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International Marine Contractors Association ( IMCA ) is a leading international trade association for the marine contracting industry . It is a not for profit organisation with members representing the majority of worldwide marine contractors in the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.
IMCA was formed following the merger of the Association of Offshore Diving Contractors (AODC) with the Dynamically Positioned Vessel Owners Association (DPVOA) in 1995.
IMCA's mission is to improve performance in the marine contracting industry.
IMCA represents over 700 member organisations in over 60 countries. [ 1 ] It operates in five geographic regions of the globe (in Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe & Africa, Middle East & India and South America). [ 2 ] IMCA has a full-time secretariat in London that organises and manages the regional and technical committees. The extensive committee structure consists of elected member representatives who are experts in their field of operation.
As a trade association, IMCA is required to comply with international competition law and represents the industry on national and international forums, such as the International Maritime Organization . [ 3 ]
IMCA has developed a comprehensive body of knowledge in the form of a suite of thousands of published guidance documents, technical information notes, DVDs and safety promotional materials which are internationally recognised as authoritative and establish standards of good practice in the marine contracting industry. [ 4 ]
IMCA has published guidance documents in the following fields:
IMCA provides an internationally recognised certification scheme for three specialist diving disciplines: [ 11 ]
IMCA recognises some diver training certificates for surface oriented and closed bell offshore diving under the IMCA international code of practice for regions where there are no relevant regulatory systems. These certificates are listed in the current IMCA Briefing Note. IMCA does not approve or recognise specific diver training schools or courses. [ 12 ]
IMCA organises an annual programme of meetings and events all over the world, including regional meetings, briefing sessions, technical seminars and workshops on specific industry related issues. The Association's flagship event takes place every two years with an agenda combining business and strategic issues featuring senior executives and technical sessions. IMCA also supports a number of conferences and exhibitions hosted by other organisations which share a common interest of its members. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Marine_Contractors_Association |
IMDG Code or International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code is accepted by MSC ( Maritime Safety Committee ) as an international guideline to the safe transportation or shipment of dangerous goods or hazardous materials by water on vessel. IMDG Code is intended to protect crew members and to prevent marine pollution in the safe transportation of hazardous materials by vessel. From its initial adoption in 1965 to 2004, the IMDG Code was recommendations for the safe transport of dangerous goods. [ 1 ] Following a 2002 resolution, most sections of the IMDG Code became mandatory under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) from 1 January 2004. [ 1 ]
Since 1998, editions of the IMDG Code are published in two volumes, with an additional supplemental volume. [ 2 ] Volume 1 contains Parts 1-2 and 4-7. Volume 2 contains Part 3. [ 3 ]
The decision to reformat the IMDG Code was made in 1996, as part of an effort to improve readability and user friendlessness of the document, and make the formatting similar to the UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods ("Orange Book"). [ 2 ]
The Code classifieds dangerous goods according to a variety of classes. For example, IMDG Class 7 cargoes are radioactive and nuclear power cargoes/fuels, including waste products that are governed in accordance with the associated INF Code . [ 4 ]
It is recommended to governments for adoption or for use as the basis for national regulations and is mandatory in conjunction with the obligations of the members of the United Nations under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships ( MARPOL 73/78 ).
It is intended for use not only by the mariner but also by all those involved in industries and services connected with shipping . Contains advice on terminology, packaging, labeling, placarding, markings, stowage, segregation, handling, and emergency response. The HNS Convention covers hazardous and noxious substances that are included in the IMDG code.
In Viet Nam according to Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree 34/2024/ND-CP, dangerous goods (dangerous goods) are goods containing dangerous substances that when transported on roads or inland waterways have the potential to cause harm to life, human health, environment, safety and national security.
The Code is updated and maintained by a sub-Committee of the International Maritime Organization , the Sub-Committee on Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC), every 2 years. Prior to 2013 the Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers (DSC) sub-committee had responsibility for the Code.
IMDG Code updates occur every even numbered year, with the following odd numbered year as a transition period where compliance can be with either the prior regulations or the upcoming regulations. On 1 January of the following even numbered year, compliance with the new regulations becomes mandatory. [ 2 ] An exception to this pattern occurred in 2022. Due to delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic , the mandatory compliance date for the 2020 Edition of the IMDG Code was delayed to 1 June 2022. [ 5 ]
For example, 2022 Edition with Amendments 41-22, could be used voluntarily starting on 1 January 2023; became mandatory on 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2024. On 1 January 2025, either the 2022 Edition or the 2024 Edition, with Amendment 42-24 could be used. On 1 January 2026, the 2024 Edition becomes mandatory, with the 2022 Edition no longer being acceptable for compliance. [ 2 ] [ 6 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Maritime_Dangerous_Goods_Code |
The International Mars Ice Mapper Mission (I-MIM) is a proposed Mars orbiter being developed by NASA , Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). [ 3 ] As the mission concept evolves, there may be opportunities for other space agency and commercial partners to join the mission. [ 1 ] The goal of the orbiter is the quantification of extent and volume of water ice in non-polar regions of Mars . The results are intended to support future Mars missions, especially with respect to the search for habitable environments and accessible In situ resource utilization (ISRU) resources. The International-Mars Ice Mapper is an "exploration precursor mission", comparing it to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. [ 3 ] The mission was envisioned to be launched as early as 2026. [ 1 ] [ 4 ] However, in March 2022, it was revealed in its fiscal year 2023 budget proposal that the US government would terminate NASA financial support for the Mars Ice Mapper, [ 5 ] casting the project's future into uncertainty.
The mission is to search for ice deposits under the surface of Mars, precursor for human missions there. By identifying locations where water ice may exist within 5-10 meters of the surface and thus could be accessed by crewed expeditions. [ 3 ] The mission plans to scan specific locations on the Martian surface below 2 km (1.2 mi) elevation (to enable entry, descent and landing ). The target areas for radar scans are between 25° and 40° northern latitude and 25° and 40° southern latitude. The upper limit of 40° was chosen to have favorable conditions for solar arrays. The lower bound of 25° is intended to maximize the proximity of locating ground ice (since availability of ground ice generally decreases toward the equator due to increased insolation ). [ 4 ]
The ice-mapping mission could help the agency identify potential science objectives for initial human missions to Mars , which are expected to be designed for about 30 days of exploration on the surface. For example, identifying and characterizing accessible water ice could lead to human-tended science, such as ice coring to support the search for life. Mars Ice Mapper also could provide a map of water-ice resources for later human missions with longer surface expeditions, as well as help meet exploration engineering constraints, such as avoidance of rock and terrain hazards. Mapping shallow water ice could also support supplemental high-value science objectives related to Martian climatology and geology . [ 1 ]
Beyond promoting scientific observations while the orbiter completes its reconnaissance work, the agency partners will explore mission-enabling rideshare opportunities as part of their next phase of study. All science data from the mission would be made available to the international science community for both planetary science and Mars reconnaissance. This approach is similar to what NASA is doing at the Moon under the Artemis program – sending astronauts to lunar South Pole , where ice is trapped in the permanently shadowed regions of the pole. [ 1 ]
Access to water ice would also be central to scientific investigations on the surface of Mars that are led by future human explorers. Such explorers may one day core, sample, and analyze the ice to better understand the record of climatic and geologic change on Mars and its astrobiological potential, which could be revealed through signs of preserved ancient microbial life or even the possibility of living organisms, if Mars ever harbored life. Ice is also a critical natural resource that could eventually supply hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. These elements could also provide resources for backup life support, civil engineering, mining, manufacturing, and, eventually, agriculture on Mars. Transporting water from Earth to deep space is extremely costly, so a local resource is essential to sustainable surface exploration. [ 1 ]
"In addition to supporting plans for future human missions to Mars, learning more about subsurface ice will bring significant opportunities for scientific discovery", said Eric Ianson, NASA Planetary Science Division Deputy Director and Mars Exploration Program Director. "Mapping near-surface water ice would reveal an as-yet hidden part of the Martian hydrosphere and the layering above it, which can help uncover the history of environmental change on Mars and lead to our ability to answer fundamental questions about whether Mars was ever home to microbial life or still might be today". [ 1 ]
Mars has been a primary target for robotic exploration and the search for ancient life in our Solar System . Mars Ice Mapper would complement surface missions on the planet, including the Perseverance rover that landed on February 18, 2021, following a seven-month journey in space. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) also recently announced they are moving forward with the Mars sample-return mission . [ 1 ]
The CSA would provide the radar instrument, JAXA the spacecraft bus and ASI the communications subsystem for the spacecraft. NASA would be responsible for overall mission management and for providing the launch of the spacecraft. The mission will cost US$185 million. [ 3 ]
NASA included an illustration of Mars Ice Mapper communicating with three spacecraft in Mars orbit, acting as communications relays back to Earth . The agency has previously discussed developing a communications satellite network at Mars, perhaps through public-private partnerships, to support Mars Ice Mapper. [ 3 ]
In March 2024, Thales Alenia Space signed a €22 million Phase B1 contract with the Italian Space Agency to develop the spacecraft's communications subsystems, following the Phase A contract previously awarded to the company in 2021. [ 6 ] [ 2 ]
The mission concept plans to utilize Synthetic-aperture radar , based on technology used by the Canadian RADARSAT satellite constellation . [ 4 ]
The radar has the following technical specification: [ 4 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mars_Ice_Mapper_Mission |
The International Mass Spectrometry Foundation (IMSF) is a non-profit scientific organization in the field of mass spectrometry . [ 1 ] It operates the International Mass Spectrometry Society, which consists of 37 member societies and sponsors the International Mass Spectrometry Conference that is held once every two years. [ 2 ]
The foundation has four aims: [ 3 ]
Before the formation of the IMSF, the first International Mass Spectrometry Conference was held in London in 1958 and 41 papers were presented. Since then, conferences were held every three years until 2012, and every two years since. [ 3 ] Conference proceedings are published in a book series, Advances in Mass Spectrometry , which is the oldest continuous series of publications in mass spectrometry. The International Mass Spectrometry Society evolved from this series of International Mass Spectrometry Conferences. The IMSF was officially registered in the Netherlands in 1998 following an agreement at the 1994 conference. [ 1 ]
Past meetings were held in these locations: [ 4 ]
The society sponsors several awards including the Curt Brunnée Award for achievements in instrumentation by a scientist under 45 years of age, the Thomson Medal Award for achievements in mass spectrometry, [ 5 ] as well as travel awards and student paper awards:
Curt Brunnée Award winners: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mass_Spectrometry_Foundation |
The International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology ( IMPRS-MCB ) is an international PhD program in molecular biology and cellular biology founded in 2006 by the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and the University of Freiburg .
The Max Planck Society (MPG) started in 2000 an initiative to attract more international students to Germany to pursue their PhD studies. Therefore, International-Max-Planck-Research-Schools (IMPRS) were established. The number of IMPRS has ever been increasing since then in all three sections of research of the MPG.
This German university, college or other education institution article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Max_Planck_Research_School_for_Molecular_and_Cellular_Biology |
The consultative process towards an IMoSEB ( International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity ) was a multidisciplinary effort from 2005 to 2008 that involved a large number of stakeholders and had a considerable political and media audience. Its aim was the creation of a value-added process by taking into account existing and current initiatives and mechanisms.
Initiated at the International Conference " Biodiversity : Science and Governance" in January 2005, it ended in November 2007 with the final meeting of its International Steering Committee (ISC). [ 1 ] IMoSEB results were congrued with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment follow up to create the Intergovernmental Science-Policy platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ( IPBES ), led by UNEP. IPBES first meeting took place in November 2008 in Putrajaya , Malaysia.
During the International Conference held in January 2005, President Jacques Chirac launched a call for action to set up an IPCC like for biodiversity . The final declaration of the conference recommended in response, the launch of an international multi-stakeholder consultative process guided by a balanced multi-stakeholder steering committee. This process would assess the need for an international mechanism which would:
A provisional steering committee, based on the scientific and organizational committee of the conference, was set up to define the IMoSEB steering committee and its modalities of work .
During the DIVERSITAS conference held in Oaxaca, in October 2005, the scientific community reiterated its support to the consultative process and for the establishment of a scientific panel on biodiversity that included an intergovernmental component
A first presentation of the consultative process, its modalities of work, its goals and possible outcomes, were presented during the 11th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) SBSTTA in December 2006
The International Steering Committee (ISC) was composed of about 90 members:
An Executive Committee (EC) was appointed to draft a plan of action for the consultation phase. The Executive Committee is co-chaired by Alfred Oteng-Yeboah and Michel Loreau and the following people became members of the EC: Ivar Baste, Martha Chouchena-Rojas, Christine Dawson, Horst Korn, Keping Ma, Georgina Mace, Martha Mapangou, Charles Perrings, Peter Raven, José Sarukhán, Robert Watson, Jacques Weber.
The Executive Secretariat was composed of the Executive Secretary, Didier Babin (Institut Français de la Biodiversité) and Maxime Thibon (Institut Français de la Biodiversité). The Executive Secretariat (ES) was responsible for coordination and promotion of the consultative process. Anne Larigauderie (DIVERSITAS) contributed to the work of this secretariat.
The consultative process was officially launched in February 2006 at its first meeting in Paris at the French National Museum of Natural History . More than 90 participants attended the meeting. The meeting overall ended with the agreement to
The Executive Committee was asked to consider these two tasks and developed a plan of action for the consultation
A first step, based on case studies, aiming at:
Based on the results of the studies, the Executive Committee identified a series of needs and formulated a number of possible options, as basis for discussion during regional consultations, seeking feedback on these propositions.
Several case studies on the science-policy interface on biodiversity and on How scientific is used in decision making processes have been conducted in 2006.
The following needs had been identified by the Executive Committee on the basis of the results of the case studies and from voluntary contributions about the effectiveness with which scientific and other relevant knowledge is used in decisions that affect biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being at the international scale.
Options formulated by the EC as basis for discussion
In 2007, a set of regional consultations were organized, involving more than 300 participants and 40 international/regional organizations from 70 countries.
These consultations took place in:
The Final ISC took place in Montpellier in November 2007, and defined what could be and do a possible IMoSEB
The mean features of an IMoSEB would be:
The mechanism would be:
2008 agenda included: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mechanism_of_Scientific_Expertise_on_Biodiversity |
The International Microwave Power Institute ( IMPI ) is an organization devoted to microwave energy and its usage. The organization has conducted surveys as well as educated the public to dispel microwave myths. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Founded in Canada in 1966, it is now headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia . [ 3 ] It was initially created for industrial and scientific purposes, however in 1977, IMPI's purpose was expanded to deal with the evolution of microwave oven for the home.
The professional scientific journal of IMPI is the Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy .
This article about an organization in the United States is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Microwave_Power_Institute |
International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO) is the oversight body of the satellite communications elements of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) established by the IMO designed to provide a worldwide system for automated emergency signal communication for ships at sea. IMSO ensures that the provision of maritime mobile satellite communications services (currently provided by Inmarsat Ltd and Iridium Ltd).
The International Maritime Satellite Organization ( INMARSAT ) was established under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization by the Convention on the International Maritime Satellite Organization , signed at London on 3 September 1976 [ 1 ] and entered into force on 16 July 1979. The organization was modeled after Intelsat , an international consortium which provided satellite communications among the member countries. [ citation needed ] The Communications Satellite Corporation ( COMSAT ), a founding member of Intelsat, took the lead in the founding of Inmarsat. [ citation needed ] In coordination with the International Civil Aviation Organization in the 1980s, the convention governing INMARSAT was amended to include improvements in aeronautical communications, notably for public safety. [ 2 ]
The first Director General was appointed in January 1980 [ 3 ] and operations began in 1982. [ 4 ] Olof Lundberg , who had previously managed and developed mobile and specialized services at Swedish Telecom (now Telia ), served as Director General and CEO until 1995. [ 5 ]
In the mid-1990s, there was contrasting views among member states for the agency's future. There was a growing realization among the member states that the organization's business assets needed to be privatized, mainly because of the competitive nature of the satellite communication industry and the unwillingness of many member states to invest money into INMARSAT to improve its network. There were also many which believed in the importance of maintaining the organization's role in overseeing maritime satellite communication. The issue was resolved in a session in April 1998, which resulted in the amendment of the Convention on the International Mobile Satellite Organization , in which the operational assets would be split and privatized while the agency would continue as a regulatory organization. [ 6 ]
On 15 April 1999, INMARSAT became the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO). [ 2 ] At the time, the operational assets of INMARSAT were separated to become Inmarsat Ltd. , a private UK-based company which agreed to inherit, overseen by the IMSO, certain public safety obligations related to the satellite system's operation. [ 2 ]
An agreement between the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the IMSO was signed in Montreal , Canada, on 20 September 2000 and addresses the relationship between ICAO and IMSO. [ 2 ] As of November 2018, Inmarsat has 103 state parties [ 7 ] that represent approximately 95 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant fleet . [ citation needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Satellite_Organization |
The International Molecular Exchange Consortium (IMEx) [ 1 ] is a group of the major public providers of molecular interaction data to provide a single, non-redundant set of molecular interactions. Data is captured using a detailed curation model and made available in the PSI-MI standard formats. Participating databases include DIP , IntAct, [ 2 ] the Molecular Interaction Database (MINT), [ 3 ] MatrixDB, [ 4 ] InnateDB, IID, HPIDB, UCL Cardiovascular Gene Annotation, MBInfo, Molecular Connections and UniProt . [ 1 ] The group collates the interaction data and prevents duplicate entries in the various databases. The IMEx consortium also supports and contributes to the development of the HUPO - PSI -MI XML format, which is now widely implemented. [ 1 ] [ 5 ]
IMEx website | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Molecular_Exchange_Consortium |
The International Network of Engineers and Scientists for global responsibility (INES) is an independent non-profit-organization concerned about the impact of science and technology on society.
INES efforts focus on disarmament and international peace, ethics in science, responsibilities of scientists and the responsible use of science and technology, just and sustainable development .
INES was founded in 1991 in Berlin at the international congress Challenges - Science and Peace in a Rapidly Changing Environment and has become a network of over 200 organisations and individual members.
Rapid changes in our environment and our societies are forcing us to become more conscious of our role in the world. Science and technology are employed in a worldwide competition for military and economic power. The impacts of this competition have global implications. We have entered a phase in which global developments are in conflict with basic requirements for human survival. Large stocks of weapons of mass destruction, the overexploitation of limited common resources, and a heavily unbalanced world economy provide fundamental challenges to human civilisation and may even threaten its existence.
Engineers and scientists play a key role, both in developing new knowledge that might threaten international security and in providing positive solutions for the future. They are as much a part of the problem as they can be a part of the solution.
INES is a member of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and closely cooperates with IPB as well as the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).
INES actively participates in the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI) and has been present at the European Social Forums since 2000 and at the World Social Forums . INES participates in the World Social Forum on Sciences .
The INES Council elects an Executive Committee to implement the decisions of the Council and to manage the overall activities of the Network. Member organizations may designate one of its own members as a Council representative.
The INES Executive Committee implements the decisions of the Council and manages overall activities of the Network which cannot be taken care of by decentralized action within the Network. The Executive Committee shall serve as the official representative of the Network.
The Executive Committee appoints an Executive Secretary who shall implement its decisions and shall be responsible to the Executive Committee. It also determines the duties and responsibilities of all other staff employed by the Central Network Office.
The INES Executive Committee may invite individuals to an [1] , which can be asked to give advice on specific issues related to the Networks activities. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Network_of_Engineers_and_Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility |
International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists (INWES) is a current network for women professionals, which was founded in 2002 with the intention to support women and girls in engineering and science across the world. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The current (2020-2023) President is Jung Sun Kim, from Dongseo University , South Korea.
According to their mission statement, the network seeks to encourage the education and retention of professional women in these fields through international collaboration. [ 3 ] [ 1 ] The founding of the network received support from UNESCO . Founding members include Canadian engineers Claire Deschênes , Monique Frize and Gail Mattson , current Immediate Past President of INWES and past president of SWE, Society of Women Engineers , USA. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The network currently has over 60 countries involved, including the Association of Korean Women Scientists and Engineers , Women's Engineering Society (UK), the German Association of Women Engineers (DIB) , the Society of Taiwan Women in Science and Technology (TWiST) and African Women in Science and Engineering (AWSE). [ 1 ]
The network took over the management of the International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES), which first took place in 1964 in New York and has met every 3–4 years since then. [ 6 ] ICWES serves as a meeting point for women practitioners in science and engineering from across the world. [ 6 ] Since INWES took over the management of the conference, it has taken place in Ottawa , Canada (2002); Seoul , Korea (2005); Lille , France (2008); Adelaide , Australia (2011); Los Angeles , USA (2014); and New Delhi , India (2017). ICWES 18 will take place in Coventry , UK, in 2021. [ 6 ]
The archives of INWES are held in the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections. [ 7 ]
The Education and Research Institute (INWES-ERI) [ 8 ] was formed in November 2007 as a charitable organization incorporated in Canada and registered as a Canadian Charitable organization in February 2008. INWES-ERI was created to advance education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and to expand the reach of INWES through funding of special projects. In 2018, INWES-ERI along with the University of Ottawa Library and Library and Archives Canada , launched the Canadian Archive of Women in STEM (CAWSTEM). [ 9 ] The idea began with a workshop held at the University of Ottawa on September 11 and 12, 2014 organized by Monique Frize , Claire Deschênes , and Ruby Heap . [ 10 ] CAWSTEM's goals are to increase awareness and access to archival material in Canada, to encourage women in STEM to donate their records to an archive, and ensuring that the story of women's accomplishments in STEM is not lost for future researchers. [ 11 ] In 2019, INWES-ERI was renamed to CIWES-IFCIS . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Network_of_Women_Engineers_and_Scientists |
The International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE) was formed in 1999 as an informal expert's group of developers of radioactive xenon measurement systems for the International Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty ( CTBT ) (signed in 1997, but which has not entered into force). The group originally consisted of research and development groups from Germany , France , Russia , Sweden , and the United States , as well as personnel from Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization CTBTO .
The INGE group was formed to test aspects of measuring xenon fission product radionuclides released by nuclear explosions . The systems developed and participating in the INGE measure xenon isotopes in the atmosphere and includes 131m Xe, 133 Xe, 133m Xe, and 135 Xe.
Since the INGE was formed in 1999, the group has expanded somewhat and now includes R&D and operational groups from many locations around the world. Although there is no official list of INGE members, the group is informally composed of scientists, engineers, and others from Argentina, Austria, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Russia, the United States, and several other countries. These members regularly contribute to better understanding radioactive xenon measurements through operation of samplers, measurements of background at various locations, creation of data analysis routines, etc.
Staff from the preparatory commission of the CTBTO oversaw the experiment, with technical assistance from a German group of noble gas experts from the BfS in Freiburg, Germany. As of 2009, the experiment was still on-going, and so far it had consisted of 3 phases:
The first phase of the INGE experiment took place in the laboratories. Four systems were developed to the point that they could measure xenon concentrations to specifications laid out by the CTBTO Preparatory Commission.
The second phase of the INGE experiment took place in Freiburg, Germany, a location far away from the developers laboratories.
Phase 2: Use of Radioxenon Monitoring Equipment in Freiburg [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
The four measurement systems tested in Phase 2 had favorable results in that all of the systems met CTBTO minimum specifications and agreed with the independent analyses provided by BfS .
Phase 3, which was separated into a, b, and c components was designed primarily to test commercial versions of the systems designed and tested in INGE Phase 2. The commercial version of the SAUNA (the SAUNA-II ) is now being manufactured by Gammadata, Inc. and the SPALAX Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine is being produced commercially by Environnement S.A, Radionuclides Division (formerly Societé Française d’Ingenierie: SFI) .
One of the major aspects of the INGE that has been investigated is the variation of worldwide radioactive xenon backgrounds. Concentrations of the xenon isotopes are continuously measured throughout the INGE experiment, and it has been found so far that a major source of background is medical isotope production.
There has been a number of workshops to discuss various aspects of the experiment and to discuss worldwide backgrounds of radioxenon.
1999 - Freiburg, Germany 1999 - Freiburg, Germany 2000 - Freiburg, Germany 2000 - Freiburg, Germany 2001 - Stockholm, Sweden 2002 - Tahiti, French Polynesia 2002 - Richland, Washington, United States 2003 - Ottawa, Canada 2004 - Strassoldo, Italy 2005 - Stockholm, Sweden 2006 - Melbourne, Australia 2007 - Las Vegas, Nevada, United States 2008 - St. Petersburg, Russian Federation 2009 - Daejeon, South Korea 2010 - Buenos Aires, Argentina 2011 - Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2012 - Mito, Japan 2013 - Vienna, Austria 2015 - Austin, Texas, United States 2017 - London, United Kingdom 2019 - Freiburg, Germany | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Noble_Gas_Experiment |
The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients ( INCI ) are the unique identifiers for cosmetic ingredients such as waxes , oils , pigments , and other chemicals that are assigned in accordance with rules established by the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), previously the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA). [ 1 ] INCI names often differ greatly from systematic chemical nomenclature or from more common trivial names and is a mixture of conventional scientific names , Latin and English words. INCI nomenclature conventions "are continually reviewed and modified when necessary to reflect changes in the industry, technology, and new ingredient developments". [ 2 ]
The relationship between a CAS Registry Number and an INCI name is not always one-to-one. In some cases, more than one INCI name may have the same CAS number, or more than one CAS number may apply to an INCI name. For example, the CAS number 1245638-61-2 has the CA Index Name of 2-Propenoic acid, reaction products with pentaerythritol. This CAS number can accurately be associated with two INCI names: Pentaerythrityl Tetraacrylate and Pentaerythrityl Triacrylate. Alternatively, the INCI name, Glucaric Acid can be associated with two CAS numbers: 87-73-0 which has the CA Index Name of D-Glucaric acid, and 25525-21-7, which has the CA Index Name of DL-Glucaric acid. Both of these examples are accurate associations between CAS and INCI. [ 3 ]
Here is a table of several common names and their corresponding INCI names. [ 4 ]
* Some common names and INCI names are the same name.
In the U.S., under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, certain accurate information is a requirement to appear on labels of cosmetic products. [ 6 ] In Canada, the regulatory guideline is the Cosmetic Regulations. [ 7 ] Ingredient names must comply by law with EU requirements by using INCI names. [ 8 ]
The cosmetic regulation laws are enforceable for important consumer safety. For example, the ingredients are listed on the ingredient declaration for the purchaser to reduce the risk of an allergic reaction to an ingredient the user has had an allergy to before. INCI names are mandated on the ingredient statement of every consumer personal care product. The INCI system allows the consumer to identify the ingredient content. In the U.S., true soaps (as defined by the FDA) are specifically exempted from INCI labeling requirements as cosmetics per FDA regulation. [ 9 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nomenclature_of_Cosmetic_Ingredients |
The International Nuclear Society Council (INSC), founded on 11 November 1990 by the INSG (International group of Nuclear Societies), is a non-governmental organisation made up of Nuclear Societies from all over the world that "acts as a global forum for nuclear societies to discuss and establish common aims and goals". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Societies_Council |
The International Numbering System for Food Additives ( INS ) is an international naming system for food additives , aimed at providing a short designation of what may be a lengthy actual name. [ 1 ] It is defined by Codex Alimentarius , the international food standards organisation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). The information is published in the document Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives , first published in 1989, with revisions in 2008 and 2011. The INS is an open list, "subject to the inclusion of additional additives or removal of existing ones on an ongoing basis". [ 1 ]
INS numbers consist of three or four digits, optionally followed by an alphabetical suffix to further characterize individual additives. On packaging in the European Union (EU), approved food additives are written with a prefix of E . An additive that appears in the INS does not automatically have a corresponding E number . [ citation needed ]
INS numbers are assigned by the committee to identify each food additive. INS numbers generally correspond to E numbers for the same compound, e.g. INS 102, Tartrazine , is also E102. INS numbers are not unique and, in fact, one number may be assigned to a group of similar compounds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Numbering_System_for_Food_Additives |
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest (abbreviated IOCCC ) is a computer programming contest for code written in C that is the most creatively obfuscated . Held semi-annually, it is described as "celebrating [C's] syntactical opaqueness". [ 1 ] The winning code for the 27th contest, held in 2020, was released in July 2020. [ 2 ] Previous contests were held in the years 1984–1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004–2006, 2011–2015 and 2018–2020.
Entries are evaluated anonymously by a panel of judges. The judging process is documented in the competition guidelines [ 3 ] and consists of elimination rounds. By tradition, no information is given about the total number of entries for each competition. Winning entries are awarded with a category, such as "Worst Abuse of the C preprocessor " or "Most Erratic Behavior", and then announced on the official IOCCC website. The contest states that being announced on the IOCCC website is the reward for winning.
The IOCCC was started by Landon Curt Noll and Larry Bassel in 1984 while employed at National Semiconductor's Genix porting group. The idea for the contest came after they compared notes with each other about some poorly written code that they had to fix, notably the Bourne shell , which used macros to emulate ALGOL 68 syntax, and a buggy version of finger for BSD. [ 4 ] The contest itself was the topic of a quiz question in the 1993 Computer Bowl. [ 5 ] After a hiatus of five years starting in 2006, the contest returned in 2011. [ 6 ]
Compared with other programming contests, the IOCCC is described as "not all that serious" by Michael Swaine , editor of Dr. Dobb's Journal . [ 7 ]
Each year, the rules of the contest are published on the IOCCC website. All material is published under Creative Commons license BY-SA 3.0 Unported. [ 8 ] Rules vary from year to year and are posted with a set of guidelines that attempt to convey the spirit of the rules.
Hacking the contest rules is a tradition. — Landon Curt Noll, 2011 [ 6 ]
The rules are often deliberately written with loopholes that contestants are encouraged to find and abuse. [ 3 ] Entries that take advantage of loopholes can cause the rules for the following year's contest to be adjusted. [ 3 ]
Entries often employ strange or unusual tricks, such as using the C preprocessor to do things it was not designed to do (in some cases "spectacularly", according to Dr. Dobbs , [ 9 ] with one entry creating an 11-bit ALU in the C preprocessor [ 10 ] ), or avoiding commonly used constructs in the C programming language in favor of much more obscure ways of achieving the same thing.
Contributions have included source code formatted to resemble images, text, etc., after the manner of ASCII art , preprocessor redefinitions to make code harder to read, and self-modifying code . In several years an entry was submitted that required a new definition of some of the rules for the next year, regarded as a high honor. An example is the world's shortest self-reproducing program . The entry was a program designed to output its own source code, and which had zero bytes of source code. When the program ran, it printed out zero bytes, equivalent to its source code. [ 11 ]
In the effort to take obfuscation to its extremes, contestants have produced programs which skirt around the edges of C standards, or result in constructs which trigger rarely used code path combinations in compilers. As a result, several of the past entries may not compile directly in a modern compiler, and some may cause crashes.
Within the code size limit of only a few kilobytes, contestants have managed to do complicated things – a 2004 winner turned out an operating system. [ 12 ]
Toledo Nanochess is a chess engine created by Mexican software developer Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez, a five-time winner of the IOCCC. In accordance with IOCCC rules, it is 1255 characters long. The author claims that it is the world's smallest chess program written in C.
The source code for Toledo Nanochess and other engines is available. [ 13 ] Because Toledo Nanochess is based on Toledo's winning entry from the 18th IOCCC (Best Game [ 14 ] ), it is heavily obfuscated . [ 15 ]
On February 2, 2014, the author published the book Toledo Nanochess: The commented source code , which contains the fully commented source code. [ 16 ]
As of February 7, 2010, it appears to be one of only two chess engines written in less than 2 kilobytes of C that are able to play full legal chess moves, along with Micro-Max by Dutch physicist H. G. Muller. In 2014 the 1 kilobyte barrier was broken by Super Micro Chess [ 17 ] – a derivative of Micro-Max – totaling 760 characters (spaces and newlines included). [ 18 ] There is also a smaller version of Toledo's engine, the Toledo Picochess , consisting of 944 non-blank characters.
Source code excerpt
Below is a 1988 entry which calculates pi by looking at its own area : [ 19 ]
(This entry was written in K&R C ; it does not work correctly in ANSI C without some changes. [ 20 ] )
Another example is the following flight simulator, the winner of the 1998 IOCCC, [ 21 ] as listed and described in Calculated Bets: Computers, Gambling, and Mathematical Modeling to Win (2001) [ 22 ] and shown below:
This program needs the following command line on a Linux system to be compiled: [ 21 ]
In order to run the binary file ( banks ) it has to be supplied with a .sc scenery file via stdin input: [ 21 ]
Below is a 2011 entry which downsamples PGM , PPM images and ASCII art (of Akari from YuruYuri ) by Don, Yang: [ 23 ]
If the program is run using its own source as the input, the result is: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Obfuscated_C_Code_Contest |
The International Organization for Biological Crystallization ( IOBCr ) is a non-profit, scientific organization for scientists who study the crystallization of biological macromolecules and develop crystallographic methodologies for their study. It was founded in 2002 to create a permanent organ for the organization of the International Conferences for the crystallization of Biological Macromolecules (ICCBM). The ICCBM conferences are organized biannually with venues that change regularly to maintain an international character. The objective of the IOBCr is the exchange of research results and encourage practical applications of biological crystallization. It organizes and supports interdisciplinary workshops. The attendance at the ICCBM meetings includes bio-crystallographers, biochemists, physicists, and engineers. The last International Conferences on Crystallization of Biological Macromolecules ICCBM15 was held in Hamburg , Germany . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Biological_Crystallization |
International Overdose Awareness Day ( IOAD or Overdose Day ) is a global event held on 31 August each year since 2001. [ 1 ] Its purpose is to raise awareness of overdoses , reduce the stigma of drug-related deaths and acknowledge the grief felt by families and friends. [ 2 ] The first day, held in 2001 in Australia, [ 3 ] saw 6,000 silver ribbons distributed across the country and into New Zealand. Since then the day has grown and is recognized in over 40 countries. So too, sadly, has the death toll from overdose continued to rise, particularly in North America. [ 4 ]
The silver ribbon and the colour purple are representative symbols of the International Overdose Awareness Day. "Time to remember. Time to act" is the slogan used by campaigners.
The IOAD event was initiated in 2001 in Australia by S.J. Finn, then managing a needle and syringe program at the Salvation Army Crisis Centre in St Kilda, Victoria . [ 5 ]
The coordination of events globally has been run by the Penington Institute since 2012. [ citation needed ]
Some events organized over time include:
The event is organized simultaneously worldwide, with Penington Institute facilitating communication materials and awareness campaigns. International Overdose Awareness Day badges and wristbands depicting the silver ribbon are produced and distributed to local groups globally. [ citation needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Overdose_Awareness_Day |
The International Particle Physics Outreach Group ( IPPOG ) is a network of scientists, educators, and communicators from several countries that works to improve the public's understanding and appreciation of particle physics . [ 1 ] Established in 1997 at CERN , IPPOG works in collaboration with particle physics laboratories and experiments, including CERN , the Pierre Auger Observatory , DESY , and GSI . [ 2 ]
IPPOG started out as the European Particle Physics Outreach Group (EPPOG) in 1997 with the sponsorship of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) and the High Energy Particle Physics Board of the European Physical Society (EPS-HEPP).
In November 2012, EPPOG became IPPOG and soon after added the US as its first country member, followed by Israel, Ireland, Slovenia , Australia and South Africa. [ 2 ]
IPPOG focuses on creating and implementing outreach initiatives related to particle physics. These include exhibitions, educational materials, and events designed for various audiences. Additionally, IPPOG provides resources for science communicators, educators, and physicists to assist in their outreach efforts, aiming to convey the concepts of particle physics in a comprehensible manner. [ 3 ]
This article about an organization or institute connected with physics is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Particle_Physics_Outreach_Group |
The International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE]) is an inter-governmental cooperative initiative founded in 2003 consisting of 26 countries and the European Commission. The IPHE works with the member countries and leaders in the hydrogen fuel and fuel cell industry in order to further develop and implement those technologies. [ 1 ]
The International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy was founded in 2003 to help create cooperation between different governments in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technology. [ 2 ] The IPHE contains two working groups: the Education & Outreach Working Group and the Regulations, Codes, Standards, & Safety Working Group. [ 3 ] In addition, there are other task forces in the partnership such as the Hydrogen Certification Mechanisms, the Trade Rules, the Hydrogen Environmental Impact Assessment, The Hydrogen Skills, the Maritime and the Hydrogen Bulk Storage task forces. In July 2005, the G8 Summit endorsed the IPHE in its plan of action on climate change , clean energy, and sustainable development and identified it as a means of cooperation to develop clean energy technologies . [ 4 ] The United States was the chair of the IPHE from 2003 to 2007 and 2018 to 2021. [ 2 ] The partnership held a student outreach meeting at the University of Maryland in 2023. [ 5 ]
The IPHE consists of 24 member countries and The European Commission. [ 6 ] Croatia and Mauritania were the most recent countries to join in 2025 after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Uruguay at the end of 2024.
This article about an international organization is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it .
This article about renewable energy is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Partnership_for_Hydrogen_and_Fuel_Cells_in_the_Economy |
The International Phytogeographic Excursions was a series of international meetings in plant geography that significantly contributed to exchange of scientific ideas across national and linguistic barriers and also to the rise of Anglo-American plant ecology . The initiative was taken by the British botanist Arthur Tansley at the International Geographic Congress in Geneva in 1908. Tansley and another early key figure, Henry C. Cowles , were both much-inspired by the new 'ecological plant geography' introduced by Eugenius Warming and its quest for answering why-questions about plant distribution, as opposed to the traditional, merely descriptive 'floristic plant geography'.
The First International Phytogeographic Excursion was held in the British Isles in 1911. It was organized by Arthur Tansley and went through parts of England , Scotland and Ireland .
The participants were:
The Second International Phytogeographic Excursion was a travel across North America from July to September 1913. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] It was hosted by a number of American ecologists led by Henry C. Cowles . The participants were: [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
The Third International Phytogeographic Excursion was proposed in 1915, but postponed due to the First World War . It was finally carried through in 1923 in neutral Switzerland , and as noted by John William Harshberger is his report in Ecology , the participants from Germany , France and other nations recently at war, coexisted peacefully. [ 8 ] The organizers were the Swiss botanists Rübel , Schroeter and H. Brockmann-Jerosch .
The participants were, among others:
The Fourth International Phytogeographic Excursion was held in Scandinavia in 1925 (July 2 to August 24). It formed as a trip through Sweden and Norway starting in Lund in southernmost Sweden , passing Stockholm , Uppsala and Abisko , going down through Norway, ending in Oslo . It was organized by G. Einar Du Rietz from Uppsala University . [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
By this time, Warmings 'ecological plant geography' had developed into plant ecology and the excursion programme returned to 'floristic plant geography'. Through the 1930s and after the Second World War , the International Phytogeographic Excursions continued at regular intervals, but now outside the mainstream of ecology . At the same time, scientific exchange between plant ecologists had found other means.
The Fifth International Phytogeographic Excursion was held in Czechoslovakia in 1928. It was organized by Karel Domin . [ 12 ] [ 13 ]
The Sixth International Phytogeographic Excursion was held in Romania in 1931. [ 14 ]
The Seventh International Phytogeographic Excursion was held in Italy in 1934. [ 15 ]
The Eighth International Phytogeographic Excursion went to Morocco and western Algeria in 1936. [ 16 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phytogeographic_Excursion |
The International Planetarium Society, Inc. (IPS) is the global association of planetarium professionals. Its more than 600 members come from 42 countries around the world. They represent schools, colleges and universities, museums , and public facilities of all sizes, including both fixed and portable planetariums. The primary goal of the IPS is to encourage the sharing of ideas among its members through conferences, publications, and networking. By sharing their insights and creative work, IPS members become better planetarians.
IPS membership is open to anyone interested in planetariums. Members include directors, teachers, informal educators , technicians, writers, artists, media specialists, digital artists and producers, presenters, vendors, scientists, students, and sponsors and friends of the planetarium dome and its starry sky. Although planetariums can be part of school district curriculum, either at an in-district dome or through field trips , they also serve as sites and sources of life-long learning and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.
More than 20 regional and national planetarium associations from around the world are affiliated with IPS. The representatives report to a board composed of elected members from 6 geographic regions, the number of representatives determined by the number of IPS members within that region. This board and the elected officers make up the Executive Council, the ruling body of the organization.
IPS members receive the quarterly journal Planetarian ; attend biennial conferences on even-numbered years; receive conference proceedings, and special publications. Member-only benefits are available through the IPS website at ips-planetarium.org , where interested persons also can join.
Planetarian is the IPS quarterly membership journal and an important member benefit. In addition to regular features and columnists, it seeks research articles on any aspect of planetarium education (that will be professionally reviewed upon request), the history of planetariums, technological developments, and much more.
Also available:
Elected officers are president, president-elect, past-president, secretary, and treasurer. The officers, along with representatives from the affiliate organizations, make up the Executive Council, the ruling body of the organization.
The current executive officers are:
All positions are volunteer.
Sources: [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
The genesis of what was to become the International Planetarium Society began with a meeting of planetarium educators in 1958 at the Cranbrook Institute in Michigan. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) , about 100 delegates from 67 facilities attended. The conference's proceedings were published as Planetaria and Their Uses for Education .
Another meeting was sponsored by the NSF in 1960, this time in Cleveland, Ohio, and resulted in Planetariums and Their Uses for Education, Volume 2 . At this meeting those attending voted to initiate a national planetarium association called the American Association of Planetarium Operators, but nothing came out of the action.
Regional associations of planetarium educators formed in the 1960s, resulting in the forming of GLPA, MAPS, SWAP, PPA, RMPA, and SWAP, and PAC was formed in Canada.
More than 300 planetarians gathered in 1970 at the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University in East Lansing at a meeting called CAPE - the Conference of Planetarium Educators. At this meeting the decision was made to organize a North American planetarium association and publish a journal. By-laws for the International Society of Planetarium Educators were approved in 1971, and the journal, Planetarian , began in 1972. Paul Engle from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Planetarium became the first president, and the first editor was Frank C. Jettner from the Department of Astronomy at the State University of New York at Albany. Among the articles in the first issue was "Science and Communication" by Isaac Asimov.
The planetarium field's earliest members were those who invented and modified the equipment used to project the stars onto the dome.
Among them are
The highest award given by IPS is the Service Award , started in 1982. This award is bestowed, from time to time, by the Society upon an individual or institution whose presence and work in the planetarium field has been, through the years, an inspiration to the profession and its members.” Since 1982 there have been 24 people [ 3 ] awarded with the IPS Service Award.
Similarly, the IPS Technology and Innovation Award is given by the Society, from time to time, upon an individual whose technology and/or innovations in the planetarium field have been, through the years, used or replicated by other members and/or other planetariums.” The award began in 2009 and 6 persons [ 3 ] have been recognized.
Deserving IPS members also may be named a Fellow of the Society. To be named, a member must have continuous active membership in good standing in IPS for at least five years and substantial contributions in at least two of the following respects:
Planetarium | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Planetarium_Society |
The NASA International Planetary Patrol Program consists of a network of astronomical observatories to collect uninterrupted images and observations of the large-scale atmospheric and surface features of the planets. [ 1 ] This group was established in 1969, and consisted of the Mauna Kea Observatory , the Mount Stromlo Observatory , the Perth Observatory , the Republic Observatory , the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory , the Magdalena Peak Station of the New Mexico State University , and the Lowell Observatory . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The activities were coordinated by William A. Baum of Lowell Observatory.
In the years from 1975 to 1981 the San Vittore Observatory (Bologna) Italy also participated with observations of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. [ 4 ]
For Mars, they monitored clouds and dust storms, as well as the seasonal fluctuations in the climate. The martian dust storms of 1971 and 1973 were extensively covered. They also observed changes in the Jovian atmosphere, including the Great Red Spot . Venus has been monitored for circulation of the cloud deck. [ 1 ] [ 4 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Planetary_Patrol_Program |
The International Plastic Modellers' Society (often shortened to IPMS ) is an international organisation of hobbyists interested in building plastic model kits. The Society is made up of national branches, that include board members like Bob Delaney who send unsolicited links of his adult content to members, and within these, local clubs who usually represent a town, city or locality. The first branch was established in the United Kingdom in 1963.
Local clubs organise regular meetings, typically once a month for members to meet up, show off their latest models, discuss the hobby and work on ongoing projects. Many also organise their own annual shows and invite fellow clubs to display alongside traders, and together, these shows make up a busy calendar of events throughout each year. The UK has the most developed club network, with organisations covering virtually the whole country. Elsewhere, local clubs can often function as national branches simultaneously, such as IPMS Argentina who also represent the Mar del Plata region of the country.
At a higher level, national branches will also organise their own shows. These are typically termed 'Nationals'. The largest of these is IPMS UK's Scale ModelWorld, held at Telford in November each year and features not just local British club displays, but also contributions from overseas branches and clubs, such is its scale.
In addition to the branch and club structure, Special Interest Groups (SIG) exist which focus on a specific area or type of model building, for instance a particular aircraft such as the Tornado , a time period like the Cold War , a manufacturer such as Airfix or a genre like science fiction and fantasy. SIGs often transcend club and branch boundaries, being made up of modellers from around the world sharing a common interest. As a result, most SIGs do not meet up on a regular basis like clubs, but instead communicate more frequently online.
List of current UK SIGs on IPMS UK website
List of current SIGs
See also | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Plastic_Modellers'_Society |
The International Programme on Chemical Safety ( IPCS ) was formed in 1980 and is a collaboration between three United Nations bodies, the World Health Organization , the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme , to establish a scientific basis for safe use of chemicals and to strengthen national capabilities and capacities for chemical safety. [ 1 ]
A related joint project with the same aim, IPCS INCHEM , is a collaboration between IPCS and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). [ 2 ]
The IPCS identifies the following as "chemicals of major public health concern":
This United Nations –related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Programme_on_Chemical_Safety |
The International Pulsar Timing Array ( IPTA ) is a multi-institutional, multi-telescope collaboration [ 1 ] comprising the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) in Australia, and the Indian Pulsar Timing Array Project (InPTA [ 2 ] [ 3 ] ). The goal of the IPTA is to detect ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves , such as from mergers of supermassive black holes , using an array of approximately 30 pulsars . This goal is shared by each of the participating institutions, but they have all recognized that their goal will be achieved more quickly by combining their respective efforts and resources.
There are also affiliated observers from other timing arrays that plan eventually to join.
The basic experiment exploits the predictability of the times of arrival (TOAs) of pulses from millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and uses them as a system of galactic clocks. Disturbances in the clocks will be measurable at the Earth. A disturbance from a passing gravitational wave will have a particular signature across the ensemble of pulsars, and will thus be detected.
The experiment is analogous to ground-based interferometric detectors such as LIGO and VIRGO , where the time of flight of a laser beam is measured along a particular path and compared to the time of flight along an orthogonally oriented path. Instead of the time of flight of a laser beam, the IPTA is measuring the time of flight of an electromagnetic pulse from the pulsar. Instead of 4 km arms, as in the case of LIGO, the 'arms' of the IPTA are thousands of light-years - the distance between the pulsars and the Earth. Each of the PTAs times approximately 20 MSPs each month. With extensive overlap between the collaborations, the total number of MSPs timed by the IPTA, and thus the number of 'arms' in the detector, is approximately 30.
These differences between the IPTA and the ground-based interferometers allow them to probe a completely different range of gravitational-wave frequencies and thus a different category of sources. Whereas ground-based detectors are sensitive to between tens and thousands of Hz, the IPTA is sensitive to between tens and hundreds of microHertz. The primary source of gravitational waves in this range is expected to be binary mergers of supermassive black holes with billions of solar masses, thought to be abundant in the universe at the centers of galaxies, resulting from previous mergers of those galaxies.
The resources of the IPTA are substantial. The EPTA uses large quantities of time on Europe's five 100-meter class telescopes: the Lovell Telescope in England, the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in Germany, the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, and the Nançay Radio Telescope in France. Together these five telescopes make up the Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP), in which they operate together as a single 300-meter class telescope. NANOGrav uses about 1 day per month of time at the 100 m Green Bank Telescope , and prior to its collapse, 0.5 days per month at the 300 m Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The PPTA uses several days per month at the 64 m Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.
Pulsar timing was tied for top ranking in the "medium size" category for priorities from the Particle Astrophysics and Gravitational Panel of the Astro2010 Decadal Review sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. [ 4 ]
The IPTA is coordinated and advised by the IPTA Steering Committee, a seven-member committee with two representatives from each of the three IPTA consortium members plus the immediate past chair. Currently on the committee are Richard Manchester (current chair; CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science; PPTA), Willem van Straten ( Swinburne University of Technology ; PPTA), Scott Ransom ( National Radio Astronomy Observatory ; NANOGrav), Ingrid Stairs ( University of British Columbia ; NANOGrav), Ben Stappers ( Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics ; EPTA), Gilles Theureau ( University of Orléans ; EPTA), and Andrea Lommen (past chair; Franklin & Marshall College ). Each of the three consortium members are also members of the Gravitational Wave International Committee , an advisory council consisting of the leaders of gravitational wave experiments worldwide. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Pulsar_Timing_Array |
The International Radiation Protection Association ( IRPA ) is an independent non-profit association of national and regional radiation protection societies, and its mission is to advance radiation protection throughout the world. It is the international professional association for radiation protection. [ 1 ]
IRPA is recognized by the IAEA as a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) and is an observer on the IAEA Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC). [ 2 ]
IRPA was formed on June 19, 1965, at a meeting in Los Angeles ; stimulated by the desire of radiation protection professionals to have a world-wide body. Membership includes 50 Associate Societies covering 65 countries, totaling approximately 18,000 individual members. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
The General Assembly, made up of representatives from the Associate Societies, is the representative body of the Association. It delegates authority to the Executive Council for the efficient administration of the affairs of the Association.
Specific duties are carried out by IRPA Commissions, Committees, Task Groups and Working Groups:
The following is a list of the 50 Associate Societies (covering 65 countries):
( Australia & New Zealand )
1999 for Australasian
( Burundi , Ethiopia , Kenya , Rwanda , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda )
( Germany & Switzerland )
( Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway , Sweden )
( Serbia & Montenegro )
( South Africa , Namibia , Botswana )
The 2032 Congress (IRPA18) will be in Australia.
The 2028 Congress (IRPA17) will be in Spain.
IRPA 16 Orlando, July 2024
IRPA 15 Seoul, January 2021
IRPA 14 Cape Town, May 2016
IRPA 13 Glasgow, May 2012
IRPA 12 Buenos Aires, October 2008
IRPA 11 Madrid, May 2004
IRPA 10 Hiroshima, May 2000
IRPA 9 Vienna, April 1996
IRPA 8 Montreal, May 1992
IRPA 7 Sydney, April 1988
IRPA 6 Berlin, May 1984
IRPA 5 Jerusalem, March 1980
IRPA 4 Paris, April 1977
IRPA 3 Washington, September 1973
IRPA 2 Brighton, May 1970
IRPA 1 Rome, September 1966
IRPA maintains relations with many other international organizations in the field of radiation protection, such as those listed here.
