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11,818 | The change would get Apollo 13 back to Earth in about four days' timethough with splashdown in the Indian Ocean, where NASA had few recovery forces. Jerry Bostick and other Flight Dynamics Officers (FIDOs) were anxious both to shorten the travel time and to move splashdown to the Pacific Ocean, where the main recovery forces were located. One option would shave 36 hours off the return time, but required jettisoning the SM; this would expose the CM's heat shield to space during the return journey, something for which it had not been designed. The FIDOs also proposed other solutions. After a meeting involving NASA officials and engineers, the senior individual present, Manned Spaceflight Center director Robert R. Gilruth, decided on a burn using the DPS, that would save 12 hours and land Apollo 13 in the Pacific. This "PC+2" burn would take place two hours after pericynthion, the closest approach to the Moon. At pericynthion, Apollo 13 set the record (per the "Guinness Book of World Records"), which still stands, for the highest absolute altitude attained by a crewed spacecraft: from Earth at 7:21 pm EST, April 14 (00:21:00 UTC April 15). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1770 | 11,813 |
45,875 | In 2015, Notre Dame announced major environmental sustainability goals, including eliminating using coal by 2020 and reducing its carbon footprint by half by 2030. Both these goals were reached in early 2019. This was achieved by implementing energy conservation, energy efficiency strategies, temperature setpoints, low-flow water devices, and diversifying its energy sources and infrastructures. New sources of renewable energy on campus include geothermal wells on East Quad and by the Notre Dame Stadium, substitution of boilers with gas turbines, solar panels on Fitzpatrick Hall and Stinson-Remick Hall and off-campus, a hydroelectric facility at Seitz Park in South Bend powered by the St. Joseph River, and heat recovery strategies. Future projects outlined by the university's utilities long-range plan include continual diversification of its energy portfolio, future geothermal wells in new buildings and some existing facilities, and a collaboration with the South Bend Solar Project. Current goals include cutting Notre Dame's carbon footprint by 83 percent by 2050 and eventually becoming carbon neutral, diverting 67 percent of all waste from landfills by 2030. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=146269 | 45,857 |
1,000,723 | By the 1980s, radiation therapy was also becoming an attractive option for VS patients. At the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Lars Leksell (1907–1986) pioneered Gamma Knife radiosurgery. In 1951, he published his landmark scientific paper, "The Stereotaxic Method and Radiosurgery of the Brain," defining radiosurgery as "the destruction of intracranial targets without opening the skull using very high doses of ionizing radiation in stereotactically directed beams." The first Gamma Knife machine was operable in Sweden in 1969, and the first Gamma Knife in the U.S. was installed in 1987 at the Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Departments of radiation oncology at major medical centers began to modify X-ray linear accelerators (linacs) to do single-session radiosurgery and multiple-session radiotherapy. In 1991, the U.S. National Institutes of Health convened a Consensus Development Conference (December 11–13, 1991) for Acoustic Neuroma (Vestibular Schwannoma) to evaluate management of the disorder and recommend areas for future activity and research." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1002770 | 1,000,205 |
1,454,137 | Illegibility from handwritten prescriptions is eliminated, decreasing the risk of medication errors while simultaneously decreasing risks related to liability. Oral miscommunications regarding prescriptions can be reduced, as e-prescribing should decrease the need for phone calls between prescribers and dispensers. Causes of medication errors include mistakes by the pharmacist incorrectly interpreting illegible handwriting or ambiguous nomenclature, and lapses in the prescriber's knowledge of desired dosage of a drug or undesired interactions between multiple drugs. Electronic prescribing has the potential to eliminate most of these types of errors. Warning and alert systems are provided at the point of care. E-prescribing systems can enhance an overall medication management process through clinical decision support systems that can perform checks against the patient's current medications for drug-drug interactions, drug-allergy interactions, diagnoses, body weight, age, drug appropriateness, and correct dosing. Based on these algorithms, the system can alert prescribers to contradictions, adverse reactions, and duplicate therapies. The computer can also ensure that clear and unambiguous instructions are encoded in a structured message to the pharmacist, and decision support systems can flag lethal dosages and lethal combinations of drugs. E-prescribing allows for increased access to the patient's medical records and their medication history. Having access to this information from all health care providers at the time of prescribing can support alerts related to drug inappropriateness, in combination with other medications or with specific medical issues at hand. Electronic prescribing has been shown to reduce prescribing errors by up to 30%. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19686742 | 1,453,319 |
2,156,451 | To tackle the virus and get the majority of the population vaccinated, most nations have come up with a scheme. This mainly gives priority to those working in the healthcare field, coming down to those over the age of 65, as well as people with underlying health conditions, moving down the list to the general public usually by age groups. Israel has been the first in proving that the vaccines are effective in reducing the number of cases and deaths. However, different parts of the world are at different rates when it comes to the rollout of vaccines. Despite over 1 billion doses (data from May 2021) being administered around the world; the United States, China, India, and the UK seem to be in the lead with getting their people immune. With the need for approval, the companies that are available on the market remain limited. It’s been reported that Oxford’s Astra-Zeneca has been the most globally widely used vaccine followed by Pfizer-BioNTech. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63936969 | 2,155,220 |
1,308,252 | On a 1989 sabbatical he met virologist Jian Zhou, and the two considered the problem of developing a vaccine for HPV – a virus that cannot be cultured without living tissue. Frazer convinced Zhou to join him, and in 1990 they began to use molecular biology to synthesize particles in vitro that could mimic the virus. In March 1991 Zhou's wife and fellow researcher, Xiao-Yi Sun, assembled by Zhou's instructions two proteins into a virus-like particle (VLP), resembling the HPV shell, from which HPV vaccine would ultimately be made. The vaccine completely protects unexposed women against four HPV strains responsible for 70% of cervical cancers, which kill about 250,000 women annually. Frazer and Zhou filed a provisional patent in June 1991 and began work on developing the vaccine within UQ. To finance clinical trials, Australian medical company CSL, and later Merck, were sold partial patents. (CSL has the exclusive license to sell Gardasil in New Zealand and Australia, Merck the license elsewhere.) GlaxoSmithKline independently used the same VLP-approach to develop Cervarix, under a later US patent, licensing Frazer's intellectual property in 2005. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3839699 | 1,307,536 |
892,639 | In comparison, the Super-Jupiter design was based on off-the-shelf components, with the exception of the E-1 engines. Although it too relied on the Centaur for high-altitude missions, the rocket was usable for low-Earth orbit without Centaur, which offered some flexibility in case Centaur ran into problems. ARPA agreed that the Juno proposal was more likely to meet the timeframes required, although they felt that there was no strong reason to use the E-1, and recommended a lower-risk approach here as well. ABMA responded with a new design, the Juno V (as a continuation of the Juno I and Juno II series of rockets, while Juno III and IV were unbuilt Atlas- and Titan-derived concepts), which replaced the four E-1 engines with eight H-1s, a much more modest upgrade of the existing S-3D already used on the Thor and Jupiter missiles, raising thrust from 150,000 to 188,000 lbf (670 to 840 kN). It was estimated that this approach would save as much as $60 million in development and cut as much as two years of R&D time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=387135 | 892,170 |
1,133,597 | Critics of the bill argued that the deadline for meeting the standards was unnecessarily delayed until 2006—a period of 12 years—to enforce better water quality. They also maintained that it did not force sugarcane farmers, who were the primary polluters, to pay enough of the costs, and increased the threshold of what was an acceptable amount of phosphorus in water from 10 ppb to 50 ppb. Governor Chiles initially named it the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act, but Douglas was so unimpressed with the action it took against polluters that she wrote to Chiles and demanded her name be stricken from it. Despite criticism, the Florida legislature passed the Act in 1994. The SFWMD stated that its actions have exceeded expectations earlier than anticipated, by creating Stormwater Treatment Areas (STA) within the EAA that contain a calcium-based substance such as lime rock layered between peat, and filled with calcareous periphyton. Early tests by the Army Corps of Engineers revealed this method reduced phosphorus levels from 80 ppb to 10 ppb. The STAs are intended to treat water until the phosphorus levels are low enough to be released into the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge or other WCAs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17601646 | 1,133,004 |
1,849,308 | The Forest of Dean, situated between the rivers Severn and Wye, is formed of a raised basin of Palaeozoic rocks folded in the Variscan Orogeny, similar to the South Wales Coalfield to the west. Underlain by great thicknesses of the Old Red Sandstone, the basin is filled with Carboniferous limestones, sandstones and coal measures - all of which have contributed to the industrial history of the region. Sometimes called ‘the prettiest coalfield in Britain’, the Forest's main coal output was in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, although for hundreds of years coal has been won in the area via ‘free-mines’, which could only be operated by local people known as freeminers. One or two survive today. Small-scale mining has been enabled by the exposed nature of the coalfield, with seams often outcropping at surface. Iron-ore has been extracted from labyrinthine mines or 'Scowles' in the limestone since at least Roman times. Several large quarries are still at work in the area, providing Carboniferous Limestone for road surfacing and also Pennant sandstone (see picture) - a popular building stone used notably by Thomas Telford for the Over road bridge, spanning the River Severn near Gloucester. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10426101 | 1,848,250 |
1,724,344 | In yet another high-profile case involving a Director of an Indian technical institute, a web campaign, similar to the campaign started by physicists in India, reported plagiarism in papers published by Prof. Kalyan Kumar and colleagues at North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, NERIST, India. Three papers have been reported to have similarity to works reported earlier. Two of these, "Improved PID controller using fuzzy precompensated algorithm for PMBLDC motor drive" ("AMSE Advances in Modelling and Analysis C", Volume 61, number 1-2, January 2006, Page (s) 1–15) and "Optimum PI controller for Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor" ("Electrical Review", Volume 12, No 6, June 2005, Pages 16 –23) have been shown to be very similar to earlier papers by Bhim Singh, AHN Reddy and SS Murthy of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The papers of Singh, Reddy and Murthy, viz "Hybrid fuzzy logic proportional plus conventional integral-derivative controller for permanent magnet brushless DC motor" ("IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology 2000", Volume 2, 19–22 January 2000, pp. 185–191) and "Gain Scheduling Control of Permanent Magnet Brushless dc Motor" ("Journal of Institution of Engineers" : India EL, Vol 84, September 2003 ) predate the papers of Kumar and Singh by five years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13951842 | 1,723,374 |
736,215 | The NCAA, like the NFL, has been criticized for its handling of concussions, with numerous players having retired from football due to concussions, or have filed lawsuits against the association for failing to protect student-athletes from concussions. In 2011, former players Derek Owens and Alex Rucks filed lawsuits against the association for failing to cover the players' safety. Both Owens and Rucks claimed that they had suffered brain trauma which could have been prevented. In 2012, the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten Conference began work on preventing concussions, and appointed University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones to evaluate and review existing research and various diagnoses from past analyses. In 2009, an NCAA panel created and recommended a rule that prevents athletes from returning to a game after sustaining a concussion. The panel also had recommended for an athlete to be sidelined after any concussion-related injury until the athlete was cleared by a doctor. Under the new plan, all student-athletes must sign statements saying that they will report all signs and symptoms of concussions to their coaches. In addition, all athletes must have baseline cognitive testing while the post-injury cognitive testing is strongly recommended. The athletes diagnosed with concussions must be removed from sports for a minimum of one day and can only return when decided by a team physician. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36082813 | 735,828 |
1,040,361 | In early detection of ankylosis, radiographic examination is not effective because it only produces 2-dimensional graphic. This means that the ankylosed site would not be apparent if it is not perpendicular to the x-ray beam. Therefore, it is impossible to identify ankylosis in some areas using x-ray, for instance, buccal or lingual root surface. To overcome such difficulty, cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) is adopted to provide a 3-dimensional image for better clinical inspection of ankylosis. In a recent research article, a retrospective cohort study was conducted where a wide range of teeth clinically diagnosed as ankylosed were collected and analyzed. The histological sections of each tooth obtained from the CBCT scan were then evaluated by two specialists blinded to the details of the research to ensure the fairness and objectivity of the result. As a result, all histologically established ankylosed teeth were identified by both observers provided with the CBCT image but some false positive results were obtained. It is concluded that CBCT scan can be used as a feasible and effective diagnostic method when it comes to the detection of tooth ankylosis. However, it is not recommended to treat CBCT image as the sole model in the identification of ankylosed teeth unless the false positive results are being eliminated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47234919 | 1,039,818 |
1,307,936 | In December 2020, Balakrishnan received the Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science, the most prestigious award that recognizes achievements in science and research in India, "for his broad contributions to computer networking, his seminal work on mobile and wireless systems, and for commercial use of mobile telematics to improve driver behavior and make roads safer around the world." He received the 2021 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award for "broad contributions to computer networking and mobile and wireless systems". He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2015 for contributions to networks and distributed systems, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. He was elected as a Fellow of the IEEE in 2020, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 2008, and as a Fellow of the Sloan Foundation in 2002. He received MIT’s prestigious Harold E. Edgerton prize for research and teaching excellence in 2003. His PhD thesis on reliable data transport over wireless networks won the 1998 ACM doctoral dissertation award for best thesis in computer science. He has also received several best paper awards including the 2004 IEEE William R. Bennett Prize, and six "test of time" awards for papers with long-term impact. In 2021, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in Computer Science from the EECS Department of the University of California at Berkeley, and in 2013, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26591381 | 1,307,220 |
