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315,132 | When Martin Gardner retired from writing his "Mathematical Games" column for "Scientific American" magazine, Hofstadter succeeded him in 1981–83 with a column titled "Metamagical Themas" (an anagram of "Mathematical Games"). An idea he introduced in one of these columns was the concept of "Reviews of This Book", a book containing nothing but cross-referenced reviews of itself that has an online implementation. One of Hofstadter's columns in "Scientific American" concerned the damaging effects of sexist language, and two chapters of his book "Metamagical Themas" are devoted to that topic, one of which is a biting analogy-based satire, "A Person Paper on Purity in Language" (1985), in which the reader's presumed revulsion at racism and racist language is used as a lever to motivate an analogous revulsion at sexism and sexist language; Hofstadter published it under the pseudonym William Satire, an allusion to William Safire. Another column reported on the discoveries made by University of Michigan professor Robert Axelrod in his computer tournament pitting many iterated prisoner's dilemma strategies against each other, and a follow-up column discussed a similar tournament that Hofstadter and his graduate student Marek Lugowski organized. The "Metamagical Themas" columns ranged over many themes, including patterns in Frédéric Chopin's piano music (particularly his études), the concept of superrationality (choosing to cooperate when the other party/adversary is assumed to be equally intelligent as oneself), and the self-modifying game of Nomic, based on the way the legal system modifies itself, and developed by philosopher Peter Suber. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8758 | 314,963 |
2,165,730 | Installation Squadrons and Combat Communications Squadrons. While the organization was charged with providing, installing, operating, and maintaining communications equipment for deployed flying units, it did so from "scratch", with a greater variety of small components than today's relatively complete tactical capabilities. Beginning in 1953, the headquarters planned and directed Group-Wide Exercises at locations across the country, beginning with Annual Training at Stewart AFB, New York, in August of that year. In 1954, the organization was authorized with its first full-time officer Air Technician: Capt (later Lt Col) Herbert E. Moore. In that year, the headquarters strength increased to nine officers and nine enlisted personnel. The 251st started remissioning into a Cyberspace Engineering Installation Group in 2010. The current mission of the Headquarters, 251CEIG is to command, organize, equip, train and administer assigned and attached forces to ensure readiness in order to provide communications engineering and installation services to support emergency USAF requirements and to provide a staff element for management of Communications and Electronics (C-E) personnel when deployed in support of Air Force taskings. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23155251 | 2,164,493 |
1,040,460 | Deficiency in PAH activity due to mutations in "PAH" causes hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA), and when blood phenylalanine levels increase above 20 times the normal concentration, the metabolic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) results. PKU is both genotypically and phenotypically heterogeneous: Over 300 distinct pathogenic variants have been identified, the majority of which correspond to missense mutations that map to the catalytic domain. When a cohort of identified PAH mutants were expressed in recombinant systems, the enzymes displayed altered kinetic behavior and/or reduced stability, consistent with structural mapping of these mutations to both the catalytic and tetramerization domains of the enzyme. BH4 has been administered as a pharmacological treatment and has been shown to reduce blood levels of phenylalanine for a segment of PKU patients whose genotypes lead to some residual PAH activity but have no defect in BH4 synthesis or regeneration. Follow-up studies suggest that in the case of certain PAH mutants, excess BH4 acts as a pharmacological chaperone to stabilize mutant enzymes with disrupted tetramer assembly and increased sensitivity to proteolytic cleavage and aggregation. Mutations that have been identified in the PAH locus are documented at the Phenylalanine Hydroxylase Locus Knowledgbase (PAHdb, https://web.archive.org/web/20130718162051/http://www.pahdb.mcgill.ca/). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=213841 | 1,039,917 |
1,173,565 | There are reports that medical tricorders may emerge from "diagnostic medical apps" via Tablet Computers and smartphones. Some existing smartphones have been used as medical devices in the sense that text reminders have been sent to a patient about prescription renewals, and downloadable apps allow cameras in cell phones to act as sensors to track heart and breathing rates. One neurologist uses iPhone smartphone apps entitled "Liftpulse" and "iSeismograph" to diagnose and measure tremors in patients with Parkinson's disease. Some apps take advantage of sensors built into the smartphone hardware, such as a microphone, camera, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, proximity sensor, luxmeter, and sensors for temperature and humidity. Physicians use a device called an otoscope to look inside the ear, and such a device could be made which clips onto an iPhone, according to one report. There was a report that a tricorder to detect atmospheric analysis has been built. There are reports of fitness scanners available which are worn on a person's wrist, which relay information such as heart rate. The United States Department of Homeland Security has announced a "standoff patient triage tool" which is laser-based which helps medics evaluate a patients' vital signs wirelessly from away. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37804721 | 1,172,945 |
367,713 | In 1998 Greece decided, in collaboration with the German Aerospace Industry (DASA) and the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI/EAB), to upgrade 39 F-4E Phantom II fighters. The first aircraft was delivered at Andravida Air Base in December 2002. This aircraft, which was named ""Princess of Andravida"" (s/n 72-01523), was unique because it did not have the M61 Vulcan gun installed. All upgraded F-4s were equipped with the new AN/APQ-65YG radar similar to that of the F/A-18 Hornet, a new onboard Mission Control Computer (MCC), a Head Up Display, the IFF Interrogator, Multi Function Displays and were also capable of carrying a variety of advanced Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground missiles. These included the AIM-120 AMRAAM (although only the -B edition), the AIM-9M missile, the AFDS and the entire family of the Paveway (I, II and III) laser-guided bombs. These aircraft were the F-4E Peace Icarus 2000 (PI2000) or F-4E Phantom II AUP (Avionics Upgrade Program) variants. Although gradual retirement of F-4 units started in 2017, they are still operational in multi-role missions with the 338 Squadron "Ares" and the 339 Squadron "Ajax" based in Andravida Air Force Base. The F-4E Phantom II PI2000 (AUP) has been certified for use of GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bombs, making the aircraft an excellent and modern platform for precision strikes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=363254 | 367,520 |
1,568,616 | Utilization of HDC/ABMT for breast cancer decreased sharply after the negative reports revealed at the ASCO meeting in 1999. In addition, a mixture of wins and losses from litigation lawsuits over health insurance corporations' coverage of the treatment influenced the decline of the treatment, because technology assessments exhibited in court had concluded that the data did not support claims that HDC/ABMT was better than conventional therapy. Due to the decreased quality of life during and following HDC/BMT compared to that of conventional breast cancer treatment as well as the minimal extension of life, many physicians and the majority of people believe that the treatment is ineffective and too toxic. In addition, the finding that the Bezwoda study was false further drove the point that the treatment was not of significant benefit compared to standard treatment, because it was the only study that suggested a degree of recurrence-free survival benefit from HDC/BMT. The other randomized trials performed in the Netherlands and the United States, for example, all supported the opposite point: that this treatment is not a significant improvement over then-current conventional breast cancer treatment. High-dose therapy is also associated with an increase in second malignancies, including myelodysplastic syndromes and leukemias. When reflecting on the story of HDC/ABMT, especially on the widespread treatment and the lack of scientific data, many researchers and medical professionals stated that HDC/ABMT should have never been made accessible to the public without sound scientific data and conclusions; they view it as a period of shame for cancer medicine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38028125 | 1,567,729 |
1,169,090 | After retiring from the Air Force in 1978, Parkinson spent one year as a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Soon after, he accepted a position as Vice President at the Space Systems Group of the Rockwell International (later absorbed into Boeing), where he was involved in strategic planning and developing advanced—and classified—space systems. From 1980 to 1984, he was vice president and general manager of the Boston software company Intermetrics, which was responsible for creating the currently used HAL/S programming language for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He was heavily involved in the company’s initial public offering in 1982. In 1984, he left Intermetrics to accept an appointment as a Research Professor at Stanford University. Shortly after, he became a tenured Professor and assumed Stanford’s “Edward C. Wells” Chair of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He taught Astrodynamics, Control Theory, and developed a special course on “Managing Innovation.” | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2410578 | 1,168,472 |
204,061 | In 1902, the Hartley College became the Hartley University college, a degree awarding branch of the University of London. This was after inspection of the teaching and finances by the University College Grants Committee, and donations from Council members (including William Darwin the then Treasurer). An increase in student numbers in the following years motivated fund raising efforts to move the college to greenfield land around Back Lane (now University Road) in the Highfield area of Southampton. On 20 June 1914, Viscount Haldane opened the new site of the renamed Southampton University College. However, the outbreak of the First World War six weeks later meant no lectures could take place there, as the buildings were handed over by the college authorities for use as a military hospital. To cope with the volume of casualties, wooden huts were erected at the rear of the building. These were donated to university by the War Office after the end of fighting, in time for the transfer from the high street premises in 1920. At this time, Highfield Hall, a former country house and overlooking Southampton Common, for which a lease had earlier been secured, commenced use as a halls of residence for female students. South Hill, on what is now the Glen Eyre Halls Complex was also acquired, along with South Stoneham House to house male students. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=98078 | 203,956 |
310,336 | The German tanks were not up to the standards of Guderian's concept. The Panzer I was really a machine gun-armed tankette, derived from the British Carden-Loyd personnel carrier. The Panzer II did have a 20-mm cannon, but little armor protection. Germany, constrained by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, was not allowed to produce tanks of any kind and only a few armoured cars. In 1926 an unofficial program of tank construction was initiated by Von Seeckt, the commander of the Reichswehr. Built by Rheinmetall-Borsig the first "grosstraktor" was similar to the existing British Mk II medium tank, 20 tons with a 75 mm gun. This and other designs were tested with Soviet cooperation at a tank school in western Russia. In Germany proper dummy tanks were used in training, apparently at the instigation of then Major, Heinz Guderian, a staff tactical instructor. Guderian had read Fuller, Liddell-Hart and other tank warfare theorists and he had the support of his commanders to develop his theories into reality. In 1931 the German General Staff accepted a plan for two types of tank, a medium tank with a 75 mm gun and a lighter vehicle with a 37 mm gun. While design and then construction work was carried out the German army used a variety of light tanks based on the British Carden-Lloyd chassis. The early tanks were code-named Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper (La S), a designation that lasted until 1938. The first of these light tanks ran in early 1934, a five-ton Krupp design it was dubbed the LKA1. The new government approved an initial order for 150 in 1934 as the 1A La S Krupp, around 1500 of these light tanks were built. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29073044 | 310,168 |
2,042,613 | "Nanotermes" is known from a single fossil, the holotype adult, which is an inclusion in a transparent chunk of Cambay amber. The amber specimen, "Tad-262", is currently housed in the fossil collection of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, India. The holotype is composed of a mostly complete adult of indeterminate sex and minute overall size. Cambay amber dates to between 50 and 52 million years old, placing it in the Early to Mid Ypresian age of the Eocene, and was preserved in a brackish shore environment. The amber formed from a dammar type resin, which is produced mainly by trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The holotype specimen was recovered from the Tadkeshwar lignite mine, located in Gujarat State, during a collecting trip on 17–22 January 2010. The fossil was first studied by paleoentomologists Michael S. Engel and David Grimaldi, both of the American Museum of Natural History. Engel and Grimaldi's 2011 type description of the new genus and species was published in the online journal "ZooKeys". The genus name "Nanotermes" was coined as a combination of the Greek word "nanos" meaning "small" and "Termes", the type genus of the Termitidae. This is in reference to the size of the adult, which is noted as possibly the smallest termite adult known. The specific epithet "isaacae" is in honor of Charlotte Isaac, who discovered the holotype and "many other interesting inclusions". "Nanotermes" is the oldest member of the Termitidae to be described to date, with the prior oldest being from the Late Oligocene, 20 million years younger than the Cambay ambers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37243386 | 2,041,433 |
586,202 | The Ståhl method implies positioning individual tissue samples on the arrays of spatially barcoded reverse transcription primers able to capture mRNA with the tails. Besides tail and spatial barcode, which indicates the x and y position on the arrayed slide, the probe contains a cleavage site, amplification and sequencing handle, and unique molecular identifier. Commonly, histological samples are cut using cryotome, then fixed, stained, and put on the microarrays. After that, it undergoes enzymatic permeabilization, so that molecules can diffuse down to the slide, with further mRNA release and binding to the probes. Reverse transcription is then carried out "in situ". As a result, spatially marked complementary DNA is synthesized, providing information about gene expression in the exact location of the sample. Thus, described protocol combines paralleled sequencing and staining of the same sample. It is important to mention that the first generation of the arrayed slides comprised about 1,000 spots of the 100-μm diameter, limiting resolution to ~10-40 cells per spot. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=57313623 | 585,902 |
1,020,606 | In November 2006, after receiving FDA clearance, neurosurgeon Nathan Selden, pediatrician Bob Steiner, and colleagues at Doernbecher Children's Hospital at Oregon Health and Science University began a clinical study in which purified neural stem cells were injected into the brain of Daniel Kerner, a six-year-old child with Batten disease, who had lost the ability to walk and talk. This patient was the first of six to receive the injection of a stem cell product from StemCells Inc., a Palo Alto biotech company. These are believed to be the first-ever transplants of fetal stem cells into the human brain. By early December, the child had recovered well enough to return home, and some signs of speech returning were reported. The main goal of phase-I clinical trials, however, was to investigate the safety of transplantation. Overall, the phase-I data demonstrated that high doses of human neural stem cells, delivered by a direct transplantation procedure into multiple sites within the brain, followed by 12 months of immunosuppression, were well tolerated by all six patients enrolled in the trial. The patients' medical, neurological, and neuropsychological conditions, following transplantation, appeared consistent with the normal course of the disease. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2154533 | 1,020,077 |
