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72,703,021 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mururoa%20e%20Tatou | Mururoa e Tatou ("Mururoa and Us") is an anti-nuclear non-governmental organisation in French Polynesia. The association represents former workers at the French nuclear test sites of Mururoa and Fangataufa, and advocates for their compensation. Founded in July 2001 by John Doom and Roland Oldham, it is currently led by Hirohiti Tefaarere.
Mururoa e Tatou has advocated for compensation for test site veterans and demanded that the French government recognise their health problems. It has supported court cases seeking compensation, and opposed France's nuclear compensation law as too restrictive.
It has also advocated for greater transparency around the effects of nuclear testing. In 2005 Mururoa e Tatou revealed leaked documents showing that the French government had knowingly exposed the people of Mangareva to nuclear fallout. In 2005 it asked the Assembly of French Polynesia to conduct an inquiry. The inquiry reported back in 2006.
In October 2010 it obtained a court order ordering the French Defence Ministry to declassify and disclose all information relating to nuclear testing. When the documents were finally released in 2013 they revealed that fallout had been far worse than previously disclosed.
See also
Association 193
References
Political organizations based in French Polynesia
Anti-nuclear organizations
2001 establishments in French Polynesia | Mururoa e Tatou | [
"Engineering"
] | 266 | [
"Nuclear organizations",
"Anti-nuclear organizations"
] |
72,703,400 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita%20galactica | Amanita galactica is a species of agaric fungus in the family Amanitaceae, first described by Giuliana Furci and Bryn Dentinger in 2020. The species was discovered in the Andes of southern Chile, living at the base of trees such as Nothofagus and Araucaria araucana. The epithet galactica was given by Furci, and was inspired by the bright white spots on the black cap that reminded her of a galaxy dotted with stars.
References
External links
galactica
Fungi of South America
Fungi described in 2020
Fungus species | Amanita galactica | [
"Biology"
] | 116 | [
"Fungi",
"Fungus species"
] |
72,704,256 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20largest%20non-human%20primates | This is a list of large extant primate species (excluding humans) that can be ordered by average weight or height range. There is no fixed definition of a large primate, it is typically assessed empirically. Primates exhibit the highest levels of sexual dimorphism amongst mammals, therefore the maximum body dimensions included in this list generally refer to male specimens.
Mandrills and baboons are monkeys; the rest of the species on this list are apes. Typically, Old World monkeys (paleotropical) are larger than New World monkeys (neotropical); the reasons for this are not entirely understood but several hypotheses have been generated. As a rule, primate brains are "significantly larger" than those of other mammals with similar body sizes. Until well into the 19th century, juvenile orangutans were taken from the wild and died within short order, eventually leading naturalists to mistakenly assume that the living specimens they briefly encountered and skeletons of adult orangutans were entirely different species.
Largest non-human primates
See also
Largest wild canids
List of largest land carnivorans
Monkey
Great apes
List of heaviest land mammals
Largest mammals
Sexual dimorphism in non-human primates
References
Further reading
Body Mass in Lowland Gorillas: A Quantitative Analysis (2019)
External links
AlltheWorldsPrimates.org
Heaviest or most massive organisms
Primates
Lists of primates
Primate anatomy | List of largest non-human primates | [
"Biology"
] | 286 | [
"Heaviest or most massive organisms",
"Organism size"
] |
72,705,392 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf%201069 | Wolf 1069 is a red dwarf star located away from the Solar System in the constellation of Cygnus. The star has 17% the mass and 18% the radius of the Sun, a temperature of , and a slow rotation period of 150–170 days. It hosts one known exoplanet called Wolf 1069 b which could possibly sustain life.
Planetary system
A planetary companion to Wolf 1069 was discovered in 2023 via radial velocity. It has a minimum mass close to that of Earth and orbits within the habitable zone of its star, with an orbital period of 15 days. This planet does not transit its host star. Observations have ruled out any additional planets greater than one Earth mass with orbital periods of less than 10 days.
As of its discovery, Wolf 1069 b is the sixth-closest known Earth-mass planet within the conservatively-defined habitable zone, after Proxima Centauri b, GJ 1061 d, Teegarden's Star c, and GJ 1002 b & c.
Notes
References
Cygnus (constellation)
M-type main-sequence stars
Planetary systems with one confirmed planet
1069
1253
J20260528+5834224
352617553 | Wolf 1069 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 253 | [
"Cygnus (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
72,705,930 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkon%20%28unparticle%29 | Darkon is a hypothetical scalar unparticle to introduce to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, a dark matter candidate.
History
A. Zee and V. Silveira were the first to consider the darkon field as dark matter in 1985. This approach was then used by several others groups of physicists.
Concept
In addition to the Standard Model particles, It contains the darkon, a real singlet field. To play the role of dark matter, the darkon field must interact weakly with the standard matter field sector and should not rapidly decay into particles. The simplest way of introducing the darkon is to demand that they can only be annihilated or created in pairs and to make it stable against decay.
See also
Lightest supersymmetric particle
Physics beyond the Standard Model
SUSY
WIMPs
References
Further reading
Dark matter
Physics beyond the Standard Model
Dark concepts in astrophysics | Darkon (unparticle) | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 184 | [
"Dark matter",
"Unsolved problems in astronomy",
"Concepts in astronomy",
"Theoretical physics",
"Unsolved problems in physics",
"Astrophysics",
"Exotic matter",
"Dark concepts in astrophysics",
"Particle physics",
"Theoretical physics stubs",
"Particle physics stubs",
"Physics beyond the Stan... |
72,708,043 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim%20Soun-Gui | Kim Soun-Gui (, b. 1946) is a South Korean multimedia artist based in France. Kim was born in Buyeo, South Korea. After graduating from the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1971, she moved to France to pursue further study in semiology, philosophy, and aesthetics. She began teaching in 1973 as a professor at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille from 1974 until 2000, and then the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art, Dijon from 2001-2011.
Kim moves across different mediums, including video, drawing, painting, performance, installation, photography, sculpture, and calligraphy to create her work. Her expansive practice is conceptually-driven, leading her to use a wide range of mediums to explore ideas in philosophy, engage with political and social issues, and collaborate with a wide range of thinkers, artists, and performers. Kim's emphasis on openness and play dominate much of her work, allowing her to shift between and blend different references from different times and places, involve multiple participants in performances and installations, and explore the formal possibilities of both new and old mediums ranging from video to calligraphy.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) presented the first major retrospective of Kim's work in Korea from 2019-2020 that later traveled to the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe from 2022-3. The show title "Soungui Kim: Lazy Clouds" refers to the title of a poem Kim wrote, the name of the book of poetry she published in France, and a self-assigned nickname the artist has used since college. The title also hints at the positive connotations of laziness as a means of engaging in philosophical and creative play.
Early life
Kim was born in 1946 in Buyeo, Chungnam, South Korea. She grew up in Daejeon, and then Seoul. Kim's mother was a well-known calligrapher and painter exhibiting work under the name Sang Man, and Kim's grandfather practiced calligraphy as well. As a result, Kim studied calligraphy since early childhood, and argues that practicing calligraphy has been essential to her practice. She was also exposed to photography and film at a young age due to her uncle who studied photography in Japan, and worked in the film industry.
Kim enjoyed drawing and painting as a child, with one elementary school teacher telling her that she could become an artist, and move to Paris, where she could meet artists from across the world. The idea that moving abroad could expose one to other cultures later propelled Kim in adulthood to move to France. In addition to drawing and calligraphy, Kim learned danso (Korean flute) at the National Gugak Center, and traditional archery at Hwanghakjeong. After graduating from high school, Kim continued taking danso lessons at the National Music Center. Archery and the colors related to it would appear in her work in the early 70s, such as Ten Thousand Ugly Ink Dots (1982).
Education
Kim completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University from 1966-71. Her classmates included artist Sung Wankyung and architect Chung Guyon. While attending school, she studied French through language exchange with a French Catholic priest. She exhibited a piece titled Sori (1970) for her graduate school degree show. For the work, Kim hung up a ripped piece of cloth that she had submerged in paint on a piece of wood.
In 1971, the Centre Artistique de Rencontre International in Nice invited Kim, and awarded her a scholarship that allowed her to move to France at the age of 25 and study at the École Nationale d'Arts Décoratifs de Nice. Upon graduating she was selected for an exhibition featuring work by select graduates from art colleges in the area. The show was held at L'Institut d'Environnement. She then went on to study semiology, philosophy, and aesthetics at the Université d'Aix-en-Provence and the Université de Nice. While studying Shitao's ideas on paintings, and Eastern philosophy and aesthetics more broadly, Kim continued her artistic practice.
In 1974, she became a professor at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. She also taught at Ecole Nationale d’Art Décoratif, Nice from 1974-5, and Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art, Dijon from 2001-2011. Scholar Jean-Michel Rabaté credits Kim with showing students in cities across France the potential of video art in unprecedented ways.
Work
Process
Kim emphasizes the openness of her work, stating that words like "situation," "play," and "gesture" best describe her artistic practice.
Kim has used the word "situation" to explain her work since 1971 when she arrived in France. Unable to utilize an existing term common in art, and drawn to the word's implication of openness and contingency, she found herself drawing on it when asked to speak about her practice. She claims that the word was not taken from the Situationists of the 1960s, and distinguishes her work from them in both context and approach. By the end of the 70s, she was able to use the term "installation" to label her work.
Kim states that works like Stock Exchange (2005-ongoing) showing changing stock prices exemplify the fluctuation of movement in her work. In this particular work, Kim's emphasis on process and continued variation allows her to critically look at the rapid pace of change in a hyper-modern Asia.
Medium
Kim has worked across a wide-range of media, including video, drawing, painting, performance, installation, photography, sculpture, and calligraphy. She stated in a 2019 interview that she only chooses the medium for work after deciding the concept.
Video art
Kim created her first video work in 1971-3 titled Il-Ki (Journal) with an 8mm movie camera, and continued to create video works with an 8mm movie camera she purchased in 1973, or video cameras she borrowed. After meeting artists like John Cage and Nam June Paik in the late 70s, and purchasing a video camera in 1983, Kim shifted towards working primarily with video. From 1983 to 1984, she researched the medium at CIRCA, and later at Studio National Des Arts Contemporains (SNAC). Soon after, she often turned to and traveled with video cameras and homemade pinhole cameras (which she termed her "foolish camera") for her work.
Multimedia art
Kim's conception of multimedia art moves beyond medium-specificity and the limits that it might impose, and rather offers the artist a new way of interacting with the world:"I don't see multimedia art as an artistic genre, rather a way of being, thinking, seeing and behaving. It's an open gesture, an indeterminate domain, a pluralistic manner of seeing, in other words a formless mode of approach based on a diversification of sites, prospects, languages and techniques. It's the 'movement of thought' or movement simple, its tracing. A Stroke of the Brush, the step. It ignores forms, distinctions, hierarchies yet has the capacity to change indefinitely and includes all domains and times simultaneously. This is why I like to call it 'Open media.'"Kim's linkage between newer mediums like video with artistic practices with longer histories, such as calligraphy, both allows the artist to think of multimedia art expansively, and is a direct result of technological advances—the accessibility and portability of camcorders fundamentally changed how Kim created video art.
Vide&O (1989)
Vide&O is one example of her cross-medial work, offering a life-sized television made entirely of ice. The name of the sculpture was borne out of a misunderstanding with the employee at the ice factory who made the work, and wrote the words "empty water" instead of "video" on the piece ("vide eau," meaning "empty water," is pronounced the same as "vide" "O"). Kim liked the accidental name, and stuck with it given that the sculpture showed a video monitor that was empty.
Station 0 Time (1996-7)
The Korean National Center for Industrial Technology commissioned the multimedia work consisting of two components. The first was a multi-video projection that displayed a random combination of TV and satellite channel signals, and videos showing the day's weather and times across the world which were drawn from over 45,000 sources.
Participation and performance
A number of Kim's works involve participation from the public or invited artists and friends, keying into her desire to create open-ended works that move beyond the individual, and can take on different forms with multiple iterations. While documenting individual performances in the video Il-Ki (Journal) (1971-3), Kim expanded the scope of her performances with large-scale works like Situation Plastique II, and III (1971–73, 1973).
Situation Plastique II, III (1971-1973, 1973)
For Situation Plastique II (Cagnes sur Mer, October 1972; Nice, November, 1972; Grasse, July 1973; Monaco), Kim and the participants flew kites that the artist made with cloth from Korea while participants took turns shooting the group with a video camera. Situation Plastique III - Octobre à Bordeaux (1973) required over 300 art students in Bordeaux to help attach pieces of cloth and balloons to stones, and then sever the connections, allowing over 300 balloons to float away and disappear.
"Soungui Kim Art Festival" (1975)
Kim's solo exhibition at the U.S. Culture Center in Seoul titled "Soungui Kim Art Festival" was her first show in the U.S. since moving to France. The exhibition featured a series of programs, including screenings and open discussions on trends and practices in contemporary art—a format unusual for its time. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) confiscated her work Sori (1970) which she installed in an alley near the exhibition space. In addition to Sori, the show included works like Today (1975, 1998). However, the works included in the show are now all gone, and are available only through video and written documentation.
Today (1975, 1998)
Kim first conceived of the work in 1975, but considers each installation a new piece. The installation includes a drawn calendar on the exhibition wall covering the dates of the show. Each day of the exhibition, visitors are welcome to write in whichever language, script, and color they choose the words "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow" under the current date. The peculiarity of Kim's calendar renders every day "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow," thus destabilizing our notions around time, and illustrating how the passage of time is tied to both lived experience and language.
Space Time (1975, 2008, 2019)
Kim created a performance for the festival celebrating the 100th issue of the Korean magazine Space. For the 1975 of this performance, she recorded the movements of participating performers with drawings. The 2008 version at Art Sonje Center featured a Buddhist priest, curator, and cellist, and the 2019 iteration at the National Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) centered on Kim, a robot named Younghee, and shaman Kim Mihwa.
Interest in social, political, and economic issues
Kim's interest in form and modes of engagement with art do not preclude directly addressing political, social, and economic issues. Works like Stock Exchange (2005-ongoing) and Lottery Neighborhood (1999) consider issues around the market and labor, while iterations of Colpoteurs (1991-ongoing) consider issues ranging from the Gulf War and French governmental policies, and Sans nom (Without Name) (1995) centers on Korean "comfort women."
Engagement with philosophy
Kim's wide array of references to thinkers across time and the world reveals a deep investment in the connections between art and other fields. She draws heavily from philosophy, citing figures like Guy Debord and Zhuangzi, utilizing terms from Buddhism and Daoism, and engaging in dialogue with Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. Kim blends philosophy and artistic practice together in her description of painting, bringing in references to the origins of Chinese writing, Shitao, Vattimo, and Wittgenstein.
Kim's interest in the philosophical aspects of art extends to her conceptions of medium forms as well. When discussing her work "Dream of Butterfly (Songe d’un papillon)" (1992) centered on the funeral for a Buddhist monk, Kim compares video as a medium to the Daoist and Buddhist concept of "emptiness":"Video is nothing but a 'shining empty vessel,' a 'vessel to fold time'; video is nothing but timing and energy. Video is X time of the frequency of an electron; one video image is composed of one twenty-fifth of second. Video is pure movement of timing and the life itself is nothing but how to use everyday time. Therefore video is life, use of time." Kim's linkage of video and the temporality of the living world offers an expansive understanding of the medium that moves beyond its technological functions.
Interaction with and influences from other artists
Kim first heard about Fluxus through artist Ben Vautier, who lived in her neighborhood in France, and she became familiar with the artists' work through the head of Ecole de Nice Jacques Lepage. Kim first met John Cage in 1978 at the John Cage Festival in Sainte Baume, France, where he asked her to perform 0',00". She then met Nam June Paik in 1979 through Cage. Kim received at research grant in 1982 from the Cultural Ministry of France to stay in New York and work on a project titled "Multimedia and Namjune Paik." She photographed, taped, and wrote about Paik's preparation for his solo show at the Whitney Museum of Art. While in New York, Kim became acquainted with figures associated with The Kitchen, and artists like Ko Nakajima, Frank Gillette, John Sanborn, and Ira Schneider.
Kim collaborated with both artists for video works titled Bonjour Nam-June-Paik (1984) and John Cage: Empty Words (1986).
Bonjour Nam-June-Paik II (1984)
For the joint performance, Kim wrote poetry on silk with the pattern of TV color bars.
John Cage: Empty Words and Mirage Verbal (1986)
Cage used text from Marcel Duchamp's journals to perform on the day of Kim's birthday at a festival she organized at La Vielle Charite with the Association of the Mediterranean Institute of Research and Creation (IMEREC). The festival titled "Video and Multimedia: Soungui Kim and Her Invitees" included John Cage, Nam June Paik, Ko Nakajima, Daniel Charles, Ira Schneider, and Davison Gigliotti.
Influences from dance and poetry
Kim has also discussed the work of dancers, and poets like Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, and Tao Yuanming.
Critical reception
For the first few decades of her career, Kim was largely unknown in the Korean art world, exhibiting primarily outside of Korea. In 1995, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) tried to work with Kim to take part in the exhibition for their "Artist of the Year" program, but the project fell through during negotiations. While Kim exhibited in other venues in Korea, Korean audiences had little exposure to the broad scope of her oeuvre until the 2019-2020 solo exhibition "Soungui Kim: Lazy Clouds" at MMCA.
Art critic Hye-jin Mun describes a consistency in Kim's oeuvre exemplified by the key words" play, process, situation, the everyday, coincidence, non/sense, inaction, loss of self, and paradox. But Mun also notes the difficulty of categorizing and broadly contextualizing Kim's work given her uniqueness in relation to the Korean and French art scenes.
Select exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
"Soun Gui Kim" (American Cultural Center, Seoul, 1975)
"Soun Gui Kim" (Gallery Kyeon-Ji, Seoul, 1977)
"Ten thousand ugly ink dots" (Galerie DAAD, Berlin, 1985)
"Soun Gui Kim" (Galerie Donguy, Paris, 1988)
"Passages" (Centre d’Art Contemporain, Troyes, France, 1989)
"0 Time" (Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice, Nice, 1991)
"Station 0 Time" (Korean Institute of Industrial Technology, Cheonan, Korea, 1996)
"Stock Exchange I" (La Maison du Livre d’Artiste Contemporain, Domart en Ponthieu, 1999)
"Stock Exchange II" (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2001)
"P.A.P." (Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris, 2001)
"Stock Exchange III" (La Maison de l’Art et de la Communication de Sallaumine, Sallaumine, 2001)
"Points de vue" (Galerie de/di/dY, Paris, 2005)
"Soun Gui Kim/Films" (The Film Gallery, Paris, 2006)
"Soun-Gui Kim" (Platform Seoul, Gallery Ye Mec, Seoul, 2008)
"Stock+Garden," (Gallery 175, Seoul, 2008)
"Beating the market: Soun-Gui Kim in dialogue with Cage, Derrida, and Nancy" (Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, 2013)
"Lunes, Où, Par-dessus le marché, Silence" (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2014)
"Kim Soun-gui: 0 Time" (Arario Gallery, Seoul, 2018)
"Soun-Gui Kim: Lazy Clouds" (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, 2019-2020; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, 2022-2023)
Group exhibitions
"Contemporary art festival, Space 75" (National Theater of Myeongdong, Seoul, 1975)
"Rencontre Internationale de la Photographie" (Arles, 1995)
"Gwangju Biennale PAUSE" (Gwangju, Korea, 2002)
"Past in reverse" (Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; Hood Museum, Depaul University, Indiana; Dartmouth College, New Hampshire; Hanover Peeler Art Center, Hanover, 2005)
"Media City Seoul 2010" (Seoul History Museum, Seoul, 2010)
"Asian Film & Video Art Forum" (MMCA, Seoul, 2015)
"Is it morning for you yet: The 58th Carnegie International" (Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2022)
Further reading
Kim, Soun-Gui. Nuages Paresseux. La Main Courante: La Souterraine, 1999.
Kim, Soun-Gui. Bonjour, exh. cat. Hong Design: Seoul, 2000.
Kim, Soun-Gui. Montagne c’est la mer, exh. cat. La Main Courante: La Souterraine, 2003.
Kim, Soun-Gui. Stock + Garden, exh. cat. SAMUSO & KNUA: Seoul, 2008.
Kim, Soun-Gui. 보이니? Entends-tu?: Poèmes et Dessins de KIM SOUN GUI. Editions O’NW: Seoul, 2016.
Kim, Soun-Gui. 0 Time, exh. cat. Seoul: Arario Gallery, 2018.
References
Living people
1946 births
South Korean contemporary artists
21st-century South Korean artists
20th-century South Korean artists
20th-century South Korean women artists
Multimedia artists
South Korean video artists | Kim Soun-Gui | [
"Technology"
] | 4,080 | [
"Multimedia",
"Multimedia artists"
] |
72,709,760 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium%20telluride | Caesium telluride or Caesium telluridocaesium is an inorganic salt with a chemical formula Cs2Te. Caesium telluride is used to make photo cathodes.
Caesium telluride is the photoemissive material used in many laser-driven radio frequency (RF) electron guns like in the TESLA Test Facility (TTF).
References
Caesium compounds
Tellurides | Caesium telluride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 90 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Inorganic compound stubs"
] |
72,711,303 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege%20of%20Caffa | The siege of Caffa was a 14th-century military encounter when Jani Beg of the Golden Horde sieged the city of Caffa, (today Feodosia) between two periods in the 1340s. The city of Caffa, a Genoese colony, was a vital trading hub located in Crimea. The city was then part of Gazaria, a group of seven ports located in Crimea and belonging to the maritime empire of the Republic of Genoa. The event is historically significant primarily because it is believed to be one of the earliest instances of biological warfare.
The siege of Caffa was characterized by intense military tactics from both sides. After several years of siege, the armies of the Horde were forced to withdraw. The siege is famous for a story recounted by Italian notary Gabriel de Mussis, which attributed the subsequent spread of the Black Death to plague-infested corpses having been launched over the walls at the end of the siege.
Background
Caffa (modern-day Feodosia) was a thriving port city on the Crimean Peninsula, established by Genoese merchants in 1266 by a purchase agreement with the Khan of the Golden Horde. The city was strategically situated on the Black Sea, serving as a critical link in the trade routes between Europe and Asia. Caffa's prosperity made it a coveted target for various powers, including the Mongol Empire. The Mongols, under the leadership of the Golden Horde, sought to control this lucrative trading post, which was vital for the flow of goods such as spices, silk, and precious metals.
Beyond its strategic importance, Caffa was a melting pot of cultures and religions. The city's population included Genoese, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Muslims, making it a vibrant center of cultural exchange. The city's prosperity attracted merchants and settlers from across the Mediterranean and beyond, further enhancing its significance as a trading hub.
Relations between the Genoese and the Mongol Golden Horde were strained. The khan of the Golden Horde, Toqta, was piqued at the Italian slave trade in Turkic slaves via the Black Sea, who were sold as soldiers to military slavery in the Mamluk Sultanate. He arrested the Italian residents of Sarai (the Mongol capital), and besieged Caffa, which the Genoese resisted for a year, but in 1308 set fire to their city and abandoned it. Relations between the Italians and the Golden Horde remained tense until Toqta's death in 1312.
Toqtai's successor, Özbeg Khan, mended relations with the Geneose, which allowed Caffa to become a thriving city once again by the 1340s. However, the ascension of Özbeg Khan's son Jani Beg to the throne changed the political scene once more. The conversion of the Golden Horde Khans to Islam, led to them persecuting Christians.
The relationship between the Genoese and the Mongol Golden Horde was complex, marked by periods of cooperation and conflict. The Genoese had initially secured their trading rights through treaties with the Mongols, but tensions arose due to competing interests and the volatile political landscape of the region. The escalation of these tensions ultimately led to the siege of Caffa in 1346.
Siege
The Mongols under Jani Beg besieged Caffa in 1343 and the Venetian territory of Tana, the cause of which was a brawl between Italians and Muslims in Tana. The siege of Caffa lasted until February 1344, when it was lifted after an Italian relief force killed 15,000 Mongol troops and destroyed their siege machines.
Jani Beg renewed the siege in 1345, and cut off any supplies to the city, leading to miserable conditions within Caffa. The siege was a prolonged and grueling affair, lasting several months. The Mongol army, renowned for their military prowess and tactics, faced a formidable challenge in Caffa's strong fortifications. The city's defenses were well-maintained, and the Genoese defenders were determined to hold their ground.
The Mongols employed various siege tactics, including direct assaults, bombardments, and attempts to breach the walls with siege engines. However, the Genoese, bolstered by their strategic fortifications and the ability to receive supplies by sea, managed to hold off the Mongol attacks. The defenders of Caffa employed innovative tactics to withstand the Mongol assaults. For example, they used Greek fire, a flammable liquid weapon, to repel attackers attempting to breach the walls. The city's fortifications were continuously reinforced, and the defenders maintained a disciplined schedule of repairs and patrols to ensure their resilience against the relentless Mongol siege. The stalemate continued for months, with both sides suffering significant casualties and struggling to maintain their positions.
The turning point in the siege came when an outbreak of the plague struck the Mongol camp. The disease, which later became known as the Black Death, caused widespread devastation among the Mongol troops. The exact origins of the plague in the Mongol camp are unclear, but it is believed to have been brought by infected rodents and fleas that thrived in the unsanitary conditions of the encampment. The epidemic of bubonic plague devastated Jani Beg's forces, giving hope to the Italians, and he was forced to lift the siege in 1347. The siege and despair of the city's citizens as the disease spread is vividly described by the Italian notary Gabriel de Mussis. However, de Mussis was not present at the siege and his story is contradicted by contemporary evidence from the Black Sea region. It is now believed that the Black Death spread to Europe in grain shipments that were restarted after the wartime embargoes between Venetian, Genoan, and Golden Horde merchants had been lifted.
The Italians blockaded Mongol ports, forcing Jani Beg to negotiate for peace, and they were allowed to reestablish their colony in Tana in 1347. The resolution of the siege marked a temporary restoration of stability in the region, but also emphasize the broader consequences of the conflict and the bubonic plague.
Biological warfare
Facing the dire situation of a plague-ravaged army and a fortified city, Jani Beg resorted to a desperate and unprecedented tactic: biological warfare. The Mongol forces decided to use the bodies of their plague-infected soldiers as weapons. They catapulted these bodies over the city walls, aiming to infect the inhabitants of Caffa with the deadly disease.
This act is considered one of the earliest recorded instances of biological warfare. The introduction of plague-infected corpses into Caffa had a catastrophic effect on the city's population. The disease spread rapidly among the inhabitants, causing panic, death, and chaos. The Genoese defenders, unable to contain the outbreak, were forced to abandon their positions and flee the city.
Aftermath
The fleeing Genoese survivors boarded ships in a desperate attempt to escape the plague-ridden city. Unknown to them, they were carrying the plague with them, setting the stage for the pandemic's spread to Europe. As these ships docked at various ports along the Mediterranean, the Black Death began to take hold in Europe, leading to one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
The spread of the plague from Caffa to Europe had catastrophic consequences. The Black Death is estimated to have killed between 30% and 60% of Europe's population over the next few years. The pandemic caused massive social, economic, and political upheaval, altering the course of European history. The rapid and widespread transmission of the disease demonstrated the vulnerability of interconnected trade networks to the spread of infectious diseases.
The immediate aftermath of the siege saw a significant shift in the balance of power in the Black Sea region. The Genoese, despite the devastation, managed to reestablish their trading networks, though they faced increased competition from other emerging powers such as the Ottoman Empire. The long-term effects of the Black Death reshaped European demographics, economies, and societies, leading to labor shortages that ultimately contributed to the end of feudalism.
Notes
References
Biological warfare
Caffa
Caffa
Caffa
Caffa
Caffa
Caffa
14th century in the Republic of Genoa
1340s in Europe
Black Death
Caffa | Siege of Caffa | [
"Biology"
] | 1,660 | [
"Biological warfare"
] |
72,711,316 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%2040372 | HD 40372, also known as 59 Orionis, V1004 Orionis and HR 2100, is a variable star in the constellation Orion. Its apparent magnitude varies between magnitude 5.88 and 5.92, making it faintly visible to the naked eye for an observer far from light polluted urban areas. HD 40372 exhibits two types of variability; it is an eclipsing binary star and one of the two stars is a Delta Scuti variable star.
HD 40372 was discovered to be a spectroscopic binary by the examination of spectra taken at the DDO in 1943 and 1944. Further DDO spectra taken in 1946 and 1947 allowed the binary's orbit to be calculated, and the period derived from those data, 2.74050 days, is still used in 21st century publications. In 1968, HD 40372 was found to have a "δ Del"-type spectrum. Because such a spectrum can indicate variability, the star was monitored with a photoelectric photometer, and found to be a Delta Scuti variable in 1973. It was given the variable star designation V1004 Orionis in 1974. Remarkably, the fact that HD 40372 is an eclipsing binary appears to have gone unnoticed until the Hipparcos data were processed by an automated light curve classifier in 2011, despite the fact that the brightness changes due to eclipses are far larger than the variations caused by the Delta Scuti pulsations.
The spectral type of the system is given as A5me, indicating an Am star. Such stars have unusual absorption line strengths for metals in comparison to hydrogen, and a detailed spectral classification of kA7VmA7/F5III/Vp indicates that the classification based on Calcium K-lines would be A7V, while the classification based on lines of other metals in the green part of the spectrum would be A7V and for metal lines in the violet F5III/IV. Because of the unusual luminosity effects in the spectrum, it has been considered to be a Delta Delphini star.
In 1985, HD 40372 was identified as a possible member of the Hyades Moving Group. Two visible companions are listed, a 10th-magnitude star at and a 7th-magnitude A1 giant at . The closer of the two is an unrelated background object, but the more distant shares a common proper motion and is at the same distance. Any orbit, assuming they were gravitationally bound, would require about a million years.
References
Beta Lyrae variables
Delta Scuti variables
Orion (constellation)
Orionis, 059
28271
40372
Durchmusterung objects
Orionis, V1004
Am stars
A-type giants | HD 40372 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 552 | [
"Constellations",
"Orion (constellation)"
] |
72,712,320 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnePlus%2010T | The OnePlus 10T is a high-end Android-based smartphone manufactured by OnePlus, unveiled on August 3, 2022. Designed as a successor to the OnePlus 8T, the 10T features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, an octa-core CPU, and an Adreno 730 GPU. Available in Moonstone Black and Jade Green, the phone has a sleek slate form factor with dimensions of 163 mm in height, 75.4 mm in width, and 8.8 mm in thickness, and weighs 204 grams.
The OnePlus 10T has a 6.7-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and a 120Hz refresh rate.
The camera setup includes a triple rear camera system with a 50 MP main sensor, an 8 MP ultrawide lens, and a 2 MP macro lens, capable of recording 4K video at 30/60fps and 1080p video at up to 240fps. The front-facing camera features a 16 MP sensor.
Additional features include a 4800 mAh battery with 150W fast charging, stereo speakers, and a range of connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and USB Type-C. The OnePlus 10T also includes an under-display optical fingerprint scanner, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, compass, and a color spectrum sensor.
The OnePlus 10T is related to the OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10R, sharing similar design and performance traits.
References
External links
OnePlus mobile phones
Phablets
Mobile phones introduced in 2022
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Mobile phones with 4K video recording | OnePlus 10T | [
"Technology"
] | 373 | [
"Crossover devices",
"Mobile technology stubs",
"Phablets",
"Mobile phone stubs"
] |
72,713,693 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20Sommer%20Award | The Robert-Sommer Award is a prize awarded for scientific work done in the field of schizophrenia research. It has been awarded since 1996 by the Robert-Sommer Research Society. It commemorates Robert Sommer, a German psychiatrist born in Grottkau and first director of the Psychiatric University Hospital in Giessen. He is remembered for his work in experimental psychology.Traditionally the award is given to the recipient during the GISS conference in Giessen.
Recipients
2023 Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg (Mannheim, Germany)
2016 Barbara Sahakian & Trevor Robbins (Cambridge, Great Britain)
2013 Christos Pantelis (Melbourne, Australia)
2010 David A. Lewis (Pittsburgh, United States)
2008 Shitij Kapur (London, Great Britain)
2006 Lynn DeLisi (New York, United States)
2004 Uta Frith and Chris Frith (London, Great Britain)
2002 Daniel Weinberger (Bethesda, United States)
2000 Robin Murray (London, Great Britain)
1998 Nancy Andreasen (Iowa, United States)
1996 Timothy Crow (Oxford, Great Britain)
References
Robert Sommer (psychiatrist)
schizophrenia
experimental psychology
Grottkau
Giessen
Reference section
External links
GISS symposium
Medicine awards
Psychology awards
Awards established in 1996 | Robert Sommer Award | [
"Technology"
] | 251 | [
"Science and technology awards",
"Medicine awards"
] |
69,636,785 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy%20Collection | The Legacy Collection or Legacy Series was a series of releases by Columbia Records (later, following a reorganization, called CBS Records) that combined LP records with books.
The Legacy Collection began in September 1960 with The American Revolution, which contained an LP and 62-page book about the American Revolutionary War. Items in the series were generally on historical subjects. The series was produced by Goddard Lieberson, who started it as a way to "document important periods and events in the history of our continent". When Columbia was reorganized in 1966, Legacy remained within Lieberson's remit when he took over as head of what was now called CBS Records, a division of CBS-Columbia Group.
The Badmen (1963), a collection for children about outlaws on the American frontier, combines recordings of American folk music and spoken word performance with a 70-page book. In 1965, Stanton Catlin and Carleton Beals shared the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for Mexico. Mexico book is in Spanish and English. The record has music by Carlos Chávez; some compositions are based on Spanish songs and others attempt to reconstruct Aztec music. The Irish Uprising (1966), about the Easter Rising, has a book with a foreword by Éamon de Valera and recordings of Irish ballads. John Fitzgerald Kennedy ... As We Remember Him includes a book reproducing photographs from John F. Kennedy's childhood and a recording of his mother Rose Kennedy. The Russian Revolution has a recording of Vladimir Lenin's voice.
Releases
Notes
Sources
Columbia Records albums
Multimedia works | Legacy Collection | [
"Technology"
] | 316 | [
"Multimedia",
"Multimedia works"
] |
69,638,553 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus%20ZenFone%208 | The Asus ZenFone 8 is an Android-based phone designed, developed and manufactured by Asus as part of its Asus ZenFone series. It was announced on 12 May 2021.
History
On 13 May Asus announced the ZenFone8 and ZenFone8 Pro, which were announced and sold in Hong Kong on the same day. The devices were launched on 28 May in Malaysia.
On 12 May 2021, ASUS announced ZenFone 8 (ZenFone 8 Compact) and ZenFone 8 Flip under the slogan "Big on Performance. Compact in Size." They were released later on 13 May 2021, featuring a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 (Victus in Compact ver.) protection and they support 5G. Their display design is Samsung Super AMOLED screen with 120 Hz (90 Hz in Flip ver.) of refresh rate. ZenFone 8 Flip (also known as ZenFone 8 Pro) retains the current previous generation's camera but with improved performance, similar to ZenFone 8 compact. ZenFone 8 (also known as ZenFone 8 compact, ZenFone 8 mini) returns the cameras back to the same as ZenFone 5 (2018), but has Infinity-O display with 64 MP + 12 MP rear cameras similar to ZenFone 5. It has a 4000 mAh battery and includes IP68 water resistance and a fingerprint sensor on display.
Variants
References
External links
Asus ZenFone
Mobile phones introduced in 2021
Mobile phones with 8K video recording
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Discontinued flagship smartphones | Asus ZenFone 8 | [
"Technology"
] | 342 | [
"Discontinued flagship smartphones",
"Flagship smartphones"
] |
69,638,712 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewellia%20lineolata | Sewellia lineolata, the reticulated hillstream loach, is a species of fish from the provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh in Vietnam.
Habitat
Sewellia lineotola is found in shallow, fast-flowing, highly oxygenated tributaries and headwaters that contain stretches of riffles broken up by pools or sometimes waterfalls. Inhabited substrates are normally composed of gravel, bedrock and sand among stretches containing boulders, surrounded by well-developed riparian vegetations but with fewer aquatic plants present. The most favorable habitats have oxygen-saturated clear water which, combined with the sun, creates a rich biofilm covering submerged surfaces. During times of high rainfall, some streams can become murky as a result of suspended material caused by larger flow rate and water depth.
Diet
Sewellia lineolata eat benthic algae and associated micro-organisms. Insect larvae may be eaten opportunistically. In the aquarium, fish flakes, mini pellets, and algae wafers can also be added to the diet, along with bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, and tubifex.
Tiger Hillstream Loaches, Sewellia lineolata, have especially developed fins to attach themselves to rocks and flat areas in their naturally fast moving rivers and streams. For them to survive and be happy they need strong currents plus abundant oxygen, numerous rocky hiding places and smooth pebbles and boulders to graze over.
Lighting should be bright to encourage algal growth in the aquarium. Plants are not necessary as the fish do not normally encounter them in the wild. They demand excellent water-quality. Suitable plants for high-flow environments are Anubias and Microsoreum. These will grow on rock-work or driftwood.
Note these fish have smaller mouths than Gastromyzon species which should be a consideration with foodstuffs. Good quality flake, small sinking pellets, algae wafers, thawed frozen Bloodworm, Mysis Shrimp, blanched Spinach, Kale, natural algae are good foods for them.
One part of their habits that differs from Gastromyzon or Beaufortia is that of "gliding" on the current. Those other species will move from a rock quickly to another in short hops, but Sewellia will launch from an elevated rock or other decor and glide on the current for some distance before alighting on another hard surface, or sometimes the substrate.
Also, unlike many other Sucker-bodied Hillstream Loaches, they seem far more at ease when searching for food on the loose surface of sand or fine gravel, and will flutter their fins, disturbing the surface grains. It appears they do this to uncover possible food items.
References
External links
Fish described in 1846
Fish of Vietnam
lineolata
Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes
Vulnerable species | Sewellia lineolata | [
"Biology"
] | 590 | [
"Vulnerable species",
"Biota by conservation status"
] |
69,642,430 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrapolynomial | In mathematics, an ultrapolynomial is a power series in several variables whose coefficients are bounded in some specific sense.
Definition
Let and a field (typically or ) equipped with a norm (typically the absolute value). Then a function of the form is called an ultrapolynomial of class , if the coefficients satisfy for all , for some and (resp. for every and some ).
References
Mathematical analysis | Ultrapolynomial | [
"Mathematics"
] | 87 | [
"Mathematical analysis"
] |
69,642,523 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salazinic%20acid | Salazinic acid is a depsidone with a lactone ring. It is found in some lichens, and is especially prevalent in Parmotrema and Bulbothrix, where its presence or absence is often used to help classify species in those genera.
History
In 1897, Friedrich Wilhelm Zopf named the chemical he originally isolated from the African species Stereocaulon salazinum as salazinic acid. Later studies showed that the compound he named was actually norstictic acid.
In 1933, Yasuhiko Asahina and J. Asano studied salazinic acid they had isolated from Parmelia cetrata, and found a unique ring system with seven members containing two phenolic components. The fundamental structure was named depsidone, that is, a seven-membered ring with an oxygen bridge binding two aromatic rings. Japanese chemists demonstrated in the late 1960s that the isolated mycobiont of the lichen Ramalina crassa could produce salazinic acid when grown in laboratory culture. Subsequent studies tried to determine the influence of environmental factors on the production of salazinic acid in culture. For example, two studies in the late 1980s showed that only 4-O-demethylbarbatic acid (a precursor of salazinic acid) was produced by the isolated mycobiont of Ramalina siliquosa when grown in malt yeast extract medium supplemented with low amounts of sucrose. When extra sucrose was added to the growth medium, the production of salazinic acid was observed; the increased osmolality enhances the reaction from 4-O-demethylbarbatic acid to salazinic acid.
Properties
Salazinic acid has a molecular formula of C18H12O10, and a molecular mass of 388.3 grams/mole. In its purified form, it exists as colourless needles with a melting point range between that undergo a colour change to brown at about . Its solubility in water is about 27 milligrams per litre.
The compound has been shown in in vitro studies to have antimicrobial properties, but it did not have any substantive antimycobacterial effects when tested against Mycobacterium aurum. Recent (2021) research indicates that salazinic acid is a potent modulator of Nrf2, NF-κB and STAT3 signaling pathways in colorectal cancer cells.
The complete 1H and 13C NMR spectral assignments for salazinic acid were reported in 2000.
Occurrence
Salazinic acid is derived via the acetyl polymalonyl pathway, a metabolic pathway that uses acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA (derivatives of coenzyme A). The compound is common in the large lichen genus Parmotrema, and plays an important role in the chemotaxonomy and systematics of that genus. A 2020 revision included 66 salazinic acid-containing species. The presence or absence of the compound is also important in the classification of genus Bulbothrix.
In nature, salazinic acid serves as an antioxidant as well as a photoprotectant, helping the lichen to survive in conditions of both abiotic and biotic stress. A study of three foliose lichen species showed higher quantities of salazinic acid correlating with increases in altitude. An earlier study demonstrated other possible effects of environmental conditions on salazinic acid content. It was shown that the salazinic acid content of Ramalina siliquosa is higher where the annual mean temperature is higher, and the content of the lichens growing on the dark-coloured rock or on the southern rock face is higher than that of the lichens growing on the light-coloured rock or on the northern rock face.
Related compounds
The depsidones chalybaeizanic acid and quaesitic acid, isolated from the lichens Xanthoparmelia amphixanthoides and Hypotrachyna quaesita, respectively, are structurally similar to salazinic acid. In consalazinic acid, the aldehyde group of salazinic acid is replaced with a benzyl alcohol functional group.
8'-O-Methylsalazinic acid was isolated from Parmotrema dilatatum. Several new synthesised derivatives of salazinic acid were reported in 2021 using bromination, nucleophilic addition, Friedel-Crafts alkylation, and esterification.
Eponyms
Several authors have explicitly named salazinic acid in the specific epithets of their published lichen species, thereby acknowledging the presence of this compound as an important taxonomic characteristic. These eponyms are listed here, followed by their taxonomic authority and year of publication:
Acanthothecis salazinica
Bryoria salazinica
Graphina salazinica
Karoowia salazinica
Lepraria salazinica
Myelochroa salazinica
Ocellularia salazinica
Pertusaria salazinica
Phaeographina salazinica
Psiloparmelia salazinica
Diorygma salazinicum
Oropogon salazinicus
References
Lactones
Lichen products
Heterocyclic compounds with 4 rings
Hydroxymethyl compounds
Polyphenols
Benzodioxepines | Salazinic acid | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,105 | [
"Natural products",
"Lichen products"
] |
69,643,887 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO%20Hague%20System | The WIPO Hague System provides an international mechanism for securing and managing design rights simultaneously, in multiple countries and regions, through one application filed directly with WIPO. The resulting international registration provides design owners with the equivalent of a bundle of national or regional registrations. The subsequent management of that international registration – including modifications, updates and renewals – is a single step procedure through WIPO.
Geographical coverage
The Hague System comprises 77 contracting parties, covering more than 90 countries, including all countries of the European Union (EU) and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI). Hague System users can designate as few or as many of these contracting parties as they wish when filing an international application.
According to the rules laid out by the Hague Agreement, anyone who is a national of – or who has a domicile, habitual residence or real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in – any one of the Hague System's contracting parties (including any country of the EU or OAPI) can use the Hague System. There is no pre-requirement to file a national or regional design application.
History
The origins of the Hague System date back to 1925 and the adoption of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs . The Hague Agreement was revised in 1934 (London Act) and again in 1960 (Hague Act). An Additional Act signed in Monaco in 1961, and a Complementary Act signed in Stockholm in 1967 (further amended in 1979) supplement The Hague Agreement.
The London Act (1934) – frozen on January 1, 2010 – terminated on October 18, 2016 . It is no longer possible to file international applications under this Act. It is however currently still possible to renew or modify an international registration recorded under this Act, up to the date of maximum duration of protection provided for – fifteen years. All activity under the London Act (1934) will terminate at the latest on December 31, 2024.
The latest Act of the Hague Agreement is the Geneva Act (1999) – signed on July 2, 1999 – which came into effect on December 23, 2003. Both the Geneva Act (1999) and the Hague Act (1960) – two independent acts of the Hague Agreement – are in force. Operations take place almost entirely under the Geneva Act (1999).
The Geneva Act is open to all WIPO member states and any intergovernmental organization (IGO) that has:
at least one member that is also a member of WIPO; and
an office through which design protection may be obtained, with effect in the territory in which the IGO's constituting treaty applies.
