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76,417,671 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%207329 | NGC 7329 is a large barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Tucana. NGC 7329 was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1835.
The luminosity class of NGC 7329 is II and it has a broad HI line. To date, 29 non-redshift measurements yield a distance of 44.662 ± 5.536 Mpc (~146 million ly), which is within the Hubble distance range. Note that it is with the average value of independent measurements, when they exist, that the NASA/IPAC database calculates the diameter of a galaxy.
Discovery
This galaxy was discovered in 1835 by the English astronomer John Herschel using a 47.5 cm (18.7 in) optical telescope that used a mirror as the light-gathering element.
Supernovae
Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 7329: SN 2006bh and SN 2009iu.
SN 2006bh
This supernova was discovered on April 2, 2006, by South African amateur astronomer Berto Monard, in Pretoria. It was cateogorized as type Ia with a magnitude of 14.8.
SN 2009iu
This supernova, categorized as type Ib with a magnitude of 15.5, was discovered on September 1, 2009, by the CHASE (Chilean Automatic Supernova Search) project, a project searching for supernovae visible from astronomical observatories in the southern hemisphere.
See also
List of NGC objects (7001–7840)
List of barred Magellanic spiral galaxies
List of spiral galaxies
External links
NGC 7329 at NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
NGC 7329 at Simbad du Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg.
NGC 7329 at LEDA
NGC 7678 at SEDS
References
Barred spiral galaxies
Tucana
Galaxies discovered in 1835
7329
069453
109-12
22369-6644 | NGC 7329 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 388 | [
"Tucana",
"Constellations"
] |
76,419,152 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foliaceus | The word foliaceus is a specific epithet used in the name of several species. Foliaceus is Latin and is used to describe something that is leafy or looks like a leaf. It is applied to plants with large or showy foliage, and to animals with features that resemble leaves (such as the wings of the fly Exilibittacus foliaceus).
Plants
The following list consists of flowering plant species names that include foliaceus. Species are included based on the Royal Botanic Garden Kew's Plants of the World Online.
Marine animals
The following list consists of marine animal species names that include foliaceus. Species are included based on the World Register of Marine Species.
Other animals
The following list consists of animal species names that include foliaceus. Species are included based on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility database.
See also
Foliosa
Foliosum
Foliosus
Foliatus
References
Set index articles on organisms | Foliaceus | [
"Biology"
] | 196 | [
"Set index articles on organisms"
] |
76,419,161 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiroketals | In chemistry, Spiroketals are structural motifs composed of two heterocycles sharing one central carbon which makes them a subclass of spiro compound. Their structural specificity lays on the presence of one oxygen atom in each ring, in alpha of the spiro carbon. Although there are no rules about the size of each ring, the most widely encountered spiroketal are composed of five and six membered rings.
Occurrence in nature
Many natural products of biological interest contain [6,5]- and [6,6]-spiroketal moieties that can adopt various configurations. The first example of a spiroketals in the literature appeared before 1970, such as the triterpenoid saponins and sapogenins. Then several works described the presence of spiroketals in various compounds. Like diarrheic shellfish poisoning (DSP) class of toxins containing in the okadaic acid and ancanthafolicin. The most noticeable occurring spiroketals are the whole range of fruit fly pheromones.
Pharmacology interest
Due to its non-planar substructure, the spiroketal motif gain interest among the academical and industrial pharmaceutical research fields, both in structure-based drug design (SBDD) and development of screening libraries.
Avermectins have been found in fungus and are antiparasitic drugs. The avermectins appear to paralyze nematodes and arthropods by potentiating the presynaptic release of gamma-aminobutyric acid, thereby blocking post-synaptic transmission of nerve impulses
Tofogliflozin is an inhibitor of human sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (hSGLT2) and was approved in 2014 in Japan for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes
Chemical synthesis
Acid catalyzed spiroketalisation
The most employed method to ring close spiroketal consists in the hydrolysis of the dihydroxyketal in acidic conditions, but this method is not granting stereocontrol. Thus, several miscellaneous methods have emerged in order to control the stereoselectivity of the spirocyclisation.
Notes
References
Heterocyclic compounds | Spiroketals | [
"Chemistry"
] | 462 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Heterocyclic compounds"
] |
76,419,541 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter%20Niemz | Peter Niemz (1950) is a German-born Swiss materials engineer, retired wood scientist and emeritus professor of the Institute of Building Materials at ETH Zurich, who is an elected fellow (FIAWS) of the International Academy of Wood Science.
Biography
Niemz was born and grew up in the small town of Crosta (Großdubrau), then part of the East Germany.
In 1968–1972, he studied at the Technical University of Dresden, specializing in wood and fiber based materials. Afterwards, he was employed as a researcher at the Institute for Wood Science and Technology (Dresden), where he worked during the years 1972–1992. In 1993 Niemz was elected as a professor at the University of Valdivia (today, Austral University of Chile) in Chile at the Institute of Wood Science and Technology and worked there until 1996.
Following that, he moved to Switzerland, and in 1996 he acquired the position of full professor of wood physics at ETH Zurich. He was eventually retired in 2015. After that, he worked as a senior wood scientist at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Biel.
His research focused on wood physics and wood material properties, and has received -until March 2024- more than 10,000 citations at Google Scholar. Additionally, he served on the editorial boards of esteemed wood-related journals, like Wood Material Science and Engineering and Holzforschung. He served also as a visiting professor at the University of Life Sciences in Warsaw and the Universität für Bodenkultur in Vienna.
Recognition
In 2002, Niemz was elected as a fellow at The International Academy of Wood Science for his yearlong research and academic work.
In October 2023, a meta-research carried out by John Ioannidis et al. at Stanford University included Niemz in Elsevier Data 2022, where he was ranked in the top 2% of researchers of all time in wood science (forestry – materials), having a c-index of 3.0672.
In December 2023, along with Alfred Teischinger and Dick Sandberg, he coordinated and edited the referenced Springer Handbook of Wood Science and Technology.
References
External links
ResearchGate
Swiss scientists
Fellows of the International Academy of Wood Science
Wood scientists
1950 births
Living people
Academic staff of ETH Zurich | Peter Niemz | [
"Materials_science"
] | 475 | [
"Wood sciences",
"Wood scientists"
] |
76,419,906 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic%20nanoparticles%20in%20drug%20delivery | Magnetic nanoparticle drug delivery is the use of external or internal magnets to increase the accumulation of therapeutic elements contained in nanoparticles to fight pathologies in specific parts of the body. It has been applied in cancer treatments, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Scientific researches revealed that magnetic drug delivery can be made increasingly useful in clinical settings.
Background
The development of magnetic nanoparticle drug delivery started with Paul Ehrlich's concept of a "magic bullet". The concept was built during the 1970s with the application of the anticancer drug doxorubicin in animal models. The first successful clinical trial of the process occurred in 1996.
The use of magnetic nanoparticles for drug delivery results in the accumulation of therapeutic elements at a disease site to increase their therapeutic effects as well as limit side-effects at non-target loci. There are many factors that act as variables to accumulation including blood circulation, adherence of therapeutic elements, diffusion of therapeutic elements, bodily response to increased concentrations of these particles, etc. Tumor hypoxia is one of the largest challenges regarding cancer drug delivery as tumors grow faster than vasculature, making initial targeting increasingly important in treatment. This tumor environment drives considerable attention towards magnetic nanoparticles as treatment modalities allowing faster and efficient delivery of drugs and treatment.
Fundamentally, pulsatile artificial capillaries made to mimic blood flow show that the flow force of the capillaries inhibits accumulation of nanoparticles on a magnet downstream, but the magnetic force of the upstream magnet overcomes the force of flow to result in larger accumulation. As a result, for near-surface disease states, magnets should be placed downstream of the disease locus, and for intra-surface disease states, magnets should be placed upstream of the disease locus to maximize accumulation.
Properties
Magnetic nanoparticles for therapeutic applications are selected based on their properties determined by the nanoparticle composition which can be divided into three main groups - metal only, metal alloy, or metal oxide nanoparticles. Some key properties of magnetic nanoparticles include a large specific surface area, desirable biocompatibility, presence without causing disease or eliciting immune response, and superparamagnetism. Magnetic nanoparticles are influenced by an external magnetic field due to the magnetic moment found within the network unit. The external magnetic field is necessary for transport and activation of these nanoparticles. Therefore, when a drug is attached/encased in magnetic nanoparticles, these particles will be targeted using an external magnetic field to guide and concentrate the drug at desired disease locus.
Design of magnetic nanoparticles for clinical application requires careful evaluation of the effects of surface modification, size, and shape on its magnetic properties. Ferromagnetic properties of nanoparticles have been used in magnetic drug delivery systems. This is important, as ferromagnetism is described as the coercivity of particles to form macro-materials on permanent magnets. The macro-materials include iron, cobalt, and nickel; these elements retain their magnetic properties when a magnet is removed, which is why they accumulate on the permanent magnets. Iron oxides, such as Fe₂O₄ and Fe₃O₄ in particular, play a key role in magnetic nanoparticle drug delivery. The particle sizes typically range from 3 nm to 30 nm. Overall, these iron oxides display good magnetic properties, lower toxicity, and high stability against degradation.
For example, a Fe3-δO4 core-shell is used as a carrier for drug delivery. The designed magnetic nanoparticle-based structure displayed biocompatibility, the formation of a covalent bond between the carrier and drug, and glutathione-responsive drug release which prevents early drug release and increases bioavailability. Furthermore, the presence of magnetic nanoparticles in this drug delivery method allows for its response to external magnetic fields for functionalization. The combination of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) used as drug carriers for doxorubicin are influenced by external magnetism. In vivo SPIO-PEG-D under a magnetic field leads to greater tumor accumulation of therapeutic elements, shows lower tumor size, and reduces cardiotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in the magnetic field. Doxorubicin is known for being extremely toxic, and SPIO-PEG shows potential for use as a nanoparticle carrier for reduced toxicity in the periphery.
Magnetic nanoparticle coating
Coating defines the biocompatibility of the therapeutic agent and its ability to travel in the body. When the agent is not biocompatible, it will quickly be excreted from the body, and there will be magnetic accumulation or off-target therapeutic effects. The use of organic or inorganic coating molecules increases the half-life of the nanocarrier by delaying its clearance by the reticuloendothelial system (RES). This delay occurs because the coating overcomes the pH, hydrophobicity, and surface charge of the magnetic nanoparticles. Additionally, coating allows molecules to covalently bind to specific molecules, such as ligands, proteins, or antibodies, which provides binding specificity to target tissues.
A common structure of coating includes the core-shell structure. In this structure, metal oxide cores are coated with biocompatible materials which allows for increased control and biocompatibility. The most common coatings used for optimum response involve the use of polysaccharides like dextran and polymers like polyethylene glycol. Furthermore, carbon coatings have proved to be biocompatible and have high capacity for absorption into cells. Even polyaniline with anti-cancer agent epirubicin can be used for tumor exploration of the brain. Polyethyleneimine has displayed high cellular accumulation and low toxicity. This coating was found to have poor pharmacokinetic properties when used alone, but with magnetic field induction, it was found to accumulate on tumors at clinically significant rates. Silica coatings increase the external surface area to assist in binding and are heat resistant. There are various coatings used to prevent leaching of the magnetic core of the nanoparticles; these coatings have a significant salt concentration with a slightly alkaline (basic) pH.
Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is an example of a hydrophilic coating that has been used as a biocompatible targeting modality. Hydrophilic PEG interacts beneficially with the physiological environment to improve biocompatibility by preventing opsonization on the surface of the particles, thus increasing circulation time from minutes to hours, or even days, for magnetic nanoparticles. MRI shows prolonged PEG circulation and increased SPIO-PEG-D particle accumulation within the tumor with magnetic guidance.
Coating not only provides hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties but can also contribute to temperature- and pH-dependent properties. Particular substances, such as PNG, provide these two properties, allowing unique and efficient delivery of drugs. This also enables greater control of release, as body temperature allows a greater amount of drug released, while physiological pH allows a lower amount of drug released. Other coating options for similar pH-dependent properties include the hydrogel chitosan that is crosslinked to a polymer coating. These coating choices have displayed positive results in delivery of anticancer drugs.
Impact
The small sizes of magnetic nanoparticles allow them to target a variety of targets of different sizes for different purposes. These sizes range from targeting a small cell (10-100 μm), a virus (20-45 nm), a protein (5-50 nm), or a gene (2 nm wide and 10-100 nm long). If these magnetic nanoparticles are coated correctly, they can interact with and enter body structures, allowing adequate delivery of a drug. Additionally, using magnetic nanoparticles in drug delivery has remote control capability. This occurs through the external magnetic field gradient that is associated with the magnetic field's permeability within human tissue. With the application of this remote control, accumulation and transfer of the magnetic nanoparticles is promoted, which has been especially useful in the delivery of anticancer drugs to specific tumor tissues.
Another advantage of drug delivery using magnetic nanoparticles is the personability of magnet placement depending on disease state location. While this may also be a limitation, it can be effective if the resources can be used for personally tailored medicine reception. Additionally, a major advantage of magnetic nanoparticles is that they can be visualized with ultrasound and/or MRI imaging. Increase in cellular uptake of SPIO-PEG-D was linked to distinguishable darker differences in MRI and increased tumor visibility.
Limitations
Limitations of magnetic drug delivery can range from their inherent magnetic properties to interactions with bodily barriers. When magnetic nanoparticles are in the bloodstream, they have high solubility and ionic strength, allowing them to interact with plasma proteins, stimulating the immune system to further inhibit their function. Additionally, the proportion of the nanoparticle size to the target tissue has shown limitations in effective drug delivery, especially in the kidneys and the brain. Intracellular barriers include the removal of the magnetic nanoparticles from the target membrane by ligand-dependent endocytosis followed by separation via acidification in the endosome chamber. Other barriers to consider are the depth of the target tissue, vascular sources, body weight, the speed and amount of blood flow to the target tissue, distance from the field source, injection route, and tumor volume. However, the use of magnetic nanoparticles is more effective when used in near-surface tissues that have slower blood flow, allowing for diffusion and/or endocytosis of nanoparticles into the tissue.
Another limitation involves the accumulation of nanoparticles only 5 mm away from an external magnet. An accumulation distance of 5 mm may not be sufficient in larger applications of magnetic drug delivery. This may be effective enough for sites in closer proximity to the surface of the body, but when the site of interest is deeper within tissue, then the advantage of using magnetic nanoparticles for delivery decreases exponentially. It has been proposed to implant magnets within the body to overcome this limitation. Magnet location placement can be upstream or downstream of the location of the disease for maximum accumulation.
Another question arises from the subject of cellular uptake. While the use of a magnetic field may guide particles to therapeutic sites, it is not an indicator of cellular uptake of particles. This raises questions regarding the effect, if any, of the therapeutic element on the effector area. Generally, nanoparticles efficiently cross cell barriers; however, this can change in the presence of other processes. Promise has been shown with the use of PEG coating. Hydrophilic coatings have shown enhanced cellular uptake at tumor cells with the use of a magnetic field.
Another concern arises regarding the biotoxicity of magnetic nanoparticles. It is difficult to say for certain that all magnetic nanoparticles are toxic due the large variety of magnetic particles that can be used. The nanoparticles size, biodegradability, composition, and dosage are a few of the properties impacting this concern. However, it has been shown that magnetic nanoparticles that are either inhaled to enter the lungs or are swallowed and enter the gastrointestinal tract have unsatisfactory impacts on the body. PEG, linear neutral polyether coatings have a tendency to lose their targeting capabilities in response to their "immune stealthing" function.
Applications
Most magnetic nanoparticle applications in clinical settings are used for cancer therapies. Magnetic nanoparticles have the ability to target the specific locus of the tumor, use a decreased amount of drug to treat the tumor, and result in decreased off-target effects of the drug. The most common method of introducing magnetic nanoparticles into the body is through intravenous injection; from the site of injection, the nanoparticles travel through the bloodstream. They eventually migrate to the target site with the use of external or implanted magnetic forces.
A pH/magnetic field dual responsive drug loaded nanomicelle was developed for targeted magnetothermal synergistic chemotherapy of cancer. In this drug delivery system, after the drug reaches the target site and tumor cell uptake is complete, an external magnetic field is applied causing a magnetothermal effect, raising the tumor cells' temperature and further promoting drug uptake. This nanocarrier system aims to improve drug stability, control drug release, and improve tumor targeting efficacy. This approach has shown increased treatment efficacy over traditional chemotherapy and has not demonstrated any noticeable biotoxicity.
Cardiovascular disease treatment presents as another application of magnetic nanoparticle drug delivery. Atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease is a buildup of plaque in the inner lining of the arteries, and there are models on how magnetic nanoparticle drug delivery could be used as a treatment. However there have not been any in vivo or in vitro studies of magnetic nanoparticles being used to deliver drugs to the arteries to effectively reduce inflammation.
Other potential applications of magnetic nanoparticles are brain imaging and drug delivery past the blood-brain barrier (BBB) using biodegradable magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The scope of this application is the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders by functioning as contrast agents and drug carriers. To cross the BBB, these nanoparticles are designed by creating specificity to the BBB; this is achieved by designing the surface of the nanoparticles to be engrafted to ligands, antibodies, small molecules, cell-penetrating peptides, or conjugated RNA to target specific receptors situated along the BBB in order to facilitate entry. As opposed to methods of drug delivery that result in drugs being removed from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or being degraded, magnetic nanoparticle delivery presents an opportunity to protect therapeutics as well as encourage more efficient delivery following the introduction of the nanoparticles. Magnetic nanoparticles can also be used in conjunction with imaging modalities like ultrasound to improve imaging.
The use of nanoparticles in ophthalmic drug delivery is also being explored in clinical research. Magnetic nanoparticles inserted into rats' corneas or administered in an eye drop solution showed high adhesion to the target site. However, the exact mechanism by which the adhesion occurred is still being researched. When the rats were exposed to a bacterial substance that should induce keratitis of the cornea, the amount of inflammation in the treatment group of rats (received the eye drops after exposure) was inhibited. Magnetic nanoparticles have also been used in hyperthermic therapy of cancer, cell purification, biosensing, and immunocytochemical tests.
References
Drug delivery devices
Nanotechnology | Magnetic nanoparticles in drug delivery | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 3,097 | [
"Nanomedicine",
"Pharmacology",
"Drug delivery devices",
"Nanotechnology"
] |
76,420,184 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygrophorus%20atramentosus | Hygrophorus atramentosus, is a species of agaric fungus in the family Hygrophoraceae native to Europe.
Habitat and morphology
Grows in summer and autumn in coniferous (mostly spruce), mixed forests with calcareous soils. It differs from other Hygrophorus sp., esp Hygrophorus camarophyllus, in its habitats - the latter grows in pine forests.
The cap is gray, with a metallic shade, 3.5–8 cm in diameter, irregular shape, prominently flat, concave surface. The stipe is 4–6 cm x 8–20 mm. Radially arranged lamellae are white or greyish. Mild smell. Spores 7–8.5 × 4.5-5.5 μm. The mushroom is not edible.
References
External links
atramentosus
Fungi of Europe
Fungus species | Hygrophorus atramentosus | [
"Biology"
] | 189 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
76,420,310 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%20Brenna | James Thomas Brenna (born October 15, 1959) is an American scientist specializing in analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry, and in human nutrition and foods, specifically fats. He is a professor of Pediatrics and chemistry at Dell Medical School, having previously been a professor of human nutrition, chemistry, chemical biology and food science at Cornell University.
Career
Floyd Landis trials
Brenna was the key expert witness in the action of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) against 2006 Tour de France first place finisher Floyd Landis, adjudicated in a hearing of the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport/Court for Arbitration in Sport held in Malibu, California. He testified to the accuracy of Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) tests conducted by the French Antidoping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry. Landis conducted a high profile, multimillion dollar defense but lost the 2007 original hearing with the decision relying for technical opinion on Brenna’s testimony. Landis later lost a 2008 de novo case before the American Arbitration Association also relying on Brenna’s testimony and was stripped of his title. Years later Landis revealed he was doping and filed a whistle-blower lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act against Lance Armstrong that was settled with multimillion dollar payments by Armstrong.
DHA in Infant Formula
Brenna visited the FDA infant formula team in late 2001 to encourage omega-3 DHA to be included in infant formula. A few weeks later the FDA issued its “no questions” letter accepting this suggestion and citing his work.
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee
Brenna was a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee advising on the 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. He was one of four members of the Food Sustainability and Safety subcommittee whose work on sustainability was excluded from consideration by an act of Congress.
Coconut oil
Comments in the New York Times about the healthfulness of coconut oil in late 2015 were covered in 200+ newspapers globally. Brenna opined that 21st-century virgin coconut oil does not cause heart disease but that earlier coconut oils may cause heart disease due to process contaminants.
Vegetarian gene
In 2016 he was co-lead of a team that discovered an insertion-deletion polymorphism, rs66698963, is under positive selective pressure depending on whether ancestral diets were primarily animal/seafood-based or plant-based. Global news widely reported that it would lead to potentially greater risk of disease, though this was corrected later.
References
1959 births
Living people
Cornell University alumni
Analytical chemists
University of Texas at Austin faculty | Tom Brenna | [
"Chemistry"
] | 523 | [
"Analytical chemists"
] |
76,421,491 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deruxtecan | Deruxtecan is a chemical compound and a derivative of exatecan that acts as topoisomerase I inhibitor.
It is available linked to specific monoclonal antibody (antibody–drug conjugate), such as:
Trastuzumab deruxtecan. It is licensed for the treatment of breast cancer or gastric or gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.
Patritumab deruxtecan, an experimental antibody–drug conjugate to treat non-small-cell lung cancer.
Ifinatamab deruxtecan, an experimental anti-cancer treatment.
Datopotamab deruxtecan (Datroway), used for the treatment of breast cancer
References
Antibody-drug conjugates
Topoisomerase inhibitors
Amines
Nitrogen heterocycles
Maleimides
Hexapeptides
Organofluorides
Lactams
Lactones
Tertiary alcohols
Heterocyclic compounds with 6 rings | Deruxtecan | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 200 | [
"Antibody-drug conjugates",
"Amines",
"Bases (chemistry)",
"Functional groups"
] |
76,421,867 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal%20Energy%20Act | For the Geothermal Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1974, please see Geothermal Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act.
The Geothermal Energy Act of 1980 (GEA) is an act authorized by the 96th U.S. Congress to address the issues of U.S. geothermal energy and its capabilities. It is one of six acts enacted by the Energy Security Act of 1980.
It addresses geothermal energy legislation by means of the following:
Domestic geothermal reserves could be developed into regionally significant energy sources promoting the economic health as well as the national security of the United States.
However, there were institutional and economic barriers to the commercialization of geothermal technology; and
Federal agencies should consider the use of geothermal energy for government buildings.
Finance and insurance issues
The majority of the subsections of the GEA address the financial and insurance issues of geothermal energy production by means of the following:
Loans for geothermal reservoir confirmation,
The study, establishment, and implementation of an insurance program, and
The establishment of assistance programs.
Prior to this legislation was the Federal Geothermal Research, Development and Demonstration Act of 1974.
References
Geothermal energy in the United States
Geothermal areas in the United States
Energy policy
Energy policy of the United States
96th United States Congress
United States federal energy legislation | Geothermal Energy Act | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 266 | [
"Environmental social science",
"Energy policy"
] |
72,043,690 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker%20hypothesis | The Berserker hypothesis, also known as the deadly probes scenario, is the idea that humans have not yet detected intelligent alien life in the universe because it has been systematically destroyed by a series of lethal Von Neumann probes. The hypothesis is named after the Berserker series of novels (1963–2005) written by Fred Saberhagen.
The hypothesis has no single known proposer, and instead is thought to have emerged over time in response to the Hart–Tipler conjecture, the idea that an absence of detectable Von Neumann probes is contrapositive evidence that no intelligent life exists outside of the Sun's Solar System. According to the Berserker hypothesis, an absence of such probes is not evidence of life's absence, since interstellar probes could "go berserk" and destroy other civilizations, before self-destructing.
In his 1983 paper "The Great Silence", astronomer David Brin summarized the implications of the Berserker hypothesis: it is entirely compatible with all the facts and logic of the Fermi paradox, but would mean that there exists no intelligent life left to be discovered. In the worst-case scenario, humanity has already alerted others to its existence, and is next in line to be destroyed.
Background
There is no reliable or reproducible evidence that aliens have visited Earth. No transmissions or evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life have been observed anywhere other than Earth in the Universe. This runs counter to the knowledge that the Universe is filled with a very large number of planets, some of which likely hold the conditions hospitable for life. Life typically expands until it fills all available niches. These contradictory facts form the basis for the Fermi paradox, of which the Berserker hypothesis is one proposed solution.
Responses
A key component of the hypothesis is that Earth's solar system has not yet been visited by a Berserker probe. In a 2013 analysis by Anders Sandberg and Stuart Armstrong at the Future of Humanity Institute at University of Oxford, they predicted that even a slowly replicated set of Berserker probes, if it were able to destroy civilizations elsewhere, would also very likely have already encountered (and destroyed) humanity.
Relationship to other proposed Fermi paradox solutions
The Berserker hypothesis is distinct from the dark forest hypothesis in that under the latter, many alien civilizations could still exist provided they keep silent. The dark forest hypothesis can be viewed as a special case of the Berserker hypothesis, if the 'deadly Berserker probes' are (e.g. due to resource scarcity) only sent to star systems that show signs of intelligent life.
The Great Filter hypothesis is a more general counterpart to the Berserker hypothesis, which posits that a great event or barrier prevents early-stage extraterrestrial life from developing into intelligent space-faring civilizations. In the Berserker hypothesis framing, the filter would exist between the industrial age and widespread space colonization.
References
Astrobiology
Hypotheses
Astronomical hypotheses
Astronomical controversies
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Fermi paradox | Berserker hypothesis | [
"Astronomy",
"Biology"
] | 640 | [
"Astronomical hypotheses",
"Origin of life",
"History of astronomy",
"Speculative evolution",
"Astrobiology",
"Astronomical controversies",
"Fermi paradox",
"Biological hypotheses",
"Astronomical sub-disciplines"
] |
72,044,568 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart%E2%80%93Tipler%20conjecture | The Hart–Tipler conjecture is the idea that an absence of detectable Von Neumann probes is contrapositive evidence that no intelligent life exists outside of the Solar System. This idea was first proposed in opposition to the Drake equation in a 1975 paper by Michael H. Hart titled "Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth". Assuming that the probes traveled at 1/10 the speed of light and that no time was lost in building new ships upon arriving at the destination, Hart surmised that a wave of Von Neumann probes could cross the galaxy in approximately 650,000 years, a comparatively minimal span of time relative to the estimated age of the universe at 13.7 billion years. Hart’s argument was extended by cosmologist Frank Tipler in his 1981 paper entitled "Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist".
The conjecture is the first of many proposed solutions to the Fermi paradox (the conflict between the lack of obvious evidence for alien life and various high probability estimates for its existence). In this case, the solution is that there is no other intelligent life because such estimates are incorrect. The conjecture is named after astrophysicist Michael H. Hart and mathematical physicist and cosmologist Frank Tipler.
Background
There is no reliable or reproducible evidence that aliens have visited Earth. No transmissions or evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life have been detected or observed anywhere other than Earth in the Universe. If intelligent life existed it would have produced enough self-replicating spacecraft, known as von Neumann probes, to cover the universe by now, which runs counter to the knowledge that the Universe is filled with a very large number of planets, some of which likely hold the conditions hospitable for life. Life typically expands until it fills all available niches. These contradictory facts form the basis for the Fermi paradox, of which the Hart–Tipler conjecture is one proposed solution.
Relationship to other proposed Fermi paradox solutions
The firstborn hypothesis is a special case of the Hart–Tipler conjecture which states that no other intelligent life has been discovered because humanity is the first intelligent life in the universe. According to the Berserker hypothesis, the absence of interstellar probes is not evidence of life's absence, since such probes could "go berserk" and destroy other civilizations, before self-destructing.
References
Astrobiology
Hypotheses
Astronomical hypotheses
Astronomical controversies
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Fermi paradox | Hart–Tipler conjecture | [
"Astronomy",
"Biology"
] | 511 | [
"Astronomical hypotheses",
"Origin of life",
"History of astronomy",
"Speculative evolution",
"Astrobiology",
"Astronomical controversies",
"Fermi paradox",
"Biological hypotheses",
"Astronomical sub-disciplines"
] |
72,044,740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firstborn%20hypothesis | The firstborn hypothesis is a proposed solution to the Fermi paradox which states that no extraterrestrial intelligent life has been discovered because humanity is the first form of intelligent life in the universe.
Background
There is no reliable or reproducible evidence that aliens have visited Earth. No transmissions or evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life have been observed anywhere other than Earth in the universe. This runs counter to the knowledge that the universe is filled with a very large number of planets, some of which likely hold the conditions hospitable for life. Life typically expands until it fills all available niches. These contradictory facts form the basis for the Fermi paradox, of which the firstborn hypothesis is one proposed solution.
Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and cosmologist, has suggested that Earth may be a very early example of a life-bearing planet and that life-bearing planets may be more likely trillions of years from now. He has put forward the view that the Universe has only recently reached a state in which life becomes possible and this is the reason humanity has not detected extraterrestrial life.
Relationship to other proposed Fermi paradox solutions
The firstborn hypothesis is a special case of the Hart–Tipler conjecture (the idea that the lack of evidence for interstellar probes is evidence that no intelligent life other than humanity exists in the universe) which asserts a time-dependent curve towards discovery. The firstborn hypothesis is also a special time-dependent case of the rare earth hypothesis which states that conditions for creating intelligent life are exceedingly rare.
References
Extraterrestrial life
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Fermi paradox | Firstborn hypothesis | [
"Astronomy",
"Biology"
] | 335 | [
"Astronomical hypotheses",
"Hypothetical life forms",
"Extraterrestrial life",
"Astronomical controversies",
"Fermi paradox",
"Biological hypotheses"
] |
72,044,758 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%20%28%22Weird%20Al%22%20Yankovic%20song%29 | "Bob" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic from the 2003 album, Poodle Hat. The song is a parody sung in the style of Bob Dylan, and all of the lyrics are palindromes as is the title. For example, the song's first line is "I, man, am regal—a German am I", which reads the same when reversed.
The song did not chart at the time of its release, but later became the subject of critical and scholarly examination. Music critic Nathan Rabin argues that the song's lyrics "sound cryptic enough to be genuine Dylanesque, but are in fact palindromes delivered in an uncanny re-creation of Dylan's nasal whine." Randall Auxier and Douglas R. Anderson described Yankovic as having "bested" Dylan with the song, in a hypothetical competition.
Composition and style
"Bob" was written and recorded by Yankovic in 2002 and was "in part inspired by the year 2002, itself a palindrome". In an interview with musicologist Lily E. Hirsch, Yankovic used the song as an illustration of his writing process, noting that he put together the lyrics before deciding to do the song in the style of Dylan:
Using Dylan as the template for the song style also allowed Yankovic to use Dylan's first name, itself a palindrome, as the title. The song is described as "a style parody that responds to Dylan's sound (particularly his mid-1960s sound) and to the befuddling nature of some of his lyrics". Although the music video references "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "the musical style of 'Bob' is closer to Dylan's 'Tombstone Blues'". Yankovic "plays on the famous inscrutability of Dylan's 1960s lyrics by composing his parody entirely from palindromes", while his performance "replicates a musical style associated with Bob Dylan—harmonica, a pronounced nasal voice, and vocal attacks marked by scooping", the latter being a musical technique of singing the note slightly below the desired pitch, and then sliding up to it. Another examination found that "Yankovic's vocal timbre, attack, phrasing and rhythm make the song convincingly Dylanesque, while the rhyming palindromes provide a structuring logic to the song and provide it with its own sense even as it makes no sense semantically". The A.V. Club found the song to be "very much in the Bowser & Blue tradition, imitating the sound of Dylan's classic recordings and poking fun at his penchant for nonsensical lyrics".
While serving as a guest judge in a palindrome contest in 2013, Yankovic noted that the palindrome appearing as a verse in the song, "Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo", was a personal favorite of his. Yankovic further related that "The writing of a brilliant palindrome is a small miracle", which "deserves to be honored more than a lot of the stupid and inconsequential things we often celebrate in our culture".
Music video
The music video references the recording of Dylan's song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" in the 1967 D. A. Pennebaker documentary Dont Look Back. The video for "Bob" is similarly shot in black-and-white, and in the same back-alley setting, with Yankovic dressing as Dylan and dropping cue cards that have the song's lyrics on them, as Dylan did in the film. The video features cameo appearances by drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz and frequent Yankovic video director Jay Levey, standing in the same positions as Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth in the Dylan video.
"Bob" was the only song on the album for which a video was made; plans had been made to film a video for the Eminem parody "Couch Potato", but while the work was in pre-production, the singer refused permission to make the video. So that the album would not be without a video, a quick one for "Bob" was shot and used on the tour and for the 2003 edition of Al TV. The video for "Bob" was subsequently released on "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection DVD (2003).
Personnel
According to the liner notes of The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic:
"Weird Al" Yankovic – lead & background vocals
Jim West – guitars
Steve Jay – bass guitar
Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums, tambourine
Rubén Valtierra – piano
Will Anderson – harmonica
See also
"I Palindrome I" 1992 song by They Might Be Giants
Duo Palindrome 2002, Volumes 1 and 2, albums by drummer Andrew Cyrille and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton
List of English palindromic phrases
References
2003 songs
Cultural depictions of Bob Dylan
Music videos directed by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Palindromes
Songs written by "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic songs
List songs
Articles with quotation marks in the title | Bob ("Weird Al" Yankovic song) | [
"Physics"
] | 1,052 | [
"Symmetry",
"Palindromes"
] |
72,049,053 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUM%20School%20of%20Computation%2C%20Information%20and%20Technology | The TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) is a school of the Technical University of Munich, established in 2022 by the merger of three former departments. As of 2022, it is structured into the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science, and the Department of Electrical Engineering.
Department of Mathematics
The Department of Mathematics (MATH) is located at the Garching campus.
History
Mathematics was taught from the beginning at the Polytechnische Schule in München and the later Technische Hochschule München. Otto Hesse was the department's first professor for calculus, analytical geometry and analytical mechanics. Over the years, several institutes for mathematics were formed.
In 1974, the Institute of Geometry was merged with the Institute of Mathematics to form the Department of Mathematics, and informatics, which had been part of the Institute of Mathematics, became a separate department.
Research Groups
As of 2022, the research groups at the department are:
Algebra
Analysis
Analysis and Modelling
Applied Numerical Analysis, Optimization and Data Analysis
Biostatistics
Discrete Optimization
Dynamic Systems
Geometry and Topology
Mathematical Finance
Mathematical Optimization
Mathematical Physics
Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems
Numerical Mathematics
Numerical Methods for Plasma Physics
Optimal Control
Probability Theory
Scientific Computing
Statistics
Department of Computer Science
The Department of Computer Science (CS) is located at the Garching campus.
History
The first courses in computer science at the Technical University of Munich were offered in 1967 at the Department of Mathematics, when Friedrich L. Bauer introduced a two-semester lecture titled Information Processing. In 1968, Klaus Samelson started offering a second lecture cycle titled Introduction to Informatics. By 1992, the computer science department had separated from the Department of Mathematics to form an independent Department of Informatics.
In 2002, the department relocated from its old campus in the Munich city center to the new building on the Garching campus.
In 2017, the Department celebrated 50 Years of Informatics Munich with a series of lectures and ceremonies, together with the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Bundeswehr University Munich.
Chairs
As of 2022, the department consists of the following chairs:
AI in Healthcare and Medicine
Algorithmic Game Theory
Algorithms and Complexity
Application and Middleware Systems
Augmented Reality
Bioinformatics
Computational Imaging and AI in Medicine
Computational Molecular Medicine
Computer Aided Medical Procedures
Computer Graphics and Visualization
Computer Vision and AI
Cyber Trust
Data Analytics and Machine Learning
Data Science and Engineering
Database Systems
Decision Science & Systems
Dynamic Vision and Learning
Efficient Algorithms
Engineering Software for Decentralized Systems
Ethics in Systems Design and Machine Learning
Formal Languages, Compiler & Software Construction
Formal Methods for Software Reliability
Hardware-aware Algorithms and Software for HPC
Information Systems & Business Process Management
Law and Security of Digitization
Legal Tech
Logic and Verification
Machine Learning of 3D Scene Geometry
Physics-based Simulation
Quantum Computing
Scientific Computing
Software & Systems Engineering
Software Engineering
Software Engineering for Business Information Systems
Theoretical Computer Science
Theoretical Foundations of AI
Visual Computing
Notable people
Seven faculty members of the Department of Informatics have been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, one of the highest endowed research prizes in Germany with a maximum of €2.5 million per award:
2020 – Thomas Neumann
2016 – Daniel Cremers
2008 – Susanne Albers
1997 – Ernst Mayr
1995 – Gerd Hirzinger
1994 – Manfred Broy
1991 –
Friedrich L. Bauer was awarded the 1988 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award for inventing the stack data structure. Gerd Hirzinger was awarded the 2005 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Pioneer Award. and Burkhard Rost were awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2011 and 2008, respectively. Rudolf Bayer was known for inventing the B-tree and Red–black tree.
Department of Electrical Engineering
The Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) is located at the Munich campus.
History
The first lectures in the field of electricity at the Polytechnische Schule München were given as early as 1876 by the physicist Wilhelm von Bezold. Over the years, as the field of electrical engineering became increasingly important, a separate department for electrical engineering emerged within the mechanical engineering department. In 1967, the department was renamed the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and six electrical engineering departments were permanently established.
In April 1974, the formal establishment of the new TUM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering took place. While still located in the Munich campus, a new building is currently in construction on the Garching campus and the department is expected to move by 2025.
Professorships
As of 2022, the department consists of the following chairs and professorships:
Biomedical Electronics
Circuit Design
Computational Photonics
Control and Manipulation of Microscale Living Objects
Environmental Sensing and Modeling
High Frequency Engineering
Hybrid Electronic Systems
Measurement Systems and Sensor Technology
Micro- and Nanosystems Technology
Microwave Engineering
Molecular Electronics
Nano and Microrobotics
Nano and Quantum Sensors
Neuroelectronics
Physics of Electrotechnology
Quantum Electronics and Computer Engineering
Semiconductor Technology
Simulation of Nanosystems for Energy Conversion
Department of Computer Engineering
The Department of Computer Engineering was separated from the former Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as the result of merger into the School of Computation, Information and Technology.
Professorships
As of 2022, the department consists of the following chairs and professorships:
Architecture of Parallel and Distributed Systems
Audio Information Processing
Automatic Control Engineering
Bio-inspired Information Processing
Coding and Cryptography
Communications Engineering
Communication Networks
Computer Architecture & Operating Systems
Computer Architecture and Parallel Systems
Connected Mobility
Cognitive Systems
Cyber Physical Systems
Data Processing
Electronic Design Automation
Embedded Systems and Internet of Things
Healthcare and Rehabilitation Robotics
Human-Machine Communication
Information-oriented Control
Integrated Systems
Line Transmission Technology
Machine Learning for Robotics
Machine Learning in Engineering
Machine Vision and Perception
Media Technology
Network Architectures and Services
Neuroengineering Materials
Real-Time Computer Systems
Robotics Science and System Intelligence
Robotics, AI and realtime systems
Security in Information Technology
Sensor-based Robot Systems and Intelligent Assistance Systems
Signal Processing Methods
Theoretical Information Technology
Building
The Department of Computer Science shares a building with the Department of Mathematics.
In the building, two massive parabolic slides run from the fourth floor to the ground floor. Their shape corresponds to the equation and is supposed to represent the "connection of science and art".
Rankings
The Department of Computer Science has been consistently rated the top computer science department in Germany by major rankings. Globally, it ranks No. 29 (QS), No. 10 (THE), and within No. 51-75 (ARWU). In the 2020 national CHE University Ranking, the department is among the top rated departments for computer science and business informatics, being rated in the top group for the majority of criteria.
The Department of Mathematics has been rated as one of the top mathematics departments in Germany, ranking 43rd in the world and 2nd in Germany (after the University of Bonn) in the QS World University Rankings, and within No. 51-75 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In Statistics & Operational Research, QS ranks TUM first in Germany and 28th in the world.
The Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering are leading in Germany. In Electrical & Electronic Engineering, TUM is rated 18th worldwide by QS and 22nd by ARWU. In engineering as a whole, TUM is ranked 20th globally and 1st nationally in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
See also
Summer School Marktoberdorf
References
External links
2022 establishments in Germany
Universities and colleges established in 2022
Computer science departments
Electrical and computer engineering departments
Schools of mathematics | TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,481 | [
"Electrical and computer engineering departments",
"Electrical and computer engineering",
"Engineering universities and colleges"
] |
72,050,045 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20106248 | HD 106248, also known as HR 4649, is a solitary, orange hued star located in the southern circumpolar constellation Chamaeleon. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.34, placing it near the limit for naked eye visibility. Based on parallax measurements from Gaia DR3, the object is estimated to be 358 light years away from the Solar System. It appears to be receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of . At its current distance, HD 106248's brightness is diminished by 0.32 due to interstellar dust and Eggen (1993) lists it as a member of the old (thick) disk population.
This is an evolved red giant with a stellar classification of K2/3 III CNII—intermediate between a K2 and K3 giant star. The CNII suffix indicates that it has a strong overabundance of cyano radicals in its spectrum, making it a CN star. It has 119% the mass of the Sun and is estimated to be 4.31 billion years old, slightly younger than the Sun. However, HD 106248 has already left the main sequence and has an enlarged radius of . It radiates 49 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of . The star has a solar metallicity and spins slowly with a projected rotational velocity lower than .
References
CN stars
K-type giants
106248
059647
4649
Chamaeleon
CD-77 00542
Chamaeleontis, 39 | HD 106248 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 321 | [
"Chamaeleon",
"Constellations"
] |
72,050,459 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%20UQ1 | [[File:2022UQ1-lucy-flyby.png|320px|thumb|Flyby trajectories of the Lucy spacecraft compared to ]]''' was a minor planet provisional designation that was mistakenly given to the Lucy mission's Centaur upper stage booster during its Earth gravity assist flyby in October 2022. The object passed about from the center of Earth (or an altitude of above the surface of Earth) during its closest approach on 16 October 2022.
Because the object approached Earth from the direction of the Sun, it was not discovered until after its closest approach. The object was discovered on 18 October 2022 by one of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes in Rio Hurtado, Chile, which reported it to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) as a near-Earth object candidate. Three other observatories produced follow-up observations on the following day and confirmed the object was on a near-Earth orbit, prompting the MPC to announce the object as a new near-Earth object with the provisional designation on 19 October 2022. The object was later identified as the Lucy'' mission's Centaur upper stage booster by Bill Gray and Davide Farnocchia, resulting in the MPC deleting from its database on 20 October 2022.
Orbit
came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 27 July 2022 at a distance of 0.84 AU, between the orbits of Venus and Earth. The Earth encounter in October reduced the period of its heliocentric orbit from 1 year to about 241 days and reduced its perihelion to 0.52 AU, placing it in between the orbits of Mercury and Venus.
See also
2010 KQ
2020 SO
Notes
References
External links
Lucy rocket booster trajectory (Tony Dunn)
Closest Asteroid Flyby in 2022 Was Really Space Junk From NASA Mission cnet.com, Oct 20, 2022
Asteroid (NEO) 2022 UQ1
Minor planet object articles (unnumbered)
Discoveries by ATLAS
20221018
20221016
Space debris
2022 in outer space | 2022 UQ1 | [
"Technology"
] | 437 | [
"Space debris"
] |
72,050,645 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan%20Redwing | Joan M. Redwing is an American materials scientist known for research on electronic and optoelectronic materials, including the processing of semiconductor thin films and nanomaterials by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Redwing is a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University and director of the university's 2D Crystal Consortium research facility. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the Materials Research Society.
Education and career
Joan M. Redwing attended the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received a bachelor of science in chemical engineering in 1986. After graduation, from 1986 to 1988, she worked at General Electric Corporate Research & Development in New York where her work was focused on tungsten-coated X-ray targets produced by chemical vapor deposition. She pursued a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the advisement of Thomas Kuech. She received her degree in 1994; her thesis was A study of dopant incorporation into gallium arsenide grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy.
