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France's demographic profile is similar to its European neighbors and to developed countries in general, yet it seems to be staving off the population decline of Western countries. With 62.9 million inhabitants in 2006, it was the second most populous country in the European Union, and it displayed a certain demographic dynamism, with a growth rate of 2.4% between 2000 and 2005, above the European average. More than two-thirds of that growth can be ascribed to a natural increase resulting from high fertility and birth rates. In contrast, France is one of the developed nations whose migratory balance is rather weak, which is an original feature at the European level. Several interrelated reasons account for such singularities, in particular the impact of pro-family policies accompanied by greater unmarried households and out-of-wedlock births. These general demographic trends parallel equally important changes in regional demographics. Since 1982 the same significant tendencies have occurred throughout mainland France: demographic stagnation in the least-populated rural regions and industrial regions in the northeast, with strong growth in the southwest and along the Atlantic coast, plus dynamism in metropolitan areas. Shifts in population between regions account for most of the differences in growth. The varying demographic evolution regions can be analyzed though the filter of several parameters, including residential facilities, economic growth, and urban dynamism, which yield several distinct regional profiles. The distribution of the French population therefore seems increasingly defined not only by interregional mobility but also by the residential preferences of individual households. These challenges, linked to configurations of population and the dynamics of distribution, inevitably raise the issue of town and country planning. The most recent census figures show that an outpouring of the urban population means that fewer rural areas are continuing to register a negative migratory flow – two-thirds of rural communities have shown some since 2000. The spatial demographic expansion of large cities amplifies the process of peri-urbanization yet is also accompanied by movement of selective residential flow, social selection, and sociospatial segregation based on income.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=231079
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Project analyst Matthew Weinberg outlined socioeconomic development cases using the non-profit ISGP - the Institute for Studies for Global Prosperity, "a non-profit organization working in collaboration with the Baha’i International Community", in India, Uganda, and Brazil. In India stakeholders in a project developed an engagement of religion and science anchored in community of practice was seen as a majority point of view of the participants in the conference and the Indian National Spiritual Assembly established an office - the "Secretariat for the Promotion of the Discourse on Science, Religion, and Development" in 2001. They had successive meetings in 2004 and 2007 and ongoing. In Uganda work reached a point in 2001 working with IGSP that Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni encouraged the work of nurturing social unity "by championing the equality of women and men, alleviating poverty, and overcoming entrenched patterns of corruption." Again materialistic approaches were seen as failing alone. In Brazil again in 2001 a program of action was initiated, seminars were held and a group formed to develop analysis of the system published a book and simultaneously application in some local community "Centers of Learning" and one as a pilot project, but to advance the group needed to approach the work with some values: "To set out on a new path requires courage—not an arrogant disposition that demands swift and radical action, but one that is tempered with humility and wisdom. It requires an environment where the dynamics of individual and collective transformation are fully considered; where it is realized that growth and change are organic, that they are gradual and slow, and that they involve constant action, evaluation, and study; and where it is understood that, in pursuing such transformation, one is faced with an ongoing tension between absorbing setbacks and gaining new ground."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2353883
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The university and North Rhine-Westphalia state construction and real estate agency is investing €2 billion in refurbishing existing buildings and new construction. One project currently under construction is the €55 million project constructing a 'Teaching and Research Forum I & II' that is expected to be completed by 2024. This will become a central research hub with lecture halls, a library and seminar rooms for the Economics department, the Clusters of Excellence, the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics, HPCA, and DiCe. By mid-2023 the €45 million research building for the new Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change of the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig will be completed; this will allow for more collaborative research between the museum and the Department of Biology, and will house a data center, laboratories, a biobank, a cryogenic storage facility, spaces for collections, and a library. The University of Bonn is also currently replacing its chemistry building with a new €37.2 million five-story building for the chemical institutes that will house 17,750 square feet of laboratory space and 6,500 square feet of office space by 2023. From 2022, the Akademisches Kunstmuseum has been under renovation by the North Rhine-Westphalia state construction agency and expected to be completed by 2025. It will also accommodate the library, offices and lecture hall for the classical archaeology department, including providing access for teaching purposes to items in the collection.Over €1 billion is being spent on the main building, the Electoral Palace, which will be out of service for several years and completed in 2030; this includes work on fire protection, re-wiring, and plumbing, as well as modernization of lecture halls, common areas, and offices. The Humanities departments are being accommodated in the former Zurich Insurance building on Rabinstraße throughout the construction works, while the administrative staff are being housed in the former Deutscher Herold headquarters. Both temporary locations have been equipped with library areas, seminar rooms and meeting rooms. In addition, by 2031 €128 million will be spent on a 'Forum of Knowledge' which will extend the main building on a site spanning several tens of thousands of square feet, and will be open to members of the university and city residents. The university is also planning spaces for study spaces, shops, catering, and bike parking in the extension.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=89061
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At age 16, he was offered a full scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but it may have been withdrawn after Alpher had a required meeting with an alumnus in Washington, D.C., with little explanation or clarification. Instead, he earned his bachelor's degree and advanced graduate degrees in physics from George Washington University, all the while working as a physicist on contract to the Navy, and eventually for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He met Russian-Ukrainian physicist George Gamow at the University, who subsequently took him on as his doctoral student. This was somewhat of a coup, as Gamow was a prominent Soviet defector and one of the luminaries on the GWU faculty. His first physics course was taught by Edward Teller, brought onto the GWU faculty in 1935 to give Gamow a peer on the faculty. Alpher provided much needed mathematical ability to support Gamow's theorizing. Gamow often gave talks across the world on "The Origin of the Elements", which was Alpher's original dissertation. Gamow continues to be credited with Alpher's work on nucleosynthesis. Alpher followed his dissertation immediately with the first prediction of the existence of "fossil" radiation from a hypothetical singularity—the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. This was observationally confirmed by Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Wilson at Bell Labs using a horn radiotelescope. Further research has shown other observations made, but not interpreted cosmologically. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the observation in 1978. Ironically a group at Princeton was given credit for making a cosmological interpretation in an inflationary universe (Big Bang) in a companion publication in 1965 to Penzias and Wilson, which is incorrect.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1273628
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Preproduction began around August 1997 and lasted about six months. The six-person team came from Looking Glass's Austin studios. Spector, the team's director and producer, saw their work as improving upon the foundation provided by Origin, Looking Glass, and Valve by doing what those companies did not. The game's working title was "Shooter: Majestic Revelations", with a scheduled release of Christmas 1998. The working title was meant to be ironic because they did not want the game to be solely a first-person shooter. They worked on the setting ahead of the game mechanics, and decided on a conspiracy-style story that referenced existing conspiracy theories such as Area 51, CIA drug trafficking, the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Majestic 12, and a Masonic underground bunker beneath Denver International Airport. Spector said their research helped them understand how conspiracy theorists think. The team was also able to look to the real world in 1997 to find the rise of stories about terrorists and mechanically-augmented soldiers that they were able to build upon. They also used this time to work out the backstory for constancy. The team designed over 200 characters without associated in-game roles, which was both helpful when designing missions and unhelpful as they attempted to reduce their scope. In the third quarter of 1997, Spector wrote a "manifesto" on his ideal game and the "rules of role-playing" that was later published in the February 1999 "Game Developer" magazine. His principles included "problems, not puzzles", "no forced failure", "players do; NPCs watch", and "areas with multiple entrance and exit points". Reflecting, Spector felt that "Deus Ex" accomplished the intent of his manifesto.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43210943
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KITECH researched and developed EveR-1, an android interpersonal communications model capable of emulating human emotional expression via facial "musculature" and capable of rudimentary conversation, having a vocabulary of around 400 words. She is tall and weighs , matching the average figure of a Korean woman in her twenties. EveR-1's name derives from the Biblical Eve, plus the letter "r" for "robot". EveR-1's advanced computing processing power enables speech recognition and vocal synthesis, at the same time processing lip synchronization and visual recognition by 90-degree micro-CCD cameras with face recognition technology. An independent microchip inside her artificial brain handles gesture expression, body coordination, and emotion expression. Her whole body is made of highly advanced synthetic jelly silicon and with 60 artificial joints in her face, neck, and lower body; she is able to demonstrate realistic facial expressions and sing while simultaneously dancing. In South Korea, the Ministry of Information and Communication has an ambitious plan to put a robot in every household by 2020. Several robot cities have been planned for the country: the first will be built in 2016 at a cost of 500 billion won (US$440 million), of which 50 billion is direct government investment. The new robot city will feature research and development centers for manufacturers and part suppliers, as well as exhibition halls and a stadium for robot competitions. The country's new Robotics Ethics Charter will establish ground rules and laws for human interaction with robots in the future, setting standards for robotics users and manufacturers, as well as guidelines on ethical standards to be programmed into robots to prevent human abuse of robots and vice versa.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=713
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Despite the government signing contracts for the purchase of two "Anzac"s in November 1989, the project continued to be a bone of contention in New Zealand politics, particularly after the Fourth Labour Government lost the 1990 election to the National Party, which formed the Fourth National Government. In 1992, Minister of Defence Warren Cooper began claiming in several arenas that exercising the option for two more frigates may not be necessary. Following the 1996 election, the National Party retained power, but only in coalition with the New Zealand First party, which opposed the purchase of additional frigates. Other options for replacing the two remaining "Leander"s were explored, but these were generally more expensive than purchasing the "Anzac"s. The US Clinton Administration partly discredited the option of a third Anzac by formally offering the RNZN two FFG-7s shorthulls of 15–17 years age, purportedly armed with SM1 Standard missiles and later 28 F-16s which it had refused to transfer to Pakistan. These offers were made partly because of US concern that Australia needed more regional defence support to conduct a more robust foreign and economic policy in SE Asia. However the F-16 offer, offered the NZ Cabinet an option and out and they took it, rather than be immensely unpopular in both Canberra and Washington by rejecting both. In the view of NZ PM Jenny Shipley the Australians had made a good offer, but it was not good enough and there were many alternative ship designs. Internal political opposition, particularly from New Zealand First, prevented the exercising of the contract option for two more ships before it lapsed on 10 November 1997, at which point the government was considering the purchase of a single frigate, outside the terms of the original contract. A year later, the idea was still being debated internally, although the proposal had been downgraded to buying one of the active Australian "Anzac"s second-hand, which the RAN could then replace by building an additional ship. At this point, the National-New Zealand First coalition had collapsed, and the National Party was only holding on to power by the support of minority parties and independents; support that was likely to be withdrawn if a third frigate was approved. Cabinet rejected the plan, and the issue of replacing the "Leander"-class frigate was deferred.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=897679
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The game has text-based graphics (using the CP437 character set) and is open-ended with no main objectives. Before playing, the player has to set in motion a process which generates a fantasy world with continents, oceans, and islands, produced via generative geology and hydrogeology, meteorology, and biogeography, and then fully simulates the evolution of all civilizations down to the lives of their inhabitants in order to yield a coherent world with internally consistent lore and history. The main game mode, Dwarf Fortress mode, is a colony management game that starts with selecting a suitable site from the generated world, establishing a successful colony or fortress, combating threats like goblin invasions, monster sieges, or undead hordes, generating economic wealth and taking care of the dwarves. Each creature, from animal to dwarf, is modeled down to its body parts, bodily fluids, organs, bones, teeth, hair, and tissues (which, depending on the creature, can be made of more unusual fantastic materials such as metal or stone, or even mist, fire, or moss) each of which can be injured or lost. Each creature has a discrete mind and individual personality, including likes and dislikes, and possesses specific trainable or innate skills in various labors and abilities, as well as short and long term memories to facilitate all this, as well as influencing its current emotional state. The second main game mode, Adventurer mode, is a turn-based, open-ended, open world roguelike where the player starts off as a player made adventurer in the world and is free to explore, complete quests, or visit old abandoned fortresses. The combat system in both modes is anatomically detailed with combat logs describing events like organs getting pierced, fat getting bruised and limbs getting severed. Creatures have no hit points, and instead death occurs as a result of the impairment or disruption of vital functions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7239234
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After his days studying at Cologne, Hartmann went to Rome to continue his studies where he was friends with Andreas Copernicus, brother to Nicholas Copernicus. While in Nuremberg, Hartmann served as vicar of the St. Sebald church from his arrival in 1518 until 1544. He constructed astrolabes, globes, sundials, and quadrants during his time in Nuremberg. Georg Hartmann designed and manufactured many different types of instruments in his workshop. Different types of dials manufactured by Hartmann included Block dials, Declining dials, Shepherd's dials, Moon dials, Chalice dials, and Cylinder dials. Along with these dials Hartmann was known for his design and manufacture of brass Astrolabes. Hartmann kept a very detailed self-written manual in German describing how to manufacture his sundials and astrolabes which was translated into English by John Lamprey in his book "Hartmann's Practika", published in 2002. Hartmann is credited with being the first person to design refractive sundials in the Sixteenth century. Hartmann was always a tinkerer and had a deep fascination with mechanics, horology, instrumentation, and natural phenomenon. While he used this knowledge to make a living creating numerous different instruments during his life, Hartmann was a priest by vocation with several benefices which allowed by to continue his work and studies without a real need of making a living. In addition to these traditional scientific instruments Hartmann also made gunner's levels and sights. Hartmann was possibly the first to discover the inclination of Earth's magnetic field. Hartmann was a known student in the study of magnetism, with his discovery that a compass does not always point to true north. He discovered that while in Rome a compass would dip 6° off of true north. With this discovery he attempted to find the mathematical reason why this was the case, but his solution to this phenomenon was eventually found to be flawed. This discovery by Hartmann however was not published and the only record of this was a letter he sent to Duke Albert of Prussia. This letter was not public knowledge until almost three centuries later in 1831 when it was finally printed, and as such his work with magnetism was not able to be studied or influenced others in this era. He died in Nuremberg in 1564.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7871299
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Henry Francis Blanford, the founding director of the Indian Meteorological Department, had noticed the pattern that the summer monsoon in India and Burma was correlated with the spring snow cover in the Himalayas and it became a routine to use this to make predictions on the Indian monsoons. By 1892 however, these predictions began to fail and the second director John Eliot began to use several other correlations including strength of the trade winds, anticyclones, Nile floods and date from Australia and Africa. Eliot's forecasts from 1899 to 1901 failed so badly, with a drought and famine when he predicted higher than normal rains, that he was criticized severely by the newspapers leading to forecasts being made confidential from 1902 to 1905. A growing interest in the work of Lockyer on cycles led him to choose a mathematically inclined successor who would be Walker, despite the lack of experience in meteorology. Eliot himself was an able mathematician, a Second Wrangler at Cambridge, while Walker had been a Senior Wrangler. Walker was an established applied mathematician at the University of Cambridge and gave up a Fellowship at Trinity to take up a position as assistant to the meteorological reporter in 1903. He was elevated to the position of director general of observatories in India in 1904. Walker developed Blanford's idea with quantitative rigour and came up with correlation measures (with a lag) and regression equations (in time-series terminology, autoregression). He set up a group of Indian clerks to calculate correlations between weather parameters. The methods he introduced for time-series regression are now partly named after him (the other contributor was Udny Yule who studied sun-spot cycles) as the Yule-Walker equations. Analyzing vast amounts of weather data from India and lands beyond, over the next fifteen years he published the first descriptions of the great seesaw oscillation of atmospheric pressure between the Indian and Pacific Ocean, and its correlation to temperature and rainfall patterns across much of the Earth's tropical regions, including India. This is now called the El Niño Southern Oscillation. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in 1911.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1388071
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Ioannidis has been one of the strong proponents and earlier advocates of evidence-based medicine. However, he has alerted that, over the years, as evidence-based medicine acquired more prominence and influence, it was hijacked to serve other agendas that are often biased. In an essay written to honor his late mentor David Sackett, he stated that "Influential randomized trials are largely done by and for the benefit of the industry. Meta-analyses and guidelines have become a factory, mostly also serving vested interests. National and federal research funds are funneled almost exclusively to research with little relevance to health outcomes. We have supported the growth of principal investigators who excel primarily as managers absorbing more money. Diagnosis and prognosis research and efforts to individualize treatment have fueled recurrent spurious promises. Risk factor epidemiology has excelled in salami-sliced, data-dredged articles with gift authorship and has become adept to dictating policy from spurious evidence. Under market pressure, clinical medicine has been transformed to finance-based medicine. In many places, medicine and health care are wasting societal resources and becoming a threat to human well-being. Science denialism and quacks are also flourishing and leading more people astray in their life choices, including health. Evidence-based medicine still remains an unmet goal, worthy to be attained." He has described four inter-related problems that create what he calls the Medical Misinformation Mess: "First, much published medical research is not reliable or is of uncertain reliability, offers no benefit to patients, or is not useful to decision makers. Second, most healthcare professionals are not aware of this problem. Third, they also lack the skills necessary to evaluate the reliability and usefulness of medical evidence. Finally, patients and families frequently lack relevant, accurate medical evidence and skilled guidance at the time of medical decision-making." He has supported these views by contributing to a meta-epidemiological study which found that only 1 in 20 interventions tested in Cochrane Reviews have benefits that are supported by high-quality evidence., and a related study showing that the quality of this evidence does not seem to improve over time.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20900378
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The fetus was once believed to be a "perfect parasite", immune to harmful environmental toxins passed from the mother via the placenta. Stemming from this belief, pregnant women of the early to mid 20th century freely drank alcohol, ingested medications, smoked cigarettes, and were largely ignorant of any nutritional needs for a developing fetus. This easy going attitude about pregnancy was challenged, however, by findings relating substances ingested by a mother to tragic outcomes for a fetus. The birth defects crisis due to the medication thalidomide in the 1960s, where thousands of children were born with defects ranging from brain damage to truncated and missing arms and legs is an example of how a seemingly miracle medication supposed to prevent morning sickness instead had disastrous consequences. Similarly, in 1971, a drug known as DES, diethylstilbestrol, when taken by pregnant women, was found to be causing an incredibly rare vaginal cancer known as clear-cell adenocarcinoma in young girls when the cancer was traditionally only found to affect those of post-menopausal age. This finding, in particular, demonstrates that events occurring during gestation are capable of impacting future health into adulthood. As perhaps the most well-known fetal risk, It wasn't until 1973 that fetal alcohol syndrome was first formally diagnosed, and not until 1989 that the United States government began requiring warning labels directed at pregnant women to be in place on all alcoholic beverages for sale. While the risks associated with certain substances have been well documented during pregnancy, the fetal origins hypothesis goes beyond medical substances to expand upon the effects of maternal stress, obesity, influenza, nutrition, and pollution on a developing fetus.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47957160
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On January 1, 1960, Ovshinsky and Iris Miroy Dibner, whom he married soon after his divorce from Norma Rifkin, founded Energy Conversion Laboratory to develop his inventions in the interest of solving societal problems, especially those they identified in the areas of information and energy (e.g. pollution and wars over oil). Iris had a BA in zoology from Swarthmore College, an MS in biology from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in biochemistry from Boston University. Continuing to work on his atomically designed chalcogenide materials, which Ovshinsky realized offer unique electronic physical mechanisms, he utilized chain structures, cross links, polymeric concepts, and divalent structural bonding with a huge number of unbonded lone pairs to achieve what is now referred to as the Ovshinsky Effect – "an effect that turns special types of glassy, thin films into semiconductors upon application of low voltage." Applying this effect, he built new types of electronic and optical switches, including his Ovonic Phase Change Memory and his Threshold Switch. The former would become the basis of his subsequent inventions of rewritable CDs and DVDs and other new computer technologies including his cognitive computer. The latter is used in phase change memory that is entering the consumer market in 2017. While others working in the crystalline field were building devices based on bulk materials, Ovshinsky's work in the 1960s and later continued to be based on thin films and nanostructures. Recognizing the significance of his results, Ovshinsky applied for a patent on June 21, 1961 and, in 1962, made his first licensing pact on phase-change memory.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2785878
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Around the same time, the need to replace the RNZN's "Leander"-class frigate force with new warships was under consideration. The government saw maintaining a blue-water capable force built around three or four frigates as important, but the cost of acquiring and maintaining such a force was prohibitive, once it became clear on the basis of RN & RAN studies that the generally favored Type 21 design, lacked the space and volume for the required range & development, and a joint Anzac project offered the RNZN the first chance in 20 years, something like new deepwater warships. The NZ 1983 Defence Review on the basis of RN theoretical study and enthusiasm for the 2400 Vicker sub-project, saw a submarine force as the only way of maintaining an RNZN as a combat force, and the Muldoon government actually entered into a memo of understanding with Australia for the joint development of what became the Collins submarines and assigned staff to the Australian project, however, it became clear that surface vessels were also required and the cost risk was too high. Alternate suggestions, such as reducing the RNZN to a coast guard-type force responsible for coastal and fisheries protection, replacing the frigates with smaller offshore patrol vessels, or reorienting the navy to primarily operate submarines, were made in several venues, but were seen as an unacceptable loss in capability. Around the same time, the 1984-elected Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand implemented a nuclear-free zone, which incensed the United States of America and led to a deterioration of relations between the two nations, including the American withdrawal of support for New Zealand under the ANZUS security treaty. In response, the New Zealand government sought to improve ties with Australia; one such avenue was to promote military interoperability between the countries by standardising equipment and procedures where possible. The Australian NSC project was seen to have "virtually identical" requirements to the RNZN's proposed Replacement Combat Ship concept, and the need to replace the warships dovetailed with the need to improve relations with Australia.
