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1,703,416 | The SWIR spectrometer was designed and built by the Optical Payloads Group of Surrey Satellites (SSTL); it employs an immersed grating design in which light impinges upon an etched grating from within a high-index substrate (silicon in this case). The reduced wavelength within the refractive medium permits an efficient, space-saving design. The SWIR grating was provided by SRON (Netherlands), who also provided the Front-End Electronics (FEE). The SWIR spectrometer receives light from the main instrument via an intermediate pupil, and directs this - via a telescope - towards a slit which defines the along-track footprint of the instrument on the ground. Light from the slit is re-collimated, diffracted by the immersed-grating at high-order and finally imaged onto a two-dimensional detector by a high aperture relay lens. The SWIR detector (furnished by Sofradir, France) has 256 elements in the across-track direction and 1024 elements in the spectral direction (the element pitch is 30 microns); it is operated cold (typically 140 K). The SWIR spectrometer optics are mounted on a cooled optical bench (approximately 200K) and the instrument is insulated by a multiple-layer insulation (MLI) blanket. The SWIR instrument was aligned, focussed and characterised at the Mullard Space Science laboratory thermal vacuum facility in Surrey, UK. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43757243 | 1,702,460 |
288,471 | Four "Vanguard"-class submarines were designed and built at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, now BAE Systems Submarines, the only shipbuilder in the UK with the facilities and expertise to build nuclear submarines. Even so, £62 million worth of new shipbuilding and dock facilities were added for the project, with the Devonshire Dock Hall built specially for it. The initial plan was to build new versions of the "Resolution"-class, but in July 1981 the decision was taken to incorporate the new Rolls-Royce PWR2 pressurised water reactor. From the outset, the "Vanguard" submarines were designed with enlarged missile tubes able to accommodate the Trident II D-5. The missile compartment is based on the system used on the American , although with capacity for only 16 missiles, rather than the 24 on board an "Ohio" boat. The boats are significantly larger than the "Resolution" class, and were given names formerly associated with battleships and aircraft carriers, befitting their status as capital ships. An important consideration was the depth of the Walney Channel, which connected Barrow to the Irish Sea, which limited the draft to , while the "Ohio"-class boats had a draft of . Each boat is long and in diameter, and carries a crew of 150 officers and ratings. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9095461 | 288,314 |
1,175,593 | After years of being a role player for the Bruins, Roll became a leader of the team as a fifth-year senior in 2009–10. He was pushed into his new role after the departure of seniors Shipp, Darren Collison, and Alfred Aboya from the prior season. Moreover, he would have been only the fourth option on the team behind Kevin Love, Westbrook, and Holiday, had they not declared early for the National Basketball Association. Roll prepared for the increased workload during the offseason with a workout regimen that included basketball workouts twice a day, ball-handling drills, shooting 500 times daily, and a weight-training program to strengthen his legs and back. UCLA's roster that season included six freshmen and six sophomores. Roll, Nikola Dragović, and James Keefe were the only seniors on the team, and Keefe's season ended prematurely after season-ending shoulder surgery. UCLA's season ended in the semifinals of the 2010 Pacific-10 Conference tournament with an 85–72 loss to California, despite a career-high 27 points from Roll. He averaged 22.5 points in the two tournament games, and was named to the All-Tournament team. The Bruins finished the season 14-18 and did not qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time in six seasons. Roll earned first team All-Pac-10 honors, and was named the Bruins' most valuable player after leading the team in scoring with 14.1 points per game. He also led UCLA with 3.6 assists per game, and set the school record for most career games played (147), surpassing Collison and Aboya's previous mark (142). Roll was selected to play in the Reese's College All-Star Game during the Final Four. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43412138 | 1,174,971 |
244,307 | Single cross-sectional studies on consumers have been published noting multiple associations. Blood serum levels of PFOA were associated with an increased time to pregnancy—or "infertility"—in a 2009 study. PFOA exposure was associated with decreased semen quality, increased serum alanine aminotransferase levels, and increased occurrence of thyroid disease. In a study of 2003–2004 US samples, a higher (9.8 milligram per deciliter) total cholesterol level was observed when the highest quartile was compared to the lowest. Along with other related compounds, PFOA exposure was associated with an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a study of US children aged 12–15. In a paper presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, PFOA appeared to act as an endocrine disruptor by a potential mechanism on breast maturation in young girls. A C8 Science Panel status report noted an association between exposure in girls and a later onset of puberty. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=824692 | 244,180 |
1,463,053 | On 28 January 1986, "Challenger" lifted off on STS-51-L. A failure of the solid rocket booster 73 seconds into flight tore "Challenger" apart, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. The "Challenger" disaster was America's worst space disaster at the time. The Centaur team, many of whom witnessed the disaster, was devastated. On 20 February, Moore ordered the "Galileo" and "Ulysses" missions postponed. Too many key personnel were involved in the analysis of the accident for the two missions to proceed. They were not canceled, but the earliest they could be flown was in thirteen months. Engineers continued to perform tests and the "Galileo" probe was moved to the Vertical Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, where it was mated with Centaur. Of the four safety reviews required of the Shuttle-Centaur missions, three had been completed, although some issues arising from the last two remained to be resolved. The final review was originally scheduled for late January. Some more safety changes had been incorporated into the Centaur Gs being built for the USAF, but had not made it to SC-1 and SC-2 owing to the strict deadline. After the disaster, $75 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was earmarked for Centaur safety enhancements. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65467235 | 1,462,230 |
182,246 | The procedure for monazite, which usually contains all the rare earths as well as thorium, is more involved. Monazite, because of its magnetic properties, can be separated by repeated electromagnetic separation. After separation, it is treated with hot concentrated sulfuric acid to produce water-soluble sulfates of rare earths. The acidic filtrates are partially neutralized with sodium hydroxide to pH 3–4. Thorium precipitates out of solution as hydroxide and is removed. After that, the solution is treated with ammonium oxalate to convert rare earths to their insoluble oxalates. The oxalates are converted to oxides by annealing. The oxides are dissolved in nitric acid that excludes one of the main components, cerium, whose oxide is insoluble in HNO. Lanthanum is separated as a double salt with ammonium nitrate by crystallization. This salt is relatively less soluble than other rare earth double salts and therefore stays in the residue. Care must be taken when handling some of the residues as they contain Ra, the daughter of Th, which is a strong gamma emitter. Lanthanum is relatively easy to extract as it has only one neighbouring lanthanide, cerium, which can be removed by making use of its ability to be oxidised to the +4 state; thereafter, lanthanum may be separated out by the historical method of fractional crystallization of La(NO)·2NHNO·4HO, or by ion-exchange techniques when higher purity is desired. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17744 | 182,150 |
27,075 | The 107-seater was launched on 26 April 1999 with the options and orders count at 109 aircraft. After three years of design, the maiden flight took place at Hamburg on 15 January 2002. Tests on the lead engine, the PW6000, revealed worse-than-expected fuel consumption. Consequently, Pratt & Whitney abandoned the five-stage high-pressure compressor (HPC) for the MTU-designed six-stage HPC. The 129 order book for the A318 shrunk to 80 largely because of switches to other A320 family members. After 17 months of flight certification, during which 850 hours and 350 flights were accumulated, JAA certification was obtained for the CFM56-powered variant on 23 May 2003. On 22 July 2003, first delivery for launch customer Frontier Airlines occurred, entering service before the end of the month. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=164933 | 27,065 |
413,706 | Breaking away from directly experienced reality was a common trend in 19th-century sciences (especially physics), and this was the effort which fundamentally determined the way economics tried (and still tries) to approach the economic aspects of social life. It is abstraction we meet in the case of both Newton's physics and the neoclassical theory, since the goal was to grasp the unchangeable and timeless essence of phenomena. For example, Newton created the concept of the material point by following the abstraction method so that he abstracted from the dimension and shape of any perceptible object, preserving only inertial and translational motion. Material point is the ultimate and common feature of all bodies. Neoclassical economists created the indefinitely abstract notion of homo economicus by following the same procedure. Economists abstract from all individual and personal qualities in order to get to those characteristics that embody the essence of economic activity. Eventually, it is the substance of the economic man that they try to grasp. Any characteristic beyond it only disturbs the functioning of this essential core. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2972 | 413,503 |
226,024 | In his senior year of high school, Stafford was recruited to play football at the University of Oklahoma, where he had received a Navy ROTC scholarship. Stafford applied to the United States Naval Academy, and was accepted to the Class of 1952. Stafford intended to play football for the Navy Midshipmen, but sustained a career-ending knee injury during a preseason practice session. After his freshman year, he sailed aboard the battleship , where his roommate was his future Apollo 10 Command Module Pilot, John Young. Following his second year, Stafford spent a summer at NAS Pensacola, where he was exposed to naval aviation and flew in the SNJ Trainer. On a trip home to Weatherford, Stafford began dating his future wife, Faye Shoemaker. After his third year, he served aboard , a destroyer escorting USS "Missouri". While visiting home during his fourth year, Stafford became engaged to Faye in December 1951. In the spring of 1952, he was selected in a lottery to join the U.S. Air Force upon graduation. Stafford graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in 1952, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=638571 | 225,908 |
1,881,650 | Additionally, Knoblich and his group were the first to carry out a genome-wide in vivo RNAi screen to demonstrate for the first time, that it is possible to simultaneously analyze gene functions across the whole genome of an organism in a tissue specific manner. This was achieved using a fruit fly gene bank generated at IMBA by Barry Dickson, in which every single one of the approximately 13,000 fruit fly genes can be inactivated in any cell independently. These findings have been published in Nature in 2009. With this method, Knoblich could further elucidate brain tumor development in fruit flies. Recent findings suggest that tumors can be based on stem cells, that keep their unique stem cell characteristics and thus uncontrollably divide, without ever differentiating into specific somatic cell types. This lack of differentiation is caused by Brat, a gene that has been identified by Knoblich and his team. It is currently unknown how many genes with a similar function exist in humans. Knoblich’s research group at IMBA is trying to identify more of these genes in order to develop less invasive therapies for cancer in the future. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61293154 | 1,880,569 |
1,159,262 | In the years following the end of the Cold War, U.S. Congressman George E. Brown Jr. was an outspoken champion of science and technology issues, particularly in international relations. As Chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Brown promoted conservation and renewable energy sources, technology transfer, sustainable development, environmental degradation, and an agency devoted to civilian technology when there were few listeners, and even fewer converts. Consistent with his long-held conviction that the nation needed a coherent technology policy, Brown articulated his concept of a partnership between the public and private sectors to improve the nation's competitiveness. His concern for demonstrating the practical applications of advances in science and technology laid the foundation for what became the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation, later CRDF Global—a private non-profit organization initially established to promote bilateral science and technology collaborations between the U.S. and newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Brown also helped establish the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the (now defunct) Office of Technology Assessment and the first federal climate change research program in the Federal Climate Program Act of 1978. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31816142 | 1,158,647 |
454,940 | The Infected, a core concept of the game, were inspired by a segment of the BBC nature documentary "Planet Earth" (2006), which featured the "Cordyceps" fungi. Though the fungi mainly infect insects, taking control of their motor functions and forcing them to help cultivate the fungus, the game explores the concept of the fungus evolving and infecting humans, and the direct results of an outbreak of this infection. The game does not directly explain the cause of the virus; Straley attributed this to the team's focus on the characters, as opposed to the virus. They preferred to explain the events through subtext, rather than explicitly explaining the cause of the infection. Straley compared the subtext included in "The Last of Us" to that of "BioShock Infinite" (2013). He felt that the latter had spawned various conversations within the industry, which he sees as a sign of a maturing industry. "I've seen enough good stories in books and film. Now I want to see them in video games," said Straley. The team used the concept of the Infected to force players to explore the limits of human perseverance. Throughout development, the team assured everyone that the Infected were strictly different from zombies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45204814 | 454,718 |
1,056,605 | The requirement for Type 115 radar was to operate with the elevation form 0° to 90°, scanning sector of ± 60° when the ship was rolling at ± 20°. The 14th Institute formed a team to complete the prototype with members including Wang Jun as the general designer, Diao Chen-Xi as the deputy general designer, Duan Qing-Ren (段庆仁) as the chief reliability engineer, Chen Hong-Yuan (陈洪元) as the chief structural engineer, Li Heng-Zhao (李亨昭) as the chief manufacture engineer, Chen Zhen-Cheng (陈振成) as the transceiver design engineer, and Chen Hong (陈红) as the general designer of the antenna feeders. Experts from 724th Institute, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Nanjing University of Science and Technology were invited to evaluate, and based on their input, design was modified accordingly. The resulting modification resulted in the increase of transceivers from the original 3456 per face to 4768 per face with increased range. In early June 1992, a team of 14th Institute went to Fragrant Hills for the third time to report the progress, and after two days of presentation, PLAN representatives at the conference informed the team on June 10, 1992 that they would recommend to their superior to select 14th Institute as the contractor of SAPARS. The following month, another team from the 14th Institute subsequently visited the 701st Institute, the design bureau of Type 052B destroyer, and met with the general designer of Type 052 destroyer (and later Type 052C destroyer) Mr. Yuan Du-Lei (袁敦垒, succeed Mr. Pan Jing-Fu [潘镜芙] as Mr. Pan retired) and the radar system engineer Ms. Xi Xiu-Juan (奚秀娟) to discuss system integration issues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51215241 | 1,056,057 |
