Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name; the first part of the name – the generic name – identifies the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part – the specific name or specific epithet – identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. Tyrannosaurus rex is the most known binomial; the formal introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus beginning with his work Species Plantarum in 1753. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus; the application of binomial nomenclature is now governed by various internationally agreed codes of rules, of which the two most important are the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae and plants.
Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are some differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. In modern usage, the first letter of the first part of the name, the genus, is always capitalized in writing, while that of the second part is not when derived from a proper noun such as the name of a person or place. Both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a binomial name is given, at least when it is first mentioned, the date of publication may be specified. In zoology "Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758"; the name "Linnaeus" tells the reader who it was that first published a description and name for this species of limpet. "Passer domesticus". The original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica; the ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, although nomenclatorial catalogs include such information.
In botany "Amaranthus retroflexus L." – "L." is the standard abbreviation used in botany for "Linnaeus". "Hyacinthoides italica Rothm. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica. The name is composed of two word-forming elements: "bi", a Latin prefix for two, "-nomial", relating to a term or terms; the word "binomium" was used in Medieval Latin to mean a two-term expression in mathematics. Prior to the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with a specific name, from one to several words long. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature; these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, second, to be a diagnosis or description. In a simple genus, containing only two species, it was easy to tell them apart with a one-word genus and a one-word specific name; such "polynomial names" may sometimes look like binomials, but are different. For example, Gerard's herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort: "The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort.
The other... is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia". The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels; the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné, more known by his Latinized name Carl Linnaeus, it was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word "trivial name" together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as specific name; the Bauhins' genus names were retained in many of these, but the descriptive part was reduced to a single word. Linnaeus's trivial names introduced an important new idea, namely that the function of a name could be to give a species a unique label; this meant. Thus Gerard's Phalangium ephemerum virginianum became Tradescantia virgi
Monocotyledon
Monocotyledons referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of the major groups into which the flowering plants have traditionally been divided, the rest of the flowering plants having two cotyledons and therefore classified as dicotyledons, or dicots. However, molecular phylogenetic research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade, the dicots do not. Monocots have always been recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks and under several different names; the APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called "monocots" but does not assign it to a taxonomic rank. The monocots include about 60,000 species; the largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, with more than 20,000 species. About half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced; these include not only major grains, but forage grasses, sugar cane, the bamboos.
Other economically important monocot crops include various palms and plantains, gingers and their relatives and cardamom, pineapple, water chestnut, leeks and garlic. Many houseplants are monocot epiphytes. Additionally most of the horticultural bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, irises, cannas and tulips, are monocots; the monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, in their seeds. This feature was used to contrast the monocots with the dicotyledons or dicots which have two cotyledons. From a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a useful characteristic, nor is it reliable; the single cotyledon is only one of a number of modifications of the body plan of the ancestral monocotyledons, whose adaptive advantages are poorly understood, but may have been related to adaption to aquatic habitats, prior to radiation to terrestrial habitats. Monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has been disagreement as to membership of this group, despite considerable diversity in terms of external morphology.
However, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity. On the one hand the organisation of the shoots, leaf structure and floral configuration are more uniform than in the remaining angiosperms, yet within these constraints a wealth of diversity exists, indicating a high degree of evolutionary success. Monocot diversity includes perennial geophytes such as ornamental flowers including and succulent epiphytes, all in the lilioid monocots, major cereal grains in the grass family and forage grasses as well as woody tree-like palm trees, bamboo and bromeliads, bananas and ginger in the commelinid monocots, as well as both emergent and aroids, as well as floating or submerged aquatic plants such as seagrass. Organisation and life formsThe most important distinction is their growth pattern, lacking a lateral meristem that allows for continual growth in diameter with height, therefore this characteristic is a basic limitation in shoot construction.
Although herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height and mass. The latter include agaves, palms and bamboos; this creates challenges in water transport. Some, such as species of Yucca, develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees utilise an anomalous primary growth form described as establishment growth; the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity contributes to limited branching of the stems. Despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other forms of adaptation include the climbing vines of Araceae which use negative phototropism to locate host trees, while some palms such as Calamus manan produce the longest shoots in the plant kingdom, up to 185 m long. Other monocots Poales, have adopted a therophyte life form.