112,101 | As a result, the input current of such basic switched mode power supplies has high harmonic content and relatively low power factor. This creates extra load on utility lines, increases heating of building wiring, the utility transformers, and standard AC electric motors, and may cause stability problems in some applications such as in emergency generator systems or aircraft generators. Harmonics can be removed by filtering, but the filters are expensive. Unlike displacement power factor created by linear inductive or capacitive loads, this distortion cannot be corrected by addition of a single linear component. Additional circuits are required to counteract the effect of the brief current pulses. Putting a current regulated boost chopper stage after the off-line rectifier (to charge the storage capacitor) can correct the power factor, but increases the complexity and cost. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=223407 | 112,056 |
1,301,696 | As boiler design improved heat transfer efficiency, blast pipe diameters increased to reduce back pressure, and blastpipes became shorter, discharging below the chimney rather than within it. Ross Winans placed conical "petticoat pipes" above blastpipes about 1848 to form the convergent portion of a venturi tube, with the chimney forming the divergent portion. Improved understanding of compressible flow encouraged more sophisticated blastpipe and venturi chimney designs. George Jackson Churchward, working at Swindon on the Great Western Railway, formulated a simple equation for calculating the ideal dimensions for chimneys, which worked well for the early years of the 20th century, but become outdated as engine powers increased. André Chapelon in France continued to work on chimney dimensions, and studied them in conjunction with blastpipe dimensions, as a complete exhaust system. That led to his famous Kylchap system, which was fitted to many classes of locomotives worldwide. Even after the end of commercial steam in most of the developed world, the Argentinean engineer Livio Dante Porta continued to work on developing steam locomotive exhaust systems, including refining equations to give better chimney dimensions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28536326 | 1,300,982 |
1,872,818 | On September 13, 2013, two recreational cavers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, discovered a previously unknown, remote chamber within the well known Rising Star cave system. Discovering the floor of this chamber (now known as the Dinaledi Chamber or UW-101) littered with human-like bones, the pair reported their finds to a colleague, who in turn brought them to the attention of Berger. Recognizing their importance, and unable to access the chamber himself due to his size, Berger organized an expedition over social media that brought six qualified researchers in from around the world to commence an excavation of the remains in November 2013. An early career workshop was organized in May 2014 that brought together 54 local and international scientists to describe and study the more than 1550 fossils recovered. In September 2015, the team announced "Homo naledi" as a new hominin species, citing its unique mosaic of more ancestral and human-like traits. Other fossil bearing localities in the system were given the site numbers 102 to 104, though research regarding them has not yet been published. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11288671 | 1,871,741 |
1,077,120 | Additional signs and symptoms in school-age children include bed wetting, episodes of vomiting, reduced sensitivity to temperature changes and pain, poor balance, abnormal curvature of the spine (scoliosis), poor bone quality and increased risk of bone fractures, and kidney and heart problems. Affected individuals also have poor regulation of blood pressure. They may experience a sharp drop in blood pressure upon standing (orthostatic hypotension), which can cause dizziness, blurred vision, or fainting. They can also have episodes of high blood pressure when nervous or excited, or during vomiting incidents. About one-third of children with familial dysautonomia have learning disabilities, such as a short attention span, that require special education classes. By adulthood, affected individuals often have increasing difficulties with balance and walking unaided. Other problems that may appear in adolescence or early adulthood include lung damage due to repeated infections, impaired kidney function, and worsening vision due to the shrinking size (atrophy) of optic nerves, which carry information from the eyes to the brain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17596014 | 1,076,565 |
284,150 | By far the most common and perhaps standard form of ionization is electron ionization (EI). The molecules enter into the MS (the source is a quadrupole or the ion trap itself in an ion trap MS) where they are bombarded with free electrons emitted from a filament, not unlike the filament one would find in a standard light bulb. The electrons bombard the molecules, causing the molecule to fragment in a characteristic and reproducible way. This "hard ionization" technique results in the creation of more fragments of low mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) and few, if any, molecules approaching the molecular mass unit. Hard ionization is considered by mass spectrometrists as the employ of molecular electron bombardment, whereas "soft ionization" is charge by molecular collision with an introduced gas. The molecular fragmentation pattern is dependent upon the electron energy applied to the system, typically 70 eV (electronvolts). The use of 70 eV facilitates comparison of generated spectra with library spectra using manufacturer-supplied software or software developed by the National Institute of Standards (NIST-USA). Spectral library searches employ matching algorithms such as Probability Based Matching and dot-product matching that are used with methods of analysis written by many method standardization agencies. Sources of libraries include NIST, Wiley, the AAFS, and instrument manufacturers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=846892 | 283,997 |
56,259 | The 1905 patent by Alfred Büchi, a Swiss engineer working at Sulzer is often considered the birth of the turbocharger. This patent was for a compound radial engine with an exhaust-driven axial flow turbine and compressor mounted on a common shaft. The first prototype was finished in 1915 with the aim of overcoming the power loss experienced by aircraft engines due to the decreased density of air at high altitudes. However, the prototype was not reliable and did not reach production. Another early patent for turbochargers was applied for in 1916 by French steam turbine inventor Auguste Rateau, for their intended use on the Renault engines used by French fighter planes. Separately, testing in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and Sanford Alexander Moss showed that a turbocharger could enable an engine to avoid any power loss (compared with the power produced at sea level) at an altitude of up to above sea level. The testing was conducted at Pikes Peak in the United States using the Liberty L-12 aircraft engine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30886 | 56,235 |
1,871,267 | More focus is being directed on interactions between humans and native pollinators, such as "M. campanulae". These relationships are complex, involving issues of habitat loss, pesticides and toxin exposures, climate change, and other effects on the environment. The species "M. campunulae" pollinates of a wide array of flowers and crops. The significance of contributions from native pollinators is gaining increased attention in the wake of declines in managed bee populations. Such declines have received substantial press, especially in relation to colony collapse disorder. In 2013, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer introduced H. R. 2692 the "Save America's Pollinators Act". In addition, an International Pollinator Initiative has been developed by the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations working group. A similar project, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign might more directly address issues specific to "M. campanuale". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42898392 | 1,870,190 |
250,346 | All phasmids possess compound eyes, but ocelli (light-sensitive organs) are only known from the five groups Lanceocercata, Necrosciinae, Pseudophasmatidae, Palophidae and Phylliidae. Of these only the first three groups have females with ocelli, which like the wings seems to have re-evolved from ancestors that had lost them. Phasmids have an impressive visual system that allows them to perceive significant detail even in dim conditions, which suits their typically nocturnal lifestyle. They are born equipped with tiny compound eyes with a limited number of facets. As phasmids grow through successive molts, the number of facets in each eye is increased along with the number of photoreceptor cells. The sensitivity of the adult eye is at least tenfold that of the nymph in its first instar (developmental stage). As the eye grows more complex, the mechanisms to adapt to dark/light changes are also enhanced: eyes in dark conditions evidence fewer screening pigments, which would block light, than during the daytime, and changes in the width of the retinal layer to adapt to changes in available light are significantly more pronounced in adults. The larger size of the adult insects' eyes makes them more prone to radiation damage. This explains why fully grown individuals are mostly nocturnal. Lessened sensitivity to light in the newly emerged insects helps them to escape from the leaf litter wherein they are hatched and move upward into the more brightly illuminated foliage. Young stick insects are diurnal (daytime) feeders and move around freely, expanding their foraging range. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=341989 | 250,214 |
318,599 | This first-class method uses each galaxy in a catalog as its target and then uses the Nearest Neighbor Approximation to calculate the cosmic density in the region contained in a spherical radius determined by the distance to the third-closest galaxy. El Ad & Piran introduced this method in 1997 to allow a quick and effective method for standardizing the cataloging of voids. Once the spherical cells are mined from all of the structure data, each cell is expanded until the underdensity returns to average expected wall density values. One of the helpful features of void regions is that their boundaries are very distinct and defined, with a cosmic mean density that starts at 10% in the body and quickly rises to 20% at the edge and then to 100% in the walls directly outside the edges. The remaining walls and overlapping void regions are then gridded into, respectively, distinct and intertwining zones of filaments, clusters, and near-empty voids. Any overlap of more than 10% with already known voids are considered to be subregions within those known voids. All voids admitted to the catalog had a minimum radius of 10 Mpc in order to ensure all identified voids were not accidentally cataloged due to sampling errors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42644968 | 318,428 |
2,035,031 | Founded in 1978 as the Firestone Regional Chest and Allergy Unit (FRCAU), the institute was designated as the Regional Referral Center by the District Health Council. The institute has maintained this designation, and as of 2006, it services the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network, a community of 1.4 million people. The institute's research developed in collaboration with clinical activities in order to comprehensively investigate mechanisms and outcomes. Accordingly, a number of asthma and COPD initiatives were launched, including the development of standardized techniques for symptom assessment, airflow limitation and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Further investigations have included studies of exercise and allergen-induced bronchoconstriction as well as epidemiological studies examining the relationship between prevalence of respiratory illness and pollution. From 2004-2005, the institute was relocated to four floors of the brand new Juravinski Innovation Tower, where more modern research laboratories and expanded clinical facilities were available. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21444573 | 2,033,858 |
1,332,516 | Geophysical methods used in archaeology are largely adapted from those used in mineral exploration, engineering, and geology. Archaeological mapping presents unique challenges, however, which have spurred a separate development of methods and equipment. In general, geological applications are concerned with detecting relatively large structures, often as deeply as possible. In contrast, most archaeological sites are relatively near the surface, often within the top meter of earth. Instruments are often configured to limit the depth of response to better resolve the near-surface phenomena that are likely to be of interest. Another challenge is to detect subtle and often very small features – which may be as ephemeral as organic staining from decayed wooden posts - and distinguish them from rocks, roots, and other natural “clutter.” To accomplish this requires not only sensitivity, but also high density of data points, usually at least one and sometimes dozens of readings per square meter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=275496 | 1,331,787 |
628,764 | The Parchims were also provided with capable anti-submarine warfare weapons. The torpedo tubes were loaded with acoustical and/or wire guided torpedoes. This gave the Parchims a precision submarine strike capability. The two RBU-6000 depth charge rocket launchers created a barrier defense against submarines, incoming torpedoes and frogmen. Though relatively unsophisticated by western standards, the RBU-6000 was a very successful and popular system, used on many small or large surface ships. It consisted of a twelve launch tubes for unguided rockets, armed with a compact but powerful depth charge. Rockets were directed by simply changing the angle of the tubes and thereby the ballistics of the unguided rockets. The launcher could elevate between -15° and +60°, and could traverse 180°, with each launcher thus covering one side of the ship. Range was between 350 m and 6000 m, and the charges could reach 500 m deep. The rockets, RGB-60's, weighed of which was a high-explosive warhead. The ammunition was swiftly and automatically reloaded from a magazine below deck, by turning the tubes 90° vertically. Maximum magazine capacity was 96 rounds. The whole system was remotely directed by the "Burya" fire control system. The RBU-6000 could also be used for shore bombardment. The Parchims were also able to simply drop bigger and more powerful depth charges, and could transport and lay up to 60 mines. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8758180 | 628,428 |
469,398 | Microreactor "Technology" (MRT), making part of "process intensification", is a relatively new tool that is being developed at several universities, as well as leading fine chemical companies, such as Bayer Technology Services, Germany; Clariant, Switzerland; Evonik-Degussa, Germany; DSM, The Netherlands; Lonza, Switzerland; PCAS, France, and Sigma-Aldrich, US. The latter company produces about 50 fine chemicals up to multi-kilogram quantities in microreactors. From a technological point of view, MRT, a.k.a. continuous flow reactors, represents the first breakthrough development in reactor design since the introduction of the stirred-tank reactor, which was used by Perkin & Sons, when they established a factory on the banks of what was then the Grand Junction Canal in London in 1857 to produce mauveïne, the first-ever synthetic purple dye. For a comprehensive coverage of the subject see "Micro Process Engineering". Examples for reactions that have worked in microreactors include aromatics oxidations, diazomethane conversions, Grignards, halogenations, hydrogenations, nitrations, and Suzuki couplings. According to experts in the field, 70% of all chemical reactions could be done in microreactors, however only 10-15% are economically justified. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3694845 | 469,162 |