The Geneva Act:
extends membership to countries with intellectual property (IP) offices that carry out novelty examination of designs;
ensures the international registration system's compatibility with regional systems; and
offers more features and increased geographical scope.
Common Regulations and Administrative Instructions complement the two Acts of the Hague Agreement that are in force.
Using the Hague System
International design applications are filed directly through WIPO, according to the requirements and procedures established by the Hague Agreement. The domestic legal framework of each designated contracting party governs the design protection provided by the resulting international registrations.
The Hague System procedure
Filing an international application
Through the Hague System, applicants file one international application directly with WIPO – in one language and paying in one currency (Swiss francs). They can designate as few or as many of the Hague System's contracting parties as they wish, based on their target markets.
One international application can include up to 100 different designs so long as they belong to the same class of the Locarno Classification – the international classification used for the purposes of registering designs. An international application must contain at least one reproduction (drawing, photo or other graphic representation) of each design included. At least one contracting party must be designated.
Applicants may file an international application online using eHague – the Hague System's online gateway to international design protection. Applications must be filed in English, French or Spanish – the official languages of the Hague System.
Applicants can time publication of their designs to fit their business strategy. Standard publication takes place twelve months after the date of international registration (normally the filing date – the date on which WIPO received the application). Alternatively, immediate publication or publication at a chosen time within 30 months from the filing date (or earliest priority date) may be requested – depending on the domestic laws of the individual designated contracting parties.
Formality examination by WIPO
WIPO checks each international application to ensure that it complies with formal requirements (necessary information for applicant / representative, quality of reproductions, payment of fees, etc.).
If the application does not meet the necessary requirements, WIPO sends the applicant an irregularity letter explaining what is missing or faulty. The applicant has three months to fix those irregularities. Beyond this deadline, the application is no longer valid.
If the application meets all necessary requirements, WIPO records the registration in the International Register and publishes it in the International Designs Bulletin, according to the publication schedule indicated in the international application. WIPO also sends the holder a certificate of international registration.
International Designs Bulletin
The International Designs Bulletin – released weekly – is the Hague System's official publication of international registrations, containing all data and reproductions of the designs covered in those registrations. It also provides details on renewals of, and decisions and changes pertaining to those registrations. It is the official data reference for the holders of international registrations, the IP offices of the designated contracting parties and the public at large.
Substantive examination
Once WIPO has published the international registration in the International Designs Bulletin, the IP office of each designated contracting party may perform substantive examination, checking for example the novelty of the design(s).
Each contracting party has the right to refuse the effects of the international registration within its own territory, if it does not meet the substantive requirements of its own domestic law. Refusals cannot be based on formality requirements. Refusal by one contracting party is limited to its own territory and does not affect the international registration in other designated jurisdictions.
WIPO must be notified of any refusal within six (or twelve) months of the date of publication in the International Designs Bulletin. WIPO informs the holder of the registration, who may then take remedial action. Holders must contest refusals at the domestic level, according to the established procedures of the IP office concerned.
In the absence of a refusal, protection is considered granted in a given jurisdiction, under its domestic laws. Some IP offices, though not obliged to do so, issue a Statement of Grant of Protection after completion of substantive examination. When a holder successfully challenges a refusal, the IP office of the contracting party in question must withdraw the refusal, or issue a Statement of Grant of Protection.
Managing international registrations
Holders can make changes to their international registrations such as updating contact details, making changes to ownership, appointing representatives, requesting renunciation or limitation. International registrations are managed centrally through WIPO meaning that changes automatically apply to all designated contracting parties – except in the case of limitation or renunciation.
Holders make all changes using official Hague System forms. WIPO records the modifications in the International Register and publishes them in the International Designs Bulletin.
Renewing international registrations
The initial period of protection provided by the Hague System is five years. It is possible to renew an international registration twice. If the legislation of an individual contracting party allows for a longer duration of protection, then this also applies to international registrations.
Holders can renew their registrations online directly through WIPO's eHague platform for as many of the designs included, and in as many of the designated contracting parties, as desired.
Statistics
2021 data
Statistical data released in 2022 show that the number of designs contained in international applications grew by 20.8% in 2021 to reach 22,480 designs – the fastest growth since 2010. For the fifth consecutive year, Samsung Electronics (Republic of Korea) headed the list of top filers.
2020 data
Statistical data released in 2021 reveal that – with 5,792 international applications filed in 2020 – the Hague System showed some resilience in 2021 in the face of COVID-19; only 1.7% fewer applications compared to the previous year.
WIPO recorded 6,795 international registrations in 2020, representing a 34.8% increase on 2019.
In 2020, some 44,100 international registrations were in force, providing protection to approximately 172,200 designs.
References
Intellectual property law
Industrial design | WIPO Hague System | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,711 | [
"Industrial design",
"Design engineering",
"Design"
] |
69,645,126 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20largest%20spherical%20buildings | This article is a list of the largest spherical buildings in the world. In order to qualify for inclusion, the spherical construction for each entry must be the building itself (not spherical extension on the exterior of the building).
References
Spherical building
Spherical building
Spherical building | List of largest spherical buildings | [
"Physics"
] | 53 | [
"Spherical objects",
"Physical objects",
"Matter"
] |
69,645,938 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank%20Morton%20%28plant%20breeder%29 | Frank H. Morton (born 1955 in Fayette County, West Virginia) is an organic farmer, gardener, plant breeder and seedsman known for creating dozens of varieties of lettuce.
With his wife Karen, he founded the company Wild Garden Seed in 1994, and he was a founding member of the Open Source Seed Initiative in 2012.
Biography
Morton's first foray into gardening was brought about by his father, a coal miner who grew prizewinning delphiniums as a hobby, and his mother, who inspired the 5-year-old Frank to try planting the seeds from the watermelons he ate in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to get more watermelon. Growing up in West Virginia, he moved to Oregon in the 1970s to attend Lewis & Clark College, graduating with a BS in Child Psychology in 1978.
Morton began growing lettuce commercially in the early 1980s, letting some of the crop go to seed and planting those seeds the next year. Cross-pollination between two varieties led to formation of a novel hybrid with a combination of characteristics from the parent plants. Planting the seeds from that lettuce resulted in a number of different plants with a wide variety of features, from which 23 new varieties of lettuce were eventually selected. More recently, Morton has been selecting lettuce varieties for resistance to common diseases such as downy mildew.
Famous cultivars
Morton has bred at least 99 types of lettuce, and his company, Wild Garden Seed, offered seed for 114 lettuce varieties in 2016.
On August 10, 2015, 'Outredgeous', a red romaine lettuce bred by Morton in the 1990s, became the first plant variety to be planted, harvested and eaten entirely in space, as a part of Expedition 44 to the International Space Station.
In addition to lettuce, Morton has also grown and bred other types of vegetables, including beets, peppers, kale, and quinoa.
References
Further reading
1955 births
Living people
People from Fayette County, West Virginia
Plant breeding
Farmers from West Virginia
21st-century American farmers
Lewis & Clark College alumni | Frank Morton (plant breeder) | [
"Chemistry"
] | 435 | [
"Plant breeding",
"Molecular biology"
] |
69,646,023 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-buoyancy%20pressure%20vessel | A variable-buoyancy pressure vessel system is a type of rigid buoyancy control device for diving systems that retains a constant volume and varies its density by changing the weight (mass) of the contents, either by moving the ambient fluid into and out of a rigid pressure vessel, or by moving a stored liquid between internal and external variable-volume containers. A pressure vessel is used to withstand the hydrostatic pressure of the underwater environment. A variable-buoyancy pressure vessel can have an internal pressure greater or less than ambient pressure, and the pressure difference can vary from positive to negative within the operational depth range, or remain either positive or negative throughout the pressure range, depending on design choices.
Variable buoyancy is a useful characteristic of any mobile underwater system that operates in mid-water without external support. Examples include submarines, submersibles, benthic landers, remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, and underwater divers.
Several applications only need one cycle from positive to negative and back to get down to depth and return to the surface between deployments; others may need tens to hundreds of cycles over several months during a single deployment, or continual but very small adjustments in both directions to maintain a constant depth or neutral buoyancy at changing depths. Several mechanisms are available for this function; some are suitable for multiple cycles between positive and negative buoyancy, and others must be replenished between uses. Their suitability depends on the required characteristics for the specific application.
Uses of variable buoyancy in diving systems
Mobile underwater systems that operate in mid-water without external support need variable buoyancy, and as such these systems are a major research topic in the field of underwater vehicles. Examples include submarines, submersibles, benthic landers, remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, and ambient-pressure and single-atmosphere underwater divers.
A submarine can closely approach equilibrium when submerged but have no inherent stability in depth. The sealed pressure hull structure is usually slightly more compressible than water and will consequently lose buoyancy with increased depth. For precise and quick control of buoyancy and trim at depth, submarines use depth control tanks (DCT)—also called hard tanks (due to their ability to withstand higher pressure) or trim tanks. These are variable-buoyancy pressure vessels. The amount of water in depth control tanks can be controlled to change the buoyancy of the vessel so that it moves up or down in the water column, or to maintain a constant depth as outside conditions (mainly water density) change, and water can be pumped between trim tanks to control longitudinal or transverse trim without affecting buoyancy.
The operating depth of underwater vehicles can be controlled by controlling the buoyancy—by changing either the overall weight or the displaced volume—or by vectored thrust. Buoyancy can be controlled by changing the overall weight of the vehicle at constant volume, or by changing the displaced volume at a constant vehicle weight. The resulting buoyancy is used to control heave velocity and hovering depth, and in underwater gliders a positive or negative net buoyancy is used to drive forward motion.
The Avelo scuba system uses a variable-buoyancy pressure vessel, which is both the primary breathing gas cylinder and the scuba buoyancy compensator, with a rechargeable-battery–powered pump and dump valve unit which is demountable from the cylinder.
Variable-buoyancy systems have been considered for depth control of tethered ocean current turbine electrical generation.
The type of variable-buoyancy system best suited to an application depends on the precision of control required, the amount of change needed, and the number of cycles of buoyancy change necessary during a deployment.
Types of variable-buoyancy systems
Several types of variable-buoyancy systems have been used, and are briefly described here. Some are based on a relatively incompressible pressure vessel and are nearly stable with variation of hydrostatic pressure.
Ambient-pressure buoyancy/ballast tanks (unstable with depth change), such as the main ballast tanks on a submarine, or an inflatable diver's buoyancy compensator. These are not pressure vessels, as the contents are at ambient pressure.
Weight-discharge variable-mass system. This is generally a system by which ballast of higher density than the surroundings is discharged, and once discharged the ballast is lost. The system is simple and appropriate for vehicles that only need to make a very limited number of buoyancy adjustments during a deployment. It is a common method of achieving positive buoyancy in an emergency as it is simple to arrange a fail-safe discharge mechanism. An analogous system for releasing fixed low-density material is also possible. These are also not pressure vessels as the weights or incompressible buoys are stored at ambient pressure.
One-way tank-flood variable-mass system. This is simply an empty tank that can withstand external working pressure and can be partly or completely flooded by a control valve. The tank can be drained again at the surface for subsequent dives, but not while under pressure during a dive.
Pumped-oil constant-mass, variable-volume system. This method uses more power but is indefinitely repeatable while power lasts, as it does not discharge any consumables. A positive-displacement pump transfers oil stored in a variable-volume container inside a gas-filled pressure vessel to an external variable-volume container, incompressibly increasing the displaced volume of the vehicle. Return transfer may be by pressure difference controlled by a valve, or also pumped.
Piston-driven oil-filled constant-mass, variable-volume system. This works very similarly to the pumped oil system, but the internal storage is in a cylinder with a piston which decreases or increases its volume using a mechanical drive, typically powered by an electric motor. In effect the piston acts as a pump.
Pumped-water variable-buoyancy system. Ambient water is moved into and out of the pressure vessel to change the overall density of the vessel, and thereby of the vehicle of which it is a component. In one direction this transfer may be possible by pressure difference, but in at least one direction it must be pumped. The process is repeatable while power lasts, as the ballast is drawn from the surroundings.
Mechanism
A buoyancy tank that is within the pressure hull of the vehicle, as in a submarine, will be exposed to the internal pressure of the vehicle, so external pressure loads on the tank may be relatively low. In this case the ballast water transfer into the tank may not require pumping, though a positive-displacement pump may still be useful to accurately control the volume of water admitted. Discharge of ballast water is against the external pressure, which will depend on depth, and will generally require significant work.
If the buoyancy tank is directly exposed to the ambient hydrostatic pressure, the external load due to depth can be high, but if the internal gas pressure is high enough, the pressure difference will be lower, and the pressure vessel is not subjected to high net external pressure loads which can cause buckling instability, which can allow a lower structural weight. In the extreme case the internal pressure is high enough to rapidly eject the water ballast at maximum operational depth, as in the case of the Avelo integrated diving cylinder and buoyancy control device. A pump is used to move ambient water into the pressure vessel against the internal pressure, compressing the gas further in proportion to volume decrease, so the entire internal volume is not available to hold ballast, as although the gas will decrease in volume, there will always be some gas volume remaining. The water and air in the pressure vessel may be separated by a membrane or free piston to prevent pumping out air in some orientations, and to prevent the air from dissolving in the ballast water under high pressure.
See also
References
Diver buoyancy control equipment
Buoyancy devices
Pressure vessels | Variable-buoyancy pressure vessel | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Engineering"
] | 1,614 | [
"Structural engineering",
"Chemical equipment",
"Physical systems",
"Hydraulics",
"Pressure vessels"
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69,646,830 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamrunag%20Lake | Kamrunag Lake is located in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is situated at above sea level in D.P.F. Kamrunag which is between the Mandi State and the Suket State . To reach the lake there is an on-foot route from Rohanda to Kamrunag which takes about 3–4 hours and is about on steep mountain terrain and there is one other way via Chail-Chowk which takes about 2-3 hours from Mandi.
In July 2020, The Himachal Pradesh State Biodiversity Board announced that the lake and the surrounding area would be recognized as a Biodiversity Heritage Site. There are many medicinal plants, special trees and exotic animal and plant species in the area around the lake which will be protected once it has been declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site.
Folklore
There is an ancient stone idol of Dev Kamrunag near the lake, hence the name of the lake. People believe that Dev Kamrunag gives blessings to his devotees in exchange for their offerings of faith, devotion, flowers, coins or paper currency which they toss into Kamrunag Lake. Each year in the month of June, there is a big fair, where thousands of people from different places flock to see and worship Dev Kamrunag and take his blessings.
It is said that Kamrunag Lake contains riches worth millions or even billions, but that no one has ever tried to steal from the lake for it is believed that Dev Kamrunag punishes the people who do this bad deed. The legend is that the lake is guarded by Shesha and he protects it from people with bad intentions. People from all over the world visit this lake and offer valuables to the lake for the betterment and fulfilment of their wishes. This has led to the accumulation of wealth at the bottom of the lake. People offer gold, silver, coins, and also currency notes to the lake.
Etymology
The lake has its name because of a story from Mahabharata. It is said that Barbarika, the son of Ghatotkacha and Ahilawati, wanted to fight in the war and asked for permission from his mother. His mother then told him to fight for the side which was losing the war. Lord Krishna, after hearing about this, went to Barbarika to test him, as he already knew that the Kaurava side was going to lose the war in the end. Krishna took the form of a Brahman and challenged him to pierce all the leaves of a nearby Peepal tree. As Barbarika took out an arrow to shoot, Lord Krishna stepped on a leaf and kept it under his foot. After the arrow pierced all the leaves on the tree, it turned to pierce the last one which was under Lord Krishna's foot. He quickly stepped away from it and the arrow pierced the leaf. After this, Lord Krishna devised a plan: he asked for alms from Barbarika and made him promise to give anything he asked for. After he made the promise, Lord Krishna returned to his original form and asked Barbarika his head. Barbarika agreed to this and asked Lord Krishna for one request, which was to let him watch the Mahabharata. Lord Krishna took his head to the battlefield and let him watch the battle. After the battle was over Lord Krishna blessed him that he will be worshipped as Khatu Shyam and his body will be worshipped as Kamru.
References
Lakes of Himachal Pradesh
Biodiversity Heritage Sites of India | Kamrunag Lake | [
"Biology"
] | 713 | [
"Biodiversity Heritage Sites of India",
"Biodiversity"
] |
66,918,999 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrate%20selenite | The nitrate selenites are mixed anion compounds containing distinct nitrate (NO3−)and selenite (SO32−) groups. The compounds are colourless unless coloured by cations.
List
References
Nitrates
Selenites
Mixed anion compounds | Nitrate selenite | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 53 | [
"Matter",
"Mixed anion compounds",
"Nitrates",
"Salts",
"Oxidizing agents",
"Ions"
] |
66,922,545 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globo%20H | Globo H (globohexaosylceramide) is a globo-series glycosphingolipid antigen that is present on the outer membrane of some cancer cells. Globo H is not expressed in normal tissue cells, but is expressed in a number of types of cancers, including cancers of the breast, prostate, and pancreas. Globo H's exclusivity for cancer cells makes it a target of interest for cancer therapies.
Structure
Defined by the monoclonal antibody MBr1, Globo H has been isolated from breast cancer cell line MCF-7, and its structure has been determined through several analyses, including NMR spectroscopy and methylation analysis. Globo H consists of a hexasaccharide of the structure Fucα(1-2)Galβ(1-3)GalNAcβ(1-3)Galα(1-4)Galβ(1-4)Glcβ(1) with a ceramide attached to its terminal glucose ring at the 1 position in a beta linkage.
Synthesis
Biosynthesis
Globo H's biosynthetic pathway is involved in the synthesis pathways of other globo-series glycosphingolipid antigens that are also specific to cancer cells, including stage-specific embryonic antigen-3 (SSEA3) and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA4). The biosynthetic pathway of these antigens includes the enzyme β 1,3-galactosyltransferase V (β3GalT5). β3GalT5 catalyzes the galactosylation of globoside-4 (Gb4) to SSEA3. SSEA3 can then be converted to SSEA4 by sialyltransferase adding a sialic acid group to its end, or it can be converted to Globo H by fucosyltransferase adding a fucose ring to its end. Playing a part in the formation of three different cancer-specific antigens, β3GalT5 is of particular interest in its relevance to cancer treatment, and it has been shown to be critical for cancer cell survival.
Chemical Synthesis
In order to study its potential as a cancer therapy target, Globo H has been synthesized in the laboratory. One synthesis is achieved by first building two trisaccharides from their component sugars, and then linking them. The trisaccharides, with most of their functional groups protected to prevent side reactions, are linked by creating the GalNAcβ(1-3)Gal bond. A thioethyl group is added to the 1 position on one of the protected galactose rings, and in the presence of methyl triflate, this reacts with the hydroxyl group on the 3 position of the other galactose to link the trisaccharides and form the hexasaccharide. The ceramide is added to the 1 position of the terminal glucose ring after hexasaccharide formation.
Globo H as a Therapeutic Target
As a Tumor Associated Carbohydrate Antigen (TACA), Globo-H is a promising clinical target for immunotherapy. While absent in normal tissues, the glycosphingolipid is overexpressed in a variety of epithelial cancer cell types including human pancreatic, gastric, lung, colorectal, esophageal, and breast tumors.
Globo H Anticancer Vaccines
Globo-H's TACA character allows for its utilization as an anticancer vaccine, inducing antibody response against the epitope. The resulting humoral immunity could enable the selective eradication of Globo H-presenting tumors. The Taiwanese biopharma company OBI Pharma, Inc., was first to develop Adagloxad Simolenin (OBI-822), a Globo H hexasaccharide conjugated with the immunostimulatory carrier protein KLH. The Phase III GLORIA study is underway evaluating the carbohydrate-based immunogen's effects in high risk triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients with an estimated completion date in 2027.
Alternative vaccine conjugates have been developed which avoid issues associated with the protein carrier KLH by substituting it with a lipid or carbohydrate-based carrier. Examples include the use of lipid A derivatives or entirely carbohydrate vaccine conjugates such as Globo H-PS A1
Anti-Globo H Antibodies
Globo H-targeting antibodies are another strategy currently being evaluated in the cancer therapeutic space. OBI Pharma's OBI-888 is a humanized IgG1 antibody that selectively binds to the Globo H antigen among other Globo series glycosphingolipids such as SSEA-3 and SSEA-4. Additionally, in vivo studies of OBI-888 in various Globo H-positive (GH+) xenografts models showed promising tumor growth inhibition results. OBI-888's human Phase I/II study for the treatment of metastatic and locally advanced solid tumors is estimated to finish in December 2022.
Based on OBI-888, the first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) 0BI-999 was additionally developed, linking OBI-888 to monomethyl auristatin E, a synthetic antineoplastic agent. The ADC is currently undergoing phase II trial in patients with advanced solid tumors, with an estimated completion date in Dec 2023. In Dec 2019 & Jan 2020, OBI-999 was granted two Orphan Drug Designations by the FDA for the treatment of pancreatic and gastric cancer.
References
Biomolecules
Immune system
Immune receptors
Glycolipids
Antigens
Cancer immunotherapy
Experimental cancer drugs | Globo H | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 1,266 | [
"Carbohydrates",
"Natural products",
"Antigens",
"Immune system",
"Glycolipids",
"Organic compounds",
"Organ systems",
"Biomolecules",
"Structural biology",
"Biochemistry",
"Glycobiology",
"Molecular biology"
] |
66,922,965 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les%20Espaces%20d%27Abraxas | Les Espaces d'Abraxas is a high-density housing complex in Noisy-le-Grand, approximately from Paris, France. The building was designed by architect Ricardo Bofill and his architecture practice Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA) in 1978 on behalf of the French government, during a period of increased urbanisation across France after World War II. This rapid urbanisation led to overcrowding and insufficient housing in Paris. To offset this, the French government implemented a project to create five 'New Towns' on the outskirts of the city.
Architect Ricardo Bofill's projects, including Les Espaces d'Abraxas, are rooted in his left wing ideals. The building's post-modern design uses classical motifs and new building technologies to achieve a luxury aesthetic previously reserved for upper classes. Despite receiving criticism, the building was an early success for Bofill, and brought him international success and praise. The building has been used as a backdrop in film and TV, including in Brazil (1985), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) and Arcadia (2023)
Description
The large complex of 591 apartments was designed in 1978 and completed in 1982. It rapidly acquired iconic status, amplified by its use as background sets in movies and music clips. It consists of three buildings: Le Palacio (the palace) is the largest, followed by Le Théâtre (the theatre) to its west, and the smaller L'Arc (the arch) between the other two. Le Palacio has 441 housing units, Le Théâtre has 130, and L'Arche has 20.
In the decades following its creation, living conditions in the complex deteriorated to the extent that its demolition was debated in the mid-2010s. In 2018, the commune of Noisy-le-Grand announced that Bofill would oversee the renovation of Les Espaces d'Abraxas and of a number of nearby developments, including new construction.
Name and location
"Les Espaces d'Abraxas" literally translates to 'Abraxas's Spaces' and is a reference to the Greek Abraxas. This classical reference may be linked to the building's post-modern architecture style, which also has visual references to Ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
The building is located within the Noisy-le-Grand region, a commune found in the eastern suburbs of Paris. The building is accessible via the Réseau Express Régional (RER), which travels directly from the centre of Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Noisy-le-Grand – Mont d'Est station. Noisy-le-Grand is located in Zone 4 of the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens).
History and design
Les Trente Glorieuses
In the three decades following the Second World War, France experienced a dramatic economic boom, a period of "rapid urbanisation and industrial modernisation" which has since been dubbed Les Trente Glorieuses (The Thirty Glorious), During this period, large numbers relocated from rural towns into urban centres, specifically Paris. This led to unbalanced growth across France and poor housing and congestion throughout the capital.
French housing policy in the 1950s–70s
To manage this increased urbanisation, the French government began to implement various national programs to address housing shortages and move some of the population out of Paris. In 1965, under the government of General de Gaulle, five 'New Towns' were proposed as part of the Schéma Directeur de la Région Île-de-France (Île-de-France Region Master Plan), although not officially announced until 1971.
In 1976, the Seventh National Plan proposed a 'Priority Action Programme' through which five 'New Towns' would be built across France. The five towns built were Cergy-Pontoise, Evry, Marne-la-Vallée, Melun-Senart, and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. These towns were the focus of increased infrastructure, with the aim of aiding "employment and service growth" in the suburbs and diversifying the population on the outskirts of Paris.
Originally designed in 1978, two years into the Seventh National Plan, Les Espaces d'Abraxas is situated in the Noisy-le-Grand region, within the 'New Town' of Marne-la-Vallée. At the time of construction, Noisy-le-Grand was a part of the Ceinture rouge (Red Belt), falling within the then French Communist Party-led council of Seine-Saint-Denis. As of 2013, social housing estates like Les Espaces d'Abraxas account for 41 per cent of housing in Seine-Saint-Denis.
History of Noisy-le-Grand
Before becoming part of the 'New Town' of Marne-la-Vallée, Noisy-le-Grand experienced a massive population growth in the inter-war period. The town dates back as far as "the invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar (58–52 BC)", and remained a rural village until the 20th century. The population grew from 2,200 people in 1921 to over 10,000 in 1954. Following its incorporation into Marnee-la-Vallée, the population grew from "26,765 in 1975 to 52,408 by the end of the 1980s".
Unlike the other 'New Towns' which sought to concentrate residents into one area and create infrastructure around it, Marne-la-Vallée was "to be a series of small scale settlements based upon existing communes and around transport connections (road and rail)". The town's growth was impeded by the economic recession that hit France in the late 1970s, however by the mid-1980s Noisy-le-Grand accounted for two-thirds of employment in Marne-la-Vallée.
The 'New Towns' have been criticised as lacking 'identity', a problem which was furthered for Noisy-le-Grand with the construction of Disneyland Paris on the eastern edge of Marne-la-Vallée in 1992. Disneyland Paris, which was originally called 'Euro Disney' faced large amounts of backlash from the French public due to concerns it was an invasion of American aesthetics and culture, with theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine describing it as a "cultural Chernobyl".
Ricardo Bofill
Architect Ricardo Bofill was born in 1939 in Barcelona, Spain. Originally attending the Barcelona School of Architecture, he was expelled in 1957 due to his radical left wing beliefs that were contrary to the regime of then dictator Francisco Franco. After completing his education in Switzerland at the Haute École d'art de Design Genève in 1960, he spent nine months in the Spanish Military service. After his service, he returned to Barcelona in 1963 where he founded his own architecture practice, the Ricardo Bofil Taller de Arquitectura, at the age of 23. The practice included not only architects, but filmmakers, philosophers, engineers, writers, and sociologists.
In 1968, the firm proposed an architectural design entitled the 'City in Space' as a "kind of manifesto in reaction to the pressing demands of a society in constant transformation". Of the project, the RBTA wrote: "This project for the development of a large housing complex was conceived to form a multifunctional neighbourhood, inspired by a vision of social factors very much in keeping with its time. The difficulty was to establish structures that were both complex and flexible, capable of quickly assimilating and even facilitating the changes of everyday reality".In 1969, the Ministry of Housing assigned land in Moratalaz, Madrid to the project, however the project was ultimately terminated due to "political, bureaucratic and economic circumstances". Aspects of this early design and its ideology remained prominent in Bofill's work, including idea's of "realisable utopia", "mega-structural character, systems of aggregation, agglomeration and mixture" and "revolutionary action".
Bofill was arrested twice on political grounds, once while he was a student at the Barcelona School of Architecture, and again in 1964 after his return to Barcelona.
He died due to complications from COVID-19 on 14 January 2022, at the age of 82.
Construction and design
The building was constructed with precast concrete panels made by mixing oxides with cement to create a polychromatic look. This specific type of prefabricated concrete was developed by the project's engineers and was weather-resistant, and sparked a new age of French concrete construction. The use of both these panels and of cranes allowed the construction to remain cost effective. Bofill credits the "brand new manufacturing system" of prefabricated concrete with the construction of the buildings.
The RBTA website, on the construction of Les Espaces d'Abraxas:
"The façades were built from prefabricated sections, cut according to their individual shapes and not in framed panels, so that the joints are invisible. These panels are stone, a mixture of sand, gray and white cement and oxides. The very light ochre and violet-blue shades obtained from these mixtures are extremely subtle. The aim of using this contemporary material, which harmonizes with the urban center, while remaining discrete, is to rediscover the qualities of stone and cultural references."
The development consists of three separate structures (Le Palacio, Le Théâtre, L'Arc) surrounding a grass-lined plaza. The largest of the three is the 18-storey Le Palacio (The Palace) comprising three buildings arranged in a U-shape, and containing 441 individual 2–5-bedroom units. On the other side of the plaza sits Le Théâtre (The Theatre), the second largest building. Referencing the Roman amphitheatre the structure is 10 storeys high and semi-circular in shape. Between the two lies the smallest of the three buildings, L'Arc (The Arch). In his 2014 interview with Le Monde, Bofill noted that Le Théâtre had a bigger budget for design and construction, and was "intended for a wealthier category of people".
By his own admission, Bofill's design draws heavily from post-modern architectural concepts. The architect has said of the objectives of the building that he "wanted to make an emblematic monument in a very poorly made area". In the decades following World War II, architectural designs began to reuse the aesthetic languages of "past avant-gardes, notably Russian Constructivism" as a symbolic way to "indicate a rediscovered vigour and confidence" and nationalism.
Post-modern architecture has been attributed with "blending and distorting '' recognisable visual principles to create the "uncanny". Architects Farrell and Furman note the combination of grand proportions and classical Roman, Greek and Baroque shapes in Les Espaces d'Abraxas as being "a unique combination of the romantic sublime and totalitarian awe" and posit this as a possible reason for its popularity as a "backdrop for dystopian feature films".
The outdoor plaza, situated in the centre of the development, was designed to mirror the Roman Forums. This communal space was key to Bofill, as he intended for Les Espaces d'Abraxas to "mix social categories" and create community spirit. His intention was to "invest this mass housing with a sense of narrative, to replace the bare functionalism of many urban apartment blocks". This follows the post-modern tradition which saw a move away from the "functionality of modernism", towards more neoclassical forms. The invention of new technologies, like prefabricated concrete, combined with classical motifs allowed a "pseudo luxurious extravagance" to be achieved that was traditionally withheld only for the upper classes.
There are tree-planted gardens atop the roofs of both Le Théâtre and L'Arc, however they are not accessible to the inhabitants.
Critical reception
His work with the French authorities in the 'New Towns' brought Bofill "worldwide fame and consolidated his international practice". Critics, however, have compared his "supposedly ironic use of Classicism with the entirely unironic social housing of Soviet Realism".
The post-modern design of the building's shape led to "awkward floor plans for the units inside". In a 2014 interview with Le Monde, Bofill claimed he has "not succeeded in changing the city", claiming that the "unique space suffered from the lack of community spirit specific to France".
In 2006, the Noisy-le-Grand local government introduced plans to "demolish parts of the development". This proposal was met with "widespread resentment" from the community, and was subsequently scrapped. Of the proposed demolition, Bofill stated that "Demolishing them would be a lack of culture".
In 2019, critic Owen Hatherley discussed Les Espaces d'Abraxas in his article The good, the bad and the ugly – neoclassical architecture in modern times for the international art magazine Apollo. Hatherley criticises the "sinister, domineering quality" of the development, which he attributes to the communist influence at the time, claiming that "here you cannot forget for a moment that you're in a massive modern housing estate".
Arts and popular culture
In 1985, an exhibition entitled "Architecture, Urbanism and History" was mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which focused on the work of Bofill and Leon Krier. The exhibition, which included colour photographs of his buildings, including Les Espaces d'Abraxas, was sponsored by Gerald D. Hines Interests as part of a series of exhibitions to "focus on important younger architects". The exhibition ran from June until September 1985.
The unusual and monumental appearance of Espaces d'Abraxas has made it a favorite background set for unreal, often dystopian narratives. It features prominently in Brazil (1985) and in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), where the characters attempt to flee as a substance similar to tar fills the bucket-like plaza. It also appears in À mort l'arbitre (Kill the Referee) (1984), F.B.I. Frog Butthead Investigators (2012), and the French TV mini-series (2016).
It also appears in music videos by Stéphanie of Monaco ("Ouragan", 1986), Leck ("Fais le L", 2012), ("Break the Silence", 2015), Marwa Loud ("Fallait pas", 2017), Médine ("Grand Paris", 2017), Adel Tawil ("", 2017), and Ufo361 ("Nur zur Info", 2020).
The building and its inhabitants are features in French photographer Laurent Kronental's ongoing photo series Souvenir d'un Futur. The photo series centres on the occupants of the various "Grands Ensembles" in Paris.
Gallery
See also
Walden 7
Les Arcades du Lac
Les Echelles du Baroque
Antigone, Montpellier
List of works by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
References
1982 establishments in France
Ricardo Bofill buildings
Seine-Saint-Denis
Postmodern architecture
Buildings and structures in Île-de-France | Les Espaces d'Abraxas | [
"Engineering"
] | 3,146 | [
"Postmodern architecture",
"Architecture"
] |
66,923,092 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeni%20Kharadze | Evgeni Kharadze (; October 31, 1907 – October 10, 2001) was a Georgian astronomer, public figure and statesman. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1984), full member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1955).
Seventeenth rector of the Tbilisi State University (1959–1966), vice-president (1972–1980) and president (1980–1986) of the Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences. Vice-president of International Astronomical Union (1976–1982), director of Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory (1932–1992). A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1942.
Kharadze was born in Tbilisi, October 31, 1907 into the family of an employee of the Transcaucasus Railway. In 1930 he graduated from Tbilisi State University. Since 1949 he has been a Professor of the same university. Kharadze's monograph “Catalogue of the Color Indices of 14000 Stars and Investigation of Light Absorption in the Galaxy on the Basis of Color Indices of Stars” was published in 1952. He was the author of a fundamental handbook “The Course of General Astrophysics” and two volumes of “Principles of Astronomy” in Georgian. The asteroid 1247 discovered by the Richard Martin West was named after Evgeni Kharadze.
References
1907 births
2001 deaths
Scientists from Tbilisi
Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Members of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences
Ninth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Tenth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Eleventh convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Tbilisi State University alumni
Rectors of Tbilisi State University
Honoured Scientists of Georgia (country)
Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
Recipients of the Order of Honor (Georgia)
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Astronomers from Georgia (country)
Soviet astronomers | Evgeni Kharadze | [
"Astronomy"
] | 388 | [
"Astronomers",
"Astronomer stubs",
"Astronomy stubs"
] |
66,924,839 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny%20Vrande%C4%8Di%C4%87 | Zdenko "Denny" Vrandečić (born 27 February 1978 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a Croatian computer scientist. He was a co-developer of Semantic MediaWiki and Wikidata, the lead developer of the Wikifunctions project, and an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation as a Head of Special Projects, Structured Content. He published modules for the German role-playing game The Dark Eye.
He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States, until mid 2024, after which he returned to Stuttgart.
Education
Vrandečić attended the in Stuttgart and from 1997 he studied computer science and philosophy at the University of Stuttgart. He received his doctorate in 2010 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he was a research associate in the Knowledge Management Research Group at the Institute for Applied Computer Science and Formal Description Languages (AFIB), with Rudi Studer, from 2004 to 2012. In 2010, he visited the University of Southern California (ISI).
Career and research
Vrandečić is involved in knowledge bases, data mining, massive web-based collaboration, and the Semantic Web. In 2012/2013, he was project manager for Wikidata (Wikipedia sister project) at Wikimedia Germany. Together with Markus Krötzsch (who was also at KIT in the Knowledge Management group), he is co-developer of the Semantic MediaWiki (SMW), which was also the inspiration for Wikidata.
In 2013 Vrandečić worked as an ontologist at Google on the Knowledge Graph, the knowledge base used by Google to compile its search engine results with semantic information from various sources. In September 2019, Vrandečić announced that he was taking on a new role in Google's development department as Wikimedian in Residence, which consisted of explaining Wikimedia projects to other employees.
In July 2020, he left Google to join the Wikimedia Foundation, where he has since been involved in building Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia. It aims to use structured data from Wikidata to create a multilingual, machine-driven knowledge platform. In his essay contribution to Wikipedia's 20th anniversary publication, Wikipedia @ 20 - Stories of an Unfinished Revolution, he elaborates both technical and personal reasoning on urgencies for smaller and even for bigger language Wikipedia editions.
Vrandečić is one of the founders and administrators of Croatian Wikipedia. In 2008, he served as head of the scientific program of Wikimania. Vrandečić served on the Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2016.
Publications
Vrandečić's publications include:
Personal life
Vrandečić family and his parents are from Pučišća on island of Brač.
Vrandečić holds both Croatian and US citizenship.
He lived with his wife and daughter in the Bay Area, until summer 2024 when they moved to Stuttgart.
References
Wikipedia people
Google employees
Wikimedia Foundation staff members
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni
21st-century Croatian scientists
1978 births
Living people
Computer scientists | Denny Vrandečić | [
"Technology"
] | 631 | [
"Computer science",
"Computer scientists"
] |
66,924,980 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert%20Tshiongo%20Tshibinkubula%20wa%20Ntumba | Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula wa Ntumba (19 August 1942 – 1 February 2021) was a Congolese engineer, politician, and civil servant.
Tshiongo was born on 19 August 1942 in Lusambo, present-day Sankuru province, in Belgian Congo. He graduated with vocational and technical degrees in electromechanics in 1960.
Professionally, Tshiongo spent much of his career at Regideso, the country's public sector water delivery utility. In 1962, Tshiongo joined Regideso as the head of electromechanical and hydraulic plants in Kabinda. He later became the President, CEO, and director general of Regideso.
Tshiongo served as Governor of the former Kasai-Occidental province from April 2006 to October 2006. He was elected to the National Assembly, representing the Dimbelenge Territory constituency in Kasaï-Central province. In February 2011, Tshiongo was appointed national Minister of Energy in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, under President Joseph Kabila's administration.
Tshiongo died from an illness and COVID-19 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 1 February 2021, at the age of 78.
References
1942 births
2021 deaths
Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Members of the National Assembly (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Governors of Kasai-Occidental
Democratic Republic of the Congo engineers
Electrical engineers
People from Kasaï-Central
People from Sankuru
21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula wa Ntumba | [
"Engineering"
] | 346 | [
"Electrical engineering",
"Electrical engineers"
] |
66,925,209 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redmi%20K40 | The Redmi K40 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured by Xiaomi and marketed under its Redmi sub-brand. There are several models, the K40, K40 Pro, K40 Pro+, K40 Gaming and K40S. In the global market the Redmi K40 was launched as POCO F3 and the Redmi K40 Pro+ was launched as Xiaomi Mi 11i. In April 2021 the Redmi K40 and K40 Pro+ were released in India as Xiaomi Mi 11X and Mi 11X Pro. In July 2021 the Redmi K40 Gaming was released globally as POCO F3 GT. The Redmi K40S was released globally as POCO F4 but with improved specs.
Design
The front and back panels are made of Gorilla Glass 5, except in the Redmi K40S and Poco F4 where the back panel is made of plastic. The frame is made of aluminium and covered by polycarbonate.
The design of the Redmi K40, K40 Pro and K40 Pro+ is similar to the Mi 11. The design of the Redmi K40S is similar to the Redmi K50 and K50 Pro but with flat edges.
On the bottom side are a USB-C port, speaker, microphone and dual SIM tray. On the top side there are two additional microphones, IR blaster and second speaker. On the right side there are a volume rocker and a power button with an integrated fingerprint scanner.
The Redmi K40 Pro smartphone is fueled by a Non-removable Li-Po 4520 mAh battery. It comes with Fast charging 33W, 100% in 52 min (advertised), Power Delivery 3.0, and Quick Charge 3+.
Colours
The Redmi K40 is available in 3 colours: Bright Black, Dreamland (silver) and Sunny Snow (white).
The Redmi K40 Pro and K40 Pro+ are available in 3 colors: Ink Feather (black feather pattern), Dreamland (silver) and Sunny Snow (white).
The POCO F3 is available in 3 colours: Night Black, Arctic White and Deep Ocean Blue. Also later was added Moonlight Silver variant which has the same design as Deep Ocean Blue but in silver colour.
Xiaomi Mi 11 is available in 3 colours: Cosmic Black, Celestial Silver and Frosty White.
Xiaomi Mi 11X and Mi 11X Pro are available in 3 colours: Cosmic Black, Celestial Silver and Lunar White.
Redmi K40S is available in 4 colours: Bright Black, Silent Flower (green), Silver Traces and Magic Mirror (blue-purple gradient).
References
External links
Mobile phones introduced in 2021
Android (operating system) devices
Phablets
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras
Mobile phones with 4K video recording
Mobile phones with 8K video recording
Mobile phones with infrared transmitter
K40
Discontinued smartphones | Redmi K40 | [
"Technology"
] | 595 | [
"Crossover devices",
"Mobile technology stubs",
"Phablets",
"Mobile phone stubs"
] |
66,926,646 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Hexyne | 2-Hexyne is an organic compound that belongs to the alkyne group. Just like its isomers, it also has the chemical formula of C6H10.
Reactions
2-Hexyne can be semihydrogenated to yield 2-hexene or fully hydrogenated to hexane. With appropriate noble metal catalysts it can selectively form cis-2-hexene.
2-Hexyne can act as a ligand on gold atoms.
With strong sulfuric acid, the ketone 2-hexanone is produced. However this reaction also causes polymerization and charring.
Under heat and pressure 2-hexyne polymerizes to linear oligomers and polymers. This can be hastened by some catalysts such as molybdenum pentachloride with tetraphenyl tin. However Ziegler–Natta catalysts have no action as the triple bond is hindered.
References
Alkynes | 2-Hexyne | [
"Chemistry"
] | 201 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Alkynes"
] |
66,926,763 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-Pyrrolidinylpyridine | 4-Pyrrolidinylpyridine is an organic compound with the formula (CH2)4NC5H4N. The molecule consists of a pyrrodinyl group ((CH2)4N-) attached via N to the 4-position of pyridine. It is a white solid. The compound has attracted interest because it (pKa = 9.58) is more basic than dimethylaminopyridine (pKa = 9.41). It is a popular base catalyst.
References
Reagents for organic chemistry
4-Pyridyl compounds
Catalysts
1-Pyrrolidinyl compounds | 4-Pyrrolidinylpyridine | [
"Chemistry"
] | 138 | [
"Catalysis",
"Catalysts",
"Chemical kinetics",
"Reagents for organic chemistry"
] |
66,929,000 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal%20acoustic%20imaging | Thermal acoustic imaging (TAI) is a proprietary active thermographic inspection process developed by Pratt and Whitney (P&W) in 2005; TAI is a nondestructive testing (NDT) method to detect internal and external cracking of hollow core turbofan engine fan blades. TAI is performed to inspect the PW4000 diameter fan blades in an enclosed air-conditioned room within P&W's overhaul and repair facility in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Technical description
In the TAI process, sound energy is applied to excite the fan blade. If a discontinuity exists in the metal, the excitation will cause each side of the contacting discontinuity to move, resulting in frictional heating. The frictional heating is detected on the surface of the fan blade by a thermal imaging sensor.
To examine a complete fan blade, the convex and concave surfaces of the fan blade airfoil are divided into zones and the computer controlled thermal sensor takes an image of each zone while sound energy is applied. After both sides of the fan blade have been completely scanned, the images are processed by a computer and then displayed on a monitor for evaluation by an inspector. The computer can enhance the image to assist the inspector in evaluating any indications. Some indeterminate indications may require reinspection, which in turn may require repainting of the fan blade and repeating the TAI process. If a fan blade has an indication the inspector is not able to evaluate conclusively, the inspector should forward the images along with the fan blade to a Process Engineer for further evaluation and possible application of alternative NDT methods such as ultrasonic and/or x-ray inspection.
History
In 2005, when TAI was initiated, P&W, following standard NDT industry practice, categorized the TAI as a new and emerging technology that allowed TAI to be performed without establishing a formal training program and certification requirements.
In 2018, P&W continued to categorize TAI as a new and emerging technology, despite the manufacture and subsequent TAI inspection of over 9,000 fan blades. In the final report on the 2018 United Airlines Flight 1175 (UA1175) contained engine failure of its PW4000-112 series engine, where the fractured fan blade was found to have had a rejectable indication at the previous TAI inspection that was not properly identified, the National Transportation Safety Board faulted P&W for this, concluding the probable cause of the UA1175 incident was:
After this incident, P&W initiated an overinspection and reviewed the TAI inspection records for all 9,606 previously inspected PW4000 112-inch fan blades. During the overinspection, there were two fan blades that were in service at Korean Air and United Airlines that had TAI indications that could not be resolved. Subsequent x-ray inspection of both revealed peening shot in the cavity in the area where the previous TAI indication had been reported. P&W also reported that between December 2004 and the time of the UA1175 incident in 2018, cracks had been detected in five PW4000 112-inch fan blades. One was identified visually and the other four were detected by TAI.
