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299,038 | Establishing a timeline of his work is now impossible, since no document provides chronological references. Themistius, a 4th-century Byzantine rhetorician, mentions that he was the "first of the known Greeks to publish a written document on nature." Therefore, his texts would be amongst the earliest written in prose, at least in the Western world. By the time of Plato, his philosophy was almost forgotten, and Aristotle, his successor Theophrastus and a few doxographers provide us with the little information that remains. However, we know from Aristotle that Thales, also from Miletus, precedes Anaximander. It is debatable whether Thales actually was the teacher of Anaximander, but there is no doubt that Anaximander was influenced by Thales' theory that everything is derived from water. One thing that is not debatable is that even the ancient Greeks considered Anaximander to be from the Monist school which began in Miletus, with Thales followed by Anaximander and which ended with Anaximenes. 3rd-century Roman rhetorician Aelian depicts Anaximander as leader of the Milesian colony to Apollonia on the Black Sea coast, and hence some have inferred that he was a prominent citizen. Indeed, "Various History" (III, 17) explains that philosophers sometimes also dealt with political matters. It is very likely that leaders of Miletus sent him there as a legislator to create a constitution or simply to maintain the colony's allegiance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1168 | 298,878 |
1,794,119 | Scotland is known for its dramatically placed castles, many of which date from the late medieval era. Castles, in the sense of a fortified residence of a lord or noble, arrived in Scotland as part of David I's encouragement of Norman and French nobles to settle with feudal tenures, particularly in the south and east, and were a way of controlling the contested lowlands. These were primarily wooden motte-and-bailey constructions, of a raised mount or motte, surmounted by a wooden tower and a larger adjacent enclosure or bailey, both usually surrounded by a fosse (a ditch) and palisade, and connected by a wooden bridge. They varied in size from the very large such as the Bass of Inverurie, to more modest designs like Balmaclellan. In England many of these constructions were converted into stone "keep-and-bailey" castles in the twelfth century, but in Scotland most of those that were in continued occupation became stone castles of "enceinte" from the thirteenth century, with a high embattled curtain wall. The need for thick and high walls for defence forced the use of economic building methods, often continuing the tradition of dry-stone rubble building, which were then covered with a lime render, or harled for weatherproofing and a uniform appearance. In addition to the baronial castles there were royal castles, often larger and providing defence, lodging for the itinerant Scottish court and a local administrative centre. By 1200 these included fortifications at Ayr and Berwick. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36309414 | 1,793,110 |
2,037,594 | In one study, participants listened to short narratives in which a man and woman converse about an inanimate object that is semantically related to the man (e.g., "tourist" and "suitcase"). In the fifth sentence of the narrative, either the woman would continue her conversation with the man (coherent continuation), or she would suddenly start talking to the inanimate object instead (anomalous continuation); except for the critical words, these continuations were identical in coherent and anomalous continuations. In both cases the critical words of the continuation were de-accented, in order to minimize prosodic differences across both versions of the story. It was predicted that listeners would immediately notice the semantic change in the anomalous continuation condition, despite conditions that have been demonstrated to elicit semantic illusions, since it produces a strong discourse coherence break. This was tested using event-related potential analysis, with the expectation that the anomalous continuation would immediately elicit a large N400 effect relative to the coherent continuation, given that semantically anomalous, or even coherent but unexpected words, have been shown to elicit significantly larger N400 effects than semantically coherent or expected words about 150–250 ms after the onset of the critical word. Contrary to this prediction, results yielded the absence of an N400 effect and the presence of a differential effect that began to emerge at approximately 500–600 ms after critical word onset. The absence of an N400 effect is interpreted as a temporary change deafness effect in which the semantic change momentarily went undetected, because of the well-established sensitivity of the N400 to very subtle differences in the relatedness of a word to its semantic context. The experimenters speculate that the initial lack of change detection is a product of strong expectations combined with input that is superficially consistent with the context, in that the anomalous word is semantically associated with the correct word and not accented in any unusual way. The differential event-related potential shows that the participants processed the change, but it took significantly longer to detect than expected. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29354346 | 2,036,419 |
134,155 | Poynter in her memoir rebuts the critique that because some of the creative team of Biosphere 2 were not credentialed scientists, the results of the endeavor are invalid. "Some reporters hurled accusations that we were unscientific. Apparently because many of the SBV managers were not themselves degreed scientists, this called into question the entire validity of the project, even though some of the world’s best scientists were working vigorously on the project’s design and operation. The critique was not fair. Since leaving Biosphere 2, I have run a small business for ten years that sent experiments on the shuttle and to the space station, and is designing life support systems for the replacement shuttle and future moon base. I do not have a degree, not even an MBA from Harvard, as John [Allen] had. I hire scientists and top engineers. Our company’s credibility is not called into question because of my credentials: we are judged on the quality of our work". H.T. Odum noted that mavericks and outsiders have often contributed to the development of science: "The original management of Biosphere 2 was regarded by many scientists as untrained for lack of scientific degrees, even though they had engaged in a preparatory study program for a decade, interacting with the international community of scientists including the Russians involved with closed systems. The history of science has many examples where people of atypical background open science in new directions, in this case implementing mesocosm organization and ecological engineering with fresh hypotheses". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=216362 | 134,100 |
410,373 | The level editor program was designed so that developers could make rapid adjustments to specific areas with ease. Another noted aspect was the multi-layered levels, as compared to equivalent 3D action-adventure games of the time which were mostly limited to a flat-floor system with little verticality. The interlinking room design was inspired by Egyptian multi-roomed tombs, particularly the tomb of Tutankhamun. The grid-based pattern was a necessity due to the d-pad-based tank controls and the Saturn's quad polygon-based rendering technology. Levels were first designed using a wireframe construction, with each area at this stage having only links to other areas of a level and walls. The team then added architecture and gameplay elements like traps and enemies, then implemented the different lighting values. Due to time and technical limitations, planned outdoor areas had to be cut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3926606 | 410,171 |
408,445 | When feature widths were far greater than about 10 micrometres, semiconductor purity was not as big of an issue as it is today in device manufacturing. As devices become more integrated, cleanrooms must become even cleaner. Today, fabrication plants are pressurized with filtered air to remove even the smallest particles, which could come to rest on the wafers and contribute to defects. The ceilings of semiconductor cleanrooms have fan filter units (FFUs) at regular intervals to constantly replace and filter the air in the cleanroom; semiconductor capital equipment may also have their own FFUs. The FFUs, combined with raised floors with grills, help ensure a laminar air flow, to ensure that particles are immediately brought down to the floor and do not stay suspended in the air due to turbulence. The workers in a semiconductor fabrication facility are required to wear cleanroom suits to protect the devices from human contamination. To prevent oxidation and to increase yield, FOUPs and semiconductor capital equipment may have a hermetically sealed pure nitrogen environment with ISO class 1 level of dust. FOUPs and SMIF pods isolate the wafers from the air in the cleanroom, increasing yield because they reduce the number of defects caused by dust particles. Also, fabs have as few people as possible in the cleanroom to make maintaining the cleanroom environment easier, since people, even when wearing cleanroom suits, shed large amounts of particles, especially when walking. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27696 | 408,244 |
94,954 | The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ordered 16 S-70B-2s which were delivered in 1988 and 1989. In December 2017, the S-70B-2s were retired from service. The S-70B-2 had served extensively in the Middle East embarked on the "Adelaide"-class and the "Anzac"-class frigates. 11 S-70B-2 were sold to Skyline Aviation Group. Under Project AIR 9000 Phase 8, the MH-60R competed with the NHIndustries NH90 to replace the S-70B-2. In June 2011, the Defence Minister announced that the MH-60R had been selected to replace the S-70B-2. 24 MH-60Rs were ordered to be equipped with the Mark 54 and the Hellfire with deliveries commencing in mid-2014. The US had approved a Foreign Military Sale of 24 MH-60Rs in July 2010. The first MH-60R was delivered to the RAN in 2013 and the last was delivered in 2016. In 2018, Australia signed a 10-year agreement with the US Navy to support the MH-60R. The Department of Defence in the "2020 Force Structure Plan" reported it planned to expand and rationalise the RAN's MRH-90 Taipan fleet used for support and logistics. In October 2021, the US approved a Foreign Military Sale to Australia of 12 MH-60Rs. In May 2022, the Australian government announced that it would purchase 12 MH-60Rs to replace the MRH-90 fleet. The government placed the order in September 2022. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=202031 | 94,913 |
1,211,514 | Turkey's nuclear activities started soon after the first International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva in September 1955. In 1961, a 1 MW test reactor at Çekmece Nuclear Research and Training Center was commissioned for educational and research purposes. As stated by the World Nuclear Association, the first endeavour was a feasibility report in 1970 involving a 300 MWe facility. Then in 1973, the electricity authority agreed to construct a demonstration plant of 80 MWe. In 1976, Akkuyu, a site 45 kilometers west of the southern city Silifke, was chosen as the nuclear power plant site. The Prime Ministry Atomic Energy Authority issued a license for this place. An effort to develop multiple plants failed in 1980 due to a failure of ensuring financial guarantees by the government, that viewed coal plants in Turkey as more favorable. Turkey suspended work on nuclear plants due to the Chernobyl disaster that occurred in the Soviet Union in 1986. In 1988, the TEK Nuclear Power Plants Department was closed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31197009 | 1,210,862 |
1,683,124 | A general paradigm for understanding motor control, optimal control has been defined as "optimizing motor control for a given aspect of task performance," or as a way to minimize a certain "cost" associated with a movement. This "cost function" may be different depending on the task-goal; for example, minimum energy expenditure might be a task-variable associated with locomotion, while precise trajectory and positional control could be a task-variable associated with reaching for an object. Furthermore, the cost function may be quite complex (for instance, it may be a functional instead of function) and be also related to the representations in the internal space. For example, the speech produced by biomechanical tongue models (BTM), controlled by the internal model which minimizes the length of the path traveled in the internal space under the constraints related to the executed task (e.g., quality of speech, stiffness of tongue), was found to be quite realistic. In essence, the goal of optimal control is to "reduce degrees of freedom in a principled way." Two key components of all optimal control systems are: a "state estimator" which tells the nervous system about what it is doing, including afferent sensory feedback and an efferent copy of the motor command; and adjustable feedback gains based on task goals. A component of these adjustable gains might be a "minimum intervention principle" where the nervous system only performs selective error correction rather than heavily modulating the entirety of a movement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33820872 | 1,682,181 |
26,080 | The thermionic triode, a vacuum tube invented in 1907, enabled amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. The triode, however, was a fragile device that consumed a substantial amount of power. In 1909, physicist William Eccles discovered the crystal diode oscillator. Austro-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925, which was intended to be a solid-state replacement for the triode. Lilienfeld also filed identical patents in the United States in 1926 and 1928. However, Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices nor did his patents cite any specific examples of a working prototype. Because the production of high-quality semiconductor materials was still decades away, Lilienfeld's solid-state amplifier ideas would not have found practical use in the 1920s and 1930s, even if such a device had been built. In 1934, German inventor Oskar Heil patented a similar device in Europe. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30011 | 26,071 |
754,946 | The Panzer Corps slowed their advance considerably but were stretched out, exhausted and low on fuel; many tanks had broken down. There was now a dangerous gap between them and the infantry. A determined attack by a fresh large mechanized force could have cut them off and wiped them out. The French high command, however, was reeling from the sudden offensive and stung by defeatism. On the morning of 15 May, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud telephoned the new British prime minister, Winston Churchill, saying "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle." Churchill reminded him of the times the Germans had broken through Allied lines in World War I, only to be stopped. However, Reynaud was inconsolable. Churchill flew to Paris on 16 May and recognized the gravity of the situation; the French government was already burning its archives and preparing for an evacuation of the capital. In a sombre meeting with the French commanders, Churchill asked General Gamelin, "Where is the strategic reserve?" which had saved Paris in the First World War. "There is none", Gamelin replied. Later, Churchill described hearing this as the single most shocking moment in his life. Churchill asked Gamelin when and where the general proposed to launch a counterattack against the flanks of the German bulge. Gamelin simply replied "inferiority of numbers, inferiority of equipment, inferiority of methods". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=376965 | 754,543 |
1,204,293 | Speaking in a 2003 television documentary about Nigel Kneale's career, the writer and critic Kim Newman praised the underlying themes of "Quatermass II", and their particular relevance to the British way of life. ""Quatermass II" is the British "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers", but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing... What "Quatermass II" does is take that metaphor and apply it to the specific conditions of Britain in the 1950s; not just the Cold War paranoia, but the traditional British grumbling resentment of bureaucracy as represented by the council, or in this case big business." The British Film Institute's "Screenonline" website also offers praise in its analysis of the serial."With its tale of an invasion by an invisible enemy indistinguishable from ourselves, Kneale's story tapped into contemporary fears about the 'red' (i.e. communist) threat, although in a less direct way than the American science fiction films of the 1950s, including "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". At the same time, it reflected the widespread anxiety of the nuclear age – the story begins with a failed test of a nuclear-powered rocket in Australia (at a time when the country was in reality a site for a series of British nuclear weapons tests). In short, "Quatermass II" was the perfect cold-war drama." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=869155 | 1,203,648 |
