History.

The style emerged from a desire to represent information objectively, free from the influence of associated meaning. The International Typographic Style evolved as a modernist graphic movement that sought to convey messages clearly and in a universally straightforward manner. Two major Swiss design schools are responsible for the early years of International Typographic Style. A graphic design technique based on grid-work that began in the 19th century became inspiration for modifying the foundational course at the Basel School of Design in 1908. Shortly thereafter, in 1918 Ernst Keller became a professor at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich and began developing a graphic design and typography course. He did not teach a specific style to his students, rather he taught a philosophy of style that dictated "the solution to the design problem should emerge from its content." This idea of the solution to the design emerging from the problem itself was a reaction to previous artistic processes focused on "beauty for the sake of beauty" or "the creation of beauty as a purpose in and of itself". Keller's work uses simple geometric forms, vibrant colors and evocative imagery to further elucidate the meaning behind each design. Other early pioneers include Théo Ballmer and Max Bill.  The 1950s saw the distillation of International Typographic Style elements into sans-serif font families such as Univers. Univers paved the way for Max Miedinger and collaborator Edouard Hoffman to design the typeface Neue Haas Grotesk, which would be later renamed Helvetica. The goal with Helvetica was to create a pure typeface that could be applied to longer texts and that was highly readable. The movement began to coalesce after a periodical publication began in 1959 titled New Graphic Design, which was edited by several influential designers who played major roles in the development of International Typographic Style. The format of the journal represented many of the important elements of the style—visually demonstrating the content—and was published internationally, thus spreading the movement beyond Switzerland's borders. One of the editors, Josef Müller-Brockmann, "sought an absolute and universal form of graphic expression through objective and impersonal presentation, communicating to the audience without the interference of the designer's subjective feelings or propagandist techniques of persuasion." Many of Müller-Brockmann's feature large photographs as objective symbols meant to convey his ideas in particularly clear and powerful ways.  After World War II international trade began to increase and relations between countries grew steadily stronger. Typography and design were crucial to helping these relationships progress—clarity, objectivity, region-less glyphs, and symbols are essential to communication between international partners. International Typographic Style found its niche in this communicative climate and expanded further beyond Switzerland, to America.  One of the first American designers to integrate Swiss design with his own was Rudolph de Harak. The influence of International Typographic Style on de Harak's own works can be seen in his many book jacket designs for McGraw-Hill publishers in the 1960s. Each jacket shows the book title and author, often aligned with a grid—flush left, ragged-right. One striking image covers most of the jacket, elucidating the theme of the particular book. International Typographic Style was embraced by corporations and institutions in America from the 1960s on, for almost two decades. One institution particularly devoted to the style was MIT.

Associated movements.

During 1900s other design based movements were formulating, influencing and influenced by the International Typographic movement. These movements emerged within the relationships between artistic fields including architecture, literature, graphic design, painting, sculpting etc.  De Stijl was a Dutch artistic movement that saw prominence in the period between 1917-1930. Referred to as neoplasticism, this artistic strategy sought to reflect a new Utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order. It was a form of pure abstraction through reduction to the essentials of form and colour, employing vertical and horizontal layouts using only black and white and primary colors. Proponents of this movement included painters like Piet Mondrian, Vilmes Huszar and Bart van der Hoff as well as architects like Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van't Hoff and J.J.P. Oud.  Bauhaus was a German-based movement that emphasized purity of geometry, absence of ornamentation and the motto 'form follows function'. This was a school of thought that combined craftsmaking with the fine arts and was founded by Walter Gropius. The goal was to work towards the essence of the form follows function relationship to facilitate a style that could be applied to all design problems; the International Style.  Constructivism was an art/architectural philosophy that emerged from Russia in the 1920s. The style develops by assorted mechanical objects that are combined into abstract mobile structural forms. Hallmarks of the movement include geometric reduction, photo-montage and simplified palettes.  Suprematism, which arose in 1913, is another Russian art movement similarly focused on the simplification and purity of geometric forms to speak to values of spirituality.  All of these movements including the International Typographic styles are defined by reductionist purity as a visually compelling strategy of conveying messages through geometric and color based hierarchies.

Notes on theory.

The Bauhaus mantra of 'form follows function' applies to design in the spirit of the International Typographic movement. The movement was structured by focusing on detail, precision, craft skill, systems of education and approach, technical training, high standards of print and the innovative application of lettering. The theory revolves around critically approaching the development of a system specific to the design problem presented.  For example, a father of the style Ernst Keller argued that a design solution should always be respectful of its content.  A good comparison is the structure that defines a math problem. You only use specific equations for specific types of problems. You similarly only can work through these equations in specific ways. With the International Typographic and other related philosophies, a design context is critical to deriving a response.

Characteristics of style.

Each design done with International Typographic Style in mind begins with a mathematical grid, because a grid is the "most legible and harmonious means for structuring information." Text is then applied, most often aligned flush left, ragged right. Fonts chosen for the text are sans serif, a type style believed to "[express] the spirit of a more progressive age" by early designers in the movement. Objective photography is another design element meant to present information clearly, and without any of the persuading influences of propaganda or commercial advertising. Such a strong focus on order and clarity is drawn from early pioneers of the movement believing that design is a "socially useful and important activity... the designers define their roles not as artists but as objective conduits for spreading important information between components of society."

The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s. The International Typographic Style has had profound influence on graphic design as a part of the modernist movement, impacting many design-related fields including architecture and art. It emphasizes cleanness, readability, and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk, and flush left, ragged right text. The style is also associated with a preference for photography in place of illustrations or drawings. Many of the early International Typographic Style works featured typography as a primary design element in addition to its use in text, and it is for this that the style is named. The influences of this graphic movement can still be seen in design strategy and theory to this day.

国际主义设计风格(英语:International Typographic Style),又称为瑞士风格(英语:Swiss Style),是1920年代在俄罗斯、荷兰、德国萌芽,最终于1950年代在瑞士兴起的一种平面设计风格。作为现代主义设计运动的一部分,国际主义设计风格对于平面设计产生了巨大的影响,并进而影响了建筑、艺术等其他设计相关的领域。


Invention.

Throughout modern history, numerous methods were used to indicate that postage had been paid on a mailed item, so several different men have received credit for inventing the postage stamp.

William Dockwra.

In 1680, William Dockwra, an English merchant in London, and his partner Robert Murray established the London Penny Post, a mail system that delivered letters and small parcels inside the city of London for the sum of one penny. Confirmation of paid postage was indicated by the use of a hand "stamp" to frank the mailed item. Though this'stamp' was applied to the letter or parcel itself, rather than to a separate piece of paper, it is considered by many historians to be the world's first postage stamp.

Lovrenc Košir.

In 1835, the civil servant Lovrenc Košir from Ljubljana in Austria-Hungary (now Slovenia), suggested the use of "artificially affixed postal tax stamps" using "gepresste Papieroblate" ("pressed paper wafers"), but although civil bureaucrats considered the suggestion in detail, it was not adopted. The 'Papieroblate' were to produce stamps as paper decals so thin as to prevent their reuse.

Rowland Hill.

In 1836, Robert Wallace, a Member of (British) Parliament, gave Sir Rowland Hill numerous books and documents about the postal service, which Hill described as a "half hundred weight of material". After a detailed study, on 4 January 1837 Hill submitted a pamphlet entitled "Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability", marked "private and confidential", and not released to the general public, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thomas Spring Rice. The Chancellor summoned Hill to a meeting at which he suggested improvements and changes to be presented in a supplement, which Hill duly produced and submitted on 28 January 1837.  Summoned to give evidence before the Commission for Post Office Enquiry on 13 February 1837, Hill read from the letter he wrote to the Chancellor that included a statement saying that the notation of paid postage could be created "... by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash...". This would eventually become the first unambiguous description of a modern adhesive postage stamp (though the term "postage stamp" originated at later date). Shortly afterward, Hill's revision of the booklet, dated 22 February 1837, containing some 28,000 words, incorporating the supplement given to the Chancellor and statements he made to the commission, was published and made available to the general public. Hansard records that on 15 December 1837, Benjamin Hawes asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer "whether it was the intention of the Government to give effect to the recommendation of the Commissioners of the Post-office, contained in their ninth report relating to the reduction of the rates of postage, and the issuing of penny stamps?"  Hill's ideas for postage stamps and charging paid-postage based on weight soon took hold, and were adopted in many countries throughout the world. With the new policy of charging by weight, using envelopes for mailing documents became the norm. Hill's brother Edwin invented a prototype envelope-making machine that folded paper into envelopes quickly enough to match the pace of the growing demand for postage stamps.  Rowland Hill and the reforms he introduced to the United Kingdom postal system appear on several of its commemorative stamps.

James Chalmers.

In the 1881 book "The Penny Postage Scheme of 1837", Scotsman Patrick Chalmers claimed that his father, James Chalmers, published an essay in August 1834 describing and advocating a postage stamp, but submitted no evidence of the essay's existence. Nevertheless, until he died in 1891, Patrick Chalmers campaigned to have his father recognized as the inventor of the postage stamp.  The first independent evidence for Chalmers' claim is an essay, dated 8 February 1838 and received by the Post Office on 17 February 1838, in which he proposed adhesive postage stamps to the General Post Office. In this approximately 800-word document concerning methods of indicating that postage had been paid on mail he states:  Chalmers' original document is now in the United Kingdom's National Postal Museum.  Since Chalmers used the same postage denominations that Hill had proposed in February 1837, it is clear that he was aware of Hill's proposals, but whether he obtained a copy of Hill's booklet or simply read about it in one or both of the two detailed accounts (25 March 1837 and 20 December 1837) published in "The Times" is unknown. Neither article mentioned "a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp", so Chalmers could not have known that Hill had made such a proposal. This suggests that either Chalmers had previously read Hill's booklet and was merely elaborating Hill's idea, or he had independently developed the idea of the modern postage stamp.  James Chalmers organized petitions "for a low and uniform rate of postage". The first such petition was presented in the House of Commons on 4 December 1837 (from Montrose). Further petitions organised by him were presented on 1 May 1838 (from Dunbar and Cupar), 14 May 1838 (from the county of Forfar), and 12 June 1839. At this same time, other groups organised petitions and presented them to Parliament. All petitions for consumer-oriented, low-cost, volume-based postal rates followed publication of Hill's proposals.

