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348,365 | In the 1990s it became apparent that the old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh buildings in Lauriston Place were no longer adequate for a modern teaching hospital. Donald Dewar, the Scottish Secretary at the time, authorized a joint project between private finance, local authorities, and the university to create a modern hospital and medical campus in the Little France area of Edinburgh. The new campus was named the BioQuarter. The Chancellor's Building was opened on 12 August 2002 by Prince Philip, housing the new Edinburgh Medical School alongside the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 2007, the campus saw the addition of the Euan MacDonald Centre as a research centre for motor neuron diseases, which was part-funded by Scottish entrepreneur Euan MacDonald and his father Donald. In August 2010, author J. K. Rowling provided £10 million in funding to create the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, which was officially opened in October 2013. The Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a stem cell research centre dedicated to the development of regenerative treatments, which was opened in 2012. CRM is also home to applied scientists working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) and Roslin Cells. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23592200 | 348,183 |
1,415,443 | Weissenberger became an "ace-in-a-day" for the first time on 10 May 1942 when he shot down five enemy aircraft, aerial victories 14–18, between 16:45 and 16:57 while on a Ju 87 escort mission. These victories were claimed over aircraft of 2 "Gvardeyskiy Smeshannyy Aviatsionny Polk" (2 GSAP—2nd Soviet Guards Composite Aviation Division), which lost ten Hurricanes destroyed and three damaged. He claimed his 20th victory on 15 May when he shot down a Hurricane west of Murmansk. In June 1942, JG 5 was augmented by another group, VI. "Gruppe" (4th Group) under the command of "Hauptmann" Hans Kriegel. This led to a number of "Staffel" redesignations. Weissenberger's 10.(Z) "Staffel" was renamed as 13.(Z) "Staffel" and remained subordinated to JG 5. He transferred from the reserve force to active service and was promoted to "Leutnant" (second lieutenant) on 1 July 1942. In early September he was transferred to 6. "Staffel" of JG 5, now flying the single-engine, single-seat, Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. By this date, Weissenberger, as a "Zerstörer" pilot, had claimed 23 aerial victories in addition to 15 locomotives, 2 FLAK installations, a radio station, a railway station and other ground targets destroyed and was awarded the German Cross in Gold () on 8 September 1942. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10301408 | 1,414,646 |
236,568 | There is no standardized, defined set of diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of tracheomalacia, mainly due to the nonspecific symptoms associated with it. Current diagnostic approaches include pulmonary function testing which shows a characteristic reduction in peak expiratory flow (PEF), physical examination, and imaging such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) is considered the best diagnostic method because an inserted camera down the throat shows a direct view of the airways and lungs, detecting changes in the size or appearance of the trachea's lumen and mucosa and any signs of inflammation, fistulas, or external compressions to precisely determine the location and severity of the malacia. Cross-sectional radiological images are important in detecting mediastinal structures involved in TM prior to surgery. Tracheography/Bronchography is no longer a preferred diagnostic method. Bronchography provides an accurate measurement of the airway lumen with a dynamic and morphological evaluation of the tracheobronchial tree. However, this requires the injection of contrast material within the narrowed airway. Risks include allergic reaction, airway plugging, or complete airway obstruction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=195508 | 236,449 |
897,969 | Following World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission was created to support government-sponsored peacetime research on atomic energy. The effort to build a nuclear reactor in the American northeast was fostered largely by physicists Isidor Isaac Rabi and Norman Foster Ramsey Jr., who during the war witnessed many of their colleagues at Columbia University leave for new remote research sites following the departure of the Manhattan Project from its campus. Their effort to house this reactor near New York City was rivalled by a similar effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to have a facility near Boston. Involvement was quickly solicited from representatives of northeastern universities to the south and west of New York City such that this city would be at their geographic center. In March 1946 a nonprofit corporation was established that consisted of representatives from nine major research universities — Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and Yale University. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53299 | 897,495 |
913,997 | Articles published in the 1970s and later suggest that Debierne's results published in 1904 conflict with those reported in 1899 and 1900. Furthermore, the now-known chemistry of actinium precludes its presence as anything other than a minor constituent of Debierne's 1899 and 1900 results; in fact, the chemical properties he reported make it likely that he had, instead, accidentally identified protactinium, which would not be discovered for another fourteen years, only to have it disappear due to its hydrolysis and adsorption onto his laboratory equipment. This has led some authors to advocate that Giesel alone should be credited with the discovery. A less confrontational vision of scientific discovery is proposed by Adloff. He suggests that hindsight criticism of the early publications should be mitigated by the then nascent state of radiochemistry: highlighting the prudence of Debierne's claims in the original papers, he notes that nobody can contend that Debierne's substance did not contain actinium. Debierne, who is now considered by the vast majority of historians as the discoverer, lost interest in the element and left the topic. Giesel, on the other hand, can rightfully be credited with the first preparation of radiochemically pure actinium and with the identification of its atomic number 89. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=899 | 913,518 |
1,169,175 | Schizophrenia is a poorly understood disease with complicated symptoms. In an effort to find a cause for this problem, these researchers looked at the brains of schizophrenic patients. It had been shown previously that abnormal gyrification, asymmetry, complexity, and variability occur in patients with schizophrenia. These investigators presented data showing that pt, specifically was highly distorted in schizophrenic patients compared with demographically matched normal subjects. They asserted that Broca's area is an especially plastic region of the brain in that its morphology can change dramatically from childhood to adulthood. This makes sense when considering the special ability of children to easily learn language, but it also means that the involvement of Broca's area is limited with respect to memory and recall; children do not seem to be unable to consciously search their memories. Furthermore, investigators took volumetric measurements of the grey and white matter of the brains of their test subjects and compared those measurements to their normal control subjects. They found that schizophrenic patients had dramatically reduced white matter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=524233 | 1,168,557 |
667,714 | Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze and her husband Antoine Lavoisier rebuilt the field of chemistry, which had its roots in alchemy and at the time was a convoluted science dominated by George Stahl's theory of phlogiston. Paulze accompanied Lavoisier in his lab, making entries into lab notebooks and sketching diagrams of his experimental designs. The training she had received allowed her to accurately and precisely draw experimental apparatuses, which ultimately helped many of Lavoisier's contemporaries to understand his methods and results. Paulze translated various works about phlogiston into French. One of her most important translation was that of Richard Kirwan's "Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids", which she both translated and critiqued, adding footnotes as she went along and pointing out errors in the chemistry made throughout the paper. Paulze was instrumental in the 1789 publication of Lavoisier's "Elementary Treatise on Chemistry", which presented a unified view of chemistry as a field. This work proved pivotal in the progression of chemistry, as it presented the idea of conservation of mass as well as a list of elements and a new system for chemical nomenclature. She also kept strict records of the procedures followed, lending validity to the findings Lavoisier published. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3135183 | 667,366 |
2,213,745 | After returning from the semester break, Heyliger's team found themselves shorthanded. The team lost the services of Chuck Mettler due to graduation and Wayne McKibbin due to withdrawal. Joe Gannon and Amo Bessone were suffering from colds and, if that weren't enough, Starr Owen and Aldo Palazzari had been ruled ineligible. A bit of a silver lining came in the series against Michigan Tech since eligibility rules were not in effect until the next semester began. With Owen and Palazzari in the lineup, but Gannon missing from the flu, Illinois headed up to Houghton for the first two games and dominated the Huskies. Despite having just 10 players on hand, the Illini overpowered MTU 7–1 in the first game. Tech didn't take that lying down and recovered for a tremendous effort in the next game. Illinois had to twice overcome deficits and eventually won the match 6–4. A return series was held a week later with the team looking much more itself. Owen managed to pass a special exam and was once again eligible to play. He proved his worth with a 5-point night but it was Norbert Sterle who was the star of the game; in the team's 10–2 win, Sterle scored 4 times and assisted on 4 others to set a new program record. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67605108 | 2,212,485 |
1,653,347 | AlO commonly exists as a gas, since the solid state is not stable at room temperature and is only stable between 1050 and 1600 °C. Aluminium(I) oxide is formed by heating Al and AlO in a vacuum while in the presence of SiO and C, and only by condensing the products. Information is not commonly available on this compound; it is unstable, has complex high-temperature spectra, and is difficult to detect and identify. In reduction, AlO is a major component of vapors of AlO. There are also 12 valence electrons in AlO. AlO molecules can be detected by mass spectrometry, infrared emission, and ultraviolet absorption and emission in the gas phase. The molecule is linear at equilibrium in the ground state. In term of valence bond theory, these molecules can be described as adopting sp orbital hybridisation, featuring one sigma and two pi bonds. The corresponding ground state for the valence electrons is 1σ 1σ* 2σ 1π 1π*, where the 1σ and 1σ* orbitals cancel, and the 1π and 1π* partially cancel. The overall configuration yields a divalent triplet molecule, with one lone electron focused on the oxygen atom and the other focused equally between the aluminium atoms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23022776 | 1,652,415 |
1,947,468 | Piecuch studied chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Wrocław, Poland. He received his M.S. degree in 1983 and Ph.D. degree in 1988. After postdoctoral and research faculty appointments at the University of Waterloo, Canada (1988–91, 1994–95), where he worked with Professors Josef Paldus and Jiri Čížek, University of Arizona (1992–93), where he worked with Professor Ludwik Adamowicz, University of Toronto, Canada (1995–97), where he worked with the recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Professor John C. Polanyi, and University of Florida (1997–98), where he worked with Professor Rodney J. Bartlett, he joined the faculty at Michigan State University as an assistant professor in 1998. He was promoted to an associate professor in 2002 and professor in 2004. He was named a University Distinguished Professor in 2007. While his primary appointment at Michigan State University is with the Department of Chemistry, he has also held adjunct professorship appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (2003–10, 2014-). During his tenure at Michigan State University, he was named a visiting professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2006), Kyoto University, Japan (2005), Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, in Okazaki, Japan (2012–13), and a Clark Way Harrison Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis, United States (2016). The latter visit resulted in the creation of the on-line lecture series on algebraic and diagrammatic methods for many-fermion systems, consisting of more than 40 high-definition videos, available on YouTube. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39731430 | 1,946,355 |
1,506,499 | Acetylcholine, once released, is degraded in the extracellular space by acetylcholinesterase, which faces that space. In the case the catecholamines, however, the enzymes of degradation monoamine oxidase and catechol-O-methyl transferase, like the enzymes of synthesis, are intracellular. Not metabolism but uptake through cell membranes therefore is the primary means of their clearance from the extracellular space. The mechanisms were deciphered beginning in 1959. Axelrod's group in Bethesda wished to clarify the in vivo fate of catecholamines using radioactively labelled catecholamines of high specific activity, which had just become available. H-adrenaline and H-noradrenaline given intravenously to cats were partly O-methylated, but another part was taken up in the tissues and stored unchanged. Erich Muscholl (born 1926) in Mainz, who had worked with Marthe Vogt in Edinburgh, wished to know how cocaine sensitized tissues to catecholamines – a fundamental mechanism of action of cocaine discovered by Otto Loewi and Alfred Fröhlich in 1910 in Vienna. Intravenous noradrenaline was taken up into the heart and spleen of rats, and cocaine prevented the uptake, ″thus increasing the amount of noradrenaline available for combination with the adrenergic receptors″. The uptake of H-noradrenaline was severely impaired after sympathectomy, indicating that it occurred mainly into sympathetic nerve terminals. In support of this, Axelrod and Georg Hertting (born 1925) showed that freshly incorporated H-noradrenaline was re-released from the cat spleen when the sympathetic nerves were stimulated. A few years later, Leslie Iversen (born 1937) in Cambridge found that other cells also took up catecholamines. He called uptake into noradrenergic neurons, which were cocaine-sensitive, "uptake" and uptake into other cells, which were cocaine-resistant, "uptake". With the reserpine-sensitive uptake from the cytoplasm into the storage vesicles there were thus three catecholamine membrane passage mechanisms. Iversen's book of 1967 “The Uptake and Storage of Noradrenaline in Sympathetic Nerves” was successful, showing the fascination of the field and its rich pharmacology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38791208 | 1,505,653 |
1,922,626 | Based on the 4-door, 5-passenger Renault R-10, 45 of these vehicles were produced in Ferndale, Michigan, during the years 1967 and 1968, and were sold primarily to utility companies in the USA. The Mars II operated on a 120-volt system, using tri-polar, lead-cobalt batteries (lead-acid) which could be charged to 80% capacity in 45-minutes. The D.C. motor was rated at 15 horsepower and the transmission was a manual, 4-speed. The power controller was manufactured by the Hartman Manufacturing Electrical Company and was a series/parallel switching system. Total driving range on pure battery was 146 miles on a single charge. According to an original EFP purchase order form, the car sold for $4,800.00. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18298017 | 1,921,523 |
845,481 | Reptiles and amphibians are susceptible to 1080, although much less sensitive than mammals. Amphibian and reptile species that have been tested in Australia are generally more tolerant to 1080 poison than are most other animals. McIlroy (1992) calculated that even if lizards fed entirely on insects or other animals poisoned with 1080, they could never ingest enough poison to receive a lethal dose. Laboratory trials in New Zealand simulating worst-case scenarios indicate that both "Leiopelma archeyi" (Archey's frog) and "L. hochstetteri" (Hochstetter's frog) can absorb 1080 from contaminated water, substrate, or prey. The chance of this occurring in the wild is ameliorated by a variety of factors, including frog ecology. Captive maintenance and contamination problems rendered parts of this study inconclusive. Further population monitoring is recommended to provide more conclusive evidence than provided by this single study. In New Zealand, the secondary poisoning of feral cats and stoats following 1080 operations is likely to have a positive effect on the recovery of native skink and gecko populations. Killing rabbits and possums, which compete for food with skinks and geckos, may also have benefits. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1190114 | 845,031 |
