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1,638,498 | As with most other issues in Ecology and Evolution, paradigms dominating the study of biodiversity on both global and regional scales come mainly from the terrestrial environment despite the marked distinctive features of marine biodiversity and the fact that the aquatic (freshwater & marine) environment occupies more than two thirds of the Earth’s surface (Vanaverbeke et al. 1997, Gessner et al. 2004). Marine organisms play crucial roles in many bio-geochemical processes that sustain the biosphere, and provide a variety of products and functions which are essential to mankind’s well-being, including the production of food and natural substances, the assimilation of waste and regulation of the world’s climate. The rate and efficiency of any processes that marine organisms mediate, as well as the range of goods and services that they provide, are determined by interactions between organisms and interactions between organisms and their environment; and therefore by biodiversity (Gaston 1996, Gaston and Spicer 1998). These relationships have not yet been quantified, and we are at present unable to predict the consequences of loss of biodiversity resulting from environmental change in ecological, economic or social terms (Walker, 1992, Lawton and Brown, 1994, Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1981, Lawton, 1994, Vitousek and Hooper 1994). The influence of species diversity on the productivity of marine ecosystems on a large scale is still unclear (Cardinale et al. 2004). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19635208 | 1,637,573 |
846,850 | The stent platform itself is an expandable framework, generally with an elaborate mesh-like design to allow expansion, flexibility, and in some cases the ability to make or enlarge side openings for side vessels. The first DES were stainless steel alloys composed of iron, nickel, and chromium and were based on existing bare metal stents. These stents were hard to visualize with medical imaging, posed a risk of causing allergic responses, and were difficult to deliver. Subsequent new alloys were used, namely cobalt-chrome and platinum chrome, with improved performance. Recently, bioresorbable stents have been developed in which the stent itself dissolves over time. As of 2009, materials that had been explored for use included magnesium, polylactic acid, polycarbonate polymers, and salicylic acid polymers. Resorbable stents have held the promise of providing an acute treatment that would eventually allow the vessel to function normally, without leaving a permanent device behind. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5284087 | 846,400 |
803,800 | In the second half of the 19th century, Gregor Mendel's pioneering work on the inheritance of traits in pea plants suggested that specific “factors” (today established as genes) are responsible for transferring organismal traits between generations. Although proteins were initially assumed to serve as the hereditary material, Avery, MacLeod and McCarty established a century later DNA, which had been discovered by Friedrich Miescher, as the carrier of genetic information. These findings paved the way for research uncovering the chemical nature of DNA and the rules for encoding genetic information, and ultimately led to the proposal of the double-helical structure of DNA by Watson and Crick. This three-dimensional model of DNA illuminated potential mechanisms by which the genetic information could be copied in a semiconservative manner prior to cell division, a hypothesis that was later experimentally supported by Meselson and Stahl using isotope incorporation to distinguish parental from newly synthesized DNA. The subsequent isolation of DNA polymerases, the enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of new DNA strands, by Kornberg and colleagues pioneered the identification of many different components of the biological DNA replication machinery, first in the bacterial model organism "E. coli", but later also in eukaryotic life forms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=619137 | 803,371 |
2,007,740 | Steve Vickers (born c. 1953) is a British mathematician and computer scientist. In the early 1980s, he wrote ROM firmware and manuals for three home computers, the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum and the Jupiter Ace. The latter was produced by Jupiter Cantab, a short-lived company Vickers formed together with Richard Altwasser, after the two had left Sinclair Research. Since the late 1980s, Vickers has been an academic in the field of geometric logic, writing over 30 papers in scholarly journals on mathematical aspects of computer science. His book "Topology via Logic" has been influential over a range of fields (extending even to theoretical physics, where Christopher Isham of Imperial College London has cited Vickers as an early influence on his work on topoi and quantum gravity). In October 2018, he retired as senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. As announced on his university homepage, he continues to supervise PhD students at the university and focus on his research. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7933796 | 2,006,589 |
917,926 | The Sun wobbles as it rotates around the galactic center, dragging the Solar System and Earth along with it. What mathematician Kepler did in arriving at his three famous equations was curve-fit the apparent motions of the planets using Tycho Brahe's data, and "not" curve-fitting their true circular motions about the Sun (see Figure). Both Robert Hooke and Newton were well aware that Newton's "Law of Universal Gravitation" did not hold for the forces associated with elliptical orbits. In fact, Newton's Universal Law does not account for the orbit of Mercury, the asteroid belt's gravitational behavior, or Saturn's rings. Newton stated (in section 11 of the "Principia") that the main reason, however, for failing to predict the forces for elliptical orbits was that his math model was for a body confined to a situation that hardly existed in the real world, namely, the motions of bodies attracted toward an unmoving center. Some present physics and astronomy textbooks do not emphasize the negative significance of Newton's assumption and end up teaching that his mathematical model is in effect reality. It is to be understood that the classical two-body problem solution above is a mathematical idealization. See also Kepler's first law of planetary motion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23859945 | 917,443 |
280,396 | The Air and Space Museum announced a two-year renovation of its main entrance hall, "Milestones of Flight" in April 2014. The renovation to the main hall (which had not received a major update since the museum opened in 1976) was funded by a $30 million donation from Boeing. The gift, which will be paid over seven years, is the largest corporate donation ever received by the Air and Space Museum. Boeing had previously given donations totaling $58 million. The hall will be renamed the "Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall". The renovation (whose total cost was not revealed) began in April 2014, and will involve the temporary removal of some exhibits before the hall is refurbished. Because some exhibits represent century-old achievements that no longer resonate with the public, some items will be moved to other locations in the museum while new exhibits are installed. The first new exhibit, a 1930s wind tunnel, will be installed in November 2014. When finished, the hall will present a "more orderly" appearance, and allow room for the placement of future new exhibits (which will include moving the filming model of the USS "Enterprise" from the original 1960s "" television series into the hall). The renovation will also include the installation of a "media wall" and touch-screen information kiosks to allow visitors to learn about items on display. An additional gift from Boeing is funding the renovation of the "How Things Fly" children's exhibit, new museum educational programming, and the creation of an accredited course on flight and space technology for elementary and secondary school teachers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=221550 | 280,245 |
1,652,766 | Collaborative processes that consider objective and subjective inputs have the potential to efficiently address some of the conflict between development and nature as they involve a fuller justification by wind farm developers for location, scale, and design. Spatial tools such as creation of 3D view sheds offer participants new ways of assessing visual intrusion to make a more informed decision. Higgs et al. make a very telling statement when analyzing the success of this project – "the only way of accommodating people's landscape concerns is to site wind farms in places that people find more acceptable". This implies that developers recognize the validity of citizens' concerns and are willing to compromise in identifying sites where wind farms will not only be successful financially, but also successful politically and socially. This creates greater accountability and facilitates the incorporation of stakeholder values to resolve differences and gain public acceptance for vital development projects. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7391817 | 1,651,834 |
1,518,069 | The Hsp70 member proteins are important apoptotic constituents. During a normal embryologic processes, or during cell injury (such as ischemia-reperfusion injury during heart attacks and strokes) or during developments and processes in cancer, an apoptotic cell undergoes structural changes including cell shrinkage, plasma membrane blebbing, nuclear condensation, and fragmentation of the DNA and nucleus. This is followed by fragmentation into apoptotic bodies that are quickly removed by phagocytes, thereby preventing an inflammatory response. It is a mode of cell death defined by characteristic morphological, biochemical and molecular changes. It was first described as a "shrinkage necrosis", and then this term was replaced by apoptosis to emphasize its role opposite mitosis in tissue kinetics. In later stages of apoptosis the entire cell becomes fragmented, forming a number of plasma membrane-bounded apoptotic bodies which contain nuclear and or cytoplasmic elements. The ultrastructural appearance of necrosis is quite different, the main features being mitochondrial swelling, plasma membrane breakdown and cellular disintegration. Apoptosis occurs in many physiological and pathological processes. It plays an important role during embryonal development as programmed cell death and accompanies a variety of normal involutional processes in which it serves as a mechanism to remove "unwanted" cells. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14024984 | 1,517,211 |
669,341 | Around the same time, Andreas Vesalius was also making some strides of his own. A young anatomist of Flemish descent made famous by a penchant for amazing charts, he was systematically investigating and correcting the anatomical knowledge of the Greek physician Galen. He noticed that many of Galen's observations were not even based on actual humans. Instead, they were based on animals such as apes, monkeys, and oxen. In fact, he entreated his students to do the following, in substitution for human skeletons, as cited by Edward Tyson : "If you can't happen to see any of these, dissect an Ape, carefully view each Bone, &c. ..." Then he advises what sort of Apes to make choice of, as most resembling a Man : And conclude "One ought to know the Structure of all the Bones either in a Humane Body, or in an Apes ; 'tis best in both ; and then to go to the Anatomy of the Muscles." Up until that point, Galen and his teachings had been the authority on human anatomy. The irony is that Galen himself had emphasized the fact that one should make one's own observations instead of using those of another, but this advice was lost during the numerous translations of his work. As Vesalius began to uncover these mistakes, other physicians of the time began to trust their own observations more than those of Galen. An interesting observation made by some of these physicians was the presence of homologous structures in a wide variety of animals which included humans. These observations were later used by Darwin as he formed his theory of Natural Selection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=265447 | 668,991 |
122,253 | According to Matthias Schramm, Alhazen "was the first to make a systematic use of the method of varying the experimental conditions in a constant and uniform manner, in an experiment showing that the intensity of the light-spot formed by the projection of the moonlight through two small apertures onto a screen diminishes constantly as one of the apertures is gradually blocked up." G. J. Toomer expressed some skepticism regarding Schramm's view, partly because at the time (1964) the "Book of Optics" had not yet been fully translated from Arabic, and Toomer was concerned that without context, specific passages might be read anachronistically. While acknowledging Alhazen's importance in developing experimental techniques, Toomer argued that Alhazen should not be considered in isolation from other Islamic and ancient thinkers. Toomer concluded his review by saying that it would not be possible to assess Schramm's claim that Ibn al-Haytham was the true founder of modern physics without translating more of Alhazen's work and fully investigating his influence on later medieval writers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1645 | 122,204 |
723,731 | Currently, no live or inactivated vaccines have been approved by the USDA that are effective against all strains of "A. marginale". Some vaccines that rely on erythrocyte-derived antigen sources provide immunity or prevent clinical disease, although these do not prevent cattle from being infected with "A. marginale". Other means of prevention can include testing all ruminants in a herd and eliminating any individuals who test positive for anaplasmosis, leading to an anaplasmosis-free herd. Vector control measures can also be used. Tick control is widely used in some countries, including Africa, but rarely used in the United States due to the fact that this prevention method is labor-intensive and expensive. In contrast, the control of flies is effective and there are many ways to do this. Chemical agents can be used, sanitation methods (such as cleaning stalls/pens regularly, manure management, and protecting feed), as well as biological control by natural enemies of flies (including bees, mites, parasitoids). Ways to prevent iatrogenic transmission include avoiding re-using of needles and sanitizing medical equipment between uses. Antimicrobial treatment can also be used, although it is more commonly used in the case of active infection. This includes the drugs tetracycline and imidocarb, and is used in healthy ruminants to decrease the clinical effects of an active infection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8643981 | 723,351 |
615,560 | Slayton then took thirteen names to a meeting chaired by the MSC director, Robert R. Gilruth. Maxime Faget, his director of engineering and development, had an objection: thirteen was an unlucky number. So Slayton added the next candidate, Walter Cunningham, to the list. The successful candidates received phone calls from Slayton; unsuccessful ones got calls from North or Jack G. Cairl from NASA public relations. Four of the unsuccessful finalists would later become NASA astronauts in the NASA Astronaut Group 5 in 1966: Vance Brand, Ronald Evans, James Irwin and Jack Swigert. Another finalist, Michael J. Adams, would be posthumously awarded his Astronaut Wings for X-15 Flight 3-65-97. Besides Adams, two other finalists later died in aircraft accidents: Alexander Kratz Rupp on June 11, 1965, and Darrell Cornell on October 10, 1984. Finalist John D. Yamnicky was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, and was killed when it crashed into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks. The official announcement of the astronaut selection was made at a press conference at the MSC in Houston on October 18. The new astronauts became known as "The Fourteen". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2296945 | 615,246 |
232,588 | A major restriction hampering sales of E85 flex vehicles or fuelling with E85, is the limited infrastructure available to sell E85 to the public, as by 2014 only 2 percent of motor fuel stations offered E85, up from about 1 percent in 2011. , there were only 3,218 gasoline fueling stations selling E85 to the public in the entire U.S., while about 156,000 retail motor fuel outlets do not offer the E85 blend. The number of E85 grew from 1,229 in 2007 to 2,442 in 2011, but only increased by 7% from 2011 to 2013, when the total reached 2,625. There is a great concentration of E85 stations in the Corn Belt states, and , the leading state is Minnesota with 274 stations, followed by Michigan with 231, Illinois with 225, Iowa with 204, Indiana with 188, Texas with 181, Wisconsin with 152, and Ohio with 126. Only eight states do not have E85 available to the public, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The main constraint for a more rapid expansion of E85 availability is that it requires dedicated storage tanks at filling stations, at an estimated cost of for each dedicated ethanol tank. A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that every service station in America could be converted to handle E85 at a cost of $3.4 billion to $10.1 billion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2155310 | 232,469 |
