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3,049,420 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1cB-elimination%20reaction | The E1cB elimination reaction is a type of elimination reaction which occurs under basic conditions, where the hydrogen to be removed is relatively acidic, while the leaving group (such as -OH or -OR) is a relatively poor one. Usually a moderate to strong base is present. E1cB is a two-step process, the first step of which may or may not be reversible. First, a base abstracts the relatively acidic proton to generate a stabilized anion. The lone pair of electrons on the anion then moves to the neighboring atom, thus expelling the leaving group and forming a double or triple bond. The name of the mechanism - E1cB - stands for Elimination Unimolecular conjugate Base. Elimination refers to the fact that the mechanism is an elimination reaction and will lose two substituents. Unimolecular refers to the fact that the rate-determining step of this reaction only involves one molecular entity. Finally, conjugate base refers to the formation of the carbanion intermediate, which is the conjugate base of the starting material.
E1cB should be thought of as being on one end of a continuous spectrum, which includes the E1 mechanism at the opposite end and the E2 mechanism in the middle. The E1 mechanism usually has the opposite characteristics: the leaving group is a good one (like -OTs or -Br), while the hydrogen is not particularly acidic and a strong base is absent. Thus, in the E1 mechanism, the leaving group leaves first to generate a carbocation. Due to the presence of an empty p orbital after departure of the leaving group, the hydrogen on the neighboring carbon becomes much more acidic, allowing it to then be removed by the weak base in the second step. In an E2 reaction, the presence of a strong base and a good leaving group allows proton abstraction by the base and the departure of the leaving group to occur simultaneously, leading to a concerted transition state in a one-step process.
Mechanism
There are two main requirements to have a reaction proceed down an E1cB mechanistic pathway. The compound must have an acidic hydrogen on its β-carbon and a relatively poor leaving group on the α- carbon.
The first step of an E1cB mechanism is the deprotonation of the β-carbon, resulting in the formation of an anionic transition state, such as a carbanion. The greater the stability of this transition state, the more the mechanism will favor an E1cB mechanism. This transition state can be stabilized through induction or delocalization of the electron lone pair through resonance. In general it can be claimed that an electron withdrawing group on the substrate, a strong base, a poor leaving group and a polar solvent triggers the E1cB mechanism. An example of an E1cB mechanism that has a stable transition state can be seen in the degradation of ethiofencarb - a carbamate insecticide that has a relatively short half-life in Earth's atmosphere. Upon deprotonation of the amine, the resulting amide is relatively stable because it is conjugated with the neighboring carbonyl.
In addition to containing an acidic hydrogen on the β-carbon, a relatively poor leaving group is also necessary. A bad leaving group is necessary because a good leaving group will leave before the ionization of the molecule. As a result, the compound will likely proceed through an E2 pathway. Some examples of compounds that contain poor leaving groups and can undergo the E1cB mechanism are alcohols and fluoroalkanes.
It has also been suggested that the E1cB mechanism is more common among alkenes eliminating to alkynes than from an alkane to alkene. One possible explanation for this is that the sp2 hybridization creates slightly more acidic protons. Although this mechanism is not limited to carbon-based eliminations. It has been observed with other heteroatoms, such as nitrogen in the elimination of a phenol derivative from ethiofencarb.
Distinguishing E1cB-elimination reactions from E1- and E2-elimination reactions
All elimination reactions involve the removal of two substituents from a pair of atoms in a compound. Alkene, alkynes, or similar heteroatom variations (such as carbonyl and cyano) will form. The E1cB mechanism is just one of three types of elimination reaction. The other two elimination reactions are E1 and E2 reactions. Although the mechanisms are similar, they vary in the timing of the deprotonation of the α-carbon and the loss of the leaving group. E1 stands for unimolecular elimination, and E2 stands for bimolecular elimination.
In an E1 mechanism, the molecule contains a good leaving group that departs before deprotonation of the α-carbon. This results in the formation of a carbocation intermediate. The carbocation is then deprotonated resulting in the formation of a new pi bond. The molecule involved must also have a very good leaving group such as bromine or chlorine, and it should have a relatively less acidic α-carbon.
In an E2-elimination reaction, both the deprotonation of the α-carbon and the loss of the leaving group occur simultaneously in one concerted step. Molecules that undergo E2-elimination mechanisms have more acidic α-carbons than those that undergo E1 mechanisms, but their α-carbons are not as acidic as those of molecules that undergo E1cB mechanisms. The key difference between the E2 vs E1cb pathways is a distinct carbanion intermediate as opposed to one concerted mechanism. Studies have been shown that the pathways differ by using different halogen leaving groups. One example uses chlorine as a better stabilizing halogen for the anion than fluorine, which makes fluorine the leaving group even though chlorine is a much better leaving group. This provides evidence that the carbanion is formed because the products are not possible through the most stable concerted E2 mechanism.
The following table summarizes the key differences between the three elimination reactions; however, the best way to identify which mechanism is playing a key role in a particular reaction involves the application of chemical kinetics.
Chemical kinetics of E1cB-elimination mechanisms
When trying to determine whether or not a reaction follows the E1cB mechanism, chemical kinetics are essential. The best way to identify the E1cB mechanism involves the use of rate laws and the kinetic isotope effect. These techniques can also help further differentiate between E1cB, E1, and E2-elimination reactions.
Rate law
When trying to experimentally determine whether or not a reaction follows the E1cB mechanism, chemical kinetics are essential. The best ways to identify the E1cB mechanism involves the use of rate laws and the kinetic isotope effect.
The rate law that governs E1cB mechanisms is relatively simple to determine. Consider the following reaction scheme.
Assuming that there is a steady-state carbanion concentration in the mechanism, the rate law for an E1cB mechanism.
From this equation, it is clear the second order kinetics will be exhibited.
E1cB mechanisms kinetics can vary slightly based on the rate of each step. As a result, the E1cB mechanism can be broken down into three categories:
E1cBanion is when the carbanion is stable and/or a strong base is used in excess of the substrate, making deprotonation irreversible, followed by rate-determining loss of the leaving group (k1[base] ≫ k2).
E1cBrev is when the first step is reversible but the formation of product is slower than reforming the starting material, this again results from a slow second step (k−1[conjugate acid] ≫ k2).
E1cBirr is when the first step is slow, but once the anion is formed the product quickly follows (k2 ≫ k−1[conjugate acid]). This leads to an irreversible first step but unlike E1cBanion, deprotonation is rate determining.
Kinetic isotope effect
Deuterium
Deuterium exchange and a deuterium kinetic isotope effect can help distinguish among E1cBrev, E1cBanion, and E1cBirr. If the solvent is protic and contains deuterium in place of hydrogen (e.g., CH3OD), then the exchange of protons into the starting material can be monitored. If the recovered starting material contains deuterium, then the reaction is most likely undergoing an E1cBrev type mechanism. Recall, in this mechanism protonation of the carbanion (either by the conjugate acid or by solvent) is faster than loss of the leaving group. This means after the carbanion is formed, it will quickly remove a proton from the solvent to form the starting material.
If the reactant contains deuterium at the β position, a primary kinetic isotope effect indicates that deprotonation is rate determining. Of the three E1cB mechanisms, this result is only consistent with the E1cBirr mechanism, since the isotope is already removed in E1cBanion and leaving group departure is rate determining in E1cBrev.
Fluorine-19 and carbon-11
Another way that the kinetic isotope effect can help distinguish E1cB mechanisms involves the use of 19F. Fluorine is a relatively poor leaving group, and it is often employed in E1cB mechanisms. Fluorine kinetic isotope effects are also applied in the labeling of Radiopharmaceuticals and other compounds in medical research. This experiment is very useful in determining whether or not the loss of the leaving group is the rate-determining step in the mechanism and can help distinguish between E1cBirr and E2 mechanisms. 11C can also be used to probe the nature of the transition state structure. The use of 11C can be used to study the formation of the carbanion as well as study its lifetime which can not only show that the reaction is a two-step E1cB mechanism (as opposed to the concerted E2 mechanism), but it can also address the lifetime and stability of the transition state structure which can further distinguish between the three different types of E1cB mechanisms.
Aldol reactions
The most well known reaction that undergoes E1cB elimination is the aldol condensation reaction under basic conditions. This involves the deprotonation of a compound containing a carbonyl group that results in the formation of an enolate. The enolate is the very stable conjugate base of the starting material, and is one of the intermediates in the reaction. This enolate then acts as a nucleophile and can attack an electrophilic aldehyde. The Aldol product is then deprotonated forming another enolate followed by the elimination of water in an E1cB dehydration reaction. Aldol reactions are a key reaction in organic chemistry because they provide a means of forming carbon-carbon bonds, allowing for the synthesis of more complex molecules.
Photo-induced E1cB
A photochemical version of E1cB has been reported by Lukeman et al. In this report, a photochemically induced decarboxylation reaction generates a carbanion intermediate, which subsequently eliminates the leaving group. The reaction is unique from other forms of E1cB since it does not require a base to generate the carbanion. The carbanion formation step is irreversible, and should thus be classified as E1cBirr.
In biology
The E1cB-elimination reaction is an important reaction in biology. For example, the penultimate step of glycolysis involves an E1cB mechanism. This step involves the conversion of 2-phosphoglycerate to phosphoenolpyruvate, facilitated by the enzyme enolase.
See also
Elimination reaction
Reaction mechanism
Carbocation
Carbanion
References
Elimination reactions
Reaction mechanisms | E1cB-elimination reaction | [
"Chemistry"
] | 2,495 | [
"Reaction mechanisms",
"Chemical kinetics",
"Physical organic chemistry"
] |
3,049,772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal%20Australian%20Chemical%20Institute | The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) is both the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists and a learned society promoting the science and practice of chemistry in all its branches. The RACI hosts conferences, seminars and workshops. It is the professional body for chemistry in Australia, with the ability to award the status of Chartered Chemist (CChem) to suitably qualified candidates.
History
The RACI was formed as the Australian Chemical Institute in Sydney in September 1917. The driving force was David Orme Masson, professor of chemistry at the University of Melbourne. It was incorporated under the Companies Act in New South Wales in 1923. It was given a royal charter in 1932, but it was not until a supplementary royal charter in 1953 that "Royal" was added to the title of the institute. It moved to Melbourne in 1934. It was incorporated in Victoria in 2000. Since 1993, the institute has had its office at 21 Vale Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051, Australia.
Affiliations
The RACI is a member of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), and the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS).
It has branches in all states and territories in Australia and divisions for the following areas of chemistry:
Analytical and Environmental chemistry
Carbon science
Chemical education
Interfaces, Colloids and Surface science
Electrochemistry
Industrial chemistry
Inorganic chemistry
Materials chemistry
Medicinal chemistry and Chemical biology
Organic chemistry
Physical chemistry
Polymer chemistry
Radiochemistry
In 2022, the Green and Sustainable Chemistry (GASC) National Group was established.
In addition to the divisions having organised conferences, they have co-operated in running occasional national conventions since 1953.
Membership
A member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute is designated with the honorific postnominal "MRACI". As the professional body for chemistry in Australia, the institute is empowered to award the status of Chartered Chemist ("CChem") to suitably qualified candidates. Election to Fellow of the institute ("FRACI") is dependent on a position of eminence, services rendered, academic honours, experience and status, creative achievement, responsibility and contribution to chemical science, and recommendation by the RACI Assessment Committee. The institute also accepts undergraduate and postgraduate student members, associate members, school affiliate members, and industry affiliate members.
Publications
Chemistry in Australia is a magazine published by the RACI monthly. It contains news, reviews of books and chemical software, as well as reports and stories aimed at a broad chemical audience. It is free to read online, and also available as a hard copy for members. It was established in 1934 as the Journal and Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute.
The Chemical Education Division publishes the Australian Journal of Education in Chemistry (). It was formally called Chemeda: The Australian Journal of Chemical Education. It includes articles on chemical education at all levels in schools and universities, including experiments from the Australasian Chemistry Enhanced Laboratory Learning (ACELL) Project.
Awards
The RACI grants several annual awards at branch, divisional, and national levels. A selection of the more prestigious awards is outlined below.
H. G. Smith Memorial Award
The H. G. Smith Memorial Award is the premier award of the RACI. It is awarded annually to a member who has contributed most to the development of a branch of chemical science, judged by their publication record during the ten years (or equivalent relative to opportunity) preceding the award. The recipient is required to be a current member for a minimum of 3 years. Notable recipients of the award include:
David Rivett (inaugural recipient in 1929)
James Arthur Prescott (1931)
Edward Sydney Simpson (1932)
Ian William Wark (1933)
Francis Patrick Dwyer (1943)
John Stuart Anderson (1944)
Martina Stenzel (2017)
Other awards
The Cornforth Medal is awarded for the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted by a member. The thesis must be completed under the auspices of an Australian university. The medal is named after Sir John Cornforth, the only Australian Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
The Rennie Memorial Medal is awarded to a member with less than 8 years of professional experience since completing their most recent relevant qualification, who has made the most significant contribution to chemical science.
The Leighton Memorial Medal is awarded to individuals in recognition of eminent services to chemistry in Australia.
The Ollé Prize for a member of the institute who submits the "best treatise, writing or paper" on any subject relevant to the institute's interests.
The Adrien Albert award recognises the enormous contributions made by Prof. Adrien Albert to medicinal chemistry. It is the premier award of the Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology Division and is given for sustained, outstanding research in the field of medicinal or agricultural chemistry or chemical biology. The research upon which the award is made must be conducted wholly, or largely, within Australia and New Zealand.
See also
Australian Journal of Chemistry
References
External links
Chemistry societies
Learned societies of Australia
Scientific societies based in Australia
Scientific organisations based in Australia
Organisations based in Australia with royal patronage
Chemistry education
Scientific organizations established in 1917
1917 establishments in Australia | Royal Australian Chemical Institute | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,015 | [
"Chemistry societies",
"nan"
] |
3,049,959 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean%20Nicod%20Prize | The Jean Nicod Prize is awarded annually in Paris to a leading philosopher of mind or philosophically oriented cognitive scientist. The lectures are organized by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique as part of its effort to promote interdisciplinary research in cognitive science in France. The 1993 lectures marked the centenary of the birth of the French philosopher and logician Jean Nicod (1893–1924). Besides the CNRS, sponsors include the École Normale Supérieure and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. The Jean Nicod lecturer is expected to deliver at least four lectures on a topic of his or her choice, and subsequently to publish the set of lectures, or a monograph based on them in the Jean Nicod Lectures series (MIT Press/Bradford Books; F. Recanati editor).
List
See also
Institut Jean Nicod
List of awards named after people
List of cognitive scientists
List of social sciences awards
List of philosophy awards
List of psychology awards
Philosophy of psychology
References
External links
Jean Nicod Prize & Lectures
MIT Press: Jean Nicod Lectures Series
French National Centre for Scientific Research awards
Cognitive science awards
Philosophy awards | Jean Nicod Prize | [
"Technology"
] | 228 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"Cognitive science awards"
] |
3,050,160 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static%20universe | In cosmology, a static universe (also referred to as stationary, infinite, static infinite or static eternal) is a cosmological model in which the universe is both spatially and temporally infinite, and space is neither expanding nor contracting. Such a universe does not have so-called spatial curvature; that is to say that it is 'flat' or Euclidean. A static infinite universe was first proposed by English astronomer Thomas Digges (1546–1595).
In contrast to this model, Albert Einstein proposed a temporally infinite but spatially finite model - static eternal universe - as his preferred cosmology during 1917, in his paper Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity.
After the discovery of the redshift-distance relationship (deduced by the inverse correlation of galactic brightness to redshift) by American astronomers Vesto Slipher and Edwin Hubble, the Belgian astrophysicist and priest Georges Lemaître interpreted the redshift as evidence of universal expansion and thus a Big Bang, whereas Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky proposed that the redshift was caused by the photons losing energy as they passed through the matter and/or forces in intergalactic space. Zwicky's proposal would come to be termed 'tired light'—a term invented by the major Big Bang proponent Richard Tolman.
The Einstein universe
During 1917, Albert Einstein added a positive cosmological constant to his equations of general relativity to counteract the attractive effects of gravity on ordinary matter, which would otherwise cause a static, spatially finite universe to either collapse or expand forever.
This model of the universe became known as the Einstein World or Einstein's static universe.
This motivation ended after the proposal by the astrophysicist and Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaître that the universe seems to be not static, but expanding. Edwin Hubble had researched data from the observations made by astronomer Vesto Slipher to confirm a relationship between redshift and distance, which forms the basis for the modern expansion paradigm that was introduced by Lemaître. According to George Gamow this caused Einstein to declare this cosmological model, and especially the introduction of the cosmological constant, his "biggest blunder".
Einstein's static universe is closed (i.e. has hyperspherical topology and positive spatial curvature), and contains uniform dust and a positive cosmological constant with value precisely , where is Newtonian gravitational constant, is the energy density of the matter in the universe and is the speed of light. The radius of curvature of space of the Einstein universe is equal to
The Einstein universe is one of Friedmann's solutions to Einstein's field equation for dust with density , cosmological constant , and radius of curvature . It is the only non-trivial static solution to Friedmann's equations.
Because the Einstein universe soon was recognized to be inherently unstable, it was presently abandoned as a viable model for the universe. It is unstable in the sense that any slight change in either the value of the cosmological constant, the matter density, or the spatial curvature will result in a universe that either expands and accelerates forever or re-collapses to a singularity.
After Einstein renounced his cosmological constant, and embraced the Friedmann-LeMaitre model of an expanding universe, most physicists of the twentieth century assumed that the cosmological constant is zero. If so (absent some other form of dark energy), the expansion of the universe would be decelerating. However, after Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess introduced the theory of an accelerating universe during 1998, a positive cosmological constant has been revived as a simple explanation for dark energy.
In 1976 Irving Segal revived the static universe in his chronometric cosmology. Similar to Zwicky, he ascribed the red shift of distant galaxies to curvature in the cosmos. Though he claimed vindication in astronomic data, others find the results to be inconclusive.
Requirements of a static infinite model
In order for a static infinite universe model to be viable, it must explain three things:
First, it must explain the intergalactic redshift. Second, it must explain the cosmic microwave background radiation. Third, it must have a mechanism to re-create matter (particularly hydrogen atoms) from radiation or other sources in order to avoid a gradual 'running down' of the universe due to the conversion of matter into energy in stellar processes. With the absence of such a mechanism, the universe would consist of dead objects such as black holes and black dwarfs.
See also
Milne model
Steady State theory
Plasma cosmology
References
In George Gamow's autobiography, My World Line (1970), he says of Einstein: "Much later, when I was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder of his life."
Physical cosmology
Exact solutions in general relativity
Universe
Obsolete theories in physics | Static universe | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy",
"Mathematics"
] | 1,029 | [
"Exact solutions in general relativity",
"Theoretical physics",
"Mathematical objects",
"Astrophysics",
"Equations",
"Physical cosmology",
"Astronomical sub-disciplines",
"Obsolete theories in physics"
] |
3,050,504 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald%20Sacks | Gerald Enoch Sacks (1933 – October 4, 2019) was an American logician whose most important contributions were in recursion theory. Named after him is Sacks forcing, a forcing notion based on perfect sets and the Sacks Density Theorem, which asserts that the partial order of the recursively enumerable Turing degrees is dense. Sacks had a joint appointment as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University starting in 1972 and became emeritus at M.I.T. in 2006 and at Harvard in 2012.
Sacks was born in Brooklyn in 1933. He earned his Ph.D. in 1961 from Cornell University under the direction of J. Barkley Rosser, with his dissertation On Suborderings of Degrees of Recursive Insolvability. Among his notable students are Lenore Blum, Harvey Friedman, Sy Friedman, Leo Harrington, Richard Shore, Steve Simpson and Theodore Slaman.
Selected publications
Degrees of unsolvability, Princeton University Press 1963, 1966
Saturated Model Theory, Benjamin 1972; 2nd edition, World Scientific 2010
Higher Recursion theory, Springer 1990
Selected Logic Papers, World Scientific 1999
Mathematical Logic in the 20th Century, World Scientific 2003
References
Mathematical logicians
American logicians
Cornell University alumni
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty
Harvard University faculty
1933 births
2019 deaths | Gerald Sacks | [
"Mathematics"
] | 274 | [
"Mathematical logic",
"Mathematical logicians"
] |
3,050,547 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul%20Sarpeshkar | Rahul Sarpeshkar is the Thomas E. Kurtz Professor and a professor of engineering, professor of physics, professor of microbiology & immunology, and professor of molecular and systems biology at Dartmouth. Sarpeshkar, whose interdisciplinary work is in bioengineering, electrical engineering, quantum physics, and biophysics, is the inaugural chair of the William H. Neukom cluster of computational science, which focuses on analog, quantum, and biological computation. The clusters, designed by faculty from across the institution to address major global challenges, are part of President Philip Hanlon's vision for strengthening academic excellence at Dartmouth. Prior to Dartmouth, Sarpeshkar was a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led the Analog Circuits and Biological Systems Group. He is now also a visiting scientist at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics.
Research fields
His research has contributed to the fields of:
Analog circuits and analog computation
Molecular, systems, and synthetic biology
Ultra-low-power and ultra-energy-efficient systems
Energy-harvesting design
Glucose-powered medical implants
Bioelectronics
Bio-inspired and biomimetic systems
Cytomorphic (cell-inspired) systems
Analog supercomputing systems
Quantum and quantum-inspired analog computers
Medical devices
Cochlear implants
Brain-machine interfaces
Control theory
Research summary
Sarpeshkar's recent TEDx talk 'Analog Supercomputers: From Quantum Atom to Living Body' summarizes some of his unique and interdisciplinary research . His research leverages analog circuits and analog computation to architect innovations in bioengineering and synthetic biology, biological supercomputing, ultra energy efficient computing, and quantum computing. For example, by mapping log-domain analog electronic circuits to log-domain analog DNA-protein circuits in living cells
,
Professor Sarpeshkar's work in the May 2013 edition of Nature (doi: 10.1038/nature12148) pioneered the field of analog synthetic biology . Recently, three awarded patents and one pending patent of his have shown how to emulate quantum physics with classical analog circuits rigorously. He has used it to create novel quantum-inspired architectures that do spectrum analysis like the biological inner ear or cochlea, i.e. a 'Quantum Cochlea'. Professor Sarpeshkar's book introduced a novel form of electronics termed Cytomorphic electronics, i.e., electronics inspired by cell biology . It is based on the astounding similarity between the Boltzmann exponential equations of noisy molecular flux in chemical reactions and the Boltzmann exponential equations of noisy electron flow in transistors. Hence circuits in biology and chemistry can be mapped to circuits in electronics and vice versa. Therefore, this 'cytomorphic mapping' enables one to map analog electronic motifs to analog molecular circuit motifs in living cells as in the work in Nature and also to simulate large-scale feedback networks in cells with analog electronic supercomputers. Thus, his work has led to a novel and fundamental analog circuits approach to the fields of synthetic biology and systems biology, both of which are highly important in the future of biotechnology and medicine and . For example, the synthesis of biofuels, chemicals, energy, molecular and cellular sensors, network drug design, treatments for cancer, diabetes, auto-immune, infectious, and neural diseases can all impacted be impacted by his fundamental work on analog synthetic and systems biology.
Sarpeshkar's work on glucose powered medical implants has been featured in the Economist, WIRED, and Science News and was highlighted by Scientific American among 2012's top scientific breakthroughs . Professor Sarpeshkar's work on a hybrid analog-digital circuit that mimics feedback networks in the brain has appeared on the cover of the journal Nature and has received wide media attention . His work on an ultra-low-power analog cochlear-implant processor for the deaf has had wide impact and been featured in articles in the New York Times , Technology Review, and IEEE Spectrum, as has his work on ultra-low-power brain-machine interfaces for the blind and paralyzed and for cardiac and non-invasive monitoring. His group holds several first and best world records in the fields of medical devices, medical electronics, ultra low power, analog, and bio-inspired design .
He has authored more than 139 technical publications and is an inventor on more than forty two awarded patents. He is the inventor of the RF Cochlea, a rapid radio-frequency spectrum analyzer inspired by the human ear . His book Ultra Low Power Bioelectronics: Fundamentals, Biomedical Applications, and Bio-inspired Systems is published by Cambridge University Press and provides a broad and deep treatment of the fields of analog, ultra low power, biomedical, biological, energy-harvesting and bio-inspired design. It is based on a course that Sarpeshkar has taught at MIT for many years, which emphasizes how the universal language of analog circuits provides a pictorial and intuitive method for analyzing differential equations in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine. He has won the Junior Bose award and the Ruth and Joel Spira award for excellence in teaching at MIT.
Sarpeshkar has received several awards including the NSF Career Award, the ONR Young Investigator Award, the Packard Fellows Award, and the Indus Technovator Award. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems and serves on the program committees of several technical conferences. His recent TEDx talk 'Analog Supercomputers: From Quantum Atom to Living Body' summarizes some of his unique and interdisciplinary research . His invited Google Tech talk at the 2011 Frontiers of Engineering Conference, hosted by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) summarizes his earlier work on an ultra low power programmable analog cochlear implant processor and other ultra-low-power implantable devices .
Education
Sarpeshkar received B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ph.D. degree in computation and neural systems from the California Institute of Technology. His adviser at Caltech was Carver A. Mead. He was a member of technical staff at Bell Labs in its Department of Biological Computation within its Physics Division.
References
External links
Analog Supercomputers:From Quantum Atom to Living Body TEDx Video
Cell Power
Thomas E. Kurtz Chair
Analog Circuits and Biological Systems Group
Analog Synthetic Biology
Glucose Powered Medical Implants receives wide media attention
Professor Sarpeshkar's book
Transistors Mimick Cells MIT news article.
Cytomorphic Electronics MIT news article.
RF Cochlea MIT news release on the RF Cochlea that led to several other news articles.
American bioengineers
American electronics engineers
21st-century American physicists
Living people
Synthetic biologists
Year of birth missing (living people) | Rahul Sarpeshkar | [
"Biology"
] | 1,410 | [
"Synthetic biology",
"Synthetic biologists"
] |
10,926,453 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayCable | PlayCable was an online service introduced in 1980 that allowed local cable television system operators to send games for the Intellivision over cable wires alongside normal television signals. Through the service, subscribers would use a device, called the PlayCable adapter, to download the games for play on their Intellivision. It was the first service that allowed users to download games for play on a video game console. PlayCable was not widely adopted, due in part to high costs for users and operators, as well as limitations of the PlayCable adapter. The service was discontinued in 1984.
History
PlayCable was developed as a joint venture between Mattel and General Instrument. The PlayCable service was deep in development even before the Intellivision was widely released. In 1979, tests of the service were announced for several cities, including Moline, Illinois, Jackson, Mississippi and Boise, Idaho. The service was officially launched in 1981. Subscriptions were available for a monthly fee, allowing users access to a selection of games through cable television providers that supported the service. Up to 20 titles were available each month. Former professional baseball player Mickey Mantle appeared in commercials for the service. According to a CED Magazine article, the service was available in thirteen cities in 1981 including Fayetteville, N.Y. However, in spring 1983 the available market totalled 650,000 households. The less than 3% subscription rate was still higher than the rate of Intellivision sales in markets where PlayCable was not available, and Intellivision Productions reports that PlayCable was popular where available. Cable operators complained about the high cost of the computer needed to run the service as well as the cost of the in-home PlayCable adapters; the adapters proved to be inadequate to run the larger Intellivision games being produced. In addition, Mattel Electronics was losing millions of dollars due to the video game industry crash of 1983 and stopped all new hardware development in August that year. Initial estimates by Mattel projected that the service would have 1 million subscribers within five years, however PlayCable was discontinued in 1984, three years after it was introduced.
Implementation and limitations
The PlayCable channel was broadcast from a PDP-11 minicomputer located at the subscriber's cable company using dedicated frequencies within the FM Band of the cable line. A PlayCable adapter peripheral would be inserted into the cartridge slot of the Intellivision Master Component and connected to the cable line. This adapter contained an FM radio receiver, digital interface, 512 word firmware ROM and 8K of RAM for game storage. When turned on, the firmware within the PlayCable adapter tuned its FM receiver to the PlayCable catalog channel, always broadcast at 107.7 MHz, and downloaded a program to the adapter's RAM. This program would display a menu of 15 available titles that could be played. The selection of games changed at the start of each month, and after October 1982 was increased to 20 titles. Users chose a title to play using the Intellivision controller keypad. Having chosen a game, the menu program would request that the adapter firmware re-tune the receiver to the channel broadcasting the selected title and wait for the start of its code. Once the title was found in the data stream and downloaded to the adapter's internal memory, control was passed to the game, starting play. Depending on the size of the game, the entire loading process took an average of between 10 and 20 seconds.
The 8K of memory inside PlayCable adapters proved to be insufficient for the larger games that Mattel started to release in 1983. To this point PlayCable was compatible with 90% of Mattel's catalogue of Intellivision titles, with only Chess and three Intellivoice games proving problematic. Compatibility fell with the introduction of 12K and 16K titles, such as Pinball and Bump N Jump, and the release of games dependent on the Intellivision Entertainment Computer System (ECS). Despite this, 47 titles in the full 61 game Mattel catalogue were compatible with PlayCable when Mattel Electronics closed its Intellivision business in early 1984. Therefore, the fact that PlayCable was restricted to first party titles, effectively blocking 33 compatible third party games, had a larger impact on the potential catalogue of games the service could have offered.
See also
GameLine
Nabu Network
Sega Channel
Satellaview
References
External links
PlayCable on INTV Funhouse
PlayCable at Intellivisiongames.com
Intellivision
Modems
Online video game services
Television channels and stations established in 1980
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1983
Video game accessories | PlayCable | [
"Technology"
] | 940 | [
"Video game accessories",
"Components"
] |
10,926,821 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicarboximide%20fungicides | Dicarboximide (or dicarboxamide) fungicides are a family of agricultural fungicides that include vinclozolin, iprodione, and procymidone. Dicarboximides are believed to inhibit triglyceride biosynthesis in sclerotia-forming fungi, including Botrytis cinerea. These fungicides turn into 3,5-dichloroaniline in soil rapidly. Repeated use of dicarboximides over several years reduce their effectiveness. Resistance has developed against all dicarboximides in many plant species, including vines, strawberries and protected crops, and are recommended to be used in conjunction with other fungicides.
Toxicity
Dicarboximides are endocrine disruptors and have been shown to have antiandrogenic effects, i.e. decrease levels of male hormones.
Animal studies with vinclozolin and procymidone show irregular reproductive development due to their function as androgen receptor antagonists that inhibit androgen-activated gene expression. Even with low doses of antiandrogenic pesticides, developmental effects such as reduced anogenital distance and induction of areolas were seen in male rats.
References
Fungicides | Dicarboximide fungicides | [
"Biology"
] | 259 | [
"Fungicides",
"Biocides"
] |
10,927,059 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear%20spray | Bear spray is a specific aerosol spray bear deterrent, whose active ingredients are the potent irritant capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, that is used to deter aggressive or charging bears.
History
Capsaicin bear spray was developed in the mid-1980s under principal investigator Carrie Hunt, a University of Montana graduate student working under the supervision of Charles Jonkel and Bart O'Gara. Hunt had identified commercial pepper sprays as an effective deterrent for bears in previous research; however, they were unreliable and required close proximity. Hunt's thesis was published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984. Bill Pounds, who eventually founded Counter Assault bear spray, assisted Hunt and offered to help devise a prototype for a reliable aerosol bear spray canister for Hunt's research. They developed a bear spray formula with a spray range of over and a spray time of over 7 seconds. Pounds played an important part in developing the ingredients, the dispersal system, and the recommended specifications of bear spray. The product produced by the company he founded, Counter Assault, became the first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered aerosol bear spray.
Use
The key active ingredients of bear spray are 1–2% capsaicin, and related capsaicinoids.
Bear spray is intended to deter an aggressive or charging bear; a user points the canister at an aggressive bear and sprays the contents for 2–3 seconds. The maximum range of sprays by different manufacturers varies, but they are reported to be effective when sprayed at a charging or aggressive bear from a distance of .
Effectiveness
Bear spray is a very effective deterrent when used properly. In a 2008 review of bear attacks in Alaska from 1985 to 2006, Smith et al. found that bear spray stopped a bear's "undesirable behavior" in 92% of cases. Further, 98% of persons using bear spray in close-range encounters escaped uninjured.
The efficacy of bear spray depends on the situation and circumstances of the attack. In the 2008 study, Tom Smith of Brigham Young University reported, "No bear spray has ever been reported to kill a bear. It is our belief that widespread use of bear spray will promote human safety and bear conservation." On the other hand, latent spray (on an object) has also led to the attraction of bears, which usually end up with the bear destroying the spray-covered object.
A United States Geological Survey article, "Bear Spray Safety Program," says that bear spray is effective in fending off aggressive bears while also preventing injury to both the human and the bear. It also states, "No deterrent is 100-percent effective." In "Living with Grizzlies," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states, "The Service supports the pepper spray policy of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, which states that bear spray is not a substitute for following proper bear avoidance safety techniques, and that bear spray should be used as a deterrent only in an aggressive or attacking confrontation with a bear."
Studies
Studies suggest that bear spray is effective at reducing the risk of injury or death in these situations. While bear spray can be effective, authorities stress that proper bear-awareness and avoidance techniques are the best ways to minimize injuries due to human–bear conflict.
A 2008 "Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska" study stated:
Red pepper spray stopped bears' undesirable behavior 92% of the time when used on brown bears, 90% for black bears, and 100% for polar bears.
Of all persons carrying sprays, 98% were uninjured by bears in close-range encounters.
All bear-inflicted injuries (n=3) associated with defensive spraying involved brown bears and were relatively minor (i.e., no hospitalization required).
In 7% (5 of 71) of bear spray incidents, wind was reported to have interfered with spray accuracy, although it reached the bear in all cases.
In 14% (10 of 71) of bear spray incidents, users reported that the spray had affected themselves, ranging from minor irritation (11% of incidents, 8 of 71) to near incapacitation (3%, 2 of 71).
Bear spray represents an effective alternative to lethal force and should be considered as an option for personal safety for those recreating and working in bear country.
The absolute risk from bears—even in grizzly (brown bear) country—is so low that bear spray cannot much decrease that risk. Bears are known to fatally attack only a relatively small number of backpackers in North America every decade, out of many millions—for instance, about 45,000 backcountry backpackers camp overnight in Yellowstone per year, roughly half of whom (48 percent) do not carry bear spray.
Legality
Bear spray is legal across the United States. It can be purchased even in Hawaii, New York, or Massachusetts, where standard pepper sprays are illegal unless bought locally by certified firearms dealers or pharmacists. In Canada, while legal for use against bears, bear spray is a prohibited weapon if intended to be used against humans.
While bear spray is illegal in some U.S. National Parks, visitors to the backcountry areas of Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks are encouraged to carry it. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources website says: "Most people who hike in Alaska's wilderness don't carry a weapon. They know that the best defense is common sense. Traveling and camping carefully are all that they need." They advise those seeking greater protection to opt for bear spray, saying: "This incapacitating spray teaches bears a lesson without permanently maiming them."
Bear sprays are considered a pesticide in the U.S. and must be registered with the EPA. The capsaicin in products sold in the U.S. are regulated by the EPA, under the FIFRA act by Congress.
Use against humans
News outlets reported that bear spray was used during the January 6 United States Capitol attack in Washington D.C. against Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died. Washington DC's medical examiner determined that Sicknick died of "natural causes – specifically, a series of strokes." But the examiner emphasized that "all that transpired on [January 6] played a role in his condition".
Several Canadian police forces routinely deal with incidents of illegal use of bear spray against humans, including Edmonton, Vancouver and Saskatoon.
See also
Bear danger
Pepper spray
References
Bears
Bears and humans
Lachrymatory agents
Self-defense
Aerosol sprays | Bear spray | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,339 | [
"Lachrymatory agents",
"Chemical weapons"
] |
10,927,610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys%20WRTP54G%20router | Linksys WRTP54G is a Wi-Fi capable router with VoIP capability from Linksys. Launched in 2005, it is similar in function to the popular WRT54G, the device is capable of sharing Internet connections amongst several computers via 802.3 Ethernet and 802.11b/g wireless data links, but it also has two POTS ports for VoIP telephony.
VoIP service providers
The router was being sold pre-configured for providers Vonage and EarthLink, but was also available without any pre-configured service. In the latter case one needed to configure the VoIP settings oneself. It sold for about $130 on launch, with a Vonage monthly plan of 500 VoIP hours priced at $15, after a $45 service charge. A PC World staff blog post in 2005 warned the reader not to be misled to think that the initial, and the only advertised price, was the total cost of ownership.
Phreaking potential
An Associated Press story from August 2006 reported that "Arias Hung, a security professional with Media Access Guard in Seattle", showed how to change the MAC address of a device registered for Vonage service that "could intercept calls made to a legitimate Vonage user and make calls that would appear to come from the user's phone number," recommending that "The general consumer should stay away from this router."
Internals
In a departure from most of the WRT54G series (which featured mostly Broadcom chipsets) this router features a Texas Instruments chipset. Texas Instruments chips are common to almost all current Linksys VOIP products.
The screws to open the unit are under the rubber pads. These units are often locked with a particular VoIP vendor's information. A Freeware program "cyt46.exe" can help.
References
External links
10GB Router Review
Hardware routers
Linksys | Linksys WRTP54G router | [
"Technology"
] | 390 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer hardware stubs"
] |
10,927,720 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPrivacy%20Directive | Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002/58/EC on Privacy and Electronic Communications, otherwise known as ePrivacy Directive (ePD), is an EU directive on data protection and privacy in the digital age. It presents a continuation of earlier efforts, most directly the Data Protection Directive. It deals with the regulation of a number of important issues such as confidentiality of information, treatment of traffic data, spam and cookies. This Directive has been amended by Directive 2009/136, which introduces several changes, especially in what concerns cookies, that are now subject to prior consent.
There are some interplays between the ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Some EU lawmakers had hoped the ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) could come into force at the same time as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018. In this way, it would repeal the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC and accompany the GDPR in regulating the requirements for consent to the use of cookies and opt-out options.
Subject-matter and Scope
The Electronic Privacy Directive has been drafted specifically to address the requirements of new digital technologies and ease the advance of electronic communications services. The Directive complements the Data Protection Directive and applies to all matters which are not specifically covered by that Directive. In particular, the subject of the Directive is the "right to privacy in the electronic communication sector" and free movement of data, communication equipment and services.
The Directive does not apply to Titles V and VI (Second and Third Pillars constituting the European Union). Likewise, it does not apply to issues concerning public security and defence, state security and criminal law. The interception of data was however covered by the EU Data Retention Directive, prior to its annulment by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Contrary to the Data Protection Directive, which specifically addresses only individuals, Article 1(2) makes it clear that ePrivacy Directive also applies to legal persons.
Main provisions
The first general obligation in the Directive is to provide security of services. The addressees are providers of electronic communications services. This obligation also includes the duty to inform the subscribers whenever there is a particular risk, such as a virus or other malware attack.
The second general obligation is for the confidentiality of information to be maintained. The addressees are Member States, who should prohibit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communication and "related traffic", unless the users have given their consent or conditions of Article 15(1) have been fulfilled.
Data retention and other issues
The directive obliges the providers of services to erase or anonymise the traffic data processed when no longer needed, unless the conditions from Article 15 have been fulfilled. Retention is allowed for billing purposes but only as long as the statute of limitations allows the payment to be lawfully pursued. Data may be retained upon a user's consent for marketing and value-added services. For both previous uses, the data subject must be informed why and for how long the data is being processed.
Subscribers have the right to non-itemised billing. Likewise, the users must be able to opt out of calling-line identification.
Where data relating to location of users or other traffic can be processed, Article 9 provides that this will only be permitted if such data is anonymised, where users have given consent, or for provision of value-added services. Like in the previous case, users must be informed beforehand of the character of information collected and have the option to opt out.
Unsolicited e-mail and other messages
Article 13 prohibits the use of email addresses for marketing purposes. The Directive establishes the opt-in regime, according to which unsolicited emails may be sent only with prior agreement of the recipient. A natural or legal person who initially collects address data in the context of the sale of a product or service, has the right to use it for commercial purposes provided the customers have a prior opportunity to reject such communication where it was initially collected and subsequently. Member States have the obligation to ensure that unsolicited communication will be prohibited, except in circumstances given in Article 13.
Two categories of emails (or communication in general) will also be excluded from the scope of the prohibition. The first is the exception for existing customer relationships and the second for marketing of similar products and services.
The sending of unsolicited text messages, either in the form of SMS messages, push mail messages or any similar format designed for consumer portable devices (mobile phones, PDAs) also falls under the prohibition of Article 13.
Cookies
The Directive provision applicable to cookies is Article 5(3). Recital 25 of the Preamble recognises the importance and usefulness of cookies for the functioning of modern Internet and directly relates Article 5(3) to them but Recital 24 also warns of the danger that such instruments may present to privacy. The change in the law does not affect all types of cookies; those that are deemed to be "strictly necessary for the delivery of a service requested by the user", such as for example, cookies that track the contents of a user's shopping cart on an online shopping service, are exempted.
The article is technology neutral, not naming any specific technological means which may be used to store data, but applies to any information that a website causes to be stored in a user's browser. This reflects the EU legislator's desire to leave the regime of the directive open to future technological developments.
The addressees of the obligation are Member States, who must ensure that the use of electronic communications networks to store information in a visitor's browser is only allowed if the user is provided with "clear and comprehensive information", in accordance with the Data Protection Directive, about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and has given their consent.
The regime so set-up can be described as opt-in, effectively meaning that the consumer must give their consent before cookies or any other form of data is stored in their browser. The UK Regulations allow for consent to be signified by future browser settings, which have yet to be introduced but which must be capable of presenting enough information so that a user can give their informed consent and indicating to a target website that consent has been obtained. Initial consent can be carried over into repeated content requests to a website. The Directive does not give any guidelines as to what may constitute an opt-out, but requires that cookies, other than those "strictly necessary for the delivery of a service requested by the user" are not to be placed without user consent.
Literature
Full text of Directive
Guidance from the UK's ICO
Guidance from the French DPA CNIL (Translated into English)
Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Opinion 2/2010
Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Opinion 16/2011
History of the decision making
On spam: Asscher, L, Hoogcarspel, S.A, Regulating Spam: A European Perspective after the Adoption of the ePrivacy Directive (T.M.C. Asser Press 2006)
Edwards, L, "Articles 6 – 7, ECD; Privacy and Electronics Communications Directive 2002" in Edwards, L. (ed.) The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe (Hart 2005)
References
Information privacy
Privacy legislation
European Union data protection law
European Union directives
Spamming
Email
2002 in law
2002 in the European Union | EPrivacy Directive | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,516 | [
"Cybersecurity engineering",
"Information privacy"
] |
10,928,189 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBARS | Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) are formed as a byproduct of lipid peroxidation (i.e. as degradation products of fats) which can be detected by the TBARS assay using thiobarbituric acid as a reagent. TBARS can be upregulated, for example, by heart attack or by certain kinds of stroke.
Because reactive oxygen species (ROS) have extremely short half-lives, they are difficult to measure directly. Instead, what can be measured are several products of the damage produced by oxidative stress, such as TBARS.
Assay of TBARS measures malondialdehyde (MDA) present in the sample, as well as malondialdehyde generated from lipid hydroperoxides by the hydrolytic conditions of the reaction. MDA is one of several low-molecular-weight end products formed via the decomposition of certain primary and secondary lipid peroxidation products. However, only certain lipid peroxidation products generate MDA, and MDA is neither the sole end product of fatty peroxide formation and decomposition, nor a substance generated exclusively through lipid peroxidation. These and other considerations from the extensive literature on MDA, TBA reactivity, and oxidative lipid degradation support the conclusion that MDA determination and the TBA test can offer, at best, a narrow and somewhat empirical window on the complex process of lipid peroxidation. Use of MDA analysis and/or the TBA test and interpretation of sample MDA content and TBA test response in studies of lipid peroxidation require caution, discretion, and (especially in biological systems) correlative data from other indices of fatty peroxide formation and decomposition.
Malondialdehyde reacts with both barbiturate and thiobarbiturate, and the end-product of the TBARS assay is almost identical to the end product of the pyridine-barbiturate cyanide assay. This suggests that some cyanide poisoning cases that relied on the pyridine-barbiturate diagnostic could be false positives with elevated blood malondialdehyde, and no cyanide present at all. The cases of Urooj Khan, lottery winner of Chicago, and Autumn Klein, doctor of Pittsburgh, both fit these characteristics, since neither patient exhibited cyanide poisoning symptoms, yet both appeared to have suffered heart attacks, with Urooj Khan's blocked arteries noted at autopsy and Autumn Klein's evidence for heart abnormalities noted at trial and as a central part of her husband's conviction appeal.
References
Toxins
Free radicals | TBARS | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 563 | [
"Toxicology",
"Free radicals",
"Senescence",
"Biomolecules",
"Toxins"
] |
10,928,330 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow%20atom | Hollow atoms (discovered in 1990 by a French team of researchers around Jean-Pierre Briand) are short-lived multiply excited neutral atoms which carry a large part of their Z electrons (Z ... projectile nuclear charge) in high-n levels while inner shells remain (transiently) empty. The hollow atoms are exotic atomic species whose all, or most, electrons lie in excited states, while the innermost shells are empty. These atomic species were first observed during the interaction of highly charged ions with surfaces. population inversion arises for typically 100 femtoseconds during the interaction of a slow highly charged ion (HCI) with a solid surface. Despite this limited lifetime, the formation and decay of a hollow atom can be conveniently studied from ejected electrons and soft X-rays, and the trajectories, energy loss and final charge state distribution of surface-scattered projectiles. For impact on insulator surfaces the potential energy contained by hollow atom may also cause the release of target atoms and -ions via potential sputtering and the formation of nanostructures on a surface.
External links
Review article on hollow atoms.
EU Network ITS-LEIF
MPI Heidelberg, Germany
NIST, USA
TU Wien, Austria
Atoms
References | Hollow atom | [
"Physics"
] | 254 | [
"Atoms",
"Matter"
] |
10,928,765 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism%20of%20technology | Criticism of technology is an analysis of adverse impacts of industrial and digital technologies. It is argued that, in all advanced industrial societies (not necessarily only capitalist ones), technology becomes a means of domination, control, and exploitation, or more generally something which threatens the survival of humanity. Some of the technology opposed by the most radical critics may include everyday household products, such as refrigerators, computers, and medication. However, criticism of technology comes in many shades.
Overview
Prominent authors elaborating a critique of technology include Donna J. Haraway, Jacques Ellul, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Joanna Bryson, E. F. Schumacher, Kate Crawford, Gilles Deleuze, Ted Kaczynski, Paul Virilio, Ivan Illich, Ritesh Kumar, Ursula Franklin, Jean Baudrillard, Vandana Shiva, Nicholas G. Carr, Langdon Winner, Joseph Weizenbaum, Hans Jonas, Theodore Roszak, Siegfried Kracauer, Karel Čapek, Sigfried Giedion, Günther Anders, Neil Postman, Martin Heidegger, Vilem Flusser, Jacques Tati, Hito Steyerl, Oswald Spengler, Pentti Linkola, Andrew Feenberg, David Skrbina, Mike Cooley, John Zerzan, Lewis Mumford, Derrick Jensen, and Layla AbdelRahim. Some authors such as Chellis Glendinning and Kirkpatrick Sale consider themselves Neo-Luddites and hold that technological progress has had a negative impact on humanity. Their work focused on seeking meaning out of technological change, specifically wrestling with the question of "how tools and their affordances change and alter the fabric of everyday life." Ellul, for instance, maintained that when people assert that technology is an instrument of freedom or the means to achieve historical destiny or the execution of divine vocation, it results in the glorification and sanctification of Technique so that it becomes that which gives meaning and value to life rather than mere ensemble of materials. This is echoed by rhetorical critics who cite the way technological discourse damages institutions and individuals who make up those institutions due to its idealization and capacity to define social hierarchies.
In its most extreme, criticisms of technology produce analyses of technology as potentially leading to catastrophe. For instance, activist Naomi Klein described how technology is employed by capitalism in its commitment to a "shock doctrine", which promotes a series of crises so that speculative profit can be accumulated. There are theorists who also cite the cases of the global financial crises as well as the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters to support their critique. Critiques also focus on specific issues such as how technology—through robotics, automation, and software—is destroying people's jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing to the incidence of poverty and inequality.
In the 1970s in the US, the critique of technology became the basis of a new political perspective called anarcho-primitivism, which was forwarded by thinkers such as Fredy Perlman, John Zerzan, and David Watson. They proposed differing theories about how it became an industrial society, and not capitalism as such, that was at the root of contemporary social problems. This theory was developed in the journal Fifth Estate in the 1970s and 1980s, and was influenced by the Frankfurt School, the Situationist International, Jacques Ellul and others.
The critique of technology overlaps with the philosophy of technology but whereas the latter tries to establish itself as an academic discipline the critique of technology is basically a political project, not limited to academia. It features prominently in neo-Marxist (Herbert Marcuse and Andrew Feenberg), ecofeminism (Vandana Shiva) and in post development (Ivan Illich)
See also
Critical theory
Deep ecology
Development criticism
Frankfurt School
Luddite
Medicalization
Paradigm shift
Science, technology and society
Social criticism
Social effect of evolutionary theory
Technology and society
History of science and technology
Sources
Further reading
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Control and freedom (2006)
Donna J. Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto (1985)
Gilles Deleuze, Postscript on the Societies of Control (1992)
Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization (1934)
Layla AbdelRahim, Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness, Routledge, 2018 paperback ; 2015 hardback
Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance, Cornell University Press 1990
Braun, Ernest (2009). Futile Progress: Technology’s Empty Promise, Routledge.
Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, Trans. John Wilkinson. New York: Knopf, 1964. London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. Rev. ed.: New York: Knopf/Vintage, 1967. with introduction by Robert K. Merton (professor of sociology, Columbia University).
Jacques Ellul, The Technological Bluff, Trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
Andrew Feenberg, Transforming Technology. A Critical Theory Revisited, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 2002, - Feenberg offers a "coherent starting point for anticapitalist technical politics" to overcome what he considers to be the "fatalism" of Ellul, Heidegger, and other proponents of "substantive" theories of technology.
Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, B&T 1982,
Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, .
Derrick Jensen and George Draffan, Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004,
Mander, Jerry (1992). In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Sierra Club Books.
Postman, Neil (1993). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Vintage.
David Watson, Against the Megamachine, Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1998, - The title essay is available online here
Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation, W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd, New Edition 1976
Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology: Technics-Out-Of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought, MIT Press 1977,
Peter Zelchenko (1999). Exploring Alternatives to Hype. Educational Leadership 56(5), pp. 78-81.
Theodore John Kaczynski, Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, Fitch & Madison, 2016
External links
Collection of early anarcho-primitivist articles published in Fifth Estate
S. Ravi Rajan - Science, State and Violence: An Indian Critique Reconsidered
Wikiversity: The limits of technological potential
Technology
Technology
Technology in society
Science and technology studies
Technology
Philosophy of technology
Technology systems | Criticism of technology | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 1,426 | [
"Systems engineering",
"Technology systems",
"Philosophy of technology",
"Science and technology studies",
"nan"
] |
10,928,844 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphenylamine%20%28data%20page%29 | This page provides supplementary chemical data on diphenylamine.
Physical data
Appearance: white to yellow crystals or powder
Melting point: 52 - 54 °C
Boiling point: 302 °C
Vapour density: 5.82 (air = 1)
Vapour pressure: 1 mm Hg at 108 °C
Flash point: 152 °C (closed cup)
Explosion limits: 634 °C
Autoignition temperature: 635 °C
Water solubility: Slightly
Specific gravity: 1.16
Flash point: 152
Stability: Stable under ordinary conditions, may discolour on exposure to light. Incompatible with strong acids, strong oxidizing agents.
Toxicology
Toxic. Possible mutagen. Possible teratogen. Harmful in contact with skin, and if swallowed or inhaled. Irritant.
Toxicity data
ORL-RAT LD50 2000 mg kg-1
ORL-MUS LD50 1750 mg kg-1
ORL-GPG LD50 300 mg kg-1
ORL-MAM LD50 3200 mg kg-1
References
Chemical data pages
Chemical data pages cleanup | Diphenylamine (data page) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 213 | [
"Chemical data pages",
"nan"
] |
10,928,889 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materiality%20%28architecture%29 | Materiality in architecture is a concept or the applied use of various materials or substances in the medium of building. This concept was previously regarded as a secondary consideration in architecture but recently emerged as an important element due to advances in digital fabrication and digital science.
The concept plays an important role in architectural practice, which is actualized through the body and senses of an architect interacting with his physical work environment. It defines critical aspects concerning the governance and engagement of an architectural system.
Material and materiality
Architectural systems are defined by its physical components called materials. These materials serve as the language that articulate architectural vision or that it serves to make architectural ideas tangible. Consciousness of materials is, therefore, considered a requirement for architects.
Material is a relative term in architectural design and so may be used to designate materials which are considered to be virtual, (such as photographs, images or text) or other materials which are natural. Some materials may be considered as combinations of the two. Certain veneers which are composed of images printed on plastic are a good example of this. Observationally, therefore, virtual materials can be said not to exist without a natural physical substrate. Therefore, what separates a virtual material from a natural one is some aspect of the mind and perception as well as a process of representation to produce them. For some, distinguishing these two types of materials is relevant in the process of building because they have different characteristics and attributes. This is highlighted in the case of problems arising from reconciling the physicality of matter and the intangibility of digital materials. On, the other hand, there are those who focus on integration where digital characteristics increasingly enrich materiality.
Materiality in architecture is not limited to theoretical positions on the perceived materiality of images, texts, or other objects of representation. It could denote the materiality of specific projects when considering the full range of materials used. It has also been described as the circumstance that architecture is realized using building materials as well as how a material expresses its properties and idiosyncrasies, allowing their characteristics or appeal to emerge. This is also demonstrated in the way material – in recent understanding of materiality – came to be considered as an active ingredient in the processes of making architecture as opposed to being confined within the context of the social and economic context for architecture.
Discussions on the materiality of architecture are usually synonymous with structural and aesthetic concerns in architectural design and are typically unique with each project. Specific discussions include how the materiality of architecture creates the process of flows that sustain social life. There are other modern interpretations such as the feminist framework introduced in Jennifer Bloomer's projects, which demonstrated metaphoric sites where imaginative narratives are explored.
Immateriality
Recent conceptualizations of materiality cites an "immateriality" of contemporary architecture and this mainly based on the use of virtual material. This discourse draws from the Deleuzian philosophy, which describes virtual as "what every object carries with it" one that is neither its reality nor merely what it could have been but what it is imagined to be. Paul Virilio's notion of the "new window", which pertains to computer terminals and designates video as an architectural element, architecture assumes a dematerialized form, where dimensions are lost with the onset of aesthetic disappearance. The analogy is that "telematics replaces the doorway" and "pixel replaces the bolt". According to Anne Friedberg, the virtual concept operated through a frame that serve as a portal to another world, rendering a characterization where materiality is located on one side of the frame and immateriality on the other.