On February 23, 2021, four days after a similar contained engine failure incident that occurred in another PW4000 engine on United Airlines Flight 328 (UA328), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive that required U.S. operators of airplanes equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4000-112 engines to inspect these engines before further flight. After reviewing the available data and considering other safety factors, the FAA determined that operators must conduct a TAI inspection of the large titanium fan blades located at the front of each engine. FAA noted that TAI technology can detect cracks on the interior surfaces of the hollow fan blades, or in areas that cannot be seen during a visual inspection. The previous inspection interval for this engine was 6,500 flight cycles.
References
21st-century inventions
Acoustics
2005 introductions
Aircraft manufacturing
Imaging
Nondestructive testing | Thermal acoustic imaging | [
"Physics",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 822 | [
"Aircraft manufacturing",
"Classical mechanics",
"Acoustics",
"Nondestructive testing",
"Materials testing",
"Mechanical engineering by discipline",
"Aerospace engineering"
] |
66,929,456 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%20F%C3%A1brica%20%28Sant%20Just%20Desvern%29 | La Fábrica is a former cement factory that was converted to offices and habitation space in the 1970s by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA). It is located in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona.
History
The cement company La Auxiliar de la Construcción S.A. (LACSA), which had its origins in the mountain village of Campins, was formed in 1916 or 1917 and built the original factory. It registered its "Sanson" trademark in 1920. The 105-meter-high chimney, designed by American engineer Clifford Tomlinson and the highest in Europe at the time, was completed in 1924. The factory went unharmed through the Spanish Civil War, during which it provided cement for fortifications work. It had its own railway line, connected with the network at Cornellà de Llobregat and completed in 1925, and employed 378 workers in the early 1950s. In the postwar period, the pollution it generated led to increasing neighborhood opposition to the new investment it needed. Eventually in 1968, Sanson moved its activity to a new cement production facility in nearby Sant Feliu de Llobregat, just under the mountain and closer to the materials quarry at .
Ricardo Bofill and his Taller de Arquitectura spotted the site in 1972, purchased it in 1973 and initiated a process of partial destruction and reinvention, demolishing parts of the industrial structures to reveal hidden forms. The preserved silos were transformed into offices and residential areas. The project was mostly completed in 1975. Its design incorporates various architectural languages, including Catalan Gothic and surrealist elements, with echoes of both architectural postmodernism and critical regionalism.
On January 26 and 27, 2022, La Fábrica was opened to the public as a way to honor the memory of the recently deceased Ricardo Bofill. Thousands of visitors participated, coming from Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, and beyond.
Description
La Fábrica serves as headquarters of the Taller and as home for several of its architects, including Ricardo Bofill until his passing away on . It includes offices, a model-making workshop, archives and a library. A large interior space dubbed "The Cathedral" is used for meetings, exhibitions, concerts, and other activities. Above the Cathedral lies Bofill's residence, including green roofs and terraces. The entire complex was planted with lush gardens, including some on rooftops, to create the feeling of an oasis within the surrounding industrial area. Whereas it is not ordinarily open to the public, it was the venue for a two-day event to celebrate Bofill's memory on January 26 and 27, 2022, in which thousands of visitors participated.
Next to it and adjacent to the Walden 7 apartments complex, also by RBTA, stands the tall chimney, which is not part of the Bofill-designed complex. This part of the former factory was redeveloped from 1984 by the and inaugurated in 1996. It currently includes a restaurant and observation point called El Mirador de Sant Just, as well as the Music Club Walden in renovated silos of the former factory. That project was initially designed by architect Alfred Arribas and completed by Joan Font.
In popular culture
La Fábrica appeared in an episode of MTV Cribs in 2002, featuring Paulina Rubio who gave a guided tour of the place, at a time when she was in a relationship with Ricardo Emilio Bofill.
It features prominently as background set in the Spanish film Paradise Hills (2019), together with the nearby palatial house complex of Xavier Corberó in Esplugues de Llobregat.
It is featured in HBO series Westworld, as part of the third season.
See also
Walden 7
List of works by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura
Notes
1920s establishments in Spain
Ricardo Bofill buildings
Buildings and structures in Catalonia
Modernist architecture in Barcelona
Postmodern architecture | La Fábrica (Sant Just Desvern) | [
"Engineering"
] | 801 | [
"Postmodern architecture",
"Architecture"
] |
66,930,267 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive%20noise%20cancelling | Adaptive noise cancelling is a signal processing technique that is highly effective in suppressing additive interference or noise corrupting a received target signal at the main or primary sensor in certain common situations where the interference is known and is accessible but unavoidable and where the target signal and the interference are unrelated, that is, uncorrelated. Examples of such situations include:
a microphone attempting to receive speech near machinery or other noise sources in the environment, such as an aircraft cockpit
a naval ship towing a sonar array where the ship's own noise masks a much weaker detected target signal
obtaining a fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) where the presence of the mother's stronger ECG represents an unavoidable interference.
Conventional signal processing techniques pass the received signal, consisting of the target signal and the corrupting interference, through a filter that is designed to minimise the effect of the interference. The objective of optimal filtering is to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver output or to produce the optimal estimate of the target signal in the presence of interference (Wiener filter).
In contrast, adaptive noise cancelling relies on a second sensor, usually located near the source of the known interference, to obtain a relatively pure version of the interference, free from the target signal and other interference. This second version of the interference and the sensor receiving it are called the reference.
The adaptive noise canceller consists of a self-adjusting adaptive filter which automatically transforms the reference signal into an optimal estimate of the interference corrupting the target signal before subtracting it from the received signal thereby cancelling (or minimising) the effect of the interference at the noise canceller output. The adaptive filter adjusts itself continuously and automatically to minimise the residual interference affecting the target signal at its output. The power of the adaptive noise cancelling concept is that it requires no detailed a priori knowledge of the target signal or the interference. The adaptive algorithm that optimises the filter relies only on ongoing sampling of the reference input and the noise canceller output.
Adaptive noise cancelling can be effective even when the target signal and the interference are similar in nature and the interference is considerably stronger than the target signal. The key requirement is that the target signal and the interference are unrelated, that is uncorrelated. Meeting this requirement is normally not an issue in situations where adaptive noise cancelling is used.
The adaptive noise cancelling approach and the proof of the concept, the first striking demonstrations that general broadband interference can be eliminated from a target signal in practical situations using adaptive noise cancelling, were set out and demonstrated during 1971–72 at the Adaptive Systems Laboratory at the Stanford School of Electrical Engineering by Professor Bernard Widrow and John Kaunitz, an Australian doctoral student, and documented in the latter's PhD dissertation Adaptive Filtering of Broadband signals as Applied to Noise Cancelling (1972) (also available here). The work was also published as a Stanford Electronics Labs report by Kaunitz and Widrow, Noise Cancelling Filter Study (1973). The initial proof of concept demonstrations of the noise cancelling concept (see below) for eliminating broadband interference were carried out by means of a prototype hybrid adaptive signal processor designed and built by Kaunitz and described in a Stanford Electronics Labs report General Purpose Hybrid Adaptive Signal Processor (1971).
Adaptive noise cancelling configuration and concept
The adaptive noise canceller configuration diagram above shows the target signal s(t) present at the primary sensor and the interference or noise source n(t) and its manifestations np(t) and nr(t) at the primary and reference sensors respectively.
As np(t) and nr(t) are the manifestations of the same interference source in different locations, these will usually differ significantly in an unpredictable fashion due to different transmission paths through the environment to the two sensors. So the reference nr(t) cannot be used directly to cancel or reduce the interference corrupting the target signal np(t). It must first be appropriately processed before it can be used to minimise, by subtraction, the overall effect of the interference at the noise canceller output.
An adaptive noise canceller is based on a self-optimising adaptive filter that has a variable transform function shaped by adjustable parameters called weights. Using an iterative adaptive algorithm, the adaptive filter transforms the reference nr(t) into an optimal estimate ñp(t) of the interference np(t) corrupting the target signal and cancelling the latter by subtraction, whilst leaving the target signal unchanged. So the output of the adaptive noise canceller shown above is:
z(t) = s(t)+np(t)-ñp(t).
The power of the adaptive noise cancelling approach stems from the fact that the algorithm driving the iterative adjustment of weights in an adaptive filter is a simple, fully automatic iterative process that relies only on an ongoing sequence of sampling measurements of the noise canceller output and the reference r(t) = nr(t). For example, the LMS (Least Means Square) algorithm in the context of the usual tapped-delay-line digital adaptive filter (see below) leads to:
Wk+1 = Wk - μzkRk = Wk - μzkNr,k
where the vector Wk represents the set of filter weights at the kth iteration and the vector Rk represents the last set of samples of the reference which are the weight inputs. The adaptation constant μ determines the rate of adaptation and the stability of the optimal configuration.
Apart from the availability of a suitable reference signal the only other essential requirement is that the target signal and the corrupting noise source are unrelated, that is uncorrelated, so that for all values of , where the bar represents time averaging.
Adaptive noise cancelling does not require detailed a priori knowledge of the interference or the target signal. However, the physical characteristics of the adaptive filter must be generally suitable for producing an adjustable frequency response or transfer function that will transform the reference signal nr(t) into a close estimate of the corrupting interference, ñp(t), through the iterative adjustment of the filter weights.
A 1975 paper published in the Proceedings of the IEEE by Widrow et al., Adaptive Noise Cancelling: Principles and Applications, is now the generally referenced introductory publication in the field. This paper sets out the basic concepts of adaptive noise cancelling and summarises subsequent early work and applications. Earlier unpublished efforts to eliminate interference using a second input are also mentioned. This paper remains the main reference for the adaptive noise cancelling concept and to date has been cited by over 2800 scientific papers and 380 patents. The topic is also covered by a number of more recent books.
Genesis
Adaptive noise cancelling evolved from the pioneering work on adaptive systems, adaptive filtering and signal processing carried out at the Adaptive Systems Laboratories in the School of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University during the 1960s and 70's under the leadership of Professor Bernard Widrow. Adaptive filters incorporate adjustable parameters called weights, controlled by iterative adaptive algorithms, to produce a desired transfer function.
Adaptive filters were originally conceived to produce the optimal filters prescribed by optimal filter theory during a training phase by adjusting the filter weights according to an iterative adaptive algorithm such as the Least-Means-Square (LMS) algorithm. During the training phase, the filter is presented with a known input and a training signal called a desired response.
The filter weights are adjusted by the adaptive algorithm, which is designed to minimise the mean-squared-error ξ, the difference between the adaptive filter output and the desired response:
where W represents the set of weights in vector notation and X(t) the set of weight inputs so y(t) = X(t)TW.
The above expression shows ξ to be a quadratic function of the weight vector W, a multi-dimensional paraboloid with a single minimum that can be reached from any point by descending along the gradient. Gradient descent algorithms, such as the original Least Means Squared algorithm, iteratively adjust the filter weights in small steps opposite the gradient. In the case of the usual digital tapped delay line filter, the vector Xk is simply the last set of samples of the filter input x(t) and the LMS algorithm results in:
Wk+1 = Wk - μekXk
where k represents the kth step in the iteration process, μ is the adaptation constant that controls the rate and stability of the adaptation process and ek and Xk are samples of the error and the input vector respectively
At the completion of the training phase, the adaptive filter has been optimised to produce the desired optimal transfer function. In its normal operating phase such an optimised adaptive filter is then used passively to process received signals to improve the signal-to-noise ratio at the filter output under the assumed conditions. The theory and analysis of adaptive filters is largely based on this concept, model and terminology and took place before the introduction of the adaptive noise cancelling concept around 1970.
Adaptive noise cancelling is an innovation that represents a fundamentally different configuration and application of adaptive filtering in those common situations where a reference signal is available by:
using the training mode of the filter as the operational mode thus continually adjusting the filter during normal operation
using the reference as the adaptive filter input
using the primary input, the noise canceller input, containing the target signal and interference, as the desired response for the adaptation process
using the noise canceller output, that is, the difference between the primary input and the output of the adaptive filter, as the error for adaptation.
Whilst the discussion of adaptive noise cancelling reflects the above terminology, it is clear from the above diagrams that the two are equivalent and the previously developed extensive adaptive filter theory therefore continues to apply in both situations.
In the adaptive noise cancelling situation the received signal does not pass through the adaptive filter but instead becomes the 'desired response' for adaptation purposes. Since the adaptation process will aim to minimise the error, it follows that, in the noise canceller configuration, the adaptation process in effect aims to minimise the overall signal power at the noise canceller output - the error. So the adaptive filtering of the reference actually strives to suppress the overall signal power at the noise canceller output.
This counterintuitive concept can be understood by keeping in mind that the target signal s(t) and the interference n(t) are uncorrelated. So, in aiming to minimise the error, using a reference as input, which is related only to the interference, the best the adaptive filter can do, in generating an optimal estimate of the primary input, the desired response, is to generate the optimal estimate of the interference at the primary sensor ñp(t). This will result in minimising the overall effect of the interference at the noise canceller output whilst leaving the target signal s(t) unchanged.
The iterative adaptive algorithms used in adaptive filtering require only an ongoing sequence of sampling measurements at the weight inputs and the error. As digital adaptive filters are in effect tapped-delay-line filters, the operation of an adaptive noise canceller requires only on an ongoing sequence of sampling measurements of the reference and the noise canceller output.
Adaptive filtering theory was developed in the domain of stochastic signals and statistical signal processing. However, repetitive interference typical of noise cancelling applications, such as machinery noise or ECGs, are more appropriately treated as bounded time-varying signals. A comprehensive analysis of adaptive filters when applied to stochastic signals is presented by Widrow and Stearns in their book Adaptive Signal Processing. In this context averaging is interpreted as statistical expectation. An analysis of noise cancelling where s(t) and n(t) are assumed to be bounded deterministic signals was presented by Kaunitz in his PhD dissertation, where time averaging is used.
Original proof of concept demonstrations
The first practical demonstration of the adaptive noise cancelling concept, typical of general practical situations involving broadband signals, was carried out in 1971 at the Stanford School of Electrical Engineering Adaptive Systems Laboratory by Kaunitz using a prototype hybrid adaptive signal processor. The ambient noise from the output of a microphone used by a speaker (the primary sensor) in a very noisy room was largely eliminated using adaptive noise cancellation.
A triangular signal, representing a typical broadband signal, emitted by a loudspeaker situated in the room, was used as the interfering noise source. A second microphone situated near this loudspeaker served to provide the reference input. The output of the noise canceller was channelled to the earphones of a listener outside the room.
The adaptive filter used in these experiments was a hybrid adaptive filter consisting of a preprocessor of 16 RC-filter circuits which provided the inputs to 16 digitally controlled analogue amplifiers as weights that were summed as a linear combiner to produce the adaptive filter output. This linear combiner interfaced to a small HP 2116B digital computer that ran a version of the LMS algorithm.
The experimental arrangement used by Kaunitz in the photo below shows the loudspeaker emitting the interference, the two microphones used to provide the primary and reference signals, the equipment rack, containing the hybrid adaptive filter and the digital interface, and the HP 2116B minicomputer on the right of the picture. (Only some of the equipment in the photo is part of the adaptive noise cancelling demonstration).
The noise canceller effectively reduced the ambient noise overlaying the speech signal from an initially almost overwhelming level to barely audible and successfully re-adapted to the change in frequency of the triangular noise source and to changes in the environment when people moved around in the room. Recordings of these demonstrations are still available here and here.
The second application of this original noise canceller was to process ECGs from heart transplant animals studied by the pioneering heart transplant team at the Stanford Medical Centre at the time led by Dr Norman Shumway. Data was provided by Drs Eugene Dong and Walter B Cannon in the form of a multi-track magnetic tape recording of electrocardiograms.
In heart transplant recipients the part of the heart stem that contains the recipient's pacemaker (called the sinoatrial or SA node) remains in place and continues to fire controlled by the brain and the nervous system. Normally this pacemaker controls the rate at which the heart is beating by triggering the atrioventricular (AV) nodes and thus controlling heart rate to respond to the demands of the body. (See diagram below). In normal patients, this represents a feedback loop, but in transplant patients, the connection between the remnant SA node and the implanted AV node is not re-established and the remnant pacemaker and the implanted heart are beating independently, at differing rates.
The behaviour of the remnant pacemaker in the open loop situation of a heart transplant patient was of considerable interest to researchers, but studying the ECG of the pacemaker (the p-wave) was made difficult because the weaker signal from the pacemaker was swamped by the signal from the implanted heart even when a bipolar catheter sensor (primary sensor) is inserted through the jugular vein close to the SA-node. (See the third trace from top in the diagram below). The noise cancelling arrangement to eliminate the effect of the donor heart from the ECG of the p-wave is shown below.
A reference signal was obtained through a limb-to-limb ECG of the patient (See top trace in the diagram below), which provided the main ECG of the donor heart largely free from the pacemaker p-wave. Adaptive noise cancelling was used to transform the reference into an estimate of the donor heart signal present at the primary input (see second trace from top) and used to substantially reduce the effect of the donor heart from the primary ECG (third trace), providing a substantially cleaned up version of the p-wave at the noise canceller output (see bottom trace) suitable for further study and analysis.
Applications
Adaptive noise cancelling techniques have found use in a wide range of situations, including the following:
Eliminating ambient noise from the speech signals of a microphone situated in a noisy environment by using a second microphone situated near the noise source as the reference signal. ( see proof of concept above)
Eliminating the self-noise of a naval ship towing a sonar array searching for a target signal, by using a reference signal of the towing ship's own noise which can be readily obtained.
Some noise cancelling headphones utilise adaptive noise cancelling techniques. The effects of ambient noise which penetrates inside the earphone can be minimised by using the version of the ambient noise from a small microphone situated on the outside of the headset as the reference signal.
The extraction of the remnant recipient pacemaker signal from a heart transplant animal from an ECG which also included the stronger ECG signal of the donor heart. (see proof of concept above)
Similarly fetal electrocardiograms are received in the presence of the mother's stronger ECG and can be extracted using adaptive noise cancelling to reduce the effect of the mother's ECG.
Adaptive noise cancelling has also been used to eliminate patient motion artefacts during general ECG measurements
Adaptive noise cancelling techniques can also been used in the context of Active Noise Control to reduce acoustic noise in a physical space
Adaptive noise cancelling has also been used in rail surface defect detection.
Elimination of ambient noise by adaptive noise cancelling in the process of measuring lightning electric field signals
Cancelling noise in underground mine powerline carrier communication
Reducing the effect of noise in speech recognition systems
Improving beam control for the linear collider at the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre)
In these situations, a suitable reference signal can be readily obtained by placing a sensor near the source of the interference or by other means (e.g. a version of the interfering ECG free from the target signal).
Adaptive noise cancelling can be effective even when the target signal and the interference are similar in nature and the interference is considerably stronger than the target signal. Apart from the availability of a suitable reference signal the only other critical requirement is that the target signal and the corrupting noise source are unrelated, that is uncorrelated, so that for all values of , where the bar represents time averaging.
Adaptive noise cancelling does not require detailed a priori knowledge of the interference or the target signal. However, the characteristics of the adaptive filter must be generally suitable for producing an adjustable frequency response or transfer function that is able to transform the reference signal nr(t) into an estimate of the corrupting interference, ñp(t), through the iterative adjustment of the filter weights. The interference in the above examples are usually irregular repetitive signals. Although the theory of adaptive filtering does not rely on this as an assumption, in practice this characteristic is very helpful as it limits the need for the adaptive filter to compensate for time shifts between the versions of the interference at the primary and reference sensors to appropriately compensate for phase shifts.
Adaptive noise cancelling and active noise control
Adaptive Noise Cancelling is not to be confused with active noise control. These terms refer to different areas of scientific investigation in two different disciplines and the term noise has a different meaning in the two contexts.
Active noise control is a method in acoustics to reduce unwanted sound in physical spaces and an area of research that preceded the development of adaptive noise cancelling. The term noise is used here with its common meaning of unwanted audible sound.
As explained above, adaptive noise cancelling is a technique used in communication and control to reduce the effect of additive interference corrupting an electric or electromagnetic target signal. In this context noise refers to such interference and the two terms are used interchangeably. In the book by Widrow and Stearns the relevant chapter is in fact entitled "Adaptive Interference Cancelling". However, adaptive noise cancelling is the term that prevailed and is now in common usage.
After its development in signal processing, the adaptive noise-cancelling approach was also adopted in active noise control, for example in some (but not all), noise-cancelling headphones. So the two areas in fact significantly intersect. Nevertheless, active noise control is just one of the many applications of adaptive noise cancelling and, conversely, adaptive noise cancelling is just one technique used in the field of active noise control.
References
J. Kaunitz, "Adaptive Filtering of Broadband Signals as Applied to Noise Cancelling," Stanford Electronics Laboratories, Stanford University, Stanford, California, Rep. SU-SEL-3-038, August 1972 (Ph.D. dissertation) OCLC 15201972
B. Widrow, J. R. Glover JR, J. M. McCool, J. Kaunitz, C. S. Williams, R. H. Hearn, J. R. Zeidler, E. Dong JR. and R. C. Goodlin, "Adaptive Noise Cancelling: Principles and Applications," Proc. IEEE, Vol. 63, December 1975
B. Widrow and S. D. Stearns, "Adaptive Signal Processing," Pearson Education, Inc.
Audio engineering
Noise reduction
Noise control | Adaptive noise cancelling | [
"Engineering"
] | 4,311 | [
"Electrical engineering",
"Audio engineering"
] |
66,931,587 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted%20migration%20of%20forests%20in%20North%20America | Assisted migration is the movement of populations or species by humans from one territory to another in response to climate change. This is the definition offered in a nontechnical document published by the United States Forest Service in 2023, suggesting that this form of climate adaptation "could be a proactive, pragmatic tool for building climate resilience in our landscapes."
Programs for assisted migration of forests in North America have been created by public and indigenous governmental bodies, private forest owners, and land trusts. They have been researching, testing, evaluating, and sometimes implementing forest assisted migration projects as a form of adaptation to climate change. Assisted migration in the forestry context differs from assisted migration as originally proposed in the context of conservation biology, where it is regarded as a management tool for helping endangered species cope with the need for climate adaptation. The focus in forestry is mitigating climate change's negative effects on the health and productivity of working forests.
Forestry assisted migration is already underway in North America because of the rapidly changing climate and the forestry industry's reseeding practices. It is now standard practice for governmental and industrial harvests of trees to be followed by the planting of seeds or seedlings in the harvested areas. Hence, an opportunity automatically arises post-harvest to select seeds (and sometimes different species of trees) from areas with climates that are expected to arrive in the harvested sites decades into the future. The government of British Columbia in Canada was the first federated state on the continent to make the decision to change their seed transfer guidelines accordingly in 2009.
Longer distance forms of assisted migration were not, however, considered prior to climate modelling and within-forest evidence of the increasing pace of climate change. Serious discussion and debate ensued in the forestry profession beginning around 2008. The debate focuses around the ethical implications of artificially migrating ecosystems, the risks and benefits of such endeavors, and the values at the heart of assisted forest migration projects.
There are also recorded instances of inadvertent assisted migration of North American trees. Beginning in the early 20th century, two trees famously endemic to California, the giant sequoia and coast redwood, have been planted for urban forestry purposes northward in cities along the Pacific coast of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Today these specimens are not only thriving; they are prominent along urban skylines and often outrank the native trees in sizes achieved. As well, several kinds of Magnolia native to the southeastern United States have dispersed into the forest understory, thanks to ornamental plantings producing seeds beyond their native ranges.
Climate change as impetus
Climate change is increasing the average temperatures of North American forests. By the 2020s the forestry profession in North America no longer debated whether human assistance in helping native trees might be necessary. A 2023 scientific article began, "Global change is reshaping climatic conditions at a tempo that exceeds natural migration rates for most tree species." The implications are that "this mismatch may cause catastrophic losses of key forest ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, habitat provisioning, and forest products."
Range shifts upslope to higher topographic altitudes require less distance than shifts tracking climate over relatively flat terrain poleward. Species within the southern limits of their range are already showing decline or extirpation, including some of North America's most iconic trees (Joshua Tree and giant sequoia). Drier conditions in the American Southwest are leading to shrubby grassland replacing pinyon-juniper woodland, following drought-induced die-off of trees. Foresters in Minnesota are predicting that prairie ecosystems will expand, replacing forests as their region becomes warmer and drier. Regional climate change in the Sierra mountains of California made it possible for native bark beetles to kill drought-stressed conifer trees, which in turn led to expansive and catastrophic fires. Although the giant sequoia is more resistant to bark beetles than are the pines and firs intermixed in and surrounding its groves, the regional fires consuming the standing dead conifers in 2020 and 2021 proved fatal to giant sequoias whose living canopies were also engulfed.
The northern populations of temperate tree species ranges in coastal Washington and Oregon began to evidence abrupt decline and mortality over such large regions that news articles written for the public, as well as academic papers, reported on this phenomenon in 2021 and 2022. Bigleaf maple, Western redcedar, Douglas fir, and several species of true firs (genus Abies) were featured in reports of sudden decline. While proximate causes included evidence of native insects and fungal pathogens, the reports attributed ultimate cause to the unprecedented summer droughts and heat waves in the region. In 2023, the tree species dominating the lower western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada mountains were reported to be so lagging in tracking warming climate upslope that one-fifth of the total area was labelled as "zombie forests" — that is, forests that can no longer establish new seedlings and thus will not revive after a canopy-destroying fire.
A synthesis paper published in 2022 by a team of governmental and university forestry scientists in the United States warned that "climate change may represent the greatest challenge ever faced by forest managers, conservation biologists, and ecologists." Catastrophic tree mortality was among the challenges listed by the team as not only projected but already underway.
Definitions
A 2011 discussion paper in the British Columbia Journal of Ecosystems and Management offered this definition of assisted migration: "the purposeful movement of species to facilitate or mimic natural population or range expansion to help ensure forest plantations remain resilient in future climates." A 2016 review article defines forestry assisted migration as "the physical realignment of natural populations to the climate for which they are adapted, by reforestation in sites where their suitable climate is predicted to occur in the future, as an active management option with the aim of maintaining healthy tree ecosystems in the future." The article says that human assistance in helping trees migrate is necessary because "geographic shifts of tree populations will have to be 10 to 100 times faster than they have been in the past or are at present."
Three types
There are three types of forestry assisted migration, which Natural Resources Canada describes in this way:
Assisted population migration: the human-assisted movement of populations within a species' established range.
Assisted range expansion: the human-assisted movement of species to areas just outside their established range, facilitating or mimicking natural range expansion.
Assisted long-distance migration: the human-assisted movement of species to areas far outside their established range (beyond areas accessible through natural dispersal).
The United States Forest Service uses the same three types, but sometimes refers to the third type as assisted species migration. In 2018 the U.S. Forest Service published a longer policy document, which listed and defined the three types this way:
Assisted population migration (also assisted genetic migration or assisted gene flow) – moving seed sources or populations to new locations within the historical species range.
Assisted range expansion – moving seed sources or populations from their current range to suitable areas just beyond the historical species range, facilitating or mimicking natural dispersal.
Assisted species migration (also species rescue, managed relocation, or assisted long-distance migration) – moving seed sources or populations to a location far outside the historical species range, beyond locations accessible by natural dispersal.
Terminology to distinguish forestry applications of assisted migration from the more controversial practices being debated within conservation biology were suggested in a lengthy 2012 report on climate adaptation within the U.S. Forest Service. The authors proposed "forestry assisted migration" for their agency's endeavors and "rescue assisted migration" for the species-specific extinction concerns of conservation biologists. That same year nine forestry scientists (all but one of whom is Canadian) coauthored a paper that likewise recommended "forest assisted migration" as preferred terminology for helping their profession stay clear of the controversy that they referred to as "species rescue assisted migration". As of 2021, the original classification names of the three types is in public as well as professional use, with foresters focusing on the two most moderate forms.
Early scholarship and debate
Beginning in 2004 and accelerating in 2007, researchers in conservation biology published papers on the pros and cons of supplementing traditional management practices for preventing plant and animal extinctions with species translocation tactics to accommodate the range shifts already becoming evident as a result of climate change. Conservation biologists also published arguments for and against the three main terms used to name the same management tool: assisted migration, assisted colonization, and managed relocation.
The focus among forestry professionals and researchers was different. Paleoecologists had already concluded that there were significant lags in northward movement of even the dominant canopy trees in North America during the thousands of years since the final glacial retreat. In the 1990s, forestry researchers had begun applying climate change projections to their own tree species distribution models, and some results on the probable distances of future range shifts prompted attention. As well, translocation terminology was not controversial among forestry researchers because "migration" was the standard term used in paleoecology for natural movements of tree species recorded in the geological record. Discussion in forestry journals therefore pertained more to questions of how and when and for which species climate-adaptive plantings and range expansions should begin.
Debate as to the need for and ethics of assisted migration was present among forestry researchers. But compared to the debate among conservation biologists, it was muted and short-lived. One of the strongest statements urging caution that appeared in a forestry journal was published in 2011. Isabelle Aubin and colleagues stated that "assisted migration is being proposed to reduce the impacts of human-induced climate change, an unprecedented situation in human history that brings with it entirely new environmental, societal and ethical challenges."
But also in 2011, researchers within the Canadian Forest Service expressly distinguished forestry assisted migration from the concept debated in conservation biology. Preventing species extinctions was not a forestry focus. Rather, forestry forms of assisted migration would be undertaken for the purposes of maintaining the forests' ecosystem services as well as the extractive resource values of timber and pulp production. The Canadian Forest Service also produced research showing forest health and productivity could benefit from relocating forest understory plant species along with the dominant canopy tree species and that this would help with the successful establishment of a forest at a new location.
Strategies
In focusing on common canopy trees, forestry forms of assisted migration generated less intense debate than did the largely animal focus of conservation biologists. Animals have the ability to move at will and thus pose risks of quickly shifting beyond or entirely out of the locales into which they are translocated. Animal mobility also complicates monitoring results, and may require the added costs of radio collars and skilled trackers. Costs of translocating mammals, in particular, may escalate owing to standards of minimizing psychological and physical suffering during capture, transport, and release.
In contrast, assisted migration of forests can be done at little cost, especially when it is paired with an existing reforestation program. Risks are also reduced in forestry because the only motility that trees have occurs when their seeds are released. Tall woody plants tend to have long generation times, so several decades may pass before translocated seeds or seedlings can produce a next generation of seeds. Even then, seed dispersal distances may be limited, except for tufted seeds carried by wind and small fruits, such as berries, swallowed whole by birds and wide-ranging mammals.
Communication strategies have also defused the controversy. Forest researchers and managers have talked and written about climate adaptation projects without using terminology coined by conservation biologists, whose focus is generally the wellbeing of single species of animals and plants that might be harmed or lost as climate change continues.
By 2014 forestry managers in Canada had also honed their public communications in a number of ways, such as avoiding to be associated with the scientific debate on assisted migration and instead presenting their assisted migration as forest management best practices.
Communication in both word and images has also been honed in the United States, thanks in part to the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS), a collaborative group launched in 2010 by the U.S. Forest Service. The NIACS proposed various ways though which foresters can adapt to climate change by changing their forest management techniques.
A 2022 review paper that charted key words and lead authors in forestry publications concluded that "much of the research on assisted migration has been carried out in North America, where Canada and the USA have established strong collaborative networks." At the individual level, a Mexican forestry scientist was found to be "the most productive author in the field of assisted migration."
Indigenous people's perspectives and actions
Starting in 1492, the arrival of colonizers pushed Indigenous peoples of the Americas out of their native lands and severely constricted where they could continue to live. While climate adaptation may be a necessary consideration today, assisted migration is not a readily palatable option for Indigenous peoples, given the grounding in mutual relations with the ecosystems in which their cultures are enmeshed.
The term "assisted colonization", used in the guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to describe moving a species outside its native range to prevent it from going extinct, has been criticized as potentially offensive to Indigenous peoples because the word "colonization" is linked to their experience of genocide. According to Connie Barlow, the term 'managed relocation' may also be offensive in the United States, owing to the harm caused by the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. Some scholars have pointed out that this terminology could prevent these nations from consenting to and participating in forestry assisted migration projects.
Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer has used the term "helping forests walk" in lieu of any of the terms currently used by foresters, conservation biologists, and other researchers and scholars. Kimmerer is founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, hosted by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which lists "Helping Forests Walk" as a five-year collaborative project launched in 2011 and completed in 2016. This project is also listed on the "tribal nations" page of the U.S. government "Climate Resilience Toolkit" website.
In 2024 a collaborative report presented Indigenous knowledge and forest management experience as meriting equal standing alongside the prevailing paradigm and assumptions inherent in forestry grounded in western science. Authors and contributors included university academics, research scientists in both the USA and Canadian forestry services, and tribal forestry professionals. Indigenous values described as a "culture of reciprocity" with other living beings and entailing responsibility for future generations grounded the recommendations in this report. Assisted migration is mentioned only once in this lengthy report: "Active planting of tree species in areas that will be more climate-suitable for them in the future (i.e., assisted migration) may help to reforest landscapes where longer term stability is a goal."
The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science facilitated collaboration on a tribal climate adaptation menu for the Great Lakes region. The document that resulted was published in 2019 as Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu. The only standard term used was "assisted migration" (and this was used only once). The term "invasive species" was replaced either by a new term, "non-local beings", or by an Ojibwe phrase, "Bakaan ingoji ga-ondaadag", which is defined as "that which comes from somewhere else and now resides here." The document summarized the importance of word choice in this way:
As of 2021, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in northern Michigan have planted tree species common to more southerly ranges, including shagbark hickory, silver maple, black walnut, swamp white oak, sassafras, and pawpaw. Noah Jansen, conservationist staff, explains, "I don't know which of these species are going to thrive in 50 or 100 years. So we cast the net broad and try to have something there that creates habitat for wildlife, sources of cultural significance for tribal members and areas to hunt and gather."
Because California is already experiencing adverse climate change effects on native vegetation, the need for adaptive responses is severe. Traditional use of fire in managing local ecosystems for safety and for ensuring abundance of culturally significant plant and animal foods has drawn media attention to the climate-adaptive actions by the Karuk Tribe along the Klamath River of northern California.
Implementation
Changes in seed transfer guidelines
Forestry research has long been conducted by governmental agencies responsible for management of federal and provincial forests in Canada (Crown lands) and federal and state forests in the United States. Because timber and pulp resources are harvested from multiple use regions of public forests in North America, re-seeding or planting seedlings onto harvested sites has been a routine management practice for many decades. Research for improving silviculture practices has included tree provenance trials, by which a variety of seed sources (or provenances) are planted together at several distinct geographic test sites ("common gardens") across the current and, increasingly, potential range of a species. Because provenance trial data are available for many widespread, commercially valuable tree species, forestry professionals already have long-term experiments underway for testing tree species and population viability and performance in locations outside of native geographic ranges. Provenance trial locations poleward of native ranges or at higher (and thus cooler) elevations help forest managers determine whether, where, and when assisted migration as a climate adaptation measure should be implemented.
In 2009, British Columbia altered its standards for selecting seeds for replanting forests after a timber harvest. Previously, foresters were required to use seeds from within 300 meters downhill and 200 meters uphill, but the new policy allowed foresters to obtain seeds from up to 500 meters downhill for most species, taking advantage of the fact that populations in warmer habitats downhill may be better adapted to the future climate of the restoration site. As of 2022, research, including study of provenance trials already in place, is ongoing in British Columbia and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario. These changes were implemented partly because Canadian policymakers feared that, if they did not set the guidelines, the private sector would be tempted to pursue an unregulated assisted migration strategy on its own. In 2022, the climate-adapted seed transfer guidelines for British Columbia transitioned from being optional for provincial reforestation projects to mandatory.
Within the United States Forest Service, regional geneticists have recommended a "no regrets" approach to considering assisted migration and seed transfer as a climate adaptation strategy. Population transfers to match seed sources to projected future conditions are recommended only for species where experience or research has demonstrated appropriate climate transfer limits. Forest Service researchers have also used computer modeling to offer projections of native tree species range shifts under a variety of climate change projections. A total of 76 species of trees native to the western US have range-shift projection maps available online. A total of 134 species of trees native to the eastern US have range shift projection maps available online. Forest Service researchers have also been publishing regional range shift projections for North American tree species since the 1990s.
Several decision support tools are available for assisted migration in North American forests. The Seedlot Selection Tool currently has the broadest geographic scope of these tools, covering most of North America, and requires the user to set the acceptable climate transfer distances from a suite of climate variables. The Climate-Based Seed Transfer tool provides coverage across British Columbia, and uses data from common garden experiments to determine acceptable seed sources, based on anticipated growth and climate-transfer distance. The Climate-Adapted Seed Tool provides coverage in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho (with some features currently only available in California) and uses data from common garden experiments and forest inventories to produce estimates of how well different seed sources will perform (growth, survival, carbon sequestration, timber production) at user-specified planting locations.
In the eastern United States, forestry professionals in federal, state, and academic institutions have collaborated in establishing a mutually agreed upon map of 247 "seed-collection zones" spanning the 37 states east of the Rocky Mountains. (See image at right.) This project also entails standardized norms for labelling seeds by collectors and nurseries in anticipation that future reforestation and restoration plantings may begin to include various forms of forestry assisted migration.
In 2024, a forestry paper was published in which a "climate analog approach" was offered for seed transfer and assisted migration decision-making. Instead of needing to first choose among a range of projection maps (usually at 30-year intervals) based on a variety of IPCC-approved computer models, forest managers would be offered a single map that aggregates three such models, utilizes 19 climate variables, and restricts its focus to mid-century projections. As well, instead of outputs showing range projections for one species at a time, the tool would pinpoint "sites with contemporary climate similar to the future climate at a target location."
Western larch
In 2010, the Government of British Columbia implemented an assisted range expansion project for one particular canopy species: the western larch. Larch could now be selected for provincial reforestation projects nearly 1,000 kilometers northward of its current range. Research had shown that the western larch, the most productive of the three species of larch native to North America, has no trouble growing in northern British Columbia, where climatic conditions are predicted to match the western larch's historical range by 2030. This was the first government-approved assisted long-distance migration program for a North American canopy tree. The western larch was selected for assisted species migration because of its significant commercial importance and the fear that climate change and parasites such as the mountain pine beetle would considerably diminish its supply.
Foresters in the United States have also initiated "experimental treatments" of larch-dominated national forests in Montana. However, if some "aggressively warming climate scenarios" unfold, foresters will need to let go of any expectations of helping this species maintain a presence south of the Canadian border.
Whitebark pine
University of British Columbia forestry researchers Sierra McLane and Sally Aitken were among the first scientists to engage in long-distance experimental plantings to test how far northward seeds of a tree native to North America could germinate and continue to grow, in advance of expected warming in North America. They selected whitebark pine for their case study, as it is a keystone species that is already a threatened species in western North America. The authors used species distribution modelling to learn that this species will likely be extirpated from most of its current range as temperatures rise over the next half century. The same models indicate that a large area within northwestern British Columbia is already climatically suitable for the species under current conditions and will remain so throughout the 21st century.
Experimental plantings in eight sites began in 2007. Ten years later results were tallied. Protective snow cover throughout the winter, followed by spring melt ending in April or May, proved to be a far better indicator of seedling survival and growth than latitude. Indeed, the tallest seedlings measured in 2017 were those at the northern-most experimental site—600 kilometers beyond the species' current distribution. The authors explained that "post-glacial migration has been too slow" for this large-seeded pine to track warming, even during the thousands of years that preceded the pace and scale of human-caused climate change. These experimental plantings for learning the poleward limits of tolerance, reproduction, and thrival of whitebark pine are first steps toward implementation.
In 2012 the Canadian federal government declared Whitebark pine endangered in accordance with the Species at Risk Act. Accordingly, it became the first federally listed endangered tree in western Canada.
In 2022 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also acted. It listed Whitebark pine in the lowest category of vulnerability: "threatened." Four distinct threats were described, beginning with White pine blister rust as "the primary stressor." Mountain pine beetle, altered fire regimes, and "the effects of climate change" add to the challenges. This listing marks the first occasion in which a tree regarded as ecologically important over a vast range in the United States is acknowledged as vulnerable to extinction. Even before the official listing, collaboration among stakeholders was underway. Supportive research and actions were undertaken by the conservation organization American Forests as well as a new organization specific to the tree: the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation. Other collaborators include research scientists within the U.S. Forest Service, geneticists at the University of California, Davis, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service were also involved in consultation prior to listing by the agency in charge of endangered species: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Mexico's oyamel fir
The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico depends upon the integrity of its evergreen forest trees to serve as winter habitat for a long-distance annual migrator: the monarch butterfly. The oyamel fir is a major species of evergreen on which the overwintering butterflies spend a significant time during their winter diapause, or suspended development. The tree's survival is threatened at its lower elevations on mountain slopes, in part, by climate change. Climate stress is also indicated by weak seedling recruitment, meaning that most of the oyamel fir seedlings do not survive past that point. This is true even in the higher forest elevations where trees do not otherwise show strong indicators of stress. Upslope assisted migration experiments are underway, with findings suggesting that "400 meters upward in elevation (i.e., assisted migration) to compensate for future warmer climates does not appear to have any negative impacts on the seedlings, while potentially conferring closer alignment to future climates."
Assisted migration of oyamel fir is complicated by the necessity of planting this shade-tolerant species under nurse plants—especially because of the extreme solar radiation and the large differences between day and night temperatures at high elevations. Thus, where upslope locales are devoid of forest shade, nurse plants (e.g. Baccharis conferta) must be established first.
Recent developments (2019-present)
Collaborative organizations of USA and Canadian agencies and forestry interest groups have begun experimenting with one or more of the three types of assisted migration. Among them is the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project and the Experimental Network for Assisted Migration and Establishment Silviculture (ENAMES).
By 2021 the projects for climate adaptation in forestry had expanded to include planting "novel species" from southward latitudes of the same continent. An early example was the updated management plan for the Petawawa Research Forest northwest of Ottawa in the province of Ontario, Canada. In addition to planting seeds from more southerly populations of the existing species in the forest, the management guidelines also authorized experiments in planting tree species whose northernmost ranges were far to the south, notably several species of hickory, Virginia pine, and American chestnut. A 2023 article reports early success of an ongoing experiment of "assisted range expansion" in another eastern province of Canada. In Quebec forestry scientists have experimentally planted sugar maple, Acer saccharum, northward of its current range. Losses of this species are expected in Canada due to competitive challenges from more southerly tree species moving north.
In 2019 a small land trust in northern Michigan, the Leelanau Conservancy, began advising land owners to plant "trees whose native ranges end just south of here, yet are projected to do well in our region." By 2023 two other land conservancies in Michigan were reported as also planting more southerly tree species including sycamore, pawpaw, blackgum, tuliptree, Kentucky coffeetree, honey locust, and red mulberry.
In Minnesota, The Nature Conservancy has partnered with the state forestry agency and U.S Forest Service scientists to discern climate adaptation options where dieback of boreal forest trees is already evident in its northwoods. An article published in 2022 by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reports on the implementation of assisted population migration and assisted range expansion projects, using trees native to the southern regions of the state. The Superior National Forest, at Minnesota's border with Canada, was reported in 2023 as being in the planning stage for possible "human-assisted tree migration" of more southerly tree species. A final report was issued in 2023, titled "Superior National Forest Assisted Migration Plan." This was the first national forest in the USA to issue a climate adaptation plan that would "operationalize" assisted migration. Approval was, however, given for only two of the three kinds of assisted migration: assisted population migration and assisted range expansion. The report thus refrained from blanket authorization of moving any tree species northward that did not already occur within the Superior National Forest. Because climate projections for Minnesota entail drier as well as warmer conditions, experimentation is underway for possible introduction of a tree widespread in the American west—but several hundred miles distant from the northwoods of Minnesota. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) from the Black Hills of South Dakota is being tested as a possible replacement for the dieback ongoing of Minnesota's official state tree: Red pine (Pinus resinosa). Brian Palik, a forestry researcher involved in the project, reports favorable early results. Ponderosa pine, he says, "grows better than anything else that we planted." In 2023 researchers reported that even more southerly tree species "are doing well" in test plantings. These include northern pecan and American sycamore.
