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1,770,025 | Their milestones served as wake-up calls for the game's direction. A May 1998 "proto-mission" milestone was to have a basic but functional demo of the crucial game systems and two maps (the White House and Hong Kong) ready. The team worked on the riskiest parts of the game first such that the core game would be functioning, albeit not polished. The demo revealed that the size of their maps caused performance problems and would have to be divided into smaller maps. It also was one of the first signs that maps needed to be cut. The team forgot to prototype the non-player character artificial intelligence in this demo. A year later, in May 1999, they reached a milestone for finished game systems and the first two missions completed. While the player could start the game and character, use augmentations, acquire inventory, complete objectives, and save the game, their poor quality and comments from Newell led Spector to nickname the milestone the "Wow, these missions suck" milestone. They felt that their first demos showed their potential, but they were not nearly close to reaching it. This milestone also helped them estimate the work required for missions and the portions that worked best, which led to a trim of their 500-page design manual to the best 270 pages. Spector recalled Smith's mantra here: "less is more". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43210943 | 1,769,030 |
1,150,188 | Yeang work on the high-rise typology as 'vertical green urbanism' (c.1990’s) sought to reinvent the skyscraper as 'vertical urban design'. His ideas invert the high-rise typology as a 'city-in-the-sky', first exemplified in the National Library Singapore (2005). The building features large 40m high 'public realms-in-the sky' as verdantly landscaped 'skycourt gardens', a ground plane as an 'open-to-the-sky' plaza for public festivals and culture-related activities. The thickened first floor slab over the plaza functions biol climatically as an evaporative-cooling mass to the public realm below. Multiple upper-level sky-bridges link the building's two blocks (one containing the book collections and the other shaped block for programming activities. The naturally-ventilated atrium between the blocks has a ventilating louvred canopy that serves as its 'fifth facade'. There are two multi-volume reading rooms are located at either sides. At the uppermost roof is a promontory viewing pod. The building's built form has an organic geometry in his ongoing explorations to derive an ecological aesthetic (see below). The building received Singapore’s BCA Green Mark Platinum rating. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1879224 | 1,149,581 |
2,113,736 | When Gowers could not convince the colonial office to increase the money spent in Uganda for African civil servants' wages, Gowers undertook the (at the time controversial) step of firing over a dozen of his European staff members in the capital and then using the money thus saved to dramatically increase the pay of all of the indigenous African civil servants who worked directly under him. Gowers oversaw the introduction of government subsidies for indigenous farmers, distributing equipment such as fence-making materials, shovels, fertilizer while also guaranteeing the purchase of certain amounts of crops in order to create a thriving agricultural economy. This program was in effect from 1926 to 1931. Gowers was ultimately forced to end the program due to the financial restrictions of the international Great Depression. However he managed to keep the program going throughout most of 1931, despite struggling to do so, by cutting funding for other things (including his own security team). He ended the expensive housing for European civil servants completely (to much protest) but even that only freed up enough money to continue the agricultural subsidies for a few months. However, even with budget cuts in other places he was forced to end the program in late 1931. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32938341 | 2,112,521 |
1,302,742 | at levels in-between EMT-A and EMT-P. In the early 80s, the NREMT Board of Directors adopted a new national certification; EMT-Intermediate, based on several state's recommendations. In 1985 the Department of Transportation developed the first national standard curriculum for this new level of EMT/intermediate. The 1985 course provided advanced knowledge and mainly three "advanced interventions" (at that time); IVs, MAST trouser application and use of the esophageal obturator airway. Simply stated, EMT-I care centered on trauma patients. Soon after 1985 some states started adding "enhancements" (skills) to the intermediate and others adopted a more expansive level called "cardiac care" which included some ACLS drugs. In 1994 a blue ribbon panel of EMS stakeholders gathered and endorsed the EMS Education and Practice Blueprint. That blueprint was to resolve the fragmented levels of intermediates used across the nation. In 1999 the Department of Transportation, based upon the blueprint, developed a national standard curriculum for the EMT-intermediate. Immediately it ran into political opposition and the National Association of State EMS Directors (now the National Association of State EMS Officials) asked the NREMT board to continue to offer intermediate certifications at both the former (I-85) and the new (I-99) designated levels. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15797779 | 1,302,028 |
2,094,238 | Even if global mutualism coextinctions are genuinely rare, conserving mutualisms may still be important for conservation. As mentioned previously, conservation is not just about preventing extinctions, but also about preventing species decline. Unlike with coextinctions, there are numerous recorded examples of where the decline or extinction of a species has led to the decline of its mutualist ("codeclines"). A documented example of a pollination mutualism breakdown leading to population declines is the Indian rubber tree ("Ficus elastica") to its pollinator wasp ("Pleistodontes clavigar") interaction. Habitat fragmentation has led to the "F. elastica" declining to very low population levels. However, F. Elastic can propagate clonally, so has remained extant. Meanwhile, "P. clavigar" is virtually extinct globally, because the mutualist relationship is probably obligate for P. clavigar (Mawsdley et al. 1998). An example of a seed dispersal mutualism breakdown causing population declines comes from two endemic species on Menorca Island. A frugivorous lizard ("Podarcis lilfordi") is a seed disperser of a shrub ("Daphne rodriguezii"). When "P. lilfordi" became extinct on Menorca, due to the introduction of carnivorous mammals, "D. rodriguezii" numbers declined significantly to endangered levels. This "D. rodriguezii" decline could be attributed to the local extinction of "P. lilfordi", due to the lack of seedling recruitment on Menorca compared to other nearby islands, where "P. lilfordi" remained extant and "D. rodriguezii" populations larger (Traveset and Riera 2005). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30142956 | 2,093,030 |
522,707 | At the time Petrozavodsk was the capital and a major industrial hub of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with a population of 203,000 in 1974. The earliest published report of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon was written by TASS correspondent Nikolai Milov, who described the unidentified object over Petrozavodsk as "a huge star", that "flared up in the dark sky" at about 4:00 am local time, "impulsively sending shafts of light to the Earth". Milov's report was published in the mainstream Soviet press ("Pravda", "Izvestiya", "Selskaya Zhizn", and "Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya"). A local newspaper, "Leninskaya Pravda", also reported the Petrozavodsk object. The preliminary data analysis by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1977 found the eyewitness reports to be mutually consistent and complementary. Some eyewitness accounts were attested by Yuri Gromov. According to Milov, "the star" was spreading out over Petrozavodsk in the form of a jellyfish, "showering the city with a multitude of very fine rays which created an image of pouring rain". Milov further reported that "after some time the luminescent rays ceased" and "the jellyfish turned into a bright semicircle", which resumed its movement towards Onega Lake. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36918866 | 522,435 |
1,876,570 | Burkholder has contributed to four main areas. Several articles argue for a view of modernism in music that stresses not only its innovations but also its engagement with the past. Five books and numerous articles on Charles Ives revised the earlier view of the composer as American iconoclast, showing his knowledge of European traditions and his gradual evolution from shared conventions to radical modernism. Burkholder’s works on musical borrowing in Ives, in Renaissance music, and elsewhere led him to argue that borrowing is a constant current of Western music (both classical and popular) from Gregorian chant to sampling, rather than a special problem in certain repertories as it was previously regarded. He outlined the first broad history of borrowing as a practice and developed an extensive online bibliography on the subject, and his work on borrowing is featured in the graphic novel "Theft!: A History of Music". He has also written extensively on music history pedagogy and historical narratives. His publications have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German, Italian, and Arabic and are known worldwide. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51286229 | 1,875,492 |
1,936,762 | BrickOS was a collaboration project between LEGO and MIT to create an educational tool for teaching the implementation of sensors and motors on robots. The operating system's development environment has been adopted in courses by several universities like Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFA) in Brazil to be used as a platform for graduating college students to gain exposure in the early year of their career to programming C and C++ cross-compilation tools. The simplicity of the mechanical devices in the Lego Mindstorm kit allows for obtaining the concept of robots and developing creative and logical thinking. There exists empirical evaluation on the benefits of robotic learning that it enhanced pupil’s ability in planning toward the objective and collaborations among peers [10]. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1848933 | 1,935,654 |
636,019 | Compton received many awards in his lifetime, including the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927, the Matteucci Gold Medal in 1930, the Royal Society's Hughes Medal and the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal in 1940. He is commemorated in various ways. Compton crater on the Moon is co-named for Compton and his brother Karl. The physics research building at Washington University in St Louis is named in his honor, as is the university's top fellowship for undergraduate students studying math, physics, or planetary science. Compton invented a more gentle, elongated, and ramped version of the speed bump called the "Holly hump", many of which are on the roads of the Washington University campus. The University of Chicago remembered Compton and his achievements by dedicating the Arthur H. Compton House in his honor. It is now listed as a National Historic Landmark. Compton also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was named in honor of Compton. The Compton effect is central to the gamma ray detection instruments aboard the observatory. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=432000 | 635,680 |
1,045,284 | More precise PBN can reduce fuel burn, emissions, and noise exposure for a majority of communities, but the concentration of flight tracks also can increase noise exposure for people who live directly under those flight paths. A feature of the NextGen program is GPS-based waypoints, which result in consolidated flight paths for planes. The result of this change is that many localities experience increases in air traffic over previously quiet areas. Complaints have risen with the added traffic and multiple municipalities have already filed suit, with more considering such a move. Many metropolitan airports have been affected, such as Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. Navigation changes have angered residents living with increased noise, and they are pushing back on the FAA. Some community members believe efforts to reduce noise over homes should have been predicted before NextGen navigation changes went into effect, and that the decisions were a complete failure on the part FAA and its administrator, Michael Huerta. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12942905 | 1,044,739 |
301,200 | These difficulties sharpened with the discovery of CMB anisotropy by the Cosmic Background Explorer in 1992, and several modified CDM models, including ΛCDM and mixed cold and hot dark matter, came under active consideration through the mid-1990s. The ΛCDM model then became the leading model following the observations of accelerating expansion in 1998, and was quickly supported by other observations: in 2000, the BOOMERanG microwave background experiment measured the total (matter–energy) density to be close to 100% of critical, whereas in 2001 the 2dFGRS galaxy redshift survey measured the matter density to be near 25%; the large difference between these values supports a positive Λ or dark energy. Much more precise spacecraft measurements of the microwave background from WMAP in 2003–2010 and "Planck" in 2013–2015 have continued to support the model and pin down the parameter values, most of which are now constrained below 1 percent uncertainty. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=985963 | 301,039 |
1,825,386 | Phase III double-blind clinical trials started in March 2008 with the IDENTITY study (Interrupting Alzheimer's dementia by evaluating treatment of amyloid pathology), including 1500 patients from 22 countries. This study was intended to run until May 2011. The successor trial with further 1500 patients, IDENTITY-2, started in September 2008. The open-label trial IDENTITY-XT, which included patients who have completed one of the two studies, started in December 2009. On 17 August 2010, it was announced that the phase III trials failed. Preliminary findings show that not only did semagacestat fail to slow disease progression, but that it was actually associated with “worsening of clinical measures of cognition and the ability to perform activities of daily living”. Furthermore, the incidence of skin cancer was significantly higher in the treatment group than the placebo group. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18860929 | 1,824,348 |
