doc_id int32 18 2.25M | text stringlengths 245 2.96k | source stringlengths 38 44 | __index_level_0__ int64 18 2.25M |
|---|---|---|---|
1,611,498 | Circadian literally translates to "about a day" in Latin. This refers to the human 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness. This cycle is driven by light. The human body must photoentrain or synchronize itself with light in order to make this happen. The rod cells are the photoreceptor cells in the retina capable of sensing light. However, they are not what sets the biological clock. The photosensitive retinal ganglion cells contain a pigment called melanopsin. This photopigment is depolarized in the presence of light, unlike the rods which are hyperpolarized. Melanopsin encodes the day-night cycle to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) via the retinohypothalamic tract. The SCN evokes a response from the spinal cord. Preganglionic neurons in the spinal cord modulate the superior cervical ganglia, which synapses on the pineal gland. The pineal gland synthesizes the neurohormone melatonin from tryptophan. Melatonin is secreted into the bloodstream where it affects neural activity by interacting with melatonin receptors on the SCN. The SCN is then able to influence the sleep wake cycle, acting as the "apex of a hierarchy" that governs physiological timing functions. "Rest and sleep are the best example of self-organized operations within neuronal circuits". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37689509 | 1,610,593 |
1,678,442 | Perhaps the first experiment conducted to study the phenomenon of haptic memory was that of Bliss, Crane, Mansfield, and Townsend who investigated the characteristics of immediate recall for brief tactile stimuli applied to the hand. The results obtained showed a haptic memory store remarkably similar to the visual memory store suggested by Sperling in 1960, with a capacity of approximately four to five items. Similar to tests of visual sensory memory, it was also found that haptic memory performance was significantly improved with the use of partial report procedures. This particular finding is consistent with more recent research by Gallace in 2008. Bliss et al. interpreted this difference in partial report versus whole report as a sensory form of memory for passively presented tactile stimuli with a high capacity and short duration. Additional support for the short duration of haptic memory comes from studies by Gilson and Baddeley in 1969. According to these studies, memory for stimuli applied to the skin is resilient for approximately ten seconds after removal of the stimulus, even when the individual is engaged in tasks that inhibit verbal rehearsal. After this delay, the memory trace becomes vulnerable to forgetting as it decays from the haptic memory store and begins to rely on a more central memory store. Similar findings were later reported by Miles and Borthwick in 1996, who emphasized the role of tactile interference on discriminability of the target location and the role of central processing resources in consolidation of haptic memory. More recent experimental procedures and technologies such as minielectrode recording devices and transcranial magnetic stimulation have allowed for mapping of brain areas involved in the storage of tactile memories. Implicated in most of these studies is the primary somatosensory cortex. More recent studies have also investigated a broader selection of participants, allowing for the discovery of an intact haptic memory in infants. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31122898 | 1,677,499 |
2,179,598 | It is a zinc-dependent metalloamidase that catalyses the second and committed step in the biosynthesis of lipid A. Lipid A anchors lipopolysaccharide (the major constituent of the outer membrane) into the membrane in Gram negative bacteria. It shows no homology to mammalian metalloamidases and is essential for cell viability, making it an important target for the development of novel antibacterial compounds. The structure of UDP-3-O-N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase (LpxC) from "Aquifex aeolicus" has a two-layer alpha/beta structure similar to that of the second domain of ribosomal protein S5, only in LpxC there is a duplication giving two structural repeats of this fold, each repeat being elaborated with additional structures forming the active site. LpxC contains a zinc-binding motif, which resides at the base of an active site cleft and adjacent to a hydrophobic tunnel occupied by a fatty acid. This tunnel accounts for the specificity of LpxC toward substrates and inhibitors bearing appropriately positioned 3-O-fatty acid substituents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34635766 | 2,178,353 |
1,003,727 | DePalma began excavating systematically in 2012 and quickly found the site to contain very unusual and promising features. Everything he found had been covered so quickly that details were exceptionally well preserved, and the fossils as a whole formed a very unusual collection – fish fins and complete fish, tree trunks with amber, fossils in upright rather than squashed flat positions, hundreds or thousands of cartilaginous fully articulated freshwater paddlefish, sturgeon and even saltwater mosasaurs which had ended up on the same mudbank miles inland (only about four fossilized fish were previously known from the entire Hell Creek formation), fragile body parts such as complete and intact tails, ripped from the seafish's bodies and preserved inland in a manner that suggested they were covered almost immediately after death, and – everywhere – millions of tiny spheres of glassy material known as microtektites, the result of tiny splatters of molten material reaching the ground. The microtektites were present and concentrated in the gills of about 50% of the fossilized fish, in amber, and buried in the small pits in the mud which they had made when they contemporaneously impacted. The fish were not bottom feeders. They had breathed in early debris that fell into water, in the seconds or minutes before death. The sediment appeared to have liquefied and covered the deposited biota, then quickly solidified, preserving much of the contents in three dimensions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60404595 | 1,003,209 |
131,957 | Spectroscopic studies were central to the development of quantum mechanics, because the first useful atomic models described the spectra of Hydrogen which models include the Bohr model, the Schrödinger equation, and Matrix mechanics which all can produce the spectral lines of Hydrogen, therefore, providing the basis for discrete quantum jumps to match the discrete hydrogen spectrum. Also, Max Planck's explanation of blackbody radiation involved spectroscopy because he was comparing the wavelength of light using a photometer to the temperature of a Black Body. Spectroscopy is used in physical and analytical chemistry because atoms and molecules have unique spectra. As a result, these spectra can be used to detect, identify and quantify information about the atoms and molecules. Spectroscopy is also used in astronomy and remote sensing on Earth. Most research telescopes have spectrographs. The measured spectra are used to determine the chemical composition and physical properties of astronomical objects (such as their temperature, density of elements in a star, velocity, black holes and more). An important use for spectroscopy is in biochemistry. Molecular samples may be analyzed for species identification and energy content. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27752 | 131,905 |
460,709 | On the UK 5-Year Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy 2013–2018, the importance of addressing AMR negative effects on animal health has been considered as same as human health. Several scientific partnerships with low-middle income countries would be established. UK-China Newton fund has started to build multi-discipline collaboration cross the border to stop the increasing global burden caused by AMR. To achieve the goal of citizen public health and food safety, "The National action Plan on Controlling Antibiotic-Resistance Bacteria on animal origins (2016–2020)" has been published by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of People's Republic of China since 2017. This plan is fully integrated with the concept of one health. It covers not only the research and development, but also social context. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40364158 | 460,483 |
1,643,226 | Necatoriasis is caused by "N. americanus". "N. americanus" can be divided into two areas – larvae and adult stage. The third stage larvae are guided to human skin by following thermal gradients. Typically, the larvae enter through the hands and feet following contact with contaminated soil. A papular, pruritic, itchy rash will develop around the site of entry into the human host. This is also known as "ground itch". Generally, migration through the lungs is asymptomatic but a mild cough and pharyngeal irritation may occur during larval migration in the airways. Once larvae break through the alveoli and are swallowed, they enter the gastrointestinal tract and attach to the intestinal mucosa where they mature into adult worms. The hookworms attach to the mucosal lining using their cutting plates which allows them to penetrate blood vessels and feed on the host's blood supply. Each worm consumes 30 μl of blood per day. The major issue results from this intestinal blood loss which can lead to iron-deficiency anemia in moderate to heavy infections. Other common symptoms include epigastric pain and tenderness, nausea, exertional dyspnea, pain in lower extremities and in joints, sternal pain, headache, fatigue, and impotence. Death is rare in humans. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12271407 | 1,642,299 |
514,435 | G93A (glycine 93 changed to alanine) is a comparatively rare mutation, but has been studied very intensely as it was the first mutation to be modeled in mice. G93A is a pseudo-WT mutation that leaves the enzyme activity intact. Because of the ready availability of the G93A mouse from Jackson Laboratory, many studies of potential drug targets and toxicity mechanisms have been carried out in this model. At least one private research institute (ALS Therapy Development Institute) is conducting large-scale drug screens exclusively in this mouse model. Whether findings are specific for G93A or applicable to all ALS-causing SOD1 mutations is at present unknown. It has been argued that certain pathological features of the G93A mouse are due to overexpression artifacts, specifically those relating to mitochondrial vacuolation (the G93A mouse commonly used from Jackson Lab has over 20 copies of the human SOD1 gene). At least one study has found that certain features of pathology are idiosyncratic to G93A and not extrapolatable to all ALS-causing mutations. Further studies have shown that the pathogenesis of the G93A and H46R models are clearly distinct; some drugs and genetic interventions that are highly beneficial/detrimental in one model have either the opposite or no effect in the other. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13622588 | 514,169 |
873,135 | It is suggested that since the FOXP2 gene controls synapses, its disconnection from a formerly complex network of genes instantly removed many instincts including ones that drove sexual selection. It is also suggested that it allowed more genetic variants that affect the phenotype to accumulate in humans, which in combination with increased synaptic plasticity made modern humans more able to survive environmental change and to colonize new environments and innovate. The theory that the origin of complex language was the most recent step in human evolution is considered unlikely as storytelling about past environments would be of little use in droughts with novel distributions of water while individual ability to make correct predictions would be useful and allow for differential survival that could eliminate the archaic version altogether, as opposed to selection for language in which some primitives could use imitation as long as there were enough storytellers in the group to keep the knowledge alive for long times which predicts that some individuals would have retained the archaic version if the modern version was for language. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50773588 | 872,675 |
490,394 | Electrical stimulation of the nervous system has a long and complex history. Earlier practitioners of deep brain stimulation in the latter half of the 20th century (Delgado, Heath, Hosbuchi. See Hariz "et al." for historical review) were limited by the technology available. Heath, in the 1950s, stimulated subcortical areas and made detailed observations of behavioral changes. A new understanding of pain perception was ushered in in 1965, with the Gate Theory of Wall and Melzack. Although now considered oversimplified, the theory held that pain transmissions from small nerve fibers can be overridden, or the gate "closed", by competing transmissions along the wider touch nerve fibers. Building on that concept, in 1967, the first dorsal column stimulator for pain control was demonstrated by Dr. Norm Shealy at Western Reserve Medical School, using a design adapted by Tom Mortimer, a graduate student at Case Institute of Technology, from cardiac nerve stimulators by Medtronic, Inc., where he had a professional acquaintance who shared the circuit diagram. In 1973, Hosbuchi reported alleviating the denervation facial pain of anesthesia dolorosa through ongoing electrical stimulation of the somatosensory thalamus, marking the start of the age of deep brain stimulation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40651435 | 490,140 |
53,139 | After Weber's immense productivity in the early 1890s, he did not publish any papers between early 1898 and late 1902, finally resigning his professorship in late 1903. Freed from those obligations, in that year he accepted a position as associate editor of the "Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare", where he worked with his colleagues and Werner Sombart. His new interests would lie in more fundamental issues of social sciences; his works from this latter period are of primary interest to modern scholars. In 1904, Weber began to publish some of his most seminal papers in this journal, notably his essay "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", which became his most famous work and laid the foundations for his later research on the impact of cultures and religions on the development of economic systems. This essay was the only one of his works from that period that was published as a book during his lifetime. Some other of his works written in the first one and a half decades of the 20th centurypublished posthumously and dedicated primarily from the fields of sociology of religion, economic and legal sociologyare also recognised as among his most important intellectual contributions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19455 | 53,119 |
1,003,818 | The potential applications surrounding integrated HPLC columns within microfluidic devices have proven expansive over the last 10–15 years. The integration of such columns allows for experiments to be run where materials were in low availability or very expensive, like in biological analysis of proteins. This reduction in reagent volumes allows for new experiments like single-cell protein analysis, which due to size limitations of prior devices, previously came with great difficulty. The coupling of HPLC-chip devices with other spectrometry methods like mass-spectrometry allow for enhanced confidence in identification of desired species, like proteins. Microfluidic chips have also been created with internal delay-lines that allow for gradient generation to further improve HPLC, which can reduce the need for further separations. Some other practical applications of integrated HPLC chips include the determination of drug presence in a person through their hair and the labeling of peptides through reverse phase liquid chromatography. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18906 | 1,003,300 |
