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1,944,188 | The department, led by Ayelet Shachar, focuses on questions of citizenship, identity, and mobility are at the frontiers of scholarly research. Researchers at the department explore these developments and ask foundational questions, cutting across traditional disciplinary lines, with special emphasis placed on three interrelated themes: the relationship between diversity and equality in public law and private dispute resolution; the legal construction of borders and membership boundaries; and the intersection of states and markets in defining “who belongs“ within the political community, according to what criteria, and with what implications for shaping new disparities of mobility and opportunity at a time of profound and rapid migration and globalization pressures. The focus is on cutting-edge theoretical and legal puzzles; comparative approaches and international collaboration are strongly encouraged. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10201409 | 1,943,076 |
1,321,247 | Isotopic analysis may complement product measurements because it can measure degradation in the absence of metabolites and has the potential to cover sufficiently long time scales to assess transformation in groundwater. Isotope ratios (e.g.,/, /) can reveal history in the absence of any label. Because kinetic isotope effects typically favor the transformation of light isotopes (e.g., ), heavy isotopes (13C) become enriched in residues. An increased / isotope ratio in a parent compound thus provides direct evidence of degradation. Repeated pesticide analyses, in groundwater over time, or direct measurements in combination with groundwater dating that show increasing / isotope ratios in a parent pesticide, provides direct evidence of degradation, even if the pesticide was released long before. Multiple transformation pathways were revealed for atrazine by measuring the isotope effects of multiple elements. In such a case, transformation mechanisms are identifiable from plots of / versus / parent compound data, reflecting different underlying carbon- and nitrogen-isotope effects. The approach requires a relatively high amount of substance for gas chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-IRMS) or LC-IRMS analysis (100 ng to 1 μg), which, for instance, requires extraction of 10 liters of groundwater at pesticide concentrations of 100 ng/liter. For the special case of chiral pesticides, enantiomer analysis may substitute for isotopes in such analyses as a result of stereoselective reactions. Combining isotope and chirality measurement can increase prediction strength. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41917683 | 1,320,521 |
1,280,940 | The other-race effect (i.e. the own-race bias, cross-race effect, other-ethnicity effect, same-race advantage) is one factor thought to impact the accuracy of facial recognition. Studies investigating this effect have shown that a person is better able to recognize faces that match their own race but are less reliable at identifying other more unfamiliar races, thus inhibiting encoding. Various explanations for this effect have been proposed. The perceptual expertise account suggests that with an increase of exposure to one's own race, perceptual mechanisms develop which allow people to be more proficient at remembering faces of their own race. The socio-cognitive account predicts that motivational and/or attentional components over focus on the race of a person. Another hypothesis is that each race pays attention to certain facial details to differentiate between faces. However, other races might not encode these same features. A final suggestion is that faces of the same race are encoded more deeply, leading a witness to have a more detailed memory for those faces; but there has not been much research to support this hypothesis. Research on the other race effect has mainly focused on the African American and Caucasian races. Most research has shown that white eyewitnesses exhibit the other-race effect, however this effect does extend to other races too. In general, memory is an individual process and that conceptualization of race causes racial ambiguity in facial recognition. Mono-racial eyewitnesses may depend on categorization more than multiracial eyewitnesses, who develop a more fluid concept of race. Perception may affect the immediate encoding of these unreliable notions due to prejudices, which can influence the speed of processing and classification of racially ambiguous targets. The ambiguity in eyewitness memory facial recognition can be attributed to the divergent strategies that are used when under the influence of racial bias. This phenomenon is not limited to race. Stereotypes of any kind (whether they be related to age, gender, etc.) can affect the encoding of information at the time of the event. For example, if one is held at gunpoint by two individuals, one of whom is a man and the other is a woman wearing a hat, the victim may quickly fall back on the belief that men are more likely to be aggressors. Consequently, the victim may encode the situation as involving two male assailants, yielding problematic effects in the process of identifying the assailants later on. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33106906 | 1,280,245 |
58,404 | The introduction of a highly technical aircraft type to a newly reformed air force was fraught with problems. Many pilots and ground crew had settled into civilian jobs after World War II and had not kept pace with developments, with pilots being sent on short "refresher" courses in slow and benign-handling first-generation jet aircraft. Ground crew were similarly employed with minimal training and experience, which was one consequence of a conscripted military with high turnover of service personnel. Operating in the poor weather conditions of northwest Europe (unlike the fair weather training conditions at Luke AFB in Arizona) and flying low at high speed over hilly terrain, many accidents were attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). A total of 116 pilots were lost in West German F-104 accidents, including 1 ground crew passenger and 8 USAF instructors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=82439 | 58,379 |
594,789 | In the 1970s, Krantz studied the fossil remains of "Ramapithecus", an extinct genus of primates then thought by many anthropologists to be ancestral to humans, although Krantz helped prove this notion false. Krantz's research on "Homo erectus" was extensive, including studies of phonemic speech and theoretical hunting patterns, and argued that this led to many of the anatomical differences between "H. erectus" and modern humans. He also wrote an influential paper on the emergence of humans in prehistoric Europe and the development of Indo-European languages, and was the first researcher to explain the function of the mastoid process. His professional work was diverse, including research on the development of Paleolithic stone tools, Neanderthal taxonomy and culture, the Quaternary extinction event, sea level changes, and the evidence of sex in the human fossil record. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=801846 | 594,484 |
1,736,281 | IBIS has been adopted as the platform of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) program, which is run by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). NIBIN tracks about 100,000 guns used in crimes. The integration of technology into about 220 sites across the continental US and its territories facilitates sharing of information between different law enforcement groups. The rapid dissemination of ballistics information, in turn, allows for tracking of gun-specific information and connection of a particular firearm to multiple crimes irrespective of geographic location. A National Research Council report has found that with the NIBIN dataset, a bullet retrieved from a crime scene will generate about 10 possible matches, with about a 75-95% chance of a successful match. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11984510 | 1,735,304 |
277,707 | During the postwar era, ASW continued to advance, as the arrival of nuclear submarines had rendered some traditional techniques less effective. The superpowers of the era constructed sizable submarine fleets, many of which were armed with nuclear weapons; in response to the heightened threat posed by such vessels, various nations chose to expand their ASW capabilities. Helicopters, capable of operating from almost any warship and equipped with ASW apparatus, became commonplace during the 1960s. Increasingly capable fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft were also widely used, capable of covering vast areas of ocean. The Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD), diesel exhaust sniffers, sonobuoys and other electronic warfare technologies also became a staple of ASW efforts. Dedicated attack submarines, purpose-built to track down and destroy other submarines, became a key component as well. Torpedo carrying missiles, such as ASROC and Ikara, were another area of advancement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3480866 | 277,557 |
1,179,300 | A potential socioeconomic drawback associated with solar energy conversion is a disruption to the electric utility business model. In America, the economic viability of regional “monopoly” utilities is based on the large aggregation of local customers who balance out each other's variable load. Therefore, the widespread installation of rooftop solar systems that are not connected to the grid poses a threat to the stability of the utility market. This phenomenon is known as Grid Defection. The pressure on electric utilities is exacerbated by an aging grid infrastructure that has yet to adapt to the new challenges posed by renewable energy (mainly regarding inertia, reverse power flow and relay protection schemes). However, some analysts make the case that with the steady increase in natural disasters (which destroy vital grid infrastructure), solar microgrid installation may be necessary to ensure emergency energy access. This emphasis on contingency preparation has expanded the off-grid energy market dramatically in recent years, especially in areas prone to natural disasters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54269557 | 1,178,676 |
817,704 | Adiponectin is a protein hormone that modulates a number of metabolic processes, including glucose regulation and fatty acid oxidation. Adiponectin is secreted from adipose tissue (and also from the placenta in pregnancy) into the bloodstream and is very abundant in plasma relative to many hormones. High adiponectin levels correlate with a lower risk of diabetes mellitus type 2. Plasma levels of adiponectin are lower in obese subjects than in lean subjects. Many studies have found adiponectin to be inversely correlated with body mass index in patient populations. However, a meta analysis was not able to confirm this association in healthy adults. Circulating adiponectin concentrations increase during caloric restriction in animals and humans, such as in patients with anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, a recent study suggests that adipose tissue within bone marrow, which increases during caloric restriction, contributes to elevated circulating adiponectin in this context. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=707980 | 817,267 |
2,133,052 | As a genetic researcher, he was instrumental in the development of techniques to produce monoclonal antibodies, and his diagnostic techniques and research into diseases such as Phenylketonuria have been fundamental to the early detection of affected individuals which has often lead to life-saving interventions and the prevention of further disease progression. He was a pioneer in the field of Mutation Detection, developing methods for the chemical and enzymatic detection of human genetic mutations. Cotton was one of the first to recognize the need to document the extent of all human genetic variation in order to investigate, treat and prevent human disease. As the Founder and Scientific Director of the Human Variome Project, he has led the world in developing ways to collect, curate, interpret and share information on the genetic changes that underlie both inherited and complex disease. By working with clinicians, diagnostic labs and national governments around the world to make information on genetic variations and their effect on patients freely and openly available, the Human Variome Project enables universal access to knowledge that can be used to prevent, diagnose and treat all human disease. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46967866 | 2,131,827 |
1,189,747 | One example of an application of this type may be found in "hydration bags", which use an ingestible draw solute and are intended for separation of water from dilute feeds. This allows, for example, the ingestion of water from surface waters (streams, ponds, puddles, etc.) that may be expected to contain pathogens or toxins that are readily rejected by the FO membrane. With sufficient contact time, such water will permeate the membrane bag into the draw solution, leaving the undesirable feed constituents behind. The diluted draw solution may then be ingested directly. Typically, the draw solutes are sugars such as glucose or fructose, which provide the additional benefit of nutrition to the user of the FO device. A point of additional interest with such bags is that they may be readily used to recycle urine, greatly extending the ability of a backpacker or soldier to survive in arid environments. This process may also, in principle, be employed with highly concentrated saline feedwater sources such as seawater, as one of the first intended uses of FO with ingestible solutes was for survival in life rafts at sea. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=855056 | 1,189,115 |
2,113,433 | Stebbins and Fay C. Brown soon became friends and in time, they had a selenium cell positioned on the telescope at the observatory. In the summer of 1907, after several attempts, the two achieved a light curve for Earth's moon and measured the moon's brightness during a lunar eclipse. This marked the first time in America that electricity was used to measure astronomical brightness. Later Stebbins went further, discovering that by cooling the cell to zero degrees Fahrenheit he would double the cell sensitivity and diminish irregularities in the circuit tenfold, still further, by reducing the size of the cell the irregularities were reduced more. The pair went on to detect stellar intensity and activity that were previously unrecorded. In 1909 their observations of Algol detected for the first time the second minimum as well as limb brightening. The coming of Comet Halley in 1910 allowed Stebbins, in May, to use his selenium photometer to study the comet. Two years later Stebbins used the photometer and discovered four stars to be eclipsing binary stars: Beta Aurigae, Spica, Alpha Coronae Borealis and Delta Orionis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7524908 | 2,112,218 |
302,202 | Almost immediately, some astronomers questioned Pluto's status as a planet. Barely a month after its discovery was announced, on April 14, 1930, in an article in "The New York Times", Armin O. Leuschner suggested that Pluto's dimness and high orbital eccentricity made it more similar to an asteroid or comet: "The Lowell result confirms the possible high eccentricity announced by us on April 5. Among the possibilities are a large asteroid greatly disturbed in its orbit by close approach to a major planet such as Jupiter, or it may be one of many long-period planetary objects yet to be discovered, or a bright cometary object." In that same article, Harvard Observatory director Harlow Shapley wrote that Pluto was a "member of the Solar System not comparable with known asteroids and comets, and perhaps of greater importance to cosmogony than would be another major planet beyond Neptune." In 1931, using a mathematical formula, Ernest W. Brown asserted (in agreement with E. C. Bower) that the presumed irregularities in the orbit of Uranus could not be due to the gravitational effect of a more distant planet, and thus that Lowell's supposed prediction was "purely accidental". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23842 | 302,041 |
