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61,217,675 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss%20rail | Zeiss inner rail, generally simply referred to as Zeiss rail, is a ringless scope sight mounting system introduced by Zeiss in 1990 as an alternative to traditional ring mounts. A patent was granted in 1992, and the patent expired in 2008. The mounting system is now also offered on sights sold by other major manufacturers, such as Blaser, Leica, Minox, Meopta, Nikon, Noblex (formerly Docter), Schmidt & Bender and Steiner. The system has so far seen most use on the European high-end market.
History
Before the Zeiss rail, many European scope manufacturers used to offer a single type of standardized ringless mounting solution known as standard prism. This mounting solution was also known under names such as exterior rail, 70° prism rail or LM rail (Light Metal). Compared to ring mounts, this type of mounting rail permitted mounting without putting compression on the internal mechanics of the scope. The system allowed the shooter to place the scope at their preferred height and correct eye relief (distance to the eye), as well as the opportunity to easily move the scope between different firearms.
However, the standard prism had an aesthetic drawback in that the scope rail had to drilled on the side for attachment screws. In case the rifle scope was to be used on different guns, new holes often had to be drilled. A motivation for developing the Zeiss rail was to avoid such drilling.
The Zeiss rail system was introduced in 1990 as an option on all Zeiss ZM/Z riflescopes, the top-of-the-line riflescope offered by Zeiss at that time. The system was later offered on the new top of line VM/V models. For these reasons, some sources have referred to the Zeiss rail system under names such as Zeiss ZM/VM rail or Zeiss M rail. Names such as Zeiss Integral rail, Zeiss 45° rail or simply Z rail have also been used.
Technical
Compared to the older prism rail, the Zeiss rail does not require any drilling, and therefore provides easier mounting to the user, as well as improved aesthetics. Compatible scopes have an internal dovetail rail where two or more 45-degree wedge nuts can be slid in. For example, EAW uses wedge nuts with M5 or M4 threads. The scope mount is then attached using simple hand tools like a torx key or hex key to a torque between .
Advantages
Robust mounting
Compared to ring mounts, the rail mount can hold on to the scope in stronger recoil forces without slipping.
Added stiffness
The extra material on the underside of the scope body increases stiffness and robustness. While this also increases the weight of the scope itself, it also allows for a lighter mount.
Horizontal reticle
The aiming reticle is ensured to be mounted horizontally each time.
Less chance of mounting errors
On ring mounts, overtightening of the rings is not an uncommon mounting error. This can squeeze the otherwise round tube and put stress on the inner workings of the scope, resulting in either temporary or permanent damage to its mechanical and/or optical properties. In comparison, inner rail mounts are designed to be tension-free and not put stress on the main tube. After placing the wedge nuts inside the rail, the scope mount is then attached from the outside with a force from a 22.5 degree angle on each side, resulting in a self centering design.
More flexible placement
Inner rail mounts can allow for more variations in placement on the firearm. With ring mounts, the scope adjustment knobs can put restraints on the placement of the scope. In comparison, the inner rail mount gives the user more freedom to slide the scope forwards or backwards. The stepless dovetail shaped mounting surface gives more flexibility in adjustment of distance to the shooter's eye in order to get the proper eye relief.
No ring marks
When using ring mounts, marks on the scope tube can occur. This can happen even when ring mounts are mounted with proper torque if for example either the ring mount or the scope tube itself are slightly over or undersized. Since inner rail mounts do not have rings, ring marks are avoided.
A different look
A ringless mount gives the firearm a different look which is preferred by some as being less protrusive.
Same mount for different main tube sizes
Scopes with rail mounts do not grip around the main tube. The same rail mount can therefore be used for different scopes regardless of their main tube size. Therefore the user does not have to worry about the main tube size and compatibility with existing mounts when purchasing a new scope.
Disadvantages
Price and availability
Inner rail scope mounts are currently offered by far fewer manufacturers compared to ring mounts. For some time they have only been offered by high end European manufacturers.
Compatibility
Scopes made for other systems, such as ring mounts or other inner rail mounts, are not compatible with the Zeiss rail. Before purchase the user has to decide which system to use. These inner rails are an integral part of the scope body and can not be removed.
Scope offerings
The Zeiss rail system can be found on some models from scope manufacturers such as Docter, Leica, Minox, Meopta and Schmidt & Bender, and sometimes only on high end models. Often the manufacturer will offer these models in two variations; one for traditional ring mounts, and another for the Zeiss rail mount.
There are also examples of rifle scopes that have been sold exclusively for Zeiss rail mounts (i.e. no option for a ring mount version). These include the Zeiss Victory Diarange laser rangefinder scope and the Zeiss Varipoint iC models. In late 2017, Blaser released their Infinity iC (illumination Control) line of scopes which also only uses the Zeiss rail system.
Mount offerings
Aftermarket mounts compatible with the Zeiss rail system are offered by several well known manufacturers such as Blaser, EAW, Henneberger, Innomount, Kozap, MAK, Recknagel, Rusan, Uronen Precision, Virtus, and Ziegler. Both two-piece or monobloc mounts are offered.
Compatible mounts are offered in different configurations, depending on the mounting opportunities on the firearm receiver. Examples include Picatinny, Weaver or different types of claw or swing (pivot) mounts.
Scope height calculations
The height placement of the scope on a rifle should be matched to the stock dimensions and personal preference. In general, a higher scope mount can give better recoil control, while a lower mount can give the firearm better balance. Especially the cheek rest and scope height together play an important role for comfortable shooting. Some cheek rests or scope mounts have adjustable height.
The following section mentions relevant terminology.
Mount construction height
The construction height of a scope mount is an important factor contributing to how high the scope will sit on a rifle. "Construction height" typically refers to only the height contribution from the mount itself, and is typically provided by the mount manufacturer. Low Zeiss rail mounts typically have a construction height between for traditional bolt action hunting rifles, but can be up to for modern bolt and AR-style rifles.
Scope body height
A Zeiss rail system typically adds height to the scope body, but also gives the possibility for a slimmer scope mount so that the total scope height can become comparable to a traditional ring mount. The added scope body height due to the rail piece on the scope itself contributes about to the total height. This can be treated like a constant term which can be added to adapt traditional scope height equations for the Zeiss rail system.
Like with traditional ring mounts, the diameter of the scope tube itself also affects the distance from the bore to the crosshair. Mainly, a larger main tube will increase the total height by half the main tube difference (a 36 mm tube will thus typically sit 3 mm higher than a 30 mm tube, all else being equal). The height contribution from the scope body, that is from the bottom of the scope body to the center of the reticle, is typically provided by the scope manufacturer, along with the ~5.5 mm constant term due to the rail piece on the scope.
Other considerations
The distance from the center of bore to the top of the receiver interface is of interest for ballistics calculations, like when constructing a ballistic table.
Competing standards
Competing standards to the Zeiss rail include the Swarovski SR rail and Schmidt & Bender Convex rail. The three systems are not compatible. While the Zeiss rail has a stepless dovetail shaped mounting surface, the Swarovski SR rail has a finely toothed rail, and the S&B Convex has a smooth convex rail.
Swarovski applied for patent on their SR rail system in 2002, and introduced to the product to the market in late 2005. The Swarovski SR rail is also used by Kahles, a Swarovski subsidiary.
The Convex rail has been offered by Schmidt & Bender since at least 2005, and has also been marketed under the name LMC (Light Metal with Convex rail). Contrary to the Zeiss and Swarovski rails, which ensure a levelled reticle, the S&B Convex rail instead allows the user to tilt the reticle up to 1° (60 moa; 17.5 mrad) to the left or right. Since 2016, Schmidt & Bender has also offered the Zeiss rail system as an option on some of their hunting scope sights under the name LMZ (Light Metal with Z-rail).
References
External links
Video: Installation of a riflescope and mount using the Zeiss rail system (YouTube)
Video: Discussion about the Zeiss rail mounting system (YouTube)
Firearm components
Mechanical standards | Zeiss rail | [
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"Engineering"
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"Mechanical standards",
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61,218,171 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep%20biosphere | The deep biosphere is the part of the biosphere that resides below the first few meters of the ocean's surface. It extends 10 kilometers below the continental surface and 21 kilometers below the sea surface, at temperatures that may reach beyond which is comparable to the maximum temperature where a metabolically active organism has been found. It includes all three domains of life and the genetic diversity rivals that on the surface.
The first indications of deep life came from studies of oil fields in the 1920s, but it was not certain that the organisms were indigenous until methods were developed in the 1980s to prevent contamination from the surface. Samples are now collected in deep mines and scientific drilling programs in the ocean and on land. Deep observatories have been established for more extended studies.
Near the surface, living organisms consume organic matter and breathe oxygen. Lower down, these are not available, so they make use of "edibles" (electron donors) such as hydrogen (released from rocks by various chemical processes), methane (CH4), reduced sulfur compounds, and ammonium (NH4). They "breathe" electron acceptors such as nitrates and nitrites, manganese and iron oxides, oxidized sulfur compounds and carbon dioxide (CO2). There is very little energy at greater depths, so metabolisms are up to a million times slower than at the surface. Cells may live for thousands of years before dividing and there is no known limit to their age.
The subsurface accounts for about 90% of the biomass across two domains of life, Archaea and Bacteria, and 15% of the total for the biosphere. Eukarya are also found, including some multicellular life - fungi and animals (nematodes, flatworms, rotifers, annelids, and arthropods). Viruses are also present and infect the microbes.
Definition
The deep biosphere is an ecosystem of organisms and their living space in the deep subsurface. For the seafloor, an operational definition of deep subsurface is the region that is not bioturbated by animals; this is generally about a meter or more below the surface. On continents, it is below a few meters, not including soils. The organisms in this zone are sometimes referred to as intraterrestrials. A subset of the deep biosphere found at depths where pressure and heat greatly exceed that survivable by surface life was delineated and named by Thomas Gold in a 1992 paper titled, "The Deep, Hot Biosphere."
Early discoveries and ideas
At the University of Chicago in the 1920s, geologist Edson Bastin enlisted the help of microbiologist Frank Greer in an effort to explain why water extracted from oil fields contained hydrogen sulfide and bicarbonates. These chemicals are normally created by bacteria, but the water came from a depth where the heat and pressure were considered too great to support life. They were able to culture anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria from the water, demonstrating that the chemicals had a bacterial origin.
Also in the 1920s, Charles Lipman, a microbiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, noticed that bacteria that had been sealed in bottles for 40 years could be reanimated – a phenomenon now known as anhydrobiosis. He wondered whether the same was true of bacteria in coal seams. He sterilized samples of coal, wetted them, crushed them and then succeeded in culturing bacteria from the coal dust. One sterilization procedure, baking the coal at for up to 50 hours, actually encouraged their growth. He published the results in 1931.
The first studies of subsurface life were conducted by Claude E. Zobell, the "father of marine microbiology", in the late 1930s to the 1950s. Although the coring depth was limited, microbes were found wherever the sediments were sampled. With increasing depth, aerobes gave way to anaerobes.
Most biologists dismissed the subsurface microbes as contamination, especially after the submersible Alvin sank in 1968 and the scientists escaped, leaving their lunches behind. When Alvin was recovered, the lunches showed no sign of microbial decay. This reinforced a view of the deep sea (and by extension the subsurface) as a lifeless desert. The study of the deep biosphere, like many bacteria, was dormant for decades; an exception is a group of Soviet microbiologists who began to refer to themselves as geomicrobiologists.
Interest in subsurface life was renewed when the United States Department of Energy was looking for a safe way of burying nuclear waste, and Frank J. Wobber realized that microbes below the surface could either help by degrading the buried waste or hinder by breaching the sealed containers. He formed the Subsurface Science Program to study deep life. To address the problem of contamination, special equipment was designed to minimize contact between a core sample and the drilling fluid that lubricates the drill bit. In addition, tracers were added to the fluid to indicate whether it penetrated the core. In 1987, several boreholes were drilled near the Savannah River Site, and microorganisms were found to be plentiful and diverse at least 500 metres below the surface.
From 1983 until now, microbiologists have analyzed cell abundances in drill cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program (originally the Ocean Drilling Program). A group led by John Parkes of the University of Bristol reported concentrations of 104 to 108 cells per gram of sediment down to depths of 500 metres (agricultural soils contain about 109 cells per gram). This was initially met with skepticism, and it took them four years to publish their results.
In 1992, Thomas Gold published a paper titled "The Deep, Hot Biosphere" suggesting that microbial life was widespread throughout the subsurface, existing in pore spaces between grains of rocks. He also published a book similarly titled The Deep Hot Biosphere. According to one paper, he "pioneered" the idea the hydrocarbons could sustain life to "known depths of 10km and possibly down to 300km", if the temperature was not over a hypothetical maximum of 150°C. Gold also suggested, largely incorrectly, that the deep biosphere is sustained by hydrocarbons geologically produced by the subsurface, or their derivatives. According to the paper, Gold's proposals helped to inspire later generations of scientists.
In 1998, William Whitman and colleagues published a summary of twelve years of data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They estimated that up to 95% of all prokaryotes (archaea and bacteria) live in the deep subsurface, with 55% in the marine subsurface and 39% in the terrestrial subsurface. In 2002, Ocean Drilling Program Leg 201 was the first to be motivated by a search for deep life. Most of the previous exploration was on continental margins, so the goal was to drill in the open ocean for comparison. In 2016, International Ocean Discovery Program Leg 370 drilled into the marine sediment of the Nankai Accretionary Prism and observed 102 vegetative cells per cm3 at 118 °C.
Scientific methods
The present understanding of subsurface biology was made possible by numerous advances in technology for sample collection, field analysis, molecular science, cultivation, imaging and computation.
Sample collection
Microbes from the ocean floor can sampled by drilling boreholes and collecting cores. The methods must be adapted to different types of rock, and the cost of drilling limits the number of holes that can be drilled. Microbiologists have made use of scientific drilling programs: the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which used the JOIDES Resolution drilling platform, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), which used the Japanese ship Chikyū.
Deep underground mines, for example South African gold mines and the Pyhäsalmi copper and zinc mine in Finland, have also provided opportunities to sample the deep biosphere, as have chosen or proposed nuclear waste repository sites (e.g., Yucca Mountain and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the United States, Äspö and surrounding areas in Sweden, Onkalo and surrounding areas in Finland, and Mont Terri in Switzerland). Scientific drilling of the continental deep subsurface has been promoted by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).
To allow continuous underground sampling, various kinds of observatories have been developed. On the ocean floor, the Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit (CORK) seals a borehole to cut off the influx of seawater. An advanced version of CORK is able to seal off multiple sections of a drill hole using "packers", rubber tubes that inflate to seal the space between the drill string and the wall of the borehole.
In sediments, the Simple Cabled Instrument for Measuring Parameters In-Situ (SCIMPI) is designed to remain and take measurements after a borehole has collapsed. Packers are also used in the continental subsurface, along with devices such as the flow-through reactor (FTISR). Various methods are used to extract fluids from these sites, including passive and osmotic gas samplers and U-tube systems. In narrow (less than 50 mm) holes, polyamide tubes with a back-pressure valve can be lowered to sample an entire column of fluid.
Field analysis and manipulation
Some methods analyze microbes rather than extracting them from the subsurface. In biogeophysics, the effects of microbes on properties of geological materials are remotely probed using electrical signals. Microbes can be tagged using a stable isotope, such as carbon-13, and then re-injected in the ground to see where they go. A "push-pull" method involves injection of a fluid into an aquifer and extraction of a mixture of injected fluid with the ground water; the latter can then be analyzed to determine what chemical reactions occurred.
Molecular methods and cultivation
Methods from modern molecular biology allow the extraction of nucleic acids, lipids and proteins from cells, DNA sequencing, and the physical and chemical analysis of molecules using mass spectrometry and flow cytometry. Even when individual microbes cannot be cultivated, a lot can be learned about microbial communities using these methods. For example, at the Richmond Mine in California, scientists used shotgun sequencing to identify four new species of bacteria, three new species of archaea (known as the Archaeal Richmond Mine acidophilic nanoorganisms), and 572 proteins unique to the bacteria.
Geochemical methods
Deep microorganisms change the chemistry of their surroundings through the nutrients they consume and the wastes they produce from metabolic activity. Therefore scientists can estimate the activities of the deep microorganisms by measuring the chemical compositions of subsurface samples. Complementary techniques include measuring the isotope compositions of the chemicals or the related minerals.
Conditions for life
For life to have metabolic activity, it must be able to take advantage of a thermodynamic disequilibrium in the environment. This can occur when rocks from the mantle that are rich in the mineral olivine are exposed to seawater and react with it to form serpentine minerals and magnetite. Non-equilibrium conditions are also associated with hydrothermal vents, volcanism, and geothermal activity. Other processes that might provide habitats for life include roll front development in ore bodies, subduction, methane clathrate formation and decomposition, permafrost thawing, infrared radiation and seismic activity. Humans also create new habitats for life, particularly through remediation of contaminants in the subsurface.
Energy sources
Life requires enough energy to construct adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Where there is sunlight, the main processes for capturing energy are photosynthesis (which harnesses the energy in sunlight by converting carbon dioxide into organic molecules) and respiration (which consumes those molecules and releases carbon dioxide). Below the surface, the main source of energy is from chemical redox (reduction-oxidation) reactions. This requires electron donors (compounds that can be oxidized) and electron acceptors (compounds that can be reduced). An example of such a reaction is methane oxidation:
CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O
Here CH4 is the donor and O2 is the acceptor. Donors can be considered "edibles" and acceptors "breathables".
The amount of energy that is released in a metabolic reaction depends on the redox potential of the chemicals involved. Electron donors have negative potentials. From highest to lowest redox potential, some common donors available in the subsurface are organic matter, hydrogen, methane, reduced sulfur compounds, reduced iron compounds and ammonium. From most negative to least, some acceptors are oxygen, nitrates and nitrites, manganese and iron oxides, oxidized sulfur compounds, and carbon dioxide.
Of electron donors, organic matter has the most negative redox potential. It can consist of deposits from regions where sunlight is available or produced by local organisms. Fresh material is more easily utilized than aged. Terrestrial organic matter (mainly from plants) is typically harder to process than marine (phytoplankton). Some organisms break down organic compounds using fermentation and hydrolysis, making it possible for others to convert it back to carbon dioxide. Hydrogen is a good energy source, but competition tends to make it scarce. It is particularly rich in hydrothermal fluids where it is produced by serpentinization. Multiple species can combine fermentation with methanogenesis and iron oxidation with hydrogen consumption. Methane is mostly found in marine sediments, in gaseous form (dissolved or free) or in methane hydrates. About 20% comes from abiotic sources (breakdown of organic matter or serpentinization) and 80% from biotic sources (which reduce organic compounds such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and acetate). Over 90% of methane is oxidized by microbes before it reaches the surface; this activity is "one of the most important controls on greenhouse gas emissions and climate on Earth." Reduced sulfur compounds such as elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and pyrite (FeS2) are found in hydrothermal vents in basaltic crust, where they precipitate out when metal-rich fluids contact seawater. Reduced iron compounds in sediments are mainly deposited or produced by anaerobic reduction of iron oxides.
The electron acceptor with the highest redox potential is oxygen. Produced by photosynthesis, it is transported to the ocean floor. There, it is quickly taken up if there is a lot of organic material, and may only be present in the top few centimeters. In organic-poor sediments it can be found at greater depths, even to the oceanic crust. Nitrate can be produced by degradation of organic matter or nitrogen fixation. Oxygen and nitrate are derived from photosynthesis, so underground communities that utilize them are not truly independent of the surface.
Nutrients
All life requires carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and some trace elements such as nickel, molybdenum and vanadium. Over 99.9% of Earth's carbon is stored in the crust and its overlying sediments, but the availability of this carbon can depend on the oxidation state of the environment. Organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus are primarily found in terrestrial sediments, which accumulate mainly in continental margins. Organic carbon is mainly produced at the surface of the oceans with photosynthesis or washed into oceans with terrestrial sediments. Only a small fraction is produced in the deep seas with chemosynthesis. When organic carbon sinks from the surface of the ocean to the seafloor, most of the organic carbon is consumed by organisms in seawater. Only a small fraction of this sinking organic carbon can reach the seafloor and be available to the deep biosphere. Deeper in the marine sediments, the organic content drops further. Phosphorus is taken up by iron oxyhydroxides when basalts and sulfide rocks are weathered, limiting its availability. The availability of nutrients are limiting the deep biosphere, determining where and what type of deep organisms can thrive.
Pressure
On average, atmospheric pressure at sea level is about 101 kilopascals (kPa). In the ocean, the pressure increases at a rate of 10.5 kPa per m of depth, so at a typical depth of the sea floor (3800 m) the pressure is 38 megapascals (MPa). At these depths, the boiling point of water is over 400 °C. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the pressure is 110 MPa. In the lithosphere, the pressure increases by 22.6 kPa/m. The deep biosphere withstands pressures much higher than the pressure at the surface of the Earth.
An increased pressure compresses lipids, making membranes less fluid. In most chemical reactions, the products occupy more volume than the reactants, so the reactions are inhibited by pressure. Nevertheless, some studies claim that cells from the surface are still active at a pressure of 1 gigapascal (GPa), about 10,000 times the standard atmospheric pressure. There are also piezophiles for which optimal growth occurs at pressures over 100 MPa, and some do not grow in pressures less than 50 MPa.
As of 2019, most sampling of organisms from the deep ocean and subsurface undergo decompression when they are removed to the surface. This can harm the cells in a variety of ways, and experiments at surface pressures produce an inaccurate picture of microbial activity in the deep biosphere. A Pressurized Underwater Sampler Handler (PUSH50) has been developed to maintain pressure during sampling and afterwards in the laboratory.
Temperature
High temperatures stress organisms, increasing the rates of processes that damage important molecules such as DNA and amino acids. It also increases the energy requirements for repairing these molecules. However, cells can respond by changing the structure of these molecules to stabilize them.
Microbes can survive at temperatures above 100 °C if the pressure is high enough to keep the water from boiling. The highest temperature at which an organism has been cultured in a laboratory is 122 °C, under pressures of 20 MPa and 40 MPa. Theoretical estimates for the highest temperature that can sustain life are around 150 °C. The 120 °C isotherm can be less than 10 m deep at mid-ocean ridges and seamounts, but in other environments such as deep-sea trenches it can be kilometers deep. About 39% by volume of ocean sediments are at temperatures between 40 °C and 120 °C. Thermochronology data of Precambrian cratons suggest that habitable temperature conditions of the subsurface in these settings range back to about a billion years maximum.
The record-setting thermophile, Methanopyrus kandlerii, was isolated from a hydrothermal vent, which provide abundant energy and nutrients. Several groups of Archaea and Bacteria thrive in the shallow seafloor at temperatures between 80 °C and 105 °C. As the environment becomes more energy-limited, such as being deeper, bacteria can survive but their number decreases. Although microorganisms have been detected at temperatures up to 118 °C in cored sediments, attempts to isolate the organisms have failed. There can also be depth intervals with less cells than the deeper part of the location. Reasons for such 'low- or no-cell intervals' are still unknown but may be related to the underground flow of hot fluid. In deep oil reservoirs, no microbial activity has been seen hotter than 80 °C.
Living with energy limitation
In most of the subsurface, organisms live in conditions of extreme energy and nutrient limitation. This is far from the conditions in which cells are cultured in labs. A lab culture goes through a series of predictable phases. After a short lag phase, there is a period of exponential growth in which the population can double in as little as 20 minutes. A death phase follows in which almost all the cells die off. The remainder enter an extended stationary phase in which they can last for years without further input of substrate. However, each live cell has 100 to 1000 dead cells to feed on, so they still have abundant nutrients compared to the subsurface.
In the subsurface, cells catabolize (break down molecules for energy or building materials) 10,000 to one million times slower than at the surface. Biomass may take centuries or millennia to turn over. There is no known limit to the age that cells could reach. The viruses that are present could kill cells and there may be grazing by eukaryotes, but there is no evidence of that.
It is difficult to establish clear limits on the energy needed to keep cells alive but not growing. They need energy to perform certain basic functions like the maintenance of osmotic pressure and maintenance of macromolecules such as enzymes and RNA (e.g., proofreading and synthesis). However, laboratory estimates of the energy needed are several orders of magnitude greater than the energy supply that appears to sustain life underground.
It was thought, at first, that most underground cells are dormant. However, some extra energy is required to come out of dormancy. This is not a good strategy in an environment where the energy sources are stable over millions of years but decreasing slowly. The available evidence suggests that most cells in the subsurface are active and viable.
A low-energy environment favors cells with minimal self-regulation, because there are no changes in the environment that they need to respond to. There could be low-energy specialists. However, there is unlikely to be strong evolutionary pressure for such organisms to evolve because of the low turnover and because the environment is a dead end.
Diversity
The biomass in the deep subsurface is about 15% of the total for the biosphere. Life from all three domains (Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya) have been found in the deep subsurface; indeed, the deep subsurface accounts for about 90% of all the biomass in Archaea and Bacteria. The genetic diversity is at least as great as that on the surface. Aerobic microbes are also present; methane-feeding bacteria will break down nitrites into nitrogen and oxygen, and then use the oxygen to split methane for energy. Some of the oxygen produced this way will leak out of the cells and into the surrounding environment, where it will benefit other oxygen-dependent microorganisms.
In the ocean, plankton species are distributed globally and are constantly being deposited almost everywhere. Quite different communities are found even in the top of ocean floor, and species diversity decreases with depth. However, there are still some taxa that are widespread in the subsurface. In marine sediments, the main bacterial phyla are "Candidatus Atribacteria" (formerly OP9 and JS1), Pseudomonadota, Chloroflexota, and Planctomycetota. Members of Archaea were first identified using metagenomic analysis, but some of them have since been cultured and acquired new names. The Deep Sea Archaeal Group (DSAG) became the Marine Benthic Group B (MBG-B) and is now a proposed phylum "Lokiarchaeota". Along with the former Ancient Archaeal Group (AAG) and Marine Hydrothermal Vent Group (MHVG), "Lokiarchaeota" is part of a candidate superphylum, Asgard. Other phyla are "Bathyarchaeota" (formerly the Miscellaneous Chrenarchaeotal Group), Nitrososphaerota (formerly Thaumarchaeota or Marine Group I), and Euryarchaeota (including "Hadesarchaea", Archaeoglobales and Thermococcales). A related clade, anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME), is also represented. Other bacterial phyla include Thermotogota.
In the continental subsurface, the main bacterial groups are Pseudomonadota and Bacillota while the Archaea are mainly Methanomicrobia and Nitrososphaerota. Other phyla include "Bathyarchaeota" and "Aigarchaeota", while bacterial phyla include Aquificota and Nitrospirota.
The eukarya in the deep biosphere include some multicellular life. In 2009 a species of nematode, Halicephalobus mephisto, was discovered in rock fissures more than a kilometer down a South African gold mine. Nicknamed the "devil worm", it may have been forced down along with pore water by earthquakes. Other multicellular organisms have since been found, including fungi, Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Rotifera, Annelida (ringed worms) and Arthropoda. However, their range may be limited because sterols, needed to construct membranes in eukarya, are not easily made in anaerobic conditions.
Viruses are also present in large numbers and infect a diverse range of microbes in the deep biosphere. They may contribute significantly to cell turnover and transfer of genetic information between cells.
Habitats
Life has been found at depths of 5 km in continents and 10.5 km below the ocean surface. In 1992, Thomas Gold calculated that if the estimated pore space of the terrestrial land mass down to 5 km depth was filled with water, and if 1% of this volume were microbial biomass, it would be enough living matter to cover Earth's land surface with a 1.5 m thick layer. The estimated volume of the deep biosphere is 2–2.3 billion cubic kilometers, about twice the volume of the oceans.
Ocean floor
The main types of habitat below the seafloor are sediments and igneous rock. The latter may be partially altered and coexist with its alteration products such as sulfides and carbonates. In rock, chemicals are mainly carried through an aquifer system that cycles all of the ocean's water every 200,000 years. In sediments below the top few centimeters, chemicals mainly spread by the much slower process of diffusion.
Sediments
Nearly all of the seafloor is covered by marine sediments. They can vary in thickness from centimeters near ocean ridges to over 10 kilometers in deep trenches. In the mid-ocean, coccoliths and shells settling down from the surface form oozes, while near shore sediment is carried from the continents by rivers. Minerals from hydrothermal vents and wind-blown particles also contribute. As organic matter is deposited and buried, the more easily utilized compounds are depleted by microbial oxidation, leaving the more recalcitrant compounds. Thus, the energy available for life declines. In the top few meters, metabolic rates decline by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude, and throughout the sediment column cell numbers decline with depth.
Sediments form layers with different conditions for life. In the top 5–10 centimeters, animals burrow, reworking the sediment and extending the sediment-water interface. The water carries oxygen, fresh organic matter and dissolved metabolites, resulting in a heterogenous environment with abundant nutrients. Below the burrowed layer is a layer dominated by sulfate reduction. Below that, the anaerobic reduction of methane is facilitated by sulfate in the sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ). Once the sulfates are depleted, methane formation takes over. The depth of the chemical zones depends on the rate that organic matter is deposited. Where it is rapid, oxygen is taken up rapidly as organic matter is consumed; where slow, oxygen can persist much deeper because of the lack of nutrients to oxidize.
Ocean sediment habitats can be divided into subduction zones, abyssal plains, and passive margins. At a subduction zone, where one plate is diving under another, a thick wedge of sediment tends to form. At first the sediment has 50 to 60 percent porosity; as it is compressed, fluids are expelled to form cold seeps or gas hydrates.
Abyssal plains are the region between continental margins and mid-ocean ridges, usually at depths below 4 kilometers. The ocean surface is very poor in nutrients such as nitrate, phosphate and iron, limiting the growth of phytoplankton; this results in low sedimentation rates. The sediment tends to be very poor in nutrients, so not all the oxygen is consumed; oxygen has been found all the way down to the underlying rock. In such environments, cells are mostly either strictly aerobic or facultative anaerobic (using oxygen where available but able to switch to other electron acceptors in its absence) and they are heterotrophic (not primary producers). They include Pseudomonadota, Chloroflexota, Marine Group II archaea and lithoautotrophs in the Nitrososphaerota phylum. Fungi are diverse, including members of the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota phyla as well as yeasts.
Passive margins (continental shelves and slopes) are under relatively shallow water. Upwelling brings nutrient-rich water to the surface, stimulating abundant growth of phytoplankton, which then settle to the bottom (a phenomenon known as the biological pump). Thus, there is a lot of organic material in the sediments, and all the oxygen is used up in its consumption. They have very stable temperature and pressure profiles. The population of microbes is orders of magnitude greater than in the abyssal plains. It includes strict anaerobes including members of the Chloroflexi phylum, "Ca. Atribacteria", sulfate-reducing bacteria, and fermenters, methanogens and methanotrophs in Archaea. Fungi are less diverse than in abyssal plains, mainly including Ascomycota and yeasts. Viruses in the Inoviridae, Siphoviridae, and Lipothrixviridae families have been identified.
Rocks
Ocean crust forms at mid-ocean ridges and is removed by subduction. The top half kilometer or so is a series of basaltic flows, and only this layer has enough porosity and permeability to allow fluid flow. Less suitable for life are the layers of sheeted dikes and gabbros underneath.
Mid-ocean ridges are a hot, rapidly changing environment with a steep vertical temperature gradient, so life can only exist in the top few meters. High-temperature interactions between water and rock reduce sulfates, producing abundant sulfides that serve as energy sources; they also strip the rock of metals that can be sources of energy or toxic. Along with degassing from magma, water interactions also produce a lot of methane and hydrogen. No drilling has yet been accomplished here, so information on microbes comes from samples of hydrothermal fluids coming out of vents.
About 5 kilometers off the ridge axis, when the crust is about 1 million years old, ridge flanks begin. Characterized by hydrothermal circulation, they extend to about 80 million years in age. This circulation is driven by latent heat from the cooling of crust, which heats seawater and drives it up through more permeable rock. Energy sources come from alteration of the rock, some of which is mediated by living organisms. In the younger crust, there is a lot of iron and sulfur cycling. Sediment cover slows the cooling and reduces the flow of water. There is little evidence of microbe activity in older (more than 10 million year old) crust.
Near subduction zones, volcanoes can form in island arcs and back-arc regions. The subducting plate releases volatiles and solutes to these volcanoes, resulting in acidic fluids with higher concentrations of gases and metals than in the mid-ocean ridge. It also releases water that can mix with mantle material to form serpentinite. When hotspot volcanoes occur in the middle of oceanic plates, they create permeable and porous basalts with higher concentrations of gas than at mid-ocean ridges. Hydrothermal fluids are cooler and have a lower sulfide content. Iron-oxidizing bacteria create extensive deposits of iron oxides.
Porewater
Microorganisms live in the cracks, holes and empty space inside sediments and rocks. Such empty space provides water and dissolved nutrients to the microorganisms. Note that as the depth increases, there are less nutrients in the porewater as nutrients are continuously consumed by microorganisms. As the depth increases, the sediment is more compact and there is less space between mineral grains. As a result, there is less porewater per volume. The environment gets drier and drier when sediments are transitioned into rocks. At this stage, water can also be a limiting factor to the deep biosphere.
Continents
Continents have a complex history and a great variety of rocks, sediments and soils; the climate on the surface, temperature profiles and hydrology also vary. Most of the information on subsurface life comes from a small number of sampling sites that are mainly in North America. With the exception of ice cores, densities of cells decline steeply with depth, decreasing by several orders of magnitude. In the top one or two meters of soils, organisms depend on oxygen and are heterotrophs, depending on the breakdown of organic carbon for their nutrition, and their decline in density parallels that of the organic material. Below that, there is no correlation, although both cell density and organic content declines by a further five orders of magnitude or so (by contrast, there is a correlation in ocean sediments). Increasing depth, temperature and salinity do correlate with declining cell numbers, although the rates depend strongly on type of crust and rate of groundwater recharge.
Microbes have been found in sedimentary rocks down to about 3 kilometers, the deepest sampled. There is a lot of diversity, although the deepest tend to be iron(III)- or sulfate-reducing bacteria that use fermentation and can thrive in high temperature and salinity. Even more salt-tolerant halophiles have been found in deep salt deposits, which are found all over the world. In 2019 microbial organisms were discovered living 2,400 meters below the surface, breathing sulfur and eating rocks such as pyrite as their regular food source. The discovery occurred in the oldest known water on Earth. A study of biosignatures in vein mineral samples from more than 30 deep mines in the Fennoscandian Shield proves that signatures of ancient life are omnipresent across the shield.
Humans have accessed deep aquifers in igneous rocks for a variety of purposes including groundwater extraction, mining, and storage of hazardous wastes. Most or all of these aquifers host microbes. At all the sites that have been tested, hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide have been found. Hydrogen-based communities of prokaryotes have also been found in hot springs and hydrothermal systems. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed for the production of hydrogen, some of which would be independent of photosynthesis.
Ecology
One species of bacteria, "Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator", is the first known to comprise a complete ecosystem by itself. It was found 2.8 kilometers below the surface in a gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. In alkaline water at a temperature of about 60 °C, with no access to oxygen, it gets energy by reducing sulfate, its nitrogen from ammonia molecules and ammonium ions, and its carbon from carbon dioxide or formate. Stable isotope records of (secondary) fracture-lining minerals of the continental igneous rock-hosted deep biosphere point to long-term occurrence of methanogenesis, methanotrophy and sulfate reduction. Morphological and spatiotemporal relations point to potential syntrophic relation of these prokaryotic metabolisms with fungi.
Other ecosystems have multiple interdependent species. They can be divided into autotrophs, which derive energy from non-living sources, and heterotrophs, which feed on autotrophs or their remains. Some organisms engage in syntrophy, where one organism lives off the byproducts of another's metabolic activity. At the surface, most autotrophs use photosynthesis, but where there is no light, chemoautotrophs make use of chemical energy.
In marine sediments where oxygen is available, a major group of chemoautotrophs is ammonia-oxidizing Nitrososphaerota archaea. It supports 19% of the heterotrophic production. In some environments such as abyssal Pacific Ocean sediments, the supply of ammonia dwindles with depth; but in other environments ammonia actually increases because heterotrophic bacteria, living on organic material, remineralize the ammonia. This interdependence of the heterotrophic bacteria and Nitrososphaerota is an example of syntrophy. However, some Nitrososphaerota are mixotrophic, able to use both organic matter and carbon dioxide for carbon.
In anoxic sediments, hydrogen is an important "edible". Members of the Chloroflexi bacterial phylum draw energy from it to produce acetate by reducing carbon dioxide or organic matter (a process known as acetogenesis). Metal-reducing and sugar-fermenting Bacteroidetes produce propionate, among other compounds, and this is fermented by "Ca. Atribacteria" to produce hydrogen. In upper sediments, sulfate-reducing bacteria take up most of the hydrogen, while in lower sediments the sulfate is depleted and methanogens dominate. In the sulfate-methane transition zone (SMTZ), anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea form consortia with sulfate-reducing bacteria.
See also
Dark oxygen
Endolith
Extremophile
Lithophile
Oligotroph
Rare biosphere
Subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystem
Notes
References
Further reading
(IMDb)
External links
Census of Deep Life
Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations
Deep Biosphere map on 3D globe (GPlates Portal)
Biological systems
Geomicrobiology | Deep biosphere | [
"Biology"
] | 7,840 | [
"nan"
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The molecular formula C8H14O3 may refer to:
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61,222,807 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional%20wargaming | A wargame, generally, is a type of strategy game which realistically simulates warfare. A professional wargame, specifically, is a wargame that is used by military organizations to train officers in tactical and strategic decision-making, to test new tactics and strategies, or to predict trends in future conflicts. This is in contrast to recreational wargames, which are designed for fun and competition.
Overview
Definition
The exact definition of "wargame" varies from one writer to the next and one organization to the next. To prevent confusion, this section will establish the general definition employed by this article.
A wargame simulates an armed conflict, be it a battle, a campaign, or an entire war. "Business wargames" do not simulate armed conflict and are therefore outside the scope of this article.
A wargame is adversarial. There must be at least two opposing sides whose players react intelligently to each other's decisions.
A wargame must have human players.
A wargame does not involve the use of actual troops and armaments. This definition is used by the US Naval War College. Some writers use the term "live wargames" to refer to games that use actual troops in the field, but this article shall instead refer to these as field exercises.
A wargame is about tactical or strategic decision-making. A game that exercises only the player's technical skills, such as a combat flight simulator, is not a wargame.
Still, some professional wargamers feel that the term "game" trivializes what they see as a serious, professional tool. One of these was Georg von Reisswitz, the creator of Kriegsspiel and the father of professional wargaming, but he stuck with the word "game" because he could not think of a better term. In the US Army, many preferred the term "map maneuvers" (in contrast to "field maneuvers"). At the US Naval War College, some preferred the terms "chart maneuvers" (when simulating campaigns) and "board maneuvers" (when simulating battles), although the term "war game" was never officially proscribed.
Professional wargames vs commercial wargames
Professional wargames tend to have looser rules and simpler models than recreational wargames, with an umpire arbitrating situations based on personal knowledge. If the umpire is highly knowledgeable about warfare (perhaps they are a veteran), then such wargames can achieve a higher degree of realism than wargames with rigid rulesets. In a recreational wargame, such looseness would lead to concerns over fairness, but the point of a professional wargame is education, not competition. Having simple, loose rules also keeps the learning curve small, which is convenient since most officers have little or no wargaming experience.
Likewise, there is less concern regarding "balance" when determining each player's armaments and strategic advantages. In a commercial wargame, the rules are usually designed to ensure that the players' armies are of equal strength to ensure fairness, but professional wargames will tailor each side's capabilities to the scenario to be investigated, and warfare in the real world is rarely fair.
As professional wargames are used to prepare officers for actual warfare, there is naturally a strong emphasis on realism and current events. Historical wargames are wargames set in the distant past, such as World War II or the Napoleonic Wars— simulating these wars realistically may be of interest to historians, but are of little use to the military. Recreational wargames may take some creative liberties with reality, such as simplifying models to make them more enjoyable, or adding fictional armaments and units such as orcs and wizards, making them of little use to officers who must fight in the real world.
Military organizations are typically secretive about their current wargames, and this makes designing a professional wargame a challenge. Secrecy makes it harder to disseminate corrections if the wargame has already been delivered to the clients. Whereas a commercial wargame might have thousands or even millions of players, professional wargames tend to have small player bases, which makes it harder for the designers to acquire feedback. As a consequence, errors in wargame models tend to persist.
Although commercial wargame designers take consumer trends and player feedback into account, their products are usually designed and sold with a take-it-or-leave-it approach. Professional wargames, by contrast, are typically commissioned by the military that plans to use them. If a wargame is commissioned by several clients, then the designer will have to juggle their competing demands. This can lead to great complexity, high development costs, and a compromised product that satisfies nobody.
Commercial wargames are under more pressure to deliver an enjoyable experience for the players, who expect a user-friendly interface, a reasonable learning curve, exciting gameplay, and so forth. By contrast, military organizations tend to see wargaming as a tool and a chore, and players are often bluntly obliged to use whatever is provided to them.
Design concepts
Models
The term "model" can mean two things in wargaming. One is the conceptual models that describe the properties, capabilities, and behaviors of the things the wargame attempts to simulate (weapons, vehicles, troops, terrain, weather, etc.). The other meaning, from miniature wargaming (a form of recreational wargaming), is physical models, i.e. sculptures of soldiers, vehicles, and terrain; which generally serve an aesthetic purpose and have little if any consequence on the simulation. Professional wargames rarely use physical models because aesthetics aren't important to the military and the scale at which professional wargames typically play make physical models impractical. Therefore, this article will focus on conceptual models.
A wargame is about decision-making, not about learning the technical capabilities of a particular weapon or vehicle. Therefore, a well-designed model will not describe something beyond what a player needs to know to make effective decisions. Players should not be burdened with cumbersome calculations, because this slows down the game and distracts the players. If a player makes a bad decision, it should only be because of poor strategic thinking, not some forgotten rule or arithmetic error, otherwise the game will yield less reliable insights. If the wargame is computer-assisted, then sophisticated models are feasible because they can be written into the software and processed quickly by the computer. For manual wargames, simplicity is paramount.
Level of war
In a tactical-level wargame, the scope of the simulated conflict is a single battle. Kriegsspiel, the original professional wargame, is an example of a tactical-level wargame. The wargames of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (see below) were also tactical-level, simulating submarine attacks on a merchant convoy.
In a strategic-level wargame, the scope of the simulated conflict is a campaign or even an entire war. An example is the "Chart Maneuvers" practiced by the US Naval War College during the 1920s and 1930s, which most often simulated a hypothetical war in the Pacific against Japan. Another example is the Sigma wargames played in the 1960s to test proposed strategies for fighting the Vietnam War. Battles are resolved through simple computation. The players concern themselves with higher-level, strategic concerns such as logistics and diplomacy.
Utility
General strengths and limitations
In comparison to field exercises, wargames save time and money. They can be organized quickly and cheaply as they do not require the mobilization of thousands of men, their armaments, and logistics systems.
Some wargames can be completed more quickly than the conflicts they simulate by compressing time. In a naval wargame, the players need not wait days for their fleets to sail across the ocean, they could just advance the time-frame to the next decision they must make. This is particularly advantageous for strategic-level games, in which the simulated conflict might last months. A tactical-level wargame that has very cumbersome computations might take longer to play out than the battle it represents (this problem afflicted the original Kriegsspiel).
Wargamers can experiment with assets that their military does not actually possess, such as alliances that their country does not have, armaments that they have yet to acquire, and even hypothetical technologies that have yet to be invented.
For example: After World War I, Germany was forced to downsize its armed forces and outright give up certain weapons such as planes, tanks, and submarines. This made it difficult, if not impossible, for German officers to develop their doctrines through field exercises. The Germans greatly expanded their use of wargaming to compensate. When Germany began openly rearming in 1934, its officers already had fairly well-developed theories on what armaments to buy and what organizational reforms to implement.
Wargames cannot be used to predict the progression and outcome of a war as one might predict the weather. Human behavior is too difficult to predict for that. Wargames cannot provoke the anxiety, anger, stress, fatigue, etc. that a commander will experience in actual combat and thus cannot foresee the effects of these emotions on his decision-making. That said, no training tool can replicate the emotional experience of war, so this is not a specific flaw. Another issue that can produce "wrong" predictions is that a commander may do things differently in the field precisely because he was dissatisfied with the decisions he made in the wargames.
Education
Wargames are a cost-effective way of giving officers the experience (or something resembling experience) of making decisions as a leader in an armed conflict. This is the oldest application of wargaming. The actual effectiveness of wargaming in this regard—turning a bad strategist into a good one—is difficult to measure because officers use many tools to hone their decision-making skills and the effect of wargaming is difficult to isolate.
In this context, wargames are used to help players understand the decision-making process of wartime command. Wargames can help players master through practice certain routine skills such as how to discuss ideas, share intel, and communicate orders. Wargames can present the players with intellectual challenges that they cannot receive from books or in the classroom: an enemy who reacts unpredictably and intelligently to the player's decisions,
Wargames train players to evaluate situations and make decisions faster. They teach players how to discuss ideas, and the protocols for sharing intel and communicating orders. They teach the players how to cope with incomplete, delayed, incorrect, or superfluous information. They teach the player how to cope with an unpredictable foe who reacts intelligently to their decisions.
Wargames can also help familiarize the players with the geography of areas where they might eventually have to fight in. This was an oft-cited justification for wargaming at the US Naval War College.
Research and planning
Wargames can be used to prepare grand strategic plans and develop doctrine with a low risk of the enemy becoming aware of these developments and adapting. A problem that any military faces when learning through hard experience (actual warfare) is that as it gets better at fighting the enemy, the enemy will adapt in turn, modifying their own armaments and tactics to maintain their edge. Live exercises have a similar weakness as the enemy can spy on them to learn what is being tested. But wargames can be done in good secrecy, so the enemy cannot know what ideas are being developed.
Wargames can help a military determine what armaments and infrastructure it should acquire (there is substantial historical evidence to support this particular assertion).
For instance: In the 1920s, American military planners believed that America could win a war with Japan quickly by simply sailing an armada across the Pacific and knocking out the Japanese navy in a few decisive battles. But when this strategy was tested in wargames, it routinely failed. Japan held off the assault until the American armada exhausted itself, and then counter-attacked. The wargames foretold that a war with Japan would instead be a prolonged war of attrition, and America would need advance bases in the western Pacific where its warships could get resupplied and repaired. Such an infrastructure would require making alliances with friendly countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the British Empire.
Wargames can also be used to develop the potential of new technology. In order to wield a new technology optimally, it is not enough for a military to merely have it, but also develop good tactics and know how to organize around it. If the enemy isn't exploring the same issues in their own wargames, then one can gain a significant edge over the enemy when war breaks out by deploying a more mature doctrine.
An example is German submarine doctrine in the World Wars. In World War I, submarines were a new thing and nobody knew how best to use them, and Germany developed its submarine doctrine on the go. The German navy at the time did not use wargames and tested new ideas immediately against the British. Consequently, for every incremental innovation in submarine warfare that the Germans deployed, the British quickly developed a counter-measure and kept pace, and this limited the impact of submarines in World War I. During the inter-war years, the German navy experimented extensively with new submarine tactics in wargames (in tandem with field exercises) and developed the "wolf-pack" doctrine to defeat the anti-submarine counter-measures that had been developed during World War I (notably the convoy system). The British, by contrast, did not experiment with submarines in their own wargames because they thought that their established counter-measures were sufficient. The Germans entered the war with a whole bag of new tricks, and it took some time for the British to catch up.
History
The Reisswitzian wargame
Around the turn of the 19th century, a number of European inventors created wargames based on chess. These games used pieces that represented real army units (infantry, artillery, etc.) and the squares on the board were color-coded to represent different terrain types (rivers, marshes, mountains, etc.). Basing these games on chess made them attractive and accessible to chess players, but also made them too unrealistic to be taken seriously by the army. The grid forced the terrain into unnatural forms, such as rivers flowing in straight lines and bending at right angles; and only a single piece could occupy a square at a time, even if that square represented a square mile.
