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1,528,267 | Follicular dendritic cells are localized in germinal centers of lymphoid follicles and have an integral role in regulation of the germinal center reaction and present antigens to B cells. Most cases of FDCS develop in the lymph nodes, but about 30% develop in extranodal sites. In 1998 the largest study on the disease was a retrospective review with fifty-one patients. Of these fifty-one patients, no conclusive pattern was found in regard to age, sex, race or presentation. The median patient age was 41 (range 14–76), and while most cases presented with cervical and axillary lymphadenopathy, 17 presented in extranodal sites including the liver, spleen, bowel and pancreas. With such a range of patient histories no definitive cause has been linked to FDCS. There has, however, been some evidence that previous exposure to the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) or diagnosis of Castleman's disease can increase the risk of developing FDCS—medical literature in 2000 reported approximately 12% of all cases of FDC tumors are associated with EBV, with variance in different organs, but the role of EBV remains unclear in FDC tumor pathogenesis; and EBV does not appear to play a role in the transformation process of Castleman's disease to FDC sarcoma because all cases the report found associated with Castleman's disease were EBV negative. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21763101 | 1,527,403 |
113,767 | The PW1900G has a fan for a 12:1 bypass ratio. The aluminum wing span increased to for the highest wing aspect ratio of any airliner, just over 11, while the larger E195-E2 has a longer wingtip and the smaller E175-E2 has a downsized wing. It was moved forward to shift the center of gravity envelope aft to reduce the horizontal stabilizer downforce, lowering fuel burn by 1.5%. The trailing link main landing gear has wheel doors to reduce fuel consumption by 1% and is taller to provide enough engine ground clearance. The E2 have 75% new parts, closed-loop controls fly-by-wire instead of the open-loop type in the E1 gaining improved maintenance intervals. For E1-rated pilots, the transition to the new type need 2.5 days with no full flight simulator, having similar Honeywell Primus Epic 2 avionics. The E190-E2 (EMB 190-300) has a wider wingspan but otherwise is close in size to the E190, with up to 114 seats in a single class configuration. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39718589 | 113,722 |
52,143 | In the 1970s, problems with viewing attachment as a trait (stable characteristic of an individual) rather than as a type of behaviour with organizing functions and outcomes, led some authors to the conclusion that attachment behaviours were best understood in terms of their functions in the child's life. This way of thinking saw the secure base concept as central to attachment theory's logic, coherence, and status as an organizational construct. Following this argument, the assumption that attachment is expressed identically in all humans cross-culturally was examined. The research showed that though there were cultural differences, the three basic patterns, secure, avoidant and ambivalent, can be found in every culture in which studies have been undertaken, even where communal sleeping arrangements are the norm. The selection of the secure pattern is found in the majority of children across cultures studied. This follows logically from the fact that attachment theory provides for infants to adapt to changes in the environment, selecting optimal behavioural strategies. How attachment is expressed shows cultural variations which need to be ascertained before studies can be undertaken; for example Gusii infants are greeted with a handshake rather than a hug. Securely attached Gusii infants anticipate and seek this contact. There are also differences in the distribution of insecure patterns based on cultural differences in child-rearing practices. The scholar Michael Rutter in 1974 studied the importance of distinguishing between the consequences of attachment deprivation upon intellectual retardation in children and lack of development in the emotional growth in children. Rutter's conclusion was that a careful delineation of maternal attributes needed to be identified and differentiated for progress in the field to continue. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=884589 | 52,123 |
264,367 | The second building phase was dominated by a highly coherent group of pottery within the regional Chalcolithic styles, representing Maritime Bell Beakers of the local (northern Portuguese), "penteada" decoration style in various patterns, using lines of points, incision or impression. Three of them were carbon dated to the first half of the third millennium BC. The site demonstrates a notable absence of more common Bell Beaker pottery styles such as Maritime Herringbone and Maritime Lined varieties found in nearby sites such as Castanheiro do Vento and Crasto de Palheiros. One non-local Bell Beaker sherd, however, belonging to the upper part of a beaker with a curved neck and thin walls, was found at the bedrock base of this second phase. The technique and patterning are classic forms in the context of pure European and Peninsular corded ware. In the Iberian Peninsula, this AOC type was traditionally restricted to half a dozen scattered sites in the western Pyrenees, the lower Ebro, and the Spanish east coast; especially a vessel at Filomena at Villarreal, Castellón (Spain), has parallels with the decoration. In Porto Torrão, at inner Alentejo (southern Portugal), a similar vessel was found having a date ultimately corrected to around 2823–2658 BC. All pottery was locally made. The lack or presence of Bell Beaker elements is the basis for the division of Los Millares and Vila Nova cultures into two periods: I and II. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=263746 | 264,224 |
623,111 | On telecommunications circuits, disambiguation is a critical function of voice procedure. Due to any number of variables, including radio static, a busy or loud environment, or similarity in the phonetics of different words, a critical piece of information can be misheard or misunderstood; for instance, a pilot being ordered to "eleven" thousand as opposed to "seven" thousand (by hearing "even"). To reduce ambiguity, critical information may be broken down and read as separate letters and numbers. To avoid error or misunderstanding, pilots will often read back altitudes in the tens of thousands using both separate numbers and the single word (example: given a climb to 10,000 ft, the pilot replies "[Callsign] climbing to One zero, Ten Thousand"). However, this is usually only used to differentiate between 10,000 and 11,000 ft since these are the most common altitude deviations. The runway number read visually as eighteen, when read over a voice circuit as part of an instruction, becomes "one eight". In some cases a spelling alphabet is used (also called a "radio alphabet" or a "phonetic alphabet"). Instead of the letters AB, the words "Alpha Bravo" are used. "Main" Street becomes "Mike Alpha India November street", clearly separating it from Drain Street and Wayne Street. The numbers 5 and 9 are pronounced "fife" and "niner" respectively, since "five" and "nine" can sound the same over the radio. The use of 'niner' in place of 'nine' is due to German-speaking NATO allies for whom the spoken word 'nine' could be confused with the German word 'nein' or 'no'. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=633263 | 622,779 |
1,490,573 | In the majority of cases, an individual's genetic sequence is considered unique to that individual. One notable exception to this rule in humans is the case of identical twins, who have nearly identical genome sequences at birth. In the remainder of cases, one's genetic fingerprint is considered specific to a particular person and is regularly used in the identification of individuals in the case of establishing innocence or guilt in legal proceedings via DNA profiling. Specific gene variants one's genetic code, known as alleles, have been shown to have strong predictive effects in the occurrences of diseases, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutant genes in Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer, or PSEN1, PSEN2, and APP genes in Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease. Additionally, gene sequences are passed down with a regular pattern of inheritance between generations, and can therefore reveal one's ancestry via genealogical DNA testing. Additionally with knowledge of the sequence of one's biological relatives, traits can be compared that allow relationships between individuals, or the lack thereof, to be determined, as is often done in DNA paternity testing. As such, one's genetic code can be used to infer many characteristics about an individual, including many potentially sensitive subjects such as: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52716809 | 1,489,734 |
383,604 | "Diablo" was conceived by David Brevik during the development of the fighting game "Justice League Task Force" (1995), developed by Japanese studio Sunsoft with two American studios, Condor Games (later Blizzard North) on the Sega Genesis version and Silicon & Synapse on the SNES version, which by the end of "Justice League Task Force"s development, had renamed themselves Blizzard Entertainment. Brevik's concept was a personal computer game based heavily on the roguelike genre that featured turn-based gameplay, but he wanted to improve how quickly the player would be able to get into the game compared to typical role-playing games. Brevik was inspired by "NHL '94" and similar sports games to make it so that players only had to select a pre-determined class and would be able to jump into the game with minimal interactions. Brevik also wanted these classes to be combinations of typical character classes so that players would be not overly restricted in what type of attacks or equipment they could use. A further departure from the roguelike approach was to make the loot system from felled monsters more expansive. According to Matt Barton, the game "Telengard", released by Avalon Hill in 1982, influenced the development of "Diablo". Barton and Bill Loguidice also cite "The Legend of Zelda" series as an influence on "Diablo", particularly its move towards real-time action, away from the stat-heavy, turn-based gameplay of earlier computer RPGs. Brevik also wanted a "modern and cool" interface intended to bring the quick directness of console games as well as "Doom" (1993) to computer RPGs. He had named the game idea "Diablo" based on Mount Diablo, which was where Brevik lived when he conceived of the game idea. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18985454 | 383,409 |
172,265 | At 8:32 a.m. local time the next day (May 18), an earthquake measuring magnitude 5.1 rocked the area, triggering the landslide that started the main eruption. In a matter of seconds, vibrations from the earthquake loosened of rock on the mountain's north face and summit, creating a massive landslide. With the loss of the confining pressure of the overlying rock, Mount St. Helens began to rapidly emit steam and other volcanic gases. A few seconds later, it erupted laterally, sending swift pyroclastic flows down its flanks at near supersonic speeds. These flows were later joined by lahars. Before being struck by a series of flows that, at their fastest, would have taken less than a minute to reach his position, Johnston managed to radio his USGS co-workers with the message: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" Seconds later, the signal from the radio went silent, and all contact with the geologist was lost. Initially, there was some debate as to whether Johnston had survived; records soon showed a radio message from fellow eruption victim and amateur radio operator Gerry Martin, located near the Coldwater peak and farther north of Johnston's position, reporting his sighting of the eruption enveloping the Coldwater II observation post. As the blast overwhelmed Johnston's post, Martin declared solemnly: "Gentlemen, the camper and car that’s sitting over to the south of me is covered. It’s going to hit me, too." he said before his radio went silent. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=981085 | 172,174 |
494,677 | The decision of whether to raise an individual with PAIS as a boy or a girl may not be obvious; grades 3 and 4 in particular present with a phenotype that may be difficult to classify as primarily male or female, and some will be incapable of virilization at puberty. Parents of an affected newborn should seek immediate help at a center with an experienced multidisciplinary team, and should avoid gender assignment beforehand. Older guidelines from 2006 advised against waiting for the child to decide for themselves. According to them, key considerations involved in assigning gender include the appearance of the genitalia, the extent to which the child can virilize at puberty, surgical options and the postoperative sexual function of the genitalia, genitoplasty complexity, potential for fertility, and the projected gender identity of the child. The majority of individuals with PAIS are raised male. More recently, the interests of intersex people themselves are being taken into consideration by the medical community. Some parents have pushed their children with intersex variations to display gender normative roles and behaviours, or to engage in hormonal and surgical interventions to make their bodies appear more aesthetically 'normative'. Research based on interviews of people with intersex variations indicate a need for more family protection from intervention and more family support. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5960699 | 494,421 |
1,220,073 | Gerhard Lenski, in "Social Forces", admitted that sociologists had too often ignored non-human societies, and thought the book should be required reading. Human societies were plainly founded on biology, but this did not imply either biological reductionism or determinism. Comparison with other species would be productive, as nonhuman societies often had traditions handed down from one generation to the next, such as "the flyways of migratory birds or dietary patterns among primates". Issues of conflict and cooperation were similarly illuminated. But in his view the book raised "uncomfortable issues". The first chapter could sound, he argued, like "intellectual imperialism" as Wilson called sociology "an essentially nontheoretical, descriptive science, not unlike taxonomy and ecology forty years ago, before they were 'reshaped entirely ... [by] neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory'". Lenski however took Wilson more openly than that, noting Wilson's precursors, Julian Huxley, George Gaylord Simpson, Dobzhansky and others of the modern synthesis. They had tried repeatedly to talk to sociologists, and in Lenski's view that remained necessary. Further, he suggested, the nature-nurture dichotomy was evidently false, so there was no reason for sociologists and biologists to disagree. In his view, continued rejection of biology by sociologists only invited "a reductionist response on the part of biologists." Lenski found the final chapter on Man "disappointing", as Wilson had been unable to penetrate the "barriers" put up by social science against the modern synthesis, and Wilson's overestimation of the influence of genetics compared to culture and technology on human society. All the same, Lenski thought these "flaws" could be mended by dialogue between sociology and biology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1149054 | 1,219,419 |
1,787,799 | The inside of the bunker was isolated from all time and light cues and subjects lived there for weeks at a time. Subjects prepared their own meals and were asked to eat three meals a day, not nap after lunch, and perform some psychological tasks. Besides this, they could generally do as they pleased, and were able to turn the lights on and off themselves. The bunker was separated from the outside world via two doors, only one of which could be opened at a time. Researchers would place food in the space between the doors, and the subject would leave urine samples here. The experimenters made deliveries at randomized times. The subject could communicate with the outside only through letters. Over about 20 years, the researchers studied various properties of the human biological clock, varying social interaction, light intensity, gong sounds, or electromagnetic radiation to test the impacts on circadian function. They also examined whether male and female clocks function differently. Many measurements were taken on subjects including their sleep-wake activity, bed movements, rectal temperature, urine samples, and time perception. To measure time perception, individuals were asked to press a buzzer at one hour intervals and a minute after the one hour mark. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67427082 | 1,786,794 |
423,557 | Although measuring biogeochemical process rates could analyze what processes were occurring, they were incomplete because they provided no information on which specific microbes were responsible. It was long known that ‘classical’ cultivation techniques recovered fewer than 1% of the microbes from a natural habitat. However, beginning in the 1990s, a set of cultivation-independent techniques have evolved to determine the relative abundance of microbes in a habitat. Carl Woese first demonstrated that the sequence of the 16S ribosomal RNA molecule could be used to analyze phylogenetic relationships. Norm Pace took this seminal idea and applied it to analyze ‘who’s there’ in natural environments. The procedure involves (a) isolation of nucleic acids directly from a natural environment, (b) PCR amplification of small subunit rRNA gene sequences, (c) sequencing the amplicons, and (d) comparison of the those sequences to a database of sequences from pure cultures and environmental DNA. This has provided tremendous insights into the diversity present within microbial habitats. However, it does not resolve how to link specific microbes to their biogeochemical role. Metagenomics, the sequencing of total DNA recovered from an environment, can provide insights into biogeochemical potential, whereas metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics can measure actual expression of genetic potential but remains more technically difficult. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1057083 | 423,350 |