See also
Herzog & de Meuron
Building material
List of basic design topics
List of building materials
References
Medway, P. (1996). "Virtual and Material Buildings: Construction and Constructivism in Architecture". Written Communication 13(4):473-514
Macarthur, J. (2002). "The Image As an Architectural Material". The South Atlantic Quarterly 101(3)
Rübel, D., Wagner, M., Wolff, V. (2005). "Materialästhetik. Quellentexte zu Kunst, Design und Architektur", Berlin
Hill, J. (2006). "Drawing Forth Immaterial Architecture". Architectural Research Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, 10:51-55
Zarzycki, A. (2006). "Light, materiality and narrative: beyond form-making in architecture". SESSION, Boston, Massachusetts, Article No. 20
Building materials
Architectural terminology | Materiality (architecture) | [
"Physics",
"Engineering"
] | 924 | [
"Building engineering",
"Construction",
"Materials",
"Building materials",
"Architectural terminology",
"Matter",
"Architecture"
] |
10,929,036 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry%20of%20New%20and%20Renewable%20Energy | The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India, headed by current Union Cabinet Minister Pralhad Joshi, that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and international cooperation, promotion, and coordination in renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydro, biogas, Battery Energy Storage and solar power.
The broad aim of the ministry is to develop and deploy new and renewable energy for supplementing the energy requirements of India.
The ministry is headquartered in Lodi Road, New Delhi. According to the Ministry's 2016-17 annual report, India has made significant advances in several renewable energy sectors which include, solar energy, wind power, Battery energy storage system (BESS) and hydroelectricity.
History
The 1970s energy crisis led to the establishment of the Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE) in the Department of Science & Technology (India) in March 1981. The CASE was responsible for the formulation of policies and their implementation, creation of programmes for development of new and renewable energy and coordinating and intensifying R&D in the sector.
In 1982, a new department was created in the then Ministry of Energy, i.e., Department of Non-conventional Energy Sources (DNES). DNES incorporated CASE under its umbrella.
The ministry was established as the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in 1992. It adopted its current name in October 2006.
Mission
The Mission of the Ministry is to ensure
Energy Security: Lesser dependence on oil imports through development and deployment of alternative fuels (hydrogen, bio-fuels and synthetic fuels) and their applications to contribute towards bridging the gap between domestic oil supply and demand;
Increase in the share of clean power: Renewable (bio, wind, hydro, solar, geothermal & tidal) electricity to supplement fossil fuel based electricity generation;
Energy Availability and Access: Supplement energy needs of cooking, heating, motive power and captive generation in rural, urban, industrial and commercial sectors;
Energy Affordability: Cost-competitive, convenient, safe, and reliable new and renewable energy supply options; and
Energy Equity: Per-capita energy consumption at par with the global average level by 2050, through a sustainable and diverse fuel- mix.
Vision
To develop new and renewable energy technologies, processes, materials, components, sub-systems, products & services at par with international specifications, standards and performance parameters in order to make the country a net foreign exchange earner in the sector and deploy such indigenously developed and/or manufactured products and services in furtherance of the national goal of energy security.
Key functional areas
The major functional area or Allocation of Business of MNRE are:
Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE);
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA);
Integrated Rural Energy Programme (IREP);
Research and development of Biogas and programmes relating to Biogas units;
Solar Energy including Solar Photovoltaic devices and their development, production, and applications;
Programme relating to improved chulhas and research and development thereof;
All matters relating to small/mini/micro hydel projects and below 25 MW capacities;
Research and development of other non-conventional/renewable sources of energy and programmes relating thereto;
Tidal energy;
Geothermal Energy;
Biofuel: (i) National Policy; (ii) research, development and demonstration on transport, stationary and other applications; (iii) setting up of a National Bio-fuels Development Board and strengthening the existing institutional mechanism; and (iv) overall coordination.
Initiatives
Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) - The National Solar Mission was launched on 11 January 2010 by the Prime Minister. The Mission has set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 2022. Further, Government has revised the target of Grid Connected Solar Power Projects from 20,000 MW by the year 2021-22 to 100,000 MW by the year 2021-22 under the National Solar Mission and it was approved by Cabinet on 17 June 2015.
National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP)
Solar Lantern Programme LALA
Solar thermal energy Demonstration Programme
Remote Village Lighting Programme
National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative (NBCI)
National Offshore Wind Energy Authority
Association of Renewable energy agencies of states (AREAS): It was formed by Ministry for better coordination and sharing of best practices among various state nodal agencies for renewable energy. The Minister in charge of the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable energy) is the patron while the Secretary of MNRE is the ex-officio president of the association.
One Sun One World One Grid initiative : The ambitious project aims to connect 140 countries of South East Asia and Middle East to a trans-national solar power grid. The idea was first proposed by India in 2018 assembly of International Solar Alliance and is aimed at moving one step ahead in the direction of target of government to produce 40% of its energy requirements from the renewable sources. The idea behind this initiative is, "Sun never sets" and it is constant at a particular geographic location at a given point of time. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will head this initiative with technical support from the World Bank.
Achievements
Power from renewables
Grid-based
As per Annual Report 2016-17 of Ministry, As of December 2016, the Ministry was successful in deploying a total of 50068.37 Megawatt (MW) capacity of grid-based renewable energy. 28700.44 MW of which was from Wind power, 4333.85 MW from Small hydro Power, 7907.34 MW from Bio power 9012.66 MW from Solar power (SPV), and the rest 114.08 MW from Waste to Power.
Off-grid
During the same time period, the total deployment of an Off-grid based renewable energy capacity was about 1403.70 MW. Of these, Biomass (non-bagasse) Cogeneration consisted of 651.91 MW, Bio mass Gasifier was 186.88 MW Waste to energy was 163.35 MW, SPV Systems (of less than 1 Kilowatt (kW)) capacity was 405.54 1 MW, and the rest from micro-Hydro and Wind power.
Other renewable energy systems
The total number of deployment of Family Biogas plant was 49.40 lakhs. And the total area that is covered with Solar water heating (SWH) systems was 4.47 Million m2.
Institutions
The Ministry has 5 specialized technical institution. They are:-
National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE): National Institute of Solar Energy, an autonomous institution of Ministry of New and Renewable (MNRE), is the apex National R&D institution in the field Solar Energy. The Government of India has converted 25-year-old Solar Energy Centre (SEC) under MNRE to an autonomous institution in September 2013 to assist the Ministry in implementing the National Solar Mission and to coordinate research, technology, skill development, training, consultancy, incubation and other related works. NISE is located in Gurugram, Haryana
National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE): NIWE has been established in Chennai in the year 1998, as an autonomous R&D institution by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India. It is a knowledge-based institution of high quality and dedication, offers services and seeks to find complete solutions for the kinds of difficulties and improvements in the entire spectrum of the wind energy sector by carrying out further research. NIWE is located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Website : https://niwe.res.in/
Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bio-Energy (SSS-NIBE): SSS-NIBE is an autonomous Institution of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Govt. of India spread over a sprawling campus of about 75 acres, the Institute is marching towards development into a Global Centre of Excellence in the Bio-Energy. The objectives of the Institute are to carry out and facilitate research, design, development, testing, standardization & technology demonstration eventually leading to commercialization of RD&D output with a focus on bioenergy, biofuels & synthetic fuels in solid, liquid & gaseous forms for transportation, portable & stationary applications, development of hybrid / integrated energy systems, to undertake & facilitate human resource development at all levels including postdoctoral research. It is located in Kapurthala (Punjab).
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA): IREDA is a Non-Banking Financial Institution under the administrative control of this Ministry for providing term loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.IREDA is a Public Limited Government Company.
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI): SECI is a CPSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), set up on 20th Sept 2011 to facilitate the implementation of JNNSM and achievement of targets set therein. It is the only CPSU dedicated to the solar energy sector. It was originally incorporated as a section-25 (not for profit) company under the Companies Act, 1956
State Nodal Agencies
The Ministry has established state nodal agencies in different states and union territories of India to promote and expand the growth of efficient energy use of renewable energy in their respective states. The primary objective of a state nodal agency under this ministry is to develop, coordinate, finance and promote research projects in the new and renewable energy field. It is also expected to devise programmes for research and development as well as applicative extensions of new and renewable energy sources.
Cabinet Ministers
Key: MoS (I/C) Minister of State (Independent Charge)
Ministers of State
See also
Energy policy of India
National hydrogen energy road map
Renewable energy in India
Wind power in India
References
External links
Official website MNRE
Official website Ministry of Power
Solar Energy Corporation of India
National Institute of Solar Energy
National Institute of Wind Energy, India
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency
New and Renewable Energy
Government agencies for energy (India)
India | Ministry of New and Renewable Energy | [
"Engineering"
] | 2,023 | [
"Energy organizations",
"Energy ministries"
] |
10,930,422 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison%20of%20regular%20expression%20engines | This is a comparison of regular expression engines.
Libraries
Languages
Language features
NOTE: An application using a library for regular expression support does not necessarily support the full set of features of the library, e.g., GNU grep uses PCRE, but supports no lookahead, though PCRE does.
Part 1
Part 2
API features
See also
Comparison of parser generators
References
External links
Regular Expression Flavor Comparison – Detailed comparison of the most popular regular expression flavors
Regexp Syntax Summary
Online Regular Expression Testing – with support for Java, JavaScript, .Net, PHP, Python and Ruby
Implementing Regular Expressions – series of articles by Russ Cox, author of RE2
Regular Expression Engines
Pattern matching
Regular expression engines
Regular expressions | Comparison of regular expression engines | [
"Technology"
] | 144 | [
"Software comparisons",
"Computing comparisons"
] |
10,930,438 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial%20heterogeneity | Spatial heterogeneity is a property generally ascribed to a landscape or to a population. It refers to the uneven distribution of various concentrations of each species within an area. A landscape with spatial heterogeneity has a mix of concentrations of multiple species of plants or animals (biological), or of terrain formations (geological), or environmental characteristics (e.g. rainfall, temperature, wind) filling its area. A population showing spatial heterogeneity is one where various concentrations of individuals of this species are unevenly distributed across an area; nearly synonymous with "patchily distributed."
Terminology
Spatial heterogeneity can be re-phrased as scaling hierarchy of far more small things than large ones. It has been formulated as a scaling law.
Spatial heterogeneity or scaling hierarchy can be measured or quantified by ht-index: a head/tail breaks induced number.
Examples
Environments with a wide variety of habitats such as different topographies, soil types, and climates are able to accommodate a greater amount of species. The leading scientific explanation for this is that when organisms can finely subdivide a landscape into unique suitable habitats, more species can coexist in a landscape without competition, a phenomenon termed "niche partitioning." Spatial heterogeneity is a concept parallel to ecosystem productivity, the species richness of animals is directly related to the species richness of plants in a certain habitat. Vegetation serves as food sources, habitats, and so on. Therefore, if vegetation is scarce, the animal populations will be as well. The more plant species there are in an ecosystem, the greater variety of microhabitats there are. Plant species richness directly reflects spatial heterogeneity in an ecosystem.
Types
There exist two main types of spatial heterogeneity. The spatial local heterogeneity categorises the geographic phenomena whose its attributes' values are significantly similar within a directly local neighbourhood, but which significantly differ in the nearby surrounding-areas beyond this directly local neighbourhood (e.g. hot spots, cold spots). The spatial stratified heterogeneity categorises the geographic phenomena whose the within-strata variance of its attributes' values is significantly lower than its between-strata variance, such as collections of ecological zones or land-use classes within a given geographic area depict.
Testing
Spatial local heterogeneity can be tested by LISA, Gi and SatScan, while spatial stratified heterogeneity of an attribute can be measured by geographical detector q-statistic:
where a population is partitioned into h = 1, ..., L strata; N stands for the size of the population, σ2 stands for variance of the attribute. The value of q is within [0, 1], 0 indicates no spatial stratified heterogeneity, 1 indicates perfect spatial stratified heterogeneity. The value of q indicates the percent of the variance of an attribute explained by the stratification. The q follows a noncentral F probability density function.
Spatial heterogeneity for multivariate data and 3D data can also be statistically assessed using the :
Models
Spatial stratified heterogeneity
Optimal parameters-based geographical detector
Optimal Parameters-based Geographical Detector (OPGD) characterizes spatial heterogeneity with the optimized parameters of spatial data discretization for identifying geographical factors and interactive impacts of factors, and estimating risks.
Interactive detector for spatial associations
Interactive Detector for Spatial Associations (IDSA) estimates power of interactive determinants (PID) on the basis of spatial stratified heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and spatial fuzzy overlay of explanatory variables.
Geographically optimal zones-based heterogeneity
Geographically Optimal Zones-based Heterogeneity (GOZH) explores individual and interactive determinants of geographical attributes (e.g., global soil moisture) across a large study area based on the identification of explainable geographically optimal zones.
Robust geographical detector
Robust Geographical Detector (RGD) overcomes the limitation of the sensitivity in spatial data discretization and estimates robust power of determinants of explanatory variables.
meta-STAR
The model-agnostic Spatial Transformation And modeRation (meta-STAR) is a framework for integrating the spatial heterogeneity into spatial statistical models (e.g. spatial ensemble methods, spatial neural networks), so to improve their accuracy. It involves the use of spatial networks/transformations and spatial moderators, plus handles the geo-spatial datasets representing geographic phenomena at multiple scales.
Law of geography
In a 2004 publication titled "The Validity and Usefulness of Laws in Geographic Information Science and Geography," Michael Frank Goodchild proposed Spatial heterogeneity could be a candidate for a law of geography similar to Tobler's first law of geography. The literature cites this paper and states this law as "geographic variables exhibit uncontrolled variance." Often referred to as the second law of geography, or Michael Goodchild's second law of geography, it is one of many concepts competing for that term, including Tobler's second law of geography, and Arbia's law of geography.
See also
Spatial ecology
Spatial association
References
Ecosystems
Spatial analysis | Spatial heterogeneity | [
"Physics",
"Biology"
] | 1,099 | [
"Symbiosis",
"Spatial analysis",
"Space",
"Ecosystems",
"Spacetime"
] |
10,930,478 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUMO%20enzymes | SUMO enzymatic cascade catalyzes the dynamic posttranslational modification process of sumoylation (i.e. transfer of SUMO protein to other proteins). The Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier, SUMO-1, is a ubiquitin-like family member that is conjugated to its substrates through three discrete enzymatic steps (see the figure on the right): activation, involving the E1 enzyme (SAE1/SAE2); conjugation, involving the E2 enzyme (UBE2I); substrate modification, through the cooperation of the E2 and E3 protein ligases.
SUMO pathway modifies hundreds of proteins that participate in diverse cellular processes. SUMO pathway is the most studied ubiquitin-like pathway that regulates a wide range of cellular events, evidenced by a large number of sumoylated proteins identified in more than ten large-scale studies.
See also
Metabolism
Metabolic network
Metabolic network modelling
References
Metabolism
Post-translational modification
Proteins | SUMO enzymes | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 208 | [
"Biomolecules by chemical classification",
"Gene expression",
"Biochemical reactions",
"Post-translational modification",
"Cellular processes",
"Molecular biology",
"Biochemistry",
"Proteins",
"Metabolism"
] |
10,930,626 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Description%20error | A description error or selection error is an error, or more specifically a human error, that occurs when a person performs the correct action on the wrong object due to insufficient specification of an action which would have led to a desired result. This commonly happens when similar actions lead to different results. A typical example is a panel with rows of identical switches, where it is easy to carry out a correct action (flip a switch) on a wrong switch due to their insufficient differentiation.
This error can be very disorienting and usually causes a brief loss of situation awareness or automation surprise if noticed right away. But much worse, if it goes unnoticed, it could cause more serious problems. So allowances such as clearly highlighting a selected item should be made in interaction design.
Donald Norman describes the subject in his book The Design of Everyday Things. There he describes how user-centered design can help account for human limitations that can lead to errors like description errors. James Reason also covers the subject in his book Human Error.
References
External links
Reducing control selection errors associated with underground bolting equipment
Human behavior | Description error | [
"Engineering",
"Biology"
] | 219 | [
"Design stubs",
"Behavior",
"Design",
"Human behavior"
] |
10,930,690 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finn%20Haldorsen | Finn Haldorsen (5 September 1934 – February 4, 2005) was a Norwegian-born businessman.
Finn Haldorsen was the youngest of 13 children born to Haldor Haldorsen and Anne Serine Haldorsen in
Rubbestadneset, county of Hordaland, Norway. After completing schooling on Bømlo he attended college in Bryne, Norway. Following his military service, he went to work at a steel factory in Manchester, England. He started studying mechanical engineering at the University of Cardiff in Wales. After receiving his honours degree in 1961, he returned to Norway to start work at Wichmann Motorfabrikk AS, his father's engine factory.
Haldorsen was best known for starting the Rubb Group in Norway in 1968. Rubb Group was named for his home town of Rubbestadneset. Haldorsen's goal was to build a fabric covered building that would withstand the harsh Norwegian climate. His success with this effort lead to him moving to England to start Rubb Buildings Ltd. in 1977. When this company was firmly established under the leadership of Bill Wood, he moved to Maine, and established Rubb Inc. in the United States which today is under the leadership of David C. Nickerson.
Haldorsen was married, and had 3 sons and 1 daughter.
References
External links
Zurhaar & Rubb AS
Rubb Buildings Ltd website
1934 births
2005 deaths
People from Bømlo
American company founders
American manufacturing businesspeople
Norwegian company founders
Mechanical engineers
Technology company founders
20th-century American businesspeople | Finn Haldorsen | [
"Engineering"
] | 320 | [
"Mechanical engineers",
"Mechanical engineering"
] |
10,930,740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server-Gated%20Cryptography | Server-Gated Cryptography (SGC), also known as International Step-Up by Netscape, is a defunct mechanism that was used to step up from 40-bit or 56-bit to 128-bit cipher suites with SSL. It was created in response to United States federal legislation on the export of strong cryptography in the 1990s. The legislation had limited encryption to weak algorithms and shorter key lengths in software exported outside of the United States of America. When the legislation added an exception for financial transactions, SGC was created as an extension to SSL with the certificates being restricted to financial organisations. In 1999, this list was expanded to include online merchants, healthcare organizations, and insurance companies. This legislation changed in January 2000, resulting in vendors no longer shipping export-grade browsers and SGC certificates becoming available without restriction.
Internet Explorer supported SGC starting with patched versions of Internet Explorer 3. SGC became obsolete when Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 and Internet Explorer 5.5 started supporting strong encryption without the need for a separate high encryption pack (except on Windows 2000, which needs its own high encryption pack that was included in Service Pack 2 and later). "Export-grade" browsers are unusable on the modern Web due to many servers disabling export cipher suites. Additionally, these browsers are incapable of using SHA-2 family signature hash algorithms like SHA-256. Certification authorities are trying to phase out the new issuance of certificates with the older SHA-1 signature hash algorithm.
The continuing use of SGC facilitates the use of obsolete, insecure Web browsers with HTTPS. However, while certificates that use the SHA-1 signature hash algorithm remain available, some certificate authorities continue to issue SGC certificates (often charging a premium for them) although they are obsolete. The reason certificate authorities can charge a premium for SGC certificates is that browsers only allowed a limited number of roots to support SGC.
When an SSL handshake takes place, the software (e.g. a web browser) would list the ciphers that it supports. Although the weaker exported browsers would only include weaker ciphers in its initial SSL handshake, the browser also contained stronger cryptography algorithms. There are two protocols involved to activate them. Netscape Communicator 4 used International Step-Up, which used the now obsolete insecure renegotiation to change to a stronger cipher suite. Microsoft used SGC, which sends a new Client Hello message listing the stronger cipher suites on the same connection after the certificate is determined to be SGC capable, and also supported Netscape Step-Up for compatibility (though this support in the NT 4.0 SP6 and IE 5.01 version had a bug where changing MAC algorithms during Step-Up did not work properly).
See also
FREAK
References
External links
Microsoft's page on Server Gated Cryptography
Old mod_ssl documentation on SGC, Step-Up and Global-ID
Cryptography
Transport Layer Security | Server-Gated Cryptography | [
"Mathematics",
"Engineering"
] | 613 | [
"Applied mathematics",
"Cryptography",
"Cybersecurity engineering"
] |
10,931,846 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEGylation | PEGylation (or pegylation) is the process of both covalent and non-covalent attachment or amalgamation of polyethylene glycol (PEG, in pharmacy called macrogol) polymer chains to molecules and macrostructures, such as a drug, therapeutic protein or vesicle, which is then described as PEGylated. PEGylation affects the resulting derivatives or aggregates interactions, which typically slows down their coalescence and degradation as well as elimination in vivo.
PEGylation is routinely achieved by the incubation of a reactive derivative of PEG with the target molecule. The covalent attachment of PEG to a drug or therapeutic protein can "mask" the agent from the host's immune system (reducing immunogenicity and antigenicity), and increase its hydrodynamic size (size in solution), which prolongs its circulatory time by reducing renal clearance. PEGylation can also provide water solubility to hydrophobic drugs and proteins. Having proven its pharmacological advantages and acceptability, PEGylation technology is the foundation of a growing multibillion-dollar industry.
Methodology
PEGylation is the process of attaching the strands of the polymer PEG to molecules, most typically peptides, proteins, and antibody fragments, that can improve the safety and efficiency of many therapeutics. It produces alterations in the physiochemical properties including changes in conformation, electrostatic binding, hydrophobicity etc. These physical and chemical changes increase systemic retention of the therapeutic agent. Also, it can influence the binding affinity of the therapeutic moiety to the cell receptors and can alter the absorption and distribution patterns.
PEGylation, by increasing the molecular weight of a molecule, can impart several significant pharmacological advantages over the unmodified form, such as improved drug solubility, reduced dosage frequency with potentially reduced toxicity and without diminished efficacy, extended circulating life, increased drug stability, and enhanced protection from proteolytic degradation; PEGylated forms may also be eligible for patent protection.
PEGylated drugs
The attachment of an inert and hydrophilic polymer was first reported around 1970 to extend blood life and control immunogenicity of proteins. Polyethylene glycol was chosen as the polymer. In 1981 Davis and Abuchowski founded Enzon, Inc., which brought three PEGylated drugs to market. Abuchowski later founded and is CEO of Prolong Pharmaceuticals.
The clinical value of PEGylation is now well established. ADAGEN (pegademase bovine) manufactured by Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., US was the first PEGylated protein approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 1990, to enter the market. It is used to treat a form of severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (ADA-SCID), as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation and enzyme replacement by gene therapy. Since the introduction of ADAGEN, a large number of PEGylated protein and peptide pharmaceuticals have followed and many others are under clinical trial or under development stages. Sales of the two most successful products, Pegasys and Neulasta, exceeded $5 billion in 2011. All commercially available PEGylated pharmaceuticals contain methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) or mPEG. PEGylated pharmaceuticals on the market (in reverse chronology by FDA approval year) have included:
A PEGylated lipid is used as an excipient in both the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Both RNA vaccines consist of Messenger RNA, or mRNA, encased in a bubble of oily molecules called lipids. Proprietary lipid technology is used for each. In both vaccines, the bubbles are coated with a stabilizing molecule of polyethylene glycol. As of December 2020, there is some concern that PEG could trigger an allergic reaction, as appears to have occurred by 19 December, in at least three "Alaska health care worker" people who were administered the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The particular PEGylated molecule in the Moderna vaccine is known as DMG-PEG 2000.
Pegvaliase (Biomarin) – PEGylated recombinant phenylalanine ammonia-lyase for the treatment of Phenylketonuria, approved by the FDA for the US in May 2018.
Adynovate – PEGylated Antihemophilic Factor VIII for the treatment of patients with hemophilia A. (Baxalta, 2015)
Irinotecan liposome (Onivyde) – PEGylated liposomal irinotecan hydrochloride trihydrate for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer in adults proceeding treatment with gemcitabine-based therapy. (Ipsen, 2015)
Plegridy – PEGylated Interferon Beta-1a for the treatment of patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. (Biogen, 2014)
Naloxegol (Movantik) – PEGylated naloxol for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in adults patients with chronic non-cancer pain (un-pegylated methadone can cause adverse gastrointestinal reactions). (AstraZeneca, 2014)
Peginesatide (Omontys) – once-monthly medication to treat anemia associated with chronic kidney disease in adult patients on dialysis (Affymax/Takeda Pharmaceuticals, 2012)
Pegloticase (Krystexxa) – PEGylated uricase for the treatment of gout (Savient, 2010)
Certolizumab pegol (Cimzia) – monoclonal antibody for treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, an inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder (Nektar/UCB Pharma, 2008)
Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (Mircera) – PEGylated form of erythropoietin to combat anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (Roche, 2007)
Pegaptanib (Macugen) – used to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration (Pfizer, 2004)
Pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) – PEGylated recombinant methionyl human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for severe cancer chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (Amgen, 2002)
Pegvisomant (Somavert) – PEG-human growth hormone mutein receptor antagonist for treatment of Acromegaly (Pfizer, 2002)
Peginterferon alfa-2a (Pegasys) – PEGylated interferon alpha for use in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C and hepatitis B (Hoffmann-La Roche, 2002)
Peginterferon alfa-2b (PegIntron) – PEGylated interferon alpha for use in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C and hepatitis B (Schering-Plough/Enzon, 2000)
Doxorubicin HCl liposome (Doxil/Caelyx) – PEGylated liposome containing doxorubicin for the treatment of cancer (Alza, 1995)
Pegaspargase (Oncaspar) – PEGylated L-asparaginase for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in patients who are hypersensitive to the native unmodified form of L-asparaginase (Enzon, 1994). This drug was recently approved for front line use.
Pegademase bovine (Adagen) – PEG-adenosine deaminase for the treatment of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) (Enzon, 1990)
Patent litigation
The PEGylated lipid nanoparticle drug delivery (LNP) system of the mRNA vaccine known as mRNA-1273 has been the subject of ongoing patent litigation with Arbutus Biopharma, from whom Moderna had previously licensed LNP technology. On 4 September 2020, Nature Biotechnology reported that Moderna had lost a key challenge in the ongoing case.
Use in research
PEGylation has practical uses in biotechnology for protein delivery, cell transfection, and gene editing in non-human cells.
Process
The first step of the PEGylation is the suitable functionalization of the PEG polymer at one or both ends. PEGs that are activated at each end with the same reactive moiety are known as "homobifunctional", whereas if the functional groups present are different, then the PEG derivative is referred as "heterobifunctional" or "heterofunctional". The chemically active or activated derivatives of the PEG polymer are prepared to attach the PEG to the desired molecule.
The overall PEGylation processes used to date for protein conjugation can be broadly classified into two types, namely a solution phase batch process and an on-column fed-batch process. The simple and commonly adopted batch process involves the mixing of reagents together in a suitable buffer solution, preferably at a temperature between 4 and 6 °C, followed by the separation and purification of the desired product using a suitable technique based on its physicochemical properties, including size exclusion chromatography (SEC), ion exchange chromatography (IEX), hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and membranes or aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS).
The choice of the suitable functional group for the PEG derivative is based on the type of available reactive group on the molecule that will be coupled to the PEG. For proteins, typical reactive amino acids include lysine, cysteine, histidine, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine, threonine and tyrosine. The N-terminal amino group and the C-terminal carboxylic acid can also be used as a site specific site by conjugation with aldehyde functional polymers.
The techniques used to form first generation PEG derivatives are generally reacting the PEG polymer with a group that is reactive with hydroxyl groups, typically anhydrides, acid chlorides, chloroformates and carbonates. In the second generation PEGylation chemistry more efficient functional groups such as aldehyde, esters, amides etc. are made available for conjugation.
As applications of PEGylation have become more and more advanced and sophisticated, there has been an increase in need for heterobifunctional PEGs for conjugation. These heterobifunctional PEGs are very useful in linking two entities, where a hydrophilic, flexible and biocompatible spacer is needed. Preferred end groups for heterobifunctional PEGs are maleimide, vinyl sulfones, pyridyl disulfide, amine, carboxylic acids and NHS esters.
Third-generation pegylation agents, where the polymer has been branched, Y-shaped or comb-shaped are available and show reduced viscosity and lack of organ accumulation. Recently also enzymatic approaches of PEGylation have been developed, thus further expanding the conjugation tools. PEG-protein conjugates obtained by enzymatic methods are already in clinical use, for example: Lipegfilgrastim, Rebinyn, Esperoct.
Limitations
Unpredictability in clearance times for PEGylated compounds may lead to the accumulation of large-molecular-weight compounds in the liver leading to inclusion bodies with no known toxicologic consequences. Furthermore, alteration in the chain length may lead to unexpected clearance times in vivo.
Moreover, the experimental conditions of PEGylation reaction (i.e. pH, temperature, reaction time, overall cost of the process and molar ratio between PEG derivative and peptide) also have an impact on the stability of the final PEGylated products.
To overcome the above-mentioned limitations different strategies such as changing the size (Mw), the number, the location and the type of linkage of PEG molecule were offered by several researchers. Conjugation to biodegradable polysaccharides, which is a promising alternative to PEGylation, is another way to solve the biodegradability issue of PEG.
See also
Cytochrome c
Interferon
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
Proteomics
Solid lipid nanoparticles
References
External links
Pharmacokinetics
Biotechnology | PEGylation | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 2,628 | [
"Pharmacology",
"nan",
"Pharmacokinetics",
"Biotechnology"
] |
10,932,122 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order%20%28mouldings%29 | An order refers to each of a series of mouldings most often found in Romanesque and Gothic arches.
Arches and vaults
Architectural elements | Order (mouldings) | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 28 | [
"Building engineering",
"Architectural elements",
"Components",
"Architecture"
] |
10,932,739 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler%20spectroscopy | Doppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the planet's parent star.
As of November 2022, about 19.5% of known extrasolar planets (18 of the total) have been discovered using Doppler spectroscopy.
History
Otto Struve proposed in 1952 the use of powerful spectrographs to detect distant planets. He described how a very large planet, as large as Jupiter, for example, would cause its parent star to wobble slightly as the two objects orbit around their center of mass. He predicted that the small Doppler shifts to the light emitted by the star, caused by its continuously varying radial velocity, would be detectable by the most sensitive spectrographs as tiny redshifts and blueshifts in the star's emission. However, the technology of the time produced radial-velocity measurements with errors of 1,000 m/s or more, making them useless for the detection of orbiting planets. The expected changes in radial velocity are very small – Jupiter causes the Sun to change velocity by about 12.4 m/s over a period of 12 years, and the Earth's effect is only 0.1 m/s over a period of 1 year – so long-term observations by instruments with a very high resolution are required.
Advances in spectrometer technology and observational techniques in the 1980s and 1990s produced instruments capable of detecting the first of many new extrasolar planets. The ELODIE spectrograph, installed at the Haute-Provence Observatory in Southern France in 1993, could measure radial-velocity shifts as low as 7 m/s, low enough for an extraterrestrial observer to detect Jupiter's influence on the Sun. Using this instrument, astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz identified 51 Pegasi b, a "Hot Jupiter" in the constellation Pegasus. Although planets had previously been detected orbiting pulsars, 51 Pegasi b was the first planet ever confirmed to be orbiting a main-sequence star, and the first detected using Doppler spectroscopy.
In November 1995, the scientists published their findings in the journal Nature; the paper has since been cited over 1,000 times. Since that date, over 1,000 exoplanet candidates have been identified, many of which have been detected by Doppler search programs based at the Keck, Lick, and Anglo-Australian Observatories (respectively, the California, Carnegie and Anglo-Australian planet searches), and teams based at the Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search.
Beginning in the early 2000s, a second generation of planet-hunting spectrographs permitted far more precise measurements. The HARPS spectrograph, installed at the La Silla Observatory in Chile in 2003, can identify radial-velocity shifts as small as 0.3 m/s, enough to locate many possibly rocky, Earth-like planets. A third generation of spectrographs is expected to come online in 2017. With measurement errors estimated below 0.1 m/s, these new instruments would allow an extraterrestrial observer to detect even Earth.
Procedure
A series of observations is made of the spectrum of light emitted by a star. Periodic variations in the star's spectrum may be detected, with the wavelength of characteristic spectral lines in the spectrum increasing and decreasing regularly over a period of time. Statistical filters are then applied to the data set to cancel out spectrum effects from other sources. Using mathematical best-fit techniques, astronomers can isolate the tell-tale periodic sine wave that indicates a planet in orbit.
If an extrasolar planet is detected, a minimum mass for the planet can be determined from the changes in the star's radial velocity. To find a more precise measure of the mass requires knowledge of the inclination of the planet's orbit. A graph of measured radial velocity versus time will give a characteristic curve (sine curve in the case of a circular orbit), and the amplitude of the curve will allow the minimum mass of the planet to be calculated using the binary mass function.
The Bayesian Kepler periodogram is a mathematical algorithm, used to detect single or multiple extrasolar planets from successive radial-velocity measurements of the star they are orbiting. It involves a Bayesian statistical analysis of the radial-velocity data, using a prior probability distribution over the space determined by one or more sets of Keplerian orbital parameters. This analysis may be implemented using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method.
The method has been applied to the HD 208487 system, resulting in an apparent detection of a second planet with a period of approximately 1000 days. However, this may be an artifact of stellar activity. The method is also applied to the HD 11964 system, where it found an apparent planet with a period of approximately 1 year. However, this planet was not found in re-reduced data, suggesting that this detection was an artifact of the Earth's orbital motion around the Sun.
Although radial-velocity of the star only gives a planet's minimum mass, if the planet's spectral lines can be distinguished from the star's spectral lines then the radial-velocity of the planet itself can be found and this gives the inclination of the planet's orbit and therefore the planet's actual mass can be determined. The first non-transiting planet to have its mass found this way was Tau Boötis b in 2012 when carbon monoxide was detected in the infrared part of the spectrum.
Example
The graph to the right illustrates the sine curve using Doppler spectroscopy to observe the radial velocity of an imaginary star which is being orbited by a planet in a circular orbit. Observations of a real star would produce a similar graph, although eccentricity in the orbit will distort the curve and complicate the calculations below.
This theoretical star's velocity shows a periodic variance of ±1 m/s, suggesting an orbiting mass that is creating a gravitational pull on this star. Using Kepler's third law of planetary motion, the observed period of the planet's orbit around the star (equal to the period of the observed variations in the star's spectrum) can be used to determine the planet's distance from the star () using the following equation:
where:
r is the distance of the planet from the star
G is the gravitational constant
Mstar is the mass of the star
Pstar is the observed period of the star
Having determined , the velocity of the planet around the star can be calculated using Newton's law of gravitation, and the orbit equation:
where is the velocity of planet.
The mass of the planet can then be found from the calculated velocity of the planet:
where is the velocity of parent star. The observed Doppler velocity, , where i is the inclination of the planet's orbit to the line perpendicular to the line-of-sight.
Thus, assuming a value for the inclination of the planet's orbit and for the mass of the star, the observed changes in the radial velocity of the star can be used to calculate the mass of the extrasolar planet.
Radial-velocity comparison tables
Ref:
For MK-type stars with planets in the habitable zone
Limitations
The major limitation with Doppler spectroscopy is that it can only measure movement along the line-of-sight, and so depends on a measurement (or estimate) of the inclination of the planet's orbit to determine the planet's mass. If the orbital plane of the planet happens to line up with the line-of-sight of the observer, then the measured variation in the star's radial velocity is the true value. However, if the orbital plane is tilted away from the line-of-sight, then the true effect of the planet on the motion of the star will be greater than the measured variation in the star's radial velocity, which is only the component along the line-of-sight. As a result, the planet's true mass will be greater than measured.
To correct for this effect, and so determine the true mass of an extrasolar planet, radial-velocity measurements can be combined with astrometric observations, which track the movement of the star across the plane of the sky, perpendicular to the line-of-sight. Astrometric measurements allows researchers to check whether objects that appear to be high mass planets are more likely to be brown dwarfs.
A further disadvantage is that the gas envelope around certain types of stars can expand and contract, and some stars are variable. This method is unsuitable for finding planets around these types of stars, as changes in the stellar emission spectrum caused by the intrinsic variability of the star can swamp the small effect caused by a planet.
The method is best at detecting very massive objects close to the parent star – so-called "hot Jupiters" – which have the greatest gravitational effect on the parent star, and so cause the largest changes in its radial velocity. Hot Jupiters have the greatest gravitational effect on their host stars because they have relatively small orbits and large masses. Observation of many separate spectral lines and many orbital periods allows the signal-to-noise ratio of observations to be increased, increasing the chance of observing smaller and more distant planets, but planets like the Earth remain undetectable with current instruments.
See also
Methods of detecting exoplanets
Systemic (amateur extrasolar planet search project)
References
External links
California and Carnegie Extrasolar Planet Search
The Radial Velocity Equation in the Search for Exoplanets ( The Doppler Spectroscopy or Wobble Method )
Astronomical spectroscopy | Doppler spectroscopy | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 1,959 | [
"Astronomical spectroscopy",
"Spectroscopy",
"Spectrum (physical sciences)",
"Astrophysics"
] |
10,932,987 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%203576 | NGC 3576 is a bright emission nebula in the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy a few thousand light-years away from the Eta Carinae nebula. It is also approximately 100 light years across and 9000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by John Frederick William Herschel on 16 March 1834. This nebula has received six different classification numbers. Currently, astronomers call the entire nebula NGC 3576. A popular nickname is "The Statue of Liberty Nebula" because of the distinctive shape in the middle of the nebula. The name was first suggested in 2009 by Dr. Steve Mazlin, a member of Star Shadows Remote Observatory (SSRO). Within the nebula, episodes of star formation are thought to contribute to the complex and suggestive shapes. Powerful winds from the nebula's embedded, young, massive stars shape the looping filaments.
References
External links
Photo of the "Statue of Liberty"
Carina–Sagittarius Arm
3576
Emission nebulae
Carina (constellation)
Star-forming regions | NGC 3576 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 210 | [
"Carina (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
10,933,184 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliverable | A deliverable is a tangible or intangible good or service produced as a result of a project that is intended to be delivered to a customer (either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a document, a software product, a server upgrade or any other building block of an overall project. A deliverable may be composed of multiple smaller deliverables. It may be either an outcome to be achieved (as in "The corporation says that becoming profitable this year is a deliverable") or an output to be provided (as in "The deliverable for the completed project consists of a special-purpose electronic device and its controlling software").</p>
Some deliverables are dependent on other deliverables being completed first; this is common in projects with multiple successive milestones. In this way many time-savings are possible, shortening greatly the whole project final supply term. This designing activity can be represented in the drawings with a "cloud" around a not yet designed part which means: "this part (size, or other characteristics) will be studied later". The part settled can be "delivered" to the interested parties.
A deliverable differs from a project milestone in that a milestone is a measurement of progress toward an output, whereas the deliverable is the output delivered to a customer or sponsor. For a typical project, a milestone might be the completion of a product design, while the deliverable might be the technical diagram or detailed design report of the product.
In technical projects, deliverables can be further classified as hardware, software, or design documents. In contracted efforts, deliverable may refer to an item specifically required by contract documents, such as an item on a contract data requirements list or mentioned in the statement of work.
References
Schedule (project management) | Deliverable | [
"Physics"
] | 369 | [
"Spacetime",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"Schedule (project management)"
] |
10,934,184 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Armenia | The wildlife of Armenia includes the wild boar, crested porcupine, various lizards, snakes and numerous species of birds and plants. Endangered species in Armenia are the bear, wild goat, Armenian mouflon and the leopard.
Fauna
Fauna in Armenia is diverse given the country's relatively small size, owing to the varied habitats created by the area's mountainous terrain. Armenia is an important area for migratory animals, about 350 different bird species were recorded in the country. Many of the world's domesticated animals originated in or near Armenia, and the mouflon, the ancestor of domesticated sheep, is present there. Research suggests that about a quarter of the animal species in Armenia are internationally endangered. The mouflon is suffering a great population decline due to poaching and habitat loss, and the Sevan trout, which once made up thirty percent of the fish in Lake Sevan, have virtually disappeared.
Southern and south-western Armenia remains the last stronghold of the Persian leopard in the Caucasus, in part due to the region being connected with the leopard population in Iran. The total population in Armenia is thought to number 10 to 20 individuals, including adults, sub-adults and cubs.
Common
Armenian gull
Armenian rock lizard
Armenian mouflon
African wildcat
Brown bear
Beech marten
Caucasian bear
Caucasian squirrel
Caucasian badger
Common spoonbill
Eurasian brown bear
Eastern imperial eagle
Eumeces schneiderii
Eurasian lynx
Eurasian otter
European jackal
European otter
European wildcat
Jungle cat
Greek tortoise
Golden jackal
Golden eagle
Karabakh horse
Least weasel
Long-eared hedgehog
Marbled polecat
Natterer's bat
Persian leopard
Sevan khramulya
Sevan trout
Squacco heron
Steppe wolf
Steppe eagle
Striped hyena
Syrian brown bear
Montivipera raddei
Wild goat
Wild boar
Vipera darevskii
Raccoon
Red deer
Red fox
Roe deer
Flora
In Armenia forest cover is around 12% of the total land area, equivalent to 328,470 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 334,730 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 310,000 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 18,470 hectares (ha). Of the naturally regenerating forest 5% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 0% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 100% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership.
Some flora found in Armenia includes:
Acer campestre
Apricot
Armenian cucumber
Downy birch
Black poplar
Elaeagnus angustifolia
Eurasian smoketree
European pear
Common fig
Hackberry
Sycamore maple
White mulberry
Norway maple
Armenian oak
Pomegranate
Populus alba
Pyrus salicifolia
Quince
Sea-buckthorn
Tatar maple
Prunus avium
White willow
Chaerophyllum macrospermum
See also
Climate of Armenia
Fauna of Armenia
List of birds of Armenia
List of mammals of Armenia
List of protected areas of Armenia
References
Additional sources
"Krasnaya kniga Armyanskoi SSR, zhivotnye". 1987. Yerevan, Hayastan.
Kurkjian, R. (1999). Out of Stone. Armenia. Artsakh. Stone Garden Productions, Washington, DC.
External links
List of freshwater fishes of Armenia
Extinct Armenian animals
Fauna in Armenia
Armenia's amphibians and reptiles
Armenia
Biota of Armenia | Wildlife of Armenia | [
"Biology"
] | 710 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Armenia"
] |
10,934,254 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base%20Band%205 | Base Band 5, abbreviated as BB5, is the mobile baseband generation implemented on Nokia mobile phones and the replacement for prior DCT (Digital Core Technology) generations.
This generation of Nokia phone basebands uses a new range of chipsets, bus systems and components as well as enhanced security mechanisms preventing manipulations of firmware and system configurations. The phones' system interface has changed over from previous generations to allow, for instance, flashing of the device via USB.
In 2013, the BB5 platform was replaced with MediaTek and later Spreadtrum/UNISOC chips.
References
Nokia mobile phones
Hardware restrictions | Base Band 5 | [
"Technology"
] | 124 | [
"Mobile technology stubs"
] |
10,934,404 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Azerbaijan | The wildlife of Azerbaijan consists of its flora and fauna and their natural habitats.
The symbol of fauna in Azerbaijan is the Karabakh horse (Azeri: Qarabağ atı) which is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse which can be found only in Azerbaijan. It is one of the oldest breeds, with ancestry dating to the ancient world. The horse was originally developed in the Karabakh region in the 5th century and is named after it.
The natural habitat of various types of animals in Azerbaijan is diverse. Some species only populate specific areas (lakes, parts of mountainous areas) while others are spread throughout the country. For example, passerines can be found throughout the whole of Azerbaijan. Protozoa parasites are also registered in all areas of the country, depending on natural habitat of carrier animals (cattle, poultry, etc.). Among mammals, gazelles populate the plains, Caucasian goat inhabits the major Caucasus areas, and most species of birds can be found in forests or water basins. Pest insects can be found in agricultural fields, while others populate defined biotopes only.
A number of natural preserves have been created and the hunting rules were brought into effect for protection of fur and hoofed animals in Azerbaijan.
Fauna
Azerbaijan's animal kingdom owes its diversity to the variety of climates and biomes that can be found within Azerbaijani territory.
Mammals
Azerbaijan has the highest number of mammal species in Europe. Some 107 species of mammals have been recorded in Azerbaijan, three of which are unique to the country. Well-known species include Caucasian goats and west-Caucasus mouflons which inhabit Nakhichevan and western slopes of the Greater Caucasus in Balakan, Qabala, Zaqatala and Ismayilli regions.
Jeyran gazelles are among the rarest and fastest species in the Caucasus. These species can only be found in Shirvan State Reserve, Bendovan and Korchay regions of Azerbaijan.
Insectivores
Eastern European hedgehog, Erinaceus concolor
Northern white-breasted hedgehog, Erinaceus roumanicos
Long-eared hedgehog, Hemiechinus auritus
Levantine mole, Talpa levantis
Gueldenstaedt's shrew, Crocidura gueldenstaedti
Bicolored shrew, Crocidura leucodon
Transcaucasian water shrew, Neomys schelkovnikovi
White-toothed pygmy shrew, Suncus etruscus
Caspian shrew, Crocidura caspica
Bats
European free-tailed bat, Tadarida teniotis
Common pipistrelle, Pipistrellus pipistrellus
Kuhl's pipistrelle, Pipistrellus kuhlii
Lesser mouse-eared bat, Myotis blythii
Whiskered bat, Myotis mystacinus
Serotine bat, Eptesicus serotinus
Lesser horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus hipposideros
Greater horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
Botta's serotine bat, Eptesicus bottae
Mehely's horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus mehelyi
Geoffroy's bat, Myotis emarginatus
Brown long-eared bat, Plecotus auritus
Noctule bat, Nyctalus noctula
Savi's pipistrelle, Hypsugo savii
Nathusius's pipistrelle, Pipistrellus nathusii
Parti-coloured bat, Vespertilio murinus
Bent-wing bat, Miniopterus schreibersii
Mediterranean horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus euryale
Blasius' horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus blasii
Natterer's bat, Myotis nattereri
Eastern barbastelle bat, Barbastella leucomelas
Western barbastelle bat, Barbastella barbastellus
Bechstein's bat, Myotis bechsteinii
Grey long-eared bat, Plecotus austriacus
Leisler's bat, Nyctalus leisleri
Northern bat, Eptesicus nilssonii
Soprano pipistrelle, Pipistrellus pygmaeus
Lagomorphs
European hare, Lepus europaeus
European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus
Rodents
House mouse, Mus musculus
Brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (introduced)
Pigmy field mouse, Apodemus uralensis
Yellow-breasted mouse, Apodemus fulvipectus
Grey hamster, Cricetulus migratorius
Water vole, Arvicola terrestris
Social vole, Microtus socialis
Small five-toed jerboa, Allactaga elater
Euphrates jerboa, Allactaga euphratica
Libyan jird, Meriones libycus
Tristram's jird, Meriones tristami
Persian jird, Meriones persicus
Vinogradov's jird, Meriones vinogradovi
Midday gerbil, Meriones meridianus
Turkish hamster, Mesocricetus brandti
Azerbaijani mouse-like hamster, Calomyscus urartensis
Transcaucasian mole vole, Ellobius lutescens
House mouse, Mus abbotti
Fat dormouse, Glis glis
Forest dormouse, Dryomys nitedula
Common vole, Microtus arvalis
Snow vole, Chionomys nivalis
Caucasian snow vole, Chionomys gud
Robert's snow vole, Chionomys roberti
Black Sea field mouse, Apodemus ponticus
Striped field mouse, Apodemus agrarius
Harvest mouse, Micromys minutus
Schelkovnikov's pine vole, Microtus schelkovnikovi
Caucasus field mouse, Apodemus hyrcanicus
Daghestan pine vole, Microtus daghestanicus
Major's pine vole, Microtus majori
Nasarov's vole, Microtus nasarovi
Persian squirrel, Sciurus anomalus
Red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris
Indian porcupine, Hystrix leucura
Roof rat, Rattus rattus
Coypu, Myocastor coypus
Carnivores
Grey wolf, Canis lupus
Caspian Sea wolf, Canis lupus campestris
Golden jackal, Canis aureus
Red fox, Vulpes vulpes
Beech marten, Martes foina
Caucasian badger, Meles canescens
Least weasel, Mustela nivalis
European otter, Lutra lutra
Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx
Brown bear, Ursus arctos
Striped hyena, Hyaena hyaena
Pine marten, Martes martes
European wildcat, Felis silvestris
Marbled polecat, Vormela peregusna
Jungle cat, Felis chaus
Persian leopard, Panthera pardus saxicolor
Raccoon, Procyon lotor (introduced)
Extinct are:
Asiatic cheetah since the 18th century
Caspian tiger since the beginning of the 20th century
Asiatic lion since the Middle Ages
Pinnipeds
Caspian seal, Pusa caspica
Even-toed ungulates
Wild boar, Sus scrofa
Moose, Alces alces (extirpated)
Roe deer, Capreolus capreolus
Red deer, Cervus elaphus
Goitered gazelle, Gazella subgutturosa
Chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra
Wild goat, Capra aegagrus
Asiatic mouflon, Ovis orientalis
East Caucasian tur, Capra cylindricornis
Aurochs, Bos primigenius (extinct)
European bison, Bison bonasus (extirpated)
Fish
The country's fresh water basins and the Caspian Sea account for 97 species of fish, eight of which were introduced and seven of these have become widespread. There are also over 15 thousand species of invertebrates in Azerbaijan. Most can be found in the Kur River, its surrounding lakes, as well as in the Mingechevir reservoir. Most of fish are anadromous or semi-anadromous (the young grow up in salt water and migrate to fresh water to breed after they reach maturity). The most valuable of the anadromous fish are salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon and beluga. Aspius, Chalcalburnus and eel are also anadromous fish. Sturgeon meat and caviar are highly valuable. Furthermore, the water basins of Azerbaijan contain other valuable fish species such as bream, sazan, rutilus kutum and others. Herring can also be found in the Caspian sea, and is regularly fished. Due to the construction of a number of hydrotechnical plants on the Kur river after 1959, the regulation of the river water flow, as well as the Caspian water pollution led to the significant reduction in the number of valuable fish species. Three hatcheries (Kuragzi, Alibayramli and Kur experimental sturgeon hatchery) for melioration and fish-farming purposes were launched to restore the fish reserves and to increase the number of fish species. Azerbaijan's fish farming establishments and hatcheries account for breeding of 20 million sturgeons, 600 thousand salmons, over 800 thousand. A new hatchery with the capacity of 20 million sturgeons was put in commission in Khyly in 2000.
Birds
Azerbaijan has a rich avifauna. There are 363 species of birds recorded from about 60 families. Around 40% of the species are settled in Azerbaijan, 27% of these species winter in the country, and 10% pass through Azerbaijan during the migration period. One of the notable bird species is the golden eagle which inhabits mainly mountainous areas such as Nakhichevan. The golden eagle has been printed on dozens of stamps and cards in Azerbaijan.
Other
Ten species of amphibians from five families are recorded in Azerbaijan. There are 52 species of reptiles found in Azerbaijan. Most of these species are found in semi-desert areas in Shamakhi and Nakhichevan. Few are found in other lowlands or mountainous areas.
Flora
Azerbaijan has a rich flora. Over 4,500 species of higher plants have been registered in the country. Due to the a variety of climates and biomes in Azerbaijan, the flora is more diverse than in other republics of the South Caucasus. Approximately 67% of the flora species found in the whole of Caucasus can be found in Azerbaijan.
The diversity of Azerbaijan's flora and vegetation is the result of the varied physical-geographic and natural-historic conditions, as well as Azerbaijan's history of being influenced by the remote floristic regions.
Trees and plants
In Azerbaijan forest cover is around 14.% of the total land area, equivalent to 1,131,770 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, up from 944,740 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 826,200 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 305,570 hectares (ha). Of the naturally regenerating forest 0% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 33% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 100% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership, 0% private ownership and 0% with ownership listed as other or unknown.
Relict genera of the tertiary period can be frequently found in all the zones of Azerbaijan, especially in Lenkeran (Talysh regions). They are the iron tree (Parrotia persica), the Lenkoran acacia (Albizia julibrissin), the basket oak (Quercus castaneifolia), the Caucasian persimmon (Diospyros lotus), the evergreen shrub of Ruscus hyrcana, the box tree (Buxus hyrcana), etc. There are 240 endemic species of plants in Azerbaijan.
90.5% of the Altyaghach National Park is covered by broad-leaved forests, the predominant types of tree are the iron tree, Caucasus hornbeam, oriental beech (Fagus orientalis), and birch.
Reserves
Several reserves have been established in Azerbaijan in order to preserve fauna, flora and other ecosystems:
Goy-Gol State Reserve
Gyzylaghadj State Reserve
Zagatala State Reserve
Turyanchay State Reserve
Pirgulu State Reserve
Shirvan State Reserve
Besitchay State Reserve
Qarayazy State Reserve
Ismayilly State Reserve
Qaragol State Reserve
Ilisu State Reserve
Shahbuz State Reserve
Eldar pine-tree State Reserve
See also
List of mammals of Azerbaijan
Nature of Azerbaijan
Karabakh
National Parks of Azerbaijan
State Reserves of Azerbaijan
References
External links
Azerbaijan
Biota of Azerbaijan | Wildlife of Azerbaijan | [
"Biology"
] | 2,677 | [
"Biota by country",
"Biota of Azerbaijan",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
10,934,489 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diimide | Diimide, also called diazene or diimine, is a compound having the formula HN=NH. It exists as two geometric isomers, E (trans) and Z (cis). The term diazene is more common for organic derivatives of diimide. Thus, azobenzene is an example of an organic diazene.
Synthesis
A traditional route to diimide involves oxidation of hydrazine with hydrogen peroxide or air.
Alternatively the hydrolysis of diethyl azodicarboxylate or azodicarbonamide affords diimide:
Nowadays, diimide is generated by thermal decomposition of 2,4,6‐triisopropylbenzenesulfonylhydrazide.
Because of its instability, diimide is generated and used in-situ. A mixture of both the cis (Z-) and trans (E-) isomers is produced. Both isomers are unstable, and they undergo a slow interconversion. The trans isomer is more stable, but the cis isomer is the one that reacts with unsaturated substrates, therefore the equilibrium between them shifts towards the cis isomer due to Le Chatelier's principle. Some procedures call for the addition of carboxylic acids, which catalyse the cis–trans isomerization. Diimide decomposes readily. Even at low temperatures, the more stable trans isomer rapidly undergoes various disproportionation reactions, primarily forming hydrazine and nitrogen gas:
Because of this competing decomposition reaction, reductions with diimide typically require a large excess of the precursor reagent.
Applications to organic synthesis
Diimide is occasionally useful as a reagent in organic synthesis. It hydrogenates alkenes and alkynes with selective delivery of hydrogen from one face of the substrate resulting in the same stereoselectivity as metal-catalysed syn addition of . The only coproduct released is nitrogen gas. Although the method is cumbersome, the use of diimide avoids the need for high pressures or hydrogen gas and metal catalysts, which can be expensive. The hydrogenation mechanism involves a six-membered transition state:
Selectivity
Diimide is advantageous because it selectively reduces alkenes and alkynes and is unreactive toward many functional groups that would interfere with normal catalytic hydrogenation. Thus, peroxides, alkyl halides, and thiols are tolerated by diimide, but these same groups would typically be degraded by metal catalysts. The reagent preferentially reduces alkynes and unhindered or strained alkenes to the corresponding alkenes and alkanes.
Related
The dicationic form, (diazynediium, diprotonated dinitrogen), is calculated to have the strongest known chemical bond. This ion can be thought of as a doubly protonated nitrogen molecule. The relative bond strength order (RBSO) is 3.38. (fluorodiazynediium ion) and (difluorodiazynediium ion) have slightly lower strength bonds.
