New Technologies Research Articles

Citizen science at the roots and as the future of forensic genetic genealogy

Forensic genetic genealogy is an emergent forensic technology that employs databases used by citizens to upload genetic data voluntarily to search for criminal suspects and/or unidentified individuals. Considering a wide view of the roots of forensic genetic genealogy, in this article, I draw on publicly available interviews with key stakeholders in the field, media articles, and companies’ statements to analyze how this technology is both grounded and based upon citizen science. That is, a type of science to which citizens actively, voluntarily, and consentingly contribute in various forms. On the one hand, I show how the emergence of forensic genetic genealogy is mainly based upon the work of individuals with a personal interest in genetic genealogy, who are heavily invested in constructing their own and others’ family trees. That is, citizens from various educational backgrounds and professional activities who became an untapped source of valuable expertise for forensic science because of their prolific experience in conducting genetic genealogy. On the other hand, I argue that the current situation of forensic genetic genealogy is also highly dependent on citizens’ interest and willingness to upload genetic data into publicly accessible genealogy databases and voluntarily deciding to make them available to law enforcement searches. Perceiving citizen science as being at the roots and as the future of forensic genetic genealogy has important implications for the forensic epistemic culture and the protection of citizens’ rights that must be considered in the development and implementation of such technology.

Examining the relationship between blockchain capabilities and organizational performance in the Indian banking sector

AbstractBlockchain has enormous capabilities to transform the traditional business models in countless ways. Banks in India are building collaborative blockchain ecosystems to create an innovative business model and disrupt the traditional one to create further competitive advantages. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between blockchain capabilities (BCC), competitive advantages (CA) and organizational performance (OP). Further, to evaluate the mediating role of CA on the relationship between BCC and OP. In this context, scientific research model consisting of a hypothesis has been developed from the existing literature. The proposed model was tested using statistical data collected from Blockchain specialists, blockchain product marketing managers, experts of future and emergent technology and VP/AVP/Chief Manager/Branch head of banks/ financial Analyst/divisional Managers who are involved in planning and deployment of practical blockchain in banking/financial sector. Data was analyzed and tested through AMOS 22.0 and process macro using a sample of 289 responses. Our empirical result indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between BCC, CA and OP. Furthermore, relationship of BCC and OP partially mediated CA. This paper presents originality and contributes towards the body of knowledge on this subject to understand the relationship and mediation role of CA on the relationship between BCC and OP in Indian banking sector.

Conjuring a cooler world? Imaginaries of Improvement in Blockchain Climate Finance Experiments

Meeting on the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement signing, the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat founded the Climate Chain Coalition (CCC) in 2017. Backed by a number of multi-stakeholder groups like the Blockchain for Climate Foundation, the Ottawa-based CCC promotes the use of this emergent technology as a pathway to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. What kind of ‘cooler’ world are blockchain-based climate projects conjuring? This article scrutinizes the shared visions materializing in particular across climate finance experiments, locating them as extensions of existing imaginaries of how financial markets can address planetary concerns. The imaginaries identified underpin these ‘cool’ technological feats yet provide only incremental improvements to existing modes of market-led climate governance that are far from the scale required to actually conjure a cooler planet.

An Overview of Emergency Communication Networks

In recent years, major natural disasters and public safety accidents have frequently occurred worldwide. In order to deal with various disasters and accidents using rapidly deployable, reliable, efficient, and stable emergency communication networks, all countries in the world are strengthening and improving emergency communication network construction and related technology research. Motivated by these situations, in this paper, we provide a state-of-the-art survey of the current situation and development of emergency communication networks. In this detailed investigation, our primary focus is the extensive discussion of emergency communication network technology, including satellite networks, ad hoc networks, cellular networks, and wireless private networks. Then, we explore and analyze the networks currently applied in emergency rescue, such as the 370M narrowband private network, broadband cluster network, and 5G constellation plan. We propose a broadband-narrowband integrated emergency communication network to provide an effective solution for visual dispatch of emergency rescue services. The main findings derived from the comprehensive survey on the emergency communication network are then summarized, and possible research challenges are noted. Lastly, we complete this survey by shedding new light on future directions for the emergency communication network. In the future, the emergency network will develop in the direction of intelligence, integration, popularization, and lower cost, and space-air-ground-sea integrated networks. This survey provides a reference basis for the construction of networks to mitigate major natural disasters and public safety accidents.