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He was engaged in various parts of India, in the Raniganj coalfield, in Bombay, and in the coalfield near Talcher, where boulders considered to have been ice-borne were found in the Talcher strata (Talchir tillite)—a remarkable discovery confirmed by subsequent observations of other geologists in equivalent strata (Permian) elsewhere across Gondwanaland. Blanford took an interest in the Permo-Triassic "Glossopteris" flora. He commented on the geological age of this region in his much later address to the British Association in 1884. Between 1857 and 1860 he was involved in a survey of the Rajniganj coalfields, followed by visits to Trichinopoly and the Nilgiri Hills. In 1860 he went to Burma to study an extinct volcano, Puppadoung and in 1862 he took an interest in the Deccan Traps. In 1867 he joined an expedition to Abyssinia, the results of which were published in "Observation on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia" (1870). accompanying the army to Magdala and back; and in 1871–1872 he was appointed a member of the Persian Boundary Commission along with O. B. St. John. After a voyage to Basra he started back from Gwadar, 200 miles west of Karachi. He marched to Shiraz with St. John's party and then travelled alone through Ispahan to Teheran to join Sir Richard Pollock. He visited the Elbruz Mountains and returned to England from the Caspian via Astrakhan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin to reach home in September 1872. The best use was made of the exceptional opportunities of studying the natural history of those countries. He subsequently spent time to produce the report on Zoology. He represented the Indian Government at the meeting of the Geological Congress in Bologna. His attention was given not only to geology but to zoology, and especially to the land gastropods and to the vertebrates. He joined H J Elwes on a journey to Sikkim in 1870 during which several new bird species were described. Between 1870 and 1881 Blanford described 36 new species of reptiles and three new species of amphibians.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=879241
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Recently, the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that says “urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target” of keeping the global temperature at moderate levels. They state that countries must follow the Paris Agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius, otherwise the earth will faces extreme challenges from climate change, including the eradication of corals and the accelerated melting of Arctic ice caps. The IPCC also explained that a rise in temperatures would trigger catastrophic results in the form of intense natural disasters, unpredictable weather, and food shortages. In order to prevent this outcome governments would need to require a “supercharged roll-back of emissions courses that have built up over the past 250 years.” In order to do so developments in land use and technological changes are necessary. Carbon dioxide emissions would have to be cut by 45% by 2030 and come down to 0 by 2050. Although this would require carbon prices to be three to four times higher, the consequences of global warming at the current rate would be far more severe. The world is currently on course to reach 3 degrees Celsius of global warming, and scientists have 12 years to impose significant changes to prevent this from happening. This shift towards environmental protection demands a workforce that is more heavily dedicated to studying sustainable development, hence the growing importance of interdisciplinary studies. Individuals studying sustainable development will likely be focused on reducing the climate in which catastrophic global warming would take place and understanding how policy decisions link to other areas such as urban planning, sociology, economics and ecology.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=31745558
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Bradley Lether Pentelute (born December 5, 1977) is currently a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research program lies at the intersection of chemistry and biology and develops bioconjugation strategies, cytosolic delivery platforms, and rapid flow synthesis technologies to optimize the production, achieve site-specific modification, enhance stability, and modulate function of a variety of bioactive agents. His laboratory successfully modified proteins via cysteine-containing “pi-clamps” made up of a short sequence of amino acids, and delivered large biomolecules, such as various proteins and drugs, into cells via the anthrax delivery vehicle. Pentelute has also made several key contributions to automated synthesis technologies in flow. These advances includes the invention of the world's fastest polypeptide synthesizer. This system is able to form amide bonds at a more efficient rate than standard commercial equipment and has helped in the process of understanding protein folding and its mechanisms. This automated flow technology was recently used to achieve total chemical synthesis of protein chains up to 164 amino acids in length that retained the structure and function of native variants obtained by recombinant expression. The primary goal of his endeavor is to use these processes to create designer biologics that can be used to treat diseases and solve the manufacturing problem for on-demand personalized therapies, such as cancer vaccines.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59104462
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In 1961, NASA's Space Nuclear Propulsion Office's project NERVA, in conjunction with the Atomic Energy Commission, jointly awarded Aerojet General Corporation the prime contract for its Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application NERVA Program, with a significant subcontract to WANL for development of the reactor itself. With the award, WANL selected the Large site as the base for operations and moved its personnel to the facility. Originally authorized in May 1959, WANL officially became a Westinghouse division on July 26, 1959 under the leadership of John Wistar Simpson. Cornell University physicist Sidney Krasik served as the first technical director and Frank Cotter was the first marketing director. Born in 1914, Simpson graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1937 and earned an MS from the University of Pittsburgh in 1941. Working in the switchgear division of Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh plant, Simpson helped develop the electric switchboards that could survive the extreme impacts experienced by naval vessels in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In 1946, he took a leave of absence to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to familiarize himself with atomic power. Upon his return, he became assistant manager in the engineering department of the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. He subsequently managed the construction of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in 1954, the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. Promoted the next year to general manager of the Bettis Laboratory, he was elected a Westinghouse vice president in 1958 and by 1959 was eager to take on the new challenge of developing nuclear rocket engines to enable the exploration of the solar system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2936679
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In 1961, NASA's Space Nuclear Propulsion Office's project NERVA, in conjunction with the Atomic Energy Commission, jointly awarded Aerojet General Corporation the prime contract for its Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application NERVA Program, with a significant subcontract to WANL for development of the reactor itself. With the award, WANL selected the Large site as the base for operations and moved its personnel to the facility. Originally authorized in May 1959, WANL officially became a Westinghouse division on July 26, 1959, under the leadership of John Wistar Simpson. Cornell University physicist Sidney Krasik served as the first technical director and Frank Cotter was the first marketing director. Born in 1914, Simpson graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1937 and earned an MS from the University of Pittsburgh in 1941. Working in the switchgear division of Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh plant, Simpson helped develop the electric switchboards that could survive the extreme impacts experienced by naval vessels in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In 1946, he took a leave of absence to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to familiarize himself with atomic power. Upon his return, he became assistant manager in the engineering department of the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. He subsequently managed the construction of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in 1954, the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. Promoted the next year to general manager of the Bettis Laboratory, he was elected a Westinghouse vice president in 1958 and by 1959 was eager to take on the new challenge of developing nuclear rocket engines to enable the exploration of the solar system.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11907968
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Three factors make engaging targets in space very difficult. First, the vast distances mean that an error of even a fraction of a degree in the firing solution can mean a miss by thousands of kilometers. Second, spaceflight involves tremendous speeds by terrestrial standards—a geostationary satellite moves at 3.07 km/s, and objects in low Earth orbit move at ~8 km/s. Third, though distances are huge, targets remain relatively small. The International Space Station, currently the largest artificial object in Earth orbit, measures slightly over 100m at its largest span. Other satellites can be vastly smaller, e.g. Quickbird measures only 3.04m. External ballistics for stationary terrestrial targets is enormously complicated—some of the earliest analog computers were used to calculate firing solutions for naval artillery, as the problems were already beyond manual solutions in any reasonable time—and targeting objects in space is far harder. And, though not a problem for orbital kinetic weapons, any directed energy weapon would need huge amounts of electricity. So far the most practical batteries are lithium, and the most practical means of generating electricity in space is photovoltaic modules, which are currently only up to 30% efficient, and fuel cells, which have limited fuel. Current technology might not be practical for powering effective lasers, particle beams, and railguns in space. In the context of the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States worked on a project for expandable space-based x-ray lasers powered by a nuclear explosion, Project Excalibur, a project canceled in 1992 for lack of results.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=956982
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Structural material stability is a critical issue. Materials that can survive the high temperatures and neutron bombardment experienced in a fusion reactor are considered key to success. The principal issues are the conditions generated by the plasma, neutron degradation of wall surfaces, and the related issue of plasma-wall surface conditions. Reducing hydrogen permeability is seen as crucial to hydrogen recycling and control of the tritium inventory. Materials with the lowest bulk hydrogen solubility and diffusivity provide the optimal candidates for stable barriers. A few pure metals, including tungsten and beryllium, and compounds such as carbides, dense oxides, and nitrides have been investigated. Research has highlighted that coating techniques for preparing well-adhered and perfect barriers are of equivalent importance. The most attractive techniques are those in which an ad-layer is formed by oxidation alone. Alternative methods utilize specific gas environments with strong magnetic and electric fields. Assessment of barrier performance represents an additional challenge. Classical coated membranes gas permeation continues to be the most reliable method to determine hydrogen permeation barrier (HPB) efficiency. In 2021, in response to increasing numbers of designs for fusion power reactors for 2040, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority published the UK Fusion Materials Roadmap 2021–2040, focusing on five priority areas, with a focus on tokamak family reactors:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55017
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Sometime after 1938, a forger placed four Byzantine-style religious images in the manuscript in an effort to increase its sales value. It appeared that these had rendered the underlying text forever illegible. However, in May 2005, highly focused X-rays produced at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, California, were used by Drs. Uwe Bergmann and Bob Morton to begin deciphering the parts of the 174-page text that had not yet been revealed. The production of X-ray fluorescence was described by Keith Hodgson, director of SSRL:«"Synchrotron light is created when electrons traveling near the speed of light take a curved path around a storage ring—emitting electromagnetic light in X-ray through infrared wavelengths. The resulting light beam has characteristics that make it ideal for revealing the intricate architecture and utility of many kinds of matter—in this case, the previously hidden work of one of the founding fathers of all science.»"In April 2007, it was announced that a new text had been found in the palimpsest, which was a commentary on Aristotle's "Categories" running to some 9 000 words. Most of this text was recovered in early 2009 by applying principal component analysis to the three color bands (red, green, and blue) of fluorescent light generated by ultraviolet illumination. Dr. Will Noel said in an interview:"«You start thinking striking one palimpsest is gold, and striking two is utterly astonishing. But then something even more extraordinary happened.»"This referred to the previous discovery of a text by Hypereides, an Athenian politician from the fourth century BC, which has also been found within the palimpsest. It is from his speech "Against Diondas", and was published in 2008 in the German scholarly magazine "Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik", vol. 165, becoming the first new text from the palimpsest to be published in a scholarly journal.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=167417
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Despite much opposition, the view of continental drift gained support and a lively debate started between "drifters" or "mobilists" (proponents of the theory) and "fixists" (opponents). During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the former reached important milestones proposing that convection currents might have driven the plate movements, and that spreading may have occurred below the sea within the oceanic crust. Concepts close to the elements now incorporated in plate tectonics were proposed by geophysicists and geologists (both fixists and mobilists) like Vening-Meinesz, Holmes, and Umbgrove. In 1941 Otto Ampferer described, in his publication "Thoughts on the motion picture of the Atlantic region", processes that anticipate what is now called seafloor spreading and subduction. One of the first pieces of geophysical evidence that was used to support the movement of lithospheric plates came from paleomagnetism. This is based on the fact that rocks of different ages show a variable magnetic field direction, evidenced by studies since the mid–nineteenth century. The magnetic north and south poles reverse through time, and, especially important in paleotectonic studies, the relative position of the magnetic north pole varies through time. Initially, during the first half of the twentieth century, the latter phenomenon was explained by introducing what was called "polar wander" (see apparent polar wander) (i.e., it was assumed that the north pole location had been shifting through time). An alternative explanation, though, was that the continents had moved (shifted and rotated) relative to the north pole, and each continent, in fact, shows its own "polar wander path". During the late 1950s it was successfully shown on two occasions that these data could show the validity of continental drift: by Keith Runcorn in a paper in 1956, and by Warren Carey in a symposium held in March 1956.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24944
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Priya Rajasethupathy grew up in Brockport, New York. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology with a pre-medicine concentration from Cornell University in 2004. For her undergraduate thesis, she identified Aptamers that provided structural and functional insight into therapeutic compounds for epilepsy. Following her Bachelors, she moved to India for a year to work with people with mental illness, while also conducting neuroscience research at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore. She then attended Columbia University for her MD–PhD degree. She did her doctoral work under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel where she used California sea slugs ("Aplysia californica") as a model organism to understand how small non-coding RNA molecules in nerve cells regulate the formation and storage of memories. During her doctoral career, she discovered a brain-specific and highly conserved micro RNA (miR-124) that is abundant in the central nervous system (CNS) of sea slugs and that is important for establishing synaptic plasticity, or the ability of neuronal connections to strengthen and weaken over time. Rajasethupathy later identified a new class of small non-coding RNAs in the CNS – piRNAs – which were thought to be present only in germ cells and germline tissues. Furthermore, she found that piRNAs can epigenetically modify DNA to enable long-lasting changes in synaptic strength, which may provide insight into the maintenance of long-term memories.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59507257
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Campaign strategies relating to computational politics have been met with criticism. Some researchers raise concerns about voter privacy that come with new methods of targeting individual voters, as there is a lack of regulation surrounding protection of consumer data in the United States. They highlight the information asymmetry that comes with the large amount of data that campaigns have concerning individual voters, while the voters don't know exactly what the campaigns are doing with their information. According to these researchers, the black box nature of the algorithms that handle voter data exacerbate this issue, as it is difficult to understand how data is being processed by the algorithms. Zeynep Tufecki, professor and sociologist, believes the information asymmetry caused by recent developments in computational politics will harm political discourse in the public sphere, particularly in interactions between political campaigns and voters, as ideas may be weighted less heavily for their own merit and more heavily based on who presents the idea, given the information political campaigns have on their potential voters. These researchers also address the issues of discrimination that are rising with computational politics, as individuals who are predicted by models to be less likely to vote could be ignored in political marketing and outreach entirely. Tufecki states that political campaigns can present different advertisements based on which messages the potential voter is likely to be sympathetic to, allowing politicians to base their platform off of small issues that will efficiently mobilize niche groups of voters, while less focus may be spent on larger, more broadly important issues. Kwame Akosah, a voting rights advocate, writes that algorithms can be used to discriminate against protected classes. Additionally, he states that the knowledge of individuals being tracked by data brokers can create a chilling effect in political discourse. Interdisciplinary researcher Ashu M.G. Solo points out that a positive aspect of computational politics is that it will lead to a more efficient use of spending in political campaigns. Polarisation and privacy have been well-discussed issues in this domain, however, the massive adaptability of social media platforms has attracted the organised use of social media for opinion engineering during crisis, as seen in Russia-Ukraine 2022 or natural crisis like COVID-19 pandemic. Such use of social media is associated with Information warfare and has raised questions on the ethics and regulation of data ownership, fair algorithms, and the use of jury based methods for the content moderation.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61580753
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The first human case of melioidosis in South Asia was reported in Sri Lanka in 1927. In 1932, Thomas and Fletcher collected 83 cases of melioidosis from literature. In this case series, there were only two survivals. Since then, more case series of melioidosis were reported. Thomas and Fletcher also pioneered the use of serological methods in diagnosing the disease. Thomas and Fletcher incorrectly believed that melioidosis infection came from human contact with rodents. However, observations on the disease noted that humans usually got it after exposure to mud or contaminated water. Besides, the organism was never grown from rats. This led to a search of the bacteria in the environment. In 1936, the first animal (pig) case of melioidosis in Africa was reported in Madagascar. In 1937, water was first identified as the habitat of "B. pseudomallei". The first case of Australian melioidosis was described in an outbreak in sheep in 1949 at North Queensland. This was followed by the first case of human melioidosis at Townsville in 1950. Initially, the discovery of melioidosis in Australia had led to a debate on when and how the disease spread from Southeast Asia to a new distant environment. However, this hypothesis was later disproved in 2017 when whole genome sequencing of "B. pseudomallei" over 30 countries collected over 79 years suggested Australia as the early reservoir for melioidosis. In 1955, first case of local human melioidosis was reported in Thailand. During the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1973, 343 American soldiers were reported with melioidosis, with about 50 cases transmitted through inhalation. An outbreak of melioidosis at the Paris Zoo in the 1970s (known as "L'affaire du jardin des plantes") was thought to have originated from an imported panda or horses from Iran. It is unclear how imported melioidosis is able to persist in a completely new environment. Eventually, the outbreak terminated by itself after a period of time. It was only during the 1980s, Infectious Disease Association of Thailand started took notice of this disease. First conference on melioidosis was held in 1985 in Thailand. It was during this meeting that collaboration between Sappasitprasong Hospital, Thailand, and Wellcome-Mahido-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Programme was established. Such collaboration made Thailand a world leader in clinical and epidemiology research on melioidosis.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=471444
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Research in the field of neuropsychopharmacology encompasses a wide range of objectives. These might include the study of a new chemical compound for potentially beneficial cognitive or behavioral effects, or the study of an old chemical compound in order to better understand its mechanism of action at the cell and neural circuit levels. For example, the addictive stimulant drug cocaine has long been known to act upon the reward system in the brain, increasing dopamine and norepinephrine levels and inducing euphoria for a short time. More recently published studies however have gone deeper than the circuit level and found that a particular G-protein coupled receptor complex called A2AR-D2R-Sigma1R is formed in the NAc following cocaine usage; this complex reduces D2R signaling in the mesolimbic pathway and may be a contributing factor to cocaine addiction. Other cutting-edge studies have focused on genetics to identify specific biomarkers that may predict an individual's specific reactions or degree of response to a drug or their tendency to develop addictions in the future. These findings are important because they provide detailed insight into the neural circuitry involved in drug use and help refine old as well as develop new treatment methods for disorders or addictions. Different treatment-related studies are investigating the potential role of peptide nucleic acids in treating Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia while still others are attempting to establish previously unknown neural correlates underlying certain phenomena.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2917198
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Robert was awarded a salary of £1,500 plus £200 expenses per annum, and he and Fanny moved from Newcastle to London, first briefly to St John's Wood and then to a house on Haverstock Hill. Robert drew up plans and made detailed work estimates, dividing the line into 30 contracts, most of which were placed by October 1835. A drawing office with 20–30 draughtsmen was established at the empty Eyre Arms Hotel in St John's Wood; George Parker Bidder, whom Robert had first met at Edinburgh University, started working for him there. Primrose Hill Tunnel, Wolverton embankment, and Kilsby Tunnel, south of Rugby railway station, all had engineering problems and were completed using direct labour. The Grand Junction Canal opposed the railway and tried to prevent a bridge being built and this was settled in court in 1835. The line permitted by the 1833 Act terminated north of Regent's Canal at Camden (near Chalk Farm Underground station), as Baron Southampton, who owned the land to the south, had strongly opposed the railway in the Lords in 1832. Later, Southampton changed his mind and authority was gained for an extension of the line south over Regent's Canal to Euston Square. This incline, with a slope between 1 in 75 and 1 in 66, was worked by a stationary engine at Camden − trains from Euston were drawn up by rope, whereas carriages would descend under gravity. The often repeated statement that the rope-working was necessary because locomotives of the period were insufficiently powerful was denied in 1839 by Peter Lecount, one of the assistant engineers. In fact the incline was worked by locomotives from the opening date of the southern section of the line, 20 July 1837, until 14 October 1837, also whenever the stationary engine or rope were stopped for repairs, then for Mail Trains from November 1843, and entirely from 15 July 1844, without any real increase in the power of the locomotives. The reason given by Lecount for the rope working was the London and Birmingham Railway Act of Parliament, by which he said they were 'restricted ... from running locomotive engines nearer London than Camden Town.'
