2011 | Action Number: IS0601

Governing Public Agencies in the 21st Century: International Lessons and policy recommendations by the COST Action IS0601

• Author(s): K. Verhoest, S. van Thiel, G. Bouckaert & P. Laegreid and the COST-CRIPO/COBRA network
• Publisher(s): K.U. Leuven
• http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/eng/search/result.php?author=&year=&title=cobra&theme=&type=&submit2=Search

This policy brief is the result of COST Action IS0601, named CRIPO (Comparative Research into Current Trends in Public Sector Organization), which ran for four years, from early 2007 till early 2011. The main objective of the Action was to increase knowledge about current trends in public sector organization in Europe from a European perspective, in an international context, in order to deepen theoretical rigour and optimize methodologies, which inspire sound and policy-relevant research conclusions.

2011 | Action Number: 871

Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Cryopreservation in Horticultural Species / Acta Horticulturae Number 908

• Author(s): B. Panis & P. Lynch (Eds)
• Publisher(s): ISHS
• http://www.actahort.org/books/908/index.htm
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-90-6605-470-7

For many horticultural species such as seedless plant species, species that produce recalcitrant seed as well as plant species that are propagated vegetatively to preserve the unique genomic constitution of cultivars (such as fruit and several timber and ornamental trees), cryopreservation is the only valuable solution for the safe long term storage. Moreover, besides its use for the conservation of genetic resources, cryopreservation proved to be extremely useful for the storage of plant tissues with specific characteristics, such as medicinal- and alkaloid-producing cell lines, hairy root cultures, genetically transformed and transformation-competent culture lines.
This issue of Acta Horticulturae contains a selection of the contributions made at the “first International Symposium on Cryopreservation in Horticultural Species” that was held in Leuven, Belgium from 5 to 8 April, 2009. This event was a co-organization of the COST Action 871, CRYOPLANET of the European Science Foundation and ISHS (International Society for Horticultural Science).

2011

Annual Report 2010

• Publisher(s): COST Office
• Download (PDF, 1 MB)

The 2010 Annual Report presents the yearly achievements, Domain activities, publications, and more. The document is available in pdf only.

2011 | Action Number: IS0807

Internet and Surveillance. The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media

• Author(s): C. Fuchs, K. Boersma, A. Albrechtslund and M. Sandoval (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Routledge
• http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415891608/
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-415-89160-8

The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of “Web 2.0”, social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the COST Action IS0807- Living in Surveillance Society.

2011 | Action Number: TU0602

Land Management for Urban Dynamics. Innovative methods and practices in a changing Europe

• Author(s): M. Tira, E. van der Krabben and B. Zanon (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Maggioli Editore
• http://ordini.maggioli.it/clienti/product_info.php?products_id=7834
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-387-6066-2

The present report contains the final results of the collective work carried on by a group of researchers operating within the COST Action Land management for urban dynamics -TU602, looking for new perspectives to a more effective control of urban expansion and regeneration by means of innovative methods and tools. The fast change going on, as far as socio-economic phenomena at the wider scale (de-industrialisation, displacement of activities, increased mobility of people and goods, etc.), the European integration, and the affirmation of neo-liberal politico-administrative orientations are concerned, has produced extensive territorial restructuring, deep transformations in the urban form, and the change of the development models.
The pervasiveness of change and the similarity of issues to be tackled in the different countries and towns (“globalisation”) do not automatically mean that there is a progressive amalgamation of European planning systems and land regimes or that local planning approaches and urban management procedures are getting closer. Constitutional systems, property regimes, administrative traditions are conditioning the urban management processes, while local authorities are challenged by the new political orientations and the stronger role of the private bodies. In this context, the elaboration of new urban land management approaches and instruments is needed.
The possibility to gather an extensive number of researchers, practitioners and experts from different European Countries, interested in comparing the domestic systems and experiences, has been the driver for this COST Action.
The mission of the Action is expressed as the need to update the knowledge of the effectiveness of the different land regimes and planning systems operating in the European Countries, in a time of rapid change of political systems, territorial and urban organisation and public policies.
The main objective of the Action is to develop a Europe-wide “comparative framework of land management regimes and policies and to produce recommendations for land mobilization methods and tools in order to foster urban dynamics”. In particular, it has focused on:
1. land management regimes and land policies for urban development and regeneration;
2. land management tools for large urban development projects; and the overall assessment of the performance of those regimes, policies, and tools.