313,268 | Beginning with "Mantra" for two pianos and electronics (1970), Stockhausen turned to formula composition, a technique which involves the projection and multiplication of a single, double, or triple melodic-line formula. Sometimes, as in "Mantra" and the large orchestral composition with mime soloists, "Inori", the simple formula is stated at the outset as an introduction. He continued to use this technique (e.g., in the two related solo-clarinet pieces, "Harlekin" [Harlequin] and "Der kleine Harlekin" [The Little Harlequin] of 1975, and the orchestral "Jubiläum" [Jubilee] of 1977) through the completion of the opera-cycle "Licht" in 2003. Some works from the 1970s did not employ formula technique—e.g., the vocal duet "Am Himmel wandre ich" (In the Sky I am Walking, one of the 13 components of the multimedia "Alphabet für Liège", 1972, which Stockhausen developed in conversation with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration Jill Purce), "Laub und Regen" (Leaves and Rain, from the theatre piece "Herbstmusik" (1974), the unaccompanied-clarinet composition "Amour", and the choral opera "Atmen gibt das Leben" (Breathing Gives Life, 1974/77)—but nevertheless share its simpler, melodically oriented style. Two such pieces, "Tierkreis" ("Zodiac", 1974–75) and "In Freundschaft" (In Friendship, 1977, a solo piece with versions for virtually every orchestral instrument), have become Stockhausen's most widely performed and recorded compositions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17268 | 313,100 |
268,277 | The endospore is a dehydrated cell with thick walls and additional layers that form inside the cell membrane. It can remain inactive for many years, but if it comes into a favorable environment, it begins to grow again. It initially develops inside the rod-shaped form. Features such as the location within the rod, the size and shape of the endospore, and whether or not it causes the wall of the rod to bulge out are characteristic of particular species of "Bacillus". Depending upon the species, the endospores are round, oval, or occasionally cylindrical. They are highly refractile and contain dipicolinic acid. Electron micrograph sections show they have a thin outer endospore coat, a thick spore cortex, and an inner spore membrane surrounding the endospore contents. The endospores resist heat, drying, and many disinfectants (including 95% ethanol). Because of these attributes, "B. anthracis" endospores are extraordinarily well-suited to use (in powdered and aerosol form) as biological weapons. Such weaponization has been accomplished in the past by at least five state bioweapons programs—those of the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, Russia, and Iraq—and has been attempted by several others. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18974125 | 268,133 |
967,901 | The first suggestion that energetic protons could be an effective treatment was made by Robert R. Wilson in a paper published in 1946 while he was involved in the design of the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory (HCL). The first treatments were performed with particle accelerators built for physics research, notably Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in 1954 and at Uppsala in Sweden in 1957. In 1961, a collaboration began between HCL and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to pursue proton therapy. Over the next 41 years, this program refined and expanded these techniques while treating 9,116 patients before the cyclotron was shut down in 2002. In the USSR a therapeutic proton beam with energies up to 200 MeV was obtained at the synchrocyclotron of JINR in Dubna in 1967. The ITEP center in Moscow, Russia, which began treating patients in 1969, is the oldest proton center still in operation. The Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland was the world's first proton center to treat eye tumors beginning in 1984. In addition, they invented pencil beam scanning in 1996, which is now the state-of-the art form of proton therapy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1164549 | 967,391 |
1,823,519 | The period covered by LAEME is of prime grammatical and phonological interest, as the language was undergoing widespread inflectional loss from OE but at different rates in different regions. Variation within phonological categories and inflectional paradigms possess dialectal and base-grammatical significance. Emergent orthography of phonetically-variable characters yogh, thorn and edh index other changes in the language. Scribes during this period show a proportionally higher preference for literam and mixed-language copying, resulting in a higher proportion of composite texts compared to later periods. Relict usage, where older exemplar forms remain unmodified in a translated text, and constrained selection, where exemplar forms are maintained because of scribal familiarity, pose additional problems for dialectal discrimination. Students of the period must also take into account its pronounced text/speech diglossia, with the majority of texts composed in Latin or French. Because LAEME's anchor matrix is thin and patchy, its dialectal fits are informed approximations subject to revision. LAEME's texts overall are geographically and temporally uneven, extremely sparse for its first half-century and for Northern varieties in general, much denser for Southern varieties and through its latter half-century, where it begins to overlap with LALME. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53064903 | 1,822,481 |
934,271 | In the early part of the 20th century, the prefectural government of Hokkaidō, Japan's northernmost island, were offering various grants and incentives for mainland Japanese groups willing to relocate there. At the time, Hokkaidō was still largely unsettled by the Japanese, being occupied primarily by the indigenous Ainu. In 1910, Ueshiba travelled to Hokkaidō in the company of his acquaintance Denzaburo Kurahashi, who had lived on the northern island before. His intent was to scout out a propitious location for a new settlement, and he found the site at Shirataki suitable for his plans. Despite the hardships he suffered on this journey (which included getting lost in snowstorms several times and an incident in which he nearly drowned in a freezing river), Ueshiba returned to Tanabe filled with enthusiasm for the project, and began recruiting families to join him. He became the leader of the Kishū Settlement Group, a collective of eighty-five pioneers who intended to settle in the Shirataki district and live as farmers; the group founded the village of Yubetsu (later Shirataki village) in August, 1912. Much of the funding for this project came from Ueshiba's father and his brothers-in-law Zenzo and Koshiro Inoue. Zenzo's son Noriaki was also a member of the settlement group. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20069 | 933,779 |
2,007,408 | The newly formed USE acts to open a trade corridor with the Middle East via Venice to insure supplies of materials unavailable within Western Europe; gaining political allies within these regions; and religious allies to spread the doctrines of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Michael Stearns selects Lawrence Mazzare to lead the delegation to Venice because of his current fame (or notoriety) among Catholics. Mazzare asks Simon Jones, the Methodist minister, to accompany him as a sign of religious tolerance and Father Augustus Heinzerling. Jones goes along as Mazzare's assistant. Stearns also sends Tom Stone and his family to assist with the production of pharmaceuticals, Sharon Nichols to aid in medical education (and to give her something useful to do while she is grieving over Hans Richter's death in "1633"), and Ernst Mauer to advise on public sanitation. Lieutenant Conrad Ursinus is sent as the naval attaché and advisor on shipbuilding and Scottish Captain Andrew Lennox is assigned as the military attaché and commander of the Marine Guard. Lieutenant Billy Trumble is sent as XO of the Marine escort as well as sports advisor. However, the delegation is opposed by the French embassy in Venice led by Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux, who is given orders by Cardinal Richelieu to disrupt trade negotiations between the USE and Venice. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5163298 | 2,006,257 |
1,742,905 | Botanists responded favourably to the book immediately on its publication. Hooker told Darwin that the book showed him to be "out of sight the best Physiological observer & experimenter that Botany ever saw", and was glad to note that two leading traditional botanists had accepted the concept of evolution; "Bentham & Oliver are quite struck up in a heap with your book & delighted beyond expression". Daniel Oliver thought it "very extraordinary", and even Darwin's old beetle-hunting rival Charles Babington, by then professor of botany at the University of Cambridge and inclined to oppose natural selection, called it "exceedingly interesting and valuable ... highly satisfactory in all respects. The results are most curious and the skill shown in discovering them equally so." George Bentham praised its value in opening "a new field for observing the wonderful provisions of Nature ... a new and unexpected track to guide us in the explanation of phenomena which had before that appeared so irreconcilable with the ordinary prevision and method shown in the organised world." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21436165 | 1,741,921 |
1,501,753 | Several strategies for resolving geographic boundary problems in measurement and analysis have been proposed. To identify the effectiveness of the strategies, Griffith reviewed traditional techniques that were developed to mitigate the edge effects: ignoring the effects, undertaking a torus mapping, construction of an empirical buffer zone, construction of an artificial buffer zone, extrapolation into a buffer zone, utilizing a correction factor, etc. The first method (i.e., the ignorance of the edge effects), assumes an infinite surface in which the edge effects do not occur. In fact, this approach has been used by traditional geographical theories (e.g., central place theory). Its main shortcoming is that empirical phenomena occur within a finite area, so an infinite and homogeneous surface is unrealistic. The remaining five approaches are similar in that they attempted to produce unbiased parameter estimation, that is, to provide a medium by which the edge effects are removed. (He called these "operational solutions" as opposed to "statistical solutions" to be discussed below.) Specifically, the techniques aim at a collection of data beyond the boundary of the study area and fit a larger model, that is, mapping over the area or over-bounding the study area. Through simulation analysis, however, Griffith and Amrhein identified the inadequacy of such an overbounding technique. Moreover, this technique can bring about issues related to large-area statistics, that is, ecological fallacy. By expanding the boundary of the study area, micro-scale variations within the boundary can be ignored. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27288010 | 1,500,907 |
141,534 | British and other Commonwealth armies were the first to use the Light Tank M3, as the "Stuart", in combat. From mid-November 1941 to the end of the year, about 170 Stuarts (in a total force of over 700 tanks) took part in Operation Crusader during the North Africa Campaign, with poor results. This is despite the fact that the M3 was superior or comparable in most regards to most of the tanks used by the Axis forces. The most numerous German tank, the Panzer III Ausf G, had nearly identical armor and speed to the M3, and both tanks' guns could penetrate the other tank's front armor from beyond . The most numerous Italian tank (and second most numerous Axis tank overall), the Fiat M13/40, was much slower than the Stuart, had slightly weaker armor all around, and could not penetrate the Stuart's front hull or turret armor at 1,000 meters, whereas the Stuart's gun could penetrate any spot on the M13/40. Although the high losses suffered by Stuart-equipped units during the operation had more to do with the better tactics and training of the "Afrika Korps" than the apparent superiority of German armored fighting vehicles used in the North African campaign, the operation revealed that the M3 had several technical faults. Mentioned in the British complaints were the 37 mm M5 gun and poor internal layout. The two-man turret crew was a significant weakness, and some British units tried to fight with three-man turret crews. The Stuart also had a limited range, which was a severe problem in the highly mobile desert warfare as units often outpaced their supplies and were stranded when they ran out of fuel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=335691 | 141,476 |
592,683 | During World War II, the PVDE experienced its most intense period of activity. Neutral Lisbon was the European center of espionage and one of the favourite exile destinations. Writers such as Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond) were based there, while other prominent people such as the Duke of Windsor and the Spanish Royal Family were exiled in Estoril. German spies attempted to buy information on trans-Atlantic shipping to help their submarines fight the Battle of the Atlantic. The Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia, better known as Codename Garbo, passed on misinformation to the Germans, hoping it would hasten the end of the Spanish State—he was recruited by Britain as a double agent while in Lisbon. Conversely, William Colepaugh, an American traitor, was recruited as an agent by the Germans while his ship was in port in Lisbon—he was subsequently landed by U-boat, , in Maine before being captured. In June 1943, a commercial airliner carrying the actor Leslie Howard was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe after taking off from Lisbon, possibly because German spies in Lisbon believed that Prime Minister Winston Churchill was on board. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=705704 | 592,379 |
51,805 | In a paper titled "Death by Pokémon GO", researchers at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management claim the game caused "a disproportionate increase in vehicular crashes and associated vehicular damage, personal injuries, and fatalities in the vicinity of locations, called PokéStops, where users can play the game while driving." Using data from one municipality, the paper extrapolates what that might mean nationwide and concluded "the increase in crashes attributable to the introduction of Pokémon GO is 145,632 with an associated increase in the number of injuries of 29,370 and an associated increase in the number of fatalities of 256 over the period of 6 July 2016, through 30 November 2016." The authors extrapolated the cost of those crashes and fatalities at between $2bn and $7.3 billion for the same period. Furthermore, more than one in three surveyed advanced Internet users would like to edit out disturbing elements around them, such as garbage or graffiti. They would like to even modify their surroundings by erasing street signs, billboard ads, and uninteresting shopping windows. So it seems that AR is as much a threat to companies as it is an opportunity. Although, this could be a nightmare to numerous brands that do not manage to capture consumer imaginations it also creates the risk that the wearers of augmented reality glasses may become unaware of surrounding dangers. Consumers want to use augmented reality glasses to change their surroundings into something that reflects their own personal opinions. Around two in five want to change the way their surroundings look and even how people appear to them. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=85631 | 51,785 |
1,212,341 | In the United States, the established tradition of engineering was explicitly competing with the rising discipline of physics for World War I military largess. A host of inventors, led by Thomas Edison and his newly created Naval Consulting Board, cranked out thousands of inventions to solve military problems and aid the war effort, while academic scientists worked through the National Research Council (NRC) led by Robert Millikan. Submarine detection was the most important problem that both the physicists and inventors hoped to solve, as German U-boats were decimating the crucial naval supply lines from the U.S. to England. Edison's Board produced very few useful innovations, but NRC research resulted in a moderately successful sound-based methods for locating submarines and hidden ground-based artillery, as well as useful navigational and photographic equipment for aircraft. Because of the success of academic science in solving specific military problems, the NRC was retained after the war's end, though it gradually decoupled from the military. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4999816 | 1,211,689 |
