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53,480,889 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May%E2%80%93Gr%C3%BCnwald%20stain | May–Grünwald stain is used for the staining of slides obtained by fine-needle aspiration in a histopathology lab for the diagnosis of tumorous cells.
Sometimes, it is combined with Giemsa staining, yielding Pappenheim staining (May-Grünwald-Giemsa staining).
References
Histopathology
Staining
Romanowsky stains | May–Grünwald stain | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 82 | [
"Staining",
"Microbiology techniques",
"Microscopy",
"Cell imaging",
"Histopathology"
] |
53,481,487 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Petersburg%20International%20Mercantile%20Exchange | The Saint-Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) is a incorporated in 2008. It has offices in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Irkutsk.
General
SPIMEX offers a wide range of products in exchange-traded refined products, crude oil, natural gas, coal, timber and construction materials as well as commodity derivatives. Its Refined Products Section focuses on spot contracts for all types of domestically traded refined products delivered from a great variety of designated locations executed under the uniform rules. The SPIMEX Derivatives Section focuses on cash-settled futures on the SPIMEX indices for exchange-traded refined products, physically settled futures on refined products and physically settled SPIMEX Urals Crude Futures.
The clearing organization associated with SPIMEX is Nonbank financial institution – central counterparty «RDC» (previously – SDCO).
SPIMEX calculates price indices for domestic exchange-traded and OTC-traded refined products.
In 2022, the volume traded at the SPIMEX Refined Products Section (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil and petrochemicals) was equal to 29.13 million tonnes; at the SPIMEX Derivatives Section – RUB 13.9 bn and at the SPIMEX Natural Gas Section – 5.7 bcm.
The total turnover of all trading sections of the Exchange in 2021 increased by 39.5% year-on-year (yoy) to RUB 1.494 trillion, in 2022 it slightly decreased to RUB 1.467 trillion. The volume traded in the SPIMEX Refined Products Section in 2022 amounted to 29.127 million tonnes (MMT) rising by 7.8% YoY, while the turnover stood at RUB 1.404 trillion ($17.78 bln) enjoying a 3.1% rise YoY.
In March 2022, the Association of European Energy Exchanges (Europex) excluded SPIMEX from its membership due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Until 2022, the requirements of the Russian government for oil companies to sell part of their products through SPIMEX were in effect. According to these requirements, 11% of gasoline production, 7.5% of diesel fuel, 11% of jet fuel, 3% of residual fuel oil production and 7.5% of LPG were subject to sale through the exchange.
Commodities traded
SPIMEX has been trading:
refined products — since 2008
refined products futures — since 2010
crude oil — since 2013
natural gas — since 2014
timber — since 2014
crude oil futures – since 2016
mineral fertilizer – since 2017
coal – since 2019
Fast facts
Since 2011, SPIMEX has been registering OTC transactions in crude oil, refined products, coal, natural gas and LPG.
SPIMEX calculates price indices for domestic exchange-traded and OTC-traded refined products.
Since 2012, the SPIMEX Indices have been used as the underlying assets for futures traded at its Derivatives Section.
In 2016, the SPIMEX Urals Crude Futures contract was launched.
SPIMEX launched ULSD Futures on 11 November 2019.
Refined products market
SPIMEX — the primary trading venue for exchange-traded refined products in Russia.
In 2016, the volume of refined products and petrochemicals traded on SPIMEX amounted to 17.16 million tonnes. The number of trading participants exceeded 1,900 including all Russian majors; the list of SPIMEX designated delivery points include all key domestic refineries; the list of commodities accepted to trading includes all types of domestic refined products.
By 2021, the trade in petroleum products has grown to 27.03 million tons (+ 16.6% compared to 2020), by 2022 to 29.13 million tons (+ 7.8% compared to 2021).
Indices
Territorial indices
The average price for refined products at large Russian refineries located in European Russia, the Urals & Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia & the Russian Far East.
Regional indices
The average price for refined products at 9 large domestic demand centers.
Composite index
A unified indicator of Russian domestic refined products which measures price performance of an average tonne of exchange-traded light refined products.
National indices
The average price for refined products at large refineries located all over Russia.
Crude oil market
SPIMEX launched trading in crude oil in 2013. In 2022, the volume traded at the SPIMEX Crude Oil Section stood at 519,400 tonnes (+ 164,4% y-o-y) with the turnover amounting to RUB 16.974 bn.
Derivatives market
SPIMEX offers a variety of futures contracts (at present there are more than 20 instruments available). The volume traded at the SPIMEX Derivatives Section in 2022 reached 69,326 futures contracts in the total amount of RUB 13.9 bn.
More than 10 products are currently offered by the SPIMEX Derivatives Section, including, in particular:
physically settled SPIMEX Urals Crude Oil Futures (FOB, Primorsk);
physically settled SPIMEX ULSD Futures (FOB, Primorsk);
cash-settled futures on the SPIMEX indices for exchange-traded domestic market petroleum products, and
physically settled futures on domestic market petroleum products.
Underlying commodities: crude oil; diesel; Gasoline Regular 92; Gasoline Premium 95 and the SPIMEX indices for exchange-traded petroleum products.
Physical delivery is a distinctive feature of SPIMEX commodity-based futures.
Risk Management System (RMS)
Performance of the obligations under futures contracts is guaranteed by the Clearing House.
Natural gas market
On 24 October 2014, SPIMEX launched trading in natural gas.
SPIMEX designated balancing points (located around compressor stations) are as follows: Nadym, Lokosovo and Parabel. Trading Participants include largest domestic natural gas producers and end-users (utilities, fertilizer and metallurgy companies).
In October 2015 SPIMEX launched a day-ahead contracts trades and in October 2016 - trades for delivery on national holidays and weekends.
In 2016, the volume traded at the SPIMEX Natural Gas Section amounted to 16.812 bcm (+119.8% y-o-y), in 2021 – 6.691 bcm (-58.3% y-o-y) and in 2022 – 5.700 bcm (-14.8% y-o-y).
Active development of the market continues. The first stage of commercial balancing of natural gas traded on the Exchange has been implemented. Buyers are now able to sell on the Exchange volumes of natural gas that were purchased earlier, but were not drawn by the end of the day.
Timber market
On 11 July 2014, SPIMEX launched trading in timber. Deliveries of conifer timber traded on SPIMEX originate in the Irkutsk Region of Russia. The Exchange brings together over 60 entities, including major logging companies, forest leaseholders and timber processing businesses. SPIMEX plans to add new trading instruments, to expand geographic reach and in the long run to launch a cross-border delivery mechanism.
In 2022, the volume traded at the SPIMEX Timber & Construction Materials Section amounted to 4,012 million cubic meters. The number of trades made stood at 2,617.
Registration of OTC transactions
SPIMEX is authorized to register OTC transactions in the following exchange-traded commodities:
refined products;
crude oil;
natural gas;
LPG;
coal,
mineral fertilizer and
timber.
Data on such OTC transactions is used for calculation of the relevant SPIMEX indices.
In 2022, volumes set in the relevant OTC contacts and the number of registered OTC transactions were broken down by product as follows:
refined products: 343 MMT;
LPG – 11 MMT;
crude oil: 501.1 MMT;
natural gas: 5.3 tcm;
coal: 775.6 MMT;
timber: 78.1 mcm;
mineral fertilizers: 29.5 MMT.
In 2022, the number of companies which registered their OTC transactions with SPIMEX grew up to 1141.
Market data
SPIMEX distributes market data to regulators, market participants, news agencies, information vendors, research and consulting firms.
In June 2013, SPIMEX entered into a cooperation agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) on enhancing transparency in the domestic crude oil and refined products markets;
In June 2016, SPIMEX entered into a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia on enhancing transparency in the domestic natural gas, crude oil and refined products markets;
Market data distributed by SPIMEX is based on actual transaction data (both exchange- traded and registered with SPIMEX by OTC market participants).
References
General references
External links
Official website
Reuters, UPDATE 1-Russia launches Urals crude oil futures trading in Moscow, Nov 29, 2016
Platts, SPIMEX’s Urals futures contract: A new benchmark for Russia?, November 30, 2016
FOW, Spimex launches first Russian crude contract, November 30, 2016
ICIS, Urals grade: A new oil benchmark?
ICIS, OUTLOOK '17: Oil price stickiness may last on strong liquidity and weak fundamentals, 21 December 2016
Bloomberg, Putin's Decade-Old Dream Realized as Russia to Price Its Own Oil, Apr 28, 2016
Financial services companies established in 2008
Commodity exchanges
Petroleum | Saint-Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,915 | [
"Petroleum",
"Chemical mixtures"
] |
53,481,999 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net%20metering%20in%20New%20Mexico | Net metering in New Mexico is a set of state public policies that govern the relationship between solar customers (and customers with other types of renewable energy systems) and electric utility companies.
Background
Definition
Net metering refers to the interconnection of a renewable energy system to the power grid. It allows consumers who have their own renewable generation power systems to connect to the power grid with an electric meter that spins both forwards and backwards, depending on whether the consumer is adding energy to the grid or using energy from the grid. At the end of the month, the customer's bill is based on the net amount of power that is drawn from the grid, minus the credits for excess power put into the grid.
In New Mexico, customers who have systems that produce up to 80 MW of electricity are able to sign up for net metering. This is the highest power rating eligible for net metering in the United States.
The three main utilities in New Mexico are PNM, Xcel Energy and El Paso Electric.
Benefits of net metering
One benefit of net metering is that power is never wasted. When someone uses an isolated system that uses batteries that become fully charged while the system is still generating power, that excess power is wasted.
Customer-generators, businesses and industrial operations can qualify for net metering. Customer-generators have the added benefit of selling renewable energy credits (REC) back to their utility. (A customer-generator is a small producer—that is not an electric utility—of electricity which is net metered and connected to the electric grid. An example would be a homeowner who puts solar panels on his rooftop.)
Utility-scale solar vs. residential solar
A utility-scale solar facility is a large facility that generates solar power and moves that power into the electric grid. Almost every utility-scale solar facility has what is known as a power purchase agreement with the utility. The agreement guarantees a market for the utility-scale solar facility's energy for a fixed term of time. (Residential solar systems are not considered utility-scale).
The size of a utility-scale facility can vary. For example, some utility-scale facilities provide only enough power for a few hundred average homes. Others offer a lot more energy. Factors that play into this are location, the type of technology used, and the availability of sunlight.
For example, although not located in New Mexico, Recurrent Energies’ “Sunset Reservoir” project in San Francisco produces 5 megawatts of solar energy. It is built on top of enclosed reservoir in the middle of San Francisco. It is considered a utility-scale solar facility.
How it works
Net excess generation
For customers with solar systems that can generate 10 kilowatts or less, the utility company has a choice in how they compensate that customer for net excess generation. The utility can give the customer a credit on their next bill equal to the utility's energy rate (the costs that the utility pays for its own electricity), or crediting the customer for the kilowatt hours of electricity that they have supplied back to utility through the grid.
Technical
In New Mexico, a few technical requirements exist in order for a net metering system to be connected to the grid. First, the net metering system should have a visible means of disconnection allowing the utility to disconnect to system from the grid. Second, a net meter is required and should cost no more than $20. Third, there needs to be an inverter that disconnects when the grid goes down.
The system capacity limit is 80 megawatts.
Eligibility
In New Mexico the types of renewable technologies eligible for net metering are the following:
Combined Heat & Power
Fuel cells using Non-Renewable Fuels
Fuel cells using Renewable Fuels
Geothermal Electric
Hydroelectric
Hydroelectric (Small)
Landfill gas
Microturbines
Municipal solid waste
Solar photovoltaics
Solar thermal electric
Wind (All), Biomass
Wind (Small)
Sectors that can use net metering include commercial, industrial, local government, nonprofits, residential homes, schools, state and federal government, agricultural, and institutional.
The types of utilities that can participate in net metering are investor-owned utilities and electric cooperatives.
Utilities that can participate are investor-owned utilities and electric cooperatives. When a customer leaves the utility, the utility must pay the customer for any unused credits.
Availability and jurisdiction
According to DSIRE, “Net metering is available to all "qualifying facilities" (QFs), as defined by the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), which pertains to renewable energy systems and combined heat and power systems up to 80 megawatts (MW) in capacity. There is no statewide cap on the aggregate capacity of net-metered systems.”
Additionally, all utilities that are subject regulation under the Public Regulation Commission’s (PRC) jurisdiction must offer net metering. Municipal utilities, which are not regulated by the PRC, are exempt.
Solar in New Mexico
Growth
In New Mexico, the decrease in prices for solar systems is driving the market for it. Many homeowners and commercial companies are purchasing solar systems to help offset the increase in electric utility bills. More financing options are available today in New Mexico, more solar companies are competing, and this is leading to an increase in market penetration.
The growth is predicted at 20% per year. As of early 2016, the market in the United States for solar systems had reached 1 million solar installations. This is equivalent to generating enough electricity to power 5.4 million homes, according to the national Solar Energy Industry Association.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, “New Mexico ranks 8th in the nation today in terms of installed solar capacity per capita.” It is estimated that the solar market in New Mexico has only experienced approximately 10% of market penetration.
Solar capacity and statistics
According to the Albuquerque Journal, “As of year-end 2015, New Mexico had about 400 megawatts of installed capacity. That includes 85 MW of residential and commercial systems, and 316 MW of utility-scale generation scattered throughout the service territories of New Mexico’s public utilities and electric cooperatives.”
For all the installed solar capacity in the New Mexico, the Public Service Company of New Mexico accounts for around 41% of that. Their facilities include fifteen different projects with a total of 107 MW of capacity, which according to the company, provides enough power 140,000 average homes.
New Mexico requires public utilities to get 15% of their electric generation from renewable sources. That number will increase to 20% by the year 2020.
Within the state, sixty different contracting and installation companies operate. These firms include national companies like SolarCity and ZingSolar.
Consumer incentives
State tax credit
Up until the end of 2016, New Mexico offered a 10% state tax credit for solar installations. The tax credit began in 2008.
Solar companies operating in New Mexico say they are okay to absorb the loss of the state tax credit, meaning that they don't believe it will affect their business. However, in addition to the loss of the tax credit, renewable energy payments from utilities to customers is also declining.
Federal tax credit
In addition to the state tax credit, which is over, the U.S. government gives a 30 percent tax credit for solar installations. In December 2015, Congress extended the program through the end of 2019.
Payments from utilities
PNM and El Paso Electric Co. in southern New Mexico paid customers for each kilowatt hour of electricity they produced from their solar systems. These payments help customers and businesses offset the costs of installing their solar systems.
In addition to the payments, those companies offer net metering. Under net metering, people with solar systems can sell their excess electricity back to the utility company at a price equal to what the utility pays for its own electricity. Note that net metering is a separate system of payments from the renewable payments that utilities offer back to customers.
For example, 7,100 customers have signed up for the renewable payments from the utility PNM. In 2014, that number was only 4,400 customers.
Payments from utilities back to customers decreased from $.13 per kilowatt hour in 2009 to $.025 by the end of 2015. As of the middle of 2016, PNM stopped accepting new applications because the number of people seeking the credits was more than the money available in the program.
According to DSIRE, a program operated by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, “If a customer has NEG [net energy generation] totaling less than $50 during a monthly billing period, the excess is carried over to the customer’s next monthly bill. If NEG exceeds $50 during a monthly billing period, the utility will pay the customer the following month for the excess.
“The energy rate to be paid for the energy supplied by the QF [qualifying facility] in any month shall be the respective month's rate from the utility's current schedule on file with the PRC. Each utility shall file with the PRC its schedule containing monthly energy rates that will be applicable to the next twelve-month period.”
Price of solar installation
According to a study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, prices for the installation of residential and utility-scale solar generation plants went down by more than 50 percent between 2008 and 2014. In 2015, prices fell another 17 percent.
As of 2017, an average New Mexico residential system producing 4.4 kilowatts costs approximately $17,000 before tax credits and other incentives. After credits and incentives, the system would cost approximately $11,900. In 2009, that same system had cost $30,000. If a consumer chose to finance the system, they could pay around $99 a month.
Regulatory rules
In New Mexico there are two primary rules that govern the interconnection of a solar system to the utility grid:
NMPRC Rule 570 (general interconnection of qualifying facilities—larger solar-producing facilities)
NMPRC Rule 571 (net metering for small renewable energy systems)
According to the New Mexico Solar Energy Association, “These rules apply wherever electricity service is regulated by the PRC. This includes the areas serviced by New Mexico's four investor owned utilities (IOUs) (which encompasses Santa Fe and Albuquerque for example), and the areas services by electric coops. It does not include municipal utilities (such as Los Alamos and Farmington), which are self-regulated.”
Additionally, “If the net-metered facility uses more power than it produces over a billing period, the utility may bill the customer for the net power used according to the rate structure that would apply to the customer if they had not connected as a net-metering facility.”
Future of net metering in New Mexico
The solar industry in New Mexico is facing hurdles. Most utilities want to reduce incentives like net metering and charge customers more who have solar systems. The reason they want to do this is because the utilities maintain that their role in generating plants, transmitting and distributing electricity through distribution lines, and other fixed costs remain unchanged. They argue that solar customers are not financially contributing to those fixed costs.
References
External links
Utility-specific information on net metering can be found at the following websites:
PNM Resources (Public Service Company of NM) - Rider No. 24
Xcel Energy (Southwestern Public Service Company) - PDFs/rates/NM/nm_sps_e_entire.pdf Tariff No. 3018.33
El Paso Electric Company - Rate No. 16
City of Farmington - Rate No. 17
Regulations:
Title 17: Public Utilities And Utility Services. Chapter 9: Electric Services. Part 570: Governing Cogeneration And Small Power Production
Incentives:
MEXICO INCENTIVES PANEL.pdf New Mexico Incentives for Customer-Owned Solar Photovoltaic Systems
Programs:
PNM Customer Solar Energy Program
Energy in New Mexico
Energy policy | Net metering in New Mexico | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 2,428 | [
"Environmental social science",
"Energy policy"
] |
53,483,035 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ply%20%28layer%29 | A ply is a layer of material which has been combined with other layers in order to provide strength. The number of layers is indicated by prefixing a number, for example 4-ply, indicating material composed of 4 layers.
Etymology
The word "ply" derives from the French verb plier, "to fold", from the Latin verb plico, from the ancient Greek verb πλέκω.
Examples
Yarn, where plying is a spinning technique to combine several fibres.
Vehicle tires
Plywood
Toilet paper
References
Structural analysis
Structural engineering | Ply (layer) | [
"Engineering"
] | 114 | [
"Structural engineering",
"Structural analysis",
"Construction",
"Civil engineering",
"Mechanical engineering",
"Aerospace engineering"
] |
53,485,022 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20Nations%20Declaration%20on%20Human%20Cloning | The United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning was a nonbinding statement against all forms of human cloning approved by a divided UN General Assembly.
The vote came in March 2005, after four years of debate and an end to attempts for an international ban.
In the 191-nation assembly, there were 84 votes in favor of a nonbinding statement, 34 against and 37 abstentions.
Proposed by Honduras, the statement was largely supported by Roman Catholic countries and opposed by countries with active embryonic stem cell research programs. Many Islamic nations abstained.
The UN Declaration on Human Cloning, as it is named, calls for all member states to adopt a ban on human cloning, which it says is "incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life."
The US, which has long pushed for a complete ban, voted in favor of the statement while traditional ally Britain, where therapeutic cloning is legal and regulated, voted against it.
The statement should have no impact on countries that allow therapeutic cloning, such as Britain and South Korea, as it is not legally binding.
"The foes of therapeutic cloning are trying to portray this as a victory for their ideology," Bernard Siegel, a Florida attorney who lobbies to defend therapeutic cloning, said in a Reuters report. "But this confusing declaration is an effort to mask their failure last November to impose a treaty on the world banning therapeutic cloning."
References
This article contains quotations from Wikisource, which is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic (CC BY 2.5) license.
External links
Cloning
United Nations documents
United Nations reports
United Nations resolutions | United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning | [
"Engineering",
"Biology"
] | 338 | [
"Cloning",
"Genetic engineering"
] |
53,489,192 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euxinia | Euxinia or euxinic conditions occur when water is both anoxic and sulfidic. This means that there is no oxygen (O2) and a raised level of free hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Euxinic bodies of water are frequently strongly stratified; have an oxic, highly productive, thin surface layer; and have anoxic, sulfidic bottom water. The word "euxinia" is derived from the Greek name for the Black Sea (Εὔξεινος Πόντος (Euxeinos Pontos)) which translates to "hospitable sea". Euxinic deep water is a key component of the Canfield ocean, a model of oceans during part of the Proterozoic eon (a part specifically known as the Boring Billion) proposed by Donald Canfield, an American geologist, in 1998. There is still debate within the scientific community on both the duration and frequency of euxinic conditions in the ancient oceans. Euxinia is relatively rare in modern bodies of water, but does still happen in places like the Black Sea and certain fjords.
Background
Euxinia most frequently occurred in the Earth's ancient oceans, but its distribution and frequency of occurrence are still under debate. The original model was that it was quite constant for approximately a billion years. Some meta-analyses have questioned how persistent euxinic conditions were based on relatively small black shale deposits in a period when the ocean should have theoretically been preserving more organic matter.
Before the Great Oxygenation Event happened approximately 2.3 billion years ago, there was little free oxygen in either the atmosphere or the ocean. It was originally thought that the ocean accumulated oxygen soon after the atmosphere did, but this idea was challenged by Canfield in 1998 when he proposed that instead of the deep ocean becoming oxidizing, it became sulfidic. This hypothesis is partially based on the disappearance of banded iron formations from the geological records 1.8 billion years ago. Canfield argued that although enough oxygen entered the atmosphere to erode sulfides in continental rocks, there was not enough oxygen to mix into the deep ocean. This would result in an anoxic deep ocean with an increased flux of sulfur from the continents. The sulfur would strip iron ions from the sea water, resulting in iron sulfide (pyrite), a portion of which was eventually buried. When sulfide became the major oceanic reductant instead of iron, the deep water became euxinic. This has become what is known as the Canfield ocean, a model backed by the increase in presence of δ34S in sedimentary pyrite and the discovery of evidence of the first sulfate evaporites.
Anoxia and sulfidic conditions often occur together. In anoxic conditions anaerobic, sulfate reducing bacteria convert sulfate into sulfide, creating sulfidic conditions. The emergence of this metabolic pathway was very important in the pre-oxygenated oceans because adaptations to otherwise inhabitable or "toxic" environments like this may have played a role in the diversification of early eukaryotes and protozoa in the pre-Phanerozoic.
Euxinia still occurs occasionally today, mostly in meromictic lakes and silled basins such as the Black Sea and some fjords. It is rare in modern times; less than 0.5% of today's sea floor is euxinic.
Causes
The basic requirements for the formation of euxinic conditions are the absence of oxygen (O2), and the presence of sulfate ions (SO42−), organic matter (CH2O), and bacteria capable of reducing sulfate to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The bacteria utilize the redox potential of sulfate as an oxidant and organic matter as a reductant to generate chemical energy through cellular respiration. The chemical species of interest can be represented via the reaction:
2CH2O + SO42− → H2S + 2HCO3−
In the reaction above, the sulfur has been reduced to form the byproduct hydrogen sulfide, the characteristic compound present in water under euxinic conditions. Although sulfate reduction occurs in waters throughout the world, most modern-day aquatic habitats are oxygenated due to photosynthetic production of oxygen and gas exchange between the atmosphere and surface water. Sulfate reduction in these environments is often limited to occurring in seabed sediments that have a strong redox gradient and become anoxic at some depth below the sediment-water interface. In the ocean the rate of these reactions is not limited by sulfate, which has been present in large quantities throughout the oceans for the past 2.1 billion years. The Great Oxygenation Event increased atmospheric oxygen concentrations such that oxidative weathering of sulfides became a major source of sulfate to the ocean. Despite plentiful sulfate ions being present in solution, they are not preferentially used by most bacteria. The reduction of sulfate does not give as much energy to an organism as reduction of oxygen or nitrate, so the concentrations of these other elements must be nearly zero for sulfate-reducing bacteria to out-compete aerobic and denitrifying bacteria. In most modern settings these conditions only occur in a small portion of sediments, resulting in insufficient concentrations of hydrogen sulfide to form euxinic waters.
Conditions required for the formation of persistent euxinia include anoxic waters, high nutrient levels, and a stratified water column. These conditions are not all-inclusive and are based largely on modern observations of euxinia. Conditions leading up to and triggering large-scale euxinic events, such as the Canfield ocean, are likely the result of multiple interlinking factors, many of which have been inferred through studies of the geologic record at relevant locations. The formation of stratified anoxic waters with high nutrient levels is influenced by a variety of global and local-scale phenomena such as the presence of nutrient traps and a warming climate.
Nutrient traps
In order for euxinic conditions to persist, a positive feedback loop must perpetuate organic matter export to bottom waters and reduction of sulfate under anoxic conditions. Organic matter export is driven by high levels of primary production in the photic zone, supported by a continual supply of nutrients to the oxic surface waters. A natural source of nutrients, such as phosphate (), comes from weathering of rocks and subsequent transport of these dissolved nutrients via rivers. In a nutrient trap, increased input of phosphate from rivers, high rates of recycling of phosphate from sediments, and slow vertical mixing in the water column allow for euxinic conditions to persist.
Geography
The arrangement of the continents has changed over time due to plate tectonics, resulting in the bathymetry of ocean basins also changing over time. The shape and size of the basins influences the circulation patterns and concentration of nutrients within them. Numerical models simulating past arrangements of continents have shown that nutrient traps can form in certain scenarios, increasing local concentrations of phosphate and setting up potential euxinic conditions. On a smaller scale, silled basins often act as nutrient traps due to their estuarine circulation. Estuarine circulation occurs where surface water is replenished from river input and precipitation, causing an outflow of surface waters from the basin, while deep water flows into the basin over the sill. This type of circulation allows for anoxic, high nutrient bottom water to develop within the basin.
Stratification
Stratified waters, in combination with slow vertical mixing, are essential to maintaining euxinic conditions. Stratification occurs when two or more water masses with different densities occupy the same basin. While the less dense surface water can exchange gas with the oxygen-rich atmosphere, the denser bottom waters maintain low oxygen content. In the modern oceans, thermohaline circulation and upwelling prevent the oceans from maintaining anoxic bottom waters. In a silled basin, the stable stratified layers only allow surface water to flow out of the basin while the deep water remains anoxic and relatively unmixed. During an intrusion of dense saltwater however, the nutrient-rich bottom water upwells, causing increased productivity in the surface, further enhancing the nutrient trap due to biological pumping. Rising sea level can exacerbate this process by increasing the amount of deep water entering a silled basin and enhancing estuarine circulation.
Warming climate
A warming climate increases surface temperatures of waters which affects multiple aspects of euxinic water formation. As waters warm, the solubility of oxygen decreases, allowing for deep anoxic waters to form more readily. Additionally, the warmer water causes increased respiration of organic matter leading to further oxygen depletion. Higher temperatures enhance the hydrologic cycle, increasing evaporation from bodies of water, resulting in increased precipitation. This causes higher rates of weathering of rocks and therefore higher nutrient concentrations in river outflows. The nutrients allow for more productivity resulting in more marine snow and subsequently lower oxygen in deep waters due to increased respiration.
Volcanism has also been proposed as a factor in creating euxinic conditions. The carbon dioxide (CO2) released during volcanic outgassing causes global warming which has cascading effects on the formation of euxinic conditions.
Evidence for euxinic events
Black shale
Black shales are organic rich, microlaminated sedimentary rocks often associated with bottom water anoxia. This is because anoxia slows the degradation of organic matter, allowing for greater burial in the sediments. Other evidence for anoxic burial of black shale includes the lack of bioturbation, meaning that there were no organisms burrowing into the sediment because there was no oxygen for respiration. There must also be a source of organic matter for burial, generally from production near the oxic surface. Many papers discussing ancient euxinic events use the presence of black shale as a preliminary proxy for anoxic bottom waters, but their presence does not in and of itself indicate euxinia or even strong anoxia. Generally geochemical testing is needed to provide better evidence for conditions.
Geochemistry
Some researchers study the occurrence of euxinia in ancient oceans because it was more prevalent then than it is today. Since ancient oceans cannot be directly observed, scientists use geology and chemistry to find evidence in sedimentary rock created under euxinic conditions. Some of these techniques come from studying modern examples of euxinia, while others are derived from geochemistry. Though modern euxinic environments have geochemical properties in common with ancient euxinic oceans, the physical processes causing euxinia most likely vary between the two.
Isotopes
Stable isotope ratios can be used to infer the environmental conditions during the formation of sedimentary rock. Using stoichiometry and knowledge of redox pathways, paleogeologists can use isotopes ratios of elements to determine the chemical composition of the water and sediments when burial occurred.
Sulfur isotopes are frequently used to look for evidence of ancient euxinia. Low δ34S in black shales and sedimentary rocks provides positive evidence for euxinic formation conditions. The pyrite (FeS2) in euxinic basins typically has higher concentrations of light sulfur isotopes than pyrite in the modern ocean. The reduction of sulfate to sulfide favors the lighter sulfur isotopes (32S) and becomes depleted in the heavier isotopes (34S). This lighter sulfide then bonds with Fe2+ to form FeS2 which is then partially preserved in the sediments. In most modern systems, sulfate eventually becomes limiting, and the isotopic weights of sulfur in both sulfate and sulfide (preserved as FeS2) become equal.
Molybdenum (Mo), the most common transition metal ion in modern seawater, is also used to look for evidence for euxinia. Weathering of rocks provides an input of MoO42– into oceans. Under oxic conditions, MoO42– is very unreactive, but in modern euxinic environments such as the Black Sea, molybdenum precipitates out as oxythiomolybdate (MoO4−xSx2– ). The isotope ratio for Molybdenum (δ97/95 Mo) in euxinic sediments appears to be higher than in oxic conditions. Additionally, the concentration of molybdenum is frequently correlated with the concentration of organic matter in euxinic sediments. The use of Mo to indicate euxinia is still under debate.
Trace-element enrichment
Under euxinic conditions, some trace elements such as Mo, U, V, Cd, Cu, Tl, Ni, Sb, and Zn, become insoluble. This means that euxinic sediments would contain more of the solid form of these elements than the background seawater. For example, Molybdenum and other trace metals become insoluble in anoxic and sulfidic conditions, so over time the seawater becomes depleted of trace metals under conditions of persistent euxinia, and preserved sediments are relatively enriched with molybdenum and other trace elements.
Organic biomarkers
Bacteria such as green sulfur bacteria and purple sulfur bacteria, which exist where the photic zone overlaps with euxinic water masses, leave pigments behind in sediments. These pigments can be used to identify past euxinic conditions. The pigments used to identify past presence of green sulfur bacteria are chlorobactane and isorenieratene. The pigments used to identify past presence of purple sulfur bacteria is okenane.
Iron geochemistry
Pyrite (FeS2) is a mineral formed by the reaction of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and bioreactive iron (Fe2+). In oxic bottom waters pyrite can only form in sediments where H2S is present. However, in iron-rich euxinic environments, pyrite formation can occur at higher rates in both the water column and in sediments due to higher concentrations of H2S. Therefore the presence of euxinic conditions can be inferred by the ratio of pyrite-bound iron to the total iron in sediments. High ratios of pyrite-bound iron can be used as an indicator of past euxinic conditions. Similarly, if >45% of the bioreactive iron in sediments is pyrite-bound, then anoxic or euxinic conditions can be inferred. While useful, these methods do not provide definitive proof of euxinia because not all euxinic waters have the same concentrations of bioreactive iron available. These relationships have been found to be present in the modern euxinic Black Sea.
Euxinic events in Earth's history
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic is the transition era between anoxic and oxygenated oceans. The classic model is that the end of the Banded iron formations (BIFs) was due to the injection of oxygen into the deep ocean, an approximately 0.6 billion year lag behind the Great Oxygenation Event. Canfield, however, argued that anoxia lasted much longer, and the end of the banded iron formations was due to the introduction of sulfide. Supporting Canfield's original hypothesis, 1.84 billion year old sedimentary records have been found in the Animike group in Canada that exhibit close to full pyritization on top of the last of the banded iron formations, showing evidence of a transition to euxinic conditions in that basin. In order for full pyritization to happen, nearly all of the sulfate in the water was reduced to sulfide, which stripped the iron from the water, forming pyrite. Because this basin was open to the ocean, deep euxinia was interpreted as being a widespread phenomena. This euxinia is hypothesized to have lasted until about 0.8 billion years ago, making basin bottom euxinia a potentially widespread feature throughout the Boring Billion.
Further evidence for euxinia was discovered in the McArthur Basin in Australia, where similar iron chemistry was found. The degree of pyritization and the δ34S were both high, supporting the presence of anoxia and sulfide, as well as the depletion of sulfate. A different study found biomarkers for green sulfur bacteria and purple sulfur bacteria in the same area, providing further evidence for the reduction of sulfate to hydrogen sulfide.
Molybdenum isotopes have been used to examine the distribution of euxinia in the Proterozoic eon, and suggest that perhaps euxinia was not as widespread as Canfield initially postulated. Bottom waters may have been more widely suboxic than anoxic, and there could have been negative feedback between euxinia and the high levels of surface primary production needed to sustain euxinic conditions. Further work has suggested that from 700 million years ago (late Proterozoic) and onward, the deep oceans may have actually been anoxic and iron rich with conditions similar to those during the formation of BIFs.
Phanerozoic
There is evidence for multiple euxinic events during the Phanerozoic. It is most likely that euxinia was periodic during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, but geologic data is too sparse to draw any large scale conclusions. In this eon, there is some evidence that euxinic events are potentially linked with mass extinction events including the Late Devonian and Permian–Triassic.
Paleozoic
The periodic presence of euxinic conditions in the Lower Cambrian has been supported by evidence found on the Yangtze platform in South China. Sulfur isotopes during the transition from Proterozoic to Phanerozoic give evidence for widespread euxinia, perhaps lasting throughout the Cambrian period. Towards the end of the Lower Cambrian, the euxinic chemocline grew deeper until euxinia was present only in the sediments, and once sulfate became limiting, conditions became anoxic instead of euxinic. Some areas eventually became oxic, while others eventually returned to euxinic for some time.
Geological records from the paleozoic in the Selwyn Basin in Northern Canada have also shown evidence for episodic stratification and mixing, where, using δ34S, it was determined that hydrogen sulfide was more prevalent than sulfate. Although this was not originally attributed to euxinia, further studies found that seawater in that time likely had low concentrations of sulfate, meaning that the sulfur in the water was primarily in the form of sulfide. This combined with organic-rich black shale provide strong evidence for euxinia.
There is similar evidence in the black shales in the mid-continent North America from the Devonian and early Mississippian periods. Isorenieratene, a pigment known as a proxy for an anoxic photic zone, has been found in the geological record in Illinois and Michigan. Although present, these events were probably ephemeral and did not last for longer periods of time. Similar periodic evidence of euxinia can also be found in the Sunbury shales of Kentucky.
Evidence for euxinia has also been tied to the Kellwasser events of the Late Devonian Extinction event. Euxinia in basinal waters in what is now central Europe (Germany, Poland, and France) persisted for part of the late Devonian, and may have spread up into shallow waters, contributing to the extinction event.
There was perhaps a period of oxygenation of bottom waters during the Carboniferous, most likely between the Late Devonian Extinction and the Permian-Triassic Extinction, at which point euxinia would be very rare in the paleo oceans.
The Permian–Triassic extinction event may also have some ties to euxinia, with hypercapnia and hydrogen sulfide toxicity killing off many species. Presence of a biomarker for anaerobic photosynthesis by green sulfur bacteria has been found spanning from the Permian to early Triassic in sedimentary rock in both Australia and China, meaning that euxinic conditions extended up quite shallow in the water column, contributing to the extinctions and perhaps even slowed the recovery. It is uncertain, however, just how widespread photic zone euxinia was during this period. Modelers have hypothesized that due to environmental conditions anoxia and sulfide may have been brought up from a deep, vast euxinic reservoir in upwelling areas, but stable, gyre-like areas remained oxic.
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic is well known for its distinct Ocean Anoxic Events (OAEs) which resulted in the burial of layers of black shale. Although these OAEs are not stand alone evidence for euxinia, many do contain biomarkers which support euxinic formation. Again, evidence is not universal. OAEs may have spurred the spread of existing euxinia, especially in upwelling regions or semi-restricted basins, but photic zone euxinia did not happen everywhere.
Cenozoic
Few episodes of euxinia are evident in the sedimentary record during the Cenozoic. Since the end of the Cretaceous OAEs, it is most likely that the oceanic bottom waters have stayed oxic.
Modern euxinia
Euxinic conditions have nearly vanished from Earth's open-ocean environments, but a few small scale examples still exist today. Many of these locations share common biogeochemical characteristics. For example, low rates of overturning and vertical mixing of the total water column is common in euxinic bodies of water. Small surface area to depth ratios allow multiple stable layers to form while limiting wind-driven overturning and thermohaline circulation. Furthermore, restricted mixing enhances stratified layers of high nutrient density which are reinforced by biological recycling. Within the chemocline, highly specialized organisms such as green sulfur bacteria take advantage of the strong redox potential gradient and minimal sunlight.
The Black Sea
The Black Sea is a commonly used modern model for understanding biogeochemical processes that occur under euxinic conditions. It is thought to represent the conditions of Earth's proto-oceans and thus assists in the interpretation of oceanic proxies. Black Sea sediment contains redox reactions to depths of tens of meters, compared to single centimeters in the open ocean. This unique feature is important for understanding the behavior of the redox cascade under euxinic conditions.
The only connection between the open ocean and the Black Sea is the Bosphorus Strait, through which dense Mediterranean waters are imported. Subsequently, numerous rivers, such as the Danube, Don, Dnieper, and Dniester, drain fresh water into the Black Sea, which floats on top of the more dense Mediterranean water, causing a strong, stratified water column. This stratification is maintained by a strong pycnocline which restricts ventilation of deep waters and results in an intermediate layer called the chemocline, a sharp boundary separating oxic surface waters from anoxic bottom waters usually between 50m and 100m depth, with interannual variation attributed to large scale changes in temperature. Well-mixed, oxic conditions exist above the chemocline and sulfidic conditions are dominant below. Surface oxygen and deep water sulfide do not overlap via vertical mixing, but horizontal entrainment of oxygenated waters and vertical mixing of oxidized manganese into sulfidic waters may occur near the Bosphorus Strait inlet. Manganese and iron oxides likely oxidize hydrogen sulfide near the chemocline, resulting in the decrease in H2S concentrations as one approaches the chemocline from below.
Meromictic lakes
Meromictic lakes are poorly mixed and anoxic bodies of water with strong vertical stratification. While meromictic lakes are frequently categorized as bodies of water with the potential for euxinic conditions, many do not exhibit euxinia. Meromictic lakes are infamous for limnic eruptions. These events usually coincide with nearby tectonic or volcanic activity that disturbs the otherwise stable stratification of meromictic lakes. This can result in the release of immense concentrations of stored toxic gasses from the anoxic bottom waters, such as CO2 and H2S, especially from euxinic meromictic lakes. In high enough concentration, these limnic explosions can be deadly to humans and animals, such as the Lake Nyos disaster in 1986.
North Sea fjords
Some fjords develop euxinia if the connection to the open ocean is constricted, similar to the case of the Black Sea. This constriction prohibits relatively dense, oxygen-rich oceanic water from mixing with the bottom water of the fjord, which leads to stable stratified layers in the fjord. Low salinity melt water forms a lens of fresh, low density water on top of a more dense mass of bottom water. Ground sources of sulfur are also an important cause for euxinia in fjords.
Framvaren Fjord
This fjord was born as a glacial lake that was separated from the open ocean (the North Sea) when it was lifted during glacial rebound. A shallow channel (2m deep) was dug in 1850, providing a marginal connection to the North Sea. A strong pycnocline separates fresh surface water from dense, saline bottom water, and this pycnocline reduces mixing between the layers. Anoxic conditions persist below the chemocline at 20m, and the fjord has the highest levels of hydrogen sulfide in the anoxic marine world. Like the Black Sea, vertical overlap of oxygen and sulfur is limited, but the decline of H2S approaching the chemocline from below is indicative of oxidation of H2S, which has been attributed to manganese and iron oxides, photo-autotrophic bacteria, and entrainment of oxygen horizontally from the boundaries of the fjord. These oxidation processes are similar to those present in the Black Sea.
Two strong seawater intrusion events have occurred through the channel in recent history (1902 and 1942). Seawater intrusions to fjords force dense, salty, oxygen-rich water into the typically anoxic, sulfidic bottom waters of euxinic fjords. These events result in a temporary disturbance to the chemocline, raising the depth at which H2S is detected. The breakdown of the chemocline causes H2S to react with dissolved oxygen in a redox reaction. This decreases the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the biologically active photic zone which can result in basin-scale fish die-offs. The 1942 event, in particular, was strong enough to chemically reduce the vast majority of oxygen and elevate the chemocline to the air-water interface. This caused a temporary state of total anoxia in the fjord, and resulted in dramatic fish mortality.
Mariager Fjord
This fjord is marked by a highly mobile chemocline with a depth that is thought to be related to temperature effects. Local reports of strong rotten egg smell- the smell of sulfur- during numerous summers around the fjord provide evidence that, like the Framvaren fjord, the chemocline has breached the surface of the fjord at least five times in the last century. Sediments export during these events increased the concentrations of dissolved phosphates, inorganic bioavailable nitrogen, and other nutrients, resulting in a harmful algal bloom.
Cariaco Basin
The Cariaco Basin in Venezuela has been used to study the cycle of organic material in euxinic marine environments. An increase in productivity coincident with post glacial nutrient loading probably caused a transition from oxic to anoxic and subsequently euxinic conditions around 14.5 thousand years ago. High productivity at the surface produces a rain of particulate organic matter to the sub surface where anoxic, sulfidic conditions persist. The organic matter in this region is oxidized with sulfate, producing reduced sulfur (H2S) as a waste product. Free sulfur exists deep in the water column and up to 6m in depth in the sediment.
See also
Anoxic event
Canfield ocean
Redox
Boring Billion
References
Environmental science
Environmental chemistry
Oceanography
Chemical oceanography
Bioindicators
Aquatic ecology
Water quality indicators | Euxinia | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Biology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 5,822 | [
"Hydrology",
"Bioindicators",
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Oceanography",
"Environmental chemistry",
"Water pollution",
"Chemical oceanography",
"Water quality indicators",
"Ecosystems",
"nan",
"Aquatic ecology"
] |
59,656,957 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articulavirales | Articulavirales is an order of segmented negative-strand RNA viruses which infect invertebrates and vertebrates. It includes the family of influenza viruses which infect humans. It is the only order of viruses in the monotypic class Insthoviricetes. The order contains two families and eight genera. Metatranscriptomics of aquatic animal samples paired with phylogenetics suggests that Articulavirales exhibits complex cross-species virus transmission and virus-host co-divergence over deep evolutionary time scales. Potentially originating in ancient aquatic animals at least 600 Mya.
Etymology
The order name Articulavirales derives from Latin meaning "segmented" (alluding to the segmented genome of member viruses) added to the suffix for virus orders -virales. The class name Insthoviricetes is a portmanteau of member viruses "influenza, isavirus, and thogotovirus" added to the suffix -viricetes for virus classes.
Genome
Member viruses have segmented, negative-sense, single-stranded RNA genomes.
Classification
The order Articulavirales contains two families and eight genera:
Amnoonviridae
Tilapinevirus
Orthomyxoviridae
Alphainfluenzavirus
Betainfluenzavirus
Deltainfluenzavirus
Gammainfluenzavirus
Isavirus
Quaranjavirus
Thogotovirus
References
Virus orders
Negarnaviricota | Articulavirales | [
"Biology"
] | 294 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,657,046 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%202074 | NGC 2074 is a magnitude ~8 emission nebula in the Tarantula Nebula located in the constellation Dorado. It was discovered on 3 August 1826 by James Dunlop
and around 1835 by John Herschel. It is described as being "pretty bright, pretty large, much extended, [and having] 5 stars involved".
Discovery
Some of the objects catalogued by Herschel before 1847 do not have a discovery date listed, and NGC 2074 is one of them. Though its inclusion in the catalog of objects observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud which involves observations carried out between 2 November 1836 and 26 March 1837 shows it must not have been discovered later than that.
The observation of NGC 2074 by Dunlop was not identified as this object until recently.
Location
NGC 2074 is located around away. The area has a lot of raw stellar creation, possibly triggered by a nearby supernova explosion and is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud which is an incubator for the birth of new stars.
References
External links
NGC 2074 on WikiSky
Picture of the Day: Week 34, 2008
Emission nebulae
2074
Discoveries by James Dunlop
Astronomical objects discovered in 1826
Dorado
Tarantula Nebula | NGC 2074 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 242 | [
"Dorado",
"Constellations"
] |
59,657,769 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mivirus | Mivirus is a genus of negative-strand RNA viruses which infect arthropods. Member viruses have nonsegmented and bisegmented genomes. There are nine species in the genus.
Etymology
The name Mivirus derives from (), the ancestral name of King Zhuang of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period, along with -virus, the suffix for a virus genus.
Genome
Miviruses have nonsegmented and bisegmented genomes which are linear. Some member viruses may have circular genomes.
Taxonomy
The following species are recognized:
Mivirus amblyommae
Mivirus boleense
Mivirus changpingense
Mivirus dermacentoris
Mivirus genovaense
Mivirus karukeraense
Mivirus rhipicephali
Mivirus suffolkense
Mivirus wuhanense
References
Virus genera
Negarnaviricota | Mivirus | [
"Biology"
] | 178 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,657,786 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuviridae | Chuviridae is a family of negative-strand RNA viruses which infect arthropods including mosquitos.
Taxonomy
The family contains the following genera:
Boscovirus
Chuvivirus
Culicidavirus
Demapteravirus
Doliuvirus
Mivirus
Morsusvirus
Nigecruvirus
Odonatavirus
Pediavirus
Piscichuvirus
Pterovirus
Scarabeuvirus
Taceavirus
References
Virus families
Negarnaviricota | Chuviridae | [
"Biology"
] | 92 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,657,788 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingchuvirales | Jingchuvirales is an order of viruses.
Taxonomy
The order contains the following families:
Aliusviridae
Obscuvirus
Ollusvirus
Chuviridae
Crepuscuviridae
Aqualaruvirus
Myriaviridae
Myriavirus
Natareviridae
Charybdivirus
References
Virus orders
Negarnaviricota | Jingchuvirales | [
"Biology"
] | 68 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,657,820 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-law%20detector | In electronic signal processing, a square law detector is a device that produces an output proportional to the square of some input. For example, in demodulating radio signals, a semiconductor diode can be used as a square law detector, providing an output current proportional to the square of the amplitude of the input voltage over some range of input amplitudes. A square law detector provides an output directly proportional to the power of the input electrical signal.
References
Signal processing | Square-law detector | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 93 | [
"Telecommunications engineering",
"Computer engineering",
"Signal processing"
] |
59,659,209 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal%20of%20Cybersecurity | The Journal of Cybersecurity is an open access peer reviewed academic journal of cybersecurity. It is published by Oxford University Press. It was first issued in 2015.