Redwing joined Advanced Technology Materials Inc., in Connecticut, as a research engineer, where she researched group III-nitride semiconductors grown by MOCVD, especially aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaN) and gallium nitride (GaN) two-dimensional electron gas heterostructures, and co-authored several patents. She moved to Epitronics Inc., an Arizona subsidiary of ATMI, in 1997 where she held the position of Manager of III-V Technology and led a epitaxial wafer manufacturing group. She joined the faculty of Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 2000 as an assistant professor with appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering. She continued studying group III-nitride semiconductors at PSU and began research on synthesizing semiconductor nanowires, in particular those made from silicon or silicon/silicon–germanium for usage in nanoelectronics and photovoltaics, among other subjects.
In 2014, Redwing's research group was one of three groups at the university's Center for Two-dimensional and Layered Materials (2DLM) that received an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research 2D materials. As a 2016 Fulbright Scholar to Sweden, Redwing spent three months at Lund University with the research group of to study III-V nanowire materials as replacements for conventional silicon semiconductors. She has been director and synthesis lead of the Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium (2DCC), a materials research facility at Penn State that received NSF funding starting in 2016, where her group has continued research on 2D materials. She was named a Distinguished Professor in 2022.
Redwing has served as an editor of the Journal of Crystal Growth and on the executive editorial board of 2D Materials. She chaired the 2018 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting with Kristen H. Brosnan, David LaVan, Patrycja Paruch, and Takao Someya.
Recognition
Redwing was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2012, after a nomination from the APS Division of Materials Physics, for "key contributions to the mechanistic understanding of materials synthesis by vapor growth, including Si and SiGe nanowires, group-III nitrides and boride-based superconductors."
In 2015, she was named a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, a distinction conferred to members whose "sustained and distinguished contributions to the advancement of materials research are internationally recognized". In the following year she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for "key contributions to the understanding of materials synthesis of nanostructured materials including nanowires, 2D structures, group-III nitrides, topological insulators and boride-based superconductors."
References
External links
Redwing Research Group
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century American women scientists
American materials scientists
American women engineers
Women materials scientists and engineers
University of Pittsburgh alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Pennsylvania State University faculty
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellows of the American Physical Society
General Electric employees | Joan Redwing | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 874 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
72,051,208 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeocalicium%20polyporaeum | Phaeocalicium polyporaeum, the fairy pin or common pin, is a species of non-lichenized fungus in the genus Phaeocalicium. They grow to a maximum size of 2.5 mm and resemble black matchsticks, with thin stalks and wider caps, in groups or rows primarily on the caps of Trichaptum biforme. Fairy pins are a type of parasitic fungi that grow primarily on the caps of Trichaptum biforme, but have also been reported on Trametes versicolor. They often co-occur on the upper side of caps with green algae on host fungi.<ref name="lichen-portal">{{cite web |title=CNALH - Phaeocalicium polyporaeum' |url=https://lichenportal.org/cnalh/taxa/index.php?taxon=52624&clid=1212 |website=lichenportal.org}}</ref>
Fairy pins can be distinguished from other species of Phaeocalicium'' by their spores, which are very pale brown.
Distribution
Fairy pins are found in Europe, Siberia, and are common in the eastern United States as well as other parts of North America. The distribution is limited by the substrate distribution, rather than by other factors.
Description
Fairy pins can vary in appearance considerably, particularly their apothecia. The apothecia can be rounded in the form of an inverted cone and quite small, but other times they are biconvex and significantly larger in diameter in the stalk. Typically, the apothecia appear individually and are between 0.5 and 0.8 mm, but are scattered over the upper surface of shared host fungi. The stalks are a greenish brown and is unbranched, with hyphae arranged parallel to the surface of the host.
References
Eurotiomycetes
Fungi described in 1875
Taxa named by William Nylander (botanist)
Fungi of North America
Fungi of Europe
Fungi of Asia
Fungus species | Phaeocalicium polyporaeum | [
"Biology"
] | 428 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
72,051,782 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%2098617 | HD 98617, also known HR 4385, is a double star located in the southern circumpolar constellation Chamaeleon. The system has a combined apparent magnitude of 6.35, placing it near the limit for naked eye. The system is located relatively close at a distance of 206 light years but is approaching the Solar System with a fairly constrained radial velocity of . At its current distance, HD 98617 brightness is diminished by 0.29 magnitudes due to interstellar dust.
The system's nature as a double star was first observed in a 1991 Hipparcos multiplicity survey. Their current separation is six-tenths of an arcsecond, making it difficult to measure the properties of the individual components. Nevertheless, the 10th magnitude companion is located along a position angle of 237° as of 2018.
The primary has a stellar classification of A8 IIIm:, indicating that it is an evolved Am star (with uncertainty). However, Renson and Manfroid (2009) lists its chemical peculiarity to be doubtful. It has 1.75 times the mass of the Sun and 1.85 times its girth. It radiates 8.41 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it a white hue. It is estimated to be a billion years old and has a solar metallicity. The aforementioned parameters belong to an A-type main-sequence star instead of a giant star and Gaia DR3 even models it as such.
References
Double stars
098617
055225
4385
Chamaeleon
Am stars
CD-78 00457
Chamaeleontis, 30
A-type giants | HD 98617 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 347 | [
"Chamaeleon",
"Constellations"
] |
72,052,111 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews%20Don%27t%20Count | Jews Don't Count: How Identity Politics Failed One Particular Identity is a book by British comedian David Baddiel. First published on 4 February 2021 by TLS Books, the book discusses the status of antisemitism, a form of racism, particularly in left-wing politics. Baddiel argues that antisemitism is treated differently from other forms of racism, creating double standards and discrimination against Jews. The book covers a range of topics related to modern antisemitism and Jewish identity, including under-representation in popular media, relationships with Israel and Zionism, and the status of Jews as a minority group.
In 2022, a documentary adaptation of the book was released on British television channel Channel 4 under the title David Baddiel: Jews Don't Count. In the documentary, Baddiel interviewed several Jewish celebrities and discussed similar topics to the original book. Both the book and documentary received mostly positive reviews, being especially well-received by the Jewish and Israel-related press. However, several reviewers criticised Baddiel for his arguments around race and white privilege. The book was awarded The Times Politics Book of the Year.
Background
David Baddiel is a British comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author. Born to Jewish parents, Baddiel attended the North West London Jewish Day School in childhood. He identifies as a Jewish atheist, and has previously given interviews about the topic of Israel and antisemitism. Before Jews Don't Count, Baddiel had released other material relating to Judaism; his 2010 film The Infidel centres around the theme of Jewish identity.
Synopsis
In Jews Don't Count, Baddiel argues that progressives view the minority status of Jews differently from other ethnic minorities, and thus antisemitism is viewed differently from other forms of racism. He writes that antisemitism has become a "second-class racism".
In the opening of the book, Baddiel describes a lack of attention towards antisemitism in literature, the film industry, and politics. According to Baddiel, this creates double standards. He then discusses antisemitism in football, using the example of the use of the pejorative term "Yid" by Tottenham Hotspur FC. Baddiel also argues that under-representation of Jews in media is a form of modern antisemitism. He examines the viewpoint that Jews cannot be an oppressed group, and says that this stems from stereotypes of Jews, such as the idea that Jews are wealthy and powerful. He argues that these stereotypes align Jews with oppressive groups, allowing discrimination against them to be overlooked. Baddiel writes about the relationship between Jews and white privilege, which he argues has the potential to provide security against appearance-based racism. He also discusses the neo-Nazi view that Jews are Asiatic.
Baddiel argues that the casting of non-Jewish actors to play Jewish roles shows that Jews are under-represented in media, saying that this form of casting is dangerous due to the potential for antisemitic portrayals of Jews by these actors. Baddiel also explores how Jewish actors hide their Jewish heritage for fear of discrimination, using examples such as Natalie Portman. He contends that this is extremely rare for people of other ethnic backgrounds. The status of Jews as BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic; a form of minority group racial classification in the United Kingdom) is discussed, and Baddiel states that Nigel Lawson was the first BAME Chancellor of the Exchequer, as opposed to Sajid Javid. He also considers the potential use of the word Jew as a pejorative, as opposed to other phrases.
Baddiel talks about his relationship with Zionism and Israel as a British Jew, disagreeing with Zionist perspectives. He argues that the expectation that non-Israeli Jews are Zionists is a form of antisemitism, and that guilt felt by left-wing Western Jews towards the actions of Israel is a form of internalised racism. Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party is discussed, as well as its use by opposing parties to avoid questioning. Baddiel concludes the polemic with the view that, while attitudes towards Jews have improved in the years leading up to the book, Jews nevertheless face a degree of marginalisation.
Publication
The first hardback and ebook editions of Jews Don't Count were published on 4February 2021 by TLS Books, an imprint of American publishing house HarperCollins. The book was originally intended to be released in December 2020; Baddiel had starting writing the book in 2019. On 2February 2022, a paperback edition of the book was released, again by TLS. The first edition of the book had 144 pages, which increased to 160 in the second edition. A German translation, titled (), was released in October 2022 by Carl Hanser. A Portuguese translation, entitled () was released in April 2022 by Vogais, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Reception
Jews Don't Count attracted attention from mainstream media and was met with mostly positive reviews. The i called the book "a searing look at why anti-Semitism is often seen as a lesser form of racism". Dominic Lawson, reviewing in The Times, described it as "a convincing and even devastating charge sheet"; the book was included on the newspaper's "12 best political and current affairs books 2021" and "best paperbacks of 2022" lists. Also in The Times, Stephen Bush was more negative. Bush, a Black British Jew, criticised Baddiel for his arguments about white privilege and for ignoring the positions of non-White Jews, writing: "He is so concerned with asserting his own lack of privilege that he forgets his obligations to others... It's an argument that would struggle to survive a conversation with more than three people from any other minority... it fails at its central mission and lets the left-wing antisemite off the hook."
Writing for the Higher Education Policy Institute, Nick Hillman gave the book a mixed review, writing that it was "more like an extended essay than a full-length book". He also criticised the style of prose, writing: "The text is unpolished in places, and the numerous chatty asides in the footnotes leave the impression that the author could not be bothered to weave some of his thoughts into the main text." However, Hillman also praised the book for its discourse, saying that "if the sign of a good book is that it makes you think, then this is a very very good book."
The book was especially praised by Jewish and Israel-related organisations. Sarah Annes Brown of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre's Fathom journal described the book as "a powerful and personal contribution to the debates around antisemitism on the left", the Jewish Book Council called it a "mini masterpiece", and The Jerusalem Post wrote that "while witty, it’s serious, with some outrage". In Jewish Review of Books, Jewish American novelist Dara Horn offered a mixed review, stating that "Many passages in this book feel less like well-argued prose or a well-told story than like a hastily written email, or notes for a stand-up act, or a Twitter thread". Horn also stated that she was "endlessly grateful" that Baddiel wrote the book. Jeremy Havardi of Jewish News likewise gave a mixed review, writing that the "book is an engaging polemic, providing a witty and intellectually nimble riposte" but stated that Baddiel "ducks the challenge" of fully addressing the Jewish nature of the state of Israel in relation to Zionism. In a review of the book in The Jewish Chronicle, Josh Glancy called the book "totemic", but disagreed with the book's argument that "Jews need to be readmitted to the left's hierarchy of victimhood", writing, "Let's not make Jewface a thing and start building thick walls around our identity."
Documentary adaptation
On 17 May 2022, Channel 4 announced intentions to create a documentary version of the book entitled David Baddiel: Jews Don't Count. The documentary was broadcast publicly on 21November 2022, and was directed by James Routh. Louis Theroux and Nina Davies were executive producers, with Alex Emanuel and Rachel Duncan as producer and production manager, respectively. The documentary was produced by Mindhouse Productions. Baddiel intended for the documentary to reach a non-Jewish audience, "particularly ones who see themselves... as anti-racist", and brought high-profile Jewish figures into the documentary partly to achieve better ratings and thereby better deliver the documentary to his intended audience.
The documentary included a series of interviews with various Jewish celebrities, including David Schwimmer, Sarah Silverman, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Safran Foer, Dara Horn, Howard Jacobson, Neil Gaiman, and Miriam Margolyes. Baddiel discussed various topics in the documentary, including Jewish history, antisemitic violence, Jewface, and the casting of non-Jewish actors to play Jewish roles. Baddiel also discussed issues related to Israel with several of his interviewees. He interviewed his niece, who is biracial, about antisemitism as a form of racism. Baddiel interviewed footballer Jason Lee and apologised for a 1990s sketch in which he mocked Lee in blackface.
Reception of documentary
David Baddiel: Jews Don't Count received mixed reviews. Rebecca Nicholson, writing in The Guardian, called it "a doc so shocking it sounds like a siren", praising the conversational tone of the documentary. Josh Howie in The Jewish Chronicle likewise praised the documentary, but also criticised elements: "Yes there’s the usual cop out about Israel, yes I don’t think Miriam Margolyes should be anywhere near a documentary about antisemitism". Ben Dowell gave a largely positive review in The Times, writing that "there were times when it felt almost in danger of becoming relentlessly irrefutable", and Dan Einav of The Financial Times similarly praised the documentary, but noted a lack of direct interview of "someone who represents the left-wing indifference or obliviousness towards Jews which he discusses".
A review in The New Statesman by Emily Hilton said that "this documentary... failed to define what is actually meant by 'progressive'", writing that Baddiel's argument failed to offer a solution to antisemitism and "separates Jews from the conversation [of anti-racism]". Rivkah Brown of Novara Media wrote about Baddiel's insensitivity to the difficulties faced by Jews of colour in an "awkward exchange" with his niece, a Black Jew, and stated "[anti-racism]’s the kind of work done in pubs, not from podiums – and it doesn’t make very good TV." Negative reviewers of the documentary also included Eli Spitzer in Mosaic, who called the documentary a "weak and frivolous exercise in moaning". Spitzer disliked Baddiel's discussions of whiteness, writing that "It is impossible to overstate the degree to which David Baddiel wants you to know that, despite what your lying eyes might indicate, he is not white". Spitzer also noted the film's lack of representation of Israeli, religiously observant, or Zionist Jews, writing: "He thus deemphasizes or excludes something like 80 percent of the Jewish people from his analysis. The only time we see a yarmulke is in the background when Baddiel visits a New York deli and observes that Jews like pickles."
Anita Singh of The Telegraph gave the documentary three out of five stars, calling it a "slick, well-argued film" but criticising Baddiel's coverage of Lee. Other reviewers such as Nicholson also disliked this, with Nicholson writing that it "belong[s] more to a story about Baddiel as a public figure than to the rest of this film".
See also
The Left's Jewish Problem—2016 book about antisemitism in left wing politics of the United Kingdom
Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism"—2006 essay about the relationship between new antisemitism and Zionism
References
Primary
Secondary
2021 non-fiction books
English-language non-fiction books
Books about antisemitism
Opposition to antisemitism in the United Kingdom
New antisemitism
Left-wing antisemitism
Non-fiction books adapted into films
Polemic | Jews Don't Count | [
"Biology"
] | 2,597 | [
"Behavior",
"Aggression",
"Polemic"
] |
72,053,099 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20alismatid%20families | The alismatid monocots are a group of 15 interrelated families of flowering plants, named for their largest order, Alismatales. Like other monocots, they usually have a single embryonic leaf (cotyledon) in their seeds, scattered vascular systems, leaves with parallel veins, flowers with parts in threes or multiples of three, and roots that can develop in more than one place along the stems. The alismatids have adapted to thrive in oceans, temperate zones, deserts, the tropics, and even glacial regions.
Like the earliest monocots, many of the alismatid monocots are aquatic, and some grow completely submerged. Apart from the sweet-flag family of wetlands plants, all the alismatid families are in Alismatales. Some of the plants in this order are invasive aquatic weeds that can disrupt and destabilize ecosystems. Others grow in a variety of habitats, especially plants in the aroid family. This family includes the titan arum, with the world's largest unbranched inflorescence, and also the world's smallest flowering plant, duckweed.
Glossary
From the glossary of botanical terms:
annual: a plant species that completes its life cycle within a single year or growing season
basal: attached close to the base (of a plant or an evolutionary tree diagram)
climber: a vine that leans on, twines around or clings to other plants for vertical support
herbaceous: not woody; usually green and soft in texture
perennial: not an annual or biennial
woody: hard and lignified; not herbaceous
The APG IV system is the fourth in a series of plant taxonomies from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In this system, the alismatids are basal within the monocots.
Alismatid families
See also
List of plant family names with etymologies
Notes
Citations
References
See the terms of their Creative Commons license.
See the terms of their license.
Systematic
Alismatid
Alismatid families
alismatid families
Alismatales | List of alismatid families | [
"Biology"
] | 435 | [
"Lists of biota",
"Lists of plants",
"Plants"
] |
72,053,369 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal%20of%20Crystal%20Growth | The Journal of Crystal Growth is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering experimental and theoretical studies of crystal growth and its applications. It is published by Elsevier and the editor-in-chief is J. Derby (University of Minnesota).
History
The Journal of Crystal Growth was founded following the 1966 International Conference on Crystal Growth (ICCG) held in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Ichiro Sunagawa, who participated in ICCG, wrote in the Journal of the Japanese Association of Crystal Growth that before then, "The crystal growth community was totally fragmented and had remained as a peripheral field at the mercy of other organizations." Michael Schieber (Hebrew University) later recounted feeling the need for an individual journal on the subject after the conference proceedings were published as a supplement to the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids that had to be additionally ordered by journal subscribers. Feeling as though the crystal growth community should not remain at the "discretion of other disciplines for which crystal growth has a secondary importance", he spoke about the idea with a colleague, Kenneth Button, who informed an editor at the North-Holland Publishing Company (now Elsevier).
The journal launched in 1967, with an editorial board consisting of Schieber as editor-in-chief and co-editors Charles Frank and Nicolás Cabrera. At the time the journal employed two U.S. editors, eighteen associate editors from around the world, and an editorial advisory board of sixteen members.
As of 2015, the journal has continued to serve as the "major venue for papers on crystal growth theory, practice and characterization" and proceedings of various conferences in the field. According to Tony Stankus, the journal has historically emphasised research contribution on crystals grown from wet solutions and later strongly emphasised research on crystals grown from molten materials or those produced through other processes relevant to the semiconductor industry.
The American Chemical Society and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition partnered to develop Crystal Growth and Design as a lower-cost alternative to the Journal of Crystal Growth; its first issue was published in 2001.
Retractions
In 2017, Elsevier was reported to be retracting four articles from the journal after an author had falsified reviews. The journal was one of several publications affected by the falsifications.
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in the following databases:
Aluminium Industry Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts
Current Contents - Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences
El Compendex Plus
Engineered Materials Abstracts
Engineering Index
INSPEC
Metals Abstracts
Science Citation Index
Scopus
According to Journal Citation Reports, the journal had a 2021 impact factor of 1.830.
See also
List of materials science journals
References
External links
Crystallography journals
Elsevier academic journals
English-language journals
Materials science journals
Physics journals
Academic journals established in 1967
Semi-monthly journals | Journal of Crystal Growth | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 566 | [
"Crystallography journals",
"Crystallography",
"Materials science journals",
"Materials science"
] |
72,057,432 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient%20Apocalypse | Ancient Apocalypse is a Netflix series, where the British writer Graham Hancock presents his pseudoarchaeological theory that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age and that it was destroyed as a result of meteor impacts around 12,000 years ago. He argues that the survivors passed on their knowledge to hunter-gatherers around the world, giving rise to all earliest known civilizations. The episodes feature Hancock visiting archaeological sites and natural features which he claims show evidence of this. He repeatedly alleges that archaeologists are ignoring or covering up the evidence.
Archaeologists and other experts say that the series presents pseudoscientific claims that lack evidence, cherry picks, and fails to present the counter-evidence. The documentary was also criticised for delegitimising the achievements of Indigenous peoples. Some non-academic reviewers also found the theories unconvincing and criticized Hancock's complaints about 'mainstream archaeology' as one-sided and evocative of conspiracy theories. Some experts featured in the first series complained that footage of them was presented in a misleading way.
The first season of the series, produced by ITN Productions, was released on Netflix in November 2022. A second season, featuring actor Keanu Reeves alongside Hancock, is focused on the Americas and was released in October 2024.
Synopsis
In the series, Hancock argues that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age. He speculates that it was destroyed around 12,000 years ago by sudden climate change during the Younger Dryas cool period, but that its few survivors taught agriculture, monumental architecture and astronomy to primitive hunter-gatherers around the world. Hancock does not accept that the earliest known civilizations could have arisen independently or that faraway peoples developed the same ideas, and argues that they all came from one advanced ice age civilization. He attempts to show how several ancient monuments and myths are evidence of this, and claims that archaeologists are ignoring or covering up this alleged evidence. It incorporates the controversial Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, which has been comprehensively refuted, and which attributes climate change to an impact winter caused by a massive meteor bombardment.
Production and release
The series was produced by ITN Productions and released by Netflix on 10 November 2022. Hancock's son Sean is a manager at Netflix responsible for "unscripted originals". It was the second most-watched series on Netflix in its week of release.
Two archaeologists who were featured in the first season, Katya Stroud, a senior curator at Heritage Malta, and Necmi Karul, the director of excavations at Göbekli Tepe, said that their interviews were manipulated and presented out of context.
A second season was released on Netflix on 16 October 2024
and featured the actor Keanu Reeves alongside Hancock. Plans to film parts of the second season of the show in the USA were cancelled following opposition from Indigenous groups over Hancock's depiction of their history and culture.
Episodes
Season one
Season two (Ancient Apocalypse: The Americas)
Reception
Archaeologists and other experts say that the theories presented in the series are pseudoscientific, lack evidence, and that many claims are easily disproven. The Society for American Archaeology objected to the classification of the series as a documentary and requested that Netflix reclassify it as science fiction, stating: Archaeologist Flint Dibble said the show is "lacking in evidence to support Hancock's theory", while there is "a plethora of evidence" which contradicts the dates Hancock gives. John Hoopes, an archaeologist who has written about pseudoarcheology, said the series fails to present alternative interpretations or evidence contradicting Hancock. Archaeologist David Connolly said that Hancock's work relied on cherry-picked evidence for his claims, noting, "what he'll do is take a piece of real research [by others], insert a piece of 'why not?' and then finish it off with a bit of real research [by others]". Dr. Colin Elder, supervising archaeologist at the University of Salford, said Hancock is "not trying to corroborate with multiple sources ... He's finding one person who agrees with him, and putting them on TV. He's not looking at the counterarguments". In the same vein, archaeologist Julien Riel-Salvatore argues that it is simple, from a scientific point of view, to demonstrate that the main theses of Ancient Apocalypse are wrong. He also believes that the series undermines critical thinking.
Answering Hancock's claims of a coverup, archaeologists said they and their colleagues would be thrilled to uncover an ice age civilization and would take Hancock's theory seriously if the evidence really existed.
Courrier International notes that Hancock's claims are never questioned on screen: in Ancient Apocalypse, he calls the archaeologists "pseudo-experts" and repeats that they treat him patronizingly, but he does not name them nor explains their arguments. The Guardian opined that Netflix had "gone out of its way to court the conspiracy theorists" with the series, speculating that Hancock's son's role as head of unscripted originals at the company may explain why it was commissioned.
Author Jason Colavito said Ancient Apocalypse was "not the worst show in its genre" but criticized it for "casting doubt on expertise, privileging emotion over evidence, and bending history to ideological ends ... making common cause with the right against academia". Writing in The Spectator, conservative commentator James Delingpole (who described himself as a "huge fan of Hancock" who finds his ideas plausible) criticized the series' production for "continually reminding [the viewer] that this is niche, crazy stuff that respectable 'experts' shun" and for portraying Hancock as "slippery and unreliable".
German scholar Andreas Grünschloß describes Hancock as misrepresenting Indigenous traditions to support his ideas, for example the descriptions of Quetzalcoatl as "white", which were a Spanish colonial invention. He says that Hancock is a writer who presents his science fiction as independent "research". In one episode, Hancock says the Megalithic Temples of Malta, built in 3600–2500 BC, were actually built ten thousand years earlier during the last ice age. Maltese archaeologists dismissed these claims. Experts in Pacific geography and archaeology characterized Hancock's claims about Nan Madol as "incredibly insulting to the ancestors of the Pohnpeian [islanders] that did create these structures", linking them to 19th century "racist" and "white supremacist" ideologies. Writing in Skeptic magazine, impact physicist Mark Boslough criticized the series' presentation on the largely discredited Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.
See also
Archaeology and racism
Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox, a 2018 documentary series
References
Further reading
External links
2022 British television series debuts
2024 British television series endings
2020s British documentary television series
British English-language television shows
Fringe theories
Netflix original documentary television series
Pseudoarchaeology
Archaeology and racism
Younger Dryas impact hypothesis
Göbekli Tepe
Conspiracist media
Race-related controversies in television
Native American-related controversies | Ancient Apocalypse | [
"Biology"
] | 1,444 | [
"Biological hypotheses",
"Younger Dryas impact hypothesis",
"Hypothetical impact events"
] |
72,058,097 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20ESA%20space%20expeditions | This is a list of the European Space Agency's short and long duration expeditions to Mir and the International Space Station. The dates below each name indicate the period of stay aboard the station.
List
See also
List of Mir Expeditions
List of International Space Station expeditions
List of visiting expeditions to the International Space Station
List of Tiangong Space Station expeditions
References
Bibliography
Expeditions to the International Space Station
Space exploration
ESA | List of ESA space expeditions | [
"Astronomy"
] | 80 | [
"Space exploration",
"Outer space"
] |
72,059,114 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz%20Truss%20lettuce | On 14 October 2022, the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Star began a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Liz Truss, who was appointed prime minister of the United Kingdom the previous month. This act followed an opinion piece in The Economist that compared the expected brevity of Truss's premiership to the shelf life of a head of lettuce, with the October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis occurring weeks into her tenure and leading many political commentators to opine that Truss's resignation was imminent. She announced her resignation as prime minister on 20 October 2022, before the lettuce had wilted; the Daily Star subsequently declared the lettuce "victorious" over Truss.
Background
Liz Truss became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 6 September 2022, following the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, replacing Boris Johnson. The September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget was published on 23 September by Kwasi Kwarteng, then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, which included tax cuts without matching spending cuts. The mini-budget triggered a heavily negative market reaction, with the exchange rate of the pound sterling collapsing and pension funds coming close to bankruptcy.
After just over a month in office, Kwarteng was removed as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 14 October, and Truss reversed most of the economic policies within the mini-budget. British media outlets lambasted Truss's performance and the ensuing political chaos, with many observers believing that her resignation would be imminent. An 11 October column in The Economist titled "Liz Truss has made Britain a riskier bet for bond investors" stated that, after deducting the ten-day mourning period following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Truss had caused economic and political turmoil after just seven days in power, comparing that duration to the "shelf-life of a lettuce". The publication further dubbed her the "Iceberg Lady", in contrast with the "Iron Lady", a nickname for the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, a political idol of Truss's. The lettuce comparison was made by The Economist executive editor Andrew Palmer.
The lettuce
Denis Mann, a deputy editor of the British entertainment-focused tabloid newspaper the Daily Star, read the column in The Economist and on 14 October mentioned it to Jon Clark, the newspaper's chief editor, who saw potential in the idea. On the same day, the Daily Star video team began broadcasting a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Truss, asking the audience whether Truss would be able to outlast the lettuce.
The Daily Star hosted the livestream with the title "LIVE: Can Liz Truss outlast a lettuce?" on YouTube. The outlet had been known to make light of contemporary political events, such as Brexit, while generally not adopting a particular political stance. The lettuce had been purchased from a Tesco store for £0.60 with an expected shelf-life of approximately ten days, and was physically hosted in the home of Edward Keeble, one of the newspaper's video editors. Within the first five hours of the stream, it had received more than 50,000 likes, and attracted more than 350,000 viewers by the following day.
On 18 October 2022, the Daily Star further ran a headline titled "Lettuce Liz on Leaf Support" (a pun on "life support"). As the livestream continued, a pair of googly eyes and a blonde wig were put on the lettuce, followed by fake feet and hands and glasses. Occasionally, other items were placed near the lettuce such as stuffed toys, food items, and a mug labelled "Keep Calm and Carry On."
Before the lettuce had wilted, on 20 October, Truss announced her resignation as prime minister becoming, after only 45 days, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. At that moment, there were 12,000 viewers on the livestream, which soon shot up to 21,000. The British national anthem "God Save the King" began to play, the portrait of Truss on the table was flipped face down, and a plastic golden crown was placed on top of the lettuce, with the Daily Star declaring the lettuce's "victory" over Truss. The music was later changed to "Celebration" by American band Kool & the Gang, with a Greggs sausage roll and a glass of prosecco also featured. While the lettuce had not rotted entirely, it did show signs of discolouration, with a column in The Atlantic commenting that it was still usable in a salad. By the evening of Truss's resignation, the livestream had received more than 1.7 million viewers. The Daily Star projected an image of the lettuce onto the Palace of Westminster the same evening, followed by a tweet stating that the lettuce "has made it to parliament".
In October 2024, the branch of Tesco at which the lettuce was bought, on Forest Road, Walthamstow, was memorialized with a mock blue plaque stating "A LETTUCE purchased here in September 2022 lasted longer than Prime Minister Liz Truss (49 days). The sign was removed by supermarket managers.
Reactions
Prior to Truss's resignation
The comparison of Truss to the lettuce was received with humour by global media, with The Washington Post writing that Truss had become "the butt of quintessentially British jokes". The lettuce also became subject to betting, with bookmakers who had been previously contacted by Daily Star staff placing Truss's chances of survival past the lettuce as low; on 17 October, a £9 bet at Ladbrokes of the lettuce lasting longer would yield a £13 payout.
Post-resignation
After Truss's resignation on 20 October 2022, the Daily Star released a headline titled "Lettuce wins as Liz Leafs", and on 21 October published a "historic souvenir edition" headlined "Lettuce rejoice". Bookmaker Paddy Power offered odds of 500-to-1 that the lettuce would become the next prime minister. The Daily Star featured the lettuce on Cameo, allowing users to receive a personalized message "by the lettuce" for £13, with part of the proceeds going to charity.
Labour Party MP Chris Bryant remarked during an appearance at Sky News that "the lettuce might as well be running the country", a statement echoed by The Atlantic journalist Helen Lewis. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted a tongue-in-cheek tweet congratulating the lettuce after Truss resigned. Several corporations such as Lidl and Deliveroo posted lettuce-related jokes capitalising on the livestream. In Truss's successor Rishi Sunak's first Prime Minister's Questions, then Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer stated that Sunak lost the first leadership contest to Truss, who herself was "beaten by a lettuce".
Clark, the paper's editor, remarked in an interview that the staff at the Daily Star "have no plans to eat Lizzy Lettuce".
The Edenbridge Bonfire Society burnt an effigy of Truss and a laughing lettuce on a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night, 2022. The high effigy held a box with a copy of the Guinness Book of Records, referencing her record as the shortest-serving prime minister. The box also contained a copy of her mini-budget, a T-shirt with the slogan "I am a fighter, not a quitter" (referencing a quote by Truss at her last Prime Minister's Questions), and a £115,000 cheque representing the maximum annual amount that all former prime ministers are entitled to claim under the Public Duty Costs Allowance scheme for expenses incurred performing the public duties associated with being a former prime minister and a leaving card. The box itself had a large letter "U" together with the words "This Way Up" written on it, both upside-down, along with "Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear Packaging Ltd", referencing the greeting of Truss by Charles III at one of her royal audiences.
On 9 November 2022, during PMQs, a Labour backbench MP shouted "bring the lettuce back!" On 15 March 2023, Starmer said "The lettuces may be out, but the turnips are in" in response to the 2023 budget, referring to the environment secretary Thérèse Coffey's claims that a "lot of people would be eating turnips right now" the previous month.
On 10 October 2023 during the Labour Party Conference, Starmer referenced the lettuce again saying "I never thought I'd say this but I'm beginning to see why Liz Truss won. Although I still think we'd be better off with that lettuce."
Truss's response
On 19 June 2023, Truss broke her silence and spoke about the lettuce for the first time during a visit to Northern Ireland. In an interview with RTÉ journalist David McCullagh, she said: "I don't think it's funny, I just think it's puerile". Truss doubled down on these comments in an April 2024 interview with BBC journalist Chris Mason, calling it "pathetic point-scoring" and remarking that the lettuce phenomenon "is the kind of thing that obsesses what I describe as the London elite".
On 13 August 2024, Truss left the stage while promoting her memoirs in Beccles, Suffolk, after the campaign group Led By Donkeys unfurled a remote control banner as she was taking questions from the audience. The banner pictured a lettuce along with the words "I crashed the economy". Truss described the stunt as "not funny".
Similar actions
On 14 October, the Channel 5 presenter Jeremy Vine began a similar livestream of a lettuce being compared to Truss's tenure.
Brands including easyJet and Sekonda ran advertising campaigns making fun of Truss's tenure.
On 14 November, following the audience of the ITV celebrity reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! choosing the contestant and MP Matt Hancock to be the camp leader, the series' presenters Ant & Dec introduced a lettuce called Spud, again asking which would last longer.
During the January 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, the Lincoln Project made a tweet referencing the Liz Truss lettuce to mock Kevin McCarthy, who had failed to secure enough votes to win the Speakership; he later won, but was removed in October of that year.
During the 2024 Scottish government crisis, on 26 April, GB News presenters Tom Harwood and Emily Carver unveiled 'Humza Yousleaf' live on their show Good Afternoon Britain; the lettuce was decorated with a paper beard and googly eyes to resemble the then-Scottish First Minister. At the news of Yousaf's resignation days later, Harwood remarked that the lettuce was "still going strong. Lettuce 1, Yousaf 0."
See also
Out of the Blue, a biography of Truss that had to be rewritten because she resigned before its publication.
Plant epithet, a name used to label a person or group by association with some perceived quality of a plant.
References
2022 establishments in the United Kingdom
British political satire
Daily Star (United Kingdom)
Fruit and vegetable characters
Individual plants
Internet memes introduced in 2022
Lettuce
Livestreams
Lettuce
October 2022 events in the United Kingdom
Political Internet memes
Publicity stunts
Internet memes introduced from the United Kingdom | Liz Truss lettuce | [
"Biology"
] | 2,419 | [
"Individual organisms",
"Plants",
"Individual plants"
] |
72,059,982 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comayagua%20cathedral%20clock | The Comayagua cathedral clock, also known as the Arabic clock or the Comayagua clock, is a gear clock dated from the medieval times located in the city of Comayagua, in the Republic of Honduras. It is considered the oldest clock in the Americas and the oldest gear clock in the world still in operation since it has been working presumably for more than 900 years.
History
The gears were presumably made and assembled by the Spanish moors in Al-Andalus during the Almoravid Empire period around the year 1100 during the reign of Yusuf ibn Tashfin. Before being transferred to the Americas, according to the chronicles before it landed to American soil it was working on the Arab palace of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. After the end of the Reconquista and the expulsion of the Muslims and Jews from Castille the palace was occupied by the kings of Spain since Charles V. during the 17th century by order of King Felipe III of Spain, it was transferred to Las Hibueras region (present-day Honduras) of New Spain, where it would function as the city clock.
Initially it functioned in the Church of La Merced, which was at that time the cathedral of the city, being installed in 1636. However, by 1711 it was relocated to the recently completed Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which at that time was the largest building in the city and one of the largest cathedrals in Central America during the viceroyalty of New Spain, being installed in the bell tower of the temple.
During 2007 it was subjected to a restoration process by the Municipal Mayor's Office, the National Congress of Honduras, the Comayagüense Cultural Committee and the supervision of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, for which the master watchmaker Rodolfo Antonio Cerón Martínez from Guatemala was located, who after five months of hard work concluded his work on December 20, 2007.
Characteristics
The mechanism based on gears, ropes, weights and a pendulum, the whole set shows the time on the face located on the facade of the church where the number 4 is written in an old version of Roman numerals, showing as IIII instead of IV as most of us know it.
Studies and debate
For a time it was believed that the oldest gear clock was the one in Salisbury Cathedral in England, since it was made in 1386. However, when the material with which it was made was studied, it was identified that it was built with iron with a much older technique than the Salisbury one was made with, therefore several different historians and researchers assume that this is the oldest working gear clock in the world.
However, the debate about its antiquity is still current, as some historians have said that the clock cannot be of the age attributed to it since there are no specific historical records that confirm that at the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century Mechanisms to measure time based on gears were common, since most clocks of the time were made of sand or water. Therefore, these historians give the real date of construction around the year 1374.
However, those who support the theory that it actually belongs to the 11th century mention the study that was carried out by researchers where it was discovered that the way it was made was based on the wrought iron technique, a much older technique than that with which the Salisbury clock was made, in addition to finding some inscriptions on one of the gears that say "Espana 1100" which gives greater support to the possibility that it is from the period that is assigned.
See also
History of Honduras
History of Spain
Spanish Empire
References
Clocks
Comayagua
Time in Honduras
11th century in Spain
History of Honduras
11th-century works | Comayagua cathedral clock | [
"Physics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 742 | [
"Physical systems",
"Machines",
"Clocks",
"Measuring instruments"
] |
72,061,861 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%20Alan%20Morton | Richard Alan Morton FRS was the Johnston Professor of Biochemistry at University of Liverpool from 1944 until 1966. He was a pioneer in the application of spectroscopy to biological molecules. His research group were the first to identify vitamin A2 and related compounds. They were also among the first to characterise several isoprenoids including ubiquinone, polyprenol and others.
Early life and education
Richard Alan Morton was the child of Welsh-speaking parents in Liverpool. His middle name was initially Alun. He attended the co-educational Oulton Secondary School in Liverpool. He left school in 1917 to work in a pharmacy and then joined the army towards the end of the First World War. He became ill with Spanish flu. From 1919 he studied chemistry at the University of Liverpool, graduating with B. Sc. first class in 1922. He then undertook doctoral research supervised by Edward Charles Cyril Baly into the application of optical spectroscopy. Selig Hecht was a post-doctoral fellow with Baly's group at this time, interested in applications of spectroscopy in biology, and this developed Morton's interest in this new application.
Career
He remained at this university for his entire career apart from spending 1931 on sabbatical as visiting professor at Ohio State University in the USA. From 1924 until 1944 he was a special lecturer in spectroscopy in the Chemistry Department. He was then appointed to the Johnston Chair of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry in 1944 until he retired in 1966. He continued to be active in science after his retirement.
His research focused initially on the application of spectroscopy to determining the structure of chemical compounds. From 1926 his work developed the use of absorption spectroscopy with biological molecules that absorbed light, allowing their concentration to be estimated in solutions. This technology, in collaboration with Ian Heilbron's interest in a therapy for rickets, led him to discover the vitamin A2 and several related compounds. His research group became focused on fat-soluble vitamins and was also among the first to identify ubiquinone and the polyprenol family of compounds. From 1955 until 1965 the focus of his group's research was isoprenoids.
During the Second World War he was involved in studies to understand the requirements of vitamin A by people that gave him a new interest in nutrition. After the war he organised meetings for industrial scientists around Merseyside about the use of spectroscopy
He was the chair of the government's Committee on Food Additives from 1963 to 1968.
Publications
Morton was the author or co-author of 282 scientific publications and several books. These included:
RA Morton (1975) Biochemical Spectroscopy, two volumes
RA Morton (1969) The Biochemical Society: its history and activities 1911-1969
R A Morton (1942) Absorption spectra of Vitamins and Hormones
He was also the author of publications in Welsh including:
(1965) Agweddau cemegol ar weled (Chemical aspects of sight) Y Gwyddonydd 3 issue 2
Honours and awards
In 1929 he was awarded the Meldola Medal and Prize by the Chemical Society. In 1950 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1966In 1969
he was elected a member of the American Society for Nutrition. In 1966 he was made an Honorary Member of the Biochemical Society. In 1971 the University of Liverpool named a new student hostel Morton House after him. He was awarded honorary degrees by the University of Wales (1966), Trinity College Dublin (1967) and the University of Coimbra (1964). In 1978 the Biochemical Society established the annual Morton Lecture in his memory for contribution to lipid biochemistry.
Personal life
In 1926 he and Myfanwy Heulwen Roberts were married. They had one child together. He attended the Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in Garston and was involved with the Welsh community in Liverpool throughout his life.
References
1899 births
1977 deaths
British biochemists
Spectroscopists
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Academics of the University of Liverpool
Welsh-speaking academics | Richard Alan Morton | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 802 | [
"Physical chemists",
"Spectrum (physical sciences)",
"Analytical chemists",
"Spectroscopists",
"Spectroscopy"
] |
72,064,292 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution%20of%20sex-determining%20mechanisms | The evolution of sex-determining mechanisms, characterized by the evolutionary transition to genetic sex determination or temperature-dependent sex determination from the opposite mechanism, has frequently and readily occurred among multiple taxa across a transitionary continuum.
Sex-determining mechanisms include genetic sex determination, where sex is determined by genes on sex chromosomes, and environmental sex determination/temperature-dependent sex determination, where sex is permanently fixed by environmental cues after fertilization. Evolutionary transitions between these mechanisms are frequently driven by sex reversal, a phenomenon where environmental overrides produce organisms with discordant genotypic and phenotypic sex.
Evolutionary transitions
Technological advances in comparative chromosome mapping and molecular cytogenetics have advanced understanding of the many transitions between sex-determining modes. Threshold changes in gene expression for either male- or female-determining factors is enough to change modes of sex determination, as these thresholds are heritable, and more labile sex-determining mechanisms can be advantageous in unpredictable or changing environments.
Evolutionary transitions from genetic sex determination to temperature-dependent sex determination are possible as long as there is temperature sensitivity in the genetic system (on the sex chromosomes) and selection occurs on those sensitivity levels. All of these drivers of transitions between sex-determining mechanisms are due to a suggested novel locus changing fitness, which selection then acts upon. Current sex-determining systems must be destabilized in order to drive the evolution of a new system. When evolving from a genetic XX/XY or ZZ/ZW system to a temperature-dependent system, temperature-dependent sex determination naturally avoids nonviable YY or WW genotypes. The evolution of temperature-dependent sex determination is considered to be adaptive in most hypotheses, with a few suggest neutral or quasi-neutral evolution.
Originally, these transitions were believed to require the crossing of a fitness valley (a barrier to adaptation that a population must pass through in order to reach an advantageous stage), where the current sex-determining system was ineffective, degenerated, or had reduced viability. However, recent studies have found that these transitions can occur rapidly and easily without crossing a fitness valley, and stable, mixed-mechanism endpoints in sex-determining mechanisms that incorporate both genetic and temperature dependence can occur. Research has suggested sex-determining systems to be a continuum rather than a dichotomy, with placement for a particular system on that continuum being based on the value of the male-determining threshold.
Chromosomal inversion is another suggested driver of evolution between mechanisms, as inversions are known to be associated with hybrid incompatibility.
Ancestral form
Phylogenetic analyses have determined that both genetic sex determination and temperature-dependent sex determination have evolved multiple times, with multiple independent origins, and these transitions are not as conserved and linear as once thought. Temperature-dependent sex determination is believed by many to have been the ancestral sex determining mechanism. In turtles, one study suggests that genetic sex determination has originated at least six times: in (1) trionychids, (2) chelids, (3) staurotypids, (4) emydids, and (5 and 6) twice in batagurids. Temperature-dependent sex determination is believed to have evolved at least five times in lizards. Nine-spined sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius) displayed an ancestral ZW system, but chromosome incompatibility and inversion due to hybrids led to the evolution of their current XY system. The haphazard distribution of both genetic sex determination and temperature-dependent sex determination among reptiles suggests frequent transitions that are likely easy to achieve. The ability for these frequent transitions between diverse sex determining mechanisms is believed to be driven by an even greater diversity of transitional stages.
In other vertebrates, genetic sex determination has been found to be the ancestral condition, and there is documentation of temperature-dependent sex determination origin in fishes. Temperature-dependent sex determination is proposed to be an adaptation to particular life histories, allowing embryonic lability according to the surrounding environment. Most current evidence suggests ancestral temperature-dependent sex determination, though ancestral genetic sex determination in reptiles is possible. Some scientists do not recommend ordering sex-determining mechanisms, as gains and losses of either mechanism are equally plausible. In the absence of conclusive information, parsimony is suggested to be the best approach for determining ancestral forms.
Sex reversal
Sex reversal, an environmental override where phenotypic sex is discordant to genotypic sex, is a powerful and rapid driver of transitions between these mechanisms. Sex reversal is heritable and variable, indicating evolution of the threshold can and does occur. This is thought to be a response to reduce extreme sex ratio bias. Rapidly changing environments can lead to unbalanced sex ratios and possible extinction if the threshold is not allowed to evolve over multiple generations.