Commencing with the 1973 IRPA Congress, each International Congress has been opened by the Sievert Lecture which is presented by the winner of the Sievert Award. This award is in honour of Rolf M. Sievert , a pioneer in radiation physics and radiation protection.
The Sievert Award consists of a suitable scroll, certificate or parchment, containing the name of the recipient, the date it is presented, and an indication that the award honours the memory of Professor Rolf M. Sievert.
The recipients of the Sievert Award are listed below: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Radiation_Protection_Association |
The International Radio Corporation ( IRC ) was an American radio receiver manufacturing company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan . It was established in 1931 by Charles Albert Verschoor with financial backing from Ann Arbor mayor William E. Brown, Jr., and a group of local business leaders. IRC manufactured numerous different radios, many bearing the Kadette name, including the first mass-produced AC/DC radio , the first pocket radio, and the first clock radio . Due to the seasonal nature of radio sales, the company attempted to diversify its offerings with a product that would sell well during the summer, eventually settling on a camera that would become the Argus . In 1939, IRC sold its radio-manufacturing business to its former General Sales Manager, W. Keene Jackson, although his new Kadette Radio Corporation only survived for a year before it went defunct. After World War II , International Industries and its International Research division became wholly owned subsidiaries of Argus, Inc., after which point the International name ceased to exist.
The International Radio Corporation was founded in 1931 in Ann Arbor, Michigan , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] the creation of Charles Albert Verschoor, who had begun making radios in the 1920s. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Described as a "colorful old-time promoter" in a January 1945 Fortune magazine article and as a "go-getting inventor" by Mary Hunt, Verschoor had previous experience in automobile manufacturing as well. The company was initially financed with $10,000 raised by Ann Arbor mayor William E. Brown, Jr., and a group of local business leaders who desired to create a new local company with substantial potential for growth and job creation during the Great Depression . It was based out of a former furniture factory located at 405 Fourth Street on Ann Arbor's west side. [ 5 ]
IRC debuted its first radio, the International Duo, on August 7, 1931; it was named for its ability to receive both local longwave and European shortwave radio signals. It measured 14 in (36 cm) by 16 in (41 cm) by 9 in (23 cm), at a time when most table radios measured 20 in (51 cm) in length without their separate speaker . [ 5 ]
Shortly thereafter, [ nb 1 ] IRC introduced the Kadette, the first mass-produced AC/DC radio ; [ 6 ] it was a four- tube , 6-pound (2.7 kg) radio small enough to be easily portable that featured an innovative plastic cabinet. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] This cabinet material, called Bakelite , was fairly cheap to produce and helped IRC to turn a substantial profit on its radio sales. [ 1 ] Manufactured by the Chicago Molded Products Company, the Kadette's plastic cabinet was the first to be used on a radio, although its Gothic styling gave it a fairly traditional appearance. The radio also boasted an innovative new circuit design , while its ability to operate on either alternating (AC) or direct current (DC) allowed it to operate without a power transformer , resulting in it being cheaper, smaller, and lighter than its competitors; [ 4 ] it also allowed the Kadette to be plugged into typical household wall sockets . [ 5 ] Furthermore, IRC released a kit that instructed customers how to modify their Kadettes for battery -powered mobile applications, such as in railroad cars and automobiles; [ 5 ] in the words of Robert E. Mayer, this kit "effectively started the car radio market". [ 3 ]
The popularity of the Kadette led to "almost immediate profitability" for IRC, and by 1933 it was the only company in Ann Arbor that was still able to pay dividends to its shareholders . [ 4 ] [ 7 ] During the early 1930s, Ann Arbor was less adversely affected by the Great Depression than Detroit or most other Michigan communities, although lost orders and inability to pay dividends were common occurrences for Ann Arbor-based companies. [ 7 ]
Following after the Kadette were a variety of other models, many of which were innovative in their own right: the Kadette Jr., the world's first pocket radio; the Kadette Jewel, the original Kadette's successor that was available in five different color combinations; the Kadette Classic, built with three different types of plastic; and the Kadette Clockette, which resembled a small mantel clock and was available in four different wooden case styles. [ 4 ] IRC also introduced a number of related accessories, including the Tunemaster, a portable radio remote control , and the Kadette Autime, the first mass-produced clock radio . [ 5 ]
In 1937, as its sales had climbed to $2,700,000, [ 5 ] IRC introduced a 10-tube Kadette radio for $19.95, a price comparable with many four- and five-tube sets when its 10-tube competitors cost $100 or more. With three ballast tubes, these 10-tube radios were met with largely negative reviews; in the words of Alan Voorhees, they were "$20 sets with extra ballast tubes thrown in". [ 4 ] They were also reminiscent of 10-tube radios that Verschoor had built between 1925 and 1930 under the "Arborphone" name, which had only five functioning tubes alongside five superfluous ones intended simply to impress prospective customers. [ 5 ]
Furthermore, when radio dealers sold IRC's 10-tube Kadettes, they achieved profit margins of 15% at most, far less than what they could earn selling premium models made by competitors. After the company began requiring its dealers to stock its slower selling units in order to also have access to its 10-tube Kadettes, some dealers resorted to giving unauthorized discounts to move the less attractive models, resulting in their total profit margins on the whole Kadette line falling to as low as 5% in some cases. As their profit margins fell, many dealers dropped Kadettes from their catalogs altogether; while IRC made efforts to reverse this trend, in many cases irreparable damage had already been done. [ 4 ]
While IRC's radio business was initially successful, it was generally seasonal in nature; [ 3 ] due to better reception in winter [ 5 ] as well as general patterns of behavior before the widespread adoption of air conditioning , sales of radios were much higher during the winter months than during the summer. [ 1 ] This prompted Verschoor to explore possibilities for expanding the company's product line in order to reduce the slack periods caused by the seasonal variation in its radio sales. [ 3 ] Looking for a product that could be produced relatively cheaply and that would also sell well during the summer months, he decided upon an inexpensive Leica -inspired camera that would ultimately become the Argus , which launched to nearly instant success in 1936. [ 1 ] [ 4 ] That same year, when IRC had 150 employees, it sold its Kadette AC/DC patents to RCA . [ 5 ]
In 1938, Verschoor departed from IRC after being pressured to leave. By the early 1940s the company was being run by a "modern management team". [ 5 ]
In 1939, International Industries sold its radio-manufacturing business to the company's former General Sales Manager, W. Keene Jackson. After renaming it the Kadette Radio Corporation, Jackson expressed his desire to expand its product line by adding television sets , vowing that the new company would "employ every technical resource to bring the price of efficient television reception to the point where every American home can enjoy this new art as quickly as possible." However, Jackson's company suffered from the same problems that IRC had, and just a year after its establishment it was already out of business. [ 4 ]
While its radio business had faltered, International Industries had found success in the camera and optical equipment fields with its Argus line; [ 4 ] by 1942, Argus, Inc.'s sales had climbed to $4,800,000, and during World War II the company employed 1,200 people. [ 5 ] After the war, International Industries and its International Research division became wholly owned subsidiaries of Argus, Inc., and shortly thereafter the International name ceased to exist. [ 4 ]
Media related to International Radio Corporation at Wikimedia Commons | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Radio_Corporation |
The International Radon Project (IRP) is a World Health Organization initiative to reduce the lung cancer risk around the world.
The IRP released their guidance to member countries in September 2009. [ 1 ]
The WHO states on its website, "Exposure to radon in the home and workplace is one of the main risks of ionizing radiation causing tens of thousands of deaths from lung cancer each year globally. In order to reduce this burden it is important that national authorities have methods and tools based on solid scientific evidence and sound public health policy. The public needs to be aware of radon risks and the means to reduce and prevent these." [ 2 ]
In 1996 [ citation needed ] , WHO published a report containing several conclusions and recommendations covering the scientific understanding of radon risk and the need for countries to take action in the areas of risk management and risk communication .
Recent findings from case-control studies on lung cancer and exposure to radon in homes completed in many countries allow for substantial improvement in risk estimates and for further consolidation of knowledge by pooling data from these studies. The consistency of the findings from the latest pooled analyses of case-control studies from Europe and North America as well as China provides a strong argument for an international initiative to reduce indoor radon risks.
To fulfill these goals, WHO has developed a program on public health aspects of radon exposure. This project enjoys high priority with WHO's Department of Public Health and Environment. The key elements of the International Radon Project include:
To achieve these aims, WHO has formed a network of key partner agencies from some 40 Member States. This network is the basis for the WHO International Radon Project which was launched in 2005. Working groups will collect and analyse information on radon risk, radon policies, radon mitigation and prevention as well as risk communication. The project members meet regularly and work towards achieving the outlined objectives. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Radon_Project |
International Rivers is a nonprofit , nongovernmental , environmental , and human rights organization. Founded in 1985 by social and environmental activists, International Rivers works with policy and financial analysts, scientists, journalists, development specialists, and volunteers to combat the adverse effects of dams and their legacies that it has identified in over 60 countries.
The organization has staff in South Africa , Thailand , Brazil , China , India , and the United States, who have expertise in a range of issues and who use research, education, and advocacy to achieve the organization's mission. [ citation needed ]
The organization's stated aims are to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them. [ 2 ] It actively works against the development model associated with dams , which it believes to be unsustainable, and promotes alternative solutions for meeting water, energy, and flood-management needs. International Rivers is dedicated to giving dam-affected people the tools to participate in the development of local lands in Africa , Asia , and Latin America . [ 3 ]
By facilitating international grassroots organizing and informed participation, the organization seeks to change the terms of the debate over river development. The group works with its numerous partners to advocate for social reparations , ecological restoration , and the decommissioning of existing dams. International Rivers works to clarify what it describes as the traditionally top-down decision-making of large infrastructure projects. It also takes a stance against the industry's representation of hydropower as it relates to climate change : The organization maintains that reservoirs often produce greenhouse gas emissions that further impact the environment. [ 4 ]
International Rivers has undertaken a two-pronged approach to analyzing and promoting viable water and energy solutions. Combining its efforts to change global policy by campaigning on specific key projects, the organization simultaneously addresses the root causes and localized consequences of dam development. The organization's campaigns throughout Africa, China, Latin America, South Asia , and Southeast Asia focus on the intersection of dams and climate change, reforming the policies and practices of international financial institutions, and promoting water and energy solutions that recognize human rights and environmental sustainability .
Among its accomplishments, International Rivers contributed to the formation of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). The commission was a global, multi-stakeholder body initiated in 1997 by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union in response to growing opposition to dams. During its two-year lifetime, the WCD conducted what is said to be the most exhaustive study of dams completed to date, evaluating over 1,000 dams in 79 countries. [ 5 ] In its published final report, the WCD concluded that although "dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development, and benefits derived from them have been considerable ... in too many cases an unacceptable and often unnecessary price has been paid to secure those benefits, especially in social and environmental terms, by people displaced, by communities downstream, by taxpayers, and by the natural environment ." [ 6 ]
Since the organization's inception, worldwide construction of dams has decreased by half, and universal recognition of the consequences of hydropower continues to increase.
The organization publishes a journal, World Rivers Review , focused on addressing the state of various dam projects, ecosystems, and people. [ 7 ] It also publishes an annual report on a variety of dam-related subjects. [ 1 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rivers |
The International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1933) was an international sanitary convention , drawn up in 1932 and signed at The Hague on 12 April 1933 (without a conference) and came into force on 1 August 1935 to protect communities against diseases liable to be imported by aircraft and to protect air crew against diseases due to flying. It contained a number of regulations consisting of measures to prevent the spread of plague , cholera , yellow fever , typhus and smallpox . It was formally ratified by around ten countries. Service aircraft were included in March 1939. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Intelligence on infectious disease at ports was provided to health authorities by the health organisation at the League of Nations . [ 5 ] It was amended in Washington on 15 December 1944, to form the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1944) , which came into force on 15 January 1945. [ 1 ] [ 6 ]
After the amendment of the Convention in 1944, in addition to Personal, Aircraft and Maritime Declarations of Health, the Convention covered five certificates: [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
The old International Certificates of Inoculation and Vaccination remained valid until they expired, after which they were replaced by the International Certificate of Vaccination (Carte Jaune) . [ 9 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sanitary_Convention_for_Aerial_Navigation_(1933) |
The International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1944) was an international sanitary convention , one of the international co-operation land-marks in the history of public health , signed in Washington on 15 December 1944, and came into force on 15 January 1945. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
This aviation -related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sanitary_Convention_for_Aerial_Navigation_(1944) |
The International Scientific Optical Network or ISON ( Russian : Международная научная оптическая сеть, Пулковская кооперация оптических наблюдателей ) is an international project, currently consisting of about 30 telescopes at about 20 observatories in about ten countries (Russia, Ukraine ( Andrushivka ), Georgia ( Abastumani ), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Spain ( Teide ), Switzerland ( Zimmerwald ), Bolivia (Tarija), USA ( Mayhill ), Italy (Collepardo)) [ 1 ] which have organized to detect, monitor and track objects in space. Other observatories include the "ISON-Kislovodsk Observatory", located near Kislovodsk , North Caucasus, Russia, with the observatory code D00 .
ISON is managed by the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics , part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It was credited for the discovery of comets C/2010 X1 (Elenin), [ 4 ] P/2015 PD 229 , [ 5 ] and C/2012 S1 (ISON), [ 6 ] the latter popularly known as Comet ISON.
The minor planet 365756 ISON is named for the network. [ 7 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Scientific_Optical_Network |
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications ( ISAAA ) is a non-profit international organization that shares agricultural biotechnology, focusing on genetic engineering .
ISAAA operates three regional centers; ISAAA SEAsia Center, ISAAA Afri Center and ISAAA Ameri Center. ISAAA SEAsia Center is hosted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines . This center also serves as the Global Coordination Office as well as the home of the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology. [ 1 ] ISAAA Afri Center is hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) located in Nairobi , Kenya . [ 2 ] ISAAA Ameri Center is located in Cornell University , Ithaca, New York . It serves as the administrative and financial headquarters of the organization.
The ISAAA receives funding from both public and private donors. Some of the ISAAA's funding agencies and companies include the USDA , US Grains Council, Monsanto , Bayer , two banks – Fondazione Bussolera in Italy and Ibercaja in Spain , USAID and the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II. [ 3 ]
The organization releases an annual publication on the global status of commercially approved genetically engineered crops . The publication is authored by Clive James, the founder and chair emeritus of ISAAA. The annual brief provides research on global trends in the adoption of major biotech crops since they were first planted commercially. Various environmental groups have accused the ISAAA of inflating the size and impact of genetically modified crops in their report. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] James says that the report is based on a multiple public and private sources and that he considers it conservative. [ 4 ]
The 2015 report says that "18 million farmers planted 179.7 million hectares of biotech crops in 28 countries, a marginal decrease of 1% (1.8 million hectares) from 2014." [ 6 ] As per International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA)'s latest 'Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/ GM Crops in 2017' report, India has the world's fifth largest cultivated area under genetically modified (GM) crops. The country with the highest area under transgenic crops, at 75 mh, is the United States . [ citation needed ]
ISAAA documents approved GM crops worldwide and presents them in a database available in the organization's website. Each biotech event is featured with a brief description about the crop, trait, transformation method, developer, and summary of regulatory approval. Entries in the database were sourced from Biotechnology Clearing Houses/Regulatory Institutions of approving countries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Service_for_the_Acquisition_of_Agri-biotech_Applications |
The International Society for Biocuration (ISB) is a non-profit organisation that promotes the field of biocuration and was founded in early 2009. [ 1 ] It provides a forum for information exchange through meetings and workshops. The society's conference, the International Biocuration Conference, has been held in Pacific Grove, California (2005), San José, CA (2007), Berlin (2009), Tokyo, Japan (2010), Washington, DC (2012), Cambridge, UK (2013), Toronto, Canada (2014), Beijing, China (2015) and Geneva, Switzerland (2016). The meeting in 2017 will be held in Stanford, California.
Database is the official journal of the society and it has published the proceedings of the societies conferences since 2009. [ 2 ]
The aims of the society include: [ 3 ]
The Executive Committee (EC) is composed of nine (9) elected members, each with a 3 year term. EC members can serve a maximum of two terms. Within the EC, there are positions for Chair, Secretary and Treasurer that are in charge of leading the EC and by extension the membership. Elections for the EC are held on an annual basis. The EC promotes the ISB’s activity to members and non-members, and contributes to the decisions that are taken on behalf of the biocuration community. Additional activities include reviewing microgrant submissions, assisting with organization of the annual Biocuration conference, preparing materials for the ISB election, and maintaining the website.
The Biocuration Career Award is an award given by the International Society for Biocuration for outstanding contributions for the field of biocuration . [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Biocuration |
The International Society for Computational Biology ( ISCB ) is a scholarly society for researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics . The society was founded in 1997 to provide a stable financial home for the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference and has grown to become a larger society working towards advancing understanding of living systems through computation and for communicating scientific advances worldwide.
In addition to ISMB, the society also organizes a growing number of smaller, more regionally or topically focused conferences and presents a number of annual scientific achievement awards, including the Overton Prize and the ISCB Senior Scientist Awards . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
ISCB organizes the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference every year, a growing number of smaller, more regionally or topically focused annual and bi-annual conferences, and has three official journals: ISCB Community Journal, PLOS Computational Biology and Bioinformatics . The society awards three scientific achievement awards annually: the Overton Prize , the ISCB Innovator Award , [ 6 ] and the ISCB Senior Scientist Awards . The society elects ISCB Fellows annually, to honor members that have distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. The ISCB also awards the ISCB Outstanding Contributions Award to recognize members of the community who have significantly contributed to the success of the organization.
The Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference series began in 1993. [ 7 ] As a response to the expansion of the conference, the ISCB was founded in 1997 with a significant part of its remit being to provide a stable financial home for ISMB. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The ISCB was legally incorporated in early 1997, [ 9 ] with Lawrence Hunter elected as its inaugural president by the members of the founding board of directors, which included Russ Altman , Philip Bourne , David States and Alfonso Valencia . [ 10 ] The ISCB has organized the ISMB conference since 1998. [ 11 ]
During the next few years the focus remained on management of the annual ISMB conference, whose 1993 attendance of approximately 200 researchers had more than tripled by 1999.
The new millennium brought in a new president in Russ Altman , currently [ when? ] chair of Stanford University's department of bioengineering and director of the program in biomedical informatics, and over 1,200 delegates attended ISMB 2000 in San Diego . Altman took steps to formalize some of the legal and administrative aspects of ISCB before passing the torch in 2002 to Philip E. Bourne , currently [ when? ] professor in the department of pharmacology and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California , San Diego . Bourne gave ISCB a more permanent home at UCSD, which included the university's commitment to host the society through at least 2005 and its offer of staff support. Although Bourne served as president for only one year, he left his mark on the society by increasing the interaction with regional groups and conference organizers worldwide, and through an improved web presence. During his tenure, membership grew to more than 1,700 researchers, and the 2002 ISMB conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada welcomed over 1,600 attendees.
Michael Gribskov , then at UCSD's San Diego Supercomputer department and now at the department of biological sciences at Purdue University , was elected president in 2003. That year ISMB took place in Brisbane , Australia, which was the first time the meeting was held outside North America or Europe. This phase brought many uncertainties for the society when attendance dropped to one half of budgeted expectations due to travel fears and restrictions related to outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS , the start of the war in Iraq, and the location, which broke with the pattern of North American and European venues. Although scientifically successful, the financial losses of ISMB 2003 left ISCB financially unstable for the first time in its history.
In part to reduce ISCB's dependence on ISMB proceeds to fund the society's activities and annual overhead costs, a pilot regional conference was hosted in the US to gauge interest in smaller, localized meetings. In December 2003, the Rocky Mountain Regional Bioinformatics conference, Rocky 1, was launched in Aspen , Colorado. The meeting has been held annually ever since and now attracts attendees from around the world.
In 2005, as part of the society's discussions about the role of publications and the society's official journal, accompanied by the advent of open access publishing, the ISCB announced a partnership with the Public Library of Science and launched a new open access journal , PLoS Computational Biology . The journal is intended to emphasize computational methods applied to living systems at all scales, from molecular biology to patient populations and ecosystems, and which offer insight for experimentalists. Past president and past publications committee chair Phil Bourne served as the new publication's editor-in-chief and he remains in that role. The first issue of the new journal coincided with the opening day of ISMB 2005, held in Detroit , Michigan .
Burkhard Rost , then professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University and now the Alexander von Humboldt Professor and chair of bioinformatics and computational biology, computational sciences at the Technical University Munich , succeeded Michael Gribskov as president in 2007 and has been reelected twice with a current term expiration set for January 2013. Under his tenure the ISMB/ECCB 2007 conference in Vienna, Austria, chaired by Thomas Lengauer of the Max-Planck Institute for Informatics, and co-chaired by Burkhard Rost and Peter Schuster of the University of Vienna , was further expanded to include a total of eight parallel tracks, and the 2007 conference attendance of approximately 1,700 was back on track with expectations. Vienna as a destination and the Austria Center Vienna were both so well received by the conference organizers and attendees alike that it was selected to host the 2011 conference as well, which is a first for the ISMB series that had never before repeated a location.
In 2010 the first ISCB Latin America was held in Montevideo , Uruguay.
A president, an executive committee, and a board of directors comprise ISCB's scientific leadership, drawing on distinguished, internationally renowned researchers who are elected for their term by the general society membership. The executive director leads the ISCB staff and supports a diverse set of committees dedicated to specific issues that are important to the computational biology and bioinformatics community, including education, policy, and publications.
As of 2018 [update] , notable members of the board of directors include: Alex Bateman , Bonnie Berger , Terry Gaasterland , Janet Kelso , Thomas Lengauer , Yves Moreau , Christine Orengo , Burkhard Rost , Alfonso Valencia and Martin Vingron . [ 12 ]
The ISCB has elected Fellows since 2009. These distinctions are awarded in honour of outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. [ 13 ] The inaugural Class was given to previous recipients of the ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award ; in following years, the ISCB has sought nominations for Fellows from its members. Fellows are traditionally introduced at the ISCB's flagship Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology conference each year. As of the Class of 2017, 64 Fellows have been elected. [ 14 ]
ISCB Communities of Special Interest (COSIs) are member communities of shared interest that have self-organized and have multiple activities or interactions throughout the year, rather than solely meeting during the SIG program of the ISMB conference. [ 15 ] An important goal of any COSI is to foster a topically-focused collaborative community wherein scientists communicate with one another on research problems and/or opportunities in specific areas of computational biology. Such communication is often in the form of meetings, but can also be through other social media tools that allow for vibrant participation in a virtual environment.
In 2004, the ISCB Student Council was founded by Manuel Corpas to promote the development of a worldwide community for computational biology students. One of the main roles of the student council is to promote soft skills in order to develop potential in bioinformatics and computational biology trainees. As of 2017 [update] , the student council represents more than 1,000 students worldwide. [ citation needed ]
ISCB grew out of the need for a stable organizational structure to support the planning and manage the finances of the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference series, which had its start in 1993. ISMB is ISCB's most prominent annual activity, toward which a significant portion of resources are dedicated each year. Since 2004, when ISMB is held in Europe, it is held jointly with the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB).
ISCB began expanding its conference offerings with the introduction of the annual Rocky Mountain Bioinformatics Conference series in 2003, the Conference on Semantics in Healthcare and Life Sciences (CSHALS) in 2008, the bi-annual ISCB Africa ASBCB Bioinformatics Conference in 2009, and the bi-annual ISCB Latin America Conference in 2010. ISCB also hosts an annual Great Lake Bioinformatics Conference and partners with RECOMB to produce the Regulatory and Systems Genomics Conference with DREAM Challenges. The ISCB-Asia meeting was started in 2012 and continues to take shape after its last conference in 2014 in Japan in conjunction with GIW.
In addition to ISCB-organized conferences, the society supports other computational biology and bioinformatics conferences through affiliations and sponsorships. These include the annual Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB), the annual international conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB), the annual International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), and the annual general meeting of the European Molecular Biology Network or EMBnet.
The ISCB has several affiliated organizations (mainly regional), including the European Molecular Biology Network (EMBnet), the Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre (NBIC), the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and the Japanese Society for Bioinformatics . [ 21 ]
The ISCB is also a founding member of Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET) . In collaboration with GOBLET, the ISCB is involved in developing core competencies for different types of bioinformatics trainees; these competencies are being used in the development of new bioinformatics curricula. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] [ 24 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Computational_Biology |
The International Society for Computational Biology Student Council (ISCB-SC) is a dedicated section of the International Society for Computational Biology created in 2004. It is composed by students and young researchers from all levels ( undergraduates , postgraduates , and postdoctoral researchers ) in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology . The organisation promotes the development of the students' community worldwide by organizing different events including symposia , workshops , webinars , internship coordination and hackathons . A special focus is made on the development of soft skills in order to develop potential in bioinformatics and computational biology students around the world.
The ISCB-SC is composed of Regional Student Groups (RSGs) which are located in various regions across the globe . Since its foundation, the ISCB-SC has gained representation in most continents through over thirty RSGs which collectively represent more than 1,000 students and researchers around the world. [ citation needed ]
The ISCB Student Council was officially established in 2004 by a vote from the ISCB Board of Directors at the ISMB / ECCB meeting. The concept of the student council was first proposed by Manuel Corpas in late 2003. The establishment of the student council was the first move of the ISCB to include the new generation of computational biologists into the then newly emerging field. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
The first meeting had about 30 students and eight members of the ISCB leadership at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) 2005 in Detroit, Michigan [ 4 ] The first official Student Council Symposium (SCS) was held later that year at the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) meeting in Madrid , Spain . The first SCS had approximately 100 attendees and was the beginning of a long-running series of meetings organized and highlighting students. [ 2 ] Other than the first instance of SCS, all later editions have as a satellite meeting of ISMB. In 2012, the SC started a second set of symposia that takes place at ECCB when it is not co-located with ISMB; the European Student Council Symposium (ESCS) regularly has more attendees than SCS when both events are held in the same year. [ citation needed ] Recently, the SC symposia have also been held along with other ISCB conferences, like in the case for the Latin American Student Council Symposium (LA-SCS) which is held every two years along with the Latin American ISCB Conference since 2014, [ 5 ] or the ISCB Student Council Symposium in Africa (SCS-Africa) which is held along the ISCB Africa ASBCB conference since 2015. [ 6 ]
In 2006, the student council created the Regional Student Group (RSG) initiative to tailor the efforts of the council for the local community. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] RSGs are locally managed groups established at various regions. Each RSG operates either under the aegis of a higher education institution or as an independent organisation sub-affiliated to local computational biology or bioinformatics organisation. RSGs are provided support from both the student council and other local groups in their region and often organize multi-RSG events such as BeNeLuxFra. As of 2017 [update] , the global network of the student council includes over 25 active RSGs operating across five continents. [ citation needed ]
The RSG committee was set up in 2008 to oversee and coordinates the activities of RSGs across the world. The team comprises an RSG-Chair, a co-chair and five vice-chairs corresponding to geographical regions (Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, Latin America and USA-Canada). The RSG chair is required to have previous experience as a president or secretary of an RSG. Currently, around 2,000 students and researchers are active members of RSG-related events. [ citation needed ]
The ISCB-SC continuously looks for PhD students or postdocs who may be interested in starting a new RSG in a region where the student council has no presence yet. The student council also supports existing RSGs by advising them on how to grow, in terms of the events and projects they face as well as economically. There are 3 funding calls every year where RSGs can submit proposals containing different types of events which will be evaluated by the continental RSG chairs and the Executive Committee. Since the creation of the Student Council F1000Research channel [ 9 ] in 2016, achievements by RSGs throughout each year are discussed in editorial articles. [ 10 ]
The ISCB-SC runs an internship program in which researchers throughout the world can offer a place for a student from a developing nation to join his/her group for a period of time. This program aims to give students from developing nations the opportunity to have an experience in a working environment from first class research groups and interact with expert Principal Investigators around the world. [ 11 ]
As a worldwide organization, the SC organizes symposia, workshops and different events across the globe. After more than ten years of existence, many new experiences have been gained on how to deal with different obstacles that arise when trying to tackle complex objectives. Learning experiences are published as articles that aim to help new RSGs, as well as other student organizations, including bioinformatics communities, to organize their own events and strengthen their growth.
The Student Council is well recognized by members of the scientific community [ 12 ] [ 13 ] and its members are also recognized as outstanding members of their community [ 14 ]
The Student Council also assists in efforts to improve the quality of public reference material [ 15 ]
Finally, highlights from all major symposia from both the Student Council and from the Regional Student Groups have been periodically published over the years (2007, [ 16 ] 2008, [ 17 ] 2009, [ 18 ] 2010, [ 19 ] 2011, [ 20 ] 2012, [ 21 ] 2014, [ 22 ] 2015, [ 23 ] [ 5 ] [ 24 ] [ 6 ] 2016 [ 25 ] [ 26 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ] and 2017 [ 29 ] [ 30 ] ).
Since its conception, the ISCB Student Council has not only advocated for the students in the ISCB and beyond [ 31 ] but, also, the SC has made much effort to educate new students.
In 2014, the ISCB Student Council began publishing a collection of articles in the PLOS journals that covers details about the development of the SC and how to advance in the field. [ 32 ] As a collective effort because of reaching a decade of story, different Student Council leaders from different regions in the world came together and published 12 articles as part of the "Stories from the road: ISCB Student Council Collection" [ 33 ] that summarize the experience and lessons that were learned through those years. These articles range in topic from starting and expanding your scientific network, [ 34 ] [ 35 ] dealing with the frustration of failure, [ 36 ] to disseminating science to the public. In particular, the article "Explain Bioinformatics to Your Grandmother!" [ 37 ] that aims to simplify the answer to the question "What is bioinformatics?" to non-scientists, has accumulated more than 17,000 views (as of 2017) and constitutes one of the most read articles in PLOS Computational Biology .
The Student Council also has its own article channel on F1000Research which features publications highlighting the activities of the council. [ 9 ]
In addition to the collections in F1000 and PLOS, the Student Council has publications that have appeared in BMC Bioinformatics and other journals. [ 38 ]
The student council organizes several symposia each year to coincide with the major ISCB Conferences [ 39 ]
In addition to the main ISCB-SC events that accompany the main ISCB conference(s), RSGs also hold events on a regular basis; [ 40 ] these include annual events in Argentina, [ 28 ] Germany [ 41 ] and the UK. [ 42 ] [ 43 ]
Every year, ISCB and SC members elect new leadership positions. The positions are filled by students and/or postdoctoral members of the SC. The key mission of the SC's Executive Team is to lead the sustainable development of the organisation and its RSGs, and managing the coordination of all activities.
In addition, the SC aims to coordinate and integrate efforts of all members and volunteers who contribute their time. For the purpose of better organizational structure, the SC has established several committees that are chaired by SC members and managed by the executive team. Below is the list of the SC's committee's with description of each committee's responsibilities: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Computational_Biology_Student_Council |
International Society for Developmental Psychobiology ( ISDP ) promotes research on the behavioral development on all species including humans. It is an international- nonprofit organization . Its official scientific journal is Developmental Psychobiology published by John Wiley & Sons . It conducts annual meetings during which research on developmental psychobiology is presented and abstracts are published in Developmental Psychobiology . [ 1 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Developmental_Psychobiology |
Organizations:
The International Society for Ecological Economics ( ISEE ) was founded in 1989, based heavily on the work of Herman Daly to promote ecological economics and assist ecological economists and related societies. [ 1 ]
In 1996, the Right Livelihood Award was awarded to steady-state theorist Herman Daly "for defining a path of ecological economics that integrates the key elements of ethics, quality of life, environment and community". He was honored as one of the key figures in the foundation of ISEE, which is considered to be "a transdisciplinary partnership of scholars and professionals from a broad range of backgrounds". Through education, research, policy and social action, it fosters transformation towards an equitable and ecologically sustainable society with respect for human rights, biological and cultural diversity. At the heart of this, it recognizes that the human economy is part of a finite biosphere and should be subjected to ecological limits. Dr. Daly was also awarded the 2014 Japanese Blue Planet Award. [ 2 ]
The ISEE was initially presided over by Robert Costanza who was also the first editor of the journal. Subsequent presidents have been Richard Norgaard , John Proops, Charles Perrings, Joan Martinez Alier , Peter May, John Gowdy, Bina Agarwal , Marina Fischer-Kowalski , Sabine O'Hara, Clóvis Cavalcantil , Joshua Farley , and Roldan Muradian. The current president elect is Erik Gomez Baggethun.
The society publishes a monthly journal Ecological Economics , [ 3 ] books and other materials, and holds periodic meetings and conferences to facilitate a voice for ecological economists. The journal is currently co-edited by Richard B. Howarth, Stefan Baumgaertner, and Begüm Özkaynak. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Ecological_Economics |
The International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ( ISEE ) is a scientific society with membership drawn from more than 60 countries, dedicated to the study of environmental epidemiology and exposure assessment . It provides a forum for the discussion of problems unique to the study of health and the environment. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] The primary objective of ISEE is to promote research and disseminate scientific findings focused on the relationships between environmental exposures (e.g., air pollutants, food and water contaminants, metals, etc.) and human health. [ 5 ] Each year, ISEE puts a spotlight on global discussion of environmental health and gathers scientists from all over the world to discuss measuring harmful factors in the environment including environmental health after disasters, e-waste, endocrine disrupting chemicals affecting pregnancy, and more. [ 6 ] These include annual meetings, newsletters, workshops and liaisons with academic, governmental, inter-governmental, non-profit and business institutions. [ 2 ]
ISEE was founded in 1987 and held its first formal scientific meeting in 1989. [ 7 ] ISEE supports the dissemination of scientific results and international collaborations by hosting annual conferences in all regions of the world. [ 5 ]
The ISEE supports the involvement of scientists from developing countries and students through targeted programs and reduced dues rates. [ 8 ]
ISEE's annual meeting comprises a programme of diverse scientific sessions that cover new research and emerging trends in environmental research, epidemiology, public policy, and exposure assessment. [ 9 ]
ISEE is composed of nine committees, including an Annual Conference Committee, an Awards Committee, a Capacity Building and Education Committee, a Communications Committee, an Ethics and Philosophy Committee, a Membership Committee, a Nominations Committee, a Policy Committee, and a Student & New Researchers Network. [ 10 ]
The society supports regional chapters in Africa , Asia , Eastern Mediterranean , Europe , Latin America and the Caribbean , and North America . [ 11 ] Each chapter focuses on local and regional issues that are of particular interest to their members. [ citation needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Environmental_Epidemiology |
The International Society for Environmental Ethics ( ISEE ) is an environmental organization based at the University of North Texas founded in 1990 with Holmes Rolston III as its first president. [ 1 ]
The organization aims to promote the correct human use and understanding of the natural world. It maintains a website [ 2 ] and sponsors the Online Bibliography of Environmental Thought (OBET), a bibliography for environmental ethics . It hosts an annual summer conference: the 2024, 21st edition happened in Freiburg. [ 3 ] In conjunction with the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP) and with sponsorship from the Center for Environmental Philosophy, [ 4 ] the organization co-organized an annual joint ISEE-IAEP conference between 2005 and 2011. [ 5 ]
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International Society for Invertebrate Morphology (ISIM) was founded during the 1st International Congress on Invertebrate Morphology, in Copenhagen , August 2008. The objectives of the society are to promote international collaboration and provide educational opportunities and training on invertebrate morphology , and to organize and promote the international congresses of invertebrate morphology, international meetings and other forms of scientific exchange. [ 1 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Invertebrate_Morphology |
The International Society for Music Information Retrieval ( ISMIR ) is an international forum for research on the organization of music-related data. It started as an informal group steered by an ad hoc committee in 2000 [ 1 ] which established a yearly symposium - whence "ISMIR", which meant International Symposium on Music Information Retrieval . It was turned into a conference in 2002 while retaining the acronym. ISMIR was incorporated in Canada on July 4, 2008. [ 2 ]
Given the tremendous growth of digital music and music metadata in recent years, methods for effectively extracting, searching, and organizing music information have received widespread interest from academia and the information and entertainment industries. The purpose of ISMIR is to provide a venue for the exchange of news, ideas, and results through the presentation of original theoretical or practical work. By bringing together researchers and developers, educators and librarians, students and professional users, all working in fields that contribute to this multidisciplinary domain, the conference also serves as a discussion forum, provides introductory and in-depth information on specific domains, and showcases current products.
As the term Music Information Retrieval (MIR) indicates, this research is motivated by the desire to provide music lovers, music professionals and music industry with robust, effective and usable methods and tools to help them locate, retrieve and experience the music they wish to have access to. MIR is a truly interdisciplinary area, involving researchers from the disciplines of musicology, cognitive science, library and information science, computer science, electrical engineering and many others.
Since its inception in 2000, ISMIR has been the world’s leading forum for research on the modelling, creation, searching, processing and use of musical data. Researchers across the globe meet at the annual conference conducted by the society. It is known by the same acronym as the society, ISMIR. Following is the list of conferences held by the society.
The official webpage provides up-to-date information on past and future conferences and provides access to all past websites and to the cumulative database Archived 2011-04-10 at the Wayback Machine of all papers, posters and tutorials presented at these conferences. An overview of all papers published at ISMIR can be found at DBLP .
The following list gives an overview of the main research areas and topics that are within the scope of Music Information Retrieval .
The Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange (MIREX) is an annual evaluation campaign for MIR algorithms, coupled to the ISMIR conference. Since it started in 2005, MIREX has fostered advancements both in specific areas of MIR and in the general understanding of how MIR systems and algorithms are to be evaluated. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] MIREX is to the MIR community what the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) is to the text information retrieval community: A set of community-defined formal evaluations through which a wide variety of state-of-the-art systems, algorithms and techniques are evaluated under controlled conditions. MIREX is managed by the International Music Information Retrieval Systems Evaluation Laboratory (IMIRSEL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). [ 5 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Music_Information_Retrieval |
The International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature was established to encourage and facilitate the development and use of, and communication about, phylogenetic nomenclature . It organizes periodic scientific meetings and is overseeing the completion and implementation of the PhyloCode . [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
The International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature (ISPN) was established in the first international phylogenetic nomenclature meeting, which convened in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle , in Paris , on July 6–9, 2004. [ 3 ]
In the second meeting (2006), rules concerning the choice of name for crown clades were discussed, along with rules to clarify the use of binomial species names in the context of phylogenetic nomenclature and to enhance the information content of these names (regarding the monophyly or paraphyly of the genus name, considered a prenomen, in the context of the PhyloCode ). It was also decided then to expand the CPN (Committee on Phylogenetic Nomenclature) from nine to twelve members. [ 4 ]
The third meeting convened at Dalhousie University in Halifax , from July 20 to 22, 2008. The editors of the Companion Volume presented a progress report, and a demonstration of the RegNum on-line registration database was given. [ 5 ] Both of these are important to the society because they were required to implement the PhyloCode . Other discussions at the meeting covered the problem of hybrids in rank-based and phylogenetic nomenclature , phyloinformatics, and teaching phylogenetic nomenclature .
Shortly after that meeting, the ISPN was admitted as a scientific member of IUBS , the International Union of Biological Sciences , to which other regulating bodies of biological nomenclature (such as the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature , among others) also belong.
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The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Evanston, Illinois , United States . The organization's mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.
The International Society for Stem Cell Research was formed in 2002 (incorporated on March 30, 2001) to foster the exchange of information on stem cell research. [ 2 ] Leonard Zon, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School , served as the organization's first president . [ 3 ]
In June 2003, the International Society for Stem Cell Research held its first convention. [ 4 ] More than 600 scientists attended, many of whom expressed frustration over restrictions that President George W. Bush 's administration had placed on the field of stem-cell research, slowing the pace of research. Scientists who were leaders in their fields were prohibited from using funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct certain experiments that could provide significant medical achievements. [ 5 ]
As a service to the field, in 2006, the ISSCR developed guidelines that address the international diversity of cultural, political, legal, and ethical perspectives related to stem cell research and its translation to medicine. [ 6 ] The guidelines were designed to underscore widely shared principles in science that call for rigor, oversight, and transparency in all areas of practice. Adherence to the ISSCR guidelines would provide assurance that stem cell research is conducted with scientific and ethical integrity and that new therapies are evidence-based. In response to advances in science, the guidelines were updated in 2008, and again in 2016, to encompass a broader and more expansive scope of research and clinical endeavor than before, imposing rigor on all stages of research, addressing the cost of regenerative medicine products, and highlighting the need for accurate and effective public communication. The 2016 Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation Archived 2019-02-04 at the Wayback Machine have been adopted by researchers, clinicians, organizations, and institutions around the world.
In 2013, the Society's official journal, Stem Cell Reports , was established; it is published monthly by Cell Press on the Society's behalf. [ 7 ]
In March 2015, scientists, including an inventor of CRISPR , urged a worldwide hold on germline gene therapy, writing that "scientists should avoid even attempting, in lax jurisdictions, germline genome modification for clinical application in humans" until the full implications "are discussed among scientific and governmental organizations". [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
After the publication that a Chinese group had used CRISPR to modify a gene in human embryos, the group repeated their call for a suspension of "attempts at human clinical germ-line genome editing while extensive scientific analysis of the potential risks is conducted, along with broad public discussion of the societal and ethical implications." [ 12 ]
The ISSCR’s Annual Meetings are the largest stem cell research conferences in the world, drawing nearly 3,900 attendees in 2020 for the organization's first global, virtual event, ISSCR 2020 Digital Archived 2020-08-24 at the Wayback Machine . The ISSCR’s membership includes international leaders of stem cell research and regenerative medicine representing more than 70 countries worldwide. [ 13 ] In 2021, the ISSCR published an update to its internationally recognized Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation , that address the international diversity of cultural, political, legal, and ethical issues associated with stem cell research and its translation to medicine.. In 2022, the Society hosted its first hybrid annual meeting in San Francisco, USA and launched ISSCR.digital , which offers scientific education and opportunities to network and build new connections with the global community. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Stem_Cell_Research |
The International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) is an organization dedicated to advancing research, communication, and technology exchange regarding transgenic technologies . [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Every one and a half years the ISTT organizes an international scientific conference, the Transgenic Technology Meeting , also known as the TT Meeting . [ 3 ] To promote communication and technology exchange, the website of the society publishes information and protocols related to transgenic technologies as well as the locations of transgenic service facilities, recognized as a valuable resource in the scientific literature . [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] A collection of ISTT subject-related protocols has been published in the book Advanced Protocols for Animal Transgenesis – an ISTT Manual . [ 2 ] The society is also associated with the peer-reviewed scientific journal Transgenic Research , which publishes scientific findings on transgenic and genome-edited higher model organisms. [ 14 ] [ 3 ] As a platform for the rapid exchange of scientific information, the ISTT hosts two mailing lists , the public transgenic-list (often referred to as tg-l ) and the ISTT-list reserved for ISTT members with around 1500 and 660 participants (April 2024). [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ]
The ISTT Prize recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions to the field of transgenic technologies and is presented at the Transgenic Technology Meeting. Prominent winners included Ralph Brinster (2011), Janet Rossant (2014), Mario Capecchi (2017) and Rudolf Jaenisch (2025) . [ 3 ] [ 25 ] [ 27 ] [ 33 ]
The ISTT Young Investigator Award recognizes outstanding achievements by young scientists whose work is advancing the field of transgenic technologies with new ideas and who have recently received an academic degree. The ISTT Young Investigator Award is presented at the Transgenic Technology Meetings . Prominent winners included Feng Zhang (2014) and Alexis Komor (2017) for their work on genome editing in model organisms. [ 3 ] [ 25 ]
The 3Rs Award recognizes outstanding achievements by a researcher or research team that advances the field of transgenic technologies with new methods and improvements in strict accordance with the 3Rs principles for reduction, refinement, and replacement of animals used in research. The prize is awarded during the Transgenic Technology Meetings . [ 34 ] [ 3 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_Transgenic_Technologies |
The International Symmetry Society ("International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry"; abbreviated name SIS ) is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization registered in Hungary (Budapest, Tisza u. 7, H-1029).
Its main objectives are:
The topic was introduced for the first time by Russian and Polish scholars. Then in 1952, Hermann Weyl published his fascinating book Symmetry , [ 1 ] which was later translated into 10 languages. Since then, it has become an attractive subject of research in various fields. A variety of manifestations of the principle of symmetry in sculpture, painting, architecture, ornament, and design, in organic and inorganic nature, has been revealed; the philosophical and mathematical significance of this principle has been studied.
During the 1980s, the discussions concerning the nature of the world, whether it was essentially probabilistic or naturally geometric, revived the interest of the researchers in the topic. The intellectual atmosphere of this period facilitated the idea of the establishment of a new institution devoted to the study of all forms of complexity and patterns of symmetry and orderly structures pervading science, nature and society, which ultimately led to the establishment of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry.
The Society's community comprises several branches of science and art , while symmetry studies have gained the rank of an individual interdisciplinary field in the judgement of the scientific community. The Society has members on over 40 countries on all continents.
The Society was founded in 1989 following a successful international meeting in Budapest.
It has operated continuously since its foundation, publishing printed and web journals and hosting an International Congress and Exhibition entitled Symmetry: Art and Science every three years:
Interim, full conferences have been held in
A new series of conferences under the general heading Logics of Image was launched in 2013 and is planned to take place every two years. This series is co-organised with the Research Group on Universal Logic :
The President of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry is Dénes Nagy.
The Society is governed by a number of special Boards and Committees .
The International Advisory Board consists of:
Among the Honorary Members of the Society are:
Honorary Members of the Society (died) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_for_the_Interdisciplinary_Study_of_Symmetry |
The International Society of Automation ( ISA ) Is a non-profit technical society for engineers, technicians , businesspeople, educators and students, who work, study or are interested in automation and pursuits related to it, such as instrumentation . Originally known as the Instrumentation Society of America, the society is more commonly known by its acronym , ISA. The society's scope now includes many technical and engineering disciplines.
ISA is one of the foremost professional organizations in the world for setting standards and educating industry professionals in automation. Instrumentation and automation are some of the key technologies involved in nearly all industrialized manufacturing. Modern industrial manufacturing is a complex interaction of numerous systems. Instrumentation provides regulation for these complex systems using many different measurement and control devices. Automation provides the programmable devices that permit greater flexibility in the operation of these complex manufacturing systems.
ISA is well known for its standards program, which surrounds topics in instrumentation, control systems, operational technology (OT) cybersecurity, and more. Prominent standards developed by ISA include:
The International Society of Automation is a non-profit member-driven organization, which is built on a backbone of volunteers. [ 3 ] Volunteers, working together with the ISA's full-time staff, are key to the ongoing mission and success of the organization. ISA has a strong leadership development program that develops volunteer leaders as they get involved with the organization's many different facets. ISA has several different ways that volunteers get involved from the geographic section, training, events, and standards roots of the organization.
ISA members are typically assigned an ISA Section (local chapter) which is related to their geographic location. ISA Standards Committees are open to broad participation from all interested stakeholders regardless of geographic location or membership status.
ISA was officially established as the Instrument Society of America on 28 April 1945, in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania. The society grew out of the desire of 18 local instrument societies to form a national organization. It was the brainchild of Richard Rimbach of the Instruments Publishing Company. Rimbach is recognized as the founder of ISA.
Industrial instruments, which became widely used during World War II , continued to play an ever-greater role in the expansion of technology after the war. Individuals like Rimbach and others involved in industry saw a need for the sharing of information about instruments on a national basis, as well as for standards and uniformity. The Instrument Society of America addressed that need.
Albert F. Sperry, chairman of Panelit Corporation, became ISA's first president in 1946. In that same year, the Society held its first conference and exhibit in Pittsburgh. The first standard, RP 5.1 Instrument Flow Plan Symbols, followed in 1949, and the first journal was published in 1954.
In the years following, ISA continued to expand its products and services, increasing the size and scope of the ISA conference and exhibition, offering professional development and training, and even producing films about measurement and control.
Membership grew from 900 in 1946 to 6,900 in 1953, and as of 2025, ISA members number approximately 17,000 from over 100 countries.
In 1980, ISA moved its headquarters to Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina , and a training center was established in nearby Raleigh . In 2022, the headquarters and training center were consolidated in a new building in RTP, where the society's day-to-day activities are managed by a professional staff.
Recognizing the fact that ISA's technical scope had grown beyond instruments and that its reach went beyond "America," in the fall of 2000 the ISA Council of Society Delegates approved a legal name change to ISA—The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society. In 2008, the Council voted to rename the society to the International Society of Automation to reflect its global nature and membership base. Today, ISA's corporate branding strategy focuses exclusively on the letters, though ISA's official, legal name is the International Society of Automation.
ISA membership is organized into particular grades: Life, Fellow, Senior Member, Member, and Student Member. [ 4 ] Professional members pay dues of $154 per year, and student dues are $15 annually.
The benefits of ISA membership include, among other things, affiliation with an ISA section (see below), discounts on ISA's products, events and services, and access to technical documents and knowledge through the ISA content portal, Pub Hub.
Local ISA chapters are known as ISA Sections. Sections are commonly organized around a specific geographic area, e.g. Seattle Section, Connecticut Valley Section, Greater Oklahoma Section, France Section etc. There are 103 chartered sections in 33 countries in North America , South America , Europe , Asia , Africa , and the Middle East .
Many sections sponsor training courses, conduct periodic trade shows, and act as a resource to the local industrial community. Reflecting their primacy in ISA's early days, sections retain pre-eminent governance authority, as ISA's legislative body, the Council of Society Delegates, is composed of section representatives (delegates) who hold voting power equal to the size of their membership.
ISA also has nearly 200 student sections, in locations all over the world, principally where the economy has a substantial manufacturing component, and instrumentation and industrial automation are vital academic programs. Some student sections have found it difficult to remain active, as it is necessary to continually replace graduates with newer students, and membership is consequently very fluid.
Sections are located within districts, of which there are 14, and which comprise large geographic areas of the world. Each one is headed by a vice president. Districts 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9, and 11 are in the US (although District 7 also includes Mexico and Central America , and District 3 includes Puerto Rico ). Districts 10 and 13 are in Canada . District 4 is South America (including the Trinidad Section). District 12 is Europe and the Middle East , and District 14 is the Asia-Pacific sphere. ISA formerly had geographic subdivisions known as "regions", which were part of the short lived "ISA International" (1988–1996). At varying intervals following the disestablishment of ISA International, the European Region became District 12, the India Region became District 14, and the South America Region became District 4 [1] .
ISA standards play a major role in the work of instrumentation and automation professionals. Many ISA standards have been recognized by the American National Standards Institute ( ANSI ) as approved American National Standards.