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=252957
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Studies have shown that the risk of disease outbreaks can increase substantially after forests are cleared. The likelihood of human-nonhuman primates contact events is increased jointly by forest landscape fragmentation and certain smallholders' behaviors in forest patches. Loss of biodiversity may remove natural regulation of viruses and make fleeing animals meet other species for the first time. According to Kate Jones, chair of ecology and biodiversity at University College London, the disruption of pristine forests driven by logging, mining, road building through remote places, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing people into closer contact with animal species they may never have been near before, resulting in transmission of diseases from wildlife to humans. An August 2020 study published in "Nature" concludes that the anthropogenic destruction of ecosystems for the purpose of expanding agriculture and human settlements reduces biodiversity and allows for smaller animals such as bats and rats, who are more adaptable to human pressures and also carry the most zoonotic diseases, to proliferate. This in turn can result in more pandemics. In October 2020, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published its report on the 'era of pandemics' by 22 experts in a variety of fields, and concluded that anthropogenic destruction of biodiversity is paving the way to the pandemic era, and could result in as many as 850,000 viruses being transmitted from animals – in particular birds and mammals – to humans. The increased pressure on ecosystems is being driven by the "exponential rise" in consumption and trade of commodities such as meat, palm oil, and metals, largely facilitated by developed nations, and by a growing human population. According to Peter Daszak, the chair of the group who produced the report, "there is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, or of any modern pandemic. The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63478457
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The institute has state-of the art laboratories; remote sensing and mapping facilities; internationally recognised herbarium; animal house facility; pilot plants in nutraceuticals, essential oil and herbals; farms and polyhouses. The young and dynamic team of scientists propel the research and work dedicatedly to discover and find solutions to new challenging problems faced by the society. International collaborations further strengthens scientific interactions at a global scale. Promoting industrial growth through technological interventions is a constant endeavour and several technologies developed by the institute are transferred to industries. For socio- economic upliftment, regular training programmes and advisory services are rendered to farmers, floriculturists, tea planters and small entrepreneurs involved in food processing sector. Institute has been recognised as one of the Incubation Centres by MSME GoI and in the area of Affordable Health Care by DSIR. Institute encourages industries to share the technological problems faced them, such that efforts could be made in developing a viable solution. Confidentiality is strictly maintained. Work on plant adaptation studies and high altitude medicinal plants are further strengthened by the field lab ”Centre for High Altitude Biology (CeHAB) situated at Ribling in Lahaul & Spiti district of H.P. Through this centre, institute disseminates technologies by way of trainings and demonstrations that could transform the economy of the region and help in solving unique challenges faced by them. Institute fosters student-scientist interaction and school children are welcome to visit the institute. Post graduate students can do project and sharpen their research skills at CSIR-IHBT. Young researchers are welcome for to do Ph.D. in cutting edge areas under the able guidance of expert faculty. Institute passionately contribute its bit in the development of society, industry and environment.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43544874
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Parsons' fight against communism was a natural extension of his fight against fascism in the 1930s and the 1940s. For Parsons, communism and fascism were two aspects of the same problem; his article "A Tentative Outline of American Values", published posthumously in 1989, called both collectivistic types "empirical finalism", which he believed was a secular "mirror" of religious types of "salvationalism". In contrast, Parsons highlighted that American values generally were based on the principle of "instrumental activism", which he believed was the outcome of Puritanism as a historical process. It represented what Parsons called "worldly asceticism" and represented the absolute opposite of empirical finalism. One can thus understand Parsons' statement late in life that the greatest threat to humanity is every type of "fundamentalism". By the term "empirical finalism", he implied the type of claim assessed by cultural and ideological actors about the correct or "final" ends of particular patterns of value orientation in the actual historical world (such as the notion of "a truly just society"), which was absolutist and "indisputable" in its manner of declaration and in its function as a belief system. A typical example would be the Jacobins' behavior during the French Revolution. Parsons' rejection of communist and fascist totalitarianism was theoretically and intellectually an integral part of his theory of world history, and he tended to regard the European Reformation as the most crucial event in "modern" world history. Like Weber, he tended to highlight the crucial impact of Calvinist religiosity in the socio-political and socio-economic processes that followed. He maintained it reached its most radical form in England in the 17th century and in effect gave birth to the special cultural mode that has characterized the American value system and history ever since. The Calvinist faith system, authoritarian in the beginning, eventually released in its accidental long-term institutional effects a fundamental democratic revolution in the world. Parsons maintained that the revolution was steadily unfolding, as part of an interpenetration of Puritan values in the world at large.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54041
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Bell created the V-247 to meet emerging U.S. military needs for a runway-independent Group 4 or 5 UAV to provide persistent support to ground forces while requiring less space to store and transport; Group 4 UAVs weigh more than and fly below , while Group 5 UAVs weigh the same but fly above 18,000 ft, such as the MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk, and MQ-4C Triton. It is named V-247 by the company because it is planned that a two-aircraft team can provide 24/7 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) over a given area. The design uses tiltrotors to take off vertically and transition to high-speed forward flight, enabling performance unachievable with just rotorcraft or fixed-wing aircraft. It leverages technologies which Bell previously utilized for the V-22 Osprey and V-280 Valor for the Future Vertical Lift program, and the HV-911 Eagle Eye, another smaller unmanned tiltrotor dropped in 2008. The aircraft is capable of performing a variety of missions including electronic warfare, persistent fire support, airborne early warning (AEW), and resupply. Bell is particularly interested in the U.S. Marine Corps' Marine Air Ground Task Force – Unmanned Expeditionary Capabilities (MUX) concept to perform the tasks of MQ-1 Predator and Reaper aircraft while operating from amphibious assault ships to complement and escort the MV-22. The U.S. Army is also interested in runway-independent unmanned aircraft, and the Vigilant could be incorporated into manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) arrangements where helicopter pilots have the ability to control nearby drones from the cockpit using a tactical common data-link. A 1/8-scale model was unveiled on 22 September 2016, and the system could be ready for production by 2023. While Bell is funding the V-247 through its preliminary design phase, the company is searching for a customer, likely the USMC, to fund the follow-on design effort to incorporate specific requirements into the design.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51742817
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Although it considered creation of a separate aviation department to act as the centralized authority for decision-making, both the War and the Navy Departments opposed it, and on October 1, 1917, Congress instead legalized the existence of the APB and changed its name to the "Aircraft Board", transferring its functions from the Council of National Defense to the secretaries of War and the Navy. Even so, the Aircraft Board in practice had little control over procurement contracts and functioned mostly as an information provider between industrial, governmental, and military entities. Nor did the "Equipment Division" of the Signal Corps exercise such control. Established by the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (OCSO) as one of the operating components of the Aviation Section, its task was to unify and coordinate the various agencies involved but its head was a commissioned former member of the APB who did nothing to create any effective coordination. Moreover, the largely wood and fabric airframe designs of World War I did not lend themselves to being made with the mass production methods of the automotive industry, which used considerable amounts of metallic materials instead, and the priority of mass-producing spare parts was neglected. Though individual areas within the aviation industry responded well, the industry as a whole failed. Efforts to mass-produce European aircraft under license largely failed because the aircraft, made by hand, were not amenable to the more precise American manufacturing methods. At the same time the Aeronautical Division of the OCSO was renamed the "Air Division" with continued responsibility for training and operations but with no influence on acquisition or doctrine. In the end the decision-making process in aircraft procurement was badly fragmented and production on a large scale proved impossible.
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In 2011, Prasad and colleagues published a research letter in the "Archives of Internal Medicine." Charles Bankhead, a senior editor at "MedPageToday," covered the topic, outlining the paper's primary point, which was the high prevalence of research articles demonstrating findings that deviated from the accepted standard of treatment at the time. Separately, "Retraction Watch" reported on Prasad's personal remarks about the paper, saying "For a long time, we were interested by what we believe to be a pervasive problem in modern medicine. Namely, the spread of new technologies and therapies without clear evidence that they work, which are later (and often after considerable delay) followed by contradictions, which, in turn, after yet another delay, is followed by changes in practice and reimbursement." Matthew Hoffman, writing in 2012 for "MedPageToday's KevinMD" covered a paper by Prasad and colleagues on "When to abandon ship" when it comes to failing medical practices and treatments. Hoffman builds on the authors' proposed barriers to market entrance, such as evidence of effectiveness in large randomized controlled studies before broad usage, and links them to the insidious aspects of healthcare, such as profit and status. In 2013, Prasad and colleagues addressed the necessity for randomized controlled trials for the inferior vena cava filter (VCF) despite the intervention's bio-plausibility. The authors suggest that since the intervention has known adverse effects but an uncertain benefit, well-designed studies are necessary to shed light on the intervention's efficacy. The "JAMA Internal Medicine" article received widespread media attention, with "Reuters" Genevra Pittman interviewing Prasad about his further views on the intervention. According to the interview, Prasad advises against filter placement in all but the most extreme instances owing to a lack of proof and possibility for adverse events.
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Ricardo was a man of many trades, economically and financially speaking. Ricardo was able to recognize and identify the problem presented through banking within regulations and debauched standards of approval at certain times. Ricardo knew that banks in rural areas as well as the Bank of England had increased note lending and overall lending in 1810. Through this, Ricardo proved subsequent changes in price level through the market was also affected and thus new regulations needed to be made available. Furthermore, Ricardo was able to understand and distinguish the socioeconomic makeup that created and established parameters around different classes within the economy. Ricardo advocated for the productive powers of labor to be held in high concern as the most influential of devices that played a role in the progression of the American Economy along with others. In addition, Ricardo made notable advancements in the concept build involving reactions in the open market when considering banking altercations, stock investments, or other considerable impacting events. Ricardo wanted to establish a firm ground between the bank and the control over monetary policy because there was power within the banking system that Ricardo believed needed to be considered carefully. In 1816, Ricardo said “In the present state of the law, they have the power, without any control whatever, of increasing or reducing the circulation in any degree they may think proper: a power which should neither be entrusted to the State itself, nor to anybody in it; as there can be no security for the uniformity in the value of the currency, when its augmentation or diminution depends solely on the will of the issuers.” Ricardo felt the circulation of money and the decision behind how much is available at any time should not be entrusted to either the State, or any individual. Ricardo argued for the most even distribution possible with the highest control readily available.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8470
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The first mathematical formulation of quasispecies was deterministic; it assumed steady state mutant distributions in genetic equilibrium without perturbations derived from modifications of the environment or population size. These conditions are common in initial theoretical formulations of complex phenomena because they confer mathematical tractability. Since then, several extensions of the theory to non-equilibrium conditions with stochastic components have been developed, with the aim of finding general solutions for multi-peak fitness landscapes. These objectives approximate quasispecies to the real case of RNA viruses, which are compelled to deal with dramatic variations in population size and environment. Research on quasispecies has proceeded through several theoretical and experimental avenues that include continuing studies on evolutionary optimization and the origin of life, RNA-RNA interactions and replicator networks, the error threshold in variable fitness landscapes, consideration of chemical mutagenesis and proofreading mechanisms, evolution of tumor cells, bacterial populations or stem cells, chromosomal instability, drug resistance, and conformation distributions in prions (a class of proteins with conformation-dependent pathogenic potential; in this case the quasispecies is defined by a distribution of conformations). New inputs into experimental quasispecies research have come from deep sequencing to probe viral and cellular populations, recognition of interactions within mutant spectra, models of viral population dynamics related to disease progression and pathogen transmission, and new teachings from fidelity variants of viruses. Here we summarize the main aspects of quasispecies dynamics, and recent developments relevant to virus evolution and pathogenesis.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6962692
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Polymath geniuses—that is, people knowledgeable across an encyclopaedic range of topics—such as Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Su Song (1020–1101) embodied the spirit of early empirical science and technology in the Song era. Shen is famous for discovering the concept of true north and magnetic declination towards the North Pole by calculating a more accurate measurement of the astronomical meridian, and fixing the calculated position of the pole star that had shifted over the centuries. This allowed sailors to navigate the seas more accurately with the magnetic needle compass, also first described by Shen. Shen was made famous for his written description of Bi Sheng, the inventor of movable type printing. Shen was also interested in geology, as he formulated a theory of geomorphology and climate change over time after making observations of strange natural phenomena. Using contemporary knowledge of solar eclipses and lunar eclipses, he theorized that the sun and moon were spherical in shape, not flat, while expanding upon the reasoning of earlier Chinese astronomical theorists. Along with his colleague Wei Pu in the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen used cosmological hypotheses when describing the variations of planetary motion, including retrogradation. One of Shen's greatest achievements, aided by Wei Pu, was correcting the lunar error by diligently recording and plotting the moon's orbital path three times a night over a period of five years. Unfortunately Shen had many political rivals at court who were determined to sabotage his work. The court fully accepted their corrections to lunar and solar error, but only partially adopted Shen and Wei's corrected plotting of the planetary orbital paths and various speeds.