In 1824, a Prussian army officer named Georg von Reisswitz presented to the Prussian General Staff a wargame that he and his father had developed over the years. It was a highly realistic wargame designed strictly for use as a professional tool of training, and not for leisure. Instead of a chess-like grid, this game was played on accurate paper maps of the kind the Prussian army used. This allowed the game to model terrain naturally and simulate battles in real locations. The pieces could be moved across the map in a free-form manner, subject to terrain obstacles. The pieces, each of which represented some kind of army unit (an infantry battalion, a cavalry squadron, etc.), were little rectangular blocks made of lead. The pieces were painted either red or blue to indicate the faction it belonged to. The blue pieces were used to represent the Prussian army and red was used to represent some foreign enemy—since then it has been the convention in professional wargaming to use blue to represent the faction to which the players actually belong to. The game used dice to add a degree of randomness to combat. The scale of the map was 1:8000 and the pieces were made to the same proportions as the units they represented, such that each piece occupied the same relative space on the map as the corresponding unit did on the battlefield.
The game modeled the capabilities of the units realistically using data gathered by the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars and various field exercises. Reisswitz's manual provided tables that listed how far each unit type could move in a round according to the terrain it was crossing and whether it was marching, running, galloping, etc.; and accordingly the umpire used a ruler to move the pieces across the map. The game used dice to determine combat results and inflicted casualties, and the casualties inflicted by firearms and artillery decreased over distance. Unlike chess pieces, units in Reisswitz's game could suffer partial losses before being defeated, which were tracked on a sheet of paper (recreational gamers might call this "hitpoint tracking"). The game also had some rules that modeled morale and exhaustion.
Reisswitz's game also used an umpire. The players did not directly control the pieces on the game map. Rather, they wrote orders for their virtual troops on pieces of paper, which they submitted to the umpire. The umpire then moved the pieces across the game map according to how he judged the virtual troops would interpret and carry out their orders. When the troops engaged the enemy on the map, it was umpire who rolled the dice, computed the effects, and removed defeated units from the map. The umpire also managed secret information so as to simulate the fog of war. The umpire placed pieces on the map only for those units which he judged both sides could see. He kept a mental track of where the hidden units were, and only placed their pieces on the map when he judged they came into view of the enemy.
Earlier wargames had fixed victory conditions, such as occupying the enemy's fortress. By contrast, Reisswitz's wargame was open-ended. The umpire decided what the victory conditions were, if there were to be any, and they typically resembled the goals an actual army in battle might aim for. The emphasis was on the experience of decision-making and strategic thinking, not on competition. As Reisswitz himself wrote: "The winning or losing, in the sense of a card or board game, does not come into it."
In the English-speaking world, Reisswitz's wargame and its variants are called Kriegsspiel, which is the German word for "wargame".
German professional wargaming (1824–1914)
Reisswitz showed his wargame to the Prussian king and his General Staff in 1824. They were greatly impressed. General Karl von Mueffling wrote: "It’s not a game at all! It's training for war. I shall recommend it enthusiastically to the whole army." The king decreed that every regiment should play Kriegsspiel, and by the end of the decade every regiment had purchased materials for it. By the 1850s it had become very popular in the army. Kriegsspiel was therefore the first wargame to be treated as a serious tool of training and research by a military organization.
Aside from official military venues, Kriegsspiel was also played in a number of private clubs around the country, which were mainly patronized by officers but also had civilian members, so Kriegsspiel was certainly being played in a recreational context. The first such club was the Berlin Wargame Association. In 1828, General von Moltke the Elder joined the Magdeburg Club and became its manager.
Over the years, other officers updated Reisswitz's game to reflect changes in technology and doctrine. A particularly noteworthy variant was free Kriegsspiel, developed in 1876 by General Julius von Verdy du Vernois. Vernois was frustrated by the cumbersome rules of traditional rigid Kriegsspiel. They took a lot of time to learn and prevented experienced officers from applying their own expertise. The computations also slowed down the game; sometimes, a session would take longer to play than the actual battle it represented. Vernois advocated dispensing with the rules altogether and allowing the umpire to determine the outcomes of player decisions as he saw fit. Dice, rulers, computations, etc. were optional. This rules-free variant, of course, depended more heavily on the competence and impartiality of the umpire. The relative merits and drawbacks of rules-heavy and freeform wargaming are still debated to this day.
Wargaming spreads around the world
Prussian wargaming attracted little attention outside Prussia before 1870. Prussia was considered a second-rate power and wargaming an unproven novelty. That changed in 1870, when Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. Many credited Prussia's victory to its wargaming tradition. The Prussian army did not have any significant advantage in weaponry, numbers, or troop quality, but it was the only army in the world that practiced wargaming. Civilians and military forces around the world now took a keen interest in German wargames, which foreigners referred to as Kriegsspiel (the German word for "wargame"). The first Kriegsspiel manual in English, based on the system of Wilhelm von Tschischwitz, was published in 1872 for the British army and received a royal endorsement. The world's first recreational wargaming club was the University Kriegspiel [sic] Club, founded in 1873 at Oxford University in England. In the United States, Charles Adiel Lewis Totten published Strategos, the American War Game in 1880, and William R. Livermore published The American Kriegsspiel in 1882, both heavily inspired by Prussian wargames. In 1894, the US Naval War College made wargaming a regular tool of instruction.
Wargaming at the US Naval War College (1919–1941)
The US Naval War College is a staff college where American officers of all ranks go to receive postgraduate training. Since 1894, wargaming has been a regular tool of instruction there. Wargaming was brought to the Naval War College by William McCarty Little, a retired Navy lieutenant who had likely been inspired after reading The American Kriegsspiel by W.R. Livermore. Livermore was stationed nearby at Fort Adams, and he and Little cooperated to translate the ideas behind Kriegsspiel to naval warfare.
After World War I, the Navy suffered severe budget cuts that prevented it from upgrading and expanding its fleet. This limited its ability to conduct naval exercises. Wargaming thus became a vital means of testing hypothetical strategies and tactics. Another problem was that by the time America entered World War II in 1941, none of the Navy's senior officers had any meaningful combat experience because the Navy had not been involved in any war for over 20 years. However, almost all of them had participated in wargames at the Naval War College, so they had plenty of virtual combat experience. The fact that America defeated Japan in World War II despite these shortcomings, is evidence for the value of the wargaming. After the war, Admiral Nimitz said that the wargames predicted every tactic the Japanese used except for the kamikazes (a somewhat hyperbolic assertion).
The Naval War College organized two broad classes of wargames: "chart maneuvers", which were strategic-level games; and "board maneuvers", which were tactical-level games. The chart maneuvers were about fleet movements, scouting and screening operations, and supply lines. The board maneuvers simulated battles in detail, with the aid of model ships. Most of the wargames were played on the floors of lecture halls, as they needed more space than any table could provide.
The two most frequently played scenarios were a war with Japan and a war with Britain. Japan was code-named ORANGE, Britain was code-named RED, and America was code-named BLUE. Neither the students nor the staff at the Naval War College expected a war with Britain. It's possible that the US Navy didn't imagine getting into any sort of serious naval conflict in the Atlantic with anyone, and that it simulated wars against Britain simply because it saw the Royal Navy as its role model. A war with Japan, on the other hand, was a real concern, and as the years passed the wargames were increasingly played against ORANGE.
In case of a war with Japan, the US Navy's grand strategy was to send an armada straight across the Pacific and quickly defeat the Japanese navy in one or two decisive battles. The wargamers at the College tested this strategy extensively, and it routinely failed. In 1933, the Navy's Research Department reviewed the wargames played from 1927 to 1933 and concluded that the fundamental problem was that the armada over-extended its supply lines. The BLUE armada would exhaust itself, and ORANGE would recover and counter-attack. After this, the wargamers at the College abandoned the old doctrine and instead developed a more progressive strategy, which involved building a logistics infrastructure in the western Pacific and making alliances with regional countries. By the mid-1930s, the wargames resembled very much what the Navy later experienced in the Pacific War.
The wargames also produced tactical innovations, most notably the "circular formation". In this formation, as it was used in World War II, an aircraft carrier was surrounded by concentric circles of cruisers and destroyers. This formation concentrated anti-aircraft fire, and also was easier to maneuver than a line of battle because all the ships could turn at once with a signal from the central ship. The circular formation was first proposed in September 1922 by Commander Roscoe C. MacFall. Initially, the wargamers at the College used a battleship as the central ship, but this was eventually supplanted by the aircraft carrier. Chester Nimitz, who was a fellow student that same year, was impressed by what the circular formation could do, and Nimitz played a pivotal role in making it Navy doctrine.
On the other hand, the wargamers at the Naval War College failed to develop good submarine doctrine. They didn't have a good understanding of what submarines could do. Unlike the German navy, the US Navy had no significant experience with submarine warfare. Most of the time, the players used submarines as a screening force that sailed ahead of the main formation. Players rarely used submarines in independent operations, and never to attack commercial shipping as German wargamers were doing at the time.
For a few years after the end of World War II, wargaming almost ceased in America. At the Naval War College, wargaming dropped to about 10% of its pre-war level.
German wargaming after World War I
The Treaty of Versailles greatly restricted the size of Germany's armed forces and outright banned certain weapons such as planes, tanks, and submarines. This made it difficult if not impossible for the German military to develop their doctrines through field exercises. The Germans greatly expanded their use of wargaming to compensate, and between 1919 and 1939, the German military used wargaming more heavily than any other in the world. By the time Germany began openly rearming in 1934, its officers already had fairly well-developed theories on what armaments to buy and what organizational reforms to implement.
German wargaming at this time was restricted to tactical and operational-level play. Hitler discouraged strategic-level games, as he was confident enough in his own ability to make strategic judgments. Over the course of the war, Germany fought well at the tactical and operational level but made many bad strategic decisions.
During World War 1, the British learned to protect their ships from German submarines by moving them in convoys which were escorted by submarine-hunting ships. The convoy system proved effective against German submarines, which typically operated alone. During the inter-war years, the German navy developed the "wolf-pack" doctrine by which German submarines would attack convoys in groups to confuse and overwhelm the escorts. These ideas were tested in a combination of wargames and naval exercises. Karl Doenitz, who would later command German submarine operations during World War II, organized a series of wargames held during the winter of 1938-39, and from the results he concluded that it would be best for a wolf-pack attack to be coordinated by a designated command submarine rather than a commander onshore. He also concluded that Germany needed 300 submarines to effectively destroy British shipping, and that Germany's existing submarine fleet would at most inflict "pin-pricks".
After World War II, wargaming ceased in Germany, as well as in the other Axis powers. Germany didn't even have an army until 1955, so they saw little need to wargame. When West Germany established its new army in 1955, they had so few officers with wargaming experience that the German War College asked the US Air Force to provide it an officer with wargaming experience.
British naval wargaming during World War II
In January 1942, the British Royal Navy established a naval tactical analysis unit called the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU), which was tasked with developing ways to counter the German submarine "wolf-packs" that were devastating shipping convoys in the Atlantic. It was based in Liverpool, directed by Captain Gilbert Roberts, and staffed mainly by young women from the Women's Royal Naval Service. Their primary analytical tool was wargaming.
The staff at WATU used wargames to test various hypothetical submarine tactics against virtual convoys, and if a certain tactic proved consistently effective and produced outcomes similar to what the actual convoys were reporting, WATU assumed that is what the Germans were in fact doing. The staff at WATU would then design counter-measures and test them in wargames. WATU operated week-long courses wherein naval captains would be instructed in anti-submarine tactics through wargames.
It's uncertain exactly how many German submarines were sunk thanks to WATU's tactics, but at the close of the war, several British admirals asserted that WATU had played a decisive role in Germany's defeat. Had the German submarine threat to merchant shipping not been thwarted, Britain would have been forced to capitulate to the Germans for lack of food and other necessary imports.
What makes WATU a remarkable episode in the history of wargaming is that it was the first time in which wargames were used to analyze scenarios that were occurring in an ongoing war and develop solutions that were deployed immediately in the field. This was made possible by communications technologies such as telephone and radio.
Soviet Union
The Soviets inherited their wargaming techniques from tsarist officers, who favored the rigid form of wargaming pioneered by Reisswitz. Interestingly, the Soviets typically played wargames not on flat maps, but on three-dimensional model battlefields. Soviet wargames typically comprised only a single turn. The players would describe their plan to the umpires, who would then adjudicate the battle all the way to conclusion. This meant the players could not react to what the enemy was doing. This approach was optimal for decision-support but poor for developing the players' thinking skills.
Immediately after the end of World War II, there was a precipitous drop in wargaming in armed forces all over the world. The exception was the Soviet Union. The Soviets actually expanded their wargaming and made them more rigorous. The Soviets launched a massive effort to compile data from the war on the Eastern Front to make their wargames more valid.
During the Cold War, the Soviets allowed officers from other communist countries to attend its military schools, and wargaming was part of the curriculum. Using techniques learned in the Soviet Union, North Vietnamese officers wargamed their attacks against South Vietnam and her allies, and were able to coordinates complicated attacks without the need for radio communications by memorizing timetables.
The Navy Electronic Warfare Simulator (1958)
The first computerized wargaming system was the Navy Electronic Warfare Simulator, which became operational in 1958 at the US Naval War College. The computer system, being from the pre-microchip era, spanned three floors. The game rooms were designed to the resemble the command centers where the Navy coordinated its fleets. When the system was first made operational in 1958, the Navy discovered that it could not model recent advances in military technology. For instance, it could not model ships moving faster than 500 knots. The system had taken 13 years to develop and, like most computers from that era, was difficult to reprogram or upgrade (it predated punch-cards). A variety of improvisational gimmicks were required to run wargames for the contemporary era.
SIGMA war games (United States, 1962–1967)
Between 1962 and 1967, the US military conducted a series of strategic-level wargames known as the Sigma war games to test proposed strategies for fighting the Vietnam War.
The Sigma I-64 and II-64 games, conducted in 1964, were designed to test the proposed strategy of gradually escalating pressure on North Vietnam until it gave up out of economic self-interest. Graduated escalation was supposed to avoid accidentally provoking an intervention by China or the Soviet Union. It would also avoid making President Johnson look like a warmonger. This "graduated pressure" would primarily involve bombing North Vietnam and sending troops into South Vietnam.
The wargames predicted that this strategy would be ineffective. In the simulations, the bombings did not diminish North Vietnam's capacity nor its desire to support the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong did not require much in the way of supplies anyway, and they got most of their supplies from captured villages within South Vietnam. North Vietnam's economy was almost entirely agricultural, so the loss of what little industry it had caused little political turmoil. They preferred to seek revenge, and so sent more troops into South Vietnam. This forced America into a protracted ground war, which led to erosion of public support that eventually forced America's withdrawal.
The findings of the 1964 wargames were ignored by policymakers. One reason was that Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara did not appreciate the methodology of the games, which relied on subjective evaluations by the umpires (even though these men were seasoned officers and diplomats). McNamara preferred mathematical and statistical analysis. He therefore did not bring the findings to President Johnson's attention. Another reason was that Johnson's strategists did not like the proposed alternatives. Escalating the pressure too much could have drawn the Soviet Union or China into the war, and abandoning the war would have humiliated America.
The Johnson administration went on to apply their strategy of graduated pressure in Vietnam, and the outcome of the war proved very similar to what the wargames had foretold. In their post-mortems of the Vietnam War, numerous historians have cited the dismissal of the Sigma wargames as one of many important failures in planning that led to America's defeat.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
(translation by Bill Leeson, 1989)
Sigma II-64 final report (1964), Joint Chiefs of Staff
Wargames
Military exercises and wargames
Combat modeling | Professional wargaming | [
"Mathematics"
] | 7,066 | [
"Applied mathematics",
"Combat modeling"
] |
61,223,041 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New%20Frontiers%20Science%20Park | The New Frontiers Science Park is a science park in Essex, on a redeveloped research site of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
History
Beecham Research Laboratories opened a 4 acre site around October 1969, with 80 staff. By 1988 there were 430 staff. In 1971 Beecham Group tried to take over Glaxo; it became SmithKline Beecham in 1989. Beecham bought the former Ohmeda site in Harlow from BOC in November 1988. New buildings were added by SmithKline Beecham in 1990. The main Beecham headquarters, Beecham House, was in Brentford, Middlesex; the current GSK headquarters is the former Beecham headquarters.
Beecham built a penicillin plant in Worthing, West Sussex, in the early 1960s. Beecham had another large research site at Betchworth, Surrey. Merck & Co. built its nearby Neuroscience Research Centre in 1984.
Construction
Outline planning application was discussed in a Harlow district council meeting on Tuesday 8 June 1993, with twelve animal rights protesters at the meeting. The site would be 878,000 square feet. Two Essex Police officers were asked to attend the meeting, as it was a known 'sensitive issue'. At first, during the meeting, the animal rights individuals were even-tempered, and held no obvious open hostility to the district councillors present; or so it may have seemed. But when the Labour district councillors voted to allow the development to be built, the animal rights individuals soon lost their temper, and vindictively promised 'huge protests' against the proposed development, generously describing SmithKline Beecham as 'bloody murderers'.
Full construction plans were submitted on Tuesday 19 July 1994, with final planning permission being given in early September 1994, with construction starting soon afterwards.
On Thursday 16 March 1995, 43 year old carpenter Dennis Gough, of Enfield, fell 30 feet off scaffolding. He was taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital, but died in the early hours of the next day.
Construction would be finished by November 1996. Further work would take around one year, to make the interior a sterile environment. The site was built by LMK Joint Venture (Laing Management and Morrison–Knudsen). The same joint venture LMK would later build the Pfizer Campus in Kent.
Opening
George Poste was the chief science and technology officer of the company. There were two buildings - Science Complex One, to the north, and Pharmaceutical Technologies, to the south. Th inauguration took place on Monday 28 April 1997, with around 500 guests, including Martin Bangemann from the European Commission.
SmithKline Beecham
Smith, Kline & French had been headquartered in Welwyn Garden City; it merged with Beecham Group in 1989. Smith Kline & French Research had a research site at Welwyn Garden City and another at The Frythe in rural Hertfordshire in the south of Welwyn; in the early 1980s all research was moved out of Welwyn Garden City to The Frythe.
The site was built by SmithKline Beecham, which became GSK in December 2000 when it merged with Glaxo Wellcome. The site was the UK headquarters of SmithKline Beecham; Glaxo had a takeover of Wellcome in 1995. SmithKline Beecham employed 47,000 staff around the world, with 8,200 in the UK. Jan Leschly (a Danish tennis player) was chief executive of SmithKline Beecham from 1994 to 2000. SmithKline Beecham exported £1.2bn of products. In 1998, SmithKline Beecham spent £910m on research, with £330m of that in the UK.
Beecham Pharmaceuticals previously had its Medicinal Research Centre on the site., where it worked on hypertension and gastrointestinal disease.
The site was visited by the Princess Royal on the afternoon of 3 February 2000, following on in the morning from attending a meeting about the new Basic Skills Agency.
GSK
SmithKline Beecham became GSK. After the merger, a possibility was that the Harlow site would close or Glaxo Wellcome's Glaxo Research Campus in Stevenage would close; at the time of its construction in the early 1990s, Glaxo Stevenage was the largest single construction site in the UK. At the time of the merger, the USA was accounting for 45% of GSK's sales, with 33% in Europe, and 22% in the rest of the world. The company would be the world's largest pharmaceutical company with a market capitalisation of £114bn. GSK was the largest private sector funder of research in the UK.
Research
Working with the University of Cambridge, in 2000 a team gave mice a human gene that made the protein UCP3, that was found on the human Chromosome 11. The genetically-engineered mice never became overweight, no matter what the mice ate.
2012 Summer Olympics
The site was the Official Laboratory Services Provider for the 2012 Summer Olympics; every medallist and 50% of competitors were tested by GSK there. 150 scientists from King's College London and the World Anti-Doping Agency would be there, to take around 6,000 samples. 240 prohibited substances would be tested for, with about 400 samples per day. By April 2017, 29 medals had been stripped from competitors in the 2012 Olympics, with 13 of these from Russia.
Public Health England
Since 2010, the Health Protection Agency had wanted to move scientific staff to the GSK site in Essex. GSK had proposed to move from the site in February 2010.
Public Health England bought the site on 7 July 2017 for £25m. Staff will move to the site in 2021, and it will be fully operational by 2024. PHE is headed by Duncan Selbie.
Structure
It is situated in Essex on the A1169, over which the site has a footbridge.
Heads of site
Jackie Hunter CBE
See also
Alderley Park, former site of ICI, later AstraZeneca
BioCity Nottingham
Lilly Research Centre
References
External links
Public Health England
1997 establishments in England
2012 Summer Olympics
Biological research institutes in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in Harlow
Genetic engineering in the United Kingdom
Genetics or genomics research institutions
GSK plc
Health in Essex
Industrial buildings completed in 1997
Neuroscience research centres in the United Kingdom
Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom
Pharmaceutical research institutes
Public Health England
Science and technology in Essex
Science parks in the United Kingdom
Sports medicine in the United Kingdom
Toxicology in the United Kingdom | New Frontiers Science Park | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 1,325 | [
"Toxicology in the United Kingdom",
"Toxicology"
] |
61,224,003 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C13H22O | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C13H22O}}
The molecular formula C13H22O (molar mass: 194.31 g/mol) may refer to:
Solanone
Geranylacetone | C13H22O | [
"Chemistry"
] | 48 | [
"Isomerism",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas"
] |
61,225,569 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June%20Sutor | Dorothy June Sutor (6 June 1929 – 27 May 1990) was a New Zealand-born crystallographer who spent most of her research career in England. She was one of the first scientists to establish that hydrogen bonds could form to hydrogen atoms bonded to carbon atoms. She later worked in the laboratory of Kathleen Lonsdale on the characterisation and prevention of urinary calculi.
Early life and education
Sutor was born in New Zealand, in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, on 6 June 1929, the daughter of Victor Edward Sutor, a coach builder, and Cecilia Maud Sutor (née Craner). She was educated at St Cuthbert's College, and went on to study chemistry at Auckland University College. She graduated Master of Science with first-class honours in 1952 and, supervised by Frederick Llewellyn, she graduated with her first PhD in 1954. She published her first single-author Acta Crystallographica paper, The unit cell and space group of ethyl nitrolic acid, whilst a student.
In 1954, Sutor went to the United Kingdom, and took up a travelling scholarship and Bathurst Studentship at Newnham College, Cambridge. There, she earned a PhD on the structures of purines and nucleosides in 1958. During her second doctorate, Sutor identified the structure of caffeine, and showed that it can readily recrystallise in its monohydrate form.
Research and career
Sutor moved to Australia in 1958, working as a research officer in Melbourne. In 1959, she returned to Britain to take up an Imperial Chemical Industries Fellowship at Birkbeck College, where she worked with J. D. Bernal, Rosalind Franklin, and Aaron Klug on the application of X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. She worked on hydrogen bonding and computational chemistry, writing programs for the EDSAC. Sutor used the concept of electronegativity, introduced by Linus Pauling in 1932, to explain hydrogen bonds. She investigated the Van der Waals distances that are shortened during hydrogen bonding, and based on her findings proposed that a C–H group that is activated by partial ionization can take part in hydrogen bonding (so called C-H···O bonds). She investigated the structure of theacrine, DNA and other purine compounds. In 1962, Sutor published the first crystallographic evidence for C-H ⋯O bonding. Her work expanded from small-molecule crystal structures to alkaloids.
Her work was criticised by Jerry Donohue, who disputed her Van der Waals distances and claimed that she had data problems. At the time, Donohue's textbooks were in most laboratories, and he was a common reviewer for academic papers including crystal structures. Carl Schwalbe has speculated that this could have been due to academic jealousy, saying in 2019 that "acceptance of women in science, particularly the physical sciences, was by no means complete".
Sutor moved back to New Zealand, working briefly for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research before taking leave to look after her father, who died in 1964. In 1966, Sutor was offered a job by Kathleen Lonsdale at University College London. She studied urinary calculi and searched for ways to prevent them. Sutor had good contacts with hospital staff, and even managed to secure Napoléon III's bladder stone. She was supported by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation. In 1979, Sutor became partially sighted, and more "interested in the theoretical aspects of stone growth".
Death and legacy
Sutor died of cancer in London on 27 May 1990. She bequeathed her estate of over £500,000 for the establishment of June Sutor Fellowships for research at Moorfields Eye Hospital into the prevention of blindness.
Sutor's predictions on the hydrogen bond were confirmed by Robin Taylor and Olga Kennard in the 1980s. Their work included 113 neutron diffraction patterns in the Cambridge Crystallographic Database, and found that Sutor's C–H⋯O bond distances were correct to within . Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju dedicated a chapter of his book on hydrogen bonds to the work of Sutor, and Carl Schwalbe compared the structures cited by Sutor to modern redeterminations.
References
1929 births
1990 deaths
People from Auckland
People educated at St Cuthbert's College, Auckland
University of Auckland alumni
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
New Zealand women chemists
Crystallographers
People associated with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand)
People associated with Birkbeck, University of London
People associated with University College London
New Zealand expatriates in England
Deaths from cancer in England | June Sutor | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 958 | [
"Crystallographers",
"Crystallography"
] |
61,225,867 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selinexor | Selinexor sold under the brand name Xpovio among others, is a selective inhibitor of nuclear export used as an anti-cancer medication. It works by blocking the action of exportin 1 and thus blocking the transport of several proteins involved in cancer-cell growth from the cell nucleus to the cytoplasm, which ultimately arrests the cell cycle and leads to apoptosis. It is the first drug with this mechanism of action.
The most common side effects include nausea (feeling sick), vomiting, decreased appetite, weight loss, diarrhea, tiredness, thrombocytopenia (low blood-platelet counts), anaemia (low red-blood cell counts), low levels of white blood cells and hyponatraemia (low blood sodium levels).
Selinexor was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2019, for use in combination with the corticosteroid dexamethasone for the treatment of adults with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is resistant to several other forms of treatment, including at least two proteasome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody. In December 2020, selinexor was approved by the FDA in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of adults with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. In clinical trials, it was associated with a high incidence of severe side effects, including low platelet counts and low blood sodium levels.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it to be a first-in-class medication. Selinexor was approved for medical use in the European Union in March 2021.
Medical uses
Selinexor is approved in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of adults with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy. Selinexor is also approved for use in combination with the steroid dexamethasone in people with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least two proteosome inhibitors, at least two immunomodulatory agents, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody (so-called "quad-refractory" or "penta-refractory" myeloma), for whom no other treatment options are available. It is the first drug to be approved for this indication.
In June 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an additional indication for selinexor to treat adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), not otherwise specified, including DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma, after at least two lines of systemic therapy.
In the European Union, selinexor is indicated in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of multiple myeloma in adults who have received at least four prior therapies and whose disease is refractory to at least two proteasome inhibitors, two immunomodulatory agents and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, and who have demonstrated disease progression on the last therapy.
Adverse effects
In the clinical study (the BOSTON study) used to support FDA approval in patients with multiple myeloma after at least one prior therapy (once-weekly selinexor in combination with once-weekly bortezomib and dexamethasone),the most common adverse reactions were cytopenias, along with gastrointestinal and constitutional symptoms and were consistent with those previously reported from other selinexor studies. Most adverse reactions were manageable with dose modifications and/or standard supportive care. The most common non-hematologic adverse reactions were fatigue (59%), nausea (50%), decreased appetite (35%), and diarrhea (32%) and were mostly Grade 1 and 2 events. The most common Grade 3 and 4 adverse reactions were thrombocytopenia (43%), lymphopenia (38%), fatigue (28%) and anemia (17%).
The most common adverse reactions (incidence ≥20%) in people with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), excluding laboratory abnormalities, were fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, appetite decrease, weight decrease, constipation, vomiting, and pyrexia. Grade 3-4 laboratory abnormalities in ≥15% were thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, neutropenia, anemia, and hyponatremia. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 46% of people, most often from infection. Thrombocytopenia was the leading cause of dose modifications. Gastrointestinal toxicity developed in 80% of people and any grade hyponatremia developed in 61%. Central neurological adverse reactions occurred in 25% of people, including dizziness and mental status changes.
The prescribing information provides warnings and precautions for thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, gastrointestinal toxicity, hyponatremia, serious infection, neurological toxicity, and embryo-fetal toxicity.
Mechanism of action
Like other selective inhibitors of nuclear export (SINEs), selinexor works by binding to exportin 1 (also known as XPO1 or CRM1). XPO1 is a karyopherin which performs nuclear transport of several proteins, including tumor suppressors, oncogenes, and proteins involved in governing cell growth, from the cell nucleus to the cytoplasm; it is often overexpressed and its function misregulated in several types of cancer. By inhibiting the XPO1 protein, SINEs lead to a buildup of tumor suppressors in the nucleus of malignant cells and reduce levels of oncogene products which drive cell proliferation. This ultimately leads to cell cycle arrest and death of cancer cells by apoptosis. In vitro, this effect appeared to spare normal (non-malignant) cells.
Inhibiting XPO1 affects many different cells in the body which may explain the incidence of adverse reactions to selinexor. Thrombocytopenia, for example, is a mechanistic and dose-dependent effect, occurring because selinexor causes a buildup of the transcription factor STAT3 in the nucleus of hematopoietic stem cells, preventing their differentiation into mature megakaryocytes (platelet-producing cells) and thus slowing production of new platelets.
Chemistry
Selinexor is a fully synthetic small-molecule compound, developed by means of a structure-based drug design process known as induced-fit docking. It binds to a cysteine residue in the nuclear export signal groove of exportin 1. Although this bond is covalent, it is slowly reversible.
History
Selinexor was developed by Karyopharm Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of drugs that target nuclear transport. It was approved in the United States in July 2019, on the basis of a single-arm Phase IIb clinical trial. The FDA decided to grant accelerated approval despite a previous recommendation from an FDA Advisory Committee Panel which had voted 8–5 to delay approving the drug until the results from an ongoing Phase III study were known.
Selinexor in combination with dexamethasone was granted accelerated approval and was granted orphan drug designation. The FDA granted the approval of Xpovio to Karyopharm Therapeutics.
In June 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an additional indication for selinexor to treat adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), not otherwise specified, including DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma, after at least two lines of systemic therapy.
Approval was based on SADAL (KCP-330-009; NCT02227251), a multicenter, single-arm, open-label trial in participants with DLBCL after two to five systemic regimens. Participants received selinexor 60 mg orally on days one and three of each week.
In December 2020, the FDA expanded selinexor's approved indication to include its combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone for the treatment of adults with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy.
Society and culture
Legal status
On 28 January 2021, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a conditional marketing authorization for the medicinal product Nexpovio intended for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. The applicant for this medicinal product is Karyopharm Europe GmbH. Selinexor was approved for medical use in the European Union in March 2021.
Research
Under the codename KPT-330, selinexor was tested in several preclinical animal models of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer, lymphomas, and acute and chronic leukemias. In humans, early clinical trials (phase I) have been conducted in non-Hodgkin lymphoma, blast crisis, and a wide range of advanced or refractory solid tumors, including colon cancer, head and neck cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. Compassionate use in patients with acute myeloid leukemia has also been reported.
The pivotal clinical trial which served to support approval of selinexor for people with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma was an open-label study of 122 patients known as the STORM trial. In all of the enrolled patients, patients had been treated with a median of seven prior treatment regimens including conventional chemotherapy, targeted therapy with bortezomib, carfilzomib, lenalidomide, pomalidomide, and a monoclonal antibody (daratumumab or isatuximab); nearly all had also undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation but had disease that continued to progress. The overall response rate was 26%, including two stringent complete responses; 39% of patients had a minimal response or better. The median duration of response was 4.4 months, median progression-free survival was 3.7 months, and median overall survival was 8.6 months.
As of 2019, phase I/II and III trials are ongoing, including the use of selinexor in other cancers and in combinations with other drugs used for multiple myeloma.
In November 2020, results from the multi-center, Phase III, randomized study (NCT03110562) which evaluated 402 participants with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who had received one to three prior lines of therapy were published in The Lancet. The study was designed to compare the efficacy, safety and certain health-related quality of life parameters of once-weekly selinexor in combination with once-weekly Velcade® (bortezomib) plus low-dose dexamethasone (SVd) versus twice-weekly Velcade® plus low-dose dexamethasone (Vd). The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival (PFS) and key secondary endpoints included overall response rate (ORR), rate of peripheral neuropathy, and others. Additionally, the BOSTON study allowed for patients on the Vd control arm to crossover to the SVd arm following objective (quantitative) progression of disease verified by an Independent Review Committee (IRC). The BOSTON study was conducted at over 150 clinical sites internationally.
Although the study had one of the highest proportions of patients with high-risk cytogenetics (~50%) as compared with other Velcade-based studies in previously treated myeloma, the median PFS in the SVd arm was 13.93 months compared to 9.46 months in the Vd arm, representing a 4.47 month (47%) increase in median PFS (hazard ratio[HR]=0.70; p=0.0075). The SVd group also demonstrated a significantly greater ORR compared to the Vd group (76.4% vs. 62.3%, p=0.0012). Patients who had received only one prior line of therapy also demonstrated a higher ORR on the SVd arm as compared to the Vd arm (80.8% vs. 65.7%, p=0.0082). Importantly, SVd therapy compared to Vd therapy showed consistent PFS benefit and higher ORR across several important subgroups.
In 2020, selinexor underwent a clinical trial for treatment of COVID-19. In this phase 2 randomized placebo-controlled single-blind trial named XPORT-CoV-1001 with a total of 190 participants with severe COVID-19, treatment with selinexor resulted in higher mortality (16% vs. 9%) and more serious adverse events (23% vs. 16%) than placebo.
References
External links
Antineoplastic drugs
Hydrazides
Orphan drugs
Pyrazines
Teratogens
Triazoles
Trifluoromethyl compounds | Selinexor | [
"Chemistry"
] | 2,852 | [
"Teratogens"
] |
61,227,075 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethinylestradiol%20sulfonate/norethisterone%20acetate | Ethinylestradiol sulfonate/norethisterone acetate (EES/NETA), sold under the brand name Deposiston, is a combination medication of ethinylestradiol sulfonate (EES), an estrogen, and norethisterone acetate (NETA), a progestin, which was used as a combined birth control pill for women. It was formulated as oral tablets and contained 1 mg EES and 5 mg NETA per tablet. The medication had a long-lasting depot effect and was taken only once per week, for a total of four tablets per cycle. It was developed and marketed by Jenapharm and was previously available in Germany. EES/NETA was introduced for medical use in 1978.
See also
List of combined sex-hormonal preparations § Estrogens and progestogens
References
Abandoned drugs
Combined estrogen–progestogen formulations | Ethinylestradiol sulfonate/norethisterone acetate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 196 | [
"Drug safety",
"Abandoned drugs"
] |
61,227,693 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20largest%20inflorescences | The following is a list of the largest inflorescences known from plants that produce seeds.
See also
List of world records held by plants
List of largest seeds
Largest organisms
List of Superlative trees
List of Largest Fungal Fruit Bodies
References
Lists of flowers
Inflorescences
Inflorescences | List of largest inflorescences | [
"Biology"
] | 59 | [
"Lists of biota",
"Lists of plants",
"Plants"
] |
76,421,973 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressorium | The compressorium (plural: compressoria) is a scientific apparatus for applying pressure to a sample for examination with a microscope.
Widely used by microscopists in the 19th century, they were produced by companies such as Bausch and Lomb.
Many versions of compressoria were developed over the years, with one of the first attributed to the famous histologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně, see picture.
Compressoria were still used in the twenty-first century for the identification of Trichinella worms in samples.
References
Scientific equipment
Microscopy | Compressorium | [
"Chemistry"
] | 112 | [
"Microscopy"
] |
76,422,924 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformulated%20Blendstock%20for%20Oxygenate%20Blending | Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending (RBOB) is a gasoline futures contract traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It is the benchmark futures contract for wholesale gasoline in the United States.
History
Edwin Drake was the first to discover RBOB gasoline but discarded it as a byproduct on his quest to refine crude oil into kerosene.
Composition
RBOB gasoline is a blend of hydrocarbons suitable for use in Spark-ignition engines. It typically contains various additives, including oxygenates like ethanol or methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), to improve octane rating and reduce air pollution.
Refining
RBOB is refined from crude oil and about half of the crude oil is refined into RBOB gasoline, therefore RBOB tracks the price of WTI crude closely.
See also
Commodity market
Gasoline
Fuel taxes in the United States
New York Mercantile Exchange
References
Chemical substances
Benchmark crude oils
Petroleum in the United States | Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 194 | [
"Materials",
"Chemical substances",
"nan",
"Matter"
] |
76,422,977 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning%20Maker | Meaning Maker is a conceptual, social practice art project by Kent Manske and Nanette Wylde. The project consists of ten questionnaires on a range of topics. It was initiated in 2006 by PreNeo Press. Meaning Maker has been exhibited in galleries, published in journals, is included in the RISD artists' book collection, and has been unofficially distributed and placed at numerous art events.
Description
Meaning Maker takes form as a series of fill-out-form pamphlets. Each pamphlet is an "edition" which focuses on a single subject. The Meaning Makers are: Academic Conference, American Citizenship, Art Viewing Experience, Control, Family Gathering, Food, Higher Education, Periodic Personal Evaluation, Relationship to Nature, and U.S. Presidential Elections. This project exists in the physical world and on the Internet. The pamphlets are distributed in public places, most often art galleries and museums, and at art or academic conferences. They are also distributed online as pdfs. The project appears to be open ended, with the most recent edition being published in 2015.
It is expansive and precise, as claims curator Jan Rindfleisch, who writes about Meaning Maker, “For viewing art and the art world, try Meaning Maker, a guided interactive tool to foster understanding and evaluation of specific experiences."
Reception
Jason Urban describes the project, "Physically, Meaning Maker is modest: a multi-colored series of letter-sized tri-folds. It would look at home in any Kinko’s or a Human Resources office but it is only a spoof of corporate aesthetics. A closer look would reveal Meaning Maker to be a subversive tool for conceptual intervention.”
Discussing Meaning Maker, Carolyn Guertin writes, "The point of such a conceptual art project is that since it is infinitely renewable, it functions as a social critique of the expected norms of particular kinds of experiences.”
Aimee Le Duc claims, "Participants were encouraged to download copies, reuse the questionnaires and become the type of person most palatable in each of the pamphlets. The language is innocuous and satirical, but unsettling in the striking ease in which we all employ these assimilating tactics in our daily lives."
Stephanie Ellis reviews Meaning Maker for Stretcher, "Meaning Maker offered free low-tech transparent envelopes stuffed with a set of questionnaires, a nifty blue pencil, and a small pin with a plump “!” shadowed by a “?.” (Packets were discreetly labeled “this is art.”) The questionnaires (sans agenda) cover a series of occasions that often trigger zombie behavior such as an academic conference or a family reunion. In the latter, under “how I fit in?” you may choose among: the clown, the boss, at odds, the peacekeeper and so on. There was also a chance to check off the TV show that best represented your family. Hooked? The sweetly sincere self-reflective tools can be downloaded from their Web site. You might be inspired to write your own."
Publications
Meaning Maker has been included in the follow print publications, FLAT (published by Karol Shumaker, Chicago ) and Visual Communication Quarterly (CSU Fullerton), and Join + Cast Guide to Contemporary Art (Phoenix, Arizona, 2011).
Exhibitions
Meaning Maker has officially exhibited at the following art venues: The Euphrat Museum of Art in Cupertino, California; The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon; The Lab in San Francisco, California, among others.
References
External links
Official Website
2000 in Internet culture
American art
Art websites
Avant-garde art
Book arts
Conceptual art
Contemporary art
Electronic literature works
Interactive art
Internet art
Internet-based works | Meaning Maker | [
"Technology"
] | 749 | [
"Multimedia",
"Internet-based works"
] |
76,423,616 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han%20Xin%20code | Han Xin code (汉信码 in Chinese, Chinese-sensible code) is two-dimensional (2D) matrix barcode symbology invented in 2007 by Chinese company The Article Numbering Center of China (中国物品编码中心 in Chinese) to break monopoly of QR code. As QR code, Han Xin code consists of black squares and white square spaces arranged in a square grid on a white background. It has four finder patterns and other markers which allow to recognize it with camera-based readers. Han Xin code contains Reed–Solomon error correction with ability to read corrupted images. At this time, it is issued as ISO/IEC 20830:2021.
The main advantage (and invention requirement), comparable to QR code, is an embedded ability to natively encode Chinese characters instead of Japanese in QR code. Han Xin code in maximal 84 version (189×189 size) allows to encode 7827 numeric characters, 4350 English text characters, 3261 bytes and 1044–2174 Chinese characters (it depends on Unicode region). Han Xin code encodes full ISO/IEC 646 Latin characters instead of restricted amount Latin characters which is supported by QR code. It makes Han Xin code more suitable for English text encoding or GS1 Application Identifiers data encoding.
Additionally, Han Xin code can encode Unicode characters from other languages with special Unicode mode, which has embedded lossless compression for UTF-8 characters set and Extended Channel Interpretation support. Han Xin code has special compactification mode for URI encoding and can reduce barcode size which encodes links to web pages.
History and standards
Chinese company The Article Numbering Center of China (中国物品编码中心 in Chinese) during 10-th Five-year plans of China started research of own QR code replacement to remove Japanese monopoly in 2D barcodes. In 2007, the new barcodes standard, at this time known as Han Xin code, published as GB/T 21049-2007 with the name Chinese-sensible code.
In 2011, USA company Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM) brought out ISS Han Xin Code symbology as official encoding standard and published it in the own store.
In 2015, group of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 started implementation of Han Xin code as international standard and published it as ISO/IEC 20830:2021 in 2021.
In 2022 Chinese-sensible code standard was reviewed as GB/T 21049-2022 and renamed as Han Xin code to be compliant with ISO standard.
Set of patents is registered in United States Patent and Trademark Office related with Han Xin code encoding and decoding:
European Patent Office EP3330887B1 by Fujian Landi Commercial Equipment Co Ltd "Chinese-sensitive code feature pattern detection method and system"
United States Patent US10095903B2 by Ingenico Fujian Technology Co Ltd "Block decoding method and system for two-dimensional code"
United States Patent US10528781B2 by Ingenico Fujian Technology Co Ltd "Detection method and system for characteristic patterns of Han Xin codes"
Application
Han Xin code can be used in the same way as QR code. At this time Han Xin code is used mostly in China, because it has embedded encoding ability to encode Chinese characters. However, most of barcode printers and barcode scanners support Han Xin code. Han Xin code can be scanned on iOS and Android mobile devices and many barcode libraries support reading and writing Han Xin code.
Main advantages of Han Xin code are:
ability to encode Chinese characters with embedded methods;
Extended Channel Interpretation support;
embedded method for compact UTF-8 encoding with embedded lossless compression;
embedded method for URI compact encoding;
compact GS1 Application Identifiers data encoding comparable to QR code;
full ISO/IEC 646 support for compact numeric and text encoding.
Barcode design
Han Xin code represents data in black and white square modules, where dark module is a binary one and a light module is a zero. Additionally, Han Xin code can be encoded in inverse colors, but this option in many barcode readers is disabled by default. Black and white modules are arranged into square region with sizes from 23 × 23 modules (Version 1) to 189 × 189 modules (Version 84). As QR code, Han Xin code does not have rectangular versions like DataMatrix has and this restricts usage of Han Xin code in some cases. Han Xin code version size can be calculated with the following formula:
Han Xin code symbol is constructed from the following elements:
Quiet Zone – is surrounding the symbol on all four sides with at least 3X size;
Finder Pattern – consists from 4 Position Detection Patterns which is placed on all four corners of symbol and used to detect symbol position and area;
Alignment Patterns and Assistant Alignment Patterns – is started from Version 4 and helps with the decoding of distorted code;
Structural Information Regions – is surrounding all four Finder Patterns and used to encode symbol parameters like version, mask and error correction mode;
Data Regions – masked binary data encoded in black and white modules.
Finder pattern
Finder Pattern consists from four Position Detection Patterns located at the four corners of the barcode. The size of Position Detection Pattern is 7×7 modules and it is constructed from 5 elements: dark 7 × 7 modules, light 6 × 6 modules, dark 5 × 5 modules, light 4 × 4 modules, dark 3 × 3 modules respectively.
The scanning ratio of each Position Detection Pattern is 1:1:1:1:3 or 3:1:1:1:1 (depends on scanning direction). The four patterns orientation allows to detect unambiguously the barcode location and orientation.
Every pattern has Position Detection Pattern separator with Structural Information Region aligned to it.
Alignment pattern
The Alignment Patterns are added to the Han Xin code from Version 4 (Versions 1–3 do not have alignment patterns) and used to precise cell position in the distorted barcodes. Alignment Patterns in Han Xin code are split into:
Alignment Pattern – set of step-wise alignment lines;
Assistant Alignment Pattern - 6 modules, including 5 light modules and 1 dark module.
The Alignment Pattern is made up of a dark line and a downside adjacent light line which are one module wide. Assistant Alignment Pattern consisting from 5 light modules and 1 dark module indicates edge of region block with its dark module.
Below you can see examples of Han Xin code with different Alignment pattern placement.
Structural information
Han Xin code Structural Information Region is a one module wide region surrounding the four Position Detection Patterns. Han Xin code has two Structural Information identical arrays, which are made from 34 data modules. Every Structural Information array is split on 17 modules which are placed around each Position Detection Pattern.
Structural Information Region encodes the following data:
Version + 20 (bits 0–7);
Error correction level (bits 8–9);
Mask index (bits 10–11);
Error correction Reed–Solomon error correction data (bits 12–27);
Bits 28–33 are ignored and can be any (sometimes they can be filled with white, black sequence).
Metadata bits from 0–11 are split into 4 bits tetrads(m2, m1, m0) and supplemented with four error correction tetrads (r3, r2, r1, r0).
Data masking
To make Han Xin code dark and light modules amount to be closely to 1:1 in the symbol, masking algorithm is used. Masking sequence is applied to Data Region through the XOR operation. Finder Pattern, Alignment Patterns and Structural Information Regions are excluded from masking operation. The following table shows mask pattern algorithms (which is placed to Structural Information Region).
i - Row index of the symbol.
j - Column index of the symbol.
Both and start from (1,1), the top left corner module of the symbol. When the masking solution condition is true, the resulting mask bit is 1.
Error correction
Han Xin code uses Reed–Solomon error correction. Encoded data is represented as byte (8-bit) array. Data array divided into blocks and error correction codewords sequence is generated for each block which is added to the end of the error correction block. After this, all blocks are merged sequentially into byte stream.
The polynomial arithmetic for Han Xin Code uses finite field generation polynomial: x^8 + x^6 + x^5 + x (355 or 101100011b) with initial root = 1.
The amount of error correction codewords depends on symbol version and error correction level and can be from 16% to 60%, which allows to correct from 8% to 30% damage.
Data region
Han Xin code data is encoded as byte array. Data byte array is split into error correction blocks, where error correction codewords (bytes) are added. Error correction blocks are united into one codewords array:
(Encoded byte array) => (Error correction block 1) + ... + (Error correction block N) => (Codewords array)
As an example, this can be demonstrated on Han Xin code version 5 with error correction level L4. It has 27 encoded codewords and 2 error correction blocks with each block size of data codewords and error correction codewords: (14, 20), (13, 22):
(D1...D14, D15...D27) => (D1...D14, E1.1...1.20) + (D15...D27, E2.1...2.22) => (D1...D14, E1.1...1.20, D15...D27, E2.1...2.22) => (C1...C69)
D(x) - Data codewords.
E(b.x) - error codeword, where b is block number and x position in block.
C(x) - resulted codewords.
As the next operation, resulted codewords array C(x) is split into blocks with size of 13 bytes which connects codewords in the same position of each block and form new codewords array. The result is byte array of the same size but mixed by position of 13.
(С1...С13, С14...С26, Сn...Cn+12) => (С1, C14, Cn...С13, С26, Cn+12) => (CM1...CMn+12)
CM(x) – mixed by position of 13 array of codewords (bytes).
After the upper operations the resulted codewords are placed into data region row by row from left to right and from up to down. Horizontal line damage would affect fewer codewords, vertical line damage would affect more codewords.
Encoding
Han Xin code can encode 7827 numeric characters, 4350 English text characters, 3261 bytes and 1044–2174 Chinese characters in the maximal version 84 version. Additionally, it supports special Unicode and industrial modes. All modes can be mixed to obtain best compactification level for the data. The following table demonstrates abilities to encode data with different barcode version and error correction level.