168,531 | Early examples of legal enactments designed to consciously preserve the environment, for its own sake or human enjoyment, are found throughout history. In the common law, the primary protection was found in the law of nuisance, but this only allowed for private actions for damages or injunctions if there was harm to land. Thus, smells emanating from pigsties, strict liability against dumping rubbish, or damage from exploding dams. Private enforcement, however, was limited and found to be woefully inadequate to deal with major environmental threats, particularly threats to common resources. During the "Great Stink" of 1858, the dumping of sewerage into the River Thames began to smell so ghastly in the summer heat that Parliament had to be evacuated. Ironically, the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers Act 1848 had allowed the Metropolitan Commission for Sewers to close cesspits around the city in an attempt to "clean up" but this simply led people to pollute the river. In 19 days, Parliament passed a further Act to build the London sewerage system. London also suffered from terrible air pollution, and this culminated in the "Great Smog" of 1952, which in turn triggered its own legislative response: the Clean Air Act 1956. The basic regulatory structure was to set limits on emissions for households and businesses (particularly burning of coal) while an inspectorate would enforce compliance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10091 | 168,441 |
68,737 | When Celestials literally began "raining" down on Earth, the Avengers are forced to reunite again and just in time to see the arrival of the Final Host which is composed of Dark Celestials that are each physically unique and were the ones who easily took down their brethren. In an attempt to learn more about these new breed of Celestials, Iron Man and Doctor Strange travelled to the Mountains of Greece in order to try to get some answers from The Eternals. When Stark and Strange arrived, there were no signs of life to be found as almost all of the Eternals were dead, with Strange deducing that the wounds were self-inflicted. Only Ikaris was left barely alive and reveals that the Eternals were never meant to protect Humanity as they thought. Instead, because the Celestials saw the human population as a useful pathogen to act as antibodies against the Horde, the Eternals were created to defend the process under the false impression that they were actually protecting the human race. This discovery drove all Eternals mad which either made them turn against each other or commit suicide. Ikaris is also able to reveal that the only way to prevent the Final Host from unleashing the Horde is the Uni-Mind and sends a message into Stark's mind before dying. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=705418 | 68,710 |
716,917 | "Maqāṣid" (aims or purposes) of sharia and "maṣlaḥa" (welfare or public interest) are two related classical doctrines which have come to play an increasingly prominent role in modern times. They were first clearly articulated by al-Ghazali (d. 1111 C.E/ 505 A.H), who argued that "maslaha" was God's general purpose in revealing the divine law, and that its specific aim was preservation of five essentials of human well-being: religion, life, intellect, offspring, and property. Although most classical-era jurists recognized "maslaha" and "maqasid" as important legal principles, they held different views regarding the role they should play in Islamic law. Some jurists viewed them as auxiliary rationales constrained by scriptural sources and analogical reasoning. Others regarded them as an independent source of law, whose general principles could override specific inferences based on the letter of scripture. While the latter view was held by a minority of classical jurists, in modern times it came to be championed in different forms by prominent scholars who sought to adapt Islamic law to changing social conditions by drawing on the intellectual heritage of traditional jurisprudence. These scholars expanded the inventory of "maqasid" to include such aims of sharia as reform and women's rights (Rashid Rida); justice and freedom (Mohammed al-Ghazali); and human dignity and rights (Yusuf al-Qaradawi). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1311096 | 716,540 |
796,980 | An endless stream of technological waste accumulates in different spatial configurations across the planet and turns into a predator in our soils, our streams, and our oceans. This idea was similarly expressed in 1954 by ecologist Paul Sears: "We do not know whether to cherish the forest as a source of essential raw materials and other benefits or to remove it for the space it occupies. We expect a river to serve as both vein and artery carrying away waste but bringing usable material in the same channel. Nature long ago discarded the nonsense of carrying poisonous wastes and nutrients in the same vessels." Ecologists use population ecology to model contaminants as competitors or predators. Rachel Carson was an ecological pioneer in this area as her book "Silent Spring" inspired research into biomagification and brought to the world's attention the unseen pollutants moving into the food chains of the planet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32086658 | 796,555 |
1,022,913 | One simple solution is to put a gap between the commutator plates which is wider than the ends of the brushes. This increases the zero-torque range of angular positions but eliminates the shorting problem; if the motor is started spinning by an outside force it will continue spinning. With this modification, it can also be effectively turned off simply by stalling (stopping) it in a position in the zero-torque (i.e. commutator non-contacting) angle range. This design is sometimes seen in homebuilt hobby motors, e.g. for science fairs and such designs can be found in some published science project books. A clear downside of this simple solution is that the motor now coasts through a substantial arc of rotation twice per revolution and the torque is pulsed. This may work for electric fans or to keep a flywheel spinning but there are many applications, even where starting and stopping are not necessary, for which it is completely inadequate, such as driving the capstan of a tape transport, or any similar instance where to speed up and slow down often and quickly is a requirement. Another disadvantage is that, since the coils have a measure of self inductance, current flowing in them cannot suddenly stop. The current attempts to jump the opening gap between the commutator segment and the brush, causing arcing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10004115 | 1,022,383 |
136,225 | During the early stages of design, the aircraft had grown from being roughly the same size as the Mosquito to being around double its weight. Although jet-powered, the Canberra design philosophy was very much in the Mosquito mould, providing room for a substantial bomb load, fitting two of the most powerful engines available, and wrapping it in the most compact and aerodynamic package possible, an example being a leading edge formed of a single sheet of light alloy wrapped around to 40% of chord, sitting on Redux-bonded stiffeners through which the ribs were passed, the panels secured with adjustable eye-bolts, enabling a highly accurate wing profile to be maintained from the leading edge to main spar without any external joints or fastenings. Also in line with the Mosquito philosophy, the Canberra by design dispensed with defensive armament, which had historically proven unequal to fighter aircraft, and the resulting performance gain permitted the Canberra to avoid air-to-air combat entirely. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=201787 | 136,170 |
354,134 | On 11 February 1944, the acting commander of the 4th Indian Division, Brigadier Dimoline, requested a bombing raid. Tuker reiterated again his case from a hospital bed in Caserta, where he was suffering a severe attack of a recurrent tropical fever. Freyberg transmitted his request on 12 February. The request, however, was greatly expanded by air force planners and probably supported by Eaker and Devers, who sought to use the opportunity to showcase the abilities of U.S. Army air power to support ground operations. Clark and his chief of staff Major General Alfred Gruenther remained unconvinced of the "military necessity". When handing over the U.S. II Corps position to the New Zealand Corps, Brigadier General J.A. Butler, deputy commander of U.S. 34th Division, had said "I don't know, but I don't believe the enemy is in the convent. All the fire has been from the slopes of the hill below the wall". Finally Clark, "who did not want the monastery bombed", pinned down the Commander-in-Chief Allied Armies in Italy, Alexander, to take the responsibility: "I said, 'You give me a direct order and we'll do it,' and he did." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33088 | 353,951 |
822,739 | Clinical presentation of CBD usually does not occur until age 60, with the earliest recorded diagnosis and subsequent postmortem verification being age 28. Although men and women present with the disease, some analysis has shown a predominant appearance of CBD in women. Current calculations suggest that the prevalence of CBD is approximately 4.9 to 7.3 per 100,000 people. The prognosis for an individual diagnosed with CBD is death within approximately eight years, although some patients have been diagnosed over 17 years ago (2017) and are still in relatively good standing, but with serious debilitation such as dysphagia, and overall limb rigidity. The partial (or total) use of a feeding tube may be necessary and will help prevent aspiration pneumonia, primary cause of death in CBD. Incontinence is common, as patients often can't express their need to go, due to eventual loss of speech. Therefore, proper hygiene is mandatory to prevent urinary tract infections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2844680 | 822,298 |
1,941,323 | The first of Bachhawat's major research findings came when he was working with Minor J. Coon at the University of Michigan. Both the scientists together discovered HMG-CoA lyase, an intermediate in the mevalonate and ketogenesis pathway, thus broadening the understanding of the "formation of ketone bodies in mammals", which was later elucidated further in his article "Enzymic cleavage of p-Hydroxy-f3-Methyl-Glutaryl coenzyme A 10 acetoacctate and acetyl coenzyme A.", published in 1995. On his return to India, he focused his studies on amino acids and inorganic sulphate metabolism, as well as glycosaminoglycan. His researches revealed, for the first time, that metachromatic leukodystrophy, an autosomal recessive disease, was caused by the absence of Arylsulfatase A, an enzyme responsible for the breaking down on sulfatides. This discovery assisted other scientists in the elucidation of similar glycolipid storage diseases such as Gaucher's disease and Tay–Sachs disease and in their prenatal diagnosis. His proposals on the biosynthesis and degradation of cerebroside-3-sulfate, a lipid found in high concentrations in patients afflicted with metachromatic leukodystrophy were known to have helped in the latter-day therapeutic protocols. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50565963 | 1,940,212 |
1,243,260 | The Y chromosome is found in the nucleus of normal cells (nuclear DNA). Unlike mtDNA, it has mutations in the non-recombinant portion (NRY) of the chromosome spaced widely apart, so far apart that finding the mutations on new Y chromosomes is labor-intensive compared with mtDNA. Many studies rely on tandem repeats; however, tandem repeats can expand and retract rapidly and in some predictable patterns. The Y chromosome only tracks male lines, and is not found in females, whereas mtDNA can be traced in males even though they fail to pass on mtDNA. In addition, it has been estimated that effective male populations in the prehistoric period were typically two females per male, and recent studies show that cultural hegemony plays a large role in the passage of Y. This has created discordance between males and females for the "Time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor" (TMRCA). The estimates for Y TMRCA range from 1/4 to less than 1/2 that of mtDNA TMRCA. It is unclear whether this is due to high male-to-female ratios in the past coupled with repeat migrations from Africa, as a result of mutational rate change, or as some have even proposed that females of the LCA between chimps and humans continued to pass DNA millions after males ceased to pass DNA. At present the best evidence suggests that in migration the male to female ratio in humans may have declined, causing a trimming of Y diversity on multiple occasions within and outside of Africa. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3295330 | 1,242,587 |
714,868 | One member of the USAF crew sent by the "Big Safari" office to retrieve the damaged RB-57 doubts that the aircraft was used in the role described as its sensors were tailored specifically for the telemetry mission and of no value in combat, and that it operated in an area away from Indian airspace. Peshawar is located from the closest international frontier with India and was almost from the nearest battle front, making damage from a SAM highly unlikely. The damage itself was largely superficial, not structural. Instead he states that he was told that the aircraft was damaged during an IAF air raid on its airfield on 7 September. It had been kept in the air as much as possible to protect it from attack but was damaged during a refueling turnaround. The damaged aircraft was returned to the United States to protect it from further harm and to process the sensitive collected data, which the Pakistanis did not have the capability of doing. Both aircraft were reassigned to the 7407th Support Squadron when 63-13287 emerged from its depot recycle. The "Rivet Flash" B-57 was overflying a Pakistani radar site at Rahwali, from Amritsar, when it was shot down on 11 September 1965 by its own AAA, mistaken for an IAF Canberra. The death of the PAF squadron leader flying it, who was the key Pakistani member of the "Little Cloud" operation, precipitated the rapid exit from Pakistan of the RB-57Fs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33576652 | 714,495 |
1,446,402 | Radiological intervention is often necessary to confirm the presence of vertebral osteomyelitis in the body. Plain-film radiological orders are necessary for all patients displaying symptoms of the disease. This diagnostic approach is often preliminary to other radiological procedures, such as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, computed tomography (CT) scan, fine-needle aspiration biopsy, and nuclear scintigraphy. The initial plain-film X-ray images are scanned for any indication of disc compression between two vertebrae or the degeneration of one or more vertebrae. Only when these findings are ambiguous is further testing necessary to diagnose the disease. Other radiological approaches offer more comprehensive imaging of the spinal area, but can often prove inconclusive. MRI scans do not expose the patient to radiation and are highly sensitive to changes in the size and appearance of the intervertebral discs; however, findings on the MRI scan may be confused with other conditions such as the presence of tumors or bone fractures. If MRI imaging is inconclusive, the high sensitivity to erosions in the vertebrae or intervertebral discs of CT scans may be preferred for their ability to indicate signs of the disease more clearly than MRI. Additional tests may be ordered if such preliminary tests cannot confirm a diagnosis; for example, needle biopsies may be needed to take samples of bone surrounding the disc space where the infection is thought to live, or nuclear bone scans may be used to contrast areas of healthy bone with areas of infection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34737722 | 1,445,586 |