1,114,384 | Similar to many early dinosaurs, a small diastema (toothless notch) was present at the lower contact between the premaxilla and maxilla. Like "Tawa" and "Herrerasaurus", the outer surface of the maxilla is generally smooth and flat; there are no sharp ridges delimiting the tooth row or the shallow, upwards-oriented antorbital fossa. Nevertheless, there are a few pits on the outer surface, and a ridge-like palatal process on the inner surface. The maxilla has 10 teeth at most, fewer than any other early dinosaur. While the recurved second and third maxillary teeth are nearly as long as the premaxillary teeth, the rest of the teeth gradually diminish in size and curvature towards the rear of the bone. On the other hand, serrations become more extensive on each tooth further down the tooth row.The nasal is smooth and likely did not participate in the antorbital fossa. Each nasal has M-shaped sutures with the premaxilla and frontal, a more complex configuration than in other early dinosaurs. The lacrimal is thinnest at mid-height and sends a sharp projection along the lower edge of the orbit. It forms the rear edge of the antorbital fossa via a subtle ridge. The prefrontal is proportionally large, forming about half the upper edge of the orbit. The size of the prefrontal is unique to "Daemonosaurus" among dinosaurs and archosaurs in general. The frontals are wide and flat, separated from each other at the front by a wedge-shaped projection of the nasals. Their rear edge is excavated by the supratemporal fossa, which extends onto the broad and mostly flat parietal, as well as the fairly large postorbital. The postorbital likely contacted the frontal along a straight edge (like "Tawa" and "Herrerasaurus"), while also sending a rounded overhanging projection into the orbit (like most early saurischians). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31483398 | 1,113,816 |
697,701 | According to the Australian concrete expert B. V. Rangan, the growing worldwide demand for concrete is a great opportunity for the development of geopolymer cements of all types, with their much lower tally of carbon dioxide CO. In 2021, a life cycle assessment study performed by researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia, confirmed that geopolymer mortars establish compressive strength and flexural strength that are adequate for construction applications and present sustainability benefits in Global Warming Potential, which suggests them to be potential substitutions for Ordinary Portland Cement. However, the industrial waste treatment (i.e., preparation of fly ash) depletes water bodies and the sodium silicate induces significant environmental burdens during its manufacture, becoming the key factor to enhance the geopolymer’s sustainability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11932146 | 697,337 |
1,249,633 | Sociology is a science concerned with groups and group formation, including those facing structural and interpersonal oppression, suffering, and vulnerability. Sub-fields in this area include African Americans studies, women's studies, and gay/lesbian studies. However, not much attention or legitimacy is awarded animal studies as a sub-field. Modern use of animals in the developed world, especially in the United States, can be characterized by exploitation, domination, and oppression. Animal cruelty and abuse is not only present in the industrial farming of livestock, but also in such circumstances as dog fighting, cow tipping, horse racing, circus acts, and other entertainment industries and practices. Furthermore, animals are often victims and pawns used in domestic violence. The widespread abuse of animals in modern society is important for sociology because it involves an entrenched assumption about the connection between cruelty toward animals and violence directed and human beings. Some research has even suggested ways in which the human-animal interaction can challenge dominant sociological theories about the self. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16790280 | 1,248,957 |
534,385 | Religious denominations established most early colleges in order to train ministers. They were modeled after Oxford and Cambridge universities in England, as well as Scottish universities. Harvard College was founded by the Massachusetts Bay colonial legislature in 1636, and named after an early benefactor. Most of the funding came from the colony, but the colleges began to collect endowments early on. Harvard first focused on training young men for the ministry, and won general support from the Puritan government, some of whose leaders had attended either Oxford or Cambridge. The College of William & Mary was founded by the Virginia government in 1693, with of land for an endowment, and a penny tax on every pound of tobacco, together with an annual appropriation. James Blair, the leading Church of England minister in the colony, was president for 50 years, and the college won the broad support of the Virginia gentry. It trained many of the lawyers, politicians, and leading planters at the time. Yale College was founded in 1701, and in 1716 was relocated to New Haven, Connecticut. The conservative Puritan ministers of Connecticut had grown dissatisfied with the more liberal theology of Harvard and wanted their own school to train orthodox ministers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44440652 | 534,106 |
1,856,992 | China had far longer direct contact with Mongolic peoples than Russia or other European countries had, and thus a longer history of studying their languages. However, the modern academic tradition of Mongolian studies in China faced a variety of early setbacks. 19th-century studies of Mongolia by Chinese scholars were closely tied to Qing dynasty rule over Mongolia. The threat from Russian imperialism was a major spur for Chinese scholars to study the region, both as part of the project of "map[ping] and classify[ing] the frontier", and from their desire to emphasise affinity between the Han Chinese and peoples of the frontier and their common contrast with Japanese and European powers who sought influence in the region. Thus, as Stephen Kotkin describes it, in the aftermath of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Qing and established the Republic of China, the whole field of study was seen as "closely tied to the Manchus and imperial rule" and became discredited, a state of affairs made worse by the opposition to the 1911 revolution of major Chinese scholars of Mongolia such as Wang Guowei. The development of Mongolian studies in China in the early years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China drew heavily on Russian works. One of the first tertiary-level centres for Mongolian studies in China, the Institute of Mongolia at Inner Mongolia University, was founded in 1964. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51704205 | 1,855,924 |
190,565 | As the experiments proceeded, the required quantities could no longer be obtained by performing surgery on living dogs. In November 1921, Banting hit upon the idea of obtaining insulin from the fetal pancreas. He removed the pancreases from fetal calves at a William Davies slaughterhouse and found the extracts to be just as potent as those extracted from the dog pancreases. By December 1921, he had also succeeded in extracting insulin from the adult pancreas. Pork and beef would remain the primary commercial sources of insulin until they were replaced by genetically-engineered bacteria in the late 20th century. On January 11, 1922, the first ever injection of insulin was given to 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson at Toronto General Hospital. In spring of 1922, Banting established a private practice in Toronto and began to treat diabetic patients. His first American patient was Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, daughter of U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=75076 | 190,466 |
1,317,493 | The lateral body wall folds, pulling the amnion in with it so that the amnion surrounds the embryo and extends over the connecting stalk, which becomes the umbilical cord, which connects the fetus with the placenta. If the ventral body wall fails to close, ventral body wall defects can result, such as ectopia cordis, a congenital malformation in which the heart is abnormally located outside the thorax. Another defect is gastroschisis, a congenital defect in the anterior abdominal wall through which the abdominal contents freely protrude. Another possibility is bladder exstrophy, in which part of the urinary bladder is present outside the body. In normal circumstances, the parietal mesoderm will form the parietal layer of serous membranes lining the outside (walls) of the peritoneal, pleural, and pericardial cavities. The visceral layer will form the visceral layer of the serous membranes covering the lungs, heart, and abdominal organs. These layers are continuous at the root of each organ as the organs lie in their respective cavities. The peritoneum, a serum membrane that forms the lining of the abdominal cavity, forms in the gut layers and in places mesenteries extend from the gut as double layers of peritoneum. Mesenteries provide a pathway for vessels, nerves, and lymphatics to the organs. Initially, the gut tube from the caudal end of the foregut to the end of the hindgut is suspended from the dorsal body wall by dorsal mesentery. Ventral mesentery, derived from the septum transversum, exists only in the region of the terminal part of the esophagus, the stomach, and the upper portion of the duodenum. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39325716 | 1,316,768 |
197,690 | The British were the first to create a larger fully mechanised unit when the War Office sanctioned the creation of the Experimental Mechanized Force, which was formed on 1 May 1927, under infantry Colonel R. J. Collins, after Fuller (was) refused the function. Its sub-units were entirely mobile and consisted of reconnaissance tankettes and armoured cars, a battalion of forty-eight Vickers Medium Mark I tanks, a motorised machine-gun battalion, a mechanised artillery regiment, which had one battery of fully tracked self-propelled Birch guns capable of acting as conventional or anti-aircraft artillery, and a motorised company of field engineers. The unit carried out operations on Salisbury Plain and was observed by the other major nations, the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Although its performance was recognised, it was disbanded in 1928. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1559537 | 197,588 |
870,405 | Marketing efforts towards home users continued in 1990 with the introduction of The Learning Curve: a bundle of A3000 and application software priced at £699 plus VAT, requiring a SCART capable television, or bundled with a colour monitor and Acorn's monitor stand for £949 plus VAT. The software, having a retail value of around £200, consisted of the second, RISC OS compliant version of Acorn's First Word Plus, the hypermedia application Genesis, and the PC Emulator software, with an introductory video presented by Fred Harris. Aiming at the "pre-Christmas market" in 1990, another bundle called Jet Set offered a more entertainment-focused collection of software valued at £200 including Clares' Interdictor flight simulator, Domark's Trivial Pursuit, Superior Golf, and the Euclid 3D modelling package from Ace Computing. The price of this bundle was £747.50 which also included a television modulator developed by the bundle's distributor, ZCL, designed for use with "any TV set" and offering a "monitor quality" picture. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63145 | 869,945 |
173,673 | Antonov subsequently converted the static-test prototype into a flying prototype equipped with a modified flight-control system. The second airframe was rolled out in December 1996 in Kyiv, before making its first flight on 24 April 1997 from Svyatoshino Airfield, during which the aircraft was airborne for 31 minutes; according to Jane's, however, the aircraft had taken off from Hostomel for a 26-minute flight. The second prototype's initial flight nearly ended in disaster, as the flight-control system repeatedly malfunctioned. Test pilot Oleksandr Halunenko was forced to manually land the prototype, for which he was honored with the Hero of Ukraine title. By this time, more than US$2.5 billion had been spent on the programme, with a further $200 million to be spent to prepare the aircraft for production, which was expected to have started in 1999 with 20–25 aircraft produced annually. The Russian and Ukrainian Air Forces reportedly had long-term plans to procure 500 and 100 aircraft, respectively. The second airframe was severely damaged during cold weather testing on 27 January 2001 in a crash landing after take-off. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=908224 | 173,582 |
1,526,914 | UConn would take an early lead in the game. Notre Dame's best post player, Natalie Achonwa, was not playing due to an ACL injury, so UConn pushed the ball inside. They would end up with a 52–22 points in the paint advantage, the "most dominating post performance women's basketball has witnessed in a title game". After pulling out to a 14-point lead midway through the first half, the Irish responded to cut the lead to seven by halftime. However, Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch warned in a pre-game write-up "...UConn has always been a team of runs ("spurtability," as Clark Kellogg would say) especially early in the second half". The second half opened with the teams trading baskets, but over the next seven minutes, UConn scored 16 of the next 18 points, to extend the lead from seven to 21 points. UConn would go on to win their ninth National Championship game by the same margin 79–58. The 40 wins tied an NCAA record set by Baylor two years ago. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40277473 | 1,526,050 |
1,227,767 | Initially, TARPS was not a priority on the air tasking order during Desert Shield/Storm due to availability of strategic assets like the U-2/TR-1 and plentiful USAF RF-4 units. However, once Desert Storm started, the demand for realtime intel overwhelmed the other assets and TARPS missions were called upon to meet the demand. Immediately, it became obvious that Tomcats were favored for in country missions over the RF-4 as they required no escort and needed less fuel pre- and post-mission, which was a real concern at the time. TARPS continued to be utilized post Desert Storm and training was modified to take into account medium altitude tactics such as were flown in Desert Storm. Prior to that, the majority of TARPS missions training missions were low altitude overland and over water navigation and imagery. Only mapping was flown at medium altitudes. TARPS was used routinely in Operation Southern Watch over Iraq and called upon in Bosnia in 1995 and then again over Kosovo in 1999. The advent of LANTIRN into Tomcat operations provided a useful complement to TARPS. Since both systems need the same real estate in the rear cockpit for sensor operation control panels, they cannot be mounted on the aircraft at the same time, but they can be flown in formation yielding the best of both systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4219048 | 1,227,105 |