Reptiles have experienced numerous transitions between genetic sex determination and temperature-dependent sex determination, even in closely related species, with sex reversal being a large driver of those transitions. In species with a ZW sex chromosome system, such as central bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), sex reversal produces ZZf females. That subsequent loss of the W chromosome in those individuals eventually leads to the loss of the W chromosome in the population, shifting the species towards temperature-dependent sex determination. When exposed to the appropriate temperatures, females no longer need a W chromosome, which allows specific, natural, and wild shifts in sex determining mechanisms. This process can result in skewed sex ratios, but selection for rarer sex tends to occur, with some species and individuals resisting sex reversal despite being at the threshold temperature. Resistance to the process of sex reversal can lead to evolutionary changes in thermal threshold in future populations. This evolution in the threshold, both increases and decreases, is often what promotes transitions between both sex-determining systems. These threshold shifts can also occur due to genetic drift, pleiotropic benefits, sex ratio selection, sexual antagonism, or hitchhiking genes. Sex-reversed female bearded dragons can lay twice as many eggs per year as genetic ZW females, suggesting an immediate fitness advantage to sex reversal that could be another driver of evolutionary transitions.
Evolutionary transitions from ZZ/ZW to temperature-dependent sex determination involve an increase in the thermal threshold, which results in sex reversal of genetic males and ultimately the loss of the W allele, which prevents the nonviable WW combination from occurring. Transitioning from XX/XY to temperature-dependent sex determination requires lowering of the threshold. Only XX embryos can be sex-reversed, resulting in the loss of the Y allele and preventing the nonviable YY combination. Transitions move rapidly through intermediate states, and research has shown that evolutionary transitions from genetic sex determination to temperature-dependent sex determination should be simple under the right selection pressures and varied temperatures. However, most transitions from genetic sex determination to temperature-dependent sex determination occur rapidly through intermediate forms rather that persisting in those states, with the discrete separations representing the stable states of sex determining mechanisms. Sex reversal, in particular, is considered to be a common transitional step along this continuum.
References
Sex-determination systems
Evolutionary biology | Evolution of sex-determining mechanisms | [
"Biology"
] | 1,460 | [
"Evolutionary biology",
"Sex-determination systems",
"Sex"
] |
64,685,131 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expandable%20graphite | Expandable graphite is produced from the naturally occurring mineral graphite. The layered structure of graphite allows some molecules to be intercalated in between the graphite layers. Through incorporation of acids, usually sulfuric acid graphite can be converted into expandable graphite.
Characteristics
If expandable graphite is heated, the graphite flakes will expand to a multiple of their starting volume. The main products in the market have a starting temperature in the range of 200 °C. The expanded flakes have a “worm-like” appearance and are generally several millimeters long.
Production
To produce expandable graphite, natural graphite flakes are treated in a bath of acid and oxidizing agent.Usually used oxidizing agents are hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate or chromic acid. Concentrated sulphuric acid or nitric acid are usually used as the compound to be incorporated, with the reaction taking place at temperatures of 30 °C to 130 °C for up to four hours. After the reaction time, the flakes are washed with water and then dried. Starting temperature and expansion rate depend on the production conditions and particle size of the graphite. temperature and expansion rate are depending on the degree of fineness of the graphite used.
Applications
Flame retardant
One of the main applications of expandable graphite is as a flame retardant. When exposed to heat, expandable graphite expands and forms an intumescent layer on the material surface. This slows down the spread of fire and counteracts the most dangerous consequences of fire for humans, the formation of toxic gases and smoke.
Graphite foil
By compressing expanded graphite, foils can be produced from pure graphite. These are mainly used as thermally and chemically highly resistant seals in chemical plant construction or as heat spreaders.
Expandable graphite for metallurgy
Expandable graphite is also used in metallurgy to cover melts and moulds. The material serves here as an oxidation protection and insulator.
Expandable graphite for the chemical industry
Expandable graphite is included in the chemical processes for paints and varnishes.
References
Fire protection
Graphite | Expandable graphite | [
"Engineering"
] | 444 | [
"Building engineering",
"Fire protection"
] |
64,685,180 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renata%20Gomes | Renata Gomes is a cardiovascular specialist who focusses her work on the use of molecular biology, imaging and nanotechnology applications for regeneration purposes. She is a Professor of Veteran's Health and Biomedical Research and the Chief Scientific Officer of veteran health charity BRAVO VICTOR.
Renata Gomes (born in 1985) was born in Barcelos, Portugal. At a young age she was dissecting birds that had been shot by hunters in her village. In her choice of career, she was also influenced by an uncle who was a forensic doctor at the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Minho in the northern Portuguese town of Braga. Her academic training was in the United Kingdom, where she received a Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences Degree from the University of Bradford, before doing post-graduate research and training in Cardiovascular Biochemistry and Medicine at University College London and an international PhD on Cardiovascular Regeneration and Nanotechnology with University of Coimbra in Portugal, the University of Oxford and the University of Eastern Finland (Kupio). Her work with the Universities of Coimbra, Oxford and Kupio on a nanoparticle that can contribute to cardiovascular regeneration placed her first in the 2011 Science-Image Competition organised by the British Heart Foundation.
Among the people with whom she has worked was the Nobel Prize winner, Professor Oliver Smithies. In Bradford, she worked over the holidays with Professor Karin Schallreuter on plastic surgery. While working with Professor Lino Ferreira at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Coimbra University, they had an idea to combine stem cell technology with nanotechnology. The research took place between 2008 and 2012. After the results were published, Gomes was nominated for and won the Science, Engineering and Technology for Britain 2012 award, given annually by the British Parliament. In 2013 her home town of Barcelos awarded her the title of Professional of the Year.
Part of her time is devoted to community and humanitarian causes. She has worked with the Small Scientists Network, based in her home town of Barcelos, which is aimed at promoting scientific curiosity among young people. Although having been treated for cancer, Gomes ran the London Marathon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. While on a visit to Israel she contributed to a vaccination campaign among Bedouins. In Israel she met Henrique Cymerman, an Israeli journalist of Portuguese descent, with whom she decided to set up a Task Force called Knowledge for the Benefit of Mankind, to bring together religious leaders of various faiths and other influential thinkers and young people, to find realistic solutions in favour of peace.
Based in London, she then worked as Head of Research and Innovation for the charity Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstan's), seeking to find regenerative-medicine solutions to benefit blind veterans. In 2020 she became its Chief Scientific Officer, before the Directorate became BRAVO VICTOR.
References
1985 births
Living people
People from Barcelos, Portugal
Nanotechnologists
Cardiovascular researchers
Alumni of the University of Bradford
Alumni of University College London
University of Coimbra alumni | Renata Gomes | [
"Materials_science"
] | 622 | [
"Nanotechnology",
"Nanotechnologists"
] |
64,685,534 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian%20Federation%20of%20Chemical%20Workers | The Italian Federation of Chemical Workers (, FILC) was a trade union representing workers in the chemical industry in Italy.
The union was founded in 1901, as the Italian Chemical Workers' Federation, and was a founding affiliate of the General Confederation of Labour. It was banned by the fascist government in 1926, but re-established after World War II, when it affiliated to the recently formed Italian General Confederation of Labour. By 1954, it had 123,286 members.
In 1960, the union merged with the Italian Union of Oil Workers, to form the Italian Federation of Chemical and Oil Workers.
General Secretaries
1945: Roberto Cuzzaniti
1946: Italo Viglianesi
1949: Eugenio Guidi
1954: Luciano Lama
References
Chemical industry in Italy
Chemical industry trade unions
Trade unions established in 1901
Trade unions disestablished in 1960
Trade unions in Italy | Italian Federation of Chemical Workers | [
"Chemistry"
] | 172 | [
"Chemical industry trade unions"
] |
64,685,807 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Methyltridecane | 2-Methyltridecane is an organic compound with chemical formula C14H30. It is an isomer of tetradecane. It can be produced by reducing 2,2-dimethyl-3-decylthiirane. Metallic lanthanum in tetrahydrofuran can reduce 2-iodo-2-methyltridecane into 2-methyltridecane. In this reaction, the byproducts include 12,12,13,13-tetramethyltetracosane and some alkenes. Adding hydrogen to 13-bromo-2-methyldecan-2-ol can produce some 2-methyltridecane. This reaction is catalyzed by Raney nickel.
References
Alkanes | 2-Methyltridecane | [
"Chemistry"
] | 164 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Alkanes"
] |
64,686,016 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%20Puppis | R Puppis is a variable star in the constellation Puppis. It is a rare yellow hypergiant and a candidate member of the open cluster NGC 2439. It is also an MK spectral standard for the class G2 0-Ia.
Variability
R Puppis was identified as a variable star in 1879, and described as having a range of over a magnitude. Numerous observations over the following 100 years failed to confirm the variations, until the 1970s when clear brightness changes were observed. These were confirmed by later observations, but with a total visual amplitude of only about 0.2 magnitudes.
Variable stars such as R Puppis have been described as pseudo-Cepheids, because they lie above the high-luminosity portion of the instability strip and their variations are similar to those of Cepheids although less regular. R Puppis is formally classified as a semiregular variable of type SRd, meaning F, G, or K giants or supergiants.
References
Puppis
CD-31 4910
037415
2974
062058
Puppis, R
Semiregular variable stars
G-type hypergiants | R Puppis | [
"Astronomy"
] | 233 | [
"Puppis",
"Constellations"
] |
64,686,362 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta%20solenoid | A beta solenoid is a protein fold composed of repeating beta strands subunits, arranged in antiparallel fashion to form a superhelix.
Terminology and classification
Beta solenoids are part of the solenoid class of protein tandem repeats.
Structure
Beta solenoids are elongated and potentially open-ended protein repeats characterized by beta strands winding around an imaginary axis, where the beta sheets are formed by sequences of consecutive repeat units.
External links
RepeatsDB β-solenoid class
References
Protein tandem repeats
Protein domains | Beta solenoid | [
"Biology"
] | 106 | [
"Protein tandem repeats",
"Protein domains",
"Protein classification"
] |
64,686,529 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal | Undecimal (also known as unodecimal, undenary, and the base 11 numeral system) is a positional numeral system that uses eleven as its base. Undecimal numerals have applications in computer science, technology, and the International Standard Book Number system. They also occasionally feature in works of popular fiction.
While no known society counts by elevens, two are purported to have done so: the Māori (one of the two Polynesian peoples of New Zealand) and the Pañgwa (a Bantu-speaking people of Tanzania). The idea of counting by elevens remains of interest for its relation to a traditional method of tally-counting practiced in Polynesia. During the French Revolution, undecimal was briefly considered as a possible basis for the reformed system of measurement.
Any numerical system with a base greater than ten requires one or more new digits; "in an undenary system (base eleven) there should be a character for ten." To allow entry on typewriters, letters such as (as in hexadecimal), (the initial of "ten"), or (the Roman numeral 10) are used for the number 10 in base 11. It is also possible to use the digit ↊ ("dek"), the so-called Pitman numeral for 10 proposed in 1947 by Isaac Pitman as one of the two transdecimal symbols needed to represent base 12 (duodecimal).
Alleged use by the Māori
Conant and Williams
For about a century, the idea that Māori counted by elevens was best known from its mention in the writing of the American mathematician Levi Leonard Conant. He identified it as a "mistake" originating with a 19th-century dictionary of the New Zealand language published by the Rev. William Williams, at the time Archdeacon of Waiapu.
"Many years ago a statement appeared which at once attracted attention and awakened curiosity. It was to the effect that the Maoris, the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand, used as the basis of their numeral system the number 11; and that the system was quite extensively developed, having simple words for 121 and 1331, i.e. for the square and cube of 11."
As published by Williams in the first two editions of the dictionary series, this statement read:
"The Native mode of counting is by elevens, till they arrive at the tenth eleven, which is their hundred; then onwards to the tenth hundred, which is their thousand:* but those Natives who hold intercourse with Europeans have, for the most part, abandoned this method, and, leaving out ngahuru, reckon tekau or tahi tekau as 10, rua tekau as 20, &c. *This seems to be on the principle of putting aside one to every ten as a tally. A parallel to this obtains among the English, as in the case of the baker's dozen."
Lesson and Blosseville
In 2020, an earlier, Continental origin of the idea the Māori counted by elevens was traced to the published writings of two 19th-century scientific explorers, René Primevère Lesson and Jules de Blosseville. They had visited New Zealand in 1824 as part of the 1822–1825 circumnavigational voyage of the Coquille, a French corvette commanded by Louis Isidore Duperrey and seconded by Jules Dumont d'Urville. On his return to France in 1825, Lesson published his French translation of an article written by the German botanist Adelbert von Chamisso. At von Chamisso's claim that the New Zealand number system was based on twenty (vigesimal), Lesson inserted a footnote to mark an error:
Von Chamisso's text, as translated by Lesson: "...de l'E. de la mer du Sud ... c'est là qu'on trouve premierement le système arithmétique fondé sur un échelle de vingt, comme dans la Nouvelle-Zélande (2)..." [...east of the South Sea ... is where we first find the arithmetic system based on a scale of twenty, as in New Zealand (2)...]
Lesson's footnote on von Chamisso's text: "(2) Erreur. Le système arithmétique des Zélandais est undécimal, et les Anglais sont les premiers qui ont propagé cette fausse idée. (L.)" [(2) Error. The Zealander arithmetic system is undecimal, and the English are the first to propagate this false idea. (L).]
Von Chamisso had mentioned his error himself in 1821, tracing the source of his confusion and its clarification to Thomas Kendall, the English missionary to New Zealand who provided the material on the Māori language that was the basis for a grammar published in 1820 by the English linguist Samuel Lee. In the same 1821 publication, von Chamisso also identified the Māori number system as decimal, noting the source of the confusion was the Polynesian practice of counting things by pairs, where each pair was counted as a single unit, so that ten units were numerically equivalent to twenty:
"We have before us a Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, published by the Church Missionary Society. London, 1820. 8vo. The author of this grammar is the same Mr. Kendall who has communicated to us the Vocabulary in Nicolas's voyage. The language has now been opened to us, and we correct our opinion."
And,
"It is very far from easy to find out the arithmetical system of a people. It is at New Zealand, as at Tonga, the decimal system. What may, perhaps, have deceived Mr. Kendall, at the beginning, in his first attempt in Nicholas's voyage, and which we followed, is the custom of the New Zealanders to count things by pairs. The natives of Tonga count the bananas and fish likewise by pairs and by twenties (Tecow, English score)."
Lesson's use of the term "undécimal" in 1825 was possibly a printer's error that conjoined the intended phrase "un décimal," which would have correctly identified New Zealand numeration as decimal. Lesson knew Polynesian numbers were decimal and highly similar throughout the region, as he had learned a lot about Pacific number systems during his 2.5 years on the Coquille, collecting numerical vocabularies and ultimately publishing or commenting on more than a dozen of them. He was also familiar with the work of Thomas Kendall and Samuel Lee through his translation of von Chamisso's work. These circumstances suggest Lesson was unlikely to have misunderstood New Zealand counting as proceeding by elevens.
Lesson and his shipmate and friend, Blosseville, sent accounts of their alleged discovery of elevens-based counting in New Zealand to their contemporaries. At least two of these correspondents published these reports, including the Italian geographer Adriano Balbi, who detailed a letter he received from Lesson in 1826, and the Hungarian astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach, who briefly mentioned the alleged discovery as part of a letter from Blosseville he had received through a third party. De Blosseville also mentioned it to the Scottish author George Lillie Craik, who reported this letter in his 1830 book The New Zealanders. Lesson was also likely the author of an undated essay, written by a Frenchman but otherwise anonymous, found among and published with the papers of the Prussian linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1839.
The story expanded in its retelling: The 1826 letter published by Balbi added an alleged numerical vocabulary with terms for eleven squared (Karaou) and eleven cubed (Kamano), as well as an account of how the number-words and counting procedure were supposedly elicited from local informants. In an interesting twist, it also changed the mistaken classification needing correction from vigesimal to decimal. The 1839 essay published with von Humboldt's papers named Thomas Kendall, the English missionary whose confusion over the effects of pair-counting on Māori numbers had caused von Chamisso to misidentify them as vigesimal. It also listed places the alleged local informants were supposedly from.
Relation to traditional counting
The idea that Māori counted by elevens highlights an ingenious and pragmatic form of counting once practiced throughout Polynesia. This method of counting set aside every tenth item to mark ten of the counted items; the items set aside were subsequently counted in the same way, with every tenth item now marking a hundred (second round), thousand (third round), ten thousand items (fourth round), and so on. The counting method worked the same regardless of whether the base unit was a single item, pair, or group of four — base counting units used throughout the region — and it was the basis for the unique binary counting found in Mangareva, where counting could also proceed by groups of eight.
The method of counting also solves another mystery: why the Hawaiian word for twenty, iwakalua, means "nine and two." When the counting method was used with pairs, nine pairs were counted (18) and the last pair (2) was set aside for the next round.
Alleged use by the Pañgwa
Less is known about the idea the Pañgwa people of Tanzania counted by elevens. It was mentioned in 1920 by the British anthropologist Northcote W. Thomas:
"Another abnormal numeral system is that of the Pangwa, north-east of Lake Nyassa, who use a base of eleven."
And,
"If we could be certain that ki dzigo originally bore the meaning of eleven, not ten, in Pangwa, it would be tempting to correlate the dzi or či with the same word in Walegga-Lendu, where it means twelve, and thus bring into a relation, albeit of the flimsiest and most remote kind, all three areas in which abnormal systems are in use."
The claim was repeated by the British explorer and colonial administrator Harry H. Johnston in Vol. II of his 1922 study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages. He too noted suggestive similarities between the Pañgwa term for eleven and terms for ten in related languages:
"Occasionally there are special terms for 'eleven'. So far as my information goes they are the following:
Ki-dzigꞷ 36 (in this language, the Pangwa of North-east Nyasaland, counting actually goes by elevens. Ki-dzigꞷ-kavili = 'twenty-two', Ki-dzigꞷ-kadatu = 'thirty-three'). Yet the root -dzigꞷ is obviously the same as the -tsigꞷ, which stands for 'ten' in No. 38. It may also be related to the -digi ('ten') of 148, -tuku or -dugu of the Ababua and Congo tongues, -dikꞷ of 130, -liku of 175 ('eight'), and the Tiag of 249."
In Johnston's classification of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages,
36 is Pañgwa, Bantu Group J, N. Ruvuma, NE Nyasaland
38 is Kiñga, Bantu Group K, Ukiñga
130 is Ba-ñkutu (Ba-ñkpfutu), Bantu Group DD, Central Congꞷland
148 is Li-huku, Bantu Group HH, Upper Ituri
175 is Ifumu or Ifuru (E. Teke), Bantu Group LL, Kwa-Kasai-Upper Ꞷgꞷwe (Teke)
249 is Afudu, Semi-Bantu Group D, S. Benue
Today, Pañgwa is understood to have decimal numbers, with the numbers six and higher borrowed from Swahili.
In the history of measurement
In June 1789, mere weeks before the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille, the Academy of Sciences established a committee (la Commission des Poids et Mesures) to standardize systems of weights and measures, a popular reform that was an early step toward creating the international metric system. On 27 October 1790, the committee reported they had considered using duodecimal (base 12) as the basis for weights, lengths/distances, and money because of its greater divisibility, relative to decimal (base 10). However, they ultimately rejected the initiative, deciding a common scale based on spoken numbers would simplify calculations and conversions and make the new system easier to implement. Mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, a member of the committee, was credited with influencing the committee to select decimal. The debate over which one to use seems to have been lively, if not contentious, as at one point, Lagrange suggested adopting 11 as the base number, on the grounds indivisibility was actually advantageous; because 11 was a prime number, no fraction with it as its denominator would be reducible:
Delambre wrote: "Il était peu frappé de l'objection que l'on tirait contre ce système du petit nombre des diviseurs de sa base. Il regrettait presque qu'elle ne fut pas un nombre premier, tel que 11, qui nécessairement eût donné un même dénominateur à toutes les fractions. On regardera, si l'on veut, cette idée comme une de ces exagérations qui échappent aux meilleurs esprits dans le feu de la dispute; mais il n'employait ce nombre 11 que pour écarter le nombre 12, que des novateurs plus intrépides auraient voulu substituer à celui de 10, qui fait partout la base de la numération."
As translated: "He [Lagrange] almost regretted [the base] was not a prime number, such as 11, which necessarily would give all fractions the same denominator. This idea will be regarded, if you will, as one of those exaggerations that escape the best minds in the heat of argument; but he only used the number 11 to rule out the number 12, which the more intrepid innovators wanted to substitute for 10, which is the basis of numeration everywhere."
In 1795, in the published public lectures at the École Normale, Lagrange observed that fractions with varying denominators (e.g., , , , , ), though simple in themselves, were inconvenient, as their different denominators made them difficult to compare. That is, fractions aren't difficult to compare if the numerator is 1 (e.g., is larger than , which in turn is larger than ). However, comparisons become more difficult when both numerators and denominators are mixed: is larger than , which in turn is larger than , though this cannot be determined by simple inspection of the denominators in the way possible if the numerator is 1. He noted the difficulty was resolved if all the fractions had the same denominator:
Lagrange wrote: "On voit aussi par-là, qu'il est indifférent que le nombre qui suit la base du système, comme le nombre 10 dans notre système décimal, ait des diviseurs ou non; peut-être même y aurait-il, à quelques égards, de l'avantage à ce que ce nombre n'eût point de diviseurs, comme le nombre 11, ce qui aurait lieu dans le système undécimal, parce qu'on en serait moins porté à employer les fractions , , etc."
As translated: "We also see by this [argument about divisibility], it does not matter whether the number that is the base of the system, like the number 10 in our decimal system, has divisors or not; perhaps there would even be, in some respects, an advantage if this number did not have divisors, like the number 11, which would happen in the undecimal system, because one would be less inclined to use the fractions , , etc."
In recounting the story, Ralph H. Beard (in 1947, president of the then-named Duodecimal Society of America) noted that base 11 numbers have the disadvantage that for prime numbers higher than 11, "we are unable to tell, without actually testing them, not only whether or not they are prime, but, surprisingly, whether or not they are odd or even."
In science and technology
Undecimal (often referred to as unodecimal in this context) is useful in computer science and technology for understanding complement (subtracting by negative addition) and performing digit checks on a decimal channel.
The 10-digit numbers in the system of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) used undecimal as a check digit. A check digit is the final digit of an ISBN that is related mathematically to all the other digits it contains that is used to verify their accuracy. It represents the answer to a mathematical calculation, in this case, one that multiplies the ten digits of the ISBN by the integers ten (leftmost digit) through two (second-to-last rightmost digit, the last being the check digit itself) and then sums them. The calculation should yield a multiple of eleven, with its final digit, represented by the digits 0 through 9 or an X (for ten), being equal to the tenth digit of the ISBN. , thirteen-digit ISBNs are the standard. The International ISBN Agency provides an online calculator that will convert ten-digit ISBNs into thirteen digits.
In popular fiction
In the novel Contact by Carl Sagan, a message left by an unknown advanced intelligence lies hidden inside the number pi. The message is best revealed when pi is computed in undecimal.
In the television series Babylon 5, the advanced race known as the Minbari use undecimal numbers. They count on ten fingers and the head.
Examples
This table shows the powers of 2 in undecimal.
This table shows how to multiply small integers in undecimal.
See also
Undecimal check digit for ten-digit ISBNs
References
Positional numeral systems | Undecimal | [
"Mathematics"
] | 3,854 | [
"Numeral systems",
"Positional numeral systems"
] |
64,688,191 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics%20of%20uncertain%20sentience | The ethics of uncertain sentience refers to questions surrounding the treatment of and moral obligations towards individuals whose sentience—the capacity to subjectively sense and feel—and resulting ability to experience pain is uncertain; the topic has been particularly discussed within the field of animal ethics, with the precautionary principle frequently invoked in response.
Views
Animal ethics
David Foster Wallace in his 2005 essay "Consider the Lobster" investigated the potential sentience and capacity of crustaceans to experience pain and the resulting ethical implications of eating them. In 2014, the philosopher Robert C. Jones explored the ethical question that Wallace raised, arguing that "[e]ven if one remains skeptical of crustacean sentience, when it comes to issues of welfare it would be most prudent to employ the precautionary principle regarding our treatment of these animals, erring on the side of caution". Maximilian Padden Elder takes a similar view regarding the capacity for fishes to feel pain, arguing that the "precautionary principle is the moral ethic one ought to adopt in the face of uncertainty".
In the 2015 essay "Reconsider the Lobster", Jeff Sebo quotes Wallace's discussion of the difficulty of establishing whether an animal can experience pain. Sebo calls the question of how to treat individuals of uncertain sentience, the "sentience problem" and argues that this problem which "Wallace raises deserves much more philosophical attention than it currently receives." Sebo asserts that there are two motivating assumptions behind the problem: "sentientism about moral status"—the idea that if an individual is sentient, then they deserve moral consideration—and "uncertainty about other minds", which refers to scientific and philosophical uncertainty about which individuals are sentient.
In response to the problem, Sebo lays out three different potential approaches: the incautionary principle, which postulates that in cases of uncertainty about sentience it is morally permissible to treat individuals as if they are not sentient; the precautionary principle, which suggests that in such cases we have a moral obligation to treat them as if they are sentient; and the expected value principle, which asserts that we are "morally required to multiply our credence that they are by the amount of moral value they would have if they were, and to treat the product of this equation as the amount of moral value that they actually have". Sebo advocates for the latter position.
Jonathan Birch, in answer to the question surrounding animal sentience, advocates for a practical framework based on the precautionary principle, arguing that the framework aligns well with conventional practices in animal welfare science.
Simon Knutsson and Christian Munthe argue that from the perspective of virtue ethics, that when it comes to animals of uncertain sentience, such as "fish, invertebrates such as crustaceans, snails and insects", that it is a "requirement of a morally decent (or virtuous) person that she at least pays attention to and is cautious regarding the possibly morally relevant aspects of such animals".
Shelley A. Adamo argues that although the precautionary principle in relation to potential invertebrate sentience is the safest option, that it's not cost-free, as thoughtless legislation employed following the precautionary principle could be economically costly and that, as a result, we should be cautious about adopting it.
Environmental ethics
Kai Chan advocates for an environmental ethic, which is a form of ethical extensionism applied to all living beings because "there is a non-zero probability of sentience and consciousness" and that "we cannot justify excluding beings from consideration on the basis of uncertainty of their sentience".
Ethics of artificial intelligence
Nick Bostrom and Eliezer Yudkowsky argue that if an artificial intelligence is sentient, then it is wrong to inflict it unnecessary pain, in the same way that it is wrong to inflict pain on an animal, unless there are "sufficiently strong morally overriding reasons to do so". They also advocate for the "Principle of Substrate Non-Discrimination", which asserts: "If two beings have the same functionality and the same conscious experience, and differ only in the substrate of their implementation, then they have the same moral status."
Soenke Ziesche and Roman Yampolskiy coined the term "AI welfare" and outlined the new field of AI welfare science, which is derived from animal welfare science.
Neuroethics
Adam J. Shriver argues for "precise, precautionary, and probabilistic approaches to sentience" and asserts that the evidence provided by neuroscience has differing relevance to each; he concludes that basic protections for animals should be guided by the precautionary principle and that although neuroscientific evidence in certain instances is not necessary to indicate that individuals of certain species require protections, "ongoing search for the neural correlates of sentience must be pursued in order to avoid harms that occur from mistaken accounts."
See also
Animal consciousness
Ethics of eating meat
Insects in ethics
Machine Consciousness
Pain in animals
Pain in amphibians
Pain in cephalopods
Pain in invertebrates
Philosophical zombie
Sentiocentrism
References
Further reading
Jakopovich, Daniel (2021). "The UK’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill Excludes the Vast Majority of Animals: Why We Must Expand Our Moral Circle to Include Invertebrates", Animals & Society Research Initiative, University of Victoria, Canada.
Bioethics
Consciousness
Issues in animal ethics
Pain in animals
Issues in environmental ethics
Ethics of science and technology
Philosophy of artificial intelligence
Theory of mind | Ethics of uncertain sentience | [
"Technology",
"Environmental_science"
] | 1,141 | [
"Bioethics",
"Issues in environmental ethics",
"Environmental ethics",
"Ethics of science and technology"
] |
64,688,677 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homological%20connectivity | In algebraic topology, homological connectivity is a property describing a topological space based on its homology groups.
Definitions
Background
X is homologically-connected if its 0-th homology group equals Z, i.e. , or equivalently, its 0-th reduced homology group is trivial: .
For example, when X is a graph and its set of connected components is C, and (see graph homology). Therefore, homological connectivity is equivalent to the graph having a single connected component, which is equivalent to graph connectivity. It is similar to the notion of a connected space.
X is homologically 1-connected if it is homologically-connected, and additionally, its 1-th homology group is trivial, i.e. .
For example, when X is a connected graph with vertex-set V and edge-set E, . Therefore, homological 1-connectivity is equivalent to the graph being a tree. Informally, it corresponds to X having no "holes" with a 1-dimensional boundary, which is similar to the notion of a simply connected space.
In general, for any integer k, X is homologically k-connected if its reduced homology groups of order 0, 1, ..., k are all trivial. Note that the reduced homology group equals the homology group for 1,..., k (only the 0-th reduced homology group is different).
Connectivity
The homological connectivity of X, denoted connH(X), is the largest k ≥ 0 for which X is homologically k-connected. Examples:
If all reduced homology groups of X are trivial, then connH(X) = infinity. This holds, for example, for any ball.
If the 0th group is trivial but the 1th group is not, then connH(X) = 0. This holds, for example, for a connected graph with a cycle.
If all reduced homology groups are non-trivial, then connH(X) = -1. This holds for any disconnected space.
The connectivity of the empty space is, by convention, connH(X) = -2.
Some computations become simpler if the connectivity is defined with an offset of 2, that is, . The eta of the empty space is 0, which is its smallest possible value. The eta of any disconnected space is 1.
Dependence on the field of coefficients
The basic definition considers homology groups with integer coefficients. Considering homology groups with other coefficients leads to other definitions of connectivity. For example, X is F2-homologically 1-connected if its 1st homology group with coefficients from F2 (the cyclic field of size 2) is trivial, i.e.: .
Homological connectivity in specific spaces
For homological connectivity of simplicial complexes, see simplicial homology. Homological connectivity was calculated for various spaces, including:
The independence complex of a graph;
A random 2-dimensional simplicial complex;
A random k-dimensional simplicial complex;
A random hypergraph;
A random Čech complex.
Relation with homotopical connectivity
Hurewicz theorem relates the homological connectivity to the homotopical connectivity, denoted by .
For any X that is simply-connected, that is, , the connectivities are the same:If X is not simply-connected (), then inequality holds:but it may be strict. See Homotopical connectivity.
See also
Meshulam's game is a game played on a graph G, that can be used to calculate a lower bound on the homological connectivity of the independence complex of G.
References
Homology theory
Properties of topological spaces | Homological connectivity | [
"Mathematics"
] | 758 | [
"Properties of topological spaces",
"Topological spaces",
"Topology",
"Space (mathematics)"
] |
64,689,113 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%20Stefanopoulou | Anna G. Stefanopoulou (born 1968) is a Greek-American mechanical engineer known for her research on the control theory of fuel cells and on improving the fuel efficiency of automotive engines. She is William Clay Ford Professor of Technology in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute, and a member of the University of Michigan President's Commission on Carbon Neutrality.
Education and career
Stefanopoulou studied marine engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, studying ship propulsion and graduating with a diploma in 1991. She moved to the University of Michigan for graduate study, beginning with a master's degree in marine engineering but then shifting to electrical engineering and computer science, as she became more interested in automotive applications of control theory.
After completing her Ph.D. in 1996, she worked on engine control for the Ford Motor Company from 1996 to 1997. In 1998 she became an assistant professor of mechanical and environmental engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she developed an additional line of research on automated braking, and was chosen as one of the participants in a prestigious National Academy of Engineering "Frontiers of Engineering" symposium. In 2000 she returned to the University of Michigan as an associate professor of mechanical engineering, and began the work on fuel cells for which she is best known.
Book
Stefanopoulou is the co-author, with Jay T. Pukrushpan and Huei Peng, of the book Control of Fuel Cell Power Systems: Principles, Modeling, Analysis and Feedback Design (Springer, 2004).
Recognition
Stefanopoulou was named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2007. In 2009 she became an IEEE Fellow, "for contributions to control of energy conversion systems". She became a fellow of SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) in 2018.
In 2009, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers gave Stefanopoulou their Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering. In 2016 the IEEE Control Systems Society gave her their Control System Technology Award "for the development of an advanced battery management system accounting for electro-thermo-mechanical phenomena".
The University of Michigan named Stefanopoulou to the William Clay Ford Professorship in 2017.
References
External links
Home page
Living people
American mechanical engineers
American women engineers
Greek engineers
Greek women engineers
Control theorists
National Technical University of Athens alumni
University of Michigan alumni
University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
University of Michigan faculty
Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Fellows of the IEEE
1968 births
American women academics
21st-century American women | Anna Stefanopoulou | [
"Engineering"
] | 520 | [
"Control engineering",
"Control theorists"
] |
64,690,682 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TQ-12 | The TQ-12 (, lit. Sky Lark 12) is a gas-generator cycle rocket engine burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen (methalox) developed by LandSpace. TQ-12 is the first Chinese liquid rocket engine developed with private funding. The engine has been designed to produce of thrust at sea level.
History
The engine passed its first powerpack test including the turbopump, valves, ignition components, and the gas generator at a LandSpace facility in Huzhou on March 25, 2019.
The engine's first full assembly was delivered in May 2019, and a hot fire test was successfully conducted the same month. The engine passed its first 200 second duration variable thrust test on October 26, 2019. A series of 400s hot fire tests were conducted in January 2021 and the first-stage engine assembly for LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket was completed in February 2021. The launch vehicle first stage consists of four TQ-12 engines providing a takeoff thrust of 268 tons. 37 TQ-12 family engines had been built by LandSpace as of July 2022, with cumulative hot fire test duration of more than 20,000 seconds. A record-breaking 3357 seconds of hot fire time were accumulated by one engine over 11 firings.
In August 2022, LandSpace successfully tested an improved TQ-12A. Compared with the original TQ-12, the engine thrust is increased by 9%, the specific impulse is increased by 40 m/s, and the weight is reduced by 100kg.
On December 14, 2022, Zhuque-2 completed its maiden flight. Four TQ-12 engines powered the first stage, which performed normally during the flight. However, the TQ-11 vernier engines used in the second stage failed, and the rocket was lost.
In July 2023, the 2nd launch of Zhuque-2 was successful and the payload reached orbit.
References
Rocket engines of China
Rocket engines using methane propellant
Rocket engines using the gas-generator cycle | TQ-12 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 404 | [
"Rocketry stubs",
"Astronomy stubs"
] |
64,690,995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze%20Memory%20Technologies | Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is a Chinese semiconductor integrated device manufacturer specializing in flash memory (NAND) chips. Founded in Wuhan, China, in 2016, with government investment and a goal of reducing the country's dependence on foreign chip manufacturers, the company was formerly a subsidiary of partially state-owned enterprise Tsinghua Unigroup.
YMTC produces enterprise solid state drives under its own brand and for resellers like Lexar or HP. Its consumer products are marketed under the brand ZhiTai ().
History
Tsinghua Unigroup founded YMTC in July 2016, with a total investment of US$24 billion, including investments from the Hubei provincial government and the state-owned China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund.
In 2018, YMTC released its Xtacking architecture designed for Vertical NAND chips at the Flash Memory Summit, receiving the "Best of Show" award for "Most Innovative Flash Memory Start-up Company". Xtacking enables YMTC to manufacture the memory and the logic circuits on separate wafers and connect them using plasma activation and thermal annealing. According to YMTC, this enables a higher speed for the production process and increases NAND performance. YMTC's 3D NAND flash memory chips were the first to be domestically mass-produced in China. Later in 2018, YMTC announced mass production of its 32-layer 3D NAND flash memory chip, and in September 2019, YMTC reported that it had started mass-producing its 64-layer TLC 3D NAND flash memory chip, with both chips using its Xtacking architecture.
In April 2020, YMTC announced that it had developed a 128-layer 1.33 Tb flash memory chip. From 2020 to 2021 YMTC suffered from unsatisfactory yield from its initial risk production of the 128-layer memory chip, averaging around 30 to 40 percent. In September 2020, YMTC unveiled its first line of consumer products under the brand name Zhitai.
As of 2021 YMTC was planning its second fab with a capacity of 100,000 wafers per month which will double its total output to 200,000 wpm. In September 2021, the company's chief operating officer announced that the company had shipped more than 300 million 64-layer memory chips, and the company's 128-layer QLC memory chip was ready for volume production.
News agencies reported in January 2022 that YMTC had scrapped its intention to build a second 3D NAND fab announced in 2017, citing serious financial issues at Tsinghua Unigroup, its parent firm. Bloomberg News reported in March 2022 that Apple was exploring purchasing NAND chips from YMTC to diversify its NAND chip vendors.
In May 2022 PCI-SIG listed two NVMe enterprise SSDs from YMTC as PCIe 4.0 verified. In July 2022, the company's CEO Simon Yang resigned citing personal reasons. Yang remains with the company as deputy chairman.
In August 2022 YMTC unveiled the X3-9070, its first 232-layer 3D NAND chip. In October 2022 Apple announced that it would drop a plan to use YMTC memory chips in its phones amid political pressure. In November 2022 a TechInsights report stated that YMTC had delivered 232-layer 3D NAND Flash to the market.
In December 2022 YMTC was added to the U.S. Entity List. In February 2023 the company reportedly laid off 10 percent of its workforce, cancelled equipment orders, and delayed plant expansion plans in response to US sanctions and challenging market conditions caused by low demand. In March, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund announced its intention to invest an additional $1.9 billion into YMTC, indicating a potential revival of government funding. In September 2023 the South China Morning Post reported that YMTC intensified its efforts to substitute US-sourced equipment with domestic alternatives, following a $7 billion capital infusion from state-supported investors. TechInsights reported in October 2023 that YMTC shipped its first 232-layer 3D QLC NAND, setting an industry record of 19.8 Gbit/mm2. In October 2023, YMTC again raised billions of dollars in a major fundraising round, necessitated by the high costs of adapting to stringent U.S. restrictions, including replacing U.S. equipment and developing new components, which had already depleted the $7 billion funding received prior.
On November 9, 2023, YMTC sued rival memory maker Micron in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging infringement on eight of its patents.
In February 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense designated YMTC as a "military company" that poses national security risks to the United States, barring it from using U.S.-designed chipmaking equipment and supplying products to the U.S. military. Following its designation as a "military company" by the U.S. Department of Defense, YMTC released a statement refuting the allegation, asserting that it has not supplied its technology for military use and is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
In March 2024, YMTC announced a breakthrough with its X3-6070 3D QLC NAND chips, achieving the endurance of 3D TLC NAND with 4,000 program/erase cycles.
Due to U.S. trade sanctions, as of September 2024, the company started working with Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers such as Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment, Naura Technology Group and Piotech. Despite these, the company still relies on Western manufacturers like ASML Holding and U.S.-based company Lam Research.
International reception
United States
In July 2021 U.S. Representatives Michael McCaul and Bill Hagerty wrote a letter to the United States Secretary of Commerce arguing that YMTC should be placed on the department's Entity List. The letter stated that YMTC will assist the Chinese government in using unfair trade tactics to force American competitors out of the memory-chip sector, thereby putting US national security in jeopardy. It also highlighted YMTC's alleged close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army. Additionally, some YMTC executives previously worked for Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, which was added to the Entity List in December 2020.
In April 2022 U.S. Senator Marco Rubio voiced his displeasure with reports that Apple was considering procuring NAND chips from YMTC. YMTC, according to Rubio, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. In September 2022, additional legislators urged the White House to put YMTC on the entity list after a report was released about YMTC's supply of chips to Huawei. In October 2022, the Biden administration announced 31 Chinese companies, including YMTC, were being added to the Unverified List. On December 15, the Biden administration added YMTC to the Entity List. The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 also banned the U.S. federal government from buying or using chips from YMTC. In January 2024, the United States Department of Defense named YMTC on its list of "Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States."
On March 3, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2022, Micron lobbied the U.S. government to block exports to YMTC and spent more on lobbying in the past two years than any prior period.
See also
XMC
Semiconductor industry in China
List of semiconductor fabrication plants
References
External links
Manufacturing companies based in Wuhan
Computer hardware companies
Computer memory companies
Consumer electronics brands
Computer storage companies
Semiconductor companies of China
Chinese companies established in 2016
Chinese brands
Government-owned companies of China | Yangtze Memory Technologies | [
"Technology"
] | 1,628 | [
"Computer hardware companies",
"Computers"
] |
64,691,475 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber%20band%20experiment | The rubber band experiment demonstrates entropic force and a refrigeration cycle using a simple rubber band. The rubber band experiment is performed by sensing the temperature of a rubber band as it is stretched, and then released. The rubber band first heats up as its stretched, then allowed to equilibrate back to room temperature. The rubber band cools below room temperature when the tension is released, the effect is large enough to be noticed by touch. The rubber band experiment is often used as a simple example when explaining entropy and energy in high school physics classes.
Thermodynamic model
The decrease in the temperature of the rubber band in a spontaneous process at ambient temperature can be explained using the Helmholtz free energy
where dF is the change in free energy, dL is the change in length, τ is the tension, dT is the change in temperature and S is the entropy.
Rearranging to see the change in temperature we obtain
. In a spontaneous process dF is negative and τ, S are positive and in this case dL is negative and it's possible for dT to be negative.
The rubber band experiment can be modeled as a thermodynamic cycle as shown in the diagram. The stretching of the rubber band is an isobaric expansion (A → B) that increases the energy but reduces the entropy (this is a property of a rubber bands due to rubber elasticity). Holding the rubber band in tension at ambient temperature is an isochoric cooling process (B → C) in which the energy decreases (and the entropy remains approximately stable). Releasing the tension from the rubber band is a process of isobaric cooling (C → D) in which the energy decreases but the entropy increases. The rubber band then equilibrates back to room temperature in an isochoric heating process (D → A) completing the cycle.
A simple qualitative model
The model can be derived from two experimental observations on rubber bands.
The first is that the internal energy of a rubber band is independent of length: U=c L0T where c is a constant L0 is the resting length of the rubber band and T is the temperature. The second is that tension in a rubber band increases linearly with the length of the rubber band up to the elasticity limit,
where τ is the tension, L1 is the elasticity limit, L is the current length, b is a constant, T is the temperature and ΔL is change in length of the rubber band.
Requiring the consistency of two equations of state we obtain the condition
. Integrating the result we obtain
where dS is the change in entropy.
We can see that the entropy of a rubber band will decrease when stretched. After the rubber band equilibrates back to room temperature it has the same internal energy it had at the beginning according to our model but a lower entropy because dU is 0 and b, ΔL and dL are positive. When removing the tension the rubber band will spontaneously equilibrate to a lower energy and higher entropy state resulting in lower temperature.
Ideal chain polymer
The decrease in the entropy of a rubber band can be explained using the ideal chain model, where the rubber band can be modeled as a bundle of long chain polymers.
The free variables are the angles between links in the polymer. The longer the polymer the fewer possible permutations of angles exist resulting in length L. Using the definition of entropy in the ideal chain model
where KB is the Boltzmann constant and Ω is the number of possible permutations of the polymer. As the rubber band is being stretched Ω decreases as a function of length and therefore the entropy decreases as a function of length.
References
Physics education
Thermodynamic cycles | Rubber band experiment | [
"Physics"
] | 754 | [
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Physics education"
] |
64,691,694 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial%20evaluation | In mathematics and computer science, polynomial evaluation refers to computation of the value of a polynomial when its indeterminates are substituted for some values. In other words, evaluating the polynomial at consists of computing See also
For evaluating the univariate polynomial the most naive method would use multiplications to compute , use multiplications to compute and so on for a total of multiplications and additions.
Using better methods, such as Horner's rule, this can be reduced to multiplications and additions. If some preprocessing is allowed, even more savings are possible.
Background
This problem arises frequently in practice. In computational geometry, polynomials are used to compute function approximations using Taylor polynomials. In cryptography and hash tables, polynomials are used to compute k-independent hashing.
In the former case, polynomials are evaluated using floating-point arithmetic, which is not exact. Thus different schemes for the evaluation will, in general, give slightly different answers. In the latter case, the polynomials are usually evaluated in a finite field, in which case the answers are always exact.
General methods
Horner's rule
Horner's method evaluates a polynomial using repeated bracketing:
This method reduces the number of multiplications and additions to just
Horner's method is so common that a computer instruction "multiply–accumulate operation" has been added to many computer processors, which allow doing the addition and multiplication operations in one combined step.