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Exopolysaccharides can facilitate the attachment of nitrogen-fixing bacteria to plant roots and soil particles, which mediates a symbiotic relationship. This is important for colonization of roots and the rhizosphere, which is a key component of soil food webs and nutrient cycling in ecosystems. It also allows for successful invasion and infection of the host plant. Bacterial extracellular polymeric substances can aid in bioremediation of heavy metals as they have the capacity to adsorb metal cations, among other dissolved substances. This can be useful in the treatment of wastewater systems, as biofilms are able to bind to and remove metals such as copper, lead, nickel, and cadmium. The binding affinity and metal specificity of EPSs varies, depending on polymer composition as well as factors such as concentration and pH. In a geomicrobiological context, EPSs have been observed to affect precipitation of minerals, particularly carbonates. EPS may also bind to and trap particles in biofilm suspensions, which can restrict dispersion and element cycling. Sediment stability can be increased by EPS, as it influences cohesion, permeability, and erosion of the sediment. There is evidence that the adhesion and metal-binding ability of EPS affects mineral leaching rates in both environmental and industrial contexts. These interactions between EPS and the abiotic environment allow for EPS to have a large impact on biogeochemical cycling. Predator-prey interactions between biofilms and bacterivores, such as the soil-dwelling nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, had been extensively studied. Via the production of sticky matrix and formation of aggregates, Yersinia pestis biofilms can prevent feeding by obstructing the mouth of C. elegans. Moreover, Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms can impede the slithering motility of C. elegans, termed as 'quagmire phenotype', resulting in trapping of C. elegans within the biofilms and preventing the exploration of nematodes to feed on susceptible biofilms. This significantly reduced the ability of predator to feed and reproduce, thereby promoting the survival of biofilms.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13575891
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These collectors could be used to produce approximately 50% and more of the hot water needed for residential and commercial use in the United States. In the United States, a typical system costs $4000–$6000 retail ($1400 to $2200 wholesale for the materials) and 30% of the system qualifies for a federal tax credit + additional state credit exists in about half of the states. Labor for a simple open loop system in southern climates can take 3–5 hours for the installation and 4–6 hours in Northern areas. Northern system require more collector area and more complex plumbing to protect the collector from freezing. With this incentive, the payback time for a typical household is four to nine years, depending on the state. Similar subsidies exist in parts of Europe. A crew of one solar plumber and two assistants with minimal training can install a system per day. Thermosiphon installation have negligible maintenance costs (costs rise if antifreeze and mains power are used for circulation) and in the US reduces a households' operating costs by $6 per person per month. Solar water heating can reduce CO emissions of a family of four by 1 ton/year (if replacing natural gas) or 3 ton/year (if replacing electricity). Medium-temperature installations can use any of several designs: common designs are pressurized glycol, drain back, batch systems and newer low pressure freeze tolerant systems using polymer pipes containing water with photovoltaic pumping. European and International standards are being reviewed to accommodate innovations in design and operation of medium temperature collectors. Operational innovations include "permanently wetted collector" operation. This innovation reduces or even eliminates the occurrence of no-flow high temperature stresses called stagnation which would otherwise reduce the life expectancy of collectors.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=413092
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Ajayan is a pioneer in the field of nanotechnology. His PhD work (1989) involved the characterisation of gold nanoparticles on oxide substrates and their phase instabilities. He was involved in the early development of carbon nanotubes. From 1991 onwards, at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, he worked with Sumio Iijima and Thomas Ebbesen and published some of the early works in carbon nanotubes. During the past two decades he has published more than 400 papers on various aspects of carbon nanostructures, mostly on nanotubes and recently on graphene and other layered materials such as boron nitride. Ajayan's research interests are broad, focusing on nanomaterials development for a variety of applications such as energy storage, composites, electronics and sensors. His publications have earned more than 68,000 citations on Google Scholar and a h-index of 120 until September 2015. He has to his credit, two Guinness World Records for creating the smallest brush and the darkest material. Ajayan's team created the darkest known material, a carpet of carbon nanotubes, that reflects only 0.045% of light. In August 2007, he was in the news for creating an energy storage device on a piece of paper, called the paper battery. In a brief interview with "Discover Magazine", Ajayan stated he believes the paper battery will have many important future applications in industry and medicine. In 2012, Ajayan's group announced a paint-on battery design, which eventually can eliminate restrictions on the surfaces used for energy storage More recently, Ajayan's group developed a green battery consisting of environmentally friendly lithium-ion cathode, which can lead to the development of completely bio-friendly batteries Ajayan's research group is also focusing on the development of various materials for environmental applications and, last year the group developed a hybrid material capable of effectively removing contaminants from water by coating the sand with carbon. In 2012, Ajayan's group developed a macro-scale carbon nanotube sponge, in which nanotubes are covalently connected each other, and demonstrated its selective absorption of oil from oil-water mixture.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1111018
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The fission-survived isotope Fl, long expected to be doubly magic, is predicted to have alpha decay half-life ~17 days. Making Fl directly by a fusion–evaporation pathway is currently impossible: no known combination of target and stable projectile can give 184 neutrons for the compound nucleus, and radioactive projectiles such as Ca (half-life 14 s) cannot yet be used in the needed quantity and intensity. One possibility for making the theorized long-lived nuclei of copernicium (Cn and Cn) and flerovium near the middle of the island, is using even heavier targets such as Cm, Bk, Cf, and Es, that when fused with Ca would yield isotopes such as Mc and Fl (as decay products of Uue, Ts, and Lv), which may have just enough neutrons to alpha decay to nuclides close enough to the centre of the island to possibly undergo electron capture and move inward to the centre. However, reaction cross sections would be small and little is yet known about the decay properties of superheavies near the beta-stability line. This may be the current best hope to synthesize nuclei in the island of stability, but it is speculative and may or may not work in practice. Another possibility is to use controlled nuclear explosions to get the high neutron flux needed to make macroscopic amounts of such isotopes. This would mimic the r-process where the actinides were first produced in nature and the gap of instability after polonium bypassed, as it would bypass the gaps of instability at Fm and at mass number 275 (atomic numbers 104 to 108). Some such isotopes (especially Cn and Cn) may even have been synthesized in nature, but would decay far too quickly (with half-lives of only thousands of years) and be produced in far too small quantities (~10 the abundance of lead) to be detectable today outside cosmic rays.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=77473
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The policy adopted by the Royal Navy during the 1950s of acquiring separate types of frigates designed for specialised roles (i.e. anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and aircraft direction) had proved unsatisfactory. Although the designs themselves had proved successful, the lack of standardisation between the different classes led to increased costs during construction and also in maintenance once the ships became operational. Furthermore, it was not always possible to have the ships with the required capabilities available for a specific task. The first move towards creating a truly general-purpose frigate came with the Type 81 Tribal class which was initially ordered in 1956. The 24-knot speed of the Tribals was considered the maximum possible for tracking submarines with the new medium-range sonars, entering service. The type 81 gas turbine saw the frigates underway quickly, without taking hours flashing up steam turbines, and the provision of a helicopter for long-range attack were considered essential in the nuclear age. These ships were mainly intended to operate in the tropics but lacked the speed and armament required for the priority fleet carrier escort role East of Suez, where fast radar picket capability was important, as much as anti-submarine capability. So the new frigates would combine the roles of the T12 and T61. The fully air-conditioned Royal New Zealand Navy "Rothesay" class variant, , which gave all the crew a bunk and cafeteria messing and a RNZN commissioned design study for a more fully capable Type 12 frigate, which also assessed whether the Type 12 could carry 2 of the larger Wessex AS helicopters, was used as the basis of the RN Leander Improved Type 12 design.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=545031
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From the description: "We all have the sense that the American economy―and its government―tilts toward big business, but as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in his new book, People, Power, and Profits, the situation is dire. A few corporations have come to dominate entire sectors of the economy, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth. This is how the financial industry has managed to write its own regulations, tech companies have accumulated reams of personal data with little oversight, and our government has negotiated trade deals that fail to represent the best interests of workers. Too many have made their wealth through exploitation of others rather than through wealth creation. If something isn’t done, new technologies may make matters worse, increasing inequality and unemployment. Stiglitz identifies the true sources of wealth and of increases in standards of living, based on learning, advances in science and technology, and the rule of law. He shows that the assault on the judiciary, universities, and the media undermines the very institutions that have long been the foundation of America’s economic might and its democracy. Helpless though we may feel today, we are far from powerless. In fact, the economic solutions are often quite clear. We need to exploit the benefits of markets while taming their excesses, making sure that markets work for us―the U.S. citizens―and not the other way around. If enough citizens rally behind the agenda for change outlined in this book, it may not be too late to create a progressive capitalism that will recreate a shared prosperity. Stiglitz shows how a middle-class life can once again be attainable by all. An authoritative account of the predictable dangers of free market fundamentalism and the foundations of progressive capitalism, People, Power, and Profits shows us an America in crisis, but also lights a path through this challenging time."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63092
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In the 1990s, Andranik Tangian developed a model of artificial perception that implemented a principle of correlativity, which operationalized the Gestalt psychology laws in their interaction. The model finds structures in data without knowing the structures, similarly to segregating elements in abstract painting—like curves, contours and spots—without identifying them with known objects. The approach is based on the least complex data representations in the sense of Kolmogorov, i.e. requiring the least memory storage, which is regarded as saving the brain energy. The least complexity criterion leads to multi-level data representations in terms of generative patterns and their transformations, using proximities, similarities, symmetries, common fate grouping, continuities, etc. The idea that perception is data representation rather than "physical" recognition is illustrated by the effect of several voices produced by a single physical body—a loudspeaker membrane, whereas the effect of a single tone is produced by several physical bodies—organ pipes tuned as a chord and activated by a single key. It is shown that the physical causality in certain observations can be revealed through optimal data representations, and this nature–information duality is explained by the fact that both nature and information are subordinated to the same principle of efficiency. In some situations, the least complex data representations use the patterns already stored in the memory, demonstrating the dependence of perception on previous knowledge—in line with the Gestalt psychology law of past experience. Such an "intelligent" perception is opposed to the "naïve" perception that is based exclusively on direct percepts and is therefore context-dependent. The model is applied to automatic notation of music—recognition of interval structures in chords and polyphonic voices (with no reference to pitch, thereby relying on interval hearing instead of absolute hearing) as well as rhythms under variable tempo, approaching the capabilities of trained musicians. The model is also relevant to visual scene analysis and explains some modes of abstract thinking.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70402
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Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets, using a grid of "cells" arranged in numbered "rows" and letter-named "columns" to organize data manipulations like arithmetic operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering, and financial needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies on various factors for different perspectives (using "pivot tables" and the "scenario manager"). A PivotTable is a tool for data analysis. It does this by simplifying large data sets via PivotTable fields. It has a programming aspect, "Visual Basic for Applications", allowing the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical physics, and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It also has a variety of interactive features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the spreadsheet from the user, so the spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called "application", or "decision support system" (DSS), via a custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer, or in general, as a design tool that asks the user questions and provides answers and reports. In a more elaborate realization, an Excel application can automatically poll external databases and measuring instruments using an update schedule, analyze the results, make a Word report or PowerPoint slide show, and e-mail these presentations on a regular basis to a list of participants. Excel was not designed to be used as a database.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20268
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The numerical solution of this model to calculate the real-time reproduction number formula_78 of COVID-19 can be practiced based on information from the different populations in a community. Numerical solution is a commonly used method to analyze complicated kinetic networks when the analytical solution is difficult to obtain or limited by requirements such as boundary conditions or special parameters. It uses recursive equations to calculate the next step by converting the integration into Riemann sum of discrete time steps e.g., use yesterday's principal and interest rate to calculate today's interest which assumes the interest rate is fixed during the day. The calculation contains projected errors if the analytical corrections on the numerical step size are not included, e.g. when the interest rate of annual collection is simplified to 12 times the monthly rate, a projected error is introduced. Thus the calculated results will carry accumulative errors when the time step is far away from the reference point and a convergence test is needed to estimate the error. However, this error is usually acceptable for data fitting. When fitting a set of data with a close time step, the error is relatively small because the reference point is nearby compared to when predicting a long period of time after a reference point. Once the real-time formula_78 is pulled out, one can compare it to the basic reproduction number formula_67. Before the vaccination, formula_78 gives the policy maker and general public a measure of the efficiency of social mitigation activities such as social distancing and face masking simply by dividing formula_177. Under massive vaccination, the goal of disease control is to reduce the effective reproduction number formula_178, where formula_2 is the number of susceptible population at the time and formula_5 is the total population. When formula_85, the spreading decays and daily infected cases go down.
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Unreported at the time, the military planned a live nuclear test in the Gulf of Mexico in mid-1958 involving Nike Hercules and Genie missiles. "The Pentagon scheduled a Nike-Hercules operational exercise and a second full-fledged Genie test to take place over the Gulf of Mexico in 1958. However, President Eisenhower halted the operation a week before it occurred following two Oval Office meetings with senior military and civilian officials. From the outset, the AEC opposed the operation. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss 'questioned the possible adverse public reaction'" if the operation went ahead. Nonetheless, the Army prepared to have a Nike-Hercules battery at Eglin Air Force Base's Santa Rosa Island launch two missiles over the Gulf, each with different version of the W-31 nuclear charge, at a formation of three obsolete Air Force F-80 fighters converted into drones. In the same exercise, the Air Force intended to have interceptors fire Genies at other unmanned aircraft. Both the Army and Air Force were to make use of airspace ' horizontal distance from the nearest populated area' which had been a military training area for years and was routinely used to test Air Force weapons (albeit never nuclear arms). On June 27, 1958, Lewis Strauss, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and others discussed the Eglin operation with President Eisenhower. Strauss emphasized his belief that what he considered unnecessary tests of production nuclear arms might imperil future test activities he thought which were central to the AEC's mission. Dulles and his deputy, Christian Herter, expressed concern that neighboring nations might react poorly to the operation. Eisenhower decided that if the governments of Cuba or Mexico objected, 'the matter would have to be reconsidered.' A month later, as test preparations proceeded, another White House meeting was convened. Dulles reported to Eisenhower that 'consultations' with Cuba and Mexico led him 'to recommend strongly' that the nuclear operation be moved to the Pacific. The president then 'approved transfer or cancellation' of the operation but requested 'some study of some combination of activities to accomplish the same objectives.' While the military moved to continue the operation in Florida with conventional rounds, Public Health Service officials contacted their state-level counterparts, informed them of the nuclear test halt, expressed appreciation for 'complete cooperation,' and asked them to 'forget our activities in the area.' The request was heeded. There is no evidence that the 1958 test arrangements became known at the time."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33714574
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The amber is apparently referred to in ancient Chinese sources as originating from Yunnan Province as early as the first century AD according to the "Book of the Later Han" and trade with China had been ongoing for centuries. This has been confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of amber artifacts from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 CE). It was first mentioned in European sources by the Jesuit Priest Álvaro Semedo who visited China in 1613, it was described as being "digged out of mines, and sometimes in great pieces, it is redder than our amber though not so cleane". The locality itself has been known to European explorers since the 1800s with visitation to the Hukawng Valley by Simon Fraser Hannay in 1836–1837. At that time the principle products of the valley mines were salt, gold, and amber, with the majority of gold and amber being bought by Chinese traders. Hannay visited the amber mines themselves on March 21, 1836, and he noted that the last three miles to the mines were marked with numerous abandoned pits, up to in depth, where amber had been dug in the past. The mining had moved over the hill to a series of 10 pits but no visible amber was seen, suggesting that miners possibly hid the amber found that day before the party arrived. Mining was being performed manually at the time through the use of sharpened bamboo rods and small wooden shovels. Finer pieces of amber were recovered from the deeper pits, with clear yellow being recovered from depths of The recovered amber was bought with silver or often exchanged for jackets, hats, copper pots, or opium among other goods. mixed and lower quality amber was sold from around ticals to 4 rupees per seer. Pieces that were considered high quality or fit or use as ornamentation were described as expensive and price varied depending on clarity and color. Women of the valley were noted to wear amber earrings as part of their jewelry. In 1885 the Konbaung dynasty was annexed to the British Raj and a survey of the area was conducted by Dr. Fritz Noetling on behalf of the Geological Survey of India. The final research before Burmese independence in 1947 was conducted by Dr. H.L. Chhibber in 1934, who provided the most detailed description of Burmite occurrences.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48679019
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At the nanoscale, size effects and different dimensional constraints, like grain boundaries, dislocations, and distribution of voids, can tremendously change the properties of a material. Nanolattices possess unparalleled mechanical properties. Nanolattices are the strongest existing cellular materials despite being extremely light-weight. Though consisting of 50%-99% air, nanolattice can be as strong as steel. Its effective strength can reach up to 1 GPa. On the order of 50nm, the extremely small volume of their individual members, such as walls, nodes, and trusses, thereby statistically nearly eliminates the material flaw population and the base material of nanolattices can reach mechanical strengths on the order of the theoretical strength of an ideal, perfect crystal. While such effects are typically limited to individual, geometrically primitive structures like nanowires, the specific architecture allows nanolattices to exploit them in complex, three-dimensional structures of notably larger overall size. Nanolattices can be designed highly deformable and recoverable, even with ceramic base materials. Nanolattices are able to undergo 80% compressive strain without catastrophic failure and then still recover to 100% original shape. Nanolattices can possess mechanical metamaterial properties like auxetic (negative Poisson's ratio) or meta-fluidic behavior (large Bulk modulus). Nanolattices can combine mechanical resilience and ultra-low thermal conductivity and can have electromagnetic metamaterial characteristics like optical cloaking. However, one of the challenges in nanolattices research is figure how to retain the robust properties while scaling up. It is inherently difficult to keep nanoscale size effects in bulk structure. The straightforward workaround to overcome this challenge is to combine bulk processes with thin film deposition techniques to retain the frame space hollow structure.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62013142
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The full ATLAS concept consists of eight 50-centimeter diameter f/2 Wright-Schmidt telescopes, spread over the globe for full-night-sky and 24h/24h coverage, and each fitted with a 110 Megapixel CCD array camera. The current system consists of four such telescopes, two operating 160 km apart on Haleakala and Mauna Loa in the Hawaiian Islands, ATLAS1 and ATLAS2, the third telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory and a fourth in Chile. These telescopes are notable for their large 7.4° field of view — about 15 times the diameter of the full moon — of which their 10 500 × 10 500 CCD camera images the central 5.4° × 5.4°. This system can image the whole night sky visible from a single location with about 1000 separate telescope pointings. At 30 seconds per exposure plus 10 seconds for simultaneously reading out the camera and repointing the telescope, each ATLAS unit can therefore scan the whole visible sky a little over once each night, with a median completeness limit at apparent magnitude 19. Since the mission of ATLAS is to identify moving objects, each telescope actually observes one quarter of the sky four times in a night at approximately 15-minute intervals. In perfect conditions, the four telescopes together can therefore observe the full night sky every night, but bad weather at one or the other site, occasional technical problems, and even the odd volcanic eruption on Mauna Loa, all reduce the effective coverage rate. The four exposures by a telescope allow to automatically link multiple observations of an asteroid into a preliminary orbit, with some robustness to the loss of one observation to overlap between the asteroid and a bright star, and to then predict its approximate position on subsequent nights for follow-up. Apparent magnitude 19 is classified as "respectably but not extremely faint", and is approximately 100 000 times too faint to be seen with a naked eye from a very dark location. It is equivalent to the light of a match flame in New York viewed from San Francisco. ATLAS therefore scans the visible sky in much less depth, but much more quickly, than larger surveying telescope arrays such as University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS. Pan-STARRS goes approximately 100 times deeper, but needs weeks instead of a quarter of a night to scan the whole sky just once. This makes ATLAS better suited to finding small asteroids which can only be seen during the just few days that they brighten dramatically when they happen to pass very close to the Earth.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38623877
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In the early 19th century, the mining industry and Industrial Revolution stimulated the rapid development of the stratigraphic column – "the sequence of rock formations arranged according to their order of formation in time." In England, the mining surveyor William Smith, starting in the 1790s, found empirically that fossils were a highly effective means of distinguishing between otherwise similar formations of the landscape as he travelled the country working on the canal system and produced the first geological map of Britain. At about the same time, the French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier assisted by his colleague Alexandre Brogniart at the École des Mines de Paris realized that the relative ages of fossils could be determined from a geological standpoint; in terms of what layer of rock the fossils are located and the distance these layers of rock are from the surface of the earth. Through the synthesis of their findings, Brogniart and Cuvier realized that different strata could be identified by fossil contents and thus each stratum could be assigned to a unique position in a sequence. After the publication of Cuvier and Brongniart's book, "Description Geologiques des Environs de Paris" in 1811, which outlined the concept, stratigraphy became very popular amongst geologists; many hoped to apply this concept to all the rocks of the earth. During this century various geologists further refined and completed the stratigraphic column. For instance, in 1833 while Adam Sedgwick was mapping rocks that he had established were from the Cambrian Period, Charles Lyell was elsewhere suggesting a subdivision of the Tertiary Period; whilst Roderick Murchison, mapping into Wales from a different direction, was assigning the upper parts of Sedgwick's "Cambrian" to the lower parts of his own Silurian Period. The stratigraphic column was significant because it supplied a method to assign a relative age of these rocks by slotting them into different positions in their stratigraphical sequence. This created a global approach to dating the age of the earth and allowed for further correlations to be drawn from similarities found in the makeup of the earth's crust in various countries.