10,030 | By March 1943 Conant decided that British help would benefit some areas of the project. James Chadwick and one or two other British scientists were important enough that the bomb design team at Los Alamos needed them, despite the risk of revealing weapon design secrets. In August 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt negotiated the Quebec Agreement, which resulted in a resumption of cooperation between scientists working on the same problem. Britain, however, agreed to restrictions on data on the building of large-scale production plants necessary for the bomb. The subsequent Hyde Park Agreement in September 1944 extended this cooperation to the postwar period. The Quebec Agreement established the Combined Policy Committee to coordinate the efforts of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Stimson, Bush and Conant served as the American members of the Combined Policy Committee, Field Marshal Sir John Dill and Colonel J. J. Llewellin were the British members, and C. D. Howe was the Canadian member. Llewellin returned to the United Kingdom at the end of 1943 and was replaced on the committee by Sir Ronald Ian Campbell, who in turn was replaced by the British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Halifax, in early 1945. Sir John Dill died in Washington, D.C., in November 1944 and was replaced both as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and as a member of the Combined Policy Committee by Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19603 | 10,026 |
120,562 | While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the mid-twentieth century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. The world's first large-scale experimental rocket program was Opel-RAK under the leadership of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier during the late 1920s leading to the first crewed 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 as so-called "Rocket Rumble" and had a large long-lasting impact on later spaceflight pioneers like Wernher von Braun. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28431 | 120,513 |
1,337,093 | Reber's first receiver operated at 3300 MHz and failed to detect signals from outer space, as did his second, operating at 900 MHz. Finally, his third attempt, at 160 MHz, was successful in 1938, confirming Jansky's discovery. In 1940, he achieved his first professional publication, in the "Astrophysical Journal", but Reber refused a research appointment with Yerkes Observatory. He turned his attention to making a radiofrequency sky map, which he completed in 1941 and extended in 1943. He published a considerable body of work during this era, and was the initiator of the "explosion" of radio astronomy in the immediate post-Second World War era. His data, published as contour maps showing the brightness of the sky in radio wavelengths, revealed the existence of radio sources such as Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A for the first time. For nearly a decade from 1937 on he was the world's only radio astronomer, a field that only expanded after World War Two when scientists, who had gained a great deal of knowledge during the wartime expansion of RADAR, entered the field, starting with Project Diana. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=336860 | 1,336,362 |
364,415 | On July 2, 2015, Stratton revealed that the game would not take place on Earth and that, unlike "Doom 3," the game was comic and "very juvenile". Director Hugo Martin later said that the game was heavily inspired by rock and roll and "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and that its Hell-themed levels would feature much heavy metal. "Doom"s world was designed to have personality and be "over the top"; the UAC industrial field was designed to be the massive underbelly of the corporation, the UAC corporate field zone was designed to be much cleaner in terms of splattered goriness than the other zones to prevent repetition. Skulls were used in Hell as iconic elements and the Titan's Realm zone was constructed from dead, ancient, colossal demons. At QuakeCon 2015, it was announced that the game would run at 1080p and 60 frames per second on console, as id considered it "the most necessary graphical goal" which could effectively improve gameplay fluidity. According to Martin, the team put little emphasis on story, as they believed that it was not an important feature of the franchise. Instead, they added codex items to let interested players speculate about the story and the identity of the player character. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12915762 | 364,225 |
1,866,143 | An important problem closely connected with the foregoing [referring to Hilbert's nineteenth problem] is the question concerning the existence of solutions of partial differential equations when the values on the boundary of the region are prescribed. This problem is solved in the main by the keen methods of H. A. Schwarz, C. Neumann, and Poincaré for the differential equation of the potential. These methods, however, seem to be generally not capable of direct extension to the case where along the boundary there are prescribed either the differential coefficients or any relations between these and the values of the function. Nor can they be extended immediately to the case where the inquiry is not for potential surfaces but, say, for surfaces of least area, or surfaces of constant positive gaussian curvature, which are to pass through a prescribed twisted curve or to stretch over a given ring surface. It is my conviction that it will be possible to prove these existence theorems by means of a general principle whose nature is indicated by Dirichlet's principle. This general principle will then perhaps enable us to approach the question: Has not every regular variation problem a solution, provided certain assumptions regarding the given boundary conditions are satisfied (say that the functions concerned in these boundary conditions are continuous and have in sections one or more derivatives), and provided also if need be that the notion of a solution shall be suitably extended? | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2336235 | 1,865,069 |
1,129,516 | The neck is usually maple with a flamed figure compatible with that of the ribs and back. It carries the fingerboard, typically made of ebony, but often some other wood stained or painted black. Ebony is considered the preferred material because of its hardness, appearance, and superior resistance to wear. Some very old violins were made with maple fingerboards carrying a veneer of ebony. At the peg end of the fingerboard sits a small ebony or ivory nut, infrequently called the upper saddle, with grooves to position the strings as they lead into the pegbox. The scroll at the end of the pegbox provides essential mass to tune the fundamental body resonance and provides a convenient grip for spare fingers to brace against when tuning one-handed (with the violin on the shoulder). Some "scrolls" are carved representations of animal or human heads instead of the classical spiral volute most normally seen. The maple neck alone is not strong enough to support the tension of the strings without distorting, relying for that strength on its lamination with the fingerboard. For this reason, if a fingerboard comes loose, as may happen, it is vital to loosen the strings immediately. The shape of the neck and fingerboard affect how easily the violin may be played. Fingerboards are dressed to a particular transverse curve and have a small lengthwise "scoop" or concavity, slightly more pronounced on the lower strings, especially when meant for gut or synthetic strings. The neck is not varnished, but is polished and perhaps lightly sealed to allow ease and rapidity of shifting between positions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3626270 | 1,128,938 |
302,287 | Manual removal of a rootkit is often extremely difficult for a typical computer user, but a number of security-software vendors offer tools to automatically detect and remove some rootkits, typically as part of an antivirus suite. , Microsoft's monthly Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is able to detect and remove some classes of rootkits. Also, Windows Defender Offline can remove rootkits, as it runs from a trusted environment before the operating system starts. Some antivirus scanners can bypass file system APIs, which are vulnerable to manipulation by a rootkit. Instead, they access raw file system structures directly, and use this information to validate the results from the system APIs to identify any differences that may be caused by a rootkit. There are experts who believe that the only reliable way to remove them is to re-install the operating system from trusted media. This is because antivirus and malware removal tools running on an untrusted system may be ineffective against well-written kernel-mode rootkits. Booting an alternative operating system from trusted media can allow an infected system volume to be mounted and potentially safely cleaned and critical data to be copied off—or, alternatively, a forensic examination performed. Lightweight operating systems such as Windows PE, Windows Recovery Console, Windows Recovery Environment, BartPE, or Live Distros can be used for this purpose, allowing the system to be "cleaned". Even if the type and nature of a rootkit is known, manual repair may be impractical, while re-installing the operating system and applications is safer, simpler and quicker. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=223942 | 302,126 |
928,916 | The association between Epstein-Barr virus and nasopharyngeal carcinoma is unequivocal in World Health Organization (WHO) types II and III tumors but less well-established for WHO type I (WHO-I) NPC, where preliminary evaluation has suggested that human papillomavirus (HPV) may be associated. EBV DNA was detectable in the blood plasma samples of 96% of patients with non-keratinizing NPC, compared with only 7% in controls. The detection of nuclear antigen associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBNA) and viral DNA in NPC type 2 and 3, has revealed that EBV can infect epithelial cells and is associated with their transformation. The cause of NPC (particularly the endemic form) seems to follow a multi-step process, in which EBV, ethnic background, and environmental carcinogens all seem to play an important role. More importantly, EBV DNA levels appear to correlate with treatment response and may predict disease recurrence, suggesting that they may be an independent indicator of prognosis. The mechanism by which EBV alters nasopharyngeal cells is being elucidated to provide a rational therapeutic target. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8263081 | 928,425 |
1,267,209 | An unnatural base pair (UBP) is a designed subunit (or nucleobase) of DNA which is created in a laboratory and does not occur in nature. In 2012, a group of American scientists led by Floyd E. Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, published that his team designed an unnatural base pair (UBP). The two new artificial nucleotides or "Unnatural Base Pair" (UBP) were named d5SICS and dNaM. More technically, these artificial nucleotides bearing hydrophobic nucleobases, feature two fused aromatic rings that form a (d5SICS–dNaM) complex or base pair in DNA. In 2014 the same team from the Scripps Research Institute reported that they synthesized a stretch of circular DNA known as a plasmid containing natural T-A and C-G base pairs along with the best-performing UBP Romesberg's laboratory had designed, and inserted it into cells of the common bacterium "E. coli" that successfully replicated the unnatural base pairs through multiple generations. This is the first known example of a living organism passing along an expanded genetic code to subsequent generations. This was in part achieved by the addition of a supportive algal gene that expresses a nucleotide triphosphate transporter which efficiently imports the triphosphates of both d5SICSTP and dNaMTP into "E. coli" bacteria. Then, the natural bacterial replication pathways use them to accurately replicate the plasmid containing d5SICS–dNaM. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11330015 | 1,266,519 |
1,358,758 | An unnatural base pair (UBP) is a designed subunit (or nucleobase) of DNA which is created in a laboratory and does not occur in nature. In 2012, a group of American scientists led by Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, published that his team designed an unnatural base pair (UBP). The two new artificial nucleotides or "Unnatural Base Pair" (UBP) were named d5SICS and dNaM. More technically, these artificial nucleotides bearing hydrophobic nucleobases, feature two fused aromatic rings that form a (d5SICS–dNaM) complex or base pair in DNA. In 2014 the same team from the Scripps Research Institute reported that they synthesized a stretch of circular DNA known as a plasmid containing natural T-A and C-G base pairs along with the best-performing UBP Romesberg's laboratory had designed, and inserted it into cells of the common bacterium "E. coli" that successfully replicated the unnatural base pairs through multiple generations. This is the first known example of a living organism passing along an expanded genetic code to subsequent generations. This was in part achieved by the addition of a supportive algal gene that expresses a nucleotide triphosphate transporter which efficiently imports the triphosphates of both d5SICSTP and dNaMTP into "E. coli" bacteria. Then, the natural bacterial replication pathways use them to accurately replicate the plasmid containing d5SICS–dNaM. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14039006 | 1,358,008 |
392,392 | Aluminium alloys containing cerium are being developed and implemented in high-temperature automotive applications, such as cylinder heads and turbochargers, and in other energy generation applications. These alloys were initially developed as a way to increase the usage of cerium, which is over-produced in rare-earth mining operations for more coveted elements such as neodymium and dysprosium, but gained attention for its strength at high temperatures over long periods of time. It gains its strength from the presence of an AlCe intermetallic phase which is stable up to temperatures of 540 °C, and retains its strength up to 300 °C, making it quite viable at elevated temperatures. Aluminium–cerium alloys are typically cast, due to their excellent casting properties, although work has also been done to show that laser-based additive manufacturing techniques can be used as well to create parts with more complex geometries and greater mechanical properties. Recent work has largely focused on adding higher-order alloying elements to the binary Al-Ce system to improve its mechanical performance at room and elevated temperatures, such as iron, nickel, magnesium, or copper, and work is being done to understand the alloying element interactions further. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6191356 | 392,197 |
1,801,831 | From July 1960, a Canadair CP-107 Argus of the Royal Canadian Air Force underwent hot weather testing at Eglin AFB. "Since the Canadian climate is comparatively cool, even in mid-summer, a team of 35 RCAF officers and airmen have come to Eglin for six weeks to evaluate the performance of their four-engined Argus patrol craft in a hot-weather environment. Squadron Leader Garnet W. Ovans pointed out they could have tested the Argus in a much warmer location, 'but we picked Eglin because it also had the necessary humidity range, and especially because of the extensive testing facilities here. The APGC project officer for the test of the Argus is Major Charles E. Dougan, of the Directorate of Strategic Systems Test. While at Eglin, the 35-man RCAF crew will collect high-temperature performance data on the Argus, including fuel consumption rates, takeoff and landing distances, maintenance techniques, and functional checks of the armament systems." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33714574 | 1,800,822 |
2,155,656 | Once in the blastocoel, the mesenchyme cells extend and contract long, thin processes called filopodia. The filopodia are 250 nm in diameter and 25 um long. At this point, the filopodia appear to move randomly along the surface of the inner blastocoel, making and breaking filopodial connections to the blastocoel wall. During the gastrula stage, once the blastopore has formed, the PMCs are localized within the prospective ventrolateral (from front to side) region of the blastocoel. It is here that they fuse into syncytial cables, forming the axis for the calcium carbonate (CaCO) (and a small amount, 5%, of MgCO) spicules of the larval skeletal rods, 13.5 hours post fertilization. Both optical birefringence and X-ray diffraction indicated that the spicules are crystalline. Upon reaching the pluteus stage (24 hours post fertilization), an abundance of extracellular matrix is also found associated with the syncytia and blastocoel wall. From gastrula to pluteus stages the skeleton grows in both size and complexity. Once the organism undergoes metamorphosis to form the juvenile sea urchin, the larval skeleton is “lost”, making its existence critical yet seemingly transient in the overall life cycle of the sea urchin. The skeleton of the pluteus does, however, give rise to the spines of the juvenile sea urchin. These spines usually measure 1-3 centimeters in length and 1-2 millimeters thick, and in some species, may be poisonous. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27359453 | 2,154,425 |