Multivariate
If the polynomial is multivariate, Horner's rule can be applied recursively over some ordering of the variables.
E.g.
can be written as
An efficient version of this approach was described by Carnicer and Gasca.
Estrin's scheme
While it's not possible to do less computation than Horner's rule (without preprocessing), on modern computers the order of evaluation can matter a lot for the computational efficiency.
A method known as Estrin's scheme computes a (single variate) polynomial in a tree like pattern:
Combined by Exponentiation by squaring, this allows parallelizing the computation.
Evaluation with preprocessing
Arbitrary polynomials can be evaluated with fewer
operations than Horner's rule requires if we first "preprocess"
the coefficients .
An example was first given by Motzkin who noted that
can be written as
where the values are computed in advanced, based on .
Motzkin's method uses just 3 multiplications compared to Horner's 4.
The values for each can be easily computed by expanding and equating the coefficients:
Example
To compute the Taylor expansion ,
we can upscale by a factor 24, apply the above steps, and scale back down.
That gives us the three multiplication computation
Improving over the equivalent Horner form (that is ) by 1 multiplication.
Some general methods include the Knuth–Eve algorithm and the Rabin–Winograd algorithm.
Multipoint evaluation
Evaluation of a degree-n polynomial at multiple points can be done with multiplications by using Horner's method times. Using the above preprocessing approach, this can be reduced by a factor of two; that is, to multiplications.
However, it is possible to do better and reduce the time requirement to just .
The idea is to define two polynomials that are zero in respectively the first and second half of the points: and .
We then compute and using the Polynomial remainder theorem, which can be done in time using a fast Fourier transform.
This means and by construction, where and are polynomials of degree at most .
Because of how and were defined, we have
Thus to compute on all of the , it suffices to compute the smaller polynomials and on each half of the points.
This gives us a divide-and-conquer algorithm with , which implies by the master theorem.
In the case where the points in which we wish to evaluate the polynomials have some structure, simpler methods exist.
For example, Knuth section 4.6.4
gives a method for tabulating polynomial values of the type
Dynamic evaluation
In the case where are not known in advance,
Kedlaya and Umans gave a data structure for evaluating polynomials over a finite field of size in time per evaluation after some initial preprocessing.
This was shown by Larsen to be essentially optimal.
The idea is to transform of degree into a multivariate polynomial , such that and the individual degrees of is at most .
Since this is over , the largest value can take (over ) is .
Using the Chinese remainder theorem, it suffices to evaluate modulo different primes with a product at least .
Each prime can be taken to be roughly , and the number of primes needed, , is roughly the same.
Doing this process recursively, we can get the primes as small as .
That means we can compute and store on all the possible values in time and space.
If we take , we get , so the time/space requirement is just
Kedlaya and Umans further show how to combine this preprocessing with fast (FFT) multipoint evaluation.
This allows optimal algorithms for many important algebraic problems, such as polynomial modular composition.
Specific polynomials
While general polynomials require operations to evaluate, some polynomials can be computed much faster.
For example, the polynomial can be computed using just one multiplication and one addition since
Evaluation of powers
A particularly interesting type of polynomial is powers like .
Such polynomials can always be computed in operations.
Suppose, for example, that we need to compute ; we could simply start with and multiply by to get .
We can then multiply that by itself to get and so on to get and in just four multiplications.
Other powers like can similarly be computed efficiently by first computing by 2 multiplications and then multiplying by .
The most efficient way to compute a given power is provided by addition-chain exponentiation. However, this requires designing a specific algorithm for each exponent, and the computation needed for designing these algorithms are difficult (NP-complete), so exponentiation by squaring is generally preferred for effective computations.
Polynomial families
Often polynomials show up in a different form than the well known .
For polynomials in Chebyshev form we can use Clenshaw algorithm.
For polynomials in Bézier form we can use De Casteljau's algorithm,
and for B-splines there is De Boor's algorithm.
Hard polynomials
The fact that some polynomials can be computed significantly faster than "general polynomials" suggests the question: Can we give an example of a simple polynomial that cannot be computed in time much smaller than its degree?
Volker Strassen has shown that the polynomial
cannot be evaluated with less than multiplications and additions.
At least this bound holds if only operations of those types are allowed, giving rise to a so-called "polynomial chain of length ".
The polynomial given by Strassen has very large coefficients, but by probabilistic methods, one can show there must exist even polynomials with coefficients just 0's and 1's such that the evaluation requires at least multiplications.
For other simple polynomials, the complexity is unknown.
The polynomial is conjectured to not be computable in time for any .
This is supported by the fact that, if it can be computed fast, then integer factorization can be computed in polynomial time, breaking the RSA cryptosystem.
Matrix polynomials
Sometimes the computational cost of scalar multiplications (like ) is less than the computational cost of "non scalar" multiplications (like ).
The typical example of this is matrices.
If is an matrix, a scalar multiplication takes about arithmetic operations, while computing takes about (or using fast matrix multiplication).
Matrix polynomials are important for example for computing the Matrix Exponential.
Paterson and Stockmeyer
showed how to compute a degree polynomial using only non scalar multiplications and scalar multiplications.
Thus a matrix polynomial of degree can be evaluated in time. If this is , as fast as one matrix multiplication with the standard algorithm.
This method works as follows: For a polynomial
let be the least integer not smaller than
The powers are computed with matrix multiplications, and are then computed by repeated multiplication by
Now,
,
where for .
This requires just more non-scalar multiplications.
We can write this succinctly using the Kronecker product:
.
The direct application of this method uses non-scalar multiplications, but combining it with Evaluation with preprocessing, Paterson and Stockmeyer show you can reduce this to .
Methods based on matrix polynomial multiplications and additions have been proposed allowing to save nonscalar matrix multiplications with respect to the Paterson-Stockmeyer method.
See also
Estrin's scheme to facilitate parallelization on modern computer architectures
Arithmetic circuit complexity theory studies the computational complexity of evaluating different polynomials.
References
Polynomials | Polynomial evaluation | [
"Mathematics"
] | 1,792 | [
"Polynomials",
"Algebra"
] |
64,692,455 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkhoff%20algorithm | Birkhoff's algorithm (also called Birkhoff-von-Neumann algorithm) is an algorithm for decomposing a bistochastic matrix into a convex combination of permutation matrices. It was published by Garrett Birkhoff in 1946. It has many applications. One such application is for the problem of fair random assignment: given a randomized allocation of items, Birkhoff's algorithm can decompose it into a lottery on deterministic allocations.
Terminology
A bistochastic matrix (also called: doubly-stochastic) is a matrix in which all elements are greater than or equal to 0 and the sum of the elements in each row and column equals 1. An example is the following 3-by-3 matrix:
A permutation matrix is a special case of a bistochastic matrix, in which each element is either 0 or 1 (so there is exactly one "1" in each row and each column). An example is the following 3-by-3 matrix:
A Birkhoff decomposition (also called: Birkhoff-von-Neumann decomposition) of a bistochastic matrix is a presentation of it as a sum of permutation matrices with non-negative weights. For example, the above matrix can be presented as the following sum:
Birkhoff's algorithm receives as input a bistochastic matrix and returns as output a Birkhoff decomposition.
Tools
A permutation set of an n-by-n matrix X is a set of n entries of X containing exactly one entry from each row and from each column. A theorem by Dénes Kőnig says that: Every bistochastic matrix has a permutation-set in which all entries are positive.The positivity graph of an n-by-n matrix X is a bipartite graph with 2n vertices, in which the vertices on one side are n rows and the vertices on the other side are the n columns, and there is an edge between a row and a column iff the entry at that row and column is positive. A permutation set with positive entries is equivalent to a perfect matching in the positivity graph. A perfect matching in a bipartite graph can be found in polynomial time, e.g. using any algorithm for maximum cardinality matching. Kőnig's theorem is equivalent to the following:The positivity graph of any bistochastic matrix admits a perfect matching.A matrix is called scaled-bistochastic if all elements are non-negative, and the sum of each row and column equals c, where c is some positive constant. In other words, it is c times a bistochastic matrix. Since the positivity graph is not affected by scaling:The positivity graph of any scaled-bistochastic matrix admits a perfect matching.
Algorithm
Birkhoff's algorithm is a greedy algorithm: it greedily finds perfect matchings and removes them from the fractional matching. It works as follows.
Let i = 1.
Construct the positivity graph GX of X.
Find a perfect matching in GX, corresponding to a positive permutation set in X.
Let z[i] > 0 be the smallest entry in the permutation set.
Let P[i] be a permutation matrix with 1 in the positive permutation set.
Let X := X − z[i] P[i].
If X contains nonzero elements, Let i = i + 1 and go back to step 2.
Otherwise, return the sum: z[1] P[1] + ... + z[2] P[2] + ... + z[i] P[i].
The algorithm is correct because, after step 6, the sum in each row and each column drops by z[i]. Therefore, the matrix X remains scaled-bistochastic. Therefore, in step 3, a perfect matching always exists.
Run-time complexity
By the selection of z[i] in step 4, in each iteration at least one element of X becomes 0. Therefore, the algorithm must end after at most n2 steps. However, the last step must simultaneously make n elements 0, so the algorithm ends after at most n2 − n + 1 steps, which implies .
In 1960, Joshnson, Dulmage and Mendelsohn showed that Birkhoff's algorithm actually ends after at most n2 − 2n + 2 steps, which is tight in general (that is, in some cases n2 − 2n + 2 permutation matrices may be required).
Application in fair division
In the fair random assignment problem, there are n objects and n people with different preferences over the objects. It is required to give an object to each person. To attain fairness, the allocation is randomized: for each (person, object) pair, a probability is calculated, such that the sum of probabilities for each person and for each object is 1. The probabilistic-serial procedure can compute the probabilities such that each agent, looking at the matrix of probabilities, prefers his row of probabilities over the rows of all other people (this property is called envy-freeness). This raises the question of how to implement this randomized allocation in practice? One cannot just randomize for each object separately, since this may result in allocations in which some people get many objects while other people get no objects.
Here, Birkhoff's algorithm is useful. The matrix of probabilities, calculated by the probabilistic-serial algorithm, is bistochastic. Birkhoff's algorithm can decompose it into a convex combination of permutation matrices. Each permutation matrix represents a deterministic assignment, in which every agent receives exactly one object. The coefficient of each such matrix is interpreted as a probability; based on the calculated probabilities, it is possible to pick one assignment at random and implement it.
Extensions
The problem of computing the Birkhoff decomposition with the minimum number of terms has been shown to be NP-hard, but some heuristics for computing it are known. This theorem can be extended for the general stochastic matrix with deterministic transition matrices.
Budish, Che, Kojima and Milgrom generalize Birkhoff's algorithm to non-square matrices, with some constraints on the feasible assignments. They also present a decomposition algorithm that minimizes the variance in the expected values.
Vazirani generalizes Birkhoff's algorithm to non-bipartite graphs.
Valls et al. showed that it is possible to obtain an
-approximate decomposition with permutations.
See also
Birkhoff polytope
Birkhoff decomposition (disambiguation)
Gordan's lemma - states that certain sets of vectors can be generated by a finite subset.
References
Matrices
Algorithms | Birkhoff algorithm | [
"Mathematics"
] | 1,436 | [
"Algorithms",
"Mathematical logic",
"Applied mathematics",
"Mathematical objects",
"Matrices (mathematics)"
] |
64,692,744 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical%20Industries%20of%20Ethylene%20Oxide%20explosion | On 14 January 2020, two explosions at the Chemical Industries of Ethylene Oxide (IQOXE) site in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, killed three offsite people and injured seven.
The site is operated by IQOXE, which is the only producer of ethylene oxide in Spain with an installed capacity of 140,000 tonnes per year, and 50% of this production is destined to the manufacture of glycol, one of the main raw materials for the production of PET polymers. Because of the toxic nature of the chemicals it produces, the site is covered by the Seveso-III directive.
Sequence
The first explosion occurred between 18:40 and 19:00 and affected an ethylene oxide tank of the company. The second one affected a transformation station of the same company. The blast was noticed within a radius of several kilometres.
Following the explosion, there was a severe fire with a large smoke plume. Thirty teams of firefighters ensured that the propylene oxide left in the tank burned in a controlled manner.
Following the explosion and the fire, a 500-metre (547 yd) exclusion zone was imposed; railway lines and a highway were closed. As a temporary measure, people in the area (populations of La Canonja, Vilaseca and 3 neighbourhoods of Tarragona) were confined in their homes. They were advised to keep doors and windows closed until more information would be available about the eventual toxicity of the smoke of the fire.
Two workers of the plant were killed off-site, due to a collapsing roof. A third person, Sergio Millán, 59, was killed after being struck by a steel plate, which was most likely the lid of the reactor tank, that was catapulted over a distance of 2 km (1.2 mi) due to the blast of the explosion. A video taken by a security camera shows the plate flying through the air.
The weight of the reactor lid was 800 kg (1,764 lb). Seven employees were injured, two of them seriously due to major burns. The injured were treated in hospitals in Barcelona and Tarragona.
Ethylene oxide
Ethylene oxide is a very hazardous substance. At room temperature it is a flammable, carcinogenic, mutagenic, irritating, and anaesthetic gas. It is used for making many consumer products as well as non-consumer chemicals and intermediates. These products include detergents, thickeners, solvents, plastics, and various organic chemicals.
Site classification
The IQOXE site is classified as an "upper tier establishment" under Directive 2012/18/EU, meaning its operators should comply with the strictest safety regimen. It is listed in the Electronic Seveso Plant Information Retrieval System database. Article 20 states the period between two consecutive inspections at such sites shall not exceed one year.
References
External links
Seveso-III Directive
IQOXE - Industrias Químicas del Óxido de Etileno
EUROPA - eSPIRS Dashboard - European Commission
2020 disasters in Spain
2020 in Catalonia
Chemical plant explosions
Explosions in 2020
Explosions in Catalonia
January 2020 events in Spain
Tarragona | Chemical Industries of Ethylene Oxide explosion | [
"Chemistry"
] | 642 | [
"Chemical plant explosions",
"Explosions"
] |
64,692,761 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubrizol%20factory%20fire%20in%20Rouen | The Lubrizol factory fire occurred on 26 September 2019 in Rouen, France, when the Lubrizol chemical plant caught fire. The facility, subject to the Seveso-III Directive due to hazardous chemicals it stored and produced, created a large plume of smoke and led to a exclusion zone. While there were no fatalities, the fire caused elevated pollution levels, prompting containment measures and agricultural suspensions. Economic impacts included business disruptions and destroyed harvests. A parliamentary inquiry and legal proceedings followed, and a government report was released in July 2020.
Sequence of the disaster
On 26 September 2019, the Lubrizol chemical products plant and warehouses of Normandie Logistique in Rouen caught fire; the plant synthesizes and stores chemical products (phosphorus and organosulfur compounds) intended for use as lubricant additives. Because of the toxic nature of the chemicals it produces, the site is covered by the Seveso-III Directive.
For reasons yet unknown, the fire started in a still unknown location and affected part of the warehouses of Normandie Logistique and Lubrizol's storage area. A thick plume of black smoke formed, reaching more than , and a exclusion zone was imposed. There were no fatalities and only non-fatal injuries. As part of the management of the accident, various measures were taken to protect the population (containment, school closures, suspension of certain agricultural activities, etc.).
In terms of human health, the results of the initial measurements (air, water) showed elevated levels of air pollution, without immediate direct risks, with the exception of benzene. Initial water quality measurements also revealed elevated levels without immediate toxic effects. However, following the publication of the list of products involved in the fire, questions remain as to whether or not hazardous products were present in the combustion by-products, which were not measured. The regional prefecture regularly published their analyses. In July 2020, a government report drawing lessons from the feedback was published.
The direct economic consequences resulted from companies partially ceasing their activity and farmers that had to destroy their harvests. A parliamentary fact-finding mission was launched, and legal proceedings were initiated.
Lubrizol as a part of the Seveso Directive
The Seveso-III Directive (2012/18/EU) (full title: Directive 2012/18/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, amending and subsequently repealing Council Directive 96/82/EC Text with EEA relevance) is a European Union directive aimed at controlling major chemical accident hazards. Seveso-III is implemented in national legislation and is enforced by national chemical safety authorities. Establishments covered by Seveso are split into two categories: lower-tier and upper-tier.
The Lubrizol factory is classified as an "upper-tier" establishment under the Seveso Directive (2012/18/EU). The upper tier covers establishments with dangerous substances present in large quantities, requiring more stringent controls to prevent and minimise the consequences of major accidents. The establishment is listed in the eSPIRS database (electronic Seveso Plant Information Retrieval System).
Article 20 (Inspections) of the Seveso Directive states that, for upper-tier Seveso establishments (the biggest plants subjected to the strictest safety regime), the period between two consecutive inspections/site visits shall not exceed one year. The last date of the inspection of the Lubrizol site was 6-9-2019. The last inspection mainly focused on the process parts of the plant, whereas the fire mainly involved the storage area.
Furthermore, Article 14 states that member states shall ensure that the information referred to in Annex V of the directive is permanently available to the public, so a "safety report" and an "inventory of dangerous substances" must be made available to the public "upon request".
Member states can, however, derogate from this for reasons related to international relations, public security, or national defence. For the Lubrizol site, no inventory of dangerous substances was made publicly available prior to the accident. The full list of products was published shortly after the fire.
References
External links
Seveso-III Directive
Chemical industry in France
Factory fires
Industrial accidents and incidents in France
History of Rouen
2019 disasters in France
September 2019 events in France
2019 fires in Europe
Building and structure fires in France
21st century in Normandy
Chemical disasters
2019 industrial disasters
Environmental disasters in Europe
Pollution in France | Lubrizol factory fire in Rouen | [
"Chemistry"
] | 920 | [
"Chemical accident",
"Chemical disasters"
] |
64,692,781 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational%20memory%20effect | Gravitational memory effects, also known as gravitational-wave memory effects are predicted persistent changes in the relative position of pairs of masses in space due to the passing of a gravitational wave. Detection of gravitational memory effects has been suggested as a way of validating general relativity.
In 2014 Andrew Strominger and Alexander Zhiboedov showed that the formula related to the memory effect is the Fourier transform in time of Weinberg's soft graviton theorem.
Linear and non linear effect
There are two kinds of predicted gravitational memory effect: one based on a linear approximation of Einstein's equations, first proposed in 1974 by the Soviet scientists Yakov Zel'dovich and A. G. Polnarev, developed also by Vladimir Braginsky and L. P. Grishchuk, and a non-linear phenomenon known as the non-linear memory effect, which was first proposed in the 1990s by Demetrios Christodoulou.
The non-linear memory effect could be exploited to determine the inclination, with respect to us observers, of the plane on which the two objects that merged and generated the gravitational waves were moving, making the calculation of their distance more precise, since the amplitude of the received wave (what is experimentally measured) depends on the distance of the source and the aforementioned inclination with respect to us.
Gravitational spin memory
In 2016, a new type of memory effect, induced by gravitational waves incident on rays of light moving along circular trajectories perpendicular to the waves, was proposed by Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Strominger and Zhiboedov. This is caused by the angular momentum of the waves themselves and therefore termed gravitational spin memory. As in the previous case, this memory also turns out to be a Fourier transform in time, but, in this case, of the graviton theorem expanded to the subleading term.
Detection
The effect should, in theory, be detectable by recording changes in the distance between pairs of free-falling objects in spacetime before and after the passage of gravitational waves. The proposed LISA detector is expected to detect the memory effect easily. In contrast, detection with the existing LIGO is complicated by two factors. First, LIGO detection targets a higher frequency range than is desirable for detection of memory effects. Secondly, LIGO is not in free-fall, and its parts will drift back to their equilibrium position following the passage of the gravitational waves. However, as thousands of events from LIGO and similar earth-based detectors are recorded and statistically analyzed over the course of several years, the cumulative data may be sufficient to confirm the existence of the gravitational memory effect.
See also
Pasterski–Strominger–Zhiboedov triangle
References
External links
Gravitational-wave memory: an overview by Marc Favata
The gravitational memory effect: what it is and why Stephen and I did not discover it by Gary Gibbons
Astronomy
General relativity
Effects of gravity | Gravitational memory effect | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 592 | [
"General relativity",
"nan",
"Theory of relativity"
] |
64,693,091 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic%20Thermodynamic%20Systems | In thermodynamics and thermal physics, the theoretical formulation of magnetic systems entails expressing the behavior of the systems using the Laws of Thermodynamics. Common magnetic systems examined through the lens of Thermodynamics are ferromagnets and paramagnets as well as the ferromagnet to paramagnet phase transition. It is also possible to derive thermodynamic quantities in a generalized form for an arbitrary magnetic system using the formulation of magnetic work.
Simplified thermodynamic models of magnetic systems include the Ising model, the mean field approximation, and the ferromagnet to paramagnet phase transition expressed using the Landau Theory of Phase Transitions.
Arbitrary magnetic systems
In order to incorporate magnetic systems into the first law of thermodynamics, it is necessary to formulate the concept of magnetic work. The magnetic contribution to the quasi-static work done by an arbitrary magnetic system is
where is the magnetic field and is the magnetic flux density. So the first law of thermodynamics in a reversible process can be expressed as
Accordingly the change during a quasi-static process in the Helmholtz free energy, , and the Gibbs free energy, , will be
Paramagnetic systems
In a paramagnetic system, that is, a system in which the magnetization vanishes without the influence of an external magnetic field, assuming some simplifying assumptions (such as the sample system being ellipsoidal), one can derive a few compact thermodynamic relations. Assuming the external magnetic field is uniform and shares a common axis with the paramagnet, the extensive parameter characterizing the magnetic state is , the magnetic dipole moment of the system. The fundamental thermodynamic relation describing the system will then be of the form . In the more general case where the paramagnet does not share an axis with the magnetic field, the extensive parameters characterizing the magnetic state will be . In this case, the fundamental relation describing the system will be .
The intensive parameter corresponding to the magnetic moment is the external magnetic field acting on the paramagnet, . The relation between them is:
where is the Entropy, is the Volume and is the number of particles in the system. Note that in this case, is the energy added to the system by the insertion of the paramagnet. The total energy in the space occupied by the system includes a component arising from the energy of a magnetic field in a vacuum. This component equals , where is the permeability of free space, and isn't included as a part of . The choice if to include in is arbitrary but it is important to note the convention chosen, otherwise, it may lead to confusion emanating from differing results.
The Euler relation for a paramagnetic system is then:
and the Gibbs-Duhem relation for such a system is:
An experimental problem that distinguishes magnetic systems from other thermodynamical systems is that the magnetic moment can't be constrained. Typically in thermodynamic systems, all extensive quantities describing the system can be constrained to a specified value. Examples are volume and the number of particles, which can both be constrained by enclosing the system in a box. On the other hand, there is no experimental method that can directly hold the magnetic moment to a specified constant value. Nevertheless, this experimental concern does not affect the thermodynamic theory of magnetic systems.
Ferromagnetic systems
Ferromagnetic systems are systems in which the magnetization doesn't vanish in the absence of an external magnetic field. Multiple thermodynamic models have been developed in order to model and explain the behavior of ferromagnets, including the Ising model. The Ising model can be solved analytically in one and two dimensions, numerically in higher dimensions, or using the mean-field approximation in any dimensionality. Additionally, the ferromagnet to paramagnet phase transition is a second-order phase transition and so can be modeled using the Landau theory of phase transitions.
See also
Magnetism
Thermodynamic systems
Thermo-magnetic motor
References
Thermodynamic systems | Magnetic Thermodynamic Systems | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Mathematics"
] | 870 | [
"Physical systems",
"Thermodynamic systems",
"Thermodynamics",
"Dynamical systems"
] |
64,693,136 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry%20of%20Infrastructure%20and%20Sustainable%20Energy | The Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy (MISE) is a government ministry of Kiribati, as ministry of infrastructure and as ministry of energy, headquartered in South Tarawa.
Ministers
Ruateki Tekaiara (2016–2020)
Willie Tokataake (2020–)
References
External links
MISE
Kiribati
Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy
Kiribati | Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy | [
"Engineering"
] | 76 | [
"Energy organizations",
"Energy ministries"
] |
64,694,403 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat1K | Bat1K is a project to sequence the genomes of all living bat species to the level of chromosomes and then make the data publicly available. The project began in 2017.
History
Bat1K was founded in 2017. Zoologist and geneticist Emma Teeling and neurogeneticist Sonja Vernes are co-founders. The Bat1K consortium includes researchers from institutions such as University College Dublin, University of Bristol, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Notable members include Eugene Myers, Liliana M. Dávalos, Nancy Simmons, and Erich Jarvis. As of November 2017, there were 148 members in total, consisting of bat biologists, genome technologists, conservationists, and computational scientists.
Applications
Several research areas could be furthered by documenting bat genomes. These include healthy ageing, disease resistance, ecosystem function and ecosystem services, sensory perception, communication, limb development, and mammal genome structure.
Results
In 2020, the genomes of six species were published: the greater horseshoe bat, Egyptian fruit bat, pale spear-nosed bat, greater mouse-eared bat, Kuhl's pipistrelle, and the velvety free-tailed bat. These genomes were called "comparable to the best reference-quality genomes that have so far been generated for any eukaryote with a gigabase-sized genome". In 2020, the project's stated goal was to sequence an additional 27 genomes, with a representative from each family of bats, within the next year.
See also
Genome project
References
Genome projects
Bats | Bat1K | [
"Biology"
] | 331 | [
"Genome projects"
] |
64,694,941 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prix%20Paul%20Langevin | The prix Paul-Langevin is a prize created in 1956 and named in honor of Paul Langevin. It has been awarded each year since 1957 by the Société française de physique (SFP). The prize honors French physicists for work in theoretical physics.
The prix Paul Langevin should not be confused with the , which is a prize awarded in mathematics, physics, chemistry, or biology by the Académie des sciences.
Recipients
1957 Yves Ayant
1958 Jacques Winter
1959 Roland Omnès
1960 Philippe Nozières
1961 Cyrano de Dominicis
1962 Jacques Villain
1963 Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
1964 Marcel Froissart
1965 Robert Arvieu
1966 Roger Balian
1967 Jean Lascoux
1968 Émile Daniel
1969 Jean Ginibre
1970 Daniel Bessis
1971 Loup Verlet
1972 Claude Itzykson
1973 André Neveu
1974 Édouard Brézin
1975 Dominique Vautherin
1976 Gérard Toulouse
1977 Jean Zinn-Justin
1978 Jean Iliopoulos
1979 Richard Schaeffer
1980 Roland Seneor and Jacques Magnen
1981 Yves Pomeau
1982 Pierre Fayet
1983 Serge Aubry
1984 Thibault Damour
1985 Mannque Rho
1986 Bernard Julia
1987 Bernard Souillard
1988 Paul Manneville
1989 Jean Bellissard
1990 Pierre Coullet
1991 Jean-Bernard Zuber
1992 Rémy Mosseri
1993 Jean-François Joanny
1994 Dominique Escande
1995 Costas Kounnas
1996 Vincent Hakim
1997 Patrick Mora
1998 Denis Bernard
1999 Pierre Binétruy
2000 Jean-Louis Barrat
2001 Vincent Pasquier
2002 Leticia Cugliandolo and Jorge Kurchan
2004 Bart Van Tiggelen
2005 Satya Majumdar
2008 Rémi Monasson
2009 Alain Barrat
2010 Jean-Philippe Uzan
2015 François Gelis and Ubirajara van Kolck
2016 Silke Biermann and Jesper Jacobsen
2017 Olivier Bénichou and Raphaël Voituriez
2021 Mariana Grana and Cédric Deffayet
2022 Kirone Mallick
2023 Jean-Philippe Colombier
References
French science and technology awards
Physics awards
Awards established in 1956 | Prix Paul Langevin | [
"Technology"
] | 422 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"Science award stubs",
"Physics awards"
] |
64,695,082 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toroid%20repeat%20proteins | A toroid repeat is a protein fold composed of repeating subunits, arranged in circular fashion to form a closed structure.
Structure
In the case when the N- and C-terminal repeats lie in close physical contact in a tandem repeat domain, the result is a topologically compact, closed structure. Such domains typically display a high rotational symmetry (unlike open repeats that only have translational symmetries), and assume a wheel-like shape. Because of the limitations of this structure, the number of individual repeats is not arbitrary. In the case of WD40 repeats (perhaps the largest family of closed solenoids) the number of repeats can range from 4 to 10 (more usually between 5 and 7). Kelch repeats, beta-barrels and beta-trefoil repeats are further examples for this architecture.
Function
Closed solenoids frequently function as protein-protein interaction modules: it is possible that all repeats must be present to form the ligand-binding site if it is located at the centre or axis of the domain "wheel". The WD40 repeat is a prime example of this function.
Classification
The following major sub-classes of toroid repeat proteins can be found:
TIM barrel structures composed of eight units with alternating beta strands and alpha helices
Beta barrel structures composed on a single circular beta sheet
Beta propeller structures composed of beta sheets formed by individual repeat units arranged in a circle, in particular the WD40 repeat and Kelch motif families
External links
RepeatsDB classification
References
Protein tandem repeats
Protein domains | Toroid repeat proteins | [
"Biology"
] | 306 | [
"Protein tandem repeats",
"Protein domains",
"Protein classification"
] |
61,204,283 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS-in-JS | CSS-in-JS is a styling technique by which JavaScript is used to style components. When this JavaScript is parsed, CSS is generated (usually as a <style> element) and attached into the DOM. It enables the abstraction of CSS to the component level itself, using JavaScript to describe styles in a declarative and maintainable way. There are multiple implementations of this concept in the form of libraries such as
Emotion
Styled Components
JSS
Tailwind CSS
These libraries allow the creation of styled components using tagged template literals. For example, using styled components in a React project would look like the following:
import styled from 'styled-components';
// Create a component that renders a <p> element with blue text
const BlueText = styled.p`
color: blue;
`;
<BlueText>My blue text</BlueText>
Some outcomes that may be achieved through CSS-in-JS can not be obtained using traditional CSS techniques. It is possible to make the styles dynamic in line with just a few conditional statements. Programmers may also write more modular code, with CSS being encapsulated in the same block as the programmer's JavaScript, scoping it to that module only.
Industry use
CSS-in-JS is used by Reddit, Patreon, Target, Atlassian, Vogue, GitHub and Coinbase.
References
Cascading Style Sheets
JavaScript
Web design
World Wide Web Consortium standards | CSS-in-JS | [
"Engineering"
] | 309 | [
"Design",
"Web design"
] |
61,205,402 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20139139 | HD 139139 (also known as EPIC 249706694) is likely part of a bound pair system of main sequence stars about away from Earth in the constellation Libra. HD 139139 is a G-type main-sequence star, a little larger and more luminous than the Sun, and at an almost identical temperature. It has an apparent magnitude of 9.8. The companion star is thought to be a K5-K7 red dwarf away from HD 139139. It is about three magnitudes fainter and has a temperature of between 4,100 and . Both stars have a similar proper motion, meaning they may form a gravitationally-bound binary pair.
HD 139139 exhibits dips in brightness similar to those caused by transiting Earth-like planets. The Kepler space telescope observed 28 dips in their brightness over an 87-day period (23 August20 November 2017). The dips do not appear to be periodic as would be expected if they were due to transiting planets.
It is unknown which of the two stars produces the dimming events. Potential explanations that have been investigated include planets transiting a binary star, planets that are perturbing the orbits of each other producing large transit timing variations, a disintegrating planet, large dust producing asteroids, and short lived sunspots. According to Andrew Vanderburg, one of the researchers of the original studies,
In astronomy we have a long history of not understanding something, thinking it’s aliens, and later finding out it’s something else ... The odds are pretty good that it’s going to be another one of those.
Subsequent observations performed with CHEOPS in two observing campaigns in the years 2021 and 2022 detected no transit-like events. The team estimated 4.8% probability of having missed all of them by chance, assuming that the frequency of the events remained unchanged from the 2017 measurements by Kepler. While it is possible that the events detected by Kepler were real, but inactive during observations by CHEOPS, the team also noted that it is not possible to discard also the possibility that they were caused by unidentified and infrequent instrumentation error.
Background
HD 139139 was identified as unusual by two independent groups of visual surveyors (citizen scientists) working in collaboration with professional astronomers.
"But some of these patterns are too complex for computers to tease out; volunteer citizen scientists also comb through the Kepler catalogue, using the human brain's power to uncover surprising signals. In spring 2018 some of these citizen astronomers contacted Vanderburg and told him to check out HD 139139, a sunlike star roughly 350 light-years away."
HD 139139 is one of the 0.5% of stars in the sky that can see Earth transit, according to Andrew Vanderburg. "The transit impact parameter would be close to 0.9, so they can just barely see us – the transit duration would be only about 40% the duration we'd expect for a perfectly edge-on transit."
See also
Tabby's Star
List of stars that have unusual dimming periods
References
External links
Binary stars
G-type main-sequence stars
139139
Libra (constellation)
J15370623-1908329
BD-18 4107
J153706.2-190832
Unsolved problems in astronomy | HD 139139 | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 686 | [
"Unsolved problems in astronomy",
"Concepts in astronomy",
"Libra (constellation)",
"Constellations",
"Astronomical controversies"
] |
61,208,490 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracoccidioides%20lutzii | Paracoccidioides lutzii is a dimorphic fungus that is one of the causal agents of paracoccidioidomycosis, together with Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. Unlike P. brasiliensis, which is found throughout Central and South America, P. lutzii is found only in Brazil and Ecuador. It is less virulent than P. brasiliensis.
History
Paracoccidioides species were discovered by Adolfo Lutz in 1908 in Brazil. P. lutzii was formerly classified "PB-01 like", and proposed as a new species in 2014, being discovered in the Central-West region of Brazil. The infection it causes is considered to be a neglected endemic mycosis, a type of neglected tropical disease.
Ecology
P. lutzii occurs in nature as a filamentous structure. It forms conidia as part of its life cycle, which cause infection when inhaled into the respiratory tract of humans.
Epidemiology
Little is known about the epidemiology of the new species, as most previous epidemiological reports have focused on P. brasiliensis. Infection with the Paracoccidioides species, known as paracoccidioidomycosis, may be asymptomatic and subclinical, or may form into either acute/subacute (juvenile) or chronic (adult) forms of the disease. P. lutzii has less adhesion to lung cells than P. brasilensis, potentially explaining its decreased virulence.
It is predominantly distributed in the Central west and Amazon regions of Brazil and Ecuador.
Social and environmental changes, including increased agriculturalization, deforestation in Brazil, expansion of settlements and coffee agriculture could explain the increased incidence of Paracoccidioidies, especially in the Rondônia state of Brazil.
References
Fungi of South America
Onygenales
Fungal pathogens of humans
Fungus species | Paracoccidioides lutzii | [
"Biology"
] | 393 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
61,209,106 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xellia | Xellia ApS is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company headquartered in Copenhagen specialized in the production of anti-biotics, including Vancomycin and Bacitracin.
The company's US base of operations is in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, with additional facilities in Ohio, and North Carolina. In 2018, Xellia's sales in the United States accounted for 60% of its total revenue.
Products
The company's main output is bulk drug chemicals which are wholesaled to other companies for packaging and distribution. Recently some prepackaged goods have been produced.
Active drug substances manufactured are:
Discontinued products
Previously the company also produced:
Partnerships
In 2019, Xellia partnered with Civica Rx to produce generic Vancomycin and Daptomycin. The partnership's stated aim is to remedy chronic drug shortages that have affected the American pharmaceutical market.
China-US Trade War
Xellia has been discussed as a potential alternative to Chinese companies for anti-biotic primary ingredients in the context of the China-United States trade war.
See also
List of Danish companies
List of pharmaceutical companies
References
Danish brands
Life sciences industry
Biotechnology companies of Denmark
Multinational companies headquartered in Denmark | Xellia | [
"Biology"
] | 242 | [
"Life sciences industry"
] |
61,209,349 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level%20converter | A multi-level converter (MLC) or (multi-level inverter) is a method of generating high-voltage wave-forms from lower-voltage components. MLC origins go back over a hundred years, when in the 1880s, the advantages of DC long-distance transmission became evident.
Modular multi-level converters (MMC) were investigated by Tricoli et al in 2017. Although their viability for electric vehicles (EV) was established, suitable low-cost semiconductors to make this topology competitive are not currently available (as of 2019).
Description
In 1999 it was already described in that motors can also be operated, but the system can also be charged without the need for an additional AC charger. A notable example is the work of the startup Pulsetrain, which is pioneering the use of MLC for electric mobility. By leveraging advancements in semiconductor/control/hardware technology, bringing MLCs closer to widespread adoption in vehicles.
Extended Battery Lifespan: MLCs can increase battery lifespan by up to 80%, primarily through pulsed charging and discharging, a process not feasible with conventional systems. By rapidly switching the current on and off, this approach minimizes lithium plating, which are common causes of battery degradation. Additionally, the ability to individually switch cells on and off offers a further potential lifespan increase of up to 60%. Combined, these mechanisms are expected to provide even greater benefits, but current estimates conservatively focus on the 80% improvement to avoid setting overly high expectations. The exact extent of these savings will become clearer as ongoing research efforts worldwide continue to advance.
Reduced Battery Formation Time and Cost: MLC streamline the battery formation process, a critical and resource-intensive step in manufacturing. This reduces costs while improving battery efficiency.
Enhanced Electric Motor Efficiency: Enhanced Electric Motor Efficiency: The holistic integration of the inverter, charger, and battery management system into a single multi-level converter (MLC) enables optimized electric motor performance. This integration ensures that the entire drivetrain operates more efficiently compared to traditional systems.
MLCs also achieve up to a 30% reduction in energy losses, particularly during partial load operation, where vehicles are not operating at full speed. This improvement is especially beneficial for everyday driving scenarios, such as city traffic and stop-and-go conditions, which represent a significant portion of typical vehicle usage. By reducing losses and enhancing efficiency in these common driving environments, MLCs contribute to a more sustainable and cost-effective electric mobility solution.
System-Wide Optimization: MLC advocates for a system-level approach to electric vehicle design, where batteries, power electronics, and motors are co-optimized. This comprehensive strategy has the potential to revolutionize electric drivetrains.
The MLC has two principal disadvantages:
Complex Control Requirements: While the control of an MLC is inherently more complex than that of a traditional 2-level converter, many of these challenges have been resolved over recent years. Managing and balancing the voltages, state of charge (SoC), state of health (SoH), and temperature of each submodule battery is now achievable with modern computing power, which has become both affordable and efficient. Additionally, operating each battery submodule at its optimal frequency is no longer a prohibitive challenge. These advancements make MLC technology not only viable but also cost-effective when factoring in the substantial advantages it offers compared to conventional solutions.
Lack of DC Voltage Output: MLCs lack a direct DC voltage output (e.g., 400V or 800V), commonly required for ancillary systems such as heating or air conditioning in electric vehicles. This limitation necessitates additional hardware, slightly increasing system complexity and cost.
Given these factors, MLC technology is currently best suited for applications with single-motor systems, where the absence of a fixed DC output is less critical. By integrating the batteries into the inverter design, the voltage is no longer held constant (e.g., at 400V) but varies dynamically over time, making this approach particularly effective for such application.
Variable DC Sources as an intermediate step
An emerging variation of MLCs is the concept of variable DC sources, which offers a gradual transition toward full MLC adoption. These systems function similarly to MLCs but with a key difference: instead of switching voltages in microseconds, they adjust more slowly, over the course of seconds. This slower switching allows for much of the same hardware design, with minimal modifications. For example, the use of full-bridge configurations, common in MLCs, becomes optional, enabling the use of simpler half-bridge designs.
This approach is primarily used as a Battery Management System (BMS), allowing variable DC sources to maintain many of the advantages of MLCs, such as improved battery utilization and better energy distribution. However, it eliminates the need for a complete system redesign in vehicles. By simply swapping the battery system, OEMs can integrate this technology into existing vehicle platforms without major alterations, making it easier for manufacturers to gain experience and build trust in the technology.
While this intermediate step sacrifices some of the advanced benefits of MLCs, it retains a significant portion of their advantages, such as cost efficiency and increased sustainability. It also provides a compelling demonstration of the price attractiveness of the technology, paving the way for broader adoption and eventual transition to fully integrated multi-level systems.
High voltage DC converters
HVDC converters typically use series connected switched capacitors blocks. The blocks are switched in or out of the circuit to form the desired waveform, typically three phase AC.
Low voltage DC converters
Multi-level converters (MLC) are adaptable for a wide range of applications, many of which are still in the research phase:
Mobility and Stationary Energy Storage: MLCs are expected to achieve their first major breakthroughs in electric vehicles and stationary storage systems, offering improved battery lifespan and system efficiency.
Hydrogen Generation: MLCs can manage high currents and moderate voltages required for electrolysis through configurations such as galvanically isolated LLC resonant converters.
Aerospace: Systems like ELAPSED explore the use of MLCs for regulating rapidly changing magnetic fields in aviation.
Magnetic Stimulation: Academic projects utilize MLCs in medical and neuroengineering for precise magnetic field control.
Space and Fusion: Future applications include regulating magnetic fields in space systems and nuclear fusion reactors.
References
Voltage
Electrical components | Multi-level converter | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 1,316 | [
"Electrical components",
"Physical quantities",
"Electrical systems",
"Quantity",
"Physical systems",
"Electrical engineering",
"Voltage",
"Wikipedia categories named after physical quantities",
"Components"
] |
61,210,191 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine%20hypothesis%20of%20stuttering | The dopamine hypothesis of stuttering attributes to the phenomenon of stuttering a hyperactive and disturbed dopaminergic signal transduction in the brain. The theory is derived from observations in medical neuroimaging and from the empirical response of some antipsychotics and their antagonistic effects on the dopamine receptor. However, it is important to outline that the hypothesis does not consider the excessive dopaminergic activity as the direct cause of stuttering; instead, this synaptic dysregulation is a symptom of a greater disorder that affects other brain pathways and structures.
Introduction
Following the comparative analysis of brain imaging of stuttering and non-stuttering speakers, people who stutter seem to display a heightened dopaminergic activity in striatal regions of the brain. This has been described during a PET study using fluoro-L-DOPA as a marker of presynaptic dopaminergic activity and an MRI study of brain activation patterns. Since dopamine acts as an inhibitor of striatal metabolism, striatal hypometabolism can be explained by the recorded increased levels of presynaptic dopamine in people who stutter as compared to controls groups. There was a significantly higher dopamine reuptake activity in the cortex and subcortical regions associated with speech in people who stuttered, further supporting the hypothesis that dopaminergic pathways within the mesocortical and limbic systems may be more elevated than the norm in people who stutter.
Arguments in favour of a dopamine hypothesis
Haloperidol
The typical antipsychotic haloperidol has been the most used drug in treatment trials for stuttering. In double-blind placebo-controlled trials with objective speech measures, the group receiving haloperidol displayed significant improvement after a 8-week trial. However, the mechanism of action of this first generation antipsychotic bore important side effects that affected the tolerability in patients and maintaining the improved speech required that subjects keep taking the drug. Moreover, the trial was conducted before the full extent of the risks of using neuroleptics was appreciated; the extrapyramidal symptoms and the possible permanent tardive dyskinea that could result now qualify the drug as dangerous and possibly disproportionate in the treatment of stuttering. Taking into account Haloperidol's mechanism of action that specifically targets dopamine receptors (through silent antagonist for D1, D5 and inverse agonist for D2, D3, D4) unlike other neuroleptics as well as its effectiveness over a placebo, the dopaminergic pathway seems to be correlated to the symptoms of stuttering since the drug normalised to some extent the dopaminergic hyperactive state.
Aripiprazole
Aripiprazole's mode of action differs from other atypical antipsychotics in its selectivity with dopamine receptors (partial agonist activity on postsynaptic D2 receptor and partial agonist activity on presynaptic D2, D3 and partially D4) and serotonin receptors (partial agonist of 5-HT1A and antagonist of 5-HT2A. Aripiprazole's main antagonist action on the dopamine D2 postsynaptic receptor is believed to decrease excessive dopaminergic activity and may also decrease the synthesis and release of dopamine through its presynaptic D2 antagonist action. Furthermore, the drug's agonist activity on seretonin receptor 5-HT1A is believed to possess an anxiolytic effect, providing a possible explanation for the decreased social anxiety patients noticed.
Antipsychotic-induced stuttering
Concomitantly, it is of interest to note that dopamine antagonist have also been reported to cause stuttering in some individuals and speech disorder has been characterised as a proper but uncommon side effect of aripiprazole during the premarketing trials of the drug (Abilify). This effect further corroborates the dysregulated dopaminergic character stuttering ensues from.