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He then consulted with a distillation expert, James A. Moffett, who was operating the Camden branch of the Standard Oil Company of Parkersburg, Moffett was convinced that dye manufacturing could be profitable and invested money in Bloede & Rathbone. Dye manufacturing was organized as a separate entity named the American Aniline Works. The founders of the new company had little dye-making experience so they read German texts on the subject. There was no money left for new equipment, so they had to rely on scrapped equipment they obtained from the Standard Oil junk pile. Instead of a heavy cast iron nitrator, an old boiler shell with a capacity of 1,000 gallons (3785 Litres) was fitted with a central shaft of horizontal wrought iron paddles. The valve regulating the flow of acid into the nitrator was operated by a wire several hundred feet away. The operator would periodically run close enough to the nitrator to read the thermometer and run back to safety. Cooling was accomplished by running cold spring water over the top and sides of the nitrator, keeping the reaction within a range of five degrees Fahrenheit. This procedure resulted in 7,000 to 8,000 pounds (3175 – 3628 kg) of nitrobenzene per batch. In 1883 he established himself in Baltimore as a chemist and manufacturer of chemical products; and decided that there was a wide field for improvement in the methods then in use in chemical factories. Applying his skills he made tremendous advances in the chemistry business, mainly in the methods of dyeing cotton fabrics; and between 1890 and 1895 he obtained 15 or 20 patents for his chemical processes, one of the most important patents being his process for the dyeing "sun-fast", unfading shades.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14490922
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Edward Hutchinson Synge is given credit for conceiving and developing the idea for an imaging instrument that would image by exciting and collecting diffraction in the near field. His original idea, proposed in 1928, was based upon the usage of intense nearly planar light from an arc under pressure behind a thin, opaque metal film with a small orifice of about 100 nm. The orifice was to remain within 100 nm of the surface, and information was to be collected by point-by-point scanning. He foresaw the illumination and the detector movement being the biggest technical difficulties. John A. O'Keefe also developed similar theories in 1956. He thought the moving of the pinhole or the detector when it is so close to the sample would be the most likely issue that could prevent the realization of such an instrument. It was Ash and Nicholls at University College London who, in 1972, first broke the Abbe’s diffraction limit using microwave radiation with a wavelength of 3 cm. A line grating was resolved with a resolution of λ/60. A decade later, a patent on an "optical" near-field microscope was filed by Dieter Pohl, followed in 1984 by the first paper that used visible radiation for near field scanning. The near-field optical (NFO) microscope involved a sub-wavelength aperture at the apex of a metal coated sharply pointed transparent tip, and a feedback mechanism to maintain a constant distance of a few nanometers between the sample and the probe. Lewis et al. were also aware of the potential of an NFO microscope at this time. They reported first results in 1986 confirming super-resolution. In both experiments, details below 50 nm (about λ/10) in size could be recognized.
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Chambers 1983 survey included children's images in French and English Canada, Australia and the United States along with a single set of drawings from the People's Republic of China. Schibeci and Sorensen (1983) used the DAST for a study of elementary children in Australia, reporting that the media, primarily television, contributed significantly to reinforcement of the stereotypical image. She (1995) administered a modified DAST to Taiwanese students (grades 1 to 8) including an analysis of how those images may be influenced by science textbooks currently in use in Taiwan. Earlier studies conducted by She showed Taiwan students held very similar stereotypical images of scientists as those in the West. Fung (2002) administered the DAST to Hong Kong Chinese students comparing primary and secondary school student’s images. A study of primary students in Ireland (Maoldomhnaigh & Hunt, 1989) revealed that not a single male student drew a female scientist and that only 23 out of 45 female students drew female scientists. Song & Kim (1999) reported that in their study of Korean students, 74 percent described their scientist as male and only 16 percent as female. Buldu (2006) administered DAST to children aged 5–8 years. None of the 24 boys drew female scientists and 5 of 13 girls drew female scientists. Sjøberg (2002) reported on images of scientists in 21 countries. Michalak (2013) reported that when Korean students were asked to depict their perception of a scientist/science from East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, a hierarchy of time, resources and awareness immediately emerged, with students viewing scientists from Asia as traditional, scientists from Europe as advanced, and scientists from the Middle East as antiquated. The list of countries where the DAST has been administered (and findings have been reported in scientific journals referenced) includes French and English Canada, United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Thailand (no evidence of scientific findings), South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Nigeria, Turkey, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Rumania, Slovakia, Ireland and the U.K. Ethnicities studied include Navajo, Black American, Hebrew and Arab.
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In 2002, the RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) project was the first fully autonomous closed–loop robotic telescope. RAPTOR was designed in 2000 and began full deployment in 2002. The project was headed by Tom Vestrand and his team: James Wren, Robert White, P. Wozniak, and Heath Davis. Its first light on one of the wide field instruments was in late 2001. The second wide field system came online in late 2002. Closed loop operations began in 2003. Originally the goal of RAPTOR was to develop a system of ground-based telescopes that would reliably respond to satellite triggers and more importantly, identify transients in real-time and generate alerts with source locations to enable follow-up observations with other, larger, telescopes. It has achieved both of these goals. Now RAPTOR has been re-tuned to be the key hardware element of the Thinking Telescopes Technologies Project. Its new mandate will be the monitoring of the night sky looking for interesting and anomalous behaviors in persistent sources using some of the most advanced robotic software ever deployed. The two wide field systems are a mosaic of CCD cameras. The mosaic covers and area of approximately 1500 square degrees to a depth of 12th magnitude. Centered in each wide field array is a single fovea system with a field of view of 4 degrees and depth of 16th magnitude. The wide field systems are separated by a 38 km baseline. Supporting these wide field systems are two other operational telescopes. The first of these is a cataloging patrol instrument with a mosaic 16 square degree field of view down to 16 magnitude. The other system is a .4m OTA with a yielding a depth of 19-20th magnitude and a coverage of .35 degrees. Three additional systems are currently undergoing development and testing and deployment will be staged over the next two years. All of the systems are mounted on custom manufactured, fast-slewing mounts capable of reaching any point in the sky in 3 seconds. The RAPTOR System is located on site at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) and has been supported through the Laboratory's Directed Research and Development funds.
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Larry Summers wrote about the "devastating consequences" of 3D printing and other technologies (robots, artificial intelligence, etc.) for those who perform routine tasks. In his view, "already there are more American men on disability insurance than doing production work in manufacturing. And the trends are all in the wrong direction, particularly for the less skilled, as the capacity of capital embodying artificial intelligence to replace white-collar as well as blue-collar work will increase rapidly in the years ahead." Summers recommends more vigorous cooperative efforts to address the "myriad devices" (e.g., tax havens, bank secrecy, money laundering, and regulatory arbitrage) enabling the holders of great wealth to "a paying" income and estate taxes, and to make it more difficult to accumulate great fortunes without requiring "great social contributions" in return, including: more vigorous enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, reductions in "excessive" protection for intellectual property, greater encouragement of profit-sharing schemes that may benefit workers and give them a stake in wealth accumulation, strengthening of collective bargaining arrangements, improvements in corporate governance, strengthening of financial regulation to eliminate subsidies to financial activity, easing of land-use restrictions that may cause the real estate of the rich to keep rising in value, better training for young people and retraining for displaced workers, and increased public and private investment in infrastructure development—e.g., in energy production and transportation.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1305947
| 57,906
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635,797
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Technological competition with the Soviet Union (as represented by the launch of Sputnik 1), and continued strong support from the Air Force allowed the program to continue, despite divided leadership between the DOD and the AEC. Numerous test facilities were funded and constructed through the 1950s and 1960–61 in order to produce a flight-worthy nuclear power unit, including one at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). While the ARE successfully demonstrated operation of a MSR concept, the program was canceled by President Kennedy on March 26, 1961 citing the outrageous cost with no flight-worthy reactor having been produced up to that point – "15 years and about $1 billion have been devoted to the attempted development of a nuclear-powered aircraft; but the possibility of achieving a militarily useful aircraft in the foreseeable future is still very remote". Also contributing to the cancellation was the fact that the first intercontinental ballistic missiles entered into active service in September 1959 which all but eliminated the need for a nuclear-powered aircraft as a strategic deterrent. Nevertheless, the results of the ARE program prompted scientists and engineers at ORNL to submit a preliminary design proposal to the Atomic Energy Commission for a 30 MW experimental MSR to explore MSR as a civilian power station concept. The result of the proposal was direction from the Atomic Energy Commission for ORNL to design, construct, and operate the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3459152
| 635,458
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The DTD was set up to co-ordinate the work of the various specialised groups of scientists and engineers working on different aspects of the atomic bomb. The word "bomb" was never used in this meeting, but the participants fully understood what was being discussed. In March 1974, Salam and Khan also established the Wah Group Scientist that was charged with manufacturing materials, explosive lenses and triggering mechanism development of the weapon. Following the setting up of DTD, Salam, Riazuddin and Munir Ahmad Khan, visited the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) where they held talks with senior military engineers led by POF chairman Lieutenant-General Qamar Ali Mirza. It was there that the Corps of Engineers built the Metallurgical Laboratory in Wah Cantonment in 1976. Salam remained associated with the nuclear weapons programme until mid-1974, when he left the country after Ahmadi were declared non-Muslims by the Pakistani Parliament. His own relations with Prime minister Bhutto fell out and turned into open hostility after the Ahmadiyya Community was declared as not-Islamic; he lodged a public and powerful protest against Bhutto regarding this issue and gave great criticism to Bhutto over his control over science. In spite of this, Salam maintained close relations with the theoretical physics division at PAEC who kept him informed about the status of the calculations needed to calculate the performance of the atomic bomb, according to Norman Dombey. After seeing Indian aggression, the Siachen conflict in Northern Pakistan, followed by India's Operation Brasstacks in Southern Pakistan, Salam again renewed his ties with senior scientists working in the atomic bomb projects, who had kept him informed about the scientific development of the program. In the 1980s, Salam personally approved many appointments and a large influx of Pakistani scientists to the associateship program at ICTP and CERN, and engaged in research in theoretical physics with his students at the ICTP.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=304427
| 241,765
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517,308
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In his own time, de Vries was best known for his mutation theory. In 1886, he had discovered new forms among a group of "Oenothera lamarckiana", a species of evening primrose, growing wild in an abandoned potato field near Hilversum, having escaped a nearby garden. Taking seeds from these, he found that they produced many new varieties in his experimental gardens; he introduced the term mutations for these suddenly appearing variations. In his two-volume publication "The Mutation Theory" (1900–1903) he postulated that evolution, especially the origin of species, might occur more frequently with such large-scale changes than via Darwinian gradualism, basically suggesting a form of saltationism. De Vries's theory was one of the chief contenders for the explanation of how evolution worked, leading, for example, Thomas Hunt Morgan to study mutations in the fruit fly, until the modern evolutionary synthesis became the dominant model in the 1930s. During the early decades of the twentieth century, de Vries' theory was enormously influential and continued to fascinate non-biologists long after the scientific community had abandoned much of it (while retaining the idea of mutations as a crucial source of natural variation). The large-scale primrose variations turned out to be the result of various chromosomal abnormalities, including ring chromosomes, balanced lethals and chromosome duplications (polyploidy), while the term mutation now generally is restricted to discrete changes in the DNA sequence. However, the popular understanding of "mutation" as a sudden leap to a new species has remained a staple theme of science fiction, e.g. the X-Men movies (and the comic books that preceded them).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=665725
| 517,039
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1,311,878
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They indeed found the long carbon chains they were looking for, but also found an unexpected product that had 60 carbon atoms. Over the course of 11 days, the team studied and determined its structure and named it buckminsterfullerene after noting its similarity to the geodesic domes for which the architect Buckminster Fuller was known. This discovery was based solely on the single prominent peak on the mass spectrograph, implying a chemically inert substance that was geometrically closed with no dangling bonds. Curl was responsible for determining the optimal conditions of the carbon vapor in the apparatus, and examining the spectrograph. Curl noted that James R. Heath and Sean C. O'Brien deserve equal recognition in the work to Smalley and Kroto. The existence of this type of molecule had earlier been theorized by others, but Curl and his colleagues were at the time unaware of this. Later experiments confirmed their proposed structure, and the team moved on to synthesize endohedral fullerenes that had a metal atom inside the hollow carbon shell. The fullerenes, a class of molecules of which buckminsterfullerene was the first member discovered, are now considered to have potential applications in nanomaterials and molecular scale electronics. Robert Curl's 1985 paper entitled "C60: Buckminsterfullerine", published with colleagues H. Kroto, J. R. Heath, S. C. O’Brien, and R. E. Smalley, was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, presented to Rice University in 2015. The discovery of fullerenes was recognized in 2010 by the designation of a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society at the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25815
| 1,311,159
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241,872
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Salam very early established a reputation throughout Punjab and later at the University of Cambridge for outstanding brilliance and academic achievement. At age 14, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the matriculation (entrance) examination at the Punjab University. He won a full scholarship to the Government College University of Lahore, Punjab State, British India. Salam was a versatile scholar, interested in Urdu and English literature in which he excelled. After a month in Lahore, he went to Bombay to Study. In 1947, he came back to Lahore. But he soon picked up Mathematics as his concentration. Salam's mentor and tutors wanted him to become an English teacher, but Salam decided to stick with Mathematics As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan's problems in mathematics, and took his B.A. in Mathematics in 1944. His father wanted him to join the Indian Civil Service (ICS). In those days, the ICS was the highest aspiration for young university graduates and civil servants occupied a respected place in civil society. Respecting his father's wish, Salam tried for the Indian Railways but did not qualify for the service as he failed the medical optical tests. The results further concluded that Salam failed a mechanical test required by railway engineers to gain a commission in the Railways, and that he was too young to compete for the job. Therefore, the Railways rejected Salam's job application. While in Lahore, Salam went on to attend the graduate school of Government College University. He received his MA in Mathematics from the Government College University in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, where he completed a BA degree with Double First-Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he received the Smith's Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics. After finishing his degrees, Fred Hoyle advised Salam to spend another year in the Cavendish Laboratory to do research in experimental physics, but Salam had no patience for carrying out long experiments in the laboratory. Salam returned to Jhang and renewed his scholarship and returned to the United Kingdom to do his doctorate.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=304427
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In addition to the problems presented by aluminum construction, the Sheridan had a defect that no other common armored vehicle possessed: it fired caseless 152 mm main gun rounds. These rounds were "fixed", meaning that, unlike the artillery, the warhead was factory attached to the propellant, and if the warhead separated from the propellant during loading, which was not uncommon, the crewmen were instructed not to load the round. Sometimes, these unspent propellant charges remained on the turret floor due to the emergencies at the time, and in either case, all of the remaining serviceable 152 mm shells still remained caseless, albeit attached to their warheads, and sleeved into a re-usable white nine-ply nylon bag, which was form-fitted to hold the propellant portion of the shell. The white/silver-colored bag had a strap attached to the bottom, which the loader would grab and pull off prior to gently inserting the shell into the breech. Once a mine or RPG-type weapon created the spark, smoke and fire became imminent, and it became a matter of Standing Operating Procedure to abandon the tank immediately. On 15 February 1969, just one month after the Sheridan's arrival in South Vietnam, an M551 from the 3/4th Cavalry detonated a 25-pound pressure-triggered land mine, which ruptured its hull and ignited the 152 mm shells, resulting in a secondary explosion that destroyed the tank. In late 1969, nine Sheridans from the 4th Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment were fording a river near the DMZ, when three of the M551s detonated mines, completely destroying them. In March 1971, five Sheridans from the 11th ACR were lost in one day to RPG fire; all five vehicles burst into flames and were totally destroyed. It became a common scene to observe melted Sheridan hulls with their sunken steel turrets sitting at odd angles with their gun tubes pointing towards the sky in various parts of the country, either awaiting final disposition, or simply forgotten.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38094
| 386,598
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303,815
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The opening shots of Operation Desert Storm were fired on January 17 in pursuit of defense-suppression: at 2:20AM local time Task Force Normandy, a group of twelve American helicopters, infiltrated into Iraq with the goal of destroying two early-warning radar sites. Three MH-53J Pave Lows guided nine AH-64 Apaches to the targets, which the gunships destroyed, opening a hole in the Iraqi IADS for the initial wave of aircraft to exploit. Two F-117As knocked out the Nukhayb IOC, further widening the gap, although their next attack against the H-3 SOC was unsuccessful. Among the first targets hit by F-117As attacking into Baghdad, bombs damaged the Al Taqaddum IOC and Talil SOC, shortly followed by Tomahawk strikes that disabled the electrical grid upon which Kari depended; reportedly some used special warheads filled with carbon fiber bundles to short-circuit the network. For the next several hours dozens of Coalition aircraft poured into Iraq. Those which weren't specifically directed to suppress air defenses had significant SEAD escort, including the use of BQM-74 drones and ADM-141 TALD decoys which would both "take the hit" for the manned airplanes and cause the Iraqis to reveal their position when they tracked or fired upon the lure. The first night's largest sortie was a joint US Air Force-Navy SEAD mission consisting of fifty aircraft designed to look like a bombing raid on Baghdad but which instead were fitted out with decoys, drones and HARMs to destroy air defenses protecting the city. With Kari degraded due to the disabling of the civilian electrical grid the Iraqi SAMs were forced to use their organic radar, producing what one pilot called "HARM Heaven". A total of 67 HARMs were fired over the course of twenty minutes, causing a significant reduction in Iraqi air defenses around the capital based on follow-up missions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=573491
| 303,653
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1,598,764
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Meredith was born in Lynchburg, Virginia as a daughter of Samuel Peter Meredith and Emma Pink Kenney. She had three siblings, two sisters and a brother. Meredith maintained a lifelong good relationship with her older sister Maude. Samuel, Amaza's father, was a carpenter, and Emma, her mother, was a seamstress. her father was white and her mother was black, her parents where prohibited by anti-miscegenation laws from marrying in Virginia. In Amaza Lee Meredith's birth certificate, she is only identified as Emma Kenney's daughter. The name of the father is left out. Nevertheless, Samuel Meredith cared about his family and built them a house in which he moved in as well some years later. He also supported them financially. Eventually, her parents travelled to Washington, D.C. in racially separated railroad-cars to get married and finally moved in together afterwards. Not long after that, her father began to lose business as a result of the controversial marriage and was soon in debt. He committed suicide in 1915. Despite the difficult family-life in an interracial family, both parents had great influence on Meredith. Her father, a carpenter, taught her how to draw blueprints and built models. He instilled in her the wish to become an architect. Her mother, who worked as a seamstress before having her children, believed education was the key against racist public opinion. Amaza's mother was relatively highly educated herself. She was a convincing, engaged woman and she built a local network of support at Lynchburg's Eight Street Baptist church, which was a center for female political and social activities. She supported her children's education by sending them to college. It was there when Amaza Lee Meredith met her future companion, Dr. Edna Meade Colson, with whom she held correspondence during her entire vocational education and later moved in with in their shared home "Azurest South". Although it is not quite clear (and not very likely given the time they lived in) whether they lived as an openly homosexual couple, it is safe to say their relationship was committed and loving. Both Meredith and Colson were honorary members of the Gillfield Baptist Church. They lived together until Meredith died in 1984 and are buried alongside each other in Petersburg, Virginia, at Eastview Cemetery. All in all, Amaza Lee Meredith maintained a modern, self-sufficient lifestyle despite the social barriers that she had to overcome.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48314474