ISA standards are developed using a consensus-based model employing volunteer standards committees of automation professionals from across industries. The ANSI standards development model is used with standards committees having the characteristics of Openness, Lack of Dominance, Balance, Consensus and a Right of Appeal. All ISA standards processes are overseen by the ISA Standards & Practices Board.
As of 2025, there were more than 3500 participating individuals on ISA standards committees, [ 5 ] from over 40 countries.
ISA standards cover a wide range of concepts of importance to instrumentation and automation professionals. ISA has standards committees for symbols and nomenclature used within the industry, safety standards for equipment in non-hazardous and hazardous environments , communications standards to permit interoperable equipment availability from several manufacturers, and additional committees for standards on many more technical issues of importance to the industry. An example of one significant ISA standard is the ANSI/ISA-50.02 Fieldbus Standard for Use in Industrial Control Systems , which is a product of the ISA-50 Signal Compatibility of Electrical Instruments committee. Another significant ISA standard family is the batch processing standards of ANSI/ISA-88.00.01 Models and Terminology , ANSI/ISA-88.00.02 Data Structures and Guidelines for Languages , and ANSI/ISA-88.00.03 General and Site Recipe Models and Representation , which are products of the ISA-88 Batch Control committee.
Other standards developed by ISA include:
ISA100.11a is for testing and certification of wireless products and systems. This standard was approved by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a publicly available specification, or PAS in September 2011.
ISA95 is an international standard for developing an automated interface between enterprise and control systems.
As of 2025, the Society has over 135 published standards, recommended practices, and technical reports.
The International Society of Automation also produces the ISA-62443 standards as part of the information security standards . The security of private industries and governmental installations are often dependent on the reliable functioning of an Industrial control system . This is a highly debated subject that has considerable importance for the security of the critical infrastructure of any country. For example: International Society of Automation security standards are mentioned on the United States Computer Emergency Response Team website.
The ISA has formed the ISA Security Compliance Institute [ 6 ] to promote and designate cyber-secure products and practices for industrial automation suppliers and operational sites. [ 7 ]
ISA hosts two major international conferences per year: the OT Cybersecurity Summit, typically held in late spring, and the Automation Summit and Expo, held in the fall. In 2025, the OT Cybersecurity Summit will be held in Brussels, Belgium, and the Automation Summit and Expo will be held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
ISA Sections will often host their own local trade shows, conferences, member events, and/or sponsored training in their individual geographic areas.
The quarterly publication ISA Transactions , [ 8 ] published by Elsevier , is a referred journal of scholarly material, for which the intended audience is research and development personnel from academy and industry in the field of process instrumentation, systems, and automation.
ISA publishes and distributes books which offer thorough coverage of the world of automation. ISA books are organized by the technical categories which are generally considered as defining automation:
The ISA publishes its standards, recommended practices and technical reports in a variety of formats. These include printed hardcopy, downloadable PDF, web-based viewable, and network licenses.
ISA training products include classroom-based training, mobile training courses, in-plant training, online courses, and printed course materials. The ISA also provides in-house training for a number of large corporations.
The ISA has an online, searchable collection of technical content available to its members. Pub Hub hosts hundreds of essential resources, including ISA standards, best practices, technical reports, InTech magazine archives, webinars, and e-books.
ISA manages two certification programs, Certified Automation Professional ( CAP ), and Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST). Each of these is designed to be an objective, third-party assessment and confirmation of an individual's professional abilities and technical skills. Each certification is granted based on a combination of formal education/training, professional experience, and performance on a written examination.
The CCST program was established in the early 1990s and because of an obvious industry need, rapidly gained credibility. There are now approximately 4,000 ISA certified technicians worldwide.
The CAP program, launched in 2004, is still in the process of becoming established within the industrial community and gaining recognition. As of 2012, there are over 500 certified CAPs worldwide.
The ISA used to have a third certification program called Certified Industrial Maintenance Mechanic (CIMM) which was established in 2004. In 2010, the CIMM program was transferred to the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals. The SMRP renamed the CIMM certification to the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Automation |
The International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) is a professional society for scientists interested in biometeorology , specifically environmental and ecological aspects of the interaction of the atmosphere and biosphere . [ 1 ] The organization's stated purpose is: "to provide one international organization for the promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration of meteorologists , physicians , physicists , biologists , climatologists , ecologists and other scientists and to promote the development of Biometeorology".
The International Society of Biometeorology was founded in 1956 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris , France, by S. W. Tromp , a Dutch geologist, H. Ungeheuer, a German meteorologist, and several human physiologists of which F. Sargent II of the United States became the first President of the society.
ISB affiliated organizations include: the International Association for Urban Climate , the International Society for Agricultural Meteorology , the International Union of Biological Sciences , the World Health Organization , and the World Meteorological Organization . ISB affiliate members include: the American Meteorological Society , the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources , the German Meteorological Society , the Society for the Promotion of Medicine-Meteorological Research e.V. , International Society of Medical Hydrology and Climatology , and the UK Met Office .
ISB publishes the following journals:
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The International Society of Developmental Biologists ( ISDB ), formerly the Institut Internationale d'Embryologie ( IIE ), is a non-profit scientific association promoting developmental biology . The society holds an international Congress every four years, and awards the most prestigious award in the field of developmental biology—the Ross Harrison Prize . [ 1 ]
The institute was founded by A. A. W. Hubrecht in 1911 as "a selective society of embryologists who would meet and discuss aspects of comparative embryology". [ 2 ] After Hubrecht's death in 1915, the first director was Daniel de Lange ; [ 2 ] other former presidents have included Etienne Wolf , Lauri Saxén (1973–77), [ 3 ] Edward M. De Robertis (2002–06), Masatoshi Takeichi (2007-2010) and Claudio Stern (2010). [ 4 ] The current president is Philip Ingham .
The IIE, based out of the Hubrecht Institute (aka "Hubrecht Laboratories) in the Netherlands, changed its name in 1968 to the International Society of Developmental Biologists (ISDB). [ 2 ] In 1997 the ISDB took over the functions of a parallel organization, the European Developmental Biology Organisation (EDBO), becoming the world umbrella of developmental biology associations. [ 2 ] Numerous national societies are currently members of the ISDB, including the Society for Developmental Biology , the Asia-Pacific Developmental Biology Network, the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology, the British Society of Developmental Biologists, the Finnish Society for Developmental Biology, the French Developmental Biology Society, the German Society of Developmental Biology, the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology, the Israel Society for Developmental Biology, the Italian Embryology Group, the Japanese Society for Developmental Biology, the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology, the Portuguese Society for Developmental Biology, and the Spanish Developmental Biology Society. [ 1 ]
In 1981, the ISDB established the Ross Harrison Prize , the leading award in the field of developmental biology. Winners have included: [ 1 ]
The ISDB has also established a program of "Fellows", including Abraham Mandel Schechtman (1953), Ethel Browne Harvey , and G. P. Verma (1984). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Developmental_Biologists |
The International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) is a global scientific society founded in 1949. The Head Office of ISE is located now in Lausanne , Switzerland . ISE is a Member Organization of IUPAC . The Society has now more than 1900 Individual Members, 15 Corporate Members (Universities and non-profit research organizations from Belgium , Croatia , Finland , Germany , India , Italy , New Zealand , Poland , Spain , Switzerland and Serbia ) and 16 Corporate Sustaining Members. ISE has also 8 Divisions and Regional Representatives.
ISE's objectives are:
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This article about a scientific organization is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Electrochemistry |
The International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1974 to "advance the science and art of explosives engineering ." Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, it is the primary international organization for explosives engineers. Current president of ISEE is Janeen T. Smith.
ISEE was founded in Pittsburgh in 1974, when a small group of explosives engineers came together to discuss how to advance the science and art of explosives engineering. Since then the ISEE has grown to over 4000 members with 45 local chapters. [ 1 ]
The ISEE has 2 primary peer-reviewed publications, and an industry handbook. [ 2 ]
Each year more than 1500 blasters, [ 3 ] manufacturers, government officials and industry leaders, come together for an annual conference. The Blasters Weekend is a preconference event targeted at field personnel focusing on more practical knowledge and skills. The main conference is 3 days of technical papers and presentations. Both conference events qualify for continuing education units (CEUs) and/or professional development hours (PDHs) for most states licensing programs. ISEE also founded ISEE children's funds which is now contributing in educational expenses of dependents of a person who was killed in an explosive accident or suffered a related incident. [ 4 ]
Industry awards and designations presented at the annual national conference.
This article about an international organization is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Explosives_Engineers |
The International Society of Logistics (also known as SOLE , as it was originally the Society of Logistics Engineers) is a non-profit organization devoted to the development and promotion of logistics , including improvements in technology, education and management. SOLE sponsored the Annual Logistics Conference and Exposition [ 1 ] and founded the Logistics Education Foundation. [ 2 ] The organization communicates via their newsletter, the SOLEtter.
In March 1966 Dr. Wernher von Braun established the need for a NASA annual logistics symposium. This [first] symposium was to be in August 1966 at the Marshall Space Flight Center; and due to the importance, several high level corporate executives and company presidents were to be in attendance. To insure that the symposium was successful, von Braun solicited help from numerous company presidents at: Aircraft Company. Douglas Aircraft Company, Martin Marietta, RCA, and North American. [ 3 ]
This article related to a non-profit organization is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Logistics |
The International Space Development Conference (ISDC) is the annual conference of the National Space Society (NSS). Now in its 41st year, these conferences connect the general public and the NSS membership with leaders of contemporary space efforts. The ISDC provides a nexus for industry, government, scientists, advocates, and the public to meet and discuss the latest issues in space technology, science, policy, commerce, medicine, exploration, settlement and much more. Winners of the annual NSS Space Settlement Contest attend and give lectures at the conference, with several interesting activities and programs. With National Space Society 's major goal being to accelerate the process of space exploration and development they also foster astronautics for students by encouraging them and getting them involved. [ 1 ]
The first ISDC was held in Los Angeles in 1982. The CoChairmen were Jerry Pournelle and Milton Stevens , and most of the convention staff were volunteers from the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), although it was emphasized that the conference was professional in nature, and would not be a science fiction convention. The Professional Guest of Honor was Fred Haise of Apollo 13 , then CEO of Grumman. Attendees included Buzz Aldrin , Max Hunter , General Daniel Graham , Dick Rutan , and a number of space oriented professionals. Science Fiction author Robert Heinlein was the "fan guest of honor". It was intended as a one of a kind convention, but was successful enough that the attendees acclaimed it the "First Annual" Space Development Conference and voted to hold the second meeting in Houston with Art Dula as chairman.
The 32nd International Space Development Conference , was held at the La Jolla Hyatt Regency, San Diego, California, May 23–27, 2013. The conference theme is "Global Collaboration in 21st Century Space", inviting all nations of earth to join in the greatest human endeavor, to become an interplanetary species. ISDC 2013 was chaired by Dave Dressler of the "San Diego Space Society" . The opening keynote speaker was Bas Lansdorp , CEO of Mars One . Former Indian president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam spoke at the Friday night Gala dinner about an international initiative involving six nations to build a Space Based Solar Power system (SBSP) . Several astronauts presented at ISDC such as Buzz Aldrin , Christopher Ferguson and Mae Jemison .
The International Space Development Conference covers several broad areas of study related to building a spacefaring civilization, including transportation to and through space, technology needed to live and work in space, and Earth-based activities to advocate for or educate others about space development. The overall theme for ISDC 2011 is "From the Ground Up," emphasizing the tools, resources, and social activities that must be accomplished to make a spacefaring civilization a reality. Participants are encouraged not just to describe an ideal "future state," but to think about the technical, economic, or advocacy steps that must be accomplished to achieve a specific goal.
Although the northern Alabama region was hit by tornadoes April 27, resulting in widespread damage and many deaths and injuries, ISDC planners found that local electrical power had been restored to the Von Braun Center and Embassy Suites venues in Huntsville, and restored to the rest of the area within a week or two. Therefore, ISDC 2011 occurred on scheduled. Robert Bigelow , founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, was the ISDC's Honored Keynote speaker at the Governors' Dinner and Gala. Mr. Bigelow also received the NSS Space Pioneers award for Space Development. The Space Pioneer Award for Science and Engineering was presented to the X-51A WaveRider Team while the prestigious Wernher von Braun award went to the JAXA Hayabusa Team. The von Braun award was presented by Frederick I. Ordway III .
The theme for ISDC 2007 was "From Old Frontiers to New: Celebrating 50 Years of Space Flight" and was hosted by The National Space Society of North Texas chapter of Dallas , Texas over the Memorial Day weekend of May 24–28, 2007.
For the third straight year the presenting sponsor for ISDC '07 was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 2007's ISDC held two pre-conference events; the Symposium on Space Venture Finance on Thursday, May 24 and the bi-annual meeting of the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) from May 22 – 24.
ISDC 2007 included programs, presentations and exhibits focused on space exploration and settlement, astronomy and scientific research, commercial space ventures, space tourism, and other exciting topics.
The conference also featured displays of real spaceflight hardware, such as Armadillo Aerospace ’s historic 'Quad' rocket vehicle. The Quad vehicles were built by space entrepreneur John Carmack and his Armadillo Aerospace team from Mesquite , Texas. One of the Quads, named "Pixel," recently competed in the Wirefly X Prize Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico .
ISDC 2007 was held in Addison, Texas (metro Dallas area) at the Intercontinental Hotel. Speakers included NASA Johnson Space Center director Michael Coats , U.S. Congressmen Nick Lampson and Ralph Hall , Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. Senator Harrison Schmitt , Alex Tai , chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic , local space entrepreneur John Carmack , NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid , Mars Exploration Rover project leader Dr. Steve Squyers , Mars exploration visionary Robert Zubrin , lunar advocate Dr. Paul Spudis , Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson , and legendary science fiction author Ben Bova .
Events included speaker tracks on Frontier Transport, Moon and Cislunar (between Moon and Earth) Space Development, The Martian Frontier, International Space Station (ISS) Science, Space Business & Law , Space Medicine , Space Sociology, Space Settlement , Education, faster than light travel , and Solar Power Satellites .
Other conference events included DPRG robot challenges, a game room, the premiere of "Postcards from the Future" and other space movies, filk singing , a kids program, book signings, a space art show and sale, and space-related exhibits. Some exhibits and the space art show were free to the public. For more information see the official website: [1] [ usurped ]
ISDC 2007 was broadcast "live" from Dallas via streaming video from May 25 through May 28, 2007 – courtesy of the helloWorld [ permanent dead link ] website. Available to anyone with access to a computer and internet connection, the general public was able to follow key remarks and presentations by running their computer's mouse or cursor over the TV broadcast tower graphic entitled "Shows" and clicking the "On the Air Now!" link. Archived files of past ISDC conferences can also be reviewed via the IslandOne Archived September 1, 2005, at the Wayback Machine website.
Although typically held over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, ISDC '06 was moved up to the first weekend in May to coincide with Space Day activities sponsored nationwide by Lockheed Martin .
The "Silver Anniversary" conference was held May 4 through May 7, 2006 in Los Angeles , California – coming full circle to the very first ISDC 25 years earlier. Held at the LAX Sheraton Gateway Hotel, this was also the first ISDC to be jointly co-sponsored with the Pasadena, California -based Planetary Society . Speakers and special guests included Buzz Aldrin , Burt Rutan , Elon Musk , Hugh Downs , Dennis Tito , Gregory Olsen , Bill Nye , Kim Stanley Robinson , Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and dozens of others from various scientific, entrepreneurial and artistic fields.
For a listing of papers scheduled to be presented at the conference, access the ISDC Archives Archived September 1, 2005, at the Wayback Machine , ISDC2005: Your Ticket to Space Archived September 27, 2006, at the Wayback Machine , or the ISDC 2006 Call for Papers .
Additionally, the National Space Society teamed up with the Space Tourism Society to host the 2nd annual ORBIT Awards , celebrating leadership in space tourism on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Mr. Dennis Tito's historic flight as the world's first private space traveler, and the 25th anniversaries of STS-1 , the first Space Shuttle mission and the ISDC.
ISDC 2005 was held in Washington, D.C. May 19–25, 2005 at the Sheraton National Hotel with the NSS Space Pioneers Awards banquet held at the National Air and Space Museum 's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport , hosted by NSS Board of Governors chairman and former ABC-TV " 20/20 " host Hugh Downs and the Honorable Norman Mineta , Secretary of Transportation .
NSS members met and debated aerospace pioneers like Burt Rutan, Elon Musk, and Peter Diamandis , while hearing the latest on the explorations of Saturn , Mars and extrasolar planets. A few of the many highlights: Presenting sponsor Transformational Space brought a new twenty-foot mockup of its new space vehicle, the t/Space CXT.
The Spaceward Foundation erected a forty-foot model of its upcoming space elevator competition. IMAX director Mark Cowen wowed the crowd with the inside story of NSS Governor and Academy Award winning actor-producer Tom Hanks ' latest IMAX film release, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D . Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart announced a bold new plan to study the threat of Near Earth Object 2004MN4.
NASA 's Centennial Challenges program announced a new prize competition for producing oxygen from Moon rocks. Virgin Galactic 's Will Whitehorn shared the latest plans for their new personal spaceflight experience. Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites received the coveted Wernher von Braun award from German rocket engineer and Project Apollo space pioneer Konrad Dannenberg , then shared his personal vision of the future.
Previous ISDCs have rotated around the United States and Canada in the following major cities: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Development_Conference |
The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the fifteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and utilisation, and responsibilities for crew rotation and resupply of the International Space Station . It was conceived in September 1993 by the United States and Russia after 1980s plans for separate American ( Freedom ) and Soviet ( Mir-2 ) space stations failed due to budgetary reasons. [ 2 ] These agreements tie together the five space agencies and their respective International Space Station programmes and govern how they interact with each other on a daily basis to maintain station operations, from traffic control of spacecraft to and from the station, to utilisation of space and crew time. In March 2010, the International Space Station Program Managers from each of the five partner agencies were presented with Aviation Week 's Laureate Award in the Space category, [ 3 ] and the ISS programme was awarded the 2009 Collier Trophy .
As the space race drew to a close in the early 1970s, the US and USSR began to contemplate a variety of potential collaborations in outer space. This culminated in the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project , the first docking of spacecraft from two different spacefaring nations. The ASTP was considered a success, and further joint missions were also contemplated.
One such concept was International Skylab, which proposed launching the backup Skylab B space station for a mission that would see multiple visits by both Apollo and Soyuz crew vehicles. [ 4 ] More ambitious was the Skylab-Salyut Space Laboratory, which proposed docking the Skylab B to a Soviet Salyut space station. Falling budgets and rising Cold War tensions in the late 1970s saw these concepts fall by the wayside, along with another plan to have the Space Shuttle dock with a Salyut space station. [ 5 ]
In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called Freedom as a counterpart to the Salyut and Mir space stations. In 1984 the ESA was invited to participate in Space Station Freedom , and the ESA approved the Columbus laboratory by 1987. [ 6 ] The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), or Kibō , was announced in 1985, as part of the Freedom space station in response to a NASA request in 1982.
In early 1985, science ministers from the European Space Agency (ESA) countries approved the Columbus programme, the most ambitious effort in space undertaken by that organization at the time. The plan spearheaded by Germany and Italy included a module which would be attached to Freedom , and with the capability to evolve into a full-fledged European orbital outpost before the end of the century. [ 7 ]
Increasing costs threw these plans into doubt in the early 1990s. Congress was unwilling to provide enough money to build and operate Freedom , and demanded NASA increase international participation to defray the rising costs or they would cancel the entire project outright. [ 8 ]
Simultaneously, the USSR was conducting planning for the Mir-2 space station, and had begun constructing modules for the new station by the mid-1980s. However the collapse of the Soviet Union required these plans to be greatly downscaled, and soon Mir-2 was in danger of never being launched at all. [ 9 ] With both space station projects in jeopardy, American and Russian officials met and proposed they be combined. [ 10 ]
In September 1993, American Vice-President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced plans for a new space station, which eventually became the International Space Station. [ 11 ] They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be involved in the Mir programme, including American Shuttles docking, in the Shuttle– Mir programme . [ 12 ]
The legal structure that regulates the station is multi-layered. The primary layer establishing obligations and rights between the ISS partners is the Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), an international treaty signed on January 28, 1998 by fifteen governments involved in the space station project. The ISS consists of Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States, and eleven Member States of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). [ 13 ] Article 1 outlines its purpose:
This Agreement is a long term international co-operative framework on the basis of genuine partnership, for the detailed design, development, operation, and utilization of a permanently inhabited civil Space Station for peaceful purposes, in accordance with international law. [ 14 ]
The IGA sets the stage for a second layer of agreements between the partners referred to as 'Memoranda of Understanding' (MOUs), of which four exist between NASA and each of the four other partners. There are no MOUs between ESA, Roskosmos, CSA and JAXA because NASA is the designated manager of the ISS. The MOUs are used to describe the roles and responsibilities of the partners in more detail.
A third layer consists of bartered contractual agreements or the trading of the partners' rights and duties, including the 2005 commercial framework agreement between NASA and Roscosmos that sets forth the terms and conditions under which NASA purchases seats on Soyuz crew transporters and cargo capacity on uncrewed Progress transporters.
A fourth legal layer of agreements implements and supplements the four MOUs further. Notably among them is the ISS code of conduct made in 2000, setting out criminal jurisdiction , anti-harassment and certain other behavior rules for ISS crewmembers. [ 15 ]
Travellers who pay for their own passage into space are termed spaceflight participants by Roscosmos and NASA, and are sometimes referred to as "space tourists", a term they generally dislike. [ a ] As of June 2023 [update] , thirteen space tourists have visited the ISS; nine were transported to the ISS on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and four were transported on American SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft. For one-tourist missions, when professional crews change over in numbers not divisible by the three seats in a Soyuz, and a short-stay crewmember is not sent, the spare seat is sold by MirCorp through Space Adventures. Space tourism was halted in 2011 when the Space Shuttle was retired and the station's crew size was reduced to six, as the partners relied on Russian transport seats for access to the station. Soyuz flight schedules increased after 2013, allowing five Soyuz flights (15 seats) with only two expeditions (12 seats) required. [ 29 ] The remaining seats were to be sold for around US$40 million each to members of the public who could pass a medical exam. ESA and NASA criticised private spaceflight at the beginning of the ISS, and NASA initially resisted training Dennis Tito , the first person to pay for his own passage to the ISS. [ b ]
Anousheh Ansari became the first self-funded woman to fly to the ISS as well as the first Iranian in space. Officials reported that her education and experience made her much more than a tourist, and her performance in training had been "excellent." [ 30 ] She did Russian and European studies involving medicine and microbiology during her 10-day stay. The 2009 documentary Space Tourists follows her journey to the station, where she fulfilled "an age-old dream of man: to leave our planet as a 'normal person' and travel into outer space." [ 31 ]
In 2008, spaceflight participant Richard Garriott placed a geocache aboard the ISS during his flight. [ 32 ] This is the first non-terrestrial geocache in history. [ 33 ] At the same time, the Immortality Drive , an electronic record of eight digitised human DNA sequences , was placed aboard the ISS. [ 34 ]
Various crewed and uncrewed spacecraft have supported the station's activities. Flights to the ISS include 37 Space Shuttle, 91 Progress, [ c ] 72 Soyuz, 5 ATV , 9 HTV , 2 Boeing Starliner , 47 SpaceX Dragon [ d ] and 20 Cygnus missions. [ 42 ]
There are currently eight docking ports for visiting spacecraft, with four additional ports installed but not yet put into service: [ 43 ]
Forward ports are at the front of the station in its usual orientation and direction of travel. Aft is the opposite, at the rear. Nadir points toward Earth, while zenith points away from it. Port is to the left and starboard to the right when one's feet are toward Earth and one is facing forward, in the direction of travel.
The components of the ISS are operated and monitored by their respective space agencies at mission control centres across the globe.
The two primary control centres are:
They are supported by several more specialized control centres:
There is no fixed percentage of ownership for the whole space station. Rather, Article 5 of the IGA sets forth that each partner shall retain jurisdiction and control over the elements it registers and over personnel in or on the Space Station who are its nationals . [ 49 ] Therefore, for each ISS module only one partner retains sole ownership. Still, the agreements to use the space station facilities are more complex.
The station is composed of two sides: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS). [ 50 ]
Former NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin says the International Space Station has a role to play as NASA moves forward with a new focus for the crewed space programme, which is to go out beyond Earth orbit for purposes of human exploration and scientific discovery. "The International Space Station is now a stepping stone on the way, rather than being the end of the line", Griffin said. [ 54 ] Griffin has said that station crews will not only continue to learn how to live and work in space, but also will learn how to build hardware that can survive and function for the years required to make the round-trip voyage from Earth to Mars. [ 54 ]
Despite this view, however, in an internal e-mail leaked to the press on August 18, 2008 from Griffin to NASA managers, [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] Griffin apparently communicated his belief that the current US administration had made no viable plan for US crews to participate in the ISS beyond 2011, and that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) were actually seeking its demise. [ 56 ] The e-mail appeared to suggest that Griffin believed the only reasonable solution was to extend the operation of the Space Shuttle beyond 2010, but noted that Executive Policy (i.e. the White House ) was firm that there would be no extension of the Space Shuttle retirement date, and thus no US capability to launch crews into orbit until the Orion spacecraft would become operational in 2020 as part of the Constellation programme . He did not see purchase of Russian launches for NASA crews as politically viable following the 2008 South Ossetia war , and hoped the incoming Barack Obama administration would resolve the issue in 2009 by extending Space Shuttle operations beyond 2010.
A solicitation issued by NASA JSC indicates NASA's intent to purchase from Roscosmos "a minimum of 3 Soyuz seats up to a maximum of 24 seats beginning in the Spring of 2012" to provide ISS crew transportation. [ 58 ] [ 59 ]
On September 7, 2008, NASA released a statement regarding the leaked email, in which Griffin said:
The leaked internal email fails to provide the contextual framework for my remarks, and my support for the administration's policies. Administration policy is to retire the shuttle in 2010 and purchase crew transport from Russia until Ares and Orion are available. The administration continues to support our request for an INKSNA exemption. Administration policy continues to be that we will take no action to preclude continued operation of the International Space Station past 2016. I strongly support these administration policies, as do OSTP and OMB.
On October 15, 2008, President Bush signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, giving NASA funding for one additional mission to "deliver science experiments to the station". [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63 ] [ 64 ] The Act allows for an additional Space Shuttle flight, STS-134 , to the ISS to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer , which was previously cancelled. [ 65 ]
President of the United States Barack Obama has supported the continued operation of the station, and supported the NASA Authorization Act of 2008. [ 65 ] Obama's plan for space exploration includes finishing the station and completion of the US programmes related to the Orion spacecraft . [ 66 ]
On 12 April 2021, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin , then-Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov announced he had decided that Russia might withdraw from the ISS programme in 2025. [ 67 ] [ 68 ] According to Russian authorities, the timeframe of the station's operations has expired and its condition leaves much to be desired. [ 67 ] On 26 July 2022, Borisov, who had become head of Roscosmos, submitted to Putin his plans for withdrawal from the programme after 2024. [ 69 ] However, Robyn Gatens, the NASA official in charge of space station operations, responded that NASA had not received any formal notices from Roscosmos concerning withdrawal plans. [ 70 ] On 21 September 2022, Borisov stated that Russia was "highly likely" to continue to participate in the ISS programme until 2028. [ 71 ]
Originally the ISS was planned to be a 15-year mission. [ 72 ] Therefore, an end of mission had been worked on, [ 73 ] but was several times postponed due to the success and support for the operation of the station. [ 74 ] As a result, the oldest modules of the ISS have been in orbit for more than 20 years, with their reliability having decreased. [ 73 ] It has been proposed to use funds elsewhere instead, for example for a return to the Moon. [ 74 ] According to the Outer Space Treaty , the parties are legally responsible for all spacecraft or modules they launch. [ 75 ] An unmaintained station would pose an orbital and re-entry hazard.
Russia has stated that it plans to pull out of the ISS program after 2025. [ 76 ] However, Russian modules will provide orbital station-keeping until 2028. [ 73 ]
The US planned in 2009 to deorbit the ISS in 2016. [ 74 ] But on 30 September 2015, Boeing's contract with NASA as prime contractor for the ISS was extended to 30 September 2020. Part of Boeing's services under the contract related to extending the station's primary structural hardware past 2020 to the end of 2028. [ 77 ] In July 2018, the Space Frontier Act of 2018 was intended to extend operations of the ISS to 2030. This bill was unanimously approved in the Senate, but failed to pass in the U.S. House. [ 78 ] [ 79 ] In September 2018, the Leading Human Spaceflight Act was introduced with the intent to extend operations of the ISS to 2030, and was confirmed in December 2018. [ 80 ] [ 81 ] [ 82 ] Congress later passed similar provisions in its CHIPS and Science Act , signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on 9 August 2022. [ 83 ] [ 84 ]
China has reportedly expressed interest in the project, especially if it would be able to work with the Russian Federal Space Agency . Due to national security concerns, the United States Congress passed a law prohibiting contact between US and Chinese space programmes. [ 86 ] As of 2019 [update] , China is not involved in the International Space Station. [ 87 ] In addition to national security concerns, United States objections include China's human rights record and issues surrounding technology transfer. [ 88 ] [ 89 ] The heads of both the South Korean and Indian space agencies announced at the first plenary session of the 2009 International Astronautical Congress on 12 October that their nations intend to join the ISS programme. The talks began in 2010, and were not successful. The heads of agency also expressed support for extending ISS lifetime. [ 90 ] European countries not a part of the International Space Station programme will be allowed access to the station in a three-year trial period, ESA officials say. [ 91 ] The Indian Space Research Organisation has made it clear that it will not join the ISS and will instead build its own space station. [ 92 ]
The International Space Station has been the target of varied criticism over the years. Critics contend that the time and money spent on the ISS could be better spent on other projects —whether they be robotic spacecraft missions, space exploration , investigations of problems here on Earth, or just tax savings. [ 95 ] Some critics, like Robert L. Park , argue that very little scientific research was convincingly planned for the ISS in the first place. [ 96 ] They also argue that the primary feature of a space-based laboratory is its microgravity environment , which can usually be studied more cheaply with a " vomit comet ". [ 97 ]
One of the most ambitious ISS modules to date, the Centrifuge Accommodations Module , has been cancelled due to the prohibitive costs NASA faces in simply completing the ISS. As a result, the research done on the ISS is generally limited to experiments which do not require any specialized apparatus. For example, in the first half of 2007, ISS research dealt primarily with human biological responses to being in space, covering topics like kidney stones , circadian rhythm , and the effects of cosmic rays on the nervous system . [ 98 ] [ 99 ] [ 100 ]
Other critics have attacked the ISS on some technical design grounds:
Critics [ who? ] also say that NASA is often casually credited with "spin-offs" (such as Velcro and portable computers) that were developed independently for other reasons. [ 103 ] NASA maintains a list of spin-offs from the construction of the ISS, as well as from work performed on the ISS. [ 104 ] [ 105 ]
In response to some of these criticisms, advocates of human space exploration say that criticism of the ISS programme is short-sighted, and that crewed space research and exploration have produced billions of dollars' worth of tangible benefits to people on Earth. Jerome Schnee estimated that the indirect economic return from spin-offs of human space exploration has been many times the initial public investment. [ 106 ] A review of the claims by the Federation of American Scientists argued that NASA's rate of return from spin-offs is actually "astoundingly bad", except for aeronautics work that has led to aircraft sales. [ 107 ]
It is therefore debatable whether the ISS, as distinct from the wider space programme, is a major contributor to society. Some advocates [ who? ] argue that apart from its scientific value, it is an important example of international cooperation. [ 108 ] Others [ who? ] claim that the ISS is an asset that, if properly leveraged, could allow more economical crewed Lunar and Mars missions. [ 109 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station_programme |
The International Structural Engineering and Construction Society ( ISEC ) is a non-profit professional body founded in 2001 to represent members of the civil engineering , structural engineering , and construction engineering profession worldwide. Based in Fargo, North Dakota , it offers educational conferences, seminars, and literature through an international network of advisors and regional representatives. [ 3 ]
"The mission of ISEC Conferences is to enhance communication and understanding between structural, system, and construction engineers, for successful design and construction of engineering projects. Interdisciplinary integration and international cooperation are encouraged. ISEC conferences promote innovative and integrative approaches in life cycle systems thinking in civil and building engineering that include constructability, specifications, design, bidding, and construction. It is the purpose of ISEC to provide an international forum for the discussion of topics important to developing new knowledge in construction and structural engineering. The aim of ISEC is to conduct such conferences at an international level.". [ 4 ]
ISEC hosts biennial international conferences and regional conferences. The international Conferences are held in all odd number years, while the regional conferences (ASEA SEC and EURO MED SEC) are held in even number years.
The upcoming conferences are scheduled to be held for LATAM SEC 2024 in Quito, Ecuador and for EURO MED SEC 5 in Vilnius, Lithuania [ 5 ]
In 2014, ISEC Society launched ISEC Press as a publishing subsidiary. The title is now known as "Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction," carrying an ISSN number of 2644-108X.
The articles go through a rigorous peer-review process. Abstracts are reviewed double-blind, whereas the manuscripts are reviewed single-blind. All articles go through similarity checks and an extensive copyediting process.
To date, ISEC has published its proceedings from international and regional conferences, containing more than 3,500 peer-reviewed papers from about 60 countries. These are accessible in the ISEC Proceedings Archive. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
ISEC Society conferences have been supported by a large number of professional organizations. [ 8 ]
All titles of the Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction carry a DOI number, are registered with Crossref as journal articles, indexed in Scopus , and archived in ClockSS . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Structural_Engineering_and_Construction_Society |
The International Symbol of Access ( ISA ), also known as the International Wheelchair Symbol , denotes areas where access has been improved, mostly for those with disabilities . It consists of a usually blue square overlaid in white (or in contrasting colours) with a stylized image of a person in a wheelchair . [ 1 ] It is maintained as the international standard ISO 7001 , image of the International Commission on Technology and Accessibility (ICTA), a committee of Rehabilitation International (RI). [ 2 ]
In the late 1960s, with the rise of universal design , there grew a need for a symbol to identify accessible facilities. [ 3 ] In 1968, Norman Acton, President of Rehabilitation International (RI), tasked Karl Montan, chairman of the International Commission of Technology and Accessibility (ICTA), to develop a symbol as a technical aid and present in the group's 1969 World Congress convention in Dublin. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
The project was arranged with the Scandinavian Students Organization (SDO) in Konstfack 's College of Arts. The symbol which would become the ISA was designed by Danish design student Susanne Koefoed. [ 6 ] She presented an early version of the symbol at the July 1968 exhibition held during the end of the SDO seminar. Koefoed's symbol depicts a stickfigure on a wheelchair. It is influenced by the contemporary design movement of Scandinavia in the 20th century, especially that of Austrian-American designer and lecturer Victor Papanek . [ 7 ]
The committee founded by Montan selected Koefoed's sketch alongside five other symbols. The revised design was modified with the addition of a circle for a head to give the impression of a seated figure, as Montan noted: "a slight inconvenience with the symbol is the equally thick lines, which may give an impression of a monogram of letters. With a 'head' on the symbol this inconvenience would disappear". [ 9 ] This was done without Koefoed's knowledge according to her own recounting. [ 7 ] [ 10 ]
The design was made public in 1969 and was widely promoted around Sweden. [ 7 ] It was approved in the conference gained prominence and usage through convenient signage created by 3M Corporation , and was later incorporated into the ISO 7001 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization . In 1974, it was formally accepted by the United Nations in an experts' meeting on disability. [ 3 ] [ 7 ]
The symbol is often seen where access has been improved, particularly for wheelchair users , but also for other disability issues. [ 12 ] Frequently, the symbol denotes the removal of environmental barriers, such as steps, which also helps older people, parents with baby carriages, and travellers. [ 13 ] Universal design aims to obviate such symbols by creating products and facilities that are accessible to nearly all users from the start. The wheelchair symbol is "international" and therefore not accompanied by Braille in any particular language.
Specific uses of the ISA include:
Building codes such as the California Building Code, require "a white figure on a blue background. The blue shall be equal to Color No. 15090 in Federal Standard 595B." [ 14 ]
In 2010, artists Sara Hendren, Brian Glenney , and Tim Ferguson Sauder co-founded the Accessible Icon project, an art project in order to design a new icon with focus on the person with disability, as they felt that the old icon felt "robotic" and "stiff". [ 15 ] It underwent many versions until arriving at the current, dynamic design depicting a person leaning forward and arms raised to indicate movement.
Some disability organizations such as Enabling Unit in India have promoted the icon. [ 16 ] This version of the symbol is officially used in the U.S. states of New York and Connecticut. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] The Modified ISA is in the permanent collection of Museum of Modern Art in New York. [ 19 ] In Canada, it is permitted as an alternative option in the British Columbia Building Codes 2024 edition, but not yet permitted in the national parent code or Alberta edition. [ 20 ]
The Accessible Icon has also had detractors within the disabled community. According to Emma Teitel of the Toronto Star , critics say that the modified image does not universally represent all disabled people, since it socially stigmatizes those who have a disability but do not use a wheelchair. [ 21 ] Critics have defended the old International Symbol of Access for its more abstract design, which leaves more to the imagination and can represent any disability. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
In May 2015, the Federal Highway Administration rejected the new design for use on road signs in the United States, citing the fact that it has not been adopted or endorsed by the U.S. Access Board , the agency responsible for developing the federal criteria for accessible design. The International Organization for Standardization , which established the regular use of the original symbol under ISO 7001 , has also rejected the design. [ 24 ]
In 2024, the new design has been integrated in the improved European Parking card for persons with disabilities. [ 25 ]
The International Symbol of Access is assigned the Unicode emoji code point U+ 267F ♿ WHEELCHAIR SYMBOL , and it was added to Unicode 4.1 in 2005 as part of Emoji 1.0 . [ 26 ] In 2016 with the release of iOS 10.0 , Apple updated the emoji to use the Accessible Icon. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Symbol_of_Access |
ISSAC , the International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation , is an academic conference in the field of computer algebra . ISSAC has been organized annually since 1988, [ 1 ] typically in July. The conference is regularly sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery special interest group SIGSAM , and the proceedings since 1989 have been published by ACM. [ 2 ] ISSAC is considered as being one of the most influential conferences for the publication of scientific computing research. [ 3 ]
The first ISSAC took place in Rome on 4–8 July 1988. It succeeded a series of meetings held between 1966 and 1987 under the names SYMSAM, SYMSAC, EUROCAL, EUROSAM and EUROCAM. [ 4 ]
Typical topics include: [ 6 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Symposium_on_Symbolic_and_Algebraic_Computation |
The International System Safety Society (ISSS) is a non-profit professional organization for system safety engineers. ISSS was established in 1963 to support the development of system safety as a distinct engineering discipline.
ISSS has local chapters in several states across the United States, as well as in Singapore and Canada. The society currently has members from over 25 countries across the world.
The event recognized as the founding of the Society occurred on December 4, 1963, in the main lecture hall at the School of Aviation Safety on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. The gathering consisted of about 40 individuals, including many students and others from the USAF Aerospace Safety Center, some USC faculty members, along with system safety representatives of the numerous aerospace companies located in the area. [ 1 ]
Since the first event in 1972, the society has sponsored the annual International System Safety Conference. The society also sponsors annual member awards which are presented at the annual awards banquet during the International System Safety Conference. In addition, the society and local chapters organize webinars and symposia for society members.
ISSS is also one of the sponsoring societies for the annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium. [ 2 ] The society is also a sponsor of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) Global Learning Summit. [ 3 ]
The society publishes the Journal of System Safety , a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal , as well as periodic member newsletters and formerly the System Safety Analysis Handbook . [ 4 ] The journal was established in 1965 as Hazard Prevention and obtained its current name in 1999. It is considered one of the important journals in the field of reliability and safety and is one of the oldest in continuous publication. [ 5 ] The journal seeks to advance the discipline of system safety across a wide range of application domains, including aerospace, automotive, nuclear power, and military applications. The editor-in-chief is Charles Muniak (Syracuse Safety Research). In 2022 the journal began transitioning to a gold open access publishing model with no article processing charges . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_Safety_Society |
The International System for Human Cytogenomic Nomenclature ( ISCN ; previously the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature ) is an international standard for human chromosome nomenclature , which includes band names, symbols, and abbreviated terms used in the description of human chromosome and chromosome abnormalities .
The ISCN has been used as the central reference among cytogeneticists since 1960. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Abbreviations of this system include a minus sign (-) for chromosome deletions, and del for deletions of parts of a chromosome. [ 4 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_for_Human_Cytogenomic_Nomenclature |
The International System of Quantities ( ISQ ) is a standard system of quantities used in physics and in modern science in general. It includes basic quantities such as length and mass and the relationships between those quantities. [ a ] This system underlies the International System of Units (SI) [ b ] but does not itself determine the units of measurement used for the quantities.
The system is formally described in a multi-part ISO standard ISO/IEC 80000 (which also defines many other quantities used in science and technology), first completed in 2009 and subsequently revised and expanded.
The base quantities of a given system of physical quantities is a subset of those quantities, where no base quantity can be expressed in terms of the others, but where every quantity in the system can be expressed in terms of the base quantities. Within this constraint, the set of base quantities is chosen by convention. There are seven ISQ base quantities . The symbols for them, as for other quantities, are written in italics. [ 1 ]
The dimension of a physical quantity does not include magnitude or units. The conventional symbolic representation of the dimension of a base quantity is a single upper-case letter in roman (upright) sans-serif [ c ] type.
A derived quantity is a quantity in a system of quantities that is defined in terms of only the base quantities of that system. The ISQ defines many derived quantities and corresponding derived units .
The conventional symbolic representation of the dimension of a derived quantity is the product of powers of the dimensions of the base quantities according to the definition of the derived quantity. The dimension of a quantity is denoted by L a M b T c I d Θ e N f J g {\displaystyle {\mathsf {L}}^{a}{\mathsf {M}}^{b}{\mathsf {T}}^{c}{\mathsf {I}}^{d}{\mathsf {\Theta }}^{e}{\mathsf {N}}^{f}{\mathsf {J}}^{g}} , where the dimensional exponents are positive, negative, or zero. The dimension symbol may be omitted if its exponent is zero. For example, in the ISQ, the quantity dimension of velocity is denoted L T − 1 {\displaystyle {\mathsf {LT}}^{-1}} . The following table lists some quantities defined by the ISQ.
A quantity of dimension one is historically known as a dimensionless quantity (a term that is still commonly used); all its dimensional exponents are zero and its dimension symbol is 1 {\displaystyle 1} . Such a quantity can be regarded as a derived quantity in the form of the ratio of two quantities of the same dimension. The named dimensionless units " radian " (rad) and " steradian " (sr) are acceptable for distinguishing dimensionless quantities of different kind, respectively plane angle and solid angle . [ 3 ]
The level of a quantity is defined as the logarithm of the ratio of the quantity with a stated reference value of that quantity. Within the ISQ it is differently defined for a root-power quantity (also known by the deprecated term field quantity ) and for a power quantity. It is not defined for ratios of quantities of other kinds. Within the ISQ, all levels are treated as derived quantities of dimension 1. [ citation needed ] Several units for levels are defined by the SI and classified as "non-SI units accepted for use with the SI units". [ 4 ] An example of level is sound pressure level , with the unit of decibel .
Units of logarithmic frequency ratio include the octave , corresponding to a factor of 2 in frequency (precisely) and the decade , corresponding to a factor 10.
The ISQ recognizes another logarithmic quantity, information entropy , for which the coherent unit is the natural unit of information (symbol nat). [ citation needed ]
The system is formally described in a multi-part ISO standard ISO/IEC 80000 , first completed in 2009 but subsequently revised and expanded, which replaced standards published in 1992, ISO 31 and ISO 1000 . Working jointly, ISO and IEC have formalized parts of the ISQ by giving information and definitions concerning quantities, systems of quantities, units, quantity and unit symbols, and coherent unit systems, with particular reference to the ISQ. ISO/IEC 80000 defines physical quantities that are measured with the SI units [ 5 ] and also includes many other quantities in modern science and technology. [ 1 ] The name "International System of Quantities" is used by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) to describe the system of quantities that underlie the International System of Units . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Quantities |
The International Technical Development Center (ITDC, German Internationales Technisches Entwicklungszentrum ITEZ ) is one of the engineering and design centers of Groupe PSA , and was the main engineering and design centre of General Motors in Europe, having been sold with the complete Opel/Vauxhall automobile business and the two brands Opel and Vauxhall to the Groupe PSA by August 1, 2017.
It is situated in Rüsselsheim am Main (Ruesselsheim) in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main of Hesse , Germany. It is situated next to the Opel Rüsselsheim Plant , separated only by the Mainbahn railway line. Next to it is the European Design Center, and also the Opel business administration. [ 1 ]
It is one of PSA's technical development and design centers in Europe, being formerly the main design centre for General Motors in Europe. It has been assigned the leading role as "Competence Center" in a number of areas, among them alternative fuels and adaptation for the US market. On April 4, 2018 PSA and Opel announced that a group in the ITEZ would lead the development of a special platform for Light Commercial Vehicles and lead future LCV development from conception to production. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Technical_Development_Center |
The international Thorium Energy Committee (iThEC) [ 1 ] was founded in late 2012 at CERN in Geneva by scientists, engineers, political figures and industrialists under the leadership of its honorary president Carlo Rubbia , to promote the cause of using thorium as a means of reducing existing and future nuclear waste, and also for generating electricity.
After its founding, the first action of the committee was to organise an international conference on Thorium , ThEC13, [ 2 ] using mostly private funding and institutional support from CERN . The conference lasted four days and attracted wide support from research institutes, energy companies and private individuals who contributed to the establishment of the current state-of-the-art in Thorium technology. Amongst the many contributions to the conference, one may note the announcement of the decision by the companies Solvay and Areva to jointly fund research in Thorium development [ 3 ] and the tests by the Norwegian company Thor energy [ 4 ] of Thorium fuel rods in the Halden Reactor . [ 5 ]
The Committee is expanding its membership to reach a wider audience and attracted to the ThEC13 conference keynote speakers such as Pascal Couchepin , former president of the Swiss confederation and member of the Liberal Party of Switzerland and Hans Blix , former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Thorium_Energy_Committee |
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture [ 2 ] (also known as ITPGRFA , International Seed Treaty or Plant Treaty [ 3 ] ) is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity , which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation , exchange and sustainable use of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use, as well as the recognition of farmers' rights . It was signed in 2001 in Madrid, and entered into force on 29 June 2004.
There are 153 contracting parties to the Plant Treaty (152 Member States and 1 intergovernmental organization , the European Union ) as of July 2024. [ 4 ]
The treaty recognises farmers' rights , subject to national laws to: a) the protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; b) the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilisation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; and c) the right to participate in making decisions , at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The Treaty establishes the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing to facilitate plant germplasm exchanges and benefit sharing through Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA). [ citation needed ]
However, as Regine Andersen of the farmers' rights project, [ 5 ] among others, including Olivier De Schutter , the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food , [ 6 ] argue, the interpretation and realisation of farmers' rights is weak and is not the same across all countries. Without a consistent, strong international focus on realising the rights of farmers who conserve and sustainably use PGRFA to save, use, exchange and sell seeds saved on-farm, genetic variety of crops and related agricultural biodiversity will suffer. [ 7 ] India, for example, includes an interpretation of farmers' rights in its Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001, allowing farmers a restricted right to save and sell seed they have produced on-farm as they always have, even if it contains genes from a protected variety. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
In 2019, the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas reaffirmed the farmers' rights contained in the Plant Treaty. [ citation needed ]
The treaty has implemented a Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit sharing, among those countries that ratify the treaty, for a list of 64 of some of the most important food and forage crops essential for food security and interdependence. The genera and species are listed in Annex 1 to the treaty. [ citation needed ]
The treaty was negotiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) and since 2006 has its own Governing Body under the aegis of the FAO. The Governing Body is the highest organ of the Treaty as established in Article 19. Composed of representatives of all Contracting Parties, its basic function is to promote the full implementation of the Treaty, including the provision of policy guidance on the implementation of the Treaty. The Governing Body elects its Chairperson and Vice-Chairpersons, in conformity with its Rules of Procedure. They are collectively referred to as "the Bureau". [ citation needed ]
Some believe the treaty could be an example of responsible global governance for ensuring that plant genetic resources essential for present and future food security can be kept accessible to all farmers and in the public domain. Chapter 7 of the Second Report on the State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (SoWPGR-2) [ 10 ] entitled "Access to Plant Genetic Resources, the sharing of benefits arising out of their utilization and the realization of Farmers' Rights" is mainly dedicated to the International Treaty. [ citation needed ]
Even foods that have been part of a culture for centuries often are indigenous to a region on the other side of the world. This global dispersal shows the generosity with which farmers and farming communities have always shared seeds and genetic materials with neighbors or through trade. As people ventured forth, looking for new lands, their seeds were part of their diasporas. As a result, we now live in a world in which not one country can be considered self-sufficient in terms of being able to survive solely on crops indigenous within its borders. The Treaty facilitates the continued open exchange of food crops and their genetic materials. [ 21 ]
The list of plant genetic material included in the Multilateral System of the Treaty is made of major food crops and forages. The Forages are also divided in legume forages and grass forages. They were selected taking into account the criteria of food security and country interdependence. [ 22 ]
The treaty was under negotiation for 7 years. A previous voluntary agreement, the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IU), was adopted in 1983. However, the IU was reliant on the principle of genetic resources being the common heritage of humanity. [ 23 ] The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1993) brought genetic resources under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of national governments. However, the CBD recognised the special and distinctive nature of agricultural genetic resources: they were international – crossing countries and continents – their conservation and sustainable use requires distinctive solutions and they were important internationally for food security. Subsequently, the IU was renegotiated, to bring it in harmony with the CBD, and was renamed as a treaty. An account of the long process to achieve the treaty called Negotiating the Seed Treaty can be found at Wayback Machine .
The treaty was approved during the FAO Conference (31st Session resolution 3/2001 [ 24 ] ) on 3 November 2001, with 116 votes and 2 abstentions (US and Japan). In accordance with its Article 25, it was opened for signatures until 4 November 2002 by all members of FAO or any state member of the United Nations or of the International Atomic Energy Agency . It was subject to ratification, acceptance or approval (Article 26), by all members.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was open to accession a year after adoption and once closed to signatures (Article 27), i.e., on 4 November 2002. 77 countries and the European Union had signed the treaty by that date.
In accordance with Article 28, the treaty entered into force on the ninetieth day after the deposit of the fortieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, provided that at least twenty instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession have been deposited by Members of FAO. Having reached the required number of instruments in order for the treaty to enter into force (40) on 31 March 2004, on which date 13 instruments (including the European Union) were deposited with the Director-General of FAO, the date of entry into force was on 29 June 2004.