930,990 | While still building on traditional models such as the Ricardian framework, the mid 1900s bring forth innovation in international trade theory with the introduction of the Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) model, developed by Swedish economists Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin from the Stockholm School of Economics. The H-O model advances international trade theory by introducing the concept of factor endowments within a country as well as the underlying causes for differences in comparative costs between countries, while assuming countries will have identical production technologies. The H-O framework finds that countries have differing comparative costs even though they have the same production technologies due to differences in factors of production, such as the geographical abundance of natural resources or population size. Furthermore, what the H-O model concludes is that traded commodities are essentially bundles of factors (land, labor, and capital) and therefore the international trade of commodities is indirect factor arbitrage (Leamer 1995).The H-O model more accurately describes international trade patterns in modern times (post WWII) due to the increased ability of transferring knowledge/ production technologies between countries, mainly focusing on factorial differences such as labor force and resource allocation as to why countries trade with each other.The Ricardian model of comparative advantage has trade ultimately motivated by differences in labour productivity using different "technologies". Heckscher and Ohlin did not require production technology to vary between countries, so (in the interests of simplicity) the "H–O model has identical production technology everywhere". Ricardo considered a single factor of production (labour) and would not have been able to produce comparative advantage without technological differences between countries (all nations would become autarkic at various stages of growth, with no reason to trade with each other). The H–O model removed technology variations but introduced variable capital endowments, recreating endogenously the inter-country variation of labour productivity that Ricardo had imposed exogenously. With international variations in the capital endowment like infrastructure and goods requiring different factor "proportions", Ricardo's comparative advantage emerges as a profit-maximizing solution of capitalist's choices from "within" the model's equations. The decision that capital owners are faced with is between investments in differing production technologies; the H–O model assumes capital is privately held. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1675534 | 930,499 |
1,981,214 | Edl Schamiloglu (born 1959) is an American physicist, electrical engineer, pulsed power expert, inventor, and distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico. He has been known in public media for his expertise in the design and operation of directed-energy weapons. He is also known for his assessment on the possible origins of alleged health damages presumably caused on U.S. embassy personnel in Cuba in 2016 as part of the Havana syndrome incident. He is the Associate Dean for research and innovation at the UNM School of Engineering, where he has been a faculty since 1988, and where he is also Special Assistant to the Provost for Laboratory Relations. He is also the founding director of the recently launched UNM Directed Energy Center. Schamiloglu is a book author and co-editor, and has received numerous awards from prestigious bodies for his academic achievements. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Physical Society. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=68638955 | 1,980,075 |
1,182,919 | On March 3, Latif Mumdžić, a thirty-year-old teacher, who had just arrived in Đakovica to attend school, fell ill. He had no known direct contact with Hoti. He may have been infected by one of the clergyman's friends or relatives who visited during his illness, or simply by passing the clergyman in the street. When Mumdžić visited the local medical center two days later, doctors attempted to treat his fever with penicillin (smallpox is a virus, so this was ineffective). His condition did not improve, and after a couple of days, his brother took him to the hospital in Čačak, 150 km to the north in Serbia. The doctors there could not help him, so he was transferred by ambulance to the central hospital in Belgrade. On March 9, Mumdžić was shown to medical students and staff as a case of an atypical reaction to penicillin, which was a plausible explanation for his condition. On the following day, Mumdžić suffered massive internal bleeding and, despite efforts to save his life, died that evening. The cause of death was listed as "reaction to penicillin". In fact, he had contracted "black pox", a highly contagious form of smallpox. Before his death, Mumdžić directly infected 38 people (including nine doctors and nurses), eight of whom died. A few days after Mumdžić's death, 140 smallpox cases erupted across Kosovo province. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=729623 | 1,182,294 |
321,352 | Immediate though temporary relief of piriformis syndrome can usually be brought about by injection of a local anaesthetic into the piriformis muscle. Symptomatic relief of muscle and nerve pain can also sometimes be obtained by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or muscle relaxants, though the use of such medication or even more powerful prescription medication for relief of sciatica is often assessed by patients to be largely ineffective at relieving pain. Conservative treatment usually begins with stretching exercises, myofascial release, massage, and avoidance of contributory activities such as running, bicycling, rowing, heavy lifting, etc. Some clinicians recommend formal physical therapy, including soft tissue mobilization, hip joint mobilization, teaching stretching techniques, and strengthening of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and biceps femoris to reduce strain on the piriformis. More advanced physical therapy treatment can include pelvic-trochanter isometric stretching, hip abductor, external rotator and extensor strengthening exercises, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and massage physiotherapy of the piriformis muscle region. One study of 14 people with what appeared to be piriformis syndrome indicated that rehabilitation programs that included physical therapy, low doses of muscle relaxants and pain relief medication were effective at alleviating most muscle and nerve pain caused by what the research subjects had been told was piriformis syndrome. However, as this study included very few individuals and did not have a control group not receiving treatment (both serious methodological flaws), it provides no insight as to whether the pain in the piriformis would have simply dissipated on its own without any treatment at all, and is therefore not only uninformative, it may actually be misleading. The injury is considered largely self-limiting and spontaneous recovery is usually on the order of a few days or a week to six weeks or longer if left untreated. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1104401 | 321,180 |
1,808,725 | Beerling is a leading architect in the field of experimental palaeobiology, adopting advanced experimental research programmes to address fundamental questions raised by the fossil record of plant life. Characterized by the formulation and evaluation of rigorous hypotheses, these programmes demonstrate how experimental evidence serves to deepen our causal understanding of past events. By productively collaborating with Jonathan Leake, his group established essential missing functional evidence supporting the long-standing conjecture, based largely on 400-million-year-old-fossils from the Devonian Rhynie chert, that the establishment of rootless early land plants in skeletal soils was promoted by their mutualistic symbiotic partnership with soil fungi. They went on to reveal how the simulated high CO₂ Palaeozoic atmosphere and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi synergistically enhanced plant fitness to create uniquely strong selection pressures favouring the establishment of mycorrhiza-like partnerships in 'lower' land plants. These findings now place fungi as key players in the earliest symbiotic events during the greening of the Earth's land-masses. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43094065 | 1,807,704 |
1,885,717 | Since the size of these organisms determines how they interact with their environment, it is no surprise that they are not known to form significant sinking organic aggregates. Their contribution to carbon cycling is difficult to assess because they are difficult to separate by techniques such as filtration. Recent fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments have shown that picoeukaryotes are fairly abundant in the deep sea. Increased resolution with the development of better FISH techniques indicates that study and detection should become easier. Additionally, qPCR has been a valuable approach for delineating and quantifying the different species, e.g. oceanic and coastal "Bathycoccus" and "Ostreococcus" species. Research has also shown that picoeukaryotes have a strong correlation with chlorophyll concentrations in both meso-autotrophic reservoirs and hypereutrophic reservoirs. Moreover, nitrogen enrichment experiments suggest that picoeukaryotes have an advantage over larger cells when it comes to acquiring nutrients because of their large surface area per unit volume. They have exhibited more effectiveness in the uptake of photons and nutrient from low-resource environments. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17190038 | 1,884,635 |
260,817 | When compared with Deep Blue or Watson, AlphaGo's underlying algorithms are potentially more general-purpose and may be evidence that the scientific community is making progress towards artificial general intelligence. Some commentators believe AlphaGo's victory makes for a good opportunity for society to start preparing for the possible future impact of machines with general purpose intelligence. As noted by entrepreneur Guy Suter, AlphaGo only knows how to play Go and doesn't possess general-purpose intelligence; "[It] couldn't just wake up one morning and decide it wants to learn how to use firearms." AI researcher Stuart Russell said that AI systems such as AlphaGo have progressed quicker and become more powerful than expected, and we must therefore develop methods to ensure they "remain under human control". Some scholars, such as Stephen Hawking, warned (in May 2015 before the matches) that some future self-improving AI could gain actual general intelligence, leading to an unexpected AI takeover; other scholars disagree: AI expert Jean-Gabriel Ganascia believes that "Things like 'common sense'... may never be reproducible", and says "I don't see why we would speak about fears. On the contrary, this raises hopes in many domains such as health and space exploration." Computer scientist Richard Sutton said "I don't think people should be scared... but I do think people should be paying attention." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49242352 | 260,681 |
839,197 | Neurotransmitters are spontaneously packed in vesicles and released in individual quanta-packets independently of presynaptic action potentials. This slow release is detectable and produces micro-inhibitory or micro-excitatory effects on the postsynaptic neuron. An action potential briefly amplifies this process. Neurotransmitter containing vesicles cluster around active sites, and after they have been released may be recycled by one of three proposed mechanisms. The first proposed mechanism involves partial opening and then re-closing of the vesicle. The second two involve the full fusion of the vesicle with the membrane, followed by recycling, or recycling into the endosome. Vesicular fusion is driven largely by the concentration of calcium in micro domains located near calcium channels, allowing for only microseconds of neurotransmitter release, while returning to normal calcium concentration takes a couple of hundred of microseconds. The vesicle exocytosis is thought to be driven by a protein complex called SNARE, that is the target for botulinum toxins. Once released, a neurotransmitter enters the synapse and encounters receptors. Neurotransmitters receptors can either be ionotropic or g protein coupled. Ionotropic receptors allow for ions to pass through when agonized by a ligand. The main model involves a receptor composed of multiple subunits that allow for coordination of ion preference. G protein coupled receptors, also called metabotropic receptors, when bound to by a ligand undergo conformational changes yielding in intracellular response. Termination of neurotransmitter activity is usually done by a transporter, however enzymatic deactivation is also plausible. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2918988 | 838,748 |
138,810 | Drawbacks of hydrogen peroxide include material compatibility, a lower capability for penetration and operator health risks. Products containing cellulose, such as paper, cannot be sterilized using VHP and products containing nylon may become brittle. The penetrating ability of hydrogen peroxide is not as good as ethylene oxide and so there are limitations on the length and diameter of the lumen of objects that can be effectively sterilized. Hydrogen peroxide is a primary irritant and the contact of the liquid solution with skin will cause bleaching or ulceration depending on the concentration and contact time. It is relatively non-toxic when diluted to low concentrations, but is a dangerous oxidizer at high concentrations (> 10% w/w). The vapour is also hazardous, primarily affecting the eyes and respiratory system. Even short term exposures can be hazardous and NIOSH has set the IDLH at 75 ppm, less than one tenth the IDLH for ethylene oxide (800 ppm). Prolonged exposure to lower concentrations can cause permanent lung damage and consequently, OSHA has set the permissible exposure limit to 1.0 ppm, calculated as an eight-hour time-weighted average. Sterilizer manufacturers go to great lengths to make their products safe through careful design and incorporation of many safety features, though there are still workplace exposures of hydrogen peroxide from gas sterilizers documented in the FDA MAUDE database. When using any type of gas sterilizer, prudent work practices should include good ventilation, a continuous gas monitor for hydrogen peroxide and good work practices and training. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=414144 | 138,754 |
283,457 | This mismatch also shows up in the phenomena of the supernormal stimulus, a stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which the response evolved. The term was coined by Niko Tinbergen to refer to non-human animal behavior, but psychologist Deirdre Barrett said that supernormal stimulation governs the behavior of humans as powerfully as that of other animals. She explained junk food as an exaggerated stimulus to cravings for salt, sugar, and fats, and she says that television is an exaggeration of social cues of laughter, smiling faces and attention-grabbing action. Magazine centerfolds and double cheeseburgers pull instincts intended for an environment of evolutionary adaptedness where breast development was a sign of health, youth and fertility in a prospective mate, and fat was a rare and vital nutrient. The psychologist Mark van Vugt recently argued that modern organizational leadership is a mismatch. His argument is that humans are not adapted to work in large, anonymous bureaucratic structures with formal hierarchies. The human mind still responds to personalized, charismatic leadership primarily in the context of informal, egalitarian settings. Hence the dissatisfaction and alienation that many employees experience. Salaries, bonuses and other privileges exploit instincts for relative status, which attract particularly males to senior executive positions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9703 | 283,304 |
467,187 | As for triboelectric nanogenerators, maximizing the charge generation on opposite sides can be achieved by selecting the materials with the largest difference in the ability to attract electrons and changing the surface morphology. In such a case, the output of the TENG depends on the type and concentration of molecules adsorbed on the surface of the triboelectric materials, which can be used for fabricating chemical and biochemical sensors. As an example, the performance of the TENG depends on the assembly of Au nanoparticles (NPs) onto the metal plate. These assembled Au NPs not only act as steady gaps between the two plates at strain free condition, but also enable the function of enlarging the contact area of the two plates, which will increase the electrical output of the TENG. Through further modification of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA) molecules on the assembled Au NPs, the high-output nanogenerator can become a highly sensitive and selective nanosensor toward Hg ions detection because of the different triboelectric polarity of Au NPs and Hg ions. With its high sensitivity, selectivity and simplicity, the TENG holds great potential for the determination of Hg ions in environmental samples. The TENG is a future sensing system for unreachable and access-denied extreme environments. As different ions, molecules, and materials have their unique triboelectric polarities, we expect that the TENG can become either an electrical turn-on or turn-off sensor when the analytes are selectively binding to the modified electrode surface. We believe this work will serve as the stepping stone for related TENG studies and inspire the development of TENG toward other metal ions and biomolecules such as DNA and proteins in the near future. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30057479 | 466,952 |
1,434,843 | Under the directorship of Edward Charles Pickering from 1877 to 1919, the observatory became the world's major producer of stellar spectra and magnitudes, established an observing station in Peru, and applied mass-production methods to the analysis of data. It was during this time that HCO became host to a series of major discoveries in astronomical history, powered by the observatory's so-called "Computers" (women hired by Pickering as skilled workers to process astronomical data). These "Computers" included Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Florence Cushman and Antonia Maury, all widely recognized today as major figures in scientific history. Henrietta Swan Leavitt, for example, discovered the so-called period-luminosity relation for Classical Cepheid variable stars, establishing the first major "standard candle" with which to measure the distance to galaxies. Now called "Leavitt's law", the discovery is regarded as one of the most foundational and important in the history of astronomy; astronomers like Edwin Hubble, for example, would later use Leavitt's law to establish that the Universe is expanding, the primary piece of evidence for the Big Bang model. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1505128 | 1,434,037 |