Similarities with other pathologies
Motor tics and Tourette's syndrome share important characteristics with stuttering; they all initially manifest in childhood, affect more males than females, obey a waxing and waning course, and increase in intensity under emotional stress. The treatment of tic disorders in children has been efficient with the administration of aripiprazole, namely single or multiple motor or vocal tics, alluding to similar mechanisms the disorder share with stuttering. Given that these other two conditions seem to respond to the same drug and given the symptomatic similarities, these three disorders not only share common features but maybe a very similar cause.
References
Stuttering
Dopamine
Neuroscience | Dopamine hypothesis of stuttering | [
"Biology"
] | 1,009 | [
"Neuroscience"
] |
61,211,743 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa%20Gander | Philippa Helen Gander is a New Zealand sleep researcher. In 2021, she was conferred with the title of emeritus professor by Massey University, where she had been inaugural director of the Sleep/Wake Research Centre until stepping down from that role in 2019.
Academic career
Gander wrote her master's thesis at the University of Auckland in 1976 with the title A model for the circadian pacemaker of Hemideina thoracica derived from the effects of temperature on its activity rhythm. After a 1980 PhD titled Circadian organization in the regulation of locomotor activity and reproduction in Rattus exulans at the same institution, Gander took up a Fulbright Fellowship at Harvard Medical School in 1980. She moved to the NASA-Ames Research Center in 1983 as part of the flight crew fatigue and jet-lag research programme. Gander returned to New Zealand in 1998, and established the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at the Wellington School of Medicine with the assistance of funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. She moved to Massey University and was appointed a full professor in 2003, and the research centre became part of Massey's newly established research school of public health.
In 2009, Gander was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the study of sleep and fatigue.
Notable students of Gander's include Leigh Signal and Ridvan Tupai-Firestone, both professors at Massey University.
Selected works
References
Living people
New Zealand women academics
Year of birth missing (living people)
University of Auckland alumni
Academic staff of Massey University
New Zealand medical researchers
Sleep researchers
New Zealand women writers
Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Academic staff of the University of Otago | Philippa Gander | [
"Biology"
] | 362 | [
"Sleep researchers",
"Behavior",
"Sleep"
] |
61,211,822 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C19H22N2O3 | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C19H22N2O3}}
The molecular formula C19H22N2O3 (molar mass: 326.39 g/mol, exact mass: 326.1630 u) may refer to:
Bumadizone
Ervatinine
25CN-NBOMe | C19H22N2O3 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 67 | [
"Isomerism",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas"
] |
61,212,536 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindrobasidium%20laeve | Cylindrobasidium is a species of fungus in the family Physalacriaceae.
A product which contains Cylindrobasidium laeve as the active ingredient can be used as a mycoherbicide to control Acacia mearnsii (black wattle) in South Africa.
Taxonomy
Initially described by Persoon in 1794 as Corticium laeve, the modern Index Fungorum name was given in 1984 by George Peter Chamuris.
In Europe
It is very common in Poland, usually found on various types of forests, bushes, parks, gardens, roadsides, trunks and branches of deciduous trees. It was found on the following species and types of trees: maples, chestnut tree, alder, silver birch, hornbeam, hazel, hawthorn, beech, hairy ash, apple, black poplar, plum tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, willow, and lime. It occurs rarely on conifers.
Gallery
References
Offsite
BioNET-EAFRINET: Acacia mearnsii (Black Wattle)
Mycobank: Cylindrobasidium laeve
Scottish fungi: Cylindrobasidium laeve
Physalacriaceae
Fungus species | Cylindrobasidium laeve | [
"Biology"
] | 242 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
61,212,878 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%20931 | NGC 931 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Triangulum. It is located at a distance of circa 200 million light-years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 931 is about 200,000 light years across. It was discovered by Heinrich d'Arrest on September 26, 1865. It is classified as a Seyfert galaxy.
Characteristics
The nucleus of NGC 931 has been found to be active and it has been categorised as a type I Seyfert galaxy due to its narrow H-beta emission line. The most accepted theory for the energy source of active galactic nuclei is the presence of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. The mass of the black hole in the centre of NGC 931 is estimated to be 107.64 ± 0.40 (17- 110 million) based on the stellar velocity dispersion.
NGC 931 has been found to emit radiowaves, ultraviolet and X-rays. Observations by ASCA revealed the X-ray spectrum was composed of soft and hard emission. The hard element was identified as a strong and wide fluorescent FeKa line, which is created when X-rays meet an optically cold thick material. The soft element has been identified as warm absorbing material. The galaxy was further observed by XMM-Newton, where it was observed that there were significant fluctuations and time lags in the flux changes observed both in the soft and hard elements.
A detail X-ray spectrum of NGC 931 was obtained by Chandra X-ray Observatory. It revealed the presence of many absorption lines from neon, magnesium, and silicon, with a variety of ionisation states. These lines were attributed to low ionisation gases surrounding the nuclear X-ray source. No significant outflowing gas was detected in the large scale.
Supernova
One supernova has been observed in NGC 931, SN 2009lw. The supernova was discovered by W. Li, S. B. Cenko, and A. V. Filippenko during the Lick Observatory Supernova Search on 24.24 November 2009, when it had an apparent magnitude of 18.8. It was identified as a type-Ib or possibly a type-IIb supernova a few months past maximum light.
Nearby galaxies
NGC 931 has been identified as a member of the NGC 973 group, one of the largest galaxy groups of the Perseus–Pisces Supercluster, with at least 39 galaxies identified as its members. Other members of the group include NGC 917, NGC 940, NGC 969, NGC 973, NGC 974, NGC 978, NGC 987, NGC 983, NGC 1060, NGC 1066, NGC 1067, and UGC 2105. On the other hand, Garcia recognised NGC 931 as the largest galaxy in a galaxy group known as the NGC 931 group, which also included NGC 940.
A smaller companion galaxy, measuring 0.2 by 0.1 arcminutes, is superimposed on the galaxy, lying about 0.35 arcminutes towards the north.
See also
NGC 1532 - a similar spiral galaxy
References
External links
NGC 931 on SIMBAD
Spiral galaxies
Seyfert galaxies
Triangulum
0931
01935
09399
Markarian 1040
Astronomical objects discovered in 1865
Discoveries by Heinrich Louis d'Arrest | NGC 931 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 697 | [
"Triangulum",
"Constellations"
] |
61,214,222 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C11H15BrN2O3 | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C11H15BrN2O3}}
The molecular formula C11H15BrN2O3 (molar mass: 303.15 g/mol, exact mass: 302.0266 u) may refer to:
Butallylonal
Narcobarbital
Molecular formulas | C11H15BrN2O3 | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 68 | [
"Molecules",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas",
"Isomerism",
"Molecular formulas",
"Matter"
] |
61,215,157 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWCT | PWCT (Programming Without Coding Technology) is a free open source visual programming language for software development. The project was founded in December 2005 as a free open-source project that supports designing applications through visual programming then generating the source code. The software supports code generation in many textual programming languages.
Goal
PWCT is designed to be a general-purpose visual programming language that can be used for applications and systems development. PWCT can also be used for introducing programming concepts.
The environment supports a time dimension where the programmer can play programs as a movie to learn how to create them step-by-step and get better understanding of the program logic. Changing time is done using a
timeline slider which allows the programmer to select a specific point in time to view.
History
PWCT was registered on SourceForge in December 2005
PWCT 1.0 was released on 18 October 2008
PWCT 1.1 was released on 20 February 2009
PWCT 1.2 was released on 4 May 2009
PWCT 1.3 was released on 30 May 2009
PWCT 1.4 was released on 28 August 2009
PWCT 1.5 was released on 27 March 2010
PWCT 1.6 was released on 16 May 2010
PWCT 1.7 was released on 15 September 2010
PWCT 1.8 was released on 18 October 2011 (Last update: 22 April 2013)
PWCT 1.9 was released on 7 May 2013 (Latest update: 20 November 2024)
PWCT 2.0 was released on Steam on 1 March 2023 (Latest update: 20 January 2025)
PWCT 2.0 source code was made available on GitHub in January 2025
Concept
The PWCT architecture contains three main layers:
The VPL Layer that provides functionality to perform a specific task.
The Middle Layer that provides interface between the User view and the System Layer.
The System Layer that generates executable code in different languages.
The visual source inside PWCT is designed using the Goal Designer where the programmer can generate the steps tree through the interaction with the visual language components.
Inside PWCT, the visual source is a collection of goals, each goal contains tree of steps and each step/node inside the steps tree may contain one or more of data entry forms. Steps tree uses colors that tell the programmer about the step type. Some steps allow containing sub steps, other steps do not allow this, also some steps are not more than comments for the programmer. The steps tree gives the programmer two dimensions where the relationship between the node and another node could be "next to" or "contains" where the programmer can go depth-first or breadth-first when he/she interacts with the steps tree.
The programmer can use the "contains" dimension to perform operations on a group of steps/nodes simultaneously (move up/move down/cut/copy/delete), utilize the form designer to create the user interface, and employ the time dimension to track when each step is created (Date & Time) and navigate through the time dimension to view only the steps at any point during the development process.
Inside the Goal Designer, the user can use the mouse or the keyboard to select the visual components and generate new steps in the steps tree. Using the mouse we can explore the environment to see the components that are ready for use. Using the Keyboard by typing the component name, the programmer can quickly get any component and start using it.
Features
General-purpose.
Visual Programming (More than one dimension, No Syntax Errors, Time Dimension and Colors).
Visual Editor (Keyboard shortcuts, Customization, Cut, Copy, Paste, Search and Replace)
Syntax Directed Editor (Avoid Errors).
Free Editor and VPL Compiler.
The programmer can see and edit the generated source code.
The programmer can change the step name and the steps colors.
Support many textual programming languages (Harbour, C, Python, etc.)
The programmer can play programs as a movie to learn how to create the program step by step
Doesn't force a programming paradigm.
Extension (Create new components).
Run programs at any point in the past during the development process.
Visual languages
The PWCT visual programming language components are classified into the next categories
CPWCT: Visual Components that generate source code in the C programming language.
PythonPWCT: Visual Components that generate source code in the Python programming language.
HarbourPWCT: Visual Components that generate source code in the Harbour programming language.
SupernovaPWCT: Visual Components that generate source code in the Supernova programming language.
C#PWCT: Visual Components that generate source code in the C# programming language.
RingPWCT (Introduced in PWCT2): Visual Components that generate source code in the Ring programming language.
Usage
Since the textual source code could be generated in different textual programming languages like C and Python, PWCT could be used in developing projects that have different requirements like Internet of Things (IoT) projects, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications, GUI projects and Text processing applications. Also, PWCT is used for developing and maintaining the Ring programming language Compiler and Virtual Machine
Criticism
The PWCT software still requires that the user have a familiarity of programming structures such as the While-Loop and the If-Then. Syntax errors are decreased but the logic and analysis of the program solution are still created, developed and judged by the user.
PWCT tries to innovate and provide a new way of viewing software design; however, such innovation comes at a cost. PWCT focuses on the visualization of code blocks in a structure that they describe as a "Steps Tree", which mirrors the nested structure seen in regular textual programming languages. Also PWCT does not have strong inherent support for visualizing code as diagrams and no strong support for Abstraction Layered Architecture (ALA) applications.
See also
Alice (software)
LabVIEW
Prograph
Scratch (programming language)
Visual programming language
References
Further reading
Fayed, Al-Qurishi, Alamri, et al. (2020) PWCT: a novel general-purpose visual programming language in support of pervasive application development, Springer
Fayed, Al-Qurishi, Alamri, Aldariseh (2017) PWCT: visual language for IoT and cloud computing applications and systems, ACM
Fayed (2017) General-Purpose Visual Language and Information System with Case-Studies in Developing Business Applications, King Saud University
Fayed (2013) Using C#.NET through Programming Without Coding Technology, Code Project
Fayed (2013) Using Python inside Programming Without Coding Technology, Code Project
Fayed (2013) The Time Machine and the PWCT Visual Programming Language, Code Project
External links
Computer languages
Visual programming languages | PWCT | [
"Technology"
] | 1,379 | [
"Computer science",
"Computer languages"
] |
73,467,380 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilobelimab | Vilobelimab, sold under the brand name Gohibic, is a monoclonal antibody that is used for the treatment of COVID-19. It is a human-mouse chimeric IgG4 kappa antibody that targets human C5a in plasma.
The most common adverse reactions include pneumonia, sepsis, delirium, pulmonary embolism, hypertension, pneumothorax, deep vein thrombosis, herpes simplex, enterococcal infection, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, hepatic enzyme increased, urinary tract infection, hypoxia, thrombocytopenia, pneumomediastinum, respiratory tract infection, supraventricular tachycardia, constipation, and rash.
Vilobelimab is a recombinant chimeric monoclonal IgG4 antibody that specifically binds to the soluble human complement split product C5a after cleavage from C5 to block its interaction with the C5a receptor, both of which are components of the complement system thought to contribute to inflammation and worsening of COVID-19. Vilobelimab was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2023. Vilobelimab was approved for medical use in the European Union in January 2025.
Medical uses
In the US, vilobelimab is authorized via an emergency use authorization for use in hospitalized adults when initiated within 48 hours of receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (artificial life support). Vilobelimab is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for any indication, including for the treatment of COVID-19.
In the EU, vilobelimab is indicated for the treatment of adults with SARS-CoV-2 induced acute respiratory distress syndrome who are receiving systemic corticosteroids as part of standard of care and receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (with or without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation).
History
The clinical trial supporting the authorization showed that participants treated with vilobelimab had a lower risk of death by day 28 and day 60 of treatment compared to placebo.
Society and culture
Legal status
In November 2024, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization under exceptional circumstances for the medicinal product Gohibic intended for the treatment of adults with SARS‑CoV2‑induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who are receiving systemic corticosteroids. The applicant for this medicinal product is InflaRx GmbH. Vilobelimab was approved for medical use in the European Union in January 2025.
Names
Vilobelimab is the international nonproprietary name.
References
Further reading
External links
Antiviral drugs
Experimental antiviral drugs
COVID-19 drug development
Monoclonal antibodies | Vilobelimab | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 620 | [
"Antiviral drugs",
"COVID-19 drug development",
"Biocides",
"Drug discovery"
] |
73,467,610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIT-001 | LIT-001 is a small-molecule oxytocin receptor agonist and vasopressin receptor mixed agonist and antagonist that was first described in the literature in 2018. Along with TC OT 39 and WAY-267464, it is one of the first small-molecule oxytocin receptor agonists to have been developed. LIT-001 has greatly improved pharmacokinetic properties relative to oxytocin, reduces social deficits in animal models, and may have potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of social disorders like autism in humans.
Pharmacology
LIT-001 has greater selectivity for the oxytocin receptor over the vasopressin V1A receptor than the related compounds TC OT 39 and WAY-267464. It shows antagonism of the V1A receptor only at high concentrations. LIT-001 additionally acts as an agonist of the vasopressin V2 receptor, with this action occurring at similar concentrations as for the oxytocin receptor. This is unlikely to influence the oxytocin receptor-related behavioral effects of LIT-001, as V2 receptors are not expressed in the brain. However, it may influence fluid homeostasis, analogously to vasopressin.
Given via peripheral administration, LIT-001 reduces social deficits in a mouse model of autism, specifically the μ-opioid receptor knockout mouse model. It was the first small-molecule oxytocin receptor agonist to be shown to reduce social dysfunction in animals. LIT-001 shows blood–brain barrier permeability and has a relatively long elimination half-life in rodents, giving it an advantageous drug profile relative to peptide oxytocin receptor agonists like oxytocin. In the case of oxytocin, the amount estimated to enter the cerebrospinal fluid is only 0.002% with subcutaneous injection and at most 0.005% with intranasal administration, its half-life is only about 20 to 60minutes, and it is not orally bioavailable, all of which greatly limit its potential usefulness as a central nervous system-acting medication. These limitations of oxytocin may underlie limited effectiveness with oxytocin nasal spray in clinical trials. Based on its positive social effects in animal models and its favorable pharmacokinetic properties, LIT-001 may have potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of social disorders in humans.
The affinity (Ki) of LIT-001 for the human oxytocin receptor, where it acts as an agonist, is 226nM, and its half maximal effective concentration (EC50) is 25nM. At the human vasopressin V1A receptor, where LIT-001 is an antagonist, its affinity (Ki) and half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) are 1253nM and 5900nM, respectively. Finally, at the human vasopressin V2 receptor, where the drug functions as an agonist, its affinity (Ki) and EC50 are 1666nM and 41nM, respectively. Based on the preceding EC50 and IC50 values, LIT-001 shows 236-fold selectivity for activating the oxytocin receptor over antagonizing the V1A receptor, whereas it has no appreciable selectivity for activating the oxytocin receptor over activating the V2 receptor (only 1.64-fold greater preference).
Chemistry
LIT-001 is a small-molecule compound with the molecular formula C28H33N7O2S, a molecular weight of 531.7g/mol, and a predicted log P of 1.95 to 2.8. It is similar in structure to the earlier small-molecule oxytocin receptor agonists TC OT 39 and WAY-267,464.
Research
LIT-001 is reported to be in the preclinical stage of development for potential treatment of autistic spectrum disorders in France. It is under development by the University of Strasbourg and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (French National Centre for Scientific Research).
References
Carboxamides
Experimental drugs
Ketones
Oxytocin receptor agonists
Pyrrolidines
Vasopressin receptor agonists
Vasopressin receptor antagonists | LIT-001 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 903 | [
"Ketones",
"Functional groups"
] |
73,468,156 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HE%201219-0312 | HE 1219-0312 is an extremely metal-poor star in the constellation Virgo, The star is located at around 41,400 light years away from earth.
It is thought to be a second generation, Population II or metal-poor star ([Fe/H] = -2.96), The star was found in the sample of extremely metal-poor halo stars from the Hamburg/ESO Survey by W. Hayek and collaborators. The group's research was published in the July 2, 2009 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
If the age of the star HE 1219-0312 was confirmed at 17.6 billion years, that this star will be the oldest star in the universe.
Elemental abundance
The abundance of two strongly r-process enhanced in two metal-poor stars, BPS CS29491-0069 and HE 1219-0312 was detected by HERES project, which there was ([Fe/H] = -2.51, [r/Fe] = +1.1) and ([Fe/H] = -2.96, [r/Fe] = +1.5).
the analysis based on high-quality VLT/UVES spectra and MARCS model atmosphere was detected these eighteen heavy elements in the spectrum of HE 1219–0312 with an case of Th II 4019A line.
Radioactive dating for HE 1219–0312 with the observed thorium and rare-earth elements abundance pairs results in an average age of 9.5 billion years, when based on solar r-process residuals, that Age of the star HE 1219-0312 was 17.6 billion years, so, we puts the age of HE 1219-0312 into 13.6 billion years to avoid to exceed the universe's age.
See also
HD 140283
HE 0107-5240
HE 1523-0901
References
Population II stars
Virgo (constellation) | HE 1219-0312 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 403 | [
"Virgo (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
73,468,693 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2-415 | K2-415 is an M5 red dwarf star located 72 light-years from Earth. K2-415 has a mass that is 16% of the mass of the Sun.
Planetary system
The star has one known planet orbiting it: K2-415b.
References
Cancer (constellation)
M-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with one confirmed planet
J09084885+1151411
5557
323687123 | K2-415 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 92 | [
"Cancer (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
73,468,799 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela%20J.%20Martin | Pamela Jean Martin is a TARRC scientist recognized for her work on silica fillers in epoxidized natural rubber tire tread compounds to understand impacts on rolling resistance, wet grip and wear.
Education
Martin studied chemistry, graduating from the University of Exeter in 2003 with a first class MChem. In 2008 she completed her doctorate at the University of York on the subject of liquid crystals.
Career
Martin joined TARRC in 2008 as a materials scientist. Her initial work focused on the development of tire tread compounds based on epoxidised natural rubber (ENR or Ekoprena™). In 2017 she was awarded patent for a mixing procedure suitable for incorporating silica filler into polar rubbers, such as epoxidised natural rubber, resulting in low resistance and high wet grip.
Awards and recognition
2019 - Sparks–Thomas award from the ACS Rubber Division.
References
Polymer scientists and engineers
Living people
Women materials scientists and engineers
Alumni of the University of Exeter
Alumni of the University of York
Year of birth missing (living people) | Pamela J. Martin | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 209 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
73,470,619 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterbium%28II%29%20fluoride | Ytterbium(II) fluoride is a binary inorganic compound of ytterbium and fluorine with the chemical formula .
Synthesis
Ytterbium(II) fluoride can be obtained by reacting ytterbium(III) fluoride with ytterbium or hydrogen.
Physical properties
Ytterbium(II) fluoride is a gray solid and crystallizes in the so-called fluorite type analogous to calcium fluoride with a unit cell a axis of 559.46 pm. In the crystal structure of ytterbium(II) fluoride, the Yb2+ cation is surrounded by eight F− anions in the form of a cube, which is tetrahedrally surrounded by four Yb2+.
References
Fluorides
Lanthanide halides
Ytterbium(II) compounds
Fluorite crystal structure | Ytterbium(II) fluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 187 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Fluorides",
"Inorganic compound stubs",
"Salts"
] |
73,471,231 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil%20O%27Donovan | Phil O'Donovan is a British engineer and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd which, as London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 company CSR plc, became the Bluetooth chip market leader.
Education
O'Donovan obtained a BSc in Electrical Engineering Science at the University of Warwick, an MSc in Information and Communications Systems at Birmingham University, and a PhD at Essex University.
Career
O'Donovan joined the Microprocessor Applications Centre at AERE Harwell in 1975 as a Research Fellow where he developed and commissioned a range of rack-mounted Motorola 6800 microprocessor-based modules for automating the use of scanning electron microscopes. In 1978, in support of ITT’s need to exploit microprocessor technology, he joined David Wright’s Microprocessor Technology Centre at ITT’s European research laboratory, Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL) in Harlow, where he supported ITT product companies worldwide in their selection and design of microprocessors in to phones, PABXes and Public exchanges.
At STL, O’Donovan bid and was Project Manager of the UK Alvey Programme’s Adaptive Intelligent Dialogues (AID) user interface project led by Standard Telephones and Cables (which had acquired computer company ICL in 1984). The AID project researched the auto-adaption of user interfaces to meet individual user needs and brought together techniques from computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology in a collaborative pre-competitive project involving six UK companies and universities.
At STL, O’Donovan also became Project Manager of the Functional Analysis of Office Requirements (FAOR) project, funded by the European ESPRIT programme. The FAOR project involved two companies and three universities spanning the UK, Denmark and Germany and developed a methodology for determination of the requirements necessary for an office system to meet pre-defined organisational needs.
O’Donovan left STL in 1986 as Chief Research Engineer and joined former STL colleagues at Harlow-based High Integrity Systems, founded to exploit application of the ADA programming language and support of the Intel iAPX 432 high-performance transparent multiprocessing microprocessor. He grew HIS’ revenue by winning contract design and development projects with defence (MOD),
communications (INMARSAT) and telecoms players (Nortel) in the UK.
In 1991, O'Donovan joined Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL), the product design and development business of Arthur D. Little, where he became VP Telecoms and bid and won the Ericsson ERMES / FLEX pager chip development, the design of which in standard CMOS, was led by James Collier and which inspired the subsequent creation of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd. In October 1998, O’Donovan and eight co-founders spun Cambridge Silicon Radio out of CCL. CSR was first to market in 2001 with its single chip Bluetooth device, BlueCore01, which operated at 2.4 GHz, was fabricated in commodity CMOS technology and which provided CSR with an inherent cost advantage.
As founding managing director, O'Donovan led Cambridge Silicon Radio to establish an early lead in the Bluetooth chip market as a fabless semiconductor company supplying hundreds of global high-volume manufacturers. CSR's early growth was rapid; it had won 500 qualified Bluetooth designs by June 2004, and by April 2008, had shipped more than a billion chips. CSR joined the London Stock Exchange in April 2004 as CSR plc, and became a FTSE 250 company in June of the same year. More than 98% of CSR’s chips were drop-shipped annually to customers outside the UK from CSR’s foundries including STMicroelectronics in France and TSMC in Taiwan leading to CSR receiving a Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade) in April 2004. In 2005, CSR together with the team comprising John Hodgson, Phil O’Donovan, James Collier, Glenn Collinson and Chris Ladas won the RAEng MacRobert Award for developing and bringing to market CSR's Bluetooth chip BlueCore01.
CSR's annual revenue reached $1billion in 2012 and, by 2015, employed more than 2,000 people in 23 locations around the world. By 2015, CSR had become the largest global supplier of Bluetooth chips having shipped 4 billion devices. CSR made eight acquisitions and one divestiture prior to 2015 and, following interest from a number of companies, CSR was acquired by US company Qualcomm Inc in September 2015 for $2.5billion.
Recent career
Following CSR’s flotation, O'Donovan became a member of, and invests alongside, the Cambridge Angels, a group of 60 investors in the "greater Cambridge region" most of whom are successful hands-on exited-entrepreneurs.
O’Donovan invests in and directs emerging hard technology companies. Examples include; Oval Medical Technologies (mechanical auto-injectors) sold to SMC Ltd of the US, Neul (radio communications technology) sold to Huawei and ROADMap Systems (optical wavelength-selective switches) sold to Huber+Suhner. He is currently the chair of Forefront RF (front-end modules for phone, wearable and IoT products) founded in late 2020.
O’Donovan speaks on entrepreneurial topics at universities and business schools and in Cambridge, for example, he is or has been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cambridge University's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, a Fellow and speaker at the Judge Business School and a mentor and speaker on the Maxwell Centre's Impulse Programme where his contributions are based upon his experience and are pragmatic in nature.
References
Living people
British electrical engineers
British company founders
British technology company founders
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
1950 births
Alumni of the University of Warwick
MacRobert Award winners | Phil O'Donovan | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,198 | [
"Institution of Engineering and Technology",
"Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology"
] |
73,471,646 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White%20etching%20cracks | White etching cracks (WEC), or white structure flaking or brittle flaking, is a type of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage that can occur in bearing steels under certain conditions, such as hydrogen embrittlement, high stress, inadequate lubrication, and high temperature. WEC is characterised by the presence of white areas of microstructural alteration in the material, which can lead to the formation of small cracks that can grow and propagate over time, eventually leading to premature failure of the bearing. WEC has been observed in a variety of applications, including wind turbine gearboxes, automotive engines, and other heavy machinery. The exact mechanism of WEC formation is still a subject of research, but it is believed to be related to a combination of microstructural changes, such as phase transformations and grain boundary degradation, and cyclic loading.
Cause
White etching cracks (WECs), first reported in 1996, are cracks that can form in the microstructure of bearing steel, leading to the development of a network of branched white cracks. They are usually observed in bearings that have failed due to rolling contact fatigue or accelerated rolling contact fatigue. These cracks can significantly shorten the reliability and operating life of bearings, both in the wind power industry and in several industrial applications.
The exact cause of WECs and their significance in rolling bearing failures have been the subject of much research and discussion. Ultimately, the formation of WECs appears to be influenced by a complex interplay between material, mechanical, and chemical factors, including hydrogen embrittlement, high stresses from sliding contact, inclusions, electrical currents, and temperature. They all also have all been identified as potential drivers of WECs.
Hydrogen embrittlement
One of the most commonly quoted potential causes of WECs is hydrogen embrittlement caused by an unstable equilibrium between material, mechanical, and chemical aspects, which occurs when hydrogen atoms diffuse into the bearing steel, causing micro-cracks to form. Hydrogen can come from a variety of sources, including the hydrocarbon lubricant or water contamination, and it is often used in laboratory tests to reproduce WECs. Mechanisms behind the generation of hydrogen from lubricants was attributed to three primary factors contributing: decomposition of lubricants through catalytic reactions with a fresh metal surface, breakage of molecular chains within the lubricant due to shear on the sliding surface, and thermal decomposition of lubricants caused by heat generation during sliding. Hydrogen generation is influenced by lubricity, wear width, and the catalytic reaction of a fresh metal surface.
Stress localisation
Stresses higher than anticipated can also accelerate rolling contact fatigue, which is a known precursor to WECs. WECs commence at subsurface during the initial phases of their formation, particularly at non-metallic inclusions. As the sliding contact period extended, these cracks extended from the subsurface region to the contact surface, ultimately leading to flaking. Furthermore, there was an observable rise in the extent of microstructural modifications near the cracks, suggesting that the presence of the crack is a precursor to these alterations.
The direction of sliding on the bearing surface played a significant role in WEC formation. When the traction force opposed the direction of over-rolling (referred to as negative sliding), it consistently led to the development of WECs. Conversely, when the traction force aligned with the over-rolling direction (positive sliding), WECs did not manifest. The magnitude of sliding exerted a dominant influence on WEC formation. Tests conducted at a sliding-to-rolling ratio (SRR) of -30% consistently resulted in the generation of WECs, while no WECs were observed in tests at -5% SRR. Furthermore, the number of WECs appeared to correlate with variations in contact severity, including changes in surface roughness, rolling speed, and lubricant temperature.
Electrical current
One of the primary causes of WECs is the passage of electrical current through the bearings. Both Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC) can lead to the formation of WECs, albeit through slightly different mechanisms. In general, hydrogen generation from lubricants can be accelerated by electric current, potentially accelerating WEC formation. Under certain conditions, when the current densities are low (less than 1 mA/mm2), electrical discharges can significantly shorten the lifespan of bearings by causing WECs. These WECs can develop in under 50 hours due to electrical discharges. Electrostatic sensors prove to be useful in detecting these critical discharges early on, which are associated with failures induced by WECs. The analysis revealed that different reaction layers form in the examined areas, depending on the electrical polarity.
In the case of AC, the rapid change in polarity involves the creation of a plasma channel through the lubricant film in the bearing, leading to a momentary, intense discharge of energy. The localised heating and rapid cooling associated with these discharges can cause changes in the microstructure of the steel, leading to the formation of WEAs and WECs.
On the other hand, DC can cause a steady flow of electrons through the bearing. This can lead to the electrochemical dissolution of the metal, a process known as fretting corrosion. The constant flow of current can also cause local heating, leading to thermal gradients within the bearing material. These gradients can cause stresses that lead to the formation of WECs.
Microstructure
WECs are sub-surface white cracks networks within local microstructural changes that are characterised by a changed microstructure known as white etching area (WEA). The term "white etching" refers to the white appearance of the altered microstructure of a polished and etched steel sample in the affected areas. The WEA is formed by amorphisation (phase transformation) of the martensitic microstructure due to friction at the crack faces during over-rolling, and these areas appear white under an optical microscope due to their low-etching response to the etchant. The microstructure of WECs consists of ultra-fine, nano-crystalline, carbide-free ferrite, or ferrite with a very fine distribution of carbide particles that exhibits a high degree of crystallographic misorientation.
WEC propagation is mostly transgranular and does not follow a certain cleavage plane.
Researchers observed three distinct types of microstructural alterations near the generated cracks: uniform white etching areas (WEAs), thin elongated regions of dark etching areas (DEA), and mixed regions comprising both light and dark etching areas with some misshaped carbides. During repeated stress cycles, the position of the crack constantly shifts, leaving behind an area of intense plastic deformation composed of ferritic, martensite, austenite (due to austenitization) and carbides. nano-grains, i.e., WEAs. The microscopic displacement of the crack plane in a single stress cycle accumulates to form micron-sized WEAs during repeated stress cycles. After the initial development of a fatigue crack around inclusions, the faces of the crack rub against each other during cycles of compressive stress. This results in the creation of WEAs through localised intense plastic deformation. It also causes partial bonding of the opposing crack faces and material transfer between them. Consequently, the WEC reopens at a slightly different location compared to its previous position during the release of stress.
Furthermore, it has been acknowledged that WEA is one of the phases that arise from different processes and is generally observed as a result of a phase transformation in rolling contact fatigue. WEA is harder than the matrix and . Additionally, WECs are caused by stresses higher than anticipated and occur due to bearing rolling contact fatigue as well as accelerated rolling contact fatigue.
WECs in bearings are accompanied with a white etching matter (WEM). WEM forms asymmetrically along WECs. There is no significant microstructural differences between the untransformed material adjacent to cracking and the parent material although WEM exhibits variable carbon content and increased hardness compared to the parent material. A study in 2019 suggests that WEM may initiate ahead of the crack, challenging the conventional crack-rubbing mechanism.
Testing for WEC
Triple disc rolling contact fatigue (RCF) Rig is a specialised testing apparatus used in the field of tribology and materials science to evaluate the fatigue resistance and durability of materials subjected to rolling contact. This rig is designed for simulating the conditions encountered in various mechanical systems, such as rolling bearings, gears, and other components exposed to repeated rolling and sliding motions. The rig typically consists of three discs or rollers arranged in a specific configuration. These discs can represent the interacting components of interest, such as a rolling bearing. The rig also allows precise control over the loading conditions, including the magnitude of the load, contact pressure, and contact geometry.
PCS Instruments Micro-pitting Rig (MPR) is a specialised testing instrument used in the field of tribology and mechanical engineering to study micro-pitting, a type of surface damage that occurs in lubricated rolling and sliding contact systems. The MPR is designed to simulate real-world operating conditions by subjecting test specimens, often gears or rolling bearings, to controlled rolling and sliding contact under lubricated conditions.
Impact
Offshore wind turbines are subject to challenging environmental conditions, including corrosive saltwater, high wind forces, and potential electrical currents. These conditions can contribute to bearing failures and impact the reliability and maintenance of wind turbines. Several factors that can lead to bearing failures, such as corrosion, fatigue, wear, improper lubrication, high electric currents, and the need for improved materials and designs to ensure the longevity and performance of bearings in offshore wind turbines. WECs negatively affects the reliability of bearings, not only in the wind industry but also in various other industrial applications such as electric motors, paper machines, industrial gearboxes, pumps, ship propulsion systems, and the automotive sector. 60% of wind turbines failures are linked to WEC.
In October 2018, a workshop on WECs was organised in Düsseldorf by a junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Representatives from academia and industry gathered to discuss the mechanisms behind WEC formation in wind turbines, focusing on the fundamental material processes causing this phenomenon.
Further reading
References
Fracture mechanics
Materials degradation
Mechanical failure modes
Metallurgy
Tribology
Friction | White etching cracks | [
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73,471,691 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkelium%20tetrafluoride | Berkelium tetrafluoride is a binary inorganic compound of berkelium and fluorine with the chemical formula .
Synthesis
Berkelium tetrafluoride may be formed by the fluorination of berkelium trioxide, dioxide, or trifluoride with elemental fluorine at elevated temperatures:
Physical properties
Berkelium(IV) fluoride forms light brown crystals of monoclinic crystal structure of uranium tetrafluoride type. Cell parameters: a = 1.2396 nm, b = 1.0466 nm, c = 0.8118 nm, angle β = 126.33°.
Chemical properties
Berkelium tetrafluoride is reduced by lithium at elevated temperatures to metallic berkelium:
References
Fluorides
Berkelium compounds
Actinide halides | Berkelium tetrafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 170 | [
"Fluorides",
"Salts"
] |
73,472,254 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlSi10Mg | AlSi10Mg is a lightweight, high-strength aluminium alloy that is widely used in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. Its unique combination of aluminium, silicon, and magnesium makes it an ideal material for additive manufacturing processes, such as 3D printing.
Composition
The composition of AlSi10Mg typically consists of approximately 90% aluminium, 9% silicon, and 1% magnesium. The alloy may also contain small amounts of other elements, such as iron, copper, and zinc, to improve its mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The precise composition of AlSi10Mg may vary depending on the specific manufacturing process used and the intended application of the alloy. However, the general proportions of aluminum, silicon, and magnesium remain consistent in most formulations of the alloy.
The addition of silicon to the alloy improves its strength and hardness, while magnesium enhances its ductility and corrosion resistance. The combination of these elements results in a material that is lightweight, strong, and resistant to corrosion, making it well-suited for a range of applications.
AlSi10Mg-0403 alloy is a specific type of AlSi10Mg that comprises aluminium alloyed with silicon of mass fraction up to 10%, small quantities of magnesium and iron, along with other minor elements. The presence of silicon makes the alloy both harder and stronger than pure aluminium due to the formation of precipitate.
The chemical composition of AlSi10Mg is according to ASTM F3318, making it an essential aluminium alloy in additive manufacturing.
Properties and applications
The history of AlSi10Mg dates back to the mid-20th century when aluminium alloys were being developed for various applications. The combination of aluminium, silicon, and magnesium was found to offer an ideal balance of strength, lightweight, and corrosion resistance. Today, AlSi10Mg is used in a wide range of industries, including automotive, medical, and defence. Its unique combination of properties makes it a versatile material that can be used for everything from lightweight structural components to heat sinks and electronic enclosures.
One of the primary advantages of AlSi10Mg is its high strength-to-weight ratio. This makes it an ideal material for producing lightweight components that require high strength, such as aircraft parts and automotive components. The alloy also has excellent thermal conductivity, which makes it useful for heat transfer applications, such as in heat sinks and cooling systems. The alloy's excellent strength-to-weight ratio and thermal conductivity made it a popular choice for aircraft components, such as engine parts, landing gear, and wing structures.
Another advantage of AlSi10Mg is its corrosion resistance. Aluminum naturally forms a thin oxide layer that protects it from corrosion, and the addition of silicon and magnesium further enhances this property. This makes AlSi10Mg an excellent choice for components that are exposed to harsh environments, such as marine or aerospace applications.
AlSi10Mg can be machined, spark-eroded, welded, micro shot-peened, polished, and coated if required. Conventionally cast components in this type of aluminium alloy are often heat treated to improve their properties. In addition, as technology continues to advance, it is likely that the use of AlSi10Mg will continue to grow and evolve. Ongoing research and development efforts are focused on improving the alloy's properties and exploring new applications.
3D printing
In recent years, the development of additive manufacturing processes, such as 3D printing, has increased the use of AlSi10Mg. AlSi10Mg is well-suited for additive manufacturing processes such as selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM). 3D printing with AlSi10Mg allows for the creation of complex geometries that would be difficult or impossible to produce using traditional manufacturing methods. The alloy's high strength and ductility also make it easy to work with during the printing process, allowing for the creation of high-quality, precise components.
Limitations
Despite its many advantages, there are some limitations to the use of AlSi10Mg. The alloy can be expensive compared to other aluminium alloys, and it requires specialised equipment and expertise to work with, which can add to the cost and complexity of production.
References | AlSi10Mg | [
"Chemistry"
] | 846 | [
"Alloys",
"Aluminium alloys"
] |
73,473,030 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcrystallization | Microcrystallization (or microcrystal test) is a method for identifying lichen metabolites that was predominantly used before the advent of more advanced techniques such as thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. Developed primarily by Yasuhiko Asahina, this approach relies on the formation of distinctive crystals from lichen extracts. Although now superseded by modern analytical methods, microcrystallization still holds importance for compound purification and analysis using X-ray crystallography.
History
Between 1936 and 1940, Japanese chemist and lichenologist Yasuhiko Asahina published a series of papers in the Journal of Japanese Botany detailing the microcrystallization technique. This simple and rapid method allowed for the identification of major metabolites in hundreds of lichen species, contributing significantly to taxonomic research. The technique was introduced to western lichenologists in a 1943 publication by Alexander Evans, and was used regularly until more advanced techniques such as thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography were introduced and integrated into laboratories. Decades of research on the secondary metabolites of lichens culminated in the publication of Identification of Lichen Substances, a 1996 work by Siegfried Huneck and Isao Yoshimura, that summarized analytical data for hundreds of lichen molecules, including images of microcrystals. Ultimately, the microcrystallization method had limitations, as it was unable to detect minor components or analyze complex mixtures of lichen substances. Despite these drawbacks, microcrystallization played a crucial role in the study of correlations between lichen chemistry, morphology, and geographic distribution.
Procedure
To perform microcrystallization, a small piece of lichen is extracted using acetone or other solvents, filtered, and evaporated to yield a residue. The residue is transferred to a microscope slide, and a drop of microcrystallization reagent is added before capping with a cover glass. Commonly used reagents include GAW (H2O/glycerol/ethanol 1:1:1, v/v/v) and GE (acetic acid/glycerol 1:3). Slides using GE or GAW are gently heated and then allowed to cool, promoting the crystallization process. Once formed, crystals are best observed under polarized light with a 200–1,000-fold magnification.
This method requires basic laboratory equipment, including a microscope equipped for polarized light, test tubes, pipettes, a micro spirit-lamp or micro Bunsen burner, spatula or scalpel, and microscope slides and cover glasses. Lichen substances can be identified based on the distinctive shape and color of their crystals.
Identification and interpretation
The process of crystal identification involves comparing them to images of crystals in different solvents found in published sources. Although the shape of the crystals depends on the solvent and, to a certain degree, the substance concentration, it is usually possible to recognize the fundamental crystalline forms. Care should be taken to differentiate between undissolved substances, which might be crystalline but lack a characteristic shape, and recrystallized substances. Microcrystal samples cannot be preserved for long, as they start to degrade within hours or days.
Distinguishing between gyrophoric acid and lecanoric acid using thin-layer chromatography can be challenging. However, if one of these substances is known to be present, a microcrystal test can help differentiate them. In the GAW solvent system, lecanoric acid forms long, curved crystal clusters, although the results can be inconsistent, especially in the presence of other substances. Gyrophoric acid, when present in the GE solvent system, may manifest as small, fine crystal clusters or rounded aggregations of tiny crystals. Lecanoric acid in the GE solvent system produces needle-like crystal clusters, but these are not as well-formed as in GAW. These tests can help distinguish Punctelia borreri (which contains gyrophoric acid) from Punctelia subrudecta (which contains lecanoric acid).
When two substances generate similar-looking crystals, their optical properties can be used to differentiate between them. Certain crystals alter the polarization plane of transmitted light, and when rotated between crossed polarizers, they alternate between bright and dark every 90°. The extinction angle is the angle between a specific crystal axis and the filter's polarization plane when the crystal appears dark (in extinction). For instance, this method can be employed to distinguish between perlatolic acid and imbricaric acid, which both form long, straight crystals in the GE solvent system but exhibit extinction angles of 0° and 45°, respectively, in relation to their long axis.
See also
Spot test (lichen)
References
External links
Microcrystal Tests for Lichen Substances, YouTube tutorial presented by Yoshihito Ohmura, National Museum of Nature and Science
Lichenology
Crystallography | Microcrystallization | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
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"Biology"
] | 1,027 | [
"Lichenology",
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"Materials science"
] |
73,474,386 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse%20%28British%20organisation%29 | Lighthouse, also known as Lighthouse International Group, was a British cult, founded in 2012 by Paul Waugh.
Lighthouse International Group's business operations were wound up in the UK High Court following intervention by the Secretary of State on 28 March 2023. Section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 permits the Secretary of State, where he believes it is expedient in the public interest that a company should be wound up, to present a petition for it to be wound up if the court thinks it just and equitable for it to be so.
The chief investigator at the Insolvency Service stated this was on the grounds of lack of cooperation with authorities and Waugh's deliberate obstruction. The Insolvency Service released a statement naming Waugh, Christopher Nash, Shaun Cooper and Warren Vaughan as the members of the Limited liability partnership that was wound up.
The group was the subject of a BBC Three documentary first broadcast in April 2023, titled A Very British Cult, as well as a BBC podcast of the same name. The documentary reported that member Tom Hasker would loiter outside the bedroom of a member charged with harassing ex-members on social-media, leading to their increased anxiety such that they had to flee and seek assistance from the Police.
It was reported that Lighthouse now trades as "Lighthouse Global".
Companies House states the Lighthouse Holding company is in the process of being liquidated as of March 2024.
References
External links
"A Very British Cult", an 8 episode BBC Sounds podcast on Lighthouse
British companies established in 2012
Harassment and bullying | Lighthouse (British organisation) | [
"Biology"
] | 319 | [
"Harassment and bullying",
"Behavior",
"Aggression"
] |
73,475,847 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietoris%E2%80%93Rips%20filtration | In topological data analysis, the Vietoris–Rips filtration (sometimes shortened to "Rips filtration") is the collection of nested Vietoris–Rips complexes on a metric space created by taking the sequence of Vietoris–Rips complexes over an increasing scale parameter. Often, the Vietoris–Rips filtration is used to create a discrete, simplicial model on point cloud data embedded in an ambient metric space. The Vietoris–Rips filtration is a multiscale extension of the Vietoris–Rips complex that enables researchers to detect and track the persistence of topological features, over a range of parameters, by way of computing the persistent homology of the entire filtration. It is named after Leopold Vietoris and Eliyahu Rips.