Encoding modes
All encoding modes can be split into the following groups:
Numeric mode which includes digits encoding: 0–9;
Text mode which supports full ISO/IEC 646 characters set;
Binary (Byte) mode which encodes bytes values 0–255;
Chinese Characters modes which encodes 1587600 different Chinese characters from GB 18030 codepage in 4 modes;
Unicode encoding with Extended Channel Interpretation(ECI) mode;
Unicode with Unicode adaptive mode which encodes UTF-8 encoding with embedded lossless compression;
GS1 mode which encodes GS1 Application Identifiers data;
URI mode which encodes URI links in compact encoding.
Numeric mode
The input data string in Numeric mode is divided into blocks of three digits (the last block can be less than three) and encoded in 10 bits (0000000000b - 1111100111b). The mode data is prefixed with mode indicator 0001b and terminates with mode terminator which also indicates number of digits in last group.
As an example, we need to encode digits sequence 12700402:
Prefix => 0001b
127 => 0001111111
004 => 0000000100
02 => 0000000010
Terminator => 1111111110b
Text mode
Text mode encodes data characters set from ISO/IEC 646. Each character is represented by 6 bits. All characters are divided into two subsets: Text1 sub-mode and Text2 sub-mode. 11110b value is used to switch between text sub-modes, 111111b is a mode terminator. Text mode starts from Text1 sub-mode.
Binary byte mode
Binary mode encodes bytes array [0 – 255] in any form. Binary mode consists from binary mode indicator 0011b, 13-bit binary counter and bytes data which are converted to 8-bit sequence. None mode terminator is required.
Chinese Characters modes
Chinese Characters modes is a set of 4 modes which encodes Chinese characters from GB 18030 codepage.
Unicode mode
Unicode mode encodes UTF-8 charset with embedded lossless compression. In the Unicode mode, the input data is analysed by using self-adaptive algorithm. Firstly, input data is divided and combined into the 1, 2, 3, or 4 byte pattern preencoding sub-sequences, and secondly a run-length data compression algorithm is applied to encode each sub-sequences of the input data.
Shortly, the Unicode mode searches characters sub-pages which can have the same prefix sequence for all of characters of the same language (Cyrillic, Greek, French, German... languages) and encodes only differences from prefix bytes sequence.
GS1 mode
Han Xin code GS1 mode is an indicator that the represented data is defined by GS1 General Specification. GS1 mode encodes data in Numeric and Text modes. Other modes may be used but GS1 mode must be first
mode in the symbol and encoded data must be returned with GS1 flag. <FNC1> (if required) must be encoded as 1111101000b in Numeric mode (Numeric mode encodes only three digits, so 1111101000b => 1000 value is counted as special character). In case <FNC1> identifier must be inserted and encoder is in any mode different from Numeric, the mode must be terminated and Numeric mode must be started. GS1 mode indicator is 11100001b and GS1 mode terminator is 11111111b.
The data in GS1 mode is split into GS1 Application Identifiers chinks and then compacted with the best modes. As an example, the following data can be encoded:
(10)123456ABC<FNC1>(240)DATA
The data is encoded in the following way:
<11100001b> <Numeric 10123456> <Text ABC> <Numeric mode selector> <1111101000b> <Numeric 240> <Text DATA> <11111111b>
URI mode
Han Xin code URI mode encodes URI links in compact encoding. URI mode indicator is 11100010b and URI mode terminator is 111b. URI mode can encode data in three charsets: URI-A, URI-B, URI-C with own sub-mode terminators. URI mode can encode %XX data in special Percent-Encoding sub-mode, where three symbols is encoded in 8 bits.
Percent-Encoding sub-mode encodes %XX data in 8 bits sequence. The mode does not require any terminator. To encode URI %XX data in this mode, sub-mode indicator (100b) must be added, then 8-bit indicator of sub-mode 8 bits sequence must be added (counter = Length of %XX / 3) and after this sequence, where %FF, or %ff, or %00, must be added as xFF or x00 bytes.
See also
Automated identification and data capture (AIDC)
Barcode
Extended Channel Interpretation
GB National Standard
GS1
QR code
References
External links
Free Han Xin code generator
Free Han Xin code reader
Han Xin code description
Automatic identification and data capture
Barcodes
Encodings
Information technology in China
Science and technology in China | Han Xin code | [
"Technology"
] | 3,470 | [
"Data",
"Automatic identification and data capture"
] |
76,423,933 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janzen%E2%80%93Rayleigh%20expansion | In fluid dynamics, Janzen–Rayleigh expansion represents a regular perturbation expansion using the relevant mach number as the small parameter of expansion for the velocity field that possess slight compressibility effects. The expansion was first studied by O. Janzen in 1913 and Lord Rayleigh in 1916.
Steady potential flow
Consider a steady potential flow that is characterized by the velocity potential Then satisfies
where , the sound speed is expressed as a function of the velocity magnitude For a polytropic gas, we can write
where is the specific heat ratio, is the stagnation sound speed (i.e., the sound speed in a gas at rest) and is the stagnation enthalpy. Let be the characteristic velocity scale and is the characteristic value of the sound speed, then the function is of the form
where is the relevant Mach number.
For small Mach numbers, we can introduce the series
Substituting this governing equation and collecting terms of different orders of leads to a set of equations. These are
and so on. Note that is independent of with which the latter quantity appears in the problem for .
Imai–Lamla method
A simple method for finding the particular integral for in two dimensions was devised by Isao Imai and Ernst Lamla. In two dimensions, the problem can be handled using complex analysis by introducing the complex potential formally regarded as the function of and its conjugate ; here is the stream function, defined such that
where is some reference value for the density. The perturbation series of is given by
where is an analytic function since and , being solutions of the Laplace equation, are harmonic functions. The integral for the first-order problem leads to the Imai–Lamla formula
where is the homogeneous solution (an analytic function), that can be used to satisfy necessary boundary conditions. The series for the complex velocity potential is given by
where and
References
Fluid dynamics | Janzen–Rayleigh expansion | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 383 | [
"Piping",
"Chemical engineering",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
76,425,998 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujaplicinol | Thujaplicinol is either of two isomeric tropolone-related natural products. They are found in tree species primarily in bark, needles, xylem, of the family of Cupressaceae like the Cupressus, Thuja, Juniperus and Thujopsis. The thujaplicinols are structurally equivalent to the thujaplicins with an additional hydroxyl group. They belong to the class of natural terpenoids having two free hydroxyl groups at C3 and C5 position.
The thujaplicinols are highly volatile compounds. It is known that the presence of such tropolones, including alpha-tropolone and its isopropyl derivatives, result in the high natural durability of wood species, such as western red cedar, juniper and cypress.
Uses
Alpha-thujaplicinol, an isomer of thujaplicinol, is often encountered in the Asian species of Thujopsis dolabrata, and exhibits high antibacterial and antifungal activities. It has been found to be effective against Enterococcus faecalis and Legionella pneumophila, even at low inhibitory concentrations (1.56 to 50 mg/ml).
In a 2004 study, α-thujaplicinol showed to have high cytotoxic effects upon several cancer cell lines, such as human stomach cancer and murine lymphocytic leukemia.
The other isomer of the compound is called β-thujaplicinol. A recent study found out that it inhibited the development of hepatocellular carcinoma cells because it triggered the autophagic cell death and a subsequent apoptosis.
Earlier studies have shown that β-thujaplicinol can addiotionally suppress estrogen-dependent breast cancer by regulating the estrogen receptor signaling.
References
Natural products
Monoterpenes
Tropolones
Isopropyl compounds | Thujaplicinol | [
"Chemistry"
] | 412 | [
"Natural products",
"Medicinal chemistry"
] |
76,426,230 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icaroscope | An icaroscope is a telescope-like nonlinear optical device that enables viewing of both very bright and dark objects in the same image simultaneously. The problem the icaroscope was designed to solve was observing enemy aircraft approaching with the sun behind them, when the bright sun in a clear sky dazzles the observer and masks aircraft near the sun's disc. In the icaroscope, the scene is not viewed directly; instead it is briefly projected onto a screen coated with a special phosphor, and this screen is then shown to the viewer. The specific silver-activated zinc-cadmium sulphide phosphor has a short afterglow even in areas saturated by the full brightness of the sun. By rapidly exposing the phosphor, allowing it to decay for around 5 ms, and showing it to the viewer, the effect is to attenuate the brightness of the sun's disc by about 500 times, allowing details near it to be clearly seen. The icaroscope repeats this process at a rate of 90 Hz, permitting continuous observation.
Development of the icaroscope was carried out during the Second World War at the Institute of Optics by Brian O'Brien, Franz Urbach, and other researchers. The device is named for Icarus, the mythological figure known for flying too close to the sun.
References
Nonlinear optics
Science and technology during World War II
Telescope types | Icaroscope | [
"Technology"
] | 285 | [
"Science and technology during World War II",
"Science and technology by war"
] |
76,427,228 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemivibart | Pemivibart, sold under the brand name Pemgarda, is a monoclonal antibody medication authorized for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of COVID19. Pemivibart was developed by Invivyd.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for pemivibart in March 2024.
Medical uses
In the US, pemivibart is authorized for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of COVID19 in people aged twelve years of age and older weighing at least . It is authorized for individuals who are not currently infected with SARSCoV2 and who have not had a known recent exposure to an individual infected with SARSCoV2; and who have moderate-to-severe immune compromise due to a medical condition or due to taking immunosuppressive medications or treatments and are unlikely to mount an adequate immune response to COVID19 vaccination.
In August 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised the emergency use authorization for pemivibart to limit its use to when the combined national frequency of variants with substantially reduced susceptibility to pemivibart is less than or equal to 90%.
Society and culture
Legal status
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for pemivibart in March 2024.
Names
Pemivibart is the international nonproprietary name.
References
Antiviral drugs
Experimental monoclonal antibodies
COVID-19 drug development | Pemivibart | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 322 | [
"Antiviral drugs",
"COVID-19 drug development",
"Biocides",
"Drug discovery"
] |
76,428,740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast%20radio%20receiver | The most familiar form of radio receiver is a broadcast radio receiver, often just called a broadcast receiver or simply a radio, as used for radio broadcasting. It receives audio programs intended for public reception transmitted by local radio stations. The sound is reproduced either by a loudspeaker in the radio or an earphone which plugs into a jack on the radio. The radio requires electric power, provided either by batteries inside the radio or a power cord which plugs into an electric outlet. All radios have a volume control to adjust the loudness of the audio, and some type of "tuning" control to select the radio station to be received.
Modulation types
Modulation is the process of adding information to a radio carrier wave.
AM and FM
Two types of modulation are used in analog radio broadcasting systems; AM and FM.
In amplitude modulation (AM) the strength of the radio signal is varied by the audio signal. AM broadcasting is allowed in the AM broadcast bands which are between 148 and 283 kHz in the longwave range, and between 526 and 1706 kHz in the medium frequency (MF) range of the radio spectrum. AM broadcasting is also permitted in shortwave bands, between about 2.3 and 26 MHz, which are used for long distance international broadcasting.
In frequency modulation (FM), the frequency of the radio signal is varied slightly by the audio signal. FM broadcasting is permitted in the FM broadcast bands between about 65 and 108 MHz in the very high frequency (VHF) range. The exact frequency ranges vary somewhat in different countries.
FM stereo radio stations broadcast in stereophonic sound (stereo), transmitting two sound channels representing left and right microphones. A stereo receiver contains the additional circuits and parallel signal paths to reproduce the two separate channels. A monaural receiver, in contrast, only receives a single audio channel that is a combination (sum) of the left and right channels. While AM stereo transmitters and receivers exist, they have not achieved the popularity of FM stereo.
Most modern radios are able to receive both AM and FM radio stations, and have a switch to select which band to receive; these are called AM/FM radios.
Digital audio broadcasting (DAB)
Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is an advanced radio technology which debuted in some countries in 1998 that transmits audio from terrestrial radio stations as a digital signal rather than an analog signal as AM and FM do. Its advantages are that DAB has the potential to provide higher quality sound than FM (although many stations do not choose to transmit at such high quality), has greater immunity to radio noise and interference, makes better use of scarce radio spectrum bandwidth, and provides advanced user features such as electronic program guide, sports commentaries, and image slideshows. Its disadvantage is that it is incompatible with previous radios so that a new DAB receiver must be purchased. As of 2017, 38 countries offer DAB, with 2,100 stations serving listening areas containing 420 million people. The United States and Canada have chosen not to implement DAB.
DAB radio stations work differently from AM or FM stations: a single DAB station transmits a wide 1,500 kHz bandwidth signal that carries from 9 to 12 channels from which the listener can choose. Broadcasters can transmit a channel at a range of different bit rates, so different channels can have different audio quality. In different countries DAB stations broadcast in either Band III (174–240 MHz) or L band (1.452–1.492 GHz).
Types
Radios are manufactured in a range of styles and functions:
Console radio - A self-contained radio with speaker designed to stand on the floor.
Table radio also called a "Mantel radio" - A self-contained radio with speaker designed to sit on a table, cabinet, or fireplace mantel. Table radios typically plug into a wall outlet, although some "cordless" battery powered table radios exist.
Clock radio - A bedside table radio that also includes an alarm clock. The alarm clock can be set to turn on the radio in the morning instead of an alarm, to wake the owner.
Tuner - A high fidelity AM/FM radio receiver in a component home audio system. It has no speakers but outputs an audio signal which is fed into the system and played through the system's speakers.
Portable radio - a radio powered by batteries that can be carried with a person. Radios are now often integrated with other audio sources in CD players and portable media players. Portable radios typically are small enough to be hand held, or, for larger radios, have a handle or carrying strap. Portable radios may have an arrangement for powering from an outlet, conserving the batteries when an outlet is available. Portable "emergency" radios may be solar and/or hand crank powered.
Boom box - a portable battery-powered high fidelity stereo sound system in the form of a box with a handle, which became popular during the mid-1970s.
Transistor radio - an older term for a portable pocket-sized broadcast radio receiver. Made possible by the invention of the transistor and developed in the 1950s, transistor radios were hugely popular during the 1960s and early 1970s, and changed the public's listening habits.
Car radio - A radio integrated into the dashboard of a vehicle, used for entertainment while driving. Virtually all modern cars and trucks are equipped with radios, which usually also includes a CD player.
Satellite radio receiver - subscription radio receiver that receives audio programming from a direct broadcast satellite. The subscriber must pay a monthly fee. They are mostly designed as car radios.
Shortwave receiver - This is a broadcast radio that also receives the shortwave bands. It is used for shortwave listening.
An AV or Stereo receiver (in context often just called a receiver) is a component in a hi-fi or home theatre system combining a radio and audio amplifier in one unit that connects to the speakers and often to other input and output components (e.g. turntable, television, tape deck, and CD and DVD players)
References
Receiver
Receiver (radio) | Broadcast radio receiver | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,222 | [
"Radio electronics",
"Receiver (radio)"
] |
76,429,200 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden%20of%20knowledge | The burden of knowledge describes the difficulty of adding to a scientific field as the amount of previous work that must be understood increases over time. This is seen across scientific disciplines. Evidence for this burden includes a trend that people are older before they receive their first patent or publish in a prestigious journal, and the need for scientific groups to be larger as scientists need to collaborate so that the team has sufficient understanding of prior work.
Scholarship
Explicit scholarship of this idea has entered the mainstream with the works of Benjamin Jones, in particular The Burden of Knowledge and the Death of the Renaissance Man, and with the works of
Jan Brendel and Sascha Schweitzer The Burden of Knowledge in Mathematics.
Overview
Theory and empirical studies reflect the case that researchers and innovators are not born with the required expertise and must first undertake education. With accumulating information and discoveries, the time to digest and improve on extant knowledge takes longer. Similarly, frontiers of knowledge advance at an overall increasing rate and are shifting over time. The "burden of knowledge" refers to the difficulty of catching up with this evolving knowledge frontier.
A hard metric used by Brendel and Schweitzer for mathematics burden is age at first publication. They specifically point to "a significant increase of the average age of researchers at their first publication in one of our top-ranking journals."
Findings associated with Burden of Knowledge investigations point to declining productivity in sole researchers and developers and increasing productivity by teams. Prominent examples of highly effective team research in basic science include those of Nobel Prize awardees Francis Crick and James Watson's work on DNA structure, Yang Chen-Ning and Tsung-Dao Lee's work on parity violation, and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman's mRNA vaccine discoveries and development.
Research also point to better outcomes in gender diverse teams. Interestingly, research points to better development by large teams and more R&D novelty and disruption by small teams.
Burden of Knowledge Challenges in other areas
Challenges due to increasing complexity and data are found in other fields. There are observed productivity challenges in pharmaceutical drug discovery R&D. The challenges also manifest in an overall trend of patents, papers, and discoveries being less disruptive.
Other uses of the phrase "Burden of knowledge"
Christian Turner (Professor of Law) uses the term "burden of knowledge in a different way, referring to situations where one may be better off not knowing things, for example avoiding painful and uncomfortable details of one's health.
References
Bibliometrics
Metascience
Science and technology studies | Burden of knowledge | [
"Mathematics",
"Technology"
] | 517 | [
"Bibliometrics",
"Quantity",
"Science and technology studies",
"Metrics"
] |
76,429,526 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global%20Spirituality%20Mahotsav | Global Spirituality Mahotsav with the theme “Inner Peace to World Peace” was organised by Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in association with Heartfulness Institute at Kanha Shanti Vanam and emerged as a significant platform for encouraging dialogue and understanding across various spiritual traditions prevalent worldwide. The event considered as World's largest spiritual conference and one of a kind four day event was inaugurated by President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu and closed with a valedictory address by Vice-President of India, Shri Mr Jagdeep Dhankar. Representatives of various religious and spiritual organisations connected to Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and many other institutions participated in the event. Secretary of Commonwealth, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland, graced the occasion with her presence and awarded Shri Mr Kamlesh Patel, President, Shri Ram Chandra Mission with ‘Global Ambassador of Peacebuilding and Faith in the Commonwealth’.
Objective
Global Spirituality Mahotsav, the world's largest spiritual conference, was one of a kind four day event, organised by Ministry of Culture, India in association with Heartfulness Institute at Kanha Shanti Vanam, the world's largest meditation centre, with the theme “Inner Peace to World Peace”.
The basic objective of the seminar was to unite all spiritual leaders from different religious and spiritual Institutions of the world. Spiritual heads of various organisations and Institutions participated in the event. The event featured the presence of President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Shri Mr Jagdeep Dhankar and representation from religious organisations of Buddhism,Christianity,Islam,Hinduism in addition to other religious organisations.
Speakers
Global Spirituality Mahotsav was addressed by Abhijit Halder from International Buddhist Confederation, head of All India Imam Organization, Dr. Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, President of Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre (Ladakh), Venerable Bhikku Sanghasena, head of Anandam Dham Vrindavan, Shri Riteshwar Maharaj, Archbishop of Hyderabad Archbishop Anthony Poola ji, filmmaker Mr.Shekhar Kapur, actor Kabir Bedi and many other famous personalities from various walks of life.
Events
Global Spirituality Mahotsav featured various cultural activities, interfaith discussions, and connecting the general public in various age groups from different walks of life to Spiritual values in day-to-day life.
The event with the first day attendance of 30,000 members were thrilled with the music performance of Shankar Mahadevan, Kumaresh Rajagopalan and Shashank Subramanyam.
At the end of four day event, President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Shri Mr.Kamlesh D Patel, also known as Daaji, was awarded ‘Global Ambassador of Peacebuilding and Faith in the Commonwealth’ by Secretary of Commonwealth, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland.
Conclusion
Global Spirituality Mahotsav event attended by 300 plus organisations and Institutions concluded with the goal of fostering universal brotherhood among all religious and spiritual organisations and creating spiritual awareness among all sections of public.
See also
Religion
References
External links
Official Website
Spirituality
Events in India | Global Spirituality Mahotsav | [
"Biology"
] | 636 | [
"Behavior",
"Human behavior",
"Spirituality"
] |
76,429,715 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragmentos | Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria (2018) (Spanish for "Fragments, a Space for Art and Memory") is a site-specific art installation, art gallery, and memorial created by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo and architect Carlos Granada. The main focus of the installation is the 1,288 floor tiles that were made by melting down the firearms that were turned in by the now-defunct FARC guerrilla group after the signing of the Colombian peace agreement in 2016.
The art installation has been described by Salcedo as a "countermonument" and a space to reflect on the Colombian conflict. Salcedo has described that the installation as a countermonument as it does not pay tribute to any of the involved parties, does not intent to express beauty nor build a triumphalist narrative.
Background
As part of the agreement between the Government of Colombia and the now-defunct FARC, both parties agreed to the creation of monuments using the firearms that were turned in by guerrilla group. One of the monuments, Kusikawsay by Mario Opazo, was agreed for the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City and the other, Fragmentos, was established in Bogotá, Colombia's capital. Another monument was planned for Havana, the venue of the peace talks, however this one has not materialized.
Fragmentos was a result of an open competition where 28 individual artists, both Colombian and international, presented their proposals for the monument. The proposals were analyzed by an artistic committee and ultimately selected the proposal by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo.
Description
Housed amongst the ruins of a once abandoned colonial-era house in La Candelaria locality, of Bogotá, Colombia, Fragmentos is a memorial, art gallery, and a site-specific art installation whose main focus is the floor tiles that were made using the firearms that the FARC-EP guerrilla group rendered post the signing of the peace agreement with the Government of Colombia. The idea of using the firearms as floor tiles opposes the idea of glorifying violence, or monumentalizing weapons, and today is the physical and conceptual basis of this contermonument that inverts the power relationship that gave the rifles.
Fragmentos, initially presented as an empty space, is at the same time a space for the production and exhibition of other artistic works, in an annual program whose duration will be equivalent to the duration of the conflict between the parties.
The title Fragmentos is derived from the idea that society has fragments of memories from the armed conflict in Colombia that all-together compose a single narrative of the conflict.
Construction
The firearms that were collected by the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVIC) and the Police Unit for Peace Building (UNIPEP) were transferred to INDUMIL, a Colombian state-run arms manufacturer, where they were melted down into various molds that Salcedo had worked on with the assistance of 20 women who were all survivors of sexual violence incurred during the Colombian conflict.
From the 8,994 individual firearms that were collected, INDUMIL was able to subtract 37 tons of molted steel which resulted in 1,288 floor tiles for the installation, each of approximately 60 x 60 cm, 6mm thick, and weighing approximately 40 kilograms.
Exhibitions
From its foundation, Fragmentos was intended to become a venue for current and future generations of artists to exhibit their interpretations of armed conflict and, through them, allow for the construction of a collective vision of the future that encourage difficult, provocative, and reflective dialogues.
Selected exhibitions
26 November 2020 – 30 May 2021: Salam Tristesse, Irak, 2016-2020 by Francis Alÿs
15 September 2022 – 21 May 2023: Bruma by Beatriz Gonzalez
17 August 2023 – 26 November 2023: Arrancar los ojos by Gabriela Golder
13 April 2024 – 28 July 2024: Desminar by Tania Candiani
Ownership and management
The Government of Colombia, through its Ministry of Culture, sponsored and owns Fragmentos. The National Museum of Colombia, a dependency of the Ministry of Culture, directly manages the gallery and its exhibitions.
Gallery
See also
La paloma de la paz, a sculpture by Fernando Botero created in response to the Colombian peace process.
References
Art museums and galleries in Colombia
Museums in Bogotá
Museums established in 2018
Ministry of Culture (Colombia)
Landscape architecture
Political art
Site-specific art | Fragmentos | [
"Engineering"
] | 894 | [
"Landscape architecture",
"Architecture"
] |
76,429,905 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Last%20Ride%20%28bull%20riding%20accident%29 | "The Last Ride" was a professional rodeo accident that happened on July 30, 1989, at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, that resulted in the death of professional bull rider, Lane Frost. He had just ridden a bull named Takin' Care of Business when, after he dismounted, the bull struck him in the back, causing severe internal injuries. Frost then stood up for a moment before collapsing. He died on the arena floor before he could be transported to the hospital.
Background
Frost had been a professional bull rider for eight years before the event. He won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) bull riding world championship in 1987. In 1988, Frost was a part of the Challenge of the Champions, which put him up against the previously unrideable bull named Red Rock, who was owned by the Growney Brothers Rodeo Company and was the 1987 PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year. Frost won the event of seven rides with a record of 4–3. During the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 1989, Frost was looking to make it to his sixth consecutive National Finals Rodeo (NFR) with an impressive ride.
The ride
On July 30, 1989, Frost drew a Brahma bull named Takin' Care of Business, who was owned by Bad Company Rodeo, at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. It was a cold and rainy day leading to mud developing on the arena floor. At 3:30 pm, Frost and the bull exited chute #7. Frost then rode the bull for the full eight seconds, earning an 85-point ride. However, Frost dismounted awkwardly, landing in the bull's eyesight. The bull then stepped on Frost's chaps and hooked him in the back with his right horn. The horn did not break through Frost's skin, but the blow was strong enough to cause massive internal injuries. He then stood up and motioned towards his longtime friend Tuff Hedeman for help before collapsing face-first into the muddy arena floor, puncturing his heart and lungs. Frost was rushed to Memorial Hospital and was pronounced dead at 3:59 pm. He was 25 years old. No autopsy was performed. It was assumed that when Takin' Care of Business pushed Frost against the mud, the bull's entire body weight was at the end of his horn, breaking some of Frost's ribs, one of which then severed a main artery.
Aftermath
On August 2, 1989, Frost's funeral service was held at First Baptist Church in Atoka, Oklahoma. It was estimated that 3,500 people attended. After the service was over, Frost was taken to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma, where he was laid to rest beside his long-time mentor, Freckles Brown.
Before the devastating events at Cheyenne, protective equipment was optional with riders only using it if they felt it was necessary for their survival. Cody Lambert, a friend of Frost and fellow bull rider, helped create the protective vest that all professional bull riders now wear mandatorily while competing.
In 1989, Tuff Hedeman, dedicated his 10th round National Finals Rodeo (NFR) ride to Frost. Hedeman rode the bull for 16 seconds, riding well past the whistle. Prior to the ride, he stated, "I'm gonna ride him an extra eight seconds for Lane." Hedeman would then be named the NFR World Champion Bull Rider.
On July 26, 1993, a bronze statue that depicted Frost was dedicated in front of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. The statue was self-commissioned by former bull rider turned sculptor Chris Navarro.
In 1994, a movie titled 8 Seconds was released. Starring Luke Perry as Frost, the movie dramatized Frost's life and even showed his last moments in the Cheyenne arena.
In 1996, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) announced the Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award, which is awarded annually to the highest-scoring single ride at the PBR World Finals. Adriano Morães won the first award when he scored 93.5 points on Western Trails' Shotgun Red. During the same year, protective vests were made mandatory in the PBR and subsequently for all bull riders, professional or otherwise.
References
1989 deaths
Animal attacks
Deaths by person in Wyoming
Deaths due to bull attacks
Sports deaths in Wyoming | The Last Ride (bull riding accident) | [
"Biology"
] | 874 | [] |
76,430,012 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%20synthesis | Model synthesis (also wave function collapse or 'wfc') is a family of constraint-solving algorithms commonly used in procedural generation, especially in the video game industry.
Some video games known to have utilized variants of the algorithm include Bad North, Townscaper, and Caves of Qud.
The first example of this type of algorithm was described by Paul Merrell, who termed it 'model synthesis' first in his 2007 i3D paper and also presented at the 2008 SIGGRAPH conference and his 2009 PhD thesis. The name 'wave function collapse' later became the popular name for a variant of that algorithm, after an implementation by Maxim Gumin was published in 2016 on a GitHub repository with that name. Gumin's implementation significantly popularised this style of algorithm, with it becoming widely adopted and adapted by technical artists and game developers over the following years.
There were a number of inspirations to Gumin's implementation, including Merrell's PhD dissertation, and convolutional neural network style transfer. The popular name for the algorithm, 'wave function collapse', is from an analogy drawn between the algorithm's method and the concept of superposition and observation in quantum mechanics. Some innovations present in Gumin's implementation included the usage of overlapping patterns, allowing a single image to be used as an input to the algorithm.
Some have speculated that the reason Gumin's implementation proved more popular than Merrell's, may have been due to the 'model synthesis' implementation's lower accessibility, its 3D focus, or perhaps the general public's computing constraints at the time.
One of the differences between Merrell & Gumin's implementation and 'wave function collapse' lies in the decision of which cell to 'collapse' next. Merrell's implementation uses a scanline approach, whereas Gumin's always selects as next cell the one with the lowest number of possible outcomes.
Description
The WFC or 'model synthesis' algorithm has some variants. Gumin and Merrell's implementations are described below, and other variants are noted:
Gumin's implementation
The input bitmap is read, and the patterns present within the bitmap are counted.
An array is created with the dimensions of the output desired.
Each cell of the array is initialized in an 'unobserved' state
The following steps are repeated:
The cell with the lowest number of possible output states is located
'Collapse' this cell into one of its possible states according to the rules
Check that all cells are still valid and follow the rules
Once all cells are 'collapsed' into a definite state, return the output. If the output is illegal, discard it, and repeat the process until legal.
Merrell's implementation
Merrell's earlier implementation is substantially the same as Gumin's with some minor differences.
(1) In Merrell's version, there is no requirement to select the cell with the lowest number of possible output states for collapse. Instead, a scanline approach is adopted. According to Merrell, this results in a lower failure rate of the model without any negative effect on quality. Some commentators have noted however that the scanline approach to 'collapse' tends to result in directional artifacts.
(2) Merrell's approach performs the algorithm in chunks, rather than all-at-once. This approach greatly reduces the failure rate for many large complex models; especially in a 3D space.
Developments
In April 2023 Shaad Alaka and Rafael Bidarra of Delft University proposed 'Hierarchical Semantic wave function collapse'. Essentially, the algorithm is modified to work beyond simple, unstructured sets of tiles. Prior to their work, all WFC algorithm variants operated on a flat set of tile choices per cell.
Their generalised approach organizes tile-sets into a hierarchy, consisting of abstract nodes called 'meta-tiles', and terminating nodes called 'leaf tiles'. For example, on the first pass, WFC might make a certain tile a meta-tile of 'castle' type; which on a second pass will be collapsed into other tiles based on a rule, e.g. a 'wall' or 'grass' tile.
References
External links
https://github.com/mxgmn/WaveFunctionCollapse
Combinatorial algorithms
Constraint programming
Procedural generation | Model synthesis | [
"Mathematics",
"Technology"
] | 885 | [
"Combinatorial algorithms",
"Software stubs",
"Computational mathematics",
"Combinatorics",
"Computing stubs"
] |
76,431,136 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra%20Seceleanu | Alexandra Seceleanu is a Romanian mathematician specializing in commutative algebra. She is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She was awarded the 2024-2025 Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize.
Education and career
Seceleanu graduated from the University of Bucharest, and in 2005 obtained a master's degree in mathematics from the with a focus on algebra, geometry, and topology. She completed a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 2011, supervised by Hal Schenck.
Seceleanu started working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2011, where in 2015 she became an assistant professor, and in 2021 an associate professor. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Commutative Algebra.
Research
Seceleanu's research within the field of commutative algebra concerns both theoretical and computational problems. She has an interest in algebraic geometry, in particular in how it can be studied via methods from homological algebra.
She also works on computational algebra, and has contributed to Macaulay2.
Recognition
In 2018 Seceleanu won the Harold & Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award, which is awarded annually by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to a junior faculty member demonstrating "creative research, extraordinary teaching abilities, and academic promise". She was awarded the 2024-2025 Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize.
References
External links
Home page
Living people
Romanian mathematicians
Algebraic geometers
University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty
University of Bucharest alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Year of birth missing (living people) | Alexandra Seceleanu | [
"Mathematics"
] | 320 | [
"Algebra",
"Algebraists"
] |
76,431,447 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibani%20Lisa%20Biswal | Sibani Lisa Biswal is an American chemical engineer, materials scientist, and academic administrator who researches the physics of colloids, surfactants, lipids, and polymers. She is the William M. McCardell professor in chemical engineering with a dual appointment as professor in materials science and nanoengineering as well as a senior associate dean in the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University.
Education and career
Biswal earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1999. She received a M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004) in chemical engineering from Stanford University working with doctoral advisor Alice Gast. Her dissertation was titled, Exploring Novel Structure Formation and Mechanics of Linked Chains of Magnetic Colloidal Particles and their Application in Microfluidics. Biswal completed postdoctoral research in mechanical engineering at University of California, Berkeley from 2004 to 2006.
Biswal researches the physics of colloids, surfactants, lipids, and polymers. She joined the faculty at Rice University in 2006. Biswal was named to the William M. McCardell Professor in Chemical Engineering in 2020. The following year, she was named an associate dean in the George R. Brown School of Engineering.
Awards and recognition
In 2007, Biwal was awarded a Young Investigator Award by the Office of Naval Research. In 2009, she won a National Science Foundation's CAREER award.
In 2023, she was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society after nomination by the society's Division of Soft Matter. The fellowship was awarded "[f]or fundamental contributions to understanding of the assembly of superparamagnetic colloids in magnetic fields, discovering mechanisms governing multiphase flows in porous media, characterizing molecular transport in lipid membranes, and developing porous silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries".
References
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
California Institute of Technology alumni
Stanford University School of Engineering alumni
Rice University faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
American chemical engineers
Women chemical engineers
American materials scientists
Women materials scientists and engineers
21st-century American women engineers
21st-century American engineers
American academic administrators
American women academic administrators | Sibani Lisa Biswal | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 454 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
76,433,068 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar%20Ivi%C4%87 | Aleksandar Ivić (March 6, 1949 – December 27, 2020) was a Serbian mathematician, specializing in analytic number theory. He gained an international reputation and gave lectures on the Riemann zeta function at universities around the world.
Biography
Aleksandar Ivić was born in Belgrade to two renowned linguists, the academician Pavle Ivić (1924–1999) and the academician Milka Ivić (1923–2011). His paternal grandfather was the historian Aleksa Ivić (1881–1948) and his maternal great-grandfather was the poet Vojislav Ilić (1862–1894), the son of the writer and minister of justice Jovan Ilić (1824–1901).
In 1967, Aleksandar Ivić successfully participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad. He graduated in 1971 from the University of Novi Sad with a bachelor's degree in science. As a graduate student in Faculty of Sciences of the University of Belgrade, he graduated with a master's degree in 1973 and a doctorate in 1975. His doctoral dissertation O nekim klasama aritmetičkih funkcija koje su vezane za raspodelu prostih brojeva (On certain classes of arithmetic functions linked to the distribution of prime numbers) was supervised by Đuro Kurepa. After working as an assistant from 1971 to 1976 at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the University of Novi Sad, Ivić was appointed as assistant professor at the Faculty of Mining and Geology at the University of Belgrade in the Department of Applied Mathematics. There he was an assistant professor from 1976 to 1982, an associate professor from 1982 to 1988, and a full professor from 1988 to 2014, when he retired as professor emeritus.
Ivić was a member of the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) and served on the editorial boards of several international journals. He was a plenary lecturer at several international scientific conferences. He was a visiting professor at several universities around the world in Japan, China, Brazil, Finland, and elsewhere. He was recognized as one of the world's leading experts on analytic number theory related to the Riemann hypothesis and the Lindelöf hypothesis.
The bibliography of articles authored or coauthored by Ivić contains 231 titles. He was elected in 1988 a corresponding member in 1988 and in 2000 a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU).
His Erdős number is 1, as he published papers with him in 1980 and 1986.
Personal life
Aleksander Ivić married Milika Avramov in 1976. They divorced in 1990. From his first marriage, he became the father of two daughters, Natalija (born 1980) and Emilija (born 1984). His second marriage was to Sanda Rašković Ivić, whom he married in 1996. They became the parents of a daughter and two sons. Their younger son Jovan (1997–2022) committed suicide.
Ivić died in Belgrade.
Selected publications
Articles
abstract
arXiv preprint
arXiv preprint
Books
References
External links
1949 births
2020 deaths
Serbian mathematicians
Number theorists
University of Novi Sad alumni
University of Belgrade alumni
Academic staff of the University of Belgrade
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Scientists from Belgrade | Aleksandar Ivić | [
"Mathematics"
] | 677 | [
"Number theorists",
"Number theory"
] |
59,755,449 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentyev%20Institute%20of%20Hydrodynamics | Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences () is the first research institute based in Akademgorodok of Novosibirsk, Russia. It was founded in 1957.
History
The scientific organization was established in 1957 and became one of the first institutes of the Siberian Branch of the RAS. In 1980, the institute was named after Mikhail Lavrentyev.
From 1991 to 2001, the organization was part of the Joint Institute of Hydrodynamics. In early 2002, 417 people worked at the institute including 2 academicians, 4 corresponding members, 52 doctors of sciences and 72 candidates of sciences.
Activities
The institute works in various areas, such as mathematical problems of continuum mechanics, physics and mechanics of high-energy processes, mechanics of liquids and gases, mechanics of a deformable solid. During the Soviet period, the organization began to engage in explosion welding.
Among the significant results of the institute is the construction of the complete theory of detonation in gases, which explained, among other things, the nature of spin detonation; the discovery and investigation of new phenomena in the field of explosive processes and detonation, including the formation of ultradispersed diamond during an explosion; a rigorous substantiation of approximate models of the theory of wave motions of an perfect fluid; the development of methods for group analysis of differential equations, which formed the basis for the Podmodeli programm, designed to study the properties of exact solutions to the equations of continuum mechanics; the development of methods to suppress instability in combustion chambers; the creation of cutting equipment for nuclear reprocessing etc.
Educational activities
The institute conducts pedagogical activities at Novosibirsk State University and other educational institutions.
Departments
Theoretical Department
Department of Explosive Processes
Department of Physical Hydrodynamics
Department of Deformable Solids
Department of Fast Processes
Department of Applied Hydrodynamics
Branches
Design and Technologigal Branch of the Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics is the former Special Design Bureau of Hydraulic Impulse Technique, established in 1964. In 1991–2001, together with the institute, it was part of the Joint Institute of Hydrodynamics. Since 2004, the bureau has become a branch of the organization.
Scientific editions
Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics (since 1960)
Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves (since 1965)
Dinamika Sploshnoi Sredy (since 1969)
Leaders
Mikhail Lavrentyev (1957–1976)
Lev Ovsyannikov (1976–1986)
Vladimir Titov (1986–2004)
Vladimir Teshukov (2004–2008)
Anatoly Vasilyev (2008–2015)
Sergei Golovin (2015-2019)
Evgenii Ermaniuk (since 2019)
References
External links
Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics SB RAS. Official web site.
Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics of the Siberian Branch of the RAS. SB RAS.
Укротители взрыва: институту гидродинамики им. Лаврентьева 60 лет. Новосибирские новости.
H
Research institutes in the Soviet Union
Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Science and technology in Siberia
Research institutes established in 1957
Sovetsky District, Novosibirsk
Hydrodynamics
1957 establishments in the Soviet Union | Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics | [
"Chemistry"
] | 727 | [
"Hydrodynamics",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
59,757,549 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luisa%20Cifarelli | Luisa Cifarelli FInstP (born 11 June 1952) is a Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Bologna. She is the Director of the La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento.
Early life and education
Cifarelli was born in Rome in 1952, daughter of Michele Cifarelli, an Italian politician and magistrate. She studied physics at the University of Bologna and graduated in 1975. She worked as a researcher in at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and CERN. She edited the collection of scientific studies for the publication QCD at 200 TeV. In 1988 she was made an associate professor at L'Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.
Career
Cifarelli was appointed full Professor at the University of Pisa in 1991. She moved to the University of Salerno in 1993. She works at CERN, the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, DESY and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. She has been involved in the design and construction of the ALICE experiment, which studies proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions at extreme energies. She was made Head of the ALICE Data Analysis and Simulation Group in 2000. She served as Deputy Chairperson of the time of flight experiment at ALICE. She used the ALICE experiment to study quark-gluon interactions. She coordinates the Extreme Energy Events experiments, which uses muon detectors in high schools around Italy to study cosmic swarms. She serves on the DarkSide project; a 20 tonne Two-Phase LAr TPC for Direct Dark Matter Detection at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso.
In 2008, Cifarelli was the first woman to be made President of the Italian Physical Society in 2008. That year she was also elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. In 2011 she was appointed President of the European Physical Society. Cifarelli was the first woman to be elected president of the European Physical Society. She was made President of the Enrico Fermi Center for Study and Research. She has spoken about the life of Enrico Fermi extensively. Cifarelli has acted as editor of the European Physical Journal. She serves on the editorial board of Elsevier's Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research.
References
1952 births
Academic staff of the University of Bologna
Living people
21st-century Italian physicists
Particle physicists
People associated with CERN
Italian women physicists
20th-century Italian physicists
Presidents of the European Physical Society
Fellows of the American Physical Society | Luisa Cifarelli | [
"Physics"
] | 512 | [
"Particle physicists",
"Particle physics"
] |
59,757,691 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%20Were%20Here%20%28series%29 | We Were Here is a franchise of cooperative first-person adventure video games, created by the Dutch studio Total Mayhem Games.
Premise and gameplay
The We Were Here games are cooperative first-person adventure games with puzzle elements. In each game there are two players who take on a different role. They must work together to solve puzzles, generally while in different rooms and unable to see the other. Each player has a walkie-talkie to communicate with the other, which is what allows them to solve the puzzles they face.
History
The first We Were Here was developed by Dutch studio Total Mayhem Games as part of a student project while studying at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. It was a student entrant for the Independent Games Festival 2018, and won the Best Indie Game Award in 2017 at the Indigo showcase in the Netherlands. It was released for free on Steam in February 2017.
The original We Were Here was first released on PC on February 3, 2017, with the sequel We Were Here Too releasing on February 2, 2018. An Xbox One version of We Were Here released in September 2019, and We Were Here Too for Xbox One was released on October 2 the same year. The third game We Were Here Together was released on PC on October 10, 2019, and Xbox One on June 5, 2020.
All three games were released on PlayStation 4 on February 23, 2021. We Were Here was released as a free to download on PlayStation Store from February 9 until February 22, as part of the release date announcement.
We Were Here (2017)
We Were Here is a cooperative first-person puzzle video game developed by Total Mayhem Games from The Netherlands, released for free on February 3, 2017, on Steam for PC. Two players take the role of Antarctic explorers who have become split up in an old castle, called Castle Rock. They must solve puzzles by communicating via walkie-talkies. It was released on Xbox One on September 16, 2019, and was featured in Xbox Games with Gold.
We Were Here Too (2018)
We Were Here Too was the first commercial release by Total Mayhem Games. The gameplay is similar to the original We Were Here, with two players who are split up and must solve puzzles by communicating via walkie-talkie. The game was released on February 2, 2018, on Steam for PC, and on October 2, 2019, for Xbox One.
We Were Here Together (2019)
We Were Here Together was released on October 10, 2019, on Steam for PC, and on June 5, 2020, for Xbox One. In a twist on the series' usual gameplay, players spend some of the game in the same area together, where they can both visit the same locations. There are new locations including the base camp where their expedition began, ice caves, and Antarctic outdoors. Working together is still required to progress.
We Were Here Forever (2022)
We Were Here Forever was announced for PC, PlayStation 4 + 5, and Xbox One + Series X|S. It was released on May 10, 2022, for PC only, on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The console versions for Xbox and PlayStation were released on January 31, 2023, and included a crossplay update for the PC version, allowing players from all three platforms to play together. We Were Here Forever was the first game in the series to support crossplay. The game has new areas, puzzles, and an improved interface.
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip (2023)
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip released for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on September 14, 2023. The game shadow launched for free till October 13, 2023 on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the PlayStation Store, offering a free permanent access to players. Additionally, Xbox users had the opportunity to try out a free 10 hour trial version. Like the other games in the series, We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip follows a two-player cooperative gameplay format but it introduces a new element as well: replayable puzzles where players can earn bronze, silver or gold medals. The game is notably less narrative-focused than the previous titles of the series. However, it continues the series' support of crossplay, allowing players on different platforms to play the game together.
Reception
In their review of We Were Here Too, Adventure Gamers described the first game as noble, saying that "though bite-sized, it offered a neat concept and was well received".
We Were Here Too received "mixed or average" reviews, with outlets largely praising the puzzles and core gameplay, but noting that the game was fairly short. Adventure Gamers found that "solving puzzles co-operatively is very satisfying", but criticized the game for being short and lacking detailed story. Vgames praised the puzzles and atmosphere, but also found it short and lacking replay value. PLAY! Zine described the puzzles and communication gameplay as strong points, but criticized the story and some technical issues.
We Were Here Together received "mixed or average" reviews for console and "generally positive" reviews for PC. The puzzles and core gameplay were well received, and critics appreciated the game being longer than its predecessors. However, the narrative part of the game was largely seen as underwhelming or distracting. Adventure Gamers praised the puzzles and communication gameplay, while encountering some technical issues and finding the story unclear. Game Watcher described it as 'a must-play for fans of both co-op adventures and challenging puzzles', while also noting some technical issues. Games.cz called it 'by far, the best installment of the whole series' but criticised its story as weak.
We Were Here Forever received "generally favorable" reviews, with critics praising its tight co-op design while criticizing its sometimes unbalanced puzzle design.
References
External links
Asymmetrical multiplayer video games
Cooperative video games
First-person video games
PlayStation 4 games
Puzzle video games
Video game franchises
Video games developed in the Netherlands
Windows games
Xbox One games | We Were Here (series) | [
"Physics"
] | 1,209 | [
"Asymmetrical multiplayer video games",
"Symmetry",
"Asymmetry"
] |
59,758,307 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriepieris%20circle | A Valeriepieris circle is a figure drawn on the Earth's surface such that the majority of the human population lives within its interior. The concept was originally popularized by a map posted on Reddit in 2013, made by a Texas ESL teacher named Ken Myers, whose username on the site gave the figure its name. Myers's original circle covers only about 10% of the Earth's total surface area, with a radius of around , centered in the South China Sea. The map became a popular meme, and was featured in numerous internet media outlets.
Myers's original map uses the Winkel tripel projection, which means that his circle, not having been adjusted to the projection, does not correspond to a circle on the surface of a sphere.
In 2015, Singaporean professor Danny Quah—with the aid of an intern named Ken Teoh—verified Myers's original claim, as well as presenting a new, considerably smaller circle centered on the township of Mong Khet in Myanmar, with a radius of . In fact, Quah claimed this circle to be the smallest one possible, having been produced from more rigorous calculations and updated data, as well as being a proper circle on the Earth's surface.
In 2022, Myers's original circle was again tested by Riaz Shah, a professor at Hult International Business School. Shah used recently published data from the United Nations' World Population Prospects to estimate that 4.2 billion people lived inside the circle as of 2022, out of a total human population of 8 billion.
The Valeriepieris circle is densely populated, given that one third of it is ocean. Additionally, the circle includes desolate regions of Siberia, Mongolia, the world’s least densely populated country, and the Himalayas.
Myers's idea has been formalized and a Valeriepieris circle can be defined for any spatial area, like a single country. These generalised Valeriepieris circles can be used for studying population changes over time, dimensional reduction and measuring population centralization.
References
External links
Geographical regions
World population
Population density
World maps
Internet memes
Circles | Valeriepieris circle | [
"Mathematics"
] | 429 | [
"Circles",
"Pi"
] |
59,759,989 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merbecovirus | Merbecovirus is a subgenus of viruses in the genus Betacoronavirus, including the human pathogen Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The viruses in this subgenus were previously known as group 2c coronaviruses.
Structure
The viruses of this subgenus, like other coronaviruses, have a lipid bilayer envelope in which the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.
See also
Embecovirus (group 2a)
Sarbecovirus (group 2b)
Nobecovirus (group 2d)
References
Virus subgenera
Betacoronaviruses | Merbecovirus | [
"Biology"
] | 134 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,759,991 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis%20Design%20%2B%20Architecture | Synthesis Design + Architecture (also known as SDA), is an architecture and design firm based in Los Angeles, California led by Alvin Huang.
Awards
The firm was honored with the Presidential Emerging Practice of the Year Award by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter in 2016. They also received the R+D Award from Architect Magazine in 2015, and was featured as a Next Progressive by Architect Magazine in 2014.