In the presence of strong bases, diimide deprotonates to form the pernitride anion, .
References
Azo compounds
Nitrogen hydrides
Reducing agents
Gases with color | Diimide | [
"Chemistry"
] | 690 | [
"Redox",
"Reducing agents"
] |
10,935,027 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga%20rigid%20disk%20block | In computing, a rigid disk block (RDB) is the block on a hard disk where the Amiga series of computers store the disk's partition and filesystem information. The IBM's PC equivalent of the Amiga's RDB is the master boot record (MBR).
Unlike its PC equivalent, the RDB doesn't directly contain metadata for each partition. Instead it points to a linked list of partition blocks, which contain the actual partition data. The partition data includes the start, length, filesystem, boot priority, buffer memory type and "flavor", though the latter was never used. Because there is no limitation in partition block count, there is no need to distinguish primary and extended types and all partitions are equal in stature and architecture.
Additionally, it may point to additional filesystem drivers, allowing the Amiga to boot from filesystems not directly supported by the ROM, such as PFS or SFS.
The data in the rigid disk block must start with the ASCII bytes "RDSK". Furthermore, its position is not restricted to the very first block of a volume, instead it could be located anywhere within its first 16 blocks. Thus it could safely coexist with a master boot record, which is forced to be found at block 0.
Nearly all Amiga hard disk controllers support the RDB standard, enabling the user to exchange disks between controllers.
See also
Master Boot Record (MBR)
Extended Boot Record (EBR)
GUID Partition Table (GPT)
Boot Engineering Extension Record (BEER)
Apple Partition Map (APM)
BSD disklabel
External links
The .ADF (Amiga Disk File) format FAQ; 6. The structure of a hard disks
Prints out information stored in RigidDiskBlocks of any device including source
Amiga
AmigaOS
MorphOS
Booting
Disk partitions | Amiga rigid disk block | [
"Technology"
] | 380 | [
"AmigaOS",
"Computing stubs",
"Computing platforms",
"Computer hardware stubs"
] |
10,935,789 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Cambodia | The wildlife of Cambodia is very diverse with at least 162 mammal species, 600 bird species, 176 reptile species (including 89 subspecies), 900 freshwater fish species, 670 invertebrate species, and more than 3000 plant species. A single protected area, Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, is known to support more than 950 total species, including 75 species that are listed as globally threatened on the IUCN Red List. An unknown amount of species remains to be described by science, especially the insect group of butterflies and moths, collectively known as lepidopterans.
Many species in Cambodia, including several endemic ones, are recognized by the IUCN or World Conservation Union as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered due to deforestation and habitat destruction, poaching, the illegal wildlife trade, and farming, fishing, and forestry concessions. Intensive poaching may have already driven Cambodia's national animal, the kouprey, to extinction, wild tigers to extirpation, and Eld's deer, wild water buffaloes and hog deer are at critically low numbers.
Wildlife in Cambodia includes dholes, elephants, deer (sambar, Eld's deer, hog deer and muntjac), wild oxen (banteng and gaur), panthers, bears, and tigers. Cormorants, cranes, ibises, parrots, green peafowl, pheasants, and wild ducks are also found, and species of venomous snakes and constrictors are numerous. Deforestation, mining activities, and unregulated hunting, have diminished the country's wildlife diversity rapidly.
Cambodia also has many endangered species, including Asian elephant, Siamese crocodile, wild water buffalo, and the Germain's silver langur.
Much work is being done in this area to help conserve and protect Cambodia's unique wildlife. Wildlife conservation organizations operating in Cambodia include Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Fauna and Flora International, BirdLife International, Wildlife Alliance, and many others. On 20 December 2016, 163 new animal species were reported in Southeast Asia including one known as the Klingon newt for its resemblance to a Klingon from Star Trek.
Fauna
Some animals native to Cambodia:
Mammals
Asian black bear
Asian elephant
Asian golden cat
Banteng - endangered
Binturong - vulnerable
Clouded leopard
Dhole
Douc langur
Eld's deer
Gaur - vulnerable
Hog badger - vulnerable
Hog deer
Indian muntjac
Irrawaddy dolphin
Kouprey - critically endangered
Leopard cat
Lesser false vampire bat
Marbled cat
Pileated gibbon - endangered
Rice-field rat
Sambar deer
Serow
Silvery lutung
Sun bear
Wild boar
Wild water buffalo - endangered
Reptiles
Asiatic softshell turtle
Batagur baska
Bengal monitor
Blood python
Burmese python
Cantor's giant soft-shelled turtle
Green sea turtle
Hawksbill turtle
Indotestudo elongata
Leatherback sea turtle - vulnerable
Manouria emys
Pelochelys cantorii
Ramphotyphlops braminus
Reticulated python
Saltwater crocodile
Siamese crocodile - critically endangered
Water monitor
Golden flying snake
Asian vine snake
Long-nosed whip snake
Many-spotted cat snake
Mangrove snake
Dog-toothed cat snake
Green cat snake
Kukri snakes
Radiated ratsnake
White-lipped pit viper
Large-eyed pit viper
Mountain pit viper
Malayan pit viper
Russell's viper
Monocled cobra
Indochinese spitting cobra
King cobra - vulnerable
Banded krait
Malayan krait
Red-headed krait
Red-tailed pipe snake
Sunbeam snake
Little file snake
Elephant trunk snake
Asian coral snakes
Tentacled snake
Sea snake
Sea krait
Fish
Asian arowana -
Barbus sp.
Botia sp.
Channa sp. (snakehead fishes)
Danio sp.
Labeo sp.
Mekong freshwater stingray
Mekong giant catfish -
Pangasius sp. (catfishes)
Pangio sp. (kuhli loach)
Rasbora sp.
Trichogaster sp.
Birds
Molluscs
Insects
There are several species of insects in Cambodia still undescribed by science.
Blue ant (an undescribed species of Leptogenys ants)
Only preliminary research has been done on butterflies and moths (lepidopterans) in Cambodia, even though it is an abundant lifeform in the country. No identification literature exists for Cambodia on this group yet.
Indian moon moth (Actias selene), a common moth across Asia
Common evening brown butterfly (Melanitis leda), common in Cambodian woodlands
Flora
Cambodia supports more than 3,000 identified plant species, many of which are endemic to unique local ecosystems such as the Tonlé Sap floodplain, forests of the Cardamom and Dâmrei Mountains, and elevated plains. These ecosystems provide diverse habitats that sustain a variety of plant species, contributing to the country's rich biodiversity.
In Cambodia forest cover is around 46% of the total land area, equivalent to 8,068,370 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 11,004,790 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 7,464,400 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 603,970 hectares (ha). Of the naturally regenerating forest 4% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity). For the year 2015, 100% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership.
National flower
Rumdul: Cambodia's national flower is the rumdul (Mitrella mesnyi). This flower is valued for its fragrant yellow-white blooms and is commonly found in rural areas across the country. It symbolizes elegance and is often used in traditional ceremonies and festivals.
Rare and endangered species
Several plant species in Cambodia are considered rare and/or endangered, highlighting the importance of conservation efforts:
Nepenthes bokorensis: One of two rare pitcher plants endemic to Cambodia, found growing in the Dâmrei Mountains. This species is notable for its insect-trapping mechanism and distinctive pitcher shape.
Aquilaria crassna (chankreussna): A critically endangered tree species valued for its aromatic resin, known as agarwood, used in perfume and traditional medicine. Overharvesting for its valuable resin has significantly reduced its population in the wild.
Cinnamomum cambodianum: A non-scented species of cinnamon tree endemic to Cambodian forests, primarily in the Cardamom and Dâmrei Mountains. It is also possibly present in the border region between Cambodia and Thailand. This tree species faces threats from illegal logging and habitat destruction.
Conservation efforts
Efforts to preserve Cambodia's flora include the establishment of protected areas and national parks, such as Preah Monivong National Park and the Cardamom Mountains Protected Forests. Organizations and government initiatives are working towards sustainable management and conservation practices to protect these valuable plant species and their habitats.
Threats
Sand mining in waterways, overfishing, illicit fishing methods, and the illegal wildlife trafficking are the three main threats to biodiversity in Cambodia. In the Cardamom Mountain region, poaching through snaring is another major factor in the decline in the population of pileated gibbons, dholes, serows, spotted linsangs and many more.
See also
List of protected areas of Cambodia
Wildlife of Ratanakiri
Cardamom Mountains
notes and references
External links
An online photographic database of Cambodian marine species
Biota of Cambodia
Cambodia | Wildlife of Cambodia | [
"Biology"
] | 1,531 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Cambodia"
] |
10,935,861 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldbeam | Also known as the Inside-Out web, Worldbeam is the brainchild of David Gelernter and Ajay Royan proposed in 2007; it envisions a single logical repository for all information on the internet, a concept not unlike what is now referred to as the "cloud".
See also
Information explosion
References
"The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-first Century" Edited by John Brockman, Vintage (2002)
External links
The Inside-Out Web
Information Age | Worldbeam | [
"Technology"
] | 103 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Information Age",
"World Wide Web stubs",
"Computing and society"
] |
10,935,907 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20China | China's vast and diverse landscape is home to a profound variety and abundance of wildlife. As of one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, China has, according to one measure, 7,516 species of vertebrates including 4,936 fish, 1,269 bird, 562 mammal, 403 reptile and 346 amphibian species. In terms of the number of species, China ranks third in the world in mammals, eighth in birds, seventh in reptiles and seventh in amphibians.
Many species of animals are endemic to China, including the country's most famous wildlife species, the giant panda. In all, about one-sixth of mammal species and two-thirds of amphibian species in China are endemic to the country.
Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of humans. At least 840 species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of , about 15 percent of China's total land area.
Mammals
Primates
China is home to 21 primate species including gibbons, macaques, leaf monkeys, gray langurs, snub-nosed monkeys and lorises. Most of China's primate species are endangered. Both apes and monkeys, particularly gibbons and macaques are prominently featured in Chinese culture, folk religion, art and literature. The monkey is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.
The only apes native to China are gibbons. Gibbons are tree dwellers which use their long arms to swing from branches. Gibbons can be recognized by their loud calls, with mating pairs often singing together as a duet.
The Hainan black crested gibbon is among the rarest and most endangered apes. Endemic to the island of Hainan, there are fewer than 30 individuals left in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve. Like many other gibbons, male Hainan black crested gibbons are black in color while females are golden brown. The eastern black crested gibbon is nearly as rare with only 20 or so in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region along with 30 in neighboring Vietnam. About 99% of this ape's habitat in China has been lost.
The black crested gibbon is found across a greater swath of southwestern China. The Yunnan lar gibbon, a subspecies of the lar or white-handed gibbon, might be extinct in China. The animal was last observed by zoologists in 1988 and its call was last heard by locals in 2002. A survey in November 2007 in the Nangunhe National Nature Reserve yielded no sign of this gibbon.
The northern white-cheeked gibbon is nearly extinct in the wilderness of southern Yunnan where they are hunted by local people as charms of good luck and for their bones which are made into weaving instrument and chopsticks. As of 2008, a captive population of eight northern white-cheeked gibbons was living in the Mengyang Nature Reserve. Two of the individuals were released into the wild but still relied on tourists for food. The eastern hoolock gibbon, which are distinguished by white tufts of hair above the eyebrows, are found in western Yunnan, along the border with Myanmar. The western hoolock gibbon might be found in southeastern Tibet. All gibbons in China are Class I protected species.
The most commonly found primates in China are macaques, which have oversized cheeks to store food and live in large troops. The range of the rhesus or common macaque extends from as far north as the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi and down to Hainan. Tibetan macaques are often seen at tourist sites such as Mount Emei and Huangshan. Stump-tailed macaques have distinct red faces and live throughout southern China. The Formosan rock macaque is endemic to Taiwan. Assam macaques are found in higher elevation areas of southern Tibet and the Southwest, and the northern pig-tailed macaque in Yunnan.
Macaques are Class I protected species in China but their numbers have fallen sharply. Monkey brain is a delicacy in parts of Guangxi and Guangdong, and macaques are often hunted for food. The Monpa and Lhoba people of southern Tibet eat Assam macaques. From 1998 to 2004, the number of rhesus macaques in China fell from 254,000 to about 77,000. Over the same period, the Tibetan macaque population fell by 83% from about 100,000 to only about 17,000.
Snub-nosed monkeys are so named because they have only nostrils and virtually no nose. Four of the five species in the world are found in China, including three that are endemic. All live in mountainous forests at elevations of 1,500–3,400 m above sea level. The golden snub-nosed monkey is most famous and most widely distributed, with subspecies in Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. The gray snub-nosed monkey is the most endangered, with about 700 individuals, found only in Guizhou. The black snub-nosed monkey has about 1,700 individuals living in 17 identified groups in Yunnan and eastern Tibet. A small population of Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was found in western Yunnan in 2011.
Other Old World monkeys in China include the François' langur, white-headed langur, Phayre's leaf monkey, capped langur and Shortridge's langur, which are collectively categorized as lutungs and the Nepal gray langur, which is considered a true langur. All of these species are endangered. Lutungs, also called leaf monkeys, have relatively short arms, longer legs and long tails along with a hood of hair above their eyes.
François' langur is found only in southwest China and northern Vietnam. The range of the white-headed langur is much smaller—only in southern Guangxi and Cát Bà Island in Vietnam. Phayre's leaf monkey is native to Yunnan and a larger swath of Indochina. The capped and Shortridge's langurs live along the Yunnan-Myanmar border. The Nepal gray langur is larger than the lutungs and found in southern Tibet.
Whereas apes and monkeys are grouped as haplorhine or "dry nose" primates, lorises are strepsirrhine or "wet nose" primates. Lorises have big eyes, tiny ears, live in trees and are active at night. The pygmy slow loris and Bengal slow loris are both found in southern Yunnan and Guangxi and are Class I protected species.
Carnivores
Cats
China's big cat species include the tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard.
The tiger is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, and figures prominently in Chinese culture and history. Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine and tiger fur is used for decoration. The animal is vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss. Four tiger populations were native to China. All are critically endangered, protected and live in nature reserves.
The Siberian tiger occurs in the Northeast, along the border with Russia and North Korea. The Caspian tiger was last seen in the Manasi River Basin of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the 1960s, where this population is now extinct. The South China tiger is an endemic population whose habitat is now confined to the mountain regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Fujian. A few Indochinese tigers were known to live in Yunnan where six nature reserves have been established for their protection.
Three leopard subspecies are thought to occur in China:
Leopards recorded in Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in southern Tibet are subsumed to the Indian leopard.
The Indochinese leopard occurs in Yunnan Province of southern China, where the Pearl River is thought to form a barrier to leopard populations farther north. Camera-trap surveys conducted between 2002 and 2009 in 11 nature reserves in southern China recorded leopards only in Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains, but not in Sichuan's Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in Sichuan.
The Amur leopard is native to northern China including the Jilin province along the border with Russia and North Korea, where it has been recorded by camera-traps in Hunchun National Nature Reserve. Leopards cross between China, Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River despite a high and long wire fence marking the international boundary. Contemporary records of leopards exist from protected areas in Hebei, Henan and Shanxi Provinces, and Ningxia Autonomous Region, but not from Gansu Province. Whether leopards still occur in Qinghai Province is uncertain. The species has probably been extirpated in Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi and Jiangxi provinces. It is listed as nationally critically endangered, but receives little attention from Chinese wildlife biologists and conservationists. Fragmented leopard populations in central China have been subsumed to the Amur leopard, as there is no notable geographical barrier to northern China that would have prevented gene flow in the past.
The range of the snow leopard extends across the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, Karakorum Mountains, and Tian Shan in western China.
The clouded leopard occurs in forest regions south of the Yangtze River. It became locally extinct in Taiwan in 1972.
The Chinese mountain cat is endemic to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It was recorded only in eastern Qinghai and north-western Sichuan. It was photographed by a camera-trap for the first time in 2007. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands.
The range of the Eurasian lynx includes the Greater Khingan Mountains of Northeast China.
Pallas's cat occurs at high altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau and in western China.
The Asiatic wildcat is distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Within Xinjiang, it has been confined to three southern prefectures: Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Aksu and Hotan. It is declining rapidly in its natural habitat in the Xinjiang desert region of China mainly because of excessive hunting for pelt trade followed by shrinkage of its habitat due to cultivation, oil and gas exploration and excessive use of pesticides.
The Asian golden cat and leopard cat have been recorded in the Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains and in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in the Min Mountains. The leopard cat also occurs in the Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in the Qionglai Mountains and Daliang Mountains.
Canines
The family Canidae has many members in China including the dog, wolf, dhole, red fox, corsac fox, Tibetan sand fox and common raccoon dog. Two subspecies of wolf live in China—the Eurasian wolf, which is found in all of mainland China and the Tibetan wolf, which lives on the Tibetan Plateau.
Some of the earliest dogs may have been domesticated in East Asia, and several Chinese dog breeds including the shar-pei and chow chow are among the most ancient in terms of DNA similarity to the gray wolf.
Dholes are now found in only six provinces: Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet, Sichuan, and Xinjiang.
The red fox, the largest fox species, can be found in every part of China except the northwest. The corsac fox is found in Northeast China and the Tibetan sand fox in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan.
The raccoon dog, one of the few canids that can climb trees, is native to eastern and northeastern China.
Pandas, bears
The giant panda, perhaps China's most famous wildlife species, lives in six patches of highland valleys of the Min, Qionglai, Liang, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Qinling mountains of the upper Yangtze River basin, which are spread over 45 counties in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. Only about 1,600 live in the wild (80% in Sichuan) along with about 300 in captivity in Chinese breeding centers and zoos. The animal is rare and elusive. Though classified as an omnivore, the giant panda's diet is over 90% bamboo. Its black and white coloration provides a degree camouflage in the dense forests, but the adult animal has no natural predators. Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to breed; they have short mating periods, and give birth to only one or two cubs per year. The giant panda cub is the smallest baby, compared in proportion to the parents, of any placental mammal. The giant panda is considered to be a national treasure and is an endangered species protected by state law. Since the 1970s, giant pandas have been given or lent to foreign zoos as gesture of diplomatic goodwill.
Other more common bears in China include the Asiatic black bear and the brown bear which are found across much of the country. Sub-species of the brown bear include the Himalayan brown bear and the Tibetan blue bear in Tibet, and the Ussuri brown bear in Northeast China. The sun bear is found in Yunnan. Bears, especially black bears, are also raised in captivity to harvest their bile for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
The red panda - which unlike the giant panda is not a bear and more closely resembles a raccoon - is from a separate family by itself (Ailuridae), and is found in Sichuan and Yunnan.
Viverridae and Herpestidae
The viverrid and mongoose families of small carnivores are represented by numerous members occurring in southern China, including binturong, large Indian civet, small Indian civet, Owston's palm civet, masked palm civet, Asian palm civet, small-toothed palm civet, crab-eating mongoose and small Indian mongoose.
Otter, badger, weasel, marten, wolverine
The largest family of carnivorous mammals belongs to the otters, badgers, weasels, martens, and wolverines, all of which are found in China. All of these mustelids are short, furry animals with short, rounded ears and thick fur, but they differ markedly in size, habit and habitat.
The sable, a species of marten, is prized for its fine fur, which along with ginseng and deer antler velvet, are known as the "three treasures of Manchuria". The sable is found in Manchuria (also called the Northeast) and Altai region of northern Xinjiang. The beech marten of western China and yellow-throated marten of southern China are closely related to the sable.
The Siberian weasel, known locally as the "yellow rat wolf", is the most common weasel in China. It is found throughout China proper and Manchuria, and known to steal poultry from farmers but helps to control the rodent population. Hair from the tail of the Siberian weasel is used to make ink brush for traditional Chinese calligraphy. Other weasel species include the least weasel and stoat in the north, yellow-bellied weasel and back-striped weasel in the south, and mountain weasel in the west. The steppe polecat is bigger than the Siberian weasel and found across northern China.
In Chinese, the wolverine is called "sable bear" because it is bigger than a sable and smaller than a bear and resembles both animals. The animal lives in caves and dens, which they do not dig but take from other animals such as bears, foxes and bobak marmots. Wolverines are fierce creatures that will fight bears and wolves for food. They are found in the Greater Khingan range of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia and the Altai Mountains of northern Xinjiang, and number only about 200.
The European otter is found throughout much of Eurasia and China. It is nearly extinct on Taiwan though some have been found on the island of Kinmen, off the coast of Fujian. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and lives in mangrove and freshwater swamps of southern China and Taiwan. The smooth-coated otter is confined to parts of Yunnan and Guangdong.
Like sable and martens, otter fur is also used make clothing. Sables and wolverines are Class I protected species. Martens and otters are Class II protected species.
Badgers have distinctive white stripes on their faces with one long stripe that extends from nose to tail. The Asian badger is found throughout China proper and the eastern Himalayas. The hog badger has a pig-like snout and has a slightly smaller range than the Asian badger. Ferret-badgers are the smallest badgers and two species live in China. The Chinese ferret-badger is found across much of southern China south of the Yangtze River and the Burmese ferret-badger along Yunnan's border with Laos and Vietnam.
Seals, sea lions
Pinnipeds are also classified as carnivores and are divided between earless or true seals and eared seals. True seals do not have ears and cannot get their hind flippers underneath their bodies to crawl. Eared seals, which include sea lions, in contrast, have protruding ears and can "walk" with all four limbs on land.
True seals in China include the bearded seal which is found along the coast of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong in the East and South China Sea, the ringed seal in the Yellow Sea, and spotted seal, which is primarily found in the Bohai Gulf and the northern Yellow Sea, but have been seen as far south as Guangdong. All seals are Class II protected animal. Sea lions have Class I protection.
The spotted seal is the only seal species that breeds in China. Its breeding grounds are found along the rim of Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Gulf, including the estuary at the mouth of the Shuangtaizi River near Panjin and Changxing Island near Dalian, and Baengnyeongdo sanctuary in the Korean exclusive economic zone. These seals have been poached for its fur and genitals, which were used to make an aphrodisiac. Their habitats have also been heavily damaged by land reclamation, fish farming, and petroleum development. A South Korean NGO has been trying to increase public awareness and support for the protection of the seals in China, North Korea and South Korea. Protection stations have been set up to monitor the breeding grounds and wildlife protection authorities compensate fisherman who turn in live seals caught in their nets. In April 2011, the construction of an express highway along the coast was halted due to its adverse impact on the seal breeding ground. Satellite trackings revealed that not only within Yellow Sea, but also seals can migrate even between Primorsky Krai in Russia to Yellow Sea, exceeding 3,300 km in total. Recoveries and recolonizations have been observed recently, such as along the coast of Shandong in 1999, and in the Miaodao Islands of the Bohai Sea since 2000s.
The northern fur seal, an eared seal, occasionally appears off the coast of eastern and southern China and southern Taiwan. The largest of the eared seals is the Steller sea lion, who lives primarily in the Arctic but is also seen along the Yellow Sea coast in Jiangsu and Bohai Gulf in Liaoning. Among Yellow Sea – adjacent areas within the Korean EEZ, occurrence can be on locations such as at Jeju Island.
Whales, dolphins, porpoises
China has cetacean species that live in both freshwater and the sea. The nearly extinct baiji dolphin and Chinese white dolphin are Class I protected species. All other cetaceans in China are Class II protected species.
In total, 22 species of smaller cetaceans inhabit within Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong's, and Macau's waters including Baiji. Although being not officially recognized, the presence of Irrawaddy dolphins have been questioned.
In ancient China, inscriptions of the whales varied and inscriptions of whales and sharks were occasionally mixed. During the Qing dynasty, certain knowledge on whales had been deepened with the establishment of whaling industries in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan although both oceanic and freshwater dolphins had been classified as different animals from whales. It is said that climate change during the dynasty caused small fish to flourish within Yellow and Bohai Seas and drew large numbers of whales into the basins.
The Republic of China was one of the early signatories of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The People's Republic of China signed convention in September 1980 and banned domestic whaling in 1981, and also signed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
Until recently, observing live cetaceans nonetheless of any species including minke whales and smaller dolphins and porpoises are very rare in Bohai and Yellow Seas within Chinese side, however, increases in confirmation of minke whales and other species have been confirmed in larger part of Yellow Sea basin especially around Changhai County due to improves in water quality and productivity achieved by fishery regulations and creating ocean farms on Zhangzi Island, and local industries have been considered to operate whale watching tours as a future prospect. Modern distributions of cetaceans both on continent and oceanic islands including Taiwan are largely biased on toothed whales due to severe declines of baleen whales.
Baiji
The baiji dolphin's habit historically covered much of the Yangtze River and its tributaries and lakes, from Yichang to Shanghai. It is mentioned in historical records going back 2,000 years. According to legend, the baiji dolphin is the reincarnation of a princess and called the Goddess of the Yangtze. As recently as the 1950s, there were as many as 6,000 baiji dolphins in China, but their number fell to the hundreds by the 1980s, under 100 in the 1990s and fewer than a dozen since 2000.
The Yangtze River catchment area is one of the most densely populated areas in China and the world. The river, China's longest, is also a major highway for ships. Water and noise pollution, commercial fishing, and large propellers of ships are all major threats to the baiji. The building of the Gezhouba Dam in the 1970s and the Three Gorges Dam in the 1990s blocked the access of the dolphins upstream, altered the seasonal flow of the river, and enabled large oceangoing ships to sail on the river.
By 1997, a survey of the river found only 13 baiji. A Sino-Swiss joint survey of the river from Yichang to Shanghai in 2006 found no animals and declared the species to be functionally extinct, that is, even if a few individuals continued to survive, their numbers are too few to reproduce. The last sighting confirmed by zoologist was in 2004 when a dead baiji dolphin washed ashore near Nanjing.
Nature reserves to protect the baiji dolphin were established along the Yangtze in Hunan, Hubei and Anhui province, along with observation and captive centers. The longest living baiji dolphin in captivity, Qiqi, lived in a dolphinarium in Wuhan from 1980 to 2002. The Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve, created out of an oxbow bend in the Yangtze was designed as a captive breeding area for the baiji. One baiji was sent there in 1995 but died in 1996. The reserve is now a breeding ground for the finless porpoise.
Finless porpoise
At least two subspecies of finless porpoise are known to inhabit coastal waters such as off Dalian< Nanjing, Nanji Islands Marine Sanctuary, Jiushan Chain IslandsWeizhou Island, and at Matsu Islands. A freshwater subspecies lives in the Yangtze, Gan and Xiang Rivers. Unlike dolphins, they lack a dorsal fin. The freshwater porpoise faces the same threat as the baiji. In April 2012, twelve were found dead in Dongting Lake in a span of 44 days. Construction of the Poyang Lake Dam may cause severe damages on remaining population.
As of 2012, the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve had about 40 finless porpoises with another 85 in Dongting Lake and 300–400 in Poyang Lake. The freshwater finless porpoise, a Class II protected species, is rarer than the giant panda. They are also well present in Gulf of Tonkin.
In recent years, small concentrations have been confirmed at the estuaries on the mouth of Yellow River in Lijin County. Stable numbers of porpoises, two subspecies being involved, have been found recently along Chongming Island where the local waters show drastic recovery thanks to efforts to improve water quality.
Oceanic dolphins
Sousa, the Chinese white dolphin (locally called the Matsu's fish) that was previously considered to be a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, lives in the waters off southern China including Wanshan Archipelago, Nanji Islands, the Pearl River Delta, and Hong Kong, Gulf of Tonkin Hainan Island such as around Sanya Bay, Leizhou Peninsula, Paracel Islands, and on Penghu Islands to the western coast of Taiwan, mainland coast along the Formosa Strait such as at Xiamen and Xiapu County, and Nánpēng Islands Marine Sanctuary in Nan'ao County, and Sanniang Bay dolphin sanctuary in Qingzhou. The Chinese white dolphin is a symbol of Hong Kong, and special sanctuary has been declared to protect the species with approaches to co-exist with sustainable dolphin watching, although the local population is in serious peril.
Other oceanic dolphin species include the Pacific white-sided, spinner, striped, short-beaked common, long-beaked common, Fraser's, pantropical spotted, rough-toothed, common bottlenose, Indo-Pacific bottlenose, and Risso's dolphin. Risso's dolphins are one of the most common cetaceans along the east coast of Taiwan.
Whales
Whales were historically abundant in Chinese and Taiwanese waters especially in the winter and spring whene they come to coastal areas to breed and calve, while especially baleen whales other than those which migrated from the outer Pacific and Sea of Japan swam northward to feed in the Yellow and Bohai basins during warmer seasons. Most of the large whales in Taiwan were recorded prior to 1952. In imperial times, villages along the coast of the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong hunted whales and made offerings of whale oil to the emperor in Beijing. On the other hand, however, like among other nations such as in Korea, China, Ebis in Japan, Indonesia, among Indochina including in Vietnam where whales were once well respected, heavenly deities among coastal people, regarded as the "King of the sea", the "Dragon emperor in the ocean", or "Dragon Soldiers" in almost entire coastal regions excluding above mentioned Hainan and Leizhou, as when whales were seen, fishermen and boats had to make ways for them and wait the whales to pass. In Chinese mythology, for example, Yu-kiang, the ruler of the sea, is said to be a whale with arms and legs. Indigenous tribes on Taiwan also recognized the presences of large whales and representing whales in their local myths and folklores.
Baleen whales found in the ocean off China's coast include the blue whale, the world's largest animal, as well as the Eden's, Omura's, Bryde's, common minke, fin, sei, and humpback whales. Historically, there had been an endemic, resident population of fin whales from the Yellow and Bohai Sea to the East China Sea. Minke whales are also resident in the same regions. Historically, Bryde's whales were resident near Taiwan and the southern coast.
In the Chinese EEZ, critically endangered North Pacific right whales and western gray whales had been sighted in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea only on prior to the 1970s, especially for right whales. There had been records of gray whales and the only record in the 21st century was of a mature female accidentally killed in local fisheries near Pingtan in the Taiwan Strait in 2007.
The following statements focus on right and gray whales because their behavioral patterns (high reliance on shallow waters compared to their size, such that they enter river mouths and estuaries regularly, and their curiosity about humans) made it easier for hunters to kill them and they were wiped out faster than other species, but they also apply to the larger whales. Rorquals' situations were similar, but their functional local extinction was caused later in the 20th century by modern Japanese whaling.
The biology and natural history of whales in Chinese waters prior to exploitation is unclear because academic studies or approaches to biology of cetaceans was minimal. The local populations of migratory whales appear to have been intensively hunted to the point of near-functional extinction on the main migratory collider (the Japanese archipelago) by Japanese whaling industries. The fates of right whales, for example, were threatened by legal, illegal and research whaling, and the most devastatingly, the Soviet Union's mass illegal whaling in the 1960s and 1970s.
Gray whales migrating on the coasts of Japanese were wiped out earlier than their Korean counterparts. Other populations along the Korean Peninsula were targeted later. The most intensive hunts of all times were carried out by Japanese whaling industries in the 20th century; these covered a wide range of east Asian waters including almost entire EEZ of China, North Korea and South Korea. Whaling stations, such as at Daya Bay, were established along the Chinese and Korean coastlines causing virtual, functional extinction of almost all species of larger baleen whales in east and southeast Asian nations. The presence of larger cetaceans has not been confirmed.
Toothed whales, excluding dolphins, include the sperm, dwarf sperm, pygmy sperm, Baird's beaked, Longman's beaked, Cuvier's beaked, Blainville's beaked, ginkgo-toothed beaked whales, and the orca and pilot whales (false killer, pygmy killer, melon-headed, short-finned pilot). False killers still remain along coasts of mainland China, and are known to enter rivers regularly in particular regions.
Stranding of toothed whales has been common on Taiwanese coasts.
Large whales have become very rare on today's Chinese coasts where only tiny remnants of minke whales or several more survived. However, whale watching industries became popular attractions along the east coast of Taiwan, offering excellent opportunities to observe majestic creatures, especially in the summer. Recently, whale watching has been considered in the Yellow Sea based on recoveries whale populations. Larger rorquals have been sighted in pelagic waters occasionally. Whales migrating through Tsushima Strait possibly to Chinese waters are under serious threat of being struck by high-speed vessels.
Older and modern whaling records suggest that there had been historical summering and wintering/calving grounds for baleen whales in various areas along coastal China particularly in several locations. Below is a list showing some of those areas corresponding with baleen and few of larger toothed whales, but excluding undiscovered or unstudied regions and species.
Baleen whales
Right whales – Yellow Sea (especially adjacent to the island of Haiyang Dao where the junction of warmer and colder ocean currents exists nearby and all the modern appearances of the species on mainland coasts of China were concentrated), Shanghai and Zhoushan Islands, Guangdong and Huiyang, and in Taiwan Strait such as along coasts of Fujian (e.g.Pingtan Island), Penghu Islands, and Taiwan, and some reaching Hainan and Leizhou The first documented stranding of the species in China was in Shandong Province between 2000 and 2006. The first sighting in China was at Shenzhen in 2015 although the observation was reported as a humpback, and the first of living animal in Sea of Japan since after the whaling was recorded at Namhae near Busan in February 2015 and this was the first confirmation of the species since after the last record in Korean EEZ in 1974. Since 1901, records have been concentrated to the vicinity of Amami Ōshima including sightings in 1997 and 2014, and the first confirmed whale in west coast of Kyushu strayed into the port of Ushibuka, Kumamoto in 2014.
Based on studies to find coastal foraging grounds, wintering distributions may also include areas along the Zhejiang coast. It is unknown if there had been a summer population of this species to in the Yellow and Bohai seas, however copepods within the basins and the geography indicate some whales might have summered there.
Gray and humpback whales – Yellow and Bohai Sea such as at Qingdao, Zhoushan Islands, Taiwan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Nánpēng Islands, Liaonin, Fujian to south of Hailing Bay, Daya Bay, Hong Kong, Hainan, Qizhou Liedao Islands (humpback), Wailuo Harbour, Paracel Islands, and so on.
Only about 130 gray whales survive today, but some recent studies indicate that the original Asian population might have been functionally extinct, and those whales seen on Sakhalin and Kamchatka could originate in the well-recovering eastern population. Fossil and catch records suggest there were once wintering/calving areas in Taiwan and adjacent areas. The most recent known record in Korean waters was the sighting of a pair off Bangeojin, Ulsan in 1977.
In 2011, gray whales were acoustically detected among pelagic waters in the East China Sea between China and Japan.
Historical catches of humpbacks on the southern coasts of the nation were small, hence it is difficult to determine the population before exploitation. There was once a foraging area on the southern coasts along the Bashi Channel around Kenting National Park or near the southern coasts and islands of Taiwan like Xiaoliuqiu Island and Dapeng Bay. Today, their numbers along the east coast of Taiwan are very small despite efforts of whale-watching companies. Sightings, including of a cow-calf pair, have occurred the along east coast of Taiwan. Whales were once abundant near Pingtung County and sporadic individuals have been observed off the east coast, Hualien and at islands such as Green Island and Orchid Island. The first confirmation in Taiwan was of a pair off Hualien in 1994, and there was a successful unentanglement off Taitung in 1999. In 2000 a whale was sighted around Orchid Island and sightings have been reported almost annually at Green Island and Orchid Island, however, relative short stays in these waters indicate that they are not winter foraging grounds. There were documented sightings of humpback whales around Hong Kong in 2009 and 2016. Possibly the first confirmed sighting, in the Yellow Sea, was of three animals including a cow-calf pair off Changhai County in 2015. Few whales now migrate through the Sea of Japan, the Tsushima Strait, and further reaching the Korean Peninsula.
Based on historical catches and observations, some gray whales could have occurred year round off China, possibly summering in the Bohai Sea. There had been at least 24 records of gray whales in Chinese waters since 1933 including sightings, strandings, and bycatch. DNA analysis of a 2011 specimen indicates that this female might not originate in the western population. Whether or not humpback whales ever summered within Yellow and Bohai basins is unknown.
Bryde's or Eden's whales – Historically residential among Taiwan, Fujian and Guangdong to Hong Kong, Hainan and Leizhou, and Gulf of Tonkin such as off Weizhou and Xieyang Islands. There have been occasional reported sightings in areas within Hong Kong and Macau to the Gulf of Tonkin, and strandings had been reported from areas such as Zhoushan. The number of whales currently migrating through Tsushima Strait is not clear although they have been observed on numerous occasions by the Japan Coast Guard. Twenty-four Bryde's or Eden's whales were caught in the Korean EEZ in the mid-1970s, and one was sighted in the Sea of Japan in 1994.
Fin whales – Historically resident in the Yellow and Bohai seas and east to the South China Sea off the Paracel Islands, and at least two other local groups, Sea of Japan residents and a group once migrated along the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago to Chinese waters The East China Sea group is considered to be either functionally extinct or critically endangered due to being one of main targets of Japanese whaling in the 20th century, and today there have been occasional strandings or findings of deceased individuals along sporadic areas from the Yellow and Bohai seas to other parts including southern shores like at Kam District in Wenchang, Shanghai (although the whale was speculated to have died in offshore waters), and Ningbo. The last confirmed sighting near Taiwan is unknown although some media and tourism operators claim that migrations still occur, and whales might still migrate in pelagic waters. The only modern record among the Ryukyu Islands was of a rotten carcass beached on Ishigaki Island in 2005. The last of known record on the Korean Peninsula was in 1973, but there have been recent by-catches along the coasts. Some whales still live in the Sea of Japan and pass through the Tsushima Strait. There had been congregation areas adjacent to Korean Peninsula such as in East Korea Bay and Ulleungdo, although occurrences in these locations are unclear.
Fin whales in the Yellow Sea could have been a unique form from outer Pacific populations due to their smaller size, and breeding season was mainly in winter.
Minke whales – Still be present regularly (although very rare to observe live individuals) in the Yellow and Bohai seas (resident group), Zhoushan, and in coastal and oceanic island areas (e.g. Zhoushan, Penghu, and Parcel Archipelagos). Likely to breed in early to mid – summer, and there may be four major migratory routes within the Yellow and Bohai seas such as along Liaoning Bay, Bohai Strait, and Shandong Peninsula. Off Taiwan, recent sightings and entanglements occurred along the east coast such as at San Diego, Taiwan Strait, or at Hualien. Strandings and by-catches have been in higher rates in the Bohai Sea and at the islands of Haiyang and Zhangzi.
Blue, sei and Omura's whales – Largely unknown. Blues were known to visit the Yellow and Bohai seas and migrate further south to the Paracel Islands. One was sighted off Weizhou Island in 2017.
Blue whales in the coastal northwestern Pacific likely became extinct due to heavy exploitation in the 20th century along southern Japan especially on Wakayama and Shikoku and Miyazaki where the last known catches in the East China Sea (Amami Oshima) were in 1934. The most recent recorded stranding on the Japanese archipelago, other than the Ryukyu Islands, was in the 1950s, and only three blue whales were recorded in Far Eastern Russian waters from 1994 to 2004. Gigantic whales exceeding 20 m in length have been observed in the Tsushima Strait in recent years although their species are unknown. There was a stranding in Wanning in 2005. It is unclear if the whales confirmed in the Bohol Sea in recent years include of the blue whales which had been seen in the Chinese EEZ; it was speculated that these were pygmy blue whales from the Southern Hemisphere.
Historic distributions, occurrences, and current statuses of sei, Bryde's (offshore form) and Omura's whales in Chinese and Korean waters are unclear, but their known ranges in Chinese waters reach from the mid to southern coasts facing from the East China Sea and Taiwan to the South China Sea. Scientific confirmation of Omura's whales among continental waters was rather recent. Strandings of Omura's whales have been recorded only south of Zhejiang County. Occasionally, either Bryde's or Omura's whales have been spotted along Taiwan's east coast during whales-watch cruises. There have been sightings along the Taiwanese coast in Hualien and there was a case of re-floating a stranded Bryde's whale near Nantong in 2005.
Toothed whales
Sperm whales – The only large cetacean still common in the nation's waters were one of the main targets of whale-watching industries along the east coast of Taiwan, as well as islands such as the Xiaoliuqiu and Spratly Islands. Some appear around the Hainan Islands although their current status in this region is unclear. Occasionally whales strand on mainland shores in the Yellow and Bohai regions. They appear seldom in near-shore waters because they feed mostly in deep sea canyons. Sperm whales appear in near-shore waters in some cases; at locations where deep waters approach shores, or some particular individuals or groups have learned to come to rest in shallow bays, straits or along beaches. There were sightings of nine whales in the East China Sea off the Korean Peninsula in 1999, and eight whales off the eastern Korean Peninsula in 2004. The last catches were of five whales off Ulsan in 1911.
Baird's beaked whales – The second largest of the Odontoceti are extreme divers second only to sperm whales. Next to nothing about this species' natural history and biology in Chinese waters is clear as the species has been considered not to occur, and the origin of the skeleton at the Zhejiang Museum of natural History is unclear. This species could still be within the Chinese EEZ as some groups on the Japanese archipelago survive, but are under serious danger from commercial whaling. Based on archeological reports, these elusive, friendly whales once were regular among the Yellow and Bohai seas notably around Lingshan Island off Huangdao District or the mouth of Jiaozhou Bay and off Dalian at least until the mid-16th century, but they were seemingly wiped out by Japanese whalers. Southern limits of their distributions in Chinese waters are unclear while a stranding or a catch was recorded in Zhoushan in the 1950s. Twelve whales were caught as bycatch along the eastern Korean Peninsula between 1996 and 2012.
Longman's beaked whales and other beaked whales – Being one of newly classified and less known species, their overall distributions have been rather unclear. They are the second largest of beaked whales and third largest of toothed whales that can be seen in the Chinese EEZ. In Chinese waters records of these whales are concentrated on the east coast of Taiwan and surrounding waters including Lanyu and Green Island. Based on studies, presences of other beaked whales, being lesser known as well, have been confirmed to be common around Taiwanese waters, and Taiwan is one of few locations where beaked whales have been observed with regularity during whale watching tours. Stejneger's beaked whales are resident in the Sea of Japan, and are one of the most commonly recorded Ziphiidae species of the Korean Peninsula although their presence within the Yellow Sea is unclear.
Orcas – The current status of killer whales along the nation's coasts and surrounding areas is unclear. Sightings are more common along the eastern Taiwanese coasts such as off Chenggong while on the mainland, they occur on almost the entire shoreline from the Bohai and Yellow Sea in the north to Ningbo and Zhoushan Archipelago in the east, and along the southern coasts and islands including Paracel Islands as well. There was a commercial catch newar southern Taiwan in the 1990s. They still occur occasionally in the Korean side of the Yellow Sea or nearby; there was a sighting of pairs in 2001 and five or six whales off Wando (island) within the Dadohaehaesang National Park in 2016.
Short-finned pilot whales – The so-called the "Southern Form" of the species ranges within the Chinese waters. Most of records concentrate on the eastern coasts of Taiwan. Mainland distributions are rather unclear as there had been only one stranding record in Hainan, including regularities of occurrences within the Yellow Sea, but occasional strandings have been recorded such as at Taeanhaean National Park and Jeju. There was a mass stranding on the Nanji Islands in 2004.
False killer whales – One of few species surviving today in descent numbers on mainland coasts, but in peril; any warmer regions such as Taiwan, Nánpēng Islands, Nanji Island Marine Sanctuary, Matsu Islands, Langyatai on Huangdao District, Dongshan County, Hong Kong, Paracel Islands, and so on.
False killer whales along continental China are known to often enter and swim up large rivers in pods or large numbered schools, reaching more than 30 to 50 km, or individuals have traveled 220 to 300 km. Rivers and canals in Xiangshui County such as Guanhe, Jiangsu, Huai, and Tongyu (通榆河) rivers have local legends of "鲸拜龙王" (Worshiped Whale Dragon King), telling that every spring whales gather at river mouths and swim up. In recent years, especially from earlier 2000s, false killer whales have been observed to swim up rivers rather regularly, showing dramatic recoveries and their numbers are rising once again, up to more than 200 whales. Whales occasionally appear in Jiaozhou Bay which was part of the regular range for the species until in the 1980s.
Dugongs
Dugongs are marine mammals that feed entirely on vegetation such as seagrass. They are related to manatees in the Western Hemisphere, and are only sirenian species found in Asian waters. In China, dugongs are found along the coasts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the Hepu Dugong National Nature Reserve, near Beihai, was created in 1992 for their protection, and less frequently in Hainan. Current distributions could be much more restricted than that of pre-exploitation ranges, as once might have been seen in the Yellow sea regions.
They are considered regionally extinct in Taiwan. The dugong is a Class I protected species. They were hunted for their meat in the late 1950s and early 1960s during the Great Leap Forward. Dugongs are threatened by the loss of seagrass beds from coastal development. Several areas still possess feasible habitats for dugongs today such as the Dongsha Atoll and the west coasts of Hainan and Leizhou Peninsula, and Chinese government funded to establish a sanctuary designed for dugong and mangrove conservation ranging from Hepu County to Shankou in Guanxi, also to secure local Chinese white dolphins. Individuals distributed among the Beibu Gulf Economic Rim in Gulf of Tonkin face threats of busy-becoming ship-lanes and polluted waters.
Elephant
Asian elephants once roamed a large swath of China, but are now confined to the Xishuangbanna and Pu'er Prefectures of southern Yunnan. Xishuangbana means 12 elephants in the local Thai language. In recent years, Chinese demand for ivory has led to a sharp increase in elephant poaching around the world. Due to strict enforcement of elephant protection laws with capital punishment for poachers and government financed feeding programs, the population of elephants within China from 1994 to 2014 roughly doubled to nearly 300.
Odd-toed ungulates
Rhino
Records and artwork from antiquity indicate that three species of Asian rhinoceros, the Indian, Javan and Sumatran, more specially the Northern Sumatran rhinoceros have lived in China. During the Shang dynasty, some 3,000 years ago, rhinoceros ranged as far north as Inner Mongolia. By the beginning of the Han dynasty, 2,200 years ago, they had disappeared from the Central Plains of northern China.
During the Tang dynasty, about 1,200 years ago, rhinos were found across southern China and the imperial zoo had a captive breeding program that returned some animals to the wild. Cooler climate in northern China may have caused rhinoceros habitat to shrink, but it was demand for rhino horns for use in traditional Chinese medicine, documented in as early as the Song dynasty 1,000 years ago, that drove the animal toward extinction.
In the Ming dynasty about 650 years ago, rhinoceros were confined to Yunnan and Guizhou, and by the Qing dynasty to only Yunnan. The Qing government limited the hunting of rhinos to only officials, and some 300 horns were harvested between 1900 and 1910. The collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 allowed individuals to hunt the animal. The last Sumatran rhino was killed in 1916, the last Indian rhino in 1920 and the last Javan rhino in 1922.
In 2010, a herd of nine southern white rhinoceros were imported from South Africa and shipped to Yunnan, where they were kept in a wild animal park for acclimation. In March 2013, seven of the animals were shipped to the Laiyanghe National Forest Park, a habitat where Asian rhinoceros once lived. Two of the African rhinos began the process of being released into the wild on 13 May 2014.
Horses and wild asses
The Przewalski's horse, the only species of wild horses never to have been domesticated, once roamed free in large parts of northwestern China but became locally extinct in 1957. In the 1980s, herds from Europe have been introduced to habitats in Xinjiang and Gansu.
The other odd-toed ungulates in China are the Mongolian wild ass and the Tibetan wild ass (kiang). The former is endangered while the latter is not. Both are Class I protected species.
Even-toed ungulates
Deer
China has a great variety of true deer and its close kin the musk deer. The largest deer species, the elk (known as the moose in North America), is found in the Greater and Lesser Khingan ranges of the northeast. The moose stands at 2 m tall and weighs as much 700 kg. In contrast, the lesser mouse-deer of Yunnan, which is just 45 cm in height and weighs 2 kg, is not much bigger than a rabbit.
China also contains the closely related elk and red deer, the second and fourth largest deer species, which until 2004 were considered the same species. The elk (also known as wapiti) has four subspecies in Asia – the Altai wapiti, Tian Shan wapiti, Manchurian wapiti and Alashan wapiti – all of which are present in China. The red deer, though quite common in Europe, has subspecies in China that are endangered. The red deer are the deer that have been most important to human societies.
The Yarkand deer lives along the Tarim River in Xinjiang south of the Tian Shan. The Bactrian deer lives north of the Tian Shan in northern Xinjiang and Central Asian Republics. The Tibetan red deer, Gansu red deer, Sichuan deer have been alternatively categorized as subspecies of the elk or the Central Asian red deer.
The sambar deer, the third largest deer species, is found throughout southern China, and on the islands of Hainan and Taiwan. They live near water and are called "water deer" in Chinese. They are not to be confused with the Chinese water deer, a smaller deer which are found in the Yangtze Delta region. The water deer is the only species of true deer without antlers.
Water deer, tufted deer and muntjacs are small deer with long upper canines that protrude like tusks. Muntjacs are known for their soft hide and tender meat. The Indian muntjac is found throughout southern China. The range of the Reeve's muntjac extends north to Gansu and to Taiwan. Fea's muntjac are found in eastern Tibet and the Gongshan muntjac in neighboring Yunnan. The hairy-fronted muntjac is endemic to the mountains at the juncture of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian and is a protected species. The tufted deer, a close relative of the muntjac, is found throughout central China.
Deer is prized in China for the velvet of their antlers. Antler velvet is rich in growth hormone and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. The most valuable antler velvet comes from the sika deer which is raised on farms. Several subspecies of the sika deer, including the Shanxi sika and the North China sika may have become extinct in the wild and survive exclusively in captivity. The Sichuan sika deer, another subspecies, was discovered in 1978 and lives in mountains of northern Sichuan and southern Gansu. The Formosan sika deer is endemic to Taiwan.
Reindeer, which are found in the forests of the Greater Khingan range in northern Inner Mongolia, are domesticated by the ethnic Ewenki and Oroqen people. The Oroqen call themselves, "people who use the reindeer". One branch of the Ewenki rely on reindeer to haul goods through swampy forests. They use reindeer milk and meat for nourishment, hides for clothing and tents, and antlers for medicine and income. The Kyrgyz people, who now reside in Central Asia and western Xinjiang, used to live in northeast Asia and regard the sika deer as a holy animal. According to Kyrgyz legend, the Kyrgyz Bugu tribe descended from a mother deer.
The sika deer is protected as a Class I endangered species by the state, though it is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as least concern. Another Class I protected deer is the Thorold's or white-lipped deer. This large deer with a population of about 15,000 that is endemic to Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Tibet and Yunnan, is considered vulnerable by the IUCN. The Chinese population of Eld's deer, a Class I protected species that is also considered endangered by IUCN, is found only on the island of Hainan. For decades, the Indochinese hog deer was believed to be extinct in China until a fawn was discovered in 2007 in the Yongde Daxueshan National Wildlife Reserve. The Indochinese hog deer is also protected by the state.
Perhaps the most remarkable endangered deer species in China is Père David's deer. This deer, colloquially known as the sibuxiang or the "Four-Not-Look-Alike", is said to have the hooves of an ox, antlers of a deer, neck of a camel and tail of a donkey, but does not look like any one animal. According to Chinese legend, this animal helped the ancient sage Jiang Ziya overthrow the tyrant king of the Shang dynasty 4,000 years ago and became a symbol of good fortune. Chinese emperors kept the sibuxiang also called milu in imperial hunting parks, even as the animal became extinct in the wild, perhaps as early as 2,000 years ago. By 1866, when Father Armand David identified the animal, there were only 200–300 remaining in the Nanhaizi Royal Park in Beijing. A few animals were sold to zoos in Europe before 1894, when the park was flooded and some of the animals escaped only to be hunted and eaten. The last of the animals in China died during the chaos of the Boxer Rebellion. In 1898, Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford assembled a herd of 18 animals from European zoos and bred them at his estate, Woburn Abbey in England. In 1985, 22 deer from this herd was reintroduced back to the Nanhaizi Park in Beijing and in 1986 another 39 were sent to Dafeng, in northern Jiangsu on the Yellow Sea. In 1998, eight animals in the latter herd were introduced into wilderness of the Dafeng Milu National Wildlife Reserve. By 2013, the reserve had 196 Père David's deer.
The Siberian roe deer, once plentiful in the Northeast and favored as game meat, has also become a protected species. Hunting of roe deer was banned in 2000.
Musk deer and mouse-deer resemble small deer but are not true deer. They do not have antlers or facial scent glands. Male musk deer have scent glands that secrete deer musk, which is used for perfume, incense and medicine. Of the seven musk deer species in the world, six are found in China and five are endangered: the Anhui musk deer and dwarf musk deer of central China, the alpine musk deer of western China, the white-bellied musk deer and black musk deer of Tibet. The Siberian musk deer in the northeast is considered vulnerable. The lesser mouse-deer is found in southern Yunnan.
Antelope
The grasslands, plateau and deserts of northern and western China are home to several species of antelope. The Mongolian gazelle, also known as the Zeren or yellow sheep, can run at speeds of up to 90 km/h and gather in herds by the thousands. They used to be spread over much of northern China but are now confined largely to Inner Mongolia. The Tibetan gazelle or goa antelope, is slightly smaller than the Mongolian gazelle, and lives on the Tibetan Plateau. The Przewalski's gazelle, whose males have distinctive horns that curl outward and then inward at the top, are extremely rare and endemic to a small region around Qinghai Lake on the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The goitered gazelle is about the same size as the Mongolian gazelle and is found throughout the Gobi Desert.
The Tibetan antelope, also known as chiru, is taller than the gazelles and has longer horns. It is endemic to the Tibetan Plateau and is endangered. The animal is poached for its fine wool, which is made by Kashmiri weavers into the Shahtoosh shawl. The film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol documents efforts to protect the animal from poaching. The Tibetan antelope was one of the mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The saiga antelope's horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of ailments including the common cold. Despite its status as a Class I protected species, the saiga antelope has been poached to extinction in the Dzungar Basin of northern Xinjiang and is critically endangered in Central Asia and Russia. Chinese police routinely interdict large batches of smuggled horns into Xinjiang. Attempts have been made to reintroduce the saiga antelope to habitats in China.
Goat antelopes
Serows, gorals, and the takin are called antelope by the Chinese, and goat antelope by western taxonomists.
The largest of these goat antelope is the takin, a relative of the musk ox. It lives in highlands from the eastern foothills of the Himalayas to the Qinling and shares habitat with the giant panda in Sichuan and Shaanxi. The takin is a Class I protected species.
Serows are smaller than takins but significantly larger than gorals. Both serows and gorals live in rainy mountainous regions and are excellent climbers. Serows have shorter and coarser wool than gorals. The mainland serow is spread across southern China. The range of the Chinese goral is even broader, extending to Korea in the northeast. The long-tailed goral lives in the northeast, along the borders with Russia and North Korea. The Himalayan serow, Himalayan goral, and red goral are found in southern Tibet. The Taiwan serow is endemic to Taiwan.
Mountain sheep and goat
The argali or mountain sheep, the Asian cousin of the North American bighorn sheep has nine subspecies, seven of which are found in northern and western China, including the Marco Polo sheep, which the Venetian traveler reported observing in the Pamir mountains.
The Himalayan blue sheep, with much smaller horns than the argali, are agile climbers on Himalayan cliffs. The dwarf blue sheep is found in western Sichuan. The Himalayan tahr, discovered in China in 1974, is a Class I protected species with perhaps only 500 animals in southern Tibet.
The Siberian ibex, the largest and heaviest goat, is found in the Tian Shan range of Xinjiang.