Definition
The Vietoris–Rips filtration is the nested collection of Vietoris–Rips complexes indexed by an increasing scale parameter. The Vietoris–Rips complex is a classical construction in mathematics that dates back to a 1927 paper of Leopold Vietoris, though it was independently considered by Eliyahu Rips in the study of hyperbolic groups, as noted by Mikhail Gromov in the 1980s. The conjoined name "Vietoris–Rips" is due to Jean-Claude Hausmann.
Given a metric space and a scale parameter (sometimes called the threshold or distance parameter) , the Vietoris–Rips complex (with respect to ) is defined as , where is the diameter, i.e. the maximum distance of points lying in .
Observe that if , there is a simplicial inclusion map . The Vietoris–Rips filtration is the nested collection of complexes :
If the non-negative real numbers are viewed as a posetal category via the relation, then the Vietoris–Rips filtration can be viewed as a functor valued in the category of simplicial complexes and simplicial maps, where the morphisms (i.e., relations in the poset) in the source category induce inclusion maps among the complexes. Note that the category of simplicial complexes may be viewed as a subcategory of , the category of topological spaces, by post-composing with the geometric realization functor.
Properties
The size of a filtration refers to the number of simplices in the largest complex, assuming the underlying metric space is finite. The -skeleton, i.e., the number of simplices up to dimension , of the Vietoris–Rips filtration is known to be , where is the number of points. The size of the complete skeleton has precisely simplices, one for each non-empty subset of points. Since this is exponential, researchers usually only compute the skeleton of the Vietoris–Rips filtration up to small values of .
When the underlying metric space is finite, the Vietoris–Rips filtration is sometimes referred to as essentially discrete, meaning that there exists some terminal or maximum scale parameter such that for all , and furthermore that the inclusion map is an isomorphism for all but finitely many parameters . In other words, when the underlying metric space is finite, the Vietoris–Rips filtration has a largest complex, and the complex changes at only a finite number of steps. The latter implies that the Vietoris–Rips filtration on a finite metric space can be considered as indexed over a discrete set such as , by restricting the filtration to the scale parameters at which the filtration changes, then relabeling the complexes using the natural numbers.
An explicit bound can also be given for the number of steps at which the Vietoris–Rips filtration changes. The Vietoris–Rips complex is a clique complex, meaning it is entirely determined by its 1-skeleton. Therefore the number of steps at which the Vietoris–Rips filtration changes is bounded by the number of edges in the largest complex. The number of edges in the largest complex is , since all vertices are joined by an edge. Therefore the Vietoris–Rips filtration changes at steps, where denotes an asymptotic upper bound.
For points in Euclidean space, the Vietoris–Rips filtration is an approximation to the Čech filtration, in the sense of the interleaving distance. This follows from the fact that for any scale parameter , the Vietoris–Rips and Čech complexes on a finite set of points in Euclidean space satisfy the inclusion relationship , which is sometimes referred to as the Vietoris–Rips Lemma. In general metric spaces, a straightforward application of the triangle inequality shows that for any scale parameter .
Variants
Approximations
Since the Vietoris–Rips filtration has an exponential number of simplices in its complete skeleton, a significant amount of research has been done on approximating the persistent homology of the Vietoris–Rips filtration using constructions of smaller size. The first work in this direction was published by computer scientist Donald Sheehy in 2012, who showed how to construct a filtration of size in time that approximates the persistent homology of the Vietoris–Rips filtration to a desired margin of error. This type of filtration is known as a Sparse Vietoris–Rips filtration, since it removes points from the standard Vietoris–Rips filtration using ideas from computational geometry related to geometric spanners. Since then, there have been several more efficient methods developed for approximating the Vietoris–Rips filtration, mostly using the ideas of Sheehy, but also building upon approximation schemes developed for the Čech and Delaunay filtrations.
Multiparameter Extensions
It is known that persistent homology can be sensitive to outliers in the underlying data set. To remedy this, in 2009 Gunnar Carlsson and Afra Zomorodian proposed a multidimensional version of persistence, that considers filtrations with respect to multiple parameters, such as scale and density.
To that end, several multiparameter extensions of the Vietoris–Rips filtration have been developed.
The Degree-Rips bifiltration extends the Vietoris–Rips filtration by constructing a sub-graph of the 1-skeleton of each complex in the Vietoris–Rips filtration, restricting only to vertices whose degree is at least a given parameter , then building the clique complex on that subgraph. The degree of a vertex encodes density information about the data, because it is quantifies how "central" that point is by way of how many other vertices it is connected to. The collection over all degree parameters defines a filtration of each complex in the Vietoris–Rips filtration, where the complexes get smaller as increases. Altogether, this defines a 2-parameter extension of the Vietoris–Rips filtration, by considering the collection of bi-filtered complexes over all scale parameters , where "op" denotes the opposite poset.
The Function-Rips bifiltration extends the Vietoris–Rips filtration by bifiltering each complex according to the superlevel-sets of some function , where can be a density function, an eccentricity function, or any other function. Namely, each complex is defined via , which yields a bifiltration indexed over .
The subdivision-Rips bifiltration extends the Vietoris–Rips filtration by taking the barycentric subdivision of each complex in the Vietoris–Rips filtration, then filtering these complexes by dimension of each flag. Namely, the barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex is the abstract simplicial complex defined using flags of simplices in the underlying complex, where a flag (sometimes called a chain) is a nested series of simplices . Then given the barycentric subdivision of a complex, one can filter it by taking the subcomplex spanned by vertices corresponding to simplices in the original complex of some minimum dimension . The collection of all such complexes yields a bifiltration indexed over .
References
Applied mathematics
Computational topology
Geometric topology
Data analysis
Discrete mathematics | Vietoris–Rips filtration | [
"Mathematics"
] | 1,690 | [
"Discrete mathematics",
"Computational topology",
"Applied mathematics",
"Computational mathematics",
"Geometric topology",
"Topology"
] |
73,479,684 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell%20diagonal%20state | Bell diagonal states are a class of bipartite qubit states that are frequently used in quantum information and quantum computation theory.
Definition
The Bell diagonal state is defined as the probabilistic mixture of Bell states:
In density operator form, a Bell diagonal state is defined as
where is a probability distribution. Since , a Bell diagonal state is determined by three real parameters. The maximum probability of a Bell diagonal state is defined as .
Properties
1. A Bell-diagonal state is separable if all the probabilities are less or equal to 1/2, i.e., .
2. Many entanglement measures have a simple formulas for entangled Bell-diagonal states:
Relative entropy of entanglement: , where is the binary entropy function.
Entanglement of formation: ,where is the binary entropy function.
Negativity:
Log-negativity:
3. Any 2-qubit state where the reduced density matrices are maximally mixed, , is Bell-diagonal in some local basis. Viz., there exist local unitaries such that is Bell-diagonal.
References
Quantum information science
Quantum states | Bell diagonal state | [
"Physics"
] | 227 | [
"Quantum states",
"Quantum mechanics"
] |
73,479,809 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium%20pentafluoride | Plutonium pentafluoride is a binary inorganic compound of plutonium and fluorine with the chemical formula .
Synthesis
Photodissociation of gaseous plutonium hexafluoride to plutonium pentafluoride and fluorine.
Physical properties
Plutonium pentafluoride forms a white solid.
Hazards
Plutonium pentafluoride is toxic and radioactive.
References
Fluorides
Plutonium compounds
Actinide halides | Plutonium pentafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 93 | [
"Salts",
"Fluorides",
"Inorganic compounds",
"Inorganic compound stubs"
] |
73,479,965 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenium%20pentafluoride | Rhenium pentafluoride is a binary inorganic compound of rhenium and fluorine with the chemical formula . This is a salt of rhenium and hydrofluoric acid.
Synthesis
Rhenium pentafluoride can be synthesised by the reduction of rhenium hexafluoride with hydrogen, rhenium, or tungsten:
Physical properties
Rhenium pentafluoride forms yellow-green crystals of orthorhombic crystal system, cell parameters a = 0.57 nm, b = 1.723 nm, c = 0.767 nm.
Rhenium pentafluoride reacts with water.
Rhenium pentafluoride is volatile. The compound consists of dimers of composition .
References
Fluorides
Rhenium compounds | Rhenium pentafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 167 | [
"Fluorides",
"Salts"
] |
73,480,109 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard%20Zacharias%20Munck%20af%20Rosensch%C3%B6ld | Eberhard Zacharias Munck af Rosenschöld, (3 August 1775 – 18 May 1840) was a Swedish physician and smallpox vaccine pioneer in Sweden. He was the oldest son of bishop Petrus Munck and grandson of physician .
Biography
Background and education
Munck af Rosenschöld was born in Lund, Sweden, in 1775. He showed an extraordinary memory even as a child. He was influenced by his grandfather's career in medicine, enrolling as a student at Lund University in 1786; at the age of 15 he published a thesis, (1790), which was publicly defended under professor . In 1793 he was awarded a master of philosophy degree, and in 1794 doctor of medicine primus and medicine adjunct. In 1796 his medical practice began in earnest, and every year his reputation as a practicing physician grew.
Work and ideals
He also distinguished himself by enthusiastically subscribing to the ideas of the French Revolution, which he expressed in an anonymously published book, ('Biographical Anecdotes of the Men of the French Revolution'). After being ennobled in 1799 along with his father's other children under the name Munck af Rosenschöld, he attended the 1800 Riksdag of the Estates in Norrköping, where he openly belonged to the opposition. He also participated in the following Riksdags with great interest, usually as a member of the constitutional committee, and always remained faithful to his liberal ideas, "demonstrating the compatibility of an honest Jacobinism in opinion with the strictest obedience to the law in conduct". Munck af Rosenschöld fought for improved education, public health, and opposed alcohol abuse. Towards the end of his life, he also campaigned vigorously against spirits, which he believed should be available only in pharmacies.
In 1803 he was appointed doctor at the Ramlösa Hälsobrunn mineral spa, where his great reputation attracted a considerable number of patients. In 1805 he was appointed professor of theoretical medicine at Lund University, but after October 1832 he was on leave of absence for the rest of his life. He also served as the rector of Lund University, holding the position twice: from 1812–1813 and 1825–1826. In 1817 he became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. As a person, he has been described as "highly original in speech, endeavors and deeds, somewhat rough and repulsive in his dealings, but basically good-natured and benevolent; he was no stranger to sacrifice and renunciation".
Vaccination
In 1801, during a trip to Copenhagen, Munck af Rosenschöld became aware of Edward Jenner's experiments with vaccination for smallpox – a disease which had killed 300,000 people in Sweden in the latter half of the 18th century – and hurried to introduce vaccination to Scania. On 23 October 1801, he carried out the first smallpox vaccination in Sweden on two children of Dr. Beyer, the Malmö city physician. He worked tirelessly, vaccinating over 2000 people by the end of the following year. Munck af Rosenschöld continued his work throughout the country and through his writings, in which he offered to distribute the vaccine for free, to overcome the obstacles to the vaccine's introduction. For this he was awarded the gold vaccination medal in 1813. In 1816, vaccination became mandatory in Sweden.
Family
He was the son of bishop Petrus Munck, brother of singer Brita Catharina Lidbeck and priest , and grandson of physician . He never married but had two daughters, Eva Eleonora Rosengren (with Gjertrud Andersdotter), and Maria Möller (mother unknown). Rosengren lived with her father for a time as a child, though he never officially recognized her as his daughter.
Death
Munck af Rosenschöld died suddenly in Copenhagen in 1840 of a heart condition.
References
Notes
Sources
Further reading
1775 births
1840 deaths
19th-century Swedish physicians
Vaccinologists
Members of the Riksdag of the Estates
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Rectors of Lund University
Smallpox vaccines | Eberhard Zacharias Munck af Rosenschöld | [
"Biology"
] | 848 | [
"Vaccination",
"Vaccinologists"
] |
73,480,184 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenium%20tetrafluoride | Rhenium tetrafluoride is a binary inorganic compound of rhenium and fluorine with the chemical formula .
Synthesis
Rhenium tetrafluoride can be made by the reduction of rhenium hexafluoride with hydrogen, rhenium, or sulfur dioxide:
Physical properties
Rhenium tetrafluoride forms blue crystals of tetragonal structure, cell parameters a = 1.012 nm, c = 1.595 nm.
Rhenium tetrafluoride reacts with water, and corrodes glass when heated.
References
Fluorides
Rhenium(IV) compounds | Rhenium tetrafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 131 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Fluorides",
"Inorganic compound stubs",
"Salts"
] |
73,480,724 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californium%28III%29%20fluoride | Californium(III) fluoride is a binary inorganic compound of californium and fluorine with the formula
Physical properties
Californium(III) fluoride is a yellow-green solid and has two crystalline structures that are temperature dependent. At low temperatures the orthorhombic structure ( type) is found with lattice constants a = 665.3(3) pm, b = 703.9(1) pm and c = 439.3(3) pm. At higher temperatures it forms a trigonal system ( type) with: a = 694.5(3) pm and c = 710.1(2) pm. Here, each californium atom is surrounded by nine fluorine atoms in a distorted triply-capped trigonal-prismatic structure.
References
Californium compounds
Fluorides
Actinide halides | Californium(III) fluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 187 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Fluorides",
"Inorganic compound stubs",
"Salts"
] |
73,481,178 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunosequencing | Immunosequencing, sometimes referred to as repertoire sequencing or Rep-Seq, is a method for analyzing the genetic makeup of an individual's immune system.
Background
In most areas of biology a single gene codes for one or a few possible proteins. Through V(D)J recombination a number of organisms take a relatively small number of genes coding for antibodies and T-cell receptors (TCRs) and produce a huge diversity of slightly different antibodies and TCRs. The diversity allows for the recognition of a wide array of antigens. As an immune system reacts to infections and other events, the number of different antibodies and TCRs it contains changes. The makeup and quantity of these proteins is sometimes referred to as an immune repertoire.
Immunosequencing is a technique utilizing multiplex polymerase chain reaction that allows for the sequencing and quantification of the large diversity of antibody and TCR genes composing an individual's immune repertoire.
History
Immunosequencing in its modern context started being discussed in scientific literature in the early 2010s with the advent of more powerful gene sequencing techniques.
References
Molecular biology
Laboratory techniques
DNA profiling techniques | Immunosequencing | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 237 | [
"Genetics techniques",
"DNA profiling techniques",
"Biotechnology stubs",
"nan",
"Molecular biology",
"Biochemistry"
] |
73,481,525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEERS%201019 | CEERS 1019 is a black hole in the galaxy previously identified as EGSY8p7 or z910_6811 and may be the oldest known black hole as of 2023. The galaxy and its black hole came into existence about 570 million years after the Big Bang, and the black hole in the center of CEERS 1019 seems to be less massive than any other black holes identified in the early universe but still larger than black hole growth methods can currently explain. The authors of a 2023 preprint describing it state that "We find that it is difficult to explain a SMBH of this mass ... with a stellar seed", i.e. gravitational collapse into a stellar black hole. Its mass is 10 solar masses.
Nitrogen Excess
Subsequent study of CEERS 1019 involved measurement of nitrogen abundance relative to oxygen (a standard reference point for metallcitiy) using ultraviolet lines emitted by oxygen, O III] 1660, and nitrogen, N IV] 1486 and N III 1750. Other abundances, such as carbon (measured from C III] 1909) follow the trends anticipated from observations of nearby galaxies and from stellar nucleosynthesis models. However, CEERS 1019 exhibits an excess of nitrogen relative to oxygen. This extra nitrogen may be related to very massive stars unique to the early universe and related stellar winds (similar to Wolf-Rayet stars in the nearby universe) actively enriching the ISM. The excess nitrogen in CEERS 1019 is similar to that seen in GN-z11 and may be characteristic of galaxies in the early universe.
See also
CEERS-93316
Direct collapse black hole
List of the most distant astronomical objects
References
Sources
Astronomical objects discovered in 2021
Supermassive black holes
Boötes | CEERS 1019 | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 360 | [
"Black holes",
"Boötes",
"Unsolved problems in physics",
"Supermassive black holes",
"Constellations"
] |
73,481,851 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klueter%20and%20Company%20Wholesale%20Grocery%20Warehouse | The Klueter and Company Wholesale Grocery Warehouse is a historic building at 901 East Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin. Hotel Indigo Madison Downtown now operates out of renovated structure.
History
The Klueter family, who had operated a grocery business in Madison since 1870 and entered the wholesale market in 1907, built the warehouse in 1915–16. At the time, Madison's east side was designated as the city's factory district to separate industry from residential areas on the west side.
The Klueter family sold the warehouse to the Simon Bros. grocery business, who owned it until the 1960s; the Mautz Paint Company used the warehouse for the rest of the twentieth century. After sitting vacant for over a decade, the building was redeveloped into a Hotel Indigo in the late 2010s.
Architecture
Architect Alvan Small designed the warehouse in the Prairie School style, as well-designed buildings both helped appease anti-industry residents and could be promoted as clean and modern facilities. The brick building features belt courses and banding in order to emphasize the horizontal, as was traditional in Prairie School architecture; it also has a tower at each corner with brick detailing at the top. The hotel renovation added a new wing and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 19, 2018.
References
External links
Hotel Indigo Madison Downtown
National Register of Historic Places in Madison, Wisconsin
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin
Prairie School architecture in Wisconsin
Commercial buildings completed in 1916
1916 establishments in Wisconsin
Warehouses on the National Register of Historic Places
Grocery store buildings
Paint and coatings industry
Hotel Indigo
Hotels in Madison, Wisconsin | Klueter and Company Wholesale Grocery Warehouse | [
"Chemistry"
] | 324 | [
"Coatings",
"Paint and coatings industry"
] |
73,481,960 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy%20H.%20Tsou | Andy Haishung Tsou is a retired ExxonMobil materials scientist known for developing synchrotron X-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy techniques for polymer research, applying the techniques in service of development and commercialization of new polyolefin materials.
Education
Tsou received the B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1979. He earned the M.S.Chem.Eng. from Penn State University in 1983, and the Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1987 under Nicholas A. Peppas. Tsou distinguished himself by setting a record for completing the fastest PhD in the history of the lab. He completed his doctorate in 2 years, 8 months. In 1997, Tsou completed a 2-year industrial fellowship at the University of Minnesota's CIE (center of interfacial engineering). In 2016, he spent a sabbatical at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal.
Career
Tsou began his professional career in 1983 as a photoresist engineer at Signetics. In 1987, he joined the Eastman Kodak Company as a group leader. He joined ExxonMobil Chemical company in 1998 serving at first as a project leader, then section head and finally as a senior research associate. Andy served as a thesis advisor at the Chemistry Department of Stony Brook University from 2007 to 2013, overseeing the graduation of 7 PhDs. Tsou retired from ExxonMobil in 2018. Following his retirement, Tsou joined Daxin Materials Corporation for 2 years. He is currently an adjunct professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and at National Taiwan University, where he teaches on Polyolefin Science and Technology.
He was previously an associate editor of the journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology. He served on the University of Akron's Advancement Council, at the request of the dean of the college of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
Tsou's most cited works treated the subject of shear flow induced crystallization of polypropylene using x-ray scattering, and his work with atomic force microscopy. Tsou's microscopy work has been featured by commercial AFM manufacturers. He was a co-Principal Investigator on NSF-funded work on additives for novel polymer morphology and performance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Patents
Tsou is a prolific inventor with more than 100 patents. His inventions include low permeability nanocomposites, functionalized elastomer nanocomposites, and oriented thermoplastic vulcanizates
Awards and recognition
2000 - Frank Giblin Memorial Award in Polymer Analysis from Society of Plastics Engineers
2004 - Sparks–Thomas award from the ACS Rubber Division
2015 - (with Benjamin Hsiao) Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering, Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Division of the American Chemical Society
References
Polymer scientists and engineers
ExxonMobil people
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
20th-century American chemists
21st-century American chemists | Andy H. Tsou | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 605 | [
"Polymer scientists and engineers",
"Physical chemists",
"Polymer chemistry"
] |
73,483,252 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoentrainment%20%28chronobiology%29 | In chronobiology, photoentrainment refers to the process by which an organism's biological clock, or circadian rhythm, synchronizes to daily cycles of light and dark in the environment. The mechanisms of photoentrainment differ from organism to organism. Photoentrainment plays a major role in maintaining proper timing of physiological processes and coordinating behavior within the natural environment. Studying organisms’ different photoentrainment mechanisms sheds light on how organisms may adapt to anthropogenic changes to the environment.
Background
24-hour physiological rhythms, known now as circadian rhythms, were first documented in 1729 by Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, a French astronomer who observed that mimosa plants (Mimosa pudica) would orient themselves to be toward the position of the sun despite being in a dark room. That observation spawned the field of chronobiology, which seeks to understand the mechanisms that underly endogenously expressed daily rhythms in organisms from cyanobacteria to mammals, which includes understanding and modeling the process of photoentrainment.
Two prominent 20th century chronobiologists, Jürgen Aschoff and Colin Pittendrigh, both worked throughout the 1960s to model of the process of photoentrainment, and despite examining the same subject, they arrived at different conclusions. Aschoff proposed a parametric model of entrainment, which assumed that organisms entrained to environmental timing cues (often referred to as zeitgebers, or "time givers" in German) gradually, changing their internal "circadian" period to be greater or less than 24 hours until it became aligned with the zeitgeber time. Conversely, Pittendreigh proposed a non-parametric model of entrainment, which assumed that organisms adjusted their internal clocks instantaneously when confronted with a light signal, or zeitgeber, that was out of sync with when their internal circadian time expected to see light.
Pittendrigh developed his model based on the phase-response curve, which visualizes the effect of short light pulses on organisms that were free-running (not entrained to a zeitgeber). Pittendrigh determined that an organism’s response to light depended on when the signal was presented. It was determined that exposure to light in the organism’s early subjective night (the early portion of an organism’s “normal” dark period) produced a delay in onset of activity in the following day (phase delay). Additionally, light exposure in the late subjective night resulted in advanced activity in the following day (phase advance). The phase changes experienced by the organism could be represented by a phase-response curve consisting of portions including the advance zone, delay zone, and dead zone. This model became widely accepted over Aschoff's parametric model, but it is still unclear which model most effectively explains the process of photoentrainment.
Light intensity in conditions of constant light was found to also modulate an organism’s response. Exposure to higher-intensity light was found to either extend or shorten an organism’s period depending on species, dubbed Aschoff’s rule.
Mechanism
The molecular mechanism for photoentrainment in multicellular organisms such as in fungi and animals has been linked to the transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL), where translated protein products influence gene transcription. The TTFL is composed of both a positive and negative arm, where the positive arm proteins promote transcription of negative arm genes while the negative arm proteins inhibit the activity of the positive arm. The TTFL has been found to be autonomous and have a period of roughly 24 hours. Components of the positive and negative arms differ by organism but in mammals positive arm components include CLOCK and BMAL1 while negative arm components include PER1, PER2, CRY1, and CRY2. In the case of many mammals, light signals detected by photoreceptors in the eye send signals to the mammalian master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which then affects the timing of the various positive and negative arms. This results in changes in the expression of the various clock proteins is what allows the organism to undergo photoentrainment.
In single celled organisms, circadian rhythms are believed to be generated without the use of a TTFL, but rather with a 3 protein complex called the KaiABC Complex. The mechanism of entrainment in this system is known to be controlled by various proteins.
Photoentrainment in Different Organisms
Entrainment to environmental cycles is a trait with advantages, and is thus found in nearly all organisms. Many ecological relationships such as predator-prey interactions, pollinator behaviors, migration timing all require the synchronization of an organism’s biological clock with the 24-hour rhythm of planet. Individuals who are not entrained, or in other words are not synchronized to the cycle of day and night, may miss out on feeding opportunities, on mating opportunities, etc, which may impact their chances of survival. The known models of both the circadian clock and mechanism of entrainment vary in different organisms across domain and kingdom, and the behavioral significance of entrainment vary as well.
Photoentrainment in Mammals
Mammals, in order to survive, must wake up at specific times in order to secure meals and avoid becoming prey themselves. In mammals, the external light dark cycle entrains a master clock, which then synchronizes various circadian oscillators throughout the body known as peripheral clocks. The photopigment melanopsin is present in certain retinal ganglion cells called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), which send signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the mammalian master clock that controls circadian rhythms throughout the body. In addition to melanopsin, studies have determined from using melanopsin-knockout mice that rods and cones can also play a role in the photic responses of the SCN. Enucleation (removal of the eye) in mammals resulted in free-running rhythms indicating the eye is necessary for photoentrainment.
Photoentrainment in Cyanobacteria
Photoautotrophic cyanobacteria depend on sunlight for energy, so a failure to anticipate nighttime would threaten their ability to survive and reproduce. They need sufficient glycogen reserves to last through the night. Photoentrainment also allows cyanobacteria to respond to light properly so as to prepare their photosynthetic apparatus for dawn when blue light is prominent. Appropriate synchronization to light also facilitates the temporal separation between oxygen-sensitive nitrogen fixation and oxygen-generating photosynthesis, lest the latter would inhibit the former.
Cyanobacteria can entrain to light pulses at a single cell level, but not all strains of the cyanobacteria entrain to light. While some cyanobacteria show rhythmic photosynthesis in constant light conditions, others exhibit constitutive photosynthetic activity in constant light conditions, measured by the levels of photosynthetic oxygen evolution.
Photoentrainment in Fungi
Fungi, like mammals, use a TTFL-driven clock, and therefore their entrainment involves adjustments to the concentrations of certain clock proteins based on environmental stimuli. More specifically, blue light induces transcription of frequency gene frq via photoreceptor WC‐1 and its partner WC‐2, and the protein product FRQ subsequently regulates the activity of WC-1 and WC-2 via phosphorylation. Ultraviolet radiation and other light wavelengths can cause DNA damage and mutations in fungi. Since DNA replication requires chromosome unwinding and exposes the DNA molecule to UV damage, fungi need to schedule DNA replication during the time of the day with the lowest UV radiation.
Clinical Implications
Photoentrainment has numerous clinical implications. Light therapy can be used to treat a number of afflictions, such as jet lag, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), sleep disorders, dementia, bipolar disorder and so on.
Jet Lag
Jet lag occurs when one’s circadian rhythm is out of sync with the environment, and this is usually caused by travel across time zones. People with jet lag experience symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, headaches, etc. Light therapy has been hypothesized to help mitigate these symptoms. A study has shown that light therapy depending on the direction of one’s travel can be beneficial; eastward travelers received phase advancement light therapy before their flight, and westward travelers received phase delay light therapy before their flight.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Disruption of an individual's dopamine activity due to the lack of light in the winter months is thought to be a cause of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Thus, it was hypothesized that light therapy could help increase one’s retinal dopamine activity by providing light that is no longer attainable in the environment. The practice of phototherapy was started in 1984. Traditionally, one receiving phototherapy for SAD will get a morning treatment of 5000 lux per hour. The effect of this treatment is that one’s circadian rhythm will be advanced. This is done in order to counteract the phase delay during winter.
Sleep Disorders
Light therapy can also be used to treat circadian rhythm sleep disorders. These disorders are caused by discrepancies between one’s circadian rhythm and the light/dark cycle of the environment. People with a sleep disorder experience insomnia or hypersomnia. There are a number of sleep disorders that light therapy are effective in treating, such as delayed sleep phase type (DSPT) and advanced sleep phase type (ASPT). DSPT occurs when one sleeps late and is unable to wake up early, resulting in a lack of entrainment to a typical working schedule. There are a number of methods to help resolve DSPT, including white light exposure in the morning and light restriction after 4:00 p.m., light masks, and blue light exposure in the morning. APST is marked by both sleeping and waking up early and is usually seen in older adults. Light therapy in the evening (that is administered before one’s body temperature reaches its low point) may help in inducing phase delay in these patients.
Dementia
Dementia is a decline in mental functioning that results in impairment in memory, thinking, decision-making, etc. Dementia is associated with disruptions in one’s sleep-wake cycle. Thus, light therapy may aid in the improvement of the disrupted sleep-wake cycle. If true, this will result in better sleep along with improved functioning. Studies have looked into light therapy as a treatment for dementia, however, the results have been conflicting. One study found that morning light therapy helped dementia patients with their sleep, yet functioning did not improve. In other trials, neither sleep nor behavior seemed to improve. Therefore, more research should be done in order to clarify the potential of light therapy as a successful treatment technique for dementia.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder characterized by sudden shifts of behavior, emotions, energy, and so on, and these shifts can be called bipolar episodes. People with bipolar disorder can experience both manic episodes and depressive episodes. Bipolar disorder is difficult to treat, so light therapy was looked at as a potential solution. One relevant study was a meta-analysis of light therapy trials for bipolar disorder. The findings overall were encouraging as well as non-conclusive. The findings indicate that light therapy can limit symptoms and improve clinical response. Further, a different meta-analysis found that light therapy helped patients with their symptoms and did not cause any negative effects. However, light therapy did not impact bipolar disorder remission rates.
References
Wikipedia Student Program
Chronobiology
Synchronization | Photoentrainment (chronobiology) | [
"Engineering",
"Biology"
] | 2,428 | [
"Telecommunications engineering",
"Synchronization",
"Chronobiology"
] |
54,873,886 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteina%20obducta | Osteina obducta is a fungal species in the family Dacryobolaceae. The genus and species was circumscribed by mycologist Marinus Anton Donk in 1966, making Osteina obducta the type species.
Description
Osteina obducta is characterized by fruit bodies that are sessile to stipitate, which are bone hard when dry. It has a monomitic hyphal system, containing only generative hyphae with clamps. The spores are hyaline and thin-walled, and are inamyloid and acyanophilic. Osteina obducta causes a brown rot in gymnosperm wood.
Osteina obducta is inedible.
References
Fomitopsidaceae
Inedible fungi
Taxa named by Marinus Anton Donk
Taxa described in 1966
Fungus species | Osteina obducta | [
"Biology"
] | 181 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
54,875,382 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceriporia%20inflata | Ceriporia inflata is a species of crust fungus in the family Irpicaceae. It was described as new to science in 2013 by mycologists Bi-Si Jia and Bao-Kai Cui. The fungus is distinguished macroscopically from other Ceriporia species by its relatively large pores, and microscopically by its hyphae, which swell when KOH is applied; it is this latter feature for which the fungus is named. The type specimen of C. inflata was collected from Qiongzhong County (Hainan, China), where it was found growing on rotten angiosperm wood. It has also been recorded from Fenyi County in Jiangxi.
Description
Ceriporia inflata has crust-like fruit bodies that become corky or brittle when they are dry. They reach dimensions of up to long, wide, and thick at the centre. The pore surface, initially white to cream, later becomes buff or darker in age. The pores are angular to irregular in outline, numbering 2–3 per millimetre. The fungus makes sausage-shaped to cylindrical spores that are smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, and measure 4.7–5.2 by 2–2.4 μm. C. inflata causes a white rot.
References
Fungi described in 2013
Fungi of China
Irpicaceae
Taxa named by Bao-Kai Cui
Fungus species | Ceriporia inflata | [
"Biology"
] | 292 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
54,876,167 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin%20Salam | Gavin Phillip Salam, is a theoretical particle physicist and a senior research fellow at All Souls College as well as a senior member of staff at CERN in Geneva. His research investigates the strong interaction of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of quarks and gluons. Gavin Salam is not related to Abdus Salam.
Education
Salam was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London and the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993 followed by a PhD in particle physics in 1996. His doctoral thesis was titled "Quarkonium scattering at high energies". During his postgraduate study he was based in the Cavendish Laboratory where his research investigated the scattering of Quarkonium funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).
Research and career
Salam's research explores the ways in which QCD can be exploited to understand elementary particle interactions, notably the Higgs boson, and also how it can be harnessed in the search for new particles. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of the structure of the proton and of jets (cones of hadrons), the signatures of quarks and gluons produced in high-energy collisions. He invented the most widely used approach for identifying jets at the Large Hadron Collider.
Before working at CERN, Salam held appointments at Princeton University in the United States and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Milan. He joined the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 2000, in the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies (LPTHE) attached to the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.
Salam appeared with Jon Butterworth in the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) documentary Colliding Particles – Hunting the Higgs, which follows a team of physicists trying to find the Higgs Boson.
Awards and honours
Salam was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017, awarded the Médaille d'argent (Silver Medal) of the CNRS in 2010, and the IOP Dirac Prize in 2023.
References
Fellows of the Royal Society
People associated with CERN
People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle
Theoretical physicists
Particle physicists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people) | Gavin Salam | [
"Physics"
] | 498 | [
"Theoretical physics",
"Particle physicists",
"Particle physics",
"Theoretical physicists"
] |
54,877,204 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot%20box | In video game terminology, a loot box (also called a loot crate or prize crate) is a consumable virtual item which can be redeemed to receive a randomised selection of further virtual items, or loot, ranging from simple customisation options for a player's avatar or character to game-changing equipment such as weapons and armour. A loot box is typically a form of monetisation, with players either buying the boxes directly or receiving the boxes during play and later buying "keys" with which to redeem them. These systems may also be known as gacha (based on , i.e. capsule toys), which is popular in Japan, and may be integrated into gacha games.
Loot box concepts originated from loot systems in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and from the monetisation of free-to-play mobile gaming. They first appeared in 2004 through 2007, and have appeared in many free-to-play games and in some full-priced titles since then. They are seen by developers and publishers of video games not only to help generate ongoing revenue for games while avoiding drawbacks of paid downloadable content or game subscriptions, but to also keep player interest within games by offering new content and cosmetics through loot-box reward systems. Loot boxes are just one form of chance-based mechanism used in paid reward systems within some digital games, and research has explored their impact on children, youth and families, and the boundaries between gaming and gambling.
Loot boxes were popularised through their inclusion in several games throughout the mid-2010s. By the latter half of the decade, some games, particularly Star Wars Battlefront II, expanded approaches to the concept that caused them to become highly criticised. Such criticism included "pay to win" gameplay systems that favoured those that spent real money on loot boxes and negative effects on gameplay systems to accommodate them, as well as them being anti-consumer when implemented in full-priced games. Due to fears of them being used as a source in gray-market skin gambling, loot boxes began to become regulated under national gambling laws in various countries at the same time. Due to the legal concerns over loot boxes, many game developers switched to other mechanisms for monetization, such as battle passes.
Design
A "loot box" can be named several different ways, usually related to the type of game that it appears in. A "loot box", "loot crate" or "lockbox" is often applied to shooter games since one obtains new equipable outfits or gear from it. Digital card games may use the term "booster pack" following from collectible card game roots.
Loot boxes are often given to players during play, for instance as rewards for leveling up their character or completing a multiplayer game without quitting. Loot boxes may also be given out through promotions outside of gameplay, such as watching certain streaming events. Players can also buy them directly, most often with real-world funds but also through in-game currency (sometimes, in-game currency can or has to be paid for with real-world funds to obtain lootboxes). Some loot boxes can be redeemed immediately, while redeeming others requires further consumable items dressed as "keys".
Loot boxes are generally redeemed through an in-game interface which dresses the process with appealing visual and audio effects. Some such interfaces are similar to those of slot machines or roulette wheels, and designed to create a psychological response to increase player excitement. When the player runs out of loot boxes or keys, a prominent button may be displayed with which they can buy more.
The items that can be granted by a loot box are usually graded by "rarity", with the probability of receiving an item decreasing rapidly with each grade. While the set of items given are randomly selected it can come with certain guarantees, for instance that it will contain at least one item of a certain rarity or above. In some redemption processes, yet-revealed items are presented with a colour that corresponds to its rarity level, further heightening the excitement of revealing the items. Some game systems include a "pity-timer" mechanic, which increases the player's chances to receive a rarer item from a loot box if the player has not received one in the last several loot boxes they have opened. This pity-timer mechanic may also be used if the player purchases loot boxes in bulk rather than individually, such that one of the loot boxes in the bulk purchase is assured of having a rarer item.
The player's inventory is managed in server databases run by the game's developers or publishers. This may allow for players to view the inventory of other players and arrange for trades with them. Items obtained from loot boxes and equipped or used by the player's character are nearly always visible to all other players during the course of a game, such as seeing a character skin or hearing a voice line.
Most loot-box systems grant items without regard for what the player already owns. Means are usually provided to dispose of these duplicates, often involving trading them with other players or converting them into an in-game currency. Some loot-box systems allow players to then use this currency to directly purchase specific items they do not have.
Some loot-box systems, primarily from Asian developers, use an approach adapted from gashapon (capsule toy) vending machines. These gacha games offer "spins" (analogous to turning the crank of a capsule machine) to get a random item, character, or other virtual good. One form of gacha called "complete gacha" allows players to combine common items in a set in order to form a rarer item. The first few items in a set can be rapidly acquired but as the number of missing items decreases it becomes increasingly unlikely that redeeming a loot box will complete the set. This is particularly true if there are a large number of common items in the game, since eventually one single, specific item is required. This particular practice was banned in Japan by the Consumer Affairs Agency in 2012, though gacha games at large remain.
Some games may include seasonal or special event loot boxes which include specific items only available during the time of that event. In the case of digital collectible card games which rotate expansions in and out as part of keeping a viable meta-game, booster packs of a certain expansion may only be purchasable while that expansion is considered in standard play, and once it is "retired", these cards can no longer be earned in packs, though still may be gained from the use of in-game currency and used outside standard play.
History
Loot boxes are an extension of randomised loot drop systems from earlier video games, frequently used to give out randomised rewards in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMO or MMORPG) or similar games. Loot boxes took this approach and formulated a monetisation approach used by free-to-play games in mobile gaming. Loot boxes also incorporate elements of the randomness of acquiring gachapon capsule toys.
The first known instance of a loot-box system is an item called "gachapon ticket", introduced in June 2004 in the Japanese version of MapleStory. The tickets were sold at the price of each. Like real-life gachapon machines, players attained random game items when they used the ticket on "Gachapon", in-game machines distributed across the game world.
The Chinese free-to-play game ZT Online (or simply Zhengtu) which was released in 2007 by the Zhengtu Network is also considered to be one of the early examples of video games that contained loot boxes as a part of its game system. Players in Asian countries typically do not have the funds to purchase full-cost titles, and use Internet cafes or PC bangs to play the game for free, or resort to online piracy to obtain copies of games for free. Instead of trying to change this approach, Asian games like ZT Online introduced loot boxes as a means to assure monetisation from a game that they would otherwise not receive revenue from the base sale. Within a year, Zhengtu Network reported monthly revenue from ZT Online exceeding , justifying the profitability of this scheme. This led to the approach of releasing games as free-to-play with microtransactions atop the title. Many free-to-play mobile games in Asian regions would offer loot-box approaches, most notably Puzzle & Dragons, released in 2011, which used its gacha approach to be the first mobile game to earn more than from its monetisation scheme.
In Western regions (North America and Europe) around 2009, the video game industry saw the success of Zynga and other large publishers of social-network games that offered the games for free on sites like Facebook but included microtransactions to accelerate one's progress in the game, providing that publishers could depend on revenue from post-sale transactions rather than initial sale. One of the first games to introduce loot box-like mechanics was FIFA 09, made by Electronic Arts (EA), in March 2009 which allowed players to create a team of association football players from in-game card packs they opened using in-game currency earned through regular playing of the game or via microtransactions. Another early game with loot box mechanics was Team Fortress 2 in September 2010, when Valve added the ability to earn random "crates" to be opened with purchased keys. Valve's Robin Walker stated that the intent was to create "network effects" that would draw more players to the game, so that there would be more players to obtain revenue from the keys to unlock crates. Valve later transitioned to a free-to-play model, reporting an increase in player count of over 12 times after the transition, and hired Yanis Varoufakis to research virtual economies. Over the next few years many MMOs and multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs) also transitioned to a free-to-play business model to help grow out their player base, many adding loot-box monetisation in the process, with the first two being both Star Trek Online and The Lord of the Rings Online in December 2011.
Separately, the FIFA series included a "FIFA Ultimate Team Mode" that allowed players to use virtual trading cards to build a team. Initially released as downloadable content (DLC), the "FIFA Ultimate Team Mode" transitioned to a free add-on to the base game with the 2010 release, with the ability to buy card packs as a means to generate revenue for the game. EA took the success of this transition for Mass Effect 3 in March 2012. Mass Effect 3 offered "packs" that would offer uncommon gear, otherwise obtainable only by "grinding" through online gameplay. According to the game's producer Jesse Houston, these were used as a means to offset the development cost of the game's multiplayer mode. The Mass Effect 3 team worked closely with the FIFA team to get the rollout of these packs right, which Houston compared to opening a Magic: The Gathering booster card pack to make a player feel like they were always getting value from the pack.
Other early examples of packaged games with loot boxes included Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in August 2013, adding "weapon cases" in an update, and Battlefield 4 in October 2013, adding "battlepacks", though they did not become purchasable until May 2014 and never granted duplicate items. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, released in November 2014, included "supply drops" that contained randomised items including different variants of the game's weapons, character gear, and experience points that could be used to customise one's character.
With the financial success of Overwatch and its loot-box systems, several games—particularly from popular franchises—in 2016 and 2017 included the mechanic as part of its meta-game. This included Call of Duty: WWII, Halo Wars 2, Gears of War 4, Assassin's Creed Origins, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and Forza Motorsport 7. By October 2017, this had led to critical review of the practice. In particular, the highly-visible Star Wars Battlefront II, released amid criticism of its loot-box systems in November 2017, led to renewed discussions at various government levels related to the legality of these systems. The review aggregator OpenCritic announced plans to include a "business model intrusiveness" for games that provide a metric on how much a game's loot and DLC system can impact the game. The reaction to loot boxes in the last half of 2017 was considered one of the major trends in the video game industry in 2017.
Criticism
Player expenditures and gambling concerns
Loot boxes are considered part of the compulsion loop of game design to keep players invested in a game. Such compulsion loops are known to contribute towards video game addiction and are frequently compared to gambling addiction. This is in part due to the use of a "variable-ratio reinforcement schedule" similar to how slot machines dole out prizes. While many players may never spend real-world money in a loot-box system, such addictive systems can bring large monetary expenditures from "whales", players who are willing to spend large amounts of money on virtual items. A meta-analysis of 15 studies found that lootbox spending and problem gambling symptomology were moderately positively correlated. Gambling concerns are heightened in games that offer loot boxes and are known to be played by children. Loot boxes also feed into the social anxiety around the "fear of missing out" (FOMO), as some random drops from loot boxes may be available for only a limited time, and players will be more inclined to spend money to obtain loot boxes so they do not miss out on these items. The use of pity-timers in loot box redemption also can feed into the gambler's fallacy, appearing to give credence to the player that they will be assured of a high-rarity item if they open enough loot boxes.
Video games have generally been considered games of skill rather than games of chance and thus are unregulated under most gambling laws, but researchers from New Zealand and Australia, writing in Nature Human Behaviour in 2018, concluded that "loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling". A separate report from researchers in England in 2021 also concluded that loot boxes "are structurally and psychologically akin to gambling".
Proponents for the use of loot boxes have countered complaints that they are gambling systems by likening them to opening collectible toys such as Hatchimals or booster packs from physical collectible card games (CCGs) like Magic: The Gathering. In the United States CCGs have been subject to previous legal challenges related to if they are a form of gambling, but were not found liable. Some countries like Belgium have specifically exempted CCGs from gambling legislation because these games do not offer any type of gambling element. However, opponents of loot boxes address the fact that the process of opening a digital loot box is designed around a sensory experience and immediate return that can affect those that may be prone to gambling, a factor that does not exist with physical booster packs.
Some have argued the increased use of loot boxes in games since FIFA was due to the perception that the act of opening loot boxes is an exciting element for a game for both the player, and those watching the player either on YouTube videos or through live streaming, creating a number of multi-million subscriber video streams solely dedicated to opening loot boxes. NPD Group, which tracks video game sales, says that for games released through September 2017, there was no sign of consumer purchase change, positively or negatively, on games that included loot boxes. NPD reported that NBA 2K18, which had been criticised by players for its loot-box system at its September 2017 launch, ended up as the best-selling game in North America for that month. Juniper Research estimated that the global video game market, worth around in 2017, is set to grow to about by 2022, buoyed by the increased use of loot boxes, particularly within China. For these reason, some developers see loot boxes as an essential means to monetise games, knowing that there will always be players willing to buy these even if most others do not.
Games with randomised in-game rewards, including those from loot boxes, and which offer the means to trade these items with other players, are known to attract the use of skin gambling. In skin gambling, these customization items, "skins", become a black market virtual currency among players and operators of websites that allow players to trade the items for real-world funds, or to use those items to gamble on esports or other games of chance; subsequently these activities have been identified as gambling by legal authorities, and several legal challenges arose in the last half of 2016 to stop this practice. Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, updated in 2013 to include randomised loot drops from in-games, has been the most visible example of skin gambling by mid-2016. Several games which followed in 2016 and onward that used loot boxes or other randomised rewards, including Rocket League and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, did not include the ability to trade items or placed limits on trades, thus eliminating skin gambling from these games.