338,360 | In the early years of using the technique, it was understood that it depended on the atmospheric / ratio having remained the same over the preceding few thousand years. To verify the accuracy of the method, several artefacts that were datable by other techniques were tested; the results of the testing were in reasonable agreement with the true ages of the objects. Over time, however, discrepancies began to appear between the known chronology for the oldest Egyptian dynasties and the radiocarbon dates of Egyptian artefacts. Neither the pre-existing Egyptian chronology nor the new radiocarbon dating method could be assumed to be accurate, but a third possibility was that the / ratio had changed over time. The question was resolved by the study of tree rings: comparison of overlapping series of tree rings allowed the construction of a continuous sequence of tree-ring data that spanned 8,000 years. (Since that time the tree-ring data series has been extended to 13,900 years.) In the 1960s, Hans Suess was able to use the tree-ring sequence to show that the dates derived from radiocarbon were consistent with the dates assigned by Egyptologists. This was possible because although annual plants, such as corn, have a / ratio that reflects the atmospheric ratio at the time they were growing, trees only add material to their outermost tree ring in any given year, while the inner tree rings don't get their replenished and instead start losing through decay. Hence each ring preserves a record of the atmospheric / ratio of the year it grew in. Carbon-dating the wood from the tree rings themselves provides the check needed on the atmospheric / ratio: with a sample of known date, and a measurement of the value of "N" (the number of atoms of remaining in the sample), the carbon-dating equation allows the calculation of "N" – the number of atoms of in the sample at the time the tree ring was formed – and hence the / ratio in the atmosphere at that time. Equipped with the results of carbon-dating the tree rings, it became possible to construct calibration curves designed to correct the errors caused by the variation over time in the / ratio. These curves are described in more detail below. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26197 | 338,180 |
1,933,773 | The station has been the site for many research projects and has led to the publication of many papers. Bird population studies, reproductive behavior, social structure, and seed dispersal characteristics have all been studied across multiple bird species. Primatology is a large topic of study in this area because of the diversity and abundance of primate species. One paper looked at the relationship between primates and naturally occurring mineral licks using camera traps to identify different species that visited the lick, as well as the frequency and duration of their visits. TBS has also been the host for many genetic research projects. One project looked at the genetic relationships between offspring and parents to determine reproductive behavior in manakins. This project was novel in using a new technique for sampling genetic material. Sampling of genetic material from offspring requires a sample from the bird after hatching or from the egg after it has developed to the extent that veins have become visible. These birds however suffer from high nest predation rates and consequently not all the offspring from a nest can be sampled. In order to surmount these problems researchers took eggs from the nests and replaced them with plaster eggs which the mother could take care of. In the meantime the eggs were incubated until they were ready to have a genetic sample taken. Afterwards the eggs were placed back in the nest with the mother. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5647369 | 1,932,665 |
1,350,773 | The establishment of a hereditary oligarchy obviously excluded wealthy non-patricians from political power and it is this class that led plebeian opposition to the early Republican settlement. The early Republic (510–338 BC) saw a long and often bitter struggle for political equality, known as the Conflict of the Orders, against the patrician monopoly of power. The plebeian leadership had the advantage that they represented the vast majority of the population and of their own growing wealth. By 338 BC, the privileges of the patricians had become largely ceremonial (such as the exclusive right to hold certain state priesthoods). But this does not imply a more democratic form of government. The wealthy plebeians who had led the "plebeian revolution" had no more intention of sharing real power with their poorer and far more numerous fellow-plebeians than did the patricians. It was probably at this time (around 300 BC) that the population was divided, for the purposes of taxation and military service, into seven classes based on an assessment of their property. The two top classes, numerically the smallest, accorded themselves an absolute majority of the votes in the main electoral and legislative assembly. Oligarchy based on birth had been replaced by oligarchy based on wealth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25818724 | 1,350,027 |
696,230 | Gabor was born as Günszberg Dénes, into a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. In 1918, his family converted to Lutheranism. Dennis was the first-born son of Günszberg Bernát and Jakobovits Adél. Despite having a religious background, religion played a minor role in his later life and he considered himself agnostic. In 1902, the family received permission to change their surname from Günszberg to Gábor. He served with the Hungarian artillery in northern Italy during World War I. He began his studies in engineering at the Technical University of Budapest in 1918, later in Germany, at the Charlottenburg Technical University in Berlin, now known as the Technical University of Berlin. At the start of his career, he analysed the properties of high voltage electric transmission lines by using cathode-beam oscillographs, which led to his interest in electron optics. Studying the fundamental processes of the oscillograph, Gabor was led to other electron-beam devices such as electron microscopes and TV tubes. He eventually wrote his PhD thesis on Recording of Transients in Electric Circuits with the Cathode Ray Oscillograph in 1927, and worked on plasma lamps. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=172883 | 695,866 |
987,483 | Eight Maybach VL II gasoline engines were mounted inside the hull. Each engine turned a two-bladed, diameter, fixed pitch, wooden propeller via a driveshaft and bevel gearing which allowed the propeller to swivel from the vertical plane to the horizontal. With the engines' ability to reverse, this allowed thrust to be applied forward, aft, up or down. It appears from photographs that the four propellers on each side were contra-rotating, each one turning the opposite way to the one ahead of it. Thus it would appear that the designers were aware that running the propellers in the air disturbed by the one ahead was not ideal. While the external engine pods of other airships allowed the thrust lines to be staggered, placing all four engine rooms on each side of the ship along the lower keel resulted in "Akron"s propellers all being in line. This proved problematic in service, as it induced considerable vibration which was especially noticeable in the emergency control position in the lower fin. By 1933, "Akron" had two of her propellers replaced by more advanced, ground-adjustable, three-bladed, metal propellers. These promised a performance increase and were adopted as standard for "Macon". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60944 | 986,967 |
1,276,221 | By the late 1950s, working at General Automation, Ovshinsky brought together these disparate studies in an invention. Crossing scientific disciplines that academics traditionally hold separate, including neurophysiology and cybernetics, Stan invented, and Herb Ovshinsky helped build, a mechanical model of a nerve cell – an amorphous thin-film switch they called the Ovitron. Stan patented the device and the brothers disclosed it publicly in 1959 in New York City. In an attempt to model the learning ability of nerve cells, which Stan recognized as deriving from the plasticity of the cell's membrane, he drew on his knowledge of surfaces and materials to fashion very thin layers of amorphous material, thus pioneering the use of nanostructures. He created these layers by combining elements, especially from the Group 16 elements under oxygen, known as chalcogenides, including sulphur, selenium, and tellurium. He would continue to work with chalcogenides in his inventions for decades to come. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2785878 | 1,275,528 |
121,578 | The traps are very similar, with leaves whose terminal section is divided into two lobes, hinged along the midrib. Trigger hairs (three on each lobe in "Dionaea muscipula", many more in the case of "Aldrovanda") inside the trap lobes are sensitive to touch. When a trigger hair is bent, stretch-gated ion channels in the membranes of cells at the base of the trigger hair open, generating an action potential that propagates to cells in the midrib. These cells respond by pumping out ions, which may either cause water to follow by osmosis (collapsing the cells in the midrib) or cause rapid acid growth. The mechanism is still debated, but in any case, changes in the shape of cells in the midrib allow the lobes, held under tension, to snap shut, flipping rapidly from convex to concave and interring the prey. This whole process takes less than a second. In the Venus flytrap, closure in response to raindrops and blown-in debris is prevented by the leaves having a simple memory: for the lobes to shut, two stimuli are required, 0.5 to 30 seconds apart. According to a recent study, calcium molecules move dynamically within the cells of the plant's leaves when a carnivorous plant touches live prey. Changing calcium levels make leaves move to catch prey, likely by producing more hormones related to defense. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18952739 | 121,529 |
161,846 | While Noyce was considered the natural successor to Carter, the board decided not to promote him. Sherman Fairchild led the board to choose Richard Hodgson. Within a few months Hodgson was replaced by a management committee led by Noyce, while Sherman Fairchild looked for a new CEO other than Noyce. In response, Noyce discreetly planned a new company with Gordon Moore, the head of R&D. They left Fairchild to found Intel in 1968 and were soon joined by Andrew Grove and Leslie L. Vadász, who took with them the revolutionary MOS Silicon Gate Technology (SGT), recently created in the Fairchild R&D Laboratory by Federico Faggin who also designed the Fairchild 3708, the world’s first commercial MOS integrated circuit using SGT. Fairchild MOS Division was slow in understanding the potential of the SGT which promised not only faster, more reliable, and denser circuits, but also new device types that could enlarge the field of solid state electronics – for example, CCDs for image sensors, dynamic RAMs, and non-volatile memory devices such as EPROM and flash memories. Intel took advantage of the SGT for its memory development. Federico Faggin, frustrated, left Fairchild to join Intel in 1970 and design the first microprocessors using SGT. Among the investors of Intel were Hodgson and five of the founding members of Fairchild. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=180263 | 161,761 |
866,447 | During the mid-15th century, tapestry was one of the most expensive and prized artistic products in Europe. Commercial production proliferated across the Netherlands and northern France from the early 15th century, especially in the cities of Arras, Bruges and Tournai. The perceived technical ability of these artisans was such that, in 1517, Pope Leo X sent Raphael's cartoons to Brussels to be woven into hangings. Such woven wall hangings played a central political role as diplomatic gifts, especially in their larger format; Philip the Good gifted several to participants at the Congress of Arras in 1435, where the halls were draped from top to bottom and all around ("tout autour") with tapestries showing scenes of the "Battle and Overthrow of People of Liege". At Charles the Bold and Margaret of York's wedding the room "was hung above with draperies of wool, blue and white, and on the sides was tapestried with a rich tapestry woven with the history of Jason and the Golden Fleece". Rooms typically were hung from ceiling to floor with tapestries and some rooms named for a set of tapestries, such as a chamber Philip the Bold named for a set of white tapestries with scenes from "The Romance of the Rose". For about two centuries during the Burgundian period, master weavers produced "innumerable series of hangings heavy with gold and silver thread, the like of which the world had never seen". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=799881 | 865,987 |
1,710,137 | One of the most common use of mycelium based composites is for the alternatives for petroleum and polystyrene based materials. These synthetic foams are usually used for sustainable design and architecture products. The use of mycelium based composites are based on their properties. There are several bio-sustainable companies such as Ecovative Design LLC, MycoWorks, MyCoPlast, etc. that use mycelium based composites that make protective packaging for electronics and food, bricks, leather substitutes, alternatives for floors and acoustic tiles, thermal and acoustic insulation, construction panels, etc. The property of being able to bond with neighboring composite helps the mycelium based composite to form strong bonds for a brick which are widely used. An example is Hy-Fi, a 40-foot-tall tower in MoMA PS1 in New York City, made using 1,000 bricks made from corn stalks and mycelium. This product won the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) contest in 2014. There are also other several commonly used products such as lamps, kitchen utensils, ceiling panels, decorative items, fashion items, chair, etc made out of mycelium. In architecture, mycelium based composites are widely used because they have better insulation performance and fire resistance than currently used products. Mycelium is being used more in industry to replace common plastic materials that are harming the environment. These products are manufactured using low energy, natural manufacturing process and are biodegradable. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62859875 | 1,709,177 |
669,727 | In non-arid parts of Australia, colonies are often occupied year-round. During cold days in the non-breeding season, members of these colonies usually feed in flocks for about two hours, breaking up into small groups to rest, preen, sing, and court before foraging again in a large flock until about one hour before sunset, when they return to the colony. On warmer days, some of the small groups return to the colony to build nests and perform their normal activities. During the breeding season, finches finding or building a nest often return after about an hour of feeding, and on cold days they are joined by those incubating or brooding young. Pairs that have not yet laid their eggs sometimes elect to court and mate in special "courting trees" before joining the flock. In the afternoon, most pairs engage in social activities, which often take place at "social trees". The zebra finch frequently does not breed where it was born; of the ringed birds that bred in the Danaher breeding colony () from 1985 to 1989, 24% of them were hatched from the colony or in the immediate vicinity. This natal dispersal is not sex-biased, unlike in most passerines. However, males between 36 and 50 days of age are more likely to disperse than females, although after this age, more females disperse than males. Predation is likely a major factor in coloniality; nests in the main colony suffer less predation than nests further away. Pairs with preyed-upon nests are significantly more likely to nest in a bush more than away from their previous nesting plant. Another large factor is where others nest: individuals are more likely to nest closer to conspecifics. In addition, reproductive success of conspecifics may play a role in where individuals nest; a study published in 2012 found that this finch was more likely to breed near nests with chicks older than six days (used as a proxy for reproductive success because they fledge about 87% of the time). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=424730 | 669,377 |
