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Buildings are another source of mycotoxins and people living or working in areas with mold increase their chances of adverse health effects. Molds growing in buildings can be divided into three groups – primary, secondary, and tertiary colonizers. Each group is categorized by the ability to grow at a certain water activity requirement. It has become difficult to identify mycotoxin production by indoor molds for many variables, such as (i) they may be masked as derivatives, (ii) they are poorly documented, and (iii) the fact that they are likely to produce different metabolites on building materials. Some of the mycotoxins in the indoor environment are produced by "Alternaria", "Aspergillus" (multiple forms), "Penicillium", and "Stachybotrys". "Stachybotrys chartarum" contains a higher number of mycotoxins than other molds grown in the indoor environment and has been associated with allergies and respiratory inflammation. The infestation of "S. chartarum" in buildings containing gypsum board, as well as on ceiling tiles, is very common and has recently become a more recognized problem. When gypsum board has been repeatedly introduced to moisture, "S. chartarum" grows readily on its cellulose face. This stresses the importance of moisture controls and ventilation within residential homes and other buildings. The negative health effects of mycotoxins are a function of the concentration, the duration of exposure, and the subject's sensitivities. The concentrations experienced in a normal home, office, or school are often too low to trigger a health response in occupants.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=612957
| 160,872 |
950,449 |
In a review article by Pierce & Buxbaum (2002), they concluded that the evidence for Hemispheric Activation Approaches, which focuses on moving the limb on the side of the neglect, has conflicting evidence in the literature. The authors note that a possible limitation in this approach is the requirement for the patients to actively move the neglected limb, which may not be possible for many patients. Constraint-Induced Therapy (CIT), appears to be an effective, long-term treatment for improving neglect in various studies. However, the use of CIT is limited to patients who have active control of wrist and hand extension. Prism Glasses, Hemispatial Glasses, and Eye-Patching have all appear to be effective in improving performance on neglect tests. Caloric Stimulation treatment appears to be effective in improving neglect; however, the effects are generally short-term. The review also suggests that Optokinetic Stimulation is effective in improving position sense, motor skills, body orientation, and perceptual neglect on a short-term basis. As with Caloric Stimulation treatment, long-term studies will be necessary to show its effectiveness. A few Trunk Rotation Therapy studies suggest its effectiveness in improving performance on neglect tests as well as the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Some less studied treatment possibilities include treatments that target Dorsal Stream of visual processing, Mental Imagery Training, and Neck Vibration Therapy. Trunk rotation therapies aimed at improving postural disorders and balance deficits in patients with unilateral neglect, have demonstrated optimistic results in regaining voluntary trunk control when using specific postural rehabilitative devices. One such device is the Bon Saint Côme apparatus, which uses spatial exploratory tasks in combination with auditory and visual feedback mechanisms to develop trunk control. The Bon Saint Côme device has been shown to be effective with hemiplegic subjects due to the combination of trunk stability exercises, along with the cognitive requirements needed to perform the postural tasks.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=963201
| 949,945 |
789,427 |
From the 1980s, improvements in technology led to a greatly increased number, variety, and performance of commercially available communication devices, and a reduction in their size and price. Alternative methods of access such eye pointing or scanning became available on communication devices. Speech output possibilities included digitized and synthesized speech, with text-to-speech options available in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Ewe. AAC services became more holistic, seeking to develop a balance of aided and unaided strategies with the goal of improving functioning in the person's daily life, and greater involvement of the family. Increasingly, individuals with acquired conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, head injury, and locked-in syndrome, received AAC services. In addition, with the challenge to the notion of AAC prerequisites, those with severe to profound intellectual impairments began to be served. Courses on AAC were developed for professional training programs, and literature such as textbooks and guides were written to support students, clinicians and parents.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2106968
| 789,003 |
480,001 |
Following the Korean War, South Korea remained one of the poorest countries in the world for over a decade. Marred by poverty, malnutrition, and illiteracy, political chaos, and cultural discourse, South Korea's gross domestic product per capita in 1960 was $79, lower than that of some sub-Saharan African countries. Over the span of one generation, South Korea rapidly transformed itself from a war-torn nation into a G20 economic powerhouse. Since the 1960s, South Korea became one of East Asia's fastest growing economies achieving a rapid increase in its GDP per capita more quickly than any of its neighbors. With a strong emphasis on the importance of innovation, raw intelligence and brainpower, benchmarking, economic competitiveness, and industriousness, propelled a war torn and impoverished South Korea into a country of efficient resource allocation and increasing value creation. Transforming itself from a resource-poor peninsula to an advanced high technology powerhouse with a cutting-edge electronic, automobiles, shipbuilding, steel, and petrochemicals industry contributed to the country's robust and sustained economic growth for over 50 years. Capital investments in research and development are among the highest in the world relative to its national income. Investments in alternative energy, green technologies, and biotechnology are key in securing the nation's economic prosperity. In addition, South Korea's rigorous education system and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development. South Korea's industrial manufacturing capability has doubled and its export sector has grown rapidly. Its industrial strengths include large numbers of world class brand names of automobiles, electronics, LCD lighting technology, semi-conductors, and shipbuilding. Having almost no natural resources and always suffering from overpopulation in its small territory, which deterred continued population growth and the formation of a large internal consumer market, South Korea adapted an export-oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy, and in 2014, South Korea was the seventh largest exporter and seventh largest importer in the world. Bank of Korea and Korea Development Institute periodically release major economic indicators and economic trends related to the country's economy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16234875
| 479,757 |
292,354 |
Between 1859 and 1891, Peirce was intermittently employed in various scientific capacities by the United States Coast Survey and its successor, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he enjoyed his highly influential father's protection until the latter's death in 1880. That employment exempted Peirce from having to take part in the American Civil War; it would have been very awkward for him to do so, as the Boston Brahmin Peirces sympathized with the Confederacy. At the Survey, he worked mainly in geodesy and gravimetry, refining the use of pendulums to determine small local variations in the Earth's gravity. He was elected a resident fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in January 1867. The Survey sent him to Europe five times, first in 1871 as part of a group sent to observe a solar eclipse. There, he sought out Augustus De Morgan, William Stanley Jevons, and William Kingdon Clifford, British mathematicians and logicians whose turn of mind resembled his own. From 1869 to 1872, he was employed as an assistant in Harvard's astronomical observatory, doing important work on determining the brightness of stars and the shape of the Milky Way. On April 20, 1877, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Also in 1877, he proposed measuring the meter as so many wavelengths of light of a certain frequency, the kind of definition employed from 1960 to 1983.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6117
| 292,196 |
559,139 |
While at the MBL, Just learned to handle marine invertebrate eggs and embryos with skill and understanding, and soon his expertise was in great demand by both junior and senior researchers alike. In 1915, Just took a leave of absence from Howard to enroll in an advanced academic program at the University of Chicago. That same year, Just, who was gaining a national reputation as an outstanding young scientist, was the first recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, which he received on February 12, 1915. The medal recognized his scientific achievements and his “foremost service to his race." He began his graduate training with coursework at the MBL: in 1909 and 1910 he took courses in invertebrate zoology and embryology, respectively, there. His coursework continued in-residence at the University of Chicago. His duties at Howard delayed the completion of his coursework and his receipt of the Ph.D. degree. However, in June 1916, Just received his degree in zoology, with a thesis on the mechanics of fertilization. Just thereby became one of only a handful of blacks who had gained the doctoral degree from a major university. By the time he received his doctorate from Chicago, he had already published several research articles, both as a single author and a co-author with Lillie. During his tenure at Woods Hole, Just rose from student apprentice to internationally respected scientist. A careful and meticulous experimentalist, he was regarded as "a genius in the design of experiments." He had explored other areas including: experimental parthenogenesis, cell division, hydration, dehydration in cells, UV carcinogenic radiation on cells, and physiology of development.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7575460
| 558,850 |
486,775 |
Continuing research with these original participants has examined how preschool delay of gratification ability links to development over the life course and may predict a variety of important outcomes (e.g., SAT scores, social and cognitive competence, educational attainment, and drug use), and can have significant protective effects against a variety of potential vulnerabilities. This work also opened a route to research on temporal discounting in decision-making, and most importantly into the mental mechanisms that enable cognitive and emotional self-control, thereby helping to demystify the concept of willpower. While the data is clear about the outcomes of a child failing or passing the Marshmallow Test, what isn't clear is understanding why the subjects quickly consume the treat or wait for more. Walter Mischel conducted additional research and predicted that the Marshmallow Test can also be a test of trust. Children who were raised by absent parents were less likely to pass possibly because they didn't trust the stranger when he or she said they would be given double the reward if they waited. They trusted their instincts and acted upon a certain thing. In addition, Mischel believed that the children who wait have the inherent ability to reach their goals and hold positive expectations. This understanding is a hypothesis for why the outcomes later in life are so starkly different.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4392099
| 486,526 |
644,464 |
Pritzker was born to a Jewish family, the Pritzker family, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Fanny (née Doppelt) and A.N. Pritzker. He has two brothers: Donald Pritzker and Jay Pritzker. Robert Pritzker received a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1946 and an honorary doctorate in 1984. He taught night courses at IIT and began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1962, and served as a University Regent until the time of his death. He also taught evening classes at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now the Booth School of Business) in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. His class consisted of cases developed from actual business take-overs he was involved with, and students had to recommend whether or not to purchase the companies under study. Pritzker started The Marmon Group, an international association of autonomous manufacturing and service companies. Marmon's assets constitute half of the Pritzker family fortune. Robert's success can be partially attributed to his unique business structure, in which employees are trusted to make more key decisions, independent of the central office, than in other typical manufacturing settings. This independence allows for more creativity, and increases speed and productivity. Concurrently, Pritzker spent a year as Chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1318658
| 644,124 |
1,364,366 |
An early gravity light concept was developed concurrently by Clay Moulton and also by Ruphan as part of his Ph.D. in applied physics from the University of Alabama in 2017. While Moulton reportedly did not develop a prototype, Wofsey did develop a rudimentary prototype that used a custom-machined rare earth magnet motor with minimal gearing. Wofsey disseminated the findings, but he did not pursue the gravity light project any further as he decided the efficiency was too low to be commercially viable. The theoretical efficiency of the device is limited by taking the simple potential energy generated by raising a mass to a specified height, and then dividing it by the desired time that the light is to stay lit. Even a relatively large mass of , when raised to a height of produces a maximum available energy of only about 98 joules; dividing by a desired illumination time of just 5 minutes would return a usable power of only 0.32 watts. Moreover, this would be for an unrealistic 100% conversion efficiency; that of the University of Alabama prototype was closer to 50%, which in the aformentioned example would further reduce usable power to just 0.16 watts. At 5.5 operating voltage of an LED, that left only 20 milliamperes for the LED. This is sufficient to light an LED; however, the available light from the LED would not likely be useful for reading or night activities. A modification to this approach was suggested where the power draw can be adjusted by the user to trade illumination brightness for illumination time. The GravityLight converts potential energy that is stored in a weight into light. The principles involved in this design are very similar to the principles in a cuckoo clock, with the potential energy of the weight being converted to solar energy rather than kinetic energy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38002632
| 1,363,610 |
491,906 |
From September through May, extratropical cyclones from the Pacific Ocean move inland into the region due to a southward migration of the jet stream during the cold season. This shift in the jet stream brings much of the annual precipitation to the region, and also brings the potential for heavy rain events. The West Coast occasionally experiences ocean-effect showers, usually in the form of rain at lower elevations south of the mouth of the Columbia River. These occur whenever an Arctic air mass from western Canada is drawn westward out over the Pacific Ocean, typically by way of the Fraser Valley, returning shoreward around a center of low pressure. Strong onshore flow is brought into the mountain ranges of the west, focusing significant precipitation into the Rocky Mountains, with rain shadows occurring in the Harney Basin, Great Basin, the central valley of California, and the lower Colorado River valley. In general, rainfall amounts are lower on the southern portions of the West coast. The biggest recipients of the precipitation are the coastal ranges such as the Olympic Mountains, the Cascades, and the Sierra Nevada range. Lesser amounts fall upon the Continental Divide. Cold-season precipitation into this region is the main supply of water to area rivers, such as the Colorado River and Rio Grande, and also acts as the main source of water to people living in this portion of the United States. During El Niño events, increased precipitation is expected in California due to a more southerly, zonal, storm track. California also enters a wet pattern when thunderstorm activity within the tropics associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation nears 150E longitude. During La Niña, increased precipitation is diverted into the Pacific Northwest due to a more northerly storm track.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8720827
| 491,652 |
631,876 |
Stanley Schmidt was an assistant professor of physics when he became editor of "Analog", and his scientific background was well-suited to the magazine's readership. He avoided making drastic changes, and continued the long-standing tradition of writing provocative editorials, though he rarely discussed science fiction. In 1979 he resurrected "Probability Zero", a feature that Campbell had run in the early 1940s that published tall tales—humorous stories with ludicrous or impossible scientific premises. Also in 1979 Schmidt began a series of columns titled "The Alternate View", an opinion column that was written in alternate issues by G. Harry Stine and Jerry Pournelle, and which is still a feature of the magazine as of 2016, though now with different contributors. The stable of fiction contributors remained largely unchanged from Bova's day, and included many names, such as Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, and George O. Smith, familiar to readers from the Campbell era. This continuity led to criticisms within the field, Bruce Sterling writing in 1984 that the magazine "has become old, dull, and drivelling... It is a situation screaming for reform. "Analog" no longer permits itself to be read." The magazine thrived nevertheless, and though part of the increase in circulation during the early 1980s may have been due to Davis Publications' energetic efforts to increase subscriptions, Schmidt knew what his readership wanted and made sure they got it, commenting in 1985: "I reserve "Analog" for the kind of science fiction I've described here: good stories about people with problems in which some piece of plausible (or at least not demonstrably implausible) speculative science plays an indispensable role".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18932608
| 631,538 |
1,287,781 |
Much of past debate have focused on two particular types of mechanisms. One of these assumes energy or resource transport across the "external" surface area of three-dimensional organisms is the key factor driving the relationship between metabolic rate and body size. The surface area in question may be skin, lungs, intestines, or, in the case of unicellular organisms, cell membranes. In general, the surface area (SA) of a three dimensional object scales with its volume (V) as "SA = cV", where c is a proportionality constant. The Dynamic Energy Budget model predicts exponents that vary between – 1, depending on the organism's developmental stage, basic body plan and resource density. DEB is an alternative to metabolic scaling theory, developed before the MTE. DEB also provides a basis for population, community and ecosystem level processes to be studied based on energetics of the constituent organisms. In this theory, the biomass of the organism is separated into structure (what is built during growth) and reserve (a pool of polymers generated by assimilation). DEB is based on the first principles dictated by the kinetics and thermodynamics of energy and material fluxes, has a similar number of parameters per process as MTE, and the parameters have been estimated for over 3000 animal species While some of these alternative models make several testable predictions, others are less comprehensive and of these proposed models only DEB can make as many predictions with a minimal set of assumptions as metabolic scaling theory.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=662349
| 1,287,080 |
860,760 |
The delay of 46 seconds caused the spacecraft to land from the intended landing zone, in the inhospitable forests of Upper Kama Upland, somewhere west of Solikamsk. Although flight controllers had no idea where the spacecraft had landed or whether Leonov and Belyayev had survived, the cosmonauts' families were told that they were resting after having been recovered. The two men were both familiar with the harsh climate and knew that bears and wolves, made aggressive by mating season, lived in the "taiga"; the spacecraft carried a pistol and "plenty of ammunition", but the incident later drove the development of a dedicated TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol. Although aircraft quickly located the cosmonauts, the area was so heavily forested that helicopters could not land. When night arrived, the temperature dropped to , and the spacecraft's hatch had been blown open by explosive bolts. Warm clothes and supplies were dropped and the cosmonauts spent a freezing night in the capsule or "Sharik" in Russian. Even worse, the electrical system completely malfunctioned so that the heater would not work, but the fans ran at full blast. A rescue party arrived on skis the next day as it was too risky to try an airlift from the site. The advance party chopped wood and built a small log cabin and an enormous fire. After a more comfortable second night in the forest, the cosmonauts skied to a waiting helicopter several kilometers away and flew first to Perm, then to Baikonur for their mission debriefing.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=195223