1,320,153 | Frogs and toads produce a rich variety of sounds, calls, and songs during their courtship and mating rituals. The callers, usually males, make stereotyped sounds in order to advertise their location, their mating readiness and their willingness to defend their territory; listeners respond to the calls by return calling, by approach, and by going silent. These responses have been shown to be important for species recognition, mate assessment, and localization. Beginning with the pioneering experiments of Robert Capranica in the 1930s using playback techniques with normal and synthetic calls, behavioral biologists and neurobiologists have teamed up to use frogs and toads as a model system for understanding the auditory function and evolution. It is now considered an important example of the neural basis of animal behavior, because of the simplicity of the sounds, the relative ease with which neurophysiological recordings can be made from the auditory nerve, and the reliability of localization behavior. Acoustic communication is essential for the frog's survival in both territorial defense and in localization and attraction of mates. Sounds from frogs travel through the air, through water, and through the substrate. The neural basis of communication and audition gives insights into the science of sound applied to human communication. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14713486 | 1,319,427 |
698,339 | In addition to studying how diverse processes, ranging from cooperation, emotions, obesity, resource sharing, to vaccination, might spread across social networks, Christakis and his colleagues have published a series of papers exploring how experimental manipulation of social network structure itself might enhance human welfare. Early work, starting in 2011, focused on how experimental manipulation of network structure could enhance human cooperation and economic productivity. Other work explored how network topology could affect human communication during a time of crisis. A 2019 paper in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" ("PNAS") showed that experimentally re-wiring social networks could enhance human welfare without redistributing or increasing resources. Additionally, an observational study of a novel monetary system (Sardex, introduced during the 2010 financial crisis) showed that k-cycle centrality was associated with economic success at the level of individual firms or the system as a whole. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21566523 | 697,975 |
1,071,744 | The earliest reported synthesis of a rotaxane in 1967 relied on the statistical probability that if two halves of a dumbbell-shaped molecule were reacted in the presence of a macrocycle that some small percentage would connect through the ring. To obtain a reasonable quantity of rotaxane, the macrocycle was attached to a solid-phase support and treated with both halves of the dumbbell 70 times and then severed from the support to give a 6% yield. However, the synthesis of rotaxanes has advanced significantly and efficient yields can be obtained by preorganizing the components utilizing hydrogen bonding, metal coordination, hydrophobic forces, covalent bonds, or coulombic interactions. The three most common strategies to synthesize rotaxane are "capping", "clipping", and "slipping", though others do exist. Recently, Leigh and co-workers described a new pathway to mechanically interlocked architectures involving a transition-metal center that can catalyse a reaction through the cavity of a macrocycle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36603 | 1,071,190 |
189,452 | Biologics as a class of medications in this narrower sense have had a profound impact on many medical fields, primarily rheumatology and oncology, but also cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology, and others. In most of these disciplines, biologics have added major therapeutic options for treating many diseases, including some for which no effective therapies were available, and others where previously existing therapies were inadequate. However, the advent of biologic therapeutics has also raised complex regulatory issues (see below), and significant pharmacoeconomic concerns because the cost for biologic therapies has been dramatically higher than for conventional (pharmacological) medications. This factor has been particularly relevant since many biological medications are used to treat chronic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, or for the treatment of otherwise untreatable cancer during the remainder of life. The cost of treatment with a typical monoclonal antibody therapy for relatively common indications is generally in the range of €7,000–14,000 per patient per year. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2654847 | 189,355 |
254,147 | In July 1945, the Kilgore bill was introduced in Congress, proposing the appointment and removal of a single science administrator by the president, with emphasis on applied research, and a patent clause favoring a government monopoly. In contrast, the competing Magnuson bill was similar to Bush's proposal to vest control in a panel of top scientists and civilian administrators with the executive director appointed by them. The Magnuson bill emphasized basic research and protected private patent rights. A compromise Kilgore–Magnuson bill of February 1946 passed the Senate but expired in the House because Bush favored a competing bill that was a virtual duplicate of Magnuson's original bill. A Senate bill was introduced in February 1947 to create the National Science Foundation (NSF) to replace the OSRD. This bill favored most of the features advocated by Bush, including the controversial administration by an autonomous scientific board. The bill passed the Senate and the House, but was pocket vetoed by Truman on August 6, on the grounds that the administrative officers were not properly responsible to either the president or Congress. The OSRD was abolished without a successor organization on December 31, 1947. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32767 | 254,014 |
1,469,108 | In 2004, King gave evidence to a House of Commons select committee confirming his view that "on a global and geological scale that climate change is the most serious problem we are faced with this century", and illustrated it with a statement that "Fifty-five million years ago was a time when there was no ice on the earth; the Antarctic was the most habitable place for mammals". The "Independent on Sunday" reported that King had at a later event compared current and projected carbon dioxide levels with the record over the past 60 million years, and in an indirect quote suggested King implied that Antarctica was likely to be the world's "only" habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked. At the end of the 2007 programme "The Great Global Warming Swindle", broadcast on Channel 4, Fred Singer ridiculed the reported view of the "chief scientist"; King's complaint to Ofcom that the programme was unfair and had not given a chance to clarify was upheld, despite Channel 4's arguments that King was not named and had not challenged earlier reporting. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1065128 | 1,468,284 |
254,205 | Echocardiography is a non-invasive method of quantifying cardiac output using ultrasound. Two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound and Doppler measurements are used together to calculate cardiac output. 2D measurement of the diameter (d) of the aortic annulus allows calculation of the flow cross-sectional area (CSA), which is then multiplied by the VTI of the Doppler flow profile across the aortic valve to determine the flow volume per beat (stroke volume, SV). The result is then multiplied by the heart rate (HR) to obtain cardiac output. Although used in clinical medicine, it has a wide test-retest variability. It is said to require extensive training and skill, but the exact steps needed to achieve clinically adequate precision have never been disclosed. 2D measurement of the aortic valve diameter is one source of noise; others are beat-to-beat variation in stroke volume and subtle differences in probe position. An alternative that is not necessarily more reproducible is the measurement of the pulmonary valve to calculate right-sided CO. Although it is in wide general use, the technique is time-consuming and is limited by the reproducibility of its component elements. In the manner used in clinical practice, precision of SV and CO is of the order of ±20%. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=242110 | 254,072 |
194,691 | This speed is achieved somewhat at the expense of payload. As a result of this reduced payload, some estimate that a tiltrotor does not exceed the transport efficiency (speed times payload) of a helicopter, while others conclude the opposite. Additionally, the tiltrotor propulsion system is more complex than a conventional helicopter due to the large, articulated nacelles and the added wing; however, the improved cruise efficiency and speed improvement over helicopters is significant in certain uses. Speed and, more importantly, the benefit to overall response time is the principal virtue sought by the military forces that are using the tiltrotor. Tiltrotors are inherently less noisy in forward flight (airplane mode) than helicopters. This, combined with their increased speed, is expected to improve their utility in populated areas for commercial uses and reduce the threat of detection for military uses. Tiltrotors, however, are typically as loud as equally sized helicopters in hovering flight. Noise simulations for a 90-passenger tiltrotor indicate lower cruise noise inside the cabin than a Bombardier Dash 8 airplane, although low-frequency vibrations may be higher. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63525 | 194,591 |
678,483 | A somewhat more advanced and larger form, "Angistorhinus" appears at the same time or soon after. Later in the Carnian, both these animals were replaced by more specialised forms like "Rutiodon", "Leptosuchus", and the huge "Smilosuchus" (Lucas 1998). The Carnian-Norian extinction meant that these animals died off, and the Early Norian sees new genera like "Nicrosaurus" and "Pseudopalatus", both of which belong to the most derived clade of phytosaurs, the Pseudopalatinae. Later in the middle Norian the advanced and specialised fish-eater "Mystriosuchus" appears. Fossil remains of this widespread animal is known from Germany, northern Italy, and Thailand. Finally the large "Redondasaurus" in south-west North America and the long-snouted (altirostral) "Angistorhinopsis ruetimeyeri" in Europe continued the group into the Rhaetian. Phytosaur footprints (the ichnotaxon "Apatopus") are also known from the latest Rhaetian of the East Coast of USA (the Newark Supergroup) (Olsen "et al." 2002). This indicates that phytosaurs continued as successful animals until the very end of the Triassic, when, along with many other large crurotarsan reptiles, they were killed off by the end Triassic extinction event, about 200 Ma ago. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1658563 | 678,129 |
297,162 | Code-division multiplexing (CDM), code-division multiple access (CDMA) or spread spectrum is a class of techniques where several channels simultaneously share the same frequency spectrum, and this spectral bandwidth is much higher than the bit rate or symbol rate. One form is frequency hopping, another is direct sequence spread spectrum. In the latter case, each channel transmits its bits as a coded channel-specific sequence of pulses called chips. Number of chips per bit, or chips per symbol, is the spreading factor. This coded transmission typically is accomplished by transmitting a unique time-dependent series of short pulses, which are placed within chip times within the larger bit time. All channels, each with a different code, can be transmitted on the same fiber or radio channel or other medium, and asynchronously demultiplexed. Advantages over conventional techniques are that variable bandwidth is possible (just as in statistical multiplexing), that the wide bandwidth allows poor signal-to-noise ratio according to Shannon-Hartley theorem, and that multi-path propagation in wireless communication can be combated by rake receivers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41389 | 297,002 |
228,735 | Saccades are one of the fastest movements produced by the human eye (blinks may reach even higher peak velocities). The peak angular speed of the eye during a saccade reaches up to 700°/s in humans for great saccades (25° of visual angle); in some monkeys, peak speed can reach 1000°/s. Saccades to an unexpected stimulus normally take about 200 milliseconds (ms) to initiate, and then last from about 20–200 ms, depending on their amplitude (20–30 ms is typical in language reading). Under certain laboratory circumstances, the latency of, or reaction time to, saccade production can be cut nearly in half (express saccades). These saccades are generated by a neuronal mechanism that bypasses time-consuming circuits and activates the eye muscles more directly. Specific pre-target oscillatory (alpha rhythms) and transient activities occurring in posterior-lateral parietal cortex and occipital cortex also characterise express saccades. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69832 | 228,618 |
169,390 | Acorn produced their own 32-bit Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) CPU during 1985, the ARM1. Furber composed a reference model of the processor on the BBC Micro with 808 lines of BASIC, and Arm Ltd. retains copies of the code for intellectual property purposes. The first prototype ARM platforms, the ARM Evaluation System and the A500 workstation, functioned as second processors attached to the BBC Micro's Tube interface. Acorn staff developed the A500's operating system "in situ" through the Tube until, one by one, the on-board I/O ports were enabled and the A500 ran as a stand-alone computer. With an upgraded processor this was eventually released during 1987 as four models in the "Archimedes" series, the lower-specified two models (512 KB and 1 MB) continuing the BBC Microcomputer brand with the distinctive red function keys. Although the Archimedes ultimately was not a major success, the ARM family of processors has become the dominant processor architecture in mobile embedded consumer devices, particularly mobile telephones. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18950885 | 169,300 |
162,190 | The post-World War II period witnessed a dramatic rise in the average standard of living, with a 40% rise in average real wages from 1950 to 1965. Workers in traditionally poorly paid semi-skilled and unskilled occupations saw a particularly marked improvement in their wages and living standards. In terms of consumption, there was more equality, especially as the landed gentry was hard pressed to pay its taxes and had to reduce its level of consumption. As a result of wage rises, consumer spending also increased by about 20% during the same period, while economic growth remained at about 3%. In addition, the last food rations were ended in 1954 while hire-purchase controls were relaxed in the same year. As a result of these changes, large numbers of the working classes were able to participate in the consumer market for the first time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33643110 | 162,105 |
51,105 | Most amphibians go through metamorphosis, a process of significant morphological change after birth. In typical amphibian development, eggs are laid in water and larvae are adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Frogs, toads and salamanders all hatch from the egg as larvae with external gills. Metamorphosis in amphibians is regulated by thyroxine concentration in the blood, which stimulates metamorphosis, and prolactin, which counteracts thyroxine's effect. Specific events are dependent on threshold values for different tissues. Because most embryonic development is outside the parental body, it is subject to many adaptations due to specific environmental circumstances. For this reason tadpoles can have horny ridges instead of Teeth, whisker-like skin extensions or fins. They also make use of a sensory lateral line organ similar to that of fish. After metamorphosis, these organs become redundant and will be reabsorbed by controlled cell death, called apoptosis. The variety of adaptations to specific environmental circumstances among amphibians is wide, with many discoveries still being made. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=621 | 51,085 |