1,989,750 | In March 2020, Calder was appointed Clinical Lead setting up the NHS Nightingale Hospital London. Early in the pandemic, the quest to increase ventilator capacity in the NHS led to the concept of converting the Excel Exhibition Centre into a 4000 bed critical care facility. The co-ordination of NHS, military and private sector workers which enabled the hospital to open for patients within 10 days was rightly praised but few patients actually used the facility. The O2 Arena became a training centre for NHS staff across London to teach the skills required to work in critical care but whether the Nightingale would have been able to staff the hospital had it become fully operational remains in doubt. There are disagreements as to whether the £500M spent setting up the seven Nightingale Hospitals across England should have been used elsewhere or whether they were the ultimate insurance policy that were thankfully not needed. The King's Fund concluded "There were undeniably some positives from the Nightingale experience. Staff who worked in these locations speak of less hierarchical working styles and rapid learning and improvement systems (including the use of bedside learning co-ordinators)". These were then taken back to their home organisations for the benefit of the wider NHS. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51786667 | 1,988,608 |
1,029,534 | In 1821 the "Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and The Arts" published a "letter to the editor" with the title "Account of an Optical Deception." It was dated Dec. 1, 1820 and attributed to "J.M.", possibly publisher/editor John Murray himself. The author noted that the spokes of a rotating wheel seen through fence slats appeared with peculiar curvatures (see picture). The letter concluded: "The general principles on which this deception is based will immediately occur to your mathematical readers, but a perfect demonstration will probably prove less easy than it appears on first sight". Four years later Peter Mark Roget offered an explanation when reading at the Royal Society on December 9, 1824. He added: "It is also to be noticed that, however rapidly the wheel revolves, each individual spoke, during the moment it is viewed, appears to be at rest." Roget claimed that the illusion is due to the fact "that an impression made by a pencil of rays on the retina, if sufficiently vivid, will remain for a certain time after the cause has ceased." He also provided mathematical details about the appearing curvatures. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23289 | 1,029,000 |
2,073,099 | Type 991 I is the first member of Type 991 series, and it is the first purposely designed cable layer / repair ship in China. Program begun in early 1961 when Chinese naval headquarter formally issued the order to the 708th Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, and the 708th Institute is also more commonly known as China Shipbuilding and Oceanic Engineering Design Academy (中国船舶及海洋工程设计研究 ) nowadays. After extensive research, the 3rd Directorate of the 708th Institute (708所3室) begun design work in October 1963, but reviews revealed that there are some inadequacy in the design, so two new modified design was created in February 1964. The biggest change of the modified designs is that the original cable carrying capacity is limited to 155 tons in a single cargo hold compartment with cable length of 40 km at maximum. In the modified design, this is increased to 270 tons in two cargo hold compartments with cable length of 40 km at maximum. The diameter of the cable remained unchanged at 40 mm. On August 2, 1965, the 6th Ministry approved the design of Type 991. In March 1966, some final modification begun at Wuchang Shipyard, where the ship was planned to be built, and this final modification was completed in June 1966. However, Wuchang Shipyard did not built the ship, but instead, the ship was built in Guangzhou Shipyard, with work begun in 1967 and launched on June 7, 1969. On January 1, 1971, trials were successfully completed and the ship entered service in Chinese South Sea Fleet with pennant number B230. Type 991I is equipped with10 ton (98.1 KN) EKM-20 cable laying machine that is indigenously designed in China. Specification: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42714440 | 2,071,908 |
1,410,838 | The IPCC First Assessment Report in 1990 noted evidence that Holocene climatic optimum around 5,000-6,000 years ago had been warmer than the present (at least in summer) and that in some areas there had been exceptional warmth during "a shorter Medieval Warm Period (which may not have been global)", the "Medieval Climatic Optimum" from the "late tenth to early thirteenth centuries (about AD 950-1250)", followed by a cooler period of the Little Ice Age which ended only in the middle to late nineteenth century. The report discussed the difficulties with proxy data, "mainly pollen remains, lake varves and ocean sediments, insect and animal remains, glacier termini" but considered tree ring data was "not yet sufficiently easy to assess nor sufficiently integrated with indications from other data to be used in this report." A "schematic diagram" of global temperature variations over the last thousand years has been traced to a graph based loosely on Lamb's 1965 paper, nominally representing central England, modified by Lamb in 1982. Mike Hulme describes this schematic diagram as "Lamb's sketch on the back of an envelope", a "rather dodgy bit of hand-waving". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5354105 | 1,410,046 |
993,352 | A 1976 article in "The New York Times" described the campus as a "cheerful, optimistic place where people smile a lot and tend to be considerate and trusting". In 1992 "The New York Times" reported that the university was a place where all students and faculty meditate, and all the Maharishi's teachings are woven into mathematics, physics and every other subject, similar to colleges with strong religious affiliations, while noting it is "an accredited university with grant-winning faculty members and competitive students". The article goes on to say that even as the university gains research grants and subsequent credibility, it also faces controversy. For example, one critic, 1979 alumnus Curtis Mailloux, called the campus a "coercive environment" with a "propensity for fraudulent research". Accreditation officials say they are aware of these accusations and "have been aggressive in checking Marahishi International's academic freedom". The deputy director of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS), Steven D. Crow, says "Every move the university's made has been monitored" and MIU's library, faculty, academic mission and classroom space have been deemed appropriate. At the same time John W. Patterson, a professor at Iowa State University has harshly criticized The North Central Association's evaluation, saying it "does nothing more than to lend credibility to these crackpots". The article also reports that many non-students have moved to the city of Fairfield "so they can meditate in the [campus meditation] domes". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=271937 | 992,835 |
12,926 | In the southern sector, the Israeli Barak Armored Brigade had to defend a much flatter terrain. It also faced two-thirds of the Syrian second wave, while fielding at this time less than a third of the operational Israeli tanks. Beside these objective draw-backs, it suffered from ineffective command. Ben-Shoham initially still had his headquarters in Nafah, far from his sector. He did not realise a full war was in progress and tended to spread the 53rd TB platoons along the entire line, to stop any Syrian incursion. Also, he failed to coordinate the deployment of 82nd TB and 53rd TB. The commander of 53rd TB, Lieutenant-Colonel Oded Eres, sent the two arriving companies of 82nd TB to his right flank and centre. No further reinforcement materialising, he urgently ordered the southern company to the north again; it was ambushed on the way. His left flank at Kudne remained unreinforced, although the defending company had increased the number of operational tanks to eight. This was the main axis of the Syrian 9th Infantry Division and its commander, Colonel Hassan Tourkmani, ordered the remnants of an organic tank battalion to be sacrificed forcing the minefield belt. Subsequently, the Syrian 51st Armored Brigade bypassed bunker complex 111 after dark. It then overran the Israeli supply compound at the Hushniya cross-roads. Parts of the 75th Mechanised Infantry Battalion had been concentrated at Hushniya, but they did not consist of its two organic tank companies; they were M-113 units. Lacking modern antitank weapons, Israeli infantry was ineffective at stopping Syrian armor. The 51st AB passing through the Kudne/Rafid Gap turned northwest to move along the Petroleum Road or "Tapline Road", which provided a diagonal route across the heights, running straight from Hushniya to Nafah, the Israeli Golan headquarters, in the rear of the Quneitra Gap. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34276 | 12,921 |
912,903 | Hadrosaur research experienced a surge in the decade of the 2000s, similar to the research of other dinosaurs. In response to this, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal Tyrrell Museum collaborated to arrange the International Hadrosaur Symposium, a professional meeting about ongoing hadrosaur research that was held at the latter institution on September 22 and 23 in 2011. Over fifty presentations were made at the event, thirty-six of which were later incorporated into a book, titled "Hadrosaurs", published in 2015. The volume was brought together primarily by palaeontologists David A. Eberth and David C. Evans, and featured an afterword from John R. Horner, all of whom also contributed to one or more of the studies published therein. The first chapter of the volume was a study by David B. Weishampel about the rate of ornithopod research over history, and the interest in different aspects of it over that history, using the 2004 volume "The Dinosauria" as the source of data on the amount of works published in each decade. Various periods of high and low activity were found, but the twenty-first century was found to overwhelmingly be the most prolific time, with over two-hundred papers published. The advent of the internet was cited as a likely catalyst for this boom. Hadrosaur research experienced high levels of diversity within the decade, with previously uncommon subjects such as growth, phylogeny, and biogeography experiencing more attention, though the functional morphology of hadrosaurids was found to have declined in study since the Dinosaur Renaissance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1091928 | 912,424 |
1,019,800 | PFCs, also known as fluorocarbons, are inert, water-insoluble, synthetic compounds, consisting primarily of carbon and fluorine atoms bonded together in strong C–F bonds. PFCs are substantially clear and colorless liquid emulsions that are heterogeneous in molecular weight, surface area, electronic charge, and viscosity; their high content of electron-dense fluorine atoms results in little intramolecular interaction and low surface tension, making such substances excellent solvents for gases, especially oxygen and carbon dioxide. Some of these molecules can dissolve 100 times more oxygen than plasma. PFCs are naturally hydrophobic and need to be emulsified to be injected intravenously. Since PFCs dissolve rather than bind oxygen, their capacity to serve as a blood substitute is determined principally by the pO gradients in the lung and at the target tissue. Therefore, their oxygen transport properties differ substantially from those of whole blood and, especially, from those of RBCs. At a conventional ambient pO of 135 mmHg, the oxygen content of 900 mL/L perfluorocarbon is less than 50 mL/L, whereas an optimal oxygen content of 160 mL/L, which is still lower than that of whole blood in normal conditions, can be achieved only by a pO greater than 500 mmHg. In practice, at a conventional alveolar pO of 135 mmHg, PFCs will not be able to provide sufficient oxygenation to peripheral tissues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2087922 | 1,019,273 |
399,560 | In order to minimise the confounding influence of external factors, patients undergoing infrared thermographic testing must conform to special restrictions regarding the use of certain vasoconstrictors (namely, nicotine and caffeine), skin lotions, physical therapy, and other diagnostic procedures in the days prior to testing. Patients may also be required to discontinue certain pain medications and sympathetic blockers. After a patient arrives at a thermographic laboratory, he or she is allowed to reach thermal equilibrium in a 16–20 °C, draft-free, steady-state room wearing a loose fitting cotton hospital gown for approximately twenty minutes. A technician then takes infrared images of both the patient's affected and unaffected limbs, as well as reference images of other parts of the patient's body, including his or her face, upper back, and lower back. After capturing a set of baseline images, some labs further require the patient to undergo cold-water autonomic-functional-stress-testing to evaluate the function of their autonomic nervous system's peripheral vasoconstrictor reflex. This is performed by placing a patient's unaffected limb in a cold water bath (approximately 20 °C) for five minutes while collecting images. In a normal, intact, functioning autonomic nervous system, a patient's affected extremity will become colder. Conversely, warming of an affected extremity may indicate a disruption of the body's normal thermoregulatory vasoconstrictor function, which may sometimes indicate underlying CRPS. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=56283 | 399,362 |
267,200 | During the last two decades, eco-evolutionary studies have investigated the relevance of life-history traits and environmental conditions on telomeres of wildlife. Most of these studies have been conducted in endotherms, i.e. birds and mammals. They have provided evidence for the inheritance of telomere length; however, heritability estimates vary greatly within and among species. Age and telomere length often negatively correlate in vertebrates, but this decline is variable among taxa and linked to the method used for estimating telomere length. In contrast, the available information shows no sex differences in telomere length across vertebrates. Phylogeny and life history traits such as body size or the pace of life can also affect telomere dynamics. For example, it has been described across species of birds and mammals. In 2019, a meta-analysis confirmed that the exposure to stressors (e.g. pathogen infection, competition, reproductive effort and high activity level) was associated with shorter telomeres across different animal taxa. Telomeres are also a candidate health biomarker for ecotoxicology studies, however, their use still needs further validation as the current literature is taxonomically biased and limited by a reduced number of experimental and longitudinal approaches. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54888 | 267,056 |
161,661 | There are various important electrochemical processes in both nature and industry, like the coating of objects with metals or metal oxides through electrodeposition, the addition (electroplating) or removal (electropolishing) of thin layers of metal from an object's surface, and the detection of alcohol in drunk drivers through the redox reaction of ethanol. The generation of chemical energy through photosynthesis is inherently an electrochemical process, as is production of metals like aluminum and titanium from their ores. Certain diabetes blood sugar meters measure the amount of glucose in the blood through its redox potential. In addition to established electrochemical technologies (like deep cycle lead acid batteries) there is also a wide range of new emerging technologies such as fuel cells, large format lithium-ion batteries, electrochemical reactors and super-capacitors that are becoming increasingly commercial. Electrochemical or coulometric titrations were introduced for quantitative analysis of minute quantities in 1938 by the Hungarian chemists László Szebellédy and Zoltan Somogyi. Electrochemistry also has important applications in the food industry, like the assessment of food/package interactions, the analysis of milk composition, the characterization and the determination of the freezing end-point of ice-cream mixes, or the determination of free acidity in olive oil. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9601 | 161,576 |
1,802,334 | In the early 1970s Edwards experienced an unexpected crisis. Disenchanted by the European music of the time, which was itself in crisis due to the waning of the Modernist movement, he found himself unable to compose for several years. Having returned to Australia due to the terminal illness of his mother, and while lecturing at the Sydney Conservatorium, he moved in 1974 with his wife and infant son to the village of Pearl Beach, north of Sydney, where his sister-in-law had a holiday house. Pearl Beach, which adjoined the Brisbane Water National Park "buzzing with wildlife", had an immediate effect on him and his work. "The summer days were swathed in the drones of cicadas with their mysteriously abrupt starts and stops and, at evening, the insects would start up. I was entranced by the insect chorus because it seemed to be on the verge of conveying some profound message which was ultimately elusive. All the temporal relationships in my music – the relative lengths of phrases and sections – are influenced by these ancient voices, whose near-symmetries and inconsistently varied repetitions often seem close to our inherited musical syntax. I don’t doubt that, over the millennia, such voices have generated much of the world’s music and it’s not hard to detect their presence in various surviving folk and religious traditions". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4963057 | 1,801,321 |
1,925,197 | The Blackmer cell was more precise and had a greater dynamic range that prior VCA topologies but it required well-matched complementary transistors of both polarity types that could not yet be implemented in a silicon integrated circuit (IC). Contemporary junction isolation technology offered poorly performing p-n-p transistors so integrated circuit designers had to use n-p-n transistors alone. The Gilbert and Dolby circuits were easily integrated in silicon but the Blackmer cell had to be assembled from tediously selected, precision-matched, discrete transistors. To ensure isothermal operation, these metal-can transistors were firmly held together with a thermally conductive ceramic block and insulated from the environment with a steel can. The first hybrid integrated circuits of this type, the "black can" dbx202, were manufactured by Blackmer's company in 1973. Five years later, Blackmer released the improved dbx202C "gold can" hybrid IC; total harmonic distortion decreased from 0.03% to 0.01% and gain control range increased from to . In 1980, Blackmer released a version designed by Bob Adams, the dbx2001. Unlike earlier Blackmer cells that operated in lean class AB, the dbx2001 operated in class A. Distortion dropped to less than 0.001% but the noise and dynamic range of the dbx2001 were inferior to those of class AB circuits. This first generation of Blackmer VCAs had a very long service life; as of 2002, analogue consoles built around the original dbx202 "cans" were still being used in professional recording studios. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63925564 | 1,924,093 |