In early spring 2020 a multi-group effort began restoring 154 acres of a 2012 clearcut of Douglas-fir forest at a low elevation site east of Seattle, Washington. The Stossel Creek project is primarily a watershed restoration effort using native tree species, but it is also experimenting with long-distance assisted population migration of the dominant canopy tree, Douglas-fir. Seedlings of Douglas-fir were sourced from nurseries several hundred miles to the south, in Oregon and even northern California. Because nursery stock had run short of native western red-cedar, project leaders chose to substitute a closely related conifer sourced from Oregon and northern California: incense cedar. This species is more drought-tolerant than western red-cedar, but all wild populations occur southward of Washington state. Including incense cedar in the planting list thus brings an element of assisted species migration into this forest restoration project. First-year survival was strong for southerly sourced seedlings of both Douglas-fir and incense cedar.
While extreme summer drought and heat in the mountain states and provinces of western North America have induced massive outbreaks of native bark beetles and fire-caused losses of forest canopies, tree deaths in the eastern half of North America derive from a different mix of causes. Notably, deaths of trees have accelerated due to massive outbreaks of non-native insects. All four widespread canopy species of ash (genus Fraxinus) in the eastern states and provinces have been decimated in recent decades by an Asian beetle, the emerald ash borer. As of 2023, assisted migration tree experiments were underway in the Great Lakes region, expressly seeking one or more replacements for the wetland-adapted black ash. In 2022 and 2023, state agencies and tribes in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin began replacing black ash trees recently killed by the emerald ash borer with more than a dozen species of wet-adapted trees, some of which reach their northern range limits a hundred or more miles to the south. This attempt to ensure that a forest canopy will once again prevail in regional wetlands thus also entails an assisted range expansion form of climate adaptation for species including eastern cottonwood, American hackberry, and river birch.
The boldest assisted migration effort of a forest canopy tree had been initiated by citizens in the Seattle area in 2016. By 2023, their actions had become so substantial that a lengthy journalistic essay was published in a national venue. It was titled, "Can We Save the Redwoods by Helping Them Move?" Two months later, a lengthy news article presented the views of a half-dozen professional forestry practitioners in Oregon and Washington state. Their statements made clear that citizens using "assisted species migration" in their choices of tree plantings (such as the redwoods) were more extreme than the professionals focusing on "assisted population migration" were willing to implement themselves.
In 2024 a Mexican leader who has long advocated for assisted migration to become a standard climate adaptation tool within North American forestry practices published a short paper concluding that the then-current El Niño had already pushed global temperatures to the 1.5 °C threshold of increase that generates self-reinforcing tipping points. His conclusion: "Thus, the time has arrived to discuss painful forest management decisions, such as anticipated thinning to reduce water competition and the gradual replacement of native local forest populations with more drought-resistant provenances and species."
Inadvertent migration
Mature horticultural plantings of trees northward of their native ranges are a form of assisted migration experiment already underway. Because the original plantings likely did not include the goal of helping the trees migrate northward in a warming climate, this form of assisted migration can be called inadvertent, or unintended. Jesse Bellemare and colleagues may have coined the term in a paper published in 2015: "It appears that a subset of native plants, particularly those with ornamental value, might already have had opportunities to shift their ranges northward via inadvertent human assistance." Bellemare suggests, "Native plant horticulture is giving us some fascinating insights into what is likely to happen with climate change."
Horticultural plantings of Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia
The tallest tree in the world is the coast redwood; the most massive tree is the closely related giant sequoia. Both have non-overlapping native ranges limited to California, although the coast redwood extends a few miles northward along the southern-most coast of Oregon. Both species have been planted as landscaping trees in urban areas hundreds of miles northward, in latitude, of their native ranges, including Washington state and British Columbia. In 2022 a Canadian Forestry Service publication used such northward horticultural plantings, along with a review of research detailing redwood's paleobiogeography and current range conditions, as grounds for proposing that Canada's Vancouver Island already offered "narrow strips of optimal habitat" for extending the range of coast redwood.
Video-documentation and analysis of a sampling of horticultural plantings of both species of California trees reveals strong growth from Portland to Seattle—substantially north of their native ranges. While horticulturally planted coast redwood and giant sequoia regularly produce cones in this northward region, only coast redwood is documented as having fully naturalized. This is evidenced by seedlings and saplings growing nearby the original plantings.
Northward planting of Coast Redwood in tree farms
In 2023 a site near Seattle hosted the annual meeting of the Washington Farm Forest Association. The group visited "a thriving stand of 33-year-old redwoods" that had been deliberately planted at the family-owned tree farm in 1990. PropagationNation, a citizen-group promoting the planting of both coast redwood and giant sequoia into the Pacific Northwest, posted a report on the history of the redwood grove and the group's experience at the site. The grove was reported to be growing faster than that of a native tree species that had been planted in an adjacent section of the property. In 2008, the 18-year-old redwoods were the same height as the stand of 38-year-old Douglas fir growing nearby. Current measurements report height growth of about 4 feet per year. The now 33-year-old redwoods are 135 feet tall.
When asked about the farm's current goals in managing the grove of redwoods, the owner replied, “My only goal is to grow the tallest trees in the world.”
The actions of the citizen group Propagation Nation became controversial in late 2023. In October, a lengthy New York Times Magazine article reported favorably on the group's distribution of redwood seedlings to tree farms, public parks, and private individuals in a broad region surrounding the city of Seattle. In December, the Associated Press exclusively reported criticism from professionals in the region and nationally: While beginning to favor experiments in "assisted population migration" of the main native timber tree, Douglas-fir, professionals were united against large-scale plantings of California redwoods into the Pacific Northwest. The next month, January 2024, carried a regional news article that, once again, showed strong support as well as bold statements by the group's founder.
Northward plantings assist climate adaptation decisions
Private landowners, whether planting trees outside of native ranges for horticultural or commercial timber interests, are not by law required to seek governmental approval for doing so. Hence, the practice of visiting mature private or botanical garden plantings in order to assess the viability of intentional assisted migration of a tree species is not yet documented as standard practice. Thus far, the best-known example of documenting northward plantings pertains to a citizen group, Torreya Guardians, justifying their actions in planting seeds of an officially listed endangered species of tree, Florida torreya, hundreds of miles northward.
Diminishing fog along California's northern coast is already substantial, and its consequences would make coast redwood increasingly "drought stressed under a summer climate of reduced fog frequency and greater evaporative demand." Researchers have begun studying how diminishment of fog, owing to climate change, would make habitat unsuitable for Coast redwood in southern portions of their range. Even in northern sections of current range, climate change could constrict habitability such that low slopes along rivers would become the final refugia. Authors of the guest editorial in a 2021 issue of Journal of Ecology featured coast redwood in a concluding statement: "We expect that dominant tree species threatened within their range (e.g. coast redwood) would have to be translocated at a landscape level to protect overall habitat, ecosystem productivity and associated species."
The sudden deaths of some previously healthy giant sequoias, which are native to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, are correlated with California's record drought of 2012–2016. The deaths caught scientists and national park managers by surprise during the next few years, as drought-weakened trees succumbed to bark beetle infestations in their thin-barked upper branches. Because the drought killed an enormous number of the common pine species and firs that surround the discrete groves of giant sequoias, a wildfire of catastrophic intensity, the Castle Fire, swept through the region in 2020. The innate fire resistance of even the tallest and sturdiest sequoias could not protect the groves. A tenth of the entire native population of giant sequoia is estimated to have been killed. An interagency Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition formed in 2021, reporting that "giant sequoias are known for their resistance to insects and disease and their fire-adapted life cycle, however the 2012–2016 drought appears to have been a tipping point for giant sequoias and other Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests."
Forest understory plants
Natural and healthy forests include a diversity of native understory plants. Because understory plants require a healthy canopy of overstory trees, assisted migration of understory plants is only occasionally mentioned in the forestry publications on the topic of climate adaptation.
Two genera, Taxus and Torreya, within the ancient yew family called Taxaceae have been proposed as important understory components for their value in providing ecosystem services for forest restoration and climate adaptation projects in China. The authors conclude, "Taxaceae species can contribute to generate structurally complex stands of increased value for biodiversity and increased stability, hereby also contributing to climate change mitigation as well as other important ecosystem services. Further, using rare Taxaceae species in reforestation will also help conserve these rare species in a changing future." Both genera have distinct species native to the western and eastern regions of North America. Only Florida torreya is critically endangered, however, and a citizen group called Torreya Guardians has been planting this species hundreds of kilometers north of its native range.
Inadvertent assisted migration of ornamental understory plants
Native species of Magnolia in eastern North America have been widely planted for their ornamental beauty in horticultural contexts far north of their native ranges. Although nearly half of all Magnolia species are threatened globally, human-assisted movement and cultivation of some species have led to their survival and expansion far beyond native range. The ongoing naturalization of beyond-range Magnolia taxa has been associated with climate change. Botanists have documented examples where such plantings have fully naturalized—that is, where nearby seedlings and saplings suggest that not only were viable seeds produced, but the habitat and climate were favorable for seedlings to establish and grow. These are examples of inadvertent assisted migration. Botanist Todd Rounsaville suggests, "There is an important need to study and report the ecological processes of tree naturalization in novel environments to guide policy making and forest management relating to climate change, species range-shifts, and assisted migration."
One example is the southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora. This small, evergreen tree is widely planted as an ornamental as far north as New England and Michigan. The tree tolerates those regions, which are far north of its native range along the coast of southeastern US. But no instances of full naturalization have been documented at such high latitudes. In 2011 botanists documented naturalization near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which is more than a hundred kilometers beyond and inland of its northernmost native range in North Carolina.
Bigleaf magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla, another widely planted ornamental, has been documented as fully naturalized in the state of Connecticut. This is 130 kilometers northeast of its historically native range. Because climate models project severe contraction in the southerly portion of its native range, William Moorhead recommends that "additional sites for this conspicuous species should be sought in the area of similar climate conditions between Long Island and central Connecticut, such as along the northern coast of Long Island Sound and in the lower Hudson Valley."
Umbrella magnolia, Magnolia tripetala, has been documented as naturalized in more than a dozen locations well north of its historic native range. Dispersal problems apparently limited its post-glacial range expansion to regions south of the farthest extent of continental ice. While horticultural plantings northward into Massachusetts as early as the 18th century demonstrated species tolerance for the then-climate, only recently have these old horticultural plantings begun to extend offspring into adjacent suitable habitat—becoming quite populous in even full-canopy forests, according to botanists Jesse Bellemare and Claudia Deeg. They write, "The pattern of relatively synchronous escape and establishment of this southern tree species in the last 20 to 30 years seems most consistent with a link to recent climatic warming in the northeastern US."
Evidence and causes of lagging tree migration
Forest habitat fragmentation caused by agriculture and residential development have long been recognized as impediments to the ability of plants to geographically track climate change. Several additional human stressors are now also recognized as lessening the ability of trees to adapt to climate change by "migrating poleward." One such stress is where native deer densities are abnormally high, owing to the absence of predators and landscape or management conditions that preclude human hunting at adequate scale. Under those conditions, tree species whose leaves and twigs are palatable to deer are unable to launch next generations, even when still well represented in the forest canopy. Another stress derives from non-native invasive plants that can rapidly occupy a canopy opening, thereby shading out native tree seedlings that might otherwise have been able to establish.
References
Forestry in North America
Plant ecology
Environmental conservation
Climate change adaptation
Climate change policy
Climate change in Canada
Climate change in the United States | Assisted migration of forests in North America | [
"Biology"
] | 8,935 | [
"Plant ecology",
"Plants"
] |
66,931,758 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary%20of%20nautical%20terms%20%28M%E2%80%93Z%29 | This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".
Further information on nautical terminology may also be found at Nautical metaphors in English, and additional military terms are listed in the Multiservice tactical brevity code article. Terms used in other fields associated with bodies of water can be found at Glossary of fishery terms, Glossary of underwater diving terminology, Glossary of rowing terms, and Glossary of meteorology.
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
See also
Articles that link to this glossary
List of ship directions
Notes
References
Sources
(1848 edition)
Nautical
Shipbuilding
Water transport
Wikipedia glossaries using description lists | Glossary of nautical terms (M–Z) | [
"Engineering"
] | 206 | [
"Naval architecture",
"Shipbuilding",
"Marine engineering"
] |
66,932,034 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign%20Internet%20Law | The Sovereign Internet Law () is the informal name for a set of 2019 amendments to existing Russian legislation that mandate Internet surveillance and grants the Russian government powers to partition Russia from the rest of the Internet, including the creation of a national fork of the Domain Name System.
In a statement released by the State Legal Department on March 13, 2019, the federal law was aimed at "suppressing the dissemination of unreliable socially significant information under the guise of reliable messages that creates a threat of harm to the life and (or) health of citizens, property, a threat of massive disruption of public order and (or) public safety, or a threat of interfering with the functioning or termination of the functioning of facilities life support, transport or social infrastructure, credit institutions, energy facilities, industry and communications."
The system was tested on 6 July 2023, and possibly tested again on February 27, 2024. On December 10, 2024, the system got tested for a whole day in the Chechnya region.
See also
Alternative DNS root
Internet censorship in Russia
Mass surveillance in Russia
Splinternet
Yarovaya’s Law
References
2019 in law
2019 in Russia
Law of Russia
Censorship in Russia
Internet law
Internet access
Internet censorship in Russia | Sovereign Internet Law | [
"Technology"
] | 246 | [
"Internet access",
"IT infrastructure"
] |
68,348,554 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual%20system | A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species. The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.
Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive success, and may also have led to the origin or extinction of certain species. In flowering plants and animals, sexual reproduction involves meiosis, an adaptive process for repairing damage in the germline DNA transmitted to progeny. The distinctions between different sexual systems is not always clear due to phenotypic plasticity.
Interest in sexual systems goes back to Charles Darwin, who found that barnacles include some species that are androdioecious and some that are dioecious.
Types of sexual systems
Flowering plants may have dimorphic or monomorphic sexual systems. In monomorphic sexual systems, a combination of hermaphrodite, male, and/or female flowers may be present on the same plant. Monomorphic sexual systems include monoecy, gynomonoecy, andromonoecy, and trimonoecy. In dimorphic sexual systems, individual plants within a species only produce one sort of flower, either hermaphrodite or male, or female. Dimorphic sexual systems include dioecy, gynodioecy, androdioecy, and trioecy.
Male ( staminate) flowers have a stamen but no pistil and produce only male gametes. Female (a.k.a. pistillate) flowers only have a pistil. Hermaphrodite (a.k.a. perfect, or bisexual) flowers have both a stamen and pistil. The sex of a single flower may differ from the sex of the whole organism: for example, a plant may have both staminate and pistillate flowers, making the plant as a whole a hermaphrodite. Hence although all monomorphic plants are hermaphrodites, different combinations of flower types (staminate, pistillate, or perfect) produces distinct monomorphic sexual systems.
In animals, androdioecy, gynodioecy, and trioecy are referred to as mixed sexual systems;where hermaphrodites coexist with single sexed individuals.
List of sexual systems
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Developmental biology
Evolutionary biology
Taxonomy (biology) | Sexual system | [
"Biology"
] | 492 | [
"Evolutionary biology",
"Behavior",
"Developmental biology",
"Sex",
"Reproduction",
"Sexual system",
"Taxonomy (biology)"
] |
68,349,528 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta%20Octantis | Zeta Octantis, Latinized from ζ Octantis, is a solitary, yellowish-white hued star located in the southern circumpolar constellation Octans. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.42, making it faintly visible to the naked eye under ideal conditions. The star is located relatively close at a distance of only 156 light-years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements, but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of . At its current distance, Zeta Octantis' brightness is diminished by 0.25 magnitudes due to interstellar dust.
This is an evolved A-type star with a stellar classification of A8/9 IV. David S. Evans and colleagues, however, give it a classification of F0 III, which suggests it is already an evolved giant star. It has double the Sun's mass, and 2.25 times the Sun's radius. It radiates around 13 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of . Zeta Octantis is estimated to be 1.25 billion years olds based on stellar evolution models by Trevor J. David and Lynne A. Hillenbrand. It has a low metallicity, having only 44% the abundance of heavy metals compared to the Sun. Despite its advanced age, the object spins rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of , resulting in an oblate shape with an equatorial bulge 11% larger than the polar radius.
References
A-type subgiants
Octantis, Zeta
079837
3678
043908
PD-85 00183
Octans
Octantis, 9 | Zeta Octantis | [
"Astronomy"
] | 335 | [
"Octans",
"Constellations"
] |
68,350,198 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone%20and%20biology | Ozone is a ubiquitous yet highly reactive molecule in the atmosphere. Such a highly reactive oxidizer would normally be dangerous to life but ozone's concentration at sea level is usually not high enough to be toxic. The relatively low concentration of ozone in the habitable zone of earth is in part due to ozone being highly reactive with organic molecules. Ozone that has not already reacted with other atmospheric components quickly reacts with organic molecules that frequent the habitable zone. The ozone is also predominantly generated by UV rays in the upper atmosphere, well away from the habitable zone. Ozone is heavier than most of the atmosphere, but by the time the ozone in the upper atmosphere sinks to sea level most has already reacted with other molecules, converting the ozone to oxygen, forming a part of the more general atmospheric circulation.
The distribution of ozone just described is useful through the manipulation of ozone concentrations outside the norms of the habitable zone. Raising ozone concentrations significantly above naturally occurring levels in the habitable zone overwhelms mechanisms that life has evolved to deal with lower concentrations. When ozone comes into contact with cells, viruses, mycoplasmas, prions, amyloids or other organics it breaks them down. The non-selective nature of the oxidation means the ozone has to be well controlled if a specific outcome is required. This can be done by maximizing exposure of the molecules, compounds, proteins, and cells to the ozone that need to be reacted with or destroyed while minimizing exposure to non-targets.
Ozone delivery
Naturally in animals
Ozone in high concentrations is harmful to animals but they have been found to use small amounts of ozone. The immune system is thought to use ozonolysis by antibodies organizing 1 O 2 allowing H203 to be produced. Traditionally the role of antibodies was thought to be only specifically binding to pathogenic antigens. That antibodies also produced a useful amount of ozone has been debated and was later shown not to be a clear cut result. Other mechanisms for the use of oxidation to destroy pathogens were found. To date, the initial controversy in the area and the research over the following 20 years has not made the field much clearer. A more recent paper states "Singlet oxygen may be commonly generated in tissues through a range of enzymatic and nonenzymatic reactions.... ozone formation also seems to be important".
The studies just eluded to indicate ozone may be important to the immune system but it is not generated in sufficient concentrations to be lethal to pathogens directly. With such small quantities of ozone being made by organisms, ozone's roles in animals and the mode of action needed to be re-assessed. While not necessarily killing pathogens, even short ozone exposure is shown to destabilize them even after 60 seconds. Such disruption may allow the immune system to access new antigens associated with the pathogen. In this way ozone may act to enhance signalling of the pathogens presence. Ozone's effect on signalling in animals may therefor become more significant than its direct affect as an antibiotic at higher concentrations.
Developments of techniques capable of more accurately monitoring ozone levels inside cells will enable investigation of endogenous ozone in cells, perhaps clarifying how cells use endogenous ozone.
Some of the cellular pathways ozone seems to be involved with include:
The generation of cholesterol carboxyaldehyde
As an inflammatory mediator.
To mediate the formation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein.
While not endogenous to the animals cells, ambient ozone in the lungs can alter the immune response to pathogens.
Though currently a short list it is already apparent that endogenous ozone plays a significant role in mediating reactions in the body. Ozone's endogenous role as a mediator in the body also helps explain why adding exogenous ozone to the body will continue to have unexpected impacts until all the endogenous roles of ozone are fully understood.
Artificially by people
As a gas in ambient conditions, ozone cannot be delivered in the same way as the more widespread water based oxidizers, disinfectants and antibiotics. Delivering ozone dissolved in liquids is not straight forward as ozone gas has limited solubility in water or oil. When treating the water or other liquids themselves, the solubility is less of a problem as pure ozone gas can be discharged into the liquid until the desired effect is achieved. When trying to apply ozone already dissolved into a liquid to treat another surface, the lack of solubility is more problematic. The use of nanobubbles of ozone suspended in water or oil helped overcome this problem. Nano-bubbles of ozone are relatively stable and allow for much higher concentrations of ozone to be stably suspended in liquids.
The amount of ozone manufactured for use in the food and other industries is reflected in the considerable effort placed on producing it efficiently in high performance ozone generators. Where non-targeted antibiotic action is required, such as in water purification, it is widely used. Society is requiring the use of fewer chemicals with less toxic byproducts in water purification and food production. As ozone breaks down to oxygen rather than potentially unhealthy compounds it is now being used more widely. Newer developments in food production include controlling microorganism growth, enhancing food safety and extending shelf life.
The reactivity of ozone makes ozone a very general agent for killing pathogens given high enough concentration and time. When used in medical treatments the efficient targeting of ozone to the site where it needs to be active is therefor important. Non-targeted ozone at high concentrations could cause unwanted damage to healthy tissues.
The same reactivity that makes ozone an almost universal killer also makes it easier to be delivered to the right place. Cuticles, epidermis and other layers on the surface of many living things, act as an effective barrier to moderate concentrations of ozone. The natural barriers often last long enough to ensure the higher ozone concentrations have reacted with pathogens and less sensitive materials forming oxygen, before reaching the more sensitive active cells below. The same effective barrier is provided by any reactive surface resulting in occupied rooms houses having significantly lower concentrations of ozone then the out doors, ozone being the least problematic of common contaminants in rooms. Pathogens on cuticles and epidermises can therefore be treated with concentrations of ozone that are fatal without killing the cells beneath. As surfaces such as lungs are not covered by a layer of dead cells, but rather a thin layer of mucous, less protected areas such as eyes and lungs are susceptible to more rapid irritation by higher concentrations of ozone, as well as the byproducts of organic molecules it breaks down. This "irritation" has been noted since the earliest applications through to more recent more detailed studies.
The difficulty of targeting ozone to destroy only pathogens in humans and not the surrounding tissue has lead non-targeted ozone therapy to fall in to disrepute. The dilemma of weighing the benefits of non-targeted killing pathogens using ozone was recognized since its first therapeutic uses in the 1800s. Attempts have been made to separate out the empirical based ozone therapies from therapies based on a more scientific based understanding of how ozone therapy might work. Despite such attempts there is no indication in the current literature that the controversy will lessen soon as there is a gap in the literature of long-term studies as of 2024.
Antibiotic action
Unlike most disinfectants or antibiotics ozone can kill in both the gaseous or liquid environments. Oxidation of pathogens that leads to their deactivation or destruction by ozone is a complex and varied process. It has been widely investigated, even to the resolution of atomic force microscopy Simply stated, ozone is such a strong oxidizer that, given relatively high concentrations and time, ozone will break apart most structures pathogens rely on to maintain their integrity.
It was observed in 1896 that ozone lessened the fermentation of yeast . In 1897 ozone gas was used as an antiseptic for the first time in a terminal cancer patient. By 1900 ozone was also in use in dentistry and drinking water purification. In 2019 ozone was considered an effective way of killing environmental SARS (COVID19) virus. It was also successfully used to treat COVID-19 patients despite the mechanism of action being poorly understood.
Specific examples of ozone uses
Ozone is used in such a wide variety of circumstances it is impractical to list all the uses. Below are some examples from research articles.
Health
Treat laundry wastewater in large facilities such as hospitals, laundries and care homes. Particularly the removal of drugs.
Part of the alternative strategies used to mitigate antibiotic resistance.
In dentistry as and antimicrobial agent and therapies including implantology, oral surgery, periodontology, oral medicine and the treament of caries. Ozone is used mainly in private dental practices and is open to poor implementation as the mechanism of action is not well enough understood to routinely use.
Food
Kill pathogens on and enhance preservation of food.
Dairy supply chain eco friendly alternatives Due to increased anti-biotic resistance there are attempts to establish ozone as a treatment for mastitis in cows
Drinking water treatment for more than 100 years. More recently for antibiotic and arsenic removal.
Commercial
Deodorize air and objects.
Pool water treatment
Water reclamation. With scalability problems being addressed.
Part of the solution for the removal of a range of environmental contaminants from water.
Chemical and drug synthesis.
References | Ozone and biology | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,912 | [
"Ozone",
"Oxidizing agents"
] |
68,350,754 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCully%20Basin | The McCully Basin is a geologic structural basin in the northern boundary of Eagle Cap Wilderness in northeast Oregon. The basin is the topographic drainage of McCully Creek. Several Alpine Huts and campsite are located throughout the McCully Basin, which are used as a base camp in the winter for telemark skiing.
McCully Basin starts at the wilderness boundary and runs north–south towards Big Sheep Creek and Tenderfoot Wagon Road. The East Fork of the Wallowa River runs parallel to the McCully Basin to the West of the ridge formed from East Peak, Hidden Peak and Aneroid Mountain.
The McCully Basin is named from the Creek which takes its name from Frank D. McCully, a sheep rancher and US representative, notorious supporter of Chief Joseph.
Geology
While the Eagle Cap Wilderness is characterized by high alpine lakes, there are no lakes within the McCully Basin. The geology of the peaks surrounding the McCully Basin are basalts that resemble more the strata in the Columbia River Gorge than to the distinctive slopes of marble and granite in most of the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest. Some of the more prominent peaks that border the McCully Basin are Mount Melissa () to the East and Aneroid Mountain () to the Southwest.
Ecology
The hydrographic McCully Basin contains two neighboring ecoregions, with unclear ecological boundaries throughout. Surrounding the creek shores and its riparian zones are alpine forests which overlap extended meadows and flatlands that contrast the surrounding peaks.
Flora
The McCully basin starts in the north with formerly diseased forests composed mainly of Engelmann spruce, western larch, scrappy woods of lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and an underbrush of Sitka alder, Labrador tea, lupin and grouseberry.
Fauna
Great Basin wildlife includes snowshoe hare, Red Squirrels, Columbian ground squirrels, and other small rodents, which are predominantly nocturnal. Mule deer are plentiful in the McCully Basin as well as large elk herds. The high elevation ridges are grazed by mountain goats.
The American dipper is also very common in the McCully Basin. Northern flicker, Clark's nutcrackers, Canada jay, Steller's jay, olive-sided Flycatchers, hermit thrushes, spotted towhee, ruby-crowned kinglets, winter wrens are other common bird species.
Sheep and cattle graze throughout Eagle Cap Wilderness, including the surroundings of Mount Nebo. Shortly after World War II with the impact of the wool industry, the number of sheep nearly disappeared in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, while at the beginning of the 1900, their numbers exceeded the carrying capacity of the wilderness.
Access
Access to McCully Basin is from the McCully trailhead at the north boundary of the wilderness, southeast of the city of Joseph. The trail parallels Mt Howard trail at the western shore of McCully Creek. For two miles an unsurfaced and unmaintained temporary access road accompanies the trail towards Mt Howard. This marks the beginning of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The trail ends at Tenderfoot Wagon Road, approximately from the McCully Trailhead. This area is surrounded by Big Sheep Creek, its North Fork and other tributaries. Wilderness visitor permit is required for transit within the Eagle Cap Wilderness area.
References
Eagle Cap Wilderness
Old-growth forests | McCully Basin | [
"Biology"
] | 685 | [
"Old-growth forests",
"Ecosystems"
] |
68,352,514 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Edwin%20Field | John Edwin Field FRS (20 September 1936 – 21 October 2020) was a British experimental physicist whose research focused on the physics and chemistry of solids, particularly involving energetic phenomena and materials, covering a variety of topics from erosion to explosives.
Following his undergraduate studies in physics at University College London, Field moved to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, undertaking his PhD in the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group. He remained at Cambridge for the rest of his career which included terms as Head of the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group and Deputy Head of the Cavendish Laboratory. He was also a Fellow of Magdalene College.
His achievements were recognised by an OBE in 1987 and Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1994.
References
1936 births
2020 deaths
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Experimental physicists
Alumni of University College London
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge | John Edwin Field | [
"Physics"
] | 179 | [
"Experimental physics",
"Experimental physicists"
] |
68,352,741 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamin%20superfamily | Dynamin Superfamily Protein (DSP) is a protein superfamily includes classical dynamins, GBPs, Mx proteins, OPA1, mitofusins in Eukaryote, and bacterial dynamin-like proteins (BDLPs) in Prokaryote. DSPs mediate eukaryotic membrane fusion and fission necessary for endocytosis, organelle biogenesis and maintenance, Mitochondrial fusion and fission, as well as for prokaryotic cytokinesis.
Structure
All DSPs have two common domains: a GTPase domain and an elongated α-helical bundle domain.
References
External links
Cellular processes
EC 3.6.5 | Dynamin superfamily | [
"Biology"
] | 139 | [
"Cellular processes"
] |
68,353,134 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20in%20Sudan | Time in Sudan is given by a single time zone, officially denoted as Central Africa Time (CAT; UTC+02:00). Sudan has observed CAT since 1 November 2017. Sudan has not observed daylight saving time since 14 October 1985.
History
Sudan observed the UTC offset of 2:10:08 as its local mean time until 1931, when it adopted Central Africa Time (UTC+02:00) as standard time. On 15 January 2000, Sudan's time moved forward one hour to East Africa Time (UTC+03:00), causing the territory to deviate from solar time; this change was later reverted on 1 November 2017 when Sudan readopted UTC+02:00.
Daylight saving time
Sudan previously observed daylight saving time between 1970 and 1985, moving the clock forward one hour from UTC+02:00 to UTC+03:00.
IANA time zone database
In the IANA time zone database, Sudan is given one zone in the file zone.tab – Africa/Khartoum. "SD" refers to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Data for Sudan directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database; columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself:
See also
Time in South Sudan
Daylight saving time in Africa
List of time zones by country
List of UTC time offsets
References
External links
Current time in Sudan at Time.is
Time in Sudan at TimeAndDate.com
Time by country
Geography of Sudan
Time in Africa | Time in Sudan | [
"Physics"
] | 307 | [
"Spacetime",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"Time by country"
] |
68,354,495 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20fungi%20of%20South%20Africa | This is a list of the lists of fungal taxa as recorded from South Africa. Names given are as provided by the source, but authorities and dates should be aligned with current practice where feasible. Currently accepted names have been appended where the listed name is out of date.
A fungus (plural: fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from the other eukaryotic kingdoms, those being Plantae, Animalia, Protozoa, and Chromista.
A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota (true fungi or Eumycetes), which share a common ancestor (from a monophyletic group), an interpretation that is also strongly supported by molecular phylogenetics. This fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes (slime molds) and oomycetes (water molds). The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology (from the Greek μύκης , mushroom). In the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants.
Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the small size of their structures, and their cryptic lifestyles in soil or on dead matter. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and also parasites. They may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform an essential role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling and exchange in the environment. They have long been used as a direct source of human food, in the form of mushrooms and truffles; as a leavening agent for bread; and in the fermentation of various food products, such as wine, beer, and soy sauce. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, and, more recently, various enzymes produced by fungi are used industrially and in detergents. Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, that are toxic to animals including humans. The fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans and other animals. Losses of crops due to fungal diseases (e.g., rice blast disease) or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies.
The fungus kingdom encompasses an enormous diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies, and morphologies ranging from unicellular aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms. However, little is known of the true biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi, which has been estimated at 2.2 million to 3.8 million species. Of these, only about 148,000 have been described, with over 8,000 species known to be detrimental to plants and at least 300 that can be pathogenic to humans. Ever since the pioneering 18th and 19th century taxonomical works of Carl Linnaeus, Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, and Elias Magnus Fries, fungi have been classified according to their morphology (e.g., characteristics such as spore color or microscopic features) or physiology. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, which has sometimes challenged the historical groupings based on morphology and other traits. Phylogenetic studies published in the first decade of the 21st century have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
Genus: Kalchbrennera Berk. 1876, accepted as Lysurus Fr., (1823)
Kalchbrennera corallocephala (Welw. & Curr.) Kalchbr. 1880 accepted as Lysurus corallocephalus Welw. & Curr., (1868)
Kalchbrennera tuckii Berk. 1876
Kalchbrennera tuckii var. microcephala Pole Evans*
Genus: Kloeckerospora*
Kloeckerospora uvarum Niehaus*
Genus: Kretzschmaria Fr. 1849
Kretzschmaria cetrarioides (Welw. & Curr.) Sacc. 1883
Kretzschmaria knysnana Van der Byl 1932
Kretzschmaria micropus (Fr.) Sacc. 1882
Genus: Kuehneola Magnus 1898
Kuehneola albida (J.G.Kühn) Magnus (1898), accepted as Kuehneola uredinis (Link) Arthur (1906)
Kuehneola fici (Castagne) E.J. Butler 1914 accepted as Cerotelium fici (Castagne) Arthur, (1917)
Kuehneola uredinis (Link) Arthur (1906) recorded as Kuehneola albida (J.G.Kühn) Magnus (1898),
Genus: Kupsura Lloyd 1924, accepted as Lysurus Fr., (1823)
Kupsura sphaerocephala Lloyd 1924
L
M
N
Genus: Naemacyclus Fuckel 1874
Naemacyclus niveus (Pers.) Fuckel ex Sacc. 1884 accepted as Cyclaneusma niveum (Pers.) DiCosmo, Peredo & Minter, (1983)
Genus: Naevia Fr. 1824, accepted as Arthonia Ach., (1806)
Naevia rotundata Vain. 1901
Genus: Naucoria (Fr.) P.Kumm. (1871), accepted as Alnicola Kühner (1926)
Naucoria arenicola (Berk.) Sacc. 1887 accepted as Agrocybe pediades (Fr.) Fayod, (1889)
Naucoria arvalis Quel. possibly (Fr.) Sacc. 1887, accepted as Agrocybe arvalis (Fr.) Singer, (1936)
Naucoria furfuracea Quel. possibly (Pers.) P. Kumm. 1871, accepted as Tubaria furfuracea (Pers.) Gillet, [1878]
Naucoria pediades Quel. possibly (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871, accepted as Agrocybe pediades (Fr.) Fayod, (1889)
Naucoria pediades var. obscuripes Fayod 1890 accepted as Agrocybe pediades (Fr.) Fayod, (1889)
Naucoria pygmaea (Bull.) Gillet 1876 accepted as Psathyrella pygmaea (Bull.) Singer, (1951)
Naucoria russa (Cooke & Massee) Sacc. 1887
Naucoria scolecina (Fr.) Quél. 1875
Naucoria semiorbicularis (Bull.) Quél. 1875 accepted as Agrocybe pediades (Fr.) Fayod, (1889)
Naucoria undulosa (Fr.) Sacc. 1887
Genus: Nectria (Fr.) Fr. 1849
Nectria cinnabarina (Tode) Fr. 1849
Nectria coccinea (Pers.) Fr. 1849
Nectria coccophila (Tul. & C. Tul.) Wollenw. & Reinking 1935 accepted as Cosmospora flammea (Berk. & Ravenel) Rossman & Samuels, (1999)
Nectria ditissima Tul. & C. Tul. (1865), accepted as Neonectria ditissima (Tul. & C. Tul.) Samuels & Rossman (2006)
Nectria episphaeria (Tode) Fr. 1849, accepted as Dialonectria episphaeria (Tode) Cooke [as episphærica], (1884)
Nectria eximia Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Nectria furfuracea Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Nectria galligena Bres. 1901 [as gallingena] accepted as Neonectria ditissima (Tul. & C. Tul.) Samuels & Rossman, (2006)
Nectria heterosperma Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Nectria leocarpoides Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Nectria martialis Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Nectria meliolopsidicola Henn. 1895 [as mellopsicola] accepted as Cosmospora meliolopsidicola (Henn.) Rossman & Samuels [as 'meliopsicola'], (1999)
Nectria perpusilla Sacc. 1913, Nom. illegit.
Nectria peziza (Tode) Fr. 1849
Nectria sp.
Family:Nectrioidaceae Sacc. 1884
Genus: Nematospora Peglion 1897
Nematospora coryli Peglion, 1901, accepted as Eremothecium coryli Kurtzman, 1995
Nematospora gossypii Ashby & Nowell (1926), accepted as Eremothecium gossypii Kurtzman, 1995
Genus: Nematostigma Syd. & P. Syd. 1913
Nematostigma obducens Syd. & P. Syd. 1913,
Genus: Neobarclaya Kuntze 1898
Neobarclaya congesta (Berk. & Broome) Petch 1924 accepted as Deshpandiella jambolana (T.S. Ramakr., Sriniv. & Sundaram) Kamat & Ullasa, (1973)
Neobarclaya natalensis P. Syd. 1899 accepted as Deshpandiella jambolana (T.S. Ramakr., Sriniv. & Sundaram) Kamat & Ullasa, (1973)
Genus: Neocosmospora E.F. Sm. 1899 accepted as Fusarium Link, (1809)
Neocosmospora vasinfecta E.F. Sm. 1899 accepted as Fusarium neocosmosporiellum O'Donnell & Geiser, (2013)
Neocosmospora vasinifecta var. tracheiphila E.F. Sm. 1899 accepted as Fusarium neocosmosporiellum O'Donnell & Geiser, (2013)
Genus: Neopeckia Sacc. 1883
Neopeckia caesalpiniae Doidge 1948 accepted as Herpotrichia caesalpiniae (Doidge) Sivan., (1972)
Neopeckia rhodostoma Syd. & P. Syd. 1917
Genus: Nephroma Ach. 1809(Lichens)
Nephroma africanum Gyeln. 1931
Nephroma capense A. Massal. 1861
Nephroma cellulosum (Sm.) Ach. 1810
Nephroma flavireagens Gyeln. 1931
Nephroma helveticum Ach. 1810
Nephroma laevigatum Ach. 1814
Nephroma resupinatum f. helveticum Rabenh. 1845
Nephroma tropicum (Müll. Arg.) Zahlbr. 1925
Genus: Nephromium Nyl. 1860, accepted as Nephroma Ach., (1809)
Nephromium helveticum (Ach.) Nyl. 1888 accepted as Nephroma helveticum Ach. [as helvetica], (1810)
Nephromium tropicum Müll. Arg. 1883
Nephromium laevigatum (Ach.) Nyl. 1858 accepted as Nephroma laevigatum Ach. [as laevigata], (1814)
Genus: Nesolechia A. Massal. 1856 accepted as Phacopsis Tul., (1852)
Nesolechia perforans (Stizenb.) Vouaux 1913;
Family: Nidulariaceae Dumort. 1822
Genus: Nidularia Fr. 1817
Nidularia dasypus (Nees) Fr. 1823
Genus: Nigrospora Zimm. 1902
Nigrospora oryzae (Berk. & Broome) Petch (1924),
Nigrospora panici Zimm. 1902
Nigrospora sphaerica (Sacc.) E.W. Mason 1927 accepted as Nigrospora oryzae (Berk. & Broome) Petch (1924)
Genus: Niopsora A. Massal. 1861, accepted as Caloplaca Th. Fr., (1860)
Niopsora ecklonii A. Massal. 1861
Genus: Niorma A. Massal. 1861
Niorma derelicta A. Massal. 1861
Genus: Nolanea (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871
Nolanea casta (MacOwan) Sacc. 1887 accepted as Mycena casta (MacOwan) D.A. Reid, (1975)
Nolanea leuciscus Kalchbr.*
Genus: Normandina Nyl. 1855
Normandina pulchella (Borrer) Nyl. 1861
Genus: Nummularia Tul. & C. Tul. 1863 accepted as Biscogniauxia Kuntze, (1891)
Nummularia clypeus (Schwein.) Cooke 1883 accepted as Biscogniauxia mediterranea (De Not.) Kuntze, (1891)
Nummularia kalchbrenneri (Sacc.) J.H. Mill. 1942, accepted as Biscogniauxia kalchbrenneri (Sacc.) Y.M. Ju & J.D. Rogers, (1998)
Nummularia lepida Syd. 1924 accepted as Biscogniauxia kalchbrenneri (Sacc.) Y.M. Ju & J.D. Rogers, (1998)
Nummularia placenta Cooke accepted as Biscogniauxia kalchbrenneri (Sacc.) Y.M. Ju & J.D. Rogers, (1998)
Nummularia punctulata (Berk. & Ravenel) Sacc. 1882 [as punctulatum] accepted as Camillea punctulata (Berk. & Ravenel) Læssøe, J.D. Rogers & Whalley, (1989)
Nummularia suborbicularis (Welw. & Curr.) Sacc. 1882, [as suborbiculare]
Nummularia uniapiculata Penz. & Sacc. [as uni-apiculata], (1898) accepted as Biscogniauxia uniapiculata (Penz. & Sacc.) Whalley & Læssøe, (1990)
O
Oc
Genus: Ocellularia G. Mey. 1825 (Lichens)
Ocellularia capensis var. feracior Zahlbr. 1932
Ocellularia capensis var. leiothallina Zahlbr. 1932
Ocellularia cavata (Ach.) Müll. Arg. 1882
Ocellularia diploschistoides Zahlbr. 1932
Ocellularia galactina Zahlbr. 1932
Ocellularia henatomma (Ach.) Müll. Arg. 1887
Genus: Ochrolechia A.Massal. (1852) (Lichens)
Ochrolechia africana Vain. 1926
Ochrolechia africana Vain. 1926
Ochrolechia pallescens (L.) A. Massal. 1853
Ochrolechia parella (L.) A. Massal. 1852
Genus: Octaviania Vittad. 1831
Octaviania africana Lloyd 1922 accepted as Neosecotium africanum (Lloyd) Singer & A.H. Sm., (1960)
Octaviania carnea (Wallr.) Corda 1854 accepted as Hydnangium carneum Wallr., (1839)
Octaviania flava G.H.Cunn. accepted as Stephanospora flava (Rodway) G.W. Beaton, Pegler & T.W.K. Young, (1985)
Od
Genus: Odontia Pers. 1794
Odontia arguta (Fr.) Quél. 1888 accepted as Hyphodontia arguta (Fr.) J. Erikss., (1958)
Odontia knysnana Van der Byl 1934 accepted as Xylodon knysnanus (Van der Byl) Hjortstam & Ryvarden, (2009)
Odontia saccharicola Burt 1917 accepted as Resinicium saccharicola (Burt) Nakasone, (2000)
Oi
Genus: Oidiopsis Scalia 1902 accepted as Leveillula G. Arnaud, (1921)
Oidiopsis taurica (Lév.) E.S. Salmon 1906 accepted as Leveillula taurica (Lév.) G. Arnaud, (1921)
Genus: Oidium Link 1824
Oidium abelmoschi Thüm. 1878 accepted as Fibroidium abelmoschi (Thüm.) U. Braun & R.T.A. Cook, (2012)
Oidium chrysanthemi Rabenh. 1853 accepted as Golovinomyces chrysanthemi (Rabenh.) M. Bradshaw, U. Braun, Meeboon & S. Takam., (2017)
Oidium erysiphoides Fr. (1832), accepted as Golovinomyces biocellatus (Ehrenb.) V.P. Heluta, (1988)
Oidium farinosum Cooke (1887), accepted as Podosphaera leucotricha (Ellis & Everh.) E.S. Salmon, (1900)
Oidium hortensiae Jørst. 1925 accepted as Pseudoidium hortensiae (Jørst. ex S. Blumer) U. Braun & R.T.A. Cook, (2012)
Oidium lactis Fresen. 1850 accepted as Dipodascus geotrichum (E.E. Butler & L.J. Petersen) Arx, (1977)
Oidium leuconium Desm. 1829 accepted as Podosphaera pannosa (Wallr.) de Bary, (1870)
Oidium lycopersici Cooke & Massee, (1888) [as lycopersicum] accepted as Golovinomyces lycopersici (Cooke & Massee) L. Kiss, (2019)
Oidium mangiferae Berthet 1914
Oidium quercinum Thüm. 1878 accepted as Erysiphe alphitoides (Griffon & Maubl.) U. Braun & S. Takam., (2000)
Oidium tabaci Thüm. 1879 accepted as Golovinomyces cichoracearum (DC.) V.P. Heluta [as 'cichoraceorum'], (1988)
Oidium tuckeri Berk. 1847 accepted as Erysiphe necator Schwein., [1834]
Oidium verbenae Thüm. & P.C. Bolle 1885 accepted as Acrosporium verbenae (Thüm. & P.C. Bolle) J.A. Stev., (1975)
Oidium sp.
