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56,520,251 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pubovaginal%20muscle | The pubovaginal muscle is a pelvic floor muscle that attaches to the muscles of lateral walls of the midsection of the vagina and the pubis. It is relatively short compared to the other levator ani muscles and extends between the pubic bones and the vagina. Other muscles that are part of the levator ani are: the pubococcygeus muscle which is made up of the puboperineal, pubovaginal, and puboanal muscles; the puborectal muscle; and the iliococcygeal muscle. The pubovaginal muscle was identified by anatomists as early as 1912.
References
External links
Muscles of the torso
Pelvis
Sexual anatomy
Vagina | Pubovaginal muscle | [
"Biology"
] | 150 | [
"Sexual anatomy",
"Sex"
] |
56,520,281 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%20Foster%20Nye | William Foster Nye (May 20, 1824 – August 12, 1910) was an American businessman and founder of a lubricating oil business in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which is still in existence today and known as Nye Lubricants. He was a relative of Bill Nye of Bill Nye the Science Guy fame.
Life and career
Nye was born in the village of Pocasset (at the time considered part of the town of Sandwich), one of the eight children of Syrena née Dimmock and Ebenezer Nye. His family was descended from Benjamin Nye who had emigrated from England in 1635 and settled in Massachusetts where he eventually built and operated a sawmill near Sandwich.
At the age of 16 Nye was apprenticed to Prince Weeks, a master builder in New Bedford. On finishing his apprenticeship, he worked for a pipe organ-building company in Boston and then spent three years in Calcutta as a carpenter for the Frederic Tudor Ice Company. On his return to Massachusetts he married Mary Keith on May 20, 1851. Nye then sailed to California, crossing the Isthmus of Panama on foot, and arriving in San Francisco shortly after the Fire of 1851 which had destroyed much of the city. He worked in the re-building of the city for several years, helping to construct some of San Francisco's first brick buildings.
In 1855, Nye returned to New Bedford and set up an oil and kerosene business which he operated until the outbreak of the American Civil War when he joined the Union Army as a sutler to the Massachusetts Artillery and the 4th Massachusetts Cavalry. He was with the advance guard of the cavalry when it entered Richmond, Virginia in 1865 and set up a trading post there in one of the city's remaining brick buildings. For a time he was the sole tradesman operating in Richmond. After his regiment was mustered out in November 1865 Nye returned to New Bedford and began developing the lubricant oil business for which he became principally known.
Nye's oil business, originally run out of small rented premises in Fairhaven, focused primarily on highly refined lubricant oils for watches, clocks, typewriters, sewing machines, and bicycles. In the late 1860s he acquired an entire catch of 2,200 pilot whales which would supply the raw material for his lubricating oils for several years. He expanded the business in 1877 with the purchase of a large brick building on Fish Island which became its principal refinery. By 1888, his company had become one of the world's largest suppliers of refined lubricant oils. In 1896 Nye absorbed Ezra Kelley's oil company, his main rival. He remained actively involved in the business until shortly before his death in 1910 at the age of 86.
Nye's son, Joseph Keith Nye (1858–1923) worked extensively with his father, patented several inventions for the improvement of the refining process, and took over the company after his father's death. After Joseph's death in 1923, the business was acquired by his associate Anderson W. Kelley. It was subsequently acquired by the Mock family in 1956 and still operates today under the name Nye Lubricants.
A keen believer in spiritualism, Nye had been one of the founders and most active promoters of the Onset Bay Grove Association. Their summer retreat, Onset Bay Grove, built by the association in the late 1870s, claimed to be the "largest community of spiritualism yet formed in the fifty years history of its teachings." In his later years Nye said of his beliefs:
That I am a spiritualist must be to those I leave behind me the touch that withers my memory or the ever living archway about which they can entwine earth's fragrant flowers and through which they may in gladness follow me to the evergreen shore.
Nye is buried with his wife Mary in Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven.
Notes
References
1824 births
1910 deaths
American manufacturing businesspeople
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
People from Sandwich, Massachusetts
19th-century American businesspeople
Tribologists | William Foster Nye | [
"Materials_science"
] | 829 | [
"Tribology",
"Tribologists"
] |
56,520,290 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral%20Point%20Clamped | Neutral point clamped (NPC) inverters are widely used topology of multilevel inverters in high-power applications. This kind of inverters are able to be used for up to several megawatts applications. See links for more information.
See also
Active power filter
Synchronverter
References
Power electronics | Neutral Point Clamped | [
"Engineering"
] | 68 | [
"Electronic engineering",
"Power electronics"
] |
56,523,254 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic%20Combinatorics%20%28journal%29 | Algebraic Combinatorics is a peer-reviewed diamond open access mathematical journal specializing in the field of algebraic combinatorics. Established in 2018, the journal is published by the Centre Mersenne. It is a member of the Free Journal Network.
History
The journal was established in 2018, when the editorial board of the Springer Science+Business Media Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics resigned to protest the publisher's high prices and limited accessibility. The board criticized Springer for "double-dipping", that is, charging large subscription fees to libraries in addition to high fees for authors who wished to make their publications open access.
Operations
Algebraic Combinatorics operates on a diamond open access model, in which publication costs are underwritten by voluntary contributions from universities, foundations, and other organizations. Authors do not pay submission fees or article processing charges. All content is published under a Creative Commons license.
The journal's editors-in-chief are Akihiro Munemasa (Tohoku University), Satoshi Murai (Waseda University), Hendrik Van Maldeghem (Ghent University), Brendon Rhoades (University of California, San Diego), and David Speyer (University of Michigan).
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Web of Science, Directory of Open Access Journals, Scopus, Mathematical Reviews, and zbMath.
References
External links
Academic journals established in 2018
Combinatorics journals
5 times per year journals
Open access journals
Creative Commons-licensed journals | Algebraic Combinatorics (journal) | [
"Mathematics"
] | 308 | [
"Combinatorics journals",
"Combinatorics"
] |
56,523,750 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoalanine | Cyanoalanine (more accurately β-Cyano-L-alanine) is an amino acid with the formula NCCH2CH(NH2)CO2H. Like most amino acids, it exists as a tautomer NCCH2CH(NH3+)CO2−. It is a rare example of a nitrile-containing amino acid. It is a white, water-soluble solid. It can be found in common vetch seeds.
Cyanoalanine arises in nature by the action of cyanide on cysteine catalyzed by L-3-cyanoalanine synthase:
HSCH2CH(NH2)CO2H + HCN → NCCH2CH(NH2)CO2H + H2S
It is converted to aspartic acid and asparagine enzymatically.
References
Alpha-Amino acids
Nitriles | Cyanoalanine | [
"Chemistry"
] | 187 | [
"Nitriles",
"Functional groups"
] |
56,524,376 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen%20DNA%20barcoding | Pollen DNA barcoding is the process of identifying pollen donor plant species through the amplification and sequencing of specific, conserved regions of plant DNA. Being able to accurately identify pollen has a wide range of applications though it has been difficult in the past due to the limitations of microscopic identification of pollen.
Pollen identified using DNA barcoding involves the specific targeting of gene regions that are found in most to all plant species but have high variation between members of different species. The unique sequence of base pairs for each species within these target regions can be used as an identifying feature.
The applications of pollen DNA barcoding range from forensics, to food safety, to conservation. Each of these fields benefits from the creation of plant barcode reference libraries. These libraries range largely in size and scope of their collections as well as what target region(s) they specialize in.
One of the main challenges of identifying pollen is that it is often collected as a mixture of pollen from several species. Metabarcoding is the process of identifying the individual species DNA from a mixed DNA sample and is commonly used to catalog pollen in mixed pollen loads found on pollinating animals and in environmental DNA (also called eDNA) which is DNA extracted straight from the environment such as in soil or water samples.
Advantages
Some of the principle constraints of microscopic identification are the expertise and time requirements. Identifying pollen via microscopy requires a high level of expertise in the pollen characteristics of the specific plants being studied. With expertise it can still be extremely difficult to identify pollen accurately with high taxonomic resolution. The skills required to do DNA barcoding are much more common making the approach easier to adopt. Pollen DNA barcoding is a technique that has grown in popularity due to the decreased costs associated with "next generation sequencing" (NGS) techniques and is being continually improved in efficiency including through the use of a dual-indexing approach. Some of the other major advantages include the savings in time and resources compared to microscopic identification. Identifying pollen is time-consuming, involving spreading pollen on a slide, staining the pollen to improve visibility, then focusing in on individual pollen grains and identifying them based on size, shape, as well as the shape and number of pores. If a pollen reference library is not available, then pollen has to be collected from wild specimens or from herbarium specimens and is then added to a pollen reference library.
Rare plants visited by some pollinators can be difficult to determine, by using pollen DNA barcoding researchers can uncover "invisible" interactions between plants and pollinators.
Challenges
There are many challenges when it comes to genetic barcoding of pollen. The amplification process of DNA can mean that even small pieces of plant DNA can be detected included those from contaminants to a sample. Strict procedures to prevent contamination are important and can be facilitated by the hardiness of the pollen coat allowing the pollen to be washed of contaminants without damaging the internal pollen DNA.
DNA barcode reference libraries are still being built and standardized target regions are being gradually adopted. These challenges are likely due to the newness of DNA barcoding and will likely improve with the wider adoption of DNA barcoding as a tool used by taxonomists.
Determining the amount of each contributor to a mixed pollen load can be difficult to determine through the use of DNA barcoding. However, scientists have been able to compare pollen amounts via rank order.
Alternatives
Innovations in automated microscopy and imagining software offer one potential alternative in the identification of pollen. Through the use of pattern-recognition software, researchers have developed software that can characterize microscopic pollen images based on texture analyzes.
Target regions
There have been several different regions of plant DNA that have been used as targets for genetic barcoding including rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, ITS1 and ITS2. A combination of rbcL and matK has been recommended for use in plant DNA barcoding. It has been found that trnL is better for degraded DNA and ITS1 is better for differentiating species within a genus.
Applications
Use in pollination networks
Being able to identify pollen is especially important in the study of pollination networks which are made up of all the interactions between plants and the animals that facilitate their pollination. Identifying the pollen carried on insects helps scientists understand what plants are being visited by which insects. Insects can also have homologous features making them difficult to identify and are themselves sometimes identified through genetic barcoding (usually of the CO1 region). Every insect that visits a flower is not necessarily a pollinator. Many lack features such as hairs allowing them to carry pollen while others avoid the pollen-laden anthers to steal nectar. Pollination networks are made more accurate by including what pollen is being carried by which insects. Some scientists argue that pollination effectiveness (PE), which is measured by studying the germination rates of seeds produced from flowers visited only once by a single animal, is the best way to determine which animals are important pollinators though other scientists have used DNA barcoding to determine the genetic origin of pollen found on insects and have argued that this in conjunction with other traits is a good indication of pollination effectiveness. By studying the composition and structure of pollination networks, conservationists can understand the stability of a pollination network and identify which species are most important and which are at most risk to perturbation leading to pollinator declines.
Another advantage of pollen DNA barcoding is that it can be used to determine the source of pollen found on museum specimens of insects, and these records of insect-plant interactions can then be compared to modern-day interactions to see how pollination networks have changed over time due to global warming, land use change, and other factors.
Forensics
Being accurately able to identify pollen found on evidence helps forensic investigators identify which regions evidence originated from based on the plants that are endemic to those regions. In addition to this, atmospheric pollen originating from illegal cannabis farms were successfully detected by scientists which in the future could allow law enforcement officials to narrow down the search areas for illegal farms.
Ancient pollen
Due to the hardy structure of pollen which has evolved to survive being transported sometimes great distances while keeping the internal genetic information intact, the origin of pollen found mixed in ancient substrates can often be determined through DNA barcoding.
Food safety
Honeybees carry pollen as well as the nectar used in their production of honey. For food quality and safety concerns it is important to understand the plant providence of human-consumed bee products including honey, royal jelly, and pollen pellets. Investigators can test which plants honeybees foraged on and thus the origin of the nectar used in honey by collecting pollen packets from honeybees' corbicular loads and identify the pollen via DNA metabarcoding.
See also
Aeroplankton
References
Bioinformatics
Molecular genetics
Palynology
DNA barcoding | Pollen DNA barcoding | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering",
"Biology"
] | 1,394 | [
"Genetics techniques",
"Biological engineering",
"DNA barcoding",
"Bioinformatics",
"Molecular genetics",
"Molecular biology",
"Phylogenetics"
] |
56,524,845 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conyza%20schlechtendalii | Conyza schlechtendalii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.
Distribution and ecology
Conyza schlechtendalii only occurs in a small area on the island of São Nicolau. It grows between 500 and 600 metres elevations and in humid areas. The estimated number of individuals is less than 50.
References
Astereae
Endemic flora of Cape Verde
Flora of São Nicolau, Cape Verde | Conyza schlechtendalii | [
"Biology"
] | 109 | [
"Biological hypotheses",
"Controversial taxa",
"Unplaced names"
] |
56,525,552 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary%20flow | In the larger context of the Navier-Stokes equations (and especially in the context of potential theory), elementary flows are basic flows that can be combined, using various techniques, to construct more complex flows. In this article the term "flow" is used interchangeably with the term "solution" due to historical reasons.
The techniques involved to create more complex solutions can be
for example by superposition, by techniques such as topology or considering them as local solutions on a certain neighborhood, subdomain or boundary layer and to be patched together. Elementary flows can be considered the basic building blocks (fundamental solutions, local solutions and solitons) of the different types of equations derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. Some of the flows reflect specific constraints such as incompressible or irrotational flows, or both, as in the case of potential flow, and some of the flows may be limited to the case of two dimensions.
Due to the relationship between fluid dynamics and field theory, elementary flows are relevant not only to aerodynamics but to all field theory in general. To put it in perspective boundary layers can be interpreted as topological defects on generic manifolds, and considering fluid dynamics analogies and limit cases in electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and general relativity one can see how all these solutions are at the core of recent developments in theoretical physics such as the ads/cft duality, the SYK model, the physics of nematic liquids, strongly correlated systems and even to quark gluon plasmas.
Two-dimensional uniform flow
For steady-state, spatially uniform flow of a fluid in the plane, the velocity vector is
where
is the absolute magnitude of the velocity (i.e., );
is the angle the velocity vector makes with the positive axis ( is positive for angles measured in a counterclockwise sense from the positive axis); and
and are the unit basis vectors of the coordinate system.
Because this flow is incompressible (i.e., ) and two-dimensional, its velocity can be expressed in terms of a stream function, :
where
and is a constant.
In cylindrical coordinates:
and
This flow is irrotational (i.e., ) so its velocity can be expressed in terms of a potential function, :
where
and is a constant.
In cylindrical coordinates
Two-dimensional line source
The case of a vertical line emitting at a fixed rate a constant quantity of fluid Q per unit length is a line source. The problem has a cylindrical symmetry and can be treated in two dimensions on the orthogonal plane.
Line sources and line sinks (below) are important elementary flows because they play the role of monopole for incompressible fluids (which can also be considered examples of solenoidal fields i.e. divergence free fields). Generic flow patterns can be also de-composed in terms of multipole expansions, in the same manner as for electric and magnetic fields where the monopole is essentially the first non-trivial (e.g. constant) term of the expansion.
This flow pattern is also both irrotational and incompressible.
This is characterized by a cylindrical symmetry:
Where the total outgoing flux is constant
Therefore,
This is derived from a stream function
or from a potential function
Two-dimensional line sink
The case of a vertical line absorbing at a fixed rate a constant quantity of fluid Q per unit length is a line sink. Everything is the same as the case of a line source a part from the negative sign.
This is derived from a stream function
or from a potential function
Given that the two results are the same a part from a minus sign we can treat transparently both line sources and line sinks with the same stream and potential functions permitting Q to assume both positive and negative values and absorbing the minus sign into the definition of Q.
Two-dimensional doublet or dipole line source
If we consider a line source and a line sink at a distance d we can reuse the results above and the stream function will be
The last approximation is to the first order in d.
Given
It remains
The velocity is then
And the potential instead
Two-dimensional vortex line
This is the case of a vortex filament rotating at constant speed, there is a cylindrical symmetry and the problem can be solved in the orthogonal plane.
Dual to the case above of line sources, vortex lines play the role of monopoles for irrotational flows.
Also in this case the flow is also both irrotational and incompressible and therefore a case of potential flow.
This is characterized by a cylindrical symmetry:
Where the total circulation is constant for every closed line around the central vortex
and is zero for any line not including the vortex.
Therefore,
This is derived from a stream function
or from a potential function
Which is dual to the previous case of a line source
Generic two-dimensional potential flow
Given an incompressible two-dimensional flow which is also irrotational we have:
Which is in cylindrical coordinates
We look for a solution with separated variables:
which gives
Given the left part depends only on r and the right parts depends only on , the two parts must be equal to a constant independent from r and . The constant shall be positive.
Therefore,
The solution to the second equation is a linear combination of and
In order to have a single-valued velocity (and also a single-valued stream function) m shall be a positive integer.
therefore the most generic solution is given by
The potential is instead given by
References
Specific
Further reading
External links
Fluid dynamics | Elementary flow | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 1,124 | [
"Piping",
"Chemical engineering",
"Fluid dynamics"
] |
56,525,980 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadya%20Mason | Nadya Mason is dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at The University of Chicago, receiving that appointment in October 2023. Prior to joining The University of Chicago, she was the Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a condensed matter experimentalist, she works on the quantum limits of low-dimensional systems. Mason was the Director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC), and Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology from September 2022 through September 2023. She was the first woman and woman of color to work as the director at the institute. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Early life and education
As she described herself in interview, Mason was born in New York City, and lived in Brooklyn for the first six years of her life; after that, she grew up in Washington, D.C. before moving to Houston. As described to Aubrie Williams in interview, Mason spent from ages 7–16 ("most of my childhood") involved in gymnastics at a highly competitive level, making the Junior National Team at age 13, and ranking 27th nationally at age 15. This period of intensive training included a year (1986) spent with Bela Karolyi, a demanding course she ultimately set aside to pursue science.
Mason completed a bachelor's degree at Harvard University in 1995, and a PhD under Aharon Kapitulnik at Stanford University in 2001. Mason always enjoyed math and science, and completed several science-focused internships during her education, including a fellowship in condensed matter at Bell Laboratories.
Career
Mason returned to Harvard as a MRSEC Postdoctoral Fellow in 2001, where she was elected junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. In 2005, Mason joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as an assistant professor. In 2014 she was appointed a John Bardeen Faculty Scholar in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In 2016 she was promoted to full Professor. As of 2018, Mason was a General Councillor for the American Physical Society.
On October 1, 2023, Mason was appointed Dean of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, succeeding Matthew J. Tirrell.
Research
In 2006, Mason was on a team that was first to demonstrate the non-equilibrium Kondo effect, and in 2011 she was on a team that observed individual superconducting bound states in graphene-based systems.
In the 2014-2018 period, Mason's research focused on carbon nanotubes, graphene, nanostructured semiconductors and topological insulators. In these systems she has concentrated on electron interactions, and how to apply her understanding to quantum computing.
Service and outreach
As of 2017, Mason was Chair of the APS Committee on Minorities, and was featured by the National Society of Black Physicists for Black History Month in 2017. Also in 2017, she discussed the limit on the size of electronics and impact of novel nanomaterials on the "Saturday Physics for Everyone 2017" program of the UIUC YouTube channel.
In November 2019, Mason gave a TED talk called, "How to spark your creativity, scientifically."
Honors and awards
2021 - Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the US National Academy of Sciences
2020 - Edward A. Bouchet Award, American Physical Society
2018 - Fellow, American Physical Society
2013 - Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
2012 - Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, American Physical Society
2009 - Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards
2008 - Diverse Magazine "Emerging Scholar"
2007 - National Science Foundation CAREER award
Mason is also described as having been named a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellow, the dates of which is unclear from the sources.
Personal life
As of a September 2011 interview, Mason was indicated as being married (husband, Dillon), and having two daughters.
References
Living people
American women physicists
Women materials scientists and engineers
Superconductivity scientists and engineers
Harvard University alumni
Stanford University alumni
U.S. women's national team gymnasts
Year of birth missing (living people)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
21st-century American women
Fellows of the American Physical Society | Nadya Mason | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 895 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
56,526,740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward%20Je%C5%82owicki | Edward Bożeniec Jełowicki born 1803 in Hubnik now in Western Ukraine, died 10 November 1848 in Vienna, was a Polish landowner, decorated Colonel in the Polish army, insurgent, officer in the Foreign Legion and commander of the Vienna artillery. He was an engineer and inventor.
Biography
Family
Descended from Ruthenian aristocracy, his family had been integrated into the Polish Szlachta and converted from Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism during the Republic of Two Nations. Edward was the eldest son of Wacław Jełowicki and his wife Franciszka née Izdebska. He had two younger brothers, the publisher, writer and priest, Aleksander and Eustachy and a sister, Hortensja, who married Piotr Sobański.
Career
An alumnus of the Vienna Theresian Military Academy, he was elected Marshal of the Haisyn district. He took a leading part in the November Uprising in Ukraine, with his father and two brothers, until its undoing in 1831 when with his younger brother, Aleksander, he evaded capture by escaping into Austria-Hungary. After much travel across Europe and Algeria, he pursued further studies at the postgraduate École d’état-major in Paris and the Ecole Centrale Paris. In 1836 during a quiet spell in London, he designed and took out two British Patents on his Steam turbine, one being in England. The other patent was granted in Edinburgh for "certain improvements to his steam engine", on 16 July 1836.
Back in Paris he frequented Adam Mickiewicz, whose Paris publisher was Edward's brother, Aleksander Jełowicki. Like his brother, he was also a friend of Frederic Chopin.
Caught up in the Spring of Nations that swept over Europe in 1848, he was executed in Vienna on the order of Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz. He left a widow and two children.
Distinctions
Order of Virtuti Militari
Légion d'Honneur
See also
Jełowicki family
Great Emigration
References
Further reading
Joseph Straszewicz (1839). Les Polonais et les Polonaises de la révolution du 29 novembre 1830 - biographie, Paris: chez l'Editeur, rue des Colombiers, 12, pp.1-10. (in French).
Polytechnisches Journal. 63. Band, Jahrgang 1837, N.F. 13. Band, Hefte 1-6 komplett. (= 18. Jahrgang, 1.-6. Heft ). Eine Zeitschrift zur Verbreitung gemeinnüziger Kenntnisse im Gebiete der Naturwissenschaft, der Chemie, der Pharmacie, der Mechanik, der Manufakturen, Fabriken, Künste, Gewerbe, der Handlung, der Haus- und Landwirthschaft etc. Herausgegeben von Johann Gottfried und Emil Maximilian Dingler.
Polytechnisches Journal. Hrsg. v. Johann Gottfried Dingler, Emil Maximilian Dingler und Julius Hermann Schultes:
Published by Stuttgart in der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung (1837)., 1837 (in German)
External links
The Gocla collection Museum of Warsaw has a bronze medallion of Edward Jełowicki
British Museum information entry
- Genealogy of Edward Jełowicki in Polish
1803 births
1848 deaths
People from Vinnytsia Oblast
Dukes of Poland
Polish nobility
Members of Polish government (November Uprising)
Activists of the Great Emigration
Polish Army officers
École Centrale Paris alumni
Polish exiles
Polish inventors
Mechanical engineers
Polish Roman Catholics
Recipients of the Virtuti Militari
Executed Polish people
19th-century executions by Austria
Polish recipients of the Legion of Honour
Engineers from the Austrian Empire | Edward Jełowicki | [
"Engineering"
] | 789 | [
"Mechanical engineers",
"Mechanical engineering"
] |
56,527,569 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation%20and%20restoration%20of%20photographic%20plates | The conservation and restoration of photographic plates is the practice of caring for and maintaining photographic plates to preserve their materials and content. The practice includes the measures that can be taken by conservators, curators, collection managers, and other professionals to conserve the material unique to photographic plate processes. This practice includes understanding the composition and agents of deterioration of photographic plates, as well as the preventive, and interventive conservational measures that can be taken to increase a photographic image's longevity.
History
Composition
In general, black and white photographic negatives are made up of fine silver particles (or color dyes for color negatives), which are embedded in a thin layer called a binder; the two together comprising the emulsion. This emulsion layer sits upon what is called the support, which can be paper, metal, film, or, as in the case of photographic plates, glass. Before exposure, a photographic plate consists of a photosensitive substance layered on a support medium. Glass plates emerged as a common support medium for photographic negatives from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1920s. Depending upon the period, there can be variants to the binder and, thus, the chemistry of the image. In the case of the Wet Plate Collodion, the image is run under a wash bath to stop the development of the image after exposure. An important part of the photographic process, "fixing", is then used to wash the silver particles that are not part of the image, which then produces a stable negative image. The fix bath will ensure that the remaining silver halide crystals are no longer sensitive to additional light exposure, removing all excess. This negative image can then be used over many years to produce paper positives. It is important for the conservator to understand the chemistry, in order to prevent further chemical reactions.
Processes
Collodion glass plate negative: This process was invented by the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. While the first process to take advantage of glass plates was the albumen print method, it was quite laborious and was quickly surpassed by the collodion glass plate negative in common use. The collodion photographic process was a wet plate process, which meant that the glass plate itself had to be wet while it was exposed and throughout processing. This required a portable darkroom to be taken wherever a photographer went, in order to produce a negative image successfully. During the process, the collodion emulsion was poured onto a glass plate before being exposed. The glass plate was then developed, fixed, washed, and protected with a varnish. Collodion is cotton dissolved in nitric acid. Because collodion was both complex and dangerous to produce, it was often purchased by the photographer. Once dissolved, iodide was added. Over time, bromide was added to help the image be more sensitive to light. Sometimes albumen (made of egg whites) was used to help the collodion stick to the glass plate. Pyrogallic Acid or ferrous sulfate was often used to develop the latent image, then sodium thiosulfate (also known as hypo) or potassium cyanide was used to fix the image.
Gelatin dry plate negative: This process was invented by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871, but it was not commonly used until 1879, when the process became commercially successful. Because of this process's advances in photography, it soon replaced the wet plate process in the 1880s. The collodion binder formerly used was replaced by gelatin, which already contained light-sensitive silver salts. This meant the emulsion was already present and did not have to be painted on the glass plate right before exposure – which now took less than one second. Because of this advancement, photographers did not have to carry a portable darkroom, as the plate could be developed later. To make the gelatin dry plate, the glass was cleaned, polished, and treated to ensure the gelatin would adhere to the glass plate. Treatments included applying thin layers of gelatin, albumen, or chemical etching. After 1879, when further improvements were made to the gelatin emulsion, gelatin glass plates began being mass-produced by companies such as Wratten & Wainright, Keystone Dry Plate Works, and notably the Eastman Dry Plate Company. This led to the advanced use and production of photographic glass plates until around 1925 and marked the start of the development of modern photography as an industry.
Screen Plate: The Screen Plate process is also known as Autochrome Lumière and was invented in France in 1907 by Louis and Auguste Lumière. Screen plates were an additive color screen process considered the first successful color process for commercial photography. The Lumière brothers drew upon the color theories of James Clerk Maxwell and Louis Ducos de Hauron from the second half of the 19th century. Autochrome plates were "covered in microscopic red, green, and blue colored potato starch grains". These grains, before being placed on the glass plate, were sorted through sieves to break them down to "thousandths of a millimeter" in diameter. Once broken down in size, they were separated into groups, then dyed either red, violet, or green. The grains were mixed and then spread over a glass plate covered with a tacky varnish. A second varnish was then applied over the layer of starch grains. The second coating of varnish was a hydrophobic layer composed of castor oil, cellulose nitrate, and dammar resin.
Ambrotype: The Ambrotype process resembled the Wet Plate Collodion considerably in composition and creation, and was considered to be a "Collodion Positive". In 1850, Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard realized that the negative appeared as a positive by underexposing the image and placing the image against a dark background. Dark backgrounds—created with paints, fabrics, and papers—were used to achieve this effect. In some instances, bleach was used, after the image was developed, to yield a softer appearance. In this process, the chemical composition and fix bath are critical elements to the lifespan of the image, but the material that backs the glass plate may also cause deterioration.
Agents of deterioration
There are ten accepted agents of deterioration: dissociation, fire, incorrect relative humidity, incorrect temperature, light, pests, pollutants, physical forces, thieves, and water. Photographic plates face risks of damage from both external forces and from their own chemical composition. For a conservator to create an appropriate plan to protect against agents of deterioration, they must understand what might impact a photographic plate. The following list addresses how each agent of deterioration harms photographic glass plates.
Relative humidity and temperature
Relative humidity (RH) and temperature are two of the most common threats to photographic plates. As with all material collections, high temperature in combination with high humidity can cause mold growth and attract pests.
Photographic plates face significant structural and chemical challenges unique to their makeup. There are two types of photographic glass plates: collodion wet plates and gelatin dry plates. Structurally, collodion wet plates are held together with a specific emulsion type, made using a silver halide mixture in gelatin. Fluctuations in RH can strain the adhesive emulsion, causing the gelatin to expand and contract. The strain from incorrect RH can also cause the emulsion to crack or separate along the plates' edges. With gelatin dry plates, high humidity can cause mold to grow on the emulsion. High levels of humidity can cause glass plates that have been stored incorrectly to stick together, compromising the image on the plate. Increasing RH can cause deterioration of other elements; these include the silver halide, varnish, and glass support. Decreasing the RH will cause deterioration by eventually leading to the flaking of the binder and dehydration of the glass.
Much like RH, temperatures must be precise and closely monitored for the correct storage of photographic glass plates. A safe temperature to keep glass plates is ; however, a fluctuation of +/- would not cause a significant impact, making the safest range . Low temperatures aid in slowing a plate's inherent fragility by delaying the chemical reactions that cause decay of the plate's structure. Increasing temperatures or frequently high fluctuations will speed up the decay process.
Theft and dissociation
Although theft and dissociation can occur separately, it is not uncommon for the two to go hand-and-hand. Dissociation typically results in overtime from an ordered system falling apart due to lack of routine maintenance updates or from a catastrophic event leading to data loss. If an inventory is not regularly updated it could become easy for a single, or several, glass plates to go missing. Regular inventory maintenance can also serve as a deterrent against theft. Ensuring glass plates are locked and stored where only designated museum staff can access them is the best preventative measure against theft.
Water and pests
Deterioration in glass is often directly related to moisture, from humidity or direct contact. Enough moisture over time will result in the chemical composition of the image to change. In the 1990s, The United States National Archive began to notice that some glass plates featured in their collection, on the non-photo bearing side of the scale, a crystalline deposit, known as sick-glass, was present.
If a glass plate has been subject to large amounts of moisture, it could grow mold on the plate's emulsion. Mold will eat away at the emulsion and attract other living pests. Insects will be more likely to appear in areas already compromised by inappropriate storage conditions. Insects will produce waste materials that, like dust, build up over time, causing further damage. Pests eat glass plate storage materials such as paper envelopes or cardboard boxes.
Light
Photographic plates and all photographic materials are susceptible to light. Extensive and ongoing exposure to light can cause significant and irreversible deterioration. Sunlight is the type of light most damaging to photographic plates. However, indoor lighting and other forms of UV lighting all pose a threat to photographic plates, causing fading and yellowing. Light is especially threatening to color photographic materials as it causes accelerated fading of the color dyes. Exposure to light could lead to deterioration and discoloration of the pigments present on the plate.
Pollutants and fire
Air pollution can threaten photographic plates through poor air quality and dirt that can damage the materials. This can include dust and gaseous pollution in an urban environment. Air pollution can cause fading of photographic materials. If a plate is subject to poor air quality, debris removal must be done with care using a cotton cloth; if done incorrectly, the glass might be subject to abrasions. Other sources of air pollution include "photocopying machines, construction materials, paint fumes, cardboard, carpets, and janitorial supplies".
Fire can cause severe damage to photographic glass plates. The heat produced by a fire can aid in increasing the chemical decomposition rate of the plate's emulsion. Pollutants in the air produced by the fire—such as smoke and debris—can also attach to or rest upon plates. The same care should be taken removing trash from the aftermath of a fire that would be used to remove dust and other air pollutants.
Material and chemical
The glass composition of photographic plates can be a factor of deterioration. Due to poor quality or an inherent fragility, "sick glass" can occur. Environmental conditions are usually linked to the increase or presence of this glass corrosion. The effect of "sick glass" can be weeping and crizzling caused by excessive alkali and a lack of stabilizers. Weeping involves droplets forming on the glass that appear as tiny crystals. This deterioration is especially threatening to cased photographs because the cover glass could be corroded and damage the image underneath. Corrosion of the glass plate support can also damage the image layer by causing the lifting of the binder and varnish layers.
The other chemical components of glass-plate negatives can also be threatening agents of deterioration. For instance, the silver image layer could undergo oxidative deterioration, leading to fading and discoloration. Additionally, the collodion binder itself is made up of cellulose nitrate, which is known to be a highly flammable compound. Most of these agents of deterioration are the result of poor chemical processing as a result of inherent frgility, but poor environmental and storage conditions usually accelerate them.
Physical
Glass plates are relatively stable dimensionally but also very fragile and brittle. Glass is highly susceptible to breakage, cracks, and fractures. This can be caused by human error, including dropping or bumping the glass plate, or it can be caused by failure of storage equipment, housing, shelves, etc., which may lead to an impact against the glass. Different breakage and stress states affect the image layer and binder differently.
Types of breakage:
Impact Break: Point of impact and surrounding radiating arcs.
Cracks: Running perpendicular to applied stress.
Blind Cracks: Breaks do not carry through the whole thickness of the glass.
Preventive conservation
Environment
Environmental controls are a crucial part of the preservation of photographic glass plates. Relative humidity (RH), temperature, and light play a significant role in keeping the multiple materials in photographic glass plates maintained. The following environmentally regulatory measures are taken for their preservation:
For photographic glass plates, the temperature is kept cool at approximately .
RH levels are generally kept at 30–40%. If RH drops below 30%, the image binder of the glass plate will dehydrate. If RH rises above 40%, the glass will begin hydrating. For cased glass plate photographs, such as ambrotypes, RH levels are kept at 40–50% and the temperature between . These levels differ because of the case being at risk for embrittlement, brass mat, and glass deterioration.
Though cold storage is safe for photographic plates, with proper acclimation periods to room temperature, frozen storage, unlike for film photography, is not recommended.
Fluctuations, called "cycling", in RH and temperature should be avoided. Environmental fluctuations can contribute to mold growth, chemical deterioration including discoloration and yellowing, degradation of the silver halide crystals resulting in silver mirroring, and deterioration of the emulsion. Acceptable fluctuations include +/- 2 degrees of temperature and +/- 3% of relative humidity.
Photographic glass plates, especially negatives, are preserved in dark enclosures due to their risk of deterioration when exposed to light, particularly UV and sunlight. If displayed, spot-lighting and uneven heating of the photographic plate is avoided. Light levels are kept below 50 lux.
Handling
Photographic glass plates are handled carefully to avoid physical or chemical deterioration and damage – the following measures aid in their preservation through proper handling:
To prevent fingerprints, non-vinyl plastic gloves are worn when handling – either latex or nitrile. Cotton gloves are not recommended by conservators due to the possibility of glass easily slipping from the cotton material. Cotton gloves are also susceptible to snagging on the emulsion, if it is flaking, or on the edges of the glass support.
When handling, a glass plate is not held by one edge or corner but by two opposite edges and always with two hands.
the glass plate on a flat surface is always placed with the emulsion side up.
Glass plates are never stacked nor have any pressure placed upon them. The sleeve or enclosure is labeled before placing the glass plate inside.
Since glass plates are fragile and brittle, duplicates are created if a glass plate is to be used often for printing. This helps to minimize the threat of breakage of the original.
Storage
Storage of photographic glass plates is important to their preservation. Museums and other cultural institutions take the following measures to ensure their glass plates are properly housed:
Photographic glass plates are housed in four-flap enclosures, emulsion side up. These four-flap buffered enclosures prevent a glass plate from being pulled in and out, which would cause further deterioration of the image from flaking and abrasions. The four-flap enclosure allows the glass plate to be accessed by unfolding the flaps without pulling the plate across any surface or material.
The photographic glass plates are stored vertically on the long side of the plate in storage boxes whose material is free of acid, lignin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), dye, sulfur, and alum. The acidity of any paper storage used should show a pH between 7 and 8.5. Glass plates should not be packed tightly and should not rub against each other. Each plate should be separated with stiffeners made of acid-free folder stock or cardboard to support the plate.
Photographic glass plates stored in a partially filled box will have spacers, most likely acid-free corrugated paperboard, inserted to prevent significant bumping or moving.
Glass plates larger than 10" x 12" are stored in legal-size boxes that are partially filled to prevent a box that is too heavy. The extra space in the box is filled with board or spacers to avoid shifting when jostled.
Storage boxes of photographic glass plates are stored on a lower shelf, specifically below four feet. This helps prevent someone from lifting them down from above their head and dropping them from a great height.
Each storage box of photographic glass plates should be labeled with words such as "Heavy", "Handle with Care", and "Caution: Contains Glass Negatives", so all with access to the collection know to be extra careful when lifting the box off a shelf.
When there are concerns about the reactivity of housing materials, the Photographic Activity Test (PAT) by the Image Permanence Institute should be consulted. The use of the PAT is a standard in the preservation of photographic plates. The PAT "explores the possibility of chemical interactions between photographs and a given material after prolonged contact".
It is considered best practice to use steel shelving to store photographic plates. It is not recommended to use wood cabinets or crates. Wood shelves are susceptible to termites and are more prone to trigger chemical reactions with the plates. Wood shelves tend to possess finishes, paints, and glues that cause off-gassing. Acetic acid and formaldehyde build-up are also more likely to occur. Lastly, given the weight of the photographic plates, it is more problematic that the relative weakness of wood shelving can hold the weight of the collection.
Storage of broken photographic plates
Broken or cracked glass plates are stored specially, separate from other photographic plates, and in the following ways:
Broken glass plates are stored flat, unlike intact plates stored vertically. Stacking broken plates only five plates high is recommended due to the plates' weight. This will prevent further breakage and damage.
Photographic glass plates with cracked or damaged binder are stored on sink-mats. Those with minor flaking are still housed in the four-flap enclosure that is labeled appropriately, describing the damage. Glass plates with extensive flaking are stored on sink-mats horizontally and placed in a storage box with a label that reads "Caution: Broken glass. Carry Horizontally."
Broken glass plate shards are "sandwiched" in between two pieces of buffered board and placed inside the four-flap enclosure.
AIC advises that form-fit support should be created for broken glass shards by cutting out two pieces of 4-ply mat board that fit each shard. These pieces are then glued to each side of the buffered board with either wheat starch paste or 3M #415 double-stick tape, placing each shard in between the form-fit support to help prevent further damage. These broken shards are then placed in individual four-flap enclosures and stored flat, with appropriate labeling that warns of their broken condition.
Another method of storing broken shards is to place them on sink mats. If this method is used, each piece is separated with paperboard spacers to prevent the pieces from touching. These paperboard spacers are sometimes attached with adhesives to the mat so that physical damage does not occur to the shards. They are stored horizontally and placed in a storage box with a label that reads "Caution: Broken glass. Carry Horizontally."
Maintenance/housekeeping
Maintenance/housekeeping of photographic plates requires minimal intervention:
Light cleaning of plates is carried out occasionally by removing dust with a soft brush for their preservation. To dust the emulsion side, it is best to use an unused paint brush and, very gently, brush from the center to the outside of the plate. To clean the underside of the leaf (non-emulsion side), dip a cotton ball or cotton round into a cup of distilled water, and work from the middle of the plate to the outside. Water on the emulsion side will wash the emulsion away, causing the image to be lost forever, be careful to ensure this cleaning treatment is only used on the glass support underside and not the emulsion side of the plate.