LeavesThe cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll and a distal hyperphyll. In monocots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. From these, considerable diversity arises. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheath
Wheat allergy
Wheat allergy is an allergy to wheat which presents itself as a food allergy, but can be a contact allergy resulting from occupational exposure. Like all allergies, wheat allergy involves mast cell response; the allergy is limited to the seed storage proteins of wheat. Some reactions are restricted to wheat proteins, while others can react across many varieties of seeds and other plant tissues. Wheat allergy is rare. Prevalence in adults was found to be 0.21% in a 2012 study in Japan. Wheat allergy may be a misnomer since there are many allergenic components in wheat, for example serine protease inhibitors and prolamins and different responses are attributed to different proteins. Twenty-seven potential wheat allergens have been identified; the most severe response is exercise/aspirin induced anaphylaxis attributed to one omega gliadin, a relative of the protein that causes celiac disease. Other more common symptoms include nausea and atopy. Gluten sensitivity is not classified as a wheat allergy.
Management of wheat allergy consists of complete withdrawal of any food containing wheat and other gluten-containing cereals. There are four major classes of seed storage proteins: albumins, globulins and glutelins. Within wheat, prolamins are called glutelins are called glutenins; these two protein groups form the classic glutens. While gluten is the causative agent of celiac disease, celiac disease can be contrasted to gluten allergy by the involvement of different immune cells and antibody types, because the list of allergens extend beyond the classic gluten category of proteins. Prolamins and the related glutelins, a recent study in Japan found that glutenins are a more frequent allergen, however gliadins are associated with the most severe disease. A proteomics based study found a γ-gliadin isoform gene. Glutenin is a predominant allergen in wheat. Nine subunits of LMW-glutenin have been linked in connection with wheat allergies. At present many of the allergens of wheat have not been characterized.
A recent study in Europe confirmed the increased presence of allergies to amylase/trypsin inhibitors and lipid transfer protein, but less reactivity to the globulin fraction. The allergies tend to differ between populations, indicating a potential genetic component to these reactivities. Respiratory allergies are an occupational disease. Previous studies detected 40 allergens from wheat. A study showed that baker's allergy extend over a broad range of cereal grasses though the greatest similarities were seen between wheat and rye, that these allergies show cross reactivity between seed proteins and pollen proteins, including a prominent crossreactivity between the common environment rye pollen and wheat gluten. Proteins are made of a chain of dehydrated amino acids; when enzymes cut proteins into pieces they add water back to the site at which they cut, called enzymatic hydrolysis, for proteins it is called proteolysis. The initial products of this hydrolysis are polypeptides, smaller products are called peptides.
These hydrolysates can create allergens out of wheat proteins that did not exist by the exposure of buried antigenic sites in the proteins. When proteins are cut into polypeptides, buried regions are exposed to the surface, these buried regions may be antigenic; such hydrolyzed wheat protein is used as an additive in cosmetics. The peptides are 1 kD in size and may increase the allergic response; these wheat polypeptides can cause immediate contact urticaria in susceptible people. Wheat allergies are not altogether different from respiratory allergies; however two conditions, exercise/aspirin induced anaphylaxis and urticaria, occur more with wheat allergies. Common symptoms of a wheat allergy include sacroiliitis, hives, asthma, "hay fever", abdominal cramps and vomiting. Rarer symptoms include anaphylactic shock, arthritis, bloated stomach, chest pains, depression or mood swings, dizziness, headache and muscle aches and pains, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome, swollen throat or tongue and lethargy, unexplained cough.