Other claimants.

Other claimants include or have included

History.

The nineteenth century.

Although a number of people laid claim to the concept of the postage stamp, it is well documented that stamps were first introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840 as a part of postal reforms promoted by Sir Rowland Hill. With its introduction, the postage fee was paid by the sender and not the recipient, though it was still possible to send mail without prepaying. From when the first postage stamps were used, postmarks were applied to prevent the stamps being used again.  The first stamp, the "Penny black", became available for purchase 1 May 1840, to be valid as of 6 May 1840. Two days later, 8 May 1840, the Two penny blue was introduced. The Penny black was sufficient for a letter less than half an ounce to be sent anywhere within the UK. Both stamps included an engraving of the young Queen Victoria, without perforations, as the first stamps were separated from their sheets by cutting them with scissors.  The first stamps did not need to show the issuing country, so no country name was included on them. The UK remains the only country to omit its name on postage stamps, using the reigning monarch's head as country identification. Following the introduction of the postage stamp in the UK, prepaid postage considerably increased the number of letters mailed. Before 1839, the number of letters sent in the UK was typically 76 million. By 1850 this increased five-fold to 350 million, continuing to grow rapidly until the end of the 20th century when newer methods of indicating the payment of postage reduced the use of stamps.  Other countries soon followed the UK with their own stamps. The Canton of Zürich in Switzerland issued the Zurich 4 and 6 rappen on 1 March 1843. Although the Penny black could be used to send a letter less than half an ounce anywhere within the UK, the Swiss did not initially adopt that system, instead continuing to calculate mail rates based on distance to be delivered. Brazil issued the Bull's Eye stamp on 1 August 1843. Using the same printer used for the Penny black, Brazil opted for an abstract design instead of the portrait of Emperor Pedro II, so his image would not be disfigured by a postmark.  In 1845 some postmasters in the United States issued their own stamps, but it was not until 1847 that the first official U.S. stamps were issued: 5 and 10 cent issues depicting Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. A few other countries issued stamps in the late 1840s. The famous Mauritius "Post Office" stamps were issued by Mauritius in September 1847. Many others, such as India, started their use in the 1850s, and by the 1860s most countries issued stamps.  Perforation of postage stamps began in January 1854. The first officially perforated stamps were issued in February 1854. Stamps from Henry Archer's perforation trials were issued in the last few months of 1850; during the 1851 parliamentary session at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; and finally in 1853/54 after the UK government paid Archer £4,000 for his machine and the patent.  The Universal Postal Union, established in 1874, prescribed that nations shall only issue postage stamps according to the quantity of real use, and no living persons shall be taken as subjects. The latter rule lost its significance after World War I.

The twentieth and twenty-first century.

After World War II, it became customary in some countries, especially small Arab nations, to issue postage stamps "en masse" as it was realized how profitable that was.  During the 21st century, the amount of mail — and the use of postage stamps, accordingly — has reduced in the world because of electronic mail and other technological innovations. Iceland has already announced that it will not issue new stamps anymore because the sales have decreased and there are enough stamps in the stock.

Design.

When the first postage stamps were issued in the 1840s, they followed an almost identical standard in shape, size and general subject matter. They were rectangular in shape. They bore the images of Queens, Presidents and other political figures. They also depicted the denomination of the postage-paid, and with the exception of the United Kingdom, depicted the name of the country from which issued. Nearly all early postage stamps depict images of national leaders only.  Soon after the introduction of the postage stamp, other subjects and designs began to appear. Some designs were welcome, others widely criticized. For example, in 1869, the U.S. Post Office broke tradition of depicting presidents or other famous historical figures, instead using other subjects including a train, and horse. (See: 1869 Pictorial Issue.) The change was greeted with general disapproval, and sometimes harsh criticism from the American public.

Perforations.

Perforations are small holes made between individual postage stamps on a sheet of stamps, facilitating separation of a desired number of stamps. The resulting frame-like, rippled edge surrounding the separated stamp defines a characteristic meme for the appearance of a postage stamp.  In the first decade of postage stamps' existence (depending on the country), stamps were issued without perforations. Scissors or other cutting mechanisms were required to separate a desired number of stamps from a full sheet. If cutting tools were not used, individual stamps were torn off. This is evidenced by the ragged edges of surviving examples. Mechanically separating stamps from a sheet proved an inconvenience for postal clerks and businesses, both dealing with large numbers of individual stamps on a daily basis. By 1850, methods such as rouletting wheels were being devised in efforts of making stamp separation more convenient, and less time-consuming. The United Kingdom was the first country to issue postage stamps with perforations. The first machine specifically designed to perforate sheets of postage stamps was invented in London by Henry Archer, an Irish landowner and railroad man from Dublin, Ireland. The 1850 Penny Red was the first stamp to be perforated during trial course of Archer's perforating machine. After a period of trial and error and modifications of Archer's invention, new machines based on the principles pioneered by Archer were purchased and in 1854 the U.K. postal authorities started continuously issuing perforated postage stamps in the Penny Red and all subsequent designs. In the U.S. the use of postage stamps caught on quickly and became more widespread when on March 3, 1851, the last day of its legislative session, Congress passed the "Act of March 3, 1851" ("An Act to reduce and modify the Rates of Postage in the United States"). Similarly introduced on the last day of the Congressional session four years later, the "Act of March 3, 1855" required the prepayment of postage on all mailings. Thereafter, postage stamp use in the U.S. quickly doubled, and by 1861 had quadrupled.  In 1856, under the direction of Postmaster General James Campbell, Toppan and Carpenter, ("commissioned by the U.S. government to print U.S. postage stamps through the 1850s") purchased a rotary machine designed to separate stamps, patented in England in 1854 by William and Henry Bemrose, who were printers in Derby, England. The original machine cut slits into the paper rather than punching holes, but the machine was soon modified.  The first stamp issue to be officially perforated, the 3-cent George Washington, was issued by the U.S. Post Office on February 24, 1857. Between 1857 and 1861 all stamps originally issued between 1851 and 1856 were reissued with perforations. Initial capacity was insufficient to perforate all stamps printed, thus perforated issues used between February and July 1857 are scarce and quite valuable.

Shapes and materials.

In addition to the most common rectangular shape, stamps have been issued in geometric (circular, triangular and pentagonal) and irregular shapes. The United States issued its first circular stamp in 2000 as a hologram of the earth. Sierra Leone and Tonga have issued stamps in the shapes of fruit. Stamps that are printed on sheets are generally separated by perforations, though, more recently, with the advent of gummed stamps that do not have to be moistened prior to affixing them, designs can incorporate smooth edges (although a purely decorative perforated edge is often present).  Stamps are most commonly made from paper designed specifically for them, and are printed in sheets, rolls, or small booklets. Less commonly, postage stamps are made of materials other than paper, such as embossed foil (sometimes of gold). Switzerland made a stamp that contained a bit of lace and one of wood. The United States produced one of plastic. East Germany issued a stamp of synthetic chemicals. In the Netherlands a stamp was made of silver foil. Bhutan issued one with its national anthem on a playable record.

Graphic characteristics.

The subjects found on the face of postage stamps are generally what defines a particular stamp issue to the public and are often a reason why they are saved by collectors or history enthusiasts. Graphical subjects found on postage stamps have ranged from the early portrayals of kings, queens and presidents to later depictions of ships, birds and satellites, famous people, historical events, comics, dinosaurs, hobbies (knitting, stamp collecting), sports, holiday themes, and a wealth of other subjects too numerous to list.  Artists, designers, engravers and administrative officials are involved with the choice of subject matter and the method of printing stamps. Early stamp images were almost always produced from an engraving — a design etched into a steel die, which was then hardened and whose impression was transferred to a printing plate. Using an "engraved" image was deemed a more secure way of printing stamps as it was nearly impossible to counterfeit a finely detailed image with raised lines for anyone but a master engraver. In the mid-20th century, stamp issues produced by other forms of printing began to emerge, such as lithography, photogravure, intaglio and web offset printing. These later printing methods were less expensive and typically produced images of lesser quality.

Types.

Apart from these, there are also Revenue (used to collect taxes or fees on items such as documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, hunting licenses and medicines) and Telegraph stamps (for sending telegrams), which fall in a separate category from postage stamps.

First day covers.

Postage stamps are first issued on a specific date, often referred to as the "First day of issue." A "first day cover" usually consists of an envelope, a postage stamp and a postmark with the date of the stamp's first day of issue thereon. Starting in the mid-20th century some countries began assigning the first day of issue to a place associated with the subject of the stamp design, such as a specific town or city. There are two basic types of "First Day Covers" (FDCs) noted by collectors. The first and often most desirable type among advanced collectors is a cover sent through the mail in the course of everyday usage, without the intention of the envelope and stamp ever being retrieved and collected. The second type of FDC is often referred to as "Philatelic", that is, an envelope and stamp sent by someone with the intention of retrieving and collecting the mailed item at a later time and place. The envelope used for this type of FDC often bears a printed design or cachet of its own in correspondence with the stamp's subject and is usually printed well in advance of the first day of issue date. The latter type of FDC is usually far more common, and is usually inexpensive and relatively easy to acquire. Covers that were sent without any secondary purpose are considered "non-philatelic" and often are much more challenging to find and collect.