Its editors in chief are Tyler Moore and David Pym.
The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal concentrates on the belief that computer science approaches are critical, but are not enough to tackle cybersecurity threats. Moreover, the article maintains the belief that interdisciplinary academic contributions are needed to understand the different facets of cybersecurity.
References
Oxford University Press academic journals
Open access journals
Computer science journals
Works about computer security | Journal of Cybersecurity | [
"Technology"
] | 132 | [
"Works about computing",
"Works about computer security"
] |
59,659,421 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%201386 | NGC 1386 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 1386 is about 50,000 light years across. It is a Seyfert galaxy, the only one in Fornax Cluster.
Observation history
NGC 1386 was discovered by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt on January 19, 1865. Julius Schmidt was then director of the National Observatory of Athens and he was inspecting the Cape catalogue nebulae with a 6 ft refractor. Along with NGC 1386, he also discovered the nearby galaxies NGC 1381, NGC 1382, NGC 1389, and NGC 1428. The publication of their discovery was delayed by 10 years and was published in 1876 with the work Über einige im Cape-Catalog fehlende Nebel.
Characteristics
NGC 1386 is seen nearly edge-on and it has been classified both as a spiral and as a lenticular galaxy. It features a spiral pattern with dust lanes. No HII regions are visible in the images of the Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies, however HII emission has been detected in the arms. Dust features have also being observed at the central region of the galaxy. Based on observations by the Herschel Space Telescope the total dust mass of NGC 1386 is estimated to be and the stellar mass . The galaxy has two ring structures, with diameters of 0.5 and 1.67 arcminutes.
Active galactic nucleus
NGC 1386 has an active galactic nucleus (AGN) that has been categorised as a type 2 Seyfert galaxy. It is one of the nearest Seyfert galaxies. The source of nuclear activity in galaxies is suggested to be material accretion around a supermassive black hole in the galactic centre. The black hole in the centre of NGC 1386 is estimated to be based on stellar velocity dispersion.
The central region of NGC 1386 has three distinct kinematic components. The first has low velocity dispersion (approximately 90 km/s) and is identified as gas rotating in the galaxy disk. The second is observed in the inner 150 pc around the continuum peak and has two components, one redshifted and one blueshifted, which are identified as a bipolar outflow with an outflow rate of 0.1 per year. The third element appears in velocity residual images and could be gas streaming inwards along the spiral. The galaxy disk has elevated emission at the location it intersects with the radiation from the AGN.
Observations in 8.4 GHz radio waves by the Very Large Array reveal the presence of a linear radio feature extending to the south of the nucleus and a marginally detectable north extension. The brightest part of the south extension is 0".52 from the central source. Ionised gas is detected north and south of the nucleus in a position similar to the radio emission but a comparison with optical images shows no direct association. A linear feature has also been observed by Hubble Space Telescope in [O III] and [N II] + Hα with similar characteristics as the radio one. An emission plume extending for one arcsecond east-northeast of the nucleus was also observed. No trace of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission has been detected in mid-infrared observations of the central 20 pc of NGC 1386, while there is mild silicate absorption, which may be associated with a dust torus around the AGN.
Observations by BeppoSAX and Chandra X-Ray Observatory suggested that the nucleus of NGC 1386 is obscured by a Compton thick column, with high column density, estimated to be cm−2 as measured by NuSTAR. The observations imply that the torus covers much of the nucleus. The torus obscures much of the soft X-ray spectrum, but harder X-rays, as indicated by the Fe-Kα line manage to get through and be observed. NGC 1386 has a corona with faint diffuse soft X-ray emission that appears distorted at its outer parts.
NGC 1386 has been found to host a cosmic water maser. It also features a HII region at the circumnuclear region. The border between the narrow-line region that is photionisated by the AGN, and the surrounding HII regions is estimated to be at 6 arcseconds form the nucleus. That corresponds to 310 parsecs at the distance of NGC 1386. A faint, inclined ring of emission extending up to 12 arcseconds from the nucleus can be seen in [N II] + Hα images, indicating also the presence of HII regions in the circumnuclear region.
Nearby galaxies
NGC 1386 is considered to be part of the Fornax Cluster. However, the redshift of NGC 1386 is smaller than that of the cluster and this has led to the assumption it is a foreground galaxy. Makarov and Karachentsev grouped NGC 1386 in the NGC 1386 group, along with NGC 1389 and NGC 1396.
See also
NGC 4945 - another near type 2 Seyfert galaxy
References
External links
NGC 1386 on SIMBAD
Unbarred spiral galaxies
Lenticular galaxies
Seyfert galaxies
Eridanus (constellation)
Fornax Cluster
1386
13333
Astronomical objects discovered in 1865
Discoveries by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt | NGC 1386 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 1,106 | [
"Eridanus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
59,659,495 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram%20egg | The Instagram egg is a photo of an egg posted by the account @world_record_egg on the social media platform Instagram. It became a global phenomenon and an internet meme within days of its creation. It is the second most-liked Instagram post and was the most-liked Instagram post until it was overtaken on December 20, 2022, by Lionel Messi's post showing him and his teammates celebrating after Argentina won the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The owner of the account was revealed to be Chris Godfrey, a British advertising creative, who later worked with his two friends Alissa Khan-Whelan and CJ Brown on a Hulu commercial featuring the egg, intended to raise mental health awareness.
Background
The photo was originally taken by Serghei Platanov, who then posted it to Shutterstock on 23 June 2015 with the title "eggs isolated on white background".
History
On 4 January 2019, the @world_record_egg account was created, and posted an image of a bird egg with the caption, "Let's set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this." Jenner's previous record, the first photo of her daughter Stormi, had garnered a total of 18.4 million likes.
The post quickly reached 18.4 million likes in just under 10 days, becoming the most-liked Instagram post at the time. It then continued to rise over 45 million likes in the next 48 hours, surpassing the "Despacito" music video and taking the world record for the most-liked online post (on any media platform) in history.
After the account became verified on 14 January 2019, the post rose in popularity and likes, which snowballed into coverage in various media outlets.
By 18 March 2019, the post had accumulated over 53.3 million likes, nearly three times the previous record of 18.4 million. It posted frequent updates for a few days in the form of Instagram Stories.
Alongside the like tally, as of January 2023 the post has 3.8 million comments.
Several individuals tried to claim that they were the account's creator, the claims being dismissed by "the egg" on Instagram direct messages. On 3 February 2019, the creator of the Instagram egg was revealed by Hulu and The New York Times to be Chris Godfrey, a British advertising creative. Alissa Khan-Whelan, his colleague, was also outed.
On 18 January 2019, the account posted a second picture of an egg, almost identical to the first one apart from a small crack at the top left. As of 25 February 2019, the post accumulated 11.8 million likes. On 22 January 2019, the account posted a third picture of an egg, this time having two larger cracks. In less than 25 minutes, the post accumulated 1 million likes, and by 25 February 2019, it had accumulated 9.5 million likes. On 29 January 2019, a fourth picture of an egg was posted to the account which has another large crack on the right hand side, attracting 7.6 million likes by 25 February 2019. On 1 February 2019, a fifth picture of an egg was posted with stitching like that of a football, referencing the upcoming Super Bowl. That post had accumulated 6.5 million likes by 25 February 2019. The account promised that it would reveal what was inside the egg on 3 February, on the subscription video on demand service Hulu.
The Hulu Instagram egg reveal was used to promote an animation about a mental health campaign. A caption from the clip read, "Recently I've started to crack, the pressure of social media is getting to me. If you're struggling too, talk to someone." The video was later posted on the @world_record_egg Instagram account, and this post received over 33 million views by May 2019. As of May 2020, it had received over 41 million views.
On the 16th of July 2019, Chris Godfrey (the creator of the account) was listed as one of the top 25 most influential people on the internet.
On 20 December 2022, the record for the most-liked Instagram post was surpassed by a post from Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, showing him and his teammates celebrating after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup with their national team. The world record egg responded to being overtaken in likes by Messi with "Today [Lionel Messi] has taken the crown, for now. But I’m still left with one question… Who is the greatest of all time – Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi?"
Reception
In response to breaking the world record for the most-liked Instagram post, the account's owner wrote "This is madness. What a time to be alive." Hours later, Kylie Jenner posted a video on Instagram of her cracking open an egg and pouring its yolk onto the ground, with the caption: "Take that little egg."
Pundits pontificated on the meaning of the egg picture's dominance over social media's "first family". As Vogue observed, tapping a heart pictogram is easy, and eggs are "lovable". More pointedly: [T]he attention economy is a scam based on requiring little to no labor from both producer and consumer despite commanding the most space, and therefore value, in our digital lives... but it very well could be: As a metaphor for the fragility of the influencer ecosystem, the egg has broken the Internet.
The significance of the event and its massive republishing are a topic of discussion.
A University of Westminster researcher of internet memes compared it to the movement to name a scientific research vessel in the United Kingdom as Boaty McBoatface.
The Instagrammer's success is a rare victory for the unpaid viral campaign on social media. "There is a bit of an anti-celebrity revolt here – 'look what we can do with a simple egg
The researcher suggests that the accomplishment of becoming such a widely heralded unpaid viral post may become increasingly rare, as social networks rely more on paid and business promotion.
The post's spread has been characterized as a populist backlash against "consumerism" and is seen by some as a triumph of community over celebrity. However, propelled by their popular success, the creators promised to release 'egg-centric' memorabilia.
Hundreds of games based on the Instagram egg have appeared on Apple's App Store. The creators of the Instagram egg also reached a deal to promote Hulu.
See also
List of Internet phenomena
Notes
References
Further reading
Hinkle, Nathan. Instagram Egg Provides Community in Corporate-Dominated Setting. Carlsbad: Uloop, Inc, 2019. Print.
The Rise of the Instagram Egg. Carlsbad: Uloop, Inc, 2019. Print.
External links
The original Instagram photo
egg
2010s photographs
2015 in art
Eggs in culture
Internet memes introduced in 2019
Internet celebrities
Promotion and marketing communications
Social media
Viral marketing
2019 in Internet culture
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"Technology"
] | 1,464 | [
"Computing and society",
"Social media"
] |
59,659,569 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20in%20Jamaica | Jamaica Time (JAM) is the official time in Jamaica. It is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC−05:00). Jamaica has only one time zone and does not observe daylight saving time. During winter, Jamaican Time is equivalent to North American Eastern Standard Time, whereas in the summer it is equivalent to Central Daylight Time.
IANA time zone database
In the IANA time zone database Jamaica has the following time zone:
America/Jamaica (JM)
References
External links
Time in Jamaica
Geography of Jamaica | Time in Jamaica | [
"Physics"
] | 106 | [
"Spacetime",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"Time by country"
] |
59,659,927 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated%20plants%20and%20animals%20of%20Austronesia | One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP (3500 to 2000 BCE). These migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and animals transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive in the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia (also known as 'Island Southeast Asia'. e.g.: Philippines, Indonesia), Near Oceania (Melanesia), Remote Oceania (Micronesia and Polynesia), Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands.
They include crops and animals believed to have originated from the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures in the hypothetical pre-Austronesian homelands in mainland China, as well as other plants and animals believed to have been first domesticated from within Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Some of these plants are sometimes also known as "canoe plants", especially in the context of the Polynesian migrations. Domesticated animals and plants introduced during historic times are not included.
Plants
Domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants carried by Austronesian voyagers include the following:
Aleurites moluccanus (candlenut)
The candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus) was first domesticated in Island Southeast Asia. Remains of harvested candlenuts have been recovered from archaeological sites in Timor and Morotai in eastern Indonesia, dated to around 13,000 BP and 11,000 BP respectively. Archaeological evidence of candlenut cultivation is also found in Neolithic sites of the Toalean culture in southern Sulawesi dated to around 3,700 to 2,300 BP. Candlenut were widely introduced into the Pacific Islands by early Austronesian voyagers and became naturalized to high volcanic islands.
Candlenut has a very wide range of uses and every part of the tree can be harvested. They were primarily cultivated for the high oil content in their nut kernels. They were used widely for illumination, prior to the introduction of other light sources, hence the name "candlenut". The kernels were skewered on coconut midribs that were then set alight. Each kernel takes about three minutes to burn and thus the series could act as a torch. This tradition of making candlenut torches exists in both Southeast Asia and Oceania. Candlenut oil extracted from the nuts can also be used directly in lamps. They can also be utilized in the production of soaps, ointments, and as preservatives for fishing gear. Other traditional uses include using the timber for making small canoes and carvings; the sap for varnish and resins; the nut shells for ornamentation (most notably as leis), fish-hooks, toys, and the production of black dyes; the bark for medicine and fiber; and so on. Some non-toxic varieties are also used as condiments or ingredients in the cuisines of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word for candlenut is reconstructed as *kamiri, with modern cognates including Hanunó'o, Iban, and Sundanese kamiri; Javanese and Malay kemiri; and Tetun kamii. However the Oceanian words for candlenut are believed to be derived instead from Proto-Austronesian *CuSuR which became Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tuhuR, originally meaning "string together, as beads", referring to the construction of the candlenut torches. It became Proto-Eastern-Malayo-Polynesian and Proto-Oceanic *tuRi which is then reduplicated. Modern cognates including Fijian, Tongan, Rarotongan, and Niue tui-tui; and Hawaiian kui-kui or kukui.
Alocasia macrorrhizos (giant taro)
The giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) was originally domesticated in the Philippines, but are known from wild specimens to early Austronesians in Taiwan. From the Philippines, they spread outwards to the rest of Island Southeast Asia and eastward to Oceania where it became one of the staple crops of Pacific Islanders. They are one of the four main species of aroids (taros) cultivated by Austronesians primarily as a source of starch, the others being Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, Colocasia esculenta, and Cyrtosperma merkusii, each with multiple cultivated varieties. Their leaves and stems are also edible if cooked thoroughly, though this is rarely done for giant taro as it contains higher amounts of raphides which cause itching.
The reconstructed word for giant taro in Proto-Austronesian is *biRaq, which became Proto-Oceanic *piRaq. Modern cognates for it in Island Southeast Asia and Micronesia include Rukai vi'a or bi'a; Ifugao bila; Ilocano, Cebuano, and Bikol biga; Tiruray bira; Ngaju biha; Malagasy via; Malay and Acehnese birah; Mongondow biga; Palauan bísə; Chamorro piga; Bima wia; Roti and Tetun fia; Asilulu hila; and Kowiai fira. In Oceania, cognates for it include Wuvulu and Aua pia; Motu and ꞋAreꞌare hira; Kilivila and Fijian via; and Hawaiian pia. Note that in some cases, the cognates have shifted to mean other types of taro.
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (elephant foot yam)
The elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) is used as food in Island Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Its origin and center of domestication was formerly considered to be India, where it is most widely utilized as a food resource in recent times. But a genetic study in 2017 has shown that Indian populations of elephant foot yams have lower genetic diversity than those in Island Southeast Asia, therefore it is now believed that elephant foot yams originated from Island Southeast Asia and spread westwards into Thailand and India, resulting in three independent domestication events. From Island Southeast Asia, they were also spread even further west into Madagascar, and eastwards to coastal New Guinea and Oceania by Austronesians. Though they may have spread south into Australia without human intervention.
The elephant foot yam is one of the four main species of aroids (taros) cultivated by Austronesians primarily as a source of starch, the others being Alocasia macrorrhizos, Colocasia esculenta, and Cyrtosperma merkusii, each with multiple cultivated varieties. Elephant foot yam, however, is the least important among the four and was likely only eaten as a famine crop, since it contains more raphides that cause irritation if not cooked thoroughly.
Areca catechu (areca palm)
The practice of chewing areca nuts originated in Island Southeast Asia, where the areca palm is native. The oldest known evidence of areca nut chewing was found in a burial pit in the Duyong Cave site in the Philippines (to which areca palms are native), which dates to around 4,630±250 BP. Its diffusion is closely tied to the Neolithic expansion of the Austronesian peoples. It was spread to the Indo-Pacific during prehistoric times, reaching Micronesia at 3,500 to 3,000 BP, Near Oceania at 3,400 to 3,000 BP; South India and Sri Lanka by 3,500 BP; Mainland Southeast Asia by 3,000 to 2,500 BP; Northern India by 1500 BP; and Madagascar by 600 BP. From India, it was also spread westwards to Persia and the Mediterranean. It was also previously present in the Lapita culture, based on archaeological remains dated from 3,600 to 2,500 BP, but it was not carried into Polynesia.
Artocarpus
Numerous species of Artocarpus are traditionally cultivated or harvested from semi-domesticated or wild populations in Island Southeast Asia and Micronesia for food, timber, traditional medicine, and other uses. They include Artocarpus anisophyllus (entawak), Artocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit or nangka), Artocarpus integer (cempedak), Artocarpus lacucha (lakuch), Artocarpus mariannensis (Marianas breadfruit), Artocarpus odoratissimus (tarap or marang), and Artocarpus treculianus (tipuho), among many others. The most important species pertaining to the Austronesian expansion however, are Artocarpus camansi (breadnut or seeded breadfruit) and Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit).
Artocarpus altilis (breadfruit)
According to DNA fingerprinting studies, the wild seeded ancestor of Artocarpus altilis is the Artocarpus camansi, which is native to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. A. camansi was domesticated and selectively bred in Polynesia, giving rise to the mostly seedless Artocarpus altilis. Micronesian breadfruit also show evidence of hybridization with the native Artocarpus mariannensis, while most Polynesian and Melanesian cultivars do not. This indicates that Micronesia was initially colonized separately from Polynesia and Melanesia through two different migration events which later came into contact with each other in eastern Micronesia.
The reconstructed Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word for breadfruit is *kuluʀ, which became Proto-Oceanic *kulur and Proto-Polynesian *kulu. Modern cognates include Sundanese and Malay kulur or kelur; Acehnese kulu; Iban kurur; Cebuano kulo or kolo; Muna kula; Mussau ulu; Kapingamarangi gulu; Wayan Fijian kulu; Emae kuro; Tuamotuan, Takuu, and Rarotongan kuru; Tahitian uru; Samoan and Hawaiian ulu; and Māori kuru. Note that in Māori, kuru is only mentioned in tradition, but does not refer to the plant because breadfruit did not survive into New Zealand. Also note that it is believed that breadfruit only reached western Island Southeast Asia (Java, Sumatra, Malay Peninsula) during the recent centuries, as a result of trade with the Maluku Islands.
Another notable reconstructed word for breadfruit is Proto-Oceanic *maRi or *mai. It is a common root for words for breadfruit in Micronesia, northern and western New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Admiralty Islands, St Matthias Islands, New Caledonia, and parts of the Central Pacific. The term itself may have originally been for Artocarpus mariannensis instead of Artocarpus altilis. Cognates include Pohnpeian, Mokil, and Ngatik māi; Palauan, Satawal, and Tuvaluan mai; Puluwat mais; Yapese maiyah; and Tongan, Niuean, and Marquesan mei.
Artocarpus heterophyllus (jackfruit)
The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) was domesticated independently in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as evidenced by the fact that the Southeast Asian names for the fruit are not derived from the Sanskrit roots. It was probably first domesticated by Austronesians in Java or the Malay Peninsula. The word for jackfruit in Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian is reconstructed as *laŋkaq. Modern cognates include Sundanese, Javanese, Malay, Balinese, and Cebuano nangka; Tagalog, Pangasinan, Bikol and Ilocano langka; Chamorro lanka or nanka; Kelabit nakan; Wolio nangke; Ibaloi dangka; and Lun Dayeh laka. Note, however, that the fruit was only recently introduced to Guam via Filipino settlers when both were part of the Spanish Empire.
Bambusoideae (bamboos)
Various species of bamboo (subfamily Bambusoideae) are found throughout Island Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia. In Austronesian regions, different types of bamboos have different names, as well as the products made from them. They are used variously as building materials, fishing gear, musical instruments, knives, water and food vessels, and so on. Bamboo shoots are also a food source in Southeast Asia. A few species of bamboo were carried by Austronesian settlers as they colonized the Pacific islands. They include the ohe (Schizostachyum glaucifolium), the common bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), and the thorny bamboo (Bambusa bambos).
Reconstructed Proto-Austronesian words that referred to bamboo include *qauR, *kawayan, *buluq, and *betung. The latter entered Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and Proto-Oceanic as *bitung, with cognates including Sundanese awi bitung; Fijian bitu; and Tongan pitu. Most terms for bamboo in Polynesia, however, originated from Proto-South-Central-Pacific *kofe (originally from Proto-Polynesian *kofe, "root"). Modern cognates include Tongan and Niue kofe; Tokelau, Marquesan, Tuamotuan, and Māori kohe; Rarotongan koe; Samoan and Tahitian ofe; and Hawaiian ohe. Some names have also shifted to refer to bamboo-like plants; especially in islands where they were not introduced into or did not survive, like in New Zealand.
Benincasa hispida (wax gourd)
Broussonetia papyrifera (paper mulberry)
Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), better known as "tapa cloth tree" in the Pacific, originates from subtropical regions in mainland Asia and is one of the best evidence for the mainstream "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis of the Austronesian expansion. Various genetic studies have traced the origins of paper mulberry populations in the Remote Pacific all the way to Taiwan via New Guinea and Sulawesi. In the Philippines, which was along the expansion path, paper mulberry are mostly descendants of modern introductions in 1935. It is presumed that ancient introductions of paper mulberry went extinct in prehistory due to its replacement with hand-woven fabrics, given that paper mulberry generally only survives under human cultivation. However, its absence in the Philippines further underlines its origins in Taiwan, and not within Island Southeast Asia. Additionally paper mulberry populations in New Guinea also show genetic inflow from another expansion out of Indochina and South China.
It is believed to be the most widely transported fiber crop in prehistory, having been transported along with the full range of the Austronesian expansion, as opposed to most of the other commensal crops in Oceania. Paper mullbery is present in almost every island or island group in Polynesia, including Easter Island and New Zealand. Some populations have gone recently extinct after they stopped being cultivated, like in the Cook Islands and Mangareva, although accounts and prepared barkcloth and herbarium specimens of them exist in museum collections gathered by Europeans during the Colonial Period. They were spread by Polynesians primarily through vegetative propagation with cuttings and root shoots. They were rarely cultivated from seeds as most plants were harvested prior to flowering, when the stems reach around in diameter, as described by 18th century European accounts. It is also unknown if the feral plants reproduced sexually as the plants are dioecious and require both male and female specimens to be present in one island.
Paper mulberry is primarily used in the Pacific Islands to make barkcloth (tapa in most Polynesian languages). Barkcloth, can also be made from other members of the mulberry family (Moraceae), including Ficus (figs) and Artocarpus. Barkcloth was also occasionally made from Pipturus nettles, especially in Hawaii. However the highest quality of barkcloth was from paper mulberry.
Barkcloth was mainly used for clothing among ancient Austronesians and is traditionally made using characteristic stone or wooden beaters which are among the most common artifacts found in Austronesian archaeological sites. Numerous archaeological remains of barkcloth beaters in southern China has been regarded as evidence that the pre-Taiwan Austronesian homelands were located in the region prior to the southward expansion of the Han Dynasty, particularly around the Pearl River Delta. The oldest such remains is from the Dingmo Site in Guangxi, dated to around 7,900 BP. Barkcloth remained an important source of clothing fabrics in pre-colonial Melanesia, Polynesia, and parts of Indonesia. However, it has been mostly replaced by woven fiber clothing in most of Island Southeast Asia and Micronesia.
There are numerous names for paper mulberry throughout Austronesia, the most general can be reconstructed to Proto-Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *malaw, which also refers to the loincloth and other items of clothing made from paper mulberry bark. Its cognates including Selaru mal; Asilulu mala ai; Buli māl; Numfor mār; Tanga, Tolai, and Gedaged mal; Rennellese mago; Kairiru myal; Lusi, Kove, Manam, Gitua, Mota, Niue, Futunan, Samoan, Tuvaluan, Nukuoro, Anuta, and Hawaiian malo; and Arosi, Rarotongan, and Māori maro.
In Eastern Polynesia, terms for paper mulberry can also be reconstructed to Proto-Central Eastern-Polynesian *aute, with cognates including Tahitian and Rarotongan aute; Marquesan ute; Hawaiian wauke; Rapa and Māori aute.
In most of Polynesia, the term for barkcloth can also be reconstructed from Proto-Nuclear-Polynesian *taba, meaning "bark", with cognates including Wayan taba; Tongan, Samoan, Mangareva, and Rarotongan tapa; and Hawaiian kapa. Other terms widely used for barkcloth and paper mulberry are derived from the Proto-Polynesian reconstructed word *siapo, with cognates including Niue, Tongan, and Marquesan hiapo; and Samoan and East Futunan siapo. The term for barkcloth beater, however, can be reconstructed more extensively back to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *ike, with cognates including Uma ike; Sa'a iki; Bauan, Tongan, and East Futunan ike; and Samoan and Hawaiian ie.
Calophyllum inophyllum (mastwood)
Mastwood (Calophyllum inophyllum) is a widespread timber tree native to tropical Asia. It is notable for its ability to grow to massive sizes in sandy or rocky beaches of island and coastal habitats, as well as its habit of sending out arching large trunks over the water where its seeds are dispersed via the currents. Due to these characters, mastwood are of particular importance to traditional shipbuilding of the larger Austronesian outrigger ships and were carried with them as they migrated to Oceania and Madagascar.
Other species of the genus Calophyllum were also used similarly, like Calophyllum soulattri, Calophyllum peekelii, and Calophyllum goniocarpum. The wood grain of the members of the genus are characteristically interlocked, which make them harder to work with but also makes them stronger as well as being more suitable for carving intricate shapes. They were comparable in importance to how oaks were in European shipbuilding and timber industries. In many parts of Polynesia, mastwood groves planted in marae were considered sacred and abodes of spirits. Mastwood were also carved into religious objects like tiki. They are also commonly mentioned in the chants and folklore of Polynesia.
Various parts of the mastwood were integral to the manufacture of outrigger canoes. The large curving limbs were commonly carved into the dugout canoes that formed the keel of the Austronesian outriggers ships. The strakes, which are attached to the keel by the uniquely Austronesian technique of "sewing" them with a combination of dowels and lashed lugs instead of nails, can also be made from mastwood, but it is more commonly made from other "softer" timber species like Artocarpus. Other pieces became masts, outrigger floats, and outrigger spars. Smaller curving limbs can also be carved into the ribs of the boat.
Aside from shipbuilding, tamanu oil extracted from the fruit kernels were important in Polynesian culture. The oils, as well as poultices made from leaves and flowers, are also commonly used for traditional medicine. The leaves contain compounds that are poisonous to fish and can be used as fish poison.
The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian word for mastwood is *bitaquR, with modern cognates including Ilocano bittáug; Ifugao bitául; Bikol, Cebuano, Maranao, Mansaka and Manobo bitáog or bitaug; Nias bito; Palauan btáəs; Wetan witora; and Asilulu hataul. The Western Malayo-Polynesian words for mastwood is derived from the doublet Proto-Austronesian *bintaŋuR, with cognates including Iban, Malay and Toba Batak bintangur or bentangur; Tontemboan wintangor; and Malagasy vintáno. In Proto-Oceanic, the reconstructed word is pitaquR, with cognates including Nauna pitɨ; Loniu pitow; Nali pirow; Seimat hita; Aua piaw; Pohnpeian isou; Rotuman hefau; Fijian vetau, Tongan fetau; Niue, Samoan, and Tuvaluan fetau; Nukuoro hedau; and Rennellese hetau. In most of these languages, the name specifically refers to C. inophyllum, although in Ifugao, Maranao, Nias, Wetan, and Fijian, the name has become more generalized to large timber trees.
Another set of cognates for C. inophyllum in Proto-Oceanic can be reconstructed as *tamanu. Its difference from *pitaquR is unclear, but given the distinction between the terms in the Mussau reflex, *tamanu probably originally referred to specimens of the tree that grow in island interiors and not on the coastlines. Modern cognates include Mussau, Tongan, Niue, Samoan, and Rarotongan tamanu; Fijian damanu; and Hawaiian kamani.
Cananga odorata (ylang-ylang)
Cananga odorata, with its large, aromatic flowers, is used for ornamentation. The species originated from the Philippines. It is not known whether it is native to Polynesia and Melanesia or introduced.
Citrus
Numerous species of Citrus are native to Island Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Near Oceania. The Austronesians cultivated and gathered a variety of citrus for food, medicine and washing with the thorns being used as piercing implements for tattooing. Citrus hystrix, Citrus macroptera, and Citrus maxima were also among the canoe plants carried by Austronesian voyagers eastwards into Micronesia and Polynesia. Most Polynesian names describing citruses are named moli ultimately from Proto-Oceanic *molis; whether a link to PMP *limaw is present (albeit indirect) or otherwise is uncertain.
Cocos nucifera (coconut)
The region between Southwest Asia and Melanesia is the center of origin for coconuts (Cocos nucifera), where it shows greatest genetic diversity. A study in 2011 identified two highly genetically differentiated subpopulations of coconuts, one originating from Island Southeast Asia (the Pacific group) and the other from the southern margins of the Indian subcontinent (the Indo-Atlantic group). The Pacific group is the only one to display clear genetic and phenotypic indications that they were domesticated; including dwarf habit, self-pollination, and the round "niu vai" fruit morphology with larger endosperm-to-husk ratios. The distribution of the Pacific coconuts correspond to the regions settled by Austronesian voyagers indicating that its spread was largely the result of human introductions.
It is most strikingly displayed in Madagascar, an island settled by Austronesian sailors at around 2,000 to 1,500 BP. The coconut populations in the island show genetic admixture between the two subpopulations indicating that Pacific coconuts were brought by the Austronesian settlers that later interbred with the local Indo-Atlantic coconuts.
Most words for "coconut" in Austronesian languages are derived from proto-Malayo-Polynesian *niuʀ. Modern cognates include Tagalog niyog; Chamorro niyok; Malay nyiur or nyior; Tetum nuu; Drehu nu; Gilbertese nii; Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, and Rapa Nui niu; and Malagasy nio.
Genetic studies of coconuts have also confirmed pre-Columbian populations of coconuts in Panama in South America. However, it is not native and display a genetic bottleneck resulting from a founder effect. A study in 2008 showed that the coconuts in the Americas are genetically closest related to coconuts in the Philippines, and not to any other nearby coconut populations (including Polynesia). Such an origin indicates that the coconuts were not introduced naturally, such as by sea currents. The researchers concluded that it was brought by early Austronesian sailors to the Americas from at least 2,250 BP, and may be proof of pre-Columbian contact between Austronesian cultures and South American cultures, albeit in the opposite direction than what early hypotheses like Heyerdahl's had proposed. It is further strengthened by other similar botanical evidence of contact, like the pre-colonial presence of sweet potato in Oceanian cultures. During the colonial era, Pacific coconuts were further introduced to Mexico from the Spanish East Indies via the Manila galleons.
In contrast to the Pacific coconuts, Indo-Atlantic coconuts were largely spread by Arab and Persian traders into the East African coast. Indo-Atlantic coconuts were also introduced into the Atlantic Ocean by Portuguese ships from their colonies in coastal India and Sri Lanka; first being introduced to coastal West Africa, then onwards into the Caribbean and the east coast of Brazil. All of these introductions are within the last few centuries, relatively recent in comparison to the spread of Pacific coconuts.
Coix lacryma-jobi (Job's tears)
The size and nutrition of Job's tears set it apart from other long-used ancient grains native to this area of Asia, and the well established and recorded use in culinary practices indicate a history at least proportional to that of millet and rice. Dating of a site in Shizitan has presented dates as early as 28,000 to 18,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence supporting Job's tears as among the earliest domesticates in Asia, accompanied by millet.
Colocasia esculenta (taro)
The taro (Colocasia esculenta), sometimes referred to as the "true taro", is one of the most ancient cultivated crops and pre-dated the Austronesian expansion. Taro is found widely in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia and is highly polymorphic, making taxonomy and distinction between wild and cultivated types difficult. It is believed that they were domesticated independently multiple times, with authors giving possible locations as New Guinea, Mainland Southeast Asia, and northeastern India, based largely on the assumed native range of the wild plants. However, more recent studies have pointed out that wild taro may have a much larger native distribution than previously believed, and wild breeding types may also likely be indigenous to other parts of Island Southeast Asia.
Archaeological traces of taro exploitation have been recovered from numerous sites pre-dating the Austronesian expansion, though whether these were cultivated or wild types can not be ascertained. They include the Niah Caves of Borneo, dating to <40,000 BP; Ille Cave of Palawan, dated to at least c. 11,000 BP; Kuk Swamp of New Guinea, dated to 10,200 to 9,910 cal BP; and Kilu Cave in the Solomon Islands dated to around c. 28,000 to 20,000 BP. In the case of Kuk Swamp, there is evidence of formalized agriculture emerging by about c. 10,000 BP, with evidence of cultivated plots, though which plant was cultivated remains unknown.
Regardless, taro were definitely among the cultivated plants of Austronesians as well as preceding populations in Island Southeast Asia. However, their importance in Island Southeast Asia had largely been replaced by rice, although they are still planted at the margins of rice paddies in some communities. They remained a staple in the islands of Melanesia and Polynesia where rice wasn't introduced. They are one of the four species of aroids (taros) cultivated by Austronesians primarily as a source of starchy corms, the others being Alocasia macrorrhizos, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, and Cyrtosperma merkusii. They are the most important and the most preferred among the four, because they were less likely to contain the irritating raphides present in the other plants.
Taro is also identified as one of the staples of Micronesia, from archaeological evidence dating back to the pre-colonial Latte Period (c. 900 – 1521 AD), indicating that it was also carried by Micronesians when they colonized the islands. Due to the unsuitability of the low-lying atoll islands of most of Micronesia, Micronesians innovated by digging pits that could then be filled up with compost suitable for taro cultivation. Taro pollen and starch residue have also been identified in earlier Lapita sites, dated to around c. 3,050 – 2,500 cal BP.
There are numerous terms for taro in the Austronesian languages, both specific and generalized. The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian term for taro is *cali, with cognates in Formosan languages including Seediq sali, Thao lhari; Bunun tai; and Amis tali.
It became *taləs in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, which in turn became *talos or *talo in Proto-Oceanic. Modern cognates include Hanunó'o tálus; Aborlan Tagbanwa talis; Palawan Batak täläs; Nias talõ; Malay talas; Minangkabau taleh; Rejang and Sundanese taleus; Javanese tales; Palauan dáit; Rotinese tale; and Tetun talas. In Polynesian languages, the cognates include Motu, Marovo, Tongan, Samoan, Niue, Futunan, Tuvaluan talo; Kwaio, Lau (Malaita), and Toqabaqita alo; 'Āre'āre, Arosi, and Bauro aro; Nakanamanga na-tale; Sye tal or nal; Fijian and Nukuoro dalo; Rennellese tago; Anuta, Rarotongan, and Māori taro; and Hawaiian kalo. The English name for the plant is itself derived from the Polynesian names. A red variety of taro also has names derived from reconstructed Proto-Polynesian *pongi, with cognates including Niue pongi; Marquesan poki; Hawaiian poni; and Māori pongi.
In Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian, another reconstructed term is *kaladi, with cognates including Agutaynen, Sabah Bisaya, Iban, Tae', and Wolio kaladi; Balinese and Malay keladi; and Mongondow koladi.
Cordia subcordata (beach cordia)
The beach cordia (Cordia subcordata) is an important timber tree with light, finely textured, and somewhat soft wood ideal for carving. It has no taste and thus was most commonly used for carving utensils, cups, bowls, and other containers; as well as ornamental carvings and musical instruments throughout Austronesia. The wood is flammable and is commonly used in New Guinea as firewood. In some cultures, the wood may also be used to build paddles and the keels of the boats. The seeds can also be eaten, though only as famine food. Other parts can also be used for traditional medicine and for the extraction of dyes. Like Calophyllum inophyllum, beach cordia were commonly planted in marae. They have cultural and religious significance in some cultures like in Kiribati and the Karimunjawa Islands of Indonesia. In Hawaii, it was traditional to plant beach cordia around houses and use their bright orange flowers as leis.
Beach cordia, like most trees favored by Austronesians, grow well in sandy, clay, and rocky soil and are a common component in coastal forests and mangrove forests. Beach cordia was once thought to be an introduced species, but it is now known to be indigenous to most of the islands and coastlines of the Indo-Pacific, propagated naturally by their buoyant seeds. Nevertheless, they were still deliberately introduced in some islands, with artificial introductions usually found growing with other common trees cultivated by Austronesians. Especially in the atolls of Micronesia.
Terms for beach cordia is reconstructed to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kanawa, with cognates including Iban kenawa; Makasarese kanawa; Palauan kəláu; Gilbertese kanawa; Tokelau kanava; and Nukuoro ganava.
Another set of cognates can be reconstructed to Proto-Oceanic *toRu, with cognates including Nehan to-tor; Petats to-tol; Fijian, Tongan, and Rarotongan tou; and Hawaiian kou.
An older reconstructed term is Proto-Austronesian *qaNuNaŋ, however it is not specific to beach cordia and can refer to other members of the genus with sticky fruits, especially the glue berry (Cordia dichotoma) and the lasura (Cordia myxa). It also did not reach the Oceanic languages. Cognates include Tsou həhngə; Isneg anúnang; Hanunó'o and Cebuano anúnang; Maranao nonang; Manobo enunang; Mansaka anonang; Malay, Minangkabau, Sasak, Manggarai, and Rembong nunang; and Mongondow onunang.
Cordyline fruticosa (ti)
Ti (Cordyline fruticosa) is a palm-like plant growing up to tall with an attractive fan-like and spirally arranged cluster of broadly elongated leaves at the tip of the slender trunk. It has numerous color variations, ranging from plants with red leaves to green, yellow, and variegated cultivars. Its original native distribution is unknown, but it is believed to be native to the region from Bangladesh, to Mainland Southeast Asia, South China, Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Northern Australia. It has the highest morphological diversity in New Guinea and is believed to have been extensively cultivated there. It is commonly misidentified as a "Dracaena", along with members of the genus Cordyline, due to past classification systems.
It was carried throughout Oceania by Austronesians, reaching as far as Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island at their furthest extent. A particularly important type of ti in Polynesia is a large green-leafed cultivar grown for their enlarged edible rhizomes. Unlike the ti populations in Southeast Asia and Near Oceania, this cultivar is almost entirely sterile in the further islands of eastern Polynesia. It can only be propagated by cuttings from the stalks or the rhizomes. It is speculated that this was the result of deliberate artificial selection, probably because they produce larger and less fibrous rhizomes more suitable for use as food.
Ti has many uses but it is most notable as one of the most important plants related to the indigenous animist religions of Austronesians, along with fig trees (Ficus spp.). It is very widely regarded as having mystical or spiritual powers in various Austronesian (as well as Papuan) cultures. Among a lot of ethnic groups in Austronesia it is regarded as sacred. Common features include the belief that they can hold souls and thus are useful in healing "soul loss" illnesses and in exorcising against malevolent spirits, their use in ritual attire and ornamentation, and their use as boundary markers. Red and green cultivars also commonly represented dualistic aspects of culture and religion and are used differently in rituals. Red ti plants commonly symbolize blood, war, and the ties between the living and the dead; while green ti plants commonly symbolize peace and healing. They are also widely used for traditional medicine, dye, and ornamentation throughout Austronesia and New Guinea. Their ritual uses in Island Southeast Asia have largely been obscured by the introduction of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islamic, and Christian religions, but they still persist in certain areas or are coopted for the rituals of the new religions.
In Polynesia, the leaves of the green-leafed form are used to wrap food, line earth ovens and fermentation pits of breadfruit, and their rhizomes harvested and processed into a sweet molasses-like pulp eaten like candy or used to produce a honey-like liquid used in various sweet treats. In Hawaii, the roots are also mixed with water and fermented into an alcoholic beverage known as okolehao. Fibers extracted from leaves are also used in cordage and in making bird traps. The consumption of ti as food, regarded as a sacred plant and thus was originally taboo, is believed to have been a daring innovation of Polynesian cultures as a response to famine conditions. The lifting of the taboo is believed to be tied to the development of the firewalking ritual.
In Philippine anitism, ti were commonly used by babaylan (female shamans) when conducting mediumship or healing rituals. A common belief in Filipino cultures is that the plant has the innate ability to host spirits. Among the Ifugao people of Northern Luzon, it is planted around terraces and communities to drive away evil spirits as well as mark boundaries of cultivated fields. The red leaves are believed to be attractive to spirits and is worn during important rituals as part of the headdresses and tucked into armbands. In the past, it was also worn during ceremonial dances called bangibang, which was performed by both men and women for warriors who died in battle or through violent means. They are also used to decorate ritual objects. Among the Palaw'an people, it is planted in burial grounds to prevent the dead from becoming malevolent spirits.
In Indonesia, red ti are used similarly as in the Philippines. Among the Dayak, Sundanese, Kayan, Kenyah, Berawan, Iban and Mongondow people, red ti are used as wards against evil spirits and as boundary markers. They are also used in rituals like in healing and funerals and are very commonly planted in sacred groves and around shrines. The Dayak also extract a natural green dye from ti. During healing rituals of the Mentawai people, the life-giving spirit are enticed with songs and offerings to enter ti stems which are then reconciled with the sick person. Among the Sasak people, green ti leaves are used as part of the offerings to spirits by the belian shamans. Among the Baduy people, green ti represent the body, while red ti represent the soul. Both are used in rice planting rituals. They are also planted on burial grounds. Among the Balinese and Karo people, ti plants are planted near village or family shrines in a sacred grove. Among the Toraja people, red ti plants are used in rituals and as decorations of ritual objects. They are believed to occur in both the material and the spirit worlds (a common belief in Austronesian animism). In the spirit world, they exist as fins and tails of spirits. In the material world, they are most useful as guides used to attract the attentions of spirits. The red leaves are also symbolic of blood and thus of life and vitality. Among the Ngaju people, ti plants were symbolic of the sacred groves of ancestors. They were also important in ritual promises dedicated to high gods. They were regarded as symbolic of the masculine "Tree of Life", in a dichotomy against Ficus species which symbolize the feminine "Tree of the Dead".
In New Guinea, ti are commonly planted to indicate land ownership for cultivation and are also planted around ceremonial men's houses. They are also used in various rituals and are commonly associated with blood and warfare. Among the Tsembaga Maring people, they are believed to house "red spirits" (spirits of men who died in battle). Prior to a highly ritualized (but lethal) warfare over land ownership, they are uprooted and pigs are sacrificed to the spirits. After the hostilities, they are re-planted in the new land boundaries depending on the outcome of the fight. The men involved ritually place their souls into the plants. The ritual warfare have been suppressed by the Papua New Guinea government, but parts of the rituals still survive. Among the Ankave people, red ti is part of their creation myth, believed as having arisen from the site of the first murder. Among the Mendi and Sulka people they are made into dyes used as body paint, and their leaves are used for body adornments and purification rituals. Among the Nikgini people, the leaves have magical abilities to bring good luck and are used in divination and in decorating ritual objects. Among the Kapauku people, ti plants are regarded as magical plants and are believed to be spiritual beings themselves. Unlike other magical plants which are controlled by other spirits, ti plants had their own spirits and are powerful enough to command other spiritual beings. Red plants are used in white magic rituals, while green plants are used in black magic rituals. They are also commonly used in protection and warding rituals. Among the Baktaman people, red plants are used for initiation rites, while green plants are used for healing. The Ok-speaking peoples also regard ti plants as their collective totem.
In Island Melanesia, ti are regarded as sacred by various Austronesian-speaking peoples and are used in rituals for protection, divination, and fertility. Among the Kwaio people, red ti are associated with feuding and vengeance, while green ti are associated with ancestor spirits, markers of sacred groves, and wards against evil. The Kwaio cultivate these varieties around their communities. Among the Maenge people of New Britain, ti leaves are worn as everyday skirts by women. The color and size of leaves can vary by personal preference and fashion. New cultivars with different colors are traded regularly and strands of ti are grown near the village. Red leaves can only worn by women past puberty. Ti is also the most important plant in magic and healing rituals of the Maenge. Some ti cultivars are associated with supernatural spirits and have names and folklore around them. In Vanuatu, Cordyline leaves, known locally by the Bislama name nanggaria, are worn tucked into a belt in traditional dances like Māuluulu, with different varieties having particular symbolic meanings. Cordylines are often planted outside nakamal buildings. In Fiji, red ti leaves are used as skirts for dancers and are used in rituals dedicated to the spirits of the dead. They are also planted around ceremonial buildings used for initiation rituals.
In Micronesia, ti leaves are buried under newly built houses in Pohnpei to ward off malign sorcery. In instances of an unknown death, shamans in Micronesia communicate with the dead spirit through ti plants, naming various causes of death until the plant trembles. There is also archaeological evidence that the rhizomes of the plants were eaten in the past in Guam prior to the Latte Period.
In Polynesia, green ti were cultivated widely for food and religious purposes. They are commonly planted around homes, in sacred places (including marae and heiau), and in grave sites. The leaves are also carried as a charm when traveling and the leaves are used in rituals that communicate with the species. Like in Southeast Asia, they are widely believed to protect against evil spirits and bad luck; as well as having the ability to host spirits of dead people, as well as nature spirits.
In ancient Hawaii the plant was thought to have great spiritual power; only kahuna (shamans) and alii (chiefs) were able to wear leaves around their necks during certain ritual activities. Ti was sacred to the god of fertility and agriculture Lono, and the goddess of the forest and the hula dance, Laka. Ti leaves were also used to make lei, and to outline borders between properties. It was also planted at the corners of the home to keep evil spirits away. To this day some Hawaiians plant ti near their houses to bring good luck. The leaves are also used for lava sledding. A number of leaves are lashed together and people ride down hills on them. The leaves were also used to make items of clothing including skirts worn in dance performances. The Hawaiian hula skirt is a dense skirt with an opaque layer of at least fifty green leaves and the bottom (top of the leaves) shaved flat. The Tongan dance dress, the sisi, is an apron of about 20 leaves, worn over a tupenu, and decorated with some yellow or red leaves.
In New Zealand, certain place names are derived from the use and folklore of ti, like Puketī Forest and Temuka. The ti plants in Kaingaroa are known as nga tī whakāwe o Kaingaroa ("the phantom trees of Kaingaroa"), based on the legend of two women who were turned into ti plants and seemingly follow people traveling through the area.
The reconstructed Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word for ti is *siRi. Cognates include Malagasy síly; Palauan sis; Ere and Kuruti siy; Araki jihi; Arosi diri; Chuukese tii-n; Wuvulu si or ti; Tongan sī; Samoan, Tahitian, and Māori tī; and Hawaiian kī. The names in some languages have also been applied to the garden crotons (Codiaeum variegatum), which similarly have red or yellow leaves. The cognates of Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *sabaqaŋ, similarly, have been applied to both garden crotons and ti plants.
In the Philippines, they are also known by names derived from the Proto-Austronesian *kilala, "to know", due to its use in divination rituals. Cognates derived from that usage include Tagalog sagilala; and Visayan and Bikol kilála or kilaa. In New Zealand, the terms for ti were also transferred to the native and closely related cabbage tree (Cordyline australis), as tī kōuka.