1,282,615 | Bleomycin use causes side effects ranging from nausea, vomiting, anorexia and fevers, to fatal pulmonary toxicity in 1–2% of cases resulting in death. More commonly, skin reactions occur including erythema or redness of the skin, hyperpigmentation with darker patches of skin, and the presence or formation of vesicles. Immediately after administration, bleomycin can also cause fever chills and hypotension or low blood pressure. However, the main limiting factor or bleomycin use is pulmonary toxicity. Reactive oxygen species produced via the redox reactions that occur due to its mechanism of action involving binding to guanine bases in DNA, which results in reduced membrane stability. These oxidants can cause lung inflammation and damage alveolar epithelial cells, resulting in the release of cytokines and growth factors that stimulate the rapid myofibroblast growth; cells between a fibroblast and a smooth muscle cell, as well as the secretion of a pathologic extracellular matrix where cells migrate, proliferate and differentiate, thus leading to fibrosis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17033084 | 1,281,919 |
1,221,564 | In December 1943, two blockade runners arriving from Japan attempted to pass through the bay. The Allies were aware of them through their Ultra code-breaking efforts and positioned cruisers and aircraft in the Western Atlantic to intercept them in Operation Stonewall. The first ship reached France, but the second one was destroyed by Allied aircraft unbeknownst to the Germans. They had sent the 8th Destroyer Flotilla and the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla to escort the ship home; after she failed to arrive at the rendezvous point, the German ships turned for home in very heavy seas that greatly degraded the ability of the torpedo boats to use their guns and torpedoes. An Allied bomber had spotted them on the morning of 28 December and the German ships were intercepted by the British light cruisers and that afternoon. After unsuccessful torpedo attacks by the destroyers, (Captain) Hans Erdmenger, commander of the 8th Flotilla, decided to split his forces and ordered the destroyers , , and "T22", "T25" and "T26" to reverse course to the north. The cruisers pursued the northern group and sank "Z27", "T25" and "T26". All of the ships in the southern group, including "T23", "T24" and "T27" were able to successfully disengage. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58527641 | 1,220,906 |
2,123,609 | "BWFS, an Internet Protocol (IP) cluster file system (CFS), has moved beyond the research lab and into the commercialization stage, and has now been successfully deployed in various industries including the energy, automotive, military and the media sectors. Its success demonstrates the strengths of China's research institutes in the technology realm, despite their relative lack of commercial experience and investment resources compared to many Western technology providers. Although CFSs are not yet prevalent in the mainstream storage market, for some users who need very high input/output I/O performance — especially leading-edge applications such as oil and gas, biotech and computer-aided design (CAD) — BWFS offers a good price/performance solution. Users should also consider BWFS if looking for a lower-priced CFS. Users that need a more commercialized solution — or that like to have a more “out of box” interface — should consider other vendors such as Panasas, Isilon and Ibrix rather than BWFS." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32248020 | 2,122,389 |
775,051 | In 2016 Hone and colleagues analyzed 37 skulls of "P. andrewsi", finding that the neck frill of "Protoceratops" (in both length and width) underwent positive allometry during ontongeny, that is, a faster growth/development of this region than the rest of the animal. The jugal bones also showed a trend towards an increase in relative size. These results suggest that they functioned as socio-sexual dominance signals, or, they were mostly used in display. The use of the frill as a displaying structure may be related to other anatomical features of "Protoceratops" such as the premaxillary teeth (at least for "P. andrewsi") which could have been used in display or intraspecific combat, or the high neural spines of tail. On the other hand, Hone and team argued that if neck frills were instead used for protective purposes, a large frill may have acted as an aposematic (warning) signal to predators. However, such strategies are most effective when the taxon is rare in the overall environment, opposed to "Protoceratops" which appears to be an extremely abundant and medium-sized dinosaur. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1064031 | 774,635 |
1,515,280 | Optical rogue waves are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. The term optical rogue waves was coined to describe rare pulses of broadband light arising during the process of supercontinuum generation—a noise-sensitive nonlinear process in which extremely broadband radiation is generated from a narrowband input waveform—in nonlinear optical fiber. In this context, optical rogue waves are characterized by an anomalous surplus in energy at particular wavelengths (e.g., those shifted to the red of the input waveform) or an unexpected peak power. These anomalous events have been shown to follow heavy-tailed statistics, also known as L-shaped statistics, fat-tailed statistics, or extreme-value statistics. These probability distributions are characterized by long tails: large outliers occur rarely, yet much more frequently than expected from Gaussian statistics and intuition. Such distributions also describe the probabilities of freak ocean waves and various phenomena in both the man-made and natural worlds. Despite their infrequency, rare events wield significant influence in many systems. Aside from the statistical similarities, light waves traveling in optical fibers are known to obey the similar mathematics as water waves traveling in the open ocean (the nonlinear Schrödinger equation), supporting the analogy between oceanic rogue waves and their optical counterparts. More generally, research has exposed a number of different analogies between extreme events in optics and hydrodynamic systems. A key practical difference is that most optical experiments can be done with a table-top apparatus, offer a high degree of experimental control, and allow data to be acquired extremely rapidly. Consequently, optical rogue waves are attractive for experimental and theoretical research and have become a highly studied phenomenon. The particulars of the analogy between extreme waves in optics and hydrodynamics may vary depending on the context, but the existence of rare events and extreme statistics in wave-related phenomena are common ground. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42450197 | 1,514,429 |
293,791 | In the early 1990s, the United States Forest Service (USFS) introduced the M40 for avalanche control as ammunition stocks for its M27 rifles became depleted. The M40 was initially successful due to operational similarities to the familiar M27 and ready availability from the U.S. military; however, in 1995, a USFS gunner was killed by shrapnel after a low-level premature warhead detonation inside an M40 barrel. The accident was attributed to an undiscovered hairline crack in the projectile's base plate. Following this incident, most USFS M40s were quickly replaced with surplus 105 mm howitzers, but a few were kept in service with safety barriers to protect the gunners, who fired the guns remotely. In December 2002, two M40s at Mammoth Mountain were destroyed by catastrophic bore explosions 13 days apart. The gunners were uninjured, having been protected by the safety barriers, but the incidents prompted the USFS to retire all remaining M40s in July 2003. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2245429 | 293,633 |
1,508,315 | On April 14, 2022 EPA published a policy regarding pesticide effectiveness. Officially starting on June 14th, 2022, this policy requires reliable data proving a pesticide's effectiveness against specific invertebrate pests. The pests that are being targeted are those that cause harm to health, those that damage wood structures, and invasive species. Some of the most harmful insects to human health are ticks and mosquitoes because of their ability to carry and spread diseases, such as Dengue Fever, Malaria, and Lyme disease. Invasive species, such as the Asian Longhorn Beetle, cause ecological and economical concern because they destroy important plant species that provide ecosystem services. (Ecosystem services are free services provided by nature that benefits humanity through aesthetics, health, climate regulation, food, etc.) The main goals and purpose of this policy is to create an accurate data record of effective pesticides and lay out direct requirements to pesticide producers, agricultural farmers, universities researching pesticide use, etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31728658 | 1,507,467 |
211,842 | The maximum proportion of errors or missing bits that can be corrected is determined by the design of the ECC, so different forward error correcting codes are suitable for different conditions. In general, a stronger code induces more redundancy that needs to be transmitted using the available bandwidth, which reduces the effective bit-rate while improving the received effective signal-to-noise ratio. The noisy-channel coding theorem of Claude Shannon answers the question of how much bandwidth is left for data communication while using the most efficient code that turns the decoding error probability to zero. This establishes bounds on the theoretical maximum information transfer rate of a channel with some given base noise level. His proof is not constructive, and hence gives no insight of how to build a capacity achieving code. However, after years of research, some advanced FEC systems like polar code achieve the Shannon channel capacity under the hypothesis of an infinite length frame. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4237207 | 211,734 |
261,417 | Polaris had not been designed to penetrate anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences, but the Royal Navy had to ensure that its small Polaris force operating alone, and often with only one submarine on patrol, could penetrate the ABM screen around Moscow. The Wilson government publicly ruled out the purchase of Poseidon missiles in June 1967, and without such a commitment, the Americans were unwilling to share information about warhead vulnerability. The result was Chevaline, an Improved Front End (IFE) that replaced one of the three warheads with multiple decoys and other defensive countermeasures, in what was known as a Penetration Aid Carrier (PAC). It was the most technically complex defence project ever undertaken in the United Kingdom. Chevaline's existence, along with its formerly secret codename, was revealed by the Secretary of State for Defence, Francis Pym, during a debate in the House of Commons on 24 January 1980. By this time the project had gone on for a decade. The final cost reached £1,025 million. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2095669 | 261,278 |
624,899 | Optimal and reliable results require controlling several variables, such as incubation times, red blood cell concentration, and type of red blood cell. Non-specific factors in the sample can lead to interference and incorrect titer values. For example, molecules in the sample other than virus-specific antibodies can inhibit agglutination between virus and RBCs, as well as potentially blocking antibody from binding to virus. Receptor-destroying enzymes (RDE) are commonly used to treat samples prior to analysis to prevent non-specific inhibition. Analysis of the HA or HI results relies on a qualified individual to read the plate and determine the titer values. The manual interpretation method introduces more opportunities for discrepancies in the assay because results can be subjective and the agreement between human readers is inconsistent. Also, there is no digital record of the plate or titer determinations so the initial interpretation is tedious and commonly done in replicates. The range of potential variables and differences between expert readers can make comparing inter-laboratory results difficult. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1284618 | 624,566 |
284,051 | In January 1948, the Chief of Naval Operations issued a requirement to develop a long-range, carrier-based attack plane that could deliver either a bomb load or a nuclear weapon. The envisioned aircraft was intended to be operated from the planned "United States"-class "supercarriers," which were significantly larger than the USN's existing carriers, thus the specification set a target loaded weight of . Additionally, the USN sought for this bomber to possess greater speed and range than its existing North American AJ Savage fleet. A total of eight aircraft manufacturers produced responses to the specification, but all except Douglas Aircraft Company and Curtiss-Wright would drop out, declaring that there was no means that the requirements could be met within the 100,000 lb weight limitation. Uncertainty over the performance and requirements of both engines and bombs were major contributing factors towards this climate of negativity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=457649 | 283,898 |
763,185 | There are numerous other facets to the controversy, but whatever the school of thought, all agree that the traditional strengths and weaponry of the heavy infantry legion declined from the standards of earlier eras. The 4th-century writer Vegetius, in one of the most influential Western military works "De Re Militari", highlighted this decline as the key factor in military weakness, noting that the core legions always fought as part of an integrated team of cavalry and light foot. In the latter years, this formula that had brought so much success petered out. Caught between the growth of lighter armed/less organized foot soldiers, and the increasing cavalry formations of the mobile forces, the "heavies" as the dominant force, withered on the vine. This does not mean that heavy units disappeared entirely, but that their mass recruitment, formation, organization and deployment as the dominant part of the Roman military was greatly reduced. Ironically, in Rome's final battles (the Western half of the empire) the defeats suffered were substantially inflicted by infantry forces (many fighting dismounted). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30855309 | 762,776 |
595,823 | Industrial research began at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, was also initiated at the Daniel Sieff Research Center (later the Weizmann Institute of Science), established in 1934 in Rehovot. The Dead Sea Laboratories opened in the 1930s. The first modern electronic computer in Israel and the Middle East, and one of the first large-scale, stored-program, electronic computers in the world, called WEIZAC, was built at the Weizmann Institute during 1954–1955, based on the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) architecture developed by John von Neumann. WEIZAC has been recognized by the IEEE as a milestone in the history of electrical engineering and computing. IBM Israel, registered on June 8, 1950, was the country's first high-tech firm. The company, located on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, assembled and repaired punch card machines, sorting machines and tabulators. In 1956, a local plant was opened to produce punch cards, and a year later, the first service center opened, offering computerized data processing services. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=397525 | 595,518 |
1,411,480 | Unfortunately, hydrological and geological conditions in Chernobyl area promoted rapid radionuclide migration to subsurface water network. These factors include flat terrain, abundant precipitation and highly permeable sandy sediments Main natural factors of nuclides migration in the region can be divided into four groups, including: weather and climate-related (evaporation and precipitation frequency, intensity and distribution); geological (sediment permeability, drainage regimes, forms of vegetation); soil-borne (physical, hydrological and mechanical properties of lands); and lithological (terrain structures and types of rock). In meliorated areas migration processes are additionally influenced by anthropogenic drivers related to human agricultural activities. In this relation, specific parameters and type of drainage regime, melioration practices, water control and sprinkling can substantially accelerate natural tempos of migration of contaminants. For example, artificial drainage leads to substantial increase of absorption and flushing rates. These technological factors are particularly significant for the regions along Pripyat river and Dnieper river, which are almost totally subject to artificial irrigation and drainage within the network of constructed reservoirs and dams. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59803219 | 1,410,687 |
