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1,527,135 | The third Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO 3) was launched on March 8, 1967, into a nearly circular orbit of mean altitude 550 km, inclined at 33° to the equatorial plane, deactivated on June 28, 1968, followed by reentry on April 4, 1982. Its XRT consisted of a continuously spinning wheel (1.7 s period) in which the hard X-ray experiment was mounted with a radial view. The XRT assembly was a single thin NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal plus phototube enclosed in a howitzer-shaped CsI(Tl) anti-coincidence shield. The energy resolution was 45% at 30 keV. The instrument operated from 7.7 to 210 keV with 6 channels. OSO-3 obtained extensive observations of solar flares, the diffuse component of cosmic X-rays, and the observation of a single flare episode from Scorpius X-1, the first observation of an extrasolar X-ray source by an observatory satellite. Among the extrasolar X-ray sources OSO 3 observed were UV Ceti, YZ Canis Minoris, EV Lacertae and AD Leonis, yielding upper soft X-ray detection limits on flares from these sources. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25100839 | 1,526,271 |
355,281 | Most of the work by the three was done among other assigned projects starting near the end of 1994. Within four months and with input from several hardware manufacturers, the team had developed the first set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which they presented at the 1995 Game Developers Conference. The SDK included libraries implementing DirectDraw for bit-mapped graphics, DirectSound for audio, and DirectPlay for communication between players over a network. Furthermore, an extended joystick API already present in Windows 95 was documented for the first time as DirectInput, while a description of how to implement the immediate start of the installation procedure of a software title after inserting its CD-ROM, a feature called AutoPlay, was also part of the SDK. The "Direct" part of the library was so named as these routines bypassed existing core Windows 95 routines and accessed the computer hardware only via a hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Though the team had named it the "Game SDK" (software development kit), the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8506 | 355,098 |
358,481 | The process of identifying the boundaries between genes and other features in a raw DNA sequence is called genome annotation and is in the domain of bioinformatics. While expert biologists make the best annotators, their work proceeds slowly, and computer programs are increasingly used to meet the high-throughput demands of genome sequencing projects. Beginning in 2008, a new technology known as RNA-seq was introduced that allowed scientists to directly sequence the messenger RNA in cells. This replaced previous methods of annotation, which relied on the inherent properties of the DNA sequence, with direct measurement, which was much more accurate. Today, annotation of the human genome and other genomes relies primarily on deep sequencing of the transcripts in every human tissue using RNA-seq. These experiments have revealed that over 90% of genes contain at least one and usually several alternative splice variants, in which the exons are combined in different ways to produce 2 or more gene products from the same locus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5219699 | 358,295 |
1,463,131 | In 2010, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) conducted its sixth decadal survey in astronomy and astrophysics to recommend key science questions and new initiatives for the current decade. Since both the NRC recommendations and current programs could not be accommodated within subsequent budget projections, the National Science Foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences, through the Advisory Committee of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), conducted a community-based portfolio review to make implementation recommendations that would best respond to the decadal survey science questions. The resulting report, Advancing Astronomy in the Coming Decade: Opportunities and Challenges, was released in August 2012 and included recommendations related to all of the major telescope facilities funded by NSF. The Portfolio Review Committee report ranked Gemini Observatory as a critical component of the U.S.'s future astronomical research resources and recommended that the U.S. retain a majority share in the international partnership for at least the next several years. However, given the constraints that were considered, the Committee recommended that the U.S. contribution to Gemini operations be capped in 2017 and beyond. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=527639 | 1,462,308 |
63,464 | In the political arena notable alumni and staff include 53 past or present heads of state, 20 members of the current British House of Commons and 46 members of the current House of Lords. Former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee taught at the school from 1912 to 1923. In recent British politics, former LSE students include Virginia Bottomley, Yvette Cooper, Edwina Currie, Frank Dobson, Margaret Hodge, Robert Kilroy-Silk, former UK Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and former UK Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson. Internationally, the current and first female president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Brazilian defence minister Celso Amorim, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, architect of the Indian Constitution and eminent economist B. R. Ambedkar, President of India K. R. Narayanan, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Tsai Ing-wen, Italian prime minister and president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, French Foreign Minister and president of the Constitutional Council Roland Dumas as well as Singapore's deputy prime minister and chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Tharman Shanmugaratnam all studied at LSE. A notable number of LSE students have also played a role in the Barack Obama administration, including Pete Rouse, Peter R. Orszag, Mona Sutphen, Paul Volcker and Jason Furman. Physician Vanessa Kerry and American journalist Susan Rasky are also alumnae of the LSE. Notable American Monica Lewinsky pursued her MSc in Social Psychology at the LSE. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67704 | 63,439 |
424,287 | As a white-rot fungus, "Panellus stipticus" contains enzymes that are able to break down lignin, a complex aromatic polymer in wood that is highly resistant to degradation by conventional enzyme systems. The major enzyme that initiates the cleavage of hydrocarbon rings is laccase, which catalyzes the addition of a hydroxyl group to phenolic compounds (polyphenols). The ring can then be opened between the two adjacent carbon atoms that bear the hydroxyl groups. White-rot fungi are being investigated scientifically for their potential use in the bioremediation of land contaminated by organic pollutants, and to convert industrial wastes rich in toxic polyphenols. "Panellus stipticus" has been shown to reduce the phenolic concentration of waste water produced by olive-processing plants—an environmental concern in many Mediterranean countries. In this study, a liquid culture of "P. stipticus" mycelia reduced the initial concentration of phenolic compounds by 42% after a 31-day incubation period. In a separate study, a "P. stipticus" culture was able to effectively degrade the environmental pollutant 2,7-dichlorodibenzo-"p"-dioxin, a polychlorinated dioxin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25648059 | 424,080 |
157,147 | The Navy was in a state of expansion that required 100,000 pulley blocks to be manufactured a year. Bentham had already achieved remarkable efficiency at the docks by introducing power-driven machinery and reorganising the dockyard system. Brunel, a pioneering engineer, and Maudslay, a pioneer of machine tool technology who had developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800 which standardized screw thread sizes for the first time which in turn allowed the application of interchangeable parts, collaborated on plans to manufacture block-making machinery. By 1805, the dockyard had been fully updated with the revolutionary, purpose-built machinery at a time when products were still built individually with different components. A total of 45 machines were required to perform 22 processes on the blocks, which could be made into one of three possible sizes. The machines were almost entirely made of metal thus improving their accuracy and durability. The machines would make markings and indentations on the blocks to ensure alignment throughout the process. One of the many advantages of this new method was the increase in labour productivity due to the less labour-intensive requirements of managing the machinery. Richard Beamish, assistant to Brunel's son and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, wrote: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63137 | 157,075 |
387,353 | The ion thruster is not the most promising type of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion, but it is the most successful in practice to date. An ion drive would require two days to accelerate a car to highway speed in vacuum. The technical characteristics, especially thrust, are considerably inferior to the prototypes described in literature, technical capabilities are limited by the space charge created by ions. This limits the thrust density (force per cross-sectional area of the engine). Ion thrusters create small thrust levels (the thrust of Deep Space 1 is approximately equal to the weight of one sheet of paper) compared to conventional chemical rockets, but achieve high specific impulse, or propellant mass efficiency, by accelerating the exhaust to high speed. The power imparted to the exhaust increases with the square of exhaust velocity while thrust increase is linear. Conversely, chemical rockets provide high thrust, but are limited in total impulse by the small amount of energy that can be stored chemically in the propellants. Given the practical weight of suitable power sources, the acceleration from an ion thruster is frequently less than one-thousandth of standard gravity. However, since they operate as electric (or electrostatic) motors, they convert a greater fraction of input power into kinetic exhaust power. Chemical rockets operate as heat engines, and Carnot's theorem limits the exhaust velocity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37839 | 387,158 |
1,544,421 | For a climate data record (CDR) mission like CERES, accuracy is of high importance and achieved for pure infrared nighttime measurements by use of a ground laboratory SI traceable blackbody to determine total and WN channel radiometric gains. This however was not the case for CERES solar channels such as SW and solar portion of the Total telescope, which have no direct un-broken chain to SI traceability. This is because CERES solar responses were measured on ground using lamps whose output energy were estimated by a cryo-cavity reference detector, which used a silver Cassegrain telescope identical to CERES devices to match the satellite instrument field of view. The reflectivity of this telescope built and used since the mid-1990s was never actually measured, estimated only based on witness samples (see slide 9 of Priestley et al. (2014)). Such difficulties in ground calibration, combined with suspected on-ground contamination events have resulted in the need to make unexplained ground to flight changes in SW detector gains as big as 8%, simply to make the ERB data seem somewhat reasonable to climate science (note that CERES currently claims a one sigma SW absolute accuracy of 0.9%). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=471126 | 1,543,547 |
1,228,309 | The Americans under General Douglas MacArthur were in ultimate command of Japanese affairs 1945–51. The other allies and former colonial possessions of Japan demanded revenge, but MacArthur operated a highly favorable system in which harsh measures were limited to war criminals, who were tried and executed. Japan lacked sovereignty and had no diplomatic relations--its people were not allowed to travel abroad. MacArthur worked to democratize Japan along the lines of the American New Deal, with the destruction of militarism and monopolistic corporations, and the inculcation of democratic values and electoral practices. MacArthur worked well with Emperor Hirohito, who was kept on the throne as a symbolic constitutional ruler. In practice, the actual administration of national and government was handled by the Japanese themselves under Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru. His policy, known as the Yoshida Doctrine was to focus Japanese energies on rebuilding the economy, while relying entirely on the United States to handle defense and foreign policy generally. Yoshida shared and implemented MacArthur's goals was to democratize Japanese political, social and economic institutions, while completely de-militarizing the nation and renouncing its militaristic heritage. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54108025 | 1,227,647 |
491,315 | A second interesting thing one can do is to construct a spin structure. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is that it is a very recognizable generalization to a formula_23-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold of the conventional physics concept of spinors living on a (1,3)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The construction passes through a complexified Clifford algebra to build a Clifford bundle and a spin manifold. At the end of this construction, one obtains a system that is remarkably familiar, if one is already acquainted with Dirac spinors and the Dirac equation. Several analogies pass through to this general case. First, the spinors are the Weyl spinors, and they come in complex-conjugate pairs. They are naturally anti-commuting (this follows from the Clifford algebra), which is exactly what one wants to make contact with the Pauli exclusion principle. Another is the existence of a chiral element, analogous to the gamma matrix formula_24 which sorts these spinors into left and right-handed subspaces. The complexification is a key ingredient, and it provides "electromagnetism" in this generalized setting. The spinor bundle doesn't "just" transform under the pseudo-orthogonal group formula_25, the generalization of the Lorentz group formula_26, but under a bigger group, the complexified spin group formula_27 It is bigger in that it has a double covering by formula_28 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=151001 | 491,061 |
134,116 | Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants included in the experiment (though this was anticipated since the project used a strategy of deliberately "species-packing" anticipating losses as the biomes developed), group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics, and a power struggle over management and direction of the project. Nevertheless, the closure experiments set world records in closed ecological systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization of complex biomic systems and atmospheric dynamics. The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injection of oxygen. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=216362 | 134,061 |
1,721,313 | Once a regulatory agency has determined the clinical benefit and safety of a product and pricing has been confirmed (if necessary), a drug manufacturer will typically submit it for evaluation by a payer of some sort. Payers may be private insurance plans, governments (through the provision of benefits plans to insured populations or specialized entities like Cancer Care Ontario, which funds in-hospital oncology drugs) or health care organizations such as hospitals. At this point the critical issue is cost-effectiveness. This is where the discipline of pharmaco-economics is often applied. This is a specialized field of health economics that looks at the cost/benefit of a product in terms of quality of life, alternative treatments (drug and non-drug) and cost reduction or avoidance in other parts of the health care system (for example, a drug may reduce the need for a surgical intervention, thereby saving money). Structures like the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and Canada's Common Drug Review evaluate products in this way. Some jurisdictions do not, however, evaluate products for cost-effectiveness. In some instances, individual drug benefit plans (or their administrators) may also evaluate products. Additionally, hospitals may have their own review committees (often called a Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) committee) to make decisions about which drugs to fund from the hospital budget. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10338164 | 1,720,343 |