1,826,109 | One of the leading hypotheses for why ancient Mars was wetter than today is that a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere created a global greenhouse, that warmed the surface enough for liquid water to occur in large amounts. Carbon dioxide ice in today's polar caps is too limited in volume to hold that ancient atmosphere. If a thick atmosphere ever existed, it was either blown into space by solar wind or impacts, or reacted with silicate rocks to become trapped as carbonates in Mars' crust. One of the goals that drove CRISM's design was to find carbonates, to try to solve this question about what happened to Mars' atmosphere. And one of CRISM's most important discoveries was the identification of carbonate bedrock in Nili Fossae in 2008. Soon thereafter, landed missions to Mars started identifying carbonates on the surface; the Phoenix Mars lander found between 3–5 wt% calcite (CaCO) at its northern lowland landing site, while the MER Spirit rover identified outcrops rich in magnesium-iron carbonate (16–34 wt%) in the Columbia Hills of Gusev crater. Later CRISM analyses identified carbonates in the rim of Huygens crater which suggested that there could be extensive deposits of buried carbonates on Mars. However, a study by CRISM scientists estimated that all of the carbonate rock on Mars holds less that the present Martian atmosphere worth of carbon dioxide. They determined that if a dense ancient Martian atmosphere did exist, it is probably not trapped in the crust. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5565460 | 1,825,070 |
161,939 | While the exact physiological mechanism of the sundew's carnivorous response is not yet known, some studies have begun to shed light on how the plant is able to move in response to mechanical and chemical stimulation to envelop and digest prey. Individual tentacles, when mechanically stimulated, fire action potentials that terminate near the base of the tentacle, resulting in rapid movement of the tentacle towards the center of the leaf. This response is more prominent when marginal tentacles further away from the leaf center are stimulated. The tentacle movement response is achieved through auxin-mediated acid growth. When action potentials reach their target cells, the plant hormone auxin causes protons (H ions) to be pumped out of the plasma membrane into the cell wall, thereby reducing the pH and making the cell wall more acidic. The resulting reduction in pH causes the relaxation of the cell wall protein, expansin, and allows for an increase in cell volume via osmosis and turgor. As a result of differential cell growth rates, the sundew tentacles are able to achieve movement towards prey and the leaf center through the bending caused by expanding cells. Among some drosera species, a second bending response occurs in which non-local, distant tentacles bend towards prey as well as the bending of the entire leaf blade to maximize contact with prey. While mechanical stimulation is sufficient to achieve a localized tentacle bend response, both mechanical and chemical stimuli are required for the secondary bending response to occur. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=148069 | 161,854 |
658,193 | The GeForce 2 architecture is similar to the previous GeForce 256 line but with various improvements. Compared to the 220 nm GeForce 256, GeForce 2 is built on a 180 nm manufacturing process, making the silicon more dense and allowing for more transistors and a higher clock speed. The most significant change for 3D acceleration is the addition of a second texture mapping unit to each of the four pixel pipelines. Some say the second TMU was there in the original Geforce NSR (NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer) but dual-texturing was disabled due to a hardware bug; NSR's unique ability to do single-cycle trilinear texture filtering supports this suggestion. This doubles the texture fillrate per clock compared to the previous generation and is the reasoning behind the GeForce 2 GTS's naming suffix: GigaTexel Shader (GTS). The GeForce 2 also formally introduces the NSR (Nvidia Shading Rasterizer), a primitive type of programmable pixel pipeline that is somewhat similar to later pixel shaders. This functionality is also present in GeForce 256 but was unpublicized. Another hardware enhancement is an upgraded video processing pipeline, called "HDVP" (high definition video processor). HDVP supports motion video playback at HDTV-resolutions (MP@HL). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=179011 | 657,848 |
210,222 | Unlike conventional helicopters, quadcopters do not usually have cyclic pitch control, in which the angle of the blades varies dynamically as they turn around the rotor hub. In the early days of flight, quadcopters (then referred to either as 'quadrotors' or simply as 'helicopters') were seen as a possible solution to some of the persistent problems in vertical flight. Torque-induced control issues (as well as efficiency issues originating from the tail rotor, which generates no useful lift) can be eliminated by counter-rotation, and the relatively short blades are much easier to construct. A number of manned designs appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. These vehicles were among the first successful heavier-than-air vertical take off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. However, early prototypes suffered from poor performance, and latter prototypes required too much pilot work load, due to poor stability augmentation and limited control authority. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4428365 | 210,115 |
1,488,122 | A theoretical explanation for the mechanism of pain reduction by transcranial electrostimulation, or TCES, suggests that the electrical stimulation activates the anti-nociceptive system in the brain, resulting in β-endorphin, serotonin and noradrenaline release. TCES can be used on people with cervical pain, chronic lower back syndrome, or migraines. It cannot be used on people with orthopedic or radiological potentially serious spinal conditions, hydrocephalus, epilepsy, glaucoma, malignant hypertension, pacemaker or other implanted electronic device; recent cerebral trauma, nervous system infection, skin lesions at sites of electrode placement; oncological disease; patients undergoing any other treatments for pain; any invasive therapy, e.g. surgery, within the last month. The equipment used is Pulse Mazor Instruments' Pulsatilla 1000, which consists of a headset with three electrodes, two that go behind the ears and one that goes on the forehead, that release set frequencies of electricity at set intervals. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22551311 | 1,487,283 |
1,787,322 | In the early ‘90s, the college was faced with a huge decline in local tax revenue and a new problematic state funding formula. The institution was forced to take severe cuts in its budget. In the early years, CWC had intercollegiate athletics, and even won regional titles in basketball, volleyball and tennis. However, budget woes in the early 1990s forced the college to eliminate round ball sports. CWC converted the scholarships offered to athletes into academic scholarships. At the same time, the college was serving a severely economically depressed population, and these dismal factors were reflected in the college's student body, which was primarily low-income, educationally disadvantaged, and older than average. The combination of limited resources, changing technology, traditional curricula, and a diverse, rural and disadvantaged student population with a high attrition rate presented the college's administration with enormous challenges. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15307285 | 1,786,317 |
71,423 | The minimum weight of the cars at all times during an event was increased to , a difference of from 2014, addressing concerns raised the year before that the lighter weight limit forced taller drivers to become unhealthily slim. The ban on front-and-rear interconnected suspension systems (FRIC) that had been implemented in the middle of the 2014 season was formalised, with the regulations stating that the front and rear suspension had to be designed in such a way that any change in performance had to be a direct result of a change in load applied solely to them. The anti-intrusion panels on both sides of the survival cell were extended upwards to the rim of the cockpit and alongside the driver's head in order to improve the drivers' safety in event of a side impact. Titanium skid blocks on the underside of the car were made mandatory for the 2015 season, which led to a return of sparks being created by the cars as the underbody touched the track. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39263987 | 71,396 |
185,164 | Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeutic") and industrial radiography. Similar techniques are used in airport security (where "body scanners" generally use backscatter X-ray). To create an image in conventional radiography, a beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray generator and is projected toward the object. A certain amount of the X-rays or other radiation is absorbed by the object, dependent on the object's density and structural composition. The X-rays that pass through the object are captured behind the object by a detector (either photographic film or a digital detector). The generation of flat two dimensional images by this technique is called projectional radiography. In computed tomography (CT scanning) an X-ray source and its associated detectors rotate around the subject which itself moves through the conical X-ray beam produced. Any given point within the subject is crossed from many directions by many different beams at different times. Information regarding attenuation of these beams is collated and subjected to computation to generate two dimensional images in three planes (axial, coronal, and sagittal) which can be further processed to produce a three dimensional image. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=95807 | 185,067 |
609,891 | The imagos of leaf beetles are small to medium-sized, i.e. most species range from 1.0 to 18 mm in length, excluding appendages, with just a few larger species such as "Alurnus humeralis", which reaches 35 mm. The bodies of most species are domed, and oval in dorsal view (though some are round or elongated), and they often possess a metallic luster or multiple colors. In most specimens, the antennae are notably shorter than head, thorax, and abdomen, i.e. not more than half their combined length. The second antennal segment is of normal size (which differentiates leaf beatles from the closely related longhorn beetles). In most species, the antennal segments are of a more or less equal shape, at most they gradually widen towards the tip, although some Galerucinae in particular have modified segments, mainly in males. The first segment of the antenna in most cases is larger than the following ones. The pronotum of leaf beetles varies between species. In most, it is slightly to highly domed and trapezoidal to rounded-squarish in dorsal view. In some subfamilies such as the Cassidinae and to a lesser extent the Cryptocephalinae, the head is covered by the pronotum and thus not visible from above. The first three sternites are not fused, instead being linked by mobile sutures. Most species possess wings, although the level of development and thus flight ability varies widely, including within a single species, and some are flightless with fused elytra. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=419522 | 609,580 |
776,658 | On December 7, 1988, Close felt a strange pain in his chest. That day he was at a ceremony honoring local artists in New York City and was waiting to be called to the podium to present an award. Close delivered his speech and then made his way across the street to Beth Israel Medical Center where he had a seizure which left him paralyzed from the neck down. The cause was diagnosed as a spinal artery collapse. He had also experienced neuromuscular problems as a child. Close called that day "The Event". For months, Close was in rehab strengthening his muscles with physical therapy; he soon had slight movement in his arms and could walk, yet only for a few steps. He relied on a wheelchair thereafter. Close spoke candidly about the effect disability had on his life and work in the book "" written by Jean Kennedy Smith and George Plimpton and published by Random House. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=840023 | 776,242 |
1,797,295 | The IPCC chairman Bert Bolin had difficulty finding a convening lead author for Chapter 8. After delays, Benjamin D. Santer who was doing postdoctoral research on the topic was persuaded to take on the task. Twenty participants from various countries met at the initial meeting in Livermore, California, in August 1994 to identify the scientific topic areas, and discussion continued by email. At the first drafting session (in Sigtuna, Sweden, in October) Santer persuaded the others that the chapter should discuss observational and model uncertainties, though these were also covered in other chapters. The "zeroth" draft was then sent out for peer review to scientific topic experts, all the chapter authors and lead authors of other chapters. Their responses were incorporated in the second drafting session in March 1995 at Brighton. In May the entire draft Working Group I report as well as the summary for policymakers was submitted for full "country review" by participating governments, to provide comments for incorporation at the third drafting session at Asheville, North Carolina, in July. Because of the delayed timing, Santer did not receive government comments for this meeting, some did not arrive until the plenary meeting in November. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1263418 | 1,796,286 |
1,055,461 | Division of the octave into 31 steps arose naturally out of Renaissance music theory; the lesser diesis — the ratio of an octave to three major thirds, 128:125 or 41.06 cents — was approximately a fifth of a tone or a third of a semitone. In 1555, Nicola Vicentino proposed an extended-meantone tuning of 31 tones. In 1666, Lemme Rossi first proposed an equal temperament of this order. In 1691, having discovered it independently, scientist Christiaan Huygens wrote about it also. Since the standard system of tuning at that time was quarter-comma meantone, in which the fifth is tuned to , the appeal of this method was immediate, as the fifth of 31-ET, at 696.77 cents, is only 0.19 cent wider than the fifth of quarter-comma meantone. Huygens not only realized this, he went farther and noted that 31-ET provides an excellent approximation of septimal, or 7-limit harmony. In the twentieth century, physicist, music theorist and composer Adriaan Fokker, after reading Huygens's work, led a revival of interest in this system of tuning which led to a number of compositions, particularly by Dutch composers. Fokker designed the Fokker organ, a 31-tone equal-tempered organ, which was installed in Teyler's Museum in Haarlem in 1951 and moved to Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in 2010 where it has been frequently used in concerts since it moved. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3582753 | 1,054,913 |
62,609 | The idea for the original Ironman Triathlon arose during the awards ceremony for the 1977 Oʻahu Perimeter Relay. Among the participants were representatives of both the Mid-Pacific Road Runners and the Waikiki Swim Club, whose members had long been debating which athletes were more fit, runners or swimmers. On this occasion, U.S. Navy Commander John Collins pointed out that a recent article in "Sports Illustrated" magazine had declared that Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx had the highest recorded "oxygen uptake" of any athlete ever measured, so perhaps cyclists were more fit than anyone. Collins and his wife Judy Collins had taken part in the triathlons staged in 1974 and 1975 by the San Diego Track Club in and around Mission Bay, California, as well as the 1975 Optimist Sports Fiesta Triathlon in Coronado, California. A number of the other military athletes in attendance were also familiar with the San Diego races, so they understood the concept when Collins suggested that the debate should be settled through a race combining the three existing long-distance competitions already on the island: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (; originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=83318 | 62,584 |