Ol
Genus: Olpidiopsis Cornu 1872
Olpidiopsis ricciae du Plessis 1933
Genus: Oligostroma Syd. & P. Syd. 1914 accepted as Ramularia Unger, (1833)
Oligostroma maculiformis (G. Winter) Doidge 1921 accepted as Teratosphaeria maculiformis (G. Winter) Joanne E. Taylor & Crous, (1999)
Oligostroma proteae Syd. & P. Syd. 1914 accepted as Mycosphaerella proteae (Syd. & P. Syd.) Arx, (1962)
Om
Genus: Ombrophila Fr. 1849
Ombrophila nigrescens Henn. 1902
Genus: Omphalia (Fr.) Gray 1821, accepted as Omphalina Quél., (1886)
Omphalia bulbosa Bres. 1920
Omphalia glaucophylla Gill. possibly (Lasch) Sacc. 1887
Omphalia griseopallida Quel. possibly (Desm.) P. Karst. 1879 accepted as Arrhenia griseopallida (Desm.) Watling, [1988]
Omphalia integrella Quel. possibly (Pers.) P. Kumm. 1871 accepted as Delicatula integrella (Pers.) Fayod, (1889)
Omphalia linopus (Kalchbr.) Sacc. 1887
Omphalia micromeles (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. 1887
Omphalia oniscus (Fr.) Gillet 1876 accepted as Arrhenia oniscus (Fr.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys [as onisca], (2002)
Omphalia pallescens Bres. 1920 accepted as Clitocybe torrendii Pegler, (1966)
Omphalia paurophylla (Berk.) Sacc. 1891
Omphalia polypus (Kalchbr.) Sacc. 1887 accepted as Marasmius polypus (Kalchbr.) D.A. Reid, (1975)
Omphalia rustica (Fr.) Quél. 1872, accepted as Arrhenia rustica (Fr.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys, (2002)
Omphalia scyphoides Quel. possibly (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871, accepted as Clitopilus scyphoides (Fr.) Singer, (1946)
Omphalia syndesmia (Kalchbr.) Sacc. 1887;
Omphalia umbellifera Quel. var. cinnabarina Berk.*
Genus: Omphalaria Durieu & Mont. 1847 (?) accepted as Thyrea A. Massal., (1856)
Omphalaria minuscula (Nyl.) Vain. 1901
Genus: Omphalodium Meyen & Flot. 1843 (?) (Lichens)
Omphalodium hottentottum (Ach.) Flot. 1843 accepted as Xanthoparmelia hottentotta (Ach.) A. Thell, Feuerer, Elix & Kärnefelt, J. Hattori (2006)
Omphalodium hottentottum var. phalacrum Hue 1900
Omphalodium mutabile (Taylor) Minks 1900;
On
Genus: Oncospora Kalchbr. 1880
Oncospora bullata Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Oncospora viridans Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Oo
Genus: Oospora Wallr. 1833, accepted as Oidium Link, (1824)
Oospora citri-aurantii (Ferraris) Sacc. & P. Syd. 1902accepted as Dipodascus geotrichum (E.E. Butler & L.J. Petersen) Arx, 336 (1977)
Oospora fimicola (Costantin & Matr.) Cub. & Megliola 1903, accepted as Scopulariopsis coprophila (Cooke & Massee) W. Gams, (1971)
Oospora fusidium (Thüm.) Sacc. & Voglino 1886
Oospora lactis (Fresen.) Sacc. 1886 accepted as Dipodascus geotrichum (E.E. Butler & L.J. Petersen) Arx, (1977)
Oospora pustulans M.N. Owen & Wakef. 1919 [as pustularis] accepted as Polyscytalum pustulans (M.N. Owen & Wakef.) M.B. Ellis, (1976)
Oospora scabies Thaxt. 1892
Genus: Oothecium Speg. 1918, accepted as Asterostomella Speg., (1886)
Oothecium consimile Syd. 1930
Oothecium macarangae Petr. 1928 accepted as Capnodiastrum macarangae (Petr.) Petr., (1952)
Oothecium stylosporum (Cooke) Doidge 1942 accepted as Capnodiastrum stylosporum (Cooke) Petr., (1952)
Op
Genus: Opegrapha (Lichens)
Opegrapha adpicta Zahlbr. 1932
Opegrapha agelaea Fée 1837
Opegrapha atra Pers. 1794 accepted as Arthonia atra (Pers.) A. Schneid., (1898)
Opegrapha bacillosa Zahlbr. 1936
Opegrapha bonplandi Fée 1825
Opegrapha capensis Müll. Arg. 1888
Opegrapha diagraphoides Nyl. 1869
Opegrapha diaphorella Stizenb. 1891
Opegrapha emersa Müll. Arg. 1887 accepted as Lecanographa lyncea (Sm.) Egea & Torrente, (1994)
Opegrapha exiguella Zahlbr. 1936 [as exigualla]
Opegrapha exornata Zahlbr.
Opegrapha interalbata Nyl. 1867
Opegrapha lactifera Zahlbr. 1936
Opegrapha lyncea (Sm.) Borrer ex Hook. 1833 accepted as Lecanographa lyncea (Sm.) Egea & Torrente, (1994)
Opegrapha medusulina Nyl. 1895
Opegrapha menyharthii Müll. Arg. 1893
Opegrapha parvula Nyl. 1876
Opegrapha prosodea var. microcarpella Zahlbr. 1936
Opegrapha quaternella Nyl. f. congesta Stizenb.*
Opegrapha scripta (L.) Ach. 1803 accepted as Graphis scripta (L.) Ach., (1809)
Opegrapha semiatra Müll. Arg. 1886
Opegrapha signatella Vain. 1926
Opegrapha tapetica Zahlbr. 1932.
Opegrapha ulcerata Müll. Arg. 1895
Opegrapha zanei A. Massal. 1861
Genus: Ophiobolus Riess 1854
Ophiobolus cariceti (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. (1883), accepted as Gaeumannomyces graminis var. graminis (Sacc.) Arx & D.L. Olivier, (1952)
Ophiobolus graminis (Sacc.) Sacc. (1881), accepted as Gaeumannomyces graminis var. graminis (Sacc.) Arx & D.L. Olivier, (1952)
Ophiobolus cariceti (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. 1883, accepted as Gaeumannomyces graminis (Sacc.) Arx & D.L. Olivier, (1952)
Ophiobolus stipae Doidge 1941
Ophiobolus urticae (Rabenh.) Sacc. 1883 accepted as Pseudoophiobolus erythrosporus (Riess) Phookamsak, Wanas., & K.D. Hyde, (2017)
Genus: Ophiodothella (Henn.) Höhn. 1910
Ophiodothella edax (Berk. & Broome) Höhn. 1910
Ophiodothella liebenbergii Doidge 1942
Or
Genus: Orbilia Fr. 1836
Orbilia rubella (Pers.) P. Karst. 1871
Orbilia xanthostigma (Fr.) Fr. 1849
Family: Orbiliaceae Nannf. 1932
Ot
Genus: Otthia Nitschke ex Fuckel 1870
Otthia deformans Pat. 1918
Ov
Genus: Ovularia Sacc. 1880, accepted as Ramularia Unger, (1833)
Ovularia bistorta (Fuckel) Sacc. 1886 accepted as Ramularia bistortae Fuckel, (1870)
Ovularia lolii Volkart 1903 accepted as Ramularia lolii (Volkart) U. Braun, (1988)
Genus: OvulariopsisPat. & Har. 1900
Ovulariopsis moricola Delacr. 1903
Ovulariopsis papayae Van der Byl 1921 accepted as Phyllactinia papayae (Van der Byl) U. Braun, (2016)
Ovulariopsis sp.
P
R
S
T
U
V
Va
Genus: Valsa
Valsa infinitissima Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880 accepted as Peroneutypella infinitissima (Kalchbr. & Cooke) Doidge, (1941)
Valsa leucostoma (Pers.) Fr. 1849 accepted as Cytospora leucostoma (Pers.) Sacc., (1881)
Valsa salicina (Pers.) Fr. 1849
Valsa sordida Nitschke 1870 accepted as Cytospora chrysosperma (Pers.) Fr., (1823)
Valsa stellulata (Fr.) Fr. 1849 accepted as Eutypella stellulata (Fr.) Sacc., (1882)
Family: Valsaceae Tul. & C. Tul. 1861
Genus: Valsaria Ces. & De Not. 1863
Valsaria batesii Doidge, (1948), accepted as Valsaria insitiva (Tode) Ces. & De Not.,(1863)
Valsaria eucalypti (Kalchbr. & Cooke) Sacc. 1882, accepted as Myrmaecium rubricosum (Fr.) Fuckel, (1870)
Valsaria natalensis Doidge 1941
Family: Valseae
Genus: Varicellaria Nyl. 1858
Varicellaria lactea (L.) I. Schmitt & Lumbsch, (2012) recorded as Variolaria lactea Wahlbg. possibly (L.) Pers. 1794
Genus: Variolaria
Variolaria discoidea Pers. 1794 accepted as Lepra albescens (Huds.) Hafellner, (2016)
Variolaria lactea Wahlbg. possibly (L.) Pers. 1794, accepted as Varicellaria lactea (L.) I. Schmitt & Lumbsch, (2012)
Ve
Genus: Venturia
Venturia cephalariae (Auersw.) Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Venturia inaequalis (Cooke) G. Winter 1875
Venturia pyrina Aderh. (1896),
Genus: Vermicularia Tode 1790 accepted as Colletotrichum Corda, (1831)
Vermicularia capsici Syd., (1913), accepted as Colletotrichum capsici (Syd.) E.J. Butler & Bisby, (1931)
Vermicularia dematium (Pers.) Fr., (1829), accepted as Colletotrichum dematium (Pers.) Grove, (1918)
Vermicularia dianthi Westend. (1867), accepted as Colletotrichum dematium (Pers.) Grove, (1918)
Vermicularia herbarum Westend. 1849
Vermicularia herbarum f. dianthi West. possibly var. dianthi (Westend.) Sacc. 1931 accepted as Colletotrichum dematium (Pers.) Grove, (1918)
Vermicularia varians Ducomet 1908
Genus: Verrucaria Schrad. 1794? (Lichens)
Verrucaria alba (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria albella (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria alboatra Kremp. 1867
Verrucaria alboatra var. recepta (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria aspistea Afzel. ex Ach. 1803 accepted as Pyrenula aspistea (Afzel. ex Ach.) Ach., (1814)
Verrucaria cinchonae Ach. 1814 accepted as Constrictolumina cinchonae (Ach.) Lücking, M.P. Nelsen & Aptroot, (2016)
Verrucaria cinchonae var. fumida Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria clopima Wahlenb. 1809 accepted as Staurothele clopima (Wahlenb.) Th. Fr., (1861)
Verrucaria confluxa (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891 accepted as Bogoriella confluens (Müll. Arg.) Aptroot & Lücking, (2016)
Verrucaria dissipans Nyl. 1866
Verrucaria erodens Müll. Arg. 1888
Verrucaria eurysperma Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria fallax (Nyl.) Nyl. 1872 accepted as Pseudosagedia fallax (Nyl.) Oxner, (1956)
Verrucaria ferruginosa (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891 accepted as Pyrenowilmsia ferruginosa (Müll. Arg.) Aptroot, (1991)
Verrucaria glabrata var. incusa Flot. 1843
Verrucaria leucanthes Stirt. 1877
Verrucaria locuples Stizenb. 1891 accepted as Clathroporina locuples (Stizenb.) Zahlbr., (1922)
Verrucaria microlepidea Zahlbr. 1932
Verrucaria mierolepidea var. hilarior Zahlbr. 1932.
Verrucaria nigrescens Pers. 1795
Verrucaria nitida (Weigel) Schrad. 1801 accepted as Pyrenula nitida (Weigel) Ach., (1814)
Verrucaria nitida var. nitidella Flörke 1815 accepted as Pyrenula nitida (Weigel) Ach., (1814)
Verrucaria papulosa Nyl. 1867 accepted as Astrothelium papulosum (Nyl.) Aptroot & Lücking, (2016)
Verrucaria pleiomeriza Nyl. 1895
Verrucaria pyrenuloides (Mont.) Nyl. 1858, accepted as Pyrenula pyrenuloides (Mont.) R.C. Harris, (1989)
Verrucaria rebellans Zahlbr. 1936
Verrucaria santensis (Nyl.) Nyl. 1863 accepted as Pyrenula santensis (Nyl.) Müll. Arg., (1882)
Verrucaria simulans (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891
Verrucaria subducta Nyl. 1863
Verrucaria tetracerae Afzel. possibly Ach. 1803 accepted as Porina tetracerae (Ach.) Müll. Arg., (1885)
Verrucaria transwaalensis (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb., (1891) as transvaalensis
Verrucaria variolosa Mont. 1845
Verrucaria viridula (Schrad.) Ach. 1803
Verrucaria wilmsiana (Müll. Arg.) Stizenb. 1891
Family: Verrucariaceae Eschw. 1824
Genus: Verticillium Nees 1816
Verticillium alboatrum Reinke & Berthold 1879,
Verticillium pulvinulum Kalchbr. & Cooke 1882
Verticillium terrestre (Pers.) Sacc. 1886
Verticillium sp.
Genus: Vestergrenia Rehm 1901
Vestergrenia chaenostoma (Sacc.) Theiss. 1918
Vo
Genus: Volutella Fr. 1832
Volutella dianthi Atk.*
Volutella sp.
Genus: Volvaria
Volvaria bombycina Quel. possibly (Schaeff.) P. Kumm. 1871, accepted as Volvariella bombycina (Schaeff.) Singer, (1951)
Volvaria eurhiza Petch.*
Volvaria pusilla Quel. possibly (Pers.) Lloyd 1899, accepted as Volvariella pusilla (Pers.) Singer, (1951)
Volvaria speciosa Gill. possibly (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871, accepted as Volvopluteus gloiocephalus (DC.) Vizzini, Contu & Justo, (2011)
Volvaria sp.
Genus: Volvariella Speg. 1898
Volvariella bombycina (Schaeff.) Singer, (1951) recorded as Volvaria bombycina Quel. possibly (Schaeff.) P. Kumm. 1871
Volvariella pusilla (Pers.) Singer, (1951) recprded as Volvaria pusilla Quel. possibly (Pers.) Lloyd 1899
Genus: Volvopluteus Vizzini, Contu & Justo 2011
Volvopluteus gloiocephalus (DC.) Vizzini, Contu & Justo, (2011) recorded as Volvaria speciosa Gill. possibly (Fr.) P. Kumm. 1871
W
Genus: Woodiella Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899,
Woodiella natalensis Sacc. & P. Syd. (1899),
Family: Woroninaceae H.E. Petersen 1909
Genus: Woroninella Racib. 1898 accepted as Synchytrium de Bary & Woronin, (1863)
Woroninella dolichi (Cooke) Syd. 1914 accepted as Synchytrium dolichi (Cooke) Gäum., (1927)
X
Xa
Genus: Xanthoria (Fr.) Th. Fr. 1860,(Lichens)
Xanthoria aureola (Ach.) Erichsen, (1930) reported as Xanthoria parietina var. aureola (Ach.) Th. Fr. 1860
Xanthoria candelaria f. fibrillosa Hillmann 1922
Xanthoria candelaria var. semigranularis (Müll. Arg.) Zahlbr. 1931
Xanthoria ectaneoides (Nyl.) Zahlbr. 1931
Xanthoria flammea (L. f.) Hillmann 1922 accepted as Dufourea flammea (L. f.) Ach., (1810)
Xanthoria flammea var. podetiifera Hillmann 1922
Xanthoria marlothii Zahlbr. 1926 accepted as Dufourea marlothii (Zahlbr.) Frödén, Arup & Søchting, (2013)
Xanthoria parietina Beltr. possibly (L.) Th. Fr. 1860
Xanthoria parietina f. albicans (Müll. Arg.) Hillmann 1961
Xanthoria parietina f. rutilans Th. Fr. 1871
Xanthoria parietina var. aureola (Ach.) Th. Fr. 1860 Accepted as Xanthoria aureola (Ach.) Erichsen, (1930)
Xanthoria parietina var. ectanea (Ach.) J. Kickx f. 1867, accepted as Xanthoria parietina (L.) Th. Fr., (1860)
Xanthoria parietina var. ectaneoides (Nyl.) Zahlbr. 1917 accepted as Xanthoria ectaneoides (Nyl.) Zahlbr. [as 'ectanoides'], (1931)
Xanthoria parietina var. macrophylla (Stizenb.) Hillmann 1920
Xanthoria turbinata Vain. 1900 accepted as Dufourea turbinata (Vain.) Frödén, Arup & Søchting, (2013)
Xe
Genus: Xerotus Fr. 1828
Xerotus berteroi Mont. [as 'berteri'], (1850)
Xerotus caffrorum Kalchbr. & MacOwan 1881 accepted as Collybia caffrorum (Kalchbr. & MacOwan) D.A. Reid, (1975)
Xerotus fuliginosus Berk. & M.A. Curtis 1860
Xerotus nigritus Lév. 1846 accepted as Anthracophyllum nigritum (Lév.) Kalchbr., (1881)
Xy
Genus: Xylaria Hill ex Schrank 1786
Xylaria allantoidea (Berk.) Fr. 1851
Xylaria anisopleura (Mont.) Fr. 1851
Xylaria apiculata Cooke 1879
Xylaria arbuscula Sacc. 1878
Xylaria aristata Mont. 1856. accepted as Podosordaria aristata (Mont.) P.M.D. Martin, (1976)
Xylaria bulbosa (Pers.) Berk. & Broome 1860
Xylaria capensis (Lév.) Sacc. 1883
Xylaria carpophila Pers. ex Fr.
Xylaria castorea Berk. 1855
Xylaria corniformis (Fr.) Fr. 1849
Xylaria cubensis (Mont.) Fr. 1851
Xylaria digitata (L.) Grev. 1825
Xylaria doumetii (Pat.) J.H. Mill. 1942
Xylaria ensata Kalch.*
Xylaria fistulosa (Lév.) Fr. 1851
Xylaria heloidea Penz. & Sacc. 1898 accepted as Podosordaria heloidea (Penz. & Sacc.) P.M.D. Martin, (1976)
Xylaria hypoxylon (L.) Grev. 1824,
Xylaria ippoglossa Speg. (1889) [as Hippoglossa]
Xylaria multiplex (Kunze) Fr. 1851
Xylaria myosurus Mont. 1855
Xylaria nigripes (Klotzsch) Cooke 1883, accepted as Podosordaria nigripes (Klotzsch) P.M.D. Martin, (1976)
Xylaria oxyacanthae Tul. & C. Tul. 1863,
Xylaria pistillaris Nitschke*
Xylaria polymorpha (Pers.) Grev. 1824
Xylaria reticulata Lloyd 1925
Xylaria rhopaloides Mont. 1855 (Nom. inval.) accepted as Xylaria rhopaloides Kunze ex Sacc., (1882)
Xylaria schreuderiana Van der Byl 1932
Xylaria schweinitzii Berk. & M.A. Curtis 1854
Xylaria stilboidea Kalchbr. & Cooke 1880
Xylaria tabacina (J. Kickx f.) Berk. 1851
Xylaria vaporaria Berk. 1864
Xylaria variabilis Welw. & Curr. 1868
Xylaria xanthinovelutina (Mont.) Mont. [as 'ianthino-velutina'], (1856)
Xylaria sp.
Family: Xylariaceae Tul. & C. Tul. 1863
Genus: Xylosorium Zundel 1939, accepted as Pericladium Pass., (1875)
Xylosorium piperis Zundel 1939 [as piperii] accepted as Pericladium piperis (Zundel) Mundk. [as 'piperii'], (1944)
Z
Genus: Zukalia Sacc. 1891, accepted as Chaetothyrium Speg., (1888)
Zukalia parenchymatica Doidge 1920, accepted as Ceramothyrium parenchymaticum (Doidge) Bat., (1962)
Zukalia transvaalensis Doidge 1917 accepted as Phaeophragmeriella transvaalensis (Doidge) Hansf., (1946)
Zukalia woodiana Doidge 1920
Genus: Zythia Fr. 1825, accepted as Sarea Fr., (1825)
Zythia welwitschiae Henn. 1903
Family: Zythiaceae Clem. 1909
See also
List of bacteria of South Africa
List of Oomycetes of South Africa
List of slime moulds of South Africa
List of fungi of South Africa
List of fungi of South Africa – A
List of fungi of South Africa – B
List of fungi of South Africa – C
List of fungi of South Africa – D
List of fungi of South Africa – E
List of fungi of South Africa – F
List of fungi of South Africa – G
List of fungi of South Africa – H
List of fungi of South Africa – I
List of fungi of South Africa – J
List of fungi of South Africa – K
List of fungi of South Africa – L
List of fungi of South Africa – M
List of fungi of South Africa – N
List of fungi of South Africa – O
List of fungi of South Africa – P
List of fungi of South Africa – Q
List of fungi of South Africa – R
List of fungi of South Africa – S
List of fungi of South Africa – T
List of fungi of South Africa – U
List of fungi of South Africa – V
List of fungi of South Africa – W
List of fungi of South Africa – X
List of fungi of South Africa – Y
List of fungi of South Africa – Z
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
Name search at Index Fungorum
Fungi
South Africa | List of fungi of South Africa | [
"Biology"
] | 10,149 | [
"Fungi",
"Lists of fungi"
] |
68,356,232 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20in%20S%C3%A3o%20Tom%C3%A9%20and%20Pr%C3%ADncipe | Time in the island country of São Tomé and Príncipe is given by Greenwich Mean Time (GMT; UTC+00:00). São Tomé and Príncipe has never observed daylight saving time.
History
Under Portuguese rule, São Tomé and Príncipe first observed the local mean time UTC+0:26:56 until 1884, when it adopted UTC-0:36:45. GMT (UTC+00:00) was adopted on 1 January 1912. The country briefly adopted West Africa Time (WAT; UTC+01:00) on 1 January 2018, but reverted back on 1 January the following year.
IANA time zone database
In the IANA time zone database, São Tomé and Príncipe is given one zone in the file zone.tab – Africa/Sao Tome. "ST" refers to the country's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Data for São Tomé and Príncipe directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database; columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself:
References
External links
Current time in São Tomé and Príncipe at Time.is
Time in São Tomé and Príncipe at TimeAndDate.com
Geography of São Tomé and Príncipe | Time in São Tomé and Príncipe | [
"Physics"
] | 256 | [
"Spacetime",
"Physical quantities",
"Time",
"Time by country"
] |
68,356,633 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20Samsung%20tablets | This is a list of tablets produced by Samsung.
Samsung announced its first tablet, the Android-powered Galaxy Tab 7.0, in September 2010. Since then, it has produced a number of tablets, including the Galaxy Tab series, the Galaxy Book series, and the Galaxy View series. It has also released three tablets under the Galaxy Note moniker, a brand that was also used for releasing a number of smartphones. Samsung has also released a number of co-branded tablets, such as the Nexus 10 (with Google) and a number of Nook-branded Galaxy tablets with Barnes & Noble.
Mainstream Android tablets
Flagship tablets
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
Samsung Galaxy Tab S3
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2020, 2022, 2024)
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+
Entry-level tablets
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite 7.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.4
Samsung Galaxy Tab E 10.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab E 9.6 (T560, T561)
Samsung Galaxy Tab E 8.0 (T375, T377)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2015)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2018)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 (2018)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2019)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2019) Kids
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.4 (2020)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 10.4 (2020)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite (2021)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 (2022)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 (2023)
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ Kids Edition
Extra-large tablets
Samsung announced the original Galaxy View, an 18.4-inch tablet, in October 2015. It was succeeded by the slightly smaller, 17.3-inch, Galaxy View 2 in April 2019.
Windows tablets
Co-branded tablets
Nexus 10
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Nook
Samsung Galaxy Tab E Nook
See also
List of Android smartphones
List of iPad models
References
Samsung products
Smart devices | List of Samsung tablets | [
"Technology"
] | 695 | [
"Home automation",
"Smart devices"
] |
68,356,929 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial%20Mathematics%3A%20Theory%20and%20Practice%20through%20Mapping | Spatial Mathematics: Theory and Practice through Mapping is a book on the mathematics that underlies geographic information systems and spatial analysis. It was written by Sandra Arlinghaus and Joseph Kerski, and published in 2013 by the CRC Press.
Topics
The book has 10 chapters, divided into two sections on geodesy and on techniques for visualization of spatial data; each chapter has separate sections on theory and practice. For practical aspects of geographic information systems it uses ArcGIS as its example system.
In the first part of the book, Chapters 1 and 2 covers the geoid, the geographic coordinate system of latitudes and longitudes, and the measurement of distance and location. Chapter 3 concerns data structures for geographic information systems, data formatting based on raster graphics and vector graphics, methods for buffer analysis, and its uses in turning point and line data into area data. Later in the book, but fitting thematically into this part, chapter 9 covers map projections.
Moving from geodesy to visualization, chapters 4 and 5 concern the use of color and scale on maps. Chapter 6 concerns the types of data to be visualized, and the types of visualizations that can be made for them. Chapter 7 concerns spatial hierarchies and central place theory, while chapter 8 covers the analysis of spatial distributions in terms of their covariance. Finally, chapter 10 covers network and non-Euclidean data.
Additional material on the theoretical concepts behind the topics of the book is provided on a web site, accessed through QR codes included in the book.
Audience and reception
Reviewer reactions to the book were mixed. Several reviewers noted that, for a book with "mathematics" in its title, the book was surprisingly non-mathematical, with both Azadeh Mousavi and Paul Harris calling the title "misleading". Harris complains that "the maths is treated quite lightly and superficially". Alfred Stein notes the almost total absence of mathematical equations, and Daniel Griffith similarly notes the lack of proof of its mathematical claims.
Mousavi also writes that, although the book covers a broad selection of topics, it "suffers from lack of necessary depth" and that it is confusingly structured. Sang-Il Lee points to a lack of depth as the book's principal weakness. Stein notes that its reliance on a specific version of ArcGIS makes it difficult to reproduce its examples, especially for international users with different versions or for users of versions updated after its publication. Another weakness highlighted by Griffith is "its limited connection to the existing literature, with its citations far too often being only those works by its authors". Harris sees a missed opportunity in the omission of spatial statistics, movement data, and spatio-temporal data, the design of spatial data structures, and advanced techniques for visualizing geospatial data.
Nevertheless, Mousavi recommends this book as an "introductory text on spatial information science" aimed at practitioners, and commends its use of QR codes and word clouds. Stein praises the book's attempt to bridge mathematics and geography, and its potential use as a first step towards that bridge for practitioners. Harris suggests it "in an introductory and applied context", and in combination with a more conventional textbook on geographic information systems. Lee argues that the overview of fundamental concepts and cross-disciplinary connections forged by the book make it "worth reading by anyone interested in the geospatial sciences". And Griffith concludes that the book is successful in motivating its readers to "explore formal mathematical subject matter that
interfaces with geography".
References
Mathematics books
Geography textbooks
Spatial analysis
2013 non-fiction books
CRC Press books | Spatial Mathematics: Theory and Practice through Mapping | [
"Physics"
] | 737 | [
"Spacetime",
"Space",
"Spatial analysis"
] |
77,162,972 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC%202420 | NGC 2420 is an open cluster in the constellation Gemini. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1783. The cluster is about two billion years old and it is located 10,000 light years away.
Observation
NGC 2420 lies about 6,5 degrees south-southeast of the star Pollux and a bit over two degrees east-northeast of the Eskimo Nebula. Through a small telescope at low magnification it appears as a uniform ghostly light that gets brighter to the centre, similar to a tail-less comet and at x33 magnification some individual stars can be glimpsed with averted vision. At higher magnification the cluster is resolved into a rich field of individual stars. It is included in the Herschel 400 Catalogue.
Characteristics
The cluster is located at a greater distance from the galactic centre than the Sun, lying in the direction of the galactic anti-centre, and lies 19° above the galactic plane, which corresponds to a distance of 3,000 light years. It has a Trumpler classification of I1r, indicating a rich detached cluster with a central concentration made out of stars of similar apparent magnitude. Photographic photometry down to magnitude 19 indicates that the cluster has over 500 members, with the brightest being of 11th magnitude. The total number of members is estimated to be around 1,000 within a diameter of 30 light years.
It is estimated that 41% of the stars of the cluster are binaries. The cluster has been found to contain two binary systems made out of two blue stragglers, while a third binary system is made out of a blue straggler and an extremely low mass white dwarf. These binary stars shine bright in far ultraviolet. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, von Hippel and Gilmore detected eight white dwarf candidates and estimated a cooling age of about 2 billion years.
The metallicity of the cluster has been a subject of many studies and has been found to be a bit sub-solar, with a metallicity of -0.26 according to WEBDA. The cluster was found to be a bit metal poor, with a [Fe/H] of -0.7 to -0.6 from spectrographic studies performed in the 1980s while subsequent CCD photometry indicates of a higher metallicity of about -0.30. Pancino et al. indicated a [Fe/H]= -0.05 ± 0.03 according to Pancino et al., which is close to the trend of metallicity descreasing with increasing distance from the galactic centre. The red giants of the cluster have a mean metallicity of −0.16 ± 0.04. Based on spectrographic data of the Gaia-ESO survey, the stars around the turnoff point have sub-solar metallicities but they increase for stars of smaller mass.
The stars of the cluster have homogenous CN and CH molecular band strengths. Similar low dispersion was observed in other elements.
See also
Messier 67 - a similar old open cluster
References
External links
Open clusters
Gemini (constellation)
2420
Astronomical objects discovered in 1783
Discoveries by William Herschel | NGC 2420 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 634 | [
"Gemini (constellation)",
"Constellations"
] |
77,163,436 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoggicosa%20natashae | Hoggicosa natashae, commonly known as the giant white tiger wolf spider and Natasha's wolfspider, is a species of wolf spider (family Lycosidae) endemic to Australia. This species was first described in 2010 by arachnologists Peter R. Langlands and Volker W. Framenau.
Description
Hoggicosa natashae is one of the largest wolf spiders, with females reaching body lengths of up to and leg spans around . The spider has distinctive black transverse markings on a pale cream abdomen. Juveniles display a rich tan colour with faint swirling patterns, which become less prominent as they mature. Only the female has been described in detail, characterized by a larger epigynum with anterior pockets significantly larger than those in other species of the same genus.
Taxonomy
The genus Hoggicosa was first described by Carl Friedrich Roewer in 1960. The systematic revision that included H. natashae also reviewed the Australian 'bicolor' group of wolf spiders. The species was named in honour of Natasha Langlands, the mother of the senior author.
Habitat and distribution
This species inhabits arid regions of central South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland, specifically found within the Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Channel Country (CHC), Gawler (GAW), and Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD) IBRA areas. It prefers low sandy depressions with vegetation, such as chenopods and samphire. The spiders construct burrows in sandy clay soils, often with a medium-thickness lid for protection.
Ecology and behaviour
Hoggicosa natashae, like other wolf spiders, is a robust and agile hunter. It primarily preys on insects and other small arthropods, relying on its speed and strength to catch prey rather than using a web.
The reproductive behaviour of Hoggicosa natashae has not been extensively detailed, but it is likely similar to other wolf spiders, where the female carries the egg sac attached to her spinnerets until the spiderlings hatch. The spiderlings then ride on the mother's back for a brief period after hatching.
The species is primarily nocturnal and uses its burrow as a retreat during the day. The burrow, typically with a medium-thickness lid, provides protection from predators and environmental conditions. The spiders are known for their burrowing behaviour, constructing retreats in sandy clay soils.
References
Lycosidae
Spiders of Australia
Spiders described in 2010
Nocturnal animals | Hoggicosa natashae | [
"Biology"
] | 500 | [
"Nocturnal animals",
"Animals"
] |
77,164,081 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanite%20%28tektite%29 | Tasmanite are tektites found in Tasmania, a regional form of australite, the most common type of tektite, glass of meteorite origin, traditionally named for its geographic location. Quite often, tasmanites are found in the literature under the name australites (from Tasmania), together with which they are included in a very broad category of tektites, originating from the largest Australasian tektite strewnfield on earth. In the northern part of the scatter field, australites partially overlap and connect with part of the range of indochinites, and on the southern border they are present under the name tasmanites. In general, all of the listed regional tektites are included in the general class of indochinites-australites, sometimes referred to under the summary name Australasian tektites.
Under normal lighting, tasmanites are most often opaque and have a dark brown, brownish-greenish or almost dull black color. Among the general part of tasmanites belonging to the southern branch of australites, there are varieties of regular “aerodynamic" shape (sometimes in the form of a small bowl), disc-shaped or hollow balls. In some specimens, the correct form has a man-made appearance, creating the impression of artificial origin.
In addition to the regional part of the australite scatter field, Tasmanites also include purely local tektites, characteristic exclusively of certain regions of Tasmania. Tasmanites were found in considerable quantities in an area of about 410 km² south of Queenstown in the vicinity of Mount Darwin and were called "Darwin glass". According to calculations (approximate quantity per unit of territory), the total weight of this variety of tasmanites should have been several thousand tons.
History of the study
Unlike other regional forms of impact tektites, Australian meteorite glass has much more diverse forms, among which there are samples that even at first glance give the impression of man-made or high-tech objects. After the completion of the colonization of Australia, this circumstance attracted increased attention to them, making them an object of collecting and souvenir sale, and, starting from the mid-19th century, of professional study.
...tektites were found in gold placers and other places on the Australian mainland, which amazed scientists with their unusual shape. Some of them resembled buttons, others were surprisingly similar to mushrooms, and others were like hourglasses. There were also hollow glass balls the size of an apple with a wall thickness of only 1 millimeter, as if some joker had blown some semblance of a soap bubble from natural glass!
In January–February 1836, during his voyage around the world on the Beagle, Charles Darwin personally collected tektite samples during stops in South Australia and Tasmania. A hundred years later they were called australites and tasmanites. Darwin spent just over two weeks in Australia. On February 5, 1836, the Beagle arrived in Storm Bay and spent more than two days in the port of Hobart (in the southeast of the island). During his brief stay in Tasmania and South Australia, Darwin partly acquired and partly collected a small collection of local black glass. He can rightfully be considered a collector and systematizer of the most extensive field of tektites – Australasian.
When the Beagle dropped anchor off the coast of Tasmania, Darwin, setting off on another excursion inland, unexpectedly discovered on the ground hollow balls of black glass, little larger than a walnut. After carefully examining them, he mistook them for volcanic bombs. However, there were no volcanoes nearby. This was confirmed by special geological routes. It remains to be assumed that the balls were brought here by nomadic natives. Darwin made an entry in his diary, but later did not return to this issue.
The Tasmanian discovery of black glass balls occurred in February 1836. Just at this time, the debate about the origin of moldavites, the only tektites known at that time, was in full swing in the Central European scientific world. However, Darwin knew nothing about this scientific discussion, as well as about the various versions and assumptions of Czech and German scientists. It is for this reason that the newly discovered Tasmanian tektites did not attract much attention from the scientist. Considering black glasses to be a purely geological object formed in the bowels of the earth, Darwin characterized them as a kind of "volcanic bomb", thrown out from the craters of volcanoes during an eruption. At the end of the 19th century, australites often became known as "obsidian bombs" or "negro buttons".
In 1857, Charles Darwin also received several samples of natural black glass from the collection of Thomas Mitchell. Darwin, based on the similarity of the studied samples with obsidian, concluded that australites (tasmanites) are of volcanic origin.
Important studies that sharply increased the interest of the scientific community in tektites were the generalizing theoretical works of the Austrian geologist, Professor Eduard Suess. While studying moldavites, in 1900 he put forward a version of their meteorite nature, and the term tektites came into scientific use. Using the example of the only European tektites, which were Czech fossil glasses, Suess, without chemical analysis, came to the conclusion that they were of cosmic origin and were not related to the surrounding geological rocks. The basis for the conclusion was a visual comparison of several groups of samples of various minerals, including ferruginous meteorite fragments.
One of the first scientists to study australites was Charles Fenner, who first encountered these tektites in 1907. He concluded that australites are of cosmic origin and are by nature fragments of glass meteorites.
Almost all assumptions and scientific conclusions made regarding australite-indochinites are directly related to tasmanites, the main part of which belongs to a single Australo-Tasmanian dispersion arc, and only isolated southwestern tektites from the Darwin Crater are of purely local origin.
Mineral source
The Australasian tektite belt has an elongated ″S″-shape and is the largest on Earth both in terms of dispersion area and in the number of tektite samples found. In Australia alone, along with the island of Tasmania, several million particles of these glasses were collected. They were discovered and raised even from the bottom of the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Early versions of the origins of the Australites were based on terrestrial versions. The most common explanations for the appearance of black fused glass were volcanoes, as well as forest fires, which are common in Australia. There was also a hypothesis about the fulgurite origin of australites, as a result of a lightning strike into sand or sandy (quartz) rocks.
A new hypothesis about the origin of australites arose in the late 1960s based on data received from the American Surveyor 7 spacecraft, which landed in 1968 near the Tycho crater. The samples of lunar soil he took in this area turned out to be close in chemical composition to tektites, namely australites. This led to the emergence of a version of the lunar origin of the Australasian tektite field. The new theory, in particular, made it possible to explain the bizarre shape of the area within which the main finds of australites took place. A fairly clear S-shaped stripe of the dispersion field stretched from Madagascar through Australia and Indochina (indochinites) to the Philippines (philippinites).
Professor D. Chapman of the Ames Research Center (Mountain View, California) was able to prove using computer programming that only the stream of glass splashes ejected from the Tycho crater during the eruption, combined with the rotation of the Earth, could create a scattering streak such an unusual shape. Moreover, part of the jet should have splashed out onto the surface of the Moon, and left a bright trace on it, visible from the earth, the "Ross ray", which goes from the Tycho crater for thousands of kilometers and passes through the small Ross crater along the way.
A separate problem for researchers was the estimated age of the australites. According to the surrounding layer of sedimentary rocks, in which australites are found en masse, the age of australites is no more than ten thousand years. According to these data, Australasian and African tektites are the youngest on Earth. Evidence from Aboriginal people in Australia and the Ivory Coast indirectly supported these assessments. They traditionally endowed local tektites with magical properties and called them "moon stones", as if in the foreseeable legendary times their ancestors were contemporaries and witnesses of their "fall from the sky." However, data using the potassium-argon dating method gave completely different dates for this grandiose event. According to dozens of different samples, australites fell to Earth about 700 thousand years ago. The discrepancy between the two ages is two orders of magnitude. Regarding radiation measurements, selenologists for a long time could not develop a consensus; chronological estimates had an incredibly inflated appearance, as if the real picture was deliberately distorted by some unaccounted for factor or unknown to modern science. Therefore, in the 1970s, by default, the age of 10 thousand years for the Australites was recognized as more reliable and dated to the known moment of the explosion of the lunar crater Tycho.
However, after a decade and a half, all the contradictions were resolved by themselves, when the lunar theory of the origin of australites was refuted with the help of a more detailed (chemical and radiochemical) analysis of lunar rocks.
Although various versions of the origin of australites are still in circulation, most scientists are inclined to believe that australites were formed and scattered as a result of the collision of a large asteroid or comet with the surface of the Earth. As a result of a powerful explosion, many hot particles were thrown into the stratosphere, including glass particles containing a large amount of impurities: a mixture of planetary soil with meteorite matter. Australites most likely received their streamlined aerodynamic shapes during the secondary re-entry of debris into the Earth's atmosphere, when pieces of glass in a molten state flew at high speed.
To clarify the hypothesis about the cosmic nature of tektites (australites), in 1962 a theoretical assumption was put forward about a giant astrobleme, which became the final point of the Australasian tektite dispersion field. Half a century later, in 2006–2009 in Antarctica (Wilkes Land), according to the results of satellite research, a huge crater hidden under a deep layer of ice, a trace of one of the largest meteorite collisions with the Earth, was discovered in practice. According to scientists, its diameter is about 240 kilometers. This huge crater was at the end point of the australasian-tasmanian arc, which is the main area for tektites in the Southern Hemisphere.
Trying to confirm or refute the cosmic hypothesis of the origin of australites, American physicists Chapman and Larson conducted a series of experiments attempting to artificially form tektites using various forms of ablation. During the experiments, it was possible to reproduce in the smallest detail almost all existing forms of australites, including the disk-shaped one, and to obtain the aerodynamic relief of the rings on the front surface. Based on the results of the first experiments, a positive conclusion was made about the extraterrestrial origin of the australites, but later in repeated studies a reservation was made that it could only be near space, located within the Earth-Moon system.
Most australites have a scattering field in South Australia, rarely rising above 25 degrees latitude. Judging by their similar age and composition, the Australites belong to the southern margin of the largest known Australasian scatter field, extending from Indochina (indochinites) to Tasmania (tasmanites, Darwin glass). In turn, Tasmanites represent the extreme, southeastern point of the range of australites. Outside Tasmania, searches for tektites could be carried out at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The Australasian tektite field is between 610 and 750 thousand years old and may be the result of a major catastrophe on Wilkes Land, as well as a number of smaller regional catastrophes, for example, on the Bolaven Plateau about 790 thousand years ago, which blocked the northern part of the distribution area of australites.
Mineral properties
Based on their appearance and chemical composition, tasmanites are divided into two clearly differentiated types. The first are among the southern Australians and most often have the following basic shapes: sphere, oval, boat, dumbbell and drop. The second — from among the Darwin glasses – differ both in shape, much more random and fragmentary in nature, and in color – reaching green or even light green, completely uncharacteristic of australites.
Most tektites known on Earth bear obvious traces of passage through the atmosphere (ablations): both on the surface and in shape. This also applies to Australian-Tasmanites. A number of studies of "flange"-shaped samples have shown that exactly such an aerodynamic profile can be obtained from an initial glass sphere invading the earth's atmosphere at cosmic speed. When passing through dense layers, the frontal part of the sphere melts, and the oncoming air flow flattens the sphere, turning it into something like a "button". Other forms of tektites can be explained in a similar way. The greatest difficulty in modeling the situation is the need to distinguish between the effects of terrestrial and cosmic factors, since the surface structure of tektites sometimes seems too complex.
References
See also
Australite
Darwin glass
Indochinite
Billitonite
Bediasite
Libyan desert glass
Moldavite
Tektites
Glass in nature
Impact event minerals
Oxide minerals
Planetary science
Rocks
Meteorites | Tasmanite (tektite) | [
"Physics",
"Astronomy"
] | 2,849 | [
"Matter",
"Physical objects",
"Planetary science",
"Rocks",
"Astronomical sub-disciplines"
] |
77,164,177 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20minerals%20named%20Tasmanite | Tasmanite (in the narrow sense of the word: found in Tasmania) — a polysemantic term from the field of geology and mineralogy. The term originally appeared in 1864–1865, when Professor A. H. Church carried out a series of studies in several oil shale deposits on the banks and in the vicinity of the Mersey River (northern Tasmania), collected samples and made analyzes, based on the results of which the sedimentary rock was first described called tasmanite, and a year later the mineral of the same name appeared.
Basic minerals and rocks
Tasmanite or tasmanian australites are a regional Tasmanian form of australites, the most common type of tektite, a glass of meteoritic origin, traditionally named after its geographic location.
Tasmanite or tasmanian black glasses is the main name by which Darwin glass, tektite-impactite, discovered in the southwest of Tasmania, was known until the mid-1970s.
Tasmanite is a sedimentary rock, a marine oil shale, mainly composed of the fossilized single-celled green algae Tasmanites. Found predominantly in southern Tasmania in coastal areas.
Tasmanite or «tasmanian amber» is one of the local names for a red-brown translucent mineral, described in 1865, similar to amber.
Tasmanites (; Newton, 1875), sometimes also Tasmanitidae or Tasmanaceae — a genus of fossil (extinct) unicellular green algae; Tasmanites deposits form the Tasmanite rock throughout the world and are often associated with shale or petroleum source rock complexes.
Tasmanite, earthen tar (, albertite, kerite) — is one of the regional names for tasmanian bitumen, a semi-liquid fraction released by Tasmanian oil shale.
Gallery
See also
Tasmania (disambiguation)
Tasmannia
Queenstown, Tasmania
Tasman Bridge
Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area
Tasman Peninsula
Aboriginal Tasmanians
References
Set index articles on minerals
Minerals
Rocks | List of minerals named Tasmanite | [
"Physics"
] | 403 | [
"Rocks",
"Physical objects",
"Matter"
] |
77,165,711 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindb%C3%A4cks | Lindbäcks is a four-generation family company in Piteå, Sweden, founded in 1924.
It produces and sells prefabricated multi-story house modules.
References
Construction and civil engineering companies
Construction and civil engineering companies of Sweden
Manufacturing companies established in 1924
Privately held companies of Sweden
Swedish companies established in 1924 | Lindbäcks | [
"Engineering"
] | 65 | [
"Construction and civil engineering companies",
"Civil engineering organizations"
] |
77,165,736 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rights%20movements | Anti-rights movements are movements, groups or campaigns that actively work against the recognition, protection, and advancement of human rights. These movements can target a variety of rights and marginalized groups. They often use misinformation, fear-mongering, and lobbying to undermine legal protections and social acceptance for targeted groups. ODI described anti-rights movements as "a loose coalition of actors [that] has succeeded in stalling progress and undermining rights and freedoms," and that are "are well-organised and extremely well-funded compared to progressive rights movements."