680,392 | The massive modularity theory thesis posits that there is a huge number of tremendously interlinked but specialized modules running programs called Darwinian algorithms, or DA. DA can be selected for just as a gene can, eventually improving cognition. The contrary theory, of generalist mind, suggests that the brain is just a big computer that runs one program, the mind. If the mind is a general computer, for instance, the ability to use reasoning should be identical regardless of the context. This is not what is observed. When faced with abstract numbers and letters with no "real world" significance, respondents of the Wason card test generally do very poorly. However, when exposed to a test with an identical rule set but socially relevant content, respondents score markedly higher. The difference is especially pronounced when the content is about reward and payment. This test strongly suggests that human logic is based on a module originally developed in a social environment to root out cheaters, and that either the module is at a huge disadvantage where abstract thinking is involved, or that other less effective modules are used when faced with abstract logic. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=160313 | 680,037 |
831,716 | Remote usability testing (also known as unmoderated or asynchronous usability testing) involves the use of a specially modified online survey, allowing the quantification of user testing studies by providing the ability to generate large sample sizes, or a deep qualitative analysis without the need for dedicated facilities. Additionally, this style of user testing also provides an opportunity to segment feedback by demographic, attitudinal and behavioral type. The tests are carried out in the user's own environment (rather than labs) helping further simulate real-life scenario testing. This approach also provides a vehicle to easily solicit feedback from users in remote areas. There are two types, quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative use large sample sized and task based surveys. These types of studies are useful for validating suspected usability issues. Qualitative studies are best used as exploratory research, in small sample sizes but frequent, even daily iterations. Qualitative usually allows for observing respondent's screens and verbal think aloud commentary (Screen Recording Video, SRV), and for a richer level of insight also include the webcam view of the respondent (Video-in-Video, ViV, sometimes referred to as Picture-in-Picture, PiP) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=288276 | 831,267 |
916,663 | The war started badly for the US and UN. The Korean People's Army struck massively in the summer of 1950 and nearly drove the outnumbered US and ROK defenders into the sea. However the United Nations intervened, naming Douglas MacArthur commander of its forces, and UN-US-ROK forces held a perimeter around Pusan, gaining time for reinforcement. MacArthur, in a bold but risky move, ordered an amphibious invasion well behind the front lines at Inchon, cutting off and routing the North Koreans and quickly crossing the 38th Parallel into North Korea. As UN forces continued to advance toward the Yalu River on the border with Communist China, the Chinese crossed the Yalu River in October and launched a series of surprise attacks that sent the UN forces reeling back across the 38th Parallel. Truman originally wanted a Rollback strategy to unify Korea; after the Chinese successes he settled for a Containment policy to split the country. MacArthur argued for rollback but was fired by President Harry Truman after disputes over the conduct of the war. Peace negotiations dragged on for two years until President Dwight D. Eisenhower threatened China with nuclear weapons; an armistice was quickly reached with the two Koreas remaining divided at the 38th parallel. North and South Korea are still "de jure" in a state of war, having never signed a peace treaty, and American forces remain stationed in South Korea as part of American foreign policy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=161323 | 916,180 |
955,277 | A hypernova (sometimes called a collapsar) is a very energetic supernova thought to result from an extreme core-collapse scenario. In this case, a massive star (>30 solar masses) collapses to form a rotating black hole emitting twin energetic jets and surrounded by an accretion disk. It is a type of stellar explosion that ejects material with an unusually high kinetic energy, an order of magnitude higher than most supernovae, with a luminosity at least 10 times greater. They usually appear similar to a type Ic supernova, but with unusually broad spectral lines indicating an extremely high expansion velocity. Hypernovae are one of the mechanisms for producing long gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which range from 2 seconds to over a minute in duration. They have also been referred to as superluminous supernovae, though that classification also includes other types of extremely luminous stellar explosions that have different origins. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52880788 | 954,772 |
815,614 | Moses was born in Dayton, Ohio. Having accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, he majored in physics and industrial engineering, while competing for the school track team. Morehouse did not have its own track, so he used public high school facilities around the city to train and run. Initially, Moses competed mostly in the 120-yard hurdles and 440-yard dash. Before March 1976, he ran only one 400 m hurdles race, but once he began focusing on the event he made remarkable progress. With his height of 6'2", Moses' trademark technique was to take a consistent 13 steps between each of the hurdles, pulling away in the second half of the race as his rivals often took 15 strides or changed their stride pattern. That year, he qualified for the U.S. team for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In his first international meet, Moses won the gold medal ahead of teammate Mike Shine while setting a world record of 47.63 seconds in the process. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=578206 | 815,180 |
1,812,100 | Tantalum(V) oxide films have a variety of applications including as optical films with refractive indices as high as 2.039 and as a thin-film dielectric material in dynamic random access memory and semiconductor field-effect transistors. The approach chosen for preparation of these materials is determined by the desired properties. Direct hydrolysis is appropriate when the presence of residual water or the use of high temperatures for drying is acceptable. Micropatterns can be produced by site-selective deposition using the hydrolysis approach by forming a self-assembled monolayer followed by high temperature annealling. Chemical vapour deposition allows control of the thickness of the film on a nanometre scale, which is essential for some applications. Direct pyrolysis is convenient for optical applications, where transparent materials with low light loss due to absorption is important, and has also been used to prepare nitride read-only memory. Electrochromism is the property of some materials to change color when charge is applied, and is the means by which so-called smart glass operates. Films produced by tantalum(V) ethoxide hydrolysis has been used to prepare amorphous tantalum(V) oxide films suitable for electrochromic applications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37375114 | 1,811,067 |
1,736,898 | More recently, DMATs have aided in the response to Hurricane Sandy, which was particularly devastating to areas of New York and New Jersey. Following Hurricane Harvey, DMATs provided shelter care as well as acute care in field locations in, around and south of Houston, TX. A prolonged response for Hurricanes Irma and Maria took place in Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in 2017 by multiple full teams and smaller task forces of DMAT personnel. Multiple deployments in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic were made to support hospitals overrun by COVID-19 patients and/or with staff depletions due to healthcare provider illnesses from COVID-19, and to provide staff to vaccination and monoclonal antibody stations. Additional deployments by specialized aeromedical evacuation personnel from DMATs assisted in the evacuation of State Dept employees from Wuhan China, US citizens from a cruise ship quarantined in Japan, and aboard the Grand Princess Cruise Ship at sea to identify the most ill passengers that needed to be evacuated soonest from the ship when it arrived in port. Currently, in October 2022, ongoing deployments are occurring in response to Hurricane Ian in the hardest hit areas of southwestern Florida. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3274996 | 1,735,921 |
969,062 | Because of the incomplete understanding of hadrosaurids at the time, following Marsh's death in 1897 "Claosaurus annectens" was variously classified as a species of "Claosaurus", "Thespesius" or "Trachodon". Opinions varied greatly; textbooks and encyclopedias drew a distinction between the ""Iguanodon"-like" "Claosaurus annectens" and the "duck-billed" "Hadrosaurus" (based on remains now known as adult "Edmontosaurus annectens"), while Hatcher explicitly identified "C. annectens" as synonymous with the hadrosaurid represented by those same duck-billed skulls. Hatcher's revision, published in 1902, was sweeping: he considered almost all hadrosaurid genera then known as synonyms of "Trachodon". This included "Cionodon", "Diclonius", "Hadrosaurus", "Ornithotarsus", "Pteropelyx", and "Thespesius", as well as "Claorhynchus" and "Polyonax", fragmentary genera now thought to be horned dinosaurs. Hatcher's work led to a brief consensus, until after 1910 new material from Canada and Montana showed a greater diversity of hadrosaurids than previously suspected. Charles W. Gilmore in 1915 reassessed hadrosaurids and recommended that "Thespesius" be reintroduced for hadrosaurids from the Lance Formation and rock units of equivalent age, and that "Trachodon", based on inadequate material, should be restricted to a hadrosaurid from the older Judith River Formation and its equivalents. In regards to "Claosaurus annectens", he recommended that it be considered the same as "Thespesius occidentalis". His reinstatement of "Thespesius" for Lance-age hadrosaurids would have other consequences for the taxonomy of "Edmontosaurus" in the following decades. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1585380 | 968,552 |
1,317,715 | Cyclical variations in moods and energy levels have been recorded at least as far back as several thousand years. The words "melancholia" (an old word for depression) and "mania" have their etymologies in Ancient Greek. The word melancholia is derived from "melas"/μελας, meaning "black", and "chole"/χολη, meaning "bile" or "gall", indicative of the term's origins in pre-Hippocratic humoral theories. A man known as Aretaeus of Cappadocia has the first records of analyzing the symptoms of depression and mania in the 1st century of Greece. There is documentation that explains how bath salts were used to calm those with manic symptoms and also help those who are dealing with depression. Even today, lithium is used as a treatment to bipolar disorder which is significant because lithium could have been an ingredient in the Greek bath salt. Centuries passed and very little was studied or discovered. It wasn't until the mid-19th century that a French psychiatrist by the name of Jean-Pierre Falret wrote an article describing "circular insanity" and this is believed to be the first recorded diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Years later, in the early 1900s, Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist, analyzed the influence of biology on mental disorders, including bipolar disorder. His studies are still used as the basis of classification of mental disorders today. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7538869 | 1,316,990 |
1,864,094 | Due to the ablative nature of the patterning process, no development step (as in: selective removal of either the exposed or non-exposed regions of the resist as for e-beam and optical lithography) is needed, neither are optical proximity corrections. Maximum linear writing speeds of up to 20 mm/s have been shown with throughputs in the 10 – 10 μm h range which is comparable to single-column, Gaussian-shaped e-beam using HSQ as resist. The resolution of t-SPL is determined by the probe tip shape and not limited by the diffraction limit or by the focal spot size of beam approaches, however, tip-sample interactions during the in-situ metrology process create tip wear, limiting the lifetime of the probes. In order to extend the lifetime of the probe tips, Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) and Silicon-Carbide (SiC)-coated tips or wear-less floating contact imaging methods have been demonstrated. No electron damage or charging is caused to the patterned surfaces due to the absence of electron or ion beams. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29284770 | 1,863,022 |
1,150,183 | A key project is Yeang’s own house, the 'Roof-Roof' House (1985) which is his early experimental bioclimatic built work. The dwelling has an identifiable curved louvred umbrella-like upper roof-structure that functions as a solar-filtering device and device that shades the building's lower roof terrace. Its side 'wind wing-walls' directs wind into the dining area. The swimming pool on the east functions as an evaporative-cooling device bring in the predominantly easterly breeze into the adjoining internal living spaces. The many features make the building an instructive reference prototype for his subsequent work on climate-responsive and ecological architecture. Influences can be further found in Yeang's later building and planning work. Yeang applied the bioclimatic passive-mode principles to the high-rise tower typology. Contending that the high-rise tower as an intensive built form will not go away overnight because of its existent economic basis arising from high urban land values and ability to accommodate rapid urban growth. He sought ecologically benign ways to make this built form green and humane to inhabit. Professor Udo Kultermann (Washington University) credits him as the inventor of the 'bioclimatic skyscraper', | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1879224 | 1,149,576 |
1,872,183 | Gastric tonometry has been introduced as a novel method of monitoring tissue perfusion in critically ill patients. Tonometry is based on the principle that at equilibrium the partial pressure of a diffusible gas such as CO is the same in both the wall and lumen of a viscus. The technique therefore can estimate gut mucosal PCO by measuring gut luminal PCO at equilibrium. A saline-filled balloon made of CO permeable silicone attached to a sampling tube is introduced into the gastric lumen as a nasogastric tube would be. After an equilibration period the fluid is sampled to measure PCO. Because the mucosal and systemic bicarbonate concentrations are equal, a modified Henderson-Hasselbalch equation may be used to calculate the intramucosal pH: pHi = 6.1 + log [HCO/0.03 x PCO]. Thus, only gastric luminal PCO is directly measured. Mucosal PCO is presumed to be proportional at equilibrium and mucosal pH is calculated. PO and luminal pH play no role in these calculations. Proponents of this technique maintain that it is a relatively inexpensive noninvasive, tissue-specific method to evaluate the adequacy of tissue perfusion. It is of special value when used in the gastric lumen because splanchnic circulation is one of the vascular beds that is subject to early blood flow redistribution in shock states. Critics of the technique caution that while directly measured factors are usually accurate and calculated factors correspondingly reliable, the assumption that gut mucosal pH alterations are uniquely a function of mucosal hypoxia is not. Tonometry may adequately reflect the degree of tissue perfusion, but its accuracy as an index of tissue oxygenation is less reliable. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20549307 | 1,871,106 |
1,635,059 | Japanese sources universally give the date for "Kongō"s keel-laying as 24 September 1875—the same as that for the awarding of the contract—but historian Hans Langerer describes this as improbable, arguing that no shipyard would order enough material to begin construction without cash in hand. "Kongō" was launched on 17 April 1877; the wife of a secretary in the Japanese Legation cut the retaining rope with a hammer and chisel. Completed in January 1878, "Kongō" sailed for Japan on 18 February under the command of a British captain and with a British crew because the IJN was not yet ready for such a long voyage. She arrived in Yokohama on 26 April and was classified as a Third Class Warship on 4 May. On 10 July a formal ceremony was held in Yokohama for the receipt of the ship that was attended by the Meiji Emperor and many senior government officials. The ship was opened for tours by the nobility, their families and invited guests for three days after the ceremony. On 14 July, the general public was allowed to tour the ship for a week. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2917111 | 1,634,136 |