Augmented Reality: An Emergent Technology for Students’ Learning Motivation for Chemical Engineering Laboratories during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In higher education, the learning of Unit Operations in Chemical Engineering and the development of practical activities became a real challenge. Therefore, the use of emerging technologies became necessary to develop practical laboratory activities of the Unit Operations due to the inaccessibility to the equipment infrastructure. In this study, Project-Based Learning methodology was assisted with the Augmented Reality (AR) technology for the development of subjects. The development of a real educational experiment for the application of a basic topic of the course as a project for each subject was proposed. The results were presented using the Zappar application, and a unique rubric was used for the evaluation of project. The evaluation of students’ motivation for learning was measured using Keller’s Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (ARCS) model of motivation by Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS). The attention, confidence and satisfaction demonstrate an acceptable reliability in comparison to relevance, which was considered as moderate reliability. Above 96% of students considered that the activities, materials, and organization of information used for the AR project caught their attention and encouraged their interest towards the fundamentals applied in the project. Around 80% of students expressed concern about the ease of AR technology use, and understood the learning aim of the project. Above 85% of students recognized the relevance of activities and their usefulness, and considered AR as a meaningful educational tool. 90% of students considered that AR technology helped them to develop the subject competencies. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to indicate an acceptable reliability of IMMS instrument. Regarding IMMS, values were superior to 0.7, which could be considered acceptable. For the individual ARCS dimensions, values of Cronbach’s alpha reached values of 0.94.

Recovery of Value-Added Compounds from Winery Wastewater: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Value-Added Compounds (VACs) are molecules that have attracted great attention in the literature regarding their potential for integration into existing processes or products. In Winery Wastewater (WW), VACs are valuable because of their antioxidant characteristics. Furthermore, integrated systems for recovery of these molecules and treatment of WW can be a powerful strategy towards an environmentally efficient way of wine production. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to establish the status and trace research trends on that topic. The analysis investigated the Web of Science database from 1953–2023, where the software VOSviewer® and R were used. Secondly, an extensive literature review was carried out on VACs recovery from WW by membrane process, which was identified as a promising strategy. As a result, the historical evolution of publications has a growing behavior while citations take time to grow. The most productive authors, journals, and countries were analyzed, with Spain being the leading country in publications on that topic. Lastly, keyword mapping revealed the relevance of “circular economy” and “biorefinery” as knowledge transfer concepts where both traditional and emergent technologies are connected towards the achievement of sustainable development goals. The recovery of phenolic compounds from wine production through membrane processes stands out as a promising technology. Different recovery approaches using membrane processing were assessed in the review. Studies could achieve up to 100% phenolic compound and polysaccharide rejections and also addressed the possibility of fractioning these compounds.

Teachers as Augmented Reality Designers

As an emergent technology augmented reality (AR) demonstrated a plethora of advantages in foreign language education, promoting motivation, memorization of contents, as well as contextualized learning. However, the majority of teachers are unfamiliar with AR, and their role as designers and facilitators requires further investigation. Moreover, English is the most explored target language, and the study of AR for the teaching of Italian as a foreign language (TIFL) is limited. Therefore, the investigation explored the perceptions of educators on the experience of designing and implementing mobile AR (MAR) for TIFL. In line with other studies, findings showed that, according to teacher perceptions, MAR can promote the overall learning process. However, the study highlighted issues like the availability of open-source MAR platforms and materials specifically designed for language educators. Moreover, the need of ongoing teacher training as well as possible economical and infrastructural limitations in specific social contexts must be considered, before implementing AR on a large-scale.