UN Women described anti-gender, gender-critical and men's rights movements as examples of anti-rights movements in 2024. Other movements described as anti-rights include anti-immigration and anti-racial equality movements.
References
Discrimination
Social movements | Anti-rights movements | [
"Biology"
] | 167 | [
"Behavior",
"Aggression",
"Discrimination"
] |
77,165,742 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20984 | HD 984 is a F-type main-sequence star located in the equatorial constellation Cetus. It is a young star, estimated 30 to 200 million years old, and is orbited by a brown dwarf companion. Parallax measurements by the Gaia spacecraft imply a distance of to HD 984. At an apparent magnitude of 7.32, the star is too dim to be visible to the naked eye.
Characteristics
The apparent magnitude of HD 984, i.e. its brightness relative to Earth, is 7.32. Such brightness is lower than the limit for naked-eye visibility, generally defined as 6.5m, meaning that HD 984 can't be seen with the naked eye. It may be visible by a small telescope or binoculars instead. The absolute magnitude, i.e. the magnitude of HD 984 if it was seen at , is 3.95. Kinematically, the system it is part of the Columba group. It has a relatively high proper motion.
The star is visually close (57") to BD-08 25, which is a star of apparent magnitude 9.14 unrelated to the system, being away from Earth based on its parallax. The galaxy NGC 47 lies just 320" from HD 984.
Age estimates
Based on the assumption that HD 984 is part of the Columba group, the stellar age would be of 30Myr. However, there is still a possibility that HD 984 is a kinematic interloper or the Columba group is not sufficiently characterized to reliably assign an age. Previous isochronal ages of , and have been given by earlier studies. Since HD 984 A is a main sequence star, all isochronal ages will have high uncertainty.
An analysis by HD 984 B's discovery team say that the system is likely to be less than 200 million years, based on HD 984 A's rotation and stellar activity. The same research also says that ages less than 30 million years can be ruled out, based on isochronal age constraints for HD 984 B. Therefore, the age is very likely between 30 and 200 million years.
HD 984 A
HD 984 A is a F-type main-sequence star, spectroscopically matching a class F7V. Those stars are typically larger, hotter and brighter than the Sun, and fuse hydrogen into helium at their core. HD 984 A is no expection, being 20% more massive than the Sun, 25% larger and over two times brighter. Its surface has an effective temperature of , giving it a yello-white hue typical of F-type stars. HD 984 A rotates faster than 99% of all stars, with a rotation period estimated to be less than . The Sun's rotational period is 27 days for comparison.
Its rotation, coronal activity and cromospheric activity indicates that it is a young and active main-sequence star, likely less than 200 million years old. It is expected to live 5 billion years on the main sequence. After that, it will cease its hydrogen at its core and evolve into a red giant star, increasing in size and luminosity, while decreasing in temperature.
HD 984 B
HD 984 B is a brown dwarf, a class of astronomical objects that are intermediate between planets and stars, having masses between , and, unlike stars, can't produce thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen. It was discovered in 2015 by Meshkat et al., using direct imaging from the Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph at the Very Large Telescope with NaCo.
Orbit
HD 984 B takes 140 years to complete an orbit around HD 984 A, about the same as Neptune. The orbit's semi-major axis is of , also similar to Neptune. Its orbit is highly-eccentric , meaning that its orbital distance vary from 6.72 to 49.3 AU. Previous studies found a lower eccentricity , as well as a lower semi-major axis of . This difference is explained due to the increased orbit coverage and astrometric acceleration used in the new value. HD 984 B is expected to be in periastron in 2028.
Physical parameters
Its mass was firstly estimated using the age of the system by Meshkat et al. (2015) and Jonson-Groh et al. (2017). Using this method, masses ranging from to are obtained, assuming ages of 30 and 200 million years respectively. Assuming the largest mass and age, HD 984 B would be in the stellar mass regime. A 2022 study found a dynamical mass of , which places HD 984 B in the brown dwarf regime at 99.7% confidence. This mass was obtained using astrometric acceleration, new direct imaging of the object and radial velocity measurements, and is consistent with evolutionary models.
HD 984 B is a hot brown dwarf and has a spectral class of M6.5, with an uncertainty of 1.5. Having this spectral type, HD 984 B has an effective temperature of . At a luminosity of about , this corresponds to a radius of () based on the Stefan–Boltzmann law. Its metallicity, i.e. its abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, is , just one-fourth of the solar metalicity (0 dex), although this value might be biased. This brown dwarf more likely formed via gravitational collapse or disk instability rather than core accretion.
See also
Epsilon Indi, 54 Piscium and Eta Telescopii, another stars orbited by brown dwarfs
List of brown dwarfs
List of stars in Cetus
Notes
References
F-type main-sequence stars
Cetus
Brown dwarfs
TIC objects
Henry Draper Catalogue objects
2MASS objects
Hipparcos objects | HD 984 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 1,189 | [
"Cetus",
"Constellations"
] |
77,166,040 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery%20ticket%20hypothesis | In machine learning, the lottery ticket hypothesis is that artificial neural networks with random weights can contain subnetworks which entirely by chance can be tuned to a similar level of performance as the complete network. The term derived from considering the tunable subnetwork as the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket; the chance of any given ticket winning is tiny, but if you buy enough of them you are certain to win, and the number of possible subnetworks increases exponentially as the power set of the set of connections, making the number of possible subnetworks astronomical for any reasonsably large network.
Malach et. al. have proved a stronger version of the hypothesis, which is that a sufficiently overparameterized untuned network will typically contain a subnetwork that is already an approximation to the given goal, even before tuning. A similar result has been proven for the special case of convolutional neural networks.
See also
Grokking (machine learning)
Pruning (artificial neural network)
References
Machine learning
Hypotheses | Lottery ticket hypothesis | [
"Engineering"
] | 213 | [
"Artificial intelligence engineering",
"Machine learning"
] |
77,168,869 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex%20recession | The sex recession, also known as the sexual recession, refers to a decline in sexual activity among adults, particularly among young adults. This phenomenon has been observed in various studies and research papers, and its causes and implications are still being debated.
Several studies have investigated the sex recession, including a 2021 study in the Journal of Sex and a 2019 study published by The Atlantic that found young adults in the United States are having less sex than previous generations. This trend has been observed in various countries, including Australia, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom.
Causes
Some factors have been suggested as contributing to the possible sex recession, such as porn, cultural changes, work and financial stress, technology, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
Human sexuality
Research on the effects of pornography
Sexuality and society | Sex recession | [
"Biology"
] | 162 | [
"Human sexuality",
"Behavior",
"Human behavior",
"Sexuality"
] |
77,169,398 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnewall%20Two-way%20Model | The Barnewall Two-way Model, also known as the Barnewall Two-way Behavioral Model, is an investor psychographic profiling model.
The Barnewall Two-way model was initially conceptualized and proposed by Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall in 1987 in an academic paper titled Psychological Characteristics of the individual investor. The model classifies and distinguishes investors mainly into two main broad categories: passive investors and active investors.
See also
Bielard, Biehl and Kaiser five-way model
Behavioral economics
Investor profile
References
Investment
Financial risk
Behavioral finance | Barnewall Two-way Model | [
"Biology"
] | 114 | [
"Behavioral finance",
"Behavior",
"Human behavior"
] |
77,172,147 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress%20%28salamander%20gathering%29 | Salamander congress is a salamander mating ritual which occurs in spring on the Big Night. It is a gathering of salamanders in vernal pools for the purpose of breeding. When male and female salamanders meet in the vernal pools it is called a congress.
Etymology
Oxford English Dictionary defines congressing as "The action of coming together... a sexual union, copulation, coition." The word comes from the Latin congressus. When salamanders gather for the purpose of breeding it is referred to as a congress.
Background
The mass courtship of salamanders is known a congress. The congressing event takes place each spring and this migration of salamanders to vernal pools and is known as the Big Night. The reason it is referred to as a big night is because there is a large number of salamanders moving at the same time. Warmer air and loose soil coupled with rain cause salamanders to leave their underground burrows. The event takes place at night to minimize predation. The rain on the big night keeps the salamanders skin from becoming dry. When male and female salamanders meet in the vernal pools it is called a congress. When a female salamander arrives at a vernal pool she participates in a congress with other salamanders of her species. Eggs are then fertilized and left in the pool. The pools dry up in the summer so fish and other predators cannot survive: this makes the pools a good place for salamanders to breed and lay eggs. Normally fish would eat salamander eggs, but in the vernal pools the eggs are safe. The hatched salamanders can also thrive.
Salamanders are explosive spawners and the females lay thousands of eggs which they attach to sticks below the water. In addition to the loss of the hatching larvae to predators, the larger larvae engage in cannibalism. If the water begins to evaporate or there is a shortage of food, the hatchlings suffer from a crowding effect. The cannibalism ensures the survival of the species. In cases where salamanders must cross roadways, some communities have built amphibian and reptile tunnels to assist the migrating animals travel below the roadway.
References
External link
YouTube video: Spotted Salamander Congress
Amphibians
Annual events
Mating systems | Congress (salamander gathering) | [
"Biology"
] | 485 | [
"Behavior",
"Animals",
"Amphibians",
"Mating systems",
"Mating"
] |
77,173,051 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism%20of%20Apple%20Inc. | Apple Inc. has been the subject of criticism and legal action. This includes its handling labor violations at its outsourced manufacturing hubs in China, its environmental impact of its supply chains, tax and monopoly practices, a lack of diversity and women in leadership in corporate and retail, various labor conditions (mishandling sexual misconduct complaints), and its response to worker organizing.
Antitrust and anti-competitive practices
United States v. Apple is an antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2024. The lawsuit contrasts the practices of Apple with those of Microsoft in United States v. Microsoft Corp., and alleges that Apple engages in similar tactics and committing even more egregious violations. This followed Epic Games v. Apple and the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act in the European Union.
Apple, Google, and other major technology companies illegally conspired in a "no-poaching" pact to prevent employees from seeking improved compensation, which The New York Times called "embarrassing." A class-action lawsuit was settled for in 2015.
Intellectual property enforcement
Apple is litigious in enforcing its intellectual property (IP) rights including by challenging trademark applications. The New York Times called this bullying. This includes blocking a trademark of a logo with three interlocking apples used by the Appleton Area School District, a podcast named "Talk About Apples" from an artist in Atlanta; Apple Urgent Care in Riverside County, California; the stage name of a singer-songwriter, Franki Pineapple; DOPi, a company that makes laptop bags and phone cases, for the lowercase i; and Woolworths Supermarkets, which shapes its W logo into an apple. NBC News referred to the practice as "lunacy". In 2023, Apple attempted to gain IP rights over depictions of apples in Switzerland. Smaller competitors told the United States Congress in 2020 that such "bullying" drives them out of business, stifling competition. The Register wrote in 2006 that Apple "sues itself in the foot" for a lawsuit against a community site for deep linking to the MacBook Pro service manual claiming the site infringed on their IP rights. Apple has pursued civil and criminal action against blogs over IP to maintain its culture of secrecy.
Vendor lock-in practices
Apple has been criticized for the use of proprietary parts thereby thwarting self repair and servicing. Apple has similarly faced controversy for having proprietary content ecosystems where the corporation gets to set unilateral policy. These proprietary services include the iTunes music and the App Store where it gets to unilaterally determine what content will be hosted, margins, and pricing.
Culture of secrecy
Employees have criticized Apple's culture of secrecy saying that levels of disclosure create hierarchies of superiority at the company. They said it wears developers down and isolates them from their loved ones. In 2017, an Apple engineer was fired after his daughter recorded a video of the new iPhone X in the cafeteria and posted it to YouTube. Employees and outsiders have described Apple's secretive culture as creating a culture of fear and oppression. One employee told The New York Times, "Never have I met people more terrified to speak out against their employer."
The Outline said the secrecy is a "needless cult" because it does not stop leaks. Apple has issued misinformation to find leakers and keep the media unsure of current developments. Apple coordinated 'controlled' leaks to the public to gauge viability of products such as the iPad. The Guardian reported research showing pre-release product information gives people the time and opportunity to consider their purchases carefully, but sudden product launches cause people to make purchases more impulsively.
Investigating leaks and tracking lost prototypes
Apple aggressively investigates potential leaks and prosecutes and litigates against employees who are caught. In 2004, Apple sued several unnamed employees for leaking confidential information to two blogs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) opposed to Apple's request for discovery of the blogs' sources and in 2006, the court of appeals sided with the EFF. In 2009, the strict secrecy drew ire from the public after a worker who lost a device died by suicide.
In 2009, Gizmodo published an article titled, "Apple Gestapo: How Apple Hunts Down Leaks," which detailed Apple's Worldwide Loyalty Team responsible for tracking down leaks and lost prototypes. Employees reportedly called the team the Gestapo, named after Nazi Germany's secret police. When the team suspects a leak, suspected departments are put on lockdown, searched, and asked to hand over their devices and sign non-disclosure agreements or face disciplinary action up to termination. Gizmodo and ZDNET compared the practice to George Orwell's novel 1984. ZDNET referred to the operations as "raids" and characterized them as "quite scary."
In 2010, a Reuters reporter was assaulted while taking photos outside of a Foxconn plant during an investigation. Later that year, Apple obtained a search warrant to raid a Gizmodo blogger's home in search of an iPhone prototype that was purchased from someone who found it at a bar. The man who found it at the bar was charged with theft and the blogger was cleared of all charges. The New York Times described Apple's response to the events as "churlish". CNN argued that constitutionally and under the Law of California, the district attorney should have issued a subpoena instead of a search warrant. Columbia Journalism Review published an article about Apple's aggressive behavior toward journalists to maintain secrecy, referencing the Gizmodo case, but also three lawsuits Apple filed against bloggers for reporting on leaked trade secrets.
The following year, Wired reported that Apple employees allegedly posed as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officers to search a home for a lost iPhone prototype left at a bar, which Apple tracked with GPS. Four plain-clothed SFPD officers accompanied two Apple investigators to the home. Three officers flashed their badges and announced they were the police, but the investigators did not identify themselves as Apple employees. The resident presumed they were all officers and allowed the investigators to search the home. The resident did not know anything about the device. One Apple investigator was later identified as a former police sergeant. No report was ever filed and there is no public record of the visit. Time and The New York Times referred to the incident as "sketchy" and Time asked, "Does Apple have its own secret mafia?"
Employees have said that Apple's secrecy policies conflate legally-protected speech such as working conditions with protecting product development. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made a statement that Apple's rules and communication around secrecy violate federal labor laws after a recording of an employee townhall, which detailed workplace conditions, was leaked to the press. Tim Cook sent employees follow-up memo that said they were doing "everything in our power to identify those who leaked," that "people who leak confidential information do not belong here," and "whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting." An employee who asked questions at the townhall and was known for activism at the company was investigated for the leak and subsequently fired after she deleted materials from her work devices.
Data privacy, transparency, and fair use
AI training data sources and transparency
In 2005, four voice actors, including Susan Bennett, made voice recordings as part of a database owned by Scansoft and licensed by Apple. None of them were compensated or told what the project was for.
In 2017, Apple announced Face ID as a neural network technology that was private and safe because it was stored locally on the device and never uploaded to the cloud. The Verge questioned Apple's intent for future uses of the data. Minnesota senator Al Franken questioned the privacy and security asking the source of Apple's facial training data (reported to be over a billion images), the diversity of the data set, and how Apple planned to respond to law enforcement requests for any facial data. Apple said in their response, "We worked with participants from around the world to include a representative group of people accounting for gender, age, ethnicity and other factors," and that studies were conducted with informed consent. In August 2021, The Verge published "Apple cares about privacy, unless you work at Apple," which detailed an internal tool called "Glimmer" (formerly "Gobbler") employees used to test Face ID. One employee later suggested the billion images came from Apple's dogfooding, a practice CEO Steve Jobs started in the 1980s. In 2020, Apple said they 3D scanned hundreds of ears for the development of the AirPods in user studies which invited participation of Apple employees.
In 2024, Apple announced its generative artificial intelligence product was coming to devices under the name Apple Intelligence. Artists criticized Apple's lack of transparency around the sources of its training data. Apple has publicly stated that it uses a proprietary web crawler called AppleBot that scrapes "public data" from the web to train its models. Apple says it requests publisher opt-out through the use of robots.txt, which tells crawlers not to scrape certain web pages. Engadget questioned from a technological perspective if opting out was even possible once data has been added to the model. CNN criticized the procedure saying it places the burden on publishers to safeguard their data from Apple. John Giannandrea, head of Apple's AI and machine learning department said large amounts of training data are created by Apple. CNN also questioned how Apple would use consumer data after it announced a partnership with OpenAI for use of ChatGPT. Earlier in the year, Apple apologized for a "dystopian" advertisement for the iPad, which crushed art tools and musical instruments with a hydraulic press, after the ad was widely criticized by artists.
Copyright and patent infringement
In 2012, multiple groups of Chinese writers were awarded compensation of over $200,000 from Apple for hosting apps that contained unlicensed versions of their books, according to Chinese state media. Also in 2012, a US district judge ruled that Apple infringed on The Tetris Company's copyrights when it cloned Tetris into a game called Mino.
In 2023, Dan Ackerman sued Apple alleging that the film Tetris copied material from his 2016 book The Tetris Effect.
In 2022 and 2023, the United States International Trade Commission ruled that Apple had infringed on health company AliveCor's electrocardiogram technology and Masimo's blood oxygen sensor patent on the Apple Watch. AliveCor's antitrust lawsuit was dismissed in 2024.
Device scanning and recording
In 2019, Apple contractor Thomas le Bonniec filed complaints with European privacy regulators and went to the press with allegations that Apple had been recording, storing, and using audio of its consumers without their knowledge or consent using Siri. In 2020, Apple apologized and suspended the program.
In 2022, Apple scrapped a plan to scan iCloud for child pornography, which received widespread criticism for its privacy and surveillance implications.
Environmental impact
Apple has received praise and criticism for its environmental practices. Praise was for reduction of hazardous chemicals in products and transition to clean energy supplies. Criticism was for its wasteful use of raw materials in manufacturing, its vigorous opposition to right to repair laws, and the amount of e-waste created by its products. Apple has been fined numerous times by environmental authorities for improper handling of hazardous waste under state and federal regulations by various divisions of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In June 2024, the EPA published a report about an electronic computer manufacturing facility in Santa Clara, California that found Apple may have violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Government surveillance and censorship
Leaked National Security Agency documents obtained by The Guardian and The Washington Post in June 2013 included Apple in the list of American companies that allegedly cooperate with PRISM, which authorizes the US government to secretly access data of non-American citizens hosted by American companies without a warrant. Following the leak, US government officials acknowledged the existence of the program. According to the leaked documents, the NSA has direct access to servers of those companies, and the amount of data collected through the program had been growing fast in years prior to the leak. Apple has denied having any knowledge of the program.
In 2019, The Atlantic published the article "Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy," which alleged that Apple enables surveillance while the CEO claims that "privacy is a fundamental human right."
Apple has been criticized for censorship in compliance with authoritarian governments around the world, including during 2020 Belarusian protests, during the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the 2021 Russian legislative election, the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and for filtering out terms like "democracy" and "human rights" for iPhone engravings in Chinese and banning Muslim content from the App Store. Apple has also been criticized for censoring various media in the United States including books, music, podcasts, newspaper articles, and television shows.
Labor conditions in corporate and retail
Apple retail employees have unionized or formed work councils worldwide in response to wages, excessive overtime, health and safety concerns, and employee surveillance. In the United States, the company has been criticized for alleged anti-union stance and stifling worker organizing, resulting in unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Charges have come from corporate workers, who formed a solidarity union called Apple Together as a "global network of solidarity between [Apple] unions". On September 30, 2024, the NLRB charged Apple with forcing employees to sign "illegal" employment contracts and "interfering" with and "restraining" their rights under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. On October 10, 2024, the NLRB charged Apple with illegally firing an employee involved in #AppleToo and restricting social media and slack usage in violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.
Privacy and surveillance
Corporate employees have criticized Apple's employee privacy rules, including a rule that says that employees have "no expectation of privacy" when using a personal device to conduct Apple-related business. They also spoke out about a practice of being discouraged from keeping a separate device for work and are expected to test software with informed consent. Retail employees involved in unionizing used Android phones due to surveillance concerns from software Apple installs on employee devices and practices such as bag checks.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Apple has been criticized for a lack of diversity and a culture of sexual harassment and mishandling of complaints by human resources and management. In particular, wage gaps and the failure to promote women into leadership have been criticized since the early 1990s. In 2022, Apple removed concealment clauses from its employment agreements after a practice of offering severance in exchange for non-disclosure agreements was reported by Financial Times, corroborated by a third-party audit, and reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Employees remarked that it was a part of Apple's culture of secrecy. A gender pay bias and sexual harassment lawsuit was filed in June 2024 seeking class status.
Labor conditions in supply chain
Contract manufacturers
Apple manufactures most of its products in China through partners like Foxconn. Apple's decision to outsource its manufacturing has received significant criticism, due to allegations of poor working conditions, long work hours, and other labor rights violations. A total of 18 suicide attempts were recorded at the Foxconn facility in 2010, with 14 attempts resulting in deaths. At least one suicide was due to the company's culture of secrecy after the worker lost a prototype. The Guardian reported an audit of Apple's supply chain found two-thirds of its factories did not properly compensate its workers, lacked proper safety and environmental credentials, and several instances of 15-year old workers.
Apple, Foxconn and Chinese workers are stakeholders in high-technology production, but relations between the three are perceived by analysts as imbalanced. Apple was able to capture 58.5 percent of the value of the iPhone, despite the fact that the manufacture of the product is entirely outsourced. Particularly notable is that labor costs in China account for the smallest share: 1.8 percent, or nearly US$10, of the US$549 retail price. While both Apple and Foxconn rely on Chinese workers to perform 12-hour working days to meet demand, the costs of Chinese labor in processing and assembly are insignificant in the overall commercial success of Apple. Other major component providers—such as Samsung and LG—captured slightly over 14 percent of the value of the iPhone, while the cost of raw materials was just over one-fifth of the total value (21.9 percent).
In 2020, The Information published "Apple Took Three Years to Cut Ties With Supplier That Used Underage Labor," an article which detailed the company's reluctance to sever partnerships in their supply chain, even when they violate its ethics policies using child labor. Also in 2020, report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute listed Apple as a company that was "potentially directly or indirectly benefiting" from forced Uyghur labor. In 2020, Apple lobbyists tried to weaken the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a U.S. bill against forced labor in Xinjiang, China.
Conflict minerals and cobalt suppliers
An Amnesty International report on cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo linked Apple to suppliers using child labor, some children as young as seven in 2016. The following year, The Washington Post reported Apple's intention to stop buying cobalt from the region until conditions were improved. Victims of child labor in the cobalt mines attempted to sue Apple and other technology companies, but were dismissed by the courts on procedural grounds. In 2023, an investigation into corporate technology supply chains carried out by The Independent found that Apple was among 400 companies associated with the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) to root out child labor and human rights violations. Issues reported ranged from mines burying workers alive—including children—to sexual assault and birth defects caused by exposure to toxins. RMI said that the audits do not include site visits, despite being aware of the conditions at mines. Siddharth Kara, author of Cobalt Red, told The Independent, "there’s not much happening of any merit to assist the people of the Congo in addressing the human rights and environmental violations taking place every day as a consequence of cobalt mining." The Congolese government threatened legal action against Apple in 2024, later alleging they had evidence linking Apple to conflict areas.
Marketing
In July 2024, Apple released the short commercial film The Underdogs: Out of Office, which promoted Apple products' usage for businesses abroad. The commercial was set and filmed in Bangkok, Thailand. The film is about three employees from a paper box manufacturer, who were told to find their business partner in Thailand. Facing struggles and difficulties, they were able to find their way through with assistance from Apple their devices. The settings of the film depicted their office in the U.S. in cold tone, reflecting modernity, and at the same time, using vintage filters to portray Thailand as underdeveloped third-world state, including settings that does not reflect the country's current state of development, such as the unpleasant look and feel of the airport, the accommodations and the transport modes.
The film received criticism from the Thai public and foreigners, both residences and previous visitors, as "a stereotypical and dated portrayal of Thai society". On August 2, 2024, Apple apologized and removed access to the film on YouTube.
Security practices
Apple's advertising has promoted a perception that its products are more secure than others. It says Apple products are less likely to breached by a hacker or infected by a virus or malware, and others contend this is mainly due to the lack of interest by hackers to attack Apple products. A 2006 report by McAfee found a 228% increase of the annual rate of vulnerabilities in Apple's products in 2003–2005, more than three times that of Microsoft's. The public's lack of awareness over the security vulnerabilities of Apple products has created criticism over Apple misleading the public. In 2022, hackers exploited a security flaw to take full control of devices including the Mac. Security experts believe that Apple plays down security concerns, does not pay researchers on par with the industry, and is slow to acknowledge and fix reported security bugs.
CNET said Apple's delay to fix security flaws puts users at risk and attributed it to the company's culture of secrecy. In 2011, Apple took nearly three years to fix the vulnerability that led to the exploit of the FinFisher trojan. Apple took six months to update a security flaw in Java, far longer than other companies, drawing sharp criticism by experts and journalists. It took five months to fix security flaw in Find My, reported by a former Apple security engineer. Apple's AirTag was identified as a stalking vector upon launch in 2021, on a much larger scale than similar products from Tile. In 2024, a judge denied Apple's motion to dismiss a lawsuit on behalf of stalking victims who allege that Apple has not done enough to "diminish the ability of stalkers to use AirTags effectively".
Taxes
Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to The New York Times, in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s, Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich", which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.
There is a decade-long dispute between Apple and the European Commission regarding the tax arrangements between Apple and Ireland, which allowed the company to pay close to zero corporate tax over 10 years. In September 2024, The European Court of Justice ruled that Apple must pay $14.3 billion (€13 billion) in back taxes, determining that Ireland's tax breaks to the company were unlawful. This decision reverses a 2020 ruling that favoured Apple and Ireland, covering profits earned by Apple's Dublin units from 1991 to 2014. The unpaid taxes had been placed in an escrow account since 2018.
References
Apple Inc.
Apple
Apple | Criticism of Apple Inc. | [
"Technology"
] | 4,594 | [
"Criticisms of software and websites"
] |
77,173,257 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%20Russian%20botulism%20outbreak | In June 2024, at least 369 people in Russia were poisoned with botulism, resulting in one fatality and hundreds more hospitalized in serious condition and 38 people having to go to the intensive care unit. The Russian health ministry linked many of the cases of botulism to two brands of ready-to-eat salads containing canned beans, one of which was sold by food delivery service . As a result, the Rospotrebnadzor national food health agency and local health agencies issued a nation-wide recall of the salads, which Kukhnya Na Rayone participated in.
Outbreak
As of 24 June 2024, a total of 369 people had been hospitalized with botulism symptoms, with at least 38 people placed on ventilators. At least 121 people in Moscow were diagnosed with botulism after going to their practitioner for help, 55 of the affected were in serious condition, and 30 people needed to be moved to the intensive care unit. In the outlying Moscow metropolitan area, 20 people were hospitalized with twelve in serious condition. Fourteen people were diagnosed with botulism in Nizhny Novgorod with nine of them in serious condition, and fourteen people in Kazan needed to be hospitalized due to symptoms of botulism.
On 24 June 2024, authorities reported that a 21-year old man who had obtained a salad in Nizhny Novgorod died after being hospitalised in Kostroma for botulism.
Investigation
Kukhnya Na Rayone, a Russian food delivery service based in Moscow, had one two brands of recalled salads on their menu, which contained canned beans. Shortly after early cases were announced, Kukhnya Na Rayone posted an online statement stating that it would recall the salad and inspect other food options they hosted on their menu to avoid further botulism poisoning cases.
The Moscow prosecutor's office began a criminal investigation to determine if Kukhnya Na Rayone breached consumer safety standards, temporarily shutting down operations of the company. Moscow Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova stated that due to prompt treatment of the symptoms with anti-toxins in hospitals, there was no longer any "threat to the lives" of the patients treated in Moscow.
Three people were detained by Russian authorities: Kukhnya Na Rayone director Anton Lozin; its quality department head, Yelena Mashkova, and Savon-K director Vladimir Shin from the company that made the canned beans. Authorities claimed that the food companies involved "violated multiple sanitary and epidemiological standards" which included the failure of the companies to submit required laboratory test reports for food quality, not effectively regulating production control, and facilitating the illegal immigration of Uzbek citizens.
References
June 2024 events in Russia
2024 disasters in Russia
2024 disease outbreaks
Disease outbreaks in Russia
Health in Russia
Botulism
Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances
Food safety scandals
Lists of disasters in Russia
Foodborne illnesses | 2024 Russian botulism outbreak | [
"Environmental_science"
] | 592 | [
" medicaments and biological substances",
"Toxicology",
"Poisoning by drugs"
] |
77,173,325 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent%20radius | In applied sciences, the equivalent radius (or mean radius) is the radius of a circle or sphere with the same perimeter, area, or volume of a non-circular or non-spherical object. The equivalent diameter (or mean diameter) () is twice the equivalent radius.
Perimeter equivalent
The perimeter of a circle of radius R is . Given the perimeter of a non-circular object P, one can calculate its perimeter-equivalent radius by setting
or, alternatively:
For example, a square of side L has a perimeter of . Setting that perimeter to be equal to that of a circle imply that
Applications:
US hat size is the circumference of the head, measured in inches, divided by pi, rounded to the nearest 1/8 inch. This corresponds to the 1D mean diameter.
Diameter at breast height is the circumference of tree trunk, measured at height of 4.5 feet, divided by pi. This corresponds to the 1D mean diameter. It can be measured directly by a girthing tape.
Area equivalent
The area of a circle of radius R is . Given the area of a non-circular object A, one can calculate its area-equivalent radius by setting
or, alternatively:
Often the area considered is that of a cross section.
For example, a square of side length L has an area of . Setting that area to be equal that of a circle imply that
Similarly, an ellipse with semi-major axis and semi-minor axis has mean radius .
For a circle, where , this simplifies to .
Applications:
The hydraulic diameter is similarly defined as 4 times the cross-sectional area of a pipe A, divided by its "wetted" perimeter P. For a circular pipe of radius R, at full flow, this is
as one would expect. This is equivalent to the above definition of the 2D mean diameter. However, for historical reasons, the hydraulic radius is defined as the cross-sectional area of a pipe A, divided by its wetted perimeter P, which leads to , and the hydraulic radius is half of the 2D mean radius.
In aggregate classification, the equivalent diameter is the "diameter of a circle with an equal aggregate sectional area", which is calculated by . It is used in many digital image processing programs.
Volume equivalent
The volume of a sphere of radius R is . Given the volume of a non-spherical object V, one can calculate its volume-equivalent radius by setting
or, alternatively:
For example, a cube of side length L has a volume of . Setting that volume to be equal that of a sphere imply that
Similarly, a tri-axial ellipsoid with axes , and has mean radius . The formula for a rotational ellipsoid is the special case where . Likewise, an oblate spheroid or rotational ellipsoid with axes and has a mean radius of . For a sphere, where , this simplifies to .
Applications:
For planet Earth, which can be approximated as an oblate spheroid with radii and , the 3D mean radius is .
Other equivalences
Surface-area equivalent radius
The surface area of a sphere of radius R is . Given the surface area of a non-spherical object A, one can calculate its surface area-equivalent radius by setting
or equivalently
For example, a cube of length L has a surface area of . A cube therefore has an surface area-equivalent radius of
Curvature-equivalent radius
The osculating circle and osculating sphere define curvature-equivalent radii at a particular point of tangency for plane figures and solid figures, respectively.
See also
Antenna equivalent radius
Cloud drop effective radius
Cubic mean
Earth ellipsoid
Earth radius
Galaxy effective radius
Geoid
Geometric mean
Semidiameter
References
Radii
R | Equivalent radius | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 763 | [
"Means",
"Mathematical analysis",
"Point (geometry)",
"Geometric centers",
"Symmetry"
] |
77,173,487 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisus%20%C3%97%20praecox | Cytisus × praecox, the Warminster broom, is an artificial hybrid species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. Its parents are Cytisus multiflorus (the white Spanish broom) and Cytisus oromediterraneus (the Pyrenean broom). A deciduous shrub, it is available from commercial suppliers. It has a number of cultivars, including 'Allgold' and 'Warminster', which have both gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Other commercially available cultivars are 'Albus' and 'Lilac Lady'.
References
praecox
Ornamental plants
Hybrid plants
Plants described in 1897 | Cytisus × praecox | [
"Biology"
] | 143 | [
"Hybrid plants",
"Plants",
"Hybrid organisms"
] |
78,489,485 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD%20168871 | HD 168871 (HIP 90223; 9 G. Telescopii) is a star located in the southern constellation Telescopium. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.45, placing it near the limit for naked eye visbility. The object is located relatively close at a distance of 89.2 light-years based on Gaia DR3 parallax measurements, but it is drifting away with a heliocentric radial velocity of . At its current distance, HD 168871’s brightness is diminished by an interstellar extinction of 0.14 magnitudes and it has a visual absolute magnitude of +4.19. It has a relatively high proper motion across the celestial sphere, moving at a rate of 153.34 mas/yr.
HD 168871 has a stellar classification of G1/2 V, indicating that it is a G-type main-sequence star with the characteristics of a G1 and G2 main sequence star. Gray et al. (2006) gives a classification of G0- V, indicating that it is a slightly hotter main sequence star. It has 1.03 times the mass of the Sun and 1.25 times the radius of the Sun. It radiates 1.66 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of , giving it a whitish-yellow hue when viewed in the night sky. HD 168871 is slightly metal deficient with an iron abundance 81.3%of the Sun's. It is older than the Sun at the age of 6.05 billion years and it spins slowly with a projected rotational velocity of , which is slightly faster than the Sun's rotational velocity of 2 km/s.
References
G-type main-sequence stars
Telescopium
Telescopii, 9
CD-49 12105
168871
090223
00160991902 | HD 168871 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 396 | [
"Telescopium",
"Constellations"
] |
78,489,626 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline%20of%20nuclear%20power | This timeline of nuclear power is an incomplete chronological summary of significant events in the study and use of nuclear power. This is primarily limited to sustained fission and decay processes, and does not include detailed timelines of nuclear weapons development or fusion experiments.
1920s
1925
On February 2, Patrick Blackett publishes experimental results of the first nuclear transmutation, by the bombardment of a nitrogen nucleus with an alpha particle, producing an oxygen-17 nucleus and a proton, at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
1930s
1931
On January 2, Ernest Lawrence and M. Stanley Livingston complete the first cyclotron, a type of circular particle accelerator. This early design is only 4.5 inches in diameter and yields a maximum proton energy of 80 keV.
1932
On January 1, Harold Urey, Ferdinand Brickwedde, and George M Murphy publish the discovery of deuterium. It is spectroscopically identified following separation from a sample of cryogenic liquid hydrogen at Columbia University, New York. Like all nuclei, preceding the discovery of the neutron, it is assumed to be composed entirely of protons and hypothetical "nuclear electrons".
On February 27, James Chadwick publishes the discovery of the neutron, identified as the "beryllium radiation" emitted under alpha-particle bombardment, previously observed by Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
On April 30, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton publish the first disintegration of an atomic nucleus, popularly described as splitting the atom. They report the production of two alpha particles from the bombardment of lithium-7 nuclei by protons, using a Cockcroft–Walton generator at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. While in lithium this reaction is exothermic, nucleus disintegration is distinct from the undiscovered process of fission, which induces a radioactive decay.
1934
On June 24, Leo Szilard files the first patent for a nuclear reactor. The design, which predates the discovery of fission, resembles an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor, suggesting deuteron beam fusion interacting with indium, beryllium, bromine, or uranium as neutron-rich core materials.
Mikhail Alekseevich Eremeev completes the first cyclotron in the Soviet Union and in Europe, at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute. It is a small design based a prototype by Lawrence, with a 28 cm diameter capable of achieving 530 keV proton energies.
1935
In January, Vemork hydroelectric plant in Norway operates the first large-scale heavy water production site, pioneered by Leif Tronstad.
1937
In March, V. N. Rukavishnikov, and Igor Kurchatov complete the first MeV cyclotron in the Soviet Union and in Europe, and outside the United States, at the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute in Leningrad. It is a 100 cm (39 in) accelerator capable of achieving 3.2 MeV proton energies.
On April 3, Yoshio Nishina, Tameichi Yasaki, and Sukeo Watanabe complete the first cyclotron in Japan and in Asia, at the Riken laboratory in Tokyo. It is a 26-inch accelerator capable of achieving 2.9 MeV deuteron energies.
1938
In August, Niels Bohr, George de Hevesy, and August Krogh complete the first cyclotron in Denmark, at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen.
1939
On February 11, Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch publish the discovery of nuclear fission, collaborating with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann who previously identified barium following neutron bombardment of uranium, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Berlin. Meitner and Frisch, both Jewish, had already fled Nazi Germany to Stockholm and Copenhagen respectively, and were barred from co-publishing with their German colleagues under Nazi anti-Jewish legislation.
On March 8, Hans von Halban, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Lew Kowarski, and Francis Perrin submit for publication the first net neutron production in an atomic pile. The experiment in Ivry-sur-Seine, Paris uses a 50-cm copper sphere filled with a uranyl nitrate water solution and a radium-beryllium neutron source.
On March 16, Herbert L. Anderson, Enrico Fermi, and H B Hanstein submit for publication the first pile neutron production in the United States, from pile Columbia number 1 at Columbia University, New York. The pile submerges a 13-cm glass bulb filled with uranium oxide in water acting as a moderator and reflector.
In March, Frédéric Joliot-Curie achieves a 7 MeV proton beam at the first cyclotron in France, at the Collège de France in Paris.
1940s
1940
On May 27, Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson publish the discovery of neptunium at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. They use the 60-inch cyclotron produce a small sample of neptunium-239 via neutron bombardment of uranium-238. They also correctly assume its beta decay to the alpha-emitting plutonium-239, but are unable to isolate it.
On July 1, Georgy Flyorov and Konstantin Petrzhak publish the discovery of spontaneous fission, in uranium atoms insulated from cosmic rays 60 meters underground in the Dinamo station of the Moscow Metro. They also report no such reactions in protactinium or thorium.
1941
In January, Walther Bothe and Peter Jensen conduct an neutronics experiment with a 55-cm radius graphite sphere. They erroneously conclude, possibly due to unaccounted boron and cadmium impurities of a few ppm, a neutron capture cross-section value for carbon over twice its accepted value. This hinders development of the Nazi German nuclear program.
On February 24, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Emilio Segrè, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl make the discovery of plutonium at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. They identify plutonium-238 from oxidation of a sample of beta-decaying neptunium-238, produced via deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch cyclotron. A paper is submitted to Physical Review in March but publication is delayed until 1946 due to World War II.
1942
In May, the L-IV atomic pile at the University of Leipzig sees the first net neutron production of the Nazi German nuclear program. The design uses a uranium powder, a heavy water moderator and reflector, and a central radium-beryllium neutron source.
On June 23, uranium powder in the L-IV atomic pile ignites on contact with air, causing a steam explosion and wider fire. This is the first nuclear-related accident, and leads the German program to use only solid uranium in future designs.
On November 13, Alpha-I, the first calutron track, begins uranium enrichment operation at the Y-12 facility, the first electromagnetic separation plant.
On December 2, Chicago Pile-1, the first artificial nuclear reactor, achieves criticality at the University of Chicago. The Manhattan Project's assembly uses blocks of natural uranium and graphite as a moderator to produce 0.5 watts of thermal power.
1943
On February 28, in the early hours of the morning, a Special Operations Executive-trained team of Norwegian commandos detonate explosive charges on the heavy-water electrolysis chambers at the Vemork hydroelectric plant during Operation Gunnerside.
On March 20, Chicago Pile-2, the world's second reactor, achieves criticality at Site A, Illinois. It is a rebuilt and slightly enlarged version of CP-1.
On March 22, Igor Kurchatov, director of Laboratory No. 2 writes a letter to Mikhail Pervukhin suggesting that "eka-osmium-239" (plutonium-239) produced in a theoretical "uranium boiler" (reactor) will undergo fission as an alternative to uranium-235 in bomb designs.
In March, the US approves a Soviet request for over 0.3 tons of uranium compounds under the Lend-Lease program. General Leslie Groves hopes to hide the extent of the Manhattan Project, and reveal the location of Laboratory No. 2.
On July 31, Igor Kurchatov learns via atomic spies of the successful criticality and graphite moderator choice of Chicago Pile-1 eight months prior.
On November 4, the X-10 Graphite Reactor achieves criticality at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. It is the world's third reactor, the first built for continuous operation, the first reactor for the production of plutonium-239.
1944
On March 19, Takeuchi Masa of the Japanese nuclear weapons program's Riken laboratory constructs the country's first Clusius tube thermal diffusion design for uranium enrichment.
In March, the 305 Test Pile begins operation at the Hanford Site, primarily to provide quality assurance of graphite for subsequent reactors. Via atomic spies, this design would be replicated as the USSR's first F-1 reactor.
On May 9, LOPO (low-power), the first aqueous homogeneous reactor, the first reactor to use enriched uranium, and the first water-cooled and water-moderated reactor, achieves criticality at Los Alamos National Laboratory, using a solution of uranyl sulfate at 14.7% enrichment.
On May 15, Chicago Pile-3, the first heavy-water reactor, achieves criticality at Site A, Illinois. It uses deuterium oxide i.e. heavy water as a moderator instead of graphite, as well as a coolant.
In July, the X-10 Graphite Reactor becomes the first reactor to exceed 1 MWth power output, reading 4 MWth due to the addition of two large fans.
On September 16, S-50, the first and only full-scale liquid thermal diffusion plant, begins operation at Clinton Engineer Works, Tennessee.
On September 26, the B Reactor is started at Hanford Site, Washington. At 250 MWth, it is the first reactor to exceed 10 and 100 MWth and is considered the first large-scale reactor. The site is primarily built for weapons-grade plutonium production, but also produces weapons-usable tritium, polonium-210, and uranium-233, as well as non-military plutonium, thulium-170, and iridium-192.
On September 27, the first instance of xenon poisoning occurs in the Hanford B reactor. Water contamination of graphite, boron impurities in the Columbia River water coolant, and nitrogen in the air are all suggested as the neutron poisoning cause. John Archibald Wheeler and Enrico Fermi calculate the cause and the problem is solved by loading additional fuel slugs into extra tubes.
In December, HYPO (high-power), the second aqueous homogenous reactor, achieves criticality at Los Alamos National Laboratory, using a uranyl nitrate solution at 14.5% enrichment.
In December, the D Reactor is started at Hanford Site, Washington. It is largely identical to the B Reactor with the same primary purpose of weapons-grade plutonium production.
1945
On January 20, a team led by Otto Robert Frisch achieves the first criticality burst in the Dragon Critical Assembly at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first fast neutron reactor and first prompt criticality. The device uses a uranium hydride slug and hollow cylinder both enriched at 71-75%, with the former dropped through the latter.
In February, the F Reactor is started at Hanford Site, Washington. It is largely identical to the B Reactor with the same primary purpose of weapons-grade plutonium production.
On March 12, K-25, the first gaseous diffusion plant becomes fully operational at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee. It is the world's largest building, and had an electrical consumption almost triple that of the entire city of Detroit.
On March 15, 612 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomb the Auergesellschaft plant of the Nazi German nuclear program, in Oranienburg. It is an attempt to deny its uranium to the advancing Soviet Army on the recommendation of General Leslie Groves. Over 100 tons are still ultimately recovered by Russian Alsos for the F-1 reactor.
On April 23, the Allied Alsos Mission dismantles and recovers uranium and heavy water from the B-VIII atomic pile at Haigerloch, the final pile of the Nazi German nuclear program.
On September 5, ZEEP, the first reactor in Canada and outside the United States, achieves criticality at Chalk River Laboratories, on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River.
1946
On November 19, Clementine, the first continuous fast neutron reactor, the first liquid metal cooled reactor, and the first reactor to use plutonium fuel achieves criticality at Los Alamos National Laboratory, using a mercury coolant abandoned by all later designs.
On December 25, F-1, the first reactor in the Soviet Union and in Europe, and outside North America, achieves criticality at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. It is fuelled with uranium recovered by "Russian Alsos" from the Nazi German nuclear program including the Auergesellschaft Oranienburg plant.