1,049,780 | Sega's "Gun Fight" (1969) had two players control cowboy figurines on opposing sides of a playfield full of obstacles, with each player attempting to shoot the opponent's cowboy. It had a Western theme and was one of the first games to feature competitive head-to-head shooting between two players, inspiring several early Western-themed shooter video games. Notably, the game's concept was adapted by Tomohiro Nishikado into Taito's shooter video game "Western Gun" (1975), which Midway released as "Gun Fight" in North America. Sega's "Jet Rocket", developed in 1969, was a combat flight-simulator featuring cockpit controls that could move the player aircraft around a landscape displayed on a screen and shoot missiles onto targets that explode when hit. The game displayed three-dimensional terrain with buildings, produced using a new type of special belt technology along with fluorescent paint to simulate a night view. At Japan's 1970 Coin Machine Show, "Jet Rocket" was considered the best game at the show. Upon its debut, the game was cloned by three Chicago manufacturers, which led to the game under-performing in North America and Sega leaving the North American arcade market for years. Sega released several other similar EM flight combat games, including "Dive Bomber" (1971) and "Air Attack" (1972). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=34967368 | 1,049,234 |
1,741,616 | Deuterium abundance can be useful in tracking migration of various animals. Animals with metabolically inert tissue (e.g. feathers or hair) will have synthesized that tissue using hydrogen from source water and food but ideally not incorporate subsequent water over the course of the migration. Because δD tends to vary geographically, the difference between animal tissue δD and post-migration water δD, after accounting for the biological fractionation of assimilation, can provide information regarding animal movement. In monarch butterflies, for example, wing chitin is metabolically inert after it has been built, so it can reflect the isotopic composition of the environmental water at the time and location of wing growth. This then creates a record of butterfly origin and can be used to determine migration distance. This approach can also be used in bats and birds, using hair and feathers, respectively. Since rainwater becomes depleted as elevation is increased, this method can also track altitudinal migration. However, this is technically difficult to do, and the resolution appears to be too poor to track small altitudinal changes. Deuterium is most useful in tracking movement of species between areas with large continental water variation, because species movement can be complicated by the similarity of local water δD values between different geographic regions. For example, source water from Baja California may have the same δD as water from Maine. Further, a proportion of the hydrogen isotope composition within the tissue can exchange with water and complicate the interpretation of measurements. In order to determine this percentage of isotopic exchange, which varies according to local humidity levels, standards of metabolically inert tissue from the species of interest can be constructed and equilibrated to local conditions. This allows measured δD from different geographic regions to be compared against each other. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=50525886 | 1,740,632 |
1,028,657 | The penultimate race of the 1961 World Championship was to be a showdown between two Ferrari drivers. The team had already won the Constructors' title so it was a straight fight between Wolfgang Von Trips and Phil Hill for the Drivers' title although Moss still had a mathematical chance of victory if he won both races. The advantage lay with Wolfgang Von Trips who had 33 points to Phil Hill's 29. The Ferrari team had a new recruit at the Monza Autodrome near Milan, 19-year old Mexican Ricardo Rodriguez taking over the team's fourth car while Giancarlo Baghetti re-appeared in a private Ferrari. Once again Jack Brabham was the only driver with the new Climax V8 engine. Stirling Moss ran his usual Lotus 18 but was not happy with it and Innes Ireland let him have his factory Lotus 21. The organisers, wanting to give the advantage to the Ferrari team decided to use the combined oval/road course again making this Monza the fastest circuit of the year. This circuit had been boycotted by the British teams last year because of the terrible quality of the extremely rough and bumpy concrete banking, which was of such poor quality and design that it even went as far as to badly affect the structural strength and reliability of the cars, particularly in regards to the cars' chassis and suspension but the British teams relented and they all competed in this year's event. As expected the powerful Ferraris were impressive, Von Trips was on pole with Rodriguez second (becoming the youngest driver ever to start a World Championship Grand Prix) ahead of Ginther and Phil Hill with Graham Hill's BRM sharing the third row with Baghetti. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1140105 | 1,028,123 |
1,301,712 | An incubator is a plastic dome-shaped machine designed as a crib that regulates a newborn infant's body temperature. The incubator is designed to allow the temperature to be adjusted according to the state of the baby's current body heat. A range of five types of incubators all serve different purposes in the neonatal intensive care unit. The closed-box incubator is used to prevent infection that could be contracted the outside of the box; it filtrates the air and keeps the moisture fresh. The double-walled incubator keeps heat inside the box. Servo-controlled incubators are controlled by skin detectors which are designed to recognize the loss or gain of body heat and make adjustments to maintain the correct temperature. The open box incubator produces heat from beneath the baby to keep it warm. Portable incubators transport the newborn to and from different parts of the hospital. In 1880, Dr. Tarnier was convinced that the maintenance of internal temperature was key to the premature infant's survival. This led him to introduce the first human incubator. Inspired by chicken eggs hatching in an incubator, he asked a zoo keeper to design a similar incubator for premature infants. Dr. Delee expanded the use and function of the incubator by incorporating an oxygen chamber and an electric controlled thermostat which allowed the incubator to be transported in ambulances. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10985068 | 1,300,998 |
1,373,551 | Chomsky focuses on the mind of the language learner or user and proposed that internal properties of the language faculty are closely linked to the physical biology of humans. He further introduced the idea of a Universal Grammar (UG) theorized to be inherent to all human beings. From the view of Biolinguistic approach, the process of language acquisition would be fast and smooth because humans naturally obtain the fundamental perceptions toward Universal Grammar, which is opposite to the usage-based approach. UG refers to the initial state of the faculty of language; a biologically innate organ that helps the learner make sense of the data and build up an internal grammar. The theory suggests that all human languages are subject to universal principles or parameters that allow for different choices (values). It also contends that humans possess generative grammar, which is hard-wired into the human brain in some ways and makes it possible for young children to do the rapid and universal acquisition of speech. Elements of linguistic variation then determine the growth of language in the individual, and variation is the result of experience, given the genetic endowment and independent principles reducing complexity. Chomsky's work is often recognized as the weak perspective of biolinguistics as it does not pull from other fields of study outside of linguistics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9568471 | 1,372,794 |
1,048,686 | In the earlier part of Padmanabhan's career (1980–2001), he made important contributions to quantum cosmology, structure formation in the universe and statistical mechanics of gravitating systems. In the 1980s, he came up with an interpretation of the Planck length as the 'zero-point length' of the spacetime based on very general considerations. This result, established by theoretical considerations and well-chosen thought experiments, finds an echo in more recent results in several other candidate models for quantum gravity. He developed the complex path method (in 1998) to study black hole thermodynamics which was a precursor to the 'tunneling paradigm' that became quite popular later on. He was a recognized authority in the subject of the statistical mechanics of gravitating systems and was a pioneer in the systematic application of these concepts to study the gravitational clustering in an expanding universe. He was invited to lecture twice at the Les Houches Schools (in 2002 and 2008) to a broader community about this subject. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7390988 | 1,048,141 |
1,756,029 | In response to the growing interest in aviation in France after the Wright brothers' visit in 1908, Anzani produced the first of a series of three-cylinder fan flight engines. The cylinders were each a single iron casting and the one-piece crankcase was aluminium. Pistons were steel with cast rings. In most of these the outer cylinders were at 60° to the central one, though a contemporary diagram shows one, described as the cross channel engine, with a 55° angle. They were all air-cooled side-valve engines; each exhaust valve was controlled from below by a cam in the crankcase. Each was mounted in a cell to the side of the cylinder, with the automatic, atmospheric pressure-driven spring-loaded inlet valve immediately above it, partly to minimise volume and partly to help cool the hot exhaust valve. Most contemporary and pre-1921 sources agree that the bores of these early engines were between 100 and 105 mm (3.93 and 4.13 in), but strokes between 120 and 150 mm (4.72 and 5.90 in) are quoted. Most state the output of these engines at about 18 kW (24 hp) at around 1,400–1,600 rpm. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23487324 | 1,755,039 |
1,958,090 | Anthracology (from "anthrax" (ἄνθραξ), the Greek word for coal) is the analysis and identification of charcoal which is preserved after carbonization, based on wood anatomy. The remains of carbonized wood come from archaeological sites and sediments, and may yield evidence of natural or anthropogenic paleo-fires. Anthracological studies are also applied to extant material, such as the inspection of charcoal of illegal provenance. The discipline was started in Brazil by Rita Scheel-Ybert in the late 1990s, but the identification of species from carbonized wood dates from the end of the 19th century. The working methods back then (based on the preparation of thin sections) were difficult and time-consuming, and research did not have a paleo-environmental approach. From the 1970s on, the use of reflected light microscopes, mainly from France by Professor Jean-Louis Vernet, allowed the multiplication of anthracological analysis, prompting the appearance of paleo-ecological studies. Anthracological analyses in Southern Brazil and in the Central Amazon have extended the knowledge of early settlements, their environmental resources and fuel economy, and the use of wood in ritual contexts. The conservation of carbonized fruits, seeds, roots and tubers has furthered the knowledge of diet and food production issues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44459808 | 1,956,966 |
1,647,475 | "Fifty Shades Freed" is the third movie in the "Fifty Shades" phenomenon. The film was filmed mainly in Vancouver, BC and the production worked hard to reduce their footprint. To begin, Fifty Shades Freed was shot consecutively with its predecessor Fifty Shades Darker which helped the production combine and reuse materials. Also, the crew eliminated plastic bottles and saved about 80,000 single use bottles. The set contained a comprehensive recycling and composing program, and had a dedicated Sustainability Production Assistant to take the point on that initiative which resulted in 75% of waste diverted from landfills. Set dressing and materials were donated to Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Great Northern Way Scene Shop, MakerLabs, and Squamish Arts Council at wrap. The Universal Pictures’ Assets Department worked with the Sustainable Lock Up in Vancouver and Recycled Movie Sets in Los Angeles to recirculate the stored sets from the trilogy for reuse and donation to local film schools, non-profits, and other productions. In total, 288 tons of set materials were donated to be reused and 99% of the trilogy's sets were kept out of landfills. Fifty Shades Freed was a recipient of a 2016 EMA Green Seal Award"." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=62121155 | 1,646,544 |
1,654,075 | Meteorological forecasts are given at specific nodes of a grid covering an area. Since wind farms are not situated on these nodes, it is then needed to extrapolate these forecasts at the desired location and at turbine hub height. Physical-based forecasting methods consist of several sub-models which altogether deliver the translation from the wind forecast at a certain grid point and model level, to power forecast at the site considered. Every sub-model contains the mathematical description of the physical processes relevant to the translation. Knowledge of all relevant processes is therefore crucial when developing a purely physical prediction method (such as the early versions of the Danish Prediktor). The core idea of physical approaches is to refine the NWPs by using physical considerations about the terrain such as the roughness, orography and obstacles, and by modeling the local wind profile possibly accounting for atmospheric stability. The two main alternatives to do so are: "(i)" to combine the modeling of the wind profile (with a logarithmic assumption in most of the cases) and the geostrophic drag law for obtaining surface winds; "(ii)" to use a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code that allows one to accurately compute the wind field that the farm will see, considering a full description of the terrain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8768560 | 1,653,143 |
253,459 | Wireless networking lags wired networking in terms of increasing bandwidth and throughput. While (as of 2013) high-density 256-QAM (TurboQAM) modulation, 3-antenna wireless devices for the consumer market can reach sustained real-world speeds of some 240 Mbit/s at 13 m behind two standing walls (NLOS) depending on their nature or 360 Mbit/s at 10 m line of sight or 380 Mbit/s at 2 m line of sight (IEEE 802.11ac) or 20 to 25 Mbit/s at 2 m line of sight (IEEE 802.11g), wired hardware of similar cost reaches closer to 1000 Mbit/s up to specified distance of 100 m with twisted-pair cabling in optimal conditions (Category 5 (known as Cat-5) or better cabling with Gigabit Ethernet). One impediment to increasing the speed of wireless communications comes from Wi-Fi's use of a shared communications medium: Thus, two stations in infrastructure mode that are communicating with each other even over the same AP must have each and every frame transmitted twice: from the sender to the AP, then from the AP to the receiver. This approximately halves the effective bandwidth, so an AP is only able to use somewhat less than half the actual over-the-air rate for data throughput. Thus a typical 54 Mbit/s wireless connection actually carries TCP/IP data at 20 to 25 Mbit/s. Users of legacy wired networks expect faster speeds, and people using wireless connections keenly want to see the wireless networks catch up. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=192397 | 253,326 |
1,304,325 | A 13.5/8 inch hypervelocity gun (a type of very large-calibre artillery) for stratospheric experiments was developed and deployed near St Margaret's in Kent. The weapon was a 13.5 inch gun Mark V lined down to 8 inches; the liner projected several feet beyond the 13.5 inch barrel. The concept was suggested by F. A. Lindemann, Winston Churchill's scientific advisor. Due to its deployment near the heavy cross-Channel guns and manning by the Royal Marine Siege Regiment, it is often erroneously assumed to have been intended as a cross-Channel gun. It was initially named "Wilfred", but this was soon changed to "Bruce", after Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. The projectiles were custom-made with external rifling to match the gun's rifling, with tighter tolerances than normal; this resulted in the need for a screwdriver-type tool to ram the projectiles. The rate of fire was very low as a result; but this was not a major concern in an experimental piece. Both high explosive and high velocity shells were made for the gun; the high velocity shell was a smoke shell, intended to burst at high altitude. Observations of the smoke were used to study conditions in the stratosphere. The gun was first test-fired in June 1942 at the Isle of Grain, also in Kent. The gun was deployed near St. Margaret's on 21 January 1943, and experimental firing commenced on 30 March 1943. Successful experiments with smoke shells were conducted in February 1944. The intended burst zone for the smoke shells was horizontally from the gun and at altitude. These trials resulted in the need for a new barrel or liner; the replacement took about two weeks. The data from these experiments was important in the development of the Grand Slam bomb. After further experimental firings, the weapon was taken out of service in February 1945. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5639727 | 1,303,609 |