875,126 | A Soviet-era agricultural biowarfare programme was pursued from 1958 through to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. This program focused on anti-crop and anti-livestock biological weapons, with Soviet efforts starting with FMD virus, for which an institute was established on Gorodomlya Island. From the 1970s, it focused on molecular biology and the development of genetically modified organisms. Another innovation was the "mobilization production facilities"—ostensibly civil manufacturing plants—which incorporated capacity for production of weapons in wartime emergency." Counter-proliferation efforts of the Nunn-Lugar Biological Threat Reduction program successfully averted technology transfer to authoritarian neighbors such as Iran during the decade following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to "The Soviet Union’s Agricultural Biowarfare Programme" (2021), "The Pokrov biologics plant is the best-documented of the agricultural BW mobilisation facilities. A UK/US inspection team visited the facility in 1993 and identified five underground reinforced concrete bunkers holding hundreds of thousands of hen’s eggs being used to grow massive quantities of virus, allegedly in order to sustain a strategic weapons system." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11564525 | 874,664 |
866,375 | While the length of the egg stage depends on the species and environmental conditions, aquatic eggs generally hatch within one week. Unlike salamanders and newts, frogs and toads never become sexually mature while still in their larval stage. The hatched eggs continue life as tadpoles, which typically have oval bodies and long, vertically flattened tails. As a general rule, free living larvae are fully aquatic. They lack eyelids and have a cartilaginous skeleton, a lateral line system, gills for respiration (external gills at first, internal gills later) and tails with dorsal and ventral folds of skin for swimming. They quickly develop a gill pouch that covers the gills and the front legs; the lungs are also developed at an early stage as an accessory breathing organ. Some species which go through the metamorphosis inside the egg and hatch to small frogs never develop gills; instead there are specialised areas of skin that take care of respiration. Tadpoles also lack true teeth, but the jaws in most species usually have two elongate, parallel rows of small keratinized structures called keradonts in the upper jaw while the lower jaw has three rows of keradonts, surrounded by a horny beak, but the number of rows can be lower (sometimes zero), or much higher. Tadpoles feed on algae, including diatoms filtered from the water through the gills. Some species are carnivorous at the tadpole stage, eating insects, smaller tadpoles, and fish. Cannibalism has been observed among tadpoles. Early developers who gain legs may be eaten by the others, so the late bloomers survive longer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19653966 | 865,915 |
1,925,937 | While exceptions exist, most flame-made particles are nano-sized (< 100 nm) and highly crystalline. Also, neither phase separation within each particle nor composition variance among particles is observed, as the entire process is so rapid that atomically mixed particles are formed. Their properties stem from the flame temperature (up to 2000 °C) and high cooling rates (>500 °C/s). Low residence times in the flame (the amount of time metal ions spend in the flame zone) and rapid cooling lead to metastable phase formation and more importantly unaggregated particles, as they do not have the energy to coalesce and neck. The purity of the initial reactants largely drives the final powder's purity. Some carbonate species may be present on as-produced powders; however, processing techniques can minimize these impurities in final products. First, the powder is dispersed in a solvent via ultrasonication and left to sit for 8 to 12 hours, which leads to some small fraction of larger particles, mostly carbonates, settling at the bottom. The suspension is separated from the sediment and is dried in an oven before being ground into a powder. Thus, LF-FSP provides a robust, versatile route to single and mixed-metal oxide powders in the 15–100 nm size range with varying phase and morphology from relatively low-cost organic precursors. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38220209 | 1,924,833 |
1,839,091 | "Eophona migratoria" breeds in temperate forests and winters in southern parts of China and Japan, Taiwan and northern Southeast Asia.The nest is cup-shaped and is built by the female among the trees, in the thickest vegetation: inside it usually lays 4 bluish eggs with brown spots, which it hatches alone (with the male who provides it with food) to 12-13 days. The young are fed by both parents and are able to fly around at 12-14 days of age, however they tend to stay with their parents for another 2-3 weeks. Outside the breeding season, this bird tends to live in small groups of about ten individuals, which move among the trees in search of food, rarely going down to the ground. These birds are granivorous, mainly feeding on seeds that they break without problems thanks to the strong and robust beak:. They can feed without problems on other material of vegetable origin (sprouts, berries, fruit), while it is rare to observe them eating food of animal origin (mainly insects). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12103808 | 1,838,039 |
1,661,433 | The IPC swimming class open to ID swimmers is S14. The sport was the first one to open up to ID sportspeople following the disability's reinclusion on the Paralympic level in November 2009 following their suspension as a result of cheating at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney. Swimmers on the international level are required to be a minimal age set by FINA for their discipline, need to have a formal diagnosis using international standards, and have evidence that their disability results in a functional impairment that means they could not compete fairly against people who do not have a disability. For sportspeople in this class, they need to have a maximum IQ of 75 using the WISC-R or WAIS-III system, have had their disability manifested and documented prior to being 18 years old, and have demonstrated issues with self-care and interpersonal interactions. Swimming uses a number of sport specific tests for eligibility. The Corsi test is one. It tests memory capacity, with a cut-off score of 6.69. The Tower of London test is used to check executive function. It has a cut-off score of 12.43. Block design is used for visual spatial ability, with a cut-off score of 58.31. For the Special Olympics, the minimum qualification is having trained in swimming for at least 6 weeks and must be at least 8 years old. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51210627 | 1,660,499 |
403,378 | Though helicopters were initially armed merely as defensive measures to support the landing and extraction of troops, their value in this role led to the modification of early helicopters as dedicated gunship platforms. Though not as fast as fixed-wing aircraft and consequently more vulnerable to anti-aircraft weaponry, helicopters could use terrain for cover, and more importantly, had much greater battlefield persistence owing to their low speeds. The latter made them a natural complement to ground forces in the CAS role. In addition, newly developed anti-tank guided missiles, demonstrated to great effectiveness in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, provided aircraft with an effective ranged anti-tank weapon. These considerations motivated armies to promote the helicopter from a support role to a combat arm. Though the U.S. Army controlled rotary-wing assets, coordination continued to pose a problem. During wargames, field commanders tended to hold back attack helicopters out of fear of air defenses, committing them too late to effectively support ground units. The earlier debate over control over CAS assets was reiterated between ground commanders and aviators. Nevertheless, the US Army incrementally gained increased control over its CAS role. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=600792 | 403,178 |
318,507 | Brenner also chose it as it is easy to grow in bulk populations, and convenient for genetic analysis. It is a multicellular eukaryotic organism, yet simple enough to be studied in great detail. The transparency of "C. elegans" facilitates the study of cellular differentiation and other developmental processes in the intact organism. The spicules in the male clearly distinguish males from females. Strains are cheap to breed and can be frozen. When subsequently thawed, they remain viable, allowing long-term storage. Maintenance is easy when compared to other multicellular model organisms. A few hundred nematodes can be kept on a single agar plate and suitable growth medium. Brenner described the use of a mutant of "E. coli" – OP50. OP50 is a uracil-requiring organism and its deficiency in the plate prevents the overgrowth of bacteria which would obscure the worms. The use of OP50 does not demand any major laboratory safety measures, since it is non-pathogenic and easily grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) media overnight. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=57546 | 318,336 |
1,551,956 | Norman Levinson (August 11, 1912 in Lynn, Massachusetts – October 10, 1975 in Boston) was an American mathematician. Some of his major contributions were in the study of Fourier transforms, complex analysis, non-linear differential equations, number theory, and signal processing. He worked closely with Norbert Wiener in his early career. He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1937. In 1954, he was awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize of the American Mathematical Society and in 1971 the Chauvenet Prize (after winning in 1970 the Lester R. Ford Award) of the Mathematical Association of America for his paper "A Motivated Account of an Elementary Proof of the Prime Number Theorem". In 1974 he published a paper proving that more than a third of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function lie on the critical line, a result later improved to two fifths by Conrey. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1090122 | 1,551,075 |
1,730,568 | At Leeds Astbury studied the properties of fibrous substances such as keratin and collagen with funding from the textile industry. (Wool consists of keratin.) These substances did not produce sharp patterns of spots like crystals, but the patterns provided physical limits on any proposed structures. In the early 1930s, Astbury showed that there were drastic changes in the diffraction of moist wool or hair fibres as they are stretched significantly (100%). The data suggested that the unstretched fibres had a coiled molecular structure with a characteristic repeat of 5.1 Å (=0.51 nm). Astbury proposed that (1) the unstretched protein molecules formed a helix (which he called the α-form); and (2) the stretching caused the helix to uncoil, forming an extended state (which he called the β-form). Although incorrect in their details, Astbury's models were correct in essence and correspond to modern elements of secondary structure, the α-helix and the β-strand (Astbury's nomenclature was kept), which were developed twenty years later by Linus Pauling and Robert Corey in 1951. Hans Neurath was the first to show that Astbury's models could not be correct in detail, because they involved clashes of atoms. Neurath's paper and Astbury's data inspired H. S. Taylor (1941,1942) and Maurice Huggins (1943) to propose models of keratin that are very close to the modern α-helix. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2890145 | 1,729,593 |
153,360 | Randell's efforts started to bear fruit in the mid-1970s. The secrecy about Bletchley Park had been broken when Group Captain Winterbotham published his book "The Ultra Secret" in 1974. Randell was researching the history of computer science in Britain for a conference on the history of computing held at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico on 10-15 June 1976, and got permission to present a paper on wartime development of the COLOSSI at the Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill (in October 1975 the British Government had released a series of captioned photographs from the Public Record Office). The interest in the “revelations” in his paper resulted in a special evening meeting when Randell and Cooombs answered further questions. Coombs later wrote that "no member of our team could ever forget the fellowship, the sense of purpose and, above all, the breathless excitement of those days". In 1977 Randell published an article "The First Electronic Computer" in several journals. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6229 | 153,290 |
1,841,084 | Plants display the most obvious examples of ecophenotypic variation. One example are trees growing in the woods developing long straight trunks, with branching crowns high in the canopy, while the same species growing alone in the open develops a spreading form, branching much lower to the ground. Genotypes often have much flexibility in the modification and expression of phenotypes; in many organisms these phenotypes are very different under varying environmental conditions. The plant "Hieracium umbellatum" is found growing in two different habitats in Sweden. One habitat is rocky sea-side cliffs, where the plants are bushy with broad leaves and expanded inflorescences; the other is among sand dunes where the plants grow prostrate with narrow leaves and compact inflorescences. These habitats alternate along the coast of Sweden and the habitat that the seeds of "H. umbellatum" land in determines the phenotype that grows. Invasive plants such as the honeysuckle can thrive by altering their morphology in response to changes in the environment, which gives them a competitive advantage. Another example of a plants phenotypic reaction and adaptation with its environment is how "Thlaspi caerulescens" can absorb the metals in the soil to use to its advantage in defending against harmful microbes and bacteria in its leaves. The more immediate responses shown by vascular plants to their environment, for instance a vine's ability to conform to the wall or tree upon which it grows, are not usually considered ecophenotypic, even though the mechanisms may be related. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33712524 | 1,840,032 |
124,858 | General Motors / Eastern Aircraft produced 5,280 FM variants of the Wildcat. Grumman's Wildcat production ceased in early 1943 to make way for the newer F6F Hellcat, but General Motors continued producing Wildcats for both U.S. Navy and Fleet Air Arm use. Late in the war, the Wildcat was obsolescent as a front line fighter compared to the faster (380 mph/610 km/h) F6F Hellcat or much faster (446 mph/718 km/h) F4U Corsair. However, they were adequate for small escort carriers against submarine and shore threats. These relatively modest ships only carried two types of aircraft, the Wildcats and GM-built TBM Avengers. The Wildcat's lower landing speed and ability to take off without a catapult made it more suitable for shorter flight decks. At first, GM produced the FM-1, identical to the F4F-4, but reduced the number of guns to four, and added wing racks for two 250 lb (110 kg) bombs or six rockets. Production later switched to the improved FM-2 (based on Grumman's XF4F-8 prototype) optimized for small-carrier operations, with a more powerful engine (the Wright R-1820-56), and a taller tail to cope with the torque. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=518897 | 124,806 |
1,104,537 | Royall and Marbury envisaged nuclear energy being controlled by experts, with a minimum of political interference. The commissioners would be appointed for indefinite terms, and the President's power to remove them would be limited. They would be supported by four advisory boards, for military applications, industrial uses, research and medicine, the membership of which would be restricted to those with technical qualifications. Day-to-day running of the organization would be in the hands of an administrator and his deputy. The Royall–Marbury Bill was reviewed by the Interim Committee at its July 19 meeting and revised in line with their suggestions. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the Manhattan Project, Royall and Marbury were able to consult with the Attorney General, the Judge Advocate General and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. The draft was sent to the President in August for circulation among, and comment from, affected government agencies. Only the State Department had objections, on the basis that it was still involved in trying to hammer out an international agreement on nuclear energy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1791503 | 1,103,974 |
786,083 | Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be inefficient due to stresses placed on both the egg cell and the introduced nucleus. This can result in a low percentage of successfully reprogrammed cells. For example, in 1996 Dolly the sheep was born after 277 eggs were used for SCNT, which created 29 viable embryos, giving it a measly 0.3% efficiency. Only three of these embryos survived until birth, and only one survived to adulthood. Millie, the offspring that survived, took 95 attempts to produce. Because the procedure was not automated and had to be performed manually under a microscope, SCNT was very resource intensive. Another reason why there is such high mortality rate with the cloned offspring is due to the fetus being larger than even other large offspring, resulting in death soon after birth. The biochemistry involved in reprogramming the differentiated somatic cell nucleus and activating the recipient egg was also far from understood. Another limitation is trying to use one-cell embryos during the SCNT. When using just one-cell cloned embryos, the experiment has a 65% chance to fail in the process of making morula or blastocyst. The biochemistry also has to be extremely precise, as most late term cloned fetus deaths are the result of inadequate placentation. However, by 2014, researchers were reporting success rates of 70-80% with cloning pigs and in 2016 a Korean company, Sooam Biotech, was reported to be producing 500 cloned embryos a day. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=168927 | 785,660 |