2,121,110 | Cortical patterning is a field of developmental neuroscience which aims to determine how the various functional areas of the cerebral cortex are generated, what size and shape they will be, and how their spatial pattern across the surface of the cortex is specified. Early brain lesion studies indicated that different parts of the cortex served different cognitive functions, such as visual, somatosensory, and motor functions, beautifully assimilated by Brodmann in 1909. Today the field supports the idea of a 'protomap', which is a molecular pre-pattern of the cortical areas during early embryonic stages. The protomap is a feature of the cortical ventricular zone, which contains the primary stem cells of the cortex known as radial glial cells. A system of signaling centers, positioned strategically at the midline and edges of the cortex, produce secreted signaling proteins that establish concentration gradients in the cortical primordium. This provides positional information for each stem cell, and regulates proliferation, neurogenesis, and areal identity. After the initial establishment of areal identity, axons from the developing thalamus arrive at their correct cortical areal destination through the process of axon guidance and begin to form synapses. Many activity-dependent processes are then thought to play important roles in the maturation of each area. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51247656 | 2,119,891 |
1,219,070 | A sputum culture is a test to detect and identify bacteria or fungi that infect the lungs or breathing passages. Sputum is a thick fluid produced in the lungs and in the adjacent airways. Normally, fresh morning sample is preferred for the bacteriological examination of sputum. A sample of sputum is collected in a sterile, wide-mouthed, dry, leak-proof and break-resistant plastic-container and sent to the laboratory for testing. Sampling may be performed by sputum being expectorated (produced by coughing), induced (saline is sprayed in the lungs to induce sputum production), or taken via an endotracheal tube with a protected specimen brush (commonly used on patients on respirators) in an intensive care setting. For selected organisms such as Cytomegalovirus or "Pneumocystis jiroveci" in specific clinical settings (immunocompromised patients) a bronchoalveolar lavage might be taken by an experienced pneumologist. If no bacteria or fungi grow, the culture is negative. If organisms that can cause the infection (Pathogenicity organisms) grow, the culture is positive. The type of bacterium or fungus is identified by microscopy, colony morphology and biochemical tests of bacterial growth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3143281 | 1,218,416 |
72,452 | Charles Sherrington published his influential 1906 work "The Integrative Action of the Nervous System" examining the function of reflexes, evolutionary development of the nervous system, functional specialisation of the brain, and layout and cellular function of the central nervous system. In 1942 he coined the term "enchanted loom" as a metaphor for the brain. John Farquhar Fulton, founded the "Journal of Neurophysiology" and published the first comprehensive textbook on the physiology of the nervous system during 1938. Neuroscience during the twentieth century began to be recognised as a distinct unified academic discipline, with David Rioch, Francis O. Schmitt, and Stephen Kuffler playing critical roles in establishing the field. Rioch originated the integration of basic anatomical and physiological research with clinical psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, starting in the 1950s. During the same period, Schmitt established the Neuroscience Research Program, an inter-university and international organisation, bringing together biology, medicine, psychological and behavioural sciences. The word neuroscience itself arises from this program. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=490620 | 72,425 |
1,130,606 | Sheep are sometimes eaten in considerable numbers, especially in the Inner and Outer Hebrides of Scotland (25.9% and 26.8% of nest remains respectively). Differentiating whether a lamb has been caught and killed while alive or scavenged as a carcass is possible if the remains are in good condition. In one examination of 10 such remains in nests in Scotland, it was found that 3 lambs had been taken alive and 7 after they had died. This suggests the majority of lambs are taken as carrion, which is reinforced by the fact that much ungulate carrion found around active nest sites in Scotland is already in a malodorous and putrid state. Domestic goats ("Capra hircus") are occasionally predated as well. Goats slightly outnumbered sheep in the diet of eagles breeding on Corsica, with both domesticated animals making up 20.5% of the diet there and being the most important food source. In North America, lambs and goats were found to comprise less than 1.4% of all prey items. In Montana, it was found that most predation on lambs by golden eagles was committed by juvenile eagles or eagles that failed to breed (which have no need to carry prey to a nest). There it was found that the hunting of domestic stock peaks during wet, cold springs that seemed to adversely effect the local abundance of jackrabbits. Pigs (including feral and domestic varieties) are occasionally taken, especially in insular populations. Studies showed pigs (most certainly taken as carrion) made up to 13.3% of the diet in Corsica and 43.1% on Santa Cruz Island, California. Few wild pigs co-exist with golden eagles but wild boar ("Sus scrofa") (likely only as piglets or carrion) have been taken in Bulgaria. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41302685 | 1,130,025 |
1,214,345 | "Gastonia" was protected by osteoderms, skin ossifications. The neck was covered by at least two bone rings. Usually in ankylosaurs these have the form of "halfrings" leaving the underside unprotected, but with "Gastonia" only two segments seem present, one at each side of the midline, causing Kirkland to refer to them as "quarter rings". Each segment had a pointed keel and a hollow underside. Kirkland stressed that the rump armour was hard to reconstruct because it had not been found in articulation. The sides of the thorax seem to have been covered by about five pairs of large flat triangular spikes. They are recurved and have a deep groove in the rear side. They gradually decline in length to behind, the groove becoming relatively shorter and the base length increasing. According to Kirkland the function of the groove was to receive the front edge of the next spike. Other large flat spikes found, lacked the groove. They were often very curved, the point at a right angle with the base. Kirkland assumed these formed two vertical rows, one at each side of the rump midline. Lower triangular spikes he placed at the sides of the tail, again gradually decreasing to the rear. In between the horizontal and vertical spikes of the rump probably rows of osteoderms were present having the profile of a droplet, with a vertical point at the broader end. The top of the tail had oval plates. The hip region was covered by a large pelvic shield consisting of fused osteoderms. These were patterned as rosettes with a larger plate in the middle, surrounded by at least two rings of smaller plates. Kirkland assumed that four pairs of triangular spikes covered the sides of the pelvic shield also, but this was denied by Paul. The area between all these larger elements was covered by small ossicles, round bony scutes with a diameter of up to two centimetres, hundreds of which have been discovered. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3569131 | 1,213,693 |
740,584 | A 2000 UK systematic review (York) found that water fluoridation was associated with a decreased proportion of children with cavities of 15% and with a decrease in decayed, missing, and filled primary teeth (average decreases was 2.25 teeth). The review found that the evidence was of moderate quality: few studies attempted to reduce observer bias, control for confounding factors, report variance measures, or use appropriate analysis. Although no major differences between natural and artificial fluoridation were apparent, the evidence was inadequate for a conclusion about any differences. A 2007 Australian systematic review used the same inclusion criteria as York's, plus one additional study. This did not affect the York conclusions. A 2011 European Commission systematic review based its efficacy on York's review conclusion. A 2015 Cochrane systematic review estimated a reduction in cavities when water fluoridation was used by children who had no access to other sources of fluoride to be 35% in baby teeth and 26% in permanent teeth. The evidence was of poor quality. A 2020 study in the "Journal of Political Economy" found that water fluoridation significantly improved dental health and labor market outcomes, but had non-significant effects on cognitive ability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=763637 | 740,192 |
851,922 | Constructivists pay close attention to the context of guidance because they believe instruction plays a major role in knowledge retention and transfer. Research studies demonstrate how the context of isolated explanations can have an effect on student-learning outcomes. For example, Hake's (1998) large-scale study demonstrated how post-secondary physics students recalled less than 30% of material covered in a traditional lecture-style class. Similarly, other studies illustrate how students construct different understandings from explanation in isolation versus having a first experience with the material. A first, experience with the material provides students with a "need to know", which allows learners to reflect on prior experiences with the content, which can help learners construct meaning from instruction. Worked examples are guiding tools that can act as a "need to know" for students. Worked examples provide students with straightforward goals, step-by-step instructions as well as ready-to-solve problems that can help students develop a stronger understanding from instruction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=263104 | 851,468 |
1,614,821 | "Crucibulum" species have light tan to cinnamon-colored fruiting bodies, known as a peridium, that are cup- or crucible-shaped. Depending on the species, the size of the peridium may range from 2–4 tall by 1.5–3 mm wide at the mouth (for "C. parvulum") to 5–10 mm tall by 5–8 mm wide (for "C. laeve"). Viewed microscopically, the wall of the peridium is made of a single layer of tissue, in contrast to the three-layered peridium wall in "Cyathus" species. The outer surface of the peridium has hyphae that agglutinate so as to form a texture with visible filaments, a condition known as fibrillose; this outer layers of hairs typically wears off with age to leave a relatively smooth surface. Young specimens have a thin layer of tissue called an epiphragm that covers the top of the peridium; it wears off at maturity to expose the peridioles within. There are usually 4–6 peridioles (up to 15 have been noted for "C. laeve") that are disc-shaped, whitish in color, and attached to the endoperidium by a strand called a funicular cord. Made of mycelia, The funicular cord tends to wither away and disappear as the fruiting body ages. Spores from "Crucibulum" species typically have an elliptical or roughly spherical shape, and are thick-walled, translucent (hyaline) or light yellow-brown in color, with dimensions of 5–15 by 5–8 µm. the spores of "C. cyathiforme" are notably slightly or strongly curved. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20942959 | 1,613,915 |
1,483,878 | Ecological interface design was proposed as a framework for interface design by Kim Vicente and Jens Rasmussen in the late 1980s and early 1990s following extensive research into human-system reliability at the Risø National Laboratory in Denmark (Rasmussen & Vicente "et al", 1989; Vicente, 2001). The term ecological in EID originates from a school of psychology developed by James J. Gibson known as ecological psychology. This field of psychology focuses on human-environment relationships, in particular in relation to human perception in actual environments rather than in laboratory environments. EID borrows from ecological psychology in that the constraints and relationships of the work environment in a complex system are reflected perceptually (through an interface) in order to shape user behaviour. In order to develop ecological designs, analytical tools developed earlier by researchers at the Risø National Laboratory were adopted, including the Abstraction Hierarchy (AH) and the Skills, Rules, Knowledge (SRK) framework. The EID framework was first applied and evaluated in nuclear power plant systems (Vicente & Rasmussen, 1990, 1992). These tools are also used in cognitive work analysis. To date, EID has been applied in a variety of complex systems including computer network management, anaesthesiology, military command and control, and aircraft (Vicente, 2002; Burns & Hajdukiewicz, 2004). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3216623 | 1,483,042 |
1,598,808 | The idea of cyber manufacturing originates from the fact that Internet-enabled services have added business value in economic sectors such as retail, music, consumer products, transportation, and healthcare. However, compared to existing Internet-enabled sectors, manufacturing assets are less connected and less accessible in real-time. Besides, current manufacturing enterprises make decisions following a top-down approach: from overall equipment effectiveness to assignment of production requirements, without considering the condition of machines. This usually leads to inconsistency in operation management due to lack of linkage between factories, possible overstock in spare part inventory, as well as unexpected machine downtime. Such situation calls for connectivity between machines as a foundation, and analytics on top of that as a necessity to translate raw data into information that actually facilitates user decision making. Expected functionalities of cyber manufacturing systems include machine connectivity and data acquisition, machine health prognostics, fleet-based asset management, and manufacturing reconfigurability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49997022 | 1,597,908 |
822,271 | The United States National Cooperative Highway Research Program initiated a research project to help state agencies improve their use of roughness measuring equipment. The work was continued by The World Bank to determine how to compare or convert data obtained from different countries (mostly developing countries) involved in World Bank projects. Findings from the World Bank testing showed that most equipment in use could produce useful roughness measures on a single scale if methods were standardized. The roughness scale that was defined and tested was eventually named the International Roughness Index. The IRI is used in managing pavement assets, as well as sometimes in evaluating new construction to determine bonus/penalty payments for contractors or for identifying specific locations where repairs or improvements (e.g., grinding or resurfacing) are recommended. The IRI is also a key determinant of vehicle operating costs which are used to determine the economic viability of road improvement projects. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26458823 | 821,830 |
1,708,909 | Lycopene is one of the most important carotene molecules because it is capable of producing both β-carotene and other carotenoids, well known for their potent anti-oxidant activities. As such, β-carotene and other carotenoids play crucial roles for oxidative stress reduction and cardiovascular protection. Carotenoids have highly efficient antioxidant scavenging activities against ROS (reactive oxygen species), such as singlet-oxygen and free radicals. Therefore, they have the ability to prevent chronic diseases such as cancer, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases and myocardial infarction. Lycopene is considered a very important and relevant source to human health. A case study by Weilian Hu and his colleagues in 2013 showed that the administration of lycopene in adult mice appeared to improve the activity of antioxidant enzyme. They have reported that, the administration of "Blakeslea trispora" powder, which contains high amounts of lycopene has the potential to protect the liver, brain, kidney and skin against oxidative stress. This is done by reducing the concentration of ROS and by enhancing the activities of the antioxidant enzyme. Furthermore, they are further investigating whether the fungus "Blakeslea trispora" could be a potent effector of anti-aging because of its ability to efficiently mass-produce amounts of lycopene. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11322427 | 1,707,950 |