| 1,597,864
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Professor Prescott was born on December 12, 1832 in Hasting, New York. He was the youngest of four children in Benjamin Prescott and Experience Huntley Prescott’s household. His ancestor John Prescott migrated from England to Boston in 1640. William Hickling Prescott, the prominent historian, and Colonel William Prescott, the commander in the battle of Bunker Hill, were also of the same lineage as Albert Prescott. With so many influential figures in his family, Prescott undoubtedly showed a desire to succeed at an early age. Unfortunately, at the age of nine, he suffered a critical injury to his right knee from a major fall that crippled him for life. His mother’s opposition to amputate the leg prevented further complication but the injury made his stay indoor for about five years. That was the “seed-time of his future.” During those years, he developed an interest in literature and writing. He read a vast collection of books from the district circulating library at his home and wrote short reviews and storied on them. Under the guidance of his sister and private tutors, he gained knowledge of Latin, French, German and various branches of science. His father, Benjamin Prescott, died in 1848 leaving his oldest son in charge of the household. Sixteen-year-old Prescott decided to join his older brother to work on the farm for next three years while continuing his education. At that time, he joined the anti-slavery protest by becoming a correspondent of a paper called The Liberator. He further worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune in 1853.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5148188
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15,413
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, understanding of genetic risk factors had shifted from a focus on a few alleles to an understanding that genetic involvement in ASD is probably diffuse, depending on a large number of variants, some of which are common and have a small effect, and some of which are rare and have a large effect. The most common gene disrupted with large effect rare variants appeared to be CHD8, but less than 0.5% of autistic people have such a mutation. The gene CHD8 encodes the protein chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 8, which is a chromatin regulator enzyme that is essential during fetal development, CHD8 is an ATP dependent enzyme. The protein contains an Snf2 helicase domain that is responsible for the hydrolysis of ATP to ADP. CHD8 encodes for a DNA helicase that function as a transcription repressor by remodeling chromatin structure by altering the position of nucleosomes. CHD8 negatively regulates Wnt signaling. Wnt signaling is important in the vertebrate early development and morphogenesis. It is believed that CHD8 also recruits the linker histone H1 and causes the repression of β-catenin and p53 target genes. The importance of CHD8 can be observed in studies where CHD8-knockout mice died after 5.5 embryonic days because of widespread p53 induced apoptosis. Some studies have determined the role of CHD8 in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). CHD8 expression significantly increases during human mid-fetal development. The chromatin remodeling activity and its interaction with transcriptional regulators have shown to play an important role in ASD aetiology. The developing mammalian brain has a conserved CHD8 target regions that are associated with ASD risk genes. The knockdown of CHD8 in human neural stem cells results in dysregulation of ASD risk genes that are targeted by CHD8. Recently CD8 has been associated to the regulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and the regulation of X chromosome inactivation (XCI) initiation, via regulation of Xist long non-coding RNA, the master regulator of XCI, though competitive binding to Xist regulatory regions.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29113700
| 15,408
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Warren M. Bodie, journalist, historian, and Skunk Works engineer from 1977 to 1984, wrote that engineering independence, elitism and secrecy of the Skunk Works variety were demonstrated earlier when Lockheed was asked by Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey (later air force brigadier general) to build for the United States Army Air Corps a high speed, high altitude fighter to compete with German aircraft. In July 1938, while the rest of Lockheed was busy tooling up to build Hudson reconnaissance bombers to fill a British contract, a small group of engineers was assigned to fabricate the first prototype of what would become the P-38 Lightning. Kelly Johnson set them apart from the rest of the factory in a walled-off section of one building, off limits to all but those involved directly. Secretly, a number of advanced features were being incorporated into the new fighter including a significant structural revolution in which the aluminum skin of the aircraft was joggled, fitted and flush-riveted, a design innovation not called for in the army's specification but one that would yield less aerodynamic drag and give greater strength with lower mass. As a result, the XP-38 was the first 400 mph fighter in the world. The Lightning team was temporarily moved to the 3G Distillery, a smelly former bourbon works where the first YP-38 (constructor's number 2202) was built. In November 1941, Kelsey gave the unofficial nod to Johnson and the P-38 team to engineer a drop tank system to extend range for the fighter, and they completed the initial research and development without a contract. When the Army Air Forces officially asked for a range extension solution it was ready. The range modifications were performed in Lockheed's Building 304, starting with 100 P-38F models on April 15, 1942. Some of the group of independent-minded engineers were later involved with the XP-80 project, the prototype of the P-80 Shooting Star.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55249
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Following a spell of bad weather, the airship was walked out on 23 August and, in the early morning, took off for its fourth flight, which had an intended destination of RNAS Pulham in Norfolk, where it could be moored to a mast (a facility unavailable at Howden). The mooring, however, proved impossible because of low cloud, so the airship returned to sea for the night. The next day, after a brief speed trial (during which a speed of was reached), a series of turning trials was started at a speed of and an altitude of . Passing over Hull, a series of control reversals were started which the Germans would never have attempted at such a low altitude. Wann, who was in the control gondola, stated that the controls were never put beyond 15 degrees, while Bateman, from the National Physical Laboratory who was recording pressures upon the vertical fins, stated clearly that the rudders were being driven rapidly from hard over to hard over which would have been 25 degrees from one side to 25 degrees to the other. At 17:37, while close offshore near Hull and watched by thousands of spectators, the structure failed amidships. Eyewitnesses reported seeing creases diagonally along the hull towards the stern. Both ends drooped. The R.38 then cracked open with men and objects dropping from the rupture. The two sections separated with the forward section catching fire followed by two colossal explosions. The two explosions broke windows over a large area with the flaming fore section falling rapidly followed by the aft section descending slowly. The remains fell into the shallow waters of the Humber Estuary. Sixteen of the 17 Americans, and 28 of the 32 Britons, in the crew were killed, including both Maitland and Pritchard. The only American to survive was Rigger Norman Otto Walker. Four of those who survived were in the tail section, Flight Lieutenant Archibald Herbert Wann, R.38's British Commanding Officer, was in the control gondola and survived.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=588348
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WW1 had been a war in which air warfare blossomed, but had not matured to the point of being a real threat to naval forces. The prevailing assumption was that a few relatively small caliber naval guns could manage to keep enemy aircraft beyond a range where harm might be expected. In 1939 radio controlled drones became available to the US Navy in quantity allowing a more realistic testing of existing anti-aircraft suites against actual flying and manoeuvring targets. The results were sobering to an unexpected degree. The United States was still emerging from the effects of the Great Depression and funds for the military had been sparse to the degree that 50% of shells used were still powder fused. The US Navy found that a significant portion of its shells were duds or low order detonations (incomplete detonation of the explosive contained by the shell). Virtually every major country involved in combat in World War 2 invested in aircraft development. The cost of aircraft research and development was small and the results could be large. So rapid was the performance leaps of evolving aircraft that the British HAC's fire control system was obsolete and designing a successor very difficult for the British establishment. Electronics would prove to be an enabler for effective anti-aircraft systems and both the US and Great Britain had a growing electronics industry. In 1939 radio controlled drones became available to actually test existing systems in British and American service. The results were disappointing by any measure. High-level manoeuvring drones were virtually immune to shipboard AA systems. The US drones could simulate dive bombing which showed the dire need for autocannons. Japan introduced powered gliders in 1940 as drones but apparently was unable to dive bomb. There is no evidence of other powers using drones in this application at all. It may have caused a major underestimation of the threat and an inflated view of their AA systems.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=146640
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Before BrainRush, Bushnell's most recent company was uWink, a company that evolved out of an early project called In10City (pronounced 'Intensity') which was a concept of an entertainment complex and dining experience. uWink was started by Bushnell and his business adviser Loni Reeder, who also designed the original logo for the company. The company has gone through several failed iterations including a touch-screen kiosk design, a company to run cash and prize awards as part of their uWin concept and also an online Entertainment Systems network. After nearly 7 years and over $24 million in investor funding, the touchscreen kiosks/bartop model was closed amid complaints of unpaid prizes and lack of maintaining service agreements with locations to keep the kiosk/bartop units in working condition. The latest iteration (announced in 2005) is a new interactive entertainment restaurant called the uWink Media Bistro, whose concept builds off his Chuck E. Cheese venture and previous 1988–1989 venture Bots Inc., which developed similar systems of customer-side point-of-sale touch-screen terminals in addition to autonomous pizza delivery robots for Little Caesar's Pizza. The plan was for guests to order their food and drinks using screens at each table, on which they may also play games with each other and watch movie trailers and short videos. The multiplayer network type video games that allowed table to table interaction or even with table group play never materialized. Guests often spotted the OSX based machine being constantly re-booted in order to play much simpler casual video games. Another factor that possibly led to the failure of the restaurants was the placement of the restaurants. The Woodland Hills location was on the second floor of a suburban shopping mall and the Hollywood location practically hidden with minimal visibility on a higher level of a shopping center complex. The first Bistro opened in Woodland Hills, California on October 16, 2006. A second in Hollywood was established, and in 2008 the company opened a third Southern California restaurant and one in Mountain View, California. All the restaurants have since closed.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=77245
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The THeMIS (Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System), unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), is a ground-based armed drone vehicle designed largely for military applications, and is built by Milrem Robotics in Estonia. The vehicle is intended to provide support for dismounted troops by serving as a transport platform, remote weapon station, IED detection and disposal unit etc. The vehicle’s open architecture gives it multi-missions capability. The main purpose of the THeMIS Transport is to support onbase logistics and provide last mile resupply for fighting units on the front line. It supports infantry units by reducing their physical and cognitive load, increasing stand-off distance, force protection and survivability. THeMIS Combat UGVs provide direct fire support for manoeuvre forces acting as a force multiplier. With an integrated self-stabilizing remote-controlled weapon system, they provide high precision over wide areas, day and night, increasing stand-off distance, force protection and survivability. Combat UGVs can be equipped with light or heavy machine guns, 40 mm grenade launchers, 30mm autocannons and Anti-Tank Missile Systems. THeMIS ISR UGVs have advanced multi-sensor intelligence gathering capabilities. Their main purpose is to increase situational awareness, provide improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance over wide areas and battle damage assessment capability. The system can effectively enhance the work of dismounted infantry units, border guard and law enforcement agencies to collect and process raw information and decrease the reaction time for commanders. THeMIS is capable of firing conventional machine gun ammunition or missile rounds.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2253116
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In the Oligocene, from twenty-five to thirty-two million years ago, there was another significant restructuring of the global carbon cycle as grasses evolved a new mechanism of photosynthesis, C photosynthesis, and expanded their ranges. This new pathway evolved in response to the drop in atmospheric CO concentrations below 550 ppm. The relative abundance and distribution of biodiversity alters the dynamics between organisms and their environment such that ecosystems can be both cause and effect in relation to climate change. Human-driven modifications to the planet's ecosystems (e.g., disturbance, biodiversity loss, agriculture) contributes to rising atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Transformation of the global carbon cycle in the next century is projected to raise planetary temperatures, lead to more extreme fluctuations in weather, alter species distributions, and increase extinction rates. The effect of global warming is already being registered in melting glaciers, melting mountain ice caps, and rising sea levels. Consequently, species distributions are changing along waterfronts and in continental areas where migration patterns and breeding grounds are tracking the prevailing shifts in climate. Large sections of permafrost are also melting to create a new mosaic of flooded areas having increased rates of soil decomposition activity that raises methane (CH) emissions. There is concern over increases in atmospheric methane in the context of the global carbon cycle, because methane is a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more effective at absorbing long-wave radiation than CO on a 100-year time scale. Hence, there is a relationship between global warming, decomposition and respiration in soils and wetlands producing significant climate feedbacks and globally altered biogeochemical cycles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9630
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"Vogelgesang" completed overhaul and sea trials on 22 March 1966 and resumed normal duty with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. That assignment lasted until 1 June at which time she and the other ships of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 32 steamed out of Norfolk for a deployment to the western Pacific with Commander Destroyer Division 322 (COMDESDIV 322) embarked. Steaming by way of the Panama Canal, Pearl Harbor, and Guam, she and the other ships of Destroyer Squadron 32 reported for duty with the Seventh Fleet at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 15 July. On 19 July, she headed for the Gulf of Tonkin in the screen of the aircraft carrier . The task group arrived in the gulf on 28 July, and "Vogelgesang" provided anti-submarine defense and plane guard services as the carrier's air group struck at targets in North Vietnam. On 15 August, the destroyer closed the shores of South Vietnam to provide gunfire support for troops operating ashore. On the night of 18 and 19 August, her 5 inch guns succeeded in breaking up a company-strength Viet Cong attack on a Popular Forces outpost near Huong Dien. Reports credited her main battery with killing 70 and wounding 40 of the attacking guerrillas. In addition to service in Vietnamese waters, the warship made visits to Hong Kong and Kaohsiung on Taiwan as well as periodic stops at Subic Bay for upkeep and replenishments. "Vogelgesang" concluded her only combat cruise during the Vietnam War on 10 November when she stood out of Subic Bay, bound — via the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean Sea — for Norfolk. She completed her round-the-world cruise at her home port on 17 December.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=545459
| 1,771,601
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At the presentation, alongside former NASA astronauts Dr. Tom Jones and Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, Foundation head Ed Lu explained that the frequency of dangerous asteroid impacts hitting Earth was from three to ten times greater than previously believed a dozen or so years ago (earlier estimates had pegged the odds as one per 300,000 years). The latest reassessment is based on worldwide infrasound signatures recorded under the auspices of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors the planet for nuclear explosions. Dr. Brown's UWO study used infrasound signals generated by asteroids that released more than a kiloton of TNT explosive force. The study suggested that "city-killer" type impact events similar to the Tunguska event of 1908 actually occur on average about once a century instead of every thousand years, as was once previously believed. The 1908 event occurred in the remote, sparsely populated Tunguska area of Siberia, Russia, and is attributed to the likely airburst explosion of an asteroid or comet that destroyed some 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi) of forests. The higher frequency of these types of events is interpreted as meaning that "blind luck" has mainly prevented a catastrophic impact over an inhabited area that could kill millions, a point made near the video's end.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=333633
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Network Centric Product Support (NCPS) is an early application of an Internet of Things (IoT) computer architecture developed to leverage new information technologies and global networks to assist in managing maintenance, support and supply chain of complex products made up of one or more complex systems, such as in a mobile aircraft fleet or fixed location assets such as in building systems. This is accomplished by establishing digital threads connecting the physical deployed subsystem with its design Digital Twins virtual model by embedding intelligence through networked micro-web servers that also function as a computer workstation within each subsystem component (i.e. Engine control unit on an aircraft) or other controller and enabling 2-way communications using existing Internet technologies and communications networks - thus allowing for the extension of a product lifecycle management (PLM) system into a mobile, deployed product at the subsystem level in real time. NCPS can be considered to be the support flip side of Network-centric warfare, as this approach goes beyond traditional logistics and aftermarket support functions by taking a complex adaptive system management approach and integrating field maintenance and logistics in a unified factory and field environment. Its evolution began out of insights gained by CDR Dave Loda (USNR) from Network Centric Warfare-based fleet battle experimentation at the US Naval Warfare Development Command (NWDC) in the late 1990s, who later lead commercial research efforts of NCPS in aviation at United Technologies Corporation. Interaction with the MIT Auto-ID Labs, EPCglobal, the Air Transport Association of America ATA Spec 100/iSpec 2200 and other consortium pioneering the emerging machine to machine Internet of Things (IoT) architecture contributed to the evolution of NCPS.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16620919
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Disciplines, courses at the university are taught in accordance with the working curricula of the disciplines. The content of work programs meets the requirements of educational and professional programs and standard training programs approved by the Central Methodological Commission for Higher Medical Education of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The formed programs provide a systematic approach, in the process of which each discipline is studied not as an independent and independent one, but as part of a system aimed at training a specialist of a certain profile. End-to-end programs for mastering practical skills in all disciplines have been introduced into the educational process. The system of training specialists at the university meets the requirements of the current branch standards of Higher Education. Taking into account the professional and active principle of organizing training at the university, the availability, creation and replication of textbooks, guidelines and textbooks plays an important role. The departments have prepared and published guidelines for practical classes and independent training of students with algorithms for consistent mastery of practical skills, knowledge, skills, training and teaching aids. Training at Bukovinian State Medical University is carried out according to a credit-modular system, in accordance with the requirements of the Bologna Process. The credit-modular system for assessing students ' knowledge and skills has been applied for 6 years. The university has a mandatory system for monitoring the preparation of students and the quality of training (certification with test primary and exit levels, rating control). It includes: daily (test, oral, written, computer) control of the preparation of students of the academic group in each lesson (100%); boundary control of the assimilation of individual sections of the program; certification of students every month from the beginning of each semester with the determination of the average (rating) grade in each discipline; final test (exam) of preparation control. A mandatory element of training in clinical departments and conducting exams at them is the assessment of mastering practical skills and solving situational problems, which is regarded as an algorithm of a doctor's activity for a specific, specific situation and a specific sick person. The university departments have compiled software packages, test sets and questions of varying complexity that are used at different stages of monitoring student training, which are placed on the Moodle Distance Learning Server for ease of study. [Archived July 3, 2011 in Wayback Machine].
