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The London Convention (LC), adopted in 1972, and its successor, the London Protocol (LP) of 1996, constitute key regulatory frameworks working in parallel, aimed at mitigating waste dumping at sea and safeguarding the marine environment. These treaties, which share the objective of controlling marine pollution, have also evolved to address emerging environmental issues such as marine geoengineering and carbon capture and storage within the context of the current triple planetary crisis. As the LC/LP regime marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2022, both achievements and ongoing challenges in combating pollution from dumping activities were acknowledged, emphasising the need for continual adaptation to protect the marine environment effectively. This article examines the adaptability and impact of the LC/LP regime over the past five decades, identifying strengths and proposing future steps to ensure the preservation of ocean health for future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horizon scanning is a process to generate foresight – insight into how the future could unfold. Horizon scanning involves systematically searching a wide range of information sources for early signals of change, collecting those signals in a database, and exploring their possible implications for the future. The focus is often on external change in the broad contextual environment of a field or organization, i.e., the social, economic, technological, and governance domains. External change could be highly disruptive and is unlikely to be on the radar of decision makers. Early awareness of changes and monitoring their development over time can help natural resource planners, managers, and policymakers prepare for emerging challenges and opportunities. This paper introduces horizon scanning, characterizes different approaches and techniques, outlines the basic process, and briefly describes artificial intelligence in horizon scanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evinces that policies and plans at the national level in South Africa recognise the importance of postgraduate education within the broader national education and training system, and that they place particular emphasis on promoting access to, and success in postgraduate education as one of the priorities on the country's development agenda. It identifies and discusses ten issues that have a bearing on the national policies, plans, programmes and initiatives aimed at promoting access to, and success in postgraduate education. These issues emerge from the analysis, triangulation, and interpretation of sets of information and data obtained from multiple projects focusing on postgraduate education, that the Council on Higher Education has implemented since 2018. They are therefore referred to as "emerging issues". They include the relatively small size of the postgraduate component of higher education, the pyramidal structure of the distribution of students across the different levels of postgraduate education, and the offsetting of the increase in the numbers of graduates produced at all levels of postgraduate education, by a corresponding increase in the numbers of students taking longer to complete their studies than the periods stipulated by the institutions, and by relatively high dropout rates. Other issues are about transformation, student funding, inadequate supervisory capacity, underpreparedness of students, and lack of adequate support services for postgraduate students. The article sets the scene for, and context of the other articles contained in this special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education, and prepares the readers to understand and appreciate the contents of those articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of emerging issues has garnered growing interest as a way to establish proactive policy formulation. However, in fisheries research, analyzing such issues has largely depended on the literature or researchers' judgment. We use keyword analysis, targeting news application programming interfaces (News APIs) (72,981 news sources and blogs), to investigate issues in the global seafood industry from January 2019 to March 2022. Among a variety of topics identified by year and country, in general, seafood market function, health, and tariffs were the main issues in 2019, while COVID-19-related issues were primarily mentioned between 2020 and 2021. After 2022, the role of the market regained attention, and various new issues rose to the surface. To identify emerging issues, we jointly employ dynamic time warping (DTW) and growth models, which derive several keywords, including coercion, cuisines, food safety, ketones, plastic ingestions, seafood alcohol, urbanization, wastewater treatment, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). High interest in food safety, environmental change, trade conflict, and seafood value improvement reveal the need for proper policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foresight is essential for long-term planning and forward-looking decision-making in forestry, where planning horizons often span many decades. But generating foresight is challenging due to the increasing pace and complexity of change and growing uncertainty about the future. Most change that could affect or even disrupt forestry in the future originates outside of the field, such as social, technological, economic, and environmental changes. The Forest Futures Horizon Scanning project (Forest Horizons) aims to generate foresight by identifying early signals of change from outside forestry that professionals within the field may not be aware of or pay close attention to. This article draws on the database of signals of change uncovered in the Forest Horizons project and identifies fifteen key emerging changes that could help shape the long-term future of forestry. Study Implications: The long-term nature of forestry has compelled foresters to be forward-looking and plan many decades ahead. Horizon scanning is a tool that can enhance foresight in forestry by identifying emerging signals of change that could affect the field in the future. Fifteen wide-ranging early signals of change are highlighted in this article. Consideration of these emerging changes in long-term and strategic planning could help forestry decision makers prepare for change and avoid being blindsided. Horizon scanning is a useful approach to help generate essential foresight in an era of increasingly rapid, complex, and often surprising change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Educational system in Kenya has undergone significant transformation from the 8-4-4 system to Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). This shift presents emerging issues that affect both learners and teachers, as well as the society at large. Through an analysis of current literature, this paper examines key issues such as teacher training, assessment methods, and societal expectations. The study findings revealed that there is a significant association at 5% significance level between the variables of emerging issues and transition by the teachers' respondents (χ2 = 157.072, df = 9, p = 0.00). One of the challenges is the cost of implementing the new curriculum, which requires a lot of money to purchase resources and hire new teachers. Another challenge is the inadequate professional preparation of Kenyan teachers, who are not yet familiar with the approaches of CBC. The transition period will enable the government to develop adequate infrastructure