12,129 | The [1934 article] chiefly treats it under its mechanical aspect, entering but slightly into the mathematical principles of which that engine is the representative, but giving, in considerable length, many details of the mechanism and contrivances by means of which it tabulates the various orders of differences. M. Menabrea, on the contrary, exclusively developes the analytical view; taking it for granted that mechanism is able to perform certain processes, but without attempting to explain how; and devoting his whole attention to explanations and illustrations of the manner in which analytical laws can be so arranged and combined as to bring every branch of that vast subject within the grasp of the assumed powers of mechanism. It is obvious that, in the invention of a calculating engine, these two branches of the subject are equally essential fields of investigation... They are indissolubly connected, though so different in their intrinsic nature, that perhaps the same mind might not be likely to prove equally profound or successful in both. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=974 | 12,124 |
1,359,685 | Fungi are natural decomposers of many ecosystems. As a result, it is able to secrete large amounts of enzymes, more so than bacterial based systems. However, utilizing fungi as expression systems has seen several barriers, especially due to the lack of knowledge regarding fungal genetics due to its inherent complexity. The filamentous fungi specifically have been a host system of interest, and includes Penicillium (where penicillin was derived), Trichoderma reesei, and Aspergillus niger. Filamentous fungi are efficient at producing extracellular proteins, bypassing the additional step of cell breaking to extract proteins. Some also have inexpensive growth and media conditions. Fungi also contain glycolysation and modification capabilities that are helpful for eukaryotic proteins. Additionally, they have also successfully produced vaccine related proteins, and some filamentous fungi have been deemed GRAS by the FDA. However, the major drawback of using this host system is that yields are extremely low and not economically viable. Moreover, the low amount of protein that is produced is often degraded by fungal proteases. Some approaches to address this have been using protease deficient strains. Researchers are also attempting different gene disruption methods. With a better understanding of fungal gene regulation and expression, we can expect filamentous fungi to become a possibly viable host system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29071957 | 1,358,934 |
546,282 | Throughout the war, Australian infantry units were largely equipped with British-designed but Australian-made small arms and support weapons. The standard rifle was the SMLE No 1 Mk III*, manufactured since 1912 at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory. Small quantities of the Lee–Enfield No.4 Mk I/Mk I* rifle, made by the Long Branch Arsenal in Canada and Savage-Stevens Firearms in the US, were used in New Guinea although most of these rifles were provided to other branches of the Australian military and to the Volunteer Defence Corps in order to free up No.1 MkIII* rifles for frontline infantry units. American-made M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles and M1 carbines were also issued to some Australian infantry units attached to US Army formations in New Guinea. Direct fire support was provided by a mixture of machine guns, including the Vickers machine gun which was produced at Lithgow from 1929, which were utilised by specialised machine-gun battalions and, later, also medium machine-gun platoons within infantry battalions. The Bren Gun replaced Lewis Gun as the standard automatic rifle in the early years of the war, and within infantry battalions was utilised at the section level. Their manufacture in Australia started in 1941. To improve rates of fire, the American Thompson submachine gun was introduced but it was eventually replaced by the Australian-designed Owen Gun and the British-designed but Australian-modified and -made Austen submachine gun. Infantry platoons were also equipped with M36 grenades. The Boys anti-tank rifle was the standard infantry anti-tank weapon at the start of the war, but was replaced with the PIAT in 1943. The heavier support weapons used by infantry battalions the war included the 2-inch mortar and Stokes 3-inch mortar. Infantry battalions were also equipped with Universal Carriers until being converted to the tropical warfare establishment in 1943, when the organic carrier platoons were consolidated into companies assigned at divisional level. A man-pack flamethrower was also introduced in 1945. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22738876 | 545,996 |
911,250 | Although Romania started DVB-T broadcasting in 2005 with the MPEG-2 standard for SD broadcast and MPEG 4 for HD, it was only experimental. In June 2011 Romania shifted to MPEG4 both for SD and HD. In 2012, the Romanian authorities decided that DVB-T2 will be the standard used for terrestrial broadcasts, as it allows a larger number of programs to be broadcast on the same multiplex. Romania's switchover plans were initially delayed due to economical and feasibility-related reasons. One of the reasons was that most Romanian consumers already extensively used either cable or satellite services, which developed very quickly and became very popular after 1990. In fact, a technological boom started around 2003, driven by a solid economical development in the field of telecommunications, made several private operators create large networks of fiber optics and cable covering all of Romania, which are now used for providing both TV, telephony, and high quality broadband internet. As the prices for complete packages (TV, internet, telephony) are low and the quality is quite good (e.g. about 20 EUR for 500Mbit/s internet, ≈120 SD and HD digital cable TV channels and telephony, with an added 2-4 EUR for mobile telephony), the interest for over-the-air TV quickly became very low. There are rumors that commercial broadcasters that traditionally transmitted over-the-air using analogue channels (like MediaPro, Antena GROUP, Prima TV) will give up terrestrial broadcasting and will be available only on pay-TV services, like cable, satellite and IPTV. It is also rumored that the DVB-T standard (with MPEG-4 encoding) will continue until 2018. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9194388 | 910,771 |
460,409 | Stardust is one component of cosmic dust. Stardust is individual solid grains that condensed during mass loss from various long-dead stars. Stardust existed throughout interstellar gas before the birth of the Solar System and was trapped in meteorites when they assembled from interstellar matter contained in the planetary accretion disk in early Solar System. Today they are found in meteorites, where they have been preserved. Meteoriticists habitually refer to them as presolar grains. The "s"-process enriched grains are mostly silicon carbide (SiC). The origin of these grains is demonstrated by laboratory measurements of extremely unusual isotopic abundance ratios within the grain. First experimental detection of "s"-process xenon isotopes was made in 1978, confirming earlier predictions that "s"-process isotopes would be enriched, nearly pure, in stardust from red giant stars. These discoveries launched new insight into astrophysics and into the origin of meteorites in the Solar System. Silicon carbide (SiC) grains condense in the atmospheres of AGB stars and thus trap isotopic abundance ratios as they existed in that star. Because the AGB stars are the main site of the "s"-process in the galaxy, the heavy elements in the SiC grains contain almost pure "s"-process isotopes in elements heavier than iron. This fact has been demonstrated repeatedly by sputtering-ion mass spectrometer studies of these stardust presolar grains. Several surprising results have shown that within them the ratio of "s"-process and "r"-process abundances is somewhat different from that which was previously assumed. It has also been shown with trapped isotopes of krypton and xenon that the "s"-process abundances in the AGB-star atmospheres changed with time or from star to star, presumably with the strength of neutron flux in that star or perhaps the temperature. This is a frontier of "s"-process studies in the 2000s. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=352908 | 460,183 |
165,083 | In 1920, Arthur Eddington, on the basis of the precise measurements of atomic masses by F.W. Aston and a preliminary suggestion by Jean Perrin, proposed that stars obtained their energy from nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium and raised the possibility that the heavier elements are produced in stars. This was a preliminary step toward the idea of stellar nucleosynthesis. In 1928 George Gamow derived what is now called the Gamow factor, a quantum-mechanical formula yielding the probability for two contiguous nuclei to overcome the electrostatic Coulomb barrier between them and approach each other closely enough to undergo nuclear reaction due to the strong nuclear force which is effective only at very short distances. In the following decade the Gamow factor was used by Atkinson and Houtermans and later by Edward Teller and Gamow himself to derive the rate at which nuclear reactions would occur at the high temperatures believed to exist in stellar interiors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=152440 | 164,998 |
932,984 | Camber angle alters the handling qualities of some suspension designs; in particular, negative camber improves grip in corners especially with a short long arms suspension. This is because it places the tire at a better angle to the road, transmitting the centrifugal forces through the vertical plane of the tire rather than through a shear force across it. The centrifugal (outwards) force is compensated for by applying negative camber, which turns the contact surface of the tire outwards to match, maximizing the contact patch area. Note that this is only true for the outside tire during the turn; the inside tire would benefit most from positive camber again, only with a short long arms system. However, due to the weight transfer inherent while turning, the outside wheels bear more of the force of turning and negative camber will improve handling overall. Caster angle will also compensate for this to a degree, as the top of the outside tire will tilt slightly inward, and the inner tire will respectively tilt outward. However, any camber affects the contact patch of the tire while driving in a straight line. Zero camber gives the best traction as it maximises the contact patch between the road and the tires and puts the tire tread flat on the road. Therefore excessive camber impairs straight driving in rain and snow and when accelerating hard. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=234685 | 932,492 |
1,392,384 | Micronucleus is the name given to the small nucleus that forms whenever a chromosome or a fragment of a chromosome is not incorporated into one of the daughter nuclei during cell division. It usually is a sign of genotoxic events and chromosomal instability. Micronuclei are commonly seen in cancerous cells and may indicate genomic damage events that can increase the risk of developmental or degenerative diseases. Micronuclei form during anaphase from lagging acentric chromosome or chromatid fragments caused by incorrectly repaired or unrepaired DNA breaks or by nondisjunction of chromosomes. This incorrect segregation of chromosomes may result from hypomethylation of repeat sequences present in pericentromeric DNA, irregularities in kinetochore proteins or their assembly, dysfunctional spindle apparatus, or flawed anaphase checkpoint genes. Micronuclei can contribute to genome instability by promoting a catastrophic mutational event called chromothripsis. Many micronucleus assays have been developed to test for the presence of these structures and determine their frequency in cells exposed to certain chemicals or subjected to stressful conditions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3122518 | 1,391,613 |
333,319 | Several philosophers of the classical era, including Empedocles and his intellectual successor, the Roman poet Lucretius, expressed the idea that nature produces a huge variety of creatures, randomly, and that only those creatures that manage to provide for themselves and reproduce successfully persist. Empedocles' idea that organisms arose entirely by the incidental workings of causes such as heat and cold was criticised by Aristotle in Book II of "Physics". He posited natural teleology in its place, and believed that form was achieved for a purpose, citing the regularity of heredity in species as proof. Nevertheless, he accepted in his biology that new types of animals, monstrosities (τερας), can occur in very rare instances ("Generation of Animals", Book IV). As quoted in Darwin's 1872 edition of "The Origin of Species", Aristotle considered whether different forms (e.g., of teeth) might have appeared accidentally, but only the useful forms survived: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21147 | 333,141 |
1,374,154 | The IXV project benefitted from and harnessed much of the research data and operational principles from many of the previously conducted studies, especially from the successful Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD), which was test-flown during 1998. Early on, during the mission definition and design maturity stages of the project, thorough comparisons were conducted again between existing ESA and national concepts against shared criteria, aimed at evaluating the experiment requirements (technology and systems), programme requirements (technology readiness, development schedule and cost) and risk mitigation (feasibility, maturity, robustness, and growth potential). The selected baseline design, a slender lifting body configuration, drew primarily upon the CNES-led "Pre-X" the ESA's ARD vehicles. Development work quickly proceeded through the preliminary design definition phase, reaching a system requirements review by mid-2007. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4410085 | 1,373,396 |
193,566 | Some of the darkest years of the university's history passed during World War II, when the university was led by the young Fr. Raymond Kirk. The school's enrollment, which had been 3,100 in 1940, dropped to an all-time low in the summer of 1944, with a mere one thousand students enrolled. Fr. Kirk's health broke under the strain of leading the school through such struggles, and he was relieved of his duties by Fr. Francis P. Smith in 1946. After the war, the school faced a wave of veterans seeking higher education. In contrast to the lean war-time years, the 1949 enrollment peaked at 5,500, and space became an issue. Fr. Smith took advantage of the Lanham Act, which allowed him to acquire three barracks-type buildings from Army surplus. The science curriculum was expanded, and the School of Business Administration saw its enrollment rise to over two thousand. Also during this time, a campus beautification project was implemented and WDUQ, Pittsburgh's first college radio station, was founded. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=582163 | 193,466 |
2,120,248 | Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) form in the soft mesenchymal tissue of the gastrointestinal tract and form from the rapid growth of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs). GISTs are the most common type of tumor found in the gastrointestinal tract, usually located in the small intestine or stomach. Approximately 10-20 million individuals are diagnosed with this type of tumor every year (Stamatakos et al., 2009). GISTs are most common in individuals ranging in age from 40 years old to 70 years old and are rare in small children and young adults. Individuals with these tumors may experience swelling in the abdomen, pain, vomiting, nausea, appetite loss, weight loss, low blood cell counts, gastrointestinal bleeding (which can result in bloody or dark stool), weakness, and tiredness. The prognosis for these types of tumors depends heavily on the size of the tumor and the rate of mitosis, however approximately 60% of GISTs are diagnosed as benign. Surgery to remove the tumor is the primary treatment method, although imatinib, everolimus, and rapamycin may soon be approved as alternative treatment and management methods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14436066 | 2,119,029 |