1,564,427 | Ruttenberg considered the book carefully argued, and wrote that Grünbaum made a brilliant case that psychoanalytic hypotheses should be tested by normal scientific procedures. However, he believed Grünbaum overstated the case against psychoanalysis. Kline, writing in the "British Journal for the Philosophy of Science", credited Grünbaum with making a powerful case against the idea that repression is pathogenic for neurosis and with demonstrating that clinical data cannot support psychoanalytic theory. He also considered Grünbaum's case against hermeneutic interpretations of psychoanalysis convincing, and believed he exposed shortcomings of Popper's views. However, he maintained that Grünbaum, without justification, rejected experimental evidence held to support Freudian theory. He suggested that Grünbaum, as a philosopher, lacked the competence to evaluate such evidence. Notturno and McHugh, writing in "Metaphilosophy", agreed with Grünbaum that the clinical evidence held to provide the empirical basis for psychoanalysis is weak and that the validation of Freud's main hypotheses must come mainly from extra-clinical studies, but found these points consistent with the critiques of psychoanalysis made by Popper, Habermas, and Ricœur and as such unsurprising. They argued that, notwithstanding Grünbaum's critique of Popper, parts of his analysis of psychoanalysis support Popper's critique of psychoanalysis; they also argued that Grünbaum misunderstood Popper's epistemology and faulted him for neglecting Popper's "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" (1959) and "Realism and the Aims of Science" (1983). Though believing that it raised important issues, they questioned his argument that the psychoanalytic theory of paranoia is falsifiable. They also questioned his view that Popper was largely ignorant of Freud's writings and disputed his position that Freud was open to the possibility of his theories being falsified. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34449875 | 1,563,540 |
2,056,020 | Their device returned images such as that shown in Figure 2. At first glance SP images may appear unremarkable, but analysis of dozens of images allows the breadth of information they contain to become apparent. In Figure 2 the gross texture and water content of the sediment is immediately apparent. Since resolution allows imaging of individual sand grains, the classic textural parameters (percentage of gravel, sand, and mud) can be assessed and a mean grain size estimated. The sediment-water interface is clear. If the image was taken immediately upon insertion, this observation indicates that the device entered the seabed with little disturbance. Furthermore, the interface is distinct. While seemingly straightforward, some seabeds have, instead, a boundary layer of suspended sediments with a broad density gradient instead of a discrete transition point. This condition has a fundamental importance to many benthic organisms. Biological activity is readily apparent as well. When calibrated using traditional grab samples or cores coupled with a few SP images, resolution allows identification of some infauna including the tubicolous sabellid polychaetes, a bisected nereid, and the mound produced by a sea cucumber seen in Figure 2. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14917968 | 2,054,837 |
1,687,991 | Rosch of "PC Magazine" called the Model 30 286's case trim and its internals "elegantly spare", with impeccable cable management owing to IBM's use of shorter cables for its floppy and hard drives, which are tucked and folded mostly out of sight. Rosch also appreciated the computer's redesigned PSU power connector, miniaturizing the two cables of the AT motherboard standard but fusing them "so they cannot be inadvertently and disastrously switched." Rosch rebuked some industry commentators' opinions that the Model 30 286 was a rechristened AT or that it represented "IBM's attempt at cloning an IBM clone": "It's no more a clone's clone than the original Model 30. The similarity to other manufacturers' products better shows a marketing convergence. The common design elements ... only mirror technical advances and our won rising expectations." Pitted against the PS/2 Model 50, Rosch proffered that the Model 30 286's significantly lower price was to position non–Micro Channel computers, especially economy AT clones from Blue Chip and Hyundai, as "second-rate cousins". Mitt Jones of the same magazine was more understated in his praise, writing that the "low-key atmosphere" of IBM's announcements of the Model 30 286 in Manhattan positioned the computer as "merely a ... workstation in IBM's connectivity-minded plans". Jones also criticized the lack of further expansion ports on the riser, writing: "You can forget about additional serial or parallel ports ... and any memory boards you have lying around from your old AT, not to mention niceties such as fax boards and MIDI interfaces." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70578771 | 1,687,045 |
491,674 | The term was used by the United States Navy to distinguish submarines suitable for long range patrols in the Pacific Ocean from earlier classes such as the United States S-class submarines. The initial goal, pursued with frequent interruptions since the "AA-1"-class (aka "T"-class) launched 1918–19, was to produce a submarine with a surfaced speed of 21 knots to operate with the Standard-type battleships of the surface fleet. Most of the nine "V-boats" launched 1924-33 ("V-1" through "V-6") were either attempts to produce a fleet submarine or were long-range submarine cruisers. Eventually, a long range of was combined with high speed, beginning with the "Salmon"-class launched in 1938, to allow sustained operations in Japanese home waters while based at Pearl Harbor. These qualities also proved important in the Pacific commerce raiding of World War II, but the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty's prohibition on unrestricted submarine warfare precluded inter-war planning in this area. Although the "Gato"-class was considered the fully developed archetype, the earlier "Porpoise", "Salmon", "Sargo" and "Tambor"-classes were incrementally improved prototypes distinctly different from the two contemporary experimental "Mackerel"-class coastal submarines. The "Tambor"s were fully developed and similar to the "Gato"s except for diving depth and separation of the engines into two compartments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=663925 | 491,420 |
983,766 | As "Huygens" was primarily an atmospheric mission, the DISR instrument was optimized to study the radiation balance inside Titan's atmosphere. Its visible and infrared spectrometers and violet photometers measured the up- and downward radiant flux from an altitude of down to the surface. Solar aureole cameras measured how scattering by aerosols varies the intensity directly around the Sun. Three imagers, sharing the same CCD, periodically imaged a swath of around 30 degrees wide, ranging from almost nadir to just above the horizon. Aided by the slowly spinning probe they would build up a full mosaic of the landing site, which, surprisingly, became clearly visible only below altitude. All measurements were timed by aid of a shadow bar, which would tell DISR when the Sun had passed through the field of view. Unfortunately, this scheme was upset by the fact that "Huygens" rotated in a direction opposite to that expected. Just before landing a lamp was switched on to illuminate the surface, which enabled measurements of the surface reflectance at wavelengths which are completely blocked out by atmospheric methane absorption. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=185083 | 983,252 |
1,406,428 | In 2009, Jean-Luc Margot (who proposed a mathematical criterion for clearing the neighborhood) and Levison suggested that "roundness" should refer to bodies whose gravitational forces exceed their material strength, and that round bodies could be called "worlds". They noted that such a geophysical classification was sound and was not necessarily in conflict with the dynamical conception of a planet: for them, "planet" is defined dynamically, and is a subset of "world" (which also includes dwarf planets, round moons, and free floaters). However, they pointed out that a taxonomy based on roundness is highly problematic because roundness is very rarely directly observable, is a continuum, and proxying it based on size or mass leads to inconsistencies because planetary material strength depends on temperature, composition, and mixing ratios. For example, icy Mimas is round at diameter, but rocky Vesta is not at diameter. (And at much lower temperatures, icy Salacia in the Kuiper belt might not have fully gravitationally collapsed even at diameter.) Thus they stated that some uncertainty could be tolerated in classifying an object as a world, while its dynamical classification could be simply determined from mass and orbital period. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61891609 | 1,405,638 |
233,014 | Because prostaglandin E2 is responsible for keeping the DA open, NSAIDs (which can inhibit prostaglandin synthesis) such as indomethacin or a special form of ibuprofen have been used to initiate PDA closure. Findings from a 2015 systematic review concluded that, for closure of a PDA in preterm and/or low birth weight infants, ibuprofen is as effective as indomethacin. It also causes fewer side effects (such as transient acute kidney injury) and reduces the risk of necrotising enterocolitis. A review and meta-analysis showed that paracetamol may be effective for closure of a PDA in preterm infants. A 2018 network meta-analysis that compared indomethacin, paracetamol and ibuprofen at different doses and administration schemes among them found that a high dose of oral ibuprofen may offer the highest likelihood of closure in preterm infants. However, a 2020 systematic review found that early (≤7 days of life) or very early (≤72 hours of life) pharmacological treatment of symptomatic PDA does not reduce death or other poor clinical outcomes in preterm infants but instead increases their exposure to NSAIDS. Vasodilator therapy is suitable for people with Eisenmenger physiology. To assess improvement in people with Eisenmenger physiology, close monitory of toe oxygen saturation is required, for there exists a chance of reversal after a successful right-to-left shunt | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=567589 | 232,895 |
1,462,368 | Jules A. Hoffmann (; born 2 August 1941) is a Luxembourg-born French biologist. During his youth, growing up in Luxembourg, he developed a strong interest in insects under the influence of his father, Jos Hoffmann. This eventually resulted in the younger Hoffmann's dedication to the field of biology using insects as model organisms. He currently holds a faculty position at the University of Strasbourg. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France. He was elected to the positions of Vice-President (2005-2006) and President (2007-2008) of the French Academy of Sciences. Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler were jointly awarded a half share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity,". [More specifically, the work showing increased Drosomycin expression following activation of Toll pathway in microbial infection.] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14449397 | 1,461,546 |
1,122,470 | The European Commission sponsored the development of the Programmable Artificial Cell Evolution (PACE) program from 2004 to 2008 whose goal was to lay the foundation for the creation of "microscopic self-organizing, self-replicating, and evolvable autonomous entities built from simple organic and inorganic substances that can be genetically programmed to perform specific functions" for the eventual integration into information systems. The PACE project developed the first Omega Machine, a microfluidic life support system for artificial cells that could complement chemically missing functionalities (as originally proposed by Norman Packard, Steen Rasmussen, Mark Beadau and John McCaskill). The ultimate aim was to attain an evolvable hybrid cell in a complex microscale programmable environment. The functions of the Omega Machine could then be removed stepwise, posing a series of solvable evolution challenges to the artificial cell chemistry. The project achieved chemical integration up to the level of pairs of the three core functions of artificial cells (a genetic subsystem, a containment system and a metabolic system), and generated novel spatially resolved programmable microfluidic environments for the integration of containment and genetic amplification. The project led to the creation of the European center for living technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4630125 | 1,121,896 |
325,545 | All that seems to me to explain itself very clearly if we compare the imagination of children to a "tabula rasa" on which our ideas, which resemble portraits of each object taken from nature, should depict themselves. The senses, the inclinations, our masters and our intelligence, are the various painters who have the power of executing this work; and amongst them, those who are least adapted to succeed in it, i.e. the imperfect senses, blind instinct, and foolish nurses, are the first to mingle themselves with it. There finally comes the best of all, intelligence, and yet it is still requisite for it to have an apprenticeship of several years, and to follow the example of its masters for long, before daring to rectify a single one of their errors. In my opinion this is one of the principal causes of the difficulty we experience in attaining to true knowledge. For our senses really perceive that alone which is most coarse and common; our natural instinct is entirely corrupted; and as to our masters, although there may no doubt be very perfect ones found amongst them, they yet cannot force our minds to accept their reasoning before our understanding has examined it, for the accomplishment of this end pertains to it alone. But it is like a clever painter who might have been called upon to put the last touches on a bad picture sketched out by prentice hands, and who would probably have to employ all the rules of his art in correcting little by little first a trait here, then a trait there, and finally be required to add to it from his own hand all that was lacking, and who yet could not prevent great faults from remaining in it, because from the beginning the picture would have been badly conceived, the figures badly placed, and the proportions badly observed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31212 | 325,372 |
965,325 | Richardson et al. surveyed a sample of 259 students from Greek organizations at university in the Southwestern United States. The survey questions measured the different aspects of the TRA model: behavioral beliefs, outcome evaluations, attitude toward the behavior, normative beliefs, motivation to comply, subjective norms, and the consequence endogenous variable. The questions asked respondents to rate their responses on various 7 point scales. "Participants in the study responded to one of three scenarios, varying in level of severity, describing a hazing situation occurring in their fraternity or sorority". In line with the theory, the researchers wanted to identify if attitudes held about hazing, dangerous activity, and group affiliation, along with subjective norms about whistle-blowing (reactions by others, consequences of reporting the action, isolation from the group) would influence whether or not an individual would go through with reporting a hazing incident. The results of the study found that individuals were more likely to report, or whistle-blow, on hazing incidents that were more severe or harmful to individuals. Simultaneously, individuals were also concerned about the perceptions of others' attitudes towards them and the consequences they may face if they reported hazing incidents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3224522 | 964,816 |
1,305,147 | The first HI-SEAS mission lasted for four months from mid-April to 13 November 2013 with culinary and psychological aspects. Many related aspects were also explored, including temperatures in artificial habitats. It was orchestrated primarily by NASA, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and Cornell University. The 2013 study included 8 people and ran for 120 days (4 months). The crew members were Angelo Vermeulen (commander, Belgium), Simon Engler (engineer, Canada), Kate Greene (writer, USA), Yajaira Sierra Sastre (scientist, USA), Oleg Abramov (geologist, USA), Sian Proctor (education outreach, USA). Members of the HI-SEAS crew went outside the habitat once a week in simulated spacesuits to explore the terrain and to perform geological and microbe-detection studies. The focus of the study was on a diet which consisted of traditional space food (such as freeze-dried items) as well as various recipes made from a special list of ingredients. Six scientists completed the study. Mission commander Angelo Vermeulen with his colleagues recommended more spices and higher fiber foods as well as comfort foods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40011280 | 1,304,431 |
17,677 | The F-5 was also adopted as an opposing forces (OPFOR) "aggressor" for dissimilar training role because of its small size and performance similarities to the Soviet MiG-21. In realistic trials at Nellis AFB in 1977, called ACEVAL/AIMVAL, the F-14 reportedly scored slightly better than a 2:1 kill ratio against the simpler F-5, while the F-15 scored slightly less. There is some contradiction of these reports, another source reports that "For the first three weeks of the test, the F-14s and F-15s were hopelessly outclassed and demoralized"; after adapting to qualities of the F-5 carrying the new All Aspect Aim-9L missile and implementing rule changes to artificially favor long range radar-guided missiles, "the F-14s did slightly better than breaking even with the F-5s in non-1 v 1 engagements; the F-15s got almost 2:1". A 2012 Discovery Channel documentary "Great Planes" reported that in USAF exercises, F-5 aggressor aircraft were competitive enough with more modern and expensive fighters to only be at small disadvantage in Within Visual Range (WVR) combat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11142 | 17,671 |