Cattle, camel, pig
There are large numbers of domesticated gaur, yak and Bactrian camel in China but in the wild, they are Class I protected species. The gaur or Indian bison is the tallest species of cattle and found in southern Tibet and Yunnan. Domesticated gaur, called gayal, is raised by farmers in Yunnan. Yaks are the largest animals on the Tibetan Plateau. Wild yaks are larger than domestic yaks and slightly smaller than the gaur. They can tolerate extremely cold climate, climb steep slopes, and ford fierce rapids. Yaks are the imost important animal for Tibetan herders, who eat yak meat and milk for food, burn yak dung as fuel, spin yak hair into fabric, make yak hide leather and use yaks to transport and plow fields. Bactrian camels have two humps and can go a month or longer without drinking water. A thirsty Bactrian camel can drink 135 liters (30 gallons) in only 13 minutes. They can withstand extremely hot and cold weather and have broad hooves that do not sink in desert. Bactrian camels are known as the "boats of desert" – for millennia, they were used to carry goods along the Silk Road. Wild camels are critically endangered and found in the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts.
The wild boar, from which the farm-raised pigs was domesticated some 8,000 years ago in China, remains common in the Chinese wilderness. On occasion, boars will interbreed with farm-raised pigs. The Manchurian wild boar is the largest of the wild boar species. The Formosan wild boar is a subspecies endemic to Taiwan.
Pangolin
The pangolin, a scaly anteater that feed on ants and termites and curl into a ball when threatened, is prized in China for its flesh, which is considered a delicacy and scales, which used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat among other ailments, inadequate lactation in breast-feeding mothers. The Chinese pangolin is found throughout southern China, Hainan and Taiwan and the Sunda pangolin in western Yunnan. In Chinese, the pangolin is called "that which wears mountain armor" and the animal is believed by local shamans to hold magical powers such that hunters must utter incantation before killing them to ward off bad luck. As a Class II protected species, trading of wild pangolins is prohibited, but poaching and illegal trade remains rampant. The pangolin can be farm-raised, but pangolin farms must generally also raise termites to feed the livestock. In recent years, Chinese customs have intercepted large shipments of pangolin from Southeast Asia and Africa.
Rodents
Porcupine
The porcupine, called haozhu or "pig with long thin hair" in Chinese, should not be confused with hedgehog, ciwei or the "thorned creature". Porcupines are rodents and hedgehogs belong to a separate order. Three species of Old World porcupine are found in China: the Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine, Indian crested porcupine, and Malayan porcupine. Many parts of the porcupine including the brain, organs, fat, quills and even the feces can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine. Porcupines are raised on farms.
Beaver
In the early 20th century, the Eurasian beaver was hunted to near extinction for its fur and castoreum, a scent gland secretion used to make perfume and medicine. Though the global population has rebounded, the animal remains a Class I protected species. The Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve in Qinggil County of northern Xinjiang, at the source of the Irtysh and Ulungur River along the border with Mongolia, was created in 1980 to protect the beaver. In 2007, there were 145 beaver colonies with an estimated population of 500–600 beavers in the reserve.
Squirrels
Squirrels are called songshu or "pine rodent" in Chinese but not all species live in trees. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, flying squirrels, ground squirrels, rock squirrels, marmots and chipmunks, which are all found in China, often in great variety.
The red squirrel common in Europe and the black giant squirrel of Southeast Asia are found, respectively, in the northern and southern parts of China. Other tree squirrel species include the Pallas's, inornate, Phayre's, Irrawaddy, Anderson's, orange-bellied Himalayan, Perny's long-nosed, red-hipped, Asian red-cheeked, Himalayan striped, Maritime striped, and Swinhoe's striped squirrel.
Flying squirrels are found in almost every part of China, from the Himalayas to the tropical island of Hainan to the rural outskirts of Beijing. Flying squirrel species include the groove-toothed, complex-toothed, hairy-footed, particolored, Indochinese, red giant, red and white giant, spotted giant, Indian giant, Chinese giant, Japanese giant, Bhutan giant, Siberian, Yunnan giant (petaurista yunnanensis), and Hodgson's giant. Several are endemic to China.
Flying squirrels are timid creatures that are active at nighttime and use the patagium, a membrane connecting the fore and hind limbs to glide from trees. They do not build nests and live in caves or rock crevices. They also defecate at specific locations, which facilitates the harvest of their fecal pellets. The pellets are made into wulingzhi, a traditional Chinese medicine used to facilitate blood flow and ease pain. Flying squirrel pellets can accumulate on the floor of caves for years and not rot. Several species of flying squirrels are farm-raised to produce wulingzhi.
The groove-toothed flying squirrel, also known as the North Chinese flying squirrel, is endemic to eastern Hebei Province and the suburbs of Beijing in North China and northern Sichuan. The complex-toothed flying squirrel is endemic to southern China.
Ground squirrels, rock squirrels, marmots and chipmunks belong to the same tribe within the squirrel family.
In China, ground squirrels are found in arid regions of the north and west where the animals live in burrows. Ground squirrel species include the Alashan, Daurian, red-cheeked, long-tailed and yellow ground squirrel.
Two species of rock squirrels are endemic to China, the Père David's rock squirrel, which is found across a wide swath of the country from the mountains around Beijing to Gansu and Sichuan, and the Forrest's rock squirrel, found only in the mountains dividing the Yangtze and Mekong River watershed in northwestern Yunnan.
The Siberian chipmunk, the only chipmunk species found outside North America, has six subspecies in China, all in northern parts of the country. The animal is raised as pets and for its tender flesh, fine fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.
The marmot, called hanta in Chinese for "land" or "dry otter", is related to ground squirrels but are bigger, have shorter tails and are more social animals. They can grow to be the size of a cat and live in large colonies. Four species are found in China, all along the northern and western periphery of the country: gray, long-tailed, Himalayan, and Tarbagan. Of these, the tarbagan marmot is an endangered, Class III protected species. Marmots are also farm-raised for food and fur.
Jumping rodents
A wide variety of jumping rodents belonging to the family Dipodidae can be found in China. These include jerboas and jumping mice, called tiaoshu, the "jumping rodent", and the birch mouse, called jueshu, the "falling rodent" or "stomping rodent". Jerboas, jumping mice, and birch mice all have long hind legs which can be used to make leaps from a bipedal stance.
Zokors, bamboo rats
Zokors and bamboo rats are chubby and furry rodents with short limbs that burrow underground.
Zokors have strong front limbs for digging. Zokor bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine and can substitute tiger bones. The Chinese zokor, Rothschild's zokor and Smith's zokor are endemic to China. The range of the Chinese zokor extends across north China from Qinghai to Beijing while that of the Rothschild's and Smith's zokors are confined to Gansu, Shaanxi, Hubei and Qinghai. The false zokor and Transbaikal zokor are found along China's border region with Russia and Mongolia.
All four bamboo rat species in the world are found in China: the Chinese bamboo rat south of the Yangtze, hoary bamboo rat in southwest China, large bamboo rat in Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan and lesser bamboo rat and western Yunnan. The large bamboo rat can weigh as much as 5 kg. The flesh of the bamboo rat is rich in protein and low in fat. Bamboo rat oil can be used to treat burn wounds.
Both the zokor and bamboo rat are farm-raised for their fur, meat and use in medicine.
Hamsters
About half of the world's 25 species of hamsters are found in China. Most live in the deserts of Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. Some are named after the specific region in which they are found, such as the Chinese, Mongolian, Gansu, Chinese striped, Tibetan dwarf, Kham dwarf, and Djungarian hamster, and some by their founder, such as Campbell's dwarf, Roborovski, and Sokolov's dwarf. Others include the gray dwarf, long-tailed dwarf, greater long-tailed hamster and black-bellied hamster. The Chinese hamster and Roborovski hamster have been bred as pets and found in homes throughout the world.
Eurasian water vole (Arvicola amphibius)
Mice and rats
Brown rat
Chinese dormouse (Chaetocauda sichuanensis)
Sichuan niviventer (Niviventer excelsior)
Yunnan hadromys (Hadromys yunnanensis)
Gerbils
Great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus)
Shrew moles
Chinese mole shrew (Anourosorex squamipes)
Pikas
Glover's pika (Ochotona gloveri)
Moles
Large mole (Mogera robusta)
Gymnures
Northern short-tailed gymnure (Hylomys peguensis)
Treeshrews
Northern treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri)
Hedgehogs
The Amur hedgehog (Erinaceus amurensis) hails from Manchuria, China.
Hares
Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis)
Hainan hare
Manchurian hare
Bats
Bats, the only mammals capable of sustained flight, are the second largest order of mammals after rodents. They are divided broadly into microbats, which use echolocation to navigate and hunt insects, and megabats, which rely on large eyes and keen smell to feed on fruits and nectar. Bats are found in great abundance and variety throughout China and are considered to be auspicious animals, symbolizing good fortune. Bat feces collected from caves are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Megabats
Megabats, also called fruit bats, include flying foxes, which are the largest bat species. Four species are found in China, all in isolated populations: the large flying fox in Shaanxi, Indian flying fox in Qinghai, Ryukyu flying fox in Taiwan, and Lyle's flying fox in Yunnan. The large flying fox can weigh and has a wingspan of up to .
Geoffroy's rousette and Leschenault's rousette, both dog-faced fruit bats, are the only megabats in China that can echolocate. Unlike microbats, which generate ultrasound with their larynx, rousettes generate sonar sound waves with tongue clicks.
Other fruit bat species include the greater and lesser short-nosed fruit bat, Blanford's fruit bat and the cave nectar bat. Fruit bats are sometimes considered pests by fruit farmers, and are hunted and eaten in parts of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. They also help pollinate certain species of tropical fruit trees.
Microbats
Vesper bats
Vesper or evening bats comprise the largest family of bats with at least 45 species in China. Members include mouse-eared bats, long-eared bats, pipistrelles, noctules and barbastelles.
Myotis or mouse-eared bats are delicate and furry bats with pointed ears. Of the 90 or so species in the world, about one-fifth are found in China.
The lesser mouse-eared bat, pond bat, Daubenton's bat, Natterer's bat and whiskered bat are spread across Eurasia. Others inhabit either the warmer climes of southern China and Southeast Asia including the large myotis, Szechwan myotis, Burmese whiskered bat and Horsfield's bat or the temperate regions of northern China and Northeast Asia including the Far Eastern myotis, fraternal myotis, and Ikonnikov's bat. Hodgson's bat, known for its distinctive golden fur, has unconnected populations in Afghanistan, India, central China, southeastern China, Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia. The Beijing mouse-eared bat is endemic to eastern China, and the long-footed myotis is endemic to southern China and Hong Kong.
Most mouse-eared bats are insectivores. Rickett's big-footed bat, which is distributed across China proper into Laos, lives near water and feeds on fish. The large-footed bat of Taiwan hunts insects on the surface of the water.
Pipistrels and their relatives are tiny bats that flutter like butterflies in flight. The common pipistrelle weighs only and has a wingspan ranging of . Other pipistrelles found in China include the least pipistrelle, Kelaart's, Mount Popa, Savi's, chocolate black-gilded and the Chinese pipistrelle. In Chinese, pipistrelles are called fuyi meaning "hidden wing". The flesh, blood, brain and feces of pipistrelle can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine. The brain is applied to the skin to treat acne and ingested to improve memory.
Noctules are closely related to pipistrelles but can be much larger in size. The Chinese noctule, which is endemic to the southern half of the country and Taiwan, weighs three to four times as much as the Chinese pipistrelle. Known as "mountain bats" in Chinese, noctules live in caves and rock croppings as well as the under the eaves of traditional homes. Noctules droppings are collected for medicinal uses. Other noctule bats in China include the common noctule, lesser noctule, and birdlike noctule.
Barbastelles are called wide-eared bats in Chinese. The range of the Asian barbastelle extends from Egypt through China to Japan. In 2001, a Chinese zoologist discovered a new species of barbastelle in the mountains of rural Beijing. This bat was discovered in a cave in Fangshan District where four other bat species—Rickett's big-foot, large mouse-eared, greater horseshoe and greater tube-nosed bats also live.
The Beijing barbastelle (Barbastella beijingensis) was distinguished by the distinctiveness of its DNA and recognized as a species on 23 May 2007, the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus. As of 2012, no other populations of this species have been found beyond Beijing.
Long-eared bats have enormous ears that can grow almost as long as their bodies, and are represented in China by multiple species (e.g. Plecotus kozlovi and Plecotus ognevi). The greater and lesser bamboo bats prefer to roost inside the hollow shoots of giant bamboo through holes eaten by beetles. Because the holes are small, bamboo bats are also tiny. An adult lesser bamboo bat that measures in length and weighs , is not much bigger than a bumble bee.
House bats including the Gobi big brown bat, northern bat, thick-eared bat, serotine bat are also closely related to pipistrelles, noctules and barbastelles. Other relatives within this extensive subfamily include Tickell's bat, great evening bat, harlequin bat, greater Asiatic yellow bat, parti-colored bat and Asian particolored bat.
Tube-nosed bats have longer nostrils than other vespers and funnel-shaped ears. Chinese species include the greater, little, round-eared, Hutton's, and dusky tube-nosed bat. The dusky tube-nosed bat is endemic to Heilongjiang and Jilin in northeastern China. The greater tube-nosed bat of Beijing feeds on aerial beetles.
The painted bat and Hardwicke's woolly bat, also vesper bats, live in the forests of southern China.
Long-winged bats
Long-winged bats in China include the common and western bent-winged bats. The common bent-wing bats can form large colonies and migrate hundreds of kilometers.
Free-tailed bats
Free-tailed bats, unlike other bats, have tails that are detached from their wing membrances. Species include the European free-tailed bat, La Touche's free-tailed bat and the wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat.
False vampire
The greater false vampire bat of Guangxi is a carnivorous bat that feeds on rodents, fish, insects and smaller bats. It is smaller than the "true" vampire bats of South America.
Sac-winged bats
Sac-winged bats have sac-like glands under their wings that carry pheromones, which are released to attract mates. Out of some 51 sac-winged bat species in the world, only the black-bearded tomb bat is found in China.
Horseshoe bats
Horseshoe bats are called "chrysanthemum bats" in Chinese because they have horseshoe-shaped folds of skin that unfurl on their faces like the petals of a flower. These noseleaves help the horseshoe bat emit ultrasonic signals for echolocation. Species found in China include the greater, least, king, big-eared, rufous, Chinese rufous, little Japanese, Blyth's, Osgood's, Pearson's, Thomas's, and Dobson's. The king and Osgood's horseshoe bats are endemic to southwest China.
Scientists believe that the SARS coronavirus may have originated in horseshoe bats in China.
Closely related to the horseshoe bats are the roundleaf bats, including the great roundleaf, intermediate roundleaf, Pomona and Pratt's, the East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat and Stoliczka's trident bat.
Birds
The avifauna of China includes a total of 1314 species, of which 52 are endemic, two have been introduced by humans, and 55 are rare or accidental. One species listed is extirpated in China and is not included in the species count. Eighty seven species are globally threatened.
Pheasants
Chinese monal
Golden pheasant
Cranes and other wading birds
Black-necked crane
Red-crowned crane
Common spoonbill
Reptiles
China has a big variety of reptiles including the Chinese alligator and the Yangtze giant softshell turtle.
Crocodilians
Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis)
Lizards
Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus)
Chinese water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)
Turtles and tortoises
Elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata)
Cantor's giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii)
Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei)
Snakes
Sharp-nosed pit viper (Deinagkistrodon acutus)
Dice snake (Natrix tessellata)
Twin-spotted ratsnake (Elaphe bimaculata)
Mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii)
Grass snake (Natrix natrix)
Mountain pitviper (Ovophis monticola)
Jerdon's pit viper (Protobothrops jerdonii)
Bamboo pit viper (Trimeresurus gramineus)
Mangshan pitviper (Trimeresurus mangshanensis)
Motuo bamboo pitviper (Trimeresurus medoensis)
Stejneger's pit viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri)
Amphibians
China is home to 346 species of amphibian. China's amphibian diversity is greater than any other country in the Old World, and it is the 5th in the whole world. China's amphibian fauna includes an important element of widespread, generally non-threatened species though 27.3% of amphibian species are extinct or threatened and because conservation assessments of Chinese amphibians have only started recently, it is likely that the current data on threats to amphibians are insufficient. Several amphibian species in China have very limited geographical distributions.
Frogs
True frogs (Ranidae)
Amolops aniqiaoensis
Amolops bellulus
Amolops chunganensis
Amolops gerbillus
Amolops granulosus
Amolops hainanensis
Amolops jinjiangensis
Amolops kangtingensis
Amolops liangshanensis
Amolops lifanensis
Amolops loloensis
Amolops mantzorum
Amolops medogensis
Amolops monticola
Amolops ricketti
Amolops torrentis
Amolops viridimaculatus
Amolops wuyiensis
Babina adenopleura
Babina hainanensis
Babina lini
Babina pleuraden
Chevron-spotted brown frog
Eastern golden frog
Emei music frog
Glandirana minima
Glandirana tientaiensis
Huanren frog
Imienpo Station frog
Johns' groove-toed frog
Korean brown frog
Odorrana andersonii
Odorrana anlungensis
Odorrana chapaensis
Odorrana chloronota
Odorrana exiliversabilis
Odorrana grahami
Odorrana graminea
Odorrana hejiangensis
Odorrana kuangwuensis
Odorrana lungshengensis
Odorrana margaretae
Odorrana mutschmanni
Odorrana schmackeri
Odorrana tiannanensis
Odorrana versabilis
Odorrana wuchuanensis
Pelophylax fukienensis
Pelophylax hubeiensis
Pelophylax lateralis
Pelophylax nigromaculatus
Pelophylax tenggerensis
Pelophylax terentievi
Plateau brown frog
Rana amurensis
Rana chensinensis
Rana omeimontis
Rana sangzhiensis
Rana weiningensis
Rana zhengi
Dicroglossidae
Chinese edible frog
Concave-eared torrent frog
Doichang frog
Fejervarya limnocharis
Fejervarya moodiei
Fejervarya multistriata
Limnonectes longchuanensis
Nanorana arnoldi
Nanorana blanfordii
Nanorana bourreti
Nanorana conaensis
Nanorana feae
Nanorana liebigii
Nanorana maculosa
Nanorana medogensis
Nanorana pleskei
Nanorana polunini
Nanorana quadranus
Nanorana taihangnica
Nanorana unculuanus
Nanorana ventripunctata
Nanorana yunnanensis
Northern frog
Kuhl's creek frog
Quasipaa verrucospinosa
Quasipaa boulengeri
Quasipaa exilispinosa
Quasipaa jiulongensis
Quasipaa shini
Quasipaa spinosa
Quasipaa yei
Round-tongued floating frog
Ceratobatrachidae
Liurana
Tree frogs
Annam tree frog
Common Chinese tree frog
Hyla sanchiangensis
Hyla zhaopingensis: only in Zhaoping County, Guangxi
Hylarana cubitalis
Hylarana hekouensis
Hylarana latouchii
Hylarana macrodactyla
Hylarana maosonensis
Hylarana menglaensis
Hylarana milleti
Hylarana nigrovittata
Hylarana spinulosa
Hylarana taipehensis
Japanese tree frog
Chinese flying frog
Chiromantis vittatus
Feihyla palpebralis
Gracixalus gracilipes
Gracixalus jinxiuensis
Gracixalus medogensis
Gracixalus nonggangensis
Kurixalus naso
Kurixalus odontotarsus
Kurixalus verrucosus
Raorchestes longchuanensis
Raorchestes menglaensis
Rhacophorus burmanus
Rhacophorus chenfui
Rhacophorus dorsoviridis
Rhacophorus dugritei
Rhacophorus feae
Rhacophorus hui
Rhacophorus hungfuensis
Rhacophorus kio
Rhacophorus maximus
Rhacophorus nigropunctatus
Rhacophorus omeimontis
Rhacophorus puerensis
Rhacophorus rhodopus
Rhacophorus tuberculatus
Rhacophorus yaoshanensis
Romer's tree frog
Sylvirana guentheri
Microhylidae
Calluella yunnanensis
Boreal digging frog
Kalophrynus interlineatus
Kalophrynus menglienicus
Kaloula nonggangensis
Kaloula rugifera
Kaloula verrucosa
Microhyla berdmorei
Microhyla fissipes
Microhyla heymonsi
Microhyla pulchra
Micryletta inornata
Microhyla butleri
Litter frogs
Brachytarsophrys carinense
Brachytarsophrys feae
Brachytarsophrys popei
Buergeria oxycephala
Leptolalax alpinus
Leptolalax liui
Leptolalax oshanensis
Leptolalax sungi
Leptolalax tengchongensis
Leptolalax ventripunctatus
Megophrys binchuanensis
Megophrys brachykolos
Megophrys cheni
Megophrys huangshanensis
Megophrys lini
Megophrys major
Megophrys parva
Megophrys sangzhiensis
Megophrys shuichengensis
Megophrys wawuensis
Oreolalax chuanbeiensis
Oreolalax granulosus
Oreolalax jingdongensis
Oreolalax liangbeiensis
Oreolalax lichuanensis
Oreolalax major
Oreolalax multipunctatus
Oreolalax nanjiangensis: only in Nanjiang County, Sichuan
Oreolalax omeimontis
Oreolalax pingii
Oreolalax popei
Oreolalax puxiongensis
Oreolalax rhodostigmatus
Oreolalax rugosus
Oreolalax schmidti
Oreolalax weigoldi
Oreolalax xiangchengensis
Scutiger boulengeri
Scutiger brevipes
Scutiger chintingensis
Scutiger glandulatus
Scutiger gongshanensis
Scutiger jiulongensis
Scutiger liupanensis
Scutiger maculatus
Scutiger mammatus
Scutiger muliensis: only in Muli, Sichuan
Scutiger ningshanensis
Scutiger nyingchiensis
Scutiger pingwuensis
Scutiger sikimmensis
Scutiger tuberculatus
Scutiger wanglangensis
Shrub frogs (Rhacophoridae)
Liuixalus hainanus
Liuixalus ocellatus
Theloderma kwangsiense: only in Dayaoshan Nature Reserve (大瑶山自然保护区), Guangxi
Philautus kempii
Polypedates impresus
Polypedates megacephalus
Polypedates mutus
Theloderma asperum
Theloderma kwangsiense
Theloderma moloch
Theloderma rhododiscus
Salt water frogs
China is home to one of only 144 known modern amphibians which can tolerate brief excursions into sea water.
Crab-eating frog
Toads
True toads (Bufo)
Ailao toad
Asiatic toad
Bufo cryptotympanicus
Bufo pageoti
Bufo tuberculatus
Bufo wolongensis: only in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan
Korean water toad
Pseudepidalea pewzowi
Horned toads (Xenophrys)
Convex-tailed horned toad
Convex-vented horned toad
Great piebald horned toad
Jingdong horned toad
Kuatun horned toad
Mangshan horned toad
Medog horned toad
Mount Dawei horned toad
Nankiang horned toad
Boettger's horned toad
Glandular horned toad
Omei horned toad
Xenophrys daweimontis: only in Daweishan Nature Reserve (大围山自然保护区), Liuyang, Hunan
Spiny-fingered horned toad
Wuliangshan horned toad
Wushan horned toad
Zhang's horned toad
Other toads
Mongolian toad
Bombina maxima
Duttaphrynus himalayanus
Duttaphrynus melanostictus
Leptobrachium ailaonicum
Leptobrachium boringii
Leptobrachium hainanense
Leptobrachium leishanense
Leptobrachium liui
Little horned toad
Ophryophryne microstoma
Ophryophryne pachyproctus
Oriental fire-bellied toad
Rough-skinned horned toad
Shaping horned toad
Spiny-fingered horned toad
Salamanders and newts
Amji's salamander
Black knobby newt
Central Asian salamander
Chenggong fire belly newt
Chiala mountain salamander
Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus)
Chinese fire belly newt
Chinese warty newt
Chinhai spiny newt
Chuxiong fire-bellied newt
Siberian salamander
Cynops wolterstorffi: only in Kunming City, Yunnan
Dayang newt
Fischer's clawed salamander
Fuding fire belly newt
Guabang Shan salamander
Guangxi warty newt
Guizhou salamander
Hainan knobby newt
Hong Kong warty newt
Jinfo Mountain salamander
Korean salamander
Kuankuoshui salamander
Pachyhynobius shangchengensis
Paramesotriton labiatus
Paramesotriton maolanensis
Paramesotriton yunwuensis
Puxiong salamander
Shuicheng salamander
Siberian salamander
Spot-tailed warty newt
Spotted paddle-tail newt
Taliang knobby newt
Wanggao warty newt
Wenxian knobby newt
Western Chinese mountain salamander
Xingan salamander
Yellow-spotted salamander
Yiwu salamander
Yunnan lake newt
Zhijin warty newt
Caecilians
Banna caecilian (Ichthyophis bannanicus)
Fish
In freshwater alone, China has more than 1,000 fish species. By far the most diverse order are the cypriniforms, followed by the siluriforms. Yangtze is the richest river basin in the country and it is home to more than 350 strict freshwater fish species (as well as several also found in brackish or saltwater). A high percentage of these are endemic to the country and many are seriously threatened. Among others, it is feared that the Chinese paddlefish, as well as several species from the Yunnan lakes (notably Dian, Erhai, Fuxian and Yilong), already are extinct. China has far more cavefish species than any other country in the world.
With a long coastline that ranges from temperate to tropical oceans, China has many marine fish species such as the Pacific cod.
Invertebrates
Freshwater crabs
China is home to more than 250 different species of freshwater crabs (families Potamidae and Gecarcinucidae), many of them endemics. It is thus the country with the highest species richness in freshwater crabs. The most speciose genera are Sinopotamon, Longpotamon, Indochinamon and Nanhaipotamon.
Molluscs
Butterflies
Centipedes
Ethmostigmus rubripes
Endangered species
See also
List of endangered and protected species of China
Animal welfare and rights in China
List of mammals of China
List of mammals of Taiwan
List of mammals of Hong Kong
List of amphibians of China
Notes and references
External links
China Wildlife Conservation Association
Biota of China
China | Wildlife of China | [
"Biology"
] | 19,020 | [
"Biota by country",
"Biota of China",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
10,936,076 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Israel | The wildlife of Israel includes the flora and fauna of Israel, which is extremely diverse due to the country's location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east. Species such as the Syrian brown bear and the Arabian ostrich have become extinct in Israel because of their loss of habitat. As of May 2007, 190 nature reserves have been established in Israel.
Fauna
Mammals
Israel contains a variety of mammals due to its geographical and climatic diversity. For many of the mammals, Israel is the border of their territory. The territories of species which originate in the Palearctic generally stop at the deserts and those who originate from the African deserts usually stop at the Mediterranean coasts. Most of the mammals in Israel are of a Palearctic origin and about a tenth of the mammals are endemic to its general area. The land of Israel once contained a greater variety of mammals, however in recent times many mammals such as the European water vole, the Asiatic cheetah and the Caucasian squirrel went locally extinct. The largest predator in Israel was the Arabian leopard which is now also believed to be extinct due to the lack of sightings since 2011.
In the modern age many mammal populations such as the sand cat are in a high risk of extinction. In total there are 57 species of mammals which are endangered (as of 2002) out of the total 104 species. There are 33 species of bats in Israel (as of 2002), the most species out of the ten mammalian orders currently in Israel, most of which are insect-eaters. Researchers from Tel Aviv University found 12 species of bat living in old army outposts in the Jordan Valley.
Various animal species have become extinct due to unchecked hunting under Ottoman rule and to a lesser extent under British Mandate rule, due to a non-enforcement of hunting laws. By the early 20th century, the white oryx, Syrian brown bear, Asiatic lion, red deer, Asiatic cheetah, and Syrian wild ass had become extinct in the region. Modern hunting laws prohibit all hunting of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, except those considered pests and specific animals in hunting seasons. However the packs of feral dogs that are taking over the countryside are an increasing threat to wildlife and domesticated animals.
Rapid urbanization as well as overforestation (planting many dense eucalyptus and pine forests) have caused the destruction of many natural habitats in modern times. One of the most famous examples of habitats destroyed is the drying of swamps including the Hula lake which caused the local extinction of the European water vole and jungle cat. An ancient wave of urbanization during the Iron Age resulted in the local extinction of the aurochs, bubal hartebeest, and hippopotamus.
Another distinguished cause of endangerment is the past use of DDT and other chemicals which has hurt all of the birds of prey populations as well as the bat population (mainly Microchiroptera) which were also killed by human made lighting in the caves due to the suspicion that fruit-eating bats were harming local crops.
Some mammals that have gone locally extinct are being reintroduced, such as the Persian fallow deer and the roe deer.
The extinct narrow-nosed rhinoceros may have survived in Israel as recently as 15,000 years ago, which if correct would make it the youngest known record of the species.
Reptiles
Israel has roughly 100 species of reptiles, of which almost a third live in its northern areas. The extinction rate among reptiles has been relatively low here; reptiles that became extinct in the region around the beginning of the 20th century include the Nile crocodile, European pond turtle, Levant viper, and Nile monitor.
Amphibians
The number of amphibians in Israel has decreased dramatically since the last century mainly due to the drying of various swamps and wetlands by early settlers. The Hula painted frog was thought to be extinct until a female specimen was found in November 2011. Environmental improvements in the Hula reserve have been cited as a possible reason for the frog's re-emergence.
The amphibians of Israel include five from the order Anura (the marsh frog, Hyla savignyi, the green toad, the eastern spadefoot toad, and the Hula painted frog) and two from the order Urodela (the fire salamander and the banded newt). The banded newt, the eastern spadefoot toad, and the Hula painted frog are critically endangered.
The European green toad is the most widespread amphibian in Israel, living across nearly the entire Mediterranean shore. While the toad is usually limited to areas with a constant supply of water, populations have begun to spread into drier places. Even though it has relative great range in Israel, a 55% decrease has been noted in active spawning sites, mainly due to destruction of habitats, water contamination and habitats being split by roads or train tracks. The population currently numbers at a few thousands.
The eastern spadefoot toad (Pelobates syriacus syriacus or Pelobates transcaucasicus), also called Syrian spadefoot toad, is critically endangered and is locally extinct in Jordan. The spadefoot lives in the Israeli coastal plains, north of Holon and Ashdod. Only a few hundred adult toads remain in Israel due to splitting of habitats and the species' loyalty to their spawning spots. The spadefoot is a protected species by law.
The banded newt (Triturus vittatus vittatus) lives mainly in the northern areas of Israel, especially in the Galilee area, mostly in vernal pools. The coastal shores near Ashkelon are the southern border for its global population. Small populations in more southern areas disappeared due to water contamination. They are inactive during the summer, staying underground in aestivation, and even in winter they are only active at night. The newts have slightly different breeding seasons depending on location, ranging from January–February in the coastal plains to February–March in the Galilee. The banded newt is critically endangered in Israel (only 5% of the 1950s population remains) and is thus a protected species.
Fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra salamandra or S. s. infraimmacullata) reside near the Mediterranean shores and are the least widespread of the amphibians of Israel. The salamanders have three distinct populations (in Tel Dan, Mount Carmel and the Galilee). Compared to European populations, the adults have especially long legs and fingers and a more rounded head. The local populations differ in size (Tel Dan salamanders are much smaller), arrangement of spots on the skin and colour (ranging from orange to yellow), in mating habits and times, as well as activity times (Tel Dan salamanders are active throughout most of the year because of their proximity to water). The populations are relatively stable. Nevertheless, they are an endangered species in Israel and one of the three amphibians to be a protected species.
Marsh frogs (Rana ridibunda or Pelophylax ridibundus) live almost exclusively near stable water pools or winter pools, mainly in north and central Israel. The frogs are active even during the summer and sometimes during the day. The frogs are lighter and slightly smaller than in other countries.
The critically endangered Hula painted frog (Latonia nigriventer) is found in the Hula Valley and was endemic to the lake that used to fill the valley. The lake was drained in the 1950s to combat malaria and create more farmland, but the draining of the lake led to the destruction of its unique ecosystem. The frog was declared extinct by the IUCN in 1996. In the 1990s, the southern part of the valley was flooded again, and in 2011 the Hula painted frog was rediscovered. The frog has since been reclassified as critically endangered.
Hyla savignyi (also Hyla arborea or "tree frog") is the most abundant amphibian in Israel, though its available breeding sites have decreased and it is considered "vulnerable". Populations reside in the Northern Negev and north of it, though they once reached as far as the Dead sea. The population is estimated at a few thousands.
Fish
Israel is currently home to about 1,728 species of fish, 410 of which in the Mediterranean and 1,270 in the Red Sea. The rest, 48 species, are cultivated or wild freshwater fish. The fish population has declined and endemic species such as Nemacheilus dori have become endangered. Acanthobrama hulensis became extinct in the 1970s following a decline in population after the drying of the Hula lake. In 2012, the Acanthobrama telavivensis, was which was nearly extinct, reappeared in the Yarkon River after a decade of rehabilitation and preservation efforts. Einot Zukim, saline wetlands in the north of the Dead Sea, is the only known place in the world where populations of blue and Dead Sea killifish (Nevit Hula and Nevit Yam Hamelakh) live side by side.
The long jaw tristramella became extinct in 1990.
Birds
About 500 million birds from 500 species pass through Israel during the bi-annual migration season, from Europe and West Asia to Africa in the winter, and back in the spring. A program has been developed to build major birdwatching centres in Ein Gedi and Sde Boker. Existing stations will be upgraded in Eilat, the Jordan Valley and kibbutzim Kfar Ruppin and Ma'agan Michael.
Lake Hula is the stopover point for tens of thousands of cranes migrating from Finland to Ethiopia every winter. In Israel, farmers set out food for them to keep them from damaging crops near the lake.
The number of raptors has been decreasing due to its prey becoming endangered or extinct as well as massive poisoning of some prey. About a fifth of the nesting birds are endangered (39 out of 206).
Yossi Lesham, director of Israel's International Centre for the Study of Bird Migration, says that the country has one of the highest concentrations of bird traffic in the world per square mile. On a single morning at the Jerusalem Birdwatching Observatory, the staff has spotted 10,000 eagles.
The Arabian ostrich has been extinct from Israel for years. An attempt was made to introduce the North African ostrich from captivity to the open areas and reserves of the Negev desert in Israel where once Arabian ostriches lived.
The northern bald ibis has been extirpated from Israel.
Invertebrates
Israel has about 30,000 invertebrates, of which about 22,500 are insects and 3,900 are non-insect arthropods.
Among the invertebrates there is a wide variety of molluscs, of which about 230 are terrestrial, 850 are of the Mediterranean and 1,120 are of the Red Sea. The insects of Israel belong to various ecological zones, but mainly to the Mediterranean. There are insects belonging to roughly 27 orders in Israel, out of about 29 worldwide.
Invasive species
Israel contains many invasive species brought by man, including scores of molluscs (the most common is the common garden snail Cornu aspersum) which usually live around gardens and greenhouses but also in natural habitats of native molluscs. As of 2008, over 220 species of invasive insects have been identified, some of them considered pests. The situation is little better with vertebrates, as a 2004 report reported that there are two mammalian invasive species (the coypu and Indian palm squirrel), one fish species (mosquito fish), two reptilian species (the red-eared pond slider and the roughtail gecko) as well as 18 bird species. There are no amphibian invasive species, most likely due to the fact there are no suitable habitats for such.
Flora
There are 2,867 known species of plants found in Israel. Of these, at least 253 species are introduced and non-native. The coastal plain and Sharon regions are especially rich in endemic species. The Galilee fumitory (Fumaria thuretti Boiss), a rare flower with bright pink blossoms and an elongated bulge that collects nectar and attracts wild bees, was discovered in 2012 after botanists believed it was extinct.
See also
Biodiversity in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
Acanthobrama lissneri
Acanthobrama terraesanctae
Biblical Zoo
List of endemic flora of Israel
List of reptiles of Israel
Ramat Gan Safari
Tourism in Israel
References
Sources
External links
Biota of Israel
.
Israel
Natural history of Israel | Wildlife of Israel | [
"Biology"
] | 2,583 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Israel"
] |
10,936,159 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Japan | The wildlife of Japan includes its flora, fauna, and natural habitats. The islands of Japan stretch a long distance from north to south and cover a wide range of climatic zones. This results in a high diversity of wildlife despite Japan's isolation from the mainland of Asia. In the north of the country, north of Blakiston's Line, there are many subarctic species which have colonized Japan from the north. In the south there are south-east Asian species, typical of tropical regions. Between these areas lies the temperate zone which shares many species with China and Korea. Japan also has many endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world, making it home to many endangered/rare species.
Fauna
Mammals
About 130 species of land mammal occur in Japan. The largest of these are the two bears. The Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos), the largest land animal in Japan, is found in Hokkaidō, where it plays an important role in the culture of the Ainu people. The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) inhabits mountainous areas in Honshū, Kyūshū and Shikoku. Smaller carnivores include the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and Japanese marten (Martes melampus). There are two wild cats in Japan: the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) of mainland Asia occurs on Tsushima Island while the Iriomote cat (Prionailurus iriomotensis) is unique to the island of Iriomote.
Grazing mammals include the sika deer (Cervus nippon), Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and Japanese boar (Sus scrofa leucomystax). Among Japan's most famous mammals is the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), the world's most northerly monkey.
Marine mammals include the dugong (Dugong dugon), finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) and Steller's sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus).
The extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon naumanni and giant deer Sinomegaceros yabei also formerly inhabited Honshu. Two wolf species found in Japan, the Hokkaido wolf (Canis lupus hattai) and Honshū wolf (Canis lupus hodophylax), went extinct in 1889 and 1905, respectively.
Birds
Over 600 species of bird have been recorded in Japan and more than 250 of these breed. A number of birds are endemic including the Japanese woodpecker (Picus awokera), copper pheasant (Syrmaticus soemmerringii) and Japan's national bird, the green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor). Several species are unique to the smaller islands including the Okinawa rail (Gallirallus okinawae), Izu thrush (Turdus celaenops) and Bonin white-eye (Apalopteron familiare ). Most of the non-endemic birds are shared with China but a few originate in Siberia or south-east Asia.
Large numbers of birds migrate through Japan in spring and autumn including many waders. In winter, several sites are important for swans, geese and cranes.
Reptiles and amphibians
Japan has about 73 species of reptile of which nearly half are endemic. Sea turtles and highly venomous but non-aggressive sea snakes including the black-banded sea krait occur in warmer waters around southern Japan. Venomous snakes include the mildly venomous tiger keelback, and the more venomous front fanged vipers are the elegant pit viper, Okinawa habu, Tokara habu, hime habu and the mamushi. Many pitviper species, known as habus throughout Japan are endemic to islands in the warmer Ryukyu Islands chain however the mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii) is found on the main islands. Non-venomous rat snakes found in Japan are the endemic Japanese rat snake, Japanese forest rat snake, Japanese four-lined rat snake, and the king rat snake and beauty rat snake (subspecies Orthriophis taeniurus schmackeri) which in Japan are found only in the warm Ryukyu islands but have much wider distributions on mainland Asia. Three species of odd-scaled snakes are present in the southern islands including the Formosan odd-scaled snake, Japanese odd-scaled snake, and the Amami odd-scaled snake.
Lizards include many endemic skink species (especially in the southern islands), the viviparous lizard (found as far north as the island of Hokkaido), and the Okinawa tree lizard (Diploderma polygonatum). Freshwater turtles found in Japan include the endemic Japanese pond turtle, Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle. The Chinese box turtle is found only on the southernmost islands of Iriomote and Ishigaki in its Japanese range.
At least two crocodilian species are known to have occurred in the recent geological past of Japan: the Chinese alligator and Toyotamaphimeia.
There are over 40 amphibian species including the Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), one of the world's largest amphibians. The Asiatic salamander family (Hynobiidae) is particularly well represented; many members of the family are found only in Japan.
Fish
Over 3,000 types of fish have been recorded in Japan. Important freshwater fish include the ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis), crucian carp (Carassius carassius) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The common carp is the ancestor of the well-known domestic koi carp. Small freshwater fish include the pale chub, Japanese chub (Nipponocypris sieboldii) and several species of bitterling including the endangered rosy bitterling. The southern Ryukyu Islands are home to endemic species of colorful freshwater gobies in the genus Stiphodon.
Notable anadromous fish include six species of salmon represented by the Chinook salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, sockeye salmon, and the cherry salmon (which has several unique freshwater morphs in Japan). Chars in the genus Salvelinus are represented by the white-spotted char (including several unique varieties such as the gogi char), Dolly Varden trout, and the endemic kirikuchi char. The Japanese taimen (Hucho perryi) is the largest fish to enter freshwater in Japan and may reach sizes of up to 2 meters in length. The Japanese taimen is a critically endangered species including the Japanese populations which are restricted to the rivers and surrounding ocean of Hokkaido. Also present is the Japanese dace (Tribolodon hakonensis).
Important saltwater fish include the red sea bream (Pagrus major). Mudskippers are found in warmer areas while coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands have many fish typical of tropical waters such as parrotfish and anemonefish. The little-known goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) and frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) have been recorded from deep waters off Japan.
Insects
Japan has around 300 kinds of butterflies including several of the mainly tropical milkweed butterflies in the Ryukyu Islands. There are around 190 dragonflies including the primitive Epiophlebia superstes. Other well-known insects in Japan include cicadas, crickets, Asian giant hornet and fireflies. Firefly viewing is a popular tourist attraction in some areas.
Some of the butterflies are endangered, and thus added into the Japan Red List. One example is Niphanda fusca, a parasitic butterfly that commonly resides in satoyama. Due to changing ecosystems, this butterfly has become endangered, especially within the past 40 years. It is one of the four species that have disappeared in Shikoku.
Molluscs
The winter spawning Japanese flying squid are associated with the Kuroshio Current. The eggs and larvae develop during winter in the East China Sea and the adults travel with minimum energy via the Kuroshio Current to the rich northern feeding grounds near northwestern Honshu and Hokkaido.
Coral
Japan has a number of temperate coral reefs which lie within waters warmed by the Kuroshio Current and its offshoots. The impact of climate change has led to these corals expanding at the expense of seagrasses.
Flora
Around 4,000 to 6,000 species of plants occur naturally in Japan. The vegetation varies widely from subtropical forest in the south to coniferous forest in the north. In the subtropical zone, mangroves, cycads and tree ferns can be found. In the warm-temperate climate of Kyūshū, Shikoku and south-western Honshū, the dominant vegetation is broad-leaved evergreen forest with many oaks. In north Honshū and south-west Hokkaidō the climate is cool-temperate with broad-leaved deciduous trees including Japanese beech (Fagus crenata) and oaks like the jolcham oak (Quercus serrata). Conifers are dominant in much of Hokkaidō and in the mountains of central and northern Honshū with spruces and firs growing. In the highest mountains there is a zone of Arctic–alpine plants including the low-growing Siberian dwarf pine (Pinus pumila).
Conifer plantations have replaced natural forest in many areas. Commonly grown trees include the hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa), Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora), Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii), sakaki evergreen (Cleyera japonica) and Japanese red cedar (Cryptomeria japonica). The last is Japan's tallest conifer reaching 40 metres in height.
Bamboo grows abundantly in Japan with around 400 to 500 species including the dwarf bamboos known as sasa and the taller kinds known as take which can reach 20 meters.
Many plants have been introduced to Japan from mainland Asia including important crops like rice and garden plants such as the chrysanthemum. Since the Meiji Restoration, increasing numbers of plants have come from Europe, North America and elsewhere. Native food plants include the water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica) and wasabi (Wasabia japonica).
Conservation
In 1897 Japan passed a law that protects forests for a variety of purposes, including to prevent erosion, protect river sources, and to support fish ecosystems. As of 2023, 12 million hectares are protected. Some fishermen have worked to maintain forests in coastal areas, with coastal waters subsequently having greater fish biodiversity. Japan's Ministry of the Environment has taken several measure to conserve native wildlife such as hunting restrictions, captive breeding programs, and habitat protection and restoration. The feeding of wild animals by humans (esayari) has led to local governments issuing fines and other means to lessen the dependence on humans for food and adverse changes in natural behavior.
See also
Biota of Tokyo Imperial Palace
References
Boeseman, M. (1947). Revision of the Fishes Collected by Burger and Von Siebold in Japan Leiden.
Brazil, Mark A. (1991). The Birds of Japan, Christopher Helm, London.
Kodansha (1993). Japan: An illustrated encyclopedia, Kodansha, Tokyo.
External links
Japan Wildlife Conservation Society
Biota of Japan
Natural history of Japan
Japan | Wildlife of Japan | [
"Biology"
] | 2,373 | [
"Biota by country",
"Biota of Japan",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
10,936,230 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Nepal | Wildlife diversity is a notable feature of Nepal. Because of the variance in climate, from tropical to arctic, Nepal has a large variety of plants and animals. Wildlife tourism is a major source of tourism in the country. There are some animal species which are unique to Nepal, such as the spiny babbler. Nepal is also host to many rhododendron species. Nepal has numerous national parks and reserves to protect its diverse fauna. Nepal is a biodiversity hot spot with ecoregions broadly comprising the mountainous ecoregion, the savanna and grasslands ecoregion of the terai (foothills), and the Rara Lake ecoregion.
Legal protection
With the 1973 passing of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029 BS, Nepal has established numerous national parks and reserves in order to protect its fauna. There are four different classes of protection, ranging from national parks and nature reserves to wildlife and hunting reserves. By 1992 Nepal had established seven national parks, protecting in total over of land. Under these classes as of 2002 there were 23 protected areas: nine national parks, three wildlife reserves, three conservation areas, one hunting reserve, three additional Ramsar sites, and four additional World Heritage Sites. The most noted world heritage sites are Sagarmatha National Park and Chitwan National Park. In addition, the World Heritage Site in the Kathmandu Valley covers zones of significant biodiversity.
Animals
Mammals
There are 208 mammal species reported including 28 species outside the limits of the protected areas but excluding four known extinct species. Among the species of mammal found in Nepal, notable are the Bengal fox, Bengal tiger, clouded leopard, corsac fox, Asiatic lion, Asiatic elephant, marbled cat, Indian pangolin, Chinese pangolin, red panda, snow leopard, Tibetan fox and Tibetan wolf. Some of these, including the internationally recognized snow leopard are endangered and at risk of extinction. The wild yak, thought to be regionally extinct in the 1970s, was rediscovered in 2014.
The smooth-coated otter and Eurasian otter are present in the country, and there are historical records of the Asian small-clawed otter. These otters are threatened by the increasing pollution of the rivers they inhabit.
Reptiles
There are several types of reptile native to the country, ranging from pit vipers to monitor lizards. Some of the more prominent examples include the Bengal monitor, Gloydius himalayanus (a pit viper), the elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata), Trimeresurus septentrionalis, and the yellow monitor. Although the above are found elsewhere in southeast Asia, there are quite a few reptile species unique to the country, including Sitana fusca and Cyrtodactylus nepalensis. Sitana sivalensis, Japalura tricarinata, the Annapurna ground skink (Scincella capitanea), the lidless skink (Ablepharus nepalensis), geckos (Cyrtodactylus martinstolli), Shah's bamboo pit viper (Trimeresurus karanshahi) and the Tibetan pit viper (Gloydius strauchi) are also reptiles found in Nepal.
In 2019, the first successful gharial reproduction since 1982 was confirmed.
Avifauna
There are approximately 27 Important Bird Areas in the country and over 900 bird species (as of 2012) in Nepal of which 30 are globally threatened, 1 is endemic and 1 is introduced. The danphe, the national bird, is a type of pheasant. In addition, there are eight species of stork, five other species of pheasant, six minivets, seventeen cuckoos, thirty flycatchers, and sixty species of warblers. The spiny babbler is the only species endemic to Nepal.
Aquatic fauna
The aquatic faunal species reported from the water bodies in Nepal are: pharping catfish (Myersglanis blythii), Psilorhynchus nepalensis, Nepalese minnow (Psilorhynchus pseudecheneis), Nepalese snowtrout (Schizothorax macrophthalmus), Turcinoemacheilus himalaya, erethistid catfishes (Erethistoides ascita and Erethistoides cavatura), bagrid catfish (Batasio macronotus) and sisorid catfishes (such as Pseudecheneis eddsi, Pseudecheneis crassicauda and Pseudecheneis serracula).
Invertebrates
Some of the important insect species reported are: ground beetles (Cychropsis nepalensis), Nebria molendai, dung beetles (Caccobius scheuerni), longhorned beetles (Hesperoclytus katarinae), moths (Heterolocha mariailgeae), katydids (Isopsera caligula), mole crickets (Gryllotalpa pygmaea), grasshoppers (Nepalocaryanda latifrons), bees (Andrena kathmanduensis), ant-mimicking thrips (Franklinothrips strasseni) and damselflies (Calicnemia nipalica). Other invertebrates reported are tarantulas (Haplocosmia nepalensis), goblin spiders (Brignolia ankhu), jumping spiders (Euophrys omnisuperstes), scorpions (Heterometrus nepalensis), centipedes (Cryptops nepalensis), land snails (Darwininitium shiwalikianum and Laevozebrinus nepalensis), and freshwater snails (Tricula mahadevensis).
Flora
Research undertaken in the late 1970s and early 1980s documented 5,067 species of which 5041 were angiosperms and the remaining 26 species were gymnosperms. The Terai area has hardwood, bamboo, palm, and sal trees. Notable plants include the garden angelica, Luculia gratissima, Meconopsis villosa, and Persicaria affinis. However, according to ICOMOS checklist (as of 2006), in the protected sites, there are 2,532 species of vascular plants under 1,034 genera and 199 families. The variation in figures is attributed to inadequate floral coverage filed studies.
There are 400 species of vascular plants which are endemic to Nepal. Of these, two in particular are orchids Pleione coronaria and Oreorchis porphyranthes.
National flower
The most popular endemic plant of Nepal is rhododendron (arboreum) which in Nepali language is called guras. Lali guras (red rhododendron) is especially popular. It is grown extensively throughout Nepal, and particularly in the elevation range of 1,400–3,600 m. The flower is a national symbol and part of the cultural and religious ethos of the country. It symbolizes "national unity and people's sovereignty" and "reflects the spirit of Lok tantra (republic) marked by inclusiveness and gender parity." The red rhododendron flowers forms the decorative ring in the form of wreath around the national emblem of Nepal which comprise the flag of Nepal, Mount Everest, green mountains, yellow colour representing the fertile Terai region (foothills region of the Himalayas) and with hands of male and female joined representing gender equality, and with an outline of the map of Nepal in the background. Below this emblem there is an inscription in Sanskrit which reads jananī janmabhūmiśca svargādapi garīyasī, which means "Mother and the motherland are greater than heaven." It is also used in traditional medicine to cure dysentery.
Protected species of fauna
There are 38 protected wildlife species of fauna including birds of which 50% are in various stages of threat. These are the following:
Vulnerable
Antilope cervicapra (blackbuck)
Bos gaurus (gaur)
Canis lupus (Tibetan wolf)
Neofelis nebulosa (clouded leopard)
Platanista gangetica (Gangetic dolphin)
Python molurus (Asiatic rock python)
Endangered
Bos mutus (wild yak, rediscovered in 2014)
Bubalus bubalis (wild water buffalo)
Caprolagus hispidus (hispid hare)
Cervus duvauceli (swamp deer)
Elephas maximus (Asiatic elephant)
Felis lynx (Eurasian lynx)
Moschus chrysogaster (Himalayan musk deer)
Panthera tigris (royal Bengal tiger)
Panthera uncia (snow leopard)
Catreus wallichii (cheer pheasant)
Eupodotis bengalensis (Bengal florican)
Gavialis gangeticus (gharial)
Extirpated
Sus salvanius (pygmy hog)
Indeterminate species
Ovis ammon (great Tibetan sheep)
Varanus flavescens (golden monitor)
References
Biota of Nepal
Nepal
Wildlife of Nepal | Wildlife of Nepal | [
"Biology"
] | 1,854 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Nepal"
] |
10,936,317 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20species%20native%20to%20Thailand | The wildlife of Thailand includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats.
Fauna
Mammals
There are 264 mammal species in Thailand on the IUCN Red List. Of these species, three are critically endangered, 24 are vulnerable, and two are near-threatened. One of the species listed for Thailand is considered to be extinct.
Fish
Fish of Thailand
Amphibians
Reptiles
Birds
The birds of Thailand number nearly one thousand species, of which approximately 45 are rare or accidental. At least seven bird species previously found in Thailand have since been made locally extinct, and approximately fifty of Thailand's bird species are globally threatened.
In 1991, it was estimated that 159 resident and 23 migratory species were endangered or vulnerable due to forest clearance, illegal logging, hunting and habitat degradation, especially in the lowlands. The species most affected are large water birds whose wetland habitat has been largely lost to agriculture, and forest species, as deforestation for agriculture and logging have removed and degraded portions of the woodlands.
Insects
Cicada
Ants
Butterflies
There are about 1,100 known butterfly species from Thailand.
Bhutanitis lidderdalii
Parantica aglea
Parantica melaneus
Papilio clytia
Papilio paradoxus
Tirumala limniace
Tirumala septentrionis
Molluscs
There are at least 23 known families, 57 genera and 125 species of land gastropods from Eastern Thailand.
There are at least 8 known species of freshwater gastropods and at least 2 species of freshwater bivalves from the Sakaeo Province in the Eastern Thailand.
Flora
Flora of Thailand
Garden angelica
Luculia gratissima
Meconopsis villosa
Persicaria affinis
Ruellia capitata
See also
Wildlife of Phitsanulok Province
Environmental issues in Thailand
References
External links
Birdwatching in Thailand
List of All Thailand Snakes
Thailand | List of species native to Thailand | [
"Biology"
] | 365 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
10,936,588 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Vietnam | The wildlife of Vietnam is rich in flora and fauna as reflected by its unique biodiversity. Saola, rare and antelope-like animal categorized under the bovine subfamily, was found in 1992 in Vũ Quang National Park. In the 1990s, three other muntjac species, the deer-like Truong Son muntjac (found in Bạch Mã National Park), giant muntjac (found in Vũ Quang National Park) and Pu Hoat muntjac (found in Pù Hoạt, Nghệ An), were also discovered. Conservation protection and scientific studies of the ecology of Vietnam, particularly in the protected forest areas, have been given priority attention by the Government of Vietnam. Laws were enacted to set up Xuân Thủy Wetland National Park, four UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, and Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Parks; the last two are also designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The rich diversity of Vietnam's wildlife includes 11,400 species of vascular plants, 1030 species of moss, 310 species of mammals, 296 reptile species, 162 amphibian species, 700 freshwater species of fish and 2000 species of marine fish. There are about 889 species of birds and over 850 species of land mollusks. However, a study by the WWF has reported that nearly 10% of the wildlife in the country is threatened with extinction. Vietnam is placed 16th highest among 152 countries studied in terms of the proportion of its wildlife species found to be in danger.
National parks
While the national reserves cover small areas of scientific significance with restricted access, the national parks also cover wetlands of Ramsar designated areas and BirdLife International inscribed bird areas. The largest of the national parks initially covered were the Cuc Phuong National Park, the Cat Tien National Park, the Con Dao National Park and Con Dao National Park, which to start with, were forest areas along with being reserves or prohibited areas. The objective for creating national parks was to allow access to the reserved areas as a part of ecotourism and cultural needs with full attention to the basic approach of conservation of natural environmental resources.