866,926 | In 2002 Maurizio Seracini, an art diagnostician alumnus of the University of California, San Diego, and a native Florentine, was commissioned by the Uffizi to undertake a study of the paint surface to determine whether the painting could be restored without damaging it. Seracini, who heads Editech, a Florence-based company he founded in 1977 focused on the "diagnostics of cultural heritage", used high-resolution digital scans as well as thermographic, ultrasound, ultraviolet and infrared diagnostic techniques to study the painting in ultra-fine detail. He concluded that the painting could not be restored without damaging it and that only the underdrawing is by Leonardo. Another artist (or artists) was responsible for all of the existing paintwork on top of the underdrawing. Seracini stated that "none of the paint we see on the "Adoration" today was put there by Leonardo." As a part of his diagnostic survey on the "Adoration of the Magi", Seracini completed more than 2,400 detailed infrared photographic records of the painting's elaborate underdrawing, and scientific analyses. The new images revealed by the diagnostic techniques used by Seracini were initially made public in 2002 in an interview with the "New York Times" reporter Melinda Henneberger. In 2005, nearing the end of his investigation, Seracini gave another interview, this time to the "Guardian" reporter John Hooper. Seracini finally published his results in 2006: M. Seracini, "Diagnostic Investigations on the "Adoration of the Magi" by Leonardo da Vinci" in "The Mind of Leonardo – The Universal Genius at Work", exhibition catalogue edited by P. Gauluzzi, Giunti Florence, 2006, pp. 94–101. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1843479 | 866,466 |
1,696,516 | Mutation can be more accurately defined as any non-combinatorial change in phenotype that is able to be consistently inherited from parent to offspring over generations. Mutations can be attributed to many factors and come in numerous different forms, however they can mostly be attributed to mistakes that occur during DNA replication or exposure to external factors. As cellular processes are highly efficient, they are not perfect causing disparities between organisms of the same species. These disparities can cause many different phenotypic effects of all intensities, ranging from no observable impact at all to possible inviability. Due to environmental conditions such as climate, diet, oxygen levels, light cycles, and mutagens or chemicals which are strongly related to disease susceptibility, genes expression can vary. The timing and duration of exposure to such elements is a critical factor as well as it can significantly impact the phenotypic response of an organism, generally increasing severity with time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=709360 | 1,695,563 |
545,537 | The species was discovered by Euro-Americans in the 1850s. The wood is light yet has great strength and rot resistance, even after long exposure to salt water. Its properties resemble those of yellow-cedar, but was historically more available in the region. On shores lacking docks, logs were transported via high-line cable directly onto ship decks. It was valued for boatbuilding. The species was important to Oregon's lumber industry until the 1950s when it was crippled by disease. It was preferred for storage battery cell separation, Venetian blinds, and other uses. Quality specimens eventually began to be shipped almost exclusively to East Asia, where it is highly valued. Large amounts have been exported to Japan where it is used in making coffins, shrines, and temples. Its lumber is known for its highly fragrant ginger aroma, caused by an oil which repulses decay and insects, including termites; this oil has been used as an insecticide. Due to the straightness of its grain, it is also one of the preferred woods for the manufacture of arrow shafts. It is also considered an acceptable, though not ideal, wood for construction of aircraft. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=442546 | 545,251 |
985,786 | Nicknamed a “city in a garden”, Singapore has dedicated many resources to make a system of nature preserves, parks and connectors (ex. Southern Ridges), and tree-lined streets that promote the return of wildlife and reduce the heat island effect that is often seen in dense city centers; local governments agree with Kellert and Beatley that daily doses of nature enhance the wellbeing of its citizens. To manage stormwater, Singaporean governments have implemented the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park Project, where the old concrete water drains were excavated for the reconstruction of the Kallang River; this allowed residents in the area to enjoy the physiological and physical health benefits of having a green space with water. The reimagining of the park has increased the biodiversity of the local ecosystem, with dragonflies, butterflies, hornbills, and smooth-coated otters returning to the Singaporean region - the river also acts as a natural stormwater management system by increasing infiltration and movement of excess water. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59271750 | 985,271 |
936,092 | Australia and South Africa adopted OBE policies from the 1990s to the mid 2000s, but were abandoned in the face of substantial community opposition. The United States has had an OBE program in place since 1994 that has been adapted over the years. In 2005, Hong Kong adopted an outcome-based approach for its universities. Malaysia implemented OBE in all of their public schools systems in 2008. The European Union has proposed an education shift to focus on outcomes, across the EU. In an international effort to accept OBE, The Washington Accord was created in 1989; it is an agreement to accept undergraduate engineering degrees that were obtained using OBE methods. As of 2017, the full signatories are Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, China and the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22816 | 935,597 |
132,898 | Soon after entering service, pilots began to report that "during flights of the P-39 in certain maneuvers, it tumbled end over end." Most of these events happened after the aircraft was stalled in a nose high attitude with considerable power applied. Bell pilots made 86 separate efforts to reproduce the reported tumbling characteristics. In no case were they able to tumble it. In his autobiography veteran test and airshow pilot R.A. "Bob" Hoover provides an account of tumbling a P-39. He goes on to say that in hindsight, he was actually performing a "Lomcovak", a now-common airshow maneuver, which he was also able to do in a Curtiss P-40. A study of its spinning characteristics was conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center Free-Spinning Tunnel during the 1970s. A study of old reports showed that during earlier tests the aircraft never tumbled. However, it was noted that all testing had been done with a simulated full ammunition load, which moved the center of gravity forward. After finding the original spin test model of the P-39 in storage, the new study first duplicated the earlier tests, with consistent results. Then, the model was re-ballasted to simulate a condition with no ammunition load, which moved the aircraft's center of gravity aft. Under these conditions, the model was found to tumble. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=458867 | 132,845 |
119,376 | Computer graphics terminals during this decade became increasingly intelligent, semi-standalone and standalone workstations. Graphics and application processing were increasingly migrated to the intelligence in the workstation, rather than continuing to rely on central mainframe and mini-computers. Typical of the early move to high-resolution computer graphics intelligent workstations for the computer-aided engineering market were the Orca 1000, 2000 and 3000 workstations, developed by Orcatech of Ottawa, a spin-off from Bell-Northern Research, and led by David Pearson, an early workstation pioneer. The Orca 3000 was based on the 16-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor and AMD bit-slice processors, and had Unix as its operating system. It was targeted squarely at the sophisticated end of the design engineering sector. Artists and graphic designers began to see the personal computer, particularly the Commodore Amiga and Macintosh, as a serious design tool, one that could save time and draw more accurately than other methods. The Macintosh remains a highly popular tool for computer graphics among graphic design studios and businesses. Modern computers, dating from the 1980s, often use graphical user interfaces (GUI) to present data and information with symbols, icons and pictures, rather than text. Graphics are one of the five key elements of multimedia technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18567210 | 119,327 |
1,891,342 | Similar to the writing style of "Becoming Good Ancestors: How we Balance Nature, Community, and Technology," the author employs a number of narratives to establish the main themes present throughout this novel. For example, in his chapter entitled "Rejecting Gifts," Ehrenfeld discusses how the values of modern society are steadily deteriorating through the "rejection" of the perennial gifts that Earth offers to humans such as economically viable resources. Ehrenfeld insists that, "The life of contemporary civilization is like the fairy tale of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf in reverse. Having started with a house of brick, we have moved, with great fanfare, to a house of straw; it is hard to concoct a happy ending for such a story." All in all, the main objective of this book works to emphasize the relationship between technology and the environment while also outlining how corporate economics play an influential role in how the environment is shaped. University | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42365789 | 1,890,259 |
989,907 | Apart from (for example) the Mosquito, most World War II bombers were not as fast as fighters, although they were effective for aerial reconnaissance due to their long range, inherent stability in flight and capacity to carry large camera payloads. American bombers with top speeds of less than 300 mph used for reconnaissance include the B-24 Liberator (photo-reconnaissance variant designated F-7), B-25 Mitchell (F-10) and B-17 Flying Fortress (F-9). The revolutionary B-29 Superfortress was the world's largest combat-operational bomber when it appeared in 1944, with a top speed of over 350 mph which at that time was outstanding for such a large and heavy aircraft; the B-29 also had a pressurized cabin for high altitude flight. The photographic reconnaissance version of the B-29 was designated F-13 and carried a camera suite of three K-17B, two K-22 and one K-18 with provisions for others; it also retained the standard B-29 defensive armament of a dozen .50 caliber machine guns. In November 1944 an F-13 conducted the first flight by an Allied aircraft over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942. The Consolidated B-32 Dominator was also used for reconnaissance over Japan in August 1945. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20338498 | 989,390 |
1,990,026 | Self-assembly of nanofibrous scaffolds is able to occur only when the fibers themselves are engineered for self-assembly. One common way to drive the self-assembly of scaffold fibers is to use amphiphilic peptides so that in water the hydrophobic moiety drives the self-assembly. Carefully calculated engineering of the amphiphilic peptides allows for precise control over the self-assembled matrix. Self-assembly is able to create both ordered and unordered topographies. Phillips et al. (2005) developed and tested "in vitro" and "in vivo" a self-aligned collagen-Schwann cell matrix, which allowed DRG neurite extension alignment "in vitro". Collagen gels have been used extensively as substrates for three-dimensional tissue culture. Cells are able to form integrin-mediated attachments with collagen, which initiates cytoskeleton assembly and cell motility. As cells move along the collagen fibers they generate forces that contract the gel. When the collagen fibers are tethered at both ends, cell-generated forces create uniaxial strain, causing the cells and collagen fibers to align. The advantages of this matrix are its simplicity and speed of preparation. Soluble plasma fibronectin can also self-assemble into stable insoluble fibers when put under direct mechanical shearing within a viscous solution. Phillips et al. (2004) investigated a new method of shear aggregation that causes an improved aggregation. The mechanical shearing was created by dragging out a 0.2 ml bolus to 3 cm with forceps; fibronectin aggregates into insoluble fibers at the rapidly moving interface in an ultrafiltration cell. The proposed mechanism for this fiber aggregation is protein extension and elongation under mechanical shear force, which leads to lateral packing and protein aggregation of fibers. Phillips et al. showed that mechanical shear produced by stretching a high viscosity fibronectin gel causes substantial changes in its structure and that when applied through uniaxial extension, a viscous fibronectin gel forms oriented fibrous fibronectin aggregates; additionally, the fibrous aggregates have a decreased solubility and can support the various cell types in vitro. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11088829 | 1,988,884 |
909,334 | Fixed point digital signal processors often support specific word lengths in order to support specific signal resolutions. For example, the Motorola 56000 DSP chip uses 24-bit multipliers and 56-bit accumulators to perform multiply-accumulate operations on two 24-bit samples without overflow or truncation. On devices that do not support large accumulators, fixed point results may be truncated, reducing precision. Errors compound through multiple stages of DSP at a rate that depends on the operations being performed. For uncorrelated processing steps on audio data without a DC offset, errors are assumed to be random with zero mean. Under this assumption, the standard deviation of the distribution represents the error signal, and quantization error scales with the square root of the number of operations. High levels of precision are necessary for algorithms that involve repeated processing, such as convolution. High levels of precision are also necessary in recursive algorithms, such as infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. In the particular case of IIR filters, rounding error can degrade frequency response and cause instability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7310614 | 908,855 |
307,592 | As rock and roll bands started seeking to diversify their sound, timpani found their way into the studio. In 1959 Leiber and Stoller made the innovative use of timpani in their production of the Drifters' recording, "There Goes My Baby." Starting in the 1960s, drummers for high-profile rock acts like The Beatles, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, and Queen incorporated timpani into their music. This led to the use of timpani in progressive rock. Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded a number of rock covers of classical pieces that utilize timpani. Rush drummer Neil Peart added a tympani to his expanding arsenal of percussion for the "Hemispheres" (1978) and "Permanent Waves" (1980) albums and tours, and would later sample tympani in his drum solo, "The Rhythm Method" in 1988. More recently, the rock band Muse has incorporated timpani into some of their classically based songs, most notably in Exogenesis: Symphony, Part I (Overture). Jazz musicians also experimented with timpani. Sun Ra used it occasionally in his Arkestra (played, for example, by percussionist Jim Herndon on the songs "Reflection in Blue" and "El Viktor," both recorded in 1957). In 1964, Elvin Jones incorporated timpani into his drum kit on John Coltrane's four-part composition "A Love Supreme". Butch Trucks, drummer with the Allman Brothers Band, made use of the timpani. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=140758 | 307,427 |
1,491,369 | In 2003, she received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society. In 2009, Dr. Rowley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by then-President Barack Obama, and the Gruber Prize in Genetics. Then in 2010, she was awarded the Jesse Stevenson Kovalenko Medal by the National Academy of Sciences. In 2012, Dr. Rowley was selected for the Hope Funds for Cancer Research Award of excellence in the area of Basic Research and was elected to the Hope Funds Scientific Advisory Board. Also in 2012, she won the Japan Prize for Healthcare and Medical Technology with two other scientists for her role in the creation of Gleevec. For Rowley's scientific contributions she has received honorary doctor of science degrees from multiple institutions some of which include Yale University and Harvard University. She is also a member of multiple scientific and honorary societies. These distinguished groups include the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She published more than five hundred articles and continued her research at the University of Chicago until shortly before her death. In 2017, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1532097 | 1,490,530 |