105,223 | That the question even came up in an interview is proof enough that such comparisons did not remain subliminal, but they are subtle enough so that it is not immediately obvious to all viewers that those elements were intended to compare Klaatu to Jesus Christ. When Klaatu escapes from the hospital, he steals the clothing of a Maj. Carpenter, carpentry being the profession the Bible says Jesus learned from Joseph, his father. He presents himself as John Carpenter, the same initials as Jesus Christ (and borrowing a given name from one of his disciples, John). His previous actions are misunderstood, and he eventually is killed by military authority. At the end of the film, Klaatu, having risen from the dead, ascends into the (night) sky. Other parallels include: his coming to Earth with a message for all mankind; his befriending of a child; possessing wisdom and specialized scientific knowledge beyond any human being; and people being given a sign of his power. At the very start of the film, one of the British radar technicians, upon observing the speed of Klaatu's spaceship, is heard to exclaim, "Holy Christmas"! | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=73422 | 105,178 |
1,866,168 | Multiple studies have suggested Foxd3 involvement in the transition from naive to primed pluripotent stem cells in embryo development. Previously, Foxd3 was demonstrated to be required in maintaining pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells. A recent finding further showed that Foxd3 is necessary as a repressor in the transition from ESC to epiblast-like cells (EpiLC). The study proposed that Foxd3 is associated with inactivation of important naive pluripotency genes by its modification of chromatin structures via recruiting histone demethylases and decreasing the number of activating factors. Another proposed mechanism on the other hand argued that Foxd3 begins nucleosome removal and induction to a "primed" pluripotent state by recruiting Brg1, a nucleosome remodeler, and then acts as a repressor of maximal activation of those enhancers by recruiting histone deacetylases, suggesting a complex mediating function in which enhancers are primed for some future controlled time-point rather than immediate expression. While there is no ambiguity that Foxd3 plays an important role regulating the transition from naive to primed pluripotency state, the two models show a different process. Attempts to reconcile the conclusions of the two studies have further suggested that Foxd3 functions as all of the above. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21044607 | 1,865,094 |
1,323,100 | In computing, subject-oriented programming is an object-oriented software paradigm in which the state (fields) and behavior (methods) of objects are not seen as intrinsic to the objects themselves, but are provided by various subjective perceptions ("subjects") of the objects. The term and concepts were first published in September 1993 in a conference paper which was later recognized as being one of the three most influential papers to be presented at the conference between 1986 and 1996. As illustrated in that paper, an analogy is made with the contrast between the philosophical views of Plato and Kant with respect to the characteristics of "real" objects, but applied to software ones. For example, while we may all perceive a tree as having a measurable height, weight, leaf-mass, etc., from the point of view of a bird, a tree may also have measures of relative value for food or nesting purposes, or from the point of view of a tax-assessor, it may have a certain taxable value in a given year. Neither the bird's nor the tax-assessor's additional state information need be seen as intrinsic to the tree, but are added by the perceptions of the bird and tax-assessor, and from Kant's analysis, the same may be true even of characteristics we think of as intrinsic. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17190754 | 1,322,374 |
2,044,307 | The NDUFA6 gene is located on the q arm of chromosome 22 in position 13.2 and spans 5,359 base pairs. The gene produces an 18 kDa protein composed of 154 amino acids. NDUFA6 is a subunit of the enzyme NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone), the largest of the respiratory complexes. The structure is L-shaped with a long, hydrophobic transmembrane domain and a hydrophilic domain for the peripheral arm that includes all the known redox centers and the NADH binding site. It has been noted that the N-terminal hydrophobic domain has the potential to be folded into an alpha helix spanning the inner mitochondrial membrane with a C-terminal hydrophilic domain interacting with globular subunits of Complex I. The highly conserved two-domain structure suggests that this feature is critical for the protein function and that the hydrophobic domain acts as an anchor for the NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) complex at the inner mitochondrial membrane. NDUFA6 is one of about 31 hydrophobic subunits that form the transmembrane region of Complex I. The predicted secondary structure is primarily alpha helix, but the carboxy-terminal half of the protein has high potential to adopt a coiled-coil form. The amino-terminal part contains a putative beta sheet rich in hydrophobic amino acids that may serve as mitochondrial import signal. Related pseudogenes have also been identified on four other chromosomes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15072268 | 2,043,127 |
1,156,635 | "Columbia" was transferred to Pad B on October 8, 1990, to make room for "Atlantis" on Mission STS-38. Tropical storm Klaus forced another rollback to the VAB on October 9, 1990. The vehicle was transferred to Pad B again on October 14, 1990. Another mini-tanking test was conducted on October 30, 1990, using special sensors and video cameras and employing a see-through Plexiglas aft compartment door. No excessive hydrogen leakage was detected. With the problem resolved, the flight had only to wait for the completion of STS-38, imparting another four-week delay. A scheduled launch date of November 30, 1990, was moved by several days due to concerns that observations of astronomical targets would be adversely affected. Liftoff on December 2, 1990, was delayed by 21 minutes to allow the U.S. Air Force time to observe low-level clouds that might impede the tracking of the Shuttle's ascent. Liftoff finally occurred on December 2, 1990, 1:49:01 a.m. EST, the ninth night launch in shuttle history and the second for "Columbia". A nominal ascent to orbit followed. This was one of the most delayed launches of the Space Shuttle program. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=497746 | 1,156,025 |
2,068,396 | Surgical resection of a tumor is one of the primary treatment modalities for cancer and can be curative especially for patients with early disease. However, there is evidence that tumor resection generates a permissive environment for tumor growth, in part, via host-mediated processes. As part of the wound healing process, surgical tissue trauma is rapidly followed by a cascade of inflammatory processes. Many of the growth factors, cytokines, extracellular matrix-modifying enzymes, and immune cells released during this process may also promote proliferation of residual tumor cells, angiogenesis and metastasis. For example, lungs are more prone to metastatic seeding after a surgical incision in the abdominal region of mice. This effect is due to increased expression and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX), an extracellular matrix remodeling enzyme produced at the hypoxic surgical site. In clinical settings, elevated levels of circulating endothelial progenitor cells, bone marrow-derived cells as well as circulating factors with known roles in angiogenesis and tumor progression have been reported in response to major surgery in comparison to minimal surgery. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60071945 | 2,067,205 |
1,374,104 | Because of their economic importance, the life cycles of the genera belonging to families Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematidae are well studied. Although not closely related, phylogenetically, both share similar life histories (Poinar 1993). The cycle begins with an infective juvenile, whose only function is to seek out and infect new hosts. When a host has been located, the nematodes penetrate into the insect body cavity, usually via natural body openings (mouth, anus, spiracles) or areas of thin cuticle. (Shapiro-Ilan, David I., and Randy Gaugler. "Nematodes.") After entering an insect, infective juveniles release an associated mutualistic bacterium from their gut which multiplies rapidly. These bacteria of the genus "Xenorhabdus" or "Photorhabdus", for steinerernematides and heterorhabditids, respectively—cause host mortality within 24–48 hours. The nematodes provide shelter to the bacteria, which, in return, kill the insect host and provide nutrients to the nematode. Without this mutualism no nematode is able to act as an entomoparasite. Together, the nematodes and bacteria feed on the liquefying host, and reproduce for several generations inside the cadaver maturing through the growth stages of J2-J4 into adults. Steinernematids infective juveniles may become males or females, whereas heterorhabditids develop into self-fertilizing hermaphrodites with later generations producing two sexes. When food resources in the host become scarce, the adults produce new infective juveniles adapted to withstand the outside environment. The life cycles of the EPNs are completed within a few days.(Shapiro-Ilan, David I., and Randy Gaugler. "Nematodes.") After about a week, hundreds of thousands of infective juveniles emerge and leave in search of new hosts, carrying with them an inoculation of mutualistic bacteria, received from the internal host environment (Boemare 2002, Gaugler 2006). Their growth and reproduction depends upon conditions established in the host cadaver by the bacterium. The nematodes bacterium contributes anti-immune proteins to assist in overcoming their host defenses.(Shapiro-Ilan, David I., and Randy Gaugler. "Nematodes.") | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4200196 | 1,373,346 |
4,983 | Most of the development team that worked on the original "God of War" worked on the new installment. They claimed they matched the new gameplay with the same level of accessibility as the previous installments. It was confirmed that the game would not feature any morality system or branching story; all players have the same story experience. The developers also confirmed that some of the more controversial mini-games found in previous entries (such as the sex mini-game) would not return. The enemy count was increased to up to 100 enemies on-screen, although this limit is never approached; "God of War III" and "Ascension" had up to 50. Some gameplay characteristics such as jumping, swimming, and instant-death platforming challenges found in the previous installments were cut because of the camera being closer to Kratos. Although the previous installment, "Ascension", introduced multiplayer to the series, the team decided to drop it and focus on the single-player experience. In changing the gameplay, Studstill said, "I felt like, in order to reinvent, we really needed to turn a lot of things around." With regard to the camera change, Barlog said they wanted a more intimate and player-controlled experience. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50810460 | 4,981 |
1,428,080 | Cholesterol total synthesis in chemistry describes the total synthesis of the complex biomolecule cholesterol and is considered a great scientific achievement. The research group of Robert Robinson with John Cornforth (Oxford University) published their synthesis in 1951 and that of Robert Burns Woodward with Franz Sondheimer (Harvard University) in 1952. Both groups competed for the first publication since 1950 with Robinson having started in 1932 and Woodward in 1949. According to historian Greg Mulheirn the Robinson effort was hampered by his micromanagement style of leadership and the Woodward effort was greatly facilitated by his good relationships with chemical industry. Around 1949 steroids like cortisone were produced from natural resources but expensive. Chemical companies Merck & Co. and Monsanto saw commercial opportunities for steroid synthesis and not only funded Woodward but also provided him with large quantities of certain chemical intermediates from pilot plants. Hard work also helped the Woodward effort: one of the intermediate compounds was named Christmasterone as it was synthesized on Christmas Day 1950 by Sondheimer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30845073 | 1,427,276 |
1,494,913 | On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm after ravaging the U.S. Virgin Islands. As the storm passed to the north, "Thomas Jefferson" transited from Port Everglades, Florida, to these islands. There the ship’s 38 officers and crew conducted multibeam echo sounder (MBES) and side scan sonar (SSS) hydrographic surveys in the island ports and bays. Survey data helped inform U.S. Coast Guard and other national/regional authorities on decisions to allow and/or restrict commerce. Over three weeks the crew surveyed 13 areas and no fewer than 18 individual port facilities, as well as conducted emergency repairs to three tide and weather stations. NOAA Ship "Thomas Jefferson" returned to Puerto Rico in August 2018 to conduct seafloor surveys and observe and possible shoreline changes. The ship also hosted 80 local high school students and gave them an in-depth look at the technology and capabilities of the ship. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11120972 | 1,494,072 |
2,059,031 | Cystic fibrosis (CF), also known as mucoviscidosis, is a genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestines. Major advances over the past few years in the management of cystic fibrosis (CF) have resulted in dramatic improvements in longevity and quality of life for many patients. However, respiratory dysfunction remains responsible for much of the morbidity and mortality associated with the disorder. Physiotherapy has long played an important role in the respiratory management of the disease, and has had to adapt to the changes in disease pattern from infancy to adulthood. The role of the physiotherapist is not limited to airway clearance, but also includes encouragement and advice regarding exercise, posture and mobility, inhalation therapy and, in the later stages of the disease process, non-invasive respiratory support. It is generally felt that the use of chest physiotherapy in CF has lacked good scientific basis, and the current call for evidence-based medicine requires physiotherapists to scrutinize their practice closely. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45280628 | 2,057,846 |
216,212 | The Illinois Tech main campus, known as Mies Campus, is centered around 33rd and State Streets, approximately south of the Chicago Loop in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, part of the Douglas community area. Also known as the Black Metropolis District, the area is a landmark in African-American history. Following rapid growth during the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south between 1910 and 1920, it became home to numerous African-American owned businesses and cultural institutions and offered an alternative to the race restrictions that were prevalent in the rest of the city. The area was home to author Gwendolyn Brooks, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, bandleader Louis Armstrong, pilot Bessie Coleman and many other famous African-Americans during the mid-20th century. The church where Emmett Till's funeral was held is less than a mile south of the campus. The nine extant structures from the period during the Great Migration when the area became known as the Black Metropolis District were added jointly to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=73299 | 216,104 |