1,075,144 | The archaeological significance of this part of the province of Burgos became increasingly apparent in the 20th century as the result of the construction of a metre-gauge railway (now disused) through the Atapuerca Mountains. Deep cuttings were made through the karst geology exposing rocks and sediments of features known as "Gran Dolina", "Galería Elefante" and "Sima de los Huesos". The subsequent excavation of 1964 under the direction of Francisco Jordá Cerdá succeeded with the discovery of anthropogenic artifacts and human fossils from a broad time range (early humans, hunter-gatherer groups, Bronze Age occupants). Further excavations followed, and interdisciplinary work has been undertaken by several teams, led by Emiliano Aguirre from 1978 to 1990 and later jointly by Eudald Carbonell, José María Bermúdez de Castro and Juan Luis Arsuaga. These have confirmed the continuous human occupation of the site. In July 2020 two quartzite stones were discovered, dating to 600,000 years ago, a find which filled in a gap in the evidence for human occupation of the site over a timeline of 1,200,000 years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61316746 | 1,074,590 |
1,227,640 | The first known briefings of forensic procedures we still use today are recorded to be used as far back as the 7th century, the concept of utilizing fingerprints as a means of identification was first established. By the 17th century, forensic procedures were used to account criminals of guilt charges among other things. Nowadays, autopsies and forensics have skyrocketed not only in popularity but also in technological advances. One of the first men to use such techniques to what we know now as forensics was a man by the name of Alphonse Bertillon. Who in 1879, became the first to evolve a scientific system of personal identification. Through the development of the science of Anthropometry, which involves the series of measurements of the body to help in distinguishing one human individual from another. Another man who not too long after made significant discoveries in the field of forensics was a man named Karl Landsteiner. Karl Landsteiner in the year 1901, discovered that the blood could be grouped into different categories, A, B, AB, and O. Which of course, led to more studies and eventually, a whole new spectrum in the field of not only medicine but also criminology. Dr Leone Lattes himself is also a very well known man who made significant additions into the field of forensics. In 1915, he discovered a simple procedure to determine the blood group of the dried bloodstains. This technique was adopted for criminal investigation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4985778 | 1,226,979 |
1,959,945 | Alberti has studied at Scuola Normale Superiore under the guide of Giuseppe Buttazzo and Ennio De Giorgi; he is professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa. Alberti is mostly known for two remarkable theorems he proved at the beginning of his career, that eventually found applications in various branches of modern mathematical analysis. The first is a very general Lusin type theorem for gradients asserting that every Borel vector field can be realized as the gradient of a continuously differentiable function outside a closed subset of a priori prescribed (small) measure. The second asserts the rank-one property of the distributional derivatives of functions with bounded variation, thereby verifying a conjecture of De Giorgi. This theorem has found several applications, as for instance in the Ambrosio's proof of an open problem posed by Di Perna and Lions concerning the well-posedness of the continuity equation involving BV vector fields. This result is nowadays commonly known as Alberti's rank-one theorem and its proof rests of a very delicate use of sophisticated tools from geometric measure theory; in particular, it makes use of the concept of tangent measure to another measure. Subsequently, Alberti has given contributions to the study of various aspects of Ginzburg-Landau vortices and of the continuity equation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39518363 | 1,958,818 |
1,253,622 | In the United States, animal testing on vertebrates is primarily regulated by the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 (AWA), and the Animal Welfare Regulations which is enforced by the Animal Care division of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The AWA contains provisions to ensure that individuals of covered species used in research receive a certain standard of care and treatment, provided that the standard of care and treatment does not interfere with "the design, outlines, or guidelines of actual research or experimentation." Currently, AWA only protects mammals. In 2002, the Farm Security Act of 2002, the fifth amendment to the AWA, specifically excluded purpose-bred birds, rats, and mice (as opposed to wild-captured mice, rats, and birds) from regulations. Even though most animals used in research are mice, rats, and fish, over a million other research animals per year are covered by the Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations. The AWA requires each institution using covered species to maintain an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which is responsible for local compliance with the Act. In addition, the IACUC reviews and approves each animal use protocol, which is a written description the researchers submit describing all procedures to be done with laboratory animals. Researchers must consult with a veterinarian for each procedure that may cause more than momentary pain or distress to the animals. In addition a written justification for these procedures, as well as documentation of a search for alternatives to these procedures, must be included with the protocol. The IACUC must review and approve these protocols at least annually. The IACUC also inspects all the animal facilities, including satellite facilities, every 6 months. As a part of this semi-annual inspection the committee also reviews the entire animal care and use program, and submits a "semi-annual report" to the Institutional Official. The Guide (enforced by OLAW) also has requirements for IACUC responsibilities and program reviews. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14668445 | 1,252,942 |
1,871,803 | The human sewage and the process waste from the manufacturing industries are the two major sources of the waste water. In Thailand, the total volume of the wastewater from industries is much greater than that of the domestic sewage. As a result, an effective method is needed. Microbial remediation of xenobiotics has shown to be effective and the low-cost technology, but it still has several limitations. Consequently, the genetic engineering approaches are used to create the new strain of microbes (Genetically engineered microorganisms, GEMS) which have better catabolic potential than the wild type species for bioremediation. There are four major approaches to GEM development for the bioremediation application which include the modification of enzyme specificity and affinity, pathway construction and regulation, bioprocess development, monitoring and control and lastly, bio-affinity bio-receptor sensor application for chemical sensing, toxicity reduction and end point analysis. These allow the extensive use of genetically engineered microorganism. In the far future, the genetically engineered microorganisms could possibly be used to control the green house gases, convert the waste to the value-added product as well as to reduce and capture the carbon dioxide gases from the atmosphere (carbon sequestration), but much research is still required to realise the potential. There is a concern regarding the use of genetically engineered microbes for the remediation of pollutants. Once the genetically microorganisms has been added, it may disperse uncontrollably and hard to be removed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6026902 | 1,870,726 |
943,051 | "Physical Geography" starts with describing the overall structure of planet Earth, along with a brief allusion to the location of the Earth within the Solar System. Subsequently, the book focuses on terrestrial topics, such as the most basic features of land and water, and formations such as mountains, volcanoes, oceans, rivers and lakes. Somerville goes on to discuss the elements that govern temperature, such as light, electricity, storms, the aurora and magnetism. Eventually the book turns to vegetation, birds and mammals, and their geographical distribution in the Arctic, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and the Antarctic. Somerville ends the book with a discussion of "the distribution, condition, and future prospects of the human race". She emphasises the reciprocal dependencies in physical geography and the relationship between human beings and nature. In line with Victorian thinking, Somerville asserts the superiority of human beings, but maintains the interdependencies and interconnectedness of creation. "Physical Geography" sold more copies than any of her other books and earned Humboldt's admiration. After receiving a copy of the book he wrote to her: "You alone could provide your literature with an original cosmological work". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=600171 | 942,549 |
66,636 | Due to the anticipated global growth of the Internet, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the early 1990s started an effort to develop a next generation IP protocol. By the beginning of 1992, several proposals appeared for an expanded Internet addressing system and by the end of 1992 the IETF announced a call for white papers. In September 1993, the IETF created a temporary, ad hoc "IP Next Generation" (IPng) area to deal specifically with such issues. The new area was led by Allison Mankin and Scott Bradner, and had a directorate with 15 engineers from diverse backgrounds for direction-setting and preliminary document review: The working-group members were J. Allard (Microsoft), Steve Bellovin (AT&T), Jim Bound (Digital Equipment Corporation), Ross Callon (Wellfleet), Brian Carpenter (CERN), Dave Clark (MIT), John Curran (NEARNET), Steve Deering (Xerox), Dino Farinacci (Cisco), Paul Francis (NTT), Eric Fleischmann (Boeing), Mark Knopper (Ameritech), Greg Minshall (Novell), Rob Ullmann (Lotus), and Lixia Zhang (Xerox). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15318 | 66,611 |
1,829,482 | With the sense with which it is used today, the term "quinary structure" first appeared in the work of McConkey, in 1989. In his work, McConkey runs 2D electrophoresis gels on the total protein content of hamster (CHO) and human (HeLa) cells. In a 2D electrophoresis gel experiment, the coordinates of a protein depend on its molecular weight and its isoelectric point. Given the evolutionary distance between humans and hamsters, and considering evolutionary rates typical of mammals, one would expect a large number of substitutions to have occurred between hamsters and humans, a fraction of which would involve acidic (aspartate and glutamate) and basic (arginine and lysine) residues, resulting in changes in the isoelectric point of many proteins. Strikingly, hamster and human cells yielded almost identical fingerprints in the experiment, implying that many fewer of those substitutions actually took place. McConkey suggested in that paper that the reason why the proteins of humans and hamsters had not diverged as much he anticipated was that an additional selective pressure must have been related to the many non-specific “interactions that are inherently transient” experienced by proteins in the cytoplasm and which “constitute the fifth level of protein organization”. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61245307 | 1,828,441 |
1,701,966 | ASIC's have a large, fist-like extracellular region that consumes most of the proteins structure. Within its "fist-like" structure there is a wrist, palm, finger, knuckle, thumb and β-ball domains. The "palm" makes up most of the extracellular domain, formed by seven β-sheets, where as the rest of the secondary structural domains are composed of α-helical segments. Distinguished by its specific amino acid configurations, the extracellular region is fundamental to the induction of activation/inactivation along with pH gating. The specific β-sheet loop area between the "palm" and "thumb" domains has shown involvement in the signal transduction from the extracellular domain to the transmembrane regions, resulting in a conformational change of the ASIC to its open state. However, it remains fairly inconclusive of which particular residues interact with protons to activate the channel. In 2009, studies may have established a relationship between the aromatic residues Tyr72, Pro287, and Trp288 and proton-gating of the ASIC. These residues form an acidic pocket that express electrostatic potentials that are responsible for pH-dependency in channel activation and modulation. This pocket in the extracellular domain acts as a reserve for cations to concentrate to further assist in Na influx. Glycosylation is also apparent within the extracellular region, playing an important role in the trafficking the channel to the membrane's surface as well as establishing the ASIC's sensitivity to pH levels. Further experimental evidence has indicated that Ca may also play a pivotal role in modulating proton affinity of ASIC gating both within the pore and on the extracellular domain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25327696 | 1,701,011 |
322,911 | Some alternatives to dark energy, such as inhomogeneous cosmology, aim to explain the observational data by a more refined use of established theories. In this scenario, dark energy doesn't actually exist, and is merely a measurement artifact. For example, if we are located in an emptier-than-average region of space, the observed cosmic expansion rate could be mistaken for a variation in time, or acceleration. A different approach uses a cosmological extension of the equivalence principle to show how space might appear to be expanding more rapidly in the voids surrounding our local cluster. While weak, such effects considered cumulatively over billions of years could become significant, creating the illusion of cosmic acceleration, and making it appear as if we live in a Hubble bubble. Yet other possibilities are that the accelerated expansion of the universe is an illusion caused by the relative motion of us to the rest of the universe, or that the statistical methods employed were flawed. It has also been suggested that the anisotropy of the local Universe has been misrepresented as dark energy. This claim was quickly countered by others, including a paper by physicists D. Rubin and J. Heitlauf. A laboratory direct detection attempt failed to detect any force associated with dark energy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19604228 | 322,739 |
803,876 | The formation of NASA on 29 July 1958 led to an effort to collect the existing heavy-launch rocket programs and select a single set of designs for future work. At the time, both the Air Force and US Army had teams developing such vehicles, the Army's Saturn and the Air Force's Space Launching System (SLS). The SLS used a set of common modular components with solid fuel boosters and hydrogen/oxygen upper stages to allow a wide variety of launch configurations and payload weights. Both groups had also developed plans for crewed lunar bases, ABMA's Horizon with its Earth Orbit Rendezvous method of building a large lunar rocket in Earth orbit, and the Air Force's Lunex Project which planned on launching a single huge lander using the largest of the SLS configurations. As if this were not enough, NASA's own engineers had started the design of their own Nova design series, planning to use it in the direct ascent profile similar to the Air Force's approach. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=654872 | 803,447 |
249,610 | In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001, and received the university's highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003. He was the founding chair of the university's Committee on Global Thought. He also chairs the University of Manchester's Brooks World Poverty Institute. He was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In 2009, the President of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, appointed Stiglitz as the chairman of the U.N. Commission on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, where he oversaw suggested proposals and commissioned a report on reforming the international monetary and financial system. He served as chair of the international Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, appointed by President Sarkozy of France, which issued its report in 2010, "Mismeasuring our Lives: Why GDP doesn't add up," and currently serves as co-chair of its successor, the High Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. From 2011 to 2014, Stiglitz was president of the International Economic Association (IEA). He presided over the organization of the IEA triennial world congress held near the Dead Sea in Jordan in June 2014. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63092 | 249,478 |
877,083 | As I was perfectly aware that my knowledge of the Mexican origin of the mushrooms would lead me to imagine only Mexican scenery, I tried deliberately to look on my environment as I knew it normally. But all voluntary efforts to look at things in their customary forms and colours proved ineffective. Whether my eyes were closed or open, I saw only Mexican motifs and colours. When the doctor supervising the experiment bent over me to check my blood pressure, he was transformed into an Aztec priest, and I would not have been astonished if he had drawn an obsidian knife. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, it amused me to see how the Germanic face of my colleague had acquired a purely Indian expression. At the peak of the intoxication, about 1 hours after ingestion of the mushrooms, the rush of interior pictures, mostly changing in shape and colour, reached such an alarming degree that I feared I would be torn into this whirlpool of form and colour and would dissolve. After about six hours, the dream came to an end. Subjectively, I had no idea how long this condition had lasted. I felt my return to everyday reality to be a happy return from a strange, fantastic but quite really experienced world into an old and familiar home. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1648020 | 876,621 |