1,863,628 | After declaring independence from the Soviet Union, the Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia were left with an energy sector that was heavily reliant on imported gas, oil, and nuclear fuel sources. In 1996, when the plant project was appraised, domestic energy sources supplied only 2% of Lithuania's heat demand. The states began considering renewable energy projects in response. Between 1992 and 1994 the Government of Denmark financed a study of the geothermal potential in Lithuania and Latvia called "Baltic Geothermal Energy Project". Regional aquifers within the Devonian and Cambrian strata were analyzed along with the energy needs and geothermal potential of 12 urban areas: Klaipėda, Palanga, Šiauliai, Šilalė, Šilutė, Gargždai, Radviliškis, and Joniškis in Lithuania, and Liepāja, Riga, Jūrmala, and Jelgava in Latvia. On the basis of this project's findings and other investigations, Klaipėda was chosen as a pilot location. The World Bank had estimated the plant would reduce annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO) by 47,800 tons and nitrogen oxides (NO) by 1 ton if it replaced natural gas as a fuel, and reduce CO emissions by 51,940 tons, NO by 11 tons, and sulfur dioxides by 1,160 tons per year if it additionally replaced heavy fuel oil. According to this estimate, the plant would satisfy about 10% of the city's heat demand. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17257994 | 1,862,556 |
1,647,162 | The first Colonial Veterinary Surgeon in South Africa was appointed in approximately 1874 in Port Natal (present day Durban in KwaZulu-Natal), followed by the appointment of the first Colonial Veterinary Surgeon in the Cape Colony in 1876 and the subsequent arrival of private practitioners in the late 19th century. A major event was the arrival in 1891 of a Swiss-born veterinarian, Arnold Theiler, who went on to establish a disinfection station and vaccine factory at Daspoort close to Pretoria in 1898, to produce vaccines and conduct research. In March 1898, Theiler was appointed director of the Bacterial Institute at Daspoort. Despite the unhealthiness of the site, and the very inadequate facilities consisting of wood-and iron buildings and stables, an enormous amount of valuable research work was produced at Daspoort. When this facility became unsuitable in 1905, Theiler was instrumental in establishing a new facility at Onderstepoort in 1908, which became the current Agricultural Research Council's Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute. The sum of 40 000 pounds was voted for this purpose. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18072964 | 1,646,231 |
112,994 | Being the smallest alkali metal, lithium forms the widest variety of and most stable organometallic compounds, which are bonded covalently. Organolithium compounds are electrically non-conducting volatile solids or liquids that melt at low temperatures, and tend to form oligomers with the structure (RLi) where R is the organic group. As the electropositive nature of lithium puts most of the charge density of the bond on the carbon atom, effectively creating a carbanion, organolithium compounds are extremely powerful bases and nucleophiles. For use as bases, butyllithiums are often used and are commercially available. An example of an organolithium compound is methyllithium ((CHLi)), which exists in tetrameric ("x" = 4, tetrahedral) and hexameric ("x" = 6, octahedral) forms. Organolithium compounds, especially "n"-butyllithium, are useful reagents in organic synthesis, as might be expected given lithium's diagonal relationship with magnesium, which plays an important role in the Grignard reaction. For example, alkyllithiums and aryllithiums may be used to synthesise aldehydes and ketones by reaction with metal carbonyls. The reaction with nickel tetracarbonyl, for example, proceeds through an unstable acyl nickel carbonyl complex which then undergoes electrophilic substitution to give the desired aldehyde (using H as the electrophile) or ketone (using an alkyl halide) product. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=666 | 112,949 |
2,237,228 | The NCAA ice hockey season began on September 15, and head coach Mel Pearson held a practice that day with assistance from goaltending coach Steve Shields while the other assistant coaches were on recruiting trips. Practices continued four days a week, though the coaches were only allowed on the ice two hours a week through September. The results of a WCHA preseason poll were released in late September, and while Pearson finished second place in voting for coach of the year, the team was picked to finish in last place in the standings. Senior captain Brett Olson said, "We're definitely not a last place team... With everything that's been set in place, attitude and everything, we're definitely going to be contending". Heading into an October 1 exhibition game at home against the Lakehead Thunderwolves, Pearson planned to use at least two goaltenders and prepared his team to play the "up-tempo, aggressive, puck control style that has been the focus of practices so far". The intent was that aggressive backchecking and outnumbering opposition forwards would lead to more turnovers and therefore more offensive chances. The Huskies won the game against Lakehead 5–3 after coming back from 1–2 and 2–3 deficits. Sophomore forward Jacob Johnstone scored a hat trick, and senior goaltender Josh Robinson played the entire game after Shields recommended leaving him in to see how he responded to playing from behind. Pearson cut defenseman Ricky Doriott and forwards Alan L'Esperance and Evan Witt from the roster the following Monday. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34618144 | 2,235,957 |
175,648 | In the mid-1970s, Tandy Corporation's Radio Shack division was a successful American chain of more than 3,000 electronics stores. Among the Tandy employees who purchased a MITS Altair kit computer was buyer Don French, who began designing his own computer and showed it to vice president of manufacturing John V. Roach, Tandy's former electronic data processing manager. Although the design did not impress Roach, the idea of selling a microcomputer did. When the two men visited National Semiconductor in California in mid-1976, Homebrew Computer Club member Steve Leininger's expertise on the SC/MP microprocessor impressed them. National executives refused to provide Leininger's contact information when French and Roach wanted to hire him as a consultant, but they found Leininger working part-time at Byte Shop. Leininger was unhappy at National, his wife wanted a better job, and Texas did not have a state income tax. Hired for his technical and retail experience, Leininger began working with French in June 1976. The company envisioned a kit, but Leininger persuaded the others that because "too many people can't solder", a preassembled computer would be better. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30747 | 175,556 |
515,660 | Further changes were seen in the league in the 2006–07 season. After the last season The Nordic Vikings were looking for sponsors for the team. However, they failed to find sufficient sponsorship and left the league due to financial trouble. Harbin moved their home rink to Beijing and changed their name to Hosa to reflect this. Qiqihar acquired a new sponsor and changed their name to Changchun Fuao. Kokudo also changed their name to the Seibu Prince Rabbits. With eight teams, the league further reduced the number of games played to 34, which again resulted in an uneven play schedule. The Chinese-based teams, for example, played each other and the Korean teams each six times but only played the Japanese teams four times. The Paper Cranes easily won the regular season again finishing first with 86 points. With the previous year's goal leader not participating the scoring race went to Tim Smith of Kangwon Land. He led the league with 30 goals. Patrik Martinec of Halla led the league with 53 assists and 71 points. The playoffs followed the same format as the year before and six teams advanced. Kangwon Land swept Halla in three games and Oji Paper beat the Ice Bucks three games to one. While it was inevitable with two Korean teams facing each other, it marks the first time a non-Japanese team won a playoff series in Asia League. The second round was over quickly as the Cranes and Rabbits who both had byes swept their opponents in three games each. For the third year in a row the final was between the Paper Cranes and the Rabbits. The Cranes took the series in four games. Joel Prpic won himself another scoring title as he led the playoffs in goals, 8, and points, 17. Kengo Itoh for the Cranes had the most assists with 13. At the awards ceremony Itoh also took the award for MVP of the Year while Jun Tonosaki received the award for Young Guy of the Year. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2209949 | 515,392 |
1,338,689 | The yet unproven but commonly accepted Church-Turing thesis states that a Turing machine and all equivalent formal languages such as the lambda calculus perform and represent all formal operations respectively as applied by a computing human. However the selection of adequate operations for the correct computation itself is not formally deducible, moreover it depends on the computability of the underlying problem. Tasks, such as the halting problem, may be formulated comprehensively in natural language, but the computational representation will not terminate or does not provide a usable result, which is proven by Rice's theorem. The general expression of limitations for rule based deduction by Gödel's incompleteness theorem indicates that the semantic gap is never to be fully closed. These are general statements, considering the generalized limits of computation on the highest level of abstraction where the "semantic gap" manifests itself. There are however many subsets of problems which may be translated automatically, especially in the higher-numbered levels of the Chomsky hierarchy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1594796 | 1,337,956 |
966,399 | Despite the successful tests, the Department of Defense, the sponsor of the Pluto project, had second thoughts. The weapon was considered "too provocative", and it was believed that it would compel the Soviets to construct a similar device. Intercontinental ballistic missile technology had proven to be more easily developed than previously thought, reducing the need for such highly capable cruise missiles. The ICBM has several advantages over the SLAM. An ICBM required less ground support and maintenance, and could be launched in minutes instead of several hours, and so was less vulnerable to a nuclear first strike. An ICBM also traveled to its target faster and was less vulnerable to interception by Soviet air defenses. The main advantage of the SLAM was its ability to carry a larger payload but the value of this was diminished by improvements in nuclear weapon design, which made them smaller and lighter, and the subsequent development of multiple warhead capability in ICBMs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=57684 | 965,889 |
1,619,632 | Sahakian frequently engages the public in science, appearing on programmes such as BBC Newsnight, and on both The Life Scientific and the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4. She has also taken part in numerous newspaper interviews, such as The Sunday Times and Forbes Online. In 2012, Sahakian contributed to the catalogue and appeared in a video for the Wellcome Trust Superhuman Exhibition. In May 2014, she took part in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), fielding questions on a range of subjects, such as depression and cognitive enhancing drugs. In July 2014, Sahakian dispelled the myth that humans only use 10% of their brains in regard to the plot of the film Lucy. In March 2015, she advised on the 'You have been upgraded' event at the Science Museum in London, which featured demonstrations by members of her Laboratory. In the context of presentations on neuroscience, brain health, cognitive enhancement and neuropsychiatric disorders, she has frequently stated the importance of understanding brain health and disease. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35056044 | 1,618,717 |
1,236,545 | When the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961, it became impossible for Ulf's mother to visit him. Merbold then moved to Stuttgart, where he had an aunt, and started studying physics at the University of Stuttgart, graduating with a in 1968. He lived in a dormitory in a wing of Solitude Palace. Thanks to an amnesty for people who had left East Germany, Merbold could again see his mother from late December 1964. In 1976, Merbold obtained a doctorate in natural sciences, also from the University of Stuttgart, with a dissertation titled on the effects of neutron radiation on nitrogen-doped iron. After completing his doctorate, Merbold became a staff member at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, where he had held a scholarship from 1968. At the institute, he worked on solid-state and low-temperature physics, with a special focus on experiments regarding lattice defects in body-centered cubic (bcc) materials. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=180824 | 1,235,881 |
1,285,432 | During April 1958, scientific use of the Skylark commenced, marking the programme's attainment of true operational status. Unlike the majority of missile/rocket programmes, which would only temporarily be based at Woomera until they matured, Skylark continued to operate at Woomera as its long term home. This arrangement necessitated an international supply chain between Britain and South Australia; early Skylarks were transported by plane, along with a kit of parts that were locally assembled by a mostly Australian workforce. Once assembled, the rockets would be transported a further 270 miles to the actual range for roughly two weeks of final preparation ahead of launching. After multiple rounds of testing, the rocket would be mounted on a trailer and taken to the launch platform, usually two days prior to the launch date; the launch itself was overseen by Australian Weapons Research Establishment personnel from an underground control room at the edge of the concrete apron. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1414851 | 1,284,733 |
117,344 | Due to the Horten brothers lacking appropriate production facilities, the Ho 229's manufacturing was contracted out to Gothaer Waggonfabrik; however, the company allegedly undermined the project and sought to have Air Ministry officials favour its own flying wing designs instead. On 1 March 1944, the first prototype "H.IX V1", an unpowered glider, performed its maiden flight; it was followed by the "H.IX V2", powered by Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engines, in December 1944. However, on 18 February 1945, tragedy struck the programme when the V2 was destroyed in a fatal crash, killing its test pilot. Despite as many as 100 production aircraft being ordered, none were ever completed; the near-complete "H.IX V3" prototype was amongst the items captured by the American military and transferred back to the United States under Operation Paperclip. It was evaluated by both British and American researchers before entering long term storage; it is presently on static display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=176778 | 117,299 |
1,589,273 | Meanwhile, the success of Scylla I led to a number of potential development pathways that began to be explored during the early 1960s. In the short term, a set of minor improvements produced Scylla II, which was similar to the original but later upgraded from 35 kJ of capacitor power to 185. It came online in 1959, but was used only briefly while the much larger Scylla III was built and entered operation in late 1960. Early operations were successful and led quickly to the even larger Scylla IV, which began work in January 1963. Scylla IV produced excellent results, reaching 80 million Kelvin and 2 x 10 particle densities – well into the practical reactor region – and was producing billions of reactions per pulse. Unfortunately, the system also demonstrated very low confinement times, on the order of 2 microseconds, far too short for a practical reactor design. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70694704 | 1,588,379 |
832,644 | Rapid development in military technology had a dramatic impact on armies and navies in the industrialized world in 1740–1914. For land warfare, cavalry faded in importance, while infantry became transformed by the use of highly accurate more rapidly loading rifles, and the use of smokeless powder. Machine guns were developed in the 1860s in Europe. Rocket artillery and the Mysorean rockets, both pioneered by Indian Muslim Tipu Sultan, became more powerful as new high explosives (based on nitroglycerin) arrived during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, and the French introduced much more accurate rapid-fire field artillery. Logistics and communications support for land warfare dramatically improved with use of railways and telegraphs. Industrialization provided a base of factories that could be converted to produce munitions, as well as uniforms, tents, wagons and essential supplies. Medical facilities were enlarged and reorganized based on improved hospitals and the creation of modern nursing, typified by Florence Nightingale in Britain during the Crimean War of 1854–56. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=90815 | 832,195 |