614,098 | First published in the U.S. in 2005, Code Name God (Crossroads Publishing ) is a distillation of Bhaumik's central thesis that the discoveries of modern physics can be reconciled with the great truths of the world religions when those truths are viewed as elements of what Aldous Huxley called "The Perennial Philosophy." In particular, Bhaumik finds strong support in advanced physics and cosmology for the Neo-Platonic notion of "the One" (identified here as "The Source"), and conjectures that this existential source may reside in what is known as the quantum vacuum state and be in some manner co-eternal and co-equal with human consciousness. The book and its premise have been praised by luminaries of both the literary and scientific words, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who wrote, "This example of a personal spiritual growth ... and re-evaluation of material values ... arouses very warm feelings. God is one and there are no major differences between religions." Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, wrote "... the attempt to find common ground between Eastern spirituality and Western science is eloquently told and makes for fascinating reading." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4877968 | 613,786 |
1,591,121 | This gene belongs to the A/B subfamily of ubiquitously expressed heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs). The hnRNPs are RNA binding proteins and they complex with heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA). These proteins are associated with pre-mRNAs in the nucleus and appear to influence pre-mRNA processing and other aspects of mRNA metabolism and transport. While all of the hnRNPs are present in the nucleus, some seem to shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The hnRNP proteins have distinct nucleic acid binding properties. The protein encoded by this gene has two repeats of quasi-RRM domains that bind to RNAs in the N-terminal domain which are pivotal for RNA specificity and binding. The protein also has a glycine rich arginine-glycine-glycine (RGG) region called the RGG box which enables protein and RNA binding. It affects many critical genes that are responsible for controlling metabolic pathways at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translation, and post-translation levels. It is one of the most abundant core proteins of hnRNP complexes and it is localized to the nucleoplasm. This protein, along with other hnRNP proteins, is exported from the nucleus, probably bound to mRNA, and is immediately re-imported. Its M9 nuclear localisation sequence (NLS), a glycine rich region downstream from the RGG box, acts as both a nuclear localization and nuclear export signal. The encoded protein is involved in the packaging of pre-mRNA into hnRNP particles, transport of poly A+ mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, and may modulate splice site selection. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene but only two transcripts are fully described. These variants have multiple alternative transcription initiation sites and multiple polyA sites. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14118832 | 1,590,227 |
1,193,971 | A promising strategy for the construction of DNA-encoded libraries is represented by the use of multifunctional building blocks covalently conjugated to an oligonucleotide serving as a “core structure” for library synthesis. In a ‘pool-and-split’ fashion a set of multifunctional scaffolds undergo orthogonal reactions with series of suitable reactive partners. Following each reaction step, the identity of the modification is encoded by an enzymatic addition of DNA segment to the original DNA “core structure”. The use of "N"-protected amino acids covalently attached to a DNA fragment allow, after a suitable deprotection step, a further amide bond formation with a series of carboxylic acids or a reductive amination with aldehydes. Similarly, diene carboxylic acids used as scaffolds for library construction at the 5’-end of amino modified oligonucleotide, could be subjected to a Diels-Alder reaction with a variety of maleimide derivatives. After completion of the desired reaction step, the identity of the chemical moiety added to the oligonucleotide is established by the annealing of a partially complementary oligonucleotide and by a subsequent Klenow fill-in DNA-polymerization, yielding a double stranded DNA fragment. The synthetic and encoding strategies described above enable the facile construction of DNA-encoded libraries of a size up to 10 member compounds carrying two sets of “building blocks”. However the stepwise addition of at least three independent sets of chemical moieties to a tri-functional core building block for the construction and encoding of a very large DNA-encoded library (comprising up to 10 compounds) can also be envisaged.(Fig.2) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22810768 | 1,193,331 |
464,922 | Thermal degradation of DOC has been found at high-temperature hydrothermal ridge-flanks, where outflow DOC concentrations are lower than in the inflow. While the global impact of these processes has not been investigated, current data suggest it is a minor DOC sink. Abiotic DOC flocculation is often observed during rapid (minutes) shifts in salinity when fresh and marine waters mix. Flocculation changes the DOC chemical composition, by removing humic compounds and reducing molecular size, transforming DOC to particulate organic flocs which can sediment and/or be consumed by grazers and filter feeders, but it also stimulates the bacterial degradation of the flocculated DOC. The impacts of flocculation on the removal of DOC from coastal waters are highly variable with some studies suggesting it can remove up to 30% of the DOC pool, while others find much lower values (3–6%;). Such differences could be explained by seasonal and system differences in the DOC chemical composition, pH, metallic cation concentration, microbial reactivity, and ionic strength. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4236528 | 464,692 |
7,990 | One reason that the A380 did not achieve commercial viability for Airbus has been attributed to its extremely large capacity being optimised for a hub-and-spoke system, which was projected by Airbus to be thriving when the programme was conceived. However, airlines underwent a fundamental transition to a point-to-point system, which gets customers to their destination in one flight instead of two or three. The massive scale of the A380 design was able to achieve a very low cost for passenger seat-distance, but efficiency within the hub-and-spoke paradigm was not able to overcome the efficiency of fewer flights required in the point-to-point system. Specifically, US based carriers had been using a multihub strategy, which only justified the need for a handful of VLAs ("very large aircraft" with more than 400 seats) such as the A380, and having too few VLAs meant that they could not achieve economy of scale to spread out the enormous fixed cost of the VLA support infrastructure. Consequently, orders for VLAs slowed in the mid-2010s, as widebody twin jets now offer similar range and greater fuel efficiency, giving airlines more flexibility at a lower upfront cost. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=181173 | 7,987 |
177,908 | At the Cowles Commission, Simon's main goal was to link economic theory to mathematics and statistics. His main contributions were to the fields of general equilibrium and econometrics. He was greatly influenced by the marginalist debate that began in the 1930s. The popular work of the time argued that it was not apparent empirically that entrepreneurs needed to follow the marginalist principles of profit-maximization/cost-minimization in running organizations. The argument went on to note that profit maximization was not accomplished, in part, because of the lack of complete information. In decision-making, Simon believed that agents face uncertainty about the future and costs in acquiring information in the present. These factors limit the extent to which agents may make a fully rational decision, thus they possess only "bounded rationality" and must make decisions by "satisficing", or choosing that which might not be optimal, but which will make them happy enough. Bounded rationality is a central theme in behavioral economics. It is concerned with the ways in which the actual decision-making process influences decision. Theories of bounded rationality relax one or more assumptions of standard expected utility theory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14205 | 177,815 |
350,842 | Symptoms include rapid weight gain, particularly of the trunk and face with sparing of the limbs (central obesity). Common signs include the growth of fat pads along the collarbone, on the back of the neck ("buffalo hump" or lipodystrophy), and on the face ("moon face"). Other symptoms include excess sweating, dilation of capillaries, thinning of the skin (which causes easy bruising and dryness, particularly the hands) and mucous membranes, purple or red striae (the weight gain in Cushing's syndrome stretches the skin, which is thin and weakened, causing it to hemorrhage) on the trunk, buttocks, arms, legs, or breasts, proximal muscle weakness (hips, shoulders), and hirsutism (facial male-pattern hair growth), baldness and/or extremely dry and brittle hair. In rare cases, Cushing's can cause hypocalcemia. The excess cortisol may also affect other endocrine systems and cause, for example, insomnia, inhibited aromatase, reduced libido, impotence in men, and amenorrhoea, oligomenorrhea and infertility in women due to elevations in androgens. Studies have also shown that the resultant amenorrhea is due to hypercortisolism, which feeds back onto the hypothalamus resulting in decreased levels of GnRH release. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=92373 | 350,659 |
351,011 | In the Cretaceous, the climate was hot and humid with lush forests at the poles, there was no permanent ice and sea levels were around 300 metres higher than today. This continued for the first 10 million years of the Paleocene, culminating in the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum about . Around Earth entered a period of long term cooling. This was mainly due to the collision of India with Eurasia, which caused the rise of the Himalayas: the upraised rocks eroded and reacted with in the air, causing a long-term reduction in the proportion of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Around permanent ice began to build up on Antarctica. The cooling trend continued in the Miocene, with relatively short warmer periods. When South America became attached to North America creating the Isthmus of Panama around , the Arctic region cooled due to the strengthening of the Humboldt and Gulf Stream currents, eventually leading to the glaciations of the Quaternary ice age, the current interglacial of which is the Holocene Epoch. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5816 | 350,828 |
1,005,774 | The latest innovations in weapons and tactics were adopted and refined by Philip II, and he created a uniquely flexible and effective army. By introducing military service as a full-time occupation, Philip was able to drill his men regularly, ensuring unity and cohesion in his ranks. In a remarkably short time, this led to the creation of one of the finest military machines of the ancient world. Tactical improvements included the latest developments in the deployment of the traditional Greek phalanx made by men such as Epaminondas of Thebes and Iphicrates of Athens. Philip II improved on these military innovators by using both Epaminondas' deeper phalanx and Iphicrates' combination of a longer spear and smaller and lighter shield. However, the Macedonian king also innovated; he introduced the use of a much longer spear, the two-handed pike. The Macedonian pike, the sarissa, gave its wielder many advantages both offensively and defensively. For the first time in Greek warfare, cavalry became a decisive arm in battle. The Macedonian army perfected the co-ordination of different troop types, an early example of combined arms tactics — the heavy infantry phalanx, skirmish infantry, archers, light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and siege engines were all deployed in battle; each troop type being used to its own particular advantage and creating a synergy of mutual support. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2529634 | 1,005,255 |
95,855 | One of the main goals during the Jupiter encounter was observing its atmospheric conditions and analyzing the structure and composition of its clouds. Heat-induced lightning strikes in the polar regions and "waves" that indicate violent storm activity were observed and measured. The Little Red Spot, spanning up to 70% of Earth's diameter, was imaged from up close for the first time. Recording from different angles and illumination conditions, "New Horizons" took detailed images of Jupiter's faint ring system, discovering debris left over from recent collisions within the rings or from other unexplained phenomena. The search for undiscovered moons within the rings showed no results. Travelling through Jupiter's magnetosphere, "New Horizons" collected valuable particle readings. "Bubbles" of plasma that are thought to be formed from material ejected by the moon Io were noticed in the magnetotail. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=390905 | 95,814 |
1,926,193 | The assumption that energy measured in calories can be used as a universal measure of nutritional cost is criticized by a number of scientists on the basis of essential nutrients, nutrients that the body cannot produce regardless of calorie availability and the specific nutrients must be present in the diet. It is argued that since there are different dietary conditions in which different essential nutrients are the most scarce in different regions and the few foods that contain the scarcest nutrients that are needed to avoid deficit diseases are therefore the most expensive (the cost may be paid in the form of other goods and services in societies without money), and different functions in the body primarily consume different essential nutrients, no universal ranking of the costs of different aspects of reproduction can be made. For example, it is possible for the few micronutrients that men consume more of the more sperm they produce but the consumption of which does not increase in women during pregnancy or lactation to be the scarcest nutrients contained in the most expensive food in some societies, making sperm production effectively more expensive than pregnancy and lactation under local food prices in such societies. It is also argued that the variability of what food is the most valuable due to containing the rarest essential nutrients extend their effects to the economical significance ratio between hunting and gathering in the case of hunter-gatherer societies, and therefore that any attempt to circumvent the evolutionary psychology paradox of men not being able to be in two places at the same time to hunt and protect his family by reference to hiring guards by bartering meat would fail to make sex roles universal due to the difference between regions where the rarest essential nutrients were contained in one or more types of meat and regions where the rarest such nutrients were contained in some types of plants. It is cited in this context that humans evolved over relatively large parts of Africa with different food ecologies, making it impossible for humans to have specialized evolutionarily for one specific food cost ratio. This variability of food value ratios within Africa may have prepared humans evolutionarily to be able to leave Africa. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58645929 | 1,925,089 |
297,904 | An issue that affects all the international partners in the F-35 involves access to the computer software code for the aircraft. The F-35 relies heavily on software for operation of radar, weapons, flight controls and also maintenance. The U.S. military has stated that "no country involved in the development of the jets will have access to the software codes" and has indicated that all software upgrades will be done in the U.S. The U.S. government acknowledges that Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey have all expressed dissatisfaction with that unilateral U.S. decision. The UK specifically indicated they might cancel its entire order of F-35s without access to the coding, without which the nation will be unable to maintain its own aircraft. Allen Sens, a defence analyst at the University of British Columbia stated in November 2009: "What has happened is really quite unusual because we're talking about some of America's very close allies. You would have thought they could build in some maintenance codes that could be accessible to their allies." Sens indicated that the decision could be as a result of concerns about software security and also pressure from Congress to protect jobs in the U.S. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28702755 | 297,744 |