49,220 | At the height of the Great Depression, in 1933, Keynes published "The Means to Prosperity", which contained specific policy recommendations for tackling unemployment in a global recession, chiefly counter-cyclical public spending. "The Means to Prosperity" contains one of the first mentions of the multiplier effect. While it was addressed chiefly to the British Government, it also contained advice for other nations affected by the global recession. A copy was sent to the newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other world leaders. The work was taken seriously by both the American and British governments, and according to Robert Skidelsky, helped pave the way for the later acceptance of Keynesian ideas, though it had little immediate practical influence. In the 1933 London Economic Conference opinions remained too diverse for a unified course of action to be agreed upon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37973 | 49,200 |
2,191,480 | Manning arrived in Wellington in 1953 to take up the position of Assistant Director (Microbiology) at the National Health Institute. He became Director of the Institute upon the sudden death of Dr James Blakelock in August 1955 and held this position until 1970. Manning started the New Zealand Reference Culture Collection (NZRCC) at the Institute in 1955. This involved establishing and running both the general and reference laboratories for bacteriology and virology with a special interest in antibiotic sensitivity methods and a haemagglutination test for toxoplasmosis. The collection was later designated as the national repository of organisms of national interest. The bacteriologist Sydney Josland worked under the direction of Manning at the Institute. Manning undertook a World Health Organisation Fellowship in 1966 and studied advances in laboratory organisation and methods. Between 1970 and 1982, he was the Consultant Medical Microbiologist at Wellington Hospital. In 1980, he became the first chairman of the Management Committee of the Department of Laboratory Services. Manning was Clinical Lecturer at the Wellington School of Medicine in 1978 and became Clinical Reader in 1982. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42713035 | 2,190,231 |
632,330 | Thirty years later, this work inspired, independently, two research groups to adopt the H-phosphonate chemistry to the solid-phase synthesis using nucleoside H-phosphonate monoesters 7 as building blocks and pivaloyl chloride, 2,4,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfonyl chloride (TPS-Cl), and other compounds as activators. The practical implementation of H-phosphonate method resulted in a very short and simple synthetic cycle consisting of only two steps, detritylation and coupling (Scheme 2). Oxidation of internucleosidic H-phosphonate diester linkages in 8 to phosphodiester linkages in 9 with a solution of iodine in aqueous pyridine is carried out at the end of the chain assembly rather than as a step in the synthetic cycle. If desired, the oxidation may be carried out under anhydrous conditions. Alternatively, 8 can be converted to phosphorothioate 10 or phosphoroselenoate 11 (X = Se), or oxidized by CCl in the presence of primary or secondary amines to phosphoramidate analogs 12. The method is very convenient in that various types of phosphate modifications (phosphate/phosphorothioate/phosphoramidate) may be introduced to the same oligonucleotide for modulation of its properties. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10663351 | 631,992 |
478,259 | The graphics in "Rise of the Robots" were created using Autodesk's 3D Studio software. The droids were designed by Sean Naden with conjunction with Griffiths. The backgrounds were created by a freelance interior designer Kwan Lee, who responded to an advertisement for a graphic artist. Naden was tasked by Griffiths to create "some kickass robots". The models for the droids were first created as mesh frames so they can be stretched and rescaled to create a desired look. Feeling that the rendered models were "too clean", Naden created 2D texture map and added colour and detail; the texture map is then wrapped around the finished model to "give it that extra level of detail". The Cyborg was the most complex character to create because of his muscular appearance; Naden studied muscle magazines to create an anatomy for the Cyborg. Each droid took two months to render, and was expected to have 100 frames of animation. Griffiths said that the team opted to use an "unusual angle" for all droids "so the player gets to see the whole robot". The team employed a chroma key technique to generate synthetic actors and place them on the background. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=224662 | 478,019 |
1,018,610 | Ferroelectric phase transitions are often characterized as either displacive (such as BaTiO) or order-disorder (such as NaNO), though often phase transitions will demonstrate elements of both behaviors. In barium titanate, a typical ferroelectric of the displacive type, the transition can be understood in terms of a polarization catastrophe, in which, if an ion is displaced from equilibrium slightly, the force from the local electric fields due to the ions in the crystal increases faster than the elastic-restoring forces. This leads to an asymmetrical shift in the equilibrium ion positions and hence to a permanent dipole moment. The ionic displacement in barium titanate concerns the relative position of the titanium ion within the oxygen octahedral cage. In lead titanate, another key ferroelectric material, although the structure is rather similar to barium titanate the driving force for ferroelectricity is more complex with interactions between the lead and oxygen ions also playing an important role. In an order-disorder ferroelectric, there is a dipole moment in each unit cell, but at high temperatures they are pointing in random directions. Upon lowering the temperature and going through the phase transition, the dipoles order, all pointing in the same direction within a domain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44708 | 1,018,083 |
2,112,010 | Williamson was a co-developer of magnetic source imaging (MSI), and used this technique throughout his life to visualize and study brain activity especially as it relates to vision and hearing. He published over 100 articles in the fields of biomagnetism and neuroscience. He received both his bachelor's degree in physics and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1961 and 1965 respectively. Dr. Williamson started his professional career at MIT's Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory as a staff scientist, and remained there until 1971 when he joined the physics department at New York University (NYU). He was subsequently promoted to full professor of physics in 1977, became additionally a professor of neural science in 1987, and a University Professor in 1989, and was an associate of the Center for Neural Science. He remained at NYU until his retirement in 2000. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2131238 | 2,110,795 |
798,935 | He therefore argued that quality engineering should start with an understanding of quality costs in various situations. In much conventional industrial engineering, the quality costs are simply represented by the number of items outside specification multiplied by the cost of rework or scrap. However, Taguchi insisted that manufacturers broaden their horizons to consider "cost to society". Though the short-term costs may simply be those of non-conformance, any item manufactured away from nominal would result in some loss to the customer or the wider community through early wear-out; difficulties in interfacing with other parts, themselves probably wide of nominal; or the need to build in safety margins. These losses are externalities and are usually ignored by manufacturers, which are more interested in their private costs than social costs. Such externalities prevent markets from operating efficiently, according to analyses of public economics. Taguchi argued that such losses would inevitably find their way back to the originating corporation (in an effect similar to the tragedy of the commons), and that by working to minimise them, manufacturers would enhance brand reputation, win markets and generate profits. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=442079 | 798,510 |
1,913,301 | After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1933, he became a professor at Bryn Mawr College, where he remained until 1947. From 1944 to 1946, he went on leave from Bryn Mawr College to direct the United States Office of Strategic Services's Station S during World War II. He joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in 1947, and became the founding director of the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research there in 1949. He remained the Institute's director until 1970, and used the skills he had learned during World War II at the Institute. He was the president of the Division of Personality and Social Psychology from 1951 to 1952, and of the Western Psychological Association from 1963 to 1964. He retired from Berkeley in 1970. In 1973, he began a one-year stint as a visiting fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership and an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55113031 | 1,912,202 |
982,858 | Positive inotropic agents (such as dobutamine or milrinone), which enhance the heart's pumping capabilities, are used to improve the contractility and correct the low blood pressure. Should that not suffice an intra-aortic balloon pump (which reduces workload for the heart, and improves perfusion of the coronary arteries) or a left ventricular assist device (which augments the pump-function of the heart) can be considered. Mechanical ventilation or ECMO may be used to help stabilize people with severe or refractory cardiogenic shock until they can be given some type of definitive treatment, such as a ventricular assist device. Finally, as a last resort, if the person is stable enough and otherwise qualifies, heart transplantation, or if not eligible an artificial heart, can be placed. These invasive measures are important tools—more than 50% of patients who do not die immediately due to cardiac arrest from a lethal abnormal heart rhythm and live to reach the hospital (who have usually experienced a severe acute myocardial infarction, which in itself still has a relatively high mortality rate), die within the first 24 hours. The mortality rate for those still living at time of admission who develop complications (among others, cardiac arrest or further abnormal heart rhythms, heart failure, cardiac tamponade, a ruptured or dissecting aneurysm, or another heart attack) from cardiogenic shock is even worse around 85%, especially without drastic measures such as ventricular assist devices or transplantation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1301620 | 982,345 |
27,279 | Most multicellular animals have nervous systems that allow them to sense from and respond to their environments. A nervous system is a network of cells that processes sensory information and generates behaviors. At the cellular level, the nervous system is defined by the presence of neurons, which are cells specialized to handle information. They can transmit or receive information at sites of contacts called synapses. More specifically, neurons can conduct nerve impulses (or action potentials) that travel along their thin fibers called axons, which can then be transmitted directly to a neighboring cell through electrical synapses or cause chemicals called neurotransmitters to be released at chemical synapses. According to the sodium theory, these action potentials can be generated by the increased permeability of the neuron's cell membrane to sodium ions. Cells such as neurons or muscle cells may be excited or inhibited upon receiving a signal from another neuron. The connections between neurons can form neural pathways, neural circuits, and larger networks that generate an organism's perception of the world and determine its behavior. Along with neurons, the nervous system contains other specialized cells called glia or glial cells, which provide structural and metabolic support. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9127632 | 27,269 |
382,543 | So far, BCIs for motor recovery have relied on the EEG to measure the patient's motor imagery. However, studies have also used fMRI to study different changes in the brain as persons undergo BCI-based stroke rehab training. Imaging studies combined with EEG-based BCI systems hold promise for investigating neuroplasticity during motor recovery post-stroke. Future systems might include the fMRI and other measures for real-time control, such as functional near-infrared, probably in tandem with EEGs. Non-invasive brain stimulation has also been explored in combination with BCIs for motor recovery. In 2016, scientists out of the University of Melbourne published preclinical proof-of-concept data related to a potential brain-computer interface technology platform being developed for patients with paralysis to facilitate control of external devices such as robotic limbs, computers and exoskeletons by translating brain activity. Clinical trials are currently underway. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=623686 | 382,348 |
305,205 | The Second International, which had been based in Amsterdam, ceased to operate during the war. It was refounded as the Socialist International at a congress in Frankfurt in 1951. Since Stalin had dissolved the Comintern in 1943, as part of a deal with the imperialist powers, this was now the only effective international socialist organisation. The Frankfurt Declaration took a stand against both capitalism and the Communism of Stalin and stated that "Socialism aims to liberate the peoples from dependence on a minority which owns or controls the means of production. It aims to put economic power in the hands of the people as a whole, and to create a community in which free men work together as equals... Socialism has become a major force in world affairs. It has passed from propaganda into practice. In some countries the foundations of a Socialist society have already been laid. Here the evils of capitalism are disappearing... Since the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Communism has split the International Labour Movement and has set back the realisation of socialism in many countries for decades. Communism falsely claims a share in the Socialist tradition. In fact, it has distorted that tradition beyond recognition. It has built up a rigid theology which is incompatible with the critical spirit of Marxism... Wherever it has gained power it has destroyed freedom or the chance of gaining freedom..." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47246185 | 305,043 |