787,875 | The history of numerical weather prediction began in the 1920s through the efforts of Lewis Fry Richardson, who used procedures originally developed by Vilhelm Bjerknes to produce by hand a six-hour forecast for the state of the atmosphere over two points in central Europe, taking at least six weeks to do so. It was not until the advent of the computer and computer simulations that computation time was reduced to less than the forecast period itself. The ENIAC was used to create the first weather forecasts via computer in 1950, based on a highly simplified approximation to the atmospheric governing equations. In 1954, Carl-Gustav Rossby's group at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute used the same model to produce the first operational forecast (i.e., a routine prediction for practical use). Operational numerical weather prediction in the United States began in 1955 under the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit (JNWPU), a joint project by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Weather Bureau. In 1956, Norman Phillips developed a mathematical model which could realistically depict monthly and seasonal patterns in the troposphere; this became the first successful climate model. Following Phillips' work, several groups began working to create general circulation models. The first general circulation climate model that combined both oceanic and atmospheric processes was developed in the late 1960s at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1505381 | 787,451 |
232,817 | Improvements in computing technology keep increasing the rate at which guessed passwords can be tested. For example, in 2010, the Georgia Tech Research Institute developed a method of using GPGPU to crack passwords much faster. Elcomsoft invented the usage of common graphic cards for quicker password recovery in August 2007 and soon filed a corresponding patent in the US. By 2011, commercial products were available that claimed the ability to test up to 112,000 passwords per second on a standard desktop computer, using a high-end graphics processor for that time. Such a device will crack a six-letter single-case password in one day. Note that the work can be distributed over many computers for an additional speedup proportional to the number of available computers with comparable GPUs. Special key stretching hashes are available that take a relatively long time to compute, reducing the rate at which guessing can take place. Although it is considered best practice to use key stretching, many common systems do not. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4459886 | 232,698 |
56,877 | Aryabhata created a system of phonemic number notation in which numbers were represented by consonant-vowel monosyllables. Later commentators such as Brahmagupta divide his work into "Ganita ("Mathematics"), Kalakriya ("Calculations on Time") and Golapada ("Spherical Astronomy")". His pure mathematics discusses topics such as determination of square and cube roots, geometrical figures with their properties and mensuration, arithmetric progression problems on the shadow of the gnomon, quadratic equations, linear and indeterminate equations. Aryabhata calculated the value of pi ("π)" to the fourth decimal digit and was likely aware that pi ("π)" is an irrational number, around 1300 years before Lambert proved the same. Aryabhata's sine table and his work on trignometry were extremely influential on the Islamic Golden Age; his works were translated into Arabic and influenced Al-Khwarizmi and Al-Zarqali. In his spherical astronomy, he applied plane trigonometry to spherical geometry and gave calculations on solar, lunar eclipses. He discovered that the apparent westward motion of stars is due to the spherical Earth's rotation about its own axis. Aryabhata also noted that the luminosity of the Moon and other planets is due to reflected sunlight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=297204 | 56,853 |
952,129 | On 15 September 1939 Menzies announced the formation of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF). This expeditionary force initially consisted of 20,000 men organised into an infantry division (the 6th Division) and auxiliary units. The AIF was institutionally separate from the CMF, which was legally restricted to service in Australia and its external territories, and was formed by raising new units rather than transferring CMF units. On 15 November, Menzies announced the reintroduction of conscription for home-defence service, effective 1 January 1940. Recruitment for the AIF was initially slow, but one in six men of military age had enlisted by March 1940, and a huge surge of volunteers came forward after the fall of France in June 1940. Men volunteered for the AIF for a range of reasons, with the most common being a sense of duty to defend Australia and the British Empire. In early 1940, each of the services introduced regulations which prohibited the enlistment of people not "substantially of European origin"; while these regulations were strictly enforced by the RAN and Army, the RAAF continued to accept small numbers of non-European Australians. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4578255 | 951,624 |
1,614,722 | Designers pioneering the use of SPWs did not have much experience nor existing data to rely upon. Typically, web plate design failed to consider post-buckling behaviour under shear, thus ignoring the advantage of the tension field and its added benefits for drift control and shear resistance. Furthermore, the inelastic deformation capacity of this highly redundant system had not been utilized, also ignoring the significant energy dissipation capability that is of great importance for buildings in high-risk seismic zones. One of the first researchers to investigate the behaviour of SPWs more closely was Kulak at the University of Alberta. Since the early 1980s, his team conducted both analytical and experimental research focused on developing design procedures suitable for drafting design standards (Driver et al., 1997, Thorburn et al., 1983, Timler and Kulak, 1983, and Tromposch and Kulak, 1987). Recent research in the United States by Astaneh (2001) supports the assertion by Canadian academia that unstiffened plate, post-buckling behaviour acts as a capable shear resisting system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15134330 | 1,613,816 |
175,198 | Studying the nature of X-ray radiation and discussing its properties with his brother Maurice, who considered these rays to be some kind of combination of waves and particles, contributed to Louis de Broglie's awareness of the need to build a theory linking particle and wave representations. In addition, he was familiar with the works (1919–1922) of Marcel Brillouin, which proposed a hydrodynamic model of an atom and attempted to relate it to the results of Bohr's theory. The starting point in the work of Louis de Broglie was the idea of A. Einstein about the quanta of light. In his first article on this subject, published in 1922, the French scientist considered blackbody radiation as a gas of light quanta and, using classical statistical mechanics, derived the Wien radiation law in the framework of such a representation. In his next publication, he tried to reconcile the concept of light quanta with the phenomena of interference and diffraction and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to associate a certain periodicity with quanta. In this case, light quanta were interpreted by him as relativistic particles of very small mass. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50165 | 175,107 |
420,554 | The benefit of polygenic scores is that they can be used to predict the future for crops, animal breeding, and humans alike. Although the same basic concepts underlie these areas of prediction, they face different challenges that require different methodologies. The ability to produce very large family size in nonhuman species, accompanied by deliberate selection, leads to a smaller effective population, higher degrees of linkage disequilibrium among individuals, and a higher average genetic relatedness among individuals within a population. For example, members of plant and animal breeds that humans have effectively created, such as modern maize or domestic cattle, are all technically "related". In human genomic prediction, by contrast, unrelated individuals in large populations are selected to estimate the effects of common SNPs. Because of smaller effective population in livestock, the mean coefficient of relationship between any two individuals is likely high, and common SNPs will tag causal variants at greater physical distance than for humans; this is the major reason for lower SNP-based heritability estimates for humans compared to livestock. In both cases, however, sample size is key for maximizing the accuracy of genomic prediction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52142704 | 420,349 |
1,029,350 | Although cryptography has a long and complex history, it wasn't until the 19th century that it developed anything more than ad hoc approaches to either encryption or cryptanalysis (the science of finding weaknesses in crypto systems). Examples of the latter include Charles Babbage's Crimean War era work on mathematical cryptanalysis of polyalphabetic ciphers, redeveloped and published somewhat later by the Prussian Friedrich Kasiski. Understanding of cryptography at this time typically consisted of hard-won rules of thumb; see, for example, Auguste Kerckhoffs' cryptographic writings in the latter 19th century. Edgar Allan Poe used systematic methods to solve ciphers in the 1840s. In particular he placed a notice of his abilities in the Philadelphia paper "Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger", inviting submissions of ciphers, most of which he proceeded to solve. His success created a public stir for some months. He later wrote an essay on methods of cryptography which proved useful as an introduction for novice British cryptanalysts attempting to break German codes and ciphers during World War I, and a famous story, "The Gold-Bug", in which cryptanalysis was a prominent element. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=520066 | 1,028,816 |
379,191 | This compound was originally created to work as an estrogen inhibitor, but instead was found to stimulate ovulation in participants of the drug testing trial. Walpole and his colleagues filed a UK patent covering this compound in 1962, but patent protection on this compound was repeatedly denied in the US until the 1980s. Tamoxifen did eventually receive marketing approval as a fertility treatment, but the class of compounds never proved useful in human contraception. A link between estrogen and breast cancer had been known for many years, but cancer treatments were not a corporate priority at the time, and Walpole's personal interests were important in keeping support for the compound alive in the face of this and the lack of patent protection. It was only when Walpole threatened to leave his position that corporate decided to allow trials and testing for Tamoxifen as a drug that could be used to treat breast cancer. Without Walpole's effort towards defending the work that his team had done in discovering a possibly revolutionary source for breast cancer treatment, Tamoxifen could have become a discarded or under-researched idea. Walpole's team consisted of Dora Richardson and G.A. Snow, who worked on the chemistry portion of the project, along with G.E. Paget and J.K. Walley, who focused primarily on the biological side. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1269557 | 378,996 |
134,154 | One of their own scientific consultants was earlier critical. Dr. Ghillean Prance, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, designed the rainforest biome inside the Biosphere. Although he later changed his opinion, acknowledging the unique scope of this experiment and contributed to its success as a consultant, in a 1983 interview (8 years before the start of the experiment), Prance said, "I was attracted to the Institute of Ecotechnics because funds for research were being cut and the institute seemed to have a lot of money which it was willing to spend freely. Along with others, I was ill-used. Their interest in science is not genuine. They seem to have some sort of secret agenda, they seem to be guided by some sort of religious or philosophical system." Prance went on in the 1991 newspaper interview to say "they are visionaries ... And maybe to fulfill their vision they have become somewhat cultlike. But they are not a cult, per se ... I am interested in ecological restoration systems. And I think all sorts of scientific things can come of this experiment, far beyond the space goal ... When they came to me with this new project, they seemed so well organized, so inspired, I simply decided to forget the past. You shouldn't hold their past against them." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=216362 | 134,099 |
79,628 | Early Irish law, An Senchus Mor (The Great Tradition) mentions in a number of places "recht aicned" or natural law. This is a concept predating European legal theory, and reflects a type of law that is universal and may be determined by reason and observation of natural action. Neil McLeod identifies concepts that law must accord with: fír (truth) and dliged (right or entitlement). These two terms occur frequently, though Irish law never strictly defines them. Similarly, the term córus (law in accordance with proper order) occurs in some places, and even in the titles of certain texts. These were two very real concepts to the jurists and the value of a given judgment with respect to them was apparently ascertainable. McLeod has also suggested that most of the specific laws mentioned have passed the test of time and thus their truth has been confirmed, while other provisions are justified in other ways because they are younger and have not been tested over time The laws were written in the oldest dialect of the Irish language, called Bérla Féini [Bairla-faina], which even at the time was so difficult that persons about to become brehons had to be specially instructed in it, the length of time from beginning to becoming a learned Brehon was usually 20 years. Although under the law any third person could fulfill the duty if both parties agreed, and both were sane. It has been included in an Ethno-Celtic breakaway subculture, as it has religious undertones and freedom of religious expression allows it to once again be used as a valid system in Western Europe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22063 | 79,595 |
1,942,745 | The new school was praised by some; the Reverend Thomas Radcliffe stated in an 1833 letter: "Future generations will bless the memory of Sir John Colborne, who, to the many advantages derived from the equity and wisdom of his government, has added that of a magnificent foundation [in Upper Canada College] for the purposes of literary instruction. The lowest salary of any of the professors of this institution is £30 per annum, with the accommodation of a noble brick house and the privilege of taking boarders at £50 per annum." However, the costs of the new buildings, combined with the large staff and their high salaries, led to criticism of the college and its expenses. In his publication "Colonial Advocate", William Lyon Mackenzie stated: "The College here at York in Upper Canada is most extravagantly endowed... thousands of pounds are realised at will by its self-constituted managers from the sale of school lots and school lands [in fact, not true]... splendid incomes given to masters... and dwellings furnished to the professors... by the sweat of the brow of the Canadian labourer." In 1837, UCC's student militia offered help to Sir Francis Bond Head's Family Compact government in suppressing Mackenzie's pro-responsible government Upper Canada Rebellion. In 1852, Mackenzie's sons, William and George, were enrolled at UCC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9633735 | 1,941,634 |
310,744 | Some of the reasons that artificial gravity remains unused today in spaceflight trace back to the problems inherent in implementation. One of the realistic methods of creating artificial gravity is the centrifugal effect caused by the centripetal force of the floor of a rotating structure pushing up on the person. In that model, however, issues arise in the size of the spacecraft. As expressed by John Page and Matthew Francis, the smaller a spacecraft (the shorter the radius of rotation), the more rapid the rotation that is required. As such, to simulate gravity, it would be better to utilize a larger spacecraft that rotates slowly. The requirements on size about rotation are due to the differing forces on parts of the body at different distances from the axis of rotation. If parts of the body closer to the rotational axis experience a force that is significantly different from parts farther from the axis, then this could have adverse effects. Additionally, questions remain as to what the best way is to initially set the rotating motion in place without disturbing the stability of the whole spacecraft's orbit. At the moment, there is not a ship massive enough to meet the rotation requirements, and the costs associated with building, maintaining, and launching such a craft are extensive. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1137568 | 310,576 |