Lens-oppositional duck pack algorithm based smart home energy management system for demand response in smart grids

Smart grid (SG) is one of the emergent technologies providing effective solutions for increased power demand globally. Due to the advances of Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices are integrated with the smart home (SH) environment which actively participates in electricity market through demand response (DR) programs for energy management. DR refers to the modifications in the electricity utilization of the end user from the common utilization pattern in response to the variation in electricity prices. An effective energy management system (EMS) with price-based DR model is essential for IoT enabled SH environment. In this view, this article develops a Lens-Oppositional Duck Pack Algorithm based Smart Home Energy Management System (LODPA-SMEMS) for DR in SGs. The major focus of the LODPA-SMEMS model is to achieve optimal management of energy usage by scheduling process. The LODPA is derived by the incorporation of lens-oppositional based learning (LOBL) with conventional DPA. The LODPA-SMEMS model is mainly derived to reduce peak-to-average ratio (PAR) and electricity price with maximum user comfort (UC). The experimental outcome of the LODPA-SMEMS model outperforms the other methods under several aspects. The results reported that the LODPA-SMEMS model improves overall energy usage and consequently, the sustainability of IoT enabled SH gets enhanced. According to the findings, the LODPA-SMEMS model increases overall energy efficiency, hence increasing the sustainability of IoT-enabled SH. The experimental values demonstrated that the LODPA-SMEMS model has accomplished lower PAPR of 2.10 whereas GA, BPSO, GWDO, GBPSO, and WBFA models have attained higher PAPR of 3.70, 3.10, 3.80, 3.60, and 2.40 respectively. Also, EEC analysis of LODPA-SMEMS on DAPS, RTPS, TUPS: 3.53kWh, 1.81kWh, 1.85kWh. Similarly, LODPA-SMEMS model has achieved superior performance with least ET of 68 s.

Performance of UV-LED and UV-C treatments for the inactivation of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 in food model solutions: Influence of optical and physical sample characteristics

Shortwave ultraviolet light (UV-C) and ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) are emergent technologies to inactivate pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in food. However, the effectiveness of these technologies is influenced by the optical properties of the treated food. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of the optical properties of nine model food solutions on the efficacy of UV-C (at 255 nm) and UV-LEDs (at 255, 265 or 280 nm) to inactivate E. coli ATCC 25922. Model solutions were formulated with saccharose (SC), tartrazine (TT) and xanthan gum (XG), exposed from 0 to 50 min. The microbial population was reduced after 15 min of UV-C and UV-LED treatment by >6 log CFU/mL for water and TT, and by UV-C for SC, XG, TT + SC, and (XG + TT + SC) m solutions. The inactivation data were correlated using three different models. Colored compound (TT) showed 60% degradation by UV-C compared to 3% by UV-LED at 50 min. Industrial relevanceNon-thermal treatments such as those based on ultraviolet light, UV-C, and UV-LEDs could have high industrial relevance because of their simplicity of operation and reduced by-product formation, being a friendly alternative for food processing. Understanding the effect of different optical and physicochemical properties of liquid food to be treated by UV-based technologies is mandatory for the equipment's efficient design and operation. Furthermore, the proper selection of processing conditions, such as delivered dose and processing time, allows for obtaining safe and high-quality products.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES: A FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

Educational technology is undergoing a transformative evolution, bringing forth a convergence of digital tools, platforms, and methodologies to augment the learning journey. The proliferation of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and collaborative tools has ushered in an era of online learning, amplified by global shifts like the COVID-19 pandemic. These virtual platforms are redefining the boundaries of teaching, enabling a connection beyond physical spaces. Simultaneously, advancements in artificial intelligence and data analytics are reshaping personalized learning by discerning individual learner needs and facilitating real-time feedback. This evolving landscape is further enriched by emergent technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR). These innovations offer immersive, tailored experiences, reimagining traditional pedagogies. AI tailors education to individual needs, VR offers experiential realms previously unattainable, and AR provides an enriched overlay of information on the real world, revolutionising engagement. However, with these strides comes a responsibility to address underlying challenges: ensuring privacy, bridging the digital divide, and addressing potential biases in educational algorithms. The focus on accessibility and inclusivity is paramount, and technology plays a pivotal role in democratizing access to quality education. This synthesis underscores the imperative of interweaving technological advancements with core educational values, ensuring that the integration is both meaningful and equitable.