Plant genetic resources are essential to a sustainable agriculture and food security . FAO estimates humans have used some 10,000 species for food throughout history. However, only about 120 cultivated species provide around 90% of food requirements and four species (maize, wheat, rice and potatoes) provide about 60% of human dietary energy for the world's population. Of the myriad of varieties of these crops developed by farmers over millennia, which form an important part of agricultural biodiversity , more than 75% have been lost in the past 100 years. [ citation needed ]
Some fear that corporate financial interests might prevent safeguarding of livelihoods, promotion of food security, biodiversity-rich farming under control of local communities, and implementation of Farmers' Rights. [ citation needed ]
Critics say many of the central issues are unresolved or open to interpretation. Some of the points raised are:
The treaty came into force on 29 June 2004, at which time there were more than 54 ratifications by countries. An article prepared on the occasion of the treaty becoming law is posted at International Seed Treaty becomes Law - 29 June 2004 . From the entry into force, countries that previously signed are allowed to ratify the treaty, while countries that did not sign the treaty before it came into force can also accede to it. The instrument of ratification has to be deposited with the Director-General of FAO. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Treaty_on_Plant_Genetic_Resources_for_Food_and_Agriculture |
International Ultraviolet Explorer ( IUE or Explorer 57 , formerly SAS-D) [ 2 ] was the first space observatory primarily designed to take ultraviolet (UV) electromagnetic spectrum . The satellite was a collaborative project between NASA , the United Kingdom 's Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC, formerly UKSRC) and the European Space Agency (ESA), formerly European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). The mission was first proposed in early 1964, by a group of scientists in the United Kingdom, and was launched on 26 January 1978, 17:36:00 UTC aboard a NASA Thor-Delta 2914 launch vehicle . The mission lifetime was initially set for 3 years, but in the end, it lasted 18 years, with the satellite being shut down in 1996. The switch-off occurred for financial reasons, while the telescope was still functioning at near original efficiency.
It was the first space observatory to be operated in real-time by astronomers who visited the ground stations in the United States and Spain. Astronomers made over 104,000 observations using the IUE, of objects ranging from Solar System bodies to distant quasars . Among the significant scientific results from IUE data were the first large-scale studies of stellar winds , accurate measurements of the way interstellar dust absorbs light, and measurements of the supernova SN 1987A which showed that it defied stellar evolution theories as they then stood. When the mission ended, it was considered the most successful astronomical satellite ever. [ 3 ]
The human eye can perceive light with wavelengths between roughly 350 (violet) and 700 (red) nanometres . Ultraviolet light has wavelengths between roughly 10 nm and 350 nm. UV light can be harmful to human beings and is strongly absorbed by the ozone layer . This makes it impossible to observe UV emission from astronomical objects from the ground. Many types of objects emit copious quantities of UV radiation, though: the hottest and most massive stars in the universe can have surface temperatures high enough that the vast majority of their light is emitted in the UV. Active Galactic Nuclei , accretion disks , and supernovae all emit UV radiation strongly, and many chemical elements have strong absorption lines in the UV so that UV absorption by the interstellar medium provides a powerful tool for studying its composition.
Ultraviolet astronomy was impossible before the Space Age , and some of the first space telescopes were UV telescopes designed to observe this previously inaccessible region of the electromagnetic spectrum . One particular success was the second Orbiting Astronomical Observatory ( OAO-2 ), which had a number of 20 cm (7.9 in) UV telescopes on board. It was launched in 1968 and took the first UV observations of 1200 objects, mostly stars. [ 4 ] The success of OAO-2 motivated astronomers to consider larger missions.
The orbiting ultraviolet satellite which ultimately became the IUE mission was first proposed in 1964 by British astronomer Robert Wilson . [ 5 ] The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was planning a Large Astronomical Satellite (LAS), and had sought proposals from the astronomical community for its aims and design. Wilson headed a British team which proposed an ultraviolet spectrograph , and their design was recommended for acceptance in 1966.
However, management problems and cost overruns led to the cancellation of the LAS program in 1968. [ 5 ] Wilson's team scaled down their plans and submitted a more modest proposal to ESRO, but this was not selected as the Cosmic Ray satellite was given precedence. Rather than give up on the idea of an orbiting UV telescope, they instead sent their plans to NASA astronomer Leo Goldberg , and in 1973 the plans were approved. The proposed telescope was renamed the International Ultraviolet Explorer . [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
The telescope was designed from the start to be operated in real-time, rather than by remote control. This required that it would be launched into a geosynchronous orbit – that is, one with a period equal to one sidereal day of 23 h 56 m. A satellite in such an orbit remains visible from a given point on the Earth's surface for many hours at a time, and can thus transmit to a single ground station for a long period of time. Most space observatories in Earth orbit, such as the Hubble Space Telescope , are in a low Earth orbit in which they spend most of their time operating autonomously because only a small fraction of the Earth's surface can see them at a given time. Hubble, for example, orbits the Earth at an altitude of approximately 600 km (370 mi), while a geosynchronous orbit has an average altitude of 36,000 km (22,000 mi).
As well as allowing continuous communications with ground stations, a geosynchronous orbit also allows a larger portion of the sky to be viewed continuously. Because the distance from Earth is greater, the Earth occupies a much smaller portion of the sky as seen from the satellite than it does from low Earth orbit.
A launch into a geosynchronous orbit requires much more energy for a given weight of payload than a launch into a low Earth orbit. This meant that the telescope had to be relatively small, with a 45 cm (18 in) primary mirror, and a total weight of 312 kg (688 lb). [ 7 ] Hubble, in comparison, weighs 11.1 tonnes and has a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror. The largest ground-based telescope, the Gran Telescopio Canarias , has a primary mirror 10.4 m (34 ft) across. A smaller mirror means less light-gathering power, and less spatial resolution, compared to a larger mirror.
The stated aims of the telescope at the start of the mission were: [ 8 ]
The telescope was constructed as a joint project between NASA, ESRO (which became ESA in 1975) and the United Kingdom's SERC. SERC provided the Vidicon cameras for the spectrographs as well as software for the scientific instruments. ESA provided the solar arrays to power the spacecraft as well as a ground observing facility in Villafranca del Castillo , Spain . NASA contributed the telescope, spectrograph, and spacecraft as well as launching facilities and a second ground observatory in Greenbelt, Maryland at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
According to the agreement setting up the project the observing time would be divided between the contributing agencies with 2/3 to NASA, 1/6 to ESA and 1/6 to the UK's SERC.
The telescope mirror was a reflector of the Ritchey–Chrétien telescope type, which has hyperbolic primary and secondary mirrors. The primary was 45 cm (18 in) across. The telescope was designed to give high-quality images over a 16 arcminute field of view (about half the apparent diameter of the Sun or Moon ). The primary mirror was made of beryllium , and the secondary of fused silica – materials chosen for their light weight, moderate cost, and optical quality.
The instrumentation on board consisted of the Fine Error Sensors (FES), which were used for pointing and guiding the telescope, a high-resolution and a low-resolution spectrograph, and four detectors.
There were two Fine Error Sensors (FES), and their first purpose was to image the field of view of the telescope in visible light . They could detect stars down to 14th magnitude , about 1500 times fainter than can be seen with the naked eye from Earth . The image was transmitted to the ground station, where the observer would verify that the telescope was pointing at the correct field, and then acquire the exact object to be observed. If the object to be observed was fainter than 14th magnitude, the observer would point the telescope at a star that could be seen, and then apply "blind" offsets, determined from the coordinates of the objects. The accuracy of the pointing was generally better than 2 arcsecond for blind offsets [ 9 ]
The FES acquisition images were the telescope's only imaging capability; for UV observations, it only recorded spectrum . For this, it was equipped with two spectrographs. They were called the Short Wavelength Spectrograph (SWS) and the Long Wavelength Spectrograph (LWS) and covered wavelength ranges of 115 to 200 nanometres and 185 to 330 nm respectively. Each spectrograph had both high and low-resolution modes, with spectral resolutions of 0.02 and 0.60-nm respectively. [ 10 ]
The spectrographs could be used with either of two apertures. The larger aperture was a slot with a field of view roughly 10 × 20 arcseconds; the smaller aperture was a circle about 3 arcseconds in diameter. The quality of the telescope optics was such that point sources appeared about 3 arcseconds across, so the use of the smaller aperture required very accurate pointing, and it did not necessarily capture all of the light from the object. The larger aperture was therefore most commonly used, and the smaller aperture was only used when the larger field of view would have contained unwanted emission from other objects. [ 10 ]
There were two cameras for each spectrograph, one designated the primary and the second being redundant in case of failure of the first. The cameras were named LWP, LWR, SWP and SWR where P stands for prime, R for redundant and LW/SW for long/short wavelength . The cameras were television cameras , sensitive only to visible light, and light gathered by the telescope and spectrographs first fell on a UV-to-visible converter. This was a caesium - tellurium cathode , which was inert when exposed to visible light, but which gave off electrons when struck by UV photons due to the photoelectric effect . The electrons were then detected by the TV cameras. The signal could be integrated for up to many hours, before being transmitted to Earth at the end of the exposure. [ 7 ]
The IUE was launched from Kennedy Space Center , Florida on a Thor-Delta launch vehicle, on 26 January 1978. [ 11 ] It was launched into a transfer orbit , from which its onboard launch vehicle fired it into its planned geosynchronous orbit. The orbit was inclined by 28.6° to the Earth's equator and had an orbital eccentricity of 0.24, meaning that the satellite's distance from Earth varied between 25,669 km (15,950 mi) and 45,887 km (28,513 mi). [ 7 ] The ground track was initially centered at a longitude of approximately 70° West.
The first 60 days of the mission were designated as the commissioning period. This was divided into three main stages. Firstly, as soon as its instruments were switched on, the IUE observed a small number of high-priority objects, to ensure that some data had been taken in the event of an early failure. The first spectrum, of the star Eta Ursae Majoris , was taken for calibration purposes three days after launch. [ 11 ] The first science observations targeted objects including the Moon , the planets from Mars to Uranus , hot stars including Eta Carinae , cool giant stars including Epsilon Eridani , the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 , and galaxies including Messier 81 (M81) and Messier 87 (M87). [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]
Then, the spacecraft systems were tested and optimized. The telescope was focused, and the prime and redundant cameras in both channels were tested. It was found that the SWR camera did not work properly, and so the SWP camera was used throughout the mission. Initially, this camera suffered from significant electronic noise, but this was traced to a sensor used to align the telescope after launch. Once this sensor was switched off, the camera performed as expected. [ 11 ] The cameras were then adjusted for best performance, and the slewing and guiding performance of the telescope was evaluated and optimized [ 17 ]
Finally, image quality and spectral resolution were studied and characterized, and the performance of the telescope, spectrographs and cameras were calibrated using observations of well-known stars . [ 17 ] After these three phases were completed, the "routine phase" of operations began on 3 April 1978. Optimization, evaluation and calibration operations were far from complete, but the telescope was understood well enough for routine science observations to begin. [ 17 ]
Use of the telescope was divided between NASA, ESA and United Kingdom in approximate proportion to their relative contributions to the satellite construction: two-thirds of the time was available to NASA, and one-sixth each to ESA and United Kingdom. Telescope time was obtained by submitting proposals, which were reviewed annually. Each of the three agencies considered applications separately for its allocated observing time. [ 18 ] Astronomers of any nationality could apply for telescope time, choosing whichever agency they preferred to apply to. If an astronomer was awarded time, then when their observations were scheduled, they would travel to the ground stations which operated the satellite, so that they could see and evaluate their data as it was taken. This mode of operation was very different from most space facilities, for which data is taken with no real-time input from the astronomer concerned, and instead resembled the use of ground-based telescopes.
For most of its lifetime, the telescope was operated in three eight-hour shifts each day, two from the U.S. ground station at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland , and one from the ESA ground station at Villanueva de la Cañada near Madrid . [ 19 ] Because of its elliptical orbit, the spacecraft spent part of each day in the Van Allen radiation belts , during which time science observations suffered from higher background noise. This time occurred during the second U.S. shift each day and was generally used for calibration observations and spacecraft "housekeeping", as well as for science observations that could be done with short exposure times. [ 20 ] The twice-daily transatlantic handovers required telephone contact between Spain and the United States to coordinate the switch. Observations were not coordinated between the stations so that the astronomers taking over after the handover would not know where the telescope would be pointing when their shift started. This sometimes meant that observing shifts started with a lengthy pointing maneuver, but allowed maximum flexibility in scheduling of observing blocks.
Data was transmitted to Earth in real-time at the end of each science observation. The camera read-out formed an image of 768 × 768 pixels , and the analogue-to-digital converter resulted in a dynamic range of 8 bits . [ 7 ] The data was then transmitted to Earth via one of six transmitters on the spacecraft; four were S-band transmitters, placed at points around the spacecraft such that no matter what its attitude, one could transmit to the ground, and two were Very high frequency (VHF) transmitters, which could sustain a lower bandwidth , but consumed less power, and also transmitted in all directions. The VHF transmitters were used when the spacecraft was in the Earth's shadow and thus reliant on battery power instead of solar power. [ 21 ]
In normal operations, observers could hold the telescope in position and wait approximately 20 minutes for the data to be transmitted, if they wanted the option of repeating the observation, or they could slew to the next target and then start the data transmission to Earth while observing the next target. The data transmitted were used for "quick look" purposes only, and full calibration was carried out by IUE staff later. Astronomers were then sent their data on magnetic tape by post, about a week after processing. From the date of the observation, the observers had a six-month proprietary period during which only they had access to the data. After six months, it became public. [ 22 ]
The IUE allowed astronomers their first view of the ultraviolet light from many celestial objects and was used to study objects ranging from Solar System planets to distant quasars. During its lifetime, hundreds of astronomers observed with IUE, and during its first decade of operations, over 1500 peer reviewed scientific articles based on IUE data were published. Nine symposia of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) were devoted to discussions of IUE results. [ 23 ]
All the planets in the Solar System except Mercury were observed; the telescope could not point at any part of the sky within 45° of the Sun, and Mercury's greatest angular distance from the Sun is only about 28°. IUE observations of Venus showed that the amount of sulfur monoxide and sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere declined by a large amount during the 1980s. [ 24 ] The reason for this decline is not yet fully understood, but one hypothesis is that a large volcanic eruption had injected sulfur compounds into the atmosphere, and that they were declining following the end of the eruption. [ 25 ]
Halley's Comet reached perihelion in 1986, and was observed intensively with the IUE, as well as with a large number of other ground-based and satellite missions. UV spectra were used to estimate the rate at which the comet lost dust and gas, and the IUE observations allowed astronomers to estimate that a total of 3×10 8 tons of water evaporated from the comet during its passage through the inner Solar System. [ 26 ]
Some of the most significant results from IUE came in the studies of hot stars. A star that is hotter than about 10,000 K emits most of its radiation in the UV, and thus if it can only be studied in visible light, a large amount of information is being lost. The vast majority of all stars are cooler than the Sun, but the fraction that is hotter includes massive, highly luminous stars which shed enormous quantities of matter into interstellar space, and also white dwarf stars, which are the end stage of stellar evolution for the vast majority of all stars and which have temperatures as high as 100,000 K when they first form.
The IUE discovered many instances of white dwarf companions to main sequence stars. An example of this kind of system is Sirius , and at visible wavelengths, the main sequence star is far brighter than the white dwarf. However, in the UV, the white dwarf can be as bright or brighter, as its higher temperature means it emits most of its radiation at these shorter wavelengths. In these systems, the white dwarf was originally the heavier star but has shed most of its mass during the later stages of its evolution. Binary stars provide the only direct way to measure the mass of stars, from observations of their orbital motions. Thus, observations of binary stars where the two components are at such different stages of stellar evolution can be used to determine the relationship between the mass of stars and how they evolve. [ 27 ]
Stars with masses of around ten times that of the Sun or higher have powerful stellar winds . The Sun loses about 10 −14 solar masses per year in its solar wind , which travels at up to around 750 km/s (470 mi/s), but the massive stars can lose as much as a billion times more material each year in winds traveling at several thousand kilometers per second. These stars exist for a few million years, and during this time the stellar wind carries away a significant fraction of their mass and plays a crucial role in determining whether they explode as supernova or not. [ 28 ] This stellar mass loss was first discovered using rocket-borne telescopes in the 1960s, but the IUE allowed astronomers to observe a very large number of stars, allowing the first proper studies of how stellar mass loss is related to mass and luminosity. [ 29 ] [ 30 ]
In 1987, a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud exploded as a supernova . Designated SN 1987A , this event was of enormous importance to astronomy, as it was the closest known supernova to Earth, and the first visible to the naked eye , since Kepler's star in 1604 – before the invention of the telescope . The opportunity to study a supernova so much more closely than had ever been possible before triggered intense observing campaigns at all major astronomical facilities, and the first IUE observations were made about 14 hours after the discovery of the supernova. [ 31 ]
IUE data were used to determine that the progenitor star had been a blue supergiant , where theory had strongly expected a red supergiant . [ 32 ] Hubble Space Telescope images revealed a nebula surrounding the progenitor star which consisted of mass lost by the star long before it exploded; IUE studies of this material showed that it was rich in nitrogen , which is formed in the CNO cycle – a chain of nuclear reactions which produces most of the energy emitted by stars much more massive than the Sun. [ 33 ] Astronomers inferred that the star had been a red supergiant, and had shed a large amount of matter into space, before evolving into a blue supergiant and exploding.
The IUE was used extensively to investigate the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is normally observed by looking at background sources such as hot stars or quasars; interstellar material absorbs some of the light from the background source and so its composition and velocity can be studied. One of IUE's early discoveries was that the Milky Way is surrounded by a vast halo of hot gas, known as a galactic corona . [ 34 ] The hot gas, heated by cosmic rays and supernova , extends several thousand light years above and below the plane of the Milky Way. [ 35 ]
IUE data was also crucial in determining how the light from distant sources is affected by dust along the line of sight. Almost all astronomical observations are affected by this interstellar extinction , and correcting for it is the first step in most analyses of astronomical spectra and images. IUE data was used to show that within the galaxy, interstellar extinction can be well described by a few simple equations. The relative variation of extinction with wavelength shows little variation with direction; only the absolute amount of absorption changes. Interstellar absorption in other galaxies can similarly be described by fairly simple "laws". [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 38 ]
The IUE vastly increased astronomers' understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Before its launch, 3C 273 , the first known quasar, was the only AGN that had ever been observed at UV wavelengths. With IUE, UV spectra of AGN became widely available.
One particular target was NGC 4151 , the brightest Seyfert galaxy . Starting soon after IUE's launch, a group of European astronomers pooled their observing time to repeatedly observe the galaxy, to measure variations over time of its UV emission. They found that the UV variation was much greater than that seen at optical and infrared wavelengths. IUE observations were used to study the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, with its mass being estimated at between 50 and 100 million times that of the Sun. [ 39 ] The UV emission varied on timescales of a few days, implying that the region of emission was only a few light days across. [ 23 ]
Quasar observations were used to probe intergalactic space. Clouds of hydrogen gas in between the Earth and a given quasar will absorb some of its emission at the wavelength of Lyman alpha . Because the clouds and the quasar are all at different distances from Earth, and moving at different velocities due to the expansion of the universe , the quasar spectrum has a "forest" of absorption features at wavelengths shorter than its own Lyman alpha emission. Before IUE, observations of this so-called Lyman-alpha forest were limited to very distant quasars, for which the redshift caused by the expansion of the universe brought it into optical wavelengths. IUE allowed nearer quasars to be studied, and astronomers used this data to determine that there are fewer hydrogen clouds in the nearby universe than there are in the distant universe. The implication is that over time, these clouds have formed into galaxies. [ 40 ]
This experiment included the ultraviolet spectrograph package carried by the IUE, consisting of two physically distinct echelle-spectrograph/camera units capable of astronomical observations. Each spectrograph was a three-element echelle system composed of an off-axis paraboloidal collimator, an echelle grating, and a spherical first-order grating that was used to separate the echelle orders and focus the spectral display on an image converter plus SEC Vidicon camera. There was a spare camera for each unit. The camera units were able to integrate the signal. The readout/preparation cycle for the cameras took approximately 20 minutes. Wavelength calibration was provided by the use of a hollow cathode comparison lamp. The photometric calibration was accomplished by observing standard stars whose spectral fluxes had previously been calibrated by other means.
Both echelle-spectrograph/camera units were capable of high-resolution (0.1 Angstrom (A)) or low-resolution (6 A) performance. The dual high/low-resolution capability was implemented by the insertion of a flat mirror in front of the echelle grating so that the only dispersion was provided by the spherical grating. As the SEC Vidicons could integrate the signal for up to many hours, data with a signal-to-noise ratio of 50 could be obtained for B0 stars of 9th and 14th magnitudes in the high- and low-resolution modes, respectively.
The distinguishing characteristic of the units was their wavelength coverage. One unit covered the wavelength range from 1192 to 1924 A in the high-resolution mode and 1135 to 2085 A in the low-resolution mode. For the other unit, the ranges were from 1893 to 3031 A and 1800 to 3255 A for the high-and low-resolution modes, respectively. Each unit also had its own choice of entrance apertures: either a 3-arcsecond hole or a 10- by 20-arcsecond slot. The 10- by 20-arcsecond slots could be blocked by a common shutter, but the 3-arcsecond aperture was always open. As a result, two aperture configurations were possible: (1) both 3-arcsecond apertures open and both 10- by 20-arcsecond slots closed, or (2) all four apertures open. With this instrumentation, the observational options open to an observer were long-wavelength and/or short-wavelength spectrograph, high or low resolution, and large or small apertures. Exposures could be made with the two spectrographs simultaneously, but the entrance apertures for each were distinct and separated in the sky by about 1 arcminute. An additional restriction was that data could be read out from only one camera at a time. However, one camera could be exposed while the other camera was being read out. The choice of high or low resolution could be made independently for the two spectrographs. [ 41 ]
The particle flux monitor experiment was placed in IUE to monitor the trapped electron fluxes that affected the sensitivity of the ultraviolet sensor in the IUE spectrograph package experiment, NSSDC ID 1978-012A-01. The particle flux monitor was a lithium-drifted silicon detector with a half-angle conical field of view of 16°. It had an aluminum absorber of 0.357 g/cm 2 in front of the collimator and a brass shield with a minimum thickness of 2.31 g/cm 2 . The effective energy threshold for electron measurements was 1.3 MeV . The experiment was also sensitive to protons with energies greater than 15 MeV. The instrument was used as an operational tool to aid in determining background radiation and acceptable camera exposure time. The data were also useful as a monitor of the trapped radiation fluxes. The instrument was provided by Dr. C. Bostrom of the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University . The instrument was turned off on 4 October 1991 because it was giving erroneous information. [ 42 ]
The IUE was designed to have a minimum lifetime of three years and carried consumables sufficient for a five-year mission. However, it lasted far longer than its design called for. Occasional hardware failures caused difficulties, but innovative techniques were devised to overcome them. For example, the spacecraft was equipped with six gyroscopes to stabilize the spacecraft. Successive failures of these in 1979, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1996 ultimately left the spacecraft with a single functional gyroscope. Telescope control was maintained with two gyros by using the telescope's Sun sensor to determine the spacecraft's attitude, and stabilization in three axes proved possible even after the fifth failure, by using the Sun sensor, the Fine Error Sensors and the single remaining gyroscope. Most other parts of the telescope systems remained fully functional throughout the mission. [ 21 ]
In 1995, budget concerns at NASA almost led to the termination of the mission, but instead the operations responsibilities were redivided, with ESA taking control for 16 hours a day, and GSFC for the remaining 8 only. The ESA 16 hours was used for science operations, while the GSFC 8 hours was used only for maintenance. [ 21 ] In February 1996, further budget cuts led ESA to decide that it would no longer maintain the satellite. Operations ceased on 30 September 1996, and all the remaining hydrazine was discharged, the batteries were drained and switched off, and at 18:44 UTC on 30 September 1996, the radio transmitter was shut down and all contact with the spacecraft was lost. [ 21 ]
It continues to orbit the Earth in its geosynchronous orbit and will continue to do so more or less indefinitely as it is far above the upper reaches of the atmosphere of Earth . Anomalies in the Earth's gravity due to its non-spherical shape meant that the telescope tended to drift West from its original location at approximately 70° West longitude towards approximately 110° West. [ 21 ] During the mission, this drift was corrected by occasional rocket firings, but since the end of the mission the satellite has drifted uncontrolled to the West of its former location. [ 43 ]
The IUE archive is one of the most heavily used astronomical archives. [ 44 ] Data were archived from the start of the mission, and access to the archive was free to anyone who wished to use it. However, in the early years of the mission, long before the advent of the World Wide Web and fast global data transmission links, access to the archive required a visit in person to one of two Regional Data Analysis Facilities (RDAFs), one at the University of Colorado and the other at GSFC . [ 45 ]
In 1987, it became possible to access the archive electronically, by dialing into a computer at Goddard Space Flight Center. The archive, then totaling 23 Gb of data, was connected to the computer on a mass storage device. A single user at a time could dial in and would be able to retrieve an observation in 10–30 seconds. [ 46 ]
As the mission entered its second decade, plans were made for its final archive. Throughout the mission, calibration techniques were improved, and the final software for data reduction yielded significant improvements over earlier calibrations. Eventually, the entire set of available raw data was recalibrated using the final version of the data reduction software, creating a uniform high-quality archive. [ 47 ] Today, the archive is hosted at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at Space Telescope Science Institute and is available via the World Wide Web and APIs. [ 48 ]
The IUE mission, by virtue of its very long duration and the fact that for most of its lifetime, it provided astronomers only access to UV light, had a major impact on astronomy. By the end of its mission, it was considered by far the most successful and productive space observatory mission. [ 3 ] For many years after the end of the mission, its archive was the most heavily used dataset in astronomy, and IUE data has been used in over 250 PhD projects worldwide. [ 44 ] Almost 4,000 peer-reviewed papers have now been published based on IUE data, including some of the most cited astronomy papers of all time. The most cited paper based on IUE data is one analyzing the nature of interstellar reddening , which has subsequently been cited over 5,500 times. [ 36 ]
The Hubble Space Telescope has now been in orbit for 31 years (as of 2021) and Hubble data has been used in almost 10,000 peer-reviewed publications at that time. [ 49 ] In 2009, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph was installed on HST by astronauts launched with the instrument by the Space Shuttle , and this device records ultraviolet spectrum , thus proving some ultraviolet observation ability in this period. Another ultraviolet space telescope, quite different in focus, was the wide-angle imaging GALEX space telescope operated between 2003 and 2013.
Some telescope visions such as Habex or Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) have included an ultraviolet capability, although it is not clear if they have any real prospects. In the 2010s, many telescope projects were struggling, and even some ground observatories saw their potential for being shut down ostensibly to save budget. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ultraviolet_Explorer |
The International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research was an international organization dedicated to solar research between 1905 and 1913. It is one of the precursor organizations of the International Astronomical Union .
The Union was the brain-child of George Ellery Hale , who had realized the potential value of an international organization to coordinate scientific research and, by virtue of his extensive travels throughout Europe, had many contacts among eminent astronomers and solar physicists. Hale suggested to the National Academy of Sciences of the US the formation of a committee with the aim of forming such an international organization, and, as the committee's chairman, began contacting various scientific academies. His efforts led to a meeting at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and included representatives from 16 national scientific societies, but notably not from the Prussian Academy of Sciences , which had declined the invitation. (Instead, German delegates from the German Physical Society were present.)
The delegates proceeded to appoint a committee that was to create the Union as a permanent international scientific organization; the new organization had its first constituted meeting at Oxford in England a year later. [ 1 ] Further meetings were held in Paris in 1907 [ 2 ] and at Mount Wilson in 1910, [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] where the purview of the Union was enlarged to include stellar research, in keeping with Hale's emphasis on the Sun as just one among the many other stars. Shortly after the last meeting in Bonn in 1913, World War I broke out, which effectively put an end to the Union's activities, which would later find continuation after the 1919 founding of the International Astronomical Union . [ 6 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Cooperation_in_Solar_Research |
The International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique, and Applications ( IUVSTA ) is a union of 35 science and technology national member societies that supports collaboration in vacuum science, technique and applications.
Founded in 1958, IUVSTA is an interdisciplinary union which represents several thousands of physicists , chemists , materials scientists , engineers and technologists who are active in basic and applied research , development, manufacturing , sales and education . IUVSTA finances advanced scientific workshops, international schools and technical courses, worldwide.
The main purposes of the IUVSTA are to organize and sponsor international conferences and educational activities, as well as to facilitate research and technological developments in the field of vacuum science and its applications.
The history and structure of the Union are described in two articles [ 1 ] [ 2 ] in scientific journals.
IUVSTA is a Union (or federation) of National Vacuum Societies. There can be only one member society (or National Committee) in any one nation. This Society must be representative of the scientific and technical fields encompassed by the Divisions of IUVSTA. Where appropriate a Society can represent more than one nation. IUVSTA can only recognise societies in geographical areas recognised by the United Nations as independent nations.
IUVSTA maintains formal links with other Non-Government Organizations involved in education, and the promotion and dissemination of science and associated techniques. With the support of IUVSTA divisions, fruitful cooperation with UNESCO, ISC, ICTP and TWAS have been initiated and developed. Such contacts facilitate the organization of specialized workshops and may offer financial support for students attending short courses, seminars and congresses. Links with other organizations such as ISO are the responsibility of the IUVSTA divisions.
IUVSTA has been admitted to UNESCO in the “Relations Operationnelles” category. [ 7 ]
IUVSTA is a Scientific Associate of the International Science Council (formerly International Council of Scientific Unions, ICSU) [ 8 ]
IUVSTA cooperates financially and scientifically with International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in the organization of workshops of high scientific level held in Trieste. These workshops address a post-graduate and post-doctoral audience from the lesser developed countries. [ 9 ]
Preliminary contacts have been made with Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) which foresees the organization of short courses on rough vacuum techniques and applications dedicated to technicians.
IUVSTA has a formal liaison with the International Standards Organization (ISO). IUVSTA sends a representative to the TC/201 Surface Chemical Analysis committee and to the ISO TC/112 Vacuum Technology committee. These links are maintained via the Applied Surface Science and Vacuum Science and Technology divisions, respectively. [ 10 ]
Source: [ 11 ]
President: François Reniers President Elect: Jay Hendricks Past President: Anouk Galtayries Secretary General: Christoph Eisenmenger-Sittner Scientific Director: Katsuyuki Fukutani Scientific Secretary: Anton Stampfl Treasurer: Arnaud Delcorte Recording Secretary (non-voting officer): Ana Gomes Silva
Source: [ 12 ]
The president under the early federation was: 1958-1962 — Prof. Dr. Emil Thomas Past and present presidents of IUVSTA: 2022-2025 — Prof.François Reniers 2019-2022 — Prof. Anouk Galtayries 2016-2019 — Prof. Lars Montelius 2013-2016 — Prof. Mariano Anderle 2010-2013 — Prof. Jean Jacques Pireaux 2007-2010 — Dr. J.W. "Bill" Rogers, Jr. [ 13 ] 2004-2007 — Prof. Ugo Valbusa 2001-2004 — Dr. M.-G. Barthes-Labrousse 1998-2001 — Prof. D. Phillip Woodruff 1995-1998 — Prof. John L. Robins 1992-1995 — Prof. Theodore E. Madey 1989-1992 — Prof. Jose L. de Segovia 1986-1989 — Prof. Dr. Heribert Jahrreiss 1983-1986 — Prof. Dr. Janos Antal 1980-1983 — Dr. James M. Lafferty 1977-1980 — Prof. Dr. Leslie Holland 1974-1977 — Dr. Albertus Venema 1971-1974 — Dr. Luther E. Pruess 1968-1971 — Prof. Dr. Kurt Diels 1965-1968 — Prof. Dr. Jean Debiesse 1962-1965 — Mr. Medard W. Welch Honorary presidents 2021 — Peter Barna 1989 — Prof. Dr. E. Thomas 1983 — Prof. Dr. H.C. M. Auwärter 1977 — Mr. M. W. Welch 1962 — Prof. Dr. L. Dunoyer 1962 — Prof. Dr. M. Pirani Honorary and founding members of the Union Mr. A.S.D. Barrett Mlle. M. Berthaud Prof. D. Degras Prof. K. Diels Prof E. Thomas Dr. A. Venema Mr. M.W. Welch | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Vacuum_Science,_Technique_and_Applications |
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants or UPOV (French: Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales ) is a treaty body (non-United Nations intergovernmental organization ) with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Its objective is to provide an effective system for plant variety protection . It does so by defining a blueprint regulation to be implemented by its members in national law. The expression UPOV Convention also refers to one of the three instruments that relate to the union, namely the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention ( UPOV 91 ), 1978 Act of the UPOV Convention ( UPOV 78 ) and 1961 Act of the UPOV Convention with Amendments of 1972 ( UPOV 61 ).
UPOV was established by the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 61). The convention was adopted in Paris in 1961 and revised in 1972, 1978 and 1991.
The initiative for the foundation of UPOV came from European breeding companies, who 1956 called for a conference to define basic principles for plant variety protection. [ 2 ] The first version of the UPOV convention was agreed on in 1961 by 12 European countries. [ 3 ] By 1990 still only 19 countries were part of the convention, with South Africa being the only country from the Southern Hemisphere. [ 4 ] From the mid-1990s more and more countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa joined the convention. A reason for this development might be the TRIPS-Agreement that obliged WTO members to introduce plant variety protection in national law. [ 5 ] Later, many countries have been obliged to join UPOV through specific clauses in bilateral trade agreements, in particular with the EU, USA, Japan and EFTA. [ 6 ] The TRIPS-Agreement doesn't require adherence to UPOV but gives the possibility to define a sui generis system for plant variety protection. [ 5 ] In contrast, clauses in free trade agreement are more comprehensive and typically require adherence to UPOV. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
While the earlier versions of the convention have been replaced, UPOV 78 and UPOV 91 coexist. Existing members are free to decide whether they want to ratify UPOV 91 or stay with UPOV 78, whereas new members have to adhere to the more restrictive version from 1991. [ 8 ]
As of December 3, 2021 two intergovernmental organisations and 76 countries and were members of UPOV: [ 4 ] African Intellectual Property Organisation , Albania , Argentina , Australia , Austria , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Belgium , Bolivia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Brazil , Bulgaria , Canada , Chile , China , Colombia , Costa Rica , Croatia , Czech Republic , Denmark , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , Egypt , Estonia , European Union , [ 9 ] Finland , France , Georgia , [ 10 ] Germany , Ghana , [ 11 ] Guatemala , Hungary , Iceland , Ireland , Israel , Italy , Japan , Jordan , Kenya , Kyrgyzstan , Latvia , Lithuania , Mexico , Moldova , Montenegro , Morocco , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Nicaragua , North Macedonia , Norway , Oman , Panama , Paraguay , Peru , Poland , Portugal , Republic of Korea , Romania , Russian Federation , Serbia , Singapore , Slovakia , Slovenia , South Africa , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Tanzania , Trinidad and Tobago , Tunisia , Turkey , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , the United States of America (with a reservation), [ 12 ] Uruguay , Uzbekistan , and Viet Nam . [ 13 ]
For a country or intergovernmental organisation to become member, it needs to implement the requirements of the actual convention in national law. UPOV's secretariat analyises the regulation of plant variety protection in national law and writes a recommendation to the council whether or not the applicant shall be granted membership. [ 14 ] In the past several countries have been refused memberships because their national plant variety protection laws granted exceptions for subsistence farmers to reuse and exchange seeds. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ]
In addition, a large number of countries (eg Pakistan ), intergovernmental organisations (eg European Free Trade Association ) and international non-governmental organisations (eg International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Ornamental and Fruit Varieties ) have observer status. [ 18 ]
The convention defines both how the organization must be governed and run, and the basic concepts of plant variety protection that must be included in the domestic laws of the members of the union. These concepts include: [ 19 ]
In order to be granted breeder's rights, the variety in question must be shown to be new . This means that the plant variety cannot have previously been available for more than one year in the applicant's country, or for more than four years in any other country or territory. The variety must also be distinct (D), that is, easily distinguishable through certain characteristics from any other known variety (protected or otherwise). The other two criteria, uniformity (U) and stability (S), mean that individual plants of the new variety must show no more variation in the relevant characteristics than one would naturally expect to see, and that future generations of the variety through various propagation means must continue to show the relevant distinguishing characteristics. The UPOV offers general guidelines for DUS testing. [ 20 ]
A breeder can apply for rights for a new variety in any union member country, and can file in as many countries as desired without waiting for a result from previous applications. Protection only applies in the country in which it was granted, so there are no reciprocal protections unless otherwise agreed by the countries in question. There is a right of priority, and the application date of the first application filed in any country is the date used in determining priority.
The rights conferred to the breeder are similar to other intellectual property rights , such as patents , even though there are important differences. [ 21 ] Their purpose is to create a temporary monopoly on a plant variety, to allow its breeder to redeem the costs he invested to create this innovation - typically the creation of a new variety takes 10 to 15 years and implies a substantial investment. [ 22 ] The breeder must authorize any actions taken in propagating the new variety, including selling and marketing, importing and exporting, keeping stock of, and reproducing. This means that the breeder can, for example, require a licensing fee for any company interested in reproducing his variety for sale. The breeder also has the right to name the new variety, based on certain guidelines that prevent the name from being deliberately misleading or too similar to another variety's name.
In the 1991 convention there are four exceptions to the rights of the breeder owning a plant variety: [ 23 ]
The 1991 Convention specifies that the breeder's right must be granted for at least 20 years from grant date for perennial crops and at least 25 years in the case of varieties of trees or vines. In the 1978 convention minimum duration of breeders rights are 15 years for perennials and 18 years for trees and vines.
Finally, there are provisions for how to negate granted breeders' rights if the rights are determined to be unfounded. That is, if it is discovered after the application has been granted that the variety is not actually novel or distinct, or if it is discovered to not be uniform or stable, the breeder's rights are nullified. In addition, if it is discovered that the person who applied for protection of the variety is not the actual breeder, the rights are nullified unless they can be transferred to the proper person. If it is discovered after a period of protection that the variety is no longer uniform and stable, the breeder's rights are canceled.
WIPO Lex provides support for related IP legal collections, including UPOV Lex. [ 28 ]
Several international standards enacted by the United Nations oblige their member states to protect the rights of farmers to seeds: Article 19 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) grants peasants "The right to save, use, exchange and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material." [ 29 ] The same right is also codified in Article 9 of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture (ITPGRFA) . [ 30 ] Furthermore, peasants rights to seeds are also mentioned in the Convention for Biological Diversity and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples . UPOV standards violate this rights in the case of protected varieties, as farmers only are allowed to save seeds within very narrow limits and are not allowed to exchange or sell any seeds at all, according to UPOV 91. [ 31 ] Furthermore, as implementation of UPOV is based on predefined standards, there is little room for member states to fulfill their obligation to take into account possible effects on the human right situation in their countries and to allow for participation of farmers. [ 32 ] In many developing countries, small scale farmers have not been informed prior to adopting and implementation of new plant variety protection laws and had no possibility participate in these decisions. [ 33 ]
As UNDROP and UNDRIP are part of Human Rights standards, they are higher order norms and therefore they prevail over property rights on seeds, according to human rights experts. [ 34 ] As a consequence, states are obliged to revise regulations in national law that violate peasant's rights and adapt trade agreement or other intergovernmental obligations such as UPOV.
In a report on seeds and farmers' rights to the Human Rights Council , Special Rapporteur for the right to food Michael Fakhri states that UPOV 91 violates farmers' rights. [ 35 ] The report denounces pressures applied by industrialised countries on countries of the global South to join UPOV. It calls on UN member states to design and interpret seed policies and plant variety protection laws in a way that protects farmers rights and promotes farmers' seed systems rather than restricting them. Ethiopia, India, Malaysia and Thailand (all non-UPOV members) are mentioned as positive examples.
In 2021 the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras deemed unconstitutional the Legislative Decree No. 21-2012 [ 36 ] containing the Law for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The supreme court sacked the UPOV 91-based law because it judged it to be in contradiction with a range of human rights as well as with the obligation of the State of Honduras to protect the environment. [ 37 ]
A study published by UPOV in 2005 evaluated the impact of UPOV compliant regulations in Argentina , China , Kenya , Poland and South Korea . [ 38 ] The study found that in these countries the number of protected varieties of some crops has increased after these countries have joined UPOV. The report takes this as an indicator that farmers and the agricultural sector as whole has profited. However, the by far does not live up to the scientific standards for impact assessments and has been criticized being heavily biased. [ 39 ]
A report from 2005 commissioned by the World Bank looked at the impact of intellectual property rights regimes on the plant breeding industry in 5 developing countries. It concludes that intellectual property regimes have relatively little effect on the emergence of the private seed sector. India, the country with the most dynamic seed sector analysed in the report, is not a member of UPOV and has no strict plant variety protection regime. Contrarily, the report states that farmer's seed systems are the main source of seeds and new varieties in the countries studied and that strict intellectual property rights on seeds may reduce the effectiveness of these systems. [ 40 ] An analysis of the data from the Access to Seed Index [ 41 ] from 2019, came to a similar finding: Many of the developing having the most vibrant private seed sector are not member of UPOV but have their own system of plant variety protection or no plant variety protection at all. [ 42 ]
A study published by NGOs looked at the effects of the implementation of UPOV 1991 in francophone Africa in the 11 years after the accession of OAPI to UPOV. [ 43 ] It found that in the 17 member countries only 117 plant varieties have been newly protected during this period, half of them had already lapsed because of nonpayment of fees. At least half of them were varieties that had been available before. The study finds no increase in plant breeding activities in the region; while breeding by the public sector continued independent of plant variety protection, breeding by private companies remained largely non-existent.
In the case of Iceland, no new variety has been protected since its accession to UPOV 91 in 2006, while 49 varieties had been newly protected in the 10 years before. [ 44 ]
An increased number of protected varieties does not automatically increase the accessibility of seeds to farmers. In many developing countries the majority of seeds used by small scale farmers come from the farmers’ managed seed sector. Frequently, also seeds of protected varieties are saved, exchanged and sold. [ 45 ] As these practices are prohibited in UPOV 91, farmers lose access to an inexpensive source of seeds while commercial seeds remain unaffordable for many. [ 40 ]
A study commissioned by UPOV examined the socioeconomic benefits of plant variety protection, 10 years after the accession of Viet Nam to UPOV 91. [ 46 ] The study found that the productivity of 3 major staple crops increased during this period: Yield gains were 18% for rice, 30% for corn and 43% for sweet potato. The study argues that improved varieties which had been introduced due to stricter plant variety protection contributed to this development, and that 74 million people could be fed with the additional sweet potatoes. However, in the case of sweet potato that had the highest gain, no new variety had been protected and also for the other crops, productivity gains can be explained with other factors. [ 47 ] A Study published by an Asian NGO finds that implementation of UPOV 91 in Vietnam did not lead to an increase of investment in breeding or in gains of productivity. Instead, it strengthened international commercial breeders at the cost of weakening the public breeders and threatening the farmers' seed sector. [ 48 ]
Smallholder farmers in the global South are amongst the groups most prone to poverty and hunger. They predominantly rely on seeds that are produced by farmers themselves, [ 49 ] often also including varieties originally bred by public and private breeders . These farmers’ seed systems are often highly resilient and more accessible to famers than seeds offered by breeding companies . [ 50 ] Through the implementation of strict plant variety protection in line with UPOV 91, and the restrictions on the use, exchange and sale of farm-saved seeds, farmers become more dependent on the seeds offered directely by breeding companies which often are unaffordable for the most vulnerable groups. [ 32 ] As a consequence, adherence to UPOV would most likely have negative effects for poverty reduction [ 51 ] and food security [ 35 ] in developing countries.
The risk for food security that come with the implementation of strict regulations for plant variety protection might be an important reason why many countries of the global South hesitate to join UPOV or to update from UPOV 78 to UPOV 91 as the latter puts narrow limits to the farmer's privilege to reuse farm saved seeds. [ 6 ]
In a report from 2009 the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food , Olivier De Schutter , analysed the impact of UPOV on the right to food. He found that IP -related monopoly rights could cause poor farmers to become "increasingly dependent on expensive inputs" and at risk of indebtedness. Further, the system risks neglecting poor farmers’ needs in favour of agribusiness needs, jeopardising traditional systems of seed saving and exchange, and losing biodiversity to "the uniformization encouraged by the spread of commercial varieties".These findings were by his successor Michael Fakhri in a report from 2022 [ 35 ] and by the UN Secretary-General in a report from 2015. [ 52 ]
Diverse genetic resources are the basis of all plant breeding and crop production. Breeders rely on farmers’ varieties and wild relatives as a source for interesting traits, such as resistance against pathogens and pests. [ 53 ] The number of varieties has decreased by 75% in the past century [ 54 ] and there is far less area planted to landraces worldwide as these have been replaced by scientifically bread varieties. [ 53 ] Furthermore, crop genetic diversity may decline with concentration of area planted in a few favoured varieties and reductions in “genetic distance” between these varieties. [ 53 ] The increasing dominance of few global seed producers and the implementation of increasingly strict plant variety regulation might have played a key role in this development. As the UN's Secretary General stated in a report from 2015, restrictions on seed management systems linked to UPOV 91 can lead to a loss of biodiversity and in turn harm the livelihoods of small-scale farmers as well as weaken the genetic base on which we all depend for our future supply of food. [ 49 ]
The design of plant variety protection facilitates appropriation of genetic resources and biopiracy . Due to the criteria defined by UPOV, most landraces and farmer varieties cannot be protected and are therefore open for appropriation. UPOV 91-based PVP law also does not include a requirement for applicants to disclose the origin of their material and prove that the plant genetic resources used in the breeding process were legally acquired. [ 32 ] In its guidelines, UPOV even explicitly forbids its members to request a declaration of lawful acquirement or prior informed consent (as required by the Convention on Biological Diversity ) as precondition for granting PVP. [ 55 ]
The documentation of a case in West Africa shows that the risk of biopiracy is real: A French seed company tempted to claim plant variety protection for the traditional onion variety “ Violette de Galmi ”. The claim was challenged by the Nigerien government, the seed company withdrew the application and submitted a new application for the same variety but under another name. [ 56 ] [ 43 ] The fact that challenging the application was only possible because the seed company used the original name of the traditional variety shows how easily varieties can be appropriated.
Several social movements and civil society organisations such as South Center , GRAIN , AFSA , SEARICE , Third World Network , and La Via Campesina [ 57 ] have criticised UPOV Secretariatpointed. Some of them have pointed out the resistance of the UPOV Secretariat and Member States to dialogue with all interested parties, in particular:
A study by Professor Graham Dutfield [ 59 ] concluded that UPOV's governance falls short in many different ways, UPOV officials know very little about actual farming, and how small-scale farmers actually develop new varieties and produce them, and that they knew much more about breeding, which favours commercial breeders. The UPOV system thus favours commercial breeders over farmers and producers, and private interests over public interests.
The intergovernmental organisation South Center criticizes that, while conventions of UPOV 78 and UPOV 91 have been negotiated almost exclusively by industrialised countries, they are imposed to all countries including in the southern hemisphere. [ 15 ] GRAIN even blames UPOV of neo-colonialistic behaviour. [ 60 ]
At the occasion of UPOV's 60st anniversary on 2 December 2021, a coalition led by GRAIN organised the “Week of Action: Stop UPOV”, with a call for action with over 230 signatories across 47 countries. [ 61 ] In front of UPOV's headquarter group of activists from the Swiss Coalition for the Right to Seeds conducted a protest action, symbolically freeing plants from the chains of UPOV.
The week of action was repeated in 2022 with further protests in a range of countries. [ 62 ]
Many developing countries did not decide to join the UPOV agreement voluntarily, but were obliged to do so by free trade agreements. [ 7 ] Examples of this are Peru, Morocco and Costa Rica, whose accession to UPOV was one of the conditions imposed by the European Free Trade Association for the free trade agreements subsequently concluded. [ 63 ] There is increasing resistance to UPOV requirements in free trade agreements. In Switzerland, the responsible persons have received over 1,300 letters of complaint from various countries in the year 2020. [ 64 ]
In his 2021 report on seeds and farmers‘ rights to the Human Rights Council, the current UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food emphasises that UPOV 91 violates farmers’ rights and criticises the pressure exerted by industrialised countries on countries of the Global South to join UPOV through free trade agreements. [ 35 ] The report calls on UN member states to design and interpret seed policies and plant variety protection laws in a way that protects farmers' rights and promotes their seed systems rather than restricting them. Ethiopia, India, Malaysia and Thailand (all non-UPOV members) are cited as positive examples, as they "have adopted innovative national plant variety protection laws distinct from the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants." [ 35 ]
Currently, however, the EFTA states, including Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland are negotiating free trade agreements with Thailand and Malaysia. [ 65 ] In this context, both countries are demanding compliance with UPOV 91 as a prerequisite for these agreements. In a letter to the four countries in 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur pointed out that this approach jeopardises the right to food. [ 66 ] Despite these concerns, the joint response of the EFTA states indicates that they will likely maintain their current practice. [ 67 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_the_Protection_of_New_Varieties_of_Plants |
The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ( IUBMB ) is an international non-governmental organisation concerned with biochemistry and molecular biology . Formed in 1955 as the International Union of Biochemistry ( IUB ), the union has presently 79 member countries and regions (as of 2020). [ 1 ] The Union is devoted to promoting research and education in biochemistry and molecular biology throughout the world, and gives particular attention to localities where the subject is still in its early development.
The first Congress of Biochemistry was held in 1949 in Cambridge, UK, organized by the Biochemical Society , [ 2 ] and was inspired by German-born British biochemist Sir Hans Adolf Krebs as a means of bringing together biochemists who had been separated by World War II . At the time, biochemistry was blossoming as a discipline and was seeking its own recognition as a union within the International Council for Science (ICSU). The congress was a first step to recognize biochemistry as a separate discipline and entity. At the final session of this congress, the International Committee of Biochemistry was set up with 20 members from fourteen countries with the goal obtaining from the ICSU 'recognition as the international body representative of biochemistry, with a view to the formal constitution of an International Union of Biochemistry as soon as possible.' Discussions continued over the next few years, and by the third Congress of Biochemistry, which took place in Brussels in 1955, the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB) was formed and officially admitted to the ICSU. [ 3 ] In 1991, the IUB changed its name to the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB). [ citation needed ]
The IUBMB unites biochemists and molecular biologists in 75 countries that belong to the IUBMB as an "Adhering Body" or "Associate Adhering Body" represented by a biochemical society, a national research council or an academy of sciences. [ 4 ] It also represents the regional organizations, [ 5 ] Federation of Asian Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB), Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), and Pan-American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PABMB). [ citation needed ]
IUBMB organizes a triennial Congress of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and sponsors three annual focussed meetings. In addition, it supports symposia, educational activities (including the Tang Fellowships), award lectures (including Jubilee Lectures), and travel grants for students around the world. [ citation needed ]
The IUBMB is committed to providing training opportunities to biochemists and molecular biologists around the world. The Wood Whelan Research fellowship, established in honor of past-Presidents Harland G. Wood and William Joseph Whelan , provides opportunities for students to travel to a laboratory in a different country to work on a specified project. Mid Career Fellowships provide a similar opportunity to early career investigators. [ 6 ] The IUBMB collaborates with American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to offer PROLAB fellowships to provide opportunities for Latin American students to study in the US. [ citation needed ]
The IUBMB publishes standards on biochemical nomenclature, including Enzyme Commission number nomenclature, in some cases jointly with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The enzyme nomenclature scheme [ 7 ] was developed in 1955 at the International Congress of Biochemistry and, with the addition of translocases in 2018, contains 7 classes of enzymes. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
The IUBMB is associated with the journals IUBMB Life , Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (formerly Biochemical Education ), BioFactors , Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry , Molecular Aspects of Medicine and Trends in Biochemical Sciences . The publishing program supports the IUBMB's mission of fostering growth and advancement of biochemistry and molecular biology as the foundation from which the biomolecular sciences derive their basic ideas and techniques in the service of humanity. [ 10 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_of_Biochemistry_and_Molecular_Biology |
The International Union of Crystallography ( IUCr ) is an organisation devoted to the international promotion and coordination of the science of crystallography . The IUCr is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) .