The national parks and reserves, as per present status, (as reported by the national parks of Vietnam) conforming to the topography of the country which cover terrestrial, deltas of rivers, and coastal zones are: Five national parks and four reserves in the Mekong Delta; two national parks in the northeastern area; five reserves in the north western area; three parks in the Red River Delta; two parks and one reserve in the North Central Coastal area; two reserves in South Central Coastal area; three parks and one reserve in Central Highlands; one park and one reserve in south eastern area.
Flora
The flora of Vietnam has existed in its current form since at least the Oligocene, as evidenced by the assemblage known as the Ha Long megafossil flora from the Oligocene-aged Dong Ho Formation, which outcrops in the Ha Long region.
The country was once totally covered with forests but over the years due to the war and deforestation and anthropological pressures some areas have lost their biodiversity value. The floral richness of the rain forest habitats comprise a broad range of evergreens. According to the Conservation International List Vietnam is identified as the fifth biodiversity hot spot in the world, on account of its exotic flora and fauna. Between 1997 and 2007, almost 1000 new species have been discovered. However, many areas still remain to be explored, and more species are likely to appear in the future. Natural forests are at higher elevations in the northwest and mangrove swamps are in the coastal areas. Rainforest in the hilly region has wild rhododendrons in the northwest along with dwarf bamboos and numerous types of orchids. The central dry region has pines and the river deltas have mangrove forests. The largest and the most conspicuous find in recent years is of the plant species in the Halong Bay area known as Halong fan palm. The largest species was the gum tree.
Considered one of the world biological diversification centers, the flora estimated is of the order of 12,000 species (veined flora) of which 9,628 have been recorded under 291 families. It includes 1000 endemic species. Trees, which provide timber, are of 1,000 species. Timber plants are 100 species. Commercially usable species are 352 species including 42 listed as precious tree species. Further categorization of the flora relates to 76 aromatic spices, 160 species providing vegetable oils, and also herbal species. Some of the well known herbal species are: ginseng, Coscinium fenestratum, Coptis teeta, Panax vietnamensis, and Stephania.
Fauna
Faunal species noted are accounted as 11,217 species of animals, in Vietnam's hot and humid climate. These are broadly: Indian elephants, bears (black bear and honey bear), Indochinese tigers and Indochinese leopards as well as smaller animals like pygmy lorises, monkeys (such as snub-nosed monkey), bats, flying squirrels, turtles and otters. Reptiles such as crocodiles, snakes and lizards are also reported. Specifically the faunal species which are endemic to Vietnam are the following. While many variety of animals have become extinct like the Northern Sumatran rhinoceros, the protection of large animals have been addressed. The Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros used to live throughout the region of Vietnam but was declared extinct in 2010 when the last remaining individual was found dead with the horn removed.
There are also 2,470 species of fish, more than 23,000 species of corals and many species of invertebrates recorded in the wildlife of Vietnam.
Mammals
Primates
Hatinh langur
Francois' langur
Black-crested gibbon
White-cheeked gibbon
Southern white-cheeked gibbon
Red-shanked douc
Black-shanked douc
Gray-shanked douc
Tonkin snub-nosed monkey
Stump-tailed macaque
Pygmy loris
Crab-eating macaque
Pig-tailed macaque
Cats
Indochinese tiger
Leopard cat
Marbled cat
Jungle cat
Clouded leopard
Asian golden cat
Indochinese leopard
Civets
Large Indian civet
Large-spotted civet
Small Indian civet
Owston's palm civet
Asian palm civet
Binturong
Masked palm civet
Small-toothed palm civet
Deer
Giant muntjac
Indian muntjac
Truong Son muntjac
Vietnamese sika deer
Sambar deer
Elephants
Indian elephant
Bovine
Banteng
Kouprey
Saola
Gaur
Water buffalo
Rhinoceros
Northern Sumatran rhinoceros which is officially extinct in Vietnam and on the IUCN Red List.
Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros which is officially extinct in Vietnam and on the IUCN Red List.
Cetacea
Chinese white dolphin
Finless porpoise (narrow-ridged finless porpoise)
Irrawaddy dolphin
Spinner dolphin
Sirenia
Dugong
Reptiles
Perhaps a third of Vietnam's 484 identified reptile species are endemic, and new species are regularly discovered. These species are often found in particular hotspots, for example 32 endemic species are found within the Annamite Range. The IUCN Red List has listings for 74 threatened species, which does not include species which are too data deficient for assessments to be made. Many species are known only from a single location, and only around a fifth of species (and 23% the Red List species) have captive populations. Such populations can be crucial for a species to survive, for example the Vietnamese pond turtle is present in captivity despite being rare or extinct in the wild.
Turtles/tortoises
Elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata)
Vietnamese pond turtle (Mauremys annamensis)
Asian forest tortoise (Manouria emys)
Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)
Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
Asian giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii)
Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei)
Lizards
Agamids
Chinese water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)
Short-footed lizard (Acanthosaura brachypoda)
Mountain horned-dragon (Acanthosaura capra)
Crowned spiny lizard (Acanthosaura coronata)
Brown pricklenape (Acanthosaura lepidogaster)
Murphy's agama (Acanthosaura murphyi)
Natalie's agama (Acanthosaura nataliae)
Phong Dien agama (Acanthosaura phongdienensis)
Short-spined agama (Acanthosaura prasina)
Banded japalure (Diploderma fasciatum)
Geckos
Adler's gecko (Gekko adleri)
Ba Na dwarf gecko (Hemiphyllodactylus banaensis)
Monitors
Clouded monitor (Varanus nebulosus)
Water monitor (Varanus salvator)
Skinks
Chinese short-limbed skink (Ateuchosaurus chinensis)
Snakes
Venomous
Mountain pit viper (Ovophis monticola)
Sharp-nosed viper (Deinagkistrodon acutus)
Jerdon's pit viper (Protobothrops jerdonii)
Brown-spotted pit-viper (Protobothrops mucrosquamatus)
Three-horned pit-viper (Protobothrops sieversorum)
Stejneger's bamboo viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri)
Ruby-eyed pit-viper (Trimeresurus rubeus)
White-lipped pit-viper (Trimeresurus albolabris)
King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
Monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia)
Indochinese spitting cobra (Naja siamensis)
Chinese cobra (Naja atra)
Non-venomous
Reticulated python
Burmese python
Red-tailed green ratsnake
Vietnam blue beauty ratsnake
Crocodilians
Saltwater crocodile, which has been extinct in Vietnam since at least the 1980s.
Siamese crocodile which is critically endangered on the IUCN Red List and, in Vietnam, is currently only found within Cat Tien National Park, but was much more widespread historically.
Birds
Rare and little known birds have been identified such as the Edward's pheasant which was believed to be extinct, the white-winged wood duck and the white-shouldered ibis. The country lies on the east Asian flyway of Siberian birds and is an important stopover for migratory waders.
According to the BirdLife International records of 2011, the avifauna recorded are of 889 species, which includes 18 endemic species, 44 globally threatened species and 6 introduced species. The globally threatened species are listed under the following three categories, excluding vulnerable category.
Near-threatened The near threatened species listed by IBA are:
Falcated duck (Anas falcata)
Ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca)
Chestnut-necklaced partridge (Arborophila charltonii)
Siamese fireback (Lophura diardi)
Germain's peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron germaini)
Platalea minor (Ichthyophaga humilis)
Gray-headed fish-eagle (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus)
Cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus)
White-rumped falcon (Polihierax insignis)
Laggar falcon (Falco jugger)
Corn crake (Crex crex)
Band-bellied crake (Porzana paykullii)
Malaysian plover (Charadrius peronii)
Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata)
Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa)
Asian dowitcher (Limnodromus semipalmatus)
Black-bellied tern (Sterna acuticauda)
Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica)
Blue-rumped parrot (Psittinus cyanurus)
Long-tailed parakeet (Psittacula longicauda)
Black-bellied malkoha (Phaenicophaeus diardi)
Ward's trogon (Harpactes wardi)
Blyth's kingfisher (Alcedo hercules)
Black hornbill (Anthracoceros malayanus)
Great hornbill (Buceros bicornis)
Brown hornbill (Anorrhinus austeni)
White-crowned hornbill (Aceros comatus)
Red-collared woodpecker (Picus rabieri)
Japanese paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone atrocaudata)
Collared crow (Corvus torquatus)
Yellow-billed nuthatch (Sitta solangiae)
Streaked bulbul (Ixos malaccensis)
Black-headed parrotbill (Paradoxornis margaritae)
Rufous-rumped grassbird (Graminicola bengalensis)
Short-tailed scimitar-babbler (Jabouilleia danjoui)
Black-hooded laughingthrush (Garrulax milleti);
Vietnamese cutia (Cutia legalleni)
Scarlet-breasted flowerpecker (Prionochilus thoracicus)
Mekong wagtail (Motacilla samveasnae)
Vietnamese greenfinch (Chloris monguilloti)
Asian golden weaver (Ploceus hypoxanthus)
Endangered The endangered list covers the following species.
White-winged duck (Cairina scutulata)
Baer's pochard (Aythya baeri)
Scaly-sided merganser (Mergus squamatus)
Orange-necked partridge (Arborophila davidi)
Edwards's pheasant (Lophura edwardsi)
Vietnamese pheasant
Black-faced spoonbill
Lesser fish-eagle (Platalea minor)
Nordmann's greenshank (Tringa guttifer)
Collared laughingthrush (Garrulax yersini)
Gray-crowned crocias (Crocias langbianis)
Sooty babbler (Stachyris herberti)
Critically endangered The list of critically endangered species identified by IBA is given below.
Christmas Island frigatebird (Fregata andrewsi)
White-shouldered ibis (Pseudibis davisoni)
Giant ibis (Pseudibis gigantea)
White-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis)
Indian vulture (Gyps indicus)
Red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus)
Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis)
Spoon-billed sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus)
Molluscs
Marine molluscs
The marine molluscan fauna of Vietnam includes numerous species of chitons, gastropods, tusk shells, cephalopods and bivalves.
Non-marine molluscs
Vietnam's fauna of non-marine molluscs comprises various species of freshwater gastropods, freshwater bivalves and terrestrial gastropods. The terrestrial gastropod fauna is highly diverse and includes more than 850 described land snail and slug species; many species inhabit limestone karst hills.
Threats and conservation
The protected areas in Vietnam have suffered a decline over the past several decades. The reasons adduced to this situation are; the Vietnam war, deforestation, hunting, export of animals under CITES agreement which is generally violated by illegal activity due to inadequate patrolling. Illegal trade in wildlife is flourishing in Vietnam as there is great demand for these animals in China and also within the country. They have commercial value both at home and abroad
Trade in wildlife resources in Vietnam is of considerable value. In respect of faunal species, trade varies between 3,700 and 4,500 tons; the use of faunal species are also for medical purposes, pets, and as food and ornamentation but excludes trade in aquatic species. Insects are also a valuable source of trade with beetle and Lepidoptera species contributing towards a major share. Medicinal plants are also harvested and its trade is of the order of 20,000 tons.
Continuous conservation efforts by the Government of Vietnam have brought more and more areas under protected status. Logging operations have been banned. The conservation efforts are showing positive results with wildlife becoming re-established in many reforested areas. Mangrove forest areas are on the rise due to renewed planting. Fish fauna and crustaceans are proliferating and birds are seen more frequently. As a result of conservation efforts, Siamese crocodile numbers have recovered on account of their reintroduction to ponds within the parks.
See also
Protected areas of Vietnam
List of fauna of Hà Giang
List of amphibians of Hoàng Liên National Park
References
Bibliography
.
Environment of Vietnam
Natural history of Vietnam
Vietnam | Wildlife of Vietnam | [
"Biology"
] | 3,470 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
10,936,753 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Malaysia | The wildlife of Malaysia is diverse, with Malaysia being a megadiverse country. Most of the country is covered in rainforest, which hosts a huge diversity of plant and animal species. There are approximately 361 mammal species, 694 bird species, 250 reptile species, and 150 frog species found in Malaysia. Its large marine territory also holds a great diversity of life, with the country's coastal waters comprising part of the Coral Triangle.
Terrestrial fauna
Malaysia is estimated to contain 20% of the world's animal species, and includes some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. High levels of endemism are found in the diverse forests of Malaysian Borneo's mountains, as populations are isolated from each other by lowland forest.
Mammals
There are about 361 mammal species in Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia holds four big cats: the Indochinese tiger, the Malayan tiger, the Indochinese leopard and also the clouded leopard. Another major predator is the sunbear. Large prey exists, such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Malayan tapir, mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, wild boar, and Bornean bearded pigs.
Gaurs and Asian elephants can also be found. Lowland animals such as these also can be found at higher altitudes, along with animals specialised for mountain living, such as siamang gibbons, red squirrels, and lesser moon rat species. East Malaysia lacks the tigers of the Peninsula, leaving Sunda clouded leopards, sunbears, and Sunda otter civet as the primary predators. Borneo elephants are also found there, along with Bornean orangutans, Mueller's gibbons, macaques, proboscis monkeys, silvered leaf monkeys, langurs, and slow lorises. Marbled cats and leopard cats are smaller predators.
Kinabalu ferret-badgers, Kinabalu black shrews, Hose's palm civets, and Brooke's tree squirrels are endemic to the mountains of Borneo. Other small mammals include mongooses and giant rats. 11,300 orangutans are found in East Malaysia. Other ape species include the white-handed gibbon and the siamang. Malaysia has 10 monkey species, divided between langurs and macaques. Proboscis monkeys, the world's largest monkey, are a langur species endemic to Borneo. Macaque species include the crab-eating macaque and the pig-tailed macaque.
The Malayan tiger, a close relative of the Indochinese tiger, is endemic to the Malay peninsula with a remaining population of about 300 (250-340). Small cats such as the bay cat and various civet cats are also found. 1200 Asian elephants exist on the Peninsula, with another population existing in East Malaysia. The world's largest cattle species, the seladang, is found in Malaysia. Fruit bats are also found throughout the country, with a high concentration in the Mulu Caves.
Birds
677 species of birds have been recorded just on the peninsula, with 794 recorded for the whole of Malaysia. A few are endemic to the mountains of the peninsula, such as the Malayan whistling-thrush. Bornean forests show high levels of endemism among bird species, with 38 species found nowhere else. Black-browed babblers and white-crowned shamas are found only in these forests. Large numbers of hornbills, woodpeckers, and pittas such as the mangrove pitta are also present.
Other species are found isolated on mountains, such as golden-naped barbets, spot-necked bulbuls, and mountain serpent-eagles. Bulbuls, starlings, and house swifts can be found in urban areas. Crested serpent-eagles and kingfishers can be found. There are ten species of hornbill in Malaysia, the most common of which is the Oriental pied hornbill. The largest Hornbill, as well as the rarest, is the helmeted hornbill, at 1.6 metres long. The rhinoceros hornbill is the national bird of the country, as well as the state bird of Sarawak. The fish eagle and brahminy kite are the most common birds of prey. Storm's stork and the Oriental darter can be found in wetlands.
Reptiles, amphibians and fish
250 reptile species have been recorded, with about 150 species of snakes and 80 species of lizards. Only 16 of the land snakes are venomous. Notable among these are the Malayan pit viper, king cobras, Dumeril's monitors, Malay water monitors, and estuarine crocodiles. The king cobra is the deadliest snake found, but it is rarely encountered. The reticulated python is said to grow up to in length. Monitor lizards, almost in length, are found in both halves of the country.
Other snake species include the paradise tree snake and Wagler's pit viper. Estuarine crocodiles can grow up to in length. Their smaller relative, the Malayan false gharial, can also be found. Flying lizards can also be found.
There are about 150 species of frog in Malaysia. Freshwater fish include the rare Asian arawana, along with marbled goby, harlequins, and tiger barbs.
Insects
Malaysia has thousands of insect species, with more being discovered every year. Butterfly species include Rajah Brooke's birdwing, while moth species include the Atlas moth. The largest beetle found is the rhinoceros beetle. Other large insects include the giant stick insect, which can grow as long as a human forearm, the empress cicada, with a wingspan of , and the long giant ant. Other insects include banded hornets, fire ants, giant honey bees, and weaver ants. Many scorpions can also be found.
Terrestrial flora
About two thirds of Malaysia is covered in forest which is believed to be 130 million years old. It is composed of a variety of types, although they are mainly dipterocarp forests. Dipterocarps can grow to about tall. Lowland forest occurs below , and formerly East Malaysia was covered in such rainforest, which is supported by its hot wet climate. There are around 14,500 species of flowering plants and trees.
Besides rainforests, there are over of mangroves in Malaysia, and a large amount of peat forest. Coastal land of the peninsula is fringed by mangroves, which cause sediment build up resulting in peat bogs. These provide a base for plants that can tolerate the conditions. The peat forests of coastal Malaysia provide an important habitat for waterbirds and fish. The dipterocarps that occur in the peat forest obscure the ground, limiting ground vegetation. At higher altitudes, oaks, chestnuts, and rhododendrons replace dipterocarps.
There are an estimated 8,500 species of vascular plants in Peninsular Malaysia, with another 15,000 in the East. The forests of East Malaysia are estimated to be the habitat of around 2,000 tree species, and are one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, with 240 different species of trees every hectare. Further inland, heath forests are present. These forests host many members of the genus Rafflesia, the largest flowers in the world, with a maximum diameter of . They also contain large numbers of carnivorous plants, such as pitcher plants, bladderworts, sundews, and ant-house plants.
Some parts of the forest have shown promise for use in medicine. In 1990, a stand of trees showed promise to be able to be used to stop the spread of a strain of human immunodeficiency virus, but was cut down before more samples could be taken. Promise has been shown in fighting Malaria.
Marine life
Malaysia's exclusive economic zone is 1.5 times larger than its land area, and some of its waters are in the Coral Triangle, a biodiversity hotspot. The waters around Sipadan island are the most biodiverse in the world. Bordering East Malaysia, the Sulu Sea is a biodiversity hotspot, with around 600 coral species and 1200 fish species. Five species of sea turtles inhabit the area, along with 20 species of sea snake. The dugong is found around Sabah and in the Strait of Johor.
Sharks present include whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, and reef sharks. Game fish such as the blue marlin and tuna are often found, along with reef fish such as barracuda, bigeye trevally, bump-head parrotfish, grouper, and scorpionfish. Manta rays can be found.
Environmental issues and countermeasures
With Malaysia's wildlife being some of the most diverse on earth, and it being a megadiverse country, the Malaysian government is interested in protecting it. The government aims to balance economic growth with environmental protection, but has been accused of favouring "big business" over the environment. Smoke haze from Indonesia occasionally causes problems further north, and fires caused by forest burning in 1997 obscured large parts of Southeast Asia and Australasia in smog.
At current rates of forest lost, the rainforests will likely disappear within a generation. Over 80% of Sarawak has been cleared, and this clearing has caused animals traditionally in lowland forest to retreat into the upland rain forests inland. Logging and cultivation practices have devastated tree cover, causing severe environmental degradation in the country. Floods in East Malaysia have been worsened by the loss of trees, and over 60% of the peninsula's forest has been cleared. With current rates of deforestation, the forests are predicted to be extinct by 2020. From 2000 to 2019, Sabah lost 1.60Mha, or 24%, of its tree cover. 51% of this loss came from Tongod, Beluran, Tawau, and Kinabatangan. In the same period, Sarawak lost 2.96Mha or 25% of its tree cover. Together, they made up 56% of Malaysia's 8.12Mha (28%) loss in tree cover during that period.
Deforestation is a major problem for fauna such as tigers, as the forest is cut to make room for plantations, mostly for palm oil and other cash crops. The orangutan population has dropped by 40% in the last 20 years. Hunting has also been an issue. Animals such as the Asian elephant have been forced out of their habitat due to its loss, often leading them to starve. Once so common that complaints existed of them trampling people's gardens, Sumatran rhinoceroses became extinct in Malaysia in 2019. Hornbills are steadily declining in numbers. Most remaining forest is found inside national parks.
Habitat destruction has proved a threat for marine life. Illegal fishing is another major threat. In Sabah alone, almost 3000 turtles are killed as by-catch per year. Illegal fishing methods such as dynamite fishing and poisoning have also depleted marine ecosystems. Leatherback turtle numbers have dropped by 98% since the 1950s. Turtle eggs are considered an aphrodisiac and remain a local delicacy, selling for around USD12 for 10. However, some communities that once regularly consumed turtle eggs now protect them, with hatching turtles becoming an ecotourism draw. Terengganu outlaws the sale of leatherback turtle eggs. While licensed collection and sale of the eggs from other species is still legal, the state has pledged to extend the ban on sale to all turtle species.
Climate change has reduced the number of male turtles being born in Peninsular Malaysia, perhaps to zero.
Overconsumption and the use of animal parts for profit has also endangered marine life, as well as tigers, whose meat can be found in restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. Tigers received official protection in 1976, when they numbered a mere 300. Marine life is also detrimentally affected by uncontrolled tourism. Shoreline erosion in places has reached a year.
Pollution was the impetus for the creation of the Environmental Quality Act in 1974. Pollution has continued to increase, and punishment for violations has been limited in comparison to other crimes. In 2020, illegal chemical dumping into the water system caused water cuts to households in the Klang Valley, in which the capital Kuala Lumpur is situated.
Most environmental regulation falls under the control of the states. Some state governments are now trying to counter the environmental impact and pollution created by deforestation; Sabah has developed sustainable forest reserves, and the government is trying to cut logging by 10% per year. 28 national parks have been created, the first in 1938 by the British. There are 23 on East Malaysia and 7 on the Peninsula. The Malaysian government is also trying to preserve marine life, creating a joint project with Indonesia and the Philippines to look after the Sulu Sea, as well as limiting tourism in areas such as Sipadan Island. Marine parks have banned fishing and motorised sports. To counter coastal erosion, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has installed artificial reefs around the country's shores. These reefs are also intended to revive marine ecosystems. Animal trafficking is a large issue, and the Malaysian government is holding talks with the governments of Brunei and Indonesia to standardise anti-trafficking laws. The government aims to double the wild tiger population by 2020.
See also
Environment of Malaysia
Biodiversity of Borneo
References
External links
Database of Malaysian Marine Life
2008 Report of Biodiversity in Malaysia
Mongabay page on Borneo
Malaysia | Wildlife of Malaysia | [
"Biology"
] | 2,721 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Malaysia"
] |
10,936,810 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Laos | The wildlife of Laos encompasses the animals and plants found in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a landlocked country in southeastern Asia. Part of the country is mountainous and much of it is still clad in tropical broadleaf forest. It has a great variety of animal and plant species.
Geography
Laos is a land-locked country located in southeastern Asia. The northern part is mountainous, with the Luang Prabang Range separating the northwestern part of the country from Thailand. The Xiangkhoang Plateau separates these mountains from the Anamite Range, a chain of mountains which run parallel with the Vietnamese coast, and mark the easternmost boundary of the country. The west of the country is mostly bounded by the broad Mekong River, and the south is the Bolaven Plateau at some above sea level. Laos lies in the monsoon belt and experiences a rainy seasons between May and November when much rain falls, and a dry season without rain from December to April. This results in a natural forest cover of deciduous, broadleaf trees, that lose their leaves during the dry season.
There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to the middle of April.
Habitat
Much of Laos is still covered by natural forest and six different species of gibbon are found here, all of which are threatened by being hunted for food and by reduction in forest cover.
The Annamite Range has a high level of endemism and is home to the critically endangered saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) and the Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis), all of which have only been discovered in the last two decades.
In the south of the country, mostly within about of the Mekong River, there are wetlands and swamp forests. These include lakes and ponds, some permanent and some temporary, swamps, and seasonally-flooded grasslands, and these and the surrounding woodlands support a biodiverse community.
Flora
Much of Laos still retains its natural tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and some areas consist of secondary forests growing where timber has been extracted from the primary forest. In general, the upper parts of the canopy are dominated by the cauliflower-like crowns of tall dipterocarps with trunks devoid of branches. The middle levels consist of other hardwood trees including teak, mahogany, Heritiera javanica, Tetrameles nudiflora, Ficus and Pterocarpus. The understorey consists of smaller trees, bamboos, shrubs and grasses. Near the streams are bamboo thickets; Laos is rich with species of bamboo, and where timber has been extracted from primary forest, bamboos tend to dominate in the new-growth secondary forest. In wetter, upland regions of northern Laos, Fujian cypress is dominant, and supports a dense ground cover of mosses and ferns.
There is tropical rainforest in the Annamite Mountains because the rainfall is higher and more evenly distributed throughout the year. The dominant species here are Elaeocarpus, Podocarpus, oaks, magnolias, camellias and laurels, and many of these are endemic to this mountain range. In the higher parts of the range there are forests of pine, and the mists that often envelope these cloud forests encourage the growth of lush mosses and ferns on the deep leaf litter, and epiphytes on the branches.
In the south of the country, there are tropical pine forests, and on the southern plateau are more open deciduous forests with less-dense, middle-level growth and more shrubs, herbs and grasses below.
The bamboo orchid grows here, and the Vietnamese white pine is an uncommon tree that can be seen in the Nakai–Nam Theun conservation area in central Laos. It is one of about 16 species of conifer present in the country.
Fauna
There are a number of large mammals in Laos, including the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti). There are two species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) and Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus). Smaller carnivorans include the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and hog badger (Arctonyx collaris).
Ungulates include the pot-bellied pig (Sus scrofa domestica), Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), banteng (Bos javanicus), kouprey (Bos sauveli), saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak), giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) and Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis). There are many rodents, including the ricefield rat (Rattus argentiventer) and the recently discovered Pauline's limestone rat (Saxatilomys paulinae), Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis) and Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus), the latter being a Lazarus taxon. The lesser false vampire bat (Megaderma spasma) is found in Laos, and endemic species of bat include the Phou Khao Khouay leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros khaokhouayensis). The long-eared gymnure (Hylomys megalotis) is another mammal endemic to Laos.
Primates present in Laos include the hatinh langur (Trachypithecus hatinhensis), silvery lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus) and red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus), as well as seven species of gibbon; the lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus), northern buffed-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus annamensis), black crested gibbon (Nomascus concolor), yellow-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae), northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) and southern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus siki).
Snakes present in Laos include the reticulated python (Python reticulatus) and the pit vipers Deinagkistrodon (D. acutus), Chinese mountain pit viper (Ovophis monticola), Jerdon's pit viper (Protobothrops jerdonii), three-horned scaled pit viper (Protobothrops sieversorum), Chinese green tree viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri) and brown-spotted pit viper (Protobothrops mucrosquamatus).
Other reptiles include two monitor lizards, the Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) and Asian water monitor (Varanus salvator). The Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) is found in the rivers and swamps and is critically endangered. The elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) is found in Laos, as well as two species of turtle, the Amboina box turtle (Cuora amboinensis) and Cantor's giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii).
Amphibians are plentiful in Laos, with some only recently being discovered, including many frogs and the Upper Laos caecilian (Ichthyophis laosensis), Laos warty newt (Paramesotriton laoensis) and Laos knobby newt (Tylototriton notialis).
The Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) is a critically endangered species of fish found in the Mekong River. A number of loaches and guppies are endemic to the country, as are Poropuntius bolovenensis, Tor ater, Acrossocheilus xamensis, Speolabeo musaei and Troglocyclocheilus khammouanensis.
About 740 species of bird have been recorded in Laos. The only known endemic species is the bare-faced bulbul (Pycnonotus hualon). Globally endangered species that occur in the country include the white-winged duck (Cairina scutulata), green peafowl (Pavo muticus), greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius), white-shouldered ibis (Pseudibis davisoni), giant ibis (Pseudibis gigantea), masked finfoot (Heliopais personatus), Nordmann's greenshank (Tringa guttifer), black-bellied tern (Sterna acuticauda), collared laughingthrush (Trochalopteron yersini) and yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola), as well as four species of vulture; the red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) and slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris).
Conservation
Laos ratified The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 2004 and this means that theoretically, the wildlife is protected. However, in practice, the treaty is poorly enforced. At markets, particularly near the borders, endangered species can be observed on sale with gibbons being sold as pets to Thailand, and bushmeat, trophies (horns) and medicines being sold to Vietnam. Besides this, many birds and animals are hunted for food, so much so that wild birds are scarce in populated areas.
A 2020 study of wildlife consumption in northern Laos by San Diego Zoo Global researchers found widespread use of body parts from sun bears, Asiatic bears, and serows, goat-like mammals, among other vulnerable species. The most sought-after items, consumed by about a quarter of those interviewed, were derived from the bile or gallbladder of sun bears and Asiatic bears. Researchers interviewed 100 adults in 18 villages in Luang Prabang Province. Use of bear products in the region had been documented previously, but this study indicates that consumption is greater than previously thought. The second most-consumed items, used by seven percent of respondents, were derived from serows. Products derived from serows and bears are similar in form and use, often being made into topicals or consumables to treat bruises or fight fatigue. All three species are listed at Threatened.
See also
Deforestation in Laos
List of Khmu plant common names
List of Khmu animal common names
References
External links
Biota of Laos
Laos
Flora of Laos | Wildlife of Laos | [
"Biology"
] | 2,271 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Laos"
] |
10,936,875 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Kazakhstan | The wildlife of Kazakhstan includes its flora, fauna, and funga and their natural habitats.
Fauna
Argali
Bactrian camel
Barbel
Beluga sturgeon
Caspian seal
Steppe wolf
Central Asian red deer
Channidae
Eurasian brown bear
Goitered gazelle
Gray wolf
Great gerbil
Spotted whip snake
Jerboa
Moose
Banded Apollo butterfly
Reticulated toad-headed agama lizard
Russian desman
Russian tortoise
Saiga antelope
Sterlet
Dhole
Brilliant ground agama lizard
Turkmenian kulan
Urial
Desert monitor
Felidae
Caracal
Asiatic wildcat
Jungle cat
Pallas's cat
Snow leopard
Turkestan lynx
Sand cat
Birds
The avifauna of Kazakhstan includes a total of 513 species, of which 5 are rare or accidental.
White stork
Golden eagle
Squacco heron
Steppe eagle
Great bustard
Greater flamingo
Common spoonbill
Flora and funga
The diversity of a flora of Kazakhstan varies considerably both by structure and number of taxa, and by geography, in particular, by nature-climatic zones and high-altitude belts. In Kazakhstan there are more than 6,000 species of highest vascular plants, about 5,000 species of mushrooms, 485 species of lichen, and more than 2,010 species of seaweed.
See also
List of mammals of Kazakhstan
References
External links
Biota of Kazakhstan
Natural history of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan | Wildlife of Kazakhstan | [
"Biology"
] | 275 | [
"Biota by country",
"Wildlife by country",
"Biota of Kazakhstan"
] |
10,937,305 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife%20of%20Jordan | The wildlife of Jordan includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Although much of the country is desert, it has several geographic regions, each with a diversity of plants and animals adapted to their own particular habitats. Fossil finds show that in Palaeolithic times, the region had Syrian brown bears, Asiatic lions and Syrian elephants, but these species are all now extinct in this region.
More recently, in the twentieth century, the Arabian leopard and Arabian oryx became locally extinct through hunting, and several species of deer and gazelle were reduced to remnant populations. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature was established in 1966 to preserve Jordan's natural resources, a number of protected areas have been set up, and conservation measures and captive breeding programs have been put in place, resulting in an increase in the numbers of these animals. In 1978, 11 Arabian oryx were brought to Jordan from the US. They were taken care of at the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve. Since then, not only has the oryx population reached 200, but Jordan is supplying other countries with oryx. Many other mammals are found in Jordan, over four hundred species of bird visit or live in the country and over two thousand plant species have been recorded here. A total of 220 bird species migrate to and from Jordan from, Europe, Asia and Africa. In addition, 150 species are native to Jordan.
Geography
Apart from a very short stretch of coastline on the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan is almost completely landlocked. It largely consists of an elevated plateau high, divided into ridges by valleys and gorges. The eastern part of the country is desert and merges into the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert. There are some oases here and some seasonal streams. The western part of the country is more mountainous with a natural vegetation of Mediterranean evergreen forest. The western border is the Jordan Rift Valley, where the Jordan River and the Dead Sea lie hundreds of feet below sea level and form the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and Israel and the Palestinian territories to the west.
The northern part of the Jordan Valley is the most fertile region of the country. The Dead Sea receives the water from the Jordan River and from seasonal streams in the wadis, but has no outflow. It loses water by evaporation, is extremely saline, and supports no animal or plant life. Further south, the country's western boundary is formed by the escarpment at the edge of the Great Rift Valley that continues southward to the Gulf of Aqaba. The climate is hot and dry in summer, and cool in winter, the time of year when all the precipitation occurs.
Flora
Jordan has a range of biodiverse habitats and over two thousand species of plant have been recorded in the country; this includes about 150 plant families and 700 genera. Just three of these are gymnosperms; Aleppo pine, Mediterranean cypress and Phoenecian juniper. Somewhere between five and ten species of ferns have been recorded, as well as about 150 species of fungi and lichen.
Many of the flowering plants bloom in the spring after the winter rains and the type of vegetation depends largely on the amount of precipitation. The mountainous regions in the northwest are clothed in natural forests of pine, deciduous oak, evergreen oak, pistachio and wild olive. Further south and east, the vegetation becomes more scrubby and merges into a steppe-type vegetation, and the centre and east of the country are largely hamada, a hard desert plateau with little sand.
The slopes overlooking the rift valley are seared with wadis which run with water in the winter and support a lush growth of trees and bushes in otherwise inhospitable terrain. In the rift valley, the Fifa Nature Reserve includes saltpans and areas of semi-tropical vegetation. Further south is the Qatar Nature Reserve, close to the Gulf of Aqaba, and this area is dry throughout the year and contains steppe-type vegetation with Acacia trees.
In the scrubby area the main woody species is Sarcopoterium spinosum and the steppe area is dominated by Ballota undulata and Salvia dominica, with Astragalus bethlemiticus and Marrubium libanoticum. The hamada region has a limited number of species. Stony areas are often dominated by Anabasis spp. while sandier areas have more Retama raetam. In wadi areas, gravelly washes or places subject to flash floods, there is a more diverse flora which includes Tamarix, Artemisia and Acacia, and pebbly areas typically have Salsola verticillata and Halogeton alopecuroides. The national flower of Jordan is the black iris (Iris nigricans) which can be found growing near Madaba.
Fauna
Hunting is a traditional sport in Jordan, and in the 1930s, the Arabian oryx was hunted to extinction in the country. Three species of gazelle, the dorcas, goitered and mountain gazelles, were also hunted and greatly reduced in numbers. In 1973, legislation was enacted to control hunting, with a closed season being introduced and quotas being set. The Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, a fenced off area in the deserts of central Jordan, has since been used in a breeding and reintroduction programme for the Arabian oryx, as well as other species such as the Somali ostrich, the Persian onager and gazelles. Other animals that have been released into the wild are the Nubian ibex, wild boar, fallow deer and roe deer.
Carnivorous mammals in Jordan include the striped hyena, caracal, jungle cat, sand cat, African wildcat, Arabian wolf, golden jackal, fennec fox, Arabian red fox, Blanford's fox, Rüppell's fox, Egyptian mongoose, least weasel, caucasian badger, honey badger and European otter. There are about twenty species of bat and a similar number of rodents including the Caucasian squirrel, Asian garden dormouse, Euphrates jerboa, Middle East blind mole-rat, and various voles, jirds, mice, rats, spiny mice, gerbils and hamsters. Other mammals found in suitable habitat are the wild boar, European hare, cape hare, Indian crested porcupine, rock hyrax, European hedgehog, long-eared hedgehog and desert hedgehog.
Approximately 426 species of bird have been recorded in Jordan. Many of these are rare or accidental arrivals, and others are migratory birds in passage between their breeding grounds and their wintering quarters. Others overwinter in Jordan and still others breed in the country. Some of them are globally threatened, and these include the white-headed duck, Atlantic petrel, northern bald ibis, Egyptian vulture, Griffon vulture, lappet-faced vulture, Pharaoh eagle-owl, barn owl, golden eagle, steppe eagle, greater spotted eagle, eastern imperial eagle, MacQueen's bustard, Siberian crane, sociable lapwing, saker falcon, marbled duck, aquatic warbler and Syrian serin. Four large raptors, the short-toed snake eagle, long-legged buzzard, Barbary falcon and Bonelli's eagle, are found in the Mujib Biosphere Reserve, and the globally threatened lesser kestrel breeds there. Other bird species prevalent in Jordan include the hooded crow, Eurasian jay, hoopoe, common cuckoo, Tristram's starling, house crow and white-spectacled bulbul.
Five species of turtle are known from Jordan and there are a variety of snakes, mostly colubrids and vipers, but with representatives of seven snake families. Other reptiles include geckos, skinks, agamid lizards, wall lizards, the desert monitor and the glass snake (a legless lizard). Amphibians are limited to a single species of newt, the southern banded newt, and four species of frogs and toads.
The number of freshwater fish species is limited but there are 25 species of native and introduced fish in eight families in the Jordan River and various lakes and dams.
The Jordan bream is a species of fish endemic to the rivers and lakes of the Jordan River basin. It has been introduced to several lakes and reservoirs in the region including the Azraq Wetland Reserve, although this oasis in the eastern desert is drying up because excessive quantities of groundwater are being extracted. The critically endangered Azraq toothcarp is also hanging on to existence in this single location, with a population consisting of an estimated few thousand individuals.
Wildlife of Aqaba
Aqaba's gulf is rich with marine life, around 500 - 1000 species of fish inhabit the gulf, many of which are residents, like lion fish and octopus, while others are migratory, appearing mostly during the summer, such as the worlds fastest fish, the sailfish, as well as the worlds largest fish, the whale shark. The Gulf of Aqaba is known for its variety in biodiversity and is home to marine mammals and reptiles who also inhabit the gulf, which include species such as hawksbill sea turtles, green sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins and risso's dolphins. A number of predatory shark species inhabit Aqaba's gulf as well, however over fishing and pollution are a threat sharks of Aqaba are facing. Sharks of the Aqaba gulf are mostly deep water sharks which include tiger sharks, thresher sharks, oceanic whitetip and a small number of reef sharks. The shortfin mako shark is the most common shark caught by fishermen in Aqaba, which is also the world's fastest shark, locally known as "oasaf/قصف", whereas whale sharks have the most common sightings, locally known as "battan/بتان". Most shark species pose no threats to human beings, attacks are extremely rare and are usually a result of misidentification. Conservationists are working hard to protect Aqaba's shark population.
Divers commonly stumble upon yellowmouth moray eels, Napoleon wrasse, frogfish, Spanish dancer, groupers, barracuda, clownfish, eagle rays, bluespotted ribbontail rays, as well as other members of the sting ray family and many other colourful and exotic species.
The Gulf of Aqaba hosts more than 390 bird species including migratory birds such as the greater flamingo, great white pelican and the pink-backed pelican.
Conservation
The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature was set up in 1966 to protect and manage the natural resources of Jordan. Under its auspices, the Dana Biosphere Reserve and the Mujib Biosphere Reserve have been set up, as well as about nine wildlife, forest, wetland and other nature reserves.
References
Biota of Jordan
Jordan | Wildlife of Jordan | [
"Biology"
] | 2,216 | [
"Biota by country",
"Biota of Jordan",
"Wildlife by country"
] |
7,249,174 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie24 | Blondie24 is an artificial intelligence checkers-playing computer program named after the screen name used by a team led by David B. Fogel. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of an artificial intelligence checkers-playing computer program.
The screen name was used on The Zone, an internet boardgaming site in 1999. During this time, Blondie24 played against some 165 human opponents and was shown to achieve a rating of 2048, or better than 99.61% of the playing population of that web site.
The design of Blondie24 is based on a minimax algorithm of the checkers game tree in which the evaluation function is a deep learning convolutional artificial neural network. The neural net receives as input a vector representation of the checkerboard positions and returns a single value which is passed on to the minimax algorithm.
The weights of the neural network were obtained by an evolutionary algorithm (an approach now called neuroevolution). In this case, a population of Blondie24-like programs played each other in checkers, and those were eliminated that performed relatively poorly. Performance was measured by a points system: Each program earned one point for a win, none for a draw, and two points were subtracted for a loss. Points were earned for each neural network after a multiple of games; the neural networks did not know which individual games were won, lost, or drawn. After the poor programs were eliminated, the process was repeated with a new population derived from the winners. In this way, the result was an evolutionary process that selected programs that played better checkers games.
The significance of the Blondie24 program is that its ability to play checkers did not rely on any human expertise of the game. Rather, it came solely from the total points earned by each player and the evolutionary process itself.
David Fogel, along with his colleague Kumar Chellapilla, documented their experiment in several publications. Fogel also authored a book on the development of Blondie24, and the experiences he and his team had while running Blondie24 in on-line checkers games, and eventually in obtaining a victory against a dumbed-down version of Chinook.
References
Further reading
See also
Genetic Programming
Game artificial intelligence
Computer draughts players | Blondie24 | [
"Mathematics"
] | 463 | [
"Game theory",
"Game artificial intelligence"
] |
7,249,317 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roemer%20model%20of%20political%20competition | The Roemer model of political competition is a game between political parties in which each party announces a multidimensional policy vector. Since Nash equilibria do not normally exist when the policy space is multidimensional, John Roemer introduced the concept of party-unanimity Nash equilibrium (PUNE), which can be considered an application of the concept of Nash equilibrium to political competition. It is also a generalization of the Wittman model of political competition.
In Roemer's model, all political parties are assumed to consist of three types of factions—opportunists, militants, and reformers. Opportunists seek solely to maximize the party's vote share in an election; militants seek to announce (and implement) the preferred policy of the average party member; and reformers have an objective function that is a convex combination of the objective functions of the opportunists and militants. It has been shown that the existence of reformers has no effect on what policies the party announces.
With two parties, a pair of policy announcements constitute a PUNE if and only if the reformers and militants of any given party do not unanimously agree to deviate from their announced policy, given the policy put forth by the other party. In other words, if a pair of policies constitute a PUNE, then it should not be the case that both factions of a party can be made weakly better off (and one faction strictly better off) by deviating from the policy that they put forward. Such unanimity to deviate can be rare, and thus PUNEs are more likely to exist than regular Nash equilibria.
Although there are no known cases where PUNEs do not exist, no simple necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of non-trivial PUNEs have yet been offered. (A nontrivial PUNE is one in which no party offers the ideal policy of either its militants or opportunists.) The question of the existence of non-trivial PUNEs remains an important open question in the theory of political competition.
See also
Electoral competition
References
John E. Roemer, Political Competition: Theory and Applications (2001) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Political theories
Game theory | Roemer model of political competition | [
"Mathematics"
] | 449 | [
"Game theory"
] |
7,249,453 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirataki%20noodles | Shirataki (, often written with the hiragana ) are translucent, gelatinous Japanese noodles made from the corm of the konjac plant. In traditional Japanese cuisine, they are eaten in soups or stir-fried. The texture is chewy, similar to a tough jelly, and has little flavor before seasoning.
Compared to noodles made from wheat or rice, shirataki is very low in calories, and are sometimes eaten by those on a diet. They are also valuable to people with allergies or intolerances to wheat, gluten or eggs. Shirataki is often sold in containers with alkaline water, and needs to be rinsed before cooking to remove the bitter flavor.
Names and forms
The word shirataki means "white waterfall", referring to the white appearance of the noodles.
Shirataki is also called yam noodles or devil's tongue noodles, referring to the English names of the konjac plant.. One variation is ito-konnyaku (糸こんにゃく "konjac strings"), which are generally thicker, darker, with a square cross section. It is preferred in the Kansai region.
Composition
The konjac yam, whose corm (a thick underground stem) yields the yam-cake (konnyaku) from which the noodles are made, is also called devil's tongue yam or elephant yam. Shirataki noodles are made from 97% water and 3% konjac, which contains glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber. They are very low in digestible carbohydrates and food energy, and have little flavor of their own.
Manufacture
There used to be a difference in manufacturing methods. Producers in the Kansai region of Japan prepared shirataki (called ito konnyaku there) by cutting konnyaku jelly into threads, while producers in the Kantō region made the noodles by pushing konnyaku through small holes into a hot, concentrated lime solution. Modern producers make both types using the latter method.
Culinary use
Shirataki noodles come in dry and soft "wet" forms in Asian markets and some supermarkets. When purchased wet, they are packaged in liquid. Some brands require rinsing and sautéing or parboiling, as the alkaline water in the packaging has an odor some find unpleasant. They normally have a shelf life of up to one year.
The noodles can also be drained and dry-roasted, which diminishes bitterness and gives the noodles a more pasta-like consistency. Dry-roasted noodles can be served in soup stock, sauce, or noodle soup. It can also be stir-fried.
References
Low-carbohydrate diets
Japanese noodles | Shirataki noodles | [
"Chemistry"
] | 576 | [
"Carbohydrates",
"Low-carbohydrate diets"
] |
7,250,189 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure%20playground | An adventure playground is a specific type of playground for children. Adventure playgrounds can take many forms, ranging from "natural playgrounds" to "junk playgrounds", and are typically defined by an ethos of unrestricted play, the presence of playworkers (or "wardens"), and the absence of adult-manufactured or rigid play-structures. Adventure playgrounds are frequently defined in contrast to playing fields, contemporary-design playgrounds made by adult architects, and traditional-equipment play areas containing adult-made rigid play-structures like swings, slides, seesaws, and climbing bars.
History
Harry Shier, in Adventure Playgrounds: An Introduction (1984), defines an adventure playground this way:
The first planned playground of this type, the Emdrup Junk Playground, opened in Emdrup, Denmark, in 1943. In 1948, an adventure playground opened in Camberwell, England. The term "junk playground" is a calque from the Danish term skrammellegeplads. Early examples of adventure playgrounds in the UK were known as "junk playgrounds", "waste material playgrounds", or "bomb-site adventure playgrounds". The term "adventure playground" was first adopted in the United Kingdom to describe waste material playgrounds "in an effort to make the ‘junk’ playground concept more palatable to local authorities".
The architect Simon Nicholson numbered among the advantages of the adventure playground, "the relationship between experiment and play, community involvement, the catalytic value of play leaders, and indeed the whole concept of a free society in miniature.'" Essential in this for Nicholson was the concept of 'loose parts': "In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it." In a playground context loose parts would include:
natural resources – such as straw, mud and pine cones
building materials and tools – planks, nails, hammers
scrap materials – old tyres, off-cuts of guttering
bark which can be both safe playground surfacing and a loose part
and, most essentially, random found objects.
Denmark
The first junk playgrounds were based on the ideas of Carl Theodor Sørensen, a Danish landscape architect, who noticed that children preferred to play everywhere but in the playgrounds that he designed. In 1931, inspired by the sight of children playing in a construction site, he imagined "A junk playground in which children could create and shape, dream and imagine a reality". His aim was to provide children living in cities the same opportunities for play that were enjoyed by children living in rural areas. The first adventure playground was set up by a Workers Cooperative Housing Association in Emdrup, Denmark, during the German occupation of the 1940s. The playground at Emdrup grew out of the spirit of resistance to Nazi occupation and parents' fears that "their children's play might be mistaken for acts of sabotage by soldiers". Play advocates sometimes emphasize the importance of adventure playgrounds for children of color in the United States, where policing "can feel like a kind of occupation".
United Kingdom
Marjory Allen, an English landscape architect and child welfare advocate, visited and subsequently wrote a widely-read article about the Emdrup Adventure playground titled Why Not Use Our Bomb Sites Like This? and published in the Picture Post in 1946. Marjory Allen's article is often credited with the introduction into the UK of "the idea of transforming bomb sites into 'junk playgrounds', but historians of the Adventure playground movement have pointed to the role played by other experiments carried out by youth workers in the UK. For example, "Marie Paneth, an art therapist heavily influenced by Freud, independently developed the concept of permissive play as a tool for ameliorating childhood aggression in her work running a blitz-era play centre in London although not specifically incorporating the elements of a Junk/Adventure playground pointing to her role in the history of UK specific Playwork development."
List of adventure playgrounds
To date, there are approximately 1,000 adventure playgrounds in Europe, most of them in England, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Japan also has a significant number of adventure playgrounds.
The Americas
Canada
TELUS Spark, in Calgary, Alberta has a Junkyard Playground open in the summer months.
The city of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, piloted a mobile adventure playground in five city parks during the summer of 2016.
Toronto Ontario hosted an Adventure Playground from 1974 until the mid-1980s. It was a part of the revitalization of the waterfront called Harbourfront Centre.
The City of Coquitlam in British Columbia created an Adventure Playground in the summer of 2018 as a pilot project.
United States
The Yard (The first adventure playground in the United States)
Adventure Playground in Berkeley, California
Huntington Beach Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach, California
Adventure Playground in Irvine, California
Sacramento Adventure Playground in Sacramento, California
The Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone in the Ithaca Children's Garden, Ithaca, NY
Adventure Playground at The Parish School in Houston, Texas
Play:groundNYC on Governors Island in New York City
SCV Adventure Play Foundation in Val Verde, CA.
Heckscher Playground in New York City's Central Park
Tarr Family Playground, also in Central Park in New York City
Asia
Japan
The Setagaya Play Park or "Junk Playground" in Hanegi Park in Setagaya ward, Tokyo, Japan.
Children’s Dream Park 川崎市子ども夢パーク (or "Yume Park") in Shimosakunobe, Kawasaki Takatsu Ward, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Australia
Australian Capital Territory:
POD Playground at the National Arboretum. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Ridgeline Park Playground.Denman Prospect, Australian Capital Territory.
Ruth Park Playground. Coombs, Australian Capital Territory.
New South Wales:
Bungendore Park. Bungendore, New South Wales.
Carberry Park Adventure Playground. Gundagai, New South Wales.
The Adventure Playground Jubilee Park. Cootamundra, New South Wales.
Northern Territory
Jingili Water Gardens Playground, Darwin, Northern Territory.
Adventure Play Park. Katherine, Northern Territory.
Queensland
Flagstone Adventure Playground and Skate Park. Flagstone, Queensland.
Hinterland Adventure Playground. Cooroy, Queensland.
The Jungle Adventure Play. Tingalpa, Queensland.
Hervey Bay Adventure Playground. Pialba, Queensland.
South Australia
Jubilee Park Adventure Playground. Port Noarlunga, South Australia.
Monash Adventure Park. Monash, South Australia.
St Kilda Adventure Playground. St Kilda, South Australia
Tasmania
Kingston Park Playground. Hobart, Tasmania.
Riverbend Park. Launceston, Tasmania.
Victoria
Hays Paddock playground, Kew East, Victoria.
KidsTown Adventure Playground. Shepparton, Victoria.
Lake Pertobe Adventure Playground. Warrnambool, Victoria.
The Venny, Kensington Adventure Playground. Kensington, Victoria.
Community Bank® Adventure Playground Hadfield Park. Wallan, Victoria.
Western Australia
All Ages Playground. Katanning, Western Australia.
Manjimup Heritage Park Adventure Playground. Manjimup, Western Australia.
Rio Tinto Naturescape. Perth.
Chevron Parkland, Optus Stadium. Perth.
Europe
Denmark
Denmark has several adventure playgrounds, now known as Byggelegeplads (Building-playground) and formerly as Skrammellegeplads (Junk-playground). From the first site in Emdrup, the idea spread across the country and at the height of the popularity in the 1960s, there were about 100 adventure playgrounds in the country. Present active adventure playgrounds in Denmark includes:
Skrammellegepladsen in Emdrup, Copenhagen.
Bredegrund Byggelegeplads on Amager, Copenhagen.
Remiseparken, on Amager next to Bredegrund.
Regnbuen in Hvidovre a suburb of Copenhagen.
Rødovre Byggelegeplads in Rødovre a suburb of Copenhagen.
Byggelegepladsen Broparken, Rødovre.
Byggelegepladsen Rønneholm, Rødovre.
Højkjær Byggelegeplads in Brøndby a suburb of Copenhagen.
Skolemarken in Aarhus.
Søndergård in Lystrup a suburb of Aarhus.
Italy
Ai Pioppi Playground, Nervesa della Battaglia.
Germany
Abenteuerspielplätze und Kinderbauernhöfe in Berlin, or AKiB for short, is a federation of adventure playgrounds and children's farms in Berlin, Germany
Sweden
St Hans bygglekplats in Lund
Borgarparkens bygglekplats in Lund
Klostergårdens bygglekplats in Lund
Switzerland
Robi-Spiel Aktionen—An organization of adventure playgrounds in Basel, Switzerland
United Kingdom
Camberwell, England
Eccleshill Adventure Playground, also known as The Big Swing (Bradford, England)
Evergreen Adventure Playground, Dalston, London
Lockleaze Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.
Felix Road Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.
St Paul's Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.
The Playground aka Adventure Play Hub, St John's Wood London, UK.
The Land (Adventure playground) in Wrexham, Wales, UK
The Triangle Adventure Playground in Oval, South London. London's oldest adventure playground still located on its original site.
Meriden Adventure Playground Solihull, West Midlands
Glamis Adventure Playground Tower Hamlets, London
Literature
C. Th. Sørensen (1931): "Parkpolitik i Sogn og Købstad",
"Risk and Safety in Play: The law and practice for adventure playgrounds (2003)"
Joan Almon, Editor. (2017) Playing It Up—With Loose Parts, Playpods, and Adventure Playgrounds, Annapolis, MD: Alliance for Childhood.
Mike Lanza (2012): "IPlayborhood. Free Play Press
Academic
BDJA: Adventure playgrounds and city farms in Europe and what they contribute to sustainable urban development, a study from Germany
Leichter-Saxby, Morgan (2007) Constructing the “Natural” Child: The Materiality of Play, Power and Subversion at Evergreen Adventure Playground. M.A. thesis, University of London. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
Sutton, Lia (2005): Kinderparadijs (Children's Paradise): Advancing the Adventure Playground Movement, a student's thesis (Hampshire College, Massachusetts)
Wilson, Reilly Bergin (2014) Who Owns the Playground: Space and Power at Lollard Adventure Playground (1954–1961). M.A. thesis, University of Leeds.
Film
Erin Davis (2015): The Land
British Pathé (1950–1959): Come Out To Play Reel 2 1950–1959 includes a "junk playground" sequence.
William H. Whyte (1980): The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces includes a "junk playground" sequence.
Alliance for Childhood – play:ground NYC
Arts and Theatre
Junkyard (musical) written by Jack Thorne about Lockleaze Adventure playground (or ‘The Vench') in Bristol.
See also
Children's street culture
Home zone/Play street
Playwork
Pop-Up Adventure Play
Sudbury School
Tinkering School
Makerspaces
Free-range parenting
Forest kindergarten
Lady Allen of Hurtwood
Notes
References
External links
The Overprotected Kid, The Atlantic, 2014
Inside a European Adventure Playground, The Atlantic, 2014
Where the wild things play, NPR, 2014
Play Wales, the national charity for children's play.
Adventure Playground: A Parable of Anarchy
Environmental education
Playgrounds | Adventure playground | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 2,410 | [
"Environmental education",
"Environmental social science"
] |
7,250,472 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitary%20sewer%20overflow | Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is a condition in which untreated sewage is discharged from a sanitary sewer into the environment prior to reaching sewage treatment facilities. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. Causes of sanitary sewer overflows include: Blockage of sewer lines, infiltration/Inflow of excessive stormwater into sewer lines during heavy rainfall, malfunction of pumping station lifts or electrical power failure, broken sewer lines. Prevention of such overflow events involves regular maintenance and timely upgrades of infrastructure.
SSOs can cause gastrointestinal illnesses (waterborne diseases), beach closures and restrictions on fish and shellfish consumption.