485,059 | Joseph Steinberg writes that "biometrics take time to process and are often inaccurate – especially when a user is under duress – as is likely going to be the case in any situation in which he needs to brandish a gun... it is not ideal to add a requirement for power to devices utilized in cases of emergency that did not need electricity previously. How many fire codes allow fire extinguishers that require a battery to operate?" Steinberg further writes that "smartguns might be hackable" or "susceptible to government tracking or jamming...Firearms must be able to be disassembled in order to be cleaned and maintained. One of the principles of information security is that someone who has physical access to a machine can undermine its security." In a follow up piece published in January 2016, Steinberg noted that smartguns that utilize wireless communications to detect that the shooter is wearing a watch, bracelet, or other device may "allow criminals (and police) to identify who is carrying a weapon" undermining "one of the reasons that some states require people to carry their weapons concealed; if all civilian-carried guns are concealed, criminals do not know who is carrying and who is not, so they have to fear mugging everyone, which protects the unarmed as well as the armed." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1809910 | 484,810 |
277,195 | In March 1981, the USAF announced the Enhanced Tactical Fighter (ETF) program to procure a replacement for the F-111 Aardvark. The concept envisioned an aircraft capable of launching deep interdiction missions without requiring additional support in the form of fighter escort or jamming support. Under the leadership of program director David Randall "Randy" Kent , General Dynamics submitted the F-16XL, while McDonnell Douglas submitted a variant of the F-15 Eagle. Though the two aircraft were competing for the same role, they were fairly different in design approach. The F-15E is basically an F-15D two-seat trainer with the back-seat station modified to support ground-attack instruments, while the F-16XL has major structural and aerodynamic differences from the original F-16. As such, the XL would have required much more effort, time and money to put into full production. Additionally, the Strike Eagle has two engines, which gives it more thrust and capacity to carry more weapons and/or armor. Furthermore, engine redundancy can be very useful for an aircraft whose mission involves operating within the reach of anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles, in addition to the standard threats of fighter aircraft and interceptors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1883426 | 277,045 |
1,718,178 | Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses, starting out as a small outbreak and eventually turning into a major global issue. The first time the virus was noticed was in 1976 near the Ebola River in Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, the virus has been infecting people from time to time, leading to outbreaks in several African countries. The average case fatality rate of the Ebola virus is approximately 40% and to date, there have been more than 28,600 cases with 11,310 deaths. Recent studies are holding climate change liable for the uptick in Ebola. Many researchers are linking deforestation to the disease, observing that change in the landscape increases wildlife contact with humans. Ebola virus is typically found in animals of the wild and can be transmitted from these animals to humans when exposed to infected bodily fluids. The virus can also be transmitted from another human when in direct contact with the virus hosts blood, vomit, or feces. Seasonal droughts alongside strong winds, thunderstorms, heat waves, floods, landslides, and a change in rainfall patterns also impact wildlife migration. These conditions pull them away from their natural environment and closer to human proximity. One example of an Ebola outbreak caused by climate change or a shift in nature was seen during the drought of Central Africa. This ultimately amplified food insecurity leading West African communities to eat animals such as bats who were infected with the virus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63453251 | 1,717,208 |
1,886,148 | Jackson joined fellow seniors Robbie Hummel and Ryne Smith as tri-captains for the 2012 Purdue basketball team. Beginning the season with a troubling foot, he managed to average 12.5 points and four assists in his first four outings of the season (4–0). On November 18, 2011, against Temple, Lewis recorded a career high 26 points, shooting 8-14 from the floor and making 10 of 11 at the free throw line. Two days later, Jackson tallied a career high 9 rebounds in a loss to #15 ranked Alabama. On December 19, Jackson was named a candidate for the Bob Cousy Award for the second year in a row. Leading Purdue to a 20–11 record, Jackson averaged 10.4 points (2nd on team), 4.2 assists (1st), 1.3 steals (1st), and 3.2 rebounds (3rd), while shooting 72.8 percent at the line. In early December, Lewis began battling foot pains and back strains, forcing him to miss a majority of practice time. On the season, he's scored in double figures 16 times, which includes two 20+ point performances (2–0). Jackson held one of the best assist to turnover ratios in the nation, leading the Big Ten, while having the most career assists (451) amongst active Big Ten players, just ahead of Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor. At the culmination of the regular season, Jackson, along with teammate DJ Byrd, was named "Honorable Mention All-Big Ten", a repeat for Jackson. On March 9, in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, in a loss to #7 Ohio State, Jackson dished a career high 10 assists, while recording his first double-double, scoring 10 points. In his last season at Purdue, Jackson led the Boilers to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, losing to Kansas. He led them to a 22–13 overall record on the season. During his college career, Purdue went 104–37 overall, making him the winningest starting point guard in the program's history. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24028668 | 1,885,066 |
1,967,584 | These tools are the now-familiar mass spectrometry, multi-atom nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography: when applied to alkaloids these allowed relationships in structural sub-types to be clarified. This meant that attention could switch to an understanding of the biosynthetic pathways by which these materials are produced in the bacteria, fungi, plants and animals in which they are found. In 1937, Sonderhoff and Thomas showed how deuterium-labelled acetate could be used to investigate the biosynthesis of fats and steroids; by 1950 C and C labelled acetate had been incorporated into cholesterol. Alan Battersby realised that these techniques could be used to study alkaloid biosynthesis and that it was timely to do so because simple one-carbon precursors had become commercially available. By using radiolabelled starting materials incorporating tritium or, especially, C to follow intermediates on the pathway, he determined the sequence in which the multiple alkaloids found together in a given organism were formed. For example, the biosynthesis of morphine was shown to proceed from L-tyrosine via reticuline, salutaridine, thebaine, codeinone and codeine. The Battersby group worked on many other alkaloids, for example colchicine, (from the autumn crocus "Colchicum autumnale") which is used to treat gout. This was shown to be derived from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine via (S)-autumnaline. Similarly, the biosynthesis of the indole alkaloids ajmalicine, corynantheal, catharanthine and vindoline was shown to involve the precursors tryptamine and loganin. To Alan Battersby's surprise, quinine, the anti-malarial drug was shown to derive from corynantheal, although it does not share its indole substructure. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13013970 | 1,966,454 |
650,509 | The components on "Mariner 10" can be categorized into four groups based on their common function. The solar panels, power subsystem, attitude control subsystem, and the computer kept the spacecraft operating properly during the flight. The navigational system, including the hydrazine rocket, would keep "Mariner 10" on track to Venus and Mercury. Several scientific instruments would collect data at the two planets. Finally, the antennas would transmit this data to the Deep Space Network back on Earth, as well as receive commands from Mission Control. "Mariner 10"s various components and scientific instruments were attached to a central hub, which was roughly the shape of an octagonal prism. The hub stored the spacecraft's internal electronics. The Mariner 10 spacecraft was manufactured by Boeing. NASA set a strict limit of US$98 million for Mariner 10's total cost, which marked the first time the agency subjected a mission to an inflexible budget constraint. No overruns would be tolerated, so mission planners carefully considered cost efficiency when designing the spacecraft's instruments. Cost control was primarily accomplished by executing contract work closer to the launch date than was recommended by normal mission schedules, as reducing the length of available work time increased cost efficiency. Despite the rushed schedule, very few deadlines were missed. The mission ended up about US$1 million under budget. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38785 | 650,168 |
1,576,728 | As with many US universities, a period of rapid expansion occurred following the war. Enrollment for the 1946 school year was so high that temporary dormitories had to be constructed. Fifty surplus metal military barracks, each housing twenty students, were arranged into a trailer-park like camp over a mile from campus, nicknamed "tin town". This arrangement was used by students until new freshman residence halls were opened in 1953. The new dorm complex, affectionately called "Freshman Hill", was subsequently expanded with the Commons Dining Hall in 1954, two more halls in 1958, and three more in 1968, just in time for the baby boomers. The year 1961 saw major progress in academics at the institute with the construction of the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator, then the most powerful in the world, and the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. In addition to new academic buildings, the growing student body also needed a larger student union, which was finished in 1967. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32133136 | 1,575,839 |
1,546,993 | G4 is a compound method in spirit of the other "Gaussian" theories and attempts to take the accuracy achieved with G3X one small step further. This involves the introduction of an extrapolation scheme for obtaining basis set limit Hartree-Fock energies, the use of geometries and thermochemical corrections calculated at B3LYP/6-31G(2df,p) level, a highest-level single point calculation at CCSD(T) instead of QCISD(T) level, and addition of extra polarization functions in the largest-basis set MP2 calculations. Thus, Gaussian 4 (G4) theory is an approach for the calculation of energies of molecular species containing first-row, second-row, and third row main group elements. G4 theory is an improved modification of the earlier approach G3 theory. The modifications to G3- theory are the change in an estimate of the Hartree–Fock energy limit, an expanded polarization set for the large basis set calculation, use of CCSD(T) energies, use of geometries from density functional theory and zero-point energies, and two added higher level correction parameters. According to the developers, this theory gives significant improvement over G3-theory. The G4 and the related G4MP2 methods have been extended to cover transition metals. A variant of G4MP2, termed G4(MP2)-6X, has been developed with an aim to improve the accuracy with essentially identical quantum chemistry components. It applies scaling to the energy components in addition to using the HLC. In the G4(MP2)-XK method that is related to G4(MP2)-6X, the Pople-type basis sets are replaced with customized Karlsruhe-type basis sets. In comparison with G4(MP2)-6X, which covers main-group elements up to krypton, G4(MP2)-XK is applicable to main-group elements up to radon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12323349 | 1,546,116 |
2,207,370 | A FOCE system for studies of deep-sea benthic communities (designated dp-FOCE) was developed by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The dpFOCE project, deployed at a depth of 900 m, was attached to the MARS cabled seafloor observatory in Monterey Bay, central California. The system used a flume concept for maintaining greater control over the experimental volume while still maintaining access to natural seafloor sediments and suspended particulate material. Time-delay wings attached to either end of the dpFOCE chamber allow for tidally driven changes in near-bottom currents, and provide sufficient time for full hydration of the injected CO enriched seawater before entering into the experiment chamber. Fans are integrated into the dpFOCE design to control flow rates through the experimental chamber and to simulate typical local-scale flow conditions. Multiple sensors (pH, CTD, ADV, and ADCP) used in conjunction with the fans and the enriched seawater injection system allow the control loop software to achieve the desired pH offset. dpFOCE connects to shore via the MARS cabled observatory, which provides power and data bandwidth. Enriched CO seawater is produced from liquid CO held in a small container near the dpFOCE chamber; seawater flowing slowly over the top of the liquid CO dissolves some of the liquid CO producing a CO-rich dissolution plume used for injection into the dpFOCE chamber. The dpFOCE system operated over 17 months and verified the effectiveness of the design hardware and software. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41597458 | 2,206,112 |
25,760 | Known as viremia, the presence of a virus in the bloodstream enables it to be widely distributed throughout the body. Poliovirus can survive and multiply within the blood and lymphatics for long periods of time, sometimes as long as 17 weeks. In a small percentage of cases, it can spread and replicate in other sites, such as brown fat, the reticuloendothelial tissues, and muscle. This sustained replication causes a major viremia, and leads to the development of minor influenza-like symptoms. Rarely, this may progress and the virus may invade the central nervous system, provoking a local inflammatory response. In most cases, this causes a self-limiting inflammation of the meninges, the layers of tissue surrounding the brain, which is known as nonparalytic aseptic meningitis. Penetration of the CNS provides no known benefit to the virus, and is quite possibly an incidental deviation of a normal gastrointestinal infection. The mechanisms by which poliovirus spreads to the CNS are poorly understood, but it appears to be primarily a chance event – largely independent of the age, gender, or socioeconomic position of the individual. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25107 | 25,751 |
1,716,515 | As well as the drawn-out process in deciding which country should host SESAME, the project came across several other difficulties on its path to completion. Possibly the largest issue was its funding. Because the major components of the laboratory from the decommissioned BESSY I experiment, originally valued at $60 million, were being donated by the German government, funding on that front was not an issue. However, the German government stipulated that the cost of dismantling, including documentation, packing and transport, had to be provided by SESAME. The cost was an estimated $600,000, and had to be guaranteed before the end of 1999 because the BESSY building had been promised to the Max Planck Society. Schopper had been informed of this condition only a few hours before the Interim Council meeting, and asking for voluntary contributions would have been ineffective because most delegates at the meeting would not have had the authority to make financial decision. After a discussion between the Interim Council, the United States State Department, Sweden and Russia agreed to provide $200,000. Schopper saw only one possible option to save the project. He asked UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura to arrange an emergency meeting. They had a lunch together, and Schopper asked Matsuura to fund the missing $400,000 immediately. Matsuura agreed to the request and the Interim Council Members were informed after the lunch. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12260613 | 1,715,546 |
1,761,160 | Stuewe considered the book well-written, and credited Asimov with covering developments in technology since the publication of "Asimov's Guide to Science". McFadden considered the book enjoyable to read, and praised Asimov for presenting new information "from dinosaurs to robots, the solar system to new physics discoveries". Bell considered the book thorough and engaging, crediting Asimov with "encyclopedic knowledge of astronomy, geology, physics, and chemistry" and "considerable understanding and knowledge of organic chemistry, cellular function and theory, microbiology, the human body and its needs, evolution, and the mind", and providing useful "figures, sketches, and maps". Williams complimented Asimov for his updated treatment of artificial intelligence, computers, cancer, the solar system, quasars, black holes, evolution, and the energy crisis, but considered it disappointing that there was no update on genetic engineering. Williams also commented that, "There are fewer photographs and their quality is not as good as in the 1972 edition. The table of contents has been divided into very helpful subheadings, making it easy to use as a quick reference. The name and subject indexes are good." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7004633 | 1,760,167 |
355,624 | The issue of bullying within the staff at Imperial resurfaced in November 2020 when Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds North West asked the Secretary of State for Education in a written question on 24 November what steps the Office for Students had taken in response to a report by Jane McNeill QC dated 25 August which found that bullying had taken place at Imperial under the President (Alice Gast) and the Chief Financial Officer. Michelle Donelan, the Conservative MP for Chippenham, responded for the Department for Education that "The Office for Students (OfS) is considering the information it has received in relation to this matter, in line with their normal processes. As is standard practice, the OfS cannot comment on individual cases". The college was accused of a cover-up by the Universities and Colleges Union in December 2020 when it refused to publish McNeill's report, even in redacted form. The Chair of Council said that the report was kept confidential to preserve the anonymity of people who gave evidence, that its recommendations had been accepted by the senior leadership team, and that these recommendations were being implemented in full. A disciplinary panel decided that Gast's dismissal as president was not warranted and spokesperson for the college said that she had "offered wholehearted apologies to those affected". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61116 | 355,441 |