| 860,301 |
9,216 |
By the late 2000s, the 777 was facing increased potential competition from Airbus' planned A350 XWB and internally from proposed 787 variants, both airliners that offer fuel efficiency improvements. As a consequence, the 777-300ER received an engine and aerodynamics improvement package for reduced drag and weight. In 2010, the variant further received a maximum zero-fuel weight increase, equivalent to a higher payload of 20–25 passengers; its GE90-115B1 engines received a 1–2.5 percent thrust enhancement for increased takeoff weights at higher-altitude airports. More changes were targeted for late 2012, including possible extension of the wingspan, along with other major changes, including a composite wing, new powerplant, and different fuselage lengths. Emirates was reportedly working closely with Boeing on the project, in conjunction with being a potential launch customer for new 777 versions. Among customers for the aircraft during this period, China Airlines ordered ten 777-300ER aircraft to replace 747-400s on long-haul transpacific routes (with the first of those aircraft entering service in 2015), noting that the 777-300ER's per seat cost is about 20% lower than the 747's costs (varying due to fuel prices).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=89260
| 9,212 |
1,474,822 |
Perturbative predictions by quantum field theory about quantum scattering of elementary particles, implied by a corresponding Lagrangian density, are computed using the Feynman rules, a regularization method to circumvent ultraviolet divergences so as to obtain finite results for Feynman diagrams containing loops, and a renormalization scheme. Regularization method results in regularized n-point Green's functions (propagators), and a suitable limiting procedure (a renormalization scheme) then leads to perturbative S-matrix elements. These are independent of the particular regularization method used, and enable one to model perturbatively the measurable physical processes (cross sections, probability amplitudes, decay widths and lifetimes of excited states). However, so far no known regularized n-point Green's functions can be regarded as being based on a physically realistic theory of quantum-scattering since the derivation of each disregards some of the basic tenets of conventional physics (e.g., by not being Lorentz-invariant, by introducing either unphysical particles with a negative metric or wrong statistics, or discrete space-time, or lowering the dimensionality of space-time, or some combination thereof). So the available regularization methods are understood as formalistic technical devices, devoid of any direct physical meaning. In addition, there are qualms about renormalization. For a history and comments on this more than half-a-century old open conceptual problem, see e.g.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2009062
| 1,473,990 |
1,822,786 |
The University of Pittsburgh acquired the former Masonic Temple on December 23, 1993, for $8.5 million ($ in dollars). A two-year, $16 million ($ in dollars) renovation of the structure and its adaptation for use by the University departments began in November 1998 and was completed in February 2000. During the initial design process, a study was performed to evaluate the architectural and historic significance of each major area of the building. As a result, four main lobbies, the ballroom and three main entrances, and portions of several two-story spaces on the third and fifth floors were kept and restored. Special attention was given to restore the Masonic Temple's original historic condition. As such, approximately 95% of the existing historical light fixtures were rewired, retrofitted with energy–efficient lamps, refinished, and rehung in their original locations. Nearly all of the original wood doors, window casings and baseboards were refinished and reinstalled. Five new automatic elevators were installed and original bronze and stainless steel cabs were retrofitted to two of the new elevator platforms. Approximately 100 original bronze door hardware sets were modified to ADA compliance, refinished and reinstalled. One thousand square feet of marble flooring originally from Pennsylvania Hall (the previous home of Pitt's medical school since torn down) was utilized in vestibules, corridors, elevator lobbies and cabs. Marble from the Masonic Temple's original marble restroom stalls was also recycled for use in these areas. The building was decorated and furnished in a color scheme of primarily blues, mauves and burgundy to complement the mahogany woodwork.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11630838
| 1,821,748 |
361,343 |
An October 2020 study coordinated by University of Colorado at Boulder found that distinct physical, chemical and biological changes to Earth's rock layers began around the year 1950. The research revealed that since about 1950, humans have doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen on the planet through industrial production for agriculture, created a hole in the ozone layer through the industrial scale release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), released enough greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels to cause planetary level climate change, created tens of thousands of that do not naturally occur on Earth, and caused almost one-fifth of river sediment worldwide to no longer reach the ocean due to dams, reservoirs and diversions. Humans have produced so many millions of tons of plastic each year since the early 1950s that microplastics are "forming a near-ubiquitous and unambiguous marker of Anthropocene". The study highlights a strong correlation between global human population size and growth, global productivity and global energy use and that the "extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how the Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since ~1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth's stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=374390
| 361,153 |
1,534,969 |
Interest in elastic properties made its entrance with 17th century philosophers, but the real theory of elasticity, indicating that the elastic constants of a material could be obtained by measuring sound velocities in that material, was summarized only two hundred of years later. In 1964, D. B. Frasier and R. C. LeCraw used the solution calculated in 1880 by G. Lamè and H. Lamb to solve the forward problem, and then inverted it graphically, in what may be the first RUS measurement. Nevertheless, we had to wait for the participation of geophysics community, interested in determining the earth's interior structure, to solve the inverse problem: in 1970 three geophysicists improved the previous method and introduced the term resonant sphere technique (RST). Excited by the encouraging results achieved with lunar samples, one of them gave one of his students the task of extending the method for use with cube shaped samples. This method, now known as the rectangular parallelepiped resonance (RPR) method, was further extended by I. Ohno in 1976. Finally, at the end of the 1980s, A. Migliori and J. Maynard expanded the limits of the technique in terms of loading and low-level electronic measurements, and with W. Visscher brought the computer algorithms to their current state, introducing the final term resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42510037
| 1,534,101 |
2,047,711 |
The following year, the barber's office under the name "Societas chirurgica" received its first royal regulations with the obligation to train "feldshers" to the needs of the country. During Charles XII's wars, however, it proved impossible for the surgical society to provide the army with the required number of "feldshers", why even the resort was resorted to sending students directly to undergo their lessons in the school of war and graduate before a "collegium chirurgicum castrense", whose first president became the king's physician Samuel Skragge. But despite this, the supply remained insufficient. Even in qualitative terms, the military medical service continued to be very deficient despite all the repeated tightening of regulations. The reasons were many, not least of an economic and social nature. Wages were small, and in his subordination relations, for example, the company barber was equated with the community, whose uniform he wore. Throughout the 18th century, conditions remained largely unchanged. Sweden's military history from this time carefully shows the unfortunate consequences of the neglected health care in the army and navy. The military companies were often paralyzed by the great morbidity, and the casualties by the enemy's weapons during the Finnish wars in the 18th century constituted a vanishing insignificance against the casualties by diseases. And little or nothing was done to help the shortage of capable military surgeons. It is true that one or more scientifically trained surgeon were sometimes employed at the field hospitals, but since these usually left the military service after the end of the war, the improvements they made were of a temporary nature.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=68905089
| 2,046,530 |
385,930 |
Conflict between Rhesus Macaques and humans is at all time high, with areas once forested habitat being converted to industrial agriculture. Specifically looking at Nepal, this process has increased urban infrastructure such as housing and roads that increasingly fragment forest ecosystems. The expansion of monocultures, increased forest fragmentation, degradation of natural habitats, and changing agricultural practices have led to a significant increase in the frequency of human-macaque conflict.Crop raiding is one of the biggest visible effects of Human-Rhesus conflict occurring where Rhesus Macaque feed on growing crops that directly effected harvest size, and crop health with corn, and rice. The estimated financial cost to individual farmer households of macaque corn and rice raiding is approximately US$ 14.9 or 4.2% of their yearly income.This has resulted in farmers and other members of the population viewing macaques inhabiting agricultural landscapes as serious crop pests.Nepal is a significant study area with almost 44% of Nepal's land area containing suitable habitat for rhesus macaques but only having 8% of such suitable area being protected national parks. As well the rating of Rhesus macaques as the top ten crop-raiding wildlife species in Nepal adds to such negative perception. Studying crop raiding behaviour is essential to developing effective strategies to manage human-macaque conflict while promoting both primate conservation and the economic well-being of the local community. It is stated that the human-macaque conflict is one of the most critical challenges faced by wildlife managers. Suggestions to mitigate conflict include "prioritizing forest restoration programs, strategic management plans designed to connect isolated forest fragments with high rhesus macaque population densities, creating government programs that compensate farmers for income lost due to crop-raiding, and educational outreach that informs local villagers of the importance of conservation and protecting biodiversity". Mitigation strategies offers the most effective solutions to reduce conflict occurring between rhesus macaques and humans in Nepal.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=423943
| 385,735 |
2,037,250 |
"Unable to forget his dream" of a gigantic domed conservatory, Phillips revisited the idea in the 1830s. Launching his scheme under a slightly different name, the Anthaeum (meaning flower-house), he secured land and finance from Sir Isaac Goldsmid, 1st Baronet and engaged Amon Henry Wilds as architect. The site provided by Goldsmid was in Hove, then a small town west of Brighton which was beginning to develop as a fashionable residential area: the Anthaeum was built immediately north of Adelaide Crescent, on which work had started in 1830. The structure was a large dome with a diameter of and a height of (excluding the cupola in the centre), made of ribs of iron sunk into the soil and then glazed. Inside the dome, which enclosed an area of more than , Phillips planned an exotic garden with tropical trees and plants, unusual shrubs, a lake, birds and other features, "not unlike the modern Eden Project in Cornwall". Work started in late 1832, when deep foundations were dug, and the iron ribs were steadily erected over the next few months. Disagreements emerged between Wilds, Phillips, the project engineer Mr Hollis and the contractor Mr English, though, which led to the dismissal or resignation of Wilds and Hollis. English, whose decision not to build the intended central supporting pillar led to Hollis and Wilds abandoning the project, continued working with no proper supervision for several months, despite Phillips' concerns; and on 30 August 1833, the day before its official opening, the Anthaeum spectacularly collapsed: "the immense ribs of iron snapped asunder ... and a great part of [the structure], from the height it fell, was buried several feet deep in the earth". The shock made Phillips go blind, and the tangled wreckage was not cleared away for another 17 years. Palmeira Square now occupies the site.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36818458
| 2,036,075 |
1,113,831 |
There are records from the 18th century of local people along some coasts of England digging out and harvesting the emerging shoots as a vegetable from naturally occurring root crowns in the early springtime. This custom was first reported by Phillip Miller in his 1731 "Gardener's Dictionary" as practised among the indigenous peoples of Sussex, and it was seen once in the 18th century being sold as food at the Chichester market in 1753. John Martyn was the first to publish some practical notes on cultivating the plant in a late edition of Miller's work, but William Curtis was the first to publish a tract about his experiments of growing the plant as a vegetable crop in London in 1799, just before his death, with John Maher giving a reading before the Horticultural Society of London in 1805 which elaborated slightly on the work of Curtis. Both Curtis and Maher recommended growing the plant as a forced, blanched vegetable, growing the rootcrown in a ceramic cylinder which could be capped with a closed blanching pot. Over and about this pot fresh manure would be heaped a few feet deep, the heat produced when this dung rotted would be sufficient to force the plant to bolt as early as December, although later in the winter was recommended. For those without the financial means to purchase expensive blanching pots, Maher suggests covering the plants in a mat covered by a thick layer of gravel, and Curtis mentions simply hoeing a foot of soil over the crown, or piling sea sand, pebbles or coal ash over it, although both agree this will produce a much inferior crop. An area of roughly five square feet could hold a single rootcrown consisting of three plants, which after growing out from seed for three years could be forced at least twice a season to yield four to six shoots of up to twelve inches, although usually much less.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=460137
| 1,113,265 |
807,979 |
The Tornado Intercept Vehicle 1 (TIV 1) is a heavily modified 1997 Ford F-Super Duty cab & chassis truck used as a storm chasing platform and built by Sean Casey. This heavily armored vehicle can drive into a weak to relatively strong tornado (EF0 to EF3) to film it and take measurements. Work began on the TIV in 2002 and took around eight months to finish, at a total cost of around US$81,000. TIV's armored shell consists of 1/8–1/4 inch steel plate welded to a two-inch square steel tubing frame. The windows are bullet resistant polycarbonate, measuring thick on the windshield and thick on the sides. The TIV weighs approximately fully loaded and is powered by a 7.3 litre Ford Powerstroke turbocharged diesel engine manufactured by Navistar-International, otherwise known as the International T444E. Four hydraulic claws were added at Discovery Channel’s request for safety, which are used to grapple onto the ground and anchor the TIV during an intercept. The vehicle's speed was limited by the factory Ford PCM, giving it a top speed of . The TIV has a fuel capacity of , giving it a range of around . The TIV is featured in a series called "Storm Chasers" which began airing on the Discovery Channel in October 2007. TIV was succeeded in 2008 by TIV 2, but returned to service to finish out the first few chases of the 2008 storm chasing season after TIV 2 suffered mechanical problems. In a June 2011 interview with NPR's "All Things Considered", Casey said that TIV is still in service and is designated as the backup vehicle in the event TIV 2 breaks down during a shoot.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9566962
| 807,549 |
909,287 |
Critics have disputed Ehrlich's main thesis about overpopulation and its effects on the environment and human society, and his solutions, as well as some of his specific predictions made since the late 1960s. One criticism concerns Ehrlich's allegedly alarmist and sensational statements and inaccurate "predictions". Ronald Bailey of "Reason" magazine has termed him an "irrepressible doomster ... who, as far as I can tell, has never been right in any of his forecasts of imminent catastrophe." On the first Earth Day in 1970, he warned that "[i]n ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish." In a 1971 speech, he predicted that: "By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people." "If I were a gambler," Professor Ehrlich concluded before boarding an airplane, " I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000." When this scenario did not occur, he responded that "When you predict the future, you get things wrong. How wrong is another question. I would have lost if I had had taken the bet. However, if you look closely at England, what can I tell you? They're having all kinds of problems, just like everybody else." Ehrlich wrote in "The Population Bomb" that, "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=359542
| 908,808 |
1,342,452 |
UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase ("UGP2") was recently found to be implicated in novel neurodevelopmental disorder in humans, known as also referred to as Barakat-Perenthaler syndrome. This disorder was first described in 22 individuals from 15 families, presenting with a severe epileptic encephalopathy, neurodevelopmental delay with absence of virtually all developmental milestones, intractable seizures, progressive microcephaly, visual disturbance and similar minor dysmorphisms. Barakat and colleagues identified a recurrent homozygous mutation in all affected individuals (chr2:64083454A > G), which mutates the translational start site of the shorter protein isoform of UGP2. Therefore, the shorter protein isoform can no longer be produced in patients harboring the homozygous mutation. Functional studies from the same group showed that the short protein isoform is normally predominantly expressed in human brain. Therefore, the recurrent mutation leads to a tissue-specific absence of UGP2 in brain, which leads to altered glycogen metabolism, upregulated unfolded protein response and premature neuronal differentiation. Other bi-allelic loss-of-function mutations in "UGP2" are likely lethal, as human embryonic stem cells depleted of both short and long isoforms of UGP2 fail to differentiate in cardiomyocytes and blood cells. Hence, the identification of this new disease also shows that isoform-specific start-loss mutations causing expression loss of a tissue-relevant isoform of an essential protein can cause a genetic disease, even when an organism-wide protein absence is incompatible with life. A therapy for Barakat-Perenthaler syndrome does currently not exist.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10527390
| 1,341,718 |
1,587,796 |
By September 15, 2005, the inundation of the city had been reduced from 80% to 40%, although flooded areas were not expected to be habitable for a long while. In Orleans Parish, most of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the southern part of Orleans Parish were dry enough for normal recovery operations to begin. Water remained in the northern part of the parish and would be pumped out using Pump Stations 12 and 4, and reinforced with about a dozen temporary pumps. Pumping efforts in the lower Ninth Ward were removing water at a rate of per day. Some construction work continued on the 17th Street and London Avenue canal breaches where helicopters were precision-placing 7,000-pound sandbags to reinforce existing repairs and crews were armoring sandbag closures with rock. Contractors maintained cranes at the sites to regulate flow levels by adjusting sheet pile walls at the mouths of the canals into Lake Pontchartrain. Construction of the access road to the second London Canal breach north of Mirabeau bridge was completed September 14. St. Bernard's Parish was almost completely dry, with the only significant water remaining in the Chalmette extension. However, recovery in St. Bernard's Parish was limited by the spill of petroleum products from local oil facilities. In Plaquemines Parish, repairs to the levee breaches continued and were almost ready for full-scale pumping of the affected areas. Most of the fixed pumping stations in Plaquemines Parish had survived the storm.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2670675
| 1,586,902 |
1,137,056 |
The concept of nearly free valence electrons in metallic alloys explained the special stability of the Hume-Rothery phases if the Fermi sphere of the "sp" Valence electron, treated as free, would be scattered by the Brillouin zone boundaries of the atomic structure. The description of the impurities in metals by the Thomas Fermi approximation would explain why such impurities would not interact at long range. Finally the delocalisation of the valence "d" electrons in transitional metals and alloys would explain the possibility for the magnetic moments of atoms to be expressed as fractions of Bohr magnetons, leading to ferro or antiferromagnetic coupling at short range. This last contribution, produced at the first international conference on magnetism, held in Strasbourg in May 1939, reinforced similar points of view defended at the time in France by the future Nobel laureate Louis Néel. In 1949, Mott suggested to Jacques Friedel to use the approach developed together with Marvey for a more accurate description of the electric-field screening of the impurity in a metal, leading to the characteristic long range charge oscillations. Friedel also used the concept developed in that book of virtual bound level to describe a situation when the atomic potential considered is not quite strong enough to create a (real) bound level of symmetry e ≠ o. The consequences of these remarks on the more exact approaches of cohesion in rp as well as d metals were mostly developed by his students in Orsay.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=396697
| 1,136,463 |
2,162,080 |
Like Binnion before him, Whitley subscribed to a conception of "normalism" that was similar to Mayo's, which helped ease the presidential transition. Under Whitley, the college's student population increased, eclipsing 1,000 in 1925 before reaching 1,953 during the 1932–33 school year. State funds failed to keep up with enrollment growth, however, rising only slightly from $253,060 during the 1926–27 academic year to $265,950 in 1932–33. Another challenge facing ETSTC during the 1920s and 1930s was the state of its physical plant; aside from the new Education Building, many campus buildings were in poor condition, especially Industrial Hall and Old Main (which were eventually demolished in 1941 and the early 1950s, respectively). New buildings were constructed to address this issue during the Whitley administration: in 1927, a new two-story, colonial-style president's home was built for Whitley just to the south of the Education Building, and in 1929–30 the school's first dedicated library was constructed, featuring room for 125,000 volumes and a showpiece two-story, reading room. The library also included classrooms and a museum, and featured such ornate details as dark oak woodwork and bronze chandeliers.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49869717
| 2,160,845 |
467,451 |
Many authors note the most obvious difference between the curricula of DO and MD schools is osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM), a form of hands-on care used to diagnose, treat and prevent illness or injury and is taught only at DO schools. As of 2006, the average osteopathic medical student spent almost eight weeks on clerkships for OMM during their third and fourth years. The National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states that overall, studies have shown that spinal manipulation can provide mild-to-moderate relief from low-back pain and appears to be as effective as conventional medical treatments. In 2007 guidelines, the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society include spinal manipulation as one of several treatment options for practitioners to consider using when pain does not improve with self-care. Spinal manipulation is generally a safe treatment for low-back pain. Serious complications are very rare. A 2001 survey of DOs found that more than 50% of the respondents used OMT (osteopathic manipulative treatment) on less than 5% of their patients. The survey was the latest indication that DOs have become more like MD physicians in all respects: fewer perform OMT, more prescribe drugs, and many perform surgery as a first option. One area which has been implicated, but not been formally studied regarding the decline in OMT usage among DOs in practice, is the role of reimbursement changes. Only in the last several years could a DO charge for both an office visit (Evaluation & Management services) and use a procedure (CPT) code when performing OMT; previously, it was bundled.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12101775
| 467,216 |
599,952 |
In the 1980s, studies by the Central Marine Research and Design Institute (CNIIMF) and the Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" resulted in "icebreaker type size series" ranging from 7-megawatt auxiliary icebreakers (LK-7) to a 110-megawatt nuclear-powered "icebreaker-leaders" (LK-110Ya). One of the proposed new icebreaker classes, LK-60Ya, was developed as a direct replacement for the previous-generation "Arktika"-class nuclear-powered icebreakers which had entered service in the late 1970s and seen widespread use in the Russian Arctic. In addition to operating as heavy line icebreakers along the full length of the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk all the way to the Bering Strait, the new 60-megawatt icebreakers would also replace the shallow-draft nuclear-powered icebreakers "Taymyr" and "Vaygach" on the Dudinka-Murmansk route which included icebreaking operations in the Yenisey river estuary. The latter operation was made possible by the novel dual-draft functionality, ability to de-ballast the vessel when approaching shallow coastal areas. Other technical characteristics of the next-generation nuclear-powered icebreakers were drawn from the Russians' extensive operational experience from Arctic shipping. For example, it was determined that in order to ensure reliable year-round navigation in the western part of the Northern Sea Route, LK-60Ya would have to be capable of breaking at least ice, an improvement over the old "Arktika"s icebreaking capability. In addition, escorting Russian Arctic cargo ships such as the then-common SA-15 type safely and efficiently in heavy ice conditions would require an icebreaker with a beam of and a displacement of .
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47268788
| 599,646 |
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Yet with the Phuoc Tuy province coming progressively under control throughout 1967, the Australians increasingly spent a significant period of time conducting operations further afield. 1 ATF was subsequently deployed astride infiltration routes leading to Saigon to interdict communist movement against the capital as part of Operation Coburg during the 1968 Tet Offensive and later during the Battle of Coral–Balmoral in May and June 1968. At Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral the Australians had clashed with regular North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong main force units operating in battalion and regimental strength for the first time in near conventional warfare, ultimately fighting their largest, most hazardous and most sustained battle of the war. During 26 days of fighting Australian casualties included 25 killed and 99 wounded, while communist casualties included 267 killed confirmed by body count, 60 possibly killed, 7 wounded and 11 captured. Other significant Australian actions included Binh Ba in June 1969, Hat Dich in late-December 1968 and early 1969 and Long Khanh in June 1971. At the height of the Australian commitment, 1 ATF numbered 8,500 troops, including three infantry battalions, armour, artillery, engineers, logistics and aviation units in support. A third RAAF unit, No. 2 Squadron RAAF, flying Canberra bombers, was sent in 1967, and four RAN destroyers joined US patrols in the waters off North Vietnam.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1323516
| 534,908 |
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The first publications of Schrödinger about atomic theory and the theory of spectra began to emerge only from the beginning of the 1920s, after his personal acquaintance with Sommerfeld and Wolfgang Pauli and his move to Germany. In January 1921, Schrödinger finished his first article on this subject, about the framework of the Bohr-Sommerfeld effect of the interaction of electrons on some features of the spectra of the alkali metals. Of particular interest to him was the introduction of relativistic considerations in quantum theory. In autumn 1922 he analyzed the electron orbits in an atom from a geometric point of view, using methods developed by the mathematician Hermann Weyl (1885–1955). This work, in which it was shown that quantum orbits are associated with certain geometric properties, was an important step in predicting some of the features of wave mechanics. Earlier in the same year he created the Schrödinger equation of the relativistic Doppler effect for spectral lines, based on the hypothesis of light quanta and considerations of energy and momentum. He liked the idea of his teacher Exner on the statistical nature of the conservation laws, so he enthusiastically embraced the articles of Bohr, Kramers, and Slater, which suggested the possibility of violation of these laws in individual atomic processes (for example, in the process of emission of radiation). Although the experiments of Hans Geiger and Walther Bothe soon cast doubt on this, the idea of energy as a statistical concept was a lifelong attraction for Schrödinger and he discussed it in some reports and publications.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9942
| 57,648 |
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Falloppio grew up in Modena. His father died early but thanks to the support of affluent relatives he enjoyed are thorough humanist education in Modena, learning Latin and Greek and moving in the local circle of humanist scholars. He was for some years in the service of the Church, among others as a kind of warden at Modena's cathedral, but soon turned to medicine. In 1544, he performed a public anatomy in Modena. In 1545, at the latest, he began to study medicine at the University of Ferrara, at that time one of the best medical schools in Europe. It was there also that he much later, in 1552, when he was already professor in Padua, received his medical doctorate under the guidance of Antonio Musa Brasavola. He taught on medicinal plants in Ferrara but was not professor of anatomy there, as has sometimes been claimed. He also was never a personal student of Andreas Vesalius as is often falsely maintained (he explicitly called himself a student of Vesalius in the sense only that he had read his works). In 1548, he took the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa. In 1551, he was invited to occupy the chair of anatomy and surgery at the University of Padua and also lectured on medicinal plants or botany. In Padua, he shared his house over years with the German botanist Melchior Wieland which gave rise to some suspicions about the nature of their relationship and got Falloppia involved in Wieland's vitriolic controversy with the irascible botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli. Falloppia was a very popular teacher and had numerous students. He also ran an extensive medical and surgical practice and took his students with him so they could learn from him. He died in Padua in October 1562, not even 40 years old. His plans for a major illustrated anatomical textbook were thus never realized.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=233592
| 512,012 |
51,638 |
Both BAE Systems and its predecessor (BAe) have long been the subject of allegations of bribery in relation to its business in Saudi Arabia. The UK National Audit Office (NAO) investigated the Al Yamamah contracts and has so far not published its conclusions, the only NAO report ever to be withheld. The MoD has stated "The report remains sensitive. Disclosure would harm both international relations and the UK's commercial interests." The company has been accused of maintaining a £60 million Saudi slush fund. In November 2006, Saudi Arabia put pressure on the British government to end the SFO investigation by suspending negotiations over a new deal for seventy-two Typhoon fighter jets. On 14 December 2006 it was announced that the SFO was "discontinuing" its investigation into the company. It stated that representations to its Director and the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had led to the conclusion that the wider public interest "to safeguard national and international security" outweighed any potential benefits of further investigation. The termination of the investigation has been controversial. In June 2007, the BBC's Panorama alleged BAE Systems "paid hundreds of millions of pounds to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan" in return for his role in the Al Yamamah deals. In late June 2007 the DOJ began a formal investigation into BAE's compliance with anti-corruption laws. On 19 May 2008 BAE Systems confirmed that its CEO Mike Turner and non-executive director Nigel Rudd had been detained "for about 20 minutes" at two US airports the previous week and that the DOJ had issued "a number of additional subpoenas in the US to employees of BAE Systems plc and BAE Systems Inc as part of its ongoing investigation". "The Times" suggested that such "humiliating behaviour by the DOJ" is unusual toward a company that is co-operating fully.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=200128
| 51,618 |
1,779,299 |
Efforts countries in the region to import technology and strategy from the west have produced limited outcomes. The present understanding in many strategic discourses is that UDA is an extension of MDA, more focused on security requirements given the volatile regional dynamics. However, the sub-optimal performance of the sonar systems that may be deployed for any situational awareness efforts, in the tropical littoral waters of the IOR will present significant challenges. Thus massive acoustic capability and capacity building would be the core requirement for any UDA framework. The fragmented approach by the stakeholders, namely the national security apparatus, the blue economic entities, the environment and the disaster management authorities, and the science and technology providers have always limited the resource availability for any indigenous efforts to overcome local challenges. The UDA framework proposed in this work goes beyond being a mere underwater extension of the MDA formulation as understood so far and attempts to bring a more comprehensive formulation that facilitates pooling of resources and synergizing of efforts across stakeholders both at the national as well as the regional level to be able to truly participate in the Indo-Pacific strategic space. The proposed UDA framework is intended to ensure a safe, secure, sustainable growth model for all in the region to complement the "Security And Growth for All in the Region" (SAGAR) vision announced in March 2015.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60878831
| 1,778,297 |
199,092 |
Parsons' situation at Harvard University changed significantly in early 1944, when he received a good offer from Northwestern University. Harvard reacted to the offer by appointing Parsons as the chairman of the department, promoting him to the rank of full professor and accepting the process of reorganization, which led to the establishment of the new department of Social Relations. Parsons' letter to Dean Paul Buck, on April 3, 1944, reveals the high point of this moment. Because of the new development at Harvard, Parsons chose to decline an offer from William Langer to join the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. Langer proposed for Parsons to follow the American army in its march into Germany and to function as a political adviser to the administration of the occupied territories. Late in 1944, under the auspices of the Cambridge Community Council, Parsons directed a project together with Elizabeth Schlesinger. They investigated ethnic and racial tensions in the Boston area between students from Radcliffe College and Wellesley College. This study was a reaction to an upsurge of anti-Semitism in the Boston area, which began in late 1943 and continued into 1944. At the end of November 1946, the Social Research Council (SSRC) asked Parsons to write a comprehensive report of the topic of how the social sciences could contribute to the understanding of the modern world. The background was a controversy over whether the social sciences should be incorporated into the National Science Foundation.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54041
| 198,989 |
1,803,209 |
At the time of Bruce's service in Malta, British soldiers suffered an outbreak of what was called the Malta fever. The disease caused undulant fever in man and of abortion in goats. It is transmitted by goat milk. In 1886, Bruce led the Malta Fever Commission that investigated the epidemic. Between 1886 and 1887, he studied five patients having Malta fever who died of the disease. From the spleen of corpses, he recovered a bacterium which he referred to as "Micrococcus," which he described:When a minute portion taken from one of these [culture] colonies is placed in a drop of sterilized water and examined under a high power [of microscope], innumerable small micrococci are seen. They are very active, and dance about—as a rule singly, sometimes in pairs, rarely in short chains.Bruce's assistant, Surgeon Captain Matthew Louis Hughes named the disease "undulant fever" and the bacterium, "Micrococcus melitensis." The source of the infection was not clear, Hughes believing it to come from soil and the bacterium inhaled from the air. Bruce reported the discovery in "The Practitioner" in 1887 with the conclusion:I think it will appear to be sufficiently proved: (a) that there exists in the spleen of cases of Malta fever a definite micro-organism; and (b) that this micro-organism can be cultivated outside the human body. On the latter point I may remark that I have already cultivated four successive generations. It now remains to be seen what effect, if any, this micro-organism has on healthy animals; what are the conditions of temperature, &c., under which it flourishes; where it is to be found; how it gains entrance to its human host; and many other points. All of these will take a long time to investigate. I have therefore published this preliminary note in order to draw the attention of other workers to what seems to me to be an attractive field.He was correct in his prediction that it was only in 1905 goat milk was established as the source of the infection. The discovery that the disease was transmitted from goat milk was generally attributed to Bruce himself. But an analysis of historical record in 2005 revealed that Themistocles Zammit, one of the members of the commission, was the one who experimentally demonstrated the origin of the bacterium from goat milk.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2257142
| 1,802,196 |
926,536 |
In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the cancellation of the aircraft nuclear propulsion project just as NASA's Plum Brook reactor was nearing completion, and for a time it seemed that NERVA would soon follow. NASA estimated that NERVA would ultimately cost $800 million (although AEC reckoned that it would be much less), and the Bureau of the Budget argued that NERVA made sense only in the context of a crewed lunar landing or flights further into the Solar System, to neither of which had the administration committed. Then, on 12 April, the Soviet Union launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit on Vostok 1, once again demonstrating its technological superiority. A few days later, Kennedy launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, resulting in yet another humiliation for the United States. On 25 May, he addressed a joint session of Congress. "First," he announced, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." He then went on to say: "Secondly, an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million dollars already available, will accelerate development of the Rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of someday providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the Solar System itself."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=712716
| 926,050 |
1,033,159 |
In 2016, it was proposed that vanishing stars are a plausible technosignature. A pilot project searching for vanishing stars was carried out, finding one candidate object. In 2019, the Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project began more general searches for vanishing and appearing stars, and other astrophysical transients They identified 100 red transients of "most likely natural origin", while analyzing 15% of the image data. In 2020, the VASCO collaboration started up a citizen science project, vetting through images of many thousands of candidate objects. The citizen science project is carried out in close collaboration with schools and amateur associations mainly in African countries. The VASCO project has been referred to as "Perhaps the most general artefact search to date". In 2021, VASCO's principal investigator Beatriz Villarroel received a L'Oreal-Unesco prize in Sweden for the project. In June 2021, the collaboration published the discovery of nine light sources seemingly appearing and vanishing simultaneously in the sky. No natural phenomena can explain the presence of the objects in an old photographic plate from 1950. The group carefully indicated that either nuclear fallout from unlisted atomic bombs contaminated the plates or that a new celestial phenomenon might be behind. For example, the high spatial density of transients is caused by the presence of artificial, reflective objects at high orbits around Earth in 1950. Continued studies, are bringing more support for the authenticity of the phenomenon with multiple transients. See also: Diminished Reality (the reverse of augmented reality).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39919360
| 1,032,623 |
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Combining multi-dimensional algebraic notation with the relational data model was the obvious answer. Compiler writing techniques were by now widespread, and languages like GAMS could be implemented relatively quickly. However, translating this rigorous mathematical representation into the algorithm-specific format required the computation of partial derivatives on very large systems. In the 1970s, TRW developed a system called PROSE that took the ideas of chemical engineers to compute point derivatives that were exact derivatives at a given point, and to embed them in a consistent, Fortran-style calculus modeling language. The resulting system allowed the user to use automatically generated exact first and second order derivatives. This was a pioneering system and an important demonstration of a concept. However, PROSE had a number of shortcomings: it could not handle large systems, problem representation was tied to an array-type data structure that required address calculations, and the system did not provide access to state-of-the art solution methods. From linear programming, GAMS learned that exploitation of sparsity was key to solving large problems. Thus, the final piece of the puzzle was the use of sparse data structures.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1438314
| 1,615,561 |
645,692 |
Woodturning has always had a strong hobbyist presence. In the 1970s, an explosion of interest in hobby woodturning in the English-speaking world sparked a revival in the craft. Dr. Dale Nish travelled to England to recruit teachers, tools, and techniques from the last of the apprentice-trained woodturners. A few years later, Canadian Stephen Hogbin spent a year in Australia, pushing the limits of the craft through changes in scale and design. Industrial arts teachers used their institutional affiliation to create seminars, publish books, and foster research. The tool industry identified a new market for lathes and turning tools. A small group of serious collectors invested in the increasingly sculptural explorations of woodturners. It is unusual that woodturning never established a strong foothold in university departments of art and design. Instead, practitioners of the craft have become adept at learning from demonstrations, private classes, regional meetings, their own published journals, and internet technologies. Some artists began as woodturners, and moved into more sculptural work, experimenting with super object forms and other fine craft concepts. The Center for Art in Wood, founded in 1986 as The Wood Turning Center, houses a collection in Philadelphia with over 1,000 objects from international artists as well as a research library and gallery. Other turners have chosen an artisan-based focus on traditional work, custom work, and the pleasure of studio practice.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1076403
| 645,352 |
1,797,319 |
It is impossible to keep track of all information generated by various processes occurring in reality. As organisms strive to fulfill two biological laws, proper selection of signals becomes a central problem. According to Kępiński, a hierarchy of value is necessary in order to integrate information. In humans, that hierarchy comprises three levels i.e. biological, emotional and sociocultural. The first two levels are handled subconsciously. The third level, by contrast, is associated with consciousness. From the biological perspective, the number of processes occurring simultaneously in the organism and its physical surroundings is virtually infinite. There is also infinite number of ways in which these processes may be framed. That complexity must be reduced, as only selected signals may be sensed and processed in the nervous system. Moreover, the signals must be ordered according to their present and future relevance. The structure of the body and locations of various receptors are evolutionally adapted to assure isolation of the most relevant signals from the surrounding environment. The internal structure of the body is adjusted to ensure proper integration of information. Of all signals collected by the receptors, only the most important ones reach the level of subjective experience. At the level of signals reaching the field of subjective experience, attention is actively directed (with the help of emotions) towards those related with two biological laws. Perception is not passive and inclusive, but anticipatory and selective. Above biological and emotional levels of signal interpretation, there is the frame of social and cultural norms of the community, which serves as reference for conscious decisions. The sociocultural background plays significant role in people's lives.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=523325
| 1,796,310 |
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Robust, collaborating public health systems that have the capacity for active surveillance for early detection of cases and to mobilize their health care coordination capacity may be required to be able stop contagion promptly. After an outbreak there is a certain window of time during which a pandemic can still be stopped by the competent authorities isolating the first infected and/or fighting the pathogen. A good global infrastructure, consequent information exchange, minimal delays due to bureaucracy and effective, targeted treatment measures can be prepared.<ref name="10.1002/nadc.20060541217"></ref> In 2012 it has been proposed to consider pandemic prevention as an aspect of international development in terms of health-care infrastructure and changes to the pathogen-related dynamics between humans and their environment including animals. Often local authority carers or doctors in Africa, Asia or Latin America register uncommon accumulations (or clusterings) of symptoms but lack options for more detailed investigations. Scientists state that "research relevant to countries with weaker surveillance, lab facilities and health systems should be prioritized" and that "in those regions, vaccine supply routes should not rely on refrigeration, and diagnostics should be available at the point of care". Two researchers have suggested that public health systems "in each country" need to be capable of detecting contagion early, diagnosing it accurately, implementing effective disease control measures, and fully collaborating with the relevant international authorities at each stage . U.S. officials have proposed a range of reforms to international health regulations and global institutions for global health security.<ref name="10.1001/jama.2021.15611"></ref>
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63478457
| 1,226,323 |
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Darwin's theory of evolution and Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory were large influences on Hall's career. These ideas prompted Hall to examine aspects of childhood development in order to learn about the inheritance of behavior. The subjective character of these studies made their validation impossible. He believed that as children develop, their mental capabilities resemble those of their ancestors and so they develop over a lifetime the same way that species develop over eons. Hall believed that the process of recapitulation could be sped up through education and force children to reach modern standards of mental capabilities in a shorter length of time. His work also delved into controversial portrayals of the differences between women and men, as well as the concept of racial eugenics. While Hall was a proponent of racial eugenics, his views were less severe in terms of creating and keeping distinct separations between races. Hall believed in giving "lower races" a chance to accept and adapt to "superior civilization". Hall even commended high ranking African Americans in society as being "exception to the Negro’s diminished evolutionary inheritance". Hall viewed civilization in a similar fashion he viewed biological development. Humans must allow civilization to "run its natural evolution". Hall saw those who did not accept the superior civilization as being primitive "savages". Hall viewed these civilizations in a similar fashion as he viewed children, stating that "their faults and their virtues are those of childhood and youth". Hall believed that men and women should be separated into their own schools during puberty because it allowed them to be able to grow within their own gender. Women could be educated with motherhood in mind and the men could be educated in more hands-on projects, helping them to become leaders of their homes. Hall believed that schools with both sexes limited the way they could learn and softened the boys earlier than they should be. "It is a period of equilibrium, but with the onset of puberty the equilibrium is disturbed and new tendencies arise. Modifications in the reproductive organs take place and bring about secondary sexual characteristics. Extroversion gives way slowly to introversion, and more definitely social instincts begin to play an increasing role."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=912656
| 721,816 |
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With his medical education completed, Sharpey advised Lister to spend a month at the medical practice of his lifelong friend James Syme in Edinburgh and then visit medical schools in Europe for a longer period for training. Sharpey himself had been taught first in Edinburgh and later Paris. Sharpey had met Syme, a teacher of clinical surgery, who was widely considered the best surgeon in the United Kingdom while he was in Paris. Sharpey had gone north to Edinburgh in 1818, along with many other surgeons since, due to the influence of John Hunter. Hunter had taught Edward Jenner who is seen as the first surgeon to take a scientific approach to the study of medicine, that was known as the "Hunterian method" Hunter was an early advocate for careful investigation and experimentation, using the techniques of pathology and physiology to give himself a better understanding of healing than many of his colleagues. For example, his 1794 paper, "A treatise on the blood, inflammation and gun-shot wounds" was the first systematic study of swelling, discovering that inflammation was common to all diseases. Due to Hunter, surgery was raised from a job then practiced by hobbyists or amateurs into a true scientific profession. As the Scottish universities taught medicine and surgery from a scientific viewpoint, surgeons who wished to emulate those techniques travelled north for training. Scottish universities had several other features that distinguished them from the medical universities in the south. They were inexpensive and didn't require religious admissions tests, attracting the most scientifically progressive students in Britain. The most important differentiator, was that medical schools in Scotland had evolved from a scholarly tradition, where English medical schools relied on hospitals and practice. Experimental science had no practitioners at English medical schools and while Edinburgh University medical school was large and active at the time, southern medical schools were generally moribund, their laboratory space and teaching materials being inadequate. English medical schools tended to view surgery as manual labour, not a respectable calling for a gentleman academic.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16535
| 281,303 |
1,446,161 |
In 2014, Martill suggested that the odontoid at the tip of the lower jaw of "Istiodactylus" served to fill the space where no tooth was present. This completed an arc-like bite that would have been necessary to sever morsels that would otherwise remain attached by a thread. Martill stated that few other animals are known with teeth similar to those of "Istiodactylus", but pointed out the similarity to various types of sharks and reptiles, including the cookiecutter shark, which takes circular bites from fish as well as prey much larger than itself (including whales). "Istiodactylus" may also have taken circular bites from prey larger than itself (such as dinosaurs and crocodiles), but perhaps also from fish, for example by snapping at their backs near the water surface. Martill stated that there were many differences between the skull of "Istiodactylus" and extant scavengers, such as the lack of a sharp, pointed beak, which could have made it less capable of tearing flesh, but the long neck may have provided enough pulling power, and the claws on the fingers may have been used to manipulate carcasses. Martill agreed that "Istiodactylus" was most likely a scavenger that would have used its robust teeth to scrape meat from bones, as indicated by wear-facets on the tooth-tips (he proposed that scratch-marks should be looked for on dinosaur bones). He also suggested that if they were scraping away the last flesh from a carcass, like marabou storks, they would have been in the back of the queue for access to it. In 2010, Jordan Bestwick and colleagues found that "Istiodactylus" was an obligate consumer of vertebrate animals, probably a carnivore, since it plotted closest to carnivorous reptiles in an analysis of dental microwear texture.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8560288
| 1,445,345 |
620,431 |
Higher resolution surface textures are available for most solar system bodies, including Virtual Textures with coverage up to 32768 pixels wide (1.25 km/pixel at the Earth's equator), with selected coverage at higher resolutions. This allows closer views of well-mapped objects that have high-resolution VTs available for download. 3D models of historical and existing spacecraft are available flying in reasonably accurate trajectories, such as Sputnik 1, Voyager 2, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the International Space Station, as are extended data plots for stars (2 million with correct spatial coordinates), DSOs (nebulae, galaxies, open clusters, etc.), as well as catalogs of asteroids and comets, and more than 96,000 locations on the Earth can be drawn by the program. Add-ons also include other objects such as red and blue supergiants, red and brown dwarfs, neutron stars, spinning pulsars, rotating black holes with accretion disks, protostars, Wolf-Rayet stars, star nursery nebulae, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, galactic redshifts, geological planetary displays (e.g. 3D interiors, topographic and bathymetric maps, paleogeography), planetary aurorae, rotating magnetic fields, animated solar prominences, 3D craters and mountains, and historic collision events (Either spacecraft such as Deep Impact and DART, or meteoric impacts such as the Chelyabinsk meteor).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=399773
| 620,116 |
1,542,034 |
Molecular astrophysics, developed into a rigorous field of investigation by theoretical astrochemist Alexander Dalgarno beginning in 1967, concerns the study of emission from molecules in space. There are 110 currently known interstellar molecules. These molecules have large numbers of observable transitions. Lines may also be observed in absorption—for example the highly redshifted lines seen against the gravitationally lensed quasar PKS1830-211. High energy radiation, such as ultraviolet light, can break the molecular bonds which hold atoms in molecules. In general then, molecules are found in cool astrophysical environments. The most massive objects in our galaxy are giant clouds of molecules and dust known as giant molecular clouds. In these clouds, and smaller versions of them, stars and planets are formed. One of the primary fields of study of molecular astrophysics is star and planet formation. Molecules may be found in many environments, however, from stellar atmospheres to those of planetary satellites. Most of these locations are relatively cool, and molecular emission is most easily studied via photons emitted when the molecules make transitions between low rotational energy states. One molecule, composed of the abundant carbon and oxygen atoms, and very stable against dissociation into atoms, is carbon monoxide (CO). The wavelength of the photon emitted when the CO molecule falls from its lowest excited state to its zero energy, or ground, state is 2.6mm, or 115 gigahertz. This frequency is a thousand times higher than typical FM radio frequencies. At these high frequencies, molecules in the Earth's atmosphere can block transmissions from space, and telescopes must be located in dry (water is an important atmospheric blocker), high sites. Radio telescopes must have very accurate surfaces to produce high fidelity images.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5926889
| 1,541,161 |
2,090,668 |
To extend its goal of research and education to the geology of the Desert, CDRI installed a geological exhibit on the highest point of the Institute’s site, named Clayton's Overlook. The exhibit allows for the disassembly of the 360° panorama presented by its mountain top location into eight individual views and provides a focal point for their re-assembly and integration as a visual representation, study, and explanation of the geology which controls that panorama. The display first focuses on the immediate area, where three igneous cored domes (diameters: 3 – 4 km) and other associated intrusions, including the igneous stock on which the pavilion itself sits, are well exposed. These domes are thought to be cored by laccoliths. The topography of the domes is variable, as is the degree of exposure of the actual intrusions; in fact, the only exposure of the intrusion coring one of the domes is on a fault located along its north edge (trap door laccolith?). The thrust of the display relates the view of the domes from the pavilion to the view presented in maps and cross sections, as well as the view presented by satellite images. Other displays at the pavilion take advantage of broader views of the Davis Mountains. For example, in the core of another of these domes, the contact of the Crossen Trachyte, a major mapping unit in the south of the range, and the Star Mountain Formation, another mapping unit but in the north of the range, can be seen. This is the only location in the whole of the range where their contact can be mapped. The Crossen extends to Crossen Mesa, 64 km to the south; the Star Mountain 50 km to the north. As seen from the pavilion, it is dramatically exposed in the cliffs of Star Mountain, 27 km away. Each of the panels found on Clayton's Overlook are also displayed in the Powell Visitor Center's lobby, to be studied before or after experiencing them at the summit, or to be enjoyed by those who are unable to see them outdoors.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19437782
| 2,089,465 |
1,821,133 |
The silencing of genes created by abnormal DNA methylation is a major contributor to the formation of cancerous tumors. Variations in DNA methylation of normal cells compared to malignant cells shows a prominent mechanism in how cancerous cells proliferate. Those variations are particularly prevalent in cell cycle regulation, DNA repair, and natural tumor suppression mechanisms. A leading therapeutic strategy in treating solid tumors stems from the use of demethylating agents to suppress DNA methylation in cancerous growths. Azacitidine and decitabine are both frequently used demethylating agents while decitabine is significantly more potent in its demethylating abilities. Both of these drugs are inhibitors of DNA Methyltransferases (DNMT) which are enzymes that are responsible for methylating DNA. In the 1970’s, these drugs have shown promising results in hematological cancers in organisms such as mice. The FDA initially rejected the use of azacitidine clinically due to negative side effects caused by elevated toxicity levels. However, in later clinical trials performed on patients with MDS, myelodysplastic syndromes, azacitidine provided effective and exhibited consistent results which led to FDA approval in 2004. The commercial name of azacitidine became Vidaza. Decitabine, with the commercial name Dacogen, followed with FDA approval in 2006. As more research is completed in the field of genetic mutations, specifically involving DNA Methylation, these drugs can be utilized to their maximum efficiency to clinically treat cancerous tumors. As of 2017, there were no approved demethylating agents for the treatment of solid tumors which can be a focus of research in the future. Treatment utilizing demethylating agents can have further clinical use by targeting cancer stem cells and triggering apoptosis. Demethylating agents and their relevance in clinical studies as therapy to treat lymphocytic leukemia can be seen in. Procaine can also be used as therapeutic development to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in humans. There is a new world of possibilities of using demethylating agents to treat different diseases such as leukemia and cancer as therapeutic treatment.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16818152
| 1,820,095 |
1,044,366 |
This exclusively myopathic form is the most prevalent and least severe phenotypic presentation of this disorder. Characteristic signs and symptoms include rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle fibers and subsequent release of myoglobin), myoglobinuria, recurrent muscle pain, and weakness. The myoglobin release causes the urine to be red or brown and is indicatory of damage being done to the kidneys which ultimately could result in kidney failure. Muscle weakness and pain typically resolves within hours to days, and patients appear clinically normal in the intervening periods between attacks. Symptoms are most often exercise-induced, but fasting, a high-fat diet, exposure to cold temperature, sleep deprivation, or infection (especially febrile illness) can also provoke this metabolic myopathy. In a minority of cases, disease severity can be exacerbated by three life-threatening complications resulting from persistent rhabdomyolysis: acute kidney failure, respiratory insufficiency, and episodic abnormal heart rhythms. Severe forms may have continual pain from general life activity. The adult form has a variable age of onset. The first appearance of symptoms usually occurs between 6 and 20 years of age but has been documented in patients as young as 8 months as well as in adults over the age of 50. Roughly 80% cases reported to date have been male.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2525632
| 1,043,822 |
1,707,825 |
During the late 1990s, Square launched an initiative to foster talent within the company; small teams of younger developers would work with a smaller budget to create experimental titles for the PlayStation; one of these titles was "Another Mind". Keizo Kokubo was the games director, having previously been the main programmer for "Chrono Trigger" and "Romancing SaGa". The original idea for the game centered around the question of how to create a relationship between the player and the games protagonist. Kokubo worried that the game would not be given the go ahead, as at any given time there are many projects being experimented with. Executive Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi did not know whether to approve the proposal or not, and was reluctant to read it, but he was caught by the proposal for a "game drama" instead of a TV drama. The game features live actors, and the cast featured Kato Ito, Toshio Kakei, Tosei Kochi, and Shinji Yamashita. The amount of screen time in the game is relatively small as the acting is only shown for important plot points, but when it appears it takes the form of a full screen movie. Filming took three weeks to complete, with a schedule running from 7am to 10pm. Kokubo stated that the themes he wanted to explore in this “film“ were ego and death. Originally, there was to be an episode between Chapters five and six called “Flash Highway”, where the character Hitomi, who was driving with Mariko, predicts that an accident will occur on the highway. The player was then supposed to discover how to avoid or prevent the accident. However, there were many difficulties getting permission to film on the highway, so the episode was not included.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6288128
| 1,706,867 |
1,875,982 |
After completing tenth grade, Jackson joined Morehouse College as an early entrance student. He was awarded a full scholarship. At first Jackson considered majoring in mathematics, but decided to study chemistry after meeting Henry Cecil McBay. He graduated in 1956 and applied to several graduate schools, including Northwestern University and Purdue University. He received a response from Northwestern, who said that they had already fulfilled their three fellowships for African American students. Eventually he moved Washington, D.C., where he got a job and lived with his cousin. He studied at the Catholic University of America where he was awarded a postgraduate research fellowship. During his doctoral studies he worked in the Harry Diamond Laboratories, where he studied molten salt compounds. During the final year of his PhD, Jackson's wife became pregnant, and Jackson took time out of graduate school to earn money. During this time he worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He returned to the Catholic University of America where he studied gasoline additives. After earning his PhD in 1961 he joined the Lockheed Martin, where he worked on formaldehyde resins and ways to protect missiles as they reenter the Atmosphere of Earth. He returned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher, studying how radiant energy impacted chemical structures. He investigated how radiation impacted the coating applied to space vehicles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61702490
| 1,874,905 |
799,700 |
In the 1960s the work of the engineer Alexander Thom and that of the astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who proposed that Stonehenge was a Neolithic computer, inspired new interest in the astronomical features of ancient sites. The claims of Hawkins were largely dismissed, but this was not the case for Alexander Thom's work, whose survey results of megalithic sites hypothesized widespread practice of accurate astronomy in the British Isles. Euan MacKie, recognizing that Thom's theories needed to be tested, excavated at the Kintraw standing stone site in Argyllshire in 1970 and 1971 to check whether the latter's prediction of an observation platform on the hill slope above the stone was correct. There was an artificial platform there and this apparent verification of Thom's long alignment hypothesis (Kintraw was diagnosed as an accurate winter solstice site) led him to check Thom's geometrical theories at the Cultoon stone circle in Islay, also with a positive result. MacKie therefore broadly accepted Thom's conclusions and published new prehistories of Britain. In contrast a re-evaluation of Thom's fieldwork by Clive Ruggles argued that Thom's claims of high accuracy astronomy were not fully supported by the evidence. Nevertheless, Thom's legacy remains strong, Edwin C. Krupp wrote in 1979, "Almost singlehandedly he has established the standards for archaeo-astronomical fieldwork and interpretation, and his amazing results have stirred controversy during the last three decades." His influence endures and practice of statistical testing of data remains one of the methods of archaeoastronomy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2864
| 799,274 |
1,396,188 |
At the same time that Walter was developing submarine engines, he was also applying his ideas to rocketry. The high-pressure gas mixture created by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide could not only be used in a turbine, but if simply directed out of a nozzle, created considerable thrust. Wernher von Braun's rocketry team working at Peenemünde expressed interest in Walter's ideas, and in 1936 began a programme of installing Walter rockets into aircraft. The experimental results obtained by von Braun created interest among Germany's aircraft manufacturers, including Heinkel and Messerschmitt, and in 1939, the Heinkel He 176 became the first aircraft to fly on liquid-fuelled rocket power alone. This type of engine went on to become the cornerstone of the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered fighter, when married to Alexander Lippisch's revolutionary airframe design. Throughout the course of World War II, Walter's aircraft engines became increasingly powerful and refined. The original design of simply decomposing hydrogen peroxide was soon changed to its use as an oxidizer (much like dinitrogen tetroxide would be used later) when combined with a hydrazine/methanol true rocket fuel designated C-Stoff, into the hot, high-pressure gases, and in later, never-deployed developments, a second, 400 kg (880 lb) thrust "cruising" combustion chamber, nicknamed a "Marschofen", was added below the main chamber to allow for more precise control of the engine. Versions of this engine were intended to power a variety of aircraft design proposals and missile projects and was also licence-built in Japan (see HWK 109-509).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=364438
| 1,395,417 |
1,101,381 |
Lacking a technological base at first, the Germans imported their engineering and hardware from Britain, but quickly learned the skills needed to operate and expand the railways. For example, in 1837-39Thomas Clarke Worsdell (1788–1862), chief coachbuilder of the Liverpool and Manchester Company, came to help engineer the railway linking Leipzig and Dresden. In many cities, the new railway shops were the centres of technological awareness and training, so that by 1850, Germany was self-sufficient in meeting the demands of railroad construction, and the railways were a major impetus for the growth of the new steel industry. Observers found that even as late as 1890, their engineering was inferior to Britain's. However, German unification in 1870 stimulated consolidation, nationalisation into state-owned companies, and further rapid growth. Unlike the situation in France, the goal was support of industrialisation, and so, heavy lines crisscrossed the Ruhr and other industrial districts, and provided good connections to the major ports of Hamburg and Bremen. By 1880, Germany had 9,400 locomotives pulling 43,000 passengers and 30,000 tons of freight a day, and forged ahead of France.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1676365
| 1,100,820 |
754,577 |
In echoes of Smith's "system of natural liberty", Hayek argued that the market is a "spontaneous order" and actively disparaged the concept of "social justice". Ludwig von Mises's outspoken criticisms of socialism had a large influence on the economic thinking of Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992), who, while initially sympathetic, became one of the leading academic critics of collectivism in the 20th century. Hayek believed that all forms of collectivism (even those theoretically based on voluntary cooperation) could only be maintained by a central authority. But he argued that centralizing economic decision-making would lead not only to infringements of liberty but also to depressed standards of living because centralized experts could not gather and assess the knowledge required to allocate scarce resources efficiently or productively. In his book, "The Road to Serfdom" (1944) and in subsequent works, Hayek claimed that socialism required central economic planning and that such planning in turn would lead towards totalitarianism. Hayek attributed the birth of civilization to private property in his book "The Fatal Conceit" (1988). According to him, price signals are the only means of enabling each economic decision maker to communicate tacit knowledge or dispersed knowledge to each other, to solve the economic calculation problem. Along with his Socialist Swedish contemporary and opponent Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987), Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7881361
| 754,174 |
1,178,154 |
Franklin received numerous awards and honours during her long career. In 1984, she became the first woman at the University of Toronto to be named "University Professor", a special title which is the highest honour given by the university. She was named Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 and a Companion of the Order in 1992. She was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 1990. In 1982, she was given the award of merit for the City of Toronto, mainly for her work in neighbourhood planning. She received an honorary membership in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International for women educators in 1985. Two years later, she was given the Elsie Gregory McGill memorial award for her contributions to education, science and technology. In 1989, she received the Wiegand Award which recognizes Canadians who have made significant contributions to the understanding of the human dimensions of science and technology. In 1991, she received a Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Person's Case for advancing the equality of girls and women in Canada. The same year, she received the Sir John William Dawson Medal. She received the 2001 Pearson Medal of Peace for her work in human rights. She has a Toronto high school named after her, Ursula Franklin Academy. In 2004, Franklin was awarded one of Massey College's first Adrienne Clarkson Laureateships, honoring outstanding achievement in public service. She was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 2012. She received honorary degrees from more than a dozen Canadian universities including a Doctor of Science from Queen's University and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Saint Vincent University, both awarded in 1985.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1094203
| 1,177,530 |
1,832,270 |
Cardioprotection includes all mechanisms and means that contribute to the preservation of the heart by reducing or even preventing myocardial damage. Cardioprotection encompasses several regimens that have shown to preserve function and viability of cardiac muscle cell tissue subjected to ischemic insult or reoxygenation. Cardioprotection includes strategies that are implemented before an ischemic event (preconditioning, PC), during an ischemic event (perconditioning, PerC) and after the event and during reperfusion (postconditioning, PostC). These strategies can be further stratified by performing the intervention locally or remotely, creating classes of conditioning known as remote ischemic PC (RIPC), remote ischemic PostC and remost ischemic PerC. Classical (local) preconditioning has an early phase with an immediate onset lasting 2–3 hours that protects against myocardial infarction. The early phase involves post-translational modification of preexisting proteins, brought about by the activation of G protein-coupled receptors as well as downstream MAPK's and PI3/Akt. These signaling events act on the ROS-generating mitochondria, activate PKCε and the Reperfusion Injury Salvage Kinase (RISK) pathway, preventing mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MTP) opening. The late phase with an onset of 12–24 hours that lasts 3–4 days and protects against both infarction and reversible postischemic contractile dysfunction, termed myocardial stunning. This phase involves the synthesis of new cardioprotective proteins stimulated by nitric oxide (NO), ROS and adenosine acting on kinases such as PKCε and Src, which in turn activate gene transcription and upregulation of late PC molecular players (e.g., antioxidant enzymes, iNOS).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48999900
| 1,831,223 |
567,782 |
The Aviation Research Centre (ARC) is India's imagery intelligence organisation, a part of the Directorate General of Security, run by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). It started functioning in November 1962, in the wake of the Sino-Indian War, as an extension of the Intelligence Bureau, but placed under the Ministry of External Affairs. It was formally created on 7 September 1963, with R. N. Kao as Director and Acting Group Captain Lal Singh Grewal (later, Vice Chief of Indian Air Force) as Operations Manager at Charbatia air base (code named Oak Tree 1). It was later moved to the Prime Minister's Secretariat, and in February 1965, along with Special Frontier Force and Special Service Bureau (now Sashastra Seema Bal), was brought under the Directorate General of Security in the Cabinet Secretariat (this organisation was created in late 1964 with B. N. Mullick as DG, Security; the post was later shifted to the chief of R&AW upon its constitution in 1968). One of its most influential Directors was Prof H.B. Mohanti. ARC was initially a temporary and "ad hoc" organisation, but was made permanent in 1971. Over the years, ARC had grown into a large operation and flies a large and varied fleet that until recently included the high-flying Mach 3 capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7105620
| 567,492 |
368,748 |
Pen computing was highly hyped by the media during the early 1990s. Microsoft, the dominant PC software vendor, released Windows for Pen Computing in 1992 to compete against PenPoint OS. The company launched the WinPad project, working together with OEMs such as Compaq, to create a small device with a Windows-like operating system and handwriting recognition. However the project was abandoned two years later; instead Windows CE was released in the form of "Handheld PCs" in 1996. That year, Palm, Inc. released the first of the Palm OS based PalmPilot touch and stylus based PDA, the touch based devices initially incorporating a Motorola Dragonball (68000) CPU. Also in 1996 Fujitsu released the Stylistic 1000 tablet format PC, running Microsoft Windows 95, on a 100 MHz AMD486 DX4 CPU, with 8 MB RAM offering stylus input, with the option of connecting a conventional Keyboard and mouse. Intel announced a StrongARM processor-based touchscreen tablet computer in 1999, under the name WebPAD. It was later re-branded as the "Intel Web Tablet". In 2000, Norwegian company Screen Media AS and the German company Dosch & Amand Gmbh released the "FreePad". It was based on Linux and used the Opera browser. Internet access was provided by DECT DMAP, only available in Europe and provided up to 10Mbit/s. The device had 16 MB storage, 32 MB of RAM and x86 compatible 166 MHz "Geode"-Microcontroller by National Semiconductor. The screen was 10.4" or 12.1" and was touch sensitive. It had slots for SIM cards to enable support of television set-up box. FreePad were sold in Norway and the Middle East; but the company was dissolved in 2003. Sony released its Airboard tablet in Japan in late 2000 with full wireless Internet capabilities.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4182449
| 368,555 |
1,994,146 |
Midline diastema (spacing in upper teeth) is a common occurrence in the population. An arbitrary number for the spacing between the teeth to consider as midline diastema is a width of 0.5 from a proximal surface of a teeth to the proximal surface of adjacent teeth. Midline diastema usually occur in the upper teeth compared to lower. The cause of this spacing includes but not limited to microdontia, labial frenulum, peg-shaped lateral incisors, mesiodens, cysts in midlene region, tongue trusting, finger sucking, dental malformations, maxillary incisor proclination, genetics, imperfect joining of interdental septum, dental skeletal discrepancies. The technical factors affecting the course of treatment of the closing of midline diastema includes the size of the existing central incisors, the amount of reduction necessary, the morphology of existing tooth, and the subsequent possibility of a veneer or crown treatment needs to be taken into account, the patient factors affecting the course of treatment includes economic, psychological and time factors of the patient. With a successful diastema closure, the normal arrangement of teeth can be established Continuous improvement in material science and methodology enables the aesthetics of composite restoration to be of a high standard and realistic in terms of aesthetic, physical and mechanical properties. Composites provides an array of hues, colour and opacities for composite layering techniques which mimics the opalescence of natural teeth. The conventional workflow sequence for a diastema closure is 1)Shade selection was done for dentin shade and enamel shade. Composite button samples of different shades are placed on teeth and a dental photography taken to verify 2)Rubber dam isolation 3)Placing a retraction cord. 3)Etching enamel surface, 4)Application of bonding agent. Agitate the bonding agent against the enamel surface. Use a gentle stream of air to evaporate the solvent. Light polymerize the bonding agent 5)Layer dentin layer, followed by enamel shade 6)finishing with white stone bur, taking care to follow the natural anatomy 7)polishing with interdental strip and polishing disk with grains of increasing fineness, finally with a composite polishing paste.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62923253
| 1,993,003 |
347,667 |
Some University of Georgia alumni that have served in the scientific and medical fields include Alfred Blalock, an award-winning chief of surgery, professor, and director of the department of surgery of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who ushered in the modern era of cardiac surgery, Cornelia Bargmann, an award-winning neurobiologist, who is Wiesel Professor of Genetics and Neurosciences at the Rockefeller University, investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and president of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Crawford Long, a surgeon and pharmacist best known for his first use of inhaled diethyl ether as an anesthetic, Sir David Baulcombe, FRS, a geneticist who is Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, Hervey M. Cleckley, a psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of psychopathy whose published work was the most influential clinical description of psychopathy in the twentieth century and who was co-author of "The Three Faces of Eve", Barbara Rothbaum, a psychologist, medical school professor, and pioneer in the treatment of anxiety-related disorders who has played a key role in the development of the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Eugene T. Booth a nuclear physicist who was a member of the historic team which made the first demonstration of nuclear fission in the United States, A. Jamie Cuticchia, a bioinformatics pioneer with expertise in the fields of genetics, bioinformatics, and genomics who was responsible for the groundbreaking collection of data constituting the human gene map and who is director of human genome database, and James E. Boyd, a physicist, mathematician, and founder of Scientific Atlanta, part of Cisco.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=378232
| 347,486 |
2,059,029 |
Huang grew up in Arlington, Texas. She was interested in science as a child, and eventually studied physics at Carleton College. She was not sure whether she would major in anthropology or physics. She spent a summer teaching science in a summer camp at Johns Hopkins University, and decided that she wanted to be involved with physics teaching. As a senior she played violin. She moved to Cornell University for her graduate studies, completing a PhD in applied physics under the supervision of David A. Muller. Huang started working with graphene in 2009, and developed the methodology to create the world's thinnest sheet of glass. The piece of glass was so thin that it was possible to resolve individual silicon and oxygen atoms using transmission electron microscopy. Huang created the glass by accident whilst making graphene, when she found that her graphene was actually composed from silicon and oxygen, the elements that constitute glass. This accidental discovery made it possible to identify the arrangement of atoms in glass for first time, and was included in the Guinness World Records. Her work involved using two-dimensional materials as a model to investigate the structure-property relationships in materials, as well as informing the design and fabrication of two-dimensional materials with desired chemical, optical and electronic properties. She investigated grain boundaries in molybdenum disulfide and graphene. After earning her doctorate Huang was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, where she worked with Louis E. Brus in the Materials Science & Engineering Research Center.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61591952
| 2,057,844 |
1,871,321 |
A 2010 study demonstrated a moderate amount of protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) coupled to a novel SOFIA detection scheme, can be used to detect PrP in protease-untreated plasma from preclinical and clinical scrapie sheep, and white-tailed deer with chronic wasting disease, following natural and experimental infection. The disease-associated form of the prion protein (PrP), resulting from a conformational change of the normal (cellular) form of prion protein (PrP), is considered central to neuropathogenesis and serves as the only reliable molecular marker for prion disease diagnosis. While the highest levels of PrP are present in the CNS, the development of a reasonable diagnostic assay requires the use of body fluids which characteristically contains extremely low levels of PrP. PrP has been detected in the blood of sick animals by means of PMCA technology. However, repeated cycling over several days, which is necessary for PMCA of blood material, has been reported to result in decreased specificity (false positives). To generate an assay for PrP in blood that is both highly sensitive and specific, the researchers used limited serial PMCA (sPMCA) with SOFIA. They did not find any enhancement of sPMCA with the addition of polyadenylic acid, nor was it necessary to match the genotypes of the PrP and PrP sources for efficient amplification.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32823089
| 1,870,244 |
178,083 |
Significant periods of expansion of the university, since the 1972 merger, occurred in the mid-1980s, as well as in 1998, when Joan B. Kroc, philanthropist and wife of McDonald's financier Ray Kroc, endowed USD with a gift of $25 million for the construction of the Institute for Peace & Justice. Other significant donations to the college came in the form of multimillion-dollar gifts from weight-loss tycoon Jenny Craig, inventor Donald Shiley, investment banker and alumnus Bert Degheri, and an additional gift of $50 million Mrs. Kroc left the School of Peace Studies upon her death. These gifts helped make possible, respectively, the Jenny Craig Pavilion (an athletic arena), the Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and Technology, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Degheri Alumni Center. As a result, USD has been able to host the West Coast Conference (WCC) basketball tournament in 2002, 2003 and 2008, and hosted international functions such as the Kyoto Laureate Symposium at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice and at USD's Shiley Theatre. Shiley's gift has provided the university with some additional, and more advanced, teaching laboratories than it had previously. In 2005, the university expanded the Colachis Plaza from the Immaculata along Marian Way to the east end of Hall, which effectively closed the east end of the campus to vehicular traffic. That same year, the student body approved plans for a renovation and expansion of the Hahn University Center which began at the end of 2007. The new Student Life Pavilion (SLP) opened in 2009 and hosts the university's new student dining area(s), offices for student organizations and event spaces. The Hahn University Center is now home to administrative offices, meeting and event spaces, and a restaurant and wine bar, La Gran Terazza.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=574666
| 177,990 |
750,701 |
In 1924, Australian anatomist Professor Raymond Dart, since 1923 working in South-Africa, was informed by one of his students, Josephine Salmons, that monkey fossils (of "Papio izodi") had been discovered by shotfirer M.G. de Bruyn in a limestone quarry in Taung, South Africa, operated by the Northern Lime Company. Knowing that Scottish geologist Professor Robert Burns Young was at the time carrying out excavations in the area in search of archaic human remains like "Homo rhodesiensis" from Kabwe, Zambia (at the time Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia) discovered in 1921, he asked his colleague to send him some primate remains from the quarry. On 24 November 1924, Dart received two boxes with fossils collected by De Bruyn. In them, he noticed a natural brain endocast and a face of a, now known to be 2.8 million year old, juvenile skull, the Taung child, that he immediately recognised as a transitional fossil between apes and humans. Most notably, it had a small brain size yet was, as shown by the position of the "foramen magnum", bipedal. Dart, after hastily freeing the fossil from its matrix, already in January 1925 named the specimen as a new genus and species: "Australopithecus africanus". At this time, great apes were classified into the family Pongidae encompassing all non-human fossil apes, and Hominidae encompassing humans and ancestors. Dart felt the Taung child fit into neither, and erected the family "Homo-simiadæ" ("man-apes"). This family name was soon abandoned, and Dart proposed "Australopithecidae" in 1929. In 1933, South African palaeoanthropologist Robert Broom suggested moving "A. africanus" into Hominidae, which at the time contained only humans and their ancestors.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1627000
| 750,303 |
1,020,926 |
Several novel therapy regimens for DDL and the more aggressive or otherwise problematic cases of ALT/WDL are currently undergoing clinical trials. A phase II clinical study investigating abemaciclib is underway in patients with pretreated or untreated DDL. Preliminary analysis showed that this inhibitor of the "CDK4" and "CDK6" genes' product Serine/threonine-specific protein kinase enzymes produced a prolonged median progression-free survival time of 30.4 weeks. A phase III multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study of abemaciclib is in its active phase and will soon (as stated in July, 2021) begin recruiting 108 individuals with advanced, recurrent, and/or metastatic DDL. The study is sponsored by the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. Ribociclib, also a "CDK4" and "CDK6" gene inhibitor, in combination with a mTOR inhibitor, everolimus is in a phase II clinical trial in individuals with advanced DDL or leiomyosarcoma. A phase III registration study (i.e. a large confirmatory study meant to establish an acceptable benefit/safety profile in order to gain regulatory approval for a precisely defined indication) is evaluating the safety and efficacy of milademetan compared to trabectedin in patients with unresectable (i.e., resection is deemed to cause unacceptable morbidity or mortality) or metastatic DDL that has progressed on 1 or more prior systemic therapies, including at least 1 anthracycline-based therapy. The sponsor, Rain Therapeutics Inc, is currently recruiting 160 individuals for the trial. Another phase III clinical trial is investigating the MDM2 inhibitor milademetan versus trabectedin, a blocker of the oncogenic transcription factor FUS-CHOP, in MDM2-overexpressing ALT/WDL and DDL. Milademetan has shown manageable toxicity and some activity resulting in stable disease and/or a few partial responses in DDL.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1386912
| 1,020,397 |
1,093,161 |
Fusion One Corporation was a US organization founded by Dr. Paul Sieck (former Lead Physicist of EMC2), Dr. Scott Cornish of the University of Sydney, and Randall Volberg. It ran from 2015 to 2017. They developed a magneto-electrostatic reactor named "F1" that was based in-part on the polywell. It introduced a system of externally mounted electromagnet coils with internally mounted cathode repeller surfaces to provide a means of preserving energy and particle losses that would otherwise be lost through the magnetic cusps. In response to Todd Rider's 1995 power balance conclusions, a new analytical model was developed based on this recovery function as well as a more accurate quantum relativistic treatment of the bremsstrahlung losses that was not present in Rider's analysis. Version 1 of the analytical model was developed by Senior Theoretical Physicist Dr Vladimir Mirnov and demonstrated ample multiples of net gain with D-T and sufficient multiples with D-D to be used for generating electricity. These preliminary results were presented at the ARPA-E ALPHA 2017 Annual Review Meeting. Phase 2 of the model removed key assumptions in the Rider analysis by incorporating a self-consistent treatment of the ion energy distribution (Rider assumed a purely Maxwellian distribution) and the power required to maintain the distribution and ion population. The results yielded an energy distribution that was non-thermal but more Maxwellian than monoenergetic. The input power required to maintain the distribution was calculated to be excessive and ion-ion thermalization was a dominant loss channel. With these additions, a pathway to commercial electricity generation was no longer feasible.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8151109
| 1,092,601 |
1,020,956 |
Initially, this large distribution was thought to be due to vicariance, or the result of the breakup of Pangaea. This hypothesis was supported by morphological data that dated amphisbaenian diversification to over 200 million years ago (Mya), while Pangaea was still intact. However, a recent study using a combination of molecular and fossil evidence suggests that amphisbaenians originated in North America, where they underwent their first divergence around 107 Mya. They then underwent another major diversification into North American and European forms 40–56 Mya. Finally, the African and South American forms split around 40 Mya. This suggests that worm-lizards crossed the Atlantic Ocean (which had fully formed by 100 Mya) twice, once just after the K–Pg extinction, and then again, later in the Palaeogene. This also implies that limblessness evolved independently three times, a finding that contrasts the morphological theory that limbed amphisbaenians are the most basal. This widespread dispersal is suggested to have occurred by rafting – natural erosion or a storm event loosened a large raft of soil and vegetation that drifted across the ocean until landing on another shore. This oceanic rafting would be feasible due to the subterranean lifestyle and small nutritional requirements of amphisbaenids. After the Chicxulub impact, many predators of amphisbaenians became extinct, which allowed colonist amphisbaenians to thrive in new territories.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=308680
| 1,020,427 |
347,668 |
UGA alumni have made significant contributions to the field of journalism and media. They include Henry W. Grady, a journalist and orator from the late 19th-century after whom the College of Journalism was named, and Clark Howell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who became the namesake of one of the buildings at his alma mater. Howell succeeded Grady as managing editor of the "Atlanta Constitution". More recent journalism alumni include Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a multiple Emmy Award and Peabody Award winning former reporter for "The New York Times", "PBS NewsHour" and CNN, Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist, science writer and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John Holliman, a broadcast journalist with CNN, known for his coverage of space exploration and reporting during the Persian Gulf War (NASA dedicated Launch Complex 39 Press Site facility at the Kennedy Space Center to him), Mary Katharine Ham, a journalist, political commentator and guest host of "The View", as well as a CNN and Fox News Channel contributor, Pat Mitchell, media industry CEO, producer, professor, and author who worked at NBC (where she was the first woman to produce and host a national program) and other news broadcasters, and who has taught including at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Mark B. Perry, a television producer, television writer and Primetime Emmy Award winner, Deborah Norville, an anchor for "Inside Edition", and the ABC News television presenters Deborah Roberts and Amy Robach. Both Roberts and Robach appear on "20/20" and "Good Morning America".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=378232
| 347,487 |
1,366,780 |
In 2016, John Zhang and a mixed team of scientists from Mexico and New York used the spindle transfer technique to help a Jordanian woman to give birth to a baby boy. The mother had Leigh disease and already had four miscarriages and two children who had died of the disease. Valery Zukin, director of the Nadiya clinic in Kyiv, Ukraine, reported in June 2018 that doctors there had used the pronuclear transfer method of MRT to help four women give birth (three boys and a girl) and three women to become pregnant (one from Sweden); the team had 14 failed attempts. In January 2019 it was reported that seven babies had been born using MRT. The doctors had first gotten approval from an ethical committee and a review board of the Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine and the Ukrainian Postgraduate Medical Academy, under the auspices of the Ukrainian Ministry of Healthcare; there was no law in the Ukraine against MRT. One of the first children, a boy, was born to a 34-year-old woman in January 2017, and genetic test results were reported as normal. In August and October 2017 the British HFEA authorized MRT for two women who had a genetic mutation in their mitichondria that causes myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers. In January 2019, Embryotools, Barcelona, Spain announced that a 32-year-old Greek woman had become pregnant using the spindle transfer technique. MRT was not legal in Spain so they had performed the trial in Greece where there was no law against MRT. They were helped by the Institute of Life in Athens, Greece and had obtained approval from the Greek National Authority of Assisted Reproduction. The pregnant Greek woman had already had four failed IVF cycles and surgery twice for endometriosis.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25416659
| 1,366,024 |
905,855 |
The inspiration for the burgeoning business process now known as PLM came from American Motors Corporation (AMC). The automaker was looking for a way to speed up its product development process to compete better against its larger competitors in 1985, according to François Castaing, Vice President for Product Engineering and Development. Lacking the "massive budgets of General Motors, Ford, and foreign competitors … AMC placed R&D emphasis on bolstering the product lifecycle of its prime products (particularly Jeeps)." After introducing its compact Jeep Cherokee (XJ), the vehicle that launched the modern sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, AMC began development of a new model, that later came out as the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The first part in its quest for faster product development was computer-aided design (CAD) software system that made engineers more productive. The second part in this effort was the new communication system that allowed conflicts to be resolved faster, as well as reducing costly engineering changes because all drawings and documents were in a central database. The product data management was so effective that after AMC was purchased by Chrysler, the system was expanded throughout the enterprise connecting everyone involved in designing and building products. While an early adopter of PLM technology, Chrysler was able to become the auto industry's lowest-cost producer, recording development costs that were half of the industry average by the mid-1990s.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=597229
| 905,379 |
354,147 |
The third battle began 15 March. After a bombardment of 750 tons of 1,000-pound bombs with delayed action fuses, starting at 08:30 and lasting three and a half hours, the New Zealanders advanced behind a creeping artillery barrage from 746 artillery pieces. Success depended on taking advantage of the paralysing effect of the bombing. The bombing was not concentrated – only 50 per cent landed a mile or less from the target point and 8 per cent within 1,000 yards but between it and the shelling about half the 300 paratroopers in the town had been killed. The defences rallied more quickly than expected and the Allied armour was held up by bomb craters. Nevertheless, success was there for the New Zealanders' taking, but by the time a follow-up assault on the left had been ordered that evening it was too late: defences had reorganised and more critically, the rain, contrary to forecast, had started again. Torrents of rain flooded bomb craters, turned rubble into a morass and blotted out communications, the radio sets being incapable of surviving the constant immersion. The dark rain clouds also blotted out the moonlight, hindering the task of clearing routes through the ruins. On the right, the New Zealanders had captured Castle Hill and point 165 and as planned, elements of the Indian 4th Infantry Division, now commanded by Major General Alexander Galloway, had passed through to attack point 236 and thence to point 435, Hangman's Hill. In the confusion of the fight, a company of the 1/9th Gurkha Rifles had taken a track avoiding point 236 and captured point 435 whilst the assault on point 236 by the 1/6th Rajputana Rifles had been repelled.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33088
| 353,964 |
1,749,208 |
Before the discovery of an infectious cause, the symptoms of cholera were thought to be caused by an excess of bile in the patient; the disease cholera gets its name from the Greek word "choler" meaning bile. This theory was consistent with humorism, and led to such medical practices as bloodletting. The bacterium was first reported in 1849 by Gabriel Pouchet, who discovered it in stools from patients with cholera, but he did not appreciate the significance of this presence. The first scientist to understand the significance of "Vibrio cholerae" was the Italian anatomist Filippo Pacini, who published detailed drawings of the organism in "Microscopical observations and pathological deductions on cholera" in 1854. He published further papers in 1866, 1871, 1876 and 1880, which were ignored by the scientific community. He correctly described how the bacteria caused diarrhea, and developed treatments that were found to be effective. Whilst John Snow's epidemiological maps were well recognised, and led to the removal of the Broad Street pump handle, e.g. 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak. In 1874, scientific representatives from 21 countries voted unanimously to resolve that cholera was caused by environmental toxins from "miasmatas", or clouds of unhealthy substances which float in the air. In 1884, Robert Koch re-discovered "Vibrio cholerae" as a causal element in cholera. Some scientists opposed the new theory, and even drank cholera cultures to disprove it:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12999450
| 1,748,222 |
209,648 |
Because human remains (encompassing males, females, and children), tools, and evidence of fire were found in so many layers, it has often been assumed Peking Man lived in the cave for hundreds of thousands of years. In 1929, French archaeologist Henri Breuil suggested the overabundance of skulls compared to body remains is conspicuous, and hypothesised the remains represent the trophies of cannibalistic headhunters, either a band of "H. erectus" or a more "advanced" species of human. In 1937, French palaeoanthropologist Marcellin Boule believed the Peking Man brain was insufficiently developed for such behaviour, based on its small size, and suggested the skulls belonged to a primitive species and the limbs to a more evolved one, the latter manufacturing stone tools and cannibalising the former. Weidenreich did not believe brain size could be a dependable measure of cultural complexity, but, in 1939, he detailed the pathology of the Peking Man fossils and came to the conclusion of cannibalism or headhunting. The majority of the remains bear evidence of scars or injuries which he ascribed to attacks from clubs or stone tools; all the skulls have broken-in bases which he believed was done to extract the brain; and the femora (thigh bones) have lengthwise splits, which he supposed was done to harvest the bone marrow. Weidenreich's sentiments became widely popular. Another school of thought, proposed by Péi in 1929, held that individuals were dragged in by hyenas. In 1939, pioneering the field of taphonomy (the study of fossilisation), German palaeontologist highlighted parallels between the Zhoukoudian fossils and cow bones gnawed by hyaenas he studied at Vienna Zoo. Weidenreich subsequently conceded in 1941 that the breaking-off of the epiphyses of long bones is most likely due to hyena activity, but he was unconvinced that hyenas broke open the skull base or were capable of creating the long splits in the robust femora, still ascribing those to stone-tool-wielding cannibals.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=253340
| 209,541 |
139,801 |
Prior to Project Mercury, there was no protocol for selecting astronauts, so NASA would set a far-reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronauts. At the end of 1958, various ideas for the selection pool were discussed privately within the national government and the civilian space program, and also among the public at large. Initially, there was the idea to issue a widespread public call to volunteers. Thrill-seekers such as rock climbers and acrobats would have been allowed to apply, but this idea was quickly shot down by NASA officials who understood that an undertaking such as space flight required individuals with professional training and education in flight engineering. By late 1958, NASA officials decided to move forward with test pilots being the heart of their selection pool. On President Eisenhower's insistence, the group was further narrowed down to active duty military test pilots, which set the number of candidates at 508. These candidates were USN or USMC naval aviation pilots (NAPs), or USAF pilots of Senior or Command rating. These aviators had long military records, which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions. Furthermore, these aviators were skilled in flying the most advanced aircraft to date, giving them the best qualifications for the new position of astronaut. During this time, women were banned from flying in the military and so could not successfully qualify as test pilots. This meant that no female candidates could earn consideration for the title of astronaut. Civilian NASA X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong was also disqualified, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man in Space Soonest program, which was replaced by Mercury. Although Armstrong had been a combat-experienced NAP during the Korean War, he left active duty in 1952. Armstrong became NASA's first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA's second group, and became the first man on the Moon in 1969.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19812
| 139,744 |
1,708,185 |
Hyperbilirubinemia is a clinical condition describing an elevation of blood bilirubin level due to the inability to properly metabolise or excrete bilirubin, a product of erythrocytes breakdown. In severe cases, it is manifested as jaundice, the yellowing of tissues like skin and the sclera when excess bilirubin deposits in them. The US records 52,500 jaundice patients annually. By definition, bilirubin concentration of greater than 3 mg/ml is considered hyperbilirubinemia, following which jaundice progressively develops and becomes apparent when plasma levels reach 20 mg/ml. Rather than a disease itself, hyperbilirubinemia is indicative of multifactorial underlying disorders that trace back to deviations from regular bilirubin metabolism. Diagnosis of hyperbilirubinemia depends on physical examination, urinalysis, serum tests, medical history and imaging to identify the cause. Genetic diseases, alcohol, pregnancy and hepatitis viruses affect the likelihood of hyperbilirubinemia. Causes of hyperbilirubinemia mainly arise from the liver. These include haemolytic anaemias, enzymatic disorders, liver damage and gallstones. Hyperbilirubinemia itself is often benign. Only in extreme cases does kernicterus, a type of brain injury, occur. Therapy for adult hyperbilirubinemia targets the underlying diseases but patients with jaundice often have poor outcomes.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70420570
| 1,707,227 |
1,982,412 |
The first contracts undertaken by CHAM were conducted by members of the academic staff of the Heat Transfer Section of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Imperial College, London. The contracts resulted in the development for industrial organisations of particular versions of certain computer programs, general versions of which had been constructed by Spalding and his colleagues and published in the open scientific literature. The computer programs concerned the analysis of two-dimensional steady fluid-flow phenomena. Subsequently, in the early 1970s, CHAM funds generated from contract work for industrial and governmental clients were used for the development of new families of computer programs, for three-dimensional phenomena as well as two-dimensional ones, and for time-dependent as well as steady flows. At that time CHAM placed a general research contract with Imperial College to develop a complete array of computer programs for predicting all the major types of convective, heat-transfer and chemically-reactive processes which are likely to be encountered in engineering and the natural environment. These programs were equipped with mathematical models for turbulence, radiation, chemical reaction and some two-phase effects, such as particle-size change. During this period, CHAM programs were used by arrangement for calculations required in researches sponsored, for example, by the Science Research Council and the Department of Trade and Industry. In addition, CHAM-generated techniques were incorporated into post-graduate and under-graduate teaching curricula at Imperial College.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20165219
| 1,981,273 |
1,741,571 |
As f decreases progressively during condensation, the remaining vapor becomes more and more depleted of the heavy isotopes, and the magnitude of depletion becomes larger as f approaches zero. The Rayleigh distillation process can explain some first-order spatial patterns observed in the isotopic composition of precipitation across the globe, including isotopic depletion from the tropics to the poles, isotopic depletion from coastal to inland regions, and isotopic depletion with elevation over a mountain range, all of which are associated with progressive moisture loss during transport. The Rayleigh distillation model can also be used to explain the strong correlation between δD and δO observed in global precipitation, expressed as the global meteoric water line (GMWL): δD=8δO+10 (later updated to δD=8.17±0.07 δO+11.27±0.65) The slope of the GMWL reflects the relative magnitude of hydrogen and oxygen isotope fractionation during condensation. The intercept of GMWL is non-zero (called deuterium-excess, or d-excess), which means ocean water does fall on GMWL. This is associated with the kinetic isotope effect during evaporation when water vapor diffuses from the saturated boundary layer to the unsaturated transition zone, and cannot be explained by the Rayleigh model. Nevertheless, the robust pattern in GMWL strongly suggests a single dominant moisture source to the global atmosphere, which is the tropical western Pacific. It should also be pointed out that a local meteoric water line can have a different slope and intercept from the GMWL, due to differences in humidity and evaporation intensity at different places. Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in water thus serve as an excellent tracer of the hydrological cycle both globally and locally.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50525886
| 1,740,589 |
566,933 |
Mac Quayle contributed to the game's combat music. He was hired on the project in early 2018; the developers were familiar with his previous work on the television series "Mr. Robot". Largely unfamiliar with gaming, Quayle immediately bought a PlayStation 4 and a copy of "The Last of Us" to familiarise himself with the series before meeting to discuss the second game. He began writing ideas for the game in May 2018, and delivered his final music in January 2020; he found the deadlines much more relaxed compared to film and television projects. The team discussed potential collaborations between Santaolalla and Quayle, including sharing stems and sessions, though ultimately their collaborations were minimal; they performed a three-day recording session in the PlayStation offices in October 2018, where they experimented with different sounds and instruments to create "grooves and textures" that were later used in the game. Quayle attributed the similarities between their work to the developers "really knowing what they wanted". Quayle's music aimed to represent the "relentless tension" of the gameplay sequences, consistently moving the action forward and heightening the suspense and anxiety. The developers wanted to avoid music that sounded "too electronic or too organic and natural". Quayle was provided with videos of early gameplay captures for inspiration, instead of composing directly to scenes. He used Logic Pro for his work, which he used to heavily manipulate the several live acoustic instruments. His favorite instruments on the project were the bass guitar and cello; for the latter, he brought in a professional cellist.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64504979
| 566,643 |
941,734 |
Phase-change cooling is an extremely effective way to cool the processor. A vapor compression phase-change cooler is a unit that usually sits underneath the PC, with a tube leading to the processor. Inside the unit is a compressor of the same type as in an air conditioner. The compressor compresses a gas (or mixture of gases) which comes from the evaporator (CPU cooler discussed below). Then, the very hot high-pressure vapor is pushed into the condenser (heat dissipation device) where it condenses from a hot gas into a liquid, typically subcooled at the exit of the condenser then the liquid is fed to an expansion device (restriction in the system) to cause a drop in pressure a vaporize the fluid (cause it to reach a pressure where it can boil at the desired temperature); the expansion device used can be a simple capillary tube to a more elaborate thermal expansion valve. The liquid evaporates (changing phase), absorbing the heat from the processor as it draws extra energy from its environment to accommodate this change (see latent heat). The evaporation can produce temperatures reaching around . The liquid flows into the evaporator cooling the CPU, turning into a vapor at low pressure. At the end of the evaporator this gas flows down to the compressor and the cycle begins over again. This way, the processor can be cooled to temperatures ranging from , depending on the load, wattage of the processor, the refrigeration system (see refrigeration) and the gas mixture used. This type of system suffers from a number of issues (cost, weight, size, vibration, maintenance, cost of electricity, noise, need for a specialized computer tower) but, mainly, one must be concerned with dew point and the proper insulation of all sub-ambient surfaces that must be done (the pipes will sweat, dripping water on sensitive electronics).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=798370
| 941,232 |
702,171 |
In 1987, "" by Atlus for the Nintendo Famicom abandoned the common medieval fantasy setting and sword and sorcery theme in favour of a modern science-fiction setting and horror theme. It also introduced the monster-catching mechanic with its demon-summoning system, which allowed the player to recruit enemies into their party, through a conversation system that gives the player a choice of whether to kill or spare an enemy and allows them to engage any opponent in conversation. Sega's original "Phantasy Star" for the Master System established a number of genre conventions, and its setting combined sci-fi and fantasy in a way that set it apart from the "D&D" staple. It also featured pre-defined player characters with their own backstories, which would later become common in console RPGs. It was also one of the first games to feature a female protagonist and animated monster encounters, and allowed inter-planetary travel between three planets. "Boys' Life" magazine in 1988 predicted that "Phantasy Star" as well as the "Zelda" games may represent the future of home video games, combining the qualities of both arcade and computer games. Another 1987 title "" was a third-person RPG that featured a wide open world and a mini-map on the corner of the screen. The "Dragon Slayer" series also made its debut on the NES console (and thus to American audiences) in 1987, with the port of "Legacy of the Wizard" ("Dragon Slayer IV"), a non-linear action RPG featuring a Metroidvania-style open world, and the release of "Faxanadu", a side-story to "Xanadu". "Wonder Boy in Monster Land" combined the platform gameplay of the original "Wonder Boy" with many RPG elements, which would inspire later action RPGs such as "Popful Mail" (1991).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32408675
| 701,806 |
505,849 |
There are two major trends in the theoretical and methodological study of attitudes in the social sciences - mentalist and behaviorist. The mentalist trend treats attitude as a mediating concept while the behaviorist trend operationally defines it as a probability concept, though in research practice both derive their attitude measures from response variation. While there are many different views concerning the structure and components of attitudes, there is, however, an overwhelming agreement that attitudes are learned, lasting, and positively related to behavior. Methodology in attitude studies includes direct and indirect measures of all kinds, but language attitude studies have tended to make more use of questionnaires than of other methods. The matched guise technique - a sociolinguistic experimental technique used to determine the true feelings of an individual or community towards a specific language, dialect, or accent - has been extensively used for studies relating to the social significance of languages and language varieties. A special adaptation of this technique, called mirror image, appears promising for measuring consensual evaluations of language switching at the situational level. Situational based self-report instruments such as those used by Greenfield and Fishman also promise to be very effective instruments for studies pertaining to normative views concerning the situational use of languages and language varieties. The commitment measure has been found to be particularly suited for collecting data on behavioral tendencies. Data obtained through interviewing may be difficult to process and score – and may provide bias from those being interviewed – but the research interview can be particularly effective for attitude assessment, especially when used to complement the observational method. Data collected through the observational method can be formally processed like data obtained through more formalized instruments if attempts are made to record the data in more public forms instead of only through the approach most characteristic for this kind of data have used so far.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=320063
| 505,586 |
1,554,213 |
In a 1934 experiment, Strumia gave neutropenic patients intramuscular injections of neutrophils, but this proved ineffective in improving their neutrophil function. In 1953, Brecher et al. demonstrated the principle behind granulocyte transfusion by infusing neutrophils into dogs and showing that they travelled to sites of inflammation. The first human granulocyte transfusions were carried out in the 1960s, using white blood cells harvested from people with chronic myeloid leukemia and concentrated using centrifugation. Steroid treatment and leukapheresis were later introduced, allowing granulocytes to be collected from healthy donors. However, these techniques were not very effective as they did not produce a high granulocyte count. Owing to poor efficacy, an undesirable side effect profile, and the impracticality of storing granulocytes for an extended period of time, the use of granulocyte transfusions declined. Improvements in antimicrobial therapy and supportive care also played a role in the treatment's decreasing popularity. However, the introduction of donor treatment with G-CSF in the 1990s allowed high numbers of granulocytes to be collected from healthy donors. This, combined with an increasing number of people with severe neutropenia as a result of chemotherapy and the growing prevalence of multidrug resistant infections, led to a renewal of interest in granulocyte transfusions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64093350
| 1,553,332 |
1,072,989 |
While he was waiting for his paper to be published, O'Neill organized a small two-day conference in May 1974 at Princeton to discuss the possibility of colonizing outer space. The conference, titled "First Conference on Space Colonization", was funded by Stewart Brand's Point Foundation and Princeton University. Among those who attended were Eric Drexler (at the time a freshman at MIT), scientist-astronaut Joe Allen (from Astronaut Group 6), Freeman Dyson, and science reporter Walter Sullivan. Representatives from NASA also attended and brought estimates of launch costs expected on the planned Space Shuttle. O'Neill thought of the attendees as "a band of daring radicals". Sullivan's article on the conference was published on the front page of "The New York Times" on May 13, 1974. As media coverage grew, O'Neill was inundated with letters from people who were excited about living in space. To stay in touch with them, O'Neill began keeping a mailing list and started sending out updates on his progress. A few months later he heard Peter Glaser speak about solar power satellites at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. O'Neill realized that, by building these satellites, his space colonies could quickly recover the cost of their construction. According to O'Neill, "the profound difference between this and everything else done in space is the potential of generating large amounts of new wealth".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=758947
| 1,072,435 |
559,725 |
However, science took an ever greater step towards popular culture before Voltaire’s introduction and Châtelet’s translation. The publication of Bernard de Fontenelle's "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds" (1686) marked the first significant work that expressed scientific theory and knowledge expressly for the laity, in the vernacular, and with the entertainment of readers in mind. The book was produced specifically for women with an interest in scientific writing and inspired a variety of similar works. These popular works were written in a discursive style, which was laid out much more clearly for the reader than the complicated articles, treatises, and books published by the academies and scientists. Charles Leadbetter’s "Astronomy" (1727) was advertised as “a Work entirely New” that would include “short and easie Rules and Astronomical Tables.” Francesco Algarotti, writing for a growing female audience, published "Il Newtonianism per le dame", which was a tremendously popular work and was translated from Italian into English by Elizabeth Carter. A similar introduction to Newtonianism for women was produced by Henry Pembarton. His "A View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy" was published by subscription. Extant records of subscribers show that women from a wide range of social standings purchased the book, indicating the growing number of scientifically inclined female readers among the middling class. During the Enlightenment, women also began producing popular scientific works themselves. Sarah Trimmer wrote a successful natural history textbook for children entitled "The Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature" (1782), which was published for many years after in eleven editions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17912788
| 559,436 |
1,464,663 |
Blood-based biomarkers those are obtained from plasma or serum samples. Since the prevalence of metabolic syndromes is increased in schizophrenia patients, makers of those syndromes have been common targets of research. Differences between patients and controls have been found in insulin levels, insulin resistance, and glucose tolerance. These effects are generally small, however, and often present only in a subset of patients, which results from the heterogeneity of the disease. Furthermore, these results are often complicated by the metabolic side effects of anti-psychotic medication. Serum levels of hormones typically active in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, such as cortisol and acetylcholine, have also been correlated with symptoms and progression of schizophrenia. Peripheral biomarkers of immune function have also been a major target of research, with over 75 candidates having been identified. Cytokines and growth factors are consistently identified as candidates by different studies, but variation in identity and direction of the correlation is common. In recent years, markers of oxidative stress, epigentic methylation, mRNA transcription, and proteomic expression have also been targets of research, with their potential still to be determined. It is likely that no single biomarker will be clinically useful, but rather a biomarker assay would have to be performed, like the well-performing 51 marker assay developed by E. Schwarz and colleagues.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30487688
| 1,463,840 |
1,311,161 |
The idea of using tears in the fabric of space-time was influenced by a similar story decision in "BioShock". With Rapture set in the 1960, the Irrational team had looked to the scientific progress of James D. Watson and Francis Crick towards understanding DNA in 1953, and built the idea of ADAM and gene modification. For "Infinite", the same concept was used with the development of quantum theory by Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Werner Heisenberg that would later bore out in the Many Worlds Theory. Incorporating the use of tears was a challenge from the story standpoint but one that Levine enjoyed, noting that this leads to the impression of Booker being an unreliable narrator for the events of the game. One of the game demonstrations showed Elizabeth accidentally opening a tear into a 1980s setting after trying to revive a fallen horse. This setting was in contrast to their initial idea, a woodland glade, which Levine felt wasn't "striking or different enough" than the rest of Columbia. Instead, they borrowed assets from a previous project that, according to lead artist Shawn Robertson, Irrational was "literally about to throw away", finding the contrast and abrupt differences from the Columbia setting helped to emphasize the use of tears in the game. In regards to the ending, Levine has stated that the ending of "Infinite" is "like nothing you've experienced in a video game before"; the story purposely avoids a problem that arose from the original "BioShock" in which, after the death of Andrew Ryan before the last third of the game, "the story loses some of its steam".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38977195
| 1,310,443 |
1,377,907 |
McMullen started the process of wanting to sell the team in 1990, expressing a desire to do in part due to age and the rising value of the team. On July 24, 1992, it was announced that McMullen had come to an agreement with Drayton McLane to sell the team, which also included the lease on the Astrodome for a total of $117 million; approval by the league owners followed in the fall. It was during this season that the Astros were to play 26 consecutive road games from July 27 through August 23, due to the 1992 Republican National Convention being held at the Astrodome from August 17–20 (since the RNC required a couple of weeks to prepare the staging), as agreed on by McMullen without getting approval from the Players Association. McMullen stated his regret at his decision, stating that he wished he had told the RNC "to go to hell". The 1992 season saw the Astros average roughly over 14,000 per game in attendance, while the 1993 season saw an average of 25,000. Under his 14-year tenure as owner (1979-1992), the Astros had eight winning seasons that saw three postseason appearances with a record of 1,129-1,088 in the regular season and 6-10 in the postseason. McMullen was behind the acquisition of players that would play a part in the Astros resurgence in the late 1990s, such as draft picks Craig Biggio and trade prospect Jeff Bagwell. McMullen went through four general managers during this time from Tal Smith (1979–1980), Al Rosen (1980–1985), Dick Wagner (1985–1987), and Bill Wood (hired in 1987); he went through four different managers: Bill Virdon (fired in 1982), Bob Lillis (1982–1985), Hal Lanier (1986–1988), and Art Howe (hired in 1989, fired by McLane in 1993).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6891489
| 1,377,145 |
1,481,565 |
There have been few cases of this disease documented in detail and actually diagnosed with Babinski–Nageotte syndrome since its discovery in 1902. In one case this syndrome occurred in a woman that was 10 days into her postpartum period and had delivered her baby via Cesarean section. She had complaints of dysarthria, dysphagia, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and weakness of left arm and leg. After looking into her medical records there was only a sudden development of these symptoms one hour before being admitted to the hospital and additional symptoms of dysphagia, dysarthria, and weakness of left arm and leg. The only background health information found was she had given birth via Caesarean section 10 days prior and was diagnosed with preeclampsia in her 33rd week of pregnancy. During their first evaluation, it was noted that they appeared to be in a stuporous state and had dysarthric speech, eye movement was examined and found vertical and horizontal nystagmus. During cranial examination there was flattening of left sided nasolabial sulcus with abnormal gag reflex observed. In the motor system examination, the left upper and lower extremity muscle power were 3/5 level and her Babinski reflex was found to be an extensor response on the left side. During the sensory system examination, pain and thermal senses of the patient were decreased on the left side of the body and cerebellar tests were abnormal on the right side. Evaluation of the cranial MRI screening of the patient with the misdoubt of cerebrovascular disease showed results that were consistent with diffusion restriction which was thought to be acute infarct extending to inferior cerebellar peduncle with involvement of right sided posterolateral medulla oblongata. In magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), stenosis was seen in the distal segment of right vertebral artery.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29836700
| 1,480,731 |
833,131 |
In 1872, the U.S Ambassador to China Frederick Low said: "That you may the better understand my reasons for this opinion, some facts in regard to the present organization of Chinese military forces may be useful. With the exception of troops immediately in and about Peking (Beijing), the military forces of the empire are made up of separate armies that have been raised and organized by, and are practically under control of, the several high provincial officers each viceroy being held responsible by the Imperial Government for a suitable quota of troops to maintain order within his own jurisdiction, and, in case of extreme emergency, to help suppress insurrection or repel invasion in other provinces. Theoretically, all the officers are directly the appointees of the emperor; practically, they are selected by the several viceroys whose nominations are simply approved by the central government. At the present time all the foreigners employed in instructing troops in the art of war are subject to provincial authority and control. They are little better in point of rank and position than 'drill-sergeants,' a position which, if not degrading, cannot be considered honorable. Even General Ward and Colonel Gordon, who were employed to assist in putting down the Taiping rebellion, were engaged and paid by the viceroy at Nanking, although the Central Government gave to them a tacit but not real imperial position". Charles Gordon strongly preferred providing assistance to the regional "yong-ying" rather than the "helpless" central government. After he returned to England, the subsequent Chinese-hired British trainers sent by the British consulate were incompetent and neglected their duties.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=407942
| 832,682 |
56,864 |
Kurtzman revealed in October 2020 that Paramount+ was constructing a video wall to allow for virtual production on the season as well as the series "", utilizing technology similar to the StageCraft system that was developed for the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian". The new virtual set was built in Toronto by visual effects company Pixomondo, and features a 270-degree, by horseshoe-shaped LED volume with additional LED panels in the ceiling to aid with lighting. The technology uses the game engine software Unreal Engine to display computer-generated backgrounds on the LED screens in real-time during filming, which visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman noted was especially useful for creating the planets that are visited in the series; due to the pandemic, the production was unable to film on location outside of North America to portray alien planets as they did for the third season. The virtual stage was still being installed by the time production took a break for Christmas in late December. The majority of filming for the first two episodes had been completed by then, but scenes requiring the video wall were set to be filmed after the break once the technology was ready. Zimmerman oversaw the installation and use of the volume remotely from Los Angeles, and said the production design and art departments were involved with the visual effects earlier than usualn since they needed to be ready for filming in the volume. Doug McCullough took over as production designer for the season, and used the technology to create environments that otherwise would not have been possible, such as the large prison in "The Examples". Other virtual locations included the "Discovery" shuttle bay (which appeared in previous seasons without the technology), the Kaminar Council Chamber, and the Federation Headquarters shuttle bay. Almost every episode of the season used virtual production for at least one scene.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63388083
| 56,840 |
1,565,824 |
Determination then requires comparisons of certain characteristics and then assigning a particular specimen to a known taxonomic group, hopefully ultimately arriving at a species or infraspecific name. The characteristics used are usually morphological, such as colours, numbers, shapes and sizes of particular organs. Where possible, this is traditionally done using dichotomous keys. Keys are traditionally found in such works such as floras, field guides or monographs. Botanical or entomological keys have been coded as computer programs. Applications are even available now which use artificial intelligence to identify plants on the basis of photographs. There are not always keys available for certain regions or plant groups, and the person determining the specimen will then have to rely on characteristics in the species description or discovered through comparison of multiple specimens with the type. Using DNA barcoding is a modern method that does not require the determiner to be highly trained. Another similar method uses the alkaloid profiles of specimens to determine the species. The total weight or length of the genome as measured in base-pairs can be used to identify species. Paleontologists must be able to identify their specimens based only on the shapes and sizes of fossilised bones. In forestry, especially in the tropics, identifying trees based on the flowers or leaves high up in the crown can be difficult, a method of identifying tree species in this case is called a 'slash', a shallow machete cut to the trunk to expose the colours of the different layers inside, and show the type of sap. The science of identifying plant species using their pollen is called palynology. Geography can also sometimes help in narrowing down the identity of a specimen. Sometimes the determiner will be unable to identify a specimen clearly, and use such additions as "cf." or "aff." to convey this.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28340094
| 1,564,937 |
1,146,655 |
The Sol Plaatje University, which had provisionally been referred to as the University of the Northern Cape, opened in Kimberley, South Africa, in 2014, accommodating a modest initial intake of 135 students. The student complement is expected to increase gradually towards a target of 7 500 students by 2024. Launched in a ceremony in Kimberley on 19 September 2013, it had been formally established as a public university in terms of Section 20 of the Higher Education Act of 1997, by way of Government Notice 630, dated 22 August 2013. Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, observed at the launch that this “is the first new university (in South Africa) to be launched since 1994 and as such is a powerful symbol of the country’s democracy, inclusiveness, and growth. It represents a new order of African intellect, with a firm focus on innovation and excellence." Previously announcing the name for the university, on 25 July 2013, President Jacob Zuma mentioned the development of academic niche areas that did not exist elsewhere, or were under-represented, in South Africa. "Given the rich heritage of Kimberley and the Northern Cape in general," Zuma said, "it is envisaged that Sol Plaatje will specialise in heritage studies, including interconnected academic fields such as museum management, archaeology, indigenous languages, and restoration architecture."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39485998
| 1,146,051 |
1,506,485 |
A new chapter was opened when Max Lewandowsky in 1899 in Berlin observed that adrenal extracts acted on the smooth muscle of the eye and orbit of cats – such as the iris dilator muscle and nictitating membrane – in the same way as sympathetic nerve stimulation. The correspondence was extended by John Newport Langley and, under his supervision, Thomas Renton Elliott in Cambridge. In four papers in volume 31, 1904, of the "Journal of Physiology" Elliott described the similarities organ by organ. His hypothesis stands in the abstract of a presentation to the Physiological Society of May 21, 1904, a little over ten years after Oliver and Schafer's presentation: ″Adrenalin does not excite sympathetic ganglia when applied to them directly, as does nicotine. Its effective action is localized at the periphery. I find that even after complete denervation, whether of three days’ or ten months’ duration, the plain muscle of the dilatator pupillae will respond to adrenalin, and that with greater rapidity and longer persistence than does the iris whose nervous relations are uninjured. Therefore, it cannot be than adrenalin excites any structure derived from, and dependent for its persistence on, the peripheral neurone. ... The point at which the stimulus of the chemical excitant is received, and transformed into what may cause the change of tension of the muscle fiber, is perhaps a mechanism developed out of the muscle cell in response to its union with the synapsing sympathetic fiber, the function of which is to receive and transform the nervous impulse. "Adrenalin" might then be the chemical stimulant liberated on each occasion when the impulse arrives at the periphery.″ The abstract is the ″birth certificate″ of chemical neurotransmission. Elliott was never so explicit again. It seems he was discouraged by the lack of a favorable response from his seniors, Langley in particular, and a few years later he left physiological research.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38791208
| 1,505,639 |
980,777 |
When France had just fallen to the Nazis and Britain had no money to develop the magnetron on a massive scale, Churchill agreed that Sir Henry Tizard should offer the magnetron to the Americans in exchange for their financial and industrial help (the Tizard Mission). An early 6 kW version, built in England by the General Electric Company Research Laboratories, Wembley, London (not to be confused with the similarly named American company General Electric), was given to the US government in September 1940. The British magnetron was a thousand times more powerful than the best American transmitter at the time and produced accurate pulses. At the time the most powerful equivalent microwave producer available in the US (a klystron) had a power of only ten watts. The cavity magnetron was widely used during World War II in microwave radar equipment and is often credited with giving Allied radar a considerable performance advantage over German and Japanese radars, thus directly influencing the outcome of the war. It was later described by noted Historian James Phinney Baxter III as "The most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1280053
| 980,265 |
1,194,788 |
out a basic understanding of the nervous system and how nerves communicate between one another. Before this discovery, there were drugs that had been found that demonstrated some type of influence on the nervous system. In the 1930s, French scientists began working with a compound called phenothiazine in the hope of synthesizing a drug that would be able to combat malaria. Though this drug showed very little hope in the use against malaria-infected individuals, it was found to have sedative effects along with what appeared to be beneficial effects toward patients with Parkinson's disease. This black box method, wherein an investigator would administer a drug and examine the response without knowing how to relate drug action to patient response, was the main approach to this field, until, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, scientists were able to identify specific neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine (involved in the constriction of blood vessels and the increase in heart rate and blood pressure), dopamine (the chemical whose shortage is involved in Parkinson's disease), and serotonin (soon to be recognized as deeply connected to depression). In the 1950s, scientists also became better able to measure levels of specific neurochemicals in the body and thus correlate these levels with behavior. The invention of the voltage clamp in 1949 allowed for the study of ion channels and the nerve action potential. These two major historical events in neuropharmacology allowed scientists not only to study how information is transferred from one neuron to another but also to study how a neuron processes this information within itself.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1685778
| 1,194,148 |
31,806 |
Electrolytic capacitors use an aluminum or tantalum plate with an oxide dielectric layer. The second electrode is a liquid electrolyte, connected to the circuit by another foil plate. Electrolytic capacitors offer very high capacitance but suffer from poor tolerances, high instability, gradual loss of capacitance especially when subjected to heat, and high leakage current. Poor quality capacitors may leak electrolyte, which is harmful to printed circuit boards. The conductivity of the electrolyte drops at low temperatures, which increases equivalent series resistance. While widely used for power-supply conditioning, poor high-frequency characteristics make them unsuitable for many applications. Electrolytic capacitors suffer from self-degradation if unused for a period (around a year), and when full power is applied may short circuit, permanently damaging the capacitor and usually blowing a fuse or causing failure of rectifier diodes. For example, in older equipment, this may cause arcing in rectifier tubes. They can be restored before use by gradually applying the operating voltage, often performed on antique vacuum tube equipment over a period of thirty minutes by using a variable transformer to supply AC power. The use of this technique may be less satisfactory for some solid state equipment, which may be damaged by operation below its normal power range, requiring that the power supply first be isolated from the consuming circuits. Such remedies may not be applicable to modern high-frequency power supplies as these produce full output voltage even with reduced input.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4932111
| 31,795 |
450,976 |
Having entered Cambridge in 1935, Huxley graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1938. In 1939, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin returned from the US to take up a fellowship at Trinity College, and Huxley became one of his postgraduate students. Hodgkin was interested in the transmission of electrical signals along nerve fibres. Beginning in 1935 in Cambridge, he had made preliminary measurements on frog sciatic nerves suggesting that the accepted view of the nerve as a simple, elongated battery was flawed. Hodgkin invited Huxley to join him researching the problem. The work was experimentally challenging. One major problem was that the small size of most neurons made it extremely difficult to study them using the techniques of the time. They overcame this by working at the Marine Biological Association laboratory in Plymouth using the giant axon of the longfin inshore squid ("Doryteuthis (formerly Loligo) pealeii"), which have the largest neurons known. The experiments were still extremely challenging as the nerve impulses only last a fraction of a millisecond, during which time they needed to measure the changing electrical potential at different points along the nerve. Using equipment largely of their own construction and design, including one of the earliest applications of a technique of electrophysiology known as the voltage clamp, they were able to record ionic currents. In 1939, they jointly published a short paper in "Nature" reporting on the work done in Plymouth and announcing their achievement of recording action potentials from inside a nerve fibre.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=145842
| 450,757 |
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