1947
On July 22, NRX, the second reactor in Canada, achieves criticality at Chalk River Laboratories.
On August 15, GLEEP, the first reactor in the United Kingdom, achieves criticality at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Oxfordshire.
1948
On June 10, Reactor A, the second reactor and the first plutonium production reactor in the Soviet Union, achieves criticality at Mayak Production Association, Chelyabinsk Oblast.
In August, the X-10 Graphite Reactor becomes the first reactor to generate electricity. The experiment uses a steam generator and engine to power a single flashlight bulb. This could be considered the first boiling water reactor.
On December 15, Zoé aka EL-1, the first reactor in France, and the first heavy water reactor in Europe, begins experimental operation at Fort de Châtillon.
1949
On February 1, Georgy Flyorov uses the Physical Boiler on Fast Neutrons, the first Soviet pulsed fast reactor, at Design Bureau 11, Sarov, to measure the critical mass of plutonium, ahead of the RDS-1 test.
In April, TVR, the third reactor and first heavy water reactor in the Soviet Union, achieves criticality.
1950s
1951
On August 24, EBR-I, the first breeder reactor, producing more fuel than it consumes, begins power operation.
1952
On October 27, EL-2, the first gas-cooled reactor, achieves criticality at the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre, France. While many early reactors were air-cooled, it is an experimental 2 MW design testing the first closed circuit nitrogen and carbon dioxide cooling.
On December 2, NRX, Canada's second reactor, constructed at Chalk River Laboratories, experiences the first core meltdown in a nuclear facility. Future president Jimmy Carter is among the US Navy crew sent to assist clean-up.
The AI reactor (Industrial Association Mayak) begins production of tritium at the Mayak plant in Ozyorsk, USSR.
1953
On March 30, the S1W, the first pressurized water reactor, achieves criticality at Idaho National Laboratory. It is designed to power submarines
On December 8, US president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers the Atoms for Peace speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. It promotes education resources and empowers companies such as American Machine and Foundry to supply research reactors to Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia.
On December 28, the R reactor, the first production reactor at Savannah River Site, is started. It uses natural uranium and a heavy water moderator, and is intended to produce both plutonium and tritium for weapons.
BORAX-I, the first full-scale boiling water reactor, achieves criticality at Argonne National Laboratory.
1954
On January 21, the , the first vessel to use nuclear propulsion and the first nuclear submarine, powered by the S2W reactor is launched from General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard, Groton, Connecticut, and in 1958 completes the first journey under the North Pole.
On June 27, AM-1 becomes the first grid-connected reactor at Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, southwest of Moscow. It is a predecessor to the RBMK design.
On November 3, the Aircraft Reactor Experiment, the first molten-salt reactor, achieves criticality at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
1955
On July 17, BORAX-III becomes the first reactor to fully power a town, during a demonstration in Arco, Idaho.
On September 17, the Aircraft Shield Test Reactor, the first reactor operated during aircraft flight, begins test flights in the Convair NB-36H.
1956
On August 4, Apsara, the first reactor in India and in Asia, achieves criticality at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, in Trombay, Mumbai.
On December 3, BORAX-IV, the first reactor to use thorium fuel, achieves criticality at Argonne National Laboratory.
1957
On October 31, FRM I, the first reactor in West Germany, achieves criticality at Technical University of Munich.
On November 2, the first gas centrifuge enrichment plant begins operation, in Leningrad, under a team led by Evgeni Kamenev.
On December 5, the , the first nuclear-powered surface vessel, a Soviet icebreaker, is launched from the Admiralty Shipyards in Leningrad.
The OMRE, the first complete organic nuclear reactor, cooled and moderated by hydrocarbons, in this case terphenyls, achieves criticality at the Idaho National Laboratory.
1958
On September 27, HWRR, a Soviet-supplied 7 MW heavy water research reactor, the first reactor in China, begins operation in Beijing. Nuclear power is developed primarily for weapons production until the Qinshan I reactor begins development in 1985.
1959
On June 16, TRICO-I, the first reactor in the Belgian Congo and in Africa, achieves criticality at Lovanium University, Kinshasa.
On July 1, Kiwi A, the first nuclear thermal rocket, begins testing at Area 25, Nevada, under Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory's Project Rover. It produces 70 MW for five minutes and achieves a core temperature of 2,900 K, using liquid hydrogen as the coolant, moderator, and propellant.
On July 14, the , the first nuclear-powered surface combat ship, is launched from Fore River Shipyard, Massachusetts.
1960s
1960
In June, IRR-1, a HEU-fueled research reactor, the first reactor in Israel, achieves criticality at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center near Yavne. It is under US inspection.
On September 24, the , the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched from Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia.
1961
On January 3, the Army Nuclear Power Program's SL-1 experiences a prompt critical accident, killing three workers, the first and only fatal nuclear power accident in the United States.
On November 11, UTR-KINKI, the first reactor in Japan, achieves criticality at Kinki University.
1962
On March 3, PM-3A, the first and only reactor to operate in Antarctica, achieves criticality at McMurdo Station.
In March, KRR-1, the first reactor in South Korea, achieves criticality at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.
On September 16, Indian Point Unit 1, the first commercial reactor to use thorium fuel, begins commercial operation in New York.
1963
On December 26, IRR-2, a plutonium production reactor, the second reactor in Israel, achieves criticality at Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona. It is a heavy water-moderated design sold by France and not under IAEA monitoring.
In December, the N reactor, the ninth at the Hanford Site, Washington, begins operation. At 4000 MWth it is one of the largest plutonium production reactors ever. Additionally, until the DR reactor's shutdown in December 1964, the Hanford Site operates at 25,870 MWth, the largest nuclear plant ever by thermal power.
1964
In August, the Dragon reactor, the first helium-cooled reactor, achieves criticality under UKAEA operation at Winfrith, England.
The AMB-100, the first reactor to use supercritical water, begins operation at Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station in the Soviet Union. Alongside the AMB-200 they are the only two such reactors ever, but the design has re-emerged as a Generation IV reactor concept.
1965
On April 3, NASA launches into orbit the Snapshot satellite carrying SNAP-10A, the first reactor operated in space and via its cesium ion thruster also the first use of nuclear electric propulsion. It uses a uranium zirconium hydride fuel-moderator hybrid, and a liquid sodium-potassium alloy (NaK) coolant.
A Soviet-suppled IR-2000 pool-type research reactor begins operation as the first reactor in North Korea, at the Nyongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.
1966
On August 28, the AVR, the first pebble-bed reactor, achieves criticality at Julich Research Center, West Germany. It was an early pioneer of helium-cooled high temperature designs.
On November 8, Alexander Vinogradov and colleagues at the USSR Academy of Sciences publishes the detection by Luna 10's gamma ray spectrometer of radiation from uranium, thorium, and potassium on the Moon's surface.
1967
On January 24, MH-1A, the first floating nuclear power plant, achieves criticality. It was developed by the Army Nuclear Power Program at Gunston Cove, Virginia.
1968
On June 8, the Phoebus-2A nuclear thermal rocket engine undergoes its second test and first at full power. It achieves a maximum power output of 4082 MWth.
On October 2, the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment achieves criticality as the first uranium-233 reactor, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee.
1969
On March 28, the Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment achieves criticality at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Unlike other HTGRs, the helium coolant directly contacts the fuel and removes fission products, allowing outlet temperatures up to 1300 °C.
1970s
1973
On June 11, Alexander Vinogradov and colleagues at the USSR Academy of Sciences publishes the detection by Venera 8's gamma ray spectrometer of radiation from uranium, thorium, and potassium on Venus' surface.
1975
In July, Kraftwerk Union AG begins work on the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran. It is the first commercial nuclear project in the Middle East. Work is paused following the 1979 Iranian revolution and completed in collaboration with Russia in 2011.
1976
On October 28, US president Gerald Ford indefinitely suspends nuclear spent fuel reprocessing, and encourages other nations to do the same. The decision is based on the plutonium proliferation risk, especially the 1974 first Indian nuclear weapons test, Smiling Buddha.
1978
On November 5, voters in Austria reject a referendum to allow the startup of its first nuclear power plant, Zwentendorf, by 50.47% to 49.53%. A subsequent law makes Austria the first country to ban nuclear power.
1979
On March 28, Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station's Unit 2 reactor experiences a partial core meltdown, in Pennsylvania, US. It is the worst nuclear accident in US history based on radioactive material released. It is classed as a Level 5 nuclear accident out of seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
1980s
1981
On June 7, the Israeli Air Force carries out Operation Opera, bombing an unfinished secret Iraqi nuclear reactor. Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian engineer were killed. France sold Iraq the Osiris-class research reactor which claimed it was for peaceful use.
1983
On December 31, Unit 1 at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant comes online in the Lithuanian SSR. The first RBMK-1500 unit, at 4800 MWth, it is the largest nuclear reactor unit by thermal power ever. Alongside Unit 2 they are the only RBMK-1500 units completed. During testing the "positive scram" power excursion flaw in the RBMK design during graphite moderator-tipped control rod insertion is discovered. Other RBMK plants are alerted but changes are not made to prevent it triggering the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
1985
In September, Superphénix, the largest fast reactor and breeder reactor ever, at 1,242 MWe, achieves criticality at Creys-Malville in France.
1986
On April 26, in the Ukrainian SSR, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4 experiences a core meltdown during a test, the first Level 7 nuclear accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It destroys its containment building and spreads radioactive material across Europe.
1987
On January 7, the N reactor, the last US plutonium production reactor, is shut down at the Hanford Site, Washington. Modifications are begun to improve safety due to the water-cooled graphite-moderated design being shared by Chernobyl Unit 4, but the plant never reopens.
1990s
1991
On December 15, Qinshan I, the first commercial reactor in China, is connected to the grid.
1993
On February 18, the United States and Russia sign the Megatons to Megawatts Program agreement. Russia agrees to dilute 500 metric tons of its excess weapons-grade highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium, using US-suppled natural uranium, for sale on the global market, over the course of 20 years. The deal is signed by William J. Burns and Viktor Mikhaylov in Washington D.C.
1994
On October 21, the United States and North Korea sign the Agreed Framework. The DPRK agrees to freeze its operational 5 MWe and under construction 50 MWe and 200 MWe Magnox-style reactors at Nyongbyon and Taechon, seen as a plutonium production risk. The US assures the construction of two 1000 MWe light water reactors, likely OPR-1000s, by the formation of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). KEDO's director later comments the agreement is "a political orphan within two weeks of its signature" as the Republican Revolution ends Congressional funding for the organization.
1995
On January 8, Russia's Minatom and Iran's Atomic Energy Organization sign an agreement to complete the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant with two VVER-1000 PWR units.
1997
On July 2, Unit 7 begins commercial operation at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, making it the largest nuclear power plant ever by net electrical power at 7,965 MWe.
2000s
2000
On December 21, the HTR-10 prototype high-temperature helium-cooled pebble-bed reactor achieves criticality at Tsinghua University, China.
2001
On June 26, the United States Department of Energy classifies the SILEX process of uranium laser enrichment, originally developed by the Australian company Silex Systems.
2007
On September 6, the Israeli Air Force carries out Operation Outside the Box, bombing an unfinished secret Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. Allegedly 10 North Korean scientists are killed, and Syria initially considers a chemical weapons response. Iran reportedly provided $1 billion in funding to North Korea for its construction, which is the same gas-cooled graphite-moderated design as the Nyongbyon reactor and intended it as a backup to their enrichment facilities. The IAEA confirms the reactor in 2011 and Israel confirms the attack in 2018.
2010s
2011
On March 11, during electrical outage from the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi reactor units 1, 2, and 3 experience partial core meltdowns, and release radioactive material into the environment. It is the second Level 7 nuclear accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale, making it the worst accident since Chernobyl, and influences divestment from nuclear power in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland.
On September 3, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran, the first commercial nuclear reactor in the Middle East, begins supplying grid electricity.
2013
On May 22, the Australian company Silex Systems, working with a consortium of General Electric, Hitachi, and Cameco, completes the first demonstration of a laser enrichment facility at a test loop in Wilmington, North Carolina.
On October 11, the Dongfang Electric generator stator of the Taishan 1 EPR is installed in Guangdong, China. At 1750 MWe it is said to be the largest single-piece electrical generator in the world.
In December, the 20-year Megatons to Megawatts Program successfully concludes with the final Russian delivery of low-enriched uranium to the US. Critics later say that it led to Rosatom's dominance over the global enriched uranium market.
2016
On
2017
In November, Russia completes the first test of the 9M730 Burevestnik, the first nuclear-powered cruise missile and the first nuclear-powered aircraft of any kind.
2018
In December, the Taishan 1 EPR begins operation in Guangdong, China. At 1660 MWe it is the largest nuclear reactor unit by electrical power ever.
2019
On August 8, a Russian explosion and radiation accident kills five military and civilian specialists off the coast of Nyonoksa, on the White Sea floor. Russia claimed the accident was related to an "isotope power source for a liquid-fuelled rocket engine". A US delegate tells the United Nations General Assembly First Committee that a nuclear reaction occurred. CNBC and Reuters report it occurred during recovery of a previously tested 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile left on the seabed to cool the fission core's decay heat.
On December 8, the US NRC grants a 20-year extension to Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station Units 3 and 4, the first US reactors licensed for an 80-year lifetime.
On December 19, Akademik Lomonosov, the first commercial floating nuclear power plant, begins operation in Chukotka, Russia.
2020s
2022
On February 24, during their invasion of Ukraine, Russian Armed Forces capture the Chernobyl exclusion zone including the power plant.
On March 4, Russian Armed Forces capture Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and thermal plant, the first military attack and capture of operational commercial nuclear reactors. The largest nuclear plant in Europe, it previously provided 23% of Ukraine's electricity. Rosatom claims control while the plant continues to be operated by Ukrainian Energoatom staff under Russian orders. The six reactors are placed in various levels of shutdown.
On April 1, Russian Armed Forces withdraw from the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Armed Forces of Ukraine re-enter two days later.
On September 11, Unit 6 at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the last operating reactor, is disconnected from the grid.
See also
History of nuclear power
History of nuclear fusion
Timeline of nuclear fusion
Timeline of nuclear weapons development
Lists of nuclear reactors
Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
References
Nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear fission
History of physics
Nuclear physics | Timeline of nuclear power | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry"
] | 6,464 | [
"Nuclear fission",
"Nuclear power",
"Physical quantities",
"Power (physics)",
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78,490,739 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon%20hat | A salmon hat is a cultural fad displayed by orcas, where they wear dead salmon upon their heads. It was first observed in 1987 with southern resident orcas and was a relatively short-lived phenomenon. In 2024, the behaviour was observed again with orcas in Puget Sound. The motivations for salmon hats are unclear, but other orcas will mimic the behaviour once it begins. One hypothesis is that orcas wear salmon hats to display high food availability, or that the same individuals that originally started the trend revitalized it. It may also indicate playfulness.
See also
Iberian orca attacks
References
Mammal behavior
Puget Sound
1987 in Washington (state)
2024 in Washington (state)
Hats | Salmon hat | [
"Biology"
] | 143 | [
"Behavior by type of animal",
"Behavior",
"Mammal behavior",
"Ethology stubs",
"Ethology"
] |
78,491,525 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed%20rug | Bed rugs are heavy, embroidered bed covers made primarily in the United States from the mid-1600s through the early 1800s. The earliest were made in eastern Massachusetts, though many have been found in the Connecticut River Valley. They involve wool stitching on either wool or linen backings. They differ from other embroidered coverlets in that bed rugs embroidery covered the background fabric, and in many cases the looped stitches were cut to form pile.
Description
Bed rugs (or "ruggs") were rough handwoven and hand-decorated textiles meant to serve as the topmost layer of bedding, particularly in cold weather. Bed rugs are heavy, feature either pile or a smooth face, and are worked in multicolor wool yarns on a woven foundation. The tufting process is described in connection with the Rebekah Harris bed rug of 1776 on loan to Colonial Williamsburg:
"The tufted pile was created by using 7-10 strands of wool yarn, pulled through the background material with a large needle, in loose, 1/2"-5/8" running stitches. The stitches are long, loose floats on the surface and short (approximately 3/8") on the backside, which cover the entire background fabric."
Some examples have rounded corners for the bottom of the bed, and a straight edge for the top. They were often signed or initialed and dated, possibly due to the large amount of work required to make them.They were produced in the 17th through early 19th centuries. Bed rugs began as carpet-like textiles, and were more common in 18th century than floor rugs. In his Draper's Dictionary (1882), William Beck noted that the term rug was only used in America to describe the coverings for ordinary beds.
Sources provide conflicting information about bed rugs. Older sources have become dated as bed rugs have been more closely examined, and as additional records and examples have been found. For example, early authors mentioned that these bed rugs were hooked, when in fact they are not.
Two other varieties of bed rugs have been identified, but with very few examples. One rug has been found in which a supplementary weft was used in weaving, which was cut to form small tufts of evenly-cut wool. Six examples have been found that involve Turkish knots worked on a woven background.
Top layers of bedding
Beds often held a prominent place in colonial households, and early household inventories show that bed coverings were amongst the few textile decorations in a house. Bed hangings and various types of bed coverings, including bed rugs, were both decorative and practical.
There is difficulty in determining exactly what the earliest bed rugs looked like in America, and how they differed from a coverlet, because no examples have survived from the 1600s, although there are records of them from this early period. Indeed, when Homer Eaton Keyes, the editor of Antiques magazine, first came upon a bed rug in 1923, he described it as "a wool-on-wool bedcover " and thought that the example he had encountered was one of a kind. Another type of bed covering, quilts, were believed to be popular. However, a historian who examined wills and probate records from Essex County, Massachusetts dated between 1635 and 1674, found that pieced quilts were rare due to their expense. Bed rugs and coverlets were far more likely to be listed in these inventories. There is a difference between embroidered bed rugs and other embroidered covers: bed rugs are entirely covered with embroidery.
History
A 1656 inventory of Mistress Glover's Cambridge Massachusetts household items listed a number of rugs used as bed furnishings. In an examination of hundreds of early American household inventories, the words "bed" and "rug" had only been found together twice as of 1972, when the source was published. Both inventories were from Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1733, a felt maker had 3 bed rugs and in 1746, a man had one smaller and one larger bed rug. These early uses were probably to distinguish a rug used on a bed compared to one used on a table.
Many of the surviving bed rugs have been found in the Connecticut River Valley, but others were produced elsewhere in New England, including Vermont, New Hampshire, and beyond. The reason that bed rugs were meant as the top layer of bedding was due to their weight. They needed to be able to be thrown off when temperatures were more moderate.
Embroidered bed rugs are an original American art form, one that was not commercial, but rather produced entirely in a household, from the woven fabric to the prepared sheep wool, spun and dyed, and then the design and stitching of the rug. They served as a testament to the needlework abilities of the lady of the house.
Designs
The maker of each bed rug selected and executed their own design, whether it was original or from a pattern book. An 1803 bed rug owned by the Fairbanks family of New Hampshire features a carnation motif. This same motif is found in approximately a dozen other bed rugs from the Connecticut River Vallely. Pattern books obtained from England included this type of motif, and may have been the source of designs for some of the bed rugs. The bouquet of flowers growing from a small receptacle can be traced to the Indian Tree of Life pattern: this design has been found on the Metropolitan Museum's 1796 bed rug as well as one of Historic Deerfield's bed rugs. The flame stitch pattern worked in bright wool yarns is another design found in bed rugs, as are hearts and flowers. There were no pattern books specifically for bed rugs. Women used the same pattern books as they did for samplers and crewel embroidery.
Materials
The wool yarn used was hand-dyed, and when rug backgrounds required a large amount of yarn, variations in color can be observed. This indicates that additional yarn had to be dyed to have enough. Blue is the most frequent color used, because it was easiest to get. Brown and undyed yarns were also used. Additional colors used were: green, gray, black, orange, purple, yellow, tan, and red. Natural dyes were oftern used to obtain these colors: indigo for blue, walnut hulls for brown, madder for reds and fustic for tans and yellows.
The needles used to make bed rugs would need to be large in order to handle the wool. Needles were likely it was made of wood or bone.
Stitches
Extant bed rugs were sewn with a running stitch using using multi-plied yarn on wool or linen woven fabric. The stitches were formed with loops on the top of the fabric and running stitches on the back. The front loops could be cut to form pile, which caused them to be confused by some with hooked rugs. Running stitches worked in parallel rows become darning stitches, and bed rugs from Colchester, Connecticut employed darning stitches to work patterns such as diaper stitch (diamond-shaped), stripes, and checks. These bed rugs did not use the looping running stitch, but rather a flat one.
Artifacts
It is estimated that about 60 bed rugs have survived, though additional bed rugs continue to be found. Several of these rugs are noted below, but the best source for a complete listing with information about the makers of the rugs is Bed Rugs: 18th and Early 19th Century Embroidered Bed Covers by Jessie Armstead Marshall.
A 1786 bed rug made by Lorrain Collins of Connecticut displays a number of the features of bed rug. It has the rounded bottom corners, is extremely densely stitched using homespun wool and a woven wool ground, and uses the Tree of Life pattern. What sets it apart from many bed rugs is that it uses a complex patterned darning stitch throughout rather than the looped running stitch.
The 1796 bed rug from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pictured at the start of this article, is made of wool yarn on plain weave cloth. The pile has been cut unevenly, and some loops remain uncut. The rug was found in the Jonathan Deming house in Colchester, CT.
Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts includes six examples of bed rugs in their online collection, made in a variety of ways. There is a 1780 bed rug that is embroidered with wool yarn that looks very much like a crewel work of the time. It does not use the pile technique. This rug is attributed to Abigail Foote of Colchester, CT. Another, from Cummington Massachusetts, was made in 1801, and does use the pile technique. The museum entry for this 1801 bed rug includes numerous photographs of details, which clearly show the floral design. There is also a bed rug that was made sometime between 1790 and 1830, probably in New England. Unlike the others in the museum's online collection, this one does not have rounded edges on one end. The pattern is quite different from the other three noted here. It is striped and features a double-stitched pile of heavy, 6-ply yarn.
Colonial Williamsburg's museums own or have on loan several bed rugs. One of these, which has a combination of cut and uncut pile and rounded bottom edges, was made by Rebekah Harris (b. 1749) of New London, Connecticut in 1776, two years before her marriage to Lieutenant Joseph Hale, the brother of Nathan Hale, Revolutionary War soldier and spy for the US.
The collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston include two bed rugs. One, from 1782, is attributed to Jerusha Foote Johnson of Colchester, CT. She was a member of the family who produced several bed rugs, such as the 1780 rug at Historic Deerfield. This 1782 bed rug is worked in shades of blue wool, and has a pile surface. The second bed rug at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is from 1804, made by Lucy Williams Lathrop. The pile-surface rug is from Lebanon, CT, and features the same design as the 1796 bed rug in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
See also
Bedding
References
External links
Bed Rugs in the Collection of Historic Deerfield
Embroidery
Embroidery in the United States
Beds
Bedding
Needlework
Furnishings | Bed rug | [
"Biology"
] | 2,091 | [
"Beds",
"Behavior",
"Sleep"
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78,491,645 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water%20jacket%20furnace%20%28metallurgy%29 | A water jacket furnace is a type of blast furnace used to smelt non-ferrous metallic ores, most typically ores of copper, lead, or silver-lead. It takes its name from the water jacket arrangement used to cool the lower furnace casing and prolong the life of the furnace hearth. It is sometimes referred to as a water-jacketed blast furnace, copper blast furnace, or lead blast furnace. The water jacket furnace is now virtually an obsolete technology for copper smelting, being nearly entirely replaced, by flash smelting of copper ore concentrates. It remains in use, in a modified form, for lead smelting.
The terminology is also used for an indirect heating device used in the petroleum oil and gas industry, generally known as a water jacket heater or water bath heater, which should not be confused with the metallurgical water jacket furnace.
History
In the mid 19th Century, most non-ferrous smelting was done using reverberatory furnaces. Blast furnaces were used to smelt sulphide copper ore in the Harz Mountains of Germany. The mines at Burra in South Australia tried to adopt the technology, in 1847, but without success because the German furnace design, using horse-powered bellows to provide the air blast, was not well suited to their carbonate copper ore.
The 'water jacket' blast furnace design for non-ferrous smelting arose in North America, during the 1870s, and an alternative name for it, in Australia, was 'American water jacket furnace'. The design evolved from earlier German cupola furnace designs, with the distinguishing innovation being a well-controlled cooling of the furnace shell.
Water jacket furnaces began to be common in the later part of the century, from the 1880s, particularly for smelting sulphide ores. Unlike reverberatory furnaces, water jacket furnaces could be made in a factory and then assembled at site.
Not all situations and ores were well-suited to water jacket furnace operation. Some attempts to apply them were costly failures, such as at the North Lyell mine, at Crotty, Tasmania, and Lloyd's Mine at Burraga and the Overflow Mine at Bobadah, both in New South Wales. However, the furnaces were hugely successful, when well applied, such as at the vast Anaconda Copper Mine, in Butte, Montana, the Mt Lyell Mine in Tasmania, and at many other mines.
Water jacket furnaces only ever partially displaced reverberatory furnaces in the copper industry, until both furnace types were displaced, almost entirely, by flash smelting, between around 1949 and 1980.
Technology and application
Smelting
Lead and silver-lead ore smelting
A water jacket furnace can be used to reduce non-ferrous oxide ores mixed with coke, to produce metal and slag. When smelting lead, the feedstock is lead oxide, coke and fluxes. When smelting lead sulphide ores, the ore is first sintered to form a lead oxide sinter. Lead and silver ores often occur in the same ore body. Separating silver metal from the crude lead produced by a furnace requires a second process of refining, such as the Parkes process. When smelting lead, there was the added complication that measures were necessary to protect workers from harmful lead vapours.
Copper ore smelting
The pyrometallurgical process of a water jacket furnace, when smelting copper sulphide ores, was fundamentally different to a conventional blast furnace used to make iron, or a water jacket furnace used to make lead. The conventional blast furnace process produces molten metal by reducing the ore, and separating out the silica as slag. Water jacket furnaces, when smelting sulphide copper ores, used an oxidation reaction that produces molten copper matte, which must be further treated in a convertor (similar in concept to a Bessemer convertor) or reverberatory furnace to produce copper metal. The product of that conversion process is known as blister copper. If a smelter did not have a convertor, the matte was poured into moulds and allowed to solidify.
The smelting of sulphide copper ores in a water jacket furnace can be viewed as concentrating the non-ferrous metallic portion of the ore, as matte, and separating out some impurities, such as silica and iron, in the mainly iron silicate slag, and much of the sulphur, as sulphur dioxide in the off-gas. The molten slag and matte separate, with the denser molten matte accumulating at the bottom of the furnace, with a layer of molten slag immediately above it.
Depending upon the composition of the ore being smelted, the choice of a suitable flux was particularly important. Fluxes used could be limestone, iron oxide, or silica (quartz), depending upon what was needed to create slag and to minimise the loss of copper with that slag. When both 'basic' (oxide or carbonate) ores and 'siliceous' sulphide ores were available, feeding the furnaces with a mixture of the two copper ore types reduced the amount of other fluxes needing to be added.
Advantages and disadvantages
Water jacket furnaces had some advantages over reverberatory furnaces. Fuel consumption was lower. Sulphide copper ores could be smelted without first roasting the ore. Production per furnace was generally higher. Low grade ore could be smelted, because the water jacket furnace could more readily discharge large amounts of molten slag. Because solidified slag is unsuitable to backfill the voids (stopes) created by underground mining, disposal of large volumes of slag, from smelting of low grade ores, was a significant problem. Some mines treated molten slag with water to create granulated slag, which could be used to backfill stopes. Otherwise, the molten slag was dumped and large slag dumps accumulated near the smelter, becoming a lasting legacy of smelting operations.
Another advantage of the water jacket furnace was that, while out of service, the bottom of the furnace, if so designed, could be 'dropped' for cleaning it up or for repair. Over time, a significant amount of copper material would accumulate in the bottom of a reverberatory furnace which could not be accessed without effectively demolishing the furnace.
A disadvantage of the water jacket furnace was that it could not handle fine ore well and was so was better suited to lump ore. Fines tended to either choke the furnace or were blown into the flue by the air blast. Eventually, the second problem, only, would be solved by capturing the flue dust and recycling it.
An initial disadvantage of the water jacket furnace was its use of coke as fuel. It could not use the cheaper fuels such as firewood or fine raw coal that could be used to fire a reverberatory furnace. That disadvantage was offset by lower overall fuel consumption. In the first years of the 20th Century, the perfection of a technique known as pyritic smelting greatly reduced coke consumption, when smelting suitable ores such as chalcopyrite, by optimizing the use of the sulphur and iron in the ore itself, as a fuel generating heat. The iron oxide so produced combined with molten silica to form an iron silicate slag.
Water jacket furnaces needed blowers and a cooling water supply, and were more complex to build and operate than the reverberatory furnaces. However, they were also more versatile, being a readily scalable technology; large or small furnaces could be made, and would operate effectively.
Water jacket furnaces, like other blast furnaces, are best operated continuously, and smelters that used them had to work continuously too. However, this was in one way an advantage over reverberatory furnaces that operated as a batch process with around 24 hours typical duration. The associated cycles of heating and cooling of a reverberatory furnace led, over time, to damage of its masonry and higher maintenance and downtime as a result. In contrast, a well-operated water jacket furnace might achieve years of operation before needing new fire bricks.
Differences from conventional blast furnace design
The internal operating temperature of the water jacket furnace is lower than that of a blast furnace used to make iron, and the process does not depend upon the formation of a bosh shell, as is critical in the operation of a blast furnace making iron.
Conventional blast furnaces used for smelting iron ore use a hot blast. Water jacket furnaces most commonly used a cold air blast, typically provided by a positive-displacement blower, such as a Roots blower. Preheating of the air blast was used on some water jacket furnaces, but preheating of the blast had no advantage when the furnace was being used for pyritic smelting of copper ore.
The horizontal cross-section of water jacket furnaces was usually rectangular—although circular and oval cross-section ones did exist—whereas conventional blast furnaces making iron always have a circular horizontal cross-section. In some larger furnace designs, molten metal / matte and molten slag were tapped at the opposite narrow ends of the rectangular base. Water jacket furnaces typically have a higher number of smaller tuyeres than a conventional iron-making blast furnace.
Typically, feedstock was fed into a water jacket furnace through a sliding door arrangement in the side of the upper furnace structure, but not via the top itself as in a blast furnace for iron. At the top of a water jacket furnace was a fixed flue. The off-gas from copper smelting was not suitable to be recycled as a fuel, as is done in a blast furnace making iron (blast furnace gas). However, the sulphur dioxide in the flue gases, from those furnaces using the pyritic smelting process, was concentrated enough that it could be used to make sulphuric acid, which reduced the level of air pollution created by the smelter. If the flue gas needed to be dispersed to the atmosphere, a tall chimney was necessary. to ensure that the noxious gases from smelting, largely sulphur dioxide, were carried far from the smelter and any nearby settlement. Dust carried in the flue gas was often collected, as it had a significant metallic content. A furnace smelting lead uses a reduction reaction; it generates an off-gas containing carbon monoxide, similar to blast furnace gas, which needs to be disposed of, usually by flaring.
In contrast to a conventional blast furnace used to make iron, lead metal or copper matte and slag were run off more or less continuously. There was a separate slag spout to run off slag. The molten copper matte run from such a furnace, under this arrangement, still contained a proportion of slag. The copper matte was run first into a vessel known as a 'settler' to allow any slag to accumulate on the surface, from where it could overflow from the settler. From tap holes at the bottom of the settler, the molten matte was run into ladles, which were used to transport the matte to a convertor, where it was processed to make blister copper. The 'settler' presented a hazard to furnace operators.
Other applications
A variant of the water jacket furnace was used to smelt lead-zinc ores using the Imperial Smelting Process. In that case, the furnace was completely sealed, to allow the zinc to be recovered, from flue gases, in its vapour phase.
Water jacket furnaces were used to reprocess copper smelter slag that still contained a significant amount of copper, especially slag from smelting high-grade copper ore in reverberatory furnaces.
Although rarely done, small water jacket furnaces have been used to recover gold from quartz rock—particularly if the ore was very rich in gold or sulphide ores of other metals were also present—as an alternative to crushing the rock and extracting the gold using other methods. However, it was a very inefficient method of extracting gold.
Where gold and silver were present in copper ores, the precious metals were present in the copper matte produced by a water jacket furnace. The precious metals could later be separated from blister copper, using electrolytic copper refining, and delivered in the form of dore bullion.
Demise (copper smelting)
As the average ore grades of copper mines declined, ore smelting became uneconomic. Smelters such as the Great Cobar mine were struggling to achieve economic operation, as early as 1912, despite buoyant copper prices.
Smelting of low-grade copper ore at the mine site was largely superseded by a process consisting of copper ore concentration, especially using froth flotation, and smelting of ore concentrates. The water jacket furnace was less well suited to that new regime—especially large ones that had been used to smelt low grade copper ores—and, after the introduction of flash smelting, from around 1949, had fallen out of favour by 1980.
Modern lead smelting
Water jacket furnaces are now a largely forgotten technology for copper smelting, but remain in use, in a modified form, for lead smelting. Modern lead furnaces are more commonly referred to as lead blast furnaces, but retain most features of water jacket furnaces.
Gallery
See also
Blast furnace
Reverberatory furnace
Flash smelting
ISASMELT
References
External links
Modern Copper Smelting - Lectures by Donald M. Levy, M.Sc., Assoc. R.S.M - University of Birmingham (1912)
Metallurgical furnaces
Blast furnaces | Water jacket furnace (metallurgy) | [
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science"
] | 2,892 | [
"Metallurgy",
"Blast furnaces",
"History of metallurgy",
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78,491,847 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3C%20356 | 3C 356 is a distant radio galaxy located in the constellation of Draco, hosted by a merging pair of elliptical galaxies located at redshift (z) 1.079 with two radio cores having a separation gap of 5 arcseconds. It was first discovered as an astronomical radio source by P. Veron from a 3C revised catalogue in 1966 and such, shows an alignment effect at both wavelengths. The X-ray source luminosity for this galaxy is estimated to be 2.5 x 1044 erg s−1.
Description
3C 356 contains a double compact source with a 170° position angle. The source is found weakly depolarized in south-east direction closer to the central region. There is a presence of a northern object displaying a more ionized emission line spectrum likely the source's origin. In additional, the northern component is more compact but has an extension directly south by 3 arcseconds. According to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of a northwest component, this shows a high surface brightness conelike structure with a much fainter extension.
The radio structure of 3C 356 is complex. Its radio core position is unresolved with a diffused region peaking 5 arcseconds away at a position angle of 150° and a radio axis of 162°. There are two radio lobes in 3C 356 are located 15 arcseconds and 30 arcseconds in both directions. According to Very Large Array radio mapping, both northwestern and southeastern lobes are shown enlarged and overlaid polarized. In the southeastern lobe, there are three compact structures of equal brightness. The northwestern lobe on the other hand, contains a defined hot spot and more extended emission.
According to deep near-infrared imaging taken via Subaru Telescope, 3C 356 is found connected with a poor cluster of galaxies. A stellar mass of 4 x 1011 Mʘ has also been calculated for the spectral energy distribution of the galaxy as well, with the supermassive black hole mass being 8.74 ± 0.42 Mʘ.
References
External links
3C 356 on NASA/IPAC Database
3C 356 on SIMBAD
Radio galaxies
Draco (constellation)
356
51.36
2817697
Active galaxies
Astronomical objects discovered in 1966 | 3C 356 | [
"Astronomy"
] | 459 | [
"Constellations",
"Draco (constellation)"
] |
78,494,871 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hywind | Hywind was the first MW-class floating wind turbine concept, developed by StatoilHydro (now Equinor). It has a rated power of 2.3 megawatts (MW), and is mounted on a spar foundation derived from oil platforms. The basic development was done by Norsk Hydro, hence the name. The Hywind turbines are designed to be installed offshore in water depths of 120–700 metres.
The first pilot Hywind turbine was installed and commissioned in the North Sea, south-west of Karmøy, south-west Norway, in September 2009.
In 2019, the turbine was acquired by Unitech Offshore and renamed the Unitech Zefyros. It will be used for development and testing of new technologies, and as a hub to connect other turbines in the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) test site for offshore wind turbines.
Following the single turbine demonstration, the Hywind Scotland and Hywind Tampen wind farms have been constructed.
Device concept
The Hywind platform is a spar-buoy type floating foundation, a slender vertical cylinder that extends below the sea surface. This is anchored to the seabed with three cables, with slack moorings allowing the turbine to move sideways in surge and sway. The foundation is however designed, with the centre of gravity is below the sea surface, to prevent the turbine from pitching and rolling or from heaving up-and-down, all of which could mean the blades hitting the water.
This type of foundation has been used for oil and gas platforms for many years. It is similar to that used in the Troll B & C platforms. The position of Hywind is monitored using GPS.
A standard Siemens Wind Power offshore wind turbine is mounted on top of the foundation.
The Hywind concept was originally developed by marine engineer Dagfinn Sveen in 2001, at Norsk Hydro's new energy department. The concept was patented and industrial relations were established with Siemens, among others. When Statoil (now Equinor) took over Norsk Hydro's oil division in 2008, Hywind was also transferred.
Demo-project
The Hywind demo project consists of the wind turbine, the floating foundation and anchors as well as a connection cable to shore. The floating structure was developed, built, and installed by the French engineering company Technip, while the actual construction was carried out by the Finnish subsidiary Technip Pori.
Of the total weight of approx. 5,300 tonnes, approximately 3,500 tonnes consists of ballast, mainly olivine with a density of 2.6 t/m3. The wind turbine is a standard Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbine with Statoil's proprietary control system. Nexans Norway has supplied and installed the 13-kilometre cable that supplies power to the local grid supplier Haugaland Kraft. The cable comes ashore near Skudeneshavn on the southern tip of Karmøy.
The investment amounts to almost NOK 400 million (around US$62 million) to build and deploy., of which NOK 59 million is support from the Norwegian government through Enova. Statoil receives income from electricity production, but this is not the primary focus of the project. The main purpose is to gain experience from full-scale power production from floating wind turbines, and is one of several of Statoil's focus areas within renewable energy.
Equinor estimates that floating wind turbines in the North Sea will deliver the equivalent of 4,000 full load hours — which corresponds to a production of 46% of installed capacity. For a 2.3 MW wind turbine, as in the pilot project, this would mean an annual production of 9.2 GWh. In order to obtain the best possible wind data, Statoil has entered into a collaboration with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and Kjeller Vindteknikk for measuring and forecasting wind and waves. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has set up special versions of its numerical weather models that include measurement data from Statoil's 100-metre-high wind measuring mast on Karmøy, as well as the wave and current measuring buoy at Hywind. In addition, a LIDAR on Utsira will be used to assess the quality of the wind forecasts.
As the wind turbine is floating, the wind and waves will cause movement in all six degrees of freedom of motion. The movement leads to complicated dynamic loads on the wind turbine and tower, and is one of the most important test areas for the project as this is difficult to calculate correctly with computer-aided design. In the Autumn of 2005, model tests were carried out at Marintek (now SINTEF) in Trondheim with a 1:47 scale model.
The First Turbine
The floating foundation was built in Finland, then was towed floating horizontally to Norway. In the Åmøyfjord near Stavanger, the spar foundation was then rotated vertically on 23 April 2009, and ballasted. The wind turbine was then mounted on top of the floating structure. On 6 June 2009, the entire structure was towed approximately 10 km south west of Karmøy, where it was anchored with three anchors at a depth of approximately 220 metres. This was initially for a two-year test deployment.
The long submarine power transmission cable was installed in July 2009 and system test including rotor blades and initial power transmission was conducted shortly thereafter.
The turbine was connected to the grid in August, with the official inauguration on 8 September 2009.
The first full year the turbine was in trial operation, 2010, it delivered 7.3 GWh against the expected 3.5 GWh. The turbine was exposed to waves up to 11 m and proved more stable than expected. The floating installation does not place greater loads on the turbine than an onshore installation, and vibration loads are reduced compared to land-based turbines.
By 2016, the turbine had produced 50 GWh; an overall capacity factor of 41%. The turbine survived 40 m/s wind speed and wave high.
In 2019, the turbine was sold to Unitech Offshore, with the expectation of 10 more years of production and tests. In 2022, Unitech mounted a helicopter pad on the turbine, the first time for a floating offshore wind turbine.
Full-scale measurements
The Hywind demo was extensively instrumented to see how it behaved compared to calculations made with time-domain simulation software. More than 200 sensors were used. Some of the conclusions are that, with a few exceptions, it is possible to calculate the movements well. The exceptions are related to anchoring, where the response for long wave periods is much larger than in the analyses, while in the wave period range the measured response is smaller than what the analyses show. Furthermore, the statistical differences between simulated and measured wind turbine parameters are relatively large, but within acceptable limits given the uncertainties.
Further development
Due to the success of the project, Equinor moved to the next phase where the focus was on cost reduction and on increasing the number of possible site options by reducing the minimum depth to 100 metres or less.
The next phase was a farm with three to five turbines, with both Scotland and Maine considered as possible locations in 2015-16. The Hywind 2 project in Maine was abandoned, with Statiol citing legislative changes as the reason. A new bill (LD 1472) would allow the University of Maine to bid in a second round competitive auction for an offshore wind project in the state’s waters. However, Statoil built five 6 MW floating turbines, deployed in the Hywind Scotland project in 2017 at 70 per cent lower cost.
References
Offshore wind farms in the North Sea
Equinor
Renewable energy in Norway
Floating wind turbines | Hywind | [
"Engineering"
] | 1,576 | [
"Floating wind turbines",
"Offshore engineering"
] |
78,494,963 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CloudLibrary | CloudLibrary (stylized as "cloudLibrary") is a cloud-based software system through which libraries lend electronic books; it is also the name of the app that users download to access the e-books.
CloudLibrary was created in 2011 by 3M as part of its library systems unit as a competitor to OverDrive, Inc.; in 2015 3M sold the North American part of that unit to Bibliotheca Group GmbH, a company founded in 2011 that was funded by One Equity Partners Capital Advisors, a division of JP Morgan Chase.
By 2019, Bibliotecha had tried, unsuccessfully, to negotiate with Amazon to add Kindle-ebook compatibility to cloudLibrary - something that, as of then, Amazon had only made available to Overdrive. In that year, cloudLibrary, along with hoopla offered by Midwest Tape, ODILO, and Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360, were the main competitors to the Overdrive and Libby apps offered by OverDrive, Inc. in the library e-book market.
In April 2024, Bibliotheca sold cloudLibrary to the nonprofit cooperative OCLC. By that time, cloudLibrary was used by around 500 libraries in around 20 countries in around 50 languages, and was used to lend audiobooks, digital magazines, newspapers, and comics, and streaming media, along with e-books.
References
American digital libraries
Digital media
Ebook sources
Ebook suppliers
EPUB readers
Library resources
OCLC
Online content distribution
Video on demand services | CloudLibrary | [
"Technology"
] | 314 | [
"Multimedia",
"Digital media"
] |
78,496,650 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klamath%20Lake%20AFA | Klamath Lake AFA, also called Klamath Lake Blue Green Algae and Klamath AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae MDT14a), is a strain of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Small amounts of this cyanobacteria can be found in bodies of water worldwide, but it is notable for growing prolifically in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Klamath AFA is a blue-green algae that has been harvested wild from Upper Klamath Lake since the 1980s and used as a dietary supplement.
Genome sequencing distinguished and named this isolate as Aphanizomenon flos-aquae MDT14a, distinct from other varieties of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae. Aphanizomenon flos-aquae was historically treated as a single homogeneous species, but genetic technology reveals significant diversity within the group, with at least 18 separate genomes identified and potentially over 100 awaiting classification.
Taxonomy and distinctions between toxic and non-toxic strains
The classification of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae has undergone significant taxonomic revision in light of recent genetic studies. Genome sequencing has revealed substantial genetic variability, leading to the identification of distinct strains found around the world, such as strains like AFA FACHB-1287, AFA FACHB-1265, AFA NRERC-008, isolates like AFA KM1D3_PB, AFA UKL13-PB, and others.
These advancements have clarified a longstanding misconception regarding toxin production in AFA samples from Upper Klamath Lake. Earlier studies attributed the presence of cyanotoxins such as microcystin and cylindrospermopsin directly to endogenous production by AFA. However, research employing genetic sequencing and species-specific analysis has revealed that these toxins were not capable of being produced by Klamath AFA itself but were instead the result of cross-contamination from co-occurring toxin-producing cyanobacteria inhabiting the same environment.