Conservators should also keep the surrounding collections area clean of dust, pests, and any other debris that may attract pests. Food and drink should not be permitted in the storage area as they attract pests. To prevent deterioration from air pollutants, it is helpful to have the air entering the storage area filtered and purified, windows closed, obsolete/outdated media minimized, and enclosures and cabinets in use to protect collection objects.
Conservation treatment
Many broken or cracked glass plates may benefit from conservation treatment. There are various actions taken in reassembling and restoring these plates using the following materials and methods:
Handling
Conservators tend to wear Neoprene gloves to help protect the emulsion from fingerprints that will cause deterioration over time. They avoid handling glass fragments to help prevent further breaking of the glass. A padded (foamed polyethylene) and tight weave tissue or Sintered Teflon lined box are preferred by conservators to store fragments, as they help prevent further breaking or cracking.
Adhesives
Conservators use various adhesives; each adhesive type has benefits and disadvantages for different situations.
Paraloid B-72 – A solution of 50–70% B-72 in a solvent with added silica is used to reassemble glass plate fragments. It takes 1–2 hours to dry. One issue with this adhesive is that it creates "snowflakes" in between pieces, making an invisible reassembly impossible.
Epoxy resin – This adhesive is powerful and has minimal shrinkage. An issue with this method is that it yellows over time and is not advisable to be used on glass plates with a collodion binder. This is due to the potential damage to the collodion binder of the reversibility method.
Cyanoacrylates – This adhesive bonds firmly with alkaline surfaces but is very brittle and is only used for temporary repairs.
Pressure-sensitive tape – This adhesive type is ubiquitous, easy to use, and completely removable but only provides minimal support.
Sticky wax – As the pieces are assembled, sticky resin, such as that used for lost wax casting in jewelry making, is handy for holding the shards in place.
Backing material
Silpat sheet – This is made of silicone and fibreglass; textured and provides air pockets to prevent damage from the capillary application; it does not traumatize the emulsion side of the glass.
Secondary support – This method is used for glass plates broken into many pieces or over in size. A second piece of glass is used with silicone to be inserted as a barrier layer.
Application
Wicking – This is used by conservators to apply the adhesive to the glass with a wooden or glass applicator. A capillary tube or bottle puts the appropriate amount of glue on the glass shard without excess.
Direct application – When repairing a broken plate on an inclined plane, conservators apply the adhesive to the fracture interface. The shard is placed directly next to its corresponding bit on the inclined plane.
Repair methods and techniques
Photoshop Software assembly – Virtually assembling broken glass shards through Photoshop, after scanning or photographing all pieces, is used by conservators. Once all the details are within Photoshop, conservators will construct a copy of the glass plate by moving and rotating the parts until the glass plate is fully assembled. This allows conservators to understand how the glass plate should be reconstructed while avoiding further damage to the glass plate. This method allows for further research and study of the plate without the risk of further injury through continual handling.
Inclined assembly – This method involves applying an adhesive to the glass shard interfaces and assembling them on an inclined surface covered with Mylar or Silpat. The glass shards are reassembled by direct application, which involves applying the adhesive directly to the shard interface and attaching it to its corresponding piece or assembling through wicking.
Vertical assembly – This method is used because the glass shards fit back together most accurately vertically. This also helps to protect the side of the binder layer. The adhesive is not applied until all the pieces are assembled, enabling conservators to recognize any misalignment before an adhesive is applied. As the last step, the adhesive is applied through wicking.
Light-line – This is often used to ensure all pieces are aligned, allowing a conservator to see any misalignment, which would show as a crooked line. Once the details are aligned, the light bar will be straight again.
Projects
The vertical assembly method along with a light line is used in The Glass Plate Negative Project at the Heritage Conservation Centre, as outlined in the case study. This study shows how conservators also deal with other conservation issues, including accretions and residue. For instance, while the plates were considered structurally stable, they may have needed surface cleaning. This was completed by using swabs dampened with water/ethanol solutions to reduce stains or do away with any tape residue. Pressure-sensitive labels were removed mechanically. Conservators used Whatman lens tissues to wipe off any other residue marks.
References
External links
Conservation of Glass Plate Negatives at the Smithsonian
Case Study: Repair of a Broken Glass Plate Negative
The Conservation of Glass Plates: Student Placement
The Preservation of Glass Plate Negatives
A Method of Rehousing Glass Plate Negatives
Gaylord Archival – rehousing resources
Guidelines for Exhibition Light Levels for Photographic Materials
Digitizing glass plate negatives
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
Monochrome photography
Glass | Conservation and restoration of photographic plates | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 5,430 | [
"Homogeneous chemical mixtures",
"Amorphous solids",
"Unsolved problems in physics",
"Glass"
] |
56,528,165 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen%20rebound%20mechanism | In biochemistry, the oxygen rebound mechanism is the pathway for hydroxylation of organic compounds by iron-containing oxygenases. Many enzymes effect the hydroxylation of hydrocarbons as a means for biosynthesis, detoxification, gene regulation, and other functions. These enzymes often utilize Fe-O centers that convert C-H bonds into C-OH groups. The oxygen rebound mechanism starts with abstraction of H from the hydrocarbon, giving an organic radical and an iron hydroxide. In the rebound step, the organic radical attacks the Fe-OH center to give an alcohol group, which is bound to Fe as a ligand. Dissociation of the alcohol from the metal allows the cycle to start anew. This mechanistic scenario is an alternative to the direct insertion of an O center into a C-H bond. The pathway is an example of C-H activation.
Three main classes of these enzymes are cytochrome P450, alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent hydroxylases, and nonheme-diiron hydroxylases.
References
Organic redox reactions
Enzymes
Oxygenases | Oxygen rebound mechanism | [
"Chemistry"
] | 232 | [
"Organic redox reactions",
"Organic reactions"
] |
56,528,765 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroanion | In chemistry, a fluoroanion or fluorometallate anion is a polyatomic anion that contains one or more fluorine atoms. The ions and salts form from them are also known as complex fluorides. They can occur in salts, or in solution, but seldom as pure acids. Fluoroanions often contain elements in higher oxidation states. They mostly can be considered as fluorometallates, which are a subclass of halometallates.
Anions that contain both fluorine and oxygen can be called "oxofluoroanions" (or rarely "fluorooxoanions").
The following is a list of fluoroanions in atomic number order.
trifluoroberyllate
tetrafluoroberyllate
tetrafluoroborate
magnesium tetrafluoride
trifluoroaluminate
tetrafluoroaluminate
pentafluoroaluminate
hexafluoroaluminate
heptafluoroaluminate
hexafluorosilicate
hexafluorophosphate
Sulfur trifluoride anion
pentafluorosulfate aka pentafluorosulfite or Sulfur pentafluoride ion
sulfur pentafluoride anion
tetrafluorochlorate
hexafluorotitanate
hexafluorovanadate(III)
hexafluorovanadate(IV)
hexafluorovanadate(V)
trifluoromanganate
hexafluoromanganate(III)
hexafluoromanganate(IV)
heptafluoromanganate IV
Tetrafluoroferrate 1− and 2−
hexafluoroferrate 4− and 3−
tetrafluorocobaltate II
Hexafluorocobaltate III and IV
Heptafluorocobaltate IV
Tetrafluoronickelate
Hexafluoronickelate II, III and IV
hexafluorocuprate
tetrafluorozincate
Hexafluorogallate
hexafluorogermanate
hexafluoroarsenate
tetrafluorobromate
hexafluorobromate
pentafluorozirconate
hexafluorozirconate
octafluorozirconate
hexafluoroniobate
heptafluoroniobate
octafluoromolybdate
tetrafluoropalladate
hexafluororhodate
hexafluororuthenate(IV)
hexafluororuthenate(V)
hexafluoroindate
hexafluorostannate
fluoroantimonate
hexafluoroiodate 1−
octafluoroxenate
tetrafluorolanthanate
pentafluorocerate IV
Hexafluorocerate IV
Heptafluorocerate IV
octafluorocerate IV
pentafluorohafnate
hexafluorohafnate
heptafluorotantalate
octafluorotantalate
heptafluorotungstate
octafluorotungstate
octafluororhenate
hexafluoroplatinate
tetrafluoroaurate
hexafluoroaurate
hexafluorothallate(III)
tetrafluorobismuthate
hexafluorobismuthate
hexafluorothorate
hexafluorouranate(IV)
hexafluorouranate(V)
octafluorouranate(IV)
octafluorouranate(V)
References
Fluorine compounds
Anions
Double salts | Fluoroanion | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 784 | [
"Matter",
"Anions",
"Double salts",
"Salts",
"Ions"
] |
74,972,478 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricyclodecane | Tricyclodecane (TCD) is an organic compound with the formula C10H16. It is classed as a hydrocarbon. It has two main stereoisomers–the endo and exo forms. Its primary use in the exo form is as a component of jet fuel. It is used here primarily because of its high energy density. The exo isomer also has a low freezing point. Because of this, its properties have been studied extensively. It is often called tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene.
Reactions
Its reactions with other materials have been studied, as have various production methods. The two isomers can interconvert in the presence of aluminum chloride as catalyst absorbed on substrates such as silicon dioxide or zeolites, with preference for forming the exo as the major product.
References
Further reading
Aviation fuels
Cycloalkanes | Tricyclodecane | [
"Engineering"
] | 181 | [
"Aviation fuels",
"Aerospace engineering"
] |
74,974,085 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle%20insurance%20in%20France | Vehicle insurance in France is an compensation-based insurance policy for terrestrial motor vehicles that are insured in France and circulate on French territory, as well as in the European Economic Area and the Green Card zone.
It has been compulsory since 1958, and is governed by the French Insurance Code. Its main purpose is to provide financial support in the event of losses sustained by an insured person or a third party, particularly in the event of a road accident, but also for damage sustained outside the context of traffic.
Insurance companies offer a wide range of policies and cover. Each contract is specific to a particular situation. Whether it's the vehicle, the cover chosen, the policyholder or the insurance company.
Insurance contracts only take effect when an accident occurs. In this case, compensation is paid on the basis of the insured's declaration, the completed accident statement, the expert's report and the terms of the contract.
Vehicle insurance represents a major part of the insurance market.
Insurance obligation
Legislation
Vehicle insurance was made compulsory in France by the law of 27th, February 1958, which is now codified in Title I, Book 2, Regulatory Part of the Insurance Code. Compulsory insurance covers only "civil liability", i.e. damage caused to third parties and passengers.
It must cover the owner of the vehicle, any person having custody of or driving the vehicle, even if unauthorized, and passengers in the insured vehicle. It also covers damage caused by the fall of accessories or objects transported, whether occurring at the time of the fall or afterwards. It also covers unloading and loading operations.
Vehicle liability insurance requires unlimited coverage for bodily injury, with a minimum amount of 1 million euros per vehicle and per material loss.
Drivers, turned down by several insurance companies, can appeal to the Bureau central de tarification. The Bureau will find insurance for the driver.
Affected vehicles
Vehicle insurance covers "any vehicle designed for the transport of people or goods moving on the ground and powered by a motive force", as well as trailers, including those that are not coupled.
Thus, it covers cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, tractors, construction equipment and electric scooters, as well as self-propelled lawnmowers, caravans, trailers, forklift trucks and battery-powered children's buggies (although an isolated ruling by the 2nd Civil Chamber of the French Supreme Court on March 4, 1988, excludes a battery-powered miniature car, a ruling which has been criticized). On the other hand, such vehicles are generally included in home insurance policies.
The notion of registration has no bearing on the obligation to insure.
Geographical area
Vehicle insurance taken out in France allows you to drive in all the countries indicated on your "green card". Depending on the type of insurance, some countries in the green card zone may not be insured - in which case they are crossed out on the green card - but the overseas collectivities and the European Union and European Economic Area form a single, non-optional block.
A car insured in a country in the Green Card zone remains insured (in the Green Card sense) when driving in France, without having to modify its contract. When a car insured in France leaves the Green Card zone, it must take out specific insurance for the country in which it is to be driven. This also applies when a vehicle arrives from a country outside the green card zone, with the exception of state vehicles. It must take out insurance for the period during which it is to be driven in France.
Non-insured vehicles entering France must take out frontier insurance, which can be obtained from customs on entry.
In the event of a claim between a French vehicle and a foreign vehicle in the green card zone, the IRSA convention does not apply, which means that the processing time for claims is much longer. Guarantees and limits will be those of the country where the loss occurs, unless the contract is more favorable.
Insurance can be taken out either in the country where the vehicle is registered, or with an insurance company in the country of residence of the "guardian".
For stays of more than three months outside France, it's advisable to take out insurance in the country where the stay is taking place.
Credentials
The green card is a document that serves as a presumption of compliance with the insurance obligation. It is accompanied by the insurance certificate, which must be affixed to the vehicle's windshield. The green card also specifies all the countries in which the insurance is valid.
The information statement is a document issued by the insurance company at the policyholder's request, detailing his or her bonus and claims record over the last five years. It must specify the driver(s) named in the contract, the nature of the claims (bodily injury or material damage) and the driver's share of responsibility, the identity of the at-fault driver, the coverage period and the reduction/increase coefficient at the anniversary date.
History
Chronology of vehicle insurance in France
The history of Vehicle insurance in France began in 1929, with the creation of the French Central Bureau of Insurance Companies for the study of automobile accident statistics. On July 13, 1930, in light of the increase in automobile traffic, the legislature decided to regulate vehicle insurance.
As World War II came to an end, road traffic increased, as did the number of casualties. To raise public awareness, insurance companies, with the help of the Union Routière de France, took the initiative in 1949 of creating the Prévention Routière. This organization's mission is to encourage, study and implement measures aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of road accidents. It set up an information and public awareness network. In 1972, it was reinforced by the Comité Interministériel de la Sécurité Routière (Interministerial Road Safety Committee). Its aim was to make road users aware of the risk factors associated with driving: speed, alcohol, non-use of seat belts, fatigue, etc.
At the time, insurance was not compulsory, which meant that victims could find themselves doubly injured in the event of a serious bodily injury accident: if the drivers responsible did not have the means to compensate the victims themselves, the latter would not only have to bear the cost of their injuries, but also receive no compensation. To put an end to this injustice, the law of December 31, 1951 created the Fonds de garantie automobile (FGA). Its purpose was to pay compensation to victims of personal injury accidents caused by vehicles whose drivers were unknown, uninsured or insolvent. The FGA's financial limits soon became apparent. Most cars were insured, although two-wheelers had the least coverage rates and were the most exposed to serious injury. Six years later, on 27 February 1958, legislators decided to make Vehicle insurance compulsory for all.
In 1955, the Bureau commun automobile (BCA) was created, bringing together independent automobile adjusters to rapidly estimate the cost of claims on behalf of insurance companies. The BCA succeeded the 1954 Convention Expertise. However, the adjusting profession did not organize itself until 1972.
On May 1, 1968, the Convention d'Indemnité Direct des Assurances (IDA) was introduced, enabling insurance companies to compensate policyholders directly, without waiting for the outcome of a more lengthy recourse procedure under ordinary law. The convention introduced a liability scale to simplify procedures between insurance companies. This agreement facilitated the processing of almost 80% of claims. In 1974, it became the Convention inter sociétés de règlement des sinistres automobile (IRSA).
To reward good drivers and penalize bad ones, the legislator introduced the bonus-malus system on June 11, 1976. However, its existence was challenged by the Brussels Commission, which considered that it undermined free competition and contravened the third directive regulating non-life insurance, which came into force on July 1, 1994. But on September 8, 2004, the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of the French system.
On October 1, 1977, the application of the Convention d'indemnisation des accidents corporels (IDAC) came into force, with the aim of improving the time taken to compensate bodily injury claims.
In the wake of the Charoy affair, public authorities realized that members of the driver's or insured's family were not automatically insured in the same way as third parties. Indeed, Article L. 211-1 § 5 of the French Insurance Code did not consider them to be third parties until January 7, 1981. Prior to this law, if the driver did not take out special insurance for his family, its members were not compensated in the event of an accident. The change in the law in their favor meant that passengers were systematically insured, without having to take out a special option.
On July 13, 1982, all insurance contracts covering damage to property were required to include cover against natural disasters.
In the event of a traffic accident, ordinary civil liability under articles 1382 and following of the French Civil Code applied. This posed problems when it came to establishing a fair system of compensation for bodily injury, as the driver may be totally or partially exonerated from liability in the event of an extraneous cause.
On July 21, 1982, the Second Civil Chamber of the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) handed down a controversial ruling known as the "Desmares ruling", launching an all-or-nothing policy to the detriment of victims. If the victim was at fault, he or she had no recourse against the driver. Added to this is the fact that the number of people injured on the roads is rising, approaching 300,000 a year. Some judges refused to apply this ruling, creating an imbalance between courts. To ensure that no road accident victim went without compensation, the Badinter Law was passed on July 5, 1985, and came into force on January 1, 1986.
On January 1, 1986, the Convention d'indemnisation pour le compte d'autrui (ICA) was introduced. It was succeeded on April 1, 2002, by the Convention d'indemnisation et de recours corporel automobile (IRCA).
The Vehicle Insurance Fund was being overstretched by claims caused by uninsured drivers. As a result, the legislator made it compulsory to display the insurance sticker on vehicles from September 9, 1986, onwards. This made it easier to monitor compliance with the insurance obligation and to impose more effective penalties.
On June 25, 1990, the law made it compulsory for fire coverage in vehicle insurance contracts to also cover damage caused by various types of storms, including tropical cyclones.
As of 2018, private insurance and license plate files are to be cross-referenced to enable the authorities to monitor insurance automatically.
Coverages
A wide range of coverage options are available when taking out a Vehicle insurance policy. These are independent of each other, both in terms of underwriting and application. In the event of an at-fault accident, for example, even if there is no "all-risks" cover, the assistance, driver's safety and defense coverage will still work. Similarly, comprehensive cover does not necessarily mean that assistance or other options have been taken out.
Public liability
The minimum cover is third-party automobile liability, which differs from private liability. In everyday language, this is known as "third-party" insurance. This covers only damage caused to other property or persons, i.e. to vehicles that have been involved in a collision, injuries to vehicle users other than the at-fault driver, such as pedestrians, and damage to material goods of all kinds (lampposts, walls, buildings, etc.). In the event of a collision with an at-fault third party, that person's insurance covers the damage.
In the event of a fire originating in the insured vehicle, this coverage includes damage to a building. It also covers any damage that may occur as a result of theft, for a period of one month from the date the theft was reported.
Most insurance companies cover damage caused by a trailer weighing less than 750 kg, but only during towing, as specified in the contract's general conditions.
Defense recourse
Defense and recourse cover is often inseparable from third-party liability cover, as its purpose is to provide amicable or legal defense and recourse on behalf of the insured against injured or liable third parties following a claim.
The insurance must provide the policyholder with counsel and a free choice of lawyer, as well as cover the costs of legal proceedings, bailiffs and expert appraisals.
It can be complemented by legal expenses insurance.
Driver safety
Driver's safety covers bodily injury to the driver when he or she is at fault, or when there is no identified third party. It can be compared to "individual accident" insurance. It can either be included in the automobile contract, or taken out separately. In fact, damage suffered by the driver is excluded from the Badinter Law compensation system. It often includes a disability deductible, which means that coverage only applies in the event of serious bodily injury.
Coverage is provided for medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident, loss of income due to disability, home improvement costs such as the installation of a ramp, and the wages of home helps due to loss of independence. In the event of death, funeral expenses may be reimbursed, or a fixed lump sum or annuity may be paid.
Assistance
The purpose of vehicle assistance is to arrange and pay for the towing of a vehicle and the transport of its passengers in France or abroad, in the event of an accident or breakdown. This assistance can be extended to other people, even in the absence of a vehicle-related event. Some companies offer coverage for replacement of the parts that caused the breakdown. Coverage may be limited by a cap, but also by a mileage deductible. Indeed, some insurers will only cover towing if the insured is more than a certain distance from home.
Broken glass
Broken glass coverage covers the repair or replacement of glass parts on a vehicle, i.e. side windows, windscreen, rear window, and may be extended to include headlight lenses, sunroofs and rear-view mirrors, depending on the company. For two-wheeled vehicles, the term used is "bris d'optique" (glass breakage).
Broken glass coverage often has its own deductible, which may be different if it's just a question of repairing an impact or replacing a glass part.
In the event of damage to a glass part of the car, insurance companies have set up two procedures for the customer to have the damaged part repaired or replaced. Either the customer goes to a repairer of his choice, pays the full bill and sends it to his insurance company for reimbursement, less any deductible. Or they can go to an approved repairer, who will be reimbursed and paid directly by the insurance company, to avoid the customer having to pay the full cost of repairs in advance.
Natural disasters, technological catastrophes
Coverage for damage to vehicles caused by natural or technological disasters is compulsory for all property insurance policies, such as broken glass. To activate this coverage, an interministerial decree must be published in the Journal Officiel.
Theft, fire and related guarantees
Theft coverage covers damage to the vehicle in the event of total, partial or attempted theft: the insured is reimbursed for the value of the vehicle, after a minimum delay of 30 days. If the vehicle is recovered within this period, it is automatically reimbursed if it can be economically repaired.
If only parts or accessories are missing, the parts are replaced as long as the cost of repair does not exceed the price of the vehicle.
An insurance company may provide for a reduction in compensation if the insured vehicle is stolen with the keys in it.
Theft coverage does not cover any fraud that may occur during the sale or purchase of a vehicle.
To prevent a claim, the insurance company may impose preventive measures on the insured, such as the purchase of an approved anti-theft device for motorcycles, etching of windows, or regular parking in a closed area (garage or underground parking lot).
Fire insurance covers damage to the vehicle caused by fire, whether arson or mechanical, as well as lightning, explosion, terrorist attacks and acts of terrorism. If the loss is due to a fire, the third-party liability coverage of the vehicle at fault takes care of the damage to third parties, while the fire coverage takes care of the damage to the vehicle at fault.
Coverage for climatic events (extratropical cyclone and tropical cyclones) is included in fire insurance.
Collision damage
Collision coverage pays for damage to the insured's vehicle, even if the driver is at fault, but only if there is an identified third party. This coverage does not apply if the insured has an accident alone, or in the case of vandalism.
Coverage is also available in the event of collision with an animal, a pedestrian or a car, but only if the owner is identifiable. This excludes compensation for damage in the event of a collision with wildlife or a hit-and-run accident.
All-risk
All-risk cover, commonly referred to as "comprehensive", covers all damage to the vehicle, including vandalism, hit-and-run accidents, collisions with wild animals and accidents for which the driver is responsible.
Others
Contents insurance covers everything left inside the car: personal effects (clothing), luggage, small equipment (e.g. car radio, GPS), business equipment.
Loss of value or purchase value covers the loss of value of the vehicle. If the vehicle is totally destroyed, it can reimburse the vehicle's purchase value, or add a flat-rate supplement or a percentage based on the car's value at the time of the loss, or reimburse outstanding installments on a leasing contract.
Replacement vehicle is the provision of a loan vehicle or rental package to temporarily replace a vehicle that is unusable following an accident, theft or breakdown.
Accessory coverage covers exterior items added to vehicles, such as tuning.
Theft or loss of keys may be covered by some insurance companies.
Insurance contract
Form
Insurance contracts are made up of two distinct elements.
Firstly, the "special conditions", which are specific to each policyholder and contain the information he or she declares. This includes the characteristics of the vehicle insured, the drivers, the premium, the anniversary date and the coverage chosen, etc.
On the other hand, the "general conditions", which must be submitted when the policy is taken out, and which are presented in the form of a guide explaining each benefit in detail, including exclusions and how the policy operates.
Types
Vehicle insurance policies can vary according to a number of criteria:
"Mono-vehicle" contracts
It can be used to insure private individuals or companies for cars, two-wheelers, unlicensed vehicles, etc. This is the most widespread form of contract on the market. The rate is adapted to the use of the vehicle: private use or commuting to work, for simple business trips or daily tours. Some insurers offer premium discounts based on annual mileage.
Frontier insurance is designed for foreign vehicles not insured in a country belonging to the green card system and entering French territory.
Vehicles used for sporting purposes, such as competitions or rallies, require special insurance.
Fleet contract
The "fleet" contract is generally intended for companies with a large number of vehicles.
The "fleet" contract enables companies or individuals with several cars to group all their vehicles under a single contract, thereby reducing the management costs invoiced to the customer. With this type of contract, vehicles can be added to or removed from the policyholder's fleet at any time, without the need for any special modifications to the contract. At each contract expiry date, the company provides the policyholder with a "fleet statement", a list of vehicles insured and those withdrawn from the fleet since the last expiry date.
However, due to inflation in average compensation costs, the reduction in the size of company fleets, and French legislation designed to provide better protection for the victims of personal injury accidents, fleet contracts have seen an increase in rates, which is weighing more and more heavily on companies with fleet management issues.
"Professional automobile" or garage insurance covers all vehicles under the responsibility of an automobile professional. Specific types of insurance are available for goods transported, and for public passenger transport.
People covered
Any person entitled to drive a vehicle can be named as the principal driver on a Vehicle insurance contract. There may also be secondary drivers named on the contract, such as a spouse or children. Some insurance contracts may have no expressly designated driver. For example, in the case of company cars, all employees can use the vehicle without the insurance company being notified. In certain situations, insurance companies may set "loan of the wheel" deductibles for accidents caused by people not named in the contract, whether for casual driving or for contracts with an exclusive driver.
Caps, deductibles, exclusions
Insurance coverage is generally limited by caps, deductibles and exclusions.
Caps
Limit of indemnity, or payout limit, is the maximum amount to which the insurance company commits. They depend on the risk to be insured, and are rarely negotiable. They enable insurance companies to avoid committing themselves to unlimited amounts in the event of an exceptionally large claim, and to better control costs.
Deductibles
Deductibles are the amounts that remain payable by the insured in the event of a claim. In Vehicle insurance, deductibles are generally absolute and most of the time fixed, but it is possible to have variable deductibles depending on the cost of the claim. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium.
For example, a policyholder whose car is stolen at an estimated cost of €5,000, and who has a €400 deductible, is reimbursed €4,600. But if his deductible is 10% of the damage, he will be reimbursed €4,500.
Exclusions
Exclusions refer to what is not covered by the contract. They must appear in bold, visible characters. They may be legal or contractual. They are legal, for example, if the insured has voluntarily caused the damage. They may be contractual, as in the case of an exclusion for tire damage, or fuel theft, for example.
Some exclusions are absolute, such as damage suffered by an accomplice in the theft of the vehicle, or exclusions that cannot be enforced against victims, such as failure to observe safety rules (too many passengers).
Drunk driving does not constitute a cause for exclusion from coverage: "Any clause stipulating forfeiture of the insured's coverage in the event of conviction for drunk driving or driving under the influence of alcohol, or for driving after use of substances or plants classified as narcotics, is deemed unwritten". However, "all-risk" coverage may exclude damage to the insured's vehicle caused by driving under the influence of alcohol.
Premium calculation
Pricing criteria
Vehicle insurance premiums are specific to each situation. Numerous statistical factors come into play: age, length of driving experience and previous driving experience (suspension, cancellation, drunk driving), city of residence, marital status, insurance record (young driver surcharge, accompanied driving reduction, bonus, claims history and company cancellation), profession, vehicle, color, purchase method (cash, credit, leasing). All these elements are used to calculate a net premium, to which are added management fees, taxes and membership fees for mutual insurance companies.
Generally speaking, the more experienced the policyholder, the lower the premium. On the other hand, some companies refuse to take on young drivers, as the frequency of claims is much higher in the first two years.
Following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union on December 21, 2012, insurers can no longer calculate their rates according to the gender of the insured, even though claims statistics reveal a glaring difference.
Finally, the vehicle insured is an essential factor in calculating the premium. Obviously, the price will differ between a city car and an SUV. The premium is determined by the car's power, the cost of parts for repairs, and by statistics listing the most frequently stolen cars. In 2007, for example, the Smart Fortwo was the most stolen car, followed by the Renault Twingo, the Peugeot 306, the Renault Clio and the Audi A3.
Accompanied driving
Parents who wish to drive with their children are not subject to any additional taxes, and the price of their insurance remains the same.
For novice drivers, a surcharge may be applied to the premium, but this cannot exceed 50% for those who have obtained their license through accompanied driving.
Taxes
Vehicle insurance is not a product subject to VAT, but it is subject to other taxes such as the 18% tax, the 15% contribution provided for by the Social Security Code and the 1.90% contribution to the Fonds de Garantie des Assurances Obligatoires de dommages, and 6% for natural disasters.
There is also a contribution to the Fonds de Garantie des Victimes des Actes de Terrorisme et d'autres Infractions of €3.30 per policy in 2010. This contribution was increased to €4.30 in 2016 and to €5.90 in 2017 following the various attacks that took place in 2015–2016.
Bonus-malus
The coefficient of reduction-majoration (CRM) is a method of weighting the insurance premium. The lower the bonus, the lower the premium, and vice versa in the case of a malus.
To reward "good drivers", every claim-free year of insurance increases the bonus. However, when an insured is responsible for a claim, he loses part of his bonus, which generally leads to an increase in future premiums. For example, if a policyholder's pure premium is €100 and his bonus is 80%, his premium will be €80, plus fees and taxes. The following year, if he has no accident, his pure premium could be €105 with a 76% bonus, i.e. a premium of €79.80 plus fees and taxes.
Duration and termination conditions
Duration
The term of a vehicle insurance contract is generally one year, renewable by tacit agreement. However, there may also be temporary contracts known as "notes de couverture": this is a provisional guarantee, generally lasting one month, granted when the subscriber does not have all the documents required to take out the contract. Once the supporting documents have been submitted, the note de couverture is transformed into a definitive contract. If the policyholder fails to present all the required documents, coverage is discontinued.
This can also be a firm temporary contract, e.g. for transit or a loan, or in the case of remote underwriting following a cooling-off period.
Termination
Termination at the policyholder's initiative: like most property and casualty insurance policies, the Vehicle insurance contract can be terminated on the anniversary date, subject to the Chatel law or a maximum two-month notice period, but also during the year following the sale of the vehicle, a change in circumstances, or death. To do this, you need to send a letter of cancellation to your insurer, respecting the legal deadlines or the deadlines set out in your insurance policy. In 2015, the Hamon law made it possible to change insurance during the course of the year, once the first year of insurance has elapsed. Policyholders who cancel their contract during the year are entitled to a refund of their insurance premium for the period paid in advance.
Termination at the insurer's initiative: in certain situations, the insurer may terminate the contract following a major claim within one month of the claim being reported. Cancellation takes place one month after the insured has been informed. Termination may also be triggered by an excess of claims on the anniversary date, or by non-payment of premiums with a minimum ten-day notice period following the end of the formal notice to pay. The insurance company may also terminate the contract for misrepresentation by the insured at the time of underwriting, for failure to meet underwriting criteria or, more rarely, following the liquidation of a company.
Accidents
Declaration and compensation
Declaration
The policyholder must make a declaration within two days of the discovery of a theft, and within five days of the occurrence of an accident. If this time limit is not respected, the insurer can claim for the forfeiture of the contract's guarantees, but this provision is only used against the insured in very rare situations. Claims can be made either by means of a joint accident report, or by handwritten letter.
If two people disagree about the circumstances of the accident, only one person outside the vehicles involved can act as a witness, except in the case of a pile-up.
Compensation
Following a covered accident, an appraisal is carried out by an independent expert who verifies the truthfulness of the declarations and estimates the cost of repairs and of the car, in order to determine whether it is technically and economically viable to repair. If the policyholder disagrees with the amount proposed by the expert, he or she can request a second opinion, at his or her own expense. If the two experts fail to reach agreement, a third expert may be called in to arbitrate. There is no legal stipulation as to how long an appraisal must take.
Vehicle insurance is a contract based on the principle of indemnity: the price reimbursed cannot exceed the price of the car. This is what experts call the "RVAEO" (Replacement value according to expert opinion), which is different from the "cote Argus".
Once it has received the policyholder's approval, the insurance company has three months to compensate the claim.
If a false declaration was made at the time of underwriting, the insured may be subject to nullity of cover, although this will not be enforced against the victims.
Under the terms of article R. 211-13 of the C.A., four categories of exception to coverage cannot be invoked by the insurer against victims or their beneficiaries:
clauses capping cover or deductibles stipulated in the insurance contract;
forfeitures, including for causes arising prior to the loss;
reduction of the insurance indemnity in application of the proportional premium rule for omission or misrepresentation of risk by an insured acting in good faith;
exclusions from cover under articles R. 211-10 and R. 211-11 of the French Insurance Code.
Prescription period
In insurance, the limitation period is two years, but this is extended to ten years when a third party is liable.
Direct action
The insurer of a driver who has caused an accident can be contacted directly by the victim, without going through the victim's insurance company.
Liability determination
In the event of an accident between one or more vehicles, insurance companies examine the faults that may have been committed by the drivers to determine who is responsible for the loss. This liability determines the deductible that the at-fault driver receives on his or her next anniversary, as well as what the insurance company will pay out and to whom. An insured's liability may be total, partial or zero.
Liability is determined by the accident report, which is generally completed on the spot, by witness statements, or when a report is drawn up by the police in the event of injuries.
The Badinter law makes the driver liable for collisions with pedestrians, except in a few cases, such as attempted suicide.
In the event of theft, the insurance company is obliged to cover any damage caused by the vehicle up to one month after the theft. Damage caused by theft has no impact on the insured's bonus.
In the majority of claims, driver liability is determined by the IDA Convention (Indemnisation Direct de l'Assured). This convention is a liability scale based on the Highway Code and, in conjunction with the joint report, enables us to determine liability in nearly 80% of claims.
Impact of the accident on the Bonus
Only at-fault or partially at-fault accidents have an impact on the bonus.
Involving the insurance company following theft, fire, glass breakage or assistance does not affect the bonus. Nor do responsible accidents involving game. However, this may have an impact on the following year's rate.
In the event of an at-fault claim, whatever the amount or nature of the damage, the malus is 25%, i.e. if an insured has a 0.54% bonus the following year, the bonus will be 0.67% (0.54*1.25). If the accident is only partially at fault, the malus is only 12.5%, i.e. 0.60%.
Examples of accidents
In the event of an accident in a parking lot, responsibility is not divided equally between drivers: traffic rules apply just as they do on the road.
A driver is considered responsible for his or her doors and awnings if they are in the way of traffic.
A person making a maneuver is most often responsible for a collision with a vehicle in the normal lane, insofar as he or she is the one obstructing traffic.
Accident statistics
Every year, the number of accidents is falling. In 1979, for example, there were 242,975 bodily injury accidents in France, compared with 124,524 in 1999.
However, the cost of claims is rising faster: the cost of repairs is increasing by 3% a year, the cost of compensation for bodily injury claims is rising by 5-6% a year, and management costs are increasing by 2%.
In 2009, insurance companies paid out 9.6 million claims for four-wheeled vehicles alone, representing a total of nearly 16.3 billion euros.
Consequences of offences and frauds
The fight against fraud is an important issue for insurance companies, although it is difficult to put a figure on the losses incurred. Malicious policyholders are prepared to deceive the insurance company in order to earn more money. Whether at the time of purchase, by making a false declaration, or at the time of a claim by declaring false accidents, wilful destruction, misrepresentation of circumstances or the amount of damage. The fight against automobile fraud accounts for around 50% of ALFA's business.
Among the consequences of crime and fraud:
lack of insurance can be an obstacle to finding an insurer. Indeed, some companies are unwilling to insure a vehicle that has remained uninsured for too long;
false declaration at the time of underwriting can lead either to nullity of the contract when bad faith is established, or to cancellation within ten days by the company, or at best to regularization of premiums. If the fraudulent misrepresentation is discovered after the claim has been made, a proportional premium rule is applied;
fraud at the time of a claim leads to forfeiture of cover, often followed by cancellation of the policy;
if an aggravating circumstance is identified after a claim, an additional penalty may be applied:
Accident caused by a driver found to be under the influence of alcohol: 150% surcharge,
Accident following suspension of license: 50% to 100% surcharge,
Hit-and-run: 100% surcharge,
False declaration: 100% surcharge.
In 2019, the insured vehicle file (FVA) was created to combat uninsured driving.
In 2020, uninsured drivers caused 27,332 victims, including 7,984 bodily injury victims, 128 of whom died, at a cost of 106.3 million euros, according to the FGAO.
In 2020, 60% of uninsured motorists were under 35. The departments where uninsured accidents occur are mainly Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Bouches-du-Rhône.
Insurance market
The vehicle insurance market represents around 10% of the French insurance market. But it's also a closely related economy.
With the liberalization and opening up of the insurance market in 1994, the French vehicle insurance market is legally required to enable consumers to take out insurance policies on the European Union market, and to enable insurance professionals to enter new markets. However, in practice, in 2014, vehicle insurance in France only insures French policyholders, and French policyholders can only insure with vehicle insurance companies in France.
Economic market
With several tens of millions of vehicles, France has several million claims at a cost of close to 20 billion euros.
Accidents
In 2003, there were around 35 million cars in France, accounting for 7,131,000 claims in 2008, 43% of which involved glass breakage.
In 2014, France had 3.9 million two-wheelers, with 21,335 two-wheeler injuries financed with 912 million euros.
In 2015, France had 40.9 million 4-wheel motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 3.5 tonnes or less, excluding the company fleet, involved in 7.6 million insured claims.
Turnover
The motor insurance market represented total sales of 17,900 million euros in 2008, accounting for 40% of total property insurance premiums.
In 2015, the personal motor insurance market represented sales of 18.5 billion euros.
Key market players
Out of all the options available to policyholders for taking out a policy, insurance companies with intermediaries remain the most widely used, accounting for almost 45% of contributions, compared with 35% through mutual insurers without intermediaries.
Key market players
All companies licensed to insure against accidents resulting from the use of motor vehicles can distribute vehicle insurance.
However, the insurance market does not stop with insurance companies. There are also distributors and numerous service providers.
Insurance companies
In 2005, AXA was the French leader in vehicle insurance in terms of sales, with 2 billion euros and 4.2 million cars insured (excluding fleet and motorcycle).
MACIF is second, with sales of 1.7 billion euros, but leads in number of cars insured, with 4.7 million.
By 2005, six players had sales in excess of one billion euros: AXA, Macif, Groupama-Gan, MAAF, MAIF and AGF.
In 2007, the creation of the Covéa group brings together MAAF, MMA and Azur-GMF. The Covéa group became the market leader, ahead of AXA.
Insurance intermediaries
To take out an insurance policy, prospective customers can go through a variety of insurance intermediaries, including general insurance agents, brokers, direct employees of the company, its bank or, with the growing use of the Internet, the company itself.
In recent years, distribution channels have broadened. It is now possible to take out policies through insurance prescribers such as car dealerships. It is also possible to take out insurance policies via supermarkets. For some years now, online insurance comparators have also been taking over insurance intermediation. They include Assurland, Le Lynx, LesFurets.com, Hyperassur and LeComparateurAssurance.com. According to the Comité Consultatif du Secteur Financier (Banque de France), in 2011 around 10% of the flow of vehicle insurance subscriptions on the internet were handled by insurance comparators. On July 29, 2013, Google launched its comparison service for automobile contracts on the insurance comparison market.
Startups specializing in online or smartphone-based car brokerage also appeared in 2017, with players such as Leocare, Lovys or Wilov.
Other organizations
AGIRA: Association pour la gestion des informations sur le risque en assurance (Association for the management of information on insurance risk), which enables insurers to check an insured person's background when taking out a policy, in order to avoid misrepresentation. It also manages the file of insured vehicles.