1,800,119 | The third pathway of recognition also involve donor APCs, but in this case are their membrane components fused with recipient APCs and therefore can present intact donor MHC molecules to the host. This is possible by unique ability to exchange molecules such as RNA or proteins which is well established among leukocytes. There are several possibilities how this can be achieved: cell-cell contact (trogocytosis), nanotubes or release of extracellular vesicles such as exosomes. Myeloid antigen presenting cells and dendritic cells in particular are one of the major exosome producers. There are known especially for their ability to transport functional MHC molecules with bonded antigen peptide (pMHC) to different cells population including other dendritic cells. In consequence these dendritic cells which acquired new pMHC, displayed on their surface, became “cross-dressed”. This pMHC is capable of normal antigen presentation to effectors cells. Usually, the mechanism of cross-dressing serves purposes of amplifying immune response to certain antigens, but in case of alloantigen recognition the APCs are able, thanks to this mechanism, to prime both direct and indirect T lymphocytes by expressing both self- MHC and allo- MHC peptides derived from donor passenger APCs. Semi-direct alloantigen recognition therefore contributes to acute rejection by eliciting response of specialized CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29907799 | 1,799,110 |
338,841 | Fossil remains of air-breathing insects, myriapods and arachnids are known from the late Carboniferous, but so far not from the early Carboniferous. Their diversity when they do appear, however, shows that these arthropods were both well-developed and numerous. Their large size can be attributed to the moistness of the environment (mostly swampy fern forests) and the fact that the oxygen concentration in the Earth's atmosphere in the Carboniferous was much higher than today. This required less effort for respiration and allowed arthropods to grow larger with the up to millipede-like "Arthropleura" being the largest-known land invertebrate of all time. Among the insect groups are the huge predatory Protodonata (griffinflies), among which was "Meganeura", a giant dragonfly-like insect and with a wingspan of ca. —the largest flying insect ever to roam the planet. Further groups are the Syntonopterodea (relatives of present-day mayflies), the abundant and often large sap-sucking Palaeodictyopteroidea, the diverse herbivorous Protorthoptera, and numerous basal Dictyoptera (ancestors of cockroaches). Many insects have been obtained from the coalfields of Saarbrücken and Commentry, and from the hollow trunks of fossil trees in Nova Scotia. Some British coalfields have yielded good specimens: "Archaeoptilus", from the Derbyshire coalfield, had a large wing with preserved part, and some specimens ("Brodia") still exhibit traces of brilliant wing colors. In the Nova Scotian tree trunks land snails ("Archaeozonites", "Dendropupa") have been found. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5401 | 338,661 |
902,042 | The final unambiguous members of Archosauromorpha represent the most controversial group. These were the first archosauromorphs to appear, and can be characterized by their long necks, sprawling posture, and carnivorous habits. One name for the group, Protorosauria, is named after "Protorosaurus", the oldest archosauromorph known from good remains. Another name, Prolacertiformes, is in reference to a different member, "Prolacerta". Protorosauria/Prolacertiformes has had a complicated history, and many taxa have entered and left the group as paleontologists discover and re-evaluate reptiles of the Triassic. By far the most famous of these are tanystropheids such as "Tanystropheus", known for having necks longer than their entire body. Other notable genera include "Boreopricea", "Pamelaria", and "Macrocnemus," as well as strange gliding reptiles such as "Sharovipteryx" and "Mecistotrachelos". A landmark 1998 study by David Dilkes completely deconstructed the concept of Prolacertiformes as a traditional monophyletic group (i.e. one whose members have a single common ancestor). He argued that "Prolacerta" was much closer to Archosauriformes than to other "prolacertiforms", invalidating the name. Likewise, "Pamelaria" is now considered an allokotosaur, "Macrocnemus" is a tanystropheid, and "Protorosaurus" may be too basal ("primitive") to form a clade with any of its supposed close relatives. As such, this final group of Archosauromorpha is generally considered paraphyletic or polyphyletic, and few modern studies use it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1554235 | 901,566 |
1,106,730 | In addition to the advances being made in global structure determination via crystallography, the early 1990s also saw the implementation of NMR as a powerful technique in RNA structural biology. Coincident with the large-scale ribozyme structures being solved crystallographically, a number of structures of small RNAs and RNAs complexed with drugs and peptides were solved using NMR. In addition, NMR was now being used to investigate and supplement crystal structures, as exemplified by the determination of an isolated tetraloop-receptor motif structure published in 1997. Investigations such as this enabled a more precise characterization of the base pairing and base stacking interactions which stabilized the global folds of large RNA molecules. The importance of understanding RNA tertiary structural motifs was prophetically well described by Michel and Costa in their publication identifying the tetraloop motif: "..it should not come as a surprise if self-folding RNA molecules were to make intensive use of only a relatively small set of tertiary motifs. Identifying these motifs would greatly aid modeling enterprises, which will remain essential as long as the crystallization of large RNAs remains a difficult task". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4173711 | 1,106,166 |
2,198,375 | Since early in her career, Perkins has been building phylogenetic relationships of the "Plasmodium" malaria parasites in order to investigate the evolutionary history of the disease-causing organisms. This includes one of the first studies to identify the close relationship between rodent and primate malarias, the former often used in experimental research and the latter including the major human species "P. falciparum". Perkins' research has further expanded this analysis to include diverse species of "Plasmodium" from across the genus, covering less studied parasites infecting hosts such as bats and lizards. By sequencing a subset of genes from the widest array of "Plasmodium spp." samples at the time, Perkins' and her team found that the group is more diverse than previously thought, and that using a single generic name (that is, "Plasmodium") probably isn't suitable for all the disparate lineages. Many of the traits seen as significant for the parasites, such as the ability to reproduce asexually in the blood cells of hosts, actually originated independently multiple times. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66033325 | 2,197,124 |
24,748 | In the late 1940s at the University of California, Berkeley, the details of photosynthetic carbon metabolism were sorted out by the chemists Melvin Calvin, Andrew Benson, James Bassham and a score of students and researchers utilizing the carbon-14 isotope and paper chromatography techniques. The pathway of CO fixation by the algae "Chlorella" in a fraction of a second in light resulted in a 3 carbon molecule called phosphoglyceric acid (PGA). For that original and ground-breaking work, a Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Melvin Calvin in 1961. In parallel, plant physiologists studied leaf gas exchanges using the new method of infrared gas analysis and a leaf chamber where the net photosynthetic rates ranged from 10 to 13 μmol CO·m·s, with the conclusion that all terrestrial plants have the same photosynthetic capacities, that are light saturated at less than 50% of sunlight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24544 | 24,739 |
170,733 | MIMO is often traced back to 1970s research papers concerning multi-channel digital transmission systems and interference (crosstalk) between wire pairs in a cable bundle: AR Kaye and DA George (1970), Branderburg and Wyner (1974), and W. van Etten (1975, 1976). Although these are not examples of exploiting multipath propagation to send multiple information streams, some of the mathematical techniques for dealing with mutual interference proved useful to MIMO development. In the mid-1980s Jack Salz at Bell Laboratories took this research a step further, investigating multi-user systems operating over "mutually cross-coupled linear networks with additive noise sources" such as time-division multiplexing and dually-polarized radio systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13544419 | 170,643 |
1,469,507 | Rønneberg, now a First Lieutenant and put in charge of training, selected and led the six-man Operation Gunnerside team, reinforcing the five-man team "Grouse" sent in earlier, during the heavy water sabotage action. After landing at a location from the other team "Gunnerside" spent five days waiting out an intense blizzard in an uninhabited hunting cabin before meeting up with "Grouse". The combined Norwegian team went into action against the Norsk Hydro heavy water production plant in Vemork in 1943, parachuting into the Hardangervidda plateau on 16 February. Rønneberg led the demolition team when the saboteurs, on the night of 27–28 February 1943, entered the Norsk Hydro plant and set explosive charges. The team then escaped from the factory as the explosives went off, without the German guards discovering the saboteurs or indeed noticing that there had been an attack on the plant, probably believing that the heavy snow had set off one of their own land mines. Rønneberg recalled the dawn as they escaped: "It was a mackerel sky, it was a marvellous sunrise. We sat there very tired, very happy. Nobody said anything. That was a very special moment." Although chased by 2,800 German troops, five of the saboteurs, led by Rønneberg, escaped safely to neutral Sweden by way of a 14-day march over a distance of after the successful completion of their mission. The six other members of the sabotage team hid out in various locations in Norway without being caught by the Germans. Eighteen heavy water cells and around of heavy water were destroyed during the attack, as well as a loss of production of of heavy water. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4579036 | 1,468,683 |
1,014,001 | In July 1942, South West Pacific Area (SWPA) became aware of the resistance movements forming in occupied Philippines through attempted radio communications to Allies outside of the Philippines; by late 1942, couriers had made it to Australia confirming the existence of the resistance. By December 1942, SWPA sent Captain Jesús A. Villamor to the Philippines to make contact with guerrilla organizations, eventually developing extensive intelligence networks including contacts within the Second Republic Government. A few months later SWPA sent Lieutenant Commander Chick Parsons, who returned to the Philippines in early 1943, vetting guerrilla leaders and established communications and supply for them with SWPA. Through the Allied Intelligence Bureau's Philippine Regional Section, SWPA sent operatives and equipment into the Philippines to supply and assist guerrilla organizations, often by submarine. The large cruiser submarines and , with a high capacity for personnel and supplies, proved especially useful in supporting the guerrillas. Beginning in mid-1943, the assistance to the guerrillas in the Philippines became more organized, with the formation of the 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion, which was largely composed of volunteer Filipino Americans from the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, which were established and organized in California. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36873070 | 1,013,480 |
729,862 | What Whewell called the "true theory" has since undergone two major revisions. The first, by Maxwell, specified the physical fields whose variations constitute the waves of light. Without the benefit of this knowledge, Fresnel managed to construct the world's first coherent theory of light, showing in retrospect that his methods are applicable to multiple types of waves. The second revision, initiated by Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect, supposed that the energy of light waves was divided into quanta, which were eventually identified with particles called photons. But photons did not exactly correspond to Newton's corpuscles; for example, Newton's explanation of ordinary refraction required the corpuscles to travel faster in media of higher refractive index, which photons do not. Neither did photons displace waves; rather, they led to the paradox of wave–particle duality. Moreover, the phenomena studied by Fresnel, which included nearly all the optical phenomena known at his time, are still most easily explained in terms of the "wave" nature of light. So it was that, as late as 1927, the astronomer Eugène Michel Antoniadi declared Fresnel to be "the dominant figure in optics." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1141 | 729,478 |
1,212,898 | Fayetteville State University conducted a study on whether using an online interactive system such as "MyMathLab" would increase a student's academic performance compared to the traditional paper-based homework system. The study was done in a college algebra course. The result showed that those who pass the course using "MyMathLab" is 70% while using traditional homework system is 49%. However, the study neglected to factor in students preemptively dropping the course out of frustration and the increased amount of time students were forced to spend on a topic due to poor user interface design and incorrect answer parsing. When comparing outcomes between three semesters of a college algebra course taught using "MyMathlab" and one semester taught with a mix of OER and other low-cost alternatives using the same instructors, a Georgia College & State University study found that students who used the OER and low-cost alternatives were more likely to earn a C or higher and less likely to withdraw from the course than those who used "MyMathLab". A study done by North Georgia College and State University shows that most students found "MyMathLab's" video tutoring feature useful. Some students argue that most of "MyMathLab's" videos only cover basic concepts when they demand more videos on advanced materials. Another review claims that some tutors are not as easily understood as others. "MyMathLab" has also fallen under additional criticism for wording problems in a way that students cannot easily understand. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33442988 | 1,212,246 |
1,626,294 | Further calculations confirmed that opportunities to film this trajectory, with the correct sun angles, at this exact time of day, only came around once every six weeks. According to Riley, the second challenge was fitting these filming opportunities into crew time on board the space station. "The astronauts have a busy schedule; conducting a packed programme of experiments, Earth observations and activities like sleep, exercise and meal times. This meant that accommodating the extra filming request for "First Orbit" was yet another challenge for the ESA mission directors," he told BBC news in a March 2011 interview. On the final flight path back towards Gagarin's landing site, the scenes shot for "First Orbit" are slightly to the east of the original Vostok 1 trajectory. Because the vantage point is so high, the vista was similar to that of Gagarin's vantage point. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31316600 | 1,625,376 |