1,023,007 | A power tower is a large tower surrounded by tracking mirrors called heliostats. These mirrors align themselves and focus sunlight on the receiver at the top of the tower, collected heat is transferred to a power station below. This design reaches very high temperatures. High temperatures are suitable for electricity generation using conventional methods like steam turbine or a direct high-temperature chemical reaction such as liquid salt. By concentrating sunlight, current systems can get better efficiency than simple solar cells. A larger area can be covered by using relatively inexpensive mirrors rather than using expensive solar cells. Concentrated light can be redirected to a suitable location via optical fiber cable for such uses as illuminating buildings. Heat storage for power production during cloudy and overnight conditions can be accomplished, often by underground tank storage of heated fluids. Molten salts have been used to good effect. Other working fluids, such as liquid metals, have also been proposed due to their superior thermal properties. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=772868 | 1,022,475 |
1,576,057 | SignAloud is a technology that incorporates a pair of gloves made by a group of students at University of Washington that transliterate American Sign Language (ASL) into English. In February 2015 Thomas Pryor, a hearing student from the University of Washington, created the first prototype for this device at Hack Arizona, a hackathon at the University of Arizona. Pryor continued to develop the invention and in October 2015, Pryor brought Navid Azodi onto the SignAloud project for marketing and help with public relations. Azodi has a rich background and involvement in business administration, while Pryor has a wealth of experience in engineering. In May 2016, the duo told NPR that they are working more closely with people who use ASL so that they can better understand their audience and tailor their product to the needs of these people rather than the assumed needs. However, no further versions have been released since then. The invention was one of seven to win the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which seeks to award and applaud young inventors. Their invention fell under the "Use it!" category of the award which includes technological advances to existing products. They were awarded $10,000. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53034622 | 1,575,168 |
296,941 | Planting new trees can be expensive and a risky investment as, for example, about 80 percent of planted trees in the Sahel die within two years. Instead, helping native species sprout naturally is cheaper and they are more likely to survive, with even long deforested areas still containing an "underground forest" of living roots and tree stumps. This could include pruning and coppicing to accelerate growth and this also provides woodfuel, which is otherwise a major source of deforestation. Such practices, called farmer-managed natural regeneration, are centuries old but the biggest obstacle towards implementation is the ownership of the trees by the state, who often sell timber rights to businesses. This leads to seedlings being uprooted by locals who saw them as a liability. Legal aid for locals and changes to property law such as in Mali and Niger has led to what has been called the largest positive environmental transformation in Africa, with it being possible to discern from space the border between Niger and the more barren land in Nigeria, where the law has not changed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2119179 | 296,781 |
315,249 | The PCR process generally consists of a series of temperature changes that are repeated 25–50 times. These cycles normally consist of three stages: the first, at around 95 °C, allows the separation of the nucleic acid's double chain; the second, at a temperature of around 50–60 °C, allows the binding of the primers with the DNA template; the third, at between 68 and 72 °C, facilitates the polymerization carried out by the DNA polymerase. Due to the small size of the fragments the last step is usually omitted in this type of PCR as the enzyme is able to replicate the DNA amplicon during the change between the alignment stage and the denaturing stage. In addition, in four-step PCR the fluorescence is measured during short temperature phases lasting only a few seconds in each cycle, with a temperature of, for example, 80 °C, in order to reduce the signal caused by the presence of primer dimers when a non-specific dye is used. The temperatures and the timings used for each cycle depend on a wide variety of parameters, such as: the enzyme used to synthesize the DNA, the concentration of divalent ions and deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs) in the reaction and the bonding temperature of the primers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3487107 | 315,080 |
855,028 | In the summer of 1847, Robert was invited to stand in the election for the Member of Parliament for Whitby and was elected unopposed; he continued as their MP for the rest of his life. He entered Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party, holding strong protectionist Tory views and opposed to free trade. His maiden speech was in favour of the Great Exhibition and, with Brunel, became one of the Commissioners. Robert spoke against educational reform, saying workmen needed only to learn how to do their jobs, although he made donations to educational organisations. In 1850, the pope appointed Bishop Wiseman as the first English Roman Catholic Cardinal since the Reformation; Robert wrote in a private letter that this was aggressive, saying that in the "battle as to the mere "form" in which the creator is to be worshiped the true spirit of Christianity is never allowed to appear." He later voiced strong opposition to the decision to become involved in Crimea but supported the government in January 1855, although the government lost the vote and the prime minister resigned. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=252957 | 854,573 |
630,278 | Studies have shown that meditation has both short-term and long-term effects on various perceptual faculties. In 1984 a study showed that meditators have a significantly lower detection threshold for light stimuli of short duration. In 2000 a study of the perception of visual illusions by zen masters, novice meditators, and non-meditators showed statistically significant effects found for the Poggendorff Illusion but not for the Müller-Lyer Illusion. The zen masters experienced a statistically significant reduction in initial illusion (measured as error in millimeters) and a lower decrement in illusion for subsequent trials. Tloczynski has described the theory of mechanism behind the changes in perception that accompany mindfulness meditation thus: "A person who meditates consequently perceives objects more as directly experienced stimuli and less as concepts… With the removal or minimization of cognitive stimuli and generally increasing awareness, meditation can therefore influence both the quality (accuracy) and quantity (detection) of perception." Brown points to this as a possible explanation of the phenomenon: "[the higher rate of detection of single light flashes] involves quieting some of the higher mental processes which normally obstruct the perception of subtle events." In other words, the practice may temporarily or permanently alter some of the top-down processing involved in filtering subtle events usually deemed noise by the perceptual filters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9578417 | 629,940 |
2,153,313 | Upon completing her Master's and Doctoral degree, Glymour became a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar in Social Epidemiology and subsequently joined the faculty at Harvard University. Her primary research interests focus on "how social factors experienced across the lifecourse, such as educational attainment and work environment, influence cognitive function, memory loss, stroke and other health outcomes in old age." In 2008, Glymour published an article in the "American Journal of Public Health" which found that elderly Americans who have an active social life may have a slower rate of memory decline. She was also the first author for an article titled "Spousal Smoking and Incidence of First Stroke: The Health and Retirement Study," which found that when one partner smokes, it leads to increased stroke risk for their spouse. In 2009, Glymour and her research team analyzed census data and mortality records regarding stroke deaths from 1980, 1990 and 2000 across the United States and concluded that geographic risk factors in childhood were the likely culprit for higher stroke mortality in certain regions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66428132 | 2,152,082 |
387,992 | The High Evolutionary's character has varied between that of a weary, well-meaning creator to that of a "mad scientist" who is willing to do whatever he considers necessary to further his goals of evolving a better, less-brutal world. He has great respect for the process of evolution, but is also deeply troubled by the immense amount of death and suffering required for such slow progress (see the "Quicksilver" series). Although menacing and arrogant during his maniacal phases, the High Evolutionary's history also contains more than one example of his desire to be responsible, creative, and kind. Most Marvel writers have resisted portraying him as a standard-fare villain, thereby adding levels of sympathy and complexity to the character. The High Evolutionary has been manipulated and driven to insanity by both the Beyonders and the Celestials, cosmic races that have interfered with human evolution in the past, indicating that his work might perhaps be a threat to their own. Even at his most unstable, the High Evolutionary has always demonstrated a paternal love toward even his most flawed creations: he rehabilitated Nobilus, has attempted to heal Count Tagar and the God Pack, and has spared the Man-Beast his life despite multiple attempts to murder him. At one point, he offered to (and did) restore the Savage Land after it was destroyed by Terminus, even though it had been created by the very race that had confiscated and then destroyed his own beloved creation, Counter-Earth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=703266 | 387,797 |
1,932,921 | Stevens' methodology in the investigation of speech sounds is organized into three steps. The first step is to use physics (mainly tube models) to model the shape of the articulators (e.g. the shapes of the front and back cavity, rounding or non-rounding of lips, etc). Based on the articulatory tube models, resonant frequencies can be calculated, which are the formant frequencies. Once the resonant frequencies are calculated, speech data are collected and analyzed to compare to theoretical calculations. This second stage is mainly experimental, where tokens of interest are usually recorded either in isolation, and/or embedded in a controlled carrier phrase, usually spoken by both several female/male native speakers of the language. The key to data collection is controlling for as many factors as possible so that the acoustic evidence of interest can be investigated with minimum amount of artifacts. The last stage in the investigation is to compare the data results with the theoretical predictions and to account for the differences that occur. Differences can sometimes be explained by the fact that tube models usually are simplified as to not account for loss due to softness of vocal walls (though resistors can be added to the theoretical model). Subglottal system might also affect the vocal tract productive system when the glottal opening is large (please see research on subglottal resonance on effects of speech). Theretical model predictions can give general predictions about what one can expect to find in real speech, and evidence from real speech can also help refine the original model, and give better insight to the production of speech sounds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4836189 | 1,931,813 |
309,665 | Melbourne hosted the Olympics in 1956. There were calls for the expulsion of the Soviet Union following their invasion of Hungary, but the International Olympic Committee decided not to pursue any action. As a result, some nations boycotted the games in protest of the Soviets' presence, and the Hungarians themselves became engaged in a violent brawl with their Soviet counterparts in a water polo game, an event that was instantly called Blood in the Water. The US performance at the games was relatively successful, though it was getting harder and harder to compete with the Soviet machine. As a result, the Americans earned 32 gold and 78 total medals (second place in the medal standings), 5 gold and 24 total medals less than the first-placed Soviets. The US contingent was particularly successful in track and field, where American athletes amassed 31 medals. On the other hand, the US won only 2 golds in swimming, being unable to stop the Australian domination of the swimming events at these games. In weightlifting, the Americans and Soviets once again won all seven events, once again with a 4 to 3 ratio in favor of the US team. In boxing, the Soviets won 3 golds, while the Americans only managed to win two events. However, it was gymnastics where the USSR achieved its greatest success, winning 11 out of 17 events and guaranteeing the first place in the medal rankings. The US basketball team won its fourth consecutive gold, beating the Soviets in the final game, 89–55. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2112059 | 309,500 |
403,361 | Although the RAF was working on its CAS doctrine in London, officers in North Africa improvised their own coordination techniques. In October 1941, Sir Arthur Tedder and Arthur Coningham, senior RAF commanders in North Africa, created joint RAF-Army Air Support Control staffs at each corps and armored division headquarters, and placed a Forward Air Support Link at each brigade to forward air support requests. When trained tentacle teams arrived in 1942, they cut response time on support requests to thirty minutes. It was also in the North Africa desert that the cab rank strategy was developed. It used a series of three aircraft, each in turn directed by the pertinent ground control by radio. One aircraft would be attacking, another in flight to the battle area, while a third was being refuelled and rearmed at its base. If the first attack failed to destroy the tactical target, the aircraft in flight would be directed to continue the attack. The first aircraft would land for its own refuelling and rearming once the third had taken off. The CAS tactics developed and refined by the British during the campaign in North Africa served as the basis for the Allied system used to subsequently gain victory in the air over Germany in 1944 and devastate its cities and industries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=600792 | 403,161 |
786,818 | Membrane filtration is the method of choice for the analysis of fecal coliforms in water. Samples to be tested are passed through a filter of particular pore size (generally 0.45 micrometre). The microorganisms present in the water remain on the filter surface. The filter is placed in a sterile Petri dish with a selective medium, growth of the desired organisms is encouraged, while other non-target organisms is suppressed. Each cell develops into a separate colony, which can be counted directly, and the initial inoculum size can be determined. Typically sample volumes of 100 ml will be used for water testing and filtered, with the goal of achieving a final desirable colony density range of 20 to 60 colonies per filter. Contaminated sources may require dilution to achieve a "countable" membrane. The filter is placed on a Petri dish containing M-FC agar and incubated for 24 hours at 44.5 °C (112.1 degrees F). This elevated temperature heat shocks non-fecal bacteria and suppresses their growth. As the fecal coliform colonies grow they produce an acid (through fermenting lactose) that reacts with the aniline dye in the agar thus giving the colonies their blue color. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1708619 | 786,395 |