1,910,171 | Initial works have been focused on CNT vias connecting two metallic lines. Low temperature (400 °C) chemical vapor deposition growth of CNT on titanium nitride catalysed by cobalt particles has been optimized by the Fujitsu group. The catalyst particles obtained by laser ablation of a cobalt target sorted by size ultimately allow to grow a CNT density around 10 CNT cm using a multistep process using plasma and catalyst particles around 4 nm. In spite of these efforts, the electrical resistance of such via is 34 Ω _for a 160 nm diameter. Performances are close to tungsten plugs thus at least one order of magnitude higher than copper. For 60 nm via, a ballistic length of 80 nm has been determined. For processing lines, CNT technology is more difficult because dense forests of CNTs naturally grow perpendicularly to the substrate, where they are known as vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays. Only few reports on horizontal lines have been published and rely on the redirection of CNT, or the filling in existing trenches by fluidic assembly processes. The achieved performances are around 1 mΩcm, which is two decades higher than the requested values. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=51056408 | 1,909,073 |
389,398 | The level of a fault's activity can be critical for (1) locating buildings, tanks, and pipelines and (2) assessing the seismic shaking and tsunami hazard to infrastructure and people in the vicinity. In California, for example, new building construction has been prohibited directly on or near faults that have moved within the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years) of the Earth's geological history. Also, faults that have shown movement during the Holocene plus Pleistocene Epochs (the last 2.6 million years) may receive consideration, especially for critical structures such as power plants, dams, hospitals, and schools. Geologists assess a fault's age by studying soil features seen in shallow excavations and geomorphology seen in aerial photographs. Subsurface clues include shears and their relationships to carbonate nodules, eroded clay, and iron oxide mineralization, in the case of older soil, and lack of such signs in the case of younger soil. Radiocarbon dating of organic material buried next to or over a fault shear is often critical in distinguishing active from inactive faults. From such relationships, paleoseismologists can estimate the sizes of past earthquakes over the past several hundred years, and develop rough projections of future fault activity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=182787 | 389,203 |
2,117,269 | According to the Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Social Sciences, research before the 1960s on bilingual individuals varied but commonly supported the idea that there were disadvantages to bilingualism. Researchers believed that bilinguals would have smaller vocabularies and stunted cognitive abilities. They also thought that children learning two languages at a young age would struggle differentiating and building proficiency in two languages to become competent in either. The idea that being bilingual was harmful to a child's linguistic and cognitive development, persisted. According to a historical review in "The Journal of Genetic Psychology," various researchers held these beliefs, noting a "problem of bilingualism" or the "handicapping influence of bilingualism." Following studies reported that bilinguals performed worse in IQ tests and suffered in most aspects of language development. These perspectives on bilingualism may have come from studies that did not control for socioeconomic status (SES) and gave IQ tests to non-proficient speakers of a second language in that second language. Many of these studies also used unstandardized and subjective definitions of bilingualism and of a bilingual individual, labeling someone as bilingual or monolingual through assumptions based on parent national origin, or based on family name. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3289570 | 2,116,051 |
945,483 | All this knowledge was transferred to the Greeks probably shortly after the conquest by Alexander the Great (331 BC). According to the late classical philosopher Simplicius (early 6th century), Alexander ordered the translation of the historical astronomical records under supervision of his chronicler Callisthenes of Olynthus, who sent it to his uncle Aristotle. It is worth mentioning here that although Simplicius is a very late source, his account may be reliable. He spent some time in exile at the Sassanid (Persian) court, and may have accessed sources otherwise lost in the West. It is striking that he mentions the title "tèresis" (Greek: guard) which is an odd name for a historical work, but is in fact an adequate translation of the Babylonian title "massartu" meaning "guarding" but also "observing". Anyway, Aristotle's pupil Callippus of Cyzicus introduced his 76-year cycle, which improved upon the 19-year Metonic cycle, about that time. He had the first year of his first cycle start at the summer solstice of 28 June 330 BC (Julian proleptic date), but later he seems to have counted lunar months from the first month after Alexander's decisive battle at Gaugamela in fall 331 BC. So Callippus may have obtained his data from Babylonian sources and his calendar may have been anticipated by Kidinnu. Also it is known that the Babylonian priest known as Berossus wrote around 281 BC a book in Greek on the (rather mythological) history of Babylonia, the "Babyloniaca", for the new ruler Antiochus I; it is said that later he founded a school of astrology on the Greek island of Kos. Another candidate for teaching the Greeks about Babylonian astronomy/astrology was Sudines who was at the court of Attalus I Soter late in the 3rd century BC. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4536514 | 944,981 |
1,974,026 | Genes are the nodes and the edges are directed. A gene serves as the source of a direct regulatory edge to a target gene by producing an RNA or protein molecule that functions as a transcriptional activator or inhibitor of the target gene. If the gene is an activator, then it is the source of a positive regulatory connection; if an inhibitor, then it is the source of a negative regulatory connection. Computational algorithms take as primary input data measurements of mRNA expression levels of the genes under consideration for inclusion in the network, returning an estimate of the network topology. Such algorithms are typically based on linearity, independence or normality assumptions, which must be verified on a case-by-case basis. Clustering or some form of statistical classification is typically employed to perform an initial organization of the high-throughput mRNA expression values derived from microarray experiments, in particular to select sets of genes as candidates for network nodes. The question then arises: how can the clustering or classification results be connected to the underlying biology? Such results can be useful for pattern classification – for example, to classify subtypes of cancer, or to predict differential responses to a drug (pharmacogenomics). But to understand the relationships between the genes, that is, to more precisely define the influence of each gene on the others, the scientist typically attempts to reconstruct the transcriptional regulatory network. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10571004 | 1,972,891 |
1,439,497 | A generalized AS-MS workflow begins with the pre-incubation of purified protein solutions (i.e. target proteins) with chemical libraries in microplates. Assays can be designed to contain sufficiently high protein concentrations to prevent competition for binding sites between structural analogs, ensuring that hits across a range of affinities can be identified; inversely, assays can contain low protein concentrations to allow for distinction between high and low affinity analogs and to inform structure-activity relationships. The choice of a chemical library is less stringent than other high-throughput screening strategies owing to the lack of functional readouts, which would otherwise require deconvolution of the source compound that generates biological activity. Thus, the typical range for AS-MS is 400-3,000 compounds per pool. Other considerations for screening are more practical, such as a need to balance desired compound concentration, which is usually in the micromolar range, with the fact that compound stock solutions are typically stored as 10 millimolar solutions, effectively capping the number of compounds screened in the thousands. After appropriate test compounds and targets are selected and incubated, ligand-protein complexes can be separated by a variety of means. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=48999251 | 1,438,687 |
878,488 | Allelopathy is not universally accepted among ecologists. Many have argued that its effects cannot be distinguished from the exploitation competition that occurs when two (or more) organisms attempt to use the same limited resource, to the detriment of one or both. In the 1970s, great effort went into distinguishing competitive and allelopathic effects by some researchers, while in the 1990s others argued that the effects were often interdependent and could not readily be distinguished. However, by 1994, D. L. Liu and J. V. Lowett at the Department of Agronomy and Soil Science, University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, wrote two papers in the "Journal of Chemical Ecology" that developed methods to separate the allelochemical effects from other competitive effects, using barley plants and inventing a process to examine the allelochemicals directly. In 1994, M.C. Nilsson at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå showed in a field study that allelopathy exerted by "Empetrum hermaphroditum" reduced growth of Scots pine seedlings by ~ 40%, and that below-ground resource competition by "E. hermaphroditum" accounted for the remaining growth reduction. For this work she inserted PVC-tubes into the ground to reduce below-ground competition or added charcoal to soil surface to reduce the impact of allelopathy, as well as a treatment combining the two methods. However, the use of activated carbon to make inferences about allelopathy has itself been criticized because of the potential for the charcoal to directly affect plant growth by altering nutrient availability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=632030 | 878,026 |
934,602 | Kingsbury, an American pianist and ethnomusicologist, decided to reverse the common paradigm of a Westerner performing fieldwork in a non-western context, and apply fieldwork techniques to a western subject. In 1988 he published Music, Talent, and Performance: A Conservatory Cultural System, which detailed his time studying an American northeastern conservatory. He approached the conservatory as if it were a foreign land, doing his best to disassociate his experiences and prior knowledge of American conservatory culture from his study. In the book, Kingsbury analyzes conservatory conventions he and his peers may have overlooked, such as the way announcements are disseminated, to make assertions about the conservatory's culture. For example, he concludes that the institutional structure of the conservatory is "strikingly decentralized." In light of professors' absences, he questions the conservatory's commitment to certain classes. His analysis of the conservatory contains four main elements: a high premium on teachers' individuality, teachers' role as nodal points that reinforce a patron-client-like system of social organization, this subsequent organization's enforcement of the aural traditions of musical literacy, and the conflict between this client/patron structure and the school's "bureaucratic administrative structure." Ultimately, it seems, Kingsbury thinks the conservatory system is inherently flawed. He emphasizes that he doesn't intend to "chide" the conservatory, but his critiques are nonetheless far from complimentary. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=80077 | 934,109 |
1,025,733 | The Wang was not the first CRT-based machine nor were all of its innovations unique to Wang. In the early 1970s Linolex, Lexitron and Vydec introduced pioneering word-processing systems with CRT display editing. A Canadian electronics company, Automatic Electronic Systems, had introduced a product in 1972, but went into receivership a year later. In 1976, refinanced by the Canada Development Corporation, it returned to operation as AES Data, and went on to successfully market its brand of word processors worldwide until its demise in the mid-1980s. Its first office product, the AES-90, combined for the first time a CRT-screen, a floppy-disk and a microprocessor, that is, the very same winning combination that would be used by IBM for its PC seven years later. The AES-90 software was able to handle French and English typing from the start, displaying and printing the texts side-by-side, a Canadian government requirement. The first eight units were delivered to the office of the then Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, in February 1974. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=33236 | 1,025,199 |
1,366,010 | From its roots in the sonic acoustic that refers to basically all the vibration that can be listened by the humans and the animals, but also what still very hard for us to be audible and heard. The radio art of Schafer and his colleague, has found expression in many different fields.While most have taken some inspiration from Schafer's writings, in recent years there have also been healthy divergences from the initial ideas. The expanded expressions of acoustic ecology are increasing due to the sonic impacts of road and airport construction that affect the soundscapes in and around cities where the human population is more dense. There has also been a broadening of bioacoustics (the use of sound by animals) to consider the subjective and objective responses of animals to human noise, with ocean noise capturing the most attention. Acoustic ecology can also inform us of changes in the climate or other environmental changes since every day we listen to sounds in the world to identify their source such as bird, car, plane, wind, water. But we don't listen those sounds as a network , a mesh of relationships that form an ecology; Acoustic ecology finds expression in many different fields that characterize a soundscape, which are biophony, geophony, and anthrophony. Biophony is the study of the sounds coming from plants and animals, where we are going to analyze how their behavior are, and what we learn from their way of living. Geophony is more the study of the earth's sounds like the wind blowing or waves crashing in the ocean, it is interesting to discover how the natural movements that are occurring on Earth are happening and throughout those studies it is possible to learn that. Finally, the anthrophony is described as the study of sounds of any noise created by humans such as talking, car, horns or music. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2890925 | 1,365,254 |
1,215,024 | Many criminologists agree that for a society to function efficiently, social order is necessary and that conformity is induced through a socialization process. "Law" is the label given to one of the means used to enforce the interests of the state. Hence, because each state is sovereign, the law can be used for any purpose. It is also common ground that, whether the society is meritocratic, democratic or autocratic, a small group emerges to lead. The reason for this group's emergence may be their ability to use power more effectively, or simple expediency in that, as population size grows, the delegation of decision-making powers to a group representative of the majority leads to more efficiency. Marxists are critical of the ideas, values, and norms of capitalist ideology, and characterize the modern state as being under the control of the group that owns the means of production. For example, William Chambliss (1973) examined the way in which the vagrancy laws were amended to reflect the interests of the ruling elite. He also looked at how British Colonial Law was applied in East Africa, so that the capitalist "ruling class" could profit from coffee plantations, and how the law in medieval England benefited feudal landowners. Similarly, Pearce (2003) looks at evidence that corporate crime is widespread but is rarely prosecuted. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3849813 | 1,214,372 |
1,831,300 | Ion balance is a key factor in plant development to produce yield. Too high salt concentration in soil lowers the water potential in root tissue which becomes toxic; stunting growth and inhibiting flowering by dehydrating the plant. Stomatal closure is also a response to high salinity, leading to lowered sugar production and transpiration rates. Plants respond to high salinity soils by accumulating sodium and chlorine, and reducing uptake of macronutrients and other ions. This accumulation results in inhibition of calcium signaling. In order to combat this type of stress, plants must have strategies and adaptations in place for survival, such as osmotic stress pathways. RNA sequencing and qRT-PCR analysis has made finding these gene expression pathways possible, such as the MAPK, allowing for the scrutiny of candidate genes responsible for greater tolerance to salinity. Candidate genes for this type of stress response have also been found in plant hormone signal transduction pathways. Different species of "Cannabis" carry unique variations of gene expression, with some having a greater ability to utilize salt tolerance by keeping potassium levels high enough as to deny sodium uptake. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70796522 | 1,830,253 |