732,860 | There are various components, environments, and material considerations that can affect the environmental impact that the SLM process has. First, the embodied energy that was used to make the printer, which has more than 500 parts, contributes around 124,000 MJ for a standard Renishaw AM250. It is important to note that the most prominent material is steel, which is 100% recyclable. To truly take advantage of the recyclability, a cradle-to-cradle approach can be implemented to ensure that all steel parts are properly discarded of at their end-life through disassembly. The electric use is often the most energy intensive part of the printer, as the high power lasers, chillers, configurations, and part separation all contribute to this. Less volume of parts, more active time, more active idle time (coolers running), and electrical discharge machining (EDM) all increase the energy usage. The higher end of on-site energy during use can be around 640 MJ per part while more efficient use is around 40 MJ per part. In this, a main factor that can be optimized for environmental friendliness is the use of fully renewable energy rather than electric made through gas or coal. Considering now embodied energy of the total lifecycle, at the energy intensive end is less efficient printing processes totaling 2400+ MJ per part while more efficient processes can be as low as 140 MJ per part. Ultimately, the total embodied energy considering all parts made is dependent on many factors but is almost always dominant during the printing phase and more specifically during long idle times and post-processing part removal through EDM. The exception to this is in research environments where the machine is not constantly used and use is more infrequent, in this case, the embodied energy from primary processing and manufacturing is dominant. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29017963 | 732,473 |
481,060 | The development of the first level of engineering requirements is not a purely analytical exercise and should also involve both the architect and engineer. If any compromises are to be made— to meet constraints- the architect must ensure that the final product and overall look and feel do not stray very far from the users' intent. The engineer should focus on developing a design that optimizes the constraints but ensures a workable, reliable, extensible and robust product. The provision of needed services to the users is the true function of an engineered system. However, as systems become ever larger and more complex, and as their emphases move away from simple hardware and software components, the narrow application of traditional systems development principles have been found to be insufficient— the application of more general principles of systems, hardware, and software architecture to the design of (sub)systems is seen to be needed. Architecture may also be seen as a simplified model of the finished end product— its primary function is to define the parts and their relationships to each other so that the whole can be seen to be a consistent, complete, and correct representation of what the users' had in mind— especially for the computer-human-interface. It is also used to ensure that the parts fit together and relate in the desired way. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2497175 | 480,816 |
908,458 | Recent research shows that prevalence of Mgen is currently higher than other commonly occurring sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Mgen is a fastidious organism with prolonged growth durations. This makes detection of the pathogen in clinical specimens and subsequent isolation extremely difficult. Lacking a cell wall, mycoplasma remains unaffected by commonly used antibiotics. The absence of specific serological assays leaves nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) as the only viable option for detection of Mgen DNA or RNA. However, samples with positive NAAT for the pathogen should be tested for macrolide resistance mutations, which are strongly correlated to azithromycin treatment failures, owing to rapid rates of mutation of the pathogen. Mutations in the 23S rRNA gene of Mgen have been linked with clinical treatment failure and high level in vitro macrolide resistance. Macrolide resistance mediating mutations have been observed in 20-50% of cases in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, and Japan. Resistance is also developing towards the second-line antimicrobials like fluoroquinolone. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20219 | 907,980 |
2,091,571 | The microbial communities residing inside the host body have now been recognized to be important for effective immune responses. Yet the molecular mechanisms underlying this protection are largely unknown. Bacteria can help the host to fight against pathogens either by directly stimulating the immune response or by competing with the pathogenic bacteria for available resources. In "C. elegans", some associated bacteria seem to generate protection against pathogens. For example, when "C. elegans" is grown on "Bacillus megaterium" or "Pseudomonas mendocina", worms are more resistant to infection with the pathogenic bacterium "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" [21], which is a common bacterium in "C. elegans’ "natural environment and therefore a potential natural pathogen. This protection is characterized by prolonged survival on "P. aeruginosa" in combination with a delayed colonization of "C. elegans" by the pathogen. Due to its comparatively large size "B. megaterium" is not an optimal food source for "C. elegans", resulting in a delayed development and a reduced reproductive rate. The ability of "B. megaterium" to enhance resistance against the infection with "P. aeruginosa" seems to be linked to the decrease in reproductive rate. However, the protection against "P. aeruginosa" infection provided by "P. mendocina" is reproduction independent, and depends on the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway." P. mendocina" is able to activate the p38 MAPK pathway and thus to stimulate the immune response of "C. elegans" against the pathogen. A common way for an organism to protect itself against microbes is to increase fecundation to increase the surviving individuals in the face of an attack. This defense against parasites are genetically linked to stress response pathways and dependent on the innate immune system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46837955 | 2,090,366 |
306,880 | A technique closely related to SAR uses an array (referred to as a "phased array") of real antenna elements spatially distributed over either one or two dimensions perpendicular to the radar-range dimension. These physical arrays are truly synthetic ones, indeed being created by synthesis of a collection of subsidiary physical antennas. Their operation need not involve motion relative to targets. All elements of these arrays receive simultaneously in real time, and the signals passing through them can be individually subjected to controlled shifts of the phases of those signals. One result can be to respond most strongly to radiation received from a specific small scene area, focusing on that area to determine its contribution to the total signal received. The coherently detected set of signals received over the entire array aperture can be replicated in several data-processing channels and processed differently in each. The set of responses thus traced to different small scene areas can be displayed together as an image of the scene. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=645554 | 306,716 |
537,421 | In Cambodia, a study showed "B. dendrobatidis" to be prevalent throughout the country in areas near Phnom Penh (in a village <5 km), Sihanoukville (frogs collected from the local market), Kratie (frogs collected from streets around the town), and Siem Reap (frogs collected from a national preserve: Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity). Another study in Cambodia questioned the potential anthropological impact in the dissemination of "B. dendrobatidis" on local amphibian populations in 3 different areas in relation to human interaction: low (an isolated forest atop a mountain people rarely visit), medium (a forest road ~15 km from a village that is used at least once a week), and high (a small village where humans interact with their environment on a daily basis). Using quantitative PCR, evidence of "B. dendrobatidis" was found in all 3 sites with the highest percentage of amphibians positive for the fungus from the forest road (medium impact; 50%), followed by the mountain forest (low impact; 44%) and village (high impact; 36%). Human influence most likely explains detection of the fungus in the medium and high areas, however it does not provide an adequate explanation why even isolated amphibians were positive for "B. dendrobatidis". This may go unanswered until more research is performed on transmission of the fungus across landscapes. However, recent evidence suggests mosquitoes may be a possible vector which may help spread "B. dendrobatidis." Another study in French Guiana reports widespread infection, with 8 of 11 sites sampled being positive for "B. dendrobatidis" infection for at least one species. This study suggests that "Bd" is more widespread than previously thought. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5243299 | 537,142 |
402,020 | A central tenet of cognitive science is that a complete understanding of the mind/brain cannot be attained by studying only a single level. An example would be the problem of remembering a phone number and recalling it later. One approach to understanding this process would be to study behavior through direct observation, or naturalistic observation. A person could be presented with a phone number and be asked to recall it after some delay of time; then the accuracy of the response could be measured. Another approach to measure cognitive ability would be to study the firings of individual neurons while a person is trying to remember the phone number. Neither of these experiments on its own would fully explain how the process of remembering a phone number works. Even if the technology to map out every neuron in the brain in real-time were available and it were known when each neuron fired it would still be impossible to know how a particular firing of neurons translates into the observed behavior. Thus an understanding of how these two levels relate to each other is imperative. Francisco Varela, in "The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience", argues that "the new sciences of the mind need to enlarge their horizon to encompass both lived human experience and the possibilities for transformation inherent in human experience". On the classic cognitivist view, this can be provided by a functional level account of the process. Studying a particular phenomenon from multiple levels creates a better understanding of the processes that occur in the brain to give rise to a particular behavior. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5626 | 401,821 |
1,532,278 | Respiratory damage is related to the concentration of the gas and its solubility. Irritant gas exposures predominantly affect the airways, causing tracheitis, bronchitis, and bronchiolitis. Other inhaled agents may be directly toxic (e.g. cyanide, carbon monoxide), or cause harm simply by displacing oxygen and producing asphyxia (e.g. methane, carbon dioxide). The effect of inhaling irritant gases depends on the extent and duration of exposure and on the specific agent Chlorine, phosgene, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and ammonia are among the most important irritant gases. Hydrogen sulfide is also a potent cellular toxin, blocking the cytochrome system and inhibiting cellular respiration. More water-soluble gases (e.g. chlorine, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride) dissolve in the upper airway and immediately cause mucous membrane irritation, which may alert people to the need to escape the exposure. Permanent damage to the upper respiratory tract, distal airways, and lung parenchyma occurs only if escape from the gas source is impeded. Less soluble gases (e.g. nitrogen dioxide, phosgene, ozone) may not dissolve until they are well into the respiratory tract, often reaching the lower airways. These agents are less likely to produce early warning signs (phosgene in low concentrations has a pleasant odor), are more likely to cause severe bronchiolitis, and often have a lag of ≥ 12 h before symptoms of pulmonary edema develop. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36597555 | 1,531,411 |
1,398,801 | Birds have been used as study organisms in much of the research concerning wildlife responses to anthropogenic noise, and the resulting literature documents many effects that are relevant to other taxa affected by anthropophony. Birds may be particularly sensitive to noise pollution given that they rely heavily on acoustic signals for intraspecific communication. Indeed, a wide range of studies demonstrate that birds use altered songs in noisy environments. Research on great tits in an urban environment revealed that male birds inhabiting noisy territories tended to use higher frequency sounds in their songs. Presumably these higher-pitched songs allow male birds to be heard above anthropogenic noise, which tends to have high energy in the lower frequency range thereby masking sounds in that spectra. A follow-up study of multiple populations confirmed that great tits in urban areas sing with an increased minimum frequency relative to forest-dwelling birds. In addition, this study suggests that noisy urban habitats host birds that use shorter songs but repeat them more rapidly. In contrast to frequency modulations, birds may simply increase the amplitude (loudness) of their songs to decrease masking in environments with elevated noise. Experimental work and field observations show that these song alterations may be the result of behavioral plasticity rather than evolutionary adaptations to noise (i.e., birds actively change their song repertoire depending on the acoustic conditions they experience). In fact, avian vocal adjustments to anthropogenic noise are unlikely to be the products of evolutionary change simply because high noise levels are a relatively recent selection pressure. However, not all bird species adjust their songs to improve communication in noisy environments, which may limit their ability to occupy habitats subject to anthropogenic noise. In some species, individual birds establish a relatively rigid vocal repertoire when they are young, and these sorts of developmental constraints may limit their ability to make vocal adjustments later in life. Thus, species that do not or cannot modify their songs may be particularly sensitive to habitat degradation as a result of noise pollution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31352483 | 1,398,028 |
2,073,844 | In microfluidic modulation spectroscopy, the sample (protein-in-buffer) solution and a matching buffer reference stream are introduced into the transmission cell under continuous flow and then rapidly modulated (1-10 Hz) across the laser beam path to produce nearly drift-free, background compensated, differential scans of the Amide I band. The complete optical system is sealed and purged with dry air to minimize any interference from atmospheric water vapor which absorbs across the 2000 – 1300 cm-1 wavenumber range and can therefore compromise the use of IR spectroscopy for protein characterization. Advanced signal processing technology is the third key element of the instrument and converts the raw spectra into fractional contribution data for specific motifs of secondary structure, providing a structural fingerprint of the protein. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65444294 | 2,072,652 |
426,103 | During a recent 2019 study, a 51 year old woman was examined by medical professionals at the department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, Tokyo Medical University Hospital, to treat an existing condition which was an inflamed mass of cells noted in patient's bottom left gum line. A sample biopsy was obtained from the patient's mouth and the indicated results showed benign lymphoid tissues. Further investigation under a microscope revealed lymphocytic tissues composed of scattered lymphoid follicles with obvious germinal centers and well differentiated lymphocytes surrounded by defiant mantle zones. Immunochemical staining revealed positivity for lymphoid particles CD20 and CD79. This study was significant because they were able to diagnose a very rare case of follicular lymphoid hyperplasia derived from an unusual origin site of the mouth, however they were unable to determine the onset of her condition. It is important to note that after the mass was removed there was no signs of recurrence after the first year of removal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41967434 | 425,895 |