200,114 | DNP is considered to have high acute toxicity. In March 2020 a UK judge stated "there is no antidote or remedy for DNP once taken. In consequence, DNP has a high mortality rate — of those who presented at hospital between 2007 and 2019 with a history of having taken DNP, 18% died. This puts DNP close to cyanide in terms of its toxicity." The study published in 2021 indicates that the worldwide cases fatality overall was 11.9% between 2010 and 2020. Other than increasing metabolic rate, acute oral exposure to DNP has resulted in nausea, vomiting, sweating, dizziness, headache, and loss of weight. Chronic oral exposure to DNP can lead to the formation of cataracts and skin lesions and has caused effects on the bone marrow, central nervous system, and cardiovascular system. Contact with skin or inhalation can cause DNP poisoning. In 2009, an incident occurred in a Chinese chemical factory and 20 persons suffered acute DNP poisoning. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=948020 | 200,011 |
861,661 | Thus, Sartre rejects what he calls "deterministic excuses" and claims that people must take responsibility for their behavior. Sartre defines anguish as the emotion that people feel once they realize that they are responsible not just for themselves, but for all humanity. Anguish leads people to realize that their actions guide humanity and allows them to make judgments about others based on their attitude towards freedom. Nevertheless, "It is not the will that gives value to the possibility. Valuation depends on me, that’s true, but not on my will. It depends on my project, that is to say, on how I perceive the world, how I experience it." Anguish is also associated with Sartre's notion of despair, which he defines as optimistic reliance on a set of possibilities that make action possible. Sartre claims that "In fashioning myself, I fashion Man.", saying that the individual's action will affect and shape mankind. The being-for-itself uses despair to embrace freedom and take meaningful action in full acceptance of whatever consequences may arise as a result. He also describes abandonment as the loneliness that atheists feel when they realize that there is no God to prescribe a way of life, no guidance for people on how to live; that we're abandoned in the sense of being alone in the universe and the arbiters of our own essence. "There is a contingency of human existence. It is a condemnation of their being. Their being is not determined, so it is up to everyone to create their own existence, for which they are then responsible. They cannot not be free, there is a form of necessity for freedom, which can never be given up." Sartre closes his work by emphasizing that existentialism, as it is a philosophy of action and one's defining oneself, is optimistic and liberating. "Sartre offers a description of human beings as a project and as a commitment." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=176841 | 861,202 |
193,078 | Like bryozoans and phoronids, brachiopods have a lophophore, a crown of tentacles whose cilia (fine hairs) create a water current that enables them to filter food particles out of the water. However a bryozoan or phoronid lophophore is a ring of tentacles mounted on a single, retracted stalk, while the basic form of the brachiopod lophophore is U-shaped, forming the brachia ("arms") from which the phylum gets its name. Brachiopod lophophores are non-retractable and occupy up to two-thirds of the internal space, in the frontmost area where the valves gape when opened. To provide enough filtering capacity in this restricted space, lophophores of larger brachiopods are folded in moderately to very complex shapes—loops and coils are common, and some species' lophophores contort into a shape resembling a hand with the fingers splayed. In all species the lophophore is supported by cartilage and by a hydrostatic skeleton (in other words, by the pressure of its internal fluid), and the fluid extends into the tentacles. Some articulate brachiopods also have a brachidium, a calcareous support for the lophophore attached to the inside of the brachial valve, which have led to an extremely reduced lophophoral muscles and the reduction of some brachial nerves. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19827372 | 192,978 |
799,222 | In October 1869, shortly after attending courses in Heidelberg, she visited London with Vladimir, who spent time with his colleagues Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin, while she was invited to attend George Eliot's Sunday salons. There, at age nineteen, she met Herbert Spencer and was led into a debate, at Eliot's instigation, on "woman's capacity for abstract thought". Although there is no record of the details of their conversation, she had just completed a lecture course in Heidelberg on mechanics, and she may just possibly have made mention of the Euler equations governing the motion of a rigid body (see following section). George Eliot was writing "Middlemarch" at the time, in which one finds the remarkable sentence: "In short, woman was a problem which, since Mr. Brooke's mind felt blank before it, could hardly be less complicated than the revolutions of an irregular solid." This was well before she made her notable contribution of the "Kovalevskaya top" to the brief list of known examples of integrable rigid body motion (see following section). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=105587 | 798,797 |
73,081 | A hypothesis published in 2014 posits that a genus of anaerobic methanogenic archaea known as "Methanosarcina" was responsible for the event. Three lines of evidence suggest that these microbes acquired a new metabolic pathway via gene transfer at about that time, enabling them to efficiently metabolize acetate into methane. That would have led to their exponential reproduction, allowing them to rapidly consume vast deposits of organic carbon that had accumulated in the marine sediment. The result would have been a sharp buildup of methane and carbon dioxide in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere, in a manner that may be consistent with the C/C isotopic record. Massive volcanism facilitated this process by releasing large amounts of nickel, a scarce metal which is a cofactor for enzymes involved in producing methane. On the other hand, in the canonical Meishan sections, the nickel concentration increases somewhat after the concentrations have begun to fall. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24749 | 73,054 |
134,140 | Managing levels was a particular challenge, and a source of controversy regarding the Biosphere 2 project's alleged misrepresentation to the public. Daily fluctuation of carbon dioxide dynamics was typically 600 ppm because of the strong drawdown during sunlight hours by plant photosynthesis, followed by a similar rise during the nighttime when system respiration dominated. As expected, there was also a strong seasonal signature to levels, with wintertime levels as high as 4,000–4,500 ppm and summertime levels near 1,000 ppm. The crew worked to manage the by occasionally turning on a scrubber, activating and de-activating the desert and savannah through control of irrigation water, cutting and storing biomass to sequester carbon, and utilizing all potential planting areas with fast-growing species to increase system photosynthesis. In November 1991, investigative reporting in "The Village Voice" alleged that the crew had secretly installed the scrubber device, and claimed that this violated Biosphere 2's advertised goal of recycling all materials naturally. Others pointed out there was nothing secret about the carbon dioxide device and it constituted another technical system augmenting ecological processes. The carbon precipitator could reverse the chemical reactions and thus release the stored carbon dioxide in later years when the facility might need additional carbon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=216362 | 134,085 |
1,229,592 | Biofluorescence describes the absorption of ultraviolet or visible light and the sub sequential emission of photons at a lower energy level (S_1 excited state relaxes to S_0 ground state) by intrinsically fluorescent proteins or by synthetic fluorescent molecules covalently attached to a biomarker of interest. Biomarkers are molecules indicative or disease or distress and are a typically monitored systemically in a living organism, or by using an "ex vivo" tissue sample for microscopy, or "in vitro": in the blood, urine, sweat, saliva, interstitial fluid, aqueous humor, or sputum. Stimulating light excites an electron, raising energy to an unstable level. This instability is unfavorable, so the energized electron is returned to a stable state almost as immediately as it becomes unstable. The time delay between excitation and re-emission that occurs when returning to the stable ground state causes the photon that is re-emitted to be a different color (i.e. it relaxes to a lower energy and thus the photon emitted is at a shorter wavelength, as governed by the Plank-Einstein relationformula_1) than the excitation light that was absorbed. This return to stability corresponds with the release of excess energy in the form of fluorescent light. This emission of light is only observable whilst the excitation light is still providing photons to the fluorescent molecule and is typically excited by blue or green light and emits purple, yellow, orange, green, cyan, or red. Biofluorescence is often confused with the following forms of biotic light: bioluminescence and biophosphorescence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=407292 | 1,228,930 |
987,273 | Examples of where engineering management consulting might be used include developing and leading a company wide business transformation initiative, or designing and implementing a new product development process, designing and implementing a manufacturing engineering process, including an automated assembly workstation. Management engineers may specialize in the acquisition and implementation of Computer aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and Computer-aided engineering (CAE) applications. Services may include strategizing for various operational logistics, new product introductions, or consulting as an efficiency expert. It may include using management science techniques to develop a new financial algorithm or loan system for a bank, streamlining operation and emergency room location or usage in a hospital, planning complex distribution schemes for materials or products (referred to as Supply Chain Management), and shortening lines (or queues) at a bank, hospital, or a theme park. Management engineering consultants typically use computer simulation (especially discrete event simulation), along with extensive mathematical tools and modeling and computational methods for system analysis, evaluation, and optimization. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=551388 | 986,757 |
557,265 | Oliphant then met with the Uranium Committee at its meeting in New York on 26 August 1941. Samuel K. Allison, a new member of the committee, was an experimental physicist and a protégé of Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago. He recalled that Oliphant "came to a meeting and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb, and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost 25 million dollars, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us." Allison was surprised that Briggs had kept the committee in the dark. Oliphant then travelled to Berkeley, where he met his friend Lawrence on 23 September, giving him a copy of the Frisch–Peierls memorandum. Lawrence had Robert Oppenheimer check the figures, bringing him into the project for the first time. Oliphant found another ally in Oppenheimer, and he not only managed to convince Lawrence and Oppenheimer that an atomic bomb was feasible, but inspired Lawrence to convert his cyclotron into a giant mass spectrometer for electromagnetic isotope separation, a technique Oliphant had pioneered in 1934. Leo Szilard later wrote, "if Congress knew the true history of the atomic energy project, I have no doubt but that it would create a special medal to be given to meddling foreigners for distinguished services, and that Dr Oliphant would be the first to receive one." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=315710 | 556,976 |
1,287,399 | The blood glucose can usually be raised to normal within minutes with 15–20 grams of carbohydrate, although overtreatment should be avoided if at all possible. It can be taken as food or drink if the person is conscious and able to swallow. This amount of carbohydrate is contained in about 3–4 ounces (100–120 mL) of orange, apple, or grape juice, about 4–5 ounces (120–150 mL) of regular (non-diet) soda, about one slice of bread, about 4 crackers, or about 1 serving of most starchy foods. Starch is quickly digested to glucose, but adding fat or protein retards digestion. Composition of the treatment should be considered, as fruit juice is typically higher in fructose which takes the body longer to metabolize than simple dextrose alone. Following treatment, symptoms should begin to improve within 5 to 10 minutes, although full recovery may take 10–20 minutes. Overtreatment does not speed recovery, and will simply produce hyperglycemia afterwards, which ultimately will need to be corrected. On the other hand, since the excess of insulin over the amount required to normalize blood sugar may continue to reduce blood sugar levels after treatment has produced an initial normalization, continued monitoring is required to determine if further treatment is necessary. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1763662 | 1,286,698 |
620,394 | Constructive solid geometry (CSG) is a family of schemes for representing rigid solids as Boolean constructions or combinations of primitives via the regularized set operations discussed above. CSG and boundary representations are currently the most important representation schemes for solids. CSG representations take the form of ordered binary trees where non-terminal nodes represent either rigid transformations (orientation preserving isometries) or regularized set operations. Terminal nodes are primitive leaves that represent closed regular sets. The semantics of CSG representations is clear. Each subtree represents a set resulting from applying the indicated transformations/regularized set operations on the set represented by the primitive leaves of the subtree. CSG representations are particularly useful for capturing design intent in the form of features corresponding to material addition or removal (bosses, holes, pockets etc.). The attractive properties of CSG include conciseness, guaranteed validity of solids, computationally convenient Boolean algebraic properties, and natural control of a solid's shape in terms of high level parameters defining the solid's primitives and their positions and orientations. The relatively simple data structure and elegant recursive algorithms have further contributed to the popularity of CSG. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=457579 | 620,079 |
1,139,184 | Worldwide, the L-5 was the first guitar to feature f-holes. Then as well as today, the construction of the L-5 is similar in construction, carving, bracing and tap-tuning, to building a cello. This guitar as well as the cello are similarly designed in order to amplify and project the acoustic vibration of strings throughout carved and tuned woods, using f-holes as the projection points. From 1922 to 1934 the L-5 was produced with a 16" lower bout width. In 1934 the lower bout was increased to 17" - and this width is still used today. Also released in 1934 was the one-inch larger 18" archtop guitar named the "L5 Super" which a couple of years later was renamed the Gibson Super 400. These two master-built acoustic guitars are Gibson's top-of-the-line carved wood and highly ornate archtop instruments. These guitars cannot be constructed quickly and require unusual attention to detail, resulting in a higher price. The time, skilled workmanship and materials used in these builds has been delivered non-stop for the past 90+ years. Since the 1930s there have been several other 17" archtops designed by Gibson, including variations introduced as more affordable, less ornately decorated models - these were introduced to consider the budgets of musicians. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1348717 | 1,138,591 |