for the new system. By addressing these challenges proactively, Kenya can ensure that its education system remains relevant and responsive to future needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jurisprudence Faculty Journal / Magallaẗ Kulliyyaẗ Al-fiqh is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Disability, stigma, and the pursuit of social justice are interrelated problems that have an impact on how people with disabilities live their lives. Disability is a condition that affects a person's capacity to do activities or tasks due to their physical, cognitive, or mental limitations. The individual with a disability is frequently the target of stigma, which is a negative social judgment or form of discrimination. The efforts made to guarantee that people with disability have the same rights and opportunities as people without disabilities are referred to as the pursuit of social justice. Barriers to social inclusion and equality for people with disability may be significantly exacerbated by the interaction between stigma and disability. Physical impediments such as inaccessible structures as well as psychological impediments such as prejudices against people with disabilities both exist. These obstacles often make it difficult for people with disability to participate fully in society. To achieve social justice for people with disabilities, advocacy and continued research must be made for the removal of these obstacles, as well as efforts to ensure inclusion and acceptance in all facets of society. This may entail initiatives to improve accessibility, fight prejudice, and stereotypes, and promote the needs and rights of people with disabilities. This conceptual article will analyze the importance of social justice for people with disabilities to build a more inclusive society in which everyone can participate fully and achieve success; it will conclude with recommended directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2022, the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency National Institute of Forensic Science (ANZPAA NIFS) Document Specialist Advisory Group (DocSAG) began a capability mapping project with the broad aim to consider, in the Australian and New Zealand context, forensic document examination: where are we now, and where to from here? Our capability mapping project is based largely on the approach used for the 2022 Forensic Capability Mapping – Firearm Examination Project, led by ANZPAA NIFS. A survey was developed and disseminated to capture information addressing key topics: current and emerging risks, improvement areas, current and future capability, and business continuity. This paper outlines the project process and summarizes key findings of the first round of data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to clean water remains a challenge in many parts of Africa. This is compounded by the increasing pollution levels with increasing population and industrialization. Activated carbon remains the most widely used adsorbent for the removal of chemical pollutants in both drinking water and wastewater treatment processes due to its unique chemical properties and a plethora of precursor materials for development. However, to date, no available literature has systematically summarized the advances in Africa on the adsorptive removal of contaminants using activated carbons and research issues such as data acquisition and presentation, analysis approaches, citations, inconsistencies and adsorption experimental setups remain largely undocumented. In this paper, adsorption studies from Africa focusing on activated carbons for the removal of various contaminants are reviewed, from 2007 to 2022. The study focused on a literature-based approach by searching key terms in selected databases. The adsorption data were mostly best described by the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order models for dyes, anions, metal ions pesticides, and pharmaceutical compounds. According to the pooled data, the highest adsorption capacity was 1552.5 mg g − 1 for PFOS adsorbed onto H3PO4-activated maize tassel-based carbon. The majority of the studies relied on linearized adsorption isotherm and kinetic models with coefficient of determination (R2) as the sole criterion for determining best-fitting models. Additionally, the majority of the studies are batch mode and laboratory-scale studies with no desorption and recyclability evaluations. Researchers should be careful to present accurate equations and units of parameters with proper citations. Pilot-scale and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the reported new materials represent an aspect largely unexplored. The fact that studies from most African countries, dating beyond 2007, could be obtained implies that activated carbons present an accessible and possibly sustainable technology for emerging economies.

This study compared closure rates (CR) and high-quality closure rates (HQCR) among persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) between counselors with a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling (MRC) and those with a master's degree of related disciplines (RM). Survey data were collected from 152 counselors in four states, and their IDD clients from 2014 to 2017 were analyzed (n = 5,186). The rate differences were calculated based on multilevel logistic regression with counselors as the cluster level. The overall CR was slightly higher among counselors with MRC than those with RM (32.9% vs. 25.3%, p =.09) but significantly higher when limited to clients with less severe disabilities (35.1% in MRC vs. 25.0% in RM, p =.03). Furthermore, the differences were more pronounced in HQCR (23.5% in MRC vs. 18.2% in RM, p =.03 in all clients, and 30.7% in MRC vs. 22.5% in RM, p =.01 in clients with less severe disabilities). The difference in CR for full-time jobs (30+ hours/week) was also significant (22.0% in MRC vs. 16.0% in RM, p =.007). The counselors with MRC were more likely to be prepared for managing IDD clients than those with RM. The main advantages of MRC in knowledge domains included medical and psychological knowledge, career development and job placement, and disability management. Therefore, master-level education in rehabilitation counseling could provide more relevant training and yield better closure rates in IDD clients than other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of emerging issues has garnered growing interest as a way to establish proactive policy formulation. However, in fisheries research, analyzing such issues has largely depended on the literature or researchers’ judgment. We use keyword analysis, targeting news application programming interfaces (News APIs) (72,981 news sources and blogs), to investigate issues in the global seafood industry from January 2019 to March 2022. Among a variety of topics identified by year and country, in general, seafood market function, health, and tariffs were the main issues in 2019, while COVID-19-related issues were primarily mentioned between 2020 and 2021. After 2022, the role of the market regained attention, and various new issues rose to the surface. To identify emerging issues, we jointly employ dynamic time warping (DTW) and growth models, which derive several keywords, including coercion, cuisines, food safety, ketones, plastic ingestions, seafood alcohol, urbanization, wastewater treatment, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). High interest in food safety, environmental change, trade conflict, and seafood value improvement reveal the need for proper policy responses.