The Automobile Guarantee Fund, which is responsible for compensating victims whose at-fault drivers remain unknown or insolvent.
The Bureau Central de Tarification (Central Tariff Office), whose sole role is to set the premium in return for which the insurance company concerned is obliged to cover the risk it has been offered.
ALFA: Agence pour la lutte contre la fraude à l'assurance, created in 1989.
Other stakeholders
There are many service providers in the vehicle insurance market, including adjusters who determine the cost of repairs following an accident, and medical experts in the event of a personal injury. Car garages carry out repairs, and breakdown services intervene in the event of an accident or breakdown.
Thanks to the growing use of the Internet, the market is seeing the arrival of insurance premium comparison sites.
Appendix
Bibliography
François Chabas, Les accidents de la circulation, Dalloz, 1995, 181 p. ()
Georges Durry, L'assurance automobile, Paris, Dalloz, 1998, 138 p. (, )
Jean-Pierre Daniel, L'assurance automobile aujourd'hui: le modèle français et les marchés Européens, Broché, May 2003
Francis Noël, Le règlement des sinistres automobile. : Accidents, contentieux et garanties du constructeur, Société Educative Financière Internationale, 2004, 167 p. ()
Pierre Jadoul, Du neuf en assurance R.C. automobile, Éditions Bruylant, 2005, 272 p. ()
James Landel and Lionel Namin, Manuel de l'assurance automobile, Paris, Broché Dalloz-Sirey, May 14, 2008, 428 p. (, )
Couilbault, Eliashberg and Latrasse, Les Grands Principes de l'assurance, Paris, L'Argus éditions, 2009, 388 p. (, )
Related articles
:fr:Accident de la route en France
:fr:Sécurité routière en France
Usage-based insurance
:fr:Fédération française de l'assurance
MAIF (company)
Early driver training in France
External links
Fédération française de l'assurance archive - Official website.
References
Insurance in France
Insurance companies
Vehicles
Liability insurance | Vehicle insurance in France | [
"Physics"
] | 8,750 | [
"Vehicles",
"Transport",
"Physical systems"
] |
74,974,176 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel%209%20Pro%20Fold | The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is an Android-powered foldable smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. It serves as the successor to the first-generation Pixel Fold. It was officially announced on August 13, 2024, at the annual Made by Google event, and was released in the United States on September 4, 2024.
History
In October 2023, 9to5Google reported that a second Android-powered foldable smartphone was in development at Google, codenamed "Comet". This came after the release of the first-generation Pixel Fold the previous year.
After previewing the phone in July 2024, Google officially announced the phone on August 13, alongside the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel Watch 3, at the annual Made by Google event. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold was released on September 4.
Specifications
Design
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is a foldable smartphone, meaning it has a flexible display. This allows the phone to be either folded (in which case the display size is similar to that of a regular phone), or unfolded (in which case the display size is similar to that of a tablet).
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold features a redesigned appearance, with a taller and slimmer display compared to the previous generation Pixel Fold. It has been measured to be 1.5 millimeters thinner when closed, and 0.7 millimeters thinner when open compared to its predecessor.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes in 2 colors: Porcelain (an ecru or off-white) and Obsidian (a dark charcoal gray). They are shown below:
Hardware
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold uses OLED displays on both the cover display, and the internal display. The cover display (used when the phone is folded) has a screen size of 6.3 in (16 cm), while the inner display (used when the phone is unfolded) has a screen size of 8 in (20.32 cm).
There are 3 rear-facing cameras:
The 48 MP Quad PD wide angle camera, which has an ƒ/1.7 aperture, an 82° field of view, and a 1/2" image sensor size. The wide angle camera also allows for image stabilization.
The 10.5 MP Dual PD auto-focus ultra-wide camera, which has an ƒ/2.2 aperture, a 127° field of view, and a 1/3.4" image sensor size.
The 10.8 MP Dual PD telephoto camera, which has an ƒ/3.1 aperture, a 23° field of view, and a 1/3.2" image sensor size. The telephoto lens allows for 5x optical zoom, Super Res Zoom up to 20x. and image stabilization.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also has a 10 MP Dual PD front-facing (selfie) camera, which has an ƒ/2.2 aperture, and an 87° field of view. The specs for the front-facing cameras are the exact same both when the phone is folded and unfolded.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is powered by the fourth-generation of Google's Tensor series of chips (marketed as "Google Tensor G4"), as well as the Titan M2 security co-processor. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with a new modem, the Samsung Exynos Modem 5400. The new modem allows for better call quality, as well as the ability to connect to emergency services via satellite. Similar to the Emergency SOS feature released by Apple on the iPhone 14, this feature allows users to alert emergency services of danger through the use of satellites if the user is in a situation where they are unable to connect to Wi-Fi or a mobile network (such as if they get lost in a desert).
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold comes with 16GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), and allows the user to choose between either 256 GB of storage (starting from US$1799) or 512 GB of storage (starting from US$1919).
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a 4650mAh battery, which, according to GSMarena's testing, is equivalent to 11 hours and 54 minutes of screen time (however, it's important to note that things like battery age and usage will affect battery life beyond what tests can show). It also has support for 45W fast charging, and supports Qi-certified wireless charging.
Software
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold shipped with many new artificial intelligence and Gemini features. These include updates such as Gemini Live (a conversational AI that is based off of the existing Gemini chatbot), AI photo editing tools (such as Add Me - a tool that allows you to add the person taking the photo to a group picture), and Pixel Studio (a text-to-image AI photo generation tool that runs on-device and uses Google's image generation tool - Imagen 3). For a full list of new AI features, see the article 14 new things you can do with Pixel thanks to AI (It's important to note that the linked article was written by Google - the makers of the Pixel series of products including this phone).
At launch, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold shipped with Android 14. However, on the 15th of October 2024, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, along with the other phones in the Pixel 9 series of products, received an update to Android 15 (in the form of a feature drop). Google has claimed that the Pixel 9 Pro fold will receive a total of 7 years of OS and security updates, meaning the phone will be supported until 2031.
Reception
Ahead of its expected release, The Verge expressed excitement for prospective improvements to the original model's flaws.
References
External links
Made by Google 2024
Android (operating system) devices
Foldable smartphones
Google hardware
Google Pixel
Mobile phones introduced in 2024
Mobile phones with 4K video recording
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras | Pixel 9 Pro Fold | [
"Technology"
] | 1,223 | [
"Crossover devices",
"Foldable smartphones"
] |
74,975,314 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline%20of%20fluid%20dynamics | The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fluid dynamics:
Below is a structured list of topics in fluid dynamics.
What type of thing is fluid dynamics?
Fluid dynamics can be described as all of the following:
An academic discipline – one with academic departments, curricula and degrees; national and international societies; and specialized journals.
A scientific field (a branch of science) – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published.
A natural science – one that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world using empirical and scientific methods.
A physical science – one that studies non-living systems.
A branch of physics – study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force.
A branch of mechanics – area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects.
A branch of continuum mechanics – subject that models matter without using the information that it is made out of atoms; that is, it models matter from a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from microscopic.
A subdiscipline of fluid mechanics – branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them.
A biological science – field that studies the role of physical processes in living organisms. For an example of a biological area involving fluid dynamics, see hemodynamics.
Branches of fluid dynamics
History of fluid dynamics
History of fluid dynamics
Mathematical equations and concepts
Types of fluid flow
Fluid properties
Fluid phenomena
Concepts in aerodynamics
(hydrodynamic)
(aerodynamics)
Fluid dynamics research
Fluid dynamics journals
Methods used in fluid dynamics research
Tools used in fluid dynamics research
Applications of fluid dynamics
Fluid dynamics organizations
Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
Fluid dynamics publications
Books on fluid dynamics
An Album of Fluid Motion (1982)
Journals pertaining to fluid dynamics
Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Physics of Fluids
Physical Review Fluids
Experiments in Fluids
European Journal of Mechanics B: Fluids
Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics
Computers and Fluids
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids
Flow, Turbulence and Combustion
Persons influential in fluid dynamics
Contributors to the field of fluid dynamics in turn come from a wide array of fields, and in addition to their other titles, each is also a fluid dynamicist. Following is a list of notable fluid dynamicists:
Miscellaneous concepts
These topics need placement in the sections above, or in new sections.
References
External links
Fluid dynamics
Fluid dynamics
Fluid dynamics | Outline of fluid dynamics | [
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"Engineering"
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74,975,733 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLU-PP-332 | SLU-PP-332 is a compound which is a potent but non-selective estrogen-related receptor (ERR) agonist, acting most strongly at ERRα with an EC50 of 98 nM. It was found to counteract metabolic syndrome in mice, suggesting a possible role for compounds from this class as medications for the treatment of obesity.
References
4-Hydroxyphenyl compounds
Benzamides
Naphthalenes
Hydrazides
Exercise mimetics
Estrogen-related receptor modulators | SLU-PP-332 | [
"Chemistry"
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74,976,282 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral%20bonds | Electoral bonds were a mode of funding for political parties in India from their introduction in 2018 until they were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on 15 February 2024. Following their termination, a five-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice directed the State Bank of India to cede the identities and other details of donors and recipients to the Election Commission of India, which was in turn asked to publish them on its website.
The course of action was introduced in The Finance Bill, 2017 during the Union Budget 2017-18 by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. They were classified as a Money Bill, and thus bypassed certain parliamentary scrutiny processes, in what was alleged to be a violation of Article 110 of Indian constitution. Mr Jaitley also proposed to amend the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act in order to facilitate the issuance of electoral bonds by banks for the purpose of political funding.
Although introduced in early 2017, the Department of Economic Affairs in Ministry Of Finance notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 in a Gazette only on 2 January 2018. According to an estimate, a total of 18,299 electoral bonds equivalent to a monetary value of ₹9,857 crore (98.57 billion) were successfully transacted during the period spanning from March 2018 to April 2022.
On 7 November 2022, the Electoral Bond scheme was amended to increase the sale days from 70 to 85 in a year where any assembly election may be scheduled. The decision on Electoral Bond (Amendment) Scheme, 2022 was taken shortly prior to the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, while the Model Code of Conduct was implemented in both the states.
Ahead of the 2019 General Elections, Congress announced its intention to eliminate electoral bonds, if the party is elected to power. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also opposed the scheme, and was the sole national party to refuse donations through electoral bonds.
On 15 February 2024, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, unanimously struck down the electoral bonds scheme, as well as amendments to the Representation of People Act, Companies Act and Income Tax Act, as unconstitutional. They found it "violative of RTI (Right to Information)" and of voters’ right to information about political funding under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. They also pointed out that it "would lead to quid pro quo arrangements" between corporations and politicians.
The State Bank of India was asked to hand over details of donors and recipients to the Election Commission of India by 6 March, and the ECI was to publish these online by 13 March. However, the SBI failed to submit the details by 6 March, and approached the Supreme Court asking for more time. The court turned down this request, following which the details were turned over to the ECI and published on their website.
Features
Electoral Bonds functioned like Promissory notes and interest-free banking tools. Any Indian citizen or organization registered in India could buy these bonds after fulfilling the KYC norms laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). They could be procured by a donor solely through the means of cheque or digital payments in various denominations, such as one thousand, ten thousand, one lakh, ten lakh, and one crore from specific branches of the State Bank of India (SBI). Within a span of 15 days of issuance, these electoral bonds could be redeemed in the designated account of a legally registered political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (u/s 29A) which had received at least 1% of the votes in the last election. The stanches of bonds were available for purchase for 10 days in the months of January, April, July, and October with an additional time-frame of 30 days in the year of general elections for Lok Sabha.
Electoral bonds featured anonymity since they bore no identification of the donor and the political party to which they were issued. In the event that the 15-day deadline was not met, neither the donor nor the receiving political party received a refund for the issued electoral bonds. Rather, the fund value of the electoral bond was remitted to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
Objective
The government capped cash donations to political parties at . Enforcing donation amount exceeding via the banking system would mean the declaration of assets by political parties and also enable their traceability. Then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley argued that this reform of electoral bonds is expected to enhance transparency and accountability in the realm of political funding, while also preventing the creation of illegal funds for future generations. Jaitley, while defending the anonymity of bonds, argued that if donors were asked to disclose their identity, they would revert back to cash donations. The anonymity of the bonds was also intended to protect the donors' privacy and shield them from potential harassment.
Timeline
On 28 January 2017, the finance ministry in a correspondence with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sought comments on the proposed amendments in The Finance Bill, 2017. The necessity of amendments to RBI Act was realized. Next day, on 30 January 2017, the RBI replied by expressing its severe apprehensions, contending that the electoral bond scheme was susceptible to illicit financial activities, lack of transparency, and possible exploitation. HuffPost India reported that the government overlooked the RBI concerns and went ahead with its announcement during Budget Session in Parliament on 1 February 2017.
Impact on existing regulations
The monetary contribution limit that any registered political party in India can receive from an individual has been restricted to ₹2,000 – representing a reduction to 10% of the previous threshold of ₹20,000. This was done through the Finance Act, 2017.
Introduction of electoral bonds has effectively abolished the ceiling on contributions made by corporations, which was earlier limited to 7.5% of the organization's average net earnings over the preceding three-year period. An amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 ensured this change.
The scheme resulted in the elimination of the mandatory obligation for individuals or corporations to provide comprehensive information regarding their political contributions. Instead of reporting a comprehensive breakdown of political donations within their annual financial reports, companies would now be solely required to disclose a consolidated sum for purchase of electoral bonds. Relevant provisions under the Income Tax Act, 1961 were amended in this regard.
The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended by the government, with the support of the opposition, to broaden the definition of a "foreign" entity, with the explicit aim of expanding the scope of firms that could lawfully make political contributions.
Critics argued that these changes would allow any person, corporation, or interest group to now anonymously donate an unrestricted amount of funds to any political party, and that no citizen, journalist, or civil society representative would be able to establish any connections.
First tranches - 2018
Postponed from January 2018 and commencing on 1 March 2018, the first tranche of electoral bonds were made available for purchase over a span of ten days. State Bank of India issued and encashed these electoral bonds in fours of its branches at Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Analysis of political parties' "Audited Accounts Contribution Statements" for the fiscal year 2017-18 ending on 31 March, which were duly submitted to both the Income Tax Department and the Election Commission of India reveals that BJP obtained electoral bonds amounting to ₹215 crore, whereas the Congress party received only ₹5 crore. It is noteworthy that no other registered political party, national or regional, has reported receiving any form of contribution through electoral bonds.
The third phase of electoral bond sale was scheduled for purchase from 1 May to 10 May at eleven SBI branches in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi along with designated branches in Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
An application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act was filed in May 2018 to obtain information on cumulative number of donors and the aggregate quantity of electoral bonds sold by each authorized branch during the months of March and April, among other relevant particulars. The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) declined the application in June 2018, citing that the compilation of such data would result in "disproportionate diversion of the bank’s resources" but gave only the denomination-wise figures for the sale of all such bonds through the designated branches which did not match with information provided in another application. However, SBI’s first appellate authority (FAA), in July 2018, acknowledged the blunder that the previously given electoral bond sale data — 10 bonds of ₹100,000 denomination, 38 bonds of ₹10,00,000 and 9 bonds of ₹1,00,00,000 denomination, totaling ₹12.93 crore — for the Gandhinagar branch was, in fact, "belonged" to the Bengaluru branch of the State Bank of India. The RTI applicant regretted the claims of transparency made by the government.
2019
The RTI response of SBI to a query by Vihar Durve has shown that the 2019 sale of Electoral Bonds in two tranches of January and March at eleven SBI branches, prior to the Lok Sabha elections in May, has experienced a significant surge amounting to Rs 1,716.05 crore. This figure represents a notable increase of 62.39% in comparison to the total sales of Rs 1,056.73 crore achieved through six tranches conducted in March, April, May, July, October and November of 2018.
2022
From 1 July to 10 July, SBI conducted the 21st phase of Electoral Bond sale.
2023
From 19 January to 28 January, 25th electoral bond sale was carried out while 26th phase of sale worth ₹970.50 crore was conducted from 3 April to 12 April ahead of Karnataka assembly elections on 10 May 2023.
Based on the data obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) for the 26th edition of bond sale conducted by the State Bank of India (SBI), it has been revealed that a total of 1,470 bonds were sold. Among these, 923 bonds accounting for 95.10% of the total, were of the denomination of ₹1 crore. Additionally, the SBI sold 468 bonds valued at ₹ one lakh each, 69 bonds valued at ₹ one lakh each, and 10 bonds valued at ₹10,000 each. Highest sales of bonds amounting to ₹335.30 crore was at Hyderabad branch, followed by the Kolkata branch with sales of ₹197.40 crore and the Mumbai branch with sales of ₹169.37 crore. The Chennai branch recorded sales of bonds worth ₹122 crore, while the Bengaluru branch sold bonds worth ₹46 crore. In terms of bond encashment, the New Delhi branch saw redemption of bonds valued at ₹565.79 crore. Subsequently, the Kolkata branch redeemed bonds worth ₹186.95 crore.
27th edition of bond sale was held between 3 July and 12 July which saw 1,371 transactions worth ₹812.80 crore. The Hyderabad branch achieved the highest sales in bonds amounting to ₹266.72 crore, followed by the Kolkata branch with sales worth ₹143.20 crore, and the Mumbai branch with sales worth ₹135 crore. The Bengaluru branch recorded sales of bonds worth ₹46 crore. In terms of bond encashment, the Bhubaneswar branch saw highest redemption of electoral bonds valued at ₹155.50 crore. Subsequently, the New Delhi branch encashed electoral bonds worth ₹117.58 crore.
Pre-implementation
Previously, it was mandatory for all political parties to report the names and other details of donors who contribute more than ₹20,000 towards the party fund while filing their income-tax returns. Information was not sought for those donating an amount less than ₹20,000. Such donations were declared as Income from "unknown sources" and the details of such donors are not available in the public domain.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) conducted a study in 2017 which found the total income of political parties in India between 2004–05 and 2014-15 was ₹11,367 crore and that 69% of income from donations below ₹20,000 given to political parties amounting to ₹7,833 crore came from unknown sources. Only 16 per cent of their total income was from the known donors.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared 100% of its income of ₹111.96 crore in 2014-15 from unknown sources. This was a 2,057% jump from its ₹5.19 crore income in 2004–05. Congress Party had the highest income of ₹3,982 crore among national parties while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reported an income of ₹3,272.63 crore. Approximately 83% of the aggregate income received by the Congress, totaling ₹3,323.39 crore, and 65% of the total income acquired by the BJP, amounting to ₹2,125.91 crore was attributed to unknown sources. The CPI(M) declared ₹893 crore as its income, which was third highest in 2014–15.
Samajwadi Party had the highest income of ₹819.1 crore among regional political parties while Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) reported second highest income of ₹203.02 crore followed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) with third highest net revenue of ₹165.01 crore. ADR study showed 94% of Samajwadi Party income (₹766.27 crore) was from unknown sources whereas Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) reported 86% (₹88.06 crore) of revenue from unknown sources.
Post-implementation
In 2018, the 133-year old Indian National Congress which ruled for 49 years of Independent India's 71 years history, for the first time made a public request for "small contribution" to its party fund which pointed to shortfall in party's income. It is impossible to determine the exact amount of money that political parties earn or possess. The appeal by Congress was seen as a move to portray itself as an honest party that is not getting enough funding from corporate companies and wealthy donors. The Congress-led UPA government faced allegations of involvement in major scandals during its previous tenure. While the INC saw dip in their revenues, BJP had seen doubling of its earning in the same period.
For the Financial Year 2021–22, ADR Annual Audit report revealed that the regional parties declared ₹887.55 crore as income from unknown sources which amounts to 75% of their net income. Only 12% (₹145.42 crore) of the total income (₹1165.576 crore) of the 27 regional parties was attributed to known sources. Electoral bonds contributed to 93.26% (₹827.76 crore) of the entire income from unknown sources. Also, ₹38.354 crore (4.32%) was garnered from sale of coupons while ₹21.293 crore (2.4%) was received by the regional parties in form of donations each amounting to less than ₹20,000. According the information given by 27 out of 54 recognized regional parties to Election Commission of India by May 2023, DMK received 96.01% (₹306.025 crore) of its total income (₹318.745 crore) from unknown sources.
Data released by the Election Commission of India
On 11 March 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the State Bank of India to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) by the end of business hours the next day. This data was subsequently released by the ECI on their website on 15 March 2024. It includes the details of all bonds encashed between 12 April 2019, and 24 January 2024. On 17 March 2024, the Election Commission unveiled data received directly from political parties and is believed to be from the period before 12 April 2019.
The data released by the ECI showed that the biggest donor was Future Gaming and Hotels Pvt Ltd run by Mr Santiago Martin. This lottery company purchased bonds worth Rs 1,300 crore during the period 2019–2024. Of these, bonds worth Rs 100 crore were purchased seven days after a raid by India's Enforcement Directorate over charges of money laundering. The second and fifth biggest donors - Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd and Vedanta Limited - also faced probes by law enforcement agencies during the period. Meanwhile, the third biggest donor - Qwik Supply Chain - was accused of being a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, a charge Reliance denied. However, the company's registration details indicated a connection.
Public interest litigation
The electoral bonds scheme has been subjected to legal challenge through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India on two grounds. Firstly, it is argued that the scheme has resulted in a complete lack of transparency in political funding in India, thereby preventing the Election Commission and the citizens of the country from accessing crucial information regarding political contributions and parties' significant source of income. Secondly, it is contended that the passage of this scheme as a Money Bill, thereby circumventing the upper house of Parliament — Rajya Sabha, is unconstitutional and infringes upon the doctrine of separation of powers and the citizen's fundamental right to information, both of which form integral components of the basic structure of the Constitution. The PIL was initiated in October 2017, with the Ministry of Finance submitting its response in January 2018 and the Law Ministry responding in March 2018.
The Supreme Court considered a collection of petitions submitted by the non-governmental organization Association for Democratic Reforms, Common Cause (India), (represented by Prashant Bhushan) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which contest the legality of the modifications made to the Reserve Bank of India Act, the Representation of the People Act, the Income Tax Act, the Companies Act, and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act through the Finance Acts of 2016 and 2017. These amendments enabled the utilization of electoral bonds.
In his petition against the government's decision, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury demanded for revocation of Electoral Bond Scheme and the called the issuance of electoral bonds and the Finance Act 2017, as "arbitrary" and "discriminatory". The government in its defense of its decision to introduce electoral bonds, asserted in Supreme Court that its primary objective was to ensure increased accountability and promote electoral reforms as a means to combat the escalating threat of "black money" and to help nation's transitions towards a cashless and digital economy. Government said that the implementation of a restricted time-frame and a significantly brief period of maturity for electoral bonds reduces the likelihood of any potential misuse. The acquisition of these bonds by donors will be duly recorded in their financial statements, thereby reflecting the donations made. Further, government added that the introduction of electoral bonds will encourage donors to opt for the banking channel as a means of contributing, with their personal information being captured by the authorized issuing entity. Consequently, this measure will guarantee transparency, accountability, and serve as a significant stride towards electoral reform.
The government requested the dismissal of the petition submitted by the left party, asserting that there is an absence of "invidious or arbitrary discrimination" and no infringement upon any fundamental rights of the Petitioner.
The Election Commission of India submitted its views on the matter to the Supreme Court that the amendments in existing legislation, which permit the utilization of electoral bonds and eliminate the restriction on donations, including those from foreign origins, to political parties, would inevitably result in a surge in the utilization of illicit funds (black money) during the electoral process. Furthermore, this alteration would have profound consequences on the transparency of financial contributions to political parties, ultimately leading to the manipulation of Indian policies.
Criticism
The Constitution of India clearly specifies the conditions for a legislation under consideration to be classified as a Money Bill. The provisions pertaining to electoral bonds fail to satisfy the criteria for classification as a Money Bill. The government's justification for this is that any component of the Budget, being a Money Bill, automatically fulfills the prerequisites for classification as such. A comparable instance of the misuse of the Money Bill was seen previous to the retrospective amendments made to the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) by the government, on two separate occasions, in an effort to shield the BJP and the Congress from prosecution for FCRA violations, as determined by the Delhi High Court. The UPA-administration had earlier implemented "Electoral Trusts" with false narratives on better electoral fundings.
All political parties have a tendency to possess a vested interest in maintaining the anonymity of fund origins due to the predominant presence of unreported funds. These parties not only tolerate the existence of illicit funds in the form of "black money" but also safeguard their sources and actively engage in their utilization. Regrettably, comprehensive documentation in regard to the allocation of these funds does not exist as it is not mandated by any of the existing laws. Consequently, electoral finances and expenditures emerge as the principal catalysts for corruption and the proliferation of unaccounted funds, hence the black money is widely prevalent in Indian politics.
While the Modi-administration has taken steps to address the issue of political funding by imposing restrictions on cash donations and introducing "election bonds", some politicians and election officials believe that these measures will not have a significant impact. It is said that the upcoming elections will not be directly affected by these changes, but the government is likely to view them as an opportunity for Narendra Modi to enhance his reputation as a fighter against corruption. This comes after he announced several measures to address illegal wealth.
It is difficult to fully understand the financial aspects of politics in the world's largest democracy due to the lack of transparency in campaign financing. The introduction of Electoral Bonds has enabled companies to anonymously finance political parties without any limitations on the amount of donations. This development has been criticized by activists who argue that it grants corporations excessive influence and obfuscates the connections between politicians and business entities. The initial issuance of electoral bonds saw the BJP acquire approximately 95 percent of the total bonds, as per information obtained by Reuters through a Right to Information request and BJP submissions.
The purpose of introducing the bonds was to expose illegal money and increase transparency in political funding. However, critics argue that it has had the opposite effect, as they claim the bonds are shrouded in secrecy. There exists an absence of publicly available documentation regarding the purchasers of individual bonds and the recipients of the corresponding donations. This lack of transparency renders the bonds susceptible to being deemed "unconstitutional and problematic," as it hinders taxpayers and citizens from obtaining knowledge about the origins of these contributions. Moreover, according to some critics, it is argued that the anonymity of the bonds is not absolute since SBI, the state-owned bank maintains a comprehensive record of both the benefactor and the beneficiary. Consequently, this enables the ruling government to effortlessly obtain pertinent information and potentially exploit it in order to exert influence over donors. This practice has been deemed as conferring an unjust advantage upon the ruling party and the government.
In 2017, upon the initial announcement of the bonds, the Election Commission of India expressed concerns regarding the potential compromise of electoral transparency. This apprehension was echoed by various entities including the central bank, the law ministry, and several Members of Parliament, who contended that the electoral bonds would not effectively deter the influx of illicit funds into the political sphere. Notably, the ECI later altered its stance and extended support to the electoral bonds after a year. Furthermore, the courts have postponed their verdict on the matter, thus leaving it unresolved. Those who oppose this scheme argue that the government has effectively enacted opacity through the implementation of electoral bonds.
There can be a possibility of shell companies' accounts to serve as a means to facilitate contributions for favorable political parties. Opponents highlight that there exists a potential scenario wherein benefactors may procure bonds using funds acquired through legitimate means or subjected to taxation, and subsequently vend them to a third party utilizing illicitly obtained or undeclared funds for tax purposes. The third party may then transfer the bonds to a political organization. A major issue with political financing in India is the anonymity of funding sources. Since the ₹2,000 limit still exist for donations in cash, there is an apprehension that political parties will hide a large portion of their illegal money in this category.
The potential consequences of a political party in possession of both Electoral Bonds funds and the Aadhaar and Jan Dhan account numbers of voters are significant. The party could potentially engage in a "Direct Benefit Transfer" of funds into the accounts of voters in advance of an election. The pathway from Electoral Bonds to Aadhaar and bank account numbers, or even just UPI numbers, presents a potential conduit for untraceable funds from anonymous sources to anonymous voters. This development could ultimately undermine the integrity of democratic elections, rendering them neither "free" nor "fair."
Retired Chief Election Commissioner V. S. Sampath said the Election Commission can't do much in situations where legislative modifications are tailored to accommodate the interests of corporate benefactors and political organizations that receive financial contributions from businesses including foreign entities.
Controversies
In 2023, former CM Chandrababu Naidu was arrested and the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had submitted evidence to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court, indicating that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) received ₹27 crore in the form of electoral bonds as donations during the fiscal year 2018-19. This substantial amount allegedly serves as proof of the funds that were misappropriated in a skill development project. Calling this a political hunt and misuse of state police machinery, the TDP countered that ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) led by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had obtained a total of ₹99.84 crore in electoral bonds during the fiscal year 2018-19, ₹74.35 crore in 2019-20, ₹96.25 crore in 2020-21, and ₹60 crore in 2021-22 but the YSRCP refrained from disclosing this information in its publication, Saakshi, indicating a lack of transparency and accountability.
Notes
See also
Electoral reform in India
Political funding in India
References
External Links
The lists of electoral bond donors and recipients, published on the website of the Election Commission of india
Electoral reform in India
Modi administration initiatives
Political corruption
India
Politics of India
Abuse
Organized crime activity
Corruption in India
Political controversies in India
Electoral fraud
State crime | Electoral bonds | [
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"Human behavior"
] |
74,976,662 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acremonium%20isabellae | Acremonium isabellae is a species of fungus in the genus Acremonium. It was discovered at Rowlands Creek near Uki in NE New South Wales in 2023 on the body of a dead spider being consumed by an entomopathogenic fungi. Citizen scientist Isabella Teal discovered the fungus while collecting samples of spider-eating fungi with her father and it was subsequently named after her. It was first described along with other microfungi in the 11 September 2023, Index of Australian Fungi. The sample on which this fungus was identified can be seen arriving at the lab in the 2024 documentary Follow the Rain.
Current Name:
Waltergamsia isabellae, Index of Australian Fungi 47: 13 (2024)
Synonymy:
Acremonium isabellae, Index of Australian Fungi 15: 5 (2023)
References
Hypocreaceae
Fungal plant pathogens and diseases
Fungi described in 2023
Fungus species | Acremonium isabellae | [
"Biology"
] | 185 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
74,977,292 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muometric%20navigation | Muometric navigation is positioning, navigation and timing using cosmic ray muons and other cosmic particles.
It is possible to determine locations with GNSS satellites with well-known positions and time. GNSS is often used by critically important governmental organizations for navigating ships and planes, but the signals can be easily jammed and spoofed. In 2020 Hiroyuki K.M. Tanaka created an entirely new approach from GNSS that locates the receiver's position with cosmic-ray muons.
Muometric techniques include the muometric positioning system (muPS), the muometric wireless navigation system (MuWNS) or muPS Wireless Navigation System (muWNS), cosmic time synchronizer (CTS) and cosmic time calibrator (CTC).
Positioning and navigation
The muometric positioning and navigation techniques are based on the time-of-flight of relativistic cosmic-ray muons between reference detectors and the receiver detector usually located indoor, underground, or underwater. Instead of receiving a GNSS signal, they detect cosmic-ray muons. Three or more reference detectors are deployed with known positions and time-references. Like GNSS, clocks between the reference receivers and the receiver must be well-synchronized. Unlike GNSS, this technology enables navigation in Arctic areas where GNSS satellite access is limited due to orbital constraints of these satellites.
The initial prototype required wiring between the receiver and each reference detector for accurate time synchronization. However, this configuration restricted the range of applicability of the system. Efforts to find a way to navigate without wires, growing out of the success of this initial system replaced wires with a clock. muWNS is expected to be applied to rescue teams, for example, to guide robots underwater and underground by positioning inside tunnels, in a building or mine collapse.
The indoor muometric positioning accuracy is 3.9 cm as of 2023.
Timing
Precise timekeeping generally requires GNSS and atomic clock systems, but these are expensive and unavailable in indoor, underground or underwater areas. Also, GNSS is vulnerable to cyber-attack and disruption. A method using cosmic particles was proposed to precisely track time to solve this problem. Cosmic rays collide in the atmosphere, generating particle showers. The muons in these showers travel close to the speed of light and spread out as they travel through the atmosphere. They reach the ground at almost the same time, so by sharing the information provided by these muons, clocks can be synchronized. A recent demonstration showed its synchronization precision of tens of nanoseconds over a distance of 60 m.
Random timestamps generated in this cosmic time synchronizing scheme can be used in turn for generating random numbers for secure data transfer. The sender and receiver use the same muons to create truly random cryptographic keys from the timestamp. Based on the precise time delay between the sender and the receiver calculated from the distance between the detectors within 10 meters each other, the receiver knows the private key without having to directly exchange it between the sender and the receiver. Applications potentially range from secure cloud storage, communications, to virtual currency generation.
References
Cosmic-ray experiments
Satellite navigation
Global Positioning System
Synchronization | Muometric navigation | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 665 | [
"Telecommunications engineering",
"Wireless locating",
"Aircraft instruments",
"Aerospace engineering",
"Global Positioning System",
"Synchronization"
] |
74,977,622 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick%20Share | Quick Share is a wireless peer-to-peer data transfer utility for Android, Windows, Samsung Family Hub refrigerators and ChromeOS. Quick Share utilizes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct to send files to nearby devices, but it could also send to any other device anywhere using the Samsung Cloud, uploading through a link or QR code. Originally developed by Samsung Electronics for its own devices, Google subsequently collaborated with Samsung and merged its own Nearby Share into Quick Share in 2024, distributing Quick Share to non-Galaxy Android devices through Google Play Services.
History
Quick Share debuted along with the Samsung Galaxy S20 and One UI 2.1, with rollout to other Galaxy smartphones and tablets later. Samsung claims the service was created to streamline the process of sending content, superseding a previous service named Link Sharing. Quick Share was launched for Windows-based Samsung Galaxy Book notebooks in 2021, and since July 2023 is no longer limited to Samsung Windows PCs.
In January 2024, it was announced that Google's Nearby Share would be merging with Samsung's Quick Share, adopting the name of the latter.
Usage
Users can send files to up to 8 nearby devices at a time, so long as they have the feature enabled and their screens are on. Quick Share can be toggled in the quick panel settings and the user can choose to receive content from anyone nearby, contacts only, your devices, or no one. Content transfer is made possible by choosing Quick Share, after which the sender chooses which nearby device(s) to send to.
Quick Share is also capable of uploading files to Samsung Cloud and sharing via URL. The data uploaded to the Samsung Cloud can be downloaded by the user either by clicking the specified link or scanning the provided QR code.
Samsung Cloud automatically deletes the uploaded files after a period of two days, and has a daily upload limit of 5 gigabytes.
The Quick Share app on Windows enables other Quick Share-enabled devices to instantly share files with Windows devices.
Availability
Quick Share is available on Android 6 and later, ChromeOS 91 and later, and 64-bit versions of Windows 10 and later (either ARM or x86). On Windows, Quick Share must be installed manually, as opposed to its implementation on Android and ChromeOS, where it is a part of the operating system and does not need to be installed separately. Windows devices must have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be able to run Quick Share.
Windows Apps
There are two Windows apps available: one for the Microsoft Store developed by Samsung, and one available via sideloading developed by Google.
These apps are predicted to fully merge capabilities in Q3 of 2024. Currently, Samsung's version can only run using Intel Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers.
In addition, Microsoft also offers a way to Nearby Share (unrelated to Quick Share, nor Google's Nearby Share) to Android devices natively through Windows' Phone Link functionality.
Private Share
Private Share was a derivative data transfer service which used blockchain encryption, designed for important personal or financial information. Sharing files is possible via the phone number associated with a phone's SIM card, or a user-chosen private number. A private number is exclusive to the Private Share app, and commences with # and includes 10 digits, like #0123456789. The sender is able to set an expiry date for the files, which get automatically deleted from the recipient's devices. There is a 200 megabyte upload limit for senders. Like Quick Share, Private Share is also preloaded on Samsung Galaxy devices. Since December 2023, Private Share has been integrated with Quick Share, and is no longer a separate service.
See also
AirDrop, a similar feature by Apple
References
Samsung software
Google software
Bluetooth | Quick Share | [
"Technology"
] | 780 | [
"Wireless networking",
"Bluetooth"
] |
74,977,871 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nessum | Nessum, previously HD-PLC (short for 'High Definition Power Line Communication'), is a communication technology standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It is standardized as IEEE 1901-2020.
The standard is to be used to communicate data over wired and wireless media using high frequencies between ~500kHz and ~56 MHz bands. The Nessum Alliance is the certifying body for compatibility between Nessum-based communication devices.
Overview
Nessum offers two types of communication: wired (Nessum WIRE) and wireless (Nessum AIR).
Wired communication
Nessum WIRE can be used for various types of wires such as power lines, twisted pair wiring, coaxial cables, and telephone lines. The communication distance can range between tens of meters to several kilometers depending on the use case. In addition, when an automatic relay function called multi-hop (ITU-T G.9905) is utilized, a maximum of 10 stages of relay is possible to extend the range, and support various network topologies (Ring, Star, Bus, MESH). With a maximum physical speed of 1 Gbps and effective throughput ranging from several Mbps to several hundred Mbps, this technology is used to reduce network construction costs and complexity by utilizing the existing lines or dedicated lines.
Wireless communication
Nessum wireless communication is called Nessum AIR. It uses magnetic field communication for short range communication. The communication distance can be controlled in the range of a few centimeters to 100 centimeters. Maximum physical speed is 1 Gbps, with an effective speed of 100 Mbps.
Technical overview
Physical layer (PHY)
The physical layer uses Wavelet OFDM (Wavelet Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), while a guard interval is required in ordinary OFDM systems. The Wavelet OFDM system eliminates the guard interval and increases the occupancy rate of the data portion, thereby achieving high efficiency. In addition, due to the bandwidth limitation of each subcarrier, the level of sidelobes is set low, which facilitates the formation of spectral notches. This minimizes interference with existing systems and allows for flexible compliance with frequency utilization regulations. Furthermore, Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM) is used for each subcarrier, and the optimal number of modulation multi-levels is set according to the conditions of the transmission path, thereby improving transmission efficiency. The frequency band used can be selected from among standardized patterns.
Data link layer (MAC)
The data link layer manages quality of service and other control functions using control frames "beacons" broadcast periodically by the parent to all terminals in the network. The basic media access methods are Carrier-Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) and Dynamic Virtual Token Passing (DVTP), which dynamically assign transmission rights to terminals in the network and avoid collisions, The system uses a collision avoidance mechanism.
Specification and features
There are essentially two different types of HD-PLC: HD-PLC Complete and HD-PLC Multi-hop. They are incompatible.
HD-PLC Complete
Source:
This is for high speed applications such as TV, AV, and surveillance cameras.
The major technical features include:
IEEE 1901 full compliant
QoS by the priority control
CSMA/CA and DVTP(Dynamic Virtual Token Passing) supported
Concurrent multi-AV stream, VoIP, and file transfer and file transfer supported using IP packet classification
Multi-network access at priority CSMA/CA with network synchronization
HD-PLC Multi-hop
Source:
This is for long-distance applications such as smart meter, building network, factory, energy management, and IoT devices.
The major technical features include:
ITU-T G.9905 multihop technology
Common features
Source:
Uplinking/downlinking through 432 of 26 MHz (between 1.8 MHz and 28 MHz) bandwidth subcarriers with Wavelet OFDM
Maximum 240 Mbit/s PHY rate
Multilevel modulation for each subcarrier which suits the properties of the power line transmission channel and allows for the best transmission speed
Subcarrier masking with the arbitrary number which can comply with the rules in each country
Forward error correction (FEC) which enables effective frame transmission
Channel estimation launch system with change detector for cycle and transmission channel
HD-PLC network bridging compatible to Ethernet address system
Advanced encryption with 128 bit AES
4th-generation HD-PLC (HD-PLC Quatro Core technology)
Source:
We now come to communication speed issues like high-definition video images (4K/8K) or in some cases multi hop technology is not enough to reach an isolated and distant PLC terminal. HD-PLC Quatro Core has been designed to solve these problems. This technology is an improvement on the conventional HD-PLC in both communication distance and speed. It achieves to double conventional HD-PLC's communication distance by adopting a communication band of 1/2 or 1/4 of conventional HD-PLC band and achieves to offer a maximum physical line transmission rate of 1 Gbit/s by using an expanded communication band 2 or 4 times the conventional HD-PLC band.