References
Architecture firms based in California
Year of establishment missing | Synthesis Design + Architecture | [
"Engineering"
] | 94 | [
"Architecture stubs",
"Architecture"
] |
59,760,124 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MERCON | Mercon represents a series of technical standards for automatic transmission fluid, developed and trademarked by Ford Motor Company. This designation serves as a mark of quality that Ford has established for fluids used in automatic transmissions. The Mercon name, which has evolved into a brand, is licensed by Ford to various manufacturers. These companies are authorized to produce the fluid according to Ford's specifications and market it under their own brand names.
The specifications outlined under the Mercon label cover various aspects such as viscosity, friction characteristics, and thermal stability, which are essential for the transmission fluid to perform under a wide range of operating conditions. This careful regulation ensures that all licensed Mercon fluids provide consistent quality and performance, giving consumers confidence in their use of aftermarket products.
Overview
The original Mercon (M2C185-A) Transmission Fluid was introduced in January 1987. Over the years, the original Mercon was supplanted by Mercon "V", Mercon "SP", Mercon LV, and Mercon ULV, which is the latest automatic transmission fluid. Ford has upgraded the Mercon specifications over the years; the newer fluids are not always backward compatible with previous fluids. Newer 6 and 10-speed transmissions as well as Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV), and Electric Vehicle (EV) transmission technologies require specialized fluids to operate properly. There remains a market for older fluids that claim to meet the earlier fluid specifications. See the details below for the backward compatibility of each fluid.
Originally the name MERCON was associated exclusively with automatic transmission fluids, later Ford released MERCON Gear oils and other lubricants under the MERCON brand. Not all Mercon fluids are licensed for reselling under another brand name. All licensed Mercon fluids must have a license number on the container. If no license number is found, the fluid may not be Ford-approved and the automatic transmission fluid cannot be guaranteed to meet Ford specifications. Ford, like many automobile manufacturers, uses transmissions sourced from other suppliers or transmission manufacturers around the world; these transmissions are not manufactured by Ford. Many of these automatic transmissions use unique fluids that might not be shown on this page.
History
Before Mercon: 1942–1987
1942 Motor Oil
In 1942, The Mercury 8 and Lincoln offered cars with an optional "Liquamatic Drive" using a fluid coupling, conventional clutch, and semi-automatic three-speed transmission. The transmission had an overrunning clutch on the transmission countershaft. The flywheel's fluid coupling used S.A.E 10 motor oil for lubrication. The transmission gearbox used traditional gear oil. This transmission was only produced for a few months before the U.S.A. entered World War II, production of this transmission was not resumed after the war.
1949 GM Hydra-Matic Fluid
In April 1949, Lincoln began offering the General Motors Hydra-Matic 4-speed automatic transmission in their 1950 model year vehicles. This offering continued through the 1954 model year. Lincoln service information calls for "Lincoln Automatic Transmission Fluid". This fluid met the GM Hydra-Matic Drive fluid specifications.
This Fluid was First Used in the Following Transmissions:
1949 Hydra-Matic with an L-9 serial number prefix
1950 Hydra-Matic with an L-50 serial number prefix
1951 Hydra-Matic with an L-51 serial number prefix
1952 Hydra-Matic with an L-52 serial number prefix
1953 Hydra-Matic with an L-53 serial number prefix
1954 Hydra-Matic with an L-54 serial number prefix
1950 GM Type "A" Fluid
Every automatic transmission produced by any vehicle manufacturer (Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Chrysler, Dodge, Desoto, Packard, and Studebaker) used GM Type "A" transmission fluids in their transmissions from 1949 to 1958.
In 1950, 11 years after GM released the Hydra-Matic 4-speed automatic transmission and its special Hydra-Matic Automatic Transmission Fluid, Ford released their first fully automatic transmission; the 1951 Fordomatic 3-speed transmission. This new fully automatic transmission used the GM Type "A" automatic transmission fluid specification. Ford and hundreds of other resellers, became a licensed reseller of the GM Type "A" fluid with an Armor Qualification number. The Type "A" fluid was marketed under the Ford brand name.
This Fluid was First Used in the Following Transmissions:
1951 Fordomatic (Borg-Warner FX) 3-Speed automatic transmission
1954 Cruise O'Matic (Borg-Warner MX) 3-Speed automatic transmission
1955 Lincoln TurboDrive 3-Speed automatic transmission
1957 Ford Transmatic Drive 6-Speed Automatic Transmission for Medium-Duty and Heavy-Duty Trucks
1958 Cruise-O-Matic 3-Speed automatic transmission
1958 Edsel Mile-O-Matic 2-Speed automatic transmission
1958 Mercury Multi-Drive
1958 Lincoln TurboDrive 3-Speed automatic transmission
1958 Ford Type "A" Fluid
In 1959, Ford released their own Type-A automatic transmission fluid specification (M2C33-A) and stopped using GM fluid specifications for their in-house transmissions. The Ford M2C33-A fluid had GM Type "A" Suffix "A" characteristics. Transmission fluid service life was fairly short, and frequent transmission oil changes were required.
1959 Type "B" Fluid
In 1959, Ford released an updated automatic transmission fluid specification Type-B (M2C33-B). The Ford M2C33-B fluid had GM Type "A" Suffix "A" characteristics. As with the previous specification, transmission fluid service life was fairly short, and frequent transmission oil changes were required.
1960 Type "D" Fluid
In 1960, Ford introduced the Type-D (M2C33-D) specification for service fluid use in 1960 model-year vehicles. This fluid specification change provided better oxidation control, anti-wear performance, and higher static capacity capabilities were also included. Oxidation control of the fluid was measured by a new Merc-O-Matic oxidation test.
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
1964 C-4 3-Speed automatic transmission
1966 C-6 3-Speed automatic transmission
1968 FMX 3-Speed automatic transmission
1967 Type "F" Fluid
In 1967, Ford introduced a new fluid specification, the Type-F fluid (M2C33-F). This fluid provided a high static coefficient of friction which resulted in harsh shifting.
The Type-F fluid specification was intended to produce a “lifetime” fluid that would never need to be changed. This is the first of many Ford “lifetime” fluids. The 1974 Ford Car Shop Manual reads "The automatic transmission is filled at the factory with "lifetime" fluid. If it is necessary to add or replace fluid, use only fluids that meet Ford Specification M2C33F.
1972 Type "G" Fluid
In 1972, Ford of Europe introduced a new fluid specification, the Type-G fluid (M2C33-G). This fluid was used through 1981.
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
Borg-Warner M35 transmissions and variants
1974 Type "CJ" Fluid
In September 1974, Ford introduced a new fluid specification, the Type-CJ fluid (M2C138-CJ). This fluid provided smoother shifting and less gear noise by with higher dynamic friction characteristics. The Ford Type-CJ fluid specification also met the GM Dexron-II(D) and earlier fluid specifications. Ford was a licensed GM Dexron-II(D) vendor.
The Ford Type-CJ fluid was compatible with GM Dexron II(D) specifications. This compatibility may suggest to some that all Ford, Mercon, and Dexron fluids are compatible; this is not correct. Always use the factory-recommended fluid for your transmission. (See the Aftermarket Automatic Transmission Fluids section below)
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
1974 C-3 3-Speed automatic transmission in the Pinto
1978 ATX 3-Speed automatic transmission
1980 ATX 3-Speed automatic transmission with a Centrifugally Linked Clutch (CLC) in the torque converter
1980 Jatco 3-Speed automatic transmission
1980 ATX 3-Speed automatic transmission with a Fluid Linked Clutch (FLC) in the torque converter
1980 AOD 4-Speed overdrive automatic transmission with torque converter bypass (Ford's first overdrive 4-speed)
1983 ZF-4HP33 4-Speed overdrive automatic transmission (Dexron-II(D))
1981 Type "H" Fluid
As a result of the 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo and fuel shortages, the U.S. government created the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations in 1975. The regulations were to be fully implemented by the 1978 model year. The automotive industry responded by changing to three typically unused transmission technologies:
A 4th gear (overdrive)
A Torque Converter Clutch (TCC)
Front Wheel Drive (FWD).
The introduction of the TCC led to customer complaints of a shudder while driving. All vehicle manufacturers made changes to their ATF specifications and the controls of their TCC to try and alleviate the problem. GM released the Dexron-II (D) fluid specification in 1978 and Chrysler released the ATF+2 fluid specification in 1980, and Ford released the Type-H fluid (M2C166-H) specification in June 1981.
The Type-H fluid specification provided improved friction characteristics in lock-up torque converters (reducing shudder during application and release). With this new specification, Ford introduced the aluminum beaker oxidation test (ABOT) to replace the older Merc-O-Matic oxidation test.
The Ford Type-H fluid was compatible with GM Dexron II(D) specifications. This compatibility may suggest to some that all Ford, Mercon, and Dexron fluids are compatible; this is not correct. Always use the factory-recommended fluid for your transmission. (See the Aftermarket Automatic Transmission Fluids section below)
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
1982 C-5 (C4 with Torque converter Clutch (TCC)) 3-Speed automatic transmission
1985 A4LD (C3 with overdrive) 4-Speed automatic transmission
1986 AXOD 4-Speed automatic transaxle
1986 Electronic A4LD 4-Speed automatic transmission
MERCON Fluids: 1987 Today
1987 MERCON
In January 1987, Ford released the original Mercon fluid specification (M2C185-A). Mercon became a trademarked fluid with the qualification and licensing of fluids to ensure quality in the marketplace. This original Mercon Specification was backward compatible with the 1981 Ford Type-H fluid and the 1958 GM Type "A" Suffix "A" fluid.
NOTICE: This version of Mercon was compatible with GM's Dexron-II(D) and later formulations were compatible with Dexron-III(H); however, Future versions of Mercon (Mercon V, Mercon SP, Mercon LV, Mercon ULV) are not compatible with GM's Dexron-III(H) or any newer version of Dexron (Dexron-VI, Dexron HP, Dexron ULV).
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
1989 E4OD (C-6 with overdrive) Ford's first electronic control 4-speed automatic transmission
1990 4EAT-G Mazda 4-Speed automatic transmission
1990 F-4EAT 4-speed automatic transmission
1990 AXOD-E 4-speed automatic transaxle
1992 AOD-E (Electronic AOD) 4-speed automatic transmission
1993 AOD-EW/4R70W 4-speed automatic transmission
1994 AX4S 4-speed automatic transaxle
1994 CD4E Batavia 4-Speed automatic transmission
1995 AX4N/4F50N 4-Speed automatic transmission
1995 4R44E 4-speed automatic transmission
1995 4R55E 4-speed automatic transmission
1997 5R44 5-speed automatic transmission (Ford's first 5-speed automatic transmission)
1997 5R55 5-speed automatic transmission
1996 MERCON V
In 1996, Ford released the Mercon "V" fluid specification (M2C202-B). Ford Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 06-14-04 indicates that Mercon "V" is to replace the original Mercon fluid.
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
1997 4R70W 4-speed automatic transmission
1998 4R100 4-speed automatic transmission
2000 4F27E 4-speed automatic transaxle
The Mercon "V" specification was revised in 2002 (M2C919-E). This revised fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
2003 4R75E 4-speed automatic transmission
2003 4R75W 4-speed automatic transmission
2003 5R110W 5-speed automatic transmission
2001 MERCON SP
In August 2001, Ford released the Mercon "SP" fluid specification (M2C919-D).
Ford SSM 21114 (November 26, 2009) indicates that Mercon Replace "SP" is to be replaced with Mercon LV on Torqshift transmissions from the 2003 through 2008 model years. This SSM does not apply to the ZF 6HP26 transmission.
This fluid first used in the following transmissions:
2001 5R110W Torque Shift 5-Speed automatic transmission
2005-2008 ZF 6HP26 6-Speed automatic transmission in Lincoln Navigator
2005 MERCON LV
In December 2005, Ford released the Mercon "LV" fluid specification (M2C938-A).
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
2006 6R60 ZF 6-Speed automatic transmission
2006 FNR5 Mazda 5-Speed automatic transmission
This specification was revised in 2007 for use in the following transmissions:
2007 6F50 6-speed automatic transaxle
2007 6R80 6-speed automatic transaxle
2009 6F35 6-speed automatic transaxle
This specification was revised again in 2010 (M2C938-A2) and was optimized for anti-Squawk performance of clutches. This revised fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
2011 6R140 6-speed automatic transmission
2013 HF-35 eCVT hybrid transaxle
2014 MERCON ULV
The fluid specification for Mercon-ULV (Ultra-Low Viscosity) was introduced on January 2, 2014. Mercon ULV is composed of a Group 3+ Base oil and additives needed for the proper operation of the 2017 and above Ford 10R80 and the GM 10L90 10-Speed rear wheel drive automatic transmission.
This transmission and the transmission fluid specification was co-developed by Ford and GM. The current specification that defines the fluid is FORD WSS-M2C949-A. This fluid is also marketed as Dexron ULV.
NOTICE: The quart containers of Mercon ULV must be shaken to stir up the additives before pouring. This fluid is not backward compatible with any previous fluids.
This fluid was first used in the following transmissions:
2017 10R80 10-speed automatic transmission
2017 6F15 6-speed automatic transaxle
2017 6R100 6-speed automatic transmission
Ford "Lifetime" ATF
The 1967 Ford Type-F fluid specification was intended to produce a “lifetime” fluid which would never need to be changed. This was the first of many Ford “lifetime” fluids. The 1974 Ford Car Shop Manual reads "The automatic transmission is filled at the factory with "lifetime" fluid. If it is necessary to add or replace fluid, use only fluids which meet Ford Specification M2C33F. Many other transmission manufacturers have followed with their own "Lifetime" automatic transmission fluids".
Example Maintenance Schedule
Lifetime automatic transmission fluids made from higher quality base oil and an additive package are more chemically stabile, less reactive, and do not experience oxidation as easily as lower quality fluids made from lower quality base oil and an additive package. Therefore, higher quality transmission fluids can last a long time in normal driving conditions (Typically 100,000 miles (160,000 km) or more).
The definition of 'Lifetime Fluid" differs from transmission manufacturer to transmission manufacturer. Always consult the vehicle maintenance guide for the proper service interval for the fluid in your transmission and your driving conditions.
2018 Ford F-150 Example: According to the Scheduled Maintenance Guide of a 2018 Ford F-150 with "Lifetime Fluid" could have three different fluid service intervals depending on how the vehicle is driven:
1. Normal Driving
Normal commuting with highway driving
No or moderate load or towing
Flat to moderately hilly roads
No extended idling
Under these driving conditions, the automatic transmission fluid needs to be serviced after every 150,000 miles (240,000 km).
2. Severe Driving
Moderate to heavy load or towing
Mountainous or off-road conditions
Extended idling
Extended hot or cold operation
Under these driving conditions, the automatic transmission fluid needs to be serviced after every 30,000 miles (48,000 km).
3. Extreme Driving
Maximum load or towing
Extreme hot or cold operation
Under these driving conditions, the automatic transmission fluid needs to be serviced also after every 30,000 miles.
See also
Dexron, ATM brand by GM
Whale oil, an important constituent of ATF until 1974
References
External links
Transmission fluids (including "Mercon" products) at Motorcraft
A Look at Changes in Automatic Transmission Fluid
The History of Automatic Transmission Fluid - ATF History Part 1
69 Years of Ford Automatic Transmission Fluid - ATF History Part 3
Changing Gears: The Development of the Automotive Transmission
Ford Service Information Subscription Access
Ford transmissions
Hydraulic fluids
Automotive chemicals
Automobile transmissions
Petroleum based lubricants
Oils | MERCON | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 3,598 | [
"Oils",
"Carbohydrates",
"Physical systems",
"Hydraulics",
"Hydraulic fluids"
] |
59,760,668 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmic | Anisyl sulfanyl methyl isocyanide (Asmic) is an organic molecule that contains an isocyanide group and an ortho-methoxy-phenyl sulfide group. Asmic can be used to synthesize tri-substituted isocyanides. Asmic is a colorless to off-white solid with a melting point of 27 °C that can be prepared by dehydration of the corresponding formamide by POCl3.
Asmic can be deprotonated at the position adjacent to the isocyanide by various organic bases. The anionic form of Asmic, which is stable at low temperatures, can be alkylated with a variety of electrophiles. Two sequential deprotonation-alkylation reactions and a subsequent sulfur-lithium exchange reaction allow the synthesis of tri-substituted isocyanides.
The ortho-methoxy-phenyl sulfide group is thought to facilitate deprotonation by chelating to metalated bases allowing for the base to achieve optimal trajectory during the deprotonation.
Asmic can be used to prepare oxazoles by condensation reactions with esters. The ortho-methoxy-phenyl sulfide group can also undergo sulfur-lithium exchange, and likely proceeds via a 10-s-3 sulfuranide.
References
Thioethers
Isocyanides | Asmic | [
"Chemistry"
] | 294 | [
"Isocyanides",
"Functional groups"
] |
59,760,845 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin%20Lavik | Erin Baker Lavik (born 1973) is an American bioengineer serving as the deputy director and chief technology officer of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) since 2023. She was previously a professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Lavik develops polymers and nanoparticles that can protect the nervous system. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Early life and education
Lavik's father was a lawyer and her mother was an accountant. She was given a catapult as a teenager and broke her parents' windshield. She attended National Cathedral School, and had to take advanced placement physics courses at the nearby boys' school St. Albans School. Lavik was unsure whether to become a veterinarian or high school teacher, but her mother sat next to Martha Gray on an aeroplane and realised that she had a career Lavik would enjoy. She completed her bachelor's degree in materials science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. She minored in theatre and is still a playwright. Her master's PhD looked at the electrical properties of cerium(IV) oxide. She stayed at MIT for her graduate studies, completing her master's degree and PhD in 2001.
Lavik created polymer scaffolds were seeded with neural stem cells, and implanted them in to paralysed rats. These spinal implants were developed whilst Lavik was a graduate student at MIT, mimicking the anatomy of the spine by binding a porous piece of polymer fabric and a plastic cylinder and including narrow channels for axons. Lavik conducted the experiment on 50 female paraplegic rats, and 7 out of 10 rats fitted with Lavik's scaffold-stem cell design could walk again. She was awarded the John Wuff Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2003, two years after graduating her PhD, she was nominated to the TR100 list. Lavik was an assistant professor at Yale University, where she developed polymer scaffolds that imitate the spinal cord. She was nominated for a 2004 WIRED RAVE Award. In 2004 Lavik wrote the play Galileo Walking among the Stars, a play where Galileo, Kepler and Gene Kelly build a spaceship. She was selected as one of the Connecticut Technology Council's top women in innovation in 2008.
Career
Lavik was made an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University where she worked on nanotechnology and biodegradable polymers. Today she is a member of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is interested in translatable approaches to treat injuries and disease. She works on tissue engineering and diseases of the central nervous system, including glaucoma and retinal degeneration.
Lavik has explored ways that nanoparticles can help reduce internal bleeding. The nanoparticles attach to activated platelets, forming clots and stopping bleeding. The nanoparticles are delivered intravenously and include a molecule that binds to a glycoprotein. They are based on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), polyethylene glycol and Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid. Lavik developed the nanoparticles using pig's blood, identifying which had the appropriate immune response. The nanoparticles could half the bleeding time in femoral artery models. Lavik and her team hoped that medics and emergency responders would carry the nanoparticles to treat traumatic injuries. In 2010 she was awarded the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award for the discovery. The NIH grant allows Lavik to explore the nanoparticles traumatic injuries of the central nervous system. The work underwent clinical tests at Case Western Reserve University. She found that the length of the polyethylene glycol arms and choice of peptide impacts the efficacy and clearance of the nanoparticles. She has also looked at spinal cord injury, exploring the optimal time to deliver nanoparticles after traumatic injury. Alongside her work on nanoparticles, Lavik engineers solutions for retinal degeneration, including screen printing human eye tissues. Her technique, which layers adult stem cells, was selected by the National Eye Institute's 3-D Retina Organoid Challenge. She contributed to the 2013 Elsevier book Retina, talking about drug delivery.
Lavik is a member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Women in Science and Engineering group. She is an advocate for improving diversity in the sciences. She was made a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2014. In 2016 she delivered a TEDxBroadway talk on theatre and engineering. She discussed the importance of collaboration in scientific research and teamwork in theatre.
Lavik became the second deputy director and first chief technology officer of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) in August 2023. In this capacity, she provides leadership in how best to apply promising emerging technologies to the prevention and control of cancer and its consequences. In 2024, she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
References
American bioengineers
Women materials scientists and engineers
21st-century American women engineers
MIT School of Engineering alumni
Case Western Reserve University faculty
University of Maryland, Baltimore County faculty
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
National Institutes of Health people
Women bioengineers | Erin Lavik | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 1,132 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
59,761,321 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%202985 | NGC 2985 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major. It is located at a distance of circa 70 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 2985 is about 95,000 light years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 3, 1785.
The galaxy is seen with an inclination of 37 degrees. The galaxy has a bright nucleus from which emanate multiple tightly wound spiral fragments. Numerous blue knots are visible at the galactic disk. At the outer part of the galaxy lies a massive spiral arm that forms a pseudoring that encircles the galaxy. The inner part of the galaxy, where active star formation has been observed, has been found to be unstable, contrary to the outer stable one. It has been suggested that the presence of molecular clouds accounts for the instability of the region.
The nucleus of NGC 2985 is active, and based on its spectrum has been categorised as a LINER. The most accepted theory for the activity source is the presence of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. The mass of the supermassive black hole at the centre of NGC 2985 is estimated to be 160 million (108.2) , based on stellar velocity dispersion. The velocity dispersion is anisotropic, and changes with the azimuth. The rotational speed of the galaxy at its effective radius is 222.9 ± 31.2 km/s.
NGC 2985 is the brightest member of a galaxy group known as the NGC 2985 group. Other members of the group include NGC 3027, 25 arcminutes away. Other nearby galaxies include NGC 3252, and NGC 3403.
References
External links
NGC 2985 on SIMBAD
Unbarred spiral galaxies
Ursa Major
5253
06426
28316
Astronomical objects discovered in 1785
Discoveries by William Herschel | NGC 2985 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 385 | [
"Ursa Major",
"Constellations"
] |
59,761,359 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20novae%20in%202018 | The following is a list of all novae that are known to have occurred in 2018. A nova is an energetic astronomical event caused by a white dwarf accreting matter from a star it is orbiting (typically a red giant, whose outer layers are more weakly attached than smaller, denser stars) Alternatively, novae can rarely be caused by a pair of stars merging with each other, however such events are vastly less common than novae caused by white dwarfs.
In 2018, 15 novae were discovered in the Milky Way, 14 being classical novae, and 1 being a dwarf nova of a previously known variable star, V392 Persei, which was discovered in 1972. An additional 23 novae were discovered in the Andromeda Galaxy, 8 in Messier 81, 1 in the Triangulum Galaxy, and 1 in Messier 83. A single luminous red nova was observed in NGC 45.
List of novae in 2018
In the Milky Way
In the Andromeda Galaxy
Novae are also frequently spotted in the Andromeda Galaxy, and are even slightly more commonly found than in the Milky Way, as there is less intervening dust to prevent their detection. Furthermore, Andromeda is circumpolar for observers north of latitude +48-50, roughly the latitude of the Canadian-American border, allowing observers north of that to search for transients all year.
In 2018, 23 novae were seen in the Andromeda galaxy.
In other galaxies
Any galaxy within 20 million light-years of the Sun could theoretically have nova events bright enough to be detected from Earth, although in practice most are only detected in galaxies within 10-15 million light-years of the Milky Way, such as the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 81, Messier 82, Messier 83, and Messier 94.
In 2018, of the ten novae observed in other galaxies than the Milky Way or the Andromeda Galaxy, eight were in Messier 81, with the remaining two from the Triangulum Galaxy and Messier 83. A luminous red nova, probably caused by the merger of two stars, occurred in NGC 45.
See also
List of novae in the Milky Way galaxy
List of novae in 2019
Nova
Dwarf nova
Luminous red nova
Guest star (astronomy)
Supernova
Notes
References
External links
List of all galactic novae
2018 in outer space
Novae
Novae in 2018
Novae | List of novae in 2018 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 486 | [
"Astronomy-related lists",
"Novae",
"Astronomical events",
"Lists of astronomical events",
"Lists of astronomical objects",
"Astronomical objects"
] |
59,761,651 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwick%20Bowen | Warwick Bowen is an Australian quantum physicist and nanotechnologist at The University of Queensland. He leads the Quantum Optics Laboratory, is Director of the UQ Precision Sensing Initiative and is one of three Theme Leaders of the Australian Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems.
Education
Bowen attended the University of Otago in New Zealand, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Physics in 1999. He went on to earn a PhD in Physics at the Australian National University in 2004, and was awarded the 2004 Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics from the Australian Institute of Physics, which recognizes the best PhD thesis in physics by a student from an Australian university.
Bowen went on to become Moore Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in 2004 and 2005.
Career
In 2005, Bowen was recruited to a faculty position in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago. Then, in 2008, he commenced a faculty position at the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland, where he became a full Professor in 2016.
He was awarded a five-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 2009, and went on to become an ARC Future Fellow in 2015.
Since 2013, while based at the University of Queensland, Bowen has been a Principal Investigator in the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in Biophysics Program.
In 2017 Bowen established and became Director of the University of Queensland Precision Sensing Initiative. In 2018, Bowen was also awarded an Adjunct Professorship at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland.
Research
Bowen’s research focusses on the interface of nanotechnology and quantum science, including nanophotonics, nanomechanics, quantum optomechanics and photonic/quantum sensing. His work spans from addressing very fundamental questions about how quantum physics transitions into our everyday world at large scales, to the development of novel applications in navigation, biomedical diagnostics, quantum communications and computation. He has worked with industry partners including Boeing, NASA Glenn Laboratories and Lockheed Martin.
In particular, Bowen has focussed on quantum-enhanced sensing and communication technologies, including development of the first prototype quantum light source at gravitational wave frequencies, planned to be installed in the Laser Interferometry Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2018. Recently, his research group has pioneered the application of quantum optomechanical techniques in magnetometry, ultrasound sensing and microscopy of biological systems. This includes the first demonstrations that quantum correlations could improve the sensitivity and resolution of light microscopes, experiments that also were the first to apply quantum corrections to improve biological measurements; and the first demonstration of absolute quantum advantage in sensing that employs quantum correlations, showing that quantum correlations can provide image clarity beyond the usual photodamage limits of microscopy. These were longstanding challenges widely recognised in the field of quantum optics. with the latter being a key milestone in the UK Quantum Technologies Roadmap.
Prof Bowen is also developing nanophotonic techniques to control superfluid helium, an exotic quantum liquid and building block for future quantum technologies. Using these techniques, his research lab demonstrated direct laser cooling of a liquid and the tracking of quantum vortices in two-dimensional superfluid helium, both for the first time, and showed that very low threshold lasing of superfluid sound waves was possible.
Translation
In 2020 Warwick Bowen founded the company Elemental Instruments with co-founder Dr Glen Harris. Elemental Instruments develops scientific instrumentation for quantum technologies, chemical and material analysis, medical imaging, and university/school laboratories and demonstrations. A key focus of the company is compact low-power solutions to generate strong, uniform and tuneable magnetic fields.
Awards and recognition
Warwick Bowen has received a range of awards and honours, including
2020 John Love Award, Australian and New Zealand Optical Society, in recognition of innovation and technical advances in the field of optics.
Barry Inglis Medal, Australia's National Measurement Institute [2020].Quantum Physicist and Defence Scientist take out top awards on World Metrology Day
University of Queensland Partners in Excellence Research Award [2019] - Designing Technology for Tomorrow. Finest researchers awarded
University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award, UQs highest research award [2010]
JILA Visiting Fellowship in 2014
ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship 2009
ARC Future Fellowship 2015
Winner of the Australian Museum’s inaugural Eureka Prize for Inspiring Science [2003]
2004 Bragg Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics
References
Living people
Australian physicists
Nanotechnology
Year of birth missing (living people) | Warwick Bowen | [
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 905 | [
"Nanotechnology",
"Materials science"
] |
59,762,273 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AD%20Phoenicis | AD Phoenicis is a variable star in the constellation of Phoenix. An eclipsing binary, its apparent magnitude has a maximum of 10.27, dimming to 10.80 during primary and secondary eclipses, which are approximately equal. From parallax measurements by the Gaia spacecraft, the system is located at a distance of from Earth.
AD Phoenicis is a contact binary of W Ursae Majoris type, composed of two stars so close that their surfaces touch each other. They are separated by 2.46 solar radii and orbit each other with a period of 0.3799 days. The primary star has a mass of 1.00 solar mass and a radius of 1.17 solar radii, while the secondary has 0.38 solar masses and 0.76 solar radii. Their surface temperatures are very similar, 6,155 and 5,835 K, which is the reason for the eclipses being equal-depth.
In visible light, the primary star contributes 71.2% of the system's luminosity, while the secondary contributes the rest (28.8%). Previous analyses of the system suggested that the secondary star was eclipsed during the primary minimum and hence was hotter than the primary. The bolometric luminosity of the two stars combined is . The eclipse's light curve shows an asymmetric feature that is best explained by a large starspot in the surface of the primary, about 700 K cooler than the rest of the photosphere. Asymmetry in the light curve may also be caused by starspots on one or both components, which would result in slightly results for the physical properties of the two stars.
Variations in the orbital period of the system have been detected, which were modelled as a continuous decrease in the period plus a cyclic oscillation. The period decrease of about 1.5 days per year is likely caused by mass transfer from the secondary to the primary star, while the oscillation can be explained by a third star in the system or by a magnetic activity cycle. In the third star hypothesis, its orbit would have a period of 56.2 ± 0.9 years and an eccentricity of 0.36 ± 0.01. A minimum mass of 0.257 solar masses is calculated, which corresponds to a red dwarf of spectral type M4–M5, consistent with the lack of photometric and spectroscopic evidence for this star.
References
W Ursae Majoris variables
Phoenix (constellation)
Durchmusterung objects
005955
Phoenicis, AD | AD Phoenicis | [
"Astronomy"
] | 534 | [
"Phoenix (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
59,763,739 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20novae%20in%202019 | The following is a list of all novae that are known to have occurred in 2019. A nova is an energetic astronomical event caused by a white dwarf accreting matter from a star it is orbiting (typically a red giant, whose outer layers are more weakly attached than smaller, denser stars) Alternatively, novae can be caused by a pair of stars merging with each other, however such events are vastly less common than novae caused by white dwarfs.
In 2019, at least sixteen Milky Way novae were discovered, eight of which were dwarf nova eruptions, one of the variable system V386 Serpentis, one from the known nova-like system 2E 1516.6-6827, and four from previously unidentified white dwarf binaries. One of these binaries, TCP J18200437-1033071, may have possibly been involved in another outburst in 1951. The recurrent nova V3890 Sgr, which had been seen to erupt in 1962 and 1990, also erupted again in 2019.
List of novae in 2019
In the Milky Way
In the Andromeda Galaxy
Novae are also frequently spotted in the Andromeda Galaxy, and are even slightly more commonly found than in the Milky Way, as there is less intervening dust to prevent their detection. Furthermore, Andromeda is circumpolar for observers north of latitude +48-50, roughly the latitude of the Canadian-American border, allowing observers north of that to search for transients all year.
In 2019, 11 novae have been seen in the Andromeda galaxy.
In other galaxies
Any galaxy within 20 million light-years of the Sun could theoretically have nova events bright enough to be detected from Earth, although in practice most are only detected in galaxies within 10-15 million light-years of the Milky Way, such as the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 81, Messier 82, Messier 83, and Messier 94.
In 2019, two novae were observed in Messier 81, and another in the Triangulum Galaxy. A luminous red nova was observed in the Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51a), probably caused by a merger of two stars.
See also
List of novae in 2018
Nova
Dwarf nova
Luminous red nova
Guest star (astronomy)
Supernova
Notes
References
External links
List of all galactic novae
2019 in outer space
Novae
Novae in 2019
Novae | List of novae in 2019 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 492 | [
"Astronomy-related lists",
"Novae",
"Astronomical events",
"Lists of astronomical events",
"Lists of astronomical objects",
"Astronomical objects"
] |
59,763,862 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsat-R | Microsat-R was claimed to be an experimental imaging satellite manufactured by DRDO and launched by Indian Space Research Organisation on 24 January 2019 for military use. The satellite served as a target for an anti-satellite test on 27 March, 2019.
Launch
Microsat-R, along with KalamsatV2 as piggy-back, was launched on 24 January 2019 at 23:37 hrs from First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The launch marks the 46th flight of PSLV. After 13 minutes 26 seconds in flight, Microsat-R was injected at targeted altitude of about 277.2 km. This was the first flight of a new variant of PSLV called PSLV-DL with two strap-ons, each carrying 12.2-tonne of solid propellant.
Anti-satellite test
Microsat-R served as target for Indian ASAT experiment on March 27, 2019. The impact generated more than 400 pieces of orbital debris with 24 having apogee higher than ISS orbit. According to initial assessment by DRDO some of the debris (depending on size and trajectory) should re-enter in 45 days. A spokesperson from NASA disagreed, saying the debris could last for years because the solar minimum had contracted the atmosphere that would otherwise cause the debris to reenter. Analysis from a leading space trajectory and environment simulation company AGI has also came to same conclusion that few debris fragments will take more than a year to come down and other debris fragments might pose a risk to other satellites and ISS and these results were also presented in the 35th Space Symposium at Colorado Springs.
As of March 2022, only one catalogued piece of debris from Microsat-R remained in orbit: COSPAR 2019-006DE, SATCAT 44383. This final piece decayed from orbit 14 June 2022.
See also
Microsat (ISRO)
Kosmos 149
Kosmos 320
SLATS
References
External links
Earth observation satellites of India
Spacecraft launched by India in 2019
Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets
January 2019 events in India
Intentionally destroyed artificial satellites
Military equipment introduced in the 2010s
Satellite collisions | Microsat-R | [
"Technology"
] | 431 | [
"Satellite collisions",
"Space debris"
] |
59,764,200 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G%20NR | 5G NR (5G New Radio) is a radio access technology (RAT) developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for the 5G (fifth generation) mobile network. It was designed to be the global standard for the air interface of 5G networks. It is based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), as is the 4G (fourth generation) long-term evolution (LTE) standard.
The 3GPP specification 38 series provides the technical details behind 5G NR, the successor of LTE.
The study of 5G NR within 3GPP started in 2015, and the first specification was made available by the end of 2017. While the 3GPP standardization process was ongoing, the industry had already begun efforts to implement infrastructure compliant with the draft standard, with the first large-scale commercial launch of 5G NR having occurred in the end of 2018. Since 2019, many operators have deployed 5G NR networks and handset manufacturers have developed 5G NR enabled handsets.
Frequency bands
5G NR uses frequency bands in two broad frequency ranges:
Frequency Range 1 (FR1), for bands within MHz – MHz
Frequency Range 2 (FR2), for bands within MHz – MHz
Network deployments
Ooredoo was the first carrier to launch a commercial 5G NR network, in May 2018 in Qatar. Other carriers around the world have been following suit.
Development
In 2018, 3GPP published Release 15, which includes what is described as "Phase 1" Pavilash standardization for 5G NR. The timeline for Release 16, which will be "5G phase 2", follows a freeze date of March 2020 and a completion date of June 2020, Release 17 was originally scheduled for delivery in September 2021. but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was rescheduled for June 2022.
Release 18 work has started in 3GPP. Rel.18 is referred to as "NR Advanced" signifying another milestone in wireless communication systems. NR Advanced will include features such as eXtended Reality (XR), AI/ML studies, and Mobility enhancements. Mobility is in the core of 3GPP technology and has so far been handled on Layer 3 (RRC), now, in Rel-18 the work on mobility is to introduce lower layer triggered mobility.
Deployment modes
Initial 5G NR launches will depend on existing LTE infrastructure in non-standalone (NSA) mode, before maturation of the standalone (SA) mode with the 5G core network. Additionally, the spectrum can be dynamically shared between LTE and 5G NR.
Dynamic spectrum sharing
To make better use of existing assets, carriers may opt to dynamically share it between LTE and 5G NR. The spectrum is multiplexed over time between both generations of mobile networks, while still using the LTE network for control functions, depending on user demand. Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) may be deployed on existing LTE equipment as long as it is compatible with 5G NR. Only the 5G NR terminal needs to be compatible with DSS.
Non-standalone mode
The non-standalone (NSA) mode of 5G NR refers to an option of 5G NR deployment that depends on the control plane of an existing LTE network for control functions, while 5G NR is exclusively focused on the user plane. This is reported to speed up 5G adoption, however some operators and vendors have criticized prioritizing the introduction of 5G NR NSA on the grounds that it could hinder the implementation of the standalone mode of the network. It uses the same core network as a 4G network, but with upgraded radio equipment.
Standalone mode
The standalone (SA) mode of 5G NR refers to using 5G cells for both signalling and information transfer. It includes the new 5G Packet Core architecture instead of relying on the 4G Evolved Packet Core, to allow the deployment of 5G without the LTE network. It is expected to have lower cost, better efficiency, and to assist development of new use cases. However, initial deployment might see slower speed than existing network due to the allocation of spectrum. It uses a new core network dedicated to 5G.
Numerology (sub-carrier spacing)
5G NR supports seven subcarrier spacings:
The length of the cyclic prefix is inversely proportional to the subcarrier spacing. It is 4.7 μs with 15 kHz, and 4.7 / 16 = 0.29 μs for 240 kHz subcarrier spacing. Additionally, higher subcarrier spacings allow for reduced latency and increased support for high-frequency bands, essential for the ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) applications in 5G.
NR-Light / RedCap
In 5G NR Release 17, the 3GPP introduced NR-Light for reduced capabilities (RedCap) devices. NR-Light, also known as RedCap, is designed to support a wide range of new and emerging use cases that require lower complexity and reduced power consumption compared to traditional 5G NR devices.
NR-Light targets devices in the mid-tier performance category, striking a balance between the high-performance capabilities of standard 5G NR devices and the ultra-low complexity of LTE-M and NB-IoT devices. This makes it ideal for applications such as:
Wearables: Including smartwatches, fitness trackers, and health monitoring devices that benefit from lower power consumption and extended battery life.
Industrial Sensors: Devices in smart factories and industrial automation that require reliable connectivity with reduced complexity.
Smart Home Devices: Home automation products, including security cameras and smart appliances, that need efficient and cost-effective connectivity.
Key features of NR-Light include:
Reduced Bandwidth: NR-Light supports narrower bandwidths, reducing the overall complexity and power requirements of the device.
Simplified Antenna Configurations: Utilizing fewer antennas compared to standard 5G NR devices, which helps in lowering the cost and power consumption.
Lower Data Rates: Optimized for applications that do not require high data throughput, ensuring efficient use of network resources.
Extended Battery Life: With optimizations aimed at reducing power consumption, NR-Light devices can achieve significantly longer battery life, which is crucial for wearables and sensors.
NR-Light enhances the 5G ecosystem by providing a scalable solution that caters to the needs of devices with varying performance requirements, expanding the potential applications and fostering the growth of IoT and other connected technologies.
See also
IMT-2020 – the International Telecommunication Union standards
Network service
Network virtualization
References
Mobile telecommunications
3GPP standards
5G (telecommunication)
Internet of things
Computer-related introductions in 2018
Mobile broadband
Wireless networking standards | 5G NR | [
"Technology"
] | 1,379 | [
"Mobile telecommunications",
"Wireless networking",
"Mobile broadband",
"Wireless networking standards"
] |
59,765,966 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%20Algera | Jacob Algera (20 March 1902 – 8 December 1966) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
Decorations
References
External links
Official
Mr. J. (Jacob) Algera Parlement & Politiek
1902 births
1966 deaths
Buchenwald concentration camp survivors
Delta Works
Dutch academic administrators
20th-century Dutch jurists
Dutch prisoners of war in World War II
Grand Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Mayors of Leeuwarden
Members of the Council of State (Netherlands)
Members of the Provincial Council of Friesland
Members of the Provincial-Executive of Friesland
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Ministers of transport and water management of the Netherlands
Municipal councillors of Leeuwarden
Reformed Churches Christians from the Netherlands
University of Groningen alumni
Academic staff of the University of Groningen
Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
World War II civilian prisoners
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
20th-century Dutch civil servants
20th-century Dutch educators
20th-century Dutch politicians | Jacob Algera | [
"Physics"
] | 215 | [
"Physical systems",
"Hydraulics",
"Delta Works"
] |
59,766,171 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold | AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence (AI) program developed by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which performs predictions of protein structure. The program is designed as a deep learning system.
AlphaFold software has had three major versions. A team of researchers that used AlphaFold 1 (2018) placed first in the overall rankings of the 13th Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) in December 2018. The program was particularly successful at predicting the most accurate structure for targets rated as the most difficult by the competition organisers, where no existing template structures were available from proteins with a partially similar sequence. A team that used AlphaFold 2 (2020) repeated the placement in the CASP14 competition in November 2020. The team achieved a level of accuracy much higher than any other group. It scored above 90 for around two-thirds of the proteins in CASP's global distance test (GDT), a test that measures the degree to which a computational program predicted structure is similar to the lab experiment determined structure, with 100 being a complete match, within the distance cutoff used for calculating GDT.
AlphaFold 2's results at CASP14 were described as "astounding" and "transformational". Some researchers noted that the accuracy is not high enough for a third of its predictions, and that it does not reveal the mechanism or rules of protein folding for the protein folding problem to be considered solved. Nevertheless, there has been widespread respect for the technical achievement. On 15 July 2021 the AlphaFold 2 paper was published in Nature as an advance access publication alongside open source software and a searchable database of species proteomes. The paper has since been cited more than 27 thousand times.
AlphaFold 3 was announced on 8 May 2024. It can predict the structure of complexes created by proteins with DNA, RNA, various ligands, and ions. The new prediction method shows a minimum 50% improvement in accuracy for protein interactions with other molecules compared to existing methods. Moreover, for certain key categories of interactions, the prediction accuracy has effectively doubled.
Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from the team that developed AlphaFold won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 for their work on “protein structure prediction”. The two had won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research earlier in 2023.
Background
Proteins consist of chains of amino acids which spontaneously fold to form the three dimensional (3-D) structures of the proteins. The 3-D structure is crucial to understanding the biological function of the protein.
Protein structures can be determined experimentally through techniques such as X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, which are all expensive and time-consuming. Such efforts, using the experimental methods, have identified the structures of about 170,000 proteins over the last 60 years, while there are over 200 million known proteins across all life forms.
Over the years, researchers have applied numerous computational methods to predict the 3D structures of proteins from their amino acid sequences, but the accuracy of such methods has not been close to experimental techniques. CASP, which was launched in 1994 to challenge the scientific community to produce their best protein structure predictions, found that GDT scores of only about 40 out of 100 can be achieved for the most difficult proteins by 2016. AlphaFold started competing in the 2018 CASP using an artificial intelligence (AI) deep learning technique.
Algorithm
DeepMind is known to have trained the program on over 170,000 proteins from the Protein Data Bank, a public repository of protein sequences and structures. The program uses a form of attention network, a deep learning technique that focuses on having the AI identify parts of a larger problem, then piece it together to obtain the overall solution. The overall training was conducted on processing power between 100 and 200 GPUs.
AlphaFold 1 (2018)
AlphaFold 1 (2018) was built on work developed by various teams in the 2010s, work that looked at the large databanks of related DNA sequences now available from many different organisms (most without known 3D structures), to try to find changes at different residues that appeared to be correlated, even though the residues were not consecutive in the main chain. Such correlations suggest that the residues may be close to each other physically, even though not close in the sequence, allowing a contact map to be estimated. Building on recent work prior to 2018, AlphaFold 1 extended this to estimate a probability distribution for just how close the residues might be likely to be—turning the contact map into a likely distance map. It also used more advanced learning methods than previously to develop the inference.
AlphaFold 2 (2020)
The 2020 version of the program (AlphaFold 2, 2020) is significantly different from the original version that won CASP 13 in 2018, according to the team at DeepMind.
The software design used in AlphaFold 1 contained a number of modules, each trained separately, that were used to produce the guide potential that was then combined with the physics-based energy potential. AlphaFold 2 replaced this with a system of sub-networks coupled together into a single differentiable end-to-end model, based entirely on pattern recognition, which was trained in an integrated way as a single integrated structure. Local physics, in the form of energy refinement based on the AMBER model, is applied only as a final refinement step once the neural network prediction has converged, and only slightly adjusts the predicted structure.
A key part of the 2020 system are two modules, believed to be based on a transformer design, which are used to progressively refine a vector of information for each relationship (or "edge" in graph-theory terminology) between an amino acid residue of the protein and another amino acid residue (these relationships are represented by the array shown in green); and between each amino acid position and each different sequences in the input sequence alignment (these relationships are represented by the array shown in red). Internally these refinement transformations contain layers that have the effect of bringing relevant data together and filtering out irrelevant data (the "attention mechanism") for these relationships, in a context-dependent way, learnt from training data. These transformations are iterated, the updated information output by one step becoming the input of the next, with the sharpened residue/residue information feeding into the update of the residue/sequence information, and then the improved residue/sequence information feeding into the update of the residue/residue information. As the iteration progresses, according to one report, the "attention algorithm ... mimics the way a person might assemble a jigsaw puzzle: first connecting pieces in small clumps—in this case clusters of amino acids—and then searching for ways to join the clumps in a larger whole."
The output of these iterations then informs the final structure prediction module, which also uses transformers, and is itself then iterated. In an example presented by DeepMind, the structure prediction module achieved a correct topology for the target protein on its first iteration, scored as having a GDT_TS of 78, but with a large number (90%) of stereochemical violations – i.e. unphysical bond angles or lengths. With subsequent iterations the number of stereochemical violations fell. By the third iteration the GDT_TS of the prediction was approaching 90, and by the eighth iteration the number of stereochemical violations was approaching zero.
The training data was originally restricted to single peptide chains. However, the October 2021 update, named AlphaFold-Multimer, included protein complexes in its training data. DeepMind stated this update succeeded about 70% of the time at accurately predicting protein-protein interactions.
AlphaFold 3 (2024)
Announced on 8 May 2024, AlphaFold 3 was co-developed by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, both subsidiaries of Alphabet. AlphaFold 3 is not limited to single-chain proteins, as it can also predict the structures of protein complexes with DNA, RNA, post-translational modifications and selected ligands and ions.
AlphaFold 3 introduces the "Pairformer", a deep learning architecture inspired from the transformer, considered similar but simpler than the Evoformer introduced with AlphaFold 2. The raw predictions from the Pairformer module are passed to a diffusion model, which starts with a cloud of atoms and uses these predictions to iteratively progress towards a 3D depiction of the molecular structure.
The AlphaFold server was created to provide free access to AlphaFold 3 for non-commercial research.
Competitions
CASP13
In December 2018, DeepMind's AlphaFold placed first in the overall rankings of the 13th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP).
The program was particularly successfully predicting the most accurate structure for targets rated as the most difficult by the competition organisers, where no existing template structures were available from proteins with a partially similar sequence. AlphaFold gave the best prediction for 25 out of 43 protein targets in this class, achieving a median score of 58.9 on the CASP's global distance test (GDT) score, ahead of 52.5 and 52.4 by the two next best-placed teams, who were also using deep learning to estimate contact distances. Overall, across all targets, the program achieved a GDT score of 68.5.
In January 2020, implementations and illustrative code of AlphaFold 1 was released open-source on GitHub. but, as stated in the "Read Me" file on that website: "This code can't be used to predict structure of an arbitrary protein sequence. It can be used to predict structure only on the CASP13 dataset (links below). The feature generation code is tightly coupled to our internal infrastructure as well as external tools, hence we are unable to open-source it." Therefore, in essence, the code deposited is not suitable for general use but only for the CASP13 proteins. The company has not announced plans to make their code publicly available as of 5 March 2021.
CASP14
In November 2020, DeepMind's new version, AlphaFold 2, won CASP14. Overall, AlphaFold 2 made the best prediction for 88 out of the 97 targets.
On the competition's preferred global distance test (GDT) measure of accuracy, the program achieved a median score of 92.4 (out of 100), meaning that more than half of its predictions were scored at better than 92.4% for having their atoms in more-or-less the right place, a level of accuracy reported to be comparable to experimental techniques like X-ray crystallography. In 2018 AlphaFold 1 had only reached this level of accuracy in two of all of its predictions. 88% of predictions in the 2020 competition had a GDT_TS score of more than 80. On the group of targets classed as the most difficult, AlphaFold 2 achieved a median score of 87.