COVID-19 added a new dimension to the relationship between school professionals and students’ families: a virtual one. To explore this shift and the associated challenges, we performed a bibliometric analysis of research literature published on the topic to the end of 2021. Our guiding question was: what kind of themes are emerging in literature on the school-family relationship in association with COVID-19? Our search of Scopus, Web of Sciences and ERIC retrieved 286 articles. Using VOSviewer, we conducted a bibliometric analysis based on article keywords to map the field, producing a visual representation of networks of themes. Four clusters emerged: “educational players”, “distance learning”, “partnership” and “social context”. Unsurprisingly, the analysis suggests a shift in the roles of parents and teachers, with the digital sphere becoming central to their relationship. Beyond this, the crisis has cast light on both existing problems and the potential of a partnership based on a genuine sharing of responsibility.

As the world continues to battle the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it is a stark reminder of the devastation biological threats can cause. In an unprecedented way the global community saw a massive surge in the demand for diagnostic capacities, which had a substantial impact on biosafety and biosecurity. Laboratories had to cope with a surge in laboratory testing capacity, while resources and training possibilities were limited. In addition, the pandemic highlighted the impact biological threats can have, thereby giving rise to new dialogue about biosecurity and new biological threats. This paper aims to highlight some of the most pressing issues regarding biosafety and biosecurity observed during the COVID-19 pandemic with special focus on low and lower middle-income countries. The authors provide lessons learned, tools and recommendations to improve future biosafety and biosecurity and increase preparedness for the next global health crisis.

Agricultural and food production systems are constantly evolving in response to societal and environmental factors. These sectors are also laden with occupational hazards, creating an opportunity for emerging and re-emerging issues such as emerging markets and changing worker demographics. The Upper Midwest is a region of intensive agricultural production, with many states leading the United States in livestock and crop production. As a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) is tasked with protecting the health and safety of the region's agricultural workers. UMASH implements an Emerging Issues program to effectively respond to emerging and re-emerging issues impacting agricultural health and safety in the Upper Midwest. To direct such work, UMASH developed a novel Selection, Planning and Action Process Model. This model guides all stages of the UMASH Emerging Issues response and emphasizes the ongoing need for monitoring, evaluation, and feedback from agricultural communities. In conjunction with the UMASH Process Model, the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum of Public Participation frames the work of the Emerging Issues Program in meaningfully engaging the community of stakeholders across all stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cannabis (Cannabis sativa, marijuana) is the largest cash crop in California. While it is difficult to characterize the size of the industry, the total production is estimated at 15 to 16 million pounds per year, with total revenues exceeding $10 billion per year. Despite the huge size and rapid growth of the industry, there has been little research on the health and safety of cannabis workers. The goal of this pilot study was to explore the feasibility of collecting cannabis worker health data with a self-administered survey and to analyze the first systematically collected data on occupational health symptoms among California cannabis cultivation workers. We performed a cross-sectional survey of demographic and job characteristics as well as eye, nasal, respiratory, and dermal symptoms among 29 workers at two cannabis farms in the Sacramento area, California. Most participants were men aged less than 30 years, with 48% of participants self-identifying as non-Hispanic white and 58% reporting at least some college education. The most frequently reported work-related symptom was nasal irritation, and 38% of the participants reported symptoms suggestive of asthma. The participants had a demographic makeup distinct from traditional California agricultural workers, and a very high prevalence of current use of cannabis (93%). The high proportion of respondents with symptoms suggestive of asthma raises concern; sensitization to the cannabis plant has been reported among cannabis workers and users and there are many well-documented agricultural exposures causing asthma and asthma-like syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coronavirus pandemic situation is acknowledged as a terrifying situation to human beings and has generated a tremendous loss in many perspectives to human life worldwide. People get impacted by physical, psychosocial, economic, and environmental crises amidst any pandemic crisis. Objectives: The current study aimed to interpret and explore the perception of the impact of a pandemic crisis on mental health, emerging issues, and governance among the people of a developing country during the lockdown of Covid-19, the second wave. This study also assessed their knowledge to assess their level of mental preparedness during Covid-19. Methods and Materials: An online cross-sectional survey was performed among a sub-set of a developing country population using a modified pre-validated structured tool. The sample size was 124. Responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics of Chi-square and regression analysis. Results: About 55.47% (71) had adequate knowledge. The mean knowledge score was 6.04, with a Standard Deviation (SD) of 2.16, indicating a low knowledge level. There was a higher significant association between demographics and mental health in terms of variables of psychosocial domains (p<0.05). Also, a negative association was found between their knowledge and their profession (p<0.05). Conclusion: Partial lockdown at the time of the study due to Covid-19 has led the majority of the people to undergo mental stress disregarded to their age, education, or their boundness to the healthcare profession. The healthcare system needs to emphasize enhancing appropriate knowledge to adopt preventive measures and efficient protocols, including vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing complexity and uncertainty of the future may stimulate demand for more monitoring emerging issues. Futurists have long advocated for monitoring the future on an ongoing basis or for tracking the findings of project work in practice. However, clients have historically been reluctant to invest time and money in monitoring, and little practical guidance is available on how to set up a monitoring. This article describes a pilot monitoring capability that is simple and practical to implement. It was developed as a "plug-in" to supplement an ongoing horizon scanning system. The monitoring system tracks the movement of emerging issues that were identified by horizon scanning. It provides a means to keep policy-makers informed about the progress of emerging issues and provides advance warning to develop an appropriate strategic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The rapidly changed global context for internationalization (IZN) over the next decade prompted a decision to use a futurist perspective for identifying issues to be considered in the organization's next strategic plan. This paper aims to report on this project to identify current and strategic issues influencing the future strategy of the higher education (HE) IZN for Thailand on behalf of the Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy and the Office of the Higher Education Commission. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach was a customized version of the University of Houston's Framework Foresight method. It involved framing the domain with a description and domain map, scanning for signals of change within the domain and emerging issues analysis to produce a set of current and emerging issues. A planning step synthesizes a set of recommended actions. Findings: The key findings reported in this paper are the identification of 14 current and emerging issues influencing the future of the IZN of HE in Thailand. The issues were organized along with the three horizons framework: H1: how are we [currently] doing? H2: what should we do next and H3, where do we want to go? The primary recommendation of this research reported on in this study is to consider the 14 issues for inclusion into the next strategic plan. Seven specific strategic options mapped over three phases were identified as well. The research reported here was carried out for Thailand, but the process could easily be adapted by other countries and other topics. Research limitations/implications: The modified version of the University of Houston Framework Foresight approach has been applied successfully to many topics. The topic explored here is focused on one nation, Thailand. The authors feel the lessons are, however, broadly applicable. Practical implications: The ability to use a futurist perspective to identify current and emerging issues is highlighted. The organizing of the issues using the three horizons framework proved to be particularly useful in helping the client to develop a sense of timing regarding the future, that is, when and to what degree to pay attention to the many issues that typically confront any organization. Originality/value: The use of the three horizons framework in the analysis of the emerging issues provide benefits in two ways in situating the likely timing of signals of change in horizon scanning and "scan hits" both scanning for the identification of issues and organizing the resulting current and emerging issues along the three horizons with H1 current issues: how are we [currently] doing?; H2 emerging issues: what should we do next and H3 emerging issues, where do we want to go? The paper also includes a section exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the likely timing of the issues identified just before the pandemic hit, finding that timing of some issues would speed up, some would stay the same and some would slow down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the efforts of the federal Government of Nigeria at establishing equal educational opportunities for all children of school age and to gradually eliminate illiteracy and ignorance in the Nigerian society through the introduction of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, the successful implementation of the programme has been a serious challenge. This paper therefore, examined the emerging issues in the achievement of the objectives of the UBE programme in Nigeria. The paper discusses the meaning of Basic Education and the mandates of UBE as provided for in the UBE Act of 2004 in Nigeria. The paper further identified and discussed the contemporary issues in the attainment of the objectives of the programme, which include: funding, teacher quality and quantity, gap between policy formulation and implementation, non-implementation of sanctions on erring parents, politics of enrolment figure and unreliable data and inadequate quality assurance measures. The paper among others recommends that there should be adequate provision of funds for the programme, re-organisation of the system of teacher preparation for the UBE schools, provision of the appropriate sanctions to the erring parents as provided for in the UBE Act and the creation of child-friendly learning environment.

This study investigates the technological trends used in the classes of post graduate students of Education Faculty, UiTM. It also explores the perceptions of the students on impacts and emerging issues of technology on their classroom learning. The study has employed a quantitative research design and has used a questionnaire as a research method to collect data. The data was collected from a sample of 30 post graduate students of Education Faculty, University Teknology Mara (UiTM). The findings show that social media, gamification, blended learning, E-books, remote learning and self-directed professional development are the technological trends used in post graduate classes of Education faculty, UiTM. The findings also indicate that technology has positively influenced the classroom learning of these students. Lastly, the results show that technology is not perceived as an emerging issue that would interfere or hinder the students learning in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses four specific technological innovations - artificial meat, blockchain, drones for delivery, and off-grid electricity - by looking at them as weak signals and emerging issues with potentially positive and negative impacts on the environment. They are arising at a remarkably fast pace and this work examines the patterns of their emergence. The main purpose of