Visiting museums via augmented reality: an experience fast-tracking the digital transformation of the tourism industry

PurposeAugmented reality (AR) is an emergent technology that has been impacting and beneficial to various industries. This is especially the case in the tourism industry since the COVID-19 crisis. To enable and enhance the museum experience, AR technology can be used as a tool to manage visitors' experiences and adapt to the digital transformation of industries. This research work aims to explore the acceptance of museum visitors for the adoption of this technology. For this purpose, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is used as the research lens.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 316 responses from a survey handed out to prior visitors of immersive exhibitions shown via AR at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris and analyzed them through a structural equation model approach.FindingsThe study’s findings explain the behavior of visitors when attending immersive exhibitions according to the TAM and highlight two new constructs that need to be considered when using the TAM with AR technology: user satisfaction and social mimetism.Originality/valueThe study’s findings support that implementing AR technology in the museum industry provides great opportunities for the tourism industry to recover from the economic crisis that followed from the COVID-19 health crisis. The authors identified new thriving concepts in the 21st century with the rise of social media, such as social mimetism, that propels visitors to have a positive attitude and intention to attend immersive exhibitions.

When Harry, the human, met Sally, the software robot: Metaphorical sensemaking and sensegiving around an emergent digital technology

Robotic process automation (RPA) is often used in organisational digitalisation efforts to automate work processes. RPA, and the software robots at its heart, is an equivocal and contentious technology. Adopting the products of theorising approach, this study views metaphors as central sensemaking and sensegiving devices that shape the interpretation of RPA among stakeholders towards a preferred reality of ways of seeing and experiencing software robots. The empirical materials are drawn from research in three Australasian organisations that have implemented RPA. Grounding our analysis in the domains-interaction model, we identified three root metaphors: person, robot and tool, their constitutive conceptual metaphors, and intended use as heuristics devices. Our findings show that metaphor is a powerful device that employees rely on to make sense of their experiences with a new digital technology that can potentially shape their roles, work practices and job design. In addition, managers and automation team members intentionally leverage metaphors to shape others’ perceptions of a software robot’s capabilities and limitations, its implication for human work and its expanding benefits for organisations over time, among others. Metaphor as a precursor to more formal theory provides scholars with a vocabulary to understand disparate experiences with an emergent automation technology that can be further developed to generate a theory of seeing automation and working with automated agents.

Monitoring mesocarnivores with tracks and technology using multi‐method modeling

AbstractMesocarnivores play important ecological roles and are valued by diverse stakeholders. These species are often the focus of conservation efforts or are managed for sustainable harvest. Management actions require accurate population monitoring, but such monitoring is challenging because mesocarnivores are elusive and persist at low densities. We addressed this challenge by evaluating 2 monitoring methods (scent stations and motion‐sensitive cameras) using multi‐method modeling. We estimated occurrence probabilities and habitat relationships for 8 mesocarnivore species by fitting occupancy models to data collected at 75 sites from October to December 2021 across a 3,200‐km2system in New Hampshire, USA. We assessed the relative estimated precision of the methodological approaches and their costs. We also evaluated tradeoffs in occurrence estimation and uncertainty among study designs by analyzing simulations run across various numbers of study sites and 2 study durations. Cameras cost roughly 10 times more than scent stations but strongly outperformed them in terms of species' detectability and parameter estimate precision. Multi‐method models yielded the most precise estimates of occurrence probability and habitat relationships. Parameter estimates were on average twice as precise for camera and multi‐method models compared to scent stations. Additionally, the estimated precision and direction (positive or negative) of habitat relationships varied with the method employed. Longer camera deployments, additional study sites, and multi‐method approaches nearly always reduced uncertainty, but these reductions were species‐specific and generally most pronounced for more rarely detected species. Overall, our results demonstrate the utility of motion‐sensitive cameras traps for monitoring mesocarnivores while revealing the additional benefits of multi‐method modeling. Our results also provide guidance for designing monitoring programs for mesocarnivores while navigating tradeoffs between study design, cost, and uncertainty. Despite its benefits, multi‐method modeling remains uncommon as a general monitoring approach. We suggest managers consider this approach in light of existing datasets and design monitoring programs that integrate traditional methods with emergent technologies.