Impact on game design
Some loot-box systems within free games are criticised as "pay-to-win" systems, and may be derogatorily referred to as "pay-to-loot". In these cases, the contents of the loot box contain items, beyond superficial customization options, which directly affect gameplay, such as booster packs for a digital collectible card game, and with the impact on gameplay proportional to the item's rarity. This can tie the quality of a player's ability to compete with others to the random generation systems of the loot pack, and may drive players into paying for additional loot boxes to obtain high-rarity items to fairly compete with others. Blizzard's digital card game Hearthstone, released in 2014, is frequently considered to require financial expenditure in booster packs to be a successful player. Blizzard claims that it attempts to minimize the effect of pay-to-win in Hearthstone, by implementing a gameplay mode which only allows players to use cards from a "core set" and from expansions released in the prior two years.
Some commentators expressed concern that for these types of loot-box models to be successful for the publishers, the game itself has to be designed around promoting and encouraging the player to purchase loot boxes, which fundamentally impacts core game design principles and may weaken the underlying game mechanics. This may include the use of loot boxes as a means to bypass the need to grind missions repeatedly to get gameplay-changing items that significantly help towards completing a single-player game, which drives players to use real money to purchase these to avoid the time sink. For example, Middle-earth: Shadow of War has a second, true ending requiring the player to gain many more stronger allies to meet its higher difficulty. While the developers playtested the balance of the game without the loot-box system activated, assuring the game could be completed without additional monetisation, reviewers found that the game required a great deal of time needed to complete numerous additional missions for the chance to acquire stronger allies, and with the consistent presence of the in-game market for loot boxes, made it difficult to avoid the allure of paying real money to bypass this grinding, creating a negative on the overall experience. The presentation of a storefront within a game which allows one to use real-world funds to purchase loot boxes or other equipment can also impact the sense of immersion a player has with a game. By July 2018, the developers of Shadow of War had released patches that completely removed the in-game storefront and loot-box system.
Incentives for monetisation
The implementation of some loot-box systems are considered anti-consumer by some players and commentators. Full-priced games which already provide downloadable content and then include a loot-box system have been heavily criticised by players. Some gaming journalists identify the inclusion of loot boxes in multiplayer games as a justified part of the publisher's cost for maintaining the game servers, but see their use in single-player games as only a means for the publishers to profit.
Developers and publishers consider loot boxes part of a necessary process of monetising AAA video games beyond their initial sale. Publishers have been hesitant of raising the base price of AAA games beyond (as of 2017) for fear of immediately losing sales, and instead seek post-release revenue streams to cover the increased costs and pace of the development process, the stagnation in growth in video game audiences, and a shortening window of time in which to gain full-price sales of their games after release. Monetisation schemes like loot boxes can help provide long tail revenue, well after the release of the game. Post-release monetisation is believed by publishers to be necessary to compete with the mobile gaming sector, which predominantly uses free-to-play monetisation schemes. An analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets, in the wake of the Star Wars Battlefront II controversy, said that the price of video games, even with added purchases for loot boxes and micro-transactions, remains lower than other forms of media on a per-hour basis, and that games are generally underpriced for what value they give.
Developers noted that the decision to include loot boxes in a game, and how they will be priced in real-world funds, may come from their publisher or upper management, but the implementation of their mechanics, including what they include, how they are doled out, and the like, are frequently set by the developers themselves. Some developers argue that the loot-box approach can mesh well with certain types of games, as long as they are not implemented to be a predatory manner towards consumers, and the decision to implement loot boxes within a game may be chosen by the developers rather than a mandate from the publisher. When the loot-box systems are used principally as a means to gain post-sales revenues rather than as an incentive to continuing playing the game, developers feel this requires them to significantly alter the game design away from challenge in gameplay and onto getting players to spend money. They found that games where the baseline gameplay does not encourage or require spending money for loot boxes, the addition of new content obtained from loot boxes is generally celebrated within that community and may gain brief revenue from that. Further, loot-box systems are generally better handled when their use is determined early in development so the developers can design around it, rather than a last-minute addition. Developers found that the mechanics of loot boxes are more accepted by non-Western audiences and younger Western audiences, where these groups have developed different consumption patterns than older Western players, particularly as a result of growing up playing free-to-play mobile titles.
Specific examples
Overwatch
Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch's loot box implementation does not impact gameplay, but other aspects of the system are subject to criticism. A free crate is given to the player each time the player reaches enough experience to level-up, but the rate of experience acquisition varies with player skill. While any item contains only cosmetic appeal and has no influence on gameplay, the desire for a specific item creates a strong incentive to purchase additional crates. Overwatch producer Jeff Kaplan detailed the desire to create an in-game currency allowing players to directly acquire an item independent of luck or skill, but currency is only given to a player after opening a crate. Overwatch software-as-a-service model delivers continued revenue as Blizzard adds new items to obtain through loot boxes. In response to criticism, Blizzard has made adjustments to its loot box system; for example, reducing the frequency of obtaining duplicate items from loot boxes while attempting to maintain the same in-game currency earning rate in June 2017. Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime said that with Overwatch loot boxes, Blizzard avoided inclusion of pay-to-win, gameplay-changing elements and the ability to convert rewards from loot boxes back into real-world money, and thus "don't think Overwatch belongs in that [loot box] controversy". Industry analyst Michael Pachter speculated that the loot box model of Overwatch that uses only cosmetic items will become the more preferred method of offering this monetisation in the future. Despite this, Overwatch system still does not allow players to directly use real-world funds to purchase a specific cosmetic item, and the rate which they earn in-game currency towards loot boxes can be slow, both aspects which contribute towards in-game spending and the potential for gambling.
Overwatch 2, which released as a free to play title, does not use loot boxes and instead offer new cosmetic items through a battle pass system.
Star Wars Battlefront II
Conversely, Electronic Arts' Star Wars Battlefront II, developed by EA DICE studio and released in November 2017, received heightened attention in the wake of the October 2017 loot-box criticism. Principally an online multiplayer shooter, Battlefront II was developed to eliminate the "season pass" approach that the original 2015 game had used, which was found to have split the player base over those that paid for the added content and those that did not. Instead, Battlefront II brought in other micro-transaction schemes that would still allow all players to play together but provided the desired revenue streams for EA. These schemes include a loot-box system providing, among other rewards, "Star Cards" that provide boosts to a specific character class, and which have tiered levels tied to rarity that provide greater boosts. Because these higher-tier Star Cards give direct advantages to players willing to acquire many loot boxes with real money than at the rate one would obtain simply playing the game, its loot-box system at the time of its open beta period had been described as one of the more egregious "pay-to-win" systems for a full-price game.
EA did re-evaluate this approach in response to criticism, and prior to full release, reworked the loot-box system so that some items still offered in loot boxes like Star Cards could also be earned through other routes such as in-game achievements, in-game currency, or through direct monetary purchase. Just prior to release, members of EA Access that had early access to the release version of Battlefront discovered that its other in-game currency and micro-transaction systems required players to spend numerous hours in game matches to earn credits at a sufficient rate to unlock special hero characters, or alternatively spend real-world funds to buy in-game currency or loot boxes that offered that currency as a possible reward. The combined loot-box and micro-transaction systems, all elements of "pay to win" schemes, drew even more criticism. Just hours before the game's official launch, EA and DICE temporarily disabled all micro-transaction purchases until they figured out a way to offer these systems in a favourable manner for consumers; DICE stated: "We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing, and tuning" before they are reintroduced. According to The Wall Street Journal, the decision to remove the micro-transactions just before launch was demanded by Disney, which owns the Star Wars properties. Disney, knowing the franchise draws in younger players, feared the loot-box systems would contribute towards gambling behavior in children. EA later affirmed its revamped approach to micro-transactions within the game to be released in March 2018, eliminating any pay-to-win elements like Star Cards as potential rewards from loot boxes: Star Cards would otherwise only be earned by an experience-point-based progression in the game, while loot crates would be limited to only cosmetic items or in-game credits to buy these items.
The player reaction to Battlefront loot-box system led to the Belgian Gambling Commission to evaluate the nature of loot boxes specifically in Battlefront. In the United States, it generated legislative debates about a potential sales ban within Hawaii and some other US states. EA has stated that they do not consider the approach of loot boxes in Battlefront as gambling, as it is strictly an optional feature. The reaction and change to the loot box and monetisation scheme caused sales of Battlefront to fall from expectations, and EA's stock lost 8% of its value a week after the game's release (equal to about ). Analysts expect that EA will have to re-evaluate how they monetise games in the future to avoid similar backlashes, which may further reduce future revenues. In its fiscal quarter results following the release of Battlefront II, EA reported missing their sales mark of 10 million units by about 10%, which EA CFO Blake Jorgensen attributed to the loot-box controversy over the game. This, coupled with the removal of micro-transactions from the game while they readdressed the loot-box approach, led to the game missing EA's revenue projections for that quarter. In April 2018, EA's Patrick Söderlund stated that the loot-box controversy over Battlefront impacted the company significantly, which included a reorganisation of executive positions, and that: "For games that come next, for Battlefield or for Anthem, [players have] made it very clear that we can't afford to make similar mistakes. And we won't."
FIFA
Electronic Arts also published the FIFA series of association football games in annual installments, using the appearances and attributes of the real-world athletes in the teams on the league. Part of more recent entries in the system include its "Ultimate Team" mode, where players can form their own teams by collecting "cards" of these players, which have been offered through virtual card packs that can be purchased with in-game currency or real-world funds (Points currency). While this is a similar mechanism to other games using loot box mechanics, the use here is criticised due to the fact that cards earned from one version of the game do not carry over into the next year's version (teams remain in their account until the said edition's servers are shut down). Thus, players must work to regain a competitive team by re-earning in-game credits or spending more money by buying additional points, with the potential to continue that cycle each year. EA has since implemented Ultimate Team-like mechanics in other sports simulation series, including Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL, and UFC. In 2016, EA reported that revenue from Ultimate Team pack purchases was a year, roughly half of their total revenue from microtransactions across their portfolio, and 30% of their entire digital sales revenue. CBC reported from a leaked 2021 EA presentation of the company's intent to drive FIFA 21 players to the Ultimate Team mode as the "cornerstone" of the game. In a reply, EA stated that they do not "push" players to spend money in their games and that the majority of FIFA players do not spend any money in-game.
Regulation and legislation
Because of their use of random chance to gain items after committing real-world funds, games using loot boxes may be considered a form of gambling. While gambling laws vary from country to country, a common theme that tends to legally distinguish loot boxes from gambling is the inability to transform the contents from a loot box back into real-world money by legitimate means within the video game.
Games with loot box systems have become subject to regulation in several Asian countries, while questions of the legality of loot boxes are under consideration in some Western ones. Steven Wright for PC Gamer observed that several of the concerns for loot boxes related to gambling had been previously experienced through lawsuits in the 1990s against the baseball card industry as well as with the physical Pokémon Trading Card Game, but these cases did not impact either arena to a significant degree.
Asia and Oceania
China
In December 2016, China's Ministry of Culture announced legislation which required "online game publishers" to publicly release from May 2017 onwards the "draw probability of all virtual items and services". When the law came into effect publishers complied, resulting in a variety of statistics being released which quantified the odds of Chinese players receiving different categories of item from each loot box, some of which were as low as 0.1%. Other changes mandated by the new regulations required publishers to limit the number of loot box purchases any player can purchase in a day (including limiting the size of multiple loot box bundle packages), and requiring the publisher to give more favourable odds to the player to get rare items with the number of loot boxes they have opened, effectively assuring a player of receiving a rare item by opening a fixed number of loot boxes. A 2021 paper evaluated the state of many Chinese games that used loot boxes, and found that of the current top 100 games offered on China's Apple App store, 91 of those games included loot boxes but only about 5% of these made full, proper disclosure of loot box probabilities to China's law.
The law also banned game publishers from directly selling "lottery tickets" such as loot boxes. In June 2017, Blizzard Entertainment announced that, "in line with the new laws and regulations", loot boxes in their game Overwatch would no longer be available for purchase in China. Players would instead buy in-game currency and receive loot boxes as a "gift" for making the purchase.
Effective November 2019, China's General Administration of Press and Publication prohibited the sale of loot boxes to users under eight years of age and restricted their sale to older users under 18 years of age to a maximum monthly spending limit ranging from 200 to 400 renminbi.
Japan
Following the success of the gacha model in Puzzle & Dragons in 2011, it became recognised in Japan that the system was essentially gambling, particularly for younger players. By May 2012, Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency banned the practice of "complete gacha", in which a predetermined set of items gained from loot boxes would combine once completed to form a rarer and thus more valuable item. This was done not by introducing any new legislation, but by issuing a legal opinion that virtual items could be considered "prizes" under existing legislation written in 1977 to prevent the complete gacha practice in the context of baseball trading cards. Within a month of the opinion being issued, all major Japanese game publishers had removed complete gacha rules from their games, though many developers found ways around these rules. Japanese mobile game developers, including GREE and DeNA, worked to establish a self-regulating industry group, the Japan Social Game Association. However, this association was merged with The Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) on April 1st, 2015.
South Korea
In March 2015, members of South Korea's National Assembly, led by the Liberty Korea Party, proposed amendments to the country's existing games industry regulation that would require games companies to release "information on the type, composition ratio, and acquisition probability" of items granted by loot boxes. Efforts by the South Korean games industry to self-regulate has not convinced assembly members, who have continued to propose statutory regulation. Chung Woo-taik, a Saenuri Party member, had questioned the pratical effect of the self-regulation bill proposed by the industry, arguing that the lack of a proper penalty on loot box systems does not solve the problem and demean consumers' rights. However, there have been several revisions to the self-regulation (most recently, in July 2018), which now requires all video games to clearly display the payout rates of the items from the loot boxes to the player. There are also plans in the near future to expand the scope of this regulation to include other in-game purchases, such as the success rate of a paid consumable item whose purpose is to enhance another virtual item.
The Fair Trade Commission still oversees consumer issues related to loot boxes and video games; in April 2018, it issued a fine against Nexon related to its game Sudden Attack for deceptive loot-box practices, as well as two smaller fines to other companies.
Singapore
In October 2014, Singapore's parliament passed The Remote Gambling Act, which introduced a ban on unlicensed gambling websites and fines for anyone violating it. The law's definition of gambling included staking "virtual credits, virtual coins, virtual tokens, virtual objects or any similar thing that is purchased...in relation to a game of chance", leading to concerns that it would require producers of any game in which players paid money and received a randomised outcome to seek a license to operate from the government.
In response to games industry lobbying home affairs minister S. Iswaran clarified the law in parliament, stating that "the Bill does not intend to cover social games in which players do not play to acquire a chance of winning money and where the game design does not allow the player to convert in-game credits to money or real merchandise outside the game". The minister also specifically excluded platforms which offered "virtual currencies which can be used to buy or redeem other entertainment products", such as Steam, from the provisions of the bill.
However, the minister also said:
The fact is that the line between social gaming and gambling is increasingly becoming blurred. What may appear benign today can quickly morph into something a lot more sinister tomorrow in response to market opportunities and consumer trends. That is why the legislation is cast broadly.The Remote Gambling Act was placed under review by Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore in 2021 with the aim to amend the law be technology agnostic, and may potentially include regulations for loot boxes among other types of non-traditional gambling products.
Malaysia
In October 2021, the Office of the Mufti for Federal Territories in Malaysia published on its website and social media channels finding that the acquisition and ownership of items promoted in PUBG: Battlegrounds lootboxes are not always guaranteed despite enforcing an obligatory price of in-game currency to access them which would have to use real money, thus they qualify as a form of gambling (maisir) forbidden in Islamic jurispudence.
Australia
Within Australia, games with loot boxes would fall under gambling restrictions if they can be played "for money or anything else of value"; the question remains if items that only exist within game have "value" that can be quantified, even if this is related to an item's pretige. The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation has stated that it considers loot boxes to be gambling, but does not have the authority to prosecute companies registered overseas. The commission has suggested "an immediate R rating" for any games which feature loot boxes as a solution to this limitation. In March 2018, the Australian Office of eSafety published a list of safety guidelines on the dangers of online loot boxes.
The Australian Senate passed a motion, led by Jordon Steele-John, in June 2018 directing the Environment and Communications References Committee to investigate loot boxes and report back to the Senate in September 2018. The investigation, which started in August 2018, evaluated the use of loot boxes in video games and considered them under issues related to gambling and effects on children. The report, released in mid-September 2018, found that loot boxes are "psychologically akin to gambling", and that games with loot boxes are potentially "exploiting gambling disorders among their customers". The committee recommended that games with loot boxes be labeled to warn of parental guidance and indicate that they contain "in-game gambling content" and suggest that such games be rated to represent the legal gambling age in the country. In the final report, the committee urged the Australian government to "undertake a comprehensive review of loot boxes in video games" through a multi-departmental effort to determine what legislative and other actions need to be taken.
A February 2020 report from the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs that focused on internet content that should be blocked behind age verification gates recommended that the Office of the eSafety Commissioner or similar body "report to the Australian government on options for restricting access to loot boxes and other simulated gambling elements in computer and video games to adults aged 18 years or over, including through the use of mandatory age verification".
By August 2020, the Australian Classification Board (ACB) had updated its regulations to state that games with any microtransaction, including loot boxes, must be labeled on their covers as containing "in-game purchases" as part of the ratings classification.
MP Andrew Wilkie introduced a bill in November 2022 that would require video games with loot boxes to be automatically rated by the ACB as R18+ or be refused a rating. By existing law, R18+ games are restricted from sale to minors. Wilkie stated that he believed that loot boxes in video games were grooming minors "for future gambling" as a rationale for the bill. The approach was modified in March 2023 so as to address any video game with simulated gambling, including loot boxes. These changes were implemented with enforcement starting in September 2024: games with simulated gambling would be rated R18+, and games "containing in-game purchases linked to elements of chance, including paid loot boxes" would be rated M.
New Zealand
The Gambling Commission within the Department of Internal Affairs for New Zealand stated, in response to a citizen's email, that currently in their view "loot boxes do not meet the legal definition of gambling", but are reviewing the situation as it progresses.
Europe
Austria
In March 2023, the district court of Hermagor ruled that loot boxes contained in FIFA (video game series) are gambling and thus illegal. The relevant question for the court was, if, on one hand, virtual goods have real value, and on the other hand, promise a gain. Especially with games of the FIFA series, there is a black market where players are traded for real money. The decision required Sony (in accepting the payment for EA) to refund the money spent on Ultimate Team packs to the users, and EA to label the FIFA games as "gambling games", requiring a license to use. The judgement is not final, and can be contested. However, Sony failed to apply for an appeal by May 2023, and subsequently, was ordered to refund money to the plaintiffs.
United Kingdom
In March 2017, the UK's Gambling Commission issued a position paper "Virtual currencies, esports and social casino gaming". The paper took the position that virtual items are "prizes", and that, in general "Where prizes are successfully restricted for use solely within the game, such in-game features would not be licensable gambling". However, the paper continues that:
In our view, the ability to convert in-game items into cash, or to trade them (for other items of value), means they attain a real world value and become articles of money or money's worth. Where facilities for gambling are offered using such items, a licence is required in exactly the same manner as would be expected in circumstances where somebody uses or receives casino chips as a method of payment for gambling, which can later be exchanged for cash.
In August 2017, the commission opened an investigation into skin gambling. Later, in November, the commission's executive director Tim Miller was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 where he confirmed that the commission had also been investigating loot boxes and suggested self-regulation of the games industry. The Commission issued a statement that month recognising that they cannot make the determination when loot boxes crosses over into gambling, as that they can only enforce what Parliament has issued as the law for gambling, and restating the legal definition of gambling in this regard from their earlier position paper. Miller said while they cannot take action toward loot boxes until Parliament changes the law, they can raise awareness of issues with loot boxes that might affect children and their parents, and are trying to evaluate the risks and issues associated with that as part of their August 2017 skin gambling investigation. Miller further stated that even if other countries were to pass laws or regulate loot boxes, the commission would still need to follow the UK's laws.
In October 2017, a month prior to the Battlefront II controversy, MP Daniel Zeichner of Cambridge, on behalf of a constituent, submitted a written parliamentary question "to ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), what steps she plans to take to help protect vulnerable adults and children from illegal gambling, in-game gambling and loot boxes within computer games". In response, MP Tracey Crouch, parliamentary under-secretary for the department, referred back to the stance of the Gambling Commission's position paper, and said that:The government recognises the risks that come from increasing convergence between gambling and video games. The Gambling Commission is keeping this matter under review and will continue to monitor developments in the market.Separately, over 10,000 British citizens signed a petition requesting that the British government "adapt gambling laws to include gambling in video games which targets children", which includes issues over loot boxes. The government's response stated that the Video Standards Council is in discussions with Pan European Game Information (PEGI) to determine if there are any changes needed in the PEGI standards in relationship to gambling in games, and that the Gambling Commission is also considering the interaction between these games and younger players. The response also referenced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 law which, according to the response "includes a requirement on businesses not to subject anyone to misleading or aggressive marketing practices, or, for example, direct exhortation to buy products, such as games content, including in-game purchases such as loot boxes".
In March 2018, MP Anna Turley of Redcar asked the government to "bring forward legislative proposals to regulate the game mechanics of loot boxes". In response Minister of State MP Margot James said that "PEGI informs consumers purchasing products from major app stores if they contain further purchases and are considering the possibility of placing these notifications on boxed products", and that "regulators such as PEGI and the Gambling Commission are speaking to industry to ensure that those who purchase and play video games are informed and protected".
The Gambling Commission issued a report in November 2018 on the state of gambling and its effect on youth. While news outlets had stated that the Commission determined that loot boxes can be considered a gateway for youths to undertake gambling in other scenarios beyond video games, the Commission clarified that they had not made any direct conclusion, and only found that about 3 in 10 children in the UK have opened loot boxes in games. Starting in January 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the House of Commons opened up public input on how immersive technology like virtual reality may impact culture, with a specific focus on "the addictive nature of some technologies". The department has also held public hearings with members of the video game industry to solicit their input. MP Margot James, the current Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, stated in these discussions that the UK's approach to how they treat loot boxes will likely be different from how other European states like Belgium have done, as the countries do not share similar laws for other gambling activities. James said "Loot boxes are a means of people purchasing items, skins, to enhance their gaming experience, not through an expectation of an additional financial reward. And also, more importantly, they can't be traded offline for money. So I think there are big differences, and I don't think really it is true to say loot boxes are gambling."
The Gambling Commission issued a statement in July 2019 that they cannot oversee the sale of loot boxes in most video games as there is no way to monetise the items within the loot box, a core distinction from gambling as written in current legislation. The Commission did caution that there are third-party sites that enable the means to monetise loot box items, similar to skin gambling, but they are not in a position to monitor those sited, and urged companies like Valve to take better steps to prevent skin gambling monetisation.
In its final report, published 9 September 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recommended that the British government take precautionary steps to prevent the sale of games containing loot boxes to minors, and to work with PEGI to make sure that games with loot boxes are labeled as having gambling mechanics. Further, the report stated that "We consider loot boxes that can be bought with real-world money and do not reveal their contents in advance to be games of chance played for money's worth" and urged the government to add games containing loot boxes as regulated under the Gambling Act 2005, which would restrict their sale. The report also agreed with the conclusions of the Gambling Commission that game publishes and developers must take more steps to limit the grey market of skin gambling. The Children's Commissioner for England came out with a report the following month echoing the same concerns, that loot boxes are akin to gambling for minors, and encouraged updates to gambling laws to reflect how games may use them to draw minors to continue to spend money.
The National Health Service director of mental health Claire Murdoch stated in January 2020 that the Service was incorporating concerns related to loot boxes and the mental health of youth into their Long Term Plan, but cautioned that "no company should be setting kids up for addiction by teaching them to gamble on the content of these loot boxes. No firm should sell to children loot box games with this element of chance, so yes those sales should end."
In June 2020, DCMS began requesting evidence from game companies related to loot boxes as part of a further investigation. It issued its first findings in July 2022, where it concluded that players of games with loot boxes were "more likely to experience gambling, mental health, financial and problem gaming-related harms". DCMS did not intend to change gambling laws in the UK to account for loot boxes as this "would have significant implementation challenges and risks of unintended consequence", but urged video game companies to employ measures to reduce the potential harm to players from loot boxes, such as implementing parental controls, more transparency on loot box odds, and warning players who have spent a large amount of money on loot boxes. The DCMS said they would not hesitate to change laws should the video game industry not work on these measures.
The House of Lords Gambling Committee released a special report on the state of gambling in the UK on July 2, 2020. The report identified the ongoing issue of loot boxes, how they may be seen as gambling and their effect on the youth, and concluded that "Ministers should make regulations under section 6(6) of the Gambling Act 2005 specifying that loot boxes and
any other similar games are games of chance, without waiting for the Government's wider review of the Gambling Act."
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued guidance on mobile games in September 2021 aimed at how such games advertise their in-game premium currency. Among these factors, the ASA's guidance stated that games that included loot boxes must disclose this information on store pages and any advertising for the game. While the ASA cannot penalise companies that fail to follow their standards, being named by the ASA as going against their guidelines can be seen as a deterrent.
In February 2017, the Isle of Man's Gambling Supervision Commission updated their regulations to explicitly define virtual items as being "money's worth" even when not convertible into cash, explicitly bringing loot boxes under statutory regulation.
Netherlands
In April 2018, the Dutch Gaming Authority issued a legal opinion that games which both sell loot boxes and permit the "transfer" of yielded items are illegal. In its report "Study into loot boxes: A treasure or a burden?", the authority stated that four games of the ten it studied violated gambling law in this way. It concluded that while the loot-box systems in the six remaining games did not meet the threshold for legal action, they "nevertheless foster[ed] the development of addiction" and were "at odds" with the authority's objectives.
The authority gave the developers of the four unnamed games eight weeks to correct their loot-box system or face fines and potential bans on sales of the games in the Netherlands. Valve disabled the ability for players to trade in-game items from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2, stating that they were told by the Dutch Gaming Authority that they had until June 20, 2018, to remedy the loot-box situations within these games. On July 11, 2018, Valve re-enabled the ability for players to trade in-game items from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but restricted customers from the Netherlands and Belgium from opening loot boxes. EA had not modified FIFA, leading to the Gaming Authority to seek fines from EA. EA had sued, but lost its case in October 2020, with the judge agreeing with the Gaming Authority's decision related to gambling, and was ordered to remove the ability to sell loot boxes to player in FIFA within three weeks or be fined a total of per week up to a maximum until they were removed. EA has planned to appeal this decision. EA appealed the decision to the Dutch Administrative Jurisdiction Division, which overturned the decision in March 2022. The higher court ruled that since the Ultimate Team packs were part of the larger game of skill, it did not violate the Dutch gambling laws, reversing the fine against EA.
The authority's investigation was opened following a parliamentary question tabled by MP Michiel van Nispen in November 2017. Announcing the investigation, the regulator warned of the "possible dangers" of "addiction and large financial expenses".
Following its April announcement, the Gaming Authority began to solicit other European Union countries to help harmonise their ruling on loot boxes among the Union.
In April 2019, Psyonix disabled the ability for players in the Netherlands (and Belgium) to open loot crates with keys in Rocket League due to government regulations.
Belgium
In April 2018, shortly after the Netherlands' decision on loot boxes, the Belgian Gaming Commission completed its study of loot-box systems in four games, FIFA 18, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Star Wars Battlefront II, and determined that the loot-box systems in FIFA 18, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive were considered games of chance and subject to Belgium's gambling laws. The Commission stated that for loot boxes in Overwatch, the action of opening a loot box is a game of chance to receive items of some perceived value to players, and there is no means to directly purchase in-game currency to obtain a specific item, while games like FIFA 18 merge reality and fantasy by using real-life athletes to promote the loot-box system. Belgium's Minister of Justice Koen Geens stated in these findings that "A dialogue with the sector is necessary" and that "It is often children who come into contact with such [loot box] systems and we cannot allow that". The study was conducted starting in November 2017, during which Battlefront II had temporarily removed loot boxes, so was not considered in violation. The Commission ordered that the loot-box systems from these three games be removed, or otherwise the publishers could face criminal offenses and fines up to . Geens called for a European Union-wide ban of loot boxes, saying that "mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child".
In response to the announcement, several companies made their games with loot boxes unavailable to customers in Belgium with no financial recourse to customers who bought or paid for merchandise in the games:
Valve said that they were "happy to engage with the Belgian Gambling Commission and answer any questions they may have". EA and Activision Blizzard declined to comment. As described above for the Netherlands, a patch to Counter Strike: Global Offensive in July 2018 prevented players from Belgium or the Netherlands from opening loot boxes.
2K Games modified NBA 2K to comply with the ruling by removing the ability to buy MyTeam random card packs with real-world funds for Belgian players, though they can still be purchased through in-game currency. 2K still asserted that loot boxes did not violate Belgium's gambling laws, and encouraged players to contact their local representatives regarding these removals.
Blizzard Entertainment will block Belgian players of Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm from buying loot boxes, though they can still earn these through in-game rewards.
ArenaNet disabled Belgian users from purchasing in-game currency with real-world funds from Guild Wars 2. While the game does not have loot boxes, it does have "Ecto Gambling" that allows players to use in-game currency to obtain random selections of items, which would similarly run afoul of Belgium gambling laws as they found for loot boxes.
Square Enix announced the 2018 recall from app stores of three of its mobile games that include loot-box mechanics: Mobius Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts Union X, and Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia.
Konami disabled the ability for those in Belgium from purchasing in-game currency in Pro Evolution Soccer 2019, which could then be used to buy loot boxes. Players are still able to earn this currency in-game.
Simultaneously with its actions in the Netherlands in April 2019, Rocket League developer Psyonix disabled the ability for Belgium players to open loot boxes.
Nintendo closed down two of its mobile games, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes for Belgian users, as both offer the ability to use real-world money to buy a random in-game item.
Electronic Arts' games FIFA 18 and FIFA 19 were also called out by the commission; however, EA did not make any modifications to these games; EA had previously stated in May 2018 that it did not believe the implementation of loot boxes in their games constituted gambling. As such, the commission has started actions with the Belgian courts to initiate legal action against EA by September 10, 2018, though whether such action is possible would be a decision of the public prosecutor's office. Ultimately on January 29, 2019, EA announced that it would stop selling FIFA Ultimate Team packs with microtransactions to players in Belgium by February, bringing them into compliance with the commission.
In July 2022, an academic study revealed that the Belgian ban on loot boxes has not been enforced by the Commission and that 82 of the 100 highest-grossing iPhone games were still selling loot boxes.
France
Following the controversy on loot boxes and microtransactions on release of Star Wars Battlefront II, French Senator Jérôme Durain wrote to ARJEL, a government-mandated authority that oversees online gambling, to ask them to investigate the situation with pay-to-win loot boxes. Durain's letter stated his concerns that "some observers point to a convergence of the video game world and practices specific to gambling" in his request. ARJEL's report, released in June 2018, does not immediately consider loot boxes as gambling, but does address the need to continue to investigate them further following a planned report to be published by the Gaming Regulators European Forum. ARJEL noted that items from loot boxes do not normally have monetary value, and even when they are traded through skin gambling, the publisher of such games do not participate in that arena, thus distancing loot boxes from other forms of gambling.
Germany
In February 2018 Germany's Commission for Youth Media Protection announced research into loot boxes undertaken at the University of Hamburg which concluded that they present features "typical of gambling markets". Commission head Wolfgang Kreißig said that it was "conceivable that loot boxes could violate the ban on advertising to children and adolescents". The commission concluded in March 2018 that loot boxes can possibly violate the prohibition of direct advertisement appeals to buy products directed towards minors; however, the games that they studied were rated for players of at least 16 years old, and thus were not targeted to be played by minors. The commission remained open on hearing complaints towards loot boxes on specific games, though have no legal authority to enact any fines or penalties should they be found to be against law.
In October 2019, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM) stated it was looking into blacklisting the game Coin Master for distribution in Germany after Jan Böhmermann had discussed issues with the game's monetisation mechanics. While Coin Master does not use loot boxes, the game uses a gameplay mechanism that requires the player to play a virtual slot machine to advance in the game, with the opportunity to use items purchased with real-world funds to influence or bypass the slot machine to achieve desirable results, a model adapted by many other games and one that can encourage or trivialise excessive gambling. If Coin Master had been blacklisted the BPjM may have opened the door for other games with similar monetisation routes to be reviewed. By March 2020, BPjM opted not to blacklist the game, but later announced in July 2020 that it may consider requiring games like Coin Master and games with loot boxes to be rated at a higher ratings level under a new Youth Protection Act that is expected to be passed and in enforcement in early 2021.
Germany's Bundestag passed revisions to the Youth Protection Act in March 2021 that would update the ratings systems for games to mark those with loot boxes or similar mechanics as "cost traps".
Sweden
Also in February 2018, Ardalan Shekarabi, the Swedish Minister for Public Administration, stated that he was "ready to ask [the] authorities to take a closer look at the phenomenon of loot boxes and see if there is a need to change legislation in order to strengthen consumer protection." He raised the prospect of loot boxes being classified as a lottery by 2019. Shekarabi instructed the Swedish Consumer Agency in May 2019 to review consumer protection around loot boxes, particularly in how well they protect minors.
Poland
In February 2019, the Polish Ministry of Finance issued a statement saying that loot boxes are not gambling in the light of the Polish law, although it noted that they may well constitute gambling in other jurisdictions. Polish law defines gambling very specifically, and the current definition is not applicable to loot boxes.
European Union
A July 2020 report prepared on behalf of the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCP), "Loot boxes in online games and their effect on consumers, in particular young consumers", was one of the first reports to reframe loot boxes as a matter of consumer protection rather than a gambling concern. The report identified that loot boxes in video games have "problematic design features" that create an "irresistible urge to play" and a "growing tension that could only be relieved by playing" in an addictive loop. While the report identified this had similarities with gambling, the authors also urged that the European Parliament consider the loot box issue at a consumer protection standpoint since it can create addictive behavior particularly in young persons. The report included recommendations such as restrictions on design features that encourage the addictive loop, better disclosure from publishers to players on loot box odds and the risks of playing such games, parental controls, and consumer testing with governmental oversight.
A report by the Norwegian Consumer Council and backed by 18 other EU countries, released in May 2022, found that loot boxes in games like FIFA and Raid: Shadow Legends were "exploitative and predatory", and positioned the EU to include regulations related to loot boxes in upcoming directive discussions.
North America
United States
There are presently no laws in the United States targeting loot boxes, though the renewed interest in the issues with skin gambling from mid-2016 highlighted several concerns with using virtual items for gambling purposes. In past case law, courts have ruled that gambling with virtual currency within a video game is not illegal as long as there are no ties to real money, steps Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games have done with their titles. Further, most states define gambling laws based on receiving something of value from paying for a game of chance, and traditionally, in-game items are considered to have no value in previous case law. However, with more technically literate court judges that may consider "value" more than just a financial value, alongside new perception of how much value in-game items can have resulting from the skin gambling situation, could change how the framework in the United States would classify loot boxes.
Hawaii state representatives Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan issued a statement in November 2017 taking a stance against loot boxes. "These kinds of lootboxes and microtransactions are explicitly designed to prey upon and exploit human psychology in the same way casino games are so designed." They plan to introduce legislation in the State of Hawaii, specifically to block sale of Star Wars Battlefront II, and that they have spoken to lawmakers from other states to enact similar laws, such that federal legislation could be possible if enough states take action. Quinlan stated:
I realized just how bad it has gotten. We've been on this path for 15 years with day-one DLC, subscription passes, pay-to-win. We as consumers kept accepting that, kept buying those games. Now we're at a place where we need to consider, do we need to legislate? Does the ESRB have to consider a new rating that could deal with gambling and addictive mechanics?
Rather than passing legislation that could have a slippery slope of harmful effects on the industry, Quinlan stated he would prefer to see the industry self-regulate, either by excluding gambling-like mechanics in games marketed to children, or have the industry rate games with these mechanics for more mature audiences which would affect how they would be sold and marketed. Lee later outlined how he would present a law, which would ban the sale of games to anyone under 21 if it contained a gambling element, defined if real-world funds are used to provide a "percentage chance" of receiving a specific in-game item rather than the item directly, applied both at retail and at digital distribution. By February 2018, two separate bills were introduced in Hawaii's state legislature: one bill would require retail games featuring loot-box mechanisms to have clear labeling stating "Warning: contains in-game purchases and gambling-like mechanisms which may be harmful or addictive", while a second bill would regulate sale of these games to only those 21 years of age or older, the minimum age for gambling within the state. However, by March 2018, the bills failed to meet necessary requirements to be considered in the legislation, and were dropped.
In January 2018, three senators in Washington state introduced Senate Bill 6266 (S-3638.1) in the state legislature, which would, if enacted, order the Washington State Gambling Commission to investigate loot boxes and their potential effect on underage gambling.
Minnesota introduced a bill in April 2018 that would prohibit sale of games with loot-box systems to children under 18 years of age, and require specific labelling on these games to alert consumers to the loot-box system.
In early May 2019, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced that he intends to introduce a bill named "The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act" that would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in "games played by minors", using similar qualifications to determine this as previously defined in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The Federal Trade Commission would be responsible for enforcing the bill by making judgements and leveling fines for games that fail to take these steps. The bill was formally introduced in the United States Senate in the 116th Congress on May 23, 2019, as Senate Bill 1629, with co-sponsors Ed Markey (Massachusetts) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), both Democrats. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation at that time, and no further action was taken on it, with the bill expiring at the end of the 116th United States Congress on January 3, 2021.
In the wake of the May 2022 Norwegian Consumer Council's report on loot boxes, fifteen advocacy groups wrote an open letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging them to evaluate FIFA and its Ultimate Team packs for its "manipulative design abuses", based on evidence from the Norwegian report.
Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo settled with the FTC in January 2025 to end a lawsuit brought by the FTC over loot boxes. The FTC claimed that Genshin Impact players under 16 years of age could purchase loot boxes, failed to disclose the odds of obtaining goods from loot boxes or their real-world costs, and used dark pattern tactics to draw players to buy loot boxes. In addition to paying the FTC $20 million, MiHoYo says they will implement controls to prevent younger players from purchasing loot boxes without parental approval, and improve disclosure around loot boxes.
Multi-national
In September 2018, members from the gambling commissions from fifteen European nations, including Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, UK, as well as the state of Washington from the United States, announced a collaborative effort to "address the risks created by the blurring of lines between gaming and gambling". While the group's specific focus will be on skin gambling sites, they will be looking to "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws".
Self-regulation
Video game industry bodies have generally stated that they cannot regulate loot boxes as gambling unless the law of their countries specify what counts as gambling within games.
Europe
In many European countries, voluntary ratings for video games are provided by PEGI. PEGI has stated that a game having a loot-box system will not automatically require its "gambling content" descriptor. PEGI further stated that "It's not up to PEGI to decide whether something is considered gambling or not—this is defined by national gambling laws".
Parliamentary questions in the United Kingdom revealed in March 2018 that PEGI is "considering the possibility of placing [in-game purchase] notifications on boxed products". PEGI announced in April 2020 that it will add the supplementary label "Includes Paid Random Items" for games featuring loot box-like mechanics.
Japan
Before the disbanding of the Japan Social Game Association (JSGA) in 2015, it issued 2 self-regulatory guidelines for in-game gacha: provide a minimum 1% payout rate and establish a payment ceiling. For example, if a player has poured certain amount of money in gacha, the player is given a chance to choose whatever reward they want from the gacha pool freely. The association recommended a 50,000-yen ceiling.
The Japan Online Game Association (JOGA), which now serves as the Japanese video game industry's self-regulatory body in lieu of JSGA, also issued similar guidelines with further specifications such as "listing all available rewards from the lootbox and payout rates of all rewards" and "listing changes to all available rewards and payout rates upon software revision, specifically during festive campaign with a deadline". While the new guideline does not recommend any payment ceiling, it recommends to display the expected maximum bet in order to guarantee obtaining the item if it exceeds 50,000 yen.
United Kingdom
UKIE, the video game industry trade organisation for the United Kingdom, asserted its stance that loot boxes do not constitute gambling and are "already covered by and fully compliant with existing relevant UK regulations".
United States
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), like PEGI, provides voluntary video game content ratings for games in the United States. ESRB does not consider loot boxes as a form of gambling, and will not rate such games with their "Real Gambling" content descriptions. ESRB considers that loot boxes are equivalent to collectible card game booster packs, and that the player is always receiving something of value with opening a loot-box purchase, even if it is not something the player desires. The Board further stated that games that are labelled with "Real Gambling" will likely be then rated "AO" (Adults Only), to comply with gambling laws; retailers typically do not stock such games, and would thus harm a publisher. Additionally, the ESRB also sees themselves as responsible to help guide parents on video game content. As an example, they found that parents were more worried about children spending money in-game and not any gambling aspects, and thus did not include loot boxes as one of its content descriptions, though would like to add them in the future should legislation or other industry standards establish gambling as a critical issue.
The Entertainment Software Association, the parent organization of the ESRB, asserted loot boxes are not a form of gambling, stressing that they are a voluntary and optional aspect in these games. Major publishers Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive have also stated they do not see loot boxes as gambling due to their voluntary nature. Electronic Arts' CEO Andrew Wilson stated in May 2018 that they will continue to include loot boxes in their games, and "While we forbid the transfer of items of in-the-game currency outside, we're also actively seeking to eliminate that where it's going on in an illegal environment, and we're working with regulators in various jurisdictions to achieve that".
While other publishers have acquiesced to governmental concerns about loot boxes, Electronic Arts has been generally steadfast in that they do not believe their implementation of loot boxes is a form of gambling. In statements made at hearings with the British Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, EA representatives compared loot boxes to "surprise mechanics" that one would find with Kinder Surprise eggs, and believe that their implementation of loot boxes are "quite ethical and quite fun, quite enjoyable to people".
In the wake of the criticism over Star Wars Battlefront II, financial analysts suggested that the video game industry will need to develop self-regulating principles to better handle monetisation and loot-box schemes to avoid government intervention into the industry.
In February 2018, Senator Maggie Hassan brought up the issue of loot boxes during a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to four Federal Trade Commission nominees, which the Commission oversees. She asked the nominees if "that children being addicted to gaming—and activities like loot boxes that might make them more susceptible to addiction—is a problem that merits attention?"; all four nominees agreed attention would be necessary. The same day, Hassan authored a letter to the ESRB "to review the completeness of the board's ratings process and policies as they relate to loot boxes, and to take into account the potential harm these types of micro-transactions may have on children" and "to examine whether the design and marketing approach to loot boxes in games geared toward children is being conducted in an ethical and transparent way that adequately protects the developing minds of young children from predatory practices." Though neither the hearing nor the letter called for regulation, Brian Crecente of Glixel considered these as pretense to get the ESRB to act on its own before Congress would be forced to take legislative action.
In response to Hassan's letter, the ESRB announced in February 2018 that it would require any rated game that offers any type of in-game purchase with real-world funds, encompassing loot boxes, would be required to be labeled as such. ESRB stated the labeling was primarily meant to help parents watch for games for their children, and because of the brevity of space they have on retail packaging, did not opt to require publishers to identify the specific form of microtransaction. However, the board still asserted that they still do not believe loot boxes themselves are a form of gambling. While Sen. Hassan called the ESRB's decision a "step forward", she still remained concerned of "the ESRB's skepticism regarding the potentially addictive nature of loot boxes and microtransactions in video games", and stated "I will work with all relevant stakeholders to continue oversight on these issues and ensure that meaningful improvements are made to increase transparency and consumer protections." The ESRB introduced this new label "In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)" in April 2020 to be used for games that include loot box-style mechanics.
During a November 2018 Congressional hearing over problems with Cambridge Analytica's data leak and associated with Facebook and Google, Joseph Simons, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), promised to Congress that the FTC will investigate loot boxes, considering the potential market value of microtransactions. After the government had shut down in early 2019, delaying the FTC review, Hassan pushed on the FTC to provide an update on their review of loot boxes.
The FTC held a public hearing on loot boxes on August 7, 2019, addressing industry representative and reviewing public comments submitted prior to the meeting. During the meeting, ESA representatives stated that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are working on developing requirements for new or updated games using loot boxes, published on their respective console systems, to disclose the odds for items from loot boxes. Other publishers within the ESA, including Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Bungie, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., and Wizards of the Coast, also stated they are committed to doing the same for other gaming platforms such as on personal computers, as to align with the existing requirements for the iOS App Store and Google Play mobile platforms. These efforts are expected to be in place before the end of 2020, according to the ESA. Nintendo issued a new policy the next day to reflect the statement made to the FTC, requiring loot box odds to be published for all new and updated games on its systems, and assuring such games with in-game purchases could be regulated by parents on their Nintendo Switch Online app. Epic Games affirmed they would also follow similar policies as adopted by the ESA and other publishers, already having taken steps to eliminate loot boxes from Fortnite, Rocket League and other games in its portfolio.