581,174 | In comparison to the albertosaurines, tyrannosaurines were more heavily built and larger. The alioramin genera of "Qianzhousaurus" and "Alioramus", however, were the exception, as they were more comparable in built to albertosaurines and have longirostrine snouts. Like albertosaurines, tyrannosaurines also had heterodont dentition, large heads design to catch and kill their prey, and short didactyl arms. Based on the growth stages of "Tyrannosaurus" (and possibly "Tarbosaurus"), tyrannosaurines undergone ontogenetic changes from gracile or slender, semi-longirostrine immatures to robust, heavy-headed adults. This implies that these animals occupy different ecological niches as they developed. While there is fossil evidence of earlier tyrannosauroids having feathers, the evidence of such structures in tyrannosaurids is controversial as a study in 2017 from Bell and colleagues found no support in feathered integument in tyrannosaurids. The study used skin impressions which are small, found widely dispersed across the post-cranium at different regions of the body with a pattern similar to crocodiles. Further the croc analogy Thomas Carr and colleagues in 2017 by studying the snout of "Daspletosaurus" suggested they have large scales with sensory sensory neuron pits under the skin This notion has been challenged from other authors who suggested a more lip-covering of the teeth. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9430305 | 580,877 |
605,732 | A critical part in the evolution of interior architecture and design is the central theme of sustainability and consciously thinking of the environment and the materials being sourced- energy use, site selection, water usage, and material selection (Leigh Bacon). This sub-category of Interior Architecture focuses on finding creative and holistic ways of building new or retro fitting existing structures that have little to no impact on the environment. The eco-friendly movement became an important issue around the 1970s when the major energy crisis struck, making individuals aware of their contributions and what can be done to help lighten the impacts (BStone). Sustainability in Interior Architecture has really taken off in the last few decades with the help and advancements of technology, discovering new materials and efficient concepts that still lend the aesthetically pleasing aspect of a design. In past years, when it came to eco-design it had a stale and lack of luxury, elegance, and overall design; which inevitably received the reputation of being a "hippies" style or way of living. This is far from the case today with the overall known importance of being environmentally responsible, having an abundant amount of material options, and wanting to withhold an aesthetic design. Sustainable design is now a preferred and desired way of thinking and building that has and will be an ever-expanding and growing field. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1201591 | 605,422 |
156,245 | Following a stroke or other injury to the brain, functional deficiencies are common. The deficits are expected to be in areas related to the part of the brain that has been damaged; if a stroke has occurred in the motor cortex, deficits may include paralysis, abnormal posture, or abnormal movement synergies. Significant recovery occurs during the first several weeks after the injury. However, recovery is generally thought not to continue past 6 months. If a specific region of the brain is injured or destroyed, its functions can sometimes be transferred and taken over by a neighbouring region. There is little functional plasticity observed in partial and complete callosotomies; however, much more plasticity can be seen in infant patients receiving a hemispherectomy, which suggests that the opposite hemisphere can adapt some functions typically performed by its opposite pair. In a study done by Anderson, it proved a correlation between the severity of the injury, the age of the individual and their cognitive performance. It was evident that there was more neuroplasticity in older children, even if their injury was extremely severe, than infants who suffered moderate brain injury. In some incidents of any moderate to severe brain injury, it mostly causes developmental impairments and in some of the most severe injuries it can cause a profound impact on their development that can lead to long-term cognitive effects. In the aging brain, it is extremely uncommon for neuroplasticity to occur; "olfactory bulb and hippocampus are two regions of the mammalian brain in which mutations preventing adult neurogenesis were never beneficial, or simply never occurred" (Anderson, 2005). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=490258 | 156,173 |
603,131 | The chondrocyte in cartilage matrix has rounded or polygonal structure. The exception occurs at tissue boundaries, for example the articular surfaces of joints, in which chondrocytes may be flattened or discoid. Intra-cellular features are characteristic of a synthetically active cell. The cell density of full-thickness, human, adult, femoral condyle cartilage is maintained at 14.5 (±3.0) × 10 cells/ mm from age 20 to 30 years. Although chondrocyte senescence occurs with aging, mitotic figures are not seen in normal adult articular cartilage. The structure, density, and synthetic activity of an adult chondrocyte are various according to its position. Flattened cells are oriented parallel to the surface, along with the collagen fibers, in the superficial zone, the region of highest cell density. In the middle zone, chondrocytes are larger and more rounded and display a random distribution, in which the collagen fibers also are more randomly arranged. In the deeper zones, chondrocytes form columns that are oriented perpendicular to the cartilage surface, along with the collagen fibers. Different behaviors may be exhibited by chondrocytes depending on their position within the different layers. In primary chondrocyte cultures, these zonal differences in synthetic properties may persist. The primary cilia are significant for spatial orientation of cells in developing growth plate and are sensory organelles in chondrocytes. Primary cilia work as centers for wingless type (Wnt) and hedgehog signaling and contain mechanosensitive receptors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1309267 | 602,822 |
886,438 | In the Western United States, many stream and riparian habitats have been negatively affected by livestock grazing. This has resulted in increased phosphates, nitrates, decreased dissolved oxygen, increased temperature, turbidity, and eutrophication events, and reduced species diversity. Livestock management options for riparian protection include salt and mineral placement, limiting seasonal access, use of alternative water sources, provision of "hardened" stream crossings, herding, and fencing. In the Eastern United States, a 1997 study found that waste release from pork farms have also been shown to cause large-scale eutrophication of bodies of water, including the Mississippi River and Atlantic Ocean (Palmquist, et al., 1997). In North Carolina, where the study was done, measures have since been taken to reduce the risk of accidental discharges from manure lagoons; also, since then there is evidence of improved environmental management in US hog production. Implementation of manure and wastewater management planning can help assure low risk of problematic discharge into aquatic systems. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15588468 | 885,974 |
653,051 | After the advent of the internet and digitization, renewed interest in Foote was sparked by an article published by retired petroleum geologist Ray Sorenson, in January 2011, in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' on-line journal "Search and Discovery". Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, came across Foote's work when trying to answer a colleague, Patricia Solís', question about the lack of women in early climate research. She published an article "John v Eunice — A Fascinating Tale of Early Climate Science, Women's Rights and Accidental Poisoning" on Facebook in 2016. Leila McNeill, joint editor-in-chief of the magazine "Lady Science", published an article in the "Smithsonian Magazine" in December of that year, after discussing Foote with Sorenson. Around the same time, the physicist John Perlin, who according to Nick Welsh, the executive editor of the "Santa Barbara Independent", is an author of two definitive histories on solar energy, took note of Foote and began to research her history. By 2019, and because it was the 200th anniversary of Foote's birth, both academics and journalists from many parts of the globe had begun to regularly write about Foote and the sexism and biases in the scientific community, which caused women, and particularly women scientists, to go unrecognized. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49280323 | 652,708 |
1,275,362 | In April 2012 "PLOS Medicine" published an article by three researchers who were involved in ongoing updates of a Cochrane Collaboration review of neuraminidase inhibitors for treating influenza, describing their experience of trying to gain access to clinical study reports for the antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) from the drug's manufacturer Roche. The article outlined the need for access to all clinical trial data held by pharmaceutical companies and regulators, and detailed reasons given by Roche for not sharing data on Tamiflu. In a commissioned perspective article published in the same issue of "PLOS Medicine", regulators from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other national regulatory bodies outlined a shift in their stance on access to clinical trial data but also highlighted challenges that would need to be overcome. The regulators noted, "[w]e consider it neither desirable nor realistic to maintain the status quo of limited availability of regulatory trials data" and concluded, "[w]e welcome debate on these issues, and remain confident that satisfactory solutions can be found to make complete trial data available in a way that will be in the best interest of public health". The article marked a move towards the proactive disclosure of clinical trial data and led to the EMA holding a workshop to establish how this could be done. At the workshop Guido Rasi, the EMA's Executive Director, announced "[t]oday represents the first step in delivering our vision. We are not here to decide if we will publish clinical-trial data, only how. We need to do this in order to rebuild trust and confidence in the whole system". "PLOS Medicine"'s chief editor, Virginia Barbour, was an invited speaker at the workshop representing the media. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2526606 | 1,274,670 |
47,702 | Concern exists about possible grade inflation. It is claimed that academics are under increasing pressure from administrators to award students good marks and grades with little regard for those students' actual abilities, in order to maintain their league table rankings. The percentage of graduates who receive a First (First Class Honours) has grown from 7% in 1997 to 26% in 2017, with the rate of growth sharply accelerating toward the end of this period. A 2018 study by the "UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment" concluded that improvements in faculty skill and student motivation are only two of many factors driving average grades upward, that grade inflation is real, that the British undergraduate degree classifications will become less useful to students and employers, and that inflation will undermine public confidence in the overall value of higher education. Students already believe that a First or upper Second, by itself, is no longer sufficient to secure a good job, and that they need to engage in extra-curricular activities to build their CV. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=460615 | 47,682 |
1,982,888 | Lowe had a rural upbringing in Bell Block, Taranaki, New Zealand. He attended New Plymouth Boys High School but was "bullied and unhappy", so after three years and having gained School Certificate (New Zealand), left and worked in a telephone exchange. He became a keen surfer which heightened his awareness of the environment, noting that when he was out on the waves he "saw the atmosphere directly, going down into the ocean, mixing the sounds, the smells." This convinced him that he needed to understand more about the environment. Although he had no interest in furthering his education at this time, a local teacher Ray Jackson, noting his passion for the environment, suggested that he visit the local library and read around this topic. Lowe knew that to follow this interest, more education was necessary, so he returned to New Plymouth Boys High School for one year and gained The New Zealand University Entrance qualification, the minimum requirement for tertiary education. He completed a Master's degree in Physics at Victoria University, Wellington (1969) and moved to Germany where he lived and studied from 1978 to 1983. While in Germany he applied for a government scholarship to do a PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the University of Cologne and noted "that my wife and I had four wonderful years in Jülich, and at the end of my scholarship I had gained not only a PhD but also two children born in Germany – as well as an enduring affinity with the country, its language and people." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65653530 | 1,981,749 |
937,331 | In the 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in severe disruptions in funding for Russia’s MFI (, ) fifth-generation fighter programme, which was being developed as the Mikoyan Project 1.42/1.44. Owing to high costs, the MFI was cancelled and a new programme for a more affordable multirole fifth-generation fighter, the PAK FA (, ), was initiated in April 2001 to replace the MiG-29 and Su-27. Mikoyan and Sukhoi submitted proposals, and the two companies differed in their design approach; Mikoyan’s E-721 proposal was smaller at a normal takeoff weight of 16–17 tonnes (35,000–37,000 lb) and powered by a pair of 10–11 tonne (98.1–108 kN, 22,000–24,300 lbf) thrust Klimov VK-10M engines, while Sukhoi's T-50 would be comparatively larger and more capable, with normal takeoff weight goal of 22–23 tonnes (49,000–51,000 lb) and powered by a pair of 14.5-tonne (142 kN, 32,000 lbf) thrust Lyulka-Saturn AL-41F1 engines. The Russian Defence Ministry selected Sukhoi’s proposal in April 2002. Despite not being selected, Mikoyan continued to develop its own proposal as the LMFS (, ) with its own funds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=24534095 | 936,833 |
1,836,083 | In 2020, Shaun Hendy identified a gap in the science data being provided to the New Zealand Government to inform its response to COVID-19. He set up a multi-disciplinary team as part of Te Pūnaha Matatini that developed mathematical models in different scenarios for the position New Zealand was in early in the pandemic. This team became known as "Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa" and has been a stand-alone project since 2021, funded as of 2022 by Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health. The modelling and analysis covered areas such as "hospital capability, contagion rates and likely disease spread, virus genomic tracing, contact tracing, and vaccination... translated for use by the government policymakers and front-line operators and helped inform the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic." Hendy later noted that Peter-Lucas Jones from Te Aupōuri who was present at a Board meeting that confirmed the need to focus on COVID-19, told the story of how the 1918 influenza pandemic had affected his iwi and when statistician Andrew Sporle (Ngāti Apa, Rangitāne, Te Rarawa) was brought in to co-lead work focusing on at-risk communities an iwi-led pandemic response was shaped. Other researchers Associate Professor in Statistics Ilze Ziedins, Dr Mike O'Sullivan and Associate Professor Cameron Walker from the Faculty of Engineering worked on models to predict the effect on hospitals if the virus spread widely within New Zealand. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=69981304 | 1,835,034 |
1,334,014 | Water is in some ways an unusual chemical. It is a very powerful and universal solvent. Most liquids reduce in volume on freezing, but water expands. It occurs naturally on earth in all three states of solid (ice), liquid (water) and gas(water vapour and steam). At 273.16 K or 0.16 °C (known as the triple point) it can coexist in all three states simultaneously. It has a very low molecular weight of 18 and yet a relatively high boiling point of 100 C. This is due to inter molecular forces and in particular hydrogen bonding. The surface tension is also high at 72 dynes/cm (mN/metre) which affects its ability to wet certain surfaces. It evaporates (latent heat of evaporation 2260 kJ per kg) very slowly in comparison to some solvents and hardly at all when the relative humidity is very high. It has a very high specific heat capacity (4.184 kJ/kg/K ) and that is why it is used in central heating systems in the United Kingdom and Europe. These factors have to be borne in mind when formulating waterborne resins and other water based systems such as adhesives and coatings. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63417066 | 1,333,284 |
1,609,379 | Graph theoretical approaches have set up a mathematical framework to model the pairwise communications between elements of a network. In human neuroscience, graph theory is generally applied to either functional or effective connectivity. Graph theory methods, when applied properly, can offer important new insights into the structure and function of networked brain systems, including their architecture, evolution, development, and clinical disorders. It describes meaningful information about the topological architecture of human brain networks, such as small-worldness, modular organization, and highly connected or centralized hubs. For example, in a study hypothesizing that aging processes modulate brain connectivity networks, 170 healthy elderly volunteers were submitted to EEG recordings in order to define age-related normative limits. Graph theory functions were applied to exact low-resolution electromagnetic tomography on cortical sources in order to evaluate the small-world parameter as a representative model of network architecture. It is based on the strength of synchronization in the time-varying oscillatory electromagnetic activity of different brain regions as measured by EEG or MEG. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63336797 | 1,608,474 |
1,651,493 | The Pioneer 5 mission finally managed to get a working magnetometer of this type in orbit around the sun showing that magnetic fields existed between Earth and Venus orbits. A single magnetometer was oriented along the plane perpendicular to the spin axis of the spacecraft. Search coil magnetometers have become increasingly more common in Earth observation satellites. A commonly used instrument is the triaxial search-coil magnetometer. Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (OGO missions - OGO-1 to OGO-6) The Vela (satellite) mission used this type as part of a package to determine if nuclear weapons evaluation was being conducted outside earth's atmosphere. In September 1979 a Vela satellite collected evidence of a potential nuclear burst over the South Western Indian Ocean. In 1997 the US created the FAST that was designed to investigate aurora phenomena over the poles. And currently it is investigating magnetic fields at 10 to 30 Earth radii with the THEMIS satellites THEMIS, which stands for "Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms" is an array of five satellites which hope to gather more precise history of how magnetic storms arise and dissipate. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18402950 | 1,650,561 |
255,714 | The design effort produced a number of wooden models. A 24-inch long model, made of balsa wood, demonstrated placement of internal structure and access doors. An "Air & Space" article noted "The model shop found it nearly impossible to make all the flat surfaces come to a single point in one corner. Engineers later encountered the same difficulty fabricating the prototype on the factory floor." For early tests of the design, two ⅓-scale wooden mock-ups were constructed. One model, coated in metal foil, was used to verify ECHO 1's RCS calculations, while the other was earmarked for wind tunnel tests. Afterwards, a model was moved to the Grey Butte Range radar-testing facility in the Mojave Desert near Palmdale, which allowed more accurate tests of the aircraft's RCS. In the event, the aircraft's RCS level confirmed ECHO 1's predictions. This meant Ben Rich won a quarter from Johnson, who previously insisted that the D-21 had less RCS than "Have Blue". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1253187 | 255,580 |
1,112,332 | Yet, the industry has been slowly changing since about 1999. It has adopted the "best management practices" developed by the World Bank program, for example, and others. and instituted educational programs to promote them. Due to the mangrove protection laws enacted in many countries, new farms are usually of the semi-intensive kind, which are best constructed outside mangrove areas anyway. There is a trend to create even more tightly controlled environments in these farms, with the hope to achieve better disease prevention. Waste water treatment has attracted considerable attention; modern shrimp farms routinely have effluent treatment ponds where sediments are allowed to settle at the bottom and other residuals are filtered. As such improvements are costly, the World Bank program also recommends low-intensity polyculture farming for some areas. Since it has been discovered that mangrove soils are effective in filtering waste waters and tolerate high nitrate levels, the industry has also developed an interest in mangrove reforestation, although its contributions in that area are still minor. The long-term effects of these recommendations and industry trends cannot be evaluated conclusively yet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2167405 | 1,111,766 |
1,508,621 | The Law on Science has established a system of peer review for research grant applications from universities and research institutes. These competitive grants are examined by the national research councils. The government also plans to increase the share of funding for applied research to 30% and that for experimental development to 50%, leaving 20% for basic research. The law introduced a change to the tax code which reduces corporate income tax by 150% to compensate for businesses’ research expenditure. In parallel, the law extends intellectual property protection. In addition, public and private enterprises are eligible for state loans, so as to encourage the commercialization of research results and attract investment. In order to ensure coherence, independence and transparency in the management of projects and programmes involving science, technology and innovation, the government created the National Centre for State Scientific and Technical Expertise in July 2011. A joint stock company, the centre runs the national research councils, monitors ongoing projects and programmes and evaluates their impact, while maintaining a project database. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54181703 | 1,507,773 |
1,172,481 | The difficulties that the community encountered when trying to use heavy metal fluoride glasses in the early years of development for a variety of applications were mostly related to the fragility of the fibers, a major drawback that prevented their broader adoption. However, the developers and manufacturers have dedicated significant effort in the last two decades to better understand the underlying causes of fiber fragility. The original fiber failure was primarily caused by surface defects, largely related to crystallization due to nucleation and growth, phenomena induced by factors such as raw material impurities and environmental conditions (humidity of the atmosphere during drawing, atmospheric pollutants such as vapors and dust, etc.) during processing. The particular focus on processing improvements has resulted in a 10× increase in the fiber strength. Compared to silica fiber, the intrinsic fiber strength of HMFG is currently only a factor of 2–3 lower. For example, the breaking radius of a standard 125 µm single-mode fiber is < 1.5 mm for silica and < 4 mm for ZBLAN. The technology has evolved such that HMFG fibers can be jacketed to ensure that the bending radius of the cable will never reach the breaking point and thus comply with industrial requirements. The product catalogs usually call out a safe bending radius to ensure that end users handling the fiber stay within the safe margins. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2358446 | 1,171,862 |
79,179 | The M982 Excalibur (previously XM982) is a 155 mm extended-range guided artillery shell developed in a collaborative effort between the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC). The Excalibur was developed and/or manufactured by prime contractor Raytheon Missiles & Defense, BAE Systems AB (BAE Systems Bofors) and other subs and primes in multiple capacities such as Camber Corporation and Huntington Ingalls Industries. It is a GPS- and inertial-guided munition capable of being used in close support situations within of friendly troops or in situations where targets might be prohibitively close to civilians to attack with conventional unguided artillery fire. In 2015 the United States planned to procure 7,474 rounds with a FY2015 total program cost of US$1.9341 billion at an average cost of US$258,777 per unit. By 2016, unit costs were reduced to US$68,000 per round. Versions that add laser-guidance capability and are designed to be fired from naval guns began testing in 2015. By October 2018, over 1,400 rounds had been fired in combat. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3766404 | 79,146 |
1,750,911 | The expression of consensus sequences and parallel ASR via non-ML methods are often required to disband this theory per experiment. One other concern raised by ML methods is that the scoring matrices are derived from modern sequences and particular amino acid frequencies seen today may not be the same as in Precambrian biology, resulting in skewed sequence inference. Several studies have attempted to construct ancient scoring matrices via various methodologies and have compared the resultant sequences and their protein's biophysical properties. While these modified sequences result in somewhat different ASR sequences, the observed biophysical properties did not seem to vary outside from experimental error. Because of the 'holistic' nature of ASR and the intense complexity that arises when one considers all the possible sources of experimental error – the experimental community considers the ultimate measurement of ASR reliability to be the comparison of several alternate ASR reconstructions of the same node and the identification of similar biophysical properties. While this method does not offer a robust statistical, mathematical measure of reliability it does build off of the fundamental idea used in ASR that individual amino acid substitutions do not cause significant biophysical property changes in a protein – a tenant that must be held true in order to be able to overcome the effect of inference ambiguity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39867144 | 1,749,925 |
1,120,582 | laboratory testing can distinguish the two as the presentation is so similar, with high plasma concentrations of lysosomal enzymes, often fatal in childhood. Typically, by the age of 6 months, failure to thrive and developmental delays are obvious signs of this disorder. Some physical signs, such as abnormal skeletal development, coarse facial features (e.g. bulging scaphocephalic head, flat nose), and restricted joint movement, may be present at birth. Children with ML II usually have enlargement of certain organs, such as the liver (hepatomegaly) or spleen (splenomegaly), and sometimes even the heart valves. Affected children often have stiff claw-shaped hands and fail to grow and develop in the first months of life. Delays in the development of their motor skills are usually more pronounced than delays in their cognitive (mental processing) skills. Children with ML II eventually develop a clouding on the cornea of their eyes and, because of their lack of growth, develop short-trunk dwarfism (underdeveloped trunk). These young patients are often plagued by recurrent respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia, otitis media (middle ear infections), bronchitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Children with ML II generally die before their seventh year of life, often as a result of congestive heart failure or recurrent respiratory tract infections. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5881306 | 1,120,008 |
226,237 | The genetic defect of the transcriptional regulator MECP2 is responsible for Rett syndrome. A MECP2 deficiency has been associated to catecholaminergic dysfunctions related to autonomic and sympathoadrenergic system in mouse models of Rett Syndrome (RTT). The locus coeruleus is the major source of noradrenergic innervation in the brain and sends widespread connections to rostral (cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus) and caudal (cerebellum, brainstem nuclei) brain areas and. Indeed, an alteration of this structure could contribute to several symptoms observed in MECP2-deficient mice. Changes in the electrophysiological properties of cells in the locus ceruleus were shown. These Locus Coeruleus cell changes include hyperexcitability and decreased functioning of its noradrenergic innervation. A reduction of the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA level, the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine synthesis, was detected in the whole pons of MECP2-null male as well as in adult heterozygous female mice. Using immunoquantification techniques, a decrease of TH protein staining level, number of locus coeruleus TH-expressing neurons and density of dendritic arborization surrounding the structure was shown in symptomatic MECP2-deficient mice. However, locus coeruleus cells are not dying but are more likely losing their fully mature phenotype, since no apoptotic neurons in the pons were detected. Researchers have concluded that, "Because these neurons are a pivotal source of norepinephrine throughout the brainstem and forebrain and are involved in the regulation of diverse functions disrupted in Rett Syndrome, such as respiration and cognition, we hypothesize that the locus coeruleus is a critical site at which loss of MECP2 results in CNS dysfunction. Restoration of normal locus ceruleus function may therefore be of potential therapeutic value in the treatment of Rett Syndrome." This could explain why a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (desipramine, DMI), which enhances the extracellular NE levels at all noradrenergic synapses, ameliorated some Rett syndrome symptoms in a mouse model of Rett syndrome. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=833785 | 226,121 |
1,396,247 | Donated intestines, like all organs, should be matched to a recipient prior to recovery, as to prepare him or her and minimize the time the organ spends outside the body. Potential recipients are placed on the International Intestinal Transplant Registry (ITR), where they contribute to the world's growing understanding of intestine transplantation. Before a transplant may be performed, an organ must first be located. In the United States, the matching of all organs is coordinated by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The standard intestinal donor is deceased with a diagnosis of brain death. In terms of transplant outcomes, brain-dead donors are highly preferable to donors who have suffered cardiopulmonary death. If respiration can be assisted by a ventilator, brain-dead donors may exhibit maintainable cardiac, endocrine, and excretory function. If appropriately managed, the continuation of blood flow and bodily metabolism allows for healthier organs for procurement and additional time to prepare recipients for transplant. Furthermore, terminal ileum recovery from living donors is possible., and a laparoscopic technique is being developed to harvest limited sections of small bowel from living donors. When determining potential donor-recipient matches, important characteristics include donor size, age, tissue quality, and ABO and histo-compatibility. If the intestine is too large, it may be not transplantable into young or small patients. Ideally, intestines should be selected from donors of lighter weight than the proposed recipients to ensure simple closure of the abdominal wound. If a patient is too young or too old, they may not be hardy enough to survive the operation and recovery period. If the donor and recipient organs do not meet compatibility requirements, the threat of organ rejection by the body is all but certain. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=46300441 | 1,395,476 |
1,172,581 | Lack of standardised dive computer user-interfaces can cause confusion under stress. Computer lock-out at times of great need is a potentially fatal design flaw. The meaning of alarms and warnings should be immediately obvious. The diver should be dealing with the problem, not trying to work out what it is. Displays should allow for variations in visual acuity, and be readable with colour-blindness. Ideally, critical displays should be readable without a mask, or provide for safe surfacing without a mask. There should not be too much distracting information on the main screen, and return to the main screen should be automatic by default, or auxiliary screens should continue to display critical decompression data. Dive computers are safety critical equipment, but there is very little formal training provided for their use, and models vary considerably in operation, and are often not intuitive, so skills are not transferable when a new unit is used. The user manual is usually all that is available to learn from, and it cannot be taken underwater for convenient reference. Human error in their use is quite common. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63557168 | 1,171,962 |
2,237,238 | When the Spartans opened against Boston College, it appeared like they were going to be run over by the Eagles. BC carried the play throughout the first period, outshooting MSU 13–6, but neither team managed to score. The second saw a reversal with Michigan State doubling up BC in shots, however, Brian Boyle was the only one to find the back of the net. To make matters worse, MSU squandered three successive BC penalties that game them nearly 6 consecutive minutes on the power play. With the team growing increasingly desperate for a goal, Michigan State finally converted on their 5th man-advantage of the game when Kennedy skated in on a partial break-away and fired the puck past Cory Schneider. Both goaltenders played well over the following 10 minutes to keep the score knotted at 1 and the game appeared to be heading for overtime. With about 30 seconds to play, Justin Abdelkader skated in on a 3-on-1 and fired a puck off of the crossbar. Rather then deflect out of play, the puck hit the wall and remained live. Several players fought to get control along the boards and the rubber ended up on the stick of Kennedy behind the net. He wheeled around to avoid a check and then found Abdelkader skating towards the goal mouth. Abdelkader slapped the puck far-side, beating Schneider for his only goal of the tournament. With just 19 seconds left on the clock, BC had little choice but to pull their goalie before the drop of the puck. All that served to do, however, was give Chris Mueller an empty net to shoot at and make the final score 3–1. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=72377445 | 2,235,967 |
912,588 | The low temperature difference means that water volumes must be very large to extract useful amounts of heat. A 100MW power plant would be expected to pump on the order of 12 million gallons (44,400 tonnes) per minute. For comparison, pumps must move a mass of water greater than the weight of the "battleship Bismarck", which weighed 41,700 tonnes, every minute. This makes pumping a substantial parasitic drain on energy production in OTEC systems, with one Lockheed design consuming 19.55 MW in pumping costs for every 49.8 MW net electricity generated. For OTEC schemes using heat exchangers, to handle this volume of water the exchangers need to be enormous compared to those used in conventional thermal power generation plants, making them one of the most critical components due to their impact on overall efficiency. A 100 MW OTEC power plant would require 200 exchangers each larger than a 20-foot shipping container making them the single most expensive component. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=68498 | 912,109 |