143,143 | The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species describes the conservation status as of 'least concern' in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, broad range of habitats, and likely slow rate of decline though it acknowledges the population to be decreasing. Reduction in habitat for a variety of reasons, fragmentation of populations in Europe due to intense agriculture practices, and collection for the pet trade or for venom extraction have been recorded as major contributing factors for its decline. A citizen science based survey in the UK found evidence of extensive population declines in the UK, especially affecting smaller populations. A combination of public pressure and disturbance, habitat fragmentation and poor habitat management were considered the most likely causes of the decline. The release of 47 million non-native pheasants and 10 million partridges each year by countryside estates has also been suggested to have a significant impact on adder populations across the UK, with the possibility the reptile could be extinct within 12 years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=897576 | 143,085 |
221,140 | In 1926, a regular connection of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris, Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or, by Southern Railway and French Northern Railway, began. For transport of passengers' baggage four containers were used. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in the UK and "CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL" in France. At the Second World Motor Transport Congress in Rome, September 1928, Italian senator Silvio Crespi proposed the use of containers for road and railway transport systems, using collaboration rather than competition. This would be done under the auspices of an international organ similar to the Sleeping Car Company, which provided international carriage of passengers in sleeping wagons. In 1928 Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) started regular container service in the northeast US. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York and the subsequent Great Depression, many countries were without any means to transport cargo. The railroads were sought as a possibility to transport cargo, and there was an opportunity to bring containers into broader use. In February 1931 the first container ship was launched. It was called the Autocarrier, owned by Southern Railway UK. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway.<ref name="S/S AUTOCARRIER"></ref> Under auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in Venice on September 30, 1931, on one of the platforms of the Maritime Station (Mole di Ponente), practical tests assessed the best construction for European containers as part of an international competition. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50387 | 221,031 |
203,361 | Astrocytes are macroglial cells in the central nervous system. Astrocytes are derived from heterogeneous populations of progenitor cells in the neuroepithelium of the developing central nervous system. There is remarkable similarity between the well known genetic mechanisms that specify the lineage of diverse neuron subtypes and that of macroglial cells. Just as with neuronal cell specification, canonical signaling factors like sonic hedgehog (SHH), fibroblast growth factor (FGFs), WNTs and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), provide positional information to developing macroglial cells through morphogen gradients along the dorsal–ventral, anterior–posterior and medial–lateral axes. The resultant patterning along the neuraxis leads to segmentation of the neuroepithelium into progenitor domains (p0, p1 p2, p3 and pMN) for distinct neuron types in the developing spinal cord. On the basis of several studies it is now believed that this model also applies to macroglial cell specification. Studies carried out by Hochstim and colleagues have demonstrated that three distinct populations of astrocytes arise from the p1, p2 and p3 domains. These subtypes of astrocytes can be identified on the basis of their expression of different transcription factors (PAX6, NKX6.1) and cell surface markers (reelin and SLIT1). The three populations of astrocyte subtypes which have been identified are 1) dorsally located VA1 astrocytes, derived from p1 domain, express PAX6 and reelin 2) ventrally located VA3 astrocytes, derived from p3, express NKX6.1 and SLIT1 and 3) and intermediate white-matter located VA2 astrocyte, derived from the p2 domain, which express PAX6, NKX6.1, reelin and SLIT1. After astrocyte specification has occurred in the developing CNS, it is believed that astrocyte precursors migrate to their final positions within the nervous system before the process of terminal differentiation occurs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1024090 | 203,257 |
2,126,316 | The second major application of pharmacometabolomics is the analysis of a patient's metabolic profile following the administration of a specific therapy. This process is often secondary to a pre-treatment metabolic analysis, allowing for the comparison of pre- and post-treatment metabolite concentrations. This allows for the identification of the metabolic processes and pathways that are being altered by the treatment either intentionally as a designated target of the compound, or unintentionally as a side effect. Furthermore, the concentration and variety of metabolites produced from the compound itself can also be identified, providing information on the rate of metabolism and potentially leading to development of a related compound with increased efficacy or decreased side effects. An example of this approach was used to investigate the effect of several antipsychotic drugs on lipid metabolism in patients treated for schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that these antipsychotic drugs may be altering lipid metabolism in treated patients with schizophrenia, contributing to the weight gain and hypertriglyceridemia. The study monitored lipid metabolites in patients both before and after treatment with antipsychotics. The compiled pre- and post-treatment profiles were then be compared to examine the effect of these compounds on lipid metabolism. The researchers found correlations between treatment with antipsychotic drugs and lipid metabolism, in both a lipid-class-specific and drug-specific manner, establishing new foundations around the concept that pharmacometabolomics provides powerful tools for enabling detailed mapping of drug effects. Additional studies by the Pharmacometabolomics Research Network enabled mapping in ways not possible before effects of statins, atenolol and aspirin. Totally new insights were gained about effect of these drugs on metabolism and they highlighted pathways implicated in response and side effects. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34939027 | 2,125,095 |
105,006 | The definition of a genetically modified organism (GMO) is not clear and varies widely between countries, international bodies, and other communities. At its broadest, the definition of a GMO can include anything that has had its genes altered, including by nature. Taking a less broad view, it can encompass every organism that has had its genes altered by humans, which would include all crops and livestock. In 1993, the "Encyclopedia Britannica" defined genetic engineering as "any of a wide range of techniques ... among them artificial insemination, "in vitro" fertilization ("e.g.", 'test-tube' babies), sperm banks, cloning, and gene manipulation." The European Union (EU) included a similarly broad definition in early reviews, specifically mentioning GMOs being produced by "selective breeding and other means of artificial selection" These definitions were promptly adjusted with a number of exceptions added as the result of pressure from scientific and farming communities, as well as developments in science. The EU definition later excluded traditional breeding, in vitro fertilization, induction of polyploidy, mutation breeding, and cell fusion techniques that do not use recombinant nucleic acids or a genetically modified organism in the process. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12339 | 104,961 |
2,048,633 | "Etheostoma simoterum atripinne" reaches sexual maturity in about one year and only survives for a breeding season (maximum life expectancy is about 18 months), which occurs in April to early May. Leading up to the breeding season, males develop bright colors, and by April, all males are deep green to blue-green in color with red-orange dorsal fins and red spots along their bodies. In fact, descriptions of species in the "E. simoterum" complex of snubnose darters, a group of six teleost freshwater fish species, are based largely on male nuptial coloration. Females do not appear to change in color during breeding. Males court females by erecting their fins and displaying their brilliant colors. A courtship is successful if the female leads the male to a sometimes preselected site, such as a large gravel bed, for egg deposition. Spawning is generally spread out over several spawning sites. After spawning, no parental care for the fertilized eggs is given, as they are left unguarded. However, current research indicates the evolution of a greater degree of parental care pertaining to males guarding the eggs in darters such as "E. atripinne". Fully matured eggs are transparent, contain oil droplets for buoyancy, and are an average of 1.2 mm in diameter. The number of eggs a female lays ranges from 110 to 240. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32562345 | 2,047,452 |
1,397,808 | To support the RS/6000 and RS/6000 SP2 product lines in 1996, IBM had its own design team implement a single-chip version of POWER2, the P2SC ("POWER2 Super Chip"), outside the Apple/IBM/Motorola alliance in IBM's most advanced and dense CMOS-6S process. P2SC combined all of the separate POWER2 instruction cache, fixed point, floating point, storage control, and data cache chips onto one huge die. At the time of its introduction, P2SC was the largest and highest transistor count processor in the industry. Despite the challenge of its size, complexity, and advanced CMOS process, the first tape-out version of the processor was able to be shipped, and it had leadership floating point performance at the time it was announced. P2SC was the processor used in the 1997 IBM Deep Blue chess playing supercomputer which beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. With its twin sophisticated MAF floating point units and huge wide and low latency memory interfaces, P2SC was primarily targeted at engineering and scientific applications. P2SC was eventually succeeded by the POWER3, which included 64-bit, SMP capability, and a full transition to PowerPC in addition to P2SC's sophisticated twin MAF floating point units. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38905529 | 1,397,035 |
554,119 | The fundraising campaign to raise US$200 million from foreign sources, in addition to Schwarzman's $100 million donation to the program, was also simultaneously launched at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Shortly after in fall of 2013, Oxford University's Rhodes House announced the launch of its own Second Century Campaign, led by a new founder John McCall MacBain with a goal to increase their endowment from 100 million GBP (then US$150 million) to at least 250 million GBP (then US$375 million), leading to a fundraising competition between Tsinghua and Oxford. In spring 2014, Peking University, Tsinghua's chief rival, announced its own global scholarship program, the Yenching Scholars at Yenching Academy, further increasing competition for funding. In summer 2014, Tsinghua University announced it had reached its original fundraising goal and that it would increase it to US$350 million. In 2014, when the program first launched its admissions process, Tsinghua's Schwarzman had already raised US$333 million for its endowment fund. Shortly after a third target of US$400 million, to be reached by the following year, was announced. Commenting on the fundraising competition, Schwarzman remarked:"The Rhodes scholarships and Schwarzman Scholars programs have similar endowments and fund-raising goals. Which one is ahead in any given week depends mainly on the exchange rate of the pound, which has weakened lately against the dollar."Meanwhile, it became clear that the Yenching Academy at Peking University would be funded through Chinese private donations and government grants, which set off competition to further grow the two programs' endowments. As a result of the increased competition among full-scholarship leadership programs, there was a marked growth in fundraising, with the endowments moving towards a half billion USD each. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39174296 | 553,830 |
583,976 | Marine survey acquisition is not just limited to seismic vessels; it is also possible to lay cables of geophones and hydrophones on the sea bed in a similar way to how cables are used in a land seismic survey, and use a separate source vessel. This method was originally developed out of operational necessity in order to enable seismic surveys to be conducted in areas with obstructions, such as production platforms, without having the compromise the resultant image quality. Ocean bottom cables (OBC) are also extensively used in other areas that a seismic vessel cannot be used, for example in shallow marine (water depth <300m) and transition zone environments, and can be deployed by remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) in deep water when repeatability is valued (see 4D, below). Conventional OBC surveys use dual-component receivers, combining a pressure sensor (hydrophone) and a vertical particle velocity sensor (vertical geophone), but more recent developments have expanded the method to use four-component sensors i.e. a hydrophone and three orthogonal geophones. Four-component sensors have the advantage of being able to also record shear waves, which do not travel through water but can still contain valuable information. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=676418 | 583,677 |
241,890 | An office was set up for Salam in the Prime Ministers' Secretariat by order of Bhutto. Salam immediately started to motivate and invite scientists to begin work with PAEC in the development of fission weapons. In December 1972, two theoretical physicists working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics were asked by Salam to report to Munir Ahmad Khan, the scientific director of the program. This marked the beginning of the TPG, reporting directly to Salam. The TPG, in PAEC, was assigned to conduct research in fast neutron calculations, hydrodynamics (how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave), problems of neutron diffusion, and the development of theoretical designs of Pakistan's nuclear weapon devices. Later, the TPG under Riazuddin began to directly report to Salam, and the work on the theoretical design of the nuclear weapon was completed in 1977. In 1972, Salam formed the Mathematical Physics Group, under Raziuddin Siddiqui, that was charged, with TPG, with carrying out research in the theory of simultaneity during the detonation process, and the mathematics involved in the theory of nuclear fission. Following India's surprise nuclear test —Pokhran-I – in 1974, Munir Ahmad Khan had called a meeting to initiate work on an atomic bomb. Salam was there and Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi was appointed head of the Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) in PAEC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=304427 | 241,764 |
2,023,194 | UMass has been arguably the ECWHL's top team since Penn State's re-entry through the Women's Ice Hockey Club, with league playoff titles and ACHA tournament bids in 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17. Still, PSU has managed a pair of overtime wins against the Minutewomen in twelve regular season meetings. The first was on the strength of Mendelson's winner on January 10, 2015, with the 2–1 victory against then-fifth-ranked UMass a hefty pillar in the Lady Ice Lions' case for eventual inclusion in the 2015 ACHA National Tournament. Almost exactly one year later, on January 9, 2016, and with the Minutewomen again holding down the five spot in the ACHA rankings, Darian Dempsey provided the knockout punch in a 4–3 contest that saw PSU come back from a 3–1 deficit. Liz Tuorinsky forced the extra period on a blast from the point with 1:46 left in regulation. UMass, however, took the other ends of each of those series at Pegula Ice Arena in narrow decisions and has won each of the six games played at their home William D. Mullins Center. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51386378 | 2,022,030 |
