ASTM International (formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) is a globally recognized organization that develops and publishes technical standards for a wide range of products, systems, and services. These standards are used by manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders to ensure that products and services are safe, reliable, and of high quality.
In the field of measurement science, ASTM plays an important role in developing standards and guidelines for measurement techniques and practices. These standards cover a wide range of topics related to measurement science, including the calibration of instruments, the characterization of measurement systems, and the validation of measurement results. They are used by researchers, engineers, and other professionals in academia, industry, and government to ensure that measurements are accurate, precise, and reliable.
ASTM standards for measurement science are developed through a rigorous consensus process that involves input from experts in the field, including researchers, industry professionals, and regulatory bodies. These standards are updated regularly to reflect advances in measurement science and technology, as well as changes in industry and regulatory requirements.
Overall, ASTM plays a critical role in advancing the science and practice of measurement, by providing standardized methods and practices that ensure the accuracy, precision, and reliability of measurements across a wide range of fields and applications.
Founded in 1917 by L. L. Nunn who made a fortune building alternating current power plants in the Western United States. Nunn’s first projects—a hydroelectric plant in Telluride, Colorado and the Olmsted Power Station in Provo, Utah—served as the foundation for his inspiration to create a new type of educational institution.
Deep Springs College is located in eastern California and known for its rigorous academic program and its emphasis on student self-governance. The college admits only about 14 students per year, and all students receive full scholarships to cover tuition, room, and board.
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The retreat of state funding at public institutions paired with the growing concerns surrounding vulture capitalism that has weaponized philanthropic gift-giving (i.e., distinguished chairs, scholarships and fellowships, academic research centers, faculty lines, campus maintenance) means educators must find ways to teach students about the importance of using their knowledge and skillsets to promote public interests and improve lives. The term vulture capitalism is used here as it relates to donor influence to critique the types of donors (individuals, foundations, and corporations) who use gift-giving to advance conservative, elitist agendas that serve privatized interests at the expense of public interests (Carey, 2019; Mintz, 2019). Vulture capitalism and donor (gift-giving), as a case study, provide instructors and students constructive opportunities to reflect on how hegemonic power operates in and impacts our daily lives. To do so, the article begins by reflecting on a few examples of harmful donor influence to demonstrate how discussions concerning vulture capitalism can stimulate important conversations surrounding power, hegemony, and institutional oppression. It is argued that critical communication pedagogy (CCP) assists instructors who wish to teach students how to discuss issues of power and hegemony in contemporary communication classrooms. CCP offers a pragmatic approach to addressing and examining how power operates through a consideration of language and discourse. This article highlights three major tenets of CCP to propose an in-class activity that stresses the importance of dialogic reflexivity in classroom conversations concerning hegemony, power, and communication.
Dairy milk products remain a vital part of global food supply. Since 1970 an ISO Technical Subcommittee — ISO/TC 34/SC 5 Milk and milk products — seeks globally effective standardization solutions in the methods of analysis and sampling for milk and milk products, covering the dairy chain from primary production to consumption. The business plan of its parent committee is linked below:
BUSINESS PLAN ISO/TC 34 FOOD PRODUCTS
The Stichting Koninklijk Nederlands Normalisatie Instituut is the Global Secretariat for TC34/SC5. Participating and Observing nations are shown on the map below:
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is the US Technical Advisory Group Administrator to the parent TC34 committee but ANSI does not have a Technical Advisory Group leader. As the U.S. member body to the ISO, ANSI is always on the hunt for its members and/or relevant stakeholders to participate in discovering standardization solutions in a broad range of technologies and markets with like-minded experts in other national standards bodies. The full sweep of ANSI’s participation in consensus documents developed by the ISO is described in the link below:
This committee has functioned since 1970 — long enough for many of the best practice titles it produces to have stabilized. There is other market action in the global dairy supply — notably the growth of non-dairy food supply — but we find no public consultations open on proposed standardization solutions as of this posting. When they are released they will appear in the link below:
ISO Standards Under Development
Land grant colleges and universities are likely stakeholders in this domain. Apart from the passion that young people have for fair trade in any market, we see this as an opportunity for faculty and students to gain insight into the geo-politics of food supply generally and the subtleties of coffee markets. Business schools, agricultural colleges, international studies program developers who may be, and should be, interested in a leadership opportunity on behalf of the United States should communicate directly with ANSI’s ISO Team ((isot@ansi.org).
We devote at least an hour every month breaking down public consultations on food safety and sustainability. The work products of TC 34 appears on the standing agenda of both our Global and Food colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [19-46]
Category: Academic, Global
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Akkeneel Talsma
Beer was discovered accidentally as a result of grains being left in water and undergoing fermentation. The process of making beer involves converting the starches in grains (such as barley or wheat) into sugars, which are then fermented by yeast to produce alcohol. It was often consumed as a safer alternative to water, which could be contaminated with disease-causing pathogens.
Beer was also used in religious ceremonies and was considered a valuable commodity for trade. Over time, beer-making techniques spread throughout the world, and different regions developed their own unique styles of beer; now supported by artificial intelligence algorithms that analyze chemical compounds to identify specific flavor and aroma profiles for more nuanced flavors.
Towards Crafting Beer with Artificial Intelligence
Marc Bravin, et al
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Rotkreuz, Switzerland
Abstract: The art of brewing beer has a long tradition that dates back to the very dawn of civilization. While the brewing process has been automated to a great extent, the creation of new beer recipes remains the result of creativity and human expertise with only minor support from software to validate chemical constraints. We collected a dataset of 157,000 publicly available recipes from all over the world and created a transformer-based model to support the creative process in brewing by suggesting new beer recipe templates. As a proof of concept, we crafted the IPA “Deeper” along a recipe generated by our model. Over 100 international newspapers and radio stations have reported on the first AI-crafted beer from Switzerland over the past few months. For the first time, this paper reveals the underlying pipeline architecture of eight transformer networks trained end-to-end that made this remarkable success possible.
CLICK HERE for complete paper
There are several international organizations and agreements that set standards for beer production and labeling: