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The core scientific activity of CNC is the study of the molecular basis of neurodegenerative processes common to ageing, neurodegenerative disorders, cerebral ischaemia and epilepsy. In parallel, the research groups explore mechanisms of neuroprotection and regeneration, which may be future candidates for the development of potential therapeutic strategies to manage these disorders. This core activity is complemented by supporting areas which also develop their own research activity, opening the scope of intervention of CNC in the biomedical field, while providing novel lines of research applicable to Neuroscience, namely: genetic screening of diseases; structure-function relation of proteins with biomedical or biotechnological interest; development of new vectors for delivery of drugs and genetic material; development of biomaterials for stem cell-based therapeutics; study of drug and disease-induced cell dysfunction, with particular expertise in processes involving mitochondrial dysfunction and free radicals; intermediate metabolism and diabetes; cellular and developmental biology, whose programs focused on human infertility, disruption of human cell function in cancer, contact dermatitis, osteoarthritis, autoimmune disease, obesity and pathogens biology, involve close partnerships with clinicians at Coimbra University Hospital Centre (CHUC) and Coimbra Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO); microbiology with emphasis on the strategies for adaptation of microorganisms to extreme environments, the screening and development of new anti-mycobacterial drugs and the susceptibility to legionella and fungal infection.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15672247
| 2,163,501 |
305,220 |
The early 1970s were a particularly stormy period for socialists, as capitalism had its first worldwide slump of 1973-4, suffered from rising oil prices, and a crisis in confidence. In southern Europe, for example, the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 1974 threatened the existence of capitalism for a while due to the insurrection and the occupations which followed. A "New York Times" editorial on February 17, 1975, stated "a communist takeover of Portugal might encourage a similar trend in Italy and France, create problems in Greece and Turkey, affect the succession in Spain and Yugoslavia and send tremors throughout Western Europe." The Greek military dictatorship fell in Greece, PASOK arose at first with a strong socialist outlook, and in Spain, the Spanish State fell in a period of rising struggle. In Italy there was continual unrest, and governments fell almost annually. The Italian workers won and defended the "scala mobile", the sliding scale of wages linked to inflation. However, as before, neither the Communists nor the social democracy had any plans to abolish capitalism, and the occupations in Portugal, variously estimated to have taken between 70 - 90% of the economy, were gradually rolled back. The UK saw a state of emergency and the three-day week, with 22 million days lost in strike action in 1972, leading to the fall of the Heath government. The Trotskyist Militant, an entryist group active in the Labour Party, became the "fifth most important political party" in the UK for a period in the mid-1980s, according to the journalist Michael Crick.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47246185
| 305,057 |
1,790,807 |
Due to the social and environmental conditions in northern Nigeria, the flexibility of both ecological management and economic activity are vital components of any strategy for agricultural and rural livelihood in the region. It is often contended that African farmers are unsuccessful at intensifying agriculture through the use of a method that is environmentally sustainable as well as economically productive. The vegetation of northern Nigeria is predominantly marginal or short grass savannah (see Figure 1), and this region is characterized by a relatively hot climate with seasonal rainfall and a marked Dry season. The pressures of an increasing population (see Figure 2) are understood to cause increasing food demands by urban consumers and rural farmers, the expansion of areas of cultivation, reduced uncultivated land intervals with a lack of inputs necessary to compensate and as a result reduced soil fertility. This means that per capita and per hectare yields will decline and food will become scarce, especially for those in rural areas. However, an increase in Population density may have a positive impact rather than negative consequences for the economy as well as the environment. Studies carried out in the Kano Close-Settled Zone and the surrounding region indicated that in particular places, at certain times, the intensification of agricultural practices can take place without the typical associated degradation. While there exist poverty in the region, as well as people who are without sufficient food, it does not appear to be a decline in Crop yields. Instead, evidence suggests there has been a sustained effort to increase the production of food in an attempt to keep up with the increasing need.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26203387
| 1,789,801 |
2,136,584 |
The High Altitude Plasma Instrument (HAPI) consisted of an array of five electrostatic analyzers capable of making measurements of the phase-space distributions of electrons and positive ions in the energy/charge range from 5 eV to 32 keV as a function of pitch angle. This investigation provided data contributing to the studies of (1) the composition and energy of Birkeland current charge carriers, (2) the dynamic configuration of high-latitude magnetic flux tubes, (3) auroral particle source regions and acceleration mechanisms, (4) the role of E parallel to B and E perpendicular to B in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system, (5) the sources and the effects of polar cap particle fluxes, (6) the transport of plasma within and through the magnetospheric clefts, (7) wave-particle interactions, and (8) hot-cold plasma interactions. This instrument consisted of five identical detector heads, each having an electrostatic analyzer (of the ISIS-2 type) and two sensors (one electron channel and one ion channel). The detector heads were mounted on the main body. One of the detector heads was mounted in the spin plane, two were offset by ± 12°, and two were offset by ± 45°. One detector swept within a few degree of the field line during each rotation of the spacecraft, except when the magnetic field was greatly deformed from its meridian plane. The basic mode of operation provided a 32-point energy spectrum from each sensor, but the voltages on the electrostatic analyzers were programmable to allow for operation over limited portions of the energy spectrum, or at higher time resolution with reduced energy resolution. The energy resolution was 32%. The angular resolution was 2.5° Full width at half maximum (FWHM) (in the plane of detection) by 10° (polar angle). The sampling rate was 64 per second, and the total acceptance angle was 5° by 20°. Due to a failure in the high voltage power supply for the detectors, the instrument ceased operation on 1 December 1981.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69341287
| 2,135,356 |
934,469 |
Exciting new developments in biotechnology are now revolutionizing biology and biomedical research. Examples of these techniques are high-throughput sequencing, high-throughput quantitative PCR, intra-cellular imaging, in-situ hybridization of gene expression, three-dimensional imaging techniques like Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy, and Optical Projection (micro)-Computer Tomography. Given the massive amounts of complicated data that is generated by these techniques, their meaningful interpretation, and even their storage, form major challenges calling for new approaches. Going beyond current bioinformatics approaches, computational biology needs to develop new methods to discover meaningful patterns in these large data sets. Model-based reconstruction of gene networks can be used to organize the gene expression data in a systematic way and to guide future data collection. A major challenge here is to understand how gene regulation is controlling fundamental biological processes like biomineralization and embryogenesis. The sub-processes like gene regulation, organic molecules interacting with the mineral deposition process, cellular processes, physiology, and other processes at the tissue and environmental levels are linked. Rather than being directed by a central control mechanism, biomineralization and embryogenesis can be viewed as an emergent behavior resulting from a complex system in which several sub-processes on very different temporal and spatial scales (ranging from nanometer and nanoseconds to meters and years) are connected into a multi-scale system. One of the few available options to understand such systems is by developing a multi-scale model of the system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1181008
| 933,977 |
1,110,189 |
By the late 1920s the popularity of C melody saxophones had faded. Sales of all saxophones fell dramatically after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the C melody was one of several models (including the mezzo-soprano saxophone) which were dropped from production soon after. However, it is important to note that production ended for purely financial reasons, and not because of any inherent flaw in the design or poor manufacturing standards. C melody saxophones were as good as the reputation of whichever company manufactured them. The basic problem was that the Great Depression which followed immediately after the stock market crash of 1929 caused extremely harsh economic conditions throughout the world, which affected the production of all leisure-related consumer products. This unusually profound recession hit saxophone manufacturers hard, forcing them to reduce the range of musical instruments they produced down to the most popular models, simply in order for those companies to survive. As a result, production of C melody saxophones ended abruptly. By the time the world economy had recovered sufficiently for C melody saxophones to be economically viable again (around 1935) people's leisure time interests had changed and there was no longer a market for them. Additionally, the "Big Band" era had started in the early 1930s and anyone who wanted to learn the saxophone was interested primarily in soprano, alto, tenor or baritone because this would, potentially at least, allow them to play in a Big Band, and Big Bands did "not" feature C melody saxophones in their instrument line-up. As a result, there was no consumer demand for C melody instruments, so would-be manufacturers had no incentive to resume production. Not surprisingly, instrument manufacturers concentrated instead on making other types which had strong customer demand and were easy to sell e.g. alto and tenor saxophones.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2339175
| 1,109,624 |
1,872,722 |
As the Nazi regime took on momentum and Austria was annexed to the Third Reich in the Anschluss (12 March 1938) Hilda returned to Vienna, in her role as Honorary Secretary, to use her expertise and connections, in generating documentations and placements and qualifications for Jewish people to aid their escape. ""Only those most closely concerned can know what the work owed at this stage of rapid expansion to the steady faith and practical experience on Hilda Clark."" Sources vary: "According to J Ormorod Greenwood, ""between March 1938 and the outbreak of war, the office of the old Baroque palace in Singerstrasse #16 handled 11,000 applications affecting 15,000 people, prepared detailed case papers for 8,000 families and single persons, and got 4,500 individuals away to many countries each of which had its (own) different immigration procedures."" "According to meticulous statistics that survive 6,000 cases, representing 13,745 persons, were registered between 15 March 1938 and 28 Aug 1939 and 2,408 of this total were ultimately able to leave. They included 509 women, 1,588 men and 311 dependants, the largest number, 1,264 going to 'England', 165 to the United States, and 107 to Australia (Schmitt HA (1997) Quakers & Nazis Columbia/London: University of Michigan Press p163) suggests the "discrepancies are probably largely due to the fact that Greenwood's figures include the children who travelled to England on the "Kindertransport"". By the outbreak of World War II Hilda had returned safely to England.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56470178
| 1,871,645 |
1,942,533 |
The battle of life now began in earnest; and having thus lost the advice and assistance of the first zoologists whom England has ever produced, Mr. Curtis (by the evidence of Mr. MacLeay and other friends) turned his attention to botanical drawing and engraving, which led to engagements with Dr. Sims, and introduced him to the Horticultural Society (of which his friend Dr. Lindley was Secretary), the Linnaen Society, &c. In 1822 he was elected a Fellow of this Society; and on the 1st of January 1824 appeared the first number of ‘British Entomology,’ “being Illustrations and Description of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland, containing coloured figures from nature of the rarest and beautiful species, and in many instances of the plants upon which they are found.” This great work extended to sixteen annual volumes, containing no less than 770 plates, occupied by what the unanimous consent of entomologists has pronounced to be the most exquisite figures of the kind ever produced. The work, as originally designed, was intended to embrace only a detailed description of the genus and of the species figured, accompanied with observations on the generic peculiarities of the group. This limited scope was proposed, partly, because it was known that the late J. Francis Stephens had long been engaged in preparing for publication a work on the species of British insects, the first number of which appeared on the 1st of May 1827. Entomologists, however, are but human; and it, unfortunately, happened that jealousies and ill-feeling soon arose between these two authors, which resulted, on the part of Mr. Curtis, in his introducing into his work, wherever possible, descriptions of each species of the different genera, or of lists of the species, at any rate when too numerous for description. The author’s attention, from this circumstance, was in some measure withdrawn from the generic to the specific details, and accordingly, to the end, continued to confine his detailed generic figures to the structure of the antennae and parts of the mouth, omitting all mention, in many instances, of particulars concerning other parts, which more profound entomologists have shown to possess generic or family value. The same spirit also led to the commencement of the publication of a second edition of the ‘British Entomology,’ in which detailed descriptions of known British species were intended to be given in the text; but of this second edition, two parts only appeared.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1618060
| 1,941,422 |
877,658 |
Another country with an overpopulation problem is India. Medical advances in the past fifty years have lowered the death rate, resulting in large population density and overcrowding. This overcrowding is also due to the fact that poor families do not have access to birth control. Despite this lack of access, sterilization incentives have been in place since the mid-1900s. In the 1960s, the governments of three Indian states and one large private company offered free vasectomies to some employees, occasionally accompanied by a bonus. In 1959, the second Five-Year Plan offered medical practitioners who performed vasectomies on low-income men monetary compensation. Additionally, those who motivated men to receive vasectomies, and those men who did, received compensation. These incentives partially served as a way to educate men that sterilization was the most effective way of contraception and that vasectomies did not affect sexual performance. The incentives were only available to low income men. Men were the target of sterilization because of the ease and quickness of the procedure, as compared to sterilization of women. However, mass sterilization efforts resulted in lack of cleanliness and careful technique, potentially resulting in botched surgeries and other complications. As the fertility rate began to decrease (but not quickly enough), more incentives were offered, such as land and fertilizer. In 1976, compulsory sterilization policies were put in place and some disincentive programs were created to encourage more people to become sterilized. However, these disincentive policies, along with "sterilization camps" (where large amounts of sterilizations were performed quickly and often unsafely), were not received well by the population and gave people less incentive to participate in sterilization. The compulsory laws were removed. Further problems arose and by 1981, there was a noticeable problem in the preference for sons. Since families were encouraged to keep the number of children to a minimum, son preference meant that female fetuses or young girls were killed at a rapid rate. The focus of population policies has changed in the twenty-first century. The government is more concerned with empowering women, protecting them from violence, and providing basic necessities to families. Sterilization efforts are still in existence and still target poor families.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69688
| 877,196 |
1,155,523 |
The basic idea behind Appleton's work is so simple that it is hard to understand at first how he devoted almost all of his scientific career to its study. However, in the last couple of paragraphs some of the complexities of the subject have been introduced. Like many other fields, it is one that grows in intricacy the more it is studied. By the end of his life, ionospheric observatories had been set up all over the world to provide a global map of the reflecting layers. Links were found to the 11-year sunspot cycle and the aurora borealis, the magnetic storms that occur in high latitudes. This became particularly relevant during the Second World War when the storms would lead to radio blackouts. Thanks to Appleton's research, the periods when these would occur could be predicted and communication could be switched to wavelengths that would be least affected. Radar, another crucial wartime innovation, was one that came about thanks to Appleton's work. On a very general level, his research consisted in determining the distance of reflecting objects from radio signal transmitters. This is exactly the idea of radar and the flashing dots that appear on the screen (a cathode ray tube) scanned by the circulating 'searcher' bar. This system was developed partly by Appleton as a new method, called the pulse method, to make ionospheric measurements. It was later adapted by Robert Watson-Watt to detect aeroplanes. Nowadays, ionospheric data is important when communications with satellites are considered. The correct frequencies for these signals must be selected so that they actually reach the satellites without being reflected or deviated before.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=396514
| 1,154,913 |
1,031,367 |
In September 2013, DAPA said they would recommend buying the F-15SE. Ex-Air Force chiefs had insisted that a stealth plane should be chosen regardless of price. Officials did not want to lengthen the long-delayed project and expect that a radar that can detect stealth aircraft will be developed in a few years. On 24 September 2013, the defense ministry rejected the award and said a new competition would be held to "secure military capability in line with recent aviation technology developments." The more advanced aircraft would allow for preemptive strikes against North Korea's nuclear capability and would also better match the fifth generation fighters of Japan and China. As the Phase 3 project restarted, consideration was given to a split buy with only 20 to 40 stealth fighters, or a smaller initial buy with options to pay for the full force later. Boeing consultant Ronald Fogleman had suggested a split buy of his company's F-15SE and later the F-35A to meet South Korea's near-term and longer-term capabilities. Just buying the F-35A would leave it not fully capable until its software is updated to Block 3F standard in the early 2020s. This would reduce the strength of the South Korean Air Force after 2016 when F-4s and F-5s begin to be retired. Buying F-15SE fighters in the near-term could deliver proven payload carrying abilities until the F-35A software enhances its performance and weapons load. Lockheed responded that F-35s would be fully combat capable by the time they would be delivered to Korea in 2017.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40890966
| 1,030,831 |
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Fierce controversies on the role of excess salt intake as a major cause of hypertension in humans were rampant in the second half of the twentieth century. The issue was clouded by citation of multiple factors possible and the role of the Salt Institute in Washington, an industry funded body. At the primate research centre of the Texas Biomedical Institute in San Antonio, Eichberg and Shade showed humans closest relatives, chimpanzees, fed a diet with Na content equivalent to urban humans showed characteristic population blood pressure rise with age. Denton located a population of chimpanzees at the Institute of Primate Research at Franceville, Gabon, approximately 100 km further up the Ouguie river than Dr Schweitzer’s Hospital at Lamborene in Equatorial Africa. The Franceville chimpanzees received essentially a vegetarian-fruit diet providing 5-10 mmol of Na per day. Twelve were continued on the diet and twelve others had sodium added to the same diet via a protein supplement drink given to both groups. Initially, mean blood pressure of both groups was characteristic of agricultural society (circa 120/50 mm of Hg) but with the increase of Na intake up to 15g/day over 1.5 years, which reflected intake in Akita province of Northern Japan (a region of high incidence of hypertension) mean systolic blood pressure had increased by 33 mmHg and diastolic by 10mmHg . By 20 weeks after ceasing salt supplement, the blood pressure had reversed to initial control level baseline. With publication and editorial in Nature Medicine, the New York Times cited it as a decisive one variable experiment and Denton, accompanied by the Editor of Nature Medicine presented a Lecture on it to the FDA in Washington. He was notified later that the Salt Institute had withdrawn a Citizens Petition to the FDA proposing cessation of designation of sodium content of foods in the USA which probably would have influenced many other countries. Denton had already persuaded Heinz in Australia to cease adding salt to baby food.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6869432
| 1,580,834 |
700,697 |
A more fundamental criticism is implied in theories of this type. The differences at the sensory and perceptual levels between agents require that some means of ensuring at least a partial correlation can be achieved that allows the updatings involved in communication to take place. The process in an informative statement begins with the parties hypothetically assuming that they are referring to the "same" entity or "property", even though their selections from their sensory fields cannot match; we can call this mutually imagined projection the "logical subject" of the statement. The speaker then produces the logical predicate which effects the proposed updating of the "referent". If the statement goes through, the hearer will now have a different percept and concept of the "referent"—perhaps even seeing it now as two things and not one. The radical conclusion is that we are premature in conceiving of the external as already sorted into singular "objects" in the first place, since we only need to behave "as if" they are already logically singular. The diagram at the beginning of this entry would thus be thought of as a false picture of the actual case, since to draw "an" object as already selected from the real is only to treat the practically needful, but strictly false, hypothesis of objects-as-logically-singular as ontologically given. The proponents of this view thus argue that there is no need actually "to believe" in the singularity of an object since we can manage perfectly well by "mutually imagining" that 'it' is singular. A proponent of this theory can thus ask the direct realist why he or she thinks it is necessary to move to taking the imagining of singularity for real when there is no practical difference in the outcome in action. Therefore, although there are selections from our sensory fields which for the time being we treat as if they were objects, they are only provisional, open to corrections at any time, and, hence, far from being direct "representations" of pre-existing singularities, they retain an experimental character. Virtual constructs or no, they remain, however, selections that are causally linked to the real and can surprise us at any time—which removes any danger of solipsism in this theory. This approach dovetails with the philosophy known as social constructivism.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=613052
| 700,332 |
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Narlikar completed his school education from Central Hindu College (now Central Hindu Boys School). He received his BSc degree from Banaras Hindu University in 1957. He then began his studies at Cambridge University at Fitzwilliam College like his father, where he received a BA (Tripos) degree in mathematics in 1959 and was Senior Wrangler. In 1960, he won the Tyson Medal for astronomy. During his doctoral studies at Cambridge, he won the Smith's Prize in 1962. After receiving his PhD degree in 1963 under the guidance of Fred Hoyle, he served as a Berry Ramsey Fellow at King's College in Cambridge and earned a master's degree in astronomy and astrophysics in 1964. He continued to work as a Fellow at King's College until 1972. In 1966, Fred Hoyle established Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, and Narlikar served as the founding staff member of the institute during 1966–72. In 1972, Narlikar took up Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. At the TIFR, he was in charge of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group. In 1988, the Indian University Grants Commission set up the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, and Narlikar became the Founder-Director of IUCAA. In 1981, Narlikar became a founding member of the World Cultural Council. Narlikar is known for his work in cosmology, especially in championing models alternative to the popular Big Bang model. During 1994–1997, he was the President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union. His research work has involved Mach's principle, quantum cosmology, and action-at-a-distance physics. Narlikar was part of a study which cultured microorganisms from stratospheric air samples obtained at 41 km. He was appointed as the chairperson of The Advisory Group for Textbooks in Science and Mathematics, the textbook development committee responsible for developing textbooks in Science and Mathematics, published by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2251669
| 999,537 |
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"Ptilotus exaltatus" is a highly desirable Australian Native plant due to its abundant and colourful flowers, but its horticultural potential is limited by poor germination. The seed dispersal unit of the plant is a 2 x 1.5-millimetre nut enclosed by the perianth, which prevents germination. Removal of the perianth sheath surrounding the seed stimulates a 60–80% increase in germination. Germination does not seem to be affected by temperature or light, and two main barriers to germination have been identified – the surrounding perianth tissue and the testa prevent germination in the majority of cases of uncleaned seeds. The removal of these objects which encircle the seed led to a significant increase in germination. Application of slow-release fertiliser as well as application of liquid, nitrogen-based fertiliser promoted plant growth and early flowering. In order to promote rapid growth and flower development while maintaining control of the stem height to ensure a compact plant has been a challenging aspect of successful commercial cultivation of the pink mulla mulla. Research has shown, however, that substantial application of different nitrogen and superphosphate-based fertilisers can result in satisfactory growth control for more widespread horticultural production. "Ptilotus exaltatus" is known to survive in high-phosphorus soil environments without succumbing to phosphorus toxicity, and as such has been declared a phosphorus hyperaccumulater. It is able to tolerate very high phosphorus levels in soil without suffering a decrease in the leaf and shoot dry weight – a key indicator of plant health. It is able to do so by preferentially accumulating phosphorus in mesophyll cells, forming calcium crystals, and balancing the increased cellular phosphorus by elevating potassium and reducing sulphur levels. "Ptilotus exaltatus" grows in a variety of habitats including, grasslands, eucalypt woodlands and acacia shrublands. It is found readily on red sands, brown sands, red sandy clays, calcareous loams and stony or gravelly soil. "Ptilotus exaltatus" thrives best in full sunlight, with 6–8 hours of sunlight per day best for ideal growth. Additionally, given their drought tolerance, minimal watering is required.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23884530
| 1,673,598 |
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The X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE) mission has the primary objective to study the temporal and broad-band spectral phenomena associated with stellar and galactic systems containing compact objects in the energy range 2--200 KeV, and in time scales from microseconds to years. The scientific instruments consists of two pointed instruments, the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) and the High-Energy X-ray Timing Experiment (HEXTE), and the All Sky Monitor (ASM), which scans over 70% of the sky each orbit. All of the XTE observing time were available to the international scientific community through a peer review of submitted proposals. XTE used a new spacecraft design that allows flexible operations through rapid pointing, high data rates, and nearly continuous receipt of data at the Science Operations Center (SOC) at Goddard Space Flight Center via a Multiple Access link to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). XTE was highly maneuverable with a slew rate of greater than 6° per minute. The PCA/HEXTE could be pointed anywhere in the sky to an accuracy of less than 0.1°, with an aspect knowledge of around 1 arcminute. Rotatable solar panels enable anti-sunward pointing to coordinate with ground-based night-time observations. Two pointable high gain antennas maintain nearly continuous communication with the TDRSS. This, together with 1 GB (approximately four orbits) of on-board solid-state data storage, give added flexibility in scheduling observations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=607233
| 1,521,887 |
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West Point first accepted women as cadets in 1976, when Congress authorized the admission of women to all of the federal service academies. Women comprise about 15 percent of entering plebes (freshmen); and they pursue the same academic and professional training as do their male classmates, except with different physical aptitude standards on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and the Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT). In addition, women take boxing during plebe year physical education, just as the men do. The first class with female cadets graduated in 1980. In 1989, Kristen Baker became the first female first captain at West Point. To date [May 2018] five females have been appointed as the first captain: Kristen Baker in 1989, Grace H. Chung in 2004, Stephanie Hightower in 2006, Lindsey Danilak in 2014, and Simone Askew in 2018. In 1995, Rebecca Marier became the academy's first female valedictorian. The first female West Point alumna to attain flag (general officer) rank was Rebecca Halstead, class of 1981. She was promoted to brigadier general in 2005 and served as the Army's Chief of Ordnance before retiring in 2008. Vincent Brooks became the first African-American first captain in 1980. In 1985, cadets' number of authorized electives rose from 8 to 10 and they were allowed to declare a major, as all previous graduates had been awarded a Bachelor of Science with no major concentration. Because of the still-heavy emphasis upon math and science in all cadets' core course load, all cadets are still granted a Bachelor of Science upon graduation, even those who major in a liberal arts field of study. 1990 saw a major revision of the "Fourth Class System", as the Cadet Leader Development System (CLDS) became the guidance for the development of all four classes. Despite its reputation for resisting change, West Point was an early adopter of the use of the Internet, authorizing full access to all cadets free of charge in their barracks room in 1996. Today, the academy has received numerous awards for its high level of use of the Internet to conduct daily activities. From 1990 to 1994 West Point granted a total of 59 master's degrees as part of the Eisenhower Scholar Program for new tactical officers. This is the only time in history a U.S. service academy has granted graduate level diplomas. This program still exists, but has since been restructured so that the degrees are granted on behalf of Columbia University, and not West Point.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20793344
| 1,449,368 |
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Unusually, cerebral palsy, including spastic cerebral palsy, is notable for a glaring overall research deficiency—the fact that it is one of the very few "major" groups of conditions on the planet in human beings for which medical science has not yet (as of 2011) collected wide-ranging empirical data on the development and experiences of young adults, the middle aged and older adults. An especially puzzling aspect of this lies in the fact that cerebral palsy as defined by modern science was first 'discovered' and specifically addressed well over 100 years ago and that it would therefore be reasonable to expect by now that at least some empirical data on the adult populations with these conditions would have long since been collected, especially over the second half of the 20th century when existing treatment technologies rapidly improved and new ones came into being. The vast majority of empirical data on the various forms of cerebral palsy is concerned near-exclusively with children (birth to about 10 years of age) and sometimes pre-teens and early teens (11-13). Some doctors attempt to provide their own personal justifications for keeping their CP specialities purely paediatric, but there is no objectively apparent set of reasons backed by any scientific consensus as to why medical science has made a point of researching adult cases of multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and the various forms of cancer in young and older adults, but has failed to do so with CP. There are a few orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons who claim to be gathering pace with various studies as of the past few years, but these claims do not yet seem to have been matched by real-world actualisation in terms of easily accessible and objectively verifiable resources available to the general public on the internet and in-person, where many, including medical-science researchers and doctors themselves, would more than likely agree such resources would ideally belong.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6115887
| 532,084 |
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Much of Hayman's work has been focused on developing integrated approaches to public health and environmental protection that could prevent infectious disease outbreaks which are a threat to global security. He has worked in teams that promote raising awareness of how human activities can effect dynamics within bat populations, and therefore, increase exposure to the risk of infections. One study notes the necessity of field and laboratory studies that clarify how bat ecology and interactions with humans are likely to affect the dynamics of bat viruses so that policies and strategies can be developed to mitigate this risk. Another article, written by Hayman in 2016, notes that the way the West African Ebola crisis have been managed gives cause for concern and the high fatality rate shows the need for the financing of improved healthcare infrastructures, particularly in vulnerable countries. The paper holds that while it is about building the capacity to quickly detect and respond to an outbreak, the bigger issue is preventing outbreaks in the first place, and this requires a change in societal attitudes to the impact on the environment of increased human population density, travel and encroachment into the habit. He concludes: The need for linking environmental and human health has never been greater, and it requires an informed, well-funded, science-driven approach to find synergies between those interested in both human and environmental health. But to end with a question: if we value both nature and our health, can we as a society be bold enough to move towards a world where conservation acts as vaccination?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70083782
| 2,151,595 |
694,102 |
Recent experiments using ion channel opener/blocker drugs, as well as dominant ion channel misexpression, in a range of model species, has shown that bioelectricity, specifically, voltage gradients instruct not only stem cell behavior but also large-scale patterning. Patterning cues are often mediated by spatial gradients of cell resting potentials, or Vmem, which can be transduced into second messenger cascades and transcriptional changes by a handful of known mechanisms (Figure 7). These potentials are set by the function of ion channels and pumps, and shaped by gap junctional connections which establish developmental compartments (isopotential cell fields). Because both gap junctions and ion channels are themselves voltage-sensitive, cell groups implement electric circuits with rich feedback capabilities (Figure 8). The outputs of developmental bioelectric dynamics "in vivo" represent large-scale patterning decisions such as the number of heads in planaria, the shape of the face in frog development, and the size of tails in zebrafish. Experimental modulation of endogenous bioelectric prepatterns have enabled converting body regions (such as the gut) to a complete eye (Figure 9), inducing regeneration of appendages such as tadpole tails at non-regenerative contexts, and conversion of flatworm head shapes and contents to patterns appropriate to other species of flatworms, despite a normal genome. Recent work has shown the use of physiological modeling environments for identifying predictive interventions to target bioelectric states for repair of embryonic brain defects under a range of genetic and pharmacologically-induced teratologies.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55498066
| 693,739 |
1,629,347 |
It was founded in 1790 by Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, at the suggestion of some intellectuals of the time, including the then Sicilian viceroy Francesco d'Aquino, Prince of Caramanico to endow the Sicilian city with an element of prestige as an astronomical observatory. It was hard to find an expert astronomer who would agree to work in such a peripheral location at the time. In the end the choice fell on Giuseppe Piazzi, a middle-aged mathematician, who before had not particularly distinguished himself in astronomy. The new director immediately dealt with the purchase of the most modern astronomical instruments of the time to make the observatory compete at European level: among other things, a surveying instrument of five-foot diameter to work in conjunction with telescopes to document the position of stars was purchased, made by English manufacturer Jesse Ramsden, and the first dome was built. It was Piazzi's determination that allowed the precious English instrument to arrive in Sicily: the astronomer had to go personally to prod the builder and, later, also cope with all the bureaucratic difficulties that arose: the British government was reluctant to allow the export of a uniquely capable instrument (a status which remained for many years, a fundamental aspect of the observatory's early value). Thanks to the new equipment, and in particular to the Palermo Circle, as it became known in English-speaking world (or the Circle of Ramsden in Italian), this was Ramsden's most celebrated achievement. In 1801 Piazzi discovered and identified the first asteroid Ceres. He named this object which became classified in the 21st century a dwarf planet, "Cerere Ferdinandea", in honour of the myth of Ceres set in Sicily and of King Ferdinand; thanks to this discovery, he was awarded a gold medal which he refused instead donating its worth to the purchase of other instruments, including a Troughton equatorial telescope that he placed in the second dome of the observatory.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45526594
| 1,628,428 |
1,020,773 |
Antibodies against alpha-synuclein have replaced antibodies against ubiquitin as the gold standard for immunostaining of Lewy bodies. The central panel in the figure to the right shows the major pathway for protein aggregation. Monomeric α-synuclein is natively unfolded in solution but can also bind to membranes in an α-helical form. It seems likely that these two species exist in equilibrium within the cell, although this is unproven. From in vitro work, it is clear that unfolded monomer can aggregate first into small oligomeric species that can be stabilized by β-sheet-like interactions and then into higher molecular weight insoluble fibrils. In a cellular context, there is some evidence that the presence of lipids can promote oligomer formation: α-synuclein can also form annular, pore-like structures that interact with membranes. The deposition of α-synuclein into pathological structures such as Lewy bodies is probably a late event that occurs in some neurons. On the left hand side are some of the known modifiers of this process. Electrical activity in neurons changes the association of α-synuclein with vesicles and may also stimulate polo-like kinase 2 (PLK2), which has been shown to phosphorylate α-synuclein at Ser129. Other kinases have also been proposed to be involved. As well as phosphorylation, truncation through proteases such as calpains, and nitration, probably through nitric oxide (NO) or other reactive nitrogen species that are present during inflammation, all modify synuclein such that it has a higher tendency to aggregate. The addition of ubiquitin (shown as a black spot) to Lewy bodies is probably a secondary process to deposition. On the right are some of the proposed cellular targets for α-synuclein mediated toxicity, which include (from top to bottom) ER-golgi transport, synaptic vesicles, mitochondria and lysosomes and other proteolytic machinery. In each of these cases, it is proposed that α-synuclein has detrimental effects, listed below each arrow, although at this time it is not clear if any of these are either necessary or sufficient for toxicity in neurons.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=507325
| 1,020,244 |
1,668,797 |
Low, of course failed to follow up this early promising work, due in part to his temperamental failings and also of course the outbreak of World War I later that year. "Nature" commented that the work was overblown in "Sensational paragraphs on seeing by wire". However, a US consular report from London by Deputy Consul General Carl Raymond Loop provided a different story and considerable detail about Low's system. Low finally applied for his "Televista" Patent No. 191,405 for "Improved Apparatus for the Electrical Transmission of Optical Images" in 1917 but its release was delayed (possibly for security reasons). It was finally published in 1923. In this patent A. M. Low states "..I do not confine myself to the use of wires for actually transmitting the current as this may be accomplished by electric radiation." In 1927 Ronald Frank Tiltman asked Low to write the introduction to his book in which he acknowledged Low's work, referring to Low's various related patents with an apology that they were of "too technical a nature for inclusion". Although it employed an electro-mechanical scanning mechanism, with its matrix detector (camera) and mosaic screen (receiver) it is unlike all of the later intervening systems of the 20th century. In these respects, Low had a digital TV system 80 years before the advent of today's digital TV and deserves his place in the history of television. Furthermore, Carl Loop's report said "the selenium in the transmitting screen may be replaced by any diamagnetic material" and in his patent of 1938 A. M. Low stated "It has also been proposed... a photo-electric cell embodying a plate coated with a photo-sensitive substance which is subdivided into a number of cells by incising the coating lengthwise and crosswise...", essentially the process used today to create megapixel image sensors.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5778070
| 1,667,857 |
1,674,537 |
Initial taxonomic classification of the "Ptilotus" genus was carried out by Gerhard Benl, a botanist based in Munich, Germany, in 1971. Benl's research documented all observed morphological variation by the physical description of new subspecies and varieties of the genus. Prior to 2007, a complete botanical key for the genus "Ptilotus" was yet to be published. This was due to a variety of factors including the subtle morphological differences between plants, and a large number of characteristics common to several subspecies and varieties. In 2007, molecular phylogenetic analysis of 14 "Ptilotus" species was carried out which resulted in "Ptilotus exaltatus" and "Ptilotus nobilis" having no reliable morphological characteristics on which to separate the two. Additionally, based on the lack of genetic diversity or structure between the two, it was suggested that "Ptilotus exaltatus" and "Ptilotus nobilis" were conspecific. However, whether the two plants are in fact two different species has been a consistent point of contention. Later research has challenged this assumption of conspecificity. Benl differentiated the two species by the odour of the leaves, and flower colour (pale yellow or purple) has been argued as a point of difference. In 2018 research was undertaken which suggested that, on the basis of multiple morphological characters as well as ecological and geographic partitioning, "Ptilotus exaltatus" exists distinct of "Ptilotus nobilis". Morphologically, "Ptilotus exaltatus" was differentiated based on the adaxial covering of hairs on the base of the tepals, which are straighter, more sparse and more erect than the flowers of "Ptilotus nobilis." Additionally, the flowers of "Ptilotus nobilis" were often coloured green with a slight tinge of pink, whereas "Ptilotus exaltatus" is consistently pink or purple. The two plants also have different floral scents. This taxonomic classification is important as it involves the fundamental principle of categorising living organisms in order to better understand the natural world. Given Australia's unique, endemic flora, the need for specific and detailed taxonomy is paramount.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23884530
| 1,673,595 |
823,854 |
The L-alanine derivative β-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) has long been identified as a neurotoxin which was first associated with the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism–dementia complex (Lytico-bodig disease) in the Chamorro people of Guam. The widespread occurrence of BMAA can be attributed to cyanobacteria which produce BMAA as a result of complex reactions under nitrogen stress. Following research, excitotoxicity appears to be the likely mode of action for BMAA which acts as a glutamate agonist, activating AMPA and NMDA receptors and causing damage to cells even at relatively low concentrations of 10 μM. The subsequent uncontrolled influx of Ca then leads to the pathophysiology described above. Further evidence of the role of BMAA as an excitotoxin is rooted in the ability of NMDA antagonists like MK801 to block the action of BMAA. More recently, evidence has been found that BMAA is misincorporated in place of L-serine in human proteins. A considerable portion of the research relating to the toxicity of BMAA has been conducted on rodents. A study published in 2016 with vervets (Chlorocebus sabaeus) in St. Kitts, which are homozygous for the apoE4 (APOE-ε4) allele (a condition which in humans is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease), found that vervets orally administered BMAA developed hallmark histopathology features of Alzheimer's Disease including amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangle accumulation. Vervets in the trial fed smaller doses of BMAA were found to have correlative decreases in these pathology features. This study demonstrates that BMAA, an environmental toxin, can trigger neurodegenerative disease as a result of a gene/environment interaction. While BMAA has been detected in brain tissue of deceased ALS/PDC patients, further insight is required to trace neurodegenerative pathology in humans to BMAA.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1043263
| 823,411 |
1,651,120 |
“The Rise of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Capital Controller,” written by Richard Robbins in 2005, uses a hypothetical scenario of the reader as a “merchant adventurer” to detail economic world history starting in 1400. In 1400, China was arguably the most cosmopolitan and technologically complex society in the world. It was a center of trade, along with the Middle East, East Africa, and ports on the Mediterranean Sea. Western Europe, while playing a part in this network, did not dominate it by any means; one could argue for European marginalization in fact. This circumstance began to change when the Europeans “discovered” the Americas, setting in motion a process that would disrupt many societies and devastate indigenous populations of the Western Hemisphere. The dominant economic paradigm of this period was mercantilism, whereby European merchants began to achieve power in world markets and in relation to European governing aristocracies. Robbins cites example of government protections that facilitated mercantilism in the form of exclusive proprietary rights to trading companies and armies used to protect trade by force if necessary. He details instances of government protection such as the example of how Great Britain destroyed India's textile industry and turned that society into an importer of textiles is especially illustrative. In dealing with imperialism, capitalism, and the rise of corporations, Robins further details the manner in which the “West” transformed various regions/peoples from proactive participants on global trade networks into sources of raw materials and consumers of European or North American exports. This history of world trade is important to the consideration of current issues of disparity of power and wealth.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17200325
| 1,650,188 |
1,722,738 |
In the early 1980s, Wilson further disturbed and refined traditional anthropological thinking by his work with PhD students Rebecca Cann and Mark Stoneking on the so-called "Mitochondrial Eve" hypothesis. In his efforts to identify informative genetic markers for tracking human evolutionary history, he focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) – genes that are found in mitochondria organelles in the cytoplasm of the cell outside the nucleus. Because of its location in the cytoplasm, mtDNA is passed exclusively from mother to child, the father making no contribution, and in the absence of genetic recombination defines female lineages over evolutionary timescales. Because it also mutates rapidly, it is possible to measure the small genetic differences among individual within species and between closely related species by restriction endonuclease gene mapping. Wilson, Cann, and Stoneking measured differences among many individuals from different human continental groups, and found that humans from Africa showed the greatest inter-individual differences, consistent with an African origin of the human species (the Recent African origin of modern humans or "Out of Africa" hypothesis). The data further indicated that all living humans shared a common maternal ancestor, who lived in Africa only a few hundreds of thousands of years ago. This common ancestor became widely known in the media and popular culture as the "Mitochondrial Eve". This had the unfortunate and erroneous implication that only a single female lived at that time, when in fact the occurrence of a coalescent ancestor is a necessary consequence of population genetic theory, and the Mitochondrial Eve would have been only one of many humans (male and female) alive at that time. This finding was, like his earlier results, not readily accepted by anthropologists. The conventional hypothesis had been that various human continental groups had evolved from diverse ancestors, over several millions of years since divergence from chimpanzees. The mtDNA data, however, strongly support the alternative and now generally accepted hypothesis, that all humans descend relatively recently from a common, relatively small African population.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=874725
| 1,721,768 |
842,615 |
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird in 1925 built some of the first prototype video systems, which employed the Nipkow disk. On March 25, 1925, Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion, at Selfridge's Department Store in London. Since human faces had inadequate contrast to show up on his primitive system, he televised a ventriloquist's dummy named "Stooky Bill" talking and moving, whose painted face had higher contrast. By January 26, 1926, he demonstrated the transmission of image of a face in motion by radio. This is widely regarded as being the world's first public television demonstration. Baird's system used the Nipkow disk for both scanning the image and displaying it. A brightly illuminated subject was placed in front of a spinning Nipkow disk set with lenses which swept images across a static photocell. The thallium sulphide (Thalofide) cell, developed by Theodore Case in the USA, detected the light reflected from the subject and converted it into a proportional electrical signal. This was transmitted by AM radio waves to a receiver unit, where the video signal was applied to a neon light behind a second Nipkow disk rotating synchronized with the first. The brightness of the neon lamp was varied in proportion to the brightness of each spot on the image. As each hole in the disk passed by, one scan line of the image was reproduced. Baird's disk had 30 holes, producing an image with only 30 scan lines, just enough to recognize a human face. In 1927, Baird transmitted a signal over of telephone line between London and Glasgow. In 1928, Baird's company (Baird Television Development Company/Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore-to-ship transmission. In 1929, he became involved in the first experimental mechanical television service in Germany. In November of the same year, Baird and Bernard Natan of Pathé established France's first television company, Télévision-Baird-Natan. In 1931, he made the first outdoor remote broadcast, of The Derby. In 1932, he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's mechanical system reached a peak of 240-lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936 though the mechanical system did not scan the televised scene directly. Instead a 17.5 mm film was shot, rapidly developed and then scanned while the film was still wet.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1361581
| 842,165 |
60,710 |
The Baroque period (1580–1750) saw the relative standardization of common-practice tonality, as well as the increasing importance of musical instruments, which grew into ensembles of considerable size. Italy remained dominant, being the birthplace of opera, the soloist centered concerto genre, the organized sonata form as well as the large scale vocal-centered genres of oratorio and cantata. The fugue technique championed by Johann Sebastian Bach exemplified the Baroque tendency for complexity, and as a reaction the simpler and song-like galant music and "empfindsamkeit" styles were developed. In the shorter but pivotal Classical period (1730–1820) composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven created widely admired representatives of absolute music, including symphonies, string quartets and concertos. The subsequent Romantic music (1800–1910) focused instead on programmatic music, for which the art song, symphonic poem and various piano genres were important vessels. During this time virtuosity was celebrated, immensity was encouraged, while philosophy and nationalism were embedded—all aspects that converged in the operas of Richard Wagner. By the 20th century, stylistic unification gradually dissipated while the prominence of popular music greatly increased. Many composers actively avoided past techniques and genres in the lens of modernism, with some abandoning tonality in place of serialism, while others found new inspiration in folk melodies or impressionist sentiments. After World War II, for the first time audience members valued older music over contemporary works, a preference which has been catered to by the emergence and widespread availability of commercial recordings. Trends of the mid-20th century to the present day include New Simplicity, New Complexity, Minimalism, Spectral music, and more recently Postmodern music and Postminimalism. Increasingly global, practitioners from the Americas, Africa and Asia have obtained crucial roles, while symphony orchestras and opera houses now appear across the world.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6668778
| 60,685 |
424,594 |
Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) refers to the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained physical activity. Scientists and researchers use CRF to assess the functional capacity of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These functions include ventilation, perfusion, gas exchange, vasodilation, and delivery of oxygen to the body's tissues. As these body's functions are vital to an individual's health, CRF allows observers to quantify an individual's morbidity and mortality risk as a function of cardiorespiratory health. There are a multitude of ways scientists have developed to measure and estimate an individual's cardiovascular and respiratory fitness. One such way is using an exercise stress test, either treadmill or cycling, that entails using a graded-intensity aerobic stress to assess whether or not an individual can maintain physical exertion up to a heart rate of 85% of their age-predicted maximum. Another method of estimating CRF entails using formulas, derived from extrapolated regressive analyses, to predict a theoretical level of CRF. These formulas take into consideration an individual's age, sex, BMI, substance use, relative levels of physical activity, and pathologic co-morbidites. In 2016, Nauman and Nes et al. demonstrated the added and unique utility of estimated cardiorespiratory fitness (eCRF) in predicting risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The emergence of a gold-standard method to quantify CRF began in 1923-1924. A.V. Hill et al. proposed a multifactorial relationship between the maximum rate of oxygen uptake by body tissues, termed VO max, and intensity of physical activity dependent upon and limited by functional capacities of an individual's cardiovascular and respiratory systems. This proposal served as an impetus for a multitude of studies demonstrating a relationship between VO max and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality in recent years. While many methods of estimating CRF exist, each has been validated as a vital tool for predicting morbidity and mortality risk. In fact, in 2016, the American Heart Association published an official scientific statement advocating that CRF be categorized as a clinical vital sign and should be routinely assessed as part of clinical practice.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3115848
| 424,387 |
941,534 |
Glass container manufacture in the developed world is a mature market business. World demand for flat glass was approximately 52 million tonnes in 2009. The United States, Europe and China account for 75% of demand, with China's consumption having increased from 20% in the early 1990s to 50%. Glass container manufacture is also a geographical business; the product is heavy and large in volume, and the major raw materials (sand, soda ash and limestone) are generally readily available. Therefore production facilities need to be located close to their markets. A typical glass furnace holds hundreds of tonnes of molten glass, and so it is simply not practical to shut it down every night, or in fact in any period short of a month. Factories therefore run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This means that there is little opportunity to either increase or decrease production rates by more than a few percent. New furnaces and forming machines cost tens of millions of dollars and require at least 18 months of planning. Given this fact, and the fact that there are usually more products than machine lines, products are sold from stock. The marketing/production challenge is therefore to predict demand both in the short 4- to 12-week term and over the 24- to 48-month-long term. Factories are generally sized to service the requirements of a city; in developed countries there is usually a factory per 1–2 million people. A typical factory will produce 1–3 million containers a day.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14730177
| 941,032 |
1,154,803 |
In 1914, the PTR President Emil Warburg discontinued the subdivision into a physical and a technical division and re-structured the PTR into divisions for optics, electricity and heat, with sub-divisions of a purely scientific and technical nature. Under Warburg's successor Walther Nernst, the Reichsanstalt für Maß und Gewicht (Imperial Institute for Weights and Measures – RMG) was, in addition, integrated into the PTR. A newly established division took over from the RMG extensive tasks with regard to the verification system as well as the measurements of length, weight and volume associated with the verification system. The profile of tasks was thus similar to that of PTB today: Through its own research and development, and through services building on this, the PTR was to ensure the uniformity of metrology and its continuous further development. As regards contents, the PTB was dedicated at that time to the so-called New Physics. This included, among other things, research on the newly discovered X-rays, new atomic models, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, quantum physics (based on the already mentioned work on the black-body radiator), and the investigation of the properties of the electron. Scientists like Hans Geiger, who established the first radioactivity laboratory of PTR, were involved in this research work. Walther Meißner succeeded in liquefying helium, which led him to the discovery of the superconductivity of a series of metals. In this connection, he recognized some years later – together with his colleague Robert Ochsenfeld – that superconductors have the property of displacing from their interior a magnetic field which has been applied from the outside – the Meißner-Ochsenfeld Effect.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=336112
| 1,154,193 |
691,081 |
Another example of the type as used in mobile communications is "spaced constant turn" in which one or more different linear windings are wound on a single former and spaced so as to provide an efficient balance between capacitance and inductance for the radiating element at a particular resonant frequency. Many examples of this type have been used extensively for 27 MHz CB radio with a wide variety of designs originating in the US and Australia in the late 1960s. To date many millions of these ‘helical antennas’ have been mass-produced for mainly mobile vehicle use and reached peak production during the CB Radio boom-times during the 1970s to late 1980s and used worldwide. Multi-frequency versions with manual plug-in taps have become the mainstay for multi-band single-sideband modulation (SSB) HF communications with frequency coverage over the whole HF spectrum from 1 MHz to 30 MHz with from 2 to 6 dedicated frequency tap points tuned at dedicated and allocated frequencies in the land mobile, marine and aircraft bands. Recently these antennas have been superseded by electronically tuned antenna matching devices. Most examples were wound with copper wire using a fiberglass rod as a former. The usually flexible or ridged radiator is then covered with a PVC or polyolefin heat-shrink tubing which provides a resilient and rugged waterproof covering for the finished mobile antenna. The fibreglass rod was then usually glued and/or crimped to a brass fitting and screw mounted onto an insulated base affixed to a vehicle roof, guard or bull-bar mount. This mounting provided a ground plane or reflector (provided by the vehicle) for an effective vertical radiation pattern.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=465078
| 690,718 |
1,491,372 |
The complementary acts of confession and penance, originally highly ritualized acts undertaken only once in a lifetime and in public fora, developed in the early Middle Ages into a disciplinary system known as private (or 'secret') penance, in which the faithful were encouraged to confess their sins regularly and in secret to a priest or confessor, who then enjoined an appropriate period of punishment. Through the Middle Ages the private penitential system became an increasingly elaborate and ritualized institution. In its earliest form, however―that is, as it was practiced from around the sixth to eighth centuries―this system was dependent upon the transmission of basic lists of sins (often sexual in nature, though also dietary, criminal and profane) and their corresponding punishments. These short lists of sins made up a genre of texts known as the 'penitential handbook' (or just 'penitential'). Penitentials were first employed as disciplinary tools by Irish and British monks living in cloistered, highly ascetical religious communities, but soon spread to England and France, where they developed into varied and grander forms. By the eighth century, penitentials had adopted a focus on lay sins; they were now commonly used by secular priests in their task of hearing confession from lay parishioners, and by bishops as tools for moral instruction. Their popularity was rivalled only by their variety; as the number of manuals in circulation grew, so did the discrepancies between them. This gave rise during the early ninth century to a backlash against the diversity of penitentials and the diversity of disciplinary and theological 'errors' which they propagated. A number of Frankish councils demanded that the laws of the older penitentials be brought into line with the accepted canonical norms of the church, as reflected in the more conservative "collectiones canonum" (canon law collections) being compiled at the time. Partly as a result of such efforts towards standardization, the older penitentials eventually fell out of use and were replaced by the large collections of penitential and canon law which dominated in France and Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30861806
| 1,490,533 |
790,649 |
In the 1920s Max Valier, a student of rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth, co-founded the , VfR, or "Association of Space-Flight", with Johannes Winkler and Willy Ley. In parallel he was acting in collaboration with Fritz von Opel as one of the heads of Opel RAK, a private venture leading to the first manned rocket cars and rocket planes which paved the way for the Nazi era V2 program and US and Soviet activities from 1950 onwards. The Opel RAK program and the spectacular public demonstrations of ground and air vehicles drew large crowds, as well as caused global public excitement, and had a large impact on later spaceflight pioneers. The Great Depression put an end to the program and briefly after its break-up, Valier eventually was killed while experimenting as part of VfR activities in collaboration with Heylandt-Werke on liquid-fueled rockets in April 1930. He is considered the first fatality of the early space age. Valier's protégé Arthur Rudolph went on to develop an improved and safer version of Valier's engine. Valier and von Opel had engaged in a program that led directly to use of jet-assisted takeoff for heavily laden aircraft. Their experiments had also a tremendous influence on Alexander Lippisch, whose experience with the rocket-powered ("Duck") eventually paved the way to the Messerschmitt Me-163, the first operational rocket fighter craft. The private experiments of the late 1920s and early 1930s excited also the interest of the German military, which provided funding for further development of rockets as a replacement for artillery. This led to an array of military applications, among them Germany's V-2 terror weapon, the world's first ballistic missile, and also the first human-made object to surpass the Kármán line and thus leaving the earth's atmosphere.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=647619
| 790,224 |
1,385,514 |
POR deficiency is the newest form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia first described in 2004. The index patient was a newborn 46,XX Japanese girl with craniosynostosis, hypertelorism, mid-face hypoplasia, radiohumeral synostosis, arachnodactyly and disordered steroidogenesis. However, the clinical and biochemical characteristics of patients with POR deficiency are long known in the literature as so-called mixed oxidase disease, as POR deficiency typically shows a steroid profile that suggests combined deficiencies of steroid 21-hydroxylase and 17α-hydroxylase/17,20 lyase activities. The clinical spectrum of POR deficiency ranges from severely affected children with ambiguous genitalia, adrenal insufficiency, and the Antley-Bixler skeletal malformation syndrome (ABS) to mildly affected individuals with polycystic ovary syndrome-like features. Some of the POR patients were born to mothers who became virilized during pregnancy, suggesting deficient placental aromatization of fetal androgens due to a lesion in microsomal aromatase resulting in low estrogen production, which was later confirmed by lower aromatase activities caused by POR mutations. However, it has also been suggested that fetal and maternal virilization in POR deficiency might be caused by increased dihydrotestosterone synthesis by the fetal gonad through an alternative "backdoor pathway" first described in the marsupials and later confirmed in humans. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of urinary steroids from pregnant women carrying a POR-deficient fetus described in an earlier report also supports the existence of this pathway, and the relevance of the backdoor pathway along with POR dependent steroidogenesis have become clearer from recent studies. The role of POR mutations beyond CAH are being investigated; and questions such as how POR mutations cause bony abnormalities and what role POR variants play in drug metabolism by hepatic P450s are being addressed in recent publications. However, reports of ABS in some offspring of mothers who were treated with fluconazole, an antifungal agent which interferes with cholesterol biosynthesis at the level of CYP51 activity - indicate that disordered drug metabolism may result from deficient POR activity.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9736045
| 1,384,747 |
1,823,893 |
Its best-known contribution was the discovery in 1988 of the first stable carbene, a (phosphino)(silyl)carbene, three years before Arduengo's report on a stable N-heterocyclic carbene. Guy Bertrand is at the origin of the chemistry of stable carbenes. Since then, he has made several revolutionary discoveries that have allowed us to better understand the stability of carbenes. He was the first to isolate cyclopropenylidenes, mesoionic carbenes that cannot dimerize, resulting in a relaxation of steric requirements for their isolation More importantly, he discovered cyclic (alkyl) (amino) (amino) carbenes (CAACs), including the recently published six-membered version. CAACs are even richer in electrons than NHCs and phosphines, but at the same time, due to the presence of a single pair of free electrons on nitrogen, CAACs are more accepting than NHCs. The electronic properties of CAACs stabilize highly reactive species, including organic and major group radicals, as well as paramagnetic metal species, such as gold complexes (0), which were completely unknown. CAACs have also allowed the isolation of bis(copper)acetylide complexes, which are key catalytic intermediates in the famous "Click Reaction", and which were supposed to be only transient species. He also used CAACs to prepare and isolate the first isoelectronic nucleophilic tricoordinated organoborane from amines. These recent developments appear paradoxical since they consist in using carbenes long considered as prototypic reactive intermediates to isolate otherwise unstable molecules. Among the large-scale applications already known of CAACs are their use as a ligand for transition metal catalysts. For example, in collaboration with Grubbs, Guy Bertrand has shown that ruthenium catalysts bearing a CAAC are extremely active in the ethenolysis of methyl oleate. This is the first time that a series of metathesis catalysts have performed so well in cross-metathesis reactions using ethylene gas, with sufficient activity to make ethenolysis applicable to the industrial production of linear alpha-olefins (LAOs) and other olefinic end products from biomass.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25315066
| 1,822,855 |
333,577 |
Historically, FPGAs have been slower, less energy efficient and generally achieved less functionality than their fixed ASIC counterparts. A study from 2006 showed that designs implemented on FPGAs need on average 40 times as much area, draw 12 times as much dynamic power, and run at one third the speed of corresponding ASIC implementations. More recently, FPGAs such as the Xilinx Virtex-7 or the Altera Stratix 5 have come to rival corresponding ASIC and ASSP ("Application-specific standard part", such as a standalone USB interface chip) solutions by providing significantly reduced power usage, increased speed, lower materials cost, minimal implementation real-estate, and increased possibilities for re-configuration 'on-the-fly'. A design that included 6 to 10 ASICs can now be achieved using only one FPGA. Advantages of FPGAs include the ability to re-program when already deployed (i.e. "in the field") to fix bugs, and often include shorter time to market and lower non-recurring engineering costs. Vendors can also take a middle road via FPGA prototyping: developing their prototype hardware on FPGAs, but manufacture their final version as an ASIC so that it can no longer be modified after the design has been committed. This is often also the case with new processor designs. Some FPGAs have the capability of partial re-configuration that lets one portion of the device be re-programmed while other portions continue running.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10969
| 333,399 |
2,062,408 |
Events covered a wide variety of scientific topics, and combined talks, demonstrations, video presentations and panel discussions. A number of events addressed "big questions". For example, a roster of scientists including physicist William Phillips, philosopher Patricia Churchland, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, philosopher Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, and cancer researcher Harold Varmus, debated "What It Means to Be Human" in a panel discussion moderated by Charlie Rose. A recurring theme was the wider implications of scientific results, as exemplified by a discussion on the promises and consequences of personal genomics involving biochemist Paul Nurse, sociologist Nikolas Rose, and human genome project leader Francis Collins. A number of events explored the interface between science and the arts; for instance, a panel including psychologist Nancy C. Andreasen, choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones, and actor and writer Michael York focused on the scientific study of creativity. Other audiences saw physicists Lawrence Krauss and radio host Ira Flatow presenting modern cosmology, paleontologist Richard Leakey exploring the sixth extinction, and chemist F. Sherwood Rowland and Rensselaer Polytechnic president Shirley Ann Jackson discussing new ways of satisfying humanity's energy needs. A number of events were co-productions with the festival's partners, such as a discussion between Robert Krulwich and neurologist and author Oliver Sacks on perception, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and musician Mark Oliver Everett's exploration of the scientific legacy of his father, Hugh Everett, at the Museum of Modern Art.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16997576
| 2,061,218 |
44,232 |
In August 2021, to reduce unequal distribution between rich and poor countries, the WHO called for a moratorium on a booster dose at least until the end of September. However, in August, the United States government announced plans to offer booster doses eight months after the initial course to the general population, starting with priority groups. Before the announcement, the WHO harshly criticized this type of decision, citing the lack of evidence for the need for boosters, except for patients with specific conditions. At this time, vaccine coverage of at least one dose was 58% in high-income countries and only 1.3% in low-income countries, and 1.14 million Americans already received an unauthorized booster dose. US officials argued that waning efficacy against mild and moderate disease might indicate reduced protection against severe disease in the coming months. Israel, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have also started planning boosters for specific groups. In September 2021, more than 140 former world leaders, and Nobel laureates, including former President of France François Hollande, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, and Professor Joseph Stiglitz, called on the candidates to be the next German chancellor to declare themselves in favour of waiving intellectual property rules for COVID19 vaccines and transferring vaccine technologies. In November 2021, nursing unions in 28 countries have filed a formal appeal with the United Nations over the refusal of the UK, EU, Norway, Switzerland, and Singapore to temporarily waive patents for Covid vaccines.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63319438
| 44,215 |
2,094,351 |
BIND offers several “features” that many other proteomics databases do not include. The authors of this program have created an extension to traditional IUPAC nomenclature to help describe post-translational modifications that occur to amino acids. These modifications include: acetylation, formylation, methylation, palmitoylation, etc. the extension of the traditional IUPAC codes allows these amino acids to be represented in sequence form as well. BIND also utilizes a unique visualization tool known as OntoGlyphs. The OntoGlyphs were developed based on Gene Ontology (GO) and provide a link back to the original GO information. A number of GO terms have been grouped into categories, each one representing a specific function, binding specificity, or localization in the cell. There are 83 OntoGlyph characters in total. There are 34 functional OntoGlyphs which contain information about the role of the molecule (e.g. cell physiology, ion transport, signaling). There are 25 binding OntoGlyphs which describe what the molecule binds (e.g. ligands, DNA, ions). The other 24 OntoGlyphs provide information about the location of the molecule within a cell (e.g. nucleus, cytoskeleton). The OntoGlyphs can be selected and manipulated to include or exclude certain characteristics from search results. The visual nature of the OntoGlyphs also facilitates pattern recognition when looking at search results. ProteoGlyphs are graphical representations of the structural and binding properties of proteins at the level of conserved domains. The protein is diagrammed as a straight horizontal line and glyphs are inserted to represent conserved domains. Each glyph is displayed to represent the relative position and length of its alignment in the protein sequence.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9774017
| 2,093,143 |
588,761 |
DPV operation requires greater situational awareness than simply swimming, as some changes can happen much faster. Operating a DPV requires simultaneous depth control, buoyancy adjustment, monitoring of breathing gas, and navigation. Buoyancy control is vital for diver safety: The DPV has the capacity to dynamically compensate for poor buoyancy control by thrust vectoring while moving, but on stopping the diver may turn out to be dangerously positively or negatively buoyant if adjustments were not made to suit the changes in depth while moving. If the diver does not control the DPV properly, a rapid ascent or descent under power can result in barotrauma or decompression sickness. High speed travel in confined spaces, or limited visibility can increase the risk of impact with the surroundings at speeds where injury and damage are more likely. Many forms of smaller marine life are very well camouflaged or hide well and are only seen by divers who move very slowly and look carefully. Fast movement and noise can frighten some fish into hiding or swimming away, and the DPV is bulky and affects precise manoeuvring at close quarters. The DPV occupies at least one hand while in use and may get in the way while performing precision work like macro photography. Since the diver is not kicking for propulsion, they will generally get colder due to lower physical activity and increased water flow. This can be compensated by appropriate thermal insulation. If the operation of the DPV is critical to exit from a long penetration dive, it is necessary to allow for alternative propulsion in case of a breakdown to ensure safe exit before the breathing gas runs out. Control of the DPV is additional task loading and can distract the diver from other matters. A DPV can increase the risk of a silt-out if the thrust is allowed to wash over the bottom.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=595882
| 588,459 |
1,194,830 |
One reason why Calcutta University could not develop a research programme in science earlier than 1914 was partly because of a great handicap inherent in its constitution and partly because of the paucity of funds needed for the development of such an institute at the post-graduation level. Till the end of 19th century Calcutta University remained mainly an examination body fed by a number of affiliated colleges which actually did teaching and which were dispersed from Shimla and Mussorie to Indore and Jaipur, and from Jaffna and Batticaloa to Sylhet and Chittagong. In these colleges there was hardly any provision for teaching of science courses with the exception of three colleges each in Civil Engineering and Medicine, all the 85 colleges in British India by 1882 were teaching courses in liberal arts leading to matriculation, F.A., B.A., Honours and M.A. Career in India was never virtually open to talents, through the principle had been asserted time and again in the Charter Act of 1883 and the Queen's Proclamation of 1858 after the Mutiny to allay fear, suspecion and distrust. In those days agriculture, manufacturing and commerce offered little to no incentives and was almost impossible to initiate without proper skills, capital and equality of terms with which it could compete with the European industry. Such discontenment among the educated unemployed gave rise to militant nationalism threatening the existence of very British Raj in India. Higher education in India was singled out as the root for all evils. So to curb this growing distress, Lord Curzon (then Viceroy of India) passed the Indian University Act in 1904 based on the recommendation of the Indian University Commission in 1902. While the various recommendations of the Commission to enable the Raj to control higher education in India were not strictly relevant here, some at least relating to the creation of new courses in science became important. The commission for the first time suggested the creation of the Faculty of Science and Technology in addition to the faculties of Arts, Law, Medicine and Civil Engineering previously offered by Calcutta University. Thus Bachelor of Science(B.Sc.) and Master of Science(M.Sc.) courses were introduced for first time in India. The commission also recommended the award of Doctor of Science(D.Sc.) degree which is to be given to a M.Sc. after some years spent in original investigations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62858858
| 1,194,190 |
1,729,758 |
Atwater was born in Johnsburg, New York, the son of William Warren Atwater, a Methodist Episcopal minister, temperance advocate, and librarian of Yale Law School and Eliza (Barnes) Atwater. He grew up in, and spent much of his life in New England. He opted not to fight in the American Civil War, instead pursuing his undergraduate education, first at the University of Vermont and then moving to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he would complete his general education in 1865. For the next three years, Atwater was a teacher at various schools and in 1868, he enrolled in Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School, where he studied agricultural chemistry under William Henry Brewer and Samuel William Johnson. During his time at Yale, Atwater worked part time as Johnson's assistant analyzing fertilizers for specific mineral content; he also performed the first chemical analysis of food or feed in the United States. Atwater received his doctorate in 1869 in agricultural chemistry, his thesis was entitled "The Proximate Composition of Several Types of American Maize," in it he used variations of the proximate analysis system to analyze four varieties of corn. Afterwards, he continued his education for the next two years in Leipzig and Berlin, studying physiological chemistry and acquainting himself with the agricultural experiment stations of Europe. During his time there, Atwater studied under German physiologist and dietitian, Carl von Voit and worked alongside Voit's student, Max Rubner. Atwater spent time traveling throughout Scotland, Rome, and Naples; on his trip he wrote articles about his observations for local newspapers based in the places he had lived in the United States. In 1871, Atwater returned to the United States to teach Chemistry at East Tennessee University and the next year moved to Maine State College.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10465237
| 1,728,784 |
2,091,453 |
Every 15mins after 3 complete Total and SW 250x256 arrays of the Earth disk are taken a synthetic LW result is obtained from the mean difference between the two. Such ERB results are then combined with a resolution enhancement and cloud retrievals using the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) also on the MSG platform. The combination of GERB and SEVIRI through data synergy also required detailed mapping of each of the 256 GERB detector/telescope Field of View response or Point Spread Function (PSF, see Matthews (2004) ). This was done using a He-Ne laser computer controlled to map each of the 256 thermopiles responses after being covered with gold blacking. Full details of the GERB ground calibration can be obtained at Matthews (2003). The spectral response or measure of the relative absorption at different wavelength of light for each GERB detector is required for the process of un-filtering each thermopile's raw signal. This uses radiative transfer models to estimate the spectral shape of a particular scene radiance to estimate an un-filtering ratio, or the factor needed to account for non-uniform spectral response. For each GERB device this relies on the multiplication of unit level laboratory measurements of detector, telescope, DSM and quartz filter spectral throughput/absorption. The accuracy of GERB SW results is directly dependent on the quality of such measurements as the SW gain is determined using the VISCS lamp, whose spectrum is significantly shifted to longer wavelengths compared to that of the Sun. Such GERB accuracy is currently estimated to be around the 2% level by ref. Such un-filtering is performed by the Royal Meteorological Institute Belgium (RMIB), along with the synergy with SEVIRI data and conversion from radiance to irradiance using Angular Dependency Models (ADMs).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=376702
| 2,090,249 |
2,134,719 |
Wilson left Aspatria in the summer of 1893 having gained a scholarship to the value of £80 at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington where he studied agriculture and agricultural chemistry but also studied mathematics privately. Between the years 1896 and 1898 he taught at a school in Towcester, Northamptonshire. In 1898 he became Master of Mathematics at Beccles College, Suffolk, and Craven College, Highgate, London. He was determined to extend his understanding of mathematics and learned German, which enabled him to teach at the Berlitz Language Schools, Elberfeld, Germany, and at branches of the school in Dortmund, Münster, Barmen and Cologne, between the years 1901 and 1902. In 1902 he enrolled as a student at Leipzig University, where he obtained a PhD for his research on the photoelectric effect. While studying in Germany he met his future wife, Rose Heathfield, whom he married in 1909. His teaching career started in 1906 following his return from Germany, when he became an assistant lecturer in the Wheatstone laboratory in King's College London. During the years spent at King's College, he developed his work and knowledge on the emission of photons from hot bodies. He also continued being interested in the theory of relativity and quantum theory. Thanks to his knowledge of generalised mechanics, he was able to appreciate the consequences of the postulates introduced by Niels Bohr in the quantum theory field. He also explained the atomic orbits of the electrons and, using a generalized version of Bohr quantization, he derived the formula for the eccentricity of an elliptic orbit. In 1917 he received a doctorate from London University. In 1919 he accepted the position of a readership in the Physics Department in King's College, while in 1921 he was appointed to the Hildred Carlile chair of physics at Bedford College where he ended his working career in 1944. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1923; a Fellow of King's College London; and a Professor Emeritus in 1944.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37303150
| 2,133,494 |
2,059,393 |
Campbell was born in Southsea, Hampshire on 15 June 1912. As a young boy, he was influenced by his father, an army officer, birds-nester and egg-collector, who later became the British Army's Inspector of Physical Training. After education at Winchester College, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining a BSc in forestry. He later gained a doctorate in comparative bird studies, so becoming one of the first field naturalists to also be a trained scientist. In 1938, he married Margaret Gibson-Hill, herself a writer, with whom he had two sons and one daughter. From 1936 to 1948, he was a teacher and university lecturer. After World War II, he brought the work of sound recordist Ludwig Koch to the attention of the BTO. In 1948, Campbell was appointed the first full-time secretary of the BTO, a post he held until 1959. He served on the panel of the Wildlife Collection with Julian Huxley, and was active in the British Ornithologists' Union, the British Ecological Society, and conservation bodies. He conducted a pioneering study of the pied flycatcher at the Nagshead woodland reserve, Gloucestershire. He made radio and television broadcasts relating to natural history for the BBC during the 1950s. In April 1959, despite his having had no previous experience as a producer, he was appointed senior producer at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, a position he held until 1962. He died on 9 January 1993 in Witney, Oxfordshire.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23521385
| 2,058,207 |
1,770,021 |
The game changed greatly over the course of production, but parts that remained consistent include the augmented counterterrorist protagonist JC Denton. The anti-terrorism organization UNATCO was originally TLC, the Terrorist Limitation Coalition. Ally Tracer Tong was more of a "mercenary" than a "kindly anarchist", while enemies like UNATCO's Joseph Manderley went from "ruthless bastard" to "stuffy bureaucrat" and Majestic 12's Bob Page and assassin Anna Navarre played more of a background role. Many of the original character ideas were reshaped to fit the final game design. The Majestic 12 organization originally intended to initiate a Mexican invasion of Texas and then suffocate the presidential cabinet by killing their oxygen supply. When this failed, their artificial intelligence kills the organization and retreats to outer space with nuclear weapons. Some of the plot and characters were brought to the final version, except that Majestic 12 is clandestine and focused on controlling the Internet. Though Spector originally pictured the game as akin to "The X-Files", lead writer Sheldon Pacotti felt it ended up more like James Bond. Spector himself called the game "James Bond meets "The X-Files"". He wrote that the team overextended itself by planning such elaborate scenes, especially parts such as a replica of downtown Austin, Area 51 reconstructed from satellite data, a sunken post-earthquake Los Angeles, a raid to free thousands of prisoners of war from a Federal Emergency Management Agency-controlled United Nations concentration camp, and over 25 missions throughout Siberia, western Europe, and the United States.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43210943
| 1,769,026 |
1,942,528 |
His father having died before the son had reached his fourth year, his training developed upon his mother, whose love of flowers had no doubt a great influence in the developing of that love of nature which he very early manifested. It is related that his notice, as a child, having been attracted by the large hairy caterpillar of "Arctia Caia", which, to his great astonishment and delight, was transformed, whilst under his care, into a beautiful moth, entomology at once became his ruling passion. About this time, also, he became acquainted with older and well-informed youth, Richard Walker, afterward, B.D, F.L.S., and Fellow of Magdalen, and the author of ‘"Flora Oxoniensis"’, in company with whom numerous excursions were made in the marshy districts surrounds his native place. He thus became much interested in the insects inhabiting and found upon the aquatic plants collected by his friend. These pursuits, however, were interrupted by a severe and even dangerous attack of rheumatic fever. On his recovery, he was sent to school at Norwich, where he was again fortunate in making the acquaintance of a youth named Henry Browne, whose mother possessed a collection of British Lepidoptera, the inspection of which still further increased the zeal of Curtis in his old pursuits. Whilst at school, he captured the rare "Stauropus Fagi" on the lime-trees surrounding the Cathedral Close – an insect then so rare as to be valued by collectors at the price of £5; and to the time of his death, he preserved a specimen of the almost equally rare "Heliothis dipsacea", which he had captured under his hat, on Mousehold Heath, near Norwich. At an early age, also, he manifested a great love for colouring small engravings, and making drawings of flowers and landscapes. At this period his circle of acquaintance was enlarged by the addition to it of Dr. (afterward Sir) James Edward Smith, and of the family of Mr. Hooker, the father of Sir W. J. Hooker. The latter was at this time an ardent entomologist, and he was of great assistance to young Curtis in the naming of insects, and giving him rare and local species. An excursion to the fens of Horning was rewarded by the capture of "Papilio Machaon" and its lava on "Selinum palustre", as well as "Hypogymna dispar".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1618060
| 1,941,417 |
1,940,686 |
Sir Henry Savile, the Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton College, was deeply saddened by what the 20th-century mathematician Ida Busbridge has described as "the wretched state of mathematical studies in England", and so founded professorships in geometry and astronomy at the University of Oxford in 1619; both chairs were named after him. He also donated his books to the university's Bodleian Library. He required the professors to be men of good character, at least 26 years old, and to have "imbibed the purer philosophy from the springs of Aristotle and Plato" before acquiring a thorough knowledge of science. The professors could come from any Christian country, but he specified that a professor from England should have a Master of Arts degree as a minimum. He wanted students to be educated in the works of the leading scientists of the ancient world; in addition, the astronomy professor should cover Copernicus and the work of Arab astronomers. Tuition in trigonometry was to be shared by the two professors. As many students would have had little mathematical knowledge, the professors were also permitted to provide instruction in basic mathematics in English (as opposed to Latin, the language used in education at Oxford at the time). He also required the astronomy professor "to take astronomical observations as well by night as by day (making choice of proper instruments prepared for the purpose, and at fitting times and seasons)", and to place in the library records of his discoveries. Savile prohibited the professors from practicing astrology or preparing horoscopes, and stated that accepting any position as a priest or as an officer of the university or of a college would cause forfeiture of the professorship. Each professor was required to lecture in public for 45 minutes twice weekly during the university terms and would be fined 10 shillings for every day missed (except in cases of "grievous bodily ailment", although this excuse was only permitted for three weeks before the professor was required to provide a substitute lecturer). Students who were required to attend, but who failed to do without good cause, were to be fined sixpence. Savile provided that the rents from specified properties in Kent and Essex were to be divided equally between the professors, giving each £160 annually.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3358868
| 1,939,575 |
82,682 |
On 11 December 2014, Hagel accepted the Navy's recommendation to base the 20 SSCs on more powerful versions of both existing LCS designs. The SSC shall have an improved 3D air defense radar, air defense decoys, better electronic warfare system, over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles, multi-function towed array sonar, torpedo defenses, additional armor, and displace less than Flight 0 vessels. The SSC will focus on anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare; mine countermeasures will be handled by existing LCS ships. Although not designed for modularity, it will maintain the ability to carry mission modules and LCS mission package equipment, including 30 mm and 57 mm cannons (upgrading to a 76 mm gun would have had marginal benefits for increased costs), Hellfire missiles, RHIBs, and the ASW variable-depth sonar. Current plans lack vertical launchers for Standard missiles; the SSC is planned to be able to operate alone. The over-the-horizon surface-to-surface missile will likely be in the Harpoon Block II class. Other enhancements include spaced armor, installation of Mk 38 Mod 2 25 mm chain guns, improved decoy systems, the SeaRAM missile interceptor, a "lite" version of the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), and improved signature management through degaussing. An SSC will cost $60–$75 million more than a Flight 0 LCS, with procurement to begin by 2019. Hagel also directed the Navy to study which improvements could be added to LCSs; completed ships cannot accommodate all changes, more can be added to incomplete ones, the final number and mix of each type has yet to be determined.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=460005
| 82,648 |
1,982,892 |
Lowe had a key role in establishing this station that since 1972 has been measuring CO in the atmosphere and has the longest continuous record of atmospheric CO in the Southern Hemisphere.His part in setting up the station began when he met Keeling – the inventor of the upward-climbing chart of atmospheric CO known as the Keeling Curve – who wanted somebody to start measuring in the Southern Hemisphere to see if CO growth matched what he was seeing in the north. Lowe found a windy, barren headland – Baring Head near the entrance to Wellington Harbour – and built an automatic air-sampling machine using parts from a telephone exchange. During a southerly, the Antarctic winds came straight over the ocean, and Lowe needed to know at Baring Head that there were no obstructions likely to change or affect that movement of air. After gathering data, Lowe and Keeling concluded that "the planet was breathing – in during the Northern Hemisphere growing season as plants sucked up more CO, out during the northern winter, when the deciduous trees dropped their leaves – but the amount of CO left in the atmosphere after each breath was rising." Scientists would later "fingerprint" the carbon to prove it was coming from people burning fossil fuels, and the Baring Head measuring station would expand to chart rising methane and other greenhouse gases. This data was used when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that it was very likely – 90 per cent certain – that rising greenhouse gases were to blame for most warming in global average temperatures since the mid 20th century. After eight years, the project was considered important enough to be handed over to another respected climate scientist, Martin Manning when Lowe won a scholarship to study in Germany.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65653530
| 1,981,753 |
48,897 |
"Tomahawk Block II" variants were all tested during January 1981 to October 1983. Deployed in 1984, some of the improvements included: an improved booster rocket, cruise missile radar altimeter, and navigation through the Digital Scene Matching Area Corellator (DSMAC). DSMAC was a highly accurate rudimentary AI which allowed early low power computers to navigate and precisely target objectives using cameras on board the missile. With its ability to visually identify and aim directly at a target, it was more accurate than weapons using estimated GPS coordinates. Due to the very limited computer power of the day, DSMAC did not directly evaluate the maps, but instead would compute contrast maps and then combine multiple maps into a buffer, then compare the average of those combined images to determine if it was similar to the data in its small memory system. The data for the flight path was very low resolution in order to free up memory to be used for high resolution data about the target area. The guidance data was computed by a mainframe computer which took spy satellite photos and estimated what the terrain would appear like during low level flight. Since this data would not match the real terrain exactly, and since terrain changes seasonally and with changes in light quality, DSMAC would filter out differences between maps and use the remaining similar sections in order to find its location regardless of changes in how the ground appeared. It also had an extremely bright strobe light it could use to illuminate the ground for fractions of a second in order to find its position at night, and was able to take the difference in ground appearance into account.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31238
| 48,877 |
63,818 |
In 1980, the Ballistic Research Laboratory (later consolidated to form the U.S. Army Research Laboratory) began a long-term program of theoretical and experimental research on railguns. The work was conducted predominantly at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, and much of the early research drew inspiration from the railgun experiments performed by the Australian National University. Topics of research included plasma dynamics, electromagnetic fields, telemetry, and current and heat transport. While military research into railgun technology in the United States ensued continuously in the following decades, the direction and focus that it took shifted dramatically with major changes in funding levels and the needs of different government agencies. In 1984, the formation of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization caused research goals to shift toward establishing a constellation of satellites to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles. As a result, the U.S. military focused on developing small guided projectiles that could withstand the high-G launch from ultra-high velocity plasma armature railguns. But after the publication of an important Defense Science Board study in 1985, the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and DARPA were assigned to develop anti-armor, electromagnetic launch technologies for mobile ground combat vehicles. In 1990, the U.S. Army collaborated with the University of Texas at Austin to establish the Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT), which focused on research involving solid and hybrid armatures, rail-armature interactions, and electromagnetic launcher materials. The facility became the Army's first Federally Funded Research and Development Center and housed a few of the Army's electromagnetic launchers, such as the Medium Caliber Launcher.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=218930
| 63,793 |
2,112,804 |
After completing her PhD, Herr became a staff member in the Biosystems Research Group at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California from 2002 to 2007, where she worked on protein analysis in complex biological media such as saliva and serum. She joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 2007. Her laboratory focuses on developing the tools required for complex biological analysis, including identification of proteins from a single cell, in the pursuit of quantitative medicine. This proteomic information provides additional insights beyond genomic analysis. One application is analysis of proteins from circulating tumor cells, which could allow a doctor to understand how a cancer patient is responding to treatment with only a blood draw. The lab is also affiliated with University of California, San Francisco, QB3: The California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She describes her research interests in this way:"Difficult measurement challenges exist at the interface of biology and quantitative science. Advanced measurement tools are already adding to our knowledge and capabilities in the areas of genomics and transcriptomics. As we push forward the frontier of quantitative, precise, and dynamic measurements, we’ll see even more knowledge unlocked from nature and translated into improving the human condition. Dynamic protein measurements are a lynchpin to realizing these knowledge leaps."She held a 5-year appointment as the Lester John & Lynne Dewar Lloyd Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering from 2015 to 2020. She is also on the advisory board for the Bakar Fellows program at UC Berkeley and previously served as its faculty director. She serves on the NIH National Advisory Council of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and she is a board member of the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64535674
| 2,111,589 |
1,900,114 |
Not all of Seyfarth's buildings have survived. One house at 67th and Yale was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the construction of Kennedy–King College. The parking lot for the 6th District (Gresham) police station, built in 1997, occupies the spot where Dr. F.S. Tufts had built a store and offices (at 7754 S. Halsted St.) in 1909. At least one demolished house continues to live on, in a manner of speaking. Although it was a designated local landmark, the George Mahler house at 90 Ridge Road in Highland Park (1942) was demolished and replaced with a larger home, but its virtual twin still stands at 12857 S. Maple Avenue in Blue Island, having been built for William Schrieber in 1950, the year of Robert Seyfarth's passing. Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic for "The New York Times", made this classic observation about the phenomenon in a 1968 article she wrote about the demolition of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel (1923–1968) in Tokyo: "There is no art as impermanent as architecture. All that solid brick and stone mean nothing. Concrete is as evanescent as air. The monuments of our civilization stand, usually, on negotiable real estate; their value goes down as land value goes up. ... The logic and mathematics are immutable." Most demolitions of Seyfarth's buildings fall into this category - they're torn down with little fanfare to be replaced by larger homes and buildings.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24940492
| 1,899,026 |
1,603,986 |
The use of 3D cell cultures in microfluidic devices has led to a field of study called organ-on-a-chip. The first report of these types of microfluidic cultures was used to study the toxicity of naphthalene metabolites on the liver and lung (Viravaidya et al.). These devices can grow a stripped-down version of an organ-like system that can be used to understand many biological processes. By adding an additional dimension, more advanced cell architectures can be achieved, and cell behavior is more representative of "in vivo" dynamics; cells can engage in enhanced communication with neighboring cells and cell-extracellular matrix interactions can be modeled. In these devices, chambers or collagen layers containing different cell types can interact with one another for multiple days while various channels deliver nutrients to the cells. An advantage of these devices is that tissue function can be characterized and observed under controlled conditions (e.g., effect of shear stress on cells, effect of cyclic strain or other forces) to better understand the overall function of the organ. While these 3D models ofter better model organ function on a cellular level compared with 2D models, there are still challenges. Some of the challenges include: imaging of the cells, control of gradients in static models (i.e., without a perfusion system), and difficulty recreating vasculature. Despite these challenges, 3D models are still used as tools for studying and testing drug responses in pharmacological studies. In recent years, there are microfluidic devices reproducing the complex "in vivo" microvascular network. Organs-on-a-chip have also been used to replicate very complex systems like lung epithelial cells in an exposed airway and provides valuable insight for how multicellular systems and tissues function "in vivo." These devices are able to create a physiologically realistic 3D environment, which is desirable as a tool for drug screening, drug delivery, cell-cell interactions, tumor metastasis etc. In one study, researchers grew tumor cells and tested the drug delivery of cis platin, resveratrol, tirapazamine (TPZ) and then measured the effects the drugs have on cell viability.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50311973
| 1,603,085 |
710,246 |
The State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1995 issued the "Decision on Accelerating S&T Development" which described planned Science & Technology development for the coming decades. It described S&T as the chief productive force and affecting economic development, social progress, national strength, and living standards. S&T should become closely associated with market needs. Not only Soviet style institutes should do research but also universities and private industries. State institutions should form joint ventures with Chinese or foreign venture capital in order for S&T developments to reach the industry. S&T personal should become more occupationally mobile, pay should be linked to economic results, and age and seniority should become less important for personal decisions. Intellectual property rights should be respected. Information exchange should improve and there should be competition and open bidding on projects. The environment should be protected. Chinese indigenous S&T in certain key areas should be especially promoted. Public officials should improve their understanding of S&T and incorporate S&T in decision making. Society, including Communist Party youth organizations, labor unions and the mass media, should actively promote respect for knowledge and human talents.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=277914
| 709,875 |
981,844 |
As a response to global warming and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, countries around the world have been gradually implementing different policies to tackle ZEB. Between 2008 and 2013, researchers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the US worked together in the joint research program called "Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings". The program was created under the umbrella of International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating and Cooling Program (SHC) Task 40 / Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC, formerly ECBCS) Annex 52 with the intent of harmonizing international definition frameworks regarding net-zero and very low energy buildings by diving them into subtasks. In 2015, the Paris Agreement was created under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) with the intent of keeping the global temperature rise of the 21st century below 2 degrees Celsius and limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. While there was no enforced compliance, 197 countries signed the international treaty which bound developed countries legally through a mutual cooperation where each party would update its INDC every five years and report annually to the COP. Due to the advantages of energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction, ZEBs are widely being implemented in many different countries as a solution to energy and environmental problems within the infrastructure sector.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4211531
| 981,332 |
1,749,529 |
Black Shank is a polycyclic soil borne disease, with the possibility of multiple disease cycles per growing season occurring from May to October. There are important structures this pathogen uses in its disease cycle. Chlamydospores are produced asexually and serve as long lived resting structures, surviving from four to six years. Chlamydospores are the primary survival structure, the primary inoculum, and are usually produced in abundance. These spores germinate in warm and moist soil to produce a germ tube that infects plants or produces a sporangium. Another asexual structure and secondary inoculum, appearing ovoid, pear, or spherical in shape are called sporangium. These spores are produced and can either germinate directly or release motile zoospores within 24 hours of inoculation with the right conditions. Zoospores are kidney shaped with an anterior tinsel flagellum and a posterior whip like flagellum that helps to navigate toward root tips were infection occurs. Black Shank needs water for germination and movement because zoospores swim through soil pores and standing water. Splashing water from rain or irrigation can infect healthy plant leaves leading to more repeating secondary cycles. Zoospores move toward nutrient gradients around root tips and host wounds. Once the root surface is contacted, zoospores encyst and a germ tube will emerge penetrating the epidermis. Infection leads to systemic rotting of the root system and wilting and chlorosis in the leaves. Another structure called hyphae is colorless, transparent, and coenocytic, but colonies may yellow with age. Also, there is much morphological variation in colony type with different isolates of "P. nicotianae" and the growth may differ when grown on different media. The hyphae are heterothallic and require two mating types to produce oospores, the sexual survival structure. Many fields only contain one mating type, so the zoospores rarely germinate and rarely cause epidemics.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11069076
| 1,748,543 |
668,999 |
Due to its involvement in cancer development, inhibition of beta-catenin continues to receive significant attention. But the targeting of the binding site on its armadillo domain is not the simplest task, due to its extensive and relatively flat surface. However, for an efficient inhibition, binding to smaller "hotspots" of this surface is sufficient. This way, a "stapled" helical peptide derived from the natural β-catenin binding motif found in LEF1 was sufficient for the complete inhibition of β-catenin dependent transcription. Recently, several small-molecule compounds have also been developed to target the same, highly positively charged area of the ARM domain (CGP049090, PKF118-310, PKF115-584 and ZTM000990). In addition, β-catenin levels can also be influenced by targeting upstream components of the Wnt pathway as well as the β-catenin destruction complex. The additional N-terminal binding pocket is also important for Wnt target gene activation (required for BCL9 recruitment). This site of the ARM domain can be pharmacologically targeted by carnosic acid, for example. That "auxiliary" site is another attractive target for drug development. Despite intensive preclinical research, no β-catenin inhibitors are available as therapeutic agents yet. However, its function can be further examined by siRNA knockdown based on an independent validation. Another therapeutic approach for reducing β-catenin nuclear accumulation is via the inhibition of galectin-3. The galectin-3 inhibitor GR-MD-02 is currently undergoing clinical trials in combination with the FDA-approved dose of ipilimumab in patients who have advanced melanoma. The proteins BCL9 and BCL9L have been proposed as therapeutic targets for colorectal cancers which present hyper-activated Wnt signaling, because their deletion does not perturb normal homeostasis but strongly affects metastases behaviour.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5602902
| 668,649 |
1,701,270 |
Following the introduction of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, labeling products derived from plant extracts with the help of chemical symbols of organic substances found in these plants or creating names for these substances which referred to prohibited AAS became a popular marketing practice employed by American manufacturers. No analogical act targeting athlete supplementation is in force in the European Union; however each country has its own regulations concerning substances with medicinal properties. Due to the above, one can come in contact with the sale of supplements with names identical to or resembling those questioned by the RDA in the United States (S-DROL, HALODROL, etc.). Laboratory controls indicate that products which declare to include prohormones, prohibited in the USA, in fact contain "classic" AAS of the previous generation. Many consumers in Europe did not know that it was illegal produce prohormones in the USA after the year 2004 and thought that were consuming various versions of the previously acclaimed supplement, while in fact consuming steroids of unknown origin. In situations like ones described above the purchaser of this fake substance knows neither the type nor the dosage of the ingested hormone, and thus cannot plan a safe gastro-protective regime or supplementary treatment. The consumer also cannot gain access to information concerning the possible long-term consequences of treatment with the unspecified hormone. This has led to the popularity of special forums on which consumers could share their experiences with the substances, yet the fake products could have radically different components, despite similar descriptions and names. Supplement manufacturers who have made a name for themselves and want to remain on the market are currently elaborating AAS based on natural substances (usually plant-derived). In Europe these products are called prohormones.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=458544
| 1,700,316 |
1,557,902 |
Ever since Pearl proposed the rate of living theory of aging, numerous studies have demonstrated its validity in poikilotherms. In mammals, however, satisfactory experimental demonstration is still lacking because an externally imposed increase of basal metabolic rate of these animals (e.g. by placement in the cold) is usually accompanied by general homeostatic disturbance and stress. The present study was based on the finding that rats exposed to slightly increased gravity are able to adapt with little chronic stress but at a higher level of basal metabolic expenditure (increased 'rate of living'). The rate of aging of 17-month-old rats that had been exposed to 3.14 "g" in an animal centrifuge for 8 months was larger than of controls as shown by apparently elevated lipofuscin content in heart and kidney, reduced numbers and increased size of mitochondria of heart tissue, and inferior liver mitochondria respiration (reduced 'efficiency': 20% larger ADP: 0 ratio, P less than 0.01; reduced 'speed': 8% lower respiratory control ratio, P less than 0.05). Steady-state food intake per day per kg body weight, which is presumably proportional to 'rate of living' or specific basal metabolic expenditure, was about 18% higher than in controls (P less than 0.01) after an initial 2-month adaptation period. Finally, though half of the centrifuged animals lived only a little shorter than controls (average about 343 vs. 364 days on the centrifuge, difference statistically nonsignificant), the remaining half (longest survivors) lived on the centrifuge an average of 520 days (range 483–572) compared to an average of 574 days (range 502–615) for controls, computed from onset of centrifugation, or 11% shorter (P less than 0.01). Therefore, these results show that a moderate increase of the level of basal metabolism of young adult rats adapted to hypergravity compared to controls in normal gravity is accompanied by a roughly similar increase in the rate of organ aging and reduction of survival, in agreement with Pearl's rate of living theory of aging, previously experimentally demonstrated only in poikilotherms.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31631838
| 1,557,017 |
1,776,347 |
On September 8, 2017, Taubman College opened the new A. Alfred Taubman Wing which provides an additional 36,000 square feet to the original 72,000 square foot facility, and the project includes a renovation of the existing college facilities. Architecture and urban planning education increasingly calls on spaces for group work and spaces to design and build. The wing and renovations provide additional studio space per student and collaboration rooms, as well as 5,700 square foot commons space which will also be used to host conferences, final reviews, and other special events. Designed by Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. (Design Architect) with Integrated Design Solutions (IDS) (Architect of Record), the building addition's internal architecture features a series of spiral-like stairs and ramps that create sequences choreographed to encourage encounters between faculty and students. Externally, a saw-tooth roof reflects warm light, unifying the orthogonal geometry of the studio with the hexagonal and ramped commons. A plaza underneath the new building provides and outside gathering and exhibition space to foster community. The building addition and renovation project was funded by private donations from the late A. Alfred Taubman and King C. Stutzman, additional funds from the U-M Offices of the President, Provost, and Chief Financial Officer, and the support of alumni and friends. The total budget for the entire project (addition and renovation of existing facilities) is $28.5 million.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4552645
| 1,775,348 |
440,759 |
On 1 June 1894, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University, Lodge gave a memorial lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased) and the German physicist's proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves 6 years earlier. Lodge set up a demonstration on the quasi optical nature of "Hertzian waves" (radio waves) and demonstrated their similarity to light and vision including reflection and transmission. Later in June and on 14 August 1894 he did similar experiments, increasing the distance of transmission up to 55 meters (180'). Lodge used a detector called a "coherer" (invented by Edouard Branly), a glass tube containing metal filings between two electrodes. When the small electrical charge from waves from an antenna were applied to the electrodes, the metal particles would cling together or "cohere" causing the device to become conductive allowing the current from a battery to pass through it. In Lodge's setup the slight impulses from the coherer were picked up by a mirror galvanometer which would deflect a beam of light being projected on it, giving a visual signal that the impulse was received. After receiving a signal the metal filings in the coherer were broken apart or "decohered" by a manually operated vibrator or by the vibrations of a bell placed on the table near by that rang every time a transmission was received. Since this was one year before Marconi's 1895 demonstration of a system for radio wireless telegraphy and contained many of the basic elements that would be used in Marconi's later wireless systems, Lodge's lecture became the focus of priority disputes with the Marconi Company a little over a decade later over invention of wireless telegraphy (radio). At the time of the dispute some, including the physicist John Ambrose Fleming, pointed out that Lodge's lecture was a physics experiment, not a demonstration of telegraphic signaling. Lodge would later work with Alexander Muirhead on the development of devices specifically for wireless telegraphy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=348879
| 440,544 |
2,008,272 |
Inglis had close contacts with industry and was able to establish a professorship in aeronautical engineering and links with a nearby Air Ministry experimental flight station. He was also successful in arranging with the War Office for Royal Engineers officers to study the Engineering Tripos at the university. The university drew praise for the quality of its teaching during Inglis' tenure, though his department has been criticised for its "comparative neglect of original research". From 1923, he was involved with the analysis of vibration and its effects on railway bridges, including a period spent working with Christopher Hinton during the latter's final year as a student at Cambridge. Inglis was appointed to a sub-committee of the British government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Bridge Stress Committee by Ewing, who was chairman, and became responsible for almost all of the mathematics of the investigation. Inglis derived a theory that allowed for the accurate assessment of the vibrations caused by hammer blow force imparted to the bridge by locomotives, and the committee's 1928 report included recommendations that the hammer blow force be included in bridge design calculations in the future. During the course of this work Inglis was able to show that the increased oscillation of bridges at train speeds beyond those that corresponded with the natural frequency of the bridge was due to the influence of the locomotive's suspension – the first time that this phenomenon had been explained. Inglis' work on bridge vibration has been described as his most important post-war research. He followed up the work by using a harmonic series and Macaulay's method to approximate the vibration of beams of non-uniform mass distribution or bending modulus. This work is related to the later method used by Myklestad and Prohl in the field of rotordynamics.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16975609
| 2,007,120 |
313,891 |
The first step towards specialist fighter-only aviation units within the German military was the establishment of the so-called "Kampfeinsitzer Kommando" (single-seat battle unit, abbreviated as "KEK") formations by Inspektor-Major Friedrich Stempel in February 1916. These were based around Eindeckers and other new fighter designs emerging, like the Pfalz E-series monoplanes, that were being detached from their former Feldflieger Abteilung units during the winter of 1915–16 and brought together in pairs and quartets at particularly strategic locations, as "KEK" units were formed at Habsheim, Vaux, Avillers, Jametz, and Cunel, as well as other strategic locations along the Western Front to act as "Luftwachtdienst" (aerial guard force) units, consisting only of fighters. In a pioneering move in March 1916, German master aerial tactician Oswald Boelcke came up with the idea of having "forward observers" located close to the front lines to spot Allied aircraft approaching the front, to avoid wear and tear on the trio of Fokker Eindecker scout aircraft he had based with his own "KEK" unit based at Sivry-sur-Meuse, just north of Verdun. By April 1916, the air superiority established by the Eindecker pilots and maintained by their use within the KEK formations had long evaporated as the Halberstadt D.II began to be phased in as Germany's first biplane fighter design, with the first Fokker D-series biplane fighters joining the Halberstadts, and a target was set to establish 37 new squadrons in the next 12 months – entirely equipped with single seat fighters, and manned by specially selected and trained pilots, to counter the Allied fighter squadrons already experiencing considerable success, as operated by the Royal Flying Corps and the French "Aéronautique Militaire". The small numbers of questionably built Fokker D.IIIs posted to the Front pioneered the mounting of twin lMG 08s before 1916's end, as the building numbers of the similarly armed, and much more formidable new twin-gun Albatros D.Is were well on the way to establishing the German air superiority marking the first half of 1917.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=768600
| 313,722 |
55,631 |
The USAF regard stealth as extremely important for the F-X, while the US Navy emphasize the F/A-XX should not be so focused on survivability as to sacrifice speed and payload. Unlike the previous F-22 and F-35 development programs that depended on new technologies that drove up cost and delayed introduction, the Air Force is intending to follow a methodical path of risk reduction to include as much prototyping, technology demonstration, and systems engineering work as possible before creation of an aircraft actually starts. Sixth-generation strike capability is envisioned as a move beyond the limitations inherent to the potential abilities of a single strike aircraft. 6-Gen combat awareness will require a theatre-wide integration of diverse systems beginning with the primary airborne sensory suite and further including real-time data linking of ground-based detection and ranging technology with sensors aboard primary and support aircraft, advanced communication capabilities, unparalleled capacity for continuous onboard info-stream processing utilizing AI for real-time data translation and rendering geared toward optimizing pilot situational awareness while reducing workload, potential near-space capabilities, extension of existing strike/standoff ranges, seamless co-operation with ground-to air defense assets and the ability to deploy aircraft in manned, optionally manned, unmanned and stand-in options.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23636690
| 55,608 |
35,407 |
The interpreted AD 275 fragment of the oath contains a prohibition of abortion that is in contradiction to original Hippocratic text "On the Nature of the Child", which contains a description of an abortion, without any implication that it was morally wrong, and descriptions of abortifacient medications are numerous in the ancient medical literature. The oath’s stance on abortion was unclear even in the ancient world where physicians debated whether the specification of pessaries was a ban on simply pessaries, or a blanket ban on all abortion methods. Scribonius Largus was adamant in AD 43 (the earliest surviving reference to the oath) that it precluded abortion. In the 1st or 2nd century AD work "Gynaecology", Soranus of Ephesus wrote that one party of medical practitioners followed the Oath and banished all abortifacients, while the other party—to which he belonged—was willing to prescribe abortions, but only for the sake of the mother's health. William Henry Samuel Jones states that "abortion…though doctors are forbidden to cause it, was possibly not condemned in all cases". He believed that the oath prohibited abortions, though not under all circumstances. John M. Riddle argues that because Hippocrates specified pessaries, he only meant pessaries and therefore it was acceptable for a Hippocratic doctor to perform abortions using oral drugs, violent means, a disruption of daily routine or eating habits, and more. Other scholars, most notably Ludwig Edelstein, believe that the author intended to prohibit any and all abortions. Olivia De Brabandere writes that regardless of the author’s original intention, the vague and polyvalent nature of the relevant line has allowed both professionals and non-professionals to interpret and use the oath in. While many Christian versions of the Hippocratic Oath, particularly from the middle-ages, explicitly prohibited abortion, the prohibition is often omitted from many oaths taken in US medical schools today, though it remains controversial.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37992
| 35,395 |
465,496 |
The nodes of this network can represent genes, proteins, mRNAs, protein/protein complexes or cellular processes. Nodes that are depicted as lying along vertical lines are associated with the cell/environment interfaces, while the others are free-floating and can diffuse. Edges between nodes represent interactions between the nodes, that can correspond to individual molecular reactions between DNA, mRNA, miRNA, proteins or molecular processes through which the products of one gene affect those of another, though the lack of experimentally obtained information often implies that some reactions are not modeled at such a fine level of detail. These interactions can be inductive (usually represented by arrowheads or the + sign), with an increase in the concentration of one leading to an increase in the other, inhibitory (represented with filled circles, blunt arrows or the minus sign), with an increase in one leading to a decrease in the other, or dual, when depending on the circumstances the regulator can activate or inhibit the target node. The nodes can regulate themselves directly or indirectly, creating feedback loops, which form cyclic chains of dependencies in the topological network. The network structure is an abstraction of the system's molecular or chemical dynamics, describing the manifold ways in which one substance affects all the others to which it is connected. In practice, such GRNs are inferred from the biological literature on a given system and represent a distillation of the collective knowledge about a set of related biochemical reactions. To speed up the manual curation of GRNs, some recent efforts try to use text mining, curated databases, network inference from massive data, model checking and other information extraction technologies for this purpose.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=356382
| 465,266 |
401,547 |
In 1999, RPI gained attention when it was one of the first universities to implement a mandatory laptop computer program. This was also the year of the arrival of Shirley Ann Jackson, a former chairperson of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under U.S. President Bill Clinton, as the eighteenth president of RPI. She instituted "The Rensselaer Plan" (discussed below), an ambitious plan to revitalize the institute. Many advances have been made under the plan, and Jackson has enjoyed the ongoing support of the RPI Board of Trustees. However, her leadership style did not sit well with many faculty; on 26 April 2006, RPI faculty voted 149 to 155 in a failed vote of no-confidence in Jackson. In September 2007, RPI's Faculty Senate was suspended for over four years over conflict with the administration. On 3 October 2008, RPI celebrated the opening of the $220 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. That same year the national economic downturn resulted in the elimination of 98 staff positions across the institute, about five percent of the workforce. Campus construction expansion continued, however, with the completion of the $92 million East Campus Athletic Village and opening of the new Blitman Commons residence hall in 2009. As of 2015, all staff positions had been reinstated at the institute, experiencing significant growth from pre-recession levels and contributing over $1 billion annually to the economy of the Capital District. That same year, renovation of the North Hall, E-Complex, and Quadrangle dormitories began and was later completed in 2016 to house the largest incoming class in Rensselaer's history.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=194026
| 401,348 |
283,523 |
Some criticisms of evolutionary psychology point at contradictions between different aspects of adaptive scenarios posited by evolutionary psychology. One example is the evolutionary psychology model of extended social groups selecting for modern human brains, a contradiction being that the synaptic function of modern human brains require high amounts of many specific essential nutrients so that such a transition to higher requirements of the same essential nutrients being shared by all individuals in a population would decrease the possibility of forming large groups due to bottleneck foods with rare essential nutrients capping group sizes. It is mentioned that some insects have societies with different ranks for each individual and that monkeys remain socially functioning after the removal of most of the brain as additional arguments against big brains promoting social networking. The model of males as both providers and protectors is criticized for the impossibility of being in two places at once, the male cannot both protect his family at home and be out hunting at the same time. In the case of the claim that a provider male could buy protection service for his family from other males by bartering food that he had hunted, critics point at the fact that the most valuable food (the food that contained the rarest essential nutrients) would be different in different ecologies and as such vegetable in some geographical areas and animal in others, making it impossible for hunting styles relying on physical strength or risk-taking to be universally of similar value in bartered food and instead of making it inevitable that in some parts of Africa, food gathered with no need for major physical strength would be the most valuable to barter for protection. A contradiction between evolutionary psychology's claim of men needing to be more sexually visual than women for fast speed of assessing women's fertility than women needed to be able to assess the male's genes and its claim of male sexual jealousy guarding against infidelity is also pointed at, as it would be pointless for a male to be fast to assess female fertility if he needed to assess the risk of there being a jealous male mate and in that case his chances of defeating him before mating anyway (pointlessness of assessing one necessary condition faster than another necessary condition can possibly be assessed).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9703
| 283,370 |
2,163,047 |
In 1975 Archbishop Stylianos, on arrival in Australia, focused on establishing a tertiary theological college. In January 1981, at the Fourth Clergy-Laity Congress held in Sydney, Archbishop Stylianos requested and gained support for the beginning of a theological college. The following year, during the official visit to Australia of Constantine Karamanlis, president of Greece, Archbishop Stylianos asked for help to establish a church seminary. Karamanlis asked for a feasibility study to be done by the end of his visit. However, the Speaker of the House, A Kaklamanis, ignored, then rejected the letter on the grounds that the Church should care for ecclesiastical education, not the government. In response, Archbishop Stylianos decided to re-energise the St Andrew's Brotherhood, so that all clergy make annual donations that would set an example for the laity. In May 1984 Archbishop Stylianos appointed an interim committee to consider and suggest ways of beginning the college, and to prepare the curriculum. On receipt of the report of the interim committee, in December 1984 three committees are established (building, administrative and academic). In 1985 Archbishop Stylianos sent a letter to 1,000 friends and acquaintances asking for a donation of 1000 each. From this correspondence 350,000 was raised and this allowed the archdiocese to make a deposit on a property in for the financial benefit of the Theological College. With enough academically qualified and already-lecturing Orthodox, Sir Arthur George signed an agreement at the 5th Clergy-Laity conference held in Brisbane to provide the funds for the first stage of development. The donation of 250,000 was used to renovate and modify buildings at the archdiocese by creating lecture rooms, dormitories for interstate students, an office, a library, and a common room.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19769661
| 2,161,811 |
1,900,106 |
Other wealthy clients exported Seyfarth's talents when they built houses outside the Chicago area. Norman W. Harris (of Chicago's Harris Bank), whose intown residence was also in Winnetka, raised Arabian horses at Kemah Farm in Williams Bay, Wisconsin where his family lived in a "white cottage ..., one of the charming, low, rambling houses for which Robert Seyfarth, its architect, is famous.". Another such client was Jessie Sykes Beardsley, who returned to her husband's farm in Freedom Township near Ravenna, Ohio in 1918 the year after his death and built a large house (locally known as the Manor House) which was designed by Seyfarth that she had commissioned, presumably while she was still in Chicago. Here she operated the Beardsley Dairy for a number of years. Her husband Orasmus Drake Beardsley had been the secretary and treasurer of her father's Chicago-based company, The Sykes Steel Roofing Company, which made a variety of products including roofing materials and pool tables. While there, according to the 1908 edition of "The Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names", the Beardsleys lived at 4325 Grand Boulevard (now King Drive) on a street that today contains one of the most intact collections of residences built in the late 19th century for Chicago's elite. The same book also shows that Orasmus Beardsley was a member of various prestigious clubs, including The Chicago Athletic Association (where William Wrigley Jr. and L. Frank Baum were members) and the South Shore Country Club (now the South Shore Cultural Center), where he associated with the likes of Clarence Buckingham, John G. Shedd, John J. Glessner, Martin Ryerson, Clarence Darrow, Joy Morton and Willoughby Walling. The Beardsley's Freedom Township house was later owned by Ohio State Senator James P. Jones. Another among Seyfarth's clients of this type was the mail-order innovator Aaron Montgomery Ward (1843–1913), who was briefly a neighbor after Seyfarth moved to Highland Park c. 1910. All of this notwithstanding, however, a careful analysis will show that Seyfarth served a broad-based clientele, and although he has a number of small houses to his credit the largest percentage of his work was done for what would be considered upper middle-class clients.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24940492
| 1,899,018 |
1,381,047 |
In DESI, there is a high-velocity pneumatically assisted electrospray jet that is continually directed towards the probe surface. The jet forms a micrometer-size thin solvent film on the sample where it can be desorbed. The sample can be dislodged by the incoming spray jet allowing for particles to come off in an ejection cone of analyte containing secondary ion droplets. A lot of study is still going into looking at the working principals of DESI but there are still some things known. The erosion diameter of the spray spot formed by DESI is known to be directly tied to the spatial resolution. Both the chemical composition and the texture of the surface will also affect the ionization process. The nebulizing gas used most commonly is N set at a typical pressure of 160 psi. The solvent is a combination of methanol and water, sometimes paired with 0.5% acetic acid and at a flow rate of 10 μL/min. The surface can be mounted it two different ways, one way consists of a surface holder that can carry 1 x 5 cm large disposable surface slides that lie on a stainless steel surface. The steel surface has a voltage applied to provide an appropriate surface potential. The surface potential that can be applied is the same at which the sprayer can be set at. The second surface is made with an aluminum block that has a built in heater, this allows for temperature control with temperatures up to 300 °C with newer stages having built in CCD's and light sources. Their spectra are that similar to ESI. They feature multiply charged ions alkali metal adducts and non covalent complexes that originate from the condensed phase of the sample/solvent interaction. DESI is revealed to have a more gentle ionization condition that leads to a more pronounced tendency for metal adduct formation and a lower specific charging of secondary droplets.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13281848
| 1,380,284 |
124,371 |
This newer, more accurate version placed in converted silos allowed the R-36M family to remain the bulwark of the SRF’s hard-target-kill capability. The R-36M2 carries 10 MIRVs, each having a nearly twice the yield of the R-36MUTTKh warheads according to Western estimates (approximately 750 kt to 1 Mt), though Russian sources suggest a yield of 550–750 kt each. The increase in the R-36M2's warhead yield, along with improved accuracy, would, under the START treaty, help allow the Russians to maintain their hard-target-kill wartime requirements even with the 50 percent cut in heavy ICBMs the START agreement required. The technical proposals to build a modernized heavy ICBM were made in June 1979. The missile subsequently received the designation R-36M2 Voevoda and the industrial index number 15A18M. The design of the R-36M2 was completed in June 1982. The R-36M2 had a series of new engineering features. The engine of the second stage is completely built into the fuel tank (earlier this was only used on SLBMs) and the design of the transport-launching canister was altered. Unlike the R-36M, the 10 warheads on the post-boost vehicle are located on a special frame in two circles. The flight tests of the R-36M2 equipped with 10 MIRVs began in March 1986 and were completed in March 1988. The first regiment with these missiles was put on alert on 30 July 1988 and was deployed on 11 August 1988. This is the only variant still operational.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1068559
| 124,320 |
1,953,568 |
Prevention is the most effective method of managing "M. coffeicola". Risk factors for this pathogen include: prolonged (24–72 hours) humid environment, poor soil nutrition, and plant stress caused by increased planting density, herbicide injury, weeds, drought, and over irrigation. To manage humidity a farmer can prune to allow for air circulation and ensure the soil has proper drainage. In order to maintain proper plant nutrition, soil testing and a fertilization regiment are essential for combating this pathogen. Plant symptoms such as chlorosis, leaf curling, and bronzing along the edges of leaves can be used to diagnose specific nutrient deficiencies. For example if a plant has leaves bronzed along edges, cupped down-ward; new leaves dead; eventual die back of shoot tips, then it is likely the plant has a calcium deficiency. To reduce plant stress, a farmer can use herbicides to combat weeds but must be careful not to damage the plant in process. Also to minimize competition between adjacent crops, it is important to properly space coffee plants in 8 ft. by 8 ft. areas. Stress can further be minimized if post and pre-harvest damage by machinery or laborers is avoided. To avoid wilting stress plants should be properly irrigated . However, if a crop already has "M. coffeicola", copper fungicide is effective. In Hawaii, farmers often spray tri-annually, using 1.5–6 lbs of fungicide per 50–100 gallons water, containing 30–80% copper hydroxide. "Sprays should coincide with dry weather and calm winds. Three spray applications per season should suffice (occurring approximately once per month), beginning at flowering. Thorough coverage of the plant canopy is very important. Large farms in Hawai‘i utilize tractor-mounted mist blowers."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11127586
| 1,952,447 |
1,768,032 |
Using McDonald (2002, pp. 12–33), the following specific set of attractors have been proposed by Senges (2007) to directly influence the knowledge entrepreneurship ability (figure 1.6): Environmental awareness describes with what practices and with what intensity the organization gathers information about its external and internal environment. The importance of this practice for the establishment of an entrepreneurial organization was also recognized by Cornwall and Perlman (1990). They write: "Scanning should be a fundamental part of every manager's job, not something that is done by top management in conjunction with the annual update of the strategic plan"(Cornwall & Perlman, 1990, p. 46). As such the concept includes activities like internal needs analysis, benchmarking and inter-organizational networking. The organizations attitude towards the risk inherent in the pursuit of all innovation is captured under the concept of risk tolerance. A factor which has not been part of McDonald's model (and which replaces the variable named analytical diligence) covers the organizations vision in the sense of entrepreneuring (Kuratko, 2006). This ability is strongly related to strategic thinking and planning, describes its culture of envisioning and scouting new developments. "New project support" refers to the degree to which new initiatives are institutionalized as a means of institutional development. Thereby the monetary means, as well as managerial attention given to experimental projects is looked at. Communication is the last variable taken into consideration as a major influence for knowledge entrepreneurship. The organizational style of communication and the richness of communication channels are evaluated here.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16012616
| 1,767,038 |
368,174 |
Since the late 1970s, the use of CFCs has been heavily regulated because of their destructive effects on the ozone layer. After the development of his electron capture detector, James Lovelock was the first to detect the widespread presence of CFCs in the air, finding a mole fraction of 60 ppt of CFC-11 over Ireland. In a self-funded research expedition ending in 1973, Lovelock went on to measure CFC-11 in both the Arctic and Antarctic, finding the presence of the gas in each of 50 air samples collected, and concluding that CFCs are not hazardous to the environment. The experiment did however provide the first useful data on the presence of CFCs in the atmosphere. The damage caused by CFCs was discovered by Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina who, after hearing a lecture on the subject of Lovelock's work, embarked on research resulting in the first publication suggesting the connection in 1974. It turns out that one of CFCs' most attractive features—their low reactivity—is key to their most destructive effects. CFCs' lack of reactivity gives them a lifespan that can exceed 100 years, giving them time to diffuse into the upper stratosphere. Once in the stratosphere, the sun's ultraviolet radiation is strong enough to cause the homolytic cleavage of the C-Cl bond. In 1976, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA banned commercial manufacturing and use of CFCs and aerosol propellants. This was later superseded by broader regulation by the EPA under the Clean Air Act to address stratospheric ozone depletion.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54910
| 367,981 |
185,779 |
Self-medication by consumers is defined as "the taking of medicines on one's own initiative or on another person's suggestion, who is not a certified medical professional", and it has been identified as one of the primary reasons for the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. In an effort to manage their own illness, patients take the advice of sometimes false media sources, friends, and family causing them to take antimicrobials unnecessarily or in excess. Many people resort to this out of necessity, when access to a physician is rationed or temporarily unavailable due to lockdowns or GP surgery closures, or when the patients have a limited amount of time or money to see a prescribing doctor, or, especially in many developing countries with growing populations but a poorly developed economy which lack cheap, convenient access to clinical professionals. In these situations, governments naturally allow the sale of antimicrobials as over the counter medications. This increased access makes it extremely easy to obtain antimicrobials without any targeting (which would enhance utility) or restriction via time and cost, and as a result many antimicrobials are taken incorrectly leading to resistant microbial strains. One major example of a place that faces these challenges is India, where in the state of Punjab 73% of the population resorted to treating their minor health issues and chronic illnesses through self-medication.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1914
| 185,682 |
1,099,908 |
A similar thing happens with the depiction of blood, and real historical events; many things have to be readjusted to fit the country's tolerance and taste in order not to hurt sensibilities. This is probably one of the reasons why so many games take place in imaginary worlds. This customization effort draws on the knowledge of geopolitical strategists, like Kate Edwards from Englobe. During the 2006 Game Developers Conference in California she explained the importance of being culturally aware when internationalizing games in a presentation called "Fun vs. Offensive: Balancing the 'Cultural Edge' of Content for Global Games" (Edwards 2006). Both developers and publishers want to please their clients. Gamers are not particularly interested in where the game comes from, or who created it any more than someone buying a new car or DVD player. A product for mass consumption only keeps the branding features of the trademark; all the other characteristics might be subject to customization due to the need to appeal to the local market. Therefore, the translation will be in some cases an actual recreation, or, to put it in the words of Mangiron & O'Hagan (2006), a "transcreation", where translators will be expected to produce a text with the right "feel" for the target market. It is important for translators to be aware of the logic behind this. Video games are a software product, and as such, they will have manuals and instructions, as well as interactive menus and help files. This will call for technical translation. On the other hand, we will also find narration and dialogue closer to literary texts or film scripts where a more creative translation would be expected. However, unlike most forms of translation, video games can adapt or even change the original script, as long as it is in the search of enhanced fun and playability of the target culture. We can only find a parallel of this type of practice in the translation of children's literature where professionals often adapt or alter the original text to improve children's understanding and enjoyment of the book.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8735708
| 1,099,348 |
773,948 |
Different sources present different accounts of the history of the Ju 390 V2. Kössler and Ott (1993) stated that the Ju 390 V2 was completed during June 1944, with flight tests beginning in late September 1944. The second prototype (Ju 390 V2) was configured for a maritime reconnaissance role, and its fuselage had been extended by for a total of length of 33.5 m (110 ft) and it was said to be equipped with FuG 200 Hohentwiel ASV (Air to Surface Vessel) radar and defensive armament consisting of five 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon. Green (1970) wrote that the armament was four 20 mm MG 151/20s and three 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns. At a hearing before British authorities on 26 September 1945, Professor Heinrich Hertel, chief designer and technical director of Junkers Aircraft & Motor Works, asserted the Ju 390 V2 had never been completed. German author Friedrich Georg claimed in his book that test pilot "Oberleutnant" Joachim Eisermann recorded in his logbook that he flew the V2 prototype (RC+DA) on 9 February 1945 at Rechlin air base. The log is said to have recorded a handling flight lasting 50 minutes and composed of circuits around Rechlin, while a second 20-minute flight was used to ferry the prototype to Lärz. Kay (2004) stated that the second Ju 390 prototype was discarded without being flown because of a July 1944 RLM decree sanctioning an end to all large combat plane programs in Nazi Germany in favor of the Emergency Fighter Program. Pancherz himself stated in 1980 that the only the first Ju 390 flew and cast doubt on all claims of the Ju 390 making a test flight to New York.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=482682
| 773,532 |
660,320 |
IAA is listed in its MSDS as mutagenic to mammalian somatic cells, and possibly carcinogenic based on animal data. It may cause adverse reproductive effects (fetotoxicity) and birth defects based on animal data. No human data as of 2008. It is listed as a potential skin, eye, and respiratory irritant, and users are warned not to ingest it. Protocols for ingestion, inhalation, and skin/eye exposure are standard for moderately poisonous compounds and include thorough rinsing in the case of skin and eyes, fresh air in the case of inhalation, and immediately contacting a physician in all cases to determine the best course of action and not to induce vomiting when of ingested. The NFPA 704 health hazard rating for IAA is 2, which denotes a risk of temporary incapacitation with intense or prolonged, but not chronic exposure, and a possibility of residual injury. IAA is a direct ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, and IAA treatment of mice indicate liver-protective effects in a model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Humans typically have relatively high levels of IAA in their serum (~1µM), but this can be increased further in certain disease conditions and can be a poor prognostic marker for cardiovascular health. Whether this IAA originates from endogenous biosynthesis via IL4I1 or gut microbiota is unknown. A 2021 study found that normal mice had an average of 3.7 times as much IAA in their feces compared to germ-free mice, suggesting that the mammalian microbiome contributes significantly to the overall circulating amount.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2027822
| 659,975 |
155,668 |
In the world of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", Evangelion, or Evas, multifunction machines represent the most advanced battle tools built by mankind. They are costly weapons that are designed to fight and destroy Angels. Their development, conducted in secret by the special agency Nerv, began after a catastrophe known as Second Impact. From the scientific point of view, their tasks constitute the E project, placed under the direction and responsibility of Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. The Evangelion are giant humanoids clad in thick protective armor. The constitution of an Evangelion unit is identical to a human being's, except for size: each Evangelion is equipped with a nervous system, a skeleton, nails and a circulatory system. In a section of the headquarters of the Nerv called Terminal Dogma, there are skeletons of bodies believed to be precursors to the Eva-00, or the remains of failed experiments that occurred during its creation; the experimental models have two or more optical sensors and a visible spine. The original living bodies are then implanted with mechanical components, which are used to control them or to provide them with greater efficiency and functionality. As in humans the signals of the central nervous system are transmitted by an electrical impulse, the peripheral system and the movements of an Evangelion are transmitted by electric current. For the first three examples, designed in Japan, the traditional Chinese numbering system is adopted, while later prototypes follow Arabic numbering.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=577372
| 155,597 |
1,516,807 |
Marcel Roche (Caracas, August 15, 1920 – Miami, May 3, 2003) was a physician, researcher and scientific leader. Graduated in medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, in Baltimore in 1946, he specialized in endocrinology and nuclear medicine. Before returning to Venezuela in 1951, he carried out biomedical research for some time at the New York Institute of Public Health. In Venezuela, Dr. Roche started several pioneering works as an assistant professor of the Central University of Venezuela on goitre, hookworm infections and nutritional deficiencies and anaemias, especially among the poor and aboriginal people. He was founder and director of the Institute of Medical Research at the Central University, and in 1958 he also became the secretary general of the Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science(AsoVAC). Other institutions directed by him were the Institute of Neurology and Brain Investigation, reorganized by him in 1959 as the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). He was founder and director of the Venezuelan National Council of Scientific Investigation and the magazine Intersciencia, as well as being involved in the publishing of several other scientific periodicals. Dr. Roche was also a pioneer in the area of public understanding of science and a pioneer in the production of TV programs and documentary films on many science subjects. He was very active in promoting science to the public and participated in many national and international organizations promoting science. Dr. Roche was an advisor of the WHO and UNESCO as Governor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1958–1960), president of the council of the University of the United Nations in Tokyo, and Secretary of the Third World Academy of Sciences. He received many honours and degrees from Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, India and Brazil. He won the Kalinga Prize in 1987 from UNESCO for his work.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29302481
| 1,515,955 |
1,311,156 |
Though "BioShock Infinite" shares the same name with the other two games, Levine has stated that this is a new direction, and was coy to answer if they shared the same universe. Levine referred to the term "BioShock" not as a specific location or setting, but a concept conjoined by two ideas: the exploration of a fantastical setting, and the use of a large number of tools and abilities in creative manners to survive. Along with the "System Shock" games, which Levine and other Irrational developers had worked on, the titles share the same idea of a "component of learning about a new place" and shocking the player into discovering more of the setting, according to Levine. Levine affirmed that with the similarities between the games, "It would be dishonest to say this is not "BioShock"". Similarly, Timothy Gerritsen, director of product development, stated they wanted to keep the feel of the "BioShock" experience but still consider "Infinite" to be a new intellectual property; as a means to sever the implied connection to the previous games, the teaser purposely shows a Big Daddy figurine being crushed at the onset. This was furthered by the selection of the word "Infinite" as part of the title, to reflect the "many possibilities" they wanted to explore with the "BioShock" concept. The game does not completely eschew "BioShock", as certain elements like the sound effects representing the player's health or for gaining new quests from "BioShock" are reused without modification in "Infinite"; Levine stated that they had worked these common elements as former "BioShock" players would already understand their impact, and that they had spent a great detail of time during "BioShock" to get these elements right and felt no need to reinvent the sounds again. Further, the introduction of "Infinite" purposely mimics several elements from "BioShock"s opening: one example given by writer Drew Holmes is the act of walking through a candle-lined water trough in a Columbia church to be baptized, which visually is similar to swimming through the flaming wreckage of the plane to reach the bathysphere terminus for Rapture. Levine said "it is a new thing, but it's also a continuation of the things we've done before" and has a shared heritage, in a similar manner to "Final Fantasy" sequels.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38977195
| 1,310,438 |
1,547,920 |
In "Sperm Wars," Baker asserted the human cuckolding rate to be at 10% and that women frequently cheat to secure better genes for their offspring. This figure was later debunked, because studies which rely on a data set consisting of men who have requested paternity tests are strongly sample biased toward those who have a reason to have suspicions. Men who have low paternity confidence and have chosen to challenge their paternity through laboratory testing are much less likely than men with high paternity confidence to be the fathers of their putative children. A survey of 67 studies reporting nonpaternity suggests that for men with high paternity confidence rates of nonpaternity are (excluding studies of unknown methodology) typically 1.9%, substantially less than the typical rates of 10% or higher cited by many researchers. "Media and popular scientific literature often claim that many alleged fathers are being cuckolded into raising children that biologically are not their own," said Maarten Larmuseau of KU Leuven in Belgium. "Surprisingly, the estimated rates within human populations are quite low--around 1 or 2 percent." "But reliable data on contemporary populations that have become available over the last decade, mainly as supplementary results of medical studies, don't support the notion that one in 10 people don't know who their "real" fathers are. The findings suggest that any potential advantage of cheating in order to have children that are perhaps better endowed is offset for the majority of women by the potential costs, the researchers say. Those costs likely include spousal aggression, divorce, or reduced paternal investment by the social partner or his relatives. The observed low cuckoldry rates in contemporary and past human populations challenge clearly the well-known idea that women routinely 'shop around' for good genes by engaging in extra-pair copulations to obtain genetic benefits for their children," Larmuseau said.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31130837
| 1,547,042 |
1,807,912 |
Webber's tenure as director of the CES lasted, with a few interruptions, from 1913 until his retirement in 1929. A few important achievements of the CES during his directorship were: Walter P. Kelly's development of drainage techniques for reclaiming thousands of acres of California land made unproductive by salt accumulation; the development of chemical fertilizers; the discovery of boron poisoning, methods for its control, and an understanding of the necessity of minute amounts of boron in citrus growth. Howard B. Frost's pioneering genetic research lead to the first accurate reports of the normal number of chromosomes for some citrus, the first discovery of polyploidy in citrus, and the first descriptions of citrus tetraploids. Frost also developed tools for guiding artificial hybridization for production of new citrus cultivars, which resulted in widespread propagation of nuclear lines and contributed to the improvement of citrus plantings throughout the world. By working out the etiology of various types of diseases, particularly gummosis, Howard S. Faucet contributed significantly to improved methods for disease control and made possible the discovery of the viral nature of some diseases which were responsible for causing quick decline among 3 million orange trees over a 25-year period. H.J. Quale's entomological research on citrus insects, mites, and walnut insects led to the first recognition of the problem of insect resistance to fumigation, and of means of overcoming it. Harry H. Smith and Harold Compere's discovery of natural parasites of the citrophilus mealybug in Australia effected almost complete control of this parasite in California, which saved growers in Orange County almost $1 million in crop losses annually. Although its major emphasis was on citrus, the CES also made research contributions to every major crop grown in Southern California.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12600727
| 1,806,892 |
1,559,777 |
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, by law of Congress, all male college students were subject to military training. In the spring of 1918, Pitt began training students for war-related industrial work. The United States Army built seven frame barracks for housing 1,000 men, a 2,000 seat mess hall, an administrative building and a YMCA Hospitality House on the hillside campus. In September of that year, the federal government announced it was taking control of colleges and universities for the training of officers and technical specialists in the Student Army Training Corps (SATC), but by November 11, Germany had surrendered and by December all student soldiers were out of the armed services. The war activity had caused a major influx of students to Pitt and a corresponding shortage of space. The barracks, meant to be temporary, were used for some time to help alleviate congestion, but it was apparent that this was an inadequate solution; by 1920, Pitt alumni had begun a campaign to fund construction of a sorely-needed new building. The campaign was a success, raising $670,000 ($70,000 more than was needed), due in part to both the excitement of alumni with the championship caliber play of the Pitt football team (national champions or undefeated in 1910, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918 and 1920) and by a $100,000 contribution directly from the Athletic Committee's football receipts. By 1921, Alumni Hall (now known as Eberly Hall), designed by Benno Janssen (the runner-up for the previous campus plan architectural competition), was dedicated. It signified a departure from (and end to) the Acropolis Plan. This enthusiasm for football would also lead to the construction of Pitt Stadium in 1925.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13999007
| 1,558,891 |
327,770 |
Chapter IX deals with the fact that the geological record appears to show forms of life suddenly arising, without the innumerable transitional fossils expected from gradual changes. Darwin borrowed Charles Lyell's argument in "Principles of Geology" that the record is extremely imperfect as fossilisation is a very rare occurrence, spread over vast periods of time; since few areas had been geologically explored, there could only be fragmentary knowledge of geological formations, and fossil collections were very poor. Evolved local varieties which migrated into a wider area would seem to be the sudden appearance of a new species. Darwin did not expect to be able to reconstruct evolutionary history, but continuing discoveries gave him well-founded hope that new finds would occasionally reveal transitional forms. To show that there had been enough time for natural selection to work slowly, he cited the example of The Weald as discussed in "Principles of Geology" together with other observations from Hugh Miller, James Smith of Jordanhill and Andrew Ramsay. Combining this with an estimate of recent rates of sedimentation and erosion, Darwin calculated that erosion of The Weald had taken around 300 million years. The initial appearance of entire groups of well-developed organisms in the oldest fossil-bearing layers, now known as the Cambrian explosion, posed a problem. Darwin had no doubt that earlier seas had swarmed with living creatures, but stated that he had no satisfactory explanation for the lack of fossils. Fossil evidence of pre-Cambrian life has since been found, extending the history of life back for billions of years.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29932
| 327,596 |
1,622,286 |
"GeroScience" covers topics like chronic low-grade inflammation, cellular senescence, macromolecular damage, oxidative-nitrative stress, maladaptation to cellular and molecular stresses, impaired stem cell function and regeneration, alterations in proteostasis, epigenetic dysregulation, impaired mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism; strategies to improve cardiovascular, neurocognitive, and musculoskeletal health-span; studies using a variety of experimental approaches, including in vivo studies and investigations using isolated tissue preparations and cultured cells; the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying aging processes; evolutionary biology, biophysics, genetics, genomics, proteomics, molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, alternative and complementary medicine (including studies on natural compounds in the context of aging research), gerontology and geriatrics, endocrinology, immunology, physiology, pharmacology, neuroscience, and veterinary sciences (including veterinary pathology). "GeroScience" also publishes articles in areas of public health and epidemiology relevant for healthy aging. Additionally, "GeroScience" is a prime outlet for COVID-19 clinical, pathophysiological, immunological and public health-relevant research. "GeroScience" is currently ranked #4/99 in Geriatrics and Gerontology, #1/86 in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, #5/35 in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology/Aging, #1/16 in Veterinary medicine and #21/317 in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine. The 2020 CiteScore value of "GeroScience" is 9.5 (Elsevier/Scopus). The 2021 Impact Factor of "GeroScience" is 7.581 (Clarivate Analytics). The current list of open Call-for-Papers (including “Understanding the impact of aging on the susceptibility and response to COVID-19 infection"; “Understanding and overcoming the mechanisms driving age-related sarcopenia“; “Understanding Senescence in Brain Aging and Alzheimer's Disease “ ; “White matter lesions in age-related cognitive decline: etiology, risk factors, prevention and repair“ ; “Brain and Vascular Injury in COVID-19: Implications for Cognitive Dysfunction and the Post-COVID-19 Syndrome”) can be accessed at the journal's website.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27436527
| 1,621,370 |
275,387 |
With this information, along with other intelligence reports available to them, FEAF confirmed that the Korean People's Army had, indeed, launched a full-scale invasion of South Korea. FEAF's first priority, however, was to evacuate United States citizens. On the morning of 26 June, the nearby Norwegian freighter "Reinholte" was sent to Inchon harbor to evacuate non-military personnel from Seoul, which lay directly in the invasion route. A flight of Twin Mustangs from the 68th F(AW)S was dispatched to the area, arriving at dawn to provide air protection for the evacuation. Two of the F-82s were dispatched to fly over the road from Seoul, while others flew top cover over the Inchon docks. The patrol went without incident until about 1300, when a pair of Soviet-built aircraft (the exact aircraft type has never been determined) came out of the clouds. Orders given to the F-82 pilots prohibited any aggressive action; however, gun switches were activated when the enemy leader tightened up his turn and peeled off at the F-82s with his wing man in close tail. The F-82s dropped their external tanks, turned on combat power and started a climbing turn towards the North Korean aircraft. For some reason, the North Korean leader fired while too far away, with his bullets falling short of the F-82s which then pulled up into the clouds and above the overcast, putting them in a position to return fire if the North Koreans followed them. However, they did not, and no further contact was made for the rest of the day. The evacuation at Inchon was successfully carried out with a total of 682 civilians being transported to Sasebo, Japan.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=671473
| 275,239 |
2,032,130 |
This MLD technique utilizes the crystalline nature of semiconductors and its self-limiting surface reaction properties to form highly uniform, self-assembled, covalently bonded dopant-containing monolayers followed by a subsequent annealing step for the incorporation and diffusion of dopants. The monolayer formation reaction is self-limiting, thereby, resulting in the deterministic coverage of dopant atoms on the surface. MLD differs from other conventional doping techniques such as spin-on-dopants (SODs) and gas phase doping techniques in the way of dopant dose control. Such control in MLD is much more precise due to the self-limiting formation of covalently attached dopants on the surface while the SODs just rely on the thickness control of the spin-on oxide and the gas phase technique depends on the control of dopant gas flow rate; therefore, the excellent dose control in MLD can yield the exact tuning of the resulting dopant profile. Compared to ion-implantation, MLD does not involve the energetic introduction of dopant species into the semiconductor lattice where crystal damages are induced. In the case of implantation, defects such as interstitials and vacancies are inevitably generated, which interact with the dopants to further broaden the junction profile. This is known as the transient-enhanced diffusion (TED), which limits the formation of good quality of USJs. Also, stochastic variation in the dopant positioning and severe stoichiometric imbalance are thus induced for binary and tertiary compound semiconductors by the implantation techniques. In contrast, all MLD dopant atoms are thermally diffused from the crystal surface to the bulk and the dopant profile can be easily controlled by the thermal budget. Since the MLD system can be classified as a limited source model, this is desirable for controlled USJ fabrication with high uniformity and low stochastic variation. Combined with the excellent dopant dose uniformity and coverage in MLD, it is especially attractive for doping nonplanar devices such as fin-FETs and nanowires. As a result, high quality sub-5 nm ultra-shallow junction has been demonstrated in silicon via the use of this MLD technique. Compared to low-energy ion-implantation into a screening film followed by in-diffusion, the MLD technique requires a lower thermal budget and allows conformal doping on topographic features.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28559987
| 2,030,960 |
1,744,896 |
The Latitudinal Gradient is a common term in describing the change of a certain variable with respect to global latitudes. Due to the tilt of the Earth as well as the distance from the sun, this latitudinal gradient is often proportional to the global temperature gradient, both on water and land. The temperature gradient of the ocean is crucial for all marine life as some species are specialized for different regions or use temperature to direct migrations. Thus, species that reside in temperate latitudes tend to have broader preferences and tolerances then species specialized for extreme temperatures. This makes both tropical and polar species more susceptible to changes in climate. Flatfish are negatively affected by these temperature shifts and continue to decline in populations. Globally, their numbers dwindle and have been since the 1970s. The use of technology has allowed researchers to calculate numbers of existing populations as well as estimate the future of the clade. Two of these methods, a vulnerability assessment and simulation model projections, help pinpoint the regions at highest risk of this change and align with previously mentioned latitudinal gradient predictions. Findings suggest that the Indo-Pacific and Northeast Atlantic are at the highest risk of impacts due to climate change (i.e. a tropical region and polar region). As mentioned previously, scophthalmids are almost exclusively located in the Northeast Atlantic and will suffer heavily from this. Interestingly enough, the rapid warming was exacerbated regionally due to factors such as human populations, freshwater prevalence, and land-locking. The highest levels of warming (“LMEs warming at rates 2–4 times the global mean rate” ) was confined to certain areas, especially in the North Atlantic. Regions that "Scophthalmidae" are native to (i.e. the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black seas) all fall under this hotspot. It seems that this regional increase of warming can be traced to the “natural variability related to the North Atlantic Oscillation” as well as adjacent terrestrial warming near the coastal seas (caused by industrial/anthropogenic advancements).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2242682
| 1,743,912 |
357,136 |
On 23 August 1911, the Navy officers on flight duty at Hammondsport, New York, and Dayton, Ohio, were ordered to report for duty at the Engineering Experiment Station, Naval Academy, "in connection with the test of gasoline motors and other experimental work in the development of aviation, including instruction at the aviation school" being set up on Greenbury Point, Annapolis. The "aerodrome" at Greensbury Point sat on 1000 square feet of land and consisted of a building with a rubber-reinforced roof containing three hangars (one for each of the newly purchased airplanes), a workshop, an office, and several bunk rooms. All three airplanes cost a total of $14,000. Over 100 officers applied for aviation duty prior to August 1911. Swimming was among a set of other qualifications that a pilot candidate must have passed before being accepted to aviation duty. Pilot qualifications were in accordance with Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) standards. In the presence of a committee of the Aero Club of America, a pilot candidate had to fly five figure eights around two flags buoyed 1500 feet apart then land within 150 feet of an established mark. This course had to be completed twice. The test also required the prospective aviator to climb to a minimum altitude of 150 ft (officially 50 meters). It was estimated by CAPT Washington Irving Chambers that a student could qualify as a new pilot in about a month, weather permitting. All students wore life preservers. The control wheel of the Curtiss machines featured a "shift control" where the controls could be "thrown" between the student and instructor at any time. The Wright machine was delivered to Greenbury by August 1911, but was not yet configured with water gear. Navy flight training moved to NAS Pensacola, Florida, in January 1914.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59766
| 356,950 |
1,550,857 |
This is a public health-oriented approach to preventive medicine and public health which predicts that shifting the population distribution of a risk factor prevents more burden of disease than targeting people at high risk. Rose introduced this principle to accommodate for members of the community who were at of low risk. It starts with the recognition that the occurrence of common exposures and diseases reflects the functioning of society as a whole. The approach is more relevant to decrease exposure to (a) certain environmental agents that individuals have little capacity to detect than to (b) risk factors that individuals may generally decide to avoid. Main strengths of this strategy include: it may be radical (“only the social and political approach confronts the root causes”); the societal effects of a distributional shift may be large; it may be more culturally appropriate and sustainable to seek a general change in behavioural norms and in the social values that facilitate their adoption than to attempt to individually change behaviours that are socially conditioned. Main limitations of the population strategy are: it offers only a small benefit to each participating individual, which may be wiped out by a small risk; it requires major changes in the economics and mode of functioning of society, which often makes changes unlikely. Individuals generally prefer to pay as late as possible, and to enjoy the benefits as soon as possible. Social benefits –which are often achieved through processes with the opposite timing of costs and benefits– may thus be scarcely attractive to the individual. Nevertheless, shared values and targets do exist at the community level.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18695602
| 1,549,976 |
1,594,782 |
After his return from Europe in the fall of 1826, Fisher's mature career began. He opened a studio on Washington Street in Boston where he is said to have been the first landscapist to hang out a professional sign in Boston. His friend, the landscapist Thomas Doughty had his studio a few blocks away. In 1827, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician. In 1828, the Boston Athenaeum began to purchase paintings for exhibition and bought his "Composition from Scenery in the State of New York" for $350, then the highest price he had realized for a painting. During the early months of 1834, he joined with Thomas Doughty, Chester Harding, Francis Alexander and other local contributors in opening the Artists' Exhibition at Harding's Gallery where he exhibited forty-three paintings of a variety of subjects—landscapes, genre scenes, portraits, and paintings of marine scenes. This gave the public a unique opportunity to appreciate the breadth of his artistic talent. In 1837, The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (MCMA) held an arts and crafts fair. (Paul Revere was the first president of the association.) Unlike any previous exhibition in Boston, it appealed to a broad segment of the public who filled the galleries of Faneuil and Quincy Halls to see the exhibits. A critic in the Boston "Saturday Evening Gazette" wrote, "Fisher has contributed a number of his best compositions, comprising landscapes with groups of figures, barn-yard and cattle scenes, and portraits of children. We cannot ... write a critical notice of such productions, but for variety of style, elegance of design, harmony and richness of coloring, and interesting choice of subjects, Fisher has no superior on this side of the Atlantic." His collection of works received the MCMA's gold medal. During this period, the frequent publication of his pictures as gift book illustrations was perhaps the most important factor contributing to his growing popularity. These "gift books" were elegantly decorated and made small so as to fit comfortably in the hand. Engravings of his original paintings were used to illustrate widely circulated American annuals such as "The Token, The Garland, The Jewel, The Lily", and "The Magnolia". He typified the artist who appealed to the gift book audience. Prominent engraver from Boston Edward Gallaudet was commissioned to make many of his engravings.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2680181
| 1,593,884 |
1,817,024 |
In 1938, Gerald Seligman, Tom Hughes, and Max Perutz visited the Jungfraujoch to take temperature readings; their goal was to study the transition of snow into firn and then into ice with increasing depth. They dug shafts as deep as 20 m by hand, and also bored holes with augers of two different designs, including one based on advice provided by Hans Ahlmann. In 1948 Perutz returned to the Jungfrau, leading a project to investigate glacial flow on the Jungfraufirn. The plan was to drill a hole to the bed of the glacier, place a steel tube in the hole, and then revisit it for the next two years to measure the inclination of the tube at various depths. This would determine how the speed of ice flow varied with depth below the surface of the glacier. General Electric was engaged to design the electrical heating element for the tip of the drill, but were late in delivering it; Perutz had to pick up the package at Victoria Station's left luggage as he was leaving the UK for Switzerland. The package was resting on top of other suitcases in the train onward from Calais, and in pulling down a suitcase Perutz accidentally knocked it out of the train window. One of his team members returned to Calais and organized local Boy Scouts to search the track for the package, but it was never recovered. When Perutz reached the Sphinx Observatory (the research station on the Jungfraujoch) he was advised by the head of the station to contact Edur A.G., a manufacturing firm in Bern; Edur manufactured electrothermal tools to bore open beer barrels, and were able to quickly fashion a satisfactory drill tip. Perutz returned with the new drill tip to find that his two graduate students, whom he had left learning to ski while he went to Bern, had both broken their legs. He was able to persuade André Roch, who was then at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research at Weissfluhjoch, to join the project, and more students were sent from Cambridge as well.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56017314
| 1,815,990 |
1,184,595 |
"Vostok" and "Mirny" anchored in the Matavai Bay, at the same place where the ship of Samuel Wallis had anchored. Russian ships got visited by hundreds of people, however, from all these new contacts, the most useful was New England native Williams, who began to serve as Lazarev's interpreter. They also found an interpreter for "Vostok". Soon missionary Nott also visited the vessels, whom Bellingshausen defined as a royal messenger. Later, Bellingshausen and Simonov witnessed arguments between Pōmare II and the head of missionaries. For instance, when the king was prohibited from consuming alcohol (from which he died in 18 months after Russians' visit), or when he had to slam the door in front of the missionary's nose to remain alone with the captain (July 23). Most often, however, it was Nott who mediated between Pōmare II and Bellingshausen and Lazarev; it was the missionary who allocated Point Venus for Simonov' observations and Mikhailov' drawings. Bellingshausen who was a sincere monarchist and who did not have an opportunity to get into much details on how Polynesian society functioned, thought that the king was the leader of the island, and negotiated with him on the supply of sloops and other things. At the day of the arrival on July 22, Russians received a gift of four pigs, coconuts, taro, yams, and many bananas, planed and mountainous. The gift was beneficial because of the depletion of Australian supplies. On July 26, procurement was carried out by exchanging goods and trinkets intended for this purpose by the Admiralty Department. The crew bought 10 barrels of lemons for each sloop and salted them instead of cabbage. The king got red cloth, woollen blankets, coloured chintz and shawls, mirrors, axes, glassware, and so on. He also received a medal with the profile of the Russian emperor. King granted Bellingshausen three pearls that were "slightly larger than peas". For the royal white robes, the captain donated several of his sheets. Despite the short stay, time in Tahiti fully cured several scurvy patients who had not fully recovered in Australia.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40880361
| 1,183,967 |
139,777 |
Twelve companies bid to build the Mercury spacecraft on a $20 million ($ adjusted for inflation) contract. In January 1959, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft. Two weeks earlier, North American Aviation, based in Los Angeles, was awarded a contract for Little Joe, a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system. The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between the ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the Western Electric Company. Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama, by the Chrysler Corporation and Atlas rockets by Convair in San Diego, California. For crewed launches, the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was made available by the USAF. This was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in Goddard Space Center, Maryland. Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. Astronaut training took place at Langley Research Center in Virginia, Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, and Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Warminster, PA. Langley wind tunnels together with a rocket sled track at Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo, New Mexico were used for aerodynamic studies. Both Navy and Air Force aircraft were made available for the development of the spacecraft's landing system, and Navy ships and Navy and Marine Corps helicopters were made available for recovery. South of Cape Canaveral the town of Cocoa Beach boomed. From here, 75,000 people watched the first American orbital flight being launched in 1962.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19812
| 139,720 |
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