885,192 | One of the principal defining features of the Belgian Mauser was its thin sheet steel jacket surrounding the barrel—a rather unusual element not common to any other Mauser mark of note. The jacket was instituted as a feature intended to maintain the effectiveness of the barrel and the solid wooden body over time, otherwise lengthening its service life and long-term accuracy when exposed to excessive firing and battlefield abuse. In spite of this approach, the jacketed barrel proved susceptible to moisture build-up and, therefore, introduced the problem of rust forming on the barrel itself–unbeknown to the user. In addition, the jacket was not perforated in any such way as to relieve the barrel of any heat build-up and consequently proved prone to denting. As such, barrel quality was affected over time regardless of the protective measure. Furthermore, another design flaw of the jacket was its extra steel content. Not only was it expensive but it was also needed in huge quantities to provide for tens of thousands of soldiers. By many accounts, the barrel jacket was not appreciated by its operators who depended on a perfect rifle in conflict. Another defining characteristic, unlike most Mausers until then, was a cock-on-closing bolt action resembling that of the British Lee-Metford, which predates the Mauser 1889 by five years. This development allowed for faster firing and was well received. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27958494 | 884,728 |
240,380 | Swept crystals are crystals that have undergone a solid-state electrodiffusion purification process. Sweeping involves heating the crystal above 500 °C in a hydrogen-free atmosphere, with a voltage gradient of at least 1 kV/cm, for several hours (usually over 12). The migration of impurities and the gradual replacement of alkali metal ions with hydrogen (when swept in air) or electron holes (when swept in vacuum) causes a weak electric current through the crystal; decay of this current to a constant value signals the end of the process. The crystal is then left to cool, while the electric field is maintained. The impurities are concentrated at the cathode region of the crystal, which is cut off afterwards and discarded. Swept crystals have increased resistance to radiation, as the dose effects are dependent on the level of alkali metal impurities; they are suitable for use in devices exposed to ionizing radiation, e.g. for nuclear and space technology. Sweeping under vacuum at higher temperatures and higher field strengths yields yet more radiation-hard crystals. The level and character of impurities can be measured by infrared spectroscopy. Quartz can be swept in both α and β phase; sweeping in β phase is faster, but the phase transition may induce twinning. Twinning can be mitigated by subjecting the crystal to compression stress in the X direction, or an AC or DC electric field along the X axis while the crystal cools through the phase transformation temperature region. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40979 | 240,260 |
742,267 | With ISDN allowing digital-quality voice, two separate lines and all-the-time data, the telephony world was convinced there would be high customer demand for such systems in both the home and office. This proved not to be the case. During the lengthy standardization process, new concepts rendered the system largely superfluous. In the office, multi-line digital switches like the Meridian Norstar took over telephone lines while local area networks like Ethernet provided performance around 10 Mbit/s which had become the baseline for inter-computer connections in offices. ISDN offered no real advantages in the voice role and was far from competitive in data. Additionally, modems had continued improving, introducing 9600 bit/s systems in the late 1980s and 14.4 kbit/s in 1991, which significantly eroded ISDN's value proposition for the home customer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15231 | 741,875 |
509,650 | The development of new molecular tools including GFP, and major advances in imaging technology including fluorescence microscopy, have made possible the mapping of the cell lineage of "Caenorhabditis elegans" including its embryo. This technique of fate mapping is used to study cells as they differentiate and gain specified function. Merely observing a cell as it becomes differentiated during embryogenesis provides no indication of the mechanisms that drive the specification. The use of molecular techniques, including gene and protein knock downs, knock outs and overexpression allows investigation into the mechanisms of fate determination. Improvements in imaging tools including live confocal microscopy and super resolution microscopy allow visualization of molecular changes in experimentally manipulated cells as compared to controls. Transplantation experiments can also be used in conjunction with the genetic manipulation and lineage tracing. Newer cell fate determination techniques include lineage tracing performed using inducable Cre-lox transgenic mice, where specific cell populations can be experimentally mapped using reporters like brainbow, a colorful reporter that is useful in the brain and other tissues to follow the differentiation path of a cell. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8285473 | 509,386 |
210,617 | In 1929, after finishing work on "The Science of Life", Huxley visited East Africa to advise the Colonial Office on education in British East Africa (for the most part Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika). He discovered that the wildlife on the Serengeti plain was almost undisturbed because the tsetse fly (the vector for the trypanosome parasite which causes sleeping sickness in humans) prevented human settlement there. He tells about these experiences in "Africa view" (1931), and so does his wife. She reveals that he fell in love with an 18-year-old American girl on board ship (when Juliette was not present), and then presented Juliette with his ideas for an open marriage: "What Julian really wanted was… a definite freedom from the conventional bonds of marriage." The couple separated for a while; Julian travelled to the US, hoping to land a suitable appointment and, in due course, to marry Miss Weldmeier. He left no account of what transpired, but he was evidently not successful, and returned to England to resume his marriage in 1931. For the next couple of years Huxley still angled for an appointment in the US, without success. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=145837 | 210,510 |
829,927 | The concept of devolution on the other hand, requires that there be a preferred hierarchy of structure and function, and that evolution must mean "progress" to "more advanced" organisms. For example, it could be said that "feet are better than hooves" or "lungs are better than gills", so their development is "evolutionary" whereas change to an inferior or "less advanced" structure would be called "devolution". In reality an evolutionary biologist defines all heritable changes to relative frequencies of the genes or indeed to epigenetic states in the gene pool as evolution. All gene pool changes that lead to increased fitness in terms of appropriate aspects of reproduction are seen as (neo-)Darwinian adaptation because, for the organisms possessing the changed structures, each is a useful adaptation to their circumstances. For example, hooves have advantages for running quickly on plains, which benefits horses, and feet offer advantages in climbing trees, which some ancestors of humans did. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2379716 | 829,480 |
2,024,167 | He is the author of "Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O" and of "Food at Work: Workplace Solutions for Malnutrition, Obesity and Chronic Diseases". In 2020, Wanjek published the book "Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond" through Harvard University Press. Among positive reviews, the work was described as "the best book ... on space exploration since Isaac Asimov" by Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine. "Food at Work", written for the International Labour Organization, has since been presented in numerous countries, largely in South America. The concept for the "Food at Work" as well as the final product has been lauded by unions and nutritionists, with emeritus professor of nutrition A. Stewart Truswell of University of Sydney describing it as "a beautifully designed, written and printed book [that] would have to be consulted by anyone advising on food at work anywhere in the world." The project has inspired government legislation to improve worker feeding programs in Mexico, Lithuania, Uruguay and elsewhere in South America. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5224368 | 2,023,003 |
882,468 | Hydraulic mining, which Pliny referred to as "ruina montium" ("ruin of the mountains"), allowed base and precious metals to be extracted on a proto-industrial scale. The total annual iron output is estimated at 82,500 tonnes. Copper was produced at an annual rate of 15,000 t, and lead at 80,000 t, both production levels unmatched until the Industrial Revolution; Spain alone had a 40 percent share in world lead production. The high lead output was a by-product of extensive silver mining which reached 200 t per annum. At its peak around the mid-2nd century AD, the Roman silver stock is estimated at 10,000 t, five to ten times larger than the combined silver mass of medieval Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate around 800 AD. As an indication of the scale of Roman metal production, lead pollution in the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over its prehistoric levels during the Imperial era, and dropped again thereafter. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1965658 | 882,004 |
783,406 | It lived in what is now southern Germany in the Late Jurassic period around 150 million years ago, when Europe was an archipelago in a shallow warm tropical sea, much closer to the equator than it is now. Similar in shape to a European magpie, with the largest individuals possibly attaining the size of a raven, "Archaeopteryx" could grow to about 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) in length. Despite its small size, broad wings, and inferred ability to fly or glide, "Archaeopteryx" has more in common with other small Mesozoic dinosaurs than it does with modern birds. In particular, it shares the following features with the deinonychosaurs (dromaeosaurs and troodontids): jaws with sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes ("killing claw"), feathers (which suggest homeothermy), and various skeletal features. These features make "Archaeopteryx" a clear candidate for a transitional fossil between dinosaurs and birds, making it important in the study both of dinosaurs and of the origin of birds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=331755 | 782,987 |
736,175 | More studies continued to associate repetitive head injuries with neurological problems later in life. Kevin Guskiewicz, Director of the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina, analyzed data from a 2007 study of nearly 2,500 former NFL players. He found about 11 percent of the study participants suffered from clinical depression, with a threefold increased risk in former players who had a history of three or four concussions. The following year, the NFL commissioned the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research to conduct a study involving more than 1,000 former NFL players. The results reported that Alzheimer's disease or similar diseases appear to have been diagnosed in former NFL players vastly more often than in the general population at a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49. The NFL responded to these results by claiming the study was incomplete. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36082813 | 735,788 |
1,361,247 | The first step is to cease operations and stow any spent fuel or waste. Nuclear reactors produce high-level waste in the form of spent nuclear fuel, which continues to release decay heat due to its powerful radioactivity. Storing this waste underwater in a spent fuel pool prevents damage and safely absorbs the radiation. Over a period of years the radioactivity and heat generation declines, until the spent fuel can be removed from the water and stored in casks for burial. When a reactor is decommissioned, partially spent fuel can be treated the same way. The reactor is sealed in order to allow no escape of radioactive particles or gases. Lastly the heating water is then pumped out and put in containers to await proper decontamination. Decontamination is the process of removal of radioactive contaminants on the remaining surface. Washing and mechanical cleaning are processed during the decontamination process by using the chemical reactors, and the global objective is to protect public safety and the environment. The coolant is also removed and stored for proper disposal. This procedure is often performed by the company that owns the plant, and if the company is unable to then properly qualified contractors are brought in. After this procedure comes the next one which deals with the radioactivity and radioactive waste. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16510408 | 1,360,494 |
937,970 | Chemotaxis (from "chemo-" + "taxis") is the movement of an organism or entity in response to a chemical stimulus. Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food (e.g., glucose) by swimming toward the highest concentration of food molecules, or to flee from poisons (e.g., phenol). In multicellular organisms, chemotaxis is critical to early development (e.g., movement of sperm towards the egg during fertilization) and development (e.g., migration of neurons or lymphocytes) as well as in normal function and health (e.g., migration of leukocytes during injury or infection). In addition, it has been recognized that mechanisms that allow chemotaxis in animals can be subverted during cancer metastasis. The aberrant chemotaxis of leukocytes and lymphocytes also contribute to inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, asthma, and arthritis. Sub-cellular components, such as the polarity patch generated by mating yeast, may also display chemotactic behavior. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7403 | 937,470 |
919,875 | On 17 March 2011, RSA announced that they had been victims of "an extremely sophisticated cyber attack". Concerns were raised specifically in reference to the SecurID system, saying that "this information could potentially be used to reduce the effectiveness of a current two-factor authentication implementation". However, their formal Form 8-K submission indicated that they did not believe the breach would have a "material impact on its financial results". The breach cost EMC, the parent company of RSA, $66.3 million, which was taken as a charge against second quarter earnings. It covered costs to investigate the attack, harden its IT systems and monitor transactions of corporate customers, according to EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Goulden, in a conference call with analysts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=293363 | 919,389 |
