (HQ) office levels  The GEF Secretariat.

A leverage theory of reputation building with co-branding: Complementarity in reputation building

We present a leverage theory of reputation building with co-branding. We showthat under certain conditions, co-branding that links unknown firms in a new sectorwith established firms in a mature sector allows the unknown firms to signal a highproduct quality and establish their own reputation. We compare this situationwith a benchmark in which both sectors are new and firms signal their qualityonly with prices. We investigate how this comparison is affected by the nature ofthe technology linking the two sectors and a cross-sector inference problem thatconsumers might face in identifying the true cause of product failure. We find thatco-branding facilitates the process in which a Þrm in the new sector to signal itsproduct quality only if the co-branding sectors produce complementary inputs andconsumers face a cross-sector inference problem. We apply our insight to economicsof superstars, multinational firms and co-authorship.

DIGITAL LIBRARIES IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Digital libraries (DL) are seen as a hope to developing countries in their struggle for accessing bibliographic resources, especially in a context where the traditional distribution mechanisms failed tragically. Several difficulties are however faced by these countries to build and use digital libraries, due mainly to its high development costs and to the poor existing ICT resources in these countries. This paper discusses the importance of digital libraries for developing countries and introduces the main challenges they face in building and using such libraries. The current alternatives and major initiatives for making digital information accessible to developing countries are also addressed.

Building digital libraries in developing countries

Digital libraries (DL) are seen as the hope for developing countries in their struggle to access scientific and academic publications. However, building such libraries in developing countries is a real challenge. These countries usually face several difficulties, such as low computer and Internet penetration rates, poor ICT infrastructure, lack of qualified human resources, lack of financial resources, etc. Thus, it is imperative finding alternative mechanisms of building DL that best fit the specificities of these countries. This paper presents the process used for building a digital library at the University Jean Piaget of Cape Verde, created in a context of scarce access to printed materials and serious difficulties in accessing ICT resources. This paper also presents the challenges, the solutions and the adopted methodological framework.

State of Iowa Historical Building : Built in 1987, 2001.

Information brochure on the State of Iowa Historical Building

Building the future: the Brazilian university library in 2010

Information technology will affect academic activities as well as the nature of the high education sector. This sector besides the need to assimilate these technologies will need to attend the requisites of market globalization and, as consequence, all theses changes will be reflected in the university library. Prospectives impacts will affect the structure (emphasis in user services, outsourcing of several services), in the financing aspect (growing of consortia in order to reduce costs), in services (electronic reference, support to long distance education programs, intelligent agents) and in the clientele (attending the great demand por high education which implies a diversity of people).

List of books by Iowa authors : collected by the Auxiliary Committee of the Iowa Commission, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, for the exhibit of books by Iowa authors in the Iowa State Building, St. Louis, 1904

This is a list of Iowa authors that grew out of the efforts of the auxiliary committee of the Iowa Commission of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to bring together a collection of books by Iowa authors for the Iowa State building at the St. Louis Exposition.

Building the niche through time: using 13,000 years of data to predict the effects of climate change on three tree species in Europe

Aim Species distribution models (SDMs) based on current species ranges underestimate the potential distribution when projected in time and/or space. A multi-temporal model calibration approach has been suggested as an alternative, and we evaluate this using 13,000 years of data. Location Europe. Methods We used fossil-based records of presence for Picea abies, Abies alba and Fagus sylvatica and six climatic variables for the period 13,000 to 1000yr bp. To measure the contribution of each 1000-year time step to the total niche of each species (the niche measured by pooling all the data), we employed a principal components analysis (PCA) calibrated with data over the entire range of possible climates. Then we projected both the total niche and the partial niches from single time frames into the PCA space, and tested if the partial niches were more similar to the total niche than random. Using an ensemble forecasting approach, we calibrated SDMs for each time frame and for the pooled database. We projected each model to current climate and evaluated the results against current pollen data. We also projected all models into the future. Results Niche similarity between the partial and the total-SDMs was almost always statistically significant and increased through time. SDMs calibrated from single time frames gave different results when projected to current climate, providing evidence of a change in the species realized niches through time. Moreover, they predicted limited climate suitability when compared with the total-SDMs. The same results were obtained when projected to future climates. Main conclusions The realized climatic niche of species differed for current and future climates when SDMs were calibrated considering different past climates. Building the niche as an ensemble through time represents a way forward to a better understanding of a species' range and its ecology in a changing climate.