623,369 | Each of the four founding Party States took responsibility for one of the major tasks in the project. The United States (with project leadership from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, USA) directed Datron Systems in Chatsworth, CA, USA to design and build LUT ground stations to receive the downlink from the satellites. At Datron, a team designed a LUT with five horn antennas, and Jeffrey Pawlan designed the downconverter and the specialized monopulse receiver capable of locking onto the downlink from the satellites. France and Canada were responsible for the data generation and decoding. They designed the computer that determined the approximate position of the beacon from the Doppler shift of the beacon's signal caused by the relative motion of the beacon and the receiving satellite. The former Soviet Union was responsible for the design and construction of the first satellite to be launched. Engineers from all four countries met in Moscow in February 1982 to successfully test the operational functionality of all of the equipment together in the same laboratory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3043414 | 623,037 |
67,487 | The so-called "long-duration" gamma-ray bursts produce a total energy output of about 10 joules (as much energy as our Sun will produce in its entire life-time) but in a period of only 20 to 40 seconds. Gamma rays are approximately 50% of the total energy output. The leading hypotheses for the mechanism of production of these highest-known intensity beams of radiation, are inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation from high-energy charged particles. These processes occur as relativistic charged particles leave the region of the event horizon of a newly formed black hole created during supernova explosion. The beam of particles moving at relativistic speeds are focused for a few tens of seconds by the magnetic field of the exploding hypernova. The fusion explosion of the hypernova drives the energetics of the process. If the narrowly directed beam happens to be pointed toward the Earth, it shines at gamma ray frequencies with such intensity, that it can be detected even at distances of up to 10 billion light years, which is close to the edge of the visible universe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18616290 | 67,461 |
784,642 | The wet plate collodion process has undergone a revival as a historical technique in the twenty-first century. There are several practicing ambrotypes and tintypes who regularly set up and make images, for example at Civil War re-enactments and arts festivals. Fine art photographers use the process and its handcrafted individuality for gallery showings and personal work. There are several makers of reproduction equipment, and many artists work with collodion around the globe. The process is taught in workshops around the world and several workbooks and manuals are in print. Modern collodion artists include Sally Mann, Ben Cauchi, , John Coffer, Ian Ruhter, Jolene Lupo, Joni Sternbach, David Emitt Adams, Mark Osterman, Jill Enfield, France Scully Osterman, Craig Murphy, Jack Dabaghian, Lindsey Ross, Sam Dole, Meg Turner, Em White, and Paul d'Orléans/ Susan McLaughlin Phillip Chin, James Walker and Luther Gerlach. There are many more as well that have contributed to bringing this process forward to a modern age. In the first phase of the COVID-19 era Simon Riddell launched a wet plate collodion project entitled Mental Collodion which explores the link between the cathartic process of fine art portraiture and mental health issues, states of mind, and emotions, with the aim of inspiring positivity and also making wet plate collodion more accessible using his approach to online based portraiture sessions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=194113 | 784,222 |
2,160,451 | In additional to having high potential for success in combatting the infections listed above, AFP does not inhibit the viability of yeast, bacteria, mammalian, or plant cells. Because there are many filamentous fungal species that do not respond to AFP, it is likely that the protein's detrimental effects are species-specific. As such, AFP could be used to treat and prevent infection by very specific pathogens without harm to patients or host plants. Furthermore, the protein can be easily synthesized through fermentation of "A. giganteus" and is resistant to hear. In comparison to other antifungal treatments, small amounts of the protein are needed to prevent the growth of harmful pathogens. In combination with the fact that AFP almost completely blocks growth of sensitive, pathogenic fungi (unlike the ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and chlorine dioxide antifungal treatments currently used in agricultural systems,) these factors highlight AFP's potential as a cheap, mass-producible, and extremely effective solution to pathogen infection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58540557 | 2,159,218 |
542,270 | Franck assisted Frederick Lindemann in helping dismissed Jewish scientists find work overseas, before he left Germany in November 1933. After a brief visit to the United States, where he measured the absorption of light in heavy water with Wood at Johns Hopkins University, he took up a position at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. He needed a new collaborator, so he took on Hilde Levi, whose recent thesis had impressed him. His original intention was to continue his research into the fluorescence of vapours and liquids, but under Bohr's influence they began to take an interest in biological aspects of these reactions, particularly photosynthesis, the process by which plants use light to convert carbon dioxide and water into more organic compounds. Biological processes turned out to be far more complicated than simple reactions in atoms and molecules. He co-authored two papers with Levi on the subject, which he would return to over the following years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=381797 | 541,990 |
1,547,072 | Endoscopic Ear Surgery was first described in 1992 by Professor Ahmed El-Guindy and pioneered by Dr Muaaz Tarabichi in Dubai during the late 90s. His contributions to the field have led to him being recognized globally as the father of endoscopic ear surgery. He now lectures extensively on the topic worldwide. Similar to the early years of FESS (functional endoscopic sinus surgery), EES has been controversial since early descriptions in the 1960s. Tarabichi's initial dissertations were met with skepticism in a very similar fashion to Professor Heinz Stammberger and the backlash he faced when he introduced FESS. Tarabichi and Professor Stammberger persisted in their advocacy of their respective techniques and developed a friendship which resulted in the development of TSESI: Tarabichi Stammberger Ear and Sinus Institute to train and educate surgeons in endoscopic techniques. One of the benefits of an endoscope compared to the microscope is the wide-field view of the middle ear afforded by the location of the light source at the tip of the instrument and the availability of various types of angled lenses. Middle ear procedures that utilize a rigid endoscope for viewing may reduce the need to drill for enhanced exposure of the operative field. The traditional otologic operating microscopes typically require larger portals (e.g., postauricular approaches) to enable adequate passage of light for intraoperative viewing and follow-up surveillance in the clinic. One handed dissection is cited as the main drawback to EES. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44466901 | 1,546,195 |
1,288,721 | Structural stability of the system provides a justification for applying the qualitative theory of dynamical systems to analysis of concrete physical systems. The idea of such qualitative analysis goes back to the work of Henri Poincaré on the three-body problem in celestial mechanics. Around the same time, Aleksandr Lyapunov rigorously investigated stability of small perturbations of an individual system. In practice, the evolution law of the system (i.e. the differential equations) is never known exactly, due to the presence of various small interactions. It is, therefore, crucial to know that basic features of the dynamics are the same for any small perturbation of the "model" system, whose evolution is governed by a certain known physical law. Qualitative analysis was further developed by George Birkhoff in the 1920s, but was first formalized with introduction of the concept of rough system by Andronov and Pontryagin in 1937. This was immediately applied to analysis of physical systems with oscillations by Andronov, Witt, and Khaikin. The term "structural stability" is due to Solomon Lefschetz, who oversaw translation of their monograph into English. Ideas of structural stability were taken up by Stephen Smale and his school in the 1960s in the context of hyperbolic dynamics. Earlier, Marston Morse and Hassler Whitney initiated and René Thom developed a parallel theory of stability for differentiable maps, which forms a key part of singularity theory. Thom envisaged applications of this theory to biological systems. Both Smale and Thom worked in direct contact with Maurício Peixoto, who developed Peixoto's theorem in the late 1950s. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2515807 | 1,288,012 |
1,515,729 | Two researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Vitaliy Fadeyev and Carl Haber have been experimenting with an audio restoration method that involves taking a very high definition digital photographic image of the vintage recording medium. They use a precision optical metrology system (designed to scan silicon detectors) to form an image of the groove on a 78 rpm record. After processing the digital file, they have an audio stream that represents the variations in the groove walls, allowing them to 'play' the record virtually without using a phonograph stylus. 2D images can be made more quickly and have proved worthy of further investigation on 78 rpm discs cut laterally. A 3D method is possible, though it takes much longer for the photographic survey of the recording and it requires much more storage space for the larger digital file. 3D methods are required for non-flat media such as "hill-and-dale" recordings (an early vertical cutting method by Pathé), Edison cylinders and Dictabelt rolls. 3D imaging is required for stereo phonograph records in order to capture the full detail of both inner and outer groove walls. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4039099 | 1,514,877 |
1,437,522 | In 2020 ASACUSA in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) reported the experimental verification of long lived pionic helium by spectroscopic measurements; the first time in an atom containing a lepton. Its existence had been predicted in 1964 by George Condo at University of Tennessee to explain some anomalies from bubble chamber tracks but no definite proof of its existence had ever been obtained. In the experiment negatively charged pions from a ring cyclotron were magnetically focused into a tank filled with superfluid helium so that they would expel an electron from the atom and take its place. Later, to confirm the production, laser light was fired at various frequencies until they found a specific one at 1631 nm where the pion would resonate undergoing a quantum jump from its orbit into an inner one and eventually into the nucleus which would break down into a proton, a neutron and a deuterium. The experiment proved highly technical to perform and took 8 years, including the design and construction of the experiment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2032832 | 1,436,713 |
1,295,754 | Associations have been reported between TMB and patient outcome in a variety of cancers. In one study, scientists observed differences in survival rates, with high TMB individuals having a median progression-free survival of 12.8 months and a median overall survival not reached by the time of publication, compared to 3.3 months and 16.3 months respectively for individuals with lower TMB. Another study examining patients who had not received ICI therapy found that intermediate levels of TMB (>5 and <20 mutations/Mb) correlate with significantly decreased survival, likely as a result of the accumulation of mutations in oncogenes. This relationship does not appear to be significantly disparate across different tissues types and is only modestly affected by corrections for confounders such as smoking, sex, age, and ethnicity. This suggests that TMB is both an independent and reliable indicator of poor patient outcomes in the absence of ICI therapy. Interestingly, very high levels of TMB (≥ 50 mutations/Mb) were reported to correlate with increased survival, giving an overall parabolic shape to the trend. While this association is still under investigation, it has been hypothesized that the decreased risk of death under very high TMB could result from reduced cell viability due to genetic instability or increased production of neoantigens recognized by the immune system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66880796 | 1,295,043 |
2,246,363 | WISE projects can also incorporate Java applets, flash models, forums to facilitate online discussions, data collection, drawing, argument creation, resource sharing, branching, concept mapping and other built-in components. WISE is entirely browser-based, meaning that students only need access to a computer with an Internet connection, with no required software other than the Web browser). All student work is saved on central project servers that enable student accounts and teacher accounts to be coordinated, with special Web environments designed to support teachers and students. Students can access their work from any computer on the Internet. Teachers can choose from the library of curriculum projects in the WISE Teacher's Portal, each accompanied by a set of materials including a detailed lesson plan, pre and post assessments, connections to the AAAS National standards, tools for setting up a custom grading scheme, and even a software tool that enables customization of the WISE project for local issues, geographical features or student populations. Teachers can monitor and grade student work in real time, provide formative feedback during a project run, and manage their student accounts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3662045 | 2,245,091 |
595,896 | Ilan Ramon was Israel's first astronaut. Ramon was the Space Shuttle payload specialist on board the fatal STS-107 mission of Space Shuttle "Columbia", in which he and the six other crew members were killed in a re-entry accident over the southern United States. Ramon had been selected as a payload specialist in 1997 and trained at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, from 1998 until 2003. Among other experiments, Ramon was responsible for the MEIDEX project in which he was required to take pictures of atmospheric aerosol (dust) in the Mediterranean area using a multispectral camera designed to provide scientific information about atmospheric aerosols and the influence of global changes on the climate, and data for the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) were responsible for the scientific aspect of the experiment. The TAU team also worked with a US company, Orbital Sciences Corporation, to construct and test special flight instruments for the project. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=397525 | 595,591 |
1,976,051 | Green buildings on college campuses provide benefits to the campus in several different ways. Campuses can benefit from the short and long term economic benefits. Initially, federal and state governments will sometimes provide tax incentives for buildings constructed that surpass the standards set by the government. There are also long term savings. According to the USGBC, with an upfront investment of 2% in green building design, the resulting life savings is 20% of the total construction costs. With many universities lacking funding, this kind of savings could dramatically help the yearly budget. Along with this increase in monetary savings, green building and architecture has been proven to make the occupants more productive. Studies have shown a link between improved lighting design and a 27% reduction in the incidence of headaches. Also, students with the most daylighting in their classrooms progressed 20% faster on math tests and 26% faster on reading tests in one year than those with less daylighting. Both of these studies show that better lighting conditions, which are one of the main features of green buildings, can increase the productivity of its occupants. Students at colleges where green buildings are being used will benefit by increasing their potential to gain knowledge. The last important benefit of green buildings on college campuses is having the university seen as environmentally sustainable. Students are becoming increasingly aware of the issues the Earth faces with carbon emissions and increased consumption. These students want to attend universities that are striving to reduce their environmental impact. Universities participating in sustainable initiatives, like constructing green buildings, will attract more highly qualified students. Green buildings on campuses benefit both the school as well as the students. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25102062 | 1,974,914 |