1,724,081 | Matei Basarab closely cooperated with the boyars throughout his reign. He regularly convoked their assembly and strengthened the boyars' control of the peasants who worked on their estates. Uppon his initiative, the copper mine at Baia de Aramă and the iron mine at Baia de Fier were reopened, and two paper mills and a glasswork were built. He stopped farming out the revenues from salt mining and custom duties and introduced a new system of taxation. The latter reform increased the tax burden to such an extent that many of the serfs fled from Wallachia. In response, Matei Basarab levied the taxes that the serfs who left the village would have paid upon those who stayed behind. Increasing state revenues enabled him to finance the erection or renovation of 30 churches and monasteries in Wallachia and on Mount Athos. He established the first institution of higher educationa college in Târgoviștein Wallachia in 1646. He set up an army of mercenaries. Matei Basarab concluded a series of treaties with George I and II Rákóczi between 1635 and 1650, promising to pay a yearly tribute. In exchange, both princes assisted him against Vasile Lupu of Moldavia who made several attempts to expand his authority over Wallachia. Excessive taxation and the prince's failure to satisfy his soldiers' demands for higher salary caused a revolt at the end of his rule. He died on 9 April 1654. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4745801 | 1,723,111 |
1,513,679 | Prior to Romer's tenure as MCZ director, the Museum sent an expedition to Australia in 1931–1932 to gather specimens and study live animals. Then-graduate student William E. Schevill, the team's fossil enthusiast, remained in Australia afterward and, in the winter of 1932, was told by the rancher R.W.H. Thomas of rocks on his property near Hughenden with something "odd" poking out of them. The rocks were limestone nodules that contained the most complete skeleton of a Kronosaurus ever discovered. After dynamiting the nodules out of the ground (and into smaller pieces weighing approximately four tons), William Schevill shipped the fossils back to Harvard for examination and preparation. The skull—which matched the holotype jaw fragment of "K. queenslandicus"—was prepared right away, but time and budget constraints put off restoration of the nearly complete skeleton for 20 years - most of the bones of which remained unexcavated within the limestone blocks. Work resumed when the material came to the attention of Godfrey Lowell Cabot - Boston industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of the Cabot Corporation - "who was then in his nineties but had been interested in sea serpents since childhood." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=519648 | 1,512,828 |
1,102,912 | While gene knock-in technology has proven to be a powerful technique for the generation of models of human disease and insight into proteins "in vivo", numerous limitations still exist. Many of these are shared with the limitations of knockout technology. First, combinations of knock-in genes lead to growing complexity in the interactions that inserted genes and their products have with other sections of the genome and can therefore lead to more side effects and difficult-to-explain phenotypes. Also, only a few loci, such as the ROSA26 locus have been characterized well enough where they can be used for conditional gene knock-ins; making combinations of reporter and transgenes in the same locus problematic. The biggest disadvantage of using gene knock-in for human disease model generation is that mouse physiology is not identical to that of humans and human orthologs of proteins expressed in mice will often not wholly reflect the role of a gene in human pathology. This can be seen in mice produced with the ΔF508 fibrosis mutation in the CFTR gene, which accounts for more than 70% of the mutations in this gene for the human population and leads to cystic fibrosis. While ΔF508 CF mice do exhibit the processing defects characteristic of the human mutation, they do not display the pulmonary pathophysiological changes seen in humans and carry virtually no lung phenotype. Such problems could be ameliorated by the use of a variety of animal models, and pig models (pig lungs share many biochemical and physiological similarities with human lungs) have been generated in an attempt to better explain the activity of the ΔF508 mutation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15620079 | 1,102,351 |
776,871 | Scientists once believed paddlefish used their rostrums to excavate bottom substrate, but have since determined with the aid of electron microscopy that paddlefish rostrums are covered in electroreceptors called ampullae. These ampullae are densely packed within star-shaped bone projections that branch out from the rostrum. The electroreceptors can detect weak electrical fields which not only signal the presence of prey items in the water column, such as zooplankton which is the primary diet of the American paddlefish, but they can also detect the individual feeding and swimming movements of zooplankton's appendages. Paddlefish have poorly developed eyes, and rely on their electroreceptors for foraging. However, the rostrum is not the paddlefish's sole means of food detection. Some reports incorrectly suggest that a damaged rostrum would render paddlefish less capable of foraging efficiently to maintain good health. Laboratory experiments, and field research indicate otherwise. In addition to electroreceptors on the rostrum, paddlefish also have sensory pores covering nearly half of the skin surface extending from the rostrum to the top of the head down to the tips of the operculum (gill flaps). Therefore, paddlefish with damaged or abbreviated rostrums are still able to forage and maintain good health. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=237945 | 776,455 |
247,894 | Kiichiro is said to have opened the path for the Japanese automobile industry, and he is credited for creating from scratch domestic cars that were superior to foreign cars. The differences between Japan and the United States in the automobile industry during World War II were quite large. In the early 1930s, Kiichiro proceeded with the development toward the domestic production of automobiles. In 1933, Toyota Industries Corporation set up an automobile department and began full-scale development of automobiles. However, the development of the car did not proceed smoothly. For instance, no one had experience in automobile manufacturing, so he gathered those who had experience in automobile manufacturing from across Japan. Also, it took six months to manufacture the engine. Then, in May 1935, the first A1 passenger car was finally completed. After that, it produced AA passenger cars that improved the A1 type and GA trucks that improved the G1 type. Moreover, Toyota Industries Corporation was designated with the Nissan Motor Company in September as a licensed company under the Automotive Manufacturing Act. However, Kiichiro was worried that being selected as the licensed company would lead to the loss of the competitiveness of the automobile industry and it would cause the destruction of the Japanese automobile industry. In 1937, Toyota Motor Corporation was established and Kiichiro was elected as vice president. Kiichiro's management was very good for mainly two reasons. First, He controlled and made the operation simpler in order to produce more cars on a shoestring. Specifically, in order to clarify the internal organization, the company was divided into seven divisions, and the purpose and jurisdiction of each division were clearly decided. Second, he reduced the risk of mass-produced cars by being involved not only in mass-produced cars but also in the manufacture of specialty cars. In November 1938, the Koromo Factory was established, and it worked hard to manufacture automobiles. However, the problems of automobile quality and cost arose, and the management was put into a critical situation. To overcome this situation, Kiichiro solved those problems by taking prompt action and in-house manufacturing of automobile parts. In 1941, Kiichiro became president of Toyota Motor Industry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4670679 | 247,766 |
1,882,110 | The current affairs programme 'Dragon's Eye' broadcast 1 May 2012, reported on work published by Chris Taylor and colleagues at Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) based at Cardiff University. Taylor's work suggested that the performance of Welsh Bac qualified students did not match their apparent A level points score. One explanation is that since the Welsh Bac is ungraded, students who pass it cover a wide range of abilities and ability is known to be a strong predictor of success at university. Taylor commented "This suggests that the WBQ would benefit from being graded." He added "Our findings also raise a concern about the overall quality of the WBQ and whether there are any apparent benefits of this qualification on university progress and outcomes." The conclusions in the Report were however qualified by a recognition of the limitations of the analysis. Taylor added "We would not want to argue that the WBQ is systematically worth less than an A grade at A Level. And indeed, rejecting the use of the WBQ in helping to determine entry and conditional offers ignores the 'opportunity cost' for a student of not having taken another qualification or A Level." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2484699 | 1,881,029 |
1,570,406 | Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria (AAPBs) are Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria that are obligate aerobes that capture energy from light by anoxygenic photosynthesis. Anoxygenic photosynthesis is the phototrophic process where light energy is captured and stored as ATP. The production of oxygen is non-existent and, therefore, water is not used as an electron donor. They are widely distributed marine bacteria that may constitute over 10% of the open ocean microbial community. They can be particularly abundant in oligotrophic conditions where they were found to be 24% of the community. Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria are photoheterotrophic (phototroph) microbes that exist in a variety of aquatic environments. Most are obligately aerobic, meaning they require oxygen to grow. One aspect of these bacteria is that they, unlike other similar bacteria, are unable to utilize BChl (bacteriochlorophyll) for anaerobic growth. The only photosynthetic pigment that exists in AAPB is BChl-a. Anaerobic phototrophic bacteria, on the contrary, can contain numerous species of photosynthetic pigments like bacteriochlorophyll-a. These bacteria can be isolated using carotenoid presence and medias containing organic compounds. Predation, as well as the availability of phosphorus and light, have been shown to be important factors that influence AAPB growth in their natural environments. AAPBs are thought to play an important role in carbon cycling by relying on organic matter substrates and acting as sinks for dissolved organic carbon. There is still a knowledge gap in research areas regarding the abundance and genetic diversity of AAPB, as well as the environmental variables that regulate these two properties. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27753121 | 1,569,518 |
2,015,872 | Exclusive processes provide a window into the bound-state structure of hadrons in QCD as well as the fundamental processes which control hadron dynamics at the amplitude level. The natural calculus for describing the bound-state structure of relativistic composite systems, needed for describing exclusive amplitudes, is the light-front Fock expansion which encodes the multi-quark, gluonic, and color correlations of a hadron in terms of frame-independent wave functions. In hard exclusive processes, in which hadrons receive a large momentum transfer, perturbative QCD leads to factorization theorems which separate the physics of hadronic bound-state structure from that of the relevant quark and gluonic hard-scattering reactions which underlie these reactions. At leading twist, the bound-state physics is encoded in terms of universal "distribution amplitudes", the fundamental theoretical quantities which describe the valence quark substructure of hadrons as well as nuclei. Nonperturbative methods, such as AdS/QCD, Bethe–Salpeter methods, discretized light-cone quantization, and transverse lattice methods, are now providing nonperturbative predictions for the pion distribution amplitude. A basic feature of the gauge theory formalism is color transparency", the absence of initial and final-state interactions of rapidly moving compact color-singlet states. Other applications of the exclusive factorization analysis include semileptonic formula_20 meson decays and deeply virtual Compton scattering, as well as dynamical higher-twist effects in inclusive reactions. Exclusive processes place important constraints on the light-front wave functions of hadrons in terms of their quark and gluon degrees of freedom as well as the composition of nuclei in terms of their nucleon and mesonic degrees of freedom. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=43699175 | 2,014,712 |
1,581,899 | A "transcript crisis" arose during the later half of the twentieth century due to the increasing volume of lawsuits. There were not enough number of court reporters to match the increasing number of trials. Not only were court reporters unavailable to attend many court proceedings, court transcripts were constantly late and the qualities varied. Some believed it was due to the non-interchangeability between court reporters, and others believed it was simply due to a labor shortage. In the meantime, magnetic audiotape recording, or known as electronic recording (ER) began to threaten all reporters' job since it could record long-hour courtroom trials and replace a court reporter's position in the courtroom. As a result, machine translation (MT) intended to serve as a solution for preventing ER from potentially replacing reporters' jobs. However, MT relied heavily on human labors operating behind the system and many started to question if it should be the right way to end the "transcript crisis." Later in 1964, set up by CIA, the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC) was set to review whether MT was capable of solving this crisis. They concluded that MT had failed to do so. Then Patrick O'Neill, a skilled and experienced court reporter, stayed to work on the stenotype-translation project with CIA and developed the prototype CAT system. After adopting the CAT system in court-reporting community, CAT was brought into the television broadcasting system, aiming to provide captions for the deaf or hard-of-hearing communities. In 1983, Linda Miller developed a further use for the CAT system. She successfully translated a lecture live on the television screen and provided a transcript for students. This technique is known as Computer-Aided Real-time Translation, or CART. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9031121 | 1,581,009 |
469,840 | Djerassi's first play, "An Immaculate Misconception" (1998), dealing with the in vitro fertilization procedure ICSI, was followed by two plays about priority struggles in the history of science, "Oxygen" (co-authored with Roald Hoffmann, 1999) and "Calculus" (2002), and a drama at the intersection of chemistry and art history, "Phallacy" (2004). "Ego" (2003, also produced under the title "Three on a Couch"), together with the docudrama "Four Jews on Parnassus" (2006, publ. 2008) and "Foreplay" (2010), are the only three dramatic pieces which do not deal with science-in-literature but rather carry the notion of intellectual competitiveness into literature, philosophy and the humanities. "Taboos" (2006), a complex play between reproductive, gender and political issues, returns to Djerassi's central concerns as a scientist; his 2012 play "Insufficiency" is a bitter satire of both the scientific community and academic environments. "ICSI, sex in the age of mechanical reproduction" (2002), was taken to theaters and also to classrooms as a pedagogic wordplay, in many countries, including Spain and Argentina (by collaboration with Dr Àgata Baizán and Alberto Diaz) where it opened the VIII Latinoamerican and Caribbean Biotechnology meeting REDBIO-Argentina 2013 and featured in universities and theaters. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=574479 | 469,604 |
2,076,950 | The flights offered a convenient means to study the stratification of the troposphere. Simultaneous measurements of temperature, pressure, and humidity could be combined with observations on horizontal and vertical wind movements and cloud formations and layering. However, the stratosphere was not discovered during this project, as the manned flights did not penetrate into this region, and because Aßmann thought that the temperature measurements from unmanned balloons above 10,000 m were an error caused by incomplete shielding from solar radiation. Aßmann eventually came to a different conclusion after a flight to 10,800 m by Berson and Süring on 31 July 1901 in the balloon "Preussen", and a simultaneous unmanned flight. On 1 May 1902 he presented a paper titled "On the existence of a warm air current between 10 and 15 km" to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. However, the French meteorologist Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort had already reported on the same discovery three days before in Paris. It is known today that the two researchers had previously agreed to publish this ground-breaking discovery simultaneously in their respective countries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55432762 | 2,075,751 |