Measured by the root-mean-square deviation (RMS-D) of the placement of the alpha-carbon atoms of the protein backbone chain, which tends to be dominated by the performance of the worst-fitted outliers, 88% of AlphaFold 2's predictions had an RMS deviation of less than 4 Å for the set of overlapped C-alpha atoms. 76% of predictions achieved better than 3 Å, and 46% had a C-alpha atom RMS accuracy better than 2 Å, with a median RMS deviation in its predictions of 2.1 Å for a set of overlapped CA atoms. AlphaFold 2 also achieved an accuracy in modelling surface side chains described as "really really extraordinary".
To additionally verify AlphaFold-2 the conference organisers approached four leading experimental groups for structures they were finding particularly challenging and had been unable to determine. In all four cases the three-dimensional models produced by AlphaFold 2 were sufficiently accurate to determine structures of these proteins by molecular replacement. These included target T1100 (Af1503), a small membrane protein studied by experimentalists for ten years.
Of the three structures that AlphaFold 2 had the least success in predicting, two had been obtained by protein NMR methods, which define protein structure directly in aqueous solution, whereas AlphaFold was mostly trained on protein structures in crystals. The third exists in nature as a multidomain complex consisting of 52 identical copies of the same domain, a situation AlphaFold was not programmed to consider. For all targets with a single domain, excluding only one very large protein and the two structures determined by NMR, AlphaFold 2 achieved a GDT_TS score of over 80.
CASP15
In 2022, DeepMind did not enter CASP15, but most of the entrants used AlphaFold or tools incorporating AlphaFold.
Reception
AlphaFold 2 scoring more than 90 in CASP's global distance test (GDT) is considered a significant achievement in computational biology and great progress towards a decades-old grand challenge of biology. Nobel Prize winner and structural biologist Venki Ramakrishnan called the result "a stunning advance on the protein folding problem", adding that "It has occurred decades before many people in the field would have predicted. It will be exciting to see the many ways in which it will fundamentally change biological research."
Propelled by press releases from CASP and DeepMind, AlphaFold 2's success received wide media attention. As well as news pieces in the specialist science press, such as Nature, Science, MIT Technology Review, and New Scientist, the story was widely covered by major national newspapers,. A frequent theme was that ability to predict protein structures accurately based on the constituent amino acid sequence is expected to have a wide variety of benefits in the life sciences space including accelerating advanced drug discovery and enabling better understanding of diseases. Some have noted that even a perfect answer to the protein prediction problem would still leave questions about the protein folding problem—understanding in detail how the folding process actually occurs in nature (and how sometimes they can also misfold).
In 2023, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences as well as the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for their management of the AlphaFold project. Hassabis and Jumper proceeded to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024 for their work on “protein structure prediction” with David Baker of the University of Washington.
Source code
The open access to source code of several AlphaFold versions (excluding AlphaFold 3) has been provided by DeepMind after requests from the scientific community. Full source code of AlphaFold-3 is expected to be provided to open access by the end of 2024.
Database of protein models generated by AlphaFold
The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database was launched on July 22, 2021, as a joint effort between AlphaFold and EMBL-EBI. At launch the database contains AlphaFold-predicted models of protein structures of nearly the full UniProt proteome of humans and 20 model organisms, amounting to over 365,000 proteins. The database does not include proteins with fewer than 16 or more than 2700 amino acid residues, but for humans they are available in the whole batch file. AlphaFold planned to add more sequences to the collection, the initial goal (as of beginning of 2022) being to cover most of the UniRef90 set of more than 100 million proteins. As of May 15, 2022, 992,316 predictions were available.
In July 2021, UniProt-KB and InterPro has been updated to show AlphaFold predictions when available.
On July 28, 2022, the team uploaded to the database the structures of around 200 million proteins from 1 million species, covering nearly every known protein on the planet.
Limitations
AlphaFold has various limitations:
AlphaFold DB provides monomeric models of proteins, rather than their biologically relevant complexes.
Many protein regions are predicted with low confidence score, including the intrinsically disordered protein regions.
Alphafold-2 was validated for predicting structural effects of mutations with a limited success.
The model relies to some degree upon co-evolutionary information across similar proteins, and thus may not perform well on synthetic proteins or proteins with very low homology to anything in the database.
The ability of the model to produce multiple native conformations of proteins is limited.
AlphaFold 3 version can predict structures of protein complexes with a very limited set of selected cofactors and co- and post-translational modifications. Between 50% and 70% of the structures of the human proteome are incomplete without covalently-attached glycans. AlphaFill, a derived database, adds cofactors to AlphaFold models where appropriate.
In the algorithm, the residues are moved freely, without any restraints. Therefore, during modeling the integrity of the chain is not maintained. As a result, AlphaFold may produce topologically wrong results, like structures with an arbitrary number of knots.
Applications
AlphaFold has been used to predict structures of proteins of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. The structures of these proteins were pending experimental detection in early 2020. Results were examined by the scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom before release into the larger research community. The team also confirmed accurate prediction against the experimentally determined SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that was shared in the Protein Data Bank, an international open-access database, before releasing the computationally determined structures of the under-studied protein molecules. The team acknowledged that although these protein structures might not be the subject of ongoing therapeutical research efforts, they will add to the community's understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Specifically, AlphaFold 2's prediction of the structure of the ORF3a protein was very similar to the structure determined by researchers at University of California, Berkeley using cryo-electron microscopy. This specific protein is believed to assist the virus in breaking out of the host cell once it replicates. This protein is also believed to play a role in triggering the inflammatory response to the infection.
Published works
Andrew W. Senior et al. (December 2019), "Protein structure prediction using multiple deep neural networks in the 13th Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP13)", Proteins: Structure, Function, Bioinformatics 87(12) 1141–1148
Andrew W. Senior et al. (15 January 2020), "Improved protein structure prediction using potentials from deep learning", Nature 577 706–710
John Jumper et al. (December 2020), "High Accuracy Protein Structure Prediction Using Deep Learning", in Fourteenth Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (Abstract Book), pp. 22–24
John Jumper et al. (December 2020), "AlphaFold 2". Presentation given at CASP 14.
See also
Folding@home
IBM Blue Gene
Foldit
Rosetta@home
Human Proteome Folding Project
AlphaZero
AlphaGo
AlphaGeometry
Predicted Aligned Error
References
Further reading
Carlos Outeiral, CASP14: what Google DeepMind's AlphaFold 2 really achieved, and what it means for protein folding, biology and bioinformatics, Oxford Protein Informatics Group. (3 December)
Mohammed AlQuraishi, AlphaFold2 @ CASP14: "It feels like one's child has left home." (blog), 8 December 2020
Mohammed AlQuraishi, The AlphaFold2 Method Paper: A Fount of Good Ideas (blog), 25 July 2021
External links
AlphaFold-3 web server
Open access to protein structure predictions for the human proteome and 20 other key organisms at European Bioinformatics Institute (AlphaFold Protein Structure Database)
CASP 14 website
AlphaFold: The making of a scientific breakthrough, DeepMind, via YouTube.
ColabFold (), version for homooligomeric prediction and complexes
Bioinformatics software
Applied machine learning
Protein folding
Deep learning software applications
Molecular modelling software
Google DeepMind | AlphaFold | [
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"Biology"
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59,766,555 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setracovirus | Setracovirus is a subgenus of viruses in the genus Alphacoronavirus.
References
Virus subgenera
Alphacoronaviruses | Setracovirus | [
"Biology"
] | 29 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,766,595 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minunacovirus | Minunacovirus is a subgenus of viruses in the genus Alphacoronavirus.
References
Virus subgenera
Alphacoronaviruses | Minunacovirus | [
"Biology"
] | 29 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,766,889 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murburn%20concept | In the field of enzymology, murburn is a term coined by Kelath Murali Manoj that explains the catalytic mechanism of certain redox-active proteins. The term describes the equilibrium among molecules, unbound ions and radicals, signifying a process of "mild unrestricted redox catalysis".
Murburn is abstracted from "mured burning" (connoting a "closed burning", an oxidative process), and implies equilibriums involving diffusible reactive oxygen species (DRS/DROS/ROS). Though akin to the oxygen assisted combustion of fuel, unlike the flames produced in the open burning process, the biological reaction occurs in enclosed premises, is mild and may generate heat alone (and no flames). Such a reaction could also incur selective and specific electron/moiety transfers.
Further, though burning is a reaction that usually involves oxygen (aerobic process), "burning flames" produced by anoxic oxidants are also well-known. Therefore, the enzymes working via murburn scheme (aerobic or anaerobic) could be called murzymes and the region around the biomolecule where the DRS interacts with the final ‘substrate’ is called ‘murzone’.
The basic components
Molecule – Usually a molecule with an extended pi-electronic system or metallic centers with d electrons or a combination of both. A redox protein/enzyme qualifies for this role because it has one or more cofactors with the required attribute. (e.g. hemeproteins, flavoproteins,Cu/Zn proteins, etc.). Occasionally, some proteins that lack the above cofactors but have high amounts of charged residues and suitably located substrate binding sites could also aid DROS dynamics and catalysis (e.g. lactate dehydrogenase, transducin, Complex V, etc.)
Unbound ion – naturally occurring ions of several types, carrying or relaying charges
Radical – transiently generated species in milieu, from any additive or in situ components
Salient features
While enzyme activities are classically defined by the interaction of the protein with its substrate at a defined active site (necessitating a topological recognition of the interactive participants), murburn scheme obligatorily invokes a DRS (or a reactive radical) for carrying out this agenda.
The conventional enzyme-substrate interaction scheme invokes Fischer’s lock and key type affinity or Koshland’s induced fit theory. That is, a substrate is identified by the enzyme by virtue of a topographical complementation, and thereafter, the enzyme-substrate complex undergoes a "transition-state," leading to products.
Such a system shows certainty/determinism, usually abides by the standard models of kinetics (like Michaelis-Menten scheme) and the inhibitors may be of competitive, non-competitive, uncompetitive, etc. The classical enzymes have a unique substrate or a well defined set of substrates.
In contrast, murburn scheme (as shown in figure) might invoke an enzyme-substrate complementation, but this aspect is not obligatory. The kinetics of the reaction may at times not be traceable with standard models because the diffusible reactive species is subjected to multiple equilibriums and the product of interest may be favorably formed only in discrete concentrations of the protagonists.
Therefore, the outcomes in such systems could be subjected to a lot of uncertainty and the overall reaction scheme might exhibit varying and non-integral stoichiometry. The modulators/influencers (activators or inhibitors) may work by mixed modalities, owing to affects on the protein, substrate or the diffusible species. The murzymes may have a wide variety of substrates, as the reaction scheme is dependent on multiple modalities of interactions and outcomes. These considerations seek us to overcome the aesthetic perspective that DROS are mere manifestations of pathophysiology. A relevant comparison is that the presence of knife-racks, cutting boards and gloves in kitchen (analogous to enzymes like superoxide dismutase and catalase, membrane-embedded proteins with one-electron active redox centers, etc.) does not mean that knife is a dangerous component that must be avoided. On the contrary, it is an important tool across the globe that has to be used with adequate care. Quite similarly, the cellular machinery has evolved to harness the reaction potential of DRS. The aesthetic perspective/concern that DRS would wreak havoc in routine physiology is no more relevant because several decades of research has now clearly established that DRS are routinely observed and unavoidable in physiology, and they cannot be just wished away. It has also been demonstrated that sustained release of DRS could afford selectivity (choice of a particular reactant from a variety, say B from A, B, C and D) and specificity (attack at a specific locus, like alpha- or para- positions of a reactant). Therefore, such a selectivity can be compared to how setting fire to a damp cloth dipped in oil burns the oil first and minimally chars the cloth's fabric. Analogously, murburn activity has cumulative collateral damage, which leads to aging, and ultimately, death. Murburn concept stresses the already well-established fundamental awareness that all molecules/processes in life have spatial, temporal, quantitative and contextual relevance. A comparison of the classical perspectives and murburn concept is given in the figure and the perceptional changes ushered in by murburn concept can be captured in the Table 1.
The new mechanism has been proposed as an explanation for phenomena involving catalytic electron or moiety transfers, chemico-physical changes and unusual observations in various experimental, ecological, metabolic and physiological scenarios. Fundamentally, murburn concept advocates the thesis that DRS are vital requirements for routine metabolic and physiological functions. This theory is validated by its ability to explain the toxicity of cyanide to a variety of important life processes (particularly, respiration and photosynthesis).
Application
Heme/flavin enzymology and electron transfer phenomena Enzymes containing heme and flavin groups (as exemplified by peroxidases, catalases, reductases, etc.) are ubiquitous in cellular systems. While several moiety and electron transfer reactions they catalyze are mediated at the active site (heme/flavin center), some reactions are mediated via diffusible species. Going beyond the Michaelis-Menten paradigm to explain the outcomes of the latter types of reactions (with various additives and inhibitors) is the core purview of murburn concept.
Ecology Fungal heme haloperoxidases (like chloroperoxidase) are the ultimate source for the generation of the vast majority of all natural halogenated organics in the environment and hemeperoxidases are also responsible for the breakdown of plant lignocellulosic materials. Thus, the murburn activities of hemeperoxidases are very important for explaining the carbon/halogen cycles.
Drug/Xenobiotic metabolism The man-made drugs and xenobiotics present a molecular topology that the cellular system may not be aware of, and therefore, a definite affinity-based identification of the alien molecule may not be feasible. The classical P450cam based model fails to explain the promiscuity of reduction of dozens of liver microsomal cytochrome P450s by a unique reductase (which is distributed at much lower concentrations) and it is also inexplicable therein how diverse drug molecules are reacted by a single CYP or why some CYPs do not convert a given drug. Also, drug-drug interactions based on active site binding effects alone cannot explain the outcomes. With the obligatory involvement of DRS, the murburn scheme affords a tangible modality to account for the way the hepatocytes deal with such challenges and the new model could potentially explain diverse types of drug interactions and outcomes of mutations.
Cellular respiration thermogenesis and dynamic homeostasis In the initial phase of evolution, an affinity-based identification may not have been present. Also, mitochondria possess finger-countable protons whereas tens of thousands of purported proton-pumping protein complexes. Further, oxygen is a highly mobile molecule that cannot be expected to remain non-reactive in the presence of the multitude of redox centers present in the mitochondrial membrane respiratory complexes. With respect to these considerations, the classical electron transport chain (ETC) based chemiosmotic rotary ATP synthesis model becomes untenable. The murburn model presents a new interpretation of the physiology of cellular respiration: including oxidative phosphorylation, thermogenesis and dynamic redox homeostasis. Also, the effects of a wide bevy of respiratory toxins (as exemplified by cyanide) to diverse physiologies and life forms are explained by the murburn scheme, which invokes DRS.
Hemoglobin in erythrocyte physiology RBCs function viably for about 4 months, although lacking a nucleus (for genetic regulations) or mitochondria (for carrying out the classical oxidative phosphorlation). A quantitative assessment shows that the glycolytic machinery present within is inadequate for the bioenergetic requirements of erythrocytes. Murburn concept based explorations revealed that the highly packed tetrameric hemoglobin could synthesize ATP using a DRS-based logic. The new perspective affords better structure-function correlations for the various monomers (A,B & F) of the protein and roles of nicotinamide nucleotides and bisphosphoglycerate.
Hormesis and idiosyncratic dose responses It has been a long-standing conundrum as to how certain molecules may produce a physiological effect at a low concentration whereas little impact is seen at higher concentrations. Classical ligand-receptor and enzyme-substrate binding interactive scheme can afford only mono-phasic (hyperbolic) or bell-shaped (when a molecule becomes toxic above a critical level) dose responses. Murburn concept affords a molecular explanation for such hormetic and certain types of idiosyncratic (person to person or case dependent “reactions”) physiological dispositions.
Oxygenic photosynthesis The tapping of sunlight's energy forms the primary means of provision of carbon-centered organic molecules for sustaining life on our planet. The classical explanations of Kok-Joliot cycle, Z-scheme, Q-cycle, etc. were demonstrated to be untenable. A murburn model (involving DROS) of sunlight harvesting (involving DROS) was recently proposed as a mechanism for the explanation of Emerson effect and several other observations (like the enhancement effect of bicarbonate ions on oxygen evolution, the enhancement of chloride ions on e-transfers in vitro, etc.) that were incompatible with the classical purview.
Ionic differentials and electrophysiology Classical membrane theory espouses that ionic differentials in and out of cells arise due to pumping by membrane-embedded proteins like Na-K-ATPase. Also in this purview, the source of trans-membrane potential (TMP) results due to difference of concentration of ions across phases. In the context or TMP fluctuations, murburn model brings in a new perspective of effective charge separation leading to an excess of negative charges transiently resulting inside, due to the ability of oxygen to accept free electron(s).Further, preferential co-solubilization of cations by respiratory activity has been pointed out as another reason for ion-differentials.
Physiology of vision The traditional visual cycle does not have any direct role for oxygen and entails the rods and cones serving as the primary photo-transduction agents. It involves retinal cis-trans conformation change and ejection from rhodopsin, conformation change of transducin and cycling via the retinal pigmented epithelium. In the new charted murburn cascade, photoexcitation of rhodopsin leads to the formation of superoxide, which attacks the GDP bound on alpha transducin, forming GTP, which detaches and gets converted to GDP by the beta module of transducin. The liberated GDP is an allosteric activator of phosphodiesterase-6, which enables the activation of c-GMP cascade. Therefore, in the murburn purview, oxygen is directly involved in visual physiology and rod/cone cells are the ultimate source of electrons. The murburn model also provides a better platform to explain the resolution, depth perception, architecture of eye and its evolution.
Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) Classical perception deems that isozyme LDH-A converts pyruvate to lactate whereas LDH-B converts lactate to pyruvate, the reaction being freely reversible via the same mechanistic route. Murburn concept corrected this erroneous perception and provided thermodynamic and structural insights to demarcate new a new pathway and mechanism for LDH functioning in liver, using DRS. Muscles have 4 folds the concentration of the same isozyme of LDH-A, which is also found in liver. Therefore, the classical explanation fails to reason why lactate must be transported to liver or mitochondria for effective recycling. Murburn concept reasons out such conundrums and also affords a new approach for understanding Warburg effect and therapy of cancer.
Origin and evolution of life Earlier perceptions considered proton/ionic gradients as the primary bioenergetic principle. In this purview, it was difficult to conceive how a purported molecular nanomotor like Complex V could evolve for ATP synthesis, at the primordial states of life's origin. Murburn concept offers effective charge separation as a simpler principle for the cell's viability as a simple chemical engine that could do useful work. The murburn view projects TMP as a side-product of cellular metabolic activity, and not as the primary driving force of cellular bioenergetics.
Criticism
The murburn concept has been used to criticize classical perceptions like Peter Mitchell’s and Paul Boyer’s chemiosmotic rotary ATP synthesis mechanism. These criticisms have been called into question. These criticisms have in turn been responded to.
Prospects
The late Lowell Hager (Member, NAS-USA and Professor of Biochemistry at UIUC) recognized the DRS-mediated murburn selectivity/specificity mechanism in chloroperoxidase. Two books authored by respected European researchers were published in the UK that favorably discussed murburn concept. Articles based in murburn concept were given cover-page credits in four annual volumes (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) of Biomedical Reviews (the official journal of Bulgarian Society for Cell Biology) and the 167th (December 2021) volume of Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology (Elsevier). The advocates of murburn concept have provided precepts and proof of concept for murburn models of diverse life processes (drug metabolism, cellular respiration, thermogenesis, homeostasis, photosynthesis, electrophysiology, photo-transduction in retina, lactate metabolism in liver, role of hemoglobin in erythrocytes, etc.). Their comparative analyses also address the essential theoretical criteria (thermodynamics, kinetics, mechanism, structure-function correlations, evolutionary considerations, Ockham's razor/probability, etc.) and reported experimental findings. These writings also present pan-systemic and holistic appeal of the new theory and call out the untenable nature of several classical perceptions. Thus, murburn concept is poised to expand the classical concepts of biocatalysis, biological electron transfers, metabolism and physiology, leading to the discontinuation of several unrealistic terms/ideas in classical redox enzymology (like - electron transport chain, Z-scheme, Q-cycle, Kok-Joliot cycle, chemiosmosis, proton motive force, rotary ATP synthesis, etc.) that are currently advocated in textbooks. The erstwhile terms were invented to explain redox protein activity when murburn concept was not unraveled and researchers had confined their explorations to active-site and affinity-based logic alone. Incorporating murburn concept in teaching and research is the next step in the sequence of scientific progression.
UPDATES in 2023
(i) Post-translational and epigenetic outcomes: Since murburn processes can introduce oxidative and group transfer (halogenation, phosphorylation, hydroxylation, etc.) reactions, the various biomolecules (like proteins, DNA, matrix components, etc.) could be subjected to corresponding modifications, leading to metabolo-proteomic influences.
(ii) Murburn concept explains the structure-function correlation of Na,K-ATPase.
(iii) Murburn concept serves as a unifying umbrella for connecting acute-timescale cellular powering, coherence, homeostasis, electro-physiological/mechanical and sensory/response facets. Thus, it should be considered as a fundamental principle of life, along with cell theory and central dogma.
(iv) The “auto-assembled molecular rotary” functionalisms in biology is conclusively disclaimed with murburn-centric criticisms, as both Complex V (earlier!) and bacterial flagella-aided motility are shown to be water-mobilizing systems.
(v) The relevance of murburn concept in genetic and acquired respiratory diseases was pointed out.[Kelath Murali Manoj. What Is the Relevance of Murburn Concept in Thalassemia and Respiratory Diseases? Thalass. Rep. 2023, 13(2), 144–151; https://doi.org/10.3390/thalassrep13020013].
(vi) American Institute of Physics portal publishes two-part review of murburn concept explaining multiple metabolic and physiological routines. These developments support murburn concept as a fundamental principle explaining diverse cellular functionalisms.
References
Enzymes
Catalysis | Murburn concept | [
"Chemistry"
] | 3,813 | [
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59,767,090 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom%20Overture | The Boom Overture is a supersonic airliner under development by Boom Technology, designed to cruise at Mach 1.7 or . It will accommodate 64 to 80 passengers, depending on the configuration, and have a range of . Boom Technology aims to introduce the Overture in 2029. The company projects a market for up to 1,000 supersonic airliners, serving 500 viable routes, with fares comparable to business class. Featuring a delta wing design reminiscent of the Concorde, the Overture will utilize composite materials in its construction. A 2022 redesign specified four dry (non-afterburning) turbofan engines, each producing of thrust.
Market
The company says that five hundred daily routes would be viable: at Mach 1.7 over water, Newark and London would be 3 hours and 30 minutes apart; Newark and Frankfurt would be 4 hours apart. With range, transpacific flights would require a refueling stop: San Francisco and Tokyo would be 6 hours apart. There could be a market for 1,000 supersonic airliners by 2035. Boom targets a $200 million price, not discounted and excluding options and interior, in 2016 dollars. The company claims that operational costs per premium available seat mile will be lower than subsonic wide-body aircraft. The Boom factory will be sized to assemble up to 100 aircraft per year for a 1,000- to 2,000-aircraft potential market over 10 years.
Boom plans to target $5,000 fares for a New York-to-London round-trip, while the same on Concorde cost $20,000 adjusted for inflation; it was its only profitable route. The same fuel burn enables fares similar to subsonic business class among other factors. For long-range routes like San Francisco–Tokyo and Los Angeles–Sydney, 30 lie-flat first-class seats could be proposed alongside 15 business-class seats.
In March 2016, Richard Branson confirmed that Virgin Group held options for 10 aircraft, and Virgin Galactic's subsidiary The Spaceship Company will aid in manufacturing and testing the jet. However, in 2023, Virgin Group announced that its purchase options had expired. An unnamed European carrier also holds options for 15 aircraft; the two deals total 5 billion dollars. At the 2017 Paris Air Show, 51 commitments were added for a backlog of 76 with significant deposits. In December 2017, Japan Airlines was confirmed to have pre-ordered up to 20 jets among the commitments to 76 from five airlines. Boom CEO Blake Scholl thinks 2,000 supersonic jets will connect 500 cities and one-way tickets between London and New York will be priced around £2,000, comparable with existing subsonic business class.
On June 3, 2021, United Airlines announced it had signed an agreement to purchase 15 Overture aircraft with an additional 35 options, expecting to start passenger flights by 2029. On August 16, 2022, American Airlines announced an agreement to purchase 20 Overture aircraft with an additional 40 options.
Order summary
Development
By March 2016, the company had created concept drawings and wooden mockups of parts of the aircraft.
In October 2016, the design was stretched to to seat up to 50 passengers with ten extra seats, its wingspan marginally increased, and a third engine was added to enable ETOPS with up to a 180 minutes diversion time. The plane could seat 55 passengers in a higher-density configuration. In June 2017, its introduction was scheduled for 2023. By July 2018, it was delayed to 2025. At the time, it had undergone over 1,000 simulated wind tunnel tests.
Boom initially targeted a Mach 2.2 cruise speed to fit with transoceanic airline timetables and allow higher utilization, while keeping airport noise to Stage 4, similar to subsonic long-range aircraft. The plane configuration was intended to be locked in late 2019 to early 2020 for a launch with engine selection, supply chain, production site. Development and certification of the airliner and its engine were estimated at $6 billion, requiring Series C investors. Enough money was raised in the B round of fundraising to be able to hit key milestones, including flying the demonstrator (XB-1) to prove the technology, building up an order backlog, finding key suppliers for engines, aerostructures, and avionics, and lay out the certification process, with many special conditions but with precedents.
At the June 2019 Paris Air Show, Boom CEO Blake Scholl announced the introduction of the Overture was delayed from 2023 to the 2025–2027 timeframe, following a two-year test campaign with six aircraft. In September 2020, the company announced it has been contracted by the United States Air Force to develop the Overture for possible use as Air Force One.
On October 7, 2020, Boom publicly unveiled its XB-1 demonstrator, which it planned to fly for the first time in 2021 from Mojave Air and Space Port, California. It expected to begin wind tunnel tests for the Overture in 2021, and start construction of a manufacturing facility in 2022, with the capacity to produce 5 to 10 aircraft monthly. The first Overture would be unveiled in 2025, with the aim of achieving type certification by 2029. Flights should be available in 2030, as estimated by Blake Scholl.
Boom currently targets a slower Mach 1.7 cruise. In January 2022, Boom announced a grant of US$60m from the US Air Force’s AFWERX program to further develop the Boom Overture supersonic airliner. In July 2022, Boom announced a partnership with Northrop Grumman to develop a 'special mission' variant for the U.S. Government and its allies. As of January 2022, the Overture's first flight is planned for 2026 with introduction into service expected in 2029.
On July 19, 2022, Boom unveiled a revised proposal for the production version of the Overture at the Farnborough Airshow. This version has four engines and a tailed delta wing.
On December 13, 2022, Boom announced that it would develop its own turbofan engine after "Big Three" engine manufacturers Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric, as well as CFM and Safran previously declined to develop a new engine due to high capital costs. Named Symphony, the engine will be developed under partnership with three entities: Kratos subsidiary Florida Turbine Technologies for engine design; StandardAero for maintenance; and General Electric subsidiary GE Additive for consulting on printing components.
Design
Boom's original design for Overture was a trijet, which resembled a 75% scale model of Concorde and the XB-1 "Baby Boom" test vehicle was designed and built on this basis, which took its first flight in March 2024. However, in mid-2022, the company announced a radical redesign of Overture into a quadjet, to closely resemble the unsuccessful Boeing B-2707-300 design from the 1970s.
A major change is that the new design features four large external engine pods rather than the two more compact engine 'box' nacelles, used on Concorde. This design has not been seen in high speed aircraft since the Convair B-58 Hustler bomber of the 1960s, due to high supersonic wave drag implications. It also now features a small horizontal stabilizer. Due to the low 1.5 wing aspect ratio, low-speed drag is high, and the aircraft requires high thrust at take-off. Boom also needs to address the nose-up attitude on landing. Airframe maintenance costs are expected to be similar to those of other carbon fiber airliners. The Overture should have lower fuel burn than Concorde by relying on dry (no afterburner) engines, composite structures, and improved technology since Concorde's development, although until Overture flies, Concorde remains the only Mach 2.0 supercruising aircraft in history and carried 30% more passengers than Boom is currently projecting.
In 2017 the FAA and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) were working on a sonic boom standard to allow supersonic flights overland. NASA plans to fly its Low Boom Flight Demonstrator for the first time in 2022 to assess public acceptability of a 75 boom, lower than Concorde's 105 PNLdB. The Overture is expected to not be louder at take-off than current airliners like the Boeing 777-300ER. Supersonic jets could be exempted from the FAA takeoff noise regulations, reducing their fuel consumption by 20–30% by using narrower engines optimized for acceleration over limiting noise. In 2017, Honeywell and NASA tested predictive software and cockpit displays showing the sonic booms en route, to minimize its disruption overland.
Design changes announced in July 2022 included an increase in the number of engines to four to allow for smaller less technically challenging engines and to allow takeoff at derated levels to lower noise, and redesigned gull form wing and fuselage to reduce drag.
Engines
The Boom Symphony is planned as a two-spool medium-bypass turbofan engine for use on Overture. The engine is intended to produce 35,000 pounds (160 kN) of thrust at takeoff, sustain Overture supercruise at Mach 1.7, and burn sustainable aviation fuel as an option.
Boom announced in December 2022 that development of the engine will be conducted in partnership with Kratos subsidiary Florida Turbine Technologies for engine design, GE Aerospace subsidiary GE Additive for additive manufacturing consulting, and StandardAero for maintenance. FTT/KTT is currently a maker of microturbines for drones and cruise missiles.
Boom aims for initial production of the engine to begin in 2024 at the Overture Superfactory at Greensboro, North Carolina.
Environment
Drag increases (and therefore fuel efficiency decreases) with cruising speed, and there is a particularly severe increase in drag around the sound barrier. Boom agrees that the fuel efficiency of the aircraft will be higher than subsonic competition, but states that operators of the aircraft "must use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and/or purchase high-quality carbon removal credits" to reduce the environmental impact. However, sustainable aviation fuel is not yet widely available, with large-scale production relying on technology that does not yet exist, and carbon-offsetting schemes have been widely criticized as being unable to deliver net-zero.
Specifications
See also
References
External links
Supersonic transports
Proposed aircraft of the United States
Quadjets
Overture
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear
Inverted gull-wing aircraft | Boom Overture | [
"Physics"
] | 2,128 | [
"Physical systems",
"Transport",
"Supersonic transports"
] |
59,767,256 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaw%20Institute | The Shaw Institute, formerly the Marine & Environmental Research Institute, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific research organization based in Blue Hill, Maine and New York City. The institute conducts research into ocean pollution, flame retardants, microplastics and plastic pollution, sentinel species and climate change.
Background
The Shaw Institute was established as the Marine & Environmental Research Institute in 1990 by environmental health scientist, marine toxicologist, explorer, and author Susan Shaw. The institute was renamed in 2018 to accommodate the organization's global research profile with emphasis on improving human health and to reflect the 30-legacy of its founder, who is credited as the first scientist to show that brominated flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Background
Founded in 1990 by Susan Shaw (as the Marine & Environmental Research Institute), the Shaw Institute was established to research and expose environmental health threats through innovative science and engage in strategic partnerships to improve human and ecological health. Shaw is globally recognized for pioneering high-impact environmental research on ocean pollution, climate change, oil spills, and plastics that has fueled public policy over three decades. In 1983, with landscape photographer Ansel Adams, she published Overexposure, the first book to document the health hazards of photographic chemicals. Shaw is credited as the first scientist to show that brominated flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. She became the first scientist to dive into the Gulf of Mexico oil slick following the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion to investigate the impacts of chemical dispersants used in response to the spill.
As of 2019, the institute conducts research into ocean pollution, plastics and microplastics, chemical health threats, and climate change in the Gulf of Maine and raises awareness of the toxic legacy of man-made chemicals on human health and marine environments. The institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific research organization funded primarily by grants and charitable contributions.
Milestones
In 1990, Shaw established the Marine & Environmental Research Institute (MERI) and began long-term marine sentinels research on contaminants and endocrine-disrupting effects in marine mammals that became the Institute's central focus over the next two decades. In 2000, the Institute hosted its first international conference: The Atlantic Coast Contaminant Workshop ACCW 2000, Endocrine Disruptors in the Marine Environment: Impacts on Marine Wildlife and Human Health, uniting international wildlife and human health scientists. Shortly thereafter, the Institute launched a coastal monitoring program, a lecture series, and education programs.
In 2000, Shaw Institute began long-term research focused on marine sentinel species to characterize the extent of contamination of the northwest Atlantic marine ecosystem from Maine to New York, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This work has shown that levels of toxic chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), in northwest Atlantic harbor seals are among the highest in the world.
In 2002, the Institute convened the Gulf of Maine Forum: Protecting Our Coastal and Offshore Waters in Blue Hill in conjunction with the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, representing New England states and Canadian provinces. A year later, the Shaw Institute begins its student internships program for scientific research and monitoring. In 2004, the Ocean Environment Lecture Series is launched, attracting international experts in a variety of fields. That same year, the long-term Blue Hill Bay Monitoring Project, the first bay-wide health assessment of its kind, is established to produce a ten-year baseline dataset on conditions and issues of concern. In 2014, the project expands geographically to include Penobscot Bay and targets research on microplastics, invasive species, and seafood contamination.
In 2012, the Institute pioneered microplastics research in Blue Hill Bay, Maine. Alarming findings about the presence of microplastics in coastal waters prompted concern for human health (via seafood consumption).
In 2013, Shaw was lead investigator of a study that tested a group of firefighters in San Francisco and found that their blood contains high levels of flame retardants and cancer-causing chemicals such as dioxins and furans, produced by the burning of flame-retarded household materials. Based on these findings, in 2014, the Institute announced plans for a long-term study of chemical exposure and cancer risk in U.S. firefighters named the National Fire Fighter Cancer Biomarker Study, funded in part by IAFF and IAB.
Starting in 2017, the Institute began a multi-year project and partnership with researchers from Sweden, Greenland and Iceland to assess the converging impacts of climate change and flame retardant chemicals on marine mammals from the US Atlantic, Baltic, and Arctic seas.
Plastics Research
In 2012, Shaw Institute conducted the first microplastics study of its kind in the Gulf of Maine. Using new collection methods, they detected an average of 17 microplastic fragments per liter in local seawater samples. These high results prompted the institute to monitor input sites including stream and river mouths around Blue Hill Bay.
In 2014, the Institute developed a study to measure microplastics in Maine seafood, which identified surprisingly large numbers of microplastic fragments in oysters and mussels. Shaw Institute also conducted analysis of microplastics in tissues of mussels, fish, and marine mammals. These numbers prompted questions about bioaccumulation in human consumers. In 2014, Shaw Institute testified in support of legislation to ban the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products, which passed unanimously.
In 2018, in partnership with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Shaw Institute scientists lead a 2018 study on the uptake and expulsion of microplastic fibers by blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in the Gulf of Maine. In 2019, the Shaw Institute partnered with the international Plastics Health Coalition in order to advance understanding of the damaging effects of microplastics in the human body and to promote plastic reduction on a global scale.
References
External links
Ocean pollution
Environmental research institutes
Hancock County, Maine
Non-profit organizations based in Maine
Organizations established in 1990
1990 establishments in Maine | Shaw Institute | [
"Chemistry",
"Environmental_science"
] | 1,277 | [
"Environmental research",
"Ocean pollution",
"Environmental research institutes",
"Water pollution"
] |
59,767,525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%204061 | NGC 4061 is an elliptical galaxy located 310 light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 27, 1785. It was rediscovered by John Herschel on April 29, 1832. It is listed both as NGC 4061 and NGC 4055. NGC 4061 is a member of the NGC 4065 Group and forms an interacting pair with its companion, NGC 4065 as evidenced by distortions in their optical isophotes.
NGC 4061 is classified as a radio galaxy with a Fanaroff and Riley classification of type I.
Radio Jets
NGC 4061 has two radio jets that appear to be very straight and that dramatically oppose each other. At a distance of from the core the jets appear to suddenly sweep back. This sudden bending of the jets suggest that they are leaving the interstellar medium (ISM) of NGC 4061 and entering into the intracluster medium (ICM). After the sharp bending, the jets continue to open for about and extend into a "U" or horseshoe morphology similar to NGC 1265, with each jet having a length of . This morphology is thought to be due to the motion of NGC 4061 through the ICM with sufficient velocity to bend the jets by ram-pressure stripping.
The interaction with NGC 4065 may have also contributed to bending the jets.
Dust Disk
NGC 4061 has a dust disk with a diameter of .
Supermassive black hole
NGC 4061 has a supermassive black hole with a mass in the range of 1-9 × 109 M☉.
SN 2008bf
On February 18, 2008 a type Ia supernova designated as SN 2008bf was discovered in NGC 4061. However, the Open Supernova Catalog suggests that the host galaxy may be the nearby NGC 4065.
See also
List of NGC objects (4001–5000)
NGC 1272
Notes
1.This was determined by multiplying the given scale length in the paper of 0.55 arcseconds= by 9.1 to get the diameter of the dust disk.
References
External links
4061
038146
07044
Coma Berenices
Astronomical objects discovered in 1785
Elliptical galaxies
Radio galaxies
NGC 4065 Group
Interacting galaxies
Discoveries by William Herschel | NGC 4061 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 458 | [
"Coma Berenices",
"Constellations"
] |
59,768,813 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobecovirus | Nobecovirus is a subgenus of viruses in the genus Betacoronavirus. The viruses in the group were previously known as group 2d coronaviruses.
Structure
The viruses of this subgenus, like other coronaviruses, have a lipid bilayer envelope in which the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.
See also
Embecovirus (group 2a)
Sarbecovirus (group 2b)
Merbecovirus (group 2c)
References
Betacoronaviruses
Virus subgenera | Nobecovirus | [
"Biology"
] | 114 | [
"Virus stubs",
"Viruses"
] |
59,769,338 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet%20L.%20Smith | Janet Louise Smith (born 1951) is the Margaret J. Hunter Collegiate Professor in the Life Sciences Institute, director of the Center for Structural Biology at the University of Michigan, professor of biological chemistry and biophysics at the University of Michigan, and research professor in the Life Sciences Institute. Additionally, she is the scientific director of The General Medical Sciences and Cancer Institutes’ structural biology facility at the Advanced Photon Source (GM/CA @ APS).
Biography
Smith is native of Pennsylvania and studied chemistry as a National Merit Scholar at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (BS, 1973). She continued her study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D., 1978) in structure in biology under Dr. M. Sundaralingam supervision. she continued to do her postdoctoral work with Wayne Hendrickson at the Naval Research Laboratory as a National Research Council Research Fellow.
Research
Smith's research group focus on the understanding of proteins to the molecular level through structural biology. The main experimental technique employed in her lab is X-ray crystallography used to elucidate protein structures. Some of her research findings solved Crystal structures. Janet's lab has also worked towards method development for rapid structure determination. Her lab contributed to the development of multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) used routinely for structure determination.
Her research group have revealed the molecular structure of a protein produced by the Zika virus that is thought to be involved in the virus's reproduction and its interaction with a host's immune system.
Award and Honors
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007)
National Institutes of Health MERIT award recipient (1998–2008)
Mildred Cohn Award in Biological Chemistry (2022)
References
External links
Lab Website
Solved Crystal Structures
1951 births
University of Michigan faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
21st-century scientists
American women biochemists
Living people
Biologists from Pennsylvania
American crystallographers
Structural biologists | Janet L. Smith | [
"Chemistry"
] | 391 | [
"Structural biologists",
"Structural biology"
] |
64,698,218 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic%20waste | Inorganic waste is a type of waste that does not contain organic compounds. This waste is generally very difficult to decompose by microorganisms. Glass, aluminum cans, dust, and metal are some examples of inorganic waste. Inorganic waste remains free from decay, with more than 500 years needed being common for effective decomposition, therefore disposal can be challenging. Reducing consumption, reusing, and recycling are possible solutions for coping with this type of waste.
References
Waste | Inorganic waste | [
"Physics"
] | 94 | [
"Materials",
"Waste",
"Matter"
] |
64,701,801 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaural | Transaural Stereo is a technology suite of analog circuits and digital signal processing algorithms related to the field of sound playback for audio communication and entertainment. It is based on the concept of crosstalk cancellation but in some versions can embody other processes such as binaural synthesis and equalization.
The technology was developed in the 1970's by Duane H. Cooper and Jerald L. Bauck.
Description
The central concept behind transaural stereo is that there are two loudspeakers and a single listener (two ears). The left-channel signal should only reach the left ear and the right-channel signal should only reach the right ear, each with appropriate timbral corrections.
To effect this, a circuit or computer algorithm is devised. It is based on the knowledge of the four frequency-dependent transfer functions, the so-called ipsilateral and contralateral paths.:
L-to-L
L-to-R
R-to-L
R-to-R
These four functions are examples of head-related transfer functions (HRTF).
A more general theory allows arbitrary numbers of loudspeakers and ears (listeners). The inputs to the process are sometimes recorded binaural signals from a recording mannequin ("dummy head") but this is not a requirement. Virtual loudspeakers can be formed by combining crosstalk cancellation with binaural image synthesis so that, for example, narrowly-spaced loudspeakers can be made to sound farther apart or a five-channel surround sound system can be made with only two actual loudspeakers, a virtual home theater.
History
transaural stereo was developed by Duane H. Cooper and Jerald L. Bauck. An early version was published as a Master's thesis at the University of Illinois in 1978 and later in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. The work was continued in the mid-1980s as an improvement on and practical implementation of the early work in comparative auditoria studies in the 1960s of Schroeder and Atal which was reported as obtaining unstable images under slight head movements.
Cooper and Bauck, using methods to stabilize images and reduce the filter count, made an analog crosstalk canceller, a two-speaker spreader, and an eight-position binaural image synthesizer which doubled as a binaural pan pot in 1987–1989 using biquadratic analog filters in shuffler configurations. Later implementations used highly efficient digital biquadratic filters.
The distributed source concept with both discrete and continuous source distributions was created in March 1997 and later refined and the refinement named Optimal Source Distribution.
References
External links
Transaural Stereo
Stereophonic sound
Music technology | Transaural | [
"Engineering"
] | 549 | [
"Audio engineering",
"Stereophonic sound"
] |
64,702,232 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia%20Collier%20Harris | Julia Collier Harris (November 11, 1875January 21, 1967) was an American writer and journalist. She wrote the earliest biography of Joel Chandler Harris, her husband's father. As owners and publishers of the Columbus Enquirer Sun she and her husband won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She has been inducted into three Georgia halls of fame: Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame, Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and Georgia Women of Achievement.
Early life
Julia Florida Collier was born in Atlanta on November 11, 1875, to Susan Rawson Collier and Charles A. Collier, once Atlanta's mayor. She graduated from Washington Seminary and then attended a finishing school. She studied art at Cowles Art School in Boston and planned to pursue it as a career. The death of her mother in March 1897 forced her to abandon her art career plans and return home to care for her five younger brothers and sisters. Her father died in 1900 under what she considered suspicious circumstances and left her legal guardianship of her brothers and sisters.
She married Julian LaRose Harris on October 26, 1897, in Atlanta. The son of Joel Chandler Harris, Julian was a journalist who had started with The Atlanta Constitution at age sixteen and later became their youngest managing editor. The couple had two sons, each of whom died in childhood in 1903 and 1904.
Career
She began her own journalism career in 1911 at The Atlanta Constitution as well, writing on literary topics, the arts and club news. She was also state editor for the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs.
Around this time her husband Julian was business manager for his father's Uncle Remus Magazine, but his father died in 1908, and the magazine folded in 1913. The couple moved to New York City, where Julian wrote for the New York Herald and Julia wrote for their Herald Syndicate under the pseudonym Constance Bine. She wrote a series of features for the Herald from Paris, and as a result she was one of only two women who were present at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. She wrote for the syndicate from 1916 to 1920.
While she was writing for Herald, she worked on two books. Her first was a translation of Romanian folk tales.. Her second was the first biography of Joel Chandler Harris, and that 1918 book remains a primary resource for scholars of his work. She was also later instrumental in establishing a collection of his papers at Emory University's Robert W. Woodruff Library.
In 1920 the couple moved back to Georgia and pooled their money to purchase an interest in (and later, full ownership of) the Columbus newspaper Enquirer-Sun. The newspaper broke ground by identifying politicians who were secretly members of the Ku Klux Klan and by publishing news of the black community.
Harris wrote a series of articles that helped defeat anti-evolution bills in the Georgia General Assembly in 1924 and 1925. She identified herself as a theistic evolutionist. Other topics she editorialized included campaigns against convict leasing and lynching. Between 1922 and 1929 she wrote hundreds of editorials for the paper, many of which were reprinted in other newspapers.
As a result of this work, the Columbus Enquirer-Sun won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. It was the first Pulitzer Prize to be awarded to people from Georgia. Julian accepted the honor for his wife and said of her, "She is not only vice president of the Enquirer Sun Company, but a fearless associate editor, unyielding in the face of injustice of any kind, and a constant inspiration."
Harris, her husband, and Mildred Seydell were the only journalists from Georgia who reported in person from the Scopes Trial in 1925. Harris' husband covered the daily progress of the trial, while she wrote in-depth pieces and editorials that explained evolution. Her husband said that "Julia is the better writer."
Their outspoken editorials made them many enemies in Columbus, which caused advertising revenue to plummet. This forced them to sell the newspaper in 1929.
Her husband returned to The Atlanta Constitution, and she worked on her third book, a collection of her father-in-law's essays. In 1935 her husband became the executive editor of the Chattanooga Times, and she wrote features, editorials, book reviews. and a weekly column for that paper.
Poor health and bouts of depression forced her to retire in 1938, but she continued to mentor young journalists until her death. In 1942 the Harrises returned to Atlanta, where Julian was a correspondent for The New York Times until he retired in 1945.
Outside of her career, Harris was active in the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching and the League of Women Voters. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, in which she held several offices.
Death and legacy
She spent her later years in a nursing home, where she continued to write. She died in 1967 and was buried in the Rawson family vault at Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery.
She has been posthumously inducted into three different Georgia halls of fame. In 1996 she was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame. In 1998 she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement. In 2019 she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Her papers are held at Smith College, and her husband's papers are held at Emory University.
Books
References
External links
1875 births
1967 deaths
Writers from Atlanta
American newspaper publishers (people)
Journalists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Theistic evolutionists
The Westminster Schools alumni
20th-century American women writers
Science activists | Julia Collier Harris | [
"Biology"
] | 1,130 | [
"Non-Darwinian evolution",
"Theistic evolutionists",
"Biology theories"
] |
64,703,455 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater%20construction | Underwater construction is industrial construction in an underwater environment. It is a part of the marine construction industry. It can involve the use of a variety of building materials, mainly concrete and steel. There is often, but not necessarily, a significant component of commercial diving involved. Some underwater work can be done by divers, but they are limited by depth and site conditions, and it is hazardous work, with expensive risk reduction and mitigation, and a limited range of suitable equipment. Remotely operated underwater vehicles are an alternative for some classes of work, but are also limited and expensive. When reasonably practicable, the bulk of the work is done out of the water, with underwater work restricted to installation, modification and repair, and inspection.
Scope and applications
Underwater construction is common in the civil engineering, coastal engineering, energy, and petroleum extraction industries.
Civil engineering
Construction below the water table is mostly managed by using cofferdams or pressurised caissons to exclude water sufficiently to work above the local water level within the enclosure, though it may also be possible to keep the water level down by pumping it out as fast as it seeps in, thereby artificially lowering the water table at the worksite.
Dams, reservoirs, canals, locks
Bridges and causeways over bodies of water often require foundation structure below water level. Usually this is done using coffer dams and caissons, which themselves may involve underwater work.
Coastal engineering
Coastal engineering is a branch of civil engineering concerned with the specific demands posed by constructing at or near the coast, as well as the development of the coast itself.
Harbours, docks, breakwaters, jetties, piers, wharfs and similar structures are all immediately adjacent to, or project into coastal waters, and are supported in part by seabed.
Stormwater and sewer outfalls require pipelines to be laid underwater.