Reactions may become more severe with repeated exposure. Wheat gliadins and oat avenins are associated with another disease, known as wheat-dependent exercise induced anaphylaxis, similar to baker's allergy as both are mediated by IgE responses. In WDEIA, the ω-gliadins or a high molecular weight glutenin subunit, similar proteins in other Triticeae genera, enter the blood stream during exercise where they cause acute asthmatic or allergic reaction. Wheat may induce WDEIA and certain chronic urticaria because the anti-gliadin IgE detects ω5-gliadins expressed by most of the Gli-B1 alleles, but prolamins extracted from rye or wheat/rye translocates invoke no responses; the Gli-B1 gene in wheat, Triticum aestivum, comes from the progenitor species Aegilops speltoides. This indicates that nascent muta
Poaceae
Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses referred to collectively as grass. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns and pasture. Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks; the lower part of each leaf encloses the stem. With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae and Rubiaceae. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Grasses are an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands and tundra; the Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, rice and millet as well as forage, building materials and fuel.
Though they are called "grasses", seagrasses and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales; the name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown, the type genus Poa described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα. Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms, they became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, fossilized dinosaur dung have been found containing phytoliths of a variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo. Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests, dry deserts, cold mountains and intertidal habitats, are the most widespread plant type. A cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets: Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago.
Recent findings of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, revised dating of the origins of the rice tribe Oryzeae suggested a date as early as 107 to 129 Mya. Wu, You & Li described grass microfossils extracted from a specimen of the hadrosauroid dinosaur Equijubus normani from the Early Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation; the authors noted that India became separated from Antarctica, therefore all other continents at the beginning of late Aptian, so the presence of grasses in both India and China during the Cretaceous indicates that the ancestor of Indian grasses must have existed before late Aptian. Wu, You & Li considered the Barremian origin for grasses to be probableThe relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more related to each other than to Oryzoideae; this separation occurred within the short time span of about 4 million years.
According to Lester Charles King the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in more soil creep. Grasses may be annual or perennial herbs with the following characteristics: The stems of grasses, called culms, are cylindrical and are hollow, plugged at the nodes, where the leaves are attached. Grass leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous, have parallel veins; each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging a blade with entire margins. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath. Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in each having one or more florets.
The spikelets are further grouped into spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two bracts at called glumes, followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea; the flowers are hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea; this complex structure can be seen in the image on the right. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed. Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips; this low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed or mown without severe damage to the plant. Three general classifications of growth habit present in g
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A denotes the first stage in early Levantine and Anatolian Neolithic culture, dating c. 11,500 – c. 10,000 BP. Archaeological remains are located in the Levantine and Upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent; the time period is characterized by tiny circular mud brick dwellings, the cultivation of crops, the hunting of wild game, unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B were defined by Kathleen Kenyon in the type site of Jericho. During this time, pottery was not yet in use, they precede the ceramic Neolithic. PPNA succeeds the Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic. PPNA archaeological sites are much larger than those of the preceding Natufian hunter-gatherer culture, contain traces of communal structures, such as the famous Tower of Jericho. PPNA settlements are characterized by round, semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and terrazzo-floors.
The upper walls were constructed of unbaked clay mudbricks with plano-convex cross-sections. The hearths were small, covered with cobbles. Heated rocks were used in cooking, which led to an accumulation of fire-cracked rock in the buildings, every settlement contained storage bins made of either stones or mud-brick. One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho, thought to be the world's first town; the PPNA town contained a population of up to 2,000–3,000 people, was protected by a massive stone wall and tower. There is much debate over the function of the wall, for there is no evidence of any serious warfare at this time. One possibility is the wall, it has been proposed that the tower caught the shadow of the largest nearby mountain on summer solstice in order to create a sense of power in support of whatever hierarchy ruled the town's inhabitants. PPNA cultures are unique for their burial practices, Kenyon characterized them as "living with their dead". Kenyon found no fewer than 279 burials, below floors, under household foundations, in between walls.