1,822,976 | CASBEE considers four assessment fields: Energy Efficiency, Resource Efficiency, Local Environment, and Indoor Environment. Q and L are each divided into three sub-components with specific credits designed to evaluate the four assessment fields. Q consists of Q1: Indoor Environment (noise and acoustics, Thermal comfort, lighting, air quality), Q2: Quality of Service (functionality, durability, reliability, flexibility), and Q3: Outdoor Environment (preservation and creation of biotope, townscape and landscape, outdoor amenities). L consists of L1: Energy (thermal load, Daylighting, efficiency of systems, efficient operations), L2: Resources and Materials (water conservation, recycled materials, materials with low health risks), and L3: Off-Site Environment (Air pollution, noise and vibration, odor, Light pollution,heat island effect). Each credit is assessed on a 1 to 5 scale, where a score of 1 is earned if the minimum conditions required by law are satisfied, a score of 3 is earned for typical performance, and a score of 4 or 5 is earned for exceeding standard practices. Scoring is completed by CASBEE accredited professionals. The scores for each credit are then weighted and summed up depending on if they pertain to Q or L. The BEE is the ratio of Q over L. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34511543 | 1,821,938 |
363,531 | The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends statin treatment for adults with an estimated 10 year risk of developing cardiovascular disease that is greater than 10%. Guidelines by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults with LDL cholesterol ≥ 190 mg/dL or those with diabetes, age 40–75 with LDL-C 70–190 mg/dl; or in those with a 10-year risk of developing heart attack or stroke of 7.5% or more. In this latter group, statin assignment was not automatic, but was recommended to occur only after a clinician-patient risk discussion with shared decision making where other risk factors and lifestyle are addressed, the potential for benefit from a statin is weighed against the potential for adverse effects or drug interactions and informed patient preference is elicited. Moreover, if a risk decision was uncertain, factors such as family history, coronary calcium score, ankle-brachial index, and an inflammation test (hs-CRP ≥ 2.0 mg/L) were suggested to inform the risk decision. Additional factors that could be used were an LDL-C ≥ 160 or a very high lifetime risk. However, critics such as Steven E. Nissen say that the AHA/ACC guidelines were not properly validated, overestimate the risk by at least 50%, and recommend statins for people who will not benefit, based on populations whose observed risk is lower than predicted by the guidelines. The European Society of Cardiology and the European Atherosclerosis Society recommend the use of statins for primary prevention, depending on baseline estimated cardiovascular score and LDL thresholds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=178197 | 363,341 |
2,108,306 | George Fleming is a Scottish civil engineer specialising in environmental issues. Educated at the Royal College of Science and Technology, Stanford University and the University of Strathclyde he is a doctor of philosophy. His research started with studies of the hydrology of the River Clyde that expanded to a range of subjects including, flood risk, dredging, nuclear waste management, decommissioning of North Sea platforms and contaminated land. He has written reports on flooding for the Institution of Civil Engineers and the British government. Fleming was involved in the planning stages of the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988 and established a way of reusing dredgings from the Clyde to provide topsoil for the event. He has served as a non-executive director of British Waterways, Port of Tyne boards and for WRAP, a government quango whose aim was to promote recycling and resource efficiency. He is founder and chairman of the EnviroCentre environmental consultancy, of which his son is now managing director. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58835485 | 2,107,092 |
980,757 | In mid-1940, Maurice Ponte, from the laboratories of CSF in Paris, presented a cavity magnetron designed by Henri Gutton at SFR (see above) to the GEC laboratories at Wembley, Britain. This magnetron was designed for pulsed operation at a wavelength of 16 cm. Unlike other magnetron designs to that day, such as the Boots and Randall magnetron (see British contributions above), this tube used an oxide-coated cathode with a peak power output of 1 kW, demonstrating that oxide cathodes were the solution for producing high-power pulses at short wavelengths, a problem which had eluded British and American researchers for years. The significance this event was underlined by Eric Megaw, in a 1946 review of early radar developments: "This was the starting point of the use of the oxide cathode in practically all our subsequent pulsed transmitting waves and as such was a significant contribution to British radar. The date was the 8th May 1940". A tweaked version of this magnetron reached a peak output of 10 kW by August 1940. It was that model which, in turn, was handed to the Americans as a token of good faith during the negotiations made by the Tizard delegation in 1940 to obtain from the U.S. the resources necessary for Britain to exploit the full military potential of her research and development work. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1280053 | 980,245 |
2,055,670 | Maantay and Maroko's research is intended to help hazard management and disaster planning before and after a high magnitude flood event. By using a Cadastral-based Expert Dasymetric System (CEDS) they were able to estimate the number of "vulnerable sub-populations" in the densely populated New York City area. Their research broadly supports an EJ approach to natural disaster mitigation. By highlighting the importance of equality issues and the disproportionate exposure some people have to such events, they invoke the EJ movement's notion of distributional justice. The lack of "strong social, financial, or political support structures" are constituent factors in how people deal with large-scale disasters. The criticism of the US government's response to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, draw on such notions. The online publication set-up by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) entitled Understanding Katrina helps to ground this research in socio-political approaches to so-called "natural" disasters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31783151 | 2,054,487 |
696,391 | The practice reached its zenith during World War II, when the availability of man-portable radio systems and sophisticated relay networks allowed forward observers to transmit targeting information and provide almost instant accuracy reports—once troops had landed. Battleships, cruisers (including Bobtail cruisers, designed to support amphibious operations), and destroyers would pound shore installations, sometimes for days, in the hope of reducing fortifications and attriting defending forces. Obsolete battleships unfit for combat against other ships were often used as floating gun platforms expressly for this purpose. However, given the relatively primitive nature of the fire control computers and radar of the era combined with the high velocity of naval gunfire, accuracy depended upon designated observer aircraft until troops landed and were able to radio back reports to the ship. Observation seaplanes proved vulnerable to land-based fighter aircraft during the invasion of Sicily so gunfire observers flew Spitfires in support of the Normandy landings. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=511891 | 696,027 |
250,933 | Throughout the early 1960s, the Kennedy Administration, under the aegis of Secretary of Defense McNamara, cancelled numerous SAC modernization programs. This included the Mach 3 North American B-70 Valkyrie in 1961, the GAM-87 Skybolt missile in 1962, and the Rocky Mountain Deep Underground Support Center in 1963. The B-70's demise came due to its design as a high-altitude bomber with very limited low-altitude performance, making it vulnerable to rapid advances in Soviet high altitude surface-to-air missile defense systems. The following year, Skybolt, an air-launched ballistic missile, was cancelled following numerous test failures and the perceived greater reliability of land-based and submarine-based ballistic missile systems. Although initially entering service in 1957, SAC's 2nd-generation aerial refueling aircraft, the KC-135 Stratotanker, had reached sufficient inventory numbers to allow SAC to begin divestiture of its KC-97 Stratofreighter tankers, transferring them to SAC-gained Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units. As the KC-135 became the primary aerial tanker in active service, SAC employed the aircraft for several non-stop B-52 and KC-135 flights around the world, demonstrating that SAC no longer needed to depend on Reflex stations at air bases in Spain and Britain.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28118 | 250,800 |
702,160 | "" in 1989 departed from the action-oriented gameplay of previous "Dragon Slayer" titles, and instead used a more traditional turn-based combat system. In 1990, Data East's "Gate of Doom" was an arcade action RPG that combined beat 'em up fighting gameplay with fantasy role-playing and introduced an isometric perspective. That same year, Enix released a unique biological simulation action RPG by Almanic that revolved around the theme of evolution, "46 Okunen Monogatari", a revised version of which was released in 1992 as "". That same year, Alpha Denshi's "Crossed Swords" for the arcades combined the first-person beat 'em up gameplay of SNK's "The Super Spy" (released the same year) with RPG elements, while replacing the first-person shooting with hack & slash combat. Also in 1990, Hideo Kojima's "SD Snatcher", while turn-based, abandoned random encounters and introduced an innovative first-person shooter-based battle system where firearm weapons (each with different abilities and target ranges) have limited ammunition and the player can aim at specific parts of the enemy's body with each part weakening the enemy in different ways; an auto-battle feature could also be enabled. Such a battle system has rarely been used since, though similar battle systems based on targeting individual body parts can later be found in Square's "Vagrant Story" (2000), Bethesda's "Fallout 3" (2008), and Nippon Ichi's "Last Rebellion" (2010). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32408675 | 701,795 |
111,489 | A key feature of the M-346 is the Embedded Tactical Training System (ETTS). The ETTS is capable of emulating various equipment, such as radar, targeting pods, weapons, and electronic warfare systems; additionally, the ETTS can interface with various munitions and other equipment actually being carried on board. The system can act in a standalone mode, in which simulated data and scenario information, with threats and targets, is loaded prior to takeoff, or in a network, during which data is received and acted upon in real time from ground monitoring stations via the aircraft's datalink. The ETTS can generate realistic Computer Generated Forces (both friend and foe). For post-mission evaluation and analysis purposes, accumulated data, such as video from the optional Helmet Mounted Display, can be extracted and reviewed. Leonardo also offer an Integrated Training System (ITS), combining the M-346 with a Ground-Based Training System (GBTS) - composed of academic training devices, simulators, mission planning and training management systems - and full logistic service as part of a wider syllabus towards qualifying pilots. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=948485 | 111,444 |
1,621,159 | When Arnold R. Weber was elected president in 1985, the university not only was in the midst of a funding crisis after cuts in federal aid but was also suffering from diminished national prestige. In 1976, two years after he was tenured, Professor Arthur Butz published a Holocaust denial treatise titled "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century". His controversial views highlighted the difficulties of balancing academic freedom of speech and the university's obligations to support tenured faculty, with the university's public image as Butz has been the subject of departmental censure, university press releases, and student and faculty petitions demanding his resignation. Northwestern also attracted controversy in 1991 for hiring former Weather Underground and FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Bernardine Dohrn as an adjunct faculty member in the Law School. The tension of this time period was only exacerbated when, in 1990, the Evanston City Council attempted to impose the nation's first tax on college tuition for students studying at colleges in the city (including Northwestern University, Kendall College, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary) to cover a budget shortfall. The measure failed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10414221 | 1,620,244 |
749,983 | The "Report to the Minister for Defence on the Collins class submarine and related matters" (commonly referred to as the "McIntosh-Prescott Report") was compiled in ten weeks, and released on 1 June 1999. This report concluded that the "Collins" class was incapable of performing at the required level for military operations. Although the report highlighted several elements of the submarine design that performed to or beyond expectations, and acknowledged that many of the publicised problems had been or were in the process of being fixed, it presented the propulsion system, combat system, and excessive noise as ongoing problems across the class. After identifying the combat system as the central problem, McIntosh and Prescott recommended that it be scrapped entirely and replaced with a system based on commercially available equipment and software. They also claimed that these problems were caused by poor design and manufacture; inappropriate design requirements; deficiencies in the structure of the contract, particularly with regards to modifying the contract to meet changing requirements; and problems between the various parties involved in the construction of the submarines, with a lack of overall direction and conflicts of interest causing avoidable hostility and uncooperativeness. Despite the report being promoted by the government as 'ground-breaking', many people involved with the "Collins"-class project later claimed that large sections of the report could have been copied from reports previously submitted by the RAN or ASC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=810758 | 749,585 |
1,463,018 | A third possibility considered was to launch "Galileo" using a Centaur upper stage atop a Titan IIIE, but this would have required rebuilding the launch complex at Cape Canaveral, which would have added at least $125 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to the cost of the $285 million (equivalent to $ million in ) "Galileo" project. Beggs insisted that expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) were obsolete and that any money spent on them would only undermine the Space Shuttle's cost-effectiveness. Moreover, Titan had been developed by and was owned and controlled by, the USAF, and its use would mean that NASA would have to work closely with the USAF, something that NASA management hoped to avoid as much as possible. While NASA and the USAF collaborated and depended on each other to some extent, they were also rivals, and NASA resisted attempts by United States Department of Defense (DoD) to manage the space program. On 13 November 1981, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive Number 8, which directed that the Space Shuttle would be the primary launch system for all military and civil government missions, but Edward C. Aldridge Jr., the Under Secretary of the Air Force (and secretly the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office) doubted that NASA could meet its target of twenty-four Space Shuttle launches a year; he thought that twelve was more likely, and given that only the newest two orbiters, and could lift his largest payloads, there might not be enough Space Shuttle flights. Reagan was persuaded to revise his policy to permit a mixed fleet of ELVs and Space Shuttles, and the USAF ordered ten Titan IV rockets in 1984. NASA historian T. A. Heppenheimer noted that in retrospect, "it was a mistake not to go with the Titan IIIE-Centaur", given the delays and higher costs ultimately involved in using the Shuttle, but this was not apparent in 1984. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65467235 | 1,462,195 |
55,192 | The modern automobile may have as many as 70 electronic control units (ECU) for various subsystems. Traditionally, the biggest processor is the engine control unit. Others are used for Autonomous Driving, Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), transmission, airbags, antilock braking/ABS, cruise control, electric power steering, audio systems, power windows, doors, mirror adjustment, battery and recharging systems for hybrid/electric cars, etc. Some of these form independent subsystems, but communications among others are essential. A subsystem may need to control actuators or receive feedback from sensors. The CAN standard was devised to fill this need. One key advantage is that interconnection between different vehicle systems can allow a wide range of safety, economy and convenience features to be implemented using software alone - functionality which would add cost and complexity if such features were "hard wired" using traditional automotive electrics. Examples include: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=231284 | 55,169 |