1,301,236 | "Peresvet", named after Alexander Peresvet, a Russian monk who fought against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, and "Pobeda" (the Russian word "pobeda" means "victory") steamed to the Far East almost immediately after entering service in 1901 and 1903 respectively. Upon her arrival, "Peresvet" became the flagship of the squadron's second-in-command, Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky. During the Battle of Port Arthur (February 1904) on the second day of the war, "Peresvet" was not hit, but "Pobeda" was hit once amidships, sustaining little damage but losing two men killed and four wounded. "Pobeda" struck a mine during the squadron's sortie on 13 April and remained under repair for almost two months. Both ships had some of their anti-torpedoboat guns and secondary armament removed during the summer to bolster the defenses of the port. They participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904; "Pobeda" was only lightly damaged by 11 large-caliber hits, but "Peresvet", hit 39 times, suffered a considerable amount of flooding. More guns were landed after the squadron's return to Port Arthur, but the Imperial Japanese Army captured the hills overlooking the harbor in November, and this allowed Japanese siege guns to fire directly at the Russian ships. "Pobeda" and "Peresvet" were hit many times, and "Pobeda" sank on 7 December 1904 from the accumulated damage. "Peresvet" was scuttled in shallow water on the same day. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5232901 | 1,300,522 |
375,141 | In academia, people associated with Warwick include: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1975) winner Sir John Cornforth who was a professor at Warwick; mathematicians Ian Stewart, David Preiss, David Epstein and Fields Medallist Martin Hairer; computer scientists Mike Cowlishaw and Leslie Valiant; and neurologist Oliver Sacks. In arts and the social sciences: Nobel Laureate Oliver Hart; economist and President of the British Academy Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford; academic and Provost of Worcester College Sir Jonathan Bate; academic and journalist Germaine Greer; literary critic Susan Bassnett; historians Sir J. R. Hale and David Arnold; economist Andrew Oswald; economic historian Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky; Lady Margaret Archer, theorist in critical realism, former Warwick lecturer and accelerationist philosopher Nick Land, former President of International Sociological Association, current president of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; Sir George Bain, former Principal of London Business School; John Williamson, English economist who coined the term Washington Consensus; Susan Strange, British scholar of international relations who was almost single-handedly responsible for creating international political economy; Avinash Dixit, former President of the Econometric Society and American Economic Association, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2005; Robert Calderbank, winner of the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal and the Claude E. Shannon Award; and Upendra Baxi, winner of the Padma Shri award. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61115 | 374,946 |
964,221 | The AAT has been investigated in different scenarios and with different types of stimuli such as words and images. A study focusing on the AAT on embodied cognition, for example, examined people's response to positive and negative words presented on the center of a screen by moving them away or towards the center. The study concludes that participants moved the given positive words towards the center of the screen while moving the negative words away from the center of the screen. In conformity with the AAT, participants showed an approach effect for positive words and avoidance effects for negative words. In a 2021 study on emotional or affective priming, the AAT was used to demonstrate the interaction between emotions and visual exploration. Pictures of news pages were presented on the computer screen and eye movements were measured. Researchers found out that the participants' harmonious bodily interaction during the emotional preparation process shows that their interest in the image's content displayed on the computer screen increased. These findings demonstrate the effect of emotional priming in the approach and avoidance behavior. A study on the behavioral aspects of the AAT suggests that there is an embodied component that is crucial to it. To investigate the role of gestures in AAT, participants were asked to react to positive and negative stimuli by either pressing a (far or near) button on a response pad; or by pushing forward or pulling backward a joystick. Researchers reported a significant response time advantage for the congruent responses when performed with the joystick and none when performed with the response pad. The fact that participants are faster at responding to the stimuli with the joystick seems to suggest the role of a crucial embodied component. In contrast to the response pad, the joystick couples more naturally with the body (hand) for the performance of the action and facilitates the gesture of approaching or avoiding positive or negative stimuli. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33034640 | 963,712 |
1,979,806 | In the second book “"Metaphysics of Globalization. Cultural-cum-civilizational Context"”, the focus is on culture, civilization and globalization, which are analyzed as closely interrelated, fundamental characteristics of various cultural and civilizational systems. It is substantiated that, due to objective reasons, global problems covered all spheres of social life of various peoples, and their cultural and civilizational development was drawn into the orbit of accelerating multidimensional globalization. The logic and a certain sequence of historical events are shown, when, as a result of the progressive development and improvement of culture, civilizational ties arose and began to develop, which gave rise to separate centers of civilization. Ultimately, civilizational development led to globalization, which, in turn, led to the emergence in the second half of the XX century. global problems of our time. Using a systematic approach to understanding social processes and relying on the latest scientific and philosophical achievements in this area, the author comes to the conclusion that the linear-plane world has given way to a three-dimensional, holographic world. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40153145 | 1,978,668 |
1,775,732 | Glycosylation is a common posttranslational protein modifications, and almost all cell surface and secreted proteins are modified by covalently-linked carbohydrates. Eukaryotic glycans are generally classified into two main groups: N- and O-glycans, where the glycan chains are linked to asparagine and serine/threonine residues, respectively. Glycans are essential mediators of biological processes such as protein folding, cell signalling, fertilization, embryogenesis, neuronal development, hormone activity and the proliferation of cells and their organization into specific tissues. In addition, overwhelming data supports the relevance of glycosylation in pathogen recognition, inflammation, innate immune responses, and the development of autoimmune diseases and cancer. However, the identification of these biomarkers has not been easy, mainly due to the structural diversity and numerous possible glycan isomers. Fortunately, glycomics is becoming more feasible due to major improvements in mass spectrometry and separation science. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3322568 | 1,774,735 |
1,296,105 | The earliest descriptions of the axonal growth cone were made by the Spanish neurobiologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the late 19th century. However, understanding the molecular and cellular biology of axon guidance would not begin until decades later. In the last thirty years or so, scientists have used various methods to work out how axons find their way. Much of the early work in axon guidance was done in the grasshopper, where individual motor neurons were identified and their pathways characterized. In genetic model organisms like mice, zebrafish, nematodes, and fruit flies, scientists can generate mutations and see whether and how they cause axons to make errors in navigation. In vitro experiments can be useful for direct manipulation of growing axons. A popular method is to grow neurons in culture and expose growth cones to purified guidance cues to see whether these cause the growing axons to turn. These types of experiments have often been done using traditional embryological non-genetic model organisms, such as the chicken and African clawed frog. Embryos of these species are easy to obtain and, unlike mammals, develop externally and are easily accessible to experimental manipulation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2065100 | 1,295,394 |
496,698 | Though in practice this series is finite because the number of occupied molecular orbitals is finite, as is the number of excitations, it is still very large, to the extent that even modern-day massively parallel computers are inadequate, except for problems of a dozen or so electrons and very small basis sets, when considering all contributions to the cluster operator and not just formula_9 and formula_10. Often, as was done above, the cluster operator includes only singles and doubles (see CCSD below) as this offers a computationally affordable method that performs better than MP2 and CISD, but is not very accurate usually. For accurate results some form of triples (approximate or full) are needed, even near the equilibrium geometry (in the Franck–Condon region), and especially when breaking single bonds or describing diradical species (these latter examples are often what is referred to as multi-reference problems, since more than one determinant has a significant contribution to the resulting wave function). For double-bond breaking and more complicated problems in chemistry, quadruple excitations often become important as well, though usually they have small contributions for most problems, and as such, the contribution of formula_32, formula_33 etc. to the operator formula_6 is typically small. Furthermore, if the highest excitation level in the formula_6 operator is "n", | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=429789 | 496,442 |
1,831,292 | Terpenes are a key component in chemotaxonomical classification of cannabis strains as terpene composition is a phenotypic trait. Majority of terpenes found in cannabis are hydrocarbons, which are a direct product of terpene synthase (TPS) enzymes. The molecular make up of terpenes in a cannabis plant involves the linking and elongation of chains in hydrocarbons and isoprene units, formed by isopentenyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate. Terpenoids are basically terpenes with the addition of oxygen, among other structural additions. There are numerous types of unique functional terpenes in green plants and are formed via many differing pathways; methylerythritol phosphate (MEP), cytosolic mevalonate (MEV), or deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway (DOXP) to name a few. In addition, mevalonic acid's (MVA) involvement in biosynthesis of complex terpenoids, such as steroids, was demonstrated in 1983. Once produced, specifically within the disk cells, terpenes are stored within the trichomes of the plant. There are several types of terpenes in cannabis composed of varying numberss of isoprene units. They contribute to the signature aroma and insecticidal properties via their emission as volatile organic compounds. Different cannabis strains synthesize different terpenes through their biochemical pathways, and diversity of the terpenes is dependent upon the diversity of the TPS enzymes present in the cannabis plant's TPS gene pool. Though, causes of variations in the TPS enzymes are still unknown. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70796522 | 1,830,245 |
480,014 | Anderson was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew up in Urbana, Illinois. His father, Harry Warren Anderson, was a professor of plant pathology at the University of Illinois at Urbana; his maternal grandfather was a mathematician at Wabash College, where Anderson's father studied; and his maternal uncle was a Rhodes Scholar who became a professor of English, also at Wabash College. He graduated from University Laboratory High School in Urbana in 1940. Under the encouragement of a math teacher by the name of Miles Hartley, Anderson enrolled at Harvard University to study under a fully-funded scholarship. He concentrated in "Electronic Physics" and completed his B.S. in 1943, after which he was drafted into the war effort and built antennas at the Naval Research Laboratory until the end of the Second World War in 1945. As an undergraduate, his close associates included particle-nuclear physicist H. Pierre Noyes, philosopher and historian of science Thomas Kuhn and molecular physicist Henry Silsbee. After the war, Anderson returned to Harvard to pursue graduate studies in physics under the mentorship of John Hasbrouck van Vleck; he received his Ph.D. in 1949 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "The theory of pressure broadening of spectral lines in the microwave and infrared regions." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=396694 | 479,770 |
663,742 | A remeasurement conducted by Newbrey et al. (2013) found that "C. mantelli" and "C. agassizensis" reached sexual maturity at around four to five years of age and proposed a possible revision to the measurements of the growth rings in FHSM VP-2187. The lifespan of FHSM VP-2187 and maximum lifespan of "C. mantelli" was also proposed to be revised to 18 and 21 years respectively using the new measurements. A 2019 study led by Italian scientist Jacopo Amalfitano briefly measured the vertebrae from two "C. mantelli" fossils and found that the older individual died at around 26 years of age. Measurements were also conducted on other "C. mantelli" skeletons and a vertebra of "C. agassizensis", yielding results of similar rates of rapid growth in early stages of life. Such rapid growth within mere years could have helped "Cretoxyrhina" better survive by quickly phasing out of infancy and its vulnerabilities, as a fully grown adult would have few natural predators. The study also identified a syntype tooth of "C. mantelli" from England and calculated the individual's maximum length of , making the tooth the largest known specimen yet. When applying the allometric scaling used in Shimada (2008), a "C. mantelli" of such length would yield an estimated body mass of around | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1092359 | 663,396 |
1,430,812 | Secondary consciousness is seen in animals with semantic capabilities, such as the four great apes. It is present in its richest form in the human species, which is unique in possessing complex language made up of syntax and semantics. In considering how the neural mechanisms underlying primary consciousness arose and were maintained during evolution, it is proposed that at some time around the divergence of reptiles into mammals and then into birds, the embryological development of large numbers of new reciprocal connections allowed rich re-entrant activity to take place between the more posterior brain systems carrying out perceptual categorization and the more frontally located systems responsible for value-category memory. The ability of an animal to relate a present complex scene to its own previous history of learning conferred an adaptive evolutionary advantage. At much later evolutionary epochs, further re-entrant circuits appeared that linked semantic and linguistic performance to categorical and conceptual memory systems. This development enabled the emergence of secondary consciousness. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29807596 | 1,430,008 |
205,976 | Secondary consciousness is seen in animals with semantic capabilities, such as the four great apes. It is present in its richest form in the human species, which is unique in possessing complex language made up of syntax and semantics. In considering how the neural mechanisms underlying primary consciousness arose and were maintained during evolution, it is proposed that at some time around the divergence of reptiles into mammals and then into birds, the embryological development of large numbers of new reciprocal connections allowed rich re-entrant activity to take place between the more posterior brain systems carrying out perceptual categorization and the more frontally located systems responsible for value-category memory. The ability of an animal to relate a present complex scene to its own previous history of learning conferred an adaptive evolutionary advantage. At much later evolutionary epochs, further re-entrant circuits appeared that linked semantic and linguistic performance to categorical and conceptual memory systems. This development enabled the emergence of secondary consciousness. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13001588 | 205,870 |
1,404,709 | Additionally, on November 1, 2007, LKSOM broke ground on a new home. At a projected cost of $160 million, the project is the largest capital improvement project in the history of Temple University. The new building, an 11-story, glass and brick structure designed by Philadelphia-based architecture and engineering firm Ballinger, opened in May 2009. Notable features include: a modern anatomy laboratory with computers and high definition LCD screens on articulating arms; a fully interactive patient simulation center with simulated doctor offices, emergency medicine department, and surgical apparatuses as well as a staff of simulated patient actors, simulated patient mannequins, and full-time instructing physicians; and a 24-hour, 50,000 sq. foot library with individualized study rooms containing high definition televisions with multimedia and wireless accessibility. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9865332 | 1,403,919 |