In the PPNB period, skulls were dug up and reburied, or mottled with clay and displayed. The lithic industry is based on blades struck from regular cores. Sickle-blades and arrowheads continue traditions from the late Natufian culture, transverse-blow axes and polished adzes appear for the first time. Sedentism of this time allowed for the cultivation of local grains, such as barley and wild oats, for storage in granaries. Sites such as Dhra′ and Jericho retained a hunting lifestyle until the PPNB period, but granaries allowed for year-round occupation; this period of cultivation is considered "pre-domestication", but may have begun to develop plant species into the domesticated forms they are today. Deliberate, extended-period storage was made possible by the use of "suspended floors for air circulation and protection from rodents"; this practice "precedes the emergence of domestication and large-scale sedentary communities by at least 1,000 years". Granaries are positioned in places between other buildings early on c. 11,500 BP, beginning around 10,500 BP, they were moved inside houses, by 9,500 BP storage occurred in special rooms.
This change might reflect changing systems of ownership and property as granaries shifted from a communal use and ownership to become under the control of households or individuals. It has been observed of these granaries that their "sophisticated storage systems with subfloor ventilation are a precocious development that precedes the emergence of all of the other elements of the Near Eastern Neolithic package—domestication, large scale sedentary communities, the entrenchment of some degree of social differentiation". Moreover, "uilding granaries may have been the most important feature in increasing sedentism that required active community participation in new life-ways". With more sites becoming known, archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A: Sultanian in the Jordan River valley and southern Levant, with the type site of Jericho. Other sites include Netiv HaGdud, El-Khiam and Nahal Oren. Mureybetian in the Northern Levant, defined by the finds from Mureybet IIIA, IIIB, typical: Helwan points, sickle-blades with base amenagée or short stem and terminal retouch.
Other sites include Jerf el-Ahmar. Aswadian in the Damascus Basin, defined by finds from Tell Aswad IA. The'Aswadian' variant was abolished by the work of Danielle Stordeur in her initial report from further investigations in 2001–2006; the PPNB horizon was moved back at this site, to around 10,700 BP. Sites in'Upper Mesopotamia' include Çayönü and Göbekli Tepe, with the latter being the oldest ritual complex yet discovered. Sites in central Anatolia that include the'mother city' Çatalhöyük and the smaller, but older site, rivaling Jericho in age, Aşıklı Höyük. History of pottery in the Southern Levant Meltwater pulse 1B O. Bar-Yosef, The PPNA in the Levant – an overview. Paléorient 15/1, 1989, 57–63. J. Cauvin, Naissance de l'agriculture. La révolution des symboles au Néolithique. Translation The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
International Standard Book Number
The International Standard Book Number is a numeric commercial book identifier, intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each variation of a book. For example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN; the ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. The method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country; the initial ISBN identification format was devised in 1967, based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108. Published books sometimes appear without an ISBN; the International ISBN agency sometimes assigns such books ISBNs on its own initiative.
Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines and newspapers. The International Standard Music Number covers musical scores; the Standard Book Numbering code is a 9-digit commercial book identifier system created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, for the booksellers and stationers WHSmith and others in 1965. The ISBN identification format was conceived in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the United States by Emery Koltay; the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108. The United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. ISO has appointed the International ISBN Agency as the registration authority for ISBN worldwide and the ISBN Standard is developed under the control of ISO Technical Committee 46/Subcommittee 9 TC 46/SC 9; the ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978.
An SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit "0". For example, the second edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has "SBN 340 01381 8" – 340 indicating the publisher, 01381 their serial number, 8 being the check digit; this can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8. Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format, compatible with "Bookland" European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each variation of a book. For example, an ebook, a paperback, a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN; the ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. An International Standard Book Number consists of 4 parts or 5 parts: for a 13-digit ISBN, a prefix element – a GS1 prefix: so far 978 or 979 have been made available by GS1, the registration group element, the registrant element, the publication element, a checksum character or check digit. A 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces.
Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is done with either hyphens or spaces. Figuring out how to separate a given ISBN is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN is most used among others special identifiers to describe references in Wikipedia and can help to find the same sources with different description in various language versions. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency, responsible for that country or territory regardless of the publication language; the ranges of ISBNs assigned to any particular country are based on the publishing profile of the country concerned, so the ranges will vary depending on the number of books and the number and size of publishers that are active. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture and thus may receive direct funding from government to support their services. In other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded.
A full directory of ISBN agencies is available on the International ISBN Agency website. Partial listing: Australia: the commercial library services agency Thorpe-Bowker.