Souvenir or miniature sheets.

Postage stamps are sometimes issued in souvenir sheets or miniature sheets containing one or a small number of stamps. Souvenir sheets typically include additional artwork or information printed on the selvage, the border surrounding the stamps. Sometimes the stamps make up a greater picture. Some countries, and some issues, are produced as individual stamps as well as sheets.

Stamp collecting.

Stamp collecting is a hobby. Collecting is not the same as philately, which is defined as the study of stamps. The creation of a valuable or comprehensive collection, however, may require some philatelic knowledge.  Stamp collectors are an important source of revenue for some small countries that create limited runs of elaborate stamps designed mainly to be bought by stamp collectors. The stamps produced by these countries may far exceed their postal needs. Hundreds of countries, each producing scores of different stamps each year, resulted in 400,000 different types of stamps in existence by the year 2000. Annual world output averages about 10,000 types.  Some countries authorize the production of postage stamps that have no postal use, but are intended instead solely for collectors. Other countries issue large numbers of low denomination stamps that are bundled together in starter packs for new collectors. "Official reprints" are often printed by companies who have purchased or contracted for those rights and such reprints see no postal use. All of these stamps are often found "canceled to order", meaning they are postmarked without ever having passed through the postal system. Most national post offices produce stamps that would not be produced if there were no collectors, some to a far more prolific degree than others.  Sales of stamps to collectors who do not use them for mailing can result in large profits. Examples of excessive issues have been the stamps produced by Nicholas F. Seebeck and stamps produced for the component states of the United Arab Emirates. Seebeck operated in the 1890s as an agent of Hamilton Bank Note Company. He approached Latin American countries with an offer to produce their entire postage stamp needs for free. In return he would have exclusive rights to market stamps to collectors. Each year a new issue would be produced, but would expire at the end of the year. This assured Seebeck of a continuing supply of remainders. In the 1960s, printers such as the Barody Stamp Company contracted to produce stamps for the separate Emirates and other countries. The sparse population of the desert states made it wholly unlikely that many of these stamps would ever be used for mailing purposes, and earned them the name of the "sand dune" countries.

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover (e.g., packet, box, mailing cylinder)—that they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. The item is then delivered to its addressee.

邮票是邮政机关发行,供寄递邮件贴用的邮资凭证。发送者为邮政服务付费的一种形式。发送者会将邮票贴在信件上,再由邮局盖章(通常是邮戳)销值,以用于在邮件被寄出前,证明寄邮人已支付全部或部分传递费用。为方便使用,邮票四周一般会打上齿孔,背面则加上一层背胶。世界上的第一枚邮票是英国的黑便士。邮票发行由国家管理,通常是国家主权的象征,甚至是某些国家重要的财源,如列支敦士登。邮票是收藏品,集邮已经成为世界重要风潮之一。


Origins and development.

Origins.

The earliest texts associated with the Avatamsaka sutra are the "Dousha jing" (Taisho 280), produced by Lokaksema in the latter part of the second century CE and the "Pusa benye jing" (T. 281), translated by Zhi Qian in the early to mid third century. There is evidence that these small Buddhavatamsaka sutras circulated on their own as individual scriptures.  The translation of the large Avatamsaka sutra is often dated to the Southern Dynasties (420-589) when a translation team led by Gandharan master, Buddhabhadra worked on the sutra. There is also evidence of this sutra tradition in the Northern Dynasties (386-581) where a certain Xuangao (402-444) taught the "Huayan samadhi".

Patriarchs.

The founding of the school is traditionally attributed to a series of five "patriarchs" who were instrumental in developing the schools' doctrines. These five are:  The five monks later honored as Huayan patriarchs were erudite scholar-practitioners who connected Buddhism with Chinese traditional culture closely, creating a Buddhist historical trend in developing multiple facets while the tradition’s essence remained the same. Based on their writings, exegeses, and oral teachings, these men each played a significant and distinct role in the development of the school, although there are certain aspects of this patriarchal scheme which are clearly contrived. For example, Chengguan was born 26 years after Fazang's death. According to Robert Gimello's dissertation on Chih-Yen (1976), "most if not all of the major themes of Huayen thought" can be found in the works of the second patriarch Chih-yen, particularly the classification of scriptures and theories on the Dharmadhatu. Thus he names the patriarch Chih-yen (602-668) as the crucial figure in the foundation of Huayan. The tradition reached the height of its influence under Fazang, who was the Buddhist teacher of the Empress Wu Zetian (684–705).  Another important figure in the development and popularization of Huayan thought was the lay scholar Li Tongxuan (, 635?-730), the author of the "Huáyán lùn" (), a popular and lengthy commentary on the Avatamsaka sutra. Fazang's disciple Huiyuan (673-743) also wrote a commentary on the Avatamsaka.  Some accounts of the school also like to extend its patriarch-ship earlier to and Nāgārjuna.

Stagnation.

After the time of Zongmi and Li Tongxuan the Chinese school of Huayan generally stagnated in terms of new development, and then eventually began to decline. The school, which had been dependent upon the support it received from the government, suffered severely during the Buddhist purge of 841-845, initiated by Emperor Wuzong of Tang, never to recover its former strength. Nonetheless, its profound metaphysics, such as that of the Four Dharmadhātu () of interpenetration, had a deep impact on surviving East Asian schools.

Texts.

"Avataṃsaka Sūtra".

The Huayan school's worldview was inspired on the content of what it considered to be the supreme Buddhist revelation, the "Avataṃsaka Sūtra" (Flower Garland Sutra, Ch. "Huāyán Jīng"). The "Avataṃsaka Sūtra" is a compilation of sutras of various length, which originally circulated as their own sutras before being combined. The earliest of these texts, the "Ten Stages Sutra", maybe dates from the first century CE. The "Daśabhūmika Sūtra" describes the ten stages on the Bodhisattva-path. The various sutras were probably joined together shortly before its translation into Chinese, at the beginning of the 5th century CE.  According to Williams, the "Avataṃsaka Sūtra" is not a systematic philosophical work, but mentions various Mahayana teachings, including Madhyamaka śūnyatā teachings, Yogacara ideas, as well as mentioning a pure untainted awareness or consciousness ("amalacitta"). It is filled with mystical and visionary imagery, focusing on the Buddha Vairocana, who is said to pervade every atom of the entire universe with his magical creations and emanations as a way to help all beings: An important doctrine that the Huayan school drew from this sutra is the idea that all levels of reality are interrelated and interpenetrated, the idea that "inside everything is everything else". The sutra states:They... perceive that the fields full of assemblies, the beings and aeons which are as many as all the dust particles, are all present in every particle of dust. They perceive that the many fields and assemblies and the beings and the aeons are all reflected in each particle of dust.In the Huayan school, this is depicted in the image of Indra's net. This "unity in totality allows every individual entity of the phenomenal world its uniqueness without attributing an inherent nature to anything". According to Williams,As a description of the way things are in our unenlightened world this seems incredible. But the dharmadhatu is the world as seen by the Buddha wherein there is no question of the world (an objectively real world ‘out there’) as distinct from meditative vision. Thus the sutra is less concerned with describing the world this way as with recounting the Bodhisattva’s attainments by which he can see the world in such a light, and the Bodhisattva’s miraculous powers by which, through his magical interventions in this world with no fixed hard boundaries, he can cause things to interpenetrate.

Other texts.

Other Mahayana texts such as the "Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana" ("Dasheng Qixin Lun" 大乘起信論), which was a condensation of Chinese thought on awakening and ultimate reality, influenced Huayan masters like Fazang and Zongmi, who both wrote commentaries on the text. The Lotus sutra was also seen as an important text in this school, though not as important as the Avatamsaka. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment was particularly important for Zongmi.  The Huayen patriarchs wrote numerous commentaries and original treatises on the Mahayana sutras and Huayen philosophy. Fazang for example, wrote commentaries on the Avatamsaka, the Lankavatara Sutra and the Awakening of Faith. One of the key Huayen treatises is "On the Meditation of the Dharmadhātu" attributed to the first patriarch Dushun. Another is Fazang’s "Treatise on the Golden Lion" which is said to have been written to explain Huayen's view of interpenetration to Empress Wu.  Peter N. Gregory notes that the Huayan commentarial tradition was:"not primarily concerned with a careful exegesis of the original meaning of the scripture. Rather, what it discovered in the text was the justification for a number of ideas and metaphors in terms of which it elaborated its own body of doctrine. Many of the key Huayan doctrines that were inspired by the scripture (such as nature origination, the conditioned origination of the dharmadhatu, the samadhi of oceanic reflection, or the six aspects of all dharmas) played only a peripheral role in or had a tenuous connection with the actual Huayan sutra itself. The great commentaries written on the text by Fa-tsang and Ch'eng-kuan were not so much concerned with rendering a faithful and judicious interpretation of the words of the text as they were with using the text as a basis from which to advance a doctrinal agenda that was determined by the context of Sui-Tang Buddhism."

Theory and practice.

Huayan thought is mainly focused on explaining the nature of the Dharmadhatu, the world as it is ultimately, from the point of view of a fully awakened being. It is often said to be the philosophical articulation of Chan meditation. It is influenced by the Avatamsaka and Buddha nature literature as well as by the Chinese Yogacara and Madhyamaka schools. Patriarchs of the school such as Zongmi were also influenced by Chinese philosophy, particularly the classics of Taoism.

Interpenetration.