this paper is to challenge the dominant view on their probable future and stimulate policymakers to consider their alternatives, and ultimately increase policymaking resilience. The analysis is based on a systematic review of available academic and non-academic literature, with the aim of synthesising obtainable knowledge on each of the considered technologies and enabling a broad understanding of potential threats and opportunities related thereto. Reduction of the total greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in energy efficiency, decreased pressure on limited natural resources, and increased protection of ecosystems are the main areas to which the selected technologies could make an important contribution. Yet, the complexity and the wide array of risks associated with their diffusion challenge the conventional view that technological innovations are the panacea for global environmental problems. We argued instead that potential risks and threats related to their dissemination must be addressed through adequate policies, adopted in a timely manner, and founded upon extensive research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog computing paradigm is emerging after a decade's dominance of cloud‐based system design and architecture. Now, instead of centralising the computation and coordination to remote services, these are deployed and distributed to all over physical surroundings and network nodes, including cloud services, smart gateways, and network edge devices. At the moment, the majority of the Internet of things (IoT) systems and software has built on top of open Web‐based technologies. The authors assume that with the ever‐growing number and heterogeneity of connected devices, it becomes ever‐more crucial to have open standards that support interoperability and enable interactions. They review the current technological space for architecting Web technology‐based IoT software in the coming era of fog computing. They focus on fundamental research challenges and discuss the emerging issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article puts the transnational crime of human trafficking in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa and its quickly growing youth bulge. Through Causal Layered Analysis of various alternative future scenarios as well as the identification of the core narrative surrounding the international discourse, it illustrates more deeply the forces that underlie trafficking and what change is possible. With the provision of a reconstructed narrative that avoids the current blind spots, this research points out the need for a new leadership paradigm that allows for a more holistic and future-oriented inquiry about socio-economic and political change and what it entails for human trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers and policy makers are continually working toward a desired future within a context of rapid and turbulent change. To be effective in this context, they must look ahead to anticipate emerging trends, issues, opportunities, and threats. Horizon scanning is a foresight method that can help managers and policy makers develop and maintain a broad and externally focused forward view to anticipate and align decisions with both emerging (near-term) and long-term futures. This article reports on the design and early stage development and implementation of a horizon scanning system established for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Strategic Foresight Group, and developed cooperatively with the University of Houston Foresight Program. The goal of the project is to develop an ongoing horizon scanning system as an input to developing environmental foresight: insight into future environmental challenges and opportunities, and the ability to apply that insight to prepare for a sustainable future. In addition, the horizon scanning system is supported by volunteers from within the Forest Service. By including participants from throughout the Forest Service, the project seeks to foster a culture of foresight within the organization, and eventually to develop a more forward looking organizational structure for the USFS and other natural resource management agencies. Lessons learned from the experience to date are shared as well as future challenges for keeping the horizon scanning system in good working order--current, relevant, and consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Molitor Model of Change was developed over a period of forty years by American futurist, Graham T. T. Molitor (1934–2017). It encompassed his lifelong work to reveal how public policy issues emerge, how they are advanced and how they are resolved. This article offers a 2009 summary of his model that was fully presented in his 2003 book, The Power to Change the World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text mining and analytics may offer possibilities to assess scientists' professional writing and identify patterns of co-occurrence between words and phrases associated with different environmental challenges and their potential solutions. This approach has the potential to help to track emerging issues, semi-automate horizon scanning processes, and identify how different institutions or policy instruments are associated with different types of ocean and coastal sustainability challenges. Here I examine ecologically-oriented ocean and coastal science journal article abstracts published between 2006 and 2015. Informed by the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, I constructed a dictionary containing phrases associated with 40 ocean challenges and 15 solution-oriented instrument or investments. From 50,817 potentially relevant abstracts, different patterns of co-occurring text associated with challenges and potential solutions were discernable. Topics receiving significantly increased attention in the literature in 2014–15 relative to the 2006–13 period included: marine plastics and debris; environmental conservation; social impacts; ocean acidification; general terrestrial influences; co-management strategies; ocean warming; licensing and access rights; oil spills; and economic impacts. Articles relating to global environmental change were consistently among the most cited; marine plastics and ecosystem trophic structure were also focal topics among the highly cited articles. This exploratory research suggests that scientists' written outputs provide fertile ground for identifying and tracking important and emerging ocean sustainability issues and their possible solutions, as well as the organizations and scientists who work on them.