928,653 | For Webern especially, text-setting became a means of composing more than atonal aphorisms, but Schoenberg sought other means, "long ... yearning for a style for large forms ... to give personal things an objective, general form." From as early as 1906 Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern indulged a shared interest in esotericism, Swedenborgian mysticism, and Theosophy, reading Honoré de Balzac ("Louis Lambert" and "Séraphîta") and August Strindberg ("Till Damaskus" and "Jacob lutte") as they explored ways forward in their own work. Gabriel, the protagonist of Schoenberg's semi-autobiographical "Die Jakobsleiter" (1914–1922, rev. 1944) begins by describing a journey: "whether right, whether left, forwards or backwards, uphill or down – one must keep on going without asking what lies ahead or behind." Webern interpreted this line as a metaphor for pitch space, as Schoenberg did later, ultimately considering "Jakobsleiter" a "real twelve-tone composition" for its opening hexachordal ostinato and referring to a "Scherzo [theme] ... which accidentally consisted of all the twelve tones," aware that "[a]n historian will probably one day find ... how enthusiastic [Webern and I] were about this." On the journey to composition with twelve tones, Webern revised many of his middle-period in the years after their apparent composition but before publication, increasingly prioritizing clarity of pitch relations, even against timbral effects, as Anne Shreffler and Felix Meyer have described. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65676 | 928,164 |
1,178,145 | Ursula Franklin rejects the idea that powerful technologies automatically determine the ways in which people live and work. She maintains that the uses of technology are not preordained, but are the result of conscious choices. The dominant prescriptive technologies establish structures of power and control that follow what Franklin sees as male patterns of hierarchy, authoritarianism, competition and exclusion. Female workers are often victims of these patterns. Mechanical sewing machines were introduced in 1851 with the promise that they would liberate women from household drudgery. But when the machines ended up in factory sweatshops to produce cheap clothing, the new technology was used to exploit female workers. "A strictly prescriptive technology with the classic division of labour arose from the introduction of new, supposedly liberating 'domestic' machines," Franklin notes. "In the subsequent evolution of the garment industry, much of the designing, cutting, and assembling began to be automated, often to the complete exclusion of workers." She points to similar examples in other industries. Female operators helped introduce the telephone only to be replaced by automated switchboards after the technology had been successfully established while secretaries struggled to make the early mechanical typewriters function properly, but ended up performing fragmented and increasingly meaningless tasks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1094203 | 1,177,521 |
1,602,242 | Disequilibrium syndrome (DES) was first described in the 1970s as a non-progressive, neurological disorder. In a 2005 study, DES was renamed as VLDLR-associated cerebellar hypoplasia (VLDLRCH) after its cause was linked to a disruption in the "VLDLR" gene. At least six mutations affecting the homozygous recessive allele of the "VLDLR" gene have been identified and found to cause VLDLRCH. Several of these mutations have been localized to specific exons encoding the gene. One such mutation is a cytosine to thymine transition at base pair 1342 in exon 10 that causes a substitution at Arg448 for a termination signal. Likewise, there is evidence of a cytosine to thymine transition at base pair number 769 in exon 5 that causes a substitution at Arg257 for a termination signal. A third known mutation is caused by a homozygous 1-base pair deletion in exon 17 that causes a frameshift and premature termination in the O-linked sugar domain. All such alterations to the "VLDLR" gene prevent the production of VLDLR and are therefore termed loss-of-function mutations. The recognized symptoms of VLDLRCH are moderate-to-severe intellectual disability, seizures, dysarthria, strabismus and delayed locomotion. In some cases, children with VLDLRCH learn to walk very late in development after the age of six years, or never learn to walk independently. The frequency of this disorder is unknown because early diagnosis of VLDLRCH is difficult using imaging techniques. It is associated with parental consanguinity and found in secluded communities such as the Hutterites and inbred families from Iran and Turkey. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5402846 | 1,601,341 |
1,359,959 | Ephemerides are precise measurements of the GNSS satellites' orbits, made by the geodetic community (the International GNSS Service and other public and private organizations) with global networks of ground stations. Satellite navigation works on the principle that the satellites' positions at any given time are known, but in practice, micrometeoroid impacts, variation in solar radiation pressure, and so on mean that orbits are not perfectly predictable. The ephemerides that the satellites broadcast are earlier forecasts, up to a few hours old, and are less accurate (by up to a few meters) than carefully processed observations of where the satellites actually were. Therefore, if a GNSS receiver system stores raw observations, they can be processed later against a more accurate ephemeris than what was in the GNSS messages, yielding more accurate position estimates than what would be possible with standard realtime calculations. This post-processing technique has long been standard for GNSS applications that need high accuracy. More recently, projects such as APPS, the Automatic Precise Positioning Service of NASA JPL, have begun publishing improved ephemerides over the internet with very low latency. PPP uses these streams to apply in near realtime the same kind of correction that used to be done in post-processing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=32110355 | 1,359,207 |
1,869,914 | A decisive factor in A2/AD strategies is geography. However, a specific geography is not a necessary component of an A2/AD strategy, it can prove helpful for particular operations on land and sea as geographical chokepoints and difficult terrain provide favorable opportunities for A2/AD operations.maritime chokepoints lend themselves well into anti-access measures and make it easier to implement area denial strategies. An anti- access strategy is easiest to implement when there are limited ways to reach the target under the best circumstances. In littoral areas within a few hundred miles of the coast, like the Strait of Hormuz, there are a number of A2/AD capabilities forces could make use of. For instance, Krepinevich concept of A2/AD is to describe the threat posed by long-range missile systems, precision munitions, and satellite technology that will make military operations in the littoral areas challenging for naval forces. Demonstrated or available A2/AD systems include over-the- horizon targeting systems, long-range strike aircraft, anti-ship cruise missiles and in some way ballistic missiles, submarines and missile-firing surface combatants, swarming fast attack craft, mines, and coastal defense artillery. Additionally, integrated air defenses seek to prevent naval strike aircraft, aerial delivery platforms, and land-attack cruise missiles. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=64013412 | 1,868,837 |
1,901,025 | Traumatic pneumorrhachis is very rare phenomenon. Only eight cases with pneumorrhachis extending to more than one spinal region had been reported in the literature. Gordon had initially described the phenomenon of intraspinal air. The term "pneumorrhachis" was used for the first time by Newbold et al. The two subtypes of pneumorrhachis, which includes epidural or subarachnoid, are difficult to distinguish even with CT scanning. However, the presence of pneumocephalus goes more in favor of subarachnoid subtype. Goh and Yeo in their study have reported that the epidural pneumorrhachis is self-limited, whereas the more common subarachnoid pneumorrhachis type may be complicated by tension pneumocephalus and meningitis. Traumatic subarachnoid pneumorrhachis is almost always secondary to major trauma and is a marker of a severe injury. For example, air may migrate via the neural foramina behind the driving pressure of pneumothorax. The pathophysiology described for it states that the penetrated air, which had led to the formation of pneumocephalus might have been forced caudally due to the raised intracranial pressure as a consequence of severe brain injury and patient's horizontal position allowing the entrapped air to pass through the foramen magnum into the spinal canal. Due to its rareness, asymptomatic presentation and myriad etiologies, no guidelines for its treatment or care has been described. Pneumorrhachis typically resolves spontaneously but occasionally it can have serious complications. Patient with subarachnoid pneumorrhachis should be treated meticulously and a temporary lumbar drainage may be required if they have concomitant cerebro-spinal fluid leak. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42681400 | 1,899,936 |
1,563,618 | Other contemporaries of Komitas, Ellis, and Adler included Erich von Hornbostel, and Carl Stumpf, who are typically credited with establishing comparative musicology as an official field separate from musicology itself. Von Hornbostel, who once stated that Ellis was the "true founder of comparative scientific musicology.", was an Austrian scholar of music, while Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist. Together with Otto Abraham, they founded the "Berlin School of Comparative Musicology". Despite working together, Stumpf and Hornbostel had very different ideas regarding the foundation of the school. As Stumpf focused primarily from a psychological perspective, his position was founded in the belief of "unity of the human mind"; his interests were on sensual experiences of tones and intervals and their respective ordering. In addition, his studies focused on testing his hypothesis of perceived fusion of tones. On the other hand, Hornbostel adopted Stumpf's assignment, but rather approached the topic from his systematic and theoretical perspective, and did not concern himself with others. Through the institution, additional scholars such as Curt Sachs, Mieczyslaw Kolinski, George Herzog and Jaap Kunst (who first coined the term "ethno-musicology" in a 1950 article) further expanded the field of comparative musicology. Additionally Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was conducting his own comparative studies at the time, focusing primarily on Hungarian (and other) folk music, in addition to the influence of European popular music on musical folk-lore of that particular geographic region. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65721530 | 1,562,731 |
1,670,185 | Eventually, in 1919, Ionescu's group formed an alliance with the newly created People's League, headed by General Alexandru Averescu. Averescu, who was celebrated for his wartime command of the Romanian Army, shared several viewpoints with the PCD and, according to Argetoianu's ironic version of events, "a great, albeit undisclosed, spiritual affinity: they both belonged to the reptilian class". The alliance went through two stages: early in the year, the PCD signed an electoral pact with Averescu's grouping — the People League's Argetoianu, who led the talks, later indicated that he had sabotaged all possibility of an actual merger, believing it to be detrimental to his grouping; in autumn, the newly returned Ionescu met with the general to discuss a project for increased cooperation. At the time, Argetoianu indicated, Ionescu viewed himself as a favorite of the Allied governments, and, while maintaining close relations with Averescu, refused to discuss a fusion. Reportedly, Averescu unsuccessfully offered Ionescu the League's presidency in exchange for being recognized as the main candidate for the premiership. The PCD leader changed his attitude as it became apparent that Averescu, who was appointed Prime Minister by Ferdinand, was set to win the elections, and, according to Constantin Argetoianu, had to allow Averescu the upper hand in the deal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=738484 | 1,669,245 |
102,526 | It is currently unknown exactly when mammalian characteristics such as body hair and mammary glands first appeared, as the fossils only rarely provide direct evidence for soft tissues. An exceptionally well-preserved skull of "Estemmenosuchus", a therapsid from the Upper Permian, preserves smooth skin with what appear to be glandular depressions, an animal noted as being semi-aquatic. The oldest known fossil showing unambiguous imprints of hair is the Callovian (late middle Jurassic) "Castorocauda" and several contemporary haramiyidans, both non-mammalian mammaliaform (see below, however). More primitive members of the Cynodontia are also hypothesized to have had fur or a fur-like covering based on their inferred warm-blooded metabolism. While more direct evidence of fur in early cynodonts has been proposed in the form of small pits on the snout possibly associated with whiskers, such pits are also found in some reptiles that lack whiskers. There is evidence that some other non-mammalian cynodonts more basal than "Castorocauda", such as "Morganucodon", had Harderian glands, which are associated with the grooming and maintenance of fur. The apparent absence of these glands in non-mammaliaformes may suggest that fur did not originate until that point in synapsid evolution. It is possible that fur and associated features of true warm-bloodedness did not appear until some synapsids became extremely small and nocturnal, necessitating a higher metabolism. The oldest examples of nocturnality in synapsids is believed to have been in species that lived more than 300 million years ago. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=201968 | 102,481 |
1,159,345 | High Explosive Research achieved its objective with remarkable economy and efficiency, but the price was still high. Between 1946 and 1953, Risley spent £72 million, Harwell almost £27 million and the weapons establishment over £9.5 million. By comparison, British defence expenditure in 1948 was £600 million. HER accounted for 11 per cent of the Ministry of Supply's expenditure between 1946 and 1953. It had bi-partisan and popular support. Given Britain's dire financial position, thought turned to replacing conventional forces with atomic bombs. While certainly expensive, they could deliver extraordinary destructive power at relatively low cost. The concept of deterrence began to evolve, based on experiences dating back to the Great War. There were also technological spin-offs. The possession of nuclear reactors, the means to produce nuclear fuels and a repository of scientific knowledge led to the creation of a vast nuclear power industry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52573493 | 1,158,730 |
1,679,123 | The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUV) of the IMAGE mission observes the distribution of He+ in Earth's plasmasphere by detecting its resonantly-scattered emission at 30.4-nm. It records the structure and dynamics of the cold plasma in Earth's plasmasphere on a global scale. The 30.4-nm feature is relatively easy to measure because it is the brightest ion emission from the plasmasphere, it is spectrally isolated, and the background at that wavelength is negligible. Measurements are easy to interpret because the plasmaspheric He+ emission is optically thin, so its brightness is directly proportional to the He+ column abundance. Effective imaging of the plasmaspheric He+ requires global "snapshops" in which the high apogee and the wide field of view of EUV provide in a single exposure a map of the entire plasmasphere. EUV consists of three identical sensor heads, each having a field of view of 30° in diameter. These sensors are tilted relative to one another to cover a fan-shaped field of 84° by 30°, which is swept across the plasmasphere by the spin of the satellite. EUV's spatial resolution is 0.6° of 0.1 R in the equatorial plane seen from apogee. The sensitivity is 1.9 count/second-Rayleigh, sufficient to map the position of the plasmapause with a time resolution of 10 minutes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1090498 | 1,678,180 |
362,264 | Varied use and interpretation of the terms mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify. Albinism can reduce the survivability of an animal; for example, it has been suggested that albino alligators have an average survival span of only 24 hours due to the lack of protection from UV radiation and their lack of camouflage to avoid predators. It is a common misconception that all albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes (resulting from the lack of pigment in the iris allowing the blood vessels of the retina to be visible), however this is not the case for some forms of albinism. Familiar albino animals include in-bred strains of laboratory animals (rats, mice and rabbits), but populations of naturally occurring albino animals exist in the wild, e.g. Mexican cave tetra. Albinism is a well-recognized phenomenon in molluscs, both in the shell and in the soft parts. It has been claimed by some, e.g. that albinism can occur for a number of reasons aside from inheritance, including genetic mutations, diet, living conditions, age, disease, or injury. However, this is contrary to definitions where the condition is inherited. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45105839 | 362,074 |