1,562,675 | Sugarbaker began his career in 1988, focusing primarily on pleural mesothelioma. Following the completion of his residency training, Sugarbaker was appointed chief at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he founded and built the first non-cardiac division of thoracic surgery in the United States. The division grew under his leadership to become the largest of its kind in the United States. In 1989, Sugarbaker was a leader in the establishment of the Tissue and Blood Repository at Brigham and Women's Hospital. A year later, Sugarbaker completed the first ever lung transplant in Massachusetts. In 1992, Sugarbaker developed the first general thoracic surgical training track in the U.S. and has since trained over 80 residents and placed about two-thirds of his graduates into academic positions. In addition to his career at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Sugarbaker began as Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 1999. In 2002, he founded the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) with the central goal of finding a cure for the disease. The program is the largest of its kind and attracts patients from all over the world. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47956675 | 1,561,788 |
535,111 | Central to the success of the Europeans was the use of firearms. However, the advantages afforded by firearms have often been overstated. Prior to the late 19th century, firearms were often cumbersome muzzle-loading, smooth-bore, single shot muskets with flint-lock mechanisms. Such weapons produced a low rate of fire, while suffering from a high rate of failure and were only accurate within . These deficiencies may have initially given the Aborigines an advantage, allowing them to move in close and engage with spears or clubs. Yet by 1850 significant advances in firearms gave the Europeans a distinct advantage, with the six-shot Colt revolver, the Snider single shot breech-loading rifle and later the Martini-Henry rifle, as well as rapid-fire rifles such as the Winchester rifle, becoming available. These weapons, when used on open ground and combined with the superior mobility provided by horses to surround and engage groups of Aborigines, often proved successful. The Europeans also had to adapt their tactics to fight their fast-moving, often hidden enemies. Tactics employed included night-time surprise attacks, and positioning forces to drive the natives off cliffs or force them to retreat into rivers while attacking from both banks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1323516 | 534,832 |
823,185 | Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an innate (non-reinforced) response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus. Responses that habituate include those that involve the intact organism (e.g., full-body startle response) or those that involve only components of the organism (e.g., habituation of neurotransmitter release from "in vitro" Aplysia sensory neurons). The broad ubiquity of habituation across all biologic phyla has resulted in it being called "the simplest, most universal form of learning...as fundamental a characteristic of life as DNA." Functionally-speaking, by diminishing the response to an inconsequential stimulus, habituation is thought to free-up cognitive resources to other stimuli that are associated with biologically important events (i.e., punishment/reward). For example, organisms may habituate to repeated sudden loud noises when they learn these have no consequences. A progressive decline of a behavior in a habituation procedure may also reflect nonspecific effects such as fatigue, which must be ruled out when the interest is in habituation. Habituation is clinically relevant, as a number of neuropsychiatric conditions, including autism, schizophrenia, migraine, and Tourette's, show reductions in habituation to a variety of stimulus-types both simple (tone) and complex (faces). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=599837 | 822,743 |
512,067 | At the heart of the 50-acre York College campus is the Academic Core Building, which houses classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, art studios, the library, computer facilities, academic and administrative offices, as well as dining facilities and a bookstore. On adjacent super blocks are located the 1,500 seat Performing Arts Center, the Health and Physical Education facility, which includes a gymnasium and swimming pool, Classroom and Science Buildings, Athletic Fields and parking facilities. The Performing Arts Center was renamed the Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center in October 2014 after the York College's second president. Milton G. Bassin, who guided the school during the period from 1971 to 1991 and was instrumental in ensuring the school's survival through the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Also located on the campus is the Illinois Jacquet Performance Space, dedicated for the famous jazz saxophonist who lived in Addesleigh Park, a jazz enclave in Jamaica. It is on the grounds of the adjacent Prospect Cemetery in the Chapel of the Sisters, the cemetery is on the NRHP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1572369 | 511,801 |
1,718,039 | The 203rd deployed personnel to Bosnia with the NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) two days before Thanksgiving in 1996. The unit touched down in the region as part of Operation Joint Endeavor just as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia began in earnest, with highly publicized arrest warrants for senior figures in the conflict including Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. While deployed, the unit identified and documented more than 300 novel pieces of ordnance, and inspected combat vehicles and manufacturing plants. Five times the units reporting prompted fundamental shifts in force protection posture for all deployed NATO forces. The 203rd's work on the ground in Bosnia continued through the transition of the NATO stabilization mission to SFOR, continuing through at least March 2000. The battalion suffered one casualty in Bosnia, when in July 1997 a specialist died at a British field hospital following a motor vehicle accident north of Donji Vakuf, in the British-controlled Multi-National Division (South-West) area of operation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67447284 | 1,717,069 |
1,353,636 | In 2016, the 'Raise the Roof' fundraising campaign was launched to raise funds to build a 700-seat auditorium. The campaign was criticised by members of the school’s community. In 2016, students were suspended for criticising the principal via cartoons and social media. Their criticisms arose from funds advertised as being raised for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation being partially used for the Raise the Roof project. In 2017 an independent review of the project, initiated by the Department of Education, was published. The review was prompted by a letter sent to the Department’s Director-General by 10 of the 15 board members, describing a loss of confidence in the principal, Lois Joll, due to a lack of consultation on issues including Raise the Roof. The review found fault on both sides, and requested that the Department of Education clarify the role of school boards and appropriate fund allocation. The Director-General chose to keep Joll as principal, describing her as "highly competent". Over the following four months, five members of the school board resigned, including Erica Smyth and the former P&C president. In 2019, the fundraising target to build 500 seats was reached. The Education Department subsequently organised a tender for the first stage of construction. Construction ceremonially began in May 2020, with the building officially opening on September 11 2021. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3632576 | 1,352,889 |
38,984 | The three major constituents of Earth's atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. Water vapor accounts for roughly 0.25% of the atmosphere by mass. The concentration of water vapor (a greenhouse gas) varies significantly from around 10 ppm by mole fraction in the coldest portions of the atmosphere to as much as 5% by mole fraction in hot, humid air masses, and concentrations of other atmospheric gases are typically quoted in terms of dry air (without water vapor). The remaining gases are often referred to as trace gases, among which are other greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Besides argon, already mentioned, other noble gases, neon, helium, krypton, and xenon are also present. Filtered air includes trace amounts of many other chemical compounds. Many substances of natural origin may be present in locally and seasonally variable small amounts as aerosols in an unfiltered air sample, including dust of mineral and organic composition, pollen and spores, sea spray, and volcanic ash. Various industrial pollutants also may be present as gases or aerosols, such as chlorine (elemental or in compounds), fluorine compounds and elemental mercury vapor. Sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide (SO) may be derived from natural sources or from industrial air pollution. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=202898 | 38,969 |
1,258,981 | All told, in common with other HEBM processes, EMC Activation causes crystalline destruction because of extremely violent and disruptive factors that are occasioned at the nanoscale of the material being processed. Although over in short duration and highly focal, the processes are repeated at a high frequency: hence those factors are thought to mimic pressures and temperatures found deep inside the Earth to cause the required phase change. For example, Peter Thiessen developed the "magma-plasma model" that assumes localised temperatures—higher than 10 Kelvin—can be generated at the various impact points to induce a momentary excited plasma state in the material, characterized by the ejection of electrons and photons together with the formation of excited fragments (see diagram above). Experimental data gathered from localised crack-generation, itself an important component of EMC Activation, has confirmed temperatures in this region as long ago as 1975. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39204523 | 1,258,294 |
1,025,422 | In pulse-width modulation the switches are turned on at a constant chopping frequency. The total time period of one cycle of output waveform is constant. The average output voltage is directly proportional to the ON time of chopper. The ratio of ON time to total time is defined as duty cycle. It can be varied between 0 and 1 or between 0 and 100%. Pulse-width modulation (PWM), or pulse-duration modulation (PDM), is a technique used to encode a message into a pulsing signal. Although this modulation technique can be used to encode information for transmission, its main use is to allow the control of the power supplied to electrical devices, especially to inertial loads such as motors. The average value of voltage (and current) fed to the load is controlled by turning the switch between supply and load on and off at a fast rate. The longer the switch is on compared to the off periods, the higher the total power supplied to the load. The PWM switching frequency has to be much higher than what would affect the load (the device that uses the power), which is to say that the resultant waveform perceived by the load must be as smooth as possible. Typically switching has to be done several times a minute in an electric stove, 120 Hz in a lamp dimmer, from few kilohertz (kHz) to tens of kHz for a motor drive and well into the tens or hundreds of kHz in audio amplifiers and computer power supplies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1727746 | 1,024,889 |
873,148 | Bruce Charlton, a Newcastle University psychology professor, said what looks like immaturity — or in his terms, the "retention of youthful attitudes and behaviors into later adulthood" — is actually a valuable developmental characteristic, which he calls psychological neoteny. The ability of an adult human to learn is considered a neotenous trait. However, some studies may suggest the opposite of this idea of neoteny being beneficial. In general, the process of learning and developing new skills can be attributed to plasticity of neurons in the brain, especially in the prefrontal cortex for higher order decisions and activity. As neurons go through ontogeny and maturity, it becomes more difficult to make new neuronal connections and change already present pathways and connections. However, during juvenile periods, cortical neurons are described to have higher plasticity and metabolic activity. In cases with neoteny, neurons are lingering in their more juvenile states since development is decelerated. On the surface this seems beneficial for the increased potential of younger cells. However, this may not be the case, as the consequences of the increased cellular activity must be taken into account. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50773588 | 872,688 |
585,283 | The bulk of the Spitfire squadrons, which by D-Day were incorporated into the Second Tactical Air Force, were progressively moved across the Channel, operating from advanced landing grounds in Normandy, close behind the front-lines. From late August 1944, as the Allied ground forces overran German forces in France and moved forward into Belgium and parts of the Netherlands, the Spitfire units of 2 TAF moved to new airfields in support. By this time, as air supremacy (as opposed to air superiority) had been achieved, and in line with 2 TAF's doctrine on the use of fighter-bombers most of the Merlin engined Mk IX and XVI units were used in the fighter-bomber role. This meant that these units concentrated on roaming over German territory, attacking ground targets of opportunity and providing tactical ground support to the army units. In this role there were fewer opportunities to engage Luftwaffe fighters. A notable incident occurred on 17 July 1944, when a Spitfire of 602 Squadron attacked the staff car of "Generalfeldmarschall" Erwin Rommel, wounding him and removing him from command of Army Group B. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15630676 | 584,983 |
776,637 | PKD results from defects in the primary cilium, an immotile, hair-like cellular organelle present on the surface of most cells in the body, anchored in the cell body by the basal body. In the kidney, primary cilia have been found to be present on most cells of the nephron, projecting from the apical surface of the renal epithelium into the tubule lumen. The cilia were believed to bend in the urine flow, leading to changes in signalling, however this has since been shown to be an experimental error (the bending of cilia was an artifact of focal plane compensation, and also the actual effect on micturition by severe hypertension and cardiac arrest) and that bending of cilia does not contribute to alterations in Ca flux. While it is not known how defects in the primary cilium lead to cyst development, it is thought to possibly be related to disruption of one of the many signaling pathways regulated by the primary cilium, including intracellular calcium, Wnt/β-catenin, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), or planar cell polarity (PCP). Function of the primary cilium is impaired, resulting in disruption of a number of intracellular signaling cascades which produce differentiation of cystic epithelium, increased cell division, increased apoptosis, and loss of resorptive capacity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20332751 | 776,221 |
395,108 | Ichthyosaurs had fin-like limbs of varying relative length. The standard interpretation is that these, together with the dorsal fin and tail fin, were used as control surfaces for directional stability, controlling yaw, and for stabilising pitch and roll, rather than propulsion. However, during the 1980s the German paleontologist Jürgen Riess proposed an alternative model. After having studied the flying movement made by the forelimbs of plesiosaurs, he suggested that at least those ichthyosaurs that had long flippers used them for a powerful propulsive stroke, moving them up and down. This would explain the non-degenerated shoulder girdle and the evolution of the hand bones, whose perfect hydrofoil profile would have been useless if it was not functionally employed. He thought to have discovered modern analogues in the Queensland lungfish and the Amazon river dolphin, which he presumed also used their long fins for propulsion. Riess expounded upon this hypothesis in a series of articles. This alternative interpretation was generally not adopted by other workers. In 1998, Darren Naish pointed out that the lungfish and the river dolphin actually do not use their fins in this way and that e.g. the modern humpback whale has very long front flippers, supported by a mosaic of bones, but that these nevertheless mainly serve as rudders. In 2013, a study concluded that broad ichthyosaur flippers, like those of "Platyptergygius", were not used for propulsion but as a control surface. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=314101 | 394,913 |