534,291 | A Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 autocannon with 150 rounds was fixed on the lower starboard side of the nose; it was fired by the pilot who had a primitive ring sight to use for aiming. The dorsal turret mounted two Berezin B-20E guns with 400 rounds per gun and was capable of 360° of traverse, with special microswitches preventing the gunner from firing into the bomber's tail. The turret was remotely controlled by the radio operator and was powered by electric motors for both traverse and elevation. The gunner and his gunsight used a small observation blister at the rear of the main crew compartment to lay the guns on their target. The sight automatically compensated for parallax between the gunner and the turret as well as the required amount of target lead and the shell's ballistics. The remote-control system offered several advantages including a smaller turret that had less drag, the guns could be fixed more rigidly to their mounts, the sight was not exposed to vibrations from firing and could track targets more smoothly and the gunner's comfort did not have to be sacrificed to optimize the performance of the turret. The major disadvantage, of course, was that the analog computer remote control system was exceedingly complicated for the period and prone to breaking down, just like the even more complex systems in use on the B-29 Superfortress. The rear gunner was placed at the very tail of the Il-22 to optimize his field of fire in an electro-hydraulically powered Il-KU3 turret that mounted another NS-23 cannon. The turret could traverse a total of 140°, elevate 35° and depress 30°. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19945930 | 534,012 |
191,845 | In older audio systems (reliant on transformers and passive filter networks, and based on the telephone system), the source and load resistances were matched at 600 ohms. One reason for this was to maximize power transfer, as there were no amplifiers available that could restore lost signal. Another reason was to ensure correct operation of the hybrid transformers used at central exchange equipment to separate outgoing from incoming speech, so these could be amplified or fed to a four-wire circuit. Most modern audio circuits, on the other hand, use active amplification and filtering and can use voltage-bridging connections for greatest accuracy. Strictly speaking, impedance matching only applies when both source and load devices are linear; however, matching may be obtained between nonlinear devices within certain operating ranges. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=320733 | 191,746 |
410,350 | Impedance-based single cell analysis systems are commonly known as Coulter counters. They represent a well-established method for counting and sizing virtually any kind of cells and particles. The label-free technology has recently been enhanced by a "lab-on-a-chip" based approach and by applying high frequency alternating current (AC) in the radio frequency range (from 100 kHz to 30 MHz) instead of a static direct current (DC) or low frequency AC field. This patented technology allows a highly accurate cell analysis and provides additional information like membrane capacitance and viability. The relatively small size and robustness allow battery powered on-site use in the field. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=501216 | 410,148 |
940,227 | The youngest of the three Polish mathematicians who had worked together since 1929—Jerzy Różycki—died in the sinking of a French passenger ship on 9 January 1942, as he was returning to "Cadix" from a stint in Algeria. By summer 1942 work at "Cadix" was becoming dangerous, and plans for evacuation were drawn up. Vichy France was liable to be occupied by German troops, and "Cadix"'s radio transmissions were increasingly at risk of detection by the German "Funkabwehr", a unit tasked with locating enemy radio transmitters. Indeed, on 6 November a pickup truck equipped with a circular antenna arrived at the gate of the Château des Fouzes where the cryptologists were operating. The visitors, however, did not enter, and merely investigated nearby farms, badly frightening their occupants. Nonetheless, at Bertrand's suggestion French intelligence ordered the evacuation of "Cadix". The order was carried out on 9 November, the day after the Allied "Operation Torch" landings in North Africa. Three days later, on 12 November, the Germans occupied the chateau. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4349420 | 939,726 |
934,308 | Another area of knowledge representation research was the problem of common-sense reasoning. One of the first realizations learned from trying to make software that can function with human natural language was that humans regularly draw on an extensive foundation of knowledge about the real world that we simply take for granted but that is not at all obvious to an artificial agent. Basic principles of common-sense physics, causality, intentions, etc. An example is the frame problem, that in an event driven logic there need to be axioms that state things maintain position from one moment to the next unless they are moved by some external force. In order to make a true artificial intelligence agent that can converse with humans using natural language and can process basic statements and questions about the world, it is essential to represent this kind of knowledge. One of the most ambitious programs to tackle this problem was Doug Lenat's Cyc project. Cyc established its own Frame language and had large numbers of analysts document various areas of common-sense reasoning in that language. The knowledge recorded in Cyc included common-sense models of time, causality, physics, intentions, and many others. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16920 | 933,816 |
1,565,378 | Sellers was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 9, 1923. His mother, Cora Irene (Templeton), worked for a church society; his father, Charles Grier Sellers, was an executive at Standard Oil and was descended from a family of "two-mule farmers". Sellers was an avid birder; in 1937, at age 14 he co-founded the Mecklenburg Audubon Club with Elizabeth Clarkson and Beatrice Potter, which later became the Mecklenburg Audubon Society. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1945, where he lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year. His graduation was delayed until 1947 by service in the 85th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division (the ski troops) of the United States Army. He served in the army from 1943 to 1945 and achieved the rank of staff sergeant. He was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1950. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25818572 | 1,564,491 |
762,455 | The invention that brought Lawrence to international fame started out as a sketch on a scrap of a paper napkin. While sitting in the library one evening in 1929, Lawrence glanced over a journal article by Rolf Widerøe, and was intrigued by one of the diagrams. This depicted a device that produced high-energy particles by means of a succession of small "pushes". The device depicted was laid out in a straight line using increasingly longer electrodes. At the time, physicists were beginning to explore the atomic nucleus. In 1919, the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford had fired alpha particles into nitrogen and had succeeded in knocking protons out of some of the nuclei. But nuclei have a positive charge that repels other positively charged nuclei, and they are bound together tightly by a force that physicists were only just beginning to understand. To break them up, to disintegrate them, would require much higher energies, of the order of millions of volts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39040 | 762,047 |
1,615,370 | The first signal film to be processed was that ground-recorded in real-time from data down-linked during the first imaging pass, made during the eighth revolution. Therefore, a preliminary evaluation of the first image film was available before much other imaging passes occurred. It showed that that first image swath began in southern Indiana and continued north-northeasterly over Michigan's the lower peninsula. Comparisons of its image with 1:250,000 USGS maps showed the location of that swath very clearly, based particularly on the positively recognizable form of distinctive windings of the Wabash River in Indiana and on the forms of nearby highways and railroads and some urban areas. This first availability of early image-content information provided an example of using feedback from the system's early image product to help control the orbiting system's later imaging passes and to allow ground crews to position calibration objects within coming swaths in time for later imaging. An unexpected bonus from the first image was the determination of the locations, lengths, and makeups of some railroad trains, plus their speeds and directions of travel. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27644336 | 1,614,464 |
1,630,089 | German sources do not list Hans Aniol, Max Hainle, or Herbert von Petersdorff as members of the Berliner Swimming Club, mentioning Gustav Erpf, Asmus Simonsen, and Max Schöne instead, but Mallon notes that there is proof contemporary to the tournament for the participation of only the former trio. Three members of the Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club, Georges Romas, Guillaume Séron, and A. R. Upton, are also left off of some lists despite evidence that they participated in the first round. The roster for the Osborne Swimming Club of Manchester as listed by the International Olympic Committee is Thomas Coe, John Henry Derbyshire, Peter Kemp, William Lister, Arthur G. Robertson, Eric Robinson, and George Wilkinson. Lister, however, had died two weeks prior to the Games, while Derbyshire, Robinson, and Wilkinson all played water polo matches in England either during the tournament or too soon after it to have traveled back from Paris in time. A list of players contemporary to the match does not include Robertson, but does list Coe and Kemp in addition to Robert Crawshaw, William Henry, John Arthur Jarvis, Victor Lindberg, and Frederick Stapleton. Lindberg has been considered the first New Zealand Olympian, although he "was born in Fiji to Swedish and Irish parents, lived in New Zealand from a young age and, in Paris, represented a British club." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=229687 | 1,629,169 |
1,550,070 | Research has been conducted on NR4A2’s role in inflammation, and may provide important information in treating disorders caused by dopaminergic neuron disease. Inflammation in the CNS can result from activated microglia (macrophage analogs for the central nervous system) and other pro-inflammatory factors, such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS binds to toll-like receptors (TLR), which induces inflammatory gene expression by promoting signal-dependent transcription factors. To determine which cells are dopaminergic, experiments measured the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), which is needed for dopamine synthesis. It has been shown that NR4A2 protects dopaminergic neurons from LPS-induced inflammation, by reducing inflammatory gene expression in microglia and astrocytes. When a short hairpin for NR4A2 was expressed in microglia and astrocytes, these cells produced inflammatory mediators, such as TNFa, NO synthase and IL-1β, supporting the conclusion that reduced NR4A2 promotes inflammation and leads to cell death of dopaminergic neurons. NR4A2 interacts with the transcription factor complex NF-κB-p65 on the inflammatory gene promoters. However, NR4A2 is dependent on other factors to be able to participate in these interactions. NR4A2 needs to be sumoylated and its co-regulating factor, glycogen synthase kinase 3, needs to be phosphorylated for these interactions to occur. Sumolyated NR4A2 recruits CoREST, a complex made of several proteins that assembles chromatin-modifying enzymes. The NR4A2/CoREST complex inhibits transcription of inflammatory genes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12134485 | 1,549,189 |
775,941 | Once when the MOS Technology 6502 (used in the Commodore 64 and Apple II), and later when the Motorola 68000 (used in the Macintosh, Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga) were popular, anybody could use their home computer as a real-time system. The possibility to deactivate other interrupts allowed for hard-coded loops with defined timing, and the low interrupt latency allowed the implementation of a real-time operating system, giving the user interface and the disk drives lower priority than the real-time thread. Compared to these the programmable interrupt controller of the Intel CPUs (8086..80586) generates a very large latency and the Windows operating system is neither a real-time operating system nor does it allow a program to take over the CPU completely and use its own scheduler, without using native machine language and thus surpassing all interrupting Windows code. However, several coding libraries exist which offer real time capabilities in a high level language on a variety of operating systems, for example Java Real Time. The Motorola 68000 and subsequent family members (68010, 68020 etc.) also became popular with manufacturers of industrial control systems. This application area is one in which real-time control offers genuine advantages in terms of process performance and safety. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25767 | 775,525 |
227,009 | Barnum Brown and crew, working for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, collected a nearly complete articulated skeleton with a partial skull in 1915. These fossils were also found in the Dinosaur Park Formation, near Steveville, Alberta. Brown and Erich Maren Schlaikjer compared the finds, and, though they allowed that both specimens were from the same general locality and geological formation, they considered the specimen sufficiently distinct from the holotype to warrant erecting a new species, and described the fossils as "Styracosaurus parksi", named in honor of William Parks. Among the differences between the specimens cited by Brown and Schlaikjer were a cheekbone quite different from that of "S. albertensis", and smaller tail vertebrae. "S. parksi" also had a more robust jaw, a shorter dentary, and the frill differed in shape from that of the type species. However, much of the skull consisted of plaster reconstruction, and the original 1937 paper did not illustrate the actual skull bones. It is now accepted as a specimen of "S. albertensis". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1792150 | 226,893 |