131,912 | Al-Biruni was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist, and linguist. He studied almost all the sciences of his day and was rewarded abundantly for his tireless research in many fields of knowledge. Royalty and other powerful elements in society funded Al-Biruni's research and sought him out with specific projects in mind. Influential in his own right, Al-Biruni was himself influenced by the scholars of other nations, such as the Greeks, from whom he took inspiration when he turned to the study of philosophy. A gifted linguist, he was conversant in Khwarezmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and also knew Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. He spent much of his life in Ghazni, then capital of the Ghaznavids, in modern-day central-eastern Afghanistan. In 1017 he travelled to the Indian subcontinent and wrote a treatise on Indian culture entitled "Tārīkh al-Hind" (History of India), after exploring the Hindu faith practiced in India. He was, for his time, an admirably impartial writer on the customs and creeds of various nations, his scholarly objectivity earning him the title "al-Ustadh" ("The Master") in recognition of his remarkable description of early 11th-century India. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=271975 | 131,860 |
237,245 | College of Science professors Nicanor Austriaco and Bernhard Egwolf are members of the OCTA Research team that is associated with forecasts and analyses of the country's COVID-19 situation. They also developed an epidemiological model, UST CoV-2 Model, which released COVID-19 cases and death projections in Metro Manila. In the early part of the pandemic, the study recommended the need to increase the daily testing capacity that would potentially control the outbreak. Austriaco is currently conducting experiments on a yeast-based oral COVID-19 vaccine. A study group from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery proposed a strategy to the government entitled, War Plan Mayon, to combat the pandemic through herd immunity. Faculty of Engineering professor Anthony James Bautista invented the LISA robot (Logistic Indoor Service), a telepresence and service assistant robot that delivers medicine and allows medical workers to manage isolated patients in the UST Hospital. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=731199 | 237,126 |
659,429 | Schenker himself usually began his analyses with a rhythmic reduction that he termed "Urlinietafel". From 1925 onwards, he complemented these with other levels of representation, corresponding to the successive steps leading to the fundamental structure. At first, he mainly relied on the size of the note shapes to denote their hierarchic level, but later abandoned this system as it proved too complex for contemporary techniques of musical engraving. Allen Cadwallader and David Gagné propose a description of Schenker's system of graphic notation which, they say, "is flexible, enabling musicians to express in subtle (and sometimes different) ways what they hear and how they interpret a composition". They discuss open noteheads, usually indicating the highest structural level, and filled-in noteheads for tones of lower levels; slurs, grouping tones in an arpeggio or in linear motions with passing or neighbor tones; beams, for linear motions of higher structural level or for the arpeggiation of the bass; broken ties, for repeated or sustained tones; diagonal lines to realign displaced notes; diagonal beams, connecting successive notes that belong to the same chord ("unfolding"); etc. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=211261 | 659,084 |
116,097 | Financial incentives for photovoltaics, such as feed-in tariffs (FITs), are often been offered to electricity consumers to install and operate solar-electric generating systems, and in some countries such subsidies are the only way photovoltaics can remain economically profitable. In Germany FIT subsidies are generally around €0.13 above the normal retail price of a kWh (€0.05). PV FITs have been crucial for the adoption of the industry, and are available to consumers in over 50 countries as of 2011. Germany and Spain have been the most important countries regarding offering subsidies for PV, and the policies of these countries have driven demand in the past. Some US solar cell manufacturing companies have repeatedly complained that the dropping prices of PV module costs have been achieved due to subsidies by the government of China, and the dumping of these products below fair market prices. US manufacturers generally recommend high tariffs on foreign supplies to allow them remain profitable. In response to these concerns, the Obama administration began to levy tariffs on US consumers of these products in 2012 to raise prices for domestic manufacturers. The USA, however, also subsidies the industry, offering consumers a 30% federal tax credit to purchase modules. In Hawaii federal and state subsidies chop off up to two thirds of the installation costs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=652531 | 116,052 |
2,240,509 | The libraries house over 4.5 million print volumes, including nearly 124,000 serial titles, and over 5.5 million microform items. Holdings also include approximately 250,000 maps in the Maps & GIS Library, and over of archival and manuscript collections in the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, including approximately 170,000 printed volumes, over 50,000 photographs, over 200 original works of art, hundreds of individual artifacts, and other works on film, tape, CD, and other media. The Media & Reserves desk houses popular and academic films on DVD, VHS, and Blu-ray, popular and academic music on CDs, and textbooks for many classes on Course Reserve. Patrons can suggest a purchase for new library acquisitions (popular or academic). The library also provides extensive online resources, including more than 12,500 electronic journals and newspapers, over 700 databases, and over 1 million eBooks. Most databases and electronic books are available remotely to students in their dorms, faculty in their offices, or affiliated patrons conducting remote work. Most collections are included in LibCat, the Libraries' catalog, or the Texas A&M Medical Sciences Library catalog. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8958419 | 2,239,238 |
892,503 | Traditionally, a sucrose solution with a defined concentration was used to calibrate polarimeters relating the amount of sugar molecules to the light polarization rotation. The International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA) played a key role in unifying analytical methods for the sugar industry, set standards for the International Sugar Scale (ISS) and the specifications for polarimeters in sugar industry. However, sugar solutions are prone to contamination and evaporation. Moreover, the optical rotation of a substance is very sensitive to temperature. A more reliable and stable standard was found: crystalline quartz which is oriented and cut in a way that it matches the optical rotation of a normal sugar solution, but without showing the disadvantages mentioned above. Quartz (silicon dioxide, SiO) is a common mineral, a trigonal chemical compound of silicon and oxygen. Nowadays, quartz plates or quartz control plates of different thickness serve as standards to calibrate polarimeters and saccharimeters. In order to ensure reliable and comparable results, quartz plates can be calibrated and certified by metrology institutes. However. Alternatively, calibration may be checked using a Polarization Reference Standard, which consists of a plate of quartz mounted in a holder perpendicular to the light path. These standards are available, traceable to NIST, by contacting Rudolph Research Analytical, located at 55 Newburgh Road, Hackettstown, NJ 07840, USA. A calibration first consists of a preliminary test in which the fundamental calibration capability is checked. The quartz control plates must meet the required minimum requirements with respect to their dimensions, optical pureness, flatness, parallelism of the faces and optical axis errors. After that, the actual measurement value - the optical rotation - is measured with the precision polarimeter. The measurement uncertainty of the polarimeter amounts to 0.001° (k=2). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3259030 | 892,034 |
171,858 | The flight plan for the third day in space was to have the commander and lunar module pilot enter the LM to check out its systems and use its descent engine to move the entire spacecraft. The descent engine was the backup to the SPS; the ability to use it in this manner would prove critical on Apollo 13. The flight plan was thrown into question when Schweickart, suffering from space adaptation sickness, vomited, while McDivitt felt queasy as well. They had been avoiding sudden physical motions, but the contortion-like maneuvers to don their space suits for the LM checkout caused them to feel ill. The experience would teach the doctors enough about the sickness to have the astronauts avoid it on the lunar landings, but at the time Schweickart feared his vomiting might endanger Kennedy's goal. They were well enough to continue with the day's plan, and entered the LM, thus transferring between vehicles for the first time in the US space program, and making the first ever transfer without needing to spacewalk, as Soviet cosmonauts had. The hatches were then closed, though the modules remained docked, showing that "Spider" communications and life support systems would work in isolation from those of "Gumdrop". On command, the landing legs sprang into the position they would assume for landing on the Moon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1774 | 171,767 |
535,126 | In response the British adopted counter-insurgency tactics, including a scorched earth policy involving the burning of houses and crops, the establishment of concentration camps for Boer women and children, and a system of blockhouses and field obstacles to limit Boer mobility and to protect railway communications. Such measures required considerable expenditure, and caused much bitterness towards the British, however they soon yielded results. By mid-1901, the bulk of the fighting was over, and British mounted units would ride at night to attack Boer farmhouses or encampments, overwhelming them with superior numbers. Indicative of warfare in last months of 1901, the New South Wales Mounted Rifles travelled and were involved in 13 skirmishes, killing 27 Boers, wounding 15, and capturing 196 for the loss of five dead and 19 wounded. Other notable Australian actions included Slingersfontein, Pink Hill, Rhenosterkop and Haartebeestefontein. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1323516 | 534,847 |
617,083 | The implantable artificial kidney is a second project that is being co-developed by a nephrologist named William H. Fissell IV, MD, from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with Professor Shuvo Roy from the University of California, San Francisco. Fissell and his colleagues have been working on the implantable artificial kidney for over a decade but recently received a 6-million-dollar grant in November 2015 to further continue the research and development of the project. The goal of this project is to create a bio-hybrid device that can imitate the functions of a healthy kidney by removing enough waste products to keep a patient from needing dialysis treatment. The key to the success of this device is the use of silicon nanotechnology and the microchip which is porous and can act as a natural filter. Fissell and his team have designed each pore (of the filter) to perform a specific function or task. The microchips will also act as a platform for which living kidney cells will reside and grow on and around the filters with the goal of imitating the natural functions of the kidney. The bio-hybrid device will not be in reach of the body's immune response which allows it to be protected against being rejected by the patient's body. The device will be designed to be small enough to fit inside a patient's body that will successfully operate with the patient's natural blood flow. Fissell and his research team continue to make progress and they expected the implantable artificial kidney would enter human trials by 2017. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2400647 | 616,769 |
1,688,232 | Lukács in 1930 had a similar experience in his reading of the then recently deciphered "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844" on which he subsequently commented: "the overwhelming effect produced in me by Marx's statement that objectivity was the primary material attribute of all things and relations... that objectification is a natural means by which man masters the world and as such can be either a positive or a negative fact... it became clear to us that even the best and most capable Marxists, like Plekhanov and Mehring, had not had a sufficiently profound grasp of the universal nature of Marxism. They failed, therefore, to understand that Marx confronts us with the necessity of erecting a systematic aesthetics on the foundations of dialectical materialism." It was in this period that Lukacs began his twin study of The Young Hegel and The Destruction of Reason on the one hand looking at the contribution Hegel made to the rational scientific basis of dialectical materialism and on the other how in a direct reaction to the development of Marxism the irrationalist elements of Hegel's thought were promoted and the revolutionary critical element dismembered in the process of the degeneration of bourgeois philosophy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44379811 | 1,687,286 |
545,322 | IE has been the focus of the MUC conferences. The proliferation of the Web, however, intensified the need for developing IE systems that help people to cope with the enormous amount of data that are available online. Systems that perform IE from online text should meet the requirements of low cost, flexibility in development and easy adaptation to new domains. MUC systems fail to meet those criteria. Moreover, linguistic analysis performed for unstructured text does not exploit the HTML/XML tags and the layout formats that are available in online texts. As a result, less linguistically intensive approaches have been developed for IE on the Web using wrappers, which are sets of highly accurate rules that extract a particular page's content. Manually developing wrappers has proved to be a time-consuming task, requiring a high level of expertise. Machine learning techniques, either supervised or unsupervised, have been used to induce such rules automatically. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=383162 | 545,038 |
2,245,325 | Women in Manufacturing (WiM) is a national trade association headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, that promotes and supports women who are pursuing or have chosen a career in manufacturing. It is the only national trade association dedicated to providing year-round support to women in manufacturing careers, representing more than 12,000 members from 48 U.S. states and from 40 countries. WiM encompasses manufacturers of all types and welcomes individuals from every job function – from production to the C-Suite. Membership is available to women and men working within or with the manufacturing sector. WiM presently powers year-round virtual learning, bi-annual virtual career fairs, executive networking group services, a robust job board called WiMWorks, 20 meetings and conferences annually, 30 local U.S. chapters and 3 formal professional development programs. Our first international activity is scheduled to be held at EUROBLECH 2022 in Germany where we have our largest population of international members. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54723440 | 2,244,053 |
709,035 | Work resumed on 30 July 2021 to outfit "Nauka" and tie its computers into the ISS. Novitsky and Dubrov performed leak checks before they started opening hatches between the modules. Once the hatch was opened, cables were connected and laptops were set up and connected to the station's routers. Then the cosmonauts connected the plumbing and the waste and fuel lines to the station, and disabled "Nauka"s engines to prevent them from firing until they were connected to the station's computers. They also set up sleeping quarters for the crew that were to arrive shortly, activated experiments and turned on environmental control to cool "Nauka" until the RTOd radiator was extracted from "Rassvet" in October. At 17:47 UTC, the hatches were opened and Novitsky and Dubrov entered "Nauka" and made their way into the workshop. They first installed ventilation lines from the U.S. and Russian segments to vent out any stale air remaining from the launch. Next, they activated alarms and smoke detectors and installed gas monitors to check for traces of UDMH and NO following venting the day before. They finished the day by removing unneeded hardware and launch restraints and transferring them to Progress MS-17 for disposal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=977414 | 708,666 |