2,162,006 | The most common ligands employed so far in the synthesis of nucleophilic aluminyl anions are diamido dianions. The first aluminyl anion to be isolated by Aldridge, Goicoechea and coworkers is supported by a xanthene-based diamido ligand, referred to as NON by the authors. In its synthesis, the xanthene-dianiline HNON was first deprotonated in the presence of a strong base. Metallation of the NON ligand proceeded via aluminium triodide addition, forming an aluminium(III) metal center. The aluminium(III) center was then reduced via addition of an excess of a strong reducing agent, potassium graphite (KC), to the aluminyl species. Following the two electron reduction, a bright-yellow dimeric species with the chemical formula K[Al(NON)] was formed, as confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The compound was found to be stable for several days at room temperature, both in the solid state and in a benzene solution. Each aluminium(I) atom is supported by two amido nitrogen atoms and one ethereal oxygen atom of the ligand, formally having a filled octet. The two monomeric units are joined by electrostatic interactions between the positively charged potassium cations and the electron clouds of the Dipp (diisopropylphenyl) substituents. The crystal structure confirms no aluminium-aluminium interactions, while the dimeric structure is preserved in solution, as highlighted by diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) NMR experiments. However, in the presence of chelating agent [2.2.2]-cryptand (crypt-222), the potassium cation could be encapsulated, leading to a charge-separated complex with a "naked" aluminyl anion, the first such anion to be reported. Following this initial synthesis, other nucleophilic diamido aluminyl anions have been reported, also synthesized through the reduction of the corresponding aluminium(III) iodide with excess potassium graphite and also isolated as a dimeric species with a similar structure to that of K[Al(NON)]. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65276116 | 2,160,771 |
586,380 | Transient Earth Voltages (TEVs) are induced voltage spikes on the surface of the surrounding metalwork. TEVs were first discovered in 1974 by Dr John Reeves of EA Technology. TEVs occur because the partial discharge creates current spikes in the conductor and hence also in the earthed metal surrounding the conductor. Dr John Reeves established that TEV signals are directly proportional to the condition of the insulation for all switchgear of the same type measured at the same point. TEV readings are measured in dBmV. TEV pulses are full of high frequency components and hence the earthed metalwork presents a considerable impedance to ground. Therefore, voltage spikes are generated. These will stay on the inner surface of surrounding metalwork (to a depth of approximately 0.5 µm in mild steel at 100 MHz) and loop around to the outer surface wherever there is an electrical discontinuity in the metalwork. There is a secondary effect whereby electromagnetic waves generated by the partial discharge also generate TEVs on the surrounding metalwork – the surrounding metalwork acting like an antenna. TEVs are a very convenient phenomenon for measuring and detecting partial discharges as they can be detected without making an electrical connection or removing any panels. While this method may be useful to detect some issues in switchgear and surface tracking on internal components, the sensitivity is not likely to be sufficient to detect issues within solid dielectric cable systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=467804 | 586,080 |
1,644,100 | In Britain, the various railway companies appointed and employed an engineer or chief engineer, who was usually a civil engineer by profession. This was a permanent management role in the company in contrast to that of contractors, for instance, who were only hired to perform specific tasks such as construction of the line. The chief engineer had his own department (and budget) and was an important company official. The chief engineer was responsible for all engineering functions: civil, which included bridges, viaducts, tunnels and track; and, later, mechanical, which included rolling stock. In some early railways, such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), which opened in 1830, there was indecision on whether to use fixed engines and ropes or moving locomotives. Cases had arisen of locomotives being too heavy and breaking the cast iron rails that they had to run on; and locomotive wheels breaking and/or falling off. Finally, the L&MR's board agreed the use of moving locomotives; and the rolling stock was selected from various specialist builders by competition, at the Rainhill Trials. Soon afterwards, many railway companies were to set up their own railway workshops, although railway companies continued to buy-in locomotives from specialist manufacturers, such as Robert Stephenson and Company which was founded by George and Robert Stephenson in 1828. Some railway companies operated their own ferries, boats, and ships and these would also be the responsibility of their Chief Engineer, but they would have been ordered from shipyards. Isambard Kingdom Brunel set an example, designing three great steamships: the SS Great Western, the SS Great Britain and the SS Great Eastern – the first two being built at Bristol shipyards and the third at Millwall, London. The Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland was formed in 1857 as a professional body for these trades in Scotland. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1164657 | 1,643,173 |
1,478,631 | The first step in ω-oxidation, i.e. addition of a hydroxy residue to the omega carbon of short, intermediate, and long chain unsaturated or saturated fatty acids, can serve to produce or inactivate signaling molecules. In humans, a subset of Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) microsome-bound ω-hydroxylases (termed Cytochrome P450 omega hydroxylases) metabolize arachidonic acid (also known as eicosatetraenoic acid) to 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE). 20-HETE possesses a range of activities in animal and cellular model systems, e.g. it constricts blood vessels, alters the kidney's reabsorption of salt and water, and promotes the growth of cancer cells; genetic studies in humans suggest that 20-HETE contributes to hypertension, myocardial infarction, and brain stroke (see 20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid). Among the CYP450 superfamily, members of the CYP4A and CYP4F subfamilies viz., CYP4A11, CYP4F2, CYP4F3, are considered the predominant cytochrome P450 enzymes responsible in most tissues for forming 20-HETE. CYP2U1 and CYP4Z1 contribute to 20-HETE production in a more limited range of tissues. The cytochrome ω-oxidases including those belonging to the CYP4A and CYP4F sub-families and CYPU21 also ω-hydroxylate and thereby reduce the activity of various fatty acid metabolites of arachidonic acid including LTB4, 5-HETE, 5-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid, 12-HETE, and several prostaglandins that are involved in regulating various inflammatory, vascular, and other responses in animals and humans. This hydroxylation-induced inactivation may underlie the proposed roles of the cytochromes in dampening inflammatory responses and the reported associations of certain CYP4F2 and CYP4F3 single nucleotide variants with human Crohn's disease and Celiac disease, respectively. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4812837 | 1,477,798 |
518,580 | In a series of papers co-authored with fellow university physicist Douglas Torr and published between 1991 and 1993, she claimed a practical way to produce anti-gravity effects. She claimed that an anti-gravity effect could be produced by rotating ions creating a gravitomagnetic field perpendicular to their spin axis. In her theory, if a large number of ions could be aligned, (in a Bose–Einstein condensate) the resulting effect would be a very strong gravitomagnetic field producing a strong repulsive force. The alignment may be possible by trapping superconductor ions in a lattice structure in a high-temperature superconducting disc. Li claimed that experimental results confirmed her theories. Her claim of having functional anti-gravity devices was cited by the popular press and in popular science magazines with some enthusiasm at the time. In 1997 Li published a paper stating that recent experiments reported anomalous weight changes of 0.05-2.1% for a test mass suspended above a rotating superconductor. Although the same paper describes another experiment that showed the gravitational effect of a non rotating superconductor was very small, if any effect existed at all. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4538803 | 518,311 |
1,523,283 | In December 1954 Rich transferred to the Skunk Works, the secret research and development section run by Lockheed's Chief Engineer, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. There he designed the inlet ducts for the U-2, then led the effort to design and build a large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plant for project "Suntan", a proposed hydrogen-powered supersonic very high-altitude aircraft to replace the U-2. After Suntan was canceled, Rich became propulsion systems program manager for the U-2's successors, the A-12 and the SR-71 Blackbird. Rich was chief aerodynamicist for the projects, designer of the shock cone engine inlet, air conditioning and heat management systems. He was also involved in the specification of the aircraft's black skin coatings which optimized dissipation of their tremendous aerodynamic heating as well as incorporating materials to reduce radar signature. The aircraft incorporated features that were later referred to as low observables or stealth technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1262268 | 1,522,422 |
504,927 | Rapid Dragon is a palletized and disposable weapons module which is airdropped and deploys flying munitions, typically cruise missiles, from unmodified cargo planes. Developed by the United States Air Force and Lockheed, the airdrop-rigged pallets, called "deployment boxes," provide a low cost method allowing unmodified cargo planes, such as C-130 or C-17 aircraft, to be temporarily repurposed as standoff bombers capable of mass launching any variant of long or short range AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles against land or naval targets. The size of the deployment boxes is configurable to fit mission or dropship dimensions supporting the launch; ranging from four to 45 AGM-158 JASSM-ER cruise missiles to strike targets at a range of to when large numbers of JASSM-XR become available in 2024. The system has been successfully used with C-130 and C-17 cargo planes to strike both land and sea targets with armed and test version JASSM-ERs. Future development will generalize the system beyond the AGM-158 missile family to include JDAM bombs, sea mines, drones, and other missile systems as well as integrating the launch system into use on other supporting cargo and non-cargo aircraft. The current version uses unmodified cargo aircraft while missile deployment requires no additional crew skills beyond those for airdrops of supplies or vehicles. The system can be thought of as a smart and disposable bomb bay in a box that includes an interface allowing targeting information that is gathered from allied units in the area to be fed to the munitions from a distant fire control center. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=71379304 | 504,665 |
752,566 | The genus "Spinosaurus", from which the family, their subfamily (Spinosaurinae), and their tribe (Spinosaurini) borrow their names, is the longest known terrestrial predator from the fossil record, with an estimated length of up to and body mass of up to . The closely related genus "Sigilmassasaurus" may have reached a similar or greater size, though its taxonomy is disputed. Direct fossil evidence and anatomical adaptations indicate that spinosaurids were at least partially piscivorous (fish-eating), with additional fossil finds indicating they also fed on other dinosaurs and pterosaurs. The osteology of spinosaurid teeth and bones has suggested a semiaquatic lifestyle for some members of this clade. This is further indicated by various anatomical adaptations, such as retracted eyes and nostrils; and the deepening of the tail in some taxa, which has been suggested to have aided in underwater propulsion akin to that of modern crocodilians. Spinosaurs are proposed to be closely related to the megalosaurid theropods of the Jurassic. This is due to both groups sharing many features such an enlarged claw on manual ungual I and an elongated skull. However, some propose that this group (which is known as the Megalosauroidea) is paraphyletic and that spinosaurs represent either the most basal tetanurans or as basal carnosaurs which are less derived than the Megalosaurids. Some have proposed a combination of the two ideas with spinosaurs being in a monophyletic Megalosauroidea inside a more inclusive Carnosauria that is made up of both allosauroids and megalosauroids. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2899822 | 752,164 |
1,559,168 | The strangeness production and its diagnostic potential as a signature of quark–gluon plasma has been discussed for nearly 30 years. The theoretical work in this field today focuses on the interpretation of the overall particle production data and the derivation of the resulting properties of the bulk of quark–gluon plasma at the time of breakup. The global description of all produced particles can be attempted based on the picture of hadronizing hot drop of quark–gluon plasma or, alternatively, on the picture of confined and equilibrated hadron matter. In both cases one describes the data within the statistical thermal production model, but considerable differences in detail differentiate the nature of the source of these particles. The experimental groups working in the field also like to develop their own data analysis models and the outside observer sees many different analysis results. There are as many as 10–15 different particles species that follow the pattern predicted for the QGP as function of reaction energy, reaction centrality, and strangeness content. At yet higher LHC energies saturation of strangeness yield and binding to heavy flavor open new experimental opportunities. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23984205 | 1,558,282 |
1,148,460 | Jacobson's "100% renewable world" approach is supported by publications among at least 17 international research groups that find 100% renewables possible at low cost throughout the world. It is also supported by the Global 100RE Strategy Group, a coalition of 47 scientists supporting 100% renewable energy to solve the climate problem. His work is also consistent with results from a study out of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which found that a 100% clean, renewable U.S. electricity grid with no combustion turbines might cost ~4.8 ¢/kWh to keep the grid stable. This is less than the cost of electricity from a new natural gas plant. His work is further supported by a 2016 publication by Mark Cooper, who has previously evaluated the economics of nuclear energy at the Vermont Law School, In 2016 Cooper published, a comparison of the 100% WWS roadmaps of Jacobson with deep decarbonization proposals that included nuclear power and fossil fuels with carbon capture. Cooper concluded that the 100% WWS pathway was the least cost and “Neither fossil fuels with CCS or nuclear power enters the least-cost, low-carbon portfolio.” Earlier publications, from 2011 to 2015, that analyzed, with different methodologies, various strategies to get to a global zero or low carbon economy, by circa 2050, reported that a renewables-alone approach, would be "orders of magnitude" more expensive and more difficult to achieve than other energy paths that have been assessed. The more recent studies, including the NREL study, dispute these claims. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21130805 | 1,147,853 |
1,903,446 | The structural part is a naturally occurring gene, which is used as a skeleton to encode the input and the transitions of the automaton (Fig. 1A). The conserved features of a structural gene (e.g., DNA polymerase binding site, start and stop codons, and splicing sites) serve as constants of the computational gene, while the coding regions, the number of exons and introns, the position of start and stop codon, and the automata theoretical variables (symbols, states, and transitions) are the design parameters of the computational gene. The constants and the design parameters are linked by several logical and biochemical constraints (e.g., encoded automata theoretic variables must not be recognized as splicing junctions). The input of the automaton are molecular markers given by single stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules. These markers are signalling aberrant (e.g., carcinogenic) molecular phenotype and turn on the self-assembly of the functional gene. If the input is accepted, the output encodes a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecule, a functional gene which should be successfully integrated into the cellular transcription and translation machinery producing a wild type protein or an anti-drug (Fig. 1B). Otherwise, a rejected input will assemble into a partially dsDNA molecule which cannot be translated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15368504 | 1,902,352 |