2,094,337 | James Moeser was named Spanier's replacement in 1996. He pioneered the development of NU's Honors Program and secured several of the largest grants in school history. Under his watch, Nebraska's football program won another national title. Despite repeatedly stating he "wasn't looking to leave [Nebraska]," Moeser interviewed for multiple administrative positions at other universities, and became chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on April 14, 2001. College of Law dean Harvey Perlman served as acting chancellor from the time of Moeser's departure until April 1, 2001, when Perlman was appointed to the position full-time. He oversaw the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's move to the Big Ten Conference, the university's first major conference transition since joining the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (later the Big Eight) in 1921. By the time Perlman's tenure ended, NU had massively expanded its research efforts and opened Nebraska Innovation Campus, though initial progress to develop the sprawling research facility was slow. The university's once-dominant football program did not win a conference title during his time as chancellor, and Perlman's management of the athletic department was highly criticized. Perlman retired in 2016 as the university's second longest-tenured chancellor and Ronnie D. Green was named his successor. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=70529288 | 2,093,129 |
1,616,314 | There are many regions in which there is a population of cats and dogs that freely roam on the streets. The most conventional approach to controlling reproductive rates in companion animals is through surgical means. However, surgical intervention poses ethical concerns. Through the formulation of a non-surgical castration technique, animals would not have to undergo anesthesia, and would not have to experience post-surgical bleeding or infection of the area that has been operated on. Some examples of chemosterilants include CaCl and zinc gluconate. These are specifically known as necrosis-inducing agents, which result in the degeneration of cells in the testes, resulting in infertility. These kinds of chemicals are generally injected into male reproductive organs, such as the testes, vas deferens, or epididymis. When injected, they induce azoospermia, which is the degeneration of the sperm cells normally found in the semen. If no sperm cells are present, reproduction can no longer occur. There is, however, one complication that results from the use of necrosis-inducing agents. Many animals generally exhibit an inflammatory response directly after the injection. To avoid the pain and discomfort associated with necrosis-inducing agents, another form of sterilization, known as apoptosis-inducing agents, has been studied. If cells are signaled to perform apoptosis rather than being eliminated by a foreign substance, this will result in no inflammation in the area. Experiments were tested using mice in vitro and ex vivo that have proved this. Using an apoptosis-inducing agent known as doxorubicin encapsulated in a nanoemulsion, and injecting it into mice, testicular cell death was observed. Inflammation was not observed in this case; however, more research still needs to be conducted with these materials, as the long-term impacts are unknown. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3143285 | 1,615,403 |
44,561 | In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries' energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared". Solar power accounts for 505 GW annually, which is about 2% of the world's electricity. Solar energy can be harnessed anywhere that receives sunlight; however, the amount of solar energy that can be harnessed for electricity generation is influenced by weather conditions, geographic location and time of day. According to chapter 6 of the IPCC 2022 climate mitigation report, the global potential of direct solar energy far exceeds that of any other renewable energy resource. It is well beyond the total amount of energy needed in order to support mitigation over the current century. Australia has the largest proportion of solar electricity in the world, supplying 9.9% of the country's electrical demand in 2020. More than 30 per cent of Australian households now have rooftop solar PV, with a combined capacity exceeding 11 GW. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25784 | 44,544 |
1,968,265 | At the urging of his SMU professors, he applied as a physics research student to California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which he attended bearing a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. In the 1957 nuclear physics course at Caltech Clayton learned from William Alfred Fowler about a new theory that the chemical elements had been assembled within the stars by nuclear reactions occurring there. He was captivated for life by that idea. Clayton completed his Ph.D. Thesis in 1961 on the growth of the abundances of the heavy elements owing to the slow capture of free neutrons (the s process) by more abundant lighter elements in stars. Clayton and his wife Mary Lou played a small role in producing the celebrated Feynman Lectures on Physics by converting the taped audio of Richard Feynman's lectures to prose. Caltech afforded Clayton the chance to meet and later become a lifelong friend of Fred Hoyle, British cosmologist and creator of the theory of nucleosynthesis in stars. Hoyle exerted strong lifetime influence on Clayton. Clayton's published collaborations with Fowler (1983 Nobel Laureate in Physics) as Fowler's research student (1957–60) and subsequently as Fowler's post-doctoral research associate (1961–63) launched Clayton's scientific career. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36061850 | 1,967,135 |
1,402,740 | 2D nanomaterials also have a few challenges. There are some side effects of modifying the properties of the materials, such as activity and structural stability, which can be compromised when they are engineered. For example, creating some defects can increase the number of active sites for higher catalytic performance, but side reactions may also happen, which could possibly damage the catalyst's structure. Another example is that interlayer expansion can lower the ion diffusion barrier in the catalytic reaction, but it can also potentially lower its structural stability. Because of this, there is a tradeoff between performance and stability. A second issue is consistency in design methods. For example, heterostructures are the main structures of the catalyst in interlayer space and energy storage devices, but these structures may lack the understanding of mechanism on the catalytic reaction or charge storage mechanisms. A deeper understanding of 2D nanomaterial design is required, because fundamental knowledge will lead to consistent and efficient methods of designing these structures. A third challenge is the practical application of these technologies. There is a huge difference between lab-scale and industry-scale applications of 2D nanomaterials due to their intrinsic instability during storage and processing. For example, porous 2D nanomaterial structures have low packing densities, which makes them difficult to pack into dense films. New processes are still being developed for the application of these materials on an industrial scale. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10209776 | 1,401,953 |
285,591 | Bueckers was a five-star recruit and ranked the number one player in the 2020 class by ESPN. By eighth grade and age 14, she had received scholarship offers from NCAA Division I basketball programs at Minnesota, Iowa State and Illinois. On April 1, 2019, Bueckers announced her commitment to University of Connecticut. The other finalists she was considering were Notre Dame, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA, Minnesota, South Carolina, Maryland, Texas and Duke. On November 13, Bueckers signed a National Letter of Intent with UConn. She became the 11th number-one recruit to sign and attend UConn since 1998. Bueckers was drawn to UConn because she felt that head coach Geno Auriemma would maximize her talents, and because of the university's reputation and enthusiasm for women's basketball. She also believed that she could immediately have a key role at UConn, with the expected graduation of point guard Crystal Dangerfield, and was attracted by its team-oriented play style. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=61733357 | 285,437 |
978,607 | The final report, published on December 30, 1907, included three sections: a summary of the panel's findings written by Mills, a letter by John Montgomery Ward supporting the panel, and a dissenting opinion by Henry Chadwick. The research methods were, at best, dubious. Mills was a close friend of Doubleday, and upon Doubleday's death in 1893 Mills orchestrated his memorial service and burial. Doubleday had been a prominent member of the spiritualist Theosophical Society, in which Spalding's wife was deeply involved and in whose compound in San Diego Spalding was residing at the time. Wright and Reach were effectively Spalding's employees, as he had secretly bought out their sporting-goods businesses some years before. AAU president and Commission secretary Sullivan was Spalding's personal factotum. Several other members had personal reasons to declare baseball as an "American" game, such as Spalding's strong American imperialist views. The Commission found an appealing story: baseball was invented in a quaint rural town without foreigners or industry, by a young man who later graduated from West Point and served heroically in the Mexican–American War, Civil War, and U.S. wars against Indians. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=602676 | 978,096 |
1,421,760 | A period of consolidation occurred at the university in the 1980s, resulting in internal regulation and the creation of fundamental bodies (during the mandate of the second rector Dr. José Mesquita Rodrigues) as well as the conclusion of the purchase of lands for the campus, later completed during the mandate of Dr. Renato Araújo. By the end of the 1980s (specifically 24 September 1988), the law for university autonomy, permitted the consolidation of the university organic laws, and homologation of the university statutes, in June 1989. Meanwhile, a team coordinated by architect Nuno Portas, had begun selecting among various prestigious Portuguese architects in 1986 to design the Santigao University Campus, that fell in line with their attempt to harmonize the structures with the architectural heritage of the city. Many of the buildings, therefore, were designed by internationally recognized architects, among them: Alcino Soutinho, Álvaro Sisa Vieira, Pedro Ramalho, Luís Ramalho, José Maria Lopo Prata, Eduardo Souto Moura, Adalberto Dias, Rebello de Andrade, Jorge Kol de Carvalho, Gonçalo Byrne and Figueiredo Dias, whose works have annually been visited by national and international specialists. By the mid-1980s teaching had expanded with innovative courses in Environment, Industrial Management, Music, Tourism, Chemical Industry and New Technologies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1165393 | 1,420,959 |
1,172,395 | The HL-20 Crew Rescue Vehicle was based on the Personnel Launch System (PLS) concept being developed by NASA as an outgrowth of earlier lifting body research. In October 1989, Rockwell International (Space Systems Division) began a year-long contracted effort managed by Langley Research Center to perform an in-depth study of PLS design and operations with the HL-20 concept as a baseline for the study. In October 1991, the Lockheed Advanced Development Company (better known as the Skunk Works) began a study to determine the feasibility of developing a prototype and operational system. A cooperative agreement between NASA, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T University led to the construction of a full-scale model of the HL-20 PLS for further human factors research on this concept. Of all the options, a lifting body presents the most ideal medical environment in terms of controlled environment as well as low "g"-loading during reentry and landing. However, the price tag for the HL-20 project was US$2 billion, and Congress cut the program from NASA's budget in 1990. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7051471 | 1,171,776 |
1,466,920 | De Candolle also made contributions to the field of chronobiology. Building upon earlier work on plant circadian leaf movements contributed by such scientists as Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan and Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, de Candolle observed in 1832 that the plant "Mimosa pudica" had a free-running period of leaf opening and closing of approximately 22–23 hours in constant light, significantly less than the approximate 24-hour period of the Earth's light-dark cycles. Since the period was shorter than 24 hours, he hypothesized that a different clock had to be responsible for the rhythm; the shortened period was not entrained—coordinated—by environmental cues, thus the clock appeared to be endogenous. Despite these findings, a number of scientists continued to search for "factor X", an unknown exogenous factor associated with the earth's rotation that was driving circadian oscillations in the absence of a light dark schedule, until the mid-twentieth century. In the mid-1920s, Erwin Bunning repeated Candolle's findings and came to similar conclusions, and studies that showed the persistence of circadian rhythm in the South Pole and in a space lab further confirmed the existence of oscillations in the absence of environmental cues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=404399 | 1,466,097 |
1,159,298 | The discovery of fission raised the possibility that an extremely powerful atomic bomb could be created. The term was already familiar to the British public through the writings of H. G. Wells, in his 1913 novel "The World Set Free". George Paget Thomson, at Imperial College London, and Mark Oliphant, an Australian physicist at the University of Birmingham, were tasked with carrying out a series of experiments on uranium. By February 1940, Thomson's team had failed to create a chain reaction in natural uranium, and he had decided that it was not worth pursuing; but at Birmingham, Oliphant's team had reached a strikingly different conclusion. Oliphant had delegated the task to two German refugee scientists, Rudolf Peierls and Frisch, who could not work on the university's secret projects like radar because they were enemy aliens and therefore lacked the necessary security clearance. They calculated the critical mass of a metallic sphere of pure uranium-235, and found that instead of tons, as everyone had assumed, as little as would suffice, which would explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52573493 | 1,158,683 |
589,676 | The Lancer WRC05 saw no significant changes, but the car's width was increased by due to a change in the WRC regulations. The engine remained the same, but the ECU and the turbo wastegate were updated. Aerodynamic alterations to the bodywork were introduced to improve stability and to accommodate the new, wider track, while suspension links and driveshafts were lengthened. Steering-mounted gearshift paddles were also introduced, and longer ratios were adopted for first, third, and fourth gears. The car showed great promise since Panizzi took 3rd place in Monte Carlo, and ex-Peugeot man Rovanpera was fast on gravel events, eventually clinching a 2nd place at the last round in Australia, but soon after that Mitsubishi pulled out of the WRC, and only returned through Ralliart UK, who took over the cars and supported private and semi-works entries in 2006 and 2007. At 2006 Rally Sweden, local driver Daniel Carlsson made the podium with a 3rd place in the Värmland forests, in such an entry. Daniel battled for seconds, just into the finish line, with teammate Gigi Galli, who settled for the fourth spot. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=30876895 | 589,374 |
531,273 | HeForShe projects and activities include weekly meetings to discuss gender-related topics, film screenings, guest speaking events with experts in their fields (such as domestic violence victim support, health, politics, and so on) (2018-), a Sexual Harassment Awareness Workshop funded by the GRL library with a lecture by Professor Kitanaka from Hiroshima University on sexual harassment on Japanese varsity campuses followed by self-defense training (2018), participation in UN Women projects including Mother’s Day 2018 and 16 Days of Activism, giving interviews for non-profit organization Voice Up Japan for an article (2018), participating in the #heforsheプラスワン (heforshePlusOne) event with Nagoya University president Seiichi Matsuo at the UN University in Tokyo (sharing the stage with then UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka) (2019), collaboration with @openarms.icu on a webinar ‘How to build a gender-equal workplace’ (2021), publishing a three-part video series called ‘Let’s talk about periods!’ (2021-present), and many more. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1340264 | 530,999 |