2,172,383 | BM implies that an e-Work system with a system with “mismatched” individuals is always outperformed by an equivalent system with “best-matched” individuals. The growing complexity and dynamic behavior of systems along with competitive and globalized markets have gradually transformed traditional centralized systems into distributed networks of e-Work systems. These systems, regardless of context and application, have a property in common: They all involve certain types of interactions (collaborative, competitive, or both) among their distributed individuals—from clusters of sensors and machines to complex networks of computers, intelligent robots, humans, and enterprises. Having this common property, such systems may encounter common challenges in terms of suboptimal interactions and thus poor performance, caused by potential mismatch between individuals. BM provides the PRISM taxonomy of best matching [12], a set of concepts, models, and frameworks for systematic analysis, taxonomy, analogical and structural assessment of matching processes, specification, modeling, and real-time optimization of matching processes in distributed manufacturing, supply, and service networks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51799119 | 2,171,142 |
1,826,786 | "Chlamydomonas reinhardtii" is a unicellular green microalga. The wild-type "C. reinhardtii" has a spherical shape that averages about 10 μm in diameter. This microorganism can perceive the visible light and be steered by it (i.e., phototaxis) with high swimming speeds in the range of 100–200 μm s. It has natural autofluorescence that permits label-free fluorescent imaging. "C. reinhardtii" has been actively explored as the live component of biohybrid microrobots for the active delivery of therapeutics. They are biocompatible with healthy mammalian cells, leave no known toxins, mobile in the physiologically relevant media, and allow for surface modification to carry cargo on the cell wall. Alternative attachment strategies for "C. reinhardtii" have been proposed for the assembly through modifying the interacting surfaces by electrostatic interactions and covalent bonding. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=68657567 | 1,825,747 |
811,782 | A self-serving bias is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner. It is the belief that individuals tend to ascribe success to their own abilities and efforts, but ascribe failure to external factors. When individuals reject the validity of negative feedback, focus on their strengths and achievements but overlook their faults and failures, or take more credit for their group's work than they give to other members, they are protecting their self-esteem from threat and injury. These cognitive and perceptual tendencies perpetuate illusions and error, but they also serve the self's need for esteem. For example, a student who attributes earning a good grade on an exam to their own intelligence and preparation but attributes earning a poor grade to the teacher's poor teaching ability or unfair test questions might be exhibiting the self-serving bias. Studies have shown that similar attributions are made in various situations, such as the workplace, interpersonal relationships, sports, and consumer decisions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=511068 | 811,350 |
1,610,710 | The target facility, which holds the inventory of about 10 m of Li, forms and conditions the beam target. The Li screen fulfills two main functions: to react with the deuterons to generate a stable neutron flux in the forward direction and to dissipate the beam power in a continuous manner. The flowing Li (15 m/s; 250 °C) is shaped and accelerated in the proximity of the beam interaction region by a two-stage reducer nozzle forming a concave jet of 25 mm thickness with a minimum radius of curvature of 250 mm in the beam footprint area. The resulting centrifugal pressure raises the boiling point of the flowing Li and thus ensures a stable liquid phase. The beam power absorbed by the Li is evacuated by the heat removal system and the lithium is cooled to 250 °C by a serial of heat exchangers. The control of impurities, essential for the quality of the liquid screen, will be done through a tailored design of cold and hot trap systems, and purities of Li during operation better than 99.9% are expected. On-line monitoring of impurities will detect impurity levels over 50 ppm. Based on numerical analyses carried out in the last three decades, the beam-target interaction is not expected to have a critical impact on jet stability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3555270 | 1,609,805 |
1,876,030 | HIDRA, started off as a different machine at the Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires in Grenoble, France in 1972. Back then it was called WEGA with construction of the device from 1972 to 1975. WEGA was a joint project between CEA Grenoble and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany to study RF heating and lower hybrid heating. There were three vacuum vessel that were built, two tokamak and a single stellarator. WEGA primarily operated as a tokamak from 1975 to 1987 despite plans to install the stellarator vessel in 1976 (repairs were needed on the helical coil insulation). Electron and ion temperatures achieved were, "T" = 600 – 900 eV and, "T" = 150 – 250 eV. Densities of "n" = 1.6×10 m with a plasma current of "I" = 45 – 60 kA and heating power, "P" = 100 – 130 kW and, "P" = 100 kW. Typical pulse duration was, "Δt" = 5 – 15 ms and an energy confinement time, "τ" = 3 – 5 ms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45566670 | 1,874,953 |
1,991,590 | In 1977, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory was presented, titled Virtual Laboratory of Physiology. At this time, the main focus lay on the development of technological preconditions of physiological research in the 19th century. Therefore, a database with relevant texts and images was created. In 1998, the concept still used today was created after a series of modifications, followed by the publication of a cd-ROM in 1999. At this time, the focus had been expanded from physiology to the life sciences in general, as well as the arts and literature. As the project had been extended from a sole database to a platform for historiographical research, it was presented at the conference "Using the World Wide Web for Historical Research in Science and Technology" organized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at Stanford University. In 2000, the project was incorporated into the research project "The Experimentalization of Life", funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. This was followed by another presentation at the conference "Virtual Research? The impact of new technologies on scientific practices" at the ETH Zurich. In 2002, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory went online. Since 2008, the Virtual Laboratory is listed as a journal under the ISSN number 1866-4784. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19555294 | 1,990,447 |
1,424,563 | The company was initially headquartered in San Carlos, California, and started with only $22,000 in funding. It had problems raising additional capital, particularly due to Russell's insistence that the company be owned by its employees and his related refusal to accept outside investors. Hansen mortgaged his home for $17,000 to raise additional cash, and the group sought additional funds from friends. Ultimately the company raised $120,000 of capital via an offer of stock to all employees, directors, consultants, and a few sympathetic local investors who shared the company's goals. Military contracts for technology deemed necessary during the Cold War, including some classified projects helped the firm succeed. In 1953, Varian Associates moved its headquarters to Palo Alto, California, at Stanford Industrial Park – noted as the "spawning ground of Silicon Valley" – and was the first firm to occupy a site there. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10318387 | 1,423,761 |
1,220,386 | Following South Korea's liberation from Japan on 15 August 1945, the Republic of Korea established its first independent government on 15 August 1948, along with its own armed forces. However, the ROK military was largely unprepared and ill-equipped to fight as they lacked numbers, training, heavy weapons and large support from the United States. Comparatively, North Korea had the numbers advantage and enjoyed a large amount of support from China and the Soviet Union in the form of rigorous training, man power, military organization, and large supply of various weapons. This would prove devastating in the beginning of the Korean War as the ROK military was pushed to the brink of defeat until US-led forces intervened in the war. The experience in the war facilitated the need for the ROK military to be better equipped, trained and supported but economic underdevelopment and instability prevented South Korea from developing its own defense industry; forcing the country to continue its security dependency on the US until the late 1960s. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66301957 | 1,219,732 |
2,048,241 | In 1852, Emily Blackwell attended one course of lectures in Rush Medical College; she was denied entrance a second year and finally graduated at a Cleveland institution. There was no surviving record of all the circumstances of this case , but referring to this period, Professor Charles Warrington Earle said:— "This much, however, is known: The Illinois State Medical Society, saturated with the then prevailing prejudices against female medical education, censured the college for admitting women to its instruction. A few years later two female practitioners, educated in the East, located in this city for a short time, but so far as I am aware no students received instruction or asked for it in their office." At about the same time Dr. Mary Harris Thompson came to practice in Chicago, and shortly afterward, by the assistance of Dr. Dyas and his public spirited wife, established Chicago Hospital for Women and Children. This soon became the rendezvous for the women of the West, who, being denied access to any | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=66695262 | 2,047,060 |
1,872,331 | Abnormally thin eggshell can allow excessive evaporation to dehydrate the embryo or shell membrane. Dehydrated membranes have a negative impact on gas permeability of the egg. Eggshell pathology can cause the shell to be so thin that the egg collapses. Abnormally thin eggshell has been attributed to "Hypselosaurus priscus" and some experts have speculated that this was the cause of the species' extinction, with vegetation changes, climatic change and overcrowding being the original impetus for the shell thinning. However, there are alternative explanations for the thin eggshell not dependent on pathology. Later researchers found resorption craters in the basal caps at the base of the columns, meaning that the eggs hatched. Some researchers postulated that the thinner ""Hypselosaurus priscus"" eggshells came from different taxa than the thicker eggshells, and subsequent researchers have come to support this idea. Another potential explanation for variation in eggshell thickness is that the thinner eggs were laid by younger individuals than older ones. There are also natural variations of eggshell thickness within a single species. Stressful environmental conditions may have resulted in dinosaur egg shells thinning. This may have played a role in dinosaur extinction, but is a controversial subject. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39701414 | 1,871,254 |
204,253 | In 1937, an antibody was observed in horses hyper-immunized with pneumococcus polysaccharide that was much larger in size than the typical rabbit γ-globulin, with a molecular weight of 990,000 daltons. In accordance with its larger size, the new antibody was originally referred to as γ-macroglobulin, and subsequently termed as IgM—M for “macro”. The V domains of normal immunoglobulin are highly heterogeneous, reflecting their role in protecting against the great variety of infectious microbes, and this heterogeneity impeded detailed structural analysis of IgM. Two sources of homogeneous IgM were subsequently discovered. First, the high molecular weight protein produced by some multiple myeloma patients was recognized to be a tumor-produced γ-macroglobulin, and because the tumor is a clone the IgM it produces is homogeneous. In the 1960s, methods were developed for inducing immunoglobulin-producing tumors (plasmacytomas) in mice, thus providing a source of homogeneous immunoglobulins of various isotypes, including IgM (reviewed in). More recently, the expression of engineered immunoglobulin genes in tissue culture can be used to produce IgM with specific alterations and thus to identify the molecular requirements for features of interest. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=490673 | 204,148 |
1,507,025 | They concluded that the asteroid was about 9.97 kilometers in diameter which would cause an impact with about the same energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT. An impact of that magnitude would then create a large dust cloud that would block sunlight and inhibit photosynthesis for many years. The dust particles in the vapor-rich impact plume ejected from the crater and rose above the Earth's atmosphere, enveloped the Earth, and then descended through the atmosphere around the planet which blocked sunlight from reaching Earth's surface. Dust occluded sunlight for up to six months, halting or severely impairing photosynthesis, and thus seriously disrupting continental and marine food chains. This would then kill most plant life and phytoplankton which would also kill many of the organisms that depended on them to survive. Sulfuric acid aerosols were also ejected into the atmosphere which blocked about 20 percent of incoming sunlight. These sulfuric aerosols would take years to fully dissipate from the atmosphere. The impact site also contained sulfur-rich sediments called evaporites, which would have reacted with water vapor to produce sulfate aerosols. Sean Gulick, a research scientist at the University of Texas, postulated that an increase in the atmospheric concentration of the sulfate compounds could have made the impact deadlier in two ways: altering climate from sulfate aerosols in the upper atmosphere having a cooling effect, and generating acid rain from water vapor that can flush the lower atmosphere of sulfate aerosols. Earlier studies had suggested both effects might result from the impact, but to a lesser degree. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37864028 | 1,506,179 |
1,145,487 | "Neuroinflammation and neuroimmune activation have been shown to play a role in the etiology of a variety of neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, pain, and AIDS-associated dementia. However, cytokines and chemokines also modulate CNS function in the absence of overt immunological, physiological, or psychological challenges. For example, cytokines and cytokine receptor inhibitors affect cognitive and emotional processes. Recent evidence suggests that immune molecules modulate brain systems differently across the lifespan. Cytokines and chemokines regulate neurotrophins and other molecules critical to neurodevelopmental processes, and exposure to certain neuroimmune challenges early in life affects brain development. In adults, cytokines and chemokines affect synaptic plasticity and other ongoing neural processes, which may change in aging brains. Finally, interactions of immune molecules with the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal system indicate that sex differences are a significant factor determining the impact of neuroimmune influences on brain function and behavior." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4052447 | 1,144,886 |