For the past three years, while teaching an Introduction to Global Futures Studies course at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Seoul, Korea), the “Innovations/Issues Change Tracking and Forecasting Term Project” has been an essential component of the course. This group project (5-7 in a group) includes individual reports and presentations divided into three sections: (1) past changes, (2) present changes, and (3) forecasts of three to five scenarios. Progressive stages of the project are based on research assignments, which are foresight exercises that build upon each other: (1) online environmental scanning—where students scan online for STEEP (Social–Technological–Economical-Environmental–Political) innovations and issues to consider for the project; (2) change tracking of the selected innovation/issue—where changes are tracked from origin to present within a 5-25 year time range; (3) present time change tracking—where students research and analyze recent impacts and changes to the chosen innovation/issue; (4) in-class timeline construction—where all results are fused into one timeline; and (5) in-class futures wheel scenario constructions. Based on the results, 3-5 scenarios are constructed (from a future time frame of either 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years), and should include: (1) a baseline scenario—a trend-based continuation of past changes (from STEEP categories); (2) an alternative futures scenario—based on weak signals within present changes; and (3) a “wild card” scenario—a speculative attempt to foresee the unforeseeable. This article will report on the stages of development, student experiences, and results of the term project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the development of sport policy in Hong Kong. The focus is on the sport development in Hong Kong after it returned to China’s sovereignty in 1997, including its largely independent international status as a legitimate non-sovereignty sporting participant which combines both the legacy of British colonisation and increasing interaction with Mainland China. In this article, Hong Kong’s, to some extent, unique political system in particular its relationship with Mainland China underthe Basic Law, government involvement in sport and its sports organisational structure and funding are introduced. In addition, its policy priorities and the balance between elite sport, the hosting of sporting events and mass sport, elite sport achievements and emerging issues, most notably civil society’s ‘division’, regarding the relationship with Mainland China and the function of sport in Hong Kong’s identity shaping, social integration and its relationship with Beijing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today's business environment is very different from that of the past. New and innovative measures need to be found in order to optimize production and operations management in supply chain systems. Several emerging issues, such as risk and uncertainty management, environmental sustainability, optimal strategies under competition, sophisticated incentive alignment schemes, and optimal operations with strategic consumer behaviors, are critical to the success of modern supply chain management. This introduction provides a concise review of these critical research issues and introduces the related papers featured in this special volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is a personal narrative of meetings with Graham Molitor, both as person and as text. His contribution is not just his invention of emerging issues analysis but his graciousness as a scholar and practitioner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses emerging issues trying to find elements to assess the possibility that they become a relevant trend in the future using a twofold perspective for that purpose. On the one hand it considers the external approach, that is, the analysis of visible signals linked to the emerging issues that in an early stage are called “weak signals”. On the other hand, it tries to study emerging issues taking into account their internal motivations. In this case the aim is to value the social, economic or other kind of reasons that are hidden under emerging issues. A post-structuralism perspective (CLA, causal layered analysis) is used to address this objective. This double approach allows to consider emerging issues in a holistic way, taking into account what is visible and what is not so apparent. In order to offer conclusions and results a real use case is included analyzing the emerging issues showed in the report “Informe de la Sociedad de la Información 2013” (one of the references about information society situation and ICT trends in Spain). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because drivers and pressures on biodiversity, societal expectations, and ecological knowledge evolve rapidly, biodiversity conservation policies need to adapt continuously. Anticipating such changes can however be difficult given the profusion and complexity of data and when signals indicating future risks and opportunities may be weak. To tackle this challenge, the French Environment ministry asked a research team at AgroParisTech to develop a new method for identifying emerging issues for biodiversity policies by 2020 in France (except for overseas territories). This project, called BioPIQuE 2013, involved both scientists and stakeholders in an interdisciplinary assessment. As a result, 25 emerging issues were identified, among which 10 issues were highlighted for their strategic interest. A majority of these issues are current trends not yet taken into account by biodiversity policies (such as "why do we have to and how can we improve our ability to restore - with ambitious biodiversity objectives - urbanised and highly degraded areas?"), and a few of them are weak signals (such as "how can we deal with trade-offs and conflicts between biodiversity policies and other environmental policies?"). All stakeholders, including researchers, NGOs, public administrations, private companies and politicians, can find in the results some inputs for developing their biodiversity conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical and informative exploration of the emerging roles and rising influence of the Global South in shaping the future of global governance. Specifically, it inquires into the following questions: How is the Global South impacting the way we govern globally? What are the pushers, pulls and weights to the futures of global governance? Using Jim Dator's alternative futures archetype, what is the future of global governance? What are the emerging issues and trends? Design/methodology/approach - It uses Sohail Inayatullah's futures triangle to map the drivers - the pushes, pulls and weights of global governance and Jim Dator's archetypes - continued economic growth, collapse, conserver and transformation - to imagine and construct alternative futures of global governance. Findings - The futures triangle analysis maps and reveals three diverse but causally linked Global South narratives of global governance. The pulls of the future include the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa leading the way, and emerging economies reinforcing the pluralization of global governance discourses and systems. New governance regimes create new global governance dynamics and North - South relations. Their increasing social, political and economic clout leads to new governance structures. The Global South's rising human development index, economic growth, decreasing financial reliance, the rise of minilateralism and South - South cooperation is a push of the present. Weights are recurring financial constraints, their lack of technical capacity, existing international laws, stagnating bureaucracy, poverty, domestic issues and state centrism (among others). Four alternative global governance scenarios emerge: a harmonious world is everybody's business - a state-centric and economic growth global governance future. Here, the dynamics of global governance remain the same as zero-sum thinking informs the rules of the game. In dangerous transitions and the rise of the rest, however, the status quo is disrupted as power shifts rapidly and detrimentally. Then, in