Dykes, levees, navigation channels, canals, locks.
Energy infrastructure
Inshore and offshore wind farms
Tidal power and wave power generation
Hydroelectric plant
Power station cooling system intakes and outfalls
Offshore petroleum extraction
Marine wellhead completions
Offshore moorings
Submarine pipelines
Relevant technology
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.
Coastal engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with construction at or near the coast, and the development of the coast itself.
Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering relating to the form and shape of structures, and the stability, strength, rigidity and response to external loads of built structures.
Underwater concrete placement, by Tremie, skip, Pumped concrete, toggle bags, bagwork, usually to build foundations or coastal structures, and grouted aggregate.
Underwater rock blasting, or dredging of softer sediments, to clear an area of a navigational hazard, to excavate a canal or basin, or to prepare for foundations.
Piling, including piles driven to serve directly as the support member, and sheet piles, which may be used as formwork for cast concrete, or for constructing cofferdams, to allow the enclosed area to be dewatered.
Caissons and cofferdams may be used to allow unimmersed work below the surface level of the water. In closed caissons the internal pressure may be raised to keep water out. Occupants need to use an airlock for access, and may require decompression stops when exiting.
Underwater demolition, for removal of damaged structure in repair work, or to prepare an area for new construction.
Underwater surveying: site surveys and geological surveys
Underwater inspection of underwater structures, installations, and sites is a common diving activity, applicable to planning, installation, and maintenance phases, but the required skills are often specific to the application. Much use is made of video and still photographic evidence, and live video to allow direction of the inspection work by the supervisor and topside specialists. Inspections may also involve surface preparation, often by cleaning, and non-destructive testing. Tactile inspection may be appropriate where visibility is poor. Inspection can also be done using remotely controlled underwater vehicles.
Underwater cutting and welding, may be necessary, though in most cases it can be avoided in new construction.
Commercial diving, is used when necessary or when it is an economical alternative, when work must be done by a human operator at an underwater worksite.
Hyperbaric work may be appropriate in a pressurised caisson.
Hyperbaric welding, when necessary in new construction, may be done in a dry habitat designed to provide a dry enclosure at ambient pressure around the area to be welded.
Corrosion protection may be necessary for exposed metal structural components.
Materials
The most commonly used materials in marine construction are concrete and steel.
Occupational safety and health issues
Underwater work by divers on construction sites is generally within the scope of Diving regulations. The work may also come within the scope of other occupational heath and safety related regulations.
Organisations
Civilian
Military
US Navy Underwater Construction Teams
See also
References
Construction
Underwater work | Underwater construction | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,038 | [
"Construction"
] |
64,704,194 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology%20of%20fear | The ecology of fear is a conceptual framework describing the psychological impact that predator-induced stress experienced by animals has on populations and ecosystems. Within ecology, the impact of predators has been traditionally viewed as limited to the animals that they directly kill, while the ecology of fear advances evidence that predators may have a far more substantial impact on the individuals that they predate, reducing fecundity, survival and population sizes. To avoid being killed, animals that are preyed upon will employ anti-predator defenses which aid survival but may carry substantial costs.
History
The concept was coined in the 1999 paper "The Ecology of Fear: Optimal Foraging, Game Theory, and Trophic Interactions", which argued that "a predator [...] depletes a food patch [...] by frightening prey rather than by actually killing prey."
In the 2000s, the ecology of fear gained attention after researchers identified an impact of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone on the regrowth of aspen and willows because of a substantial reduction in the numbers of elk in the park through killing. Some studies also indicated that the wolves affected the grazing intensity and patterns of the elk because they felt less secure when feeding. Critics have put forward alternative explanations for the regrowth, other than the wolf reintroduction.
The consideration of wolves as a charismatic species and the fame of Yellowstone led to widespread media attention of the concept, including a mention in The New York Times and a fold-out illustration of the impact of wolves on Yellowstone in the March 2010 edition of the National Geographic. There has also been a popular YouTube video How Wolves Change Rivers, which has been described as a vast overstatement by some scientists.
A 2010 study found that sharks, like wolves, may have the capacity to create an ecology of fear in the ecosystems which they inhabit. In 2012, a study indicated that the ecology of fear may also be applicable to parasites, with evidence suggesting that animals abandon feeding both because of predator and parasite avoidance.
Some critics of the concept argue that the "cognitive and emotional aspects of avoiding predation remain unknown" and that this is true for "virtually all studies of 'the ecology of fear'".
Analogous research has been applied to host-parasite and host-pathogen interactions based on the ecology of fear. This research is alternatively called the "ecology of disgust".
Landscape of fear
The landscape of fear is a model based on the ecology of fear, which asserts that the behaviour of animals that are preyed upon is shaped by psychological maps of their geographical surroundings which accounts for the risk of predation in certain areas.
Relationship to post-traumatic stress disorder
A 2011 paper described how exposure to predators as life-threatening psychological stressors is used in animal models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); these models are also used to emulate the experience of PTSD in humans and the authors suggested a collaboration between ecologists and neuroscientists to study the "neurological effects of predator-induced fear and stress in animals in the wild."
In 2019, a study identified lasting effects on behavior and PTSD-like changes in the brains of wild animals caused by fear-inducing interactions with predators.
Human impact
Studies have found that the fear of humans can have substantial impacts on animal behaviour, including on top predators such as pumas. Humans may also create an ecology of fear by reintroducing predators into areas where they no longer live; the moral philosopher Oscar Horta argues against such reintroductions, asserting that they conflict with the well-being and interests of the animals already living in the environment.
See also
References
Further reading
Animal ecology
Animal welfare
Ecology terminology
Ethology
Landscape ecology
Predation
Wild animal suffering | Ecology of fear | [
"Biology"
] | 750 | [
"Behavioural sciences",
"Ethology",
"Behavior",
"Ecology terminology"
] |
64,704,315 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohuslav%20Divi%C5%A1 | Bohuslav Diviš (December 20, 1942 – July 26, 1976) was a Czech mathematician, who worked in the field of number theory.
Biography
Bohuslav Diviš was born on December 20, 1942, in Prague. He won the Czechoslovak and International Mathematical Olympiad in 1959 and then studied mathematics at Charles University in Prague (as a student of Vojtěch Jarník). He wrote his thesis in 1966 and his doctorate in 1969 with a thesis on "superlattice points in multidimensional ellipsoids" at the Heidelberg University under Peter Roquette.
In 1970 Diviš became Assistant Professor at Ohio State University (USA), and after 1973 an Associate Professor. He authored about 20 scientific articles.
On July 26, 1976, during a conference visit to Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, he died of heart failure at the age of 33.
Literature
B. Diviš: On the sums of continued fractions, Acta Arithmetica 22, 157–173, 1973
ders.: Lattice point theory of irrational ellipsoids with an arbitrary center, Monatsh. Math. 83, 279–307, 1977
ders.: Ω-estimates in lattice point theory, Acta Arithmetica 35, 247–258, 1979
F. Fricker: Einführung in die Gitterpunktlehre, Birkhäuser, 1982
References
1942 births
1976 deaths
Mathematicians from Prague
Number theorists
Charles University alumni | Bohuslav Diviš | [
"Mathematics"
] | 296 | [
"Number theorists",
"Number theory"
] |
64,705,468 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications%20of%20sensitivity%20analysis%20to%20environmental%20sciences | Sensitivity analysis studies the relationship between the output of a model and its input variables or assumptions. Historically, the need for a role of sensitivity analysis in modelling, and many applications of sensitivity analysis have originated from environmental science and ecology.
Early works
Hydrology and water quality are two modelling fields where sensitivity analysis was applied quite early. Relevant examples are the work of Bruce Beck,
George M. Hornberger, Keith Beven and Robert C. Spear.
Other applications
More recent applications encompass snow avalanche models, land depletion, marine biogeochemical modelling, irrigation and again hydrological modelling.
Methods
Several methods related sensitivity analysis have been developed in the context of environmental applications, such as Data Based Mechanistic Model due to Peter Young and VARS due to S. Razavi and H. V.Gupta.
Prevalence across disciplines
In a 2019 work on the take-up of sensitivity analysis in different disciplines, among 19 different subject areas, environmental sciences were found to have the highest number of papers, which become even higher if the papers in earth sciences are included.
Journals
Reference journals for applications of sensitivity analysis in environmental science are Environmental Modelling & Software, Water Resources Research, Water Research, Ecological indicators and others.
Checklists
Sensitivity analysis is part of recent checklists or guidelines for environmental modelling.
Forthcoming special issues
A Special Issue on Sensitivity analysis for environmental modelling in preparation.
References
Mathematical modeling | Applications of sensitivity analysis to environmental sciences | [
"Mathematics"
] | 278 | [
"Applied mathematics",
"Mathematical modeling"
] |
64,705,483 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAAL1 | Serum amyloid A-like 1 (also known as SAAL1, Synoviocyte proliferation-associated in collagen-induced arthritis 1, and SPACIA1) is a protein in humans encoded by the SAAL1 gene.
Gene
Locus
The human SAAL1 gene is located at position 11p15.1 on the minus strand spanning from base pairs 18080292-18106082 (25,790 bases). It has 12 exons and 11 introns and encodes a single isoform.
Members of the serum amyloid-A family such as SAA1 reside in the same loci as SAAL1.
Promoter
The promoter region (GXP_169676) is predicted to span from basepairs 18105980-18107207 and extends into the first exon of SAAL1. Predicted transcription factors include TATA binding factors, NF-κB, and KLF4, KLF5, and KLF6.
Expression
SAAL1 is ubiquitously expressed at moderate levels across all human tissues with highest expression in testes as determined by RNA-sequencing and microarray expression profiling.
Transcript
Predicted 5' UTR binding proteins of the human SAAL1 transcript include SRSF3 and FXR2. Predicted 3' UTR binding proteins include SRSF5 and U2AF2. All predicted proteins are involved in mRNA splicing, export, and translation.
Protein structure
General properties
The SAAL1 protein has a single known isoform consisting of 474 amino acids with a molecular weight of 53.5 kDa. The unmodified SAAL1 protein is acidic with an isoelectric point of 4.4.
Composition
SAAL1 is abundant in aspartic acid (7.8% by composition) and deficient in glycine (3.4% by composition)compared to other human proteins. It also has 44 more aspartic acid and glutamic acid residues compared to lysine and arginine, indicating an overall negative charge. Two negatively charged and glutamic acid abundant segments were identified and labeled in the SAAL1 conceptual translation.
Domains and motifs
SAAL1 contains an armadillo-like fold with an enveloped fungal symportin-1 like region. Other motifs were predicted by ELM and MyHits Motif Scan.
Sub-cellular localization
Immunofluorescent staining has identified SAAL1 localization in the nucleus of Caco-2 cells. However, western blotting of hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines identified SAAL1 localization in the cytoplasm with minor amounts in the cell membrane and nucleus.
Post-translational modifications
SAAL1 undergoes phosphorylation at two experimentally verified sites: Ser6 and Thr387. Predicted post-translational modifications are detailed in the following table.
Clinical significance
SAAL1 overexpression has been correlated with the proliferation of rheumatoid and osteoarthritic synovial fibroblasts as well as disease progression. RNAi knockouts of SAAL1 reduced arrested fibroblasts in G0/G1 phase and reduced proliferation by 20% with a 50% reduction when fibroblasts were stimulated by TNF-α. Stability assays reveal that SAAL1 promotes G1/S transition via CDK6 mRNA stabilization. This finding was corroborated by SAAL1 knockdowns in hepatocellular carcinomas which also demonstrated impaired HGF-induced migration and increased sensitivity to sorafenib and foretinib treatment. Additionally, SAAL1 is overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma cells and in chondrocytes stimulated by interleukin-1 beta, but this effect is diminished in the presence of glucosamine.
Studies of the rock bream SAAL1 ortholog noted an increase in gene expression in response to bacterial and viral pathogens. Human SAAL1 has been reported to interact with the M protein of SARS-Cov-2, Orf4 of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, and the M and M2 proteins of influenza A. It has also been reported as an interferon stimulator and TRIM25 interactor. Other interacting proteins include PNKD (which plays a role in cardiac hypertrophy via NF-κB signaling), TMIGD3(which inhibits NF-κB activity), and MARK3.
Evolution
Homology
BLAST searches have found homologs for SAAL1 in organisms as distant as plants, though few orthologs were found for fungi. The following table provides a sample of the ortholog space. Vertebrate orthologs share >50% identity with human protein SAAL1 while displayed invertebrates and non-metazoan orthologs have 30% or less identity.
SAAL1 exists in up to four isoforms in other vertebrates. Across these orthologs, it is the only member of its gene family.
A multiple sequence alignment of the vertebrate homologs demonstrated high conservation of the protein, especially in the armadillo-type fold and fungal symportin-1 like motif. An alignment of invertebrate and non-metazoan orthologs indicates drastic changes in the protein's primary structure, but some conservation in the labeled motifs. Highly similar amino acids were colored red and less similar amino acids were colored blue; "*" denotes conservation and "." denotes similarity.
Phylogeny
The date of divergence from the human ortholog was compared to the corrected % divergence for SAAL1 orthologs. Compared against data for cytochrome c and fibrinogen alpha proteins in similar orthologs, SAAL1 evolved at a moderate rate.
References
Proteins | SAAL1 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,226 | [
"Biomolecules by chemical classification",
"Proteins",
"Molecular biology"
] |
64,708,352 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zdravko%20Krivokapi%C4%87 | Zdravko Krivokapić (Serbo-Croat Cyrillic: Здравко Кривокапић; born 2 September 1958) is a Montenegrin professor and former politician who served as Prime Minister of Montenegro from 2020 to 2022.
In addition to his professorship at the Universities of Montenegro and East Sarajevo, he is one of the founders of the non-governmental organization called "We won't give up Montenegro", which was founded by Montenegrin professors and intellectuals in support of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro after a controversial religion law targeted the legal status and the property of the Church. In August 2020, he was chosen as the ballot representative for the For the Future of Montenegro list which placed second in the 2020 parliamentary election. Together with Aleksa Bečić and Dritan Abazović, he agreed to form a technocratic government and in December 2020 he and his cabinet were sworn into office. Krivokapić, who headed a right-wing populist list in the election, later affiliated himself with the centrist Democratic Montenegro of the President of the Parliament Aleksa Bečić, and he himself has been ideologically described as a moderate Christian democrat.
Krivokapić was ousted in a motion of no confidence on 4 February 2022, although he continued serving in acting capacity until 28 April 2022, when he was succeeded by Dritan Abazović.
Early life and academic career
Krivokapić was born to Serbian Orthodox parents Drago and Ikonija, in 1958 in Nikšić, which at the time was a part of the SR Montenegro, FPR Yugoslavia. He joined the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1976. He graduated in 1981 from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, in the Department of Production Engineering at the University of Montenegro. He enrolled in postgraduate studies in 1983 in the field of Production Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade. He defended his master's thesis called "Planning and Management of Spare Parts Stocks" in 1989.
He received his doctorate in 1993 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Podgorica. The topic of the dissertation was called "Contribution to the automatic design of the technological process of cutting by means of an expert system".
After completing his internship at the "Boris Kidrič" steel manufacturing company in Nikšić in 1982, he was elected an assistant trainee at the Department of Production Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Podgorica in 1983. He was elected assistant professor 1994. He was elected associate professor at the University of Montenegro in 1999 and became a full professor in 2004, when he was elected in the subjects of Informatics and Quality Management System.
He is the president of the organizing and member of the program committee of the SQM Conference and the ICQME International Conference. He is the editor of the International Journal for Quality Research, indexed in the SCOPUS database, which has been published since 2007. He is a member of the program board of four journals and thirteen international conferences. He is a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and Head of the Center for Doctoral Studies at the University of Montenegro. As part of his scientific research, he has published more than 250 papers in international journals, domestic journals, international conferences and domestic conferences. He is the author of 16 books and textbooks.
Teaching profession
In 2011, six years before Montenegro joined NATO, Krivokapić was hired by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Government of Montenegro for education on the procedures for introducing a quality system and ways to implement standards related to the NATO quality management system.
He also has taught information technology at the Theological Seminary in Cetinje since 1998.
Political career
Entering politics
Krivokapić was part of 2019 anti-corruption protests and 2020 religion law protests. He decided to enter political life of Montenegro in mid-2020, at the height of the political crisis in Montenegro, and the open conflict between the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro and the DPS-led Montenegrin government, following the adoption of the disputed law on the status of religious communities in Montenegro, supporting 20192020 clerical protests and Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) rights in Montenegro. He was elected the first president of the SPC-backed "We won't give up Montenegro" (Ne damo Crnu Goru) NGO founded by Montenegrin professors and intellectuals in support of the SPC. In a short period of time, the organization organized public events in which Bishop of Budimlja and Nikšić Joanikije (Mićović) and the Rector of the Theological Seminary in Cetinje, Gojko Perović participated, among others.
On 1 August 2020 right-wing Democratic Front, Popular Movement and Socialist People's Party agreed to form a pre-election opposition alliance under the name For the Future of Montenegro (Za budućnost Crne Gore), as did some of right-wing non-parliamentary subjects. Krivokapić headed the joint electoral list for the parliamentary election in August 2020. The same day, Krivokapić resigned as executive director of the NGO, as he would head the opposition list. Krivokapić said that the primary goals of the coalition in case they form the government will be the protection of human rights as well as ensuring freedom of speech, freedom of media, freedom of thought, and the freedom of religion. Krivokapić said that the person who influenced him the most to enter politics was a Montenegrin businessman Miodrag "Daka" Davidović, de facto leader of the Popular Movement, who survived an assassination attempt in December 2019 in Belgrade.
On 24 July 2020 after an opposition rally, criminal charges were filed against Krivokapić and five Eastern Orthodox priests due to the "existence of a well-founded suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of non-compliance with health regulations for the suppression of a dangerous infectious disease."
Zdravko Krivokapić also sent letters to foreign ambassadors in Montenegro and In his address to the ambassadors, he said that the coalition wanted to draw the ambassadors' attention to a case of drastic human rights violations, "which we believe could be a worrying introduction to the upcoming abuse of Interior Ministry members to escalate the political crisis and intimidate the population ahead of the upcoming elections." He has been rated as the most popular political leader ahead of the 30 August 2020 parliamentary and local elections in Montenegro.
2020 elections
The 2020 elections had the highest voter turnout ever recorded in Montenegro at 75.90%. Shortly after the polls were closed, before the final results were published, Krivokapić announced the coalition's victory stating that "freedom has happened in Montenegro". In his speech he also stated that there won't be revanchism and he also offered ethnic minority parties to enter the new government. The coalition won 32.55% of the popular vote which equals 27 seats in the parliament. This is the first time that the ruling coalition lost the majority in the parliament. He said that Montenegro cannot and won't be under influence of Serbia or Russia, but that his government will establish better diplomatic relations with both countries, also naming accession of Montenegro to the European Union, as the main priority of the new ruling coalition. Krivokapić and the leaders of the coalitions Peace is Our Nation and Black on White, Aleksa Bečić and Dritan Abazović, agreed during meeting on several principles on which the future government will rest, including the formation of an expert government, continuing to work on the European Union accession process, fight against corruption, overcoming society polarization and economic crisis, as well as amending and revising discriminatory laws and bylaws, including the controversial Freedom of Religion Law. He said that the new government in Montenegro would help make the lives of Serbs in Kosovo dignified and preserve monasteries there.
Massive celebrations were held all over Montenegro the day after the elections. In Podgorica, opposition supporters clashed with the ruling DPS supporters. Condemning ethnic hatred and unrest, for which he accuses the DPS-led government, Krivokapić said that no one in Montenegro should be endangered, especially national minorities, which he called "our relatives and neighbors". Krivokapić also called on supporters to stay at home, as well as demanding to authorities to investigate incidents and prosecute delinquents and perpetrators of the unrest, as soon as possible. He also welcomed minority parties of Bosniaks and Albanians of Montenegro, and wished to form government with them. On 2 September, glass was broken on the door of the Islamic Community of Pljevlja and a threatening message was left. Krivokapić condemned the incidents and also expressed suspicion that it was done by the outgoing DPS-led regime. He also protested with the Serbian Orthodox Church priests in front of the Husein-paša's Mosque, with the message that they are ready to defend the places of worship of all religious communities. Krivokapić stated that it is not his priority to have an official position in the new government, but that, as Prime Minister, he would like to visit Germany first, which he perceives as the most influential country in the EU. However, one day later, he said that he won't be the Prime Minister designate. Krivokapić stated that he would not go through the streets of Podgorica in a Mercedes and with numerous security guards. He said that Serbia and Montenegro are the two closest countries, geographically, culturally and historically, and their relations must be normalized, and that that is the wish of the vast majority of Montenegrin citizens but that the de-recognition of Kosovo is not going to be a priority for the new government.
On 9 September 2020, Krivokapić along with the leaders of the coalitions Peace is Our Nation and Black on White, Aleksa Bečić and Dritan Abazović signed an agreement pledging that the new government would not launch any initiatives or procedures aimed at changing the national flag, coat of arms and anthem and the de-recognition of Kosovo. The agreement also states that the new democratic government in Montenegro will responsibly implement all international obligations undertaken by the state, strengthen and improve cooperation with NATO and quickly, fully and committedly implement all reforms necessary for Montenegro's full membership in the EU. Krivokapic said that the new government is preparing for the worst-case scenario when it comes to the economy. The same day, he also stated that he is worried because no other countries in the region congratulated him. In response to the allegations that his coalition has close ties to the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, he said that he never even met Vučić. In an interview to Die Welt, Krivokapić said that when he was in West Germany in 1988, he saw Helmut Kohl being followed by only one bodyguard car and that he was chatting with gathered people and that this was his first meeting with democracy; explaining that this is exactly the kind of head of government he wants to be like: "someone who can be talked to and criticized".
On 11 September, Krivokapić honored 9/11 victims and stated that the new government will reaffirm its commitment to fighting terrorism and combating all forms of extremism with its allies. Serbian pro-government tabloids have unanimously criticized the coalition agreement between three new parliamentary majority lists, for agreeing not to discuss changing national symbols of Montenegro, the de-recognition of Kosovo, or the country's withdrawal from the NATO, during the new government term, calling Krivokapić "Amfilohije's Prime Minister"
Responding to this criticism, he said in an interview to the Sarajevo-based Face TV that he is aware that Aleksandar Vučić and Milo Đukanović are in a much closer connection than him and someone closest to him and that the pro-government tabloids in Serbia are attacking him because Montenegrin president Đukanović and Serbian president Vučić are still in good relations, which Vučić has denied, urging Krivokapić to either publish evidence of his business relations with Đukanović or admit he lied. Krivokapić also stated that it is scandalous that Vučić did not visit Montenegro for 8 years he has been in power. On 22 September 2020, a meeting was held in Ostrog Monastery between the opposition representatives, Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop Joanikije. According to Vijesti news, Dritan Abazović proposed Krivokapic as prime minister, however, the leaders of the Democratic Front, Andrija Mandić and Milan Knežević stated that Krivokapić no longer has the full support within the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, mostly because of his critical attitude towards Vučić and his regime in Serbia, and that they cannot support him as the designate until they question the trust in him at the party meeting.
Prime minister
On 23 September, all 41 deputies of the three coalitions of the new majority in parliament officially supported Zdravko Krivokapić as the prime minister-designate, as well as electing Aleksa Bečić new President of the Parliament. On 30 September, Krivokapić started initial talks with representatives of the parties of the three coalitions, which formed the parliamentary majority in Montenegro about forming the new government. On 8 October, Krivokapić formally became the Prime Minister-designate after the President Đukanović has given him a mandate to form the new government.
On 24 October, Krivokapic denied the populist Democratic Front allegations, that any party in the winning coalition is excluded from the government formation process, but that insisting on individuals from those parties was not in the interest of citizens or the country, continuing to insist on forming an expert government, without compromised figures of new majority in it, the media later reported that they were the leaders of the Democratic Front alliance, Andrija Mandić, Milan Knežević and Nebojša Medojević. All three have repeatedly conditioned their parties' support for the new cabinet, during October, if they were not part of the new government. Mandić explicitly asked Krivokapić to "return the mandate and that they would look for a new designate". Medojević even accused Krivokapić that the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Montenegrin-Serbian businessman Daka Davidović, but also the United States and United Kingdom Embassies in Podgorica and Montenegrin media publishers Miodrag Perović ("Monitor") and Željko Ivanović ("Vijesti"), have the greatest influence on him, as PM designate, and the composition of his cabinet.
Speaking to the media on 29 October about the composition of Montenegro's future government, Krivokapić openly stated that it would have a "lower level of reputation" if it included political leaders of the Democratic Front. "It would be a government that would not be wholeheartedly accepted by the relevant international institutions," he said, accusing party leaders of not thinking about the interests of the people, as well as prolonging the formation of the government for their personal and party interests. Krivokapić also said that the decades-long opposition had failed to win the election because the DPS-led regime knew those people very well. After the interview, Democratic Front leaders accused Krivokapic of making a deal with Milo Đukanović and the DPS, Mandić also claimed that Krivokapić had been appointed leader of the electoral list after "pressure and conditioning of electoral support" by "parts of the Serbian Orthodox Church", adding that the entire financing of the election campaign was provided by the Democratic Front, and that "those (Church) who demanded that Krivokapić lead the common list did not give a single cent for the campaign", accusing parts of the church and Krivokapić of "acting on someone's orders from abroad". After a series of accusations by the leaders of the Democratic Front, Krivokapić scheduled a meeting with all parties in the new parliamentary majority for 30 October, in order to overcome misunderstandings and dilemmas regarding the formation of a new government. The meeting eventually confirmed the support of all parties of the new majority for Krivokapić's concept of an expert government, in which part will not be a party leaders.
On 1 November Zdravko Krivokapić was, along with Serbian Patriarch Irinej, Bishop of Budimlja and Nikšić Joanikije Mićović and Serbian poet and academic, Matija Bećković, one of those who gave a speech in front of the gathered and mourning believers at the funeral of his spiritual father and close friend, longtime Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije Radović, in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica. Krivokapić pointed out that Amfilohije once again gathered them all together, calling the gathering of people from all over Montenegro "the crown of all prayer gatherings (litijas)", referring to the recent mass prayer gatherings (litije), which were organized during 2019 and 2020, as a protest against the controversial religion law, and which was led by Amfilohije. In his speech, Krivokapić also recalled the evening when he met with Amfilohije on the night after the 30 August elections, which ended the believers struggle for withdraw the discriminatory law, which targeted the church. On that occasion, the Metropolitan told him "we are so blessed" in a cordial embrace. He said that every meeting with Amfilohije was a great joy and learning, reminding that Amfilohije testified to sincerity and truth, and that is why his words resound loudly and are heard far away. In his speech, Krivokapić also referred to Amfilohije's role in re-establishing the faith and restoring holy places in Montenegro since the fall of communism in 1990, "Although you resurrected Montenegro, you experienced suffering and persecution, by your own people", he said.
Krivokapić previously publicly asked the outgoing Cabinet of Duško Marković to declare a day of mourning on the occasion of the death of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, which the government refused to do, while several municipalities declared a day of mourning at the local level; Andrijevica, Budva, Berane, Kotor, Herceg Novi, Tivat and Plužine.
On 5 November 2020, Krivokapić announced the composition of his cabinet, in which the number of ministers in the cabinet will be reduced to 12 due to the rationalization of the state administration, which is 8 less than in the previous cabinet, which is why some departments were merged and some abolished. Krivokapić said that the model was modeled on the Netherlands and Finland, as examples of good practice, and that basically rationalization should offer an answer to the challenges facing Montenegro, and that the future cabinet will be based on four key areas that are currently most important for Montenegro, namely; the rule of law, finance, education and health. However, shortly after Krivokapić's nomination, some leaders from the coalition parties expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision of Krivokapić. According to the final agreement of the supporting parties, the new government will be limited to one year, with the main goals; the fight against corruption and the depoliticization of public institutions after 30 years of DPS rule, as well as the reform of electoral laws, due to the preparation of an atmosphere for holding a new, "first fairly organized" elections in Montenegro.
Some parties that were part of the former regime, including DPS, LP and SD, accused Prime Minister-designate Krivokapić of selecting "exclusively Orthodox Serbs" to the new government, while at the same time, some members of the new majority (Democratic Front alliance parliamentary group) claimed that "authentic Serb representatives in Montenegro" are not even part of the new cabinet. Both sides (the DPS and DF) were united in criticizing the alleged impact of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (of the Serbian Orthodox Church) on the formation of Krivokapic's cabinet.
On 13 November 2020, Krivokapić stated that hundreds of millions of euros were being funneled out of Montenegro into the neighboring Republic of Serbia by the outgoing Milo Đukanović DPS regime, and that the money is mostly ending up in accounts in Belgrade where they are buying villas and apartments on the luxury Belgrade Waterfront.
The parliamentary vote on the new cabinet was originally planned for 14 November, but was postponed to 24 November, by consensus of the leaders of all parties in the parliament, due to several cases of COVID-19. The session was eventually postponed again to 2 December, following subsequent insistence by several parties of the outgoing regime, which then stated that the controversial Podgorica Assembly was also held between 24 and 28 November (back then in 1918), saying the dates were "unacceptable and offensive to Montenegro", once again accusing Krivokapić and his team of allegedly activity "against the sovereignty and statehood of Montenegro". After the new postponement of the session, the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Aleksa Bečić, reminded public that the disputed date of the session was determined by consensus of all parties, both the government and the opposition, just a day before the DPS regime initiative for new postponement. Bečić also added that between 24 and 28 November (2016), the parliament also voted for the previous government cabinet, which was led by the DPS.
Bečić and Krivokapić both accused the DPS-led outgoing regime of deceiving the citizens again and as well of undermining interethnic conflicts, in order to delay a democratic regime change in the country.
On 4 December 2020, the new government was elected by 41 out of 81 members of the Parliament of Montenegro, and Krivokapić formally became the Prime Minister of Montenegro. The parliament of Montenegro approved a new big tent cabinet, formally ending three decades of the DPS regime in the country. Prime Minister Krivokapić vowed to dismantle a state apparatus built by the DPS, and root out corruption and organised crime, as well as insisting on the establishment of ethical norms and transparency of executive and judicial authorities in the country, calling for unity, reconciliation, and solidarity.
On 15 and 16 December 2020, PM Krivokapić, together with the Minister of Defense Olivera Injac, the Minister of Economy Jakov Milatović and the Chief Negotiator with the EU, paid the first official visit to European and Euro-Atlantic institutions since taking office of PM. On the first day of his visit to Brussels, he met with the President of the European Council Charles Michel, EU Special Representative for the Western Balkans Miroslav Lajcak, and the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg. On the second day of his visit, PM Krivokapić met with the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, and the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo.
On 28 January 2021, Krivokapić walked through Cetinje, talked with citizens, with some Montenegrin nationalist activists yelling and insulting him and other government members calling them "Chetniks", "human garbage" and "traitors of Montenegro". Commenting on the incident at the press conference, Krivokapić said that a similar experience was experienced by former German Chancellor Kohl, when he was in Karlsruhe in 1987. "Kohl just smiled. I didn't smile, I tried to communicate with those people", said Krivokapić, also calling for dialogue and reducing polarization in Montenegrin society. The same day Krivokapić encouraged citizens of Nikšić to freely take bribe money from the DPS and then vote for someone else at the 2021 local elections, giving public support to all parties that support his government, against the DPS, and after this statement, the prosecutors have launched an investigation against him accusing him of "inciting corruption".
On 5 April 2021, Krivokapić announced that he sent a proposal for the removal of the Minister of Justice Vladimir Leposavić due to his controversial comments on the Srebrenica massacre to the Parliament of Montenegro, following the condemnation of Leposavić's comments by the US and British embassies. On the same day, protests were held in multiple cities by Montenegrin Serbs against Leposavić's removal.
However, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic's government was toppled in no-confidence vote after only 14 months in power.
Controversies and allegations
Alleged Serbian nationalism
On 21 September 2020, Radio Antena M internet portal published a video from the mid-1990s that has been circulating on Internet and in which Krivokapić is seen at a celebration along with Nikola Kavaja, a Serbian nationalist and anti-communist, known for his terrorist activities, as well as along the current Serbian ambassador to Montenegro Vladimir Božović and other known Serbian nationalist and Montenegrin Serb figures. Krivokapić appears in one short part of the recording, seen under the canvas, on which, among other, was a picture of Radovan Karadžić, President of Republika Srpska, who was later convicted of war crimes and genocide in Bosnia by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2016. Few days after the revelation of footage, Krivokapić told the media that he accidentally found himself at the disputed gathering in or around 1996, and that he was not an active participant of it, or advocate of nationalist politics of the 1990s, also stating that as a pacifist he condemns all kinds of terrorism and ideological extremism. He emphasized that it was the only place he entered and eventually decided that he would never enter it again expressing concern over the increased hate speech and derogatory labels by some media in Montenegro and neighboring countries.
He raised a controversy again on 13 October 2020, when in an interview he said that when it comes to relations with neighboring Serbia, the best position is that of King Nicholas I, who said that there are "two kings living in two Serb states (Kingdom of Montenegro and Kingdom of Serbia)", back then in 1910, when Montenegro was proclaimed a Kingdom.
During October 2020, another pro-DPS media published a recording of Krivokapić, that caused new controversy, in which Krivokapić is seen kissing a flag of Serbian Orthodox Church (red-blue-white tricolor with the Serbian cross), recorded during the August 2020 protests against the controversial law on religious communities, causing outrage in the Montenegrin nationalist circles and pro-DPS media, which presented it to the public as "kissing the flag of Serbia".
Alleged Church influence
Krivokapić's very close relationship with the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, as well as with its primate Amfilohije Radović, has often led to speculation, controversy and name-calling from Montenegrin nationalist and pro-DPS circles and the media. The controversy in some media culminated after the publication of the video from the election night of 30 August 2020, which shows Krivokapić's very emotional greeting in the Podgorica Cathedral with Metropolitan Amfilohije, with whom he celebrated the electoral victory of his list, and thus the withdrawal of the controversial law on religion. Krivokapić has been accused by some media and political parties, which trying to challenge his list victory at parliamentary election, of being under the influence of the church, even of being a "puppet" of anti-Montenegrin policy, and that his selection as prime minister would jeopardize national security, independence and the secular order of the state. Krivokapić dismissed all the accusations as nonsense, saying that the "question of his attitude as a believer towards a church dignitary, such as Metropolitan Amfilohije" opened a box that many want to present as the influence of the Metropolitan on his political decisions, condemning the media spin of the outgoing regime, also stating the reactions are overemphasized and unnecessary. "I felt it as my need, as a believer, i consider it as an obligation to come to see the Metropolitan, at his call. I expressed joy of moment and did not share it with anyone as with our Metropolitan", Krivokapić said in an interview for Sarajevo-based Face TV in September 2020.
After the fall of the Democratic Party of Socialists populist regime from the position of power after 30 years, in the aftermath of the 2020 parliamentary election, Montenegrin nationalists (the Patriotic Association of Montenegro, among others) organized mass rallies in Cetinje and in the capital Podgorica, in support of the outgoing DPS regime, the participants and organizers of the rally accused Krivokapić and Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro of allegedly working against Montenegrin national interests, calling them a "threat to country independence and statehood." The rally was also marked by inappropriate messages to Krivokapić, who was labeled as "traitor", "Chetnik scoundrel" and the "hand-kisser", accusing him of allegedly being a "puppet of the alleged Serbian Orthodox Church's Greater Serbia policy". Gatherings participants's nationalist rhetoric and hate speech has been condemned by numerous media outlets, Montenegrin public figures, artists, university professors, academic and student associations, human rights activists and NGOs.
The influence of the Church on Krivokapić was also criticized by the populist and pro-Serbian Democratic Front, whose list he led at the parliamentary election. Since a political split with Krivokapić, after he questioned their competence to participate in his cabinet, in October 2020 the DF leaders began to publicly criticize the alleged influence of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral on Krivokapić, as well as on the new government formation. Andrija Mandić claimed that Krivokapić had been appointed leader of the electoral list after "pressure and conditioning of electoral support" by "parts of the Serbian Orthodox Church", accusing parts of the church and Krivokapić of "acting on someone's orders from abroad", while Nebojša Medojević stated that Bishop Joanikije Mićović and priest Gojko Perović set the terms of the church's support and threatened to withdraw Krivokapić from the electoral list, a few days before handing over the electoral lists for 2020 parliamentary election, which Perović categorically denied.
On 1 January 2021, Krivokapić said that the late Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović was the most influential person in Montenegro since Petar II Petrović-Njegoš.
COVID-19 and communion
On 31 October 2020, a religious service at the Cetinje Monastery was held for the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije Radović who died a day earlier. Krivokapić attended the service and was filmed receiving communion with the same spoon as the believers before him violating the COVID-19 safety measures.
On the same day, the outgoing Democratic Party of Socialists regime announced the accusation of Krivokapić not to act as a representative of all citizens, but as a "propagandist of the interests of one religious community", as well as for "irresponsible behavior" during "events that could be risky for citizens' health". As they said, "it is worrying that the prime minister-designate, as an active participant in these events, does not recognize the moment that with his examples and public appeal, he influences the citizens' awareness of the dangers of such behavior".
On 13 November 2020, Krivokapić made a controversial statement regarding a communion when he said that "if you have faith, you don't have any problems, you won't get infected through communion". "It is the right of every believer to profess his religion in the manner prescribed by the religious community to which he belongs," Krivokapić said, also urging citizens to respect the government regulations that apply due to the coronavirus pandemic. Krivokapić also stated that corruption within the Montenegro's health system has contributed to the increase in fatalities during a pandemic much more than the maintaining of religious rites caused that, "We need to help health system of the country, which is one of the weakest in Europe due to the corruption of the DPS-led regime. Therefore, one of the priorities of the future government will be the modernization of the health sector", stated Krivokapić on his official Twitter account on 14 November.
On 13 November 2020, Krivokapić announced that he allegedly beat COVID-19 without even knowing that he had it.
Victory Day statement
Krivokapić assessed that "Montenegro should no longer celebrate May 9 Victory Day over fascism, but 23 September", when the new convocation of the Parliament was constituted, in which the opposition coalition has gained parliamentary majority, noting historical significance of "the first democratic regime change in history of Montenegro", after the August 2020 parliamentary election. Many saw this statement as him belittling the anti-fascist movement in Montenegro.
Personal life
With his wife Jasminka, Krivokapić has five children (2 daughters and 3 sons) and three grandchildren. Three children have a master's degree, and the eldest daughter has a doctorate. Of the two youngest sons, one is a student and the other a high school student. The Rector of the Theological Seminary in Cetinje, Gojko Perović called Krivokapić a humble man, and a Christian in the best sense of the word. He also added that Krivokapić was donating money that was paid to him every month for transporting the poorest students at the seminary. Krivokapić said that he is a Montenegrin but that he knows his roots, declaring himself as a Montenegrin-Serb. He has also stated that ethnic Serbs in Montenegro are not related to the territory of present-day Serbia by their ancestry, but represent the autochthonous people of Montenegro. He refers to Montenegrin Serbs and ethnic Montenegrins as one in the same people, often pointing out that the divisions between the two Montenegrin peoples have been imposed and highly politicized during recent historical circumstances. By ancestry, he is a member of the Cuce clan of Old Montenegro. Krivokapić voted against the independence of Montenegro at the 2006 referendum, by voting to remain in a state union with Serbia.
References
External links
Zdravko Krivokapić, Krivokapić's official Twitter account
Krivokapic, Zdravko
Living people
Montenegrin politicians
Academic staff of the University of Montenegro
People from Nikšić
Cuce
Serbs of Montenegro
Members of the Serbian Orthodox Church
University of Montenegro alumni
University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering alumni
Mechanical engineers
Prime ministers of Montenegro | Zdravko Krivokapić | [
"Engineering"
] | 7,262 | [
"Mechanical engineers",
"Mechanical engineering"
] |
64,713,671 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed%20linear%20operator | In functional analysis, a branch of mathematics, a closed linear operator or often a closed operator is a linear operator whose graph is closed (see closed graph property). It is a basic example of an unbounded operator.
The closed graph theorem says a linear operator between Banach spaces is a closed operator if and only if it is a bounded operator. Hence, a closed linear operator that is used in practice is typically only defined on a dense subspace of a Banach space.
Definition
It is common in functional analysis to consider partial functions, which are functions defined on a subset of some space
A partial function is declared with the notation which indicates that has prototype (that is, its domain is and its codomain is )
Every partial function is, in particular, a function and so all terminology for functions can be applied to them. For instance, the graph of a partial function is the set
However, one exception to this is the definition of "closed graph". A function is said to have a closed graph if is a closed subset of in the product topology; importantly, note that the product space is and as it was defined above for ordinary functions. In contrast, when is considered as an ordinary function (rather than as the partial function ), then "having a closed graph" would instead mean that is a closed subset of If is a closed subset of then it is also a closed subset of although the converse is not guaranteed in general.
Definition: If and are topological vector spaces (TVSs) then we call a linear map a closed linear operator if its graph is closed in .
Closable maps and closures
A linear operator is in if there exists a containing and a function (resp. multifunction) whose graph is equal to the closure of the set in Such an is called a closure of in , is denoted by and necessarily extends
If is a closable linear operator then a or an of is a subset such that the closure in of the graph of the restriction of to is equal to the closure of the graph of in (i.e. the closure of in is equal to the closure of in ).
Examples
A bounded operator is a closed operator. Here are examples of closed operators that are not bounded.
If is a Hausdorff TVS and is a vector topology on that is strictly finer than then the identity map a closed discontinuous linear operator.
Consider the derivative operator where is the Banach space of all continuous functions on an interval
If one takes its domain to be then is a closed operator, which is not bounded.
On the other hand, if is the space of smooth functions scalar valued functions then will no longer be closed, but it will be closable, with the closure being its extension defined on
Basic properties
The following properties are easily checked for a linear operator between Banach spaces:
If is closed then is closed where is a scalar and is the identity function;
If is closed, then its kernel (or nullspace) is a closed vector subspace of ;
If is closed and injective then its inverse is also closed;
A linear operator admits a closure if and only if for every and every pair of sequences and in both converging to in , such that both and converge in , one has .
References
Linear operators | Closed linear operator | [
"Mathematics"
] | 666 | [
"Mathematical objects",
"Functions and mappings",
"Mathematical relations",
"Linear operators"
] |
64,715,583 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%20J.%20Robson | Arthur J. Robson is a New Zealand economist whose research interests include game theory and the biological evolution of economic behaviour. In the period between 2003 and 2017, Robson held a Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution at Simon Fraser University, where he has been a University Professor since 2017.
Education
Robson graduated with a Bachelor of Science (honors) in pure and applied mathematics from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1968. Subsequently, he obtained a Ph.D. degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974, where he also took courses in pure mathematics. His doctoral thesis’ title was “Congestion, Pollution and Urban Structure” and his supervisor was Robert M. Solow.
Research
Robson's recent research has focused on the biological basis of economics and neuroeconomics. In particular, Robson has worked extensively on the study of the evolution of preferences. As a result of his work, Robson is ranked third by contributions on the field of evolutionary economics according to a RePEc ranking. Furthermore, among economic researchers in general, he is ranked fifth in Canada and 270th in the world according to another RePEc ranking. As of August 2020, Robson had published 72 papers altogether, with 14 of those in top economic journals such as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy and the Journal of Economic Literature.
Academic positions
Robson held a long-term position at the University of Western Ontario from 1975 to 2005. During this period he also held visiting appointments at several universities including the University of Mannheim from 1985 to 1986 and the University of Michigan in 1989. Later, in 2003, Robson started his current tenure as professor at Simon Fraser University. Since then, Robson also held other visiting appointments in universities such as Johns Hopkins University in 2006.
Awards and honors
Robson is a distinguished fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists as well as a fellow of the Canadian Economics Association, the Game Theory Society, the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, the Royal Society of Canada and the Econometric Society. Furthermore, Robson was a recipient of multiple awards such as the John Rae Prize, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and a Canada Council for the Arts Killam Research Fellowship.
References
External links
Arthur J. Robson's Personal Webpage
Academic staff of Simon Fraser University
New Zealand economists
Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Canadian people of New Zealand descent
Royal Society of Canada
Econometric Society
Canada Council for the Arts
Game theorists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people | Arthur J. Robson | [
"Mathematics"
] | 504 | [
"Game theorists",
"Game theory"
] |
64,715,639 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion%20Duel | The Legion Duel, known as the Legion Pro in China, is an Android gaming smartphone manufactured by Lenovo as the first Legion-branded phone, unveiled on 22 July 2020.
References
Mobile phones introduced in 2020
Android (operating system) devices
Lenovo smartphones
Lenovo Legion
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Mobile phones with 4K video recording | Legion Duel | [
"Technology"
] | 69 | [
"Mobile technology stubs",
"Mobile phone stubs"
] |
64,716,386 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial%20flux%20motor | An axial flux motor (axial gap motor, or pancake motor) is a geometry of electric motor construction where the gap between the rotor and stator, and therefore the direction of magnetic flux between the two, is aligned parallel with the axis of rotation, rather than radially as with the concentric cylindrical geometry of the more common radial flux motor. With axial flux geometry torque increases with the cube of the rotor diameter, whereas in a radial flux the increase is only quadratic. Axial flux motors have a larger magnetic surface and overall surface area (for cooling) than radial flux motors for a given volume.
Characteristics
A motor can be built upon any flat structure, such as a PCB, by adding coils and a bearing.
The coil winding process and the process of joining the coil and core may be simpler.
Since the coils are flat, rectangular copper strips can more easily be used, simplifying high-current windings.
It is often possible to make the rotor significantly lighter.
Potentially shorter magnetic path length.
Most structural components are flat and can be produced without specialised casting or tooling.
Since the magnetic path through the windings is straight, grain-oriented electrical steel can be easily used, offering higher permeability and lower core losses.
The rotor is typically much wider, causing increased rotational inertia, and the higher centrifugal forces can reduce the maximum rotational speed.
Uneven flux distribution due to wedge-shaped segments.
The segments narrow towards the centre, leaving less room to arrange windings and connections.
Design
AFMs can use single or dual rotors or single or dual stators. The dual stator/single rotor design is more common in high power applications, although it requires a yoke (housing) with accompanying iron losses. Single stator/dual rotor designs can dispense with the yoke, saving its weight and increasing efficiency. In the latter, the rotors and their iron plates that close the flux move in the same direction/speed as the magnetic field.
In one example, grain-oriented (30Q120) steel was used to make the stator tooth for an induction motor. It used 18 teeth between the two rotors. Each stator tooth was wound with coils connected in series, 6 for each phase. The magnetic potential adds the air gap magnetic potential, stator tooth magnetic potential and rotor yoke and tooth magnetic potential.
Some AFMs can be easily stacked to provide higher power output in modular fashion. YASA's 37 kg stackable 750R motor delivers 800Nm and >5kW/kg with an axial length of .
Uses
Although this geometry has been used since the first electromagnetic motors were developed, its usage was rare until the widespread availability of strong permanent magnets and the development of brushless DC motors, which could better exploit this geometry's advantages.
Axial geometry can be applied to almost any operating principle (e.g. brushed DC, induction, stepper, reluctance) that can be used in a radial motor. Even within the same electrical operating principle, different application and design considerations can make one geometry more suitable than the other. Axial geometries allow some magnetic topologies that would not be practical in a radial geometry. Axial motors are typically shorter and wider than an equivalent radial motor.
Axial motors have been commonly used for low-power applications, especially in tightly integrated electronics since the motor can be built directly upon a printed circuit board (PCB), and can use PCB traces as the stator windings. High-power, brushless axial motors are more recent, but are beginning to see usage in some electric vehicles. One of the longest produced axial motors is the brushed DC Lynch motor, where the rotor is almost entirely composed of flat copper strips with small iron cores inserted, allowing power-dense operation.
Automotive
Mercedes-Benz subsidiary YASA (Yokeless and Segmented Armature) makes AFMs that have powered various concept (Jaguar C-X75), prototype, and racing vehicles. It was also used in the Koenigsegg Regera, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale and S96GTB, Lamborghini Revuelto hybrid and the Lola-Drayson. The company is investigating the potential for placing motors inside wheels, given that AFM's low mass does not excessively increase a vehicle's unsprung mass. YASA is targeting motors that deliver 220 kW in a 7 kg package, or 31 kW/kg. By contrast, the state of the art EV motor from Lucid Motors offers a 500 kW, 31.4-kg motor, or 16 kW/kg.