Cucumis melo (melon)
Cyrtosperma merkusii (giant swamp taro)
Dioscorea (yams)
Yams (Dioscorea spp.) is a very large group of plants native throughout tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Various species of yams were domesticated and cultivated independently within Island Southeast Asia and New Guinea for their starchy tubers, including the ube (Dioscorea alata), round yam (Dioscorea bulbifera), intoxicating yam (Dioscorea hispida), lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta), Pacific yam (Dioscorea nummularia), fiveleaf yam (Dioscorea pentaphylla), and pencil yam (Dioscorea transversa). Among these, D. alata and D. esculenta were the only ones regularly cultivated and eaten, while the rest were usually considered as famine food due to their higher levels of the toxin dioscorine which requires that they be prepared correctly before consumption.
D. alata and D. esculenta were the most suitable for long transport in Austronesian ships and were carried through all or most of the range of the Austronesian expansion. D. alata in particular, were introduced into the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. They were also carried by Austronesian voyagers into Madagascar and the Comoros.
Dioscorea alata (ube)
The ube (Dioscorea alata), also known as the greater yam or water yam, is one of the most important staple crops in Austronesian cultures. It is the main species cultivated among Dioscorea, largely because of its much larger tubers and its ease of processing. Its center of origin is unknown, but archaeological evidence suggests that it was exploited in Island Southeast Asia and New Guinea before the Austronesian expansion. Ube is believed to be a true cultigen, only known from its cultivated forms. It is a polyploid and is sterile, and thus can not cross bodies of water. This restricts its introduction into islands purely by human agency, making them a good indicator of human movement. Some authors have proposed an origin in Mainland Southeast Asia without evidence, but it shows the greatest phenotypic variability in the Philippines and New Guinea.
Based on archaeological evidence of early farming plots and plant remains in the Kuk Swamp site, authors have suggested that it was first domesticated in the highlands of New Guinea from around 10,000 BP and spread into Island Southeast Asia via the Lapita culture at around c. 4,000 BP, along with D. nummularia and D. bulbifera. In turn, D. esculenta is believed to have been introduced by the Lapita culture into New Guinea. There is also evidence of an agricultural revolution during this period brought by innovations from contact with Austronesians, including the development of wet cultivation.
However, much older remains identified as being probably D. alata have also been recovered from the Niah Caves of Borneo (Late Pleistocene, <40,000 BP) and the Ille Cave of Palawan (c. 11,000 BP), along with remains of the toxic ubi gadong (D. hispida) which requires processing before it can be edible. Although it doesn't prove cultivation, it does show that humans already had the knowledge to exploit starchy plants and that D. alata were native to Island Southeast Asia. Furthermore, it opens the question on whether D. alata is a true species or cultivated much older than believed.
Ube remains an important crop in Southeast Asia. Particularly in the Philippines where the vividly purple variety is widely used in various traditional and modern desserts. It also remains important in Melanesia, where it is also grown for ceremonial purposes tied to the size of the tubers at harvest time. Its importance in eastern Polynesia and New Zealand, however, has waned after the introduction of other crops, most notably the sweet potato.
The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian word for ube is *qubi, which became Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qubi, and Proto-Oceanic *qupi. It has some of the most recognizable and widespread reflexes in Austronesian languages. Modern cognates include Yami uvi; Itbayaten ovi; Bontoc and Hanunó'o úbi; Ilocano, Tagalog, Cebuano, Pangasinan, Aklanon, Itneg, and Itawis úbi or úbe; Kalamian Tagbanwa kubi; Maranao obi; Tiruray ubi; Manobo uvi; Kenyah, Malay, Iban, Balinese, Sasak, Mongondow, and Toba Batak ubi; Javanese uwi; Kelabit ubih; Melanau ubey; Ngaju Dayak owi; Malagasy óvy; Tsat phai; Jarai hebey; Moken koboi; Sundanese huwi; Tontemboan, Bimanese, and Manggarai uwi; Ngadha uvi; Rotinese ufi; Erai uhi; Selaru uh or uhi-re; Watubela kuwi; Buruese ubi-t; Koiwai uf; Buli up; and Waropen uwi.
Among Oceanic languages, cognates include Nauna kuh; Penchal kup; Leipon uh; Tolai up; Lakalai la-huvi; Gapapaiwa and Kilivila kuvi; Papapana na-uvi; Simbo, Bugotu, and Nggela, and Fijian uvi; Kwaio, Niue, and Samoan ufi; Sa'a, Arosi, Tuamotuan, Hawaiian and Rapa Nui uhi; Marquesan puauhi; Haununu a-uhi; Avava ''o-ovi; Rennellese uhi; Tongan ufi; Anuta upi; Rarotongan ui; and Māori uwhi or uhi.
In some ethnic groups, the word has been generalized or shifted to mean other types of yams, as well as the sweet potato and cassava. Other words for ube are also derived from the ancestral names of other species of yam.
Dioscorea bulbifera (air yam)
The air yam (Dioscorea bulbifera), also known as the bitter yam, is one of the lesser cultivated species of yam. It is usually only eaten as famine food in Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, because of the toxicity of some wild or feral plants when not cooked correctly. However it is one of only three yams that were carried by Austronesians into Remote Oceania, the others being D. alata and D. nummularia. The part of the plant harvested are the aerial tubers, as it does not usually produce large underground tubers.
It can be reconstructed to Proto-Oceanic as *pwatika or *pʷatik, with cognates including Lou puet; Lamusong patik; Boanaki posika; and Kwara'ae fasia. However, in Lamusong its meaning has shifted to the lesser yam, while in Boanaki, the meaning has shifted to a more generalized term for yams. It can also be reconstructed to the more generalized Proto-Oceanic *balai, meaning "wild yam", which became Proto-Micronesian *palai, with cognates including Rotuman parai; Tongan, Niue, and Samoan palai; and Rennellese pagai.
Dioscorea esculenta (lesser yam)
The lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta) is the second most important yam crop among Austronesians. Like D. alata, it requires minimal processing, unlike the other more bitter yam species. However, it has smaller tubers than D. alata and is usually spiny. Like D. alata it was introduced to Madagascar and the Comoros by Austronesians, where it spread to the East African coast. They are also a dominant crop in Near Oceania, However, it did not reach to the furthest islands in Polynesia, being absent in Hawaii and New Zealand.
Starch grains identified to be from the lesser yam have been recovered from archaeological sites of the Lapita culture in Viti Levu, Fiji, dated to around 3,050 to 2,500 cal BP. Traces of D. esculenta (along with D. alata, D. bulbifera, D. nummularia and D. pentaphylla) yams have also been identified from the Mé Auré Cave site in Moindou, New Caledonia, dated to around 2,700 to 1,800 BP. Remains of D. esculenta have also been recovered from archaeological sites in Guam, dated to around 1031 CE. D. esculenta is believed to have been introduced by the Lapita culture into New Guinea at around 4,000 BP, along with agricultural innovations like wet cultivation as well as swidden farming. In archaeological sites in New Guinea, it is associated with the appearance of high-density populations in the coastal areas.
Terms for lesser yam in Austronesian languages are mostly affixed or two-word forms derived from the *qubi root for D. alata, like Samoan ufi lei, Sundanese ubi aung, Malay ubi torak, and Javanese ubi gemblii. A term for lesser yam can be reconstructed in Proto-Philippine as *tugiq, but its cognates are limited to the island of Luzon, including Ivatan togi; Ilocano and Kankana-ey tugí; Bontoc and Ifugao tugi; and Tagalog tugi. No Proto-Oceanic term can be reconstructed for the lesser yam because it is absent in Remote Oceania. However, it can be reconstructed in Proto-Western-Oceanic as *kamisa, *qamisa, or *mamisa.
Dioscorea hispida (intoxicating yam)
The intoxicating yam (Dioscorea hispida), is native to tropical Asia and New Guinea. It is only cultivated minimally in parts of Java. Elsewhere it is harvested from the wild. Like D. bulbifera it has toxic tubers that need to be prepared correctly before they can be eaten, and thus were only suitable for famine food. However, it is one of the Dioscorea species identified from the Niah Caves archaeological site dating to <40,000 BP. Its names can be reconstructed to Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *gaduŋ. Its modern cognates in most Western Malayo-Polynesian languages is gadung or gadong (also ubi gadung or ubi gadong). The names are also applied to the similarly toxic introduced cassava.
Ficus (fig trees)
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes of the family Moraceae, which are collectively known as fig trees or figs. These plants are native to the tropics, with some species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. Despite not being a genus exclusive to the Austronesian regions, several species such as ficus dammaropsis, ficus fistulosa, ficus hispida, ficus nota, ficus pseudopalma, ficus septica, ficus variegata, ficus aspera, ficus fraseri, ficus tinctoria, ficus ulmifolia, ficus wassa, ficus mutabilis, ficus deltoidea, ficus nota and ficus pseudopalma are endemic to these regions, and played an important role in Austronesian cultures.
Ficus aspera
Ficus aspera, also known as mosaic fig, is a plant native to Vanuatu, in the South Pacific region. The fruits of this plant are cauliflowerous (fruits that form from their main stems or woody trunks instead of new shoots). The mosaic fig is used as an ornamental plant.
Ficus dammaropsis
Ficus dammaropsis, known as kapiak in Tok pisin, is a tropical fig with huge 60 cm pleated leaves native to the highlands and highland fringe of New Guinea . Its fruit is edible, but it is rarely eaten except as an emergency food. When consumed, the young leaves are pickled or boiled and eaten as a salad with pork.
Ficus fraseri
Ficus fraseru, also known as white sandpaper fig and bright sandpaper fig is one of several species of figs known as paper figs' sandpaper . This fig is native to New South Wales, Queensland, and Northern New Caledonia and Vanuatu. This fig grows as a bush or as a tree, with a height that varies between 6 and 15 meters. Its leaves are 6 to 14 cm long and 2.5 to 6.5 cm wide on petioles 1 to 2 cm long. The rounded figs are 1 to 1.5 cm long and start out yellow, maturing to orange-red between May and February in the species' native range. These are edible but tasteless. Although rarely seen in cultivation, it is a fast growing ornamental species. It can be easily propagated from seeds.
Ficus nota
Ficus nota, is a species of flowering plant known as tibig, found near water at low altitudes. The tibig is native to the Philippines. They are also found in parts of northern Borneo, in Malaysia. The tree can grow up to 9 meters high.
The fruits are also edible for humans, although they are quite tasteless. They are usually eaten with sugar and cream in the Philippines. The raw leaves are also eaten as a vegetable.
Ficus pseudopalma
Ficus pseudopalma, is a species of fig commonly known as Philippine fig, Philippine fig, dracaena fig or palm leaf fig' . This is an endemic species of Philippines, especially the island of Luzon.
This is a bush that grows erect with a bare, branchless stem topped with a clump of leaves that give it the appearance of a palm tree (hence the term pseudopalma in its name, meaning "false palm"). The fruit is a dark green fig that grows in pairs, each fruit just over an inch long.
In Luzon, this plant is found in grassland and forest habitats, where it is considered common. The shoots of this plant are consumed as a type of vegetable, and there are several traditional uses; among these is its use as a remedy for kidney stones, which is obtained from the leaves. In the Bicol region, the plant is known as Lubi-lubi, and the ojas are cooked in coconut milk. This shrub has also been used as a landscaping plant in Hawaii, but it never escaped cultivation or became established in the wild, because the wasp species that pollinates it never reached the islands.
Ficus tinctoria
Ficus tinctoria, also known as coloring fig or hunchback fig, is a tree belonging to one of the species known as strangler figs. This is found in Malaysia, northern Australia and the islands of the South Pacific.
Palms are favorable host species. The root systems of the coloring fig can join to be self-supporting, but the epiphyte usually drops if the host tree dies or rots.
The small rust-brown fruit of the dye fig is the source of a red dye used in traditional fabric making in parts of Oceania and Indonesia. The fruit is also edible and an important food source in the low-lying atolls of Micronesia and Polynesia.
Ficus variegata
Ficus variegata, is a species of tropical fig found in various parts of Asia, Pacific islands and southeastern Australia. There are several names for this species, such as common red-stemmed fig, green-fruited fig and variegated fig.
Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato)
Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd)
Morinda citrifolia (noni)
Noni (Morinda citrifolia) is native to Southeast Asia extending to New Guinea and northern Australia. It grows readily in beach and rocky environments. It has been introduced widely into the Pacific. All parts of the plant were used by Austronesians for traditional medicine and timber, but its most common traditional use is for the extraction of red or yellow dyes. The odor of the plant and the fruit was also traditionally believed to repel evil spirits. The fruit is also edible, but is usually only eaten as famine food.
There are several terms for noni that can be reconstructed. The most widespread is Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *ñəñu. Cognates include Kapampangan lino; Tagalog and Bikol níno; Cebuano ninú; Gedaged nanom or nonom; Takia nom; Bimanese nonu; Tetun nenu-k; Leti and Asilulu nenu; Leti (Moa) nienu; Wetan neni. It became Proto-Oceanic *ñoñu, with cognates including Nali non; Leipon and Wogeo ñoñ; Bipi ñoy; Gitua and Rarotongan nono; Gilbertese non; Motu, Tongan, Niue, Futunan, Samoan, Tuvaluan, Kapingamarangi, Nukuoro, and Anuta nonu; and Hawaiian noni (from which the English name is derived from). In some languages the meaning has shifted to mean "small tree" or "shrub" or to the closely related Morinda umbellata and Morinda bracteata.
In Western Malayo-Polynesian, another term that can be reconstructed is Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *baŋkudu, which may have referred to a different species of Morinda originally. Its cognates including Tagalog and Cebuano bangkúro; Agutaynen bangkoro; Tausug, Toba Batak, and Balinese bangkudu; Sundanese cangkudu; Sasak bengkudu; Mongondow bongkudu; and Malay mengkudu.
There are also smaller cognate sets, like Proto-Philippine *apatut for the tree and Proto-Oceanic *gurat and *kurat for the red dye produced from the tree.
Musa (bananas)
The earliest domestication of bananas (Musa spp.) were initially from naturally occurring parthenocarpic (seedless) individuals of Musa acuminata banksii in New Guinea, before the arrival of Austronesian-speakers. Numerous phytoliths of bananas have been recovered from the Kuk Swamp archaeological site and dated to around 10,000 to 6,500 BP. From New Guinea, cultivated bananas spread westward into Island Southeast Asia through proximity (not migrations). They hybridized with other (possibly independently domesticated) subspecies of Musa acuminata as well as Musa balbisiana in the Philippines, northern New Guinea, and possibly Halmahera. These hybridization events produced the triploid cultivars of bananas commonly grown today. From Island Southeast Asia, they became part of the staple crops of Austronesian peoples and were spread during their voyages and ancient maritime trading routes into Oceania, East Africa, South Asia, and Indochina.
These ancient introductions resulted in the banana subgroup now known as the "true" plantains, which include the East African Highland bananas and the Pacific plantains (the Iholena and Maoli-Popo'ulu subgroups). East African Highland bananas originated from banana populations introduced to Madagascar probably from the region between Java, Borneo, and New Guinea; while Pacific plantains were introduced to the Pacific Islands from either eastern New Guinea or the Bismarck Archipelago.
A second wave of introductions later spread bananas to other parts of tropical Asia, particularly Indochina and the Indian Subcontinent.
Musa abaca (abacá)
Abacá (Musa textilis), also known as Manila Hemp, is grown traditionally for its fiber in the Philippines. It was once one of the world's premier fibers, valued for its use in soft, lustrous, and silky fabrics. It was a major luxury export of the Philippines during the Colonial Era, and was introduced to Hawaii and Central America by Europeans. It has since been replaced by synthetic fibers like rayon and nylon.
Musa × troglodytarum (fe'i banana)
Fe'i bananas (Musa × troglodytarum), also spelled Fehi or Féi, are banana cultivars unique to Melanesia, the Maluku Islands, and Polynesia. Unlike other domesticated banana cultivars which are derived from Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, fe'i bananas are believed to be hybrids derived from entirely different species. Proposed progenitors of fe'i bananas include Musa jackeyi, Musa lolodensis, Musa maclayi, and Musa peekelii, all of which are native to New Guinea and surrounding islands. Like other bananas, they were spread eastwards to Polynesia for use as food. However, they are absent in Island Southeast Asia, reaching only as far as the Maluku Islands.
Myristica fragrans (nutmeg)
The earliest evidence of use of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans ) comes in the form of 3,500-year-old potsherd residues from the island of Pulau Ai, one of the Banda Islands in eastern Indonesia. The Banda Islands consist of eleven small volcanic islands, and are part of the larger Maluku Islands group. These islands were the only source of nutmeg and mace production until the mid-19th century. It was one of the spices traded over the Austronesian maritime spice trade network since at least 1500 BCE.
In the sixth century AD, nutmeg use spread to India, then further west to Constantinople. By the 13th century, Arab traders had pinpointed the origin of nutmeg to the Banda Islands, but kept this location a secret from European traders.
Oryza sativa (rice)
Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most ancient Austronesian staples, and is likely to have been originally domesticated by their ancestors long before the Austronesian expansion. It remains the main crop plant cultivated in Island Southeast Asia.
There are two most likely centers of domestication for rice as well as the development of the wetland agriculture technology. The first, and most likely, is in the lower Yangtze River, believed to be the homelands of early Austronesian speakers and associated with the Kauhuqiao, Hemudu, Majiabang, and Songze cultures. It is characterized by typical Austronesian innovations, including stilt houses, jade carving, and boat technologies. Their diet were also supplemented by acorns, water chestnuts, foxnuts, and pig domestication.
The second is in the middle Yangtze River, believed to be the homelands of the early Hmong-Mien-speakers and associated with the Pengtoushan and Daxi cultures. Both of these regions were heavily populated and had regular trade contacts with each other, as well as with early Austroasiatic speakers to the west, and early Kra-Dai speakers to the south, facilitating the spread of rice cultivation throughout southern China.
The spread of japonica rice cultivation to Southeast Asia started with the migrations of the Austronesian Dapenkeng culture into Taiwan between 5,500 and 4,000 BP. The Nanguanli site in Taiwan, dated to ca. 4,800 BP, has yielded numerous carbonized remains of both rice and millet in waterlogged conditions, indicating intensive wetland rice cultivation and dryland millet cultivation.
From about 4,000 to 2,500 BP, the Austronesian expansion began, with settlers from Taiwan moving south to colonize Luzon in the Philippines, bringing rice cultivation technologies with them. From Luzon, Austronesians rapidly colonized the rest of Island Southeast Asia, moving westwards to Borneo, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra; and southwards to Sulawesi and Java. By 2,500 BP, there is evidence of intensive wetland rice agriculture already established in Java and Bali, especially near very fertile volcanic islands.
However, rice (as well as dogs and pigs) did not survive the first Austronesian voyages into Micronesia due to the sheer distance of ocean they were crossing. These voyagers became the ancestors of the Lapita culture. By the time they migrated southwards to the Bismarck Archipelago, they had already lost the technology of rice farming, as well as pigs and dogs. However, knowledge of rice cultivation is still evident in the way they adapted the wetland agriculture techniques to taro cultivation. The Lapita culture in Bismarck reestablished trade connections with other Austronesian branches in Island Southeast Asia.
The Lapita culture also came into contact with the non-Austronesian (Papuan) early agriculturists of New Guinea and introduced wetland farming techniques to them. In turn, they assimilated their range of indigenous cultivated fruits and tubers, as well as reacquiring domesticated dogs and pigs, before spreading further eastward to Island Melanesia and Polynesia.
Rice, along with other Southeast Asian food plants, were also later introduced to Madagascar, the Comoros, and the coast of East Africa by around the 1st millennium CE by Austronesian sailors from the Greater Sunda Islands.
Much later Austronesian voyages from Island Southeast Asia succeeded in bringing rice to Guam during the Latte Period (1,100 to 300 BP). Guam is the only island in Oceania where rice was grown in pre-colonial times.
Pandanus (pandan)
Pandanus (Pandanus spp.) are very important cultivated plants in the Pacific, second only in importance and pervasiveness to coconuts. Every part of the plant is utilized, including for food, building materials, traditional medicine, and fiber and weaving materials in various cultures in Austronesia. The plants (particularly the fragrant flowers) also had spiritual significance among the native animist Austronesian religions.
Pandanus were also profoundly crucial in enabling the Austronesian expansion. Their leaves were traditionally woven into mats used in the sails for Austronesian outrigger ships. Sails allowed Austronesians to embark on long-distance voyaging. In some cases, however, they were one-way voyages. The failure of pandanus to establish populations in Easter Island and New Zealand is believed to have isolated their settlements from the rest of Polynesia.
The word for pandanus in Austronesian languages is derived from Proto-Austronesian *paŋudaN, which became Proto-Oceanic *padran and Proto-Polynesian *fara, the latter two usually referring specifically to Pandanus tectorius. Cognates in modern Austronesian languages include Kanakanavu pangətanə; Thao and Bunun panadan; Tagalog pandan; Chamorro pahong; Ratahan pondang; Malay pandan (from which the English name is derived from); Manggarai pandang; Malagasy fandrana; Lau fada-da; Fijian vadra; Samoan fala; Tongan fā; Tahitian fara; Hawaiian hala; and Māori whara or hara. Note that among the Formosan languages of Indigenous Taiwanese, the meaning of the words have largely shifted to mean "pineapple", a physically similar non-native European-introduced plant. In Māori, as well, the meaning has shifted to Astelia spp. and Phormium tenax (harakeke), similar plants used for weaving, since pandanus did not survive the voyage into New Zealand.
Pandanus grow well in island habitats, being very salt-tolerant and easy to propagate, making them ideal plants for early Austronesian sailors. Like coconuts, they grow predominantly along strandlines, mangrove forests, and other coastal ecosystems. They can also be found in the understory of forests in larger islands. Others may also be found in highland groves, likely planted by humans. Both pandanus and coconuts are adapted to withstand the strong winds of the frequent typhoons of the Indo-Pacific. The greatest center of diversity of Pandanus is the western Pacific and Island Southeast Asia. The genus has around 600 species, but the most important and the most widespread group of species in Austronesian cultures and is the Pandanus tectorius complex.
Pandanus tectorius in Oceania show evidence of long cultivations, with hundreds of different selectively bred cultivars which are primarily propagated through cuttings. These varieties often have different names in local languages and have different physical characteristics. The varieties are predominantly distinguished by the color and edibility of their fruit, but they may also be differentiated based on other criteria like the color and shape of their leaves used for weaving.
Very old fossils of Pandanus tectorius have been recovered from Hawaii, dated to more than 1.2 million years old. This indicates that the plants once colonized Hawaii (and likely the rest of the Pacific islands) naturally through their buoyant fruits. However, useful domesticated varieties were carried by Austronesians from island to island. Especially since wild pandanus have calcium oxalate crystals (raphides) in their fruit tissue. They cause itchiness and irritation when eaten raw and thus need to be cooked. Domesticated varieties which have less raphides (which are also usually less fibrous and more nutritious), were therefore valued . It is thus considered both native and introduced. There are also fossil evidence of pandanus fruits being harvested for food in New Guinea from archaeological sites dated to around 34,000 to 36,000 BP.
Other important species of pandanus utilized by Austronesians include Pandanus amaryllifolius, Pandanus odorifer, Pandanus furcatus, Pandanus julianettii, Pandanus simplex, Pandanus utilis, Pandanus dubius, and Pandanus whitmeeanus, among many others. Pandanus odorifer is widespread in the region from western Micronesia, to Island Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is possibly a subspecies of Pandanus tectorius and they hybridize readily. Pandanus amaryllifolius, the pandan, is another important species widely used as a spice in the cuisines of Southeast Asia for their vanilla-like fragrant leaves.
Piper (peppers)
Peppers (Piper) ancestrally cultivated by Austronesians include the betel (Piper betle), cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba), kava (Piper methysticum), and the Javanese long pepper (Piper retrofractum). Many others were also harvested from the wild for medicinal or religious purposes, including Piper caducibracteum, Piper excelsum, Piper ornatum, and Piper sarmentosum. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) and long pepper (Piper longum) were also extensively cultivated in Island Southeast Asia after early contact by Austronesian traders with South India and Sri Lanka.
Piper betle (betel)
The betel (Piper betle) is one of the two plants that comprise the main ingredients of betel chewing, the other being the areca nut (Areca catechu). It is one of the most ubiquitous practices of the Austronesians. It is consumed by taking a leaf of betel, wrapping it around an areca nut and some lime (obtained from grinding seashells), and then chewing it for some time. It is a stimulant, inducing slight dizziness followed by euphoria and alertness. It is also highly addictive, damages the teeth and gums, and stains the teeth red.
Based on archaeological, linguistic, and botanical evidence, betel chewing is most strongly associated with Austronesian cultures, despite its widespread adoption by neighboring cultures in prehistoric and historic times. The original range of betel is unknown, but Areca catechu is known to be originally native to the Philippines, where it has the greatest morphological diversity as well as the most number of closely related endemic species. It is unknown when the two were combined, as areca nut alone can be chewed for its narcotic properties. In eastern Indonesia, however, leaves from the wild Piper caducibracteum (known as sirih hutan) are also harvested and used in place of betel leaves.
The oldest unequivocal evidence of betel chewing is from the Philippines. Specifically that of several individuals found in a burial pit in the Duyong Cave site of Palawan island dated to around 4,630±250 BP . The dentition of the skeletons are stained, typical of betel chewers. The grave also includes Anadara shells used as containers of lime, one of which still contained lime. Burial sites in Bohol dated to the first millennium CE also show the distinctive reddish stains characteristic of betel chewing. Based on linguistic evidence of how the reconstructed Proto-Austronesian term *buaq originally meaning "fruit" came to refer to "areca nut" in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, it is believed that betel chewing originally developed somewhere within the Philippines shortly after the beginning of the Austronesian expansion (~5,000 BP). From the Philippines, it spread back to Taiwan, as well as onwards to the rest of Austronesia.
It reached Micronesia at around 3,500 to 3,000 BP with the Austronesian voyagers, based on both linguistic and archaeological evidence. It was also previously present in the Lapita culture, based on archaeological remains from Mussau dated to around 3,600 to 2,500 BP. But it did not reach Polynesia further east. It is believed that it stopped in the Solomon Islands due to the replacement of betel chewing with the tradition of kava drinking prepared from the related Piper methysticum. It was also diffused into East Africa via the Austronesian settlement of Madagascar and the Comoros by around the 7th century.
The practice also diffused to the cultures the Austronesians had historical contact with. It reached South Asia by 3,500 BP, through early contact of Austronesian traders from Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula with the Dravidian-speakers of Sri Lanka and southern India. This also coincides with the introduction of Southeast Asian plants like Santalum album and Cocos nucifera, as well as the adoption of the Austronesian outrigger ship and crab-claw sail technologies by Dravidian-speakers. It Mainland Southeast Asia by 3,000 to 2,500 BP through trade with Borneo, as well as the settlement of the Champa polities in southern Vietnam. From there, it was spread northwards into China. Lastly, it reached Northern India by 500 BP through trade in the Bay of Bengal. From there it was spread westwards into Persia and the Mediterranean.
There are very old claims of betel chewing dating to at least 13,000 BP at the Kuk Swamp site in New Guinea, based on probable Areca sp. recovered. However, it is now known that these might have been due to modern contamination of sample materials. Similar claims have also been made at other older sites with Areca sp. remains, but none can be conclusively identified as A. carechu and their association with betel peppers is tenuous or nonexistent.
There are numerous cognate sets reconstructible in Austronesian languages relating to various aspects of betel chewing. Ranging from chewing something without swallowing to equipment used to climb areca nut palms to the betel spittle. One cognate set that can be reconstructed for betel pepper is Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *Rawed which became Proto-Philippine *gawed, with cognates including Yami gaod, Itbayaten gawed; Ilocano gawéd; Isneg khawád; Casiguran Dumagat gawə́d; and Ibaloy kawed; Balangaw lawɨ'd; Kalagan lawód; and Kenyah auat or awet.
Two other cognate sets reached into Oceania. The first is Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pu-pulu, which became Proto-Oceanic *[pu-]pulu. Cognates include Mussau ulo; Loniu pun; Bipi pun or puepun; Lukep ul; Takia ful; Gedaged fu; Manam ulusalaga; and Bugotu vu-vulu. The other is Proto-Meso-Melanesian *siqa(r,R)(a), with cognates including Kara and Lihir sie; Tabar sia; Patpatar sier; Tolai ier; Nehan hiara; Petats sil; Teop hia(kuru); Tinputz (ta)sian; Banoni siɣana; and Marovo hirata.
Piper cubeba (cubeb pepper)
The cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba) are native to Island Southeast Asia. Like Piper retrofractum, however, it was only cultivated extensively in the Greater Sunda Islands for the spice trade. The Javanese protected the monopoly of the trade by sterilizing the seeds before trading them. It has a pungent smell, often compared to allspice, quite unlike that of the other culinary peppers. It also has a slightly bitter taste. It is notable as having reached as far as Greece during ancient times via the Silk Road. It was a valuable rare spice in Medieval Europe and the Middle East, reputed to have medicinal and magical properties. Medieval Arab physicians commonly used it for a range of treatments, ranging from treating infertility to poison antidotes. It is mentioned in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights as well as in the travelogues of Marco Polo. Its trade waned during the Colonial Era when the Portuguese Empire banned its importation to promote the black pepper produced by its own colonies.
Piper excelsum (kawakawa)
Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) is a small tree or shrub endemic to New Zealand and nearby Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. It was exploited by Austronesian settlers based on previous knowledge of the kava, as the latter could not survive in the colder climates of New Zealand. The Māori name for the plant, kawakawa, is derived from the same etymon as kava, but reduplicated. It is a sacred tree among the Māori people. It is seen as a symbol of death, corresponding to the rangiora (Brachyglottis repanda) which is the symbol of life. Boughs of kawakawa are often used in purification rituals.
However, kawakawa's resemblance to true kava is only superficial. Kawakawa roots do not have psychoactive properties. Instead, kawakawa's primary use is for traditional medicine.
Piper methysticum (kava)
Kava (Piper methysticum) is a small tree or shrub believed to have been domesticated in either New Guinea or Vanuatu by Papuans. It is believed to be a domesticated variety of Piper subbullatum which is native to New Guinea and the Philippines.
It was spread by Austronesians after contact into the rest of Polynesia. It is endemic to Oceania and is not found in other Austronesian groups. Kava has great cultural and religious significance among Polynesians. The roots are pounded and mixed with water then strained through fibers. The resulting cloudy gray liquid is bitter with mildly psychoactive and narcotic properties, with a common effect being numbness around the lips and mouth. However, it is not hallucinogenic nor addictive. The potency of the root depends on the age of the plants. The leaves and roots can also be chewed directly resulting in a numbing effect and relaxation. It is traditionally consumed both in everyday social interactions and in religious rituals. Kava reached Hawaii, but it is absent in New Zealand where it can not grow.
Consumption of kava is also believed to be the reason why betel chewing, ubiquitous elsewhere, was lost for Austronesians in Oceania.
According to Lynch (2002), the reconstructed Proto-Polynesian term for the plant, *kava, was derived from the Proto-Oceanic term *kawaRi in the sense of a "bitter root" or "potent root [used as fish poison]". It originally referred to Zingiber zerumbet, which was used to make a similar mildly psychoactive bitter drink in Austronesian rituals. Cognates for *kava include Pohnpeian sa-kau; Tongan, Niue, Rapa Nui, Tuamotuan, and Rarotongan kava; Samoan and Marquesan ava; and Hawaiian awa. In some languages, most notably Māori kawa, the cognates have come to mean "bitter", "sour", or "acrid" to the taste.
In the Cook Islands, the reduplicated forms of kawakawa or kavakava are also applied to the unrelated members of the genus Pittosporum. And in other languages like in Futunan, compound terms like kavakava atua refer to other species belonging to the genus Piper. The reduplication of the base form is indicative of falsehood or likeness, in the sense of "false kava".
Piper retrofractum (Javanese long pepper)
The Javanese long pepper (Piper retrofractum) is native to Island Southeast Asia from the Philippines to Sumatra. Its northern range also extends to southern China, mainland Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands. However it was historically only cultivated in any great extent in the islands of Java and Bali, and surrounding islands, for the spice trade. Elsewhere it is mostly grown informally in the backyards of houses. It is very similar to the Indian long pepper (Piper longum) and is used in the same way in Southeast Asian cuisine.
Saccharum (sugarcane)
There are two centers of domestication for sugarcane (Saccharum spp.): one for Saccharum officinarum by Papuans in New Guinea and another for Saccharum sinense by Austronesians in Taiwan and southern China. Papuans and Austronesians originally primarily used sugarcane as food for domesticated pigs. The spread of both S. officinarum and S. sinense is closely linked to the migrations of the Austronesian peoples.
Saccharum officinarum was first domesticated in New Guinea and the islands east of the Wallace Line by Papuans, where it is the modern center of diversity. Beginning at around 6,000 BP they were selectively bred from the native Saccharum robustum. From New Guinea it spread westwards to Island Southeast Asia after contact with Austronesians, where it hybridized with Saccharum spontaneum.
The second domestication center is mainland southern China and Taiwan where S. sinense (though other authors identify it as S. spontaneum) was one of the original major crops of the Austronesian peoples from at least 5,500 BP. Introduction of the sweeter S. officinarum may have gradually replaced it throughout its cultivated range in Island Southeast Asia. From Island Southeast Asia, S. officinarum was spread eastward into Polynesia and Micronesia by Austronesian voyagers as a canoe plant by around 3,500 BP. It was also spread westward and northward by around 3,000 BP to China and India by Austronesian traders, where it further hybridized with Saccharum sinense and Saccharum barberi. From there it spread further into western Eurasia and the Mediterranean.
The reconstructed word for "sugarcane" in Proto-Austronesian is *CəbuS or *təbuS, which became Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *təbuh, Proto-Oceanic *topu, and Proto-Polynesian *to. Modern cognates include Hoanya and Bunun sibus; Rukai cobosə or tibóso; Tagalog tubó; Chamorro tupu; Murik Kayan tebu; Malay tebu; Old Sundanese teuwu; Modern Sundanese tiwu; Ansus tobu; Malmariv tov; Fijian dovu; Mele-Fila and Takuu toro; Samoan tolo; Tagula ro; Pohnpeian cheu; Tahitian to; Pukapukan, Rarotongan, and Tongan tō; Hawaiian kō; and Rapa Nui to or ta. In Malagasy, however, the word for "sugarcane" is fary, which is instead derived from Proto-Austronesian *pajey, meaning "rice".
Santalum album (sandalwood)
Santalum album is originally native to dry areas in Indonesia (Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands), the Philippines, and Western Australia, where it is found with close congeners. It was introduced very early () into Dravidian regions of South Asia via the Austronesian maritime spice trade, along with other Austronesian domesticates like areca nut and coconuts. It first appears in archaeological records in South Asia in the southern Deccan by 1300 BCE. It became naturalized in these regions where dry sandy soils are common.
Solanum
Several species of Solanum have been utilised as food and medicine by the Austronesian people. Species cultivated include Kangaroo apple (Solanum aviculare), poroporo (Solanum laciniatum), Indian nightshade (Solanum lasiocarpum), pacific tomato (Solanum repandum) and cannibal tomato (Solanum viride); almost all of their vernacular names consist of slight variations on the name poro or polo.
Syzygium
Trees in the genus Syzygium contain some of the most important fruit trees among Austronesian peoples. Species cultivated or harvested for their edible fruit include the Java plum (Syzygium cumini), jambos (Syzygium jambos), lubeg (Syzygium lineatum), swamp maire (Syzygium maire), mountain apple (Syzygium malaccense), lipote (Syzygium polycephaloides), and the Java apple (Syzygium samarangense), among others. Two species are also important sources of spice: the clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum) and Indonesian bay leaf (Syzygium polyanthum).
Syzygium aromaticum (cloves)
Until the colonial era, cloves only grew on a few islands in the Moluccas (historically called the Spice Islands), including Bacan, Makian, Moti, Ternate, and Tidore. One clove tree named Afo that experts believe is the oldest in the world on Ternate may be 350–400 years old.
Cloves were first traded by the Austronesian peoples in the Austronesian maritime trade network (which began around 1500 BC, later becoming the Maritime Silk Road and part of the Spice Trade). The first notable example of modern clove farming developed on the east coast of Madagascar, and is cultivated in three separate ways, a monoculture, agricultural parklands, and agroforestry systems.
Syzygium malaccense (mountain apple)
The mountain apple (Syzygium malaccense) along with the closely related species like the water apple (Syzygium aqueum) and the Java apple (Syzygium samarangense), are native throughout Island Southeast Asia and were cultivated since prehistory. They were all carried by Austronesians into the Pacific and planted deliberately.
They were valued primarily for their abundant edible fruits. It is also used for timber (usually for building houses) and parts of the trees are used in traditional medicine. The attractive flowers are also worn as personal hair adornments and in making leis. They were primarily propagated through cuttings by Melanesians and Polynesians. The groves of mountain apples found in the Pacific are often remnants of ancient plantings, as the seeds of the fruits are too large to be dispersed by the native birds. Related species endemic to the Pacific Islands were also utilized similarly, like Syzygium corynocarpum and Syzygium neurocalyx.
There numerous names for mountain apples in Austronesian languages. In the Philippines, the terms can be reconstructed to Proto-Philippine *makúpa, with cognates including Ilocano, Aklanon, and Cebuano makúpa; and Tagalog and Bikol makópa.
In Oceania, there are several cognate sets reconstructible for mountain apples and related species. Four of which are *pokaq, *marisapa, *sakau and *cay, with limited reflexes and may have originally referred to other species. The most widespread cognate set, however, can be reconstructed to Proto-Oceanic *kapika. Its cognates include Mussau kaviu; Seimat ahi, Lou keik; Maenge and Nakanai gaiva; Tami kapig; Yabem àing; Motu gavika; Bola kavika; Babatana kapika; Gela gaviga; Kwara'ae afio; Paamese ahie; Wayan, Niue, East Uvean, and Bauan kavika; Tongan fekika; Anutan kapika; Marquesan kehika; Mangarevan keika; Tahitian ahia; Hawaiian oohiaai; Rarotongan kaika; and Māori kahika. In Māori, the names have shifted to Metrosideros fulgens, which have similar-looking flowers, as Malay apples did not survive into New Zealand.
Tacca leontopetaloides (Polynesian arrowroot)
Polynesian arrowroot (Tacca leontopetaloides) is another ancient Austronesian root crop closely related to yams. It is originally native to Island Southeast Asia. It was introduced throughout the entire range of the Austronesian expansion, including Micronesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar. Polynesian arrowroot have been identified as among the cultivated crops in Lapita sites in Palau, dating back to 3,000 to 2,000 BP. It was also introduced to Sri Lanka, southern India, and possibly also Australia through trade and contact.
Polynesian arrowroot was a minor staple among Austronesians. The roots are bitter if not prepared properly, thus it was only cultivated as a secondary crop to staples like Dioscorea alata and Colocasia esculenta. Its importance increased for settlers in the Pacific Islands, where food plants were scarcer, and it was introduced to virtually all the inhabited islands. They were valued for their ability to grow in low islands and atolls, and were often the staple crops in islands with these conditions. In larger islands, they were usually allowed to grow feral and were useful only as famine food. Several cultivars have been developed in Polynesia due to the thousands of years of artificial selection. The starch extracted from the root with traditional methods can last for a very long time, and thus can be stored or traded. The starch can be cooked in leaves to make starchy puddings. Due to the introduction of modern crops, it is rarely cultivated today.
The names for Polynesian arrowroot in Austronesian languages reflect its secondary importance as a crop. They are often reassignments from names of other starch crops, rather than specifically being for Polynesian arrowroot. Usually, the names of Polynesian arrowroot are transferred from the names of the sago palms (Metroxylon sagu), giant swamp taros (Cyrtosperma merkusii), and fermented breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis).
Derivations from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sagu ("sago palm"), include Chamorro and Toba Batak sagu. Derivations from Proto-Polynesian *mā ("fermented breadfruit"), included Tongan māhoaa; Tokelauan mahoā; Anutan maoa; East Futunan māsoā; Samoan māsoā; and Tuvaluan māsoa. Derivations from Proto-Polynesian *bulaka (giant swamp taro) include Patpatar and Tolai pulaka. Derivations from Proto-Austronesian *biRaq (giant taro) include Äiwoo (to)piya. And finally, derivations from Proto-Oceanic Rabia (sago) include Bauan yabia; and Pileni, Rarotongan, and Hawaiian pia.
Talipariti tiliaceum (sea hibiscus)
Sea hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum) is a common tree in beaches in the tropical Indo-Pacific. It is widely used by Austronesian peoples for timber and fiber. It has several subspecies, two of which are endemic to the Philippines and Sulawesi, with the rest widespread throughout its range or native to large regions of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The seeds remain viable for months after floating in the sea. However, no remains of beach hibiscus have been recovered from Polynesia prior to the Austronesian arrival, making it clear that they were introduced by Austronesian voyagers.
The wood is soft and not very durable, so it is mostly only used for products like carvings, spears, bowls, and bracelets. However, it is also resistant to saltwater and thus can be used to make small canoes and outriggers. The wood is also preferred for fire making by friction. The fiber extracted from the bark is widely used to make cordage and for caulking. The bark is also used in the production of tempeh in Southeast Asia, and kava drinks in Polynesia. The attractive flowers are commonly made into leis in Hawaii.
The terms for beach hibiscus can be reconstructed to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *baRu, which became Proto-Oceanic *paRu and Proto-Micronesian *kili-fau. Modern cognates include Itbayaten vayu; Ilocano bagó; Kankana-ey bágo; Chamorro pagu; Tagalog balibago; Cebuano malabago or maribago; Maranao bago; Ngaju Dayak baro; Malagasy baro or varo; Malay baru; Javanese, Rembong, and Kambera waru; Sangir and Soboyo bahu; Makasar baru; Erai hau; Leti paru; Paulohi haru; Buruese fahu; Gitua paru; Mailu waru; Mota var or varu; Sye nau or vau; Anejom n-hau; Fijian vau; Tongan and Samoan fau; Rotuman, Rennellese, and Hawaiian hau; and Māori whau.
In addition, there are numerous terms relating to the use of sea hibiscus for cordage and fiber in various Austronesian languages which can be traced back to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian or Proto-Austronesian, like *Calis, "rope".
Thespesia populnea (Pacific rosewood)
The Pacific rosewood (Thespesia populnea) is closely related to beach hibiscus. They are similar in appearance and grow in the same habitats, thus they are commonly confused with each other. It is also used similarly among Austronesian cultures, being one of the main sources of bast fibers for the production of cordage and wood for Austronesian outrigger ships and carving. Pacific rosewood is native to the Old World tropics. Like beach hibiscus, the seeds remain viable for months after floating in the sea but no remains of T. populnea have been recovered from Polynesia prior to the Austronesian expansion. Thus it is regarded as deliberate introductions by Austronesian settlers.
The trees were regarded as sacred in Polynesian culture, and were commonly planted in marae sites along with trees like Ficus, Fagraea berteroana, Casuarina equisetifolia and Calophyllum inophyllum.
The terms for Pacific rosewood can be reconstructed to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balu, with cognates including Itbayaten valu; Malagasy válo; Simeulue falu; Ngela valu; Arosi haru; and Lonwolwol bal. Another term which extends to Oceanic is Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *banaRu with cognates including Hanunó'o banagu; Tolai banar; Patpatar banaro; Mota vanau; and Pohnpeian pana.
In Eastern Polynesia, most modern names can be reconstructed back to Proto-Eastern Oceanic *milo, with cognates including Tongan, Niue, Samoan, and Hawaiian milo; Rapa Nui, Tahitan, Tuamotuan, and Māori miro; and Marquesan mio. In some islands, the names have shifted to refer to trees that are used similarly, like Prumnopitys ferruginea in New Zealand and Sophora toromiro in Easter Island.
Zingiberaceae (ginger family)
Gingers (family Zingiberaceae) were cultivated extensively by Austronesians for food, medicine, weaving materials, and for religious purposes. The most commonly cultivated species include the lengkuas (Alpinia galanga), fingerroot (Boesenbergia rotunda), turmeric (Curcuma longa), torch ginger (Etlingera elatior), and ginger (Zingiber officinale). Other species were also exploited at a smaller scale or harvested from the wild, including dwarf cardamom (Alpinia nutans), panasa cardamom (Amomum acre), white turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria), jiddo (Hornstedtia scottiana), white ginger lily (Hedychium coronarium), and bitter ginger (Zingiber zerumbet).
Alpinia galanga (lengkuas)
The lengkuas (Alpinia galanga) is native to Southeast Asia. Its original center of cultivation during the spice trade was Java, and today it is still cultivated extensively in Island Southeast Asia, most notably in the Greater Sunda Islands and the Philippines. It is valued for its use in food and for traditional medicine and is regarded as being superior to ginger. It has a pungent smell reminiscent of black pepper. The red and white cultivars are often used differently, with the red cultivars being primarily medicinal, and the white cultivars being primarily a spice. Lengkuas is also the source of the leaves used to make nanel among the Kavalan people of Taiwan, a rolled leaf instrument used as a traditional children's toy common among Austronesian cultures.
Lengkuas can be reconstructed to Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *laŋkuas, with cognates including Ilokano langkuás; Tagalog, Bikol, Kapampangan, Visayan, and Manobo langkáuas or langkáwas; Aklanon eangkawás; Kadazan Dusun hongkuas; Ida'an lengkuas; Ngaju Dayak langkuas; Iban engkuas; and Malay lengkuas (from which the English name is derived from). Some of the names have become generalized and are also applied to other species of Alpinia as well as for Curcuma zedoaria.
Curcuma longa (turmeric)
There is strong evidence that turmeric (Curcuma longa) as well as the related white turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) were independently domesticated by Austronesians. Turmeric has a very widespread distribution and names that pre-date contact with India, being found among all Austronesian regions with the exception of Taiwan. However, it was seemingly originally domesticated for the production of dyes, eventually contributing to the words for "yellow" and "red" in various Austronesian languages.
The plant is important in the Philippines and Indonesia as a traditional dye for clothing and food coloring. It was particularly valued for coloring food offerings to spirits as well as body painting in religious rituals or social ceremonies. It is also used as a spice, as medicine and as food. Similar uses are also found in the other islands settled by Austronesians, including Madagascar and the Comoros in East Africa. In Micronesia, it was a valuable trade item acquired from Yap. In Polynesia and Melanesia, they are primarily used as body paint in rituals or as a cosmetic. The latter regions have been isolated for centuries from the rest of Island Southeast Asia prior to European contact.
There are two main cognate sets for C. longa and C. zedoaria (both of which produce yellow dye) in Austronesian languages. The first is reconstructed as Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kunij which originally referred to turmeric. Its cognates include Ilocano, Kankana-ey, and Isneg kúnig; Bontoc kúnəg; Ifugao ūnig; Casiguran Dumagat kuneg; Iban and Malay kunyit; Toba Batak hunik; Javanese kunir; Sangir and Tae' kuni; Uma kuni; Rembong kunis; Ngadha wuné; and Manggarai wunis. In Malagasy and Betsimisaraka, the cognates hónitra and húnitra have shifted meaning to a different plant used to make red dye. Other cognates like Ilocano kimmúnig; Uma mo-kuni, and Tae' pakuniran all mean "yellow" or "to dye something yellow".