332,008 | It is natural to ask why ordinary everyday objects and events do not seem to display quantum mechanical features such as superposition. Indeed, this is sometimes regarded as "mysterious", for instance by Richard Feynman. In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger devised a well-known thought experiment, now known as Schrödinger's cat, which highlighted this dissonance between quantum mechanics and classical physics. One modern view is that this mystery is explained by quantum decoherence. A macroscopic system (such as a cat) may evolve over time into a superposition of classically distinct quantum states (such as "alive" and "dead"). The mechanism that achieves this is a subject of significant research, one mechanism suggests that the state of the cat is entangled with the state of its environment (for instance, the molecules in the atmosphere surrounding it), when averaged over the possible quantum states of the environment (a physically reasonable procedure unless the quantum state of the environment can be controlled or measured precisely) the resulting mixed quantum state for the cat is very close to a classical probabilistic state where the cat has some definite probability to be dead or alive, just as a classical observer would expect in this situation. Another proposed class of theories is that the fundamental time evolution equation is incomplete, and requires the addition of some type of fundamental Lindbladian, the reason for this addition and the form of the additional term varies from theory to theory. A popular theory is Continuous spontaneous localization, where the lindblad term is proportional to the spatial separation of the states, this too results in a quasi-classical probabilistic state. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=82728 | 331,831 |
899,649 | Both plastid DNA markers and morphological characters provide evidence that "Anaxagorea" is the sister clade to the rest of the family. This may confirm the hypothesis that morphological traits shared between "Anaxagorea" and other Magnoliales species (such as 2-ranked phyllotaxis, monosulcate pollen, and laminate stamens) represent ancestral characters, while derived characters observed in other genera have evolved independently multiple times. The oldest fossil evidence of Annonaceae is described as the genus "Futabanthus", from the Late Cretaceous (Coniacian) of Japan, which represents a minimum age of c. 89 million years ago for the most recent common ancestor (crown group) of the family. The ages of Annonaceae clades inferred using fossil evidence and molecular clock-based dating techniques suggests that the pantropical distribution of the family originated subsequent to the break-up of the Gondwanan supercontinent, as the result of a combination of geodispersal tracking the expansion of the boreotropical flora during the Eocene and more recent long-distance dispersal events. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=432507 | 899,174 |
949,730 | The remains of large carcasses left by human hunter-gatherers may have led some wolves into entering a migratory relationship with humans. This could have led to their divergence from those wolves that remained in the one territory. A closer relationship between these wolves — or proto-dogs — and humans may have then developed, such as hunting together and mutual defence from other carnivores and other humans. A maternal mDNA, paternal yDNA, and microsatellite assessment of two wolf populations in North America and combined with satellite telemetry data revealed significant genetic and morphological differences between one population that migrated with and preyed upon caribou, and another territorial ecotype population that remained in a boreal coniferous forest. Though these two populations spend a period of the year in the same place, and though there was evidence of gene flow between them, the difference in prey–habitat specialization has been sufficient to maintain genetic and even coloration divergence. A study has identified the remains of a population of extinct Pleistocene Beringian wolves with unique mDNA signatures. The skull shape, tooth wear, and isotopic signatures suggested these were specialist megafauna hunters and scavengers that became extinct while less specialized wolf ecotypes survived. Analogous to the modern wolf ecotype that has evolved to track and prey upon caribou, a Pleistocene wolf population could have begun following mobile hunter-gatherers, thus slowly acquiring genetic and phenotypic differences that would have allowed them to more successfully adapt to the human habitat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5141410 | 949,226 |
1,360,842 | Particle physicists study matter made from fundamental particles whose interactions are mediated by exchange particles known as force carriers. At the beginning of the 1960s a number of these particles had been discovered or proposed, along with theories suggesting how they relate to each other, some of which had already been reformulated as field theories in which the objects of study are not particles and forces, but quantum fields and their symmetries. However, attempts to unify known fundamental forces such as the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force were known to be incomplete. One known omission was that gauge invariant approaches, including non-abelian models such as Yang–Mills theory (1954), which held great promise for unified theories, also seemed to predict known massive particles as massless. Goldstone's theorem, relating to continuous symmetries within some theories, also appeared to rule out many obvious solutions, since it appeared to show that zero-mass particles would have to also exist that were "simply not seen". According to Gerald Guralnik, physicists had "no understanding" how these problems could be overcome in 1964. In 2014, Guralnik and Carl Hagen wrote a paper that contended that even after 50 years there is still widespread misunderstanding, by physicists and the Nobel Committee, of the Goldstone boson role. This paper, published in "Modern Physics Letters A", turned out to be Guralnik's last published work. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24038774 | 1,360,089 |
1,795,342 | Several more state highways were legislated in the next decade, and the legislature passed a law creating the Department of Engineering on March 11, 1907. This new department, in addition to non-highway duties, was to maintain all state highways, including the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road. On March 22, 1909 the "State Highways Act" was passed, taking effect on December 31, 1910 after a successful vote by the people of the state in November. This law authorized the Department of Engineering to issue $18 million in bonds for a "continuous and connected state highway system" that would connect all county seats. To this end, the department created the three-member California Highway Commission on August 8, 1911 to take full charge of the construction and maintenance of this system. As with the 1896 plan by the Bureau of Highways, the Highway Commission traveled the state to determine the best routes, which ended up stretching about 3100 miles (5000 km). Construction began in mid-1912, with groundbreaking on Contract One — now part of SR 82 in San Mateo County — occurring on August 7. Noteworthy portions of the system built by the commission included the Ridge Route in southern California and the Yolo Causeway west from Sacramento. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14299544 | 1,794,333 |
729,727 | Although Newton rejected the wave theory, he noticed its potential to explain colors, including the colors of "thin plates" (e.g., "Newton's rings", and the colors of skylight reflected in soap bubbles), on the assumption that light consists of "periodic" waves, with the lowest frequencies (longest wavelengths) at the red end of the spectrum, and the highest frequencies (shortest wavelengths) at the violet end. In 1672 he published a heavy hint to that effect, but contemporary supporters of the wave theory failed to act on it: Robert Hooke treated light as a periodic sequence of pulses but did not use frequency as the criterion of color, while Huygens treated the waves as individual pulses without any periodicity; and Pardies died young in 1673. Newton himself tried to explain colors of thin plates using the corpuscular theory, by supposing that his corpuscles had the wavelike property of alternating between "fits of easy transmission" and "fits of easy reflection", the distance between like "fits" depending on the color and the medium and, awkwardly, on the angle of refraction or reflection into that medium. More awkwardly still, this theory required thin plates to reflect only at the back surface, although "thick" plates manifestly reflected also at the front surface. It was not until 1801 that Thomas Young, in the Bakerian Lecture for that year, cited Newton's hint, and accounted for the colors of a thin plate as the combined effect of the front and back reflections, which reinforce or cancel each other according to the "wavelength" and the thickness. Young similarly explained the colors of "striated surfaces" (e.g., gratings) as the wavelength-dependent reinforcement or cancellation of reflections from adjacent lines. He described this reinforcement or cancellation as interference. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1141 | 729,343 |
75,107 | The compositions of 1819 and 1820 show a marked advance in development and maturity of style. The unfinished oratorio "Lazarus" (D. 689) was begun in February; later followed, among some smaller works, by the hymn "Der 23. Psalm" (D. 706), the octet "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern" (D. 714), the Quartettsatz in C minor (D. 703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy" in C major for piano (D. 760). In 1820, two of Schubert's operas were staged: "Die Zwillingsbrüder" (D. 647) appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 14 June, and "Die Zauberharfe" (D. 644) appeared at the Theater an der Wien on 21 August. Hitherto, his larger compositions (apart from his masses) had been restricted to the amateur orchestra at the Gundelhof (Brandstätte 5, Vienna), a society which grew out of the quartet-parties at his home. Now he began to assume a more prominent position, addressing a wider public. Publishers, however, remained distant, with Anton Diabelli hesitantly agreeing to print some of his works on commission. The first seven opus numbers (all songs) appeared on these terms; then the commission ceased, and he began to receive parsimonious royalties. The situation improved somewhat in March 1821 when Vogl performed the song "Erlkönig" (D. 328) at a concert that was extremely well received. That month, Schubert composed a Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (D 718), being one of the fifty composers who contributed to the "Vaterländischer Künstlerverein" publication. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44888 | 75,080 |
400,832 | Slayton joined the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, and flew in Europe and the Pacific. He left the Army after World War II, went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from University of Minnesota in 1949, and later joined the Minnesota Air National Guard after working for Boeing as an aeronautical engineer. He joined the United States Air Force, and attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1955. In 1959, he applied to, and was selected as one of the Mercury Seven, NASA's first class of astronauts. Slayton was scheduled to pilot the second U.S. crewed orbital spaceflight, but was grounded in 1962 by atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm. In March 1972, he was medically cleared to fly and was the docking module pilot of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). Slayton continued to work at NASA until 1982. He also helped develop the Space Shuttle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=331454 | 400,633 |
36,556 | Apollo 8 was planned to be the D mission in December 1968, crewed by McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart, launched on a SaturnV instead of two Saturn IBs. In the summer it had become clear that the LM would not be ready in time. Rather than waste the Saturn V on another simple Earth-orbiting mission, ASPO Manager George Low suggested the bold step of sending Apollo8 to orbit the Moon instead, deferring the Dmission to the next mission in March 1969, and eliminating the E mission. This would keep the program on track. The Soviet Union had sent two tortoises, mealworms, wine flies, and other lifeforms around the Moon on September 15, 1968, aboard Zond 5, and it was believed they might soon repeat the feat with human cosmonauts. The decision was not announced publicly until successful completion of Apollo 7. Gemini veterans Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, and rookie William Anders captured the world's attention by making ten lunar orbits in 20 hours, transmitting television pictures of the lunar surface on Christmas Eve, and returning safely to Earth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1461 | 36,544 |
1,379,237 | Bailey represented an agrarianism that stood in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson. He had a vision of suffusing all higher education, including horticulture, with a spirit of public work and integrating "expert knowledge" into a broader context of democratic community action. As a leader of the Country Life Movement, he strove to preserve the American rural civilization, which he thought was a vital and wholesome alternative to the impersonal and corrupting city life. In contrast to other progressive thinkers at the time, he endorsed the family, which, he recognized, played a unique role in socialization. Especially the family farm had a benign influence as a natural cooperative unit where everybody had real duties and responsibilities. The independence it fostered made farmers "a natural correction against organization men, habitual reformers, and extremists". It was necessary to uphold fertility in order to maintain the welfare of future generations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=160679 | 1,378,475 |
15,369 | The researchers concluded that simply extracting the self-doubt before an event occurs helps eliminate feelings of impostorism. It was recommended that the individuals struggling with this experience seek support from friends and family. Although impostor phenomenon is not a pathological condition, it is a distorted system of belief about oneself that can have a powerful negative impact on an individual's valuation of their own worth. Impostor syndrome is not a recognized psychiatric disorder: It is not featured in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual nor is it listed as a diagnosis in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Outside the academic literature, impostor syndrome has become widely discussed, especially in the context of achievement in the workplace. Perhaps because it is not an officially recognized clinical diagnosis, despite the large peer review and lay literature, although there has been a qualitative review, there has never been a published systematic review of the literature on impostor syndrome. Thus, clinicians lack evidence on the prevalence, comorbidities, and best practices for diagnosing and treating impostor syndrome. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2177410 | 15,364 |
795,072 | "Ticonderoga" was back on Dixie station by January 28, and Evans was flying attack missions against Viet Cong insurgents. On that day, his aircraft suffered a electrical failure and he was left with a bomb under his right wing that he was unable to jettison. This made it too dangerous to attempt a landing on the "Ticonderoga", so he was ordered to proceed to Cam Ranh Air Force Base, Evans skidded on the wet Marston Mat runway and went off its end. The bomb did not explode. Evans was taken to the office of the base commander, where a United States Air Force sergeant handed him orders to proceed to Texas for astronaut selection. Once again, Evans endured the battery of medical and psychological tests, and was chosen as one of the 35 finalists to be interviewed at the Rice Hotel. His temporary duty assignment only covered the tests, but BUPERS extended it to March 5, and then turned down his squadron commander's request for a replacement officer. As it happened, Evans did not miss much action, as the "Ticonderoga" departed Subic Bay in the Philippines for Sasebo, Japan, on February 17, but it was back on Dixie Station by March 6. Eleven days later, Evans participated in an attack on Viet Cong units that earned him a Navy Commendation Medal. On March 26, he received word that he had been selected for astronaut training. He was one of the nineteen astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=598426 | 794,647 |
240,160 | Noether's mathematical work has been divided into three "epochs". In the first (1908–1919), she made contributions to the theories of algebraic invariants and number fields. Her work on differential invariants in the calculus of variations, Noether's theorem, has been called "one of the most important mathematical theorems ever proved in guiding the development of modern physics". In the second epoch (1920–1926), she began work that "changed the face of [abstract] algebra". In her classic 1921 paper "Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen" ("Theory of Ideals in Ring Domains"), Noether developed the theory of ideals in commutative rings into a tool with wide-ranging applications. She made elegant use of the ascending chain condition, and objects satisfying it are named "Noetherian" in her honor. In the third epoch (1927–1935), she published works on noncommutative algebras and hypercomplex numbers and united the representation theory of groups with the theory of modules and ideals. In addition to her own publications, Noether was generous with her ideas and is credited with several lines of research published by other mathematicians, even in fields far removed from her main work, such as algebraic topology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=149896 | 240,040 |