1,504,867 | Nanoscale spatial resolution AFM-IR imaging using a pulsed laser was first demonstrated by Dazzi "et al" at the University of Paris-Sud, France. Dazzi and his colleagues used a wavelength-tuneable, free electron laser at the CLIO facility in Orsay, France to provide an infrared source with short pulses. Like earlier workers, they used a conventional AFM probe to measure thermal expansion but introduced a novel optical configuration: the sample was mounted on an IR-transparent prism so that it could be excited by an evanescent wave. Absorption of short infrared laser pulses by the sample caused rapid thermal expansion that created a force impulse at the tip of the AFM cantilever. The thermal expansion pulse induced transient resonant oscillations of the AFM cantilever probe. This has led to the technique being dubbed Photo-Thermal Induced Resonance (PTIR), by some workers in the field. Some prefer the terms PTIR or PTMS to AFM-IR as the technique is not necessarily restricted to infrared wavelengths. The amplitude of the cantilever oscillation is directly related to the amount of infrared radiation absorbed by the sample. By measuring the cantilever oscillation amplitude as a function of wavenumber, Dazzi's group was able to obtain absorption spectra from nanoscale regions of the sample. Compared to earlier work, this approach improved spatial resolution because the use of short laser pulses reduced the duration of the thermal expansion pulse to the point that the thermal diffusion lengths can be on the scale of nanometres rather than microns. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44893854 | 1,504,021 |
1,008,300 | This aberration is quite distinct from that of the sharpness of reproduction; in unsharp, reproduction, the question of distortion arises if only parts of the object can be recognized in the figure. If, in an unsharp image, a patch of light corresponds to an object point, the "center of gravity" of the patch may be regarded as the image point, this being the point where the plane receiving the image, e.g., a focusing screen, intersects the ray passing through the middle of the stop. This assumption is justified if a poor image on the focusing screen remains stationary when the aperture is diminished; in practice, this generally occurs. This ray, named by Abbe a "principal ray" (not to be confused with the "principal rays" of the Gaussian theory), passes through the center of the entrance pupil before the first refraction, and the center of the exit pupil after the last refraction. From this it follows that correctness of drawing depends solely upon the principal rays; and is independent of the sharpness or curvature of the image field. Referring to fig. 4, we have O'Q'/OQ = a' tan w'/a tan w = 1/N, where N is the "scale" or magnification of the image. For N to be constant for all values of w, a' tan w'/a tan w must also be constant. If the ratio a'/a be sufficiently constant, as is often the case, the above relation reduces to the "condition of Airy," i.e. tan w'/ tan w= a constant. This simple relation (see Camb. Phil. Trans., 1830, 3, p. 1) is fulfilled in all systems which are symmetrical with respect to their diaphragm (briefly named "symmetrical or holosymmetrical objectives"), or which consist of two like, but different-sized, components, placed from the diaphragm in the ratio of their size, and presenting the same curvature to it (hemisymmetrical objectives); in these systems tan w' / tan w = 1. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2704 | 1,007,780 |
1,762,930 | In 1986, she joined the faculty of University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, where she directs the Composite Materials Research Laboratory and was named Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Endowed Chair Professor in 1991. In 1991, she became Fellow of the American Carbon Society. In 1998, she became Fellow of ASM International (society). She received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities from State University of New York in 2003 and was named Outstanding Inventor by State University of New York in 2002. In 1993, she was honored as "Teacher of the Year" by Tau Beta Pi (New York Nu). Chung was the first American woman and the first person of Chinese descent to receive the Charles E. Pettinos Award, in 2004; the award was in recognition of her work on functional carbons for thermal, electromagnetic and sensor applications. In 2005, she received the Hsun Lee Lecture Award from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2011, she received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain. In addition, Chung received the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal from American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) in 1980. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18481293 | 1,761,937 |
236,268 | As usual with beta decay, almost all the decay energy is carried away by the beta particle and the neutrino. The emitted beta particles have a maximum energy of about 156 keV, while their weighted mean energy is 49 keV. These are relatively low energies; the maximum distance traveled is estimated to be 22 cm in air and 0.27 mm in body tissue. The fraction of the radiation transmitted through the dead skin layer is estimated to be 0.11. Small amounts of carbon-14 are not easily detected by typical Geiger–Müller (G-M) detectors; it is estimated that G-M detectors will not normally detect contamination of less than about 100,000 disintegrations per minute (0.05 µCi). Liquid scintillation counting is the preferred method although more recently, accelerator mass spectrometry has become the method of choice; it counts all the carbon-14 atoms in the sample and not just the few that happen to decay during the measurements; it can therefore be used with much smaller samples (as small as individual plant seeds), and gives results much more quickly. The G-M counting efficiency is estimated to be 3%. The half-distance layer in water is 0.05 mm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=146250 | 236,149 |
610,275 | Many models of the perceptual system assume indirect perception, or the notion that the world that gets perceived is not identical to the actual environment. Environmental information must go through several stages before being perceived, and the transitions between these stages introduce ambiguity. What actually gets perceived is the mind's best guess about what is occurring in the environment based on previous experience. Support for this idea comes from the Ames room illusion, where a distorted room causes the viewer to see objects known to be a constant size as growing or shrinking as they move around the room. The room itself is seen as being square, or at least consisting of right angles, as all previous rooms the perceiver has encountered have had those properties. Another example of this ambiguity comes from the doctrine of specific nerve energies. The doctrine presents the finding that there are distinct nerve types for different types of sensory input, and these nerves respond in a characteristic way regardless of the method of stimulation. That is to say, the color red causes optical nerves to fire in a specific pattern that is processed by the brain as experiencing the color red. However, if that same nerve is electrically stimulated in an identical pattern, the brain could perceive the color red when no corresponding stimuli is present. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2843988 | 609,964 |
598,499 | As Roman imperial power effectively ended in the West during the 5th century, Western Europe entered the Middle Ages with great difficulties that affected the continent's intellectual production dramatically. Most classical scientific treatises of classical antiquity written in Greek were unavailable, leaving only simplified summaries and compilations. Nonetheless, Roman and early medieval scientific texts were read and studied, contributing to the understanding of nature as a coherent system functioning under divinely established laws that could be comprehended in the light of reason. This study continued through the Early Middle Ages, and with the Renaissance of the 12th century, interest in this study was revitalized through the translation of Greek and Arabic scientific texts. Scientific study further developed within the emerging medieval universities, where these texts were studied and elaborated, leading to new insights into the phenomena of the universe. These advances are virtually unknown to the lay public of today, partly because most theories advanced in medieval science are today obsolete, and partly because of the caricature of Middle Ages as a supposedly "Dark Age" which placed "the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30864628 | 598,194 |
879,238 | In 2004–05, researchers from Dubna and Livermore identified a new dubnium isotope, Db, as a fivefold alpha decay product of the newly created element 115. This new isotope proved to be long-lived enough to allow further chemical experimentation, with a half-life of over a day. In the 2004 experiment, a thin layer with dubnium was removed from the surface of the target and dissolved in aqua regia with tracers and a lanthanum carrier, from which various +3, +4, and +5 species were precipitated on adding ammonium hydroxide. The precipitate was washed and dissolved in hydrochloric acid, where it converted to nitrate form and was then dried on a film and counted. Mostly containing a +5 species, which was immediately assigned to dubnium, it also had a +4 species; based on that result, the team decided that additional chemical separation was needed. In 2005, the experiment was repeated, with the final product being hydroxide rather than nitrate precipitate, which was processed further in both Livermore (based on reverse phase chromatography) and Dubna (based on anion exchange chromatography). The +5 species was effectively isolated; dubnium appeared three times in tantalum-only fractions and never in niobium-only fractions. It was noted that these experiments were insufficient to draw conclusions about the general chemical profile of dubnium. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8463 | 878,775 |
1,360,603 | 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=16153022 | 1,359,851 |
565,361 | 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=11913227 | 565,071 |
1,244,411 | Automatic indexing is the computerized process of scanning large volumes of documents against a controlled vocabulary, taxonomy, thesaurus or ontology and using those controlled terms to quickly and effectively index large electronic document depositories. These keywords or language are applied by training a system on the rules that determine what words to match. There are additional parts to this such as syntax, usage, proximity, and other algorithms based on the system and what is required for indexing. This is taken into account using Boolean statements to gather and capture the indexing information out of the text. As the number of documents exponentially increases with the proliferation of the Internet, automatic indexing will become essential to maintaining the ability to find relevant information in a sea of irrelevant information. Natural language systems are used to train a system based on seven different methods to help with this sea of irrelevant information. These methods are Morphological, Lexical, Syntactic, Numerical, Phraseological, Semantic, and Pragmatic. Each of these look and different parts of speed and terms to build a domain for the specific information that is being covered for indexing. This is used in the automated process of indexing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28204669 | 1,243,738 |
811,098 | Nimzowitsch supplemented many of the earlier simplistic assumptions about chess strategy by enunciating in his turn a further number of general concepts of defensive play aimed at achieving one's own goals by preventing realization of the opponent's plans. Notable in his "system" were concepts such as overprotection of pieces and pawns under attack, control of the center by pieces instead of pawns, blockading of opposing pieces (notably the passed pawns) and prophylaxis. His aforementioned game versus Paul Johner in 1926 (listed in the notable games below) is a great example of Nimzowitsch's concept of 'first restrain, then blockade and finally destroy'. He manoeuvres the black queen from its starting point to h7 to form a part of king-side blockade along with the knight on f6 and h-pawn to stop any attacking threats from White. He was also a leading exponent of the fianchetto development of bishops. Perhaps most importantly, he formulated the terminology still in use for various complex chess strategies. Others had used these ideas in practice, but he was the first to present them systematically as a lexicon of themes accompanied by extensive taxonomical observations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2812 | 810,666 |
63,078 | Modern GPUs use most of their transistors to do calculations related to 3D computer graphics. In addition to the 3D hardware, today's GPUs include basic 2D acceleration and framebuffer capabilities (usually with a VGA compatibility mode). Newer cards such as AMD/ATI HD5000-HD7000 even lack dedicated 2D acceleration; it has to be emulated by 3D hardware. GPUs were initially used to accelerate the memory-intensive work of texture mapping and rendering polygons, later adding units to accelerate geometric calculations such as the rotation and translation of vertices into different coordinate systems. Recent developments in GPUs include support for programmable shaders which can manipulate vertices and textures with many of the same operations supported by CPUs, oversampling and interpolation techniques to reduce aliasing, and very high-precision color spaces. Given that most of these computations involve matrix and vector operations, engineers and scientists have increasingly studied the use of GPUs for non-graphical calculations; they are especially suited to other embarrassingly parallel problems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=390214 | 63,053 |
1,413,561 | Nanoclusters potentially have many areas of application as they have unique optical, electrical, magnetic and reactivity properties. Nanoclusters are biocompatible, ultrasmall, and exhibit bright emission, hence promising candidates for fluorescence bio imaging or cellular labeling. Nanoclusters along with fluorophores are widely used for staining cells for study both "in vitro" and "in vivo". Furthermore, nanoclusters can be used for sensing and detection applications. They are able to detect copper and mercury ions in an aqueous solution based on fluorescence quenching. Also many small molecules, biological entities such as biomolecules, proteins, DNA, and RNA can be detected using nanoclusters. The unique reactivity properties and the ability to control the size and number of atoms in nanoclusters have proven to be a valuable method for increasing activity and tuning the selectivity in a catalytic process. Also since nanoparticles are magnetic materials and can be embedded in glass these nanoclusters can be used in optical data storage that can be used for many years without any loss of data. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44466572 | 1,412,765 |
269,777 | A variant of teleportation called "open-destination" teleportation, with receivers located at multiple locations, was demonstrated in 2004 using five-photon entanglement. Teleportation of a composite state of two single qubits has also been realized. In April 2011, experimenters reported that they had demonstrated teleportation of wave packets of light up to a bandwidth of 10 MHz while preserving strongly nonclassical superposition states. In August 2013, the achievement of "fully deterministic" quantum teleportation, using a hybrid technique, was reported. On 29 May 2014, scientists announced a reliable way of transferring data by quantum teleportation. Quantum teleportation of data had been done before but with highly unreliable methods. On 26 February 2015, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, led by Chao-yang Lu and Jian-Wei Pan carried out the first experiment teleporting multiple degrees of freedom of a quantum particle. They managed to teleport the quantum information from ensemble of rubidium atoms to another ensemble of rubidium atoms over a distance of using entangled photons. In 2016, researchers demonstrated quantum teleportation with two independent sources which are separated by in Hefei optical fiber network. In September 2016, researchers at the University of Calgary demonstrated quantum teleportation over the Calgary metropolitan fiber network over a distance of . In December 2020, as part of the INQNET collaboration, researchers achieved quantum teleportation over a total distance of 44 km (27.3 mi) with fidelities exceeding 90%. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25280 | 269,630 |