676,659 | In the late 1930s, as technical advances made it possible to transmit on higher frequencies, the FCC investigated options for increasing the number of broadcasting stations, in addition to ideas for better audio quality, known as "high-fidelity". In 1937 it introduced what became known as the Apex band, consisting of 75 broadcasting frequencies from 41.02 to 43.98 MHz. As on the standard broadcast band these were AM stations, but with higher quality audio – in one example, a frequency response from 20 Hz to 17,000 Hz +/- 1 dB – because station separations were 40 kHz instead of the 10 kHz spacings used on the original AM band. Armstrong worked to convince the FCC that a band of FM broadcasting stations would be a superior approach. That year he financed the construction of the first FM radio station, W2XMN (later KE2XCC) at Alpine, New Jersey. FCC engineers had believed that transmissions using high frequencies would travel little farther than line-of-sight distances, limited by the horizon. When operating with 40 kilowatts on 42.8 MHz, the station could be clearly heard away, matching the daytime coverage of a full power 50-kilowatt AM station. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10315 | 676,306 |
375,092 | The "White Koan" is a modern art sculpture by Liliane Lijn which is installed outside the main entrance to the Warwick Arts Centre. The "Koan" is high, white in colour, decorated with elliptical of fluorescent lights and is rotated by an electric motor whilst illuminated. It is intended to represent the Buddhist quest for questions without answers, the Kōan. The "Koan" was made in 1971 as part of the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation City Sculpture Project and was originally sited in Plymouth; it moved to the Hayward Gallery in London before being purchased by Warwick in 1972. The "Koan" was temporarily relocated to the university's Gibbet Hill campus during refurbishments to the Warwick Arts Centre; it was returned upon completion of the project. According to student newspaper "The Boar", the white Koan has played a role in many of campus' myths and legends – it was allegedly the nose-cap of the Blue-Streak Missile (a failed Apollo mission), a supposed quick escape route for senior staff, and even a signalling device for aliens in outer space. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61115 | 374,897 |
1,429,527 | Samples brought from non-restricted bodies such as the Moon, asteroids, comets, solar particles and space dust, are processed at specialized facilities rated Biosafety level-3 (BSL-3). Samples brought to Earth from a planet or moon suspected to have either past or present habitable environments to microscopic life would make it a Category V body, and must be curated at facilities rated Biosafety level-4 (BSL-4), as agreed in the Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty. However, the existing BSL-4 facilities in the world do not have the complex requirements to ensure the preservation and protection of Earth and the sample simultaneously. While existing BSL-4 facilities deal primarily with fairly well-known organisms, a BSL-4 facility focused on extraterrestrial samples must pre-plan the systems carefully while being mindful that there will be unforeseen issues during sample evaluation and curation that will require independent thinking and solutions. A challenge is that, while it is relatively easy to simply contain the samples once returned to Earth, researchers will want to take a portion and perform analyses. During all these handling procedures, the samples would need to be protected from Earthly contamination and from contact with the atmosphere. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58584263 | 1,428,723 |
699,592 | On July 9, 2012, the company accepted an offer of purchase for US$1.79 billion by China-based Superior Aviation Beijing, a holding company in part owned by E-Town, an economic development agency of the municipal government of Beijing, subject to completing the sale agreement within 45 days and regulatory approvals. The sale agreement did not include the subsidiary Hawker Beechcraft Defense Co., builder of the T-6 trainer and AT-6 light attack aircraft. Chairman Bill Boisture stated: "The decision to move forward with Superior was based on two key factors. The bid for the company was the most attractive we received during the strategic review process and the going-forward plan offered the most continuity for our business, allowing us to preserve jobs, product lines and our ability to maintain our commitments to our customers." On July 17, 2012 the bankruptcy court judge granted the company approval to enter the exclusive period of negotiation with Superior Aviation, calling the arrangement a sound exercise of the company's business judgement. The 45-day period included US$50M in interim financing from Superior. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8549092 | 699,228 |
2,205,350 | Pegylation is the process of covalently binding polyethylene glycol (PEG) to proteins. Pegylation prolongs the half-life of the bound protein, leading to sustained delivery. This is advantageous because lower, less frequent dosing will be needed to have the same therapeutic effect in the patient, which will limit the cytotoxicity of the delivery system. Pegfilgrastim is a successful example of this delivery system. Pegfilgrastim is the pegylated form of the granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) filgrastim. Pegfilgrastim stimulates production and release of neutrophils in patients who experience bone marrow toxicity after receiving myelosuppressive anticancer drugs or radiation. Filgrastim has a half-life of 3-4 h, while Pegfilgrastim has a half-life of 45 h. This is much more convenient for patients, as they will only need one dose of Pegfilgrastim instead of multiple doses of Filgrastim drawn out over a long period. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is a cytokine used to combat diabetes symptoms such as appetite reduction and weight loss. A pegylated version of CNTF retained biological activity in vitro and had enhanced pharmacokinetics. The pegylated CNTF also reduced glycemia in diet-induced obese animals, with a dose 10-fold higher than unmodified CNTF. These studies demonstrate that pegylated cytokines can be used for sustained delivery of cytokines, increasing the therapeutic window of these treatments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70621516 | 2,204,095 |
1,969,277 | CCP can be derived from aerobically grown yeast strains and can be isolated in both native and recombinant forms with high yield from "Saccharomyces cerevisiae." The enzyme’s primary function is to eliminate toxic radical molecules produced by the cell which are harmful to biological systems. It works to maintain low concentration levels of hydrogen peroxide, which is generated by the organism naturally through incomplete oxygen reduction. When glucose levels in fast growing yeast strains are exhausted, the cells turn to respiration which raises the concentration of mitochondrial HO In addition to its peroxidase activity, it acts as a sensor and a signaling molecule to exogenous HO, which activates mitochondrial catalase activity. In eukaryotes, CCP contain a mono-"b"-type haem cofactor and is targeted to the intermembrane space of the mitochondria. In prokaryotes, CCP contains a "c-"type dihaem cofactor and is localized to the periplasm of the cell. Both enzymes work to resist peroxide-induced cellular stress. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=323083 | 1,968,143 |
238,748 | In addition to blocking nerves which carry pain signals, local anesthetics may block nerves which carry other signals, though sensory nerve fibers are more sensitive to the effects of the local anesthetics than motor nerve fibers. For this reason, adequate pain control can usually be attained without blocking the motor neurons, which would cause a loss of muscle control if it occurred. Depending on the drug and dose administered, the effects may last only a few minutes or up to several hours. As such, an epidural can provide pain control without as much of an effect on muscle strength. For example, a woman in labor who is being administered continuous analgesia via an epidural may not have impairment to her ability to move. Larger doses of medication are more likely to result in side effects. Very large doses of some medications can cause paralysis of the intercostal muscles and thoracic diaphragm responsible for breathing, which may lead to respiratory depression or arrest. It may also result in loss of sympathetic nerve input to the heart, which may cause a significant decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. Obese people, those who have given birth prior, those with a history of opiate use, or those with cervical dilation of more than 7 cm are at a higher risk of inadequate pain control. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=985885 | 238,628 |
395,422 | In order to create a typing reagent, blood from animals or humans would be taken, the blood cells allowed to separate from the serum, and the serum diluted to its optimal sensitivity and used to type cells from other individuals or animals. Thus, serotyping became a way of crudely identifying HLA receptors and receptor isoforms. Over the years, serotyping antibodies became more refined as techniques for increasing sensitivity improved and new serotyping antibodies continue to appear. One of the goals of serotype analysis is to fill gaps in the analysis. It is possible to predict based on 'square root','maximum-likelihood' method, or analysis of familial haplotypes to account for adequately typed alleles. These studies using serotyping techniques frequently revealed, in particular for non-European or north East Asian populations many null or blank serotypes. This was particularly problematic for the Cw locus until recently, and almost half of the Cw serotypes went untyped in the 1991 survey of the human population. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=302013 | 395,227 |
2,018,113 | Phillips returned to England in April 1684, and by July had been appointed third engineer of the ordnance. He visited France in the summer of 1684. Whilst in Luxembourg he met fellow military engineer and expert in fortifications, Vauban. He also took the opportunity to view frontier fortifications on the Rhine and at the channel ports. He reported back to his patron Dartmouth that he had 'taken particular observations of all things that can in any way be serviceable to us, especially in the affairs of the artillery' Having gained valuable knowledge of the continental styles of fortification, Phillips was ordered to inspect the defences of Portsmouth, design and prepare any new works he thought necessary, and then oversee their construction. A further commission came in August that year, when he was sent to Ireland by the Duke of Ormonde to carry out a survey of the existing harbours and their fortifications, draw up plans of their designs and give advice on repairs. He issued his report in 1685, in which he criticised the existing defences and made recommendations for improvements costing some £554,000. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16263583 | 2,016,950 |
1,746,085 | Hazeltine's innovation was to add a circuit to each radio frequency amplifier stage which fed back a small amount of energy from the plate (output) circuit to the grid (input) circuit with opposite phase to cancel ("neutralize") the feedback which was causing the oscillation. This effectively prevented the high-pitched squeals that had plagued early radio sets. A group of more than 20 companies known as the Independent Radio Manufacturers Association licensed the circuit from Hazeltine and manufactured "Neutrodyne" receivers throughout the 1920s. At the time, RCA held a virtual monopoly over commercial radio receiver production due to its ownership of the rights to the Armstrong regenerative and superheterodyne circuits. The Neutrodyne ended this control, allowing competition. Compared to the technically superior superheterodyne the Neutrodyne was cheaper to build. As basically a TRF receiver, it was also considered easier for non-technical owners to use than the early superhets. After manufacture each tuned amplifier stage had to be "neutralized", adjusted to cancel feedback; after this the set would not produce the parasitic oscillations which caused the objectionable noises. By 1927 some ten million of these receivers had been sold to consumers in North America. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2991563 | 1,745,099 |
990,227 | The Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment was an experimental demonstration, reported in 1944 by Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty, that DNA is the substance that causes bacterial transformation, in an era when it had been widely believed that it was proteins that served the function of carrying genetic information (with the very word "protein" itself coined to indicate a belief that its function was "primary"). It was the culmination of research in the 1930s and early 20th century at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to purify and characterize the "transforming principle" responsible for the transformation phenomenon first described in Griffith's experiment of 1928: killed "Streptococcus pneumoniae" of the virulent strain type III-S, when injected along with living but non-virulent type II-R pneumococci, resulted in a deadly infection of type III-S pneumococci. In their paper ""Studies on the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types: Induction of Transformation by a Desoxyribonucleic Acid Fraction Isolated from Pneumococcus Type III"", published in the February 1944 issue of the "Journal of Experimental Medicine", Avery and his colleagues suggest that DNA, rather than protein as widely believed at the time, may be the hereditary material of bacteria, and could be analogous to genes and/or viruses in higher organisms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19517416 | 989,710 |
1,181,621 | The Japanese began experimenting with oxygen-driven torpedoes about 1924, but gave up after numerous explosions and failures. Then, in 1927, an eight-man Japanese naval delegation went to the Whitehead Torpedo Works at Weymouth to study and buy a regular version of the Whitehead torpedo. While there, they believed that they had stumbled onto evidence that the Royal Navy was secretly experimenting with oxygen torpedoes. Although they were mistaken, the Japanese delegation was so impressed with the information they had gathered that they sent an extensive report back to Tokyo in 1928. By the end of that year, intensive research and experimentation had begun at the Kure Naval Arsenal on a workable oxygen torpedo. Starting in 1 932, this effort was led by Captain Kishimoto Kaneharu. Step by step, Captain Kishimoto and his colleagues began to attack the problems inherent in the design of such a weapon. Explosions were minimized by using natural air at the start of the engine's ignition, and oxygen was let in gradually to replace it. The men also took certain precautions to avoid contact between the oxygen and lubricants used in the torpedo's machinery. Particular care was given to the fuel lines. They were cleaned with a potassium compound to eliminate oil and grease and were redesigned to round out all sharp angles, and their linings were finely ground to eliminate all tiny pits where any residual oxygen, oil, or grease could accumulate. The first test firings of the system, incorporating an engine of standard Whitehead design but using oxygen in place of air, were successfully carried out in 1933. That year, the navy formally designated the weapon as the type 93 torpedo, which has become known in the West as the "long-lance" torpedo, generally recognized as the best torpedo of World War II. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54109056 | 1,180,996 |
1,588,384 | Puerpural Fever was a common cause of illness and mortality in women. White's practices practically eliminated this terror. He was sure that free flow of noxious fluids by gravitational drainage. For this he designed a chair to encourage such flow. Such an innovation is also often called a Fowler Chair after the American Surgeon who designed something similar a hundred years later for treatment of Peritonitis. Again White is credited in being the originator by Curtis. White was so successful in this that he practically eliminated Puerpural Fever from his wards. In 1789 in Vienna they appointed Professor Boer who had studied White's methods at the Lying in Hospital there. He had learned White's methods whilst in England and used them in Vienna. During his time there 65,000 women passed through the Vienna Lying In Hospital with a death rate of 1.3%. He was deposed by Professor Klein who discarded White's methods and also at the same time he brought in the practice of teaching on the cadaver to his juniors. His mortality rate increased to 7.8% in the first year and as high as 29% one year. It was into this situation that Semmelweis came and slowly brought forward his insights into the causes and prevention of Puerpural Fever. He stopped the students attending cadavers in 1846 but it took him until 1861 to emphasise the importance of foul bed clothes, general cleanliness and the washing of hands of midwives etc. In almost all areas White's writings advise the same precautions as Semmelweis 75 years later. The only omission was in avoiding cadavers which was not a factor in Manchester. White was first to pronounce on good care to avoid infection. His work saved thousands of lives. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21438344 | 1,587,490 |