mosaic of the old structure, the South embraces protectionism, and the old vanguards return. Finally, in all boats rise substantially, power is redistributed as emerging states gain larger, formal (and informal) leadership roles in global governance. The global world order is re-designed for the Global South. A world parliament is created and stronger regional confederation or unions emerge. Research limitations/implications - This paper extensively utilizes existing and emerging literature, official reports, blogs, interviews, books and other digital texts on global governance. The sources relevance is analyzed using the futures triangle tool and dissected to present four detailed scenarios using Dator's alternative futures archetype. This study seeks to initially explore alternative futures of global governance from the perspective of the Global South. While some studies have approached the topic, only a few authors have addressed global governance using futures tools and methods. The goal of this research is to map and explore some alternative futures of global governance. The paper is less useful in predicting what lies ahead. Its intention is to highlight the "rise of the different" and to create a space for more meaningful conversations on global governance. Practical implications - This research could provide futurists, policy-makers, international relations scholars and global governance advocates some alternative narratives, frameworks and images of global governance. While it does not offer any specific structures and solutions, it offers a number of emerging issues and perspectives from the Global South that decision-makers and institutions might want to consider as they rethink global governance. Social implications - This paper highlights the emerging roles and perspectives of the Global South in global governance. It identifies some "trading zones" and "emerging issues" that may inspire actors to create new global governance spaces, innovate alternative narratives and design new frameworks of global governance. Originality/value - It maps and constructs some plausible scenarios of global governance that emphasize Global South perspectives while using futures tools and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management has been approached as practices of large firms. Increasingly, knowledge management for SMEs is critical for their competitive advantage. The aim of this article is to examine knowledge management excellence from the perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Two specific related objectives are to: 1) define key issues that SMEs face in pursuing knowledge management excellence; 2) present a research model that summarises the complex relationships among diverse knowledge management constructs. Emerging research issues in the context of changing global market (e.g., knowledge management excellence in emerging economies) are discussed to promote more fruitful research in this area as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Emerging Risks Unit has the responsibility for coordinating EFSA’s activities to establish a capacity for the identification of emerging risks. A process was trialled and further developed during a pilot period of 18 months from 2010-2012. This included the implementation of an operational procedure for emerging risks identification, the assessment of selected data sources, the testing of tools for collecting information, the consolidation of knowledge networks for sharing information and the development of a methodological framework. Specific issues were identified for follow-up activities using an expert judgment approach. These include a study on climate change and the emergence of aflatoxins in cereal crops in the European Union (EU), a European-wide survey on the consumption of energy drinks, a task force on human risk assessment of chemical mixtures, an internal task force on bee health, and a foresight study on the potential impact of omics technologies on food and feed safety risk assessment. These follow-up activities will contribute to the determination of whether the issues identified can indeed give rise to emerging risks. Overall, our experience shows that emerging risks identification requires a high level of expertise due to major data gaps and uncertainties in the evaluation process. Effective networking has proven to be essential for exchanging methods, data and evaluations of emerging risks. The system piloted has shown some potential for the identification of issues that may give rise to emerging risks. Useful knowledge has been gained in the area of gathering and filtering large amounts of information and building knowledge networks on emerging risks. Next steps include the establishment of a standing Working Group (WG) on Emerging Risks, the reinforcement of the engagement with Member States and Stakeholders, the fine tuning of the revised methodological framework, and the completion of the projects on the issues identified.

Acquired neuropathies represent most of the neuropathies encountered in clinical practice. Hundreds of causes have been identified even though up to 41 % of patients are still classified as idiopathic (Rajabally and Shah in J Neurol 258:1431-1436, ). Routine evaluation relies on comprehensive medical history taking, clinical examination, nerve conduction studies and laboratory tests. Other investigations such as nerve biopsy or nerve or muscle imaging are performed in specific settings. This review focuses on recent advances in acquired neuropathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthcare therapy industry includes pharmaceutical, medical devices, complementary and alternative medicines, and other healthcare services. In Australia, self-regulating industry codes of conduct govern and guide the way the industry behaves and interacts with healthcare professionals, consumers, government, and other stakeholders, with the aim to maintain a positive public image of trustworthiness, accountability, and transparency within the industry. The current governance and monitoring of codes in Australia is adequate, but there are some unique Australian factors and emerging issues that may challenge the effectiveness of the codes. Current issues include the limited capacity of small companies for compliance and the perceived questionable cost-benefit of membership to codes of conduct. Emerging issues include providing up-to-date and relevant guidance with respect to changing demands and expectations from the healthcare professionals and consumers, the need for relevant and timely governance, and how to respond to changes in marketing and technology practices. Overall, a proactive consideration of emerging issues may help protect consumers and healthcare professionals from inappropriate marketing and industry behaviours before it gets to levels that may bring the industry into disrepute, which nobody wants to see occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The NIOSH Construction Program worked with industry stakeholders to develop a National Occupational Safety and Health Construction Agenda to target future research and activities. The Program and its partners are also cognizant that new developments can emerge over time and that research can play an important role in helping to understand and address these emerging issues. Examples of emerging issues relevant to construction safety and health are described. These include: (a) climate change and energy considerations; (b) green construction developments and opportunities; (c) new materials; (d) changes in industry structure and practice; (e) workforce developments and disparities; (f) injury underreporting and cost and risk shifting; and (g) increased interest in addressing root causes. Responding to emerging issues while maintaining a focus on fundamental longstanding issues represents an ongoing challenge for researchers and industry organizations. Additional research to understand the diffusion and adoption of research by the industry is also needed. Research accomplished to date provides a strong foundation for addressing future industry needs and trends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reviewers play a vital role in ensuring quality control of scientific manuscripts published in any