1,198,031 | Since this is a surgical procedure complications can occur. Some patients may experience an infection at the incision site. If an infection occurs, they can almost always be cured with a course of oral antibiotics. Another complication is superficial peroneal nerve distribution sensation reduction. Generalized ligaments laxity may also occur. The over-tightening of ligaments may happen, although the implications of such over-tightening have yet to be studied. In some cases, the Brostrom repair has greatly decreased the patients' abilities to walk. Brostrom repair success rates tend to be over-estimated and are typically based on surgeons' reports of their patients rather than on long-term studies of the patients' self-reporting of improvements—or lack thereof. Since anaesthesia is used there is a chance of anaesthesia complications including adverse reactions or allergic reactions. A Brostrom repair should be considered a last resort after a patient has tried a series of non-surgical options, such as wearing a boot cast after the injury, going to physical therapy for an extended period of time, etc. Most ankle sprains can significantly improve without surgery. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3137196 | 1,197,390 |
1,808,227 | By 1937, the school had expanded operations to 41 staff and 500 students. In October 1938, General Arnold brought in the top three aviation school representatives to request they establish an unfunded startup of Civilian Pilot Training Program schools at their own risk. These were Oliver Parks of Parks Air College, C. C. Moseley of the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute, and Theophilus Lee, Jr., of the Boeing School of Aeronautics; all agreed to start work. This expanded in 1940 to include training of 5000 U.S. Army Mechanics. The school expanded to 14 buildings and 1000 students at its peak in 1942. Commercial pilot training was suspended to customer United Airlines to meet wartime demand in August that year. By 1943, the CPTP contract had expired and Boeing absorbed the school operations into the parent company. The facilities remained under the new name United Air Lines Training Center which continued to train mechanics under a Navy contract until 1945, before closing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37161604 | 1,807,206 |
934,635 | Martin Stokes uses his book Ethnicity, Identity and Music to examine how the presence of records, tapes, and CD's, and the ability to listen to music removed from its social setting affects identity and social boundaries. Stokes mentions how modernity and new technology has created a separation between place or "locale" (referring to the physical setting of social activity as situated geographically) and space (the location from where the music is being played and listened to.) Stokes calls the separation from space and place, "relocation" and refers to it as an "anxiety ridden process." Stokes believes that music plays an essential role to how individuals "relocate" themselves, claiming that music is unmatched by any other social activity in its ability to evoke and organize collective memory. Stokes also claims that the presence of records, tapes and CD's creates the ability to present experiences of specific places "with an intensity and power and simplicity unmatched." Stokes also touches upon the differences and social boundaries that each "place" holds. Claiming that each "place" organizes "hierarchies of moral and political order" and with each specific evocation of "place," defines the moral and political community to relation to the space in which the listener finds themselves. The possibility of the instant evocation of musical "place" allows individuals to "locate," and identify themselves in a plurality of ways, allowing a unique mix of places and social boundaries. Stokes also goes on to mention how the control of media systems by state-controlled governments, through ownership of its channels is a tool which authoritarian states use. Such control is not certain, as the meanings cannot be totally controlled and the citizens of said state can simply turn off the radio state or tune into another. Stokes believes the technological advancements in sound reproduction has democratized recording and listening, and thus, "weakened the grip of state and music industry monopolies." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=80077 | 934,141 |
860,847 | In 2004, the USFDA approved a therapy that reduces the frequency and volume of total parenteral nutrition (TPN), comprising: NutreStore (oral solution of glutamine) and Zorbtive (growth hormone, of recombinant DNA origin, for injection) together with a specialized oral diet. After 24 weeks of successful Phase III patient treatment trials, Teduglutide was shown to be relatively safe and effective with varying degrees of benefits and adverse effects per patient. Adequate safety evaluations prove to be difficult due to a limited sample size available for study, however. In 2012, an advisory panel to the USFDA voted unanimously to approve for treatment of SBS the agent teduglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-2 analog developed by NPS Pharmaceuticals, who intend to market the agent in the United States under the brandname Gattex. Teduglutide had been previously approved for use in Europe and is marketed under the brand Revestive by Nycomed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1257053 | 860,388 |
1,417,494 | In 1983, Sieburth hypothesised that the SML was a hydrated gel-like layer formed by a complex mixture of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. In recent years, his hypothesis has been confirmed, and scientific evidence indicates that the SML is an aggregate-enriched biofilm environment with distinct microbial communities. In 1999 Ellison et al. estimated that 200 Tg C yr (200 million tonnes of carbon per year) accumulates in the SML, similar to sedimentation rates of carbon to the ocean's seabed, though the accumulated carbon in the SML probably has a very short residence time. Although the total volume of the microlayer is very small compared to the ocean's volume, Carlson suggested in his seminal 1993 paper that unique interfacial reactions may occur in the SML that may not occur in the underlying water or at a much slower rate there. He therefore hypothesised that the SML plays an important role in the diagenesis of carbon in the upper ocean. Biofilm-like properties and highest possible exposure to solar radiation leads to an intuitive assumption that the SML is a biochemical microreactor. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12264442 | 1,416,695 |
758,627 | Almost all private academies and colleges in the South were strictly segregated by race. The American Missionary Association supported the development and establishment of several historically black colleges, such as Fisk University and Shaw University. In this period, a handful of northern colleges accepted black students. The Oneida Institute of Science and Industry (founded 1827) was the first institution of higher education to routinely admit African-American men and provide mixed-race college-level education. Oberlin College (founded 1833) was the first mainly white, degree-granting college to admit African-American students. However, before the Civil War it is likely that only 3-5% of Oberlin students were African-American. By 1900, 400 African-Americans had earned B.A. degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oberlin, and 70 other "leading colleges." Northern denominations and their missionary associations especially established private schools across the South to provide secondary education. They provided a small amount of collegiate work. Tuition was minimal, so churches supported the colleges financially, and also subsidized the pay of some teachers. In 1900, churches—mostly based in the North—operated 247 schools for blacks across the South, with a budget of about $1 million. They employed 1600 teachers and taught 46,000 students. Prominent schools included Howard University, a federal institution based in Washington; Fisk University in Nashville, Atlanta University, Hampton Institute in Virginia, and many others. Most new colleges in the 19th century were founded in northern states. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9083795 | 758,221 |
1,661,040 | The metadyne-fitted locomotives had new bodies, but the bogies and motors were removed from redundant Metropolitan line stock and refurbished at Acton Works. Similarly, the metadyne equipment was removed from an experimental train and reused. A metadyne unit consists of a rotating machine, which converts the constant voltage supplied by the battery to a constant current, which feeds the motor. The metadyne system is more efficient than conventional starting resistances, particularly when the locomotive starts and stops frequently, or when it needs to run for long periods at slow speeds. For cable laying work, the metadyne-equipped locomotives could pull trains of 100 tons at for considerable distances, without any sign of overheating. Despite the advantages, their complexity resulted in them becoming unreliable, and they were withdrawn in 1977. L41 and L42 were scrapped soon afterwards, but L43 was used for testing purposes for a further three years. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3170540 | 1,660,106 |
436,353 | It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the origin of Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada can be found. A series of major projects and events in French urban planning and design provided the inspiration for Second Empire architecture. Haussmann's renovation of Paris under Napoleon III in the 1850s and the creation of baroque architectural ensembles employing mansard roofs and elaborate ornament provided the impetus for the development and emulation of the style in the US. Haussmann's work was targeted to renovating the decaying Medieval neighborhoods of Paris by wholesale demolition and new construction of streetscapes with uniform cornice lines and stylistic consistency, an urban ensemble that impressed 19th century architects and designers. Additionally, the reconstruction of the Louvre Palace between 1852 and 1857 by architects Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel was widely publicized and served to provide a vocabulary of elaborate baroque architectural ornament for the new style. Finally, the Exposition Universelle of 1855 drew tourists and visitors to Paris and displayed the new architecture and urbanism of the city, an event that brought the style to international attention. These developments worked together to excite interest in design under the Second Empire in the US, particularly among francophiles and those interested in French fashion, then under the sway of Empress Eugenie whose tastes influenced clothing, furniture, and interior decoration. Despite the historicism of the ornamentation, Second Empire architecture was generally viewed as "modern" and hygienic as opposed to the revival styles of Italianate and Gothic Revival which hearkened to the Renaissance and Middle Ages. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52026515 | 436,139 |
1,507,257 | While working as a companion for Lord Shelburne, Priestley had a great deal of free time to engage in scientific investigations. The Earl even set up a laboratory for him. Priestley's experiments during his years in Calne were almost entirely confined to "airs" and from this work emerged his most important scientific texts: the six volumes of "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air". These experiments helped repudiate the last vestiges of the theory of four elements; as one early biographer writes: "taken collectively, [Priestley] did more than those of any one of his contemporaries to uproot and destroy the only generalisation by which his immediate predecessors had sought to group and connect the phenomena of chemistry", however "he was wholly unable to perceive this fact." Priestley's work on "airs" is not easily classified. As historian of science Simon Schaffer points out, it "has been seen as a branch of physics, or chemistry, or natural philosophy, or some highly idiosyncratic version of Priestley's own invention." Also, the volumes were both a scientific and a political enterprise for Priestley; he argued in them that science could destroy "undue and usurped authority," writing that the government has "reason to tremble even at an air pump or an electrical machine." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13414217 | 1,506,411 |
648,345 | Outgassing is a challenge to creating and maintaining clean high-vacuum environments. NASA and ESA maintain lists of materials with low-outgassing properties suitable for use in spacecraft, as outgassing products can condense onto optical elements, thermal radiators, or solar cells and obscure them. Materials not normally considered absorbent can release enough lightweight molecules to interfere with industrial or scientific vacuum processes. Moisture, sealants, lubricants, and adhesives are the most common sources, but even metals and glasses can release gases from cracks or impurities. The rate of outgassing increases at higher temperatures because the vapor pressure and rate of chemical reaction increases. For most solid materials, the method of manufacture and preparation can reduce the level of outgassing significantly. Cleaning of surfaces, or heating of individual components or the entire assembly (a process called "bake-out") can drive off volatiles. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=774575 | 648,004 |
2,131,455 | Its primary tasks include basic and application-oriented research in an interdisciplinary setting in the fields of engineering, computer science, information technology, intelligent systems as well as process control, multimedia and wide area networking. Further tasks of SZTAKI include training, contract-based target research, development and expert support for domestic and foreign industrial, governmental and other partners. The institute also operates a public advice service on knowledge-transfer of up-to-date research results and state-of-the-art technology to university students. SZTAKI has wide external relationships and different groups within the institute work on projects for well-known international and Hungarian companies and the number of European Union projects is also impressing. Its staff has more than 300 full-time employees. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35165338 | 2,130,230 |
241,563 | "The Final Hours of Portal 2" is a digital book written and created by Geoff Keighley. This digital book gives insight on the creation of "Portal 2". Keighley had previously worked as an editor at GameSpot, writing several 10,000-word "Final Hours" pieces on various games where he visited the studios during the late development phases to document the creation of the game. One piece, "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2", allowed Keighley to interact with Valve during 2003 and 2004 and talk with the staff as they completed work on "Half-Life 2". Keighley wanted to recreate a similar work for "Portal 2", with focus on making it an interactive work for the iPad. Keighley was granted "fly on the wall" access to Valve when "Portal 2" was being produced. The initial iPad release was written by Keighley with work by Joe Zeff Design, a studio that had also produced digital applications for "Time" magazine. The interactive work provides movie clips and short applications to demonstrate the various mechanics of the game and stages of the game's development. The work was later ported into a non-interactive eBook, and into an application with the same iPad interactivity on the Steam platform. With the iPad and Steam version, Keighley is able to offer live updates to the work; upon release of the "Peer Review" downloadable content pack, the work was updated with an additional chapter discussing the creation of the new content and what new features players could expect in the future from "Portal 2". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31697773 | 241,437 |
94,155 | Some ceramics are semiconductors. Most of these are transition metal oxides that are II-VI semiconductors, such as zinc oxide. While there are prospects of mass-producing blue LEDs from zinc oxide, ceramicists are most interested in the electrical properties that show grain boundary effects. One of the most widely used of these is the varistor. These are devices that exhibit the property that resistance drops sharply at a certain threshold voltage. Once the voltage across the device reaches the threshold, there is a breakdown of the electrical structure in the vicinity of the grain boundaries, which results in its electrical resistance dropping from several megohms down to a few hundred ohms. The major advantage of these is that they can dissipate a lot of energy, and they self-reset; after the voltage across the device drops below the threshold, its resistance returns to being high. This makes them ideal for surge-protection applications; as there is control over the threshold voltage and energy tolerance, they find use in all sorts of applications. The best demonstration of their ability can be found in electrical substations, where they are employed to protect the infrastructure from lightning strikes. They have rapid response, are low maintenance, and do not appreciably degrade from use, making them virtually ideal devices for this application. Semiconducting ceramics are also employed as gas sensors. When various gases are passed over a polycrystalline ceramic, its electrical resistance changes. With tuning to the possible gas mixtures, very inexpensive devices can be produced. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6458 | 94,114 |