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=28179573
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Fuller advocated the design science revolution as an alternative to politics, seeking to optimize planetary resources for the benefit of 100% of humanity. He coined the term "synergetics" to explain how design science could create rich returns, such as how "energy income" could be harvested from the environment. His main premise was that nature's existing and omnipotent order must be allowed to guide human designs, if they are to survive and thrive as a species. He wrote that humanity was approaching its critical test as a species, in which it would be determined whether or not man was a mistake of nature, or its greatest accomplishment. This sense of urgency for the design science revolution was reflected in numerous writings:"The Dark Ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear. This prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation. We are powerfully imprisoned ... by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.""There is now plenty for all. War is obsolete. It is imperative that we get the word to all humanity — RUSH — before someone ignorantly pushes the button that provokes pushing of all the buttons."Fuller insisted that the key principle of the design science revolution was to recognize nature "as" technology:"In its complexities of design integrity, the Universe is technology. The technology evolved by man is thus far amateurish compared to the elegance of nonhumanly contrived regeneration. Man does not spontaneously recognize technology other than his own, so he speaks of the rest as something he ignorantly calls nature." He stressed that by utilizing these natural principles of technology, industrial civilization could transform from an extractive to a regenerative force within the context of Earth's ecosystems. Operationally, he viewed design science as the integration of natural principles within the utilization of planetary resources to achieve ever-increasing ephemeralization:"Amongst other grand strategies for making the world work and taking care of everybody is the design science revolution of providing ever more effective tools and services with ever less, real resource investment per each unit of end performance. For instance, a communications satellite, weighing only one-quarter of a ton, is now out-performing the transoceanic communication capabilities of 175 thousand tons of copper cable."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1182244
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In 1999, NASA was selected to head a new Interagency Digital Earth Working Group (IDEW), due to its reputation for technology innovations and its focus on the study of planetary change. The new initiative was located in the NASA's Office of Earth Sciences. This titular focus was considered necessary to help align over 17 government agencies and keep sustainability and Earth oriented applications as a guiding principle for the Digital Earth enterprise. Components for development of 3-D Earth graphic-user-interfaces (GUIs) were placed into various technological sectors to stimulate cooperative development support. While initially limited to government personnel, industry and academia were early observers attending IDEW workshops to discuss topics such as, visualization, information fusion, standards and interoperability, advanced computational algorithms, digital libraries and museums. In March 2000, at a special IDEW meeting hosted by Oracle Corporation in Herndon, Virginia, industry representatives demonstrated several promising 3-D visualization prototypes. Within two years, these were captivating international audiences, including Kofi Annan and Colin Powell, in government, business, science, and mass media who began to purchase the early commercial geo-browsers. Just as the spectacular Apollo photography of Earthrise provided an inspiring Earth-centric image for new generations to appreciate the fragility of our biosphere, the 3-D Digital Earths began inspiring growing numbers of people to the possibility of better understanding and possibly saving our planet. Introduction of satellite data into commercially accessible spatial toolboxes significantly advanced the capacity to map, monitor, and manage our planet's resources and provide a unifying perspective on the Digital Earth vision.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7297180
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Two potential process options for the partitioning of spent nuclear fuel are being developed: hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes. The hydrometallurgical partitioning, also known as solvent extraction process, was born and developed in Europe thereby becoming the reference technology for future SNF reprocessing at industrial level, whereas the pyrometallurgical option started in the United States and Russia as an alternative to the aqueous processes. Unlike plutonium, americium and curium show a very low affinity towards TBP ligand, thus needing further advanced separation processes and different extracting agents such as nitrogen-bearing ligands, also known as soft donors, which have been showing a very good affinity towards actinides. An efficient and selective separation of actinides from lanthanides (Ln) is crucial to meet the Closed Fuel Cycle goal. Lanthanide ions, present in a large mass ratio with respect to actinides in the PUREX raffinate, have a high neutron-capture cross section that would not lead to an efficient minor actinide transmutation. The presence of uranium isotopes and other impurities in the transmutation target could generate further radiotoxic transuranic isotopes by neutron capture, instead of more stable nuclides. Most of the radiotoxic nuclides could be transmuted by thermal neutrons in conventional reactors, but the process would take a lot of time due to the low transmutation efficiency. Recent research is focusing on innovative nuclear transmuters such as Gen IV fast reactors and hybrid reactors (Accelerator-driven Systems).<ref name="IAEA-2009/2"></ref> The final product left by the P&T process will be a dense vitrified waste to be disposed of for a smaller period of time. All the benefits coming from the management of nuclear waste by this advanced approach will be a small step towards a sustainable energy source and an increased public acceptance of the nuclear energy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64345861
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Oxidation of the sample is complete after injection into the furnace, turning oxidizable material in the sample into gaseous form. A carbon-free carrier gas transports the CO, through a moisture trap and halide scrubbers to remove water vapor and halides from the gas stream before it reaches the detector. These substances can interfere with the detection of the CO gas. The HTCO method may be useful in those applications where difficult to oxidize compounds, or high molecular weight organics, are present as it provides almost complete oxidation of organics including solids and particulates small enough to be injected into the furnace. The major drawback of HTCO analysis is its unstable baseline resulting from the gradual accumulation of non-volatile residues within the combustion tube. These residues continuously change TOC background levels requiring continuous background correction. Because aqueous samples are injected directly into a very hot, usually quartz, furnace only small aliquots (less than 2 milliliters and usually less than 400 micro-liters) of sample can be handled making the methods less sensitive than chemical oxidation methods capable of digesting as much as 10 times more sample. Also, the salt content of the samples do not combust, and so therefore, gradually build a residue inside the combustion tube eventually clogging the catalyst resulting in poor peak shapes, and degraded accuracy or precision, unless appropriate maintenance procedures are followed. The catalyst should be regenerated or replaced as needed. To avoid this problem the manufacturing industry has developed several concepts, such as matrix separation, ceramic reactors, better process control or methods without catalysts.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1940140
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Colón-Ramos was born and raised in Puerto Rico, growing up between the towns of Africa. He studied elementary school in Colegio Mater Salvatoris and high school in Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1998. During his undergraduate career, he pursued research projects, such as studying the use of medicinal plants among indigenous Central American communities with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). He then worked as a research assistant, with the support of an NIH Diversity Supplement, in Dr. Mariano García-Blanco's laboratory at Duke University. There, he studied how the architecture of the nucleus of the algae "Chlamydomonas reinhardtii" changes to affect cytoplasmic events, such as transcript localization. He then stayed at Duke to pursue his PhD in the laboratory of cell biologist Sally Kornbluth. For his doctoral work, Colón-Ramos studied the molecular mechanisms underlying programmed cell death, or apoptosis, and identified a viral family of proteins that induce apoptosis, which are similar to the so-called "Reaper" proteins first identified in fruit flies. He also found that these proteins operate by regulating protein translation, directly binding to the ribosomes—which are the cellular machinery that translate RNA messages into protein products—to alter their assembly. He completed his dissertation "The reaper tales: molecular mechanism of inhibition of translation and induction of apoptosis by a novel family of reaper-like proteins" in 2003. He dedicated his thesis dissertation "To those who could have done a better job than I, but never received the opportunities...may they (one day) receive the opportunities to share their knowledge and their skills in a society w/o prejudices".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=59477648
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The school changed fundamentally during the next decades. The new medical campus finally brought together the School of Medicine, its hospital, the outpatient clinics, laboratory space, and medical library into one location. The move also put the school adjacent to the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, which had been founded in 1909. Other internal developments included the establishment of a department of Pediatrics (1928) and a department of Radiology (1936) and the acquisition of one of the school's first large research grants, a $250,000 award from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1932. The research happening at Vanderbilt during this time included advancements that had far-reaching implications for the practice of medicine. Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas conducted research into blue baby syndrome that led to their 1933 medical-first neonatal cardiothoracic surgery, which formed the basis for the development of the Blalock–Taussig shunt, a life-saving procedure for infants with the Tetralogy of Fallot. And in the early 1940s, the process for culturing vaccines in chick embryos was developed by Vanderbilt's Ernest William Goodpasture, a feat that allowed for the mass production of vaccines for diseases like yellow fever, smallpox, and typhus. During the latter half of the 20th century, there was a further expansion of the school's clinical mission and research achievements. The school established a formal department of Anesthesiology in 1945 to build on the school's already significant commitment to the use of anesthetics during procedures, which had its roots in the development of the first ether-oxygen apparatus in 1907 by Vanderbilt's James Gwathmey. The research at the school received a boost with the founding of a federally-funded Clinical Research Center in 1960. The services that the school and medical center provided for children grew tremendously with the start of a department of Neonatology and the world's first neonatal intensive care unit in 1961, led by Mildred T. Stahlman, and the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, which opened its doors in 1970. The research at the school of medicine also garnered two Nobel prizes during this time, with the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine going to Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. for his work on cyclic AMP and Stanley Cohen sharing in the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on growth factors.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13893187
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"Biosynthesis" i.e. the conversion of organic materials into fine chemicals by microorganisms, is used for the production of both small molecules (using enzymes in whole cell systems) and less complex, non-glycosylated big molecules, including peptides and simpler proteins. The technology has been used for 10,000 years to produce food products, like alcoholic beverages, cheese, yogurt, and vinegar. In contrast to biocatalysis, a biosynthetic process does not depend on chemicals as starting materials, but only on cheap natural feedstock, such as glucose, to serve as nutrient for the cells. The enzyme systems triggered in the particular microorganism strain lead to the excretion of the desired product into the medium, or, in the case of HMW peptides and proteins, to the accumulation within so-called inclusion bodies in the cells. The key elements of fermentation development are strain selection and optimization, as well as media and process development. Dedicated plants are used for large-scale industrial production. As the volume productivity is low, the bioreactors, called fermenters, are large, with volumes that can exceed 250 m3. Product isolation was previously based on large-volume extraction of the medium containing the product. Modern isolation and membrane technologies, like reverse osmosis, ultra- and nano-filtration, or affinity chromatography can help to remove salts and by-products, and to concentrate the solution efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner under mild conditions. The final purification is often achieved by conventional chemical crystallization processes. In contrast to the isolation of small molecules, the isolation and purification of microbial proteins is tedious and often involves a number of expensive large-scale chromatographic operations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3694845
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The Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness was commissioned in 1985 as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, includes a number of laboratories and animal house facilities capable of operating at three steps of negative pressure below the lowest pressure within any part of the extramural wind-zone of the building exterior. External pressure and the cascaded negative pressure zones are measured and maintained in real time by electronic sensors, electronically controlled supply and exhaust air handling systems and purpose developed predictive logic controllers in support of management protocols to manage air locks, access and services to prevent loss or ingress of potentially contaminated gases, solids or liquids . Supply air is protected by two 0.001 HEPA filters in tandem, (series mounted) with appropriate pre-filters in purpose designed individual housings. Filters and housings in pairs are then mounted as multiples in parallel according to airflow and volume requirement. This configuration allows the de-contamination, testing and/or replacement of any individual filter without the need to shut down operation. For exhaust air, similar filtration hardware and management arrangements apply. However, at least one stage of exhaust protection of a method not relying on filtration is provided. In the case of AAHL, the system adopted by CSIRO was "air incineration" at 1000 C and a retention/dwell time of more than 4 seconds at that temperature. Liquid scrubbing to prevent escape of formaldehyde is fitted after the afterburner for protection of the environment. Waste liquids can be dosed chemically in steam jacketed stainless steel tanks as the first barrier, followed by heating under pressure and maintained at elevated temperature for an appropriate time. Multiple tanks can be configured in tandem or in parallel according to need.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9163506
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Hypothetical early and late effects on the central nervous system are of great concern to NASA and an area of active current research interest. It is postulated short- and long-term effects of CNS exposure to galactic cosmic radiation are likely to pose significant neurological health risks to human long-term space travel. Estimates suggest considerable exposure to high energy heavy (HZE) ions as well as protons and secondary radiation during Mars or prolonged Lunar missions with estimates of whole body effective doses ranging from 0.17 to greater than 1.0 Sv. Given the high linear energy transfer potential of such particles, a considerable proportion of those cells exposed to HZE radiation are likely to die. Based on calculations of heavy ion fluences during space flight as well as various experimental cell models, as many as 5% of an astronaut's cells might be killed during such missions. With respect to cells in critical brain regions, as many as 13% of such cells may be traversed at least once by an iron ion during a three-year Mars mission. Several Apollo astronauts reported seeing light flashes, although the precise biological mechanisms responsible are unclear. Likely pathways include heavy ion interactions with retinal photoreceptors and Cherenkov radiation resulting from particle interactions within the vitreous humor. This phenomenon has been replicated on Earth by scientists at various institutions. As the duration of the longest Apollo flights was less than two weeks, the astronauts had limited cumulative exposures and a corresponding low risk for radiation carcinogenesis. In addition, there were only 24 such astronauts, making statistical analysis of any potential health effects problematic.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14415787
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Despite the limited clinical experience in these decades, that era is remarkable for the demonstration of the role technology has in neuromodulation, and there are some case reports of deep brain stimulation for a variety of problems; real or perceived. Delgado hinted at the power of neuromodulation with his implants in the bovine septal region and the ability of electrical stimulation to blunt or alter behavior. Further attempts at this "behavioral modification" in humans were difficult and seldom reliable, and contributed to the overall lack of progress in central nervous system neuromodulation from that era. Attempts at intractable pain syndromes were met with more success, but again hampered by the quality of technology. In particular, the so-called DBS "zero" electrode, (consisting of a contact loop on its end) had an unacceptable failure rate and revisions were fraught with more risk than benefit. Overall, attempts at using electrical stimulation for "behavioral modification" were difficult and seldom reliable, slowing development of DBS. Attempts at addressing intractable pain syndromes with DBS were met with more success, but again hampered by the quality of technology. A number of physicians who hoped to address hitherto intractable problems sought development of more specialized equipment; for instance, in the 1960s, Wall's colleague Bill Sweet recruited engineer Roger Avery to make an implantable peripheral nerve stimulator. Avery started the Avery Company, which made a number of implantable stimulators. Shortly before his retirement in 1983, he submitted data requested by the FDA, which had begun to regulate medical devices following a 1977 meeting on the topic, regarding DBS for chronic pain. Medtronic and Neuromed also made deep brain stimulators at the time, but reportedly felt a complex safety and efficacy clinical trial in patients who were difficult to evaluate would be too costly for the size of the potential patient base, so did not submit clinical data on DBS for chronic pain to the FDA, and that indication was de-approved.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=40651435
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The Virtual Soldier Research program (VSR) is a research group within the University of Iowa Center for Computer-Aided Design (CCAD). VSR was founded by Professor Karim Abdel-Malek in 2003 through external funding from the US Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) to put the Warfighter at the center of US Army product designs. Professor Abdel-Malek's background in robotics and the use of rigorous mathematical formulations was the first introduction of mathematical kinematics to the field of Digital Human Modeling (DHM). Prior to 2003, all DHM models were based on experimental data that use lookup tables to enable the posturing of simple mannequins. Indeed, the first version of Santos, presented at the a DHM conference was met with great success because it was the first fully articulated digital human model that behaved as humans do, whereby joints had constraints (also called ranges of motion) and a user could pull on an arm for example and as a result the entire body would respond accordingly. Cost functions representing human performance measures were used to drive the motion within the optimization formulation. Seated posture prediction for example was accomplished by simply providing the seat geometry. The posture prediction methodology was subsequently validated Later on, the Predictive Dynamics method was created and used the same optimization technique with the addition of 3D laws of motion (equations of motion). The Santos system includes many aspects of physiology modeling, thermal, hand model, grasp prediction, gait analysis including stability, mobility, suitability, survivability, maintainability, training, and many other metrics typically used in the assessment of human performance for the Warfighter.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50798140
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Historically, medicine became interested in the problem of crime, producing studies of physiognomy (see Johann Kaspar Lavater and Franz Joseph Gall) and the science of phrenology which linked attributes of the mind to the shape of the brain as revealed through the skull. These theories were popular because they absolved society and any failures of its government of responsibility for criminal behavior. The problem lay in the propensities of individual offenders who were biologically distinguishable from law-abiding citizens. This theme was amplified by the Italian School and through the writings of Cesare Lombroso (see "L'Uomo Delinquente", "The Criminal Man" and Anthropological criminology) which identified physical characteristics associated with degeneracy demonstrating that criminals were atavistic throwbacks to an earlier evolutionary form. Charles Goring (1913) failed to corroborate the characteristics but did find criminals shorter, lighter and less intelligent, i.e. he found criminality to be "normal" rather than "pathological" (cf the work of Hooton found evidence of biological inferiority). William Sheldon identified three basic body or somatotypes (i.e. "endomorphs, mesomorphs", and "ectomorphs"), and introduced a scale to measure where each individual was placed. He concluded that delinquents tended to mesomorphy. Modern research might link physical size and athleticism and aggression because physically stronger people have the capacity to use violence with less chance of being hurt in any retaliation. Otherwise, such early research is no longer considered valid. The development of genetics has produced another potential inherent cause of criminality, with chromosome and other genetic factors variously identified as significant to select heredity rather than environment as the cause of crime ("see: nature versus nurture"). However, the evidence from family, twin, and adoption studies shows no conclusive empirical evidence to prefer either cause.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3965084