1,556,088 | A Python library HAPI (HITRAN Application Programming Interface) has been developed which serves as a tool for absorption and transmission calculations as well as comparisons of spectroscopic data sets. HAPI extends the functionality of the main site, in particular, for the calculation of spectra using several types of line shape calculations, including the flexible HT (Hartmann-Tran) profile. This HT line shape can also be reduced to a number of conventional line profiles such as Gaussian (Doppler), Lorentzian, Voigt, Rautian, Speed-Dependent Voigt and Speed-Dependent Rautian. In addition to accounting for pressure, temperature and optical path length, the user can include a number of instrumental functions to simulate experimental spectra. HAPI is able to account for broadening of lines due to mixtures of gases as well as make use of all broadening parameters supplied by HITRAN. This includes the traditional broadeners (air, self) as well as additional parameters for CO, HO, H and He broadening. The following spectral functions can be calculated in the current version #1 of HAPI: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10399056 | 1,555,204 |
491,126 | Penzias went on to work at Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, where, with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers, intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitive antenna/receiver system, the pair encountered radio noise which they could not explain. It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by the Milky Way, and it was isotropic, so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwave horn antenna showed it was full of bat and pigeon droppings (which Penzias described as "white dielectric material"). After the pair removed the dung buildup the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, Penzias contacted Robert Dicke, who suggested it might be the background radiation predicted by some cosmological theories. The pair agreed with Dicke to publish side-by-side letters in the Astrophysical Journal, with Penzias and Wilson describing their observations and Dicke suggesting the interpretation as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the radio remnant of the Big Bang. This allowed astronomers to confirm the Big Bang, and to correct many of their previous assumptions about it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=318516 | 490,872 |
498,643 | Even before the passage of the Recommendation Paper at the OGC, Galdos had started work on an XML Schema version of GML, replacing the rdf:resource scheme for remote references with the use of xlink:href, and developing specific patterns (e.g. Barbarians at the Gate) for handling extensions for complex structures like feature collections. Much of the XML Schema design work was done by Mr. Richard Martell of Galdos who served as the document editor and who was mainly responsible for the translation of the basic GML model into an XML Schema. Other important inputs in this time frame came from Simon Cox (CSIRO Australia), Paul Daisey (US Census), David Burggraf (Galdos), and Adrian Cuthbert (Laser-Scan). The US Army Corps of Engineers (particularly Jeff Harrison) were quite supportive of the development of GML. The US Army Corps of Engineers sponsored the “USL Pilot” project, which was very helpful in exploring the utility of linking and styling concepts in the GML specification, with important work being done by Monie (Ionic) and Xia Li (Galdos). The XML Schema specification draft was submitted by Galdos and was approved for public distribution in December 2000. It became a Recommendation Paper in February 2001 and an Adopted Specification in May of the same year. This version (V2.0) eliminated the “profiles” from version 1. and established the key principles, as outlined in the original Galdos submission, as the basis of GML. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=203653 | 498,386 |
62,106 | Short radio waves reflect from curves and corners in a way similar to glint from a rounded piece of glass. The most reflective targets for short wavelengths have 90° angles between the reflective surfaces. A corner reflector consists of three flat surfaces meeting like the inside corner of a cube. The structure will reflect waves entering its opening directly back to the source. They are commonly used as radar reflectors to make otherwise difficult-to-detect objects easier to detect. Corner reflectors on boats, for example, make them more detectable to avoid collision or during a rescue. For similar reasons, objects intended to avoid detection will not have inside corners or surfaces and edges perpendicular to likely detection directions, which leads to "odd" looking stealth aircraft. These precautions do not totally eliminate reflection because of diffraction, especially at longer wavelengths. Half wavelength long wires or strips of conducting material, such as chaff, are very reflective but do not direct the scattered energy back toward the source. The extent to which an object reflects or scatters radio waves is called its radar cross section. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25676 | 62,081 |
1,855,919 | Originally, "PIG-A" assay was proposed as a method for monitoring humans for somatic mutation. The assay was developed as an extension of flow cytometric procedure for diagnosing human acquired genetic disorder, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). "PIG-A" assays were developed for cells of peripheral blood, such as red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs). Due to conservative nature of GPI biosynthesis in mammalian species, similar flow cytometry protocols were developed for mammalian species of toxicological interest, i.e., mice and rats. The most demanding RBC-based "Pig-a" assay requires only microliter volumes of peripheral blood which is easy to obtain without harming the animals. Therefore, the "Pig-a" assay can be added to various non-clinical in vivo safety evaluations mandated by regulatory authorities as a test measuring a value end-point, i.e., gene mutation, without requiring additional groups of animals for testing. Government agencies, such as t he US Food and Drug Administration and United States Environmental Protection Agency, require testing novel pharmaceuticals and high volume industrial chemicals for mutagenicity as a screen for potential carcinogens. An in vivo RBC "Pig-a" assay is an optional test for qualification of genotoxic impurities as described in FDA's ICH M7 guidance. A standardized regulatory-compliant Test Guideline for performing "Pig-a" assay and interpreting the test results is being developed under the auspices of The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60446482 | 1,854,851 |
95,495 | The ecological complexities human beings are facing through the technological transformation of the planetary biome has brought on the Anthropocene. The unique set of circumstances has generated the need for a new unifying science called coupled human and natural systems that builds upon, but moves beyond the field of human ecology. Ecosystems tie into human societies through the critical and all-encompassing life-supporting functions they sustain. In recognition of these functions and the incapability of traditional economic valuation methods to see the value in ecosystems, there has been a surge of interest in social-natural capital, which provides the means to put a value on the stock and use of information and materials stemming from ecosystem goods and services. Ecosystems produce, regulate, maintain, and supply services of critical necessity and beneficial to human health (cognitive and physiological), economies, and they even provide an information or reference function as a living library giving opportunities for science and cognitive development in children engaged in the complexity of the natural world. Ecosystems relate importantly to human ecology as they are the ultimate base foundation of global economics as every commodity, and the capacity for exchange ultimately stems from the ecosystems on Earth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9630 | 95,454 |
644,322 | Badgers ("Meles meles") were first identified as carriers of "M. bovis" in 1971, but the report of an independent review committee in 1997 (the Krebs Report) concluded: "strong circumstantial evidence [exists] to suggest that badgers represent a significant source of "M. bovis" infection in cattle... [h]owever, the causal link... has not been proven". In essence, the contribution of badgers 'to the TB problem in British cattle' was at this point a hypothesis that needed to be tested, according to the report. The subsequent Randomised Badger Culling Trial (designed, overseen and analysed by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, or ISG ) examined this hypothesis by conducting a large field trial of widescale (proactive) culling and localised reactive culling (in comparison with areas which received no badger culling). In their final report, the ISG concluded: "First, while badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better. Second, weaknesses in cattle-testing regimens mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely to be the main source of infection. Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone." On 26 July 2007, the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker) said, "My Lords, we welcome the Independent Scientific Group’s final report, which further improves the evidence base. We are carefully considering the issues that the report raises, and will continue to work with industry, government advisers, and scientific experts in reaching policy decisions on these issues." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=852703 | 643,982 |
934,578 | In 1927, George Herzog spent two months with the Pima tribe in Arizona, an amount of time that would be considered short by today's standards — where periods of fieldwork can often last longer than a year. But Herzog recorded several hundred songs during that time, establishing a precedent for increasingly long field studies that have yielded more and more recordings. A lengthy period of fieldwork isn't useful, though, without proper techniques for ensuring the researcher gets a representative sampling of the music in a community. When he worked with the Blackfoot people, Nettl said he wasn't too concerned with whether the singer teaching him about Blackfoot music was good or bad, but did assume he would be representative of all Blackfoot singers. But Nettl soon gained a new perspective, and "no longer assumed that all informants in an indigenous society would tell me the same thing; I had discarded the idea of essential homogeneity." Despite discarding this assumption, Nettl acknowledges that by only interviewing one person, he is relying heavily on that person's ability to articulate a whole society's culture and musical traditions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=80077 | 934,086 |
1,902,787 | Crocodiles have very vascularized osteoderms, that serve as protective features and for thermoregulation. Since crocodiles submerge completely underwater for long periods of time, the osteoderms release neutralizing ions into the bloodstream that buffer the accumulating carbon dioxide and prevent acidosis. Osteoderms of crocodiles are highly developed. They are often seen as a paired row of rectangular plates that extend down the dorsal side, as well as down the sides and on the tail. The most distal portion of the tail is unarmored and there is a break between those in the neck and trunk. There are two longitudinal rows with at least 12 horizontal rows that extend down the trunk. The external surface of the osteoderm is formed by central oval pits that are relatively deep, whereas the internal surface includes more randomly distributed grooves that are perforated by a nutrient canal. The paravertebral osteoderms are convex in comparison to the external which are vaulted. The width of osteoderms increases from cranial to caudal (head to tail), but when they reach the tenth lumbar vertebrae, the width decreases down the tail. Crocodiles have accessory osteoderms that are typically smaller, more medial, and square shaped. There are at least two accessory osteoderms on each side of the trunk. A crocodile's body armor allows for good ventral and lateral flexibility but are very limited dorsally. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51692420 | 1,901,696 |
933,240 | First they provided a highly efficient network for shipping freight and passengers across a large national market. The result was a transforming impact on most sectors of the economy including manufacturing, retail and wholesale, agriculture and finance. Supplemented with the Telegraph that added rapid communications, the United States now had an integrated national market practically the size of Europe, with no internal barriers or tariffs, all supported by a common language, and financial system and a common legal system. The railroads at first supplemented, then largely replaced the previous transportation modes of turnpikes and canals, rivers and intracoastal ocean traffic. Highly efficient Northern railroads played a major role in winning the Civil War, while the overburdened Southern lines collapsed in the face of an insurmountable challenge. In the late 19th century pipelines were built for the oil trade, and in the 20th century trucking and aviation emerged. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=587997 | 932,748 |
915,419 | The above re-expression of a size-"N" DFT as two size-"N"/2 DFTs is sometimes called the Danielson–Lanczos lemma, since the identity was noted by those two authors in 1942 (influenced by Runge's 1903 work). They applied their lemma in a "backwards" recursive fashion, repeatedly "doubling" the DFT size until the transform spectrum converged (although they apparently didn't realize the linearithmic [i.e., order "N" log "N"] asymptotic complexity they had achieved). The Danielson–Lanczos work predated widespread availability of mechanical or electronic computers and required manual calculation (possibly with mechanical aids such as adding machines); they reported a computation time of 140 minutes for a size-64 DFT operating on real inputs to 3–5 significant digits. Cooley and Tukey's 1965 paper reported a running time of 0.02 minutes for a size-2048 complex DFT on an IBM 7094 (probably in 36-bit single precision, ~8 digits). Rescaling the time by the number of operations, this corresponds roughly to a speedup factor of around 800,000. (To put the time for the hand calculation in perspective, 140 minutes for size 64 corresponds to an average of at most 16 seconds per floating-point operation, around 20% of which are multiplications.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=352702 | 914,938 |
1,301,193 | Because of the small size of individual nanocrystals, Fh is nanoporous yielding large surface areas of several hundred square meters per gram. In addition to having a high surface area to volume ratio, Fh also has a high density of local or point defects, such as dangling bonds and vacancies. These properties confer a high ability to adsorb many environmentally important chemical species, including arsenic, lead, phosphate, and organic molecules ("e.g.", humic and fulvic acids). Its strong and extensive interaction with trace metals and metalloids is used in industry, at large-scale in water purification plants, as in North Germany and to produce the city water at Hiroshima, and at small scale to clean wastewaters and groundwaters, for example to remove arsenic from industrial effluents and drinking water. Its nanoporosity and high affinity for gold can be used to elaborate Fh-supported nanosized Au particles for the catalytic oxidation of CO at temperatures below 0 °C. Dispersed six-line ferrihydrite nanoparticles can be entrapped in a vesicular state to increase their stability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8712963 | 1,300,479 |
1,362,552 | A vast majority of PDCD patients (80-88%) have a mutation on their PDHA1 gene. PDHA1 was shown to be a good candidate for gene therapy using an adeno associated virus (AAV2) to express the protein "in vitro" nearly 15 years ago; however, research was discontinued. Since then, AAV technology, which is used as the delivery method to express PDHA1 in cells that are deficient, has advanced rapidly. The current generation of AAV vectors, AAV9, are safe and effective at crossing the blood-brain barrier. An AAV9 vector is currently used in an FDA-approved gene therapy of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in infants and children. The Gray Lab at UTSW initiated a proof of concept mice model study to determine efficacy of this approach for PDCD on November 1, 2022, the Hope for PDCD Foundation is currently raising funds to support this research. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3962194 | 1,361,799 |