Worldwide
Apple implemented changes to the iOS App Store in December 2017, requiring developers that publish games to the Store that include monetised loot boxes or other similar mechanisms that provide random items in exchange for real-world funds, to publish the odds of items that can be received from these mechanisms prior to the player spending funds on the game. Google followed suit by May 2019, requiring apps in the Play Store using loot box mechanics to publish their odds.
In November 2018, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) urged the video game industry to take action on loot boxes before governments step in to regulate them. IGDA identified three areas for the industry to focus on: commit to not marketing loot-box mechanics to youth, disclose the odds of receiving items in loot boxes, and educate parents on in-game parental controls.
In February 2019, review aggregator OpenCritic began incorporating details about games that use loot boxes into its summary pages for games.
In the academic literature, King and Delfabbro proposed twenty-four "social responsibility" measures that could be implemented by video game companies to prevent or reduce overspending on loot boxes. However, the willingness of the industry to adopt these measures has been questioned because of the industry's economic interests.
Litigation
In February 2020, two separate class-action lawsuits were filed in France against Electronic Arts over the Ultimate Team part of the FIFA games asserting it is equivalent to unregulated gambling. One class member asserted they spent over on Ultimate Team packs and never received a high-ranking place, which was necessary to get to be able to compete online with other players. The suits also contend that the FIFA games lack any parental controls to limit spending, which, combined with the pay-to-win nature of Ultimate Team, encourage underage gambling, directly referencing the 2019 decisions from Belgium and the Netherlands.
A class-action lawsuit filed in California in June 2020 against Apple asserted that through the games using loot boxes mechanics offered by Apple's App Store, Apple "engages in predatory practices enticing consumers, including children to engage in gambling and similar addictive conduct in violation of this and other laws designed to protect consumers and to prohibit such practices". The lawsuit asserts that with these apps, Apple allows their devices to become unauthorised gambling devices which are illegal under California's code.
Another class-action lawsuit was filed against EA in California in August 2020 over their Ultimate Team loot boxes in FIFA and Madden NFL games, with the plaintiff represented by the same legal firm as the June 2020 case against Apple. The EA case seeks a jury trial to decide if the Ultimate Team loot boxes are considered gambling mechanisms under California law, and seek in damages. Yet another lawsuit brought against EA in California in November 2020 asserted that the Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment feature used in the FIFA, Madden NFL, and NHL series, each which use a variation on the Ultimate Team approach, is purposely designed to alter the playing habits of gamers to reduce their chances of gaining Ultimate Team drops in game and draw them to purchase such items through microtransactions. This lawsuit was dropped in March 2021 after EA provided technical information and gave the plaintiff access to their engineers to make the assessment that the Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment was not used in any of the Ultimate Team modes.
A class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois against Take Two Interactive in January 2022 for the use of loot box mechanics in the NBA 2K series. The lawsuit, filed by the parent of a minor, states that the games "psychologically distance" the implications of loot box purchases from real-world financial costs, and thus engages in deceptive practices.
Impact
As a result of the heightened criticism and regulation in late 2017, developers and publishers have pulled loot boxes from their games. Such games include Star Wars Battlefront II, Dauntless, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Forza Motorsport 7, and Rocket League. Others have adopted other monetization schemes that eliminate the random elements associated with loot boxes, such as challenge-based battle passes stemming from Fortnite Battle Royale.
Other games have kept loot boxes but altered how they can be purchased or their mechanics to eliminate some of the randomness and gambling attributes associated with them. In March 2019, Heroes of the Storm removed the ability to buy loot boxes with real money. Loot boxes with random content are still available as free in-game rewards, but, after the March patch, cosmetic options are available for direct purchase with real money as well. In January 2019, Epic Games adjusted the mechanics of Fortnite: Save the World loot boxes that are purchased with real-world funds, allowing purchasers to see the contents of the loot box before buying, as to address concerns of loot boxes being related to gambling; in 2022, Epic remove the ability to buy loot boxes and starter packs with real money. EA introduced a similar mechanic in FIFA 21 in June 2021 called Ultimate Team Preview Packs, allowing users to preview the contents of these packs before they purchase.
References
Video game design
Business models
Gambling terminology
Video game controversies
2010s neologisms
Video game law
Gambling legislation
2010s in video gaming
Video game terminology | Loot box | [
"Technology"
] | 17,214 | [
"Computing terminology",
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54,878,490 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%205662 | NGC 5662 is an open cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille on May 17, 1752 from South Africa. James Dunlop observed it on July 10, 1826 from Parramatta, Australia and added it to his catalog as No. 342.
It is a rich cluster (Trumpler class II3r), with 295 stars according to Haug (1978) and 280 according with Archinal, Hynes (2003). One of its members, V Centauri, is a cepheid variable. Despite its large distance from the cluster centre, it has high likelihood of being a member of it.
The tidal radius of the cluster is 6.4 - 12.4 parsecs (21 - 40 light years) and represents the average outer limit of NGC 5662, beyond which a star is unlikely to remain gravitationally bound to the cluster core.
References
External links
5662
Centaurus
Open clusters | NGC 5662 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 198 | [
"Centaurus",
"Constellations"
] |
54,880,180 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden%20Canopy%20of%20the%20Temple%20of%20the%20Tooth | The Golden Canopy of the Temple of the Tooth () is a canopy used to cover the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha, housed in the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth) in Kandy Sri Lanka.
In 1986 the Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa made an official visit to the temple to pay homage to the sacred tooth relic. During this visit, the chief monks complained about water leaking from the roof and Premadasa pledged to cover the roof with a bronze sheet. Six months later, Premadasa formally announced plans to build a golden canopy over the inner shrine room of the temple. There were a number of objectors to the proposal including the Director of the Sri Lankan Department of Archeology, Roland Silva, arguing that a canopy over the existing roof would risk the structural integrity of the building and the temple's heritage value, given that there had been no additions made to the building since the last King of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, had occupied the throne. On 31 December 1987 the golden canopy, which cost more than Rs 20M, was officially unveiled by Premadasa. The gold plated tiles on the canopy were imported from Japan and installed upon a steel frame. As the use of concrete was not practical due to the limited timeframe for construction a steel frame was erected however this resulted in the canopy being subject to swaying so further steel supports were installed, projecting from the upper level of the Dalada Museum, directly behind the Palle Mahala (Tevava Chamber).
Political commentators at the time attribute Premadasa's decision to erected the golden canopy as being a significant factor in his subsequent election to the country's presidency in January 1988. The canopy over the country's most sacred relic symbolising and reinforcing the public view of his commitment that the country should remain a Sinhalese Buddhist nation.
In 2002 the canopy sheets were refurbished using 4,000 gold plated ceramic tiles produced in Sri Lanka.
In 2017 Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe publicly promised that the canopy will be renovated. A week after, President Maithripala Sirisena gave Rs. 45 million for gold plating the golden canopy.
References
Roofs
Ceilings
1987 establishments in Sri Lanka
Buddhist temples in Kandy | Golden Canopy of the Temple of the Tooth | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 463 | [
"Structural system",
"Ceilings",
"Structural engineering",
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54,881,118 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine%20%28journal%29 | Cytokine is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of cytokines as they relate to multiple disciplines, including molecular biology, immunology, and genetics. It was established in 1989 and is published by Elsevier. It is the official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. The editor-in-chief is Dhan Kalvakolanu (University of Maryland School of Medicine). According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2016 impact factor of 3.488 .
References
External links
Elsevier academic journals
Immunology journals
Academic journals established in 1989
Monthly journals
Biochemistry journals
English-language journals
Academic journals associated with international learned and professional societies | Cytokine (journal) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 143 | [
"Biochemistry stubs",
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"Biochemistry literature",
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54,883,149 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Play | Auto-Play is a feature used by some websites containing at least one embedded video or audio element wherein the video or audio element starts playing, automatically, without explicit user choice, after some triggering event such as page load or navigating to a particular region of the webpage.
Features
On a website-by-website basis, auto-play may or may not be configurable. Using technology such as cookies, some websites allow a user to select a volume for sound on one page, and may remember that choice (until changed by the user) when reloading content or loading new content. This feature is not dependent on the auto-play or lack of auto-play nature of the media element or website, as it can be applied to non-auto-play elements as well.
Elements with auto-play sounds may or may not allow the user to directly adjust the sound volume with the element itself, and the element may default to a particular sound level (relative to sound settings already set at the browser or system level).
Some websites may employ hooks to allow on media element, once finished, to trigger the auto-play of another elements. This feature may or may not involve a new page load. This feature is not necessarily dependent on whether the starting media element was itself started manually by the user or via an auto-play trigger.
Applications
Auto-Play may appear as a feature in website advertisements and in website content. The embedded elements may use such technology as Flash Player, streaming media, or pre-recorded media. It may appear as part of the webpage (for example, advertisements and embedded video) or more prominently (for example, webpages dedicated to a specific media element, such as a movie or Flash game).
Various technologies may be used, in tandem or on their own, to support auto-play.
Auto-Play can serve as a convenience to the user (for example, auto-play of a movie of some other media element), or an attempt to attract a user's attention, which may or may not also be a convenience (for example, advertisements, embedded video in a news story webpage).
Criticism and support
For some applications (generally when applied to content a user is not likely to have been looking for, such as advertisements), auto-play is discussed in some tech forums and by some tech groups as "bad practice".
For other applications (such as webpages dedicated to specific media elements a user is likely to have been targeting, such as a specific video or audio recording), the ostensible convenience factor of auto-play may be accepted or even expected by the user.
References
Web design
Web development software | Auto-Play | [
"Engineering"
] | 545 | [
"Design",
"Web design"
] |
54,884,039 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%204483 | NGC 4483 is a barred lenticular galaxy located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. NGC 4483 was discovered by astronomer Heinrich d'Arrest on March 19, 1865. NGC 4483 is a member of the Virgo Cluster.
See also
List of NGC objects (4001–5000)
NGC 4340
References
External links
Barred lenticular galaxies
Virgo (constellation)
4483
Virgo Cluster
41339
7649
Astronomical objects discovered in 1865 | NGC 4483 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 101 | [
"Virgo (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
54,888,447 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional%20attitude%20theory | Functional attitude theory (FAT) suggests that beliefs and attitudes are influential to various psychological functions. Attitudes can be influential on many processes such as being utilitarian (useful), social, relating to values, or a reduction of cognitive dissonance. They can be beneficial and help people interact with the world. In the late 1950s when psychoanalysis and behaviorism reigned supreme as the foci of psychological studies, Smith, Bruner, and White (1956) and Katz (1960) separately and independently developed typologies of human attitudes in relation to the functions to which they believed the attitudes served. This theory proposes that attitudes are held by individuals because they are important and integral to psychological functioning. The function of an attitude is more important than whether the attitude is accurate or correct.
Background
Aristotle's Rhetoric, renowned for its modes of persuasion in ethos, logos, and pathos, gave mankind its first recorded guide to and theory of social influence. Aristotle recognized that different appeals are necessary for different types of persuasion, and that these appeals can be tailored and refined to better suit the audience or better suit the product or idea at hand. In the late 1950s when psychoanalysis and behaviorism reigned supreme in the U.S. as the foci of psychological studies, Smith, Bruner, and White (1956) and Katz (1960) separately and independently developed typologies of human attitudes in relation to the functions to which they believed the attitudes served. The goal of these ‘functional attitude theories,’ (FAT) as they would come to be known, was to understand the effect of functional attitudinal states in relation cognition and behavior, and specifically, for Katz (1960),> to increase the efficacy of persuasive communications by matching approaches or appeals to the function that the attitude served.
Smith et al. (1956) concentrated on the links between attitudinal states and personality and interviewed ten men regarding their attitude toward the Soviet Union (Carpenter et al., 2013). This logically inductive study was too small to make any binding conclusions, and the study's non-empirical nature meant that it would be dubious as a base for future research, but Smith and colleagues’ foundational theories would go on to inspire and guide future FAT research. Likewise, Katz's (1960) deductive findings did more to explain and define the general concepts of FAT than it did in guiding the methods of future research. In fact, the lack of earlier research on FAT has been linked to both studies’ failure to provide reproducible and falsifiable methods for future research on the theory (Harris & Toledo, 1997; Shavitt & Nelson, 2002). Despite this lack of methodology, both studies contributed to the basic concepts of FAT as it came of age in the 1980s and on.
Concepts
Within FAT, attitudes are considered qualitative variables in relation to the function that they serve. That is, attitudes are the independent variable of a set function (utilitarian, social-adjustive, etc.), which influence both cognition and behavior (dependent variables). Researchers posited that people develop attitudes to serve their goals, and that although any particular attitude might serve multiple functions, it would generally serve one more than the others (Katz, 1960; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956 ). They theorized that although two people might have an attitude with exactly the same valence, that attitude might serve very different functions for each person. While different attitudes serve different psychological functions, it is imperative to note that they are not mutually exclusive of one another as similar attitudes may be developed for different reasons by different people; it is the aim of FAT to understand why these attitudes develop to better understand how to influence them (Harris & Toledo, 1997). Though different terminology was employed, both Katz (1960) and Smith et al. (1956) conceptualized similar attitude functions: utilitarian, social-adjustive, value-expressive, ego-defensive, and knowledge. These five traditional functional attitudes are defined briefly below, followed by a synthesis of recent "neofunctional" FAT studies, and a brief critique of FAT.
Utilitarian attitudes
Many attitudes serve a utilitarian function by serving to amplify rewards and minimize the punishments attained from objects in the environment (Katz 1960, Smith et al., 1956). The models of utilitarian attitudes are consequentialist theories: that which creates right acts is their consequences (Miller, 1990). It refers to theories of right action whereas the right act to choose in any situation is the one that will achieve the highest balance of pleasure over pain for all affected beings. When no act is available to which will produce net pleasure, the act which is right will produce the least net pain. As an example, one's attitude toward ice cream may serve a utilitarian function because it is likely to be based on the reward (e.g., enjoyable taste) and punishments (e.g., weight gain) associated with ice cream and to guide behavior that maxims benefits while minimizing costs (e.g., eating low-fat ice cream) (Shavitt & Nelson, 2002). Based in human beings' need to discriminate between objects that produce pleasure and increase task efficiency and those that produce pain and decrease task efficiency, utilitarian functions aid in increasing utility (Carpenter et al., 2013). An individual with a utilitarian attitude is concerned with how an object will assist in improving their quality of life. In terms of products, any T-shirt could be considered utilitarian in terms of its ability to provide comfort and some shelter for an individual.
Social-adjustive attitudes
Social-adjustive functions are those which regulate relationships and enable individuals to climb the social ladder through outward displays of status which are theorized to make the individual more attractive or popular in the eyes of valued groups. An individual with a social-adjustive attitude is concerned with status, popularity, and how they are viewed by others and will seek objects that assist in developing their desired social image (Carpenter et al., 2013). An example of a product with social-adjustive function would be a designer T-shirt, such as one with an embroidered horse or a couture-brand logo that communicates its worth to viewers. Attitudes serving a social-adjustive function promote the capability to connect with appropriate social group members or to impress attractive others. Snyder and DeBono (1985)
have suggested that attitudes may often serve contrasting functions for people who differ in self-monitoring. High self-monitoring individuals typically attempt to tailor their behavior to the social/interpersonal requirement of the situations they encounter, to fit in with others, thus implying that they may often hold attitudes that serve a social-adjustive function. In a series of studies assessing participants' responses to advertisements, Snyder and DeBono (1985)
found that high self-monitoring individuals were influenced more by image-oriented "soft-sell" ads that implied a product's utility at helping its users to fit in with others (i.e., social-adjustive concerns), whereas low self-monitoring individuals were much more responsive to "hard-sell" ads that focused on the intrinsic quality and value of the products (said to reflect value-expressive concerns) (Bazzini & Shaffer 1995). Advertising studies have shown that participants form more favorable attitudes toward a variety of consumer goods when the ads highlight functionally relevant rather than functionally irrelevant concerns (Shavitt, 1989; Snyder & DeBono, 1985). Persuasive appeals are most effective at influencing attitudes when they in some way address the underlying motives that such attitudes serve (DeBono & Harnish, 1988).
Value-expressive attitudes
Perhaps the most difficult to conceptualize and affect, value-expressive functions assist in the outward expression of innate values. Some attitudes are meaningful to a person because they articulate beliefs that are intrinsic to that person's self-concept (i.e. their ideas about who they are). The attitude is, consequently, "part of who they are" and the expression of that attitude communicates important things about that person to others (Carpenter et al., 2013). Hullett (2002) used value-relevance as an indication of the perceived utility of an attitude to achieve a desired end-state. It is a direct measure of the relationship between a value and an attitude, rather than a measure of the expression of attitudes that are linked to personal values. Concentrating on value-expressive communication of an attitude rather than value-relevance allows communication behavior to take center stage in considering the relationship between values, attitudes, and behaviors (Carpenter et al., 2013). Value-expressive attitudes serve no direct outward purpose, and can be best understood as existing to satisfy an individual's need to feel unique and true-to-self. Individuals with value-expressive attitudes are not concerned with much other than being true to themselves (Carpenter et al., 2013). Product-wise, a concert T-shirt that was passed down from father to son due to their shared value of the musical stylings of that artist would be value-expressive in that the son feels the T-shirt, no matter how dingy, is an extension of his true self.
Ego-defensive attitudes
Ego-defensive functions serve to protect the individual from both internal and external unpleasantness. Ego-defensive attitudes allow people to avoid accepting unpalatable or objectionable aspects of self or of the external world. Ego-defensive attitudes can advocate conserving one's own self-esteem. An ego-defensive function, in which one's attitude is held to protect oneself from threatening or undesirable truths (Bazzini & Shaffer 1995). Threats to self-esteem can include personal failings or poor behavior. Katz (1960) and Shavitt and Nelson (2002) posit that ego-defensive attitudes aid in self-esteem maintenance through multiple processes. Cialdini et al. (1976) propose that a product serving an ego-defensive function would be a T-shirt with the logo of a championship-winning sports team to boost one's own ego through what they term "basking in reflected glory". That is, the recognition of a sports team's greatness serves to boost one's own self-esteem through general association.
Knowledge attitudes
The fifth function, that of knowledge, aids individuals in comprehending the world around them. Individuals with a knowledge attitude seek to understand occurrences out of the desire to know, not because it is immediately relevant to their needs, but because they simply want to understand (Carpenter et al., 2013). Attitudes that serve a knowledge function help people gain greater understanding of the structure and operation of their world (Katz, 1960). The world that people inhabit is extremely complex, and that attitudes might facilitate making sense of that world without serving needs other than understanding. Other scholars propose that the knowledge function drives attitudes that serve for no purpose other than learning about the world as an end in itself, predicated on a basic need to know (Locander & Spivey, 1978).
Contemporary research
In 1986 Gregory Herek posited that all attitudes should be perceived as serving either an evaluative or an expressive function, with all attitudes serving one of these functions to some extent. This "neofunctional" reconceptualization allows for attitudes to then serve multiple functions, which thus allows researchers to measure how much influence each attitude has on function (Carpenter et al., 2013). Herek (1986) also posited that some personality characteristics may be linked to attitudes serving a specific function. This suggestion has proven to be valid in a multitude of studies that take self-monitoring into account as a predictable personality type in relation to attitude functions (Snyder & DeBono, 1985; Shavitt, 1990; Shavitt & Nelson, 2002).
Herek's (1986) neofunctional theory resulted in a boom of development of social influence research relating to FAT. Most of this research has centered around the "matching hypothesis" that stems from the original Katz (1960) study, as it manipulates individuals' attitudes to determine whether matching product advertising appeals to attitude functions regarding the product. Most this research has shown that matching functional attitudes to messaging regarding the function of a product results in increased persuasive salience (Shavitt, 1990; Shavitt & Nelson, 2002). Other studies have gone even further in attempting to measure the cognitive processes that underlie individual functional attitudes especially in relation to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (DeBono & Harnish, 1988; Petty & Wegener, 1998), albeit to mixed results showing positive ELM-based processing for high self-monitors, but negative suasory effects in subjects deemed to be low self-monitoring.
Herek's neofunctional approach
After Katz (1960) and Smith's (1956) seminal studies, the functional approach to attitudes was effectively abandoned. Citing the lack of empirical methodological tests to quantify attitude functions as the main reason for the detriment of functional attitude theory, in 1986 Gregory Herek set out to create a new approach to functional attitude theory (Herek, 1986). Recognizing the validity of both the reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, 1980) and the symbolic approaches (Kinder & Sears, 1981) to attitudes, Herek proposed that both approaches may be equally appropriate to employ depending on certain person characteristics, attitude domains, or situations (Herek, 1986, 1987). Herek posited that attitudes serve two general purposes: they are either evaluative or expressive. Within evaluative attitudes, Herek proposed three evaluative functions: experiential and specific, experiential and schematic, or anticipatory-evaluative. Likewise, expressive attitudes served three separate functions: social-expressive, value-expressive, or defensive. Herek's Neofunctional Approach to Attitudes, then, proposed that these different attitudes regarding the same attitude object may form for different purposes in different situations or domains, and, likewise, individuals may hold the same attitudes toward the object, but for a variety of different functions. By allowing for multiple attitudes to be held for different functions, Herek created a quantitative scale that allows for empirical comparison of multiple attitudes regarding the same object (Carpenter, 2013).
Development
Herek claimed that functionalism was attractive as an approach to attitude theory because it felt like "common sense" to most people and possessed the potential to integrate other attitude theories such as Ajzen & Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action, or Sears et al.'s (1980) symbolic politics (Herek, 1987), but because Smith (1956) and Katz (1960) failed to create accurate and consistent methodologies in their seminal studies, functionalism was never able to get off the ground and develop a comprehensive theory able to predict conditions under which specific attitude functions would dominate (Herek, 1987). To create an empirical functional theory, Herek first developed two different methodologies to quantify and group different functions of attitudes.
Method One: Content Analysis
Herek set out to determine what functions attitudes mainly served by conducting content analyses of undergraduate student essays describing their feelings about lesbian women and gay men (Herek, 1987). Herek chose the topic because of his belief that it was a controversial enough issue at the time to elicit extreme attitudes both in terms of acceptance and rejection of gay people. Because of the nature of the issue, it was also expected that attitudes reported regarding gays would be deeply-held and would serve a wide range of functions. Subjects were instructed to begin their essay with "I have generally positive [or negative] attitudes toward lesbians and male homosexuals because…" (Herek, p. 287). Herek and two assistants then categorized the essays by themes, defined as, "any idea or complete thought somehow related to the respondent's attitudes." The researchers found twenty-eight recurring themes which they then coded every essay for, parsing categories as necessary. After the preliminary study, which evaluated 110 essays, a new sample of 248 students from the same university wrote attitude essays on the same topic of gays and lesbians. The new sample also completed questionnaires that collected demographic data and were also used to select students who reported exclusively heterosexual behaviors. A total of 205 of this new sample qualified for coding based on the presence or absence of the 28 themes previously found. Using block cluster analysis, the researchers identified patterns of multiple themes within essays, which were interpreted to indicate the presence of function(s). Block cluster analysis resulted in five interpretable clusters of themes which were then refined per the theoretical perspectives of Smith et al. (1956) and Katz (1960). This refinement resulted in two patterns of themes containing positive attitudes (experiential-schematic: positive, self-expressive: positive), and three patterns containing negative attitudes (experiential-schematic: negative, self-expressive: negative, and defensive).
Method Two: Attitude Functions Inventory
Recognizing that content analysis can be a time-consuming procedure, Herek also developed an objective inventory for attitude functions based on the sentence "My opinions about [target] mainly are based on…" with different completions for the sentence based on the four functions: experiential-schematic, defensive, value-expressive, and social-expressive (Herek, 1987). Sixty-nine subjects completed four variations of the AFI, the first of which was a follow-up to the original content analysis assessing the attitudes toward lesbians and gays, and the other three examining attitudes toward persons with AIDS, cancer, or mental illness, respectively. Using a Likert scale, respondents rated AFI statements on a scale ranging from 'not at all,' 'true of me,' or 'very true of me.' Additionally, respondents completed three attitude-related personality measures: the Defense Mechanisms Inventory, the Self-Consciousness Scale, and the Self-Monitoring Scale. Using the results of the personality tests, Herek successfully predicted where certain personalities would fall on the AFI, with all personalities falling somewhere on the scale.
Neofunctional attitude functions
Evaluative functions
The source benefit of evaluative functions is associated with rewards and punishments from the attitude object itself. This means that when a functionally evaluative attitude is held, attitude objects are treated as ends in themselves as individuals perceive their association between either reward or punishment. Positive attitudes will arise toward an object when the individual perceives it as a source of utility or pleasure while negative attitudes are a result of direct past, or anticipated future, unpleasant experiences with the object. In line with the original posits of both Katz (1960) and Smith et al. (1956), neofunctional evaluative attitudes allow people to organize their reality according to both self-interest and predictability. Herek specified three individual evaluative functions:
Experiential-specific
Attitudes that are experiential and specific arise after interacting with a particular instance of the object category wherein a specific attitude object, rather than a category of objects, is evaluated in terms of its individual utility. For example, an individual who had a positive experience when riding in their friend's car might develop an experiential-specific attitude toward that brand and model of car, but their attitude would not be applicable across the general category of all cars or even of the category of that brand of cars.
Experiential-schematic
Attitudes that are experiential and schematic arise after interacting with a particular instance of the attitude object category, and experiences become representative of the object category as a whole. The individual's past experiences with representatives of that object category led to cognitive schema that serve to set attitudes for all objects within the category. Here, an individual who had a good experience riding in their friend's car might develop an experiential-schematic attitude toward all cars made by the same brand as their friend's car.
Anticipatory-evaluative
While experiential-specific and schematic attitude functions are based on deductive prior experiences, individuals with an anticipatory-evaluative attitude must be inductive in their prediction of the utility of attitude objects. Anticipatory-evaluative attitudes can be based on whatever object qualities an individual chooses to use. For instance, if an individual hates red and their friend offers to take them for a ride in their red car, the individual might take on a negative anticipatory-evaluative attitude that predicts that they will not enjoy the car ride.
Expressive functions
Within expressive functions of attitude, the attitude object is a means to an end. Attitude objects of expressive attitudes are used as vehicles to assure social status, boost self-esteem, and/or reduce anxiety. While expressive functions serve some sense of utility, the effects are not as apparent, and are often intrinsic rewards rather than the extrinsic utility seen with evaluative functions.
Social-expressive
Social-expressive attitudes serve the function of social-maintenance or acceptance, and are based on the needs of an individual to be accepted by others. Snyder and DeBono's (1985) self-monitoring study is useful in determining the likelihood of an individual to hold a social-expressive attitude. High self-monitors should be more likely to hold social-expressive attitudes as they are theoretically more in-tune with their social surroundings, thus leading to a higher need for this function in order to maintain or elevate their status.
Value-expressive
Value-expressive attitudes are based in an individual's needs to define themselves through expressing core values and aligning themselves with value groups (such as political parties, churches, organizations, etc.). Low self-monitors should theoretically be more prone to value-expressive attitudes as they are more concerned with their individual principles than they are with social status, however value-expressive attitudes can be found in all personality types, especially when it comes to contentious issues such as abortion.
Defensive
Defensive attitudes serve to reduce turmoil caused by internal, typically unconscious, conflicts. Defensive attitudes can be understood in terms cognitive dissonance theory as a means to achieve consonance when dealing with internal (or external) dissonance. An individual would develop a defensive attitude, then, when presented with an idea that is contrary to their internal values or beliefs.
Sources of attitude functions
Herek believed one of the downfalls of Katz and Smith et al. (1956) was their direct comparison of personality traits, which are relatively stable, to attitude functions, which studies show to fluctuate from person-to-person or situation-to-situation (Herek, 1986). Recognizing that individuals’ psychological predispositions to functions varied, and that individuals often expressed the same attitude for different reasons or attitudes about separate objects for the same reason, Herek proposed three sources of attitude functions that attitudes could vary across. These sources can aid in the prediction and influence of behavior when it can be determined from which source an individual will root their attitude.
Person characteristics
Herek defines person characteristics as "relatively stable psychological needs, values, and orientations toward the world" (Herek, 1986). Through the content analysis and AFI, Herek found that individuals with experiential-schematic attitudes scored higher on the self-monitoring test, theorizing that experiential-schematic intergroup individuals are more sensitive to their surroundings as well as their own values. Herek also showed that persons who operate mainly on evaluative functions show strong concerns for their own well-being. Alternatively, social-expressive attitudes were found most amongst individuals who exhibited a high need for affiliation as well high self-presentation awareness (Snyder & DeBono, 1985). Ultimately, personality is a weak means for social influence as personality is typically stable across individuals.
Domain characteristics
Herek defined domain characteristics as "groups, objects, issues, or behaviors toward which people hold attitudes" (1986). Individual domains can include a multitude of different attitudes. For instance, in Herek's methodology development attitudes were examined within the domain of attitudes toward gays and lesbians. Within this domain is contained attitudes toward people with AIDS, attitudes toward government-funding of anti-AIDS programming, attitudes toward AIDS fundraisers, etc. Broad domains like AIDS or politics likely contain all variations of attitude functions across a population, but more narrow domains, such as consumer products, are less likely to elicit an array of attitudes as individuals tend to view this type of domain from an evaluative perspective.
Situational characteristics
Situations are defined by Herek as "relatively transient social episodes", and include the setting, actors, and context of the episode. In situations where an individual recognizes specific personal goals, evaluative attitudes are more likely to develop. Past experiences with attitude objects, as necessary in experiential-specific and schematic attitudes, will stimulate memories of past situations involving the attitude object, which will then determine the valence of attitude held by the individual. Alternatively, in situations that highlight identity needs, such as a political debate, individuals are more likely to employ an expressive attitude.
Critique
While FAT has proven extremely valuable in predicting increased influence through functional matching through an array of empirical studies, explanations for why this effect is present have yet to materialize. Lavine and Snyder (1996) posited that the matching effect could be attributed to biased processing of messages that are functionally linked, with individuals processing functionally-matched messages peripherally (ELM) or heuristically (HSM). However, research based on the ELM has provided mixed results and many studies have failed in their attempts to replicate original results and thus theories other than ELM are necessary to understand the function matching phenomenon (Carpenter et al., 2013).
Additionally, FAT as a field of research is very messy in its theoretical models of application insofar as studies have not relied on one concrete definition of functional attitudes. From the theory's beginnings, Katz (1960) and Smith et al. (1956) conceptualized similar-yet-different functions, Herek's (1986) neofunctional theory further parsed these functions, and later research by Snyder and DeBono (1985) added the personality variables of high v. low self-monitors into FAT. This is not to say that any of their research was invalidated by these additions or differences, but only to note that the theory could benefit from a set of unitary applicable definitions and functions.
Benefits and practical applications
FAT is best understood as a foundational approach to social influence upon which other models or processes may be applied. It is incredibly useful in that it can be easily understood and applied to real-life situations, allowing social influencers to predict the persuasive appeal that would best match their audience's functional attitude toward a product or idea. Ample lab research has categorically proven that matching attitude functions to appeals improves the salience of persuasive arguments, especially regarding advertisements (Shavitt & Nelson, 2002; Carpenter et al., 2013). This matching effect can also be exploited in interpersonal social influence situations and professions such as courtroom arguments or governmental lobbying.
Anecdotal application
Generally, democratic governmental systems are understood to operate in a utilitarian fashion in that the most preferred candidate is elected by the masses, and is then expected to act on legislation in a manner that induces maximum benefit to their constituents. While it is mainly true that politicians act to increase utility for their constituents, there is also an individual attitudinal side to every politician that, according to FAT, can be understood to serve any of a variety of functions, and can thus be manipulated and matched to arguments in support of or against certain bills. That is, if a lobbyist can understand the attitude functions of legislation in regard to a particular politician, then that lobbyist can also predict which attitude function to match to their persuasive appeal.
Future applications
Perhaps the most economically promising theoretical application of FAT lies in the future of online ad targeting. Lab research on personality regarding attitude functions has had to rely on self-reporting or surveys to determine high v. low self-monitoring or expressive v. evaluative personality types. As technology improves, the ability to determine personality types and attitude functions, as well as the consumer behaviors associated with these factors, may soon become algorithmic. Meta-analyses of IP datamining such as search history and browsing habits, combined with knowledge of consumer behavior obtained through records that pre-date the internet could lead to electronic profiles of individual consumers to be used by advertisers to hyper-target their audience with ultra-tailored or matched ads.
Summary
Katz (1960) and Smith et al. (1956) originally set out to discover the purpose of varying attitudes, determining that attitudes exist to serve a variety of functions necessary to individuals’ physical, emotional, and social needs. Their functional attitudes theory sparked a wave of research in the 1980s that was able to consistently empirically link function-matched appeals and arguments to increased persuasion when presented to individuals perceived to be in that attitude function. This matching hypothesis has been replicated, but studies attempting to prove the link behind it have not. While future research is needed to determine the cause of the matching effect, as well as to develop consistent attitude and personality measurements, FAT is a practically applicable theory that allows social influencers to accurately predict what type of functional appeal should be used when persuading an audience about a product or idea.
References
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Carpenter, C., Boster, F., & Andrews, K.R. (2013). Functional attitude theory. In Dillard, J.P., & Shen, L. (Eds.). The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice, 104-119. doi:10.4135/9781452218410.n7
Fishbein, M. & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. http://people.umass.edu/aizen/f&a1975.html
Shavitt, S. & Nelson, M. R. (2002). The role of attitude functions in persuasion and social judgment. In Dillard, J.P. & Pfau, M. (Eds.) The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice, 137-153.
Smith, M. B., Bruner, J. S., & White, R. W. (1956). Opinions and personality. New York: Wiley. doi:10.1177/001654925700300325
Specific
Psychological theories
Human communication | Functional attitude theory | [
"Biology"
] | 6,378 | [
"Human communication",
"Behavior",
"Human behavior"
] |
54,888,507 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jib%20%28crane%29 | A jib or jib arm is the horizontal or near-horizontal beam used in many types of crane to support the load clear of the main support. An archaic spelling is gib.
Usually jib arms are attached to a vertical mast or tower or sometimes to an inclined boom. In other jib-less designs such as derricks, the load is hung directly from a boom which is often anomalously called a jib.
A camera jib or jib arm in cinematography is a small crane that holds nothing but the camera.
References
Mechanical engineering | Jib (crane) | [
"Physics",
"Engineering"
] | 115 | [
"Mechanical engineering stubs",
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Mechanical engineering"
] |
54,891,596 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin%20tipper | A bin tipper, also known as a bin-tipper, bin lifter, cart dumper or Dumpmaster, is a machine which mechanically lifts and inverts bins/carts for the purpose of emptying them. Bin tippers are a type of lifting equipment used in many industries, including waste management, food processing, chemical manufacturing and facility management.
Although bin tippers are often components of larger machines (such as garbage trucks), an increasing number of 'standalone' or mobile units are available. Most bin tippers use mains electricity to power the lifting system, but some are powered by batteries, solar, crank-handle, or compressed air.
Operational principal
Bin tippers typically have a steel frame, guarding and cradle, with a motor or crank-handle driving a lifting mechanism, which may be hydraulic or chain operated. Bins are placed into the machine, then lifted and inverted over the destination receptacle, allowing the contents to be emptied by gravity.
Most bin tippers are designed to comply with one of three standards:
EN 840-compliant bin tippers use a comb-lift mechanism, latching onto reinforced combing around the lip of the bin. This standard is commonly used in the waste-management industry in Europe, Asia and Australasia. Compliant bins are often called wheelie bins or MGBs.
ANSI Z245.60 (Type B)-compliant bin tippers use a front-lift mechanism, latching onto a moulded indentation in the front of the bin. This standard is commonly used in the waste-management industry in North America. Compliant bins are often called toters, waste carts or trash cans.
DIN 9797-compliant bin tippers use a trunnion-lift mechanism, latching onto two trunnions projecting from the sides of the bin. This standard is commonly used in the food-processing industry. Compliant bins are often called euro bins, tote bins, or meat carts.
Bin tippers may also use various non-standard means to secure the bin, including hydraulic pincers, or base-lift cradles with wheel latches or chain fastenings.
History
A side-load bin tipper was fitted to a garbage truck as early as 1929, by the Heil company in America. In the 1950s the Dempster Dumpmaster popularized the front-end loader variant, with bins being tipped over the cab of the truck. Both types of integrated bin tipper are now common on municipal refuse collection trucks.
Standalone bin tippers developed later, with the release of a machine called the Simpro Ezi-Dump in 1990. This type of machine is now common on large commercial facilities, events venues and campuses, since it allows smaller mobile bins to be dispersed for waste collection, then emptied into a skip bin or dumpster; which in turn can be emptied by a front-load garbage truck.
The use of bin tippers and other lifting aids has been stimulated in recent years by research linking heavy manual lifting with musculoskeletal disorders; some government organisations, schools and companies now prohibit emptying bins by hand. Health and safety concerns have also driven the adoption of bin tippers in the manufacturing, food-processing and construction industries.
References
Lifting equipment
Machines
Waste management
Material-handling equipment
de:Hub-Kippvorrichtung | Bin tipper | [
"Physics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 690 | [
"Physical systems",
"Machines",
"Mechanical engineering",
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54,892,020 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian%20Medical%20Women%27s%20Society | The Victorian Medical Women's Society (VMWS) is the longest-running association of women medical practitioners and medical students. It was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1896 and is one of the oldest active medical organisations in the world. The aim of the society was to set a benchmark in women's health around Victoria, and to advance the professional development of medical women, through education, research, and the improvement of professional opportunities. The state-run society became affiliated with the national body, Australian Federation of Medical Women (since 1927), and thereby the Medical Women's International Association.
History
The Context
In 1862 the Melbourne University Medical School opened, however women were not admitted. Over the next 20 years each of the university's faculties opened to admitting women, except the medicine faculty. After Constance Stone's admission to the faculty was refused in 1883, she travelled to the USA to commence a medical degree.
In January 1987, Lilian Alexander, and Helen Sexton put an advertisement in the paper seeking other women who were interested in enrolling in medicine at the university. Five women responded, Clara Stone, who was Constance Stone's sister, Grace Vale, Margaret Whyte, and Elizabeth and Annie O'Hara. They started drawing on their collective resources, gathering support through their connections to the university council, and in the media leading to supportive articles in the paper. Eventually, on 21 February 1887, the university council met, and Dr. Alexander Morrison, moved a motion to approve the admission of women in medicine, and it was seconded by Dr. John Madden. The motion passed ten votes to three. One of the three dissenting votes was cast by the university's Vice-Chancellor Sir Anthony Brownless, who had strongly opposed the inclusion of women at the university for many years. All seven women were enrolled, and along with two other women Amy de Castilla and Emily Mary Page Stone who had enrolled in the following years, all graduated by 1894, and entered into practice.
Clara Stone graduated in 1891
Margaret Whyte graduated in 1891
Helen Sexton graduated in 1892
Elizabeth O'Hara graduated in 1892
Lilian Alexander graduated in 1893
Amy de Castilla graduated in 1893
Emily Mary Page Stone graduated in 1893
Grace Vale graduated in 1894
Annie O'Hara graduated in 1894
Constance Stone returned to Australia in 1890 as a qualified doctor, and began practice, becoming the first woman to do so in Australia. Together these ten women were instrumental in founding what would later become the Victorian Medical Women's Society.
Founding the 'Women's Medical Association'
The Victorian Medical Women's Society was founded as the Women's Medical Association on 22 March 1895, at the University of Melbourne Medical School, with Dr Constance Stone, serving as its first president. It was founded with the aim to further the professional development of medical women by education, research and improvement of professional opportunities, and fostering relationships between undergraduates, and graduates. Soon after its foundation, its aims evolved to promote and advocate the health and welfare of all Australians, particularly women and children.
Queen Victoria Hospital
The founders of the Victorian Medical Women's Society established the Queen Victoria Hospital, one of the first hospitals worldwide to be run by women, for women. This clinic was run from the hall of the Melbourne Welsh Church, at 320 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, where Constance Stone's husband Dr/Reverend Egryn Jones presided. Here, the founders of the society volunteered their expertise and treated the poorest of women at no cost. Their services were in high demand with over two thousand patients presenting to the clinic in its first three months of opening. To expand their services the society established the Queen's Shilling Fund, where every woman in the state of Victoria was asked to donate a shilling to fund a new hospital. This campaign, largely arranged by suffragist Annette 'Annie' Bear-Crawford, was very successful and the Queen Victoria Hospital was born at Mint Place a year later. In 1946 it was relocated to a much larger premises at the site of the former Melbourne General Hospital on Lonsdale Street (now The Queen Victoria Village). By 1951 it was the biggest women's hospital in the British Commonwealth. In 1986 the hospital became part of the Monash Medical Centre as part of moves to decentralise hospital services.
First World War
At the time of the onset of the First World War, many Australian women doctors wanted to support the war effort by providing their much-needed skills in assisting the sick and wounded. However, as women, they were not permitted enlistment in both the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps. Six members of the Victorian Medical Women's Society sought alternative means to provide their services, through military services established by medical women overseas. These notable women, including Mary de Garis, Helen Sexton, and Vera Scantlebury are honoured with a memorial plaque which was placed at The Welsh Church in 2016.
Members
Foundational members included
Emma 'Constance' Stone (1856–1902)
Grace 'Clara' Stone (1860–1957)
Mary Page Stone (1865–1910)
Lilian Helen Alexander (1861–1934)
Janet 'Jenny' Lindsay Greig (1874–1950)
Jane 'Jean' Stocks Greig (1872–1939)
Hannah Mary 'Helen' Sexton (1862–1950)
Grace Vale (1860–1933)
Ida 'Gertrude' Halley (1867–1939)
Other notable members
Edith Helen Barrett (1872–1939) - General Practitioner, known best for the founding of the Bush Nursing Association of Victoria and her work with The Australian Red Cross and National Council of Women
Constance Ellis (1872–1942) - Obstetrician and gynaecologist, and first woman to graduate from the University of Melbourne as a Doctor of Medicine
Mary Clementina De Garis (1881–1963) - Obstetrician
Vera Scantlebury (1889–1946) - Physician, Surgeon, Anaesthetist, Director of Infant Welfare Vic Gov. Known best for her work in maternal and child welfare
Dame Kate Isabel Campbell (1899–1986) - Paediatrician, best known for her research in excessive supplemental oxygen causing blindness in premature neonates
Mary Glowrey (1887–1957) - First Catholic religious sister to practice as a doctor (in obstetrics, gynaecology, and ophthalmology), best known for her medical and social work with women in Guntur, India
Dame Annie 'Jean' MacNamara (1899–1968) - Paediatrician, best known for her contributions to children's health and welfare, and research on polio
Jean Littlejohn (1899–1990) - Ear Nose Throat Surgeon
Lorna Lloyd-Green (1910–2002) - Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, first female fellow of the Australian Medical Association, advocate for equal pay
Elizabeth Kathleen TurnerAO (1914-1999) was a Paediatrician, who was the medical superintendent of the (Royal) Children's Hospital Melbourne from 1943 until 1946. She was first doctor in Australia to administer penicillin.
Lorna Verdun Sisely (1916–2004) - General Surgeon
Dame Joyce Daws (1925–2007) - Thoracic surgeon
Lena McEwan (1927–2011) - First female plastic surgeon in Australia
See also
Women in medicine
Health care in Australia
Women's suffrage in Australia
Medical education in Australia
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Australian Medical Association
References
McRae H (2015) Dinner With the Devil - Women and Melbourne's Queen Vic: Their Pride and Shame, Joy and Sorrow. BookBaby Publishing, Australia.
Murnane M (2015) Honourable healers : pioneering women doctors : Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Constance Stone. Australian Scholarly Publishing, Australia.
Sheard H (2016) A Heart Undivided, The life of Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences University of Melbourne
Sheard H, Lee R (2019) Women to the Front. Penguin Random House Publishing, Sydney
External links
International medical associations
Medical associations based in Australia
Medical associations based in Oceania
Medical associations
Medical and health organisations based in Victoria (state)
Organizations for women in science and technology
Women's clubs
Women's clubs in Australia | Victorian Medical Women's Society | [
"Technology"
] | 1,678 | [
"Organizations for women in science and technology",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
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