1,770,655 | Michael C. Malin, a planetary scientist and designer of the cameras used by the Mars Global Surveyor that obtained the earliest images of the CO geyser phenomenon, is studying the images acquired of specific areas and he tracks their changes over a period of a few years. In 2000, he modelled the fans and spots' dynamics as a complex process of carbon dioxide (CO) and water sublimation and re-precipitation. The typical pattern of defrosting proceeds from the initiation of small, dark spots typically located at the margins of dunes; these spots individually enlarge and eventually all coalesce. The pattern the enlargement follows is distinct and characteristic: a dark nuclear spot enlarges slowly, often with a bright outer zone or 'halo'. As these are progressive, centripetal phenomena, each location of the light zone is overtaken by an expanding dark zone. Although initially developed along dune margins, spot formation quickly spreads onto and between dunes. As spring progresses, fan-shaped tails ('spiders') develop from the central spot. Defrosting occurs as the low albedo polar sand heats beneath an optically thin layer of frost, causing the frost to evaporate. This is the dark nucleus of the spots seen on dunes. As the vapor moves laterally, it encounters cold air and precipitates, forming the bright halo. This precipitated frost is again vaporized as the uncovered zone of sand expands; the cycle repeats many times. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18418502 | 1,769,658 |
1,629,827 | In 2009 several more key innovations were yielding results at a single center KPD program, the Methodist Transplant Institute, in San Antonio led by Dr. Adam Bingaman. Prior to Dr. Bingaman's work, KPD was built on the notion that the results of a cross match test to determine donor–recipient compatibility are generally predictable and to ensure the prediction is accurate, a cross match test must be completed prior to the swap. In 5–10% of the cases, these cross match tests result in an unexpected positive cross match (bad) which causes a swap to fail. These swap failures are costly in terms of wasted time and testing but they are also demoralizing for the patients and donors involved in the cancelled swap. The Methodist program implemented the first donor blood cryo-preservation allowing the rapid cross matching of pairs in a swap without requiring fresh blood from donors. This approach accelerates the matching process, reduces swap failure rates and provides the ability to speculatively cross match potential donors for highly sensitized patients, leading to shorter wait times and more transplants for highly sensitized patients. Although the merits of using cryo-preserved donor blood for cross matching were clear, it proved difficult for multi-center KPD programs to implement cryo-preservation due to the complexity of the multi-center environment. The only U.S. multi-center KPD program that successfully implemented cryo-preservation was the National Kidney Registry but only after establishing a central lab and investing three years in software development. The second important innovation implemented in San Antonio was the re-engineering of the donor/patient intake process to educate and enroll compatible pairs in KPD so that the compatible recipient can get a better matched donor kidney. The development of cryo-preservation based cross matching and the systematic enrollment of compatible pairs has helped make San Antonio one of the leading KPD centers in the U.S. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49687007 | 1,628,908 |
1,029,795 | The Unit's biological research was restricted to free-living nitrogen fixers, chosen as more amenable material for its research than those requiring a plant symbiosis. Its approach ranged from biochemical enzymology to microbial physiology and general microbiology, and in due course it introduced the genetics, and was genuinely collaborative, with everyone, including Postgate, working at the bench. Almost all its research publications were multi-authored and Postgate's name appeared only on those original papers to which he had actively contributed - though he prescribed and oversaw all his staff's research directions. Outstanding papers were: a series deducing mode of action of nitrogenase, the enzyme responsible for the initial attack of nitrogen, which is an oxygen-sensitive complex of two proteins, iron and molybdenum, which requires energy in the form of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to function and which releases hydrogen from water while fixing nitrogen; the elucidation of oxygen-screening processes in an oxygen-tolerant species of nitrogen fixer and the discovery in that microbe of a second nitrogenase containing vanadium in place of molybdenum alongside the regular one; the elucidation of a cluster of some 21 genes which code for the whole nitrogen-fixing system, the creation of mobile genetic elements carrying that cluster and the transfer therewith of the ability to fix nitrogen to wholly new bacteria by genetic manipulation. One of the Unit's plasmids came into worldwide use to study the genetics of nitrogen fixation. The Unit's reputation prospered as a world centre for basic research on the subject. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42616525 | 1,029,261 |
592,140 | Miscanthus chips have a bulk density of , bales , while pellets and briquettes have a bulk density of respectively. Torrefaction works hand in hand with this trend towards a denser and therefore cheaper to transport product, specifically by increasing the product's "energy" density. Torrefaction removes (by gasification) the parts of the biomass that has the lowest energy content, while the parts with the highest energy content remain. That is, approximately 30% of the biomass is converted to gas during the torrefaction process (and potentially used to power the process), while 70% remains, usually in the form of compacted pellets or briquettes. This solid product contains approximately 85% of the original biomass energy however. Basically the mass part has shrunk more than the energy part, and the consequence is that the calorific value of torrefied biomass increases significantly, to the extent that it can compete with energy dense coals used for electricity generation (steam/thermal coals). The energy density of the most common steam coals today is . Torrefaction can be done "autothermic" (i.e. the required energy is delivered by partial combustion of the to-be-torrefied material) or "heterothermic" (i.e. the required process heat is delivered from outside sources). In the heterothermic case, torrefaction can also serve as an indirect method of energy storage as the material can be torrefied when power is cheap and plentiful and the gaseous and/or solid products can be burned in a peaking power plant when power is scarce. The gaseous products of torrefaction are similar to syngas and can be used for various processes in the chemical industry in a similar fashion as fossil fuels. The high-carbon solid products of torrefaction can be deposited in the soil as biochar (provided the level of various pollutants is low enough) or used to produce hydrogen in the water–gas shift reaction if simply burning it is not desirable. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8202316 | 591,838 |
1,635,831 | Subtelomeric transcripts largely consist of either pseudogenes (transcribed genes producing RNA sequences not translated into protein) or gene families. In humans, they code for olfactory receptors, immunoglobulin heavy chains, and zinc-finger proteins. In other species, several parasites such as "Plasmodium" and "Trypanosoma brucei" have developed sophisticated evasion mechanisms to adapt to the hostile environment posed by the host, such as exposing variable surface antigens to escape the immune system. Genes coding for surface antigens in these organisms are located at subtelomeric regions, and it has been speculated that this preferred location facilitates gene switching and expression, and the generation of new variants. For example, the genes belonging to the "var" family in "Plasmodium falciparum" (agent of malaria) are mostly localized in subtelomeric regions. Antigenic variation is orchestrated by epigenetic factors, including monoallelic var transcription at separate spatial domains at the nuclear periphery (nuclear pore), differential histone marks on otherwise identical var genes, and var silencing mediated by telomeric heterochromatin. Other factors such as non-coding RNA produced in subtelomeric regions adjacent or within "var" genes may contribute as well to antigenic variation. In "Trypanosoma brucei" (agent of sleeping sickness), variable surface glycoprotein (VSG) antigenic variation is a relevant mechanism used by the parasite to evade the host immune system. VSG expression is exclusively subtelomeric and occurs either by in situ activation of a silent VSG gene or by DNA rearrangement that inserts an internal silent copy of a VSG gene into an active telomeric expression site. To contrast with "Plasmodium falciparum", in "Trypanosoma brucei", antigenic variation is orchestrated by epigenetic and genetic factors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2794604 | 1,634,907 |
525,242 | Launched in September 2017, PocketBeagle offers identical computing performance to BeagleBone Black in a physical form factor that offers over 50% reduction in size and 75% reduction in weight, along with over 40% cheaper purchase price (December 2018 MSRP US$25 vs. US$45 for BeagleBone Black). The miniaturization was made possible by using the Octavo Systems OSD3358-SM that shrinks all major subsystems of the BeagleBone Black into a single ceramic package attached using ball grid array. The advantages of the miniaturization come at the cost of removal of all built-in connectors except for a single micro USB port, the removal of on-board eMMC flash storage, and a reduction of header pins from 92 down to 72 due to space constraints, meaning that most capes will either not work at all or need heavy modifications to work with PocketBeagle. Just as the BeagleBone Black's printed circuit board (PCB) is cut to fit snugly in an Altoids mint tin, PocketBeagle's PCB is cut to fit snugly in an Altoids Smalls mint tin. Recommended use cases for PocketBeagle include embedded devices where size and weight considerations are most critical, such as quadcopter drones and other miniaturized robotics, along with handheld gaming applications. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18829463 | 524,970 |
1,917,776 | During the fifties and early sixties, Marcel Pourbaix and his collaborators produced potential-pH diagrams for all the elements and published the "Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria" in French in 1963 and in English in 1966. As early as in 1962, he introduced the concept of a protection potential against the propagation of localized corrosion, which he developed in 1963, in relation with the peculiar electrochemical conditions in occluded electrochemical cells. Pourbaix' doctoral thesis had a major influence on corrosion science. Ulick R. Evans found this work important and arranged for an English translation, published by Arnold (London) in 1949. In 1949, he was one of the founders of CITCE (Comite International de Thermodynamique et Cinetique Electrochimiques) together with 13 other electrochemists: C.Boute, J.Gillis, A. Julliard (Belgium), P. Delahay, P.Van Rysselberghe (USA), J.O'M.Bockris, T.P.Hoar (UK), G.Charlot, G.Valensi (France), R.Piontelli (Italy), G.Burgers (The Netherlands) and J.Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia). CITCE was a success. In 1971 the name was changed to International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). The current membership is over 1100 with members from 59 countries. In 1951 he founded CEBELCOR, which became one of the world's first centres dedicated to the theoretical and experimental study of corrosion phenomena. In 1952 Pourbaix founded the Commission of Electrochemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and that Commission clarified in 1953 the chaotic state of affairs then prevailing in the signs of electrode potentials. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2423012 | 1,916,676 |
383,665 | In addition to the facilities on Charles Street, the Central YMCA allocated some space in their building for evening classes. The enrollment during this period increased to 662 students in the fall of 1947 and the establishment of an accredited, full-time undergraduate program, at the newly designated Waterbury Branch of the University of Connecticut. Students were able to take the comprehensive Freshman and Sophomore programs in Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, and Engineering as well as Continuing Education for adults. Classes continued to be held at the Begnal School until 1955. At that time, due in large part to local citizen groups, the City of Waterbury and the State of Connecticut, a new four-acre campus at 32 Hillside Avenue was provided. At first, classes and administration were housed together in the Benedict-Miller House at the center of the property. As the need for more space continued to strain the existing facilities, more buildings were added to the site, including a sixteen-room classroom building, a library, as well as a building housing the science and engineering curriculum, bookstore and cafeteria. In 1971, a garrison colonial on Buckingham Street was purchased and became the new home of the campus administration. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=239846 | 383,470 |
2,136,873 | The rise of Systems Biology, seeking to comprehend biological processes as a whole, highlighted the need to not only develop corresponding quantitative models, but also to create standards allowing their exchange and integration. This concern drove the community to design common data format such as SBML and CellML. SBML is now largely accepted and used in the field. However, as important as the definition of a common syntax is, it is also necessary to make clear the semantics of models. SBO is an attempt to provide the means of annotating models with terms that indicate the intended semantics of an important subset of models in common use in computational systems biology. The development of SBO was first discussed at the 9th SBML Forum Meeting in Heidelberg Oct. 14–15, 2004. During the forum, Pedro Mendes mentioned that modellers possessed a lot of knowledge that was necessary to understand the model, and more importantly to simulate it, but this knowledge was not encoded in SBML. Nicolas Le Novère proposed to create a controlled vocabulary to store the content of Pedro Mendes' mind before he wandered out of the community. The development of the ontology was announced more officially in a message from Le Novère to Michael Hucka and Andrew Finney on October 19. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6974837 | 2,135,644 |
2,104,910 | Knowles began his career in 1991 with a research fellowship at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, before moving to New Zealand to work as a research and consultancy metallurgist for Industrial Research Ltd between 1993 and 1995. He then returned to the University of Cambridge in 1995 to take up a post as Lecturer in Mechanical Properties of Materials, and was also appointed Assistant Director of Research of the Rolls Royce University Technology Centre. His research at that time focussed on fatigue and creep in nickel based superalloys including high stress 'low' temperature creep anisotropy in single crystals. In 2001 Knowles returned to New Zealand to take up the role of CTO at MPT Solutions, where he continued to publish academic papers with a developing interest in crystal plasticity. In 2006 he was appointed Global Research Leader for Materials at Shell Global Solutions, based in Amsterdam looking into materials for LNG and gas to liquid technologies. In 2010, he moved to Atkins as their materials authority in the energy sector, focussing on offshore wind turbine foundations and nuclear Advanced Gas Reactors. In 2016 he took up a post at the University of Bristol as Professor of Nuclear Engineering, and Co-Director of the South West Nuclear Hub. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67385305 | 2,103,697 |
625,508 | In July 2012, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was proposed by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins. The bill would have required creating voluntary "best practice standards" for protection of key infrastructure from cyber attacks, which businesses would be encouraged to adopt through incentives such as liability protection. The bill was put to a vote in the Senate but failed to pass. Obama had voiced his support for the Act in a "Wall Street Journal" op-ed, and it also received support from officials in the military and national security including John O. Brennan, the chief counterterrorism adviser to the White House. According to "The Washington Post", experts said that the failure to pass the act may leave the United States "vulnerable to widespread hacking or a serious cyberattack." The act was opposed by Republican senators like John McCain who was concerned that the act would introduce regulations that would not be effective and could be a "burden" for businesses. After the Senate vote, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison stated that the opposition to the bill was not a partisan issue but it not take the right approach to cybersecurity.The senate vote was not strictly along partisan lines, as six Democrats voted against it, and five Republicans voted for it. Critics of the bill included the US Chamber of Commerce, advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, cybersecurity expert Jody Westby, and The Heritage Foundation, both of whom argued that although the government must act on cybersecurity, the bill was flawed in its approach and represented "too intrusive a federal role." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3421940 | 625,175 |
248,691 | During 2008, Cerf chaired the Internationalized domain name (IDNAbis) working group of the IETF. In 2008 Cerf was a major contender to be designated the first U.S. Chief Technology Officer by President Barack Obama. Cerf is the co-chair of Campus Party Silicon Valley, the US edition of one of the largest technology festivals in the world, along with Al Gore and Tim Berners-Lee. From 2009 to 2011, Cerf was an elected member of the Governing Board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). SGIP is a public-private consortium established by NIST in 2009 and provides a forum for businesses and other stakeholder groups to participate in coordinating and accelerating development of standards for the evolving Smart Grid. Cerf was elected to a two-year term as president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) beginning July 1, 2012. In 2015 Cerf co-founded (with Mei Lin Fung), and is currently chairman of, People-Centered Internet (PCI). On January 16, 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint Cerf to the National Science Board. Cerf served until May 2018 when his six-year term expired. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32433 | 248,563 |
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