722,388 | The idea of a cellular structure that later became known as a T-tubule was first proposed in 1881. The very brief time lag between stimulating a striated muscle cell and its subsequent contraction was too short to have been caused by a signalling chemical travelling the distance between the sarcolemma and the sarcoplasmic reticulum. It was therefore suggested that pouches of membrane reaching into the cell might explain the very rapid onset of contraction that had been observed. It took until 1897 before the first T-tubules were seen, using light microscopy to study cardiac muscle injected with India ink. Imaging technology advanced, and with the advent of transmission electron microscopy the structure of T-tubules became more apparent leading to the description of the longitudinal component of the T-tubule network in 1971. In the 1990s and 2000s confocal microscopy enabled three-dimensional reconstruction of the T-tubule network and quantification of T-tubule size and distribution, and the important relationships between T-tubules and calcium release began to be unravelled with the discovery of calcium sparks. While early work focussed on ventricular cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle, in 2009 an extensive T-tubule network in atrial cardiac muscle cells was observed. Ongoing research focusses on the regulation of T-tubule structure and how T-tubules are affected by and contribute to cardiovascular diseases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2302081 | 722,008 |
1,083,192 | The process by which Liesegang rings develop is not completely understood. Liesegang rings may form from the chemical segregation of iron oxides and other minerals during weathering. One popular mechanism suggested by geochemists is that Liesegang rings develop when there is a lack of convection (advection) and has to do with the inter-diffusion of reacting species such as oxygen and ferrous iron that precipitate in separate discrete bands which become spaced apart in a geometric pattern. A process of precipitation known as the Ostwald-Liesegang supersaturation-nucleation-depletion cycle is known by the geologic community as a probable mechanism for Liesegang ring formation in sedimentary rocks. In this process the "...diffusion of reactants leads to supersaturation and nucleation; this precipitation results in localized band formation and depletion of reactants in adjacent zones." As Ostwald suggests, there is a localized formation of crystal seeds that occurs when the right level of supersaturation is reached, and once the crystal seeds form, the growth of the crystals is believed to lower the supersaturation level of fluids in pore spaces surrounding the crystals, thus mineralization that occurs after the initial crystal growth in the surrounding areas develops in bands or "rings". One classic example based on the Ostwald-Liesegang hypothesis is observed in water and rock interactions where iron hydroxide precipitates in sandstone through pore space. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29926794 | 1,082,635 |
483,341 | An economic turning point for the better came in 1943, when gross industrial production increased by 17% compared with 1942. In the Urals and Siberia, metallurgical plants were being built and expanded at an accelerated pace. In 1944, the volume of industrial production when compared with the volume of industrial production in 1940 was at 103-104%. In 1943-1945 mass production of the newer military equipment was carried out. In 1943, when it became clearer that the war was going in allied favor and that the Soviet Union would not outright lose the war, one of the most important tasks became to restore the national economy. Measures were taken to develop the production of agricultural equipment and increase the acreage. On 26 May 1943, The State Defense Committee made a resolution on Restoring Railways in Liberated Areas and up until the end of the war, 50 thousand km of main railway lines, 2.5 thousand stations and sidings were restored. A significant contribution to meeting the needs of the front was made by the population of the country, which, despite the hardship and deprivation, worked in all sectors of the economy. In addition, 94.5 billion rubles were collected in the form of voluntary contributions during the years of the war, 1941 till 1945. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60830799 | 483,094 |
29,518 | Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar who wrote on a wide variety of topics including optics, comparative linguistics, and medicine, composed his "Great Work" () for as part of a project towards rebuilding the medieval university curriculum to include the new learning of his time. While alchemy was not more important to him than other sciences and he did not produce allegorical works on the topic, he did consider it and astrology to be important parts of both natural philosophy and theology and his contributions advanced alchemy's connections to soteriology and Christian theology. Bacon's writings integrated morality, salvation, alchemy, and the prolongation of life. His correspondence with Clement highlighted this, noting the importance of alchemy to the papacy. Like the Greeks before him, Bacon acknowledged the division of alchemy into practical and theoretical spheres. He noted that the theoretical lay outside the scope of Aristotle, the natural philosophers, and all Latin writers of his time. The practical confirmed the theoretical, and Bacon advocated its uses in natural science and medicine. In later European legend, he became an archmage. In particular, along with Albertus Magnus, he was credited with the forging of a brazen head capable of answering its owner's questions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=573 | 29,508 |
1,499,337 | Larger planetesimals, above a transition mass of roughly Ceres mass in the inner solar system and Pluto mass in the outer solar system, accrete pebbles with Stoke's numbers near one from their Hill radii. The Stokes number in this context is the product of stopping time and the keplerian frequency. As with small planetesimals the radius from which pebbles accrete declines for smaller and larger pebble sizes. The optimal pebble size for large planetesimals measures in cm's due to a combination of the accretion radius and the radial drift rates of the pebbles. As objects grow their accretion changes from 3-D, with accretion from part of the thickness of the pebble disk, to 2D with accretion from full thickness of pebble disk. The relative growth rate in 2-D accretion is proportional to formula_1 leading to oligarchical growth and the formation of similar sized bodies. Pebble accretion can result in doubling of mass of an Earth-massed core in as little as 5500 years, reducing the timescales for growth of the cores of giant planets by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude relative to planetesimal accretion. The gravitational influence of these massive bodies can create a partial gap in the gas disk altering the pressure gradient. The velocity of gas then becomes super-keplerian outside the gap stopping the inward drift of pebbles and ending pebble accretion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48625218 | 1,498,493 |
2,142,736 | The dyke was constructed in the 25 hectare farm of Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kannur in 2007 to solve the problem of water scarcity. The experience of KVK indicated that subsurface dyke was an efficient barrier to arrest the subsurface flow of water and conserve ground water. The rate of depletion of drainable water in the catchment area due to the typical undulating topography could be efficiently arrested by the dyke. The dyke resulted in the maintenance of higher water table in the catchment area for a longer period of time. There is an existing dug out pond with top length of 12 m, width 8m a depth 5m in the upstream side of the dyke. The pond is the only source of water in the KVK farm. The pond, which usually gets dried up in the summer is now maintaining a high water table throughout the year as the dyke ensures an incessant supply of water to the pond. Weekly data on the ground water level were recorded using water level recorder. The data showed that significantly higher level of water table was maintained in the catchment area (upstream area) compared to down stream area. Taking into account the mean depth of soil as 2 m the catchment area as 1.5ha (the actual area is 15 ha) and the drainable porosity as 10%, the total water storage capacity of the dyke would be 3000 m3. The crops cultivated in the catchment area would be benefited by way of constant capillary feeding of the rhizosphere. Kerala receives, on an average, more than 3000mm of rainfall per annum which is concentrated to the months of June to October. Due to the typical undulating topography of the state, the excess rain received is mostly lost through runoff. Immediately on cessation of rains subsurface water drains off along the slope resulting in poor retention of water in the catchment area. In spite of the heavy rainfall received in Kerala, the state experiences severe drought during summer months due to inefficient utilisation of rain water. In a state like Kerala, where the pressure on land is very high surface storage of water in large reservoirs with their adverse ecological impact is not an economic proposition. Alternatively, structures like subsurface dyke are most ideal for in situ conservation of rainfall received in a watershed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23206550 | 2,141,505 |
1,474,184 | "Synechococcus" has been observed to occur at concentrations ranging between a few cells to 10 cells per ml in virtually all regions of oceanic euphotic zone except in samples from the McMurdo Sound and Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Cells are generally much more abundant in nutrient-rich environments than in the oligotrophic ocean and prefer the upper, well-lit portion of the euphotic zone. "Synechococcus" has also been observed to occur at high abundances in environments with low salinities and/or low temperatures. It is usually far outnumbered by "Prochlorococcus" in all environments where they co-occur. Exceptions to this rule are areas of permanently enriched nutrients such as upwelling areas and coastal watersheds. In the nutrient-depleted areas of the oceans, such as the central gyres, "Synechococcus" is apparently always present, although only at low concentrations, ranging from a few to 4×10³ cells per ml. Vertically "Synechococcus" is usually relatively equitably distributed throughout the mixed layer and exhibits an affinity for the higher-light areas. Below the mixed layer, cell concentrations rapidly decline. Vertical profiles are strongly influenced by hydrologic conditions and can be very variable both seasonally and spatially. Overall, "Synechococcus" abundance often parallels that of "Prochlorococcus" in the water column. In the Pacific high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll zone and in temperate open seas where stratification was recently established both profiles parallel each other and exhibit abundance maxima just about the subsurface chlorophyll maximum. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7219097 | 1,473,353 |
2,068,464 | Naval Medical Research Unit Five (NAMRU-5) was a research laboratory of the US Navy which was founded as a field facility of Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia with a collecting station in Gambella on December 30, 1965 under an agreement between the US and Ethiopian governments. In 1974 NAMRU-5 was established as its own command and was housed in the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute(former Imperial Central Laboratory Research Institute). The mission of NAMRU-5 was to conduct research and development on infectious diseases of military importance in sub-Sahara Africa. Gambella became the focus of a major malaria control effort and studies on malaria immunology. Applied research focused on the general areas of insect repellents, insecticide resistance, insect attractants and louse control. Members of the NAMRU-5 staff were also among the last Americans to ever see smallpox before its eradication. NAMRU-5 built collaborative research efforts with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; with local medical facilities, including the Haile Selassie University Medical School and various hospitals in Addis Ababa; and with the London School of Tropical Medicine, the University of Washington, Case Western Reserve University Department of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. NAMRU-5 was disestablished in April 1977 following the communist takeover of the government of Ethiopia which ordered all members out of the country in 4 days. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33251622 | 2,067,273 |
289,743 | In January 2015, Bostrom joined Stephen Hawking among others in signing the Future of Life Institute's open letter warning of the potential dangers of A.I. The signatories "...believe that research on how to make AI systems robust and beneficial is both important and timely, and that concrete research should be pursued today." Cutting-edge A.I. researcher Demis Hassabis then met with Hawking, subsequent to which he did not mention "anything inflammatory about AI", which Hassabis, took as 'a win'. Along with Google, Microsoft and various tech firms, Hassabis, Bostrom and Hawking and others subscribed to 23 principles for safe development of A.I. Hassabis suggested the main safety measure would be an agreement for whichever A.I. research team began to make strides toward an artificial general intelligence to halt their project for a complete solution to the control problem prior to proceeding. Bostrom had pointed out that even if the crucial advances require the resources of a state, such a halt by a lead project might be likely to motivate a lagging country to a catch-up crash program or even physical destruction of the project suspected of being on the verge of success. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=408292 | 289,586 |
1,134,279 | During the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement of 2019 which evolved into a large-scale pro-democracy protest over the course of several months, medics were increasingly frequently denied access to patients. In the 31 August MTR station incident, an online video showed a medic was refused entry to the station despite his emotional plea. Medics inside the station were forced to "face the wall" and stand in silence, instead of treating the wounded. Paramedics were denied access to the already fully-locked-down station until at least 2 hours later. According to Amnesty international's interviews "it was common for police to delay calling or securing an ambulance until five to 10 hours after the injury and after the person first requested to go to a hospital". In the siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University police detained and arrested up to 51 medic volunteers. This was called a "gross breach of international humanitarian standard" that is "unheard of in civilised countries and is incompatible with the compact of humanitarianism". First aiders have also reported being held at the gunpoint of a rubber-bullet gun and being pinned down to the ground in an arm lock with clear disregard of their medic identity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34833199 | 1,133,686 |
38,013 | "H. erectus" sites frequently are associated with assemblages of medium- to large-sized game, namely elephants, rhinos, hippos, bovine, and boar. "H. erectus" would have had considerable leftovers, potentially pointing to food sharing or long-term food preservation (such as by drying) if most of the kill was indeed utilized. It is possible that "H. erectus" grew to become quite dependent on large-animal meat, and the disappearance of "H. erectus" from the Levant is correlated with the local extinction of the straight-tusked elephant. Nonetheless, "H. erectus" diet likely varied widely depending upon location. For example, at the 780 ka Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site, Israel, the inhabitants gathered and ate 55 different types of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and tubers, and it appears that they used fire to roast certain plant materials that otherwise would have been inedible; they also consumed amphibians, reptiles, birds, aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, in addition to the usual large creatures such as elephant and fallow deer. At the 1.95 Ma FwJJ20 lakeside site in the East Turkana Basin, Kenya, the inhabitants ate (alongside the usual bovids, hippos, and rhinos) aquatic creatures such as turtles, crocodiles, and catfish. The large animals were likely scavenged at this site, but the turtles and fish were possibly collected live. At the 1.5 Ma Trinil H. K. site, Java, "H. erectus" likely gathered fish and shellfish. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19554533 | 38,000 |
54,423 | The end of the war left the USAAF with thousands of P-38s rendered obsolete by the jet age. Orders for 1,887 more were cancelled. The last P-38s in service with the United States Air Force were retired in 1949. One-hundred late-model P-38L and F-5 Lightnings were acquired by Italy through an agreement dated April 1946. Delivered, after refurbishing, at the rate of one per month, they finally were all sent to the Aeronautica Militare by 1952. The Lightnings served in the 4° "Stormo" and other units including 3° "Stormo", flying reconnaissance over the Balkans, ground attack, naval cooperation, and air-superiority missions. Due to old engines, pilot errors, and lack of experience in operations, large numbers of P-38s were lost in at least 30 accidents, many of them fatal. Despite this, many Italian pilots liked the P-38 because of its excellent visibility on the ground and stability on takeoff. The Italian P-38s were phased out in 1956; none survived the scrapyard. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25041 | 54,400 |