2011 | Action Number: FP0904

Book of Abstracts - Mechano-chemical transformations of wood during THM processing – February 16-18, 2011 in Biel, Switzerland

• Author(s): COST Action FP0904 Workshop
• Publisher(s): Bern University of Applied Sciences
• Download from external website
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-3-9523787-0-0

The workshop dealt with experimental characterization as well as numerical modelling of TH/THM behaviour of wood, analysis methods and major challenges to overcome in commercializing TH wood products, and closed as well as open system treated wood.

2011 | Action Number: A35

Growth and Stagnation in European Historical Agriculture

• Author(s): Mats Olsson and Patrick Svensson (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Brepols
• http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503540764-1
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-2-503-54076-4

Agricultural production has been the basic and single most important factor for the well-being of mankind since the Neolithic revolution. Insufficient agricultural output has led to deficient means of subsistence and sometimes even starvation, while rich harvests brought about plenty and prosperity. Continuous increases in agricultural output have transformed whole societies and continents, bringing about radical changes in people’s lives and economic prospects.
This book is focused on measuring and explaining agricultural growth in Europe. For most countries statistics on agricultural production are either non-existing or shaky for the period up to the end of the nineteenth century. Consequently, researchers dealing with historical farming have been forced to put a lot of effort into reconstructing reliable data on inputs and outputs. The last decades have seen major progress, and new approaches to quantify and explain agricultural development have been adopted. The book is the result of these efforts and it encompasses estimations and explanations of European historical agriculture over time, from the ninth to the twentieth century, and over space, from the Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia and from the British Isles to Russia.

2011 | Action Number: A25

Small Arms, Crime and Conflict - Global Governance and the threat of armed violence

• Author(s): O. Greene and N. March (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Routledge
• http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415567008/
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-415-57755-7

This book focuses on the use of small arms in violence and attempts by the state to govern the use and acquisition of these weapons.
It is likely that hundreds of thousands of people are killed every year as a result of armed violence – in contexts ranging from war zones to domestic violence. This edited volume examines why these deaths occur, the role of guns and other weapons, and how governance can be used to reduce and prevent those deaths. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology through economics to peace and security studies, the book’s main concern throughout is that of human security – the causes and means of prevention of armed violence.
The first part of the book concerns warfare, the second armed violence and crime, and the last governance of arms and their (mis)-use. The concluding chapter builds on the contributors’ key findings and suggests priorities for future research, with the aim of forming a coherent narrative which examines what we know, why armed violence occurs, and what can be done to reduce it.
This book will be of much interest to students of small arms, security studies, global governance, peace and conflict studies, and IR.

2011 | Action Number: ES0905

Spreading the scope of convection models

• Author(s): Dr Jun-Ichi Yano
• Publisher(s): International Innovation
• Download (PDF, 2 MB)

Climate change and unpredictable weather patterns are a major challenge for meteorologists throughout
the world. Producing models that are sufficiently reliable and flexible is a goal that still eludes researchers,
but this may be about to change thanks to the novel approach proposed by the Core Action on Convection.

2011 | Action Number: IS0802

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Special Issue: Agency in Earth System Governance

• Pages: 98
• Author(s): Guest Editors: P. Pattberg, M. Betsill, E. Dellas
• Publisher(s): Springer
• Download from external website
• ISBN/ISSN: 1567-9764

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics is a peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal that focuses on the theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions of achieving cooperative solutions to international environmental problems. This special issue addresses the analytical problem of agency in earth system governance, an analytical problem that begins with the assumption that the credibility, stability, adaptiveness and inclusiveness of earth system governance is affected by a wide range of actors, including national governments and their bureaucracies as well as the growing population of non-state actors such as environmental organisations, expert networks and corporations.