Habitat and distribution
Upper Klamath Lake (also called Klamath Lake) in the Cascade Range of south-central Oregon hosts a viable and harvestable population of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae MDT14a. While this subspecies has been detected in other water bodies, these populations are either too sparse or are mixed with other aquatic species, making harvesting impractical.
Klamath Lake's high levels of dissolved minerals, large surface area, shallow depths, and other nutritional and environmental factors create suitable conditions for the proliferation of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae MDT14a. Some of these factors are the lake's high 4,100 feet (1,259 m) elevation, eutrophic nutrient levels, high alkalinity (8.5 pH or higher), a large surface area of 96 square miles with an average depth of 8 feet, and large number of sunny days (130 to 300)throughout the year.
Controversies
Klamath AFA has been proven to be incapable of endogenously producing microcystins or other toxins. However, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae species typically cohabit with other cyanobacteria, most commonly with the Microcystis species.
Cross-contamination of products containing Klamath AFA have occurred in the past. From 2018 to 2020, the FDA did three product recalls, all by the same original harvesting company. Each recall found higher levels of microcystin than suggested by the WHO and EFA provisional guidelines, which is less than 1 microgram per gram. These investigations led to Class 2 voluntary recalls of the affected products. The products were all linked to several batches of AFA harvested by the company between 2015 and 2017. From these recalls, the FDA started working with harvesting companies to outline new industry practices and testing procedures for harvesting AFA. These now include:
At the time of harvest, examining AFA at the harvesting site for contaminating cyanobacteria.
At the time of harvest, testing the water and AFA for microcystins.
After harvest, testing the AFA slurry for microcystins.
Before selling AFA products, testing each lot or batch for microcystins.
Using more than one test method to confirm results.
Using a test method that can detect multiple variant forms of microcystins.
Using certified testing laboratories and validated methods.
Providing a certificate of analysis to purchasers for each lot or batch sold.
Since these guidelines were developed, no product recalls have occurred. As of 2024, the FDA states that wild-harvested blue-green algae is safe to eat.
See also
Algae
Chlorella
Chlorophyll
Microalgae
Phenethylamine
Phycocyanin
Spirulina
References
Edible algae
Cyanobacteria
Bacteria and humans
Dietary supplements
Algaculture
Klamath Falls, Oregon | Klamath Lake AFA | [
"Biology"
] | 1,031 | [
"Edible algae",
"Algae",
"Algaculture",
"Bacteria",
"Bacteria and humans",
"Cyanobacteria"
] |
78,496,813 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria%20Chan | Maria Kai Yee Chan is an American materials scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory. Her research involves the applications of machine learning to nanomaterials and renewable energy, including the prediction of material properties and the retrieval of data from the published literature.
Chan became interested in physics at age 11 after reading a book about relativity. She has a bachelor's degree in physics and applied mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her 2009 dissertation, Atomistic and ab initio prediction and optimization of thermoelectric and photovoltaic properties, was jointly supervised by Gerbrand Ceder and John Joannopoulos. She joined the Argonne National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher before continuing there as a staff researcher.
She was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2024, after a nomination from the APS Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications, "for contributions to methodological innovations, developments, and demonstrations toward the integration of computational modeling and experimental characterization to improve the understanding and design of renewable energy materials".
References
External links
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American materials scientists
Women materials scientists and engineers
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Argonne National Laboratory people
Fellows of the American Physical Society | Maria Chan | [
"Materials_science",
"Technology"
] | 278 | [
"Women materials scientists and engineers",
"Materials scientists and engineers",
"Women in science and technology"
] |
78,497,278 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damyanti%20Gupta | Damyanti Gupta is an Indian-born American engineer who was the first woman engineer with a postgraduate degree at the Ford Motor Company. She was recognized by Time Magazine in their collection of firsts as the "First degreed engineer at Ford."
Early life
Damyanti Gupta was born in India on May 10, 1942, during British rule. The partition and division of India happened during her childhood, and the place where she and her family resided became a part of Pakistan. The partition resulted in unrest and riots. Gupta and her family left their hometown, Tharushah, Sindh, overnight in a cargo ship and settled in Mumbai.
As refugees, the Guptas had to start over in a new place. However, Gupta's mother, Gopibai Hingorani, had great ambitions for her daughter. She had only studied until 4th grade, but she told Damyanti that she wanted to give her something that could not be taken away: an education.
Education
Gupta's interest in engineering sparked at the age of 13, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the town where Damyanti lived. During his visit, he spoke about the need for industry and subsequently, the need for male and female engineers following Britain's 200 year rule in India.
Gupta enrolled in engineering college and became the first female admitted for engineering at that school. As the first female engineering student, she faced many challenges. The campus did not have a women's restroom; Gupta would have to bike over a mile and half each way to use a restroom. Once the dean realized this, a ladies restroom was built on campus. Gupta went on to graduate first in her class.
At the age of 19, Gupta came across a book on Henry Ford that inspired her to one day work for the company.
After earning her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1965, Gupta went to Germany for work. In 1966, she moved to the United States to pursue a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Oklahoma State University. She became the first female to graduate from Oklahoma State University with an advanced degree in engineering.
Career
After completing her master's degree, Gupta applied to work at Ford in Dearborn, Michigan but was initially rejected by a manager who did not want a woman engineer on his team. She tried again later and was successful. Initially, Human Resources was unsure if Gupta was going for the engineering role, since the company did not have any female engineers at the time. Gupta was persistent and commented that if the company did not give her a chance, they would never have any female engineers. She landed the job and became the first female engineer to work at Ford.
When the United Automobile Workers went on strike, there were layoffs at Ford Motor Company. Gupta survived the layoffs; however, she experienced subtle racism from those who were impacted.
When Gupta was pregnant with her first baby, her manager asked her not to come to work once she started showing. After giving birth, she returned to work in a different position at Ford and was promoted just three months later.
Gupta spent 34 years of her career at Ford. She retired in 2002.
Personal life
Damyanti is married to Subhash Gupta. They have two children, Sanjay Gupta and Suneel Gupta. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, highlights his mother as a strong and powerful woman who has had a great influence on his life.
References
1942 births
Living people
20th-century Indian engineers
20th-century Indian women engineers
Oklahoma State University alumni
Asian women in science | Damyanti Gupta | [
"Technology"
] | 724 | [
"Women in science and technology",
"Asian women in science"
] |
78,498,591 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMC-9805 | RMC-9805 is an investigational drug that selectively targets the G12D mutation in KRAS dependent cancers. RMC-9805 functions as molecular glue that forms a non-covalent ligand-mediated protein-protein interaction between cyclophilin A and GTP-bound RAS. Subsequent covalent modification of the mutant Asp12 residue affords selectivity over wild-type RAS.
RMC-9805 is currently in a phase 1/1b clinical trial for the treatment of KRAS G12D-mutant solid tumors. Preliminary data indicated that KRAS G12D–mutant PDAC patients dosed at 1200 mg daily or 600 mg twice daily achieved a 30% objective response rate (n = 12) and 80% disease control rate (n = 32).
See also
MRTX1133
References
Antineoplastic drugs
Cyclopropyl compounds
Piperazines
Pyridines
Methoxy compounds
Trifluoromethyl compounds
Indoles
Morpholines
Lactones
Carboxamides
Aziridines
Cyclopentyl compounds
Pyrazolidines
Pyrrolidines | RMC-9805 | [
"Chemistry"
] | 232 | [
"Pharmacology",
"Pharmacology stubs",
"Medicinal chemistry stubs"
] |
78,498,673 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium%20phosphinate | Ammonium phosphinate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This is a salt of ammonium and phosphoric acid.
Synthesis
The effect of ammonia solution on phosphoric acid solution:
Physical properties
Ammonium phosphonate forms colorless crystals of rhombic system, spatial group C mma, cell parameters a = 0.757 nm, b = 1.147 nm, c = 0.398 nm, Z = 4.
The compound is soluble in water and ethanol, but insoluble in acetone.
Uses
The compound is usually used as a catalyst for the production of polyamide.
References
Ammonium compounds
Phosphinates | Ammonium phosphinate | [
"Chemistry"
] | 141 | [
"Ammonium compounds",
"Salts"
] |
78,498,821 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali%20Daneshfar | Ali Daneshfar is an Iranian chemist and Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Lorestan University.
He is among the top 1% most-cited scientists in the world.
Select Publications
Optimization of the ultrasonic assisted removal of methylene blue by gold nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon using experimental design methodology
Kinetics, thermodynamics and equilibrium evaluation of direct yellow 12 removal by adsorption onto silver nanoparticles loaded activated carbon
Development of dispersive micro-solid phase extraction based on micro and nano sorbents
A green ultrasonic-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction based on deep eutectic solvent for the HPLC-UV determination of ferulic, caffeic and cinnamic acid from olive, almond ...
Comparison of silver and palladium nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon for efficient removal of Methylene blue: Kinetic and isotherm study of removal process
Optimization of the combined ultrasonic assisted/adsorption method for the removal of malachite green by gold nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon: experimental design
References
Living people
Iranian chemists
Academic staff of Lorestan University
Analytical chemists
Academic staff of Ilam University
Year of birth missing (living people) | Ali Daneshfar | [
"Chemistry"
] | 250 | [
"Analytical chemists"
] |
78,500,735 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20works%20of%20fiction%20about%20size%20change | Resizing is a common plot element in fiction. Works where it plays a prominent role are listed below. For stories about resizing in antiquity, see Size change in fiction § Mythological precursors.
Literature
This list describes novels and short stories in which resizing is central to the plot or the premise of the work.
Film
Resizing is a common theme and plot device in films. The list below covers films for which resizing is central to the plot or premise of the work.
Television
Resizing is a recurrent theme in television programs. The list below covers television series for which resizing is central to the premise and direction of the plot and setting.
Video games
See also
List of films featuring miniature people
Shrink ray
References
Fiction about size change
Lists of films by topic
Science fiction lists
History of fiction | List of works of fiction about size change | [
"Physics",
"Mathematics"
] | 161 | [
"Fiction about size change",
"Quantity",
"Physical quantities",
"Size"
] |
78,500,999 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karbutilate | Karbutilate is a post- and pre-emergent herbicide. It is a carbamate ester and substituted urea, and its formula is . After a 4-year development period, it was first sold in 1968, marketed under the name Tandex.
History
Karbutilate is a derivative of carbamic acid, and is of the class of carbamate pesticides developed following the introduction of carbaryl in 1956. It was developed by the Niagara Chemical Division of FMC Corporation from 1964 to 1968, and made its debut under the name Tandex. It is currently not classified by or approved for use by the European Union, as its registration has expired and is marked as obsolete.
Uses
Karbutilate acts as an herbicide on broad-leaf plants by inhibiting photosynthesis.
Karbutilate has been investigated, alongside other carbamate pesticides, as having a potential cleanup route by photodegradation in the case of accidental spill or other unwanted environmental exposure. Irradiation by ultraviolet light has been noted as primarily causing the cleavage of the ester bond in carbamate esters.
Toxicity
Though carbamate pesticides are broadly used due to their low oral and dermal toxicity to mammals, karbutilate poses a potential hazard to humans as a cholinesterase inhibitor. It is also potentially hazardous to Hymenopterans.
References
Ureas
Herbicides | Karbutilate | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 295 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Herbicides",
"Biocides",
"Ureas"
] |
78,501,829 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuicaoxi | Kuicaoxi () is a phenoxy herbicide registered for use in China. Its formula is . It is an ester of the herbicide quizalofop.
Uses
Kuicaoxi is a post-emergent herbicide, and is effective against grasses such as Echinochloa crus-galli.
References
Quinoxalines
Herbicides
Esters
Chloroarenes
Ethyl esters | Kuicaoxi | [
"Chemistry",
"Biology"
] | 89 | [
"Herbicides",
"Esters",
"Functional groups",
"Organic compounds",
"Biocides"
] |
74,144,966 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariela%20Sofer | Ariela Sofer is an Israeli and American operations researcher whose research expertise includes algorithms for mathematical optimization and their application to the reconstruction of three-dimensional shapes from positron emission tomography. She is a professor of systems engineering and operations research at George Mason University, and Divisional Dean for the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University.
Education and career
Sofer has a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in operations research from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She completed a Ph.D. in operations research at George Mason University in 1984, with the dissertation Efficient matrix methods for solving nonlinearly constrained optimization problems via Newton's method when the projected Lagrangian Hessian is given in dyadic form.
As a faculty member at George Mason University, she chaired the Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department for nearly 16 years before becoming associate dean in 2018, interim dean in 2020, and divisional dean in 2023.
Books
Sofer's books include:
Linear and Nonlinear Programming (with Stephen G. Nash, McGraw Hill, 1996)
Linear and Nonlinear Optimization (with Stephen G. Nash and Igor Griva, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2008)
Recognition
Sofer was named as a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 2016. She is also a 2018 Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and a 2022 Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), "for significant contributions to systems engineering education and advancing the recognition of systems engineering in academia".
References
External links
Home page
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American engineers
American women engineers
21st-century Israeli women engineers
Israeli women engineers
Systems engineers
Women systems engineers
American operations researchers
Israeli operations researchers
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni
George Mason University alumni
George Mason University faculty
Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
21st-century Israeli engineers | Ariela Sofer | [
"Engineering"
] | 396 | [] |
74,147,991 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsteinium%20trifluoride | Einsteinium fluoride is a binary inorganic chemical compound of einsteinium and fluorine with the chemical formula .
Synthesis
Einsteinium fluoride can be precipitated from einsteinium(III) chloride solutions upon reaction with fluoride ions. An alternative preparation procedure is to expose einsteinium(III) oxide to chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) or F2 gas at a pressure of 1–2 atmospheres and a temperature between 300 and 400 °C. The EsF3 crystal structure is hexagonal, as in californium(III) fluoride (CfF3) where the Es3+ ions are 8-fold coordinated by fluorine ions in a bicapped trigonal prism arrangement.
Physical properties
The compound forms crystals and is insoluble in water.
Chemical properties
The compound is reduced by metallic lithium:
References
Einsteinium compounds
Fluorides
Actinide halides | Einsteinium trifluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 192 | [
"Fluorides",
"Salts"
] |
74,148,465 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing%20automation%20in%20email%20campaigns | Marketing automation in email campaigns refers to a numerous methods implemented in marketing for segmenting, targeting, scheduling, automating, and tracking of marketing messages.
Overview
Marketing automation in email campaigns primarily involves the use of software or web-based services to execute, manage, and automate marketing tasks and processes. Automation methods are extensively used to replace manual and repetitive tasks where possible and to implement more personalized approaches for interactions.
Features and components
Segmentation
Processing large marketing data requires segmentation. This means dividing the email list into smaller, more targeted groups based on various criteria such as demographics, psychographics, past purchases, and behavioral data.
Personalization
Personalization allows businesses to tailor their email content to each recipient. This could involve customizing the greeting or delivering personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases or browsing history.
Scheduling
Automated emails can be scheduled to be sent at optimal times based on data like when recipients are most likely to open and read emails. This increases the chance of engagement and interaction.
Analytics and Reporting
Most email marketing automation tools provide detailed analytics and reporting features. This enables marketers to measure the performance of their email campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve future campaigns.
See also
Email marketing
Digital marketing
Marketing automation
References
Digital marketing
Email
Spamming
Automation software
Marketing software | Marketing automation in email campaigns | [
"Engineering"
] | 259 | [
"Automation software",
"Automation"
] |
74,148,956 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsteinium%20tetrafluoride | Einsteinium tetrafluoride is a binary inorganic chemical compound of einsteinium and fluorine with the chemical formula . The compound was observed by thermochromatography.
Synthesis
The compound can be prepared via fluorination of einsteinium trifluoride.
Physical properties
The compound is volatile. Volatility is comparable to that of other transuranium tetrafluorides.
References
Einsteinium compounds
Fluorides
Actinide halides | Einsteinium tetrafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 95 | [
"Inorganic compounds",
"Fluorides",
"Inorganic compound stubs",
"Salts"
] |
74,149,063 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrinklon | A wrinklon is a type of quasiparticle introduced in the study of wrinkling behavior in thin sheet materials, such as graphene or fabric. It is a localized excitation corresponding to wrinkles in a constrained two dimensional system.
It represents a localized region where two wrinkles in the material merge into one, serving as part of the pattern seen when the material forms wrinkles. The term "wrinklon" is derived from "wrinkle" and the suffix "-on", the latter commonly used in physics to denote quasiparticles, such as the "phonon" or "polaron".
The concept of wrinklons aids in understanding and describing the complex wrinkling patterns observed in a variety of materials. This understanding could prove useful in fields such as material science and nanotechnology, particularly in the study and development of two-dimensional materials like graphene.
Further studies have expanded the understanding of wrinklons, demonstrating that the behavior of these wrinkles in thin films, such as graphene, can differ depending on the substrate they are on. For instance, when graphene is on a compliant polymer substrate, the properties of the wrinklons change with the thickness of the graphene.
This suggests that the characteristics of the substrate have a significant role in wrinklon formation and behavior, which is important to consider in various applications of thin film materials.
See also
Straintronics
References
Physical phenomena
Condensed matter physics
Quantum phases
Quasiparticles
Mesoscopic physics | Wrinklon | [
"Physics",
"Chemistry",
"Materials_science",
"Engineering"
] | 312 | [
"Quantum phases",
"Matter",
"Physical phenomena",
"Phases of matter",
"Quantum mechanics",
"Materials science",
"Condensed matter physics",
"Quasiparticles",
"Mesoscopic physics",
"Subatomic particles"
] |
74,149,238 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pind%20Dadan%20Khan%20Shuttle | Pind Dadan Khan Shuttle () is a shuttle service operated by Pakistan Railways between Malakwal Junction and Pind Dadan Khan. The journey covers a distance of along the Malakwal-Khushab Branch Line and takes approximately 35 minutes.
Importance of the rail link
The rail link between Malakwal and Pind Dadan Khan holds significance due to the absence of a parallel road connection between the two cities. The only existing route via Rasul is significantly longer than the rail distance, making the train service the preferred option for locals traveling between the two destinations.
Victoria bridge
The train route from Malakwal to Pind Dadan Khan passes through Victoria Bridge, located in Haranpur over the Jhelum River. Constructed in 1887 by the British engineer William St. John Galwey, the bridge comprises iron trusses supported by concrete piers. It spans a length of 2.6 miles (4.225 km) and stands as one of the longest railway bridges in Pakistan. Although intended for railway use, it has become a perilous passage for motorcyclists, posing risks. The bridge, rebuilt in 1939 due to sustainability issues for rail traffic, offers passengers a scenic view of the Salt Range and is situated approximately 35 km from the Lilla Interchange on the M-2.
Closure due to COVID-19 pandemic
The train service remained inactive for nearly three years, from 2020 to 2022, due to the lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.
Temporary shutdown in 2023
In 2023, two of the three daily trips of the train, the morning and evening services, were suspended, leaving only the 11:00 AM service operational. As of 1 July 2023, the train is operating with two trips, namely 3UP, 4UP (at 8:20 AM), 5UP, and 6UP (at 3:30 PM).
Route and station stops
Malakwal Junction–Pind Dadan Khan via the Malakwal-Khushab Branch Line
Station Stops
Malakwal Junction
Haranpur Junction
Pind Dadan Khan
Equipment
The Pind Dadan Khan Shuttle Train only offers economy class seating as it is a shuttle service.
References
Trains | Pind Dadan Khan Shuttle | [
"Technology"
] | 455 | [
"Trains",
"Transport systems"
] |
74,149,338 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsteinium%20hexafluoride | Einsteinium hexafluoride is a binary inorganic chemical compound of einsteinium and fluorine with the chemical formula . This is a hypothetical compound—its existence has been predicted theoretically, but the compound has yet to be isolated.
Physical properties
It is unlikely that the compound is stable.
References
Einsteinium compounds
Hexafluorides
Hypothetical chemical compounds
Actinide halides | Einsteinium hexafluoride | [
"Chemistry"
] | 78 | [
"Theoretical chemistry",
"Hypothetical chemical compounds",
"Hypotheses in chemistry",
"Theoretical chemistry stubs"
] |
74,149,548 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne%20de%20Jong | Daphne de Jong is an aerospace engineer and a trained commercial pilot. In 2018, she was listed as Forbes 30 under 30 in consumer technology. She worked on the first Amazon Prime Air customer delivery in the United Kingdom. She is a board director at United Nations Women in San Francisco.
Education
De Jong graduated from Cranfield University with a MSc in aerospace engineering and from International Space University with a MSc in space technologies.
Career
Daphne de Jong worked for Waymo and Rivian on advanced autonomous vehicles. Previously, she also worked for SpaceX. At Amazon Prime Air she contributed to deliver Amazon's packages to their customers by autonomous drones. She also spent time at NASA Ames, focused on optimizing flight networks.
Personal life
De Jong has described her goal as the development of technologies that will transform people's lives, a topic she discussed in her TED talk and multiple interviews.
In 2019, she climbed Mount Everest.
References
Aerospace engineers
Living people
1990 births
Dutch engineers
Alumni of Cranfield University | Daphne de Jong | [
"Engineering"
] | 201 | [
"Aerospace engineers",
"Aerospace engineering"
] |
74,150,111 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature%20oxidation | High-temperature oxidation refers to a scale-forming oxidation process involving a metallic object and atmospheric oxygen that produces corrosion at elevated temperatures.
High-temperature oxidation is a kind of High-temperature corrosion. Other kinds of high-temperature corrosion include high-temperature sulfidation and carbonization. High temperature oxidation and other corrosion types are commonly modelled using the Deal-Grove model to account for diffusion and reaction processes.
Mechanism of oxidation
High temperature oxidation is generally occurs via the following chemical reaction between oxygen (O2) and a metal M:
nM + 1/2kO2 = MnOk
According to Wagner's theory of oxidation, oxidation rate is controlled by partial ionic and electronic conductivities of oxides and their dependence on the chemical potential of the metal or oxygen in the oxide.
References
Redox | High-temperature oxidation | [
"Chemistry"
] | 161 | [
"Electrochemistry",
"Redox",
"nan"
] |
74,150,183 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%20agent | On the Web, a user agent is a software agent responsible for retrieving and facilitating end-user interaction with Web content. This includes all web browsers, such as Google Chrome and Safari, some email clients, standalone download managers like youtube-dl, and other command-line utilities like cURL.
The user agent is the client in a client–server system. The HTTP User-Agent header is intended to clearly identify the agent to the server. However, this header can be omitted or spoofed, so some websites use other detection methods.
References
Clients (computing) | User agent | [
"Technology"
] | 118 | [
"Computing stubs",
"World Wide Web stubs"
] |
74,150,552 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data%20Colada | Data Colada is a blog dedicated to investigative analysis and replication of academic research, focusing in particular on the validity of findings in the social sciences.
It is known for its advocacy against problematic research practices such as p-hacking, and for publishing evidence of data manipulation and research misconduct in several prominent cases, including celebrity professors Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino. Data Colada was established in 2013 by three behavioral science researchers: Uri Simonsohn, a professor at ESADE Business School, Barcelona/Spain (as of 2023), Leif Nelson, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, and Joe Simmons, a professor at University of Pennsylvania.
History
Around 2011, Simmons, Nelson and Simonsohn "bonded over the false, ridiculous, and flashy findings that the field [of behavioral sciences] was capable of producing", such as a paper by Cornell psychologist Daryl Bem that had supposedly found evidence for clairvoyance. They reacted by publishing an influential 2011 paper about false positive results in psychology, illustrating the problem with a parody research finding that supposedly showed that listening to the Beatles song "When I’m Sixty-Four" made experimental subjects one and a half years younger.
The "Data Colada" blog was launched two years later, in 2013, carrying the tagline "Thinking about evidence, and vice versa", becoming what the New York Times described as "a hub for nerdy discussions of statistical methods — and, before long, various research crimes and misdemeanors".
In particular, the three researchers objected to the then widespread practice of cherry-picking data and attempts to make insignificant results appear statistically credible, especially an approach for which they coined the term p-hacking in a 2014 paper.
Notable findings
Apart from calling out faulty, but presumably well-intended research practices, Data Colada also published evidence of data manipulations and research misconduct. These include studies about the concept of the moral high ground by psychologist Lawrence Sanna, and research by Flemish psychologist Dirk Smeesters. According to The New Yorker, after Data Colada published their work, the careers of Sanna and Smeesters "came to an unceremonious end".
In 2021, Data Colada discovered fabricated data in a 2012 field study published in PNAS by Lisa L. Shu, Nina Mazar, Francesca Gino, Dan Ariely, and Max H. Bazerman. All of the study's authors agreed with their assessment and the paper was retracted. The authors also agreed that Ariely was the only author who had access to the data prior to transmitting it in its fraudulent form to Mazar, the analyst. Ariely denied manipulating the data, but Excel metadata showed that he created the spreadsheet and was the last to edit it. He also admitted to having mislabeled all of the values in an entire column of the data in an e-mail to Mazar shortly after he initially sent her the data. Ariely has stated that someone at the insurance agency that provided the data must have fabricated it.
Reception
Data Colada's work is credited with contributing awareness to the replication crisis, the idea that many research results in the social sciences are difficult or impossible to reproduce. Data Colada is also recognized for helping to establish better research practices, such as the sharing of replication data.
The Nobel-prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman described Data Colada in 2023 as "heroes of mine" and expressed his regret about previously endorsing research findings that the blog later showed were faulty. Brian Nosek of the Center for Open Science applauded Data Colada for having "done an amazing job of developing new methodologies to interrogate the credibility of research."
On the other hand, as summarized by The New Yorker, "Data Colada's harshest critics saw the young men as jealous upstarts who didn’t understand the soft artistry of the social sciences". Psychologist Norbert Schwarz accused Data Colada and other reformers of engaging in a "witch hunt," while psychologist Daniel Gilbert denounced what he called the "replication police" as "shameless little bullies".
Francesca Gino lawsuit
In 2021, researcher Zoé Ziani and another collaborator alerted Data Colada about problems replicating work by Harvard behavioral scientist Francesca Gino. Later that year, the Data Colada team contacted Harvard University about anomalies in four papers by Gino. Harvard subsequently conducted its own internal investigation with the help of an outside firm, which discovered additional data alterations besides the cases raised by Data Colada. In June 2023, Harvard Business School placed Gino on unpaid administrative leave after the internal investigation determined she had falsified data in her research. Around the same time, Data Colada published four blog posts detailing evidence that the four papers (all of which had been retracted or set to be retracted at that point), and possibly others by Gino, "contain fake data." Gino subsequently filed a defamation suit against Harvard, Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar, and the three members of Data Colada for $25 million, alleging that they had conspired to damage her reputation with false accusations, and that the penalties against her amounted to gender-based discrimination under Title IX. Gino accused Harvard and the Data Colada team of having "worked together to destroy my career and reputation despite admitting they have no evidence proving their allegations." The lawsuit raised concerns about chilling effects. Open science proponent Simine Vazire raised over $370,000 to help cover the legal fees of Data Colada.
On September 11, 2024, the judge dismissed all of Gino's claims against the Data Colada defendants (defamation and other claims), and dismissed Gino's defamation and certain other claims (such as violation of privacy) against the Harvard University defendants, while allowing some breach of contract claims against Harvard to continue.
References
External links
Official site
Scientific misconduct
Social sciences
Blogs | Data Colada | [
"Technology"
] | 1,206 | [
"Scientific misconduct",
"Ethics of science and technology"
] |
74,151,415 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh%20variable | In formal reasoning, in particular in mathematical logic, computer algebra, and automated theorem proving, a fresh variable is a variable that did not occur in the context considered so far.
The concept is often used without explanation.
Fresh variables may be used to replace other variables, to eliminate variable shadowing or capture. For instance, in alpha-conversion, the processing of terms in the lambda calculus into equivalent terms with renamed variables, replacing variables with fresh variables can be helpful as a way to avoid accidentally capturing variables that should be free. Another use for fresh variables involves the development of loop invariants in formal program verification, where it is sometimes useful to replace constants by newly introduced fresh variables.
Example
For example, in term rewriting, before applying a rule to a given term , each variable in should be replaced by a fresh one to avoid clashes with variables occurring in .
Given the rule
and the term
,
attempting to find a matching substitution of the rule's left-hand side, , within will fail, since cannot match .
However, if the rule is replaced by a fresh copy
before, matching will succeed with the answer substitution .
Notes
References
Rewriting systems
Automated theorem proving
Computer algebra
Variables (mathematics) | Fresh variable | [
"Mathematics",
"Technology"
] | 242 | [
"Automated theorem proving",
"Variables (mathematics)",
"Mathematical logic",
"Computer algebra",
"Computational mathematics",
"Computer science",
"Algebra"
] |
74,151,581 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetoacetamide | Acetoacetamide, 3-oxobutanamide, or 3-oxobutyramide is an organic compound that is a monocarboxylic acid amide of acetoacetic acid. It is a deterioration product of a sweetener which is known as acesulfame potassium.
References
Acetamides | Acetoacetamide | [
"Chemistry"
] | 68 | [
"Organic compounds",
"Organic compound stubs",
"Organic chemistry stubs"
] |
74,151,612 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein-Rosenberg%20theorem | The Stein-Rosenberg theorem, proved in 1948, states that under certain premises, the Jacobi method and the Gauss-Seidel method are either both convergent, or both divergent. If they are convergent, then the Gauss-Seidel is asymptotically faster than the Jacobi method.
Statement
Let . Let be the spectral radius of a matrix . Let and be the matrix splitting for the Jacobi method and the Gauss-Seidel method respectively.
Theorem: If for and for . Then, one and only one of the following mutually exclusive relations is valid:
.
.
.
.
Proof and applications
The proof uses the Perron-Frobenius theorem for non-negative matrices. Its proof can be found in Richard S. Varga's 1962 book Matrix Iterative Analysis.
In the words of Richard Varga:
the Stein-Rosenberg theorem gives us our first comparison theorem for two different iterative methods. Interpreted in a more practical way, not only is the point Gauss-Seidel iterative method computationally more convenient to use (because of storage requirements) than the point Jacobi iterative matrix, but it is also asymptotically faster when the Jacobi matrix is non-negative
Employing more hypotheses, on the matrix , one can even give quantitative results. For example, under certain conditions one can state that the Gauss-Seidel method is twice as fast as the Jacobi iteration.
References
Theorems in linear algebra
Numerical linear algebra
Relaxation (iterative methods) | Stein-Rosenberg theorem | [
"Mathematics"
] | 317 | [
"Theorems in algebra",
"Theorems in linear algebra"
] |
74,153,773 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donislecel | Donislecel, sold under the brand name Lantidra, is a cellular therapy medication used for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. Donislecel is an allogeneic (donor) pancreatic islet cellular therapy made from deceased donor pancreatic cells. Donislecel is administered as a single infusion into the hepatic (liver) portal vein.
The most common adverse reactions include nausea, fatigue, anemia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
Donislecel was approved for medical use in the United States in June 2023.
Medical uses
Donislecel is indicated for the treatment of adults with type1 diabetes who are unable to approach target glycated hemoglobin (average blood glucose levels) because of current repeated episodes of severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) despite intensive diabetes management and education.
The primary mechanism of action of donislecel is believed to be the secretion of insulin by the infused allogeneic islet beta cells. In some people with type1 diabetes, these infused cells can produce enough insulin, so the recipient no longer needs to take insulin (by injections or pump) to control their blood sugar levels.
Adverse effects
The most common adverse reactions include nausea, fatigue, anemia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
History
The safety and effectiveness of donislecel was evaluated in two non-randomized, single-arm studies in which a total of 30 participants with type 1 diabetes and hypoglycemic unawareness received at least one infusion and a maximum of three infusions. Overall, 21 participants did not need to take insulin for a year or more, with eleven participants not needing insulin for one to five years and ten participants not needing insulin for more than five years. Five participants did not achieve any days of insulin independence.
The FDA granted marketing approval of Lantidra to CellTrans, Inc.
References
External links
FDA Briefing Document, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Meeting Presentation - Clinical, U.S. FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee
Orphan drugs | Donislecel | [
"Biology"
] | 439 | [
"Cell therapies"
] |
74,155,062 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8%20Ursae%20Minoris | 8 Ursae Minoris is a 7th-magnitude red clump star in Ursa Minor. The star is unusually rich in lithium, with an abundance of .
In the 2019 NameExoWorlds competition, the star was assigned to contestants in South Korea. It was named Baekdu after Paektu Mountain, the tallest mountain in North Korea.
Planetary system
One exoplanet was discovered in 2015 by the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory. It has a tight 93-day orbit at a distance of about 0.5 AU, which is unusually close for a giant host star — it should have been consumed during a previous expansion to 0.7 AU. It is officially named Halla after Hallasan, the tallest mountain in South Korea. There is also a stellar activity cycle of 65 days, and possibly a second companion orbiting at a distance of at least 5 AU.
A 2023 study suggests that 8 Ursae Minoris was initially a binary star with star masses of . When the heavier star reached the end of the main sequence about , it expanded until it dumped all of its mass onto the secondary and became a helium white dwarf. The other star eventually engulfed this white dwarf at around , causing helium burning to start prematurely and forming the star that we know today. The planet may have survived the episode as a former circumbinary planet, or it may have formed from material ejected during the stellar merger. 8 Ursae Minoris is now in the red clump stage, and the planet will eventually be engulfed once it reaches the asymptotic giant branch.
Research published in May 2024 used three different methods to determine the age of 8 Ursae Minoris and came up with an estimate of 1.9–3.5 Gyr. This is much younger than the approximately 9 Gyr age required for the theory that the presence of the planet so close to 8 Ursae Minoris can be explained by a stellar merger. The researchers also estimated a new mass for the star of 1.7 solar masses, making it more compact. This would allow for the planet to orbit slightly further from the star, making its existence less of a mystery.
References
G-type giants
Planetary systems with one confirmed planet
Baekdu
Ursae Minoris, 08
08 Ursae Minoris
133086
073136
BD+75 0547
J14564834+7454032
Horizontal-branch stars | 8 Ursae Minoris | [
"Astronomy"
] | 499 | [
"Ursa Minor",
"Constellations"
] |
74,155,230 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue%20membrane | A tissue membrane is a thin layer or sheet of cells that covers the outside of the body (for example, skin), the organs (for example, pericardium), internal passageways that lead to the exterior of the body (for example, mucosa of stomach), and the lining of the moveable joint cavities. There are two basic types of tissue membranes: connective tissue and epithelial membranes.
Connective tissue membrane
The connective tissue membrane is formed solely from connective tissue. These membranes encapsulate organs, such as the kidneys, and line our movable joints. A synovial membrane is a type of connective tissue membrane that lines the cavity of a freely movable joint. For example, synovial membranes surround the joints of the shoulder, elbow, and knee. Fibroblasts in the inner layer of the synovial membrane release hyaluronan into the joint cavity. The hyaluronan effectively traps available water to form the synovial fluid, a natural lubricant that enables the bones of a joint to move freely against one another without much friction. This synovial fluid readily exchanges water and nutrients with blood, as do all body fluids.
Epithelial membrane
The epithelial membrane is composed of epithelium attached to a layer of connective tissue, for example, skin. The mucous membrane is also a composite of connective and epithelial tissues. Sometimes called mucosae, these epithelial membranes line the body cavities and hollow passageways that open to the external environment, and include the digestive, respiratory, excretory, and reproductive tracts. Mucus, produced by the epithelial exocrine glands, covers the epithelial layer. The underlying connective tissue, called the lamina propria (literally “own layer”), help support the fragile epithelial layer.
A serous membrane is an epithelial membrane composed of mesodermally derived epithelium called the mesothelium that is supported by connective tissue. These membranes line the coelomic cavities of the body, that is, those cavities that do not open to the outside, and they cover the organs located within those cavities. They are essentially membranous bags, with mesothelium lining the inside and connective tissue on the outside. Serous fluid secreted by the cells of the thin squamous mesothelium lubricates the membrane and reduces abrasion and friction between organs. Serous membranes are identified according locations. Three serous membranes line the thoracic cavity; the two pleura that cover the lungs and the pericardium that covers the heart. A fourth, the peritoneum, is the serous membrane in the abdominal cavity that covers abdominal organs and forms double sheets of mesenteries that suspend many of the digestive organs.
The skin is an epithelial membrane also called the cutaneous membrane. It is a stratified squamous epithelial membrane resting on top of connective tissue. The apical surface of this membrane is exposed to the external environment and is covered with dead, keratinized cells that help protect the body from desiccation and pathogens.
Source text
The source of the contents will be mentioned as follows on Wikipedia articles included under the scope of this project:
References
Membrane biology
Tissues (biology) | Tissue membrane | [
"Chemistry"
] | 713 | [
"Membrane biology",
"Molecular biology"
] |
74,155,715 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak%20gas%20field | The Urtabulak gas field ( ) is a natural gas field located in South Uzbekistan near the Uzbekistan–Turkmenistan border. It was the site of a natural gas well blowout which led to the first use of a nuclear bomb to seal the well.
Geology
The Urtabulak field consists largely of terrigenous sediment layers, with deposits from the Jurassic and Cretaceous present. Exploratory drilling did not uncover any rocks older than the Cenozoic at a depth of . Sandstones and other similar rocks occupy the field to a depth of , with limestones and salt anhydrides covering another below that layer, below which is largely marine sediment. Natural gas reserves were estimated at just over in 1968. The Urtabulak field is considered to be a combination trap, with the gas trapped between an anhydride layer and limestone.
Accident
On 1 December 1963, control during drilling in Well No. 11 in the Southern Urtabulak was lost at a depth of after encountering an area of abnormally high pressure natural gas, with pressures exceeding , alongside higher than expected concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. A combination of a wellhead that was not equipped with a blowout preventer and steel that did not have the chemical properties to resist corrosive environments caused the wellhead to fail. An ignition source set fire to the natural gas, ejecting the wellhead from wellbore and melting a portion of the drilling rig.
The fire went on to burn for 1,064 days, consuming an estimated of natural gas daily, and killed numerous wildlife. The head of the taskforce dedicated to extinguishing the fire, Kamil Mangushev, wrote in his diary that "At night, flocks of migrating birds and clouds of insects, attracted by the light, fell into this fiery dance of death and, falling down, burned, often before even reaching the ground". Attempts to quell the fire were unsuccessful; diverting the gas into nearby wells was hampered by the high hydrogen sulfide concentrations, the lower of the well had not yet been cemented either, alongside the exact location of the bottom of the well being unknown as it had not been logged at the time of the accident.
It would be until 1966 that the proposition of detonating a nuclear charge near the well in order to shift the rock layers to seal the well was proposed. Employees of Design Bureau No. 11 in Sarov had already investigated in theory the use of peaceful nuclear explosions and were tasked with resolving the blowout in the Urtabulak gas field. Come fall of 1966, a specialised nuclear explosive with a yield of had been developed by the Design Bureau in Sarov for sealing the well. The explosive was lowered into an inclined well near Well No. 11, two of which had been drilled in order to try to achieve the closest proximity to the original well.
With approval from then-General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, the explosive was detonated at a depth of on 30 September 1966. The hole that the explosive was lowered into had also been sealed with cement so as to prevent atmospheric radioactive contamination. Just over twenty seconds later, the fire was successfully extinguished, marking the first time a peaceful nuclear explosion was used to seal a gas well. Almost two years later, a similar detonation with a yield of was successfully conducted at the nearby Pamuk gas field to seal another leaking well.
Commercial operation
The discovery of the Urtabulak field was made as part of a larger discovery of hydrocarbons in the Amu-Darya basin, with the Gazli gas field being the first, having been discovered in 1956 with estimated reserves of . Operation of the field began in the 1960s prior to the accident, with exploratory drilling beginning in 1961. The discovery of hydrocarbons came in 1963, and the fire briefly paused commercial activities until 1969.
Baker Hughes under its Cyprian subsidiary operated the Northern Urtabulak under a Production Enhancement Contract (PEC) from 1999 to 2005 in partnership with Rosehill Energy. A Production Enhancement Contract stipulates that contractors must increase production of the assigned field by introducing modern, up-to-date technology and drilling techniques in exchange for a fifty-fifty split of the increased production. Baker Hughes was later charged with bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2007, having been previously issued a cease-and-desist in 2001. The field was then managed by Canadian energy firm Tethys Petroleum, following the acquisition of the PEC rights in 2009 for US$6.5 million () for the field from British firm Rosehill Energy. Tethys also specified in the share purchase agreement that Rosehill cover any legal fees as a result of potential damages by using the Baker Hughes name. Tethys duly fulfilled their duties to increase production by raising production up to per day in 2011, up from when Tethys acquired the PEC rights in 2009. Techniques employed to help increase production included radial drilling and the use of muriatic acid as a well stimulant. Tethys later announced in January 2014 that it would be exiting Uzbekistan, following accusations by the Uzbek government of crude oil theft.
See also
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy
Project Plowshare
References
Natural gas fields in Uzbekistan
Explosions in Uzbekistan
Energy accidents and incidents
Peaceful nuclear explosions | Urtabulak gas field | [
"Chemistry"
] | 1,091 | [
"Explosions",
"Peaceful nuclear explosions"
] |
74,156,013 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curium%28IV%29%20oxide | Curium(IV) oxide is an inorganic chemical compound of curium and oxygen with the chemical formula . Since all isotopes of curium are man-made, the compound does not occur in nature.
Synthesis
Curium(IV) oxide can be prepared directly from the elements. Metallic curium is annealed in air or in an oxygen atmosphere:
Curium(III) hydroxide and curium(III) oxalate are also usually used for this purpose:
Another way is the reaction of curium(III) oxide in an oxygen atmosphere at 650 °C:
Physical properties
Curium(IV) oxide forms black crystals. Insoluble in water. The compound crystals are of the cubic crystal system, the fluorite structure in the space group Fm3m.
Chemical properties
The compound reacts with mineral acids to form solutions of curium(III) salts.
Uses
The compound is used for the manufacturing of isotopic current sources, also as targets for the synthesis of transcurium elements.
References
Curium compounds
Oxides | Curium(IV) oxide | [
"Chemistry"
] | 211 | [
"Oxides",
"Salts"
] |
74,156,133 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA%201851 | LGA 1851 (codename Socket V1) is a land grid array CPU socket designed by Intel for Meteor Lake-PS and Arrow Lake-S desktop processors, released in October 24, 2024.
The number of contacts has increased, from 1700 (for LGA 1700) to 1851. It uses the same dimensions and cooler mounting hole spacing as LGA 1700, ensuring continued CPU cooler compatibility.
It offers 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes (x16 for the expansion cards and x4 for storage) and an additional 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes for storage. The available PCIe lanes for the expansion cards can now be bifurcated to three devices (x8, x4, x4) instead of two, in case of LGA 1700. Similar to AMD's AM5 socket, it is exclusively on DDR5 SDRAM, dropping support for DDR4 unlike its predecessor (LGA 1700), marking the end of mainstream DDR4 after 10 years.
Arrow Lake chipsets (800 series)
Notes
References
Intel CPU sockets | LGA 1851 | [
"Technology"
] | 217 | [
"Computing stubs",
"Computer hardware stubs"
] |
74,156,338 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impregnation%20fetishism | Impregnation fetishism, commonly known as a breeding kink, is the experience of intense sexual attraction at the thought of being impregnated or impregnating a woman. This means a person wanting to ejaculate inside their partner or to be ejaculated into without any birth control.
Impregnation fetishism is a paraphilia characterized by sexual excitement when posed with the risk of becoming or getting a woman pregnant during intercourse. According to sex expert Gigi Engle, the fetishism is rooted in the fantasy of getting pregnant, but not the desire of raising a baby. Since breeding fetishes are rooted in fantasy, it is not exclusive to people in heterosexual relationships. People in same-sex couples and transgender individuals may have breeding kinks. For some, a breeding kink can include fantastical elements, like getting impregnated with alien eggs. There are sex toys made for this specific fetish, called ovipositors, which resemble dildos and are inserted into the vagina or anus for pleasure likewise. People who can get pregnant may have a breeding kink, but do not necessarily want to get pregnant in real life, whereas some others may be turned on by the fantasy of accidentally getting someone else pregnant. For homosexual men, they may enjoy activities such as "cum dumping".
In popular culture
Impregnation fetishism is common. According to Google Trends, searches for “breeding kink” started to pick up in 2020, peaking late 2021 amid a trend on TikTok about “taking the breeding kink too far”, followed by a woman panning the camera downwards to a positive pregnancy test or protruding belly.
References
Sexual fetishism | Impregnation fetishism | [
"Biology"
] | 356 | [
"Behavior",
"Sexuality stubs",
"Sexuality"
] |
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