Magnitude of the problem
Developed countries such as the United States, Canada, most Western European nations (e.g. Italy and France), Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan are struggling with public health problems of SSO prevention. The magnitude of the problem is much greater in most developing countries.
United States
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that at least 23,000 to 75,000 SSO events occur in the United States each year. EPA estimated that upgrading every municipal treatment and collection system to reduce the frequency of overflow events to no more than once every five years would cost about $88 billion as of 2004. This cost would be in addition to approximately $10 billion already invested. Although the volume of untreated sewage discharged to the environment is less than 0.01 percent of all treated sewage in the United States, the total volume amounts to several billion gallons per annum and accounts for thousands of cases of gastrointestinal illness each year.
Worldwide perspective
Developed European countries and Japan have similar or somewhat larger percentages of SSO events compared to the U.S.
In developing countries, most wastewater is still not treated when discharged into the environment. The People's Republic of China discharged about 55 percent of all sewage without treatment of any type, as of 2001. In a relatively developed Middle Eastern country such as Iran, the majority of Tehran's population has totally untreated sewage injected to the city's groundwater. In Venezuela, a below-average country in South America with respect to wastewater treatment, 97 percent of the country's sewage is discharged untreated into the environment.
In many countries there are obligations to measure and report SSO occurrence using real-time telemetry to warn the public, bathers and shellfishery operators.
Causes
Engineering aspects
Sewers that were built in the early stages of urbanization were usually built before sewage treatment was implemented. Early sewers were simple drainage systems to remove surface runoff with any waste material it might contain. These drainage systems became combined sewers when sewage from kitchens, baths, and toilets was added; and the discharge became offensive. Early sewage treatment plants were built to treat the sewage during dry weather; but it was infeasible to treat the larger volume of mixed sewage and precipitation runoff from combined sewers during wet weather. Some cities built sanitary sewers to keep sewage from being mixed with surface runoff so the sewage could be efficiently treated during both wet and dry weather. (About 860 communities in the U.S. continue to use combined sewers.)
Blockages
Decentralized failures in dry weather mainly occur from collection sewer line blockages, which can arise from a debris clog or tree root intrusion into the line itself. Approximately half of SSOs in the United States are caused by blockage. Grease is the blocking agent in approximately half of U.S. SSOs attributed to blockage, and solid debris is the blocking agent for another 25 percent. Roots are a contributing factor in approximately one-quarter of United States SSOs attributed to blockage. Grease deposits are caused by cooking fats liquified with hot water for discharge to sanitary sewers. These fats congeal as solid deposits in the cooler sewer. Solid debris includes soiled clothing, diapers, and sanitary napkins flushed down the toilet rather than being put in a waste bin.
Many U.S. municipalities require restaurants and food processing businesses to use grease interceptors and regulate the disposal of fats, oil and grease in the sewer system.
One of the main problems of a decentralized line failure is the difficulty of defining the location of overflow, since a typical urban system contains thousands of miles of collection pipes, and the central treatment plant has no way of communicating with all the lines, unless expensive monitoring equipment has been installed. Companies in the UK have widely deployed bulk dielectric transducers suspended in the sewers to detect high levels and to report the events back over fixed wireless data networks. In certain locations this practice has permitted the reduction of pollution events by up to 60 percent.
Dry weather blockage is less likely within combined sewers; because combined sewers designed for the additional volume of surface runoff are much larger than sanitary sewers. Combined sewer storm water regulators may be vulnerable to blockage by debris, but overflow from such blockage typically enters the diversion outfall to avoid flooding private or public property.
Infiltration/inflow
Approximately one-quarter of United States SSOs occur during heavy rainfall events, which can cause inflow of stormwater into sanitary sewers through damage, improper connections, or flooding buildings and lift stations in low-lying areas of the collection system. The combined flow of sewage and stormwater exceeds the capacity of the sanitary sewer system and sewage is released into homes, businesses and streets. This circumstance is most prevalent in older cities whose subsurface infrastructure is quite old; Paris, London, Stockholm, New York City, Washington, DC, and Oakland, California are typical examples of such locations. Inflow into the sanitary lines can be caused by tree root rupture of subsurface lines or by mechanical fracture due to age and overpressure from trucks and buildings.
Malfunctions
Another mode of system failure can include power outages, which may disable lift station pumps and cause sewage overflow from the lift station wet well. Lift station mechanical or power failure causes approximately ten percent of United States SSOs. This type of discharge is uncommon from combined sewers, because the combined volume of sewage and storm water discourages use of lift stations. Broken sewer lines are responsible for approximately ten percent of U.S. SSOs.
Power failure, human error, or mechanical failure may cause similar discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage from a sewage treatment plant; but this is typically regarded as a sewage treatment plant malfunction rather than a sanitary sewer overflow. Sewage treatment plants may be designed to capture overflow from malfunctioning units and discharge it to alternative treatment facilities. Flooding of private or public property is typically avoided by discharging the overflow to an outfall designed for discharge of treated sewage.
Human health and ecological consequences
Human health impacts include significant numbers of gastrointestinal illness each year, although death from one overflow event is uncommon. Additional human impacts include beach closures, swimming restrictions and prohibition of the consumption of certain aquatic animals (particularly certain molluscs) after overflow events. Ecological consequences include fish kills, harm to plankton and other aquatic microflora and microfauna. Turbidity increase and dissolved oxygen decrease in receiving waters can lead to accentuated effects beyond the obvious pathogenic induced damage to aquatic ecosystems. It is possible that higher life forms such as marine mammals can be affected since certain seals and sea lions are known to experience peaks in pathogenic harm.
Mitigation techniques
The concept of SSO containment valves has been pioneered in the UK and they are installed to mitigate dry spills, by correlating rainfall data with SSO spill activity.
History
Since medieval times rulers have been aware of the impact of raw sewage improperly discharged to the environment. Before treatment systems existed in 16th century England, King Henry VIII decreed that sewage troughs should be kept flowing so that they would not stagnate in London prior to reaching the River Thames (London sewer system).
In the 19th century, sewage treatment plants were first developed and installed in the U.S. and parts of Europe, and the concept of SSO was identified. SSOs were not recognized as a widespread environmental problem until the rise of environmental awareness in the 1960s. Around that time government agencies in the U.S. began identifying locations and frequencies of SSOs in a systematic way. Local governments heard complaints of citizens, and beach closure protocols were systematised to reduce risks to public health.
After passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the U.S. spent billions of dollars on upgrades to sewage treatment plants, with some associated repairs and improvements to the associated collection systems, where the overflows occur. EPA continues to provide funding for low-interest loans to communities for addressing SSO problems, through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
In the 1990s Japan, the UK and a number of other European countries began earnest investigation of some of their countries’ overflow issues.
See also
Fatberg (sewer blockage)
Water pollution
References
External links
Technical reports and additional SSO resources - EPA
Sanitation
Sewerage
Water pollution | Sanitary sewer overflow | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering",
"Environmental_science"
] | 1,854 | [
"Sewerage",
"Environmental engineering",
"Water pollution"
] |
7,251,197 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Trouble%20with%20Bubbles | "The Trouble With Bubbles" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story first appeared in If magazine, September 1953, and was first printed in book form in Second Variety, volume two of the five-volume The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, in 1987.
Plot summary
The story is set in a future where mankind has attempted to reach other intelligent lifeforms through space exploration, and found nothing. In light of this yearning to connect with other lifeforms, people can buy a plastic bubble known as a Worldcraft, the tagline of which reads "Own Your Own World!". The owner of the Worldcraft is able to create a whole universe, controlling all the variables inherent to its development. Within the universe, lifeforms just like humans exist.
In the story we see Nathan Hull, the protagonist, attending a contest to judge who has created the best Worldcraft universe. A contestant subsequently smashes and destroys her bubble after being announced the winner. Hull, feeling the immorality of the control owners have over the lives within the bubbles, works to have laws passed against creating any more Worldcrafts. At the end of the story, Hull is about to drive through a newly built tunnel to Asia when an earthquake breaks it up, implying his world is a Worldcraft as well.
See also
Simulated reality
References
Short stories by Philip K. Dick
1953 short stories
Works originally published in If (magazine)
Fiction about virtual reality
Works about automation | The Trouble with Bubbles | [
"Engineering"
] | 301 | [
"Works about automation",
"Automation"
] |
7,251,258 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteinoplast | Proteinoplasts (sometimes called proteoplasts, aleuroplasts, and aleuronaplasts) are specialized organelles found only in plant cells. Proteinoplasts belong to a broad category of organelles known as plastids. Plastids are specialized double-membrane organelles found in plant cells. Plastids perform a variety of functions such as metabolism of energy, and biological reactions. There are multiple types of plastids recognized including Leucoplasts, Chromoplasts, and Chloroplasts. Plastids are broken up into different categories based on characteristics such as size, function and physical traits. Chromoplasts help to synthesize and store large amounts of carotenoids. Chloroplasts are photosynthesizing structures that help to make light energy for the plant. Leucoplasts are a colorless type of plastid which means that no photosynthesis occurs here. The colorless pigmentation of the leucoplast is due to not containing the structural components of thylakoids unlike what is found in chloroplasts and chromoplasts that gives them their pigmentation. From leucoplasts stems the subtype, proteinoplasts, which contain proteins for storage. They contain crystalline bodies of protein and can be the sites of enzyme activity involving those proteins. Proteinoplasts are found in many seeds, such as brazil nuts, peanuts and pulses. Although all plastids contain high concentrations of protein, proteinoplasts were identified in the 1960s and 1970s as having large protein inclusions that are visible with both light microscopes and electron microscopes. Other subtypes of Leucoplasts include amyloplast, and elaioplasts. Amyloplasts help to store and synthesize starch molecules found in plants, while elaioplasts synthesize and store lipids in plant cells.
See also
Chloroplast and etioplast
Chromoplast
Leucoplast
Amyloplast
Elaioplast
References
Cell biology
Plastids
Seed storage proteins | Proteinoplast | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 450 | [
"Cell biology",
"Photosynthesis",
"Plastids"
] |
7,251,905 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle%20of%20covariance | In physics, the principle of covariance emphasizes the formulation of physical laws using only those physical quantities the measurements of which the observers in different frames of reference could unambiguously correlate.
Mathematically, the physical quantities must transform covariantly, that is, under a certain representation of the group of coordinate transformations between admissible frames of reference of the physical theory. This group is referred to as the covariance group.
The principle of covariance does not require invariance of the physical laws under the group of admissible transformations although in most cases the equations are actually invariant. However, in the theory of weak interactions, the equations are not invariant under reflections (but are, of course, still covariant).
Covariance in Newtonian mechanics
In Newtonian mechanics the admissible frames of reference are inertial frames with relative velocities much smaller than the speed of light. Time is then absolute and the transformations between admissible frames of references are Galilean transformations which (together with rotations, translations, and reflections) form the Galilean group. The covariant physical quantities are Euclidean scalars, vectors, and tensors. An example of a covariant equation is Newton's second law,
where the covariant quantities are the mass of a moving body (scalar), the velocity of the body (vector), the force acting on the body, and the invariant time .
Covariance in special relativity
In special relativity the admissible frames of reference are all inertial frames. The transformations between frames are the Lorentz transformations which (together with the rotations, translations, and reflections) form the Poincaré group. The covariant quantities are four-scalars, four-vectors etc., of the Minkowski space (and also more complicated objects like bispinors and others). An example of a covariant equation is the Lorentz force equation of motion of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field (a generalization of Newton's second law)
where and are the mass and charge of the particle (invariant 4-scalars); is the invariant interval (4-scalar); is the 4-velocity (4-vector); and is the electromagnetic field strength tensor (4-tensor).
Covariance in general relativity
In general relativity, the admissible frames of reference are all reference frames. The transformations between frames are all arbitrary (invertible and differentiable) coordinate transformations. The covariant quantities are scalar fields, vector fields, tensor fields etc., defined on spacetime considered as a manifold. Main example of covariant equation is the Einstein field equations.
See also
Principle of relativity
Lorentz covariance
General covariance
References
Theory of relativity | Principle of covariance | [
"Physics"
] | 577 | [
"Theory of relativity"
] |
7,252,026 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremona%20group | In algebraic geometry, the Cremona group, introduced by , is the group of birational automorphisms of the -dimensional projective space over a field It is denoted by
or or .
The Cremona group is naturally identified with the automorphism group of the field of the rational functions in indeterminates over . Here the field is a pure transcendental extension of , with transcendence degree .
The projective general linear group of order , of projective transformations, is contained in the Cremona group of order . The two are equal only when or , in which case both the numerator and the denominator of a transformation must be linear.
The Cremona group in 2 dimensions
In two dimensions, Max Noether and Guido Castelnuovo showed that the complex Cremona group is generated by the standard quadratic transformation, along with , though there was some controversy about whether their proofs were correct, and gave a complete set of relations for these generators. The structure of this group is still not well understood, though there has been a lot of work on finding elements or subgroups of it.
showed that the Cremona group is not simple as an abstract group;
Blanc showed that it has no nontrivial normal subgroups that are also closed in a natural topology.
For the finite subgroups of the Cremona group see .
The Cremona group in higher dimensions
There is little known about the structure of the Cremona group in three dimensions and higher though many elements of it have been described. showed that it is (linearly) connected, answering a question of . There is no easy analogue of the Noether–Castelnouvo theorem as showed that the Cremona group in dimension at least 3 is not generated by its elements of degree bounded by any fixed integer.
De Jonquières groups
A De Jonquières group is a subgroup of a Cremona group of the following form . Pick a transcendence basis
for a field extension of . Then a De Jonquières group is the subgroup of automorphisms of mapping the subfield into itself for some . It has a normal subgroup given by the Cremona group of automorphisms of over the field , and the quotient group is the Cremona group of over the field . It can also be regarded as the group of birational automorphisms of the fiber bundle .
When and the De Jonquières group is the group of Cremona transformations fixing a pencil of lines through a given point, and is the semidirect product of
and .
References
Birational geometry
Group theory | Cremona group | [
"Mathematics"
] | 536 | [
"Group theory",
"Fields of abstract algebra"
] |
7,252,030 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semisimple%20operator | In mathematics, a linear operator T : V → V on a vector space V is semisimple if every T-invariant subspace has a complementary T-invariant subspace. If T is a semisimple linear operator on V, then V is a semisimple representation of T. Equivalently, a linear operator is semisimple if its minimal polynomial is a product of distinct irreducible polynomials.
A linear operator on a finite-dimensional vector space over an algebraically closed field is semisimple if and only if it is diagonalizable.
Over a perfect field, the Jordan–Chevalley decomposition expresses an endomorphism as a sum of a semisimple endomorphism s and a nilpotent endomorphism n such that both s and n are polynomials in x.
Notes
References
Linear algebra
Invariant subspaces | Semisimple operator | [
"Mathematics"
] | 176 | [
"Linear algebra",
"Algebra"
] |
7,252,626 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant%20amplitude%20zero%20autocorrelation%20waveform | In signal processing, a Constant Amplitude Zero AutoCorrelation waveform (CAZAC) is a periodic complex-valued signal with modulus one and out-of-phase periodic (cyclic) autocorrelations equal to zero. CAZAC sequences find application in wireless communication systems, for example in 3GPP Long Term Evolution for synchronization of mobile phones with base stations. Zadoff–Chu sequences are well-known CAZAC sequences with special properties.
Example CAZAC Sequence
For a CAZAC sequence of length where is relatively prime to the th symbol is given by:
Even N
Odd N
Power Spectrum of CAZAC Sequence
The power spectrum of a CAZAC sequence is flat.
If we have a CAZAC sequence the time domain autocorrelation is an impulse
The discrete fourier transform of the autocorrelation is flat
Power spectrum is related to autocorrelation by
As a result the power spectrum is also flat.
References
External links
CAZAC Sequence Generator (Java applet)
Signal processing | Constant amplitude zero autocorrelation waveform | [
"Mathematics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 213 | [
"Telecommunications engineering",
"Computer engineering",
"Signal processing",
"Applied mathematics",
"Applied mathematics stubs"
] |
7,253,634 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajile | Hajile was an experimental project developed by the British Admiralty's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) during the final years of Second World War for slowing the landing of air-dropped supplies with retrorockets.
Development
The project was initiated by a request from the Army for a method of dropping heavy equipment and vehicles from aircraft at high speed, retaining the materiel's terminal velocity for as long as possible in order to minimise drift and damage from anti-aircraft gun batteries. It was further required that the materiel suffer only minimal or no damage from landing, and once dropped be ready to deploy within minutes.
The high falling speed ruled out parachutes, so the DMWD came up with the idea of loading the drops onto a platform surrounded with cordite rockets. These would fire at the last instant to decelerate the materiel to a safe landing speed. The initial test produced the project's codename; as the rockets' exhaust engulfed the apparatus in a plume of smoke and fire, an attending officer, Captain G. O. C. "Jock" Davies, remarked "Look at it! It's Elijah in reverse", referring to the biblical prophet's ascension to Heaven in a "chariot of fire".
Testing
Initial tests
Once testing began, a number of problems became apparent. The most immediate was that of how to get the rockets to fire at exactly the right instant. Too early and the platform would pick up enough speed again to cause damage to the load. Too late and the deceleration would be ineffective. The solution settled upon was a plumb-bob, which would dangle below the platform and activate the rockets when it hit the ground. However, the implementation of this idea was complicated by the fact that the weight of the plumb-bob would have to be carefully calibrated, heavy enough not to be blown back into the underside of the platform by the extreme upward winds during the fall, yet still sensitive enough to react immediately on hitting "fuzzy" terrain such as heather or long grass.
The earliest tests were made by simply dropping a concrete block from a tall crane (surviving film was shown in the BBC documentary series "The Secret War" in 1978). The first two tests used insufficient rocket fuel, resulting in the concrete block embedding itself firmly into the ground. On the third and final test the technicians filled the rockets with too much fuel, and the block launched itself several dozen feet back into the air again before plummeting to the ground.
A prototype device was constructed for use over water, since the relatively flat and smooth surface of the water would work as an idealised ground-target and with luck the rig wouldn't sustain any damage from the fall. The weight for the plumb-bob was worked out experimentally, and so the first full-scale tests began. A large concrete block was strapped to the top of the Hajile platform, and the rig loaded into a Lancaster bomber. After a number of attempts to drop the device ended with hits too far from shore to capture on film, the bomber's crew were instructed to aim as close to the testing facility as possible from a height of . Gerald Pawle, a member of the DMWD at the time, recalls (Pawle 1972: 173):
As [Hajile] came screaming through the air the watchers on the pier gazed open-mouthed. Then, suddenly realizing that it was going to score a direct hit, every one started running for dear life down the long plank roadway. The concrete "bomb" landed squarely on the roof of D.M.W.D.'s engineering shop. It sheared through a massive steel joist and then demolished the covered way leading to the steamer jetty. Happily there were no casualties, though the Wren cooks preparing lunch a few feet from the wrecked shelter thought the end of the world had come.
On further testing, the initial four-rocket design proved slightly ineffective. The addition of another four rockets spaced evenly around the platform increased the deceleration enough to bring the block to a complete stop a few feet above the water, and Hajile quietly sank beneath the surface rather than thunderously crashing into the water as it had done while using the four-rocket design.
Refinement
The DMWD attempted to procure a number of jeeps to load onto Hajile for testing the prototype over land, but it proved difficult to convince the Royal Navy to provide working vehicles to jettison from a plane at strapped to an experimental, and potentially explosive, device. Eventually two jeeps were provided by the United States Navy and trials began in earnest. The first test was a spectacular failure, as snowfall on the day dampened the rocket fuses. The rockets didn't fire and the whole rig crashed to the ground slowed only by a small pilot parachute, hitting the ground at around and causing extensive damage to the jeep. Hajile underwent a further two weeks of tinkering before another test was performed. This time the rockets fired successfully and when the smoke cleared, the jeep was relatively intact – but had ended up upside-down, with the platform's rockets pointed skyward.
Further testing showed Hajile to be incredibly unreliable: Rockets on some tests misfired and sent the platform into a spin, while on others the weight of the load was misjudged and the platform shot back up into the air for a distance before crashing back to ground with enough force to tear the fittings apart.
One of the last times the rockets on the rig fired was on the morning of the Normandy landings. Hajile was on the ground surrounded by its crew, when an electrician, unaware the device was live, began to test the wiring – and accidentally connected the firing circuit. All eight rockets immediately fired and the platform shot forty feet into the air before lurching sideways and crashing back to earth, injuring a number of the crew and blinding one for several days.
Aftermath
The testing of Hajile ran on long enough that the device was still not working reliably by the time the war drew to a close, and with no chance to put the project into action, it was shelved. The dissolution of the DMWD following the war led to the shelving becoming permanent. As with many such research projects the details of Hajile were kept secret for many years, and very little interest was aroused once the documents describing the project became public.
See also
Retrorocket
Soviet air drop technique similar to Hajile
Curiosity descent stage
Notes
References
Pawle, G. The Secret War, White Lion, 1972.
Johnson, B. The Secret War, BBC Publications, 1978.
World War II military equipment of the United Kingdom
Rocketry | Hajile | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,362 | [
"Rocketry",
"Aerospace engineering"
] |
7,254,689 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricholoma%20equestre | Tricholoma equestre or Tricholoma flavovirens, commonly known as the man on horseback or yellow knight is a widely eaten but arguably toxic fungus of the genus Tricholoma that forms ectomycorrhiza with pine trees.
Known as Grünling in German, gąska zielonka in Polish, míscaro in Portuguese and canari in French, it has been treasured as an edible mushroom worldwide and is especially abundant in France and Central Portugal. Although it is regarded as quite tasty, cases of poisoning from eating T. equestre have been reported. Research has revealed it to have poisonous properties, but these claims are disputed.
Taxonomy and naming
Tricholoma equestre was known to Linnaeus who officially described it in Volume Two of his Species Plantarum in 1753, giving it the name Agaricus equestris, predating a description of Agaricus flavovirens by Persoon in 1793. Thus this specific name meaning "of or pertaining to horses" in Latin takes precedence over Tricholoma flavovirens, the other scientific name by which this mushroom has been known. It was placed in the genus Tricholoma by German Paul Kummer in his 1871 work Der Führer in die Pilzkunde. The generic name derives from the Greek trichos/τριχος 'hair' and loma/λωμα 'hem', 'fringe' or 'border'.
Common names include the man-on-horseback, yellow knight, and saddle-shaped tricholoma.
Description
The cap ranges from in width and is usually yellow with brownish areas, particularly at the centre. The stem is 4–10 cm long and 1–4 wide, is yellow, and brownish at the base. The gills are also yellow colour and the spores are white. The skin layer covering the cap is sticky and can be peeled off.
Toxicity
This species was for a long time highly regarded as one of the tastier edible species (and in some guides still is), and sold in European markets; medieval French knights allegedly reserved this species for themselves, leaving the lowly bovine bolete (Suillus bovinus) for the peasants.
Concern was first raised in southwestern France. People who have been poisoned have all had three or more meals containing T. equestre within the last two weeks prior to treatment. One to four days after their last meal containing the fungus, the patients reported weakness of the muscles, sometimes accompanied by pain. This weakness progressed for another three to four days accompanied by a feeling of stiffness and darkening of the urine. Periods of nausea, sweating, reddening of the face were also registered, but there were no fevers.
As yet, there have been no reported cases of poisoning in North America, and there is speculation that the respective mushrooms may in fact be different species that are very similar in appearance. Molecular research shows that multiple species may have been identified as T. flavovirens on the West Coast.
There are reports where patients treated for T. equestre poisoning have died, likely as a result of the poisoning. The poison in this mushroom has remained unknown. The basic mechanism of poisoning is suspected to be rhabdomyolysis, damaging of the cell membrane of skeletal muscle fibres. In this disorder, the oxygen-carrying muscular protein myoglobin is released and appears in urine, resulting in symptoms such as muscle pain and brownish coloration of the urine.
A 2018 research conducted in Poland with the recruitment of ten healthy volunteers, who ate 300 grams per head (about twice the normal dose) of fried T. equestre in a single meal, with no reported consequences or alterations. However, a 2020 systematic review highlights several studies indicating elevated plasma creatine kinase (CK) pro-inflammatory activities, in addition to its effect on other liver function biomarkers, underlining a cause for concern and suggestions "not to harvest and consume this species". From the same 2020 study, they registered the same level of plasma CK using different edible mushrooms. For example the same level obtained by T. equestre was also obtained by Boletus edulis.
Similar species
It can easily be mistaken for a variety of other members of the genus Tricholoma, such as T. auratum, T. aestuans, T. intermedium, T. sejunctum, and T. sulphureum. Other similar species include Floccularia albolanaripes and F. luteovirens.
See also
Pine mushroom
Mushroom hunting
List of deadly fungi
List of North American Tricholoma
List of Tricholoma species
Footnotes
External links
Food for Thought: Mushrooming Concerns "Science News Online" article on T. flavovirens (T. equestre).
Tricholoma equestre poisoning "About Health Canada" article on Tricholoma equestre poisoning.
Recent Poisonings from Edible Mushrooms! A report on a few new kinds of mushroom poisoning.
Riddarmusseronen kan vara giftig Swedish article on T. flavovirens and its toxicity.
Matportalen: Matsoppen som ble giftsopp Norwegian article on T. equestre.
equestre
Fungi described in 1753
Fungi of Europe
Poisonous fungi
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Fungus species | Tricholoma equestre | [
"Biology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 1,110 | [
"Poisonous fungi",
"Fungi",
"Toxicology",
"Fungus species"
] |
7,254,980 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard%20P.%20Kuiper%20Prize | The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of planetary science. The prize is named for Gerard P. Kuiper.
Kuiper Prize winners
Source: Gerard P. Kuiper Prize, American Astronomical Society
See also
List of astronomy awards
References
External links
Gerard P. Kuiper Prize
Astronomy prizes
Gerard Kuiper
American Astronomical Society | Gerard P. Kuiper Prize | [
"Astronomy",
"Technology"
] | 90 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"Astronomy prizes"
] |
7,255,075 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer%20Award%20%28Division%20on%20Dynamical%20Astronomy%29 | The Brouwer Award is awarded annually by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of dynamical astronomy. The prize is named for Dirk Brouwer.
Recipients
Source: Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society
See also
List of astronomy awards
Prizes named after people
References
Astronomy prizes
American science and technology awards
Awards established in 1976
American Astronomical Society | Brouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy) | [
"Astronomy",
"Technology"
] | 82 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"Astronomy prizes"
] |
7,255,652 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decyl%20glucoside | Decyl glucoside is a mild non-ionic surfactant used in cosmetic formularies, including baby shampoo and in products for individuals with a sensitive skin. Many natural personal care companies use this cleanser because it is plant-derived, biodegradable, and gentle for all hair types.
Decyl glucoside was invented by Robert Prairie in 1934.
Synthesis
Decyl glucoside is produced by the reaction of glucose from corn starch with the fatty alcohol decanol, which is derived from coconut.
See also
Lauryl glucoside
Octyl glucoside
References
Cleaning product components
Non-ionic surfactants
Glucosides
Decyl compounds | Decyl glucoside | [
"Technology"
] | 142 | [
"Components",
"Cleaning product components"
] |
7,257,439 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekman%20current%20meter | The Ekman current meter is a mechanical flowmeter invented by Vagn Walfrid Ekman, a Swedish oceanographer, in 1903. It comprises a propeller with a mechanism to record the number of revolutions, a compass and a recorder with which to record the direction, and a vane that orients the instrument so the propeller faces the current. It is mounted on a free-swinging vertical axis suspended from a wire and has a weight attached below.
The balanced propeller, with four to eight blades, rotates inside a protective ring. The position of a lever controls the propeller. In down position the propeller is stopped and the instrument is lowered, after reaching the desired depth a weight called a messenger is dropped to move the lever into the middle position which allows the propeller to turn freely. When the measurement has been taken another weight is dropped to push the lever to its highest position at which the propeller is again stopped.
The propeller revolutions are counted via a simple mechanism that gears down the revolutions and counts them on an indicator dial. The direction is indicated by a device connected to the directional vane that drops a small metal ball about every 100 revolutions. The ball falls into one of thirty-six compartments in the bottom of the compass box that indicate direction in increments of 10 degrees. If the direction changes while the measurement is being performed the balls will drop into separate compartments and a weighted mean is taken to determine the average current direction.
This is a simple and reliable instrument whose main disadvantage is that is must be hauled up to be read and reset after each measurement. Ekman solved this problem by designed a repeating current meter which could take up to forty-seven measurements before needing to be hauled up and reset. This device used a more complicated system of dropping small numbered metal balls at regular intervals to record the separate measurements.
Bibliography
Harald U. Sverdrup, Martin W. Johnson, and Richard H. Fleming, The Oceans: Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1942
See also
Oceanic current
Ekman spiral
Ekman water bottle
Physical oceanography
fr:Courantomètre#Courantomètre d'Ekman | Ekman current meter | [
"Physics"
] | 435 | [
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Physical oceanography"
] |
7,257,602 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-attribute%20global%20inference%20of%20quality | Multi-attribute global inference of quality (MAGIQ) is a multi-criteria decision analysis technique. MAGIQ is based on a hierarchical decomposition of comparison attributes and rating assignment using rank order centroids.
Description
The MAGIQ technique is used to assign a single, overall measure of quality to each member of a set of systems where each system has an arbitrary number of comparison attributes. The MAGIQ technique has features similar to the analytic hierarchy process and the simple multi-attribute rating technique exploiting ranks (SMARTER) technique. The MAGIQ technique was first published by James D. McCaffrey. The MAGIQ process begins with an evaluator determining which system attributes are to be used as the basis for system comparison. These attributes are ranked by importance to the particular problem domain, and the ranks are converted to ratings using rank order centroids. Each system under analysis is ranked against each comparison attribute and the ranks are transformed into rank order centroids. The final overall quality metric for each system is the weighted (by comparison attribute importance) sum of each attribute rating. The references provide specific examples of the process. There is little direct research on the theoretical soundness and effectiveness of the MAGIQ technique as a whole, however the use of hierarchical decomposition and the use of rank order centroids in multi-criteria decision analyses have been studied, with generally positive results. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the MAGIQ technique is both practical and useful.
See also
Multi-attribute utility
Multi-attribute auction
References
Sources
Edwards, W. and Barron, F.H. "SMARTS and SMARTER: Improved Simple Methods for Multiattribute Utility Measurement", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 60, (1994), pp. 306–25.
Jia, Jianmin, Fischer, Gregory W., and Dyer, James S. "Attribute Weighting Methods and Decision Quality in the Presence of Response Error: A Simulation Study", Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (in press).
McCaffrey, James. "The Analytic Hierarchy Process", MSDN Magazine, June 2005 (Vol. 20, No. 6), pp. 139–144. See .
McCaffrey, James. "Multi-Attribute Global Inference of Quality (MAGIQ)", Software Test and Performance Magazine, August 2005 (Vol. 2, No. 7), pp. 28–32.
McCaffrey, James, and Koski, Nasa. "Competitive Analysis Using MAGIQ", MSDN Magazine, October 2006 (Vol. 21, No. 11), pp. 35–39. See .
Group decision-making
Multiple-criteria decision analysis
Sampling (statistics)
Decision analysis
Design of experiments
Actuarial science
Single-equation methods (econometrics)
Regression models
Mathematical and quantitative methods (economics)
Mathematical optimization
Parametric statistics | Multi-attribute global inference of quality | [
"Mathematics"
] | 571 | [
"Mathematical optimization",
"Applied mathematics",
"Mathematical analysis",
"Actuarial science"
] |
7,257,968 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease%20burden | Disease burden is the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Both of these metrics quantify the number of years lost due to disability (YLDs), sometimes also known as years lost due to disease or years lived with disability/disease. One DALY can be thought of as one year of healthy life lost, and the overall disease burden can be thought of as a measure of the gap between current health status and the ideal health status (where the individual lives to old age without disease and disability). According to an article published in The Lancet in June 2015, low back pain and major depressive disorder were among the top ten causes of YLDs and were the cause of more health loss than diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma combined. The study based on data from 188 countries, considered to be the largest and most detailed analysis to quantify levels, patterns, and trends in ill health and disability, concluded that "the proportion of disability-adjusted life years due to YLDs increased globally from 21.1% in 1990 to 31.2% in 2013." The environmental burden of disease is defined as the number of DALYs that can be attributed to environmental factors. Similarly, the work-related burden of disease is defined as the number of deaths and DALYs that can be attributed to occupational risk factors to human health. These measures allow for comparison of disease burdens, and have also been used to forecast the possible impacts of health interventions. By 2014, DALYs per head were "40% higher in low-income and middle-income regions."
The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided a set of detailed guidelines for measuring disease burden at the local or national level. In 2004, the health issue leading to the highest YLD for both men and women was unipolar depression; in 2010, it was lower back pain. According to an article in The Lancet published in November 2014, disorders in those aged 60 years and older represent "23% of the total global burden of disease" and leading contributors to disease burden in this group in 2014 were "cardiovascular diseases (30.3%), malignant neoplasms (15.1%), chronic respiratory diseases (9.5%), musculoskeletal diseases (7.5%), and neurological and mental disorders (6.6%)."
Statistics
The first study on the global burden of disease, conducted in 1990, quantified the health effects of more than 100 diseases and injuries for eight regions of the world, giving estimates of morbidity and mortality by age, sex, and region. It also introduced the DALY as a new metric to quantify the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. From 2000 to 2002, the 1990 study was updated to include a more extensive analysis using a framework known as comparative risk factor assessment.
In 2004, the World Health Organization calculated that 1.5 billion disability-adjusted life years were lost to disease and injury.
Modifiable risk factors
In 2006, the WHO released a report which addressed the amount of global disease that could be prevented by reducing environmental risk factors. The report found that approximately one-fourth of the global disease burden and more than one-third of the burden among children was due to modifiable environmental factors. The "environmentally-mediated" disease burden is much higher in developing countries, with the exception of certain non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, where the per capita disease burden is larger in developed countries. Children have the highest death toll, with more than 4 million environmentally-caused deaths yearly, mostly in developing countries. The infant death rate attributed to environmental causes is also 12 times higher in developing countries. 85 out of the 102 major diseases and injuries classified by WHO were due to environmental factors.
To measure the environmental health impact, environment was defined as "all the physical, chemical and biological factors external to a person, and all the related behaviours". The definition of modifiable environment included:
Air, soil, and water pollution with chemicals or biological agents
Ultraviolet and ionizing radiation
Noise and electromagnetic fields
Built environment
Agricultural methods and irrigation schemes
Human-made climate change and ecosystem degradation
Occupational risks, including exposure to long working hours
Individual behaviors, such as hand-washing and food contamination due to unsafe water or dirty hands
Certain environmental factors were excluded from this definition:
Indoor smoke from solid fuel use
Lead
Mercury
Natural climate change (as opposed to human-caused climate change)
Occupational airborne particulates or carcinogens
Outdoor air pollution
Sanitation and hygiene problems
Second-hand smoke
Solar ultraviolet radiation
Methodology
The WHO developed a methodology to quantify the health of a population using summary measures, which combine information on mortality and non-fatal health outcomes. The measures quantify either health gaps or health expectancies; the most commonly used health summary measure is the DALY.
The exposure-based approach, which measures exposure via pollutant levels, is used to calculate the environmental burden of disease. This approach requires knowledge of the outcomes associated with the relevant risk factor, exposure levels and distribution in the study population, and dose-response relationships of the pollutants.
A dose-response relationship is a function of the exposure parameter assessed for the study population. Exposure distribution and dose-response relationships are combined to yield the study population's health impact distribution, usually expressed in terms of incidence. The health impact distribution can then be converted into health summary measures, such as DALYs. Exposure-response relationships for a given risk factor are commonly obtained from epidemiological studies. For example, the disease burden of outdoor air pollution for Santiago, Chile, was calculated by measuring the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter (PM10), estimating the susceptible population, and combining these data with relevant dose-response relationships. A reduction of particulate matter levels in the air to recommended standards would cause a reduction of about 5,200 deaths, 4,700 respiratory hospital admissions, and 13,500,000 days of restricted activity per year, for a total population of 4.7 million.
In 2002, the WHO estimated the global environmental burden of disease by using risk assessment data to develop environmentally attributable fractions (EAFs) of mortality and morbidity for 85 categories of disease. In 2007, they released the first country-by-country analysis of the impact environmental factors had on health for its then 192 member states. These country estimates were the first step to assist governments in carrying out preventive action. The country estimates were divided into three parts:
Environmental burden of disease for selected risk factors
This presents the yearly burden, expressed in deaths and DALYs, attributable to: indoor air pollution from solid fuel use; outdoor air pollution; and unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene. Results are calculated using the exposure-based approach.
Total environmental burden of disease for the relevant country
The total number of deaths, DALYs per capita, and the percentage of the national burden of disease attributable to the environment represent the disease burden that could be avoided by modifying the environment as a whole.
Environmental burden by disease category
Each country summary was broken down by the disease group, where the annual number of DALYs per capita attributable to environmental factors were calculated for each group.
Implementation and interpretation
The public health impacts of air pollution (annual means of PM10 and ozone), noise pollution, and radiation (radon and UV), can be quantified using DALYs. For each disease, a DALY is calculated as:
DALYs = number of people with the disease × duration of the disease (or loss of life expectancy in the case of mortality) × severity (varying from 0 for perfect health to 1 for death)
Necessary data include prevalence data, exposure-response relationships, and weighting factors that give an indication of the severity of a certain disorder. When information is missing or vague, experts will be consulted in order to decide which alternative data sources to use. An uncertainty analysis is carried out so as to analyze the effects of different assumptions.
Uncertainty
When estimating the environmental burden of disease, a number of potential sources of error may arise in the measure of exposure and exposure-risk relationship, assumptions made in applying the exposure or exposure-risk relationship to the relevant country, health statistics, and, if used, expert opinions.
Generally, it is not possible to estimate a formal confidence interval, but it is possible to estimate a range of possible values the environmental disease burden may take based on different input parameters and assumptions. When more than one definition has to be made about a certain element in the assessment, multiple analyses can be run, using different sets of definitions. Sensitivity and decision analyses can help determine which sources of uncertainty affect the final results the most.
Examples
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, air pollution is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and exposure to certain forms of radiation can lead to the development of cancer. Quantification of the health impact of the environment was done by calculating DALYs for air pollution, noise, radon, UV, and indoor dampness for the period 1980 to 2020. In the Netherlands, 2–5% of the total disease burden in 2000 could be attributed to the effects of (short-term) exposure to air pollution, noise, radon, natural UV radiation, and dampness in houses. The percentage can increase to up to 13% due to uncertainty, assuming no threshold.
Among the investigated factors, long-term PM10 exposure have the greatest impact on public health. As levels of PM10 decrease, related disease burden is also expected to decrease. Noise exposure and its associated disease burden is likely to increase to a level where the disease burden is similar to that of traffic accidents. The rough estimates do not provide a complete picture of the environmental health burden, because data are uncertain, not all environmental-health relationships are known, not all environmental factors have been included, and it was not possible to assess all potential health effects. The effects of a number of these assumptions were evaluated in an uncertainty analysis.
Canada
Exposure to environmental hazards may cause chronic diseases, so the magnitude of their contribution to Canada's total disease burden is not well understood. In order to give an initial estimate of the environmental burden of disease for four major categories of disease, the developed by the WHO, EAFs developed by other researchers, and data from Canadian public health institutions were used. Results showed a total of 10,000–25,000 deaths, with 78,000–194,000 hospitalizations; 600,000–1.5 million days spent in hospital; 1.1–1.8 million restricted activity days for individuals with asthma; 8000–24,000 new cases of cancer; 500–2,500 babies with low birth weights; and C$3.6–9.1 billion in costs each year due to respiratory disease, cardiovascular illness, cancer, and congenital conditions associated with adverse environmental exposures.
Burden of disease attributable to lack of water, sanitation, hygiene
Criticism
There is no consensus on the best measures of the public's health. This may be due to the fact that measurements are used to accomplish diverse functions, such as population health assessment, evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions, formulation of health policies, and projection of future resource needs. The choice of measures may also depend on individual and societal values. Measures that only consider premature death will omit the burden of living with a disease or disability, and measures that combine both in a single measure (i.e. DALYs) need to make a judgment to the significance of these measures compared to each other. Other metrics such as economic costs will not capture pain and suffering or other broader aspects of burden.
DALYs are a simplification of a complex reality, and therefore only give a crude indication of environmental health impact. Relying on DALYs may make donors take a narrow approach to health care programs. Foreign aid is most often directed at diseases with the highest DALYs, ignoring the fact that other diseases, despite having lower DALYs, are still major contributors to disease burden. Less-publicized diseases thus have little or no funding for health efforts. For example, maternal death (one of the top three killers in most poor countries) and pediatric respiratory and intestinal infections maintain a high disease burden, and safe pregnancy and the prevention of coughs in infants do not receive adequate funding.
See also
Climate change and infectious diseases
Vectorborne diseases
WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene)
Waterborne diseases
References
Sources
Global health
Health informatics
Public health
Health economics | Disease burden | [
"Biology"
] | 2,586 | [
"Health informatics",
"Medical technology"
] |
7,258,655 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatcord | A Chatcord is a compact device that connects the duplex audio stream between a sound card of a computer, and the telephone-set. It enables the use of a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) to talk via the Internet away from the computer, after a connection is established from the desktop using your specific softphone (such as MSN or Skype).
A number of compact devices exist, as well as many do-it-yourself web pages where instructions for assembling one are given.
See also
Acoustic coupler
External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20061127044532/http://walle.nerdhero.org/chatcord/: Chatcord DIY
https://web.archive.org/web/20160330064718/http://www.chat-cord.com/: Chatcord website.
http://www.grynx.com: Another DIY Chatcord
Computer peripherals | Chatcord | [
"Technology"
] | 215 | [
"Computer peripherals",
"Components"
] |
7,258,884 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroday%20Emergency%20Response%20Team | In computer security, the Zeroday Emergency Response Team (ZERT) was a group of volunteer security researchers who produced emergency patches for zero day attack vulnerabilities in proprietary software. They came to public notice in late September 2006 with a patch for that month's Vector Markup Language vulnerability before Microsoft, later producing a patch for older versions of Microsoft Windows which are no longer supported by Microsoft.
The team included several members prominent in antivirus and network security work.
Their manifesto states: "ZERT members work together as a team to release a non-vendor patch when a so-called "0day" (zero-day) exploit appears in the open which poses a serious risk to the public, to the infrastructure of the Internet or both. The purpose of ZERT is not to "crack" products, but rather to "uncrack" them by averting security vulnerabilities in them before they can be widely exploited."
The ZERT website has not been updated since April 2007 and the group is presumed to be inactive.
References
Zero-Day Response Team Launches with Emergency IE Patch (Ryan Naraine, eWeek, 22 September 2006)
ZERT Patches Out-of-Support Windows OS (Ryan Naraine, eWeek, 29 September 2006)
External links
Home page
Computer security organizations
Computer security exploits
Volunteer organizations
Emergency organizations | Zeroday Emergency Response Team | [
"Technology"
] | 272 | [
"Computer security exploits"
] |
7,258,885 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven%20V.%20Ley | Steven Victor Ley (born 10 December 1945) is Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2000–2002) and was made a CBE in January 2002, in the process. In 2011, he was included by The Times in the list of the "100 most important people in British science".
Education
Ley was educated at Stamford and Loughborough University of Technology where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science and PhD.
Research
Ley's main research field are the total synthesis of biomolecules. His group has published extensively on this topic, and has completed the synthesis of more than 140 natural target compounds, with notable examples including indanamycin, routiennocin, avermectin B1a, okadaic acid, spongistatin, thapsigargin, epothilone A, antascomicin B, bengazole A and rapamycin. His total synthesis of azadirachtin, completed in 2007, is widely regarded as one of the major landmarks in total synthesis. In the course of this work, he has also made substantial advances in many areas of organic chemistry, including the development of new catalysts, protecting groups and reagents. He is one of the inventors of TPAP, a widely employed oxidising reagent. He has also pioneered the use of immobilised reagents and flow techniques in multi-step organic synthesis. This work now incorporates flow chemistry for multistep organic synthesis applications.
By 2020, Ley had published 888 academic research papers spanning his career of 50 years.
Honours and awards
, Ley's work of over 900 papers has been recognised by about 45 major prizes and awards, including:
2022 Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia Foreign Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy
2018 American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Award
2014 IUPAC-ThalesNano Prize in Flow Chemistry
2013 Franco Brittanique Prize awarded by Société Chimique de France
2013 Longstaff Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry
2011 Royal Medal
2010 Paracelsus Prize from the Swiss Chemical Society
2009 Perkin Prize for Organic Chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry
2009 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry
2009 Heinrich Wieland Prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the synthesis of key natural products, Boehringer Ingelheim
2008 High Throughput Drug Discovery Methodologies Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry
2008 Prous Institute-Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery, European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry
2008 Hans Herloff Inhoffen Medal, Helmholtz Zentrum für Infektionsforschung, Germany
2007 SCI Innovation Award
2007 Paul Karrer Gold Medal (University of Zurich)
2007 The American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
2006 The Nagoya Gold Medal from the Banyu Life Science Foundation International, Japan
2006 Robert Robinson Award and Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry
2005 The Yamada-Koga Prize, Japan
2004 The Messel Medal Lecture, Society of Chemical Industry
2004 Innovation of the Year Award: Jointly with AstraZeneca, Avecia and Syngenta, Chemical Industries Association
2004 iChemE Award for Innovation in Applied Catalysis. The iAc Award
2004 Teamwork in Innovation Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry as part of Merck Chemicals Ltd; a team from Syngenta, Avecia, Cambridge University and Astrazeneca
2004 Alexander-von-Humboldt Award, Germany
1990 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1990
1980 Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize of the Royal Institute of Chemistry
References
Living people
Members of the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry
Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge
People educated at Stamford School
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
British organic chemists
Royal Medal winners
Presidents of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Foreign fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
1945 births
Professors of chemistry (Cambridge, 1702) | Steven V. Ley | [
"Chemistry"
] | 827 | [
"Organic chemists",
"British organic chemists"
] |
7,259,047 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekman%20water%20bottle | The Ekman water bottle is a sea water temperature sample device. The cylinder is dropped at the desired depth, the trap door below is opened to let the water enter and then closed tightly. This can be repeated at different depths as each sample goes to a different chamber of the insulated bottle.
It was used for greater depths during the research cruises of 1903 and 1904. The first instruments made, however, were too delicate; after being used for some time, the brass rods which press the lids towards both ends of the cylinder and close the water-bottle, became bent and therefore did not work sufficiently well. For this reason the instruments had to be frequently tested and repaired. As they are now made, they work very well and are very easily handled.
References
See also
Oceanography
Vagn Walfrid Ekman
Ekman spiral
Ekman current meter
Nansen bottle
Oceanographic instrumentation | Ekman water bottle | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 177 | [
"Oceanographic instrumentation",
"Measuring instruments"
] |
14,579,774 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio%20Ferri | Antonio Ferri (5 April 1912 – 28 December 1975) was an Italian scientist, prominent in the field of aerodynamics, with a specialization in hypersonic and supersonic flight.
Born in 1912 in Norcia, Italy, from 1937 he conducted research in Guidonia Montecelio, where the most prominent and advanced research on high-speed aerodynamics was taking place. In 1938, at the age of 26, he received Italy's highest prize for science, the Premio dell'Accademia d'Italia for science. Among the work he conducted there were spectacular experiments in 1939–1940 with supersonic wind tunnels.
During World War II, in the period of the Italian Social Republic (or Salò Republic), three days after the Germans occupied Rome on 10 September 1943, Ferri bluffed his way back into the research facility at Guidonia, destroyed the vital equipment and filled a fruit crate with documents of his research before escaping underground.
He secluded his wife and family near his home in Fiastra, in the Marche region of the Apennine Mountains (they later were moved on to an Adriatic fishing village), and in October 1943, organized with his brother, Giuseppe Ferri, the Banda Fiastra band of partisans.
For the next year he coordinated attacks of the regions anti-fascist bands using the Valle del Fiastrone [Fiastra Valley] as a safe haven to return to and to receive Allied air drops.
He eventually made his way to Rome after it was liberated by the Allies, where he made contact with OSS agent Moe Berg and began to work with him translating key documents from the trunk, also passing on his knowledge of the achievements of German science during the war.
The facilities at Guidonia were destroyed in the course of the fighting. In 1944, Ferri was brought to the leading American research center in his field, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in Langley, Virginia, where he continued as a major figure in his field.
In the immediate postwar period, he studied the use of a biconvex wing profile for high-speed aircraft and developed the Schlieren Flow Visualization method of predicting the impact of shock waves on aircraft wings. He then turned at length to the problem of atmospheric reentry, hypersonic thermofluid dynamics, as applied to the study of supersonic and hypersonic jet engines. He also conducted important studies in the fields of supersonic combustion and aerodynamic heating of high speed aircraft. In all these areas, he made key contributions to the advancement of aerospace engineering.
In 1956 he founded the General Applied Science Laboratory. Ferri was granted a patent for the 'Ferri scoop' jet engine inlet, which would be used on the XF-103, F-105, XF8U-3, and SSM-N-9 Regulus II cruise missile.
Ferri died in 1975 on Long Island, New York, United States.
References
5. Giuseppe Ciampaglia, Come ebbe effettivo inizio a Roma l'Operazione Paperclip (Strenna dei Romanisti 2005), Roma, RomaAmor, 2005
6. Giuseppe Ciampaglia, La Propulsione a Reazione in Italia dalle Origini al 1943, Roma, Ufficio Storico Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 2002.
This article draws heavily on the article of the same name in the Italian Wikipedia.
1912 births
1975 deaths
People from Norcia
Italian aerospace engineers
Fluid dynamicists
Italian resistance movement members
Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni
Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society | Antonio Ferri | [
"Chemistry"
] | 732 | [
"Fluid dynamicists",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
14,581,057 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat%20flux | In physics and engineering, heat flux or thermal flux, sometimes also referred to as heat flux density, heat-flow density or heat-flow rate intensity, is a flow of energy per unit area per unit time. Its SI units are watts per square metre (W/m2). It has both a direction and a magnitude, and so it is a vector quantity. To define the heat flux at a certain point in space, one takes the limiting case where the size of the surface becomes infinitesimally small.
Heat flux is often denoted , the subscript specifying heat flux, as opposed to mass or momentum flux. Fourier's law is an important application of these concepts.
Fourier's law
For most solids in usual conditions, heat is transported mainly by conduction and the heat flux is adequately described by Fourier's law.
Fourier's law in one dimension
where is the thermal conductivity. The negative sign shows that heat flux moves from higher temperature regions to lower temperature regions.
Multi-dimensional extension
The multi-dimensional case is similar, the heat flux goes "down" and hence the temperature gradient has the negative sign:
where is the gradient operator.
Measurement
The measurement of heat flux can be performed in a few different manners.
With a given thermal conductivity
A commonly known, but often impractical, method is performed by measuring a temperature difference over a piece of material with a well-known thermal conductivity. This method is analogous to a standard way to measure an electric current, where one measures the voltage drop over a known resistor. Usually this method is difficult to perform since the thermal resistance of the material being tested is often not known. Accurate values for the material's thickness and thermal conductivity would be required in order to determine thermal resistance. Using the thermal resistance, along with temperature measurements on either side of the material, heat flux can then be indirectly calculated.
With unknown thermal conductivity
A second method of measuring heat flux is by using a heat flux sensor, or heat flux transducer, to directly measure the amount of heat being transferred to/from the surface that the heat flux sensor is mounted to. The most common type of heat flux sensor is a differential temperature thermopile which operates on essentially the same principle as the first measurement method that was mentioned except it has the advantage in that the thermal resistance/conductivity does not need to be a known parameter. These parameters do not have to be known since the heat flux sensor enables an in-situ measurement of the existing heat flux by using the Seebeck effect. However, differential thermopile heat flux sensors have to be calibrated in order to relate their output signals [μV] to heat flux values [W/(m2⋅K)]. Once the heat flux sensor is calibrated it can then be used to directly measure heat flux without requiring the rarely known value of thermal resistance or thermal conductivity.
Science and engineering
One of the tools in a scientist's or engineer's toolbox is the energy balance. Such a balance can be set up for any physical system, from chemical reactors to living organisms, and generally takes the following form
where the three terms stand for the time rate of change of respectively the total amount of incoming energy, the total amount of outgoing energy and the total amount of accumulated energy.
Now, if the only way the system exchanges energy with its surroundings is through heat transfer, the heat rate can be used to calculate the energy balance, since
where we have integrated the heat flux over the surface of the system.
In real-world applications one cannot know the exact heat flux at every point on the surface, but approximation schemes can be used to calculate the integral, for example Monte Carlo integration.
See also
Radiant flux
Latent heat flux
Rate of heat flow
Insolation
Heat flux sensor
Relativistic heat conduction
Notes
Thermodynamic properties
Customary units of measurement in the United States | Heat flux | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Mathematics"
] | 794 | [
"Thermodynamic properties",
"Quantity",
"Thermodynamics",
"Physical quantities"
] |
14,581,096 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical%20internetworking%20model | The Hierarchical internetworking model is a three-layer model for network design first proposed by Cisco in 1998. The hierarchical design model divides enterprise networks into three layers: core, distribution, and access.
Access layer
End-stations and servers connect to the enterprise at the access layer. Access layer devices are usually commodity switching platforms, and may or may not provide layer 3 switching services. The traditional focus at the access layer is minimizing "cost-per-port": the amount of investment the enterprise must make for each provisioned Ethernet port. This layer is also called the desktop layer because it focuses on connecting client nodes, such as workstations to the network.
Distribution layer
The distribution layer is the smart layer in the three-layer model. Routing, filtering, and QoS policies are managed at the distribution layer. Distribution layer devices also often manage individual branch-office WAN connections. This layer is also called the Workgroup layer.
Core layer
The core layer is the backbone of a network, where the internet(internetwork) gateways are located. The core network provides high-speed, highly redundant forwarding services to move packets between distribution-layer devices in different regions of the network. Core switches and routers are usually the most powerful, in terms of raw forwarding power, in the enterprise; core network devices manage the highest-speed connections, such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet or 100 Gigabit Ethernet.
See also
Service layer
PDF
PDF
References
Computer networking
Reference models | Hierarchical internetworking model | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 300 | [
"Computer networking",
"Computer science",
"Computer engineering"
] |
14,581,415 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homocitric%20acid | Homocitric acid is an organic compound with the formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)(C2H4CO2H). This tricarboxylic acid occurs naturally as a component of the iron-molybdenum cofactor of certain nitrogenase proteins. Biochemists often refer to this cofactor as homocitrate, which is the conjugate bases that predominate in neutral aqueous solutions of this species.
The molecule is related to citric acid by the addition of one methylene unit, hence the prefix "homo." Unlike citric acid, homocitric acid is chiral. The acid exists in equilibrium with the lactone.
See also
Homoisocitric acid
References
Alpha hydroxy acids
Chelating agents
Tricarboxylic acids | Homocitric acid | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 169 | [
"Biotechnology stubs",
"Biochemistry stubs",
"Biochemistry",
"Chelating agents",
"Process chemicals"
] |
14,581,710 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frizzled-4 | Frizzled-4 (Fz-4) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD4 gene. Fz-4 has also been designated as CD344 (cluster of differentiation 344).