The objectives of the IUCr are to promote international cooperation in crystallography and to contribute to all aspects of crystallography, to promote international publication of crystallographic research, to facilitate standardization of methods, units, nomenclatures and symbols, and to form a focus for the relations of crystallography to other sciences.
The IUCr fulfils these objectives by publishing in print and electronically primary scientific journals through the Acta Crystallographica journal series, as well as Journal of Applied Crystallography , Journal of Synchrotron Radiation , IUCrJ , [ 1 ] the series of reference volumes International Tables for Crystallography , [ 2 ] distributing the quarterly IUCr Newsletter , [ 3 ] maintaining the online World Directory/Database of Crystallographers , [ 4 ] awarding the Ewald Prize [ 5 ] and organising the triennial Congress and General Assembly.
[ 6 ] [ 7 ] In 1944 the yearly meeting of the X-ray Analysis Group (XRAG) of the UK Institute of Physics was held in Oxford, and the distinguished German crystallographer Paul Peter Ewald , who then taught at Queen's University Belfast , was invited to give the evening lecture. In it he gave a historical survey of some of the stages in the evolution of X-ray crystallography and ended with a strong plea for the formation of an international society or union which would represent, and unify publication for, the new science. This idea was followed up by the British crystallographers, and particularly by Sir Lawrence Bragg , the Chairman of XRAG. In June 1946, within a year of the termination of fighting in WWII , he arranged for an international meeting of crystallographers in London which was attended by some 120 scientists from most of the allied countries. [ 8 ] In that London meeting Ewald was elected Chairman of the Provisional International Crystallographic Committee, which put into action the decision to form the International Union of Crystallography. [ 6 ]
Sir Lawrence Bragg was the first formally elected President of the IUCr, [ 6 ] with Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff [ 9 ] and Arne Westgren [ 10 ] as Vice-Presidents. Ewald was elected as 5th President of the IUCr, the 'international society or union' that he had originally conceived, in 1960. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
The IUCr notation is the notation for the symmetry group adopted by the International Union of Crystallography in 1952. It identifies members of the Wallpaper group with a 4 character name. First it has a P or C for primitive or centered groups. Groups are denoted by a number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 for the highest order of symmetry. Groups can have one or two reflections, denoted as vertical mirrors first (horizontal reflection), and horizontal second (vertical reflection). A simple reflection is denoted by an m (mirror), and a glide-reflection is denoted by a g . Place holder 1 denotes an orthogonal direction with no reflections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_of_Crystallography |
The International Union of District 50, Allied and Technical Workers of the United States and Canada , was a labor union representing workers in the energy and chemical industries, and in uranium mining.
The union's origins lay in the foundation of the Massachusetts Council of Utility Workers by workers at the Everett Coke-Oven Plant in 1933. The union began representing workers in a variety of utilities, and in neighboring states, becoming the New England Council of Utility Workers in 1934, and the National Council of Gas and By-Product Coke Workers in 1935. In 1936, it affiliated to the United Mine Workers of America (UMW), which designated it as its District 50, lower numbers being reserved for geographical districts of coal miners. [ 1 ] After several name changes, in 1941, it became District 50, United Mine Workers of America . [ 2 ]
The district grew rapidly, and soon became larger than the remaining districts of the UMW put together. In 1961, it received organizational but not financial independence. This led it into disputes with the remainder of the UMW, particularly when it advocated for nuclear power plants . In March 1968, it was expelled from the UMW, adopting its final name in 1970. [ 1 ] At this time, it had around 200,000 members, and was led by president Ellwood Moffett. [ 3 ] On August 9, 1972, it merged into the United Steelworkers of America . [ 1 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_of_District_50,_Allied_and_Technical_Workers_of_the_United_States_and_Canada |
The International Union for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics ( IUTAM ) is an affiliation of about 500 mechanicians in about 50 countries, and involving about 20 associated organizations, including the International Council for Science (ICSU). The proceedings of symposia organized by IUTAM are published as Procedia IUTAM . [ 1 ]
The IUTAM was organized in 1946 at the sixth International Congress of Applied Mechanics in Paris . The ICAM first met in 1924 at Delft , Netherlands , under the guidance of Jan Burgers , with 214 participants from 21 countries. [ 2 ]
The spirit of international cooperation was initiated by Theodore and Josephine de Karman , natives of Hungary that worked in Germany before going to Caltech . In fact, the "zeroth" International Congress of Mechanics was organized for 1922 to discuss hydrodynamics and aerodynamics :
Revival of internationalism after Hitler was described as follows:
IUTAM awards the Batchelor Prize for outstanding research in fluid dynamics every four years at the ICTAM conference. Named in honour of George Batchelor , the Australian applied mathematician and fluid dynamicist, the prize has a value of $25,000. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_of_Theoretical_and_Applied_Mechanics |
The International Wood Products Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of wood science, engineering, and technology. It is currently published by Sage Journals on behalf of the Wood Technology Society ( Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining ) and the editor-in-chief is Gervais Sawyer and the associate editor is Carmen-Mihaela Popescu.
The journal was established in 1958 as the Journal of the Institute of Wood Science , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and was published in London by the Institute of Wood Science , the predecessor of the Wood Technology Society. [ 3 ]
The first editor of the journal was Bernard Alwyn Jay, Deputy Director of the Timber Development Association (with later became TRADA [ 4 ] ), until he died in 1961. [ 5 ] By then the journal was considered to be one of the leading publications of its kind, with subscribers in 31 countries including USA, China, India and Russia. [ 6 ]
The Institute of Wood Science merged into the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in 2009, and as a consequence the journal was renamed, obtaining its current name in 2010. At the same time it came to be published by Maney Publishing . [ 7 ] Maney was acquired by Taylor & Francis in 2015. [ 8 ] From 2024 the publisher is Sage , following a 2023 agreement with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining for Sage to take over publication of the journals of the institute. [ 9 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Wood_Products_Journal |
International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA) was started in 1981 [ 1 ] to bring together mathematicians and engineers working in operator theoretic side of functional analysis and its applications to related fields. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] These include:
The other major branch of operator theory , Operator algebras (C* and von Neumann Algebras), is not heavily represented at IWOTA and has its own conferences.
IWOTA gathers leading experts from all over the world for an intense exchange of new results, information and opinions, and for tracing the future developments in the field. The IWOTA meetings provide opportunities for participants (including young researchers ) to present their own work in invited and contributed talks, to interact with other researchers from around the globe, and to broaden their knowledge of the field. [ 4 ] In addition, IWOTA emphasizes cross-disciplinary interaction among mathematicians , electrical engineers and mathematical physicists . In the even years, the IWOTA workshop is a satellite meeting to the biennial International Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS). [ 5 ] From the humble beginnings in the early 80's, [ 1 ] the IWOTA workshops grew to become one of the largest continuing conferences attended by the community of researchers in operator theory . [ 6 ]
The International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications was started on August 1, 1981, [ 1 ] adjacent to the International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS) [ 5 ] with goal of exposing operator theorists , even pure theorists, to recent developments in engineering (especially H-infinity methods in control theory ) which had a significant intersection with operator theory . Israel Gohberg was the visionary and driving force of IWOTA [ 7 ] and president of the IWOTA Steering Committee. From the beginning, J. W. Helton and M. A. Kaashoek served as vice presidents of the steering committee.
Besides the excitement of mathematical discovery over the decades at IWOTA, there was great excitement when the curtain between Soviet bloc and Western operator theorists fell. Until 1990, these two collections of extremely strong mathematicians seldom met due to the tight restrictions on travel from and in the communist countries . When the curtain dropped, the western mathematicians knew the classic Soviet papers but had a spotty knowledge of much of what else their counterparts were doing. [ 8 ] Gohberg was one of the operator theorists who knew both sides and he guided IWOTA, a western institution, in bringing (and funding) many prominent FSU bloc operator theorists to speak at the meetings. As the IWOTA programs demonstrate, [ 9 ] this significantly accelerated the cultures' mutual assimilation. [ 10 ]
Proceedings of the IWOTA workshops appear in the Springer / Birkhäuser Verlag book series Operator Theory: Advances and Applications (OTAA) [ 11 ] (founder: Israel Gohberg ). While engineering conference proceedings often are handed to participants as they arrive and contain short papers on each conference talk, the IWOTA proceedings follow mathematics conference tradition and contain a modest number of papers and are published several years after the conference.
IWOTA has received support from many sources, including the National Science Foundation [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] , [ 18 ] [ 19 ] the London Mathematical Society , [ 20 ] the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council , [ 20 ] Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , [ 21 ] Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (Spain), [ 22 ] Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute , [ 23 ] National Board for Higher Mathematics , [ 24 ] International Centre for Theoretical Physics , [ 25 ] Indian Statistical Institute , [ 6 ] Korea Research Foundation , [ 26 ] United States-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund , [ 24 ] Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek , [ 27 ] the Commission for Developing Countries of the International Mathematical Union , [ 9 ] [ 25 ] Stichting Advancement of Mathematics (Netherlands), [ 9 ] the National Research Foundation of South Africa , [ 25 ] and Birkhäuser Publishing Ltd .
IWOTA is directed by a steering committee [ 28 ] which chooses the site for the next meeting, elects the chief local organizer(s) and insures the appearance of the enduring themes of IWOTA. The sub-themes of an IWOTA workshop and the lecturers are chosen by the local organizing committee after hearing the steering committee's board. The board consists of its vice presidents: Joseph A. Ball, J. William Helton (Chair), Sanne ter Horst, Igor Klep, Christiane Tretter , Irene Sabadini, Victor Vinnikov and Hugo J. Woerdeman. In addition, past chief organizers who remain active in IWOTA are members of the steering committee. The board governs IWOTA with consultation and the consent of the full steering committee. Honorary members of the steering committee, elected in 2016, are: Israel Gohberg (deceased in 2009), Leiba Rodman (deceased in 2015), Tsuyoshi Ando, Harry Dym (deceased in 2024), Ciprian Foiaş (deceased in 2020), Heinz Langer (deceased in 2024), Nikolai Nikolski. Honorary member of the steering committee, elected in 2024, is: Rien Kaashoek .
The Israel Gohberg ILAS-IWOTA Lecture was introduced in August 2016 and honors the legacy of Israel Gohberg, whose research crossed borders between operator theory, linear algebra, and related fields. This lecture is in collaboration with the International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS). [ 29 ] This series of lectures will be delivered at IWOTA and ILAS Conferences, in different years, in the approximate ratio two-thirds at IWOTA and one-third at ILAS. The first three lectures will take place at IWOTA Lancaster UK 2021, ILAS 2022, and IWOTA 2024. Donations for the Israel Gohberg ILAS-IWOTA Lecture Fund are most welcome and can be submitted via the ILAS donation form. [ 30 ] Donations are tax deductible in the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workshop_on_Operator_Theory_and_its_Applications |
The International X-ray Observatory ( IXO ) is a cancelled X-ray telescope that was to be launched in 2021 as a joint effort by NASA , the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ). In May 2008, ESA and NASA established a coordination group involving all three agencies, with the intent of exploring a joint mission merging the ongoing XEUS and Constellation-X Observatory (Con-X) projects. This proposed the start of a joint study for IXO. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] NASA was forced to cancel the observatory due to budget constraints in fiscal year 2012. ESA, however, decided to reboot the mission on its own developing Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics as a part of Cosmic Vision program. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
X-ray observations are crucial for understanding the structure and evolution of the stars , galaxies , and the Universe as a whole. X-ray images reveal hot spots in the Universe – regions where particles have been energized or raised to very high temperatures by strong magnetic fields , violent explosions, and intense gravitational forces . X-ray sources in the sky are also associated with the different phases of stellar evolution such as the supernova remnants , neutron stars , and black holes . [ 7 ]
IXO would have explored X-ray Universe and address the following fundamental and timely questions in astrophysics :
To address these science questions, IXO would have traced orbits close to the event horizon of black holes, measure black hole spin for several hundred active galactic nucleus (AGN), use spectroscopy to characterize outflows and the environment of AGN during their peak activity, search for supermassive black holes out to redshift z = 10, map bulk motions and turbulence in galaxy clusters , find the missing baryons in the cosmic web using background quasars , and observe the process of cosmic feedback where black holes inject energy on galactic and intergalactic scales. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
This will allow astronomers to understand better the history and evolution of matter and energy, visible and dark matter , as well as their interplay during the formation of the largest structures.
Closer to home, IXO observations would have constrained the equation of state in neutron stars, black holes spin demographics , when and how elements were created and dispersed into the Outer space , and much more. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ]
To achieve these science goals, IXO requires extremely large collecting area combined with good angular resolution in order to offer unmatched sensitivities for the study of the high-z Universe and for high-precision spectroscopy of bright X-ray sources. [ 15 ]
The large collecting area required because, in astronomy , telescopes gather light and produce images by hunting and counting photons . The number of photons collected puts the limit to our knowledge about the size, energy, or mass of an object detected. More photons collected means better images and better spectra , and therefore offers better possibilities for understanding of cosmic processes. [ 7 ]
The heart of IXO mission was a single large X-ray mirror with up to 3 square meters of collecting area and 5 arcsec angular resolution , which is achieved with an extendable optical bench with a 20 m focal length. [ 3 ] [ 16 ]
A key feature of the IXO mirror design is a single mirror assembly (Flight Mirror Assembly, FMA), which is optimized to minimize mass while maximizing the collecting area, and an extendible optical bench. [ 17 ]
Unlike visible light , X-rays cannot be focused at normal incidence, since the X-ray beams would be absorbed in the mirror. Instead, IXO's mirrors, like all prior X-ray telescopes , will use grazing incidences, scattering at a very shallow angle. As a result, X-ray telescopes consist of nested cylindrical shells, with their inner surface being the reflecting surface. However, as the goal is to collect as many photons as possible, IXO will have a bigger than 3 m diameter mirror.
As the grazing angle is a function inversely proportional to photon energy, the higher-energy X-rays require smaller (less than 2°) grazing angles to be focused. This implies longer focal lengths as the photon energy increases, thus making X-ray telescopes difficult to build if focusing of photons with energies higher than a few keV is desired. For that reason IXO features an extendible optical bench that offers a focal length of 20 m. A focal length of 20 meters was selected for IXO as a reasonable balance between scientific needs for advanced photon collecting capability at the higher energy ranges and engineering constraints. Since no payload fairing is large enough to fit a 20-meter long observatory, thus IXO has a deployable metering structure between the spacecraft bus and the instrument module.
IXO scientific goals require gathering many pieces of information using different techniques such as spectroscopy , timing, imaging , and polarimetry . Therefore, IXO would have carried a range of detectors, which would have provided complementary spectroscopy, imaging , timing, and polarimetry data on cosmic X-ray sources to help disentangle the physical processes occurring in them. [ 3 ]
Two high-resolution spectrometers, a microcalorimeter (XMS or cryogenic imaging spectrograph ( CIS ) and a set of dispersive gratings (XGS) would have provided high-quality spectra over the 0.1–10 keV bandpass where most astrophysically abundant ions have X-ray lines. [ 18 ]
The detailed spectroscopy from these instruments would have enabled high-energy astronomers to learn about the temperature, composition, and velocity of plasmas in the Universe. Moreover, the study of specific X-ray spectral features probes the conditions of matter in extreme gravity field, such as around supermassive black holes . Flux variability adds a further dimension by linking the emission to the size of the emitting region and its evolution over time; the high timing resolution spectrometer (HTRS) on IXO would have allowed these types of studies in a broad energy range and with high sensitivity. [ 19 ]
To extend our view of the high-energy Universe to the hard X-rays and find the most obscured black holes, the wide field imaging and hard X-ray imaging detectors (WFI/HXI) together would have imaged the sky up to 18 arcmin field of view (FOV) with a moderate resolution (<150 eV up to 6 keV and <1 keV (FWHM) at 40 keV). [ 20 ]
IXO's imaging X-ray polarimeter would have been a powerful tool to explore sources such as neutron stars and black holes , measuring their properties and how they impact their surroundings. [ 21 ]
The detectors would have been located on two instrument platforms—the Moveable Instrument Platform (MIP) and the Fixed Instrument Platform (FIP). The Moveable Instrument Platform is needed because an X-ray telescopes cannot be folded as it can be done with visible-spectrum telescopes. Therefore, IXO would have used the MIP that holds the following detectors – a wide field imaging and hard X-ray imaging detector, a high-spectral-resolution imaging spectrometer, a high timing resolution spectrometer, and a polarimeter – and rotates them into the focus in turn. [ 22 ]
The X-ray Grating Spectrometer would have been located on the Fixed Instrument Platform. This is a wavelength-dispersive spectrometer that would have provided high spectral resolution in the soft X-ray band. It can be used to determine the properties of the warm-hot-intergalactic medium, outflows from active galactic nuclei, and plasma emissions from stellar coronae. [ 23 ]
A fraction of the beam from the mirror would have been dispersed to a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, which would have operated simultaneously with the observing MIP instrument and collect instrumental background data, which can occur when an instrument is not in the focal position. To avoid interfering the very faint astronomical signals with radiation from the telescope, the telescope itself and all its instruments must be kept cold. Therefore, the IXO Instrument Platform would have featured a large shield that blocks the light from the Sun , Earth , and Moon , which otherwise would heat up the telescope, and interfere with the observations.
IXO optics and instrumentation will provide up to 100-fold increase in effective area for high resolution spectroscopy, deep spectral, and microsecond spectroscopic timing with high count rate capability. [ 7 ] The improvement of IXO relative to current X-ray missions is equivalent to a transition from the 200-inch Palomar telescope to a 22 m telescope while at the same time shifting from spectral band imaging to an integral field spectrograph.
The planned launch date for IXO was 2021, going into an L2 orbit on either the Ariane V or Atlas V . [ 3 ]
IXO was designed to operate for a minimum of 5 years, with a goal of 10 years, so IXO science operations were anticipated to last from 2021 to 2030. [ 3 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_X-ray_Observatory |
The International Year of Astronomy ( IYA2009 ) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler 's Astronomia nova in the 17th century. [ 1 ] The Year was declared by the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] A global scheme, laid out by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), was also endorsed by UNESCO , the UN body responsible for educational, scientific, and cultural matters. [ 4 ]
The IAU coordinated the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. This initiative was an opportunity for the citizens of Earth to gain a deeper insight into astronomy's role in enriching all human cultures. Moreover, served as a platform for informing the public about the latest astronomical discoveries while emphasizing the essential role of astronomy in science education. IYA2009 was sponsored by Celestron and Thales Alenia Space .
On 25 September 1608, Hans Lippershey , a spectacle-maker from Middelburg , traveled to The Hague , the then capital of the Netherlands , to demonstrate to the Dutch government a new device he was trying to patent: a telescope . Although Hans was not awarded the patent, Galileo heard of this story and decided to use the "Dutch perspective glass" and point it towards the heavens.
In 1609, Galileo Galilei first turned one of his telescopes to the night sky and made astounding discoveries that changed mankind's conception of the world: mountains and craters on the Moon , a plethora of stars invisible to the naked eye, and moons around Jupiter . [ 5 ] Astronomical observatories around the world promised to reveal how planets and stars are formed, how galaxies assemble and evolve, and what the structure and shape of our Universe actually are.
In the same year, Johannes Kepler published his work Astronomia nova , in which he described the fundamental laws of planetary motions .
However Galileo was not the first to observe the Moon through a telescope and make a drawing of it. Thomas Harriot observed and detailed the Moon some months before Galileo. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] "It's all about publicity. Galileo was extremely good at irritating people and also using creative writing to communicate what he was learning in a way that made people think," says Pamela Gay in an interview with Skepticality in 2009. [ 8 ]
The vision of IYA2009 was to help people rediscover their place in the Universe through the sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery. IYA2009 activities took place locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. National Nodes were formed in each country to prepare activities for 2009. These nodes established collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators. More than 100 countries were involved, and well over 140 participated eventually. To help coordinate this huge global programme and to provide an important resource for the participating countries, the IAU established a central Secretariat and the IYA2009 website as the principal IYA2009 resource for public, professionals and media alike. [ 9 ]
Astronomy , perhaps the oldest science in history, has played an important role in most, if not all, cultures over the ages. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) was intended to be a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, stimulating worldwide interest not only in astronomy, but in science in general, with a particular slant towards young people.
The IYA2009 marked the monumental leap forward that followed Galileo 's first use of the telescope for astronomical observations, and portrays astronomy as a peaceful global scientific endeavour that unites amateur and professional astronomers in an international and multicultural family that works together to find answers to some of the most fundamental questions that humankind has ever asked. The aim of the Year was to stimulate worldwide interest in astronomy and science under the central theme "The Universe, Yours to Discover."
Several committees were formed to oversee the vast majority of IYA2009 activities ("sidewalk astronomy" events in planetariums and public observatories), which spun local, regional and national levels. These committees were collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators. Individual countries were undertaking their own initiatives as well as assessing their own national needs, while the IAU acted as the event's coordinator and catalyst on a global scale. The IAU plan was to liaise with, and involve, as many as possible of the ongoing outreach and education efforts throughout the world, including those organized by amateur astronomers.
The major goals of IYA2009 were to:
As part of the scheme, IYA2009 helped less-well-established organizations from the developing world to become involved with larger organizations and deliver their contributions, linked via a huge global network. This initiative also aimed at reaching economically disadvantaged children across the globe and enhancing their understanding of the world. [ 10 ]
The central hub of the IAU activities for the IYA2009 was the IYA2009 Secretariat. This was established to coordinate activities during the planning, execution and evaluation of the Year. The Secretariat was based in the European Southern Observatory headquarters in the town of Garching near Munich , Germany. The Secretariat was to liaise continuously with the National Nodes, Task Groups, Partners and Organizational Associates, the media and the general public to ensure the progress of the IYA2009 at all levels. The Secretariat and the website were the major coordination and resource centers for all the participating countries, but particularly for those developing countries that lack the national resources to mount major events alone.
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 was supported by eleven Cornerstone projects. These are global programs of activities centered on specific themes and are some of the projects that helped to achieve IYA2009's main goals; whether it is the support and promotion of women in astronomy, the preservation of dark-sky sites around the world or educating and explaining the workings of the Universe to millions, the eleven Cornerstones were the key elements in the success of IYA2009.
100 Hours of Astronomy ( 100HA ) [ 11 ] is a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April 2009 and was part of the scheduled global activities of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The main goal of 100HA was to have as many people throughout the world as possible looking through a telescope just as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. The event included special webcasts, students and teachers activities, a schedule of events at science centers, planetariums and science museums as well as 24 hours of sidewalk astronomy, which allowed the opportunity for public observing sessions to as many people as possible.
The Galileoscope [ 12 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April 2009, where the program was to share a personal experience of practical astronomical observations with as many people as possible across the world. It was collaborating with the US IYA2009 National Node to develop a simple, accessible, easy-to-assemble and easy-to-use telescope that can be distributed by the millions. In theory, every participant in an IYA2009 event should be able to take home one of these little telescopes, enabling them to observe with an instrument similar to Galileo's one.
The Cosmic Diary , [ 13 ] [ 14 ] a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April, was not about the science of astronomy, but about what it is like to be an astronomer. Professionals were to blog in texts and images about their life, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, latest research findings and the challenges they face. The bloggers represented a vibrant cross-section of working astronomers from all around the world. They wrote in many different languages, from five continents. They have also written feature article "explanations" about their specialist fields, which were highlighted in the website. NASA, ESA and ESO all had sub-blogs as part of the Cosmic Diary Cornerstone.
The Portal to the Universe ( PTTU ) [ 15 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April 2009, to provide a global, one-stop portal for online astronomy contents, serving as an index, aggregator and a social-networking site for astronomy content providers, laypeople, press, educators, decision-makers and scientists. PTTU was to feature news, image, event and video aggregation; a comprehensive directory of observatories, facilities, astronomical societies, amateur astronomy societies, space artists, science communication universities; and Web 2.0 collaborative tools, such as the ranking of different services according to popularity, to promote interaction within the astronomy multimedia community. In addition, a range of "widgets" (small applications) were to be developed to tap into existing "live data". Modern technology and the standardisation of metadata made it possible to tie all the suppliers of such information together with a single, semi-automatically updating portal.
Promoting gender equality and empowering women is one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. She Is an Astronomer [ 16 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that ran 2–5 April 2009, to promote gender equality in astronomy (and science in general), tackling bias issues by providing a web platform where information and links about gender balance and related resources are collected.
The aim of the project was to provide neutral, informative and accessible information to female professional and amateur astronomers, students, and those who are interested in the gender equality problem in science. Providing this information was intended to help increase the interest of young girls in studying and pursuing a career in astronomy.
Another objective of the project was to build and maintain an Internet-based, easy-to-handle forum and database, where people regardless of geographical location could read about the subject, ask questions and find answers. There was also to be the option to discuss astronomy-sector-specific problems, such as observing times and family duties.
Dark Skies Awareness [ 17 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that ran from 2 to 5 April 2009. The IAU collaborated with the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), representatives of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the Starlight Initiative, and other national and international partners in dark-sky and environmental education on several related themes.
The focus was on three main citizen-scientist programs to measure local levels of light pollution. These programs were to take the form of "star hunts" or "star counts", providing people with a fun and direct way to acquire heightened awareness about light pollution through firsthand observations of the night sky. Together, the three programs were to cover the entire International Year of Astronomy 2009, namely GLOBE at Night (in March), the Great World Wide Star Count (in October) and How Many Stars (January, February, April through September, November and December).
UNESCO and the IAU were working together to implement a research and education collaboration as part of UNESCO's thematic initiative, Astronomy and World Heritage [ 18 ] as a worldwide astronomy event that also ran 2–5 April 2009. The main objective was to establish a link between science and culture on the basis of research aimed at acknowledging the cultural and scientific values of properties connected with astronomy. This programme provides an opportunity to identify properties related to astronomy located around the world, to preserve their memory and save them from progressive deterioration. Support from the international community is needed to implement this activity and to promote the recognition of astronomical knowledge through the nomination of sites that celebrate important achievements in science.
The Galileo Teacher Training Program ( GTTP ): the International Year of Astronomy 2009 provided an opportunity to engage the formal education community in the excitement of astronomical discovery as a vehicle for improving the teaching of science in classrooms around the world. To help training teachers in effective astronomy communication and to sustain the legacy of IYA2009, the IAU – in collaboration with the National Nodes and leaders in the field such as the Global Hands-On Universe project , the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific – embarked on a unique global effort to empower teachers by developing the Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP). [ 19 ]
The GTTP goal was to create a worldwide network of certified "Galileo Ambassadors" by 2012. These Ambassadors were to train "Galileo Master Teachers" in the effective use and transfer of astronomy education tools and resources into classroom science curricula. The Galileo Teachers were to be equipped to train other teachers in these methodologies, leveraging the work begun during IYA2009 in classrooms everywhere. Through workshops, online training tools and basic education kits, the products and techniques developed by this program could be adapted to reach locations with few resources of their own, as well as computer-connected areas that could take advantage of access to robotic optical and radio telescopes, webcams, astronomy exercises, cross-disciplinary resources, image processing and digital universes (web and desktop planetariums). Among GTTP partners, the Global Hands-On Universe project was a leader.
Universe Awareness ( UNAWE ) [ 20 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that also ran during 2–5 April 2009, as an international program to introduce very young children in under-privileged environments to the scale and beauty of the Universe. Universe Awareness noted the multicultural origins of modern astronomy in an effort to broaden children's minds, awaken their curiosity in science and stimulate global citizenship and tolerance. Using the sky and children's natural fascination with it as common ground, UNAWE was to create an international awareness of their place in the Universe and their place on Earth.
The Cornerstone project From Earth to the Universe ( FETTU ) [ 22 ] is a worldwide public science event that began in June 2008, and still ongoing through 2011. This project has endeavored to bring astronomy images and their science to a wider audience in non-traditional informal learning venues. In placing these astronomy exhibitions in public parks, metro stations, art centers, hospitals, shopping malls and other accessible locations, it has been hoped that individuals who might normally ignore or even dislike astronomy, or science in general, will be engaged.
The Developing Astronomy Globally [ 23 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that ran during 2–5 April 2009, as a Cornerstone project to acknowledge that astronomy needs to be developed in three key areas: professionally (universities and research); publicly (communication, media, and amateur groups) and educationally (schools and informal education structures). The focus was to be on regions that do not already have strong astronomical communities. The implementation was to be centred on training, development and networking in each of these three key areas.
This Cornerstone was using the momentum of IYA2009 to help establish and enhance regional structures and networks that work on the development of astronomy around the world. These networks were to support the current and future development work of the IAU and other programmes, plus ensure that developing regions could benefit from IYA2009 and the work of the other Cornerstone projects. It was to also address the question of the contribution of astronomy to development.
The Galilean Nights [ 24 ] was a worldwide astronomy event that also ran 2–5 April 2009, as a project to involve both amateur and professional astronomers around the globe, taking to the streets their telescopes and pointing them as Galileo did 400 years ago. The sources of interest were Jupiter and its moons, the Sun, the Moon and many others celestial marvels. The event was scheduled to take place on 22–24 October 2009. Astronomers were to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for space by encouraging as many people as possible to look through a telescope at planetary neighbours. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_Astronomy |
The International Year of Biodiversity ( IYB ) was a year-long celebration of biological diversity and its importance, taking place internationally in 2010. Coinciding with the date of the 2010 Biodiversity Target , the year was declared by the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2006.
It was meant to help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity through activities and events, to influence decision makers, and "to elevate biological diversity nearer to the top of the political agenda". [ 1 ]
The United Nations General Assembly declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (Resolution 61/203 [ 2 ] ). This year coincided with the 2010 Biodiversity Target adopted by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and by Heads of State and government at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. [ 3 ]
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), based in Montreal , Canada , was coordinating the International Year of Biodiversity campaign.
Established at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits of biodiversity. The CBD has near-universal participation, with 193 Parties.
The main goals of the International Year of Biodiversity were to:
The information above, for the most part, is based on the official websites of the Convention on Biological Diversity and of the International Year of Biodiversity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_Biodiversity |
The International Year of Quantum Science and Technology ( IYQ ) is a United Nations observance that aims to highlight the contributions of quantum science and practical applications of quantum technology . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Recognizing that 2025 would mark one hundred years of quantum mechanics , discussions about using this significant anniversary as an occasion for a global public outreach campaign to raise awareness about quantum mechanics’ history and its centrality to the physical sciences were initiated at the April 2018 Executive Committee meeting of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Forum on the History of Physics (FHP, now FHPP).
After discussions with APS Head of Public Relations and Head of Public Outreach, a meeting was convened to develop the idea further in August 2018 at APS headquarters among APS staff and representatives of multiple APS Fora, including the Forum on International Physics ( FIP ), the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public ( FOEP ), and Forum on Graduate Student Affairs ( FGSA ). Various aspects of the idea, dubbed the “Quantum Century project,” were discussed, including the possibility of seeking a UN-declared International Year. [ 4 ] A white paper proposal, describing the outlines of a plan to “to make the year 2025 an international celebration of quantum mechanics” was then reviewed and endorsed by the APS Committee on Public Engagement.
While this proposal made its way through the APS committee structure, the FHP created a Quantum Century Working Group to discuss the details of how the Quantum Century project could be developed. While the initial meeting of this group was four people, word quickly spread among an international network of scientists and historians enthusiastic about the idea and after several months there were over two dozen attendees, representing many institutions and societies from around the world, at what became known as the Quantum Century International Coordination Meetings.
An important document created by this International Coordination group was a list of Guiding Principles for all those helping to work on the celebration. This group and a separate Quantum Century History Working Group, an international team of quantum historians, also assisted the EU Quantum Flagship as it developed and launched its World Quantum Day initiative. A third Quantum Century Outreach Group, composed of experts in quantum education, outreach, and media, was also formed, and helped to refine the messaging and branding that would be needed for a quantum year.
In August 2020 the Quantum Century proposal was considered by the APS Council Steering Committee, followed by consideration by the full APS Council in November 2020, which voted positively to endorse it. In 2021, the APS leadership formally endorsed the project of pursuing a UN-recognized International Year. In keeping with UN naming standards, the project was re-named The International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ).
In August 2021 the APS and German Physical Society (DPG) formed an Executive Committee. This Committee collaborated with APS Head of Public Engagement and Director of International Affairs Amy Flatten on the process of gaining formal recognition for the International Year. Work then began on contacting and assembling a partnership of scientific societies, institutes, and organizations [ 5 ] who supported and endorsed the IYQ idea. Initial discussions on formal UN recognition were held with the Chief of Section for Basic Science, Research, Innovation and Engineering at the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) . In October 2021, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) endorsed IYQ; later International Union endorsements included the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAP) , the International Astronomical Union (IAU) , the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) , and the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST) .
At the start of 2022, the branding and logo for this campaign was developed and the IYQ website launched. During 2022, partnering societies began expressing their support for IYQ to their respective governments in order to bring a resolution endorsing IYQ to UNESCO. In October 2022 members of the IYQ Executive Committee traveled to the UNESCO Executive Board meeting in Paris to discuss IYQ directly with delegations. The country of Mexico agreed to be the lead sponsor of an endorsing resolution and began discussions with other delegations about co-sponsorships. At the May 2023 UNESCO Executive Board meeting a resolution, co-sponsored by 59 countries, to “welcome and endorse the recommendation to proclaim 2025 international year of quantum science and technology . . . [and] recommend that the General Conference at its 42 nd session adopts a resolution in this regard.” [ 6 ] This 42 nd session of the UNESCO General Conference convened in November of that year and passed a resolution recommending “that the General Assembly of the United Nations, at its seventy-eighth or seventy-ninth session, adopt a resolution declaring 2025 the international year of quantum science and technology.” [ 7 ]
In Fall 2023 a Founding Partnership structure overseeing the IYQ initiative was formed that came to include the APS, DPG, Optica (formerly OSA) , SPIE , the Chinese Optical Society (COS) , and the Institute of Physics (IOP) . In consultation with UNESCO, this Partnership formed an IYQ Steering Committee.
At the beginning of 2024, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) delegation from Ghana agreed to sponsor a resolution at the 78 th session of the UN in New York. On April 8, 2024, this delegation hosted an informational meeting, attended by the Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office, members of the IYQ Executive Committee, APS President, and other scientific dignitaries, to present a draft IYQ resolution to other UN delegations. Following a weeks-long period of draft revision and delegation discussion, the IYQ resolution was presented to the full General Assembly on June 7 by the Ghanaian delegation. [ 8 ] The resolution was adopted by the UNGA without objection (“by acclamation”) and was co-sponsored by over 70 countries representing over 5 billion people.
The UN resolution [ 9 ] “Decides to proclaim 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology” and “recommends that the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology should be observed through activities at all levels aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and applications.”
The IYQ 2025 has been endorsed by the American Physical Society, German Physical Society, and UNESCO. Microsoft is a leading partner of IYQ and marking the Year of Quantum with a “Quantum Ready” initiative for businesses to explore quantum. [ 10 ] AIP, IEEE, and Quantinuum are distinguished partners, and Google Quantum AI is a contributing partner. [ 11 ]
International Year of Quantum partners include:
The International Year of Quantum opening ceremony will be held in Paris, France in February to officially launch the year-long celebration. The event will be held February 4-5, 2025, at UNESCO Headquarters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_Quantum_Science_and_Technology |
The international breastfeeding symbol is a symbol that depicts a woman breastfeeding a baby. It was designed by Matt Daigle, a graphic artist and father, in response to a contest hosted by Mothering magazine . [ 1 ] The winner was chosen in November 2006 out of a total of more than 500 entries. [ 2 ] Daigle, who says his wife and son were the inspiration behind the symbol, released the copyright to the symbol to the public domain .
Increasing cultural diversity and personal mobility have motivated a desire for universal modes of communication. [ 3 ] The international breastfeeding symbol was created in the style of the AIGA symbol signs commonly seen in public places. Such symbols are intended to be understood at a glance by most people without written descriptions explaining what they mean. [ 4 ]
The international breastfeeding symbol was created to address the perceived problem of not having a universally accepted and understood symbol for breastfeeding available for use in public places. The modern iconography representing infancy usually involves artificial feeding or soothing objects, like a nurser bottle icon or pacifier symbol. [ 5 ] Nursing rooms have often used a baby bottle symbol to indicate what they are instead of a symbol of a mother nursing a child. It has been suggested that use of the symbol may be helpful in shifting the bottle-feeding cultural paradigm toward the biological norm of breastfeeding. [ 6 ]
In July 2007, the International Breastfeeding Symbol site, a website dedicated to the new symbol, was launched. [ 7 ]
Examples of uses of the symbol include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_breastfeeding_symbol |
An international nonproprietary name ( INN ) is an official generic and nonproprietary name given to a pharmaceutical substance or an active ingredient , [ 1 ] encompassing compounds , peptides and low-molecular-weight proteins (e.g., insulin , hormones , cytokines ), as well as complex biological products, such as those used for gene therapy . [ 2 ] INNs are intended to make communication more precise by providing a unique standard name for each active ingredient, to avoid prescribing errors. [ 3 ] The INN system was initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1953. [ 4 ]
Having unambiguous standard names for each pharmaceutical substance ( standardization of drug nomenclature ) is important because a drug may be sold under many different brand names, or a branded medication may contain more than one drug. For example, the branded medications Celexa, Celapram and Citrol all contain the same active ingredient whose INN is citalopram . The antibacterial medication known as co-trimoxazole as well as those under the brand names Bactrim and Septran all contain two active ingredients easily recognisable by their INN: trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole .
The WHO publishes INNs in English, Latin , French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic , and Chinese , and a drug's INNs are often cognate across most or all of the languages, with minor spelling or pronunciation differences, for example: paracetamol ( en ) paracetamolum ( la ), paracétamol ( fr ) and парацетамол ( ru ). An established INN is known as a recommended INN ( rINN ), while a name that is still being considered is called a proposed INN ( pINN ). [ 4 ]
National nonproprietary names such as British Approved Names (BAN), Dénominations Communes Françaises (DCF), Japanese Adopted Names (JAN) and United States Adopted Names (USAN) are nowadays, with rare exceptions, identical to the INN. [ 3 ]
Mandate The World Health Organization has a constitutional mandate to "develop, establish and promote international standards with respect to biological, pharmaceutical and similar products". The World Health Organization collaborates closely with INN experts and national nomenclature committees to select a single name of worldwide acceptability for each active substance that is to be marketed as a pharmaceutical. To avoid confusion, which could jeopardize the safety of patients, trade-marks should neither be derived from INNs nor contain common stems used in INNs.
Each drug's INN is unique but may contain a stem that is shared with other drugs of the same class. In this context, a stem is a syllable (or syllables) created to evoke in the name the pharmacological mechanism of action or the chemical structure of the substance. Stems are mostly placed word-finally (suffixes), but in some cases word-initial stems (prefixes) are used. For example, the beta blocker drugs propranolol and atenolol share the stem -olol (as a suffix ), and the benzodiazepine drugs lorazepam and diazepam share the stem -azepam (also a suffix) The list of stems in use are collected in a publication informally known as the Stem Book . [ 5 ]
Some examples of stems are:
The School of INN is a WHO International Nonproprietary Name Programme initiative launched in 2019, [ 6 ] which aims to provide information to pharmacy, medical and health students, as well as health professionals and other stakeholders on how an INN is designed and constructed. [ 7 ]
Users can take self-administered courses on several topics using this free and open source learning platform. For example, the course An Introduction to Drug Nomenclature and INN provides the user with a general overview of drug nomenclature and how INN are obtained and constructed. The course Learning Clinical Pharmacology (ATC classification, INN system) provides the student with the first steps to learn pharmacology using INN stems .
Registered students can take other courses provided by the School of INN, such as the Stem in a pill course, in which each topic or course contains information correlating INN and pharmacology for a given stem, including indications , mechanism of action , pharmacokinetics , contraindications , and drug interactions for the drugs sharing the stem. [ citation needed ]
There is also a "How to ..." section about INN Programme services and MedNet INN which enables users to carry out searches in the INN database to retrieve information on INN, its chemical information and ATC codes amonsgt other things. [ citation needed ]
The School of INN has created pilot sites in collaboration with several Universities around the globe: University of the Western Cape (South Africa), University of Eastern Piedmont (Italy), Université Grenoble Alpes (France) and University Ramon Lull and University of Alcalá in Spain. These pilot sites are involved in disseminating the use of INN, teaching based on INN and related research activities. [ 8 ]
The term stem is not used consistently in linguistics . It has been defined as a form to which affixes (of any type) can be attached. [ 9 ] Under a different and apparently more common view, this is the definition of a root , [ 10 ] while a stem consists of the root plus optional derivational affixes, meaning that it is the part of a word to which inflectional affixes are added. [ 11 ] INN stems employ the first definition, while under the more common alternative they would be described as roots.
Pharmacology and pharmacotherapy (like health care generally) are universally relevant around the world, making translingual communication about them an important goal. An interlingual perspective is thus useful in drug nomenclature . The WHO issues INNs in English, Latin, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. A drug's INNs are often cognates across most or all of the languages, but they also allow small inflectional , diacritic , and transliterational differences that are usually transparent and trivial for nonspeakers (as is true of most international scientific vocabulary ). For example, although ibuprofenum ( la ) has an inflectional difference from ibuprofen ( en ), and although ibuprofène ( fr ) has a diacritic difference, the differences are trivial; users can easily recognize the "same word". Although Ибупрофе́н ( ru ) and ibuprofen ( en ) have a transliteration difference, they sound similar, and for Russian speakers who can recognize Latin script or English speakers who can recognize Cyrillic script , they look similar; users can recognize the "same word". Thus, INNs make medicines bought anywhere in the world as easily identifiable as possible to people who do not speak that language. Notably, the "same word" principle allows health professionals and patients who do not speak the same language to communicate to some degree and to avoid potentially life-threatening confusions from drug interactions.
To facilitate the translation and pronunciation of INN, "f" should be used instead of "ph", "t" instead of "th", "e" instead of "ae" or "oe", and "i" instead of "y"; the use of the letters "h" and "k" should be avoided. [ 12 ] Thus a predictable spelling system, approximating phonemic orthography , is used, as follows:
Many drugs are supplied as salts , with a cation and an anion. The way the INN system handles these is explained by the WHO at its "Guidance on INN" webpage. [ 1 ] For example, amfetamine and oxacillin are INNs, whereas various salts of these compounds – e.g., amfetamine sulfate and oxacillin sodium – are modified INNs ( INNM ). [ 1 ] [ 13 ]
Several countries had created their own nonproprietary naming system before the INN was created, and in many cases, the names created under the old systems continue to be used in those countries. As one example, in English the INN name for a common painkiller is paracetamol ; the table below gives the alternative names for this in different systems:
Other naming systems not listed above include France 's Dénomination Commune Française (DCF) and Italy 's Denominazione Comune Italiana (DCIT). [ 16 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_nonproprietary_name |
The international trade in primates sees 32,000 wild non-human primates (NHPs) trapped and sold on the international market every year. [ citation needed ] They are sold mostly for use in animal testing [ citation needed ] , but also for food, for exhibition in zoos and circuses, and for private use as companion animals [ citation needed ] .
The United States imports around one third of all NHPs sold internationally, with the United Kingdom importing the second highest number. Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, France, and Taiwan also rank among the top importing countries [ citation needed ] .
The NHPs are exported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Kenya, Thailand, Philippines, Mauritius, Amazonian regions across South America, and China, where they exist indigenously [ citation needed ] . Noveprim Group, Les Campêches Ltd, Biodia Co Ltd, Bioculture (Mauritius) Ltd, Bio Sphère and Prima Cyno Ltd export between 6,000 and 8,000 primates yearly. [1]
They are caught by local villagers, farmers, and hunters who set traps with baited nets and or by laying bait in crates. Entire families may be caught in the nets, with any undesirable NHPs being killed and sold for food [ citation needed ] .
Those who survive are taken in crates to holding centers, possibly without food or water. The centers are reportedly overcrowded and dirty; the primates may not be able to stand in the crates, and many die. Others are weeded out because they are ill, too thin, or too old, with females and babies being the most desirable. [ 1 ]
According to a 1992 investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection , 75% of the NHPs may be killed at the holding centers. [ 2 ]
NHPs may be imported into the U.S. and sold for "scientific, educational, or exhibition purposes," and for use in breeding colonies. According to the AESOP Project, the majority of NHPs are imported to the U.S. to be used in laboratories.
23,465 non-human primates destined for laboratories or laboratory suppliers were imported into the U.S. in 2014 including macaques , grivets and capuchins . The majority of these animals were from China, Mauritius, Cambodia and Vietnam, respectively. Fortrea , Charles River Laboratories and SNBL USA are the largest U.S. importers of monkeys destined for laboratories. [ 3 ] Between 1995 and 1999, 1,580 wild baboons were imported into the United States. [ 4 ]
Airlines have been under "significant pressure" from PETA and other groups to end their transport of monkeys and other animals to laboratories. [ 5 ] According to PETA, over 110 airlines refuse to transport monkeys to laboratories, many after being the target of the animal welfare group's campaigns. [ 6 ]
As of 2015, Air France remains the last major airline to still transport nonhuman primates to laboratories. While Air France has defended the practice, saying the use of monkeys in research is needed, others including PETA, Jane Goodall , James Cromwell and Peter Gabriel have criticized the airline. [ 7 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_primate_trade |
International trade and water is the relationship between international trade and the water being used by humans. The substantial increase in human population during the 20th century combined with rapid increases in overall global economic development has resulted in rising challenges for the future of public water management. The developing world has been particularly impacted by the lack of access to clean water. Each year, millions of people die due to illnesses, diseases, and lack the capital to create the infrastructure necessary to combat the problem. [ 1 ] These conditions have increased the global demand for clean water and in turn, have pressured free market economists to suggest that wealthy market players are the most efficient solution to addressing water issues. [ 2 ] Several nations can benefit from international trade in water. Particularly nations with excess fresh water and abundant capital are looking forward to making healthy profits from either the export of water to other nations, or are interested in the investment returns they will earn from participation in foreign markets. However, not everyone agrees that market forces are best capable of solving water issues. NGOs, human rights organizations, and various stakeholders oppose viewing water in economic terms. These individuals accuse international trade agreements and international economic institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of attempting to privatize a resource that they consider a basic human right. [ 3 ] The lack of a common understanding of whether or not water should be viewed as a commodity or a basic human right has resulted in heated debates among legal professionals and leading members of the academia.
Prior to the industrial period, water had been extracted by whichever local community lived around it. As the industrial period progressed however, this view began to be replaced by a more economic oriented approach. Today, most water goes through a complicated industrial process that begins with its extraction and ends in a complicated process involving pipes, dams, and other sorts of unnatural facilities. Even fresh water that is located in rivers and lakes must somehow be extracted. In general these considerations involve the use of land, labor and capital thereby replacing the notion of a common resource into a value based product. Desalination and desalination plants also play a major role.
In 2000, out of the 40 IMF loans distributed 12 had requirements of partial or full privatization of water supplies.iv Likewise 50 percent of World Bank loans issued in 2002 to developing countries contained a clause that requested privatization of water services. [ 4 ] In addition to international institutions pushing for privatization, trade agreements in the 20th century have also created the legal framework for allowing the sale of water. The GATS, known as the General Agreement on Trade in Services , operates on a list in approach, meaning it allows privatization in areas that the nation has agreed to open to other members. The Doha Development Round of negotiations aims at changing this stature. During these negotiations it was declared that no sector is to be excluded from the negotiations to the new agreement. If water services negotiations succeed then once a member chooses to open their markets to their own private sector, then will have to afford other members the same rights to invest in that sector. [ 5 ] Many regional trade agreements do not have a list in approach and are therefore subject to the same conditions mentioned above. For example, in the US-CAFTA agreement only Costa Rica directly specified that water services were to be excluded from foreign investment the other nations made no similar request. [ 6 ] Due to the mixed results obtained from privatization of water services and the difficulty of reversing that decision, several actors have strongly opposed the export of bulk fresh water. These actors claim that once such an action is allowed to occur then it will establish a precedent of treating water just like any other export. This in turn will become legally binding and irreversible.
Canada is one of the largest owners of fresh water and has for years been engaged in a legal dispute over its possession of the resource. In 1990 an American company named Sunbelt was invited by the government of British Columbia to invest in a water exporting operation. Due to setbacks, the contract never matured and Sunbelt sued the government of British Columbia for failing to meet its obligations. After years of battle the Canadian government declared in 1999 that water in its fresh state as those found in rivers and lakes contains no economic value, and is therefore outside the obligations of its trade agreement. [ 7 ] In addition, the government cited article XI of GATT (G). This article allows for the conservation of a natural resource as long as the action taken by the government is done in a non-discriminatory manner. Sunbelt however, disagreed with the applicability of this clause and claimed that Canada’s actions are in direct violation of several international trade agreements. Particularly, Sunbelt addressed Article XI of GATT which forbids a member nation from imposing measures other than taxes, levies and other charges on the export of its good. Likewise, Sunbelt argued that the water located in British Columbia belonged to US companies just as much as it belongs to Canadian companies. This argument is based on Article 11 of NAFTA known as the investment chapter. Once water is extracted from its natural state for whatever reason that same right must be given to foreign investors. Sunbelt argues that Canadian companies had such extractions in the past and therefore opened the door for foreign investors to come in and do likewise.