Two-dimensional cuprate nanodetector with single telecom photon sensitivity at T = 20 K

Detecting light at the single-photon level is one of the pillars of emergent photonic technologies. This is realized through state-of-the-art superconducting detectors that offer efficient, broadband and fast response. However, the use of low T C superconducting thin films limits their operation temperature to approximately 4 K and below. Here, we demonstrate proof-of-concept nanodetectors based on exfoliated, two-dimensional cuprate superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-δ that exhibit single-photon sensitivity at telecom wavelength at a record temperature of T = 20 K. These non-optimized devices exhibit a slow reset time and a low detection efficiency (). We realize the elusive prospect of single-photon sensitivity on a high-T C nanodetector thanks to a novel approach, combining van der Waals fabrication techniques and a non-invasive nanopatterning based on light ion irradiation. This result paves the way for broader application of single-photon technologies, relaxing the cryogenic constraints for single-photon detection at telecom wavelength.

Digital Twins and Enabling Technologies in Museums and Cultural Heritage: An Overview.

This paper presents an overview of various types of virtual museums (ViM) as native artifacts or as digital twins (DT) of physical museums (PM). Depending on their mission and features, we discuss various enabling technologies and sensor equipment with their specific requirements and complexities, advantages and drawbacks in relation to each other at all stages of a DT's life cycle. A DT is a virtual construct and embodies innovative concepts based on emerging technologies (ET) using adequate sensor configurations for (meta-)data import and exchange. Our keyword-based search for articles, conference papers, (chapters from) books and reviews yielded 43 contributions and 43 further important references from Industry 4.0, Tourism and Heritage 4.0. After closer examination, a reference corpus of 40 contributions was evaluated in detail and classified along with their variants of DT-content-, communication-, and collaboration-centric and risk-informed ViMs. Their system features correlate with different application areas (AA), new or improved technologies-mostly still under development-and sensors used. Our proposal suggests a template-based, generative approach to DTs using standardized metadata formats, expert/curator software and customers'/visitors' engagement. It advocates for stakeholders' collaboration as part of a comprehensive validation and verification assessment (V&VA) throughout the DT's entire life cycle.

Elucidation of the electron transfer mechanisms of hydrogen production from light by Shewanella oneidensis - cadmium sulfide biohybrid system

The biological hydrogen production from sunlight using biohybrid systems is an emergent attractive technology developed to help decarbonize manufacturing, transportation, and energy production. The electroactive organism Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 has been successfully used as a biocatalyst in whole-cell biohybrid systems for hydrogen production. In this work, knock-out mutants of the key proteins involved in the extracellular electron transfer pathway of S. oneidensis MR-1 were used to unravel the electron transfer pathway of the biohybrid S. oneidensis-CdS system for the photoproduction of hydrogen. While the cytochromes OmcA, MtrC, MtrA and CymA were shown to be crucial for electron uptake and hydrogen production, the periplasmic proteins STC and FccA do not participate in this process. This information was used to improve hydrogen production, demonstrating that the photoproduction of hydrogen by a biohybrid system can be improved and can be a promising approach to address global energy and environmental problems.

Guest Editorial Cognitive Cyber-Physical Systems With AI Based Solutions in Medical Informatics

All six papers in this special section engage in different streams but extremely relevant domain vectors of Cognitive Cyber-Physical Systems (CCPS) with artificial intelligence (AI) based solutions in medical informatics. Highlights recent trends in the scientific community and presents emergent technologies, implementations, applications concerning the CPSS. CPSS is witnessing rapid transformation as an interdisciplinary technology that blends physical components and computing devices to enable AI-based solutions. CCPS will be playing a significant role that integrates machine learning/AI techniques and resulting in dramatic improvements for medical informatics and the future of human-augmentation. CPHMS coordinates supervisory medical systems and medical resources everywhere; there is a great scope towards health consciousness and healthy society. Medical Cyber-Physical Systems (MCPS) in healthcare towards critical integration in network of medical devices. MCPS is the next generation computing that is comprised of tightly coupled computational and communication components of medical automation systems such as clinical decision, early detection of health infectious, disease prevention, rapid analysis of health hazards and so on. CCPS and MCPS research would be created new models, new design, and integration models for large scale systems in comprehensive, holistic medical automation systems. With recent enlargements in the big data processing, cognitive data science and AI, it is now possible to create even more realistic digital twins that properly model different operating situations and characteristics to process the medical intelligence systems.

Review: Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand, by John Markoff

Review: <i>Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand</i>, by John Markoff

Technology applications in bovine gait analysis: A scoping review.