A key doctrine of Huayan is the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena ("dharmas") or "perfect interfusion" ("yuanrong", 圓融). This is associated with what the Huayan sees as its unique contribution, the "dharmadhatu pratityasamutpada". This is described by Wei Daoru as the idea that "countless dharmas (all phenomena in the world) are representations of the wisdom of Buddha without exception" and that "they exist in a state of mutual dependence, interfusion and balance without any contradiction or conflict. This thought essentially argues that there is no relationship of cause and result among phenomena and that things are not formed sequentially. Instead, they constitute the world by the mutual interfusion of complete equality."  According to this theory, any phenomenon exists only as part of the total nexus of reality, its existence depends on the total network of all other things, which are all equally connected to each other and contained in each other. The Huayan patriarchs used various metaphors to express this, such as Indra's net, a hall of mirrors and the world text. To illustrate the doctrine to Empress Wu, the patriarch Fazang:  "called for a candle and placed it surrounded by mirrors on every side. When lit, the candle was reflected in each mirror, and each of the reflections in every other mirror so that in any one mirror were the images of all the others."  This Buddhist doctrine also includes the views that:

Li and Shi.

Another important distinction used by Huayan patriarchs is that of "li" and "shi", noumenon and phenomenon which was explained using the metaphor of gold and lions, or water and waves. According to Paul Williams:  First, noumenon and phenomena mutually interpenetrate and are (in a sense) identical. There is no opposition between the two. The one does not cancel out the other. Second, Fazang explains elsewhere that since all things arise interdependently (following Madhyamika), and since the links of interdependence expand throughout the entire universe and at all time (past, present, and future depend upon each other, which is to say the total dharmadhatu arises simultaneously), so in the totality of interdependence, the dharmadhatu, all phenomena are mutually interpenetrating and identical.

Fourfold Dharmadhatu and meditation.

The theory of the Fourfold Dharmadhatu ("sifajie", 四法界) is explained in the "Meditative Perspectives on the Huayan Dharmadhatu" ("Huayan Fajie Guanmen", 華嚴法界觀門) and its commentaries. This theory is the central meditative framework for the Huayan tradition. Another key text is the "Cessation and Contemplation in the Five Teachings of Huayan" ("Huayan wujiao zhiguan" 華嚴五教止觀). The Dharmadhatu is the goal of the bodhisattva's practice, the ultimate nature of reality which must be known or entered into ("ru", 入). According to Fox, the Fourfold Dharmadhatu is "four cognitive approaches to the world, four ways of apprehending reality".The four ways of seeing reality are:  The three levels of Huayan meditation on the Dharmadhatu correspond to the last three views of the Dharmadhatu are:  According to Fox, "these dharmadhatus are not separate worlds – they are actually increasingly more holographic perspectives on a single phenomenological manifold...they more properly represent four types or orders of perspectives on experience." Furthermore, for Huayan, this practice is the solution to the problem of samsara which lies in the "fixation or attachment to a particular perspective. What we think are the essences of objects are really therefore nothing but mere names, mere functional designations, and none of these contextual definitions need necessarily interfere with any of the others."

Other practices.

According to Paul Williams, the reading and recitation of the Avatamsaka sutra was also a central practice for the tradition, for monks and laity.  Another practice which is highlighted in the Avatamsaka sutra is that of Buddhānusmṛti or "nianfo"-mindfulness of the Buddha.  The tradition also mentions two key samadhis, the ocean-seal samadhi (Ch. "haiyin sanmei") and the huayan samadhi ("huayan sanmei").  Layman Li Tongxuan developed a unique meditative practice based on the 9th chapter of the Avatamsaka sutra. The practice, named 'the contemplation of Buddhalight' ("foguang guan"), focused on tracing the universal light which is radiated by the Buddha in one's mind and expanding it further outwards.

Sudden enlightenment.

Huayan favored the teaching of sudden enlightenment. This is because the Buddha nature is already present in all sentient beings and also because their theory of interpenetration entails that Buddhahood is already present at the first stage of a Bodhisattva's path. According to Li Tongxuan:  [T]he first access of faith in the mind of the practitioner is in itself the culmination of the entire path, the very realization of final Buddhahood... ‘Faith’ or confidence in the possibility of enlightenment is nothing but enlightenment itself, in an "anticipatory and causative modality".  Buddhahood was seen as beyond language and stages of practice. Because practices cannot create something that is already not imminent, they were seen as simply revealing what was already there. The patriarch Zongmi formulated his own theory of awakening which was "immediate awakening followed by gradual cultivation" and the view that "immediate and gradual are not only not contradictory, but are actually complementary".

Paradox.

Huayan makes extensive use of paradox in argument and literary imagery. All three types of paradox originate in the tension between conventional and absolute truth. Huayan uses three types of paradox: 1. Emphasizing the concept of śūnyatā, first is asserted that a phenomenon X is empty, which implies that X is not X. An example from Fazang is the assertion: 2. Reversing the first paradox by asserting that any empty phenomenon is an expression of the absolute non-duality between emptiness and form, or the identity between conditioned, relative reality and the ultimate truth of tathatā. This paradox is derived from two doctrinal sources: Fazang's paradoxical assertion illustrates this second type:  3. The third variation of paradox is grounded in the Huayan doctrine of the "nonobstruction of all phenomena" (shih shih wu-ai(k)). Each phenomenon is perceived as interpenetrating with and containing all others. This paradoxical violation of the conventional order of time and space is exemplified by Fa-tsang's famous "Essay on the Golden Lion":

Classification of Buddhist teachings.

Buddhism was introduced into China in bits and pieces. When the knowledge of Buddhism grew larger, various schools attempted to get a grip on the Buddhist tradition by developing classifications of teachings, such as the Five Periods and Eight Teachings of the Tiantai-school.  The Huayan school developed a fivefold classification:  Huayan and Chán had doctrinal arguments regarding which would be the correct concept of sudden awakening. The teachings of the Chán-school were regarded as inferior by the Huayan teachers. The Chán-school polemitized against this classification, by devising its own rhetorics in defense.

Influence.

The doctrines of the Huayan school ended up having profound impact on the philosophical attitudes of East Asian Buddhism. According to Wei Daoru their theory of perfect interfusion was "gradually accepted by all Buddhist traditions and it eventually permeated all aspects of Chinese Buddhism."  Chinese Chán was profoundly influenced by it, though Chán also defined itself by distinguishing itself from Huayan. Tsung-mi, the Fifth Patriarch of the Huayan school, also occupies a prominent position in the history of Chán. During the Song, the Huayan metaphysics were completely assimilated by the Chán-school.

The Huayan or Flower Garland school of Buddhism (, from ) is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty. The Huayan worldview is based primarily on the "Avatamsaka Sutra" (). The name "Flower Garland" is meant to suggest the crowning glory of a Buddha's profound understanding of ultimate reality.

华严宗,又称贤首宗、法界宗,汉传佛教的流派之一,此宗以《华严经》为所依,故称为「华(花)严宗」。实际创始人是法藏,但传统上以龙树菩萨为初祖。因法藏受封「贤首国师」,故此宗或称为「贤首宗」。因该宗发挥「法界缘起」为宗旨,故又称「法界宗」。在判教上尊《华严经》为最高经典,将释迦文佛的教法分为:「小」、「始」、「终」、「顿」、「圆」五教,并从《华严经》的思想,发展出法界缘起、十玄、四法界、六相圆融的学说,发挥事事无碍的理论。华严宗于盛唐时立宗,至武宗会昌毁佛后渐衰,又因其中「顿教」内涵类似禅宗,故华严宗之后多与禅宗合流,


Hydration states and crystallographic structures.

The compound exists in three levels of hydration corresponding to different crystallographic structures and to different minerals in nature:

Uses.

The main use of calcium sulfate is to produce plaster of Paris and stucco. These applications exploit the fact that calcium sulfate which has been powdered and calcined forms a moldable paste upon hydration and hardens as crystalline calcium sulfate dihydrate. It is also convenient that calcium sulfate is poorly soluble in water and does not readily dissolve in contact with water after its solidification.

Hydration and dehydration reactions.

With judicious heating, gypsum converts to the partially dehydrated mineral called gypsum or plaster of Paris. This material has the formula CaSO·("n"HO), where 0.5 ≤ "n" ≤ 0.8. Temperatures between are required to drive off the water within its structure. The details of the temperature and time depend on ambient humidity. Temperatures as high as are used in industrial calcination, but at these temperatures γ-anhydrite begins to form. The heat energy delivered to the gypsum at this time (the heat of hydration) tends to go into driving off water (as water vapor) rather than increasing the temperature of the mineral, which rises slowly until the water is gone, then increases more rapidly. The equation for the partial dehydration is:  The endothermic property of this reaction is relevant to the performance of drywall, conferring fire resistance to residential and other structures. In a fire, the structure behind a sheet of drywall will remain relatively cool as water is lost from the gypsum, thus preventing (or substantially retarding) damage to the framing (through combustion of wood members or loss of strength of steel at high temperatures) and consequent structural collapse. But at higher temperatures, calcium sulfate will release oxygen and act as an oxidizing agent. This property is used in aluminothermy. In contrast to most minerals, which when rehydrated simply form liquid or semi-liquid pastes, or remain powdery, calcined gypsum has an unusual property: when mixed with water at normal (ambient) temperatures, it quickly reverts chemically to the preferred dihydrate form, while physically "setting" to form a rigid and relatively strong gypsum crystal lattice:  This reaction is exothermic and is responsible for the ease with which gypsum can be cast into various shapes including sheets (for drywall), sticks (for blackboard chalk), and molds (to immobilize broken bones, or for metal casting). Mixed with polymers, it has been used as a bone repair cement. Small amounts of calcined gypsum are added to earth to create strong structures directly from cast earth, an alternative to adobe (which loses its strength when wet). The conditions of dehydration can be changed to adjust the porosity of the hemihydrate, resulting in the so-called α- and β-hemihydrates (which are more or less chemically identical).  On heating to, the nearly water-free form, called γ-anhydrite (CaSO·"n"HO where "n" = 0 to 0.05) is produced. γ-Anhydrite reacts slowly with water to return to the dihydrate state, a property exploited in some commercial desiccants. On heating above 250 °C, the completely anhydrous form called β-anhydrite or "natural" anhydrite is formed. Natural anhydrite does not react with water, even over geological timescales, unless very finely ground.  The variable composition of the hemihydrate and γ-anhydrite, and their easy inter-conversion, is due to their nearly identical crystal structures containing "channels" that can accommodate variable amounts of water, or other small molecules such as methanol.