7,828 | The 18th century saw the arrival of some notable improvements, first by Poleni with the first fully functional calculating clock and four-operation machine, but these machines were almost always "one of a kind". Luigi Torchi invented the first direct multiplication machine in 1834: this was also the second key-driven machine in the world, following that of James White (1822). It was not until the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution that real developments began to occur. Although machines capable of performing all four arithmetic functions existed prior to the 19th century, the refinement of manufacturing and fabrication processes during the eve of the industrial revolution made large scale production of more compact and modern units possible. The Arithmometer, invented in 1820 as a four-operation mechanical calculator, was released to production in 1851 as an adding machine and became the first commercially successful unit; forty years later, by 1890, about 2,500 arithmometers had been sold plus a few hundreds more from two arithmometer clone makers (Burkhardt, Germany, 1878 and Layton, UK, 1883) and Felt and Tarrant, the only other competitor in true commercial production, had sold 100 comptometers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7593 | 7,825 |
1,443,723 | Shipping ports are a significant source of pollution due to the heavy cargo traffic that these areas receive. The impact of these ships is quite widespread, affecting coastal communities and ecosystems across the globe. Most major shipping ports are located near environmentally sensitive estuaries. These areas are particularly impacted by high levels of diesel exhaust, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and sulfur oxides. The solution for reducing port-related pollution is multi-fold, encompassing attainable alternatives and long-term reduction goals. Examples of simple steps include a restriction on engine idling for ships in the port and the use of cleaner grade diesel fuels. Some more expensive measures can be taken to mitigate the pollution of ships. Replacing older model ships with ships containing new engines allows the ships to meet modern emission standards. Exhaust systems can also be retrofitted in order to reduce exhaust emissions. Looking ahead into the future, there are a few technologies being developed. For example, plugging ships into "shore-side" power sources may eliminate the need for idling engines. Additionally, various sources of alternative fuel are being developed, the most significant of which is a fuel cell unit. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3444688 | 1,442,910 |
1,480,119 | An electrodynamic tether is attached to an object, the tether being oriented at an angle to the local vertical between the object and a planet with a magnetic field. The tether's far end can be left bare, making electrical contact with the ionosphere. When the tether intersects the planet's magnetic field, it generates a current, and thereby converts some of the orbiting body's kinetic energy to electrical energy. Functionally, electrons flow from the space plasma into the conductive tether, are passed through a resistive load in a control unit and are emitted into the space plasma by an electron emitter as free electrons. As a result of this process, an electrodynamic force acts on the tether and attached object, slowing their orbital motion. In a loose sense, the process can be likened to a conventional windmill- the drag force of a resistive medium (air or, in this case, the magnetosphere) is used to convert the kinetic energy of relative motion (wind, or the satellite's momentum) into electricity. In principle, compact high-current tether power generators are possible and, with basic hardware, tens, hundreds, and thousands of kilowatts appears to be attainable. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2860340 | 1,479,285 |
1,856,821 | It has been suggested that the coeval Appalachian Taconic orogeny is the "northward" continuation of the Famatinian orogeny. This has been explained by adding that the continent Laurentia could have collided with Gondwana (at what is today western South America) in early Paleozoic times due to the closure of the Iapetus Ocean. Supporting this hypothesis is the suggestion that the orogens have "truncated ends" that can be matched and that both share the commonality of having carbonate platform sediments at what is today their western side. Further, in the mentioned sediments both orogens host similar Olenellid trilobite faunas, something that is not expected to be unless both orogens had some sort of contact. This is because trilobites are unable to cross deep ocean basins. According to this view the Cuyania terrane would be an allochthonous block of Laurentian origin that was left in Gondwana after the continents went apart. But such views are not unchallenged since Cuyania is alternatively suggested to have drifted across Iapetus Ocean as a microcontinent starting in Laurentia and accreting then to Gondwana. Further a third model claims Cuyania is para-autochthonous and arrived at its current place by strike-slip fault movements starting not from Laurentia but from another region of Gondwana. The fact that Precordillera terrane has many trilobite genera in common with Laurentia but many species are endemic have led to some differing interpretations on what paleogeographic and tectonic history conditions are plausible explanations for this biogeography. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47872098 | 1,855,753 |
854,183 | E-commerce shopping can be seen as the best way to reduce one's carbon footprint. Yet, this is only true to some extent. Shopping online is less energy intensive than driving to a physical store location and then driving back home. This is because shipping can take advantage of economies of scale. However, these benefits are diminished when e-commerce stores package items separately or when customers buy items separately and do not take the time to "one stop shop". For large stores with a large online presence, they can have millions of customers opting for these shipping benefits. As a result, they are unintentionally increasing carbon emissions from not consolidating their purchases. Josué Velázquez-Martínez, a sustainable logistics professor at MIT notes that "if you are willing to wait a week for shipping, you just kill 20 trees instead of 100 trees." The only time shipping works in being less energy intensive is when customer do not choose rush delivery, which includes 2-day shipping. M. Sanjayan, the CEO of Conservation International, explains that getting your online purchase delivered at home in just two days puts more polluting vehicles on the road. In addition to standard shipping, consumers must be satisfied with their purchases so that they do not constantly returns items. By returning shipments on standard shipping, the positive contribution to environment is being taken back. In research done by Vox, they found in 2016 transportation overtook power plants as the top prouder of carbon dioxide emissions in the US for the first time since 1979.These environmental issues came from nearly a quarter of transportation trucks that either carry medium and heavy duty loads of merchandise; these trucks are often the ones doing e-commerce shipping. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25406027 | 853,728 |
1,723,467 | The origin of qualification structures can be traced back to organized education in antique civilizations such as Greece, Sparta, Rome and China. As no specialized career structure existed in these cultures, organized education focused on broad issues of international citizenship, and not on vocational preparedness, which was achieved mainly through informal apprenticeships. As civilizations developed, the role of social class and caste received more emphasis, and people who displayed certain competences were grouped together. The advantage of having participated in and benefited from education gradually became more visible as civilizations developed. In this respect the Chinese civilization was the most organized, with a series of levels attached to examinations, which in turn granted the right of access to public office. During the Middle Ages education had a particularly religious nature, while the late medieval centuries were categorized by a new approach to education alongside the clergy and feudal knighthood. New economic objectives as a result of the Crusades and the development of banking, importing and shipping across Europe and the West gave rise to the development of cities, and a new form of education aimed at professional life. Education became available to the middle classes, and the merchant and craft guild system developed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53715889 | 1,722,497 |
155,378 | Gottfried Wagener was a German scientist brought in by the government to advise Japanese industry and improve production processes. Along with Namikawa Yasuyuki he developed a transparent black enamel which was used for backgrounds. Translucent enamels in various other colours followed during this period. Along with Tsukamoto Kaisuke, Wagener transformed the firing processes used by Japanese workshops, improving the quality of finishes and extending the variety of colours. Kawade Shibatarō introduced a variety of techniques, including (drip-glaze) which produces a rainbow-coloured glaze and (repoussé) technique, in which the metal foundation is hammered outwards to create a relief effect. Together with Hattori Tadasaburō he developed the ("piling up") technique which places layers of enamel upon each other to create a three-dimensional effect. Namikawa Sōsuke developed a pictorial style that imitated paintings. He is known for (minimised wires) and (wireless cloisonné): techniques developed with Wagener in which the wire are minimised or burned away completely with acid. This contrasts with the Chinese style which used thick metal . Ando Jubei introduced the () technique which burns away the metal substrate to leave translucent enamel, producing an effect resembling stained glass. The Ando Cloisonné Company which he co-founded is one of the few makers from this era still active. Distinctively Japanese designs, in which flowers, birds and insects were used as themes, became popular. Designs also increasingly used areas of blank space. With the greater subtlety these techniques allowed, Japanese enamels were regarded as unequalled in the world and won many awards at national and international exhibitions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=314629 | 155,308 |
1,998,276 | England batted for the second time, and after lunch on the fourth afternoon, Bradman set fields to restrict the scoring, as England passed 100 without loss. Washbrook then hooked Johnston and top edged it, but Bradman failed to take the catch. He repeated the shot soon after and Harvey took the catch at 1/129, so the Australian captain's miss cost little. Johnson then removed Hutton for 57 without further addition to the total, caught by Bradman on the run, leaving England at 2/129. During most of the afternoon, Bradman used a strategy of rotating his bowlers in short spells, and set a defensive, well-spread field for Johnson, who had been repeatedly attacked by the batsmen. England then reached 8/362 at the close, a lead of 400. England batted on for five minutes on the final morning, adding three runs in two overs before Yardley declared at 8/365. As the batting team is allowed to choose which (if any) roller can be used at the start of the day's play, this ploy allowed Yardley to ask the groundsman to use a heavy roller, which would help to break up the wicket and make the surface more likely to spin. Bradman had done a similar thing during the previous Ashes series in Australia in order to make the batting conditions harder for England. At the start of any innings, the batting captain also has the choice of having the pitch rolled. Bradman elected to not have the pitch rolled at all, demonstrating his opinion that such a device would disadvantage his batsmen. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21051201 | 1,997,133 |
506,378 | From 2005 to 2007, Leshin was the director of Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where she oversaw science activities. From 2008 to 2009, she was the Deputy Center Director for Science & Technology at Goddard. In this position, she oversaw strategy development at the center, leading an inclusive process to formulate future science and technology goals, and an integrated program of investments aligned to meet those goals. With other NASA Goddard senior managers, she was responsible for effectively executing the center's $3 billion in programs, and ensuring the scientific integrity of Earth observing missions, space-based telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and instruments exploring the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, comets and more. Starting in 2010, Leshin served as the deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, where she played a leading role in NASA's future human spaceflight endeavors. Her duties included oversight of the planning and execution of the next generation of human exploration systems, as well as the research, robotic and future capabilities development activities that support them. She was also engaged in initiating the development of commercial human spaceflight capabilities to low earth orbit. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33760918 | 506,115 |
530,808 | Inhibition of Hsp90 leads to Hsp70 and Hsp40 upregulation, which can channel misfolded protein for proteasome degradation, which can potentially inhibit the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. For example, Hsp70 overexpression in human neuroglioma cells transfected with mutant alpha-synuclein led to 50% less oligomeric alpha-synuclein species, pointing towards the possibility that increasing its expression could diminish the spread of Parkinson’s disease. Similarly, Hsp70 overexpression suppressed poly-Q dependent aggregation and neurodegeneration in cell cultures, yeast, fly, and mouse models, and deletion of hsp70 increased the size of polyQ inclusion bodies, suggesting that increasing its expression could help to prevent Huntington’s disease. Similarly, reductions in Hsp70 have been shown in transgenic mouse models of ALS and patients with sporadic ALS. Lastly, increased expression or activity of Hsp70 has been proposed as a method to prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, because knock down of Hsp70 promoted A-beta toxicity, and Hsp70 was shown to promote tau stability, while Hsp70 levels are decreased in tauopathies like Alzheimer’s disease. Given the complex interplay between the different chaperone proteins, therapeutic development in this field is aimed at investigating how the chaperone network as a whole can be manipulated and the effect of this manipulation on the progression of neurodegenerative disease, but the balance of Hsp70 and Hsp90 levels appears to be central in this pathophysiology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=474345 | 530,534 |
519,482 | Similar insights were developed by Pierre Bourdieu, who also rejected the arguments of the new institutional economists. While these economists attempted to incorporate culture in their models, they did so by arguing that non-market "tradition" was the product of rational maximizing action in the market (i.e., to show they are the solution to an economic problem, rather than having deep cultural roots). Bourdieu argued strongly against what he called RAT (Rational Action Theory) theory, arguing that any actor, when asked for an explanation for their behaviour will provide a rational post hoc answer, but that excuse does not in fact guide the individual in the act. Driving a car is an example; individuals do so out of an acquired "instinct", obeying the rules of the road without actually focusing upon them. Bourdieu utilized an alternate model, which emphasized how "economic capital" could be translated into "symbolic capital" and vice versa. For example, in traditional Mexican villages, those of wealth would be called upon to fulfill "cargo offices" in the church, and host feasts in honour of the saints. These offices used up their economic capital, but in so doing, it was translated into status (symbolic capital) in the traditional role. This symbolic capital could, in turn, be used to draw customers in the marketplace because of a reputation for honesty and selflessness. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=418436 | 519,213 |
10,931 | The American Psychiatric Association (APA) guidelines note that, in general, benzodiazepines are well tolerated, and their use for the initial treatment for panic disorder is strongly supported by numerous controlled trials. APA states that there is insufficient evidence to recommend any of the established panic disorder treatments over another. The choice of treatment between benzodiazepines, SSRIs, serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic antidepressants, and psychotherapy should be based on the patient's history, preference, and other individual characteristics. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are likely to be the best choice of pharmacotherapy for many patients with panic disorder, but benzodiazepines are also often used, and some studies suggest that these medications are still used with greater frequency than the SSRIs. One advantage of benzodiazepines is that they alleviate the anxiety symptoms much faster than antidepressants, and therefore may be preferred in patients for whom rapid symptom control is critical. However, this advantage is offset by the possibility of developing benzodiazepine dependence. APA does not recommend benzodiazepines for persons with depressive symptoms or a recent history of substance use disorder. The APA guidelines state that, in general, pharmacotherapy of panic disorder should be continued for at least a year, and that clinical experience supports continuing benzodiazepine treatment to prevent recurrence. Although major concerns about benzodiazepine tolerance and withdrawal have been raised, there is no evidence for significant dose escalation in patients using benzodiazepines long-term. For many such patients, stable doses of benzodiazepines retain their efficacy over several years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4781 | 10,926 |