1,441,668 | There were a few positive efforts for the Trojans: Tight end Fred Davis caught five passes for a career-best 152 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown; and nose tackle Sedrick Ellis had three sacks. However, there were many more errors and substandard performances: quarterback John David Booty, who broke a bone in the middle finger of his throwing hand in the first half, had four passes intercepted in the second half. The offensive line had been suffering since losing two starters in one play during the previous week's game at Washington, but the effect was severe against Stanford; the offensive line gave up four sacks, one more than the Trojans had surrendered all season, and USC gained only 95 yards rushing. Key receiver Patrick Turner dropped several passes, the defense gave up 17 points in the fourth quarter and USC had an extra-point attempt blocked, a point which became a crucial difference. Like their previous game against Washington, USC out-gained Stanford by 224 yards (459 to 235) but made many crucial turnovers and penalties. In the press conference following the game, Carroll summarized his concerns: "It's real clear that we have fallen out of line with our philosophy that has guided this program for years; we're turning the ball over too much." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25428827 | 1,440,856 |
1,605,202 | In 1990, Ural metallurgy accounted for the production of 24.5% of all-Union cast iron, 26.1% of steel, 27.5% of rolled products, and 30.7% of steel pipes. In the last years of the existence of the USSR, in the Ural metallurgical industry, problems with an outdated equipment park and extensive development based on outdated technologies have become aggravated. The proportion of obsolete equipment in ferrous metallurgy was estimated at 57%, in non-ferrous - 70%. About 90% of the equipment of blast furnace shops and 85% of the equipment of rolling shops in the Urals by the early 1990s had a service life of more than 20–25 years. In 1985, the share of open-hearth steel in total production in the Urals was 78.2%, while in Western countries and in Japan in the 1980s, environmentally dirty open-hearth production was discontinued. The problem of environmental pollution has significantly worsened. The surroundings of the Karabash plant have become an ecological disaster zone. There were 0.2 million hectares (200,000 hectares = 494,210.76 acres) of land that were dumps and slurry pits. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66141214 | 1,604,298 |
1,182,160 | As a young child at The Mount, Darwin avidly collected animal shells, postal franks, bird's eggs, pebbles and minerals. He was very fond of gardening, an interest his father shared and encouraged, and would follow the family gardener around. Early in 1817, soon after becoming eight years old, he started at the small local school run by a Unitarian minister, the Reverend George Case. At home, Charles learned to ride ponies, shoot and fish. Influenced by his father's fashionable interest in natural history, he tried to make out the names of plants, and was given by his father two elementary natural history books. Childhood games included inventing and writing out complex secret codes. Charles would tell elaborate stories to his family and friends "for the pure pleasure of attracting attention & surprise", including hoaxes such as pretending to find apples he'd hidden earlier, and what he later called the "monstrous fable" which persuaded his schoolfriend that the colour of primula flowers could be changed by dosing them with special water. However, his father benignly ignored these passing games, and Charles later recounted that he stopped them because no-one paid any attention. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2087722 | 1,181,535 |
249,203 | An early application of a DNA database was the compilation of a Mitochondrial DNA Concordance, prepared by Kevin W. P. Miller and John L. Dawson at the University of Cambridge from 1996 to 1999 from data collected as part of Miller's PhD thesis. There are now several DNA databases in existence around the world. Some are private, but most of the largest databases are government-controlled. The United States maintains the largest DNA database, with the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) holding over 13 million records as of May 2018. The United Kingdom maintains the National DNA Database (NDNAD), which is of similar size, despite the UK's smaller population. The size of this database, and its rate of growth, are giving concern to civil liberties groups in the UK, where police have wide-ranging powers to take samples and retain them even in the event of acquittal. The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition partially addressed these concerns with part 1 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, under which DNA samples must be deleted if suspects are acquitted or not charged, except in relation to certain (mostly serious and/or sexual) offenses. Public discourse around the introduction of advanced forensic techniques (such as genetic genealogy using public genealogy databases and DNA phenotyping approaches) has been limited, disjointed, unfocused, and raises issues of privacy and consent that may warrant the establishment of additional legal protections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44290 | 249,074 |
750,978 | The first known report of TCE in groundwater was given in 1949 by two English public chemists who described two separate instances of well contamination by industrial releases of TCE. Based on available federal and state surveys, between 9% to 34% of the drinking water supply sources tested in the U.S. may have some TCE contamination, though EPA has reported that most water supplies are in compliance with the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 ppb. In addition, a growing concern in recent years at sites with TCE contamination in soil or groundwater has been vapor intrusion in buildings, which has resulted in indoor air exposures, such is in a recent case in the McCook Field neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, United States. Trichloroethylene has been detected in 852 Superfund sites across the United States, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, and as amended annual water quality testing is required for all public drinking water distributors. The EPA'S current guidelines for TCE are online. The EPA's table of "TCE Releases to Ground" is dated 1987 to 1993, thereby omitting one of the largest Superfund cleanup sites in the nation, the North IBW in Scottsdale, Arizona. Earlier, TCE was dumped here, and was subsequently detected in the municipal drinking water wells in 1982, prior to the study period. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=305050 | 750,580 |
1,157,031 | In the military sector, American Predators and Reapers are made for counterterrorism operations and in war zones in which the enemy lacks sufficient firepower to shoot them down. They are not designed to withstand antiaircraft defenses or air-to-air combat. In September 2013, the chief of the US Air Combat Command stated that current UAVs were "useless in a contested environment" unless crewed aircraft were there to protect them. A 2012 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report speculated that in the future, UAVs may be able to perform tasks beyond intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strikes; the CRS report listed air-to-air combat ("a more difficult future task") as possible future undertakings. The Department of Defense's Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap FY2013-2038 foresees a more important place for UAVs in combat. Issues include extended capabilities, human-UAV interaction, managing increased information flux, increased autonomy and developing UAV-specific munitions. DARPA's project of systems of systems, or General Atomics work may augur future warfare scenarios, the latter disclosing Avenger swarms equipped with High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47170708 | 1,156,419 |
1,580,459 | Peak pulse power handling, driven by voltage breakdown, is more or less frequency independent for any given size (and can be deduced by assuming ~300 V RMS per mm of inner to outer spacing), but the average power, limited by losses heating the centre conductors, increases approximately with the square root of the operating frequency. Commonly the limit is quoted as that dissipation that will raise the inner temperature to 100 °C when the outer is maintained constant at +40 °C. Field failures can occur at power levels well below this if the central bullet connections are not making uniform positive contact and free of contamination. Conversely the average power ratings can be significantly exceeded if there is forced air flow either through the inner conductor or through the void between the inner and outer conductors. Many years ago, the two RS standards were considered obsolete by EIA. Only recently (until 2007) there has been an effort by manufacturers in the US to update these standards. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12167287 | 1,579,569 |
1,235,540 | As the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament, the Spartans faced Ohio State for third time on the season. The Buckeyes had beaten Indiana to advance to face Michigan State. Nick Ward returned for the Spartans, but did not start. He saw limited time, but played well, scoring eight points including a jump shot and free throw where he showed no ill affects from the broken hand. The Buckeyes kept the game close in the first half as Cassius Winston struggled. Freshman guard Foster Loyer stepped up for the Spartans, scoring 14 points off the bench, including three three-pointers to give MSU the lead. The Spartans extended their six-point halftime lead and were able to pull away in the second half and led by as many as 21 points. In an obvious attempt to reduce fatigue, Winston only played 22 minutes in the game and Tom Izzo lifted MSU's starters with two minutes remaining in the game. A late surge by the Buckeyes narrowed the lead, but MSU held on for a 77–70 win. The win marked the 600th career victory for Izzo, all at Michigan State. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56903804 | 1,234,877 |
1,244,481 | The first practical installation which supplied hydraulic power to the public was in Kingston upon Hull, in England. The Hull Hydraulic Power Company began operation in 1876. They had of pipes, which were up to in diameter, and ran along the west bank of the River Hull from Sculcoates bridge to its junction with the Humber. The pumping station was near the north end of the pipeline, on Machell Street, near the disused Scott Street bascule bridge, which was powered hydraulically. There was an accumulator at Machell Street, and another one much nearer the Humber, on the corner of Grimsby Lane. Special provision was made where the pressure main passed under the entrance to Queens Dock. By 1895, pumps rated at pumped some of water into the system each week, and 58 machines were connected to it. The working pressure was , and the water was used to operate cranes, dock gates, and a variety of other machinery connected with ships and shipbuilding. The Hull system lasted until the 1940s, when the systematic bombing of the city during the Second World War led to the destruction of much of the infrastructure, and the company was wound up in 1947, when Mr F J Haswell, who had been the manager and engineer since 1904, retired. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4488634 | 1,243,808 |
62,441 | A vaccine "licensure" occurs after the successful conclusion of the development cycle and further the clinical trials and other programs involved through PhasesI–III demonstrating safety, immunoactivity, immunogenetic safety at a given specific dose, proven effectiveness in preventing infection for target populations, and enduring preventive effect (time endurance or need for revaccination must be estimated). Because preventive vaccines are predominantly evaluated in healthy population cohorts and distributed among the general population, a high standard of safety is required. As part of a multinational licensing of a vaccine, the World Health Organization "Expert Committee on Biological Standardization" developed guidelines of international standards for manufacturing and quality control of vaccines, a process intended as a platform for national regulatory agencies to apply for their own licensing process. Vaccine manufacturers do not receive licensing until a complete clinical cycle of development and trials proves the vaccine is safe and has long-term effectiveness, following scientific review by a multinational or national regulatory organization, such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32653 | 62,416 |
1,596,650 | In 1972 the first x-ray beamline was constructed by Ingolf Lindau and Piero Pianetta as literally a "hole in the wall" extending off of the SPEAR storage ring. SPEAR had been built in an era of particle colliders, where physicists were more interested in smashing particles together in hope of discovering antimatter than in using x-ray radiation for solid state physics and chemistry. From those meager beginnings the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP) began. Within a short time SSRP had five experimental hutches that each used the radiation originating from only one of the large SPEAR dipole (bending) magnets. Each one of those stations was equipped with a monochromator to select the radiation of interest, and experimenters would bring their samples and end stations from all over the world to study the unique effects only achieved through synchrotron radiation. The SLAC 2-mile linear accelerator was the original source for 3GeV electrons, but by 1991 SPEAR had its own 3-section linac and energy-ramping booster ring. Today, the SPEAR storage ring is dedicated completely to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource as part of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory facility. SSRL currently operates 24/7 for about nine months each year; the remaining time is used for major maintenance and upgrades where direct access to the storage ring is needed. There are currently 17 beamlines and over 30 unique experimental stations which are made available to users from universities, government labs, and industry from all over the world. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2690303 | 1,595,751 |
449,770 | Kremer is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (1997) and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is a research affiliate at Innovations for Poverty Action(IPA), a New Haven, Connecticut-based research outfit dedicated to creating and evaluating solutions to social and international development problems. Kremer is a member of Giving What We Can, an effective altruism organization whose members pledge to give 10% of their income to effective charities. He is founder and president of WorldTeach, a Harvard-based organization which places college students and recent graduates as volunteer teachers on summer and year-long programs in developing countries around the world. He is also co-founder of , a non-profit organization that leverages the global emergence of the mobile phone to provide digital agronomic advisory services to smallholder farmers at scale. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6640245 | 449,551 |
1,034,924 | In January 2006, the European Space Agency, together with the Australian National University, announced successful testing of an improved electrostatic ion engine, the Dual-Stage 4-Grid (DS4G), that showed exhaust speeds of 210 km/s, reportedly four times higher than previously achieved, allowing for a specific impulse which is four times higher. Conventional electrostatic ion thrusters possess only two grids, one high voltage and one low voltage, which perform both the ion extraction and acceleration functions. However, when the charge differential between these grids reaches around 5 kV, some of the particles extracted from the chamber collide with the low voltage grid, eroding it and compromising the engine's longevity. This limitation is successfully bypassed when two pairs of grids are used. The first pair operates at high voltage, possessing a voltage differential of around 3 kV between them; this grid pair is responsible for extracting the charged propellant particles from the gas chamber. The second pair, operating at low voltage, provides the electrical field that accelerates the particles outwards, creating thrust. Other advantages to the new engine include a more compact design, allowing it to be scaled up to higher thrusts, and a narrower, less divergent exhaust plume of 3 degrees, which is reportedly five times narrower than previously achieved. This reduces the propellant needed to correct the orientation of the spacecraft due to small uncertainties in the thrust vector direction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1424917 | 1,034,385 |