Food industry.

The calcium sulfate hydrates are used as a coagulant in products such as tofu.  For the FDA, it is permitted in Cheese and Related Cheese Products; Cereal Flours; Bakery Products; Frozen Desserts; Artificial Sweeteners for Jelly & Preserves; Condiment Vegetables; and Condiment Tomatoes and some candies.  It is known in the E number series as E516, and the FAO knows it as a firming agent, a flour treatment agent, a sequestrant, and a leavening agent.

Other uses.

When sold at the anhydrous state as a desiccant with a color-indicating agent under the name Drierite, it appears blue (anhydrous) or pink (hydrated) due to impregnation with cobalt(II) chloride, which functions as a moisture indicator.  Up to the 1970s, commercial quantities of sulfuric acid were produced in Whitehaven (Cumbria, UK) from anhydrous calcium sulfate. Upon being mixed with shale or marl, and roasted, the sulfate liberates sulfur trioxide gas, a precursor in sulfuric acid production, the reaction also produces calcium silicate, a mineral phase essential in cement clinker production.

Production and occurrence.

The main sources of calcium sulfate are naturally occurring gypsum and anhydrite, which occur at many locations worldwide as evaporites. These may be extracted by open-cast quarrying or by deep mining. World production of natural gypsum is around 127 million tonnes per annum.  In addition to natural sources, calcium sulfate is produced as a by-product in a number of processes:  These precipitation processes tend to concentrate radioactive elements in the calcium sulfate product. This issue is particular with the phosphate by-product, since phosphate ores naturally contain uranium and its decay products such as radium-226, lead-210 and polonium-210.  Calcium sulfate is also a common component of fouling deposits in industrial heat exchangers, because its solubility decreases with increasing temperature (see the specific section on the retrograde solubility).

Retrograde solubility.

The dissolution of the different crystalline phases of calcium sulfate in water is exothermic and releases heat (decrease in Enthalpy: ΔH < 0). As an immediate consequence, to proceed, the dissolution reaction needs to evacuate this heat that can be considered as a product of reaction. If the system is cooled, the dissolution equilibrium will evolve towards the right according to the Le Chatelier principle and calcium sulfate will dissolve more easily. The solubility of calcium sulfate increases thus when the temperature decreases. If the temperature of the system is raised, the reaction heat cannot dissipate and the equilibrium will regress towards the left according to Le Chatelier principle. The solubility of calcium sulfate decreases thus when temperature increases. This contra-intuitive solubility behaviour is called retrograde solubility. It is less common than for most of the salts whose dissolution reaction is endothermic (i.e., the reaction consumes heat: increase in Enthalpy: ΔH > 0) and whose solubility increases with temperature. Another calcium compound, calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH), portlandite) also exhibits a retrograde solubility for the same thermodynamic reason: because its dissolution reaction is also exothermic and releases heat. So, to dissolve higher amounts of calcium sulfate or calcium hydroxide in water, it is necessary to cool down the solution close to its freezing point instead of increasing its temperature.  The retrograde solubility of calcium sulfate is also responsible for its precipitation in the hottest zone of heating systems and for its contribution to the formation of scale in boilers along with the precipitation of calcium carbonate whose solubility also decreases when CO degasses from hot water or can escape out of the system.

On planet Mars.

2011 findings by the "Opportunity" rover on the planet Mars show a form of calcium sulfate in a vein on the surface. Images suggest the mineral is gypsum.

Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the formula CaSO and related hydrates. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. One particular hydrate is better known as plaster of Paris, and another occurs naturally as the mineral gypsum. It has many uses in industry. All forms are white solids that are poorly soluble in water. Calcium sulfate causes permanent hardness in water.

硫酸钙,化学式为CaSO,是一种常见的实验室和工业用化学品。


Types.

Among the types of diacritic used in alphabets based on the Latin script are:  The tilde, dot, comma, titlo, apostrophe, bar, and colon are sometimes diacritical marks, but also have other uses.  Not all diacritics occur adjacent to the letter they modify. In the Wali language of Ghana, for example, an apostrophe indicates a change of vowel quality, but occurs at the beginning of the word, as in the dialects "’Bulengee" and "’Dolimi". Because of vowel harmony, all vowels in a word are affected, so the scope of the diacritic is the entire word. In abugida scripts, like those used to write Hindi and Thai, diacritics indicate vowels, and may occur above, below, before, after, or around the consonant letter they modify.  The tittle (dot) on the letter "i" or the letter "j", of the Latin alphabet originated as a diacritic to clearly distinguish "i" from the minims (downstrokes) of adjacent letters. It first appeared in the 11th century in the sequence "ii" (as in ), then spread to "i" adjacent to "m, n, u", and finally to all lowercase "i"s. The "j", originally a variant of "i", inherited the tittle. The shape of the diacritic developed from initially resembling today's acute accent to a long flourish by the 15th century. With the advent of Roman type it was reduced to the round dot we have today.  Languages from Eastern Europe tend to use diacritics on both consonants and vowels, whereas in Western Europe digraphs are more typically used to change consonant sounds. Most languages in Western Europe use diacritics on vowels, aside from English where there are typically none (with some exceptions).

Diacritics specific to non-Latin alphabets.

Greek.

These diacritics are used in addition to the acute, grave, and circumflex accents and the diaeresis:

Korean.

The diacritics ><unk> and <unk>, known as Bangjeom (), were used to mark pitch accents in Hangul for Middle Korean. They were written to the left of a syllable in vertical writing and above a syllable in horizontal writing.  The South Korean government officially revised the romanization of the Korean language in July 2000 to eliminate diacritics.

Syriac.

In addition to the above vowel marks, transliteration of Syriac sometimes includes "ə", "e̊" or superscript "" (or often nothing at all) to represent an original Aramaic schwa that became lost later on at some point in the development of Syriac. Some transliteration schemes find its inclusion necessary for showing spirantization or for historical reasons.

Non-alphabetic scripts.

Some non-alphabetic scripts also employ symbols that function essentially as diacritics.

Alphabetization or collation.

Different languages use different rules to put diacritic characters in alphabetical order. French and Portuguese treat letters with diacritical marks the same as the underlying letter for purposes of ordering and dictionaries.  The Scandinavian languages and the Finnish language, by contrast, treat the characters with diacritics "å", "ä", and "ö" as distinct letters of the alphabet, and sort them after "z". Usually "ä" (a-umlaut) and "ö" (o-umlaut) [used in Swedish and Finnish] are sorted as equivalent to "æ" (ash) and "ø" (o-slash) [used in Danish and Norwegian]. Also, "aa", when used as an alternative spelling to "å", is sorted as such. Other letters modified by diacritics are treated as variants of the underlying letter, with the exception that "ü" is frequently sorted as "y".  Languages that treat accented letters as variants of the underlying letter usually alphabetize words with such symbols immediately after similar unmarked words. For instance, in German where two words differ only by an umlaut, the word without it is sorted first in German dictionaries (e.g. "schon" and then "schön", or "fallen" and then "fällen"). However, when names are concerned (e.g. in phone books or in author catalogues in libraries), umlauts are often treated as combinations of the vowel with a suffixed "e"; Austrian phone books now treat characters with umlauts as separate letters (immediately following the underlying vowel).  In Spanish, the grapheme "ñ" is considered a new letter different from "n" and collated between "n" and "o", as it denotes a different sound from that of a plain "n". But the accented vowels "á", "é", "í", "ó", "ú" are not separated from the unaccented vowels "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", as the acute accent in Spanish only modifies stress within the word or denotes a distinction between homonyms, and does not modify the sound of a letter.  For a comprehensive list of the collating orders in various languages, see Collating sequence.

Generation with computers.

Modern computer technology was developed mostly in English-speaking countries, so data formats, keyboard layouts, etc. were developed with a bias favoring English, a language with an alphabet without diacritical marks. Efforts have been made to create internationalized domain names that further extend the English alphabet (e.g., "pokémon.com").  Depending on the keyboard layout, which differs amongst countries, it is more or less easy to enter letters with diacritics on computers and typewriters. Some have their own keys; some are created by first pressing the key with the diacritic mark followed by the letter to place it on. Such a key is sometimes referred to as a dead key, as it produces no output of its own but modifies the output of the key pressed after it.  In modern Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems, the keyboard layouts "US International" and "UK International" feature dead keys that allow one to type Latin letters with the acute, grave, circumflex, diaeresis, tilde, and cedilla found in Western European languages (specifically, those combinations found in the ISO Latin-1 character set) directly: + gives "ë", + gives "õ", etc. On Apple Macintosh computers, there are keyboard shortcuts for the most common diacritics; followed by a vowel places an acute accent, followed by a vowel gives an umlaut, gives a cedilla, etc. Diacritics can be composed in most X Window System keyboard layouts, as well as other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, using additional software.  On computers, the availability of code pages determines whether one can use certain diacritics. Unicode solves this problem by assigning every known character its own code; if this code is known, most modern computer systems provide a method to input it. With Unicode, it is also possible to combine diacritical marks with most characters. However, as of 2019, very few fonts include the necessary support to correctly render character-plus-diacritic(s) for the Latin, Cyrillic and some other alphabets (exceptions include Andika).