1,425,119 | Two-photon absorption is a third-order with respect to the third-order optical susceptibility formula_1 and a second-order process with respect to light intensity. For this reason it is a non-linear process several orders of magnitude weaker than linear absorption, thus very high light intensities are required to increase the number of such rare events. For example, tightly-focused laser beams provide the needed intensities. Here, pulsed laser sources are preferred as they deliver high-intensity pulses while depositing a relatively low average energy. To enable 3D structuring, the light source must be adequately adapted to the photoresist in that single-photon absorption is highly suppressed while two-photon absorption is favoured. This condition is met if and only if the resist is highly transparent for the laser light's output wavelength λ and, simultaneously, absorbing at λ/2. As a result, a given sample relative to the focused laser beam can be scanned while changing the resist's solubility only in a confined volume. The geometry of the latter mainly depends on the iso-intensity surfaces of the focus. Concretely, those regions of the laser beam which exceed a given exposure threshold of the photosensitive medium define the basic building block, the so-called "voxel". Other parameters which influence the actual shape of the voxel are the laser mode and the refractive-index mismatch between the resist and the immersion system leading to spherical aberration. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22124835 | 1,424,317 |
1,364,351 | Pascual-Leone, Case, and Halford attempt to explain development along the sequence of Piagetian stages and substages. Pascual-Leone aligned this sequence with a single line of development of mental power that goes from one to seven mental units. Case suggested that each of four main stages involves different kinds of mental structures and he specified the mental load of the successive levels or substages of complexity within each of the main stages. He said that there may be different central conceptual structures within each level of executive control structures that differ between each other in reference to the concepts and semantic relations involved. Halford attempted to specify the cognitive load of the mental structure that is typical of each of the main stages. Fischer stressed the importance of skill construction processes in building stage-like constructs and he emphasized the role of the environment and social support in skill construction. Commons offered a description of the successive levels of cognitive development while allowing for the explicit reference to the particularities of concepts and operations specific to each of the domains. Demetriou integrated into his theory the constructs of speed of processing and control of processing, and he formulated the functional shift model, which unifies Pascual-Leone's notion of underlying common dimension of capacity development with the notion of qualitative changes in mental structure as development progresses along this dimension. Dynamic systems theory can model how different processes interact dynamically when developmental hierarachies are built. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25076961 | 1,363,595 |
540,523 | At a global level, the implementation of digital health solutions depends on large data sets, ranging from simple statistics that record every birth and death to more sophisticated metrics that track diseases, outbreaks, and chronic conditions. These systems record data such as patient records, blood test results, EKGs, MRIs, billing records, drug prescriptions, and other private medical information. Medical professionals can use this data to make more data-driven decisions about patient care and consumers themselves can utilize it to make informed choices about their own health. Given the personal nature of the data being collected, a crucial debate has arisen amongst stake-holders about one of the challenges induced by digital health solutions: the ownership of health data. In most cases, governments and big data and technology companies are storing citizens' medical information, leaving many concerned with how their data is being used and/or who has access to it. This is further compounded by the fact that the details that answer these questions is oftentimes hidden in complex terms & conditions that are rarely read. A notable example of a data privacy breach in the digital health space took place in 2016. Google faced a major lawsuit over a data-sharing agreement that gave its artificial intelligence arm, DeepMind, access to the personal health data of 1.6 million British patients. Google failed to secure patient consent and guarantee the anonymity of the patients. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37451236 | 540,243 |
1,428,136 | Cognitive neuroscience research demonstrates that some movies can exert considerable control over brain activity and eye movements. Studying the neuroscience of film is based on the hypothesis that some films, or film segments, lead viewers through a similar sequence of perceptual, emotional and cognitive states. Using fMRI brain imaging, researchers asked participants to watch 30 minutes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) as they lay on their backs in the MRI scanner. Despite the seemingly uncontrolled task and complex nature of the stimulus, brain activity was similar across viewers’ brains, particularly in spatiotemporal areas. When compared to a random sequence of scenes, the specific order of events seemed to be strongly associated with this similarity in brain activity. It was also determined that the level of control a movie has on someone's mental state is highly dependent upon the cinematic devices (pans, cuts and close-ups) it contains. Tightly edited films exert more control on brain activity and eye-movement than open-ended films. However, similar eye-movement and similarity in visual processing does not guarantee similar brain responses. In addition, the average correlation in taste between individual viewers is rather low and not well predicted by film critics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37527148 | 1,427,332 |
853,276 | The removal of pollutants from the waste water stream involves both absorption and adsorption of organic compounds and some inorganic species (such as nitrite and nitrate ions) by the layer of microbial biofilm. The filter media is typically chosen to provide a very high surface-to-volume ratio. Typical materials are often porous and have considerable internal surface area, in addition to the external surface of the medium. Passage of the wastewater over the media provides dissolved oxygen, which the biofilm layer requires for the biochemical oxidation of the organic compounds and releases carbon dioxide gas, water and other oxidized end products. As the biofilm layer thickens, it eventually sloughs off into the liquid flow and subsequently forms part of the secondary sludge. Typically, a trickling filter is followed by a clarifier or sedimentation tank for the separation and removal of the sloughed film. Filters utilizing higher-density media, such as sand, foam and peat moss do not produce a sludge that must be removed, but may require forced air blowers, backwashing, and/or an enclosed anaerobic environment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=12915657 | 852,822 |
546,955 | Implantable pacemakers were proposed for the first time in 1959 and became more sophisticated since then. The therapeutic application of pacemakers consists of numerous rhythm disturbances including some forms of tachycardia (too fast a heart beat), heart failure, and even stroke. Early implantable pacemakers worked only a short time and needed periodic recharging by an inductive link. These implantable pacemakers needed a pulse generator to stimulate heart muscles with a certain rate in addition to electrodes. Today, modern pulse generators are programmed non-invasively by sophisticated computerized machines using RF, obtaining information about the patient's and device's status by telemetry. Also they use a single hermetically sealed lithium iodide (LiI) cell as the battery. The pacemaker circuitry includes sense amplifiers to detect the heart's intrinsic electrical signals, which are used to track heart activity, rate adaptive circuitry, which determine the need for increased or reduced pacing rate, a microprocessor, memory to store the parameters, telemetry control for communication protocol and power supplies to provide regulated voltage. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29803004 | 546,669 |
50,623 | The AESA radar offers unique capabilities for fighters (and it is also quickly becoming essential for Generation 4.5 aircraft designs, as well as being retrofitted onto some fourth-generation aircraft). In addition to its high resistance to ECM and LPI features, it enables the fighter to function as a sort of "mini-AWACS", providing high-gain electronic support measures (ESM) and electronic warfare (EW) jamming functions. Other technologies common to this latest generation of fighters includes integrated electronic warfare system (INEWS) technology, integrated communications, navigation, and identification (CNI) avionics technology, centralized "vehicle health monitoring" systems for ease of maintenance, fiber optics data transmission, stealth technology and even hovering capabilities. Maneuver performance remains important and is enhanced by thrust-vectoring, which also helps reduce takeoff and landing distances. Supercruise may or may not be featured; it permits flight at supersonic speeds without the use of the afterburner – a device that significantly increases IR signature when used in full military power. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10929 | 50,603 |
869,537 | The Xeelee Sequence (; ) is a series of hard science fiction space opera novels, novellas, and short stories written by British science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The series spans billions of years of fictional history, centering on humanity's future expansion into the universe, its intergalactic war with an enigmatic and supremely powerful Kardashev Type IV alien civilization called the Xeelee (eldritch symbiotes composed of spacetime defects, Bose-Einstein condensates, and baryonic matter), and the Xeelee's own cosmos-spanning war with dark matter entities called Photino Birds. The series features many other species and civilizations that play a prominent role, including the Squeem (a species of group-mind aquatics), the Qax (beings whose biology is based on the complex interactions of convection cells), and the Silver Ghosts (colonies of symbiotic organisms encased in reflective skins). Several stories in the Sequence also deal with humans and posthumans living in extreme conditions, such as at the heart of a neutron star ("Flux"), in a separate universe with considerably stronger gravity ("Raft"), and within eusocial hive societies ("Coalescent"). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3688299 | 869,077 |
617,860 | While the effects of high and acute doses of ionising radiation are easily observed and understood in humans ("e.g." Japanese atomic bomb survivors), the effects of low-level radiation are very difficult to observe and highly controversial. This is because the baseline cancer rate is already very high and the risk of developing cancer fluctuates 40% because of individual life style and environmental effects, obscuring the subtle effects of low-level radiation. An acute effective dose of 100 millisieverts may increase cancer risk by ~0.8%. However, children are particularly sensitive to radioactivity, with childhood leukemias and other cancers increasing even within natural and man-made background radiation levels (under 4 mSv cumulative with 1 mSv being an average annual dose from terrestrial and cosmic radiation, excluding radon which primarily doses the lung). There is limited evidence that exposures around this dose level will cause negative subclinical health impacts to neural development. Students born in regions of higher Chernobyl fallout performed worse in secondary school, particularly in mathematics. “Damage is accentuated within families (i.e., siblings comparison) and among children born to parents with low education..." who often don't have the resources to overcome this additional health challenge. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1106101 | 617,546 |
616,639 | Another molecular phylogenetic analysis technique has been described by Pevsner and shall be summarized in the sentences to follow (Pevsner, 2015). A phylogenetic analysis typically consists of five major steps. The first stage comprises sequence acquisition. The following step consists of performing a multiple sequence alignment, which is the fundamental basis of constructing a phylogenetic tree. The third stage includes different models of DNA and amino acid substitution. Several models of substitution exist. A few examples include Hamming distance, the Jukes and Cantor one-parameter model, and the Kimura two-parameter model (see Models of DNA evolution). The fourth stage consists of various methods of tree building, including distance-based and character-based methods. The normalized Hamming distance and the Jukes-Cantor correction formulas provide the degree of divergence and the probability that a nucleotide changes to another, respectively. Common tree-building methods include unweighted pair group method using arithmetic mean (UPGMA) and Neighbor joining, which are distance-based methods, Maximum parsimony, which is a character-based method, and Maximum likelihood estimation and Bayesian inference, which are character-based/model-based methods. UPGMA is a simple method; however, it is less accurate than the neighbor-joining approach. Finally, the last step comprises evaluating the trees. This assessment of accuracy is composed of consistency, efficiency, and robustness. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=149544 | 616,325 |
104,917 | In 2017, ETH Zurich board approved the creation of a "Student Project House" to encourage student projects and foster innovation. A test consisting of a "makerspace" and co-working space was established on the Hönggerberg campus, followed by a 6-story space near the ETH Zurich main building. Both locations function as a unified entity for the purpose of qualifications, staffing and decision making. While both makerspaces offer similar tools, the central one is significantly larger and also hosts a rentable auditorium, intended for pitching projects to faculty to gain funding, and a bar. Both makerspaces include workspaces for wood- and metalworking, electronics fabrication, as well as an array of 3D-printers for students to use at a little over material cost. Both also feature a shop for students to buy items such as resistors in lower quantities than ordinarily, while passing down the savings of bulk purchases. The makerspaces are managed and staffed entirely by students, who are paid in shop credit. A new space is expected to open on the Hönggerberg campus in 2024. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=210910 | 104,872 |
1,518,464 | Shifman is known for a number of basic contributions to quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, and to understanding of supersymmetric gauge dynamics. The most important results due to M. Shifman are diverse and include (i) the discovery of the penguin mechanism in the flavor-changing weak decays (1974); (ii) introduction of the gluon condensate and development of the SVZ sum rules relating properties of the low-lying hadronic states to the vacuum condensates (1979); (iii) introduction of the invisible axion (1980) (iv) first exact results in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories (NSVZ beta function, gluino condensate,1983–1988); (v) heavy quark theory based on the operator product expansion (1985–1995); (vi) critical domain walls (D-brane analogs) in super-Yang-Mills (1996); (vii) non-perturbative (exact) planar equivalence between super-Yang-Mills and orientifold non-supersymmetric theories (2003); (viii) non-Abelian flux tubes and confined monopoles (2004 till present). His paper with A. Vainshtein and Zakharov on the SVZ sum rules is among the all-time top cited papers in high-energy physics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19029045 | 1,517,606 |
1,790,915 | Soviet-American physicist George Gamow was the first to come up with a coherent scheme for protein synthesis from DNA. Based on the Watson-Crick model, he envisaged that the DNA itself is a direct template for protein synthesis. Assuming that the four bases of DNA could produce 20 different combinations as triplets, he suggested that the different amino acids must correspond to a twenty-letter alphabet of the nucleotide sequence. In such configuration, the DNA directly produces proteins from the free molecules of amino acids. In the 13 February 1954 issue of "Nature" he explained:It seems to me that such translation procedure can be easily established by considering the 'key-and-lock' relation between various amino-acids, and the rhomb-shaped 'holes' formed by various nucleotides in the deoxyribonucleic acid chain... One can speculate that free amino-acids from the surrounding medium get caught into the 'holes' of deoxyribonucleic acid molecules, and thus unite into the corresponding peptide chains.Watson, then at the California Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, also thought up the issue. Unlike Gamow, he realised the possible importance of RNA as an intermediate stage in protein synthesis. He initially imagined that DNA was first converted by chemical reaction to RNA, but then changed his view to DNA as a template for RNA synthesis. This latter model, which he called "not ugly" was starting to become more convincing. In a letter to Crick on 11 December 1954, discussing how RNA could be produced from DNA since they contain fundamentally similar nucleotide compositions, he wrote: "I suspect the answer is staring us in the face." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11521413 | 1,789,909 |
