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The COST action "Standardising output-based surveillance to control non-regulated diseases of cattle in the European Union (SOUND control)," aims to harmonise the results of surveillance and control programmes (CPs) for non-EU regulated cattle diseases to facilitate safe trade and improve overall control of cattle infectious diseases. In this paper we aimed to provide an overview on the diversity of control for these diseases in Europe. A non-EU regulated cattle disease was defined as an infectious disease of cattle with no or limited control at EU level, which is not included in the European Union Animal health law Categories A or B under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2002. A CP was defined as surveillance and/or intervention strategies designed to lower the incidence, prevalence, mortality or prove freedom from a specific disease in a region or country. Passive surveillance, and active surveillance of breeding bulls under Council Directive 88/407/EEC were not considered as CPs. A questionnaire was designed to obtain country-specific information about CPs for each disease. Animal health experts from 33 European countries completed the questionnaire. Overall, there are 23 diseases for which a CP exists in one or more of the countries studied. The diseases for which CPs exist in the highest number of countries are enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea and anthrax (CPs reported by between 16 and 31 countries). Every participating country has on average, 6 CPs (min–max: 1–13) in place. Most programmes are implemented at a national level (86%) and are applied to both dairy and non-dairy cattle (75%). Approximately one-third of the CPs are voluntary, and the funding structure is divided between government and private resources. Countries that have eradicated diseases like enzootic bovine leukosis, bluetongue, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine viral diarrhoea have implemented CPs for other diseases to further improve the health status of cattle in their country. The control of non-EU regulated cattle diseases is very heterogenous in Europe. Therefore, the standardising of the outputs of these programmes to enable comparison represents a challenge.

The investigation reconstructs and examines the processes of escalation and de-escalation of political violence in internal conflicts in Latin America. The study analyses and compares the urban insurgent campaigns of the Argentinean Montoneros, the Colombian Movement 19 April (M-19) and the Nicaraguan Sandinist National Liberation Front (FSLN) to point out the processes that explain the specific conflict developments and endings. In comparison to the mainstream research focus, this study focuses on examining the middle-phase of internal conflicts and looks especially into the interactions of the central conflict actors. Literature on political violence in Latin America focuses on insurgency rather than terrorism. This research, however, employs the analytical concept of terrorism to study political violence. Terrorism, in this approach, is understood as a strategy of irregular warfare in its own right similar to insurgency, and as an act. This approach permits to focus on the act and not the actor and to deal with the variety of violent political actors in the region, including insurgent organizations and the state. Additional, the investigation proposes a triangular model of interaction to explain the dynamic in which political violence develops in social revolutionary conflicts. Political violence in such conflicts is largely the product of the triangular interaction between state and insurgent forces and the civil society, or "social audience". In this triangular interaction, the social audience plays the decisive role for the development and outcome of the conflicts. This role, however, converts the social audience in the central target of state and insurgent activities, as both violent actors try to shape the behavior of the larger social environment. The study discusses the influence of national and international factors on the conflict development, such as the Cold War, the regime type and economic inequalities. Furthermore, it depicts forms of insurgent organization of opposition forces, as well as ...

The 1st International Symposiumon Ostracoda (ISO) was held in Naples (1963). The philosophy behind this symposiumand the logical outcome of what is nowknown as the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) are here reviewed, namely ostracodology over the last 50 years is sociologically analysed. Three different and important historic moments for the scientific achievements of this domain are recognised. The first one, between about 1963 and 1983, is related to applied research for the oil industry aswell as to the great interest in the better description of the marine environment by both zoologists and palaeontologists. Another important aspect during this period was thework by researchers dealing with Palaeozoic ostracods,who had their own discussion group, IRGPO. Gradually, the merger of this latter group with those dealing with post-Palaeozoic ostracods at various meetings improved the communication between the two groups of specialists. A second period was approximately delineated between 1983 and 2003. During this time-slice, more emphasis was addressed to environmental research with topics such as the study of global events and long-term climate change. Ostracodologists profited also from the research "politics" within national and international programmes. Large international research teams emerged using new research methods. During the third period (2003-2013), communication and collaborative research reached a global dimension. Amongst the topics of research we cite the reconstruction of palaeoclimate using transfer functions, the building of large datasets of ostracod distributions for regional and intercontinental studies, and the implementation of actions that should lead to taxonomic harmonisation. Projects within which molecular biological techniques are routinely used, combined with sophisticated morphological information, expanded now in their importance. The documentation of the ostracod description improved through new techniques to visualise morphological details, which stimulated also communication between ostracodologists. Efforts of making available ostracod information through newsletters and electronic media are evoked.