2011

About COST 2011

• Author(s): COST Office
• Publisher(s): COST Office
• Download (PDF, 7 MB)

The aim of this pocket guide is to bring together all relevant information about COST into an “easy to use” publication. This guide includes information on the COST structure and goals, the Open Call, the National Coordinators (contact points) and financial Instruments plus, most importantly, the COST Actions. In this issue, the Actions are presented from the most recent ones to those ending this year. In order to highlight COST's interdisciplinary dimension, Trans-Domain Actions are presented in a separate sub-chapter. Complementary Action information can be found on the COST website.

2011 | Action Number: C24

Proceedings of ELCAS 2011 - 2nd International Exergy, Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Workshop & Symposium – Final Conference of COST Action C24

• Author(s): C. J. Koroneos, D. C. Rovas and A. Th. Dompros (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Ziti Publications
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-960-243-679-0

2011 | Action Number: FP0601

Forest Management and The Water Cycle – An Ecosystem-Based Approach

• Author(s): M. Bredemeier, S. Cohen, D. L. Godbold, E. Lode, V. Pichler and P. Schleppi (Eds)
• Publisher(s): Springer
• http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/forestry/book/978-90-481-9833-7
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-94-007-1785-5

The protective function of forests for water quality and water-related hazards, as well as adequate water supplies for forest ecosystems in Europe, are potentially at risk due to changing climate and changing land-management practices. Water budgets of forest ecosystems are heavily dependent on climate and forest structure. The latter is determined by the management measures applied in the forestry sector. Various developments of forest management strategies, imposed on a background of changing climate, are considered in assessing the overall future of forest–water interactions in Europe.
Synthesizing recent research on the interactions of forest management and the water regime of forests in Europe and beyond, the book makes an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue between scientists dealing with different scales of forest-water interactions. This collaborative endeavour, which covers geographic and climatic gradients from Iceland to Israel and from southern Spain to Estonia and Finland, was made possible through COST Action FP0601 "Forest Management and the Water Cycle (FORMAN)", which was launched in 2007.
The book will be of particular interest to the research community involved in forest ecosystem research and forest hydrology, as well as landscape ecologists and hydrologists in general. It will also provide reference material for forest practitioners and planners in hydrology and land use.

2011 | Action Number: TU0601

Robustness of Structures-Proceedings of the Final Conference of COST Action TU0601

• Author(s): M. Faber, H. Narasimhan, J. Sorensen, T. Vrouwenvelder and M. Chryssanthopoulos
• Publisher(s): Czech Technical University in Prague
• ISBN/ISSN: 978-80-01-04730-9

In 2005, the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) together with Working Commission 1 of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) organised a workshop on robustness of structures, held at the BRE facilities in the UK.
Among the results of the workshop the decision to develop a proposal for a joint European project on structural robustness turned out to be good and successful. The project ‘COST Action TU0601 : Robustness of Structures’ commenced in February 2007 under the aegis of the COST1(European Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme. Research teams drawn from 24 COST member countries representing both academia and industry as well as experts from the United States of America have been part of the project. The main objective of this project is to provide the basic framework, methods and strategies necessary to ensure that the level of robustness of structural systems is adequate and sufficient in relation to their function and exposure over their life time and in balance with societal preferences in regard to safety of personnel and safeguarding of environment and economy. The work of the project is organised in three working groups each respectively dealing with a) development of a theoretical and methodological framework for assessment of robustness; b) modelling of exposures and
vulnerability; and c) robustness assessment and implementation issues.
The present book is a compilation of the scientific contributions of the final conference that was held in Prague on the 30th and 31st of May 2011.