1,563,189 | Hermann Müller was born in Tägerwilen on Lake Constance. He studied natural sciences at ETH Zurich. In 1874 he was awarded a Ph.D. in Würzburg, Germany, and later became director of the Institute for Plant Physiology at the Geisenheim Research Station, Germany. In 1890 he became the first director of Wädenswil, the present-day Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station (ACW), and was a pioneer in the field of vine cultivation. He is considered the father of the Müller-Thurgau vine, which was crossed in 1882 and is the world's first scientifically based new vine breed. With its success, it displaced the old varieties, such as Elbling and Räuschling, and up until today has remained the most successful specifically cultivated vine variety: More than 41,000 ha are cultivated worldwide, which corresponds to almost three times the total vine area of Switzerland. It is most widespread in Germany; in German-speaking Switzerland, it is still the most important white wine variety today. For a long time, this vine variety was thought to be a crossing between Riesling and Silvaner. In 1998 an Austrian research team discovered, based on molecular-genetic tests, that the crossing partners were not Riesling x Silvaner, but Riesling x Madeleine Royal. How this mix-up could have occurred has never been discovered. However, this fact has given new impetus to the vine variety's second name, Müller-Thurgau. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24746200 | 1,562,302 |
246,422 | The Israeli Air Force has a fleet of Boeing 707s equipped with a boom refueling system similar to the KC-135, this system has the Israeli name "Ram", used to refuel and extend the range of fighter bombers such as the F-15I and F-16I for deterrent and strike missions, they are nearing 60 years old and Israel does not disclose the number of tankers in their fleet. In 1985, Israeli F-15s used heavily modified Boeing 707 aircraft to provide aerial refueling over the Mediterranean Sea in order to extend their range for Operation Wooden Leg, an air raid on the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) near Tunis, Tunisia, that necessitated a 2,000 km flight. As of 2021 Israel has ordered four of a planned eight Boeing KC-46 Pegasus boom refueling tankers and has requested that the first two aircraft be fast-tracked for delivery in 2022 when they were to be delivered in 2023. The Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli commanders have made this request to enhance the strategic deterrence against Iran, the same article reports that the US, whose air force is also taking its first deliveries of the aircraft type, has refused to move forward the deliveries while supporting Israel's deterrence; the Jpost editor writing "The US State Department approved the possible sale of up to eight KC-46 tanker aircraft and related equipment to Israel for an estimated cost of $2.4 billion last March(i.e. 5/2020), marking the first time that Washington has allowed Jerusalem to buy new tankers." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=237949 | 246,295 |
1,283,819 | Allegedly, Withering first learned of the use of digitalis in treating "dropsy" (œdema) from "Mother Hutton", an old woman who practised as a folk herbalist in Shropshire, who used the plant as part of a polyherbal formulation containing over 20 different ingredients to successfully treat this condition. Withering deduced that digitalis was the active ingredient in the formulation, and over the ensuing nine years he carefully tried out different preparations of various parts of the plant (collected in different seasons) documenting 156 cases where he had employed digitalis, and describing the effects and the best - and safest - way of using it. At least one of these cases was a patient for whom Erasmus Darwin had asked Withering for his second opinion. In January 1785 Darwin submitted a paper entitled "An Account of the Successful Use of Foxglove in Some Dropsies and in Pulmonary Consumption" to the College of Physicians in London; it was presented by Darwin in March of that year. A postscript at the end of the published volume of transactions containing Darwin's paper states that "Whilst the last pages of this volume were in the press, Dr Withering of Birmingham... published a numerous collection of cases in which foxglove has been given, and frequently with good success". After this, Darwin and Withering became increasingly estranged, and eventually an argument broke out apparently resulting from Robert Darwin having accused Withering of unprofessional behaviour by effectively poaching patients. This is a very early example of medical academic plagiarism. This was in reality orchestrated by Erasmus Darwin, a man whose anger and sarcasm when he felt slighted had in all likelihood contributed to the suicide of his own son and later to the estrangement of his son Robert. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33065 | 1,283,121 |
1,026,403 | The postcranial skeleton of "Majungasaurus" closely resembles those of "Carnotaurus" and "Aucasaurus", the only other abelisaurid genera for which complete skeletal material is known. "Majungasaurus" was bipedal, with a long tail to balance out the head and torso, putting the center of gravity over the hips. Although the cervical (neck) vertebrae had numerous cavities and excavations (pleurocoels) to reduce their weight, they were robust, with exaggerated muscle attachment sites and ribs that interlocked for strength. Ossified tendons attached to the cervical ribs, giving them a forked appearance, as seen in "Carnotaurus". All of these features resulted in a very strong and muscular neck. Uniquely, the cervical ribs of "Majungasaurus" had long depressions along the sides for weight reduction. The humerus (upper arm bone) was short and curved, closely resembling those of "Aucasaurus" and "Carnotaurus". Also like related dinosaurs, "Majungasaurus" had very short forelimbs with four extremely reduced digits, first reported with only two very short external fingers and no claws. The hand and finger bones of "Majungasaurus", like other majungasaurines, lacked the characteristic pits and grooves where claws and tendons would normally attach, and its finger bones were fused together, indicating that the hand was immobile. In 2012, a better specimen was described, showing that the lower arm was robust, though short, and that the hand contained four metatarsals and four, probably inflexible and very reduced, fingers, possibly with no claws. The minimum phalanx formula was 1-2-1-1. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4590393 | 1,025,869 |
492,431 | The Miller experiment appeared in his technical paper in the 15 May 1953 issue of "Science", which transformed the concept of scientific ideas on the origin of life into a respectable realm of empirical inquiry. His study has become a classic textbook definition of the scientific basis of origin of life, or more specifically, the first definitive experimental evidence of the Oparin-Haldane's "primordial soup" theory. Urey and Miller designed to simulate the ocean-atmospheric condition of the primitive Earth by using a continuous run of steam into a mixture of methane (CH), ammonia (NH), and hydrogen (H). The gaseous mixture was then exposed to electrical discharge, which induced chemical reaction. After a week of reaction, Miller detected the formation of amino acids, such as glycine, α- and β-alanine, using paper chromatography. He also detected aspartic acid and gamma-amino butyric acid, but was not confident because of the weak spots. Since amino acids are the basic structural and functional constituents of cellular life, the experiment showed the possibility of natural organic synthesis for the origin of life on earth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=92419 | 492,176 |
493,145 | Under the new measure all services that the 1928 deposited prayer book that had been in use for nearly 40 years on the say so of individual bishops lost all legal authority. They would then have to authorised as alternate services. The Liturgical Commission would not assist in this process so it was left to the House of Bishops to edit a set of rites from 1928 and publish them. These were published in December 1965 as were later to be known as Series 1. At the same time the Liturgical Commission also produced and published texts in readiness for the new measures to come into force and these were known as Series 2. The eucharist in this series met with dissent in two key places: the use of 'offer' in relation to the bread and wine in the eucharistic prayer and the provision of prayers for the dead. It took until 1967 for General Synod to agree to a shape for the service. But in 1969 the whole of Series 2 was to disappear into obscurity following a dispute between the Houses of Laity and Clergy over the funeral service. At the same that Series 1 and 2 were going through General Synod there was a growing shift in the English speaking world away from the use of Tudor language in worship. Use of modern English and addressing God as you gave birth to a further version of the eucharist which would be called Series 3. The International Consultation on English Texts (ICET) produced some recommended common texts for English speaking Christians. Unlike Series 1 and 2 which had a shape based on the BCP the series 3 communion service followed the shape that many today would recognise. Its first presentation to General Synod in 1971 led to severe criticism but after some minor revisions it was approved the following year. Although the BCP remained the norm in many parishes a high proportion were being prepared for a new series of services where God was addressed as 'you' all the way throughout. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4994857 | 492,890 |
1,024,617 | The modern period was characterized by profound changes in many realms of human endeavor. Among the most important include the development of science as a formalized practice, increasingly rapid technological progress, and the establishment of secularized civic politics, law courts and the nation state. Capitalist economies began to develop in a nascent form, first in the northern Italian republics such as Genoa and Venice as well as in the cities of the Low Countries, and later in France, Germany and England. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period is often associated with the decline and eventual disappearance (at least in Western Europe) of feudalism and serfdom. The Protestant Reformation greatly altered the religious balance of Christendom, creating a formidable new opposition to the dominance of the Catholic Church, especially in Northern Europe. The early modern period also witnessed the circumnavigation of the Earth and the establishment of regular European contact with the Americas and South and East Asia. The ensuing rise of global systems of international economic, cultural and intellectual exchange played an important role in the development of capitalism and represents the earliest phase of globalization. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=118582 | 1,024,084 |
1,206,542 | In 1982, Arthur M. Lesk and co-workers first enabled automatic generation of ribbon diagrams through a computational implementation that uses Protein Data Bank files as input. This conceptually simple algorithm fit cubic polynomial B-spline curves to the peptide planes. Most modern graphics systems provide either B-splines or Hermite splines as a basic drawing primitive. One type of spline implementation passes through each Cα guide point, producing an exact but choppy curve. Both hand-drawn and most computer ribbons (such as those shown here) are smoothed over about four successive guide points (usually the peptide midpoint) to produce a more visually pleasing and understandable representation. To give the right radius for helical spirals while preserving smooth β-strands, the splines can be modified by offsets proportional to local curvature, as first developed by Mike Carson for his Ribbons program and later adapted by other molecular graphics software, such as the open-source Mage program for kinemage graphics that produced the ribbon image at top right (other examples: 1XK8 trimer and DNA polymerase). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11502909 | 1,205,897 |
1,080,835 | The study contributed much to survey methods and confirmed larger studies that reported earlier on the predictive value for heart attack of several characteristics, the now-traditional risk factors of blood pressure and blood cholesterol level and cigarette smoking. Keys traveled widely with his wife Margaret who tested people's serum cholesterol. They sent their samples back to Minnesota for analysis. In 1952, Keys's hypothesis that coronary heart disease could be related to diet was first published in "Voeding" in The Netherlands. His work in post-wartime Naples led him to seek organization and funding for studies of different populations, as did his subsequent work in Uganda; Cape Town, South Africa; Sardinia; Bologna; and Ilomantsi, Finland; and with Japanese men living in Hawaii and in Japan. He decided to concentrate on men living in villages, rather than those in cities where the population moved around frequently. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30472972 | 1,080,279 |
44,551 | Many nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of their total energy supply, with some generating over half their electricity from renewables. A few countries generate all their electricity using renewable energy. National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the 2020s and beyond. Studies have shown that a global transition to 100% renewable energy across all sectors – power, heat, transport and desalination – is feasible and economically viable. Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to fossil fuels, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation, and economic benefits. However renewables are being hindered by hundreds of billions of dollars of fossil fuel subsidies. In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for renewables such as solar power and wind power. But the International Energy Agency said in 2021 that to reach net zero carbon emissions more effort is needed to increase renewables, and called for generation to increase by about 12% a year to 2030. 47% of respondents to a 2022 European survey from the European Union and the United Kingdom (45%) want their government to focus on the development of renewable energies. This is compared to 37% in both the United States and China when asked to list their priorities on energy. 46% of respondents from China believe that diversifying energy sources should be a top priority, compared to 34% respondents from the European Union, 35% from the United Kingdom, and 39% from the United States. The German government is actively encouraging solar and wind energy to decrease the dependability of conventional energy sources like coal and boost the share of clean energy. Expanding renewable energy sources (37%) and diversifying energy suppliers (39%) is more evenly distributed among American respondents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25784 | 44,534 |
1,234,213 | In late 2009, the Mupen64Plus project undertook a major re-design of the emulator's architecture. Like many N64 emulators (including Sixtyforce, 1964, and Project64), Mupen64Plus uses four modular plug-ins (dynamic libraries) which adhere to a specification written by Project64 developer Zilmar. This specification was originally written in the late 1990s, when all of the Nintendo 64 emulators ran only under Windows. The plug-in architecture used graphical user interface (GUI) specific code inside of each plug-in, which presents difficulties for programmers wishing to support many different operating systems. For this reason, the Mupen64Plus team presented a design proposal to modify the plugin application programming interface (API) to place all of the user interface code in one software module and make other improvements to streamline the operation of a cross-platform N64 emulator. This decision was then controversial, but the proposed changes were implemented, and the software has continued to evolve. December 14, 2009 saw the first beta release of Mupen64Plus with the revised API, version 1.99.1. Several other beta versions have been released since then. Mupen64Plus 2.0 is currently being developed. Its source can be downloaded from the project's git repository. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33849638 | 1,233,550 |
154,554 | A new classroom, laboratory, and studio facility designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architecture with associate architect Gruzen Samton completed construction in Summer 2009, replacing the aging Hewitt Academic Building at 41 Cooper Square. In contrast to the Foundation Building, 41 Cooper Square is of modern, environmentally "green" design, housing nine above-ground floors and two basements. The structure features unconventional architectural features, including a full-height Grand Atrium, prevalent interior windows, a four-story linear central staircase, and upper-level skyways, which reflect the design intention of inspiring, socially interactive space for students and faculty. In addition, the building's design allows for up to 75% natural lighting, further reducing energy costs. Other "green" features in the design include servo-controlled external wall panels, which can be swiveled open or closed individually in order to regulate interior light and temperature, as well as motorized drapes on all exterior windows. In 2010, 41 Cooper Square became the first academic and laboratory structure in New York City to meet Platinum-level LEED standards for energy efficiency. The building was funded in part by alumni donations, materialized in nameplates and other textual recognition throughout the building. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=275339 | 154,484 |