643,946 | An increase in the number of aircraft also means greater carbon emissions. Environmental scientists have voiced concern over the main kinds of pollution associated with aircraft, mainly noise and emissions. Aircraft engines have been historically notorious for creating noise pollution and the expansion of airways over already congested and polluted cities have drawn heavy criticism, making it necessary to have environmental policies for aircraft noise. Noise also arises from the airframe, where the airflow directions are changed. Improved noise regulations have forced designers to create quieter engines and airframes. Emissions from aircraft include particulates, carbon dioxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO), carbon monoxide (CO), various oxides of nitrates and unburnt hydrocarbons. To combat the pollution, ICAO set recommendations in 1981 to control aircraft emissions. Newer, environmentally friendly fuels have been developed and the use of recyclable materials in manufacturing have helped reduce the ecological impact due to aircraft. Environmental limitations also affect airfield compatibility. Airports around the world have been built to suit the topography of the particular region. Space limitations, pavement design, runway end safety areas and the unique location of airport are some of the airport factors that influence aircraft design. However changes in aircraft design also influence airfield design as well, for instance, the recent introduction of new large aircraft (NLAs) such as the superjumbo Airbus A380, have led to airports worldwide redesigning their facilities to accommodate its large size and service requirements. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29564581 | 643,606 |
708,116 | Other studies have examined the process of replay which has been described as a reactivation of patterns that were stimulated during a learning phase. Replay has been demonstrated in the hippocampus and this has lent support to the notion that it serves a consolidation purpose. However, replay is not specific to sleep and both rats and primates show signs during restful-awake periods. Also, replay may simply be residual activation in areas that were involved previously in the learning phase and may have no actual effect on consolidation. This reactivation of the memory traces has also been seen in non-REM sleep specifically for hippocampus-dependant memories. Researchers have noted strong reactivation of the hippocampus during sleep immediately after a learning task. This reactivation led to enhanced performance on the learned task. One such experiment had participants learn word pair associations (declarative memories) before either retention periods of sleep or periods of wakefulness. Researchers found that retrieval expectancy played a role as to whether participants were able to retain the information, as the participants that had been told about the delayed retrieval test performed better. However, their research showed that sleep was more likely to benefit the consolidation of memories if the information was relevant to future events or behaviors. Researchers following this line of work have come to assume that dreams are a by-product of the reactivation of the brain areas and this can explain why dreams may be unrelated to the information being consolidated. The dream experience itself is not what enhances memory performance but rather it is the reactivation of the neural circuits that causes this. Other researchers have looked at the role growth hormones play in the consolidation of memories, particularly those of procedural and declarative memories. They found that although growth hormones support general brain systems and memory functioning, it is still unclear if growth hormones play a role in the formation and processing of particular memories during sleep periods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21312297 | 707,747 |
1,700,350 | Since many autonomous vehicles are going to rely on electricity to operate, the demand for lithium batteries increases. Similarly, radar, sensors, lidar, and high-speed internet connectivity require higher auxiliary power from vehicles, which manifests as greater power draw from batteries. The larger battery requirement causes a necessary increase in the supply of these type of batteries for the chemical industry. On the other hand, with the expected increase of battery-powered (autonomous) vehicles, the petroleum industry is expected to undergo a decline in demand. As this implication depends on the adoption rate of autonomous vehicles, it is unsure to what extent this implication will disrupt this particular industry. This transition phase of oil to electricity allows companies to explore whether there are business opportunities for them in the new energy ecosystem. In 2020, Mohan, Sripad, Vaishnav & Viswanathan at Carnegie Mellon University found that the electricity consumption of all the automation technology, including sensors, computation, internet access as well as the increased drag from sensors causes up to a 15% impact on the range of an automated electric vehicle, therefore, implying that the larger battery requirement might not be as large as previously assumed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69239975 | 1,699,396 |
1,944,096 | Educational progressivism has generated the political will to bring about positive change in the regulatory framework and the conditions to implement the right to education and the improvement of learning opportunities, but this has not been matched by the political will to provide each and every child and young person a chance to participate in education and learning. For the most part, this endeavour has lacked the full-bodied institutional, curricular and academic policies needed to achieve this goal. More often, educational progressivism has tended to make use of the traditional battery of classroom approaches thought ‘to be advanced’, as in the case of the different variants of constructivism rather than to reflect on what are the most pertinent combinations of curriculum and teaching approaches to support and guide learners towards gaining access to relevant and sustainable learning processes. Currently, the urgent need to realize a huge academic effort tailored to the individual learner has not been sufficiently weighted – nor has this effort been valued or recognized – as a fundamental ingredient for policy change in education. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53555527 | 1,942,984 |
1,337,096 | Starting in 1951, he received generous support from the Research Corporation in New York, and moved to Hawaii. In the 1950s, he wanted to return to active studies but much of the field was already filled with very large and expensive instruments. Instead he turned to a field that was being largely ignored, that of medium frequency (hectometre) radio signals in the 0.5–3 MHz range, around the AM broadcast bands. However, signals with frequencies below 30 MHz are reflected by an ionized layer in the Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere. In 1954, Reber moved to Tasmania, the southernmost state of Australia, where he worked with Bill Ellis at the University of Tasmania. There, on very cold, long, winter nights the ionosphere would, after many hours shielded from the sun's radiation by the bulk of the Earth, 'quieten' and de-ionize, allowing the longer radio waves into his antenna array. Reber described this as being a "fortuitous situation". Tasmania also offered low levels of man-made radio noise, which permitted reception of the faint signals from outer space. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=336860 | 1,336,365 |
135,372 | According to a study showing the different relationships between limbs of the body and coordination in infants, genetic components have a huge impact on motor development (Piek, Gasson, Barrett, & Case (2002)). Intra-limb correlations, like the strong relationship and distance between hip and knee joints, were studied and proved to affect the way an infant will walk. There are also bigger genetic factors like the tendency to use the left or right side of the body more, predicting the dominant hand early. Sample t-tests proved that there was a significant difference between both sides at 18 weeks for girls and the right side was considered to be more dominant (Piek et al. (2002)). Some factors, like the fact that boys tend to have larger and longer arms are biological constraints that we cannot control, yet have an influence for example, on when an infant will reach | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9627698 | 135,317 |
1,857,133 | Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) establishes a lifelong latent infection in B lymphocytes. Viral LMP2A mRNA is frequently detected in peripheral blood B lymphocytes and the protein is often present in tumor biopsies from EBV malignancies. This suggests LMP2A plays an important role in viral latency, as well as in progression of EBV related diseases such as Burkitt's lymphoma, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and Hodgkin's lymphoma. Portis and Longnecker (2004) have found that LMP2A induces activation of B cell Ras pathway in vivo. Using down stream inhibitors of Ras signaling components, they demonstrated activation of PI3K/Akt pathway is involved in LMP2A mediated B cell survival and resistance to apoptosis Caldwell et al. (1998) demonstrated the ability of LMP2A to provide survival signals to B-cells in vivo where expression of an LMP2A transgene in mice disrupts with normal B-cell development. This results in BCR-negative cells being able to exit the bone marrow and survive in peripheral lymphoid organs. B-cells from LMP2A transgenic E line undergo immunoglobulin light chain rearrangements, but not heavy chain rearrangement. This indicates that LMP2A signaling bypasses the requirement for immunoglobulin recombination and allows immunoglobulin M-negative type cells to bypass apoptosis, allowing them to colonize peripheral lymphoid organs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21859704 | 1,856,065 |
211,665 | Chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and cancer have become the most common and costly health problems in the United States. In 2014, it was projected that by 2023 that the number of chronic disease cases would increase by 42%, resulting in $4.2 trillion in treatment and lost economic output. They are also among the top ten leading causes of mortality. Chronic diseases are driven by risk factors that are largely preventable. Sub-analysis performed on all deaths in the United States in 2000 revealed that almost half were attributed to preventable behaviors including tobacco, poor diet, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption. More recent analysis reveals that heart disease and cancer alone accounted for nearly 46% of all deaths. Modifiable risk factors are also responsible for a large morbidity burden, resulting in poor quality of life in the present and loss of future life earning years. It is further estimated that by 2023, focused efforts on the prevention and treatment of chronic disease may result in 40 million fewer chronic disease cases, potentially reducing treatment costs by $220 billion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1032780 | 211,557 |
1,724,508 | However, the formation process through detachment faults hypothesis has its limitations, such as the scarce seismic evidence that low-angle normal faulting exists, where the presumably significant offset along such faults - which transect the lithosphere at a low angle - should be involved with some friction. The rarity of eclogite in oceanic core complexes also casts doubt on the likelihood of a deep source in such domains. The abundance of peridotites in oceanic core complexes could be accounted for by a unique variation of ocean-ocean subduction at the junction of slow-spreading oceanic ridges and fracture zones. Analog models of subduction show that density contrast of more than 200 kg/m between two juxtaposed lithospheric slabs would result in the underthrusting of the denser one to a depth of about 50 km, where phase transformation causes remineralization of pyroxenes into garnets. This increases the density of the slab, accelerating its drive into the mantle, provided that the friction between the slabs is low. There is ground to presume that at slow ridge and fracture zone intersections, the density contrast of the juxtaposed slabs would exceed 200 kg/m, the friction between the slabs would be low, the thermal gradient would be about 100 C/km, and with about 5% water content, the drop of the solidus (a boundary transition on a phase diagram) of basalt at relatively low pressure would enable the co-occurrence of serpentinites and peridotites, the abundant rock-types in oceanic core complexes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13605193 | 1,723,538 |
931,931 | In May 2013, a senior regulator at the Food & Drug Administration, Medical Team Leader Thomas A. Marciniak, revealed publicly that contrary to the FDA's official conclusion that there was no increased cancer risk, after a patient-by-patient examination of the available FDA data he had concluded that there was a lung-cancer risk increase of about 24% in ARB patients, compared with patients taking a placebo or other drugs. One of the criticisms Marciniak made was that the earlier FDA meta-analysis did not count lung carcinomas as cancers. In ten of the eleven studies he examined, Marciniak said that there were more lung cancer cases in the ARB group than the control group. Ellis Unger, chief of the drug-evaluation division that includes Marciniak, was quoted as calling the complaints a "diversion," and saying in an interview, "We have no reason to tell the public anything new." In an article about the dispute, the Wall Street Journal interviewed three other doctors to get their views; one had "no doubt" ARBs increased cancer risk, one was concerned and wanted to see more data, and the third thought there was either no relationship or a hard to detect, low-frequency relationship. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=757797 | 931,439 |
317,160 | The spark across the spark plug's electrodes forms a small kernel of flame approximately the size of the spark plug gap. As it grows in size, its heat output increases, which allows it to grow at an accelerating rate, expanding rapidly through the combustion chamber. This growth is due to the travel of the flame front through the combustible fuel-air mix itself, and due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability (resulting from the hot, low-density combustion gasses expanding into the relatively cold and dense unburnt fuel-air mix) which rapidly stretches the burning zone into a complex of fingers of burning gas that have a much greater surface area than a simple spherical ball of flame would have (this latter process is enhanced and accelerated by any pre-existing turbulence in the fuel-air mixture). In normal combustion, this flame front moves throughout the fuel/air mixture at a rate characteristic for the particular mixture. Pressure rises smoothly to a peak, as nearly all the available fuel is consumed, then pressure falls as the piston descends. Maximum cylinder pressure is achieved a few crankshaft degrees after the piston passes TDC, so that the force applied on the piston (from the increasing pressure applied to the top surface of the piston) can give its hardest push precisely when the piston's speed and mechanical advantage on the crank shaft gives the best recovery of force from the expanding gases, thus maximizing torque transferred to the crankshaft. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=228468 | 316,991 |
1,638,056 | In the absence of NS1, HMG1 binds the hairpin sequence independently, causing it to bend, without protecting any region from digestion. HMG1 can also directly bind to NS1 and mediates interactions between NS1 molecules bound to their recognition elements in the origin, so it is essential for formation of the cleavage complex. The ability of the axis region to reconfigure into a cruciform does not appear to be important in this process. Cleavage is dependent on the correct spacing of the elements of the origin, so additions and deletions can be lethal, whereas substitutions can be tolerated. Addition of HMG1 appears to only slightly adjust the sequences protected by NS1, but the conformation of the intervening DNA changes, folding into a double helical loop that extends about 30 basepairs through a guanine-rich element in the hairpin stem. Between this element and the nick site there are five thymidine residues included in the loop, and the site has a region to its side containing many alternating adenine and thymine residues, which likely increases flexibility. The creation of the loop likely allows the terminus to assume a specific 3-dimensional structure required to activate the nickase since origins that fail to reconfigure into a double-helical loop once HMG1 is added are not nicked. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66387043 | 1,637,131 |