This evolution of the standard therefore offers either an extended range in a larger building, at the cost of a lower data rate, or a higher data rate, but achievable over shorter distances than in the previous version of the standard.
Use cases
There are a few strengths of using HD-PLC technology on existing wires.
Expectable higher speed performance
Cost reduction on network construction by existed infrastructure
Support the area where the radio waves is difficult to be reached
Wire saving by sharing power lines and communication lines
Typical use case include:
HVAC systems
Building Automation
Photovoltaic (solar) panel communications
Smart metering
Meter to grid communications
Smart street lighting
Surveillance camera systems
Video entry systems
Communications in tunnels
Robot wiring optimisation
Nessum Alliance
Nessum Alliance was established in September 2007 as a voluntary association, originally under the name of "HD-PLC Alliance". In October 2023, the HD-PLC Alliance was renamed the Nessum Alliance.
Nessum Alliance is a certifying body for compatibility between communication devices that comply with the international standard IEEE 1901-2020. Associated organisations are the Japanese Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) The Taiwanese Industrial Technology Research Institute and the IEEE Standards Association.
At the outset of 2025 the Nessum Alliance listed 37 member companies and organisations.
History
This technology is based on HD-PLC, a type of power line communication developed by Panasonic in the early 2000s. HD-PLC was developed for room-to-room transmission of audio and video data at the time, but later began to be used not only for power lines but also for coaxial lines and twisted pair lines, and even for wireless communication. The name "power line communication" did not match the reality of the situation. In September 2023, Panasonic Holdings Corporation changed the name of HD-PLC to Nessum.
See also
BACnet
Power line communication
HomePlug
G.hn
HomePNA
IEEE 1901
KNX
LonWorks
References
External links
Nessum Alliance
Computer networking | Nessum | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 1,443 | [
"Computer networking",
"Computer science",
"Computer engineering"
] |
74,978,984 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music%20%28Xperia%29 | Music, formerly known as Walkman, is an audio player software for Android. Developed by Sony Corporation (and previously by Sony Mobile), it is the default music player on Xperia devices and comes preloaded on them.
A similar Walkman app continues to exist on Walkman digital audio players, including those that run on Android.
History
Music was launched as Walkman in 2012, debuting on Sony's first in-house smartphones the Xperia S, Xperia P and Xperia U. It replaced the previous Music Player app on Sony Ericsson devices. Before this, the music player on the Sony Ericsson Zylo and Live with Walkman were also called Walkman.
The Walkman app included all the features that were found on the digital Walkman portable music players of the time. It featured an interface similar to the 'Cover Flow' of the iPod. Features included SensMe channels and Music Unlimited integration.
"Smart Playlists" was introduced in a version 8.0 update along with further TrackID integration. There were some UI tweaks in version 8.4 in 2014. Android Wear support was also soon added.
In 2015 with Android 5.0 Lollipop, the Walkman app was renamed to Music. A 'Quick Play' feature was later added. SensMe was removed in 2016. Some later visual updates made the player styled like Material Design.
Music also featured (on some models) DSEE HX sound processing. DSEE Ultimate is featured starting with Xperia 1 II.
The app became stripped down eventually with the equalizer and headphone settings disappearing.
As of version 9.4.7 (May 2020), the Gracenote metadata feature in the Music app was removed.
Features
Dark theme
Playlists in .m3u format
Sleep timer
Sound effects
See also
Comparison of audio player software
List of music software
References
Audio software
Android (operating system) software
Android media players | Music (Xperia) | [
"Engineering"
] | 389 | [
"Audio engineering",
"Audio software"
] |
74,980,602 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihi%20itch | Mihi itch or Mihisucht is the ambition is to describe new species (or other taxa: subspecies, hybrids, genera, etc.) as a means to immortalize their names. Mihi is the dative form of the Latin word ego, thus "mihi itch" means to satisfy one's egotistical impulses. The expression appeared in print as early as 1884.
A consequence of the Mihi itch may be the unwarranted description of new taxa, differing only slightly from already established taxa, leading to taxonomic inflation. A more extreme case may be termed taxonomic vandalism when a large number of species are described with limited scientific evidence.
Examples
La "nouvelle école" in malacology, led by Jules René Bourguignat, was responsible for the description of hundreds of new species of molluscs in Europe at the end of the nineteen century.
Harold St. John published 440 names in the genus Pandanus, which encompasses c. 600 accepted species, and 283 names in the genus Cyrtandra, which encompasses c. 700 accepted species.
Between 2000 and 2011, Raymond Hoser published 582 species names, and 340 generic names of animals (mostly reptiles).
See also
Taxonomic vandalism
Taxonomic inflation
References
itch
itch
History of science
Sociology of science
Epistemology | Mihi itch | [
"Technology",
"Biology"
] | 271 | [
"Controversial taxa",
"History of science",
"Taxonomy (biology)",
"Biological hypotheses",
"History of science and technology"
] |
74,980,742 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HydrogenPro | HydrogenPro is a technology company and an OEM for high-pressure alkaline electrolyser systems for large-scale green hydrogen plants.
HydrogenPro was founded in 2013 by individuals with a background in the electrolysis industry which was
established in Telemark, Norway by Norsk Hydro in 1927.
History
HydrogenPro was founded in 2013 by a team with the experienced electrolyser industry at Norsk Hydro and delivered the largest electrolyser plant in Northern Europe.
In 2020, HydrogenPro is listed on Euronext Growth with key investors such as Mitsubishi taking part in the IPO. HydrogenPro sets up JV with electrolyser producer THM and control over all IP and electrolyser technology.
In 2022, HydrogenPro secured a landmark purchase order for 10-year service and support agreement from Mitsubishi (220 MW in Utah, US). In the same year, they were listed on the main list of Oslo Børs.
In 2023, HydrogenPro entered into a partnership with ANDRITZ to collaborate on scaling up the manufacturing and assembly of electrolysers.
References
Hydrogen technologies
Electrolysis
Hydrogen production
Technology companies | HydrogenPro | [
"Chemistry"
] | 231 | [
"Electrochemistry",
"Electrolysis"
] |
74,981,431 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudate%20Deum | Laudate Deum (Praise God) is an apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, published on October 4, 2023. It was released on the 2023 Feast of St Francis Assisi as a follow-up to his 2015 encyclical Laudato si'. The text is about 8,000 words divided into 73 paragraphs.
In it, Pope Francis calls for speedier action against the climate crisis and condemns climate change denial.
The apostolic exhortation, dated 4 October 2023, was officially presented the following day—Thursday morning, October 5—in a press conference called “Laudate Deum: voices and testimonies on the climate crisis”, held in the Vatican Gardens, in Largo della Radio, in front of the Palazzina Leone XIII of the Vatican.
The Vatican released the document in Italian, Belarusian, German, English, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese and Arabic.
It was Pope Francis' sixth apostolic exhortation, after Querida Amazonia, which was released in 2020.
Origin and title of the document
Pope Francis revealed the title of Laudate Deum during a meeting on 21 September 2023 at the Vatican with rectors of Catholic and public universities from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. "Laudate Deum" (Praise God) is a frequent refrain in several psalms, including Psalm 148, which tells the heavens and the angels and the sun and moon to praise the Lord. The new document, anticipated pope Francis at that time, is "a look at what has happened" since 2015 and a look at what still "needs to be done."
The title refers to the words of St. Francis of Assisi and to the encyclical Laudato si', which was published in 2015. “‘Praise God for all his creatures,’” Laudate Deum begins. “This was the message that St. Francis of Assisi proclaimed by his life, his canticles and all his actions.”
The main goal of Laudate Deum is to call once again on all people of goodwill to care for the poor and for the Earth.
Content
In this document, the Pope expresses hope that societies around the world will change their lifestyles and intensify grassroots activities aimed at reducing the negative human impact on the natural environment, to prevent even more tragic damage to the Earth. The dramatic environmental degradation strongly affects not only the indigenous peoples, the poor, and endangered species, but also the future of all young people. He also calls on politicians and the rich to work for the common good, and not for their own profit and particular interests. Finally (in paragraph 73) the Pope emphasizes that "when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become their own worst enemies".
As in Laudato Si''', the Pope makes use of several quotations from assemblies of bishops held around the world, affirming, for example, the African bishops' statement that "climate change is a moral outrage. It is a tragic and striking example of structural sin".
The exhortation focuses on the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, offering insights on the current state of the global environment, the inadequacies of current responses, and proposed pathways forward. The document is divided into 6 chapters. The introduction begins by acknowledging the undeniable reality of climate change and its increasingly evident effects on the planet. Pope Francis emphasizes the anthropogenic origin of climate change and the irreversible nature of many associated catastrophes. While recognizing the limitations in fully correcting the damage, the exhortation underscores the importance of taking measures to prevent further harm.
Environmental crisisLaudate Deum addresses the reality of climate change and its escalating impact on the lives of all peoples. Pope Francis emphasizes the anthropogenic origin of the crisis, highlighting the irreversible nature of many associated catastrophes, "at least for several hundred years". While acknowledging the limitations in fully correcting the damage, the document stresses the need for measures to prevent further harm.
The document explores resistance and confusion surrounding climate change, identifies human causes, and outlines the damages and risks associated with the crisis. It calls for a collective acceptance of responsibility for the impact on future generations, drawing parallels with the interconnectedness revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to The New York Times, Francis’ message amounted to a tacit acknowledgement that his initial appeal (in Laudato si’) stated to save the planet has gone largely unheeded.
The pope specifically noted that "emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries". He also asserted that a "broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact".
Critique of the role of technology
Pope Francis criticizes the prevailing belief that technology and economic power alone can solve environmental problems. The exhortation calls for a reconsideration of the use of power, cautioning against excessive ambition driven by profit-centric logic, hindering genuine concern for the common home.
Referencing the Bishops of the United States, he states, "Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community. The effects of climate change are borne by the most vulnerable people, whether at home or around the world."
Global cooperation
The document stresses the importance of global cooperation in addressing the climate crisis. It advocates for multilateral agreements and effective global organizations with the authority to ensure the global common good. Critiquing past approaches to decision-making, Laudate Deum calls for a reconfiguration of multilateralism to address inadequacies in current political mechanisms.
Pope Francis notes that "Not every increase in power represents progress for humanity", pointing to historical instances where technological progress has led to devastating consequences.
International political weakness
Examining the weakness of international politics in the context of climate change, the exhortation acknowledges shortcomings in implementing agreements due to the lack of effective monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms. It emphasizes the need to overcome selfish posturing for the sake of the global common good.
Climate Conferences: progress and failures
Section 4 of the document reviews the history of international conferences on climate change, acknowledging shortcomings in implementing agreements. It underscores the necessity of overcoming selfish posturing for the sake of the global common good.
The document asserts that “Over the decades, international conferences have been held to address the climate crisis, but they have often fallen short in implementing agreements due to the lack of effective monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms. It is crucial to overcome the selfish posturing of countries for the sake of the global common good”.
Laudate Deum mentions the 2023 Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28) held from 30 November to 12 December at the Expo City, Dubai. In a historical move, Pope Francis was originally scheduled to attend the COP28 from December 1 to 3 (within the overall event held from November 30 to December 12, 2023), but unfortunately he had to cancel his trip due to health issues. The pontiff wanted to participate in some way in the discussions in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Holy See. It is unclear if Francis might read an address to the climate conference by videoconference or take part in some other form.
Spiritual motivations
The exhortation concludes by calling on people of all religious confessions to react to the climate crisis. Specifically addressing the Catholic faithful, Pope Francis reminds them of their responsibility to care for God's creation. The document emphasizes the importance of walking in communion and working towards reconciliation with the world.
Reception
Nicole Winfield and Seth Borenstein stated that “Pope Francis shamed and challenged world leaders [...] to commit to binding targets to slow climate change before it’s too late” and that “using precise scientific data, sharp diplomatic arguments and a sprinkling of theological reasoning, [...] he delivered a moral imperative for the world to transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy with measures that that are “efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.”
Father Daniel Horan wrote on the National Catholic Reporter that “While in the buildup to its release some people have been describing this document as a second Laudato Si' or, more colloquially, its "sequel," the pope presents this text as more of an addendum and update to his earlier encyclical.” He point out that the document is “both an exhortation in the truest sense — a written or spoken message that emphatically urges someone to do something — and an apologia, a theological and rhetorical defense of truth and faith.”
The new exhortation is “timely,” said Tomás Insua, co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Laudato Si’ Movement, which works through close to 900 member organizations in 115 countries to foster a Catholic approach to the care of the environment. Insua, who is based in Rome, said that the pope's message underscores how “it’s a deeply Christian thing to be concerned for God’s beloved creation [and] deeply rooted in this very biblical love of creation.”
Max Foley-Keene praised the exhortation in an article for Commonweal, calling it "an urgent cry for us to create new structures that will foster and protect these relationships".
Giorgio Parisi, the Nobel-winning physicist who was one of the speakers at the news conference presenting Laudate Deum, stressed that it is “very important that this Apostolic Exhortation is addressed to all people of good faith” rather than just to members of the Catholic Church, “because, like the Pope has said many times, nobody can be saved alone, and we are all connected.”
Writing on the National Review, conservative commentator John C. Pinheiro was critical towards the document, accusing the Pope of "resorting to apocalyptic language", of excessive trust towards institutions such as the United Nations and the World Health Organisation (pointing out that both the UN and the WHO support abortion) and of leniency towards the Chinese regime. He concluded by stating that "Pope Francis could benefit from advisers who understand metrics, numbers, and human action and exchange". In a similar vein, Stephen Moore wrote on The Washington Times that "this declaration is so filled with anti-Christian fallacies that one has to wonder whether we have a pope who is actually Catholic".
Italian traditionalist Catholic commentator Camillo Langone was extremely critical of the Pontiff, accusing him on Il Foglio of "imposing a climatist dogma" and of justifying the violent actions of radical environmentalist groups; he also compared the Pope to Müezzinzade Ali Pasha, commander of the Ottoman fleet during the Battle of Lepanto, and called for his excommunication.
See also
Laudato Si' MovementThe Letter: A Message for our Earth'' (2022)
Climate change and poverty
Ecotheology
Saints and animal/plant life
Stewardship (theology)
References
External links
Laudate Deum in English on Vatican.va
21st-century Catholicism
2023 in Christianity
2023 in Vatican City
Apostolic exhortations of Pope Francis
Ecology
Social inequality | Laudate Deum | [
"Biology"
] | 2,316 | [
"Ecology"
] |
74,981,550 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart%20of%20the%20Monster | Heart of the Monster (in the Nez Perce language ) is a geological monument near Kamiah, Idaho that is central to an origin story told by the Nez Perce people.
The mound marks the spot where Coyote discarded the heart of a monster he killed after he found it eating all the animals. Coyote distributed the other remains of the monster in all directions, and from those remains sprang the Nez Perce peoples.
The site is one of three Nez Perce legend sites maintained by the National Park Service.
References
External links
Heart of the Monster: A Nez Perce Creation Story at YouTube
Creation myths
Nez Perce | Heart of the Monster | [
"Astronomy"
] | 130 | [
"Cosmogony",
"Creation myths"
] |
74,982,323 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleandrose | Oleandrose is a type of carbohydrate with the chemical formula C7H14O4. With a six-carbon chain, it is classified as a hexose. With two hydroxyl groups replaced with hydrogen atoms, it is a dideoxy sugar. The hydroxyl group at C3 is methylated.
Occurrence
Oleandrdose is found in the leaves of Nerium oleander and may contribute to the toxicity of the plant. Oleandrose is also a component of several naturally-occurring chemical compounds including the avermectins (emamectin, abamectins, ivermectin, and others), the macrolide antibiotic oleandomycin, and the cardiac glycoside oleandrin.
Laboratory syntheses of L-oleandrose and DL-oleandrose have been reported.
See also
Sarmentose, a diastereomeric dideoxy sugar
References
Hexoses
Deoxy sugars
Methoxy compounds | Oleandrose | [
"Chemistry"
] | 206 | [
"Deoxy sugars",
"Carbohydrates"
] |
74,982,332 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C7H14O4 | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C7H14O4}}
The molecular formula C7H14O4 may refer to:
Oleandrose
Sarmentose | C7H14O4 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 35 | [
"Isomerism",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas"
] |
74,983,794 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish%20Navy%20Construction%20Corps | The Swedish Navy Construction Corps () was, during the years 1793–1868, a military organized corps in the Swedish Navy, primarily tasked with creating drawings and proposals related to naval materiel and overseeing work at the Swedish state shipyards.
History
From ancient times, there existed a construction organization within the fleets, consisting of chief shipbuilders, shipbuilders, and assistant shipbuilders. By letters patent on 23 November 1793, this organization was restructured on a military basis, receiving military ranks and hierarchy. Through letters patent on 4 May 1798, it was subsequently ordained that the construction organization in both fleets would be merged and placed under the command of the active adjutant general for the fleets. The corps' numerical strength was determined to be 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major, 4 captains, 4 lieutenants, and 4 constructors (later called underlöjtnant from 1816).
Upon the amalgamation of the fleets, it was determined by letters patent on 2 November 1824, that the corps would consist of 1 colonel and second-in-command, 1 captain, 4 premiärlöjtnants, 8 sekundlöjtnants, 3 assistant constructors, and 3 apprentices. Further specifications were made by letters patent on 22 February 1841, stating that the titles of the mentioned personnel would be changed. Specifically, the four premiärlöjtnants would be called kaptenlöjtnants, and the four oldest sekundlöjtnants would be named premiärlöjtnant.
The engineering corps existed under the aforementioned organization until the year 1868. As a result of a parliamentary decision in 1867, and letters patent issued on 17 December of the same year in connection with it, a new civilian institution was formed by some of the then construction officers and machinist officers under the name of the , which was called the from 1906. The remaining part of the construction officers and machinist officers who were not transferred to the Mariningenjörsstaten were placed on the retired list.
Heads
The head of the corps was a colonel and second-in-command. The second-in-command was to have a seat and a voice in the Administration of Maritime Affairs (Förvaltningen av Sjöärendena), albeit only with the right to vote in cases that he prepared and presented.
1794–1814: Lars Nordenbjelke
1814–1817: Francis af Sheldon
1817–1820: Lars Uhrlin
1820–1824: Salomon Sjöbohm
1825–1845: Johan Aron af Borneman
1845–1847: Jacob Henric d'Ailly
1847–1849: Johan Fredrik Ehrenstam
1849–1863: Carl Lundquist
1863–1868: Axel Ljungstedt
See also
Swedish Navy Mechanical Corps
References
Notes
Print
Corps of the Swedish Navy
Military units and formations established in 1793
Military units and formations disestablished in 1868
1793 establishments in Sweden
1868 disestablishments in Sweden
Military engineer corps
Military administrative corps of Sweden | Swedish Navy Construction Corps | [
"Engineering"
] | 616 | [
"Engineering units and formations",
"Military engineer corps"
] |
74,983,916 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan%20Smalyukh | Ivan I. Smalyukh is a physicist working in soft condensed matter physics, especially in the domain of liquid crystals. He is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and director of the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter with headquarters at Hiroshima University. Smalyukh was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, among many other awards. He and his research group hold the Guinness record for achieving the highest visible-range optical transparency in a material.
Research
Smalyukh's scientific interests span various aspects of soft condensed matter and optical physics. This includes the study of laser trapping and imaging techniques, molecular and colloidal self-assembly, and the fundamental properties of materials such as liquid crystals, polymers, and nano-structured substances. Among many of Smalyukh's research interests is the energy efficiency of windows and building envelopes overall. Additionally, the photonic and electro-optic applications of these materials are his group's research interests.
As something that he is widely known for, Smalyukh has studied vortex knots and solitons and knots in liquid crystals, contributing to new methods to form microscopic knots in physical fields.
Smalyukh used cellulose nanofibres to develop a transparent and highly thermally insulating aerogel. This work was published in Nature Energy due to the material's potential to enhance the heat lost through windows.
Biography
Smalyukh began his academic journey at Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine, where he completed his Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Furthering his education, he obtained his PhD in Chemical Physics from Kent State University in 2003.
Following his PhD, Smalyukh held postdoctoral positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Liquid Crystal Institute and AlphaMicron Inc. Between 2004 and 2006, he also worked as a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Lasers, Photonics, & Biophotonics at SUNY at Buffalo.
In 2007, Smalyukh joined the Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor. By 2014, he was an Associate Professor with tenure in the same department. In 2017, he became a tenured full Professor in the Department of Physics. Additionally, Smalyukh holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is also a founding fellow of Renewable Sustainable Energy Institute (a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NREL) and Materials Science Engineering Program. He directs the Soft Matter Physics Research Group at CU-Boulder. He is also the Director of the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (SKCM2), hosted by Hiroshima University in Japan.
Throughout his career, Smalyukh has received many awards, including such as the Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research of the American Physical Society in 2016, Langmuir Lectureship Award of the American Chemical Society in 2021, and the ICMS Distinguished Scholar award from the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands in 2022. He also received awards like the Bessel and Glenn Brown Awards, NASA iTech award and Mid-Career Award of International Liquid Crystal Society and the PECASE Award from the Office of Science and Technology of the White House.
Smalyukh has also been actively involved in the scientific community. He has organized and participated in conferences and workshops, such as the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on Liquid Crystals at the University of New England and the Kickoff Symposium on Knotted Chiral Meta Matter in Hiroshima, Japan, in 2023. He has published over 250 peer-refereed articles, including many in Nature and Science. He has also been a member of editorial boards for several international journals. He is an elected fellow of several international societies, including American Physical Society (APS), Optica, and SPIE.
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Kent State University alumni
1972 births
Ukrainian physicists
Condensed matter physicists
Lviv Polytechnic alumni | Ivan Smalyukh | [
"Physics",
"Materials_science"
] | 856 | [
"Condensed matter physicists",
"Condensed matter physics"
] |
74,983,919 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%2060 | Honor 60 is a line of smartphones developed by the company Honor, as a part of the flagship "N" series. The line consists of Honor 60, 60 Pro and 60 SE. Honor 60 and 60 Pro launched on December 1, 2021, and Honor 60 SE on February 7, 2022.
Design
The screen and back panel are made of glass. The frame is made of plastic.
In terms of design, the Honor 60 and 60 Pro resemble the previous line Honor 50, while the Honor 60 SE resembles the iPhone 13 Pro.
The USB-C connector, speaker, microphone and slot for 2 SIM cards are located below. On the top is 1 additional microphone in the Honor 60, 1 additional microphone and a second speaker in the 60 Pro, and 2 additional microphones in the 60 SE. On the right side are the volume rocker and the power button.
Honor 60 is sold in 4 colors: Magic Starry Sky (Light-blue), Juliet (silver-pink), Jade Ink Green and Bright Black.
The Honor 60 Pro is available in 5 colors: HONOR Code (Blue with HONOR lettering), Magic Starry Sky (Light Blue), Juliet (Silver Pink), Jade Ink Green and Bright Black.
Honor 60 SE is sold in 3 colors: Streamer Magic Mirror (blue), Jade Ink Green and Bright Black.
Specifications
Platform
The Honor 60 received a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, and the 60 Pro —Snapdragon 778G+. Both processors are paired with an Adreno 642L GPU.
Honor 60 SE received a processor MediaTek MT6877 Dimensity 900 and graphics processor Mali-G68 MC4.
Battery
Honor 60 and 60 Pro received a 4800 mAh battery, and Honor 60 SE — 4300 mA·h. Honor 60 and 60 SE have a lithium-ion type battery, while the Honor 60 Pro has a lithium-polymer. Also, all models have support for fast charging at 66 W and reverse wired charging at 5 W.
Camera
Primary camera
Honor 60 received a triple main camera 108 Mp, (wide-angle) with phase autofocus + 8 Mp, (ultra-wide-angle) with a viewing angle of 112° + 2 MP, (macro).
Honor 60 Pro received a triple main camera 108 MP, (wide angle) with phase autofocus + 50 MP, (ultra wide angle) with a viewing angle of 122° + 2 MP, (macro).
Honor 60 SE received a main triple camera 64 MP, (wide-angle) with phase autofocus + 5 MP, (ultra-wide) + 2 MP, (macro).
All models are able to record video in resolution 4K@30fps.
Front camera
Honor 60 received a front camera of 32 Mp, (wide-angle) with the ability to record video in resolution 1080p@30fps.
Honor 60 Pro received a front camera of 50 MP, (ultra wide angle) with the ability to record video in resolution 4K@30fps.
Honor 60 SE received a 16MP, (wide-angle) front camera with the ability to record video in 1080p@30fps resolution.
Screen
Honor 60 and 60 SE received a curved OLED-screen, 6.67", FullHD+ (2400 × 1080) with a pixel density of 395 ppi, an aspect ratio of 20:9, a display refresh rate of 120 Hz and a round cut-out for the front-facing camera, which is located at the top in the center.There is support for HDR10 in the Honor 60, and HDR in the 60 SE .
Honor 60 Pro received a curved OLED screen, 6.78", 2652 × 1200 with a pixel density of 429 ppi, an aspect ratio of 19.9:9, a display refresh rate of 120 Hz, support for HDR10+ technology, and a round cutout for the front camera, which is located on top in the center.
Sound
Honor 60 Pro has stereo speakers on the top and bottom sides of the frame. Honor 60 and 60 SE have mono sound.
Memory
Honor 60 and 60 SE are sold in 8/128, 8/256 and 12/256 GB configurations.
Honor 60 Pro is sold in configurations of 8/256 and 12/256 GB.
Software
The smartphones of the line were released on Magic UI 5.0 based on Android 11. Later, they were updated to Magic UI 7.1 based on Android 13.
References
Huawei Honor
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Mobile phones introduced in 2021
Mobile phones introduced in 2022
Mobile phones with 4K video recording | Honor 60 | [
"Technology"
] | 961 | [
"Crossover devices",
"Phablets"
] |
74,984,531 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm%20Wood%20City | Stockholm Wood City is a planned wooden construction project located in the Stockholm neighborhood Sickla, initiated and developed by the Swedish urban developer Atrium Ljungberg. The project will become the world's largest known wooden-built urban area, spanning 25 blocks and 250,000 square meters. It has been praised by institutions such as the World Economic Forum as a precedent in sustainable city development. The project is estimated to cost $1.4 billion.
Construction is set to break ground in 2025, with phase-wide development planned. The first buildings are expected to be completed by 2027, with the entire project slated for completion ten years from the start of construction.
When the wood city is finalized, it will house 7,000 office spaces, 2,000 homes as well as a variety of retailers and restaurants. It will be the largest workplace area in southern Stockholm, to compensate for the current deficit of workplaces in the southern half of the Stockholm region.
Background
The project was conceived by the developer Atrium Ljungberg in 2023, with an aim to advance towards the listed company's sustainability targets. Compared to traditional construction methods using concrete or other materials, wooden construction offers multiple advantages. It significantly reduces CO2 emissions both during the construction phase and throughout the building's maintenance life cycle. Additionally, wooden construction shortens the duration of the building process and results in less noise at construction sites.
Atrium Ljungberg has also claimed that wood buildings can be better for personal health and that studies have shown they "provide better air quality, reduce stress, increase productivity, and store carbon dioxide throughout the time they are in use."
Development
The architecture of the Stockholm Wood City incorporates nature-informed elements that follow the minimalist and function aesthetics of Scandinavian design. Buildings will feature green roofs for improved insulation and large windows to maximize natural light. The Nordic architecture firms White and Henning Larsen have both worked on the early concept design development for the project.
Stockholm Wood City was announced in the wake of a global trend toward timber construction, with several countries aiming to build the tallest wooden skyscrapers. While there are other contenders in the race for height, Stockholm Wood City aspires for a different kind of record as the most expansive wooden city.
References
Stockholm
Metropolitan_Stockholm
Urban_planning
Urban_planning_in_Sweden
Sustainable_urban_planning
Sustainable_building
Wooden buildings and structures in Sweden
Nacka_Municipality | Stockholm Wood City | [
"Engineering"
] | 490 | [
"Building engineering",
"Sustainable building",
"Construction"
] |
74,984,849 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish%20Navy%20Mechanical%20Corps | The Swedish Navy Mechanical Corps () was a Swedish Navy corps with naval engineers from 1814 to 1868. In 1816, it was stipulated that the organization responsible for shipbuilding work in Karlskrona, known as the Byggnadsstaten, would be transformed into a special unit called the Swedish Navy Mechanical Corps after the completion of this work. This corps ceased to exist with the organization of the Mariningenjörsstaten in 1868.
History
A separate construction staff, Byggnadsstaten, was established for the new dock construction in Karlskrona. However, when the dock construction work was discontinued, it was ordained by letters patent on 28 June 1814, that this construction staff would be merged with the Navy Mechanical Corps. In connection with the salary regulations decided in 1815, it was further stipulated by letters patent on 20 August 1816, that the aforementioned construction staff would, as before, constitute a separate corps, associated with service at the fleet's stations, under the name of the Flottornas mekaniska stat ("Mechanical Corps of the Fleets"), under the command of the adjutant general for the fleets. The Swedish Navy Mechanical Corps, like the Swedish Navy Construction Corps, underwent regulation in 1824. Additional salary regulations were implemented for the officers of this corps in 1854 and 1858. The latest regulation issued for this corps was dated 25 October 1855.
Even in the early 1870s, there were officers in the Navy Mechanical Corps, some on the state payroll and some off it. The former included officers serving at the fleet's stations, receiving pay from the fleet's budget. However, this class of officers from the mechanical corps disappeared entirely after the organization of the in 1867. The builders listed on the salary list of the Mariningenjörsstaten now performed all construction work at the fleet's stations that was formerly carried out there by officers of the mechanical corps on the state payroll.
For the officers who still remained in the mechanical corps, the designation 'officer in the Navy Mechanical Corps' was merely a title. This title had no connection to the actual work these officers performed. Their work more closely resembled that of officers in the Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps or civil engineers and, therefore, has no direct connection to naval service, despite what the title suggests.
See also
Swedish Navy Construction Corps
References
Notes
Print
Corps of the Swedish Navy
Military units and formations established in 1814
Military units and formations disestablished in 1868
1814 establishments in Sweden
1868 disestablishments in Sweden
Stockholm Garrison
Military engineer corps
Military administrative corps of Sweden | Swedish Navy Mechanical Corps | [
"Engineering"
] | 515 | [
"Engineering units and formations",
"Military engineer corps"
] |
74,985,243 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%2028204 | HD 28204, also designated as HR 1401, is a spectroscopic binary located in the northern circumpolar constellation Camelopardalis. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.93, making it faintly visible to the naked eye under ideal conditions. Gaia DR3 parallax measurements imply a distance of 331 light-years and it is currently receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of . At its current distance, HD 28204's brightness is diminished by 0.18 magnitudes due to interstellar extinction and it has an absolute magnitude of +0.91.
HD 28204 is a single-lined spectroscopic binary consisting of an Am star and an unseen companion, as the primary is the only one detectable in the spectrum. With a mass of , the companion might be a K-type main-sequence star. Both stars take 4.2 days to revolve around each other in a nearly circular orbit, which is somewhat constrained. HD 28204 has two optical companions: a 12th magnitude star located 39" away along a position angle of 257° and a 14th magnitude star located 27.3" along a position angle of 55°.
The visible component has a stellar classification of kA8hF0mF2, indicating that it is an Am star with the calcium K-lines of an A8 star, the hydrogen lines of a F0 star, and the metallic lines of a F2 star. It has 1.68 times the mass of the Sun and an enlarged radius 3.48 times that of the Sun. It radiates 35.7 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it the typical white hue of an A-type star. It is slightly metal deficient with an iron abundance of [Fe/H] = −0.15 or 72% that of the Sun's. Like many Am stars it spins slowly, having a projected rotational velocity of .
References
A-type main-sequence stars
Am stars
Spectroscopic binaries
Triple stars
Camelopardalis
BD+72 00227
028204
021247
1401
103566595 | HD 28204 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 451 | [
"Camelopardalis",
"Constellations"
] |
74,986,995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda%20Sytinskaya | Nadezhda Nikolaevna Sytinskaya (Russian: Надежда Николаевна Сытинская; 22 February 1906 – 4 July 1974) was a Soviet Astronomer and academic originally from Tallinn who studied meteoroids and planetary surfaces. Much of her work was done at the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan's Tashkent Observatory and at Pulkovo Observatory in Leningrad.
Biography
After graduating from Leningrad State University, Sytinskaya worked as a professional researcher in Tashkent until 1930 when she returned to her alma mater to continue her work now at Pulkovo under the Russian Academy of Sciences. At some point after 1934 she was conferred the degree of Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics by the Soviet Higher Attestation Commission following a successful dissertation defense.
In 1941 as the German army approached the city prior to the Siege of Leningrad the observatory at Pulkovo was heavily damaged by shelling and the staff were evacuated out of the city. Following the conclusion of World War II, Sytinskaya returned to Leningrad State University where in 1951 she attained an appointment to full professor. She would go on to remain at the university for the rest of her life up until 1974. She is buried at the Krasnenkoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Career
Sytinskaya is credited with, alongside her husband Vsevolod Sharonov, co-formulating the meteor-slag theory of lunar surface regolith formation which hypothesized that the lunar soil was mainly the result of chemical and structural changes to porous surface rock due to meteoroid bombardment vaporizing a thin upper layer into fine dust. This is the theory which was confirmed in 1966 when Luna-9 became the first human-made object to land on the moon.
Her research also included obtaining estimates of the density of the Draconids Meteor Shower, developing techniques of meteor photometry, creating a system for obtaining absolute photometry of the moon, investigations of the color excess of asteroids, and early estimates of the atmospheric pressure of Mars. She also introduced the concept of "smoothness factor" as a parameter for determining of the degree of surface roughness exhibited by planetary bodies. In 1965 Sytinskaya starred in the film Luna directed by Pavel Klushantsev, working also as a scientific consultant throughout its filming.
Sytinskaya crater on Mars is named in her honor.
References
1906 births
1974 deaths
Soviet astronomers
Soviet astrophysicists
Women planetary scientists
Planetary scientists
20th-century astronomers
Women astronomers | Nadezhda Sytinskaya | [
"Astronomy"
] | 518 | [
"Women astronomers",
"Astronomers"
] |
74,987,363 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvatest | Sylvatest is an ultrasonic measuring device that provides an overall diagnosis of a wooden component to test its mechanical strength. This is a specific non-destructive testing tool for wooden beams.
Description
Sylvatest is an acousto-ultrasonic measuring device that provides an overall diagnosis of the wood element, based on the speed and energy absorption of the transmitted ultrasonic wave. The result given reflects the residual health of the wood in the trunk of the tree tested or the beam measured. These are non-destructive tests.
The technology was developed by Professor Jean-Luc Sandoz as part of his thesis at EPFL in 1984 and was further developed by researcher Yann Benoit in 1998.
Applications
The sylvatest is used in many countries (Brazil, Europe and Asia).
It has been used on historic buildings such as the Entrepôts des magasins généraux in Paris, the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the beams of Notre-Dame de Paris or even the Château de Valère.
It is also used to certify the quality of wood for registered designations of origin such as Bois des Alpes or Bois de Chatreuse.
Bibliography
Research seminar: Diagnosing century-old reclaimed timber with a view to its reuse;
Yosafat Aji Pranata, Muhammad Rusli, « Non-destructive testing go the existing timber columns of Minahasa traditional house »
Nondestructive Techniques for Determination of Wood Mechanical Properties of Urban Trees in Madrid;
CMechanical strength of structural timber. Taking account of singularities when modelling mechanical behaviour.
Rita Bütler, Lita Patty, Renée-Claire Le Bayon et Claire Guenat, Forest Ecology and Management, , avril 2007,
Document de travail Interreg France-Suisse de 2019
Probe-wood contact and gauge pressure with Sylvatest-Duo for precision ultrasonic measurements of wood
Evaluation of two acoustic methods for determining the modulus of elasticity of young hybrid larch wood (Larix x eurolepis Henry) - comparison with a standard static bending method
Classification of Guyanese structural timbers. Comparison of three non-destructive techniques: visual, ultrasonic and modal analysis.
Evaluation of modulus of elasticity of date palm sandwich panels using ultrasonic wave velocity and experimental models
References
Maintenance
Quality control
Product testing
Product certification
Materials science
Materials testing
Tests | Sylvatest | [
"Physics",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 476 | [
"Applied and interdisciplinary physics",
"Materials science",
"Nondestructive testing",
"Materials testing",
"nan",
"Mechanical engineering",
"Maintenance"
] |
73,603,655 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth%20Museum | Perth Museum is a museum which opened on 30 March 2024. The museum is housed within Perth City Hall and aims showcase the city’s important collections to tell the tale of Scotland through the prism of Perth, the former capital of Scotland. The museum faces King Edward Street but is accessed from St John's Place.
History
In January 2019, BAM Construction began work on a £30 million programme of works to convert the Perth City Hall into a new heritage and arts attraction based on a design by Mecanoo. The new attraction would incorporate displays on the Stone of Destiny and the Kingdom of Alba.
A competition to name the building's forthcoming museum section was launched in March 2022, with the winning name being "Perth Museum", with 60% of the votes.
The Collection
The centrepiece of the museum is the Stone of Destiny. The museum is also home to the mummified remains of an egyptian or Kushite woman named Ta-Kr-Hb.
The collection also includes the 3,000-year-old Carpow Logboat, excavated from the Firth of Tay in 2001; the 17th century Glovers Incorporation dancing dress; and a cast of the record-breaking salmon caught in the Tay by Georgina Ballantine in 1922.
The museum, in collaboration with the British Museum and Māori advisors, has restored a rare cloak from New Zealand made entirely of kākāpō feathers. Dating from the 1810s–1820s it is thought to be the only one in existence.
References
Museums in Perth, Scotland
Local museums in Scotland
Natural history museums in Scotland
Decorative arts museums in Scotland
Glass museums and galleries
Category B listed buildings in Perth and Kinross
Listed buildings in Perth, Scotland | Perth Museum | [
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 341 | [
"Glass engineering and science",
"Glass museums and galleries"
] |
73,605,210 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motzkin%E2%80%93Taussky%20theorem | The Motzkin–Taussky theorem is a result from operator and matrix theory about the representation of a sum of two bounded, linear operators (resp. matrices). The theorem was proven by Theodore Motzkin and Olga Taussky-Todd.
The theorem is used in perturbation theory, where e.g. operators of the form
are examined.
Statement
Let be a finite-dimensional complex vector space. Furthermore, let be such that all linear combinations
are diagonalizable for all . Then all eigenvalues of are of the form
(i.e. they are linear in und ) and are independent of the choice of .
Here stands for an eigenvalue of .
Comments
Motzkin and Taussky call the above property of the linearity of the eigenvalues in property L.
Bibliography
Notes
Mathematical theorems
Linear algebra
Perturbation theory
Linear operators | Motzkin–Taussky theorem | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 183 | [
"Functions and mappings",
"Mathematical theorems",
"Algebra",
"Mathematical objects",
"Quantum mechanics",
"Linear operators",
"Mathematical relations",
"nan",
"Linear algebra",
"Mathematical problems",
"Perturbation theory"
] |
73,606,201 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthrobotrys%20musiformis | Arthrobotrys musiformis (/aɹ.θɹoʊ'ba.tɹıs mju.sı'foɹ.mıs/) is a species of nematode catching fungi, genus Arthrobotrys (from Greek, meaning "jointed bunch of grapes"). This, like other Arthrobotrys species, captures and feeds on nematodes. It is widespread, with its initial discovery being in Norfolk, Virginia. This species demonstrates promising anti-helminth potential, and is hypothesized to reduce the number of parasitic nematodes in plants and livestock as either a biocontrol or through isolating metabolites.