95,191 | Popper won many awards and honours in his field, including the Lippincott Award of the American Political Science Association, the Sonning Prize, the Otto Hahn Peace Medal of the United Nations Association of Germany in Berlin and fellowships in the Royal Society, British Academy, London School of Economics, King's College London, Darwin College, Cambridge, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Charles University, Prague. Austria awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1986, and the Federal Republic of Germany its Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit, and the peace class of the Order Pour le Mérite. He received the Humanist Laureate Award from the International Academy of Humanism. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976. He was invested with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour in 1982. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16623 | 95,150 |
439,971 | Due to their high porosity and large surface area-to-volume ratio, nanofibers are widely used to construct scaffolds for biological applications. Major examples of natural polymers used in scaffold production are collagen, cellulose, silk fibroin, keratin, gelatin and polysaccharides such as chitosan and alginate. Collagen is a natural extracellular component of many connective tissues. Its fibrillary structure, which varies in diameter from 50-500 nm, is important for cell recognition, attachment, proliferation and differentiation. Using type I collagen nanofibers produced via electrospinning, Shih et al. found that the engineered collagen scaffold showed an increase in cell adhesion and decrease in cell migration with increasing fiber diameter. Using silk scaffolds as a guide for growth for bone tissue regeneration, Kim et al. observed complete bone union after 8 weeks and complete healing of defects after 12 weeks whereas the control in which the bone did not have the scaffold displayed limited mending of defects in the same time period. Similarly, keratin, gelatin, chitosan and alginate demonstrate excellent biocompatibility and bioactivity in scaffolds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4406110 | 439,757 |
1,360,899 | In Canada, architects are required to meet three common requirements for registration: education, experience, and examination. Educational requirements generally consist of an M.Arch. degree and are certified by the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB). For degreed candidates, the experience requirement is typically the Intern Architect Program (IAP). The provincial associations of architects, by the authority granted under their respective provincial Architects Act, require that Interns gain a minimum of 5,600 hours of work experience. The fundamental purpose of the pre-registration/licensing employment period is to ensure that the Intern is provided with sufficient experience to meet the standards of practical skill and level of competence required to engage in the practice of architecture. This experience is diversified into four main categories and 16 sub-categories, and must be completed working under the direct supervision of a registered architect. At present, all jurisdictions use the Architect Registration Examination (ARE), a series of seven computerized exams administered by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). As well, all jurisdictions recognize the Examination for Architects in Canada (ExAC), administered by the Pan Canadian ExAC Committee. Upon completion of the educational requirements, IAP, and examinations, one can apply for registration/license with their respective provincial architectural institute. Architects must pay an annual fee and meet continuing education requirements to maintain their license to practice. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27156154 | 1,360,146 |
1,240,211 | In August 1929, a second electrified suburban line was opened, from Moscow to the northern suburb of Mytischi. This line operated the S-series electric multiple units (S standing for "Severnye Zheleznye Dorogi", or "Northern Railroad"). These consisted of standard 3-car sections, each section having 1 power car and 2 trailers. The power cars used 1500 V DC current and had a total power of 600 kW (up to 720 kW on later versions). The electrical equipment for these trains was manufactured by Metropolitan Vickers (later license-built by the Dynamo factory in Moscow), and the mechanical equipment was made by the Mytischi Railroad Machinery Plant. After World War II, the entire production was transferred to the Riga Railroad Machinery Plant, which continued producing these trainsets until 1958. The many versions of the S-series trains produced included 1500-V and 3000-V versions, dual-current versions and some versions fitted with dynamic brakes. All of these had one common design flaw: the traction motors were mounted directly on the axles to simplify manufacture, which in turn limited maximum speed to 85 km/h. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8412180 | 1,239,542 |
1,966,623 | Goldstein is credited for raising CUNY admissions standards, creating thousands of additional full-time faculty positions, and otherwise reforming a system deemed by a 1999 mayoral task force report to be ""an institution adrift."" Goldstein led a successful effort to revitalize the CUNY system. During his tenure, he established CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, CUNY School of Pharmacy at York College, the William E. Macaulay Honors College, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and CUNY School of Professional Studies. He proclaimed "Decade of Science" to create the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center on the City College of New York campus in Manhattan, as well as additional new science facilities on CUNY campus in each the five boroughs of the City of New York. Moreover, distinguished faculty in the STEM fields were recruited and retained from around the world. Under Goldstein's leadership, the State's Teacher Certification exams rose above a 98% pass-rate, and CUNY's first capital fundraising campaign successfully raised over $1.4 billion. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2424829 | 1,965,493 |
608,555 | Despite the problems mentioned in the section on electronic scoring, the vast majority of fencers consider it a great improvement over non-electric system described here. As described in an article in the London newspaper, The Daily Courier, on June 25, 1896: "Every one who has watched a bout with the foils knows that the task of judging the hits is with a pair of amateurs difficult enough, and with a well-matched pair of "maîtres d’escrime" well-nigh impossible." In addition there were frequent problems with bias and collusion, leading to the wry expression that a dry jury consisted of "4 blind men and a thief". Some fencers, particularly in sabre, would hit hard to ensure their touches could not be missed, and dry sabre could be an extremely painful undertaking despite the protective jackets. Even in the best of circumstances, it was very difficult to accurately score hits, and it systematically under-reported valid touches to hard-to-see areas, such as the back or flank under the arm. Consequently, even though there are limitations and controversy over electronic scoring, and despite its rejection by the classical fencers, electronic scoring is by far the dominant method used to determine if touches land. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9508445 | 608,244 |
629,182 | Floating wind turbines can be used to provide motive power for achieving artificial upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface for enhancing fisheries growth in areas with tropical and temperate weather. Though deep seawater (below 50 meters depth) is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, the phytoplankton growth is poor due to the absence of sunlight. The most productive ocean fishing grounds are located in cold water seas at high latitudes where natural upwelling of deep sea water occurs due to inverse thermocline temperatures. The electricity generated by the floating wind turbine would be used to drive high–flow and low–head water pumps to draw cold water from below 50 meters water depth and mixed with warm surface water by eductors before releasing it into the sea. Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, deep water lakes/reservoirs are suitable for artificial upwelling for enhancing fish catch economically. These units can also be mobile-type to utilize the seasonal favourable winds all around the year. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17683377 | 628,844 |
248,843 | The effect on the morale of German troops caught up in a Typhoon RP and cannon attack was decisive, with many tanks and vehicles being abandoned, in spite of superficial damage, such that, at Mortain, a signal from the German Army's Chief of Staff stated that the attack had been brought to a standstill by 13:00 "due to the employment of fighter-bombers by the enemy, and the absence of our own air-support". The 20 mm cannon also destroyed a large number of (unarmoured) support vehicles, laden with fuel and ammunition for the armoured vehicles. On 10 July at Mortain, flying in support of the US 30th Infantry Division, Typhoons flew 294 sorties in the afternoon that day, firing 2,088 rockets and dropping of bombs. They engaged the German formations while the US 9th Air Force prevented German fighters from intervening. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, said of the Typhoons; "The chief credit in smashing the enemy's spearhead, however, must go to the rocket-firing Typhoon aircraft of the Second Tactical Air Force ... The result of the strafing was that the enemy attack was effectively brought to a halt, and a threat was turned into a great victory." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63744 | 248,715 |
217,788 | What makes Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) unique to other forms of inorganic mass spectrometry is its ability to sample the analyte continuously, without interruption. This is in contrast to other forms of inorganic mass spectrometry; Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GDMS) and Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS), that require a two-stage process: Insert sample(s) into a vacuum chamber, seal the vacuum chamber, pump down the vacuum, energize sample, thereby sending ions into the mass analyzer. With ICP-MS the sample to be analyzed is sitting at atmospheric pressure. Through the effective use of differential pumping; multiple vacuum stages separate by differential apertures (holes), the ions created in the argon plasma are, with the aid of various electrostatic focusing techniques, transmitted through the mass analyzer to the detector(s) and counted. Not only does this enable the analyst to radically increase sample throughput (amount of samples over time), but has also made it possible to do what is called "time resolved acquisition". Hyphenated techniques like Liquid Chromatography ICP-MS (LC-ICP-MS); Laser Ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS); Flow Injection ICP-MS (FIA-ICP-MS), etc. have benefited from this relatively new technology. It has stimulated the development new tools for research including geochemistry and forensic chemistry; biochemistry and oceanography. Additionally, increases in sample throughput from dozens of samples a day to hundreds of samples a day have revolutionized environmental analysis, reducing costs. Fundamentally, this is all due to the fact that while the sample resides at environmental pressure, the analyzer and detector are at 1/10,000,000 of that same pressure during normal operation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49503 | 217,680 |
1,130,523 | The amplification of coherent terahertz sound in a Wannier–Stark ladder superlattice has been achieved in 2009 according to a paper publication from the School of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Nottingham. Wannier–Stark effect, exists in superlattices. Electron states in quantum wells respond sensitively to moderate electric fields either by the quantum confined Stark effect in the case of wide barriers or by Wannier-Stark localization in the case of a superlattice. Both effects lead to large changes of the optical properties near the absorption edge, which are useful for intensity modulation and optical switching. Namely, in a mathematical point of view, if an electric field is applied to a superlattice the relevant Hamiltonian exhibits an additional scalar potential. If an eigenstate exists, then the states corresponding to wave functions are eigenstates of the Hamiltonian as well. These states are equally spaced both in energy and real space and form the so-called Wannier–Stark ladder. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7206727 | 1,129,945 |
1,451,850 | Tom Flanagan's research on Louis Riel situated him at the apex of debates on Métis rights and land claims. The 1970s saw a new age of land claims negotiations that would change the relationships between First Nations, Inuit and Métis of Canada. In 1973 Canadian law acknowledged that aboriginal title to land existed prior to the colonization of the continent Calder case (1973) It is not surprising then that there was a "virtual "explosion in Métis scholarship" that emerged in the 1970s, to determine the causes for the large scale migration of Métis in Manitoba. "With native political organizations and the governments of Canada and Manitoba embroiled in an on-going court battle, various scholars have received generous financial support to investigate Métis land claims in Manitoba." Tom Flanagan, acting as "historical consultant for the Federal Department of Justice" argued that the "federal government fulfilled the land provisions of the Manitoba Act." Donald Sprague, a "historian retained by the Manitoba Métis Federation to undertake research into Métis land claims, argues that through a process of formal and informal discouragement, the Métis were victims of a deliberate conspiracy in which John A. Macdonald and the Canadian government successfully kept them from obtaining title to the land they were to receive under terms of the Manitoba Act of 1870." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1725890 | 1,451,033 |
1,236,557 | In June 1989, Ulf Merbold was chosen to train as payload specialist for the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) Spacelab mission. STS-42 was intended to launch in December 1990 on "Columbia" but was delayed several times. After first being reassigned to launch with "Atlantis" in December 1991, it finally launched on the Space Shuttle "Discovery" on January 22, 1992, with a final one-hour delay to 9:52 a.m. EST caused by bad weather and issues with a hydrogen pump. The change from "Columbia" to "Discovery" meant the mission had to be shortened, as "Columbia" had been capable of carrying extra hydrogen and oxygen tanks that could power the fuel cells. Merbold was the first astronaut to represent reunified Germany. The other payload specialist on board was astronaut Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space. Originally, Sonny Carter was assigned as one of three mission specialists, he died in a plane crash on April 5, 1991, and was replaced by David C. Hilmers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=180824 | 1,235,893 |