288,693 | In March 2004, at the 82nd Airborne Division's request, the Army approved the transfer of four production vehicles from United Defense's facility in Pennsylvania to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The vehicles were intended to bolster the 82nd's 17th Cavalry Squadron, which was in need of greater firepower for an upcoming deployment to Iraq. However, in June 2004, this plan was put on hold while the Army determined whether the Mobile Gun System (MGS) could meet the 82nd's requirements. An air-drop test of a Stryker weighted to simulate the load of the MGS was conducted in August. Around the same time, the Army identified issues with the air-worthiness of the MGS, among the heavier of the Stryker family. Still more pervasive problems persisted with the autoloader. While this decision was on hold, Congressman Robin Hayes expressed frustration that the AGS had not been fielded, and called on the Department of Defense to act swiftly to resolve the delay. In January 2005, the Army said it had ruled out fielding the AGS, saying the system lacked spare parts that would be required to maintain the vehicle for any significant length of time. The Army also doubled down on its commitment to fielding the MGS, which it said it could begin fielding in summer 2006. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4138470 | 288,536 |
2,062,140 | One notable center is the University of Calgary's Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics. The Chairman of the Institute, Stuart Kauffman has contributed to the field of abiogenisis with his research into the emergence of metabolism through phenomena involving autocatalytic sets. Others centres of note in Ontario include the Department of Cellular and Systems Biology and the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Computational Biology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the Sun Centre of Excellence in Systems Biology at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute (Mount Sinai Hospital) in Toronto and the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology (2005) at the University of Ottawa. The Biotron research facility, opened in 2008 at the University of Western Ontario, in London, will provide a unique laboratory for the study of basic biological systems at the ecological, physiological and molecular levels. In Quebec, McGill has established the Centre for Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology and Disease. The prairie provinces are home to a number of organizations, including the Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology and the Centre for Mathematical Biology and the Institute for Biomolecular Design, both at the University of Alberta. The latter has initiated the 10-year Project Cyber Cell to develop the computer simulation of a living cell, in this case an "E. coli" bacterium, involving 40 laboratories across Canada. The Canadian Laboratories in Integrated Proteolysis have been created at the University of British Columbia. A reflection of the growth of the discipline is seen in the establishment of the Canadian Society for Systems Biology in 2006. Membership stands at 150 in 2008. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18401364 | 2,060,950 |
169,589 | In 2016, ULA released the Cislunar 1000 Vision with an aim of creating an economy on the Moon and in Earth orbit with 1,000 people living and working in space. Core to this aim was that the production of fuel in space would allow for dramatically cheaper space travel. ULA made clear it was willing to become a customer for in-space refueling. It previously announced a willingness to pay US$3,000 per kilogram for fuel delivered in low Earth orbit, US$500 per kilogram on the lunar surface, and US$1,000 per kilogram at L1. ULA believes it will need off-Earth propellant supplies sometime in the 2020s. In December 2016, ULA created an online pricing tool called "Rocket Builder", which allowed potential customers and the public to estimate launch costs of the Atlas V rocket with configurable orbits, payloads and launch services. Purchase-price estimates were removed from the tool in 2018 because it potentially provided commercially sensitive information to ULA's competitors. Despite ULA's cost-cutting and restructuring, the cheapest ULA space launch in early 2018 remained the Atlas V 401 at a price of approximately US$109 million. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4164089 | 169,499 |
1,661,214 | Magnus published 84 papers in research journals. His research output was continuous over his lifetime: the first memoir was published in 1825 when he was still a student, and the last appeared shortly after his death in 1870. From 1825 to 1833 he was occupied mainly with chemical researches. These resulted in the discovery of the first of the platino-ammonium class of compounds (see Magnus's green salt). He was first to identify the three sulfonic acids sulphovinic acid, ethionic acid and isethionic acid and their salts; and, in cooperation with CF Ammermüller, of per-iodic acid and its salts. He also reported on the diminution in density produced in garnet and vesuvianite by melting (1831). Subjects on which he published research after 1833 include: the absorption of gases in blood (1837–1845); the expansion of gases by heat (1841–1844); the vapour pressures of water and various solutions (1844–1854); thermoelectricity (1851); electrolysis of metallic salts in solution (1857); electromagnetic induction of currents (1858–1861); absorption and conduction of heat in gases (1860s); polarization of heat (1866–1868); and the deflection of projectiles from firearms (see Magnus effect). From 1861 onwards he devoted much attention to the question of diathermancy in gases and vapours, especially to the behaviour in this respect of dry and moist air, and to the thermal effects produced by the condensation of moisture on solid surfaces. Magnus was an experimenter, not a theoretician. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=475659 | 1,660,280 |
279,847 | After taking off the surviving crew and passengers ("Whipple" rescued 308 men and "Edsall" 177) at 13:58, the escorting destroyers stood off and began firing nine shells and two torpedoes into "Langley" hull at 14:29 to prevent her from falling into enemy hands, scuttling her at approximately 8°51'04.2"S 109°02'02.6"E After being transferred to the oiler , many of "Langley"s crew were lost when "Pecos" was sunk en route to Australia by Japanese carrier aircraft. Out of over 630 total crewmen and "Langley" survivors on "Pecos", 232 were rescued while more than 400 were left behind and died due to Japanese submarines in the area hindering rescue efforts. Exact casualty numbers for the doomed ships of the United States Asiatic Fleet and American-British-Dutch-Australian Command are impossible to gather because so many Allied warships were sunk in the Dutch East Indies campaign (at least 24 total) and many of those ships had already picked up survivors of other sunken ships and then were also sunk by the Japanese hours or days later. Thirty-one of the thirty-three pilots assigned to the USAAF 13th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional) being transported by "Langley" remained on "Edsall" to be brought to Tjilatjap, but were lost when she was sunk on the same day by Japanese warships while responding to the distress calls of "Pecos". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=199421 | 279,697 |
141,836 | The "San Antonio" class has significant survivability features and computer technology. In addition to Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) protection from air threats, the class was designed to minimize radar signature. Techniques that reduce radar cross-section (RCS) make the ships more difficult to locate and target. Enhanced survivability features include improved nuclear blast and fragmentation protection and a shock-hardened structure. The fiber-optic shipboard-wide area network (SWAN) connects onboard-integrated systems. The network will allow "plug in and fight" configuration, updating and replacing hardware more easily when newer technology becomes available. Moreover, the class has extensive communications, command, control, and intelligence systems to support current and projected expeditionary warfare missions of the 21st century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=233229 | 141,778 |
1,929,713 | Other studies showed a trend for DNMT3a and DNMT3b. However, these DNMT's add new methyl marks on unmethylated DNA, unlike DNMT1. Like DNMT1, the loss of DNMT3a and 3b resulted in neuromuscular degeneration two months after birth, as well as poor survival rates amongst the progeny of the mutant cells, even though DNMT3a does not regularly function to maintain methylation marks. This conundrum was addressed by other studies which recorded rare loci in mature neurons where DNMT3a acted as a maintenance DNMT. The Gfap locus, which codes for the formation and regulation of the cytoskeleton of astrocytes, is one such locus where this activity is observed. The gene is regularly methylated to downregulate glioma related cancers. DNMT inhibition leads to decreased methylation and increased synaptic activity. Several studies show that the methylation-related increase or decrease in synaptic activity occurs due to the upregulation or downregulation of receptors at the neurological synapse. Such receptor regulation plays a major role in many important mechanisms, such as the 'fight or flight' response. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is the most studied of these receptors. During stressful circumstances, there is a signaling cascade that begins from the pituitary gland and terminates due to a negative feedback loop from the adrenal gland. In this loop, the increase in the levels of the stress response hormone results in the increase of GR. Increase in GR results in the decrease of cellular response to the hormone levels. It has been shown that methylation of the I7 exon within the GR locus leads to a lower level of basal GR expression in mice. These mice were more susceptible to high levels of stress as opposed to mice with lower levels of methylation at the I7 exon. Up-regulation or down-regulation of receptors through methylation leads to change in synaptic activity of the neuron. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51304858 | 1,928,606 |
163,915 | The distinguishing feature for this series is presence of four fast, 12-bit, simultaneous sampling ADCs (multiplexer to over 30 channels), and four matched, 8 MHz bandwidth op-amps with all pins exposed and additionally internal PGA (Programmable Gain Array) network. The exposed pads allow for a range of analog signal conditioning circuits like band-pass filters, anti-alias filters, charge amplifiers, integrators/differentiators, 'instrumentation' high-gain differential inputs, and other. This eliminates need for external op-amps for many applications. The built-in two-channel DAC has arbitrary waveform as well as a hardware-generated waveform (sine, triangle, noise etc.) capability. All analog devices can be completely independent, or partially internally connected, meaning that one can have nearly everything that is needed for an advanced measurement and sensor interfacing system in a single chip. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33902286 | 163,830 |
29,158 | Bacteria are ubiquitous, living in every possible habitat on the planet including soil, underwater, deep in Earth's crust and even such extreme environments as acidic hot springs and radioactive waste. There are approximately 2×10 bacteria on Earth, forming a biomass that is only exceeded by plants. They are abundant in lakes and oceans, in arctic ice, and geothermal springs where they provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, such as hydrogen sulphide and methane, to energy. They live on and in plants and animals. Most do not cause diseases, are beneficial to their environments, and are essential for life. The soil is a rich source of bacteria and a few grams contain around a thousand million of them. They are all essential to soil ecology, breaking down toxic waste and recycling nutrients. They are even found in the atmosphere and one cubic metre of air holds around one hundred million bacterial cells. The oceans and seas harbour around 3 x 10 bacteria which provide up to 50% of the oxygen humans breathe. Only around 2% of bacterial species have been fully studied. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9028799 | 29,148 |
61,195 | After completing seventh grade, Mikhail, with his stepfather's permission, left his family and returned to Kurya, hiking for nearly 1,000 km. In Kurya, he found a job in mechanics at a tractor station. A party organizer embedded within the factory noticed the man's dexterity and issued him a directive ("napravlenie") to work at a nearby weapons design bureau, where he was employed as a tester of fitted stocks in rifles. In 1938, he was conscripted into the Red Army. Because of his small size and engineering skills he was assigned as a tank mechanic, and later became a tank commander. While training, he made his first inventions, which concerned not only tanks, but also small weapons, and was personally awarded a wrist watch by Georgy Zhukov. Kalashnikov served on the T-34s of the 24th Tank Regiment, 108th Tank Division stationed in Stryi before the regiment retreated after the Battle of Brody in June 1941. He was wounded in combat in the Battle of Bryansk in October 1941 and hospitalised until April 1942. In the last few months of being in hospital, he overheard some fellow soldiers bemoaning their current rifles, which were plagued with reliability issues, such as jamming. As he continued to overhear the complaints that the Soviet soldiers had, as soon as he was discharged, he went to work on what would become the famous AK-47 assault rifle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19535 | 61,170 |
1,868,024 | 6-Pyruvoyltetrahydropterin synthase deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder that causes malignant hyperphenylalaninemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency. It is a recessive disorder that is accompanied by hyperphenylalaninemia. Commonly reported symptoms are initial truncal hypotonia, subsequent appendicular hypertonia, bradykinesia, cogwheel rigidity, generalized dystonia, and marked diurnal fluctuation. Other reported clinical features include difficulty in swallowing, oculogyric crises, somnolence, irritability, hyperthermia, and seizures. Chorea, athetosis, hypersalivation, rash with eczema, and sudden death have also been reported. Patients with mild phenotypes may deteriorate if given folate antagonists such as methotrexate, which can interfere with a salvage pathway through which dihydrobiopterin is converted into tetrahydrobiopterin via dihydrofolate reductase. Treatment options include substitution with neurotransmitter precursors (levodopa, 5-hydroxytryptophan), monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and tetrahydrobiopterin. Response to treatment is variable and the long-term and functional outcome is unknown. To provide a basis for improving the understanding of the epidemiology, genotype–phenotype correlation and outcome of these diseases, their impact on the quality of life of patients, and for evaluating diagnostic and therapeutic strategies a patient registry was established by the noncommercial International Working Group on Neurotransmitter Related Disorders (iNTD). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3906966 | 1,866,948 |
1,022,934 | A Ward Leonard control is usually used for controlling a shunt or compound wound DC motor, and developed as a method of providing a speed-controlled motor from an AC supply, though it is not without its advantages in DC schemes. The AC supply is used to drive an AC motor, usually an induction motor that drives a DC generator or dynamo. The DC output from the armature is directly connected to the armature of the DC motor (sometimes but not always of identical construction). The shunt field windings of both DC machines are independently excited through variable resistors. Extremely good speed control from standstill to full speed, and consistent torque, can be obtained by varying the generator and/or motor field current. This method of control was the "de facto" method from its development until it was superseded by solid state thyristor systems. It found service in almost any environment where good speed control was required, from passenger lifts through to large mine pit head winding gear and even industrial process machinery and electric cranes. Its principal disadvantage was that three machines were required to implement a scheme (five in very large installations, as the DC machines were often duplicated and controlled by a tandem variable resistor). In many applications, the motor-generator set was often left permanently running, to avoid the delays that would otherwise be caused by starting it up as required. Although electronic (thyristor) controllers have replaced most small to medium Ward-Leonard systems, some very large ones (thousands of horsepower) remain in service. The field currents are much lower than the armature currents, allowing a moderate sized thyristor unit to control a much larger motor than it could control directly. For example, in one installation, a 300 amp thyristor unit controls the field of the generator. The generator output current is in excess of 15,000 amperes, which would be prohibitively expensive (and inefficient) to control directly with thyristors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10004115 | 1,022,404 |