Quantitative bovine gait analysis using technology has evolved significantly over the last two decades. However, subjective methods of gait assessment using visual locomotion scoring remain the primary on-farm and experimental approach. The objective of this review is to map research trends in quantitative bovine gait analysis and to explore the technologies that have been utilized to measure biomechanical parameters of gait. A scoping literature review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. A search algorithm based on PICO framework generated three components-bovine, gait, and technology-to address our objectives. Three online databases were searched for original work published from January 2000 to June 2020. A two-step screening process was then conducted, starting with the review of article titles and abstracts based on inclusion criteria. A remaining 125 articles then underwent a full-text assessment, resulting in 82 final articles. Thematic analysis of research aims resulted in four major themes among the studies: gait/claw biomechanics, lameness detection, intervention/comparison, and system development. Of the 4 themes, lameness detection (55% of studies) was the most common reason for technology use. Within the literature identified three main technologies were used: force and pressure platforms (FPP), vision-based systems (VB), and accelerometers. FPP were the first and most popular technologies to evaluate bovine gait and were used in 58.5% of studies. They include force platforms, pressure mapping systems, and weight distribution platforms. The second most applied technology was VB (34.1% of studies), which predominately consists of video analysis and image processing systems. Accelerometers, another technological method to measure gait characteristics, were used in 14.6% of studies. In sum, the strong demand for automatic lameness detection influenced the path of development for quantitative gait analysis technologies. Among emergent technologies, deep learning and wearable sensors (e.g., accelerometers) appear to be the most promising options. However, although progress has been made, more research is needed to develop more accurate, practical, and user-friendly technologies.

Optical receiver characterizations and corrections for ground-based and airborne measurements of spectral actinic flux densities

Abstract. Solar actinic radiation in the ultraviolet and visible range (UV/VIS) perpetuates atmospheric photochemistry by inducing photolysis processes which form reactive radical species. Photolysis frequencies are rate constants that quantify the rates of photolysis reactions and therefore constitute important parameters for quantitative analyses. Photolysis frequencies are usually calculated from modelled or measured solar spectral actinic flux densities. Suitable measurement techniques are available, but measurement accuracy can suffer from non-ideal 2π or 4π solid-angle reception characteristics of the usually employed 2π optical receivers or receiver combinations. These imperfections, i.e. deviations from an angle-independent response, should be compensated for by corrections of the measured data. In this work, the relative angular sensitivities of four commonly used 2π quartz receivers were determined in the laboratory in a range 280–660 nm. Based on this information, the influence of the non-ideal responses on measured spectral actinic flux densities for ground-based and airborne applications was investigated for a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Spectral radiance distributions and contributions of direct, diffuse downward and diffuse upward spectral actinic flux densities were calculated with a radiative transfer model to derive the corrections. The intention was to determine the ranges of possible corrections under realistic measurement conditions and to derive simple parametrizations with reasonable uncertainties. For ground-based 2π measurements of downward spectral actinic flux densities, corrections typically range &lt;10 % dependent on wavelength and solar zenith angle, with 2 %–8 % uncertainties covering all atmospheric conditions. Corrections for 4π airborne measurements were determined for the platforms Zeppelin NT (New Technology) and HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) in altitude ranges 0.05–2 and 0.2–15 km, respectively. Total, downward and upward spectral actinic flux densities were treated separately. In addition to various atmospheric conditions, different ground albedos and small (&lt;5∘) aircraft attitude variations were considered in the uncertainties, as well as aircraft headings with respect to the sun in the case of HALO. Corrections for total and downward spectral actinic flux densities again typically range &lt;10 % dependent on wavelength, solar zenith angle and altitude, with 2 %–10 % uncertainties covering all atmospheric conditions for solar zenith angles below 80∘. For upward spectral actinic flux densities, corrections were more variable and significantly greater, up to about −50 % at low altitudes and low ground albedos. A parametrization for corrections and uncertainties was derived using uncorrected ratios of upward / downward spectral actinic flux densities as input, applicable independent of atmospheric conditions for a given wavelength, solar zenith angle and altitude. The use was limited to conditions with solar zenith angles &lt;80∘ when direct sun radiation cannot strike upward- and downward-looking receivers simultaneously. Examples of research flights with the Zeppelin and HALO are discussed, as well as other approaches described in the literature.