2,189,166 | Dr. Mercier was appointed deputy minister of agriculture in 1960 under premier Jean Lesage's government, a position which he held until 1966. There, he worked to plan and implement provincial and federal agrifood policies required in transforming the family farm into a viable and profitable enterprise in Quebec. He enacted legislation that enabled farmers to regulate their own production in Quebec and Canada and made basic farm loans and credit available to all efficient family farm owners in Quebec. He created harvest insurance, thus giving farmers/business man incentives to invest in their exploitation by lowering risk. Drawing from his past experience working in research, he improved the transfer of scientific research knowledge to agrifood producers and the world of agriculture and had producers take responsibility for managing farm improvement services through semi-privatization, thereby making them stakeholders and decision makers in their businesses. In short, he guided the province toward a modern, scientific and industrialized agricultural system, which would decades later earn him the Order of Canada in 1989 and inductions to the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Agricultural Hall of Fame of Quebec in 1992. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44775571 | 2,187,917 |
1,106,775 | Greenhouse gas emissions were not required to be analyzed as an impact to the environment when CEQA was originally adopted. Several scientists have since attributed greenhouse gases to climate change and resulting negative impacts to humans and the environment. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in 2007 stating that human activities are responsible for increased global temperatures. As a result of these assessments, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 that mandated greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-3-05 in June 2005 that declared California is vulnerable to climate change impacts resulting in loss of Sierra snowpack for water supply and rising sea levels threatening coastal real estate and habitat. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also signed Executive Order S-21-09 in September 2009 requiring 33% of electricity sold in the California come from renewable resources by 2020 to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This assembly of legislation and evidence of environmental impact led to California enacting requirements for lead agencies to consider greenhouse gas emissions in their CEQA reviews. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1833622 | 1,106,211 |
466,743 | The ground test engine hardware was fabricated over 18 months and underwent a four-month engine validation testing program in the ATK GASL freejet wind tunnel complex Leg 6, located in Ronkonkoma, New York. Ignition, fuel throttling, and engine operation were wrung out over a range of expected flight conditions. After a delay of two months to modify flight hardware based on ground test findings, the first powered vehicle, FFV1, was launched without incident, propelled to speeds of at altitude, roughly Mach 5.5. Over 140 inlet, combustor, and vehicle outer mold line pressure, temperatures, and vehicle accelerations as well as fuel pressure, timing feedback, and power systems monitoring were recorded. The vehicle executed the prescribed test sequences flawlessly for 15 seconds, before continuing on to splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean. Further details can be found in the technical paper AIAA-2006-8119, presented at the 14th International Space Planes and Hypersonics Systems and Technologies Conference, in Canberra, Australia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4841481 | 466,510 |
9,221 | In March 2015, additional details of the improvement package were unveiled. The 777-300ER was to shed by replacing the fuselage crown with tie rods and composite integration panels, similar to those used on the 787. The new flight control software was to eliminate the need for the tail skid by keeping the tail off the runway surface regardless of the extent to which pilots command the elevators. Boeing was also redesigning the inboard flap fairings to reduce drag by reducing pressure on the underside of the wing. The outboard raked wingtip was to have a divergent trailing edge, described as a "poor man's airfoil" by Boeing; this was originally developed for the McDonnell Douglas MD-12 project. Another change involved elevator trim bias. These changes were to increase fuel efficiency and allow airlines to add 14 additional seats to the airplane, increasing per seat fuel efficiency by 5%. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=89260 | 9,217 |
1,220,697 | Despite a similar overall appearance, "A. hygrometricus" is not related to the true earthstars of genus "Geastrum", although historically, they have been taxonomically confused. The species was first described by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801 as "Geastrum hygrometricus". In 1885, Andrew P. Morgan proposed that differences in microscopic characteristics warranted the creation of a new genus "Astraeus" distinct from "Geastrum"; this opinion was not universally accepted by later authorities. Several Asian populations formerly thought to be "A. hygrometricus" were renamed in the 2000s once phylogenetic analyses revealed they were unique "Astraeus" species, including "A. asiaticus" and "A. odoratus". Similarly, in 2013, North American populations were divided into "A. pteridis", "A. morganii", and "A. smithii" on the basis of molecular phylogentics. This research suggests that the type specimen of "Astraeus hygrometricus" originates in a population restricted to Europe between Southern France and Turkey, with A. telleriae found nearby in Spain and Greece. Research has revealed the presence of several bioactive chemical compounds in "Astraeus" fruit bodies. North American field guides typically rate "A. hygrometricus" as inedible. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23316558 | 1,220,042 |
411,634 | Nearing the end of his life, Vygotsky's later work involved adolescent development. However, his most important and widely known contribution is his theory for the development of "higher psychological functions," which considers human psychological development as emerging through unification of interpersonal connections and actions taken within a given socio-cultural environment (i.e., language, culture, society, and tool-use). Vygotsky eventually came to dialogue with the mainstream Gestalt line of thought and adopted a more holistic approach to understanding development. Under the increasing influence of the holistic thinking of the scholars primarily associated with the German-American Gestalt psychology movement, Vygotsky adopted their views on "psychological systems" and—inspired by Kurt Lewin's "topological (and vector) psychology"—introduced the enigmatic construct of the "zone of proximal development". It was during this period that he identified the play of young children as their "leading activity", which he understood to be the main source of preschoolers' psychological development, and which he viewed as an expression of an inseparable unity of emotional, volitional, and cognitive development. At this time, Vygotsky fully revealed his long-time interest in the philosophy of Spinoza, who would remain one of his favorite thinkers throughout his life. A fervent Spinozist in many respects, Vygotsky was profoundly influenced by Spinoza's thought, largely in response to Spinoza's examinations concerning human emotion. As his work matured, Spinoza's thought became a more central visitation in Vygotsky's later work, increasingly focused on the issue of human emotion and its role in higher psychological functions and development that he largely omitted in his earlier work and utterly needed for creating a holistic psychological theory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=95176 | 411,432 |
542,481 | Estimates are that humans unshielded in interplanetary space would receive annually roughly 400 to 900 mSv (compared to 2.4 mSv on Earth) and that a Mars mission (12 months in flight and 18 months on Mars) might expose shielded astronauts to roughly 500 to 1000 mSv. These doses approach the 1 to 4 Sv career limits advised by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) for low Earth orbit activities in 1989, and the more recent NCRP recommendations of 0.5 to 2 Sv in 2000 based on updated information on dose to risk conversion factors. Dose limits depend on age at exposure and sex due to difference in susceptibility with age, the added risks of breast and ovarian cancers to women, and the variability of cancer risks such as lung cancer between men and women. A 2017 laboratory study on mice, estimates that the risk of developing cancer due to galactic cosmic rays (GCR) radiation exposure after a Mars mission could be two times greater than what scientists previously thought. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14415787 | 542,201 |
287,183 | The AR series uses a die-cast aluminium engine block and aluminium DOHC cylinder head. The engine series shares many of the technologies in the AZ engine, while incorporating new features such as variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust camshafts or dual VVT-i, low friction technologies including an offset crankshaft, roller rockers for the valvetrain, a three-stage variable oil pump, reduced-tension piston rings and auxiliary belt drive. An Acoustic Control Induction System switches the length of the intake tract in two stages, based on rpm and throttle angle, thereby ensuring strong torque across a broad engine speed range. New tumble control valves enhances combustion while the engine is cold, and helps to bring the catalytic converters up to working temperature quickly. The Tumble control valves, along with new 12-hole high atomizing long-nozzle fuel injectors, reduce the amount of fuel adhering to the intake ports and therefore maximize fuel economy and reduce harmful emissions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20303643 | 287,028 |
1,018,126 | Statements by Göring himself in August 1942 in response to "Oberst" Edgar Petersen's reports - in his capacity as the "Kommandeur der Erprobungstellen" (commander of all Luftwaffe test stations), themselves headquartered at "Erprobungsstelle Rechlin" - on solving the serious problems with the original Heinkel He 177A's powerplants, however, seem to directly contradict elements of the oft-repeated story, as those statements seem to show that Göring thought that the He 177A actually had four separate engines, and in late August 1942 Göring derisively labeled the He 177A's coupled engine arrangements, the 1.5 tonnes-apiece DB 606 and DB 610 "power systems" at that time as monstrous "zusammengeschweißte Motoren", or "welded-together engines", in his complaints about the He 177A's ongoing engine difficulties, and was anxious to see a truly four-engined version of Heinkel's heavy bomber fully developed and in production. The earliest-dated initiative to be undertaken by Ernst Heinkel himself to trial a true "four-engined" design format for the original He 177 dated back to 17 November 1938, before the construction of the He 177 V3 and V4 prototype airframes had even been started, when Heinkel had personally asked the RLM to set aside the He 177 V3 and V4 airframes for a trial installation of four separate unitized Junkers Jumo 211 powerplants to overcome the concerns that the RLM "Technischen-Amt" technical department's director Ernst Udet and Heinkel had expressed about the RLM's specific dive-bombing priority for the He 177A, but was turned down for the trial fitment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=455378 | 1,017,602 |
278,857 | The Agena target vehicle was launched on July 18, 1966, at 3:39 p.m. and successfully entered orbit. Gemini 10 launched as scheduled later that day at 5:20 p.m. from LC-19, within the 35-second launch window that maximized its chances of making the dual rendezvous. Once in orbit, the crew attempted to navigate to their first rendezvous using celestial navigation, but were unable to navigate and required inputs from Mission Control. Young maneuvered to a orbit to prepare for the rendezvous, and he had to make two midcourse corrections due to misalignment during the maneuver burns. Gemini 10 successfully rendezvoused and docked with the Agena target vehicle at 11:12 p.m. The higher-than-expected fuel consumption during the midcourse corrections caused flight director Glynn Lunney to cancel planned additional docking practice once the capsule had completed its rendezvous. Using the Agena's engines, Gemini 10 maneuvered to a elliptical orbit, which set a new altitude record for a crewed vehicle at the apogee. Gemini 10 used the rockets on the Agena to maneuver and rendezvous with the Gemini 8 Agena and set another new altitude record of . Young fired the Agena engines to lower the apogee to , and later circularized the orbit with another burn to raise the perigee to , which was below the Gemini8 Agena. Collins performed a standup extravehicular activity (EVA) where he stood at the door of the Gemini capsule to photograph the southern Milky Way to study its ultraviolet radiation. He began a color photography experiment but did not finish it as his and Young's eyes began filling with tears due to irritation from the anti-fog compound in their helmets. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=303563 | 278,707 |
1,865,250 | Stefano Pelinga (born May 1964) is an Italian professional pool (pocket billiards) player from Rome. He is best known as a multi-year international artistic pool champion, as both an individual and team captain. He has also served as an officer for the "Polizia di Stato" (Italy's national police) for 27 years, retiring from police work in 2011, then moving to Las Vegas, Nevada to play pool full-time. Pelinga has served as a board member of the International Artistic Poolplayers Association (IAPA). He was the featured player on the cover of the May 2010 issue of "Billiards Digest" magazine, which named him one of the world's best trick shot artists. He has been nicknamed "Mr. Trick Shots" and ""Il Maestro"" ("The Master"). Aside from competition, Pelinga performs exhibitions, organizes competitions and raises funds for a variety of charitable organizations with his personal appearances. He was invited to tour in the USA with Paul Gerni, Norway's Lars Riiber, and Japan's Yoshikazu Kimura, and nominated by Paul Gerni for a spot on ESPN's Trick Shot Magic, where he has been featured for over ten years. He won two Trick Shot Magic events, in 2005 and 2007, after a few second places. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32490964 | 1,864,177 |
1,224,981 | Furthermore, Kanas points out that during on-orbit or lunar missions a number of interventions have been implemented successfully to support crew member psychological well-being. These have included family conferences in real time (i.e., with no appreciable delays), frequent consultations with mission control, and the sending of gifts and favorite foods on resupply ships to enhance morale. Such actions have helped to provide stimulation and counter the effects of isolation, loneliness, asthenization, and limited social contact. But with the delays in crew-ground communication and the inability to send needed resupplies in a timely manner due to the vast distances between the habitats on Mars and Earth, the currently used Earth-based support strategies will be seriously constrained, and new strategies will be needed. Finally, since gazing at the Earth's beauty has been rated as the major positive factor of being in space, the experience of seeing the Earth as an insignificant dot in the heavens may enhance the sense of isolation and produce increased feelings of homesickness, depression and irritability. This may be ameliorated by having a telescope on board with which to view the Earth, thus helping the crew feel more connected with home. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40399131 | 1,224,321 |