364,226 | The first illustrations of diatoms are found in an article from 1703 in Transactions of the Royal Society showing unmistakable drawings of "Tabellaria". Although the publication was authored by an unnamed English gentleman, there is recent evidence that he was Charles King of Staffordshire. It is only 80 years later that we find the first formally identified diatom, the colonial "Bacillaria paxillifera", discovered and described in 1783 by Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller. Like many others after him, he wrongly thought that it was an animal due to its ability to move. Even Charles Darwin saw diatom remains in dust whilst in the Cape Verde Islands, although he was not sure what they were. It was only later that they were identified for him as siliceous polygastrics. The infusoria that Darwin later noted in the face paint of Fueguinos, native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego in the southern end of South America, were later identified in the same way. During his lifetime, the siliceous polygastrics were clarified as belonging to the "Diatomaceae", and Darwin struggled to understand the reasons underpinning their beauty. He exchanged opinions with the noted cryptogamist G. H. K. Thwaites on the topic. In the fourth edition of On the Origin of Species he stated that ""Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceae: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the high powers of the microscope""? and reasoned that their exquisite morphologies must have functional underpinnings rather than having been created purely for humans to admire. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46374 | 364,036 |
1,420,563 | In December 1969 and early January 1970, Rodbell was working with a laboratory team that studied the effect of the hormone glucagon on a rat liver membrane receptor—the cellular discriminator that receives outside signals. Rodbell discovered that ATP (adenosine triphosphate) could reverse the binding action of glucagon to the cell receptor and thus dissociate the glucagon from the cell altogether. He then noted that traces of GTP (guanosine triphosphate) could reverse the binding process almost one thousand times faster than ATP. Rodbell deduced that GTP was probably the active biological factor in dissociating glucagon from the cell's receptor, and that GTP had been present as an impurity in his earlier experiments with ATP. This GTP, he found, stimulated the activity in the guanine nucleotide protein (later called the G-protein), which, in turn, produced profound metabolic effects in the cell. This activation of the G-protein, Rodbell postulated, was the "second messenger" process that Earl W. Sutherland had theorized. In the language of signal transduction, the G-protein, activated by GTP, was the principal component of the transducer, which was the crucial link between the discriminator and the amplifier. Later, Rodbell postulated, and then provided evidence for, additional G-proteins at the cell receptor that could inhibit and activate transduction, often at the same time. In other words, cellular receptors were sophisticated enough to have several different processes going on simultaneously. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1127279 | 1,419,763 |
1,906,888 | UCI's graduate programs also receive top-50 rankings from U.S. News & World Report, earning distinction in literary criticism and theory (1), criminology (4), behavioral neuroscience (5), creative writing (6), health care management (9), organic chemistry (9), information systems (11), drama and theater (12), third-world literature (12), cognitive psychology (13), English (16), psychology – neurobiology and behavior (16), chemistry (18), experimental psychology (19), gender and literature (19), executive M.B.A. (20), cell biology/developmental biology (21), 19th- and 20th century literature (22), psychology – cognitive science (22), sociology (27), aerospace engineering (29), computer science (29), physics (29), mechanical engineering (30), civil engineering (31), biological sciences (32), history (32), environmental engineering (34), fine arts (34), political science (35), education (37), business (38), biomedical engineering (40), engineering (41), materials science engineering (45), economics (46), medicine (46), mathematics (47), psychology and social behavior (47), and electrical engineering (49). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14631230 | 1,905,792 |
1,695,319 | In 1979 Peter Galton and James A. Jensen described a fragmentary right femur, BYU 2000, belonging to a hadrosaurian dinosaur discovered in sediments belonging to the Cedar Mountain Formation in Arches National Park, Utah. Though poor material, it was important for it (alongside a second North American femur described in the paper) was the first hadrosaur specimen from the Lower Cretaceous anywhere in the world. Galton and Jensen hypothesized more complete remains of a hadrosaur may be found from the formation in the future. Various hadrosauroid teeth had also been found in quarries of small vertebrates in the western region of the San Rafael Swell, near Castle Dale in Emery County, Utah; they were described in 1991 by J. Michael Parrish. Subsequently, in 1993, Carole Jones and her husband Ramal Jones discovered fragmentary bones in a fossil site located in the northwestern region of the Swell. They brought the site to the attention of Donald Burge, director of the institution then called the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum (CEUM). The site, which is formally known as CEUM Locality 42em366v, would subsequently be named Carol's Site (sic) in her honour. The fossils, stored under the specimen number CEUM 9758, represent the partial remains of an adult hadrosauroid, including parts of the skull, vertebrae, ischium, and leg. CEUM 5212, a partial skull and forelimb from an adult, was found nearby in CEUM Locality 42em369v. CEUM 8786, a left femur from an adult, was discovered later in Carol's Site, and was not described until 2012. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3534822 | 1,694,367 |
1,127,745 | In October 1970, during the October Crisis, the army was called out as an aid to civil power with the Royal 22 Régiment being deployed to guard government buildings in Montreal on 15 October 1970. The deployment was not popular with the senior leaders of the Canadian Forces, who feared correctly that Trudeau would use the October Crisis as a reason for his "Priority One" of internal security. In keeping with Trudeau's "Priority One" of internal security as the prime mission of the Canadian Forces, throughout the 1970s the Canadian Forces were described as having "stagnated", with budget cuts reducing both the size of the Canadian Forces and the amount of equipment available for operations. In 1976, as a favour to his close personal friend, West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and to improve trade talks with the European Economic Community, the Trudeau government purchased 128 German Leopard tanks for Mobile Command. The Leopard tanks were already outclassed by Red Army T-72s and would have served little purpose in the event of World War Three, but were felt to be useful for "Priority One". Likewise, 400 Swiss-built armoired vehicles were purchased and stationed at various bases and armouries across the country that were meant for the "Priority One" of putting down riots, not war, through their purpose was described only as "peacekeeping". Reflecting the "Priority One" of internal security, by the end of the 1970s the Mobile Command had become an internal security force that was not capable of fighting a major conventional war. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3110164 | 1,127,167 |
776,957 | In a typical graded-"Z" shield, the high-"Z" layer effectively scatters protons and electrons. It also absorbs gamma rays, which produces X-ray fluorescence. Each subsequent layer absorbs the X-ray fluorescence of the previous material, eventually reducing the energy to a suitable level. Each decrease in energy produces Bremsstrahlung and Auger electrons, which are below the detector's energy threshold. Some designs also include an outer layer of aluminium, which may simply be the skin of the satellite. The effectiveness of a material as a biological shield is related to its cross-section for scattering and absorption, and to a first approximation is proportional to the total mass of material per unit area interposed along the line of sight between the radiation source and the region to be protected. Hence, shielding strength or "thickness" is conventionally measured in units of g/cm. The radiation that manages to get through falls exponentially with the thickness of the shield. In x-ray facilities, walls surrounding the room with the x-ray generator may contain lead shielding such as lead sheets, or the plaster may contain barium sulfate. Operators view the target through a leaded glass screen, or if they must remain in the same room as the target, wear lead aprons. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=333692 | 776,541 |
472,449 | Historically, multiple tuning systems have been used that can be seen as slight variations of 12-TEDO, with twelve notes per octave but with some variation among interval sizes so that the notes are not quite equally-spaced. One example of this a three-limit scale where equally-tempered perfect fifths of 700 cents are replaced with justly-intoned perfect fifths of 701.955 cents. Because the two intervals differ by less than 2 cents, or of an octave, the two scales are very similar. In fact, the Chinese developed 3-limit just intonation at least a century before He Chengtian created the sequence of 12-TEDO. Likewise, Pythagorean tuning, which was developed by ancient Greeks, was the predominant system in Europe until during the Renaissance, when Europeans realized that dissonant intervals such as could be made more consonant by tempering them to simpler ratios like , resulting in Europe developing a series of meantone temperaments that slightly modified the interval sizes but could still be viewed as an approximate of 12-TEDO. Due to meantone temperaments' tendency to concentrate error onto one enharmonic perfect fifth, making it very dissonant, European music theorists, such as Andreas Werckmeister, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Francesco Antonio Vallotti, and Thomas Young, created various well temperaments with the goal of dividing up the commas in order to reduce the dissonance of the worst-affected intervals. Werckmeister and Kirnberger were each dissatisfied with his first temperament and therefore created multiple temperaments, the latter temperaments more closely approximating equal temperament than the former temperaments. Likewise, Europe as a whole gradually transitioned from meantone and well temperaments to 12-TEDO, the system that it still uses today. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3350774 | 472,213 |
167,954 | The use of infinitesimals by Leibniz relied upon heuristic principles, such as the law of continuity: what succeeds for the finite numbers succeeds also for the infinite numbers and vice versa; and the transcendental law of homogeneity that specifies procedures for replacing expressions involving unassignable quantities, by expressions involving only assignable ones. The 18th century saw routine use of infinitesimals by mathematicians such as Leonhard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Augustin-Louis Cauchy exploited infinitesimals both in defining continuity in his "Cours d'Analyse", and in defining an early form of a Dirac delta function. As Cantor and Dedekind were developing more abstract versions of Stevin's continuum, Paul du Bois-Reymond wrote a series of papers on infinitesimal-enriched continua based on growth rates of functions. Du Bois-Reymond's work inspired both Émile Borel and Thoralf Skolem. Borel explicitly linked du Bois-Reymond's work to Cauchy's work on rates of growth of infinitesimals. Skolem developed the first non-standard models of arithmetic in 1934. A mathematical implementation of both the law of continuity and infinitesimals was achieved by Abraham Robinson in 1961, who developed nonstandard analysis based on earlier work by Edwin Hewitt in 1948 and Jerzy Łoś in 1955. The hyperreals implement an infinitesimal-enriched continuum and the transfer principle implements Leibniz's law of continuity. The standard part function implements Fermat's adequality. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=160990 | 167,864 |
1,298,271 | Rydberg matter consists of usually hexagonal planar clusters; these cannot be very big because of the retardation effect caused by the finite velocity of the speed of light. Hence, they are not gases or plasmas; nor are they solids or liquids; they are most similar to dusty plasmas with small clusters in a gas. Though Rydberg matter can be studied in the laboratory by laser probing, the largest cluster reported consists of only 91 atoms, but it has been shown to be behind extended clouds in space and the upper atmosphere of planets. Bonding in Rydberg matter is caused by delocalisation of the high-energy electrons to form an overall lower energy state. The way in which the electrons delocalise is to form standing waves on loops surrounding nuclei, creating quantised angular momentum and the defining characteristics of Rydberg matter. It is a generalised metal by way of the quantum numbers influencing loop size but restricted by the bonding requirement for strong electron correlation; it shows exchange-correlation properties similar to covalent bonding. Electronic excitation and vibrational motion of these bonds can be studied by Raman spectroscopy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13662732 | 1,297,558 |
170,631 | "Red Mars" starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the "Ares", the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists. The ship was built from clustered space shuttle external fuel tanks which, instead of reentering Earth's atmosphere, had been boosted into orbit until enough had been amassed to build the ship. The mission is a joint American–Russian undertaking, and seventy of the First Hundred are drawn from these countries (except, for example, Michel Duval, a French psychologist assigned to observe their behavior). The book details the trip out, construction of the first settlement on Mars (eventually called Underhill) by Russian engineer Nadia Cherneshevsky, as well as establishing colonies on Mars' hollowed out asteroid-moon Phobos, the ever-changing relationships between the colonists, debates among the colonists regarding both the terraforming of the planet and its future relationship to Earth. The two extreme views on terraforming are personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and that it is humanity's obligation to spread life as it is the most scarce thing in the known universe, and Ann Clayborne, who stakes out the position that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=89970 | 170,541 |
1,415,858 | With applications requiring measurement of pressures between formula_3 and formula_7 Torr, the problem of ambient and process gases can be significantly reduced by replacing the OIS configuration with a CIS sampling system. Such an ionizer sits on top of the quadrupole mass filter and consists of a short, gas-tight tube with two openings for the entrance of electrons and exit of ions. The ions are formed close to a single extraction plate and exit the ionizer. Electrically insulated alumina rings seal the tube and the biased electrodes from the rest of the quadrupole mass assembly. The ions are produced by electron impact directly at the process pressure. Such design has been applied to gas chromatography mass spectrometry instruments before adaption by quadrupole gas analyzers. Most commercially available CIS systems operate between formula_8 and formula_9 Torr and offer ppm level detectability over the entire mass range for process pressures between formula_3 and formula_8 Torr. The upper limit is set by reduction in mean free path for ion-neutral collisions which takes place at higher pressures, and results in the scattering of ions and reduced sensitivity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2431954 | 1,415,061 |
1,209,048 | In Dresden, where he had done much composing in the past, Rachmaninoff began to think specifically about composing again. He wrote his friend and fellow exile Nikolai Medtner, "I've already started to work. Am moving slowly." After eight years of touring, he took a sabbatical at the end of 1925, working on the Fourth Concerto. He may have begun this work as early as 1911: the end of the slow movement from rehearsal number 39 has in the orchestral part the same nine-bar passage as the Etude-Tableau, Op. 33/3 from bar 30. This Etude-Tableau derives from 1911 and was pulled from the advertised publication in 1914. In fact it was not published at all during Rachmaninoff's lifetime. The April 12 issue of "Muzyka" points to 1914: While Rachmaninoff had gone to Ivanovka earlier than usual that year, in March, he did not return to Moscow that October with a finished composition, contrary to his usual custom. All he reportedly had were three sketch books and various separate sheets of manuscript paper. The composer brought this material with him from Russia in 1917; it is now housed in the Library of Congress. He may have also tinkered with sketches in his early years in the United States. Although composition at that time was for the most part out of the question, sketches for the finale of the concerto are on the back of the manuscript sheets of his cadenza for Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. These sheets are also at the Library of Congress. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2770760 | 1,208,401 |