In 2002, Israel agreed to buy 1.75 billion cubic feet of water from Turkey every year for a period of 20 years. [ 8 ] The method of transport involved the use of large plastic bubbles that would bring the water to the storage facility. In regards to the talks, the foreign minister of Turkey declared that this agreement will increase the cooperation between the two countries and also lead to peace and stability in the Middle East. [ 9 ] Economically Israel concluded that the cost of importing water would be higher than choosing the desalinization option but chose to import anyway. In addition to hoping to achieve peace the foreign minister also mentioned that the landmark agreement turns water into an internationally accepted commodity, and that Turkey hopes to sell water to other countries. Turkey canceled the deal after the Gaza Flotilla Raid by IDF commandos Gaza Flotilla Raid on May 31 2010. During this incident several Turkish nationals were killed by Israeli armed forces. [ 10 ]
In July 2010, the UN General Assembly declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right. The assembly did not specify whether a public authority or the private sector would be best capable of providing this right.
i (Segerfeldt 2005)
ii (Saefong 2006)
iii (Overbeke 2004)
iv (Shiva 2002)
v (Public Citizen.org 2002)
vi (Mann 2006)
vii (Mann 2006)
viii (Dr. Isabel Al-Assar 2008)
ix (US Water News Online 2004)
x (US Water News Online 2004) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_trade_and_water |
In computing , internationalization and localization ( American ) or internationalisation and localisation ( British ), often abbreviated i18n and l10n respectively, are means of adapting to different languages, regional peculiarities and technical requirements of a target locale .
Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by translating text and adding locale-specific components.
Localization (which is potentially performed multiple times, for different locales) uses the infrastructure or flexibility provided by internationalization (which is ideally performed only once before localization, or as an integral part of ongoing development). [ 1 ]
The terms are frequently abbreviated to the numeronyms i18n (where 18 stands for the number of letters between the first i and the last n in the word internationalization , a usage coined at Digital Equipment Corporation in the 1970s or 1980s) [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and l10n for localization , due to the length of the words. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Some writers have the latter term capitalized ( L10n ) to help distinguish the two. [ 6 ]
Some companies, like IBM and Oracle , use the term globalization , g11n , for the combination of internationalization and localization. [ 7 ]
Microsoft defines internationalization as a combination of world-readiness and localization. World-readiness is a developer task, which enables a product to be used with multiple scripts and cultures (globalization) and separates user interface resources in a localizable format (localizability, abbreviated to L12y ). [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
Hewlett-Packard and HP-UX created a system called "National Language Support" or "Native Language Support" (NLS) to produce localizable software. [ 10 ]
Some vendors, including IBM [ 11 ] use the term National Language Version (NLV) for localized versions of software products supporting only one specific locale. The term implies the existence of other alike NLV versions of the software for different markets; this terminology is not used where no internationalization and localization was undertaken and a software product only supports one language and locale in any version.
According to Software without frontiers , the design aspects to consider when internationalizing a product are "data encoding, data and documentation, software construction, hardware device support, and user interaction"; while the key design areas to consider when making a fully internationalized product from scratch are "user interaction, algorithm design and data formats, software services, and documentation". [ 10 ]
Translation is typically the most time-consuming component of language localization . [ 10 ] This may involve:
Computer software can encounter differences above and beyond straightforward translation of words and phrases, because computer programs can generate content dynamically. These differences may need to be taken into account by the internationalization process in preparation for translation. Many of these differences are so regular that a conversion between languages can be easily automated. The Common Locale Data Repository by Unicode provides a collection of such differences. Its data is used by major operating systems , including Microsoft Windows , macOS and Debian , and by major Internet companies or projects such as Google and the Wikimedia Foundation . Examples of such differences include:
Different countries have different economic conventions, including variations in:
In particular, the United States and Europe differ in most of these cases. Other areas often follow one of these.
Specific third-party services, such as online maps, weather reports, or payment service providers , might not be available worldwide from the same carriers, or at all.
Time zones vary across the world, and this must be taken into account if a product originally only interacted with people in a single time zone. For internationalization, UTC is often used internally and then converted into a local time zone for display purposes.
Different countries have different legal requirements, meaning for example:
Localization also may take into account differences in culture, such as:
To internationalize a product, it is important to look at a variety of markets that the product will foreseeably enter. [ 10 ] Details such as field length for street addresses, unique format for the address, ability to make the postal code field optional to address countries that do not have postal codes or the state field for countries that do not have states, plus the introduction of new registration flows that adhere to local laws are just some of the examples that make internationalization a complex project. [ 6 ] [ 17 ] A broader approach takes into account cultural factors regarding for example the adaptation of the business process logic or the inclusion of individual cultural (behavioral) aspects. [ 10 ] [ 18 ]
Already in the 1990s, companies such as Bull used machine translation ( Systran ) on a large scale, for all their translation activity: human translators handled pre-editing (making the input machine-readable) and post-editing . [ 10 ]
Both in re-engineering an existing software or designing a new internationalized software, the first step of internationalization is to split each potentially locale-dependent part (whether code, text or data) into a separate module. [ 10 ] Each module can then either rely on a standard library/dependency or be independently replaced as needed for each locale.
The current prevailing practice is for applications to place text in resource files which are loaded during program execution as needed. [ 10 ] These strings, stored in resource files, are relatively easy to translate. Programs are often built to reference resource libraries depending on the selected locale data.
The storage for translatable and translated strings is sometimes called a message catalog [ 10 ] as the strings are called messages. The catalog generally comprises a set of files in a specific localization format and a standard library to handle said format. One software library and format that aids this is gettext .
Thus to get an application to support multiple languages one would design the application to select the relevant language resource file at runtime. The code required to manage data entry verification and many other locale-sensitive data types also must support differing locale requirements. Modern development systems and operating systems include sophisticated libraries for international support of these types, see also Standard locale data above.
Many localization issues (e.g. writing direction, text sorting) require more profound changes in the software than text translation. For example, OpenOffice.org achieves this with compilation switches.
A globalization method includes, after planning, three implementation steps: internationalization, localization and quality assurance. [ 10 ]
To some degree (e.g. for quality assurance ), development teams include someone who handles the basic/central stages of the process which then enables all the others. [ 10 ] Such persons typically understand foreign languages and cultures and have some technical background. Specialized technical writers are required to construct a culturally appropriate syntax for potentially complicated concepts, coupled with engineering resources to deploy and test the localization elements.
Once properly internationalized, software can rely on more decentralized models for localization: free and open source software usually rely on self-localization by end-users and volunteers, sometimes organized in teams. [ 19 ] The GNOME project , for example, has volunteer translation teams for over 100 languages. [ 20 ] MediaWiki supports over 500 languages, of which 100 are mostly complete as of September 2023 [update] . [ 21 ]
When translating existing text to other languages, it is difficult to maintain the parallel versions of texts throughout the life of the product. [ 22 ] For instance, if a message displayed to the user is modified, all of the translated versions must be changed.
Independent software vendor such as Microsoft may provides reference software localization guidelines for developers. [ 23 ] The software localization language may be different from written language .
In a commercial setting, the benefit of localization is access to more markets. In the early 1980s, Lotus 1-2-3 took two years to separate program code and text and lost the market lead in Europe over Microsoft Multiplan . [ 10 ] MicroPro found that using an Austrian translator for the West German market caused its WordStar documentation to, an executive said, not "have the tone it should have had". [ 24 ] When Tandy Corporation needed French and German translations of English error messages for the TRS-80 Model 4 , the company's Belgium office and five translators in the US produced six different versions that varied on the gender of computer components. [ 25 ]
However, there are considerable costs involved, which go far beyond engineering. Further, business operations must adapt to manage the production, storage and distribution of multiple discrete localized products, which are often being sold in completely different currencies, regulatory environments and tax regimes.
Finally, sales, marketing and technical support must also facilitate their operations in the new languages, to support customers for the localized products. Particularly for relatively small language populations, it may never be economically viable to offer a localized product. Even where large language populations could justify localization for a given product, and a product's internal structure already permits localization, a given software developer or publisher may lack the size and sophistication to manage the ancillary functions associated with operating in multiple locales. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization |
Internavi is a vehicle telematics service offered by the Honda Motor Company to drivers in Japan. In the United States, the service is known as HondaLink, or sometimes MyLink. It provides mobile connectivity for on-demand traffic information services and internet provided maps displayed inside selected Honda vehicles. The service began August 1997 and was first offered in the 1998 Honda Accord and the Honda Torneo sold only in Japan starting July 1998. The service received a revision to services offered October 2002, adding traffic information delivery capabilities for subscribers to the Internavi Premium Club, and was optional on most Honda vehicles sold in Japan. VICS was integrated into the service starting September 2003. Membership in the service has steadily grown to exceed 5 million subscribers as of March 2007.
The subscription service replaces the need to periodically update in-car navigation systems that use CD, or DVD installed maps that must be updated with the latest information. The maps are sent by internet connections established through the drivers cellphone with a data download plan associated with the cellphone.
The service is available without having to purchase a Honda vehicle installed with the technology; The Internavi LINC is available at both the Apple App Store and Android Market and can be installed on compatible mobile devices.
One of the features offered is the ability to overlay weather information on the in-car map screen in 3D. Route guidance is provided in conjunction with VICS provided information so as to display a large weather disturbance approaching, such as a snow storm or typhoon, allowing drivers to take alternate routes.
The following is a description of the various elements that comprise Honda's "Internavi" information service, including integration of the Japanese governments nationally offered service VICS , or Vehicle Information and Communication System Press release for Internavi introduction
The technology is dependent on the user's cell phone service, and uses the data download plan associated with the users account. Once connected, one of the services available is route calculations towards a specific destination. The navigation technology interface connects to the server automatically at the Internavi Information Center, calculations and route planning is then determined towards establishing the quickest route towards the selected destination. The identified route also takes into consideration all currently known traffic and local transportation issues that may affect the plotted course from the VICS center, which is updated every five minutes based on reports from various sources. As travel begins towards the destination, any updated conditions are
instantly relayed to the vehicle in real time. If cellphone service connection is lost, information will be updated as the connection is reestablished. Under normal navigation conditions, FM-multiplex broadcast VICS will prompt when specific conditions become aware, such as traffic congestion. The plotted course is then modified based on new information received to adjust travel time information, to include inter-city motorway links. Information received to vehicles installed with Internavi technology are installed with an antenna externally installed. Information is also transmitted by transmitter towers located throughout Japan, identified with a "Beacon Light" located on main urban roads. In this manner vehicles with Internavi receive information from both the "beacon light" towers and by individual cellphones paired up' with vehicles, providing highly accurate information in real time.
As the vehicle travels, either on a planned destination or unguided autonomous driving, the vehicle installed with Internavi records the vehicle's GPS position and speed onto the vehicle's hard disk drive, and periodically updates to the Internavi Center Information Server. This autonomous information is then retransmitted towards other users, notifying of road conditions. Vehicles installed with previous internal maps utilizing a DVD are not given updated traffic conditions. [ 1 ] Speed conditions are then displayed in three colors—red, orange and blue—to signify traffic congestion conditions, overlaid with updated VICS known conditions. This feature can be deactivated by the driver if position and speed of the individual vehicle does not want to be transmitted, however by doing so, road conditions can not be shared unless the tracking system is activated. Reports will then be limited to VICS information only. Road conditions can be specifically defined towards individual lane conditions, as opposed to general road conditions, such as to identify a traffic incident in a particular lane. As the information is stored by various contributing vehicles, congestion prediction can also be provided. Road conditions are transmitted by the VICS system, however, Internavi provides additional and more specific road and traffic conditions based on individual lane conditions provided by vehicles recording Internavi "floating car" conditions, specifying which lane and the direction of the road itself. Internavi supporting traffic information is transmitted by individual driver's cell phones, and if cellphone conditions are disrupted, the information is recorded onto the vehicles HDD, so that when cellphone reception is restored, all recorded information is then transmitted and updates are sent towards participating vehicles.
Internavi participating vehicles also benefit from available parking spaces, whether it be on the street or in parking structures, public or private parking, from Internavi-equipped vehicles having made available a parking space. The space is also defined by the size of the leaving vehicle so that vehicles looking for a parking space can be reasonably confident the vacant space will accommodate the arriving vehicle.
As of October 2004, inclement weather conditions are overlaid onto the Internavi display map when the orientation of the map is displayed in 3D. This ability displays weather fronts as they approach the vehicles current position. [ 2 ]
When playing a CD, the Internavi operating system provides the ability to save a particular song or the entire contents of the CD onto the hard disk within the vehicle. Information about the CD is then provided by Gracenote .
The HDD map data is automatically updated for 24 months from registration, or up to 3 times map data on DVD sourced information before the first Japanese Government mandated vehicle inspection . After the time period has lapsed, map data updating is a supplementary service.
If the vehicle has been sent to Honda dealers for repair, the HDD map data is completely upgraded to the most current data available. Any music files stored in the HDD will be safeguarded to prevent accidental deletion.
The Member ID and password issued at the time of admission, which provides a personal home page in conjunction with the car navigation features. Key features, drive information, drive configuration spot, and notification of when maintenance is based on information sent from the car navigation system mileage. Users can plan ahead drive on a personal website, on a list that you have a destination, it is possible to easily perform the setting operation in the car destination. In addition, in June 2005 "Departure Time Traveller" is added a feature called, departure city, destination, and enter the desired arrival time, departure time and route recommendation, etc. To display the toll charges due.
Internavi also offers a hands-free phone call service to call for assistance, such as an accident, or a road emergency. The service also provides a 24-hour roadside assistance service and vehicle towing service. The service is an additional ¥2,000 enrollment fee, plus an JAF enrollment with an annual fee ¥4,000 "Confederation of Japan Automobile". The service is three years complimentary for owners of the Honda Legend and the Honda Elysion with the V6 engine. This service also provides a live operator who can provide additional road assistance services in comparison to other points and to ensure alternative means of transportation and lodging expenses when it becomes impossible to continue driving.
Honda's hybrid vehicles Honda Insight , the Honda CR-Z , and the Honda Fit Hybrid provide information such as Internet navigation information, and it records the accumulated mileage of the vehicle, which can be compared to other Hybrid owners vehicles and comparisons made towards other driver's habits.
When a Honda product with an Internavi compatible navigation system installed is purchased, the new owner can have the system activated by visiting any Japanese Honda dealership. The new owner then completes an application form to register the vehicle and pertinent information about the owner of the vehicle. Once completed, a PIN and activation instructions are sent to the owner.
Older vehicles that were not sold with Internavi installed, but were compatible with the technology can be retrofitted with the system by visiting any Honda dealer, or by visiting "Honda Access" accessories retailers and have Internavi installed. In Japan, an automobile parts retail chain called " Autobacs " sells an in-dash navigation system built by Honda called " Gathers " that is compatible with the Internavi technology, and can install the equipment into any vehicle. Previous navigation technology that uses either DVD loaded maps or use a Hard Disk Drive may be compatible with Internavi. In addition, the DVD navigation system installed in the JDM Honda MDX can be upgraded and made compatible with Internavi. The JDM Honda Odyssey , Elysion , and the Honda Edix also have older versions of in-car navigation systems that can be upgraded. Pioneer "Carrozzeria" products are also found to be compatible.
When Internavi was introduced, NTT DoCoMo 's "mova" (Link to Docomo Glossary) Archived 2011-11-23 at the Wayback Machine and " au " phone, using CDMA 1X WIN technology was compatible. Phones that are identified with 3G technology can be paired with Internavi using a Bluetooth connection. In Japan, telecom company WILLCOM offers flat-rate telecommunications services, depending on the type of third generation mobile navigation what can be connected directly to telephone or cable for in home use on personal computers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internavi |
IIIMF ( Internet/Intranet Input Method Framework ) is the default input method framework for Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and Korean on old Fedora Linux systems. [ 1 ] Since Fedora Core 5, SCIM has been selected as the default input method framework instead. Developed by Hideki Hiura, it supports Unicode and allows multiple language engines to run at the same time. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
This software article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet/Intranet_Input_Method_Framework |
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Medieval Studies. It is a web site with modern, medieval and ancient primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, bibliographies , images and music. Paul Halsall is the editor, with Jerome S. Arkenberg as the contributing editor. It was first created in 1996, and is used extensively by teachers as an alternative to textbooks. [ 1 ]
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook or IMS is a web site with Medieval source documents, maps, secondary sources, bibliographies, images and music. It is located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.
A large number of the documents on IMS are older copyright-expired translations from the 19th and early 20th century. [ 2 ] However, IMS also has a section of "recently translated texts" which have been translated just for IMS. In fact, IMS claims it "contains more newly-translated texts than any available published collection of medieval sources." [ 3 ]
The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is intended to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures. [ 4 ]
In addition to the large collections in the Medieval, Ancient, and Modern Sourcebooks, the Internet History Sourcebooks Project also includes Sourcebooks on African, East Asian, Global, Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Lesbian and Gay, Science, and Women's History. [ 5 ]
This website-related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_History_Sourcebooks_Project |
The Internet Storm Center ( ISC ) is a program of the SANS Technology Institute , a branch of the SANS Institute which monitors the level of malicious activity on the Internet , particularly with regard to large-scale infrastructure events.
The ISC evolved from "Incidents.org", a site initially founded by the SANS Institute to assist in the
public-private sector cooperation during the Y2K cutover. In 2000, Incidents.org started to cooperate with DShield to create a Consensus Incidents Database (CID). It collected security information from cooperating sites and agencies for mass analysis.
On March 22, 2001, the SANS CID was responsible for the early detection of the "Lion" worm attacks on various facilities. The quick warning and counter-efforts organized by the CID were instrumental in controlling the damage done by this worm, which otherwise might have been considerably worse.
Later, DShield was integrated closer into incidents.org as the SANS Institute started to sponsor DShield. The CID was renamed the "Internet Storm Center" in acknowledgement of the way it uses the distributed sensor network similar to the way a weather reporting center will detect and track an atmospheric storm and provide warnings. Since that time the ISC has expanded its monitoring operations; its website cites a figure of over twenty million "intrusion detection log entries" per day. It continues to provide analyses and alerts of security threats to the Internet community.
During the last hours of 2005 and the first weeks of 2006, the Internet Storm Center went to its longest period at the time to "yellow" on the Infocon for the WMF vulnerability .
The most prominent feature of the ISC is a daily "Handler Diary" which is prepared by one of the 40 volunteer incident handlers and summarized the events of the day. It frequently is the first public source for new attack trends and actively facilitates cooperation by soliciting more information to understand particular attacks better.
The Internet Storm Center is currently staffed with approximately 40 volunteers, representing 8 countries and many industries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Storm_Center |
The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet . These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network centers as well as the Internet exchange points and network access points , which exchange Internet traffic internationally. Internet service providers (ISPs) participate in Internet backbone traffic through privately negotiated interconnection agreements , primarily governed by the principle of settlement-free peering .
The Internet, and consequently its backbone networks, do not rely on central control or coordinating facilities, nor do they implement any global network policies. The resilience of the Internet results from its principal architectural features, such as the idea of placing as few network state and control functions as possible in the network elements, instead relying on the endpoints of communication to handle most of the processing to ensure data integrity, reliability, and authentication. In addition, the high degree of redundancy of today's network links and sophisticated real-time routing protocols provide alternate paths of communications for load balancing and congestion avoidance.
The largest providers, known as Tier 1 networks , have such comprehensive networks that they do not purchase transit agreements from other providers. [ 1 ]
The Internet backbone consists of many networks owned by numerous companies.
Fiber-optic communication remains the medium of choice for Internet backbone providers for several reasons. Fiber-optics allow for fast data speeds and large bandwidth , suffer relatively little attenuation — allowing them to cover long distances with few repeaters — and are immune to crosstalk and other forms of electromagnetic interference. [ citation needed ]
The real-time routing protocols and redundancy built into the backbone is also able to reroute traffic in case of a failure. [ 2 ] The data rates of backbone lines have increased over time. In 1998, [ 3 ] all of the United States' backbone networks had utilized the slowest data rate of 45 Mbit/s. However, technological improvements allowed for 41 percent of backbones to have data rates of 2,488 Mbit/s or faster by the mid 2000s. [ 4 ]
The first packet-switched computer networks, the NPL network and the ARPANET were interconnected in 1973 via University College London . [ 5 ] The ARPANET used a backbone of routers called Interface Message Processors . Other packet-switched computer networks proliferated starting in the 1970s, eventually adopting TCP/IP protocols or being replaced by newer networks.
The National Science Foundation created the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) in 1986 by funding six networking sites using 56 kbit/s interconnecting links, with peering to the ARPANET. In 1987, this new network was upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s T1 links for thirteen sites. These sites included regional networks that in turn connected over 170 other networks. IBM , MCI and Merit upgraded the backbone to 45 Mbit/s bandwidth ( T3 ) in 1991. [ 6 ] The combination of the ARPANET and NSFNET became known as the Internet. Within a few years, the dominance of the NSFNet backbone led to the decommissioning of the redundant ARPANET infrastructure in 1990.
In the early days of the Internet, backbone providers exchanged their traffic at government-sponsored network access points (NAPs), until the government privatized the Internet and transferred the NAPs to commercial providers. [ 1 ]
Because of the overlap and synergy between long-distance telephone networks and backbone networks, the largest long-distance voice carriers such as AT&T Inc. , Verizon , Sprint , and Lumen also own some of the largest Internet backbone networks. These backbone providers sell their services to Internet service providers. [ 1 ]
Each ISP has its own contingency network and is equipped with an outsourced backup. These networks are intertwined and crisscrossed to create a redundant network. Many companies operate their own backbones which are all interconnected at various Internet exchange points around the world. [ 7 ] In order for data to navigate this web, it is necessary to have backbone routers— routers powerful enough to handle information—on the Internet backbone that are capable of directing data to other routers in order to send it to its final destination. Without them, information would be lost. [ 8 ]
Backbone providers of roughly equivalent market share regularly create agreements called peering agreements , which allow the use of another's network to hand off traffic where it is ultimately delivered. Usually they do not charge each other for this, as the companies get revenue from their customers. [ 1 ] [ 9 ]
Antitrust authorities have acted to ensure that no provider grows large enough to dominate the backbone market. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has decided not to monitor the competitive aspects of the Internet backbone interconnection relationships as long as the market continues to function well. [ 1 ]
Backbone providers of unequal market share usually create agreements called transit agreements , and usually contain some type of monetary agreement. [ 1 ] [ 9 ]
During the 2011 Egyptian revolution , the government of Egypt shut down the four major ISPs on January 27, 2011 at approximately 5:20 p.m. EST. [ 10 ] The networks had not been physically interrupted, as the Internet transit traffic through Egypt was unaffected. Instead, the government shut down the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) sessions announcing local routes. BGP is responsible for routing traffic between ISPs. [ 11 ]
Only one of Egypt's ISPs was allowed to continue operations. The ISP Noor Group provided connectivity only to Egypt's stock exchange as well as some government ministries. [ 10 ] Other ISPs started to offer free dial-up Internet access in other countries. [ 12 ]
Europe is a major contributor to the growth of the international backbone as well as a contributor to the growth of Internet bandwidth. In 2003, Europe was credited with 82 percent of the world's international cross-border bandwidth. [ 13 ] The company Level 3 Communications began to launch a line of dedicated Internet access and virtual private network services in 2011, giving large companies direct access to the tier 3 backbone. Connecting companies directly to the backbone will provide enterprises faster Internet service which meets a large market demand. [ 14 ]
Certain countries around the Caucasus have very simple backbone networks. In 2011, a 75-year-old woman in Georgia pierced a fiber backbone line with a shovel and left the neighboring country of Armenia without Internet access for 12 hours. [ 15 ] The country has since made major developments to the fiber backbone infrastructure, but progress is slow due to lack of government funding. [ citation needed ]
Japan 's internet backbone requires a high degree of efficiency to support high demand for the Internet and technology in general. Japan had over 86 million Internet users in 2009, and was projected to climb to nearly 91 million Internet users by 2015. Since Japan has a demand for fiber to the home, Japan is looking into tapping a fiber-optic backbone line of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), a domestic backbone carrier, in order to deliver this service at cheaper prices. [ 16 ]
In some instances, the companies that own certain sections of the Internet backbone's physical infrastructure depend on competition in order to keep the Internet market profitable. This can be seen most prominently in China . Since China Telecom and China Unicom have acted as the sole Internet service providers to China for some time, smaller companies cannot compete with them in negotiating the interconnection settlement prices that keep the Internet market profitable in China. This imposition of discriminatory pricing by the large companies then results in market inefficiencies and stagnation, and ultimately affects the efficiency of the Internet backbone networks that service the nation. [ 17 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_backbone |
The Internet checksum , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] also called the IPv4 header checksum is a checksum used in version 4 of the Internet Protocol (IPv4) to detect corruption in the header of IPv4 packets. It is carried in the IPv4 packet header , and represents the 16-bit result of the summation of the header words. [ 3 ]
The IPv6 protocol does not use header checksums. Its designers considered that the whole-packet link layer checksumming provided in protocols, such as PPP and Ethernet , combined with the use of checksums in upper layer protocols such as TCP and UDP , are sufficient. [ 4 ] Thus, IPv6 routers are relieved of the task of recomputing the checksum whenever the packet changes, for instance by the lowering of the hop limit counter on every hop.
The Internet checksum is mandatory to detect errors in IPv6 UDP packets (including data payload).
The Internet checksum is used to detect errors in ICMP packets (including data payload).
The checksum calculation is defined as follows: [ 5 ]
The checksum field is the 16 bit one's complement of the one's complement sum of all 16 bit words in the header. For purposes of computing the checksum, the value of the checksum field is zero.
If there is no corruption, the result of summing the entire IP header, including checksum, and then taking its one's complement should be zero. At each hop, the checksum is verified. Packets with checksum mismatch are discarded. The router must adjust the checksum if it changes the IP header (such as when decrementing the TTL). [ 6 ]
The procedure is explained in detail in RFC 1071 "Computing the Internet Checksum". [ 1 ] Optimizations are presented in RFC 1624 "Computation of the Internet Checksum via Incremental Update", [ 2 ] to cover the case in routers that need to recompute the header checksum during packet forwarding when only a single field has changed.
Take the following truncated excerpt of an IPv4 packet. The header is shown in bold and the checksum is underlined.
4500 0073 0000 4000 4011 b861 c0a8 0001 c0a8 00c7 0035 e97c 005f 279f 1e4b 8180
For ones' complement addition, each time a carry occurs, we must add a 1 to the sum. [ 7 ] A carry check and correction can be performed with each addition or as a post-process after all additions. If another carry is generated by the correction, another 1 is added to the sum.
To calculate the checksum, we can first calculate the sum of each 16-bit value within the header, skipping only the checksum field itself. Note that these values are in hexadecimal notation.
Initial addition: 4500 + 0073 + 0000 + 4000 + 4011 + c0a8 + 0001 + c0a8 + 00c7 = 2479c
Carry addition is then made by adding the fifth hexadecimal digit to the first 4 digits: 2 + 479c = 479e
The checksum is then the ones' complement ( bitwise NOT ) of this result: NOT 479e = b861
This checksum value is shown as underlined in the original IP packet header above.
When verifying a checksum, the same procedure is used as above, except that the original header checksum is not omitted. 4500 + 0073 + 0000 + 4000 + 4011 + b861 + c0a8 + 0001 + c0a8 + 00c7 = 2fffd Add the carry bits: fffd + 2 = ffff Taking the ones' complement (flipping every bit) yields 0000, which indicates that no error is detected.
IP header checksum does not check for the correct order of 16-bit values within the header. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_checksum |
Internet freedom is an umbrella term that encompasses digital rights , freedom of information , the right to Internet access , freedom from Internet censorship , and net neutrality . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Those who support internet freedom as a human right include the United Nations Human Rights Council , who declared internet freedom a Human Right in 2012. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Eric Sterner agrees with the end goals of internet freedom but thinks that focusing on democracy and other freedoms is the best strategy. [ 6 ]
J. Goldsmith notes the discrepancies in fundamental rights around free speech that exist between Europe and the United States, for example, and how that impacts internet freedom. [ 7 ] In addition, the proliferation in certain kinds of speech that spreads false information and weakens trust in the accuracy of content online remains a topic of concern around internet freedom in all countries. The EU 's Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to control disinformation and misinformation on social media. It came into effect in 2023 and applies to large online platforms and search engines. The DSA requires platforms to take measures to limit the spread of disinformation and harmful content, such as removing or demoting it. It also requires platforms to be more transparent about their algorithms and content moderation practices. In doing so, the DSA aims to harmonise different national laws in the European Union that have emerged (since the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000 ) to address illegal content at national level. [ 8 ]
Some countries work to ban certain sites and or words that limit internet freedom. [ 9 ] The People's Republic of China (PRC) has the world's largest number of Internet users and one of the most sophisticated and aggressive Internet censorship and control regimes in the world. [ 10 ] In 2020 Freedom House ranked China last of 64 nations in internet freedom. [ 11 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_freedom |
Internet linguistics is a domain of linguistics advocated by the English linguist David Crystal . It studies new language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the Internet and of other new media , such as Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Since the beginning of human–computer interaction (HCI) leading to computer-mediated communication (CMC) and Internet-mediated communication (IMC), experts, such as Gretchen McCulloch [ 3 ] have acknowledged that linguistics has a contributing role in it, in terms of web interface and usability. Studying the emerging language on the Internet can help improve conceptual organization, translation and web usability. Such study aims to benefit both linguists and web users combined. [ 4 ]
The study of internet linguistics can take place through four main perspectives: sociolinguistics , education , stylistics and applied linguistics. [ 1 ] Further dimensions have developed as a result of further technological advances, which include the development of the Web as corpus and the spread and influence of the stylistic variations brought forth by the spread of the Internet, through the mass media and through literary works . In view of the increasing number of users connected to the Internet, the linguistics future of the Internet remains to be determined, as new computer-mediated technologies continue to emerge and people adapt their languages to suit these new media. [ 5 ] The Internet continues to play a significant role both in encouraging people and in diverting attention away from the usage of languages. [ 6 ]
David Crystal has identified four main perspectives for further investigation: the sociolinguistic perspective, the educational perspective, the stylistic perspective and the applied perspective. [ 2 ] The four perspectives are effectively interlinked and affect one another.
This perspective deals with how society views the impact of Internet development on languages. [ 1 ] The advent of the Internet has revolutionized communication in many ways; it changed the way people communicate and created new platforms with far-reaching social impact. Significant avenues include but are not limited to SMS text messaging, e-mails , chatgroups , virtual worlds and the Web. [ 2 ]
The evolution of these new mediums of communications has raised much concern with regards to the way language is being used. According to Crystal (2005), these concerns are neither without grounds nor unseen in history – it surfaces almost always when a new technology breakthrough influences languages; as seen in the 15th century when printing was introduced, the 19th century when the telephone was invented and the 20th century when broadcasting began to penetrate our society. [ 2 ]
At a personal level, CMC such as SMS text messaging and mobile e-mailing ( push mail ) has greatly enhanced instantaneous communication. [ 2 ] Some examples include the iPhone and the BlackBerry .
In schools, it is not uncommon for educators and students to be given personalized school e-mail accounts for communication and interaction purposes. Classroom discussions are increasingly being brought onto the Internet in the form of discussion forums. For instance, at Nanyang Technological University , students engage in collaborative learning at the university's portal – edveNTUre, where they participate in discussions on forums and online quizzes and view streaming podcasts prepared by their course instructors among others. iTunes U in 2008 began to collaborate with universities as they converted the Apple music service into a store that makes available academic lectures and scholastic materials for free – they have partnered more than 600 institutions in 18 countries, including Oxford , Cambridge and Yale Universities. [ 7 ]
These forms of academic social networking and media are slated to rise as educators from all over the world continue to seek new ways to better engage students. It is commonplace for students in New York University to interact with “guest speakers weighing in via Skype , library staffs providing support via instant messaging , and students accessing library resources from off campus”. [ 8 ] This will affect the way language is used as students and teachers begin to use more of these CMC platforms. [ 8 ]
At a professional level, it is a common sight for companies to have their computers and laptops hooked up onto the Internet (via wired and wireless Internet connection ), and for employees to have individual e-mail accounts. This greatly facilitates internal (among staffs of the company) and external (with other parties outside of one's organization) communication. Mobile communications such as smart phones are increasingly making their way into the corporate world. For instance, in 2008, Apple announced their intention to actively step up their efforts to help companies incorporate the iPhone into their enterprise environment, facilitated by technological developments in streamlining integrated features (push e-mail, calendar and contact management) using ActiveSync . [ 7 ]
In general, these new CMCs that are made possible by the Internet have altered the way people use language – there is heightened informality and consequently a growing fear of its deterioration. However, as David Crystal puts it, these should be seen positively as it reflects the power of the creativity of a language. [ 2 ]
The sociolinguistics of the Internet may also be examined through five interconnected themes. [ 9 ]
The educational perspective of internet linguistics examines the Internet's impact on formal language use, specifically on Standard English , which in turn affects language education . [ 2 ] The rise and rapid spread of Internet use has brought about new linguistic features specific only to the Internet platform. These include, but are not limited to, an increase in the use of informal written language, inconsistency in written styles and stylistics and the use of new abbreviations in Internet chats and SMS text messaging, where constraints of technology on word count contributed to the rise of new abbreviations. [ 1 ] Such acronyms exist primarily for practical reasons – to reduce the time and effort required to communicate through these mediums apart from technological limitations. Examples of common acronyms include lol (for "laughing out loud"; a general expression of laughter), omg ("oh my god") and gtg ("got to go"). [ 10 ]
The educational perspective has been considerably established in the research on the Internet's impact on language education. It is an important and crucial aspect, as it affects and involves the education of current and future student generations in the appropriate and timely use of informal language that arises from Internet usage . There are concerns for the growing infiltration of informal language use and incorrect word use into academic or formal situations, such as the usage of casual words like "guy" or the choice of the word "preclude" in place of "precede" in academic papers by students. There are also issues with spellings and grammar occurring at a higher frequency among students' academic works as noted by educators, with the use of abbreviations such as "u" for "you" and "2" for "to" being the most common. [ 11 ]
Linguists and professors like Eleanor Johnson suspect that widespread mistakes in writing are strongly connected to Internet usage, where educators have similarly reported new kinds of spelling and grammar mistakes in student works. There is, however, no scientific evidence to confirm the proposed connection. [ 12 ] Naomi S. Baron argues in Always On that student writings suffer little impact from the use of Internet-mediated communication (IMC) such as internet chat, SMS text messaging and e-mail. [ 13 ] A study in 2009 published by the British Journal of Developmental Psychology found that students who regularly texted (sent messages via SMS using a mobile phone) displayed a wider range of vocabulary, and this may lead to a positive impact on their reading development. [ 14 ]
Though the use of the Internet resulted in stylistics that are not deemed appropriate in academic and formal language use, Internet use may not hinder language education but instead aid it. The Internet has proven in different ways that it can provide potential benefits in enhancing language learning, especially in second or foreign-language learning . Language education through the Internet in relation to Internet linguistics is, most significantly, applied through the communication aspect (use of e-mails, discussion forums , chat messengers , blogs , etc.). [ 15 ] IMC allows greater interaction between language learners and native speakers of the language, providing for greater error corrections and better learning opportunities of standard language, in the process allowing the picking up of specific skills such as negotiation and persuasion. [ 15 ]
This perspective examines how the Internet and its related technologies have encouraged new and different forms of creativity in language, especially in literature. [ 2 ] It looks at the Internet as a medium through which new language phenomena have arisen. This new mode of language is interesting to study because it is an amalgam of both spoken and written languages. For example, traditional writing is static compared to the dynamic nature of the new language on the Internet, where words can appear in different colors and font sizes on the computer screen. [ 16 ] Yet, this new mode of language also contains other elements not found in natural languages. One example is the concept of framing found in e-mails and discussion forums. In replying to e-mails, people generally use the sender's e-mail message as a frame to write their own messages. They can choose to respond to certain parts of an e-mail message while leaving other bits out. In discussion forums, one can start a new thread, and anyone regardless of their physical location can respond to the idea or thought that was set down through the Internet. This is something that is usually not found in written language. [ 16 ]
Future research also includes new varieties of expressions that the Internet and its various technologies are constantly producing and their effects not only on written languages but also their spoken forms. [ 2 ] The communicative style of Internet language is best observed in the CMC channels below, as there are often attempts to overcome technological restraints such as transmission time lags and to re-establish social cues that are often vague in written text. [ 9 ]
Mobile phones (also called cell phones) have an expressive potential beyond their basic communicative functions. This can be seen in text-messaging poetry competitions such as the one held by The Guardian . [ 2 ] The 160-character limit imposed by the cell phone has motivated users to exercise their linguistic creativity to overcome them. A similar example of new technology with character constraints is Twitter , which has a 280-character limit. There have been debates as to whether these new abbreviated forms introduced in users’ Tweets are "lazy" or whether they are creative fragments of communication. Despite the ongoing debate, there is no doubt that Twitter has contributed to the linguistic landscape with new lingoes and also brought about a new dimension of communication. [ 17 ]
The cell phone has also created a new literary genre – cell phone novels . A typical cell phone novel consists of several chapters, which readers download in short installments. These novels are in their "raw" form, as they do not go through editing processes like traditional novels. They are written in short sentences, similar to text messaging. [ 18 ] Authors of such novels are also able to receive feedback and new ideas from their readers through e-mails or online feedback channels. Unlike traditional novel writing, readers’ ideas sometimes get incorporated into the storyline, or authors may also decide to change their story's plot according to the demand and popularity of their novel (typically gauged by the number of download hits). [ 19 ] Despite their popularity, there has also been criticism regarding the novels’ "lack of diverse vocabulary" and poor grammar. [ 20 ]
Blogging has brought about new ways of writing diaries and from a linguistic perspective, the language used in blogs is "in its most 'naked' form", [ 2 ] published for the world to see without undergoing the formal editing process. This is what makes blogs stand out because almost all other forms of printed language have gone through some form of editing and standardization. [ 21 ] David Crystal stated that blogs were "the beginning of a new stage in the evolution of the written language". [ 2 ] Blogs have become so popular that they have expanded beyond written blogs, [ 22 ] with the emergence of photoblog , videoblog , audioblog and moblog . These developments in interactive blogging have created new linguistic conventions and styles, with more expected to arise in the future. [ 21 ]
Virtual worlds provide insights into how users are adapting the usage of natural language for communication within these new mediums. The Internet language that has arisen through user interactions in text-based chatrooms and computer-simulated worlds has led to the development of slangs within digital communities. Examples of these include " pwn " and " noob ". Emoticons are further examples of how users have adapted different expressions to suit the limitations of cyberspace communication, one of which is the "loss of emotivity". [ 23 ]
Communication in niches such as role-playing games (RPG) of multi-user domains (MUDs) and virtual worlds is highly interactive, with emphasis on speed, brevity and spontaneity. As a result, CMC is generally more vibrant, volatile, unstructured and open. There are often complex organization of sequences and exchange structures evident in the connection of conversational strands and short turns. Some of the CMC strategies used include capitalization for words such as EMPHASIS , usage of symbols such as the asterisk to enclose words as seen in *stress* and the creative use of punctuation like ???!?!?!? . [ 9 ] Symbols are also used for discourse functions, such as the asterisk as a conversational repair marker and arrows and carats as deixis and referent markers. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] Besides contributing to these new forms in language, virtual worlds are also being used to teach languages. Virtual world language learning provides students with simulations of real-life environments, allowing them to find creative ways to improve their language skills. Virtual worlds are good tools for language learning among the younger learners because they already see such places as a "natural place to learn and play". [ 26 ]
One of the most popular Internet-related technologies to be studied under this perspective is e-mail, which has expanded the stylistics of languages in many ways. A study done on the linguistic profile of e-mails has shown that there is a hybrid of speech and writing styles in terms of format, grammar and style. [ 27 ] E-mail is rapidly replacing traditional letter-writing because of its convenience, speed and spontaneity. [ 28 ] It is often related to informality, as it feels temporary and can be deleted easily. However, as this medium of communication matures, e-mail is no longer confined to sending informal messages between friends and relatives. Instead, business correspondences are increasingly being carried out through e-mails. Job seekers are also using e-mails to send their resumes to potential employers. The result of a move towards more formal usages will be a medium representing a range of formal and informal stylistics. [ 21 ]
While e-mail has been blamed for students’ increased usage of informal language in their written work, David Crystal argues that e-mail is "not a threat, for language education" because e-mail with its array of stylistic expressiveness can act as a domain for language learners to make their own linguistic choices responsibly. Furthermore, the younger generation's high propensity for using e-mail may improve their writing and communication skills because of the efforts they are making to formulate their thoughts and ideas, albeit through a digital medium. [ 28 ]
Like other forms of online communication, instant messaging has also developed its own acronyms and short forms. However, instant messaging is quite different from e-mail and chatgroups because it allows participants to interact with one another in real-time while conversing in private. [ 29 ] With instant messaging, there is an added dimension of familiarity among participants. This increased degree of intimacy allows greater informality in language and "typographical idiosyncrasies". There are also greater occurrences of stylistic variation because there can be a very wide age gap between participants. For example, a granddaughter can catch up with her grandmother through instant messaging. Unlike chatgroups where participants come together with shared interests, there is no pressure to conform in language here. [ 21 ]
The applied perspective views the linguistic exploitation of the Internet in terms of its communicative capabilities – the good and the bad. [ 1 ] The Internet provides a platform where users can experience multilingualism. Although English is still the dominant language used on the Internet, other languages are gradually increasing in their number of users. [ 9 ] The Global Internet usage page provides some information on the number of users of the Internet by language, nationality and geography. This multilingual environment continues to increase in diversity as more language communities become connected to the Internet. The Internet is thus a platform where minority and endangered languages can seek to revive their language use and/or create awareness. This can be seen in two instances where it provides these languages opportunities for progress in two important regards – language documentation and language revitalization . [ 1 ]
Firstly, the Internet facilitates language documentation. Digital archives of media such as audio and video recordings not only help to preserve language documentation, but also allows for global dissemination through the Internet. [ 30 ] Publicity about endangered languages, such as Webster (2003) [ clarify ] has helped to spur a worldwide interest in linguistic documentation.
Foundations such as the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP), funded by Arcadia also help to develop the interest in linguistic documentation. The HRELP is a project that seeks to document endangered languages, preserve and disseminate documentation materials among others. The materials gathered are made available online under its Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) program.
Other online materials that support language documentation include the Language Archive Newsletter, which provides news and articles about topics in endangered languages. The web version of Ethnologue also provides brief information of all of the world's known living languages. By making resources and information of endangered languages and language documentation available on the Internet, it allows researchers to build on these materials and hence preserve endangered languages.
Secondly, the Internet facilitates language revitalization. Throughout the years, the digital environment has developed in various sophisticated ways that allow virtual contact. From e-mails, chats to instant messaging, these virtual environments have helped to bridge the spatial distance between communicators. The use of e-mails has been adopted in language courses to encourage students to communicate in various styles such as conference-type formats and also to generate discussions. [ 31 ] Similarly, the use of e-mails facilitates language revitalization in the sense that speakers of a minority language who moved to a location where their native language is not being spoken can take advantage of the Internet to communicate with their family and friends, thus maintaining the use of their native language. With the development and increasing use of telephone broadband communication such as Skype , language revitalization through the internet is no longer restricted to literate users. [ 1 ]
Hawaiian educators have been taking advantage of the Internet in their language revitalization programs. [ 32 ] The graphical bulletin board system Leoki (Powerful Voice) was established in 1994. The content, interface and menus of the system are entirely in the Hawaiian language. It is installed throughout the immersion school system and includes components for e-mails, chat, dictionary and online newspaper among others. In higher institutions such as colleges and universities where the Leoki system is not yet installed, the educators make use of other software and Internet tools such as Daedalus Interchange, e-mails and the Web to connect students of Hawaiian language with the broader community. [ 33 ]
Another use of the Internet includes having students of minority languages write about their native cultures in their native languages for distant audiences. Also, in an attempt to preserve their language and culture, Occitan speakers have been taking advantage of the Internet to reach out to other Occitan speakers from around the world. These methods provide reasons for using the minority languages by communicating in it. [ 34 ] [ 35 ] In addition, the use of digital technologies, which the young generation think of as "cool", will appeal to them and in turn maintain their interest and usage of their native languages. [ 1 ]
The Internet can also be exploited for activities such as terrorism , internet fraud and internet crimes against children . In recent years, there has been an increase in crimes that involved the use of the Internet such as e-mails and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), as it is relatively easy to remain anonymous. [ 36 ] These conspiracies carry concerns for security and protection. From a forensic linguistic point of view, there are many potential areas to explore. While developing a chat room child protection procedure based on search terms filtering is effective, there is still minimal linguistically orientated literature to facilitate the task. [ 1 ] In other areas, it is observed that the Semantic Web has been involved in tasks such as personal data protection , which helps to prevent fraud. [ 37 ]
The dimensions covered in this section include looking at the Web as a corpus and issues of language identification and normalization. The impacts of Internet linguistics on everyday life are examined under the spread and influence of Internet stylistics, trends of language change on the Internet and conversation discourse.
With the Web being a huge reservoir of data and resources, language scientists and technologists are increasingly turning to the web for language data. [ 5 ] Corpora were first formally mentioned in the field of computational linguistics at the 1989 ACL meeting in Vancouver. It was met with much controversy, as they lacked theoretical integrity leading to much skepticism of their role in the field, [ 5 ] until the publication of the journal "Using Large Corpora" in 1993 [ 38 ] that the relationship between computational linguistics and corpora became widely accepted. [ 5 ]
To establish whether the Web is a corpus, it is worthwhile to turn to the definition established by McEnery and Wilson (1996, p. 21): [ 39 ]
In principle, any collection of more than one text can be called a corpus. ... But the term “corpus” when used in the context of modern linguistics tends most frequently to have more specific connotations than this simple definition provides for. These may be considered under four main headings: sampling and representativeness, finite size, machine-readable form, a standard reference.
Relating closer to the Web as a corpus, Manning and Schütze (1999, p. 120) [ 40 ] further streamlines the definition:
In Statistical NLP [natural language processing], one commonly receives as a corpus a certain amount of data from a certain domain of interest, without having any say in how it is constructed. In such cases, having more training data is normally more useful than any concerns of balance, and one should simply use all the text that is available.
Hit counts were used for carefully constructed search engine queries to identify rank orders for word sense frequencies, as an input to a word sense disambiguation engine. [ 41 ] This method was further explored with the introduction of the concept of a parallel corpora where the existing Web pages that exist in parallel in local and major languages be brought together. [ 42 ] It was demonstrated that it is possible to build a language-specific corpus from a single document in that specific language. [ 43 ]
There has been much discussion about the possible developments in the arena of the Web as a corpus. The development of using the web as a data source for word sense disambiguation was brought forward in The EU MEANING project in 2002. [ 44 ] It used the assumption that within a domain, words often have a single meaning, and that domains are identifiable on the Web. This was further explored by using Web technology to gather manual word sense annotations on the Word Expert Web site.
In areas of language modeling , the Web has been used to address data sparseness. Lexical statistics have been gathered for resolving prepositional phrase attachments, [ 45 ] while Web document were used to seek a balance in the corpus. [ 46 ]
In areas of information retrieval, a Web track was integrated as a component in the community's TREC evaluation initiative. The sample of the Web used for this exercise amount to around 100GB, compromising of largely documents in the .gov top level domain. [ 47 ]
The British National Corpus contains ample information on the dominant meanings and usage patterns for the 10,000 words that forms the core of English.
The number of words in the British National Corpus (about 100 million) is sufficient for many empirical strategies for learning about language for linguists and lexicographers, [ 5 ] [ 48 ] and is satisfactory for technologies that utilize quantitative information about the behavior of words as input (parsing). [ 49 ] [ 50 ]
However, for some other purposes, it is insufficient, as an outcome of the Zipfian nature of word frequencies. Because the bulk of the lexical stock occurs less than 50 times in the British National Corpus, it is insufficient for statistically stable conclusions about such words. Furthermore, for some rarer words, rare meanings of common words, and combinations of words, no data has been found. Researchers find that probabilistic models of language based on very large quantities of data are better than ones based on estimates from smaller, cleaner data sets. [ 5 ]
The Web was clearly perceived as a multilingual corpus as early as 2013. [ 51 ] According to Observatory of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet , in 2024, around 750 languages have now digital codification, and amongst the estimated 50 billion webpages from 200 millions active websites, around 20% are in English or Chinese, and are followed by Spanish (7.7%), Hindi (3.8%), Russian (3.7%), Arabic (3.7%), French (3.4%) and Portuguese (3.1%). The same source mention figures for " cybergeography of languages " regrouping data by language families and highlighting the fact that the Internet is the most multilingual realm ever existed. If today more tan 95% of persons can use their first or second language to relate with the Internet, 90% of existing languages remain without digital existence, mainly minority and endangered languages.
In areas of language modeling, there are limitations on the applicability of any language model as the statistics for different types of text will be different. [ 52 ] When a language technology application is put into use (applied to a new text type), it is not certain that the language model will fare in the same way as how it would when applied to the training corpus. It is found that there are substantial variations in model performance when the training corpus changes. [ 53 ] This lack of theory types limits the assessment of the usefulness of language-modeling work.
As Web texts are easily produced (in terms of cost and time) and with many different authors working on them, it often results in little concern for accuracy. Grammatical and typographical errors are regarded as “erroneous” forms that cause the Web to be a dirty corpus. Nonetheless, it may still be useful even with some noise. [ 5 ]
The issue of whether sublanguages should be included remains unsettled. Proponents of it argue that with all sublanguages removed, it will result in an impoverished view of language. Since language is made up of lexicons, grammar and a wide array of different sublanguages, they should be included. However, it is not until recently that it became a viable option. Striking a middle ground by including some sublanguages is contentious because it is an arbitrary issue of which to include and which not. [ 5 ]
The decision of what to include in a corpus lies with corpus developers, and it has been done so with pragmatism. [ 5 ] The desiderata and criteria used for the British National Corpus serves as a good model for a general-purpose, general-language corpus [ 54 ] with the focus of being representative replaced with being balanced. [ 5 ]
Search engines such as Google serves as a default means of access to the Web and its wide array of linguistics resources. However, for linguists working in the field of corpora, there presents a number of challenges. This includes the limited instances that are presented by the search engines (1,000 or 5,000 maximum); insufficient context for each instance (Google provides a fragment of around ten words); results selected according to criteria that are distorted (from a linguistic point of view) as search term in titles and headings often occupy the top results slots; inability to allow searches to be specified according to linguistic criteria, such as the citation form for a word, or word class; unreliability of statistics, with results varying according to search engine load and many other factors. At present, in view of the conflicts of priorities among the different stakeholders, the best solution is for linguists to attempt to correct these problems by themselves. This will then lead to a large number of possibilities opening in the area of harnessing the rich potential of the Web. [ 5 ]
Despite the sheer size of the Web, it may still not be representative of all the languages and domains in the world, and neither are other corpora. However, the huge quantities of text, in numerous languages and language types on a huge range of topics makes it a good starting point that opens up to a large number of possibilities in the study of corpora. [ 5 ]
Stylistics arising from Internet usage has spread beyond the new media into other areas and platforms, including but not limited to, films , music and literary works . The infiltration of Internet stylistics is important as mass audiences are exposed to the works, reinforcing certain Internet specific language styles which may not be acceptable in standard or more formal forms of language.