250,912 | It was described as the "Western Pentagon," specifically a, "...four-story, reinforced concrete and masonry office building..." above ground and a "...segregated, adjacent three-story below ground command post." This was the description of what would become Building 500 at Offutt AFB and the new headquarters complex built expressly for SAC, with construction commencing in 1955. SAC headquarters moved from the A Building at Offutt AFB to Building 500 in 1957. The underground nuclear bunker had 24-inch thick walls and base floor, 10-inch thick intermediate floors, and 24-to-42-inch thick roof. It also contained a war room with six 16-foot data display screens and the capacity to sustain up to 800 people underground for two weeks. The below ground bunker portion of the headquarters complex also contained an IBM 704 computer, which was used to develop monthly weather forecasts at targets, as well as for computing fuel consumption and fallout cloud patterns for planning strike routes and egress routes (e.g., determining the timing as to which targets to bomb first). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28118 | 250,779 |
87,078 | It was announced on 10 December 2007 that Fernando Alonso had signed with Renault F1 for . Alonso drove alongside promoted test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. and was believed to have secured number one status within the team. The team similarly started in 2008 as the year before; Fernando Alonso managed to garner fourth at the opening Australian Grand Prix as a result of a mistake from a previous Renault employee Heikki Kovalainen. However, the form was still short of 2006 by a large degree over the first half of the 2008 season. The team brought new parts to the Spanish Grand Prix, including a new engine-cover, dubbed the "Shark-fin", similar to the one introduced by Red Bull on their RB4. Alonso managed to qualify on the front row for that race on a light fuel-load, yet retired with an engine failure halfway through. Alonso's front row qualifying performance in Spain was a rare moment of achievement from the former World Champion. Both cars retired at the Canadian Grand Prix and Nelson Piquet Jr., who retired from six of the first nine races, failed to score until the French Grand Prix. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=240378 | 87,043 |
1,699,883 | Traditional single-gene studies are effective in establishing phylogenetic trees among closely related organisms, but have drawbacks when comparing more distantly related organisms or microorganisms. This is because of lateral gene transfer, convergence, and varying rates of evolution for different genes. By using entire genomes in these comparisons, the anomalies created from these factors are overwhelmed by the pattern of evolution indicated by the majority of the data. Through phylogenomics, it has been discovered that most of the photosynthetic eukaryotes are linked and possibly share a single ancestor. Researchers compared 135 genes from 65 different species of photosynthetic organisms. These included plants, alveolates, rhizarians, haptophytes and cryptomonads. This has been referred to as the Plants+HC+SAR megagroup. Using this method, it is theoretically possible to create fully resolved phylogenetic trees, and timing constraints can be recovered more accurately. However, in practice this is not always the case. Due to insufficient data, multiple trees can sometimes be supported by the same data when analyzed using different methods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3485068 | 1,698,929 |
1,686,705 | The McNamara Life Sciences building, a general-purpose laboratory test building built in 1997, allows scientists to manage and execute the Department of Defense Science & Technology programs and monitor international efforts in Chemical Biological (CB) Defense and Smoke & Target Defeat while supporting the full-spectrum of vital U.S. CB Defense program efforts. The facility's original mission was to perform toxicology research. McNamara houses BSL 2/3 labs and has state-of-the-art equipment to safely conduct inhalation studies for chemical agents. The facility also allows scientists to conduct basic and applied research on non-medical countermeasures, pathogenicity studies, gene regulators and detection evaluation that rely upon moderate risk microorganisms to those causing serious and potential lethal infection up to and including BSL3. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20809419 | 1,685,759 |
1,398,802 | Even among birds that are able to alter their songs to be better heard in environments inundated with anthropophony, these behavioral changes may have important fitness consequences. In the great tit, for example, there is a tradeoff between signal strength and signal detection that depends on song frequency. Male birds that include more low frequency sounds in their song repertoire experience better sexual fidelity from their mates which results in increased reproductive success. However, low frequency sounds tend to be masked when anthropogenic noise is present, and high frequency songs are more effective at eliciting female responses under these conditions. Birds may therefore experience competing selective pressures in habitats with high levels of anthropogenic noise: pressure to call more at lower frequencies in order to improve signal strength and secure good mates versus opposing pressure to sing at higher frequencies in order to ensure that calls are detected against a background of anthrophony. In addition, use of certain vocalizations, including high amplitude sounds that reduce masking in noisy environments, may impose energetic costs that reduce fitness. Because of the reproductive trade-offs and other stresses they impose on some birds, noisy habitats may represent ecological traps, habitats in which individuals have reduced fitness yet are colonized at rates greater than or equal to other habitats. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31352483 | 1,398,029 |
477,323 | OPN belongs to a family of secreted acidic proteins (SIBLINGs, Small Integrin Binding LIgand N-Glycosylated proteins) whose members have an abundance of negatively charged amino acids such as Asp and Glu. OPN also has a large number of consensus sequence sites for post-translational phosphorylation of Ser residues to form phosphoserine, providing additional negative charge. Contiguous stretches of high negative charge in OPN have been identified and named the polyAsp motif (poly-aspartic acid) and the ASARM motif (acidic serine- and aspartate-rich motif), with the latter sequence having multiple phosphorylation sites. This overall negative charge of OPN, along with its specific acidic motifs and the fact that OPN is an intrinsically disordered protein allowing for open and flexible structures, permit OPN to bind strongly to calcium atoms available at crystal surfaces in various biominerals. Such binding of OPN to various types of calcium-based biominerals ‒ such as calcium-phosphate mineral in bones and teeth, calcium-carbonate mineral in inner ear otoconia and avian eggshells, and calcium-oxalate mineral in kidney stones – acts as a mineralization inhibitor by stabilizing transient mineral precursor phases and by binding directly to crystal surfaces, all of which regulate crystal growth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2876332 | 477,083 |
1,304,944 | An increasing interest in emotion can be seen in the behavioral, biological and social sciences. Research over the last two decades suggests that many phenomena, ranging from individual cognitive processing to social and collective behavior, cannot be understood without taking into account affective determinants (i.e. motives, attitudes, moods, and emotions). Just as the cognitive revolution of the 1960s spawned the cognitive sciences and linked the disciplines studying cognitive functioning from different vantage points, the emerging field of affective science seeks to bring together the disciplines which study the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of affect. In particular affective science includes psychology, affective neuroscience, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, ethology, archaeology, economics, criminology, law, political science, history, geography, education and linguistics. Research is also informed by contemporary philosophical analysis and artistic explorations of emotions. Emotions developed in human history make organisms to react to environmental stimuli and challenges. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2671192 | 1,304,228 |
2,171,233 | In 1952 Harold Spivacke, Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., wrote to Enescu in Paris offering a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress for a new chamber music work. Enescu replied on 7 December 1952 that he had no new work in preparation and consequently could not accept the advance proposal from the Koussevitzky Foundation, but he had just finished his Second String Quartet, dedicated to Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He was just about to make final revisions to this score and promised to send it to Washington as soon as it was ready. Enescu must subsequently have learned of plans to have the quartet performed in Boston because, on 21 June 1953 he wrote again to Dr. Spivacke, saying "My second quartet is on the way to Cambridge. Mr. Morris was to find and menage that I could have a photostat of both score and parts, beautifully done." The manuscript of the Second String Quartet had in fact already arrived, not in Cambridge but at the Library of Congress. Enescu's letter crossed in the post with an acknowledgment of the manuscript's safe arrival, written on 17 June 1953 by Edward N. Waters, Assistant Chief of the Music Division. This autograph score contains a number of further small adjustments which may have been made as late as the spring of that year. This version is therefore regarded as representing the composer's final thoughts on the quartet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54168686 | 2,169,995 |
112,888 | Although massive open online courses (MOOCs) may have limitations that preclude them from fully replacing college education, such programs have significantly expanded. MIT, Stanford and Princeton University offer classes to a global audience, but not for college credit. University-level programs, like edX founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, offer a wide range of disciplines at no charge, while others permit students to audit a course at no charge but require a small fee for accreditation. MOOCs have not had a significant impact on higher education and declined after the initial expansion, but are expected to remain in some form. Lately, MOOCs are used by smaller universities to profile themselves with highly specialized courses for special-interest audiences, as for example in a course on technological privacy compliance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1944675 | 112,843 |
1,152,243 | Microplasma are used to destroy volatile organic compounds. For example, capillary plasma electrode (CPE) discharge was used to effectively destroy volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, ethylene, heptane, octane, and ammonia in the surrounding air for use in advanced life support systems designed for enclosed environments. Destruction efficiencies were determined as a function of plasma energy density, initial contaminant concentration, residence time in plasma volume, reactor volume, and the number of contaminants in the gas flow stream. Complete destruction of VOC's can be achieved in the annular reactor for specific energies of 3 J cm−3 and above. Furthermore, specific energies approaching 10 J cm−3 are required to achieve a comparable destruction efficiency in the cross-flow reactor. This indicates that optimization of the reactor geometry is a critical aspect of achieving maximum destruction efficiencies. Koutsospyros "et al." (2004, 2005) and Yin "et al." (2003) reported results regarding studies of VOC destruction using CPE plasma reactors. All compounds studied reached maximum VOC destruction efficiencies between 95% and 100%. The VOC destruction efficiency increased initially with the specific energy, but remained at values of the specific energy that are compound-dependent. A similar observation was made for the dependence of the VOC destruction efficiency on the residence time. The destruction efficiency increased with rising initial contaminant concentration. For chemically similar compounds, the maximum destruction efficiency was found to be inversely related to the ionization energy of the compound and directly related to the degree of chemical substitution. This may suggest that chemical substitution sites offer the highest plasma-induced chemical activity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18446530 | 1,151,634 |
1,828,511 | In 1898, a formal program of plant introduction was initiated with the establishment of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction in USDA under the direction of noted plant explorer David Fairchild. According to the Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture for 1900, the Section's job was " to bring into this country for experimental purposes any foreign seeds and plants which might give promise of increasing the value and variety of our agricultural resources." Material was acquired from several sources, including participants in U.S. naval expeditions, diplomatic officials stationed in foreign countries, other governments and private individuals. The Section also began an intensive program of plant exploration by employing agricultural explorers, who spent most of their time traveling to other countries to collect plant samples. Along with Fairchild, early notable USDA plant explorers included Frank N. Meyer, Niels E. Hansen, and Palemon Howard (P.H.) Dorsett. Many of the introductions brought to the U.S. by the USDA plant explorers led to establishing new or improved crops in the country. Special agent O.F. Cook in the Section initiated the system of assigning sequential Plant Introduction (PI) numbers to samples acquired by the Section and issuing the printed USDA Plant Inventories that documented them. These PI numbers continue to be assigned to material that enters into long-term curation by the NPGS. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31519537 | 1,827,472 |
98,342 | When the project became "The Motion Picture", Robert Abel and Associates art director Richard Taylor wanted to completely redesign the ship, but Roddenberry insisted on the same shape as designed by Jefferies for "Phase II". Taylor focused on the details, giving it a stylization he considered "almost Art Deco". Concept artist Andrew Probert helped refine the redesign. The general shape and proportions of the "Phase II" ship were retained, but the angles, curves and details refined. Taylor took on the nacelles, and Probert the rest of the ship. Changes included "radiator grill" nacelle caps, a glowing deflector dish, a new impulse engine, new shapes for the aft end and hangar doors of the secondary hull, more docking ports, rounder windows, hatches, and windows for an observation lounge, recreation deck, and arboretum. Probert also replaced the "Phase II" ship weapons tube with a twin launcher torpedo deck and added elements such as features for a separating saucer and landing pads that were never utilized on any film featuring the model. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=277006 | 98,300 |