The other cognate set is derived from reconstructed Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *temu, and originally meant C. zedoaria which was used primarily as a spice. It also sometimes shifted to ginger and other ginger-like plants used for cooking (rather than dye production). Its cognates include Kapampangan and Balinese tamu; Tagalog támo; Visayan tamangyan; Bukidnon tamohilang; Bikol tamahilan or tamaylan; Malay, Javanese, and Sasak temu; Makasarese tammu; and Malagasy tamutamu. In other Austronesian languages in East Africa, however, the other cognates mean "yellow", including Comorian Shibushi and Antemoro tamutamu; and Antambahoaka and Antankarana manamutamu.
In Proto-Oceanic, there are two main cognate sets derived from reconstructed *aŋo and *deŋ(w)a, both are unrelated to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian etymons. The latter probably originally applied to the dye produced from turmeric, while the former referred originally to the plant itself. Cognates include Fijian cango; and Tongan and Rennellese ango. Cognates that mean "yellow" also exist in numerous other languages in Near Oceania.
Zingiber officinale (ginger)
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is native to Island Southeast Asia and was probably originally domesticated by Austronesians. It is an ancient and ubiquitous crop among Austronesians, reaching all the way to Remote Oceania and Madagascar. Aside from being used for cuisine, ginger appears to have significant religious and medicinal roles in early Austronesian cultures, based on the glosses it acquired. Ginger were chewed by shamans and spat out intermittently in rituals for healing, warding, and blessing ships.
In Proto-Austronesian, the terms for ginger can be reconstructed to *dukduk. With cognates including Pazeh dukuduk; Thao suksuk; Tsou cucu; and Saaroa suusuku. This was replaced by *laqia in languages south of Taiwan.
The terms for ginger beyond Taiwan can be reconstructed to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *laqia, which became Proto-Oceanic *laqia and Proto-Central Polynesian *laya. Cognates include Ilocano, Agta, Isneg, Itawis, Kankana-ey, and Casiguran Dumagat layá; Bontoc, Ifugao and Kapampangan láya; Batad Ifugao lāya; Tagalog luya; Bikol láya; Visayan luya; Tboli leiye; Kadazan Dusun hazo; Tombonuwo and Abai Sembuak layo; Ida'an Begak lejo; Basap, Long Anap Kenyah, Sangir, and Tontemboan lia; Lun Dayeh and Kelabit lieh; Berawan and Miriʼ lejeh; Narum lejieh; Kenyah (Òma Lóngh) lezó; Murik and Iban lia; Kelai and Wahau Kenyah je; Segai aljo; Modang lejao̯; Kiput lecih; Bintulu leza; Iban lia; Dayak roii; Jarai reya; Malay halia; Tialo loía; Balaesang láia; Bare'e leia; Tae laia or laya; Makasarese laia; Muna longhia; Bimanese rea; Manggarai, Roti, Erai, Leti, Wetan. and Lamaholot lia; and Sika and Ngadha lea; Kowiai and Kei leii. In Oceanic languages, cognates include Lou and Kairiru lei; Penchal lai; Ahus and Kurti liy; Drehet lip; Lindrow ley; Mussau and Wuvulu, Neham laia; Tanga lae; Lakalai la lahia; Gitua laea; Wedau naia; 'Āre'āre and Arosi ria; Sa'a lie; and Fijian cango laya.
Zingiber zerumbet (bitter ginger)
Bitter ginger (Zingiber zerumbet) is native to tropical Asia and Australasia. Like the ginger, was carried by Austronesian settlers all the way to Remote Oceania during prehistoric times. Thus it is likely that it was originally domesticated by Austronesians. Remains of bitter ginger have also been identified from the Kuk Swamp archaeological site in New Guinea at the Phase 1 layers dated to 10,220 to 9,910 BP. However, whether they were cultivated or simply exploited from the wild is unknown.
Bitter ginger is primarily used for traditional medicine. It also has mildly psychoactive properties when consumed, and thus had ritual importance among early Austronesian cultures. According to Lynch (2002), terms for bitter ginger in the sense of "bitter root" or "potent root [used as fish poison]", reconstructed as Proto-Oceanic *kawaRi, is believed to have been transferred to the kava (Piper methysticum), which has similar properties and is also bitter-tasting, when Austronesians of the Lapita culture first encountered it among the indigenous non-Austronesian peoples in Melanesia.
Some reflexes of it still refer to bitter ginger, including Sissano (una)kaw; Gapapaiwa kaware; Tikopia, Anutan, and Wallisian kava-pui; Samoan ava-pui; Tahitian ava-puhi; and Hawaiian awa-puhi. Other reflexes also refer to other members of the genus Piper, to fish poison, or as words to describe bitter, sour, or acrid flavors.
In non-Oceanic languages, terms for bitter ginger can be reconstructed to Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *lampuyaŋ, with cognates including Cebuano and Ngaju Dayak lampuyang; Javanese lempuyang; and Malay lempoyang.
Animals
Domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal animals carried by Austronesian voyagers include the following:
Bubalus bubalis (water buffalo)
Water buffaloes are essential work animals in Austronesian paddy field agriculture and were carried along with rice to Island Southeast Asia from mainland Asia. Early introductions were specifically of the swamp-type water buffaloes (like the carabao), although they are increasingly being replaced by river-type water buffaloes imported from South Asia in recent times.
The earliest remains of water buffaloes in Island Southeast Asia with signs of domestication comes from multiple fragmentary skeletal remains recovered from the upper layers of the Neolithic Nagsabaran site, part of the Lal-lo and Gattaran Shell Middens (~2200 BCE to 400 CE) of northern Luzon. Most of the remains consisted of skull fragments, almost all of which have cut marks indicating they were butchered. The remains are associated with red slipped pottery, spindle whorls, stone adzes, and jade bracelets; which have strong affinities to similar artifacts from Neolithic Austronesian archeological sites in Taiwan. Based on the radiocarbon date of the layer in which the oldest fragments were found, water buffaloes were first introduced to the Philippines by at least 500 BCE.
The English term "carabao" is borrowed from the Spanish word , which is derived from Eastern Visayan (likely Waray) . Cognates include Cebuano , Tagalog , Kavalan , Minangkabau kabau, Malay/Indonesian kerbau, and Javanese . These Austronesian terms appear to be loanwords from the Austroasiatic languages and likely derives from a secondary pre-colonial introduction of water buffaloes into Island Southeast Asia via western Indonesia.
However, it is also clear that Austronesians already had ancient terms for the carabao, reconstructed as Proto-Austronesian *qaNuaŋ. Cognates include Papora , Thao , Siraya , Rukai , Ilocano , Tagalog or , Kankanaey , Isneg , Itawis , Bontoc , Ifugao , and Aklanon . Cognates survive into Sulawesi, but the terms there apply to the related anoa. Similarly, Hanunó'o also refers to the tamaraw of Mindoro, rather than the carabao. These terms spread southwards from Taiwan, indicating that domesticated carabaos were carried partially into the Philippines during the Austronesian expansion, but didn't move further south into the rest of Island Southeast Asia until the second introduction from Mainland Southeast Asia. The reason for this is unknown.
Other native names for carabaos include in Tagalog, Bikol, and Kapampangan; in Pangasinan; and in Ivatan.
Bos javanicus domesticus (Bali cattle)
Bali cattle were domesticated in Bali from the wild banteng around 3500 BCE.
Canis lupus familiaris (dog)
Dogs were primarily valued for their social functions in various Austronesian cultures, acting as companions and pets. They were also trained to be hunting or guard dogs. Ornaments made from dog fur, teeth, and bones are found in archaeological sites throughout Austronesia. These could be traded as commodities, along with dog pups. Dogs were also sometimes eaten, but this varies by culture, with most groups refusing to eat dogs, while in others they were apparently a main food source.
In 2020, an mDNA study of ancient dog fossils from the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins of southern China showed that most of the ancient dogs fell within haplogroup A1b, as do the Australian dingoes and the pre-colonial dogs of the Pacific, but in low frequency in China today. The specimen from the Tianluoshan archaeological site (Hemudu culture, pre-Austronesians), Zhejiang province dates to 7,000 YBP and is basal to the entire lineage. The dogs belonging to this haplogroup were once widely distributed in southern China, then dispersed through Southeast Asia into New Guinea and Oceania, but were replaced in China 2,000 YBP by dogs of other lineages.
The origins of the dog (Canis lupus familiaris) population in Island Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Guinea are contentious, with various authors proposing origins from either Mainland Southeast Asia, Taiwan, or both at different times. These introduction events have been linked to the origin of the Australian dingoes and the New Guinea singing dogs, both of which are clearly descended from domesticated dogs. The specifics of which population they are derived from, who introduced them, and whether they come from a common ancestor, however, still do not have a consensus.
Regardless, most authors agree that there were at least two introduction events. One arriving with Paleolithic maritime hunter-gatherers by at least 10,000 to 5,000 BP, and another arriving with later Neolithic seafaring migrations of farming and trading Austronesian peoples (via Taiwan) by at least by at least 5,000 BP. The Neolithic dogs are differentiated from previous populations in having the ability to digest starch, indicating that they accompanied humans who cultivated cereal crops. The Neolithic introductions are believed to have partially replaced the original introductions and became the ancestors of the modern village dogs of Southeast Asia. Austronesian dogs like the Taiwan dog were deeply valued as hunting companions (particularly for wild boar). In the Philippines, dog remains have been found buried near or beside human graves in archaeological sites.
The oldest archaeological remains of dogs in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania is a dog burial in Timor and dingo remains in Australia, both of which are dated to around 3,500 BP. The former are believed to have been part of the second wave and the latter from the first wave.
From Island Southeast Asia, they were carried by Austronesian voyagers into Near Oceania. However, unlike in Island Southeast Asia, dogs lost their economic importance as hunting animals among Austronesians that reached the smaller islands in Melanesia and Polynesia, which had no populations of wild boar or other large mammals that could be hunted. They became a competitor for limited food resources and thus were themselves eaten. The Austronesian domesticated dogs originally carried by the Lapita Culture migrations were eaten to extinction in many islands since ancient times.
Thus Austronesian dogs were "lost" during the early colonization of Near Oceania. This caused a marked discontinuity in the genes of domesticated dogs, as well as the terms for "dog", among Austronesians in the Pacific Islands and Island Melanesia, in comparison to other Austronesian regions in Island Southeast Asia.
However, dogs were later reintroduced from neighboring Papuan groups and were subsequently carried eastward into Polynesia by post-Lapita Austronesian migrations, reaching as far as Hawaii and New Zealand. Though these dogs were treated as food animals, rather than hunting companions. Genetic studies have confirmed this, showing that Polynesian dogs are descended from the first wave of dog introductions and are not related to the dogs originating from Taiwan and the Philippines. Dogs were historically eaten in Tahiti and other islands of Polynesia, including Hawaii at the time of first European contact. James Cook, when first visiting Tahiti in 1769, recorded in his journal, "few were there of us but what allow'd that a South Sea Dog was next to an English Lamb, one thing in their favour is that they live entirely upon Vegetables". Calvin Schwabe reported in 1979 that dog was widely eaten in Hawaii and considered to be of higher quality than pork or chicken. When Hawaiians first encountered early British and American explorers, they were at a loss to explain the visitors' attitudes about dog meat. The Hawaiians raised both dogs and pigs as pets and for food. They could not understand why their British and American visitors only found the pig suitable for consumption. This practice seems to have died out, along with the native Hawaiian breed of dog, the unique Hawaiian Poi Dog, which was primarily used for this purpose.
On certain Pacific islands, dogs died out after original settlement or were never brought by the settlers in the first place, notably: the Mariana Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Tonga, Marquesas, Mangaia in the Cook Islands, Rapa Iti in French Polynesia, Easter Island, Chatham Islands, and Pitcairn Island (settled by the Bounty mutineers, who killed off their dogs in order to escape discovery by passing ships).
Dogs were not introduced to Madagascar by Austronesians. A genetic study by Ardalan et al. (2015) revealed that the dog population in Madagascar were all derived solely from African dog populations and did not come from Southeast Asian dog populations. This aberrant origin is also reflected in the Malagasy languages, where the terms for "dog" originate entirely from African Bantu languages. Given the inferred importance of dogs to Austronesian voyagers, the authors proposed that the Austronesian settlers in Madagascar may have initially brought dogs, but they either died or were used as food sources during the journey. Another possibility is that the limited initial number of Austronesian dogs may have simply resulted in their genes getting swamped by the influx of a far larger population of dogs from Africa.
Gallus gallus (chicken)
Junglefowl were one of the three main animals (along with domesticated pigs and dogs) carried by early Austronesian peoples from Island Southeast Asia in their voyages to the islands of Oceania.
Sus scrofa domesticus (pig)
Pigs were one of the three main animals (along with domesticated chickens and dogs) carried by early Austronesian peoples from Island Southeast Asia in their voyages to the islands of Oceania.
Rodentia (rodents)
The following rodent species are common in mainland Southeast Asia, but are restricted to areas of wet rice cultivation in western Indonesia (Sumatra and Java).
Mus caroli
Mus cervicolor
Rattus argentiventer
Bandicota bengalensis
The following two rodents are native to South Asia and also present in western Indonesian rice fields, so their presence in Island Southeast Asia cannot easily be explained by Austronesian expansions, but perhaps instead by the Indian Ocean trade.
Mus terricolor (also known as Mus dunni)
Indigenous to northwestern India
Rattus nitidus (indigenous to Nepal)
Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans)
This rat originated on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Polynesians accidentally or deliberately introduced it to the islands they settled. This rat has been implicated in many of the extinctions of native birds and insects in the Pacific; these species had evolved in the absence of mammals and could not cope with predation by the rat.
See also
References
Domestication of particular species
Agriculture in Southeast Asia
Agriculture in Oceania
Agriculture in Madagascar
Agriculture in the Comoros
Lists of plants by location
Lists of animals by location
Austronesian peoples
Austronesian culture
Crops originating from Asia
Crops originating from Australasia
Crops originating from the Pacific
History of agriculture
Prehistoric agriculture
Flora of Polynesia
Flora of Malesia
Flora of Melanesia
Flora of Southeast Asia
Flora of Oceania
Flora of Micronesia
Flora of Taiwan
Flora of Madagascar
Flora of the Comoros
Fauna of Oceania
Fauna of Southeast Asia
Fauna of Madagascar
Fauna of the Comoros
Fauna of Taiwan
Flora of New Guinea
Biota of New Zealand | Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia | [
"Biology"
] | 26,678 | [
"Biota by country",
"Biota of New Zealand"
] |
59,660,748 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C2HNO2 | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C2HNO2}}
The molecular formula C2HNO2 (molar mass: 71.03 g/mol, exact mass: 71.0007 u) may refer to:
Carbonocyanidic acid
Formyl cyanate
(Hydroxyimino)ethenone HONCCO
2-Nitrosoethenone ONC(H)CO
Oximide | C2HNO2 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 86 | [
"Isomerism",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas"
] |
59,660,759 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oximide | Oximide is an unstable chemical compound, the cyclic imide of oxalic acid. Other names for this are the systematic name 2,3-Aziridinedione or oxalimide. The chemical formula is C2HNO2. Its core is a three member heterocycle, aziridine.
Production
In 1886 Ost and Mente claimed to produce oximide by the reaction of oxamic acid with phosphorus pentachloride (PCl5). However, a product with a six member ring, tetraketopiperazine, may have been produced instead. Later attempts to reproduce the production of oximide by this method were a failure. The first successful manufacture of oximide was by Hiromu Aoyama, Masami Sakamoto, and Yoshimori Omote in 1980.
Properties
Aziridine-2,3-dione has an infrared absorption band at 1954 cm−1.
Related
The term "oximide" has also been used for oximes.
Derivatives of oximide exist where the hydrogen atom is substituted by other organic groups such as methyl or phenyl. When 4-methyl-1,2,4-triazolinedione is irradiated by ultraviolet light with wavelength 335 nm in a noble gas matrix, some methylaziridine-2,3-dione is made (along with isocyanates, carbon monoxide and dinitrogen). Similarly 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazolinedione irradiated by ultraviolet light with wavelength 310 nm makes some phenylaziridine-2,3-dione. Shorter wavelength ultraviolet light decomposes these compounds to isocyanates (-NCO).
Another method to produce oximide derivatives is by the photolysis of substituted diphenylmaleylimide ozonide at liquid nitrogen temperature (77K) in a potassium bromide matrix. Derivatives made this way are methyl, isopropyl and phenylethyl-aziridine-2,3-dione. These compounds are unstable at higher temperatures, and when heated, decompose to carbon monoxide and isocyanates.
References
Heterocyclic compounds with 1 ring
Diketones
Imides
Nitrogen heterocycles
Three-membered rings
Substances discovered in the 1980s | Oximide | [
"Chemistry"
] | 488 | [
"Imides",
"Functional groups"
] |
59,661,114 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraketopiperazine | Tetraketopiperazine is a chemical compound with a molecule containing a six member heterocyclic ring with two nitrogen atoms. Each carbon is doubly bonded to oxygen.
Production
Reacting sodium oxamate (the sodium salt of oxamic acid) with hydrochloric acid yields some tetraketopiperazine. A higher yield result from reacting ethyl oxalate with sodium ethoxide. Yet another way to make tetraketopiperazine is a condensation of oxamide with ethyl oxalate with sodium ethoxide present.
Excessive nitration of 2,6-diaminopyrazine ends up with tetraketopiperazine.
Reactions
The nitrogen atoms in tetraketopiperazine are slightly acidic losing their hydrogen atoms as ions. Salts of tetraketopiperazine exist. Tetraketopiperazine reacts with sodium bicarbonate to yield a monosodium salt. A disodium salt results from reaction with sodium hydroxide or sodium alkoxide. These are likely to be tautomeric with a hydrogen moving to an oxygen atom. Potassium salts also exist. A monosilver salt can be made from a silver compound and a dissolved tetraketopiperazine potassium salt. Ammonia and mercury salts of tetraketopiperazine also exist.
Tetraketopiperazine also can form a monohydrazone.
Reduction of tetraketopiperazine yields trikeopiperazine and then 2,5-diketopiperazine. Glyoxalic acid and oxamide are side products.
Properties
When heated tetraketopiperazine does not melt, but turns black at 250°C.
Tetraketopiperazine is slightly soluble in water and more so in boiling acetic acid. The solid form has monoclinic prismatic crystals.
pKa is 4.8 and the second pKa2 is 8.2.
References
Piperazines
Imides | Tetraketopiperazine | [
"Chemistry"
] | 419 | [
"Imides",
"Functional groups"
] |
59,662,178 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%207196 | NGC 7196 is an elliptical galaxy registered in the New General Catalogue. It is located in the direction of the Indus constellation, at a distance of circa 150 million light years. It was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel in 1834 using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) reflector.
NGC 7196 appears slightly distorted, with asymmetric outer isophotes. Asymmetry is also observed near the centre. The inner luminosity pattern resembles that of lenticular galaxies with circumscribing dust lanes, except that the feature is extremely close to the center. A shell has been observed around the galaxy. Shells are generally considered to have formed after the accretion of a smaller galaxy by a massive one. It has weak radio wave emission.
NGC 7196 is the foremost member of a galaxy group known as the NGC 7196 group, which also includes NGC 7200 and some dwarf elliptical and irregular galaxies. In the same galaxy cloud lies NGC 7168. NGC 7196 lies in the foreground of galaxy cluster known as Abell S0989.
See also
New General Catalogue
References
External links
Elliptical galaxies
NGC 7196 Group
Indus (constellation)
7196
68020
Discoveries by John Herschel
Astronomical objects discovered in 1834 | NGC 7196 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 265 | [
"Indus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
59,662,333 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%207191 | NGC 7191 is a spiral galaxy registered in the New General Catalogue. It is located in the direction of the Indus constellation. It was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel in 1835 using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) reflector. It is a member of the galaxy group known as the NGC 7192 group, named after its brightest member, NGC 7192. Other members of the group include NGC 7179, and NGC 7219.
See also
New General Catalogue
References
External links
Intermediate spiral galaxies
Indus (constellation)
7191
68059
Astronomical objects discovered in 1835
Discoveries by John Herschel | NGC 7191 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 129 | [
"Indus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
59,662,866 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-tert-Butyl-1%2C1%2C3%2C3-tetramethylguanidine | 2-tert-Butyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine is an organic base, also known as Barton's base. It is named after Nobel Prize-winning British chemist Derek Barton. Barton and his assistants prepared a series of guanidines with steric hindrance in 1982; in this case five alkyl groups: four methyl groups and one tert-butyl group. In 50% water ethanol mixture, the acidity constant (pKa) of Barton's base is 14. In acetonitrile its pKa is 24.31.
Synthesis
The base is prepared by the reaction of tert-butylamine with a Vilsmeier salt. The latter is the reaction product of phosgene with tetramethylurea.
Applications
Barton's base can be used in many organic reactions, including in alkylations and in the formation of aziridines. It is often a milder alternative to traditional, strong inorganic bases.
References
Guanidines
Non-nucleophilic bases | 2-tert-Butyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethylguanidine | [
"Chemistry"
] | 227 | [
"Non-nucleophilic bases",
"Guanidines",
"Functional groups",
"Reagents for organic chemistry",
"Bases (chemistry)"
] |
59,663,223 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C28H32N2O | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C28H32N2O}}
The molecular formula C28H32N2O (molar mass: 412.57 g/mol, exact mass: 412.2515 u) may refer to:
Phenylfentanyl
3-Phenylpropanoylfentanyl
4-Phenylfentanyl
Molecular formulas | C28H32N2O | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 81 | [
"Molecules",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas",
"Isomerism",
"Molecular formulas",
"Matter"
] |
59,663,635 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normopathy | Normopathy is the pathological pursuit of conformity and societal acceptance at the expense of individuality. In her book, Plea for a Measure of Abnormality, psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall coined the term normopathy to describe fear of individuality. Normopathy is difficult to diagnose because normopaths are integrated in society. Normopaths depend on social approval and validation.
Christopher Bollas studied normopathy during the 1970s and 1980s with patients who had nervous breakdowns. Bollas, who called it normotic illness, considered it an obsession with fitting into society at the cost of the person's own personality. Normopaths experience emotional crisis – such as a teenager fumbling a football during a game at school – as a mania, and resort to violence or other dangerous behavior.
Normopaths often feel crippled, unable to speak or act. Normopaths perform best given a strict protocol to follow. It can cost some people a job or interfere with relationships. Normopaths constantly seek outside validation. The normopath may ask a friend what they think about a new song, dress or hairstyle before forming an opinion. Normopaths look to others to inform them how to think or believe.
The concept of normopathy parallels Winnicott’s idea of the false self, which is formed in response to the demands of the external environment rather than from within. Cognitive behavioral therapy is applied in treatment of normopathy to find individuality and restructure self-image.
Definition
Normopathy is defined as:
Anxiety of examining one’s psyche with diminished curiosity about inner life.
Hyper-rationality in dealing with others and an intense focus on factual data to seek reassurance, as according to Bollas, “the normopath attempts to become an object in the object world.” For the normopath, human feelings are troublemakers that require “formulaic structuring in order to be controllable.” Because Normopaths can't fully go through the cycle of grief, they develop what Bollas calls “a strangely deformed mourning."
Loss of connection between feeling and speech.
Horizontal thinking, the inability to prioritize and create relative values and meaning.
Homogeneity, all ideas and actions seem equally valid. Fumbling a ball and suicide reside on the same phenomenological plane as actions are wildly out of sync with affect.
Operational thinking, turning thought immediately into action.
See also
List of mental disorders
Alexithymia
Herd mentality
Groupthink
Individuation
References
Anxiety disorders
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Pathology | Normopathy | [
"Biology"
] | 530 | [
"Pathology"
] |
59,665,155 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sookyung%20Choi | SooKyung Choi is a South Korean particle physicist at Gyeongsang National University. She is part of the Belle experiment and was the first to observe the X(3872) meson in 2003. She won the 2017 Ho-Am Prize in Science.
Early life and education
Choi studied physics at the Kyungpook National University, graduating in 1979 with a Bachelor's degree and 1993 with a PhD. Her supervisors were Dongchul Son and C. Joo. After graduating, Choi joined Seoul National University, working on Møller and Bhabha scattering. She was appointed Professor at Gyeongsang National University, where she worked with the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK).
Career
Choi's work mainly concerns CP violation and decays of the B meson. Choi worked on the Belle experiment, where she identified several new types of fundamental particles. The first results from Belle came in 2002, finding large cross-sections for the e+e−continuum. In 2003 she discovered the X(3872) meson; a new kind of heavy particle, which does not fit the quantum model as it was made up of four quarks. Choi predicted the X(3872) particle could be a charmonium state or a DD* hadronic molecule. The work was confirmed by a team at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Choi went on to discover the Y(3940), the Zc(3900) and Z(4430) particles, which proved that particles can exist in a range of forms. Choi studied the decays of these extensively.
She was involved with the study of other charmonium states; using the ϒ(4S) and ϒ(5S) resonances at the Belle detector. Choi has collaborated with the BES III experiment, which studied center of mass energies between 2.9 and 4.42 GeV. The BES III experiment identified new charmonium states with non-zero electric charge.
CP violation was first confirmed at the Belle experiment and would go on to win the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics. The experiments stopped operation in June 2010. Choi is part of the Belle II experiment, which collected their first collisions in 2018. She served on the advisory board of the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Seoul in July 2018.
In 2017 Choi won the Ho-Am Prize in Science.
References
South Korean physicists
21st-century South Korean women scientists
Academic staff of Seoul National University
Kyungpook National University alumni
Particle physicists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in Science | Sookyung Choi | [
"Physics"
] | 540 | [
"Particle physicists",
"Particle physics"
] |
59,665,564 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden%20momentum | In special relativity, hidden momentum or hidden mechanical momentum is the mechanical momentum (mass times velocity) that is unaccounted for by Newtonian mechanics. The concept of "hidden momentum" has been used in answering "paradoxes" in electromagnetism and other problems, including the Shockley–James paradox, the Mansuripur paradox, and the Aharonov–Casher effect.
See also
Abraham–Minkowski controversy
Aharonov–Casher effect
Four-force
Four-momentum
Relativistic mass
References
External links
On the Definition of “Hidden” Momentum - Princeton Physics
Special relativity | Hidden momentum | [
"Physics"
] | 123 | [
"Special relativity",
"Relativity stubs",
"Theory of relativity"
] |
59,665,870 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monjiviricetes | Monjiviricetes is a class of negative-strand RNA viruses which infect fungi, plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The name is a portmanteau of the two orders within the class, Mononegavirales and Jingchuvirales and the suffix for a virus class -viricetes.
Taxonomy
References
Negarnaviricota
Virus classes | Monjiviricetes | [
"Biology"
] | 78 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
66,105,482 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V368%20Aquilae | V368 Aquilae, also known as Nova Aquilae 1936 no. 2 was the second nova which occurred in the constellation of Aquila during 1936 (the first was the fainter V356 Aquilae, which was discovered on 18 September 1936). It was discovered on a photographic plate by Nils Tamm at Kvistaberg Observatory on 7 October 1936. At the time of discovery it was at photographic magnitude 7, and was already fading. Pre-discovery photographs showed that peak brightness occurred around 25 September 1936, at which time it had reached apparent magnitude 5.0, making it visible to the naked eye. The nova was described as being fiery red due to strong Hα emission, and for a time could be seen with binoculars simultaneously with V356 Aquilae, another nova which Nill Tamm had discovered a month earlier.
V368 Aquilae is classified as a "moderately fast nova"; it dropped by three magnitudes in about 42 days.
All novae are binary stars, with a "donor" star orbiting a white dwarf. The two stars are so close to each other that matter is transferred from the donor star to the white dwarf. Because the separation between the stars is comparable to the size of the donor star, these stars are often eclipsing binaries and V368 Aquilae does show eclipses. Marin and Shfter studied these eclipses, which have a depth of about 0.25 magnitudes and a period of 16.57 hours - an unusually long orbital period for a nova.
References
Aquilae 1936, Nova
Aquila (constellation)
Aquilae, V368 | V368 Aquilae | [
"Astronomy"
] | 339 | [
"Aquila (constellation)",
"Astronomical events",
"Constellations",
"Novae"
] |
66,105,573 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League%20of%20Entropy | The League of Entropy (LoE) is a voluntary consortium of organizations working together to implement an unpredictable, bias-resistant, fully decentralized, and publicly-verifiable threshold cryptosystem designed to deliver distributed Randomness as a Service, (RaaS) among other use cases. The open-source software that powers the League of Entropy's network is called drand, (short for decentralized randomness).
Active members of the League currently include Arbitrand, Automata Network, ChainSafe, cLabs, Cloudflare, DIA Association, Emerald Onion, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Ethereum Foundation, Filecoin Foundation; Gelato Network; IPFS Force, KEN Labs, Kudelski Security, Protocol Labs, PTisp, Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) Foundation, Randamu, StorSwift, Tierion, University of Chile, UCL, Tangle Network, and Zama.
The League was inaugurated in 2019 with the original founding members including Cloudflare, Protocol Labs researcher Nicolas Gailly, University of Chile, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and Kudelski Security. The League was created to provide a decentralized alternative to centralized randomness beacons where random number generation may be compromised or manipulated, as occurred in the Hot Lotto fraud scandal. It is also intended to avoid the implicit trust assumptions that occur when a single organization or entity is responsible for producing randomness, as in the case of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's public randomness beacon.
Verifiable randomness has numerous applications in blockchain computing, gaming, gambling, lotteries, elections, and privacy-preserving data management systems.
References
External links
League of Entropy home page
Press Room for the League of Entropy
drand distributed randomness beacon
NIST centralized randomness beacon
Consortia | League of Entropy | [
"Technology"
] | 396 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer science",
"Computer science stubs"
] |
66,105,684 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewise | Typewise is a Swiss deep tech company that builds text prediction AI. In January 2022, the company filed a patent for its technology which it claims outperforms that of Google's and Apple's.
The company's first product was a virtual keyboard for Android and iOS devices. The keyboard features a self-developed hexagonal layout and a predictive typing engine suggesting the next word depending on context and multilingual language support. It includes a dark color theme as well as other designs. The keyboard supports more than 40 languages.
In December 2021, Typewise keyboard had been installed over 1.4 million times and in January 2022, the keyboard won a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovation Award for the second year running.
The company is now developing an AI writing assistant aimed at business users.
History
Typewise was founded in May 2019 by David Eberle and Janis Berneker. Its head office is in Zürich, Switzerland.
In 2015, Eberle and Berneker initiated a Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign where they raised approx. USD 17,000. With those the founders launched an app prototype in 2016 under the name “WRIO Keyboard” on App Store and Play Store. In 2019, Typewise launched the app to the public. In July 2020, Typewise sought and received funding from angel investors as well as a Swiss research grant, totaling US$1.04 million, allowing for the continued development of the keyboard's artificial intelligence.
At that point, the app had amassed roughly 250,000 downloads and had approximately 65,000 active users. By November 2020, Typewise expanded its total financing to US$1.52 million, including the research grant.
In October 2021, Typewise raised another $2m via a crowdfund campaign on the platform Seedrs.
Products
Typewise have three products: a smartphone keyboard app, an AI writing assistant, and an API.
Typewise writing assistant is a browser-based predictive text tool designed to increase the speed and quality of written communication, specifically for customer support and sales teams. The company claims it can increase productivity by 2-3 times.
Typewise keyboard is a mobile application for iOS and Android smartphones that provides features for typing on a smartphone. The app offers two keyboard layouts, the traditional QWERTY keyboard and the self-invented hexagonal layout (“honeycomb layout”) which was developed especially for typing with two thumbs.
The keyboard employs swipe gestures that replace keys like and to edit text. Deleting text is done with a swipe to the left. Deleted text can be restored with a swipe back to the right. Letters can be capitalized or lowercased by swiping up or down on their respective keys, and diacritics can be added to letters by pressing and holding the corresponding key.
Typewise keyboard supports over 40 languages and allows typing in multiple languages simultaneously by means of an algorithmic language recognition. Typewise’s core technology draws on text prediction, which consists of auto-corrections and word-completion. The company collaborates with ETH Zurich's Data Analytics Lab, supported by Innosuisse (Switzerland's Innovation Agency) to further develop the technology.
Typewise also have released an API that enables developers to use Typewise's AI on third party platforms.
Keyboard layout
Typewise uses a hexagonal keyboard layout that is designed to introduce fewer typos into text typed with the keyboard than a QWERTY keyboard on a mobile device. While the arrangement of the letters on the keyboard is influenced by the QWERTY layout, the hexagonal shape allows for larger keys than a rectangular layout.
Besides the shape and size of the keys, the Typewise layout features a number of differences to QWERTY and other rectangular layouts. Instead of a singular at the bottom of the keyboard, there are two smaller space bars in the middle. A lot of keys are replaced by swipe gestures.
Artificial intelligence
To power text prediction for the keyboard, Typewise developed an artificial intelligence with the Swiss science institute ETH Zurich. Typewise's artificial intelligence is designed to run entirely on the user's device in light of privacy concerns related to transmitting potentially sensitive user typing data over the internet. The keyboard’s text prediction technology does not send any typing data to a cloud as it runs offline.
Awards
CES Innovation Award 2022
Honoree for Software & Mobile Apps
BOSA (Best of Swiss App Awards) 2020 – Gold for Functionality & Silver for Innovation
CES Innovation Award 2021 – Honoree for Software & Mobile Apps
Swiss AI Award – 2nd Place
References
External links
Typewise on Google Play
Typewise on App Store (iOS)
Typewise Website
Android (operating system) software
Android virtual keyboards
IOS software
Virtual keyboards
Input methods for handheld devices | Typewise | [
"Technology"
] | 979 | [
"Input methods for handheld devices"
] |
66,105,853 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene%20pyramiding | Gene pyramiding is the simultaneous selection for and/or introduction of multiple genes during plant breeding. Objectives of gene pyramiding includes 1) enhancing trait performance by combining two or more complementary genes, 2) remedying deficits by introgressing genes from other sources, 3) increasing the durability. For example, pyramiding has been successfully demonstrated in Oryza sativa for rice blast, producing durable multi-race resistance simultaneously. Pyramiding and Marker Assisted Selection can be combined as Marker-Assisted Pyramiding. Gene stacking can be achieved a few different ways, and pyramiding is one of those methods.
References
Plant breeding
Agricultural research
Agricultural technology | Gene pyramiding | [
"Chemistry"
] | 133 | [
"Plant breeding",
"Molecular biology"
] |
66,106,479 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QZ%20Aurigae | QZ Aurigae, also known as Nova Aurigae 1964, was a nova which occurred in the constellation Auriga during 1964. It was discovered by Nicholas Sanduleak on an objective prism photographic plate taken at the Warner and Swasey Observatory on 4 November 1964. Examination of pre-discovery plates from Sonneberg Observatory showed that the eruption occurred in early February 1964, and it had a photographic magnitude of 6.0 on 14 February 1964. Its brightness declined in images taken after the 14th, suggesting that its peak brightness was above 6.0. It was probably visible to the naked eye for a short time.
QZ Aurigae is classified as a "fast nova", because it dropped from peak brightness by three magnitudes in less than 100 days.
All novae are binary stars, with a "donor" star orbiting a white dwarf. The stars are so close to each other that matter from the donor star is transferred to an accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf. Because the separation between the stars is comparable to the radius of the donor star, novae are often eclipsing binaries, and QZ Aurigae shows such eclipses. The depth of the eclipses, 1.2 magnitudes in blue light, is unusually large, indicating that both the white dwarf and the inner accretion disk surrounding it are fully occulted at mid eclipse. The orbital period is 8.58 hours. Schaeffer used small changes in the orbital period, along with other observational data, to derive a mass of for the white dwarf, and for the donor star as well as a mass transfer rate of per year. The donor star is a red dwarf with a spectral type of K1.
References
Novae
Auriga
Aurigae, QZ
Eclipsing binaries
K-type main-sequence stars | QZ Aurigae | [
"Astronomy"
] | 381 | [
"Novae",
"Astronomical events",
"Auriga",
"Constellations"
] |
66,108,522 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Geometry%20of%20Numbers | The Geometry of Numbers is a book on the geometry of numbers, an area of mathematics in which the geometry of lattices, repeating sets of points in the plane or higher dimensions, is used to derive results in number theory. It was written by Carl D. Olds, Anneli Cahn Lax, and Giuliana Davidoff, and published by the Mathematical Association of America in 2000 as volume 41 of their Anneli Lax New Mathematical Library book series.
Authorship and publication history
The Geometry of Numbers is based on a book manuscript that Carl D. Olds, a New Zealand-born mathematician working in California at San Jose State University, was still writing when he died in 1979. Anneli Cahn Lax, the editor of the New Mathematical Library of the Mathematical Association of America, took up the task of editing it, but it remained unfinished when she died in 1999. Finally, Giuliana Davidoff took over the project, and saw it through to publication in 2000.
Topics
The Geometry of Numbers is relatively short, and is divided into two parts. The first part applies number theory to the geometry of lattices, and the second applies results on lattices to number theory. Topics in the first part include the relation between the maximum distance between parallel lines that are not separated by any point of a lattice and the slope of the lines, Pick's theorem relating the area of a lattice polygon to the number of lattice points it contains, and the Gauss circle problem of counting lattice points in a circle centered at the origin of the plane.
The second part begins with Minkowski's theorem, that centrally symmetric convex sets of large enough area (or volume in higher dimensions) necessarily contain a nonzero lattice point. It applies this to Diophantine approximation, the problem of accurately approximating one or more irrational numbers by rational numbers. After another chapter on the linear transformations of lattices, the book studies the problem of finding the smallest nonzero values of quadratic forms, and Lagrange's four-square theorem, the theorem that every non-negative integer can be represented as a sum of four squares of integers. The final two chapters concern Blichfeldt's theorem, that bounded planar regions with area can be translated to cover at least lattice points, and additional results in Diophantine approximation. The chapters on Minkowski's theorem and Blichfeldt's theorem, particularly, have been called the "foundation stones" of the book by reviewer Philip J. Davis.
An appendix by Peter Lax concerns the Gaussian integers. A second appendix concerns lattice-based methods for packing problems including circle packing and, in higher dimensions, sphere packing. The book closes with biographies of Hermann Minkowski and Hans Frederick Blichfeldt.
Audience and reception
The Geometry of Numbers is intended for secondary-school and undergraduate mathematics students, although it may be too advanced for the secondary-school students; it contains exercises making it suitable for classroom use. It has been described as "expository", "self-contained", and "readable".
However, reviewer Henry Cohn notes several copyediting oversights, complains about its selection of topics, in which "curiosities are placed on an equal footing with deep results", and misses certain well-known examples which were not included. Despite this, he recommends the book to readers who are not yet ready for more advanced treatments of this material and wish to see "some beautiful mathematics".
References
Mathematics books
2000 non-fiction books
Geometry of numbers | The Geometry of Numbers | [
"Mathematics"
] | 718 | [
"Geometry of numbers",
"Number theory"
] |
66,109,021 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widnes%20Laboratory | The Widnes Laboratory was a research institute in northern Cheshire, run by Imperial Chemical Industries.
History
The site opened in 1891 as the Central Laboratory.
On Monday 7 August 1950, an explosion at the site killed one man and injured another.
Discovery of halothane
Work was carried out at Widnes Laboratory from 1951 to 1956 which led to the discovery of halothane in 1955. Halothane gas was the most common anaesthetic for many years.
There had been deaths with halothane and liver damage, and was discontinued from the 1980s. Anaesthetic deployment in hospitals is mostly with intravenous compounds and then isoflurane gas, discovered by Ross Terrell in the US.
Structure
The site was demolished, and now lies under the A533.
See also
Winnington Laboratory, also ICI
References
External links
Imperial War Museum
1891 establishments in England
Chemical industry in the United Kingdom
Chemical research institutes
Imperial Chemical Industries
Research institutes established in 1891
Research institutes in Cheshire
Widnes | Widnes Laboratory | [
"Chemistry"
] | 202 | [
"Chemical research institutes"
] |
66,109,937 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borate%20phosphate | Borate phosphates are mixed anion compounds containing separate borate and phosphate anions. They are distinct from the borophosphates where the borate is linked to a phosphate via a common oxygen atom. The borate phosphates have a higher ratio of cations to number of borates and phosphates, as compared to the borophosphates.
There are also organic esters of both borate and phosphate, e.g. NADH-borate.
Production
In the high temperature method, ingredients are heated together at atmospheric pressure. Products are anhydrous, and production or borophosphates is likely.
The boron flux method involves dissolving ingredients such as an ammonium phosphate and metal carbonate in an excess of molten boric acid.
Use
Borate phosphates are of research interest for their optical, electrooptical or magnetic properties.
List
References
Borates
Phosphates
Mixed anion compounds | Borate phosphate | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 190 | [
"Matter",
"Mixed anion compounds",
"Salts",
"Phosphates",
"Ions"
] |
66,110,715 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot-die%20coating | Slot-die coating is a coating technique for the application of solution, slurry, hot-melt, or extruded thin films onto typically flat substrates such as glass, metal, paper, fabric, plastic, or metal foils. The process was first developed for the industrial production of photographic papers in the 1950's. It has since become relevant in numerous commercial processes and nanomaterials related research fields.
Slot-die coating produces thin films via solution processing. The desired coating material is typically dissolved or suspended into a precursor solution or slurry (sometimes referred to as "ink") and delivered onto the surface of the substrate through a precise coating head known as a slot-die. The slot-die has a high aspect ratio outlet controlling the final delivery of the coating liquid onto the substrate. This results in the continuous production of a wide layer of coated material on the substrate, with adjustable width depending on the dimensions of the slot-die outlet. By closely controlling the rate of solution deposition and the relative speed of the substrate, slot-die coating affords thin material coatings with easily controllable thicknesses in the range of 10 nanometers to hundreds of micrometers after evaporation of the precursor solvent.
Commonly cited benefits of the slot-die coating process include its pre-metered thickness control, non-contact coating mechanism, high material efficiency, scalability of coating areas and throughput speeds, and roll-to-roll compatibility. The process also allows for a wide working range of layer thickness and precursor solution properties such as material choice, viscosity, and solids content. Commonly cited drawbacks of the slot-die coating process include its comparatively high complexity of apparatus and process optimization relative to similar coating techniques such as blade coating and spin coating. Furthermore, slot-die coating falls into the category of coating processes rather than printing processes. It is therefore better suited for coating of uniform, thin material layers rather than printing or consecutive buildup of complex images and patterns.
Coating apparatus
Typical components
Slot-die coating equipment is available in a variety of configurations and form factors. However, the vast majority of slot-die processes are driven by a similar set of common core components. These include:
A fluid reservoir to store the main supply of coating fluid for the system
A pump to drive the coating fluid through the system
A slot-die to distribute the coating fluid across the desired coating width before coating onto the substrate
A substrate mounting system to support the substrate in a controlled manner as it moves through the system
A coating motion system to drive the relative speed of the slot-die and substrate in a controlled manner during coating
Depending on the complexity of the coating apparatus, a slot-die coating system may include additional modules for e.g. precise positioning of the slot-die over the substrate, particulate filtering of the coating solution, pre-treatment of the substrate (e.g. cleaning and surface energy modification), and post-processing steps (e.g. drying, curing, calendering, printing, slitting, etc.).
Industrial coating systems
Slot-die coating was originally developed for industrial use and remains primarily applied in production-scale settings. This is due to its potential for large-scale production of high-value thin films and coatings at a low operating cost via roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet line integration. Such roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet coating systems are similar in their intent for large-scale production, but are distinguished from each other by the physical rigidity of the substrates they handle. Roll-to-roll systems are designed to coat and handle flexible substrate rolls such as paper, fabric, plastic or metal foils. Conversely, sheet-to-sheet systems are designed to coat and handle rigid substrate sheets such as glass, metal, or plexiglass. Combinations of these systems such roll-to-sheet lines are also possible.
Both industrial roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet systems typically feature slot-dies in the range of 300 to 1000 mm in coating width, though slot-dies up to 4000 mm wide have been reported. Commercial slot-die systems are claimed to operate at speeds up to several hundred square meters per minute, with roll-to-roll systems typically offering higher throughput due to decreased complexity of substrate handling. Such large-scale coating systems can be driven by a variety of industrial pumping solutions including gear pumps, progressive cavity pumps, pressure pots, and diaphragm pumps depending on process requirements.
Roll-to-roll lines
To handle flexible substrates, roll-to-roll lines typically use a series of rollers to continually drive the substrate through the various stations of the process line. The bare substrate originates at an "unwind" roll at the start of the line and is collected at a "rewind" roll at the end. Hence, the substrate is often referred to as a "web" as it winds its way through the process line from start to finish. When a substrate roll has been fully processed, it is collected from the rewind roll, allowing for a new, bare substrate roll to be mounted onto the unwind roller to begin the process again. Slot-die coating often comprises just a single step of an overall roll-to-roll process. The slot-die is typically mounted in a fixed position on the roll-to-roll line, dispensing coating fluid onto the web in a continuous or patch-based manner as the substrate passes by. Because the substrate web spans all stations of the roll-to-roll line simultaneously, the individual processes at these stations are highly coupled and must be optimized to work in tandem with each other at the same web speed.
Sheet-to-sheet lines
The rigid substrates employed in sheet-to-sheet systems are not compatible with the roll-to-roll processing method. Sheet-to-sheet systems rely instead on a rack-based system to transport individual sheets between the various stations of a process line, where transfer between stations may occur in a manual or automated manner. Sheet-to-sheet lines are therefore more analogous to a series of semi-coupled batch operations rather than a single continuous process. This allows for easier optimization of individual unit operations at the expense of potentially increased handling complexity and reduced throughput. Furthermore, the need to start and stop the slot-die coating process for each substrate sheet places higher tolerance requirements on the leading and trailing edge uniformity of the slot-die step. In sheet-to-sheet lines, the substrate may be fixed in place as the substrate passes underneath on a moving support bed (sometimes referred to as a "chuck"). Alternatively, the slot-die may move during coating while the substrate remains fixed in place.
Lab-scale development tools
Miniaturized slot-die tools have become increasingly available to support the development of new roll-to-roll compatible processes prior to the requirement of full pilot- and production-scale equipment. These tools feature similar core components and functionality as compared to larger slot-die coating lines, but are designed to integrate into pre-production research environments. This is typically achieved by e.g. accepting standard A4 sized substrate sheets rather than full substrate rolls, using syringe pumps rather than industrial pumping solutions, and relying upon hot-plate heating rather than large industrial drying ovens, which can otherwise reach lengths of several meters to provide suitable residence times for drying.
Because the slot-die coating process can be readily scaled between large and small areas by adjusting the size of the slot-die and throughput speed, processes developed on lab-scale tools are considered to be reasonably scalable to industrial roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet coating lines. This has led to significant interest in slot-die coating as a method of scaling new thin film materials and devices, particularly in the sphere of thin film solar cell research for e.g. perovskite and organic photovoltaics.
Common coating modalities
Slot-die hardware can be applied in several distinct coating modalities, depending on the requirements of a given process. These include:
Proximity coating, in which the substrate is supported by a hard surface (e.g. a precision backing roll or moving support bed) and the slot-die is held at a relatively small coating gap (typically 25 μm to several mm away from the substrate, depending on the wet thickness of the coated layer).