Function
This gene is a member of the frizzled gene family. Members of this family encode seven-transmembrane domain proteins that are receptors for the Wingless type MMTV integration site family of signaling proteins. Frizzled-4 is the only representative of frizzled family members that binds strongly an additional ligand Norrin that is functionally similar but structurally different from Wingless type proteins. FZD4 signaling induced by Norrin regulates vascular development of vertebrate retina and controls important blood vessels in the ear. Most frizzled receptors are coupled to the beta-catenin canonical signaling pathway. This protein may play a role as a positive regulator of the Wingless type MMTV integration site signaling pathway. A transcript variant retaining intronic sequence and encoding a shorter isoform has been described, however, its expression is not supported by other experimental evidence.
See also
Frizzled
References
Further reading
External links
]
GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy, Autosomal Dominant
Clusters of differentiation
G protein-coupled receptors | Frizzled-4 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 281 | [
"G protein-coupled receptors",
"Signal transduction"
] |
14,581,958 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGR5 | Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) also known as G-protein coupled receptor 49 (GPR49) or G-protein coupled receptor 67 (GPR67) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the LGR5 gene. It is a member of GPCR class A receptor proteins. R-spondin proteins are the biological ligands of LGR5. LGR5 is expressed across a diverse range of tissue such as in the muscle, placenta, spinal cord and brain and particularly as a biomarker of adult stem cells in certain tissues.
Gene
Prior to its current naming designation, LGR5 was also known as FEX, HG38, GPR49, and GPR67. The Human LGR5 gene is 144,810 bases long and located at chromosome 12 at position 12q22-q23. Both human, rat and mouse homologs contain 907 amino acids and seven transmembrane domains. After translation, the signal peptide (amino acids 1-21) is cleaved off and the mature peptide (amino acids 22-907) inserts its transmembrane domain into the translocon membrane prior to packaging towards the plasma membrane.
Protein structure
LGR5 is highly conserved within the mammalian clade. Sequence analyses showed that the transmembrane regions and cysteine-flanked junction between TM1 and the extracellular domain were highly conserved in sea anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima), fly (Drosophila melanogaster), worm (Caenorhabditis elegans), snail (Lymnaea stagnalis), rat (Rattus rattus) and human (Homo sapiens). Homology amongst the metazoan suggests that it has been conserved across animals and was hypothesised as a chimeric fusion of an ancestral GPCR and a leucine-rich repeat motif.
Sheau Hsu, Shan Liang and Aaron Hsueh first identified LGR5, together with LGR4, in 1998 at the University Medical School Stanford, California using expression sequence tags based on putative glycoprotein hormone receptors in Drosophila.
Experimental evidence show that the mature receptor protein contains up to 17 leucine-rich repeats, each composed of 24 amino acids spanning the extracellular domain flanked by the cysteine-rich N-terminal and C-terminal regions. In contrast, other glycoprotein hormone receptors such as Luteinizing hormone, Follicle-stimulating hormone and Thyroid-stimulating hormone contain only 9 repeats. Sequence alignment showed that the second N-glycosylation site in LGR5 (Asn 208) aligns with that on the sixth repeat of gonadotropin and TSH receptors. The cysteine residues flanking the ectodomain form stabilising disulfide bonds that support the secondary structure of the leucine-rich repeats.
Function
LGR5 is a member of the Wnt signaling pathway. Although its ligand remains elusive, it has been shown that costimulation with R-spondin 1 and Wnt-3a induce increased internalization of LGR5. LGR5 also cointernalizes with LRP6 and FZD5 via a clathrin-dependent pathway to form a ternary complex upon Wnt ligand binding. Moreover, the rapid cointernalization of LRP6 by LGR5 induces faster rates of degradation for the former. It has been shown that the C-terminal region of LGR5 is crucial for both dynamic internalization and degradation to occur, although C-terminal truncation does not inhibit LRP6 interaction and internalization, but rather, heightens receptor activity. Thus, only the initial interaction with its unknown ligand and other membrane bound receptors is crucial in its role in Wnt signalling and not the internalization itself. LGR5 is crucial during embryogenesis as LGR null studies in mice incurred 100% neonatal mortality accompanied by several craniofacial distortions such as ankyloglossia and gastrointestinal dilation.
Ligand
LGR5 belongs to a class of class A GPCR orphan receptors. Thus its ligands remain elusive. However, it has been shown that Lgr2, the fly orthologue of mammalian LGR5, binds with "high affinity and specificity" with bursicon, an insect heterodimeric, neurohormone that belongs in the same class as FSH, LH and TSH, which in turn are homologous to mammalian bone morphogenetic factors (BMPs) such as gremlin and cerberus. Therefore, LGR5 might be a receptor for a member of the large family of bone morphogenetic protein antagonists. Moreover, R-spondin proteins were shown to interact with the extracellular domain of LRG5. The LGR5 / R-spondin complex acts by binding and subsequently internalizing RNF43 and ZNRF3. RNF43 and ZNRF3 are transmembrane E3 ligases that negatively regulate wnt signaling by ubiquitinating frizzled receptors. Thereby, R-spondin binding to LGR5 potentiates wnt signaling.
Clinical relevance
LGR5 are well-established stem cell markers in certain types of tissue, wholly due to the fact that they are highly enriched in truly, multipotent stem cells compared to their immediate progeny, the transit-amplifying cells.
Intestines
Tracing has revealed that LGR5 is a marker of adult intestinal stem cells. The high turnover rate of the intestinal lining is due to a dedicated population of stem cells found at the base of the intestinal crypt. In the small intestines, these LGR5+ve crypt base columnar cells (CBC cells) have broad basal surfaces and very little cytoplasm and organelles and are located interspersed among the terminally differentiated Paneth cells. These CBC cells generate the plethora of functional cells in the intestinal tissue: Paneth cells, enteroendocrine cells, goblet cells, tuft cells, columnar cells and the M cells over an adult's entire lifetime. Similarly, LGR5 expression in the colon resembles faithfully that of the small intestine.
Liver
The normal liver has very low expression of LGR5, but when this organ is damaged a LGR5-positive compartment emerges that is instrumental in hepatic regeneration, probably as a consequence of increased Wnt-signaling. The liver cancer process appears dependent on LGR5 expressing cancer stem cells. Human hepatocellular carcinoma and also murine liver cancer is characterised by the presentce of a LGR5-positive compartment not present in healthy liver. These LGR5 expressing are superior in initiating organoids and forming tumors in experimental liver cancer, while LGR5 lineage ablation significantly inhibits organoid initiation and tumor growth.
Kidney
In vivo lineage tracing showed that LGR5 is expressed in nascent nephron cell cluster within the developing kidney. Specifically, the LGR5+ve stem cells contribute into the formation of the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop and the distal convoluted tubule. However, expression is eventually truncated after postnatal day 7, a stark contrast to the facultative expression of LGR5 in actively renewing tissues such as in the intestines.
Stomach
The stomach lining also possess populations of LGR5+ve stem cells, although there are two conflicting theories: one is that LGR5+ve stem cells reside in the isthmus, the region between the pit cells and gland cells, where most cellular proliferation takes place. However, lineage tracing had revealed LGR5+ve stem cells at the bottom of the gland, architecture reminiscent to that of the intestinal arrangement. This suggests that LGR5 stem cells give rise to transit-amplifying cells, which migrate towards the isthmus where they proliferate and maintain the stomach epithelium.
Ear
LGR5+ve stem cells were pinpointed as the precursor for sensory hair cells that line the cochlea.
Hair follicle
Hair follicle renewal is governed by Wnt signalling that act upon hair follicle stem cells located in the follicle bulge. Although these cells are well characterised by CD34 and cytokeratin markers, there is a growing body of agreement that LGR5 is a putative hair follicle stem cell marker. LGR5 in conjunction with LRG6, is expressed in a remarkable fashion: LRG6+ve stem cells maintain the upper sebaceous gland whilst LRG5+ve stem cells fuel the actual hair follicle shaft upon migration of transit-amplifying cells into the dermal papilla. In between these two distinct populations of stem cells are the multipotent LRG5/6+ve stem cells that ultimately maintain the epidermal hair follicle in adults.
Cancer
The cancer stem cell hypothesis states that a dedicated small population of cancerous stem cells that manages to evade anti-cancer therapy maintains benign and malignant tumours. This explains recurring malignancies even after surgical removal of the tumours. LGR5+ve stem cells were identified to fuel stem cell activity in murine intestinal adenomas via erroneous activation of the pro-cell cycle Wnt signalling pathway as a result of successive mutations, such as formation of adenoma via Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutation. Studies on LGR5 in colorectal cancer revealed a rather perplexing mechanism: loss of LGR5 actually increased tumourigenicity and invasion whereas overexpression results a reduction in tumourigenicity and clonogenicity. This implies that LGR5 is not an oncogene but a tumor suppressor gene, and that its main role is delimiting stem cell expansion in their respective niches. Varying expression profile of LGR5 was also observed in different stages of gastrointestinal cancers, which suggests that the histoanatomical distribution of LGR5+ve stem cells determine how the cancer advances. Densitometry results of LGR5 expression by western blotting in the different cell lines showed that high LGR5 expression levels were apparent in BHK, AGS, VERO and NIH3T3 cell lines compared with the other cell lines.
References
Further reading
G protein-coupled receptors | LGR5 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 2,195 | [
"G protein-coupled receptors",
"Signal transduction"
] |
14,581,969 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport%27s%20distributed%20mutual%20exclusion%20algorithm | Lamport's Distributed Mutual Exclusion Algorithm is a contention-based algorithm for mutual exclusion on a distributed system.
Algorithm
Nodal properties
Every process maintains a queue of pending requests for entering critical section in order. The queues are ordered by virtual time stamps derived from Lamport timestamps.
Algorithm
Requesting process
Pushing its request in its own queue (ordered by time stamps)
Sending a request to every node.
Waiting for replies from all other nodes.
If own request is at the head of its queue and all replies have been received, enter critical section.
Upon exiting the critical section, remove its request from the queue and send a release message to every process.
Other processes
After receiving a request, pushing the request in its own request queue (ordered by time stamps) and reply with a time stamp.
After receiving release message, remove the corresponding request from its own request queue.
Message complexity
This algorithm creates 3(N − 1) messages per request, or (N − 1) messages and 2 broadcasts. 3(N − 1) messages per request includes:
(N − 1) total number of requests
(N − 1) total number of replies
(N − 1) total number of releases
Drawbacks
This algorithm has several disadvantages. They are:
It is very unreliable as failure of any one of the processes will halt progress.
It has a high message complexity of 3(N − 1) messages per entry/exit into the critical section.
See also
Ricart–Agrawala algorithm (an improvement over Lamport's algorithm)
Lamport's bakery algorithm
Raymond's algorithm
Maekawa's algorithm
Suzuki–Kasami algorithm
Naimi–Trehel algorithm
References
Concurrency control algorithms
Distributed computing | Lamport's distributed mutual exclusion algorithm | [
"Technology"
] | 342 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer science",
"Computer science stubs"
] |
14,581,982 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGF-like%20domain | The EGF-like domain is an evolutionary conserved protein domain, which derives its name from the epidermal growth factor where it was first described. It comprises about 30 to 40 amino-acid residues and has been found in a large number of mostly animal proteins. Most occurrences of the EGF-like domain are found in the extracellular domain of membrane-bound proteins or in proteins known to be secreted. An exception to this is the prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase. The EGF-like domain includes 6 cysteine residues which in the epidermal growth factor have been shown to form 3 disulfide bonds. The structures of 4-disulfide EGF-domains have been solved from the laminin and integrin proteins. The main structure of EGF-like domains is a two-stranded β-sheet followed by a loop to a short C-terminal, two-stranded β-sheet. These two β-sheets are usually denoted as the major (N-terminal) and minor (C-terminal) sheets. EGF-like domains frequently occur in numerous tandem copies in proteins: these repeats typically fold together to form a single, linear solenoid domain block as a functional unit.
Subtypes
Despite the similarities of EGF-like domains, distinct domain subtypes have been identified. The two main proposed types of EGF-like domains are the human EGF-like (hEGF) domain and the complement C1r-like (cEGF) domain, which was first identified in the human complement protease C1r. C1r is a highly specific serine protease initiating the classical pathway of complement activation during immune response. Both the hEGF- and cEGF-like domains contain three disulfides and derive from a common ancestor that carried four disulfides of which one was lost during evolution. Furthermore, cEGF-like domains can be divided in two subtypes (1 and 2) whereas all hEGF-like domains belong to one subtype.
The differentiation of cEGF-like and hEGF-like domains and their subtypes is based on structural features and the connectivity of their disulfide bonds. cEGF- and hEGF-like domains have a distinct shape and orientation of the minor sheet and one C-terminal half-cystine has a different position. The lost cysteines of the common ancestor differ between cEGF- and hEGF-like domains and hence these types differ in their disulfide linkages. The differentiation of cEGF into subtype 1 and 2, which probably occurred after its split from hEGF, is based on different residue numbers between the distinct half-cystines. An N-terminal located calcium binding motif can be found in hEGF- as well as in cEGF-like domains and is therefore not suitable to tell them apart.
hEGF- and cEGF-like domains also contain post-translational modifications, which are often unusual and differ between hEGF- and cEGF-like domains. These post-translational modifications include O-glycosylations, mostly O-fucose modifications, and β-hydroxylation of aspartate and asparagine residues. O-fucose modifications have only been detected in hEGF-like domains and they are important for the proper folding of the hEGF-like domain. β-Hydroxylation appears in hEGF- and cEGF-like domains, the former is hydroxylated on an aspartic acid while the latter is hydroxylated on an asparagine residue. The biological role of this post-translational modification is unclear, but mice with a knockout of the aspartyl-β-hydroxylation enzyme show developmental defects.
Proteins containing EGF-like domains are widespread and can be exclusively hEGF- or cEGF-like, or contain a mix of both. In many mitogenic and developmental proteins such as Notch and Delta the EGF-like domains are only of the hEGF type. Other proteins contain only cEGF such as thrombomodulin and the LDL-receptor. In mixed EGF-proteins the hEGF- and cEGF-like domains are grouped together with the hEGFs always being N-terminal of the cEGFs. Such proteins are involved in blood coagulation or are components of the extracellular matrix like fibrillin and LTBP-1 (Latent-transforming growth factor beta-binding protein 1). In addition to the aforementioned three disulfide hEGF- and cEGF-like types, there are proteins carrying a four-disulfide EGF-like domain like laminin and integrin.
The two main EGF-like domain subtypes hEGF and cEGF are not just distinct in their structure and conformation but also have different functions. This hypothesis is substantiated by research on LTBP-1. LTBP-1 anchors the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) to the extracellular matrix. hEGF-like domains play a role in targeting the LTBP-1/TGF-β assembly to the extracellular matrix. Once attached to the extracellular matrix, TGF-β dissociates from hEGF subunits to allow its subsequent activation. cEGF-like domains seem to play an unspecific role in this activation by promoting the cleavage of LTBP-1 from TGF-β by various proteases.
In conclusion, although distinct EGF-like domains are grouped, subtypes can be clearly separated by their sequence, conformation and, most importantly, their function.
Role in the immune system and apoptosis
Selectins, a group of proteins that are involved in leukocyte rolling towards a source of inflammation, contain an EGF-like domain along with a lectin domain and short consensus repeats (SCRs). The functions of the EGF-like domain vary between different selectin types. Kansas and co-workers were able to show that the EGF-like domain is not required for maximal cellular adhesion in L-selectin (expressed on lymphocytes). However, it is involved in both ligand recognition and adhesion in P-selectin (expressed on platelets) and may also be involved in protein-protein interactions. It has been suggested that the interactions between lectin domains and carbohydrate ligands might be calcium-dependent.
Immature human dendritic cells appear to require interactions with the EGF-like domains of selectins during their maturation process. Blocking of this interaction with monoclonal anti-EGF-like domain antibodies prevents dendritic cell maturation. The immature cells fail to activate T-cells and produce less interleukin 12 than wild-type dendritic cells.
Phan et al. could show that the artificial insertion of an N-glycosylation site into the EGF-like domains in P- and L-selectins increased the affinities of selectins to their ligands and led to slower rolling. Therefore, EGF-like domains seem to play a crucial role in leukocyte movements towards inflammatory stimuli.
The EGF-like domain is also part of laminins, an important group of extracellular proteins. The EGF-like domains are usually masked in intact membranes, but become exposed when the membrane is destroyed, e.g. during inflammation, thereby stimulating membrane growth and restoring damaged membrane parts.
Moreover, the EGF-like domain repeats of the stabilin-2 domain have been shown to specifically recognize and bind apoptotic cells, probably by recognizing phosphatidylserine, an apoptotic cell marker (“eat me-signal”). Park et al. further demonstrated that the domains are able to competitively impair recognition of apoptotic cells by macrophages.
In conclusion, the EGF-like domain appears to play a vital role in immune responses as well as in eliminating dead cells in the organism.
Calcium-binding
Calcium-binding EGF-like domains (cbEGF-like domains) play a seminal role in diseases such as the Marfan syndrome or the X-chromosome linked hemorrhagic disorder hemophilia B and are among the most abundant extracellular calcium-binding domains. Importantly, cbEGF- like domains impart specific functions to a variety of proteins in the blood clotting cascade. Examples include the coagulation factors VII, IX and X, protein C and its cofactor protein S.
Calcium-binding EGF-like domains are typically composed of 45 amino acids, arranged as two antiparallel beta sheets. Several cysteine residues within this sequence form disulfide bridges.
cbEGF-like domains show no significant structural deviations from EGF-like domains; however, as the name suggests, cbEGF-like domains bind a single calcium ion. The binding affinity to calcium varies widely and often depends on adjacent domains. The consensus motif for calcium binding is Asp-Leu/Ile-Asp-Gln-Cys. Coordination of calcium strongly correlates with an unusual posttranslational modification of cbEGF-like domains: either an asparagine or aspartate is beta-hydroxylated giving rise to erythro-beta-hydroxyasparagine (Hyn) or erythro-beta-hydroxyaspartic acid (Hya), respectively. Hya can be found in the N-terminal cbEGF module (see below) of factors IX, X, and protein C. The Hyn modification appears to be more prevalent than Hya and has been shown to occur in fibrillin-1, an extracellular matrix protein. Both modifications are catalyzed by the dioxygenase Asp/Asn-beta-hydroxylase, and are unique to EGF domains in eukaryotes.
Further posttranslational modifications have been reported. Glycosylation in the form of O-linked di- or trisaccharides may occur at a serine residue between the first two cysteines of blood coagulation factors VII and IX. Factor VII exhibits an O-linked fucose at Ser60.
Multiple cbEGF domains are often connected by one or two amino acids to form larger, repetitive arrays, here referred to as 'cbEGF modules'. In the blood-clotting cascade, coagulation factors VII, IX and X and protein C contain a tandem of two cbEGF modules, whereas protein S has four. Impressively, in fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2, 43 cbEGF modules have been found. The modularity of these proteins adds complexity to protein-protein but also module-module interaction. In factors VII, IX and X, the two cbEGF modules are preceded by an N-terminal gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) containing module (the Gla module). In vitro studies on the Gla-cbEGF tandem isolated from factor X revealed a Kd-value of 0.1 mM for calcium binding with the free calcium blood plasma concentrations being approximately 1.2 mM. Surprisingly, in the absence of the Gla module, the cbEGF module exhibits a Kd-value of 2.2 mM for calcium. Thus, the presence of the Gla module increases calcium affinity 20-fold. Similarly, the activity of Gla and serine protease modules are modified by the cbEGF modules. In the absence of calcium, the Gla and cbEGF modules are highly mobile. As the cbEGF module associates with calcium, however, movement of the Gla module is significantly restricted because the cbEGF module now adopts a conformation that locks the neighboring Gla module in a fixed position. Therefore, calcium coordination induces conformational changes which, in turn, might modulate enzymatic activity.
Impaired coordination of calcium can result in serious disorders. Defective calcium binding to coagulation factor IX contributes to the development of hemophilia B. Individuals with this hereditary disease tend to develop hemorrhages, potentially leading to life-threatening conditions. The cause of hemophilia B is decreased activity or deficiency of blood coagulation factor IX. Point mutations resulting in decreased affinity of factor IX to calcium are thought to be implicated in this bleeding disorder. On a molecular basis, it appears that hemophilia B can be the result of an impaired ability to localize the Gla module efficiently, as it usually occurs after calcium coordination by the cbEGF module in fully functional factor IX. This defect is thought to impair the biological function of factor IX. A similar problem occurs in patients with hemophilia B and carrying a mutation (Glu78Lys) in factor IX that prevents interaction of the two cbEGF modules with one another. Conversely, in healthy individuals, Glu78 in the first cbEGF-module contacts Arg94 in the second cbEGF module and thereby aligns both modules. Thus, domain-domain interactions (partially facilitated by calcium coordination) are crucial for the catalytic activity of proteins involved in the blood-clotting cascade.
Proteins containing this domain
Below is a list of human proteins containing the EGF-like domain:
AGC1; AGRIN; AREG; ATRN; ATRNL1;
BCAN; BMP1; BTC;
C1S; CASPR4; CD248; CD93; CELSR1; CELSR2; CELSR3; CLEC14A; CNTNAP1; CNTNAP2; CNTNAP3; CNTNAP4; CNTNAP5; COMP; COX-2; CRB1; CRB2; CSPG3; CUBN;
DLK1; DLL1; DLL3; DLL4; DNER;
EDIL3; EGF; EGFL11; EGFL8; EGFL9; EGFLAM; EPGN; EREG;
F7; F9; F10; F12; FAT; FAT2; FAT4; FBN1; FBN2; FBN3;
GAS6;
HABP2; HBEGF; HEG1; HGFAC; HMCN1; HSPG2;
ITGB5;
JAG1; JAG2;
LDLR; LRP1; LRP10; LRP1B; LRP2; LRP4; LRP5; LRP6; LRP8; LTBP1; LTBP2; LTBP3; LTBP4;
MATN1; MATN2; MATN3; MATN4; MEGF12; MEGF6; MEP1A; MEP1B; MFGE8; MMRN1; MMRN1; MUC4;
NAGPA; NID1; NID2; NOTCH1; NOTCH2; NOTCH2NL; NOTCH3; NOTCH4; NRG1; NRG2; NRG3; NRG4; NRXN1; NRXN2; NRXN3; NTNG2;
ODZ1; ODZ2; OIT3;
PLAT; PP187; PROC; PROS1; PROZ; PTGS1; PTGS2;
RAMP;
SCUBE1; SCUBE2; SCUBE3; SEL-OB; SELE; SELL; SELP; SLIT1; SLIT2; SLIT3; SNED1; STAB1; STAB2; SVEP1;
TECTA; TGFA; THBD; THBS1; THBS2; THBS4; TIE1; TLL1; TLL2; TMEFF1; TMEFF2; TNC; TNXB;
UMOD;
VASN; VCAN; VLDLR; VWA2;
WIF1;
ZAN;
See also
Epidermal growth factor
References
Protein domains
Single-pass transmembrane proteins
Protein superfamilies | EGF-like domain | [
"Biology"
] | 3,355 | [
"Protein superfamilies",
"Protein domains",
"Protein classification"
] |
14,581,990 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPR176 | Probable G-protein coupled receptor 176 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GPR176 gene.
References
Further reading
G protein-coupled receptors | GPR176 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 33 | [
"G protein-coupled receptors",
"Signal transduction"
] |
14,582,412 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone%E2%80%93Dale%20relation | The Gladstone–Dale relation is a mathematical relation used for optical analysis of liquids, the determination of composition from optical measurements. It can also be used to calculate the density of a liquid for use in fluid dynamics (e.g., flow visualization). The relation has also been used to calculate refractive index of glass and minerals in optical mineralogy.
Uses
In the Gladstone–Dale relation, , the index of refraction (n) or the density (ρ in g/cm3) of miscible liquids that are mixed in mass fraction (m) can be calculated from characteristic optical constants (the molar refractivity k in cm3/g) of pure molecular end-members. For example, for any mass (m) of ethanol added to a mass of water, the alcohol content is determined by measuring density or index of refraction (Brix refractometer). Mass (m) per unit volume (V) is the density m/V. Mass is conserved on mixing, but the volume of 1 cm3 of ethanol mixed with 1 cm3 of water is reduced to less than 2 cm3 due to the formation of ethanol-water bonds. The plot of volume or density versus molecular fraction of ethanol in water is a quadratic curve. However, the plot of index of refraction versus molecular fraction of ethanol in water is linear, and the weight fraction equals the fractional density
In the 1900s, the Gladstone–Dale relation was applied to glass, synthetic crystals and minerals. Average values for the refractivity of oxides such as MgO or SiO2 give good to excellent agreement between the calculated and measured average indices of refraction of minerals. However, specific values of refractivity are required to deal with different structure-types, and the relation required modification to deal with structural polymorphs and the birefringence of anisotropic crystal structures.
In recent optical crystallography, Gladstone–Dale constants for the refractivity of ions were related to the inter-ionic distances and angles of the crystal structure. The ionic refractivity depends on 1/d2, where d is the inter-ionic distance, indicating that a particle-like photon refracts locally due to the electrostatic Coulomb force between ions.
Expression
The Gladstone–Dale relation can be expressed as an equation of state by re-arranging the terms to .
where n is the index of refraction, d = density and constant = Gladstone-Dale constant.
The macroscopic values (n) and (V) determined on bulk material are now calculated as a sum of atomic or molecular properties. Each molecule has a characteristic mass (due to the atomic weights of the elements) and atomic or molecular volume that contributes to the bulk density, and a characteristic refractivity due to a characteristic electric structure that contributes to the net index of refraction.
The refractivity of a single molecule is the refractive volume k(MW)/NA in nm3, where MW is the molecular weight and NA is the Avogadro constant. To calculate the optical properties of materials using the polarizability or refractivity volumes in nm3, the Gladstone–Dale relation competes with the Kramers–Kronig relation and Lorentz–Lorenz relation but differs in optical theory.
The index of refraction (n) is calculated from the change of angle of a collimated monochromatic beam of light from vacuum into liquid using Snell's law for refraction. Using the theory of light as an electromagnetic wave, light takes a straight-line path through water at reduced speed (v) and wavelength (λ). The ratio v/λ is a constant equal to the frequency (ν) of the light, as is the quantized (photon) energy using the Planck constant and . Compared to the constant speed of light in vacuum (c), the index of refraction of water is .
The Gladstone–Dale term is the non-linear optical path length or time delay. Using Isaac Newton's theory of light as a stream of particles refracted locally by (electric) forces acting between atoms, the optic path length is due to refraction at constant speed by displacement about each atom. For light passing through 1 m of water with , light traveled an extra 0.33 m compared to light that traveled 1 m in a straight line in vacuum. As the speed of light is a ratio (distance per unit time in m/s), light also took an extra 0.33 s to travel through water compared to light traveling 1 s in vacuum.
Compatibility index
Mandarino, in his review of the Gladstone–Dale relationship in minerals proposed the concept of the Compatibility Index in comparing the physical and optical properties of minerals. This compatibility index is a required calculation for approval as a new mineral species (see IMA guidelines).
The compatibility index (CI) is defined as follows:
Where, KP = Gladstone-Dale Constant derived from physical properties.
Requirements
The Gladstone–Dale relation requires a particle model of light because the continuous wave-front required by wave theory cannot be maintained if light encounters atoms or molecules that maintain a local electric structure with a characteristic refractivity. Similarly, the wave theory cannot explain the photoelectric effect or absorption by individual atoms and one requires a local particle of light (see Wave–particle duality).
A local model of light consistent with these electrostatic refraction calculations occurs if the electromagnetic energy is restricted to a finite region of space. An electric-charge monopole must occur perpendicular to dipole loops of magnetic flux, but if local mechanisms for propagation are required, a periodic oscillatory exchange of electromagnetic energy occurs with transient mass. In the same manner, a change of mass occurs as an electron binds to a proton. This local photon has zero rest mass and no net charge, but has wave properties with spin-1 symmetry on trace over time. In this modern version of Newton's corpuscular theory of light, the local photon acts as a probe of the molecular or crystal structure.
References
Fluid dynamics
Optics | Gladstone–Dale relation | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 1,245 | [
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Optics",
"Chemical engineering",
"Piping",
" molecular",
"Atomic",
"Fluid dynamics",
" and optical physics"
] |
14,583,140 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRC6A | G protein-coupled receptor family C group 6 member A (GPRC6A) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GPRC6A gene. This protein functions as a receptor of L-α-amino acids, cations (e.g., calcium), osteocalcin, and steroids. It is a membrane androgen receptor.
Clinical significance
GPRC6A has also been linked to prostate cancer progression, and it has been shown to mediate rapid, non-genomic prostate cancer cell responses to testosterone.
See also
ZIP9
References
Further reading
External links
G protein-coupled receptors | GPRC6A | [
"Chemistry"
] | 128 | [
"G protein-coupled receptors",
"Signal transduction"
] |
14,583,171 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGR6 | Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 6 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the LGR6 gene. Along with the other G-protein coupled receptors LGR4 and LGR5, LGR6 is a Wnt signaling pathway mediator. LGR6 also acts as an epithelial stem cell marker in squamous cell carcinoma in mice in vivo.
This gene encodes a member of the leucine-rich repeat-containing subgroup of the G protein-coupled 7-transmembrane protein superfamily. The encoded protein is a glycoprotein hormone receptor with a large N-terminal extracellular domain that contains leucine-rich repeats important for the formation of a horseshoe-shaped interaction motif for ligand binding. Alternative splicing of this gene results in multiple transcript variants.
References
Further reading
G protein-coupled receptors | LGR6 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 183 | [
"G protein-coupled receptors",
"Signal transduction"
] |
14,583,316 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SX-3228 | SX-3228 is a sedative and hypnotic drug used in scientific research. It has similar effects to sedative-hypnotic benzodiazepine drugs, but is structurally distinct and so is classed as a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic.
SX-3228 is a subtype-selective GABAA positive allosteric modulator acting primarily at the α1 subtype. It thus has similar effects to other α1-selective drugs such as zolpidem and zaleplon in animal studies. It only partly substitutes for ethanol, and is a strong sedative-hypnotic with only limited anxiolytic effects which appear only at doses that also produce significant sedation.
References
GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators
Sedatives
Lactams
Oxadiazoles
Ethers
Naphthyridines | SX-3228 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 177 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Functional groups",
"Ethers"
] |
14,583,981 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylamphetamine | Dimethylamphetamine (Metrotonin), also known as dimetamfetamine (INN), dimephenopan and N,N-dimethylamphetamine, is a stimulant drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine chemical classes. Dimethylamphetamine has weaker stimulant effects than amphetamine or methamphetamine and is considerably less addictive and less neurotoxic compared to methamphetamine. However, it still retains some mild stimulant effects and abuse potential, and is a Schedule I controlled drug.
Dimethylamphetamine has occasionally been found in illicit methamphetamine laboratories, but is usually an impurity rather than the desired product. It may be produced by accident when methamphetamine is synthesised by methylation of amphetamine if the reaction temperature is too high or an excess of methylating agent is used.
It is said to be a prodrug of amphetamine/methamphetamine.
References
Dimethylamino compounds
Methamphetamines
Norepinephrine-dopamine releasing agents
Prodrugs
Substituted amphetamines | Dimethylamphetamine | [
"Chemistry"
] | 253 | [
"Chemicals in medicine",
"Prodrugs"
] |
14,584,630 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keymark | The Keymark is a voluntary European certification mark demonstrating compliance with the European Standard (EN). It is owned by CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, and CENELEC, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization.
The Keymark is the European mark based on the principle "one standard, one test, accepted everywhere". It is operated by certification bodies which have been empowered by CEN or CENELEC and who are accredited on the basis of EN 45011 (ISO/IEC Guide 65) by a signatory to the multilateral agreement (MLA) of the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA).
Precondition for the certification is the establishment and the operation of a product-related factory production control (FPC) which takes into account the elements of the ISO 9000 series of standards and the process of the related production line from the raw material to finished product and storage of the product. The FPC shall form an integral part of the manufacturer's quality management system, if any. An example of the application of the Keymark symbol is the Solar Keymark.
External links
European Co-operation for Accreditation
HeatPump Keymark
Solar Keymark
Keymark for thermal insulation products
Certification marks
EN standards
European Committee for Standardization | Keymark | [
"Mathematics"
] | 254 | [
"Symbols",
"Certification marks"
] |
14,584,919 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20J.%20Elliott | Robert James Elliott (born 1940) is a British-Canadian mathematician, known for his contributions to control theory, game theory, stochastic processes and mathematical finance.
He was schooled at Swanwick Hall Grammar School in Swanwick, Derbyshire and studied mathematics in which he earn a B.A. (1961) and M.A. (1965) at the University of Oxford, as well as a Ph.D (thesis Some results in spectral synthesis advised by John Hunter Williamson, 1965) and Sc.D. (1983) from the University of Cambridge.
He taught and conducted research at
University of Newcastle (1964),
Yale University (1965–66),
University of Oxford (1966–68),
University of Warwick (1969–73),
Northwestern University (1972–73),
University of Hull (1973–86),
University of Alberta (1985-2001),
University of Calgary (2001-2009) and
University of Adelaide (2009-2013).
Books
Stochastic Processes, Finance and Control A Festschrift in Honor of Robert J Elliott (World Scientific Publishing, 2012)
with Nigel Kalton, The Existence of Value for Differential Games (American Mathematical Society, 1972)
Stochastic Calculus and Applications (Springer-Verlag, 1982)
Viscosity Solutions and Optimal Control (Longman, 1987)
Stokasticheski Analiz i evo Prilozeniya (M.I.R. Publications Moscow, 1986)
with Lakhdar Aggoun and John B. Moore, Hidden Markov Models: Estimation and Control (Springer-Verlag, 1994)
with P. Ekkehard Kopp, Mathematics of Financial Markets (Springer Verlag, 1999, in Hungarian 2000).
with J. van der Hoek, Binomial Models in Finance (Springer Verlag, 2005)
with Rogemar S. Mamon, Hidden Markov Models in Finance (Springer, 2007)
with Samuel N. Cohen, Stochastic Calculus and Applications (Springer, 2015)
References
20th-century British mathematicians
21st-century British mathematicians
Academics of the University of Hull
Academics of the University of Warwick
Alumni of the University of Oxford
British emigrants to Canada
Game theorists
People from Amber Valley
Academic staff of the University of Alberta
Academic staff of the University of Calgary
1940 births
Living people | Robert J. Elliott | [
"Mathematics"
] | 462 | [
"Game theorists",
"Game theory"
] |
14,584,923 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.%20S.%20Krishnan | Sir Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan (4 December 1898 – 14 June 1961) was an Indian physicist. He was a co-discoverer of Raman scattering, for which his mentor C. V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Early life
Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan generally referred to as K. S. Krishnan or KSK, was born in a Vaishnavite brahmin family on 4 December 1898 in Watrap, Tamil Nadu. His father was a farmer-scholar deeply versed in Tamil literature. He had his early education in Hindu Higher Secondary school, in Watrap, after which he attended the American College in Madurai and the Madras Christian College. After gaining his degree in Physics he became a demonstrator in chemistry.
Early career
In 1920, Krishnan went to work with C.V. Raman at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata (then Calcutta). There he engaged himself in experimental study of the scattering of light in a large number of liquids and its theoretical interpretations. He played a significant role in the discovery of the Raman scattering.
In 1928 he moved to the Dacca University (now in Bangladesh) as the Reader in the physics department where he studied magnetic properties of crystals in relation to their structure. Krishnan, along with other rising scientists such as Santilal Banerjee, B.C. Guha, and Asutosh Mukherjee developed an elegant and precise experimental technique to measure the magnetic anisotropy of diamagnetic and paramagnetic crystals. Their findings were published by the Royal Society of London in 1933 under the title, Investigations on Magne-Crystallic Action.
In 1933 he returned to Kolkata to take up the post of Mahendralal Sircar Professor of Physics in the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science where he continued to collaborate fruitfully with Banerjee to elaborate on the magnetic properties of crystals in relation to their structure. Their joint papers and communications (published in Nature, Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, and by the Royal Society), remain to this day, aside from a number of other pathbreaking contributions they also published in various Physics journals, the most definitive scientific studies on the structure and tendencies of small crystals. Their experiments in Dacca and continued collaborative research in Kolkata led to what is now known as the Krishnan Banerjee method for measuring the magnetic susceptibility of small crystals.
Krishnan was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1940. His Royal Society candidature certificate in 1935 read:
"Distinguished for his investigations in molecular optics and in magne-crystalline action:collaborated with Sir C.V. Raman in extensive theoretical and experimental studies on light scattering, molecular optics and in the discovery of the Raman Effect (1928). More recently has been publishing many valuable investigations (Phil Trans Royal Society and elsewhere) on the significance of magnetic anisotropy in relation to crystal architecture and thermo-magnetic behaviour at the lowest temperatures. Has published important work on pleochroism in crystals and its relation to photo-dissociation. Leader of an active school of research in Calcutta."
In 1942, he moved to Allahabad University as Professor and Head of the Department of Physics where he took up the physics of solids, in particular of metals.
He was knighted in the 1946 Birthday Honours List and awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1954. He was the first recipient of the prestigious Bhatnagar Award in 1958.
On 4 January 1947 K. S. Krishnan was appointed first director of National Physical Laboratory India. This was one of the earliest national laboratories set up under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Quotes about Krishnan
What is remarkable about Krishnan is not that he is a great scientist but something much more. He is a perfect citizen, a whole man with an integrated personality. – Jawaharlal Nehru
Collected works
The scientific papers of K. S. Krishnan have been published in 1988 by the National Physical Laboratory (located on Dr K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi 110012). The book of 950 pages has been made available in the Public Library of India collection of the Internet archive at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.502306
See also
Raman scattering
Magnetic anisotropy
References
External links
Scientists Biography page on K S Krishnan, in Vigyan Prasar, Government of India
1898 births
1961 deaths
Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology
Experimental physicists
Indian Knights Bachelor
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering
20th-century Indian physicists
University of Madras alumni
Scientists from Tamil Nadu
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
University of Calcutta alumni
Academic staff of the University of Dhaka
Tamil scientists
Indian theoretical physicists
Indian astrophysicists | K. S. Krishnan | [
"Physics"
] | 1,023 | [
"Experimental physics",
"Experimental physicists"
] |
14,585,095 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International%20Electrotechnical%20Exhibition | The 1891 International Electrotechnical Exhibition was held between 16 May and 19 October on the disused site of the three former (Western Railway Stations) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The exhibition featured the first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current, which was generated 175 km away at Lauffen am Neckar. As a result of this successful field trial, three-phase current became established for electrical transmission networks throughout the world.
History
The "Elektrotechnische Gesellschaft" (Electrotechnical Society) was founded in Frankfurt in 1881 with the aim of promoting electricity and, in particular, furthering research into its application for industry and technology. Three years later, some ten manufacturers of electrical equipment had set themselves up in the city. In around 1890, some of the enterprises were established which would later become major firms in Frankfurt: Hartmann & Braun, Staudt & Voigt (from 1891 Voigt & Haefner) and W Lahmeyer & Co (from 1893 Elektrizitäts-AG, previously W Lahmeyer & Co). And it was in Frankfurt that the Second Industrial Revolution began to emerge – a revolution that would bring about fundamental changes similar to those created 100 years previously by the introduction of the steam engine to the world of work. In 1891, the German electrical industry was ready to demonstrate its capabilities to the world at the International Electrotechnical Exhibition. A site was chosen – that of the former western stations between the city and the new main station, which had been completed in 1888.
Prompted by the Paris "Exposition Universelle" (World Fair) of 1889, Leopold Sonnemann, publisher of the Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper, interested the Electrotechnical Society in the idea of an exhibition. The Society expressed an interest and started preparations in the same year. However, there was another consideration apart from the setting up of an international exhibition – Frankfurt had an urgent problem to solve. The construction of a central power station had been under discussion in the city's political and technical committees since 1886. However, agreement had still to be reached over the type of current, and opinions were divided between direct current, alternating current and three-phase current. It fell to the exhibition to demonstrate a commercially viable method for the transmission of electricity. Three-phase current with a minimal loss of 25% would be transmitted at high voltage from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt. This took centre stage at the exhibition and was evidenced in the large three-section entrance gate. The central section took the form of an arch bearing the inscription "Power Transmission Lauffen–Frankfurt 175 km." Rectangular panels flanked the arch: the one to the right carrying the name of the "Allgemeine Electricitätsgesellschaft" ("AEG" – General Electricity Company), which had been founded in 1887; the left-hand panel displayed the name of the "Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon" (Oerlikon Engineering Works). The entire entrance was illuminated with 1000 light bulbs and an electrically powered waterfall provided a further attraction. With 1,200,000 visitors from all over the world, the exhibition was an out-and-out success. The cost of a one-day entry ticket for an adult amounted to a considerable 15 marks.
As far as Germany was concerned, the International Electrotechnical Exhibition settled once and for all the question of the most economical means of transmitting electrical energy. When the exhibition closed, the power station at Lauffen continued in operation – providing electricity for the administrative capital, Heilbronn, thus making it the first place to be equipped with a power supply using three-phase AC. The name of the local power company (ZEAG) bears testimony to this event. The Frankfurt city council constructed its own power station near the harbour; yet another was built by a private company in the suburb of Bockenheim.
Equipment
A hydraulic turbine at Lauffen powered a three-phase alternator with a revolving field. The alternator revolved at 150 revolutions per minute, and had a rotating field magnet with 32 poles. It was rated at 300 hp and had a terminal voltage of 55 volts. The frequency of the current was 40 Hz. Power from the alternator was stepped up to 8000 volts for transmission by oil-insulated transformers. Later tests were carried out with transmission voltage up to 25,000 volts (between phases).
The transmission line was erected with the assistance of the German Post Office and used about 60 tonnes of copper wire, 4 mm in diameter. At the exhibition, the voltage was stepped down by further oil-filled transformers and connected to motors and a motor-generator system for lamps.
Overall efficiency from turbine to load was an average of 75%, which resolved many doubts of the practicality of long-distance electric power transmission.
Gallery
See also
War of the currents
References
Bibliography
Jürgen Steen (Hg.): "Eine neue Zeit ..!", Die Internationale Elektrotechnische Ausstellung 1891. Frankfurt am Main 1991 (Ausstellungskatalog Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main),
Horst A. Wessel (Hg.): Moderne Energie für eine neue Zeit, siebtes VDE-Kolloquium am 3. und 4. September 1991 anlässlich der VDE-Jubiläumsveranstaltung "100 Jahre Drehstrom" in Frankfurt am Main (= Geschichte der Elektrotechnik, Bd.11). Berlin/Offenbach 1991,
Volker Rödel: Fabrikarchitektur in Frankfurt am Main 1774–1924, Frankfurt 1986, S.30f.,
Sabine Hock: Mehr Licht für Frankfurt, Oskar von Miller brachte Frankfurt auf den Weg zur Elektrifizierung, Wochendienst Nr. 16 vom 26.04.2005, hg. v. Presse- und Informationsamt der Stadt Frankfurt am Main
External links
History of electrical engineering
1891 in Germany
World's fairs in Germany
1891 in science
19th century in Frankfurt
Festivals established in 1891 | International Electrotechnical Exhibition | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,259 | [
"Electrical engineering",
"History of electrical engineering"
] |
14,585,246 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital%20Project | Digital Project is a computer-aided design (CAD) software application based on CATIA V5 and developed by Gehry Technologies, a technology company owned by the architect Frank Gehry.
Among the changes made by Gehry Technologies to CATIA is a new visual interface suitable for architecture work. With the release of version R5 Digital Project is compatible with CATIA V5R22.
Digital Project is widely known as the software used to design the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation.
Digital Project (like CATIA) enables information to be sent directly to manufacturer, rather than needing to be processed separately in preparation for sending out of house.
On their website Gehry Technology list the following functionality in their DigitalProject:Designer product: generative surfaces design, project organization, parametric 3D surfaces, free-style surface modeling (NURBS), design to fabrication, dynamic sectioning, revision tracking and part comparison, advanced solids modeling and integration with Microsoft Project
Digital Project competes as Building information modeling software with products like ArchiCAD and Revit. It has been used on projects such as Sagrada Familia, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Ray and Maria Stata Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Hejmdal, The Danish Cancer Societies House.
In 2014, Trimble acquired Gehry Technology, the developers of Digital Project.
See also
Comparison of computer-aided design editors
References
External links
DigitalProject:Designer product page
Digital Project description at Georgia Tech's website
has some articles on using Digital Project
describes the Danish exhibition ”Digital Project – Frank Gehry’s Vision”
Computer-aided design software
Building information modeling | Digital Project | [
"Engineering"
] | 337 | [
"Building engineering",
"Building information modeling"
] |
14,585,748 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belongingness | Belongingness is the human emotional need to be an accepted member of a group. Whether it is family, friends, co-workers, a religion, or something else, some people tend to have an 'inherent' desire to belong and be an important part of something greater than themselves. This implies a relationship that is greater than simple acquaintance or familiarity.
Belonging is a strong feeling that exists in human nature. To belong or not to belong is a subjective experience that can be influenced by a number of factors within people and their surrounding environment. A person's sense of belonging can greatly impact the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual emotions within themselves.
Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary argue that belongingness is such a fundamental human motivation that people feel severe consequences for not belonging. Were it not so fundamental, then lacking a sense of belonging would not have such dire consequences. This desire is so universal that the need to belong is found across all cultures and different types of people.
Active listening can help create the feeling of belonging; this is because it enables the ability to listen and respond to another person in an understanding and meaningful way. When the person feels truly heard, especially in a way that promotes unconditional positive regard, they are able to feel a significantly higher sense of belonging and acceptance.
Psychological needs
Abraham Maslow suggested that the need to belong was a major source of human motivation. He thought that it was one of five human needs in his hierarchy of needs, along with physiological needs, safety, self-esteem, and self-actualization. These needs are arranged on a hierarchy and must be satisfied in order. After physiological and safety needs are met an individual can then work on meeting the need to belong and be loved. According to Maslow, if the first two needs are not met, then an individual cannot completely love someone else.
Other theories have also focused on the need to belong as a fundamental psychological motivation. According to Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, all human beings need a certain minimum quantity of regular, satisfying social interactions. Inability to meet this need results in loneliness, mental distress, and a strong desire to form new relationships. Several psychologists have proposed that there are individual differences in people's motivation to belong. People with a strong motivation to belong are less satisfied with their relationships and tend to be relatively lonely. As consumers, they tend to seek the opinions of others about products and services and also attempt to influence others' opinions.
According to Baumeister and Leary, much of what human beings do is done in the service of belongingness. They argue that many of the human needs that have been documented, such as the needs for power, intimacy, approval, achievement and affiliation, are all driven by the need to belong. Human culture is compelled and conditioned by pressure to belong. The need to belong and form attachments is universal among humans. This counters the Freudian argument that sexuality and aggression are the major driving psychological forces. Those who believe that the need to belong is the major psychological drive also believe that humans are naturally driven toward establishing and sustaining relationships and belongingness. For example, interactions with strangers are potential first steps towards developing non-hostile and more long-term connections which can satisfy one’s attachment needs. Certain people who are socially deprived can exhibit physical, behavioral, and psychological problems, such as stress or instability.
Attachments
In all cultures, attachments form universally. Social bonds are easily formed, without the need for favorable settings. The need to belong is a goal-directed activity that people try to satisfy with a certain minimum number of social contacts. The quality of interactions is more important than the quantity of interactions. People who form social attachments beyond that minimal amount experience less satisfaction from extra relationships, as well as more stress from terminating those extra relationships. People also effectively replace lost relationship partners by substituting them with new relationships or social environments. For example, individuals with strong family ties could compensate for loneliness at work.
Relationships missing regular contact but characterized by strong feelings of commitment and intimacy also fail to satisfy the need. Just knowing that a bond exists may be emotionally comforting, yet it would not provide a feeling of full belongingness if there is a lack of interaction between the persons. The belongingness hypothesis proposes two main features. First, people need constant, positive, personal interactions with other people. Second, people need to know that the bond is stable, there is mutual concern, and that this attachment will continue. So, the need to belong is not just a need for intimate attachments or a need for connections, but that the perception of the bond is as important as the bond itself. Individuals need to know that other people care about their well-being and love them.
Baumeister and Leary argue that much of the research on group bonds can be interpreted through the lens of belongingness. They argue that plenty of evidence suggests that social bonds are formed easily. In the classic Robber's Cave study, stranger boys were randomly grouped into two different groups and almost immediately, group identification and strong loyalty developed to their specific group. Initially, the two groups were asked to compete with one another, and hostility between the groups ensued. However, when the two groups were combined to form one big group and were given the opportunity to bond by working together to accomplish superordinate goals, behaviors and emotions accommodated quickly to that new group. In an attempt to understand causes of in-group favoritism, researchers formed a group so minimal and insignificant that one would expect that no favoritism would be found, yet in-group favoritism appeared immediately.
Researchers agree that banding together against a threat (the out-group) and sharing rewards are primary reasons groups form and bond so easily. Mere proximity is another powerful factor in relationship formation. Just like babies form attachments with their caregivers, people develop attachments just because they live near one another. This suggests that proximity sometimes overcomes the tendencies to bond with others who are similar to us. Positive social bonds form just as easily under fearful circumstances, such as military veterans who have undergone heavy battle together. This can be explained by either misattribution (interpreting feelings of anxious arousal as feelings of attraction for another person) or reinforcement theory (the presence of another person reduces distress and elicits positive responses). Baumeister and Leary argue that the reinforcement theory explanation provides evidence for the importance of belonging needs because these learned associations create a tendency to seek out the company of others in times of threat. The formation of social attachments with former rivals is a great indicator of the need to belong. Belonging motivations are so strong that they are able to overcome competitive feelings towards opponents.
People form such close attachments with one another that they are hesitant in breaking social bonds. Universally, people distress and protest ending social relationships across all cultures and age spans. Even temporary groups, such as training groups, struggle with the idea that the group may eventually dissolve. The group may have fulfilled their purpose, but the participants want to cling on to the relationships and social bonds that have been formed with one another. The group members make promises individually and collectively to stay in touch, plan for future reunions, and take other steps to ensure the continuity of the attachment. For example, two people may not speak for an entire year, but continue exchanging holiday cards. People do not want to risk damaging a relationship or breaking an attachment, because it is distressing.
People are so hesitant in breaking social bonds that in many cases, they are hesitant to dissolve even bad relationships that could be potentially destructive. For example, many women are unwilling to leave their abusive spouses or boyfriends with excuses ranging from liking for the abuse to economic self-interests that are more important than physical harm. This unwillingness to leave an abusive partner, whether mentally or physically, is just another indicator of the power of the need to belong and how reluctant individuals are to break these bonds. Breaking off an attachment causes pain that is deeply rooted in the need to belong.
People experience a range of both positive and negative emotions; the strongest emotions linked to attachment and belongingness. Empirical evidence suggests that when individuals are accepted, welcomed, or included it leads those individuals to feel positive emotions such as happiness, elation, calm, and satisfaction. However, when individuals are rejected or excluded, they feel strong negative emotions such as anxiety, jealousy, depression, and grief. In fact, the psychological pain caused by social rejection is so intense that it involves the same brain regions involved in the experience of physical pain. Both positive and negative reactions in emotion are connected to status of relationship. The existence of a social attachment changes the way one emotionally responds to the actions of a relationship partner and the emotions have the potential to intensify.
Lack of constant, positive relationships has been linked to a large range of consequences. People who lack belongingness are more prone to behavioral problems such as criminality and suicide and suffer from increasing mental and physical illness. Based on this evidence, multiple and diverse problems are caused by the lack of belongingness and attachments. It therefore seems appropriate to regard belongingness and attachments as a need rather than simply a want.
Relationships that are centrally important in the way people think are interpersonal relationships. The belongingness hypothesis suggests that people devote much of their cognitive thought process to interpersonal relationships and attachments. For example, researchers found that people store information in terms of their social bonds, such as storing more information about a marriage partner as opposed to a work acquaintance. People also sort out-group members on the basis of characteristics, traits, and duties, whereas they sort in-group members on person categories. Cognitive processing organizes information by the person they have a connection with as opposed to strangers. Researchers had a group of people take turns reading out loud and they found that they had the greatest recall for the words they personally spoke, as well as for words spoken by dating partners or close friends. There is a cognitive merging of the self with specific people that is followed by the need to belong. Flattering words that are said to a spouse can enhance the self just as positively. People always believe that nothing bad can happen to themselves, and extend that thought to their family and friends.
There is an emotional implication to belongingness in which positive affect is linked to increases in belongingness while negative affect is linked to decreases in belongingness. Positive emotions are associated with forming social attachments, such as the experience of falling in love, as long as the love is mutual. Unrequited love (love without belongingness) usually leads to disappointment whereas belongingness in love leads to joy. Occasions such as childbirth, new employment, and fraternity/sorority pledging are all associated with the formation of new social attachments surrounded by positive emotions. Forming bonds is cause for joy, especially when the bond is given a permanent status, such as a wedding. Weddings signify permanent commitment and complete the social bond by committing to the spouse's need to belong. Positive experiences shared emotions increases attraction with others. Close personal attachments, a rich network of friends and high levels of intimacy motivation are all correlated to happiness in life.
The breaking of social bonds and threats to those bonds are primary sources of negative affect. People feel anxious, depressed, guilty or lonely when they lose important relationships. Social exclusion is the most common cause of anxiety. Anxiety is a natural consequence of being separated from others. Examples include children suffering from separation anxiety from being separated from their mothers. Adults act similarly when their loved ones leave for a period of time. Memories of past rejection and imagining social rejection all elicit negative emotions. Losses of attachments lead directly to anxiety. If people are excluded from social groups, people get anxious, yet the anxiety is removed when they experience social inclusion. Failing to feel accepted can lead to social and general depression. Depression and anxiety are significantly correlated. Social exclusion is also a major cause of jealousy, which is a common reaction when one's relationships are threatened. Jealousy is cross-culturally universal and in all cultures, sexual jealousy is common. It was said earlier that belongingness needs can only truly be met with social contact, but social contact by itself does not shield people against loneliness. Loneliness matters more when there is a lack of intimacy as opposed to lack of contact. Another negative affect is guilt, which is caused to make the other person want to maintain the relationship more, such as paying more attention to that person.
Divorce and death are two negative events that spoil the need to belong. Divorce causes distress, anger, loneliness, and depression in almost everyone. The death of oneself and other people are the most traumatic and stressful events that people can experience. Death can cause severe depression, which is not a reaction to the loss of the loved one, but because there is a loss of the attachment with that other person. For example, a death of a spouse in which there was marriage problems can still elicit in extreme sadness at the loss of that attachment. Death is linked to anxiety and fear of loneliness. The idea of being separated from friends and family, and not the fact that they would no longer exist on this earth, is what brings about this anxiety.
Evolutionary perspectives
One reason for the need to belong is based on the theory of evolution. In the past belonging to a group was essential to survival: people hunted and cooked in groups. Belonging to a group allowed tribe members to share the workload and protect each other. Not only were they trying to ensure their own survival, but all members of their tribe were invested in each other's outcomes because each member played an important role in the group. More recently in Western society, this is not necessarily the case. Most people no longer belong to tribes, but they still protect those in their groups and still have a desire to belong in groups.