1,959,446 | The Maori's daily life was dictated by the season. The planting season was in October and the harvest in February. Trapping rats and birds was commonly practised by the forest tribes. Despite a relatively small population, the tribes claimed ownership of the entire island, periodically visiting land to substantiate claims. For the Maori, the land was not merely a resource, but a connection to ancestors. The mana of the tribe was strongly associated with the lands of that tribe. From this came the Maori proverb "Man perishes, but the land remains." The Maori beliefs included Atua, invisible spirits connected to natural phenomena such as rainbows, trees, or stones. Sacred pools were known as wai tapu. It is the policy position of the New Zealand Green Party to return wai tapu to the iwi, as some are currently under control of the Conservation Estate. Large number of New Zealand pigeons flocking to feed on the fruit of the toromiro is an indicator of the mana of the forest. Because of this, this bird is generally only hunted for special occasions; the feathers are worn by Maori women of high social status. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20232068 | 1,958,319 |
449,138 | IBM Research's numerous contributions to physical and computer sciences include the Scanning Tunneling Microscope and high-temperature superconductivity, both of which were awarded the Nobel Prize. IBM Research was behind the inventions of the SABRE travel reservation system, the technology of laser eye surgery, magnetic storage, the relational database, UPC barcodes and Watson, the question-answering computing system that won a match against human champions on the Jeopardy! television quiz show. The Watson technology is now being commercialized as part of a project with healthcare company Anthem Inc. Other notable developments include the Data Encryption Standard (DES), fast Fourier transform (FFT), Benoît Mandelbrot's introduction of fractals, magnetic disk storage (hard disks, the MELD-Plus risk score, the one-transistor dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, relational databases, and Deep Blue (grandmaster-level chess-playing computer). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=551666 | 448,920 |
998,433 | Once the nobelium-255 is produced, it can be separated out similarly as used to purify the neighboring actinide mendelevium. The recoil momentum of the produced nobelium-255 atoms is used to bring them physically far away from the target from which they are produced, bringing them onto a thin foil of metal (usually beryllium, aluminium, platinum, or gold) just behind the target in a vacuum: this is usually combined by trapping the nobelium atoms in a gas atmosphere (frequently helium), and carrying them along with a gas jet from a small opening in the reaction chamber. Using a long capillary tube, and including potassium chloride aerosols in the helium gas, the nobelium atoms can be transported over tens of meters. The thin layer of nobelium collected on the foil can then be removed with dilute acid without completely dissolving the foil. The nobelium can then be isolated by exploiting its tendency to form the divalent state, unlike the other trivalent actinides: under typically used elution conditions (bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) as stationary organic phase and 0.05 M hydrochloric acid as mobile aqueous phase, or using 3 M hydrochloric acid as an eluant from cation-exchange resin columns), nobelium will pass through the column and elute while the other trivalent actinides remain on the column. However, if a direct "catcher" gold foil is used, the process is complicated by the need to separate out the gold using anion-exchange chromatography before isolating the nobelium by elution from chromatographic extraction columns using HDEHP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21278 | 997,915 |
965,000 | Viral Meningitis is mostly caused by an infectious agent that has colonized somewhere in its host. People who are already in an immunocompromised state are at the highest risk of pathogen entry. Some of the most common examples of immunocompromised individuals include those with HIV, cancer, diabetes, malnutrition, certain genetic disorders, and patients on chemotherapy. Potential sites for this include the skin, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, nasopharynx, and genitourinary tract. The organism invades the submucosa at these sites by invading host defenses, such as local immunity, physical barriers, and phagocytes or macrophages. After pathogen invasion, the immune system is activated. An infectious agent can enter the central nervous system and cause meningeal disease via invading the bloodstream, a retrograde neuronal pathway, or by direct contiguous spread. Immune cells and damaged endothelial cells release matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), cytokines, and nitric oxide. MMPs and NO induce vasodilation in the cerebral vasculature. Cytokines induce capillary wall changes in the blood brain barrier, which leads to expression of more leukocyte receptors, thus increasing white blood cell binding and extravasation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=172305 | 964,491 |
21,906 | Data collection at the LHC finally commenced in March 2010. By December 2011 the two main particle detectors at the LHC, ATLAS and CMS, had narrowed down the mass range where the Higgs could exist to around (ATLAS) and (CMS). There had also already been a number of promising event excesses that had "evaporated" and proven to be nothing but random fluctuations. However, from around May 2011, both experiments had seen among their results, the slow emergence of a small yet consistent excess of gamma and 4-lepton decay signatures and several other particle decays, all hinting at a new particle at a mass around . By around November 2011, the anomalous data at was becoming "too large to ignore" (although still far from conclusive), and the team leaders at both ATLAS and CMS each privately suspected they might have found the Higgs. On 28 November 2011, at an internal meeting of the two team leaders and the director general of CERN, the latest analyses were discussed outside their teams for the first time, suggesting both ATLAS and CMS might be converging on a possible shared result at , and initial preparations commenced in case of a successful finding. While this information was not known publicly at the time, the narrowing of the possible Higgs range to around and the repeated observation of small but consistent event excesses across multiple channels at both ATLAS and CMS in the region (described as "tantalising hints" of around 2–3 sigma) were public knowledge with "a lot of interest". It was therefore widely anticipated around the end of 2011, that the LHC would provide sufficient data to either exclude or confirm the finding of a Higgs boson by the end of 2012, when their 2012 collision data (with slightly higher 8 TeV collision energy) had been examined. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20556903 | 21,897 |
1,051,253 | The Pelagornithidae had extremely thin-walled bones widely pneumatized with the air sac extensions of the lungs. Most limb bone fossils are very much crushed for that reason. In life, the thin bones and extensive pneumatization enabled the birds to achieve large size while remaining below critical wing loadings. Though 25 kg/m (5 lb/ft) is regarded as the maximum wing loading for powered bird flight, there is evidence that bony-toothed birds used dynamic soaring flight almost exclusively: the proximal end of the humerus had an elongated diagonal shape that could hardly have allowed for the movement necessary for the typical flapping flight of birds; their weight thus cannot be easily estimated. The attachment positions for the muscles responsible for holding the upper arm straightly outstretched were particularly well-developed, and altogether the anatomy seems to allow for an ability of holding the wings rigidly at the glenoid joint unmatched by any other known bird. This is especially prominent in the Neogene pelagornithids, and less developed in the older Paleogene forms. The sternum had the deep and short shape typical of dynamic soarers, and bony outgrowths at the keel's forward margin securely anchored the furcula. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9205088 | 1,050,707 |
302,230 | In December 2015, astronomers at the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) detected a brief series of 350 GHz pulses that they concluded must either be a series of independent sources, or a single, fast moving source. Deciding that the latter was the most likely, they calculated based on its speed that, were it bound to the Sun, the object, which they named "Gna" after a fast-moving messenger goddess in Norse mythology, would be about 12–25 AU distant and have a dwarf planet-sized diameter of 220 to 880 km. However, if it were a rogue planet not gravitationally bound to the Sun, and as far away as 4000 AU, it could be much larger. The paper was never formally accepted, and has been withdrawn until the detection is confirmed. Scientists' reactions to the notice were largely sceptical; Mike Brown commented that, "If it is true that ALMA accidentally discovered a massive outer Solar System object in its tiny, tiny, tiny, field of view, that would suggest that there are something like 200,000 Earth-sized planets in the outer Solar System ... Even better, I just realized that this many Earth-sized planets existing would destabilize the entire Solar System and we would all die." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23842 | 302,069 |
727,317 | Batrachotoxin was discovered by Fritz Märki and Bernhard Witkop, at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A. Märki and Witkop separated the potent toxic alkaloids fraction from "Phyllobates bicolor" and determined its chemical properties in 1963. They isolated four major toxic steroidal alkaloids including batrachotoxin, isobatrachotoxin, pseudobatrachotoxin, and batrachotoxinin A. Due to the difficulty of handling such a potent toxin and the minuscule amount that could be collected, a comprehensive structure determination involved several difficulties. However, Takashi Tokuyama, who joined the investigation later, converted one of the congener compounds, batrachotoxinin A, to a crystalline derivative and its unique steroidal structure was solved with x-ray diffraction techniques (1968). When the mass spectrum and NMR spectrum of batrachotoxin and the batrachotoxinin A derivatives were compared, it was realized that the two shared the same steroidal structure and that batrachotoxin was batrachotoxinin A with a single extra pyrrole moiety attached. In fact, batrachotoxin was able to be partially hydrolyzed using sodium hydroxide into a material with identical TLC and color reactions as batrachotoxinin A. The structure of batrachotoxin was established in 1969 through chemical recombination of both fragments. Batrachotoxinin A was synthesized by Michio Kurosu, Lawrence R. Marcin, Timothy J. Grinsteiner, and Yoshito Kishi in 1998. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=854573 | 726,935 |
1,515,084 | Properly designed, flexible, and robust, automated identification systems, organized around distributed computing architectures and referenced to authoritatively identified collections of training set data (e.g., images, and gene sequences) can, in principle, provide all systematists with access to the electronic data archives and the necessary analytic tools to handle routine identifications of common taxa. Properly designed systems can also recognize when their algorithms cannot make a reliable identification and refer that image to a specialist (whose address can be accessed from another database). Such systems can also include elements of artificial intelligence and so improve their performance the more they are used. Once morphological (or molecular) models of a species have been developed and demonstrated to be accurate, these models can be queried to determine which aspects of the observed patterns of variation and variation limits are being used to achieve the identification, thus opening the way for the discovery of new and (potentially) more reliable taxonomic characters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9788270 | 1,514,233 |
1,977,937 | Finally, Espinoza (48 in 1993) & 1994, Pineda in 1996 & (56 in 1997), Dalton (30 in 1993) 1994 & 1996, Braatz (75 in 1993) & 1997, Nuveman in 1999, Mascarenas in 2001, Findlay in 2005, Chamberlain in 2013, Lindenberg (77 in 1998), Amanda Scott (72 in 1998), Julie Marshall (67 in 1999), Mackenzie Vandergeest (61 in 2001), Tairia Flowers (70 in 2003), Kristie Fox (66 in 2006 & 63 in 2007), Kaitlin Cochran (51 in 2008), Katelyn Boyd (66 in 2011), Kalia Hunt (77 in 2012), Shelby Pendley (73 in 2013), Jessica Shults (45 in 2013), Lauren Haeger (67 in 2014 & 71 in 2015), Sydney Romero (39 in 2016 and 59 in 2017), Jessica Warren (70 in 2018) and Jocelyn Alo (89 in 2021) all won national championships those years. For their careers, Dalton (Pac-12), Sierra Romero (Big Ten), Orgeron (Sun Belt), Warren (ACC), Kasey Cooper (SEC), Chamberlain (Big 12), Jenna Cone (A-10), Jennifer Gilbert (MAC), Linda Rush (CAA), Jessica Purcell-Fitu (MWC), Vicky Galasso (Big Sky), Hayley Norton (NEC), Michelle Fuzzard (Southern), Samantha Iuli (Horizon), Morgan Noad (Big South), Best (A-Sun), Erika Piancastelli (Southland), Scott (WAC), Michelle Chmielewski (Summit), and Libby Sugg (WCC) hold the RBI crowns for those conferences. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30920803 | 1,976,799 |
444,093 | Bismuthene, the two-dimensional (2D) allotrope of bismuth, was predicted to be a topological insulator. It was predicted that bismuthene retains its topological phase when grown on silicon carbide in 2015. The prediction was successfully realized and synthesized in 2016. At first glance the system is similar to graphene, as the Bi atoms arrange in a honeycomb lattice. However the bandgap is as large as 800mV due to the large spin–orbit interaction (coupling) of the Bi atoms and their interaction with the substrate. Thus, room-temperature applications of the quantum spin Hall effect come into reach. It has been reported to be the largest nontrivial bandgap 2D topological insulator in its natural state. Top-down exfoliation of bismuthene has been reported in various instances with recent works promoting the implementation of bismuthene in the field of electrochemical sensing. Emdadul et al. predicted the mechanical strength and phonon thermal conductivity of monolayer β-bismuthene through atomic-scale analysis. The obtained room temperature (300K) fracture strength is ~4.21 N/m along the armchair direction and ~4.22 N/m along the zigzag direction. At 300 K, its Young’s moduli are reported to be ~26.1 N/m and ~25.5 N/m, respectively, along the armchair and zigzag directions. In addition, their predicted phonon thermal conductivity of ~1.3 W/m∙K at 300 K is considerably lower than other analogous 2D honeycombs, making it a promising material for thermoelectric operations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43589512 | 443,878 |
1,661,198 | While nuclear reactors are usually in sturdy housings, it was not immediately realized that long-term neutron bombardment can embrittle steel. When, for example, ex-Soviet submarine reactors are not given full maintenance or decommissioning, there is a cumulative hazard that steel in the containment, or piping that can reach the core, might lose strength and break. Understanding those effects as a function of radiation type and density can help predict when poorly maintained nuclear facilities might become orders of magnitude more hazardous. "During power operations of light-water-cooled, pressurized water nuclear power reactors, radiation-induced embrittlement will degrade certain mechanical properties important to maintaining the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Specifically, fast-neutron (E > 1 MeV) radiation-induced embrittlement of the RPV steel could lead to a compromise of the vessel integrity, under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure, through a reduction in the steel’s fracture toughness. This so-called fast-neutron embrittlement is a complex function of many factors including the neutron fluence, the neutron energy spectrum, and the chemical composition of the steel. Additional factors may also come into play, such as the neutron fluence-rate, whose effects have not been fully investigated. Because of the obvious safety implications brought about by a potential breach in the pressure vessel’s integrity, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) has issued requirements designed to help ensure that the structural integrity of the reactor pressure vessel is preserved." . The requirements of this objective, however, assume that the reactor was built to stringent safety factors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13784530 | 1,660,264 |