Languages with letters containing diacritics.

The following languages have letters that contain diacritics that are considered independent letters distinct from those without diacritics.

Diacritics that do not produce new letters.

English.

English is one of the few European languages that does not have many words that contain diacritical marks. Instead, digraphs are the main way the Modern English alphabet adapts the Latin to its phonemes. Exceptions are unassimilated foreign loanwords, including borrowings from French and, increasingly, Spanish like jalapeño; however, the diacritic is also sometimes omitted from such words. Loanwords that frequently appear with the diacritic in English include "café", "résumé" or "resumé" (a usage that helps distinguish it from the verb "resume"), "soufflé", and "naïveté" (see "English terms with diacritical marks"). In older practice (and even among some orthographically conservative modern writers) one may see examples such as "élite", "mêlée" and "rôle."  English speakers and writers once used the diaeresis more often than now in words such as "coöperation" (from Fr. "coopération"), "zoölogy" (from Grk. "zoologia"), and "seeër" (now more commonly "see-er "or simply" seer") as a way of indicating that adjacent vowels belonged to separate syllables, but this practice has become far less common. "The New Yorker" magazine is a major publication that continues to use the diaresis in place of a hyphen for clarity and economy of space.  A few English words, out of context, can only be distinguished from others by a diacritic or modified letter, including exposé, lamé, maté, öre, øre, pâté, and rosé'. The same is true of "résumé," alternately "" but nevertheless it is regularly spelled "resume". In a few words, diacritics that did not exist in the original have been added for disambiguation, as in maté (from Sp. and Port. "mate"), saké (the standard Romanization of the Japanese has no accent mark), and Malé (from Dhivehi މާލެ), to clearly distinguish them from the English words "mate", "sake", and "male".  The acute and grave accents are occasionally used in poetry and lyrics: the acute to indicate stress overtly where it might be ambiguous ("rébel" vs. "rebél") or nonstandard for metrical reasons ("caléndar"), the grave to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided syllable is pronounced ("warnèd," "parlìament").  In certain personal names such as "Renée" and "Zoë", often two spellings exist, and the preference will be known only to those close to the person themselves. Even when the name of a person is spelled with a diacritic, like Charlotte Brontë, this may be dropped in English language articles and even official documents such as passports either due to carelessness, the typist not knowing how to enter letters with diacritical marks, or for technical reasons—California, for example, does not allow names with diacritics, as the computer system cannot process such characters. They also appear in some worldwide company names and/or trademarks such as Nestlé or Citroën.

Other languages.

The following languages have letter-diacritic combinations that are not considered independent letters.

Transliteration.

Several languages that are not written with the Roman alphabet are transliterated, or romanized, using diacritics. Examples:

Limits.

Practical.

Possibly the greatest number of combining diacritics "required" to compose a valid character in any Unicode language is 8, for the "well-known grapheme cluster in Tibetan and Ranjana scripts",ཧྐྵྨླ<unk>ྻ<unk>, or HAKṢHMALAWARAYAṀ.  It is U+0F67 U+0F90 U+0FB5 U+0FA8 U+0FB3 U+0FBA U+0FBC U+0FBB U+0F82, or:<br> TIBETAN LETTER HA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER KA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER SSA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER MA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER LA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER FIXED-FORM WA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER FIXED-FORM RA + TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER FIXED-FORM YA + TIBETAN SIGN NYI ZLA NAA DA.

Impractical.

Some users have explored the limits of rendering in web browsers and other software by "decorating" words with multiple nonsensical diacritics per character. The result is called "Zalgo text". The composed bogus characters and words can be copied and pasted normally via the system clipboard.

Example: c̳̻͚̻̩̻͉̯̄̏͑̋͆̎͐ͬ͑͌́͢h̵͔͈͍͇̪̯͇̞͖͇̜͉̪̪̤̙ͧͣ̓̐̓ͤ͋͒ͥ͑̆͒̓͋̑́͞ǎ̡̮̤̤̬͚̝͙̞͎̇ͧ͆͊ͅo̴̲̺͓̖͖͉̜̟̗̮̳͉̻͉̫̯̫̍̋̿̒͌̃̂͊̏̈̏̿ͧ́ͬ̌ͥ̇̓̀͢͜s̵̵̘̹̜̝̘̺̙̻̠̱͚̤͓͚̠͙̝͕͆̿̽ͥ̃͠͡
<br

A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). "Diacritic" is primarily an adjective, though sometimes used as a noun, whereas "diacritical" is only ever an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute ( ́ ) and grave ( ` ), are often called "accents". Diacritical marks may appear above or below a letter, or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.

附加符号或称变音符号(英语:diacritic、diacritical mark、diacritical point、diacritical sign),是指添加在字母上面的符号,以更改字母的发音或者以区分拼写相似词语。例如汉语拼音字母「ü」上面的两个小点,或「á」、「à」字母上面的标调符。


Early life and education.

Penzias was born in Munich, Germany, the son of Justine (née Eisenreich) and Karl Penzias, who ran a leather business. His grandparents had come to Munich from Poland and were among the leaders of the Reichenbach Strasse Shul. At age six, he and his brother Gunther were among the Jewish children evacuated to Britain as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation. Some time later, his parents also fled Nazi Germany for the U.S., and the family settled in the Garment District of New York City in 1940. In 1946, Penzias became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1951 and after enrolling to study chemistry at the City College of New York, he changed majors and graduated 1954 with a degree in physics, ranked near the top of his class.  Following graduation, Penzias served for two years as a radar officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This led to a research assistantship in the Columbia University Radiation Laboratory, which was then heavily involved in microwave physics. Penzias worked under Charles Townes, who later invented the maser.  Next, Penzias enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia in 1956. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1962.

Career.

Penzias went on to work at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, where, with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers, intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive antenna/receiver system, the pair encountered radio noise which they could not explain. It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by the Milky Way, and it was isotropic, so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwave horn antenna showed it was full of bat and pigeon droppings (which Penzias described as "white dielectric material"). After the pair removed the dung buildup the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, Penzias contacted Robert Dicke, who suggested it might be the background radiation predicted by some cosmological theories. The pair agreed with Dicke to publish side-by-side letters in the Astrophysical Journal, with Penzias and Wilson describing their observations and Dicke suggesting the interpretation as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the radio remnant of the Big Bang. This allowed astronomers to confirm the Big Bang, and to correct many of their previous assumptions about it. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences in 1975. Penzias and Wilson received the 1978 Nobel Prize, sharing it with Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (Kapitsa's work on Low-temperature physics was unrelated to Penzias and Wilson's). In 1977, the two had received the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1979, Penzias received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He is also the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. In 1998, he was awarded the IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Institute.  On April 26, 2019 the Nürnberger Astronomische Gesellschaft e.V. (NAG) inaugurated the 3-m radio telescope at the Regiomontanus-Sternwarte, the public observatory of Nuremberg, and dedicated this instrument to Arno Penzias. Acknowledging the outstanding scientific merits and the personal history of Arno Penzias as well as the importance of the accessibility to science for all citizens the Minister-President of Bavaria, Dr. Markus Söder participated in this celebration.  Penzias has been a resident of Highland Park, New Jersey. He has a son, David, and two daughters, Mindy Penzias Dirks, PhD, and Rabbi Shifra (Laurie) Weiss-Penzias. He currently serves as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates.

Arno Allan Penzias (; born April 26, 1933) is an American physicist, radio astronomer and Nobel laureate in physics. Along with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he discoverered the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang theory of cosmology.

阿诺·彭齐亚斯(,1933年-4月26日),德国出生的美国射电天文学家,犹太人,1964年与罗伯特·威尔逊一起发现了微波背景辐射,并因此获得1978年诺贝尔物理学奖。


Early life.

Bloembergen was born in Dordrecht on March 11, 1920, where his father was a chemical engineer and executive. He had five siblings, with his brother Auke later becoming a legal scholar. In 1938, Bloembergen entered the University of Utrecht to study physics. However, during World War II, the German authorities closed the university and Bloembergen spent two years in hiding.

Career.

Graduate studies.

Bloembergen left the war-ravaged Netherlands in 1945 to pursue graduate studies at Harvard University under Professor Edward Mills Purcell. Through Purcell, Bloembergen was part of the prolific academic lineage tree of J. J. Thomson, which includes many other Nobel Laureates, beginning with Thomson himself (Physics Nobel, 1906) and Lord Rayleigh (Physics Nobel, 1904), Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry Nobel 1908), Owen Richardson (Physics Nobel, 1928), and finally Purcell (Physics, Nobel 1952). Bloembergen's other influences include John Van Vleck (Physics Nobel, 1977) and Percy Bridgman (Physics Nobel, 1946).  Six weeks before his arrival, Purcell and his graduate students Torrey and Pound discovered nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Bloembergen was hired to develop the first NMR machine. At Harvard he attended lectures by Schwinger, Van Vleck, and Kemble. Bloembergen's NMR systems are the predecessors of modern-day MRI machines, which are used to examine internal organs and tissues. Bloembergen's research on NMR led to an interest in masers, which were introduced in 1953 and are the predecessors of lasers.  Bloembergen returned to the Netherlands in 1947, and submitted his thesis "Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation" at the University of Leiden. This was because he had completed all the preliminary examinations in the Netherlands, and Cor Gorter of Leiden offered him a postdoctoral appointment there. He received his Ph.D. degree from Leiden in 1948, and then was a postdoc at Leiden for about a year.