journal. The traditional double blind peer review, although a time-tested method, has come under increasing criticism in the face of emerging trends in the review process with the primary concern being the delays in completion of the review process. Other issues are the inability to detect errors/fraud, lack of transparency, lack of reliability, potential for bias, potential for unethical practices, lack of objectivity, inconsistencies amongst reviewers, lack of recognition and motivation of reviewers. Alternative options to classical peer review being propagated are: open review, immediate self-publication using preprint servers, nonselective review focusing primarily on the scientific content, and post-publication review. These alternative review processes, however, may suffer from the inability to validate quality control. In addition, anecdotal instances of peer review frauds are being reported more often than earlier. Suggested means to ensure quality of peer review process includes:(a) each journal to have its own database of reviewers, (b) verification of email IDs of reviewers provided by authors along with details of their institutions, (c) ensure credibility of reviewers before requesting for review, (d) check for plagiarism at the editorial level, (e) editors to distinguish between a good review from a possible biased/bad review, and (f) give recognition for reviewers once in a year. To conclude, quickness of review and publication should not dictate the scientific publication process at the cost of quality of contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This introduction to the journal’s supplement on emerging food and feed safety issues summarizes the objectives and activities of the EU-funded SAFE FOODS project in general and its work package focusing on the early identification of emerging food safety risks, in particular. Within this work package, a number of studies have been carried out on methods enabling the early awareness, identification, and prevention of emerging issues before they can become real risks. The various reviews in this supplement explore the background of the emergence of known food safety risks, both of microbial and chemical/biochemical nature, as well the methods that can be used to identify such risks. Another review identifies a number of chemical and microbiological hazards that are likely to be affected by a changing climate. A major conclusion from these explorative reviews is that monitoring and information exchange systems or procedures are in place to detect, in an early phase, the emergence of potential food safety risks linked to known hazards. Additional systems are needed to predict the development of new potential food safety risks, which are linked to either new hazards or known hazards to which exposure has been altered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is widely seen as a critical technology to de-carbonise the power and industrial sectors. As such, many nations have ambitious plans to demonstrate and then promote commercial scale development of CCS. To facilitate early demonstrations and lay the groundwork for widespread use of CCS, governments are rapidly developing new CCS regulations and policies. There have been a number of important regulatory and legal developments in the European Union, United States, Australia, Canada, Norway and several other jurisdictions. This paper and presentation will provide a brief but comprehensive update of these developments and will document and synthesise discussions and activities that were undertaken as part of the IEA’s International CCS Regulator’s Network. It is hoped that information sharing of this kind can help to facilitate harmonised global approaches to regulating CCS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the absence of definitive data, mechanistic and modeling approaches to describe environmental cracking in high-temperature water are forced to depend too strongly on speculative hypotheses. Because data often exhibit a scatter of a factor of about 1,000, the last two decades have focused on improved and critical experiments and identifying the common threads across many materials and environments. The present data provide excellent insight into many issues, and good insight into others. They also identify new/emerging issues in the broad area of environmental cracking, e. g., related to dK/da, reloading effects, and fracture toughness and tearing resistance. Environmental cracking depends on many interdependent variables, and the only identify the underlying processes that control stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The paper discusses the processes that must be understood and modeled, and the challenges in expanding the predictions to emerging phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear power currently generates ∼16% of the world's electricity and is set to play an increasingly significant role in meeting the world's growing need for sustainable, clean and affordable electricity. As the industry expands, so too will the demand for fuel cycle services which inevitably places new and greater demands on transport. The demand for other radioactive materials, for example, cobalt 60 sources used for a range of important medical, humanitarian and industrial applications, is also likely to increase. These gamma sources are manufactured in very few countries and both sea and air transport is therefore vital to distribute them to users worldwide. A reliable transport infrastructure is essential to support all these industries and the challenge will be to ensure that this can be maintained safely and securely in a changing world where security and other concerns have increased. The sources of nuclear fuel cycle services often are remote from the demand centres. An essential question for nuclear power generation in the future surely must be: even if availability of fuel can be assured, how can transport to support such a programme be assured? At the front end of the fuel cycle, could existing commercial liner services be relied upon, particularly in an environment where there already are increasing delays and denials of shipments? Indeed, is it possible to assure availability of transport in a commercial environment? More problematic still, where will the capacity to transport spent fuel, reprocessed fuel and residues in greater volumes and across expanded routes come from? More transport to areas potentially lacking in infrastructure, service providers and experience raises a variety of issues including compliance with regulation, harmonised standards, security and training. The US Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Strategic Plan says much about a government–industry partnership to build a nuclear fuel recycling centre and a prototype advanced recycling reactor. Is a similar partnership between government and industry conceivable for the transport of the assured supply? Transport of radioactive materials cannot be taken for granted: it faces a variety of challenges, and there are a number of emerging issues in the wider nuclear industry that have important implications for transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insurance industry is a critical foundation of the global economy, a fact that is often overlooked in our haste to deal with the challenges of our competitive markets. Because of the financial security and protection we provide for people, property and reputations, new buildings are built, planes fly, risks are taken and economies around the world grow. Our world is changing, and we must change with it. As insurers, we must recognize the broader, global reality in which our businesses are operating. This paper will address how rating agencies, regulatory scrutiny, underwriting discipline, loss-cost inflation, catastrophes, tort costs, and emerging issues are affecting the industry. Solutions and best practices will be discussed. In addition to facing and eliminating the issues discussed in this paper, we must deliver what customers want: consistency, service, expertise, security, financial strength and integrity. The best way to deliver all of this is through customer service; it's at the centre of GE Insurance Solutions' brand promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]