935,597 | After the death and decomposition of a fish, otoliths may be preserved within the body of an organism or be dispersed before burial and fossilization. Dispersed otoliths are one of the many microfossils which can be found through a micropalaeontological analysis of a fine sediment. Their stratigraphic significance is minimal, but can still be used to characterize a level or interval. Fossil otoliths are rarely found "in situ" (on the remains of the animal), likely because they are not recognized separately from the surrounding rock matrix. In some cases, due to differences in colour, grain size, or a distinctive shape, they can be identified. These rare cases are of special significance, since the presence, composition, and morphology of the material can clarify the relationship of species and groups. In the case of primitive fish, various fossil material shows that endolymphatic infillings were similar in elemental composition to the rock matrix but were restricted to coarse grained material, which presumably is better for the detection of gravity, displacement, and sound. The presence of these extrinsic grains, in osteostracans, chondrichthyans, and acanthodians indicates a common inner ear physiology and presence of open endolymphatic ducts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2085935 | 935,103 |
4,416 | Armstrong served as project pilot on Century Series fighters, including the North American F-100 Super Sabre A and C variants, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the Convair F-106 Delta Dart. He also flew the Douglas DC-3, Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, North American F-86 Sabre, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the Parasev paraglider research vehicle program. Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft. His first flight in a rocket-powered aircraft was on August 15, 1957, in the Bell X-1B, to an altitude of . On landing, the poorly designed nose landing gear failed, as had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B. He flew the North American X-15 seven times, including the first flight with the Q-ball system, the first flight of the number3 X-15 airframe, and the first flight of the MH-96 adaptive flight control system. He became an employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when it was established on October 1, 1958, absorbing NACA. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21247 | 4,414 |
675,534 | She later joined the University College of Science at the University of Calcutta as a Reader in pure Chemistry. She continued her research on the nature of biologically active compounds found in medicinal plants. At that time, it was very difficult for scientists to work due to fewer funds from the government and Asima had to invest her own money to send samples for analysis outside India. She struggled to get the necessary chemicals and reagents for her research and was barely able to pay her students' salaries. In spite of a huge setback in 1967, when she lost her father and husband within a span of 4 months, Asima Chatterjee came back to science after a few months (she suffered a major health scare herself at the same time). Her co-workers at that time provided her unstinting support and she overcame this trying period and continued her work. Through her research, she developed anti-epileptic, anti-convulsive, and chemotherapy drugs to treat patients. The anti-epileptic drug – 'Ayush-56'- which she developed from Marsilia minuta is her most successful work and till date, it is used commercially. From different types of plants she developed anti-malarial drugs with her team. She also dedicated 40 years of her time to research on cancer and anti-cancer growth drugs. She studied alkaloids, which were used effectively in chemotherapy for cancer patients. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21510773 | 675,181 |
1,096,704 | The sequenced region of "SUBII-TG" was 912 bp long and consists of three largely identical 105 bp open-reading frames. A northern blot analysis revealed that low levels of transcription are detected in microstome cells, while high levels of transcription occur in macrostome cells. Furthermore, when the researchers limited "SUBII-TG" expression in the presence of stomatin (using antisense oligonucleotide methods), a 55% reduction in "SUBII-TG" mRNA correlated with a 51% decrease in transformation, supporting the notion that the gene is at least partially responsible for controlling the transformation in T. vorax. However, very little is known about the "SUBII-TG" gene. Researchers were only able to sequence a portion of the entire open-reading frame, and other candidate genes have not been investigated thoroughly. mRNA and amino acid sequencing indicate that ubiquitin may play a crucial role in allowing transformation to take place as well. However, no known genes in the ubiquitin family have been identified in T. vorax. Finally, the genetic mechanisms of the “tailed” microstome morph are completely unknown. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66793 | 1,096,144 |
873,602 | An electric field is applied across the gel, causing the negatively charged proteins or nucleic acids to migrate across the gel away from the negative electrode (which is the cathode being that this is an electrolytic rather than galvanic cell) and towards the positive electrode (the anode). Depending on their size, each biomolecule moves differently through the gel matrix: small molecules more easily fit through the pores in the gel, while larger ones have more difficulty. The gel is run usually for a few hours, though this depends on the voltage applied across the gel; migration occurs more quickly at higher voltages, but these results are typically less accurate than at those at lower voltages. After the set amount of time, the biomolecules have migrated different distances based on their size. Smaller biomolecules travel farther down the gel, while larger ones remain closer to the point of origin. Biomolecules may therefore be separated roughly according to size, which depends mainly on molecular weight under denaturing conditions, but also depends on higher-order conformation under native conditions. The gel mobility is defined as the rate of migration traveled with a voltage gradient of 1V/cm and has units of cm/sec/V. For analytical purposes, the relative mobility of biomolecules, "R", the ratio of the distance the molecule traveled on the gel to the total travel distance of a tracking dye is plotted versus the molecular weight of the molecule (or sometimes the log of MW, or rather the M, molecular radius). Such typically linear plots represent the standard markers or calibration curves that are widely used for the quantitative estimation of a variety of biomolecular sizes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=102352 | 873,140 |
1,116,204 | Primary EMZL of the central nervous system is an extremely rare disorder. Compared to other central nervous system lymphomas which are highly aggressive, primary EMZL of the central nervous system is a non-aggressive, low-grade lymphoma. In a review of 70 published cases, the disease involved the proliferation of malignant marginal zone B-cells within the dura mater, i.e. thick membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, (56 cases), the brain or spinal parenchyma (6 cases), the brain's cavernous sinusn (4 cases), the brains choroid plexus (3 cases), inside brain Ventricular system[ventricle (1 case), the cerebellopontine angle (2 cases), and the optic nerve (2 cases). Patients (77% female; median age 55 years, ranging from 18 to 78 years) presented with various neurological signs and symptoms depending on the site of involvement. The most common presenting symptoms were headache (30 cases); seizures (22 cases); and visual changes (19 cases). Less commonly, patients presented with paresthesias (i.e. abnormal skin sensations), motor deficits, and ataxias, memory failures, and dizziness. At the time of diagnosis, there was no evidence of EMZL outside of the central nervous system. Malignant cells were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid in 5 of the 19 cases tested for this. Histologically, lesions in the disorder were typical of EMZL in that they consisted of small to medium-sized B-cells that express CD19, CD20, and CD79a) but not CD10, CD23, or cyclin D1 marker proteins along with some plasma cells and a variable number of reactive T-cells. Fifty percent of cases tested for trisomy of chromosome 3 were positive. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21339698 | 1,115,632 |
1,923,671 | In the early 1880s, the doctrine, which envisioned using a combination of cruisers and torpedo boats to defend France and attack enemy merchant shipping, became popular in French naval circles. In early 1886, the supporter Gabriel Charmes published his book ("The Reform of the Navy"), in which he called for small commerce raiding cruisers armed with a pair of guns—sufficient for the task of sinking merchant vessels—and a speed of , which would allow them to escape any stronger vessel. Admiral Théophile Aube, an ardent supporter of the , had become the Naval Minister at the same time. He requested on 1 February 1886 just such a vessel from Marie de Bussy, the Inspector General of Naval Engineering. The following day, de Bussy submitted a set of specifications to meet Aube's requirements; these included a speed of at least , a range of at a speed of , two 138.6 mm guns, and a curved armor deck. Over the following month, de Bussy prepared a more detailed design based on these specifications, which Aube approved on 20 March. Three of the vessels were allocated to the 1887 budget, which included a number of other cruisers, all of which were part of Aube's program to equip the French fleet with a number of commerce raiders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63125847 | 1,922,568 |
338,252 | When the DFT is used for signal spectral analysis, the formula_45 sequence usually represents a finite set of uniformly spaced time-samples of some signal formula_236, where formula_237 represents time. The conversion from continuous time to samples (discrete-time) changes the underlying Fourier transform of formula_238 into a discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT), which generally entails a type of distortion called aliasing. Choice of an appropriate sample-rate (see "Nyquist rate") is the key to minimizing that distortion. Similarly, the conversion from a very long (or infinite) sequence to a manageable size entails a type of distortion called "leakage", which is manifested as a loss of detail (a.k.a. resolution) in the DTFT. Choice of an appropriate sub-sequence length is the primary key to minimizing that effect. When the available data (and time to process it) is more than the amount needed to attain the desired frequency resolution, a standard technique is to perform multiple DFTs, for example to create a spectrogram. If the desired result is a power spectrum and noise or randomness is present in the data, averaging the magnitude components of the multiple DFTs is a useful procedure to reduce the variance of the spectrum (also called a periodogram in this context); two examples of such techniques are the Welch method and the Bartlett method; the general subject of estimating the power spectrum of a noisy signal is called spectral estimation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8811 | 338,072 |
1,011,888 | The earliest methods of holding a reduced fracture involved using splints. These are rigid strips laid parallel to each other alongside the bone. The Ancient Egyptians used wooden splints made of bark wrapped in linen. They also used stiff bandages for support that were probably derived from embalming techniques. The use of plaster of Paris to cover walls is evident, but it seems it was never used for bandages. Ancient Hindus treated fractures with bamboo splints, and the writings of Hippocrates discuss management of fractures in some detail, recommending wooden splints plus exercise to prevent muscle atrophy during the immobilization. The ancient Greeks also used waxes and resins to create stiffened bandages and the Roman Celsus, writing in AD 30, describes how to use splints and bandages stiffened with starch. Arabian doctors used lime derived from sea shells and albumen from egg whites to stiffen bandages. The Italian School of Salerno in the twelfth century recommended bandages hardened with a flour and egg mixture as did Medieval European bonesetters, who used casts made of egg white, flour, and animal fat. By the sixteenth century the famous French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1517–1590), who championed more humane treatments in medicine and promoted the use of artificial limbs, made casts of wax, cardboard, cloth, and parchment that hardened as they dried. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=894250 | 1,011,367 |
123,709 | BIM has the potential to play a vital role in the Nigerian AEC sector. In addition to its potential clarity and transparency, it may help promote standardization across the industry. For instance, Utiome suggests that, in conceptualizing a BIM-based knowledge transfer framework from industrialized economies to urban construction projects in developing nations, generic BIM objects can benefit from rich building information within specification parameters in product libraries, and used for efficient, streamlined design and construction. Similarly, an assessment of the current 'state of the art' by Kori found that medium and large firms were leading the adoption of BIM in the industry. Smaller firms were less advanced with respect to process and policy adherence. There has been little adoption of BIM in the built environment due to construction industry resistance to changes or new ways of doing things. The industry is still working with conventional 2D CAD systems in services and structural designs, although production could be in 3D systems. There is virtually no utilisation of 4D and 5D systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3978080 | 123,658 |
1,041,003 | JPEG-LS is a lossless/near-lossless compression standard for continuous-tone images. Its official designation is ISO-14495-1/ITU-T.87. It is a simple and efficient baseline algorithm which consists of two independent and distinct stages called modeling and encoding. JPEG-LS was developed with the aim of providing a low-complexity lossless and near-lossless image compression standard that could offer better compression efficiency than lossless JPEG. It was developed because at the time, the Huffman coding-based JPEG lossless standard and other standards were limited in their compression performance. Total decorrelation cannot be achieved by first order entropy of the prediction residuals employed by these inferior standards. JPEG-LS, on the other hand, can obtain good decorrelation. Part 1 of this standard was finalized in 1999. Part 2, released in 2003, introduced extensions such as arithmetic coding. The core of JPEG-LS is based on the LOCO-I algorithm, that relies on prediction, residual modeling and context-based coding of the residuals. Most of the low complexity of this technique comes from the assumption that prediction residuals follow a two-sided geometric distribution (also called a discrete Laplace distribution) and from the use of Golomb-like codes, which are known to be approximately optimal for geometric distributions. Besides lossless compression, JPEG-LS also provides a lossy mode ("near-lossless") where the maximum absolute error can be controlled by the encoder. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3748933 | 1,040,460 |
1,447,185 | Calcium nitrite has a great variety of uses. It can be use as antifreeze due to its high solubility, either in solution or powder. It can promote the hydration of minerals in cement using this antifreeze at sub freezing temperature, the operative temperature can be reduced to −20 °C. It also work as metal corrosion inhibitor, so it can protect steel in concrete buildings and structures from rust, to extend life of specific buildings. Nitrite's success as a corrosion inhibitor for the protection of embedded steel in reinforced concrete comes from the "smart" behavior of the AFm phase (AFm is shorthand for a family of hydrated calcium aluminate hydrate phases: aluminate-ferrite-monosubstituent phases); normally it stores nitrite in preference to sulfate, carbonate, and hydroxyl ions so that the nitrite concentrations of pore fluid are low. However, if chloride ingress occurs in service (from sea water or de-icing salt), the AFm undergoes ion exchange, gaining chloride and forming Friedel's salt (Cl-AFm), while releasing soluble nitrite ions to the pore fluid. As a result, the aqueous ratio of [NO]/[Cl] increases which assures corrosion inhibition of embedded steel. The corrosion inhibition mechanism of nitrite in concrete is twofold: on one hand, the concentration of the very corrosive chloride anions (responsible for the pitting corrosion of steel rebars) in the concrete pore water decreases after their uptake into the AFm phases and on the other hand, nitrites also oxidize the Fe ions present around the corroding rebars leading to the precipitation of poorly soluble iron oxy-hydroxides onto the steel surface contributing to its passivation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37271321 | 1,446,369 |