The need to belong is rooted in evolutionary history. Human beings are social animals. Humans have matured over a long period of time in dyadic and group contexts. Humans evolved in small groups that depended on close social connections to fulfill survival and reproductive needs. Unlike other species, humans receive most of what they need from their social group rather than directly from his or her natural environment, suggesting that the human strategy for survival depends on belonging. This explains why a large body of evidence suggests that people are happier and healthier when they experience social belonging. In contrast, lacking belonging and being excluded is perceived as painful and has a variety of negative effects including, shame, anger and depression. Because belongingness is a central component of human functioning, social exclusion has been found to influence many behavioral, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. Given the negative consequences of social exclusion and social rejection, people developed traits that function to prevent rejection and encourage acceptance.
Self-presentation
To be accepted within a group, individuals may convey or conceal certain parts of their personalities. This is known as self-presentation. Self-presentation, or impression management, attempts to control images of the self in front of audiences. It is a conscious and unconscious goal-directed action done to influence audiences to perceive the actor as someone who belongs. Certain aspects of one's personality may not be seen as desirable or essential to the group, so people try to convey what they interpret as valuable to the group.
Self-presentation is frequently used in social media. It has been shown that those who use a strategic self-presentation style in social media versus a more authentic self-presentation style when considering their weaker friendships tend to be happier and feel like they have successfully fulfilled their relationship maintenance goals. Additionally, it has been found that self-presentation in social media highly predicts an individual's sense of belongingness and social support.
Group membership
Individuals join groups with which they have commonalities, whether it is sense of humor, style in clothing, socioeconomic status, or career goals. In general, individuals seek out those who are most similar to them. People like to feel that they can relate to someone and those who are similar to them give them that feeling. People also like those that they think they can understand and who they think can understand them.
Social connections
The desire to form and maintain social bonds is among the most powerful human motives. If an individual's sense of social connectedness is threatened, their ability to self-regulate suffers. Social relationships are important for human functioning and well-being therefore, research on how social relationships affect people's personal interests and motivated behavior has been a focus of numerous studies. Walton, Cohen, and Spencer for example, believed that a mere sense of social connectedness (even with people who were unfamiliar) can cause one to internalize the goals and motivations of others. By doing so, this shapes people's motivated behavior suggesting achievement motivation and one's self-identity are highly sensitive to minor cues of social connection. Mere belonging is defined as an entryway to a social relationship, represented by a small cue of social connection to an individual or group. Social belonging is a sense of relatedness connected to a positive, lasting, and significant interpersonal relationship. While mere belonging is a minimal or even chance social connection, social belonging factors are characterized as social feedback, validation, and shared experiences. Sharing common goals and interests with others strengthens positive social bonds and may enhance feelings of self-worth.
In another study, Walton and Cohen examined stigmatization and its link to belonging uncertainty. Their belonging uncertainty idea suggests that in academic and professional settings, members of socially stigmatized groups are more uncertain of the quality of their social bonds. Therefore, they feel more sensitive to issues of social belonging. They believe in domains of achievement, belonging uncertainty can have large effects on the motivation of those challenging with a threatened social identity.
Conformity
Group membership can involve conformity. Conformity is the act of changing one's actions, attitudes, and behaviors to match the norms of others. Norms are unsaid rules that are shared by a group. The tendency to conform results from direct and indirect social pressures occurring in whole societies and in small groups. There are two types of conformity motivations known as informational social influence and normative social influence. Information social influence is the desire to obtain and form accurate information about reality. Information social influence occurs in certain situations, such as in a crisis. This information can be sought out by other people in the group or experts. If someone is in a situation where they do not know the right way to behave, they look at the cues of others to correct their own behavior. These people conform because group interpretations are generally more accurate than individual interpretations. Normative social influence is the desire to obtain social approval from others. Normative social influence occurs when one conforms to be accepted by members of a group, since the need to belong is in our human desire. When people do not conform, they are less liked by the group and may even be considered deviant. Normative influence usually leads to public compliance, which is fulfilling a request or doing something that one may not necessarily believe in, but that the group believes in.
According to Baumeister and Leary, group conformity can be seen as a way to improve one's chances of being accepted by a social group; thus is serves belongingness needs. People often conform to gain the approval of others, build rewarding relationships, and enhance their own self-esteem. Individuals are more likely to conform to groups who describe out-group members with stereotype traits, even though don't publicly express their agreement. People desire to gain approval so they conform to others. The beliefs held by others and how we react to those beliefs is often reliant on our view of the amount of agreement for those beliefs. Researchers are interested in exploring informational and normative motivational influences to conform on majorities and minorities. Objective consensus theory suggests that majority influence of a group is informational, while conversion theory views it as normative. Normative influences may be the underlying motivations behind certain types of conformity; however, researchers believe that after time, informational influences such as confidence in the accuracy of one's intergroup norms is positively correlated with distinguished level of compromise.
Outside the conscious mind, a type of conformity is behavioral mimicry, otherwise known as the chameleon effect. Behavioral mimicry is when individuals mimic behaviors such as facial expressions, postures, and mannerisms between other individuals. Researchers found that individuals subconsciously conformed to the mannerisms of their partners and friends and liked these partners more who mirrored them. This is important in regard to rapport building and forming new social relationships-we mirror the behaviors we are supposed to, to get to where we want to belong in the group. People are motivated to conform to gain social approval and enhance and protect their own self-esteems. However, people who wish to combat conformity and fight that need to belong with the majority group can do so by focusing on their own self-worth or by straying from the attitudes and norms of others. This can establish a sense of uniqueness within an individual. Yet, most individuals keep positive assessments of themselves and still conform to valued groups.
Self-regulation
When our belongingness needs are not met, Wilkowski and colleagues (2009) suggest that self-regulation is used to fulfill one's need to belong. Self-regulation is defined as the process of regulating oneself, or changing one's behavior, to manage short-term desires according to the self-regulation theory. Self-regulation can occur in many different ways. One of these ways uses other individual's gaze(s) as a reference to understand how attention should be divided. This effect is especially seen within individuals that have low levels of self-esteem. Interpersonal acceptance is not met in individuals with low self-esteem, which prompts them to self-regulate by looking to others for guidance with regards to where to focus attention. Belongingness contributes to this level of self-esteem. Baumeister, Dewall, Ciarocco, and Twenge (2005) found that when people are socially excluded from a group, self-regulation is less likely to be than those who have a heightened sense of belonging. For example, participants were told that the other people in the study did not want to work with them and as a consequence they would have to complete a task on their own. Later, those participants were offered a plate of cookies. The participants that were told that nobody in the group wanted to work with them took more cookies than those who were not told this information, which provides evidence that a lack of belongingness inhibits people's ability to self-regulate. Self-regulation includes impulse control and allows one to manage short-term impulses and have a heightened sense of belongingness within an ingroup. An ingroup is a social group in which a person psychologically defines themselves as being a member of that specific group. By being a part of this group, one has a better ability to self-regulate.
Peer networks
As the span of relationships expands from childhood into adolescence, a sense of peer group membership is likely to develop. Adolescent girls have been found to value group membership more and are more identified with their peer groups than boys. Adolescent girls tend to have a higher number of friends than boys. They expect and desire more nurturing behavior from their friends. Girls experience more self-disclosure, more empathy, and less overt hostility compared to boys. A study found that girls use ruminative coping, which involves perseverating on the negative feelings and the unpleasant situations associated with problems. Boys on the other hand, tend to be less intimate and have more activity based friendships. Boys do not benefit as much as girls from feelings of belonging that are a product of enduring and close friendships. They are less vulnerable to the emotional distress that is likely to accompany high levels of co-rumination and disclosure.
Various peer groups approve of varying activities and when individuals engage in approved activities, the peer group positively reinforces this behavior. For example, allowing the individual to become part of the group or by paying more attention to the individual is a positive reinforcement. This is a source of motivation for the individual to repeat the activity or engage in other approved activities. Adolescents have also been observed to choose friendships with individuals who engage in similar activities to those that they are involved in. This provides the individual with more opportunities to engage in the activity therefore the peer group may influence how often the individual engages in the activity. To feel a sense of belonging and fit in, adolescents often conform to activities of a particular group by participating in the same activities as members of the peer group.
Newman and colleagues found three different aspects of adolescents' perceptions of group membership: peer group affiliation, the importance of peer group membership and a sense of peer group belonging to behavior problems in adolescence. To capture an adolescent's self-perception of group affiliation one may ask an adolescent to identify themselves as a member of a group or discuss whether they belong in a group. An affective aspect of group belongingness includes feelings of being proud of one's group and being a valued group member. The affective nature of a sense of group belonging has been found to be the most internally consistent. It is important to find out how important it is for an adolescent to be a member of a group because not all adolescents are equally concerned about being part of a group. Those who strongly desire to be in a peer group and do not experience a sense of group belonging are expected to have the greatest social distress and are likely to report the most behavior problems.
Schooling
A sense of belonging to a social peer group can enhance students academic achievement. Group membership in early adolescence is associated with greater interest in and more enjoyment of school, while those who are not part of such social groups tend to be less engaged with school. Among middle school and high school students, multiple studies have found a link between a more positive sense of belonging and better academic motivation, lower rates of school dropout, better social-emotional functioning, and higher grade point average. At a college level, a better sense of belonging has been linked to perceived professor caring and greater involvement in campus organizations. In a study exploring associations between a sense of school belonging and academic and psychological adjustment, Pittman and Richmond found that college students who reported a greater sense of belonging at a college level, were doing better academically and felt more competent scholastically but also had a higher self-worth and lower levels of externalizing problems. However, students who were having problems with their relationships with friends, were found to experience more internalizing behaviors and feel less connected to the college.
Schools are important developmental contexts for children and adolescents, and influence their socio-emotional and academic development. One approach used to study naturally occurring peer groups is the social cognitive mapping (SCM). The SCM strategy asks students in a peer system, for example in a classroom, to identify which class members they have observed “hanging out” together. Therefore, determining patterns of observed social affiliations. Interactions and associations within peer networks theorize experience validation, acceptance, and affirmation of early adolescents in schools. The sense of connection within a classroom has been defined as having a sense of classroom belonging. Meaning, students feel they are being valued accepted, included and encouraged by others in the classroom setting. They perceive themselves to be an important part of the setting and activity of the class.
Goodenow and Grady (1993) define school belonging as "the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment" (p 80). School belonging is considered to be a complex multidimensional construct. In much of the research to date, school connectedness has also been used to describe 'school belonging'. Whilst some scholars believe the terms can be used interchangeably, others construe school belonging as something different.
School belonging has been operationalized by the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale. A sense of school belonging has been associated with greater overall well being and happiness, as well as outcomes related to academic achievement.
There are a number of similar concepts centered around school belonging, including school bonding, student engagement, school attachment, school community, school climate, orientation to school, and school connectedness. The inconsistent use of terminology has meant that research into school belonging has been somewhat disjointed and weakened.
School belonging is a student's attachment to their school. Student engagement was explored by Finn in the two-dimensional model, conceptualizing engagement as having two components – participation and identification. Participation refers to behavior, whilst identification relates to affect or a sense of belonging. While school attachment involves a student's connection to school, school community incorporates belonging, meaning that in order to be a part of any community (including a school community), a person first needs to have feelings of belonging
Blum and Libbey characterize school connectedness as a student's perception that teachers, along with other adults in the school community, show a concern for the pupils' learning, pay attention to who the student is as an individual, and also have high academic expectations. Furthermore, school connectedness involves a student having a sense of safety at school as well as positive student-teacher relationships.
Despite the slight differences in meaning, these terms commonly include three aspects: they refer to school-based relationships and experiences, they involve the relationship between students and teachers, and they include a student's general feelings about school as a whole.
A large number of variables have been found to be significantly associated with school belonging. This has made it difficult to present a theoretical model of school belonging. Allen and colleagues (2018) conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis and uncovered 10 themes that influence school belonging during adolescence in educational settings:
Academic motivation
Emotional stability
Personal characteristics
Parent support
Teacher support
Peer support
Gender, race and ethnicity
Extracurricular activities
Environmental/school safety
The meta-analysis found that teacher support and positive personal characteristics are the strongest predictors of school belonging.
Whilst theories pertaining to general ‘belongingness' can also be applied to school belonging, theories of belonging generally imply that belonging comes about because an individual is motivated to meet the fundamental need to belong and to achieve meaningful social relations. However, school belonging is slightly different. School belonging is affected by the school's organisational culture as well as a student's relationships with others and personal characteristics. Schools can help students to develop a sense of belonging because they are in a position to develop social networks and influence policy in practice that is conducive to enhancing student belonging.
The fact that school belonging, by its very nature, is affected by the wider environment, it is consistent with Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework for human development, and the subsequent bio-ecological framework. These frameworks put forward the theory that children's development takes place within the systems in society, and that these systems interact. Every child is at the center of multiple levels of influence. It has been argued that a social-ecological lens is the most adequate lens with which to view the construct of school belonging, given the large number of variables at play, and also the unique nature of school belonging for both the individual and the school.
At school, students are a part of a greater whole influenced by both formal and informal groupings, and overarching systems that are common and typically represented within all schools. Thus, school belonging can be conceptualized as a multi-layered, socio-ecological phenomena, consisting of several interacting layers. This is depicted in the Socio-ecological Model of School Belonging depicted by Allen, Vella-Brodrick, and Waters (2016) in the Figure below.
The innermost layer of the construct is the individual level. This describes the unique student characteristics that contribute to the sense of belonging, including personality and mental health. The micro-system refers to network an individual has that are informal, such as family, friends, teachers, and peers with whom the student interacts with. The mesosystem refers to organisational factors, including school resources, processes, policies, rules and practices. The exosystem refers to the broader school community. Finally, the macro-system involves the legislation, history and social climate of a society. This socio-ecological framework has been developed from empirical studies, and provides schools with a thorough direction in which to foster school belonging.
Given that school belonging is largely about perception, social belonging interventions such as those suggested by Walton and Brady have therefore been found to be useful. They argue that these interventions provide students with an adaptive lens with which to make sense of adversities in school. For minority students, challenges at school can give rise to feelings of non-belonging.
One such social intervention described by Walton and Brady sees stories used, whereby difficulties at school are portrayed as a normal part of education. Rather than attributing challenges as a sign that one doesn't belong, the stories acknowledge group-based difficulties, but show how these experiences are not necessarily a barrier to ultimately belonging and succeeding.
One group that may have the feelings of non-belonging that challenges can lead to, is those of a racial minority. The students who are from minority groups may attribute challenges – both academic and otherwise – to their racial identity. Social support is essential for improving belonging, most especially for students from minority backgrounds for whom acceptance by peers, teachers and parents is an important behavior of pro-social behavior and a positive attitude towards school.
Workplace
The need to belong is especially evident in the workplace. Employees want to fit in at work as much as students want to fit in at school. They seek the approval and acceptance of leaders, bosses, and other employees. Charismatic leaders are especially known to show off organizational citizenship behaviors such as helping and compliance if they feel a sense of belongingness with their work group. Researchers found that charisma and belongingness increased cooperative behavior among employees. Charismatic leaders influence followers by bringing awareness to the collective unit and strengthening the feeling of belonging, and that enhances employees' compliance. Organizational citizenship behaviors are employee activities that benefit the collective group without the individual gaining any direct benefit. Helping is a huge component of organizational citizenship behaviors because helping involves voluntarily assisting others with problems that are work-related and preventing other issues from arising. Task performance is enhanced and supported when the acts of helping in a work environment are established and evident. Charismatic leaders set a striking example for the way to organization should behave by reinforcing certain rules and values for the organization. These self-confident leaders inspire their followers to exceed expectations for the collective group instead of their own self-interest. This in turn gives employees an identity with which to belong. Studies indicate that belongingness is a crucial factor in understanding DEI efficacy in the workplace.
A sense of belongingness increases a person's willingness to assist others in the group by the group rules. Belongingness and group membership encourages social groups with motivation to comply, cooperate, and help. Cohesive work groups show more consideration, report positive relationships within the group and elicits more organizational citizenship behaviors. Also, an already cohesive and collective group makes people more inclined to comply with the rules of the workplace. Some people help each other in return for a future expected favor; however, most workings help because it is the “right” thing to do or because they like their leaders so much and wish to express this likeness. People are more receptive to a leader who provides a clear sense of direction and inspiration with the promise of a better future. Workers who feel more isolated in the workplace feel the need to belong even more than those who are not isolated because they are missing that collective feeling of unity. A workplace functions better as a collective whole.
Acceptance/rejection
The need to belong is among the most fundamental of all personality processes. Given the negative consequences of social rejection, people developed traits that function to encourage acceptance and to prevent rejection. But if the need to belong evolved to provide people with a means of meeting their basic needs for survival and reproduction based on evolutionary experiences, thwarting the need to belong should affect a variety of outcomes. Because it strikes at the core of human functioning, people respond very strongly to social exclusion.
Both interpersonal rejection and acceptance are psychologically powerful events. Feeling disliked, excluded, unappreciated, or devalued can stir up negative emotions in an individual. Some of these negative emotions include a lower self-esteem, aggressive actions and antisocial behavior. However, believing you are liked, included, appreciated, or valued elicits feelings of higher self-esteem and confidence boosts. A different number of events can lead individuals to feel accepted versus rejected. We can simply see the power of interpersonal acceptance and rejection when accepted vs. ostracized by a group, adored vs. abandoned by a romantic partner, or elected vs. defeated in an election.
However, in all examples, people's feelings begin from perceived relational evaluation. Perceived relational evaluation is the degree to which you perceive others value having a relationship with you. You feel more accepted if another person or group regards your relationship with them as real and as important to them as it is to you. If they consider the relationship unimportant, you feel rejected and respond negatively.
In a series of experiments, Buckley, Winkel, and Leary found that the effects of rejection are more potent than the effects of acceptance because negative feelings can cause more feelings of hurt and pain, which in turn can lead to aggression and negative behaviors. They also found people's reactions to extreme and moderate rejection were similar, suggesting that once one has been rejected by an individual or group, the severity of the rejection is less important
Procedural justice
Procedural justice, in terms of belongingness, according to van Prooijen and colleagues (2004), is the process by which people judge their level of belongingness in terms of their ability to contribute to a group. Members of a highly inclusive group show a higher level of procedural justice, meaning that individuals that experience high levels of inclusion respond in a more extreme manner to decisions allocated by members of their ingroup than those that are handed down from members of an outgroup. In other words, a person is more likely to believe and support fairness decisions made by members of an ingroup in which they feel like they are a part of, compared to an ingroup in which they do not feel as strongly connected. De Cremer and Blader (2006) found that when people feel a heightened sense of belongingness, they process information about procedural justice in a more careful and systematic way. This means that when people feel like they belong, they are more likely to examine procedural justice issues in a more thorough manner than if they do not feel like they belong.
Fairness
Fairness principles are applied when belongingness needs are met. Van Prooijen and colleagues (2004) found that fairness maintains an individual's sense of inclusion in social groups. Fairness can be used as an inclusion maintenance tool. Relationships are highly valued within groups, so members of those groups seek out fairness cues so they can understand these relationships. De Cremer and colleagues (2013) suggest that individuals with a high need to belong care more about procedural fairness information and therefore pay closer attention to incoming information. Furthermore, Cornelis, Van Hiel, De Cremer and Mayer (2013) propose that leaders of a group are likely to be more fair when they are aware that the followers of the group have a high need to belong versus a low need to belong. This means that a leader who is aware that people in their group are motivated to adhere to group values is more fair. Leaders are also more fair in congruence with the amount of empathy they feel for followers. Empathetic leaders are more likely to pay attention to differences among followers, and to consider a follower's belongingness needs when making decisions. In addition, Cornelis, Van Hiel, & De Cremer (2012) discovered that leaders are more fair in granting their followers voice when the leader is aware that the follower has a high need to belong. This occurs because of the attraction a leader feels to the follower and to the group. Leaders that are attracted to their followers and to the group are motivated by the follower's need to belong to allow them a greater voice in the group.
Culture
In all cultures, the need to belong is prevalent. Although there are individual differences in the intensity and strength of how people express and satisfy the need, it is really difficult for culture to eradicate the need to belong. Collectivist countries are also more likely to conform and comply with the majority group than members in individualistic societies. Conformity is so important in collectivist societies that nonconformity can represent deviance in Circum-Mediterranean cultures, yet represent uniqueness in Sinosphere culture. Even early civilizations considered both exile and death as equal punishments. Individuals in other countries strive to belong so much that being exiled or shunned from their society is the biggest dishonor.
Motivation to belong varies throughout different cultures, and can affect student achievement in distinct ways. In studies comparing fifteen year old students from 31 countries, the differences between Eastern and Western cultures were apparent. It is important to note that the study is in the perspective of dividing these countries into two groups. The study argues that Asian (eastern) cultures are collectivist, while Western cultures are more individualistic. In Western cultures, peer influence is more predominant while in Eastern cultures, they are more heavily influenced by their families. In a classroom setting, children from Eastern cultures are more competitive, giving them less of a drive to belong among their peers. These children have a great sense of motivation to excel and to do better than those around them which makes their needs for belongingness in a school setting less favorable. While in Western cultures, being so highly impacted by their peers, it gives them less of a drive to be competitive towards them.
Studies have shown that Eastern and Western cultures continue to have one of the largest achievement gaps between them, with Eastern cultures outscoring the Western. It can be hypothesized that the competitive, individualistic drive found in the classroom in Eastern cultures leads to more success. Furthermore, belongingness in Western cultures may have the potential to inhibit classroom success. However, not all cultures respond to belongingness in the same way due to the many variations between cultures.
Furthermore, stigmas can create a global uncertainty about the quality of an individual's social bonds in academic and professional areas. Walton and Cohen conducted two experiments that tested how belonging uncertainty undermines the achievement and motivation of people whose racial group is negatively characterized in academic settings. The first experiment had students believe that they might have a few friends in a field of study. White students were unaffected by this however, black students who were stigmatized academically displayed a drop in potential and sense of belonging. This response of minority students happens because they are aware that they are underrepresented and stigmatized therefore they perceive their worlds differently. Their second experiment was set up as an intervention that was designed to de-racialize the meaning of hardship in college by focusing hardships and doubts as a commonality among 1st year students rather than due to race. What their findings suggest is that majority students may benefit from an assumed sense of social belonging.
Behavior and social problems
Belongingness, also referred to as connectedness, has been established as a strong risk/predictive factor for depressive symptoms. There is growing evidence that the interpersonal factor of belongingness is strongly associated with depressive symptoms. The impression of low relational value is consciously experienced as reduced self-esteem. Reduced self-esteem is a fundamental element of depressive symptoms. According to these views, belongingness perceptions have a direct effect upon depressive symptoms due to innate neurological mechanisms. A number of studies have confirmed a strong link between belongingness and depressive symptoms using the Sense of Belonging Instrument-Psychological measurement. This measurement scale contains 14 items that invoke the social world—for example, “I don't feel there is any place I really fit in this world.” The SOBI-P is intended to measure a general sense of belonging.
Group membership has been found to have both negative and positive associations with behavior problems. Gender differences have been consistently observed in terms of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Girls reported more internalizing behaviors such as depression, and boys reported more externalizing problems. However, by providing a sense of security and peer acceptance, group membership may reduce the tendency to develop internalizing problems such as depression or anxiety. A lack of group membership is associated with behavior problems and puts adolescents at a greater risk for both externalizing and internalizing problems However, the need to belong may sometimes result in individuals conforming to delinquent peer groups and engaging in morally dubious activities, such as lying or cheating.
Depression
Humans have a profound need to connect with others and gain acceptance into social groups. When relationships deteriorate or when social bonds are broken, people have been found to suffer from depressive symptoms. Having a greater sense of belonging has been linked to lower levels of loneliness and depression. Although feeling disconnected from others and experiencing a lack of belonging may negatively affect any individual, those who are depressed may be more vulnerable to negative experiences of belonging. Due to the importance of social experiences to people's well-being, and to the etiology and maintenance of depression, it is vital to examine how well-being is enhanced or eroded by positive and negative social interactions in such clinical populations.
When people experience positive social interactions, they should feel a sense of belonging. However, depressed people's social information-processing biases make them less likely to recognize cues of acceptance and belonging in social interactions. For example, in a laboratory study using information-processing tasks assessing attention and memory for sad, physically threatening, socially threatening, and positive stimuli, clinically depressed people were found to show preferential attention to sad faces, emotion words, and adjectives. Depressed people displayed biases for stimuli concerned with sadness and loss.
People who are depressed often fail to satisfy their need for belonging in relationships and therefore, report fewer intimate relationships. Those who are depressed appear to induce negative affect in other individuals, which consequently elicits rejection and the loss of socially rewarding opportunities. Depressed people are less likely to feel a sense of belonging and are more likely to pay attention to negative social interactions. Research has found that depressive symptoms may sensitize people to everyday experiences of both social rejection and social acceptance.
Suicide
Numerous studies have indicated that low belonging, acquired ability to self-injure, and burdensomeness are associated with suicidal behaviors. A recent theoretical development: interpersonal theory of suicidal behavior, offers an explanation for the association between parental displacement and suicidal behavior. Thomas Joiner, who recently proposed an interpersonal theory of suicide, suggests that two elements must be present for suicidal behavior to occur. The first element is the desire for suicide and the second is the acquired capability for suicide. In turn, the desire for suicide, is broken into two components: thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. Together these two components create a motivational force for suicidal behavior. Specifically speaking of adolescent suicidal behavior, the theory proposes that suicidal behavior is a result of individuals having a desire for death and the acquired ability to self-inflict injuries. Increased acquired ability refers to a lack of pain response during self-injury, which has been found to be linked to the number of suicide attempts in a lifetime.
Displacement from parents includes events such as abandonment of the adolescent, divorce, or death of a parent. Parental relationships are a representation of belonging for adolescents because parents may be particularly important for providing the stable and caring relationships that are a fundamental component of belonging. Relationships between parents and adolescents that are positive have been found to be a protective factor that reduces the risk of suicidal behavior in adolescents. Connectedness with parents such as closeness between parent and child and the perceived caring of parents, has been associated with lower levels of past suicide attempts and ideation. Another protective factor found against adolescent suicide attempts was higher levels of parental involvement.
According to Baumeister and Leary, belongingness theory proposes that the desire for death is caused by failed interpersonal processes. Similar to Joiner, one is a thwarted sense of belonging due to an unmet need to belong and the other process being a sense that one is a burden on others. They argue that all individuals have a fundamental need to belong. This need to belong is only met if an individual has frequent, positive interactions with others and feels cared about by significant others. The concept of low belonging suggested by interpersonal theory of suicidal behavior is most relevant to parental displacement and adolescent suicidal behavior because it is likely that parental displacement would affect perceived belonging of adolescents. It was found that adolescents who averaged at about the age of 16, who experienced both low levels of belonging and displacement had the highest risk for suicide. Parental displacement would disrupt the parent-adolescent relationship and consequently would diminish both the frequency and quality of interactions between the two, reducing the adolescent's sense of belonging.
A study conducted on suicide notes, examined the frequency of themes of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness in samples of suicide notes. The study of suicide notes has been a useful method for examining the motivations of suicides. It is important to note that this research is limited due to the small proportion of completed suicides that actually leave notes. This specific study explored the extent to which the content in the suicide notes reflected thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. They also examined the extent to which these two themes were found in the same note. This study found that suicide notes did not significantly support the hypothesis that perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, combined with acquired capability to cause suicidal behavior. There was no strong support for the relevance of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness as motivations for suicide. They did, however, find that the suicide notes of women more frequently contained the theme of perceived burdensomeness and suicide notes of younger people more frequently contained thwarted belongingness.
See also
References
Further reading
Youkhana, Eva. "Belonging" (2016). University Bielefeld – Center for InterAmerican Studies.
The International Belonging Laboratory is an external website that facilitates the collaboration of belonging researchers, dissemination of belonging research and a repository of belonging measures.
Interpersonal relationships | Belongingness | [
"Biology"
] | 10,201 | [
"Behavior",
"Interpersonal relationships",
"Human behavior"
] |
14,586,431 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather-related%20cancellation | A weather cancellation or delay is closure, cancellation, or delay of an institution, operation, or event as a result of inclement weather. Certain institutions, such as schools, are likely to close when bad weather, such as snow, flooding, air pollution, tropical cyclones, or extreme heat, causes power outages, or otherwise impedes public safety or makes opening the facility impossible or more difficult. Depending upon the local climate, the chances of a school or school system closing may vary. While some regions may close or delay schools when there is any question of safety, others located in areas where bad weather is a regular occurrence may remain open, as local people may be accustomed to travelling under such conditions.
Many countries and sub-national jurisdictions have mandates for a minimum number of school days in a year. To meet these requirements, many schools that face a likelihood of closure build a few extra school days into their calendar. If, by the end of the year, these days are unused, some schools give students days off. If all snow days are exhausted, and inclement weather requires more closures, schools usually make the days up later in the year. US State education departments have, for example by administrative decision late in the 2015 Texas school year, occasionally issued waivers to schools, so that they do not need make up days for weather-related cancellations.
Reasons
Road safety
Safety is the central factor in deciding whether to cancel or delay. Officials may close schools to prevent accidents and other problems caused by inclement weather.
Minor storms, when safety is of less concern, may cause few or no cancellations or delays. In severe inclement weather, however, only the most essential operations remain functional. Operations considered essential include health care, emergency services, and retail of basic necessities. In health care environments, employees may remain at the facility around the clock if travel is impaired or dangerous, as those facilities contain basic accommodations for sleeping and eating such as on-call rooms. While tourist attractions generally close, those housing live animals may need essential employees to provide proper animal care.
Television and radio services generally keep operating (unless they in turn are taken off the air by the weather), and travel as necessary. Elected officials travel as necessary to provide services to the public. Snow removal crews remain at work.
Passability
Some inclement weather makes road passage impossible or difficult. In developed nations, municipalities attempt to clear snow-covered roads—but this is not always possible, and often many cannot travel. In deeper snowfalls, personal vehicles may become trapped, and their removal may take several days. This influences decisions on closures beyond the end of snowfall. The ability of employees to reach work places is a factor.
Structural issues
Various types of severe weather can damage structures temporarily or render them permanently useless, cause power outages, or prevent heat or air conditioning from working.
Snow days
North America
A snow day in the United States and Canada is a day that school classes are cancelled or delayed by snow, heavy ice, or extremely low temperatures. Similar measures occur in response to flooding, tornado watches, and severe weather (storms, hurricanes, dense fog, heavy snow, etc.). The criterion for a snow day is primarily the inability of school buses to operate safely on their routes and danger to children who walk to school. Often, the school remains officially open even though buses do not run and classes are cancelled.
More and more schools are closing due to extreme heat, "heat days". Heat days are like snow days. Some districts (San Diego Unified) provide schools with an operational procedure that is used as a guideline to address what actions schools should take at different levels of rising temperatures.
Schools and businesses may also be cancelled for reasons other than bad weather such as a pandemic, power failure, terrorist attack, or bomb threat, or in honour of a school staff member who has recently died. In some cases, only one school or business in a town may close, due to localized issues such as a water main break or a lack of heat or air conditioning.
In northern areas of the United States, where municipalities are well equipped to handle heavy snowfall, snow days occur when extreme winter weather events overwhelm typical efforts to safely clear main roads of snow and ice (1 to 2 feet of snow). Weather induced cancellations or delays can also happen in more temperate southern regions, which are traditionally less prepared to handle such situations. In areas less accustomed to snow—such as Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis, or Chattanooga—even small snowfalls of an inch or two may render roads unsafe, while in some large northern metropolitan areas, effectively mobilized plow and road salt crews can clear 10 or more inches of overnight snow and ice accumulation before the morning commute.
In most areas, schools include extra days in their calendar as "built-in" snow days which allow a school to get in the minimum number of hours or days for instruction. When the number of snow days taken is less than the number of built-in days, the days are given back by extending Memorial Day weekend, or making the school year end earlier. Once the number of snow days taken exceeds the number of built-in days, the snow days must be made up. In other states, like New Jersey, all snow days must be made up. For example, schools may open school on some federal holidays, shorten spring break, or sometimes make the school year end later. However, some schools are more forgiving, and do not mandate make-up days. In the event of heavy snow, tools have arisen to help students calculate the chance of a weather-related cancellation, most commonly snow days.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, snow days are a relatively uncommon event, especially in southern regions. Scottish, Northern Irish, Welsh, and Northern English schools may experience some closures during the winter months, often due to travel disruption. In Southern England, however, significant snowfall is a less frequent event, rarely lasting for more than a few days across low-lying areas.
Australia
Very few schools in Australia regularly receive any, let alone significant snowfalls. Those who do, will generally have their own local snow policies, similar to how schools in bush fire or flood-prone areas will have policies to handle these events. If a school is closed due to snow, it is treated as an emergency closure and no additional days are added to make up for the closure.
Delays
Instead of cancelling an entire school day, some schools may delay opening by, for example, one or two hours, or announce a particular opening time. This can be advantageous in places where schools are not charged a "snow day" by delaying their opening. Many school authorities cancel the whole morning kindergarten under these circumstances. This is particularly common during snowfalls of or less in areas not accustomed to winter snowfall, such as the Baltimore metropolitan area and points south.
In the event of fog, some schools may delay the opening of school three hours but extend the day an extra hour.
Heat
Australia
Contrary to popular legend circulated among school children, schools rarely close due to hot weather and if they were it would be a decision based on a risk assessment by school staff. There is no set policy stating at what point schools close, and most states explicitly state that schools do not close simply due to hot weather. Schools may however modify their operations to ensure student and teacher welfare, for example by cancelling sport activities or relocating to a part of the school with access to air conditioning.
Non-government Schools may follow their own procedures however.
Rain and floods
Philippines
As per Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 37 series of 2022, Classes and work in schools are cancelled or suspended classes during a typhoon, heavy rainfall, flood, earthquake, and power outages/power interruptions/brownouts.
During a typhoon, DepEd said that in-person, online classes and work from Kindergarten to Grades 12 and Alternative Learning System (ALS) in all levels are “automatically cancelled” in public schools situated in Local Government Units (LGUs) issued with Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals (TCWS) 1, 2, 3,4, or 5 by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). Also, in-person, online classes and work at all levels are also automatically cancelled in schools situated in LGUs issued with Orange and Red Rainfall Warning by the PAGASA as well as areas issued with a Flood Warning by PAGASA. While private schools must abide the existing rules of Executive Order No. 66 of the Department of Education (DepEd), classes in private schools and work in government institutions could be suspended automatically depending on the typhoon warning signal raised by the PAGASA in a particular area, such as when Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 1 was in effect, preschool and kindergarten classes in the affected areas shall be automatically cancelled or suspended, when Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 2 was in effect, preschool, kindergarten, elementary and secondary classes in the affected areas shall be automatically cancelled or suspended and when Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 3 or above was in effect, classes in all educational levels (including colleges and universities) in the affected areas shall be automatically cancelled or suspended. In an absence of a typhoon signal warning and during floods, the executive of a local government units (LGUs) in their own capacity as chairpersons of the local disaster risk and management councils throughout the Philippines could declare a suspension of classes and government office work depending on the situation in their area of responsibility.
Settings affected
Workplaces
Workplaces are less likely to close during mildly inclement weather, but the more severe the storm, the more likely a workplace is to close.
Some employers who use the most essential types of employees, such as health care facilities, have some or all of their employees stay and sleep on the premises while off duty if bad weather that hampers commuting is anticipated. Many supermarkets, convenience stores, and gas stations try to remain open to meet public need and the opportunity for increased business. Less critical businesses, such as clothing or antique shops, may close in moderate or severe weather.
In most severe storms, police and fire departments use specialized vehicles to respond to emergencies. Other workers involved in handling issues pertaining to the inclement weather, such as snow plow operators, report to work, and reporters and local elected officials stay on duty to serve the public.
Transport
In severe weather, airlines, rail service providers, bus operators, and other public transport may cancel or reduce services. Route impassability, airport closure, employees' safety, and public safety may result in such action. However, some modes of transport are more prone to severe weather than others, and different forms of bad weather have different impacts.
In air travel, the decision is often based on the guidelines of the country's civil aviation authority, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States.
Even when the service does operate, unplanned delays are possible, as operators take extra precautions or routes are congested. The level of service provided may be diminished due to a lower demand for service, fewer operators being available, or fewer passable routes. Yet sometimes demand for public transport may increase as more commuters choose not to drive their own vehicles.
In particularly hot weather, rail vehicles may be delayed by the expansion of the steel tracks.
Public transport may continue to operate on main arteries, though they may still experience delays. Buses that operate on secondary roads, especially those that are narrow or difficult to negotiate, may either be completely cancelled or diverted to a main road.
Although bad weather generally has little effect on an underground subway system in a major metropolitan area, electricity outages and flooding may disrupt services. For example, on August 8, 2007, following a tornado in Brooklyn in New York City, the New York City Subway flooded, causing all trains to grind to a halt during rush hour. Increased demand may result from employers and schools clearing out in anticipation of a tropical cyclone, hurricane, or other severe weather system as people turn to the subway when other modes of transport are threatened. In some cases, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012, transit services may be totally suspended for the storm's duration.
See also
State of emergency
Rainout (sports)
References
Cancellation
School terminology | Weather-related cancellation | [
"Physics"
] | 2,506 | [
"Weather",
"Inclement weather management",
"Physical phenomena"
] |
14,586,564 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process%20control%20monitoring | In the application of integrated circuits, process control monitoring (PCM) is the procedure followed to obtain detailed information about the process used.
PCM is associated with designing and fabricating special structures that can monitor technology specific parameters such as Vth in CMOS and Vbe in bipolars. These structures are placed across the wafer at specific locations along with the chip produced so that a closer look into the process variation is possible.
References
Integrated circuits | Process control monitoring | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 91 | [
"Computer engineering",
"Integrated circuits"
] |
14,587,291 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangea%20Day | Pangea Day is an international multimedia event conducted on May 10, 2008. Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro were linked to produce a 4-hour program of films, music, and speakers. The program was broadcast live across the globe from 1800 to 2200 UTC, culminating in a global drum circle, symbolizing the common heartbeat of the world. According to the festival organizers, "Pangea Day plans to use the power of film to bring the world a little closer together."
Pangea Day originated in 2006 when documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize. Jehane wished to use film to bring the world together.
Pangea refers to the supercontinent from which all current continents initially separated. It serves as a reminder of the "connectedness" or unitary nature of all people on Planet Earth.
Goals
Bring together millions of people from all over the world in a unique shared experience.
Use the power of film to create a better understanding of one another.
Form a global community striving for a better future.
Live broadcast locations
Pangea Day was broadcast live from seven cities:
Cairo - The Pyramids
Kigali - Jali Gardens
London - Somerset House
Los Angeles - Sony Pictures Studios
Mumbai - National Centre for the Performing Arts
Rio de Janeiro - Morro da Urca
Buenos Aires - [KONEX Theater]
In the United States, Current TV was the exclusive, English-language broadcaster.
Featured Films
A Thousand Words directed by Ted Chung
More directed by Mark Osborne
L'Homme Sans Tete directed by Juan Diego Solanas
Happy Together directed by Sam Nozik
Dreaming of Zhejiang directed by Marineta Mak Kritikou
Global partner
Nokia was Pangea Day's premier global partner. In addition to providing financial support, Nokia sent video enabled devices to film schools and programs in disadvantaged areas and conflict zones, and to UNHCR refugee camps. Some of the films made in these locations were included in the Pangea Day broadcast.
Key participants
Hosts
June Arunga
Lisa Ling
Max Lugavere
Jason Silva
Advisory board
J. J. Abrams
Lawrence Bender
Nancy Buirski
Alan Cumming
Richard Curtis
Ami Dar
Cameron Diaz
Matthew Freud
Bob Geldof
Goldie Hawn
Jim Hornthal
Judy McGrath
Pat Mitchell
Vik Muniz
Clare Munn
Mira Nair
Dr. Tero Ojanperä
Eboo Patel
Alexander Payne
Richard Rogers
Meg Ryan
Deborah Scranton
Paul Simon
Jeffrey Skoll
Sir Martin Sorrell
Philippe Starck
Dave Stewart
Yossi Vardi
Kevin Wall
Forest Whitaker
will.i.am
Paul Zilk
Speakers
Christiane Amanpour
Bassam Aramin
Karen Armstrong
June Arunga
Ali Abu Awwad
Ishmael Beah
Donald Brown
Assaad Chaftari
Muhieddine Chehab
Robi Damelin
Jonathan Harris
Robert Kurzban
Lisa Ling
Max Lugavere
Khaled Aboul Naga
Queen Noor of Jordan
Eboo Patel
Carolyn Porco
Jean-Paul Samputu
Yonathan Shapira
Jason Silva
Musicians
Dave Stewart
Gilberto Gil
Hypernova
Rokia Traoré
Notes and references
External links
"Can Your Film Change the World?" - Pangea Day promo video at YouTube
Festivals in Egypt
Multimedia works
2008 television specials
International broadcasting
Films directed by Jehane Noujaim
Festivals in Rwanda
Festivals in London
Arts festivals in the United States
Cultural festivals in India
Arts festivals in Brazil
Cultural festivals in the United States
Cultural festivals in Brazil
Festivals in Rio de Janeiro | Pangea Day | [
"Technology"
] | 698 | [
"Multimedia",
"Multimedia works"
] |
14,587,467 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN%201979C | SN 1979C was a supernova about 50 million light-years away in Messier 100, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices. The Type II supernova was discovered April 19, 1979 by Gus Johnson, a school teacher and amateur astronomer. This type of supernova is known as a core collapse and is the result of the internal collapse and violent explosion of a large star. A star must have at least 9 times the mass of the Sun in order to undergo this type of collapse. The star that resulted in this supernova was estimated to be in the range of 20 solar masses.
On November 15, 2010 NASA announced that evidence of a black hole had been detected as a remnant of the supernova explosion. Scientists led by Dr. Dan Patnaude from the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, MA evaluated data gathered between 1995 and 2007 from several space based observatories. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, as well as the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, and Germany's ROSAT all participated in the examination.
The researchers observed a steady source of X-rays and determined that it was likely that this was material being fed into the object either from the supernova or a binary companion. However, an alternative explanation would be that the X-ray emissions could be from the pulsar wind nebula from a rapidly spinning pulsar, similar to the one in the center of the Crab Nebula. These two ideas account for several types of known X-ray sources. In the case of black holes the material that falls into the black hole emits the X-rays and not the black hole itself. Gas is heated by the fall into the strong gravitational field.
SN 1979C has also been studied in the radio frequency spectrum. A light curve study was performed between 1985 and 1990 using the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico.
See also
History of supernova observation
Messier object containing SN 1979C
References
External links
Light curves and spectra on the Open Supernova Catalog
SN 1979C in M100
A Tour of SN 1979C (narration of podcast by Dr. Dan Patnaude)
Coma Berenices
Messier 100
Supernova remnants
19790419 | SN 1979C | [
"Astronomy"
] | 461 | [
"Coma Berenices",
"Constellations"
] |
14,587,477 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locule | A locule (: locules) or loculus (; : loculi) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus).
In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term locule usually refers to a chamber within an ovary (gynoecium or carpel) of the flower and fruits. Depending on the number of locules in the ovary, fruits can be classified as (uni-locular), , , or . The number of locules present in a gynoecium may be equal to or less than the number of carpels. The locules contain the ovules or seeds.
The term may also refer to chambers within anthers containing pollen.
In ascomycetous fungi, locules are chambers within the hymenium in which the perithecia develop.
References
Plant anatomy
Plant morphology
Fungal morphology and anatomy | Locule | [
"Biology"
] | 201 | [
"Plant morphology",
"Plants"
] |
14,587,629 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%204323 | NGC 4323 is a lenticular or dwarf elliptical galaxy located about 52.5 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy was discovered in 1882 by astronomer Wilhelm Tempel and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.
NGC 4323 is commonly misidentified as NGC 4322, which is a 13th magnitude star.
Interaction with Messier 100
NGC 4323 is a companion of Messier 100, which lies away. The two galaxies appear to be interacting, as evidenced by Messier 100's rotation curve, an asymmetry of its HI disk, and a faint, optical bridge that connects it to NGC 4323. However, Knapen et al. suggests that the two galaxies are not interacting as NGC 4323 is a small galaxy and has a large separation from Messier 100.
See also
List of NGC objects (4001–5000)
References
External links
NGC 4323
40171
Dwarf elliptical galaxies
Coma Berenices
Messier 100
4323
Virgo Cluster
Astronomical objects discovered in 1882
Lenticular galaxies
Interacting galaxies | NGC 4323 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 216 | [
"Coma Berenices",
"Constellations"
] |
14,587,920 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation%20for%20Research%20and%20Educational%20Networking | The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking, better known as CREN, was an American non-profit corporation originally composed of the higher education and research organizations participating in BITNET and CSNET. Its corporate name was adopted at the time of the merging of these two networks in 1989. CREN corporation had existed prior to that as a purely Bitnet body, and this would continue to be its dominant identity. (It discontinued CSNET services in 1991.) CREN supported the email-based services and applications that are a prominent feature of BITNET, and latterly a Public Key Infrastructure for Higher Education. In 2003, active CREN services were transitioned to other organizations and the corporation dissolved itself.
External links
Corporation for Research and Educational Networking
Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States
Defunct companies based in Washington, D.C.
Technology companies established in 1989
Companies disestablished in 2003
Telecommunications companies established in 1989
American companies established in 1989 | Corporation for Research and Educational Networking | [
"Technology"
] | 187 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer network stubs"
] |
14,587,983 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%20Coronae%20Australis | R Coronae Australis (R CrA) is a variable binary system in the constellation Corona Australis. It has varied between magnitudes 10 and 14.36. A small reflection/emission nebula NGC 6729 extends from the star towards SE. It is also the brightest feature of the Coronet Cluster, therefore sometimes called R CrA Cluster.
This star is moving toward the Solar System with a radial velocity of . It was previously believed that in roughly 222,000 years, this system could have approached within of the Sun. However, the estimate had a considerable margin of error in it. With the release of Gaia DR2, the star was determined to be 4 times further from the Sun than initially believed, constraining the approach to only . Examination of other objects known to be in the same star-forming region gives a distance of , suggesting an error in the Gaia parallax for R CrB itself.
A companion to the star was proposed in 2019 with a mass between 0.1 and 1 Solar masses, depending on the characteristics of the stellar environment, orbiting the primary in 43–47 years. The companion was later directly observed to be a red dwarf with a mass between and . It has also been proposed that the primary component is itself a close binary.
References
A-type giants
Corona Australis
Coronae Australis, R
093449
Durchmusterung objects
Herbig Ae/Be stars | R Coronae Australis | [
"Astronomy"
] | 294 | [
"Corona Australis",
"Constellations"
] |
14,589,235 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zetix | Zetix is a fabric invented by Auxetics Technologies, Ltd., a UK company. Zetix is an auxetic material strong enough to absorb and disperse shockwaves from explosions without breaking.
Usage
Zetix is used in water-activated tape, also referred to as gummed paper tape, a popular form of carton sealing, under the trading name Xtegra™ Tegrabond™.
Zetix is also used in thread and ropes. Knots under tension may be more secure because auxetic material expands when stretched. It is known as Xtegra™ Auxetic Yarn with Kevlar®, outside of the United Kingdom.
References
External links
Zetix manufacturer Auxetix
Advanced Fabric Technologies, LLC
Brand name materials | Zetix | [
"Physics"
] | 154 | [
"Materials stubs",
"Materials",
"Matter"
] |
14,590,163 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myosin%20light%20chain | A myosin light chain is a light chain (small polypeptide subunit) of myosin. Myosin light chains were discovered by Chinese biochemist Cao Tianqin (Tien-chin Tsao) when he was a graduate student at the University of Cambridge in England.
Structure and function
Myosin light chain classes
Structurally, myosin light chains belong to the EF-hand family, a large family of Ca2+- binding proteins. MLCs contain two Ca2+ - binding EF-hand motifs. MLCs isoforms modulate the Ca2+of force transduction and cross-bridge kinetics.
Myosin light chains (MLCs) can be broadly classified into two groups:
Essential or alkali MLC (MLC1 or ELC),
Regulatory MLC (MLC2 or RLC).
Essential and regulatory MLCs have molecular masses of 22 and 19 kDa, respectively. Structurally, MLC2 contains a serine residue that is lacking in MLC1. The presence of this amino acids allows the regulation of the conformational changes (from compacted to an elongated form) by a Ca2+-mediated phosphorylation mechanism. MLC1, in contrast with MLC2, has a N-terminal sequence able to bind actin, contributing to force production.
MLCs are structurally and functionally distinct from myosin heavy chains (MHCs). Nevertheless, the association of MLCs with the neck region of MHCs is necessary for the assembly of the macromolecular complexes that result in the functional motor protein, myosin. The interaction of MLCs with the α-helical neck region of MHC molecule stabilizes the complex .
Genes in mammalians
To this day, eight genes encoding for MLCs in mammalians have been described; several isoforms have also been characterized. Four out of the 8 genes are MLC1 genes, whilst the remaining are MLC2 genes.
MLC1 genes:
MYL1 (chromosome 2q24.11); expressed in striated muscle
MYL3 (chromosome 3p21.3); expressed in striated muscle
MYL4 (chromosome 17q21.32); expressed in striated muscle
MYL6 (chromosome 12q13.2); expressed in non-muscle and smooth muscle
MLC2 genes:
MYL2 (chromosome 12q24.11); found in the sarcomere
MYL5 (chromosome 4p16.3); found in the sarcomere
MYL7 (chromosome 12q13.2); found in the sarcomere
MYL9 (chromosome 20q11.23); expressed in smooth muscle
Other proteins and enzymes related to MLC function have been described. Among them are, for example, MYL6B, MYLIP, MYLK, and MYLK2,
Diseases associated with MLCs
Several diseases have been associated with mutations in the genes encoding for myosin light chain proteins. The majority of these diseases are cardiomyopathies, such as hypertrophic (HCM) or dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death. Mutations in MYL2 and MYL3 have been reported for these diseases.
One study, published in 2012, found that valvular myosin 'LC1', in the hearts of three patients with valvular heart diseases, had structures similar to those of valvular myosin of people who were in their early stages of DCMP and HCMP. The researchers hypothesized that the structure distortion of these valvular myosin were due to adaptational changes by the body in an attempt to improve the functioning of the heart.
MLCKs as Biological Drugs
Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) inhibitors are one of the few peptides that can cross the plasma membrane relatively quickly. Under stressful conditions, MLCK's in the human body promotes increased permeability of microvessels. It is thought that MLCK phosphorylates endothelial myosin, leading to cell contraction. This reaction prevents disengaged cells that are adjacent to one another from reestablishing connections, thus contributing to the maintenance of the gaps between cells. With their strong ability to cross the plasma membrane with little resistance from the cell, along with their specificity for a single target-substrate, MLCK inhibitors can potentially evolve into novel antiedemic drugs.
Interaction of MLCs with non-myosin proteins
MYL9, MYL12a, and MYL12b (MYL9/12) have been described as new functional interaction partners with CD69 in the pathogenesis of inflammation of the airways.
A novel mechanism of activated T cell recruitment into inflammatory tissues has been proposed, known was "CD69/Myl9/12 system". The proposed mechanism state that "Myl9/12-containing net-like structures are created in inflammatory vessels, which play an important role as a platform for recruitment of CD69-expressing leukocytes into inflammatory tissues. T cells that are activated in the lymph nodes proliferate, down-regulate CD69 expression, and then leave the lymph nodes to migrate into inflammatory sites in an S1PR1-dependent manner."
The proposed mechanisms of action of CD69/Myl9/12 system are related to the regulation of airway inflammatory processes and thus can prove to be a novel therapeutic target for chronic inflammatory diseases, in general.
See also
Myosin light-chain kinase
Myosin-light-chain phosphatase
References
Motor proteins | Myosin light chain | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,170 | [
"Molecular machines",
"Motor proteins"
] |
14,591,482 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland%20Air%20Route%20Traffic%20Control%20Center | Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOB) or Cleveland Center is located at 326 East Lorain Street, Oberlin, Ohio, United States. The center is located about outside of the city of Cleveland. The Cleveland ARTCC is the 3rd busiest of the 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers in the United States. It oversees the airspace over portions of Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, as well as the southernmost portion of Ontario, Canada.
The Air Route Traffic Control Center was first planned in 1958. The site was chosen due to Oberlin's location near Cleveland, though far enough away from the metropolis to be safe in case of war. The nearby community of Medina, Ohio was also under consideration, but lobbying by the Oberlin city government brought the center to its present location.
During the September 11 attacks, the Cleveland ARTCC handled the radio traffic from United Airlines Flight 93, which was inside the center's airspace from before the hijacking to the time of its crash.
References
External links
Cleveland Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) (NWS/FAA)
Frequencies for Cleveland Center
Air traffic control centers
Transportation buildings and structures in Cleveland
WAAS reference stations
Buildings and structures in Lorain County, Ohio
Air traffic control in the United States
Aviation in Ohio | Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center | [
"Technology"
] | 262 | [
"Global Positioning System",
"WAAS reference stations"
] |
14,591,538 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suction%20filtration | Vacuum filtration is a fast filtration technique used to separate solids from liquids.
Principle
By flowing through the aspirator, water will suck out the air contained in the vacuum flask and the Büchner flask. There is therefore a difference in pressure between the exterior and the interior of the flasks : the contents of the Büchner funnel are sucked towards the vacuum flask. The filter, which is placed at the bottom of the Büchner funnel, separates the solids from the liquids.
The solid residue, which remains at the top of the Büchner funnel, is therefore recovered more efficiently: it is much drier than it would be with a simple filtration.
The rubber conical seal ensures the apparatus is hermetically closed, preventing the passage of air between the Büchner funnel and the vacuum flask. It maintains the vacuum in the apparatus and also avoids physical points of stress (glass against glass.)
Diagram annotations
Filter
Büchner funnel
Conic seal
Büchner flask
Air tube
Vacuum flask
Water tap
Aspirator
Uses
Filtration is a unit operation that is commonly used both in laboratory and production conditions. This apparatus, adapted for laboratory work, is often used to isolate the product of synthesis of a reaction when the product is a solid in suspension. The product of synthesis is then recovered faster, and the solid is drier than in the case of a simple filtration. Other than isolating a solid, filtration is also a stage of purification: the soluble impurities in the solvent are eliminated in the filtrate (liquid).
This apparatus is often used to purify a liquid. When a synthesised product is filtered, the insolubles (catalysers, impurities, sub-products of the reaction, salts, ...) remain in the filter. In this case, vacuum filtration is also more efficient that a simple filtration: there is more liquid recovered, and the yield is therefore better.
Practical aspects
It is often necessary to maintain the Büchner flask and, incidentally, the vacuum flask. The rigidity of the vacuum pipes and the difference in height between the different parts of the apparatus (as visible in the diagram) make such an apparatus relatively unstable.
Therefore, a three-pronged clamp should be used to maintain the Büchner flask. This clamp should be placed such that the two prongs surround the part of the flask connected to the vacuum tube, the lasting prong resting on the other side.
If it is also necessary to maintain the vacuum flask we use either a mandible clamp, or a three-pronged clamp, depending on the apparatus and its stability. The clamp to use is left to the judgement of the operator.
Before closing the tap, it is necessary to "break the vacuum" (letting in the air in through any area in the apparatus, by removing the funnel for example), otherwise water goes up the apparatus from the aspirator. The vacuum flask prevents the water from going up the Büchner flask.
Sources
Laboratory techniques
Analytical chemistry
Filters | Suction filtration | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 641 | [
"Chemical equipment",
"Filters",
"Filtration",
"nan"
] |
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