Apart from internet slang , grammatical errors and typographical errors are features of writing on the Internet and other CMC channels. As users of the Internet gets accustomed to these errors, it progressively infiltrates into everyday language use, in both written and spoken forms. [ 1 ] It is also common to witness such errors in mass media works, from typographical errors in news articles to grammatical errors in advertisements and even internet slang in drama dialogues.
The more the internet is incorporated into daily life, the greater the impact it has on formal language. This is especially true in modern Language Arts classes through the use of smart phones, tablets, and social media. Students are exposed to the language of the internet more than ever, and as such, the grammatical structure and slang of the internet are bleeding into their formal writing. Full immersion into a language is always the best way to learn it. Mark Lester in his book Teaching Grammar and Usage states: “The biggest single problem that basic writers have in developing successful strategies for coping with errors is simply their lack of exposure to formal written English ... We would think it absurd to expect a student to master a foreign language without extensive exposure to it.” [ 55 ] Since students are immersed in internet language, that is the form and structure they are mirroring.
In addition, the rise of the Internet and overall immersion of people within it has brought forth a new wave over internet activism that has an impact on the public every day. [ 56 ]
The origin of the term " meme " can be traced back to Richard Dawkins , an ethologist , where he describes it as "a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation". [ 57 ] The term was later adapted to the realm of the Internet by David Beskow, Sumeet Kumar, and Kathleen Carley , wherein they labeled Internet memes as "any digital unit that transfers culture". [ 58 ] Shifman's definition of Internet-Memes also includes their status as "(a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each other, and (c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users." [ 59 ]
There has been instances of television advertisements using Internet slang, reinforcing the penetration of Internet stylistics in everyday language use. For example, in the Cingular advevrtisement in the United States, acronyms such as "BFF Jill" (which means "Best Friend Forever, Jill") were used. More businesses have adopted the use of Internet slang in their advertisements as the more people are growing up using the Internet and other CMC platforms, in an attempt to relate and connect to them better. [ 60 ] Such advertisements have received relatively enthusiastic feedback from its audiences. [ 60 ]
The use of Internet lingo has also spread into the arena of music, significantly seen in popular music . A recent example is Trey Songz's lyrics for "LOL :-)" , which incorporated many Internet lingo and mentions of Twitter and texting. [ 61 ]
The spread of Internet linguistics is also present in films made by both commercial and independent filmmakers . Though primarily screened at film festivals , DVDs of independent films are often available for purchase over the internet including paid-live-streamings, making access to films more easily available for the public. [ 62 ] The very nature of commercial films being screened at public cinemas allows the wide exposure to the mainstream mass audience, resulting in a faster and wider spread of Internet slangs. The latest [ clarification needed ] commercial film is titled "LOL" (acronym for Laugh Out Loud or Laughing Out Loud ), starring Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore . [ 63 ] This movie is a 2011 remake of the Lisa Azuelos' 2008 popular French film similarly titled " LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ". [ 64 ]
The use of internet slangs is not limited to the English language but extends to other languages as well. The Korean language has incorporated the English alphabet in the formation of its slang, while others were formed from common misspellings arising from fast typing. The new Korean slang is further reinforced and brought into everyday language use by television shows such as soap operas or comedy dramas like “ High Kick Through the Roof ” released in 2009.
With the emergence of greater computer/Internet mediated communication systems, coupled with the readiness with which people adapt to meet the new demands of a more technologically sophisticated world, it is expected that users will continue to remain under pressure to alter their language use to suit the new dimensions of communication. [ 5 ]
As the number of Internet users increase rapidly around the world, the cultural background, linguistic habits and language differences among users are brought into the Web at a much faster pace. These individual differences among Internet users are predicted to significantly impact the future of Internet linguistics, notably in the aspect of the multilingual web. As seen from 2000 to 2010, Internet penetration has experienced its greatest growth in non-English speaking countries such as China and India and countries in Africa, [ 65 ] resulting in more languages apart from English penetrating the Web.
Also, the interaction between English and other languages is predicted to be an important area of study. [ 66 ] As global users interact with each other, possible references to different languages may continue to increase, resulting in formation of new Internet stylistics that spans across languages. Chinese and Korean languages have already experienced English language's infiltration leading to the formation of their multilingual Internet lingo. [ 67 ]
At current state, the Internet provides a form of education and promotion for minority languages. However, similar to how cross-language interaction has resulted in English language's infiltration into Chinese and Korean languages to form new slangs, [ 67 ] minority languages are also affected by the more common languages used on the Internet (such as English and Spanish). While language interaction can cause a loss in the authentic standard of minority languages, familiarity of the majority language can also affect the minority languages in adverse ways. [ 6 ] For example, users attempting to learn the minority language may opt to read and understand about it in a majority language and stop there, resulting in a loss instead of gain in the potential speakers of the minority language. [ 68 ] Also, speakers of minority languages may be encouraged to learn the more common languages that are being used on the Web in order to gain access to more resources, and in turn leading to a decline in their usage of their own language. [ 69 ] The future of endangered minority languages in view of the spread of Internet remains to be observed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_linguistics |
The Internet of Military Things ( IoMT ) is a class of Internet of things for combat operations and warfare . It is a complex network of interconnected entities, or "things", in the military domain that continually communicate with each other to coordinate, learn, and interact with the physical environment to accomplish a broad range of activities in a more efficient and informed manner. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The concept of IoMT is largely driven by the idea that future military battles will be dominated by machine intelligence and cyber warfare and will likely take place in urban environments. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] By creating a miniature ecosystem of smart technology capable of distilling sensory information and autonomously governing multiple tasks at once, the IoMT is conceptually designed to offload much of the physical and mental burden that warfighters encounter in a combat setting. [ 5 ]
Over time, several different terms have been introduced to describe the use of IoT technology for reconnaissance, environment surveillance, unmanned warfare and other combat purposes. These terms include the Military Internet of Things (MIoT), [ 6 ] the Internet of Battle Things, [ 7 ] and the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT). [ 8 ]
The Internet of Military Things encompasses a large range of devices that possess intelligent physical sensing, learning, and actuation capabilities through virtual or cyber interfaces that are integrated into systems. These devices include items such as sensors , vehicles , robots , UAVs , human-wearable devices, biometrics , munitions , armor , weapons, and other smart technology. [ 9 ] In general, IoMT devices can generally be classified into one of four categories [ 10 ] (but the devices are meant to be ubiquitous enough to form a data fabric ): [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ]
In addition to connecting different electronic devices to a unified network, researchers have also suggested the possibility of incorporating inanimate and innocuous objects like plants and rocks into the system by fitting them with sensors that will turn them into information gathering points. [ 14 ] [ 15 ] Such efforts fall in line with projects related to the development of electronic plants, or e-Plants. [ 16 ]
Proposed examples of IoMT applications include tactical reconnaissance , smart management of resources, logistics support (i.e. equipment and supply tracking), smart city monitoring, and data warfare. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Several nations, as well as NATO officials, have expressed Interest in the potential military benefits of IoT technology. [ 19 ]
Advancements in IoMT technology largely stemmed from military efforts to bolster the development of sensor networks and low-power computing platforms during the 1960s for defense applications. [ 10 ] [ 20 ] During the Cold War , the U.S. military pioneered the use of wireless sensor network technologies to detect and track Soviet submarines. One example was the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) , a network of underwater acoustic sensors, i.e. hydrophones , placed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to act as underwater listening posts for above-ground facilities. [ 21 ] Much of the sensor and networking technologies that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) developed during this time period ultimately served as the foundation for modern IoT systems. Critically, the DoD helped set the stage for future IoT research in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET , an early precursor to the Internet that geographically-dispersed military scientists used to share data. [ 22 ]
In the 1980s, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) formally partnered with academic researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Carnegie Mellon University to further develop distributed, wireless sensor networks. From there, research into wireless sensor technologies spread throughout the civilian research community and eventually found use for industrial applications such as power distribution , wastewater treatment , and factory automation . [ 21 ] [ 22 ] During this time period, the DoD also invested heavily in the miniaturization of integrated circuits in order to embed various objects with tiny computer chips. As a result of their funding, the commercial microelectronics industry was able to recover when it faced potential decline at the time. [ 22 ]
By the late 1990s, the Department of Defense had announced plans for “network-centric” warfare that integrated the physical, information, and cognitive domains to enhance information sharing and collaboration. [ 22 ] Examples of projects guided by this goal include the Nett Warrior (formerly known as the Ground Soldier System or Mounted Soldier System ) [ 23 ] and the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below communication platform, both of which were prevalent in the early 2000s. [ 24 ]
However, interest in IoT research in the military started to wane as commercial industry surged ahead with new technology. [ 3 ] While DoD continued research into advanced sensors, intelligent information processing systems, and communication networks, few military systems have taken full advantage of the IoT stack such as networked sensors and automated-response technology largely due to security concerns. [ 22 ] As of 2019, research in modern IoT technology within the military started to regain a considerable amount of support from the U.S. Army , Navy , and Air Force . [ 25 ] [ 26 ]
Several initiatives were formed by the Department of Defense in order to bolster IoT research in the military domain as well as to reduce the current gap in progress between military and industry applications.
The Connected Soldier project was a research initiative supported by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) that focused on creating intelligent body gear. The project aimed to establish an internet of things for each soldier by integrating wideband radio, biosensors, and smart wearable systems as standard equipment. These devices served not only to monitor the soldier's physiological status but also to communicate mission data, surveillance intelligence, and other important information to nearby military vehicles, aircraft, and other troops. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ]
In 2016, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) created the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) project in response to the U.S. Army's operational outline for 2020 to 2040, titled “Winning in a Complex World.” In the outline, the Department of Defense announced its goals to keep up with the technological advances of potential adversaries by turning its attention away from low-tech wars and instead focusing on combat in more urban areas. [ 30 ] Acting as a detailed blueprint for what ARL suspected future warfare may entail, the IoBT project pushed for better integration of IoT technology in military operations in order to better prepare for techniques such as electronic warfare that may lie ahead. [ 31 ] [ 32 ]
In 2017, ARL established the Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance (IoBT-CRA) to bring together industry, university, and government researchers to advance the theoretical foundations of IoBT systems. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]
According to ARL, the IoBT was primarily designed to interact with the surrounding environment by acquiring information about the environment, acting upon it, and continually learning from these interactions. As a consequence, research efforts focused on sensing, actuation, and learning challenges. [ 35 ] In order for the IoBT to function as intended, the following prerequisite conditions must first be met in regard to technological capability, structural organization, and military implementation.
All entities in the IoBT must be able to properly communicate information to one another even with differences in architectural design and makeup. While future commercial internet of things may exhibit a lack of uniform standards across different brands and manufacturers, entities in IoBT must remain compatible despite displaying extreme heterogeneity. In other words, all electronic equipment, technology, or other commercial offerings accessed by military personnel must share the same language or at least have “translators” that make the transfer and processing of different types of information possible. In addition, the IoBT must be capable of temporarily incorporating available networked devices and channels that it does not own for its own use, especially if doing so is advantageous to the system (e.g. making use of existing civilian networking infrastructure in military operations in a megacity ). [ 7 ] At the same time, the IoBT must take into consideration the varying degree of trustworthiness of all the networks it leverages. [ 33 ]
Timing will be critical in the success of IoBT. The speed of communication, computation, machine learning, inference, and actuation between entities are vital to many mission tasks, as the system must know which type of information to prioritize. [ 2 ] Scalability will also serve as an important factor in the operation since the network must be flexible enough to function at any size. [ 7 ]
The success of the IoBT framework often hinges on the effectiveness of the mutual collaboration between the human agents and the electronic entities in the network. In a tactical environment, the electronic entities will be tasked with a wide range of objectives from collecting information to executing cyber actions against enemy systems. In order for these technologies to perform those functions effectively, they must be able to not only ascertain the goals of the human agents as they change but also demonstrate a significant level of autonomous self-organization to adjust to the rapidly changing environment. Unlike commercial network infrastructures, the adoption of IoT in the military domain must take into consideration the extreme likelihood that the environment may be intentionally hostile or unstable, which will require a high degree of intelligence to navigate. [ 36 ]
As a result, the IoBT technology must be capable of incorporating predictive intelligence , machine learning , and neural network in order to understand the intent of the human users and determine how to fulfill that intent without the process of micromanaging each and every component of the system. [ 30 ]
According to ARL, maintaining information dominance will rely on the development of autonomous systems that can operate outside its current state of total dependence on human control. A key focus of IoBT research is the advancement of machine learning algorithms to provide the network with decision-making autonomy. [ 36 ] Rather than having one system at the core of the network functioning as the central intelligence component dictating the actions of the network, the IoBT will have intelligence distributed throughout the network. Therefore, individual components can learn, adapt, and interact with each other locally as well as update behaviors and characteristics automatically and dynamically on a global scale to suit the operation as the landscape of warfare constantly evolves. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] In the context of IoT, the incorporation of artificial intelligence into the sheer volume of data and entities involved in the network will provide an almost infinite number of possibilities for behavior and technological capability in the real world. [ 36 ]
In a tactical environment, the IoBT must be able to perform various types of learning behaviors to adapt to the rapidly changing conditions. One area that received considerable attention is the concept of meta-learning, which strives to determine how machines can learn how to learn. Having such a skill would allow the system to avoid fixating on pretrained absolute notions on how it should perceive and act whenever it enters a new environment. Uncertainty quantification models have also generated interest in IoBT research since the system's ability to determine its level of confidence in its own predictions based on its machine learning algorithms may provide some much needed context whenever important tactical decisions need to be made. [ 36 ]
The IoBT should also demonstrate a sophisticated level of situation awareness and artificial intelligence that will allow the system to autonomously perform work based on limited information. A primary goal is to teach the network how to correctly infer the complete picture of a situation while measuring relatively few variables. [ 14 ] As a result, the system must be capable of integrating the vast amount and variety of data that it regularly collects into its collective intelligence while functioning in a continuous state of learning at multiple time scales, simultaneously learning from past actions while acting in the present and anticipating future events. [ 33 ] [ 36 ]
The network must also account for unforeseen circumstances, errors, or breakdowns and be able to reconfigure its resources to recover at least a limited level of functionality. [ 7 ] However, some components must be prioritized and structured to be more resilient to failure than others. For instance, networks that carry important information such as medical data must never be at risk of shutdown. [ 37 ]
For semi-autonomous components, the human cognitive bandwidth serves as a notable constraint for the IoBT due to its limitations in processing and deciphering the flood of information generated by the other entities in the network. In order to obtain truly useful information in a tactical environment, semi-autonomous IoBT technologies must collect an unprecedented volume of data of immense complexity in levels of abstraction , trustworthiness, value, and other attributes. [ 2 ] [ 7 ] [ 14 ] Due to serious limitations in human mental capacity, attention, and time, the network must be able to easily reduce and transform large flows of information produced and delivered by the IoBT into reasonably-sized packets of essential information that is significantly relevant to army personnel, such as signals or warnings that pertain to their current situation and mission. [ 7 ]
A key risk of IoBT is the possibility that devices could communicate negligibly useful information that eats up the human's valuable time and attention or even propagate inappropriate information that misleads human individuals into performing actions that lead to adverse or unfavorable outcomes. At the same time, the system will stagnate if the human entities doubt the accuracy of the information provided by the IoBT technology. As a result, the IoBT must operate in a manner that is extremely convenient and easy to understand to the humans without compromising the quality of the information it provides them. [ 7 ]
Mosaic Warfare is a term coined by former DARPA Strategic Technology Office director Tom Burns and former deputy director Dan Patt to describe a “systems of systems” approach to military warfare that focuses on re-configuring defense systems and technologies so that they can be fielded rapidly in a variety of different combinations for different tasks. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] Designed to emulate the adaptable nature of the lego blocks and mosaic art form, Mosaic Warfare was promoted as a strategy to confuse and overwhelm adversary forces by deploying low-cost adaptable technological expendable weapon systems that can play multiple roles and coordinate actions with one another, complicating the decision-making process for the enemy. [ 40 ] This method of warfare arose as a response to the current monolithic system in the military, which relies on a centralized command-and-control structure fraught with vulnerable single-point communications and the development of a few highly capable systems that are too important to risk losing in combat. [ 39 ] [ 41 ]
The concept of Mosaic Warfare existed within DARPA since 2017 and contributed to the development of various technology programs such as the System of Systems Integration Technology and Experimentation (SoSIT), which led to the development of a network system that allows previously disjointed ground stations and platforms to transmit and translate data between one another. [ 42 ]
In 2017, DARPA announced the creation of a new program called the Ocean of Things, which planned to apply IoT technology on a grand scale in order to establish a persistent maritime situational awareness over large ocean areas. [ 43 ] According to the announcement, the project would involve the deployment of thousands of small, commercially available floats. Each float would contain a suite of sensors that collect environmental data—like sea surface temperature and sea state —and activity data, such as the movement of commercial vessels and aircraft. [ 44 ] All the data collected from these floats would then be transmitted periodically to a cloud network for storage and real-time analysis. [ 45 ] Through this approach, DARPA aimed to create an extensive sensor network that can autonomously detect, track, and identify both military, commercial, and civilian vessels as well as indicators of other maritime activity. [ 46 ]
The Ocean of Things project focused primarily on the design of the sensor floats and the analytic techniques that would be involved in organizing and interpreting the incoming data as its two main objectives. For the float design, the vessel had to be able to withstand the harsh ocean conditions for at least a year while being made out of commercially available components that cost less than $500 each in total. In addition, the floats could not pose any danger to passing vessels and had to be made out of environmentally safe materials so that it could safely dispose of itself in the ocean after completing its mission. In regards to the data analytics, the project concentrated on developing cloud-based software that could collect, process, and transmit data about the environment and their own condition using a dynamic display. [ 46 ]
One of the largest potential dangers of IoMT technology is the risk of both adversarial threats and system failures that could compromise the entire network. Since the crux of the IoMT concept is to have every component of the network—sensors, actuators, software, and other electronic devices—connected together to collect and exchange data, poorly protected IoT devices are vulnerable to attacks which may expose large amounts of confidential information. Furthermore, a compromised IoMT network is capable of causing serious, irreparable damage in the form of corrupted software, disinformation , and leaked intelligence. [ 47 ]
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, security remains a top priority in IoT research. The IoMT must be able to foresee, avoid, and recover from attempts by adversary forces to attack, impair, hijack, manipulate, or destroy the network and the information that it holds. The use of jamming devices , electronic eavesdropping , or cyber malware may pose a serious risk to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information within the network. Furthermore, the human entities may also be targeted by disinformation campaigns in order to foster distrust in certain elements of the IoMT. [ 1 ] [ 7 ] Since IoMT technology may be used in an adversarial setting, researchers must account for the possibility that a large number of sources may become compromised to the point where threat-assessing algorithms may use some of those compromised sources to falsely corroborate the veracity of potentially malicious entities. [ 35 ]
Minimizing the risks associated with IoT devices will likely require a large-scale effort by the network to maintain impenetrable cybersecurity defenses as well as employ counterintelligence measures that thwart, subvert, or deter potential threats. Examples of possible strategies include the use of “disposable” security, where devices that are believed to be potentially compromised by the enemy are simply discarded or disconnected from the IoMT, and honeynets that mislead enemy eavesdroppers. Since adversary forces are expected to adapt and evolve their strategies for infiltrating the IoMT, the network must also undergo a continuous learning process that autonomously improves anomaly detection , pattern monitoring, and other defensive mechanisms. [ 7 ]
Secure data storage serves as one of the key points of interest for IoMT research. Since the IoMT system is predicted to produce an immense volume of information, attention was directed toward new approaches to maintaining data properly and regulating protected access that don't allow for leaks or other vulnerabilities. [ 48 ] One potential solution that was proposed by The Pentagon was Comply to Connect (C2C), a network security platform that autonomously monitored device discovery and access control in order to keep pace with the exponentially-growing network of entities. [ 31 ]
In addition to the risks of digital interference and manipulation by hackers , concerns have also been expressed regarding the availability of strong wireless signals in remote combat locations. The lack of a constant internet connection was shown to limit the utility and usability of certain military devices that depend on reliable reception. [ 49 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Military_Things |
Internet of things ( IoT ) describes devices with sensors , processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The IoT encompasses electronics , communication , and computer science engineering. "Internet of things" has been considered a misnomer because devices do not need to be connected to the public internet ; they only need to be connected to a network [ 6 ] and be individually addressable. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
The field has evolved due to the convergence of multiple technologies , including ubiquitous computing , commodity sensors , and increasingly powerful embedded systems , as well as machine learning . [ 9 ] Older fields of embedded systems , wireless sensor networks , control systems, automation (including home and building automation ), independently and collectively enable the Internet of things. [ 10 ] In the consumer market, IoT technology is most synonymous with " smart home " products, including devices and appliances ( lighting fixtures , thermostats , home security systems , cameras , and other home appliances) that support one or more common ecosystems and can be controlled via devices associated with that ecosystem, such as smartphones and smart speakers . IoT is also used in healthcare systems . [ 11 ]
There are a number of concerns about the risks in the growth of IoT technologies and products, especially in the areas of privacy and security , and consequently there have been industry and government moves to address these concerns, including the development of international and local standards, guidelines, and regulatory frameworks. [ 12 ] Because of their interconnected nature, IoT devices are vulnerable to security breaches and privacy concerns. At the same time, the way these devices communicate wirelessly creates regulatory ambiguities, complicating jurisdictional boundaries of the data transfer. [ 13 ]
Around 1972, for its remote site use, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory developed a computer controlled vending machine, adapted from a machine rented from Canteen Vending , which sold for cash or, though a computer terminal ( Teletype Model 33 KSR ), [ 14 ] on credit. [ 15 ] Products included, at least, beer, yogurt, and milk. [ 15 ] [ 14 ] It was called the Prancing Pony , after the name of the room, named after an inn in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings , [ 15 ] [ 16 ] as each room at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was named after a place in Middle Earth . [ 17 ] A successor version still operates in the Computer Science Department at Stanford , with both hardware and software having been updated. [ 15 ]
In 1982, [ 18 ] an early concept of a network connected smart device was built as an Internet interface for sensors installed in the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Department' s departmental Coca-Cola vending machine , supplied by graduate student volunteers, provided a temperature model and an inventory status, [ 19 ] [ 20 ] inspired by the computer controlled vending machine in the Prancing Pony room at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory . [ 21 ] First accessible only on the CMU campus, it became the first ARPANET -connected appliance, [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
Mark Weiser 's 1991 paper on ubiquitous computing , "The Computer of the 21st Century", as well as academic venues such as UbiComp and PerCom produced the contemporary vision of the IoT. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] In 1994, Reza Raji described the concept in IEEE Spectrum as "[moving] small packets of data to a large set of nodes, so as to integrate and automate everything from home appliances to entire factories". [ 26 ] Between 1993 and 1997, several companies proposed solutions like Microsoft 's at Work or Novell 's NEST . The field gained momentum when Bill Joy envisioned device-to-device communication as a part of his "Six Webs" framework, presented at the World Economic Forum at Davos in 1999. [ 27 ]
The concept of the "Internet of things" and the term itself, first appeared in a speech by Peter T. Lewis, to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation 15th Annual Legislative Weekend in Washington, D.C. , published in September 1985. According to Lewis, "The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the integration of people, processes and technology with connectable devices and sensors to enable remote monitoring, status, manipulation and evaluation of trends of such devices." [ 28 ]
The term "Internet of things" was coined independently by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble , later of MIT 's Auto-ID Center , in 1999, [ 29 ] though he prefers the phrase "Internet for things". [ 30 ] At that point, he viewed radio-frequency identification (RFID) as essential to the Internet of things, [ 31 ] which would allow computers to manage all individual things. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ] The main theme of the Internet of things is to embed short-range mobile transceivers in various gadgets and daily necessities to enable new forms of communication between people and things, and between things themselves. [ 35 ]
In 2004 Cornelius "Pete" Peterson, CEO of NetSilicon, predicted that, "The next era of information technology will be dominated by [IoT] devices, and networked devices will ultimately gain in popularity and significance to the extent that they will far exceed the number of networked computers and workstations." Peterson believed that medical devices and industrial controls would become dominant applications of the technology. [ 36 ]
Defining the Internet of things as "simply the point in time when more 'things or objects' were connected to the Internet than people", Cisco Systems estimated that the IoT was "born" between 2008 and 2009, with the things/people ratio growing from 0.08 in 2003 to 1.84 in 2010. [ 37 ]
The extensive set of applications for IoT devices [ 38 ] is often divided into consumer, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure spaces. [ 39 ] [ 40 ]
A growing portion of IoT devices is created for consumer use, including connected vehicles, home automation , wearable technology , connected health, and appliances with remote monitoring capabilities. [ 41 ]
IoT devices are a part of the larger concept of home automation , which can include lighting, heating and air conditioning, media and security systems and camera systems. [ 42 ] [ 43 ] Long-term benefits could include energy savings by automatically ensuring lights and electronics are turned off or by making the residents in the home aware of usage. [ 44 ]
A smart home or automated home could be based on a platform or hubs that control smart devices and appliances. [ 45 ] For instance, using Apple 's HomeKit , manufacturers can have their home products and accessories controlled by an application in iOS devices such as the iPhone and the Apple Watch . [ 46 ] [ 47 ] This could be a dedicated app or iOS native applications such as Siri . [ 48 ] This can be demonstrated in the case of Lenovo's Smart Home Essentials, which is a line of smart home devices that are controlled through Apple's Home app or Siri without the need for a Wi-Fi bridge. [ 48 ] There are also dedicated smart home hubs that are offered as standalone platforms to connect different smart home products. These include the Amazon Echo , Google Home , Apple's HomePod , and Samsung's SmartThings Hub . [ 49 ] In addition to the commercial systems, there are many non-proprietary, open source ecosystems, including Home Assistant, OpenHAB and Domoticz. [ 50 ]
One key application of a smart home is to assist the elderly and disabled . These home systems use assistive technology to accommodate an owner's specific disabilities. [ 51 ] Voice control can assist users with sight and mobility limitations while alert systems can be connected directly to cochlear implants worn by hearing-impaired users. [ 52 ] They can also be equipped with additional safety features, including sensors that monitor for medical emergencies such as falls or seizures . [ 53 ] Smart home technology applied in this way can provide users with more freedom and a higher quality of life. [ 51 ]
The term "Enterprise IoT" refers to devices used in business and corporate settings.
The Internet of Medical Things ( IoMT ) is an application of the IoT for medical and health-related purposes, data collection and analysis for research, and monitoring. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ] The IoMT has been referenced as "Smart Healthcare", [ 59 ] as the technology for creating a digitized healthcare system, connecting available medical resources and healthcare services. [ 60 ] [ 61 ]
IoT devices can be used to enable remote health monitoring and emergency notification systems . These health monitoring devices can range from blood pressure and heart rate monitors to advanced devices capable of monitoring specialized implants, such as pacemakers, Fitbit electronic wristbands, or advanced hearing aids. [ 62 ] Some hospitals have begun implementing "smart beds" that can detect when they are occupied and when a patient is attempting to get up. It can also adjust itself to ensure appropriate pressure and support are applied to the patient without the manual interaction of nurses. [ 54 ] A 2015 Goldman Sachs report indicated that healthcare IoT devices "can save the United States more than $300 billion in annual healthcare expenditures by increasing revenue and decreasing cost." [ 63 ] Moreover, the use of mobile devices to support medical follow-up led to the creation of 'm-health', used analyzed health statistics. [ 64 ]
Specialized sensors can also be equipped within living spaces to monitor the health and general well-being of senior citizens, while also ensuring that proper treatment is being administered and assisting people to regain lost mobility via therapy as well. [ 65 ] These sensors create a network of intelligent sensors that are able to collect, process, transfer, and analyze valuable information in different environments, such as connecting in-home monitoring devices to hospital-based systems. [ 59 ] Other consumer devices to encourage healthy living, such as connected scales or wearable heart monitors , are also a possibility with the IoT. [ 66 ] End-to-end health monitoring IoT platforms are also available for antenatal and chronic patients, helping one manage health vitals and recurring medication requirements. [ 67 ]
Advances in plastic and fabric electronics fabrication methods have enabled ultra-low cost, use-and-throw IoMT sensors. These sensors, along with the required RFID electronics, can be fabricated on paper or e-textiles for wireless powered disposable sensing devices. [ 68 ] Applications have been established for point-of-care medical diagnostics , where portability and low system-complexity is essential. [ 69 ]
As of 2018 [update] IoMT was being applied in the clinical laboratory industry. [ 56 ]
IoMT in the insurance industry provides access to better and new types of dynamic information. This includes sensor-based solutions such as biosensors, wearables, connected health devices, and mobile apps to track customer behavior. This can lead to more accurate underwriting and new pricing models. [ 70 ]
The application of the IoT in healthcare plays a fundamental role in managing chronic diseases and in disease prevention and control. Remote monitoring is made possible through the connection of powerful wireless solutions. The connectivity enables health practitioners to capture patient's data and apply complex algorithms in health data analysis. [ 71 ]
The IoT can assist in the integration of communications, control, and information processing across various transportation systems . Application of the IoT extends to all aspects of transportation systems (i.e., the vehicle, [ 72 ] the infrastructure, and the driver or user). Dynamic interaction between these components of a transport system enables inter- and intra-vehicular communication, [ 73 ] smart traffic control , smart parking, electronic toll collection systems , logistics and fleet management , vehicle control , safety, and road assistance. [ 62 ] [ 74 ]
In vehicular communication systems , vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X), consists of three main components: vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (V2I) and vehicle to pedestrian communications (V2P). V2X is the first step to autonomous driving and connected road infrastructure. [ 75 ]
IoT devices can be used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems used in various types of buildings (e.g., public and private, industrial, institutions, or residential) [ 62 ] in home automation and building automation systems. In this context, three main areas are being covered in literature: [ 76 ]
Also known as IIoT, industrial IoT devices acquire and analyze data from connected equipment, operational technology (OT), locations, and people. Combined with operational technology (OT) monitoring devices, IIoT helps regulate and monitor industrial systems. [ 77 ] Also, the same implementation can be carried out for automated record updates of asset placement in industrial storage units as the size of the assets can vary from a small screw to the whole motor spare part, and misplacement of such assets can cause a loss of manpower time and money.
The IoT can connect various manufacturing devices equipped with sensing, identification, processing, communication, actuation, and networking capabilities. [ 78 ] Network control and management of manufacturing equipment , asset and situation management, or manufacturing process control allow IoT to be used for industrial applications and smart manufacturing. [ 79 ] IoT intelligent systems enable rapid manufacturing and optimization of new products and rapid response to product demands. [ 62 ]
Digital control systems to automate process controls, operator tools and service information systems to optimize plant safety and security are within the purview of the IIoT . [ 80 ] IoT can also be applied to asset management via predictive maintenance , statistical evaluation , and measurements to maximize reliability. [ 81 ] Industrial management systems can be integrated with smart grids , enabling energy optimization. Measurements, automated controls, plant optimization, health and safety management, and other functions are provided by networked sensors. [ 62 ]
In addition to general manufacturing, IoT is also used for processes in the industrialization of construction. [ 82 ]
There are numerous IoT applications in farming [ 83 ] such as collecting data on temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, pest infestation, and soil content. This data can be used to automate farming techniques, make informed decisions to improve quality and quantity, minimize risk and waste, and reduce the effort required to manage crops. For example, farmers can now monitor soil temperature and moisture from afar and even apply IoT-acquired data to precision fertilization programs. [ 84 ] The overall goal is that data from sensors, coupled with the farmer's knowledge and intuition about his or her farm, can help increase farm productivity, and also help reduce costs.
In August 2018, Toyota Tsusho began a partnership with Microsoft to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers from Kindai University , the water pump mechanisms use artificial intelligence to count the number of fish on a conveyor belt , analyze the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide. [ 85 ] The FarmBeats project [ 86 ] from Microsoft Research that uses TV white space to connect farms is also a part of the Azure Marketplace now. [ 87 ]
IoT devices are in use to monitor the environments and systems of boats and yachts. [ 88 ] Many pleasure boats are left unattended for days in summer, and months in winter so such devices provide valuable early alerts of boat flooding, fire, and deep discharge of batteries. The use of global Internet data networks such as Sigfox , combined with long-life batteries, and microelectronics allows the engine rooms, bilge, and batteries to be constantly monitored and reported to connected Android & Apple applications for example.
Monitoring and controlling operations of sustainable urban and rural infrastructures like bridges, railway tracks and on- and offshore wind farms is a key application of the IoT. [ 80 ] The IoT infrastructure can be used for monitoring any events or changes in structural conditions that can compromise safety and increase risk. The IoT can benefit the construction industry by cost-saving, time reduction, better quality workday, paperless workflow and increase in productivity. It can help in taking faster decisions and saving money in Real-Time Data Analytics . It can also be used for scheduling repair and maintenance activities efficiently, by coordinating tasks between different service providers and users of these facilities. [ 62 ] IoT devices can also be used to control critical infrastructure like bridges to provide access to ships. The usage of IoT devices for monitoring and operating infrastructure is likely to improve incident management and emergency response coordination, and quality of service , up-times and reduce costs of operation in all infrastructure-related areas. [ 89 ] Even areas such as waste management can benefit. [ 90 ]
There are several planned or ongoing large-scale deployments of the IoT, to enable better management of cities and systems. For example, Songdo , South Korea, the first fully equipped and wired smart city , is gradually being built, [ when? ] with approximately 70 percent of the business district completed as of June 2018 [update] . Much of the city, the first of its kind, is planned to be wired and automated to operate with little or no human intervention. [ 91 ]
In 2014 another application was undergoing a project in Santander , Spain. For this deployment, two approaches have been adopted. This city of 180,000 inhabitants has already seen 18,000 downloads of its city smartphone app. The app is connected to 10,000 sensors that enable services like parking search, and environmental monitoring. City context information is used in this deployment so as to benefit merchants through a spark deals mechanism based on city behavior that aims at maximizing the impact of each notification. [ 92 ]
Other examples of large-scale deployments underway include the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City; [ 93 ] work on improving air and water quality, reducing noise pollution, and increasing transportation efficiency in San Jose, California; [ 94 ] and smart traffic management in western Singapore. [ 95 ] Using its RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology, San Diego–based Ingenu has built a nationwide public network [ 96 ] for low- bandwidth data transmissions using the same unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz spectrum as Wi-Fi. Ingenu's "Machine Network" covers more than a third of the US population across 35 major cities including San Diego and Dallas. [ 97 ] French company, Sigfox , commenced building an Ultra Narrowband wireless data network in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014, the first business to achieve such a deployment in the U.S. [ 98 ] [ 99 ] It subsequently announced it would set up a total of 4000 base stations to cover a total of 30 cities in the U.S. by the end of 2016, making it the largest IoT network coverage provider in the country thus far. [ 100 ] [ 101 ] Cisco also participates in smart cities projects. Cisco has deployed technologies for Smart Wi-Fi, Smart Safety & Security, Smart Lighting , Smart Parking, Smart Transports, Smart Bus Stops, Smart Kiosks, Remote Expert for Government Services (REGS) and Smart Education in the five km area in the city of Vijaywada, India. [ 102 ] [ 103 ]
Another example of a large deployment is the one completed by New York Waterways in New York City to connect all the city's vessels and be able to monitor them live 24/7. The network was designed and engineered by Fluidmesh Networks , a Chicago-based company developing wireless networks for critical applications. The NYWW network is currently providing coverage on the Hudson River, East River, and Upper New York Bay. With the wireless network in place, NY Waterway is able to take control of its fleet and passengers in a way that was not previously possible. New applications can include security, energy and fleet management, digital signage, public Wi-Fi, paperless ticketing and others. [ 104 ]
Significant numbers of energy-consuming devices (e.g. lamps, household appliances, motors, pumps, etc.) already integrate Internet connectivity, which can allow them to communicate with utilities not only to balance power generation but also helps optimize the energy consumption as a whole. [ 62 ] These devices allow for remote control by users, or central management via a cloud -based interface, and enable functions like scheduling (e.g., remotely powering on or off heating systems, controlling ovens, changing lighting conditions etc.). [ 62 ] The smart grid is a utility-side IoT application; systems gather and act on energy and power-related information to improve the efficiency of the production and distribution of electricity. [ 105 ] Using advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) Internet-connected devices, electric utilities not only collect data from end-users, but also manage distribution automation devices like transformers. [ 62 ]
Environmental monitoring applications of the IoT typically use sensors to assist in environmental protection [ 106 ] by monitoring air or water quality , [ 107 ] atmospheric or soil conditions , [ 108 ] and can even include areas like monitoring the movements of wildlife and their habitats . [ 109 ] Development of resource-constrained devices connected to the Internet also means that other applications like earthquake or tsunami early-warning systems can also be used by emergency services to provide more effective aid. IoT devices in this application typically span a large geographic area and can also be mobile. [ 62 ] It has been argued that the standardization that IoT brings to wireless sensing will revolutionize this area. [ 110 ]
Another example of integrating the IoT is Living Lab which integrates and combines research and innovation processes, establishing within a public-private-people-partnership. [ 111 ] Between 2006 and January 2024, there were over 440 Living Labs (though not all are currently active) [ 112 ] that use the IoT to collaborate and share knowledge between stakeholders to co-create innovative and technological products. For companies to implement and develop IoT services [ 113 ] for smart cities, they need to have incentives. The governments play key roles in smart city projects as changes in policies will help cities to implement the IoT which provides effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of the resources that are being used. For instance, the government provides tax incentives and cheap rent, improves public transports, and offers an environment where start-up companies, creative industries, and multinationals may co-create, share a common infrastructure and labor markets, and take advantage of locally embedded technologies, production process, and transaction costs. [ 111 ]
The Internet of Military Things (IoMT) is the application of IoT technologies in the military domain for the purposes of reconnaissance, surveillance, and other combat-related objectives. It is heavily influenced by the future prospects of warfare in an urban environment and involves the use of sensors, munitions , vehicles, robots, human-wearable biometrics, and other smart technology that is relevant on the battlefield. [ 114 ]
One of the examples of IOT devices used in the military is Xaver 1000 system. The Xaver 1000 was developed by Israel's Camero Tech, which is the latest in the company's line of "through wall imaging systems". The Xaver line uses millimeter wave (MMW) radar, or radar in the range of 30-300 gigahertz. It is equipped with an AI-based life target tracking system as well as its own 3D 'sense-through-the-wall' technology. [ 115 ]
The Internet of Battlefield Things ( IoBT ) is a project initiated and executed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) that focuses on the basic science related to the IoT that enhance the capabilities of Army soldiers. [ 116 ] In 2017, ARL launched the Internet of Battlefield Things Collaborative Research Alliance (IoBT-CRA) , establishing a working collaboration between industry, university, and Army researchers to advance the theoretical foundations of IoT technologies and their applications to Army operations. [ 117 ] [ 118 ]
The Ocean of Things project is a DARPA -led program designed to establish an Internet of things across large ocean areas for the purposes of collecting, monitoring, and analyzing environmental and vessel activity data. The project entails the deployment of about 50,000 floats that house a passive sensor suite that autonomously detect and track military and commercial vessels as part of a cloud-based network. [ 119 ]
There are several applications of smart or active packaging in which a QR code or NFC tag is affixed on a product or its packaging. The tag itself is passive, however, it contains a unique identifier (typically a URL ) which enables a user to access digital content about the product via a smartphone. [ 120 ] Strictly speaking, such passive items are not part of the Internet of things, but they can be seen as enablers of digital interactions. [ 121 ] The term "Internet of Packaging" has been coined to describe applications in which unique identifiers are used, to automate supply chains, and are scanned on large scale by consumers to access digital content. [ 122 ] Authentication of the unique identifiers, and thereby of the product itself, is possible via a copy-sensitive digital watermark or copy detection pattern for scanning when scanning a QR code, [ 123 ] while NFC tags can encrypt communication. [ 124 ]
The IoT's major significant trend in recent years [ when? ] is the growth of devices connected and controlled via the Internet. [ 125 ] The wide range of applications for IoT technology mean that the specifics can be very different from one device to the next but there are basic characteristics shared by most.
The IoT creates opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, resulting in efficiency improvements, economic benefits, and reduced human exertions. [ 126 ] [ 127 ] [ 128 ] [ 129 ]
IoT Analytics reported there were 16.6 billion IoT devices connected in 2023. In 2020, the same firm projected there would be 30 billion devices connected by 2025. As of October, 2024, there are around 17 billion. [ 130 ] [ 131 ] [ 132 ]
Ambient intelligence and autonomous control are not part of the original concept of the Internet of things. Ambient intelligence and autonomous control do not necessarily require Internet structures, either. However, there is a shift in research (by companies such as Intel ) to integrate the concepts of the IoT and autonomous control, with initial outcomes towards this direction considering objects as the driving force for autonomous IoT. [ 133 ] An approach in this context is deep reinforcement learning where most of IoT systems provide a dynamic and interactive environment. [ 134 ] Training an agent (i.e., IoT device) to behave smartly in such an environment cannot be addressed by conventional machine learning algorithms such as supervised learning . By reinforcement learning approach, a learning agent can sense the environment's state (e.g., sensing home temperature), perform actions (e.g., turn HVAC on or off) and learn through the maximizing accumulated rewards it receives in long term.
IoT intelligence can be offered at three levels: IoT devices, Edge/Fog nodes , and cloud computing . [ 135 ] The need for intelligent control and decision at each level depends on the time sensitiveness of the IoT application. For example, an autonomous vehicle's camera needs to make real-time obstacle detection to avoid an accident. This fast decision making would not be possible through transferring data from the vehicle to cloud instances and return the predictions back to the vehicle. Instead, all the operation should be performed locally in the vehicle. Integrating advanced machine learning algorithms including deep learning into IoT devices is an active research area to make smart objects closer to reality. Moreover, it is possible to get the most value out of IoT deployments through analyzing IoT data, extracting hidden information, and predicting control decisions. A wide variety of machine learning techniques have been used in IoT domain ranging from traditional methods such as regression , support vector machine , and random forest to advanced ones such as convolutional neural networks , LSTM , and variational autoencoder . [ 136 ] [ 135 ]
In the future, the Internet of things may be a non-deterministic and open network in which auto-organized or intelligent entities ( web services , SOA components) and virtual objects (avatars) will be interoperable and able to act independently (pursuing their own objectives or shared ones) depending on the context, circumstances or environments. Autonomous behavior through the collection and reasoning of context information as well as the object's ability to detect changes in the environment (faults affecting sensors) and introduce suitable mitigation measures constitutes a major research trend, [ 137 ] clearly needed to provide credibility to the IoT technology. Modern IoT products and solutions in the marketplace use a variety of different technologies to support such context-aware automation, but more sophisticated forms of intelligence are requested to permit sensor units and intelligent cyber-physical systems to be deployed in real environments. [ 138 ]
IoT system architecture, in its simplistic view, consists of three tiers: Tier 1: Devices, Tier 2: the Edge Gateway , and Tier 3: the Cloud. [ 139 ] Devices include networked things, such as the sensors and actuators found in IoT equipment, particularly those that use protocols such as Modbus , Bluetooth , Zigbee , or proprietary protocols, to connect to an Edge Gateway. [ 139 ] The Edge Gateway layer consists of sensor data aggregation systems called Edge Gateways that provide functionality, such as pre-processing of the data, securing connectivity to cloud, using systems such as WebSockets, the event hub, and, even in some cases, edge analytics or fog computing . [ 139 ] Edge Gateway layer is also required to give a common view of the devices to the upper layers to facilitate in easier management. The final tier includes the cloud application built for IoT using the microservices architecture, which are usually polyglot and inherently secure in nature using HTTPS/ OAuth . It includes various database systems that store sensor data, such as time series databases or asset stores using backend data storage systems (e.g. Cassandra, PostgreSQL). [ 139 ] The cloud tier in most cloud-based IoT system features event queuing and messaging system that handles communication that transpires in all tiers. [ 140 ] Some experts classified the three-tiers in the IoT system as edge, platform, and enterprise and these are connected by proximity network, access network, and service network, respectively. [ 141 ]
Building on the Internet of things, the web of things is an architecture for the application layer of the Internet of things looking at the convergence of data from IoT devices into Web applications to create innovative use-cases. In order to program and control the flow of information in the Internet of things, a predicted architectural direction is being called BPM Everywhere which is a blending of traditional process management with process mining and special capabilities to automate the control of large numbers of coordinated devices. [ citation needed ]
The Internet of things requires huge scalability in the network space to handle the surge of devices. [ 142 ] IETF 6LoWPAN can be used to connect devices to IP networks. With billions of devices [ 143 ] being added to the Internet space, IPv6 will play a major role in handling the network layer scalability. IETF's Constrained Application Protocol , ZeroMQ , and MQTT can provide lightweight data transport. In practice many groups of IoT devices are hidden behind gateway nodes and may not have unique addresses. Also the vision of everything-interconnected is not needed for most applications as it is mainly the data which need interconnecting at a higher layer. [ citation needed ]
Fog computing is a viable alternative to prevent such a large burst of data flow through the Internet. [ 144 ] The edge devices ' computation power to analyze and process data is extremely limited. Limited processing power is a key attribute of IoT devices as their purpose is to supply data about physical objects while remaining autonomous. Heavy processing requirements use more battery power harming IoT's ability to operate. Scalability is easy because IoT devices simply supply data through the Internet to a server with sufficient processing power. [ 145 ]
Decentralized Internet of things, or decentralized IoT, is a modified IoT which utilizes fog computing to handle and balance requests of connected IoT devices in order to reduce loading on the cloud servers and improve responsiveness for latency-sensitive IoT applications like vital signs monitoring of patients, vehicle-to-vehicle communication of autonomous driving, and critical failure detection of industrial devices. [ 146 ] Performance is improved, especially for huge IoT systems with millions of nodes. [ 147 ]
Conventional IoT is connected via a mesh network and led by a major head node (centralized controller). [ 148 ] The head node decides how a data is created, stored, and transmitted. [ 149 ] In contrast, decentralized IoT attempts to divide IoT systems into smaller divisions. [ 150 ] The head node authorizes partial decision-making power to lower level sub-nodes under mutual agreed policy. [ 151 ]
Some approached to decentralized IoT attempts to address the limited bandwidth and hashing capacity of battery powered or wireless IoT devices via blockchain . [ 152 ] [ 153 ] [ 154 ]
In semi-open or closed loops (i.e., value chains, whenever a global finality can be settled) the IoT will often be considered and studied as a complex system [ 155 ] due to the huge number of different links, interactions between autonomous actors, and its capacity to integrate new actors. At the overall stage (full open loop) it will likely be seen as a chaotic environment (since systems always have finality).
As a practical approach, not all elements on the Internet of things run in a global, public space. Subsystems are often implemented to mitigate the risks of privacy, control and reliability. For example, domestic robotics (domotics) running inside a smart home might only share data within and be available via a local network . [ 156 ] Managing and controlling a high dynamic ad hoc IoT things/devices network is a tough task with the traditional networks architecture, software-defined networking (SDN) provides the agile dynamic solution that can cope with the special requirements of the diversity of innovative IoT applications. [ 157 ] [ 158 ]
The exact scale of the Internet of things is unknown, with quotes of billions or trillions often quoted at the beginning of IoT articles. In 2015 there were 83 million smart devices in people's homes. This number is expected to grow to 193 million devices by 2020. [ 43 ] [ 159 ] In 2023, the number of connected IoT devices will reach 16.6 billion. [ 160 ]
The figure of online capable devices grew 31% from 2016 to 2017 to reach 8.4 billion. [ 161 ]
In the Internet of things, the precise geographic location of a thing—and also the precise geographic dimensions of a thing—can be critical. [ 162 ] Therefore, facts about a thing, such as its location in time and space, have been less critical to track because the person processing the information can decide whether or not that information was important to the action being taken, and if so, add the missing information (or decide to not take the action). (Note that some things on the Internet of things will be sensors, and sensor location is usually important. [ 163 ] ) The GeoWeb and Digital Earth are applications that become possible when things can become organized and connected by location. However, the challenges that remain include the constraints of variable spatial scales, the need to handle massive amounts of data, and an indexing for fast search and neighbour operations. On the Internet of things, if things are able to take actions on their own initiative, this human-centric mediation role is eliminated. Thus, the time-space context that we as humans take for granted must be given a central role in this information ecosystem . Just as standards play a key role on the Internet and the Web, geo-spatial standards will play a key role on the Internet of things. [ 164 ] [ 165 ]
Many IoT devices have the potential to take a piece of this market. Jean-Louis Gassée (Apple initial alumni team, and BeOS co-founder) has addressed this topic in an article on Monday Note , [ 166 ] where he predicts that the most likely problem will be what he calls the "basket of remotes" problem, where we'll have hundreds of applications to interface with hundreds of devices that don't share protocols for speaking with one another. [ 166 ] For improved user interaction, some technology leaders are joining forces to create standards for communication between devices to solve this problem. Others are turning to the concept of predictive interaction of devices, "where collected data is used to predict and trigger actions on the specific devices" while making them work together. [ 167 ]
Social Internet of things (SIoT) is a new kind of IoT that focuses the importance of social interaction and relationship between IoT devices. [ 168 ] SIoT is a pattern of how cross-domain IoT devices enabling application to application communication and collaboration without human intervention in order to serve their owners with autonomous services, [ 169 ] and this only can be realized when gained low-level architecture support from both IoT software and hardware engineering. [ 170 ]
IoT defines a device with an identity like a citizen in a community and connect them to the Internet to provide services to its users. [ 171 ] SIoT defines a social network for IoT devices only to interact with each other for different goals that to serve human. [ 172 ]
SIoT is different from the original IoT in terms of the collaboration characteristics. IoT is passive, it was set to serve for dedicated purposes with existing IoT devices in predetermined system. SIoT is active, it was programmed and managed by AI to serve for unplanned purposes with mix and match of potential IoT devices from different systems that benefit its users. [ 173 ]
IoT devices built-in with sociability will broadcast their abilities or functionalities, and at the same time discovers, shares information, monitors, navigates and groups with other IoT devices in the same or nearby network realizing SIoT [ 174 ] and facilitating useful service compositions in order to help its users proactively in every day's life especially during emergency. [ 175 ]
There are many technologies that enable the IoT. Crucial to the field is the network used to communicate between devices of an IoT installation, a role that several wireless or wired technologies may fulfill: [ 182 ] [ 183 ] [ 184 ]
The original idea of the Auto-ID Center is based on RFID-tags and distinct identification through the Electronic Product Code . This has evolved into objects having an IP address or URI . [ 185 ] An alternative view, from the world of the Semantic Web [ 186 ] focuses instead on making all things (not just those electronic, smart, or RFID-enabled) addressable by the existing naming protocols, such as URI . The objects themselves do not converse, but they may now be referred to by other agents, such as powerful centralised servers acting for their human owners. [ 187 ] Integration with the Internet implies that devices will use an IP address as a distinct identifier. Due to the limited address space of IPv4 (which allows for 4.3 billion different addresses), objects in the IoT will have to use the next generation of the Internet protocol ( IPv6 ) to scale to the extremely large address space required. [ 188 ] [ 189 ] [ 190 ] Internet-of-things devices additionally will benefit from the stateless address auto-configuration present in IPv6, [ 191 ] as it reduces the configuration overhead on the hosts, [ 189 ] and the IETF 6LoWPAN header compression. To a large extent, the future of the Internet of things will not be possible without the support of IPv6; and consequently, the global adoption of IPv6 in the coming years will be critical for the successful development of the IoT in the future. [ 190 ]
Different technologies have different roles in a protocol stack . Below is a simplified [ notes 1 ] presentation of the roles of several popular communication technologies in IoT applications:
This is a list of technical standards for the IoT, most of which are open standards , and the standards organizations that aspire to successfully setting them. [ 206 ] [ 207 ]
The GS1 digital link standard, [ 211 ] first released in August 2018, allows the use QR Codes, GS1 Datamatrix, RFID and NFC to enable various types of business-to-business, as well as business-to-consumers interactions.