Taxonomy
Arthrobotrys musiformis is a fungus belonging to Orbiliomycetes within Ascomycota that was described by Charles Drechsler in 1937. The first samples came from rotting spinach plants in Norfolk, Virginia; with additional samples from Florida and Hawaii. Synonyms for the fungi are Candelabralla musiformis and Trichothesium musiformis.
Morphological taxonomy of Arthrobotrys places A. musiformis as most closely related to A. anchonia and A. dactyloids on the basis of their unbranched, non-nodular conidiophores. However, A. musiformis is unique from these species due to its 2 dimensional predatory structures while A. anchonia and A. dactyloids both produce constricting rings.
Morphology
Arthrobotrys musiformis has septate hyphae less than 5 μm in diameter that form branching mycelium that may become very dense to catch nematodes with. When kept as a colony, the colony is white and radial
This fungi produces spores on curved, obvoid conidia that are 32 to 42 μm in length and 10 to 12 μm in width. The conidia are developed in 1 to 2 weeks on conidiophores that range between 250 and 375 μm long. Following germination of conidia or production of nets, A. musiformis may produce chlamdospores 10-20 μm in diameter. A. musiformis may be identified using its conidiaphores as they form a globalar, 'head' structure containing 5 to 15 conidia.
To catch nematodes, the fungi produces 3 dimensional adhesive nets. These adhesive nets can be used to identify A. musiformis from its close relatives, as many Arthrobotrys produce identifying, horseshoe like 2 dimensional rings. The fungi forms nets with 2 to 7 loops 18-20 μm in inside diameter that connect back to the mycelium near where the net branched off. These nets may capture nematodes by entangling them, though some studies suggest they are captured using strong adhesives on the net instead. Following capture, the fungi may develop assimilative hyphae that grow into the nematode and digest it.
Ecology
Arthrobotrys musiformis obtains nutrients through breaking down organic debris or capturing nematodes, known as saprotrophy and nematophagy respectively. These two modes require the fungus to switch in lifestyle, which is accompanied by differential regulation of gene expression. Some studies find that nematophagous fungi have limited impact on large scale ecological systems in California, though they caution that it is difficult to confidently reject fungi's involvement in processes such as the distribution of nematodes.
In China, studies indicate that A. musiformis may be a dominant nematophagous fungi species in livestock fields, able to survive in soil and feces while continuing predacious and reproductive activity. The success of A. musiformis in this environment is estimated to be a result of lower nutritional costs, higher growing rates and greater reproductive ability in feces. While capable of surviving temperatures as low as 1 degree Celsius, the fungi performs best in wet, warm environments, with the greatest population being recorded in the rainy season at the end of summer. Likewise, the fungus did poorly during dry and cold weather at the end of winter
Habitat
While the first description of A. musiformis described it as being distributed along the East Coast of the United States, additional studies describe the distribution as ranging into Ireland, Canada, Denmark, and China.
Despite A. musiformis' nematophagous niche, it is outcompeted by other nematophagous fungi and instead performs better in environments where it can rely on saprotrophy as well. In addition, it is resistant to some heavy metals, allowing it to survive in environments with fewer available nematodes or greater environmental toxins than its close relatives. As such, A. musiformis performs well in agricultural areas, where it may outcompete purely saprotrophic by consuming nematodes but also resist heavy metals common to those areas so they may outcompete other nematophagous fungi.
Uses
Anti-helminth potential
Nematodes are harmful to agriculture, costing the industry an excess of $100 billion (globally) annually. Approximately 100 known species of nematode are economically relevant crop pests, with soil-borne nematodes causing the greatest losses. Anti-helminth medicines have successfully combated infections, though resistance to these drugs is increasing, limiting the effectiveness of current treatments.
Arthrobotrys musiformis produces multiple metabolites with potential as nematocides; including linoleic alcohol and desferriferrichrome. Both linoleic alcohol and desferriferrichrome are produced in higher concentrations when A. musiformis transitions to its predatory stage. Linoleic alcohol has limited nematodacidal activity, but one study proposes that it kills nematodes by transforming into linoleic acid which may oxidize linoleic alcohol found in the nematode. Desferriferrichrome belongs to a family of chemicals called siderophores that is used to uptake iron and may be used to kill nematodes.
One study found that culture filtrate of A. musiformis colonies decreased the number of viable adult nematodes in lamb feces after being given orally, though the study concluded that the difference was not statistically significant, but encourages further research due to the benefit of finding a biocontrol option given the risks of contamination that come with chemical nematocides. This study, unlike many other studies in biocontrol, looks for potential uses for Arthrobotrys in treating animals directly rather than controlling nematodes at the level of substrate or fecal treatments.
Another study finds a reduction of 97% in M. hapla nematodes on tomato plants following introduction of A. musiformis. The authors report that A. musiformis can suppress nematode infection in crop roots, with less damage occurring in the roots in treated plants at all measured dates and with anti-helminth activity surpassing that of synthetic treatments on day 30. Additionally, they conclude that further research into A. musiformis as a biocontrol agent is recommended as a means to significantly improve plant health while avoiding the contamination and off target effects of current pesticides.
References
Fungi described in 1937
Fungi of the United States
Orbiliales
Fungus species | Arthrobotrys musiformis | [
"Biology"
] | 1,553 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
73,607,995 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omidubicel | Omidubicel, sold under the brand name Omisirge, is a blood-based cell therapy used for the treatment of blood cancers. Omidubicel is a nicotinamide-modified allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell therapy derived from cord blood.
The most common adverse reactions include infections, graft-versus-host disease, and infusion reactions.
Omidubicel is composed of human allogeneic stem cells from umbilical cord blood that are processed and cultured with nicotinamide (a form of vitamin B3). Each dose is patient-specific, containing healthy stem cells from an allogeneic pre-screened donor, meaning it comes from a different individual rather than using the patient's own cells. Omidubicel was approved for medical use in the United States in April 2023.
Medical uses
Omidubicel is indicated for use in people twelve years of age and older with blood cancers (hematologic malignancies) planned for umbilical cord blood transplantation following myeloablative conditioning to reduce the time to neutrophil recovery and the incidence of infection.
History
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluated the safety and effectiveness of omidubicel based on a randomized, multicenter study comparing transplantation of omidubicel to transplantation of umbilical cord blood, in subjects between the ages of 12 and 65 years. The study enrolled a total of 125 participants. All participants in the study had confirmed blood cancers. The efficacy of omidubicel was based on the amount of time needed for recovery of the participant's neutrophils (a type of white blood cell that helps protect the body from infections) and the incidence of infections following transplantation. In total, 125 participants were randomized--62 participants to receive omidubicel-onlv and 63 to the unmanipulated cord blood group. Fifty-two participants were transplanted with omidubicel-onlv receiving a median CD34+ cell dose of 9.0 X 106 cells/kg (range 2.1 – 47.6 X 106 cells/kg). Fifty-six participants were transplanted in the unmanipulated cord blood arm with one or two cord units (66% received two cord units). In the 42 participants with reported post-thaw cell dose, the median CD34+ cell dose was 0.2 X 106 cells/kg (range 0.0 – 0.8 X 106 cells/kg). Multiple conditioning regimens were used, including total body irradiation-based or chemotherapy-based options.
The FDA granted the application for omidubicel priority review, breakthrough therapy, and orphan drug designations. The FDA granted regular approval of Omisirge to Gamida Cell Ltd.
References
External links
Orphan drugs | Omidubicel | [
"Biology"
] | 600 | [
"Cell therapies"
] |
73,608,190 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allogeneic%20cultured%20keratinocytes%20and%20dermal%20fibroblasts%20in%20murine%20collagen | Allogeneic cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in murine collagen, sold under the brand name Stratagraft, is a medical treatment used for thermal burns containing intact dermal elements.
Common side effects include pruritus (itching), blisters, hypertrophic scar, and impaired healing (stalled healing process) at the treatment site.
Stratagraft is produced from two kinds of human skin cells (keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts) grown together to make a bi-layered construct (a cellularized scaffold). Since the human keratinocyte cells were grown with mouse cells during initial stages of product development, Stratagraft is formally considered to be a xenotransplantation product (involving tissues or cells belonging to different species). Mouse cells are no longer used in the final manufacturing process. It was approved for medical use in the United States in June 2021.
Medical uses
Stratagraft (allogeneic cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in murine collagen-dsat) is indicated for the treatment of adults with thermal burns containing intact dermal elements for which surgical intervention is clinically indicated (deep partial-thickness burns).
History
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluated the effectiveness and safety of Stratagraft based on two randomized clinical studies involving a total of 101 adult participants with deep partial thickness thermal burns. In both studies, two deep partial-thickness burn wounds of comparable area and depth on each participant were identified and randomized to receive either a single topical application of Stratagraft or autograft. The effectiveness is demonstrated by the percentage of Stratagraft treatment sites that achieved a complete wound closure, and the significantly decreased need for autografts at the Stratagraft treatment sites.
The FDA granted Stratagraft regenerative medicine advanced therapy, priority review, and orphan drug designations for this indication. Stratagraft was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The FDA granted approval to Stratatech, a Mallinckrodt company.
References
Medical treatments
Orphan drugs | Allogeneic cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in murine collagen | [
"Chemistry"
] | 455 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
73,608,423 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VdB1 | VdB 1 (LBN 578, or Magakian 3) is a small reflection nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies a few arcminutes to the south-east of the bright yellow-hued giant star Beta Cassiopeiae, officially named Caph. VdB 1 lies about 1,600 light-years away. Close to VdB 1 is the dark nebula LDN 1265. It is barely visible due to the brightness of Beta Cassiopeiae.
References
Reflection nebulae
Cassiopeia (constellation) | VdB1 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 116 | [
"Cassiopeia (constellation)",
"Astronomy stubs",
"Constellations",
"Nebula stubs"
] |
73,609,070 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked%20Shields | Locked Shields is an annual cyber defence exercise organised by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn since 2010. The format is usually that a red team simulates a hostile attack while blue teams from the participating nations simulate their coordination and defence against this.
The performance of teams is assessed using a mix of automated and manual scoring. In 2022, there were 24 teams with an average of 50 experts in each team. The team from Finland was declared as the 2022 winner for the excellence of their situation reporting and solid defence.
References
Security engineering
Cyberwarfare
2020s in Europe | Locked Shields | [
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 119 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Systems engineering",
"Security engineering"
] |
73,613,536 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross%20Baldick | Ross Baldick is an American professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow of power and energy society. He is the chairman of the System Economics Sub-Committee of the IEEE Power Engineering and an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
His research interests are optimization and economic theory application to electric power system operations, public policy, and technical issues related to electric transmission under deregulation.
Education and career
He received his bachelor of science in mathematics and physics and bachelor of engineering in electrical engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He received his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California, Berkeley in 1988 and 1990, respectively. From 1991-1992, after completing his doctoral studies, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 1992 to 1993, he was an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA. In 1993, Baldick joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty, where he remained until his retirement in 2021.
Research
Baldick's research interests in electric power span across multiple areas, and he has contributed to over one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles.
Baldick's research focuses on optimization and economic theory applied to electric power system operations and the public policy and technical issues associated with electric transmission under deregulation. He is the author of the textbook "Applied Optimization: Formulation and Algorithms for Engineering Systems."
Honors and awards
In 2008, Baldick was named an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to analyzing and optimizing electric power systems.
Baldick has received the 2014 IEEE Power and Energy Society Outstanding Engineering Educator Award.
Selected publications
References
Living people
21st-century American academics
Electrical engineering
University of Sydney alumni
University of California alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Fellows of the IEEE
Electrical engineering academics
University of Texas faculty
Year of birth missing (living people) | Ross Baldick | [
"Engineering"
] | 398 | [
"Electrical engineering"
] |
73,614,101 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohler%20Environmental%20Center | The Kohler Environmental Center (KEC) is a net-zero energy usage living and learning center for Choate Rosemary Hall. Situated among 268 acres of meadows, second-growth forests, wetlands, and agricultural fields the KEC provides total environmental immersion for its 20-student cohorts each year. Construction of the building was funded primarily through donation of Herbert Kohler Jr., then chairman of the Choate board of trustees and chairman and CEO of Kohler Co. Groundbreaking was April 1, 2011 and the building was completed the following year.
Design
The KEC's green building design is informed by its goal to be a net-zero energy consumer. With a LEED-platinum certification, the building boasts roof mounted thermal solar panels, hardware to process waste cooking oil, and a 294-kilowatt photovoltaic array. Monitoring systems keep track of both net-energy usage as well as individual power draw from rooms or facilities—like the greenhouse or labs. Furthermore, the KEC construction includes a high-efficiency building envelope, designed for thermal insulation, as well as an efficient, complex system of daylight energy and heat harvesting. The tower over the lobby vesitbule acts as a thermal chimney, enhancing the natural stack effect along with convection to vent hot the air out of the building at a high point, while drawing cooler air in at low points.
The facade is rustic in style—constructed out of stained cedar trim, fiber cement plank siding, and native fieldstone, while the interior makes use of reclaimed maple wood from Vermont syrup farms. On some interior panels, former knots in the maple wood can be seen where sap taps were installed.
Living and learning facilities include two apartments for house advisors' families, 14 dorm rooms—featuring rooms for two students and single rooms, common spaces, classrooms, and labs.
See also
Choate Rosemary Hall
Green buildings
Green buildings in the United States
References
External links
OS for the KEC
Buildings and structures in Wallingford, Connecticut
Sustainable architecture | Kohler Environmental Center | [
"Engineering",
"Environmental_science"
] | 404 | [
"Sustainable architecture",
"Environmental social science",
"Architecture"
] |
73,614,432 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo-lab%20timer | A photo-lab timer, photo interval timer, or darkroom timer is a timer used in photography for timing the process of projecting negatives to photosensitive paper with an enlarger, making photographic prints of them at any scale. It is a device which is attached to the photo lab enlarger to ensure that the duration of photo exposures on sensitive paper can be accurately timed. When the selected time has elapsed, the enlarger is switched off or an alarm is sounded, for the photographer to turn it off.
Initially they were conventional clocks, which were replaced by electromechanical timers, which were subsequently substituted entirely by electronic equipment.
Operation
After specifying the exposure time, the supply of power to the enlarger is activated by pushing a start button, thus timing the exposure exactly. The selectable time range is typically from 1/10th of a second to one or more minutes. Most exposure timers also have a continuous light switch, which is especially helpful for framing and focusing. Depending on the version, the desired duty cycle is set by means of a mechanical dial with scale or a push-button arrangement along with a numerical display. Some variants allow the preselection of several stored timings, which can be called back from memory by a single button press.
Mechanical
Early photolab timers used a clockwork mechanism to measure time. Manual timers are usually set by turning a dial to the desired time interval, storing energy in a mainspring that operates the mechanism. They work in a way similar to a mechanical alarm clock, the energy of the mainspring causing a balance wheel to oscillate back and forth.
Each turn of the balance wheel lets the gear train advance a small, fixed amount, causing the dial to move steadily back until it reaches zero, switching off the enlarger or causing a lever arm to strike a bell. The mechanical enlarger timer was invented in the 1920s with a stabilizer that rotates being slowed down by the air resistance.
Electromechanical
Short period electromechanical timers for enlargers use a mechanism driven by an AC synchronous motor without any electronic circuitry at all. When the selected time has elapsed, the enlarger is disconnected by means of the relay that kept it on.
The electric current feeds the synchronous motor which drives a demultiplying gear that rotates the "seconds hand" one turn every minute and simultaneously, the "minutes hand" one turn every hour, thus achieving timings of up to 60 minutes with an accuracy of a tenth of a second.
Electronic
Electronic timers are essentially quartz clocks with special electronics and can achieve higher accuracy than mechanical or electromechanical timers. Electronic timers have digital electronics, but they normally have an analog or digital display.
Integrated circuits have made digital logic so cheap that an electronic timer is now less expensive than the classical mechanical or electromechanical timers. Individual timers are implemented as a simple single-chip computer system, similar to a clock and usually using the same, mass-produced technology.
Automatic timer/analyzer
There is a type of automatic timer manufactured by Kaiser, Philips, and others that by means of a photoelectric sensor (like the one in the photo or mounted inside the easel), is capable of regulating the exposure time according to the light projected by the enlarger, through the negative, on the photographic paper, magnitude inversely proportional to the darkness of the negative and its the distance to the paper.
Gallery
References
External links
Clocks
Photography | Photo-lab timer | [
"Physics",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 730 | [
"Physical systems",
"Machines",
"Clocks",
"Measuring instruments"
] |
73,614,492 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROP%20GTPase | Rho-related GTPases from plants, otherwise known as ROPs, are involved in cell polarity through the regulation of cytoskeleton components like actin and microtubules. Unlike mammalian cells, plant cells do not contain heterotrimeric G proteins like Cdc42, Rac, and Rho that are known to regulate cellular polarity.
Structure and Function
ROP proteins are a type of monomeric G proteins found in plants belonging to the Rho family. ROP binding to GTP or GDP determines its activity due to conformational changes within its structure. Within the G-domain of the structure are the G-box motifs G1-5. These motifs are formed during protein folding and are composed of conserved sequences that are responsible for nucleotide and magnesium binding as well as hydrolysis of GTP. Motifs G2 (switch I loop) and G3 (switch II loop) possess distinct conformations depending on GTP binding state. In addition, the G-domain contains a unique and conserved helical domain commonly found in Rho family proteins called αi.
Specific locations within the 3D ROP protein structure, including the amino acids 13-20, 60-64, and 118-121, act as binding sites during protein activity. The serine residue at amino acid 74 has been shown to be a potential protein activity regulation site through phosphorylation.
References
Signal transduction
EC 3.6.5
Plant proteins | ROP GTPase | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 299 | [
"Protein stubs",
"Signal transduction",
"Biochemistry stubs",
"Biochemistry",
"Neurochemistry"
] |
73,614,883 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C2HClF2 | {{DISPLAYTITLE:C2HClF2}}
C2HClF2 is the chemical formula for two isomers of hydrochlorofluoroolefins.
2-Chloro-1,1-difluoroethylene
1-Chloro-1,2-difluoroethylene | C2HClF2 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 71 | [
"Isomerism",
"Set index articles on molecular formulas"
] |
73,618,323 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapering%20%28medicine%29 | In medicine, tapering is the practice of gradually reducing the dosage of a medication to reduce or discontinue it. Generally, tapering is done is to avoid or minimize withdrawal symptoms that arise from neurobiological adaptation to the drug.
Prescribed psychotropic drugs that may require tapering due to this physical dependence include opioids, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, and benzodiazepines.
Cross-tapering
Cross-tapering refers to the practice of reducing one drug, while introducing a new medication that is titrated to an effective dose. This can be used, for example, when changing antipsychotic medications.
Peer support groups
Peer support groups, such as survivingantidepressants.org, provide a medium where those tapering medication can discuss approaches and withdrawal symptoms. Surviving antidepressants advocate for a slower rate of tapering than that used in standard medical practice. Many such groups exist on Facebook and other social media platforms. Along with sharing tapering tips, members of the groups discuss the risks of prescription cascade, where withdrawal symptoms or the side effects of a psychotropic medication result in further medication, and the risk of neurobiological "kindling" effects where repeated unsuccessful withdrawal attempts yield progressively poor results upon drug reinstatement or, later, may increase the risk of withdrawal symptoms.
See also
Opioid tapering
References
Clinical pharmacology | Tapering (medicine) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 302 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Clinical pharmacology"
] |
73,619,197 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychromatic%20symmetry | Polychromatic symmetry is a colour symmetry which interchanges three or more colours in a symmetrical pattern. It is a natural extension of dichromatic symmetry. The coloured symmetry groups are derived by adding to the position coordinates (x and y in two dimensions, x, y and z in three dimensions) an extra coordinate, k, which takes three or more possible values (colours).
An example of an application of polychromatic symmetry is crystals of substances containing molecules or ions in triplet states, that is with an electronic spin of magnitude 1, should sometimes have structures in which the spins of these groups have projections of + 1, 0 and -1 onto local magnetic fields. If these three cases are present with equal frequency in an orderly array, then the magnetic space group of such a crystal should be three-coloured.
Example
The group has three different rotation centres of order three (120°), but no reflections or glide reflections.
There are two distinct ways of colouring the p3 pattern with three colours: p3[3]1 and p3[3]2 where the figure in square brackets indicates the number of colours, and the subscript distinguishes between multiple cases of coloured patterns.
Taking a single motif in the pattern p3[3]1 it has a symmetry operation 3', consisting of a rotation by 120° and a cyclical permutation of the three colours white, green and red as shown in the animation.
This pattern p3[3]1 has the same colour symmetry as M. C. Escher's Hexagonal tessellation with animals: study of regular division of the plane with reptiles (1939). Escher reused the design in his 1943 lithograph Reptiles and it was also used as the cover art of Mott the Hoople’s debut album.
Group theory
Initial research by Wittke and Garrido (1959) and by Niggli and Wondratschek (1960) identified the relation between the colour groups of an object and the subgroups of the object's geometric symmetry group. In 1961 van der Waerden and Burckhardt built on the earlier work by showing that colour groups can be defined as follows: in a colour group of a pattern (or object) each of its geometric symmetry operations s is associated with a permutation σ of the k colours in such a way that all the pairs (s,σ) form a group. Senechal showed that the permutations are determined by the subgroups of the geometric symmetry group G of the uncoloured pattern. When each symmetry operation in G is associated with a unique colour permutation the pattern is said to be perfectly coloured.
The Waerden-Burckhardt theory defines a k-colour group G(H) as being determined by a subgroup H of index k in the symmetry group G. If the subgroup H is a normal subgroup then the quotient group G/H permutes all the colours.
History
1956 First papers on polychromatic, as opposed to dichromatic, symmetry groups are published by Belov and his co-workers. Vainshtein and Koptsik (1994) summarise the Russian work.
1957 Mackay publishes the first review of the Russian work in English. Subsequent reviews were published by Koptsik (1968), Schwarzenberger (1984), in Grünbaum and Shephard's Tilings and patterns (1987), by Senechal (1990) and by Thomas (2012).
Late 1950s M.C. Escher's artworks based on dichromatic and polychromatic patterns popularise colour symmetry amongst scientists.
1961 Clear definition by van der Waerden and Burckhardt of colour symmetry in terms of group theory, regardless of the number of colours or dimensions involved.
1964 First publication of Shubnikov and Belov's Colored Symmetry in English translation
1971 Derivation by Loeb in Color and Symmetry of 2D colour symmetry configurations using rotocenters.
1974 Publication of Symmetry in Science and Art by Shubnikov and Koptsik with extensive coverage of polychromatic symmetry.
1983 Senechal examines the problem of colouring polyhedra symmetrically using group theory. Cromwell later uses an algorithmic counting approach (1997).
1988 Washburn and Crowe apply colour symmetry analysis to cultural patterns and objects. Washburn and Crowe inspired further work, for example by Makovicky.
1997 Lifshitz extends the theory of color symmetry from periodic to quasiperiodic crystals.
2008 Conway, Burgiel and Goodman-Strauss publish The Symmetries of Things which describes the colour-preserving symmetries of coloured objects using a new notation based on Orbifolds.
Number of colour groups
Both of the 3-colour p3 patterns, the unique 4-, 6-, 7-colour p3 patterns, one of the three 9-colour p3 patterns, and one of the four 12-colour p3 patterns are illustrated in the Example section above.
References
Further reading
Senechal, M. (1975). Point groups and color symmetry, Z. Krist., 142, 1-23,
Lockwood, E.H. and Macmillan, R.H. (1978). Geometric symmetry , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 67-70 & 206-208,
Senechal, M. (1979). Color groups, Discrete Appl. Math., 1, 51-73,
Senechal, M. (1988). The algebraic Escher, Structural Topology, 15, 31-42
Symmetry | Polychromatic symmetry | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 1,139 | [
"Geometry",
"Symmetry"
] |
73,620,513 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones%20Island%20Water%20Reclamation%20Facility | The Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is a wastewater treatment plant located on Jones Island along the Lake Michigan shore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1974.
History and operation
Since 1926, the Jones Island facility has both been in operation and has been producing the fertilizer Milorganite as a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process. It was one of the first wastewater treatment plants to be constructed in the United States, as well as one of the first to produce a marketable fertilizer.
Prior to the completion of the plant, sewage and industrial waste in Milwaukee were both discharged directly into Lake Michigan. In 1936, a "mysterious epidemic" that affected 120,000 people in Milwaukee, roughly 20% of the city's population at the time, was ultimately linked to contaminated water that had been discharged from the Jones Island facility without being treated. The epidemic was successfully ended by a boil-water advisory. In 1972, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commended the plant for implementing phosphorus-removal capabilities ahead of schedule. In 1989, due to the release of cyanide and metals from the facility into Lake Michigan, the EPA included it on a list of 879 industrial facilities around the country that were not meeting government standards regarding the release of chemicals into waterways.
In 1997, United Water Resources signed a ten-year contract with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to manage the Jones Island facility, creating the largest public–private partnership in the United States at the time. Currently owned by MMSD, the plant is operated and managed by Veolia as part of an ongoing public-private partnership. It is one of two wastewater treatment plants serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area, along with a facility in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
Wastewater treatment
As of 2015, the Jones Island facility can treat over of wastewater daily. It serves 1.1 million people in 28 municipalities throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. The plant sits at the end of a network that includes of household laterals, another of sanitary sewers, and the Deep Tunnel Project, the latter of which can hold of wastewater and largely prevents overflow events.
Milwaukee uses a combined sewer system, which brings both sewage and urban runoff to the Jones Island facility to be treated before the water is discharged into Lake Michigan. Wastewater takes about 24 hours to travel to the treatment plant, be treated, and then be discharged into the lake. The water returned to the lake from the plant is cleaner than the lake water itself.
At the Jones Island facility, wastewater treatment begins with screening, followed by primary clarification in circular holding tanks. Water then travels to storage channels where bacteria (including Aspidisca, Arcella, and Vorticella) digest the remaining impurities in the wastewater. The bacteria have a short lifespan, and the sludge containing the dead bacteria is dried, heated (at to ), and tumbled to a uniform size to make Milorganite. As of 2017, the plant was producing roughly 45,000 tons of Milorganite a year. Its production is considered to be one of the largest recycling programs in the world, and it surpasses the EPA's "Exceptional Quality" rating and is certified by the United States Department of Agriculture due to its renewable origins.
Tours
By 2015, more than 20,000 members of the public have toured the Jones Island facility, many at the annual Doors Open Milwaukee event. Tours are a major part of MMSD's outreach and public education program. In the mid-2010s, more than 4,000 people were touring the facility annually.
References
External links
Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility on Atlas Obscura
Sewage treatment plants in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee
1926 establishments in Wisconsin
Lake Michigan
Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks | Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility | [
"Engineering"
] | 786 | [
"Civil engineering",
"Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks"
] |
73,620,994 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian%20Cao | Jian Cao is a materials scientist and mechanical engineer whose research includes the mechanical behavior and manufacturing of sheet metal and woven composite materials, including dieless deformation and laser additive manufacturing processes. She is Cardiss Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University and director of the Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation.
Education and career
Cao studied materials science and engineering and automatic control at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, earning a bachelor's degree there in 1989. She went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for graduate study in mechanical engineering, earned a master's degree there in 1992, and completed her Ph.D. in 1995, under the supervision of Mary Cunningham Boyce.
After postdoctoral research at MIT, she became an assistant professor at Northwestern University in 1995. She was promoted to associate professor in 2002, and served as a program director at the National Science Foundation from 2003 to 2005. Returning to Northwestern, she became a full professor in 2008, adding courtesy affiliations with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2010 and with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2018. From 2012 to 2021 she also served as the university's Associate Vice President for Research. She was named Cardiss Collins Professor in 2016.
Cao founded the Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation in 2015, and has been director since its founding. In 2016, she became a Senior Institute Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory. She has been editor-in-chief of the Journal of Materials Processing Technology since 2018.
Recognition
Cao was elected as an ASME Fellow in 2006, as a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 2010 (SME), as a Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering in 2014, and as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018, recognized "for her fundamental contributions to the understanding of failure mechanisms in forming processes and for innovations to advance flexible manufacturing processes". She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022, "for pioneering a flexible sheet forming system and for leadership in manufacturing", and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
She received the ASME Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award in 2006, the Distinguished Service Award of the ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division in 2009 and 2013, the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 2011, the ASME Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award in 2017, the ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal in 2020, and the ASME Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Division Award in 2023. She was the 2016 winner of the SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal, and the 2020 winner of the SME Gold Medal, "for her creative and pioneering contributions to the development of the scientific and technological bases of innovative manufacturing processes through extensive publication, speaking and public service activities".
References
External links
Home page
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American materials scientists
American mechanical engineers
21st-century American women engineers
21st-century American engineers
Chinese materials scientists
Chinese mechanical engineers
Chinese women engineers
Women materials scientists and engineers
Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Northwestern University faculty
United States National Science Foundation officials
Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering | Jian Cao | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 656 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
64,888,864 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%20of%20arcade%20video%20games | An arcade video game is an arcade game where the player's inputs from the game's controllers are processed through electronic or computerized components and displayed to a video device, typically a monitor, all contained within an enclosed arcade cabinet. Arcade video games are often installed alongside other arcade games such as pinball and redemption games at amusement arcades. Up until the late 1990s, arcade video games were the largest and most technologically advanced sector of the video game industry.
The first arcade game, Computer Space, was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, the founders of Atari, Inc., and released in 1971; the company followed on its success the next year with Pong. The industry grew modestly until the release of Taito's Space Invaders in 1978 and Namco's Pac-Man in 1980, creating a golden age of arcade video games that lasted through about 1983. At this point, saturation of the market with arcade games led to a rapid decline in both the arcade game market and arcades to support them. The arcade market began recovering in the mid-1980s, with the help of software conversion kits, new genres such as beat 'em ups, and advanced motion simulator cabinets. There was a resurgence in the early 1990s, with the birth of the fighting game genre with Capcom's Street Fighter II in 1991 and the emergence of 3D graphics, before arcades began declining in the West during the late 1990s. After several traditional companies closed or migrated to other fields (especially in the West), arcades lost much of their relevance in the West, but have continued to remained popular in Eastern and Southeastern Asia.
Early arcade games
Since the early 20th century, skee ball and other pin-based games had been a popular arcade game. The first pinball machines had been introduced in the 1930s but gained a reputation as games of chance and had been banned from many venues from the 1940s through the 1960s. Instead, newer coin-operated electro-mechanical games (EM games), classified as games of skill took their place in amusement arcades by the 1960s.
Following the arrival of Sega's EM game Periscope (1966), the arcade industry was experiencing a "technological renaissance" driven by "audio-visual" EM novelty games, establishing the arcades as a healthy environment for the introduction of commercial video games in the early 1970s. In the late 1960s, a college student Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an arcade where he became familiar with EM games through watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.
Arrival of arcade video games (1971−1977)
While early video games running on computers had been developed as far back as 1950, the first video game to spread beyond a single computer installation, Spacewar!, was developed by students and staff at MIT on a PDP-1 mainframe computer in 1962. As the group that developed it migrated across the country to other schools, they took Spacewar!s source code to run on other mainframe machines at those schools. It inspired two different groups to attempt to develop a coin-operated version of the game.
Around 1970, Nolan Bushnell was invited by a colleague to see Spacewar! running on Stanford University's PDP-6 computer. Bushnell got the idea of recreating the game on a smaller computer, a Data General Nova, connected to multiple coin-operated terminals. He and fellow Ampex employee Ted Dabney, under the company name Syzygy, worked with Nutting Associates to create Computer Space, the first commercial arcade game, with location tests in August 1971 and production starting in November. More than 1300 units of the game were sold, and while not as large of a hit game as hoped, it proved the potential for the coin-operated computer game. At Stanford University, students Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck used a PDP-11 mainframe to build two prototypes of Galaxy Game, which they demonstrated at the university starting in November 1971, but were unable to turn into a commercial game.
Bushnell got the idea for his next game after seeing a demonstration of a table tennis game on the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console that was based on the designs of Ralph H. Baer. Deciding to go on their own, Bushnell and Dabney left Nutting and reformed their company as Atari Inc., and brought on Allan Alcorn to help design an arcade game based on the Odyssey game. After a well-received trial run of a demo unit at Andy Capp's Tavern in San Jose, California in August 1972, Pong was first released in limited numbers in November 1972 with a wider release by March 1973. Pong was highly successful, with each machine earning over a day, far greater than most other coin-operated machine at the time.
With Pong success, numerous other coin-operated manufacturers, most who were making electro-mechanical games and pinball machines, attempted to capitalize on the success of arcade games; such companies included Bally Manufacturing, Midway Manufacturing, and Williams Electronics, as well as Japanese companies Taito and Sega. Most took to trying to copy the games that Atari had already made with small alterations, leading to a wave of clones. Bushnell, having failed to patent on the idea, considered these competitors "jackals" but rather than seeking legal action, continued to have Atari devise new games. Separately, Magnavox and Sanders Associates, through which Baer had developed the basics of the Odyssey, sued Atari, among the other manufacturers, for patent violations of the basic patents behind the electronic game concepts. Bushnell opted to settle out of court, negotiating for perpetual licensing rights to Baer's patents for Atari as part of the settlement fee, which allowed Atari to pursue the development of additional arcade games and bringing Pong in a home console form, while Magnavox continued legal against the other manufacturers. It is estimated that Magnavox collected over in awards and settlements from these suits over the Baer patents.
By the end of 1974, more than fifteen companies, both in the United States and Japan, were in the development of arcade games. A key milestone was the introduction of microprocessor technology to arcade games with Midway's Gun Fight (an adaptation of Taito's Western Gun as released in Japan), which could be programmed more directly rather than relying on the complex interaction of integrated circuitry (IC) chips.
Video games were still considered to be adult entertainment at this point, and treated as with pinball machines as games of skill, "For Amusement Only", and placed in locations that children would likely not be at such as bar and lounges. However, the same stigma that pinball machines had seen in the prior decades became to appear for video games. Notably, the release of Death Race in 1976, which involved driving over gremlins on screen, drew criticism in the United States for being too violent, and created the first major debate on violence and video games.
After the "paddle game" trend came to an end around 1975, the arcade video game industry entered a period of stagnation in the "post paddle game era" over the next several years up until 1977.
Golden age of arcade games (1978–1983)
In 1978, Taito released Space Invaders, first in Japan, followed by its North American release. Among its novel gameplay features that drove its popularity, the game was the first to maintain a persistent high score. and though simplistic, used an interactive audio system that increased with the pace of the game. The game was extremely popular in both regions. In Japan, specialty arcades were established that featured only Space Invaders machines, and Taito estimated that they had sold over 100,000 machines in the country alone by the end of 1978, while in the United States, over 60,000 machines had been sold by 1980. The game was considered the best-selling video game and highest-grossing "entertainment product" of its time. Many arcade games since then have been based on "the multiple life, progressively difficult level paradigm" established by Space Invaders.
Space Invaders led to a string of popular arcade games over the next five years that are considered the "Golden Years" for arcade games. Among these titles include:
Asteroids (Atari, 1979)
Galaxian (Namco, 1979)
Berzerk (Stern Electronics, 1980)
Missile Command (Atari, 1980)
Pac-Man (Namco, 1980)
Rally-X (Namco, 1980)
Centipede (Atari, 1980)
Defender (Williams Electronics, 1981)
Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981)
Frogger (Konami, 1981)
Scramble (Konami, 1981)
Zaxxon (Sega, 1981)
Of these, Pac-Man had an even larger impact on popular culture when it arrived in 1980; the game itself was popular but people took to Pac-Man as a mascot, leading to merchandise and an animated series of the same name in 1982. The game also inspired the Gold-certified song "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia. Pac-Man sold about 400,000 cabinets overall by 1982. Donkey Kong was also significant as not only being the first recognized platform game but also bringing a cute, more fantastical concept that was well-founded in Japanese culture but new to Western regions, compared to prior arcade games. Western audiences became accustomed to this level of abstraction, making later Japanese-made arcade games and titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System easily accepted by these players.
These games, along with numerous others, created video game arcades around the world. The construction boom of shopping malls in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s gave rise to dedicated arcade storefronts such as Craig Singer's Tilt Arcades. Other arcades were featured in bowling alleys and skating rinks, as well as standalone facilities, such as Bushnell's chain of Chuck E. Cheese pizzerias and arcades. Time reported in January 1982 that there were over 13,000 arcades in the United States, with the most popular machines bringing in over $400 in profit each day. Twin Galaxies, an arcade opened by Walter Day in Ottumwa, Iowa, became known for tracking the high scores of many these top video games, and in 1982, Life featured the arcade, Day, and several of the top players at the time in a cover story, bringing the idea of a professional video game player to public consciousness. The formation of video game tournaments around arcade games in the 1980s was the predecessor of modern esports.
Arcade machines also found their way into any area where they could be placed and would be able to draw children or young adults, such as supermarkets and drug stores. The Golden Age was also buoyed by the growing home console market which had just entered the second generation with the introduction of game cartridges. Atari had been able to license Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 which became the system's killer application. Similarly, Coleco beat Atari in licensing Donkey Kong from Nintendo, and among other ports, included their conversion of the game as a pack-in for the ColecoVision, which helped to boost sales of the console and compete against the Atari 2600. Licensing of arcade hits became a major business for the home markets, which in turn spurred further growth in the arcade field. By 1981, the US arcade game market had an estimated value of .
Jonathan Greenberg of Forbes predicted in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry, as American video game companies were increasingly licensing products from Japanese companies, who in turn were opening up North American branches. By 1982–1983, Japanese manufacturers had captured a large share of the North American arcade market, which Gene Lipkin of Data East USA partly attributed to Japanese companies having more finances to invest in new ideas.
End of the golden age (1984)
Though 1982 was recognized as the height of success of the video game arcade, many in the industry knew the success could not last too long. Walter Day had commented in 1982 that there were "too many arcades" by that point for what was really needed. Additionally, players required novelty and new games, and thus required older games to be discontinued and replaced with new ones, but not all new games were as successful as those at the height of the Golden Age. Knowing that players were seeking more challenge, game manufacturers designed the newer games to be harder, but this caused less-skilled mainstream players to be turned away.
Coupled with this was an increased pressure on possible harmful impacts of video games on children. Arcades had taken steps to make their venues as "family fun centers" alleviate some concerns, but parents and activists still saw video games as potentially addictive and leading to aggressive behavior. The U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop spoke in November 1982 about the potential addiction of video game by young children, as part general moral concerns around youth in the early 1980s. These fears not only affected video game arcades, but other places where youth would normally be able to hang out without adult supervision such as shopping malls and skating rinks. There were also reports of increased crime associated with arcades due to lack of adult supervision. Many cities and towns implemented bans on arcades or limiting businesses to only a few machines by the mid-1980s. Several of these bans were challenged by arcade owners on First Amendment grounds, asserting video games merits protection as an art form, but the bulk of these cases ruled against arcades, favoring local regulations that were limiting conduct rather than restricting speech. Further impacting the arcades, the rising popularity of home consoles threatened the arcades, since players did not have to repeatedly spend money to play at arcades when they could play at home. But with the 1983 video game crash which drastically affected the home console market, the arcade market also felt its impact as it was already waning from oversaturation, loss of players, and the moral concerns over video games, all stressed by the early 1980s recession.