The 1st International Symposiumon Ostracoda (ISO) was held in Naples (1963). The philosophy behind this symposiumand the logical outcome of what is nowknown as the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) are here reviewed, namely ostracodology over the last 50 years is sociologically analysed. Three different and important historic moments for the scientific achievements of this domain are recognised. The first one, between about 1963 and 1983, is related to applied research for the oil industry aswell as to the great interest in the better description of the marine environment by both zoologists and palaeontologists. Another important aspect during this period was thework by researchers dealing with Palaeozoic ostracods,who had their own discussion group, IRGPO. Gradually, the merger of this latter group with those dealing with post-Palaeozoic ostracods at various meetings improved the communication between the two groups of specialists. A second period was approximately delineated between 1983 and 2003. During this time-slice, more emphasis was addressed to environmental research with topics such as the study of global events and long-term climate change. Ostracodologists profited also from the research "politics" within national and international programmes. Large international research teams emerged using new research methods. During the third period (2003-2013), communication and collaborative research reached a global dimension. Amongst the topics of research we cite the reconstruction of palaeoclimate using transfer functions, the building of large datasets of ostracod distributions for regional and intercontinental studies, and the implementation of actions that should lead to taxonomic harmonisation. Projects within which molecular biological techniques are routinely used, combined with sophisticated morphological information, expanded now in their importance. The documentation of the ostracod description improved through new techniques to visualise morphological details, which stimulated also communication between ostracodologists. Efforts of making available ostracod information through newsletters and electronic media are evoked.

Die Analyse von Rechtsnatur und Geltung des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex dient der Klärung der Frage, unter welchen Voraussetzungen Gerichte die Kodex-Bestimmungen als "Soft Law" anwenden dürfen, obwohl es sich hierbei nicht um Rechtsnormen im tradierten Sinne handelt.Zunächst wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob die rechtliche Geltung des DCGK bejaht werden kann, obwohl es sich beim Kodex nicht um eine Rechtsnorm handelt. Dies ist zu verneinen. Soziale Geltung und rechtsethische Rechtfertigung sind hingegen grds. zu bejahen. Es werden konkrete rechtspolitische Forderungen zur Behebung des festgestellten partiellen Demokratiedefizits gestellt. Zugleich wird die Heranziehung der unmittelbaren Drittwirkung des Grundrechts auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung bzgl. der Kodex-Bestimmungen, die die Offenlegung von Daten empfehlen, gefordert. Schließlich sollten Gerichte die Kodex-Bestimmungen als Soft Law bei der Konkretisierung von Rechtsbegriffen heranziehen dürfen.

The Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook provides an up-to-date understanding of gender issues and a rich compilation of compelling evidence of good practices and lessons learned to guide practitioners in integrating gender dimensions into agricultural projects and programs.It is serves as a tool for: guidance; showcasing key principles in integrating gender into projects; stimulating the imagination of practitioners to apply lessons learned, experiences, and innovations to the design of future support and investment in the agriculture sector. The Sourcebook looks at: access to and control of assets; access to markets, information and organization; and capacity to manage risk and vulnerability through a gender lens.There are 16 modules covering themes of cross-cutting importance for agriculture with strong gender dimensions (Policy, Public Administration and Governance; Agricultural Innovation and Education; Food Security; Markets; Rural Finance; Rural Infrastructure; Water; Land; Labor; Natural Resource Management; and Disaster and Post-Conflict Management) and specific subsectors in agriculture (Crops, Livestock, Forestry, and Fisheries).Each module contains three different sub-units: (1) A Module Overview gives a broad introduction to the topic and provides a summary of major development issues in the sector and rationale of looking at gender dimension; (2) Thematic Notes provide a brief and technically sound guide in gender integration in selected themes with lessons learned, guidelines, checklists, organizing principles, key questions, and key performance indicators; and (3) Innovative Activity Profiles describe the design and innovative features of recent and exciting projects and activities that have been implemented or are ongoing.

INTRODUCTION: Physical activity messaging is an important step in the pathway towards improving population physical activity levels, but best practice is not yet understood. A gap in the literature exists for a physical activity messaging framework to help guide creation and evaluation of messages. This study aimed to further develop and improve, and gain international expert consensus on, a standardised Physical Activity Messaging Framework and Checklist. METHODS: A modified Delphi study consisting of three online survey rounds was conducted. Each survey gathered feedback from an international expert panel using quantitative and qualitative methods. The framework and checklist were amended between each round based on survey results until consensus (defined a priori as 80% agreement) was reached. RESULTS: The final expert panel (n = 40, 55% female) came from nine countries and comprised academics (55%), healthcare and other professionals (22.5%) and government officials or policymakers (22.5%). Consensus was reached in survey 3 with 85 and 87.5% agreement on the framework and checklist, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study presents an expert- and evidence-informed framework and checklist for physical activity messaging. If used consistently, the Physical Activity Messaging Framework and Checklist may improve practice by encouraging evidence-based and target audience-focused messages, as well as enhance the research base on physical activity messaging by harmonising key terminologies and improving quality of reporting. Key next steps include further refining the Physical Activity Messaging Framework and Checklist based on their use in real-world settings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12966-021-01182-z.

The use of remotely piloted vehicles, either in civilian or military roles, is highly controversial. Legal, ethical, and moral issues are hotly debated and argued by a broad continuum of advocates. Legal issues seem to revolve primarily around the basis of national self-defense vice international governance. The ethical and moral issues are more complicated. The efficiency of using remotely piloted vehicles is contrasted against the psychological impacts their use has upon the operators and society as a whole, as demonstrated by select researchers. The teachings of Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant are briefly discussed as they relate to this particular endeavor. Once ethical and moral issues are settled, defining the Constitutional guidelines and restrictions for use against insurgents or rebellious factions that might include United States citizens will become easier to decide.