911,922 | Sustainable architecture often incorporates the use of recycled or second hand materials, such as reclaimed lumber and recycled copper. The reduction in use of new materials creates a corresponding reduction in embodied energy (energy used in the production of materials). Often sustainable architects attempt to retrofit old structures to serve new needs in order to avoid unnecessary development. Architectural salvage and reclaimed materials are used when appropriate. When older buildings are demolished, frequently any good wood is reclaimed, renewed, and sold as flooring. Any good dimension stone is similarly reclaimed. Many other parts are reused as well, such as doors, windows, mantels, and hardware, thus reducing the consumption of new goods. When new materials are employed, green designers look for materials that are rapidly replenished, such as bamboo, which can be harvested for commercial use after only six years of growth, sorghum or wheat straw, both of which are waste material that can be pressed into panels, or cork oak, in which only the outer bark is removed for use, thus preserving the tree. When possible, building materials may be gleaned from the site itself; for example, if a new structure is being constructed in a wooded area, wood from the trees which were cut to make room for the building would be re-used as part of the building itself. For insulation in building envelopes, more experimental materials such as “waste sheep’s wool” alongside other waste fibers originating from textile and agri-industrial operations are being researched for use as well, with recent studies suggesting the recycled insulation effective for architectural purposes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2704720 | 911,443 |
325,378 | "Dreadnought" sailed for the Mediterranean Sea for extensive trials in December 1906 calling in at Arosa Bay, Gibraltar and Golfo d'Aranci before crossing the Atlantic to Port of Spain, Trinidad in January 1907, returning to Portsmouth on 23 March 1907. During this cruise, her engines and guns were given a thorough workout by Captain Reginald Bacon, Fisher's former Naval Assistant and a member of the Committee on Designs. His report stated, "No member of the Committee on Designs dared to hope that all the innovations introduced would have turned out as successfully as had been the case." During this time she averaged between Gibraltar and Trinidad and from Trinidad to Portsmouth, an unprecedented high-speed performance. This shakedown cruise revealed several issues that were dealt with in subsequent refits, notably the replacement of her steering engines and the addition of cooling machinery to reduce the temperature levels in her magazines (cordite degrades more quickly at high temperatures). The most important issue, which was never addressed in her lifetime, was that the placement of her foremast behind the forward funnel put the spotting top right in the plume of hot exhaust gases, much to the detriment of her fighting ability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=717448 | 325,205 |
1,560,919 | Organohalogen compounds, such as dioxins, are commonly found in pesticides or created as by-products of pesticide manufacture or degradation. These compounds can have a significant impact on the neurobiology of exposed organisms. Some observed effects of exposure to dioxins are altered astroglial intracellular calcium ion (Ca), decreased glutathione levels, modified neurotransmitter function in the CNS, and loss of pH maintenance. A study of 350 chemical plant employees exposed to a dioxin precursor for herbicide synthesis between 1965 and 1968 showed that 80 of the employees displayed signs of dioxin poisoning. Of these 350 employees, 15 were contacted again in 2004 to submit to neurological tests to assess whether the dioxin poisoning had any long-term effects on neurological capabilities. The amount of time that had passed made it difficult to assemble a larger cohort, but the results of the tests indicated that eight of the 15 subjects exhibited some central nervous system impairment, nine showed signs of polyneuropathy, and electroencephalography (EEG) showed various degrees of structural abnormalities. This study suggested that the effects of dioxins were not limited to initial toxicity. Dioxins, through neuroplastic effects, can cause long-term damage that may not manifest itself for years or even decades. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29807255 | 1,560,033 |
1,282,171 | During his career, Brand received many awards and honors. He was awarded the Hunterian professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1952, and the Lasker Award in 1960. Queen Elizabeth honored him with a title of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1961. He served as President of The Leprosy Mission International based in London and was on the Panel of Experts on leprosy of the World Health Organization. He was one of the main architects of the All-Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Center at Karigiri, India, in the Vellore district. He was an honorary member of the American Society of Hand Therapists, in recognition of his many contributions to the field. In 1966, he accepted a post as chief of rehabilitation at the public hospital in Carville, Louisiana, the only leprosy hospital in the United States. He worked there until his retirement in 1986. From 1993 to 1999, he was the President of The Leprosy Mission International, then moving to Seattle to become the Clinical Professor of Orthopoedics, Emeritus, at the University of Washington. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1545657 | 1,281,475 |
2,001,352 | Chris Scarre of Durham University writing in "Antiquity" noted the controversial nature of the "three stages of trance" model, proclaiming that those already unconvinced by the Lewis-Williams' theory will get little from the new book. Scarre noted that there was "much to question and to applaud" in the work, before highlighting that the use of evidence was selective, and that the art on the Breton megaliths was not included. "American Scientist" published a review authored by Brian D. Hayden of Simon Fraser University, in which he described it as a "very enjoyable" book, praising the book's vignettes as making it "eminently readable". Although remarking that the authors' "endorse cognitive interpretations that are quite different from the more economic and practical interpretations that I generally favor", Hayden nevertheless commented that he agreed with their basic premise. He comments that while some of their assertions do seem plausible, others – for instance their claims that the idea of a tiered cosmos has a neurological basis – are less so, being the sort of "speculative indulgences" that he believes typify "English archaeology". Moving on to discuss the authors' views on the relationship between altered states of consciousness and power elites, he expresses his disagreement with them, noting that "the issues of domestication and the emergence of socioeconomic complexity are poorly served by cognitively based explanations." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37688915 | 2,000,206 |
1,388,215 | The diagnosis of Loeffler endocarditis should be considered in individuals exhibiting signs and symptoms of poor heart contractility and/or valve disease in the presence of significant increases in blood eosinophil counts. Ancillary tests may help in the diagnosis. Echocardiography typically gives non-specific and only occasional findings of endocardium thickening, left ventricular hypertrophy, left ventricle dilation, and involvement of the mitral and/or tricuspid valves. Gadolinium-based cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is the most useful non-invasive procedure for diagnosing eosinophilic myocarditis. It supports this diagnosis if it shows at least two of the following abnormalities: a) an increased signal in T2-weighted images; b) an increased global myocardial early enhancement ratio between myocardial and skeletal muscle in enhanced T1 images and c) one or more focal enhancements distributed in a non-vascular pattern in late enhanced T1-weighted images. Additionally, and unlike in other forms of myocarditis, eosinophilic myocarditis may also show enhanced gadolinium uptake in the sub-endocardium. However, the only definitive test for Loeffler endocarditis is cardiac muscle biopsy showing the presence of eosinophilic infiltrates. Since the disorder may be patchy, multiple tissue samples taken during the procedure improve the chances of uncovering the pathology but in any case, negative results do not exclude the diagnosis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5061302 | 1,387,447 |
762,803 | Futurists are practitioners of the foresight profession, which seeks to provide organizations and individuals with images of the future to help them prepare for contingencies and to maximize opportunities. A foresight project begins with a question that ponders the future of any given subject area, including technology, medicine, government and business. Futurists engage in environmental scanning to search for drivers of change and emerging trends that may have an effect on the focus topic. The scanning process includes reviewing social media platforms, researching already prepared reports, engaging in Delphi studies, reading articles and any other sources of relevant information and preparing and analyzing data extrapolations. Then, through one of a number of highly structured methods futurists organize this information and use it to create multiple future scenarios for the topic, also known as a domain. The value of preparing many different versions of the future rather than a singular prediction is that they provide a client with the ability to prepare long-range plans that will weather and optimize a variety of contexts. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1508301 | 762,395 |
815,799 | Cope's views on human races would today be considered racist. In his essays on evolution, he assessed the physiognomies of three sub-species of human — termed the Negro, the Mongolian, and the Indo-European — in comparison to those of apes and human embryos, and drew the following conclusion:The Indo-European race is then the highest by virtue of the acceleration of growth in the development of the muscles by which the body is maintained in the erect position (extensors of the leg), and in those important elements of beauty, a well-developed nose and beard. It is also superior in those points in which it is more embryonic than the other races, viz., the want of prominence of the jaws and cheek-bones, since these are associated with a greater predominance of the cerebral part of the skull, increased size of cerebral hemispheres, and greater intellectual power.He believed that if, "a race was not white then it was inherently more ape-like". He was opposed to blacks because of their "degrading vices", believing that the "inferior Negro should go back to Africa." He did not blame blacks for their perceived "poor virtue", but wrote, "A vulture will always eat carrion when surrounded on all hands by every kind of cleaner food. It is the nature of the bird". Cope was against the modern view of women's rights, believing in the husband's role as protector; he was opposed to women's suffrage, as he felt they would be unduly influenced by their husbands. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=415000 | 815,365 |
1,793,187 | Individual Chinese students had no great difficulty mastering Western science, but the growth in their numbers and potential influence posed a challenge to the Confucian scholar-officials who dominated the imperial government and Chinese society. Such officials were reluctant to grant foreign-trained scientists and engineers a status equal to that of Confucian scholars, and they were suspicious of foreign ideas about politics and social organization, such as professional autonomy, freedom of speech and assembly, and experiments rather than written texts as validation of propositions. Nineteenth-century officials attempted to control the influx of foreign knowledge and values, distinguishing militarily useful technology, which was to be imported and assimilated, from foreign philosophy, religion, or political and social values, which were to be rejected. The slogan "Chinese learning for the essence, Western learning for utility" expressed this attitude. Although the terms were no longer used, the fundamental issue remained significant in the 1980s, as the Chinese Communist Party attempted to distinguish between beneficial foreign technology and "harmful" foreign ideas and practices. Throughout the twentieth century, China's political leaders have had a deeply ambivalent attitude toward science and technology, promoting it as necessary for national defense and national strength but fearing it as a carrier of threatening ideas and practices. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14246598 | 1,792,178 |
581,944 | In American astronomer Alastair G. W. Cameron's hypothesis from 1962 and 1963, the protosun, with a mass of about 1–2 Suns and a diameter of around 100,000 AU, was gravitationally unstable, collapsed, and broke into smaller subunits. The magnetic field was around 1/100,000 gauss. During the collapse, the magnetic lines of force were twisted. The collapse was fast and occurred due to the dissociation of hydrogen molecules, followed by the ionization of hydrogen and the double ionization of helium. Angular momentum led to rotational instability, which produced a Laplacean disk. At this stage, radiation removed excess energy, the disk would cool over a relatively short period of about 1 million years, and the condensation into what Whipple calls cometismals took place. Aggregation of these cometismals produced giant planets, which in turn produced disks during their formation, which evolved into lunar systems. The formation of terrestrial planets, comets, and asteroids involved disintegration, heating, melting, and solidification. Cameron also formulated the giant-impact hypothesis for the origin of the Moon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=17052696 | 581,646 |
467,282 | Aperiodic tilings were considered as mathematical artefacts until 1984, when physicist Dan Shechtman announced the discovery of a phase of an aluminium-manganese alloy which produced a sharp diffractogram with an unambiguous fivefold symmetry – so it had to be a crystalline substance with icosahedral symmetry. In 1975 Robert Ammann had already extended the Penrose construction to a three-dimensional icosahedral equivalent. In such cases the term 'tiling' is taken to mean 'filling the space'. Photonic devices are currently built as aperiodical sequences of different layers, being thus aperiodic in one direction and periodic in the other two. Quasicrystal structures of Cd-Te appear to consist of atomic layers in which the atoms are arranged in a planar aperiodic pattern. Sometimes an energetical minimum or a maximum of entropy occur for such aperiodic structures. Steinhardt has shown that Gummelt's overlapping decagons allow the application of an extremal principle and thus provide the link between the mathematics of aperiodic tiling and the structure of quasicrystals. Faraday waves have been observed to form large patches of aperiodic patterns. The physics of this discovery has revived the interest in incommensurate structures and frequencies suggesting to link aperiodic tilings with interference phenomena. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=868145 | 467,047 |
343,336 | Autochrome plates had an integral mosaic filter layer with roughly five million previously dyed potato grains per square inch added to the surface. Then through the use of a rolling press, five tons of pressure were used to flatten the grains, enabling every one of them to capture and absorb color and their microscopic size allowing the illusion that the colors are merged. The final step was adding a coat of the light-capturing substance silver bromide, after which a color image could be imprinted and developed. In order to see it, reversal processing was used to develop each plate into a transparent positive that could be viewed directly or projected with an ordinary projector. One of the drawbacks of the technology was an exposure time of at least a second in bright daylight, with the time required quickly increasing in poor light. An indoor portrait required several minutes with the subject stationary. This was because the grains absorbed color fairly slowly, and a filter of a yellowish-orange color was required to keep the photograph from coming out excessively blue. Although necessary, the filter had the effect of reducing the amount of light that was absorbed. Another drawback was that the image could only be enlarged so much before the many dots that made up the image would become apparent. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2435889 | 343,155 |
850,602 | The first fossils classified as "Sauroposeidon" were four neck vertebrae discovered in rural Oklahoma, not far from the Texas border, in a claystone outcrop that dates the fossils to about 110 million years ago (mya). This falls within the Early Cretaceous Period, specifically between the Aptian and Albian epochs. These vertebrae were discovered in May 1994 at the Antlers Formation in Atoka County, Oklahoma by dog trainer Bobby Cross and secured by Dr. Richard Cifelli and a team from the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in May 1994 and August 1994. Initially the fossils were believed to be simply too large to be the remains of an animal, and due to the state of preservation, believed to be tree trunks. In fact, they are the longest such bones known in dinosaurs. Thus, the vertebrae were stored until 1999, when Dr. Cifelli gave them to a graduate student, Matt Wedel, to analyze as part of a project. Upon their realization of the find's significance, they issued a press release in October 1999, followed by official publication of their findings in the "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology" in March 2000. The new species was named "S. proteles", and the holotype is OMNH 53062. It garnered immediate media attention leading to some sources calling it inaccurately the largest dinosaur ever. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1096641 | 850,150 |
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