Tag Archives: Switzerland

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Café Crème

Switzerland has some unique ways of making and serving coffee. One notable tradition is the “Schümli-Pflümli,” a Swiss coffee drink that combines coffee with plum schnapps and whipped cream.

Here are a few other Swiss coffee specialties:

Café Crème: A popular Swiss coffee, it’s a large coffee similar to an Americano but typically served with a layer of crema on top.

Kaffee fertig: This is a coffee with added Schnaps or Kirsch (a type of cherry brandy), served hot and often enjoyed in the winter.

Luzerner Kafi: A regional specialty from Lucerne, this is a coffee with Schnaps and sugar, sometimes with a bit of whipped cream.

Zuger Kirschtorte Coffee: Inspired by the famous cherry cake from Zug, this coffee includes cherry liqueur and is often served with a small piece of the cake or similar dessert.

These coffee traditions highlight Switzerland’s blend of coffee culture with local flavors and ingredients.


Ghana’s Rabbit Industry

Medical Practice Electrical equipment

“The Agnew Clinic” | Thomas Eakins (1889)

 

International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee TC 62 prepares international standards and other publications concerning electrical equipment, electrical systems and software used in healthcare and their effects on patients, operators, other persons and the environment.  As such the work of this parent committee — which has broad implications for comparatively cash-rich multi-national medical equipment manufacturers — coordinates the work of several subcommittees; listed below:

62A Common aspects of medical equipment, software and systems

62B Medical imaging equipment, software and systems

62C Equipment for radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and radiation dosimetry

62D Particular medical equipment, software and systems

Germany is Global the Secretariat.  The Business Plan is linked below:

IEC TC 62 Strategic Business Plan 2021 February

The U.S National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission serves as the focal point for U.S parties who are interested in the development, promulgation, and use of globally relevant standards for the electrotechnical industry. The USNC is also engaged in the assessment of conformance to standards, undertaking work in areas such as testing, certification, and accreditation.  Tony Zertuche is ANSI’s point person ([email protected]) and we encourage you to communicate directly with Tony for the most up-to-date information.

We coordinate our response to the development of IEC titles in this domain with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in European and American time zones.  When there are Committee Draft for Votes released for public consultation (CDV) we coordinate our responses with experts active in IEEE globally.

Since the scope of this committee’s work involves products (in the main) we rank it in the middle of our priority tier.  Our primary interest lies with interoperability standards, all the while recognizing that there is very little difference in the way education communities respond to IEC standard proposals than the way all other stakeholders would respond.  At the risk of understatement medical research and clinical healthcare delivery are a large part of the revenue of many university systems so that is why we track these titles and others.

"The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest" - William Osler"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about" - Angela Schwindt "The true art of pediatrics lies not only in curing diseases but also in preventing them" - Abraham JacobiGermany

We maintain work flow of this committee on our Health, Electrical and Nursing colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

International Electrotechnical Commission | CDV Consultations


23 November 2021

 

Earlier this year one of the subcommittees of International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 62 (IEC TC/62) released a redline (candidate revision) for public consultation:

IEC 63120 ED1: Refurbishment of medical electrical equipment, medical electrical systems and sub-assemblies and reuse of components as part of the extended life-cycle.   

We found similar concepts running through the literature among United States consensus product developers; notably the IEEE, NFPA and NEMA.  Re-use, reconditioning, recycling of electrical equipment is a priority that can contribute to the safety and sustainability agenda of healthcare enterprises in education communities so we follow it; vigilant for excessive market-making by incumbent verticals.

The comment period lapsed on March 27th but we will likely see more action in the technical committees receiving proposals from vertical incumbents making markets in medical equipment replacement parts.   We track development of this and other IEC titles on our provisional workspace*:

Collaborative Workspace for IEC Consensus Products

University affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises are large stakeholders in this domain so we keep pace by collaborating with other experts affiliated with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (E&H) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society.

We encourage our colleagues working in university-affiliated healthcare enterprises to interact directly with the IEC by setting up a Commenting Account to access the redline linked below:

Common aspects of electrical equipment used in medical practice equipment

It is our custom to follow the lead of the the US National Committee to the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNA/IEC) primarily, though we have significant professional relationships with academic scholars in other nations through the IEEE Standards Association and the E&H Committee.  We are happy to discuss any consensus product, any day at 11 AM Eastern time, however the expertise for responding to invitations for public comment like this is usually present during the E&H Committee meetings which take place four times monthly in European and American time zones.

Issue: [11-66]

Category: Electrical, Healthcare Facilities, International

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Giuseppe Parise, Luigi Parise, Massimo Mitolo

*This is a carry-over workspace from the original University of Michigan facility standards enterprise — @StandardsUMich — and has been re-purposed for educational use and collaboration with the IEEE E&H Committee and the IEEE Engineering in Medical and Biology Society


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Innovation management

Central Dome of the Gallery des Machines Exposition Universelle de Paris | Louis Beroud (1889)

 

We find the United States education industry strengthening its voice in the global standards system with leadership provided by the International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP); the US Technical Advisory Group Administrator for the French-inspired ISO TC 279 Innovation management covered here in the posts below.  Of the 5300 colleges and universities in the US the seven that are members of the TAG at the moment are:

University of Minnesota

Arizona State University

Lone Star College

Nova Southeastern

Oral Roberts University

Texas A&M University

Florida Institute of Technology

CLICK HERE for the complete list.