1,456,109 | Technology assessments, which are a form of cost–benefit analysis, are a medium for decision makers to evaluate and analyze solutions with regards to the particular technology assessment, and choose a best possible option which is cost effective and obeys the authoritative and budgetary requirements. However, they are difficult if not impossible to carry out in an objective manner since subjective decisions and value judgments have to be made regarding a number of complex issues such as (a) the boundaries of the analysis (i.e., what costs are internalized and externalized), (b) the selection of appropriate indicators of potential positive and negative consequences of the new technology, (c) the monetization of non-market values, and (d) a wide range of ethical perspectives. Consequently, most technology assessments are neither objective nor value-neutral exercises but instead are greatly influenced and biased by the values of the most powerful stakeholders, which are in many cases the developers and proponents (i.e., corporations and governments) of new technologies under consideration. In the most extreme view, as expressed by Ian Barbour in '’Technology, Environment, and Human Values'’, technology assessment is "a one-sided apology for contemporary technology by people with a stake in its continuation." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=74007 | 1,455,289 |
219,147 | A member of the natriuretic peptide gene family, "NPPA" encodes an important cardiac signaling molecule known as atrial natriuretic peptide/factor (ANP). ANP carries out endocrine functions of the heart. It acts as a diuretic by inhibiting sodium reabsorption in the kidneys. ANP also acts in the heart to prevent cardiac hypertrophy and to regulate vascular remodeling and energy metabolism. "NPPA" expression is varied throughout mammalian development into adulthood. Fetal expression of "NPPA" is associated with the formation of chamber myocardium, muscle cells of the atria and ventricles in the early developing heart. Early expression of this gene has been associated with ventricular hypertrophy in both "in vitro" and "in vivo" models. "NPPA" variants affect plasma ANP concentrations, blood pressure levels, and cardiovascular diseases such as atrial fibrillation (AF). ANP-deficient mice were found to have a large increase in heart and left ventricular weight in response to volume overload, which is normally prevented by proper regulation of blood pressure. Using a knock-in (KI) rat model, researchers found an AF-associated human variant in "NPPA" caused inflammation, fibroblast activation, atrial fibrosis, and AF in KI rats. These findings suggest NPPA is a critical gene in cardiac development and dysfunction of this gene can lead to heart problems via altered ANP levels. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=475143 | 219,038 |
1,828,759 | Since about 2000, FDTD techniques have emerged as a primary means to computationally model many scientific and engineering problems dealing with electromagnetic wave interactions with material structures. Current FDTD modeling applications range from near-DC (ultralow-frequency geophysics involving the entire Earth-ionosphere waveguide) through microwaves (radar signature technology, antennas, wireless communications devices, digital interconnects, biomedical imaging/treatment) to visible light (photonic crystals, nanoplasmonics, solitons, microscopy and lithography, and biophotonics). Both commercial FDTD software suites and free-software/open-source or closed-source FDTD projects are available which permit detailed Maxwell's equations modeling of electromagnetic wave phenomena and engineered systems spanning much of the electromagnetic spectrum. To a large degree, all of these software constructs derive directly from FDTD techniques first reported by Prof. Taflove and his students over the past 45 years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6071706 | 1,827,719 |
1,499,177 | The stability and structure of the cystine knot motif implicates possible applications in drug design. The hydrogen bonding between the disulfide bonds of the motif and beta-sheet structures gives rise to highly efficient structure stabilization. In addition, the size of the motif is approximately 30 amino acid residues. These two characteristics make it an attractive biomolecule to be used for drug delivery as it exhibits thermal stability, chemical stability, and proteolytic resistance. The biological activities of these molecules are partially due to the unique interlocking arrangement and cyclized peptide backbone which contains a conserved sequence shared among circulins. Circulins have previously been identified in a screen for anti-HIV activity. Studies have shown that cystine knot proteins can be incubated at temperatures of 65 °C or placed in 1N HCl/1N NaOH without loss of structural and functional integrity. Its resistance from oral and some intestinal proteases suggest possible use for oral delivery. Possible future applications include pain relief as well as antiviral and antibacterial functions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16117606 | 1,498,333 |
1,015,314 | So far, Mendelssohn had devoted his talents to philosophy and criticism; now, however, an incident turned the current of his life in the direction of the cause of Judaism. In April 1763, Johann Kaspar Lavater, then a young theology-student from Zurich, made a trip to Berlin, where he visited the already famous Jewish philosopher with some companions. They insisted on Mendelssohn telling them his views on Jesus and managed to get from him the statement, that, provided the historical Jesus had kept himself and his theology strictly within limits of orthodox Judaism, Mendelssohn "respected the morality of Jesus' character." Six years later, in October 1769, Lavater sent Mendelssohn his German translation of Charles Bonnet's essay on Christian Evidences, with a preface where he publicly challenged Mendelssohn to refute Bonnet or if he could not then to "do what wisdom, the love of truth and honesty must bid him, what a Socrates would have done if he had read the book and found it unanswerable." Mendelssohn answered in an open letter in December 1769: "Suppose there were living among my contemporaries a Confucius or a Solon, I could, according to the principles of my faith, love and admire the great man without falling into the ridiculous idea that I must convert a Solon or a Confucius." The ongoing public controversy cost Mendelssohn much time, energy and strength. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44893 | 1,014,793 |
1,136,480 | From the mid-18th century through the 19th century scientific missions mapped the newly discovered regions, brought back to Europe the newly discovered fauna and flora, made hydrological, astronomical and meteorological observations and improved the methods of navigation. This stimulated great advances in the scientific disciplines of natural history, botany, zoology, ichthyology, conchology, taxonomy, medicine, geography, geology, mineralogy, hydrology, oceanography, physics, meteorology etc. – all contributing to the sense of "improvement" and "progress" that characterized the Enlightenment. Often these missions brought together diverse researchers of different ethnic and regional background, thus creating a "transnational culture of expertise". Artists were used to record landscapes and indigenous peoples, while natural history illustrators captured the appearance of organisms before they deteriorated after collection. Some of the world's finest natural history illustrations were produced at this time and the illustrators changed from informed amateurs to fully trained professionals acutely aware of the need for scientific accuracy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31642145 | 1,135,887 |
309,242 | Mandelbrot saw financial markets as an example of "wild randomness", characterized by concentration and long range dependence. He developed several original approaches for modelling financial fluctuations. In his early work, he found that the price changes in financial markets did not follow a Gaussian distribution, but rather Lévy stable distributions having infinite variance. He found, for example, that cotton prices followed a Lévy stable distribution with parameter "α" equal to 1.7 rather than 2 as in a Gaussian distribution. "Stable" distributions have the property that the sum of many instances of a random variable follows the same distribution but with a larger scale parameter. The latter work from the early 60s was done with daily data of cotton prices from 1900, long before he introduced the word 'fractal'. In later years, after the concept of fractals had matured, the study of financial markets in the context of fractals became possible only after the availability of high frequency data in finance. In the late 1980s, Mandelbrot used intra-daily tick data supplied by Olsen & Associates in Zurich to apply fractal theory to market microstructure. This cooperation lead to the publication of the first comprehensive papers on scaling law in finance. This law shows similar properties at different time scales, confirming Mandelbrot's insight of the fractal nature of market microstructure. Mandelbrot's own research in this area is presented in his books "Fractals and Scaling in Finance" and "The (Mis)behavior of Markets". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3999 | 309,077 |
941,737 | A "thermosiphon" traditionally refers to a closed system consisting of several pipes and/or chambers, with a larger chamber containing a small reservoir of liquid (often having a boiling point just above ambient temperature, but not necessarily). The larger chamber is as close to the heat source and designed to conduct as much heat from it into the liquid as possible, for example, a CPU cold plate with the chamber inside it filled with the liquid. One or more pipes extend upward into some sort of radiator or similar heat dissipation area, and this is all set up such that the CPU heats the reservoir and liquid it contains, which begins boiling, and the vapor travels up the tube(s) into the radiator/heat dissipation area, and then after condensing, drips back down into the reservoir, or runs down the sides of the tube. This requires no moving parts, and is somewhat similar to a heat pump, except that capillary action is not used, making it potentially better in some sense (perhaps most importantly, better in that it is much easier to build, and much more customizable for specific use cases and the flow of coolant/vapor can be arranged in a much wider variety of positions and distances, and have far greater thermal mass and maximum capacity compared to heat pipes which are limited by the amount of coolant present and the speed and flow rate of coolant that capillary action can achieve with the wicking used, often sintered copper powder on the walls of the tube, which have a limited flow rate and capacity.) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=798370 | 941,235 |
2,055,646 | Boyle's research and articles were crucial to the litigation brought in 1965 by Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference (Scenic Hudson) against Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), New York's primary electric utility company in the lawsuit titled "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission". He relayed the concerns of Hudson River Valley citizens and environmentalists regarding Con Ed's proposed pumped-storage power plant on Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands, not the least of which included the potential for irreparable ecological harm, the destruction of critical habitat for aquatic species, and the killing of small fish by the plant's water-intake equipment. In late December 1965, the court ruled in favor of Scenic Hudson in that round of litigation stating that "the FPC had to consider the environmental consequences of the plan, which they had not done." Litigation dragged on until 1980 when Con Ed entered into an agreement with conservation groups. Boyle was a signatory for one of the groups, ending the effort to build the pumped-storage power plant. The Con Ed action "became the basis of environmental law in the United States by establishing the right of citizens to sue the government to protect natural resources". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64533552 | 2,054,463 |
789,370 | AAC systems are diverse: unaided communication uses no equipment and includes signing and body language, while aided approaches use external tools. Aided communication methods can range from paper and pencil to communication books or boards to speech generating devices (SGDs) or devices producing written output. The symbols used in AAC include gestures, photographs, pictures, line drawings, letters and words, which can be used alone or in combination. Body parts, pointers, adapted mice, or eye tracking can be used to select target symbols directly, and switch access scanning is often used for indirect selection. Message generation is generally much slower than spoken communication, and as a result rate enhancement techniques may be used to reduce the number of selections required. These techniques include "prediction", in which the user is offered guesses of the word/phrase being composed, and "encoding", in which longer messages are retrieved using a prestored code. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2106968 | 788,946 |
1,112,672 | The 3D modeling process used is that of polygon modeling with triangular faces to be represented by shell models. Limited use of constructive solid geometry is possible though only as a transitional method to create the union, subtraction and intersection of shell models. Once created models are rendered on an HTML 5 canvas element using a shader program which determines the pixel positions and colors on the canvas using the polygon models, the textures applied to each model, the scene camera and lights together with the 4 x 4 world matrices for each object which stores their position, rotation and scale. The technique used to produce photo realistic images is that of physically based rendering along with post-processing methods. In order to simulate collisions between models and other real world physical actions one of two physics engines need to be added as plugins, these are Cannon.js and Oimo. Animation involving, for example, changes in position or color of models is accomplished by key frame animation objects called animatables, while full character animation is achieved through the use of skeletons with blend weights. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54900827 | 1,112,106 |
1,358,804 | In many mafic igneous rocks, such as gabbro and diabase, scapolite replaces feldspar by a secondary or metasomatic process. Some Norwegian scapolite-gabbros (or diorite) examined microscopically furnish examples of every stage of the process. The chemical changes involved are really small, one of the most important being the assumption of a small amount of chlorine in the new molecule. Often the scapolite is seen spreading through the feldspar, portions being completely replaced, while others are still fresh and unaltered. The feldspar does not weather, but remains fresh, and the transformation resembles metamorphism rather than weathering. It is not a superficial process, but apparently takes place at some depth under pressure, and probably through the operation of solutions or vapours containing chlorides. The basic soda-lime feldspars (labradorite to anorthite) are those that undergo this type of alteration. Many instances of scapolitization have been described from the ophites (diabases) of the Pyrenees. In the unaltered state these are ophitic and consist of pyroxene enclosing lath-shaped plagioclase feldspars; the pyroxene is often changed to uralite. When the feldspar is replaced by scapolite the new mineral is fresh and clear, enclosing often small grains of hornblende. Extensive recrystallization often goes on, and the ultimate product is a spotted rock with white rounded patches of scapolite surrounded by granular aggregates of clear green hornblende: in fact the original structure disappears. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1179763 | 1,358,053 |