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The main objective of CREDO is the detection and analysis of extended cosmic ray phenomena, so-called super-preshowers (SPS), using existing as well as new infrastructure (cosmic-ray observatories, educational detectors, single detectors etc.). The search for ensembles of cosmic ray events initiated by SPS is yet an untouched topic, in contrast to the current state-of-the-art analysis, which is focused on the detection of single cosmic ray events. Theoretical explanation of SPS could be given either within classical (e.g., photon-photon interaction) or exotic (e.g., Super Heavy Dark Matter decay or annihilation) scenarios, thus detection of SPS would provide a better understanding of particle physics, high energy astrophysics and cosmology. The ensembles of cosmic rays can be classified based on the spatial and temporal extent of particles constituting the ensemble. Some classes of SPS are predicted to have huge spatial distribution, a unique signature detectable only with a facility of global size. Since development and commissioning of a completely new facility with such requirements is economically unwarranted and time-consuming, the global analysis goals are achievable when all types of existing detectors are merged into a worldwide network. The idea to use the instruments in operation is based on a novel trigger algorithm: in parallel to looking for neighbour surface detectors receiving the signal simultaneously, one should also look for spatially isolated stations clustered in a small time window. On the other hand, CREDO's strategy is also aimed at an active engagement of a large number of participants, who will contribute to the project by using common electronic devices (e.g. smartphones), capable of detecting cosmic rays. It will help not only in expanding the geographical spread of CREDO, but also in managing a large manpower necessary for a more efficient crowd-sourced pattern recognition scheme to identify and classify SPS. A worldwide network of cosmic-ray detectors could not only become a unique tool to study fundamental physics, it will also provide a number of other opportunities, including space weather or geophysics studies. Among the latter, one can list the potential to predict earthquakes by monitoring the rate of low energy cosmic-ray events. This diversity of potential applications has motivated the researchers to advertise the concept across the astroparticle physics community.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56857842
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Several limitations prevent heterologous expression to generate products at an economically feasible level that have been observed in bacteria, yeast, and plants. First, these methods are still extremely expensive compared to natural production, often take a longer time to generate, and require special conditions for host culture and induction of expression. Additionally, most methods have still not been optimized, with some even having lower expression than the native organism. Especially with biosynthetic genes for natural biologically active products of interest, researchers have discovered that they express very poorly in laboratory conditions, especially due to generally large gene sizes. Although protein products are produced, they are often generated at a very low yield, are poorly secreted due to low solubility, or produce other unwanted byproducts. Successful instances of heterologous production of target products are primarily seen with low-complexity genes with a small number of operons. This is often due to the mismatch in regulatory and expression induction pathways and machinery, and reflected in the observed degradation of certain amino acid sequences, decreased specific activity, incorrect membrane transportation, and glycolsylation effects. Additionally, there are barriers during the translation process, where host tRNA effects reduce the efficiency of translation, specifically the recognition by host ribosomes. Similarly, modifications to the tRNA-linked bases that differ from the host system may reduce the translation of proteins quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, translating a foreign gene in another host system that did not contain the required tRNA resulted in early termination at the codon where the tRNA was missing. Collectively, with heterologous expression, when the host translation systems are different from the native system that the genes are being introduced from, coding errors, frameshifts, or premature or improper sequence termination are frequent. Consequently, this leads to a lower yield of functional proteins or unintended overexpression of the protein. These errors are especially prominent with the significant and unnatural increase in demand for host system biological machinery. Often, this causes the reallocation of cellular resources from normal processes to the production of the heterologous protein. Specifically, this strains tRNA and amino acid supply, quality control systems and secretion systems, as well as NADPH required for anabolic processes. Moreover, unnatural heterologous protein buildup also leads to adverse host effects. Overall the implications are not only evident in low product yields but also host stress responses and decreased host viability.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29071957
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The sector is being transformed by commercialization at the small, medium and large-scale enterprise levels. On the other hand, the Nigerian Agricultural sector has encountered several challenges, ranging from an obsolete land tenure system that limits access to land (1.8 ha/farming household), a very low level of irrigation development (less than 1 percent of cropped land under irrigation), limited adoption of research findings and technologies, high cost of farm inputs, poor access to credit due to the mismanagement of specialized institutions established for the development of agricultural sector and lack of collateral security by the farmers, inefficient fertilizer procurement and distribution, insufficient storage facilities and poor access to markets and more recently, changes in average temperatures, rainfall, climate extremes and infestation of pests and diseases causing organisms precipitated by climate change pose great challenge to agriculture. This is coupled with a high dependence on rain fed agriculture which has made the Agricultural Production System highly vulnerable to adverse seasonal variations. These have all contributed to low agricultural productivity (average of 1.2 metric tons of cereals/ha) with high post harvest losses and waste in Nigeria.Illiteracy is also one of the several factors standing against the progress and development of Agriculture in Nigeria. Research has proven that most of the farmers in Nigeria have not acquired formal education, only about 17 % and 13 % possess primary and secondary education respectively. Furthermore around 8 % have acquired tertiary education. In so many developed countries all over the world, most farmers had one form of education or the other, therefore decreasing the level of illiteracy and increasing the level of literacy, a farmer who has gone through one form of education or another will be able to read, understand and handle instruction manuals on input and the use of various machinery. The implication of this issue is that the prospects and overview for the acceptance of innovations are satisfactorily and fairly high when farmers possess formal education.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5215046
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MES, a type of BES, can employ electricity for driving the synthesis of fuels and high value chemicals by employing microbes as cathodic catalysts which also results in the treatment of waste streams (Fig. 3). The dual benefits associated with this system are carbon sequestration and value added chemicals production. A wide range of valuable compounds have been produced by MES, such as H, acetate, CH, ethanol, butanol, HO, etc. The product spectrum in MES is largely governed by biocathodes materials (carbon- or metal-based), microorganisms involved, reduction potentials, and redox mediators activity, and operation conditions including pH, temperature and pressure. Potentials between -0.6 and -1.0 V "vs" SHE are typically applied to MES inoculated with mixed cultures to ensure production of hydrogen at the cathode, which is then uptake by acetogenic and methanogenic microorganisms to reduce CO. CO reduction at less negative potentials, even above the theoretical potential of -0.4 V "vs" SHE, ha been demonstrated for specific microorganisms such as "Sporomusa", although is still debated whether this it to be attributed to direct electron uptake from the cathode or to favorable thermodynamics at the electrode surface. Most studies on MES has been performed under ambient (around 20 °C) or mesophilic (around 35 °C), but the process was demonstrated feasible under thermophilic conditions (50-70 °C). Neutral or slightly acidic pH (5.5-7.0) was shown optimal for CO conversion to acetic acid, although lower pH, or use of inhibitors such as bromoethane sulphonic acid (BESA), is required to avoid the onset of methanogenesis. The chemical compounds obtained from MES can be used as precursors for the production of downstream industrial products such as polymeric products, diesel or kerosene resembling products, plasticizers, and as lubricating agents in many industries.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=71759039
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Elliott Carter wrote that, in a conversation with Ives, he "asked why the notation of the "Concord Sonata" was so vague, why every time he played it, he did something different, sometimes changing the harmonies, the dynamic scheme, the degree of dissonance, the pace... He said that he intended to give only a general indication to the pianist, who should, in his turn, recreate the work for himself... This improvisational attitude toward music... affects all of Ives's more mature works... In his compositions, the notation of a work is only the basis for further improvisation, and the notation itself... is a kind of snapshot of the way he played it at a certain period in his life." Tom C. Owens, the editor of "Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives", noted that, for Ives, the sonata was "elusive and ephemeral", and wrote: "Although he was very much interested in producing a sound and error-free edition that would best represent his understanding of the piece, he was reluctant ever to say that any one version had achieved that goal. Ives's performance of the work reflected an ideal that could exist only within his mind. And this ideal form changed with time and context as a landscape changes with the position of the sun and the time of year or as one's interpretation of an essay changes with one's mood and experience." Regarding the "Emerson" movement, Ives wrote: "I find that I do not play or feel like playing this music even now in the same way each time... Some of the passages now played have not been written out, and I do not know as I ever shall write them out as it may take away the daily pleasure of playing this music and seeing it grow and feeling that it is not finished and the hope that it never will be - I may always have the pleasure of not finishing it." In a letter to John Kirkpatrick, Harmony Ives wrote the following on behalf of her husband: "it depends sometimes, on the time of day it is played heard — at sunrise that wide chord — and at sunset maybe with an overtone, towards a star. He has felt that some music, like a landscape, though fundamentally the same, may have changing colors during a cosmic horizon, and as you know the oak tree in May doesn't always play the same tune way that it plays (shouts out) in October."
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=627313
| 1,409,826
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1,357,154
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Smushkevich was born on to a Lithuanian Jewish family in Rokiškis, then part of the Russia Empire. He completed only three grades of primary school before the Emperor of Russia ordered the deportation and exile of all Jews in frontline areas of the First World War, resulting in he and the rest of his family being exiled to the Arkhangelsk Oblast in the far north of Russia. There, despite his young age, he worked at a bakery and a pier until he was allowed to return to Lithuania with his family in 1917. In 1918 he entered the Red Army and fought in the 1st Minsk Communist Battalion. In 1919 the battalion was placed on the Western front to fight in the Polish-Soviet War. While commissar of the battalion he was injured during a battle in Belarus and captured. He was imprisoned in Baranavichy and Vilnius before his escape in Spring 1920, after which he eventually became the political instructor of the 144th Rifle Regiment. From 1921 to 1922 he was the head of the Cheka in Klintsy county, now part of the Bryansk region. His police unit participated in operations in the Gomel oblast, and in March 1922 he was transferred to the 3rd Infantry Regiment. There he served as the deputy commissar until September when he was made the party organizer of the 4th Separate Fight Aviation Squadron in Minsk. From August 1923 to February 1926 he was the political instructor of the squadron. While a political instructor he attended the Belarusian State University, but did not complete his studies there due to receiving a new post before he could finish. He went on to receive several promotions before graduating from the M.V.Frunze military academy in 1930, after which he was appointed as the deputy head of the political department of the 2nd Aviation Brigade. In late 1931 he became the commander of the 2nd Mixed Aviation Brigade, which soon became a role model unit in the Soviet military and was praised by the government of the Byelorussian SSR. In 1932 he attended a flight training program in Kachinskygy where he learned to fly the I-5. He left his position in command of the brigade in 1936 due to the start of the Spanish civil war.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23349928
| 1,356,404
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337,733
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Work on the foundations was complete by 30 June and the erection of the iron work was started. Although no more than 250 men were employed on the site, a prodigious amount of exacting preparatory work was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detail drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed. The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the positions of rivet holes were specified to within 0.1 mm (0.004 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. The four legs, each at an angle of 54° to the ground, were initially constructed as cantilevers, relying on the anchoring bolts in the masonry foundation blocks. Eiffel had calculated that this would be satisfactory until they approached halfway to the first level: accordingly work was stopped for the purpose of erecting a wooden supporting scaffold. This gave ammunition to his critics, and lurid headlines including "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the elevators which were to be fitted in each leg. After this brief pause erection of the metalwork continued, and the critical operation of linking the four legs was successfully completed by March 1888. In order to precisely align the legs so that the connecting girders could be put into place, a provision had been made to enable precise adjustments by placing hydraulic jacks in the footings for each of the girders making up the legs.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12232
| 337,554
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555,060
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Empty clathrate hydrates are thermodynamically unstable (guest molecules are of paramount importance to stabilize these structures) with respect to ice, and as such their study using experimental techniques is greatly limited to very specific formation conditions; however, their mechanical stability renders theoretical and computer simulation methods the ideal choice to address their thermodynamic properties. Starting from very cold samples (110–145 K), Falenty et al. degassed Ne-sII clathrates for several hours using vacuum pumping to obtain a so-called ice XVI, while employing neutron diffraction to observe that (i) the empty sII hydrate structure decomposes at T ≥ 145 K and, furthermore, (ii) the empty hydrate shows a negative thermal expansion at T < 55 K, and it is mechanically more stable and has a larger lattice constant at low temperatures than the Ne-filled analogue. The existence of such a porous ice had been theoretically predicted before. From a theoretical perspective, empty hydrates can be probed using Molecular Dynamics or Monte Carlo techniques. Conde et al. used empty hydrates and a fully atomic description of the solid lattice to estimate the phase diagram of HO at negative pressures and T ≤ 300 K, and obtain the differences in chemical potentials between ice Ih and the empty hydrates, central to the van der Waals−Platteeuw theory. Jacobson et al. performed simulations using a monoatomic (coarse-grained) model developed for HO that is capable of capturing the tetrahedral symmetry of hydrates. Their calculations revealed that, under 1 atm pressure, sI and sII empty hydrates are metastable regarding the ice phases up to their melting temperatures, T=245 ± 2 K and T=252 ± 2 K, respectively. Matsui et al. employed molecular dynamics to perform a thorough and systematic study of several ice polymorphs, namely space fullerene ices, zeolitic ices, and aeroices, and interpreted their relative stability in terms of geometrical considerations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54140
| 554,771
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1,399,269
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Interior ballistics research at BRL focused primarily on improving the propulsion of munitions and increasing the speed of Army missiles. In working toward this goal, BRL developed new propellants that provided more power and energy while maintaining stability and control. Such work entailed analyzing the chemistry of flames, the mechanics of the launching process, and the propellants’ physical and chemical properties. More specific objectives that the researchers word toward included increased muzzle velocity, better burning of propellants, the elimination of hang fires, the reduction of bore erosion, the reduction of muzzle flash and smoke, decreased gun weight, and better recoil mechanisms. Early in its history, BRL's two principal objectives were to learn more about the fundamental processes of interior ballistics to design better guns and to develop more accurate methods of predicting how those guns would perform. This meant that many of the studies that the lab conducted concentrated on issues surrounding how the propellant interacted with the munition. BRL researchers also focused heavily on the physical chemistry of the propellants as well as the thermodynamic qualities of the powder gases produced from burning the propellant. BRL research in interior ballistics led to a wider range of propellants for different weapon systems that achieved higher velocities. As artillery technology became more sophisticated, BRL used its electronic computers to develop digital programs that simulated the interior ballistic performance of its weapon systems. Interior ballistic data from gun firings also helped BRL researchers create models to guide the design of future munitions. By the mid-20th century, the lab had started developing propellants for advanced rockets and large caliber ammunition. Researchers were also engaged in studies pertaining to ignition, combustion, weapon kinematics, and gun barrel erosion.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30865936
| 1,398,494
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2,041,777
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Lastly, biological processes regulated by microbes are important drivers of global biogeochemical cycles. In the open ocean, it is estimated that symbioses with the cyanobacterium UCYN-A contribute about 20% to total N fixation. In benthic systems, sponges and corals may support entire ecosystems via their involvement in nutrient cycling thanks to their microbial partners, functioning as sinks and sources of nutrients. In particular the “sponge loop” recycles dissolved organic matter and makes it available to higher trophic levels in the form of detritus. In coastal sediments, bivalves hosting methanogenic archaea have been shown to increase the benthic methane efflux by a factor of up to eight, potentially accounting for 9.5% of total methane emissions from the Baltic Sea. This metabolic versatility is accomplished because of the simultaneous occurrence of disparate biochemical machineries (e.g., aerobic and anaerobic pathways) in individual symbionts, providing new metabolic abilities to the holobiont, such as the synthesis of specific essential amino acids, photosynthesis, or chemosynthesis. Furthermore, the interaction between host and microbiota can potentially extend the metabolic capabilities of a holobiont in a way that augments its resilience to environmental changes, or allow it to cross biotope boundaries (e.g., Woyke et al., 2006) and colonize extreme environments (Bang et al., 2018). Holobionts thus contribute to marine microbial diversity and possibly resilience in the context of global environmental changes and it is paramount to include the holobiont concept in predictive models that investigate the consequences of human impacts on the marine realm and its biogeochemical cycles.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=68504105
| 2,040,597
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1,024,640
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Diplomacy before 1700 was not well developed, and chances to avoid wars were too often squandered. In England, for example, King Charles II paid little attention to diplomacy, which proved disastrous. During the Dutch war of 1665-67, England had no diplomats stationed in Denmark or Sweden. When King Charles realized he needed them as allies, he sent special missions that were uninformed about local political, military, and diplomatic situations, and were ignorant of personalities and political factionalism. Ignorance produced a series of blunders that ruined their efforts to find allies. King Louis XIV of France, by contrast, developed the most sophisticated diplomatic service, with permanent ambassadors and lesser ministers in major and minor capitals, all preparing steady streams of information and advice to Paris. Diplomacy became a career that proved highly attractive to rich senior aristocrats who enjoyed very high society at royal courts, especially because they carried the status of the most powerful nation in Europe. Increasingly, other nations copied the French model; French became the language of diplomacy, replacing Latin. By 1700, the British and the Dutch, with small land armies, large navies, and large treasuries, used astute diplomacy to build alliances, subsidizing as needed land powers to fight on their side, or as in the case of the Hessians, hiring regiments of soldiers from mercenary princes in small countries. The balance of power was very delicately calculated, so that winning a battle here was worth the slice of territory there, with no regard to the wishes of the inhabitants. Important peacemaking conferences at Utrecht (1713), Vienna (1738), Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) and Paris (1763) had a cheerful, cynical, game-like atmosphere in which professional diplomats cashed in victories like casino chips in exchange for territory.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=118582
| 1,024,107
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190,520
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On 1 June 1935, "Kongō"s second reconstruction began. Japan's withdrawal from the London Naval Treaty led to reconstruction of her forward tower to fit the pagoda mast style of design, improvements to the boilers and turbines, and reconfiguration of the aircraft catapults aft of Turret 3. Her new top speed of qualified her as a fast battleship. The modifications were completed on 8 January 1937. In either August or November 1941, she was assigned to the Third Battleship Division with her three sister ships, and sailed on 29 November as part of the main body—four fast battleships, three heavy cruisers, eight destroyers—for the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore. Following the destruction of the British Force Z, the Main Body departed for French Indochina, before escorting a fast carrier task force in February during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies. "Kongō" provided cover for Japanese carriers during attacks on the Dutch East Indies in February and Ceylon in March and April. "Kongō" and "Hiei" were part of the Second Fleet Main Body during the Battle of Midway, but were diverted north on 9 June to assist in the invasion of the Aleutian Islands. "Kongō" and her sisters engaged American naval forces in the Battle of Guadalcanal. During this engagement "Kongō" and "Haruna" bombarded Henderson Field with 430 14-inch and 33 6-inch shells on 13 October 1942. Following armament and armour upgrades in late 1943 and early 1944, "Kongō" sailed as part of Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa's Mobile Fleet during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, "Kongō" sortied as part of Admiral Kurita's Center Force, scoring hits on an American escort carrier and sinking or damaging two destroyers during the Battle off Samar. "Kongō" and an escort, , were sunk northwest of Taiwan on 21 November 1944 by the submarine , after being hit on the port bow by two or three torpedoes. Approximately 1,200 of her crew—including her Captain and the commander of the Third Battleship Division, Vice Admiral Yoshio Suzuki—were lost. She was removed from the Navy List on 20 January 1945.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3636947
| 190,423
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