12,830 | Armed hostilities continued on a limited scale after the Six-Day War and escalated into the War of Attrition, an attempt to wear down the Israeli position through long-term pressure. In December 1970, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had signaled in an interview with "The New York Times" that, in return for a total withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, he was ready "to recognize the rights of Israel as an independent state as defined by the Security Council of the United Nations." Gunnar Jarring coincidentally proposed a similar initiative four days later, on February 8, 1971. Egypt responded by accepting much of Jarring's proposals, though differing on several issues, regarding the Gaza Strip, for example, and expressed its willingness to reach an accord if it also implemented the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242. This was the first time an Arab government had gone public declaring its readiness to sign a peace agreement with Israel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34276 | 12,825 |
1,437,361 | Slalom is a technical competitive form of canoeing, and the only whitewater event to appear in the Olympic Games. Racers attempt to make their way from the top to the bottom of a designated section of river as fast as possible, while correctly negotiating gates (a series of double-poles suspended vertically over the river). There are usually 18-25 gates in a race which must be navigated in sequential order. Green gates must be negotiated in a downstream direction, red gates in an upstream direction. The events are typically conducted on Grade/Class II to Grade/Class IV water, but the placement of the gates, and precision necessary to paddle them fast and "clean" (without touching a pole and adding 2 seconds to the total time), makes the moves much harder than the water's difficulty suggests. (Slalom has been described as performing class V moves with class III consequences.) Pro level slalom competitions have specific length ( for kayaks - new rules), width, and weight requirements for the boats, which will be made out of kevlar/fiberglass/carbon fiber composites to be lightweight and have faster hull speed. Plastic whitewater canoes can be used in citizen-level races. In the United States and Canada there are separate slalom organizations and races for decked canoes and open canoes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19085388 | 1,436,552 |
277,706 | At the beginning of the twentieth century, ASW techniques and submarines themselves were primitive. During the First World War, submarines deployed by Imperial Germany proved themselves to be a capable threat to shipping, being capable of striking targets even out in the North Atlantic ocean. Accordingly, multiple nations embarked on research into devising more capable ASW methods, resulting in the introduction of practical depth charges and advances in sonar technology; the adoption of the convoy system also proved to be a decisive tactic. After a lull in progress during the interwar period, the Second World War would see submarine warfare and ASW alike advance rapidly, particularly during the critical Battle of the Atlantic, during which Axis submarines sought to prevent Britain from effectively importing supplies. Techniques such as the Wolfpack achieved initial success, but became increasingly costly as more capable ASW aircraft were introduced. Technologies such as the Naxos radar detector gained only a temporary reprieve until detection apparatus advanced yet again. Intelligence efforts, such as Ultra, had also played a major role in curtailing the submarine threat and guiding ASW efforts towards greater success. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3480866 | 277,556 |
1,199,318 | Fire engineering's roots date back to Ancient Rome, when the Emperor Nero ordered the city to be rebuilt utilizing passive fire protection methods, such as space separation and non-combustible building materials, after a catastrophic fire. The discipline of fire engineering emerged in the early 20th century as a distinct discipline, separate from civil, mechanical and chemical engineering, in response to new fire problems posed by the Industrial Revolution. Fire protection engineers of this era concerned themselves with devising methods to protect large factories, particularly spinning mills and other manufacturing properties. Another motivation to organize the discipline, define practices and conduct research to support innovations was in response to the catastrophic conflagrations and mass urban fires that swept many major cities during the latter half of the 19th century (see city or area fires). The insurance industry also helped promote advancements in the fire engineering profession and the development of fire protection systems and equipment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2195359 | 1,198,677 |
422,049 | The institute also focuses on proficient R&D skills through the efficient use of technology. The institute carries out active research in the fields of Innovative Design and Manufacturing (Embedded System Design, Design of Control Systems, VLSI, CAD/CAM, Design of Smart Structures, MEMS, Intelligent Product Design, Design of Energy Systems); Graphics, Vision and Image Processing (Computer Graphics, Image Processing, Geometric Modelling, Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Biometrics, Simulation, Computer Animation); Advanced Manufacturing (Rapid Prototyping, Micro-Nano Fabrication, Manufacturing Culture); Data and Knowledge Engineering (Computational Linguistics, Data Engineering, Data Engineering, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Parallel Algorithms, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Engineering), Wireless Networks (Wireless Sensor Networks, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks, and IoT), and Biomedical Signal Processing. The Institute carries out research in the form of thesis pursued by its postgraduate students in these areas along with sponsored projects by organisations like the Indian Ordnance Factories carried out by faculty members in some of these areas. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11683699 | 421,843 |
1,024,874 | During the 1880s, the gentleman farmer Alfred Nicholson Leeds collected large fish fossils from loam pits near Peterborough, England. In May 1886 these were inspected by John Whitaker Hulke, who in 1887 partially reported them as the back plates of the stegosaurian "Omosaurus". On 22 August 1888, the American dinosaur expert Professor Othniel Charles Marsh visited Leeds' farm at Eyebury and quickly concluded that the presumed dinosaurian armour in fact represented the skull bones of a giant fish. Within two weeks British fish expert Arthur Smith Woodward examined the specimens and began to prepare a formal description published in 1889. In it he named the species "Leedsichthys problematicus". The generic name "Leedsichthys" means "Leeds' fish", from Greek ἰχθύς, "ichthys", "fish". The fossils found by Leeds gave the fish the specific epithet "problematicus" because the remains were so fragmented that they were extremely hard to recognize and interpret. After a second publication in 1889, objections were raised against the perceived "barbaric" nature of the generic name, which simply attached a non-Latinised British family name to a Classical Greek word. Woodward therefore in 1890 changed the genus name to "Leedsia", resulting in a "Leedsia problematica". However, by modern standards this is a non-valid junior synonym. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1987761 | 1,024,341 |
1,154,391 | As newly elected members of the state senate, Cornell chaired the Committee of Agriculture, and White was the chair of the Committee of Literature, which dealt with educational matters. Hence, both chaired committees with jurisdiction over bills allocating the land grant, which was to be used for instruction in "without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts". Yet their eventual partnership seemed unlikely. Although both valued egalitarianism, science, and education, they had come from two very different backgrounds. Ezra Cornell, a self-made businessman and austere, pragmatic telegraph mogul, made his fortune on the Western Union Telegraph Company stock he received during the consolidation that led to its formation. Cornell, who had been poor for most of his life, suddenly found himself looking for ways that he could do the greatest good for with his money. He wrote, "My greatest care now is how to spend this large income to do the greatest good to those who are properly dependent on me, to the poor and to posterity." Cornell's self-education and hard work would lead him to the conclusion that the greatest end for his philanthropy was in the need of colleges for the teaching of practical pursuits such as agriculture, the applied sciences, veterinary medicine and engineering, and in finding opportunities for the poor to attain such an education. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3601339 | 1,153,781 |
137,435 | Low levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain, have been linked to depression. High levels of estrogen, as in first-generation COCPs, and progestin, as in some progestin-only contraceptives, have been shown to lower the brain serotonin levels by increasing the concentration of a brain enzyme that reduces serotonin. A growing body of research evidence has suggested that hormonal contraception may have an adverse effect on women's psychological health. In 2016, a large Danish study of one million women (followed-up from January 2000 to December 2013) showed that use of COCPs, especially among adolescents, was associated with a statistically significantly increased risk of subsequent depression, although the sizes of the effects are small (for example, 2.1% of the women who took any form of oral birth control were prescribed anti-depressants for the first time, compared to 1.7% of women in the control group). Similarly, in 2018, the findings from a large nationwide Swedish cohort study investigating the effect of hormonal contraception on mental health amongst women (n=815,662, aged 12–30) were published, highlighting an association between hormonal contraception and subsequent use of psychotropic drugs for women of reproductive age. This association was particularly large for young adolescents (aged 12–19). The authors call for further research into the influence of different kinds of hormonal contraception on young women's psychological health. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22623 | 137,379 |
1,958,829 | Lim has completed dozens of radio interviews with the CBC throughout her PhD From 2008 to 2009, Lim's work was part of "POLAR-PALOOZA: Stories from a Changing Planet", a traveling exhibit sponsored by the NSF and NASA. She was the lead guest on the NASA Ames podcast in 2016. A profile of her Mars-simulation colony in Hawaii (BASALT) appeared in the "Chicago Tribune". Lim appeared on the SAGANet/SpaceTV "Ask an Astrobiologist!" streaming program in 2017. She appeared twice on the "Science Friday" radio hour in 2018, contributing a 25-minute segment about undersea volcanic exploration tuned in to by over a million listeners. Lim participated in the Frontiers for Life in Space panel at the MIT Media Lab. She was a judge in the HP "Home Mars" VR competition in 2018. In 2019, she will present the opening lecture of the newly renamed Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59227670 | 1,957,702 |
72,132 | In contrast, bottom-up techniques build or grow larger structures atom by atom or molecule by molecule. These techniques include chemical synthesis, self-assembly and positional assembly. Dual polarisation interferometry is one tool suitable for characterisation of self assembled thin films. Another variation of the bottom-up approach is molecular beam epitaxy or MBE. Researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories like John R. Arthur. Alfred Y. Cho, and Art C. Gossard developed and implemented MBE as a research tool in the late 1960s and 1970s. Samples made by MBE were key to the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect for which the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded. MBE allows scientists to lay down atomically precise layers of atoms and, in the process, build up complex structures. Important for research on semiconductors, MBE is also widely used to make samples and devices for the newly emerging field of spintronics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21488 | 72,105 |
1,134,584 | The methods through which tropical cyclones are forecast have changed with the passage of time. The first known forecasts in the Western Hemisphere were made by Lt. Col. William Reed of the Corps of Royal Engineers at Barbados in 1847. Reed mostly utilized barometric pressure measurements as the basis of his forecasts. Benito Viñes, S.J., introduced a forecast and warning system based on cloud cover changes in Havana during the 1870s. Forecasting hurricane motion was based on tide movements, as well as cloud and barometer changes over time. In 1895, it was noted that cool conditions with unusually high pressure preceded tropical cyclones in the West Indies by several days. Before the early 1900s, most forecasts were done by direct observations at weather stations, which were then relayed to forecast centers via telegraph. It was not until the advent of radio in the early twentieth century that observations from ships at sea were available to forecasters. Despite the issuance of hurricane watches and warnings for systems threatening the coast, forecasting the path of tropical cyclones did not occur until 1920. By 1922, it was known that the winds at to in height above the sea surface within the storms' right front quadrant were representative of a storm's steering, and that hurricanes tended to follow the outermost closed isobar of the subtropical ridge. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11052024 | 1,133,991 |
599,848 | Aside from theft-prevention, the most common use of vehicle tracking is in logistics and transport. These systems make use of GPS(Global Positioning System) and GSM(Global System for Mobile Communication) technology to provide precise and constant location telematics to an individual fleet manager. These systems are typically equipped with features to monitor statistics such as; fuel consumption, average speed, current driver time and location. There has been a recent increase in demand for this technology as EU regulations place increased restrictions on the hours driver are allowed to work in a given day. It is currently limited to 9 hours per day. Companies are legally obligated to install a tachograph in any vehicle that is expected to carry goods. This obligation has led many to attempt to cauterize this potentially onerous obligation, instead turning it into a benefit. Fleet management systems use GPS & GSM technology. Much like other forms of trackers, although due to their nature they are equipped with more thorough diagnostic features. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25143921 | 599,542 |
1,381,781 | Cells of Lobular Neoplasia (LN), including both Atypical Lobular Hyperplasia and LCIS, and ILC share common genetic alterations, perhaps accounting, in part, for the similarities in histologic appearance. Classic LCIS and invasive lobular lesions are low-grade ER and PR-positive cancers, referring to the positive expression of Estrogen and Progesterone receptors on the neoplastic cells (determined via immunohistochemistry). These entities are also both classically negative for HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2). These hormone and growth factor receptors are clinically significant, as they represent targets for chemotherapy. Chromosomal alterations have also been consistently observed between LCIS and ILC – namely, loss of 16q and gain of 1q, referring to the loss of the long arm (designated q) of chromosome 16 and an extra copy of the long arm of chromosome 1. Furthermore, e-cadherin, the transmembrane protein mediating epithelial cell adhesion, exhibits loss of expression on LN cells, and P120 Catenin exhibits cytoplasmic reactivity. The mechanism for these findings is explained by E-cadherin normally interacting with p120 catenin in the cytoplasm. When e-cadherin is lost, p120 cadherin builds up in the cytoplasm of the neoplastic cells – thus, producing a positive reaction in immunohistochemical testing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18403722 | 1,381,018 |
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