1.
Dibutyl phthalate
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Dibutyl phthalate is a commonly used plasticizer. It is also used as an additive to adhesives or printing inks and it is soluble in various organic solvents, e. g. in alcohol, ether and benzene. DBP is also used as an ectoparasiticide, DBP is also a putative endocrine disruptor The use of this substance in cosmetics, including nail polishes, is banned in the European Union under Directive 76/768/EEC1976. The use of DBP has been restricted in the European Union for use in childrens toys since 1999, an EU Risk Assessment has been conducted on DBP and the final outcome has now been published in the EU Official Journal. DBP was added to the California Proposition 65 list of suspected teratogens in November 2006 and it is a suspected endocrine disruptor. It was used in nail polishes, all major producers began eliminating this chemical from nail polishes in the Fall of 2006. DBP was permanently banned in childrens toys, in concentrations of 1000 ppm or greater, under section 108 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, DBP is produced by the reaction of n-butanol with phthalic anhydride. It is or was produced in the United States by Eastman Chemical Company, the white rot fungus Polyporus brumalis degrades DBP
2.
Xylene
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Xylene, xylol or dimethylbenzene is any one of three isomers of dimethylbenzene, or a combination thereof. With the formula 2C6H4, each of the three compounds has a benzene ring with two methyl groups attached at substituents. They are all colorless, flammable liquids, some of which are of great industrial value, the mixture is referred to as both xylene and, more precisely, xylenes. Xylenes are an important petrochemical produced by reforming and also by coal carbonisation in the manufacture of coke fuel. They also occur in oil in concentrations of about 0. 5–1%. Small quantities occur in gasoline and aircraft fuels, xylenes are produced mainly as part of the BTX aromatics extracted from the product of catalytic reforming known as reformate. The xylene mixture is a greasy, colorless liquid commonly encountered as a solvent. Several million tons are produced annually, in 2011, a global consortium began construction of one of the world’s largest xylene plants in Singapore. Xylene was first isolated and named in 1850 by the French chemist Auguste Cahours, Xylene exists in three isomeric forms. The isomers can be distinguished by the designations ortho-, meta-, and para-, of the three isomers, the p-isomer is the most industrially sought after since it can be oxidized to terephthalic acid. Xylenes are produced by the methylation of toluene and benzene, commercial or laboratory grade xylene produced usually contains about 40-65% of m-xylene and up to 20% each of o-xylene, p-xylene and ethylbenzene. The ratio of isomers can be shifted to favor the highly valued p-xylene via the patented UOP-Isomar process or by transalkylation of xylene with itself or trimethylbenzene and these conversions are catalyzed by zeolites. The chemical and physical properties of xylene differ according to the respective isomers, the melting point ranges from −47.87 °C to 13.26 °C. The boiling point for each isomer is around 140 °C, the density of each isomer is around 0.87 g/mL and thus is less dense than water. Xylene in air can be smelled at concentrations as low as 0.08 to 3.7 ppm, xylenes form azeotropes with water and a variety of alcohols. With water the azeotrope consists of 60% xylenes and boils at 94.5 °C, as with many alkylbenzene compounds, xylenes form complexes with various halocarbons. The complexes of different isomers often have different properties from each other. P-Xylene is the precursor to terephthalic acid and dimethyl terephthalate
3.
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
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SMPTE Membership is open to any individual or organization with interest in the subject matter. SMPTE standards documents are copyrighted and may be purchased from the SMPTE website, standard documents may be purchased by the general public. Significant standards promulgated by SMPTE include, All film and television formats and media. The society sponsors many awards, the oldest of which are the SMPTE Progress Medal, the Samuel Warner Memorial Medal, SMPTE also has a number of student Chapters and sponsors scholarships for college students in the motion imaging disciplines. A group within the standards committees has begun to work on the definition of the SMPTE 3D Home Master. SMPTE, instituted in 1999, a committee for the foundations of Digital Cinema. The SMPTE presents awards to individuals for outstanding contributions in fields of the society, James Cameron Edwin Catmull Birney Dayton Clyde D. Smith Roderick Snell Dr. Kees Immink Stanley N. Baron William C. Miller Bernard J. Lechner Ray Dolby Harold E. Edgerton Vladimir K. Zworykin John G. Frayne Walt Disney Chuck Pagano James M. DeFilippis Bernard J. Lechner Stanley N. Baron William F. Schreiber Adrian Ettlinger Joseph A. Flaherty, goldmark W. R. G. Baker Albert Rose Charles Ginsburg Robert E. Shelby Arthur V. Loughren Otto H. Recent recipients are Andrew Laszlo James MacKay Dr. Roderick T. Swartz
4.
Software release life cycle
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Usage of the alpha/beta test terminology originated at IBM. As long ago as the 1950s, IBM used similar terminology for their hardware development, a test was the verification of a new product before public announcement. B test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured, C test was the final test before general availability of the product. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBMs earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology, IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. The usage of beta test to refer to testing done by customers was not done in IBM, rather, IBM used the term field test. Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the project before formal testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, in typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as the functionality is complete, the alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques, additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release, alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version, in general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software, while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions. The alpha phase usually ends with a freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete, Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. Software in the stage is also known as betaware. Beta phase generally begins when the software is complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing, the process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it. Beta version software is useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization
5.
International standard
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International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide, the most prominent organization is the International Organization for Standardization. International standards may be used either by application or by a process of modifying an international standard to suit local conditions. Technical barriers arise when different groups together, each with a large user base. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem, the implementation of standards in industry and commerce became highly important with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for high-precision machine tools and interchangeable parts. Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800, maudslays work, as well as the contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest amount of industry standardization, some companies in-house standards spread a bit within their industries. Joseph Whitworths screw thread measurements were adopted as the first national standard by companies around the country in 1841 and it came to be known as the British Standard Whitworth, and was widely adopted in other countries. By the end of the 19th century differences in standards between companies were making trade increasingly difficult and strained, the Engineering Standards Committee was established in London in 1901 as the worlds first national standards body. After the First World War, similar national bodies were established in other countries, by the mid to late 19th century, efforts were being made to standardize electrical measurement. An important figure was R. E. B, Crompton, who became concerned by the large range of different standards and systems used by electrical engineering companies and scientists in the early 20th century. Many companies had entered the market in the 1890s and all chose their own settings for voltage, frequency, current, adjacent buildings would have totally incompatible electrical systems simply because they had been fitted out by different companies. Crompton could see the lack of efficiency in this system and began to consider proposals for a standard for electric engineering. In 1904, Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He presented a paper on standardisation, which was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation of a commission to oversee the process. By 1906 his work was complete and he drew up a permanent constitution for the first international standards organization, the body held its first meeting that year in London, with representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardisation, Lord Kelvin was elected as the bodys first President, the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations was founded in 1926 with a broader remit to enhance international cooperation for all technical standards and specifications. The body was suspended in 1942 during World War II, after the war, ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee with a proposal to form a new global standards body. List of international common standards List of technical standard organisations Global Frameworks and standards organized along function lines, accessed 2014 ^ Cordova