958,011 | As of October 2015, the weapon was in the second round of contractor validation testing, with a Pre-Production Qualification Test (PPQT) to be conducted in spring 2016, which could lead to a Milestone C decision by August 2016. Since its first deployment, the XM25 has been updated by replacing the boxy 2X Fire Control System (FCS) with a more compact, streamlined FCS that has greater 3X magnification and improved weapon weight, accuracy, and reliability. If requirements are fulfilled and budgets hold, the XM25 could be fielded in early 2017. On 29 August 2016, the Defense Department Inspector General's Office released a report recommending the Army determine whether to proceed with or cancel the XM25 program after reviewing the results of 2016 Governmental testing, scheduled to be completed in fall 2016. Army leaders maintain that the weapon provides revolutionary capabilities to the soldier, and that safety concerns have been addressed through engineering design changes and improvements over 30 additional months of testing. Although one XM25 was planned to be distributed in each deployed squad, fiscal constraints may alter that plan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1608120 | 957,505 |
1,661,200 | Lalita Ramakrishnan (born 1959) is an American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the biological mechanism of tuberculosis. she serves as a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician. Her research is conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), where she serves as the Head of the Molecular Immunity Unit of the Department of Medicine embedded at the MRC LMB. Working with Stanley Falkow at Stanford, she developed the strategy of using "Mycobacterium marinum" infection as a model for tuberculosis. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including "Science", "Nature", and "Cell". In 2018 and 2019 Ramakrishnan coauthored two influential papers in the "British Medical Journal" (BMJ) arguing that the widely accepted estimates of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis—estimates used as a basis for allocation of research funds—are far too high. She is married to Mark Troll, a physical chemist. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50305566 | 1,660,266 |
910,960 | The United Kingdom was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably during the so-called "Pax Britannica"a period of totally unrivaled supremacy and unprecedented international peace during the mid-to-late 1800s. The country continued to be widely considered a superpower until the Suez crisis of 1956, and this embarrassing incident coupled with the loss of the empire left the UK's dominant role in global affairs to be gradually diminished. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a founding member of the G7, G8, G20, NATO, AUKUS, OECD, WTO, Council of Europe, OSCE, and the Commonwealth of Nations, the latter being a legacy of the British Empire. The UK had been a member state of the European Union (and a member of its predecessors) since 1973. However, due to the outcome of a 2016 membership referendum, proceedings to withdraw from the EU began in 2017 and concluded when the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, and the transition period on 31 December 2020 with an EU trade agreement. Since the vote and the conclusion of trade talks with the EU, policymakers have begun pursuing new trade agreements with other global partners. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31731 | 910,481 |
1,005,033 | KNM-ER 1470 was much larger than the Olduvai remains, so the terms "H. habilis sensu lato" ("in the broad sense") and "H. habilis sensu stricto" ("in the strict sense") were used to include or exclude the larger morph, respectively. In 1986, English palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood first suggested these remains represent a different "Homo" species, which coexisted with "H. habilis" and "H. ergaster"/"H. erectus". Coexisting "Homo" species conflicted with the predominant model of human evolution at the time which was that modern humans evolved in a straight line directly from "H. ergaster"/"H. erectus" which evolved directly from "H. habilis". In 1986, the remains were placed into a new species, "rudolfensis", by Russian anthropologist Valery Alekseyev (but he used the genus "Pithecanthropus", which was changed to "Homo" three years later by Groves). In 1999, Kennedy argued that the name was invalid because Alekseyev had not assigned a holotype. Pointing out that this is in fact not mandatory, Wood the same year nevertheless designated KNM-ER 1470 as the lectotype. However, the validity of this species has also been debated on material grounds, with some arguing that "H. habilis" was highly sexually dimorphic like modern non-human apes, with the larger skulls classified as ""H. rudolfensis"" actually representing male "H. habilis". In 1999, Wood and biological anthropologist Mark Collard recommended moving "rudolfensis" and "habilis" to "Australopithecus" based on the similarity of dental adaptations. However, they conceded that dental anatomy is highly variable among hominins and not always reliable when formulating family trees. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=303612 | 1,004,515 |
122,742 | Other important evidence for executive functions processes in the prefrontal cortex have been described. One widely cited review article emphasizes the role of the medial part of the PFC in situations where executive functions are likely to be engaged – for example, where it is important to detect errors, identify situations where stimulus conflict may arise, make decisions under uncertainty, or when a reduced probability of obtaining favourable performance outcomes is detected. This review, like many others, highlights interactions between medial and lateral PFC, whereby posterior medial frontal cortex signals the need for increased executive functions and sends this signal on to areas in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that actually implement control. Yet there has been no compelling evidence at all that this view is correct, and, indeed, one article showed that patients with lateral PFC damage had reduced ERNs (a putative sign of dorsomedial monitoring/error-feedback) – suggesting, if anything, that the direction of flow of the control could be in the reverse direction. Another prominent theory emphasises that interactions along the perpendicular axis of the frontal cortex, arguing that a 'cascade' of interactions between anterior PFC, dorsolateral PFC, and premotor cortex guides behaviour in accordance with past context, present context, and current sensorimotor associations, respectively. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3704475 | 122,693 |
1,692,095 | The dates for the Asuka period are debated, however it is agreed upon that the period extends from mid 500s to early 700s AD. This period is marked by an emphasis on political and cultural relationships with Korea. The Asuka period (552–645) saw the gradual growth of Chinese and Korean artistic and religious influences on Japanese culture. Buddhist texts, implements of worship, and iconography were presented to Japan by Emperor Kimmei in 538 or 552 AD. However, it is likely that more casual introductions had already been made. It was during this period that Buddhism was established as the state religion. The Asuka period is characterized as the foundation for individualistic and public forms of Buddhist art. Specifically, during this period depictions of Buddha are rendered through key iconography such as a lotus, swirled hair, a third eye, mudras, and mandorlas. The sculpture of this period shows, as do most all subsequent sculpture, the influence of continental art. Tori Busshi a descendant of a Chinese immigrant followed the style of Northern Wei sculpture and established what has come to be known as the Tori school of sculpture. Notable examples of Tori works are the Sakyamuni Triad (or Shaka triad) which are the main icons of the Golden Hall of Hōryū-ji temple and the kannon Boddhisatva of Yumedono Hall of the same temple, also known as Guze Kannon. First built in the early 7th century as the private temple of Crown Prince Shōtoku, Hōryū-ji consists of 41 independent buildings. The most important ones, the main worship hall, or "Kondō" (Golden Hall), and "Gojū-no-tō" (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. Inside the "Kondō", on a large rectangular platform, are some of the most important sculptures of the period including the Sakyamuni triad.In the Sakyamuni Triad, Sakyamuni, the center Buddha, is attended by two other figures, Bhaisajyaguru to its right and Amitābha to its left. The statues are dated to 623. The style of the statue is characterized by the two-dimensionality of the figure and the repetitive pattern-like depictions of the cloth the triad sits upon. This style is incredibly typical of the Asuka period. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17616212 | 1,691,144 |
1,614,376 | Spawning occurs in the springtime beginning in May as water temperature warms and continues until around October with species tending to only live for approximately one year. "Aplysia punctata" are simultaneous hermaphrodites with their individual sexual role being determined by either mass or egg-laying specialization. However, they do not self-fertilize and engage in mating behavior that can involve multiple individuals. During warmer months, behavior is dominated by reproduction and feeding, with little time spent crawling or remaining sedentary. Embryos develop from laid eggs and continue to a larval stage, becoming temporary members of the plankton. Larva rapidly transform into juveniles with sexual maturity typically occurring within three and four months from birth. "A. punctata" are benthic gastropods found in both littoral and sublittoral habitats with a large range spanning the northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea. They are known to colonize both shallow, intertidal waters and also deeper zones within their range. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20522147 | 1,613,470 |
265,710 | In 2017, using the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), researchers found at least eight eroding slopes showing exposed water ice sheets as thick as 100 meters, covered by a layer of about 1 or 2 meters thick of soil. The sites are at latitudes from about 55 to 58 degrees, suggesting that there is shallow ground ice under roughly a third of the Martian surface. This image confirms what was previously detected with the spectrometer on 2001 Mars Odyssey, the ground-penetrating radars on MRO and on Mars Express, and by the "Phoenix" lander "in situ" excavation. These ice layers hold easily accessible clues about Mars' climate history and make frozen water accessible to future robotic or human explorers. Some researchers suggested these deposits could be the remnants of glaciers that existed millions of years ago when the planet's spin axis and orbit were different. (See section Mars' Ice ages below.) A more detailed study published in 2019 discovered that water ice exists at latitudes north of 35°N and south of 45°S, with some ice patches only a few centimeters from the surface covered by dust. Extraction of water ice at these conditions would not require complex equipment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21857752 | 265,566 |
349,070 | For those types of ROM that can be electrically modified, writing speed has traditionally been much slower than reading speed, and it may need unusually high voltage, the movement of jumper plugs to apply write-enable signals, and special lock/unlock command codes. Modern NAND Flash achieves the highest write speeds of any rewritable ROM technology, with speeds as high as 10 GB/s. This has been enabled by the increased investment in both consumer and enterprise solid state drives and flash memory products for higher end mobile devices. On a technical level the gains have been achieved by increasing parallelism both in controller design and of storage, the use of large DRAM read/write caches and the implementation of memory cells which can store more than one bit (DLC, TLC and MLC). The latter approach is more failure prone but this has been largely mitigated by overprovisioning (the inclusion of spare capacity in a product which is visible only to the drive controller) and by increasingly sophisticated read/write algorithms in drive firmware. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18934934 | 348,888 |
522,717 | In the interview, published in 1977 by "Kansan Uutiset" and "Uusi Suomi", the employee of Nurmijärvi geophysical observatory Matti Kivinen assumed that an unidentified object over Finland could be the remnant of a launch vehicle or satellite. James Oberg attributed the Petrozavodsk object to the launch of the Soviet satellite "Kosmos-955" from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which took place on 20 September at about 3:58 local time. According to James Oberg, because "Kosmos-955" was launched in the north-eastern direction, the residents of Petrozavodsk (located to the south-west from Plesetsk) observed the blaze trail from the satellite's nozzles, which caused the phenomenon. Oberg's view was endorsed, particularly by the IZMIRAN fellow Yuli Platov in 1984. According to Platov, the appearance of a shining spot was associated with the flare of the satellite's engine. The formation of an extended glowing area reportedly coincided with the satellite's leaving the Earth's shadow. Similar phenomena (given the name "space jellyfish") following the launch of satellites near dawn or dusk have been reported multiple times since the Petrozavodsk incident. Platov further linked the development of the radiant structure to the passage of "Kosmos-955" through the turbopause boundary, "above which the scattering of combustion products occurs without the damping effect of the atmosphere". In 1985, Platov's view was published by Soviet magazine "Nauka v SSSR". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36918866 | 522,445 |
1,568,596 | Most women could not afford to pay for the treatment themselves, due to high cost of US $50,000 to $400,000 per patient. As long as HMOs and other insurers regarded the regime as "experimental" or "investigational", there was no contractual obligation to cover it. While, in the mid-1980s, fewer than 100 bone marrow transplants a year were performed on breast cancer patients, the uptake of HDC/BMT increased six-fold between January 1, 1989 and June 30, 1995. Between those dates 19,291 autotransplants were reported to the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry; 5,886 were for breast cancer. After 1992, breast cancer was the most common indication for autotransplant. Only 11% of women with stage 2/3 disease, and less than one percent of those with stage 4 disease, participated in randomized trials. The International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry estimated that at least 4,000 women were treated with HDC/BMT from 1989 through 1993, with fewer than 10% doing so within trials. Based on the unsubstantiated belief in the success of HDC/BMT, women refused to be randomised to conventional treatment conditions, and doctors were not reimbursed for additional time spent administering protocols. Simultaneously, the treatment was highly profitable for hospitals who, by 1995, were billing the procedure at $80,000 to $100,000 (), at a cost to the hospital of less than $60,000. Hospitals, like Beth Israel in Boston, devoted entire floors to transplant units. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38028125 | 1,567,709 |
420,671 | Arthur Janszen was granted in 1953 for an electrostatic loudspeaker. He had worked in the Navy to develop a low-distortion, high-frequency source for targeting torpedoes. After the war, he developed manufacturing technique for electrostatic speakers, to be used with conventional cone woofers, known as electrostatic hybrids. He licensed Neshaminy Electric to make these speakers. In the early 1970s, Electronic Industries of Minneapolis took over the license and rights to make JansZen electrostatic speakers. In 1974, Electronic Industries introduced a new wire wrap around ESL tweeter that great lowered the cost to manufacture. It also has proven to be totally reliable. Several large arrays of these tweeters were actually used as public address systems in concerts in Minneapolis. Ownership changed again in the late 1970s, and the company was bought. Plans were made to offer electrostatic speakers in cars, but never came into production. Dave Wilson of Wilson audio, used JansZen tweeters in his famous, WAMM, Wilson Audio MOdulator Monitor. That speaker sold for $220,000 pair when it was discontinued. The developers of the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film sound film system had developed a primitive design of electrostatic loudspeaker as early as 1919. David JansZen, son of Arthur JansZen, using his father's papers and designs introduced his own version of electrostatic hybrid speakers. His company, still in business, was not connected to Electronic Industries JansZen speakers. Mr. Janszen's company, JansZen still makes an evolved version of his original design. The KLH Nine was designed in the mid-1950s by Arthur A. Janszen, and thousands were sold after the design was brought over to KLH in 1959 and put into regular production. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=196048 | 420,466 |
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