Aviation
The Rolls-Royce ACCEL, holder of the current world speed record for an electric aircraft, uses three axial flux motors.
YASA makes AFMs for the 3-motor Rolls Royce Spirit of Innovation. Their target is aircraft motors that deliver 50 kW/kg, to allow for the substantial weight reductions needed to enable electric-powered flight.
General Purpose
Emrax makes a line of axial flux motors: the Emrax 228 (power density 4.58 kw/kg), Emrax 268 (5.02 kw/kg), and Emrax 348 (4.87 kw/kg).
Siemens offers a 5kw/kg motor.
References
External links
Electric motors | Axial flux motor | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 1,084 | [
"Electrical engineering",
"Engines",
"Electric motors"
] |
64,718,071 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project%20Magnet%20%28USN%29 | Project Magnet was a major geomagnetic survey effort from 1951 through 1994. The project originated in the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, renamed the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), supporting world magnetic modeling and charting. The project used aircraft flying magnetic surveys worldwide. Additional magnetic data were collected with geophysical survey ships in conjunction with other projects for combination into final products. Data was used to support navigation of ships and aircraft and to meet Naval requirements as well as scientific research.
The project aircraft were operated by several special Navy flight organizations but for most of the project's span by Oceanographic Development Squadron Eight (VXN-8) based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Civilian scientists from the Oceanographic Office were assigned to the missions for data collection. A variety of specially modified aircraft capable of long flights were used. The aircraft were notable for the international orange and white livery and the authorized use of cartoon characters, Roadrunner being one and the last used, on their fuselages. The missions required use of civilian facilities, often in remote areas, where no military ones were available thus drawing attention in places where naval aircraft were not ordinarily seen. The missions, structured to last two months, were flown all over the world.
History
The Hydrographic Office, later the Naval Oceanographic Office, was responsible for publishing charts defining components the world magnetic field. After the non-magnetic vessel Carnegie blew up in 1909 collection of oceanic magnetic field information capability was lost. By 1951 those charts were so inadequate that Project Magnet was required to collect oceanic magnetic data.
Project Magnet began in 1951 with a budget addition at the Hydrographic Office for airborne geomagnetic surveys to gather data supporting charting the Earth's magnetic field using a Naval Ordnance Laboratory Type 2 Vector Airborne Magnetometer, capable of measuring intensity and direction of the field, and a P2V Neptune. The aircraft, named Pineapple Special, was assigned to the Airborne Early Warning Training Unit, predecessor of Oceanographic Development Squadron Eight (VXN-8), and underwent experimentation and modifications to eliminate local magnetic fields that would effect data collection. Those included modifying the aircraft electrical systems, replacing parts with nonmagnetic materials and adding compensators. By spring of 1953 the system was proven to be able to collect vector geomagnetic data and began operations that included intensity, dip and variation data for Project Magnet. With proven success the Hydrographic office and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which also had magnetic survey responsibility over U.S. territory, arranged for the approval of the member states of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) of the project with provision that magnetic variation charts be published at five year intervals (Epochs) by the Hydrographic Office.
The introduction of the proton precession magnetometer enabled supplemental data collection from steel-hulled ships, making the extreme measures used for Carnegie unnecessary. The magnetic information was used for safe surface and air navigation, special Navy requirements and general scientific research. Magnetic Variation Charts were published on a five-year schedule by the Naval Oceanographic Office and later by the Defense Mapping Agency, now the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Data also was published in tabular form and in reports detailing specific aspects and areas. The project ended in 1994 with data now available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
Surveys
Project Magnet in strict terms were the airborne surveys conducted by the specially equipped aircraft. Those surveys, responding to specific magnetic data collection requirements, were supplemented by surveys conducted by ships collecting magnetic data in conjunction with other projects. Designated, detailed magnetic surveys of specific areas were conducted by both the aircraft and the ships. Coincidental with stopovers the survey party undertook land gravity observations after provision of land gravity meters for project aircraft between October 1962 and March 1963. Eighty-one stations had been added to the establishment of the First Order World Gravity Network by the end of fiscal year 1963. During the 1967 fiscal year 110 stations in sixteen countries were established. The First Order World Gravity Network was established by use of absolute gravimeters as primary reference stations.
For most of the project's existence aircraft were operated by VXN-8 based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland with civilian experts from the Naval Oceanographic Office were assigned to the missions for data collection. The original aircraft, assigned in 1951, was a P2V Neptune but the aircraft's narrow cabin made work difficult so that a larger, aircraft a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, designated NC-54R, replaced it. The final aircraft was a specially built Lockheed P-3 Orion variant designated RP-3D. Three RP-3D aircraft were eventually flown by VXN-8 but each was mission specific. The other two were assigned to the oceanographic projects Project Birdseye and Outpost Seascan.
In 1953 operational surveys began over the North Atlantic with the P2V which was retired the next year with it being replaced by the larger NC-54R. The change in aircraft would cause loss of a year's air operations so a Lockheed Super Constellation variant designated NC121K was acquired for mapping the southern hemisphere. An indication of the globe spanning scope of flights is contained in an 11 November 1959 Department of Defense press release regarding the flight of the NC121K leaving the Naval Air Station Anacosta with a Hydrographic Office geophysical team for Mexico City, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Luanda, Mauritius, Singapore, Guam, Midway Island and San Francisco due to return to NAS Anacosta about 11 December.
The early aeromagnetic surveys included a search for the north magnetic pole on 2 September 1960 by the project's P2V which flew triangular search patterns at . On 23 October 1960 the aircraft flew the same triangular patterns at in a search for the south magnetic pole. Not all surveys were over the ocean or at such altitude. Two aircraft, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster, NC-54R (Bureau number 90396), and the NC121K (Bureau number 145925), flew five mile line spacing at in a swath across the eastern United States east of 103 degrees longitude in a crustal study between August 1962 and June 1964. The same aircraft continued the swath west into the Pacific Ocean during flights from August 1962 to February 1965. The altitude was over land but decreased to over the Coastal Range and Pacific Ocean. The NC-54R flew the United States Coastal Region Survey between 27 May 1964 and 30 October 1960 covering between Maine and Florida at spacing with cross tracks at altitudes of over ocean, over land north of the Potomac River and over land south of the Potomac River.
Specific, localized surveys were also conducted on occasion. In January 1961 a survey of Plantagenet Bank was flown by an NC-54R covering the feature with east–west lines at altitude. The survey produced "Contour charts of total magnetic intensity, inclination, declination, anomalous X, Y, and Z components of the earth's field" over the area. The bank, just off Bermuda, was of particular interest at the time to the Navy's Project Artemis in which an initial installation of a horizontal and a vertical string of hydrophones were installed during 1961. A unique opportunity came on 14 November 1963 when the volcanic island of Surtsey emerged off Iceland when a project aircraft was in the area to fly a survey of the emerging island at altitude. During July 1966 the dormant island was resurveyed revealing a magnetic anomaly not evident in the original survey.
By the late 1980s the RP-3D Project Magnet aircraft, specially built using nonmagnetic materials aft of the main cabin door, was named Roadrunner and had the distinctive squadron livery of international orange and white. For the long flights extra fuel was carried in a sixth tank in what was normally the bomb bay. Crews had been assigned for the full two month missions but eventually, for safety, were assigned for six week cycles and are relieved by a fresh crew at the end of their cycle. A crew was composed of three pilots, two flight engineers, two flight officers (an ocean project navigator and an ocean project coordinator), two enlisted utility crew, an ordinanceman, a radar operator, a radio operator and four civilian scientists. Aircraft maintenance was done by the crew as the aircraft had to operate far from VP or even military bases during the two month missions. Most missions were flown at night when the magnetic field is most stable.
On 21 September 1993 VXN-8 was disestablished with the Project Magnet and Project Birdseye aircraft being transferred to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Flight Support Detachment that was also located at NAS Patuxent River. The project came to an end the next year.
Products
Navigation charts published by both military and civilian agencies responsible for nautical chart publication in the United States had information on magnetic variation, the difference between true and magnetic north. A standard feature was the compass rose with true north in an outer circle and magnetic north in an inner circle with annual change noted so that navigators could make a correction until a new chart or compass rose update was made. Special world charts were published with isometric lines for magnetic variation (isogonic chart) and magnetic dip (isoclinic chart).
In addition to the published charts project data supported special Navy applications and the surveys were often covered by unclassified technical papers. An important example of scientific use is the aeromagnetic survey of the Reykjanes Ridge flown at with to line spacing between October and November 1963 resulted in the 1965 Hydrographic Office Informal Report H-3-65, "An Airborne Geomagnetic Survey of the Reykjanes Ridge, 1963." That survey and report were the basis for a paper in Deep Sea Research in 1966 titled "Magnetic Anomalies Over the Reykjanes Ridge" by J. R. Heirtzler, X. Le Pichon, and J. G. Baron. That paper is cited as the basis of "an iconic color image of the classic Project Magnet aeromagnetic stripes correlated with the magnetic reversal time scale" important in defining seafloor spreading and basis for a figure used by Frederick Vine in his work.
Other magnetic surveys
Ship surveys were not specifically part of Project Magnet but magnetic data collection was routine during missions for other projects after ship magnetometers became available. Those data, also collected under the Naval Oceanographic Office's Magnetics Division, were integrated with project data. Data in transit provided profile information while survey area grids provided contour information. In an unusual example from 20 November 1961 to 13 March 1962 in the North Atlantic the three large geophysical survey ships , and collected in a simultaneous track keeping spacing between ships by radar and using Loran-C and other precise navigational aids. A more typical, single ship operation, is seen in Southwest Pacific survey by in which of data was collected in an irregular pattern between 18 May 1963 and 1 November 1965.
See also
Earth's magnetic field
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
External links
Project Magnet Track Location Chart (Fiscal year 1969 Annual Report of the Commander)
An Evaluation of the 1965.0 Epoch, H.O. 1706 World Magnetic Variation Chart (Evaluation of the five year product of all magnetic data)
C-121/EC-121
P-3 "Road Runner"
P-3 Orion Visitors
VXN-8 — The World is Their Backyard
Military projects of the United States
Geophysical survey
Anti-submarine warfare | Project Magnet (USN) | [
"Engineering"
] | 2,349 | [
"Military projects of the United States",
"Military projects"
] |
64,718,308 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric%20D%27Hoker | Eric D’Hoker (born 18 October 1956 in Belgium) is a Belgian-American theoretical physicist.
Biography
D’Hoker studied from 1974 to 1975 at Paris 13 University in Orsay, from 1975 to 1976 at the Lycée Condorcet, and from 1976 to 1978 at the École Polytechnique. In 1978 he became a graduate student in physics at Princeton University, where in 1981 he received his Ph.D. with future Nobel Laureate David Gross as his advisor. As a postdoc, D'Hoker worked from 1981 to 1984 at the Center for Theoretical Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked an assistant professor from 1984 to 1986 at Columbia University and from 1986 to 1988 at Princeton University. In 1988, D'Hoker became an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was appointed a full professor in 1990 and a distinguished professor in 2009.
From the 1980s onwards, he collaborated extensively with mathematician Duong H. Phong on the geometry underlying superstring perturbation theory, among other topics in the mathematics of supersymmetry and superstring theory. Another topic of D'Hoker's research is integrable systems.
In 1997, D'Hoker spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has held visiting positions at several academic institutions, including the University of California, Santa Barbara, Kyoto University, and CERN. From 1998 to 2001, he served as President of the Aspen Center for Physics. In 2005, he was elected fellow of the American Physical Society for his "contributions to Quantum Field Theory and String Theory, including string perturbation theory, supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and AdS-CFT correspondence".
In 1996 he married Jody Enders. In 2004 he became a U.S. citizen.
Selected publications
with Phong: Multiloop amplitudes for the bosonic Polyakov string, Nucl. Phys. B, vol. 269, 1986, pp. 205–234
with Phong: Loop amplitudes for the fermionic string, Nucl. Phys. B, vol. 278, 1986, pp. 225–241
with Phong: On determinants of Laplacians on Riemann surfaces, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 104, 1986, pp. 537–545
with Phong: The geometry of string perturbation theory, Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 60, 1988, pp. 917–1065
with Phong: Seiberg-Witten theory and integrable Systems, Lectures delivered at Edinburgh and Kyoto, Arxiv 1999
with Phong: Lectures on supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and integrable systems, in: Yvan Saint-Aubin, Luc Vinet (eds.): Theoretical physics at the end of the twentieth century, CRM Summer School, Banff, Springer 2002, pp. 1–125
with Phong: Two-loop superstrings.: I. Main formulas, Phys. Lett. B, vol. 529, 2002, pp. 241–255
with Phong: Lectures on two loop superstrings, Hangzhou, Peking 2002, Arxiv
References
External links
Belgian physicists
20th-century American physicists
21st-century American physicists
American string theorists
Princeton University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
1956 births
Living people
People associated with CERN
Theoretical physicists
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Aspen Center for Physics people | Eric D'Hoker | [
"Physics"
] | 716 | [
"Theoretical physics",
"Theoretical physicists"
] |
70,577,980 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycocalicium%20enterographicola | Mycocalicium enterographicola is a species of lichenicolous fungus in the family Mycocaliciaceae. It is found in Brazil.
Taxonomy
The lichen was formally described as a new species in 2015 by André Aptroot and Marcela Eugenia da Silva Cáceres. The type specimen was collected by the authors from the Mata da Fazenda Cafuz (Pedrinhas, Sergipe); here, in Atlantic Rainforest biome, the lichen was growing parasitically on Enterographa cf. quassiaecola, which were themselves growing on tree trunks. It is the first lichen parasite in the genus Mycocalicium; other species in the genus are saprobic, usually growing on decaying wood.
Description
Mycocalicium enterographicola makes tiny green, turbinate (top-shaped) apothecia (measuring about 0.1 mm in diameter) that rest a top a short stalk and are covered with pruina. Asci are cylindrical, contain eight spores, and have dimensions of 30–35 by 3.0–3.5 μm. Its ascospores are dark grey, ellipsoid in shape, and measure 7.0–8.0 by 2.0–2.5 μm. The stalk and the head of the apothecium both contain pulvinic acid, a lichen product.
References
Eurotiomycetes
Fungi described in 2015
Fungi of Brazil
Lichenicolous fungi
Taxa named by André Aptroot
Taxa named by Marcela Cáceres
Fungus species | Mycocalicium enterographicola | [
"Biology"
] | 331 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
70,578,382 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavipin | Flavipin is a phototoxic, antibiotic and antifungal metabolite with the molecular formula C9H8O5 which is produced by the fungi Aspergillus flavipes, Epicoccum nigrum and Epicoccum andropogonis. Flavipin is also a potent antioxidant.
References
Further reading
Antibiotics
Benzaldehydes
Phenols
Alkyl-substituted benzenes | Flavipin | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 92 | [
"Biotechnology products",
"Organic compounds",
"Antibiotics",
"Biocides",
"Organic compound stubs",
"Organic chemistry stubs"
] |
70,579,006 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chulli | Chulli is an alcoholic drink produced in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is a sweet and fruity alcoholic drink made from apples and apricots. It is also known as Ghanti or Kinnauri Ghanti. It is smooth and a very mild drink and can be considered a substitute for vodka. It can be consumed with water or any other cold drink. The consumption of Chulli helps to relieve cold and cough. It also has some healing properties. Dried wild apricots and apples are used to prepare the transparent Chulli. It is a popular beverage among the Kinnauri tribe of Himachal Pradesh.
See also
Lugdi
Chuak
List of Indian drinks
References
Indian alcoholic drinks
Indian distilled drinks
Traditional Indian alcoholic beverages
Adulteration
Alcohol in India | Chulli | [
"Chemistry"
] | 158 | [
"Adulteration",
"Drug safety"
] |
70,579,655 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simufilam | Simufilam (PTI-125) is an experimental medication for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It was being developed by the American pharmaceutical firm Cassava Sciences. Development of simufilam was discontinued in November 2024 after it failed to show clinical benefit during phase III clinical trials.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received a citizen petition in August 2021 to stop the clinical trials and investigate Cassava Sciences. Scientists questioned the preclinical results, citing the small sample size, alleged methodological flaws in an in vitro technique, alleged manipulations of western blot images and potential conflict of interest.
After the FDA said that the citizen petition was the improper procedure to request an investigation, Reuters reported in July 2022 that a criminal investigation of Cassava Sciences was started by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) over research results related to the experimental drug. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and City University of New York (CUNY) were also investigating whether Cassava or individuals manipulated data. In June 2024, Wang was charged by the DOJ with fraud for falsifying data on $16 million in NIH grant applications related to simufilam.
History
From research funded by Cassava Sciences (then Pain Therapeutics), Lindsay Burns (Cassava's senior vice president of neuroscience), Hoau-Yan Wang (a CUNY professor and Cassava advisor), and Maya Frankfurt (CUNY) reported in PLOS One the binding of a 300-kDa protein called filamin A (FLNA) with naloxone to prevent opioid tolerance and drug dependence. The authors claimed this was a critical discovery of the binding of certain opioid antagonists (naloxone and naltrexone) to FLNA, a cytoskeletal protein that is critical in maintaining cell shape and division. Burns and Wang reported the pentapeptide binding site on FLNA the next year. Both of these papers were retracted by PLOS One in 2022.
Wang separately identified a large protein associating with the alpha 7 nicotinic receptor when Abeta42 bound and signaled through this receptor in Alzheimer's disease models. He identified it as FLNA, and Wang and Burns tested the hypothesis that it was critical to the toxic signaling of soluble amyloid. In 2012, they stated in The Journal of Neuroscience that the compound PTI-125 disrupted FLNA linkage with the alpha 7 nicotinic receptor as well as the toxic signaling of Abeta42, presenting PTI-125 as a novel therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease. The Journal of Neuroscience issued an expression of concern in 2022.
Wang, Burns and co-authors reported in Neurobiology of Aging in 2017 showed that PTI-125 induced improvements in Alzheimer's disease pathology as it binds, and restores to normal, an altered conformation of FLNA in experimental Alzheimer's disease transgenic mice. Neurobiology of Aging issued an expression of concern for this paper in 2022.
In 2018, the National Institutes of Health granted the company a research award for early clinical trials of PTI-125 as an Alzheimer's drug. In August 2020, the United States Adopted Names (USAN) assigned the drug chemical name as simufilam.
Open-label studies started in March 2020, and Cassava Sciences reported in May 2020 that initial biomarker analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from its phase IIb clinical trials of PTI-125 had failed, but reported in September 2020 that a new analysis by an "outside lab" showed improvements in biomarkers, adding that individuals with Alzheimer's also showed improvements in cognition with simufilam. It was later revealed that the outside lab was Wang's CUNY lab.
In October 2021, larger trials were initiated; Cassava Sciences announced in December 2021 that the first phase III trial of simufilam would enroll about 750 participants, and the second 1,000. In the first quarter of 2022, 60 participants were enrolled; Stat stated that enrollment had slowed as of April 2022, as people were deterred from enlisting due to the prevailing controversies. In August 2022, Cassava stated that over 400 patients had enrolled in the trials.
On 25 November 2024, development of simufilam was discontinued after it failed to show clinical benefit during its phase III clinical trials.
Pharmacology
The publishing journals have issued expressions of concern for studies related to the pharmacology.
Burns and Wang reported in 2008 that FLNA contains the high-affinity binding site of naloxone and naltrexone in preventing opioid tolerance and dependence, and in 2020 that by disrupting that simufilam reduces the ultra-tight binding of amyloid beta 42 to the alpha-7 nicotinic receptor. Burns and Wang say that the FLNA linkage to the alpha-7 nicotinic receptor is critical to amyloid's toxic signaling through this receptor and that simufilam disrupts FLNA's linkage to this receptor to stop this toxic signaling. They later demonstrated, by isoelectric focusing, that simufilam restores to normal an altered conformation of FLNA in Alzheimer's disease models or postmortem human brain tissue.
A 2020 study found simufilam improved epilepsy in a mouse model where FLNA was overexpressed.
Allegations of research irregularities
In June 2024, a grand jury indicted Wang on charges of falsifying data to obtain grants.
As of July 2022, Cassava Sciences and papers published by Burns and Wang were under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department; Cassava denies any wrongdoing. Two papers were retracted by journals and expressions of concern were issued for other papers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and City University of New York (CUNY) were also investigating allegations of manipulated data.
In October 2023, a leaked CUNY report indicated that they could obtain none of Wang's original data, which meant that they were unable to either prove or disprove allegations that the images were improperly manipulated; they paused the investigation a few weeks later over concerns about confidentiality and integrity of the process.
Research papers demonstrating the mechanism of action of simufilam contained an error of units in methods (one instance of milligrams noted as micrograms) and erroneous duplication of images, but neither journal found evidence of data manipulation that was previously alleged. Two papers unrelated to Alzheimer's disease that reported FLNA binding by certain opioid antagonists and FLNA's role in opioid tolerance and dependence were retracted for "similarities in background pixels" in western blot images without evidence of data manipulation.
Lawrence Sterling Honig, professor of neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, had remarked on Burns and Wang's claims: "But in fact, all the evidence seems to be from this [Wang's] lab." Robert Howard, professor of psychiatry at the University College London, is concerned on the lack of placebo and small sample size and said that the research "at the very least is implausible". Thomas C. Südhof, Nobel laureate neuroscientist at Stanford University, also commented: "The overall conclusions with regard to Alzheimer's disease make no sense to me whatsoever... [The findings of Burns and Wang] are not in the mainstream of the field, and to me they seem implausible and contrived."
References
External links
CUNY investigation report
Experimental drugs for Alzheimer's disease
Carboxamides
Experimental drugs
Medical scandals in the United States
Imidazolidines
Pyrrolidines
Spiro compounds
Drugs with unknown mechanisms of action
Abandoned drugs | Simufilam | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,639 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Drug safety",
"Abandoned drugs",
"Spiro compounds"
] |
70,579,771 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris%20Vainshtein | Boris Konstantinovich Vainshtein (Russian: Бори́с Константи́нович Вайнште́йн, 10 July 1921 – 28 October 1996) was a Russian crystallographer. He headed the Laboratory of Protein Crystallography of the Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS, and was the director of the institute, where he spent the majority of his career.
Vainshtein studied at the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Institute of Steel.
In 1990 Vainshtein won the second IUCr Ewald Prize "for his contributions to the development of theories and methods of structure analysis by electron and X-ray diffraction and for his applications of his theories to structural investigations of polymers, liquid crystals, peptides and proteins".
See also
Alexei Vasilievich Shubnikov
Bibliography
References
1921 births
1996 deaths
Crystallographers
Russian physical chemists
Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow State University alumni | Boris Vainshtein | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 205 | [
"Crystallographers",
"Crystallography"
] |
70,579,842 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noclip.website | noclip.website is an online video game map viewer created in 2018, allowing visitors to browse a selection of datamined levels from several games and travel through them in noclip mode without being hindered by walls, objects or gravity. It therefore allows exploration in ways not intended by the game's developers, providing new insights into their layout, development process, and content. The site was programmed by JasperRLZ and a team of contributors, and predominantly features Nintendo games, although it also contains other titles, such as Dark Souls. The site was praised by critics for allowing visitors to explore levels from classic games, and its implementation of bespoke solutions allowing maps from each game to run properly within the same viewer.
Content
noclip.website is open-source software. When visiting the site, a list of levels is presented, and the visitor may select one level at a time to view, navigating it using WASD and mouse controls similar to those of an ingame noclip mode. While most of the levels supported are from Nintendo games, maps from titles such as Psychonauts are viewable in the website.
Due to programming differences in the various video games supported by the site, workarounds had to be created for certain games to allow their maps to be viewed. For example, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's cel-shaded art style required a unique lighting model to work properly, as well as collision models to prevent plant models from falling through the ground. Some maps allow interaction in order to induce changes in the map; such as Pokémon Snap's levels allowing viewers to throw fruit like in the game in order to unlock new scenarios.
In 2019, JasperRLZ successfully added the maps of Katamari Damacy to the website after offering a $500 bounty for developers to datamine them from the game's code, which had never previously been done. The process was described as difficult due to the files' unclear naming structure in comparison to Nintendo games.
Reception
The site was generally well received by critics, with Matt Leonard of GameRevolution describing it as "a cool way to experience levels from your favorite Nintendo games", although calling it "more exploratory than educational". Dustin Bailey of PCGamesN stated, in regards to the site, that he would "never not appreciate the new perspectives on old games we get from these community projects". Luke Plunkett of Kotaku called the site "very fun", describing exploring the levels as joyful and nostalgic.
Emma Kent of Eurogamer noted that the site provided users with the ability to explore maps from the perspective of a game designer, showing how they were constructed and the illusions used to make them believable. She also expressed the concern that Nintendo would "not be happy" about the site's existence. Ana Diaz of Polygon described the site as a "digital video game museum" and praised the ability to see old games from a new perspective, but criticized some maps as harder to explore than others, singling out Luigi's Mansion as difficult due to the game being set indoors.
References
External links
Free software websites
Internet properties established in 2018
Video game websites
Video game levels | Noclip.website | [
"Technology"
] | 658 | [
"Computing websites",
"Free software websites"
] |
70,580,022 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocco%27s%20Multiplanetary%20Trajectory | Crocco's Multiplanetary Trajectory, sometimes named Crocco's Mission and Crocco's "Grand Tour", is a mathematical description of an hypothetical Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth-Research Mission, which was first proposed in 1956 by the Aeronautics and Space Pioneer G. A. Crocco during the VII. International Astronautical Congress in Rome.
History
With the beginning of spaceflight in the first half of the 20th century, theoretical mathematicians estimated the amount of energy required for interplanetary spaceflight for the first time, the energy requirement being significantly higher than that of any chemical fuel available at that time. It remained questionable if humanity would ever be capable of reaching certain locations in the Solar System.
Even though Walter Hohmann had already calculated the most energy-efficient trajectory between two similar circular orbits (the Hohmann transfer orbit) at the beginning of the century, an Earth-Mars-Earth round trip utilizing this flight path would have made it a necessity to remain on the surface of Mars for a duration of 425 days, waiting for the planets to align and the next launch window to open, in addition to 259 days for both the journey to Mars and the return to Earth.
For this reason, Gaetano Crocco developed the concept of a Nonstop-Round-Trip to Mars, which would have had a far lower energy requirement, as the rocket engines of the craft would only have to accelerate it in a single maneuver to attain the necessary velocity to reach Mars. During the passing of the spacecraft, onboard crew would have performed analysis of the martian surface. Even this trajectory would have amounted to a flight time of a little over one year, if the spacecraft were not accelerated in another orbital maneuver.
Properties
Crocco searched for an orbit with the following properties:
Crosses the orbit of the Earth
Crosses the orbit of Mars
Orbital period of one year
With proper selection of a certain launch window, this would also have allowed the spacecraft to return one year after departure. By applying slight modifications to the trajectory it would have been possible to pass by Venus in the same mission as well.
Crocco realized that the flight trajectory may be disrupted by the gravitational fields of Mars and Venus, delaying or ultimately preventing return to Earth. He solved this problem by directing the flight path through the gravitational fields of Venus and Mars in such a way that their attraction would cancel each other out. The Mission Profile presented in 1956 consisted of a 154-day travel from Earth to Mars, followed by a 113-day travel to Venus including passing by the planet and using the gravitational attraction for a course correction, followed by the 98-day return to Earth. Crocco proposed the first Mission to be launched in June 1971.
Difference between Crocco's Mission and Gravity Assists
Crocco was well aware of the planet's gravitational effects, but his mission profile is neither using them to accelerate nor decelerate, instead limiting itself to utilizing them for trajectory stabilizations. Still, it is mistakenly widely assumed that G. A. Crocco would have been the inventor of the gravity assist, which was first presented in 1961 by the American mathematician Michael Minovitch as a method to allow for the exploration of the outer planets which had been deemed nearly impossible beforehand. Pioneer 10, 11 and the Voyager probes would make use of this technique in the 1970s.
Literature
Michael A. Minovitch A method for determining interplanetary free-fall reconnaissance trajectories Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 23. August 1961 ( Archived 20 März 2019)
Gaetano A. Crocco One-Year Exploration-Trip Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth 7th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Rome, September 1956 ( Archived 15 March 2016)
Richard L. Dowling, Kosmann, William J.; Minovitch, Michael A.; Ridenoure, Rex W: The origin of gravity-propelled interplanetary space travel 41st Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Dresden, 6-12 Oktober 1990( Archived 17 April 2021)
References
Astrophysics
Human missions to Mars
Human missions to Venus
Missions to Mars
Missions to Venus | Crocco's Multiplanetary Trajectory | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 836 | [
"Astronomical sub-disciplines",
"Astrophysics"
] |
70,580,148 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi%2012 | The Xiaomi 12 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured by Xiaomi. It was launched on 28 December 2021.
The Xiaomi 12 Pro is a bigger and improved version of the Xiaomi 12 but with telephoto lens replaced telephoto macro on the Xiaomi 12. The Xiaomi 12X has similar to Xiaomi 12 specifications but with a less powerful chipset and a miss of wireless charging.
On 7 July 2022, alongside the Xiaomi 12S Series, the Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity was unveiled with the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+. It features the same camera setup as the base Xiaomi 12 model, bigger battery and less powerful charging support comparing to the Xiaomi 12 Pro.
Design
The front is made of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and the back is made of glass or eco-leather in green color option of Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro. The frame is made of aluminium.
The design of all smartphones in the Xiaomi 12 Series is similar but the Pro models have bigger dimensions ( × × in the Xiaomi 12 and 12X or leather version of the Xiaomi 12 and × × in the Xiaomi 12 Pro and 12 Pro Dimensity or leather version of the Xiaomi 12 Pro).
On the bottom side, there is a USB-C port, speaker, microphone, and dual SIM tray. On the top, there is an additional microphone, IR blaster, and a second speaker. On the right, there is the volume rocker and a power button.
The Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro were available in 4 colors: Black, Blue, Purple, and Green (China exclusive).
The Xiaomi 12X was available in 3 colors: Black, Blue, and Purple.
The Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity was available in Black and Blue colors.
Specifications
Hardware
Platform
The Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro are the second smartphones, after Motorola Edge X30, to receive the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 12X uses less powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 instead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity is the first smartphone that features the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+.
Software
Initially, the Xiaomi 12 series was released with MIUI 13 based on Android 11 on the Xiaomi 12X and based on Android 12 on other models. Later the smartphones were updated to HyperOS 1 based on Android 13 on the Xiaomi 12X and based on Android 14 on other models.
References
Mobile phones introduced in 2021
Android (operating system) devices
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Mobile phones with 8K video recording
Discontinued flagship smartphones
12 | Xiaomi 12 | [
"Technology"
] | 560 | [
"Discontinued flagship smartphones",
"Flagship smartphones"
] |
70,581,555 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiral%20oligoethylene%20glycol | Chiral oligoethylene glycols are oligoethylene glycols that have BINOL-based chiral backbones. These compounds are used in asymmetric catalysis as multifunctional chiral cation-binding catalysts. These compounds are also known as chiral anion generators.
References
Dimers (chemistry)
Naphthols
Polyethers | Chiral oligoethylene glycol | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 84 | [
"Dimers (chemistry)",
"Polymer chemistry"
] |
70,582,100 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANAIS-112 | ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) is a dark matter direct detection experiment located at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), in Spain, operated by a team of researchers of the CAPA at the University of Zaragoza.
ANAIS' goal is to confirm or refute in a model independent way the DAMA/LIBRA experiment positive result: an annual modulation in the low-energy detection rate having all the features expected for the signal induced by weakly interacting dark matter particles (WIMPs) in a standard galactic halo. This modulation is produced as a result of the Earth rotation around the Sun. A modulation with all the characteristic of a Dark Matter (DM) signal has been observed for about 20 years by DAMA/LIBRA, but it is in strong tension with the negative results of other DM direct detection experiments. Compatibility among the different experimental results in most conventional WIMP-DM scenarios is actually disfavored, but it is strongly dependent on the DM particle and halo models considered. A comparison using the same target material, NaI(Tl), is more direct and almost model-independent.
Experimental set up and performance
Source:
ANAIS-112 experimental setup consists of 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl), distributed in 9 cylindrical modules, 12.5 kg each and built by Alpha Spectra Inc., arranged in a 3 × 3 configuration.
Among the most relevant features of ANAIS- 112 modules, it is worth highlighting its remarkable optical quality, which combined to using high quantum efficiency Hamamatsu photomultipliers (PMTs) results in a very high light collection, at the level of 15 photoelectrons (phe) per keV in all the nine modules. The signals from the two PMTs coupled to each module are digitized at 2 GS/s in a 1.2 μs window with high resolution (14 bits). The trigger requires the coincidence of the two PMT trigger signals in a 200 ns window, while the PMT individual trigger is set at the single phe level.
Another interesting feature is a Mylar window in the middle of one of the lateral faces of the detectors, which allows to calibrate simultaneously the nine modules with external x-ray/gamma sources down to 10 keV in a radon-free environment. A careful low energy calibration of the region of interest (ROI), from 1 to 6 keV, is carried out by combining information from external calibrations and background. External calibrations with a 109Cd source are performed every two weeks, and every 1.5 months energy depositions at 3.2 and 0.87 keV from 40K and 22Na internal contaminations in one ANAIS module are selected by profiting from the coincidence with a high energy gamma in a second module.
The ANAIS-112 experiment is installed inside a shielding consisting of an inner layer of 10 cm of archaeological lead and an outer layer of 20 cm of low activity lead. This lead shielding is encased into an anti-radon box, tightly closed and kept under overpressure with radon-free nitrogen gas. The external layer of the shielding (the neutron shielding) consists of 40 cm of a combination of water tanks and polyethylene bricks. An active veto made up of 16 plastic scintillators is placed between the anti-radon box and the neutron shielding, covering the top and sides of the set-up allowing to effectively tag the residual muon flux onsite along the ANAIS-112 data taking.
ANAIS-112 was commissioned during the spring of 2017 and it started the data-taking phase at the hall B of the LSC on 3 August 2017 under 2450 m.w.e. rock overburden. The "live time" of the experiment, useful for analysis, is more than 95%, allowing for the high duty cycle achieved. Down time is mostly due to the periodical calibration of the modules.
A background understanding has been achieved, except in the [1-2] keV energy region, where the background model underestimates the measured event rate. Crystal bulk contamination is the dominant background source, being 210Pb, 40K, 22Na, 3H contributions the most relevant ones in the region of interest. Considering altogether the nine ANAIS-112 modules, the average background in the ROI is 3.6 cpd/kg/keV after three years of data taking, while DAMA/LIBRAphase2 background is below 0.80 cpd/kg/keV in the[1–2] keV energy interval, below 0.24 cpd/kg/keV in the [2–3] keV energy interval, and below 0.12 cpd/kg/keV in the [3–4] keV energy interval.
Annual modulation analysis and results
The development of filtering protocols based on the pulse shape and light sharing among the two PMTs has been crucial to fulfill the ANAIS-112 goal since the trigger rate in the ROI is dominated by non-bulk scintillation events. The determination of the corresponding efficiency is very important, and it is calculated using 109Cd, 40K and 22Na events. It is very close to 100% down to 2 keV, and then decreases steeply to about 15% at 1 keV, where the analysis threshold is set.
A blind protocol for the annual modulation analysis of ANAIS-112 data has been applied: single-hit events in the ROI are kept blinded during the event selection. Up to now, three unblindings of the data have been carried out: at 1.5 years, at 2 years, and 3 years, which correspond to exposures of 157.55, 220.69, and 313.95 kg×y, respectively. ANAIS-112 annual modulation search is performed in the same regions explored by DAMA/LIBRA collaboration, [1–6] keV and [2–6] keV, fixing the period to 1 year and the maximum of the modulation to 2 June.
To evaluate the statistical significance of a possible modulation in ANAIS–112 data, the events rate of the nine detectors is calculated in 10-days bins, and it is minimized χ2 = Σi (ni − μi)2/σ2i, where ni is the number of events in the time bin ti (corrected by live time and detector efficiency), σi is the corresponding Poisson uncertainty, accordingly corrected, and μi is the expected number of events at that time bin, that depends on the background model and can be written as: μi = [R0φbkg(ti) + Smcos(ω(ti − t0))]M∆E∆t.
Here, R0 represents the non-modulated rate in the experiment, is the probability distribution function (PDF) in time of any non-modulated component, Sm is the modulation amplitude, ω is fixed to 2π/365 d = 0.01721 rad d−1, t0 to −62.2 d (time origin has been taken on 3 August and then the cosine maximum is on 2 June), M is the total detector mass, ∆E is the energy interval width, and ∆t the time bin width. R0 is a free parameter, while Sm is either fixed to 0 (for the null hypothesis) or left unconstrained, positive or negative (for the modulation hypothesis).
The null hypothesis is well supported for the 3-years data in both energy regions, being the results for the two background models (a single exponential or a PDF based on the Monte Carlo background model) compatible. The standard deviation σ(Sm) is slightly lower when detectors are considered independently, as expected following a priori sensitivity analysis. Therefore, this fit is chosen to quote the ANAIS-112 annual modulation final result and sensitivity for three-year exposure. The best fits are incompatible with the DAMA/LIBRA result at 3.3 and 2.6 σ in [1-6] and [2-6] keV energy regions, for a sensitivity of 2.5 (2.7)σ at [1–6] keV ([2–6] keV). ANAIS-112 results for 1.5, 2 and 3 years of data-taking fully confirm the sensitivity projection.
ANAIS-112 results support the prospects of reaching a sensitivity above 3σ in 2022, within the scheduled 5 years of data taking.
Several consistency checks have been carried out (changing the number of detectors entering into the fit, considering only the first two years or the last two years, or changing the time bin size), concluding that there is no hint supporting relevant systematical uncertainties in the result. The performance of a large set of Monte Carlo pseudo-experiments sampled from the background model guarantees that the fit is not biased. A frequency analysis have also been conducted, and the conclusion is that there is no statistically significant modulation in the frequency range searched in the ANAIS-112 data.
Future prospects
ANAIS-112 sensitivity limitation is mostly due to the high background in the ROI, but in particular in the region from 1 to 2 keV. In this context, the application of machine learning techniques based on Boosted Decision Trees (BDTs), under development at present, could improve the rejection of these non-bulk scintillation events. Preliminary results point to a relevant sensitivity improvement. Extending the data taking for a few more years, could allow testing DAMA/LIBRA at the 5σ level. Operation at Canfranc Underground Laboratory has been granted until the end of 2025.
One possible systematics affecting the comparison between DAMA/LIBRA and ANAIS result is a possible different detector response to nuclear recoils, because both experiments are calibrated using x-rays/gammas. It is well known that scintillation is strongly quenched for energy deposited by nuclear recoils with respect to the same energy deposited by electrons. Measurements of Quenching Factors (QF) in NaI scintillators are affected by strong discrepancies. ANAIS-112 detectors QF are being determined after measurements at TUNL. In addition, a complete calibration program for the experiment using neutron sources onsite is being developed.
ANAIS-112 published results are available in open access at the webpage of the Dark Matter Data Center: https://www.origins-cluster.de/odsl/dark-matter-data-center/available-datasets/anais
Data are available upon request.
Funding Agencies
ANAIS experiment operation is presently financially supported by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Grants No. PID2022-138357NB-C21 and PID2019-104374GB-I00), and Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR (AstroHEP) and the Gobierno de Aragón. Funding from Grant FPA2017-83133-P, Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme under grants MULTIDARK CSD2009-00064 and CPAN CSD2007-00042, the Gobierno de Aragón and the LSC Consortium made possible the setting-up of the detectors. The technical support from LSC and GIFNA staff as well as from Servicios de Apoyo a la Investigación de la Universidad de Zaragoza (SAIs) is warmly acknowledged.
External links
ANAIS Experiment Website
Canfranc Underground Laboratory Website
The DAMA project Website
The Dark Matter Data Center
References
Experiments for dark matter search | ANAIS-112 | [
"Physics"
] | 2,412 | [
"Dark matter",
"Experiments for dark matter search",
"Unsolved problems in physics"
] |
70,582,867 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronova | A micronova is a putative type of thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf much smaller than the strength of a nova; being about in strength, about a millionth that of a typical nova. The phenomenon was first described in April 2022.
History
A team led by Durham University researchers announced on 20 April 2022 that they identified three micronovae using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The team discovered with TESS that two of the micronovae occurred on white dwarfs, with the astronomers confirming with the Very Large Telescope that the third occurred on a white dwarf as well.
The phenomenon had previously been observed in the white dwarf binary TV Columbae using data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer. However the data was not sufficient to infer the physical mechanism behind the explosion.
Formation
Micronovae specifically form on white dwarfs that have strong magnetic fields, as fields send material toward the star's magnetic poles. This causes the hydrogen fusion explosions on the surface to be more localized and smaller than a typical nova.
An alternative explanation for the phenomenon is that these represent magnetic reconnection events either in the accretion disks or in the coronae of the companion stars. The system V2487 Oph is one of the candidate micronovae, and has also shown standard recurrent novae. The properties of its short duration flares also do not agree with predictions for nuclear fusion events.
References
See also
Stellar phenomena
Astronomical events | Micronova | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 304 | [
"Novae",
"Physical phenomena",
"Stellar phenomena",
"Astronomical events"
] |
70,583,334 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%20Neutze | Richard Neutze (born 5 July 1969) is a biophysicist from New Zealand, now a Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry & Molecular Biology at Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has made fundamental contributions to X-ray crystallography of biomolecules, including proposal of the idea of diffract before destroy along with Janos Hajdu and others, which in part led to the invention of serial femtosecond crystallography.
Education and career
Neutze graduated with a BSc in physics in 1991 and PhD in biophysics in 1995 from University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where his supervisor was Geoff Stedman. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research at University of Oxford, University of Tübingen, and Uppsala University.
Honors and awards
Neutze received the Young Scientist Award at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in 2000, and the Hugo Theorell Prize from the Swedish Biophysics Society in 2012.
References
Biophysicists
Crystallographers
Living people
University of Canterbury alumni
1969 births
Academic staff of the University of Gothenburg
New Zealand scientists
Academics of the University of Oxford
People from Mid Canterbury
New Zealand physicists | Richard Neutze | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 237 | [
"Crystallographers",
"Crystallography"
] |
70,584,544 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanacaste%20hummingbird | The Guanacaste hummingbird, also known as the Alfaro's hummingbird or Miravalles hummingbird (Saucerottia alfaroana), is a possibly extinct species of hummingbird known only from a holotype collected in 1895 at the Miravalles Volcano in Costa Rica.
Taxonomy
It is usually treated as a subspecies of the Indigo-capped hummingbird or a hybrid between two unknown hummingbird species, but analysis of the holotype suggests it is its own species.
Conservation
It is possibly extinct, but the ecological stability of the area where the specimen was found indicates a possible undiscovered population still existing. The IUCN classifies it as critically endangered.
References
Controversial hummingbird taxa
Amazilia
Endemic birds of Costa Rica
Birds described in 1896
Species known from a single specimen | Guanacaste hummingbird | [
"Biology"
] | 163 | [
"Individual organisms",
"Species known from a single specimen"
] |
70,584,868 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetradecadienyl%20acetates | Various tetradecadienyl acetate compounds serve as insect mating pheromones especially among the Pyralidae. These include:
Prionoxystus robiniaea mating attractant
Accosus centerensis mating attractant
Borkhausenia schefferella mating attractant
Conistra vaccinii mating attractant
(abbr. Z9,E11-14:Ac) Spodoptera littoralis and S. litura mating attractant and mating inhibitor. Female pheromone, lures males. Used by McVeigh and Bettany 1986 and Downham et al., 1995 over the course of three years in a 99:1 with . Although they achieved good mating disruption this did not result in lower egg mass or population. The results of Campion et al., 1980 suggest that may be due to the need for other, minor female volatiles. Martinez et al., 1993 study control of its synthesis in S. littoralis by hormones, finding that the reduction step may be controlled by pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide.
Plodia interpunctella mating inhibitor
(abbr. Z9,E12-14:Ac) In 2006 the United States Environmental Protection Agency granted an exemption to permit use without regard to the residue on resulting food. This is thought to be the first registration for indoor use in the United States of any sex pheromone to disrupt mating. Produced by species:
Adoxophyes fasciata synergistic attractant
Anagasta kuehniella mating attractant produced by both male and female
Cadra cautella female-produced mating attractant and mating inhibitor (found by Kuwahara et al., 1971)
C. figulilella female-produced mating attractant
Elasmopalpus lignosellus mating disruptor
Ephestia elutella mating attractant
Plodia interpunctella (also by Kuwahara 1971)
References
Insect pheromones
Insecticides
Insect ecology
Biological control agents of pest insects
Insect reproduction | Tetradecadienyl acetates | [
"Chemistry"
] | 432 | [
"Insect pheromones",
"Chemical ecology"
] |
70,584,992 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremenchuk%20Oil%20Refinery | Kremenchuk Oil Refinery is the largest enterprise for the production of petroleum products in Ukraine. It is located in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast. Since 1994 it has been the main branch of PJSC Ukrtatnafta.
Destruction
On April 3, 2022, Dmytro Lunin, the acting governor of Poltava Oblast announced that the oil refinery has been "completely destroyed" after a Russian attack. In May, the Russians launched at the destroyed refinery four missiles. Yuriy Vitrenko, the CEO of Naftogaz, said at a June 21 press conference "All oil refining in Ukraine is now shut down due to massive repeated attacks" by the Russians.
See also
Ukrtatnafta
Tatneft
List of oil refineries
Lysychansk Oil Refinery
Odesa Refinery
References
Companies established in 1966
Companies of Ukraine by city
Economy of Poltava Oblast
Economy of Ukraine by city
Kremenchuk
1961 in Ukraine
1966 in Ukraine
History of Poltava Oblast
Oil refineries in Ukraine
Privat Group
Companies based in Lviv Oblast
Buildings and structures destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Oil refineries in the Soviet Union | Kremenchuk Oil Refinery | [
"Chemistry"
] | 243 | [
"Petroleum",
"Petroleum stubs"
] |
70,586,461 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auricularia%20americana | Auricularia americana is a species of fungus in the family Auriculariaceae found in North America and East Asia. Its basidiocarps (fruitbodies) are gelatinous, ear-like, and grow on dead conifer wood.
Taxonomy
The species was originally described in 1987 from Quebec on Abies balsamea, but was not validly published until 2003. Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has shown that Auricularia americana is a distinct species.
The species was formerly confused with Auricularia auricula-judae, which grows on broadleaf wood and is confined to Europe.
Description
Auricularia americana forms thin, brown, rubbery-gelatinous fruit bodies that are ear-shaped and across and about thick. The fruitbodies occur singly or in clusters. The upper surface is finely pilose. The spore-bearing underside is smooth. The spore print is white.
Microscopic characters
The microscopic characters are typical of the genus Auricularia. The basidia are tubular, laterally septate, 55–70 × 4–5 μm. The spores are allantoid (sausage-shaped), 14–16.5 × 4.5–5.5 μm.
Similar species
In North America, Auricularia angiospermarum is almost identical but grows on the wood of broadleaf trees. No other North American Auricularia species grows on conifer wood. In China and Tibet, however, a second species, A. tibetica, also occurs on conifers. It can be distinguished microscopically by its longer basidia and larger basidiospores.
Additionally, A. nigricans, Exidia crenata, and Phylloscypha phyllogena are similar.
Habitat and distribution
Auricularia americana is a wood-rotting species, typically found on dead attached or fallen wood of conifers. It is widely distributed in North America (primarily in the Northeast, between April and September) and is also known from China and the Russian Far East.
References
Auriculariales
Fungi of North America
Fungi of China
Fungus species | Auricularia americana | [
"Biology"
] | 451 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
70,586,790 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekikaic%20acid | Sekikaic acid is an organic compound in the structural class of chemicals known as depsides. It is found in some lichens. First isolated from Ramalina sekika, it is a fairly common lichen product in Ramalina and Cladonia, both genera of lichen-forming fungi. The species epithet of the powdery lichen Lepraria sekikaica refers to the presence of this substance—a rarity in genus Lepraria.