Arcade games became relatively dormant in the United States for a while, declining from the peak financial success of the golden age. The US arcade industry had declined from a peak of in 1982 down to in 1984. The US arcade video game market was sluggish in 1984, but Sega president Hayao Nakayama was confident that good games "can surely be sold in the U.S. market, if done adequately." Sega announced plans to open a new US subsidiary for early 1985, which Game Machine magazine predicted would "most probably enliven" the American video game business. Despite the downturn in 1984, John Lotz of Betson Pacific Distributing predicted that another arcade boom could potentially happen by the early 1990s.
Market recovery (1985−1990)
The arcade industry began recovering in 1985 and made a comeback by 1986, with the arcade industry experiencing several years of growth during the late 1980s. A major factor in its recovery was the arrival of software conversion kit systems, such as Sega's Convert-a-Game system, the Atari System 1, and the Nintendo VS. System, the latter being the Western world's introduction to the Famicom (NES) hardware in 1984, prior to the official release of the NES console; the success of the VS. System in arcades was instrumental to the release and success of the NES in North America. Other major factors that helped revive arcades were the arrival of popular martial arts action games (including fighting games such as Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung-Fu, and beat 'em ups such as Kung-Fu Master and Renegade), advanced motion simulator games (such as Sega's "taikan" games including Hang-On, Space Harrier and Out Run), and the resurgence of sports video games (such as Track & Field, Punch-Out and Tehkan World Cup).
By 1985, the arcade industry was largely dominated by Japanese manufacturers, with the number of American manufacturers having declined. By 1988, annual US arcade video game revenue had increased to . However, competition from new home consoles, like the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) that had revitalized the home video game industry, were drawing players away from the arcades. After the NES took off in North America, home consoles kept many children at home and under parental supervision, keeping them away from arcades. The US arcade video game market experienced another decline from 1989. RePlay magazine partly attributed the decline to the rise of home consoles following the success of the NES. In Japan, on the other hand, the arcade market grew while home video game sales declined. Overall, the worldwide arcade market continued to grow, remaining larger than the console market.
Various technological advances were made in arcades during this era. Sega's Hang-On, designed by Yu Suzuki and running on the Sega Space Harrier hardware, was the first of Sega's 16-bit "Super Scaler" arcade system boards that pushed pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates. Hang-On also used a motion-controlled arcade cabinet that included a mounted motorbike-like control unit on a hydraulic system, which the player used to control the game by tilting their body to the left or right, two decades before motion controls became popular on consoles. This game began the "taikan" ("body sensation") trend, the use of motion simulator arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, such as Sega's Space Harrier (1985), Out Run (1986) and After Burner (1987). SNK also launched its Neo Geo line in 1990 to try to bridge the arcade and home console gap. The launch consisted of the Neo Geo Multi Video System (MVS) arcade system and the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES). Both units shared the same game cartridges, with the MVS able to support up to six different games at the same time selectable by the player. Further, players could use a memory card to transfer save game information from the MVS to their home AES and back. Arcade systems dedicated to flat-shaded 3D polygon graphics also began emerging, with the Namco System 21 used for Winning Run (1988) and the related Atari Games hardware for Hard Drivin' (1989), as well as the Taito Air System used for amateur flight simulations such as Top Landing (1988) and Air Inferno (1990).
One format of arcade video games that briefly expanded during this period were quiz-style or trivia-based arcade games. Besides the other avenues of technical advances, the hardware for arcade machines had shrunk small enough that the core electronics could be fitted into cocktail-style cabinets or half-height bartop or countertop versions, making them ideal for placement in more adult venues. Coupled with waning interest in traditional arcade games due to the 1983 video game crash and the rising popularity of the board game Trivial Pursuit first introduced in 1981, several manufacturers turned to quiz style games to be sold to bars in these smaller formats, including more risque titles. Manufacturers also saw similar opportunities to promote these games for family-oriented entertainment and potential use as educational tools. The rush of arcade-based trivia games waned around 1986 as the general interest in trivia waned, but arcades and other entertainment businesses managed to find ways to keep trivia-style games going within arcades since, often based on multiplayer trivia challenges played out on multiple screens. These trivia games also influenced the creation of trivia games on consoles and computers such as the You Don't Know Jack series of games and Trivia HQ.
Resurgence and 3D revolution (1991−1999)
Fighting game boom
Arcade games gained a resurgence with the introduction of Street Fighter II by Capcom in 1991. The original Street Fighter in 1987 had already introduced a fighting game game format that allowed two players to challenge each other, but the characters were generic combatants. Street Fighter II introduced modern elements to the genre and created the fundamental one-on-one fighting game template, featuring numerous characters with backgrounds and personalities to select from and a wide range of special moves to use. Street Fighter II sold more than 200,000 cabinets worldwide, and drew other arcade manufacturers to make similar fighting games, including Mortal Kombat in 1992, Virtua Fighter in 1993, and Tekken in 1994. The period was referred to as a "boom" or "renaissance" for the arcade industry, with the success of Street Fighter II drawing comparisons to that of arcade golden age blockbusters Space Invaders and Pac-Man.
By 1993, arcade games in the United States were generating an annual revenue of , larger than both the home video game market () as well as the film box office market (). Worldwide arcade video game revenue also maintained its lead over consoles. In 1993, Electronic Games noted that when "historians look back at the world of coin-op during the early 1990s, one of the defining highlights of the video game art form will undoubtedly focus on fighting/martial arts themes" which it described as "the backbone of the industry" at the time. Mortal Kombat, however, led to further controversy over violence in video games due to its gruesome-looking finishing moves. When the game was ported to home consoles in 1993, it led to U.S. Congressional hearings on violence in video games, which resulted in the formation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) in 1994 to avoid government oversight in video games. Despite this, fighting games remained the dominant style of game in arcades through the 1990s.
3D revolution
Another factor that contributed to the arcade "renaissance" was increasingly realistic games, notably the "3D Revolution" where arcade games made the transition from 2D and pseudo-3D graphics to true real-time 3D polygon graphics, largely driven by a technological arms race rivalry between Sega and Namco. The Namco System 21 which was originally developed for racing games in the late 1980s was adapted by Namco for new 3D action games in the early 1990s, such as the rail shooters Galaxian 3 (1990) and Solvalou (1991). Sega responded with the Sega Model 1, which further popularized 3D polygons with Sega AM2 games including Virtua Racing (1992) and the fighting game Virtua Fighter (1993), which popularized 3D polygon human characters. Namco then responded with the Namco System 22, capable of 3D polygon texture mapping and Gouraud shading, used for Ridge Racer (1993). The Sega Model 2 took it further with 3D polygon texture filtering, used by 1994 for racers such as Daytona USA, fighting games such as Virtua Fighter 2, and light gun shooters such as Virtua Cop. Namco responded with 3D fighters such as Tekken (1994) and 3D light gun shooters such as Time Crisis (1995), the latter running on the Super System 22.
Other arcade manufacturers were also manufacturing 3D arcade hardware by this time, including Midway, Konami, and Taito, as well as Mesa Logic with light gun shooter Area 51 (1995). The new, more realistic 3D games gained considerable popularity in arcades, especially in more family-family fun centers. Virtual reality (VR) also began appearing in arcades during the early 1990s. The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) in the United States held its second largest AMOA show ever in 1994, after the 1982 AMOA show.
Home console competition
Around the mid-1990s, the fifth-generation home consoles, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64, also began offering true 3D graphics, along with improved sound and better 2D graphics than the previous fourth generation of video game consoles. By 1995, personal computers followed, with 3D accelerator cards. While arcade systems such as the Sega Model 3 remained considerably more advanced than home systems in the late 1990s, the technological advantage that arcade games had, in their ability to customize and use the latest graphics and sound chips, slowly began narrowing, and the convenience of home games eventually caused a decline in arcade gaming. Sega's sixth generation console, the Dreamcast, could produce 3D graphics comparable to the Sega NAOMI arcade system in 1998, after which Sega produced more powerful arcade systems such as the Sega NAOMI Multiboard and Sega Hikaru in 1999 and the Sega NAOMI 2 in 2000, before Sega eventually stopped manufacturing expensive proprietary arcade system boards, with their subsequent arcade boards being based on more affordable commercial console or PC components.
During the late 1990s, arcade video games declined, while console games overtook arcade video games for the first time around 1997–1998. Up until then, the arcade video game market had larger revenue than consoles. In 1997, Konami began releasing a number of music-based games that used unique peripherals to control the game in time to music, including Beatmania and GuitarFreaks, culminating in the 1998 release of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) in Japan, a new style of arcade game that used a dance pad and required players to tap their feet on appropriate squares on the pad in time to notes on screen in synchronization to popular music. DDR later released in the West in 1999, and while it did not enjoy the same popularity in Japan initially, it led the trend of rhythm games in arcades.
Regional divergences (2000−2019)
Worldwide arcade video game revenue stabilized in the early 2000s after years of declining revenue in the late 1990s, during which time it had been surpassed in revenue by the console, handheld and PC game industries. Arcade video games continue to be a thriving industry in Eastern Asian countries such as Japan and China, where arcades are widespread across the region.
United States
Since the 2000s, arcade games and arcades in the United States have generally had to continue as niche markets to adapt to remain profitable, competition against the allure of home consoles. Most arcades were unable to sustain on operating arcade games alone, and have since added back redemption systems for prizes along with non-arcade games for these, such as Dave & Busters. Arcade games were developed to try to create experiences that could not be had via home consoles, such as motion simulator games, but their expense and space required was difficult to justify over more traditional games. The US market has experienced a slight resurgence, with the number of video game arcades across the nation increasing from 2,500 in 2003 to 3,500 in 2008, though this is significantly less than the 10,000 arcades in the early 1980s. As of 2009, a successful arcade game usually sells around 4000 to 6000 units worldwide. Since around 2018, arcades specializing in virtual reality games have also become popular, allowing players to experience these games without the hardware investment in VR headsets.
The relative simplicity yet solid gameplay of many of these early games has inspired a new generation of fans who can play them on mobile phones or with emulators such as MAME. Some classic arcade games are reappearing in commercial settings, such as Namco's Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga: Class of 1981 two-in-one game, or integrated directly into controller hardware (joysticks) with replaceable flash drives storing game ROMs. Arcade classics have also been reappearing as mobile games, with Pac-Man in particular selling over 30 million downloads in the United States by 2010. Arcade classics also began to appear on replica multi-game arcade machines for home users, using emulation on modern hardware.
Japan
In the Japanese gaming industry, arcades have remained popular since the 2000s. Much of the consistent popularity and growing industry is due to several factors such as support for continued innovation and that developers of machines own the arcades. Additionally, Japan arcade machines are notably more unique as to US machines, where Japanese arcades can offer experiences that players could not get at home. This is constant throughout Japanese arcade history. As of 2009, out of Japan's US$20 billion gaming market, US$6 billion of that amount is generated from arcades, which represent the largest sector of the Japanese video game market, followed by home console games and mobile games at US$3.5 billion and US$2 billion, respectively. According to in 2005, arcade ownership and operation accounted for a majority of Namco's for example. With considerable withdrawal from the arcade market from companies such as Capcom, Sega became the strongest player in the arcade market with 60% marketshare in 2006. Despite the global decline of arcades, Japanese companies hit record revenue for three consecutive years during this period. However, due to the country's economic recession, the Japanese arcade industry has also been steadily declining, from ¥702.9 billion (US$8.7 billion) in 2007 to ¥504.3 billion (US$6.2 billion) in 2010. In 2013, estimation of revenue is ¥470 billion.
The layout of an arcade in Japan greatly differs from an arcade in America. The arcades of Japan are multi-floor complexes (often taking up entire buildings), split into sections by game types. On the ground level the arcade typically hosts physically demanding games that draw crowds of onlookers, like music rhythm games. Another floor is often a maze of multi-player games and battle simulators. These multi-player games often have online connectivity tracking rankings and reputation of each player; top players are revered and respected in arcades. The top floor of the arcade is typically for rewards where Players can trade credits or tickets for prizes.
In the Japanese market, network and card features introduced by Virtua Fighter 4 and World Club Champion Football, and novelty cabinets such as Gundam Pod machines have caused revitalizations in arcade profitability in Japan. The reason for the continued popularity of arcades in comparison to the west, are heavy population density and an infrastructure similar to casino facilities.
Former rivals in the Japanese arcade industry, Konami, Taito, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Sega, collaborated during the period. Approaching the end of the 2010s, the typical business of the Japanese arcade shifted further as arcade video games were less predominant, accounting for only 13% of revenue in arcades in 2017, while redemption games like claw crane machines were the most popular. By 2019, only about four thousand arcades remained in Japan, down from the height of 22,000 in 1989.
COVID-19 pandemic and decline (2020- present)
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 onward on arcades financially harmed many arcades that were still operating. In Japan, arcades did not qualify for funding to recover from lost revenue from the Japanese government. In the wake of the pandemic, several long-standing arcades were forced to close; notably, Sega sold off most of its arcade business. Financial analysis firm Teikoku Databank reported in 2024 that they estimated that over 8000 arcades had closed in the previous decade, with arcade games being shifted away in favor of redemption games. Large game companies view the remaining arcade businesses "as a rapidly sinking ship", and regard future investment in arcade titles as "fruitless". The decline was experienced strongly among gambling oriented games such as Pachislot. A UK arcade owner described a similar situation there, saying that "All arcades are either closed or suffering hardships."
See also
History of mobile games
History of online games
History of video games
List of arcade video games
References
Arcade video games
Arcade
Arcade | History of arcade video games | [
"Technology"
] | 6,395 | [
"Computers",
"History of video games",
"History of computing"
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64,891,692 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%201172 | NGC 1172 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 30, 1785.
References
External links
1172
Astronomical objects discovered in 1785
Discoveries by William Herschel
Eridanus (constellation)
Elliptical galaxies
011420 | NGC 1172 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 55 | [
"Eridanus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
64,895,935 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk%20Convincer | Maersk Convincer is a jackup rig built in Singapore. It was originally named PetroJack III. It was acquired and owned by Danish Maersk Drilling for operations in Southeast Asia. In 2022, Maersk Drilling sold the jackup rig to ADES.
Construction and career
Maersk Convincer was built in the mid 2000s and was originally named PetroJack III by Jurong Shipyard, Jurong, Singapore and entered service in 2008. Maersk Convincers first service took place in Brunei for the first time and worked for Brunei Shell Petroleum for workover and development. In 2010, she went to Vietnam for exploration under Haong Long and later Phy Quy Petroleum. Her next contract was in Malaysia under Petronas for exploration, development and workover in 2012.
Maersk Convincer arrived in Brunei in September 2017 for the second time and work for Brunei Shell Petroleum by taking over for . In November 2018, she got a 2.5 year contract extension in Brunei. Maersk Convincer won the Jack-up rig of the year in 2019 outstanding contributions. However, Maersk Drilling sought to consolidate its drilling operations in the North Sea in 2022 and sold Maersk Convincer to ADES in April. As part of the deal, Maersk Convinver was released from its contract with Brunei Shell Petroleum, ending operations in the area by mid-September.
Gallery
References
Maersk Oil
2008 ships
Jack-up rigs
Oil platforms
Buildings and structures in Brunei
Ships built in Singapore | Maersk Convincer | [
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 302 | [
"Oil platforms",
"Petroleum technology",
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64,896,212 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suki%20Seokyeong%20Kang | Suki Seokyeong Kang (강서경) is a visual artist based in Seoul, Korea. Kang's practice traverses painting, sculpture, performance, video and installation. Inspired by cultural traditions of Korea as well as contemporary artistic and literary discourses. Kang decodes rules and values that govern these disciplines, turning to artistic languages of the past to construct a contextual lens through which she explores the notion of individuality and freedom in the present moment.
Life
Kang was born in Seoul, South Korea. She studied Oriental painting at Ewha Womans University and painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She is a professor of Korean painting at Ewha Womans University.
Work and themes
Kang's practice draws on her early training in traditional Korean painting. In her works, she espouses the philosophical disposition of Chosun-era painters, who aimed to convey their own observations and interpretations of history through poetry, writing, and visual art.
Kang's multimedia work often takes the form of immersive installations. Her 2017 project Black Mat Oriole incorporates sculpture, painting, and video. The colors of the objects in the installation are based on colors from her paintings. The work also included performers who carry and arrange objects, and sit and drag their bodies on the floor.
Kang's installations all include objects that are liftable by the artist and any performers, and have sizes and weights that are at most as large as a standard human body. This technique has been a catalyst to convey themes relating to the subjects of her work. For example, the shape of the sculpture Grandmother Tower was inspired by the posture of her grandmother. She has also incorporated traditional hand-woven reed mats that she had commissioned.
Among the themes of Kang's work are the coming together of individuals, and how they both form community and experience their own histories. She is also inspired by classical Korean poetry and dance. Her installation work explores concepts relating to grids and their aesthetics, and how objects are arranged within a room. Her style has influence from Jeongganbo, a form of Korean musical notation.
Kang has a studio in Seochon. She paints a gouache painting every day as part of her work.
Exhibition History
Selected solo and group exhibitions of Suki Seokyeong Kang include "The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2023), Art Basel 2023, the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); MUDAM Luxembourg (2019); Seoul Museum of Art (2019); Liverpool Biennial (2018); 12th Shanghai Biennale (2018); San José Museum of Art (2018); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2018); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2018); Gwangju Biennale (2018, 2016); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2017); Villa Vassilieff, Paris (2016); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2016); Audio Visual Pavilion, Seoul (2015); Seoul Museum of Art (2014); Gallery Factory, Seoul (2013); Old House, Seoul (2013); and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London (2012). She is the recipient of the Baloise Art Prize (2018) and Songeun Art Award (2013).
In March 2022, Kang had two solo exhibitions at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. Her piece "Hear We Hear" is publicly displayed in Doha.
Awards
Kang was a recipient of a 2018 Baloise Art Prize. She was also shortlisted for the SongEun Art Award in 2013–2014.
Collections
The work of Suki Seokyeong Kang is included in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Seoul; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton; MUDAM Luxembourg; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Arario Museum, Seoul; Booth Collection-University of Chicago, Chicago; National Art Bank, Korea, among others.
Publications
References
External links
1977 births
Artists from Seoul
Multimedia artists
Living people
21st-century South Korean artists
21st-century South Korean women artists | Suki Seokyeong Kang | [
"Technology"
] | 871 | [
"Multimedia",
"Multimedia artists"
] |
64,897,755 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenothecopsis%20vainioana | Chaenothecopsis vainioana is a species of lichenicolous fungus in the family Caliciaceae that is found in Europe. It was first formally described by Czech lichenologist Josef Nádvorník in 1940 as a member of the genus Calicium. The specific epithet honours Finnish lichenologist Edvard August Vainio. Leif Tibell transferred it to genus Chaenothecopsis in 1979. Calicium vainioanum has been reported growing on Arthonia, Lecanactis abietina, and Calicium salicinum.
References
Eurotiomycetes
Fungi described in 1940
Fungi of Europe
Taxa named by Josef Nádvorník
Fungus species | Chaenothecopsis vainioana | [
"Biology"
] | 140 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
64,900,883 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki%20Turner%20%28public%20health%20advocate%29 | Nicola Mary Turner is a New Zealand public health advocate who is a Professor at the University of Auckland and Medical Director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre, an organisation that advises the New Zealand medical profession and the New Zealand Government. She has contributed to advisory committees for the New Zealand Ministry of Health, is a spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group (Aotearoa New Zealand) and works in general practice. Much of her research and outreach has focused on improving immunisation coverage and closing equity gaps for the national schedule vaccine delivery in New Zealand and she has commented publicly on these issues during COVID-19 in New Zealand.
Education and career
Turner holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB), a Diploma of Obstetrics Gynaecology and Family Planning (Dip Obs) and a Masters of Public Health (MPH Hons) from the University of Auckland. She was awarded a Diploma of Paediatrics (DHC) by the UK Royal College of Physicians. In 2014 the University of Auckland awarded Turner a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) for a thesis titled Factors associated with immunisation coverage for the childhood immunisation programme in New Zealand: 1999–2012.
In 1997, in response to low immunisation coverage and equity gaps in the New Zealand immunisation programmes, Turner developed the Immunisation Advisory Centre, (IMAC) an organisation situated at the University of Auckland, that nationally provides independent and factual research-based scientific information regarding vaccine-preventable diseases and the benefits and risks of immunisation. Turner noted that at the time the Immunisation Advisory Centre was set up, there was a "vocal and influential anti-vaccination movement reflecting, an absence of trust in science and a primary healthcare system that wasn't very well organised...[but]...as the New Zealand community...got behind this, the angry anti-immunisation stuff [was] a lot less, because immunisation's normalised now as a positive part of raising healthy children. Whereas back then you had to make an active decision to immunise, now you have to make an active decision not to". As of 2023, Turner is Medical Directory for IMAC.
Turner was a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland from 2005 until becoming an Associate Professor in 2013. On 1 January 2014, she was appointed as a Professor in the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at the same university.
Turner has been part of the General Practice team at Newtown Union Health Services (NUHS), Broadway, Wellington since 2011, and is an Associate and spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group.
Research and writings
Improving vaccination coverage
Turner has been involved in research into how the structures and organisation of general practice are associated with immunisation coverage in New Zealand. A 2010 paper, co-authored by Turner concluded that while practice immunisation coverage and timeliness did vary widely in New Zealand, "organisational and structural aspects of general practices are key determinants of general practice immunisation delivery".
Turner co-authored an Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) study in 2011 that assessed the effectiveness of the cold chain management for delivery of childhood vaccines from national stores to delivery sites in New Zealand.
In 2018, IMAC collated a synopsis of strategies used since the 1918 influenza pandemic to deal with unanswered questions about how to manage future pandemics. The data indicated that the burden of the disease in 1918 in New Zealand was inequitably carried by vulnerable populations such as the Maori, Pacific Island and Asian communities. In a related research project, Turner and epidemiologists Nick Wilson and Michael Baker presented data that showed the birth rate for Maori dropped disproportionately after the 2018 pandemic, confirming the importance of pregnant women being vaccinated against seasonal influenza to reduce the rate of stillbirths. In a later discussion about this research, Turner reiterated the importance of protecting pregnant women from any infection, and if vaccines were in short supply, prioritising them for "access to antivirals and ventilators in hospital intensive care units if they get sick".
Advocacy for children
In her role as spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group, Turner commented in the media on the relationship between low income and poor child health, and in 2008 co-authored a research report which stated that poverty was causing "devastation" in the health sector, with data showing New Zealand children had "higher rates of preventable illness and deaths from injuries than children in almost any other OECD country". The report drew attention to the fact that Maori and Pasifika children were disproportionately affected by this.
In 2012, Turner, as a member of the Office of the Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, contributed to a major report that explored how child poverty in New Zealand could be reduced. Turner later said she was disappointed at the response by the New Zealand government and that they had only focussed on a few areas instead of taking a fully systemic approach to reducing child poverty. This report supported the findings in a previous paper, endorsed by the New Zealand Medical Association and co-authored by Turner, which contended that overcrowding, poor nutrition, exposure to tobacco and stress contributed to creating a social environment in which the population was vulnerable and likely to have less access to health care services.
Commenting on a report released by The Asthma Foundation, Turner said it confirmed concerns that poverty and deprivation impacted greatly on respiratory disease in New Zealand children, and the underlying causes needed to be addressed to ensure that children and families had adequate income, good housing and easy access to health care. In 2015 after the Children's Commissioner released data showing that at the time, there were 305,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand – an increase of 45,000 from the previous year – Turner said that child poverty was now a national issue, not just for individual parents, and there appeared to be an unwillingness to resource a solution to the problem.
Closing equity gaps
Turner co-authored a paper in 2019 summarising the findings of a retrospective cohort study of New Zealand children (born 2006–2015), which identified that hospitalisation rates for infectious diseases since 1989 had increased disproportionately for Maori and Pacific children and those who were socioeconomically most deprived, but that those children who received the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PVC) between 2008 and 2014, wereless likely to be hospitalized. The paper concludes that the use of PVC was associated with "reductions in ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in hospitalization".
Turner co-authored another report on a research study that showed foreign-born migrant children living in New Zealand had an overall lower vaccination rate than NZ-born migrant and non-migrant children. It was acknowledged that there needed to be an improvement in the way such data were gathered, highlighting the importance of having "better national surveillance and migrant-specific data related to vaccination coverage to help uncover health inequities among children living in NZ and inform immunisation policy and practice". A follow-up paper on this research highlighted that to get a better understanding of migrant health, data must be disaggregated to locate hidden trends, provide information about subsets and make vulnerable groups more visible.
Much of Turner's research and writing has been on the importance of people getting accurate information about immunisation, particularly to reassure parents that vaccines were safe. Turner has been actively involved in media discussions of vaccine safety including the Meningococcal vaccine in 2004 and the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil in 2009.
Turner has highlighted the importance of building trust between the public and those delivering health programs, either government-funded, or at the level of general practice. She noted that the decision-making process for consent can be influenced by anti-vaccination views, but while making vaccinations mandatory would be helpful, there was a risk that some families might be less inclined to discuss their concerns openly, impacting engagement their with, and trust in, healthcare professionals.
Commentary on COVID-19 in New Zealand
In May 2020, Turner, speaking as director for the Immunisation Advisory Centre, supported the use of a vaccine in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand and highlighted that it was important to avoid issues of equity of access across the world by privileging the wealthier nations. She concurred with other experts that the vaccine was a key component in responding to the virus and cautioned against unrealistic hopes that it would happen quickly in New Zealand because of supply issues and prioritisation of the administration to the most vulnerable, and those at "heightened risk of infections like border workers and health staff".
When New Zealand confirmed the purchase of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Turner said that while the country had access to both clinical and "real world" data, and was well situated to approve it, there was no need to rush the process. She noted that because there was little "severe illness and death from this disease" in New Zealand, the country was in the privileged position of being able to "scrutinise the science, watch how the vaccine rollout goes for other countries." To Turner, the rollout of a vaccine in New Zealand would be planned and sequential, aiming ultimately for widespread community vaccination.
Turner spoke with Jesse Mulligan after two health workers in the United Kingdom had suffered allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine early in December 2020, and noted that some reaction to any vaccine is always a possibility but "good quality services delivering vaccines" were crucial to deal with these reactions. She suggested people with very severe allergies did need to be careful and it was important good information about the strengths and limitations of this vaccine, based on clinical data that was appropriately scrutinized, was shared by the media, scientists and the general community .
In December 2021, Medsafe gave provisional approval for the vaccine to be used for children in age group of 5 - 11 year-olds in New Zealand. Turner told Corin Dann on Radio New Zealand that initial internal clinical data from the use of the vaccine for children overseas had shown it was being rolled out well. She noted that it didn't need to be mandatory but would protect children with other health issues or living in poverty, would limit the spread of COVID-19 in families and have less impact on schools. Prior to this approval, Turner acknowledged there were "pros and cons" about children getting the vaccine, but a strong case could be made that this would be in the interests of protecting the community. Turner stated that the gap for New Zealand children to get their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine needed to be longer than that for adults and maintaining it at eight weeks was likely to result in better immunity.
As booster vaccines for COVID-19 were rolled out in New Zealand early in 2022 with the wait time between the second and third doses shortened to three months, Turner responded to several suggestions about this. She refuted that the booster needed to be in the non-dominant arm, noting while it was good to keep fluid levels up during heat, drinking water, [won't] "make any difference to the vaccine response" and while stress on the immune system was understandable, there was little cause for concern. When the New Zealand government announced in May 2022 that there would be a second COVID-19 booster available to some members of the community, Turner expressed concern about the low rate of uptake for the first booster..."particularly the lower rate of boosters for older people and those with medical conditions...[adding]..."but still, there are quite a few people who feel like two doses aren't enough, and don't realise the importance of a booster".
In November 2022, when parents of a four-month-old baby in New Zealand who needed heart surgery requiring a blood transfusion refused to accept blood from a donor who had received the COVID-19 vaccine, Turner said there was no scientific evidence suggesting there would be any risk to the baby. She noted [that] "blood donations are carefully screened for safety to ensure it was a match for the recipient", and people with concerns about this should talk to a professional. Turner also told Newshub programme The Project, that doing a "one-off emergency screening to get blood from someone who is unvaccinated" might create the impression that there is a potential problem, and urged people to "sit down and work through where their fears and anxieties", concluding that the New Zealand health services were offering the best quality service to the baby.
National advisory roles (New Zealand)
Awards and distinctions
Turner was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine in 2021, and is a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP).
In 2020, Turner was a finalist for the Green Cross Health award for outstanding contribution to health at the inaugural New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards.
Turner was the principal investigator leading the Vaccine Effectiveness arm for The Southern Hemisphere Influenza and Vaccine Effectiveness Research and Surveillance (SHIVERS) project (2012–2016) designed to measure the effectiveness of vaccination for influenza and other respiratory infectious diseases.
In 2019, in recognition of their major contribution to influenza research, the SHIVERS team, including Turner, received the New Zealand Association of Scientists' Shorland Medal.
References
External links
Nikki Turner Research
City Mission website
Calder Health Centre
Child Poverty Action Group
Te Whanau o Waipareira
Cold Chain Vaccine storage and transportation (NZ)
Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC)
Poverty Action Group spokesperson
Ask an expert
Living people
Vaccinologists
New Zealand medical researchers
University of Auckland alumni
Academic staff of the University of Auckland
World Health Organization officials
Year of birth missing (living people)
New Zealand general practitioners
21st-century New Zealand women medical doctors
21st-century New Zealand medical doctors | Nikki Turner (public health advocate) | [
"Biology"
] | 2,873 | [
"Vaccination",
"Vaccinologists"
] |
64,905,081 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrable%20module | In algebra, an integrable module (or integrable representation) of a Kac–Moody algebra (a certain infinite-dimensional Lie algebra) is a representation of such that (1) it is a sum of weight spaces and (2) the Chevalley generators of are locally nilpotent. For example, the adjoint representation of a Kac–Moody algebra is integrable.
Notes
References
Abstract algebra | Integrable module | [
"Mathematics"
] | 90 | [
"Abstract algebra",
"Algebra stubs",
"Algebra"
] |
64,906,453 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geochemical%20Journal | The Geochemical Journal is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering all aspects of geochemistry and cosmochemistry. It is published by the Geochemical Society of Japan and the editor-in-chief is Katsuhiko Suzuki.
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
CAB Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts Service
Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences
Science Citation Index Expanded
Scopus
According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 1.561.
References
External links
Academic journals established in 1966
English-language journals
Geochemistry journals | Geochemical Journal | [
"Chemistry"
] | 122 | [
"Geochemistry stubs",
"Geochemistry journals"
] |
64,909,376 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter%20Excell | Peter Stuart Excell (June 1948 – 13 August 2020) was a British engineer, scientist, researcher and former Deputy Vice-chancellor at Wrexham Glyndŵr University.
Early life, education, and career
Excell was born in June 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science (electrical option) in 1970 from the University of Reading. From 1970 to 1971, he was a research student in electronics at the Department of Physics, University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ifẹ, Nigeria, on a Government of the United Kingdom funded scheme called 'Study and Serve'. He later returned to the United Kingdom and he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bradford in 1980. He worked at University of Bradford from 1971 to 2007, where he was, progressively, an Experimental Officer, Research Fellow, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader (academic rank) and ultimately a full Professor of applied electromagnetics.
In 2007, he joined the North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham (which rapidly became Wrexham Glyndŵr University). Here he held various roles including the Head of the School of Computing and Communications Technology, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Science, and Technology, and Deputy Vice-chancellor until 2015, when he retired. Prior to his roles at Wrexham Glyndŵr University, he was Associate Dean for Research in the School of Informatics at University of Bradford.
In 2019, he became the first recipient of the higher doctorate degree of Doctor of Science from the collaboration between Wrexham Glyndŵr University and University of Chester. He also became a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2020.
Death
Excell died on 13 August 2020. He is survived by his wife, Dianne, and children, Matthew and Charlotte.
Legacy and research
He jointly filed for several patents on broadband antenna, directional antenna, movement detection system and multi-band antenna designs at various times during his long academic career. He published over 160 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals on diverse topics in science and engineering. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and of the British Computer Society, and the Higher Education Academy, a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Chartered Engineer (UK) and a Chartered IT Professional.
Excell's publications included several scholarly journal articles, magazine articles and conference proceedings available on the IEEE Xplore digital library.
References
See also
1948 births
2020 deaths
British electrical engineers
British scientists
Alumni of the University of Reading
Alumni of the University of Bradford
People associated with Wrexham University
Alumni of the University of Chester
Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
Fellows of the British Computer Society
Senior members of the IEEE | Peter Excell | [
"Engineering"
] | 550 | [
"Institution of Engineering and Technology",
"Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology"
] |
64,912,733 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler%20radio%20direction%20finding | Doppler radio direction finding, also known as Doppler DF, is a radio direction-finding method that generates accurate bearing information with minimal electronics. It is best suited to applications in VHF and UHF frequencies and takes only a short time to indicate a direction. This makes it suitable for measuring the location of the vast majority of commercial, amateur, and automated broadcasts. Doppler DF is one of the most widely used direction-finding techniques. Other direction-finding techniques are generally used only for fleeting signals or for longer or shorter wavelengths.
The Doppler DF system uses the Doppler effect to determine whether a moving receiver antenna is approaching or receding from the source. Early systems used antennas mounted on spinning disks to create this motion. In modern systems, the antennas are not moved physically but are instead oriented electronically, by rapidly switching between a set of several antennas. As long as the switching occurs rapidly, the Doppler effect will be strong enough to determine the direction of the signal. This variation is known as pseudo-Doppler DF, or sometimes sequential phase DF. This newer technique is so widely used that it is often the Doppler DF referred to in most references.
Direction finding
Early radio direction finding (RDF) solutions used highly directional antennas with sharp "nulls" in the reception pattern. The operator rotated the antenna, looking for points where the signal either reached a maximum or, more commonly, suddenly disappeared or 'nulled'. A common RDF antenna design is the loop antenna, which is simply a loop of wire with a small gap in the circle, typically arranged to rotate around the vertical axis with the gap at the bottom. Some systems used dipole antennas instead of loops. Before the 1930s, radio signals were generally in the long wave spectrum. For effective reception of these signals, very large antennas are needed. Direction finding with rotating antennas is difficult at these wavelengths due to the required size of the antennas.
A great advance in RDF technique was introduced in the form of the Bellini-Tosi direction finder (B-T) system, which replaced the rotation of the antenna with the rotation of a small coil of wire connected to two non-moving loop antennas. The loop antennas were similar to those used in earlier systems but fixed in position, set at right angles to each other to form a cross-shaped arrangement. Each antenna produced a different output whose relative strengths depend on how close the signal is to either antenna's null. These signals were sent to two coils of wire, the field coils, also arranged at right angles. These re-created the original signals in a much smaller space, about the size of a soda can. By rotating a small loop antenna, the sense coil, in the space between the two crossed field coils, DF could be performed. In effect, it recreated the traditional technique at a much smaller scale, allowing the main antennas to be built at any size.
Robert Watson-Watt introduced the next major advance in direction finding, the high-frequency direction finding system, or HF/DF, also nicknamed "huff-duff". HF/DF also used crossing antennas, often an Adcock antenna, but sent their output to the two channels of an oscilloscope. The relative strengths and phases of the two signals deflected the X and Y locations of the oscilloscope's electron beam by different amounts, causing an ellipse or figure-8 to appear on the screen, with the long axis indicating the direction of the signal. The readout was essentially instantaneous and was able to easily detect even short transmissions. HF/DF was used in about one-quarter of all successful U-boat sinking.
Both of these systems have drawbacks. The Bellini-Tosi system still has moving parts, albeit small ones, but has the more major limitation that it requires the operator to hunt for the signal, which may take several minutes. HF/DF provides a direct and immediate indication of the signal direction, but only at the cost of requiring an oscilloscope or similar display system with an equally fast response time. Both require two closely matched receivers and amplifiers, and often a third for the "sense" antenna if used.
Doppler effect
If one places an antenna on a moving platform like the roof of a truck, the movement of the truck will cause the Doppler effect to shift the frequency of the signal upward as it moves towards the signal, or downward as it moves away. When the truck is driving at right angles to the signal, or not moving at all, there will be no shift. If the truck is driven around a circular track, there will be times when it approaches the signal, moves away from it, or moves at right angles. This will produce a rising and falling frequency shift of the target signal, producing a frequency modulated (FM) signal known as the Doppler sine wave. The FM signal has the same frequency as the rotational speed of the vehicle.
The magnitude of the shift is a function of the wavelength of the signal and the angular velocity of the antenna:
Where is the Doppler shift in frequency (Hz), is the radius of the circle, is the angular velocity in radians per second, is the target wavelength and is the speed of light in meters per second. Converting to more common units:
To convert Hz to radians per second, multiply by 6.28 (2π)
To convert MHz to Hz, multiply by one million
Approximate the speed of light to be
Eliminating the constants gives
Such that:
Where is the frequency of rotation in Hz and is the target frequency in MHz.
Consider the example of a truck hunting an FM radio station at 101.5 MHz, while driving around a wide pad ( radius) at . The circumference of the pad is or , and its velocity is , so the truck completes one circuit in . is therefore . Feeding that into the formula above, the frequency shift is:
This amount of frequency shift is too small to be accurately measured. To improve detection odds, must be increased. For this reason, Doppler DF systems normally mount their antennas on a small disk that is spun at a high speed using an electric motor. Performing the same calculation using an antenna mounted to a disk with a diameter of diameter spinning at 1000 Hz results in:
Which is easily detected. Nevertheless, such a rotation speed, 60,000 rpm, demands high-precision systems. Because the antennas have to move at very high speeds, this technique is only really useful for higher frequency signals where the antennas can be shorter and the higher produces a larger dividend.
Early examples of Doppler DF systems date to at least 1941, and they were used in the United Kingdom for hunting out German early warning radars, which operated at 250 MHz in the 1.25-meter band. By 1943, examples were available that worked in the UHF region, used to find the German Würzburg radars operating at 560 MHz.
A significant advantage of this technique is that it requires only a single receiver, amplifier, and the appropriate FM demodulator. In contrast, HF/DF and B-T systems require two closely matched receivers, one for each antenna pair, and often a third for a sense channel. Widespread civilian use of the technique did not start until the introduction of practical circuits for the quadrature detector and phase-locked loop, both introduced after the war, which greatly simplified the reception of FM signals. Its use roughly follows the spread of FM radio, which also used these techniques.
Pseudo-Doppler
To further simplify the system, it is possible to simulate the movement of the antenna with a small amount of additional electronics. This is the pseudo-Doppler direction finding technique.
Consider a pair of omnidirectional antennas receiving a signal from a target transmitter. As the signal propagates past the receiver, the amplitude of the signal at the antennas rises and falls. At long distances from the transmitter, well into the "far field", the wavefronts can be considered to be parallel. If the two antennas are arranged perpendicularly to the target, the phase difference between them is zero, whereas if they are arranged parallel to the line, the phase difference will be a function of the distance between them and the wavelength of the signal.
For this example, consider the two antennas to be located one quarter of the target wavelength apart and aligned parallel to it. If the two antennas were sampled instantaneously, the difference in phase between them would always be the same, 90°. But if one instead switches the input from one antenna to the other, there will always be some inherent delay, during which time the signal continues to move past the two antennas. In this case, if the original sample was taken when the peak of the wavefront was at the nearer antenna and the system then switched to the farther one, the phase difference would not be 90° but somewhat smaller, because the wavefront approached the second antenna during that time.