1,913,551 | During the 2000s, Frieman led the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's (SDSS) Supernova Survey, which discovered over 500 type Ia supernovae, aiding the study of cosmic expansion. He also served as chair of the SDSS's Collaboration Council and co-chair of its Large-Scale Structure Working Group. In these roles, he led measurements of the large-scale structure of the universe and of weak gravitational lensing. Building on his work with SDSS, Frieman later co-founded and served as director of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with the goal of collecting data that would help physicists determine which theoretical models explaining the increasing rate of the expansion of the universe might be correct. The Dark Energy Survey began its observations in 2013 and concluded them in 2019. These observations produced a large amount of data, which the DES collaboration is still analyzing. In 2004, Frieman was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and also became a member of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics when the lab created the center that year. Frieman became head of Fermilab's Particle Physics Division in 2018. In 2019, the United States Department of Energy named him a DOE Office of Science Distinguished Scientists Fellow "for pioneering advances in the science of dark energy and cosmic acceleration, including leading the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey, co-founding the Dark Energy Survey and service as its Director." Frieman was also elected to a three-year term as president of the Aspen Center for Physics in 2019. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65658494 | 1,912,452 |
325,566 | The serpent and the staff appear to have been separate symbols that were combined at some point in the development of the Asclepian cult. The significance of the serpent has been interpreted in many ways; sometimes the shedding of skin and renewal is emphasized as symbolizing rejuvenation, while other assessments center on the serpent as a symbol that unites and expresses the dual nature of the work of the Apothecary Physician, who deals with life and death, sickness and health. The ambiguity of the serpent as a symbol, and the contradictions it is thought to represent, reflect the ambiguity of the use of drugs, which can help or harm, as reflected in the meaning of the term "pharmakon", which meant "drug", "medicine", and "poison" in ancient Greek. However the word may become less ambiguous when "medicine" is understood as something that heals the one taking it because it poisons that which afflicts it, meaning medicine is designed to kill or drive away something and any healing happens as a result of that thing being gone, not as a direct effect of "medicine". Products deriving from the bodies of snakes were known to have medicinal properties in ancient times, and in ancient Greece, at least some were aware that snake venom that might be fatal if it entered the bloodstream could often be imbibed. Snake venom appears to have been 'prescribed' in some cases as a form of therapy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=169650 | 325,393 |
1,511,853 | In 1833 Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Eduard Weber set up an experimental needle telegraph between their laboratory in the University of Göttingen and the university astronomical observatory about a mile and a half away where they were studying the Earth's magnetic field. The line consisted of a pair of copper wires on posts above rooftop height. The receiving instrument they used was a converted laboratory instrument, of which the so called needle was a large bar magnet weighing a pound. In 1834, they replaced the magnet with an even heavier one, variously reported as 25, 30, and 100 pounds. The magnet moved so minutely a telescope was required to observe a scale reflected from it by a mirror. The initial purpose of this line was not telegraphic at all. It was used to confirm the correctness or otherwise of the then recent work of Georg Ohm, that is, they were verifying Ohm's law. They quickly found other uses, the first of which was the synchronisation of clocks in the two buildings. Within a few months, they developed a telegraph code that allowed them to send arbitrary messages. Signalling speeds were around seven characters per minute. In 1835, they replaced the batteries of their telegraph with a large magneto-electric apparatus which generated telegraph pulses as the operator moved a coil relative to a bar magnet. This machine was made by Carl August von Steinheil. The Gauss and Weber telegraph remained in daily service until 1838. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55063141 | 1,511,003 |
857,217 | Melanophores contain eumelanin, a type of melanin, that appears black or dark-brown because of its light absorbing qualities. It is packaged in vesicles called melanosomes and distributed throughout the cell. Eumelanin is generated from tyrosine in a series of catalysed chemical reactions. It is a complex chemical containing units of dihydroxyindole and dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid with some pyrrole rings. The key enzyme in melanin synthesis is tyrosinase. When this protein is defective, no melanin can be generated resulting in certain types of albinism. In some amphibian species there are other pigments packaged alongside eumelanin. For example, a novel deep (wine) red-colour pigment was identified in the melanophores of phyllomedusine frogs. Some species of anole lizards, such as the "Anolis grahami", use melanocytes in response to certain signals and hormonal changes, and is capable of becoming colors ranging from bright blue, brown, and black. This was subsequently identified as pterorhodin, a pteridine dimer that accumulates around eumelanin core, and it is also present in a variety of tree frog species from Australia and Papua New Guinea. While it is likely that other lesser-studied species have complex melanophore pigments, it is nevertheless true that the majority of melanophores studied to date do contain eumelanin exclusively. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=190770 | 856,762 |
1,404,484 | During the First World War the Aerial Targets and subsequent DCBs were developed as ripostes to the Central Powers aerial bombing and naval blockade of Britain. The ATs involved the industrial efforts of at least three of the countries major aircraft companies along with the novel engine development of the "Gnat" engine by ABC Motors, the control system development by the Feltham Works and the integration and trials facilities of other RFC bases. The project was sustained over the worst years of the war when continued Munitions Inventions Department approval was required for such projects. The unit also provided radio controls for floating mines. The Feltham Works were one of the precursors of the R.A.E. who inherited the Feltham patents and AT hardware. They resumed development of Remote Piloted Vehicles through the interwar years, leading to the fleet of Queen Bee RPVs. In 1976 Low was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame and has been called the "Father of Radio Guidance Systems". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67154389 | 1,403,694 |
1,073,159 | During a 2001 interview with Gary Graff from "Wall of Sound Magazine", Maida recounted the inspiration for the lyrics of "Are You Sad". He was in New York recording "In Repair" at the old Hit Factory studio, which was later known as Avatar Studios. Following those sessions, Maida attempted to call his younger brother from his hotel room but couldn't get through. "When you're making a record, you kind of go into hiding, especially when I'm writing lyrics or writing music; I tend not to keep in touch with any friends or family or stuff. But my brother and I have a good relationship, and I want to keep it good. I couldn't get a hold of him for, like, a week, and I knew he was going through a shitty time — typical young-20s, no job, having a tough life. I wanted to talk to him desperately, and this song just came out of me, "Are You Sad?" It came out really quickly on a shitty travel guitar". The meaning of "If You Believe" was revealed in a 2001 interview with Cleveland.com, "That song's about having an out-of-body experience and seeing that the afterlife is real," Maida confirms, "and telling people that there's something machines can't have, and we've got it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1941326 | 1,072,605 |
1,137,270 | John "Pop" O' Farley was one of the most well-known and beloved Notre Dame figures at the time. A native of Paterson, in 1897 he came to Notre Dame to study for the priesthood. A gifted athlete, he earned nine varsity monograms: four in football, four in baseball, and one in track. As a senior, he was the captain of the 1900 Notre Dame football team, with a 6-3-1 record under head coach Pat O'Dea. He graduated in 1901, entered Holy Cross Seminary, and ordained a Holy Cross priest in 1907. He spent the remaining 32 years of his life at Notre Dame, with the exception of some years at the University of Portland. He served as the rector for Corby, Walsh, and Sorin Halls, where he gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian and thanks to his track speed, he could chase rule breakers across the campus. He was known to patrol the streets of South Bend, by driving the university's horse-powered “Skive Wagon.” Despite his gruff attitude and the fact he never taught classes or preached on campus, he was known as a great counselor for students and was much beloved and a campus favorite, and he earned the paternal nickname "Pop". As a rector, he was involved in his dorm's interhall sports competitions, and did not miss attending sports events even after his leg was amputated after he suffered a stroke in 1937. He died on January 15, 1939 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. In his honor, the Rev. John Francis "Pop" Farley, C.S.C. Award has been awarded since 1977 to university employees who distinguished themselves in service to students. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15873547 | 1,136,677 |
629,772 | Large-scale questions in science, such as real world evidence, global warming, invasive species spread, and resource depletion, are increasingly requiring the collection of disparate data sets for meta-analysis. This type of data integration is especially challenging for ecological and environmental data because metadata standards are not agreed upon and there are many different data types produced in these fields. National Science Foundation initiatives such as Datanet are intended to make data integration easier for scientists by providing cyberinfrastructure and setting standards. The five funded Datanet initiatives are DataONE, led by William Michener at the University of New Mexico; The Data Conservancy, led by Sayeed Choudhury of Johns Hopkins University; SEAD: Sustainable Environment through Actionable Data, led by Margaret Hedstrom of the University of Michigan; the DataNet Federation Consortium, led by Reagan Moore of the University of North Carolina; and "Terra Populus", led by Steven Ruggles of the University of Minnesota. The Research Data Alliance, has more recently explored creating global data integration frameworks. The OpenPHACTS project, funded through the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative, built a drug discovery platform by linking datasets from providers such as European Bioinformatics Institute, Royal Society of Chemistry, UniProt, WikiPathways and DrugBank. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4780372 | 629,434 |
1,409,038 | In order to present detailed mathematical equation derivations, the show employed a technique its creators called the "algebraic ballet". Computer animation presented derivations in step-by-step detail, but rapidly and with touches of whimsy, such as algebraic terms being canceled by a Monty Python-esque stomping foot or the hand of God from Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam". Blinn felt that "Cosmos" had taken itself "too seriously", and so he aimed to include more humor in the "Mechanical Universe" animations. The goal was to avoid putting the viewers' "brains into a 60-cycle hum", without sacrificing rigor; the creators intended that students could learn the overall gist of each derivation from the animation, and then study the details using the accompanying textbook. Computer animation was also used to portray idealizations of physical systems, like simulated billiard balls illustrating Newton's laws of motion. Blinn had used some of the same software earlier to visualize the interaction of DNA and DNA polymerase for "Cosmos". One commenter deemed these animations "particularly useful in providing students with subjective insights into dynamic three-dimensional phenomena such as magnetic fields". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4840666 | 1,408,247 |
179,592 | A number of countries adopted Bertillon's system, which was based on the principle of distinguishing between general diseases and those localized to a particular organ or anatomical site, as used by the City of Paris for classifying deaths. Subsequent revisions represented a synthesis of English, German, and Swiss classifications, expanding from the original 44 titles to 161 titles. In 1898, the American Public Health Association (APHA) recommended that the registrars of Canada, Mexico, and the United States also adopt it. The APHA also recommended revising the system every 10 years to ensure the system remained current with medical practice advances. As a result, the first international conference to revise the International Classification of Causes of Death took place in 1900, with revisions occurring every ten years thereafter. At that time, the classification system was contained in one book, which included an Alphabetic Index as well as a Tabular List. The book was small compared with current coding texts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15459 | 179,499 |
916,361 | The advance party consists of the battery commander, his driver, first sergeant, gunnery sergeant, FDC guide, gun guides, and communications representatives. Initially the Party looks to find suitable positions for an artillery unit to perform fire missions from. Then they perform what is known as route reconnaissance. The primary purpose of this reconnaissance is to determine the suitability of the route of the unit's movement. Items to be analyzed include possible alternate routes, cover, concealment, location of obstacles, likely ambush sites, contaminated areas, route marking requirements, and the time and distance required to traverse the route. Several factors are taken into consideration. Once a location is determined and having arrived at the new position the advance party conducts a security sweep and prepares the position for occupation. The purpose of the advance party security with METT-T and the absence of enemy troops, mines, booby traps, NBC hazards, and so on. If these threats or conditions are present in the proposed position area, the advance party breaks contact with any enemy forces or marks minefield and hazards and moves on to find another position area. The battery commander can coordinate for additional assets, or augment the advance party with internal assets, to provide the additional ability to clear areas of small enemy forces, obstacles, and minefields. Natural cover must be used to the maximum. Security is continuous throughout advance party operations. Once a location is determined to be safe the advance party prepares the position for eventual howitzer emplacement. This consists of several procedures such as escorting each howitzer to its prepared position, setting up communications, providing the unit with its initial azimuth of fire, and providing each gun with an initial deflection. In the case of the U.S. Army, this entire process is covered in U.S. Army Field Manual 6-50 Chapter 2. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2146148 | 915,879 |
796,213 | On 25 August 2010 investigators from Canada and Sweden reported results from the first 10 people in the world treated with the biosynthetic corneas. Two years after having the corneas implanted, six of the 10 patients had improved vision. Nine of the 10 experienced cell and nerve regeneration, meaning that corneal cells and nerves grew into the implant. To make the material, the researchers placed a human gene that regulates the natural production of collagen into specially programmed yeast cells. They then molded the resulting material into the shape of a cornea. This research shows the potential for these bioengineered corneas but the outcomes in this study were not nearly as good as those achieved with human donor corneas. This may become an excellent technique, but right now it is still in the prototype stage and not ready for clinical use. The results were published in the journal "Science Translational Medicine". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1425134 | 795,788 |
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