826,953 | One common way to try and understand the electronic properties of amorphous metals is by comparing them to liquid metals, which are similarly disordered, and for which established theoretical frameworks exist. For simple amorphous metals, good estimations can be reached by semi-classical modelling of the movement of individual electrons using the Boltzmann equation and approximating the scattering potential as the superposition of the electronic potential of each nucleus in the surrounding metal. To simplify the calculations, the electronic potentials of the atomic nuclei can be truncated to give a muffin-tin pseudopotential. In this theory, there are two main effects that govern the change of resistivity with increasing temperatures. Both are based on the induction of vibrations of the atomic nuclei of the metal as temperatures increase. One is, that the atomic structure gets increasingly smeared out as the exact positions of the atomic nuclei get less and less well defined. The other is the introduction of phonons. While the smearing out generally decreases the resistivity of the metal, the introduction of phonons generally adds scattering sites and therefore increases resistivity. Together, they can explain the anomalous decrease of resistivity in amorphous metals, as the first part outweighs the second. In contrast to regular crystalline metals, the phonon contribution in an amorphous metal does not get frozen out at low temperatures. Due to the lack of a defined crystal structure, there are always some phonon wavelengths that can be excited. While this semi-classical approach holds well for many amorphous metals, it generally breaks down under more extreme conditions. At very low temperatures, the quantum nature of the electrons leads to long range interference effects of the electrons with each other in what is called "weak localization effects". In very strongly disordered metals, impurities in the atomic structure can induce bound electronic states in what is called "Anderson localization", effectively binding the electrons and inhibiting their movement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=347027 | 826,509 |
1,915,963 | Microbial dissimilatory sulfate reduction (MSR), an energy-yielding metabolism performed by bacteria in anoxic environments, is associated with an especially large fractionation factor. The observed ε values range from 0 to -65.6‰. Many factors influence the size of this fractionation, including sulfate reduction rate, sulfate concentration and transport, availability of electron donors and other nutrients, and physiological differences like protein expression. Sulfide produced through MSR may then go on to form the mineral pyrite, preserving the S-depleted fingerprint of MSR in sedimentary rocks. Many studies have investigated the δS values of ancient pyrite in order to understand past biological and environmental conditions. For example, pyrite δS records have been used to reconstruct shifts in primary productivity levels, changing ocean oxygen content, and glacial-interglacial changes in sea level and weathering. Some studies compare sulfur isotopes in pyrite to a second sulfur-containing material, like sulfate or preserved organic matter. Comparing pyrite to another material gives a fuller picture of how sulfur moved through ancient environments: it provides clues about the size of ancient ε values and the environmental conditions controlling MSR fractionation of sulfur isotopes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64047800 | 1,914,864 |
1,625,375 | Marine scientists have slowly begun to understand in the last 10 or 15 years the importance of even the smallest subdivisions of plankton and their role in aquatic food webs and in organic and inorganic nutrient recycling. Therefore, being able to accurately measure the biomass and size distribution of picoplankton communities has now become rather essential. Two of the prevalent methods used to identify and enumerate picoplankton are fluorescence microscopy and visual counting. However, both methods are outdated because of their time-consuming and inaccurate nature. As a result, newer, faster, and more accurate methods have emerged lately, including flow cytometry and image-analyzed fluorescence microscopy. Both techniques are efficient in measuring nano plankton and auto-fluorescing phototrophic picoplankton. However, measuring very minute size ranges of picoplankton has often proven to be difficult to measure, which is why Charge-coupled devices (CCD) and video cameras are now being used to measure small picoplankton, although a slow-scan CCD-based camera is more effective at detecting and sizing tiny particles such as bacteria that is fluorochrome-stained. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6994700 | 1,624,459 |
2,015,922 | Nuclear receptor subfamily 5 group A member 1 (NR5A1), also known as SF1 or Ad4BP (MIM 184757), is located on the long arm of chromosome 9 (9q33.3). The NR5A1 is an orphan nuclear receptor that was first identified following the search for a common regulator of the cytochrome P450 steroid hydroxylase enzyme family. This receptor is a pivotal transcriptional regulator of an array of genes involved in reproduction, steroidogenesis and male sexual differentiation and also plays a crucial role in adrenal gland formation in both sexes. NR5A1 regulates the mullerian inhibitory substance by binding to a conserved upstream regulatory element and directly participates in the process of mammalian sex determination through mullerian duct regression. Targeted disruption of NR5A1 (Ftzf1) in mice results in gonadal and adrenal agenesis, persistence of Mullerian structures and abnormalities of the hypothalamus and pituitary gonadotropes. Heterozygous animals demonstrate a milder phenotype including an impaired adrenal stress response and reduced testicular size. In humans, NR5A1 mutations were first described in patients with 46, XY karyotype and disorders of sex development (DSD), Mullerian structures and primary adrenal failure (MIM 612965). After that, heterozygous NR5A1 mutations were described in seven patients showing 46, XY karyotype and ambiguous genitalia, gonadal dysgenesis, but no adrenal insufficiency. Since then, studies have confirmed that mutations in NR5A1 in patients with 46, XY karyotype cause severe underandrogenisation, but no adrenal insufficiency, establishing dynamic and dosage-dependent actions for NR5A1. Subsequent studies revealed that NR5A1 heterozygous mutations cause primary ovarian insufficiency (MIM 612964). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47157896 | 2,014,761 |
1,435,490 | On 21 July 1940, III "gruppe" JG 26 "Schlageter" received orders to relocate to Caffiers in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais in preparation for actions against Britain in what would become the Battle of Britain. Adolf Hitler had issued Führer Directive no. 17 ("Weisung Nr." 17) on 1 August 1940; the strategic objective was to engage and defeat the RAF to achieve air supremacy, or at least air superiority, in preparation for Operation Sea Lion ("Unternehmen Seelöwe"), the proposed amphibious invasion of Great Britain. III. "Gruppe" flew fighter protection for bomber formations attacking allied shipping in the English Channel on 24 July. These missions were referred to as "Kanalkampf" (channel combat) by the Germans. The unit flew its next mission one day later, providing fighter protection for Stuka's again targeting shipping. Müncheberg, who had been promoted to "Oberleutnant" on 19 July 1940, claimed his 10th aerial victory on 28 July when he shot down a No. 257 Squadron Hawker Hurricane northeast of Dover. The claim was made at 15:15. No other German pilot from JG 26 claimed a Hurricane at that time. The only loss suffered by No. 257 Squadron was Sergeant Ronald V. Forward who bailed out wounded. Müncheberg is credited with downing Forward. However, RAF records appear to show he was shot down at 18:40, almost three and a half hours after Müncheberg's claim. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10701662 | 1,434,684 |
108,486 | After the model's construction, Takahashi decided to combine the model's concept with an unrelated story idea, which became the basis for a new game after positive feedback from staff. Takahashi later said that one of the main reasons for developing the game was to bolster team morale after the commercial failure of the "Xenosaga" games. The team first showed their proposal to Nintendo prior to the final development stages of "". Development began over four years prior to its release, with the first prototypes for the game being developed in April 2007. It was at this point that co-director Genki Yokota was brought in by Nintendo to handle any system-related issues due to his previous experience with RPGs. After being contacted regarding both "Xenoblade Chronicles" and fellow Wii JRPG "The Last Story", head of Nintendo's licensing department Shinji Hatano said that the games should be made for a wide audience and using a "romanticist approach". Takahashi was involved in every aspect of the game's development, from its initial concept to the debugging stage. At the beginning of development, the game was going to be a stand-alone title unrelated to the "Xeno" series, bearing the title "Monado: The Beginning of the World". Later, then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had the title changed to its current one to honor both Takahashi's previous titles and the effort he was investing in "Xenoblade Chronicles". According to Takahashi, the ""Xeno"" designation was more along the lines of a symbol, calling back to the previous works of Monolith Soft. When describing the title's meaning, Takahashi described ""Xeno"" as meaning "different nature" or "uniqueness", while the ""Blade"" part was closely tied to the narrative, particularly the game's ending. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25992553 | 108,441 |
509,923 | During the automotive industry's interest in gas turbines for vehicle propulsion (around 1965), Chrysler invented a unique type of rotary heat exchanger that consisted of a rotary drum constructed from corrugated metal (similar in appearance to corrugated cardboard). This drum was continuously rotated by reduction gears driven by the turbine. The hot exhaust gasses were directed through a portion of the device, which would then rotate to a section that conducted the induction air, where this intake air was heated. This recovery of the heat of combustion significantly increased the efficiency of the turbine engine. This engine proved impractical for an automotive application due to its poor low-rpm torque. Even such an efficient engine, if large enough to deliver the proper performance, would have a low average fuel efficiency. Such an engine may at some future time be attractive when combined with an electric motor in a hybrid vehicle owing to its robust longevity and an ability to burn a wide variety of liquid fuels. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30547984 | 509,659 |
1,279,223 | A telephone exchange must run continuously without interruption at all times; it implements a fault-tolerant design. Early trials of electronics and computers in the control sub systems of an exchange were successful and resulted in the development of fully electronic systems, in which the switching network was also electronic. A trial system with stored program control was installed in Morris, Illinois in 1960. It used a flying-spot store with a word size of 18 bits for semi-permanent program and parameter storage, and a barrier-grid memory for random access working memory. The world’s first electronic switching system for production use, the No.1 ESS, was commissioned by AT&T at Succasunna, New Jersey, in May 1965. By 1974, AT&T had installed 475 No. 1ESS systems. In the 1980s SPC displaced electromechanical switching in the telecommunication industry, hence the term lost all but historical interest. Today, SPC is a integral concept in all automatic exchanges, due to the universal application of computers and microprocessor technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7092252 | 1,278,529 |
1,564,958 | Katherine Safford Harris, Frederica Bell-Berti and colleagues studied the phasing and cohesion of articulatory speech gestures. Kenneth Pugh was among the first scientists to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to reveal brain activity associated with reading and reading disabilities. Pugh, Donald Shankweiler, Weija Ni, Einar Mencl, and colleagues developed novel applications of neuroimaging to measure brain activity associated with understanding sentences. Philip Rubin, Louis Goldstein and Mark Tiede designed a radical revision of the articulatory synthesis model, known as CASY the configurable articulatory synthesizer. This 3-dimensional model of the vocal tract permits researchers to replicate MRI images of actual speakers. Douglas Whalen, Goldstein, Rubin and colleagues extended this work to study the relation between speech production and perception. Donald Shankweiler, Susan Brady, Anne Fowler, and others explored whether weak memory and perception in poor readers are tied specifically to phonological deficits. Evidence rejected broader cognitive deficits underlying reading difficulties and raised questions about impaired phonological representations in disabled readers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6202324 | 1,564,071 |
1,250,145 | After six months at Veitch's Coombe Woods Nursery, Wilson travelled west towards China, stopping for five days at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, where he carried a letter of introduction to Charles Sprague Sargent and studied techniques for shipping seeds and plants without damage. He continued across the US by train, and sailed from San Francisco, reaching Hong Kong on 3 June 1899. Sargent had suggested he head straight to Simao to talk to Augustine Henry, who had seen a unique dove tree twelve years previously. Though the tree had been recently cut down when Wilson reached it, he rediscovered the specimens noticed by Père David 600 km away in Yichang, Hubei. Wilson collected for two years in Hubei Province, reaching isolated mountain valleys with an intrepid spirit that has made him legendary, before returning to England in April 1902 with seed of 305 species, and 35 Wardian cases of bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, many of which Veitch introduced into Western commerce, as well as dried herbarium specimens, representing some 906 plant species. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5046260 | 1,249,469 |
899,868 | Thorium-based nuclear power reactors have also become an area of active research in recent years. It is being backed by many scientists and researchers, and Professor James Hansen, the former Director at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies has reportedly said, “After studying climate change for over four decades, it’s clear to me that the world is heading for a climate catastrophe unless we develop adequate energy sources to replace fossil fuels. Safer, cleaner and cheaper nuclear power can replace coal and is desperately needed as an essential part of the solution”. Thorium is 3–4 times more abundant within nature than uranium, and its ore, monazite, is commonly found in sands along bodies of water. Thorium has also gained interest because it could be easier to obtain than uranium. While uranium mines are enclosed underground and thus very dangerous for the miners, thorium is taken from open pits. Monazite is present in countries such as Australia, the United States and India, in quantities large enough to power the earth for thousands of years. As an alternative to uranium-fuelled nuclear reactors, thorium has been proven to add to proliferation, produces radioactive waste for deep geological repositories like technetium-99 (half-life over 200,000 years), and has a longer fuel cycle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=626455 | 899,393 |
1,536,184 | "Triarthrus" is an average size trilobite (up to about ) and its moderately convex body is about twice as long as wide (excluding spines). Like in all Olenidae, the headshield (or cephalon) of "Triarthrus" has opisthoparian sutures, and the right and left free cheeks that they define are yoked. The cephalon in "Triarthrus" is semicircular. The central raised area (or glabella) is approximately quadrate, and considerably wider than the posterior margin of the fixed cheeks (or fixigenae). The front of the glabella is close to the anterior border (or the preglabellar field is short), but the border furrow is absent in front of the glabella. The facial suture crosses in front of the glabella on the top of an inflated rim. The posterior end of the glabella consists of the occipital ring that is defined by a furrow crossing over the midline. The occipital ring carries a small node at its centre point, and may be adorned with a backward directed spine as long as the glabella. In front of the occipital furrow two pairs of lateral furrows emerge from the axial furrow almost perpendicularly and curve backwards as they cut toward the midline, but without reaching it. Anteriorly, one or two further furrows are isolated shallow slits or depressions. The fixigenae are very narrow (less than ¼ of the width of the glabella at the back of the eye, and less than ½ at the occipital ring). The librigenae are narrow, and with or without spines. The border is prominent elsewhere, and the eyes of small to medium size, sitting at the end of small palpebral lobes next to the frontal half of the glabella. The thorax consists of 13 to 16 segments, with the axis wider than pleural regions, obliquely truncated or rounded pleural tips, and the fulcrum placed very close to the axis. The tailpiece (or pygidium) is small, with 3 to 5 axial rings, distinctly segmented pleural fields, and an entire, evenly rounded margin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9198952 | 1,535,316 |
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