We do not advocate in this standard but we track it along with about 20 of the 21,000 ISO standards.  We mention it now because in tracking live public consultation notices we see opportunities that may interest other parts of the education industry — notably academic units and business schools; as well as the many technology transfer units in many research universities charged with generating licensing revenue.  The landing page for the US TAG is linked below:

IAOIP and ISO TC279 – Innovation Management Technical Advisory Group 

You are encouraged to communicate directly with Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: [email protected].   We also refer this standard to the standing agenda of our Global and Human Resource teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [17-303]

Category: Academics, International

Contact: Mike Anthony ([email protected]), Christine Fischer ([email protected])

*See “Education Enterprise” ISO Focus, January 2015, pp 33-37  

 


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Posted September 25, 2018

Texas A&M University

Recent communication from International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP) indicates that it continues to welcome participation from the US education industry.  There are many academic programs and faculty devoted to international studies and innovation that could offer students a front-row seat for the development of international technology policy.

We are happy to explain the opportunity to faculty and staff any day during our daily 11 AM online meetings.   You may also communicate directly with Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: [email protected]


Posted April 26, 2018 

York University Markham Campus | Ontario, Canada

The International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP) has submitted an Application for Accreditation for a new proposed U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO TC 279 Innovation management and a request for approval as TAG Administrator. The proposed TAG intends to operate using the Model Operating Procedures for U.S. Technical Advisory Groups to ANSI for ISO Activities as contained in Annex A of the ANSI International Procedures.

Standards Michigan applauds any organization that assumes leadership in developing the US position on any international standard promulgated by Geneva Secretariats — the International Organization for Standardization, the International Telecommunications Union and the International Electrotechnical Commission.  Few activities offer such an ideal  front row seat at the world speeding toward us.

The education industry — notably the academic segment of the higher education industry — is notably absent in US leadership positions in international standards.   We have been in this space as a user interest for a long time (See ABOUT) and the shortage of education industry engagement (especially the user-interest) has not gone is unnoticed or written about.*   While the majority of the 1800-odd colleges and universities have academic programs that claim leadership in international and/or innovation studies, only Georgia Tech and the University of Texas Medical Branch are US TAG administrators for the American National Standards Institute; the US member body to the Geneva Secretariats.

Université de Genève

Comments are due May 14th.  To obtain a copy of the TAG application or to offer comments, please contact: Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: [email protected] by May 14, 2018 (please copy [email protected]).

Issue: [17-303]

Category: Academics, International

Contact: Mike Anthony ([email protected]), Christine Fischer ([email protected])

*See “Education Enterprise” ISO Focus, January 2015, pp 33-37  

 


December 17, 2017

Oral Roberts University

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has been informed that the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the current ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Group Administrator (U.S. TAG) for the work of Technical Committee 279 of the International Organization for Standardization wishes to relinquish their role as U.S. TAG Administrator.  The global Secretariat for TC 279 is the AFNOR Group — the national standardization body for France.  The participating nations are shown in the map below:

(Click on Image for more information)

ISO/TC 279 operates under the following scope: Standardization of terminology tools and methods and interactions between relevant parties to enable innovation.  From its Executive Summary:

“Yes we can innovate through standardisation. Standardization does not mean cloning. Standards on innovation management will allow organisations to share their best practices in innovation management. This will facilitate collaboration and also develop the capability to innovate and to bring innovations successfully to market. Today we face new challenges never met before by mankind: guaranteeing the sustainability of our activities in keeping our Earth habitable. Sustainable development (economic, ecologic, social sustainability) cannot be considered as ‘nice to have’, it is essential. It has to be viewed as a source of innovations, economic development and competiveness. It impacts innovation management and has to be taken into account at an early stage. Innovation is a key to global competitiveness and human or technological progress over the coming decades. Management Standards on innovation will break down the existing cultural, structural or organisational obstacles among/between organisations. These standards will provide best practices to support implementation of innovation policies as well in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as in worldwide groups including public institutions, universities, research centres or non-profit organisations. (Note in ISO, SME can mean Subject Matter Expert)

To achieve this goal the work will focus on a management system for innovation. To define this management system, experts will address: terminology, tools and methods such as but not limited to open innovation, design innovation, strategic intelligence, creativity management and also self-assessment of innovation management. Expectations for these standards are so high that there is no time to reinvent the wheel. TC 279 has to benefit from the previous work, including existing innovation literature, existing innovation standards, case studies, academic works, reports…) Summoning up the innovation community is a key factor. To make more and more stakeholders aware of this initiative communications action (communication kits, presence on social networks, press releases, events…) needs a special care.”           