Some scholars and activists argue that the IoT can be used to create new models of civic engagement if device networks can be open to user control and inter-operable platforms. Philip N. Howard , a professor and author, writes that political life in both democracies and authoritarian regimes will be shaped by the way the IoT will be used for civic engagement. For that to happen, he argues that any connected device should be able to divulge a list of the "ultimate beneficiaries" of its sensor data and that individual citizens should be able to add new organisations to the beneficiary list. In addition, he argues that civil society groups need to start developing their IoT strategy for making use of data and engaging with the public. [ 213 ]
One of the key drivers of the IoT is data. The success of the idea of connecting devices to make them more efficient is dependent upon access to and storage & processing of data. For this purpose, companies working on the IoT collect data from multiple sources and store it in their cloud network for further processing. This leaves the door wide open for privacy and security dangers and single point vulnerability of multiple systems. [ 214 ] The other issues pertain to consumer choice and ownership of data [ 215 ] and how it is used. Though still in their infancy, regulations and governance regarding these issues of privacy, security, and data ownership continue to develop. [ 216 ] [ 217 ] [ 218 ] IoT regulation depends on the country. Some examples of legislation that is relevant to privacy and data collection are: the US Privacy Act of 1974, OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data of 1980, and the EU Directive 95/46/EC of 1995. [ 219 ]
Current regulatory environment:
A report published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in January 2015 made the following three recommendations: [ 220 ]
However, the FTC stopped at just making recommendations for now. According to an FTC analysis, the existing framework, consisting of the FTC Act , the Fair Credit Reporting Act , and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act , along with developing consumer education and business guidance, participation in multi-stakeholder efforts and advocacy to other agencies at the federal, state and local level, is sufficient to protect consumer rights. [ 222 ]
A resolution passed by the Senate in March 2015, is already being considered by the Congress. [ 223 ] This resolution recognized the need for formulating a National Policy on IoT and the matter of privacy, security and spectrum. Furthermore, to provide an impetus to the IoT ecosystem, in March 2016, a bipartisan group of four Senators proposed a bill, The Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act, to direct the Federal Communications Commission to assess the need for more spectrum to connect IoT devices.
Approved on 28 September 2018, California Senate Bill No. 327 [ 224 ] goes into effect on 1 January 2020. The bill requires " a manufacturer of a connected device, as those terms are defined, to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, "
Several standards for the IoT industry are actually being established relating to automobiles because most concerns arising from use of connected cars apply to healthcare devices as well. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is preparing cybersecurity guidelines and a database of best practices to make automotive computer systems more secure. [ 225 ]
A recent report from the World Bank examines the challenges and opportunities in government adoption of IoT. [ 226 ] These include –
In early December 2021, the U.K. government introduced the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure bill (PST), an effort to legislate IoT distributors, manufacturers, and importers to meet certain cybersecurity standards . The bill also seeks to improve the security credentials of consumer IoT devices. [ 227 ]
The IoT suffers from platform fragmentation , lack of interoperability and common technical standards [ 228 ] [ 229 ] [ 230 ] [ 231 ] [ 232 ] [ 233 ] [ 234 ] [ excessive citations ] a situation where the variety of IoT devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently between different inconsistent technology ecosystems hard. [ 1 ] For example, wireless connectivity for IoT devices can be done using Bluetooth , Wi-Fi , Wi-Fi HaLow , Zigbee , Z-Wave , LoRa , NB-IoT , Cat M1 as well as completely custom proprietary radios – each with its own advantages and disadvantages; and unique support ecosystem. [ 235 ]
The IoT's amorphous computing nature is also a problem for security, since patches to bugs found in the core operating system often do not reach users of older and lower-price devices. [ 236 ] [ 237 ] [ 238 ] One set of researchers says that the failure of vendors to support older devices with patches and updates leaves more than 87% of active Android devices vulnerable. [ 239 ] [ 240 ]
Philip N. Howard , a professor and author, writes that the Internet of things offers immense potential for empowering citizens, making government transparent, and broadening information access . Howard cautions, however, that privacy threats are enormous, as is the potential for social control and political manipulation. [ 241 ]
Concerns about privacy have led many to consider the possibility that big data infrastructures such as the Internet of things and data mining are inherently incompatible with privacy. [ 242 ] Key challenges of increased digitalization in the water, transport or energy sector are related to privacy and cybersecurity which necessitate an adequate response from research and policymakers alike. [ 243 ]
Writer Adam Greenfield claims that IoT technologies are not only an invasion of public space but are also being used to perpetuate normative behavior, citing an instance of billboards with hidden cameras that tracked the demographics of passersby who stopped to read the advertisement.
The Internet of Things Council compared the increased prevalence of digital surveillance due to the Internet of things to the concept of the panopticon described by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. [ 244 ] The assertion is supported by the works of French philosophers Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze . In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison , Foucault asserts that the panopticon was a central element of the discipline society developed during the Industrial Era . [ 245 ] Foucault also argued that the discipline systems established in factories and school reflected Bentham's vision of panopticism . [ 245 ] In his 1992 paper "Postscripts on the Societies of Control", Deleuze wrote that the discipline society had transitioned into a control society, with the computer replacing the panopticon as an instrument of discipline and control while still maintaining the qualities similar to that of panopticism. [ 246 ]
Peter-Paul Verbeek , a professor of philosophy of technology at the University of Twente , Netherlands, writes that technology already influences our moral decision making, which in turn affects human agency, privacy and autonomy. He cautions against viewing technology merely as a human tool and advocates instead to consider it as an active agent. [ 247 ]
Justin Brookman, of the Center for Democracy and Technology , expressed concern regarding the impact of the IoT on consumer privacy , saying that "There are some people in the commercial space who say, 'Oh, big data – well, let's collect everything, keep it around forever, we'll pay for somebody to think about security later.' The question is whether we want to have some sort of policy framework in place to limit that." [ 248 ]
Tim O'Reilly believes that the way companies sell the IoT devices on consumers are misplaced, disputing the notion that the IoT is about gaining efficiency from putting all kinds of devices online and postulating that the "IoT is really about human augmentation. The applications are profoundly different when you have sensors and data driving the decision-making." [ 249 ]
Editorials at WIRED have also expressed concern, one stating "What you're about to lose is your privacy. Actually, it's worse than that. You aren't just going to lose your privacy, you're going to have to watch the very concept of privacy be rewritten under your nose." [ 250 ]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed concern regarding the ability of IoT to erode people's control over their own lives. The ACLU wrote that "There's simply no way to forecast how these immense powers – disproportionately accumulating in the hands of corporations seeking financial advantage and governments craving ever more control – will be used. Chances are big data and the Internet of Things will make it harder for us to control our own lives, as we grow increasingly transparent to powerful corporations and government institutions that are becoming more opaque to us." [ 251 ]
In response to rising concerns about privacy and smart technology , in 2007 the British Government stated it would follow formal Privacy by Design principles when implementing their smart metering program. The program would lead to replacement of traditional power meters with smart power meters, which could track and manage energy usage more accurately. [ 252 ] However the British Computer Society is doubtful these principles were ever actually implemented. [ 253 ] In 2009 the Dutch Parliament rejected a similar smart metering program, basing their decision on privacy concerns. The Dutch program later revised and passed in 2011. [ 253 ]
A challenge for producers of IoT applications is to clean , process and interpret the vast amount of data which is gathered by the sensors. There is a solution proposed for the analytics of the information referred to as Wireless Sensor Networks. [ 254 ] These networks share data among sensor nodes that are sent to a distributed system for the analytics of the sensory data. [ 255 ]
Another challenge is the storage of this bulk data. Depending on the application, there could be high data acquisition requirements, which in turn lead to high storage requirements. In 2013, the Internet was estimated to be responsible for consuming 5% of the total energy produced, [ 254 ] and a "daunting challenge to power" IoT devices to collect and even store data still remains. [ 256 ]
Data silos, although a common challenge of legacy systems, still commonly occur with the implementation of IoT devices, particularly within manufacturing. As there are a lot of benefits to be gained from IoT and IIoT devices, the means in which the data is stored can present serious challenges without the principles of autonomy, transparency, and interoperability being considered. [ 257 ] The challenges do not occur by the device itself, but the means in which databases and data warehouses are set-up. These challenges were commonly identified in manufactures and enterprises which have begun upon digital transformation, and are part of the digital foundation, indicating that in order to receive the optimal benefits from IoT devices and for decision making, enterprises will have to first re-align their data storing methods. These challenges were identified by Keller (2021) when investigating the IT and application landscape of I4.0 implementation within German M&E manufactures. [ 257 ]
Security is the biggest concern in adopting Internet of things technology, [ 258 ] with concerns that rapid development is happening without appropriate consideration of the profound security challenges involved [ 259 ] and the regulatory changes that might be necessary. [ 260 ] [ 261 ] The rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has allowed billions of devices to connect to the network. Due to too many connected devices and the limitation of communication security technology, various security issues gradually appear in the IoT. [ 262 ]
Most of the technical security concerns are similar to those of conventional servers, workstations and smartphones. [ 263 ] These concerns include using weak authentication, forgetting to change default credentials, unencrypted messages sent between devices, SQL injections , man-in-the-middle attacks , and poor handling of security updates. [ 264 ] [ 265 ] However, many IoT devices have severe operational limitations on the computational power available to them. These constraints often make them unable to directly use basic security measures such as implementing firewalls or using strong cryptosystems to encrypt their communications with other devices [ 266 ] - and the low price and consumer focus of many devices makes a robust security patching system uncommon. [ 267 ]
Rather than conventional security vulnerabilities, fault injection attacks are on the rise and targeting IoT devices. A fault injection attack is a physical attack on a device to purposefully introduce faults in the system to change the intended behavior. Faults might happen unintentionally by environmental noises and electromagnetic fields. There are ideas stemmed from control-flow integrity (CFI) to prevent fault injection attacks and system recovery to a healthy state before the fault. [ 268 ]
Internet of things devices also have access to new areas of data, and can often control physical devices, [ 269 ] so that even by 2014 it was possible to say that many Internet-connected appliances could already "spy on people in their own homes" including televisions, kitchen appliances, [ 270 ] cameras, and thermostats. [ 271 ] Computer-controlled devices in automobiles such as brakes, engine, locks, hood and trunk releases, horn, heat, and dashboard have been shown to be vulnerable to attackers who have access to the on-board network. In some cases, vehicle computer systems are Internet-connected, allowing them to be exploited remotely. [ 272 ] By 2008 security researchers had shown the ability to remotely control pacemakers without authority. Later hackers demonstrated remote control of insulin pumps [ 273 ] and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. [ 274 ]
Poorly secured Internet-accessible IoT devices can also be subverted to attack others. In 2016, a distributed denial of service attack powered by Internet of things devices running the Mirai malware took down a DNS provider and major web sites . [ 275 ] The Mirai Botnet had infected roughly 65,000 IoT devices within the first 20 hours. [ 276 ] Eventually the infections increased to around 200,000 to 300,000 infections. [ 276 ] Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam made up of 41.5% of the infections. [ 276 ] The Mirai Botnet had singled out specific IoT devices that consisted of DVRs, IP cameras, routers and printers. [ 276 ] Top vendors that contained the most infected devices were identified as Dahua, Huawei, ZTE, Cisco, ZyXEL and MikroTik . [ 276 ] In May 2017, Junade Ali, a computer scientist at Cloudflare noted that native DDoS vulnerabilities exist in IoT devices due to a poor implementation of the Publish–subscribe pattern . [ 277 ] [ 278 ] These sorts of attacks have caused security experts to view IoT as a real threat to Internet services. [ 279 ]
The U.S. National Intelligence Council in an unclassified report maintains that it would be hard to deny "access to networks of sensors and remotely-controlled objects by enemies of the United States, criminals, and mischief makers... An open market for aggregated sensor data could serve the interests of commerce and security no less than it helps criminals and spies identify vulnerable targets. Thus, massively parallel sensor fusion may undermine social cohesion, if it proves to be fundamentally incompatible with Fourth-Amendment guarantees against unreasonable search." [ 280 ] In general, the intelligence community views the Internet of things as a rich source of data. [ 281 ]
On 31 January 2019, The Washington Post wrote an article regarding the security and ethical challenges that can occur with IoT doorbells and cameras: "Last month, Ring got caught allowing its team in Ukraine to view and annotate certain user videos; the company says it only looks at publicly shared videos and those from Ring owners who provide consent. Just last week, a California family's Nest camera let a hacker take over and broadcast fake audio warnings about a missile attack, not to mention peer in on them, when they used a weak password." [ 282 ]
There have been a range of responses to concerns over security. The Internet of Things Security Foundation (IoTSF) was launched on 23 September 2015 with a mission to secure the Internet of things by promoting knowledge and best practice. Its founding board is made from technology providers and telecommunications companies. In addition, large IT companies are continually developing innovative solutions to ensure the security of IoT devices. In 2017, Mozilla launched Project Things , which allows to route IoT devices through a safe Web of Things gateway. [ 283 ] As per the estimates from KBV Research, [ 284 ] the overall IoT security market [ 285 ] would grow at 27.9% rate during 2016–2022 as a result of growing infrastructural concerns and diversified usage of Internet of things. [ 286 ] [ 287 ]
Governmental regulation is argued by some to be necessary to secure IoT devices and the wider Internet – as market incentives to secure IoT devices is insufficient. [ 288 ] [ 260 ] [ 261 ] It was found that due to the nature of most of the IoT development boards, they generate predictable and weak keys which make it easy to be utilized by man-in-the-middle attack . However, various hardening approaches were proposed by many researchers to resolve the issue of SSH weak implementation and weak keys. [ 289 ]
IoT security within the field of manufacturing presents different challenges, and varying perspectives. Within the EU and Germany, data protection is constantly referenced throughout manufacturing and digital policy particularly that of I4.0. However, the attitude towards data security differs from the enterprise perspective whereas there is an emphasis on less data protection in the form of GDPR as the data being collected from IoT devices in the manufacturing sector does not display personal details. [ 257 ] Yet, research has indicated that manufacturing experts are concerned about "data security for protecting machine technology from international competitors with the ever-greater push for interconnectivity". [ 257 ]
IoT systems are typically controlled by event-driven smart apps that take as input either sensed data, user inputs, or other external triggers (from the Internet) and command one or more actuators towards providing different forms of automation. [ 290 ] Examples of sensors include smoke detectors, motion sensors, and contact sensors. Examples of actuators include smart locks, smart power outlets, and door controls. Popular control platforms on which third-party developers can build smart apps that interact wirelessly with these sensors and actuators include Samsung's SmartThings, [ 291 ] Apple's HomeKit, [ 292 ] and Amazon's Alexa, [ 293 ] among others.
A problem specific to IoT systems is that buggy apps, unforeseen bad app interactions, or device/communication failures, can cause unsafe and dangerous physical states, e.g., "unlock the entrance door when no one is at home" or "turn off the heater when the temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius and people are sleeping at night". [ 290 ] Detecting flaws that lead to such states, requires a holistic view of installed apps, component devices, their configurations, and more importantly, how they interact. Recently, researchers from the University of California Riverside have proposed IotSan, a novel practical system that uses model checking as a building block to reveal "interaction-level" flaws by identifying events that can lead the system to unsafe states. [ 290 ] They have evaluated IotSan on the Samsung SmartThings platform. From 76 manually configured systems, IotSan detects 147 vulnerabilities (i.e., violations of safe physical states/properties).
Given widespread recognition of the evolving nature of the design and management of the Internet of things, sustainable and secure deployment of IoT solutions must design for "anarchic scalability". [ 294 ] Application of the concept of anarchic scalability can be extended to physical systems (i.e. controlled real-world objects), by virtue of those systems being designed to account for uncertain management futures. This hard anarchic scalability thus provides a pathway forward to fully realize the potential of Internet-of-things solutions by selectively constraining physical systems to allow for all management regimes without risking physical failure. [ 294 ]
Brown University computer scientist Michael Littman has argued that successful execution of the Internet of things requires consideration of the interface's usability as well as the technology itself. These interfaces need to be not only more user-friendly but also better integrated: "If users need to learn different interfaces for their vacuums, their locks, their sprinklers, their lights, and their coffeemakers, it's tough to say that their lives have been made any easier." [ 295 ]
A concern regarding Internet-of-things technologies pertains to the environmental impacts of the manufacture, use, and eventual disposal of all these semiconductor-rich devices. [ 296 ] Modern electronics are replete with a wide variety of heavy metals and rare-earth metals, as well as highly toxic synthetic chemicals. This makes them extremely difficult to properly recycle. Electronic components are often incinerated or placed in regular landfills. Furthermore, the human and environmental cost of mining the rare-earth metals that are integral to modern electronic components continues to grow. This leads to societal questions concerning the environmental impacts of IoT devices over their lifetime. [ 297 ]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has raised concerns that companies can use the technologies necessary to support connected devices to intentionally disable or " brick " their customers' devices via a remote software update or by disabling a service necessary to the operation of the device. In one example, home automation devices sold with the promise of a "Lifetime Subscription" were rendered useless after Nest Labs acquired Revolv and made the decision to shut down the central servers the Revolv devices had used to operate. [ 298 ] As Nest is a company owned by Alphabet ( Google 's parent company), the EFF argues this sets a "terrible precedent for a company with ambitions to sell self-driving cars, medical devices, and other high-end gadgets that may be essential to a person's livelihood or physical safety." [ 299 ]
Owners should be free to point their devices to a different server or collaborate on improved software. But such action violates the United States DMCA section 1201, which only has an exemption for "local use". This forces tinkerers who want to keep using their own equipment into a legal grey area. EFF thinks buyers should refuse electronics and software that prioritize the manufacturer's wishes above their own. [ 299 ]
Examples of post-sale manipulations include Google Nest Revolv, disabled privacy settings on Android , Sony disabling Linux on PlayStation 3 , and enforced EULA on Wii U . [ 299 ]
Kevin Lonergan at Information Age , a business technology magazine, has referred to the terms surrounding the IoT as a "terminology zoo". [ 300 ] The lack of clear terminology is not "useful from a practical point of view" and a "source of confusion for the end user". [ 300 ] A company operating in the IoT space could be working in anything related to sensor technology, networking, embedded systems, or analytics. [ 300 ] According to Lonergan, the term IoT was coined before smart phones, tablets, and devices as we know them today existed, and there is a long list of terms with varying degrees of overlap and technological convergence : Internet of things, Internet of everything (IoE), Internet of goods (supply chain), industrial Internet, pervasive computing , pervasive sensing, ubiquitous computing , cyber-physical systems (CPS), wireless sensor networks (WSN), smart objects , digital twin , cyberobjects or avatars, [ 155 ] cooperating objects, machine to machine (M2M), ambient intelligence (AmI), Operational technology (OT), and information technology (IT). [ 300 ] Regarding IIoT, an industrial sub-field of IoT, the Industrial Internet Consortium 's Vocabulary Task Group has created a "common and reusable vocabulary of terms" [ 301 ] to ensure "consistent terminology" [ 301 ] [ 302 ] across publications issued by the Industrial Internet Consortium. IoT One has created an IoT Terms Database including a New Term Alert [ 303 ] to be notified when a new term is published. As of March 2020 [update] , this database aggregates 807 IoT-related terms, while keeping material "transparent and comprehensive". [ 304 ] [ 305 ]
Despite a shared belief in the potential of the IoT, industry leaders and consumers are facing barriers to adopt IoT technology more widely. Mike Farley argued in Forbes that while IoT solutions appeal to early adopters , they either lack interoperability or a clear use case for end-users. [ 306 ] A study by Ericsson regarding the adoption of IoT among Danish companies suggests that many struggle "to pinpoint exactly where the value of IoT lies for them". [ 307 ]
As for IoT, especially in regards to consumer IoT, information about a user's daily routine is collected so that the "things" around the user can cooperate to provide better services that fulfill personal preference. [ 308 ] When the collected information which describes a user in detail travels through multiple hops in a network , due to a diverse integration of services, devices and network, the information stored on a device is vulnerable to privacy violation by compromising nodes existing in an IoT network. [ 309 ]
For example, on 21 October 2016, a multiple distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks systems operated by domain name system provider Dyn, which caused the inaccessibility of several websites, such as GitHub , Twitter , and others. This attack is executed through a botnet consisting of a large number of IoT devices including IP cameras, gateways , and even baby monitors. [ 310 ]
Fundamentally there are 4 security objectives that the IoT system requires: (1) data confidentiality : unauthorised parties cannot have access to the transmitted and stored data; (2) data integrity : intentional and unintentional corruption of transmitted and stored data must be detected; (3) non-repudiation : the sender cannot deny having sent a given message; (4) data availability: the transmitted and stored data should be available to authorised parties even with the denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. [ 311 ]
Information privacy regulations also require organisations to practice "reasonable security". California's SB-327 Information privacy: connected devices "would require a manufacturer of a connected device, as those terms are defined, to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorised access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure, as specified". [ 312 ] As each organisation's environment is unique, it can prove challenging to demonstrate what "reasonable security" is and what potential risks could be involved for the business. Oregon's HB2395 also "requires [a person that manufactures, sells or offers to sell connected device ] manufacturer to equip connected device with reasonable security features that protect connected device and information that connected device [ collects, contains, stores or transmits ] stores from access, destruction, modification, use or disclosure that consumer does not authorise." [ 313 ]
According to antivirus provider Kaspersky , there were 639 million data breaches of IoT devices in 2020 and 1.5 billion breaches in the first six months of 2021. [ 227 ]
One method of overcoming the barrier of safety issues is the introduction of standards and certification of devices. In 2024, two voluntary and non-competing programs were proposed and launched in the United States: the US Cyber Trust Mark from The Federal Communications Commission and CSA's IoT Device Security Specification from the Connectivity Standards Alliance . The programs incorporate international expertise, with the CSA mark recognized by the Singapore Cybersecurity Agency. Compliance means that IoT devices can resist hacking, control hijacking and theft of confidential data.
A study issued by Ericsson regarding the adoption of Internet of things among Danish companies identified a "clash between IoT and companies' traditional governance structures, as IoT still presents both uncertainties and a lack of historical precedence." [ 307 ] Among the respondents interviewed, 60 percent stated that they "do not believe they have the organizational capabilities, and three of four do not believe they have the processes needed, to capture the IoT opportunity." [ 307 ] This has led to a need to understand organizational culture in order to facilitate organizational design processes and to test new innovation management practices. A lack of digital leadership in the age of digital transformation has also stifled innovation and IoT adoption to a degree that many companies, in the face of uncertainty, "were waiting for the market dynamics to play out", [ 307 ] or further action in regards to IoT "was pending competitor moves, customer pull, or regulatory requirements". [ 307 ] Some of these companies risk being "kodaked" – "Kodak was a market leader until digital disruption eclipsed film photography with digital photos" – failing to "see the disruptive forces affecting their industry" [ 314 ] and "to truly embrace the new business models the disruptive change opens up". [ 314 ] Scott Anthony has written in Harvard Business Review that Kodak "created a digital camera, invested in the technology, and even understood that photos would be shared online" [ 314 ] but ultimately failed to realize that "online photo sharing was the new business, not just a way to expand the printing business." [ 314 ]
According to 2018 study, 70–75% of IoT deployments were stuck in the pilot or prototype stage, unable to reach scale due in part to a lack of business planning. [ 315 ] [ page needed ] [ 316 ]
Even though scientists, engineers, and managers across the world are continuously working to create and exploit the benefits of IoT products, there are some flaws in the governance, management and implementation of such projects. Despite tremendous forward momentum in the field of information and other underlying technologies, IoT still remains a complex area and the problem of how IoT projects are managed still needs to be addressed. IoT projects must be run differently than simple and traditional IT, manufacturing or construction projects. Because IoT projects have longer project timelines, a lack of skilled resources and several security/legal issues, there is a need for new and specifically designed project processes. The following management techniques should improve the success rate of IoT projects: [ 317 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things |
Internet of vehicles ( IoV ) is a network of vehicles equipped with sensors, software, and the technologies that mediate between these with the aim of connecting & exchanging data over the Internet according to agreed standards. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] IoV evolved from Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks ("VANET", a category of mobile ad hoc network used for communication between vehicles and roadside systems), [ 3 ] and is expected to ultimately evolve into an "Internet of autonomous vehicles". [ 4 ] It is expected that IoV will be one of the enablers for an autonomous, connected, electric, and shared (ACES) Future Mobility. [ 5 ]
Road vehicles as a product category depend upon numerous technology categories from real-time analytics to commodity sensors and embedded systems . For these to operate in symphony the IoV ecosystem is dependent upon modern infrastructure and architectures that distribute computational burden across multiple processing units in a network. [ 6 ] In the consumer market, IoV technology is most typically referenced in discussions of smart cities and driverless cars . [ 7 ] Many of these architectures depend for their functionality upon open-source software & systems , [ 8 ] for instance Subaru whose vehicles' infotainment platform is able to detect a driver's wakefulness and sound an alarm to pull over for a rest. [ 9 ]
As with other internets connecting real user/consumer experiences with networks to which those user/consumers have no access or control, concerns abound as to risks inherent in the growth of IoV, especially in the areas of privacy and security , and consequently industry and governmental moves to address these concerns have begun including the development of international standards & methods of real-time analysis. [ 10 ] These are receiving attention from organisations including the Linux Foundation ’s ELISA (Enabling Linux In Safety Applications), the connected vehicles initiative at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ), and the Connected Car Working Group at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association ( CTIA ). [ 8 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_vehicles |
Internet studies is an interdisciplinary field studying the social, psychological, political, technical, cultural and other dimensions of the Internet and associated information and communication technologies. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The human aspects of the Internet are a subject of focus in this field. While that may be facilitated by the underlying technology of the Internet, the focus of study is often less on the technology itself than on the social circumstances that technology creates or influences. [ 2 ]
While studies of the Internet are now widespread across academic disciplines, there is a growing collaboration among these investigations. In recent years, Internet studies have become institutionalized as courses of study at several institutions of higher learning . Cognates are found in departments of a number of other names, including departments of " Internet and Society ", "virtual society", " digital culture ", " new media " or "convergent media", various " iSchools ", or programs like "Media in Transition" at MIT . [ 4 ] On the research side, Internet studies intersects with studies of cyberculture , human–computer interaction , and science and technology studies .
Internet and society is a research field that addresses the interrelationship of Internet and society , i.e. how society has changed the Internet and how the Internet has changed society. [ 5 ]
The topic of social issues relating to Internet has become notable since the rise of the World Wide Web, which can be observed from the fact that journals and newspapers run many stories on topics such as cyberlove , cyberhate , Web 2.0 , cybercrime , cyberpolitics , Internet economy , etc.
As most of the scientific monographs that have considered Internet and society in their book titles are social theoretical in nature, Internet and society can be considered as a primarily social theoretical research approach of Internet studies. [ original research? ] [ citation needed ]
In recent years, Internet studies have become institutionalized as courses of study, and even separate departments, at many institutions of higher learning . [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
Disciplines that contribute to Internet studies include:
A number of academic journals are central to communicating research in the field, including Bad Subjects , Convergence , CTheory , Cyber Psychology & Behaviour , Computers in Human Behavior , [ 14 ] First Monday , Information, Communication & Society , [ 15 ] The Information Society , Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , [ 15 ] M/C Journal , New Media & Society , [ 15 ] Social Science Computer Review , [ 16 ] tripleC , Fibreculture Journal , [ 17 ] and TeknoKultura . [ 18 ] However, research relating to internet studies appears in a diverse range of venues and disciplines.
Barry Wellman argues that Internet studies may find its beginnings with the 1978 publication of The Network Nation , and was largely dominated by computer scientists, presenting at venues like the annual CSCW conference. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] These were quickly joined by researchers in business fields and library and information science. [ 21 ] By the late 1990s, more attention was being paid to systematic investigation of users and how they made use of the new technologies. [ 22 ]
During the 1990s, the rapid diffusion of Internet access began to attract more attention from a number of social science and humanities disciplines, including the field of communication. [ 23 ] Some of these investigations, like the Pew Internet & American Life project [ 24 ] [ 25 ] and the World Internet Project [ 26 ] [ 25 ] framed the research in terms of traditional social science approaches, with a focus less on the technology than on those who use them. But the focus remained at the aggregate level. In the UK, the ESRC Programme on Information and Communications Technologies (1986–1996) [ 27 ] laid considerable ground work on how society and ICTs interact, bringing together important clusters of scholars from media and communications, society, innovation, law, policy and industry across leading UK universities.
In 1996, this interest was expressed in other ways as well. Georgetown University began offering a related master's program in that year, and at the University of Maryland , David Silver created the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies [ 28 ] on the web. Middlebury College developed Politics of Virtual Realities, one of the first undergraduate courses dedicated to exploring the political, legal and normative implications of the Internet for liberal democracy. [ 29 ] By 2001, The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that "Internet studies" was emerging as a discipline in its own right, as suggested by the first undergraduate program in the area, offered at Brandeis University , and noted that "perhaps the most telling sign of the field's momentum" was the popularity of the annual conference created by the then nascent Association of Internet Researchers . [ 30 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_studies |
The Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych ( lit. ' Internet System of Legal Acts ' in Polish), shortly ISAP , [ 1 ] is a database with information about the legislation in force in Poland, which is part of the oldest and one of the most famous Polish legal information systems, and is publicly available on the website of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland . [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
This Poland -related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internetowy_System_Aktów_Prawnych |
An interolog is a conserved interaction between a pair of proteins which have interacting homologs in another organism. The term was introduced in a 2000 paper by Walhout et al. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Suppose that A and B are two different interacting human proteins, and A' and B' are two different interacting dog proteins. Then the interaction between A and B is an interolog of the interaction between A' and B' if the following conditions all hold:
Thus, interologs are homologous pairs of protein interactions across different organisms.
This bioinformatics-related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interolog |
Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. [ 1 ] While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, [ 2 ] a broader definition takes into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system-to-system performance. [ 3 ]
Types of interoperability include syntactic interoperability , where two systems can communicate with each other, and cross-domain interoperability , where multiple organizations work together and exchange information.
If two or more systems use common data formats and communication protocols then they are capable of communicating with each other and they exhibit syntactic interoperability . XML and SQL are examples of common data formats and protocols. Low-level data formats also contribute to syntactic interoperability, ensuring that alphabetical characters are stored in the same ASCII or a Unicode format in all the communicating systems.
Beyond the ability of two or more computer systems to exchange information, semantic interoperability is the ability to automatically interpret the information exchanged meaningfully and accurately in order to produce useful results as defined by the end users of both systems. To achieve semantic interoperability, both sides must refer to a common information exchange reference model. The content of the information exchange requests are unambiguously defined: what is sent is the same as what is understood.
Cross-domain interoperability involves multiple social, organizational, political, legal entities working together for a common interest or information exchange. [ 4 ]
Interoperability implies exchanges between a range of products, or similar products from several different vendors, or even between past and future revisions of the same product. Interoperability may be developed post-facto , as a special measure between two products, while excluding the rest, by using open standards . [ further explanation needed ] When a vendor is forced to adapt its system to a dominant system that is not based on open standards, it is compatibility , not interoperability. [ citation needed ]
Open standards rely on a broadly consultative and inclusive group including representatives from vendors, academics and others holding a stake in the development that discusses and debate the technical and economic merits, demerits and feasibility of a proposed common protocol. After the doubts and reservations of all members are addressed, the resulting common document is endorsed as a common standard . This document may be subsequently released to the public, and henceforth becomes an open standard . It is usually published and is available freely or at a nominal cost to any and all comers, with no further encumbrances . Various vendors and individuals (even those who were not part of the original group) can use the standards document to make products that implement the common protocol defined in the standard and are thus interoperable by design , with no specific liability or advantage for customers for choosing one product over another on the basis of standardized features. The vendors' products compete on the quality of their implementation, user interface, ease of use, performance, price, and a host of other factors, while keeping the customer's data intact and transferable even if he chooses to switch to another competing product for business reasons.
Post facto interoperability may be the result of the absolute market dominance of a particular product in contravention of any applicable standards, or if any effective standards were not present at the time of that product's introduction. The vendor behind that product can then choose to ignore any forthcoming standards and not co-operate in any standardization process at all, using its near-monopoly to insist that its product sets the de facto standard by its very market dominance. This is not a problem if the product's implementation is open and minimally encumbered, but it may well be both closed and heavily encumbered (e.g. by patent claims). Because of the network effect , achieving interoperability with such a product is both critical for any other vendor if it wishes to remain relevant in the market, and difficult to accomplish because of lack of cooperation on equal terms with the original vendor, who may well see the new vendor as a potential competitor and threat. The newer implementations often rely on clean-room reverse engineering in the absence of technical data to achieve interoperability. The original vendors may provide such technical data to others, often in the name of encouraging competition , but such data is invariably encumbered, and may be of limited use. Availability of such data is not equivalent to an open standard, because:
Speaking from an e-government perspective, interoperability refers to the collaboration ability of cross-border services for citizens, businesses and public administrations. Exchanging data can be a challenge due to language barriers, different specifications of formats, varieties of categorizations and other hindrances.
If data is interpreted differently, collaboration is limited, takes longer and is inefficient. For instance, if a citizen of country A wants to purchase land in country B, the person will be asked to submit the proper address data. Address data in both countries include full name details, street name and number as well as a postal code . The order of the address details might vary. In the same language, it is not an obstacle to order the provided address data; but across language barriers, it becomes difficult. If the language uses a different writing system it is almost impossible if no translation tools are available.
Interoperability is used by researchers in the context of urban flood risk management . [ 5 ] Cities and urban areas worldwide are expanding, which creates complex spaces with many interactions between the environment, infrastructure and people. To address this complexity and manage water in urban areas appropriately, a system of systems approach to water and flood control is necessary. In this context, interoperability is important to facilitate system-of-systems thinking, and is defined as: "the ability of any water management system to redirect water and make use of other system(s) to maintain or enhance its performance function during water exceedance events." [ 6 ] By assessing the complex properties of urban infrastructure systems, particularly the interoperability between the drainage systems and other urban systems (e.g. infrastructure such as transport), it could be possible to expand the capacity of the overall system to manage flood water towards achieving improved urban flood resilience. [ 7 ]
Force interoperability is defined in NATO as the ability of the forces of two or more nations to train, exercise and operate effectively together in the execution of assigned missions and tasks. Additionally NATO defines interoperability more generally as the ability to act together coherently, effectively and efficiently to achieve Allied tactical, operational and strategic objectives. [ 8 ]
At the strategic level, interoperability is an enabler for coalition building. It facilitates meaningful contributions by coalition partners. At this level, interoperability issues center on harmonizing world views, strategies, doctrines, and force structures. Interoperability is an element of coalition willingness to work together over the long term to achieve and maintain shared interests against common threats. Interoperability at the operational and tactical levels is where strategic interoperability and technological interoperability come together to help allies shape the environment, manage crises, and win wars. The benefits of interoperability at the operational and tactical levels generally derive from the interchangeability of force elements and units. Technological interoperability reflects the interfaces between organizations and systems. It focuses on communications and computers but also involves the technical capabilities of systems and the resulting mission compatibility between the systems and data of coalition partners. At the technological level, the benefits of interoperability come primarily from their impacts at the operational and tactical levels in terms of enhancing flexibility. [ 9 ]
Because first responders need to be able to communicate during wide-scale emergencies, interoperability is an important issue for law enforcement , fire fighting , emergency medical services , and other public health and safety departments. It has been a major area of investment and research over the last 12 years. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] Widely disparate and incompatible hardware impedes the exchange of information between agencies. [ 12 ] Agencies' information systems such as computer-aided dispatch systems and records management systems functioned largely in isolation, in so-called information islands . Agencies tried to bridge this isolation with inefficient, stop-gap methods while large agencies began implementing limited interoperable systems. These approaches were inadequate and, in the US, the lack of interoperability in the public safety realm become evident during the 9/11 attacks [ 13 ] on the Pentagon and World Trade Center structures. Further evidence of a lack of interoperability surfaced when agencies tackled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina .
In contrast to the overall national picture, some states, including Utah, have already made great strides forward. The Utah Highway Patrol and other departments in Utah have created a statewide data sharing network. [ 14 ]
The Commonwealth of Virginia is one of the leading states in the United States in improving interoperability. The Interoperability Coordinator leverages a regional structure to better allocate grant funding around the Commonwealth so that all areas have an opportunity to improve communications interoperability. Virginia's strategic plan for communications is updated yearly to include new initiatives for the Commonwealth – all projects and efforts are tied to this plan, which is aligned with the National Emergency Communications Plan, authored by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Communications.
The State of Washington seeks to enhance interoperability statewide. The State Interoperability Executive Committee [ 15 ] (SIEC), established by the legislature in 2003, works to assist emergency responder agencies (police, fire, sheriff, medical, hazmat, etc.) at all levels of government (city, county, state, tribal, federal) to define interoperability for their local region.
Washington recognizes that collaborating on system design and development for wireless radio systems enables emergency responder agencies to efficiently provide additional services, increase interoperability, and reduce long-term costs. This work saves the lives of emergency personnel and the citizens they serve.
The U.S. government is making an effort to overcome the nation's lack of public safety interoperability. The Department of Homeland Security's Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) is pursuing the SAFECOM [ 16 ] and CADIP and Project 25 programs, which are designed to help agencies as they integrate their CAD and other IT systems.
The OIC launched CADIP in August 2007. This project will partner the OIC with agencies in several locations, including Silicon Valley . This program will use case studies to identify the best practices and challenges associated with linking CAD systems across jurisdictional boundaries. These lessons will create the tools and resources public safety agencies can use to build interoperable CAD systems and communicate across local, state, and federal boundaries.
Governance entities can increase interoperability through their legislative and executive powers. For instance, in 2021 the European Commission , after commissioning two impact assessment studies and a technology analysis study, proposed the implementation of a standardization – for iterations of USB-C – of phone charger products, which may increase interoperability along with convergence and convenience for consumers while decreasing resource needs, redundancy and electronic waste . [ 17 ] [ 18 ] [ 19 ]
Desktop interoperability is a subset of software interoperability. In the early days, the focus of interoperability was to integrate web applications with other web applications. Over time, open-system containers were developed to create a virtual desktop environment in which these applications could be registered and then communicate with each other using simple publish–subscribe patterns . Rudimentary UI capabilities were also supported allowing windows to be grouped with other windows. Today, desktop interoperability has evolved into full-service platforms which include container support, basic exchange between web and web, but also native support for other application types and advanced window management. The very latest interop platforms also include application services such as universal search, notifications, user permissions and preferences, 3rd party application connectors and language adapters for in-house applications.
Search interoperability refers to the ability of two or more information collections to be searched by a single query. [ 20 ]
Specifically related to web-based search, the challenge of interoperability stems from the fact designers of web resources typically have little or no need to concern themselves with exchanging information with other web resources. Federated Search technology, which does not place format requirements on the data owner, has emerged as one solution to search interoperability challenges. In addition, standards, such as Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting , Resource Description Framework , and SPARQL , have emerged that also help address the issue of search interoperability related to web resources. Such standards also address broader topics of interoperability, such as allowing data mining.
With respect to software , the term interoperability is used to describe the capability of different programs to exchange data via a common set of exchange formats, to read and write the same file formats , and to use the same communication protocols . [ a ] The lack of interoperability can be a consequence of a lack of attention to standardization during the design of a program. Indeed, interoperability is not taken for granted in the non-standards-based portion of the computing world. [ 21 ]
According to ISO/IEC 2382-01, Information Technology Vocabulary, Fundamental Terms , interoperability is defined as follows: "The capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units". [ 22 ] [ b ]
Standards-developing organizations provide open public software specifications to facilitate interoperability; examples include the Oasis-Open organization and buildingSMART (formerly the International Alliance for Interoperability). Another example of a neutral party is the RFC documents from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The Open Service for Lifecycle Collaboration [ 23 ] community is working on finding a common standard in order that software tools can share and exchange data e.g. bugs, tasks, requirements etc. The final goal is to agree on an open standard for interoperability of open source application lifecycle management tools. [ 24 ]
Java is an example of an interoperable programming language that allows for programs to be written once and run anywhere with a Java virtual machine . A program in Java, so long as it does not use system-specific functionality, will maintain interoperability with all systems that have a Java virtual machine available. Applications will maintain compatibility because, while the implementation is different, the underlying language interfaces are the same. [ 25 ]
Software interoperability is achieved through five interrelated ways: [ citation needed ]
Each of these has an important role in reducing variability in intercommunication software and enhancing a common understanding of the end goal to be achieved.
Interoperability tends to be regarded as an issue for experts and its implications for daily living are sometimes underrated. The European Union Microsoft competition case shows how interoperability concerns important questions of power relationships. In 2004, the European Commission found that Microsoft had abused its market power by deliberately restricting interoperability between Windows work group servers and non-Microsoft work group servers. By doing so, Microsoft was able to protect its dominant market position for work group server operating systems, the heart of corporate IT networks. Microsoft was ordered to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation, which could enable rival vendors to compete on an equal footing ( the interoperability remedy ).
Interoperability has also surfaced in the software patent debate in the European Parliament (June–July 2005). Critics claim that because patents on techniques required for interoperability are kept under RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) conditions, customers will have to pay license fees twice: once for the product and, in the appropriate case, once for the patent-protected program the product uses.
Interoperability is often more of an organizational issue. Interoperability can have a significant impact on the organizations concerned, raising issues of ownership (do people want to share their data? or are they dealing with information silos ?), labor relations (are people prepared to undergo training?) and usability. In this context, a more apt definition is captured in the term business process interoperability .
Interoperability can have important economic consequences; for example, research has estimated the cost of inadequate interoperability in the US capital facilities industry to be $15.8 billion a year. [ 31 ] If competitors' products are not interoperable (due to causes such as patents , trade secrets or coordination failures ), the result may well be monopoly or market failure . For this reason, it may be prudent for user communities or governments to take steps to encourage interoperability in various situations. At least 30 international bodies and countries have implemented eGovernment -based interoperability framework initiatives called e-GIF while in the US there is the NIEM initiative. [ 32 ]
The need for plug-and-play interoperability – the ability to take a medical device out of its box and easily make it work with one's other devices – has attracted great attention from both healthcare providers and industry. [ 33 ]
Increasingly, medical devices like incubators and imaging systems feature software that integrates at the point of care and with electronic systems, such as electronic medical records. At the 2016 Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS) meeting, experts in the field like Angela N. Johnson with GE Healthcare and Jeff Shuren of the United States Food and Drug Administration provided practical seminars on how companies developing new medical devices, and hospitals installing them, can work more effectively to align interoperable software systems. [ 34 ]
Railways have greater or lesser interoperability depending on conforming to standards of gauge , couplings , brakes , signalling , loading gauge , and structure gauge to mention a few parameters. For passenger rail service, different railway platform height and width clearance standards may also affect interoperability. [ citation needed ]
North American freight and intercity passenger railroads are highly interoperable, but systems in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Australia are much less so. The parameter most difficult to overcome (at reasonable cost) is incompatibility of gauge, though variable gauge axle systems are increasingly used. [ citation needed ]
In telecommunications , the term can be defined as:
In two-way radio , interoperability is composed of three dimensions: [ citation needed ]
Many organizations are dedicated to interoperability. Some concentrate on eGovernment, eBusiness or data exchange in general.
Internationally, Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium facilitates global interoperability across borders, language and technical barriers. In the built environment, the International Alliance for Interoperability started in 1994, and was renamed buildingSMART in 2005. [ 37 ]
In Europe, the European Commission and its IDABC program issue the European Interoperability Framework . IDABC was succeeded by the Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) program. They also initiated the Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe (SEMIC.EU). A European Land Information Service (EULIS) [ 38 ] was established in 2006, as a consortium of European National Land Registers. The aim of the service is to establish a single portal through which customers are provided with access to information about individual properties, about land and property registration services, and about the associated legal environment. [ 39 ]
The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) considered four kinds of interoperability: legal interoperability, organizational interoperability, semantic interoperability, and technical interoperability. [ 40 ]
In the European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things (IERC) and IoT Semantic Interoperability Best Practices; four kinds of interoperability are distinguished: syntactical interoperability, technical interoperability, semantic interoperability, and organizational interoperability. [ 41 ]
In the United States, the General Services Administration Component Organization and Registration Environment (CORE.GOV) initiative provided a collaboration environment for component development, sharing, registration, and reuse in the early 2000s. [ 42 ] A related initiative is the ongoing National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) work and component repository. [ 43 ] The National Institute of Standards and Technology serves as an agency for measurement standards. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interoperability |
In engineering , interoperation is the setup of ad hoc components and methods to make two or more systems work together as a combined system with some partial functionality during a certain time, possibly requiring human supervision to perform necessary adjustments and corrections .
This contrasts to interoperability , which theoretically permits any number of systems compliant to a given standard to work together a long time smoothly and unattended as a combined system with the full functionality by the standard.
Another definition of interoperation: "services effectively combining multiple resources and domains...; requires interoperability". [ 1 ]
Interoperation is usually performed when the systems having to be combined were designed before standardization (for example legacy systems ), or when standard compliance is too expensive, too difficult, or immature.
Interoperation may use following mechanisms , components and methods:
In the area of data processing , interoperation may also use following components and methods:
This engineering-related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interoperation |
An Interpenetrating polymer network ( IPN ) is a polymer comprising two or more networks which are at least partially interlaced on a polymer scale but not covalently bonded to each other. The network cannot be separated unless chemical bonds are broken. [ 1 ] The two or more networks can be envisioned to be entangled in such a way that they are concatenated and cannot be pulled apart, but not bonded to each other by any chemical bond.
Interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) : A polymer comprising two or more networks which are at least partially interlaced on a molecular scale but not covalently bonded to each other and cannot be separated unless chemical bonds are broken.
Note : A mixture of two or more pre-formed polymer networks is not an IPN. [ 2 ]
Semi-interpenetrating polymer network (SIPN) : A polymer comprising one or more networks and one or more linear or branched polymer(s) characterized by the penetration on a molecular scale of at least one of the networks by at least some of the linear or branched macromolecules.
Note : Semi-interpenetrating polymer networks are distinguished from interpenetrating polymer networks because the constituent linear or branched polymers can, in principle, be separated from the constituent polymer network(s) without breaking chemical bonds; they are polymer blends. [ 3 ]
Sequential interpenetrating polymer network : Interpenetrating polymer network prepared by a process in which the second component network is formed following the formation of the first component network. [ 4 ]
Sequential semi-interpenetrating polymer network : Semi-interpenetrating polymer network prepared by a process in which the linear or branched components are formed following the completion of the reactions that lead to the formation of the network(s) or vice versa. [ 5 ]
Simply mixing two or more polymers does not create an interpenetrating polymer network ( polymer blend ), nor does creating a polymer network out of more than one kind of monomers which are bonded to each other to form one network ( heteropolymer or copolymer ).
There are semi-interpenetrating polymer networks ( SIPN ) [ 6 ] and pseudo-interpenetrating polymer networks . [ 7 ]
To prepare IPNs and SIPNs, the different components are formed simultaneously [ 8 ] [ 9 ] or sequentially . [ 10 ] [ 11 ]
The first known IPN was a combination of phenol-formaldehyde resin with vulcanized natural rubber made by Jonas Aylsworth in 1914. [ 12 ] However, this was before Staudinger's hypothesis on macromolecules and thus the terms "polymer" or "IPN" were not yet used. The first usage of the term "interpenetrating polymer networks" was first introduced by J.R. Millar in 1960 while discussing networks of sulfonated and unsulfonated styrene–divinylbenzene copolymers. [ 13 ]
Molecular intermixing tends to broaden the glass transition regions of some IPN materials compared to their component polymers. This unique characteristic provides excellent mechanical damping properties over a wide range of temperatures and frequencies due to a relatively constant and high phase angle. [ 14 ] In IPNs composed of both rubbery and glassy polymers, considerable toughening is observed compared to the constituent polymers. When the glassy component forms a discrete, discontinuous phase, the elastomeric nature of the continuous rubbery phase can be preserved while increasing the overall toughness of the material and its elongation at break. [ 15 ] On the other hand, when the glassy polymer forms a bicontinuous phase within the rubbery network, the IPN material can behave like an impact-resistant plastic. [ 15 ]
Most IPNs do not interpenetrate completely on a molecular scale, but rather form small dispersed or bicontinuous phase morphologies with characteristic length scales on the order of tens of nanometers. [ 12 ] However, since these length scales are relatively small, they are often considered homogeneous on a macroscopic scale. [ 12 ] The characteristic lengths associated with these domains often scale with the length of chains between crosslinks, and thus the morphology of the phases is often dictated by the crosslinking density of the constituent networks. [ 16 ] The kinetics of phase separation in IPNs can arise from both nucleation and growth and spinodal decomposition mechanisms, with the former producing discrete phases akin to dispersed spheres and the latter forming bicontinuous phases akin to interconnected cylinders. Contrary to many typical phase separation processes, coarsening, where the length scale of the phases tends to increase over time, can be impeded by the formation of crosslinks in either network. [ 12 ] Furthermore, IPNs are often able to maintain these complex morphologies over long periods of time compared to what could be achieved by simple polymer blends. [ 17 ]
IPNs have been used in automotive parts (including modern automotive paint ), damping materials, medical devices, molding compounds, and in engineering plastics. [ 14 ] While many benefits come from the enhanced mechanical properties of the IPN materials, other characteristics such as resistance to solvent swelling can also make IPNs a material of commercial interest. [ 14 ] More recent applications and areas of research for IPNs include uses in drug delivery systems, energy storage materials, and tissue engineering. [ 18 ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpenetrating_polymer_network |
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