333,578 | The primary differences between complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) and FPGAs are architectural. A CPLD has a comparatively restrictive structure consisting of one or more programmable sum-of-products logic arrays feeding a relatively small number of clocked registers. As a result, CPLDs are less flexible, but have the advantage of more predictable timing delays and FPGA architectures, on the other hand, are dominated by interconnect. This makes them far more flexible (in terms of the range of designs that are practical for implementation on them) but also far more complex to design for, or at least requiring more complex electronic design automation (EDA) software. In practice, the distinction between FPGAs and CPLDs is often one of size as FPGAs are usually much larger in terms of resources than CPLDs. Typically only FPGAs contain more complex embedded functions such as adders, multipliers, memory, and serializer/deserializers. Another common distinction is that CPLDs contain embedded flash memory to store their configuration while FPGAs usually require external non-volatile memory (but not always). When a design requires simple instant-on (logic is already configured at power-up) CPLDs are generally preferred. For most other applications FPGAs are generally preferred. Sometimes both CPLDs and FPGAs are used in a single system design. In those designs, CPLDs generally perform glue logic functions, and are responsible for "booting" the FPGA as well as controlling reset and boot sequence of the complete circuit board. Therefore, depending on the application it may be judicious to use both FPGAs and CPLDs in a single design. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10969 | 333,400 |
1,182,277 | When the spring came the 8th Indian Division was switched in great secrecy (along with the bulk of the British Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese) 60 miles west across the Apennine Mountains to concentrate as part of Lieutenant-General Sidney C. Kirkmans British XIII Corps, serving alongside the British 4th and 78th Infantry Division, 6th Armoured Divisions, as well as the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade, along the River Garigliano at a part of the river better known as the Gari. Their heavily opposed night crossing of the Gari in May 1944, supported by Canadian tanks (1st Canadian Armoured Brigade) with which the division had formed a particularly close fighting relationship over the previous six months, was critical to the Allies' success in this, the fourth and final Battle of Monte Cassino. Following this, the division advanced some 240 miles in June across mountainous country, fighting many actions against rearguards and defended strongpoints. In late June they had reached Assisi and the division was rested. It was during the fighting on the Gari that Kamal Ram of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Punjab Regiment was awarded his Victoria Cross. At 19 years of age, he was one of the youngest recipients of the VC during the Second World War. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3675637 | 1,181,652 |
869,901 | Picking up where Lilienthal left off, Octave Chanute took up aircraft design after an early retirement and funded the development of several gliders. In the summer of 1896, his team flew several of their designs many times at Miller Beach, Indiana, eventually deciding that the best was a biplane design. Like Lilienthal, he documented his work and also photographed it, and was busy corresponding with like-minded researchers around the world. Chanute was particularly interested in solving the problem of aerodynamic instability of the aircraft in flight, which birds compensate for by instant corrections, but which humans would have to address either with stabilizing and control surfaces or by moving the center of gravity of the aircraft, as Lilienthal did. The most disconcerting problem was longitudinal instability (divergence), because as the angle of attack of a wing increases, the center of pressure moves forward and makes the angle increase yet more. Without immediate correction, the craft will pitch up and stall. Much more difficult to understand was the relationship between lateral and directional control. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1607990 | 869,441 |
866,300 | Currently, the world is facing a food crisis due to poor agricultural practices, unfavorable weather conditions for agriculture, and natural disasters, among other forces that are beyond human control. Agricultural practices in the current times majorly rely on innovation and technology, and agricultural researchers have been so keen to study and propose the most efficient ways of production (Spindler et al., 2020). With the current rate at which the global population is increasing, there is a great need to increase food production to be able to feed the world, and one of the ways is by increasing the rate at which good is grown and harvested. Various methods have been proposed by researchers, including the use of greenhouses and genetic modification of plants and animals to be able to resist such things as diseases, increase growth rate and reduce maturity time. Some studies have suggested cross-breeding. However, most of these methods have proven to be less sufficient and have led to such things as undesired mutations (Spindler et al., 2020). Therefore, it is important to consider the safety of consumers in proposing and developing agricultural practices, and that is why it is important to grow food organically for human consumption. The use of ultraviolet light is one of the methods that have been studied and proven to be safer for the production of food for human consumption compared to the use of natural light. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6907585 | 865,840 |
1,623,409 | Seismic tomography is a technique that uses seismic waves produced by earthquakes to gather information on the composition of the crust and mantle below a volcanic system. Different layers and structures in the Earth have different propagation speeds of seismic waves and attenuate them differently, resulting in different arrival times and strengths of waves travelling in a certain direction. From various measurements 3D models of the geological structures can be inferred. Results of such research indicate that a highly hydrated slab derived from the Nazca Plate – a major source of melts in a collisional volcanism system – underlies the Western Cordillera. Below the Altiplano, low-velocity zones indicate the presence of large amounts of partial melts that correlate with volcanic zones south of 21° S, whereas north of 21° S thicker lithospheric layers may prevent the formation of melts. Next to the Eastern Cordillera, low-velocity zones extend farther north to 18.5° S. A thermally weakened zone, evidenced by strong attenuation, in the crust is associated with the APVC. This indicates the presence of melts in the crust. A layer of low velocity (shear speed of ) thick is assumed to host the APVC magma body. This body has a volume of about and a temperature of about . Other seismological data indicate a partial delamination of the crust under the Puna, resulting in increased volcanic activity and terrain height. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47603156 | 1,622,493 |
433,026 | The Home Office (UK) led the Inter-Departmental Group on Reduction, Refinement and Replacement, which aims to improve the application of the 3Rs and promote research into alternatives, reducing the need for toxicity testing through better sharing of data, and encouraging the validation and acceptance of alternatives. The Data Sharing Group drafted the Inter-Departmental Data Sharing Condordat published in August 2000 and was re-formed in June 2002 to consider the scope for the greater application of the 3Rs. Arising from the Government response to the report of the House of Lords Select Committee on animals in scientific procedures, the Group was asked to explore the scope for a UK centre for research into the 3Rs. The Group reported to Ministers that there was support for a body which would act as a means to better publicise and coordinate what is already done by way of research into the 3Rs. In May 2004, the NC3Rs was announced in the UK to act as a focal point for research into the 3Rs. Although the principles of the 3Rs were implicit in UK law under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (1986), the Directive 2010/63/EU governing animal use within the European Union<ref name="2010/63/EU"></ref> makes the principles explicit and researchers must demonstrate the use of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement techniques in research involving animals. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40251468 | 432,813 |
820,385 | Hermann Staudinger studied the stereoisomerism in chain polymerization of vinyl monomers in the late 1920s, and it took another two decades for people to fully appreciate the idea that each of the propagation steps in the polymer growth could give rise to stereoisomerism. The major milestone in the stereochemistry was established by Ziegler and Natta and their coworkers in 1950s, as they developed metal based catalyst to synthesize stereoregular polymers. The reason why the stereochemistry of the polymer is of particular interest is because the physical behavior of a polymer depends not only on the general chemical composition but also on the more subtle differences in microstructure. Atactic polymers consist of a random arrangement of stereochemistry and are amorphous (noncrystalline), soft materials with lower physical strength. The corresponding isotactic (like substituents all on the same side) and syndiotactic (like substituents of alternate repeating units on the same side) polymers are usually obtained as highly crystalline materials. It is easier for the stereoregular polymers to pack into a crystal lattice since they are more ordered and the resulting crystallinity leads to higher physical strength and increased solvent and chemical resistance as well as differences in other properties that depend on crystallinity. The prime example of the industrial utility of stereoregular polymers is polypropene. Isotactic polypropene is a high-melting (165 °C), strong, crystalline polymer, which is used as both a plastic and fiber. Atactic polypropene is an amorphous material with an oily to waxy soft appearance that finds use in asphalt blends and formulations for lubricants, sealants, and adhesives, but the volumes are minuscule compared to that of isotactic polypropene. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1947467 | 819,944 |
1,504,113 | Watkins (2005) presents an overview of the gradual progress of the Indigenizing of archaeology worldwide, lauding the few accomplishments and trying to "interpret the relative quiet of the Indigenous voice" (40). In Australia and New Zealand, Aboriginal peoples are using archeology as part of their reclamation of heritage and assertion of indigenous rights, where it is increasingly used in support of land claims and repatriation issues (39). The Canadian experience follows a similar trajectory, albeit at a slower pace. Specific examples of unambiguously successful Canadian collaborative projects include the partnership in British Columbia between SCES and Simon Fraser University (SFU). Another was the DNA and other studies associated with "Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi," the 500-year-old remains called "Long Ago Man Found", "discovered by sheep hunters in 1999 at the foot of a melting glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in the Yukon". There was also cooperation on his reburial.(Watkins 2005: 35). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21924068 | 1,503,267 |
1,008,448 | When compared with Deep Blue or with Watson, AlphaGo's underlying algorithms are potentially more general-purpose, and may be evidence that the scientific community is making progress toward artificial general intelligence. Some commentators believe AlphaGo's victory makes for a good opportunity for society to start discussing preparations for the possible future impact of machines with general purpose intelligence. In March 2016, AI researcher Stuart Russell stated that "AI methods are progressing much faster than expected, (which) makes the question of the long-term outcome more urgent," adding that "in order to ensure that increasingly powerful AI systems remain completely under human control... there is a lot of work to do." Some scholars, such as physicist Stephen Hawking, warn that some future self-improving AI could gain actual general intelligence, leading to an unexpected AI takeover; other scholars disagree: AI expert Jean-Gabriel Ganascia believes that "Things like 'common sense'... may never be reproducible", and says "I don't see why we would speak about fears. On the contrary, this raises hopes in many domains such as health and space exploration." Richard Sutton said "I don't think people should be scared... but I do think people should be paying attention." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49693402 | 1,007,927 |
386,544 | The pyrometallurgical process involves burning the battery materials with slag, limestone, sand and coke to produce a metal alloy using a high-temperature furnace. The resulted materials are a metallic alloy, slag and gases. The gases comprise molecules that are evaporated from the electrolyte and binder components. The metal alloy can be separated through hydrometallurgical processes into constituent materials. The slag which is a mixture of metals aluminum, manganese and lithium can either be reclaimed by hydrometallurgical processes or used in the cement industry. This process is very versatile and relatively safe. Because there is no pre-sorting needed, it can work with a wide variety of batteries. In addition, because the whole cell is burnt, the metal from the current collectors could help the smelting process and because of the exothermic reaction of burning electrolyte sand plastics the energy consumption can also be reduced. However, this process still requires relatively higher energy consumption and only a limited number of materials can be reclaimed. Physical materials separation recovered materials by mechanical crushing and exploiting physical properties of different components such as particle size, density, ferromagnetism and hydrophobicity. Copper, aluminum and steel casing can be recovered by sorting. The remaining materials, called "black mass", which is composed of nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese, need a secondary treatment to recover. For the hydrometallurgical process, the cathode materials need to be crushed to remove the current collector. Then, the cathode materials are leached by aqueous solutions to extract the desired metals from cathode materials. Direct cathode recycling as the name suggested extracts the materials directly, yielding a cathode power that is ready to be used as new cathode pristine material. This process involves extracting the electrolyte using liquid or supercritical CO. After the size of the recovered components is reduced, the cathode materials can be separated out. For the biological metals reclamation or bio-leaching, the process uses microorganisms to digest metal oxides selectively. Then, recyclers can reduce these oxides to produce metal nanoparticles. Although bio-leaching has been used successfully in the mining industry, this process is still nascent to the recycling industry and plenty of opportunities exists for further investigation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15452708 | 386,349 |
355,353 | Later, even lighter carbine variants of many of these short-barreled assault rifles came to be adopted as the standard infantry weapon. In much modern tactical thinking, only a certain number of soldiers need to retain longer-range weapons, serving as designated marksmen. The rest can carry lighter, shorter-ranged weapons for close quarters combat and suppressive fire. This is basically a more extreme extension of the idea that brought the original assault rifle. Another factor is that with the increasing weight of technology, sighting systems, ballistic armor, etc., the only way to reduce the burden on the modern soldier was to equip them with a smaller, lighter weapon. Also, modern soldiers rely a great deal on vehicles and helicopters to transport them around the battle area, and a longer weapon can be a serious hindrance to entering and exiting these vehicles. Development of lighter assault rifles continued, matched by developments in even lighter carbines. In spite of the short barrels of the new assault rifles, carbine variants like the 5.45×39mm AKS-74U and Colt Commando were being developed for use when mobility was essential and a submachine gun was not sufficiently powerful. The AKS-74U featured an extremely short barrel which necessitated redesigning and shortening the gas-piston and integrating front sights onto the gas tube; the Colt Commando was a bit longer, at . Neither was adopted as standard issue, although the U.S. did later adopt the somewhat longer M4 carbine, with a barrel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6579 | 355,170 |
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