Curtain coating, in which the substrate is supported by a hard surface (e.g. a precision backing roll or moving support bed) and the slot-die is held at a much larger coating gap, enabling much higher coating speeds as long as a suitable Weber number is achieved.
Tensioned web over slot-die coating, in which the substrate web is suspended between two idle rollers placed on opposite sides of the slot-die. The web is then pressed against the lips of the slot-die such that the slot-die itself applies tension to the web. When fluid is pumped through the slot-die onto the substrate, the fluid lubricates the slot-die-substrate interface, preventing the slot-die from scratching the substrate during coating.
The dynamics of proximity coating have been extensively studied and applied over a wide range of scales and applications. Furthermore, the concepts governing proximity coating are relevant in understanding the behavior of other coating modalities. Proximity coating is therefore considered to be the default configuration for the purposes of this introductory article, though curtain coating and tensioned web over slot die configurations remain highly relevant in industrial manufacturing.
Key process parameters
Film thickness control
Slot-die coating is a non-contact coating method, in which the slot-die is typically held over the substrate at a height several times higher than the target wet film thickness. The coating fluid transfers from the slot-die to the substrate via a fluid bridge that spans the air gap between the slot-die lips and substrate surface. This fluid bridge is commonly referred to as the coating meniscus or coating bead. The thickness of the resulting wet coated layer is controlled by tuning the ratio between the applied volumetric pump rate and areal coating rate. Unlike in self-metered coating methods such as blade- and bar coating, the slot-die does not influence the thickness of the wet coated layer via any form of destructive physical contact or scraping. The height of the slot-die therefore does not determine the thickness of the wet coated layer. The height of the slot-die is instead significant in determining the quality of the coated film, as it controls the distance that must be spanned by the meniscus to maintain a stable coating process.
Slot-die coating operates via a pre-metered liquid coating mechanism. The thickness of the wet coated layer () is therefore significantly determined by the width of coating (), the volumetric pump rate (), and the coating speed, or relative speed between the slot-die and the substrate during coating (). Increasing the pump rate increases the thickness of the wet layer, while increasing the coating speed or coating width decreases the wet layer thickness. The coating width is typically a fixed value for a given slot-die process. Hence, pump rate and coating speed can be used to calculate, control, and adjust the wet film thickness in a highly predictable manner. However, deviation from this idealized relationship can occur in practice due to non-ideal behavior of materials and process components; for example when using highly viscoelastic fluids, or a sub-optimal process setup where fluid creeps up the slot-die component rather than transferring fully to the substrate.
The final thickness of the dry layer after solvent evaporation () is further determined by the solids concentration of the precursor solution () and the volumetric density of the coated material in its final form (). Increasing the solids content of the precursor solution increases the thickness of the dry layer, while using a more dense material results a thinner dry layer for a given concentration.
Film quality control
As with all solution processed coating methods, the final quality of a thin film produced via slot-die coating depends on a wide array of parameters both intrinsic and external to the slot-die itself. These parameters can be broadly categorized into:
Coating window effects, determining the stability of fluid transfer between the slot-die and substrate in an ideal slot-die process isolated from external imperfections
Downstream process effects, determining the behavior of the coating fluid on the substrate surface after exiting the slot-die component
External effects, determining the degree to which the coating apparatus is capable of delivering the ideal coating process characterized by the pre-metered slot-die coating mechanism and the coating window of a given process
Coating window parameters
Under ideal conditions, the potential to achieve a defect-free film via slot-die is entirely governed by the coating window of the a given process. The coating window is a multivariable map of key process parameters, describing the range over which they can be applied together to achieve a defect-free film. Understanding the coating window behavior of a typical slot-die process enables operators to observe defects in a slot-die coated layer and intuitively determine a course of action for defect resolution. The key process parameters used to define the coating window typically include:
The ratio of slot-die height to wet film thickness ()
The volumetric pump rate ()
The coating speed, or relative speed of the substrate ()
The capillary number of the coating liquid ()
The difference in pressure across the upstream and downstream faces of the meniscus ()
The coating window can be visualized by plotting two such key parameters against each other while assuming the others to remain constant. In an initial simple representation, the coating window can be described by plotting the relationship between viable pump rates and coating speeds for a given process. Excessive pumping or insufficient coating speeds result in defect spilling of the coating liquid outside of the desired coating area, while coating too quickly or pumping insufficiently results in defect breakup of the meniscus. The pump rate and coating speed can therefore be adjusted to directly compensate for these defects, though changing these parameters also affects wet film thickness via the pre-metered coating mechanism. Implicit in this relationship is the effect of the slot-die height parameter, as this affects the distance over which the meniscus must be stretched while remaining stable during coating. Raising the slot-die higher can thus counteract spilling defects by stretching the meniscus further, while lowering the slot-die can counteract streaking and breakup defects by reducing the gap that the meniscus must breach. Other helpful coating window plots to consider include the relationship between fluid capillary number and slot-die height, as well as the relationship between pressure across the meniscus and slot-die height. The former is particularly relevant when considering changes in fluid viscosity and surface tension (i.e. the effect of coating various materials with significantly different rheology), while the latter is relevant in the context of applying a vacuum box at the upstream face of the meniscus to stabilize the meniscus against breakup.
Downstream process effects
In reality, the final quality of a slot-die coated film is heavily influenced by a variety of factors beyond the parameter boundaries of the ideal coating window. Surface energy effects and drying effects are examples of common downstream effects with a significant influence on final film morphology. Sub-optimal matching of surface energy between the substrate and coating fluid can cause dewetting of the liquid film after it has been applied to the substrate, resulting in pinholes or beading of the coated layer. Sub-optimal drying processes are also often noted to influence film morphology, resulting in increased thickness at the edge of a film caused by the coffee ring effect. Surface energy and downstream processing must therefore be carefully optimized to maintain the integrity of the slot-die coated layer as it moves through the system, until the final thin film product can be collected.
External effects
Slot-die coating is a highly mechanical process in which uniformity of motion and high hardware tolerances are critical to achieving uniform coatings. Mechanical imperfections such as jittery motion in the pump and coating motion systems, poor parallelism between the slot-die and substrate, and external vibrations in the environment can all lead to undesired variations in film thickness and quality. Slot-die coating apparatus and its environment must therefore be suitably specified to meet the needs of a given process and avoid hardware- and environment-derived defects in the coated film.
Applications
Industrial applications
Slot-die coating was originally developed for the commercial production of photographic films and papers. In the past several decades it has become a critical process in the production of adhesive films, flexible packaging, transdermal and oral pharmaceutical patches, LCD panels, multi-layer ceramic capacitors, lithium-ion batteries and more.
Research applications
With growing interest in the potential of nanomaterials and functional thin film devices, slot-die coating has become increasingly applied in the sphere of materials research. This is primarily attributed to the flexibility, predictability and high repeatability of the process, as well as its scalability and origin as a proven industrial technique. Slot-die coating has been most notably employed in research related to flexible, printed, and organic electronics, but remains relevant in any field where scalable thin film production is required.
Examples of research enabled by slot-die coating include:
Thin film solar cells, to produce electron transport layers, hole transport layers, photoactive layers, and passivating layers in perovskite, organic, quantum dot and multi-junction photovoltaic devices
Solid state and next-gen batteries, to produce electrodes, solid electrolytes, ion selective membranes, protective coatings, and interface modification coatings
Fuel cells and water electrolysis, to produce electrolytes and electrode catalyst coatings
Flexible touch-sensitive surfaces, to produce transparent conductive films
OLED devices, to produce electron transport layers, hole transport layers, and electroactive layers
Printed diagnostics and molecular sensors, to produce active layers and ion selective membranes
Microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices, to produce hydrophobic/hydrophilic surface coatings for enhanced liquid flow
Water purification, to produce nanofiltration membranes
Biobased and biodegradable packaging, to produce multilayer barrier foils from sustainable materials
References
Materials science
Coatings | Slot-die coating | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 3,718 | [
"Coatings",
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Materials science",
"nan"
] |
66,111,842 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themis%20programme | The Themis programme is an ongoing European Space Agency programme and carried by prime contractor, ArianeGroup, aiming to develop a prototype reusable rocket first stage and plans to conduct demonstration flights. The prototype rocket will also be called Themis.
Context
Themis is expected to provide valuable information on the economic value of reusability for the European government space program and develop technologies for potential use on future European launch vehicles.
Themis will be powered by the ESA's Prometheus rocket engine.
Two possible landing sites have been mentioned in discussions surrounding the project:
The former Diamant launch complex, which will be used for the flight testing phase;
The Ariane 5 launch complex, which will become available after the transition from the Ariane 5 to Ariane 6.
The estimated program timeline, , is as follows:
2020: Basic stage testing, composed of tank filling and ground support equipment tests.
2021: Prometheus engine testing
2022: Low-altitude hop tests (short flights up from and down to the launch site)
2023: Initial flight test
2023–2024: Loop tests (repeated flights of the reusable demonstration vehicle)
2025: Full flight envelope test
Suborbital flight tests were slated to begin as early as 2023 at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, but have been delayed.
Eventually, lessons learned with Themis' development will pave the way for developing the European reusable launcher Ariane Next, which should first fly in the 2030s.
History
On 15 December 2020, ESA signed a contract worth €33 million with ArianeGroup in France for the "Themis Initial Phase". This first phase of the Themis programme involves development of the flight vehicle technologies and test bench and static fire demonstrations in Vernon, France. It also includes the preparation of the ground segment at the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, for the first hop tests and any associated flight vehicle modifications.
On 22 June 2023, the first hot-fire test of the Prometheus engine, as a part of the Themis first stage demonstrator, was successfully conducted in Vernon, France.
Landing leg testing began in July 2024.
See also
SpaceX reusable launch system development program
References
External links
ESA Themis website
Space programs
European space programmes
Spaceflight technology
Reusable launch systems
Partially reusable space launch vehicles
Space launch vehicles of Europe | Themis programme | [
"Engineering"
] | 493 | [
"Space programs",
"European space programmes"
] |
66,112,901 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20stringent%20regulatory%20authorities | A stringent regulatory authority (SRA) is a national drug regulation authority which the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to apply stringent standards for quality, safety, and efficacy in its process of regulatory review of drugs and vaccines for marketing authorization.
WHO definition
A stringent regulatory authority is a regulatory authority which is:
a) a member of the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), being the European Commission, the US Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan also represented by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (as before 23 October 2015); or
b) an ICH observer, being the European Free Trade Association, as represented by Swissmedic, and Health Canada (as before 23 October 2015); or a regulatory authority associated with an ICH member through a legally-binding, mutual recognition agreement, including Australia, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (as before 23 October 2015).
The concept of an SRA was developed by the WHO Secretariat and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to guide decisions regarding procurement of medicines for humanitarian assistance. The idea is that countries with non-SRA drug authorities can use accelerated process to facilitate approval (registration or marketing authorization) of medicines, including vaccines and biologics, which have already been approved by SRAs.
As of 2022, the national regulatory authorities of 36 countries are considered SRAs:
References
Drug control law
National agencies for drug regulation
Regulators of biotechnology products
World Health Organization | List of stringent regulatory authorities | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 306 | [
"Biotechnology products",
"Regulation of biotechnologies",
"Regulation of chemicals",
"National agencies for drug regulation",
"Drug safety",
"Regulators of biotechnology products",
"Drug control law"
] |
66,113,016 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoglottography | Photoglottography or photo-electric glottography is a laboratory technique for investigating the opening and closing of the glottis in the larynx. It detects variations in the amount of light that can pass through the glottis as it opens and closes.
Transillumination of the glottis
It was observed by Czermak in 1861 that the inside of the trachea could be illuminated from outside the neck, in what he called illumination by transparency, and the resulting light passing through the glottis observed with a laryngoscopic mirror. Electronic techniques making use of this observation began to be used in the mid-twentieth century. Instruments such as that designed and manufactured by B. Frøkjaer-Jensen, have used the combination of a light source illuminating the trachea from below, and a light-sensitive cell positioned above the glottis in the pharynx to detect light passing through the glottis. This cell is fixed near the end of a thin tube inserted through the nose and nasal passages (which leaves the articulators relatively free to move in speech); in the Frøkjaer-Jensen instrument the tube is extended so that a few centimetres can be swallowed into the oesophagus in order to anchor the light-sensitive cell securely in place. The light from a light source is carried to the neck by a tapered perspex rod pressed against the neck immediately below the thyroid cartilage; alternatively, a cold light source may be applied directly to the neck.
Photoglottography in speech research
Two main areas have been explored with this technique.
Examination of vocal fold vibration
A number of researchers have attempted to compare the photoglottograph output with measurements of glottal opening based on high-speed or stroboscopic film during phonation. If the two were closely similar, the photoglottograph would represent a quicker and cheaper method of analysis of phonation. However, Baken reports variable results: a study by Coleman and Wendahl concluded that "relating photoglottographic waveforms ... to glottal area is not only hazardous but invalid in many cases", while a later study by Harden found that the photoglottograph provided "essentially the same information on glottal area function as that provided by ultrahigh-speed photography"
Detection of large-scale glottal opening and closing
In addition to the study of vocal fold vibratory patterns, the technique may be used to detect the opening of the glottis for voiceless consonants or the closure of the glottis for glottalic consonants and glottal stop.
Clinical applications
Photoglottography has been evaluated for usefulness in the study of dysphonic patients in the clinic. The technique is thought to be useful in reflecting the phonatory effect of Parkinson's disease.
See also
Electroglottograph
References
Laboratory techniques
Phonetics | Photoglottography | [
"Chemistry"
] | 603 | [
"nan"
] |
66,113,656 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branched%20flow | Branched flow refers to a phenomenon in wave dynamics, that produces a tree-like pattern involving successive mostly forward scattering events by smooth obstacles deflecting traveling rays or waves. Sudden and significant momentum or wavevector changes are absent, but accumulated small changes can lead to large momentum changes. The path of a single ray is less important than the environs around a ray, which rotate, compress, and stretch around in an area preserving way. Even more revealing are groups, or manifolds of neighboring rays extending over significant zones. Starting rays out from a point but varying their direction over a range, one to the next, or from different points along a line all with the same initial directions are examples of a manifold. Waves have analogous launching conditions, such as a point source spraying in many directions, or an extended plane wave heading on one direction. The ray bending or refraction leads to characteristic structure in phase space and nonuniform distributions in coordinate space that look somehow universal and resemble branches in trees or stream beds. The branches taken on non-obvious paths through the refracting landscape that are indirect and nonlocal results of terrain already traversed. For a given refracting landscape, the branches will look completely different depending on the initial manifold.
Examples
Two-dimensional electron gas
Branched flow was first identified in experiments with a two-dimensional electron gas. Electrons flowing from a quantum point contact were scanned using a scanning probe microscope. Instead of usual diffraction patterns, the electrons flowed forming branching strands that persisted for several correlation lengths of the background potential.
Ocean dynamics
Focusing of random waves in the ocean can also lead to branched flow. The fluctuation in the depth of the ocean floor can be described as a random potential. A tsunami wave propagating in such medium will form branches which carry huge energy densities over long distances. This mechanism may also explain some statistical discrepancies in the occurrence of freak waves.
Light propagation
Given the wave nature of light, its propagation in random media can produce branched flow too. Experiments with laser beams in soap bubbles have shown this effect, which has also been proposed to control light focusing in a disordered medium.
Flexural waves in elastic plates
Flexural waves travelling in elastic plates also produce branched flows. Disorder, in this case, appears in the form of inhomogeneous flexural rigidity.
Other examples
Other examples where branched flow has been proposed to happen include microwave radiation of pulsars refracted by interstellar clouds, the Zeldovitch model for the large structure of the universe and electron-phonon interaction in metals.
Dynamics: Kick and drift map
The dynamical mechanism that originates the branch formation can be understood by means of the kick and drift map, an area preserving map defined by:
where n accounts for the discrete time, x and p are position and momentum respectively, and V is the potential. The equation for the momentum is called the “kick” stage, whereas the equation for the position is the “drift”. Given an initial manifold in phase space, it can be iterated under the action of the kick and drift map. Typically, the manifold stretches and folds (although keeping its total area constant) forming cusps or caustics and stable regions. These regions of phases space with high concentration of trajectories are precisely the branches.
Scaling properties of branched flow in random potentials
When plane waves or parallel trajectories propagate through a weak random medium, several caustics can arise at more or less regularly ordered positions. Taking the direction perpendicular to the flow, the distance separating the caustics is determined by the correlation length of the potential d.
Another characteristic length is the distance L downstream where the first generation of caustics appear. Taking into account the energy of the trajectories E and the height of the potential ɛ<<E, it can be argued that the following relation holds
See also
Ballistic conduction
Caustic (optics)
Quantum chaos
Rogue wave
Semiclassical physics
Wave propagation
References
External links
Video: The laser show in a soap bubble (Observation of branched flow of light)
Wave mechanics
Dynamics (mechanics) | Branched flow | [
"Physics"
] | 839 | [
"Physical phenomena",
"Classical mechanics",
"Waves",
"Wave mechanics",
"Motion (physics)",
"Dynamics (mechanics)"
] |
66,114,358 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto%20Medina | Ernesto A. Medina is an ecologist specializing in plant physiology when adapting to the changing environment. He is an elected international member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is an adjunct professor in the department of Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation (CREST-CATEC).
Early life and education
Medina was born on July 27, 1938 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. After receiving his undergraduate degree in biology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, he went to Stuttgart, Germany where he completed a doctorate (PhD) in agronomy.
Career and research
He was assistant professor at the Universidad Central in Caracas, and joined the department of Ecology at the Venezuela Institute for scientific Research (IVIC) in 1970.
Since 2013, he held a position as adjunct professor in the department of Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation (CREST-CATEC) where he continued his research on plant physiology.
Fields
Medina focuses on the study of plant populations and their environmental variables, particularly nutrient availability in natural ecosystems. His research includes the study of how a changing environment can affect photosynthesis, respiration, and nutrient uptake during various plant developmental stages. He studies how the plant community is affected by industrial pollution, change in land use caused by agriculture, pasture, lumbering and fire management, and he applies his findings in the area of global change research. His current research focuses on plant productivity responses to salinity, drought, and nutrient availability in coastal wetlands.
Awards and honors
He holds an honorary membership in the Ecological Society of America supported by letters from P. D. Coley, T. A. as well as the international membership in the National Academy of Sciences.
His honors also include Guggenheim fellow and Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Prize.
Public engagement
In 1970, he did postdoctoral research at the Carnegie Institution (Stanford, California) on the photosynthesis of plants.
In 1979, Medina was a guest at both the Australian National University and Stanford University (USA).
Medina has also participated projects with MAB, INTECOL, SCOPE, OAS, and FAO. He has helped establish a school of plant ecology in Venezuela by training 27 students through IVIC and the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Personal life
Medina is married to Elvira Cuevas.
References
External links
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people) | Ernesto Medina | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 465 | [
"Ecologists",
"Environmental scientists"
] |
66,114,433 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom%20metal | A bottom metal is a firearm component typically made of metallic material (such as aluminium alloy or steel), that serves as the floor of the action and also helps to clamp the receiver onto the stock. The bottom metal also frequently incorporates the trigger guard, for instance on the Mauser 98 and M1 Garand, although a trigger guard by itself is not considered a bottom metal.
In repeating firearms with internal magazines, the bottom metal serves as the magazine floorplate and contains the spring and follower, either as a fixed solid piece or can be opened like a hinged door. Bottom metals designed to accept detachable magazines are called detachable bottom metals (DBM), and contains a rectangular reception slot called the magazine well, with a latch mechanism that securely holds the inserted magazine in place.
Single-shot firearms (e.g. SIG Sauer 200 STR) typically do not have bottom metals, and modern firearms with metallic chassis (e.g. SIG Sauer CROSS) do not have separate bottom metals as its function is already integrated into the chassis.
Aftermarket bottom metals are available commercially for various models of modern firearms. It is not uncommon to see a firearm with internal magazine (e.g. a Remington 700 rifle) being modified to accept various models of detachable box magazines (e.g. an AICS magazine), simply by replacing the factory bottom metal with an aftermarket one.
See also
Receiver
References
Firearm components | Bottom metal | [
"Technology"
] | 296 | [
"Firearm components",
"Components"
] |
66,115,199 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersection%20non-emptiness%20problem | The intersection non-emptiness problem, also known as finite automaton intersection problem or the non-emptiness of intersection problem, is a PSPACE-complete decision problem from the field of automata theory.
Definitions
A non-emptiness decision problem is defined as follows. Given an automaton as input, the goal is to determine whether or not the automaton's language is non-empty. In other words, the goal is to determine if there exists a string that is accepted by the automaton.
Non-emptiness problems have been studied in the field of automata theory for many years. Several common non-emptiness problems have been shown to be complete for complexity classes ranging from Deterministic Logspace up to PSPACE.
The intersection non-emptiness decision problem is concerned with whether the intersection of given languages is non-empty. In particular, the intersection non-emptiness problem is defined as follows. Given a list of deterministic finite automata as input, the goal is to determine whether or not their associated regular languages have a non-empty intersection. In other, the goal is to determine if there exists a string that is accepted by all of the automata in the list.
Algorithm
There is a common exponential time algorithm that solves the intersection non-emptiness problem based on the Cartesian product construction introduced by Michael O. Rabin and Dana Scott. The idea is that all of the automata together form a product automaton such that a string is accepted by all of the automata if and only if it is accepted by the product automaton. Therefore, a breadth-first search (or depth-first search) within the product automaton's state diagram will determine whether there exists a path from the product start state to one of the product final states. Whether or not such a path exists is equivalent to determining if any string is accepted by all of the automata in the list.
Note: The product automaton does not need to be fully constructed. The automata together provide sufficient information so that transitions can be determined as needed.
Hardness
The intersection non-emptiness problem was shown to be PSPACE-complete in a work by Dexter Kozen in 1977. Since then, many additional hardness results have been shown. Yet, it is still an open problem to determine whether any faster algorithms exist.
References
* See an incomplete list of related publications here.
Related
Deterministic Finite Automaton
Emptiness Problem
PSPACE-complete
List of PSPACE-complete Problems
PSPACE-complete problems
Automata (computation) | Intersection non-emptiness problem | [
"Mathematics"
] | 516 | [
"PSPACE-complete problems",
"Mathematical problems",
"Computational problems"
] |
66,115,498 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.%20Frank%20McKinney | David Frank McKinney (cited as Frank McKinney) (1928–2001) was a British-born ornithologist and ethologist, who worked in Canada and the USA and specialized in the social behavior of waterfowl.
Biography
Frank McKinney graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Oxford. He received his Ph.D. in 1953 from the University of Bristol. His 227-page doctoral dissertation is titled "Studies of the behaviour of the Anatidae". As a postdoc in 1953 he worked with Nikolaas Tinbergen at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge. From 1953 to 1963 he worked as a deputy director at the Delta Waterfowl Research Center in Manitoba. In 1963 he moved to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis. He was appointed a curator for ethology and became a professor in the Faculty of Ecology, Evolution and Behavioral Science at the University of Minnesota. He held both positions until his retirement in 2000.
In the 1950s and 1960s, his research focused on the macroevolutionary aspects of social signals and other behavior patterns in ducks. The 1972 book "Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man: The Darwinian Pivot" edited by Bernard Grant Campbell (1930-2017) stimulated McKinney's interest in gender conflict and raised his doubts about older theories of pair bonding. McKinney changed his thinking on "three-bird-chase" behavior, as well as the focus of his research. During the last 20 years of his career, his research dealt with sperm competition, partner switching, and related topics.
His most important publications include "Behavioral Specializations for River Life in the African Black Duck (Anas sparsa Eyton)" (1978), "Rape Among Mallards" (1979), "Forced Copulation in Captive Mallards I. Fertilization of Eggs" (1980), "Forced copulation in captive mallards (Anas platyrhynchos): II. Temporal factors" from 1982 and "Forced Copulation in Captive Mallards III. Sperm Competition" (1983). At the University of Minnesota, he lectured on 48 different academic topics. As a professor, he supervised more than 30 students for M.S. or Ph.D. theses. He served on more than 150 Ph.D. He supervised almost 50 undergraduate research projects on animal behavior, including fish, iguanas, and primates.
He was elected in 1975 a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union (A.O.U.) and in 1994 was awarded the A.O.U.'s Brewster Medal for his research on the social behavior of waterfowl. He was personally acquainted with all of the most important ethologists in the decades of the 20th century after WW II.
In 1963 McKinney married D. Meryl Morris (1924–2007). When he retired in 2000, he intended to write a comprehensive book on the social behavior of ducks. However, he suffered a severe heart attack on Christmas Day of 2000. After he slowly recovered, he and his wife wanted to move to another house to make life easier. While on an errand to get packing boxes, he suffered a second heart attack and quickly died, leaving Meryl McKinney a widow after 38 years of marriage.
Selected publications
2012 pbk reprint
2014 pbk reprint
References
1928 births
2001 deaths
British ornithologists
Ethologists
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Alumni of the University of Bristol
University of Minnesota faculty | D. Frank McKinney | [
"Biology"
] | 734 | [
"Ethology",
"Behavior",
"Ethologists"
] |
66,115,813 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsten%20Morris | Kirsten Anna Morris (born 1960) is a Canadian applied mathematician specializing in control theory, including work on flexible structures, smart materials, hysteresis, and infinite-dimensional optimization. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo, the former chair of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems, the author of two books on control theory, and an IEEE Fellow.
Education and career
Morris was motivated to study mathematical economics at Queen's University at Kingston by a job doing econometrics at a bank, but lost interest in the economic applications of mathematics after a year, instead switching into a program in mathematics and engineering, which she finished in 1982. She became interested in control theory while studying for a master's degree at the University of Waterloo. After completing the degree in 1984, she continued at Waterloo as a doctoral student, and earned her Ph.D. there in 1989. Her dissertation, Finite-Dimensional Control of Infinite-Dimensional Systems, was supervised by Mathukumalli Vidyasagar.
After a year as a staff scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center, she returned to Waterloo as an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics in 1990. She became a full professor there in 2003, and also holds a cross-appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. She chaired the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Control and Systems from 2018 to 2019, and has held leadership positions in the IEEE Control Systems Society and the International Federation of Automatic Control.
Books
Morris is the author of the books Introduction to Feedback Control (Harcourt-Brace, 2001) and Controller Design for Distributed Parameter Systems (Springer, 2020). She is the editor of Control of Flexible Structures: Papers from the Workshop on Problems in Sensing, Identification and Control of Flexible Structures held in Waterloo, Ontario, June 1992 (American Mathematical Society, 1993).
Recognition
In 2020, Morris was named an IEEE Fellow, affiliated with the IEEE Control Systems Society, "for contributions to control and estimator design for infinite-dimensional systems". She was named a SIAM Fellow in the 2021 class of fellows, "for contributions to modeling, approximation, and control design for distributed parameter systems". She is also a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control.
References
External links
Home page
1960 births
Living people
Canadian mathematicians
Canadian women mathematicians
Applied mathematicians
Control theorists
Queen's University at Kingston alumni
University of Waterloo alumni
Academic staff of the University of Waterloo
Fellows of the IEEE
Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics | Kirsten Morris | [
"Mathematics",
"Engineering"
] | 511 | [
"Applied mathematics",
"Applied mathematicians",
"Control engineering",
"Control theorists"
] |
66,116,392 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20189567 | HD 189567 is a star with a pair of orbiting exoplanets, located in the southern constellation of Pavo. It is also known as Gliese 776, CD-67 2385, and HR 7644. The star has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.07, which is bright enough for it to be dimly visible to the naked eye. It lies at a distance of 58 light years from the Sun based on parallax measurements, but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −10.5 km/s.
The spectrum of HD 189567 presents as an ordinary G-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of G3V. It has 83% of the mass of the Sun but 110% of the Sun's radius. The star is moderately depleted in heavy elements, having 55% of the solar abundance of iron, but is less depleted in oxygen, having 80% of its solar abundance. It has a low level of magnetic activity in its chromosphere. Age estimates range from 4.11 Gyr based on chromospheric heating to 11.26 Gyr from stellar rotation. The star is radiating 2.1 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,726 K.
Planetary system
One exoplanet was discovered around the star in 2011, HD 189567 b. This exoplanet has an estimated minimum mass of 8.5 Earth masses, which means that it is most likely a mini-Neptune. It has an orbital period of 14.3 days, placing it well interior to the habitable zone of the star system. The planet's existence was confirmed in 2021, along with the discovery of a second planet, HD 189567 c.
References
G-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with two confirmed planets
Pavo (constellation)
7644
CD-67 2385
Gliese and GJ objects
189567
098959
J20053286-6719156 | HD 189567 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 416 | [
"Constellations",
"Pavo (constellation)"
] |
66,116,419 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salin-de-Giraud | Salin-de-Giraud is a village located in the commune of Arles in Bouches-du-Rhône (canton Arles-Ouest), approximately 40 kilometers from the city center of Arles.
History
Salin-de-Giraud lies southeast of the Camargue delta, on the right bank of the Rhône. The village was established in 1856. The salt marshes located in the southeastern corner of the Camargue have made Salin-de-Giraud a major center of salt production.
See also
Camargue
References
External links
Salin de Giraud, Arles Tourisme
1856 establishments in France
Arles
Camargue
Salt production
Seaside resorts in France
Villages in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | Salin-de-Giraud | [
"Chemistry"
] | 157 | [
"Salt production",
"Salts"
] |
66,117,027 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LV%20Vulpeculae | LV Vulpeculae, also known as Nova Vulpeculae 1968 no. 1, was the first of two novae in the constellation of Vulpecula which erupted in 1968. It was discovered by George Alcock who observed it from the back garden of his home in Farcet, England, on the morning of 15 April 1968. The next night it was independently discovered by Midtskoven in Norway. It reached a peak apparent magnitude of 4.79 on 17 April 1968. It was visible to the naked eye at the same time HR Delphini (also discovered by George Alcock) was a naked eye object, and the two novae were less than 15 degrees apart on the sky.
Before its eruption, LV Vulpeculae was a magnitude 16.2 object. It is classified as a "fast nova", meaning its brightness declined by more than 3 magnitudes in less than 100 days.
A small emission nebula (shell), a few arc seconds in diameter, has been detected surrounding this nova. However, there are several field stars overlapping the nebula, which makes deriving quantitative information from shell images difficult.
All novae are binary stars, with a "donor" star orbiting a white dwarf. The two stars are so close to each other that matter is transferred from the donor star to the white dwarf. LV Vulpeculae has a carbon-oxygen white dwarf component with an estimated mass of and it is receiving per year of material from the donor star.
Distance estimates for LV Vulpeculae vary widely, ranging from to .
References
Vulpeculae 1968, Nova
Vulpecula
Vulpeculae, LV
J19480043+2710173 | LV Vulpeculae | [
"Astronomy"
] | 359 | [
"Novae",
"Astronomical events",
"Vulpecula",
"Constellations"
] |
66,118,017 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindh%20Barrage | <noinclude>
Sindh Barrage is a proposed project in Sindh, Pakistan that will be constructed on the River Indus in between the Kotri Barrage and the Indus River outfall into the Arabian Sea.
The proposed barrage site is located approximately 30 kilometers upstream from the Indus River's outfall into the Arabian Sea, 10 kilometres east of Baghan village, 75 kilometres south of Thatta, and 105 kilometres east of Karachi. The plan involves constructing a 12-meter-high barrage with dykes on both banks in the floodplain, ranging from 4 to 9 meters in height. The reservoir created will extend 160 kilometres upstream, designed to prevent seawater intrusion into the Indus River.
Two Canals will be built on each side of the barrage to provide irrigation and drinking water. One will be the Karachi Canal, extending to the coastal area up to Dhabeji, and the other will be the Thar Canal, serving Tharparkar. The project study was set to be completed by September 2021, with construction expected to begin in January 2022 and finish by December 2024, at an estimated cost of 125 billion Pakistani Rupees (approximately 750 million USD).
This barrage is expected to irrigate around 55,000 acres of land lost to desertification and soil salinity. Additionally, it will help restore agricultural productivity and support the recovery of maritime flora and fauna in the region.
See also
List of barrages and headworks in Pakistan
List of dams and reservoirs in Pakistan
List of power stations in Pakistan
References
External links
WAPDA: Sindh barrage project status
Dams in Sindh
Tidal barrages
Irrigation projects
Irrigation in Pakistan
Proposed dams
Dams on the Indus River | Sindh Barrage | [
"Engineering"
] | 337 | [
"Irrigation projects"
] |
66,118,142 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirbanibulin | Tirbanibulin, sold under the brand name Klisyri, is a medication used for the treatment of actinic keratosis (AK) on the face or scalp. It functions by inhibiting both tubulin polymerization and Src kinase signaling. It is potentially effective in impeding the development of squamous cell carcinoma in situ.
The most common side effects include local skin reactions, application site pruritus, and application site pain.
Tirbanibulin was approved for medical use in the United States in December 2020, and in the European Union in July 2021. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it to be a first-in-class medication.
Medical uses
Tirbanibulin is indicated for the topical treatment of actinic keratosis of the face or scalp.
Mechanism of Action
Tirbanibulin, chemically known as N-benzyl-2-(5-(4-(2-morpholinoethoxy)phenyl) pyridine-2-yl) acetamide, is a microtubule and non–ATP-competitive inhibitor. The drug in various ways mimics the mechanisms of chemotherapy by suspending the protooncogenic Src tyrosine kinase signaling pathway. Notably, it promotes G2/M arrest during cell cycle, upregulates p53, and triggers apoptosis via caspase-3 stimulation and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage.
Side effects
In several studies tirbanibulin has been observed to induce skin reactions at the site of application, ranging from mild to severe erythema, flaking, ulceration, and pain.
Extensive research has not been conducted on the risks of tirbanibulin usage by specific human populations (i.e., pregnant populations). Significant differences have not been observed in the safety or effectiveness of tirbanibulin between geriatric or pediatric populations.
History
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tirbanibulin based on evidence from two clinical trials (Trial 1/ NCT03285477 and Trial 2/NCT03285490) of 702 adults with actinic keratosis on the face or scalp. The trials were conducted at 62 sites in the United States. Participants received once daily treatment with either tirbanibulin or inactive control ointment for 5 consecutive days to the single predetermined area where they had actinic keratosis. Neither the participants nor the health care providers knew which treatment was being given until after the trial was completed. The benefit of tirbanibulin in comparison to control was assessed after 57 days by comparing the percentage of participants who did not have any actinic keratosis on the treatment area (100% clearance).
Society and culture
Legal status
In May 2021, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for tirbanibulin, intended for the treatment of actinic keratosis. The applicant for this medicinal product is Almirall, S.A. Tirbanibulin was approved for medical use in the European Union in July 2021.
References
External links
4-Morpholinyl compounds
Pyridines
Amides
Ethers | Tirbanibulin | [
"Chemistry"
] | 703 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Amides",
"Functional groups",
"Ethers"
] |
66,118,361 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corestriction | In mathematics, a corestriction of a function is a notion analogous to the notion of a restriction of a function. The duality prefix co- here denotes that while the restriction changes the domain to a subset, the corestriction changes the codomain to a subset. However, the notions are not categorically dual.
Given any subset we can consider the corresponding inclusion of sets as a function. Then for any function , the restriction of a function onto can be defined as the composition .
Analogously, for an inclusion the corestriction of onto is the unique
function such that there is a decomposition . The corestriction exists if and only if contains the image of . In particular, the corestriction onto the image always exists and it is sometimes simply called the corestriction of . More generally, one can consider corestriction of a morphism in general categories with images. The term is well known in category theory, while rarely used in print.
Andreotti introduces the above notion under the name , while the name corestriction reserves to the notion categorically dual to the notion of a restriction. Namely, if is a surjection of sets (that is a quotient map) then Andreotti considers the composition , which surely always exists.
References
Set theory
Functions and mappings
Category theory
Hopf algebras
Abelian group theory | Corestriction | [
"Mathematics"
] | 277 | [
"Functions and mappings",
"Mathematical structures",
"Mathematical analysis",
"Set theory",
"Mathematical logic",
"Mathematical objects",
"Fields of abstract algebra",
"Mathematical relations",
"Category theory"
] |
66,119,232 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest%20Landscape%20Integrity%20Index | The Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII) is an annual global index of forest condition measured by degree of anthropogenic modification. Created by a team of 47 scientists, the FLII, in its measurement of 300m pixels of forest across the globe, finds that ~17.4 million km2 of forest has high landscape-level integrity (with a score from 9.6–10), compared to ~14.6 million with medium integrity (6–9.6) and ~12.2 million km2 with low integrity (0–6).
The FLII finds that most remaining high-integrity forest landscapes are found in Canada, Russia, the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, the Amazon, the Guianas, southern Chile, Central Africa, and New Guinea. Low integrity forests, on the other hand, are found in Western and Central Europe, the American Southeast, South-East Asia, west of New Guinea, the Andes, much of China and India, the Albertine Rift, West Africa, Mesoamerica, and the Atlantic Forests of Brazil.
The results are meant to help decision-makers at all levels achieve their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Forest Integrity
An ecosystem is considered to have integrity when its structure, composition, and ecological processes are within their natural range.
Country rankings
172 countries have been ranked:
Background
The index was authored by a global team of forest conservation experts, including:
See also
Intact forest landscape
List of countries by forest area
References
External links
Official site & map
Biodiversity
Sustainable forest management
Environmental terminology
Forest conservation
Environmental indices | Forest Landscape Integrity Index | [
"Biology"
] | 355 | [
"Biodiversity"
] |
61,107,397 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft%20tower%20experiment | In 1586, scientists Simon Stevin and Jan Cornets de Groot conducted an early scientific experiment on the effects of gravity. The experiment, which established that objects of identical size and different mass fall at the same speed, was conducted by dropping lead balls from the Nieuwe Kerk in the Dutch city of Delft. The experiment is considered a foundational moment in the history of statics, which Stevin's work helped to codify.
History
In the late 16th century, increasing interest in physics resulted in a number of European scientists conducting experiments into the intricacies of the scientific field. Many of these experiments were—directly or indirectly—presenting a challenge to the laws of physics formulated by Aristotle, whose theory was then the dominant school of thought in Europe. While most contemporaneous scientific experimentation was undertaken by Italian scholars, by the 1580s new ideas on physics had proliferated to the rest of Europe.
One of the European scientists to embrace the new view of physics was Simon Stevin, a Flemish engineer and mathematician. Stevin was employed as a military adviser for the court of William the Silent, and as such resided in the city of Delft while William's government occupied the city; one of Stevin's main benefactors was Maurice, Prince of Orange, whose patronage allowed Stevin to further his scientific interests. While Stevin's primary concern at court was the design of defensive fortifications, he also took interest in fluid dynamics, designing a series of improvements for Delft's windmills. To gain permission to tinker with Delft's mills, Stevin employed the services of Jan Cornets de Groot, a local lawyer and future father of legal scholar Hugo de Groot. The elder De Groot and Stevin became friends, with the former eventually investing in several new mills built using Stevin's design.
In 1586 Stevin and De Groot collaborated to perform an experiment intended to challenge Aristotle's theory that objects fall at a speed directly proportional to their mass. To conduct their experiment, the two carried a pair of identically-sized lead balls up the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft before dropping them onto a wooden platform 30 feet below; of the pair, one ball was ten times heavier than the other. When the balls were dropped, both spheres hit the wooden platform below at substantively the same time, indicating that objects of the same size fall at the same speed regardless of mass. Stevin concluded that Aristotle's theory was therefore incorrect.
While the Delft tower experiment had been a success, it was not conducted with the same scientific rigor that later experiments were; Stevin lacked an instrument to accurately measure the speed of the falling spheres, and was forced to rely on audio feedback (caused by the spheres impacting the wooden platform below) and eyewitness accounts to deduce that the balls had fallen at the same speed. As such, the experiment staged at the Nieuwe Kerk was given less credence than similar experiments, namely the more substantive work of Galileo Galilei and his famous thought experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 1589.
Stevin published his findings in his 1586 work De Beghinselen Der Weeghconst—translatable to The Principles of Statics & The Principles of the Art of Weighing. Stevin and De Groot's experiment is—along with those of their Italian contemporaries—considered to be one of the foundational experiments in the history of modern statics.
See also
Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment
References
1586 in science
1586 in the Dutch Republic
Physics experiments
History of Delft | Delft tower experiment | [
"Physics"
] | 743 | [
"Experimental physics",
"Physics experiments"
] |
61,109,403 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester%27s%20determinant%20identity | In matrix theory, Sylvester's determinant identity is an identity useful for evaluating certain types of determinants. It is named after James Joseph Sylvester, who stated this identity without proof in 1851.
Given an n-by-n matrix , let denote its determinant. Choose a pair
of m-element ordered subsets of , where m ≤ n.
Let denote the (n−m)-by-(n−m) submatrix of obtained by deleting the rows in and the columns in .
Define the auxiliary m-by-m matrix whose elements are equal to the following determinants
where , denote the m−1 element subsets of and obtained by deleting the elements and , respectively. Then the following is Sylvester's determinantal identity (Sylvester, 1851):
When m = 2, this is the Desnanot-Jacobi identity (Jacobi, 1851).
See also
Weinstein–Aronszajn identity, which is sometimes attributed to Sylvester
References
Determinants
Matrix theory
Theorems in linear algebra | Sylvester's determinant identity | [
"Mathematics"
] | 217 | [
"Theorems in algebra",
"Theorems in linear algebra"
] |
61,110,641 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%20Campbell%20%28chemist%29 | Arthur Derek Campbell (27 May 1925 – 20 December 2020) was a New Zealand analytical chemist. He was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago from 1948 to 1988, becoming a professor emeritus on his retirement.
Early life and education
Campbell was born in Waimate on 27 May 1925, the son of Mona Sevicke Campbell (née Jones) and David Brown Campbell. He was educated at Waimate High School, and then proceeded to study chemistry at the University of Otago, graduating Master of Science with second-class honours in 1948, and PhD in 1953. His doctoral thesis was titled Some applications of acrylonitrile.
In 1950, Campbell married Ruth Florence Smith, and the couple went on to have three children.
Academic and research career
Campbell was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago from 1948 to 1988. He was appointed as an assistant lecturer in 1948, rising to become a professor in 1971, and the Mellor Professor of Chemistry in 1983. He served as a member of the University Council from 1963 to 1971, dean of the Faculty of Science from 1980 to 1982, and head of the Department of Chemistry from 1983 to 1988. When he retired in 1988, he was conferred the title of professor emeritus.
Campbell's early research centred on carboxylic acid derivatives. However, he became interested in organic microanalysis, and developed many analytical procedures, and improved techniques for analysing perfluorinated organic compounds. Campbell served as chair of the Chemical Testing Registration Advisory Committee of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council of New Zealand from 1973 to 1985. Internationally, he was a Bureau Member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry from 1981 to 1989. The University of Otago's Campbell Microanalytical Laboratory is named in his honour.
Between 1979 and 1980, Campbell was president of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.
Later life and death
Campbell's wife, Ruth, died in Dunedin on 18 March 2019. Campbell died in Dunedin on 20 December 2020.
Honours and awards
In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Campbell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to science.
References
1925 births
2020 deaths
People from Waimate
University of Otago alumni
New Zealand chemists
Analytical chemists
Academic staff of the University of Otago
New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Waimate High School | Arthur Campbell (chemist) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 483 | [
"Analytical chemists"
] |
61,110,882 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroethyl%20fluoroacetate | Fluoroethyl fluoroacetate, or more accurately 2-fluoroethyl fluoroacetate, is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is the fluoroacetate ester of 2-fluoroethanol, or in other words, the 2-fluoroethyl ester of fluoroacetic acid. 2-Fluoroethyl fluoroacetate is two times more toxic than methyl fluoroacetate.
See also
Methyl fluoroacetate
Fluoroacetic acid
Sodium fluoroacetate
Fluoroacetamide
2-Fluoroethanol
References
Convulsants
Fluoroacetates
Chemical weapons
Poisons
Fluoroethyl esters | Fluoroethyl fluoroacetate | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 144 | [
"Chemical accident",
"Toxicology",
"Chemical weapons",
"Poisons",
"Biochemistry"
] |
61,112,204 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg%20Jander | Georg Jander is an American plant biologist at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, New York and an adjunct professor in the Plant Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Sciences at Cornell University. Jander is known for his research identifying plant genes involved in synthesis of biochemical compounds, particularly those related to insect resistance.
Education
Jander earned his undergraduate degree in computer science from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 1983. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard Medical School in 1996 under the supervision of Jon Beckwith.
Career and research
Jander has worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Fred Ausubel and as a scientist at Monsanto.
He currently works as a faculty member at the Boyce Thompson Institute, where his lab studies the genetic mechanisms that control plant secondary metabolism involved in defense against insects. A particular focus of the Jander lab has been research involving plant interactions with aphids. Jander's research publications have been cited more than 17,000 times.
Since 2005, Jander has been the principal investigator for a undergraduate plant science summer internship program at the Boyce Thompson Institute.
Honors and awards
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation (2011)
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012)
Fellow, American Society of Plant Biologists (2022)
References
External links
Georg Jander – Google Scholar citations
Georg Jander – Boyce Thompson Institute website
21st-century American botanists
Living people
20th-century American botanists
Cornell University faculty
Chemical ecologists
American entomologists
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
1965 births
McKelvey School of Engineering alumni | Georg Jander | [
"Chemistry"
] | 342 | [
"Chemical ecologists",
"Chemical ecology"
] |
61,113,330 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prim%E2%80%93Read%20theory | Prim–Read theory, or Prim–Read defense, was an important development in game theory that led to radical changes in the United States' views on the value of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems. The theory assigns a certain cost to deploying defensive missiles and suggests a way to maximize their value in terms of the amount of damage they could reduce. By comparing the cost of various deployments, one can determine the relative amount of money needed to provide a defense against a certain number of ICBMs.
The theory was first introduced in the late 1950s and might have been lost to history had it not been picked up during the debate on the Nike-X ABM. Nike-X called for the deployment of a heavy defensive system around major US cities with the intent of seriously blunting the effect of any Soviet strike. A number of operations researchers, notably US Air Force General Glenn Kent, used Prim–Read to conclusively demonstrate that the cost of reducing damage back to a given level was always more than the cost of causing additional damage by building more ICBMs.
The outcome of these studies suggested that any US deployment of an ABM system would result in the USSR building a small number of additional missiles to defeat it. Assuming the Soviets would come to the same conclusion, Robert McNamara became highly critical of any large-scale ABM system, and began efforts that would ultimately lead to the ABM treaty in 1972. The underlying concept became known as the cost-exchange ratio.
History
Nike Zeus
The US Army began studying the anti-ballistic missile in a serious fashion in 1955. Working with Bell Labs, who had delivered the successful Nike and Nike B surface-to-air missiles (SAM), they began by considering what was essentially a direct update of the Nike concepts to the ABM mission. Bell returned a report suggesting that minor upgrades to the Hercules missile, along with much more powerful radars and computers, would do the trick. This was initially known as Nike II, but renamed Nike Zeus in 1956.