1,036,699 | Only in the late 1980s, when QFT was reformulated in fiber bundle language for application to problems in the topology of low-dimensional manifolds (topological quantum field theory), did it become apparent that the BRST "transformation" is fundamentally geometrical in character. In this light, "BRST quantization" becomes more than an alternate way to arrive at anomaly-cancelling ghosts. It is a different perspective on what the ghost fields represent, why the Faddeev–Popov method works, and how it is related to the use of Hamiltonian mechanics to construct a perturbative framework. The relationship between gauge invariance and "BRST invariance" forces the choice of a Hamiltonian system whose states are composed of "particles" according to the rules familiar from the canonical quantization formalism. This esoteric consistency condition therefore comes quite close to explaining how quanta and fermions arise in physics to begin with. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6769980 | 1,036,159 |
1,777,363 | There are several ways to get tritium and deuterium into an already-made capsule. High pressure fills work by putting the shells in a chamber with 1 to 100 Atm of gas pressure and having the gas diffuse into the shell. Cryogenic foam shells work can work by wicking in the liquid DT fluid into the foam. This involves getting the delicate shell down in temperature and pressure without damaging it. This is a stepwise process that can take hours to days in time and requires multiple containment chambers and various kinds of pumps. At cryogenic temperatures, the DT gas forms into a fluid which can be wicked into the foam shell. Once filled, operators slowly lower the temperature further to form the ice crystal. Ice can start formation around the equator of the target and then grow into a complete crystal. The ice is embedded with the foam shell structure. Engineers have had problems with ice cracking during this formation process – all of which impacts the performance of the shot. Monitoring of all of this is done using shadow grams, 360 X-ray diagnostics, visual inspection, and other tools; information is all run through software that gets a complete picture of the target during filling. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5895015 | 1,776,362 |
1,404,662 | The key to actionable technology is being able to properly implement the use of IT tools to collect and perform analysis on relevant data. The use of open innovation is a good way for businesses to take advantage of technology intelligence. When people within an organization can contribute technologies and ideas, it allows for increased growth. The use of these IT tools like text mining make technology intelligence more efficient and actionable. These tools are very important in planning for technology development by providing frameworks to aid the technology intelligence process. A common tool used is text mining. This tool obtains information from a company’s data and analyzes and identifies patterns that will be beneficial to them. The benefit of text mining is that it has a keyword-based morphology analysis that allows you assess the economic and technological value of future technology. Another tool used is Tech-Pioneer. This tool identifies technology opportunities systematically by using a computerized procedure to identify keywords and analyze the architecture and framework of technologies. These tools are mostly used to provide numerous possibilities of future technologies and not necessarily predict the future. These scenarios that the tools provide is pivotal in the technology intelligence process. Scenario planning is also a part of the technology intelligence process. It improves the decision making process and creates images of how the future might evolve which allows companies to take advantage of opportunities to grow. These scenarios can also identify possible threats. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15763075 | 1,403,872 |
1,473,867 | This leads one to the plausible Module, Service, or Object, of an interpreter (containing the function "fromExpr"). Function Decomposition arguably yields insights about re-usability, such as if during the course of analysis, two functions produce the same type, it is likely that a common function/cross-cutting concern resides in both. To contrast, in OOP, it is a common practice to conjecture Modules prior to considering such a decomposition. This arguably results in costly refactoring later. FD mitigates that risk to some extent. Further, arguably, what separates FD from other design methods- is that it provides a concise high-level medium of architectural discourse that is end-to-end, revealing flaws in upstream requirements and beneficially exposing more design decisions in advance. And lastly, FD is known to prioritize development. Arguably, if the FD is correct, the most re-usable and cost-determined parts of the program are identified far earlier in the development cycle. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11691 | 1,473,036 |
1,212,816 | Before its rediscovery in 1977, entomologists feared that "Nothomyrmecia" had already become extinct. The ant was listed as a protected species under the Western Australian Wildlife Conservation Act 1950. In 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed "Nothomyrmecia" as Critically Endangered, stating that only a few small colonies were known. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee states that the species is ineligible for listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This is because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that populations are declining. Colonies are also naturally depauperate (lacking in numbers of ants), and their distribution is potentially quite extensive across southern Australia, due to the ants' preference for old-growth mallee woodland. With 18 sites known for this species, and the potential for many more being discovered, there seems little immediate possibility of extinction. With this said, it is unknown how widespread the species actually is, and scientists are not yet clear what, if any, threats affect it. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9372569 | 1,212,164 |
709,916 | Despite having been integrated into genomes of vertebrates for millions of years, ERVs represent an intermediate stage between exogenous viruses and the host genome; it is suggested that immunological tolerance to HERV-derived proteins and peptides is imperfect due to the epigenetical silencing of HERV in the thymus and bone marrow, which prevents deletion of all HERV-specific T and B cells. As an evidence of this, immunization of non-human primates with ERV-derived antigens mounted robust polyfunctional cytotoxic T cell response as well as high antibodies titers. According to the phylogenetic studies, among 30 HERV families existing in the human genome, HERV-K (HML-2) elements which integrated most recently are the most intact and biologically active forms. Certain HERV proteins, namely, HERV-K "env" and HERV-H "env", considered to be a new class of tumor-associated antigens, have been found to promote strong cytotoxic T-cell responses in patients with various types of cancers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2311903 | 709,545 |
312,396 | Arriving in Edinburgh in November 1809, Barry began studies at the Medical School as a 'literary and medical student'. Barry's short stature, unbroken voice, delicate features and smooth skin led many to suspect that Barry was a young boy not past puberty, and the University Senate initially attempted to block Barry's application for the final examinations due to this apparent youth. However, the Earl of Buchan, a friend of Dr Fryer and Barry's late namesake, persuaded the Senate to relent and Barry qualified "Medicinae Doctor (MD)" in 1812. Barry then moved to London, signing up for the Autumn Course 1812/1813 as a pupil of the United Hospitals of Guy's and St Thomas', whose teachers included Henry Cline and celebrated surgeon Astley Cooper. On 2 July 1813, Barry successfully passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=169505 | 312,228 |
2,027,873 | Scientific works of famous chemists – Karl K. Klaus, Nikolay N. Zinin, Alexander M. Butlerov, Vladimir V. Markovnikov, Alexander M. Zaitsev, Eugeny E. Wagner, Alexander E. Arbuzov, Boris A. Arbuzov, Arcady N. Pudovik, Vladimir S. Abramov. – laid the foundation of Kazan School of Chemistry. In 1933 as a result of reorganization of Soviet Universities, Faculty of Chemistry in Kazan University was opened. On April 21, 2003 according to the decision of the Academic Council of Kazan State University the Chemistry Institute named after Butlerov was established by merging of Research Institute named after A.M. Butlerov and Chemical Faculty of Kazan University. Scientists worked at the Chemical Institute, left a deep trace in the history of science. Butlerov formulated the Theory of chemical structure in 1858. 1841 is famous for development of methods for industrial production of synthetic aniline by Zinin. In 1844 Klaus discovered and studied chemical element ruthenium – the single element that was discovered in Russia. Markovnikov has discovered the rule of regioselective addition of acid and water to multiple bonds, on the contrary – Zaitsev – the cleavage of the molecules of acids and water with the formation of unsaturated compounds. Arbuzov, Arbuzov, Pudovik, and Abramov are also widely known in organic and organoelement chemistry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=53459481 | 2,026,706 |
82,665 | In 2013, Under Secretary of the Navy Robert O. Work explained that cost overruns were partly due to the shipbuilders' bidding to American Bureau of Shipping commercial standards, the Navy changed this to Level I survivability standards for greater crew survivability, although the ships were not expected to operate after being hit. The Navy acknowledged that their failure to communicate clearly that the experimental and developmental nature of the first two ships caused a perception that the overall LCS program was in worse shape. A GAO report in July 2014 found that the annual cost to operate an LCS was $79 million, compared to $54 million to operate a larger frigate. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus pointed out that new vessels traditionally start off costing more to operate because of difficulties with building and testing ships simultaneously; GAO reports of new warships since the 1960s support this claim. As more littoral combat ships are built and enter service, Mabus said operational costs will decline to acceptable limits. On 2 November 2016 the Pentagon blocked publication of cost overruns on both designs. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=460005 | 82,631 |
1,396,617 | As soon as Columbus started his explorations of the Americas in the late 15th century, a European effort to find valuable medicinal plants among the flora of the New World to add to the medical canon got underway. Early New World medicines uncovered included guaiacum from the West Indies (for coughs, rheumatism and a wide variety of other uses), sassafras from Florida, copaiba from Brazil, Peru balsam and, most famously, cinchona bark from Peru, also called "Jesuit's bark" in honor of its discoverer, which became the first effective treatment for malaria. The active ingredient of this cinchona bark, quinine, was the primary treatment for malaria well into the 1940s. "About 170 drugs used by the Indians of British North America, and perhaps 50 used by the indigenous people of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America" became important enough in the U.S. (as the practitioners of chemistry and pharmacy eventually catalogued, analyzed and understood them) to merit listing in the United States Pharmacopoeia (est. 1820) or the National Formulary. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34631752 | 1,395,846 |
478,892 | Medical devices often contain a radiopacifier to enhance visualization during implantation for temporary implantation devices, such as catheters or guidewires, or for monitoring the position of permanently implanted medical devices, such as stents, hip and knee implants, and screws. Metal implants usually have sufficient radiocontrast that additional radiopacifier is not necessary. Polymer-based devices, however, usually incorporate materials with high electron density contrast compared to the surrounding tissue. Examples of radiocontrast materials include titanium, tungsten, barium sulfate, bismuth oxide and zirconium oxide. Some solutions involve direct binding of heavy elements, for instance iodine, to polymeric chains in order to obtain a more homogeneous material which has lower interface criticalities. When testing a new medical device for regulatory submission, device manufacturers will usually evaluate the radiocontrast according to ASTM F640 "Standard Test Methods for Determining Radiopacity for Medical Use." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=868991 | 478,652 |
1,867,529 | The Neotropical ichthyofauna extends throughout the continental waters of Central and South America, from south of the Mesa Central in southern Mexico (~ 16° N) to the La Plata estuary in northern Argentina (~ 34° S). The fishes of this region are largely restricted to the humid tropical portions of the Neotropical realm as circumscribed by Sclater (1858) and Wallace (1876), being excluded from the arid Pacific slopes of Peru and northern Chile, and the boreal regions of the Southern Cone in Chile and Argentina (Arratia, 1997; Dyer, 2000). The vast Neotropical ichthyofaunal region extends over more than 17 million square km of moist tropical lowland forests, seasonally flooded wetlands and savannahs, and also several arid peripheral regions (e.g., Northwest Venezuela; Northeast Brazil; Chaco of Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia). At the core of this system lies Amazonia, the greatest interconnected freshwater fluvial system on the planet. This system includes the drainages of the Amazon Basin itself, and of two large adjacent regions, the Orinoco Basin and the Guiana Shield. The Amazon river is by any measure the largest in the world, discharging about 16% of the world's flowing freshwater into the Atlantic (Goulding et al., 2003b). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32924961 | 1,866,453 |
69,952 | As a result, a more extensive modification programme was executed. In 2000, Heckler & Koch, at that time owned by BAE Systems, was contracted to upgrade the SA80 family of weapons. 200,000 SA80s were re-manufactured at a cost of £400 each, producing the A2 variant. Changes focused primarily on improving reliability and include: a redesigned cocking handle, modified bolt, extractor and a redesigned hammer assembly that produces a slight delay in the hammer's operation in continuous fire mode, improving reliability and stability. Both the rifle and the LSW underwent modifications, and the programme also saw the introduction of a carbine variant. The Ministry of Defence describes the A2 revision as "producing the most reliable weapons of their type in the world". Armed Forces trials indicated extremely good reliability over a range of climates for various operational scenarios, though with a decline in reliability in hot, and especially hot and dry conditions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=84350 | 69,925 |
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