436,838 | Pareiasaurs had long been thought to be terrestrial, but it is difficult to assess their range of locomotion given the lack of modern anatomical analogues. In 1987, Ivakhnenko hypothesised that they were aquatic or amphibious due to the deep and low-lying pectoral girdle, short but engorged limbs, and thick cartilage on the limb joints, which are reminiscent of the aquatic dugong. Subsequent studies—including stable isotope analyses and footprint analyses—on various African and Eurasian remains have all reported results consistent with terrestrial behavior. Caseids have a broadly similar build to pareiasaurs, and possibly exhibited the same locomotory habits. Both have thin, porous long bones which is consistent with modern diving creatures, but the overall heavy torso would impede such a behavior. Nonetheless, similarly graviportal creatures have much thicker long bones. In 2016, zoologist Markus Lambertz and colleagues, based on the thin bones and short neck unsuited for reaching low-lying plants, suggested that caseids were predominantly aquatic and only came ashore during brief intervals. Overall, anatomical evidence seems to be at direct odds with isotopic evidence; it is possible that bone anatomy was more related to the animal's weight than its lifestyle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4462232 | 436,624 |
131,536 | The USAF announced the CFM56 as the winner of the re-engine contract in January 1980. Officials indicated that they were excited at the prospect of replacing the Pratt & Whitney J57 engines currently flying on the KC-135A aircraft, calling them "...the noisiest, dirtiest, [and] most fuel inefficient powerplant still flying" at the time. The re-engined aircraft was designated the KC-135R. The CFM56 brought many benefits to the KC-135, decreasing takeoff distance by as much as 3,500 ft (1,100 m), decreasing overall fuel usage by 25%, greatly reducing noise (24 dB lower) and lowering total life cycle cost. With those benefits in mind, the United States Navy selected the CFM56-2 to power their variant of the Boeing 707, the E-6 Mercury, in 1982. In 1984 the Royal Saudi Air Force selected the CFM56-2 to power their E-3 Sentry aircraft (also related to the 707 airframe). The CFM56-2-powered E-3 also became the standard configuration for aircraft purchased by the British and French. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=437326 | 131,484 |
800,726 | Algorithmic bias has been cited in cases ranging from election outcomes to the spread of online hate speech. It has also arisen in criminal justice, healthcare, and hiring, compounding existing racial, socioeconomic, and gender biases. The relative inability of facial recognition technology to accurately identify darker-skinned faces has been linked to multiple wrongful arrests of black men, an issue stemming from imbalanced datasets. Problems in understanding, researching, and discovering algorithmic bias persist due to the proprietary nature of algorithms, which are typically treated as trade secrets. Even when full transparency is provided, the complexity of certain algorithms poses a barrier to understanding their functioning. Furthermore, algorithms may change, or respond to input or output in ways that cannot be anticipated or easily reproduced for analysis. In many cases, even within a single website or application, there is no single "algorithm" to examine, but a network of many interrelated programs and data inputs, even between users of the same service. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55817338 | 800,299 |
1,585,113 | In the early days of the railway, locomotives were built with more and more axles in order the meet the increasingly heavy loads of goods trains. In order not to overstress the tracks, axle loads were often restricted, initially to 16 tonnes, occasionally to 18 tonnes and later usually to 20 tonnes. A ten-coupled locomotive had to weigh no more than 100 tonnes plus whatever tonnage the leading and trailing wheels could support. The heavier a locomotive is, the more surface pressure it places on the wheels and the more it can haul. But as more and more axles are added, curve running becomes increasingly difficult. So early on, work began to develop multi-part frames and bogies which linked sets of axles to their own drive. However driving wheels within bogies using steam was a difficult task due to the moving seals that were required. As a result, a different avenue of development was pursued, whereby a degree of smooth curve running could be achieved using a long, rigid frame through the use, for example, of axles that had sufficient sideways play. The Gölsdorf axle system avoided the need for complicated construction methods like that of Mallet locomotives. It was in effect an artifice enabling locomotives to retain a long, rigid frame (without articulation or bogies), yet whose individual axles could be better aligned when curve running. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21315079 | 1,584,222 |
318,223 | Early estimates of the diameter of Vesta ranged from in 1825, to . E.C. Pickering produced an estimated diameter of in 1879, which is close to the modern value for the mean diameter, but the subsequent estimates ranged from a low of up to a high of during the next century. The measured estimates were based on photometry. In 1989, speckle interferometry was used to measure a dimension that varied between during the rotational period. In 1991, an occultation of the star SAO 93228 by Vesta was observed from multiple locations in the eastern United States and Canada. Based on observations from 14 different sites, the best fit to the data was an elliptical profile with dimensions of about . "Dawn" confirmed this measurement. These measurements will help determine the thermal history, size of the core, role of water in asteroid evolution and what meteorites found on Earth come from these bodies, with the ultimate goal of understanding the conditions and processes present at the solar system's earliest epoch and the role of water content and size in planetary evolution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47200 | 318,052 |
305,998 | During the mid-1950s, more difficult market conditions followed the peak demand of the dieselization era. The 1950s saw collapse in the positions of all of EMD's established competitors and the strong emergence of a new one, the General Electric Company. Lima-Hamilton failed first, in 1951 merging with Baldwin to form Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. Baldwin's own position was precarious, with their market share dwindling until they left the locomotive business in 1956. Fairbanks-Morse, after struggling to maintain a foothold in the industry with their opposed piston marine powerplant, left the locomotive field in 1963. General Electric dissolved the ALCO-GE partnership in the wake of ALCO's lackluster efforts at developing reliable higher-powered engines, and took over the ALCO-GE gas-turbine-electric venture in 1953. In 1956 GE was marketing its own Universal series Cooper-Bessemer powered diesel-electrics as export locomotives. ALCO's belated introduction of improved locomotive power in 1956 provided the company little benefit; they no longer had the marketing, financing, or service support of GE and the GP9 was a formidable competitor in the saturated domestic market. In 1960 the U25B was the first of GE's road locomotives powered by their FDL-16 diesel engine, which would rapidly displace ALCO's position and eventually displace EMD's position in the domestic market. Competition from the two giants with large capital resources overwhelmed ALCO until they went out of business in 1969. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1968562 | 305,834 |
348,879 | Since 1991, the year the Gulf War ended, veterans and their families voiced concern about subsequent health problems. In 1999, an assessment of the first 1,000 veterans involved in the Ministry of Defence's Gulf War medical assessment programme found "no evidence" of a single illness, physical or mental, that would explain the pattern of symptoms observed in the group. Nevertheless, in 1999, MEDACT petitioned for the WHO to conduct an investigation into illnesses in veterans and Iraqi civilians. A major 2006 review of peer-reviewed literature by a US Institute of Medicine committee concluded that, "[b]ecause the symptoms vary greatly among individuals", they do not point to a syndrome unique to Gulf War veterans, though their report conceded that the lack of objective pre-deployment health data meant definitive conclusions were effectively impossible. Simon Wessely praised the IOM's review, and noted that, despite its central conclusion that no novel syndrome existed, its other findings made it "equally clear that service in the Gulf war did aversely affect health in some personnel". Aside from the lack of baseline data to guide analysis of the veterans' postwar health, because no detailed health screening was carried out when the veterans entered service, another major stumbling block with some studies, like the thousand-veteran one, is that the subjects are self-selected, rather than a random sample, making general conclusions impossible. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37514 | 348,697 |
1,111,078 | Phytoliths occur abundantly in the fossil record, and have been reported from the Late Devonian onwards. Robustness of phytoliths make them available to be found in various remains including sedimentary deposits, coprolites, and dental calculus from diverse environmental conditions. In addition to reconstructing human-plant interactions since the Pleistocene, phytoliths can be used to identify palaeoenvironments and to track vegetational change. More and more studies are acknowledging phytolith records as a valuable tool for reconstructing pre-Quaternary vegetation changes (e.g.,). Occasionally, paleontologists find and identify phytoliths associated with extinct plant-eating animals (i.e. herbivores). Findings such as these reveal useful information about the diet of these extinct animals, and also shed light on the evolutionary history of many different types of plants. Paleontologists in India have recently identified grass phytoliths in dinosaur dung (coprolites), strongly suggesting that the evolution of grasses began earlier than previously thought. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2225215 | 1,110,512 |
647,579 | The J8M took to the air for its first powered flight on 7 July 1945, with Lieutenant Commander Toyohiko Inuzuka at the controls; after his "sharp start" rocket-powered takeoff, Inuzuka successfully jettisoned the dolly upon becoming airborne and began to gain speed, climbing skywards at a 45° angle. At an altitude of , the engine stopped abruptly and the J8M1 stalled. Inuzuka managed to glide the aircraft back, but clipped a small building at the edge of the airfield while trying to land, causing the aircraft to burst into flames. Inuzuka died the next day. While Mitsubishi and naval technicians sought to find the cause of the accident, all future flights were grounded. The engine cutout had occurred because the angle of climb, coupled with the fuel tanks being half-filled for this first flight, caused a shifting of the fuel, which in turn caused an auto cutout device to activate because of an air lock in the fuel line. Requests to continue flight testing were denied pending the modification of the fuel pumps in the aircraft. The sixth and seventh prototypes were to be fitted with the modified Ro.2 engine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=460022 | 647,239 |
739,946 | The Colt Model 750 was an improvement of the basic principle of the Colt LMG, developed jointly by Colt and Diemaco with an eye to Canadian Army sales. The improved version featured all A2 parts and is essentially the same as the preceding variant externally except for the redesigned vertical foregrip, now of a ribbed straight cylindrical style. This weapon was marketed by Diemaco as the C7 Light Support Weapon (LSW) or simply as the LSW. The Netherlands Marine Corps designate it as "LOAW" ("licht ondersteunend automatisch wapen"/light supporting automatic weapon) and the Danish military as "LSV M/04". The LSWs used by the Netherlands Marine Corps and the Danish military like many M16 variants fire from a closed bolt and feature semi-automatic and fully automatic firing modes and a forward assist. With its 5.42 kg (14.5 lbs) the C7 LSW is relatively light and as it uses 5.56×45mm NATO ammunition fed from STANAG magazines, like assault rifles and carbines that are fed in the same way, ammunition is easy to redistribute between riflemen if the operator runs out of ammunition. The lack of belt feed and quick barrel change options limits the C7 LSW and similar magazine fed light support weapon's rapid rates of fire. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3352016 | 739,554 |
467,799 | The first UN peacekeeping mission was a team of observers deployed to the Middle East in 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The mission was officially authorized on May 29, 1948. This date is used as a memorial day to all the UN peacekeepers who have died known as the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. The group, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), as it was named, continues to monitor the situation and has provided observers for a number of conflicts in the region since then. In 1949, observers were deployed to the border of India and Pakistan in a similar mission after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 (UNMOGIP). They also continue to monitor the border. In 1950, the UN faced one of its greatest early challenges when North Korea invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. The Soviet Union was, at the time, boycotting the UN in protest over the Chinese seat being occupied by the Republic of China rather than the People's Republic of China. It was therefore unable to veto the authorization of member states to assist in the defense of South Korea. The United Nations forces pushed the North Koreans out of the South and made it to the Chinese border before the Chinese People's Volunteer Army intervened and pushed the UN back to the 38th parallel. Although a cease-fire was declared in 1953, UN forces remained along the demilitarized zone until 1967, when American and South Korean forces took over. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12029262 | 467,564 |
832,128 | It is commonly used in molecular biology as a reporter marker to monitor gene expression. It also exhibits a phenomenon called α-complementation which forms the basis for the blue/white screening of recombinant clones. This enzyme can be split in two peptides, LacZα and LacZΩ, neither of which is active by itself but when both are present together, spontaneously reassemble into a functional enzyme. This property is exploited in many cloning vectors where the presence of the "lacZα" gene in a plasmid can complement in "trans" another mutant gene encoding the LacZΩ in specific laboratory strains of "E. coli". However, when DNA fragments are inserted in the vector, the production of LacZα is disrupted, the cells therefore show no β-galactosidase activity. The presence or absence of an active β-galactosidase may be detected by X-gal, which produces a characteristic blue dye when cleaved by β-galactosidase, thereby providing an easy means of distinguishing the presence or absence of cloned product in a plasmid. In studies of leukaemia chromosomal translocations, Dobson and colleagues used a fusion protein of LacZ in mice, exploiting β-galactosidase's tendency to oligomerise to suggest a potential role for oligomericity in MLL fusion protein function. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67168 | 831,679 |