Now consider a series of such antennas arranged around the circumference of a circle, and a switch that connects to the antennas in turn in a clockwise fashion. If the target signal is at the midnight position, then the phase shift will be increased when the switching is moving "forward" between the seven and eleven o'clock positions and reduced when moving "away", between one and five. When switching between antennas perpendicular to the line to the signal, eleven to one and five to seven, the shift will be a constant value.
The signal from the antennas is sent into a single receiver, resulting in a series of pulses, whose amplitude depends on the phase at the instant of sampling. That signal is then smoothed to produce a sine wave. That sine wave is modulated exactly as it would be in the case of a single moving antenna. In the case of the moving antenna, the frequency shifts because the antenna is moving through the wavefront as it passes, whereas, in the Pseudo-Doppler case, this is accomplished by timing the samples to simulate the movement of a single antenna. The direction to the target transmitter can then be determined in the same fashion as in the moving-antenna case, by comparing the phase of this signal to a reference signal. In this case, the reference is the clock signal triggering the switch.
Because it has no moving parts and can be built using simple electronics, the pseudo-Doppler technique is very popular. Whilst not quite as fast as measuring the HF/DF system, in modern systems, the measurement is so rapid that there is little practical difference between the two techniques. Pseudo-Doppler has a significant advantage in that the antenna system is much simpler, using monopole antennas, and if the switching system is located on the antenna, only a single wire runs back to the receiver, and thus only one amplifier is required. Because this technique is so widely used, it is often referred to simply as Doppler DF, the "Pseudo" rarely being added.
The main disadvantage of the technique is the requirement for more signal processing. Because the "movement" in Pseudo-Doppler proceeds in steps, the resulting signal is not as smooth as it is in the case of a moving antenna. This results in a signal with considerable number of sidebands that have to be filtered out. The switching system also introduces electronic noise, further confusing the output. Modern signal processing can easily reduce these effects to insignificance.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Radio direction finding
Doppler effects | Doppler radio direction finding | [
"Physics"
] | 2,373 | [
"Doppler effects",
"Physical phenomena",
"Astrophysics"
] |
64,919,624 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GamEvac-Combi | GamEvac-Combi () is a heterologous VSV- and Ad5-vectored Ebola vaccine. There is also a version called GamEvac which is a homologous Ad5-vectored vaccine. GamEvac-Combi was developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. the vaccine has been licensed in Russia for emergency use, on the basis of Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials.
Description
The vaccine consists of live-attenuated recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and adenovirus serotype-5 (Ad5) expressing Ebola envelope glycoprotein. The vaccine is targeted against the Makona variant of Ebola that was circulating in West Africa during the 2013-2016 outbreak.
History
GamEvac-Combi was licensed by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for emergency use in the territory of the Russian Federation in December 2015. The emergency license was based on Phase I and II clinical data of safety and immunogenicity.
See also
Gam-COVID-Vac
References
Vaccines
Science and technology in Russia
Ebola
Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology | GamEvac-Combi | [
"Biology"
] | 253 | [
"Vaccination",
"Vaccines"
] |
64,921,659 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooper%27s%20paradox | Hooper's paradox is a falsidical paradox based on an optical illusion. A geometric shape with an area of 32 units is dissected into four parts, which afterwards get assembled into a rectangle with an area of only 30 units.
Explanation
Upon close inspection one can notice that the triangles of the dissected shape are not identical to the triangles in the rectangle. The length of the shorter side at the right angle measures 2 units in the original shape but only 1.8 units in the rectangle. This means, the real triangles of the original shape overlap in the rectangle. The overlapping area is a parallelogram, the diagonals and sides of which can be computed via the Pythagorean theorem.
The area of this parallelogram can determined using Heron's formula for triangles. This yields
for the halved circumference of the triangle (half of the parallelogram) and with that for the area of the parallelogram
.
So the overlapping area of the two triangles accounts exactly for the vanished area of 2 units.
History
William Hooper published the paradox in 1774 in his book Rational Recreations, calling it "The geometric money". The 1774 edition of his book still contained a false drawing, which got corrected in the 1782 edition. However Hooper was not the first to publish this geometric fallacy, since Hooper's book was largely an adaption of Edmé-Gilles Guyot's Nouvelles récréations physiques et mathétiques, which had been published in France in 1769. The description in this book contains the same false drawing as in Hooper's book, but it got corrected in a later edition as well.
See also
Chessboard paradox
Missing square puzzle
References
Martin Gardner: Mathematics, Magic and Mystery. Courier (Dover), 1956, , S. 129–155
Greg N. Frederickson: Dissections: Plane and Fancy. Cambridge University Press, 2003, , chapter 23, pp. 268–277 in particular pp. 271–274 (online update to chapter 23)
Simon During: Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic. Harvard University Press, 2004, , p. 87
William Hooper: Rational Recreations. London, 1774, pp. 286–287 (faulty 1st edition)
William Hooper: Rational Recreations. London, 1782, pp. 286–287 (corrected 2nd edition)
External links
Hooper's Paradox: How Is It Possible? auf cut-the-knot.org
Mariano Tomatis: Curse of the crystal skulls and other vanishing area puzzles
Rational recreations by W. Hooper
Optical illusions
Elementary mathematics
Mathematical paradoxes
Recreational mathematics
Geometric dissection | Hooper's paradox | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 540 | [
"Physical phenomena",
"Optical illusions",
"Recreational mathematics",
"Optical phenomena",
"Elementary mathematics",
"Mathematical paradoxes",
"Mathematical problems"
] |
64,922,302 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%2C1%2C1-Trichloroacetone | 1,1,1-Trichloroacetone is a chlorinated analogue of acetone with the chemical formula CH3COCCl3. It is a colourless liquid. 1,1,1-Trichloroacetone can be synthesised from chlorination of chloroacetone (1,1,3-trichloroacetone is formed as a by-product). An alternative synthesis involves the transfer of a trichloromethyl group from trichloroacetate onto acetyl chloride.
See also
Chloroacetone
1,3-Dichloroacetone
Hexachloroacetone
References
Trichloromethyl compounds
Ketones | 1,1,1-Trichloroacetone | [
"Chemistry"
] | 151 | [
"Ketones",
"Functional groups"
] |
64,922,680 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beate%20Paulus | Beate Paulus is a German chemist and professor of theoretical chemistry at the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin).
Career
Paulus studied physics at the University of Regensburg from 1987 to 1993, She graduated with a thesis under J. Keller entitled "Electrical conductivity in fullerides" From 1993 to 1995, she was a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Stuttgart and later Dresden. The title of her dissertation was "Electronic correlations in semiconductors". From 1996 she was also a postdoctoral fellow there. In December 2005 she completed her habilitation in Regensburg. Since 2007, she is a professor of theoretical chemistry at the FU Berlin.
References
Living people
21st-century German chemists
German women chemists
University of Regensburg alumni
Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Theoretical chemists
21st-century German women scientists | Beate Paulus | [
"Chemistry"
] | 191 | [
"Theoretical chemistry",
"Quantum chemistry",
"Physical chemists",
"Theoretical chemists"
] |
64,924,330 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke%20Drury%20%28astrophysicist%29 | Luke O’Connor Drury (born 1953 in Dublin) is an Irish mathematician and astrophysicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) with research interests in plasma physics, particle acceleration, gas dynamics, shock waves, and cosmic rays. He was President of the Royal Irish Academy from 2011 to 2014.
Education and career
Drury is a son of psychiatrist and philosopher Maurice O'Connor Drury.
In 1969 he won first place at the Aer Lingus Young Scientists’ exhibition, now called the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
He was elected a scholar of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1973 and got a BA (mod) in pure mathematics and experimental physics from TCD in 1975 and earned his Ph.D. in astrophysics from University of Cambridge in 1979, writing a thesis on "Some fluid dynamical problems in Astrophysics", supervised by John M. Stewart.
From 1980 to 1986 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg with Professor H. J. Voelk.
In 1986 he returned to Dublin where he became Senior Professor in the School of Cosmic Physics and head of the then Cosmic Ray Section (now Astronomy and Astrophysics Section) at DIAS.
He served as interim Director of The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) in 2006.
From 1998 to 2019 he was Andrews Professor of Astronomy, an honorary chair at TCD. Between 2007 and 2018 he acted as director at the Dunsink Observatory and was head of Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Astronomy & Astrophysics Section.
He was President of the Royal Irish Academy from 2011 to 2014.
Drury retired in 2018 but continues to work on issues of policy for science, in particular open access and open science, as a board member of the federation of All European Academies (ALLEA). He was the lead author on the ALLEA response to Plan S. In 2021 he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.
Selected publications
On normal modes of gas sheets and discs (1980) MNRAS 193 337
An introduction to the theory of diffusive shock acceleration of energetic particles in tenuous plasmas (1983) Rep. Prog. Phys. 46 973.
Simple adaptive grids for 1-D initial value problems (1987) J. Comp. Phys. 69 175 (with E. Dorf)
The gamma-ray visibility of supernova remnants. A test of cosmic ray origin (1994) A&A 287 959 (with F. Aharonian and H. J. Voelk)
Escaping the accelerator: how, when and in what numbers do cosmic rays get out of supernova remnants? (2011) MNRAS 415 1807
References
External links
1953 births
Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Astrophysicists
Cosmic ray physicists
Directors of Dunsink Observatory
Honorary Fellows of Trinity College Dublin
Irish physicists
Living people
Presidents of the Royal Irish Academy
Scientists from Dublin (city)
Scholars of Trinity College Dublin
Recipients of the Shakti Duggal Award | Luke Drury (astrophysicist) | [
"Physics"
] | 618 | [
"Astrophysicists",
"Astrophysics"
] |
64,926,134 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadric%20%28algebraic%20geometry%29 | In mathematics, a quadric or quadric hypersurface is the subspace of N-dimensional space defined by a polynomial equation of degree 2 over a field. Quadrics are fundamental examples in algebraic geometry. The theory is simplified by working in projective space rather than affine space. An example is the quadric surface
in projective space over the complex numbers C. A quadric has a natural action of the orthogonal group, and so the study of quadrics can be considered as a descendant of Euclidean geometry.
Many properties of quadrics hold more generally for projective homogeneous varieties. Another generalization of quadrics is provided by Fano varieties.
By definition, a quadric X of dimension n over a field k is the subspace of defined by q = 0, where q is a nonzero homogeneous polynomial of degree 2 over k in variables . (A homogeneous polynomial is also called a form, and so q may be called a quadratic form.) If q is the product of two linear forms, then X is the union of two hyperplanes. It is common to assume that and q is irreducible, which excludes that special case.
Here algebraic varieties over a field k are considered as a special class of schemes over k. When k is algebraically closed, one can also think of a projective variety in a more elementary way, as a subset of defined by homogeneous polynomial equations with coefficients in k.
If q can be written (after some linear change of coordinates) as a polynomial in a proper subset of the variables, then X is the projective cone over a lower-dimensional quadric. It is reasonable to focus attention on the case where X is not a cone. For k of characteristic not 2, X is not a cone if and only if X is smooth over k. When k has characteristic not 2, smoothness of a quadric is also equivalent to the Hessian matrix of q having nonzero determinant, or to the associated bilinear form b(x,y) = q(x+y) – q(x) – q(y) being nondegenerate. In general, for k of characteristic not 2, the rank of a quadric means the rank of the Hessian matrix. A quadric of rank r is an iterated cone over a smooth quadric of dimension r − 2.
It is a fundamental result that a smooth quadric over a field k is rational over k if and only if X has a k-rational point. That is, if there is a solution of the equation q = 0 of the form with in k, not all zero (hence corresponding to a point in projective space), then there is a one-to-one correspondence defined by rational functions over k between minus a lower-dimensional subset and X minus a lower-dimensional subset. For example, if k is infinite, it follows that if X has one k-rational point then it has infinitely many. This equivalence is proved by stereographic projection. In particular, every quadric over an algebraically closed field is rational.
A quadric over a field k is called isotropic if it has a k-rational point. An example of an anisotropic quadric is the quadric
in projective space over the real numbers R.
Linear subspaces of quadrics
A central part of the geometry of quadrics is the study of the linear spaces that they contain. (In the context of projective geometry, a linear subspace of is isomorphic to for some .) A key point is that every linear space contained in a smooth quadric has dimension at most half the dimension of the quadric. Moreover, when k is algebraically closed, this is an optimal bound, meaning that every smooth quadric of dimension n over k contains a linear subspace of dimension .
Over any field k, a smooth quadric of dimension n is called split if it contains a linear space of dimension over k. Thus every smooth quadric over an algebraically closed field is split. If a quadric X over a field k is split, then it can be written (after a linear change of coordinates) as
if X has dimension 2m − 1, or
if X has dimension 2m. In particular, over an algebraically closed field, there is only one smooth quadric of each dimension, up to isomorphism.
For many applications, it is important to describe the space Y of all linear subspaces of maximal dimension in a given smooth quadric X. (For clarity, assume that X is split over k.) A striking phenomenon is that Y is connected if X has odd dimension, whereas it has two connected components if X has even dimension. That is, there are two different "types" of maximal linear spaces in X when X has even dimension.
The two families can be described by: for a smooth quadric X of dimension 2m, fix one m-plane Q contained in X. Then the two types of m-planes P contained in X are distinguished by whether the dimension of the intersection is even or odd. (The dimension of the empty set is taken to be −1 here.)
Low-dimensional quadrics
Let X be a split quadric over a field k. (In particular, X can be any smooth quadric over an algebraically closed field.) In low dimensions, X and the linear spaces it contains can be described as follows.
A quadric curve in is called a conic. A split conic over k is isomorphic to the projective line over k, embedded in by the 2nd Veronese embedding. (For example, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas are different kinds of conics in the affine plane over R, but their closures in the projective plane are all isomorphic to over R.)
A split quadric surface X is isomorphic to , embedded in by the Segre embedding. The space of lines in the quadric surface X has two connected components, each isomorphic to .
A split quadric 3-fold X can be viewed as an isotropic Grassmannian for the symplectic group Sp(4,k). (This is related to the exceptional isomorphism of linear algebraic groups between SO(5,k) and .) Namely, given a 4-dimensional vector space V with a symplectic form, the quadric 3-fold X can be identified with the space LGr(2,4) of 2-planes in V on which the form restricts to zero. Furthermore, the space of lines in the quadric 3-fold X is isomorphic to .
A split quadric 4-fold X can be viewed as the Grassmannian Gr(2,4), the space of 2-planes in a 4-dimensional vector space (or equivalently, of lines in ). (This is related to the exceptional isomorphism of linear algebraic groups between SO(6,k) and .) The space of 2-planes in the quadric 4-fold X has two connected components, each isomorphic to .
The space of 2-planes in a split quadric 5-fold is isomorphic to a split quadric 6-fold. Likewise, both components of the space of 3-planes in a split quadric 6-fold are isomorphic to a split quadric 6-fold. (This is related to the phenomenon of triality for the group Spin(8).)
As these examples suggest, the space of m-planes in a split quadric of dimension 2m always has two connected components, each isomorphic to the isotropic Grassmannian of (m − 1)-planes in a split quadric of dimension 2m − 1. Any reflection in the orthogonal group maps one component isomorphically to the other.
The Bruhat decomposition
A smooth quadric over a field k is a projective homogeneous variety for the orthogonal group (and for the special orthogonal group), viewed as linear algebraic groups over k. Like any projective homogeneous variety for a split reductive group, a split quadric X has an algebraic cell decomposition, known as the Bruhat decomposition. (In particular, this applies to every smooth quadric over an algebraically closed field.) That is, X can be written as a finite union of disjoint subsets that are isomorphic to affine spaces over k of various dimensions. (For projective homogeneous varieties, the cells are called Schubert cells, and their closures are called Schubert varieties.) Cellular varieties are very special among all algebraic varieties. For example, a cellular variety is rational, and (for k = C) the Hodge theory of a smooth projective cellular variety is trivial, in the sense that for . For a cellular variety, the Chow group of algebraic cycles on X is the free abelian group on the set of cells, as is the integral homology of X (if k = C).
A split quadric X of dimension n has only one cell of each dimension r, except in the middle dimension of an even-dimensional quadric, where there are two cells. The corresponding cell closures (Schubert varieties) are:
For , a linear space contained in X.
For r = n/2, both Schubert varieties are linear spaces contained in X, one from each of the two families of middle-dimensional linear spaces (as described above).
For , the Schubert variety of dimension r is the intersection of X with a linear space of dimension r + 1 in ; so it is an r-dimensional quadric. It is the iterated cone over a smooth quadric of dimension 2r − n.
Using the Bruhat decomposition, it is straightforward to compute the Chow ring of a split quadric of dimension n over a field, as follows. When the base field is the complex numbers, this is also the integral cohomology ring of a smooth quadric, with mapping isomorphically to . (The cohomology in odd degrees is zero.)
For n = 2m − 1, , where |h| = 1 and |l| = m.
For n = 2m, , where |h| = 1 and |l| = m, and a is 0 for m odd and 1 for m even.
Here h is the class of a hyperplane section and l is the class of a maximal linear subspace of X. (For n = 2m, the class of the other type of maximal linear subspace is .) This calculation shows the importance of the linear subspaces of a quadric: the Chow ring of all algebraic cycles on X is generated by the "obvious" element h (pulled back from the class of a hyperplane in ) together with the class of a maximal linear subspace of X.
Isotropic Grassmannians and the projective pure spinor variety
The space of r-planes in a smooth n-dimensional quadric (like the quadric itself) is a projective homogeneous variety, known as the isotropic Grassmannian or orthogonal Grassmannian OGr(r + 1, n + 2). (The numbering refers to the dimensions of the corresponding vector spaces. In the case of middle-dimensional linear subspaces of a quadric of even dimension 2m, one writes for one of the two connected components.) As a result, the isotropic Grassmannians of a split quadric over a field also have algebraic cell decompositions.
The isotropic Grassmannian W = OGr(m,2m + 1) of (m − 1)-planes in a smooth quadric of dimension 2m − 1 may also be viewed as the variety of Projective pure spinors, or simple spinor variety, of dimension m(m + 1)/2. (Another description of the pure spinor variety is as .) To explain the name: the smallest SO(2m + 1)-equivariant projective embedding of W lands in projective space of dimension . The action of SO(2m + 1) on this projective space does not come from a linear representation of SO(2m+1) over k, but rather from a representation of its simply connected double cover, the spin group Spin(2m + 1) over k. This is called the spin representation of Spin(2m + 1), of dimension .
Over the complex numbers, the isotropic Grassmannian OGr(r + 1, n + 2) of r-planes in an n-dimensional quadric X is a homogeneous space for the complex algebraic group , and also for its maximal compact subgroup, the compact Lie group SO(n + 2). From the latter point of view, this isotropic Grassmannian is
where U(r+1) is the unitary group. For r = 0, the isotropic Grassmannian is the quadric itself, which can therefore be viewed as
For example, the complex projectivized pure spinor variety OGr(m, 2m + 1) can be viewed as SO(2m + 1)/U(m), and also as SO(2m+2)/U(m+1). These descriptions can be used to compute the cohomology ring (or equivalently the Chow ring) of the spinor variety:
where the Chern classes of the natural rank-m vector bundle are equal to . Here is understood to mean 0 for j > m.
Spinor bundles on quadrics
The spinor bundles play a special role among all vector bundles on a quadric, analogous to the maximal linear subspaces among all subvarieties of a quadric. To describe these bundles, let X be a split quadric of dimension n over a field k. The special orthogonal group SO(n+2) over k acts on X, and therefore so does its double cover, the spin group G = Spin(n+2) over k. In these terms, X is a homogeneous space G/P, where P is a maximal parabolic subgroup of G. The semisimple part of P is the spin group Spin(n), and there is a standard way to extend the spin representations of Spin(n) to representations of P. (There are two spin representations for n = 2m, each of dimension , and one spin representation V for n = 2m − 1, of dimension .) Then the spinor bundles on the quadric X = G/P are defined as the G-equivariant vector bundles associated to these representations of P. So there are two spinor bundles of rank for n = 2m, and one spinor bundle S of rank for n = 2m − 1. For n even, any reflection in the orthogonal group switches the two spinor bundles on X.
For example, the two spinor bundles on a quadric surface are the line bundles O(−1,0) and O(0,−1). The spinor bundle on a quadric 3-fold X is the natural rank-2 subbundle on X viewed as the isotropic Grassmannian of 2-planes in a 4-dimensional symplectic vector space.
To indicate the significance of the spinor bundles: Mikhail Kapranov showed that the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on a split quadric X over a field k has a full exceptional collection involving the spinor bundles, along with the "obvious" line bundles O(j) restricted from projective space:
if n is even, and
if n is odd. Concretely, this implies the split case of Richard Swan's calculation
of the Grothendieck group of algebraic vector bundles on a smooth quadric; it is the free abelian group
for n even, and
for n odd. When k = C, the topological K-group (of continuous complex vector bundles on the quadric X) is given by the same formula, and is zero.
Notes
References
Algebraic geometry
Projective geometry
Algebraic homogeneous spaces | Quadric (algebraic geometry) | [
"Mathematics"
] | 3,279 | [
"Fields of abstract algebra",
"Algebraic geometry"
] |
64,927,292 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPD-1 | CPD-1 (LS-193743) is a drug with a benzofuranyl piperazine structure, which acts as a potent and selective agonist for the 5-HT2 receptor family, with highest affinity and full agonist efficacy at the 5-HT2C subtype, and lower affinity and partial agonist action at the 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B subtypes.
See also
2,3-Dichlorophenylpiperazine
3-Chloro-4-fluorophenylpiperazine
2C-B-PP
ORG-12962
TFMFly
TFMPP
References
Serotonin receptor agonists
Trifluoromethyl compounds
Benzofurans
Piperazines | CPD-1 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 163 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
66,282,018 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benno%20Seppelt | Oscar Benno Pedro Seppelt (13 July 1846 – 11 May 1931), known universally as Benno Seppelt, was a South Australian winemaker who helped the Barossa Valley become recognised as a premium wine region.
History
Joseph Ernst Seppelt (1813 – 29 January 1868), his wife Johanna Charlotte Clementine Seppelt, née Held (1807 – 13 April 1870), and their children Ottilie Clementine Seppelt, later Kruger ( – 4 June 1920), Oscar Benno Pedro "Benno" Seppelt, and Victor Hugo Seppelt (1848–1882), emigrated to South Australia aboard the ship Emmy, arriving at Port Adelaide in January 1850.
Joseph Seppelt founded the winery Seppeltsfield, but died while it was still in its infancy. His son Benno, who was educated at Tanunda, and studied chemistry under C. W. L. Muecke. took over management of the business on his father's death, and inherited the major portion of his estate.
The grapes from Seppelt's vineyards, and much from other growers, were made into wines as a precursor to distillation. J. E. Seppelt, as the business continued to be named, was in 1870 producing "syrups, cordials, and spirits in great variety." At the 1872 Wine Show, B. Seppelt's rum was judged highly, a relief no doubt after some bad publicity arising from what appears to have been malicious adulteration of exactly that product.
Seppelt was an excellent manager, far-seeing and inventive. He progressively expanded the acreage under vines, largely with Doradillo (Blanquette) and "Mataro" (Carignan) grapes, on his property, of which the greatest area was set aside for grazing their 500 sheep, and growing hay for eight horses.
In 1876 he was able to report that he was sole proprietor of the business
In 1877 he installed a large ( high) new distillation plant, largely to his own design, made by Rundle Street coppersmiths Polack & Liebl. It was housed in a separate high building, and could produce per day into a bonded store of capacity on-site.
Seppeltsfield boasted an up-to-date chemistry laboratory for Seppelt's own investigations.
The business was known as B. Seppelt & Sons from 1876 and became B. Seppelt & Sons Ltd in May 1902.
Seppelt retired in 1916 and his son Oscar Seppelt was appointed Managing Director. He died in 1935.
Family
Benno Seppelt married Sophie Helene Henriette Schroeder (1852–1925) on 23 November 1870. They had a total of 16 children, including:
Oscar Benno Seppelt (13 July 1873 – 1963) married Hedwig Cecilia Leichtermuller (1868–1955) on 25 June 1895, took over management from his father
Flora Eugenie Seppelt (1874 – 1957) married William Kimber in 1895
Clara Blanca Seppelt (1876–1963)
Camillo Pedro Seppelt (26 August 1877 – c. 10 May 1935) married Winifred Stokes Bagshaw (1895–1970) on 24 August 1910. He was in charge of Chateau Tanunda.
(Udo) Waldemar Seppelt (1879–1964) married (Helen) Gertrude Howe (1883–1953) on 26 October 1905. Administrator with Seppelts. Gertrude was daughter of J. H. Howe MLC
Ian Howe Seppelt (1909–1973)
Selma Melitta Seppelt (1880–1940)
Xaver Arno Seppelt (23 March 1882 – 11 June 1963) married Matilda "Tillie" Evans (1884–1962) on 30 August 1910. He was in charge of the Sydney office.
Leo Renato Seppelt (1883–1942) married Audrey Vera Tardif (1884–1966) on 14 April 1908. He was employed in the Seppeltsfield office.
Marco Dominico Seppelt (1886– ) engineer
Norbert Erno Seppelt L.R.C.P.E., L.R.C.S.E., L.R.F.P., S.G (1887–1970) married Victoria Maud ?? (1898–1967) medical doctor in New South Wales
J (Joseph) Gerold Seppelt A.S.A.I.A. (1888–1974) married Therese Marie "Trazel" Schneider on 29 April 1929. Architect
Vera Viola Seppelt (1890–1957) married Clement William Hingston Lake in 1916
(Tuisko) Turso Seppelt (1891–1957) married Amy Katherine St John Wood (1891 – 24 December 1940) on 9 February 1914. He was in charge of Seppelts Collins Street, Melbourne office, also manufacturer of moulded paper containers.
References
1846 births
1931 deaths
Australian winemakers
Distilleries in Australia
German emigrants to Australia
Settlers of South Australia
Colony of South Australia people
Drink distillers | Benno Seppelt | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,052 | [
"Distillation",
"Drink distillers"
] |
66,283,243 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-16435 | SR-16435 is a drug which acts as a potent partial agonist at both the μ-opioid receptor and nociceptin receptor. In animal studies it was found to be a potent analgesic, with results suggestive of reduced development of tolerance and increased activity against neuropathic pain compared to classic μ-selective agonists.
See also
Cebranopadol
Brorphine
J-113,397
SR-14968
SR-17018
References
Mu-opioid receptor agonists | SR-16435 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 109 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
66,283,767 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-17018 | SR-17018 is a drug which acts as a biased agonist at the μ-opioid receptor, selective for activation of the G-protein signalling pathway over β-arrestin 2 recruitment. In animal studies it produces analgesic effects but with less respiratory depression and development of tolerance than conventional opioids.
See also
Bezitramide
Brorphine
J-113,397
Oliceridine
PZM21
SR-14968
SR-16435
SHR9352
TRV734
References
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
4-Chlorophenyl compounds
Ureas
Piperidines
Benzimidazoles | SR-17018 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 137 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Organic compounds",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Ureas"
] |
66,283,962 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BU08028 | BU08028 is a drug which acts as an extremely potent partial agonist at both the μ-opioid receptor and nociceptin receptor. It is a homologue of buprenorphine extended by just one carbon on the side chain, but has relatively greater activity at the nociceptin receptor, which is thought to reduce the abuse potential without compromising analgesia.
See also
BU-48
BU72
References
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
Heterocyclic compounds with 6 rings
Oxygen heterocycles
Nitrogen heterocycles
Cyclopropyl compounds
Alcohols | BU08028 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 127 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
66,284,060 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRV734 | TRV734 is a drug developed by Trevena Inc which acts as a biased agonist at the μ-opioid receptor, selective for activation of the G-protein signalling pathway over β-arrestin 2 recruitment. It is closely related to oliceridine and has a similar pharmacological profile, but unlike oliceridine which has to be injected, TRV734 is suitable to be administered orally.
See also
PZM21
SHR9352
SR-17018
Tegileridine
References
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
Pyridines
Fluoroarenes
Spiro compounds
Oxygen heterocycles
Amines | TRV734 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 139 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Functional groups",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Amines",
"Organic compounds",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Bases (chemistry)",
"Spiro compounds"
] |
66,284,204 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHR9352 | SHR9352 is a drug which acts as a potent and selective biased agonist at the μ-opioid receptor, selective for activation of the G-protein signalling pathway over β-arrestin 2 recruitment. It was structurally derived from oliceridine by replacing the benzylic side chain with a cyclised group, although only some compounds in the series retained the desired biased agonist profile, with some derivatives such as compound 12 being potent, unbiased μ-opioid full agonists.
See also
PZM21
SR-17018
Tegileridine
TRV734
References
External links
Mu-opioid receptor agonists
1,3-Dithiolanes
2-Pyridyl compounds
Spiro compounds | SHR9352 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 157 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Organic compounds",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Spiro compounds"
] |
66,284,747 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information%20creation | Information creation may refer to:
Information retrieval
Content creation
Information Age | Information creation | [
"Technology"
] | 14 | [
"Information Age",
"Computing and society"
] |
66,285,384 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahanoy%20Area%20School%20District%20v.%20B.L. | Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., 594 U.S. 180 (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the ability of schools to regulate student speech made off-campus, including speech made on social media. The case challenged past interpretations of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Bethel School District v. Fraser (previous Supreme Court decisions related to student speech which may be disruptive to the educational environment) in light of online communications.
The case centered on Brandi Levy (initially identified as B.L. in pleadings), a student at Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, who posted an angry, profane Snapchat message from an off-campus location after she failed to make the school's varsity cheerleading squad. Though sent to a private circle of friends and deleted later, the message was shown to school staff, and Levy was suspended from cheerleading for one year under the school's policy relating to social media.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Third Circuit's judgment in regards to Levy's case in an 8–1 decision in June 2021, though it did not agree with the Third Circuit's opinion related to off-campus speech relative to Tinker. The Court affirmed that through Tinker, schools may have a valid interest in regulating student speech off-campus that is disruptive, but did not define when this regulation can occur, leaving that issue open for lower courts in future litigation. The Supreme Court ruled specifically for Levy, holding that the school's interests in preventing disruption under Tinker were not sufficient to overcome her First Amendment rights.
Background
Brandi Levy was a ninth-grade student and junior varsity (JV) cheerleader at Mahanoy Area High School, a public secondary school operated by the Mahanoy Area School District, covering the area in and around Mahanoy City in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. In addition to cheering at football, basketball, and wrestling matches, her obligations as a cheerleader included raising additional funding for the squad from the community. As a condition of being a cheerleader, she was required to sign a code of conduct that required squad members to show respect for their teammates, coaches, the school, teachers, and other schools' cheerleaders; the rule also forbade the use of profanity. Another rule forbade cheerleaders from posting "negative information" about "cheerleading, cheerleaders or coaches" on the Internet. The code had been written by previous cheerleading coaches and approved by the school board.
Near the end of the 2016–17 academic year, Levy tried out for the next year's cheerleading squad. She hoped to make the varsity squad, but the two coaches, both teachers in the district, found her only good enough for the JV squad. An eighth-grader at the tryouts, meanwhile, made the varsity squad.
The following weekend, Levy and a friend commiserated about the apparent unfairness of this at the Cocoa Hut, a convenience store in downtown Mahanoy City where students often socialized. Using Levy's smartphone, the two took a selfie with middle fingers raised and posted it to her Snapchat account with the text "fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything". A followup Snap expressed their frustration about being kept on the JV squad while the incoming freshman girl made the varsity squad; they believed they were being treated unfairly. Levy sent the two Snaps to a group of approximately 250 friends, many of whom were fellow students, and some of whom were cheerleaders themselves.
The Snap itself self-deleted in a short period of time, but one of Levy's teammates took a screenshot. One of those teammates was the daughter of one of the coaches, and had herself been suspended from cheering at a few games after she had posted disparaging remarks online about another school's cheerleading uniforms. By the time school resumed the following week, the screenshot had been widely shared among students, especially the cheerleaders. Some who had seen it came to the cheerleading coaches "visibly upset" by the Snap over the next few days. At the end of the week one of the coaches pulled Levy out of class to inform her that she was suspended from cheerleading for the next year as a result of her Snap. Levy's parents appealed the suspension to the school board, which upheld it.
Lower courts
District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
Levy, represented by her parents and supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the school in federal court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Her attorney emphasized that her remarks were those of frustration made on her own social media account on her own time and contained neither threats nor any mention of the name of her school. In October 2017, four months after Levy was suspended from cheerleading, Judge A. Richard Caputo granted her a preliminary injunction that prohibited the school from enforcing the suspension. Caputo held that Levy would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction. "Simply put, the ability of a school to punish lewd or profane speech disappears once a student exits school grounds."
Caputo added that the school could not curb Levy's off-campus speech per Bethel School District v. Fraser and that the speech did not disrupt the school's operation per Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. He rejected the district's arguments that Levy had waived her constitutional rights by joining the cheerleading squad based on previous case law, that it could not be liable for the coaches' actions since it had approved the code Levy had signed, and that she had no constitutional right to be a cheerleader. "The District's concession that Levy's speech occurred off-campus is all but fatal," the judge said, finding that Tinker and Frasers exceptions did not apply as her speech was neither disruptive nor on-campus respectively. Caputo allowed that there were some other cases which allowed schools to impose greater speech limits on student athletes, but those did not come into play since Levy was not engaging in school-sponsored speech.
Third Circuit
The school district appealed Caputo's decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel acknowledged that "B.L.'s snap was crude, rude, and juvenile, just as we might expect of an adolescent," but upheld the district court's holding in her favor, again finding that both Tinker and Fraser did not support restricting her off-campus speech. Writing for the panel, Judge Cheryl Ann Krause agreed with Caputo that the speech had clearly been off-campus, thus punishing Levy for it violated her First Amendment rights. The school district appealed this ruling.
Supreme Court of the United States
The school district petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, arguing that particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of online communications required reevaluation of the distinction between on-campus versus off-campus speech in the context of distance learning. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Amicus curiae briefs supporting Levy arrived from free speech advocacy groups and religious groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, which expressed concern that a ruling favoring the school district could lead to prosecution of a student's religious beliefs. Those supporting the school district included anti-cyberbullying advocacy groups like the Cyberbullying Research Center, which believed that a ruling favoring the student would limit schools' ability to regulate and take action against cyberbullying. The federal government, under acting solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar, urged the Supreme Court to find an intermediate position, by recognizing that while the court had previously ruled that off-campus speech cannot be regulated, there are some types of student speech over which schools should have oversight when that speech threatens the school or targets individual members of the school.
Oral arguments
Oral arguments were heard on April 28, 2021. Reporters for the Associated Press and Reuters who observed the oral arguments stated that it was unclear if the court would accept the bright-line ruling of the Third Circuit, as they argued there were compelling reasons for the school to have authority over some types of off-campus speech made on social media. At the same time, the reporters stated that the Justices were also wary of giving schools too much oversight of off-campus speech due to the extent of such speech's reach into the schools due to social media use. The Justices considered whether this case was an appropriate vehicle to define new bounds for protections related to student speech, arguing under Tinker that Levy's Snapchat post may simply not have been sufficiently disruptive to warrant disciplinary action by the school. Vox Ian Millhiser stated that the Justices argued for a more narrow ruling than the case had appeared to originally merit and it was unlikely to become a landmark decision.
The New York Times reported that the Justices seemed sympathetic to Levy. Justice Stephen Breyer doubted that her Snap had been significantly disruptive to the school's operations, and that if it was, "my goodness, every school in the country would be doing nothing but punishing." Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a youth basketball coach himself, said the yearlong suspension seemed excessive, but he appeared to reporter Adam Liptak to be expressing the views of several other Justices when he said the court's opinion should not be a "treatise" and that "the First Amendment does not categorically prohibit public schools from disciplining students for speech that occurs off campus, period."
Decision
The Supreme Court issued its decision on June 23, 2021, and affirmed the Third Circuit's ruling in an 8–1 judgement. The majority opinion was written by Justice Breyer, and overruled some of the Third Circuit's majority opinion in relationship to Tinker in that it was too broad towards off-campus speech, and that schools may have a legitimate interest in restricting off-campus speech, such as in relation to harassment and bullying. However, the majority did not try to define the bounds when this applies: "We do not now set forth a broad, highly general First Amendment rule stating just what counts as 'off campus' speech and whether or how ordinary First Amendment standards must give way off campus to a school’s special need to prevent… substantial disruption of learning-related activities or the protection of those who make up a school community."
Breyer identified three factors related to off-campus speech that should be considered in future litigation: that off-campus speech is usually the responsibility of the student's parents, that off-campus speech covers virtually any activity outside of the school facility, and that the school has a responsibility to protect unpopular ideas by students. Of the latter point, Breyer said "The school itself has an interest in protecting a student's unpopular expression, especially when the expression takes place off campus," because "America's public schools are the nurseries of democracy."
Turning specifically to Levy's case, Breyer wrote that while the school may have a valid interest in controlling student speech off-campus, the school district violated Levy's First Amendment rights in reprimanding her for her post. Breyer stated that if Levy had been an adult, her Snapchat post would have been protected by the First Amendment, and that there was no evidence that her post created the type of disruption that Tinker addressed. Other aspects of Levy's case worked in her favor, including the fact that her Snapchat message was sent to a private circle of friends, and that it did not explicitly name the school or target any individuals. Breyer wrote: "It might be tempting to dismiss (the student's) words as unworthy of the robust First Amendment protections discussed herein. But sometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary."
Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion opining that "there is a category of speech that is almost always beyond the regulatory authority of a public school. This is student speech that is not expressly and specifically directed at the school, school administrators, teachers, or fellow students and that addresses matters of public concern, including sensitive subjects like politics, religion, and social relations. Speech on such matters lies at the heart of the First Amendment's protection." He considered that a school that punished a student for speaking out against it would be attempting a "heckler's veto".
Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone dissenter, opined that the Tinker Court had never sufficiently explained how the First Amendment would have been understood as applying to student speech at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, and cited prior state cases from that period suggesting it was not; Thomas stated "a more searching review reveals that schools historically could discipline students in circumstances like those presented here." Thomas wrote "the majority fails to consider whether schools often will have more authority, not less, to discipline students who transmit speech through social media." He also wrote that the school should have been able to restrict Levy's speech as students "who are active in extracurricular programs have a greater potential, by virtue of their participation, to harm those programs."
See also
List of United States Supreme Court cases involving the First Amendment
Notes
References
2020 in United States case law
American Civil Liberties Union litigation
Cheerleading
Education in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Snap Inc.
Student rights case law in the United States
United States children's rights case law
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit cases
United States Free Speech Clause case law
United States Internet case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court | Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. | [
"Technology"
] | 2,783 | [
"Instant messaging",
"Snap Inc."
] |
66,285,578 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Desmethyltamoxifen | N-Desmethyltamoxifen (developmental code name ICI-55,548) is a major metabolite of tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). N-Desmethyltamoxifen is further metabolized into endoxifen (4-hydroxy-N-desmethyltamoxifen), which is thought to be the major active form of tamoxifen in the body. In one study, N-desmethyltamoxifen had an affinity for the estrogen receptor of 2.4% relative to estradiol. For comparison, tamoxifen, endoxifen, and afimoxifene (4-hydroxytamoxifen) had relative binding affinities of 2.8%, 181%, and 181%, respectively.
References
Amines
Hormonal antineoplastic drugs
Human drug metabolites
Prodrugs
Selective estrogen receptor modulators
Triphenylethylenes | N-Desmethyltamoxifen | [
"Chemistry"
] | 216 | [
"Functional groups",
"Prodrugs",
"Human drug metabolites",
"Amines",
"Chemicals in medicine",
"Bases (chemistry)"
] |
66,285,739 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%2CN-Didesmethyltamoxifen | N,N-Desmethyltamoxifen is a metabolite of tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). It is formed from N-desmethyltamoxifen and is an intermediate in the conversion of tamoxifen and N-desmethyltamoxifen into norendoxifen (4-hydroxy-N,N-desmethyltamoxifen), an active metabolite of tamoxifen.