Early in the Zeus effort the US Air Force attempted to derail the project by pointing out that if Zeus cost the same as an ICBM, and the Soviets were building them as quickly as Nikita Khrushchev claimed, then they could simply build a few more to "soak up" any Zeus' the Army deployed. But in fact, it seemed the ICBMs were actually cheaper than Zeus, perhaps significantly, which meant the US would lose the resulting arms race. This basic concept became known as the cost exchange ratio.
President Eisenhower's Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy identified the Air Force complaints as an example of sour grapes, having lost funding for their own ABM efforts, Project Wizard, in favor of Zeus. But the math appeared to be correct, so he asked for a second opinion from the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). They largely agreed with the Air Force's take, and then added several additional concerns of their own.
By the late 1950s, several new problems became evident. One was that the newly discovered nuclear blackout effect would allow an enemy to blanket an area hundreds of miles wide with a radar-opaque layer for the cost of one warhead. This would render Zeus blind to anything above the layer; following warheads would not become visible until too close to the base to attack. Another issue was the addition of decoys to the ICBMs, which presented radar targets that looked the same as the warhead. These cleared away due to drag as they reentered the atmosphere, but once again, this occurred at too low an altitude to attack.
Nike-X
At the suggestion of ARPA, the Army responded by redesigning the system as Nike-X. Nike-X used a short-range but extremely high-speed interceptor known as Sprint that was optimized for interceptions under and combined that with an extremely high-speed radar and computer system. The plan was to wait until the warhead cleared any blackout and the decoys were slowing, allowing the radar to pick out the warhead and attack it with the Sprint. The entire engagement would last only a few seconds.
The Army produced a study that considered a real deployment scenario and then estimated the number of lives it would save. They started by assuming that the Soviets would want to launch two warheads at every target, to ensure at least one would go off. In order to confuse the defense, they would add nine credible decoys to each ICBM. This would present each base with 20 radar targets in total. For the same redundancy reasons, they would launch two Sprint missiles at each one, so a total of 40 Sprints would be needed to protect every target. Given the relative costs of the Sprint and an ICBM, the Army demonstrated that the Sprint system would save a considerable number of civilian lives for less than the cost of an ICBM.
Last-move problem
When this was presented as a part of a PSAC study of the Nike-X system, one member of the group immediately noted a problem. Air Force Brigadier General Glenn Kent had been taught to always consider who had the last move in any plan, and in this case, he concluded that the Soviets had that advantage. Facing a Nike-X deployment, they could change their ICBM targets without the US having any idea what those were.
For instance, one response would be to ignore the defended targets entirely, and use the missiles to attack the next cities on their target list. Since those targets would be smaller, they could be assigned one missile each. Although this would increase the number of targets that were not destroyed due to failures, the total number of targets hit would be greater.
Another solution would be to ignore targets further down the list and reassign those warheads to ones further up the list, ensuring the defenses at those targets would be overwhelmed through sheer numbers. Although the targets further down the list would no longer be attacked, they had smaller populations so their value was less.
In either case, the attacker could once again cause enormous damage without spending a single extra dollar on the attack. Worse, the US has no idea which strategy the Soviets picked, and therefore have no idea how to respond. The question, then, was how does one plan a defensive layout when there is no clear answer what the enemy's response will be?
When Kent pointed this issue out to Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) Harold Brown, Brown immediately grasped the problem and recalled the Army group to explain why their analysis was essentially useless. He then tasked Kent with coming up with a way to analyze the problem that would not be dependent on knowing the Soviet attack allocations.
Prim–Read
Kent learned that two researchers at Bell Labs had considered this exact issue in a 1957 paper. Robert Prim and Thornton Read solved the problem by developing a simple mathematical formula that maximized the damage reduction in terms of any given expenditure on the defense. Prim visited Kent at the Pentagon to explain the idea, which was extremely simple in conceptual terms.
The basic idea was a reflection of the targeting priorities the Soviets would use. Against "soft targets" like cities, a single warhead will effectively destroy it, so launching additional warheads at the same target will not cause a corresponding doubling of damage inflicted. However, the missiles have a certain probability of successfully reaching the target and detonating, the probability of kill, or Pk. If the Pk is 50%, for instance, the Soviets will want to launch more than one ICBM at a target to increase the chances of destroying it. Two warheads improve this to 75%, and three to 87.5%, but in that case, if the first one does work the following two are wasted. They have to balance the desire to guarantee destruction of certain targets with the knowledge that other targets would then be skipped entirely.
The Prim–Read concept used the same basic logic but applied it to the chance of successfully destroying an enemy missile. For instance, if a city is expecting to be attacked by two warheads, then its chance of being destroyed is 75%. Assigning a single interceptor to defend that city means one of the two warheads will be shot down 50% of the time. This means the chance of not getting hit is now 50%, a 25% improvement. Critically, adding a second interceptor means a 50% of hitting either, a 75% chance of hitting both. The chance you hit the one that would go off is 50-50, so now the chance the target does not get hit is 62.5%. Thus adding the second interceptor only improves the survival rate by 12.5%.
The key point here is that instead of applying the second interceptor to improve the survival rate of that target 12.5%, it might be better to instead put that interceptor over some other target that formerly had no protection, and improve its survival rate by 50%. Of course, this requires one to put a value of some sort on the targets so one can calculate if 50% of one target is worth more than 12.5% of another.
Consider a real-world example in which New York is considered to have twice the "value" of Los Angeles. In this case, a naive arrangement would be to assign twice as many interceptors to New York. However, due to the Pk considerations, this does not provide twice the defensive capability, but a fractional addition. In the case of large numbers of interceptors and enemy warheads, additional missiles may provide only a tiny benefit. In contrast, assigning those missiles to Los Angeles may dramatically improve its survival if it otherwise had only a few. Improving Los Angeles' survival by 25% is likely "better" than improving New York's by 12.5%.
The paper goes on to explain how to arrange the overall deployment. Each target is assigned a worth, W, and the price of the defense assigned to protect it is P. The ratio of W to P is λ. If one were to assign a single missile to all potential targets, then the list of resulting λ values would mirror the W values.
If λ is less than 1, that means the cost of defense is more than the worth of the target. In this case, that target's missile is much better off being assigned to another target, the one with the highest λ. When that happens, the λ of that target drops because more P is being spent on it. As a result, another target becomes the highest on the list of λ. One then continues this process of reassigning missiles until the resulting list of targets that are protected have the same λ, or as close to that as possible. λ, in effect, represents the damage percent you are willing to accept.
One can make real-world calculations by selecting the population of the urban area to be a proxy for W. In this case New York has the highest W and initial λ, and it is naturally assigned the largest number of interceptors. One might be inclined to move a missile from Los Angeles to New York to offer higher protection, but the brilliance of Prim–Read is that demonstrates that while doing so would improve New York's survival rate a tiny bit, it would lower Los Angeles' even more.
One outcome of the Prim–Read deployment is that it is based entirely on the number of ABMs constructed and the total worth of the targets they protect. It does not matter what the Soviet response to the deployment is; if they choose to reduce the number of missiles assigned to one target to ensure they penetrate the defenses of another, that will always increase the overall survival rate of the defenders. It is possible for the Soviets to overwhelm the entire system, but even in that case the Prim–Read deployment will reduce whatever damage will be caused by the maximal amount possible.
Prim–Read becomes notorious
With Prim–Read, one can construct a mathematically maximal defense for any given expenditure. Because that defense is probabilistic, it means that it assumes some damage even when the defense is overwhelming, and at the same time it means there will be some reduction in damage even if the attack is overwhelming. The question then becomes whether or not the amount of damage reduction desired can be achieved for a reasonable total expenditure, given various estimates of the Soviet fleet.
Kent began developing Prim–Read deployments of various numbers of ABMs to determine their effectiveness against various numbers of ICBMs. The results were clear. Limited amounts of protection could be offered with small expenditures even if the Soviets built huge numbers of ICBMs; by pure chance, some of the targets would not be hit and ABMs would improve those numbers. The opposite was also true; if the US built an enormous fleet of ABMs, some enemy warheads would still hit their targets purely by chance.
If one wanted to save 90% of the US population, one required huge numbers of ABMs, and the relative cost of the defense compared to the offense was about 1.7 times. In other words, if the Soviets spent $10 billion producing ICBMs in a given year, the US would have to spend $17 billion on ABMs. However, when they found the official exchange rate between the US Dollar and Ruble was a fiction, and the actual value was very different, the ratio inflated to 6-to-1. In this sort of regime, the USSR could easily afford to build enough missiles to overwhelm any defense the US could afford.
Kent presented his results to Brown, who began to have serious questions about any sort of active defense. While this had no immediate effect on Nike-X planning, this was all taking place while another group was forming to consider the entire issue of the nuclear age under the direction of Frank Trinkl, part of Alain Enthoven's group at RAND. Kent was put into the group and noted that of the twenty items they had been tasked to consider, eight of those were purely defensive and he suggested grouping them together under the topic of damage limitation. Trinkl disagreed, and when Kent continued to pester him about it, Trinkl fired him from the group.
Brown then tasked Kent with going ahead and considering the eight issues in his own report, and this time assigned members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to help. The report, on the topic of "damage limitation", immediately caught the eye of Robert McNamara who "bought it lock, stock, and barrel." McNamara put his feelings on the matter succinctly, stating to Kent that "At 70 percent surviving, you say 70 percent surviving, General, that sounds pretty good. Do you know what our detractors will say? 'Only 60 million dead.'"
From that point on, McNamara was against any sort of large scale Nike-X deployment, and the system was ultimately canceled. The basic concept, which became known as the cost-exchange ratio, ultimately ended any large-scale ABM deployment in the United States, and led directly to the 1972 ABM Treaty. This did not end well for Kent, who was blamed for this situation, with one detractor stating "There’s the man that was the genesis of the ABM Treaty, the worst of our greatest strategic disasters, the ABM Treaty of 1972."
References
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
Game theory
Missile countermeasures
Anti-ballistic weapons | Prim–Read theory | [
"Mathematics"
] | 3,130 | [
"Game theory"
] |
61,113,928 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus%20pallidofulvus | Aspergillus pallidofulvus is a species of fungus in the section Circumdati of the genus Aspergillus.
It has been reported to produce aspergamide A, aspergamide B, notoamides, penicillic acid, mellein, 4-hydroxy mellein, xanthomegnin, viomellein, aspyrone, and neoaspergillic acid. Cycloechinulin has been reported from single isolates.
References
pallidofulvus
Fungi described in 1932
Fungus species | Aspergillus pallidofulvus | [
"Biology"
] | 119 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
61,115,208 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion%20Tse | Zion Tse is a professor in robotics, and the director of Centre for Bioengineering at the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary, University of London.
Early life and education
Tse received his Ph.D degree in mechatronics in medicine from Imperial College London in the UK. He then received training and worked at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Harvard University in Boston, USA, and the University of York, UK.
Currently, Tse is a professor in robotics, and the director of Centre for Bioengineering at the School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary, University of London.
Research and career
Most of Tse's academic and professional experience has been in Digital Health, Surgical Robotics, and AI Medical Imaging. He has developed and tested a broad range of medical technologies in his career, most of which have been applied in clinical patient trials. His research bridges Engineering and Medicine, connecting multidisciplinary teams of medical doctors, researchers and engineers. Tse has published internationally circulated journal papers, articles at international conferences, and robotic and mechatronic patents.
Research keywords
Intelligent robotics, vision, sensory processing, AI healthcare, imaging and medical assistive robots
Affiliations, awards, and honours
Royal Society Wolfson Fellow
Academy of Medical Sciences Professor
Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE)
Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET)
Chartered Engineer (CEng)
Senior Members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (SMIEEE)
References
Alumni of the University of Hong Kong
University of Georgia faculty
Alumni of Imperial College London
Medical technology
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people | Zion Tse | [
"Biology"
] | 343 | [
"Medical technology"
] |
61,116,424 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyfluorfen | Oxyfluorfen is a chemical compound used as an herbicide. It is manufactured by Dow AgroSciences, Adama Agricultural Solutions and 4Farmers under the trade names Goal, Galigan, and Oxyfluorfen 240. Oxyfluorfen is used to control broadleaf and grassy weeds in a variety of nut, tree fruit, vine, and field crops, especially wine grapes and almonds. It is also used for residential weed control.
Toxicity
Oxyfluorfen has low acute oral, dermal, and inhalation toxicity in humans. The primary toxic effects are in the liver and alterations in blood parameters (anemia). It is classified as a possible human carcinogen. Its LD50 is over 5000 mg/kg.
Environmental impact
Oxyfluorfen is classified as an environmental hazard under the GHS due to being "very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects".
Oxyfluorfen is toxic to plants, invertebrates, and fish. Birds and mammals may also experience subchronic and chronic effects from oxyfluorfen. It is persistent in soil and has been shown to drift from application sites to
nearby areas. It can contaminate surface water through spray drift and runoff. Oxyflurofen's waterborne LC50 for trout is less than 0.5 mg/L.
Mode of action
Oxyfluorfen is a diphenyl ether herbicide and acts via inhibition of protoporphyrinogen oxidase, (destroying chlorophill production and cell membranes), making its HRAC resistance class Group G (Aus), Group E (Global) and 14 (numerical).
Oxyfluorfen suffers from poor translocation, despite rapid shoot and foliar uptake. Desiccation in affected weeds begins in hours, with necrosis and death following in days.
Application
Oxyfluorfen is used in the USA and Australia, at rates of up to 1500 g/Ha.
It has been used on crops of tree fruit, nuts, onion, tobacco, vines, almonds, apples, apricots, grapevine, macadamias, peaches, pears, pecans, plums, walnuts, Duboisia, Avocado, custard apple, kiwi fruit, Longan, Lychees, mango, Passionfruit, Pawpaw, Rambutan, Brassica crops, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, pyrethrum and (before sowing) cotton or winter cereals.
References
Herbicides
Chloroarenes
Trifluoromethyl compounds
Nitrobenzene derivatives
Ethoxy compounds
Diphenyl ethers | Oxyfluorfen | [
"Biology"
] | 568 | [
"Herbicides",
"Biocides"
] |
61,124,560 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snagger%20%28software%29 | Snagger is a bioinformatics software program for selecting tag SNPs using pairwise r2 linkage disequilibrium. It is implemented as extension to the popular software, Haploview, and is freely available under the MIT License. Snagger distinguishes itself from existing single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) selection algorithms, including Tagger, by providing user options that allow for:
Prioritization of tagSNPs based on certain characteristics, including platform-specific design scores, functionality (i.e. coding status), and chromosomal position
Efficient selection of SNPs across multiple populations
Selection of tagSNPs outside defined genomic regions to improve coverage and genotyping success
Picking of surrogate tagSNPs that serve as backups for tagSNPs whose failure would result in a significant loss of data
Haploview with Snagger has been developed and is maintained at the Genomics Center at the University of Southern California.
References
External links
Software using the MIT license
Bioinformatics software | Snagger (software) | [
"Biology"
] | 217 | [
"Bioinformatics",
"Bioinformatics software"
] |
61,124,880 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estradiol%20diundecylate/hydroxyprogesterone%20heptanoate/testosterone%20cyclohexylpropionate | Estradiol diundecylate/hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate/testosterone cyclohexylpropionate (EDU/OHPH/TCHP), sold under the brand name Trioestrine Retard, is an injectable combination medication of estradiol diundecylate (EDU), an estrogen, hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate (OHPH), a progestogen, and testosterone cyclohexylpropionate (TCHP), an androgen/anabolic steroid. It contained 2.25 mg EDU, 100 mg OHPH, and 67.5 mg TCHP in oil solution, was provided as ampoules, and was administered by intramuscular injection. The medication was manufactured by Roussel and Théramex and was marketed by 1953. It is no longer available.
See also
List of combined sex-hormonal preparations § Estrogens, progestogens, and androgens
References
Abandoned drugs
Combined estrogen–progestogen–androgen formulations | Estradiol diundecylate/hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate/testosterone cyclohexylpropionate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 230 | [
"Drug safety",
"Abandoned drugs"
] |
61,125,010 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant%20growth%20analysis | Plant growth analysis refers to a set of concepts and equations by which changes in size of plants over time can be summarised and dissected in component variables. It is often applied in the analysis of growth of individual plants, but can also be used in a situation where crop growth is followed over time.
Absolute size
In comparing different treatments, genotypes or species, the simplest type of growth analysis is to evaluate size of plants after a certain period of growth, typically from the time of germination. In plant biology, size is often measured as dry mass of whole plants (M), or the above-ground part of it. In high-throughput phenotyping platforms, the amount of green pixels as derived from photographs taken from plants from various directions is often the variable that is used to estimate plant size.
Absolute growth rate (AGR)
In the case that plant size was determined at more than one occasion, the increase in size over a given time period can be determined. The Absolute Growth Rate (AGR) is temporal rate of change of size (mass).
where M is the change in mass of the plant during time t, respectively.
Absolute size at the end of an experiment then depends on seed mass, germination time, and the integration of AGR over all time steps measured.
Relative growth rate (RGR)
AGR is not constant, especially not in the first phases of plant growth. When there are enough resources available (light, nutrients, water), the increase of biomass after germination will be more or less proportional to the mass of the plant already present: small right after germination, larger when plants become bigger. Blackman (1919) was the first to recognize that this was similar to money accumulating in a bank account, with the increase determined by compounding interest. He applied the same mathematical formula to describe plant size over time.
The equation for exponential mass growth rate in plant growth analysis is often expressed as:
Where:
M(t) is the final mass of the plant at time (t).
M0 is the initial mass of the plant.
RGR is the relative growth rate.
RGR can then be written as:
In the case of two harvests, RGR can be simply calculated as
In the case of more harvests, a linear equation can be fitted through the ln-transformed size data. The slope of this line gives an estimate of the average RGR for the period under investigation, with units of g.g−1.day−1. A time-course of RGR can be estimated by fitting a non-linear equation through the ln-transformed size data, and calculating the derivative with respect to time.
For plants RGR values are typically (much) smaller than 1 g.g−1.day−1. Therefore, values are often reported in mg.g−1.day−1, with normal ranges for young, herbaceous species between 50–350 mg.g−1.day−1, and values for tree seedlings of 10–100 mg.g−1.day−1.
RGR components (LAR and ULR)
Soon after its inception, the RGR concept was expanded by a simple extension of the RGR equation:
where A is the total leaf area of a plant. The first component is called the 'Leaf Area Ratio' (LAR) and indicates how much leaf area there is per unit total plant mass. For young plants, values are often in the range of 1–20 m2 kg−1, for tree seedlings they are generally less. The second component is the 'Unit Leaf Rate' (ULR), which is also termed 'Net Assimilation Rate' (NAR). This variable indicates the rate of biomass increase per unit leaf area, with typical values ranging from 5-15 g.m−2.day−1 for herbaceous species and 1-5 g.m−2.day−1 for woody seedlings.
Although the ULR is not equal to the rate of photosynthesis per unit leaf area, both values are often well correlated.
The LAR can be further subdivided into two other variables that are relevant for plant biology: Specific leaf area (SLA) and Leaf Mass Fraction (LMF). SLA is the leaf area of a plant (or a given leaf) divided by leaf mass. LMF characterizes the fraction of total plant biomass that is allocated to leaves. In formula:
where ML is the mass of the leaves.
Thus, by sequentially harvesting leaf, stem, and root biomass as well as determining leaf area, deeper insight can be achieved in the various components of a plant and how they together determine whole plant growth.
Alternative ways to decompose RGR
As much as RGR can be seen from the perspective of C-economy, by calculating leaf area and photosynthesis, it could equally well be approached from the perspective of organic N concentration, and the rate of biomass increase per unit organic N:
where N is total plant organic Nitrogen, PNC is the plant organic nitrogen concentration, and NP, the nitrogen productivity, the increase in biomass per unit organic N present.
Another way to break down RGR is to consider biomass increase from the perspective of a nutrient (element) and its uptake rate by the roots. RGR can then be rewritten as a function of the Root Mass Fraction (RMF), the concentration of that element in the plant and the specific uptake rate of roots for the element of interest. Under the condition that the concentration of the element of interest remains constant (i.e. dE/dM = E/M), RGR can be also written as:
,
which can be expanded to:
where MR is the mass of the roots, SAR the specific uptake rate of the roots (moles of E taken up per unit root mass and per time), and [E] the concentration of element E in the plant.
Size-dependence of RGR
Although the increase in plant size is more or less proportional to plant mass already present, plants do not grow strictly exponentially. In a period of several days, plant growth rate will vary because of diurnal changes in light intensity, and day-to-day differences in the daily light integral. At night, plants will respire and even lose biomass. Over a longer period (weeks to months), RGR will generally decrease because of several reasons. First, the newly formed leaves at the top of the plant will begin to shade lower leaves, and therefore, average photosynthesis per unit area will go down, and so will ULR. Second, non-photosynthetic biomass, especially stems, will increase with plant size. The RGR of trees in particular decreases with increasing size due in part to the large allocation to structural material in the trunk required to hold the leaves up in the canopy. Overall, respiration scales with total biomass, but photosynthesis only scales with photosynthetically active leaf area and as a result growth rate slows down as total biomass increases and LAR decreases. And thirdly, depending on the growth conditions applied, shoot and/or root space may become confined with plant age, or water and/or nutrient supply do not keep pace with plant size and become more and more limiting. One way to 'correct' for these differences is by plotting RGR and their growth components directly against plant size. If RGR specifically is of interest, another approach is to separate size effects from intrinsic growth differences mathematically.
Decomposing the RGR ignores the dependency of plant growth rate on plant size (or allometry) and assumes, incorrectly, that plant growth is directly proportional to total plant size (isometry). As a result RGR analyses assume that size effects are isometric (scaling exponents are 1.0) instead of allometric (exponents less than 1) or hypoallometric (exponents greater than 1). It has been demonstrated that traditional RGR lacks several of the critical traits influencing growth and the allometric dependency of leaf mass and also showed how to incorporate alloemtric dependencies into RGR growth equations. This has been used to derive a generalized trait-based model of plant growth (see also Metabolic Scaling Theory and Metabolic Theory of Ecology) to show how plant size and the allometric scaling of key functional traits interact to regulate variation in whole-plant relative growth rate.
Growth analysis in agronomy
Plant growth analysis is often applied at the individual level to young well-spaced plants grown individually in pots. However, plant growth is also highly relevant in agronomy, where plants are generally grown at high density and to seed maturity. After canopy closure, plant growth is not proportional to size anymore, but changes to linear, with in the end saturation to a maximum value when crops mature. Equations used to describe plant size over time are then often expolinear or sigmoidal.
Agronomic studies often focus on the above-ground part of plant biomass, and consider crop growth rates rather than individual plant growth rates. Nonetheless there is a strong corollary between the two approaches. More specifically, the ULR as discussed above shows up in crop growth analysis as well, as:
where CGR is the Crop Growth Rate, the increase in (shoot) biomass per unit ground area, Ag the ground area occupied by a crop, A the total amount of leaf area on that ground area, and LAI the Leaf Area Index, the amount of leaf area per unit ground area.
Further reading
A simple introduction into the techniques of growth analysis can be found in Hunt (1978). Further insights and discussion of underlying assumptions are given by Evans (1972).
The degree to which the various components of RGR contribute to the observed differences in RGR between plants of different species or different treatments can be assessed with Growth Response Coefficients.
Statistical testing of RGR assessed by following individual plants non-destructively over time can be done in an ANOVA with a repeated measurements design. When plants are harvested destructively, RGR can be analysed as the Species x Time or Treatment x Time interaction in an ANOVA with ln-transformed dry mass values as the dependent variable.
For experimental designs with two harvest times, software is available to analyse growth data.
Another potential mistake in the calculation of RGR is that plant mass at time t1 is simply subtracted from plant mass at time t2 and then divided by the time difference between the two harvests. By not ln-transforming the data, no compounding is assumed within this time period and RGR values will be incorrect. Another mistake is to ln-transform the mean plant mass per harvest, rather than taking the mean of the individual ln-transformed plant masses.
See also
Biomass allocation
Relative growth rate
Specific leaf area
Theoretical production ecology
References
Plant physiology | Plant growth analysis | [
"Biology"
] | 2,212 | [
"Plant physiology",
"Plants"
] |
61,125,384 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estradiol%20dibutyrate/hydroxyprogesterone%20heptanoate/testosterone%20caproate | Estradiol dibutyrate/hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate/testosterone caproate (EDBu/OHPH/TCa), sold under the brand name Triormon Depositum, is an injectable combination medication of estradiol dibutyrate (EDBu), an estrogen, hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate (OHPH), a progestogen, and testosterone caproate (TCa), an androgen/anabolic steroid, which was used in the treatment of menopausal symptoms in women. It contained 3 mg EDBu, 30 mg OHPH, and 50 mg TCa in oil solution and was administered by intramuscular injection. The medication was developed by 1957. It is no longer available.
See also
List of combined sex-hormonal preparations § Estrogens, progestogens, and androgens
References
Abandoned drugs
Combined estrogen–progestogen–androgen formulations | Estradiol dibutyrate/hydroxyprogesterone heptanoate/testosterone caproate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 209 | [
"Drug safety",
"Abandoned drugs"
] |
61,125,401 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From%20Argonavis | From Argonavis (stylized as from ARGONAVIS, originally titled Argonavis from BanG Dream! in 2018–2021) is a Japanese multimedia project by Bushiroad. An anime television series by Sanzigen aired from April 10 to July 3, 2020, on the Super Animeism block. A rhythm mobile game by DeNa titled Argonavis from BanG Dream! AAside featuring the main band Argonavis was released in Japan on January 14, 2021. A compilation anime film titled Gekijōban Argonavis: Ryūsei no Obligato premiered on November 19, 2021, and a new anime film titled Gekijōban Argonavis Axia premiered in March 2023.
In November 2021, it is announced that the project changed its name from Argonavis from BanG Dream! to From Argonavis, meaning the project is now a whole of its own instead a part of BanG Dream!. A new company centered to manage the project, Argonavis Co., Ltd. is also established with Daisuke Hyūga as the public relation manager. Some addition includes fanclub establishment, server termination of rhythm game AAside, and new smartphone game in development.
Concept
From Argonavis' former name was stylistically written in all caps (ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream!) to differentiate the project and band names. Although it was titled Argonavis from BanG Dream!, the BanG Dream! franchise creator Takaaki Kidani stated that there will be no interaction between the girls in the main BanG Dream! universe and the new project as they are in different worlds from the one another. While the Argonavis project was originally planned as an extension of the general BanG Dream! franchise, mixed reception to the appearance of male characters in the original all-female franchise prompted Argonavis to be turned into an independent project in an alternative continuity.
Unlike the original BanG Dream! which is set in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Argonavis from BanG Dream! is set in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Characters of the first band, Argonavis, consists of five first-year university students. They begin their debut with their "0th Live" was held July 29, 2018. The second "0th live" was held on September 15 following the third live on December 10 of the same year. The lives were held at Shimokitazawa GARDEN. Argonavis' first original song, "Steady Goes!" was distributed for free for those who attended their first "0th" live.
The band's first single was released on February 20, 2019. Their second single "Starting Over" was released on August 21, 2019.
The band's first live was held on May 17 at Maihama Amphitheater, Chiba Prefecture. The projects announces manga serialization as well as music video for "Goal Line". Their second live titled will be held on December 5, 2019, at Tokyo Dome City Hall.
On November 5, 2019, Bushiroad announced that the franchise will have both anime series scheduled for Spring 2020, and a rhythm mobile game for early spring 2021 release. The game story takes place after the story in the anime. The franchise also introduced three new bands: εpsilonΦ, Fujin Rizing!, and Fantome Iris. The bands will be featured in the new game along with the Argonavis and Gyroaxia.
Characters
Argonavis
A college students pop rock band based in Hakodate, Hokkaido.
Vocalist. A first-year university student who is studying at the Faculty of Law. He could not forget the excitement of the outdoor live he saw as a child, and wished to stand on a big stage one day. However, since he is not good at communicating with other people, he would only sing on his own at karaoke sessions until he was scouted by Yūto, who was looking for vocalist for Argonavis. He is usually a calm person but will get fired up when it comes to music.
Guitarist. A first-year university student who is studying at the Faculty of Literature. Born within a prestigious family in Hakodate, he immersed himself with music activities due to his inferiority complex towards his superior older brothers. He is strong-minded and optimistic, and does not doubt that he will one day become successful with his band and that his family will finally look at him. With his creed "we wouldn't know before we try it", he created Argonavis with enough confidence.
Bassist. A first-year university student who is studying at the Faculty of Literature. His father used to be a seafarer and his mother's whereabouts are unknown. He has always been with his older brother since they were small. He started to become interested in bass because his brother was in a band. He is a prudent character who makes negative remarks to those who try to talk positively. However, he does that to make the band successful.
Keyboardist. A first-year university student who is studying at the Faculty of Political Science and Economics. Being surrounded by study, sports, and music to the point that he could do anything, he is nicknamed "Shindou", (meaning child prodigy) by people around him. Above all, he hoped to be a baseball player, but got hurt before the Koshien and had to give up his baseball career. He doesn't show his real emotions but will respond to people who need him and try his best.
Drummer. A first-year university student who is studying at the Faculty of Business. He wants to make a name for himself and earn money with the band to rebuild his parents' dairy farm that was sunk with debts. From his experience of playing taiko when he was young, he showcased a powerful performance and sold himself to joining Argonavis. He made use of the fact that his drumming is surprisingly powerful from someone his height and stature to be able to join Argonavis. With a thorough pragmatism and a personality that dislikes waste, he is constantly a high tension and a mood maker.
Gyroaxia
A college students hard rock band based in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Vocalist. He leads GYROAXIA due to his powerful vocals and overwhelming charisma. He expects nothing from his band members other than the best. However, if they are not up to his expectations, he won't hesitate to cut them off without warning. He seems to be doing all this to get back at his father, who was a legendary bandman, for abandoning him and his mother. He has no other interests other than music to the point where he initially has a disconnect with his bandmates.
Guitarist. Bewitched by Nayuta Asahi's talent, this leader of GYROAXIA spares no effort in making his name well-known. He is proficient in intel-gathering and uses it to gather information on rival bands, among others. While he adores Nayuta, he doesn't adore him as his own person rather, he adores him as a vocalist. Since he lives in different homes from Wataru Matoba, due to their parents' divorce, he worries about him a lot.
Guitarist. A stubborn man who is also very exceedingly patient. He's the enthusiastic hardworker type who won't stop trying until he excels. While he strongly opposes Nayuta's dictatorial ways, he recognizes the talent in GYROAXIA and strongly believes they deserve to be on top. The only person who has guts to bear his fangs towards Nayuta, but against someone as unpredictable as him, he always holds back from directly confronting him.
Bassist. He committed a crime back on his home planet and was banished to Earth as punishment. His crime was "the inability to make people happy". So he will stay on this planet until he is able to make someone happy... or so he says. He's a rare kind of genius—one able to join GYROAXIA without much of a sweat.
Drummer. He was a kickboxer before switching over to drums to get more popular. Making use of his natural strength, he engraved GYROAXIA's rhythm to anyone who ears with a flashy manner. He's nice to kids and women, looks superficial at first, but he's actually quite stoic. He's among the oldest in GYROAXIA and also admires Nayuta. However, he doesn't get along with Kenta's idea of throwing away his humanity for him.
Fantôme Iris
A visual kei band from Nagoya. They go by stage names during lives. The members are all working adults.
Vocalist.
Guitarist.
Guitarist.
Bassist.
Drummer.
Fujin Rizing
A college students ska band based in Nagasaki.
Vocalist and Saxophonist.
Guitarist.
Bassist.
Trombonist.
Drummer.
Epsilon Phi
A techno pop electronic rock band from Kyoto composed of middle school and high school students.
Vocalist.
Vocalist and Guitarist. Older twin brother of Kanata Nijo
Bassist. Younger twin brother of Haruka Nijo.
Synthesizer.
Drummer.
Straystride
A two-person rock band from Osaka. They previously won the LRFes and had their major debut but ended up disbanding.
Vocalist.
MC/rapper.
Other characters
Owner of the cafe Submariner.
Manager of Gyroaxia.
Vocalist of the legendary band SYANA and Nayuta Asahi's Father.
Music
An animation music video for "Goal Line" animated by Sanzigen will be some time in 2019. The band's second single, "Starting Over" was used as the theme song in the video game Card Fight!! Vanguard Ex; its coupling song is the ending song of Cardfight!! Vanguard anime adaptation.
Media
Anime
An anime adaptation for the franchise was announced on November 4, 2019. The series is animated by Sanzigen and directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori, with Nobuhiro Mōri handling series composition, Hikaru Miyoshi designing the characters, and Ryō Takahashi composing the series' music. It aired from April 10 to July 3, 2020, on the Super Animeism block on MBS, TBS, and other channels.
Episode list
Films
During the Argonavis AAside New Year Live-Streamed 'NaviZome' Online event on January 9, 2021, it was announced that a new anime film project is in production. A compilation film titled Gekijōban Argonavis: Ryūsei no Obligato has also been announced and premiered on November 19, 2021. The new anime film project, titled Gekijōban Argonavis Axia, was originally set to premiere in Japanese theaters in Q3 2022, but it was later delayed to November 4, 2022, and then to March 24, 2023.
Mobile game
A mobile rhythm game developed by DeNa titled Argonavis from BanG Dream AAside (with AA pronounced as Double A) was released on January 14, 2021. The game featured three other bands other than Argonavis and Gyroaxia: Fantôme Iris, Fuuzin Rizing!, and εpsilonΦ. It was initially planned for a late 2020 release before being postponed to spring 2021 to continue development and ensure a better product. On January 31, 2022, the game was shut down, however it was announced that a new game would commence development soon. On May 22, 2023, the game ARGONAVIS -Kimi ga Mita Stage e- (アルゴナビス -キミが見たステージへ-, ARGONAVIS -To the Stage You've Dreamed Of) was announced, along with the addition of Straystride. The game is a raising simulator, where players raise the stats of band members by levelling up cards and using the "produce" mechanic. It was planned for a summer 2023 release, but was postponed to winter 2023, and yet again postponed to the first half of 2023. The game was officially released on February 7, 2024.
Note list
References
External links
2020 anime television series debuts
Animeism
Bushiroad
Japanese idol video games
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Muse Communication
Music in anime and manga
Multimedia works
Sanzigen
Shōnen manga
Shueisha manga | From Argonavis | [
"Technology"
] | 2,544 | [
"Multimedia",
"Multimedia works"
] |
76,301,624 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilings%20and%20patterns | Tilings and patterns is a book by mathematicians Branko Grünbaum and Geoffrey Colin Shephard published in 1987 by W.H. Freeman. The book was 10 years in development, and upon publication it was widely reviewed and highly acclaimed.
Structure and topics
The book is concerned with tilings—a partition of the plane into regions (the tiles)—and patterns—repetitions of a motif in the plane in a regular manner.
The book is divided into two parts. The first seven chapters define concepts and terminology, establish the general theory of tilings, survey tilings by regular polygons, review the theory of patterns, and discuss tilings in which all the tiles, or all the edges, or all the vertices, play the same role.
The last five chapters survey a variety of advanced topics in tiling theory: colored patterns and tilings, polygonal tilings, aperiodic tilings, Wang tiles, and tilings with unusual kinds of tiles.
Each chapter open with an introduction to the topic, this is followed by the detailed material of the chapter, much previously unpublished, which is always profusely illustrated, and normally includes examples and proofs. Chapters close with exercises, and a section of notes and references which detail the historical development of the topic. These notes sections are interesting and entertaining, as they discuss the efforts of the previous workers in the field and detail the good (and bad) approaches to the topic. The notes also identify unsolved problems, point out areas of potential application, and provide connections to other disciplines in mathematics, science, and the arts.
The book has 700 pages, including a 40-page, 800-entry bibliography, and an index. The book is used as a source on numerous Wikipedia pages.
Audience
In their preface the authors state "We have written this book with three main groups of readers in mind—students, professional mathematicians and non-mathematicians whose interests include patterns and shapes (such as artists, architects, crystallographers and others).
Other reviewers commented as follows:
"The most striking feature of the book is its extensive collection of figures, including hundreds of examples of tilings and patterns. The sheer abundance is perhaps one reason why artists and designers have been drawn to it over the years."
"Their idea was that the book should be accessible to any reader who is attracted to geometry."
Reception
Contemporary reviews of the book were overwhelming positive. The book was reviewed by 15 journals in the fields of crystallography, mathematics, and the sciences. Quotations from major reviews:
Influence
The book was praised in later journal articles by multiple authors:
The book was also praised in later books by other authors:
Editions
The hardback original Tilings and patterns was published in 1987.
Tilings and patterns - an introduction, a paperback reprint of the first seven chapters of the 1987 original, was published in 1989.
In 2016 a second edition of the full text was published by Dover in paperback, with a new preface and an appendix describing progress in the subject since the first edition. The reviewer at MAA Reviews commented "Dover has once again done the mathematical community a service in bringing back such a notable volume."
References
External links
at the Internet Archive
at the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Mathematics books
1987 non-fiction books
Tiling
Tessellation | Tilings and patterns | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 671 | [
"Tessellation",
"Planes (geometry)",
"Euclidean plane geometry",
"Symmetry"
] |
76,302,856 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily%20mottle%20virus | The Lily mottle virus (LMoV), is a plant virus of the Potyviridae virus family that causes asymptomatic to mild diseases of individual plant parts in plants of the lily family (Liliaceae). However, a frequently occurring simultaneous infection with other plant viruses, which on their own only cause moderate or no disease, can cause an entire plant to perish. This coinfection leads to considerable crop damage in lily cultivation and is therefore of great economic importance. Lily mottle virus is spread by aphids and in horticulture during vegetative propagation by splitting the lily bulb. LMoV was regarded as a synonym for a subtype of the Tulip Breaking Virus (TBV) that occurs in lilies, although since 2005 it has been classified as a closely related but independent virus species of the genus Potyvirus.
Discovery
The symptoms of the plant disease caused by LMoV were already known in the 19th century. Yet it was not until 1944 that P. Brierley and F. F. Smith succeeded in proving a coinfection with two viruses as the cause through infection experiments on several tulip and lily species. They were able to detect the Lily symptomless virus (LSV, order Tymovirales: Betaflexiviridae: Carlavirus) in several lily species grown in the USA (Lilium auratum, L. speciosum, L. longiflorum), which showed streaky brightening (chlorosis) or individual necrotic spots on the leaves, which was always present simultaneously with the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) or the Lily mottle virus. They were also able to demonstrate that all three viruses are transmitted by aphids of the species Aphis gossypii.
Virus structure
Morphology
Virus particles (virions) of the Lily mottle virus consist of a thread-like capsid with helical symmetry, in which a single-stranded RNA is packed as a genome; a viral envelope is not present. The capsid is 13 nm thick and about 740 nm long. The length of the capsid increases in the presence of divalent cations (especially calcium ions) in the preparation and decreases after binding by the addition of EDTA. The individual capsomeres that make up the capsid require a pitch of 3.4 nm for one helix turn. Compared to viruses with rigid rods and a comparable structure (e.g. the Tobacco mosaic virus- TMV), this duct height is relatively large and enables the LMoV capsid to be flexible and bendable. One turn requires 7.7 capsomeres, so that the entire capsid is composed of about 1700 capsomeres. The individual capsomeres consist of only one molecule of the LMoV capsid protein (CP, coat/capsid protein) with a length of 274 amino acids (33 kDa). The CP is folded several times in such a way that the N- and C-terminus point outwards. These outer ends of the capsid protein are very variable. The protruding N-terminus mainly determines the specific attachment to the host cell and enables the serological differentiation of different virus isolates. The highly conserved sections in the middle of the CP (216 amino acids) within the different members of the Potyviridae point inwards in the capsid and interact with the viral RNA.
The virions are stable against ethanol and lose their infectivity in the plant sap only after 10 minutes at 65-70 °C. The LMoV has a density of 1.31 g/ml in density gradient centrifugation (caesium chloride) and a sedimentation coefficient of 137 to 160 S.
Genome
The genome of LMoV is a linear, single-stranded RNA with positive polarity [(+)ssRNA] and a length of 9644 nucleotides. A viral protein (VPg) is covalently bound to the 5'-end of the RNA. As with cellular messenger RNAs, a poly(A) tail of 20 to 160 adenosines is located at the 3' end of the viral genome. Between the two non-coding ends (NCR: non-coding region) is an open reading frame (ORF), which codes for a polyprotein of 3095 amino acids. This polyprotein is cleaved into the individual viral proteins by proteases during translation.
An IRES structure was suspected in the 5'-NCR of potyviruses, as translation is initiated without a 5'-cap structure. LMoV does not have a cap structure, nor could an IRES be confirmed from sequence data. The VPg protein bound to the 5'-NCR possibly serves as a primer for the RNA polymerase to amplify the RNA. However, the VPg of other potyviruses also interacts directly with the translation initiation factors eIF4E and eIFiso4E. This could represent an as yet uncharacterized, Cap- and IRES-independent translation pathway.
Virus proteins and replication
After infection, the virus enters the plant via the vascular bundle and is taken up by the cells through membrane vesicles (endocytosis). In the cytoplasm, the capsid disintegrates and the RNA is released. The viral RNA can also enter the cell very effectively via infected neighboring cells through cell contact sites (plasmodesmata). This direct transport of naked, infectious RNA is controlled by several viral proteins, including the so-called HC (helper component), which form a so-called movement complex. As with all (+)ssRNA viruses, the ingested RNA is first translated into protein at the ribosomes, as at least one copy of the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is required for the replication of the RNA. After this has synthesized several copies of the viral RNA, the LMoV proteins are produced in large quantities. These accumulate at the synthesis sites of the viroplasm to form morphologically visible inclusion bodies. When infected with LMoV, these inclusion bodies have a characteristic, cylindrical to spiral-like shape in the cytoplasm; the virus protein that predominantly forms these cylinders is therefore also referred to as CI (cylindrical inclusion). Amorphous inclusion bodies are formed in the cell nucleus, which consist of two viral proteins NIa and NIb (nuclear inclusions). As the viral proteins are always formed in the same ratio during translation of the RNA and larger quantities of the capsid protein are required in comparison to other proteins, these proteins, which are not required in many copies, form inclusion bodies, are degraded or excreted from the cell.
The LMoV polyprotein is cleaved into eight individual proteins by viral proteases. At the N-terminus, viral protease 1 (P1) cleaves itself from the polyprotein. Next comes the HC protein, which is important for transmission by aphids; however, the mechanism is unclear. The HC has a papain-like protein domain at the C-terminus, with which the HC also splits off independently from the polyprotein. All other proteins are cleaved by the NIa protease. This is followed by a further protease (P3) with an as yet unknown function and the CI, from which a small peptide 6K1 is cleaved (possibly for activation). The CI is active as a helicase during RNA replication. Together with a protease component, the VPg forms the NIa. The NIb is the viral RNA polymerase from which the viral capsid protein CP is cleaved. Once sufficient viral (+)ssRNA and CP have been formed, packaging into the capsid can take place and mature viruses can be released into the plant sap by exocytosis. The much more effective infection of the naked RNA from cell to cell explains the appearance of patchy lesions on the leaves.
Classification
The genus Potyvirus is currently the largest group of all plant viruses with 168 virus species. This large number of Potyviruses makes it difficult to distinguish and delimit individual species or subtypes, especially the Lily mottle virus and the Tulip breaking virus (TBV), which were long considered synonyms of a single species. LMoV was regarded as the subtype of TBV (TBV subtype Lily) that was widespread in lilies. This distinction was made even more complex by the fact that the true species TBV can also cause disease in lilies. With more and more comparative sequences of the genome of different virus isolates, incorrect assignments have so far been detected. In a study of 187 complete genome sequences and 1220 partial sequences for the capsid protein of potyviruses, several subgroups within the genus were identified and the criteria for the species limits were also redefined for LMoV and TBV. Accordingly, a match in the nucleotide sequence between two complete genomes of more than 76% is considered a species limit (corresponds to 82% match in the amino acid sequence). The part of the nucleotide sequence coding for the capsid protein CP showed a species limit of 76-77%. The sequence of the CI protein appeared to be the most suitable for differentiation. Several sequences of potyviruses (including TBV and LMoV), which were published in the international gene bank GenBank, had to be assigned to other species as a result.
The taxonomy defined by the "International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses" and valid since 2005 includes subtypes of LMoV previously classified as TBV:
Family Potyviridae
Genus Potyvirus
Species Lily-Mottle-Virus (LMoV)
Subtype Lily-Mild-Mottle-Virus
Subtype Lily-Mottle-Virus
Subtype Tulip-band-breaking-Virus
Species Tulip-breaking-Virus (Tulip breaking potyvirus, officially Tulip breaking virus, TBV)
Subtype Mild tulip breaking virus (MTBV)
Subtype Severe tulip breaking virus (STBV)
Infection and disease caused by LMoV
About two weeks after being infected with LMoV, a light green mottle appears on young leaves. The discoloration can also appear in stripes along the leaf veins. Over the course of a few days, the leaf becomes thinner in the light spots and in severe cases the plant cells can die in these areas; the irregularly defined spots now appear dark brown and dried out. All new shoots and flowers that sprout after infection are reduced in size and often deformed.
However, the severity of the disease symptoms varies greatly between different lily species and hybrids. Even the disease of identical species in a single cultivation area varies in severity. This phenomenon can be explained by the influence of the growth phase at the time of infection, the point of entry and the infectious dose of the virus. In the Easter lily (L. longiflorum), no disease regularly develops, although the virus multiplies in the plant. In the tiger lily (L. lancifolium), only a very slight light green mottling occurs. In some LMoV infections, only reduced length growth and smaller flowers and bulbs can be observed. The economically important species L. formosanum always falls ill after an LMoV infection; this also applies to the wild varieties found in Taiwan. Only the specially selected variety Lilium formosanum "Little Snow White" has increased virus resistance. Very susceptible to LMoV and other plant viruses found in lilies is the hybrid "Enchantment" bred by Jan de Graaff in 1941 and all cultivars derived from it, such as the cultivar Lilium Asia. Hybrid cv. Enchantment.
Infection with LMoV alone never leads to the death of the entire plant, but remains locally limited to some parts of the plant. However, a coinfection of LMoV with the Lily symptomless virus is particularly common, which alone does not cause any symptoms of the disease, but only reduced plant growth. If a plant is infected by both viruses, the disease progresses much more severely and quickly. After the initial typical symptoms of a pronounced LMoV infection, larger vascular bundles such as the entire phloem are affected, which ultimately causes the entire plant to die. A double-infected lily bulb can already be severely damaged during storage, lose its ability to sprout and die.
Transmission and spread
Transmission
Reed aphids ingesting plant sap]]
The Lily Mottle virus is transmitted during the feeding act of aphids (Aphididae). The aphids ingest the virus, which is present in high concentrations in the plant sap, during the feeding act and can infect other plants with a delay of a few hours. The virus cannot multiply in the aphid itself. After absorption of the plant sap into the aphid's midgut, the virus is distributed in the bloodstream and enters the saliva of the sucking apparatus; a new plant can then be infected during the next feeding. The aphid species that predominantly transmit LMoV are Aphis gossypii, Myzus persicae, Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Doralis fabae. Stored bulbs can also be infected with the virus by Anuraphis (Yezabura) tulipae. Winged specimens of the aphid population enable transmission over long distances.