1,453,583 | Beneficial mycorrhizal associations are to be found in many of our edible and flowering crops. Shewell Cooper suggests that these include at least 80% of the "brassica" and "solanum" families (including tomatoes and potatoes), as well as the majority of tree species, especially in forest and woodlands. Here the mycorrhizae create a fine underground mesh that extends greatly beyond the limits of the tree's roots, greatly increasing their feeding range and actually causing neighbouring trees to become physically interconnected. The benefits of mycorrhizal relations to their plant partners are not limited to nutrients, but can be essential for plant reproduction. In situations where little light is able to reach the forest floor, such as the North American pine forests, a young seedling cannot obtain sufficient light to photosynthesise for itself and will not grow properly in a sterile soil. But, if the ground is underlain by a mycorrhizal mat, then the developing seedling will throw down roots that can link with the fungal threads and through them obtain the nutrients it needs, often indirectly obtained from its parents or neighbouring trees. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4686654 | 1,452,766 |
61,379 | The UChicago Arts program joins academic departments and programs in the Division of the Humanities and the college, as well as professional organizations including the Court Theatre, the Oriental Institute, the Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Presents, and student arts organizations. The university has an artist-in-residence program and scholars in performance studies, contemporary art criticism, and film history. It has offered a doctorate in music composition since 1933 and cinema and media studies since 2000, a master of fine arts in visual arts (early 1970s), and a Master of Arts in the humanities with a creative writing track (2000). It has bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, and art history, and, more recently, cinema and media studies (1996) and theater and performance studies (2002). The college's general education core includes a "dramatic, musical, and visual arts" requirement, inviting students to study the history of the arts, stage desire, or begin working with sculpture. Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes. UChicago is often considered the birthplace of improvisational comedy as the Compass Players student comedy troupe evolved into The Second City improv theater troupe in 1959. The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opened in October 2012, five years after a $35 million gift from alumnus David Logan and his wife Reva. The center includes spaces for exhibitions, performances, classes, and media production. The Logan Center was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32127 | 61,354 |
535,201 | A modest force remained in Afghanistan over this time and was involved in counter-insurgency operations in Uruzgan Province in conjunction United States and other coalition forces, including the Dutch prior to their withdrawal. The force consisted of motorised infantry, special forces, engineers, cavalry, artillery and aviation elements. By 2010 it included a combined arms battalion-sized battle group known as the Mentoring Task Force, and the Special Operations Task Group, both based at Forward Operation Base Ripley outside of Tarin Kowt, as well as the Rotary Wing Group flying CH-47D Chinooks, the Force Logistics Asset and an RAAF air surveillance radar unit based in Kandahar. In addition, a further 800 Australian logistic personnel were also based in the Middle East in support, but located outside of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, detachments of maritime patrol and transport aircraft continued to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, based out of Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. Also included was one of the RAN's frigates deployed to the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden on counter piracy and maritime interdiction duties. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1323516 | 534,922 |
329,043 | The narrative concept for "Prey" came to Colantonio during one of his airline flights while on travel; on return, he started to engage with the Austin studio to flesh out the ideas for the narrative, design, and gameplay, looking to build as detailed a world as they had for the city of Dunwall used as the setting for "Dishonored". Colantonio said that it took about a year from this initial concept to come up with setting the game in an alternate timeline that helped support this detailing. They considered how the future would have been different if Kennedy survived the assassination attempt, allowing them to flesh out the narrative and design of the space station. This itself directly attributed to the styles used in the various parts of the station, with the team considering what architecture would have influenced those most responsible for operating "Talos I" at the time. This ranged from considering what Kennedy would have seen frequently were he alive in the 1960s and 1970s, to envision how those funding contemporary commercial space efforts like Elon Musk or Google would style a space station. As "Talos I" is a relatively small space, Arkane was able to detail the station in depth, such as naming each non-playable character, including those already dead by the story's present, and fleshing out background stories for them, as to make the game's world more cohesive. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11718979 | 328,868 |
423,881 | Early work on Frames was inspired by psychological research going back to the 1930s that indicated people use stored stereotypical knowledge to interpret and act in new cognitive situations. The term Frame was first used by Marvin Minsky as a paradigm to understand visual reasoning and natural language processing. In these and many other types of problems the potential solution space for even the smallest problem is huge. For example, extracting the phonemes from a raw audio stream or detecting the edges of an object. Things that seem trivial to humans are actually quite complex. In fact, how difficult they really were was probably not fully understood until AI researchers began to investigate the complexity of getting computers to solve them. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9924067 | 423,674 |
230,945 | A detailed timeline stretching from the late 20th century to the mid-32nd describes humanity's technological, social and political development and spread through space both in broad historical terms and through accounts of the lives of individuals who experienced and shaped that history, with an emphasis on (initially) the year 3025 and creating an ongoing storyline from there. Generally, "BattleTech" assumes that its history is identical to real-world history up until approximately 1984, when the reported histories begin to diverge; in particular, the game designers did not foresee the fall of the Soviet Union, which plays a major role past 1990 in the fictional "BattleTech" history. Individual lifestyles remain largely unchanged from those of modern times, due in part to stretches of protracted interplanetary warfare during which technological progress slowed or even reversed. Cultural, political and social conventions vary considerably between worlds, but feudalism is widespread, with many states ruled by hereditary lords and other nobility, below which are numerous social classes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=206330 | 230,827 |
2,044,180 | Led by ESA's Education Office at ESTEC, the project successfully completed a Phase A feasibility study and continued with the preliminary design during phase B. So far, more than 200 students have been involved in phases A and B of the ESMO project. Since November 2009, SSTL coordinate and supervise the work of the students, providing system-level and specialist technical support. Regular workshops at ESTEC and ESOC as well as internships at SSTL were organized to support the student teams in their ESMO related activities and provide training / knowledge transfer. Additionally, facilities at SSTL will be utilized for spacecraft assembly, integration and testing. As a major milestone during phase B, the System Requirements Review (SRR) for ESMO was performed in 2010. At SRR, the system requirements and system design were finalised. Part of the SRR also selected the university teams to participate in the following phases of the project. After passing a preliminary design review in March 2012, the program was ended as a result of budget constraints in April 2012. ESMO was to have been the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme following SSETI Express, YES2 and the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19932393 | 2,043,000 |
723,614 | Market mix modeling can determine the sales impact generated by individual media such as television, magazine, and online display ads. In some cases it can be used to determine the impact of individual advertising campaigns or even ad executions upon sales. For example, for TV advertising activity, it is possible to examine how each ad execution has performed in the market in terms of its impact on sales volume. MMM can also provide information on TV correlations at different media weight levels, as measured by gross rating points (GRP) in relation to sales volume response within a time frame, be it a week or a month. Information can also be gained on the minimum level of GRPs (threshold limit) in a week that need to be aired in order to make an impact, and conversely, the level of GRPs at which the impact on volume maximizes (saturation limit) and that the further activity does not have any payback. While not all MMM's will be able to produce definitive answers to all questions, some additional areas in which insights can sometimes be gained include: 1) the effectiveness of 15-second vis-à-vis 30-second executions; 2) comparisons in ad performance when run during prime-time vis-à-vis off-prime-time dayparts; 3) comparisons into the direct and the halo effect of TV activity across various products or sub-brands. The role of new product based TV activity and the equity based TV activity in growing the brand can also be compared. GRP's are converted into reach (i.e. GRPs are divided by the average frequency to get the percentage of people actually watching the advertisement). This is a better measure for modeling TV. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10219801 | 723,234 |
943,142 | Regional specification is initiated by the presence of cytoplasmic determinants in one part of the zygote. The cells that contain the determinant become a signaling center and emit an inducing factor. Because the inducing factor is produced in one place, diffuses away, and decays, it forms a concentration gradient, high near the source cells and low further away. The remaining cells of the embryo, which do not contain the determinant, are competent to respond to different concentrations by upregulating specific developmental control genes. This results in a series of zones becoming set up, arranged at progressively greater distance from the signaling center. In each zone a different combination of developmental control genes is upregulated. These genes encode transcription factors which upregulate new combinations of gene activity in each region. Among other functions, these transcription factors control expression of genes conferring specific adhesive and motility properties on the cells in which they are active. Because of these different morphogenetic properties, the cells of each germ layer move to form sheets such that the ectoderm ends up on the outside, mesoderm in the middle, and endoderm on the inside. Morphogenetic movements not only change the shape and structure of the embryo, but by bringing cell sheets into new spatial relationships they also make possible new phases of signaling and response between them. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8449 | 942,640 |
1,863,945 | Following his PhD, Pawliszyn joined the faculty at Utah State University where he attempted to get funding for research on polymer-coated optical fibers that could extract both volatile and nonvolatile analytes from complex media in the liquid or gas phase. After failing to secure funding from United States-based funding agencies, he left Utah to join the University of Waterloo with support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Through this support, he invented the Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique which "uses a solid coating on a sample probe to selectively extract chemical substances from blood, saliva, urine, and even plasma. After a simple washing step, the probe can then be placed in front of the mass spectrometer for analysis." As such, the SPME technique began to be used in a large range of chromatographic methods, including environmental, forensic, bioanalytical, as well as clinical studies. Chemist Daniel W. Armstrong later stated that SPME "revolutionized many areas of sampling and analysis." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69404680 | 1,862,873 |
287,751 | In 2010, INFRA built a compact Pilot Plant for conversion of natural gas into synthetic oil. The plant modeled the full cycle of the GTL chemical process including the intake of pipeline gas, sulfur removal, steam methane reforming, syngas conditioning, and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. In 2013 the first pilot plant was acquired by VNIIGAZ Gazprom LLC. In 2014 INFRA commissioned and operated on a continuous basis a new, larger scale full cycle Pilot Plant. It represents the second generation of INFRA's testing facility and is differentiated by a high degree of automation and extensive data gathering system. In 2015, INFRA built its own catalyst factory in Troitsk (Moscow, Russia). The catalyst factory has a capacity of over 15 tons per year, and produces the unique proprietary Fischer–Tropsch catalysts developed by the company's R&D division. In 2016, INFRA designed and built a modular, transportable GTL (gas-to-liquid) M100 plant for processing natural and associated gas into synthetic crude oil in Wharton (Texas, USA). The M100 plant is operating as a technology demonstration unit, R&D platform for catalyst refinement, and economic model to scale the Infra GTL process into larger and more efficient plants. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1284762 | 287,595 |
938,053 | By 1889, the electric power industry was flourishing, and power companies had built thousands of power systems (both direct and alternating current) in the United States and Europe. These networks were effectively dedicated to providing electric lighting. During this time the rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse's companies had grown into a propaganda campaign over which form of transmission (direct or alternating current) was superior, a series of events known as the "war of the currents". In 1891, Westinghouse installed the first major power system that was designed to drive a synchronous electric motor, not just provide electric lighting, at Telluride, Colorado. On the other side of the Atlantic, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky and Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown, built the first long-distance () high-voltage (15 kV, then a record) three-phase transmission line from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main for the Electrical Engineering Exhibition in Frankfurt, where power was used to light lamps and run a water pump. In the United States the AC/DC competition came to an end when Edison General Electric was taken over by their chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, forming General Electric. In 1895, after a protracted decision-making process, alternating current was chosen as the transmission standard with Westinghouse building the Adams No. 1 generating station at Niagara Falls and General Electric building the three-phase alternating current power system to supply Buffalo at 11 kV. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14105333 | 937,553 |
1,729,770 | Atwater's legacy endures not only in the field of nutrition but also in the work of the agricultural experiment stations. Both he and Johnson are considered responsible for focusing the role of the experiment stations on scientific study in service of the public and the tables and formulas Atwater created through his research are still in use today. "His careful studies of nutrition and those that followed helped spur federal policies that have done much to alleviate childhood hunger. We see reflections of his influence on the labels of products in our grocery stores, and we’re beginning to see nutritional information on the menus of restaurants. Today’s familiar food pyramid, a quick and easy visual guide to the recommended daily intake of food, is a tribute to Atwater and his successors." Atwater's daughter, Helen W. Atwater, served as one of his laboratory assistants, namely assisting with manuscript preparation. She served as an editorial assistant in the Office of Experiment Stations from 1898 to 1903; she went on to have a career as a home economics specialist and served as the first full time editor of the "Journal of Home Economics". His granddaughter, Catherine Merriam Atwater, the daughter of his son, Charles, was an author whom married economist John Kenneth Galbraith. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10465237 | 1,728,795 |
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