736,308 | Westinghouse also had to develop a system based on rotary converters to allow them to supply all the needed power standards including single phase and polyphase AC and DC for street cars and factory motors. Westinghouse's initial customer for the power from the hydroelectric generators at the Edward Dean Adams Station at Niagara in 1895 were the plants of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company which needed large quantities of cheap electricity for smelting aluminum. On November 16, 1896, electrical power transmitted to Buffalo began powering its street cars. The generating plants were built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The scale of the project had General Electric also contributing, building transmission lines and equipment. That same year Westinghouse and General Electric signed a patent sharing agreement, ending some 300 lawsuits the companies were involved in over their competing electrical patents, and giving them monopolistic control over the US electric power industry for years to come. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18179220 | 735,920 |
410,244 | There is a debate about the appropriate balance between testing with as few animals or humans as possible and the need to obtain robust, reliable findings. It has been argued that unreliable research is inefficient and wasteful and that studies are not just wasteful when they stop too late but also when they stop too early. In large clinical trials, planned, sequential analyses are sometimes used if there is considerable expense or potential harm associated with testing participants. In applied behavioural science, "megastudies" have been proposed to investigate the efficacy of many different interventions designed in an interdisciplinary manner by separate teams.<ref name="10.1038/s41586-021-04128-4"></ref> One such study used a fitness chain to recruit a large number participants. It has been suggested that behavioural interventions are often hard to compare [in meta-analyses and reviews], as "different scientists test different intervention ideas in different samples using different outcomes over different time intervals", causing a lack of comparability of such individual investigations which limits "their potential to inform policy". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62329 | 410,042 |
369,832 | A joint interim statement of the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; American Heart Association; World Heart Federation; International Atherosclerosis Society; and International Association for the Study of Obesity published a guideline to harmonize the definition of the metabolic syndrome. This definition recognizes that the risk associated with a particular waist measurement will differ in different populations. Whether it is better at this time to set the level at which risk starts to increase or at which there is already substantially increased risk will be up to local decision-making groups. However, for international comparisons and to facilitate the etiology, it is critical that a commonly agreed-upon set of criteria be used worldwide, with agreed-upon cut points for different ethnic groups and sexes. There are many people in the world of mixed ethnicity, and in those cases, pragmatic decisions will have to be made. Therefore, an international criterion of overweight may be more appropriate than ethnic specific criteria of abdominal obesity for an anthropometric component of this syndrome which results from an excess lipid storage in adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and liver. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54439 | 369,638 |
813,768 | A list of studies shows that public fear of the conflicts of interest that exist when biomedical research is funded by industry can be considered valid after a 2003 publication of "Scope and Impact of Financial Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research" in The Journal of American Association of Medicine. This publication included 37 different studies that met specific criteria to determine whether or not an academic institution or scientific investigator funded by industry had engaged in behavior that could be deduced to be a conflict of interest in the field of biomedical research. Survey results from one study concluded that 43% of scientific investigators employed by a participating academic institution had received research related gifts and discretionary funds from industry sponsors. Another participating institution surveyed showed that 7.6% of investigators were financially tied to research sponsors, including paid speaking engagements (34%), consulting arrangements (33%), advisory board positions (32%) and equity (14%). A 1994 study concluded that 58% out of 210 life science companies indicated that investigators were required to withhold information pertaining to their research as to extend the life of the interested companies' patents. Rules and regulations regarding conflict of interest disclosures are being studied by experts in the biomedical research field to eliminate conflicts of interest that could possibly affect the outcomes of biomedical research. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2245783 | 813,335 |
209,453 | These compounds give a permanent froth when shaken with water. They also cause hemolysis of red blood cells. Saponin glycosides are found in liquorice. Their medicinal value is due to their expectorant, corticoid and anti-inflammatory effects. Steroid saponins are important starting material for the production of semi-synthetic glucocorticoids and other steroid hormones such as progesterone; for example in Dioscorea wild yam the sapogenin diosgenin, in the form of its glycoside dioscin. The ginsenosides are triterpene glycosides and ginseng saponins from "Panax ginseng" (Chinese ginseng) and "Panax quinquefolius" (American ginseng). In general, the use of the term saponin in organic chemistry is discouraged, because many plant constituents can produce foam, and many triterpene-glycosides are amphipolar under certain conditions, acting as a surfactant. More modern uses of saponins in biotechnology are as adjuvants in vaccines: Quil A and its derivative QS-21, isolated from the bark of Quillaja saponaria Molina, to stimulate both the Th1 immune response and the production of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) against exogenous antigens make them ideal for use in subunit vaccines and vaccines directed against intracellular pathogens as well as for therapeutic cancer vaccines but with the aforementioned side-effect of hemolysis. Saponins are also natural ruminal antiprotozoal agents that are potential to improve ruminal microbial fermentation reducing ammonia concentrations and methane production in ruminant animals. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=518902 | 209,346 |
62,674 | Early research into circadian rhythms suggested that most people preferred a day closer to 25 hours when isolated from external stimuli like daylight and timekeeping. However, this research was faulty because it failed to shield the participants from artificial light. Although subjects were shielded from time cues (like clocks) and daylight, the researchers were not aware of the phase-delaying effects of indoor electric lights. The subjects were allowed to turn on light when they were awake and to turn it off when they wanted to sleep. Electric light in the evening delayed their circadian phase. A more stringent study conducted in 1999 by Harvard University estimated the natural human rhythm to be closer to 24 hours and 11 minutes: much closer to the solar day. Consistent with this research was a more recent study from 2010, which also identified sex differences, with the circadian period for women being slightly shorter (24.09 hours) than for men (24.19 hours). In this study, women tended to wake up earlier than men and exhibit a greater preference for morning activities than men, although the underlying biological mechanisms for these differences are unknown. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56565 | 62,649 |
1,420,524 | Volume is an indie stealth video game developed by Mike Bithell Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and PlayStation 4 in August 2015, and the PlayStation Vita in January 2016. The game uses stealth mechanics inspired by "Metal Gear Solid" series, allowing the player to plan courses of action to work through levels without being detected by guards, dogs, and automated security turrets to reach specific objectives. In addition to the game's levels, "Volume" supports user-made levels that can be shared with others. The game presents a modern take on the Robin Hood legend, where a young thief discovers a plot for a military coup involving various heists, and uses a device called "Volume", with the assistance of its artificial intelligence to perform these heists in a virtual manner and broadcasting them to the world at large to make the coup known. The story is presented with the help of voice actors Charlie McDonnell, Danny Wallace, Dan Bull, Jim Sterling, and Andy Serkis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40229030 | 1,419,724 |
1,318,895 | According to Garphart, compared with in traditional workplace, sensemaking in electronically enabled work place becomes more complex and ambiguous. and act differently in the above five procedures. To be specific. four distinct features can be seen. Firstly, the process of reciprocity is much confined. The reciprocity of perspectives might be delayed when communicators are at different "terminals". Also, sensory cues are nearly absent in this process, while textual communication is commonly used. In other words, communication modes are limited. Secondly, the levels of equivocality and the difficulties of sensemaking increase. The problems of understanding computer or new technical terms emerge as a new obstacle to be overcome for achieving sensemaking in organizations. Thirdly, less etcetera principles can be used to in CMC. In other words, CMC tends to build up a rigidly structured communication environment, due to which, people will find it harder to gain additional information from outside the computer system. Lastly, CMC alters the occupational tasks. Some technical background or computer-related knowledge are required to support general occupational tasks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33079593 | 1,318,170 |
248,119 | The Van de Graaff generator was developed, starting in 1929, by physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff at Princeton University, with help from colleague Nicholas Burke. The first model was demonstrated in October 1929. The first machine used an ordinary tin can, a small motor, and a silk ribbon bought at a five-and-dime store. After that, he went to the chairman of the physics department requesting $100 to make an improved version. He did get the money, with some difficulty. By 1931, he could report achieving 1.5 million volts, saying "The machine is simple, inexpensive, and portable. An ordinary lamp socket provides the only power needed." According to a patent application, it had two 60-cm-diameter charge-accumulation spheres mounted on borosilicate glass columns 180 cm high; the apparatus cost $90 in 1931. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52642 | 247,991 |
1,193,269 | One of the ultimate goals is to devise and develop prescriptions of treatment for a variety of neuropathological conditions and psychiatric disorders. More profoundly, though, the knowledge gained may provide insight into the very nature of human thought, mental abilities like learning and memory, and perhaps consciousness itself. A direct product of neuropsychopharmacological research is the knowledge base required to develop drugs which act on very specific receptors within a neurotransmitter system. These "hyperselective-action" drugs would allow the direct targeting of specific sites of relevant neural activity, thereby maximizing the efficacy (or technically the "potency") of the drug within the clinical target and minimizing adverse effects. However, there are some cases when some degree of pharmacological promiscuity is tolerable and even desirable, producing more desirable results than a more selective agent would. An example of this is Vortioxetine, a drug which is not particularly selective as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, having a significant degree of serotonin modulatory activity, but which has demonstrated reduced discontinuation symptoms (and reduced likelihood of relapse) and greatly reduced incidence of sexual dysfunction, without loss in antidepressant efficacy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2917198 | 1,192,633 |
676,658 | In June 1936, Armstrong gave a formal presentation of his new system at the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) headquarters. For comparison, he played a jazz record using a conventional AM radio, then switched to an FM transmission. A United Press correspondent was present, and recounted in a wire service report that: "if the audience of 500 engineers had shut their eyes they would have believed the jazz band was in the same room. There were no extraneous sounds." Moreover, "Several engineers said after the demonstration that they consider Dr. Armstrong's invention one of the most important radio developments since the first earphone crystal sets were introduced." Armstrong was quoted as saying he could "visualize a time not far distant when the use of ultra-high frequency wave bands will play the leading role in all broadcasting", although the article noted that "A switchover to the ultra-high frequency system would mean the junking of present broadcasting equipment and present receivers in homes, eventually causing the expenditure of billions of dollars." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10315 | 676,305 |
270,125 | Like all arthropods, chelicerates have segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a cuticle made of chitin and proteins. The chelicerate body plan consists of two tagmata, the prosoma and the opisthosoma, except that mites have lost a visible division between these sections. The chelicerae, which give the group its name, are the only appendages that appear before the mouth. In most sub-groups, they are modest pincers used to feed. However, spiders' chelicerae form fangs that most species use to inject venom into prey. The group has the open circulatory system typical of arthropods, in which a tube-like heart pumps blood through the hemocoel, which is the major body cavity. Marine chelicerates have gills, while the air-breathing forms generally have both book lungs and tracheae. In general, the ganglia of living chelicerates' central nervous systems fuse into large masses in the cephalothorax, but there are wide variations and this fusion is very limited in the Mesothelae, which are regarded as the oldest and most basal group of spiders. Most chelicerates rely on modified bristles for touch and for information about vibrations, air currents, and chemical changes in their environment. The most active hunting spiders also have very acute eyesight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50884 | 269,978 |
1,244,430 | In a model of explant growth in vitro using corneal epithelium, Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 expression correlates with an initial degradation of the original basement membrane. Reformation of basement membrane in culture was dependent on an initial upregulation followed by a downregulation of MMP-9, in contrast to the constant expression of MMP-2. This is not evidence that MMP-2 and MMP-9 directly cleave perlecan protein in vivo but shows that the proteins clearly modulate some factor in maturation of basement membrane. Another family of metalloproteases, the Bone Morphogenetic Protein 1/Tolloid-like family, releases the c-terminal endorepellin domain of the perlecan core protein. The laminin-like globular domain contains the active motif of endorepellin, and is unable to be cleaved by cells expressing mutant and inactive forms of the BMP-1 proteins. Furthermore, the critical residue necessary for this cleavage to take place was localized to Asp4197. This proteolytic process may have significance in disease as a corresponding fragment was found in the urine of patients suffering end-stage renal failure and in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women who have undergone premature rupture of the membrane. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4328716 | 1,243,757 |
663,065 | On 15 January 2006, at 05:57 UTC, the Sample Return Capsule successfully separated from "Stardust". The SRC re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at 09:57 UTC, with a velocity of , the fastest reentry speed into Earth's atmosphere ever achieved by a human-made object. The capsule followed a drastic reentry profile, going from a velocity of Mach 36 to subsonic speed within 110 seconds. Peak deceleration was 34 "g", encountered 40 seconds into the reentry at an altitude of 55 km over Spring Creek, Nevada. The phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) heat shield, produced by Fiber Materials Inc., reached a temperature of more than 2,900 °C during this steep reentry. The capsule then parachuted to the ground, finally landing at 10:12 UTC at the Utah Test and Training Range, near the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground. The capsule was then transported by military aircraft from Utah to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas, then transferred by road in an unannounced convoy to the Planetary Materials Curatorial facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston to begin analysis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=187388 | 662,720 |
1,124,342 | By the latter half of the 1960s, higher-level programming languages such as BASIC which were able to be run on multiple types of computers further increased the reach of games developed at any given location. While most games were limited to text-based designs, rather than visual graphics like "Spacewar", these games became more complicated as they reached more players, such as baseball and basketball simulation games. Access to the computers themselves was also extended to more people by systems such as the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS), which connected several thousand users through many remote terminals to a central mainframe computer. By the 1967–68 school year the DTSS library of 500 programs for the system included, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz wrote, "many games". Over a quarter of the system's usage was for casual or entertainment purposes, which Kemeny and Kurtz welcomed as helping users to become familiar with and not fear the computer. They noted that "we have lost many a distinguished visitor for several hours while he quarterbacked the Dartmouth football team in a highly realistic simulated game". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49386138 | 1,123,768 |
999,688 | Since the late 2000s, and certainly since 2010 and on, the domain of general purpose protocols has moved to deal with efficiency improvements of the protocols with practical applications in mind. Increasingly efficient protocols for MPC have been proposed, and MPC can be now considered as a practical solution to various real-life problems (especially ones that only require linear sharing of the secrets and mainly local operations on the shares with not much interactions among the parties), such as distributed voting, private bidding and auctions, sharing of signature or decryption functions and private information retrieval. The first large-scale and practical application of multi-party computation was the execution of an electronic double auction in the Danish Sugar Beet Auction, which took place in January 2008. Obviously, both theoretical notions and investigations, and applied constructions are needed (e.g., conditions for moving MPC into part of day by day business was advocated and presented | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=646233 | 999,170 |
2,194,818 | Human polycystin 1 is a huge protein of 4303 amino acyl residues (aas). Its repeated leucine-rich (LRR) segment is found in many proteins. According to the SwissProt description, polycystin 1 contains 16 polycystic kidney disease (PKD) domains, one LDL-receptor class A domain, one C-type lectin family domain, and 16-18 putative TMSs in positions between residues 2200 and 4100. However, atomic force microscopy imaging has revealed the domain structure of polycystin-1. It exhibits minimal sequence similarities, but similar domain organization and membrane topology with established cation channels such as the transient receptor potential (TRP) and voltage-gated ion channel (VIC) family proteins (TC# 1.A.4 and TC# 1.A.1, respectively). However, PSI-BLAST without iterations does not pick up these similarities. The PKD2L1-PKD1L3 complex perceives sour taste. Disruption of the PKD2-PKD1 complex, responsible for mechanosensation, leads to development of ADPKD (autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease). Besides modulating channel activity and related signaling events, the CRDs (C-terminal regulatory domains) of PKD2 and PKD2L1 play a central role in channel oligomerization. These proteins appear to form trimers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50111119 | 2,193,568 |
814,961 | The morning final for the third day was the women's marathon, which saw Jemima Sumgong win Kenya's first Olympic gold medal for that event. The race was unusual in that two sets of twins crossed the line together: North Korea's Kim Hye-song and Kim Hye-gyong took tenth and eleventh while Germans Anna and Lisa Hahner were 81st and 82nd. Furthermore, Estonia's Lily, Leila and Liina Luik became the first triplets to feature in an Olympic final. In the women's triple jump Caterine Ibargüen won Colombia's first Olympic gold medal in athletics. As the first Olympics to be held in South America, Ibargüen became the first Olympic athletics champion from South America to be crowned on South American soil. Brazil's Thiago Braz da Silva became the second two days later. By the conclusion of the Olympics, Ibargüen, Yulimar Rojas (who finished second to Ibargüen) and da Silva were the only medalists from continental South America. Usain Bolt achieved the feat fellow Jamaican Fraser-Pryce had failed to do one day earlier by taking his third straight Olympic 100 m title. This made him the most decorated athlete in the 100 metres at the Olympics. South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk provided the second world record performance of the athletics programme with his win of the men's 400 metres in 43.03 seconds. This knocked 0.15 seconds of Michael Johnson's time which had gone unbeaten since 1999. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36721624 | 814,527 |
870,436 | The launch of the A5000 in late 1991 brought a new version of RISC OS to the market: RISC OS 3. This delivered a range of enhancements to the operating system including multitasking filer operations (meaning that file copying, moving and deletion no longer took over the computer), support for reading and writing DOS format discs, the provision of various bundled applications (Alarm, Calc, Chars, Configure, Draw, Edit, Help and Paint), commonly used outline fonts, and software modules in ROM (instead of needing to be loaded from accompanying floppy discs into RAM), the removal or raising of limits on windows and tasks, the ability to "iconise" windows and pin them to the desktop background (or pinboard), desktop session saving and restoring, screen blanking support, and other printing and networking improvements. Providing the bundled applications and other resources in ROM saved an estimated 150 KB of workspace, thus being beneficial to users of 1 MB machines. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63145 | 869,976 |
863,535 | The university was founded, or ratified, in 1290 by King Dinis, having begun its existence in Lisbon with the name Studium Generale ("Estudo Geral"). "Scientiae thesaurus mirabilis", the royal charter announcing the institution of the university was dated 1 March of that year, although efforts had been made at least since 1288 to create this first University in Portugal; it is thus the second oldest of such establishments in the Iberian Peninsula. The Papal confirmation was also given in 1290 (on 9 August of that year), during the Papacy of the Pope Nicholas IV. In accordance with the Papal Bull, all the "licit" Faculties, with the exception of that of Theology, could be established. Thus the Faculties of Arts, Law, Canon Law and Medicine were the first to be created. It was, however, not to remain in Lisbon for long. In 1308, likely due to problems of emancipation from the Church (relations between the latter and the political power being somewhat strained at the time) and conflicts between the inhabitants of the city and the students, the university moved to Coimbra. This town already had old traditions in education, being home to the highly successful school of the Monastery of Santa Cruz. The university was then established on the site known as "Estudos Velhos", which corresponds roughly to the area where the Main Library now stands. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=715164 | 863,075 |
1,806,542 | Walcott and his family returned to the quarry each summer until 1913, using dynamite as surface collection dried up. During this time, his wife died in a train crash and his eldest son died of tuberculosis. He considered his next trip, in 1917, to have "practically exhausted" the quarry, with 1300 kg of material being collected that year. He returned to take additional collections, mainly from talus material, in 1919, 1921, and 1924, amassing a total of 65,000 fossil specimens over 30,000 slabs. During these years, he made further preliminary descriptions of the less glamorous sponges and algae. He photographed and clearly intended to describe many further taxa, many of which sat alone with their photograph in a Smithsonian drawer for decades after Walcott's death. Unfortunately, administrative duties became a growing burden on Walcott's time, and the Burgess took a back seat to the completion of his attempts to document the stratigraphy of the southern Rockies, an extensive work which he did not live to see published. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23963520 | 1,805,525 |
903,150 | "C. maenas" is a predator, feeding on many organisms, particularly bivalve molluscs (such as clams – up to 40 clams per day, oysters, and mussels), polychaetes, and small crustaceans – including other crabs up to their own size. They are primarily diurnal, although activity also depends on the tide, and crabs can be active at any time of day. In California, preferential predation of "C. maenas" on native clams ("Nutricola" spp.) resulted in the decline of the native clams and an increase of a previously introduced clam (the amethyst gem clam, "Gemma gemma"), although "C. maenas" also voraciously preys on introduced clams such as "Potamocorbula amurensis". The soft-shell clam ("Mya arenaria") is a preferred prey species of "C. maenas". Consequently, it has been implicated in the destruction of the soft-shell clam fisheries on the east coast of the United States and Canada, and the reduction of populations of other commercially important bivalves (such as scallops, "Argopecten irradians", and northern quahogs, "Mercenaria mercenaria"). The prey of "C. maenas" includes the young of bivalves and fish, although the effect of its predation on winter flounder, "Pseudopleuronectes americanus" is minimal. "C. maenas" can, however, have substantial negative impacts on local commercial and recreational fisheries, by preying on the young of species, such as oysters (adults' shells are too tough for "C. maenas" to crack) and the Dungeness crab, or competing with them for resources Colder water temperatures reduce overall feeding rates of "C. maenas". and eating the "Zostera marina" that Dungeness and juvenile salmon depend upon for habitat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3298595 | 902,674 |
1,459,580 | A complete warehouse automation system can drastically reduce the workforce required to run a facility, with human input required only for a few tasks, such as picking units of product from a bulk packed case. Even here, assistance can be provided with equipment such as pick-to-light units. Smaller systems may only be required to handle part of the process. Examples include automated storage and retrieval systems, which simply use cranes to store and retrieve identified cases or pallets, typically into a high-bay storage system which would be unfeasible to access using fork-lift trucks or any other means. The use of Automatic Guided Vehicles maximizes the output compared to humans since they can do repetitive tasks for long hours and with least to no supervision. An AGV is built and programmed for precision and accuracy thereby reducing the chances of errors in a warehouse, especially when dealing with fragile goods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=475255 | 1,458,759 |
1,010,763 | The MB-326 was outfitted with a tandem cockpit configuration, this arrangement had been chosen to result in a slimmer and more aerodynamically efficient fuselage in comparison to the more usual side-by-side arrangement. It was covered by a bubble canopy for excellent external visibility; it featured a windscreen anti-icing system powered by the engine compressor using bleed air. The cockpit was also pressurised, enabling the MB-326 to conduct high altitude flight. The ability to fly at higher altitudes was favourable for multiple purposes, including during the execution of aerobatic and navigational training, as well as improving fuel efficiency for long distance flights. The onboard systems were typically pre-manufactured units which were easy both to access and to remove; several elements were also intentionally interchangeable. The exterior of the aircraft was covered by a total of 80 inspection panels and doors; in-situ engine inspection could be performed via a pair of large access panels set above and below the engine bay while another pair of doors allow access to the intake duct's interior for the inspection of the first-stage compressor rotor blades. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=184400 | 1,010,242 |
122,197 | Israel Aerospace Industries announced in August 2013 it will offer pre-owned Kfir fighter jets to foreign customers, with a 40-year guarantee. Unit price is reported to be $20 million. A few Eastern European and Latin American countries have expressed interest, Israel's Globes business daily reported. By October 2013, Israel Aerospace Industries was in "very advanced negotiations" with at least two air forces interested in the Kfir Block 60. An aircraft can be delivered within one year, with two squadrons to be sold in two to three years. The Block 60 is offered with the Elta EL/M-2032 with open architecture avionics to allow a customer to install other systems. The sensor provides an all-aspect, look-down/shoot-down performance in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, with the capability to simultaneously track up to 64 targets. The J79 has been overhauled to zero flight hours, and would need replacement after 1,600 hours. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=489370 | 122,148 |
1,572,717 | Remote telescope system development started in 1999, with first test runs on real telescope hardware in early 2000. RTS2 was primary intended for Gamma ray burst follow-up observations, so ability to interrupt observation was core part of its design. During development, it became an integrated observatory management suite. Other additions included use of the Postgresql database for storing targets and observation logs, ability to perform image processing including astrometry and performance of the real-time telescope corrections and a web-based user interface. RTS2 was from the beginning designed as a completely open source system, without any proprietary components. In order to support growing list of mounts, sensors, CCDs and roof systems, it uses own, text based communication protocol. The RTS2 system is described in papers appearing in 2004 and 2006. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=970131 | 1,571,829 |
883,014 | In January 2008, NASA Watch revealed that the first stage solid rocket of the "Ares I" could have created high vibrations during the first few minutes of ascent. The vibrations would have been caused by thrust oscillations inside the first stage. NASA officials had identified the potential problem at the Ares I system design review in late October 2007, stating in a press release that it wanted to solve it by March 2008. NASA admitted that this problem was very severe, rating it four out of five on a risk scale, but the agency was very confident in solving it. The mitigation approach developed by the Ares engineering team included active and passive vibration damping, adding an active tuned-mass absorber and a passive "compliance structure" – essentially a spring-loaded ring that would have detuned the Ares I stack. NASA also pointed out that, since this would have been a new launch system, like the Apollo or Space Shuttle systems, it was normal for such problems to arise during the development stage. According to NASA, analysis of the data and telemetry from the Ares I-X flight showed that vibrations from thrust oscillation were within the normal range for a Space Shuttle flight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5517979 | 882,550 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.