During plant cultivation, the virus is transmitted when the plants are cut and injured with contaminated knives and scissors. Experimentally, this route of infection is used by targeted scoring of the plants. Splitting the lily bulbs during vegetative propagation spreads the virus to all daughter plants. The same applies to vegetative propagation by cuttings in tissue culture, which is very common in industrial horticulture. The virus is not spread by seeds; if a new plant germinates from the seed of an LMoV-infected plant, it is not infected.
Distribution
The natural geographical spread of the virus is not known, as when it was discovered in the US in 1944, it was already being spread by man through the global trade in flowers and bulbs. The cultivation of lilies in large greenhouses and fields as a monoculture particularly favors transmission compared to the natural occurrence of wild plants. The virus is spread worldwide and is endemic in countries with significant lily cultivation. In addition to the United States, this includes the Netherlands, Poland, North and South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Israel. The Lily mild mottle virus, a subtype of LMoV, was detected in 26.3% of all plants in a study of 185 lily samples from South Korean crops, and a co-infection of LMoV and the Tomato ringspot virus was observed in a further 23.2%.
In the Netherlands, LMoV was detected several times in all plants of individual lily fields of the cultivar "Enchantment". Often there was also an infection with the Lily symptomless virus. In plantations affected in this way, necrosis of the stem and leaves is increasingly observed, which is usually followed by the death of the plant. If all the lilies in a plantation are only infected with LMoV, this does not usually result in the loss of the entire flower crop; smaller flowers or plants with reduced growth are then offered at lower prices.
LMoV was detected in all of the approximately 340 lily cultivars grown on a large scale. The undetected spread through worldwide transportation is particularly prevalent in those lily species that show no or only minor symptoms of infection, but can propagate the virus, such as the Easter lily and Tiger lily. The virus has a wider host range than was assumed in earlier studies. For example, LMoV was also detected in the winter endive (C. endivia L. var. latifolium Lam.).
Prevention of the infection
The spread of LMoV in industrial production is primarily prevented by controlling the aphids as carriers. The virus is mainly transmitted by spreading aphid populations in June and July, less so in May and August. Weekly control of the insects from May and biweekly in August and September is carried out on an industrial scale. The lilies are most often treated with kerosene oil or pyrethroids as aerosols.
To prevent infection, it is important to avoid further spread through seed bulbs and the global plant trade. Those lily species with no or only mild symptoms are a particular source of infection outbreaks, as the infection remains undetected. For this reason, the simultaneous cultivation of resistant and susceptible lily varieties is often avoided, as the virus can spread unnoticed in the resistant varieties without developing disease symptoms. These form a permanent reservoir for the infection of the susceptible varieties. In a monoculture of susceptible varieties, infected plants can be sorted out and thus the spread of the virus can be controlled to a certain extent. As the virus is not transmitted by seed like other members of the Potyvirus genus, a crop can be freed from infection with LMoV by more complex, renewed breeding from seed.
The transportation and trade of plant parts such as flowers, cuttings or bulbs from cultivation areas in which LMoV has been detected is subject to legal restrictions or an import ban in many countries. In particular, plant parts traded for propagation and breeding have had to be tested for LMoV in Germany since 1998 in accordance with the implementation of several EU directives. To detect LMoV, immunological tests for LMoV virus proteins (ELISA) and, rarely, detection of the virus genome by PCR are used. Both the leaves ("leaf test") and the harvested bulbs ("bulb test") are used as test samples for diagnostics. Newer methods for the simultaneous detection of several plant viruses from one sample by DNA hybridization (macroarray) are currently being tested.
References
Bibliography
Gerhart Drews, Günter Adam, Cornelia Heinze: Molekulare Pflanzenvirologie. Berlin 2004;
Sondra D. Lazarowitz: Plant Viruses. In: David M. Knipe, Peter M. Howley (Red.): Fields’ Virology. 5. Auflage. 2 Bände, Philadelphia 2007, S. 641–705;
Kenneth M. Smith: A Textbook of Plant Virus Diseases. 3. Auflage. Edinburgh 1972
P. H. Berger et al.: Family Potyviridae. In: C. M. Fauquet, M. A. Mayo et al.: Eighth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. London, San Diego 2005, S. 819–841;
Juan José López-Moya, Juan Antonio García: Potyviruses. In: Allan Granoff, Robert G. Webster (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia of Virology. Band 3, Academic Press, San Diego 1999, S. 1369–1375;
Individual references
External links
Virionen des TBV mit gleicher Morphologie wie das LMoV (TEM-Aufnahme)
Einschlusskörperchen im Zytoplasma (TEM)
Lily mottle virus in der Datenbank des ICTV
Lily mottle virus in der Taxonomie-Datenbank des NCBI
Genom- und Polyproteinsequenz des LMoV (NC 005288)
Potyviruses
Viral plant pathogens and diseases
Virus articles by quality
Viruses
Viruses articles needing expert attention | Lily mottle virus | [
"Biology"
] | 4,057 | [
"Viruses",
"Tree of life (biology)",
"Microorganisms"
] |
76,302,874 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%2036584 | HD 36584 (HR 1859; 24 G. Doradus) is a visual binary located in the southern constellation Dorado. The primary has an apparent magnitude of 6.62 and the secondary has an apparent magnitude of 6.91, making both stars visible in a telescope but not to the naked eye. The system is located relatively close at a distance of 263 light-years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements and it is drifting closer with a heliocentric radial velocity of . The system has a combined absolute magnitude of 1.57.
HD 36584 was first discovered to be a double star in 1898 by astronomer R.T.A Innes. At the time of discovery, the components had a separation of only half an arcsecond and the secondary was located at a position angle of 210°. The separation between the components increased to 1.34" and the position angle of the secondary shifted to 162° in 1997. At this separation, the components can be resolved in an amateur telescope, but the individual characteristics of both stars cannot be studied. As of 2015, the secondary is located at a distance of 1.4" along a position angle of 159°. The two stars take about 795 years to circle each other in a very eccentric orbit.
The system has a combined stellar classification of F0 IV/V, indicating that it is an evolved F-type star that has the blended luminosity class of a subgiant and main sequence star. The components have masses 1.69 and 1.57 times that of the Sun respectively.
References
Binary stars
F-type subgiants
F-type main-sequence stars
Dorado
Doradus, 24
CD-68 00308
036584
025482
1859
Astronomical objects discovered in 1898
Discoveries by Robert T. A. Innes | HD 36584 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 372 | [
"Dorado",
"Constellations"
] |
76,304,970 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociedad%20Espa%C3%B1ola%20de%20Construcciones%20Electromec%C3%A1nicas | Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas (abbreviated as SECEM), colloquially known as "electro", was a Spanish company in the non-ferrous metals industry that operated between 1917 and 1978. Throughout its existence it was one of the most important Spanish companies in the copper sector, having its main activity in Córdoba. Among its products were copper products, brass, electrical transformers, etc.
History
The company was founded on June 15, 1917, with Spanish-French financial support, with a capital stock of 25 million pesetas. It was born in the context of a boom in Spanish industry, in the heat of the First World War. Two foreign capital companies were involved in its creation, the Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya (SMMP) and the Rio Tinto Company Limited (RTC), both of which became shareholders of the new company. The SECEM owned an important plant in Cordoba dedicated to copper metallurgy, brass production, manufacture of motors and electric transformers, etc. Over the years it ended up becoming one of the main companies in the sector, having also a great importance in the local context of Cordoba.
The company came to manufacture nearly 40% of all the electrolytic copper produced in Spain, being supplied to a large extent by the material coming from the Rio Tinto-Nerva mining basin. In this sense, SECEM became an important client of the Compañía Española de Minas de Río Tinto (CEMRT), and later the companies Río Tinto Patiño and Río Tinto Minera would have an important shareholding in SECEM. In spite of this privileged situation, the lack of internal competition meant that the machinery and technology of the Cordovan factory were not modernized, which in the long term would end up causing serious problems for SECEM's economic viability. Towards the end of the 1970s, the industrial crisis had a considerable impact on the copper sector. Taking advantage of this context, in May 1978 SECEM —with the financial support of Banco de Bilbao and Banco Hispano Americano— proceeded to acquire the companies Pradera Hermanos, Sociedad Industrial Asturiana and Earle; at the end of the year, all of these companies formed the conglomerate Ibercobre, which controlled 60% of the copper market.
The SECEM complex in Cordoba remained intact until 1989–1990, after the purchase of Ibercobre by the Finnish company Outokumpu, which decided to split it into three separate industries.
Railway equipment
The SECEM factory in Cordoba was located to the west of the city, next to the route of the Cordoba-Seville and Cordoba-Malaga railway lines, which allowed its production to be transported by rail. For this purpose, an industrial branch and several sidings were set up within the industrial complex. Eventually SECEM acquired two 0-2-0T steam locomotives to take over the shunting and traction work with the freight wagons. One of these engines, acquired in 1963, was the former RENFE 020–0212. It is currently preserved and exhibited in Cordoba.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Metallurgical organizations
Spanish companies established in 1917
Companies disestablished in 1978
Defunct companies of Spain | Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 670 | [
"Metallurgy",
"Metallurgical organizations"
] |
76,305,775 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroPDF417 | MicroPDF417 is two-dimensional (2D) stacked barcode symbology invented in 1996, by Frederick Schuessler, Kevin Hunter, Sundeep Kumar and Cary Chu from Symbol Technologies company. MicroPDF417 consists from specially encoded Row Address Patterns (RAP) columns and aligned to them Data columns encoded in "417" sequence which was invented in 1990. In 2006, the standard was registered as ISO/IEC 24728:2006.
MicroPDF417 barcode can be read with both barcode reader technologies like laser scanners and camera-based readers. As most of 2D barcodes, MicroPDF417 standard contains Reed–Solomon error correction with ability to read corrupted images and high data density. However, data which can be encoded in MicroPDF417 is only 150 bytes or 250 alphanumeric characters in the biggest 4-columns version. Also, because of design, MicroPDF417 barcode can be used only for high-quality documents and images.
MicroPDF417 in common modes can encode text, numeric, binary data and Unicode text with Extended Channel Interpretation. Additionally, MicroPDF417 contains special modes which can encode text and numeric data in special formats, which can be used, as an example, in GS1 Composite bar code symbology.
History and standards
MicroPDF417 barcode was patented in 1996, by Frederick Schuessler, Kevin Hunter, Sundeep Kumar and Cary Chu from Symbol Technologies company. MicroPDF417 is an extension of PDF417 barcode and uses the same principles of data encoding. Before 2006, the standard can be obtained only from AIM store as ITS MicroPDF417 standard. At that time, it is used as part of ITS - EAN.UCC Composite Symbology. In 2006, MicroPDF417 standard was brought out as ISO/IEC 24728:2006 and can be used independently or as part of GS1 Composite barcode symbology.
Application
MicroPDF417 is mostly used to add extended data to linear barcodes. MicroPDF417 has high encoding density and in this way, it can add more additional data in lower space. At this time, it is used in inventory management and goods labeling as part of EAN.UCC Composite Symbology and GS1 Composite barcode symbology. Most of barcode printers and barcode scanners have MicroPDF417 support.
Barcode design
MicroPDF417 barcode symbol consists from at least two Row Address Patterns (RAP) columns which are used to detect row numbers and aligned to them Data Columns. MicroPDF417 barcode symbol has four versions with 1, 2, 3 and 4 data columns. The barcode can be split to the following elements:
Quiet zone
Left RAP column
Variable Data columns and optional Center RAP column
One Data columns version: One Data column
Two Data columns version: Two Data columns
Three Data columns version: One Data column, Center RAP column, Two Data columns
Four Data columns version: Two Data columns, Center RAP column, Two Data columns
Right RAP column with stop bar
Quiet zone
Every MicroPDF417 barcode data column versions can be split into predefined numbers of rows which are different for every version. Row height should be from 2 to 5 times higher than minimal module (bar or space) width.
RAP columns structure
MicroPDF417 Row Address Patterns (RAP) are stacked into columns. Each RAP is used as indicator of row number, but RAP is not the same as row number. Every MicroPDF417 RAP consists from 10 modules, which are split to 3 black bars and 3 white spaces. Bars and spaces size can vary from 1 to 5. Each RAP row starts from black bar and ends with white space. Right RAP has additional completing black bar.
MicroPDF417 Row Address Patterns have 52 values which are used for left and right columns and 52 other values which are used only for Center columns. RAP has values from 1 to 52. One and two data columns MicroPDF417 barcode use only Left and Right RAP columns, three and four column versions additionally use Center RAP column.
All of Row Address Patterns in MicroPDF417 from Left, Right and Center columns use special sequences which are called Row Number Assignments (RNA). The unique combination of RNA defines MicroPDF417 version and equality of current RAP number to row number.
As an example, MicroPDF417 4 columns and 4 rows version has Left RAP, which starts from 47 and ends 50, Center RAP starts from 19 and ends 22, Right RAP starts from 43 and ends 46. The combination of these 3 sequences in the same area of the image defines 4 columns and 4 rows MicroPDF417 version and gives answer which RAP number identifies current row.
Data codewords
MicroPDF417 Data codewords encoding is similar to PDF417 barcode. Every Data codeword row has width of 17 modules, split to 4 black bars and 4 white spaces with variable size from 1 to 6 modules. Each codeword represents a number from 0 to 928. The set of codewords is represented in each of three clusters with numbers 0, 3 and 6.
The codeword cluster number can be counted by number of Left RAP (values from 1 to 52) in the current row with the following formula:
Error correction
MicroPDF417 uses Reed–Solomon error correction. Amount of error correction codewords are fixed for each barcode version. MicroPDF417 has from 28% to 67% symbol capacity filled by errors correction codewords. MicroPDF417 error correction can recover erasures and substitution errors, where:
erasures errors correction ability: Error Correction Codewords – 1;
substitution errors: (Error Correction Codewords – 1) / 2.
Example of MicroPDF417 codewords placement
Here is example how all of these codewords are assembled into MicroPDF417 symbol:
LR(x) - Left Row Address Patterns (RAP) identifier.
D(x) - Data codeword.
CR(x) - Center Row Address Patterns (RAP) identifier.
RR(x) - Right Row Address Patterns (RAP) identifier.
E(x) - Error correction codeword.
Encoding
MicroPDF417 barcode has 929 data codewords, where 900 data codewords (0 - 899) are available in each mode for data encoding and 29 (900 - 928) codewords are assigned to specific functions, most of which defines data encoding modes. Encoding modes can be split into two encoding types: common modes for ordinary binary or text data encoding and special modes which can be used to encode special industrial modes.
Common modes
MicroPDF417 common encoding modes is similar to PDF417 encoding modes and includes:
Numeric mode which includes digits encoding: 0 – 9;
Text mode which includes around 100 characters from ANSI character set (including digits, uppercase and lowercase letters, punctuation and special characters);
Byte mode which encodes bytes values 0 – 255;
Unicode characters with Extended Channel Interpretation submodes.
Any of these modes can be combined in mixed mode to obtain better data compaction and reduce MicroPDF417 symbol size.
Special modes
MicroPDF417 can encode data in special industrial modes, which includes:
UCC/EAN-128 modes, which are used to encode with best data compaction GS1 Application Identifiers data;
UCC/EAN-128 "Linked" modes, which are used to encode with best data compaction GS1 Application Identifiers data and set "Linked" state for the barcode, which means that the barcode is connected to linear component;
EAN.UCC Composite symbol "Linked" mode which is used to encode data for GS1 Composite bar code symbology ISO/IEC 24723:2010;
"05 Macro" and "06 Macro" string from ISO/IEC 15434:2019, which encode industry-specific headers and trailers in short way;
Code 128 emulation modes which indicate that decoder must return symbol identification as Code 128 instead of MicroPDF417.
Structured append
MicroPDF417 barcode allows to add metadata to the barcode symbol which can add description of current barcode symbol. However, because MicroPDF417 has restricted amount of capacity it is used rarely. Some structured append fields cannot be omitted and set in case structured append is added to the symbol, some fields are optional. Possible structured append fields you can see in the following table:
See also
Automated identification and data capture (AIDC)
Barcode
Extended Channel Interpretation
GS1
PDF417
Symbol Technologies
References
External links
Free MicroPDF417 generator
Free MicroPDF417 reader
MicroPDF417 description
MicroPDF417 patent
Automatic identification and data capture
Barcodes
Encodings | MicroPDF417 | [
"Technology"
] | 1,832 | [
"Data",
"Automatic identification and data capture"
] |
76,306,216 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianca%20Schroeder | Bianca Schroeder is a computer scientist whose research concerns the reliability of data storage devices and the effects of data faults on high performance computing. Educated in Germany, Ireland, and the US, she works in Canada as a professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto.
Education and career
Schroeder studied computer science at Saarland University in Germany, with a year in Ireland as an exchange student at the University of Limerick. She earned a master's degree in 1999, under the joint supervision of Kurt Mehlhorn and Susanne Albers. Next, she went to Carnegie Mellon University in the US, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2005. Her dissertation, Improving the Performance of Static and Dynamic Requests at a Busy Web Site, was advised by Mor Harchol-Balter.
Shroeder remained at Carnegie Mellon University for two years as a postdoctoral researcher with Garth Gibson before taking a faculty position at the University of Toronto. Schroeder was given a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Reliable and Efficient Data Centres in 2014, renewed in 2019. She is a professor in the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Toronto,
Recognition
Schroeder was a 2013 recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Computer Science Researcher Award of Computer Science Canada/Informatique Canada. She was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2013.
Her research has won two USENIX test of time awards. At FAST 2019, she was given the award for a 2007 paper with Garth Gibson entitled "Disk Failures in the Real World: What Does an MTTF of 1,000,000 Hours Mean to You?". At FAST 2022, she was awarded a second time for her 2008 paper "An Analysis of Data Corruption in the Storage Stack", written with Lakshmi N. Bairavasundaram, Garth Goodson, Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau, and Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau.
References
External links
Home page
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Computer scientists
Women computer scientists
Saarland University alumni
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Academic staff of the University of Toronto
Sloan Research Fellows
Canada Research Chairs | Bianca Schroeder | [
"Technology"
] | 439 | [
"Computer science",
"Computer scientists"
] |
76,309,633 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture%20astronaut | In software development, an architecture astronaut is a term for an individual who is focused on abstract ideas underpinning software design. It is often used pejoratively. The concept was popularized by developer Joel Spolsky in his 2001 essay, "Don't let architecture astronauts scare you", in which he criticized their tendency to see patterns in everything as "absurd". Programmer John Carmack has defined architecture astronauts as "a class of programmers or designers who only want to talk about things from the highest level."
An abstract approach to software architecture can help build an understanding of the bigger picture, and the ability to communicate ideas to a broad group of stakeholders can be valuable. However, the architecture astronaut can take this approach to an extreme, and become disconnected from the systems they are designing. While they may impress others initially with their ability to speak confidently and at extremely high levels of abstraction, their actual designs often lack technical depth and practicality. Demonstrating little regard for logistical details about how their ideas should be executed, they may ultimately lose the respect of their development teams. According to Spolsky: When you go too far up, abstraction-wise, you run out of oxygen. Sometimes, smart thinkers just don't know when to stop, and they create these absurd, all-encompassing, high-level pictures of the universe that are all good and fine, but don't actually mean anything at all.In 2021, John Carmack, then CTO of Oculus consulting, described the metaverse as "a honeypot trap for architecture astronauts". He lamented that Mark Zuckerberg's focus on building the metaverse could result in thousands of people spending years building things that would not end up being useful.
Other projects that have been characterized as the work of architecture astronauts include XHTML 2.0, which HTML5 evangelist Bruce Lawson described in 2010 as "a beautiful specification of philosophical purity that had absolutely no resemblance to the real world."
References
Software engineering terminology
Software architecture | Architecture astronaut | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 406 | [
"Software engineering",
"Computing terminology",
"Software engineering terminology"
] |
76,309,684 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cothenius%20Medal%20awardees%2C%201864%E2%80%931953 | Cothenius Medal awardees, 1864–1953 is a list of Cothenius Medal awardees for the period between 1864 and 1953.
List of Laureates
See also
Cothenius Medal awardees, 1792-1861
References
Cothenius Medal
Awards established in 1792
Biology awards
Chemistry awards
Physics awards
Geology awards | Cothenius Medal awardees, 1864–1953 | [
"Technology"
] | 63 | [
"Biology awards",
"Cothenius Medal",
"Chemistry awards",
"Science and technology awards",
"Physics awards"
] |
76,309,782 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake%20%28malware%29 | Snake was malware developed by the Federal Security Service of Russia. It was one of the most used tools by FSB's Center 16 and formed a part of the Turla toolset. It saw use in at least 50 countries, being employed to collect data from government networks, diplomatic communication and research facilities.
History
Its development began in 2003 as “Uroburos”. By early 2004, development was finished and cyber operations using the malware had started. On 8 May 2023, under Operation MEDUSA, the FBI and other agencies took down Snake's infrastructure.
References
Malware | Snake (malware) | [
"Technology"
] | 123 | [
"Malware",
"Computer security exploits"
] |
76,314,153 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald%20Hess | Harald Frederick Hess (born September 12, 1955) is an American physicist and Senior Group Leader at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus, known for his work in scanning probe microscopy, light microscopy and electron microscopy.
Education
Hess earned his BS degree in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1977 before pursuing further studies at Princeton University, where he obtained his PhD in Physics in 1982.
Career and research
As a postdoctoral researcher at MIT from 1982 until 1986, Hess focused his research on trapping hydrogen atoms and achieving Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). During this time, he developed the concept of evaporative cooling as a means to achieve BEC, which was a significant contribution to the field and ultimately led to the awarding of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Afterward, Hess joined Bell Labs as technical staff member. During his time there, he designed and developed a range of low-temperature scanning probe microscopes to visualize various physics phenomena, including vortices in superconductors.
After 1997, he spent eight years in industry at KLA-Tencor, where he focused on developing advanced equipment for the production and inspection of hard disk drives and semiconductors.
In 2005, he and his colleague Eric Betzig discovered photoactivatable fluorescent proteins and invented PALM (photoactivated localization microscopy), which enabled the visualization of cell structures beyond the diffraction limit. The PALM was constructed in a La Jolla condominium, underwent testing at the National Institute of Health, and contributed to the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
At the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hess further developed PALM into a 3D super-resolution microscopy technique and is currently exploring its potential applications for cell biology research. Additionally, Hess is actively working on developing 3D electron microscopy techniques for volumetric imaging of cells and neural tissue.
Overall, Hess's research centers on developing new forms of microscopy and refining existing technologies to uncover new physical or biological characteristics.
Awards and honours
1997 American Physical Society Fellow
2016 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2018 Member of the National Academy of Sciences
2023 James Prize in Science and Technology Integration by the National Science Foundation
2024 National Inventors Hall of Fame
References
External links
iBiology seminar
The Microscopists interviews Harald Hess
RMS International Microscopy Lecture Series (IMLS)
RMS Interview
1955 births
Living people
21st-century American physicists
Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
Microscopists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Princeton University alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Optical physicists | Harald Hess | [
"Chemistry"
] | 515 | [
"Microscopists",
"Microscopy"
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76,314,818 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger%20Militz | Holger Militz (born in 1960) is a German wood scientist and professor at the University of Goettingen, who is an elected fellow (FIAWS) of the International Academy of Wood Science.
Biography
Militz was born in 1960 in Waldbröl, a small town in the countryside, in Germany.
He pursued his studies in wood science at the University of Hamburg. He then completed his PhD work in 1990 at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, focusing on enhancing the impregnation of wood through anatomical cell wall changes.
Between 1987 and 2000, he held positions in the Netherlands, initially serving as the head of wood technology at TNO Timber Research and later becoming the director of SHR Timber Research in Wageningen.
Militz along with his research corkers started up during the 90's at SHR the first feasible pilot plant, leading thus to the scaling-up of the today-commercial wood acetylation process, that had been initiated by American chemist, Alfred J. Stamm during the 1940's at Forest Products Laboratory.
Since 2000, he has held the position of a full professor at Wood Biology and Wood Products in the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. He has been a part-time professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences since 2010.
His main research interests include wood decay, wood protection and especially, wood modification applying green technologies. He possesses over 600 publications in many scientific journals and book articles in the area of wood science and technology.
Militz has won several awards for his yearlong work in the area of wood products and wood modification. He has been an active member of the editorial boards of the international wood journals, Holzforschung, Wood Research, and Holztechnologie, while he is the chairman of the ECWM - Wood Modification in Europe since 2001.
In October 2023, a meta-research carried out by John Ioannidis et al.,. at Stanford University included Holger Militz in Elsevier Data 2022, where he was ranked in the top 2% of researchers in wood science (forestry – materials), having a c-score of 3.495, one of the highest three in this scientific area.
Awards
Honorary award, IRG Wood Protection, Australia (2023)
Ternryd prize university Växjö, Sweden (2016)
Josef-Umdasch Forschungspreis, Vienna (2012)
Schweighofer-Prize for the development of an innovative new material (2007)
References
External links
Google Scholar
Webpage
21st-century German scientists
Fellows of the International Academy of Wood Science
Wood scientists
Living people
1960 births
Wood sciences | Holger Militz | [
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 544 | [
"Wood sciences",
"Wood scientists",
"Materials science"
] |
76,319,459 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney%20liner | A chimney liner is the most operational part of a fireplace despite its relatively simple design. A chimney liner safeguards the chimney structure. The liner accomplishes this as it has a protective barrier that shields the brick and mortar from harm. The liner requires low maintenance and has a long-life expectancy (about 15 to 20 years), and boosts energy efficiency as it is an excellent insulator.
Unfortunately, stone chimneys do deteriorate over time or get damaged. These create health hazards and can cause health problems. These need to be repaired in a cost-effective yet safe way. This is done with stainless steel chimney liners. A stainless-steel chimney flue liner protects the chimney walls from wear and tear and stops carbon monoxide leaks and other dangerous combustion product leaks. Stainless-steel chimney liners have surface and proper sizing to prevent creosote from sticking around. If the chimney already has a stainless-steel chimney liner but the liner is fitted the wrong way up, it needs to be turned around otherwise the chimney can leak tar and condensation.
A flexible flue liner prevents a carbon monoxide leak, chimney fire, or creosote buildup. The creosote build-up is the fuel inside the flue that causes the chimney fire. Most countries have regulations relating to carbon monoxide in the home. Flue liners need to be installed where:
The chimney leaks smoke and fumes
There’s condensation or tar seeping through the chimney which causes stains, inside or outside the building
The flue is too large for the type of burner or stove being used and the smoke cools down and doesn’t go up the chimney properly
The chimney flue is too cold which is a problem if the flue is on an outside wall and not drawing up the smoke properly or
The old flue surface is eroded and the roughness causes friction and therefore slows down the smoke, which causes problems
A statutory guidance relating to combustion appliances and fuel storage systems has been issued by the UK Government. Relevant sections are:
- section 1.27:New masonry chimneys should be constructed with flue liners and masonry suitable for the intended application.
- section 1.40: 1.27 New masonry chimneys should be constructed with flue liners and masonry suitable for the intended application.
- section 2.20 : a cast in-situ flue relining system where the material and installation procedures are suitable for use with solid fuel burning appliances and meeting the relevant requirements of BS EN 1857:2003 + A1:2008.
The chimney liners are not hard to fit as they are light and specifically designed for ease of installation. The chimney liner not only improves the energy efficiency of your burner or stove but also means that one doesn’t need to spend anywhere near as much time maintaining the fireplace and keeping it safe. There are numerous documents available relating to the advice and general guidance on the selection and installation of chimneys and flues. There are detailed explanations to attain maximum performance, and optimum safety and durability.
Regarding renovations, there is good advice available as to whether a renovation is necessary and what the cost is to renovate.
See also
Chimney § Residential flue liners
References
Chimneys
Architectural elements
Industrial furnaces
Industrial processes
Smoke | Chimney liner | [
"Chemistry",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 665 | [
"Building engineering",
"Metallurgical processes",
"Architectural elements",
"Industrial furnaces",
"Components",
"Architecture"
] |
76,319,883 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusi%20%28drug%29 | Tusi (also written as tussi, tuci, or tucibi) is a recreational drug that contains a mixture of different psychoactive substances, most commonly found in a pink-dyed powder form known as pink cocaine. Tusi is believed to have originated in Latin America around 2018. Drug-checking studies in Latin America report tusi to be a concoction of ketamine, MDMA, cocaine, methamphetamine, caffeine, opioids, and other new psychoactive substances. Existing literature suggests there is no standard proportioning of the constituent drugs in tusi.
Though the name "tusi" is phonetically similar to "2C", tusi is not the same psychoactive substance as 2C-B or more broadly, the 2C family. Tusi, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, contained no 2C-B in most instances as of 2022.
Society and culture
In United States
Authorities in New York City report that lab-tested samples have very little or no cocaine. They say there are record numbers of overdoses and there is no way to know exactly what is in pink cocaine. Because the drug usually contains a mix of uppers and downers, it is sometimes called a speedball.
Authorities are trying to educate potential users who may not know how different ketamine is from cocaine. Cocaine is a stimulant and ketamine is a sedative-hallucinogenic anesthetic. It does not mix well with alcohol.
Pharmacology
Drugs detected within the 19 samples of pink powder tusi/2C-B submissions to Erowid's DrugsData between 2019 and 2022:
== See also ==
Polysubstance use
Polysubstance dependence
Speedball
References
Illegal drug trade in Latin America
Psychoactive drugs | Tusi (drug) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 378 | [
"Psychoactive drugs",
"Neurochemistry"
] |
73,365,448 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet%20of%20Musical%20Things | The Internet of Musical Things (also known as IoMusT) is a research area that aims to bring Internet of Things connectivity to musical and artistic practices. Moreover, it encompasses concepts coming from music computing, ubiquitous music, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, gaming, participative art, and new interfaces for musical expression. From a computational perspective, IoMusT refers to local or remote networks embedded with devices capable of generating and/or playing musical content.
Introduction
The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) is extensible to any everyday object connected to the internet, having its capabilities increased by exchanging information with other elements present in the network to achieve a common goal. Thanks to the technological advances that have occurred in the last decades, its use has spread to several areas of performance, assisting in medical analysis, traffic control and home security. When its concepts meet music, the Internet of Music Things (IoMusT) emerges.
The term "Internet of Musical Things" also receives numerous classifications, according to the use of certain authors. Hazzard et al., for example, uses it in the context of musical instruments that have QR code that directs the user to a page with information about this instrument, such as manufacturing date and history. Keller and Lazzarini, use this term in ubiquitous music (ubimus) research, while Turchet et al. define IoMusT as a subfield of the Internet of Things, where interoperable devices can connect to each other, aiding the interaction between musicians and the audience.
Like the IoT, the Internet of Music Things can encompass a variety of ecosystems. But generally, it is marked by being employed in musical activities (rehearsals, concerts, recordings, and music teaching) and relying on service and information providers.
In addition to the technological and artistic advantages that this field offers, new opportunities are still arising for the music industry, providing the emergence of new services and applications capable of exploiting the interconnection between logical and physical devices, always keeping the artistic purpose in mind.
Musical things
A musical thing is formally defined as a "computational device capable of acquiring, processing, acting, or exchanging data that serves a musical purpose." In short, these objects are entities that can be used for musical practice, can be connected in local and/or remote networks, and act as senders or receivers of messages. They can be, for example, a smart instrument (instruments that use sensors, actuators and wireless connection for audio processing), wearable devices or any other capable of controlling, generating or executing musical content over the network.
Unlike traditional audio devices, such as microphones and speakers, musical things are not useful by themselves, thus the need arises to insert them into a chain of equipment. Thus, the need arises to think about standards, protocols and means of communication between them. These challenges will be analyzed below.
The challenges of creating musical things
The first challenge concerns the hardware used in musical things. First, one should keep in mind that these devices are not analog. Because of this, they can be reprogrammed and must have internet connectivity and/or another possibility to communicate with other equipment. Secondly, they are not traditional computing devices. This means that they are programmed for a general purpose, not only to perform certain tasks, as is the case with smartphones and personal computers. Finally, it is important to note that they will be employed in an artistic and musical context. In this way, the aesthetic characteristics are as important as the computational ones.
That said, the hardware challenges are clear, and these include the processing capacity, as well as the storage and power consumption of musical things, which must be good enough to withstand artistic performances, while not making these objects expensive or unergonomic and unwieldy. In addition, they should be able to take on different roles in different scenarios. Thus, they should allow users to add or remove components (such as sensors and actuators) aiming to be adaptable, expressive and versatile.
The second challenge deals with the behavior of musical things. They must primarily exchange sound data, but it is desirable that they also exchange control data and processing parameters. In this sense, they must adapt their operating mode in order to be able to cooperate with the other elements present in the network, and also have their software and operating logics updated remotely.
The third adversity is possibly the most sensitive and most difficult topic to deal with. You have to think about what data is possible to share and how to do it. For audio formats, one can think of Pulse Code Moduation (PCM) formats, like WAV, because it is the most common in real-time audio processing systems. However, issues such as latency and quality are not guaranteed. Files in MP3, FLAC or OGG format, on the other hand, require more processing and the latency arising from this can make the environment impractical.
Possible solutions for creating musical things
Possible solutions to these problems include the use of common IoT elements in music practice or the assignment of networking capabilities on behalf of traditional audio objects. Effects units (such as guitar pedals) should be built so that the user is free to remove or insert buttons and sensors, while in logic units the software is modifiable. Audio equipment should send and receive data over the network, and also be remotely controlled. This can be useful for adapting these elements to the different types of data circulating on the network.
The musical instruments, on the other hand, will function similarly to smart musical instruments, where they will be equipped with sensors and actuators capable of capturing stimuli from the environment and from the musicians themselves. Musical aids such as metronomes and tuners can be transposed to digital media, while performance aids such as light and smoke cannons can be controlled and synchronized over the network.
However, IoMusT is not only about making adaptations of what already exists, but also by creating devices, capable of generating new perspectives for musical practices.
Related fields
This section reviews some of the various application domains that aid an IoMusT environment. The review is not intended to be exhaustive, aiming to describe the main features and functionalities of each area.
Network musical performance
A networked performance is a real-time interaction via machine, which allows artists dispersed across the globe to interact with each other as if they were in the same environment. While not intended to replace the traditional model, it contributes to music creation and its social interactions, promoting creativity and the exchange of cultures.
Among its main characteristics are: low latency, where the sounds produced should be heard almost instantaneously; synchronization, to prevent long delays from hindering interaction in the environment; interoperability through standardization, which allows different devices to communicate over the network; scalability, which makes the system comprehensive and allows distributed participation among users; and easy integration and participation, aspects that ensure that users have no difficulty in finding devices on the network, and can connect or disconnect from it whenever they want. As for the challenges in this area, they can be illustrated by the requirement for high bandwidth and ordering in the transmitted stream, and sensitivity to delay in the delivery of data packets.
Interactive art
Art has always had its interaction marked by the relationship between the artist and the medium he uses to materialize the work, while the audience had only the role of passively observing everything. This began to change when artistic movements led by Allan Kaprow and the Fluxus and Gutai groups began to allow for more active audience participation. In this context, interactive art emerged, characterized by allowing the viewer a degree of active involvement in the show, either by walking among the installations and sculptures, or by producing sounds, images, and movements.
The architecture of these environments is designed to handle different types of signals, ranging from audio and video to those produced by the human body, such as heartbeats. As such, they also require functionality that ensures interoperability and handles data delivery delays.
Ubiquitous music
Ubiquitous music, usually abbreviated to ubimus, is a research field that combines music, technology, and creative processes with strong social and community engagement. Although its original proposal is focused on music production, current technological developments have opened new social and cognitive dimensions to this field, leading it to become increasingly interested in educational and artistic topics. Thus, current perspectives encompass a wide diversity of subjects and actors, ranging from casual participants to highly trained musicians.
The ubimus ecosystem supports the integration of audio tools and audience interaction, and can be reconfigured to meet the needs of users. Consequently, the desired concepts are not dependent on specific implementations. Other important features are conceptual approaches and reliance on empirical methods. These aspects encourage the development of technologies for music creation, especially those that make use of common objects and spaces in the daily lives of those involved in the process.
Web Audio, cloud computing and edge computing
Web Audio is a JavaScript API for audio processing and synthesizing in web applications, representing a technological evolution in this segment. It presents some features common to DAWs, such as audio signal routing, low latency, and effects application. It also allows participative networked performances and expands the capabilities of using smartphones in these media.
Its environment uses audio nodes for manipulating sound in a musical context. They are connected by their inputs and outputs to create paths for routing audio, which is modified by effect nodes along the way. In this way, it is able to support numerous sources with different layouts, as well as being flexible and creating complex functions with dynamic effects.
Web Audio paves the way for using web browsers for musical purposes. Among the advantages observed from this are easy distribution (no installation required) and maintenance, platform and architecture independence, security (the browser can prevent plugins with incorrect behavior from affecting the system), and emergence of new types of collaboration.
Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a structure composed of distributed servers that simulate a centralized network, allowing load balancing and resource replication, minimizing the amount of network consumption and improving its scalability and reliability. It aims to provide numerous services, ranging from file storage to intercommunication between music applications, offering an unprecedented level of participation and performance.
Its main feature is to allow users to access the services without the need for knowledge about the technology used. Thus, they can access them on demand and regardless of location. Other points worth highlighting in this network are: broad access, elasticity, and resource management.
Cloud computing infrastructure is mostly composed of numerous physical machines connected together in a network. Each machine has the same software configurations, but can differ in the central processing unit, memory usage, and disk storage capacity. This model was developed with three main objectives in mind: i) reduce the cost in the acquisition and composition of the elements that form the network infrastructure, allowing it to be heterogeneous and adaptable to the resources required; ii) flexibility in adding or replacing computing resources; iii) ease of access to the services provided by it, where users only need their machines to have an operating system, browser and Internet access to access the resources available in the cloud.
Despite all the advantages listed above about using cloud computing, its centralized mode of operation creates a lot of service load on the network, in particular on costs and bandwidth resources for data transmission. In addition, network performance worsens as the amount of data increases. To address this problem, edge computing has emerged, which is a paradigm that combines cloud computing properties with real-time communication. The term "edge" refers to all the computational and network resources between the data sources and the cloud servers. In this way, objects present in the environment not only consume data and services, but also perform computational processing, decreasing stress on the network and significantly reducing latency in message exchange.
The key attributes of this computing model revolve around geographic distribution, mobility support, location recognition, computing resources and services close to the end user, low latency, context sensitivity, and heterogeneity.
Wearable technologies
Wearable computing is a new approach that has been redefining the way human-machine interaction happens, where electronic devices become directly connected to the user's body. They are called wearable devices and are built in such a way that the technologies and structures they contain are imperceptible, acting as an extension of the human being. Among the most popular models today are smartwatches and smartbands.
Although they are small, they are capable of continuously detecting, collecting, and uploading numerous physiological and sensory data, which aim to improve typical everyday activities such as making payments, assisting in location tracking, monitoring physical and mental health, providing analysis on certain physical activity, and aiding in artistic practice.
They must be able to fulfill three main goals: assign mobility to the user, that is, allow them to use the device in various locations; augment reality, such as generating images or sounds that are not part of the real world; and provide context sensitivity, which is the ability of the equipment to adapt to different environments and stimuli.
It is important to note that although they have connectivity and handle a large amount of data, not all wearable devices are IoT elements, and consequently, IoMusT elements. To be considered as such, they must have access to the internet.
Following a slightly different line of thought, but still using concepts from wearable computing, are the e-textiles. These consist of clothing enhanced with sensors and present some advantages over wearable devices, such as more comfort, more natural interfaces for human interaction and less intrusiveness. From this, electronic devices that are worn next to the human body can be classified according to the location in which they are inserted (wrist, head, feet and so on) and whether they already exist or are still in the prototyping phase.
IoMusT Challenges
In addition to facing the problems inherent to the use of the technology and also those present in IoT, the Internet of Music Things faces specific problems, ranging from technological issues to those artistic and environmental. The main ones are highlighted below.
Technology challenges
The possibility of IoMusT occurrence is dependent on network aspects such as bandwidth, latency and jitter. From this, it is necessary that these networks expand their operation beyond the current state-of-the-art, in order to provide better connection conditions and deal with the three aspects mentioned, in addition to ensuring synchronization and good quality of the representation of multimodal audio content.
With regard to latency, reliability and synchronization, they emerge as one of the main demands in the transmission of audio over a network and in real time, whether local or remote, wired or wireless. This occurs because of the random character of this type of communication, which can cause losses in the transmitted data and the desynchronization between them, even in small networks.
Still about synchronization, it is difficult to occur on devices that do not share the same global clock. Even in cases where this occurs, but with objects on different networks, resynchronization is required from time to time. Existing protocols are insufficient to meet this demand.
The importance of discussing interoperability and standardization of the devices present in this environment is that these concepts are essential pillars for its implementation. This is due to the fact that the devices do not know each other previously and do not have information about the elements in which they will connect. But given the heterogeneity of these objects, in many cases they do not operate under the same protocols nor are they able to interpret the data coming from their neighbors.
Artistic challenges
The main difference between IoMusT and IoT is the concern of the first field with artistic issues. Despite providing advantages, such as the possibility of creation among musicians arranged in different locations around the globe, massive connectivity and new forms of participation by the audience, some problems stand out. Among them, the rupture with the traditional model of artistic interactions, as observed in bands and orchestras; lack of visual feedback; choice of which elements will be displayed and/or controlled by the audience; absence of backup systems for remote concerts; expensive, inaccessible and unergonomic devices and lack of investment to elaborate the necessary infrastructure.
Legal challenges, privacy and security
With the enormous amount of data generated in these environments, legal concerns about personal data arise, since the devices are able to collect information from users involved in the process. Issues also appear involving infringement on protected material, copyright infringement, and intellectual property infringement.
Security issues are also worth mentioning. Because it is a system that communicates over the network, IoMusT is subject to attempts to steal sensitive data, denial of service attacks and trojans. Possible solutions involve encryption algorithms, but this can lead to high energy and memory usage of the devices.
Social challenges
One of the first thinkers to analyze the impact of technology on society was Herbert Marcuse. Among the problems cited by the author are: abundance of technology for one part of the population and scarcity for another; establishment of standards and demands by the ruling class; submission of workers to large corporations; retention of economic power and loss of individuality of thought. All these problems are present in IoMusT as well.
Allied to this, other problems can be accentuated, such as non-heterogeneous access to technologies, since people living in suburban or rural areas do not have the same possibilities of access as people living in denser areas; lack of infrastructure, which increases the socio-cultural difference between people and classes; excessive consumption, constant need for innovation, and social apartheid.
Economic challenges
While IoMusT can revolutionize the music industry by providing artificial intelligence algorithms capable of mixing and altering sound, reducing production costs, it can also negatively impact the creative part of this field by replacing human tasks with machine-based solutions, as well as causing reduced employment opportunities in the field.
Environmental challenges
With the growth of electro-electronic devices generated by this area, there is also a concern about environmental issues, especially those concerning waste generation, pollution in the making and use of these materials, use of chemical materials that can be toxic, use of non-renewable resources, and possible occurrences of ecological disturbances.
Possible usage scenarios
IoMusT allows rethinking some musical activities, such as live performances and rehearsals, multiplying the possibilities of interaction between the actors involved in these scenarios (musicians, audience, sound engineers, teachers, students, etc.). Given this brief elucidation, it is possible to think of some usage scenarios that are detailed below.
Scenario 1 - Augmented and immersive experiences
Imagine that when people arrive at a concert of their favorite band, they can choose different interfaces that will accompany them throughout the performance. One person might choose smartglasses (a computing device that adds information according to what the wearer sees), another chooses a wristband that responds to musical stimuli, and a third selects a set of sensors and speakers. All these objects can track the user's movements and send this information to the band. The band, in turn, can tailor its performance according to the audience's emotions, as well as send them stimuli that will be interpreted by the objects they are wearing.
Scenario 2 - Co-located hearing and remote hearing
Again, imagine users with wearable equipment capable of capturing their physiological data. From recording their wearer's movements and emotions (such as heart rate), musicians can decide what song to perform next, choreographers can create steps that best suit the recorded feelings, and the audience itself can make use of this data to control elements that aid the show, such as light and smoke cannons.
Meanwhile, people who were unable to physically attend the performance venue can experience the concert using virtual reality glasses or 360° video systems, allowing them to see behind the scenes of the stage and the details behind the musicians. IoMusT also predicts the possibility of an application that allows remote control. In this way, aspects present at the concert can be modified by the audience that is around the globe.
Scenario 3 - Remote rehearsals
Another possible scenario is a studio that uses IoMusT concepts to record solo artists, duos and small groups as well as orchestras with a variety of instruments. For this, the recording interface can adapt its size according to the amount of equipment connected to it. Musicians can record even if they are not in the same physical location, and audio files can be recorded for later mixing and mastering. Other possibilities include capturing audio from an instrument that is not in the same physical location, remote mixing and configuration of audio systems, obtaining performance data from musicians, and many others.
Scenario 4 - Music learning
Music learning is enriched by IoMusT by allowing the use of applications that display the scores to be played, capture audio in real time, and suggest improvements. Also, smart glasses can be used that indicate the correct position of the fingers on the instrument and share data in the cloud that can be viewed by teachers, who will indicate improvements and the next steps to be taken.
Scenario 5 - Improvisation session with electroacoustic instruments and musical things
This model is about a jam session that combines traditional instruments and electronic devices that exchange information over a network. These instruments can be plugged into speakers or connected to patches, while the users/musicians manipulate them from computer systems. Graphic elements such as videos, animations, and musical information can be displayed to assist the process; some users can participate only by controlling parameters of the instruments, such as volume, recording, instrument effects (delay and reverb, for example), as well as changing colors and resolutions in the graphics. It is also capable of having a sound technician who manages the connections, removing those with low network connection capacity or connecting those who wish to exchange information.
See also
Internet of Things
QR Code
Arduino
Raspberry Pi
References
Internet of things
Ambient intelligence
Technology assessments
Computing and society
Digital technology
21st-century inventions | Internet of Musical Things | [
"Technology"
] | 4,476 | [
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"Computing and society",
"Ambient intelligence"
] |
73,366,636 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20200779 | HD 200779 (HIP 104092; Gliese 818; LHS 3624) is a solitary star located in the equatorial constellation Equuleus, the foal. It has an apparent magnitude of 8.27, making it readily visible in binoculars but not to the naked eye. The object is located relatively close at a distance of 49 light years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements, which makes it the nearest star in Equuleus. It is classified as a high proper motion star, with a total proper motion of /yr.
At its current distance, HD 200779's brightness is diminished by only six hundredths of a magnitude due to interstellar dust and it has an absolute magnitude of +7.38. HD 200779 is expected to come within of the Solar System in roughly 160,000 years.
HD 200779 is an ordinary K-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of K6 V. It has 68% the mass of the Sun and 69% of its radius. However, it only radiates 18% the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it an orange hue. It has an iron abundance slightly above solar level at [Fe/H] = +0.05 and it is estimated to be 6.33 billion years old. HD 200779 spins modestly with a projected rotational velocity of . The star is generally considered to be chromospherically active.
HD 200779 has two optical companions: a distant 11th magnitude star located 64.6" away and a 9th magnitude star located 169.4" away.