1,410,966 | Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), is the medical imaging technique used to measure the haemodynamic response of the brain in relation to the neural activities. It is one of the most commonly used devices to measure brain functions and is relatively inexpensive to perform in a clinical setting. The onset of neural activity leads to a systematic series of physiological changes in the local network of blood vessels that include changes in the cerebral blood volume per unit of brain tissue (CBV), changes in the rate of cerebral blood flow, and changes in the concentration of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin. There are different fMRI techniques that can pick up a functional signal corresponding to changes in each of the previously mentioned components of the haemodynamic response. The most common functional imaging signal is the blood-oxygen-level dependent signal (BOLD), which primarily corresponds to the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin. The BOLD effect is based on the fact that when neuronal activity is increased in one part of the brain, there is also an increased amount of cerebral blood flow to that area which is the basis of haemodynamic response. This increase in blood flow produces an increase in the ratio of oxygenated hemoglobin relative to deoxygenated hemoglobin in that specific area. The difference in magnetic properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin is what allows fMRI imaging to produce an effective map of which neurons are active and which are not. In short, deoxygenated hemoglobin is paramagnetic while oxygenated hemoglobin is diamagnetic. Diamagnetic blood (oxyhemoglobin) interferes with the magnetic resonance (MR) signal less and this leads to an improved MR signal in that area of increased neuronal activity. However, Paramagnetic blood (deoxyhemoglobin) makes the local magnetic field inhomogenous. This has the effect of dephasing the signal emitted in this domain, causing destructive interference in the observed MR signal. Therefore, greater amounts of deoxyhemoglobin lead to less signal. Neuronal activity ultimately leads to an increase in local MR signaling corresponding to a decrease in the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=971305 | 1,410,173 |
401,763 | The South American lungfish, "Lepidosiren paradoxa", is the single species of lungfish found in swamps and slow-moving waters of the Amazon, Paraguay, and lower Paraná River basins in South America. Notable as an obligate air-breather, it is the sole member of its family native to the Americas. Relatively little is known about the South American lungfish, or "scaly salamander-fish". When immature it is spotted with gold on a black background. In the adult this fades to a brown or gray color. Its tooth-bearing premaxillary and maxillary bones are fused like other lungfish. South American lungfishes also share an autostylic jaw suspension (where the palatoquadrate is fused to the cranium) and powerful adductor jaw muscles with the extant lungfish (Dipnoi). Like the African lungfishes, this species has an elongate, almost eel-like body. It may reach a length of . The pectoral fins are thin and threadlike, while the pelvic fins are somewhat larger, and set far back. The fins are connected to the shoulder by a single bone, which is a marked difference from most fish, whose fins usually have at least four bones at their base; and a marked similarity with nearly all land-dwelling vertebrates. The gills are greatly reduced and essentially non-functional in the adults. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=230330 | 401,564 |
1,376,669 | Some geologists assert that, as the island moved north due to the effects of continental drift, it submerged at various intervals, extinguishing its terrestrial flora and fauna. Botanists counter that some areas must have remained above sea-level, serving as refugia. Many members of the late Cretaceous – early Tertiary Gondwanan flora survived in New Caledonia's equable climate but were eliminated in Australia due to increasingly dry conditions. The isolation of New Caledonia was not absolute, given the rise and fall of sea level caused by the ebb and flow of ice ages. Land bridges or islands formed between New Caledonia and its neighbours, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Australia. Thus new species came to New Caledonia while "Gondwanan" species were able to penetrate the Pacific Islands region. Plants have limited "seed dispersal" mobility away from the parent plant and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1195166 | 1,375,907 |
1,658,735 | In 2003, Turkeltaub et al., reported: "The complexities of pediatric brain imaging have precluded studies that trace the neural development of cognitive skills acquired during childhood. Using a task that isolates reading-related brain activity and minimizes confounding performance effects, we carried out a cross-sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study using subjects whose ages ranged from 6 to 22 years. We found that learning to read is associated with two patterns of change in brain activity: increased activity in left-hemisphere middle temporal and Inferior frontal gyrus and decreased activity in right inferotemporal cortica areas. Activity in the left-posterior superior temporal sulcus of the youngest readers was associated with the maturation of their phonological processing abilities. These findings inform current reading models and provide strong support for Orton's 1925 theory of reading development." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23029636 | 1,657,802 |
57,933 | Spence believes that, unlike prior digital technologies, which drove firms to deploy underutilized pools of valuable labor around the world, the motivating force in the current wave of digital technologies "is cost reduction via the replacement of labor". For example, as the cost of 3D printing technology declines, it is "easy to imagine" that production may become "extremely" local and customized. Moreover, production may occur in response to actual demand, not anticipated or forecast demand. Spence believes that labor, no matter how inexpensive, will become a less important asset for growth and employment expansion, with labor-intensive, process-oriented manufacturing becoming less effective, and that re-localization will appear in both developed and developing countries. In his view, production will not disappear, but it will be less labor-intensive, and all countries will eventually need to rebuild their growth models around digital technologies and the human capital supporting their deployment and expansion. Spence writes that "the world we are entering is one in which the most powerful global flows will be ideas and digital capital, not goods, services, and traditional capital. Adapting to this will require shifts in mindsets, policies, investments (especially in human capital), and quite possibly models of employment and distribution." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1305947 | 57,908 |
1,985,112 | Soyuz Commander Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Flight Engineers Andrei Borisenko and Ronald Garan returned to Earth on September 16, 2011 at 03:59 UTC, landing on target in central Kazakhstan. Russian search and rescue teams, along with NASA flight surgeons and space station program managers, were standing by to help the Soyuz crew. Three Antonov airplanes, 14 Mil Mi-8 helicopters, and seven rescue vehicles took part in the search for the capsule. Samokutyayev was the first to be extracted out of the Soyuz descent module, followed by Garan and Borisenko. All three appeared relaxed and in good health as they rested in recliners near the descent module. After quick medical examinations inside a nearby erected tent, the crew were flown to Karaganda for an official welcome home ceremony. From there Samokutyaev and Borisenko flew to Star City near Moscow while Garan boarded a NASA jet to fly back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20331566 | 1,983,973 |
1,013,569 | Henry Walter Bates (1825–1892) was an English explorer-naturalist who surveyed the Amazon rainforest with Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848. While Wallace returned in 1852, Bates remained for over a decade. His field research included collecting almost a hundred species of butterflies from the families Ithomiinae and Heliconiinae, as well as thousands of other insects specimens. In sorting these butterflies into similar groups based on appearance, inconsistencies began to arise. Some appeared superficially similar to others, even so much so that Bates could not tell some species apart based only on wing appearance. However, closer examination of less obvious morphological characters seemed to show that they were not even closely related. Shortly after his return to England he read a paper on his theory of mimicry at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London on 21 November 1861, which was then published in 1862 as 'Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley' in the society's "Transactions". He elaborated on his experiences further in "The Naturalist on the River Amazons". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=865462 | 1,013,048 |
632 | Boeing and Lockheed Martin were selected in early 1997 for CDP, with their concept demonstrator aircraft designated X-32 and X-35 respectively; the McDonnell Douglas team was eliminated and Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace joined the Lockheed Martin team. Each firm would produce two prototype air vehicles to demonstrate conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL), carrier takeoff and landing (CV), and STOVL. Lockheed Martin's design would make use of the work on the SDLF system conducted under the ASTOVL/CALF program. The key aspect of the X-35 that enabled STOVL operation, the SDLF system consists of the lift fan in the forward center fuselage that could be activated by engaging a clutch that connects the driveshaft to the turbines and thus augmenting the thrust from the engine's swivel nozzle. Research from prior aircraft incorporating similar systems, such as the Convair Model 200, Rockwell XFV-12, and Yakovlev Yak-141, were also taken into consideration. By contrast, Boeing's X-32 employed direct lift system that the augmented turbofan would be reconfigured to when engaging in STOVL operation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11812 | 632 |
1,586,585 | Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) are commonly used techniques to both qualitatively and quantitatively probe the composition of samples in the TEM. A primary challenge in the quantitative accuracy of both techniques is the phenomenon of channelling. Put simply, in a crystalline solid, the probability of interaction between an electron and ion in the lattice depends strongly on the momentum (direction and velocity) of the electron. When probing a sample under diffraction conditions near a zone axis, as is often the case in EDS and EELS applications, channelling can have a large impact on the effective interaction of the incident electrons with specific ions in the crystal structure. In practice, this can lead to erroneous measurements of composition that depend strongly on the orientation and thickness of the sample and the accelerating voltage. Since PED entails an integration over incident directions of the electron probe, and generally does not include beams parallel to the zone axis, the detrimental channeling effects outlined above can be minimized, yielding far more accurate composition measurements in both techniques. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46877391 | 1,585,691 |
276,542 | A strenuous trip to the United States in 1964 led to Meitner's having a heart attack, from which she spent several months recovering. Her physical and mental condition weakened by atherosclerosis. After breaking her hip in a fall and suffering several small strokes in 1967, Meitner made a partial recovery, but eventually was weakened to the point where she moved into a Cambridge nursing home. Meitner died in her sleep on 27 October 1968 at the age of 89. Meitner was not informed of the deaths of Otto Hahn on 28 July 1968 or his wife Edith on 14 August, as her family believed it would be too much for someone so frail. As was her wish, she was buried in the village of Bramley in Hampshire, at St James parish church, close to her younger brother Walter, who had died in 1964. Her nephew Frisch composed the inscription on her headstone. It reads: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18070 | 276,392 |
581,436 | The Eddington experiment was an observational test of general relativity, organised by the British astronomers Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1919. The observations were of the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 and were carried out by two expeditions, one to the West African island of Príncipe, and the other to the Brazilian town of Sobral. The aim of the expeditions was to measure the gravitational deflection of starlight passing near the Sun. The value of this deflection had been predicted by Albert Einstein in a 1911 paper; however, this initial prediction turned out not to be correct because it was based on an incomplete theory of general relativity. Einstein later improved his prediction after finalizing his theory in 1915 and obtaining the solution to his equations by Karl Schwarzschild. Following the return of the expeditions, the results were presented by Eddington to the Royal Society of London and, after some deliberation, were accepted. Widespread newspaper coverage of the results led to worldwide fame for Einstein and his theories. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60880859 | 581,138 |
1,035,936 | The skull of the holotype is large, compared to the size of the body, and short with very large eye-sockets. This is largely due to its young age. Accordingly, the semi-circular antorbital fenestra, the normally largest skull opening, is short too and smaller than the eye-socket. In front of it two smaller openings are present: the maxillary and promaxillary. The snout is pointed with a low rounded tip. The premaxilla, the bone forming the front of the snout, carries five teeth. The maxilla behind it, is deep with a very short front branch. It carries seven teeth. The depression in its surface for the antorbital opening is bounded by a ridge. The lacrimal is robust and lacks a horn; its side is not pierced by a foramen. The prefrontal is exceptionally large, forming a large part of the front upper edge of the eye-socket. The frontal bones have a transverse ridge at their back. Between the frontals and the parietals the skull roof over a limited distance has not closed yet, resulting in a conspicuous diamond-shaped opening, a fontanelle that was first mistaken for damage inflicted on the fossil during the first preparation. On its inner side the supratemporal fenestra has no depression, being bounded by a high edge of the parietal. The jugal has no front vertical branch towards the lacrimal. The quadrate bone has on its front edge a large wing-like expansion, touching the pterygoid. The bones of the braincase are largely inaccessible but a small inner ear opening, the "recessus tympanicus dorsalis", is visible. The underside of the braincase lacks an inflated part or "bulla". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3558454 | 1,035,396 |
144,670 | The existence and distribution of organ transplantation procedures in developing countries, while almost always beneficial to those receiving them, raise many ethical concerns. Both the source and method of obtaining the organ to transplant are major ethical issues to consider, as well as the notion of distributive justice. The World Health Organization argues that transplantations promote health, but the notion of "transplantation tourism" has the potential to violate human rights or exploit the poor, to have unintended health consequences, and to provide unequal access to services, all of which ultimately may cause harm. Regardless of the "gift of life", in the context of developing countries, this might be coercive. The practice of coercion could be considered exploitative of the poor population, violating basic human rights according to Articles 3 and 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is also a powerful opposing view, that trade in organs, if properly and effectively regulated to ensure that the seller is fully informed of all the consequences of donation, is a mutually beneficial transaction between two consenting adults, and that prohibiting it would itself be a violation of Articles 3 and 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=167166 | 144,612 |
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