Professorship.

In 1949, he returned to Harvard as a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows. In 1951, he became an associate professor; he then became Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics in 1957; Rumford Professor of Physics in 1974; and Gerhard Gade University Professor in 1980. In 1990 he retired from Harvard.  In addition, Bloembergen served as a visiting professor. From 1964 to 1965, Bloembergen was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1996–1997, he was a visiting scientist at the College of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona; he became a professor at Arizona in 2001.  Bloembergen was a member of the Board of Sponsors of the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" and Honorary Editor of the "Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics & Materials".

Laser spectroscopy.

By 1960 while at Harvard, he experimented with microwave spectroscopy. Bloembergen had modified the maser of Charles Townes, and in 1956, Bloembergen developed a crystal maser, which was more powerful than the standard gaseous version.  With the advent of the laser, he participated in the development of the field of laser spectroscopy, which allows precise observations of atomic structure using lasers. Following the development of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken and others in 1961, Bloembergen expanded on the study of the theoretical study of nonlinear optics, the analysis of how photons in high-intensity electromagnetic radiation interact with matter. In reflection to his work in a Dutch newspaper in 1990, Bloembergen said: "We took a standard textbook on optics and for each section we asked ourselves what would happen if the intensity was to become very high. We were almost certain that we were bound to encounter an entirely new type of physics within that domain".  From this theoretical work, Bloembergen found ways to combine two or more laser sources consisting of photons in the visible light frequency range to generate a single laser source with photons of different frequencies in the infrared and ultraviolet ranges, which extends the amount of atomic detail that can be gathered from laser spectroscopy.

Awards.

He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1978. He received the Bijvoet Medal of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research of Utrecht University in 2001.  Bloembergen shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arthur Schawlow, along with Kai Siegbahn. The Nobel Foundation awarded Bloembergen and Schawlow "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy".

Personal life and death.

Bloembergen met Huberta Deliana Brink (Deli) in 1948 while on vacation with his school's Physics Club. She was able to travel with Bloembergen to the United States in 1949 on a student hospitality exchange program; he proposed to her when they arrived in the States, and were married by 1950 on return to Amsterdam. They were both naturalized as citizens of the United States in 1958. They had three children.  Bloembergen died on September 5, 2017, at an assisted living facility in his hometown Tucson, Arizona of cardiorespiratory failure, at the age of 97.

Legacy.

On the 11th March 2020, the day of Bloembergen’s 100th birthday, a team of researchers at the University of New South Wales published an article in Nature, demonstrating for the first time the successful coherent control of the nucleus of a single atom using only electric fields, an idea first proposed by Bloembergen back in 1961.

Nicolaas "Nico" Bloembergen (March 11, 1920 – September 5, 2017) was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a professor at Harvard University and later at the University of Arizona and at Leiden University in 1973 (as Lorentz Professor).

尼古拉斯·布隆伯根(,1920年-3月11日-2017年-9月5日),出生于多德雷赫特的荷兰物理学家,1981年获诺贝尔物理学奖,亚利桑那大学教授。


亚历山大·爱德蒙·贝克勒尔

Biography.

Becquerel was born in Paris and was in turn the pupil, assistant and successor of his father at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. He was also appointed professor at the short-lived Agronomic Institute at Versailles in 1849, and in 1853 received the chair of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. He was associated with his father in much of his work.

The first photovoltaic device.

In 1839, at age 19, experimenting in his father's laboratory, Becquerel created the world's first photovoltaic cell. In this experiment, silver chloride or silver bromide was used to coat the platinum electrodes; once the electrodes were illuminated, voltage and current were generated. Because of this work, the photovoltaic effect has also been known as the "Becquerel effect".

Photographic discoveries.

Becquerel was an early experimenter in photography. In 1840, he discovered that the silver halides, natively insensitive to red and yellow light, became sensitive to that part of the spectrum in proportion to their exposure to blue, violet and ultraviolet light, allowing daguerreotypes and other photographic materials to be developed by bathing in strong red or yellow light rather than by chemical treatment. In practice this technique was rarely used. In 1848 he produced color photographs of the spectrum, and also of camera images, by a technique later found to be akin to the Lippmann interference method, but the camera exposures required were impractically long and the images could not be stabilized, their colors persisting only if kept in total darkness, however this work is based on the discoveries of J. T. Seebeck prior to 1810.

Other studies.

Becquerel paid special attention to the study of light, investigating the photochemical effects and spectroscopic characters of solar radiation and the electric arc light, and the phenomena of phosphorescence, particularly as displayed by the sulfides and by compounds of uranium. It was in connection with these latter inquiries that he devised his phosphoroscope, an apparatus which enabled the interval between exposure to the source of light and observation of the resulting effects to be varied at will and accurately measured.  He investigated the diamagnetic and paramagnetic properties of substances and was keenly interested in the phenomena of electrochemical decomposition, accumulating much evidence in favor of Faraday's law of electrolysis and proposing a modified statement of it which was intended to cover certain apparent exceptions. In 1853, Becquerel discovered thermionic emission.

Publications.

In 1867 and 1868 Becquerel published "La lumière, ses causes et ses effets" ("Light, its Causes and Effects"), a two-volume treatise which became a standard text. His many papers and commentaries appeared in French scientific journals, mainly the French Academy of Science's widely distributed "Comptes Rendus", from 1839 until shortly before his death in 1891.

Honors and awards.

Becquerel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1886.  The Becquerel Prize for "outstanding merit in photovoltaics" is awarded annually at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC).

External links.

Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891), known as Edmond Becquerel, was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics. He is credited with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect, the operating principle of the solar cell, in 1839. He is also known for his work in luminescence and phosphorescence. He was the son of Antoine César Becquerel and the father of Henri Becquerel, one of the discoverers of radioactivity.

亚历山大·埃德蒙·贝克勒(Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel,1820年-3月24日-1891年-5月11日)或者更常见的缩写埃德蒙·贝克勒(Edmond Becquerel),是一名法国物理学家。他研究太阳光谱、磁学、电学与光学。1839年他首先发现光生伏打效应,该效应是太阳能电池的重要原理之一。他也知名于萤光和磷光方面研究的贡献。埃德蒙·贝克勒为科学家安东·西萨·贝克勒之子,为发现天然放射性的亨利·贝克勒之父。


History.

Following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) was founded by the United Nations. The IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects of refugees' lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced across Europe as a result of World War II.  In the late 1940s, the IRO fell out of favor, but the UN agreed that a body was required to oversee global refugee issues. Despite many heated debates in the General Assembly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was founded as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly by Resolution 319 (IV) of the United Nations General Assembly of December 1949. However, the organization was only intended to operate for 3 years, from January 1951, due to the disagreement of many UN member states over the implications of a permanent body.  UNHCR's mandate was originally set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 (V) of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. This mandate has been subsequently broadened by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). According to UNHCR,  [its] mandate is to provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees and to seek permanent solutions for them.  Soon after the signing of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, it became clear that refugees were not solely restricted to Europe. In 1956, UNHCR was involved in coordinating the response to the uprising in Hungary. Just a year later, UNHCR was tasked with dealing with Chinese refugees in Hong Kong, while also responding to Algerian refugees who had fled to Morocco and Tunisia in the wake of Algeria's war for independence. The responses marked the beginning of a wider, global mandate in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance.  Decolonization in the 1960s triggered large refugee movements in Africa, creating a massive challenge that would transform UNHCR; unlike the refugee crises in Europe, there were no durable solutions in Africa and many refugees who fled one country only found instability in their new country of refuge. By the end of the decade, two-thirds of UNHCR's budget was focused on operations in Africa and in just one decade, the organization's focus had shifted from an almost exclusive focus on Europe.  In 1967, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees was ratified to remove the geographical and temporal restrictions of UNHCR under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. As the Convention was confined to the refugee crisis in the aftermath of World War II in Europe, the Protocol was made to address the “new refugee situations that have arisen since the Convention was adopted and the refugees concerned that may therefore not fall within the scope of the Convention”.  In the 1970s, UNHCR refugee operations continued to spread around the globe, with the mass exodus of East Pakistanis to India shortly before the birth of Bangladesh. Adding to the woes in Asia was the Vietnam war, with millions fleeing the Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  The 1980s saw new challenges for UNHCR, with many member states unwilling to resettle refugees due to the sharp rise in refugee numbers over the 1970s. Often, these refugees were not fleeing wars between states, but inter-ethnic conflict in newly independent states. The targeting of civilians as military strategy added to the displacement in many nations, so even'minor' conflicts could result in a large number of displaced persons. Whether in Asia, Central America or Africa, these conflicts, fueled by superpower rivalry and aggravated by socio-economic problems within the concerned countries, durable solutions continued to prove a massive challenge for the UNHCR. As a result, the UNHCR became more heavily involved with assistance programs within refugee camps, often located in hostile environments.  The end of the Cold War marked continued inter-ethnic conflict and contributed heavily to refugee flight. In addition, humanitarian intervention by multinational forces became more frequent and the media began to play a big role, particularly in the lead up to the 1999 NATO mission in Yugoslavia, while by contrast, the 1994 Rwandan Genocide had little attention. The genocide in Rwanda caused a massive refugee crisis, again highlighting the difficulties for UNHCR to uphold its mandate, and the UNHCR continued to battle against restrictive refugee policies in so called 'rich' nations.

Function.

UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees (other than Palestinian refugees, who are assisted by UNWRA) and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.  UNHCR's mandate has gradually been expanded to include protecting and providing humanitarian assistance to whom it describes as other persons "of concern," including internally displaced persons (IDPs) who would fit the legal definition of a refugee under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol, the 1969 Organization for African Unity Convention, or some other treaty if they left their country, but who presently remain in their country of origin. UNHCR presently has major missions in Lebanon, South Sudan, Chad/Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan as well as Kenya to assist and provide services to IDPs and refugees in camps and in urban settings.  UNHCR maintains a database of refugee information, ProGres, which was created during the Kosovo War in the 1990s. The database today contains data on over 11 million refugees, or about 11% of all displaced persons globally. The database contains biometric data, including fingerprints and iris scans and is used to determine aid distribution for recipients. The results of using biometric verification has been successful. When introduced in Kenyan refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab in the year 2013, the UN World Food Programme was able to eliminate $1.4m in waste and fraud.  To achieve its mandate, the UNHCR engaged in activities both in the countries of interest and in countries with donors. For example, the UNHCR hosts expert roundtables to discuss issues of concern to the international refugee community.

Palestine refugee mandate.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has a wider definition of "refugee" than does UNHCR. UNRWA’s definition includes the patrilineal descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, but is limited to refugees resulting from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Refugees who meet the UNRWA definition are ineligible for assistance from UNHCR.

Public awareness & Future of Refugees.

Several new programs have recently been introduced to support and to heighten awareness of the issues faced by refugees around the world. These two new programs are a product of the benchmarks set out by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.  The UNHCR works in different regions of the world to raise awareness about the refugee crisis and the needs of these refugees.  Since 2009, the UNHCR acknowledged a large presence of migration and refugees in the Caribbean, where the refugee crisis remained largely unreported. Many refugees who, instead of applying to the U.N., improperly search for asylum in the United States are unable to reach their destination and end up in the Caribbean. However, migrant laws in most of these nations lacked any protections for asylum-seekers, even the ability to be recognized as a refugee or asylum seeker itself. The UNHCR organized talks with these nations in Costa Rica in 2009, in an effort to bring forward the lack of protections for refugees, who are often labeled as "illegal" and prosecuted as unauthorized migrants. NOTE: A refugee-seeker applies through the U.N. for placement and an asylum-seeker applies within the Country in which asylum is sought. This is why some Countries label refugees as illegal when they did not apply through the U.N. for placement and entered the Country unlawfully.  In 2007, UNHCR offices in Canada launched an aggressive media campaign to shed light on the plight of refugees. This campaign was meant to humanize the refugee crisis by showing refugees living in the midst of disturbing conditions. Using emotional appeals to raise public awareness, the campaign hoped to increase the interest of particularly "30 to 45-year-old professionals who are generally well educated, well read, but have not had direct experience or knowledge of refugee issues,” according to fund-raising officer Jonathan Wade.  In Ireland, the UNHCR works to inform the public through different channels. The UNHCR in Ireland actively pursues media relations and "[they] supply the media with accurate and reliable information coupled with our unique insight based on our refugee protection mandate and role as one of the world’s leading humanitarian agencies". It also engages its community by holding public events in aims of informing people of current refugee crises. One of these is the annual UNHCR/SARI Fair play Football Cup.  The UNHCR was prominent in helping the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. When the Lebanese government was unable to withstand the influx of refugees, the UNHCR stepped in and eased the displacement for the refugees mainly by offering food and healthcare. They also helped register the refugees, so they would not be considered illegal in the eyes of the Lebanese government (Janmyr).

Artworks on refugee crisis & Artists as activists for refugees.

Many contemporary artists had art workshops and art project and took many initiatives for refugees including artist Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor led London walk of compassion for refugees walking from the Royal Academy of Arts to the Orbit. Among art exhibitions and artworks on refugees, celebrity artist Ai Weiwei created an inflatable artwork is 230 feet long which he exhibited at Prague’s National Gallery and Sydney Biennale in 2018,The human rights activist has brought a 196-foot-long inflatable installation to Sydney’s Cockatoo Island as one of the cornerstones of the Biennale of Sydney exhibition. Ai states: ‘There’s no refugee crisis, only a human crisis... In dealing with refugees we’ve lost our very basic values. In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other, since we are all one, otherwise humanity will face an even bigger crisis.’ Danish artist OLAFUR ELIASSON’S GREEN LIGHT welcomes conversation about refugee crisis. In Paris walls along the Seine a photo exhibition along the banks included a 370-meter long panorama featuring portraits of refugees and photographs titled “Dreams of Humanity” taken by Syrian refugee children living in Iraq which was organized in collaboration with famous photojournalist Reza in partnership with UNHCR. Bangladeshi artist Firoz Mahmud has been conducting an art project on refugees, displaced people and minorities, titling 'Soaked Dream project' of dream and future desire of those deprived and underprivileged people which he exhibited at Bangkok Art Biennale curated by Apinan Poshyananda, Lahore Biennale, Dhaka Art Summit, MAXXI Rome, Office for Contemporary Art, Oslo and many cities in the world. The Harmony Art Collective had an exhibition of young refugees made murals together in Darling Quarter, Sydney.

Cooperation within the United Nations.

As UNHCR is a programme governed by the UN General Assembly, and the UN Economic and Social Council, it cooperates with many other programs and agencies under the United Nations in order to effectively protect the rights of refugees.  On 19 September 2016, UN General Assembly hosted the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants, a high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach. Leaders of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and The World Bank were present. The summit addressed the root causes and drive for migration and the necessity of global cooperation. As a result of this summit, the United Nations unveiled a draft set of principles that urge the international community to build on the momentum set by the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (2016). Specifically, the 20 draft principles focus on human rights; non-discrimination; rescue and assistance; access to justice; border governance; returns; violence; detention; family unity; child migrants; women migrants; right to health; adequate standard of living; decent work; right to education; right to information; monitoring and accountability; migrants’ human rights defenders; data; and international cooperation.  On 28 September 2016, the UNHCR partnered with the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Tehran for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees. FAO highlighted the contributions to be made by FAO towards SSAR objectives on livelihood related activities including livestock and fishery initiatives as well as nutritional projects in Iranian schools.  FAO and UNHCR are committed to increasing refugees’ access to livelihood opportunities and reducing dependency on humanitarian aid. Of late, a joint livelihood strategy for South Sudan was launched looking to address this issue with a clearly defined action plan. The strategy targets both refugees (70 percent) and local communities (30 percent) in refugee-hosting areas across the country.

Awards.

Since 1954, the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award has been annually awarded to a person or an organization in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees, displaced or stateless people.  The UNHCR itself was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981. The UNHCR was awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize in 2015.  In 1991 was awarded with the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.

Persons of concern to UNHCR.

The UNHCR's Mid-Year Trends report of June 2015 (based on information for mid-2015 or latest available information up to that date) reported an "unprecedented" 57,959,702 individuals falling under its mandate (for reference, on January the 1st, 2007, 21,018,589 people - or less than half of the number in 2015 - fell under the mandate of the UNHCR). The sharp increase was mainly attributed to the Syrian Civil War, "with the outbreak of armed crises or the deterioration of ongoing ones in countries like Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and the Ukraine contributing to prevailing trends."  Persons of concern include refugees and asylum-seekers, people in refugee-like conditions, internally-displaced people (IDPs), stateless persons and "others of concern to the UNHCR". Sorted by the UNHCR bureau in which refuge or asylum is sought, the number for June 2015 included:

Staffing.

, the UNHCR employed a staff of 16,765 people in 138 countries.

High Commissioners.

The UN General Assembly elects High Commissioners every five years. High Commissioners are supported by the 'Executive Committee to the High Commissioner's Programme' and he or she has to make annual reports to the UN General Assembly and needs to follow their directives. The current High Commissioner is Filippo Grandi, who has held the post since 1 January 2016. Prior to the establishment of the UNHCR, Fridtjof Nansen was the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. The post of High Commissioner has been held by:  After 10 years serving as a Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie was promoted in 2012 to Special Envoy to the High Commissioner. In this role she represents the UNHCR and High Commissioner Filipo Grandi at the diplomatic level and works to facilitate long-term solutions for people displaced by large-scale crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. "This is an exceptional position reflecting an exceptional role she has played for us," said a UNHCR spokesman.

Goodwill ambassadors.

UNHCR is also represented by a number of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors, who at present are:  Previous ambassadors include:

Controversies.

The 1994-95 repatriation of Rohingyans.

According to some scholars, with time UNHCR left an initial preference for asylum and resettlement policies, tending to prefer repatriation measures of refugees instead. Sometimes, this might have led the agency's bureaucratic apparatus to adopt pathological behaviours.  An example of the latter might be considered the handling of the 1995 Rohingyan crisis. At the time, thousands of Rohingyans were fleeing Burma (or Myanmar), seeking shelter in UNHCR camps in Bangladesh. According to some, UNHCR has been decisive in promoting the repatriation of refugees, although NGOs on the field and the UN were skeptical about better political and security conditions in Burma.  Also, controversies arose on the methods with which the UNHCR staff was conducting surveys in the camps to establish if refugees were willing to move back to Burma or not.

References.

Sources.

Janmyr, Maja. 2016. “Precarity in Exile: The Legal Status of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon”. Refugee Survey Quarterly, no. 35 (November): 58-78.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency with the mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people, and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. UNHCR‘s mandate does not apply to Palestinian refugees, who are assisted by UNRWA.

联合国难民事务高级专员办事处( ; 英语:Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,缩写为 ; 英语:UNHCR),简称联合国难民署(; 英语:UN Refugee Agency)是一个负责保护和支持难民的联合国机构,宗旨是领导和协调世界范围内保护难民和解决难民问题的国际行动。在当地政府或联合国本身的要求下,难民署会向当地难民提供援助。本署的总部设于瑞士日内瓦,并且是联合国发展集团的成员。本署于1950年12月14日成立,并于1954年和1981年获颁诺贝尔和平奖。