References
K-type main-sequence stars
Triple stars
Equuleus
0818
BD+06 04741
200779
104092 | HD 200779 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 376 | [
"Equuleus",
"Constellations"
] |
73,370,366 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy%27s%20limit%20theorem | Cauchy's limit theorem, named after the French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy, describes a property of converging sequences. It states that for a converging sequence the sequence of the arithmetic means of its first members converges against the same limit as the original sequence, that is with implies . The theorem was found by Cauchy in 1821, subsequently a number of related and generalized results were published, in particular by Otto Stolz (1885) and Ernesto Cesàro (1888).
Related results and generalizations
If the arithmetic means in Cauchy's limit theorem are replaced by weighted arithmetic means those converge as well. More precisely for sequence with and a sequence of positive real numbers with one has .
This result can be used to derive the Stolz–Cesàro theorem, a more general result of which Cauchy's limit theorem is a special case.
For the geometric means of a sequence a similar result exists. That is for a sequence with and one has .
The arithmetic means in Cauchy's limit theorem are also called Cesàro means. While Cauchy's limit theorem implies that for a convergent series its Cesàro means converge as well, the converse is not true. That is the Cesàro means may converge while the original sequence does not. Applying the latter fact on the partial sums of a series allows for assigning real values to certain divergent series and leads to the concept of Cesàro summation and summable series. In this context Cauchy's limit theorem can be generalised into the Silverman–Toeplitz theorem.
Proof
Let and such that for all . Due to there exists a with for all .
Now for all the above yields:
References
Further reading
Sen-Ming: Note on Cauchy's Limit Theorem. In: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1950), pp. 28–31 (JSTOR)
External links
Cesàro means and Cauchy's limit theorem at SOS math
Cesàro Mean - proof of Cauchy's limit theoren at the ProofWiki
Theorems about real number sequences
Convergence tests | Cauchy's limit theorem | [
"Mathematics"
] | 445 | [
"Sequences and series",
"Theorems in mathematical analysis",
"Mathematical structures",
"Convergence tests",
"Theorems about real number sequences"
] |
73,370,432 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rezafungin | Rezafungin, sold under the brand name Rezzayo (by Melinta Therapeutics), is a medication used for the treatment of invasive candidiasis. It is an echinocandin antifungal.
https://rezzayo.com/
Rezafungin was approved for medical use in the United States in March 2023, and in the European Union in December 2023.
Medical uses
In the United States, rezafungin is indicated indicated in adults who have limited or no alternative options for the treatment of candidemia and invasive candidiasis.
In the European Union, rezafungin is indicated for the treatment of invasive candidiasis in adults.
Society and culture
Legal status
Rezafungin was approved for medical use in the United States in March 2023, The FDA granted the application for rezafungin orphan drug, fast track, and priority review designations.
In October 2023, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for the medicinal product Rezzayo, intended for the treatment of invasive candidiasis in adults. The applicant for this medicinal product is Mundipharma GmbH. Rezafungin was approved for medical use in the European Union in December 2023.
Brand names
Rezafungin is the international nonproprietary name.
Rezafungin is sold under the brand name Rezzayo.
References
External links
Echinocandins
Ethers
Phenyl compounds
Antifungals
Orphan drugs
Pentyl compounds | Rezafungin | [
"Chemistry"
] | 326 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Functional groups",
"Ethers"
] |
73,370,539 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic%20buoyancy | In plasma physics, magnetic buoyancy is an upward force exerted on magnetic flux tubes that are immersed in electrically conducting fluids and are under the influence of a gravitational force. It acts on magnetic flux tubes in stellar convection zones where it plays an important role in the formation of sunspots and starspots. It was first proposed by Eugene Parker in 1955.
Magnetic flux tubes
For a magnetic flux tube in hydrostatic equilibrium with the surrounding medium, the tube's interior magnetic pressure and fluid pressure must be balanced by the fluid pressure of the exterior medium, that is,
The magnetic pressure is always positive, so As such, assuming that the temperature of the plasma within the flux tube is the same as the temperature of the surrounding plasma, the density of the flux tube must be lower than the density of the surrounding medium. Under the influence of a gravitational force, the tube will rise.
Instability
The magnetic buoyancy instability is a plasma instability that can arise from small perturbations in systems where magnetic buoyancy is present. The magnetic buoyancy instability in a system with magnetic field and perturbation wavevector , has three modes: the interchange instability where the perturbation wavevector is perpendicular to the magnetic field direction ; the undular instability, sometimes referred to as the Parker instability or magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability, where the perturbation wavevector is parallel to the magnetic field direction ; and the mixed instability, sometimes referred to as the quasi-interchange instability, a combination of the interchange and undular instabilities.
References
Plasma phenomena
Magnetism | Magnetic buoyancy | [
"Physics"
] | 321 | [
"Plasma phenomena",
"Physical phenomena",
"Plasma physics"
] |
73,371,360 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas%20Kurtzman | Thomas Kurtzman is an American physical chemist most notable for his research into the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to improve pharmaceutical design. According to Bioworld, Kurtzman's research "reached the devastating conclusion that 'the entirety'" of apparent deep learning produced over the course of several years by a CNN dataset highly regarded in academia and industry was illusory. The perceived scientific progress, Kurtzman wrote, was due to CNNs' effective learning of the deficiencies in the dataset. "This is alarming," the article continued, "as companies have been built on this research.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a computational tool Kurtzman developed, GIST, was used to research potential new drugs to treat the illness.
Kurtzman is a professor of chemistry at the Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His research is conducted at the affiliated Kurtzman Lab and funded by the National Institutes of Health.
He is married to Mor Armony, vice dean for faculty and research at New York University's Stern School of Business.
References
1969 births
Living people
American physical chemists
CUNY Graduate Center faculty
Lehman College faculty | Thomas Kurtzman | [
"Chemistry"
] | 246 | [
"Physical chemistry stubs"
] |
73,371,422 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron-reservoir%20complex | A molecular electron-reservoir complex is one of a class of redox-active systems which can store and transfer electrons stoichiometrically or catalytically without decomposition. The concept of electron-reservoir complexes was introduced by the work of French chemist, Didier Astruc. From Astruc's discoveries, a whole family of thermally stable, neutral, 19-electron iron(I) organometallic complexes were isolated and characterized, and found to have applications in redox catalysis and electrocatalysis. The following page is a reflection of the prototypal electron-reservoir complexes discovered by Didier Astruc.
Synthesis
The parent complex, C5H5FeC6H6, is observed to undergo decomplexation and dimerization, whereas analogues containing six alkyl groups on the benzene ring exhibit stability in many solvents and remain catalytically active (written as η5-CpFe-η6-arene).
Syntheses using ferrocene
In the process of ligand exchange, one of the cyclopentadienyl rings of ferrocene is replaced by an arene group. This has garnered significant interest as it provides a simple means to form complexes of arenes with the CpFe+ units. The reaction of ferrocene and an aryl alkyl group is carried out at 70–90 °C for 1–16 hours in the arene as the solvent (Figure 1). Aluminum chloride, AlCl3, is a Lewis acid which prompts the reaction, and aluminum is added to inhibit oxidation of ferrocene to ferrocenium. Monoelectronic reduction of the FeII 18-electron monocation with Na/Hg in THF at ambient temperature yields the 19-electron complex as green-black crystals.
Electron donating groups on the arene increase the yield. Additionally, alkyl groups which induce steric hindrance (e.g., Me, Et, etc.) will increase the yield.
Complexation of arenes to iron
A known type of complexation is the Fischer-Hafner synthesis, which treats transition metal chlorides with arenes in the presence of aluminum and aluminum chloride. The synthesis of bis(arene) iron dications is an example of this type, where a mixture of iron dichloride, FeCl2, alkylbenzenes, and AlCl3 is refluxed in the arene as the solvent (Figure 2).
Although AlCl3 is almost always used to induce ligand exchange reactions, other efficient Lewis acids are AlBr3, GaCl3, ZrCl4, and HfCl4.
Structure and bonding
Cyclopentadienyl iron(arene) complexes
The electronic spectra of CpFe+(arene) complexes have been compared to those of ferrocene and bis(arene) iron dications. Three spin allowed transitions are observed at 22,200, 26,200 and 31,900 cm–1 and two bands at 38,200 and 41,800 cm–1 are attributed to π→π* benzene transitions. The ligand field parameters (cm–1) for the CpFe+ (arene) complexes are Δ1 = 8,500, Δ2 = 21,900, B = 320 (comparatively for ferrocene, Δ1 = 7,200, Δ2 = 22,000, B = 390). Therefore, the values of the electronic repulsion parameters B indicate large covalency between the metal–ligand bonds. In general, 19-electron complexes are thermally stable only when the arene ligand is peralkylated; steric bulk also stabilizes the complex.
The X-ray crystal structure for the CpFe(I)-C6Me6 complex exhibits alternating sandwich positions in the crystal packing. Detailed EPR studies of the Fe(I) sandwiches in frozen solution, in the solid state, and in diamagnetic matrices show dynamic rhombic distortion, high degree of covalency, and spin-lattice relaxation.
Bis(arene) iron dications
Bis(arene) iron dications and their electronic configuration bear resemblance to their bis(arene) chromium counterparts. These compounds exhibit a doubly degenerate bonding e2 level that is high in metal character, while the nonbonding a1 orbital is nearly a pure dz2 metal orbital (Figure 3).
When one electron is added to the dication, (C6Me6)2Fe2+, a stable 19-electron complex is formed, a compound stabilized only when the arene is endowed with multiple methyl groups. Remarkably, a nearly stable complex arises when a second extra electron is added, with the case of C6Me6 being particularly noteworthy (Figure 4). Although the effective atomic number (EAN) rule states that thermodynamically stable transition metal complexes contain 18 valence electrons, there are situations found in these organoiron systems where it can be breached, given that the anti-bonding doubly degenerate e1g level harbors a high metal character and is located at relatively low energy. Three isostructural complexes (C6Me6)2Fen+, where n ranges from 0 to 2, have been isolated and their structures are shown in Figure 4.
Reactions and functionalizations of the coordinated arene
In 1979, Didier et al. reported the activation of the arene group in η5-C5H5Fe-η6-C6(CH3)6 by dioxygen, O2, through an electron transfer mechanism to form the superoxide radical anion, O2–•. In this paper, two unique reactions of O2 are reported: hydrogen atom abstraction by O2 from a methyl group on the arene ring (Figure 5), and the O2-induced dimerization of C5H5Fe-arene when the arene group bears less than six methyl groups.
The green η5-C5H5Fe-η6-C6(CH3)6 complex reacts readily when in contact with air (25°C) in pentane to afford complex 2 and water (Figure 5). Characterization by mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, and X-ray crystallography revealed that the structure of 2 is best described as a cyclohexadienyl ligand coordinated in a pentahapto fashion to η5-C5H5Fe and bearing an exocyclic double bond (Figure 5). Complex 2 has shown to be a good model for intermediates in benzylic activation processes when reacting with carbon dioxide, CO2, and carbon disulfide, CS2 (Figure 5, right-side).
Dioxygen induces dimerization for complexes shown in Figure 6. The O2-induced dimerization follows a radical mechanism, whereas H-atom abstraction in Figure 5 is mainly ionic.
Other useful electron-transfer reactions of η5-C5H5Fe-η6-C6(CH3)6 is the deprotonation of imidazolium salts, generating N-heterocyclic (NHC) carbenes. Arduengo demonstrated that deprotonating these salts produces NHCs that are isolable and relatively stable, provided that the heterocycle nitrogen atoms have appropriate substituents. Reacting a stoichiometric amount of CpFe-C6(CH3)6 in THF in the presence of air with imidazolium salts, quickly results in the soluble carbenes, which are visible by the color change from deep-green to yellow (Figure 7). The carbenes generated in this form were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR.
Further reading
In 2014, Chang et al. reported the synthesis and properties of bis(formazanate) zinc complexes. These complexes exhibit reversible redox-chemistry, with the ligands serving as electron reservoirs. As a result, these complexes can be synthesized in three redox states, in which the formazanate ligands are reduced to "metallaverdazyl" radicals. The complexes were fully characterized using various methods, including single-crystal X-ray crystallography, spectroscopic techniques, and DFT calculations.
A decade prior, Venkatesan et al. investigated a series of electron-rich manganese(I) half-sandwich complexes for applications as molecular batteries. The study highlighted the possibility of using the C–C bonds in these vinylidene systems as electron reservoirs, enabling their potential as essential components in nano devices. The compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction, NMR, IR, and cyclic voltammetry.
References
Redox | Electron-reservoir complex | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,815 | [
"Electrochemistry",
"Redox",
"nan"
] |
73,372,340 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentinula%20boryana | Lentinula boryana is a species of edible agaric fungus in the family Omphalotaceae that is found in subtropical Americas. Originally described as Agaricus boryanus by Miles Joseph Berkeley & Camille Montagne in 1849, it was moved to the genus Lentinula and given its current name by David Pegler in 1976. It is the type species of the genus Lentinula.
References
External links
Fungi described in 1976
Edible fungi
Marasmiaceae
Fungus species | Lentinula boryana | [
"Biology"
] | 98 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
73,372,444 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula%20badia | Russula badia, also known as the burning brittlegill, is a species of mushroom in the genus Russula.
References
External links
badia
Fungi of Europe
Fungi described in 1881
Fungus species | Russula badia | [
"Biology"
] | 40 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
73,374,461 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon%20Kinesis | Amazon Kinesis is a family of services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for processing and analyzing real-time streaming data at a large scale. Launched in November 2013, it offers developers the ability to build applications that can consume and process data from multiple sources simultaneously. Kinesis supports multiple use cases, including real-time analytics, log and event data collection, and real-time processing of data generated by IoT devices.
History
Amazon Kinesis was launched by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in November 2013 as a managed service for processing and analyzing real-time streaming data at a large scale. The service was introduced to address the growing need for businesses to process and analyze data as it was generated, rather than in batches, allowing for real-time insights and decision-making.
Since its launch, the Amazon Kinesis family of services has expanded to include four main components: Kinesis Data Streams, Kinesis Data Firehose, Kinesis Data Analytics, and Kinesis Video Streams. Each of these components serves a specific purpose in the processing and analysis of real-time streaming data.
In August 2015, AWS announced the availability of Kinesis Data Firehose, a fully managed service for delivering real-time streaming data to destinations such as Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon Elasticsearch. A year later in August 2016, AWS launched Kinesis Data Analytics, enabling customers to analyze streaming data in real time using standard SQL queries.
AWS introduced Kinesis Video Streams, a fully managed service for securely capturing, processing, and storing video streams for analytics and machine learning applications, was introduced by AWS in November 2017.
Components
Amazon Kinesis is composed of four main services: Kinesis Data Streams, Kinesis Data Firehose, Kinesis Data Analytics, and Kinesis Video Streams.
Kinesis Data Streams
Kinesis Data Streams is a scalable and durable real-time data streaming service that captures and processes gigabytes of data per second from multiple sources. It enables the storage and processing of data in real time, making it useful for applications that require immediate insights, such as monitoring and alerting.
Kinesis Data Firehose
Kinesis Data Firehose is a fully managed service for delivering real-time streaming data to destinations such as Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Elasticsearch, and AWS-partner data stores. With Data Firehose, users can configure and scale data delivery without manual intervention.
Kinesis Data Analytics
Kinesis Data Analytics enables the analysis of streaming data in real time using standard SQL or Apache Flink.
Kinesis Video Streams
Kinesis Video Streams is a fully managed service for securely capturing, processing, and storing video streams for analytics and machine learning. It supports multiple video codecs and streaming protocols, making it suitable for various use cases, such as security and surveillance, video-enabled IoT devices, and live event broadcasting.
Integration
Amazon Kinesis can be easily integrated with other AWS services, such as AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon OpenSearch. This integration enables developers to build end-to-end streaming data processing applications, taking advantage of the extensive AWS ecosystem.
Use cases
Some common use cases for Amazon Kinesis include:
Real-time analytics: Analyzing streaming data in real time to provide immediate insights and make data-driven decisions.
Log and event data collection: Collecting, processing, and analyzing log and event data generated by applications, infrastructure, and devices.
IoT data processing: Processing and analyzing large volumes of data generated by IoT devices in real time.
Machine learning: Ingesting and processing video streams for machine learning applications, such as object recognition, facial recognition, and sentiment analysis.
Pricing
Amazon Kinesis follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, with costs depending on the chosen service, data volume, and processing power required. AWS provides a free tier for Kinesis Data Streams and Kinesis Data Firehose, allowing users to get started with the services at no cost.
See also
Apache Kafka
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Microsoft Azure Event Hubs
Stream processing
References
External links
Official website
Amazon Kinesis Documentation
Amazon Web Services
Big data
Cloud computing | Amazon Kinesis | [
"Technology"
] | 861 | [
"Data",
"Big data"
] |
73,374,467 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%20Crateris | R Crateris is a star about 700 light years from the Earth in the constellation Crater. It is a semiregular variable star, ranging in brightness from magnitude 8.1 to 9.5 over a period of about 160 days. It is not visible to the naked-eye, but can be seen with a small telescope, or binoculars. R Crateris is a double star; the variable star and its magnitude 9.9 F8V companion are separated by 65.4 arcseconds.
Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke discovered that the star is variable in 1861. In 1907 it appeared with its variable star designation, R Crateris, in Annie Jump Cannon's Second Catalog of Variable Stars. Although the period for large brightness changes in R Crateris is listed as ~160 days, in 1982 Silvia Livi and Thaisa Bergmann reported small (~0.1 magnitude) variations on timescales of less than one hour. The rapid variations seem to be more regular when the star is near maximum brightness.
R Crateris is an oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch star, losing mass at a rate of per year via a stellar wind. At large distances from the star, the wind is expanding into space at km/sec.
Near-infrared radiation from R Crateris was detected in the first Two-Micron Sky Survey, published in 1969. It was detected in the far-infrared by the IRAS satellite, and that emission was resolved by IRAS, showing that the star is surrounded by a large circumstellar shell containing dust. High resolution far-infrared images of R Crateris taken by the Herschel Space Observatory show that the emitting region of the shell, roughly 280 arcseconds (0.94 light year) across, consists primarily of two non-concentric arcs well separated from the star itself. The arcs are probably bowshocks formed as the dusty stellar wind collides with the interstellar medium. The total mass of the shell, including both dust and gas, is estimated to be about . Infrared imaging of the innermost (sub-arcsecond) portion of the dust shell shows a bipolar structure.
In the early 1970s, maser emission from OH and H2O was detected in R Cratoris' circumstellar shell. SiO maser emission was detected in 1985. Thermal (non-maser) emission from CO was detected in 1986.
With the high angular resolution provided by Very Long Baseline Interferometry, the H2O maser emission is seen to arise from small (milli-arcsecond) blobs, whose proper motions through the inner region of the circumstellar shell can be measured. These observations give additional evidence that R Cratoris has developed a bipolar stellar wind.
References
Crater (constellation)
Crateris, R
095384
053809
Semiregular variable stars
M-type giants
Asymptotic-giant-branch stars | R Crateris | [
"Astronomy"
] | 609 | [
"Crater (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
73,374,700 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberlindnera | Cyberlindnera is a genus of yeasts in the Phaffomycetaceae family. Its name is derived from the Latin word “Ciber,” which originates from “Cibus,” meaning “food” and "sustenance". Early German mycologist Paul Lindner, honored for his contributions to descriptions of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Saccharomycopsis (Endomyces) fibuligera and other notable species of Saccharomyces and Pichia, is the source of the "-lindnera" portion of the name. The genus has gone through many trials, reevaluations, and verifications to become the organized assortment of species it is today. Species under this genus interact with other organisms in a wide variety of ways and can be found across the globe. They are used by humans for their toxicity, fermentation abilities, and capacity to assimilate many organic compounds.
Phylogeny
The location behind the initial discovery and first description of Cyberlindnera is uncertain. However, it is known that as a genus, its precursor Williopsis was first introduced in 1925 by an undocumented person with the surname "Zender." Williopsis was created to categorize fungi with Saturn-shaped ascospores and restricted nitrate-assimilating function similar to that of the already-known Williopsis saturnus. In modern terms, Williopsis is sometimes used as a common name for the Cyberlindnera genus, despite the fact that it was once something different. Because the center of Williopsis studies was W. saturnus, nitrate was thought to be the sole source of nitrogen for the genus, but this has since been debunked. Williopsis at that time consisted of only five species, listed below, which all exhibited the potential to separate into their own generic status. Based on 18S rRNA gene sequencing, it was found that there was not much shared DNA between these species, and scientists suggested that Williopsis be restricted to the five varieties of W. saturnus alone. This same gene sequencing method is what discovered the genus was phylogenetically heterogeneous.
W. californica
W. mucosa
W. pratensis
W. salicornia
W. saturnus
var. mrakii
var. sargentensis
var. saturnus (type)
var. suaveolens
var. subsufficiens
After becoming more widely accepted as a genus in 1977 by JA von Arx, phylogenetic analysis increased in frequency. Notably, relationships between accepted species’ large subunit and small subunit rRNAs were examined by Liu and Kurtzman, further proving that most of the accepted species as of 1991 were only loosely tied together genetically.
The way Cyberlindnera spans multiple clades can be explained by scientific misunderstandings and gaps in research. The genera Saccharomyces and Pichia experienced some overlap with Cyberlindnera during multiple reclassifications. Mycologists believed Pichia were related to the outdated Williopsis because they shared two characteristics: the ubiquinone CoQ-7 and an inability to utilize methanol. The fact that Saccharomyces are ascomycete yeasts like Cyberlindnera, spawned confusion between the two in the past. As taxonomic classifications narrowed, species were even split based on anamorph and teleomorph states. Candida is an example of a genus that separated from the previous Williopsis classification based on its anamorphic state. Work is still being carried out to return many more species to consistent genera, so these complex naming schemes may not remain as they are. There is also a disconnect in the understanding of the genetic processes that form species, resulting in genera confusion. For example, Saccharomyces can exhibit amphiploidy, the hybridization of two species, which has previously complicated phylogenetic studies.
Multigene analysis reorganized many of the original Williopsis into the Barnettozyma, Lindnera, Ogotaea and Wickerhamomyces genera in 2008. Lindnera was further improved one year later, transferring the all known Lindnera species to the Cyberlindnera genus as twenty one new combinations. This was due to the need for more accurate taxonomy and the fact that Lindnera was a homonym that already described a plant genus. Nevertheless, new research is always being released, challenging the species count. Technical flaws and incomplete reports still mix up the species under Cyberlindnera. For instance, widely used biochemical assays sometimes identify Cyberlindnera fabianii as Torula or Wickerhamomyces anomalus. This is not surprising, however, as some scientists previously placed Cyberlindnera species within the Phaffomycetaceae family that the Wickerhamomyces belong to. The use of PCR, a technique that reproduces targeted portions of a genome, helps to combat these incorrect findings by allowing scientists to build more accurate representations of these species' unique genomes.
Description
The species that came from Lindnera are either hetero- or homothallic and express a great deal of variety in ascospore morphology and physiological features. Nowadays, the entire Cyberlindnera genus can be observed to express even greater morphological variance. Ascospores are spherical with an equatorial ledge but may take the form of hat or Saturn shapes as well. Asci are also spherical, and the number of ascospores per ascus does not typically exceed four. Teleomorph and anamorph species are both included in the genus, but the majority of the anamorphs have been moved to other titles like Candida. Among Cyberlindnera, there are some species that cause sepsis, produce biofilm, develop resistance to voriconazole and fluconazole, ferment glucose, and/or assimilate a broad range of sugars, polyols, and other carbon sources. In addition to these distinguishing features, asexual holoblastic budding, spheroidal and ellipsoidal blastoconidia, and a lack of pseudohyphae are common, yet not exclusive, traits.
Chemistry
Living under the Saccharomycetales order, Cyberlindnera mainly consists of saprobes, which derive food by decomposing various materials. These species assimilate sugars and organic acids, typically from plant material, and are copiotrophic due to their ability to assimilate pentoses and tolerate lignocellulosic byproducts. Their nitrogen sources include ammonium salt, nitrate, amino acids, peptides, urea, purines, and pyrimidines while carbon is gathered from hexose sugars as monosaccharides or disaccharides, alcohols, polyols, amino acids, and organic acids. Being yeasts, their metabolic pathways employ Embden-Meyerhof glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, the pentose phosphate pathway, and oxidative phosphorylation. Some members of this genus act as endophytes and so can fix dinitrogen, solubilize largely insoluble phosphate, degrade pollutants, and inhibit fungal pathogens. Fermentation is another core aspect of their chemical activity and how they obtain energy, but they only perform alcoholic fermentation and do not produce lactic acid. Some species cannot assimilate potassium nitrate as a sole nitrogen source, but all maintain the potential to nitrify ammonium to nitrate in vitro. Cyberlindnera can also oxidize inorganic reduced forms of other nutrients and elemental sulfur in vitro, producing thiosulfate, tetrathionate, and sulfate.
Ecology
The geographical distribution of Cyberlindnera is largely unknown, although certain trends can be inferred from collected data. Species under this genus express a high threshold for tolerance of environmental change. Whereas other organisms can only cause fermentation under specific circumstances, Cyberlindnera can begin the process in a large range of conditions. Their robust fermentation characteristics allow growth in wastes from biomass, which is ecologically significant and means that species under the genus can be observed near sites of biomass production. Cyberlindnera have also been isolated from insect frass of coniferous trees and detritus-based mangrove wetlands along the Indian west coast. Barnettozyma pratensis, originally listed under Williopsis, has been obtained from soil in Russia and neighboring regions. Although this species is no longer considered Cyberlindnera, northern soils remain a prospective habitat of the genus due to similarities in fermentation processes. Most recorded species under Cyberlindnera are obtained from laboratory cultures with no listed natural source, and there is a lot of missing information on where to find them in the wild. Based on this limited and highly variable information, there does not appear to be a preference by the genus for a specific part of the globe because the ecological roles and distinguishing characteristics can apply most anywhere.
Symbioses
The chemical capabilities of the genus give it the potential to make phosphates more available to plants and contribute to nitrogen and sulphur cycles in soil. A study was performed in which dual inoculated maize with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and W. Californica, reporting an increase in shoot biomass but shortening of extraradical mycelium. Species under Cyberlindnera are occasionally symbionts of insects. C. americana in the guts of bark beetles uses enzymes to degrade starch and lipids as well as metabolize xenobiotics independent of the capabilities of their host. These are rare cases of species in the genus acting in an explicitly positive symbioses with other living organisms. While Cyberlindnera are occasional endophytes, these species do not generally partake in positive symbioses with other microorganisms. Many species exhibit toxic activity antagonizing other fungi and bacteria, which caused in four ways. The first is pH change due to growth-coupled ion exchange or organic acid production, which makes media unlivable for most organisms. Competition for nutrients and the production of highly concentrated ethanol byproduct are two more reasons. Finally, the act of secreting or releasing antibacterial and antimicrobial compounds simply harmed other organisms.
Usage and application
Cyberlindnera species are frequently utilized in laboratories for their chemical structure and abilities. Species within the genus can aid in stereoselective oxidation of secondary alcohols. They also act as sources of single-cell protein that synthesizes compounds for both pharmaceutical and food industries. Cyberlindnera are used to produce food additives, supplements, organic acids, and platform chemical compounds, often as alternatives to nonrenewable petrochemical-based derivatives. Rose oil, used in perfume, can be industrially cultivated from fermentation reactions performed with Cyberlindnera endophytes in Rosa damascene. Cyberlindnera indigenous to the rose flowers increase the growth rate of said flowers and double reduction in the phenolic content. As previously mentioned, these fermentation characteristics also allow growth in wastes from biomass, including hardwood hydrolysates of the pulp industry. This introduces more environmentally friendly techniques to the future of wood and pulp industries worldwide.
Consumables
Cyberlindnera contributes to the development of sweeteners, food additives, and multiple beverages. The ethyl ester structures of these species act as hubs of flavor for fruits and fermented beverages. Cyberlindnera saturnus retrieved from the Indian west coast can assimilate xylitol, leading to the manufacture of sugarless desserts. Non-alcoholic beer, something that has been witnessing increasing demand, is now being made with non-Saccharomyces yeasts. Using Cyberlindnera in the place of traditional yeasts removes and covers the “wort-like off-flavor” of limited fermentation processes previously used to make these beers. Cyberlindnera species are also the most abundant fungi in the microbial fermentation of Fu brick tea. At least one species of the genus, Torula, can even be grown on wood sugars to be used as natural flavoring and another flavor enhancers.
Toxicity
The antagonistic nature of Cyberlindnera species towards other microorganisms is taken advantage of to help fight infections and pathogens. Some of the killer toxins produced by members of this genus complicate alcoholic brewing but are useful in treating the candidiasis ofCandida albicans. The ascomycete yeasts are immune to many poisons and lethal towards other strains of fungi, with the strength of their toxins growing in proportion to how naturally they were grown. Killer toxin WmKT hinders and has the ability to defeat P. carinii, C. albicans and M. tuberculosis in humans. Biochemical characterization of this toxin is underdeveloped due to having little to no information covering its mode of action, but it has been proposed as a therapy for insidious infectious diseases. β-Glucans reside on the cell surface of most WmKT-sensitive pathogens and in yeast cell walls, which could partially explain why WmKT reduces mycobacterial virulence.
References
Yeasts | Cyberlindnera | [
"Biology"
] | 2,774 | [
"Yeasts",
"Fungi"
] |
73,374,707 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsakane%20Clay%20Grassland | The Tsakane Clay Grassland is a rare South African vegetation type supporting a unique grassland ecosystem. It is named after the township of Tsakane in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, in which it is the dominant natural vegetation type. This ecosystem is characterized by its clay-rich soil, which supports a diverse array of flora and fauna, including several endemic and threatened species. The Tsakane Clay Grassland is an important conservation area, as it plays a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services to the surrounding human populations.
Geography
The Tsakane Clay Grassland is the main vegetation type within the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, with a smaller occurrence of the Andesite Mountain Bushveld (SVcb11) vegetation unit. The altitude varies between 1,545 and 1,917 meters above sea level. The grassland extends from Soweto to the town of Springs in Gauteng and is distributed in patches southwards to Nigel and Vereeniging. The vegetation unit also occurs in parts of Mpumalanga between Balfour and Standerton and also in the northern side of the Vaal Dam. The landscape is flat to slightly undulating, with low hills also present in some areas of the grassland.
Biodiversity
The Tsakane Clay Grassland is home to a diverse range of plant species, including important taxa such as Andropogon schirensis, Eragrostis racemosa, Senecio inornatus, and Anthospermum rigidum subsp. pumilum. These species are adapted to the clay-rich soil conditions found in the grassland. The ecosystem also supports a variety of animal species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects, many of which rely on the unique plant species for food and habitat.
Conservation
The Tsakane Clay Grassland is an important conservation area due to its high levels of biodiversity and the presence of several threatened and endemic species. Efforts to conserve the ecosystem include the establishment of protected areas, as well as ongoing research and monitoring programs to better understand and manage the unique flora and fauna. These conservation efforts aim to preserve the ecological integrity of the grassland and ensure the long-term survival of its species.
Threats
The Tsakane Clay Grassland faces several threats, primarily from human activities such as urbanization, agriculture, and mining. The expansion of nearby towns and cities has led to habitat loss and fragmentation, which can negatively impact the ecosystem's biodiversity. Additionally, the introduction of non-native species and pollution from various sources can further degrade the grassland and threaten its native species.
See also
Biodiversity of South Africa
References
Grasslands of South Africa
Ecosystems | Tsakane Clay Grassland | [
"Biology"
] | 529 | [
"Symbiosis",
"Ecosystems"
] |
73,375,142 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beira%20fuel%20depot%20attack | The Beira fuel depot attack was a raid on the fuel depot in Beira's Munhava District on March 23, 1979, and was conducted by Rhodesian SAS forces who were assisted by South Africa's Four-Recce Commandos. The attack resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of damages to Beira's fuel tanks belonging to Mozambican and foreign companies as well as extra publicity for the RENAMO rebel group. Although RENAMO claimed responsibility and was credited for the attack by Rhodesia, the raid was an almost entirely Rhodesian and South African effort except for the presence of a single RENAMO representative on the mission.
Attack
20 men from the A Squadron in the Rhodesian SAS under the leadership of Captain Bob McKenzie were chosen to partake in the attack. The team flew from Salisbury, Rhodesia to the South African 4 Recces base in Cape Town to begin training before traveling to Durban where they would take off for Beira in the SAS Frederick Creswell, a fast attack craft. The saboteurs entered Beira at roughly 11 pm and arrived at the fuel facilities undetected. The Rhodesians used bombs, RPGs and machine guns to destroy the fuel tanks with a huge inferno engulfing the facility. The city erupted into commotion as the squadron fled the scene with gunfights flaring and anti-aircraft guns firing into the air. The Squadron made it back to the craft unharmed except for the RENAMO representative Marco Cinco who died in a battle.
Aftermath
A 6-man South African Firefighting team was sent to Beira to put out the fire which had raged for around 40 hours before being extinguished. However, the electricity supply to the city was restored only 4 hours after being cut. Estimates of the cost of the damage range from $3 million to $16 million with oil tanks owned by Mobil Oil, Shell, Caltex and Petrolmoc all damaged. The oil in the depot was meant to be sent to Malawi.
Captain Bob McKenzie was awarded the Silver Cross of Rhodesia for his participation in the attack which is Rhodesia's second highest military decoration.
Reactions
Robert Mugabe: ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe condemned the attack claiming it was "aimed at destabilizing the People's Republic of Mozambique so that it would subsequently reduce its support for the liberation struggle of the Zimbabwe people"
References
Bibliography
Attack:
RENAMO
Mozambican Civil War
Operations involving South African special forces
1979 building bombings
1979 in Mozambique
March 1979 events in Africa
Attacks on buildings and structures in Mozambique
Attacks on energy sector
1979 industrial disasters
Industrial fires and explosions
Fires in Mozambique
Explosions in Mozambique
1979 fires
Explosions in 1979
Military raids
Urban fires
Building bombings in Africa
Military operations of the Rhodesian Bush War involving South Africa
Grenade attacks in Africa
Economic history of Mozambique
Petroleum in Mozambique
Beira, Mozambique | Beira fuel depot attack | [
"Chemistry"
] | 570 | [
"Industrial fires and explosions",
"Explosions"
] |
73,376,719 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar%20occultation%20of%20Venus | The lunar occultation of Venus refers to a natural phenomenon in which the Moon passes in front of Venus, obstructing it from view on some regions of the Earth. Since the orbital plane of the moon is tilted relative to the ecliptic, occultations only happen about twice a year. A computer search predicts that 101 lunar occultations occur in the date range of 1995–2045.
For years up to 2025, a website giving easily observable occultations for the year is available.
Observations
References
Astronomy data and publications
Eclipses
Observational astronomy
Astronomical events | Lunar occultation of Venus | [
"Astronomy"
] | 118 | [
"Astronomical events",
"Works about astronomy",
"Observational astronomy",
"Astronomy data and publications",
"Astronomical sub-disciplines",
"Eclipses"
] |
73,376,936 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWS%20App%20Runner | AWS App Runner is a fully managed container application service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Launched in May 2021, it is designed to simplify the process of building, deploying, and scaling containerized applications for developers. The service enables users to focus on writing code and developing features, without needing to manage the underlying infrastructure. It provides automatic scaling, load balancing, and security features, making it a suitable choice for deploying web applications and APIs. The service also simplifies MLOps.
Features
AWS App Runner offers several features that are designed to simplify the deployment and management of containerized applications, including:
Fully managed: AWS App Runner takes care of the underlying infrastructure and operational tasks, allowing developers to focus on their applications.
Automatic scaling: AWS App Runner automatically scales applications based on incoming traffic and resource utilization, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
CI/CD integration: AWS App Runner integrates with popular CI/CD services, streamlining the build, deployment, and release processes.
Custom domains and TLS support: AWS App Runner supports custom domains and TLS certificates, providing secure access to applications.
Monitoring and logging: AWS App Runner integrates with Amazon CloudWatch, enabling developers to monitor application performance and access logs.
Health checks and automatic recovery: AWS App Runner periodically checks the health of running instances and automatically replaces any unhealthy instances.
Flexible pricing: AWS App Runner offers pay-as-you-go pricing, with charges based on compute and memory usage.
Continuous deployment from code repositories or container registries
Customers
AWS App Runner has been used by various companies to streamline the deployment of their web applications and APIs. Some notable customers include Classmethod, Hubble, and Velo by Wix. These companies have leveraged App Runner to achieve faster time-to-market, improved developer productivity, and simplified application development processes.
AWS CDK Support
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) introduced support for AWS App Runner in August 2021, enabling developers to define and deploy App Runner services using the AWS CDK. This streamlines the application development and deployment process by automating the creation of App Runner services, managing them through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and using familiar programming languages to define their infrastructure. The AWS CDK offers L1 support for AWS App Runner, corresponding to the low-level constructs. Additionally, an experimental L2 construct library, @aws-cdk/aws-apprunner-alpha, is available in preview, offering a more abstracted and developer-friendly approach.
Limitations
Although AWS App Runner can simplify the deployment of containerized applications, certain limitations should be considered when evaluating its suitability for specific use cases. These limitations include limited hardware configuration options, no GPU support, limited regional availability, limited customization options, scaling limitations, limited support for stateful applications, cost considerations, container image size limitations, and the lack of support for multi-container deployments. It currently only support linux containers. Furthermore, App Runner does not offer a "scale to zero" option like Google Cloud Run, lacks support for AWS CodeCommit as a code-based service repository, and does not provide a way for App Runner apps to access resources in a VPC.
Comparison with other AWS and cloud services
AWS App Runner offers deployment and management for containerized applications. It can be compared to other AWS services and similar offerings from other cloud providers, such as AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Copilot, and Google Cloud Run.
App Runner vs AWS Elastic Beanstalk
AWS Elastic Beanstalk is another service that automates the deployment of applications. However, it provides more control over the infrastructure once deployed, which can be a necessity in some cases but also introduces the potential for unmanaged changes. In contrast, App Runner is entirely managed, minimizing administrative overhead.
App Runner vs AWS Copilot
AWS Copilot, released as a command-line tool to simplify ECS deployments, offers a compelling niche but initially lacked the ability to scale. AWS Copilot has since released version 1.7.0, which natively supports App Runner and bridges the gap between the two services.
App Runner vs Google Cloud Run
Google Cloud Run is a similar service offered by Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that allows developers to deploy and manage containerized applications. One significant difference between App Runner and Google Cloud Run is that the latter offers the option to "scale to zero," reducing costs for infrequently accessed applications. App Runner currently lacks this feature, resulting in higher costs for such applications. Microsoft released a similar product called Azure Container Apps.
See also
Amazon Web Services
AWS Elastic Container Service
AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service
AWS Cloud Development Kit
References
External links
Official AWS App Runner website
Amazon Web Services
Cloud platforms
Cloud infrastructure
Web services | AWS App Runner | [
"Technology"
] | 1,019 | [
"Cloud infrastructure",
"Cloud platforms",
"Computing platforms",
"IT infrastructure"
] |
73,377,055 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hericium%20clathroides | Hericium clathroides is a species of an edible fungus in the Hericiaceae family.
Characteristics
This species was distinguished by some authors from H. coralloides based on its substrate - beech wood (rarely other hardwoods). Another feature used to distinguish the two species is that H. coralloides grows hymenophore spines in tufts. Young fruitbodies are edible.
Taxonomy
The species was described under the name Hydnum clathroides by Peter Simon Pallas in the second volume of Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des rußischen Reichs, published in 1773. It was moved to Hericium genus by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1797. The approval work for this taxon is the first volume of Systema Mycologicum by Elias Magnus Fries published in 1821. There it was classified in Merisma within Hydnum genus.
In 1959 Rudolf Arnold Maas Geesteranus proved the misapplication and approval of the epithet by Elias Fries and proposed a change in the treatment of the taxon H. clathroides. Until now, specimens found on fir (Abies) were traditionally called this, but Maas Geesteranus assigned this name to the species fruiting on beech (Fagus). For the species developing in the fir tree, he proposed Scopoli's approach to classify it as H. coralloides. Some mycologists, like , and Theodore Louis Jahn accepted new definitions. in his 1983 analysis of European Hericium (and his interbreeding experiments of beech and fir species) doubted the separation of two species and proposed H. coralloides neotype. Some authors, like Władysław Wojewoda, followed his approach. Index Fungorum considers this taxon verified.
References
Russulales
Edible fungi
Fungi described in 1773
Fungus species | Hericium clathroides | [
"Biology"
] | 386 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
73,377,255 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOS%20SAT-1 | EOS SAT-1 is an optical Earth observation satellite for agricultural land monitoring by EOS Data Analytics, Inc. (hereinafter — EOS Data Analytics), a global AI-powered satellite imagery analytics provider. The space optics instrument and satellite manufacturer Dragonfly Aerospace built the satellite and equipped it with two high-resolution DragonEye cameras.
The satellite operates within the EOS SAT constellation, the first agriculture-focused satellite constellation among companies utilizing remote sensing technologies.
Overview
EOS SAT-1 is developed for EOS Data Analytics, a global provider of AI-powered satellite imagery analytics founded by Max Polyakov. It is the first satellite within the company's constellation EOS SAT. It will have a daily imaging capacity of up to 1 million square kilometers and capture imagery in 11 agri-related spectral bands. Satellite cameras will produce panchromatic and multispectral images.
Ev
Once fully operational, the seven small optical EOS SAT satellites will cover up to 100% of the countries with the largest cropland and forest areas, 98.5% of such lands worldwide. The satellite constellation will monitor up to 12 million square kilometers daily.
Specifications
A single EOS SAT-1 satellite scene covers a territory that is 42 km in width and can be over 1000 km in length.
The altitude of the satellite's sun-synchronous orbit is 520–560 km.
Orbit average power: 140 W.
Design lifetime: 5–7 years.
Mass: 176.6400 kg.
Bus voltage: 24.5 — 33.6 V.
GSD (ground sample distance), resolution:
panchromatic 1.4 m
multispectral 2.8 m
Swath width: double optical payload with a 44 km swath width for an altitude of 500 km.
Spectral bands — 11 agri-related bands:
RGB
2 NIR bands
3 RedEdge bands
WaterVapor
Aerosol
Pan.
Launch
The satellite was launched on January 3, 2023, on the SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) and launched 114 spacecraft into orbit, including the EOS SAT-1 satellite.
Mission progress
Since the launch into low Earth orbit, the EOS SAT-1 satellite has established contact and sent telemetry and data on the status of its systems to Earth.
The satellite is fully operational.
See also
GeoEye-1
Earth observation satellites
References
Commercial Earth imaging satellites
Satellites
Spacecraft launched in 2023
Earth observation satellites
Satellites in low Earth orbit
Space technology | EOS SAT-1 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 523 | [
"Space technology",
"Satellites",
"Outer space"
] |
73,377,843 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor%20peptide | Monitor peptide, also known as pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor I (PSTI-I) or pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor 61 (PSTI-61), is a peptide that plays an important role in the regulation of the digestive system, specifically the release of cholecystokinin (CCK).
Function
One of the primary functions of monitor peptide is to stimulate the release of CCK from the enteroendocrine cells of the small intestine. CCK then acts on the gallbladder to release bile and on the pancreas to release digestive enzymes, which help to further break down the food. This coordinated response helps to ensure efficient digestion and absorption of nutrients.
Another function is to act as a competitive inhibitor of trypsin, which is a protease that can activate other proteases. It has been shown to prevent premature activation of pancreatic enzymes.
Its role as a feedback regulator has been well-described for decades. Monitor peptide binds to intestinal epithelial cells and induces CCK-release, which enhances pancreatic secretion in the presence of nutritional protein in the duodenum. When all nutritional protein is digested, monitor peptide is bound by trypsin and subsequently degraded, resulting in decreasing CCK-release and a reduction of pancreatic secretion.
History
Monitor peptide was first discovered in 1984 by Fushiki et al. It was purified from rat bile-pancreatic juice and the peptide sequence was elucidated.
Description
Monitor peptide is composed of 61 amino acids with a molecular weight of approximately 6500 daltons and is basic (PI = 9.0), acid stable, and heat resistant. It is only found in the zymogen granules of pancreatic acinar cells. Similar to CCK-releasing peptide (CCK-RP), it is trypsin sensitive and stimulates CCK release. It is possible that it also stimulates the growth of intestinal epithelial cells.
References
Peptides
Cholecystokinin | Monitor peptide | [
"Chemistry"
] | 433 | [
"Biomolecules by chemical classification",
"Peptides",
"Molecular biology"
] |
73,378,722 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shubnikov%20Institute%20of%20Crystallography%20RAS | The A. V. Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography is a scientific institute of the Department of Physical Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) located in Moscow, Russia. The institute was created by the order of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR on 16November 1943. The first director of the Institute was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Alexei Vasilievich Shubnikov. In 1969, the institute was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
Areas of scientific interest:
Crystal growth: research into crystal formation and growth, development of synthesis methods and creation of equipment for crystallography
Crystal structure: study of idealialized (theoretical) and real-world crystal structures
Crystal properties: study of symmetry and physical properties of crystals; search for crystals with valuable properties
History
1925 – Laboratory of crystallography at the Mineralogical Museum (Leningrad).
1932 – Crystallographic section of the Lomonosov Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrography of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1937 – Crystallographic Laboratory becomes part of the Geological Group of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1941 – During World War II the majority of academic institutes were evacuated from Moscow to the East. The Crystallographic Laboratory continued its work in 1941-43 in the Sverdlovsk Oblast (in the Urals) where a series of important scientific and applied crystallographic problems were solved.
1943 – The Laboratory returns to Moscow and is transferred to the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and renamed the Institute of Crystallography.
1944 – Organization of the Institute of Crystallography. Alexei V. Shubnikov was appointed Director of the Institute.
1956 – Founding of the journal Kristallografiya in which most of the institute's research is subsequently published. This journal is available in English translation as Soviet Physics Crystallography (ISSN 0038-5638) 1956-1992 (vols. 1-37) continued as Crystallography Reports (ISSN 1063-7745) 1993- (vol. 38-)
1957 – Recognition outside the USSR of the establishment of the new field of antisymmetry and colour symmetry by A.V. Shubnikov and N.V. Belov
1962 – Boris Konstantinovich Weinstein is appointed Director of the Institute.
1969 – Award of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
1998 – Professor Mikhail Kovalchuk elected Director of the Institute.
2016 – The Institute was subsumed within the new «Crystallography and Photonics» Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (KiF RAS) which is now known as the «Crystallography and Photonics» FLNIK.
Research Fields
Nano- and bio-organic materials: production, synthesis, structure and properties, diagnostic methods using X-ray and synchrotron radiation, electrons, neutrons and atomic force microscopy
Fundamental aspects of the formation of crystalline materials and nanosystems, their real structure and properties
Creation and study of new crystalline and functional materials
References
External links
Institute of Crystallography home page
History of the Institute of Crystallography (2018 in Russian)
Institute of Crystallography research fields
Crystallography
Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Research institutes established in 1943
Crystallography organizations | Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 671 | [
"Crystallography",
"Condensed matter physics",
"Crystallography organizations",
"Materials science"
] |
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