Properties
In its purified form, sekikaic acid exists as colourless rectangular prisms or rhombic plates. Its molecular formula is C22H2608. It has a melting point of . An ethanolic solution of sekikaic acid reacts with iron(III) chloride to produce a violet colour. Its ultraviolet spectrum has three peaks of maximum absorption (λmax) at 219, 263, and 303 nm.
Sekikaic acid has been demonstrated to have several biological activities in laboratory experiments. These include antioxidant activity, inhibition of the enzymes α-glucosidase and α-amylase, hypoglycemic activity, and lipid-lowering activity. It also has antiviral activity against Respiratory syncytial virus, even more so than the standard antiviral medication ribavirin.
Related compounds
The sekikaic acid contains similar compounds that are metabolically related to sekikaic acid. It comprises sekikaic acid as the major compound, and 4O-demethylsekikaic and homosekikaic acids as satellite metabolites.
References
Polyphenols
Lichen products
Methoxy compounds | Sekikaic acid | [
"Chemistry"
] | 342 | [
"Natural products",
"Lichen products"
] |
70,586,929 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodin | Geodin is an antibiotic against Gram-positive bacteria with the molecular formula C17H8CL2O7. Geodin is produced by the fungus Aspergillus terreus.
References
Further reading
Antibiotics
Chloroarenes
Methyl esters
Spiro compounds
Benzofurans
Hydroxyarenes | Geodin | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 63 | [
"Biotechnology products",
"Organic compounds",
"Antibiotics",
"Biocides",
"Spiro compounds"
] |
70,589,295 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium%20mining%20in%20the%20Elliot%20Lake%20area | Uranium mining in the Elliot Lake area (prior to 1955, more commonly known as the Blind River area) represents one of two major uranium-producing areas in Ontario, and one of seven in Canada.
In the mid-1950s, the influx of people to Elliot Lake seeking uranium was described by engineer A. S. Bayne in a 1977 report as the "greatest uranium prospecting rush in the world".
Mining activities peaked around 1959 and 1960 to respond to US military demand for uranium during the Cold War.
By 1958, Canada had become one of the world's leading producers of uranium and the $274 million of uranium exports that year represented Canada's most significant mineral export. By 1963, the federal government had purchased more than $1.5 billion of uranium from Canadian producers for export. The opening of the mines and the workers they attracted led to the creation of the planned town of Elliot Lake.
US demand slumped in the early 1960s, but the increasing use of nuclear power for electricity-generation, in Canada and abroad, prompted some mines back into action.
Production slowed until the 1990s when it ceased. The Elliot Lake area now has ten decommissioned mines and 102 million tons of uranium tailings. Former miners have been left with a twofold increase in lung cancer development and mortality rates.
Area and nomenclature
The 200 square mile area north of Lake Huron that was Canada's largest uranium producing area has been referred to by various names as time passed, specifically Algoma, Blind River and Elliot Lake.
Algoma is the name of a wider district that includes this area. Blind River was initially the nearest human settlement, located 12 miles west of the nearest mine, until Elliot Lake was created, which is close to most of the mines.
The only road access to the town of Elliot Lake is via Ontario Highway 108.
Geology
Towards the end of the Wisconsin glaciation period, ice flowed approximately south (predominantly at 190°) across the area know known as Elliot Lake. Geologists believe that as the ice sheet retreated back north, it left a large proglacial lake just north of Elliot Lake, probably as part of the main Lake Algonquin. Today's features were created from sediments that sunk while the area was below the 335m deep lake. As the ice retreated, about 10,800 years ago, the ice holding the lake melted, causing the sand and gravel sediments to spill into the valleys.
Microscopic grains of uranium occur in ores of uraninite, brannerite and monazite amongst pyritic sheets of quartz-pebble rock.
History
Traditional territory
The area is the traditional territory of the Serpent River First Nation and also part of the Huron Robinson Treaty land.
In 2021, the Serpent River nation representatives described community consultation about mining activities as "minor."
19th century
Known at the time as the Blind River area, the Elliot Lake area is situated between the Sudbury Nickel mining area and the abandoned Bruce Mines and was subsequently prospected for gold and copper during the 19th century.
Uranium was first discovered in Canada by John Lawrence LeConte in 1847, who named the new mineral coracite. The exact location of his first discovery was unclear, but was understood to be approximately 70 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie on the shore of Lake Superior. A lack of an exact location and the absence of radioactivity detectors resulted in failures of surveyors or prospectors to repeat his find.
Mid 20th century – uranium discovery
In 1948, Karl Gunterman, financed by Aime Breton, with a Geiger counter discovered radioactive conglomerate near Lauzon Lake in Long Township, Ontario. Their discovery was investigated by geologist Franc R. Joubin, who in 1952 found a uranium deposit in Spragge.
In 1953, Joubin persuaded Joseph H. Hirshhorn to finance exploratory drilling and Hirshhorn signed a contract with Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd, the Canadian Crown Corporation that bought all uranium in Canada; together they quickly started the Pronto Mine. News of the mine and the 1,400 stakes claimed by Joubin and Hirshorn resulted in a rush of prospectors to the area who filed 8,000 claims that summer. The uptick in uranium staking was known as the Backdoor Staking Bee. Mapping by W. H. Collins of the Geological Survey of Canada led to the discovery of more uranium around Quirke Lake and Elliot Lake (the lake proper, not the town of the same name). By 1958, Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd estimated that the area had 320 million tons of uranium ore, with on average 2.38 pounds of uranium oxide per ton.
Throughout the 1950s, the majority of the world's uranium came from Elliot Lake, which became known as the "Uranium Capital of the World".
1957 saw bustling activity as contractors blasted paths through rock to make roads, sinking shafts and building uranium processing mills. According to the University of Waterloo's Earth Sciences Museum, "Never before in the history of Canada has so much money been spent so quickly in one place."
Throughout the 1950s, the people of the Anishinaabek First Nation of the Serpent River were systematically excluded from all decisions about resource extraction in their area.
Late 1950s boom
1958 was the first full year of mining production, and saw a $200 million of uranium sales, making uranium Canada's number one metal export, and Elliot Lake Canada's largest producer.
From 1959 to 1960, Elliot Lake organized town was created and other mines were constructed to meet the growing US demand for uranium.
In November 1959, the US announced its plans to stop stockpiling uranium and to cease procurement after 1962, resulting in the closure of five mines in 1960. However, by 1966 the global demand for uranium for energy purposes prompted increased production in the area, by 1970 the area had produced $1.3 billion of uranium oxide. Mining companies funded the creation of a Nuclear Museum.
The mines all started producing between 1955 and 1958, supplying US military needs.
1960s drop in demand
When the United States Atomic Energy Commission declared in 1959 that it would no longer stockpile uranium, and not renew procurement contracts beyond 1963, seven of the remaining nine mines closed. The other two mines, Denison and Nordic, remained open to supply Canadian federal uranium stockpiling needs while Pronto switched activities to supporting the nearby Pater copper mine. At the same time, Rio Algom Limited was created and became the owner of the seven closed mines, plus the Nordic and Pronto mines.
The mine closure resulted in the population of Elliot Lake town dropping from about 24,877 to 6,000 residents, having an immediate negative impact on the local economy.
Rio Algom later became a subsidiary of BHP.
1970s onwards
In early 1972, Australia, France, South Africa, and Rio Tinto Zinc formed a cartel to control the supply and pricing of uranium, using price fixing and bid rigging. This continued until the cartel was exposed by Friends of the Earth Australia in 1976.
The growing demand for uranium for nuclear power stations being built in the 1970s promoted Rio Algom to increase production at Quirke Mine and reopen Panel Mine in 1979 and later Stanleigh Mine (1983).
Decommissioning started from 1992 and concluded in 2001 when vegetation was added to Pronto Mine. Today, all mines are now fully decommissioned, meaning that mine openings are closed up, all buildings are removed and the sites have been revegetated.
Ontario Hydro cancelled its contract to buy uranium from Rio Algom in 1990 and from Denison Mines in 1992, although Stanleigh Mine continued production until June 1996.
Currently, Rio Algom owns nine of the mines (Stanleigh, Quirke, Panel, Spanish, American, Milliken, Lacnor, Buckles and Pronto) and Denison Mines owns the others.
As of 1980, Elliot Lake supplied 90% of the uranium used in Ontario.
Mining process
Mined ore consisted of pyritized quartz conglomerate with 0.1% to 0.2% uranium. The ore was acid leached to extract the uranium using sulphuric acid.
Tailings were neutralized before being deposited, however exposed tailings released acid and radium-226 before barium chloride and lime treatment was started in the 1970s.
Individual mines
Buckles Mine
Buckles mine is located on the south of the Quirke Lake syncline, close to the Nordic Mine. In 1955, Spanish American Mines Limited bought the mine from the original owner of the claim, Buckles Algoma Uranium Mines Limited.
The uranium ore was reported to be 486,500 tons, at 0.124% U3O8, located in a ten-feet-thick zone, 75 feet below the surface.
From 1958 onwards ore from the mine was processed at the Spanish American mine, where it was transported and treated at rate of approximately 500 tons per day. The mine closed in 1958 after all the ore had been extracted.
Twelve Mt of ore remains on the shared tailing management area with Nordic Mine under vegetative cover.
Can-Met Mine
Can-Met's location was first staked by Carl Mattaini who sold it to Can-Met Explorations Limited. The 1958 reporting indicated 8,362,069 tons of ore, which included 6,642,380 tons of uranium ore, with a partly proven average uranium grade of 1.832 pounds of uranium oxide per ton, after dilution. The mine is located on the south shore of Quirke Lake, 15 miles from Elliot Lake.
The mine had two shafts to 2,127 and 2,395 feet. There was a processing plant that could process 3,000 tons of ore per day built in October 1957. Tailings were deposited in the natural basin south of the mill.
Denison Mine
Denison Mine (also known as Consolidated Denison Mine) is located 10 miles north of Elliot Lake. It is just south of the Quirke Mine, and just west of the Panel and Can-Met Mines, just north of Spanish American and Stanrock mines. Following successful staking of the Pronto Mine property, mining claims were staked un the summer of 1953 by F. H. Jowsey, A. W. Stollerty and Associates. These stakes were purchased by Consolidated Denison Mines Limited in 1954. Denison undertook geological surveys and diamond drilling.
The mine started in September 1957, and there was mill on site to process 6,000 tons per day. The average production was 2,676 tons per day and the ore milled had an average of 2.63 pounds of uranium oxide per ton. 1957 estimates of ore reserves were of 136,787,400 tons above another zone 100-feet lower.
63 million tons of tailings were deposited in Williams Lake, Bear Cub Lake, and Long Lakes. The mine was decommissioned by Denison Mines in 1997.
Lancor Mine
Lancor Mine (also known as Lake Nordic Mine) is located on the south limb of the Quirke Lake syncline, four miles from Elliot Lake. It is located just north of Nordic Mine, and just east of Miliken Mine and just south of Stanleigh Mine. It was purchased by Northspan Uranium Mines, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto.
Diamond drilling started in 1954, which found ore. Two shafts were sunk and a processing plant with 3,800 tons per day was constructed. 1957 reports indicated an ore reserve of 8,289,207 tons that produced an average of 0.101% uranium oxide. Tailings were deposited in the valley east of the mill.
The mine closed in 1960 and was decommissioned from 1997 to 2000. 2.7 Mt of tailings remain on site
Miliken Lake Mine
Miliken Lake Mine is located approximately one mile from Elliot Lake. The site is bounded on the west and the south by Nordic Mine, and on the north by Stanleigh Mine and on the east by Lake Nordic Mine. The property was first staked in 1953 and purchased by Miliken Lake Uranium Mines Ltd in 1954, before being sold to Rio Tinto in 1956.
Production started in 1958; a 3,000-ton-per-day ore processing mill was constructed on site. A 1957 report indicated 7,269,846 tons of ore with an average grade of 0.098% uranium oxide on site, with possible an extra 14 to 18 million tons more.
Tailings were deposited in Crotch Lake and Sherriff Creek. The mine closed in 1964 and was decommissioned from 1997 to 2000. 0.08 Mt of tailings remains on site underwater.
Nordic Mine
Nordic Mine is located 3 miles east of Elliot Lake, it is bounded by the Quirke Mine to the north. It was first staked in 1953 by prospectors working for two companies: Technical Mine Consultants and Preston East Dome. Once uranium was discovered, the Algom Uranium Mines Company was formed, which had control over Nordic Mine and the Quirke Mine property.
A mining shaft was sunk in 1955 and production started in January 1957. There was a processing plant with a 3,000 tons per day capacity built on site. The mine was bought by Rio Tinto. 1958 estimates of ore reserves on site were of 11,258,000 tons with an average grade of uranium oxide of 2.65 pound per ton.
Tailings were deposited in the swamp and in the valley north of the mill where they remain with the tailings from Buckles Mine, covering a 115.6 hectares. The mine closed in 1968.
Panel Mine
The Panel Mine is located 13 miles north of Elliot Lake, on the north limb of the Quirke Lake syncline. The site is bordered to the west by the Quirke Mine and Denison Mine and on south by Can-Met Mine. The site was staked in 1953 by Emerald Glacier Mines Ltd purchased by Panel Consolidated Uranium Mines Ltd 1955, before being sold to Northspan Uranium Mines Limited, a Rio Tinto subsidiary.
Two shafts were sunk on site to depth of 1,102 and 1,250 feet and a processing plant with 3,000 tons per day capacity was built on site. Production started in 1958. A 1956 estimate of ore reserves on site was 6,033,000 tons with an average grade of 2.12 pounds of uranium oxide per ton.
Tailings were deposited in the nearby swamp and in the south west corner of Strike Lake.
The mine closed in 1961, but reopened in 1979 and operated until 1990. It was decommissioned from 1992 until 1996. 16 Mt of tailings remain on site underwater. The spillways of the dams that hold back the tailings were modified since closure.
Pronto Mine
Pronto Mine was the original mine in the Elliot Lake/Blind River area. Pronto Mine is located in Long Township, 11 miles east of Blind River, close to Ontario Highway 17 and the Canadian Pacific Railway.
It has a main shaft sunk that was deepened in 1958 and a ore processing plant with 1,250 tons per day capacity upgraded in 1958 to 1,500 tons per day. Tailings were deposited in the nearby valley and swamp north of the mill.
When the demand for uranium subsided, the mine switched to copper production, closing in 1970. 4.4 Mt of tailings remain on site covering 44.7 hectares, the tailing have vegetated cover.
Quirke Mine
Quire Mine was owned by Algom Uranium Mines Limited and is located 9 miles north of Elliot Lake, and about 2.5 miles west of the northwest edge of Quirke Lake. The property was first staked in 1953, trenching and sampling was also done the same year. A 864 feet deep shaft was started in 1954 and finished in 1955 and a processing mill with 3,000 tons per day capacity was built on site. Production started in 1956.
The company's 1957 annual report indicates 17,942,000 tons of ore reserves, of which 1,409,000 tons had an average grade of 2.31 pounds of uranium oxide per ton.
Tailings were deposited in Manred Lake, west of the mill.
The mine closed in 1961, but reopened in 1968 and operated until 1990. It was decommissioned from 1992 until 1996. The spillways of the dams that hold back the tailings were modified since closure. 46 Mt of tailings remain on site, in tiered underwater cells, covering an area of 183.5 hectares.
Spanish American Mine
The Spanish American Mine is located 9 miles northeast of Elliot Lake, on the north limb of the Quirke Lake trough. It is bounded on the east by Stanrock Mine and on the north by Denison Mine. The location was first staked by P Westerfield who sold the stake to Spanish American Mines Limited, who subsequently sold them to Northspan Uranium Mines Ltd, a Rio Tino subsidiary.
The site had two shafts that are 3,200 and 3,400 feet deep and a ore processing plant with 2,000 tons per day capacity. Production started in May 1958. A 1957 report estimated 6,251,726 tons of ore with an average grade of 0.097% uranium oxide. Tailings were deposited in Northspan Lake.
The mine closed in 1959 due to water ingress after only 79,000 tons of ore were extracted. It was decommissioned from 1992 to 1996. 0.5Mt of tailings remain on site, underwater covering 13.2 hectares.
Stanleigh Mine
Stanleigh Mine is located 2 miles northeast of Elliot Lake and was first staked by H. S. Strouth, the chief of mining of Standard Ore and Alloys Corporation, later Stanleigh Uranium Mining Corporation. Ownership was subsequently transferred to Miliken Lake Uranium Mines and Northspan Uranium Mines Limited (who owned Lacnor Mine).
Two shafts were started in April 1956 to a depth of 3,415 and 3,690 feet deep, the deepest of all shafts in the Elliot Lake group of mines. Tailings were deposited in Crotch Lake.
The mine closed in 1960, but reopened from 1983 until 1996. In August 1993, a power failures resulted in a 2 million liter spill of contaminated water from the mine into McCabe Lake. The Atomic Energy Control Board laid two charges against Rio Algom. It was decommissioned from 1997 until 2000. 20.5 Mt of tailings remain on site under water coving an area of 376.5 hectares.
In 2017, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission found owners Rio Algom to be operating the mine "below expectations" due to radium releases from the decommissioned mine's effluent treatment plant that exceeded allowable limits specified in the operators license.
Stanrock Mine
Stanrock Mine is located 14 miles from Elliot Lake on the south side of Quirke Lake. The site is adjacent to the Can-Met Mine to the east, the Spanish-American Mine to the west, and Denison Mine to the north. The site was initially known as the Z-7 group and owned by Zenmac Metal Mines Ltd, who sold it to the US Stancan Uranium Mines Limited in 1954. In 1995 and 1996 the new owners found uranium via diamond drilling and creating a processing plant with a 3,300 tons per day capacity. 1956 estimates of ore reserves were 5,077,800 tons with a grade of 0.109% uranium oxide with probably 4 million additional tons unconfirmed.
Tailings were deposited in the naturally occurring basin south of the mill, along with the tailings of Can-Met mine. Six million tons of tailings remain on site. The mine was decommissioned by Denison Mines in 1999.
Health
Pollution, environmental, and ecological health
The health of the watershed in the area deteriorated as mining started. Trout from nearby lakes released an odour when cooked and female fish stopped releasing eggs. Fishing remained permitted at both Quirke Lake and Whiskey Lake, despite the radioactivity in them exceeding levels deemed tolerable by the Ontario Waterways Commission. Terry Jacobs, an elder of the Serpent River First Nation, told Anishinabek News in 2022 that pollution from the mines reduced the number of animals in the area. Other community members reported sulphur fires, dangerous sulphuric dust burning roofs, breathing difficulties, and skin rashes on children who swam in the rivers. By 1976, 20 years after the start of mining, Health and Welfare Canada advised local residents to stop drinking water from local rivers. In 1987, band member Gertrude Lewis requested action from the Government of Canada to clean up the pollution, but the request was rejected.
Just before Canada Day 1988, the Serpent River nation transported waste from the mines to the TransCanada Highway. On July 20, 1988, the Government of Canada agreed to construct a treatment plant.
The 2022 book Serpent River Resurgence by Lianne C. Leddy documents the impacts of uranium mining on Serpent River First Nation.
102 million tonnes of tailings remain on eights decommissioned mines coving an area of 920 hectares. Rio Algom (a BHP subsidiary) and Denison Mines are both licensed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to operate the decommissioned mines.
Results from 2015 and 2018 independent environmental monitoring, commissioned by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, report no expected environmental impacts. 2021 reports from the Serpent River First nation report the environmental damage as ongoing, with members unable to use their land or eat local fish.
There are twelve decommissioned uranium mines around Elliot lake, ten of which have tailings on site.
*Combined total for Nordic and Buckles
**Unknown or unclear
Cancer risks
According to a 2012 study published in Nature, there is a "positive exposure-response between silica and lung cancer".
Uranium mining around Elliot Lake produced silica-laden dust at a free silica rate of 60–70%.
By the early 1970s, miners were unionized via the United Steelworkers and were growing increasingly concerned about the prevalence of cancers and poor support for sick workers by mine owners.
In 1974 union representatives learned of learned about a paper presented by the Ontario Ministry of Health that contained details about cancer risks to uranium miners, that had not been shared with the miners.
Approximately 1,000 miners who worked at Denison Mine went on a wildcat strike on the 18 April 1974. Ten days later Denison Mines agreed to improve conditions and the Ontario Premier commissioned James Milton Ham to lead a Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines.
The same year, the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board studied 15,094 people who worked in the uranium mines around Elliot Lake and Bancroft for at least one month, between 1955 and 1974. Of those 15,094 people, 94 silicosis cases were found in 1974, of which 93 were attributed to working in an Elliot Lake mine.
According to the Committee on Uranium Mining in Virginia, mines produce radon gas which can increase lung cancer risks. Miners' exposure to radiation was not measured before 1958 and exposure limits were not enacted until 1968. Risks to miners were investigated and the official report of that investigation quotes an Elliot Lake miner:"We have been led to believe through the years that the working environment in these mines was safe for us to work in. We have been deceived."The aforementioned 1974 study of 15,094 Ontario uranium miners found 81 former miners who died of lung cancer. Factoring in predicted lung cancer rate for men in Ontario, led to the conclusion that by 1974 there were 36 more deaths than expected attributable to both Elliot Lake and Bancroft mines, with the additional risk appearing to be twice as high for Bancroft miners compared to Elliot Lake miners.
A study report for the CNSC undertaken by the Occupational Cancer Research Centre at Cancer Care Ontario tracked the health of 28,959 former uranium miners over 21 years and found a two-fold increase in lung cancer mortality and incidence. The BMJ (journal of the British Medical Association) reported an increase of lung cancer risk; miners who have worked at least 100 months in uranium mines have a twofold increased risk of developing lung cancer. The study is to be updated in 2023.
Between the minutes opening and 1980, there were 77 fatal workplace safety incidents in the Elliot Lake mines.
See also
Uranium mining in the Bancroft area (Ontario's other main uranium mining area)
Agnew Lake Mine (nearby uranium mine)
Uranium ore deposits
List of uranium mines
List of uranium mines in Ontario
List of mines in Ontario
References
Further reading
Lianne C. Leddy. Serpent River Resurgence: Confronting Uranium Mining at Elliot Lake. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022.
External links
Report of the Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines
Elliot Lake Nuclear Mining Museum
Denison Mines official website
BHP (owner of Rio Algom) official website
Uranium mining in Canada
Mining in Ontario
Former mines in Canada
History of mining in Canada
Mining and the environment
History of Canada (1945–1960)
History of Canada (1960–1981)
History of Canada (1982–1992)
Energy in Ontario
1950s in Ontario
1960s in Ontario
1970s in Ontario
1980s in Ontario
20th century in Ontario
Geology of Ontario
Economy of Canada
Environmental impact of nuclear power
Lung cancer
Nuclear power
Nuclear energy
Nuclear energy in Ontario
Elliot Lake | Uranium mining in the Elliot Lake area | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Technology"
] | 5,097 | [
"Nuclear power",
"Physical quantities",
"Power (physics)",
"Environmental impact of nuclear power",
"Nuclear energy",
"Nuclear physics",
"Radioactivity"
] |
70,589,301 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbide%20chloride | Carbide chlorides are mixed anion compounds containing chloride anions and anions consisting entirely of carbon. In these compounds there is no bond between chlorine and carbon. But there is a bond between a metal and carbon. Many of these compounds are cluster compounds, in which metal atoms encase a carbon core, with chlorine atoms surrounding the cluster. The chlorine may be shared between clusters to form polymers or layers. Most carbide chloride compounds contain rare earth elements. Some are known from group 4 elements. The hexatungsten carbon cluster can be oxidised and reduced, and so have different numbers of chlorine atoms included.
The carbide chlorides are a subset of the halide carbides, with related compounds including the carbide bromides, and carbide iodides. Cluster compounds similar to these carbides, may instead replace carbon with boron, hydrogen, nitrogen or phosphorus.
List
References
Carbides
Chlorides
Mixed anion compounds | Carbide chloride | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 208 | [
"Matter",
"Chlorides",
"Inorganic compounds",
"Mixed anion compounds",
"Salts",
"Ions"
] |
70,590,809 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCX%20score | VCX score is a smartphone camera benchmarking score described as "designed to reflect the user experience regarding the image quality and the performance of a camera in a mobile device". developed by a non-profit organization - VCX-Forum.
VCX scores are used by specialist media and by VCX-Forum members to showcase the benchmarking of smartphones, as well as market photography technology.
VCX scoring methodology has been cited in various published books and independent imaging organizations:
Book: Camera image quality benchmarking
Article in Journal of Electronic Imaging - VCX: An industry initiative to create an objective camera module evaluation for mobile devices.
Article in Journal of Electronic Imaging - VCX Version 2020: Further development of a transparent and objective evaluation scheme for mobile phone cameras.
Service Provider
VCX-Forum (where VCX is an acronym for Valued Camera eXperience) is an independent, non-governmental, standard-setting organization for image quality measurement and benchmarking (VCX score). Its members are drawn from mobile phone manufacturers, mobile operators, imaging labs, mobile and computer chipset manufacturers, sensor manufacturers, device manufacturers, software companies, equipment providers, and camera & accessory manufacturers among others.
VCX-Score methodology
Tenets
VCX score methodologies are based on the 5 Tenets:
VCX-Forum test measurements shall ensure the out-of-the-box experience
VCX-Forum shall remain 100% objective
VCX-Forum shall remain open and transparent
VCX-Forum shall employ an independent imaging lab for testing
VCX-Forum shall seek continuous improvement
Parameters
To ensure the test results accurately reflect the user experience, the image quality is evaluated for five parameters:
Spatial Resolution
Texture loss – the ability of the device to reproduce low contrast, fine details
Sharpening – the ability of the device to sharpen with minimum distracting artifacts
Noise – the ability of the device to suppress noise while minimizing obfuscation of details
Dynamic range – the ability of the device to capture maximum contrast in a scene
Color Reproduction – the ability of the device to capture colors closely matching the original scene
Setup
The device under test is mounted on a tripod on rails to keep the reproduction scale constant between devices under test
The entire lab is temperature-controlled to standard room temperature (23 °C ± 2 °C)
The device under test is expected to:
reproduce reflective test targets like the "TE42-LL" (TE42-LL target in A1066 and A 460 (Selfie) in 4:3 and 16:9);
reproduce transmissive TE269B test target (for dynamic range measurements); and
reproduce test charts while mounted on a hand simulation device (a device which simulates the movement of the human hand to measure the motion stabilization apparatus of the device, based on ISO 20954-2).
The device under test is then used to capture a series of images and video in various controlled lighting conditions
A detailed description of the setup and procedure is available as a whitepaper on the VCX-Forum website. as well as in the book, Camera Image Quality Benchmarking, page 318, section 9.4.3
Labs and testing
Tests and benchmarks are conducted by independent labs. The test procedure, metrics, and weighting are dictated by the standard developed by VCX-Forum.
Benchmark publication
VCX scores are published on the VCX-Forum website. Parts of this publication are often reproduced in specialist media and smartphone vendor social media channels as part of their marketing campaign.
Criticism
Metrics and weighting
VCX-Forum claims that all test measurements must ensure the out-of-the-box experience (Tenet 1 of VCX-Forum) but does not specify what happens when the devices are updated later on.
VCX-Forum claims to be objective (Tenet 2 of VCX-Forum) but uses subjective components for the formation of the weighting itself. This subjective base is claimed to have come from blind tests for which no evidence has been provided on the website.
Despite the claim that VCX is an open and transparent standard (Tenet 3 of VCX-forum), the details of weighting and scoring are only visible to members of the VCX-Forum.
Most measurements are done with the device on a tripod and aimed at test charts. This does not reflect the common user scenario that VCX-Forum claims to reflect.
References
External links
Knowledge management
Free Internet forum software
Technology assessment organisations
Standards organizations based in Europe
International Organization for Standardization
Non-profit organisations based in North Rhine-Westphalia
Digital photography
Photographic lenses
Smartphones
Product testing
Metrics
Benchmarks (computing) | VCX score | [
"Mathematics",
"Technology"
] | 931 | [
"Metrics",
"Technology assessment organisations",
"Quantity",
"Computing comparisons",
"Computer performance",
"Benchmarks (computing)"
] |
54,893,938 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibudinic%20acid | Dibudinic acid, or dibudinate, is an organic compound. It is found in some salts of pharmaceutical drugs like chlordiazepoxide dibudinate, desipramine dibudinate, levopropoxyphene dibudinate, and propranolol dibudinate.
References
Naphthalenes
Sulfonic acids
Tert-butyl compounds | Dibudinic acid | [
"Chemistry"
] | 86 | [
"Functional groups",
"Organic compounds",
"Sulfonic acids",
"Organic compound stubs",
"Organic chemistry stubs"
] |
54,895,550 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-Phase%20Electron%20Microscopy | Liquid-phase electron microscopy (LP EM) refers to a class of methods for imaging specimens in liquid with nanometer spatial resolution using electron microscopy. LP-EM overcomes the key limitation of electron microscopy: since the electron optics requires a high vacuum, the sample must be stable in a vacuum environment. Many types of specimens relevant to biology, materials science, chemistry, geology, and physics, however, change their properties when placed in a vacuum.
The ability to study liquid samples, particularly those involving water, with electron microscopy has been a wish ever since the early days of electron microscopy but technical difficulties prevented early attempts from achieving high resolution. Two basic approaches exist for imaging liquid specimens: i) closed systems, mostly referred to as liquid cell EM (LC EM), and ii) open systems, often referred to as environmental systems. In closed systems, thin windows made of materials such as silicon nitride or graphene are used to enclose a liquid for placement in the microscope vacuum. Closed cells have found widespread use in the past decade due to the availability of reliable window microfabrication technology. Graphene provides the thinnest possible window. The oldest open system that gained widespread usage was environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) of liquid samples on a cooled stage in a vacuum chamber containing a background pressure of vapor. Low vapor pressure liquids such as ionic liquids can also be studied in open systems. LP-EM systems of both open and closed type have been developed for all three main types of electron microscopy, i.e., transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Instruments integrating liquid-phase SEM with light microscopy have also been developed. Electron microscopic observation in liquid has been combined with other analytical methods such as electrochemical measurements and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
The benefit of LP EM is the ability to study samples that do not withstand a vacuum or to study materials properties and reactions requiring liquid conditions. Examples of measurements enabled by this technique are the growth of metallic nanoparticles or structures in liquid, materials changes during the cycling of batteries, electrochemical processes such as metal deposition, dynamics of thin water films and diffusion processes, biomineralization processes, protein dynamics and structure, single-molecule localization of membrane proteins in mammalian cells, and the influence of drugs on receptors in cancer cells.
The spatial resolution achievable can be in the sub-nanometer range and depends on the sample composition, structure and thickness, any window materials present, and the sensitivity of the sample to the electron dose required for imaging. Nanometer resolution is obtained even in micrometers-thick water layers for STEM of nanomaterials of high atomic number. Brownian motion was found to be highly reduced with respect to a bulk liquid. STEM detection is also possible in ESEM for imaging nanomaterials and biological cells in liquid. An important aspect of LP EM is the interaction of the electron beam with the sample since the electron beam initiates a complex sequence of radiolytic reactions in water. Nevertheless, quantitative analysis of LP EM data has yielded unique information in a range of scientific areas.
References
Electron microscopy | Liquid-Phase Electron Microscopy | [
"Chemistry"
] | 655 | [
"Electron",
"Electron microscopy",
"Microscopy"
] |
54,897,841 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladophialophora%20carrionii | Cladophialophora carrionii is a melanized fungus in the genus Cladophialophora that is associated with decaying plant material like cacti and wood. It is one of the most frequent species of Cladophialophora implicated in human disease. Cladophialophora carrionii is a causative agent of chromoblastomycosis, a subcutaneous infection that occurs in sub-tropical areas such as Madagascar, Australia and northwestern Venezuela. Transmission occurs through traumatic implantation of plant material colonized by C. carrionii, mainly infecting rural workers. When C. carrionii infects its host, it transforms from a mycelial state to a muriform state to better tolerate the extreme conditions in the host's body.
Habitat and ecology
Infections by C. carrionii typically arise following traumatic inoculation of material colonized by the fungus. Most infections are reported from dry rural agricultural areas regions. Cladophialophora carrionii is saprotrophic, occurring mainly on decaying plant material such as wood where it produces enzymes that allow it to utilize lignin as a nutrient source. Cladophialophora carrionii is also found in pine trees, eucalyptus fence posts (which are often used in farming to protect crops), soil and dead cactus spines where it derives its nutrition from carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins in the plant tissue.
Morphology
Cladophialophora carrionii is part of a group of melanized fungi, also known as "black yeasts" because its mycelial form has a dark green colour and its conidia have brown pigment. Colonies grow at a modest rate on Sabouraud dextrose agar. The conidia of C. carrionii are unicellular oval-shaped spores that are distinguishable due to the presence of two lightly pigmented scars. Conidia vary in length (1.5-3.0 × 2.0-7.5 μm). Its long conidiophores are similar to the genus Cladosporium, which comes from the Latin word "clado", meaning branched. The genus Cladophialophora is distinguished from Cladosporium because in addition to chains of conidia, members of the genus Cladophialophora also produce phialides. Cladophialophora carrionii is a dimorphic pathogen that changes states from a mycelial form to a muriform, yeast-like state once it invades its host. Muriform cells are golden-brown in colour due to melanin deposition and have thick cell walls.
Growth and reproduction
Like many other black yeasts, C. carrionii is sensitive to temperatures above 37 °C. It can be distinguished in culture by the presence of its urease enzyme hydrolyzing urea and its inability to liquefy gelatin. Altering temperatures or micronutrient levels such as calcium and phosphate affects whether C. carrionii is in the mycelial or muriform state. The fungus transforms to muriform cells under conditions of temperature between 25 °C to 37 °C, 0.1 mM Ca2+, and a pH of 2.5. It produces multiple conidia in long, straight chains that bud off the hyphae, with the youngest conidia farthest from the hyphae. There is no sexual state known for C. carrionii.
Disease in humans
Cladophialophora carrionii can cause a disease called chromoblastomycosis in individuals with a normal functioning immune system, unlike many other pathogenic fungi that can only cause disease in immunocompromised individuals. It is one of the most common agents of chromoblastomycosis. The fungus changes states once it invades the animal host from the mycelial state to muriform cells that spread outward radially. This dimorphism has been suggested to increase the tolerance of C. carrionii to extreme conditions, such as the high temperature and acidity in the human body. Muriform cells increase cell number by septum formation within the hyphae, rather than by budding.
Chromoblastomycosis results in subcutaneous, crusty lesions that can spread over large areas on different parts of the body such as the legs, arms and face. If not treated, the lesions continue to increase in size over the body, but do not usually pose a risk of mortality. As the lesions grow, they can take on multiple forms that resemble nodes, tumours (resemble cauliflowers), and plaques. Infection causes inflammation of the leg or foot tissue, resulting in granulomas.
Epidemiology
Chromoblastomycosis is found worldwide, most prominently in tropical and sub-tropical regions such as Mexico, Madagascar, Brazil, China, and Malaysia but some cases have been reported in the United States and Europe. Cladophialophora carrionii causes only a minor subset of chromoblastomycosis cases, most notably in drier locations such as Madagascar, Australia and northwestern Venezuela, which are rife with plants inhabited by the fungus. Many cases of chromoblastomycosis cases target males over the age of thirty because they are predominant in the agricultural industry in rural areas, where deforestation must be carried out to provide agricultural land and they directly work with the plants that are commonly colonized by C. carrionii.
Pathogenesis and treatment
Chromoblastomycosis infection occurs by subcutaneous puncture by a thorn or splinter that is infected with C. carrionii, such as decaying cacti and wood. Scratching at the lesions worsens the infection by spreading the fungus over larger and distal areas of the body. Field workers who work without foot protection or clothing covering legs and arms are at greater risk for inoculation by material colonized by C. carrionii. Immunocompromised individuals are also at risk, because the ability to produce antibodies against fungal proteins is critical in minimizing fungal pathogenicity and C. carrionii may penetrate deeper into muscle and bone layers if the patient is immunosuppressed. Even if an individual is immunocompetent, they may be at risk if they carry the HLA-A29 antigen, since its presence may increase an individual's susceptibility to contracting chromoblastomycosis. Histology tests from a skin biopsy can identify muriform cells that are commonly found in chromoblastomycosis. Identifying the specific agent that caused chromoblastomycosis can be done by PCR assays or culturing the fungus by growing it on an agar plate and observing the colony morphology and sporulation characteristics. However, C. carrionii grows quite slowly in culture, so significant results cannot be obtained until after 4–6 weeks of incubation.
During infection, the immune system of the host attempts to eliminate the fungus via engulfment and degradation by macrophages and neutrophils, which function in the innate immune system. The adaptive immune system also plays a role by activating cells such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), the type of IL specifically produced with C. carrionii infection, but it may have negative consequences for eradicating the fungus. It is postulated that the presence of melanin in black yeasts like C. carrionii contributes to pathogenicity because it strengthens the fungal cell wall and can neutralize the enzymes produced in macrophages that normally function to break down targeted cells.
Minor cases of chromoblastomycosis can be resolved by surgery or antifungal medications. Cold therapy (cryosurgery) by applying cool liquid nitrogen onto lesions can be effective if combined with antifungal therapy and chemotherapy. More serious cases must be treated for a prolonged period of time (6 to 12 months) with the antifungals itraconazole and terbinafine. Antifungals have a wide range of effectiveness, curing between 15-80% of cases. However, C. carrionii is sensitive to commonly used antifungals so cure rates are higher than seen in chromoblastomycosis infections caused by Fonsecaea pedrosoi. Treatments less effective if the infection is chronic, resulting in high relapse rates.
References
Fungi described in 1954
Mycosis-related cutaneous conditions
Eurotiomycetes
Fungus species | Cladophialophora carrionii | [
"Biology"
] | 1,795 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
54,898,326 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladosporium%20sphaerospermum | Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a radiotrophic fungus belonging to the genus Cladosporium and was described in 1886 by Albert Julius Otto Penzig from the decaying leaves and branches of Citrus. It is a dematiaceous (darkly-pigmented) fungus characterized by slow growth and largely asexual reproduction. Cladosporium sphaerospermum consists of a complex of poorly morphologically differentiated, "cryptic" species that share many physiological and ecological attributes. In older literature, all of these sibling species were classified as C. sphaerospermum despite their unique nature. Accordingly, there is confusion in older literature reports on the physiological and habitat regularities of C. sphaerospermum in the strict sense. This fungus is most phylogenetically similar to C. fusiforme. According to modern phylogenetic analyses, the previously synonymized species, Cladosporium langeroni, is a distinct species.
Growth and morphology
The hyphae of Cladosporium sphaerospermum are thick walled, septate, and olivaceous-brown in colour. Colonies of the fungus are velvety in texture and flattened (i.e., rarely raised, fluffy, or radially furrowed). C. sphaerospermum conidiophores are branched, septate, and dark, up to 150–300 μm long and 3.5–4.0 μm wide. The structure of the conidiophores are tree-like, a prominent feature of the genus Cladosporium. Unlike other related species, the conidiophores of this species lack swollen nodes at the branching points. Conidia of this species are characteristically globose to ellipsoid with a diameter of 3.4–4.0 μm. The conidia are formed in branching chains in which the youngest conidium is situated at the top. Cladosporium sphaerospermum also produces ramoconidia 6–14 × 3.5–4.0 μm in length and this feature can be used as a method of distinguishing between similar species. Ramoconidia are conidia found at the branching points joining multiple spore chains and can be recognized by one end having a single attachment scar and the other end having two or more attachment scars. Cladosporium sphaerospermum is also a psychrophilic fungus, known to grow at temperatures as low as with an upper limit of and no growth at . The optimal temperature this fungus grows under is . This fungus is xerotolerant as it can thrive in environments with low water activity caused by high salinity (halotolerant) or other dissolved solutes. This fungus has been observed to grow in as low as 0.815 aw (water activity) in vitro.
Physiology
Cladosporium sphaerospermum is considered a saprotroph and is a secondary invader of dead or dying plant tissue. Energy is provided through the conversion of starch, cellulose, and sucrose to alcohol and carbon dioxide. However, it has been shown in a laboratory environment that these fungi are able to successfully grow with toluene as the sole source of carbon. This trait may have arisen because these fungi and many others from the genus Cladosporium are secondary colonizers and frequently dwell in environments poor in nutrients. Cladosporium sphaerospermum is able to enhance polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation in soils due to reactive oxygen species produced as secondary metabolites, such as H2O2. This species is a prolific producer of the pigmented secondary metabolite, melanin, thought to serve as a protective mechanism against UV irradiation, enzymatic lysis, oxidant attack, and fungal infections from other competing fungi. A method that can be used to determine the presence of this fungus on a background of other organic material is through the KOH test which stains the fungus. The addition of lactophenol blue with this test turns the chitin in the cell wall blue but leaves the budding conidia and globular conidiophores with their characteristic brown colouring. The first draft sequence of the C. sphaerospermum genome was created in 2012. Genes were identified that are involved in the dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN)-melanin biosynthesis pathway which confirms the etiology of melanin in this species. Genes associated with the production of allergens were also identified as well as those conferring resistance to various antifungal drugs.
Habitat and ecology
Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a cosmopolitan fungus that inhabits city buildings and the environment and because of its airborne nature it can move rapidly between locations, though the extent of this is lacking in research. It is found in hypersaline environments in Mediterranean and tropical climates, as well as soil and plant environments in temperate climates. The indoor presence of this fungus can signify there is a condensation problem within the building such as on bathroom walls and in kitchens. Cladosporium sphaerospermum has also been shown to inhabit paint films on walls and other surfaces as well as old paintings. This fungus is also able to grow on gypsum-based material with and without paint and wallpaper. Plant materials that are affected include citrus leaves on various other decaying plant leaves, on the stems of herbaceous and woody plants, on fruits and vegetables. The fungus has also been reported from wheat-based bakery items.
Human health
Cladosporium sphaerospermum is mainly known as a spoilage agent of harvested fruits and vegetables. There are very few reports implicating this species as a disease agent in humans. It is known as an allergen and mainly causes problems in patients with respiratory tract diseases as well as subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis and intrabronchial lesions in immunocompetent individuals caused by many dematiaceous fungi. It has been reported rarely from skin, eye, sinus, and brain infections. There has been one reported case in which a female patient developed swelling on the dorsum of her hand which, after testing with Grocott's methenamine silver stain and lactophenol cotton blue, confirmed the presence of dematiaceous hyphae compatible with C. sphaerospermum. Another case in which identified was where it caused cerebral phaeohyphomycosis but this was treated successfully and the symptoms were abated. Cladosporium sphaerospermum produces allergenic compounds but is not known to produce significant mycotoxins.
Plant growth stimulant
In 2020 the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it had found evidence that a certain strain of the fungus has a positive effect on plant growth. In a study using tobacco and pepper plants, they found that "Cladosporium sphaerospermum strain TC09, can dramatically accelerate plant growth if a germinating plant is near the fungus as it emits volatiles or gases."
Protection against radiation
An experiment has been made at the International Space Station in December 2018 and January 2019 to test whether radiotrophic fungi could be used as protection against radiation, especially in space. The experiment used Cladosporium sphaerospermum. Results were prepublished for peer-review in July 2020. During the 30 day study the amount of radiation reduction beneath a 1.7 mm thick layer of fungus at full maturity was measured to be 2.17±0.35%. Estimates of a 21 cm thick layer of the fungus indicate it could attenuate the annual dose from the radiation on the surface of Mars.
References
sphaerospermum
Fungi described in 1882
Taxa named by Albert Julius Otto Penzig
Fungus species | Cladosporium sphaerospermum | [
"Biology"
] | 1,627 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
54,898,827 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%204340 | NGC 4340 is a double-barred lenticular galaxy located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. NGC 4340 was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on March 21, 1784. NGC 4340 is a member of the Virgo Cluster. NGC 4340 is generally thought to be in a pair with the galaxy NGC 4350.
Physical characteristics
NGC 4340 has a small inner bar embedded in a luminous stellar nuclear ring. Even though the ring is luminous, there are no star-forming regions. Instead, the ring is made of mostly old stars in a gas-poor environment. The color of the ring is the same as the color of the surrounding bulge suggesting that it is probably an old, “fossil” remnant of an earlier episode of star-formation. Crossing the inner ring, there is a larger primary bar with ansae at the ends. Careful inspection shows that the two bars are slightly misaligned, which suggests they may be independently rotating. The larger primary bar connects to another ring that surrounds the central regions of the galaxy.
Supernova
One supernova has been observed in NGC 4340: SN1977A (type unknown, mag. 16.2) was discovered by Piotr Grigor'evich Kulikovsky on 27 January 1977.
See also
List of NGC objects (4001–5000)
References
External links
Barred lenticular galaxies
Coma Berenices
4340
Virgo Cluster
40245
7467
17840321
Discoveries by William Herschel | NGC 4340 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 310 | [
"Coma Berenices",
"Constellations"
] |
54,899,655 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20craters%20on%20minor%20planets | This is a list of all named craters on minor planets in the Solar System as named by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. In addition tentatively named craters—such as those of Pluto—may also be referred to. The number of craters is given in parentheses. For a full list of all craters, see list of craters in the Solar System.
Images
Arrokoth (1)
Ceres (90)
Eros (37)
Gaspra (31)
Ida (21)
Itokawa (10)
Lutetia (19)
Mathilde (23)
Pluto (14)
Šteins (23)
Vesta (90) | List of craters on minor planets | [
"Astronomy"
] | 131 | [
"Astronomy-related lists",
"Lists of impact craters"
] |
54,899,820 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid%20Red%2013 | Acid Red 13 is an azo dye. It is produced as a sodium salt. Solid samples appear dark red.
References
Azo dyes
Organic sodium salts
Naphthalenesulfonates
2-Naphthols | Acid Red 13 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 46 | [
"Organic sodium salts",
"Salts"
] |
54,899,959 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20craters%20in%20the%20Solar%20System | This is a list of officially named craters in the Solar System as named by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. As of 2017, there is a total of 5,223 craters on 40 astronomical bodies, which includes minor planets (asteroids and dwarf planets), planets, and natural satellites. All geological features of a body (including craters) are typically named after a specific theme. For completeness, the list also refers to the craters on , which naming process is not overseen by IAU's WGPSN.
Amalthea (2)
Ariel (17)
Arrokoth (1)
Callisto (141)
Ceres (90)
Charon (6)
Dactyl (2)
Deimos (2)
Dione (73)
Earth (190)
Enceladus (53)
Epimetheus (2)
Eros (37)
Europa (41)
Ganymede (131)
Dropped or not approved names
Gaspra (31)
Hyperion (4)
Iapetus (58)
Ida (21)
Itokawa (10)
Janus (4)
Lutetia (19)
Mars (1092)
Mathilde (23)
Mercury (397)
Mimas (35)
Miranda (7)
Moon (1624)
Oberon (9)
Phobos (17)
Phoebe (24)
Pluto (14)
Proteus (1)
Puck (3)
Rhea (128)
Steins (23)
Tethys (50)
Thebe (1)
Titan (11)
Titania (15)
Triton (9)
Umbriel (13)
Venus (900)
Vesta (90)
See also
List of largest craters in the Solar System
References
External links
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) | List of craters in the Solar System | [
"Astronomy"
] | 375 | [
"Astronomy-related lists",
"Lists of impact craters"
] |
54,900,921 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary%20Lou%20Zeeman | Mary Lou Zeeman is a British mathematician at Bowdoin College in the United States, where she is R. Wells Johnson Professor of Mathematics. She specializes in dynamical systems and their application to mathematical biology; she helped found the SIAM Activity Group on the Mathematics of Planet Earth, and co-directs the Mathematics and Climate Research Network.
Zeeman is the daughter of British mathematician Christopher Zeeman.
She was educated at the University of Oxford, and earned her PhD in 1989 from the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Morris Hirsch. Before moving to Bowdoin in 2006, she spent 15 years on the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio.
References
External links
Home page
Year of birth missing (living people)
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century British mathematicians
20th-century American women mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
21st-century British mathematicians
21st-century American women mathematicians
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Bowdoin College faculty
British women mathematicians
Theoretical biologists
Living people
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
University of Texas at San Antonio faculty | Mary Lou Zeeman | [
"Biology"
] | 214 | [
"Bioinformatics",
"Theoretical biologists"
] |
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