Organizations interested in serving as the U.S. TAG Administrator or participating on a U.S. TAG should contact ANSI’s ISO Team ([email protected])

 

Issue: [17-303]

Category: Academics, International

Contact: Mike Anthony ([email protected]), Christine Fischer ([email protected])

 

Evensong “Prelude Number 2” (George Gershwin)

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Human Resource Management

“The best men are molded out of faults”
— William Shakespeare

Famous People Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante | CLICK ON IMAGE

The American National Standards Institute  is the Global Secretariat for ISO Technical Committee 260 (ISO/TC 260); organized to develop policy templates for standardization solutions that improve management of the workforce in any nation; in any sector or industry.   These human resource management standards offer broad, evidence-based guidance to individuals with people management responsibilities, whether formally or informally assigned, in organizations for the benefit of both internal and external stakeholders.

Gleaned from inputs from human resource experts globally, these products are designed to provide guidance on key HR functions in support of its workforce and its management, and sustainable organizational performance.   TC/260  is focused on the following tasks:

• Ensuring wide market relevance of its HRM standards.
• Facilitating international business.
• Providing guidance on professional standards of practice.
• Facilitating measurement, comparability and consistency of HR practice with the aim of transparent benchmarking.
• Improving internal processes.
• Enabling organizations to better achieve optimal organizational outcomes with improved management of human capital

The business plan is linked below:

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN ISO/TC 260: Human Resource Management 2018/19 (3rd edition)

 

The original University of Michigan user-interest advocacy enterprise was participating member in this project* but that engagement was interrupted suddenly in October 2016 (See ABOUT).  We have since picked up where we left off with the same people collaborating with Standards Michigan.  ANSI remains the global Secretariat.

We maintain this project on the standing agenda of both our Global and our Human Resource colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Issues: [14-99] and [15-52]

Category: Administration & Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Lee S. Webster, Richard Robben

ANSI Contacts: Michelle Deane ([email protected])

US TAG Contacts: Lorelei Carobolante, Jim Lewis

*We left off just as the ISO/TS 30411:2018Human resource management-Quality of hire metric (QoH) standard was rolling out.   The QoH was, and still is a performance metric for talent acquisition teams, critical for determining the effectiveness of the recruitment process and has a consequential impact on an organization’s performance.  The QoH structure is intended to be scalable to the needs of any organization regardless of size, industry or sector and is relevant to people with an interest in workforce planning, organizational design and development, talent management succession planning, recruitment, and human capital reporting.  Read more about ISO/TS 30411:2018 on ISO’s news site, and access it on the ANSI Web Store.


More

The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, Max Weber

Materiality of Human Capital Metrics | Lee S. Webster

ISO Focus January 2015 Anthony-Robben – Education Enterprise pp 33-37

ISO Guidelines Help Measure Employees’ Impact on Company Performance

International Labor Organization

Readings / The Administrative State

Electrical installations and Protection Against Electric Shock

“View of Lake Geneva” 1881 Gustave Courbet

Technical Committee 64 develops the International Electrotechnical Commission consensus product that covers similar territory for the global electrical power industry as NFPA 70 (National Electrical Code).   Keep in mind that the safety traditions of the NFPA suite of consensus products are inspired by fire safety considerations.   IEC 60363 Electrical installations and protection against electric shock — the parent document that applies to the wiring systems of education and healthcare facilities — was inspired from voltage safety.

TC 64 Strategic Business Plan

The scope of IEC 60364 is reproduced below:

– concerning protection against electric shock arising from equipment, from installations and from systems without limit of voltage,
– for the design, erection foreseeable correct use and verification of all kind of electrical installations at supply voltage up to 1 kV a.c or 1,5 kV d.c., except those installations covered by the following IEC committees: TC 9, TC 18, TC 44, TC 97, TC99
– in co-ordination with TC 99, concerning requirements additional to those of TC 99 for the design, erection and verification of electrical installations of buildings above 1kV up to 35kV.

The object of the standards shall be:
– to lay down requirements for installation and co-ordination of electrical equipment
– to lay down basic safety requirements for protection against electric shock for use by technical committees
– to lay down safety requirements for protection against other hazards arising from the use of electricity
– to give general guidance to IEC member countries that may have need of such requirements
– and to facilitate international exchanges that may be hampered by differences in national regulations.

The standards will not cover individual items of electrical equipment other than their selection for use. Safety Pilot Function: Protection against electric shock.

IEC Preview 60364-1

KUPDF Commentary on 60364 and comparisons with NFPA 70 National Electrical Code

Since neither the USNA National Committee to the IEC (USNA/IEC), nor the US Technical Advisory Administrator (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) has a workspace set up for responding to IEC 60364 calls for public comment, we set one up for ourselves several years ago for education facility and electrical engineering faculty and students:

IEC | USNA IEC Workspace | Updated 12 June 2023

Note that anyone in the world is welcomed to comment upon IEC documents, contingent upon obtaining (free) login credentials.  To review the the strike-and-bold you will need login credentials.   Alternatively, you may click in to the 4-times monthly teleconferences of the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Massimo Mittolo, Giuseppe Parise

International Electrotechnical Commission – Central Office – Geneva

Elettrotecnico Lingua Franca

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