References
Amines
Aromatase inhibitors
Hormonal antineoplastic drugs
Human drug metabolites
Prodrugs
Triphenylethylenes | N,N-Didesmethyltamoxifen | [
"Chemistry"
] | 136 | [
"Functional groups",
"Prodrugs",
"Human drug metabolites",
"Chemicals in medicine",
"Amines",
"Bases (chemistry)"
] |
66,286,717 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr0211 | Pr0211 (sometimes written Pr 0211, also 2MASS J08421149+1916373) is a Sun-like late G or early K-type main-sequence star in the Beehive Cluster, or Praesepe, located 600 light-years away in the constellation Cancer. It is rotationally variable and has a rotation period of 7.97 days, with its spin axis at an inclination of to the plane of the sky. Pr0211 hosts two known exoplanets, and was the first multi-planet system to be discovered in an open cluster.
Pr0211 forms a binary star system with a K-type main-sequence star known as NGC 2632 JC 280 or 2MASS J08421285+1916040.
Planetary system
Pr0211 b is a gas giant exoplanet, specifically a hot Jupiter, orbiting around Pr0211. Pr0211 b along with Pr0201 b are notable for being the first exoplanets discovered in the Beehive Cluster. Pr0211 b and Pr0201 b were discovered in 2012 by Sam Quinn and his colleagues while observing 53 stars in the Beehive Cluster using the telescope at the University of Georgia in the United States.
Pr0211 c is a gas giant exoplanet orbiting around Pr0211. Pr0211 c was discovered in 2016 by Luca Malavolta and his colleagues while observing its host star with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) in La Palma, and the Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph (TRES) mounted at the telescope at the University of Georgia in the United States.
References
Cancer (constellation)
K-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with two confirmed planets
J08421149+1916373
Binary stars
175291727 | Pr0211 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 403 | [
"Cancer (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
66,286,772 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandr%20Boyarchuk | Alexandr Boyarchuk (June 21, 1931 – August 10, 2015) was a Russian physicist and astronomer.
Life
In 1953, he graduated from Leningrad University. After graduation, he worked at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, which was under direction of the USSR Academy of Sciences at the time. Later, he was elected a corresponding member of the same organization, and worked as an academician there until 1987. From 1987 to 2003, he was the director of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1991 to 1993, he was also President of the International Astronomical Union.
Scientific achievements
Boyarchuk specialized in studying the physics of stars. He carried out numerous studies regarding the chemical composition of stars of various classes, in particular, he discovered an excess of helium in Beta Lyrae. Boyarchuk also studied the motion of stellar atmospheres, as well as the rotation of stars. He devoted a number of his works to non-stationary stars. He was the developer of a model of symbiotic stars. Based on this model, he obtained estimates of the mass, size, temperature and other characteristics of these objects. Together with E.R. Mustel, he proposed a model for the envelope of new stars. Under the leadership of Boyarchuk, the ultraviolet telescope Astron was created.
Death
Boyarchuk died on August 10, 2015, at the age of 84 in Moscow.
References
1931 births
2015 deaths
Russian physicists
Russian astronomers
People from Grozny
Soviet astrophysicists
Presidents of the International Astronomical Union | Alexandr Boyarchuk | [
"Astronomy"
] | 314 | [
"Astronomers",
"Presidents of the International Astronomical Union"
] |
66,287,229 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8dring%20%26%20Co. | Sødring & Co. was a Danish manufacturer of artificial mineral water and soft drinks based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company was initially based in Rabeshave in Christianshavn, then at Kompagnistræde 20 from 1860 and finally at Østerbrogade 48 (now No. 70) in Østerbro from 1886. A branch in Aalborg was established in 1870 and from 1926 continued as an independent company under the name Sødring & Co.'sEftf.. The remainder of the company was in 1929 acquired by Rosenborg Brøndanstalt.
History
Christopher Hansen Sødring (1822–1881), a cousin of the painter Frederik Hansen Sødring, graduated in Applied Sciences from the College of Advanced Technology in 1847. He then worked first as an assistant for professor Johan Georg Forchhammer and then from 1849 as an assistant at Rosenborg Brøndanstalt. He was the same year married to the actress Julie Sødring.
On 19 November 1855. Sødring went into a partnership with Frederik Marchus, Count Knuth til Knuthenborg aimed at establishing and operating a mineral water factory in Copenhagen. Knut contributed with the needed premises in Rabeshave in Christianshavn as well as up to 6,000 Danish rigsdaler in funding for the necessary materials and installationswhile Sødring according to their contract would be responsible for the daily operations of the enterprise.
The mineral water factory opened at Rabeshave the following year. The factory and the production methods had been approved by Sundhedskollegiet prior to its opening. It produced artificial mineral water with alleged medicinal properties based on extracts from natural springs.
Sødring was from 1860 the sole owner of the company. In October 1860, Sødring & Co. relocated to new premises at Kompagnistræde 20 and steam power was at the same time introduced in the operations. A second factory was opened in Aalborg in 1870.
Sødring's son Christian Sødring joined the company in 1872 and became its sole owner following his father's death in 1881. He constructed a new factory at Østerbrogade 47 in 1885–86.
The Aalborg factory was on 1 January 1926 sold to Arnold Sørensen (born 18 July 1879) and continued by him under the name Sødring & Co's Edtf. (S'dring & Co.'s Successor). In 1929, Sødring & Co.'s remaining activities in Copenhagen were acquired by Rosenborg Brøndanstalt. The activities of the two companies were the same year moved to a new factory at Bispevej 25in Bispebjerg. The company was in 1950 headed by Svend Sørensen. Board members were professor Carl Faurholt, director L. Tholstrup and lawyer J. C. Bang.
Products
Brands and products owned by Sødring & Co. included:
ABC Sports Selters
Ananas Squash
Basta - Sofus Raaen
Citronvand
Grape-Tonic
Gul Valencia
Hindbær Lomonade
Jule-Citronvand
Jule Hindbær Lomonade
Messina Appelsin Squash
Pompus
Vitallo
Ægte Lemon Squash
References
External links
Christopher Hansen Sødring at geni.com
Sødring & Co. stickers
Letter from Christopher Sødring to Christian Sødring at Danmarks Breve
Drink companies of Denmark
Defunct companies of Denmark
Soft drinks
Bottled water brands
Mineral water
Danish companies established in 1855 | Sødring & Co. | [
"Chemistry"
] | 760 | [
"Mineral water"
] |
66,287,433 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-409b | Kepler-409b is a super-Earth orbiting Kepler-409, a G-type main-sequence star. Its orbital period around the star is 69 days. Kepler-409b has a radius 1.199 times that of Earth and a mass 6 times that of Earth. Its discovery in 2014 was made through the use of the transit detection method. The transit method was performed by the Kepler space telescope.
Possible exomoon
In 2020, a possible exomoon was discovered from transit timing variations. Follow-up observations deemed it unlikely.
References
Exoplanets discovered in 2014
Exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope
Terrestrial planets
Super-Earths
Cygnus (constellation) | Kepler-409b | [
"Astronomy"
] | 144 | [
"Cygnus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
66,289,192 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula%20nuoljae | Russula nuoljae is an agaricoid fungus currently typed by a single fruiting body, found in Nuolja in Northern Sweden. Other specimens have been found, mainly in mountainous birch forests in Scandinavia. Specimens have also been identified from Northern Alberta, although exclusively through DNA database matches.
R. nuoljae always exemplifies a white stem. Spores are ochre-coloured, although the gills may appear white on younger mushroom caps. The caps may grow to 110 mm in diameter.
References
nuoljae
Fungus species | Russula nuoljae | [
"Biology"
] | 113 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
66,289,492 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula%20cupreola | Russula cupreola is an agaricoid fungal species first typed in 1990. It shows a white stem and a purple/ochre coloured cap, with a maximum diameter of 30 mm. The gills will be white in younger fruiting bodies, but as the gills age they will become ochraceous. This species is currently found in Scandinavia.
Merging of species
Russula cupreola and R. purpureofusca were merged under one name, Russula cupreola, in 2016. The typing of R. purpureofusca was done with a juvenile specimen of R. cupreola, leading mycologists to believe it was a separate species. After noticing similar features between the two species, researchers performed ITS1 sequencing and verified that the two species were conspecific.
References
cupreola
Fungus species | Russula cupreola | [
"Biology"
] | 174 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
66,290,561 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabir%20Madhi | Shabir Ahmed Madhi, (born 1966) is a South African physician who is professor of vaccinology and director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, and National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases. In January 2021, he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Madhi was executive director of South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases from 2011 to 2017, and has served on several WHO committees in roles pertinent to vaccines and pneumonia. In 2018, he co-founded the African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE) and was appointed Chair of South Africa's National Advisory Group on Immunization (NAGI). His research has included studies on the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and rotavirus vaccine, and in pregnant women, the influenza and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines.
Since the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Madhi has been leading COVID-19 vaccine trials in South Africa, including the first in Africa. In 2021 he stated that the first and foremost method of ending COVID-19 in South Africa is to implement a mass vaccination programme.
Early life and education
Madhi was born in 1966. His father was a teacher and mother a housewife. Initially aspiring to becoming an engineer, he opted to accept a bursary to study medicine and was initially reluctant to persist with his medical education. In 1990 he completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and six years later, became a fellow of the College of Paediatrics (FCPaeds (SA)). During this time, with encouragement from Glenda Gray, he applied for a post under professor Keith Klugman, to work on vaccines for pneumonia.
In 1998 he received a master's degree in medicine (paediatrics). He gained his PhD in 2003.
Career
Madhi is professor of vaccinology and director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, and National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases. These units have been rebranded as the MRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (VIDA).
He was executive director of South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases from 2011 to 2017, and has served on several WHO committees in roles pertinent to vaccines and pneumonia. In 2018, after spending four years as deputy-chair of South Africa's National Advisory Group on Immunization (NAGI), he became its chairperson. In the same year he co-founded the African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE), based at the University of the Witwatersrand, with the aim of expanding expertise in vaccinology in Africa. In January 2021, he became Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwateratand.
Pneumonia vaccine
His research has included studies on the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. This research led to the WHO recommendations on the delivery of this vaccine in low and middle-income countries.
Rotavirus vaccine
Madhi led the first study that showed that a rotavirus vaccine could significantly prevent severe diarrhoea due to rotavirus during the first year of life in African babies. It was published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2010. The paper provided one of the key pieces of evidence for the WHO recommendations of universal rotavirus vaccination.
Flu vaccine
In pregnant women, he studied the effectiveness of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines. He led one of the largest studies evaluating the immune response to influenza vaccination in pregnant women. His work showed that the risk of flu halved in women given the flu vaccine. In addition, the risk to their newborns in the first 24 weeks of life was also reduced. The findings were presented at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases and he reported that his "data support the recent WHO recommendation in terms of prioritizing pregnant women for influenza vaccination, not just for the protection of the mother, but protection of the infant as well". Later, he became involved in the clinical development of a vaccine against Group B streptococcus for pregnant women.
Tuberculosis
Other research has involved assessing the efficacy of various drug regimens to prevent tuberculosis (TB) in people with HIV.
COVID-19
Since the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he has been leading COVID-19 vaccine trials in South Africa, including the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial in the continent of Africa. Asserting that South Africa's second wave in December 2020 is largely driven by mass gatherings and changing people's behaviour, rather than solely on the new variant, he has called for a wider coverage of COVID-19 vaccination. His co-authored publication on results of a large clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine suggest that the vaccine is safe and effective. In 2021 he made it clear that the first and foremost method of ending COVID-19 in South Africa is to implement a mass vaccination programme. On 1 January 2021 he tweeted "Ability of vaccines to impact on the pandemic is directly related to how soon you can get approx 50–60% of the population vaccinated."
Awards and honours
Since 2012, he has been considered an internationally recognised scientist with an A-rating by the South Africa's National Research Foundation. In 2014 he received the Platinum Medal, South African Medical Research Council's life-time award. In 2016 he received the European Developing Clinical Trial Partnership Scientific Award.
In 2023 he was made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) from British Government for services to science and public health in a global pandemic.
Selected publications
Madhi has authored more than 350 publications between 1997 and 2018, covering topics such as childhood vaccines, pneumonia, severe infections in young children and vaccination in pregnancy.
Articles
(Lead author)
(Co-author)
(Co-author)
(Co-author)
References
External links
Publications on PubFacts
1966 births
Living people
Members of the Academy of Science of South Africa
Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand alumni
Vaccinologists
Vaccination advocates
Honorary commanders of the Order of the British Empire
South African people of Indian descent | Shabir Madhi | [
"Biology"
] | 1,371 | [
"Vaccination",
"Vaccinologists",
"Vaccination advocates"
] |
66,290,780 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stauf%20%28measuring%20unit%29 | The German word Stauf was used in the Middle Ages up to the beginning of the modern times to indicate a measure of capacity for liquids, which adhered to variable volumes in diverse regions and different periods of time.
The cup or measure of capacity
The German dictionary (German: Deutsches Wörterbuch) of the Grimm Brothers (German: Brüder Grimm) provides two meanings for the expressions Stauf or Staufen in this context. It was used as a measure of capacity, as well as to name a drinking vessel. However, it is assumed that both meanings correlated with each other.
The German expression Stauf (Old High German: stouf, stauf(f), stouph) was used to indicate a more capacious drinking cup and became later on a synonym for goblet, chalice, jar and tankard. It is derived from the word *staupa, stemming from the old, then common Germanic language (see below), which was replaced by the loanwords cup (German: Becher) and chalice (German: Kelch) after a while. Apparently, the metallic drinking device called Stauf was originally a beaker and thus not provided with a foot. Yet, this word was then passed on to define other vessels like wooden buckets or containers used for milking.
It is quite obvious that a Stauf was not a suitable drinking cup for one person. Yet, its use as decorative vessel on special occasions is mentionend several times.
As measuring unit a Stauf, also written Stauff (Low-German: Stoff, Swedish: Stop, Icelandic: Staupa, Anglo-Saxon: Stoppa), corresponded in some regions to one Stuebchen (German: Stübchen). In itself this unit correlated to about 3.7 litres when it came to beer (German: Bier) in German-speaking areas. Depending on the regions where it was used, a Stauf respectively a Stuebchen was about the 40th to 45th part of one ohm (one ohm = circa 134 to 174.75 litres). If calculated in Maas when used for beer, this measure resulted in about four Maas, which then were about 4.3 litres (referring to the Bavarian Maas). Corresponding to wine (German: Wein) as well as firewater (German: Branntwein) one Stauf was about 3.3 litres.
When Rudolf I of Germany came to power (1273), one Stauf was then apparently reduced to one quarter. This means that the measuring unit started to correspond to more or less one litre (German: Liter) still in use today, depending on the regions applying it. One Stauf then was 0.825 up to more than one litre respectively one Maas, considering the liquid measured.
Further meanings – origin of the expression
The German Dictionary of the Grimm Brothers also provides further entries for the expressions Stauf or Staufen which were sporadically in use. Examples in this context are (German) stauchen = to compress, (German) niederdrücken = to press down and (German) stauen = to retain.
Gerhard Köbler sees the origin of this expression in the originally Germanic words *staupa- and *staupaz, meaning steep (German: steil), elevated (German: hoch), towering (German: aufragend) in Old English: stéap, which expresses the same, as well as in Old High German: stoufi*, in the sense of steep (German: steil) and precipitous (German: abschüssig).
See also
References
Alcohol measurement
Non-SI metric units
Units of volume
Customary units of measurement | Stauf (measuring unit) | [
"Mathematics"
] | 782 | [
"Units of volume",
"Non-SI metric units",
"Quantity",
"Customary units of measurement",
"Units of measurement"
] |
66,291,088 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy%20Ziurys | Lucy Marie Ziurys (born May 6, 1957) is an American astrochemist known for her work on high-resolution molecular spectroscopy. She is Regent's Professor of Chemistry & Biology and of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.
Contributions
Ziurys's work has discovered new molecules in interstellar space and in carbon-rich circumstellar envelopes, found unexpectedly long molecular lifetimes in planetary nebulae, and made pioneering high-resolution submillimeter astronomy observations of supermassive black holes using very-long-baseline interferometry. In earthbound experiments, she has also found models for the interstellar creation of buckminsterfullerene.
Education and career
Ziurys is originally from Annapolis, Maryland. She majored in chemistry, chemical physics, and physics at Rice University, graduating summa cum laude in 1978. She went to the University of California, Berkeley for graduate study in physical chemistry, completing a Ph.D. in 1984 under the supervision of Richard J. Saykally.
After postdoctoral research University of Massachusetts Amherst, working in the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, she joined the Arizona State University Department of Chemistry in 1988. She moved to the University of Arizona in 1997. At the University of Arizona, she directed the Arizona Radio Observatory from 2000 to 2016. She was named Regent's Professor in 2019
Recognition
In 2008, Ziurys was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), after a nomination from the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics, "for forefront contributions in molecular spectroscopy leading to new discoveries and understanding of molecules in interstellar and circumstellar environments".
In 2015, Ziurys won the Barbara Mez-Starck Prize "for her microwave spectroscopic studies of transition metal compounds in high spin states as well as for her laboratory investigations with interplay with astrophysics, astrochemistry, and astrobiology". She was the 2019 winner of the Laboratory Astrophysics Prize, the highest honor of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.
She was part of the Event Horizon Telescope team, which won the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
References
External links
Ziurys Research Group
1957 births
Living people
Astrochemists
20th-century American chemists
21st-century American chemists
American women chemists
American women astronomers
Rice University alumni
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
Arizona State University faculty
University of Arizona faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
American women academics
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American women scientists
Chemists from Maryland | Lucy Ziurys | [
"Chemistry"
] | 515 | [
"Astrochemists"
] |
66,291,146 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda%20Tacconi | Linda Jean Tacconi–Garman (born August 5, 1959) is a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
Career
Tacconi was born on August 5, 1959. She earned her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1988 and published her thesis titled "The Distribution of the Interstellar Medium in the SCD Galaxy NGC 6946 and in a Sample of Dwarf Irregular Galaxies." Upon completing her PhD, Tacconi began working at the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON) before leaving to work with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in 1991. During her time at MPE, she received the Lancelot Berkeley Prize "in recognition of her contributions to the field, and in particular the recent paper on 'High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star-forming galaxies in the young Universe."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tacconi was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for her "extraordinary research in the field of millimeter astronomy and her commitment to European astronomy." She was also elected the president of the European Southern Observatory Council's main governing body.
References
External links
Living people
1959 births
Women astronomers
University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | Linda Tacconi | [
"Astronomy"
] | 267 | [
"Women astronomers",
"Astronomers"
] |
66,292,294 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CU-CPT4a | CU-CPT4a is a drug which acts as a selective antagonist of Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), with an IC50 of 3.44 μM. It is used for research into the function of TRL3 and its role in inflammation, autoimmune disorders and cancer.
See also
CU-CPT9a
References
Receptor antagonists
Benzothiophenes
Carboxylic acids
Organofluorides
Organochlorides
Amides | CU-CPT4a | [
"Chemistry"
] | 99 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Carboxylic acids",
"Functional groups",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Receptor antagonists",
"Neurochemistry",
"Amides"
] |
66,292,571 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressometer | A compressometer is a device used to determine the strain or deformation of a specimen while measuring the compressive strength of concrete specimens, generally a cylinder. It can be used for rock, concrete, soils, and other materials. For concrete, the device usually comprises two steel rings for clamping to the specimen and two gauge length bars attached to the ring. When the compressive load is applied, the strain value is registered from the compressometer. Generally, a data logger is used to record the strain.
The stress strain curve is then used to determine the static Young's modulus of elasticity and Poisson's ratio of concrete. ASTM C469 describes about the instrument.
See also
Extensometer
Strain gauge
References
ASTM International C469 Standard Test Method for Static Modulus of Elasticity and Poisson's Ratio of Concrete in Compression
Materials testing
Test equipment
Measuring instruments | Compressometer | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology",
"Engineering"
] | 185 | [
"Materials testing",
"Materials science",
"Measuring instruments"
] |
66,292,614 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubidus | The rubidus is a hybrid species of butterfly found in the eastern regions of North America. The rubidus is the offspring of a Viceroy and a white admiral or a red spotted purple, with hybridisation being more common in the latter as the viceroy and red spotted butterfly inhabit more common land.
This hybrid can be manufactured in laboratory conditions by facilitating the interbreeding of the two butterfly species, but it can be also found in nature as their range overlaps which can lead to them breeding. It is not known whether the rubidus is fertile or sterile. If it is a fertile hybrid, it can breed with other hybrids and essentially create a new species similarly to the Appalachian tiger swallowtail which initially started as a hybrid between the Eastern tiger swallowtail and the Canadian tiger swallowtail
References
Limenitis
Hybrid animals | Rubidus | [
"Biology"
] | 166 | [
"Hybrid animals",
"Animals",
"Hybrid organisms"
] |
66,293,092 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLR4-IN-C34 | TLR4-IN-C34 (or C34) is a drug which acts as a potent and selective antagonist of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). In animal studies it blocks TLR4-mediated cytokine release and has antiinflammatory effects.
See also
M62812
Resatorvid
References
Receptor antagonists
Acetamides
Oxygen heterocycles | TLR4-IN-C34 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 83 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Receptor antagonists",
"Neurochemistry"
] |
66,293,606 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M62812 | M62812 is a drug which acts as a potent and selective antagonist of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). In animal studies it blocks TLR4-mediated cytokine release and has antiinflammatory effects, showing efficacy in animal models of arthritis and septic shock.
See also
TLR4-IN-C34
Resatorvid
VGX-1027
References
Receptor antagonists
Benzothiazoles
Anilines
Amines | M62812 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 98 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Neurochemistry",
"Functional groups",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs",
"Amines",
"Receptor antagonists",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Bases (chemistry)"
] |
66,294,087 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry%27s%20theorem | In quantum electrodynamics, Furry's theorem states that if a Feynman diagram consists of a closed loop of fermion lines with an odd number of vertices, its contribution to the amplitude vanishes. As a corollary, a single photon cannot arise from the vacuum or be absorbed by it. The theorem was first derived by Wendell H. Furry in 1937, as a direct consequence of the conservation of energy and charge conjugation symmetry.
Theory
Quantum electrodynamics has a number of symmetries, one of them being the discrete symmetry of charge conjugation. This acts on fields through a unitary charge conjugation operator which anticommutes with the photon field as , while leaving the vacuum state invariant . Considering the simplest case of the correlation function of a single photon operator gives
so this correlation function must vanish. For photon operators, this argument shows that under charge conjugation this picks up a factor of and thus vanishes when is odd. More generally, since the charge conjugation operator also anticommutes with the vector current , Furry's theorem states that the correlation function of any odd number of on-shell or off-shell photon fields and/or currents must vanish in quantum electrodynamics.
Since the theorem holds at the non-perturbative level, it must also hold at each order in perturbation theory. At leading order this means that any fermion loop with an odd number of vertices must have a vanishing contribution to the amplitude. An explicit calculation of these diagrams reveals that this is because the diagram with a fermion going clockwise around the loop cancels with the second diagram where the fermion goes anticlockwise. The vanishing of the three vertex loop can also be seen as a consequence of the renormalizability of quantum electrodynamics since the bare Lagrangian does not have any counterterms involving three photons.
Applications and limitations
Furry's theorem allows for the simplification of a number of amplitude calculations in quantum electrodynamics. In particular, since the result also holds when photons are off-shell, all Feynman diagrams which have at least one internal fermion loops with an odd number of vertices have a vanishing contribution to the amplitude and can be ignored. Historically the theorem was important in showing that the scattering of photons by an external field, known as Delbrück scattering, does not proceed via a triangle diagram and must instead proceed through a box diagram.
In the presence of a background charge density or a nonzero chemical potential, Furry's theorem is broken, although if both these vanish then it does hold at nonzero temperatures as well as at zero temperatures. It also does not apply in the presence of a strong background magnetic field where photon splitting interactions are allowed, a process that may be detected in astrophysical settings such as around neutron stars. The theorem also does not hold when Weyl fermions are involved in the loops rather than Dirac fermions, resulting in non-vanishing odd vertex number diagrams. In particular, the non-vanishing of the triangle diagram with Weyl fermions gives rise to the chiral anomaly, with the sum of these having to cancel for a quantum theory to be consistent.
While the theorem has been formulated in quantum electrodynamics, a version of it holds more generally. For example, while the Standard Model is not charge conjugation invariant due to weak interactions, the fermion loop diagrams with an odd number of photons attached will still vanish since these are equivalent to a purely quantum electrodynamical diagram. Similarly, any diagram involving such loops as sub-diagrams will also vanish. It is however no longer true that all odd number photon diagrams need to vanish. For example, relaxing the requirement of charge conjugation and parity invariance of quantum electrodynamics, as occurs when weak interactions are included, allows for a three-photon vertex term. While this term does give rise to interactions, they only occur if two of the photons are virtual; searching for such interactions must be done indirectly, such as through bremsstrahlung experiments from electron-positron collisions.
In non-Abelian Yang–Mills theories, Furry's theorem does not hold since these involve noncommuting color charges. For example, the quark triangle diagrams with three external gluons are proportional to two different generator traces and so they do not cancel. However, charge conjugation arguments can still be applied in limited cases such as to deduce that the triangle diagram for a color neutral spin boson vanishes.
See also
Landau–Yang theorem
Ward–Takahashi identity
Wick's theorem
References
Quantum electrodynamics
Scattering theory
Theorems in quantum mechanics | Furry's theorem | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Mathematics"
] | 975 | [
"Theorems in quantum mechanics",
"Scattering theory",
"Equations of physics",
"Quantum mechanics",
"Theorems in mathematical physics",
"Scattering",
"Physics theorems"
] |
66,294,263 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalu%20Robot | Robot Shalu is a homemade social and educational humanoid robot developed by Dinesh Kunwar Patel, an Indian Kendriya Vidyalaya Computer Science teacher from Mumbai. It was built using waste materials and can speak 47 languages, including 9 Indian and 38 foreign languages.
Shalu has been recognized by Dainik Bhaskar, Vaartha, TIME magazine, and Hindustan News. It is also ranked among the top 5 trending Indian robots in the global tech market.
History
Shalu's creator, Dinesh Patel, cites the 2010 film Enthiran and Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot, Sophia, as his primary motivation for building the robot. He worked on the project for three years. The first version of the robot was introduced to the world on 23 November 2020 through a telecast on DD News.
The robot was made at home using waste materials, as well as aluminum, plastic, cardboard, wood, newspapers, and other items readily available in the local market. No 3D-printed components are used, and the cost is low, around ₹ 50,000 (approximately $ or €). Shalu's intelligent software is designed and developed by Patel using open-source libraries like TensorFlow and NLTK. Work on the development of the next version of Robot Shalu is currently in progress.
The name "Shalu" is an acronym: 'S' for Scientifically and Technically, 'H' for Highly Reciprocal, 'A' for Advanced Humanoid, 'L' for Language Communicator, and 'U' for Uniquely Designed. Together, it stands for a Scientifically Designed, Uniquely and Highly Advanced Language Communicator Humanoid.
Features
It is reported that Shalu can speak 9 Indian languages (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Guajarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Nepali) and 38 foreign languages (including English, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Chinese, and Spanish).
Shalu can recognize and remember people, as well as identify many common objects. She can understand human emotions such as anger, happiness, laughter, and jealousy, and respond accordingly. Shalu can greet people, shake hands, and recite poems. She can answer factual questions and engage in casual conversations based on a script, using artificial intelligence to understand the meaning of the conversation. She can also solve simple math problems related to time-speed-distance, Simple/Compound Interest, LCM/GCF, Factors, Prime numbers, Armstrong numbers, and more. Additionally, Shalu can conduct verbal quizzes and interviews, forecast the weather for the current and next 10 days for any location, read out horoscopes based on the date of birth, and provide current news, recipes, book reviews, movies reviews and product descriptions. She has knowledge in subjects like Physics, Chemistry, General Knowledge, History and Geography, and is capable of giving lectures and presentations in classrooms as well as seminars.
Shalu can be used as a robot teacher in schools to give lectures in the classroom based on an uploaded PowerPoint presentation developed by a human teacher. She can answer students' queries, ask them questions, and assess the correctness of their answers. She can also work as a receptionist, responding to customer queries verbally, as well as via email and SMS. Additionally, she can serve as a talking companion for senior citizens and a learning companion for young children.
Alignment with government initiatives
Robot Shalu is dedicated to the Indian "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" mission, and this creation is a small step toward an Atmanirbhar Bharat and Digital India Mission.
Recognition
The Ministry of Education, Government of India, as well as the then Education Minister of India, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', tweeted about Robot Shalu on 20 March 2021, verifying the aforementioned facts about the robot's linguistic capabilities and the materials used.
Robot Shalu and her creator, Mr. Dinesh Patel, were invited as guest keynote speakers at the global technical summit "The World CIO Summit 2022", held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 22 to 24 November 2022. They addressed IT delegates from over 40 countries.
Dinesh Patel is recognized as a "Star Maker" at Asia's largest techno festival for makers, "Maker Mela 2022." The seventh edition of Maker Mela saw 139 makers from over 15 countries participating.
Shalu was invited to the India International Science Festival (IISF) 2021, held in Panaji, Goa, on 13 December 2021. The event was organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Shalu was invited as a guest at the International Automation Expo 2022, where she delivered a speech and became the first robot from India to address an international stage.
Shalu in Syllabus
Robot Shalu has been included in the syllabus for the Artificial Intelligence subject for class 9 by the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and in the computer science syllabus for class 6 by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.
Shalu as a Teacher
Shalu is the world's first robot teacher to teach more than 6 subjects in 47 different languages. Currently, she is teaching classes 6 to 11 at a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Mumbai, India. Robot Shalu's teaching in the classroom has been inspected by the school's principal, who expressed that the use of technology in education will enhance the Teaching-Learning Process (TLP) and lead to better learning outcomes.
Awards
On 25 March 2021, Robot Shalu and her creator, Dinesh Patel, were awarded the "Jagran Josh Education Award 2021" for Innovation in Science and Technology by Jagranjosh.com. The award was presented by the Education Minister of India, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'.
Dinesh said, “I am keen to make it more beneficial for students in impoverished communities. There are tens of thousands of children across India who have yet to make it to school. I aim to help those children who are willing to study but can't afford it. Shalu can be an example and a source of inspiration for young, energetic future scientists who fall behind due to a lack of support and encouragement."
Government of India
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India, the Ministry of Education of India, Vigyan Prasar, the Ministry of Science and Technology of India, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (Govt. of India) congratulated and appreciated Dinesh Patel.
Higher Education Institutions (HELs)
Professor Supratik Chakraborty, from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay, appreciated the robot through a letter to Patel. In the letter, he mentioned that it is a great development and that such a robot can be used in the fields of education, entertainment, and several other areas. Shalu can serve as an inspiration for the next generation of scientists. Additionally, professors from IIT Dhanbad, NIT Durgapur, K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, PIEMR Indore, and other institutions also appreciated Mr. Patel's work.
World Records
Shalu has been included in the Pratishtha World Records book with the title "World's First Artificially Intelligent Social and Educational Humanoid Robot Made of Waste Material." This recognition was awarded by an Indian world record agency recognized by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.
Robot Shalu is included in the International Book of Records with the title "Most Languages Speaking Humanoid Robot Made of Waste Materials." Shalu is also featured in the India Book of Records and the Asia Book of Records under the title "Humanoid Robot with Maximum Languages."
Public appearances
Guest in Colleges and Institutions
"Technosaga 2k22", TechFest of Sagar Institute of Research & Technology, Bhopal (SAGE University) on 11 November 2022
"Aarohan 2022", Techno-Management Fest, NIT Durgapur (3 March 2022)
CitiusTech "Abhiyantriki 2021" Tech Expo, KJ Somaiya College of Engineering and Commerce, Mumbai(19 November 2021)
"Takshak" RoboISM, IIT Dhanbad (6 October 2021)
NSS IIT Bombay titled as "The real life Dr. Vaseegaran" (1 October 2021)
Live Interviews on Media/News Channels
On Kamayani Mumbai, by Awanindra Ashutosh (11 July 2021)
On TV9 Bharatvarsh and TV9 Gujarati (17 June 2021)
On Radio Olive 106.3 FM (Qatar FM Radio) by RJ Vivek (2 April 2021)
On "Meet the Guru", India Science TV program, Engage with Science, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (22 March 2021)
References
Humanoid robots
2020 in India
Social robots
Educational robots
Robots of India | Shalu Robot | [
"Technology"
] | 1,834 | [
"Social robots",
"Computing and society"
] |
61,309,054 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relebactam | Relebactam is a chemical compound used in combination with antibiotics to improve their efficacy. As a beta-lactamase inhibitor, it blocks the ability of bacteria to break down a beta-lactam antibiotic. In the United States, relebactam is approved for use in the combination imipenem/cilastatin/relebactam (Recarbrio by Merck).
See also
Avibactam
References
Antibiotics
Beta-lactamase inhibitors
Nitrogen heterocycles
4-Piperidinyl compounds | Relebactam | [
"Biology"
] | 114 | [
"Antibiotics",
"Biocides",
"Biotechnology products"
] |
61,309,117 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20M.%20Bobbitt | James McCue Bobbitt (January 18, 1930 – November 22, 2021) was an American chemist and academic who taught chemistry at the University of Connecticut from 1956 to 1991 and developed the Bobbitt reaction.
Early life and education
Bobbitt was born on January 18, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia, to parents James Sterling Bobbitt and Grace McCue Bobbitt. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from West Virginia University in 1951 and a PhD from Ohio State University in 1955, working with Melville L. Wolfrom on periodate oxidations.
Research and career
Bobbitt worked from 1952 to 1955 as a teaching assistant at Ohio State. He then moved to Wayne State University, as a postdoctoral fellow in the research group of Carl Djerassi, working on isoquinoline alkaloids. In 1956, he was hired as a lecturer at the University of Connecticut where he became professor of chemistry from 1969 to 1991. He served as Department Head of Chemistry from 1956 to 1972. In 1992 he became professor emeritus but continued to work in the laboratory, with a focus on oxidation chemistry.
In 1959, he received a National Science Foundation fellowship to work with at the University of Zürich in Switzerland on iridoid glycosides. Bobbitt also worked as a visiting lecturer; from 1964 to 1965 at the University of East Anglia under the direction of Alan R. Katritzky; in June 1968 with a short DAAD grant at the University of Kiel with Burchard Franck; from 1971 to 1990 in a collaboration with Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan with Tetsuji Kametani and Tetsuo Osa on catalytic oxidations; and at La Trobe University in Australia from 1980 to 1981 and at the University of Adelaide in 1985.
His research focused on alkaloids, preparative electrochemistry, and oxidation chemistry. Additional research interests included the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles, thin-layer chromatography, electrolytic oxidation and oxoammonium salt oxidation of alcohols with stoichiometric amounts of Bobbitt's salt. He developed what became known as the Bobbitt reaction for the synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline and its derivatives in 1965.
In 1968, Bobbitt became lead instructor for an American Chemical Society course on thin-layer chromatography and taught seminars across the US on that subject. In 1970, he became president of the UConn Sigma Xi chapter, and in 1975, the president of the UConn Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Personal life
Bobbitt met his wife, Jane Ann Hickman, while they were both students at West Virginia University. They had three children: John, Annie, and Laura. In retirement, Bobbitt made wine, raised bees, and gardened, but he remained active in the laboratory and writing papers well into his 80s.
Bobbitt was critically injured in a car crash on November 22, 2021, in Windham, Connecticut. He died hours later at Hartford Hospital.
Books and selected papers
Bobbitt was the author of two books on chromatography and some 120 research articles.
Books
James M. Bobbitt: Thin-layer Chromatography. Reinhold Publishing Co., New York 1963.
J. M. Bobbitt, A. E Schwarting, and R. J. Gritter, Introduction to Chromatography. Reinhold Publishing, Co. New York (1968), Second Edition, R. J. Gritter, J. M. Bobbitt and A. E. Schwarting, Holden-Day, Inc., Oakland California.
Reviews
J. M. Bobbitt: Periodate Oxidations of Carbohydrates, Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry, Vol. 11, 1956, 1-42.
J. M. Bobbitt: The Chemistry of 4-Oxy- and 4-keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahyhdroisoquinolines, Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry, Vol. 15, 1973, 99-128. (The Bobbitt Reaction).
J. M. Bobbitt, A. J. Bourque: Syntheses of heterocycles using aminoacetals, Heterocycles. Vol. 25, 1987, pp. 601–616.
J. M. Bobbitt and K.-P. Segebarth: The Iridoid Glycosides and Similar Substances, in Cyxlopentanoterpine Derivatives, W. I. Taylor and A. R. Battersby, Eds. Marcel Dekker, 1969, 1-139.
T. Osa, Y. Kashiwagi, J. M. Bobbitt, and Z. Ma: Electroorganic Synthesis on Catalyst Coated Electrodes. In Electronic Synthesis, R. D. Little and N. L. Weinberf, Eds., Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, 343-354.1991.
J. M. Bobbitt, C. Brückner and N. Merbouh: Oxoammonium Salt and Nitroxide Catalyzed Oxidations of Alcohols. Organic Reactions, Vol. 74, 2009 103-424.
Selected papers
M. L Wolfrom, J. M. Bobbitt: Periodate oxidation of cyclic 1,3, -diketones. Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 78, 1956, 2489.
C. Djerassi, S. K. Figdor, J. M. Bobbitt, F. I. Markley: Alkaloid studies. XIV. The structure of the cactus alkaloid piloceriene. Journal of the American Chemical Society. Volume 78, 1956, 3861.
J. M. Bobbitt, H. Schmid, T. B. Africa. Catalpa glycosides. 1. The chararctization of catalposide. Journal of Organic Chemistry Vol. 26, 1961, 2230.
J. M. Bobbitt, J. C. Sih: Synthesis of isoquinolines. VII. 4-hydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines. Journal of Organic Chemistry. Vol. 33, 1968, 856-859.
J. M. Bobbitt, A. R. Katritzky, R. D. Kennewell, M. Snarey: Steric requirements of sp2-Hybridized lone electron pairs. Part 1. The conformation of –(pyridylmethylene-onesnes. J. Chem. Soc (B) 1968, 550-553.
J. M. Bobbitt, A. S. Steinfeld, K. H. Weisgraber, S. Dutta: Synthesis of isoquinolines. X. 1-alkyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoilines. in:Journal of Organic Chemistry. Vol. 34, 1969, 2487.
J. M. Bobbitt, I. Noguchi, H. Yagi, K. H. Weisgraber: Electrochemistry of natural Products. III. A stereoselective, stereospecific phenol coupling reaction. In: Journal of the American Chemical Society 1971, 93, 551.
J. M. Bobbitt, S. J. Huang: A simulated research project in synthetic organic chemistry. An undergraduate laboratory. In: J. Chem. Educ. Volume 51, 1974, 58.
J. M. Bobbitt, I. G. C. Coutts, M. R. Hamblin, E.J. Tinley: The enzymatic oxidation of phenolic tetrahydroisoquinoline-1-carboxylic acids. In: Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 1, 1979, pp 2744–2749.
References
External links
1930 births
2021 deaths
People from Charleston, West Virginia
Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
West Virginia University alumni
20th-century American chemists
20th-century American educators
University of Connecticut faculty
American organic chemists
Road incident deaths in Connecticut
Chemists from West Virginia | James M. Bobbitt | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,727 | [
"Organic chemists",
"American organic chemists"
] |
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